A Birthday Chance in A Million

My name is Ron Webster, it is now 1934, today, 13th June, is my eleventh birthday, I have passed the Secondary/Grammar School entrance exams and plan to go to Moseley, but, for now, I have three or four weeks remaining before I leave Hall Green Junior School.

I arrive at school to find a stranger sitting at the previously vacant place at my two-seater desk. There are no lessons taking place, so we quickly become acquainted. The new boy’s name is Dennis Greenwood, his family have just moved from Coleshill to one of the hundreds of new houses built on farmland in Hall Green since 1930. The main Stratford Road and Highfield Road, where I live, and which was a narrow lane, are now dual carriageways.

My new friend and I have a lot in common and I invite him home to my birthday tea. He has also passed the entrance exam and will be going to Yardley School. I recall being rather envious of him because Yardley was co-educational whilst Moseley was boys only!

The years pass and we remain good friends. We also have special friends at our own schools. Mine unfortunately were both killed in ’42, a few months after ‘call up’.

Back to my story — Den and I had totally different ambitions and abilities. We both left our separate colleges in the summer of ’39. Dennis was arty-crafty and went into ‘display’ with a well known women’s clothing retailer and soon showed his abilities, whilst I was busy arranging to go to sea as an apprentice in the Merchant Navy. I joined my first ship in November ’39, two months after the ‘commencement of hostilities’.

So our ways had parted and I visited many parts of the world, not the kind of world I had envisaged. I witness sinkings — not the least of which was the sinking of almost a whole convoy of merchant ships and their escort whilst crossing the Bay of Biscay southbound in ’40. I was later informed that my ship the ‘City of Dundee’, and one other, the ‘Afghanistan’, were the only ships left afloat after a hammering by U-boats on a particularly dark night, but no one knew that any of the vessels had survived until both ships arrived at Cape Town, weeks later, only 24 hours apart. What a fantastic welcome we received!

So it went on — I was in the South Pacific at the time of ‘Pearl Harbour’, December ’41. I achieved the first of my ambitions and became a Navigating Officer (2nd Mate) in August ’43, still visiting different parts of the world.

In the meantime, Den joined up in May ’42. In the following November he was posted to the 145 Rgt. Royal Armoured Corps in Langholm Scotland where he became a Wireless operator on a Churchill Tank. In March ’43 he left for Bone in Algeria and later joined the 1st Army in its attack on Tunis, supporting the 4th Indian Division. After further actions across the desert he got as far as Cap Bon (Tunisia) where he witnessed the German/Italian, surrender. Eventually he arrived back in Algeria, and was encamped 25 miles inland from Bone.

Now back to my part of the story — In December ’43 I ‘signed on’ the M.V. Empire Grange in Manchester. She was heavily laden with military and naval stores and she was well armed — I had never seen so many armaments on a merchant ship, it had antiaircraft guns, a 4-inch gun aft. paravanes, and net defence against torpedoes etc. It was no surprise on opening our sealed orders after sailing from Liverpool, to find that we were bound for North Africa. Our first stop was Algiers where we were dive-bombed but we put up a hefty response so came to no harm. We discharged part of our 10,000-ton cargo and took on more, then continued our trip along the ‘Med’, eventually arriving at Bone on the 11th June. That evening I went to a forces cinema and overheard someone say that he had seen a ‘buddy’ from the 145 Tank Regiment. My ears pricked up and the next morning I visited the R.T.O. at the local station Yes, the 145 was in the area and the R.T.O. made contact with the Regiment. Yes, my pal was there and was now a Sergeant but had gone down to Constantine on a course and he would not be back for a while.

Next day, my 21st birthday, the 13th June 1944, there is a knock on my cabin door — “Sir, there is an Army Sergeant here to see you” — I reply “Well, show him in”. You have already guessed — Den was standing there, with a big smile on his face, exactly 10 years since our very first meeting. What an amazing birthday present. We were so surprised and highly delighted to see each other again. It was quite unbelievable, but what followed was even more so.

After two crossings to Southern Italy, Taranto and Brindizi, we returned to Bone. The place was littered with Churchill Tanks, which we took aboard and carried to Naples. The Germans had just left — scuttling the ships in dock to prevent our ships getting alongside the quays — which was essential for us to discharge our cargo.

We lay anchored in Naples Bay for a couple of days before entering the dock. An amazing sight met our eyes. The sunken vessels had been rolled on to their sides away from the quays to allow us alongside.

(In 2002 I mentioned this to my wife’s cousin — her reply was “My father was engaged in that — he got the M.B.E.”!! another coincidence!)

The day after docking we were preparing to discharge and a few squaddies appeared. Right again. You’ve guessed — Dennis’s mob had arrived to collect their tanks. We were not ready to commence discharging so Dennis and I went ashore.

King Emanuel’s Palace had been handed over to the NAAFI for the use of Allied Forces and so we made our way there. It was a beautiful place with marble staircases. As we sat on the edge of a fountain a friendly Italian photographer came by and took a photo shot of us.

Dennis collected his tank and carried on with ‘his war’. I also carried on with ‘my war’ and eventually left the ‘Med’ with a cargo of oranges from Valencia to Liverpool where I ‘signed off’ ‘the Empire Grange’ in January 1945.

‘My war’ ended early in ’46, when I joined the Cunarder ‘S.S. Aquitania', a very large and fast passenger ship for those days. Shortly after ‘signing on’ we left Southampton bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, (Canada), with 8,000 ‘War Brides’ aboard I left this ship after we had carried 4,000 ‘War Brides’ to Sydney, N.S.W. along with 4,000 Australian military personnel.

I often wonder how these young brides prospered, most of them knew absolutely nothing about the countries in which they were to spend the rest of their lives. Some had to be persuaded to leave the ship!

After assisting with the organisation of ‘demob’ arrangements in general, Den’s ‘war’ ended with his own ‘demob’ on Xmas Eve 1946.

We remain good friends to this day!

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Anastasia Travers a volunteer with WM CSV Actiondesk on behalf of Ron Webster and has been added to the site with his permission. Ron Webster fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

* The picture below is a photocopy from the original and not a newspaper clipping. Permission is granted by the owner and Mr Greenwood who fully understand the sites terms and conditions.

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