223521 Able Sea. Philip Lindup Merchant Navy RMS Orama from:Matruh Terringes Avenue, West Tarring, Worthing, Sussex I joined the Orama in late autumn 1939 and crossed the Atlantic to pick up Canadian troops from Halifax ,Nova Scotia. Returned safely before Christmas, my last one at home for five years! I then went to Australia and back on RMS service; once again no problems.
In May 1940, we joined convoy to Norway which assembled at Scapa Flow.
we ran aground in Scapa, following a naval destroyer which had much less draught than we did. To meet sailing date with convoy, we pumped out most of our fresh water; thereby hangs a tale! The rendezvous was outside Narvik. There were more ships in the convoy than were needed, so we were ordered to return to Scapa on our own, and it was then that we ran into the German Navy. We had lots of trouble with rats on the ship. Crew who had been on the ship since her maiden voyage, said that they had never known so many rats about. Did they know something?
The vessel was sunk and most of the crew were picked up by German destoyers and Hipper. We were landed Trondheim and transferred to cattle trucks on a train; these carried a sign - they would carry 10 horses or 40 men. We were taken down to Oslo and across to Denmark, and then down to Stalag 13 (I think).
Then moved to Tost, which is Upper Silesia, and was placed in the Tost camp along with PG Wodehouse among others. Eventually moved on to Marlag und Milag Nord, where I stayed until liberation in April 1945.
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