Jim Ashford: The trip to England on the Queen Elizabeth was at best interesting. There were over 15,000 troops on board. I was in what would normally be called a first-class cabin for two with private bath. There were 15 or 18 of us in the cabin in bunks stacked three high. You could take a bath if you didn’t mind salt water. Still, it was a lot more comfortable than what the enlisted men had. Both the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary made their Atlantic crossings at high speed without escorts. Obviously successful as neither was ever damaged by torpedoes during the war.

A last look at NY harbor