June 1942
| 1st June 1942 – Gosforth Park, nr. Newcastle |
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| Regimental Quartermaster E. S. J. Nairn promoted to Lieutenant and Quartermaster and assumed duties of Lieutenant and Quartermaster vice Lieutenant and Quartermaster Atkins RA. 2/Lt A .L. McTiffin RA posted. |
| 8th June 1942 – Gosforth Park, nr. Newcastle |
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| 111 Fd Reg RA issued movement order No 1 for move of M.T. to port of embarkation and Admin Instruction No 1 regarding move of main body. |
| 10th June 1942 – Gosforth Park, nr. Newcastle |
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| Zero date for mobilisation 111 Fd Regt. Working on WE V1/HO1/1 was seventeen deficient personnel, largely owing to the poor medical quality of reinforcements sent. As a result, some of the later arrivals were unable to obtain embarkation leave. This particularly applied to RAOC personnel to complete L.A.D. who without exception arrived within a day or so of completion of mobilisation without having had leave. The vehicles were complete and dispatched to the port of embarkation on this day. Equipment was not complete and continued to arrive until date of embarkation. |
| 11th June 1942- Redesdale |
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| 111 Fd Regt issued Op Orders 3 and 4 and Admin Instruction 2 regarding practice at REDESDALE. |
| 12th June 1942- Redesdale |
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| 102 A/T Bty practiced at REDESDALE with 6-pdr A/T guns. |
| 14th June 1942- Redesdale |
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| 111 Fd Regt practiced sub-calibre and A/T firing at REDESDALE. |
| 16th June 1942- Redesdale |
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| 111 Fd Regt received embarkation orders. |
| 17th June 1942- Greenock |
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| Baggage of 111 Fd Regt with baggage party dispatched to Glasgow. |
| 18th June 1942- Greenock |
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| 03:30hrs – Main body of 111 Fd Regt left by train for Glasgow |
| 16:00hrs – Embarkation completed on HMT Awatea. |
“The fateful day! We proceeded in three tonners borrowed for the job, (our own transport had left some three days previously) to the main station at Newcastle – sat around for hours, then someone found our train. We formed the usual queue – piled in ten to a carriage, long of face, full of food and with a couple of bottles stowed away “for emergency”. No one knew our destination, until we finally steamed slowly through Glasgow; one bloke in my carriage was going frantic because he could see his home. I cooled him off.
After much shunting we arrived in the dock area, finally halting opposite a pretty formidable looking ship, painted a dull grey, on one deck of which I could see lots of our advance party, including the drivers, all sounding cheerful but looking frightfully browned off.
We queued again, carrying both our kitbags, packs, tope, rifle, ammunition etc. and after almost two hours got aboard and down to our allotted deck – F – just about as low as it’s possible to get – hot! Smelly! God, I shall never live. This was my home for the next three weeks.”
Diary entry for 18th June 1942 from Sgt Observer Frederick Sidney Williams, 212 Bty, 111 Fd Regt in his family’s memoirs “Our Fred’s War”.
The Voyage from Greenock to Durban
111th Fd Regt boarded on the H.M.T. Awatea for the long journey to Durban, South Africa. Like many troop transport ships, H.M.T. Awatea (Maori for “Eye of the Dawn”) had previously been a luxury ocean liner in peacetime, traveling from New Zealand to Australia (a journey of 2 1/2 days). The Royal Navy requisitioned her as a troopship in December 1939 where she would transport troops across the Pacific (taking airmen from Australia to Canada) and from the UK to Africa.
Slipping her mooring on 19th June 1942 and loaded with 2,485 troops, H.M.T Awatea formed up with 21 other ships to form Convoy W.S. 20. The W.S. designation for convoys is thought to be derived from “Winston’s Special” as the first convoy was organised on the explicit orders of the Prime Minister.
W.S. 20 formed up on 20th June 1942 off the coast of Oversay, Inner Hebrides and arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone on the 2nd July 1942, before sailing onto Durban arriving on the 20th July. Interestingly, the records show that early into the voyage on the 28th July, H.M.T. Awatea, which was using automatic steering collided with the Empress Pride; however both ships remained in the convoy.
| 19th June 1942- Greenock |
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| 15:00hrs – HMT Awatea sailed from Greenock and anchored in the Clyde. |
“Hatches battened down, ropes cast off, someone said, “We’ve had it!” – we had! We were off! Steaming down the Clyde to the accompaniment of riveting machines and loud cheers from the dockworkers. However, we didn’t go very far. Just off Gourock we met more ships, all anchored. Steamed around for a while, found our place, settled in, anchored down.”
Diary entry for 20th June 1942 from Sgt Observer Frederick Sidney Williams, 212 Bty, 111 Fd Regt in his family’s memoirs “Our Fred’s War”.
| 21st June 1942- At Sea |
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| 11:00hrs – HMT Awatea sailed from the Clyde. 111 Fd Regt and attached personnel embarked and sailed complete. |
“Drizzly day. Much signalling between ships – engines started up – away! Ten o’clock to the minute. I was in my hammock, awake as usual at that time, dying for a last look at old Blighty – too black outside.
The next few days were pretty horrible, no sun to give us direction. I presumed we were going north but wasn’t sure, lots of drizzle, sweet tea and lager beer. The 16,000 ton Awatea was quite a new boat, very steady and we heard fairly fast.
It was queer at first, this my first sea trip of any distance, out of sight of land for twelve days, falling from hammocks, the monotonous thud of the propeller. I tried to read, to sketch, play cards, but with very little success – the childish “housey” was everlastingly being played, controlled by sergeants whose ten percent profits must have realised them quite a pile.
Then after four or five days out, when I thought the ill effects of vaccination were never going to come, they did. I had a long succession of boils beneath my armpit. A total of, I should think, twenty to thirty large ones with an occasional blind one. The three weeks that they lasted were pretty grim – I could neither dress, wash myself or my clothes properly, was unable to settle to anything, had dressings four or five times a day.”
Diary entry for 22nd June 1942 from Sgt Observer Frederick Sidney Williams, 212 Bty, 111 Fd Regt in his family’s memoirs “Our Fred’s War”.