- Author
- Letter Writer
- Subjects
- WWII operations, History - WW2, Letter to the Editor
- Tags
-
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- September 1991 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
This torpedoing took place on the 31st January 1942, after us being prisoner of war on the high seas for almost eight (8) months and we had been in the German raider, the supply ship in disguise and the prison ship Spreewald and now here we were left to the mercy of the high seas in the middle of winter.
A working boat was put over and got away with nine (9) survivors which were William Thorpe AB, Fred Sayers/Dkyman, Sid Jones 2nd cook all of the Mareeba and the rest were members of the Stamatios Embiricos. (Sam Ravenscroft was on the raft with your brother Geoff) and Bob Sorenson, chief cook was in the workboat with Bill Thorpe.
Another liferaft was lowered out of the rigging but I don’t know who were the survivors but there was only two survivors from that one.
Returning back to the steel lifeboat which the German carpenter tipped into the sea I am sorry to say that only four people managed to turn it upright but most unfortunately they could not bail the water out of it. The four (4) occupants were two (2) German sailors and two Australians. The two Australians were Ben Anderson, chief engineer of the Mareeba and Ralph Holmes, radio officer apprentice of the Mareeba, only 17 years of age.
Well now to get into the serious side of this. We were adrift 3 days and 5 hours in these lifeboats and life rafts and in that time with nothing to eat or drink I can assure you that it was terrible.
The cold wind and dampness was beginning to tell and on the second day of February 1942 Geoffrey Ford had perished from the cold on the raft and was pushed into the seas and also that day in the submerged steel lifeboat, Ralph Holmes had perished from the cold and was put into the sea, and on the third day Ben Anderson, the chief engineer had perished from the cold and he was cast into the sea and this left only the two (2) German sailors to survive.
Also on the third day on the life raft where Geoff had perished another body has perished and it was Axle Strom, the Norwegian sailor and his body was cast to sea.
Almost at dusk a German submarine surfaced and took the survivors on board. The total number of survivors who were picked up were 22 of Mareeba crew, 7 survivors from a Yugoslav ship whose name I had not mentioned as these survivors were left out of nine (9) they were sunk on the same day as the Mareeba in the Bay of Bengall by the German raider and two of them had drowned when we were torpedoed. Twenty-three (23) survivors of Stamatios Embiricos and three (3) survivors of the German prison ship making a total of fifty-five (55) survivors picked up by the German submarine.
The submarine searched all night for any more survivors and next day but bad weather was blowing and all hope was abandoned, so evidently the third lifeboat had sunk and all had perished.
When we were taken aboard the submarine we were all given a lot of cognac and then given a hot meal and all given a stretcher to sleep in (2 in each) for the night and I was given a long pair of woollen underwear and a woollen blouse to put on to help keep me warm and I appreciated it very much as I only had a singlet on when I was picked up. The next morning we were all taken into the torpedo chamber and that is where we stayed until we reached the coast of France after the sixth (6) day on board the submarine.
The commander of the Sub told us the real reason he put us in the torpedo chamber was that he had nowhere else he could put us as the whole of the crew had given up their beds for the night so that we may all get some much needed rest after the ordeal we all had been through.
We were given three (3) hot meals each day while in the submarine but had to sit up all the time till we reached civilisation again. On the fourth day we surfaced 3 p.m. European zone time for the news and heading for Bordeaux on the coast of France and we were spotted by the aeroplanes and had to crash dive and get out of the way or we would have been blown to pieces.