Page 125 - KBHA BULLETIN 6

and so, nothing daunted, they called on the nuns and soft-soaped them into letting me off

mid-week to attend the dance. Little did I know that when we said gooodbye to them and

their shipmates the ship would soon be sunk in the landings in North Africa with great loss
of life.

We were very aware of Zeesen Radio broadcasting from Germany. It was very up to date

with its news and what was going on in Simon’s Town. We couldn’t understand how –
then it was discovered that a spy lived in a small house near Glencairn Quarry. There was

one period of three months in which every ship that passed the lighthouse was soon sunk

and this had a very depressing effect on the townsfolk.

Food was never rationed but was often in short supply and flour was one of the things in

shortest supply and was supplemented each week by soya flour which in those days was
like eating sea sand. Each week a lorry came down from Cape Town with victuals like

sugar, butter, and rice. If one had a relative or friend on a naval ship sometimes one
received a “latch-lifter” - a loaf of white bread. It just so happened that it just fitted into the

small brown suitcases that sailors carried!

One day I was sitting on the verandah rail and nearly fell off when I saw a ship coming up

the bay. It was huge and far grander looking than anything I had seen before. I vaguely
recognised it and rushed off to check with the picture on the lid of my mother’s darning

wool box – yes, it was the Queen Mary. Wow! Simon’s Town was really important. One
was used to lots of ships coming and going as the WS convoys (WS meaning Winnie

Specials) – 33 of them all told – split in half off Table Bay. Half went on to Durban and
half stayed in Cape Town to refuel etc. Into Simon’s Town came the RN escort ships. They

usually picked up the convoy in Freetown, Sierre Leone, and escorted it down here or up to

Mombasa, and then returned to Freetown for the next one. The time we had the Queen
Mary, the Aquitania, and the Andes all in at the same time really overwhelmed the town.

They had to be fumigated and all the troops put ashore for the day. Railway carriages were

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