Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: Wally Jones express train to Freedom

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Cooma NSW
    Posts
    8,972
    Thanks (Given)
    10199
    Thanks (Received)
    5221
    Likes (Given)
    44159
    Likes (Received)
    26899

    Default Wally Jones express train to Freedom

    Hi All.
    With remembrance day approaching I thought it appropriate to post this story from a former Vindi mate from an old Vindi newsletter of the N.S.W. branch.
    Wally Jones Express train to Freedom
    Early August 1942 found me being assigned to the brand new freighter “Glenorchy” that was about to join Operation Pedestal, the Malta convoy that was to attempt to save that Island from falling into enemy hands. It has been recorded as the biggest naval battle of the in History. Words cannot describe the devastation and fear those terrifying screaming Stukas created during the days of none stop bombardment. There were fifteen merchant ships carrying vital supplies for Malta = Large drums of aviation fuel, bombs, torpedoes etc, plus of course food supplies. The escorts comprised two battle ships, the Nelson and the Rodney, six aircraft carriers, several cruisers and thirty five destroyers, corvettes and other war. One of the first ships to go was the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Eagle when incredibly a submarine popped up in the middle of the convoy and in broad daylight fired four torpedoes into her and within minutes she had disappeared beneath the waves with most of her crew. It would have been a big prize for the enemy as she was carrying most of the fighter planes for the defence of malta. Another equally big prize the enemy was after was the large American tanker the “Ohio.” What a ship! Leased out for the voyage with her largely replacement Scottish crew she was carrying the fuel essential for Malta’s survival.
    On the evening of August 12th we were approaching the Pantelleria Straits, a days sailing from Malta. At this point it was considered to risky for the battleships and carriers and so we were left to make it on our wn with the smaller escorts. The two heavy cruisers were soon torpedoed and sunk and during a terrifying night Italian torpedo boats were waiting for us and indeed destroyed almost the whole convoy of merchant ships, I have never forgotten seeing all those ships on fire and disintegrating that night.
    I was on deck at dawn and actually saw torpedoes streaking towards us. By some miracle they both struck the engine room killing all those below , had the torpedoes struck us elsewhere with our cargo we certainly would have been blown to smithereens, as it was we were able to launch a couple of lifeboats and being close to the Tunisian coast we were able to row ashore and give ourselves up to the Vichy French. Some made it by swimming and others didn’t adding to the list of missing friends. We were placed behind barbed wire with other survivors and also, strangely, French and Italian settler political prisoners. There was a black and humorous side to all this, the sea lawyers amongst us quickly realised that from the moment we abandoned ship we were out of work and our pay had now stopped, we found out later that only four ships eventually made it into Valletta Harbour, the “Ohio”, being one of these .
    Another touch of humour- my friend, Len Galloway was a brilliant violinist who had been a member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and was a steward with me on the Glenorchy, on abandoning ship Len was able to salvage his violin and on the second night in captivity decided o put on a concert to cheers the lads up. While he was playing an intermezzo to his captive audience I happened to notice that the guards had left their posts mesmerized by this beautiful music. I pointed out to a young Scottish lad that we might ever get another chance like this so we filled our pockets with goodies salvaged from the lifeboats survival rations and made our escape. To go into the full details of the events that occurred during the following weeks would be far to daunting a task for me to undertake, suffice to say we were recaptured and shunted from one goal to another finally ending up in Tunis in a tiny cell with rats and all other paraphernalia you could associate with a torture cell. Someone then moved us to a larger cell with four other prisoners, I think they were French, however; they hardly spoke not even to each other.
    Early one morning we were all marched out into a cobbled courtyard and lined up against a wall when someone in authority yelled out “Not Those Two”. And we were bundled back into our cell. We later learned that the four others had been shot as traitors and so my mate and I were saved from being victims of another gross error of judgment.
    In due course we were sent to a camp which was situated at Le Keff high up in the Tunisian mountains where we suffered tortuous nights in freezing conditions. Once we received Red cross food parcels and weren’t they something to behold, tins of meat, tea, coffee and dry milk powder, etc. The problem was how to boil the water for the tea so we formed ourselves into groups of four and as we had been given straw to sleep on the concrete floor we took it in turns to burn some of it in order to boil the Billy, it wasn’t long before we were sleeping on concrete but you can’t have your tea and sleep on straw too. I am sure Le Keff was as bad as anything Japanese provided in the way of food and accommodation, showers were none existent, three hundred and fifty men reduced to sleeping on a concrete floor in one large cramped hut. Sanitary arrangements were half a dozen metal drums which were supposed to be emptied once a week though they should have of course been cleaned out daily, most of the men suffered from dysentery among other things, the drums were in constant use and when they were carried away they resembled enormous chocolate ice-cream cornets. Scorpions and flies were in abundance and toilet paper or any paper did not exist. The food came once a day large urns of some unspeakable mess were dumped on us – God knows what the ingredients were, but we suspected camel meat.
    We were transferred during November to a camp on the Mediterranean, at a place called Sfax.
    It was from there that we made our mass escape, having heard rumors that the Allies had landed at a place called Rabat. One night we were told to quietly get into open cattle trucks at a nearby siding; lie down and not talk, it turned out that whoever the organizers were of this mass escape they had information on American troop movements. After a long slow rail journey of several days, {There was never enough coal to get steam up to make a dash for it} we reached the American lines, from there the Merchant Navy survivors were sent to Algiers to board the “Orontes” that brought us safely home for Xmas.
    Last edited by Des Taff Jenkins; 8th November 2018 at 02:43 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Blue Mountains NSW
    Posts
    24,237
    Thanks (Given)
    45047
    Thanks (Received)
    13126
    Likes (Given)
    52440
    Likes (Received)
    39396

    Default Re: Wally Jones express train to Freedom

    Hello Des
    Thank you for this Thread however I had already posted this in the
    Articles Section ,mine is however in Picture Format ,so this one of yours is welcome,as it is a lot easier to read!
    I will therefore leave this one on.
    Thanks Again
    Cheers

    http://www.merchant-navy.net/forum/n...n-freedom.html
    Senior Site Moderator-Member and Friend of this Website

    R697530

  3. Likes happy daze john in oz liked this post
  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Cooma NSW
    Posts
    8,972
    Thanks (Given)
    10199
    Thanks (Received)
    5221
    Likes (Given)
    44159
    Likes (Received)
    26899

    Default Re: Wally Jones express train to Freedom

    Sorry Vernon didn't see it, sent it to Den a few weeks ago after trying to get it on to the site, my son told me how to copy and paste on line.
    Des

  5. Thanks Doc Vernon thanked for this post

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •