I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety

The other new photos of Freetown in WW2 I've found on WikiCommons. By Roper, F G (Lt) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Nigerian Bandsmen Entertain British Sailors  6 December 1942, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Men of the Royal Navy  back from an Anti-U-boat patrol in the Atlantic,  come ashore  to find the band of the Royal West African Frontier Force  playing in front of the Naval Canteen.  The musical director is Lieutenant McEwan. By Royal Navy official photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons African Naval ratings march past  His Excellency the Governor of Sierra Leone,  Major Sir Hubert Stevenson, KCMG, OBE, MC  who received the salute on the balcony of the Law Courts, Freetown, Sierra Leone.  Note the large Union Flag hanging beneath the balcony.  With the Governor are  Vice Admiral A M Peters, CB, DSO,  Flag Officer Commanding West Africa ;  Major General...

I've found some new photos today on Wikicommons. By Royal Navy official photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons  French sailor carrying fresh pineapples  on board the submarine depot ship HMS MERCATOR  at Freetown, Sierra Leone, August 1943. HMS MERCATOR was a three masted barquentine  which had been commissioned by the Royal Navy  as a floating rest home for submarine men  when they returned to harbour after Atlantic patrol. This is what my dad wrote in his diary: "The oranges' season is now well in and the crop is excellent.  Pineapples are also in and I had my first the other day.  They are quite juicy but rather woody. I think I prefer the tinned variety." 20th January 1944 By Royal Navy official photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons One of HMS MERCATOR'S signalman,  from Sierra Leone,  using semaphore to pass a message  to a submarine preparing to come alo...

Arriving at Freetown, Sierra Leone October 1943. Sunday 31st October 1943 Sighted the African coast early in the morning and at 10.10 dropped anchor in Freetown harbour. The town looks very pretty with brightly coloured houses, the outstanding objects being a church and two wireless aerials. Behind the town to the left is the coastal range of hills. Large numbers of canoes fill the harbour, some mere dug-outs but others quite decent boats. At 16.30 the launch arrives to take us ashore and our kit is unloaded by small boys. We no sooner set foot ashore than scores of boys and girls mob us selling bananas. The first one tastes good. After a long wait a lorry appears to take us to a place called Hastings where the Air Station is, its commissioned name being H.M.S. Spurwing. .....after an hour’s travel we turn down a side track, past a cemetery and pull up against a bungalow which is the Regulatory Office of H.M.S. Spurwing. We have arrived at the end of our journey. There a...