Aboard the Orion

In 1941 I was placed in the Woolwich Arsenal gunpowder section, weighing gunpowder in small bags like tea bags and stitched up with a Bakelite needle. I didn’t want that so I went back to the Labour Exchange, but was told that I had to go back — “Not for me!”

All round were posters - “Join the Palestine Police” for £20 per month all found. I plumped for that, had my medical, got my passport and was told to report to Canterbury, when I received papers from the Army. At the end of six week’s training in Canterbury I and another chap were told we had to report to Aberystwyth. I was told I would be kept in the Army and trained for the Artillery as a gunner and driver.

After three months I travelled to Greenock in Scotland to join the Orion, a pre-war P and O liner, for posting to Africa. My group were placed in the section with hammocks and the noise of the propeller all the time. You were only allowed on the deck above, no higher, and with the number of people on board, the toilets couldn’t cope.

There were Yanks on board with cans of beer, and they made a bet one day that anyone who could catch the net on the side of the ship would win a pile of cans. A squaddie who took the bet ran to the side of the ship, jumped, missed the net and went into the sea. A quick-witted Yank threw a lifebelt into the sea and saved him — we thought he had gone to a watery grave.

This story was added to the People’s War site by Melita Dennett on behalf of George King, who understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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