ssMaritime
With
Reuben Goossens
Maritime Historian
A Tribute to the Grandest Queen of all!
Page
Three
Photo Album - The Grey Ghost at War
Also … The Bill Duggan Story
The once graceful
looking Liner now looks the part of a real troop ship!
RMS Queen Mary
departed
Left to Right:
Normandie, Queen Mary & Queen Elizabeth
Both
Queen Mary is seen
here being refitted for her war duties
Above & Below:
Australian soldiers board the ship that became known as the “Grey Ghost”
Australian
National Archives
Australian National Archives
Above &
below: The “Grey Ghost” at Sea packed with troops
Author’s private collection
Australian National Archives
Above & below: Two
Photographs of
Author’s private collection
Author’s private collection
Back in July
of 1944, aged 20, I was a member of Battery C, 132nd
Picture of Bill in uniform and it was taken on 28 January1944, being his
wedding day.
“Fortunately,” said Bill, “I removed that ridiculous
‘Sam Brown’ belt before the ceremony!”
Photo
provided by Bill Duggan
The record of the embarkation was done by a
unit member and he mentioned how tiring the boarding process was. We were
dropped off some distance from the actual boarding location (wharf) and we were
loaded down with all of our gear, then after walking the distance and climbing
up three flights of stairs to reach the level boarding site, which
was about halfway up the ship as I remember.
Finally came
the day to depart and I recall that the Captain backed this huge ship away from
the berth without the aid of any tugboats. It was simply magnificent!
As I recall,
we spent five days crossing the
After we
boarded the ship, our Battalion Commander announced that our battalion would be
on KP duty for the entire voyage and believe me he was booed. There were at
least 15,000 troops aboard, along with 400 nurses, and about 3,000 British Crew
members; all led by an officer we called "Ole Two Pips & a
Crown" We had to ":fall out" every day.
The KP Badge Bill wore
during the Voyage
Provided
by Bill Duggan
KP duty turned out to be a good thing for the British
didn't feed us very well, but we managed to secure extra food for ourselves
every day. And with the KP badge that we wore (which I still have) we were
allowed to visit any deck except the topmost deck being Sun Deck, which was
reserved for the nurses and other females on board. The other troops on board
were divided into three zones; Red, White and Blue. They were restricted to
their particular part of the ship.
Whilst on board the Queen Mary from day one I was in accommodated in an area which was, what seemed like what had been a hold, and it was certainly not much above the water line, and I was surrounded by tons of 100lb bags of potatoes, which I attempted to peel by hand. I remember thinking, but surely, there must be other guys there as well? But somehow I don’t remember them.
Many people may not aware, that on some of the
return voyages Queen Mary transported captured German soldiers for interment in
the
After the war ended; I was involved in the
release of German soldiers from the camps. Soldiers that had no Gestapo or SS
connections, I would cram about 40 or so into my GMC 2½ ton ten wheel truck and
drive them to their Kreis (county location) and let them find the rest of the
way home. I trucked hundreds of them that way. They tended to be pretty docile,
so I stopped carrying my Thompson .45 sub with me. But one day I was late in
arriving to the release point and I got stuck with transporting a load of ex SS
troops who were being sent to another prison camp. I did have another soldier
with this time, an 18 year old kid who had only just arrived from the States.
Neither one of us was carrying a weapon, but we did have a couple of Infantry
guys following us in a jeep with a .30 ca. machine gun on it. I asked them what
I should do if these SS guys tried to escape, and they said that we should stay
in the truck and that they would fire on either side of us. Now that is all
fine, but then we came to a small lake with a ferry boat that could not take
both us and the jeep on it. So when we reached the other side, I told the young
soldier to stay on one side of the truck and I would take the other side. I
said “Put your hands in your pockets and try to look tough!” I
imagine the SS guys got a kick out of that. Oh the memories!
In conclusion: I consider myself just one of
the millions of men and women that served in WWII. At war’s end there
were 11 million in uniform just in the
Bill Duggan
An old AA Machine Gunner.
PS: May 8 was VE Day, which
received no attention in the local press. On that day I was across the
Postcard of the Queen Mary with her funnels freshly repained in the Cunard colours, meeting her new Atlantic
running mate
Author’s
private collection
INDEX:
Page
One … History page – From Birth to Berth
Page Two … Photo
album – The Trans-Atlantic Liner
Page Four
… Photo
album 3 – Queen Mary at
Page Five … Hotel
Queen Mary -
Page
Six … Specifications page
***************************************************
or go to our INDEX
***********************************
Who is the Author of ssMaritime?
Commenced
in the passenger Shipping Industry in May 1960
Also
visit my …
“Save The Classic Liners
Campaign” & “Classic Ocean Voyages”