My father was a Wireless Operator with the RAFVR in India and Burma during WWII. The reason I am posting in this part of the forum is that the question I am asking here relates to the ship on which he travelled en route to India.

His service record shows his date of departure as 16 November 1943, but he is not shown as arriving until late January of 1944. My father did tell me that, while the ship was travelling through the Mediterranean, it was torpedoed and badly damaged, but managed to reach Alexandria and could go no further, and the men on board had to wait in Egypt for the next available ship to take them on the rest of their journey. He was a keen photographer and during his service in the RAFVR took almost 400 photographs, most of which I still have. Some of the photographs he took in Egypt have "Alexandria, Christmas 1943" written on the back, which fits well with all the other dates.

I have been searching for details of the ship on the internet and have come to the conclusion that it must have been the HMS Birmingham which, on 28 November 1943, was torpedoed and badly damaged, with loss of life, but managed to reach Alexandria. I can find no other record of any ship that fits this scenario.

My knowledge of Naval matters is rather poor, so I was hoping that someone more knowledgeable could tell me if I am right, or if there are other ships that he could have been on.