ON “HELL DECK”
CONDITIONS ON ORION REASONS WHY MEN WALKED OFF SHIP Recd. 7.5 p.m. London, Nov. 15. “I have seen for myself just why 400 Australian and New Zealand soldiers and airmen refused to sail home in the Orion last Sunday,” says the “Daily Mail’s” Southampton correspondent. “I visited the deck men call ‘Hell Deck.’ Its official name is HlO. It is right over the propeller shaft. Nearly 200 New Zealanders were expected to live there for the next five weeks, with the aid of three washbasins, one lavatory, and one hotwater tap among them. One New Zealander said: Tn our hammocks we have to lie hin to hip. When a man next to you turns he gives you a thump in the head. Th's goes on all night, and we reel pretty weary in th? morning.’
“Hell Deck’s atmosphere was stuffy, oven on the cold November night. New Zealanders pointed out: ‘You can imagine what it. would bo like when we arrived in th? Red Sea.* “Two hundred Australians on the dock immediately above HID slept 16 side by side on a table 25ft. long. The troops mess at tne tables, which occupy roughly half the area of living space.”
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Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 271, 16 November 1945, Page 5
Word Count
202ON “HELL DECK” Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 271, 16 November 1945, Page 5
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