Saturday, May 26, 2012

Anita Birt's Notebook

I am trying to copy my Atlantic Crossing story to my blog but haven't figured out do do it. My blog is sadly neglected. I flew to England to attend my Grandson';s wedding in April. In the course of my travels I flew the Atlantic twice in eight days thereby losing hours of sleep. Then I caught a horrible cold and was sick. Then I started radiation therapy. That is now finished so here I am.

I sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1944 and came close to being torpedoed by a German U-boat. The u-boat sunk the ship sailing behind my ship in  the convoy and then torpedoed the rescue ship come to pick up survivors. I have vivid memories of the ensuing problems when the captain forbade us to go out on deck. The explosion that lifted me right up off my bunk struck at 5.30 am.  White clad stewards assured us all was well. The explosion and subsequent bangs  were navy boys practicing dropping depth charges. Not true but we didn't know that.

Had we gone out on deck we would have seen the debris of the Empire Heritage and sinking of the Pinto the rescue ship for the convoy. Because my ship was sailing ahead of the Empire Heritage we wee lucky to have missed the torpedoes. We were quite a long way apart. The convoy had 97 ships in long lines. We were two weeks at sea. The convoy could only travel as fast as the slowest ship.

I shall try and download Atlantic Crossing to my blog. There has to be a way.

In the meantime continue to buy my books. A VERY DIFFICULT MAN, ISABELLE'S DIARY, ISABELLE'S STORY, RING AROUND THE MOON, AND TOO YOUNG TO DIE.

I promise you will enjoy every one of them. Each story is quite different from the others,
www.anitabirt.com

Anita