HEROISM AT SEA AND IN FACTORIES

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24599, 22 June 1945, Page 4

HEROISM AT SEA AND IN FACTORIES

SERVICE

London, June 6,-A day to toy historian has much ado at the inoin to pace with .the revelations of what we have achieved in this w* • One page of secret history tells of the Mulberry Harbours which we bull off the coast of Normandy to ensure the success of D Day j»d anotherpage describes the oiwration of laymg a finers Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary,’which have each carried atlimea 15 000 troops on their .voyages- A getting there "fastest with the mostest” they have been incomparable. "What Ship is That?” It was the Queen which made a swift passage from Bntam to Suez with 9500 troops for P i can add perhaps a few ”°^ n to when already has been made known, wnen she sailed for Cape Town to March, 1940, she had no armament whateye., and at Trinidad where she oiled two old sloops sailed round her from cSe to time hi protection. She got to Cape Town earlier than expected, and su: Robert Irving, who was to comnwnd. was tickled to receive the signal. “What ship is that?” from the harbour ai She r saUed to Fremantle— 4Boß mUes at an average of 20.13 knots, which may be a record that is unbroken, I DO not sure. When she got to Sydney the harbour was thronged with boats whooping the sirens in delight, inis was Australia’s first sight of her and they were stirred. But the occasion was memorable not only to thpse ashore. Sir Robert Irving had not been in Sydney harbour since he was a brassbound apprentice on a lemr masted barque in his early teen^, Th ship was adapted for troop-carrying. A six-pounder gun was fixed astern and a converted 18-pounder placed alt of the bridge to deal with hostile alfCf When she first visited Suez Ih 1941, entrv to the harbour had uts anxieties, for the channel allowed no more than inches of clearance under the keel mid all troops had to he kept amidships while at five or six knots the great ship moved through. But if was safely done—for the first and last tune. AJJfi; that she anchored outside. Since then these two mighty ships have sailed together over 950,000 miles on war work. Long Tramps What is equally remarkable, in its way, is the distance‘that some of. our cargo. liners and tramp ships have steamed in dangerous Waters. Even by the middle of 1943 the cargo liner Clan Lament had covered 196,000 pules to India, Africa, and the United States; the Pacific Enterprise, 160,000 miles between the north Pacific and Britain. British ships rarely voyage at more than 10 knots, often at seven or below; but many of these, too, had sailed during toe same period between 130,000 and 107,000 miles, among them' toe Baron Cawder, North Leigh, and Rue. Bisks of the Northern Boate Another fragment of history which can now, I think, be recorded ,adds’to the story of our Russian convoys. These sailings to Murmansk and Archangel hold an honourable place in the feats of this war. They took supplies from Britain, America, and Canada at • a time when toe need was crucial; and they did it by facing, as no convoys quite faced, the triple perils of surface raiders, fropi battleships downwards, of U-bbats m strength, and of torpedo and other bombers. Moreover, to be sunk and lose your life dr. if not your life, then your limbs ffoin frostbite, was a danger that too often proved a reality. All this was true of toe convoys which were well guarded. They often- have a rescue ship sailing close by. But this is now. Not always have ships during the most dangerous months sailed in a convoy. When Stalingrad s fate was in toe balance a number of ships, toe crews of which volunteered to do it, proceeded singly without a sea escort, except that a few nayal trawlers were to be in the vicinity

[By JAMES IANSDALE HODSON.I

and one or two British submarines, which, if the vessel had to be abandoned, might save a few lives, fo addition a hut >was established at Spitsbergen, containing food and stores in toe event of survivors reaching land. This was all that could be done. (What a change from these lonely sailings to convoys guarded by 73 naval ships!) In a port in the Par North the situation was explained to a number of ships masters, the reason for this new method being the perilous position of our Russian Allies. Every master volunteered at once. Next, the crew were summoned to the vessel’s saloon and the position put to them with equal frankness. No man, they were told, would be thought the worse of if he stayed behind on this occasion: but for security reasons such a man would be unable to go ashore from the ship to which he would be transferred. The general re- . sponse was magnificent. On one ship, when it was pointed out that nobody. under eighteen would be allowed to sail toe ship’s boy burst into tears. One or two members of the crew pleaded on his behalf, and the master also approved of his going; so he , sailed. The Royal Navy fixed the order of sailing and the interval between, ■ ships. The ships sailed. The losses • were, alas, heavy. But some part of f these supplies so urgently needed by Russia reached her. The Explosive Factories These voyages to Russia demanded I one sort of courage. The courage and ; doggedness of women in our ammuni-tion-filling factories was different but no less. For myself I learnt for the first time during a visit to a .North Country factory last week how ar- .. duous were toe days in 1940—days when munitions were needed at all costs The women worked a 10-hour shift for seven days or seven nights without a break and to do it they journeyed from two to four hours daily to toe factory. So swift was the intake of workers that canteens and other amenities were for a time inadequate. Suffering from dennahtok the result of . handling powders, was widespread. Fronts®®;.; tober. 1940, to June, 1941, toe numbSi in this one factory being metocfßy . treated ranged from 300 to 380 ift r « time; and it was not unusual doctor to find a row of women waiting * to see her with faces swollen UK footballs- Minor explosions, too, occurred with worrying frequency, through labour being untrained and*. falling to observe the stringent regulations, whiph, when carried put, make ■. these factories almost ,as safe as any other industrial work. To-day toe situation has been teansformed by toe introduction of eight-hour shifts andthe 300 sufferers from dermatitis have?, «iirrtr to one or two. Explosions are < now extremely , rare- /What I wantto stress is that nothing daunted those women In the early toys- A lot of them were married, and; more than 40„> years old. Hiey were often absent, from home for 15 hours. Those on * night-shift, when they did get home, , had to get- hreakfast ready and seef - toe, children o«%a.scliooland dp shopping before - they/ coulfi go to bed, , / HoW they stuck it J do to know. But /they did. I talked vrah. some who went through it. One jho£,v is how ah overlooker said, I seven flights, a week in those 84 shillings, and I got as yellow «£' a canary. - Her eyes got so swollen she had to take a fortnightoff. ‘ But she returned and she has.c-, been there ever since. '

They Deserve » Page ' Slowly we shall leam more about , our secret achievements; our taudmps in mechanical inventions, and engjn-} eering. Most of toe heroism wewlr learn nothing of; but if we can/twe . it for granted, we shall not be jnwg. .• There was the Battle of Britain^ tost , all the world knows about, fought m - toe skies over the south of EnjflSaa. There .was another Battle fought by such as these women to ' toe explosives factory. Most of uif Jwd’. never heard of them. They - of the secret history oftoe War. Tn*y deserve a page of their offnC,