Wow!
Some more of Dad's stuff follows. No attacks, thank heavens!
Going overseas
Soon after release from hospital, I went on embarkation leave and then had to report back to Morecambe. We were put out into boarding houses with rather sparse furniture and our landlady could only cook baked beans!
We spent a week or so there, We had inoculations against many diseases, including Scrub Typhus. We were issued with tropical kit, complete with a 'Bombay bowler', this was a large helmet, rather like the ones that the Royal Marines bandsmen wear.
We were transported to Liverpool Docks where we embarked on the 'S.S. Stratheden'. It was a modern 'P&O' liner.
We sailed that evening up to the River Clyde. Over the next day we were
formed into a large convoy. We sailed north of Ireland and out into the Atlantic Ocean for about a week.
The officers, nurses and sergeants all had the cabins. We were stationed on '0' deck. It was below the water line, just level with the door to the airlock in the engine room. Every once in a while the door would open and a Lascar
(??) would come out, with a devasting blast of hot air.
There were large fixed tables, with twelve airmen at each, six on each side, on fixed forms. There was a plate rack on the wall at the end. Every night we had to tie up our hammocks on hooks in the ceiling. It was so arranged that they were interlaced. The whole area was completely covered with hammocks, all packed like sardines in a tin.
The widest part of the hammock was level with the two narrow ends of other hammocks on each side. So we ate and slept in very limited and dim surroundings. There would have been no chance if we had been hit.
German submarines were a hazard. No lights were shown at night. It was said that a cigarette glow could be seen at two miles. Rubbish was tipped overboard once a day, so that the track of the ship could not be followed.
We were detailed off for work in the mornings. I was lucky and was one of four people drafted as a baggage handler. We were responsible to the Purser. There was a little office, down in the depths of the ship, right in the prow. You could feel the crash as the boat hit the waves. All the officers cases were stacked there, but in fact no one wanted their deep-sea baggage.
We did the paperwork for the Purser and he was very happy to sit with us, drink tea and recount his yarns. Then, one day a nursing sister arnved and wanted her bag; we were all most surprised. Luckily it was on the top.
In the afternoons, we had Urdu classes and after that there would be Bingo at threepence a go. There was also a raffle to guess how far the ship would travel that day, it would have been between 250 and 280 miles.
One day the Atlantic was extraordinarily calm, it was just like the surface of a mirror and there were shoals of flying fish leaping out of the water. During that night we sailed at speed through the Straits of Gibraltar and into the
Mediterranean Sea.
We sailed straight through the Mediterranean Sea, we passed near to Malta but did not call in. We arrived at Port Said and waited until a convoy of ships was ready to sail south.
Egyptian hawkers in bum-boats came up to the side of the ship and were trying to sell handbags and leather goods, They operated a bucket system whereby money was lowered, the goods were put in the bucket and it was pulled up.
We then went through the Suez Canal. There were some dhows, but there was just sand on either side. Along the way were a few landing-stages, there was one at El Qantara and another at El Ballah, then there was one at Isnrniliya.
There was considerable activity there as we passed at about midday. There were people in the swimming-pools and it was quite a little holiday resort. Ismalliya is about half-way through the canal, that then opens into Lake Timsah and then it continues through the Bitter Lakes, we carried on through to Suez.
After a brief stop, we went on down the Red Sea and round the corner to Aden. Aden was a staging-post for shipping going to India and the Far East. We tied up there for a couple of days, but could not leave the boat -- not that one would want to.
In the bay there was just a quay and a few warehouses. There was a road that went at an angle, straight up the hill to some bungalows at the top. It was about the most desolate place on earth. There were spiky, barren mountains in the distance. At the time, I thought that that was how the surface of the moon would be.
We took on fuel and supplies and continued to Bombay.
By now it was getting rather hot and there were strict instructions about acquiring a tan and avoiding sunburn. We spent a lot of time on deck or leaning on the ship's rail watching the sea go by. This was our fourth week at sea and we were anticipating landing.
When we arrived at Bombay, we had to queue for hours with all our kit, just shuffling along towards the gangway. Whilst we had been at sea the wind was quite cooling, but when I got off and stood on the quayside, the heat was unbelieveable.
For several days we were at the transit camp at Worli. It is on the coast on the outskirts of Bombay. Whilst there I used to go off to see the sights, including the Gateway to India, This was a large stone arch built to honour King George V. and Queen Mary, on the occasion of their visit in 1935. It looked rather like the Menin Gate at Ypres.
In the evenings, we would visit a local open-air restaurant. We had egg, chips, steak and onions, This was really scrumptious after the meagre rations on the boat. Although the evenings were relatively cool, the pong from the sea was really awful.
I was then posted to Calcutta. We left by special troop-train from the main station in Bombay. It was very primitive accommodation, the seats were wooden racks, as were the pull-down beds; the windows had slatted shutters, to let the air in and keep marauders out.