The Queen Mary’s Great Wartime Role

Northern Advocate, 1 October 1943, Page 5

The Queen Mary’s Great Wartime Role

fir (Rec. 1 p.m.) LONDON, September 30. Although it was comrnon knowledge that the liner Queen. Mary had been playing a most important role as troop transport during the war, the extent of her travels has only now been disclosed. She played perhaps the biggest individual part in saving the situation at El Alamein in the summer of 1942. In the same year sne transported thousands of American soldiers. Steamed Through U-Boat Pack Once she steamed right through a pack of submarines estimated to number 25, and not one had time to get a torpedo trained on her. She once went out from England with men and stores representing half a fullyequipped division. Her passage round the Cape and north to Suez, 12,030 miles, was made in a few weeks. World’s Most Marked Ship She was one of the most marked ships in the world, and Axis agents everywhere had done their best to warn enemy navies of her movements. Once the German pocket-battleship Luetzow was specially despatched to the Atlantic to destroy her. What Might Have Been Last winter, fully-laden with American troops, the Queen Mary ran into a terrific gale, and a giant wave swept her broadside. She listed till her upper decks were awash. Officers afterwards said they were convinced she could never right herself. Her safety depended on five inches. Had she gone those inches further, the Queen Mary would have been no more.