The post you are reporting:
a friend of my father was in the merchant fleet, and his vessel was seconded into action off of the coast of france
straight away.
i wish i could remember the ship and the battle involved.
in his final days(about 10 years ago) he wrote a brief report of what happened.
his wife had given birth to their first child a few days before his ship was called into action, so he had never seen the baby.
after only 2 days, his ship was scuttled, they all ended up in the sea, which by now was ablaze.
he was one of the lucky ones, a german crew managed to fish him out of the water and take him prisoner.
a few days later, in the company of fellow seamen, he was in a cattle truck of a train, that eventually terminated
at a border point, he described as arken, i assume he meant aachen on the german/dutch border.
they all tumbled off of the train looking the worse for wear, to be confronted by a top german officer, who wrinkled
his mouth with utter distaste, and announced that he was expecting "english gentleman", but all he had got was "a bunch of hobos".
he spent the rest of the war at a german pow camp, that did not conform to hotel standards.
to add insult to injury, when he returned home, his wife had run off with another chap.
that is all absolutely true.