Queen Mary as troop ship (Part 5)

Part 5

Fri 15/1/43 Up before 6.0am, bath, shave etc and up to Boat Deck at 6.45am where I’m writing this now. Its absolutely grand & whenever its like this I’m always thinking of Renee & how she would have enjoyed it. The breeze is lovely & its difficult to tell where the sun will rise as the whole sky has reflected light from the sun long before the sun is visible. We are nearing the end of our journey by sea, Aden today after only 20 days actual travelling, surely a remarkable trip right round Africa. 8.0am I went below & washed shirt, vest, pants, towel & pyjamas before breakfast. 8.30am land sighted, ahead to starboard. Breakfast — sausages, terrible things & only half cooked so after one bite I gave up. Up on boat deck again to see what’s happening. 9.30am anchor in Aden harbour. We are a long way from the beach proper but not far from the volcanic mountains. At 7.30am it was as hot as any English summers day although the sun had only been shining for 20 mins, but there was a breeze. Now come below where it seems cooler. From the porthole I watch the native hawkers selling their wares — lighters & money belts to the chaps aloft. Contact is made by throwing up a weighted cord & when caught hauled up & part way along the cord is a basket in which the purchaser has to put his money then the basket is pulled done by the salesman & if satisfied with the money he puts the goods in the basket & you haul up again — money first is the stipulation. 12 oclock, up again to try to get Bob to accompany me on Boat Deck, he’s a bit browned off this morning. Dinner — again stew. Afternoon I spend on Boat Deck with Bob, we’re both feeling the worse for the heat & lounge & read until 5.15pm when we listen to an RAF lecture on the “prevention of waste in the M.E.” Blackout is at 6.15pm, the sun disappeared over the horizon at 6pm. It’s a beautiful evening on Boat Deck & Bob & I chat & stroll the whole evening except for once when we went below to have a drop of beer, American muck, & the first I’ve had on the ship. Tonight Martin Brown was drunk, he’d been mixing beers & whisky. It was funny for a spell but when we reached the “sickness” stage it was not so good. Incidentally having lost his RAF pullover during the course of the evening, he lost his false teeth down the pan whilst being sick. Martin slept on the floor & before we finally got off to sleep he was a sadder & wiser man. The ship moved out of Aden at about 10pm.
Sat 16/1/43. Awake & up at 6.15am, bath etc. & up on deck with Bob. This Red Sea certainly is a scorcher already & at 7.30am we’re roasting. We are travelling much slower & there is little breeze. Breakfast & back upstairs. On the starboard side we see land almost continuously, the coastline of Arabia & what a coastline, high rock, desolate & sun scorched. Although we have all looked forward to being on land again its going to be hellish wherever we encounter sand & rock. The newspaper this morning contains no news at all but has letters of farewell from the Master etc. I think it probable that we will disembark on Monday. The afternoon I spend with Bob on Main Deck aft. We have reduced speed considerably since leaving Aden, it is hellishly hot today with very little breeze, one of the most oppressive days of the trip. We are not looking forward to wearing our blue on disembarking. Evening with Bob again. I fall asleep on Boat Deck. My feet are weary but I’m on duty 9.30pm at which time Martin went sick with pains in his stomach & was admitted to hospital. I inadvertently missed my tea today.
Sun 17/1/43 Duty continues & at 6.0am I go up on boat deck with Bob, its marvellous, a cool breeze which is very pleasant & the sun lighting up half the sea. A very good breakfast precedes the usual round of duty. We draw rations for tomorrow when we are due to disembark. Today has been beautiful, quite cool at times. I wear blue in the evening in preparation for tomorrow.
Mon 18/1/43 All breakfasts are early today, ours the last, is due at 7.15am but we don’t go into Dining Room until 7.45am. We dropped anchor at 7.15am in the waters of Port Tewfik & I was very surprised to see the place looked so big. Actually we anchored well outside the town, I expected to see little more than a couple of tenders to take us off & railhead to take us overland. On coming up from breakfast we are told to parade immediately in full marching order with all our kit as the RAF is disembarking first. Its fairly warm with all our kit on & we leave with very mixed feelings, wondering what is in store for us. At 9.20am I took my turn down the gangway to the rather large barge that was alongside. I was one of the first down so had to wait until 10.30am when we were fully loaded & ready to leave. As we moved off all the decks were crowded & we were able to get a really good view & idea of the size of the ship which had brought us on such an uneventful yet never to be forgotten journey. We have been 26 days on the trip, of which only 23 days 5 hours was travelling travelling [sic]. Our trip to land takes about 30 [torn] and I set foot on land at 11.0am & then jump straightway into a lorry. I’m with Jock, Ossy, [torn] & others. As we ride off I think that only a month ago I was still in Blackpool, and now I’m in Egypt. We see plenty of sand, subtropical vegetation & the streets of Tewfig obviously recently developed and still developing.

18/1/43 to 25th/1/43 21 P.T.C. Kasfareet. Tents in desert — Great Bitter Lak — Sweet Water canal.
Wogs — Arab village.
25/1/43 to M.E.S.S. Helwan — Met Harold, Nikolm [?]

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Gerry Hanson remained in Helwan, south of Cairo, for the duration of the War, teaching morse and some driving. He returned to England overland via France in December 1945 and was demobbed in January 1946. He went back to his job in the Post Office, eventually becoming Head Postmaster of Bromley and Beckenham. He retired in 1971 and lived with Renee on the Isle of Wight until his death in 1991.

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