Letter No 32
Middle East
24.11.42
Dear Mum,
This is the letter I promised you a couple of days ago, describing our trip over. Naturally I won’t be able to mention the names of ports but I think you will be able to work out our trip alright. I’ve had the diary out & from what I have dotted down this is going to be rather long. I suppose there is no need to say so but after you have read it send it down to Melb & let Aunty Lizzie read it. So here goes
I wrote to you from the city from which we sailed so I’ll let that slide & get on with the more important details.
First of all we went on board a boat that the boys christened the Altmark II. This boat was very dirty & we did not relish the idea of going to sea in it. About one & a half hours after we were on board they cast off & we thought we were on our way butter trip was only from the inner to the outer harbour.
Naturally I wasn’t sick on my first trip on an ocean going liner. Tugs had to start & stop this ship because rumour had it that the chief engineer had misplaced the main piston. Hardly the thing to go putting to sea with the main piston running around the engine room is it?
We were issued with hammocks , & believe me, they are good to sleep in. The trouble was that we were four decks down & the heat was terrific. The food was terrible & on the second day leave was granted so we all toddled off to town & got stuck into a real good fees. We had to be back on board by 6.30 & so we spent the rest of the evening playing cards.
The next day I was lucky enough to get into the anti-submarine gun crew & so I spent most of the day learning how everything on the gun worked. All this was useless because a couple of days later we transhipped to another boat.
We moved around 8.30am the following morning. That was Good Friday the 3rd of April. This boat was different to the previous one in as much, as it was spotlessly clean, although it was much smaller. As we were the only troops on board we hd plenty of room to move about.
There were six Air Force Officers in charge of our party & these officers had been in the racket only 7 weeks when they took charge of us so you can imagine how they pottered around still mad with the service.
As soon as we started we started our first “perk pool”. This club had sixteen members & the idea was that if one “perked” he had to dash down to the secretary, dob in 2/- & then clamber back to the railing again before the next eruption.
For the first few hours everything went along OK & everyone was in good spirits but then the sea started to roll about a bit & before tea six two bobs had bounced on the mess table& the club was reduced to ten. The club motto was “pay as you spray”.
By the way, my two bob was still in my pocket & I don’t know whether I begrudged parting with it or not but I was still in the running when we hit Suez.
It was about this time that I received a letter written by Betty when I was at 1ED. It had chased me to Uranquinty, 2 ED, 4 ED & finally on the boat.
The next day we were in the open sea & the boat got up to all sorts of antics. In all my life I had no idea that a ship could roll & toss in so many directions at the one time. It was here that I nearly parted with my two bob.
All I did for the full day was sit on a box of life jackets & try to concentrate on anything but food. There were several others sitting on the box with me so I had something to ease my mind. It was so rough that a good few of the crew were hanging over the rail as well as the members of our party. Four more club members cashed in this day.
The next day, the 5th, they called for a crew to look after the machine guns on th stop deck, & as there were only a couple of dozen of us that weren’t hoping the boat would sink, I managed to get into the crew. It wasn’t such a good job while we were in the cold climates but when we reached the tropics we had the best time on the boat. We lay back in deck chairs, wearing only a pair of shorts, & got as sunburnt as the black crew. We had meals at different times to the other lads & we always got a bit more than them.
The main manners in which we past the time away while off duty were playing deck quoits or deck tennis, cards, reading, etc. One day the boys challenged the officers, ships crew & NCO’s to a game of deck quoits for a bottle of beer per man & with twelve men a side. The officers lost, much to the boys pleasure. A few days later there was a competition amongst the men. The honours went to Billy “Bubbles” Butters & yours truly. The prize was four bottles of beer, two writing pads & envelopes.
While we were in the colder waters we saw lots of whales & huge tuna &there were about a dozen or so albatross following the ship. When we were nearer the tropics the albatross left us & we saw thousands of brightly coloured flying fish.
About every two days we had an hours lecture by the Medical Officer. These lectures were on tropical diseases & camp life & they were quite interesting.
On the 14th we had our first practice shot with machine guns. Our target was a bunch of balloons tied to a kite on the end of about a 1,000 feet of wire.mAs the boat was rolling & it was my first shot with such a weapon I need not tell you that all th balloons were deflated & put away when we had finished our shooting.
The next day a lot of the gun crew were given needles but as I had had all mine to date I did not get one but it meant that I had to do a double shift on the guns.
About this time we were near the equator & the sunsets were beautiful but all this you hear about the glamorous tropical nights is just so much bunk because when all one has to do is sit back in a deck chair, wearing very little at all, & let the sweat pour out of him, I fail to see when the romance & glamour comes into it. Of course I had no inspiration for romance & that may have had something to do with it.
Very often at night whilst we were in tropical waters the boys would get up on deck & have a real old time community sing-song. Stork & one of the there lads had guitars & there was a banjo & a piano accordion. We spent many a good night in this fashion. On the 19th the boys gave a concert on deck & it went off very well.. It started with songs by a couple of the lads, then banjo, use & guitar solos, a few sketches, a quiz & wound up with community singing. I had one of the programmes to send home but I must have misplaced it.
I spent an afternoon looking over the engines of the ship. I was shown around by the chief engineer & I had a very interesting afternoon.
One of the “passengers” on the boat was Capt. Heath, the former commander of the aircraft carrier “Illustrious”. He gave us a couple of lectures, one was about the life on an aircraft carrier& the other one was about his life in the navy, both which we enjoyed very much indeed.
On the 23rd we caught sight of land for the first time since we left Aussie. We sailed in & dropped anchor a few miles from the harbour entrance. I can’t mention the name of the port here, but it was in the city from which I sent Betty’s necklace. We had no sooner dropped anchor than we were surrounded with dozens of native “bum” boats the owners of which were selling fruit, etc. The prices of the fruit were: pineapples 10 for 2/6, bananas 3 dozen for 1/-, coconuts 2d or 3d each & beautiful mangoes were only 15 for 1/-. For a couple of days “Stork” & I lived on a diet of fruit. It would be nothing for us to cut up 2 dozen bananas & a few pineapples & eat these as an appetiser for dinner.
We stayed outside the harbour for 5 days but on th morning of the sixth day we moved into the harbour to take on fuel & water. All the boys were looking forward to a bit of leave, but unfortunately, this was not granted. The boys took a very poor view of this but did nothing until a few of the officers got dressed up in their glad rags & toddled off to town. This was too much for us so to start the ball rolling about 20 of us got into our togs & dived into the harbour. This set the officers in a panic & they raced around like a lot of schoolgirls. They still wouldn’t give us any leave so the boys got dressed & said “leave r not we’re going ashore” & with that they hailed a launch & 37 of them went into town. If the boat had taken another two I would have been in town too. When the O.C. came back from town & was told what had happened all he said was “My God! What can I do now” & he raced around the decks not knowing what to do. All the boys were back by 10.30pm that night so everything was OK. We sailed again at dawn the next morning & headed for the city from where I sent the cable & Betty’s necklace.
It was while we were on this part of the trip that I started my first letter to you but I did not post it until I arrived over here & then it got lost.
Along this part of the coast we passed hundreds of native dhows (sailing ships). These boats are made in a very peculiar manner but it would take too long to explain it here so I will leave it until I come home.
We sailed into our next port on May 3rd & dropped anchor in the harbour. The next day we packed all our gear & left the boat & went by ferry to the shore where we touched land for the first time in thirty one days. We put our kits on trucks & then marched several miles through the town to a transit camp.
25.11.42 We were all very anxious to go in & have a look around the town & leave was granted as soon as we had sorted out our kit-bags, changed our money into the currency of that country & got dressed in clean clothes. By the time we left the camp it was nearly dark & so we did not se much of the town that night but instead we went & had a look at the Taj Mahal Hotel because the sailors on the boat had told us so much about it. It was a marvellous place but I won’t bother with details now.
The next day we were granted a full days leave & so we had a good chance to see the town. To start our tour we went down to the markets. In these places one could buy anything from a peanut to a motor car. I was surprised at the amount of Aussie tinned foodstuffs on sale in these markets. The trouble was we could hardly move for beggars. They pestered us wherever we went & the number of crippled beggars was amazing. The barbers in this part of the world have their “shop” on the footpath. The “shop” consists of an ordinary box. There were thousands of tinsmiths & vegetable hawkers conducting their business on the footpaths.
We went into a large curio shop & spent several hours looking at brass & ivory curios. If I hadn’t lost most of my money at two-up on th boat I would have been able to send home dozens of little things. As a matter if fact I could have spent 100pounds in the one shop alone.
After we left this shop we went & had a look through the Mosque (temple of the Musolmen. Everything in this temple was made by hand; from the marble pulpit to the 35 ft rosewood doors. It was a marvellous place, I took several snaps of it. Before we were allowed enter the place we had to take off our shoes & leave them with one of the natives at the door & walk around in our stocking feet. We had to report back to camp at 5.30 & we were told that we were going on board another boat the following morning & then we went back to town again. We spent most of the night at the United Forces Club & got back to the camp about midnight. So much for our first look at a foreign city - very interesting but, literally a bit on the nose.
We went on board our “new” ship next morning & what a filthy ship it was. It was only about half the size of the first ship & instead of having it all to ourselves we were crowded out with hundreds of native troops. We moved from the docks into the harbour where we waited for our convoy & then the boys decided that they would not travel on the boat because white & native troops are not supposed to travel on the same boat, let alone on decks above one another. The boys said that they wanted half the boat to themselves or we would get off & wait for the next one. The result was that a couple of hundred troops were taken ashore & we had our half of the ship.
Even at this the boys weren’t satisfied because the food was awful, the ship was dirty & it was uncomfortable hot, but we had to stick it for a couple of weeks. The boys definitely refused to sleep below deck & we slung our hammocks from the rafters of the shade awnings & it was reasonably cool at night.
There was very little of interest between here & our next port where we stopped for an afternoon & night while coal was taken on board. One of the native troops went down with smallpox & the ship was quarantined.
Then we began the last stage of our journey &, I can tell you, that everyone was glad. The water from here on was calm as a mill-pond & we saw thousands of porpoise & dolphins.
We were given several lectures by Indian officers, on conditions, states, races etc of India. One night about 9 o’clock we passed a hospital ship & what a difference it was to our boat. It was a blaze of lights &, from a distance it looked like one of the Manly ferries & all the Sydney lads felt quite homesick.
Shortly after we were landed in this Godforsaken land & we went into another transit camp where we slept the night & then the next day we went by train to Cairo where we had a few hours leave & then on up the “blue”.
So much for our trip over I hope you can follow it alright.
That’s all for now but will write again shortly.
Give my love to Dad & Betty & regards to Leo
Lovingly Yours
Frank
