This essay is part of the the Antoni Paszkiewicz project.
Troopships RMS Aquitania and SS Ile de France
In the spring of 1943, Toni Paszkiewicz volunteered for service with the 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade—another essay will cover the formation of this fine brigade and Toni’s service with it.
His journey from the Middle-East to the United Kingdom was to be aboard the French liner SS Ile de France. This was a majestic ship—she was reputed to have had the most beautiful interiors of any of the ocean liners built for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, the ‘French Line’.
Laid down in 1925 at Saint-Nazaire, the Ile de France was built by Chantiers de Penhoët, a major French shipbuilding company with a world-class reputation for the quality, size and style of its ships. She was decorated in the Art Deco style with large, open interior spaces, which were the subject of numerous magazine articles and news stories.
Launched on 14 March 1926, she sailed on 22 June 1927 for New York on her maiden voyage. The beauty of the ship and her popularity on the transatlantic crossing led to record profits for her owners. The ship had a catapult-launched seaplane fitted in 1928, which, carrying mail, flew from her rear decks for the first time on 13 August as she approached New York, reducing transatlantic mail delivery by a day.
SS Ile de France in her heyday
The final pre-war journey of Ile de France as a commercial liner began only hours before war was declared on 3 September 1939 when she sailed from her home port, Le Havre, to New York, berthing on 9 September. Her early wartime role was as a general transport, first for the French and then for the British, primarily on routes across the Indian Ocean between Durban and Suez, with the occasional foray to Bombay. In South Africa she was gutted of her beautiful finery and converted to a prisoner of war troopship to move German and Italian prisoners from north Africa to South Africa. In late-1942 she underwent another overhaul and refitting and, now able to carry over 7,000 troops, she began her final northward journey from Durban in April 1943.
Ile de France departed Durban on 19 April, sailing independently and relying on her speed to evade detection and attack. This ability to sail independently of an escort was a characteristic of the fast (more than 20 knots), large (over 35,000 tons), ocean-going liners used as troop ships and known as ‘monsters’—RMS Aquitania, SS Ile de France, RMS Mauretania, RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth, and SS Nieuw Amsterdam.
Toni Paszkiewicz’s diary describing the beginning of his journey to the United Kingdom
Ile de France arrived at Suez on 30 April and Toni Paszkiewicz and the others of the Polish party destined for the United Kingdom, along with a contingent of Commonwealth troops, embarked on 1 May. She sailed the following morning at 6.30am on an independent run down the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea for Aden, where she arrived three days later, on 5 May. She departed Aden the next day for Durban and sailed through the Gulf of Aden, south through the Indian Ocean and into the Mozambique Channel, arriving in Durban on 16 May. This was not the simple journey that it sounds. There was a considerable threat from German and Japanese submarines off the eastern coast of Africa, particularly around Madagascar.
Again sailing independently, Ile de France departed Durban on 22 May and sailed around the Cape into the south Atlantic. She was destined for Freetown in Sierra Leone but sailed to Rio de Janeiro, where she arrived on 3 June. The final stage of her journey took her back across the Atlantic to Freetown, arriving on 11 June and the next day she sailed alone for Scotland. Ile de France arrived safely in the Clyde on 20 June 1943.
Toni Paszkiewicz disembarked with his fellow Poles the next day and was transported to his new home with the 1st (Polish) Independent Parachute Brigade in Fife.
As for the Ile de France, she worked as a troopship for the rest of the war and returned to commercial use after a major overhaul and refitting that began in 1947. Her first crossing to New York was made in 1949 and she remained a popular ship until she was sold for scrap in 1959.
Her final role was as the SS Claridon in the disaster film The Last Voyage.
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- SS Ile de France in her heyday
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- Troopships RMS Aquitania and SS Ile de France
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- Toni Paszkiewicz’s diary describing the beginning of his journey to the United Kingdom
Acknowledgement:
Arnold Hague Ports Database for the detail of the journey of Ile de France from Durban to the United Kingdom.
British Pathé for the film clips of Ile de France.
Do you have any details of the ship’s voyage from India to UK via Durban in 1945? Thanks. Rob Tresidder
Hello Rob, I’m afraid I have nothing other than what is mentioned here.
I’ve just discovered this wonderful account, thank you. I am researching someone who would have been on this same trip, the dates fit as he labelled photos in Durban as May 1943 and his arrival date in the UK matches too. Do you have any information on the route these Polish men would have taken from Siberia to Iraq? He initially joined the Polish Army there but was transferred to the Polish Air Force before leaving.
I have sent you a reply by email. I hope to get more work done on this later this year.
Nick
Hello Janis (and Nick), I am Christopher Rowan – born Christopher Romaszko – in Kings Lynn, Norfolk and now a retired resident of the United States in Connecticut. My father was Ignacy Romaszko ( 1915 – 1959) who, after imprisonment in NKVD camps in Russia (1939 to 1941), joined Anders Army and ended up in Palestine. He joined the Polish Air Force there in February 1943. In his military service record has him travelling to Britain from April 3rd to June 21st, 1943. He trained as a navigator in Britain and Canada, but then transferred to be an instructor at RAF Halton – the Polish Apprentices School – where he was also adjutant. He settled in England and became a teacher until his death from leukemia in 1959.
I have written his bio from research notes (he left no record of his war experiences or his life in Poland), and this sea journey from the Middle East to Greenock has always puzzled me. But maybe the Ile de France in this account is the answer ? It’s the best match I’ve seen.
If there’s anything more I can provide, let me know. Janis, you need to read Norman Davies’ book “Trail of Hope” !
Chris Rowan
Nick – do you have any details about the role the ship played in returning the 800 prisoners of war who were repatriated from Italy in May 1943.
The note below is taken from an official record of their movements.
They left Bari on 10th March, Messina, in S.S. TALMA, on 21st March and Port Said, in S.S. ILE DE FRANCE, on 2nd May, arriving at Gourook on 21st June 1943.
Any further details would be most welcome. Thanks
Hello Dick,
I’m afraid that I don’t know anything about that – it’s rather far outside my areas of research!
Good luck with the hunt,
Nick
If anyone is interested in learning more about the Ile de France transit from Suez to Gourock as a troopship carrying mostly Polish soldiers between May and June 1943, look at https://gminazdunskawola.pl/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Lorenc-Print-Brutto-Spady-3-mm.pdf and get a Polish translation, especially page 29 and fn 97 and page 88 and fn 13. Those passages capture the story of Gedeon Lorenc and peripherally involve the intersecting story of Prince Marek Lubomirski, both of whom were Polish soldiers on their way from service in the Middle East to ultimately serve with the RAF in England. I have researched and written an extensive narrative of Marek’s experience (in English) for his family. Happy to exchange findings with other researchers.
Ted – thank you. Most interesting.
Nick
And thanks back to you, Nick, for the research you disseminate. Your work is probably a blessing to many families of WWII vets.
Ted
Ps: I also wrote a short study on the highly dramatic events encountered by the RMS Queen Mary (eg, almost being overturned by rogue wave; collision with and instant sinking of HMS Curacoa) while she was serving as a troopship ferrying US soldiers across the Atlantic during the war.