QUEEN MARY - WAR BRIDES

Over the past year, Cardinal Media has been developing and producing a 9-part documentary series which chronicles the lives of various passengers and historical figures who travelled on the Queen Mary. Larger and faster than the Titanic, the Queen Mary was the grandest ocean liner of her time, carrying celebrities, dignitaries and royalty across the Atlantic in lavish fashion. At the outset of WWII, she was drafted into military service, carrying tens of thousands of soldiers throughout the war, including a trip transporting 16,082 American troops from New York to England (a standing record for the most passengers ever transported on one vessel). Once the war was over, the Queen Mary carried thousands of War Brides (women who had married U.S. soldiers), and their children, overseas to their new home in America. This is the story of June Allen, one of the first War Brides to make the 5-day journey across the Atlantic. At the time of her journey in February 1946, she was an 18-year old newlywed traveling with her infant son. She hadn't seen her husband, Arnie Boots (an American Army MP), since he left for the invasion of Normandy almost two years prior. After more than half a century, she finally returned to the Queen Mary: "There are no words to describe how I feel being back on the Queen Mary for the first time in 67 years... Coming over on this ship is something I'll never forget. The Queen Mary will always live in my heart. It's always going to be part of my life. I love you, Queen Mary!" -June Allen