1 LIR depart UK for Middle East

The 1st Battalion The London Irish Rifles (1LIR) embarked on the troopship HMT Orduna* on 27 August 1942 and sailed from Liverpool, via Cape Town, South Africa where, after some shore rest they embarked on the HMT California , eventually arriving in Bombay on 17 October. From there they sailed aboard a Dutch vessel for the Persian Gulf and Iraq where they disembarked near Basra at Ma'qil. From there the Battalion moved by road transport to Al Zubair where it conducted training before, on 15 November, moving by train via Baghdad to the oil-field city of Kirkuk. There it went into camp some 15 miles outside Kirkuk on the road to Mosul. The Battalion would remain there until 1 April 1943, guarding oil installations and ammunition dumps.

SS Orduna - built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast, launched on 2 October 1913, maiden voyage 19 February 1914.