Aloha
from Hawaii
"Your
stories of courage in the Battle of the Atlantic bring back vivid
memories.
"
I was 12 when we sailed from Liverpool with my two older brothers
on the Duchess of Richmond in late June 1940.
The ship with us was the fine prewar cruiseliner Arandora Star.
"On July 2nd Arandora Star was fatally struck.
"The U Boat in question was the infamous U 47commanded by Gunther
Prien who earlier had entered Scapa Flow and sunk the battleship
Royal Oak.
"On
that fateful July day, Prien was returning to his home port after
another successful mission but had only one torpedo left. He had
to make a choice of victims... he spared the ship carrying women
and children to Canada but inadvertently sank the ship which was
carrying German and Italian internees..
Over
seven hundred lives were lost.
"We
were the lucky ones.
"The
children on a later voyage on the City of Benares were not so lucky,
and I believe that her sinking caused the government to say "no
more children to Canada".
"Like
virtually all of the German U Boat commanders Gunther Prien also
met his death in the cold waters of the Atlantic.
"My
return to England in 1944 was on a old cargo liner called Glenstrae
which would continually break down and get left behind by the convoy.
"Our
favourite song was "You'll never get to Heaven in the Old Glenstrae
'cos the old Glenstrae dont go that way"
"Strangely
enough these two ships that travelled thousands of miles through
U boat infested waters for five years were both to meet their end
at Gladstone Dock in their home port of Liverpool, where the Duchess
of Richmond was destroyed by fire and the Glenstrae hit the dock
causing fatal damage. "
Geoffrey Paterson
听
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