On the Troopship GEORGIC we had taken Australian Troops to the war in Malaya and then to Viet Nam to get 3000 French Foreign Legionaires off a beach , Vung Tao, they had escaped after losi]ng the battle of Dien Bien Phu. We had to anchor a few miles off shore and run our lifeboats ashore to pick them up off the beach under fire, a bit scary.
We got two and a half thousand off leaving 500 dead behind,after 3 and a half days. and took them back to Algiers and Marseilles.
here is a bit from the story. ........................................
When we arrived in Penang on the 19th of October 1955 , they went ashore and were put into British Army camps on Penang Island. Much to the dismay of the British National Service man, they were on 28 shillings a week gross, the Australian Soldier was on many times that amount, and also had a an extra allowance for using British facilities, and so the price of beer and the girls went up considerably.
The Troops were to be sent to Butterworth across the Strait on the mainland where the action was against the Commies, A British Army Camp had been evacuated for them. We took the Georgic across and spent a week discharging all the 2000 tons of equipment into barges, we had Australian soldiers down the holds and us Sailors drove the winches and landed the gear into the barges, and the soldiers took the barges ashore. There were no native Malay labour involved at all in case of sabotage.
Then for the Australian Army, politics took over, The Australian Prime Minister at the time said the Troops could not go to Butterworth as it was a war zone so they had to stay in Penang, which was safe. This was in October 1955, and the General Election for a new Government was to be held in January 1956, he did not want any body bags coming home to ruin his election so they had to stay there until the election was over.
Later several body bags did go back to Australia. I believe 15 were killed and 27 were wounded. Politicians never change.
If there's a life that follers this
If there's a "Golden Gate",
The welcome that I want to 'ear,
Is just "Good onya Mate"
Lest we forget. Australian Army.
When this was completed we sailed down to Singapore and anchored there awaiting orders. There was no shore leave there as it would have been difficult to transport a few hundred crew back and forth to the shore.
Then we had orders to go to Indo China, to Cape St. Jaques, now renamed Vung Tao, at the mouth of the Meekong River to rescue the French Foreign Legion who had had a rough time at the hands of the Viet Min. This was not long after they had been battered at the battle of Dien Bien Phu..
I went back to Vung Tau, two years ago and it still looked exactly the same as it was then.
We were running the lifeboats to the beach dragging these guys, who were in a terrible state, into the boats and back to the Georgic, We were under fire at all this time, I pulled into the boat a dead Soldier, I took his helmet off as he didnt need anymore and I put it on,. I still have that helmet 66 years later.
As we were dragging them through the shell doors these lunatics who were supposed to be assisting them were robbing them of their weapons, pistols , rifles, bayonets, machine guns, hand grenades etc.
We were supposed to pick up about three thousand but only two and a half thousand made it.
When it was all sorted out and we upped anchor and sailed they realised that all their weapons were missing.
So Military Police and the Master at Arms had to go round every cabin and store and space in the ship searching and recover the weapons. What a mess these guys could have caused with all that lot.
We sewed up and buried at sea some of the Legionaires who died with their wounds and then when the rest of the Legionaires recovered from their ordeal they sorted out the `catering staff` , they were calling them Sir and grovelling to them and they were in tears,
On the way to Algiers, Every Friday the Starboard side of the Prom deck was made out of bounds, the ` moo slim` of the Legionares had their service there, they had picked up some sheep in Aden and they slit the throats of the sheep and bled them all over the wooden decks. for the Halal meat. What a mess, we had to clean it all up after they had finished. the blood stains were very difficult to remove, we holy stoned and barbarised but the stains were still there.
On the way up the Red Sea we saw an usual event. The surface of the sea from horizon to horizon was covered head to tail, side by side, with giant Manta Rays, there must have been many millions of them all heading North on the surface. From sunrise to sunset. Never seen that before or since in 45 years at sea. Next day, all gone.
So we had an uneventful voyage home, past the place where the GEORGIC had been sunk in WW2
Brian
