A New Year

1943

—A NEW YEAR—

Sunday, January 10, 1943

My first entry for the New Year and my first entry in almost a month. So much has happened in that month I hardly know where to start. I must do better in making entries in this book. It makes it damned difficult to try to catch up on an entire month especially a month like this one.

I write this from the new Finance Office located in the North African town of Tlemcen in Algeria.

We pulled out of Marlberry Hall on the 22nd of December. I’d spent a couple of real enjoyable nights in Northwhich with George Roley and “J.J.” Knurr. When we left the Hall we were trucked into Northwhich and there boarded the train. We had a pretty fair idea we were bound for Liverpool. And it was. We pulled in there at 4 p.m. and detrained. We rode halfway through the city, by trolley, to the docks.

Liverpool certainly took an awful licking from “Jerry.” The docks were teeming with activity as we boarded the “Empress of Australia” which was formerly the Kaiser’s own boat but now in the Canadian Pacific service. We were assigned our quarters and they were miserable. We pulled out of Liverpool the next day (the 23rd). We naturally expected we were on our way. Instead we lay in the river for two days. That put me in the river outside Liverpool on Christmas Day 1942. We had a turkey dinner on Christmas and considering the conditions it was pretty good. 

There were close to 4,000 men on board. The Finance Section was on D Deck with, it seemed like a million others. We were terribly crowded. We slept in hammocks which we slung each night. There were 12 men to a table and each day two men were selected to go to one of the many kitchens for that day’s chow. The food was much better than what I’d had on the “Aquitania.” To the relief of all, we started moving out to sea late Christmas morning. We were just fed up sitting in the middle of the river getting nowhere. Christmas night there was a show on board, talent supplied by the men plus the 185th Artillery Band. After the show, the Chaplain led us in singing Christmas carols. I got all choked up and went out on deck. I stood at the rail and did a lot of thinking. 

So the days passed — all pretty much the same. We had movies on the boat. They were about 1935 pictures. There was a lot of talent on the boat so we were kept pretty much entertained. I read Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” which is a little better than 1,400 pages.

Shortly after we left Liverpool, heading north around the tip of Ireland, the weather got pretty dirty and there was a great deal of sea-sickness on board. Fortunately, I wasn’t bothered by it.

Thursday, December 31, or New Year’s Eve, we had another show. It was very good. I only wished they hadn’t played “Auld Lang Syne.” By this time it was much warmer as we were somewhere off the southern tip of Spain. We passed through the Straights of Gibraltar on the night of the 1st. All the next day we plodded along through the “blue Mediterranean” or “Mare Nostrum” as Mussolini calls it. We were going at a much reduced speed. 

On the night of the 2nd, while I was sitting down at our table reading, there was a terrific crash and the boat rocked back and forth. Shortly thereafter it begin to list to the port side. It developed that we had been rammed by another boat in our convoy. It had torn a hole in our starboard side from C deck to F deck. All the heavy cargo had been moved to the port side so the starboard side would be raised. A couple of men suffered slightly.

On the morning of the 3rd we woke up to find ourselves in the harbor of Oran. It was a beautiful sight to view the city from the harbor with the sun gleaming on the white buildings rising from the waters of the Mediterranean. 

French and English tug boats bustled around us as we prepared to unload. We unloaded at 3:30 p.m., bags, baggage and all equipment. My barracks bag must have weighed a ton. We marched, or staggered, from the pier to a point about 2 miles from the dock to where the trucks awaited us. The town at this point was strictly native and quite sordid. We loaded into the trucks and drove back roads through Oran to a point 16 kilometres outside the city. Here was a bivouac area which was serving as a temporary base for the 34th Division. Here we met the advance detail which had proceeded us. Among them from the Finance advanced detail were Al Schrader and Roger Ward. It was some reunion.

We set up our shelter-halves and settled down as best we could. The area on which we were camped had been the scene of quite a battle between the French and American troops just a short while before. Some of the boys I knew had been in it. “Doc” Fran was buried on the hill just a mile from my tent. It made me feel queer.

We were very far behind in our payrolls as we hadn’t worked on the boat and for several days before we left England. So Col. Barrois was trying to find us a place to set up the office. The first couple of days we did no work. The third day we worked awhile outside the A.G. tent. On the 4th day, the Col. managed to get an office in Oran so we rode in by truck, set up the office and worked on the rolls. I was more or less serving an apprenticeship and learning what it was all about. We ate lunch and supper in town and worked ’til 10 p.m. We did this for three days. 

The city of Oran is the most beautiful city I have ever seen — that is the European section of it. All the architecture and buildings are designed with an eye toward beauty. The streets are lined with carefully pruned trees, like the boulevards of Paris. Modernistic buildings of pastel shades rise up along the bay front. French Colonial troops with their vividly coloured uniforms contrast with the sheeted Arabs and Muslim women who never show their faces. Mosques and churches of marble and coloured stone add to the scene. I’d love to have stayed there. 

We now deal in French Francs. A Franc is worth $.01 1/3 or 75 Francs to the dollar. You can buy a bottle of wine for 20-30 Francs and huge naval oranges for 3 Francs. Food is fairly plentiful and a meal of three courses with a couple of bottles of wine costs you 60 Francs. 

I went over and saw the boys in “F” Company. They were located about 1/4 from us. I picked up about 15 letters. 

On the 9th of January were ordered to pack at 2 a.m. We moved out at 4 a.m. We loaded into trucks and moved to a railroad junction and loaded into trains at 8 a.m. Al Schrader had four bottles of “vino” so we had us a time.

We rode all day and arrived here at this town of Tlemcen at 7 p.m. We now occupy an abandoned French artillery camp. It was formerly the camp of the 68th F.A. French Colonial Army. It is a regular fort being entirely walled. We are now sleeping in the now empty stables. Fortunately I brought along a mattress cover and I filled it with hay so I have a mattress. It’s quite cold down here especially at night. We’re working night and day and will continue to ’til we finish December pay rolls. Then it will be time for the January payrolls. Time’s a’wastin’!