ships biscuits

[Lou Barron]

When we the survivors of the gloucester castle were transfered from the german raider in the south atlantic to the german supply ship a tanker called the Charlotte Schliemann it was a bit of a shock the food was not what you would call very good but little did we know we would get a very lt worse within a few months but getting back to the supply ship the food mainly was stew and black bread as hard as concrete also ships biscuitsweuse to dip the biscuits in the stew till one day one of the guys broke his biscuit in half lo and behold it was full of weavils alive so we got to break the biscuit up and try and get them out but being that hungry we use to dip the biscuit in the stew and eat

[happy daze john in oz]

Lou it is hard for us who where nevr in such situations to imagine just what you guys had to endure. The saddest thing is thta for all your sufereing the world still has major conflicts going on, your pain for nothing I sometimes think. But tp you and all the others I salute you.

[Captain Kong]

Thanks for your story Lou, you tell it as it was, not like as clinical report. I guess it was one way of giving you fresh meat,
.
See you in Five weeks hopefully.
Cheers
Brian.

[Lou Barron]

yes it did supply fresh meat the weeks we spent aboard the supply ship did supply us with a lot of stories some hilarious and some not so funny the rumourwent around that led by a guy off the G C i think his nane was Albert Day who was a chef off G C and a few other guys but the germans seem to have got wind of it and they had two machine guns on the bridge pointing down to the fo *c *sleand they doubled the guards who had machine guns and toffee apple hand grenades if we wanted a crap we had to climb upto the upper deck were they was shutes pointing over the side we had to sit on a plank of wood and let go and the jerrys stood just outside and made sure that we went down below when the ship went down to the roaring fortys oh boy did it get cold and rough seas it was not what you would call a cruise by the way is the avatar better than that green man maybe not as good looking eh

[Des Taff Jenkins]

HI Charles.
Must have been a hell of a trip for you and the lads, I hope you have written it all down for your family. My brother Roy sailed during the war and now my one regret is I never talked to him about his trips. Mind you he was on the piss with my old manevery time he got home ha ha. He jumped ship in Lytlleton around 46, don'r even know what ship he jumped off. I think it is imperative that people relate thier expierences to thier family;or write it down for posterity even if most of the people have forgotten what you all did for the country.
Cheers Des

[Tony Morcom]

Couldn't agree more Des. I too regret not taking the opportunity to talk to my uncle who was in the MN during the war. I have since researched and built up a complete picture of what he did and where he went but it would have been great to have the personal aspect to it.

Lou I know it is hard for you remembering all the horrific things you went through but please keep the stories coming because it gives us all a much better understanding of the hell you endured whilst contributing to our freedom today.

[Roger Dyer]

Hi Lou,

Thank you for changing your avatar, Lou (I'm assuming this is taken from your discharge book or Seaman's I.D. Card after the war). Personally, I wish others, able to, would use a similar avatar.

As I hope you realise, mate, we on this site are mindful of and very grateful for the sacrifices made by you and so many other fellow seamen during WWII. Added to that, please know how proud I feel that you are one of our number on this site.

.....................Roger.

[Duke Drennan]

Lou,
Can you enlighten us as to how you were treated by the German ratings on both of the vessels that you were on? By some accounts, both treated each other with respect since you were all seamen or were you treated as the "enemy"? Did their approach to you differ between officers and ratings?
I'd be curious to know. Thanks.

[Lou Barron]

Thanks for your comments about my stories it is only inyhe last few years that i have started to tell my war time stories but my family have insisted that i tell them so i have written most of it down and since i have had my laptop it gives me something to do i have had a part of my story in a book called HELL OR HIGH WATERthis book was published by nz goverment in 2005 it as stories of ten New Zealand merchant navy guys and one of my daughters have put the main parts of it on the laptop but there is a hell of a lot that is not mention simply i did not think it was worth while with the passing of time my old memory is not the best but i will never forget those days as pow as regards ofthe treatment we got off the germans it was not bad they where one or to really nazi type but the never mistreated us to my knowledge in fact when they told us we was going to be handed over to the japs the said sorry but it was the way things where but if you guys want some more of the stories but most of the funny ones like the the time we was on a working party in singapore the jap guards wanted me and taffy to climb a coconut tree it was hilarious

---------- Post added at 10:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:56 PM ----------

In reply to you Duke as i have explained the treament was ok from german crew on the raider and the supply ship we was all treated thev same most of the germans was merchant seamen before the war in one instant when i was in the hospital aboard the raider i had a slight wound in my right hand they was a couple of us the food was the same as what the crew got in fact one of the jerrys use to bring me ice cream a couple of times the only thing i had about the germans was the way the sunk our ship it was a bloody massacre

[Duke Drennan]

Keep the stories coming Lou. Our sea stories pale in comparison to your experiences. I, for one, would like to hear more of them.
Thanks for sharing them.