Fighting Forces Comfort Fund A.C.F. Aust. No34171
A.C.I. Cooney J.F.
No. 3 Squadron
RAAF
Abroad
At Sea 1.5.42
Letter No.1 You can send these on to Aunty after all the boys have read them
Dear Mum,
Although I am writing this letter at sea it won’t be posted until I arrive at the squadron. The reason being that we have a bunch of the rawest officers I have ever had the misfortune to meet in charge of us & they have never censored a letter before they would probably cut this one to pieces just for something to do.
To show how they are, when we arrived at No. 1 ED they were just doing the “Rookie” course & when they took charge of the squadron they had had only 3 1/2 weeks in the service so you can see how much experience they had had at handling men let alone as tough a bunch as we have with us now.
Now for something about our trip. To start with, after I wrote to you from Adelaide we spent about 3 more days at No. 4 ED & then packed up and marched to the railway. We went by train to Port Adelaide & went on board a boat that the boys christened * “The Altmark” because our quarters were like an incubator, the food was terrible and the boat was generally filthy.
We were no sooner aboard than the lines were cast off & we thought we were on our way but we were surprised when our trip was only from the embarkation wharf to the oil company’s wharf in the outer harbour. Needless to say that on my first trip on an ocean liner I was able to hang on to my dinner.
Well, we went to bed at 9.30pm that night & woke next morning feeling much worse than we did when we retired. After breakfast we went on deck expecting to see the boat refuelled & ready for the open sea but much to our disgust the fuel lines were closed off just as they were the previous night.
Well we were tied up there for 6 days because I believe, some bright spark had got the idea that he would like to tinker around with the engines &, I don’t know whether its true or not but I heard that he had forgotten where he had left the main piston (sounds a bit fishy to me but that’s the way I heard it). We could hardly go away out to sea with the main piston running around somewhere in the engine room (doesn’t seem practical)
Well we only had three hours leave in a week & the boys got a bit cranky and longed to be miles out to sea. Many of them changed their minds in a few days, but I’ll come to that later.
There were so many rumours going around the boat about where we were sailing etc. that when one of the boys came down about 5 o’clock one afternoon & said that we had to pack our gear & move to another ship that night he was politely told that the boat was getting him down & to go on deck & get some fresh air. However the rumour was well-founded because right on his heels came the CO & he confirmed the story & two hours later we were safely aboard another ship.
What a comparison it is to the old “Altmark”, the entire ship is spotlessly clean & we were allowed to sling our hammocks up on deck in the fresh air.
I forgot to mention it before, but I have now given up the * palliasse for a hammock, a much better proposition.
To get back to things. We had our first real night’s sleep for a week & then after breakfast went on deck - at 8.35am on Good Friday we pulled out from the wharf & this time we didn’t stop a few miles down the river.
Just after we started I received the letter that Betty wrote to me when I was at No.1 ED. It had been re-addressed from there to No. 5 SfTS Mallala S.A. instead of 5 SFTS Uranquinty (?).
That accounts for the time it took to reach me.
About an hour after we left the wharf the “fun” started. I didn’t even imagine that a boat could roll & toss in so many different directions at the one time.
All I did the first day out was to sit on a box of lifejackets and think about anything but food. I don’t know whether my heavy concentration on other things was responsible for my holding on to my breakfast, dinner & tea but when I retired that night, apart from feeling a bit light in the head, much to my surprise, I still had things under control.
The first night at sea 16 of us put our heads together & started what we called a “perk pool”. We made up a roll and as one of our number had his first “perk” he dashed downstairs, handed 2/- (2 shillings) to our cashier & then once more beat a hasty retreat to the rail. Then, amongst loud cheers from the remaining contestants, his name was crossed off the roll.
After the first 4 days, 9 of the boys had reluctantly bid farewell to their two bobs & retired from the competition feeling very sick & sorry for themselves.
On the second day out they called for all men who wanted to be in a Lewis Gun crew. I, of course, put in for it because I could see how much better it would be to lay back in a deck chair & get well sunburnt instead of being pushed around by some “Rookie” officer. On the 10th day out they gave us a practice shoot of 100 rounds each at bunch of balloons tied on the end of a kite, which in turn was on the end of about 1,000 of wire. As it was my first shot with a Lewis Gun its lucky we still have a full crew. Needless to say the bunch of balloons were returned to their respective boxes when the shooting was over.
for about the first 10 days the weather was bitterly cold & we used to wander around the deck wrapped up in overcoats & scarves & were feeling in a general miserable condition. When we got nearer the tropics the weather got much warmer until we were able to strip off to shorts, sandshoes & felt hat. I am now so tanned that I am scared of being mistaken for one of the darkies of the crew.
On the fifth day out we passed a tanker about 5 miles away & that was the last thing we saw before we arrived at Colombo 16 days later. All we had to look at for over two weeks was the sea, the sky & ourselves.
After the first 7 days the sea started to get calmer & calmer until we crossed the equator the boat went along without any roll noticeable at all.
All this you hear about the romantic tropical nights is just so much bunk because when all one has to do is repose peacefully on a deck chair & the sweat pours out of him & then again when I go to bed at night wearing my birthday suit & using a blanket for a pillow & I’m scared to go to sleep for fear I’ll drown in the sweat. I don’t know whether you can see where the romance comes into it but I dashed if I can.
one thing I can say for the tropics is that they have the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. The sun seems to sink on to the horizon & then hang there for about three quarters of an hour. & the clouds change colour every few minutes.
Half an hour later it rains like hell & after that a cheesy looking moon tries to show through an overcast sky & there again is your “romantic” tropical night.
While we were sun baking during the day the usual routine is to play deck quoits. Ten of us challenged the Officers & NCO’s to a match for a bottle of beer a corner. It cost them 8 bottles & us two.
We had a competition amongst ourselves of four bottles of beer which was donated by the officers. The honours went to Billy (Bubbles) Butters & myself we are still the undefeated champs.
Speaking of beer I will give you an instance of what happened to us. On the sixth day out when the boys could once again stand the smell and talk of food it was decided to put on a beer parade. This was immediately agreed to by everyone. We lined up with dry throats and a bob in our hands in exchange for which we received a bottle of ‘stuff’ that was made in Colombo. Whoever had the brainstorm to call it beer must have had an exceptionally good imagination & should have been drowned in the “stuff”. Naturally the squeals from the boys were loud & numerous that we now have a daily bottle of Fosters Export Lager. Marvelous what a loud squeal will do, isn’t it.
While we were in the colder waters we saw large schools of black tuna & often saw whales right alongside the ship. When we got further north we saw schools of dolphins and thousands of flying fish.
One afternoon when we were off gun duty one of the lads & myself were shown over the engine room by the ship’s engineer officer. This proved very interesting.
On the 17th day at sea the boys gave a concert which considering the number of men went over very well. After the concert we had community singing. I will enclose a programme with this letter.
One of the passengers on the boat was Captain Heath former captain of H.M. Aircraft Carrier Illustrious. He gave us two lectures, one of them was about the Fleet Air Arm aboard an aircraft carrier & the other was about his life experiences since the day he joined the Navy. He was very popular with the boys mainly because of his slinging off at the officers’ rawness.
And that is about all I can say about our trip before we arrived at Colombo except that on our 20th day at sea we were told that we would reach Colombo early the next morning. All the boys had their kit bags packed, were dressed in their disembarkation clothes & were up on deck when dawn broke but, unfortunately there was a heavy mist and we could only see about 200 yards on either side of the ship. When the mist cleared we found we were right in the middle of half the British Fleet. never in my life had I seen so many warships, they were cluttered around us like 18 footers on the harbour on a Sunday afternoon. We followed them down the channel and dropped anchor about 2 1/2 miles from the entrance of the harbour. All the boys had faces like fiddles (only more so).
No sooner had the boat stopped than we were surrounded by native bum boats. They were made of solid wood & were roughly the shape of a surf ski & on it were perched two natives wearing little more than their birthday suits & they had the boat filled up with pineapples, coconuts, bananas & mangoes.
If Dad had been with us he would have bought mangoes for 24 for 2/-. They were very large & put it over the Queensland ons for flavour. Between breakfast & dinner it would be nothing for two of us to make a fruit salad of 3 pineapples, 2 dozen bananas, a few mangoes & sprinkle the lot liberally with sugar & then devour the lot in one sitting just to give us an appetite for lunch.
We stayed outside the harbour for five days & then on the morning of the sixth day we moved into port.
We dropped anchor just inside the harbour entrance & again we weren’t allowed ashore. this was bad enough but while we were taking on fuel & water four of our very unpopular officers got dolled up in their glad rags, grabbed the ship’s launch & toddled off to town leaving us holding the baby with about 250 yards of water between us & the shore & no means of transportation for us. We were told that they had gone ashore on “official business” & that was about all the boys could stand & so they said “business or not, leave or not, we’re going ashore” & with that we went below got changed into clean clothes & then strutted manfully down the gangway & started getting into a waiting launch. Thirty seven of the boys got in & then the launchnwas full so we decided to wait for the next but unlucky for us there were no more boats. When the officers returned & were told just what had happened all the CO could say was “My God, what can we do now” & then proceeded to rush aimlessly round the decks wondering just what he would do. Anyhow all the boys returned to the ship by 11.30 that night at which time they were given a very weak dressing down by the C.O.
We left there early next morning for Bombay which brings me to where I am now so I will close this letter now & will write another telling you what happens between here & Bombay & from there on.
If you hear from George Buxton or Bert you can give them this letter to read & that would save me a lot of duplication. I will now have to set to say love, Betty
Love & best wishes to Dad & Betty,
Lovingly Yours,
Frank
XXX
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