The girls finally had an excuse to glam up and the young officers, who got wind of what was going to happen that evening after dinner, dressed in their khaki tropical gear, and slicked on the Brylcreem. It was stated very clearly in the contract from the Military Department of the India Office that civilian dress was not to be included in luggage so, party or no party, the girls had little option but to wear their regulation navy blue suits and thick cotton stockings, which were so unbearably hot.
As a birthday treat, before the party her cabin mates had allowed Madge the full sixty minutes of the fresh-water hour and she had opened a new packet of Coty bath cubes as well as leaving hair conditioner on for those all-important extra minutes as she enjoyed the sheer luxury of a fresh-water bath!
The result was that her fair hair glistened and the bright red lipstick she had borrowed from Vera added extra glamour to the golden tan that had developed. When Madge strode into the Ladies’ Lounge that evening she felt wonderful, and even more so when a spontaneous round of applause broke out, followed by a rousing three cheers. The Ladies’ Lounge was festooned with multi-coloured paper decorations and Madge knew instantly who was responsible because Vera and Phyl had mysteriously disappeared for some considerable time earlier in the day. The girls were over the other side of the room admiring a colourful cartoon that one of the soldiers, an art teacher in civilian life, had drawn. It portrayed Madge’s head imposed on the body of Hollywood sex symbol Jane Russell, who was also a WW2 pin-up.
‘Not too sure the artist got this quite right!’ laughed Vera as Madge walked over.
A few minutes later she was watching the fun when a certain somebody tipped off a nice-looking young man with the smoothest of voices that the birthday girl adored Bing Crosby. Moments before the cake-cutting began, he started up with ‘You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby’. It was so perfect that the girls insisted on an encore and this time they all pointed meaningfully at her when he got to the ‘cos baby look at you now’.
A huge cheer erupted when Madge finally cut the cake and then the party really started. A gramophone burst into life and after a moment or two of almost teenage shyness the floor was heaving as the dancing began. No Jimmy Durante and his ‘Inka Dinka Doo’. This was more Glenn Miller and the Andrews Sisters. There were Bing Crosby classics and good old English songs like ‘Roll Out the Barrel’ and ‘Doing the Lambeth Walk’ with requests for ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ and ‘Heart of My Heart’. The VADs were outnumbered by the soldiers and were danced off their feet.
Once they’d run out of records, it was decided that a singsong was in order. Three or four groups of officers were only too keen to lead the frivolities. They drew lots to see who would go first and three Welsh boys put on a performance that was an absolute credit to the ‘land of song’. The harmony they produced in their version of ‘Men of Harlech’ was wonderful and everybody in the room joined in when they thundered out the Welsh national anthem.
Four lively Scots stepped up next and had the place in stitches by announcing that after travelling up to Gourock ‘on the slowest train in Britain’ they would start with ‘The Bonnie Banks O’Loch Lomond’. After two Harry Lauder classics that included ‘A wee Deoch an Doris’ they made everybody laugh by asking if the bar was still open!
But Madge missed all of this. Once the birthday cake had been cut she had gone up on deck for a breath of fresh air. She looked out towards the back of the boat and tried to conjure up the white cliffs of Dover. She had a knot in her stomach. Phyl came up the steps.
‘Are you all right?’
Madge turned her back so she wouldn’t see her tears. ‘Just getting a breath of fresh air. I’m fine, really! You go back in and enjoy the fun.’
‘Well, if you’re sure . . .’
Madge waited until she heard the door shut behind her friend. She knew the evening had been wonderful, and she felt so grateful to the girls for making her birthday as special as possible under the circumstances, but it was never going to be a true celebration without her family there too. She suddenly felt so unbearably homesick that she went straight down to the cabin and cried herself to sleep.
8
Life Jackets and Pith Helmets
With Morocco on the starboard side and Portugal fittingly on the port side security was at a maximum as the convoy began to approach the notoriously dangerous Strait of Gibraltar. After years of darkness because of blackouts in Britain it was somewhat of a surprise to see Gibraltar bathed in light in the distance. The Strait which separates the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic is less than nine miles wide at its narrowest point and while German U-boats had paid a fearful toll – nine had been sunk and another ten badly damaged in the area – they still posed a serious threat to Allied convoys.
Convoy KMF.33 had stood off the coast of Portugal for much of the afternoon and slipped into the Med in the darkness without incident. It was a rocky night on board the Strathnaver
