WAR EXPERIENCES

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 263, 7 November 1939, Page 9

WAR EXPERIENCES

AUSTRALIANS AT SEA.

YACHT HIT A U'BOAT.

DARWIN NAVAL " BATTLES."

(From (inr Own Correspondent.)

S\ DXEV, November 3,

Stories are still coming to light of the

experiences of Australians at sea sineo the outbreak of war. A liieui-

bei ot a well known station family, for iii.»lainv, .Mi,-r. Uian.i Wait-on, who was in Denmark when the war broke out, finally managed to get to Britain with other passengers in a small craft which used to bo tho ex -Ka User'a yacht. On the way from Uerj-cn in Norway the vaclit in the darkness one morning collided with a (ieniuin I boat, but the submarine, seeing that it was a neutral \essel, did not bother searching it, and tho yacht made otl' ars fast as it could.

Another |wirty of six Australians whiw destination was Uiitain, were nine week?, at sea, and stranded for a fortnight in South Africa and finally arrived back at Melbourne without ever having got to Europe. They had reached ('olonibo when war broke out and departed for an unknown destination which, when they jjot to \it, they discovered to be Mombasa, in Kenv.l. Next they found themselves landed at Capetown and from there returned to Australia by a neutral vessel.

'I'lu! commander of a cargo vessel, one of a convoy which had l>eeii repeatedly saved from U-boat attacks, when lie arrived in Sydney was handed ail iniprerwive looking document by a Government official. It informed him that Australia had declared war on Germany unci warned him in solemn phrases not (<> take hi* uliip into any (Jerman ]>ort.

I'p in Darwin there is another kind of naval war on. Xav.xl ofli.-oivi there have control of tho Administration quarters for single men, although Administration otlicers still occupy half the building. 'I'llo naval ollicers, having no real ship to command, have named the building If.M.A.S. Penguin IV., and the quarter* aro known as tho wardroom mess. When a eook or steward hari a day oil", he i<s said to bo on <*horo leave, although the quarters aro actually in the centre of 1 >a rwin.

Tho Administration officers would not object to this make-believe, but they resent being .forced to conform with the rules and etifptette of the navy. As civilian officers, they do not see why in Darwin's sticky climate they should 'be forced to wear ties in the room after sundown, and every Tuesday, when dinner routine is observed, to turn up in me?«s jackets and *titT shirts. Tihey also find their conversation at mess considerably restricted, as it is a navy rule that women, politics, religion or superior officers must not be discussed.