Cooperman, thanks for that. One thing I was always thankful for is that I never had an overnight patrol which entailed sleeping in the jungle. You just don't know what crawls over you in the night and the jungle is so thick that it's pitch black, even when the moon is out. I only ever did day patrols.
The Dunera troopship was the smallest troopship on the fleet. It only weighed about 13,000 tons which was half the weight of troopships like the Empire Fowey. So if you hit bad weather you really knew about it. No one allowed on deck!
There was very little to do on the troopship. They allocated jobs out but with over 1,000 troops on board, jobs only lasted an hour or so. Pay was restricted to (from memory) £1 per week - not enough to get drunk on, which was the objective. The brigs were always full though! The rest of the spare time was usually taken up with sun bathing or deck hockey played with walking sticks and a string quoit. Lethal game!
We stopped at Dakar in what was then French West Africa, (now Senegal). We were supposed to be playing the French Foreign Legion at football (and I was centre-half) but it got cancelled. Never found out why and am still disappointed!
Really enjoyed that poem, brought back many memories. If you come across any other stuff, please let me know.
Cheers, and thanks again.
