Chapter Four – the journey to Egypt
Friday Dec.27th
No 866845 Gnr A Garrett
29894 (C). GHQ 2nd Echelon
C/O Army P.O. 725
Dear Mum and Dad,
This comes to you from mid ocean to let you know that after a riotous bout of sea sickness I am once more my hale and hearty self. We are know sailing in calm and fair weather and am enjoying to the full the restfull sea cruise bestowed on me by a benevolent Government. Beyond saying we have actually left England I am not allowed to tell you where are or where we are going (even if I knew)
The first four days out I was violently sea sick, so much so that one old sea dog asked if I had a season ticket for my part of the rail. But I was not as bad as some of the others and I soon became quite O.K. until and today when I am regarded as a Mariner second only to Popeye.
I hope you had a fine time at Christmas. Ours was better than we expected to get on such an old tub as ours. When we first saw her even the hardiest of us who were unwilling to risk our lives on such a decrepit crate and there were some who even doubted our ability to reach the three mile limit.
But so far she has refused to sink and we are all easier in mind now that we know for sure she is not ‘Sir’ Richard Grenvilles flagship “Revenge”, as we had at first thought, but the “Altmark,” in disguise.
By So far this about all that has happened on the voyage but If we get any further oppoti opportunities for sending letters Ill let you know.
Don’t forget you can send letters to the address at the top of this letter.
So Cheerio for now,
Yours,
Aubrey.
Don’t let Bill or Raymond know I was sea sick or they/ll harp on it for years.
A Corbett 2lt (censor)
The ship that transported the unit plus others from Glasgow to Port Tewfik in Suez, was HM Transport ship T5, the TS Canterbury. This ship was owned by Southern Railway before the start of the war. It was exclusively used a ‘boat train’ when the railway used to speed up the journey from Paris to London before it was requisitioned in early 1940.
The capacity of this vessel was probably about 600 but, on this journey, it carried 49 officers and 1419 men (albeit they lost a few to absence when they reached their destination after a night out in Durban!)
Who could have imagined where this small steamer would have taken troops during the war, it was built to hop across the English Channel eight times per day from Folkestone. I wonder if Aubrey recognised it as he spent quite a bit of time in Folkestone harbour before the war? That sense of ‘oh my goodness’ when he first set eyes on the familiar vessel.
It took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk, saw the equator several times and rounded the Cape of Good Hope, went to the Far East, and she crops up on D Day +2, transporting troops to Normandy. Not bad for a tiny vessel!
The route taken would have subjected the convoy to the rough and violent seas to the west of Ireland, with all that the winter could throw at it. Seasickness must have affected nearly everyone. This vessel would have been one of the smallest in the convoy.
It’s strange that Aubrey states that the ship is an ‘old tub’ and a ‘decrepit crate’. The vessel was only eleven years old! Evidently the cause of the soldier’s illness and upset stomachs were directed in the direction of their transport.
The German ship ‘Altmark’ was in the news in early 1940 during the events in Norway. The Altmark was a German resupply ship that shadowed the heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. When the Graf Spee attacked allied merchant vessels in the Atlantic, the crews were transferred to the Altmark as prisoners of war. The Graf Spee was scuttled in Montevideo harbour following a successful British Naval action which seriously damaged the ship. The Altmark made for home port but became low on fuel and headed to the then neutral Norway.
On the 16th February 1940 she was spotted by an RAF reconnaissance aircraft and through the determination of the Prime Minister to obtain a morale boost for the British people, wished to free the British sailors. The Altmark was cornered in a fiord by HMS Cossack on the 17th February and after a short exchange of fire, the Royal Navy boarded the vessel.
Rumours still abound that the crew used old fashioned Naval cutlasses to frighten the Kriegsmarine sailors. When the ship was searched the Navy found 299 prisoners who were taken back to UK port. The Germans suffered four sailors killed in the altercation with no allied casualties.
Because Norway was then a neutral country, the Altmark was allowed to continue its journey. It is said the Adolf Hitler changed his view on neutral Norway after this incident, at that time they were importing steel from Sweden which was transported to the sea ports in Norway for onward movement to Germany. Norway was next on his list for occupation to safeguard the economic route.
The news of the prisoner rescue was a tremendous morale boost at that time, rationing, blackouts and control of movement in the UK were taking their toll. The news of the rescue gave some sort of justification that actually something was happening positively in the war to date1.
Here is the link to the book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Letters-John-F-Bennett/dp/1399976907/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.fzmE7gLVLZn4l1gq6bCEW_Gf-z-Jy4t9rSPwI0IB-is.Y_OlRnmMc9U7V0l-JkyvbSRKmS0k7eNmfmMhntyMf5M&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+letters+john+f+bennett&qid=1720000964&sr=8-1
John F Bennett, Author, Blogger and Military Historian 