Church service in the chapel conducted by the Nankin’s Australian padre Rev Boyall, and for once men and women were allowed to fraternise for about an hour. We all thought of the lovely Christmas’s at home, and Mother and I would dream back to the parties at Luckyland, with the Christmas tree touching the ceiling, all lit up with lights and coloured baubles and laden with presents for the children of the district. It all seemed so very far away and in the long distant past.
By New Year it had started snowing again and this time it was two foot deep everywhere and we children made a huge igloo and snowmen. One of the big differences in the snowfall in Japan in comparison with England, was that even though the snow was very deep, it rarely lasted more than a few days, on account of the sun being brighter with the lower latitude. The nights would always be bitterly cold with the strong icy Siberian wind, but as soon as the sun was up, the snow would soon melt, and it was always warm in the sun if one could shelter against the camp wall out of the penetrating icy wind.
During January 1943, an outbreak of chicken pox swept through all the children in the camp, and we were isolated at the rear of the building away from our normal rooms. It was whilst we were in quarantine that I was able for the first time to see how goods and messages were passed between the men and women’s sections. This had been done on a regular basis for some months by throwing a rope from the upper men’s floor window at night down and across to the women’s lower floor , when the guards were on the other side of the building. On this occasion however, the first time I had seen it actually done, there was a mishap and they were spotted. Phyllis Hercombe was slapped across her face really hard six times, and Mrs Murray four times and the men concerned were brutally beaten with sticks, knocking some of their teeth out. The reign of hate continued for some time.
Also in January, Tim Melia the young 16 year old cook’s assistant on the Kirkpool who had lost one buttock in the action, and had been in hospital in Yokohama having skin grafts on his serious wounds, suddenly turned up to be reunited with his Tyneside mates. Although not fully recovered, at least he had been well patched up. He brought us some really interesting news:
On the 30th November there was a farewell party on board the “Thor” in Yokohama, with Japanese and German journalists and photographers aboard. The raider had arrived about two months previously ,and had been refitted and repaired prior to making the return trip back to Germany. She was moored alongside the Nankin (now called Leuthen), which in turn was alongside the German Tanker Uckermark. This was the former Altmark the notorious prison ship of Graf Spee fame, when 300 British seamen were kept under appalling conditions in Jossing Fiord , Norway and were released by a boarding party from HMS Cossack in a daring raid. Also moored nearby was the Japanese ship Unkai Maru.
Whilst the tanks of the Uckermark were being cleaned there was a tremendous explosion, most likely caused by static electricity in the empty hold which instantly engulfed the four ships in flaming oil killing 13 members of the Thor’s crew and it rapidly spread to the other ships. A further 43 seamen perished in the Uckermark.
All the ships sank, so ending the story of both the ships that we had travelled on , in the most dramatic finale imaginable! Whilst we are on the subject I will mention the fate of the other ships of this story that we had lived aboard. The Dresden made it back to Europe beating the British blockade, and arrived in Bordeaux in November 1942. Next month though she was a victim of a daring attack by the Royal Marines immortalized in the book and film “The Cockleshell Heroes”.
The Ramses finally left Yokohama in October 1942, and was intercepted in the Indian Ocean by two Australian Cruisers HMAS Adelaide and HMAS van Heemskerck (formerly Dutch Navy) and sunk. The Regensburg was torpedoed by an American Submarine in the Sunda Straits, but survived, and returned to Japan to be repaired and set sail finally in February 1943 for Europe. Whilst North of Iceland she met HMS Glasgow and was sunk on March 30th with only 6 survivors.
The Michel was sunk by the American submarine Tarpon off Yokohama on 17th October 1943.
An interesting postscript links the Regensburg in a strange way. One of the Nankin’s passengers was Mr H.K.Wood whose ship had been sunk during the Darwin bombing on February 19th 1942. Later as Captain of a Supertanker after the war, he was taking his vessel into Bremen, when as is usual a number of port officials came aboard. One of them he recognised as being the former Second Officer from the Regensburg and they had a good celebration afterwards in memory of the old times! This story is all the more remarkable in that when the Regensburg went down there were only six survivors and four of these were from the Uckermark. Only two of the Regensburg’s crew survived a sailor and that Second Officer!