Transcript
He was terrific. I mean, he was a 14-18 war veteran. I mean, I don't think he was a man that showed a lot of, I wouldn't say feeling. But he kept his thoughts to himself. But I think he was very proud of his boys from what we could gather. I know I got a dressing down from him because when we were going overseas, we went over on the Île de France, and I believe they had tried to scuttle that into Singapore. Consequently of that, one big water tank, and one of the motors of the Ile de France, which used to be a French luxury ship at that time, so she could only travel at half pace.
The captain of the big British ship, the Queen Mary, which was in our convoy, he had already advised that captain that if we were attacked by subs, we were on our own. There was nothing that he could do. He would be taking off. But that was in a pretty shocking state.
What I did. Naturally I wrote home. I wrote and told them what a stinking ship it was and all the rest of it. Of course, not realising all this was being censored. Of course, I got called out. I went up before Blackie. He thought I was a German spy... But he thought, "Well, a good talk to won't do him any harm." So that was the only time I think I ever spoke to Colonel Blackburn, and that was the last time I wanted to. But apart from that it was a good trip over, what have you. It was hardening us up for things to come.
