COMING OF AGE
1939-1946
CONTENTS
Foreword.
Rumours
of War. March 1939-1940________________________________1
Plymouth. March 1940-July 1942_________________________________10
Bowden
Battery. July 1942-August-1942 ___________________________14
Oxshott.
July 1942-August 1942___________________________________34
Aldershot. August 1942-December 1942___________________________37
Going
South January 1943-April 1943______________________________42
India. May 1943-June 1943______________________________________53
Iraq. June 1943-August 1944 ____________________________________57
No.
5 Advanced Base Workshops. June 1943-August 1944____________63
Desert
Life. June 1943-August 1944______________________________68
No.
1 Base Workshops. August 1944-August 1945___________________74
Tel-el-Kebir.
August 1945-January 1946____________________________93
In
the End. January 1946_______________________________________105
FOREWORD
Now that the Second World War is some 60 years past this
would seem to be a good time to collate all the various chapters that I’ve
written over the last few years and present them as an entity. No war can
really be described as a ‘good’ war especially by the families of those who
didn’t return or by those who returned maimed but in the sense that I went
through it from the start until the finish and emerged unscratched I suppose
that mine could be called a ‘good’ war.
Though I spent just under three years in the Middle East
in Iraq and Egypt I was never engaged in any action and what follows in these
pages describes the more mundane side of military life. I didn’t start
writing these chapters until about 50 years after the war and have relied
heavily on memory, with some photographs but no diaries; the content is
substantially accurate. Dates are included in the Contents page; the starting
and ending dates are true and the intervening dates are not more than a month
out.
John Cox
Ottawa, Canada
March 2004
RUMOURS OF WAR
It was 1938 and the Spanish civil war was still in
progress; Germany was flexing her muscles having effected an Anschluss with Austria and having out-manoeuvred Britain and France over the matter of Czechoslovakia. It was obvious
that a war was coming but Britain had allowed her forces and armaments to run down and was in no position to engage
in one. At that time I was 20 years old and was working as a draughtsman in
an engineering firm; I believe conscription had started though I’m not certain
exactly when and there was always a possibility that my job would be classified
as a reserved occupation. To this day I don’t know whether or not I
would have been called up because together with my school friend I joined the
Territorial Army.
With war looming closer and closer new units were being
formed everywhere and No. 2 Company of the 5th AA Divisional Signals
was born at The Wayfarers Club on Worral Road near the top of Blackboy
Hill in Bristol. My friend and I had been very interested in radio or
wireless as it was called in those days and it seemed to us that a signal unit
would fit in well with our hobby, we might even be of some use to the army.
Many others had the same idea especially employees of the Post Office which was
at that time the sole legal agency in Britain for all communications, so the
recruiting hall was full of potential soldiers on the night we went to sound
things out. Among the dozens there we found many of our old school friends
and some of the members of our church. We didn’t join up that night but
thought things over for a day or two saying nothing to our parents who might
have raised objections then made a second trip to enlist.
Some lads we knew were already commissioned and were to
interview us before we signed on the dotted line. Our commitment to the force
obliged us to attend for drill on two nights a week and to spend two weeks at
camp each year; our employers were compelled by law to give us the two weeks
off from work with no penalties To start with it was a case of the myopes
leading the blind, true there were a few ex-WWI veterans and others who had
been members of their school Cadet Corps but we could hardly be called a highly
disciplined group. We didn’t enquire too deeply into the nature of our duties
or what exactly we were getting ourselves into but were content to let life
unfold in its own way.
After answering a few perfunctory questions the
swearing-in followed with our right hands on a bible; some jokers later told us
that we were not really soldiers because we had been sworn-in on a dictionary
but that was a tale I heard many many times. Then came the issue of
equipment, this was rather sparse, all of it being of WWI vintage or earlier,
khaki tunics with brass buttons, drainpipe trousers, second-hand boots and what
seemed quite remarkable brown leather bandoliers for the 50 rounds of .303
ammunition with which we were never issued. Were we then to be cavalry? A
tin hat, forage cap, webbing belt with bayonet frog, bayonet and scabbard
completed our equipment though later on we were given collar badges and brass
letters to affix to our epaulets proclaiming us to be Royal Signals.
My parents when told of my enlistment had different
reactions; father said little, probably thinking of his experiences in WWI but
mother who would not let me join the Boy Scouts or the school Cadet Corps
because they were too militaristic said, “You’re a fool!” At the time I
thought that was a bit hard but six months into the war and I had to admit she
had a point.
One or two with recent military experience gave us rifle
drill with the two SMLE (short model Lee-Enfield) rifles allocated to our unit
and we did a bit of marching and saluting. Our CO, Captain Sommerville, told
us that our saluting resembled that of a disgruntled taxi driver giving thanks
for a small tip but we did improve. After a few weeks of desultory drilling
we were told to report to The General Post Office in Small Street to get
acquainted with teleprinters. Good, we thought, now we’ll get our hands on
some electro-mechanical equipment and learn the inner workings of the Creed machines
only to be disappointed to find that the primary purpose of our being there was
to learn to type. The Creed teleprinters were only capable of
transmitting 66 words a minute but this was academic because we didn’t advance
much beyond the ‘hunt-and-peck’ stage.
About this time the regulations were changed somewhat;
our two weeks at camp were extended to four weeks and I was due to go to Southsea Castle on September 3rd 1939. I think it was about August 28th
that the Territorial Army was embodied (that was their term for
mobilisation). At 4-30 am father was awakened from his slumber with a knock
at the door and Corporal Reg Pinnel stood outside with the engine of his
motor-bike combination still running to tell me to get up to HQ right away;
then off he sped to awaken others. I dressed hurriedly, had a cup of tea and
a bite and then walked up to Worral Road, walked because it was too early for
the bus service to start its daily routine.
When I got there it was a bit of a shambles really with
dozens of men milling around trying to sort themselves out and generally
getting themselves organised. At about 9am I walked along to the end of
Worral Road to the bank of phone boxes then existing near the top of Blackboy
Hill and phoned my office to tell them that I would not be in that day nor in
the foreseeable future; that was a little prophetic because I didn’t return
there to work for six-and-a-half years
In the first few days we learned a little of the set-up;
HQ was to be the gun operations room, the GOR, from which the AA guns
surrounding Bristol would be directed. Some of us would be GOR personnel,
others would form the Line Section maintaining communications with the gun
sites, while a few would be responsible for the Quartermaster’s stores and
general clerical work. How many of us there were I can only guess, probably
upwards of two hundred because we also had to supply similar groups to our
detachments at Plymouth and Portland.
To get some experience of aircraft plotting six of us
including me were sent to the RAF at Filton where we were housed in splendid
isolation in an otherwise empty vast hanger; daily we reported to the
Operations Room where we became acquainted with the strange jargon of the RAF, Angels,
Bandits, Red Leader, Tally-Ho and the like as mock raids and interceptions
were practised. If we had been on duty for the night shift we found sleep
very hard to come by the next morning because fighter planes were constantly
taking off and landing, even when they were stationary their engines were
ticking over. For some reason or other there was an Avro Anson attached to the
station that took off and landed periodically; it once caught fire as it landed
but the fire was quickly extinguished.
Guard duties were carried out when I was there by
members of The Gloucester Regiment, the ‘Glosters’, regulars and we used to
mingle with them in the canteen in our off-duty periods, being introduced to
army songs that we joined in with gusto as a pianist accompanied us. As the
beer flowed the pianist was treated to the odd pint and occasionally the lid of
the piano was raised so that it could join in the jollity and a pint poured
over its strings to the shout of “and one for the piano.” Life was exciting,
we were free from parental control and we were on the verge of something big
though in the background there was this little niggle of apprehension about the
future.
Early on my inadequacy as a teleprinter operator was
discovered by an RAF corporal whom I had last seen as a 13 year old when he
lived a couple of doors away from me, but only he and I knew. On September 3rd
the rumours of war changed to reality; I was in the canteen when the news came
over the wireless that war had been declared on Germany and in our ignorance we
waited for the bombs to drop but of course nothing really happened for a few
months apart from the odd reconnaissance sortie. Winter was coming on and we
still didn’t have greatcoats though at great expense we had added swagger canes
to our wardrobes to assist in our deportment and keep our hands out of our
pockets. Something had to be done so we were issued with dark blue greatcoats
that had originally been destined for the Royal Navy or Air Raid Wardens.
Gloves had not been issued either so we used our own and a right motley crew we
looked when we appeared in public places, khaki uniforms, blue greatcoats,
black boots and brown leather gloves.
Perhaps this would be a good time to mention that as
Territorials we were expected to supply some personal items of kit. If we
provided boot brushes, hair brushes, comb, button stick, housewife (hussive),
underclothes and some other odds-and-sods to take with us to the annual camp we
would be rewarded with the magnificent sum of ten shillings. Until 1942 I was
never issued with a complete kit but over that period I was given some
replacements of personal items; we also changed our WWI uniforms for battle
dress. We didn’t lose our leather bandoliers however and we were supplied
with the Royal Navy’s black leather gaiters. We were still not sartorially
attractive.
But to get back to August 1938; the
round-up of civilians who were now to be embodied was not without its humour,
in the early hours of the morning Reg Pinnel happened to meet one of his flock
in the Kingsdown area and told him of the situation. Len was on his rounds
delivering milk; his milk float was of a new type, battery driven at a walking
pace it allowed the roundsmen to walk by its side starting and stopping as
necessary and obviating any muscular effort on his part. Len took his orders
literally, left his milk float where it was in the road, went home, changed
into his uniform and reported to HQ. Then he phoned his employer and told him
where he could find the milk float leaving it up to the employer to mollify all
the irate customers.
In December 1939 I returned from Filton to Worral Road and for three months became a member of a GOR shift. We had no plotting table
but instead a map of south-east England hung on one wall, we of course were
south-west but I suppose that south-east was better than nothing. Coloured
pins were used to mark the position of planes. Information on aircraft
activity was given to us over a permanently manned phone line connected to
No.11 Fighter Group at Uxbridge and the lucky man who was given the job of
listening sat in the middle of the room on an office type swivel chair wearing
a telephonist’s head-and-breast-set doing nothing but waiting. As soon as the
ringing assailed his ears he answered, “Bristol,” and then yelled to the rest
of the group, “Operations,” at which they were supposed to get ready to relay
any incoming information to the gun sites by phone. While I was there I don’t
recall any plots coming from Uxbridge that concerned our area. The shout of,
“Operations” was also supposed to alert the Gun Control Officer, GCO, of the
Royal Artillery who then stood by his wall map, coloured pins at the ready,
waiting to give some relevant information to the gun sites; however this was
the time of the ‘phony war’ and the boredom was considerable.
MY GOR SHIFT, WORRAL ROAD, 1940.
I think it was in the early days just after we were
embodied that we were given our medicals, it was a bit of a joke really, a
cursory once-over with the stethoscope and an eyesight test on a standard eye
chart at a range of five or six feet; for a hearing test the MO stuck a pocket
watch in my left ear, “Can you hear that?” “Yes,” I replied, then in my right
ear, “and that?” “Yes.” “OK.” And I had passed. And apart from the time
of my final discharge from the army when they were trying to make sure that I couldn’t
make any post-war claims for incapacity and the times when I was discharged
from hospital that was the only medical examination I ever had.
One possible advantage of being stationed in Bristol was
that I could go home when I was not on duty but home was a fourpenny bus ride
from Worral Road and this double journey together with ten Woodbine cigarettes
cost me a day’s allowance (I was getting two shillings a day but was allotting
one shilling a day to my mother who incidentally never spent it but saved it up
for my return). I usually went home after a night shift and so was rather
tired and not very good company; after a month or so of this routine I decided
that I would be better off away from Bristol and applied for a transfer to
Plymouth.
The war was not very old before the Post Office started
to get concerned over the loss of some of their key personnel to the forces; it
was one thing to have their employees playing at soldiers in their own time but
quite another matter to lose some of their qualified staff on a semi-permanent
basis. So just before I went to Plymouth an arrangement was made that allowed
the Post Office to claim back all their employees who did not have an army
trade. The army could see all their Territorial signal units being
drastically reduced and took swift action. In a blanket approach army trade
ratings were given to as many members of my company as possible, not only Post
Office employees; I was called before Captain Sommerville.
“You are?”
I identified myself
“I believe you’ve been spending your drill nights at the
Post Office, is that correct?”
“Sah!” (I was now learning the lingo).
“On teleprinters?”
“Sah!”
There was a short pause as he looked over the papers in front of him
and then,
“You are now a teleprinter operator class III. Dismiss.
A smart salute, about turn, quick march and I was out of the Company
Office with an extra shilling a day but there was now no way my employers could
claim me back even if they wanted to.
About this time a new face appeared on the scene, a real
live regular soldier, Sergeant Millen, an infantry regular I believe but from
what regiment I don’t know and he was going to change us into an efficient
military unit. He was always perfectly turned out, his uniform spotless,
creased where it should be but otherwise creaseless. He was a disciplinarian
and he certainly made a difference to us but one thing always intrigued me —
his facial expression. I never saw him smile or laugh, in fact I could never
detect the slightest change in his expression that would denote any emotion.
Later in the war I believe he earned a commission; perhaps he enjoyed life and
had some fun but one could never tell.
I’m not certain how many vehicles made up our transport
section, I know we had Morris and Austin utility vans, a five ton lorry and
some 30cwt Bedford lorries whose gearboxes had a peculiar and distinctive
whine. The Bedfords were usually the workhorses of the Line Section while the
utilities were the general runabouts used for work and pleasure. We had one
officer, a major, who was over-fond of his liquor, he used to frequent The
Mauritania in Park Street; late at night he would phone and in a slurred
voice demand that a utility van and driver be sent to pick him up. This
happened on many occasions and one night when he arrived back at HQ he
staggered into the guard room and with a drawn hand gun proceeded to hold up
the guard. He was disarmed and a report made out. The sequel? I don’t
know, we didn’t see him again.
Originally we had all signed on for home service but
after the war started we were asked to agree to serve overseas, this we all
did, signing to this effect. Looking back I don’t suppose it would have made
any difference had we declined, after all those who were conscripted were not
given the choice but it was a nice gesture on our parts. Having now become
reasonably proficient in those military essentials, marching, saluting and
rifle drill the next step was to go on a range and fire a few rounds. The
nearest rifle range was at Bristol University and a group of about 12 of us was
taken there on a most unmilitary vehicle, a soft drinks lorry. This had no
tailboard or sideboards to speak of and we all stood up on the flat bed, the
front row holding on to the back of the cab and the rest holding on to each
other. We made the double journey without losing anyone. The rifle range
was indoors and we fired .22 rimfire from a standard .303 rifle fitted with a
Morris tube. I believe we only fired 10 rounds each, with moderate success,
but that was the only time I fired a rifle until 1942.
PLYMOUTH
The journey down to Plymouth was the longest rail trip
that I had ever taken alone and I was eager and excited about it. I was
travelling with all my kit of course and I was learning how to stow it without
interfering with other passengers. As we pulled away to the south-west from Temple Meads station the familiar scenes around Bristol gave way to the flatter country of
north Somerset and later on to the red soil of Devon. At Plymouth North Road
station I detrained but I have no memory now of how I reached South Raglan
Barracks in Devonport. The barracks were typically army, grey, spartan,
uninviting and ugly; my spirits sank. I was allocated quarters in a small
room together with six or eight others; beds consisted of three bed-boards on
two low wooden trestles augmented with three ‘biscuits’ for comfort and the
whole ensemble was completed with four blankets.
I was directed to join a GOR team and shown the ropes as
it were. The GOR was located on Mount Wise in the end room of Hamoaze
House. A large map of the south-west of England had been painted on an
expanse of dark blue linoleum, this formed the plotting table in the centre of
the room; to one side a dais accommodated the GCO and also the naval
anti-aircraft liaison officer (NAALO) for this was a combined operations
room. We signalmen sat around the plotting table waiting for something to
happen. Assorted naval petty-officers, Royal Artillery gunners and
bombardiers made up an eight-hour shift.
As in Bristol one signalman sat with a
head-and-breast-set permanently connected to No.11 Fighter Group at Uxbridge
and the routine was much the same. Those doing the plotting made up wooden
blocks with plastic chips of letters and numbers to indicate the identity, size
and height of a particular plot adjacent to a coloured arrow, green for
friendly, red for hostile, showing the location and direction of the
aircraft. This was quite an improvement on Bristol’s coloured pins. There
was another improvement too, the Post Office type switchboard was replaced by
two wooden desk mounted units, each fitted with 10 switches and indicator
lights. Every switch and light combination was connected to a gun site or a
searchlight station and any combination of sites could be called individually
or simultaneously. Each site acknowledged receipt of a message by pressing a
button, this caused the appropriate light to glow in the GOR. In this way
messages could be broadcast to all sites at once; those sites whose lights did
not glow were contacted again individually and the message repeated.
Frequently in the heat of the moment gunners would forget to acknowledge
causing some irritation and on one occasion an exasperated GCO ordered me to
reprimand the miscreant. Having got the official blessing I proceeded to do
just that, translating his order into the vernacular most effectively; I was
rewarded with most obsequious apologies elevating my rank to that of ‘Sir’. Later
I discovered that my correspondent was a major, outranking our GCO, fortunately
he didn’t know who I was.
These tasks were performed in the RAF by WAAF’s and we
were told from the beginning that we would be replaced eventually by the ATS
but by the time I left Plymouth in 1942 they still hadn’t taken over. It was
quite a boring job at times and most of us hoped for something more
challenging.
The Line Section’s work was a little better, they went
out daily, running more lines and repairing those damaged in air raids; in our
detachment there was no establishment for a draughtsman but the Line Section
wanted a record of the routes of all their lines and so I drifted into the
job. Armed with a one-inch-to-the-mile Ordnance Survey map I produced the necessary
drawings; it was also alleged that I marked the locations of all the coffee
shops in the area but there’s no truth to it. Phone lines across the country
followed whatever path was most suitable, using twisted Don8 cable that was
attached to any convenient feature, trees telegraph poles or buildings. In the
case of the line to Fort Tregantle I spent a day with others on a fatigue party digging a trench across the road in which the
cable was to be buried. A call went out to the local populace asking for
empty cotton reels; these were to be used not specifically as insulators but
rather as attachment points offering less fretting to the cable than a nail
alone would do.
The GCO’s varied in rank but I don’t remember seeing
anyone above the rank of captain, on the other hand two of the NAALO’s were
lieutenant-commanders, a couple were lieutenants in the ‘wavy navy’ and one was
a Canadian, a lieutenant in their ‘wavy navy’. He was a breath of spring,
light hearted and humorous and compared to our lot relatively undisciplined.
Commander Bond was, I think, a serving officer but Commander Staples had been
recalled from retirement; he was a gentle, polite father figure, at least
that’s how he appeared to me. One lieutenant was Viscount Trapraine who was
responsible for producing the plotting table map. I heard of him after the war
as being a member of the crew of a square-rigged sailing ship. Another
lieutenant was Vivian Ellis, composer of Bless the Bride.
Plymouth was ringed around
with anti-aircraft guns, Rame, Down Thomas, Wembury, Crownhill and Tregantle
come to mind as being equipped with 3.7’s, while other sites such as Bovisand
and Staddon Heights were more lightly armed. The GOR had lines to all of them
as well as lines to some searchlight stations. In addition to the army sites
the navy augmented the fire power with the guns on Breakwater Fort and the guns
of any ship that may have been in dock at the time. The cruiser Newcastle
seemed to be in the area for an unusually long time and she had a Walrus
flying boat, a most ungainly craft with a pusher propeller. In the early
days we took advantage of the lack of action by organising mock air raids for
the benefit of the Plymouth air defences. Orders would go out to all the
guns, “This is a mock air raid, repeat, this is a mock air raid,” and the Walrus
would be sent aloft to add a degree of realism to the exercise and
coordinates would be broadcast for the preparation of a box barrage. On one
occasion while the exercise was in progress the GOR received a hostile plot
from Uxbridge and hastily a new order was given out to all the gun sites,
“Cancel mock air raid, real raid in progress, repeat, cancel mock air raid,
real raid in progress,” and we waited for further information to come from
Uxbridge. The guns however were restive and took action on their own, their
target was the unmistakeable lumbering Walrus. I wasn’t on duty at the
time, I was in the barracks; I heard the sirens and the shell bursts and
looking out of the window saw the Walrus high-tailing it up country. It
made Roborough aerodrome safely though the real raid never materialised.
Later on real raids did materialise but by that time we had moved our billets
to Bowden Battery, near Crownhill though for a few months we were ferried to
and from Hamoaze House by lorry.
As part of the 5th AA division our shoulder
flashes, issued about that time, were about two inches square with a sky blue
background; pointing downwards was a black four-engined bomber in silhouette
with red flames coming from the four engines and one from the tail. Very
pretty and prophetic.
BOWDEN BATTERY
In the mid-1800’s with Trafalgar and Waterloo not too
far in the past and with French intentions uncertain it was decided to fortify
vulnerable portions of Britain’s south coast. The minister responsible for
this was Lord Palmerston, also known affectionately or otherwise as Lord
Pumicestone. I think it was when he was Prime Minister that he arranged for
the building of strong points around Portsmouth and Plymouth. Those forts
around Portsmouth are not known to me except for Southsea Castle but I’m more
familiar with the ones around Plymouth. Forts were erected to the west, north
and east of the city centre and the Citadel dominated the entrance to Plymouth
Sound. To the west there was Fort Tregantle, to the north Crownhill, then on
the east came Bowden Battery and Fort Austin, while in the Sound there was
Drake’s Island and Breakwater Fort.
Bowden Battery was built on the side of a slope that
fell away to Crownhill on the north; on the south side it was walled and moated
but it was considered to be protected elsewhere by the commanding view it had
over the valley. The other three sides were partially walled with low banks
of earth. Within these confines the floor was of earth with grass sprouting
in the patches not heavily travelled. The cookhouse backed on to the southern
wall; it was a shed type with a corrugated iron roof and outside there were two
boilers for water. All the habitable buildings were Nissen huts. Entry from
the road, Fort Austin Avenue, was by way of a drawbridge, over the moat which
was dry in those days, then through the eight-foot high corrugated iron
gates. The drawbridge was never raised, I sometimes wondered if it ever had
been, it seemed fixed.
Just inside the gates on the western side came the
Company Office while a little further west was the CO’s hut. Three buildings
that were not Nissen huts were the shed type ablutions and, at the extreme
eastern end, the latrines, one for the other ranks and one for the ATS.
Overhead traversing the length of the fort were the high tension cables of the
electricity grid system and on damp days touching the metal parts of vehicles
parked beneath them would produce a mild shock.
On the northern side two tunnels, maybe
75 feet long, had been cut, one at each end, going downwards following the
slope of the hill and ending in small rooms each commanding a view over the
valley. In the small room at the end of the western tunnel the Instrument
Mechanics, Len Elliott, Cyril Smythe and Johnny Barker had their workshop where
they repaired phones and radios and where they detected faults on the phone
lines.
Nissen huts for our accommodation were dotted around.
We were fairly comfortable in our upper and lower bunk beds though the huts
could have been better heated; the tortoise stoves were not really up to
it when the daily ration of coal was mainly small coal or ‘slack’. To
persuade a stove full of slack to come to life someone opened the top of the
stove and added a half cup of petrol, nothing happened for a moment or two as
the petrol seeped down to the glowing embers at the bottom and then there was
an almighty bang. All the stove’s apertures flew open and a bewildered
soldier came in to inspect the damage as he had seen a 10-foot flame emerge
from our chimney, however nobody was hurt.
I’ve heard it said that we had AA guns at Bowden Battery
but that is not true, certainly not up to the time that I left in 1942; true
there were some concrete slabs but these were bases for guns or mortars
intended to repel a land based attack of the 19th century, well
before aircraft had been invented. The only troops there in my time were of
the Royal Corps of Signals, the odd Royal Artillery gunner or bombardier and
some Royal Ulster Rifles doing guard duties. Initially the GOR shifts were
taken to Hamoaze House by lorry but after a while the GOR was moved to Fort Austin though we always knew this fort as Egg Buckland Keep.
For this new location we were to have a new plotting
table and it fell my lot to make it. This time we used green lino; the main
coastal features were in white paint as were the large grid squares but for the
grid sub-divisions I used a ruling pen and white ink, this made fine straight
lines more easily but they had to be renewed occasionally due to the rubbing of
the plotting blocks. In this new location we required no transport but
marched to and fro, a relatively short distance.
Shortages of many items were now beginning to make
themselves felt in Britain, army boots and leather for their repairs for one
thing and somebody realised that lying idle throughout the country were the
shoes belonging to the men who had been called up. It must have caused a
severe shock to all the Colonel Blimps but it was decreed that the other ranks
would now be permitted to wear shoes when off duty. There was one proviso
however, they had to be black, just in case the other ranks got confused with
their betters. Another shortage concerned watches or rather watch glasses.
Unbreakable types were not in general use at that time and all types were
difficult to obtain. I got over this by using a draughtsman’s ink spring-bows
to which a snapped portion of a razor blade had been attached. Circles were
scribed out on the transparent material of goggles anti-gas and then
broken out. Since the QM and a lieutenant both had watches needing glasses I
had no difficulty in getting a few goggles anti-gas diverted from the QM
store. Nearly all of us smoked in those days and our favourite brands were
not always available; matches were also in short supply so we doubled our stock
by splitting them lengthwise with a razor blade. Swan Vestas were the easiest
to split.
A sentry was stationed at the drawbridge; during
daylight hours he was armed with a stick but at night he had a rifle and fixed
bayonet, the rifle though had no ammunition. The total Signals complement,
GOR, Line Section, assorted clerks, QM stores personnel and others amounted to
about 80 I guess and for this number we had six rifles, two SMLE’s, a couple of
Canadian Ross rifles and two American .300’s made in Springfield. All
ammunition was very limited. However, later, probably sometime in 1941,
someone at a higher level decided that we should not be defenceless and a
blueprint arrived one day showing how to make raid party truncheons. There
were two types, the first consisted of an 18-inch length of stirrup pump hose
loaded at one end with concrete and fitted with a thong at the other. The
second type was more lethal if one could get near enough to the enemy; it used
an 18-inch length of electrical conduit to the end of which was welded a
discarded gear, any old gear would do as long as it was sharp, heavy and
pointy; in fact we were now armed with maces reminiscent of the middle ages and
chronologically more in keeping with our Victorian surroundings. The
blueprint had arrived at the same time as a length of stirrup pump hose and no
time was lost in manufacturing type number one only to discover later that it
was intended for incendiary purposes and not raid party truncheons. Too late,
we couldn’t put it back together again but we did have some fun out of the
exercise by trying out the effect of the first type of truncheon on our tin
hats; after a few blows the concrete cracked and fell out while the tin hats
emerged unscathed. We didn’t risk trying out the second type. A friend of
mine in the RAF told me that on one station the ground crew were similarly
equipped though in their case the bayonets were welded on to 5-foot lengths of
electrical conduit; he said that when they came on parade it looked like the
Monmouth Rebellion all over again.
I don’t recall much about our meals, with one exception
only. Every Thursday over a long period a new cook came to us. She didn’t
appear to be ATS and I would do her no injustice if I guessed her age as being
between 30 and 40, older than the rest of the cookhouse staff. I found out
very little about her except that she was Cornish but she made the most
delicious cornish pasties, the real thing and they were so large that one was
quite sufficient for any growing lad. We only ever saw her on Thursdays and
we all looked forward to those days. The regular cookhouse staff came under
‘Jackie’, Corporal Jackson and she and her girls were billeted in a private
house nearly opposite Bowden Battery in a road running parallel with Fort Austin Avenue. There were about eight of them I think, of whom Mary, Ginger and
Minnie from South Wales, Kitty from Cornwall and Sylvia from Dewsbury are the
ones who stay in my mind. Jackie was very solicitous for her charges and she
meticulously recorded the dates and times of their social engagements together
with the names of their escorts.
In the early days we were instructed in the various do’s
and don’ts of army life and introduced to the Army Act and King’s
Regulations. We were told that ‘barrack-room lawyers’ were not permitted to
quote from these. Complaints could be made only through official channels and
it was forbidden to contact our Members of Parliament with our gripes though of
course they couldn’t prevent our parents from doing it for us. Forbidden also
was the singing of Irish nationalist songs or whistling The Dead March; likewise
engaging in discussions likely to cause ‘alarm and despondency’ was also ruled
out. All of this together with a bit of regimental training was gradually
converting us into obedient little souls.
Plymouth and Devonport were primarily navy-oriented,
true there was the RAF station at Mountbatten with its Sunderland flying
boats and there were assorted army units scattered around but essentially the
navy was supreme. Being a peace-time garrison area the civilian population was
used to the presence of the forces and was not particularly hospitable, a vast
contrast to the friendly treatment meted out by the Scots when for a month or
so I was billeted in a distillery in Wishaw.
Fore Street Devonport was at one time full of public
houses and other establishments catering to the needs of sailors and in an
effort to provide alternative entertainment, one, Agnes Weston, opened the
premises in Fore Street known as Aggie Weston’s. Here one could sit and read
or talk, take a bath at sixpence a time, enjoy a film or otherwise relax and
unwind. It was here that having paid my dues by singing a hymn and listening
to a short sermon I was given a cup of tea and a bun while I watched the film The
Citadel based on Cronin’s novel of the same name.
When we were on duty at Hamoaze House
and when there was little or no activity some members of the GOR shift were
permitted to sun themselves for short periods on the green slope of Mount Wise, within hailing distance should air activity commence. From this vantage point
near the Scott memorial we watched the panorama unfold, ships of the Royal
Navy, the aircraft carrier Illustrious for one, steaming down the
Hamoaze into the Sound and beyond while the Cremyll ferry kept up its routine
of to-ing and fro-ing across the river. The summer of 1940 was very hot and
many of us quickly browned, life was still unchallenging and boring, however
there was plenty of entertainment available to us. At the Forum in Devonport
I saw Balalaika with Ilona Massey and later The Wizard of Oz with
Judy Garland. Plymouth had many cinemas but I can remember the name of only
one, The Royal but I do remember the theatre, The Palace, near the Octagon,
where I saw several variety shows and a couple of Gilbert and Sullivan
operettas. For The Yeomen of the Guard I could only get a seat in the
second row from the front on the right-hand side and as a result got the full
benefit of the big drum.
Usually we went as a party of four or five, first to get
a bite to eat, often at Goodbody’s and then off to a show. Sometime
after the air raids had started in earnest five of us went to the Alhambra in
Devonport to see a strip show, the main attraction being Phyllis Dixie; I was
surprised to see sailors taking their girl friends in with them, remember this
was in the early 1940’s and the mores were a little restrictive then. The
performance followed the usual pattern for a variety show of that period,
several acts in the first half, an interval, then a similar number of acts in
the second half. The lesser performers would appear only once while the
principals would appear in both halves. Phyllis Dixie’s earlier performances
had caused a few eyebrows to be raised and the Lord Chamberlain who at that
time had control of those things banned parts of her routine, a fact exploited
by her when she appeared, clothed, in the first half and recited a little piece
titled The Girl the Lord Chamberlain Banned. It was a clever piece
really but the suspense was too great for one restive matelot who stood up at
the back and yelled, “Fer Chrissakes get them clothes off before the bloody
siren goes.” She was quite unfazed by this and continued with her patter but
obliged him in her own good time, in the second half. The show was quite
innocuous by present day standards, a little risqué perhaps but not sordid.
That sailor probably had second sight because in a later raid a German bomb
flattened the Alhambra.
During the winter months the heavy rains turned Bowden
Battery into a quagmire and we all went round in rubber boots. Some
intelligent being among us thought that a trench dug all along the centre of
the battery would drain off all the surplus water, unfortunately the trench had
closed ends and once it was filled the ground again became a miniature lake but
now with an additional hazard; if you didn’t watch your step you would be up to
your knee in water as you put your foot in the trench. In some of the more
unpleasant weather it was decided to dispense with the armed sentry at night
and the high gates would be locked. To cater to those brave souls who had
gone out and wished to return to the fold a bell-push was fitted outside the
gates and a moveable bell installed in whichever hut the duty gateman resided
and he was supposed to answer the call. Often the evening’s entertainment was
gambling, pontoon usually and if the gateman was involved it became a bit of a
nuisance for him to have to break away from the game just to let someone in,
and so one dark and rainy night, fed up with the constant interruptions, he
disabled the ball and sat back to enjoy a quiet game. One returnee getting no
response to his repeated bell pushing hammered so loud and long on the
corrugated iron gates that somebody not on duty went out into that foul night
to let him in. The returnee, in high dudgeon strode down to find the gateman
and in the process put his foot in the trench. He was our CO and he wasn’t
very happy. The excuse given was, I believe, faulty wiring.
After an air raid the Line Section would go out to
effect repairs, to get communications going again and at the same time the lads
would pick up anything that appeared to belong to nobody and that could be of
possible use to the army; done by civilians that would be called looting. In
this way we became the recipients of bricks, breeze blocks, I-beams and other
odds-and-ends. Having acquired these what use could be made of them? Someone
had a bright idea and suggested that as we had no inspection pit for our
vehicles perhaps we could build an above-ground structure that would serve the
same purpose. The job was given to the man who could use a pencil and who had
some engineering experience, me I prepared a design that consisted mainly of
two horizontal I-beams surmounted on two low brick piers with two longer
I-beams leading up from the ground level to the piers. Since the track would
be fixed this would only be suitable for one type of vehicle so it was designed
for our utility vans. To get down to load-bearing earth the low earthen wall
on the north side was to be excavated locally where the piers were to be built
down to the level of the battery floor. The design was pigeon-holed.
Many months later when this had slipped from all
memories I found myself when the morning parade had been dismissed to be a
member of a fatigue party. A signalman who had been a tailor in Glasgow was put in charge and we were ordered to report to the QM stores and draw picks
and shovels, then we were marched up to the low earthen wall and told to dig.
Exactly where and how far to dig nobody seemed to know. After a while the
penny dropped and I realised that this was to be the preparatory work for the
vehicle inspection structure. I told our ex-tailor, “There are drawings of this
somewhere.” He made enquiries and sure enough the drawings were found; there
was one snag however, he couldn’t read a drawing and I had to explain. The
work was not finished by our shift and the next day another fatigue party had
the pleasure of swinging the picks and shovelling. Work on this project was
stopped for a long period and in the meantime the western part of the ground
was surfaced with asphalt the hard standing so beloved by drill
sergeants and their superiors, now their charges could stamp their boots
audibly instead of squelching silently in the mud.
Much later just before I left Bowden Battery work was
resumed on the structure but by this time officers had come and gone and I was
standing by the latest Two-pips as he surveyed the two long I-beams.
“Sergeant! “he snapped.“ “Sah,” answered Three-stripes. “These I-beams,”
said Two-pips, “are too long, I will not have them intruding into my parade
ground, get me a ruler and some chalk.” Just listen to the man, he had two
pips on each epaulet, he’d only been there a couple of weeks and already he
owned the joint, my parade ground indeed. Three-stripes obliged with
alacrity and Two-pips said, “I want them both shortened by three feet.” He
took the ruler, no fool he, he knew that three feet equalled 36 inches so he
measured in 18 inches from each end of both I-beams and chalked lines. “Get
these down to Ordnance, “he said, “and get them to cut off the four ends.”
Whether the installation was ever completed I don’t
know. I left shortly afterwards but 44 years later when I re-visited the site
Bowden Battery had been turned into a garden centre, the moat had been filled
in and converted into a car park and I could see no sign of the excavations or
much of anything else that would tell of the wartime activities.
With the fall of France Germany had access to her
assets though Britain forestalled their use by attacking French naval units in Toulon and Dakar but Germany still had the use of the bases and three of her ships were
in French ports. These were the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen. The
first two were nicknamed by NAALO’s petty officers as Salmon and Gluckstein
after a local store in Plymouth. Germany wanted to get them back to the
relative safety of a German port and Britain was equally determined that they
should stay where they were, where they could be attacked. Fortuitously Germany picked a day when the weather was thick and wet and under this cover the three ships,
hugging the French coast, slipped eastwards past their enemy up the English Channel to find sanctuary. Though we were only onlookers we were able to follow
the action to some extent as information was given to us by NAALO.
We had teleprinter links between Plymouth, Portsmouth,
Bristol and Reading and apart from any other correspondence there were the
daily rituals; firstly the ‘colours of the day’, given to us by NAALO were
broadcast to all the gun sites so that friendly aircraft would not be fired
upon, and secondly each night an ammunition report would be sent by the three
companies to Reading. We were all able to see what the others had sent.
Almost invariably the ammunition report would state ‘nil expenditure’ but one
Sunday night there was an exception; Bristol reported ‘Bristol the subject of
a heavy air attack, ammunition report will follow.’ As Bristolians we became
very anxious; not much news filtered through that night but the next day
we gleaned from various sources little bits of information. One informant
said that amongst other targets they had dropped four bombs on Bristol Bridge; that was not strictly accurate but from the damage done it was fairly
true. They had hit our home town, the war was getting serious. Bristol’s suffering was just beginning.
We were expecting a visit from some top brass,
presumably to give the place the once-over, to convince us that indeed we were
not forgotten and to show us some faces to match the names that would appear
from time to time on orders. In order to impress them with the skill and expertise
of our Line Section it was decided to replace the twisted Don8 cable between
Bowden Battery and Egg Buckland Keep with an air line, that is bare copper wire
on short telegraph posts. This was finished just before the top brass arrived
but when the phones were connected all that could be heard was a loud 50 cycle
hum; the wires had been placed beneath and almost parallel with the overhead
grid system cables. “Oh, well,” they said, “we’ll say it was never intended to
be used, it was only done to show our ability to run an air line.”
I suppose it was the same bright individual who had the
storm trench dug who thought of the idea of burying a pipe to carry away the
cookhouse effluent down into the eastern hillside tunnel. I found this out by
accident. Having seen Fantasia the previous night and admiring Mickey
Mouse’s jaunty swagger I hummed the melody of Ducas’ The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice as I swaggered down into the dark tunnel; I stopped abruptly
when the fluid was over the tops of my gaiters; my humming stopped and my
language was not nice at all.
From the mess hut one lunch time, gazing at nothing in
particular but looking towards the north side of the camp, I became aware of a
disturbance in the taller grasses on top of the low earth bank. I wondered
why as the movement was not general as one would expect with wind gusts but was
quite localised. While I mused over this a loud yelling came from that spot
and immediately some 20 or 30 khaki clad figures emerged carrying rifles and
with their faces blackened. This armed group charged across the battery,
still yelling as they went out through the gate, past the stick sentry; he
watched stupefied, head turning from side to side as they disappeared into Fort Austin Avenue. He had only ever expected unauthorised entry from without, never from
within. By the time we had collected our thoughts and looked outside there
was no sign of the intruders and we never saw them again. This was I
believe an early training exercise of a commando unit
At that time we were a fairly close knit group, our
common bond being that we were all Bristolians and volunteers. There was
virtually no crime apart from petty offences against military law, in fact the
reverse was often the case as was demonstrated when one pay day I had to dash
off from pay parade, dump my pay and pay-book on my unmade bed and rush to
catch the lorry going into town to see a show. When I returned late at night
my bed had been made and my pay and pay-book were placed neatly on my bed, by
whom I never found out.
Military offences were few and usually petty but in the
eyes of authority charges had to be laid and these were heard in the Company
Office, the Nissen hut just inside the entrance gate. This hut was divided in
half, the front portion being occupied by the clerical staff and their
paraphernalia, while the rear part was further divided into two. The
innermost portion was the private retreat of the CO and the rearmost portion,
not very large, was where charges were laid, pleas were heard and punishments
meted out. In accordance with military procedure a prisoner, hatless, had to
be escorted in to face the CO. I was once detailed to be one of the escorts;
we with the prisoner, assembled in front of the hut. “Prisoner and escort,”
barked the CSM who was about as unpopular as any of his rank, “fall in.” We
did, with the prisoner sandwiched between us. “Prisoner and escort, ‘shun.”
We sprang smartly to attention. He strode up to the prisoner and snatched off
his hat and, “Prisoner and escort, right turn, quick march.” I was the
leading escort and I could see before me the open door of the little room, in
fact all the doors were open and daylight streamed in from the far end of the
hut. We quick marched, the CSM following a short way behind us; there was
only space enough for our trio and I knew that we ought to mark time once we
were inside, however that was not what the military had impressed on us so I
led our little group right into the CO’s inner sanctum; out of the corner of my
eye I saw the bemused look on his face as we passed by. Onwards we went
looking straight ahead, right through the hut; surprised clerks watched us as
we emerged into the open air again. I was happy that in obeying the last
order as laid down by he military I had upset the routine and what was more
enjoyable I had upset the CSM. He made no attempt to follow us through the
hut but ran along outside to catch up with us as we strode out into the
distance. “Halt!” he yelled and we did; and for a while that was all he could
say, his cheeks turned puce and I thought he was on the verge of apoplexy.
Gradually he calmed down, berated us, marched us back to our starting point,
then gave us more precise orders. In we went again. I can’t remember what
the charge was nor what punishment was awarded but I do know that the CO
carried on as if nothing untoward had happened.
Looking over the drawbridge into the dry moat Denis
Cleese saw a group of fox cubs, two or three were dead but one was still alive
and the vixen was nowhere to be seen so 
Denis climbed down and rescued the survivor, adopted him one might
say. How the cub was fed I don’t recall but he lived mainly in our hut and
became quite tame. He travelled to Bristol in Denis’ battledress blouse and
was duly shown family and friends. He was still quite young and played
happily with the troops though at night he used to steal our socks and shred
them; he stayed with us some time but one day he disappeared and the sentry who
had been on duty the previous night said that he had seen the vixen on top of
the cookhouse roof so perhaps she had found her son and reclaimed him.
We were kept busy one way or another but not always
fairly. Denis Cleese complained that over the previous 10 days he had
averaged only four hours of sleep per night; this was obviously due to
mal-administration. The officer hearing the complaint brushed it off, saying
that four hours of sleep was enough for any man. Later the duty rosters were
reorganised. The army hated to see soldiers with too much spare time;
whitewashing border stones or blacking the soles of boots really served no
useful purpose except as make-work projects designed to keep us out of
mischief. In keeping with this idea various little schemes were thought out
to keep us occupied and sometimes bribes were offered such as being excused
duties or being eligible for late night passes. So it was that late night
passes were offered to the members of the hut that provided the best turned out
soldier for guard duty. 
I regret to say that our principles had sunk so low that we all
entered into the spirit of this with gusto. Some polished boots to a
mirror-like shine not forgetting to blacken the soles and count the hobnails
before metal polishing them; others pressed trousers and brushed the uniform of
our protégé. Brasses were polished to an unbelievable lustre, then, as we
were about to present our man we looked outside and saw the rain pouring down
and the mud beginning to form. Not to be beaten we stood him on a short
plank; with a soldier at each end of the plank and another behind to provide
stability we carried him to the appointed place on the parade ground and
deposited an immaculate Bert Hickman ready for the inspection of the guard.
We won.
I think it was in 1941 that the GOR was relocated once
again, this time to Area Combined Headquarters (ACH), somewhere in Plymouth; we were driven there for our shifts daily by lorry but I have no idea where it
was exactly and I couldn’t find it today even if I tried.
Anticipating the arrival of our ATS replacements the
military had taken over some small houses facing the southern entrance to South
Raglan Barracks; these were quite empty except for quantities of bedding (the
girls were to be much more pampered than we were) and of course the houses
required fire-watching at night. This duty was not so onerous as might be
thought. Much in the manner of the fairy story The Princess and the Pea we
piled up mattress upon mattress upon mattress until a normal bed height was
achieved and the addition of clean sheets and pillows completed the ensemble
At no time when I was there fire-watching was there ever an air raid, or if
there was I slept through it. With the coming of the dawn I replaced all the
bedding just in case a snap inspection was called, then I caught the lorry back
to Bowden Battery where I was granted the morning off to compensate for my
exhausting night duty.
There were many air raids on Plymouth, some were minor
but there were also some major ones. I seem to remember four but I was never
down in the centre of town for these; for many raids I was in the GOR but for
two I was in a pub, The George in Crownhill; I recall the noise of the
planes and of the exploding bombs and shells and seeing the fires over the city
with the occasional brighter redder flare-ups as planes crashed. Walking back
to our billets one could see some damage and some of the houses in Fort Austin Avenue were burning but the city centre and the docks area bore the brunt of the
action. AA fire was credited with the downing of 16 planes in the major
raids, other ‘kills’ being credited to the RAF. Going into the city after a
heavy raid was a rather sickening experience, smouldering ruins and desolation
and the knowledge of untold deaths and misery. Before I left Plymouth in 1942 the guns at Rame and Down Thomas were either replaced by or augmented with
rockets (‘Z’ batteries).
Around this period Bristol became the HQ of the 8th
AA Divisional Signals and Plymouth became the No2 Company. Our shoulder
flashes now changed, the red flames were extinguished and were replaced by an
8-pointed red star smack in the middle of the bomber; still very pretty and
prophetic.
Of the many thousands of characters whom I encountered
during my six-and-a-half years of army life most have drifted into obscurity
but some are still with me; such a one was Brigadier Barbary of 55 Brigade.
Without my knowing for sure rumour had it that he had a firm in Cornwall and I assumed that it was an engineering firm; I also assumed because of this
that he was a Territorial Army officer. He was a shortish almost portly
figure with a definite bearing. His articulation was not exactly that of the
BBC but he had a pleasing Cornish accent and over the many times I saw him he
never appeared to have the aloofness of rank. Occasionally he would visit our
GOR and having discussed things at a higher level would exchange a few words
with the other ranks. During a lull in operations I was seated at the
plotting table reading a not very intellectual magazine when I became aware of
his presence; I sprang to my feet. “No, no,” he said, “sit down.” I obeyed.
“What’s that you’re reading?” he asked. I gave him the magazine which he
scrutinised. “What’s your job in civvy street?” he enquired. I told him.
“Then you don’t want to read trash like this, get some technical magazines to
read, if you don’t keep up with things you’ll finish up with an addled
brain.” Then wishing to speak with Exeter he said to a telephone operator,
“Gimme my brigade.”
In the days when our GOR was in Hamoaze House one of our
signalmen, Bill Lambert, had to take a message into another room where a
meeting of some top brass was in progress; assorted crowns and pips were there
together with their ATS drivers. The meeting was about to break up and
Brigadier Barbary picked up his baton and asked, “Where’s me ‘at?” Up jumped
his ATS driver and said, “Here I am, Sir.” “No, no, not you dear,” said the
brigadier, “I means the ‘at wot I wears on me ‘ead.” Many years later this
story was confirmed, word for word, by an ex-colonel who had also been present.
Other unusual characters often come to mind when I
recall those days; one lad arrived alone one morning wearing khaki but sporting
an RAF pilot’s wings on his chest. He had been transferred from the RAF and
he told us bits of his story but never the reason for his transfer and we
assumed because of his nervousness and his habit of constantly looking back
over his shoulder that it was LMF. He told us that with others he had been
ordered to machine-gun soldiers, presumably enemy, on the beach near Brighton and offered to bring in his log book but we didn’t press the matter.
Derek was a different type; he also arrived alone. He
was about 19 and this was the first time he had ever been away from home. He
was a quiet retiring lad, one could almost say not quite of this world and what
was unusual was that he couldn’t shave himself, up to that time his mother had
always shaved him; adapting to the army life was a real challenge for him but I
suppose the army was happy to have another warm body.
Bob was near my age, maybe a year or so older and before
the army got hold of him he was a school teacher. He found life just as
boring as the rest of us but he surprised us all when he announced that he was
going to apply for a commission. We enquired in what branch and he said that
the only commissions available then were in the infantry. Our further enquiries
elicited the following; he and his wife had a fairly large circle of friends
and when they entertained their hallstand became full of uniforms, all with
pips, crowns or rings. His wife pointed out that all Bob could rustle up was
a standard army greatcoat without even a lance-corporal’s stripe, so Bob
decided to remedy the situation. Well, good luck, Bob, I thought, if you
don’t make it, as you probably won’t, your wife can always hang your posthumous
medals on the hallstand together with all the bowler hats.
In the early part of 1942 in bitterly cold weather I was
on daytime guard duty at the gate (what else is new?); I was bundled up in my
greatcoat and a leather jerkin, one of the more acceptable pieces of equipment
supplied by the army, when the duty sergeant approached “You’re to go up to
the GOR and take a teleprinter test this afternoon,” he said, “teleprinter
operators are required for an overseas draft and so far four from different
units have been found to be inefficient, it’s your turn to try.” Not having
touched a teleprinter for a couple of years I said, “It’s no use, sarge, I’ll
fail, it’s a waste of time.” He was a regular soldier and he found it
difficult to understand that anyone would voluntarily drop in pay. “You mean
you’re prepared to forfeit your trade pay without even giving it a try?
You’ll revert to general duties.” An idea had begun to form in my
mind, if I were to revert to general duties then I would be free to
apply for a transfer to another branch of the services to a trade more in line
with my civilian job, possibly into the Royal Engineers or the Royal Army
Ordnance Corps and I told the sergeant so. He thought about it for a moment and
then agreed, he went into the Company Office, saw the CO and returned within
half-an-hour with the necessary papers for a transfer application.
A few days later I was at Devonport railway station
awaiting a Southern Railway train bound for Salisbury. On arrival there I
found my way to the private house where I was to be interviewed. I forget the
officer’s rank, he was probably a major but it was an informal affair,
one-on-one. I suppose that my answers to his semi-technical questions were
satisfactory and eventually he asked, ”Have you ever thought of a
commission?” Now in this world there are leaders and there are followers and
in matters concerning the life or death of others I come in the second
category. “No, Sir.” I replied. “You could be compelled to.” he said. I
was non-committal and we left it at that. Back in Bowden Battery I was called
in front of a visiting officer, Captain Barbary, son of the brigadier.
Apparently certain selected individuals were to be sent on an intensive physical
training course to develop their full potential and Barbary was there to sort
out those most likely to benefit from the scheme. Reflex actions and the
speed thereof were checked and I suppose that a general assessment of physique
was made, anyway a couple of days later I was bound for Westward Ho on the
north coast of Devon with all my kit. My destination was a pre-war holiday
camp, taken over by the military but the holiday spirit was gone and the
conditions were spartan. However before my course really got started I was
ordered to get moving once more, this time to Tidworth to take a trade test.
I had only ever heard of the place before as being the
site of the Tidworth Tattoo and I wasn’t quite prepared for the fact that it
appeared to be in the middle of nowhere and that the railway tracks finished
there; my spirits sank. The one redeeming thing was that I would only be
there for a couple of days. Military personnel of all corps and regiments
seemed to be there and it had an atmosphere of bustle, squads marching and
counter-marching, urged on by the drill-pigs, little dictators strutting their
stuff. There were military vehicles also including a few tanks, probably the
only ones Britain possessed at that time and pips and crowns abounded together
with some red tabs. But there was one little haven of relative peace, the
Drawing Office where I took my trade test and for two days I could shut off the
military world. When it was all over I returned to Bowden Battery as it was
too late to re-join the intensive physical training course.
Some days later I was ordered to go to a holding
battalion at Oxshott. Once again I gathered up all my kit and headed east,
this time as a private in the RAOC, a draughtsman class III. I detrained at
Oxshott station and plodded up the hill to the holding battalion that was in a
large private house set in a very large garden on the road between Leatherhead
and Esher. It was about five o’clock when I got there and the first thing to
do after reporting in was to get something to eat. This done I next went to
the QM stores to get my kit sorted out. I exchanged my leather bandolier and
black leather gaiters for webbing bren gun pouches and gaiters all in pieces
and in different shades of khaki. I also exchanged my gas mask for an
identical one which seemed silly to me but I still didn’t have a complete issue
of army equipment.
OXSHOTT
It was Saturday. I was shown to my billet and started
to get settled in, finding out the lay of the land, questioning my new
companions. Were conditions very strict? No, not really, I was assured.
What about Sunday, was there a church parade? Well, yes but you don’t have to
attend, many don’t. My sister and her husband lived in Surbiton, close to a
bus route passing through Esher and Esher was within walking distance from
Oxshott, so on Sunday I set forth, catching a bus at Esher and spending a
pleasant day with them. Arriving back just before midnight I assembled all my
new webbing equipment and then slept well. In the morning my new companions
informed me that there was to be a sergeant-major’s parade at eight o’clock, in
shirt-sleeve order and I felt a little apprehensive because I now had no time
to blanco my equipment; there was nothing for it but to go on parade
multi-coloured. Since we were not wearing battledress blouses I had another
little problem. The previous Christmas one of my sisters had given me a pair
of braces (suspenders in North America), very patriotic, in red, white and blue
stripes and these didn’t improve my appearance either. We assembled in the
roadway not far from the big house and with the rest I fell in, waiting for the
axe to fall.
The sergeant-major came down the lines, inspecting his
charges. When he reached me he paused for a second or two as if he couldn’t
believe his eyes. He looked me up and down and then launched into a long
tirade concerning my appearance. He drew my attention to the lad next to me
and informed me that he had come all the way from Cyprus just to fight for Britain and just look at him, how soldierly he was. Without turning my head I looked out
of the corner of my eye and took in this exemplar; in all honesty I had to
admit to myself that there was no comparison between us but of the two I
thought I was the better looking. Mentally I told myself that I had come all
the way from Bristol via Filton, Plymouth, Westward Ho and Tidworth with the
same idea but I had been in the army long enough to know that it was impossible
to win an argument with a higher rank so I put on my wooden soldier’s
expression and stared straight ahead. Eventually he ran out of steam as I
knew he would; he took my name and number and charged me with being improperly
dressed. Fortunately for me the officer hearing the charge was not so
impetuous and gave me the opportunity to explain that as a territorial I had
never been fully kitted out; he dismissed the charge.
But Sergeant-major McCullom had seen his little fish
slip through his fingers and I was now introduced to one of the meaner, petty
characters that the army had seen fit to elevate. I was ordered to blanco my
equipment immediately in the approved khaki colour and had to treat my gas mask
cover with the mandated blanco, Pickering’s khaki-green No.3. I
often wondered who were the major shareholders in these blanco companies, most
units required slightly different shades, but perhaps I’m being a bit
cynical. Unfortunately the new gas mask cover had a flaw, it had a large
grease spot that refused to take the blanco. The orderly sergeant said, “Do
it again.” I did. The results were the same, as were the third, fourth and
fifth try. These orderly sergeants, there were two of them, now had a victim;
at no time did either of them offer any suggestions or watch me as I
assiduously blancoed away at that confounded gas mask cover. Eventually the
truth must have dawned on them and I had the cover exchanged but from then on
my name was the first one to come into their little minds when an unpleasant
task came up or one invented especially for me and for three weeks I had
practically no free time for myself.
One other incident stays with me from those days, a sad
one really. A young lad of about 19, infantry I believe, was in quite a
state. He told me that his mother was a widow and that he was the youngest of
three sons. One brother had been killed in North Africa and he had heard that
very morning that his other brother had been killed in a training accident; he
himself was waiting for a posting to Lord knows where. I believe the army has
been known in such cases to discharge a lone survivor but this lad was not to
be consoled. I don’t know the outcome.
Oxshott does not evoke very happy memories in my mind
and for a long time afterwards I harboured thoughts of meeting those three
after the war, on more equal terms or on terms more favourable to me but now I
can’t even remember what they looked like. The future became a little
brighter when on a later postings parade my name was called out and I was en
route to Aldershot, to Parson’s Barracks.
ALDERSHOT
Accommodation in Parson’s Barracks was in the
comparatively new spider huts, six corridors emanating from a common hub
terminating in our sleeping quarters. Again the beds consisted of three bed
boards on wooden trestles and three biscuits; Four blankets completed the
ensemble. I think that we were there just filling in time before we were sent
on an overseas draft and each morning we paraded in front of the Company Office
for roll call before being marched off to the Ordnance Workshops, there to be
split up into our various trades. Initially I was sent to a fitting bench
where my main unofficial job was to convert an English penny into a spitfire
brooch for my sister. Later I was transferred to the Drawing Office. I
don’t recall exactly what I worked on, nothing earth-shattering but this was to
be the pattern of things for the next couple of months.
This was a peacetime undertaking employing mainly
civilians both in the offices and workshops and supplemented during the war by
army tradesmen. There were relics of a bygone age when time was not of the
essence; on the walls were some drawings on thick cartridge paper of weaponry
with the various metals indicated by colour washes, blue for steel and yellow
for brass while some drawings were in ink on tracing linen. Current drawings
however were in pencil on tracing paper.
It was not all office work because we were also given
some military training including physical exercises, running around a battle
course though not under live firing as some poor souls were. Additionally we
were instructed in unarmed combat but it was nowhere near as intensive as
infantry training. Also on Sundays we had church parades, marching up the
main street behind a band to have our souls saved. With others I objected to
this religious nonsense and asked to be exempt. I was offered two
alternatives, either march to the church and stand to attention for the
duration of the service or opt for fatigue duties; twice I chose the former but
then decided that peeling potatoes gave me the opportunity to vent my
frustrations on the poor tubers, slicing them into cubes or sculpting faces on
them. I thought that my best move would be to approach the padre and ask to
change my religious designation. “To what?” he enquired. “To agnostic,” I
answered, “it means I don’t know.” “I’m well aware of what it means,” he said
“but the army doesn’t recognise agnostics and since you say that you don’t know
then keep coming to church and we’ll teach you to believe.” I realised at
that moment why so many of the soldiers’ bawdy songs are sung to hymn tunes,
sung quietly to themselves it let them feel that although the army had control
of them physically it could not tame their thinking.
About this time, having been in the army for more than
three years I sewed the dog’s hind leg, an inverted chevron, on my
blouse cuff. This lasted until one evening when on guard duty the guard
commander didn’t turn up. “Who’s the senior soldier?” asked the orderly
sergeant. He looked around and espied my chevron and “All right, you, you’re
now the acting guard commander. March them off. I did. The next day I
removed the chevron. It was then that I decided not to volunteer for
anything, nor try to evade anything, I would let life unfold as it would. My
rationale was that if ever I found myself in a tough spot I could always blame
the system, never myself for being such a fool. I had volunteered twice, once
when I joined up and again when I applied for a transfer out of the Royal
Signals and I decided that was enough.
In the mess hall there were soldiers from an assortment
of units, some being new intake; at one mealtime the Orderly Officer
accompanied by the Orderly Sergeant arrived. The Orderly Sergeant yelled out,
“Any complaints?” “Yes.” came a voice. The pair approached the voice and
the officer asked, “Yes, my man and what is your complaint?” “This tea.”
“What’s the matter with it?” “It’s ‘orrible.” “Let me taste it,” said the
officer as he bravely sipped from the far side of the mug, “there’s nothing
wrong with tea, it’s as good as I get at home.” “Hmm, bloody fine ‘ome you
comes from then!” There was a stunned silence; this was beginning to look
interesting. “Take his name and number, sergeant,” said the officer, “and
charge him.” I believe some leniency was shown because this lad was very new
to the army and the army had not yet had time to drill the lively civilian
spirit out of him.
I was on three overseas drafts, for the first one I was
‘waiting man’; that meant that if any man were to be taken off the draft then I
would replace him. I had seven days embarkation leave but the draft was
complete without me. Again for the second draft I had seven days embarkation
leave and I set off on the Southern Railway bound for Reading where I would
change to the Great Western Railway. I was a bit like a Sherpa porter as in
addition to all my normal gear I also had a kitbag with my tropical kit. On
the first leg of the journey I was chatting to another soldier who was going on
his normal leave to his South Wales home; he also would have to change trains
at Reading but would be catching a different one. Seeing me struggling with
all my gear he offered to carry some for me; I gave him my heavier kitbag. He
got off the train before me and disappeared into the crowd and that was the
last I saw of him. I searched the platforms and reported the episode to the
RTO but there was no sign of my property. Disillusioned, I went on with my
journey determined to enjoy my seven days at home. When I got back to
Aldershot I had to report my loss which consisted not only of army property but
also a lot of my personal stuff; I had to repay the army, however I was able to
tell the authorities the man’s unit, rank, South Wales destination, train time
and date, and they traced him for me. He didn’t dispute the facts but said
that as he was in a hurry to catch his train he left my kitbag on a platform.
He was lying of course but we couldn’t prove anything and I had learned a
costly lesson. The draft was cancelled.
By this time many of us had been transferred from the
RAOC into the newly formed Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, REME,
changing our ranks from privates to craftsmen, this sounded good but we were
still at the bottom of the totem pole. Towards the end of 1942 I was on my
third draft, identified as RDGFA which some wags said stood for ‘REME draft
going far away’. We gathered at Ramillies Barracks in Aldershot filling in
time with some regimental training under a Canadian corporal who, disregarding
our medical groupings for we were a very mixed bunch, proceeded to run us around
a battle course that included an eight-foot high jump. He was pretty tough
himself; with one wrist in a plaster cast he led us in traversing across a gap
by means of a horizontal rope.
At this time I began to ponder the future, weighing my
chances of surviving unscathed, surviving maimed or not surviving at all. I
had no sound data to base my reasoning on but knew that Germany, seemingly
invincible, had taken over three years to advance well into Russia and North
Africa and that the Allies would take at least that time to reverse the
situation; surviving unscathed appeared to be a remote possibility but one
could always hope.
Again we were issued with a second kitbag and tropical
uniforms. Where were we going? None of us knew and with the army’s art of
deception we could have been going to a cold place. After a further seven days
embarkation leave we returned to Aldershot, regrouped and took a train to London. From there we boarded a troop train and headed north on the old LNER line
stopping at last at a transit camp at Cottingham near Hull. Lugging our two
kits around was a bit of a chore. We were due to leave again the following
day so a couple of us went into Hull that evening to a cinema along with two
NAAFI lasses. The incongruity of the situation struck me when we came out; it
was too late to get anything to eat or to get a bus back to camp. Outside the
cinema a man was selling hot chestnuts and these were our only nourishment but
we went back to camp in grand style, we took a taxi.
The next day we entrained again this time bound for Glasgow but we didn’t know it. At the docks we saw our floating home, His Majesty’s
Transport Antenor. At first sight HMT Antenor seemed to be not unlike my
early childish drawings of ships, high fo’castle, a low forward well-deck, high
superstructure, a low aft well-deck and a high stern structure. Both
well-decks had raised hatch covers that gave access to the lower decks and the
centre superstructure carried the lone funnel. We were told that she was part
of the Blue Funnel Line that normally operated in the far-eastern waters
carrying passengers and freight. In single file, wearing our webbing and with
our kitbags slung over our shoulders we slowly mounted the gangplank. At the
top of the gangplank we were directed to our quarters, draft RDGFA went aft to
the lowest deck; although there were portholes on that level the actual deck
was just below the water-line and the portholes were sealed shut. Mess tables
covered the deck, they were all of a similar pattern with attached bench seats
but varying in length to conform to the contours of the ship. Overhead was a
multiplicity of hooks to accommodate the hammocks with which we would soon be
issued. Kapok life-jackets were given out with strict instructions not to use
them as pillows but we were not told how long they could remain in the water
before they became waterlogged. Soon we settled in.
GOING SOUTH
One of the initial joys of being aboard ship was to be
supplied with soft white bread and ample amounts of butter, things that were
unobtainable in wartime Britain. The ship still carried passengers and
freight, the commissioned ranks were the passengers while the other ranks were
freight; eggs were served daily to the former, sometimes returned uneaten but
with a cigarette butt stabbed through their yolks but nary an egg was seen at
our tables We had jam and marmalade in plenty, coming in seven-pound tins,
some of it from South Africa, apfelkoos confit that I believe was
apricot jam, that’s what it tasted like anyway. We were really quite well fed
but being young and healthy we could always manage more; occasionally after
dark the cookhouse would be raided and the raw carrots and turnips that had
been prepared for the following day would be added to our diets.
It was not long before the army had us all organised
into mess orderlies, guards, fatigue parties and anything else that would keep
us out of mischief. Soon the engines rumbled and we were off or so we thought
but the excitement was short lived, we moved down the Clyde and stopped off
Gourock, in Loch Long. The wise ones among us said that we had to wait for a
convoy to form but we waited there for two weeks while other ships and convoys
came and went; it was a frustrating experience in a confined space.
Of the many ships around one was pointed out to us, the
Queen Elizabeth (the first one), she had never seen passenger service having
been completed during the war, now in the distance we could see her, painted in
battleship grey, serving as a troopship. One night or early morning when we
were nicely tucked up in our hammocks we were awakened by the rumble of the
engines again and we sensed motion; action at last, HMT Antenor was under way,
going down the Clyde. With the coming of the dawn we could see other ships in
the convoy, merchant ships and our naval escort. We passed Arran and entered
the North Channel and that was as far as our schoolday geography took us.
Speculation was rife as to our eventual destination but there was no shortage
of opinion amongst our amateur navigators who tried to calculate speed,
distance and direction as we moved into the open waters. As time went by the
seas became more and more disturbed and the good ship Antenor pitched and
rolled with them; it would later transpire that we were entering the tail end
of one of the worst North Atlantic storms of the season. Life-lines were
fitted to facilitate a safe passage on deck. Down below we listened and
watched with mounting concern as she creaked and strained, as she pitched the
screw would come out of the water and the engines would race; all this was a
new experience to us land-lubbers. At the end of each roll she seemed to
pause for a second or two — would she recover? She always did and then she
took about 15 seconds to reach the other extreme and pause again. Up on deck
clutching at life-lines or anything else secure one could wonder at the
strength of the ship as she rode on the crest of a wave and then plunged to the
depths of a trough; crew members rated them as 40-foot waves and we didn’t
disagree with them.
Resulting from this roller-coaster action many of us had
queasy stomachs and were not very happy though it was heartening to see that
all ranks were treated equally by the elements. As the days passed the seas
became less turbulent but other ships in the convoy, merchant and naval alike
could still be lost to sight as they wallowed in the troughs. At intervals of
time our course would change and on the third day out our escorts began
changing their positions; “whoop, whoop, whoop” went their hooters; depth
charges were dropped What surprised me was the speed of sound in water, no
sooner did we see a plume of water rise than a resounding boom bounced off our
ship’s hull. These antics went on for some time then later things returned to
normal for a while; about four o’clock in the afternoon HMT Antenor started to
make smoke and fall back in the formation; not to worry advised our intelligent
ones, it’s all part of the plan. We went below and had a bite to eat then
came back on deck 30 minutes later. Where was the convoy? We looked around
but all that could be seen were faint smoke smudges on the horizon and what’s
more we were now silent and stationary. Our intelligent ones were nonplussed
and our amateur navigators determined that we were probably west of Brest off the west coast of France; that together with the knowledge of the U-boat action
earlier in the day didn’t improve our contentment. At six o’clock a lone
plane appeared from the west, going east; it passed over us fairly low but none
of us identified it. Our resident gunners took up their positions at our only
gun, a four-inch, designed I imagine for naval engagements and probably unable
to elevate sufficiently to engage an aircraft. We assumed the plane to be
hostile and that it would report our position and static condition and we
waited. Darkness came and we wallowed helplessly. I decided that I didn’t
feel like going to my deck below the water line waiting for a torpedo to come
bursting through the side, I wanted to have a reasonable chance of getting off
the ship if she were going down so I stacked out on the hatch cover of an
intermediate deck and slept fitfully with my head upon my kapok pillow.
Dawn came and we were still without engines; we were
told that the storm’s buffeting had unseated one of the boilers and that a
similar event had caused our departure from Loch Long to be delayed by two
weeks. In the forenoon the engines started to rumble, a most welcome sound
and we limped into motion. We must have been very fortunate because we took a
long three days to reach the relative safety of Glasgow at dusk, having made
the return journey without seeing anything more than a couple of small fishing
boats.
I forget the details but we disembarked and were whisked
off to various destinations; our draft together with some others was sent to a
disused distillery in Wishaw. We sorted ourselves out and bedded down for the
rest of the night. Next morning, Sunday, we looked around the town and were
amazed at the friendliness and hospitality shown us. Our stay lasted about
three weeks or a month while HMT Antenor underwent surgery, transplants and
general re-conditioning. At intervals during this period small groups of us
were given a few days leave at home but all the time we were in Wishaw we were
well looked after by the local population; one businessman took out parties of
us for a meal (was it at Green’s?) then on to a cinema show; this happened on
many occasions. Some of the lads were more or less adopted and lived out most
of the time there only looking in at the distillery to find out when our next
move was due. In the forces I always got on well with all the Scots I met but
our reception at Wishaw was something else, it stays firmly in my mind and I
have a very soft spot for the Scots and Scotland.
All good things must come to an end of course and we had
to return to Glasgow to re-start our travels. Waiting for us at the dock was
our troopship HMT Antenor, well repaired we hoped. This time there was little
delay, soon we were steaming down the Clyde to form up with a convoy; again we
had a naval escort on our flanks and although the seas were not as rough as
before the screw still came out of the water and the engines raced. Day
followed day uneventfully and we seemed to be on the same course as before
according to our amateur navigators; for many of us this was the first time we
had been so far from our island home and we were quite excited.
In order to keep up our spirits and inform us of the
progress of the war the BBC news was frequently broadcast. These newscasts
were usually preceded by a recording of Rule Britannia and while joining
in mentally with the remembered words I reached the phrase Britons never,
never, never, shall be slaves; I recalled the definition of a slave as
being one who received little or no remuneration for his services and who could
never voluntarily escape his predicament. I made the comparison.
I can still remember my first sight of a lone palm tree
emerging from the early morning mist just before we made Freetown. Some ships
of the convoy entered Freetown but we lay off and paused for a while a half
mile from the coast; we believed that mosquitoes couldn’t make that distance
but just to be on the safe side we tried out our mosquito-repellent ointment.
The air was hot and very humid and soon we decided that we preferred mosquito
bites to the discomfort of trapped perspiration. By this time we had changed
into our tropical uniforms and this did nothing to improve our appearance; our
cork topees were reminiscent of those worn during the Boer War and were
probably surplus to that conflict. There was nothing remarkable about our
shirts but the shorts were something else; worn in their extended form they
reached down to mid-calf, the lower hems were fitted with three buttonholes
while at mid-thigh there were three buttons. The idea was that in the bright
sunlight hours they would be buttoned up to let our knees feel the breeze and
get tanned but in the evening they would be worn at full length to frustrate
the mosquitoes. To economise in footwear the army supplied knitted hose-tops,
tubes, near khaki in colour that covered the socks just above the ankle while
the tops were turned down just below the knee. Webbing gaiters covered the
junction of boots and hose-tops; whether the gaiters were aesthetic or
functional I don’t know, either way they were two more items to be blancoed;
perhaps they would deter an aggressive snake.
Duties on board were no different than before but there
were free periods when we could indulge in the only gambling game permitted by
the army, Housey, or Bingo as it is more usually called today.
We spent a lot of hours gazing out to sea, I didn’t find that boring, there was
always something fresh to see, even when looking at nothing in particular there
was the ever-changing pattern of the waves, not unlike the changing patterns in
a glowing coal fire. For the first time we saw Portuguese men-of-war, jellyfish,
with their little sails unfurled, and flying fish played around the ship. At
night time another phenomenon was revealed, looking over the side the
phosphorescent creatures disturbed by the ship’s passage brightly illuminated
the ship’s hull, so much so that we thought the portholes were unshielded; it
made a mockery of our strict instructions not to show any light. In this
context I put my foot in it once again; seeing a flashlight beam waving about
the deck on a black night I yelled, “Put that light out.” “Who said that?”
asked flashlight. “Who are you?” I countered. “I am the Orderly Officer,”
said flashlight, “what’s your name and number?” somewhat chastened I obliged
and realised once again that even when you’re right you can’t win an argument
when you’re outranked.
The ship carried only limited amounts of potable water
and the only water available for keeping clean was salt water; true we had
showers and could purchase salt-water soap but this was not very effective and
rinsing off was difficult; the end result was not satisfactory particularly
when trying to get one’s hair squeaky clean. This fact was brought home to me
when one mealtime a soldier paused behind me as he spoke to a pal on the next
table; we were in the tropics and it was very warm. He was holding a seven-pound
tin of marmalade above my head; engrossed in conversation he allowed the tin to
tilt — need I say more?
I had started a head cold just before we left Glasgow and after a day or so at sea I did what was very unusual for me, I reported
sick. The army had three or four standard remedies to cover most situations
and I was dosed with one of them, mist.expec seems to be the
abbreviation that stays in my memory; several doses brought no relief so again
I reported sick. I was now coughing badly and felt quite ill. Same medicine,
same result; I really should have been admitted to the sick bay but was not.
Reporting sick for the third time brought accusations of malingering; at no
time had I seen either of the two doctors on board, the diagnosis had been made
by an NCO of the RAMC, so I soldiered on.
I don’t know how far west we passed into the Atlantic
but the crew told us when we were nearer to Walvis Bay, eventually we pulled
into Cape Town in South Africa, the ‘tablecloth’ of cloud had settled over Table Mountain for us. Some of our convoy separated from us and docked there. After a
short stop in the bay we moved on to Durban and as we came into the dock area
we saw a little group on the quayside waiting to greet us. The central figure
was ‘The Lady in White’ as she came to be known. She was a trained singer and
made it her duty to meet all the troopships; armed with a megaphone (this was
1943) she sang patriotic and nostalgic songs to cheer up the lads who were
bound for unknown parts. It was a nice warm welcome to South Africa.
For our last night on board I was picked for guard
duty. Why? Perhaps they thought that someone would run off with the ship.
Next morning we disembarked and marched up to our new billets on Clairwood Race
Course, I was quite weak and unable to carry all my kit, some of my pals
carried my rifle and pack for me. I was feeling very groggy but that didn’t
stop me from being picked for guard duty again that night. I got the last
shift and when I was awakened at 4am I rebelled and said the waiting man could
do my turn. Later in the morning I reported sick once more, this time to Clairwood Hospital where I was examined by a South African army doctor. When he had
finished he gave me a chit that said, ‘Admit hospital, resolving pneumonia’ and
I spent the best part of the next three weeks there, two weeks in bed and a
couple of days up and about. I believe I slept for the first 30 hours.
It was an army hospital run on army lines but there were
some civilian staff mixed in with the nursing sisters and MO’s. The food was
very good and I was surprised to find chicken on the menu quite often; iced
water or a lemon drink was kept at the bedside in a little jug covered with a
lace cloth to keep the flies off but there were no mosquito nets. At first I
didn’t realise what the high pitched buzz in my ears was until I had had a few
bites. I recall two nurses, one was a Canadian, an army nursing sister whose
name had a Ukrainian ring to it and the other was a South African civilian,
Nurse Anderson. The latter who was probably a little bit older than I was
prophetically gave us some words of wisdom. The ward cleaning staff was
composed of black African men and the British not being particularly racist
used to talk to them and give them cigarettes, something that they didn’t from
the South African whites. Nurse Anderson said, “You British are spoiling
them, when the war is over you’ll be going back to your own country and we’ll
be left with the consequences of your actions.” Military discipline was
upheld in the wards and when the MO and his following retinue of nurses came on
the rounds those who could were told to stand to attention by their beds and
those who could not stand were told to lie to attention. More stupidity.
One hospital orderly amused me with his line of
thinking; judging by his accent I asked him, “You are an Afrikaner?” “No, no,
he replied, “I’m Dutch.” “Surely not,” I said, “the people of Holland are Dutch.” “No, no,” he said again, “they are Hollanders, I’m Dutch.”
On discharge from hospital I was sent to King’s House
in Durban for convalescence and was duly fitted out with hospital blues and
a red tie. I remember being there for Good Friday and for another couple of
days and enjoyed the time touring the city; it was a beautiful place, this was
the end of March 1943, their autumn, the right time of the year and the
vegetation was lush I was just settling down to a short spell of doing
nothing; I wasn’t looking too smart, I used to have my hair cut every two weeks
and it was now seven weeks long, additionally the pneumonia had left me with
three boils on my face. My convalescence was short lived because I was ordered
to report to a hospital, not Clairwood, to be examined to determine if I was
fit enough to re-join draft RGDFA. An ambulance arrived and I occupied a
stretcher on the upper of two berths, the man on the lower was going to the
same hospital. Our ambulance bounced along over dirt roads, it was a very
rough ride and after one huge bump my stretcher collapsed and I landed on the
fellow below; he wasn’t very pleased with me and I finished the journey sitting
down, listening to his constant griping. After a cursory examination by the
doctor I was pronounced fit enough to re-join draft RDGFA. He must have known
where we were going and he must have known that troops with lung problems were
not supposed to be sent there, but there, that’s the military. I suppose that
after the war these three doctors, this one and the two on the Antenor, were
let loose on the civilian population of Britain, I’m glad I wasn’t one of their
patients.
Most of our group had a good time in Durban and were
very well treated by the South Africans, when we expressed our thanks they
said, “Oh, you should have been here before the Australians came, they nearly
wrecked the place.”
Back on the docks we saw our next floating hotel, HMT
Aronda; she was much more modern, lighter in build and with finer lines than
the old Antenor. Once on board we got into our new routine. The ship had a
permanent army officer, OC Troops who, I presume stayed with her on all her
voyages. We also had another luxury on board, a real live bugler; his job was
to sound off at various periods of the day to announce some activity or other.
As with the Antenor this ship was fitted out with mess
tables and attached benches. Early on we had to report to stores and draw
hammocks because the sleeping arrangements were similar as well. On the
Antenor we had been issued with bottles of fortified lime juice (shades of
Captain Cook) but now we were to be issued with bottles of carbonated drinks.
We soon set forth, destination still unknown; we were all assigned boat
stations and each morning we assembled on deck waiting to be inspected by our
betters, looking a little ridiculous in our ‘Bombay bowlers’ and our Bombay
bloomers’. The inspection was quite a formal affair as an entourage
consisting of the ship’s captain, OC Troops and various others of decreasing
rank, a lance-corporal as the caboose, traversed the ship. However leading
this group and heralding its approach was the bugler; at each station he
paused, stood smartly to attention, put the bugle to his lips and sounded four
‘G’s’ then off he went to the next station to repeat his performance; he was a
pain.
When the waters were calm and the nights were clear we
sometimes lay on deck looking upwards to the heavens because in the southern
hemisphere different star constellations were visible, the Southern Cross for
one. As the ship pitched and rolled ever so gently the tip of a mast would
trace slow little circles in the near black sky; it was half an hour of
peace. We knew that we were moving in a north-easterly direction and we had a
general knowledge of the local geography but we couldn’t determine whether we
passed to the west or the east of Madagascar. The first bit of excitement
came when I perched on a box and, surrounded by a group of interested
onlookers, had my locks shorn. I felt much lighter but my face still had its
three boils, they were to stay with me a while longer. The Aronda was alone,
not in convoy and I remember one morning well, I had gone up on deck early,
sunrise comes suddenly at about 6am in those latitudes; there was the gentle
throbbing of the engines but complete silence otherwise, the Indian Ocean was
grey and more tranquil than I had ever seen water before or since. All
around the water was flat and mirror-like except at the stern where our wake, a
thin white streak stretched out into the distance. I celebrated my 25th
birthday in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
On board we had a public address system, installed
presumably to impart words of wisdom like, ‘Splice the mainbrace’ or ‘Abandon
ship’ or something but in fact it was used to play records to keep up our
morale. Where the control room was situated I never did find out but whoever
was responsible for the choice of records must have been a fan of Deanna
Durbin; hour after hour the strains of One Fine Day came over the speakers,
there were other records of course but even today when I hear One Fine Day I
am transported back in time to the Indian Ocean. There are a few other
incidents that stay in my mind from that period. One man put on a charge for
some minor offence thought the punishment awarded was too excessive so he
kicked the escort and fled; of course he couldn’t get very far on a ship, a
fact he should have thought of beforehand. We saw him running round the decks
with three PT instructors in hot pursuit; he gave them a good run for their
money but nevertheless he finished up in the ship’s brig. As usual the
military required guards to be posted during the night and in the interests of
convenience and fairness each draft took turns to supply the men. For a
change my services were not required on that voyage but one night it fell upon
the Royal Army Service Corps to stand guard. Since he had to be up early in
the morning to sound ‘reveille’ the bugler slept in the guard room to be
awakened in good time. He also slept with his bugle, with the fancy cord
around his neck. As I said before he was a pain and the RASC decided to do us
a favour; while he was asleep the cord was cut, the bugle removed and dumped
overboard. We knew something was amiss in the morning when no bugle call
aroused us and we waited to see what would transpire. We assembled at our
boat stations. By-and-by the bugler came into view, stopped at our station,
stood to attention and “Peep, peep, peep, peep.” he went. The military was
not to be denied, they had given him a referee’s whistle. That was the same
occasion when the ship’s liquor store was broached and some of the guards were
the worse for wear. We never heard any more about this episode, perhaps some
were punished, we were never told.
Attempts were made to keep us occupied, unofficially
cards were played and money changed hands, usually from mine into someone
else’s. Housey was often played and at times shows were put on
consisting of stand-up comedy, solo singing and sing-songs where we all joined
in. One lad stood on the make-shift stage and recited,
“Do you remember an inn, Miranda,
Do you remember an inn?
**********
**********
“And the shouts and the jeers
Of the young muleteers,
**********
**********
Do you remember an inn?”
He struggled manfully to the end, ignoring all the
ribald remarks coming from some quarters and when he had finished he
acknowledged the sparse applause; definitely not the sort of poetry expected by
the licentious soldiery.
Days came and went, I don’t recall how many but the time
came when the sea birds arrived on the scene and we knew that landfall was not
too far distant. The brighter ones among us told us that we were nearing Bombay and for once they were right.
INDIA
As HMT Aronda approached Bombay we eagerly scanned the
coastline and almost at once discerned that imposing arch The Gateway to
India but there was not too much time to spend sightseeing as we had to
prepare to disembark. The ship docked and a little later we were making our
way down the gangplank. Partway down I could see a commotion on the quayside;
three military policemen were holding down a prone figure; though his face was
flat where it was being pressed against the quay I recognised him as being the
prisoner from the ship’s brig. He had attempted to escape custody once more
but again he had failed; I think he didn’t like the army very much. We fell
into position by drafts and waited and waited; it was mid-day and getting very
hot. We stood in formation for about an hour, eventually our guide arrived to
lead us to our billets; he was Indian Army, somewhere around five feet tall and
he set off at a blistering pace. We quick marched behind him and when I say
quick I mean it, with his short legs he had a short stride and we longer-legged
ones kept up with difficulty. After a mile or so we entered Colaba Camp, this
was to be our home for a while.
Now started our introduction to things Indian. The
teeming masses and the number of people sleeping in the streets surprised me as
did the apparent disregard for personal safety amongst the traffic. New words
came into our vocabularies the origins of which sometimes go back to the many
countries that British forces have garrisoned over the last three centuries.
Some military personnel must obviously have become proficient in the local
languages but for the most part the British soldier was and still is
linguistically lazy, content to adopt and sometimes anglicise foreign words and
phrases to suit the occasion. Strangely enough using some English mixed with
some foreign phrases and body language the soldiers usually made themselves
understood by the locals who probably thought that all the words were
English. At times it led to some interesting exchanges.
However at this stage we were introduced to mainly
Indian words, charpoys for rope beds, chatties for unglazed urns,
pani for water, jaldi for quick and many, many more. We met
some of the regular army characters who had spent years in India and gleaned snippets of information from them. Were there any poisonous creatures
around? Well, yes, scorpions for one thing. What about snakes? There are
several different sorts here. Very poisonous? Yes, especially the hoop
snake. Hoop snakes? never heard of them. Oh, they are very fast but if they
can’t catch up with you by wriggling they put their tails in their mouths and
bowl themselves along like hoops. Our legs were often pulled like this until
we became in turn the seasoned leg-pullers of the new arrivals.
The camp CO used to ride around on a white horse and
occasionally he would give us a pep talk; to those of us who were getting a bit
too boisterous he said, “Most of you before the war were law abiding citizens
but once you’ve put on a uniform and moved away from home you think you’ve
become licensed buccaneers. Behave yourselves.” There was a fair amount of
spare time before we expected to move again and we spent a lot of it looking
over this main port of The British Raj. The Gateway to India that we
had earlier glimpsed as we steamed into dock was the first thing to see and we
were duly impressed. Then there was the centre of Bombay, we wandered along Hornby Street to the Kodak shop where I bought a film for my vest-pocket Kodak.
Unfortunately the camera had developed a pinhole in the bellows and most of my
pictures were spoiled. A couple of evenings were spent at the cinemas,
watching Hollywood films that were about two years old. We also visited a zoo
(Victoria?) where strangely, amongst other creatures, we saw in captivity
English sparrows Other unexpected sights included cows wandering unhindered
through the streets and carts drawn by camels. In one of the main streets my
attention was caught by the sight of a turbaned Indian who was sitting
cross-legged putting on a show, pitting a cobra against a mongoose. I didn’t
feel like staying for the finale, I guess he had to separate the combatants or
else go looking for a new snake.
Our stay in India was not very long, a matter of a
couple of weeks or so but long enough to give us a feel for the country.
Under the British Raj there didn’t seem to be much evidence of the
inter-religious hostility that would result in such a blood bath at Independence and partition in 1948. Political struggle there was and some anti-British
sentiment but it didn’t seem pervasive to us. Little booklets were issued to
us that outlined the history and customs of India, (the term India was all-inclusive in those days, both Hindu and Moslem) and listed population
densities together with a glossary of useful words and phrases. Other words
and phrases not in the booklet we picked up from contact with the older and
more experienced soldiers. At that time we also learned that the Indian Army
was entirely separate from the British, with its own Viceroy commissioned
officers whom we did not have to salute, and the ranks of Subahdar, Jemadar and
Havildar were added to our vocabularies. During our short stay draft RDGFA
suffered its first casualty, Cfn Love was whisked off to hospital and later
succumbed to a brain tumour.
Our accommodation was in long huts that
in memory appeared to be permanent; we found the charpoys quite comfortable and
the bell-shaped mosquito nets that dangled from the ceiling gave us
uninterrupted nights. Food was sufficient, plenty of rice in various guises
and frequent curries that despite the warm weather seemed to cool one down.
There was also the usual NAAFI store and fresh fruit could be purchased daily.
Too soon the time came to move on and we rejoined HMT
Aronda; we got aboard and were assigned our places, immediately I was given
some task to perform, I forget what but while I was so engaged the stores were
opened and everyone drew hammocks; by the time I had finished the stores had
closed. Ah, well, I was now used to roughing it so I elected to sleep on the
bench seat of a mess table, a plank about one foot wide; again my life-jacket
became my pillow and I slept like a babe. I never did draw my hammock.
The seas were calm as we steamed away from Bombay on a north-westerly course, we lost sight of land but now we had an idea of where
we were going. The skies were cloudless and the sun blazed down on us for 12
hours every day; thick canvas awnings were erected over the passageways on each
side of the ship. “Keep wearing your topees,” we were told, “harmful rays can
penetrate the awnings.” I believe we took four days or more to reach our
destination passing from the Arabian Sea into the Persian Gulf; the journey was
quite uneventful, we spent the days doing very little, looking at the water,
playing cards, eating, dozing and listening to even more of Deanna Durbin over
the inter-com. With faint memories of maps in our minds we tried to identify
Bandar Shapur and Bandar Abbas on the starboard side with uncertain success.
In the afternoon of the last day we entered the Shatt-el-Arab and headed for Basra; now there was a little more to see. The waterway was relatively narrow and we passed
through the dense groves of the palm trees that lined both banks, however at
intervals we came to small inlets intended no doubt to give access inland and
here the effect of water upon plant life became apparent. The tall palms at
the river’s edge gave way to more stunted ones further inland and a couple of
hundred yards from the river the desert began.
It was past midnight when we docked at Marquil, we
disembarked and got ourselves sorted out. Then we loaded our bits and pieces
and ourselves on to waiting lorries and set forth towards our new temporary
home, No.15 Reinforcement Transit Camp, a tented camp. We were now members of
PAIFORCE, the Persia and Iraq force.
IRAQ
Our arrival at the transit camp was in the early hours
of the morning and we didn’t try to get organised but being young and tired we
slept well, nevertheless we woke with the dawn at about 6am and then surveyed
the scene. There were a dozen or so bell tents including ours set in the
middle of nothingness, flat vacant desert all around us; true there was some
sign of activity a quarter of a mile away that turned out to be the local
brickworks but otherwise nothing. We asked the name of this God-forsaken spot
and were told Shaiba.
It was still May and the
days were getting hotter. We had to be initiated into the ways of desert
life; topees to be worn at all times in the sun, shirt sleeves rolled down and
slacks to be worn after 6pm when it was the mosquitoes turn to be around and
about, copious amounts of water to be drunk and two salt tablets taken daily.
To get us into condition after the inactive period at
sea we were exercised gently. Small groups were marched along to the
brickworks, a somewhat over stated term, where some Arabs were mixing up a
dough-like slurry that was then put into wooden moulds, something that had been
done by their forbears for the last three or four millenia. The moulds
consisted of four sides and a bottom; the open face of a filled mould was
smoothed off by hand and the brick turned out to dry and bake in the sun. I
never measured them but they seemed to be near enough the same size as standard
English ones. Bricks made this way were called plano-convex because
five faces were flat and the sixth convex; each bore the imprint of a thumb on
the convex face, formed as the brick was ejected from the mould. Similar
bricks were used in the building of the Sumerian city of Ur several thousands
of years ago.
From a pile of bricks we each had to pick up two and
march back to the camp, dump them then return for two more; 10 or 12 such trips
gave us the exercise we needed and acclimatised us to the dry heat. What was
unexpected was the blowing sand that seemed to get everywhere, in one’s eyes
and ears and sticking like a film to any exposed sweaty flesh; some relief came
by eating one’s food in the relative shelter of the tent but even so sand could
find any chink to gain entrance. Ignorantly after dinner one day, mindful of
instructions, I swallowed the two obligatory salt tablets; later I felt a
little strange and then discovered the emetic properties of salt. Ever
afterwards I took my salt in small quantities with plenty of water.
As its name implied the camp was only intended to hold
troops until they could be dispersed to their various units; there were no
recreational amenities available though we could purchase a local brand of
cigarettes called Red Bird in packets of five for five fils (about one
farthing each, old currency). We slept 10 to a tent, feet at the central pole
and bodies radiating outwards; early on without being taught we learned how to
dig a recess for our hips and over this area we spread our groundsheets.
Though a bit firm our small packs served as pillows. After dark the only
source of light came from a hurricane lamp, this was not always effective in
which case it was swapped for a useable one from another tent when nobody was
looking, standard army practice.
I forget how long we stayed there, maybe a week but then
the draft was split up and dispersed and I was posted to Al Musayyib, some
40 miles south of Baghdad. However before I started the army wanted to get
some useful work out of me and so with three others I acted as escort to an
ammunition train going up as far as Mosul near the biblical city of Nineveh. We were supplied with canned and dry rations sufficient for the
journey and joined the train in the evening with rifles, some ammunition for
them, side arms and all our kit. An empty wagon served as our mobile
quarters, empty that is except for straw or similar material to soften the hard
wagon floor and we slept uncomfortably in shifts. On the first morning we
awoke itching, sand flies had feasted on us as we slept fitfully; I think they
really enjoyed fresh caucasian blood and we spent a while scratching and
slapping.
With the start of the day deficiencies were discovered
in our equipment, while we had tea, sugar and dried milk we hadn’t any water or
the means of containing or boiling it. One difficulty was overcome when we
bartered cigarettes for a petrol can from some railside Arabs. Funny really
because it was once part of British stores; it was a tall square-sectioned
metal can from which the top had been removed; at the top a wooden bar
stretched from side to side to form a carrying handle; it appeared to be clean
and we assumed that it was. The problem of boiling water was solved when we
asked the locomotive driver to blow some out from his steed. I learned years
later that this was definitely not recommended healthwise but that’s what we
did many times and we survived.
The train stopped at various towns and villages on the
way, As Samawa, Ad Diwaniyah, Baghdad, Samarra and lastly outside Mosul. At no stop did we venture far from the train we were guarding. The journey was
interesting; except for the towns the land was light brown and mostly barren;
in the open country flocks of sheep roamed with their attendant shepherds and
this presented an almost biblical scene. To our western eyes there was one
noticeable difference however, in the west the shepherd would be behind his
flock, driving them but here he was in front, leading. Perhaps in this land
of sparse vegetation the sheep relied on him to find the best grazing. We
reached Mosul in the evening and our train drew up alongside an army camp, the
lads there were enjoying a movie; the translucent screen lay between us and the
audience and from our wagon we saw one hour of Mrs Miniver, back to
front and soundless.
Discharged from our escort duty we boarded a passenger
train heading for Baghdad and enjoyed the luxury of slatted wooden seats. I
was quite excited with the anticipation of what lay ahead and could hardly wait
to see more of the mystic land of the Caliphs. The train drew into Baghdad and as it slowed we could see more of the city, fine buildings mixed with mud
brick homes, the Ishtar Gate and the minarets of mosques, the strange
clothes, music discordant to my ears, porters bent double with unbelievable
loads on their backs and the smells. At that time I had to be content with a
passing impression because I was bound for Al Musayyib, to No.5 Advanced Base
Workshops. That designation in the middle of Iraq puzzled me and it was not
until many years after the war that I discovered the reason for it and the
reason for my being there.
The workshops were some 40 miles south of Baghdad and a mile or so from the Arab town; the town was out of bounds to us but a
metalled road from there passed between our camp and the workshops; we only
ever saw military traffic on it. Both camp and workshop compound were
separately surrounded with barbed wire, three coil dannert and apron was
the official name for it. Individual shops were scattered within the
compound, seemingly haphazardly and they contained equipment for which any
contemporary British engineering firm would kill for.
Accommodation within the camp consisted of huts similar
in design to Nissen huts but were built of local materials with low brick walls
and pre-cast arches supporting curved roofs of straw reinforced baked mud.
The floors were of course bare earth. Outside the end doors of each hut stood
a large urn of unglazed earthenware, a chatty, kept full of water laced
with salt to make sure we took our daily dose to ward off heat exhaustion.
The water was cooled by the evaporation of the small quantity of water that
seeped through to the outside of the chatty and it was very pleasant to
drink. Non-potable water for ablutions and laundry was brought in through
underground pipes from a source unknown to me, the river Euphrates perhaps,
anyway the pipes could not have been buried very far beneath the surface
because in the summer the water was quite hot. Again, using local materials,
the screens around the unroofed showers and latrines were made of woven palm
leaves
We started work early in the morning, reveille was
sounded by an Arab bugler (we didn’t have one) at 6am, we marched off to start
work by 7am, finishing at 2-30pm to take advantage of the cooler part of the
day. Most of us were classed as tradesmen though we were constantly reminded
that we were soldiers first and tradesmen second. Except for mounting
guard at the officer’s quarters we were exempt from guard duties, these were
carried out by Indian troops within the workshops compound and by the Royal
Sussex Regiment around the workshops and camp environs. At night they
patrolled the streets in lorries equipped with twin Bren guns. One report had
it that they once fired on one of their own corporals, hitting him in the
legs. Often we would see them in the morning marching back from their duties
whistling or singing Sussex by the Sea. Venturing into the
workshop compound at night in pitch darkness as we were sometimes required to
do was a different matter, quite an eerie experience in fact; the Indian guards
were silent and one never knew exactly where they were though their presence
could be detected by the faint clinking sound of the chain that attached their
rifles to them To ensure that we were not mistaken for intruders we tended to
announce ourselves by whistling. One would think that with all these guards
the place would be impregnable. Not so. Frequently at night when we were at
the mobile cinema sounds of gunfire would be heard coming from the workshops
and sometimes there were bodies.
Heat I think was our greatest problem followed by
sandstorms. The highest official shade temperature I remember seeing was
recorded in Baghdad, 121°F, though inside the workshops I’ve seen the mercury
register 128°F but this was enervating and little work was done then. In
severe sandstorms we protected our eyes with goggles but exposed flesh was
stung by blowing sand; although the lenses of the goggles were not tinted it
was like viewing the world through the yellowish amber of Golden Syrup. In
1943 or perhaps it was 1944 I saw the nearly total solar eclipse through a
sandstorm, with goggles but with no other eye protection.
During the summer months the prevailing winds came from
the north-east, sweeping in over the Iranian plains, by the time they reached
us they were bone dry, this was a good thing really because we sweated
profusely in that heat and were rapidly cooled by evaporation. Occasionally
for a couple of short periods in the summer humid winds would blow in from the
Persian Gulf and then it was most uncomfortable, shirts would be sodden and
dark with sweat and if they dried before being washed they would be stained
white with salt. We had our laundry done twice a week by the dhobi but
that was inadequate so we did our own in between times; in the bone dry air a
pair of slacks could be worn 15 minutes after washing. One of our lads,
mimicking the dhobi by bashing wet laundry on a flat stone was put on a
charge for damaging government property; he was acquitted after enlightening
the officer who obviously had never done his own laundry.
One piece of equipment supplied by the army for which I
was very grateful was the chargul, a water bottle made of a coarse
canvas similar to fire hose canvas that worked on the same principle as the
chatty. Drawn new from the QM stores it would not hold water but had to be
soaked until the canvas had swollen; filled with water and hung outside in the
air it provided a beautifully cold drink in a fairly short time. This
evaporation principle was also adopted to lower the temperature inside
ambulances by means of a cuscus tatty; this consisted of a four-sided
wooden frame with chicken wire front and rear, the cavity was filled with what
we called camel thorn. Water was pumped up from a tank and sprayed over the
unit; air passing through the moist camel thorn was then directed into the body
of the ambulance to cool the interior.
No.5 ADVANCED BASE
WORKSHOPS
The compound covered quite a large area the exact size
of which I can’t say but it was spread out over a vast expanse of desert with
the various workshops located in no apparent order. There were no metalled
roads but between the buildings a hard travelling surface was obtained by
putting discarded engine oil over the loose sand and traffic soon firmed this
up For heavier loads a two-foot gauge Decauville track was laid
between the main buildings and trucks were hauled by a Lister powered
locomotive. For off-loading really heavy equipment within the compound a
metre-gauge spur line branched off from the main line linking Turkey with Basra.
When we first arrived the conversation centred around
two topics, firstly there was the recent flea infestation that fortunately for
us had now subsided; apparently this had occurred quite suddenly, lasted for a
brief period and then unaccountably it was over. Perhaps Keatings had
something to do with their departure. Secondly there was the tyre scandal.
I was told unofficially that with the shortage of tyres amongst the Iraqi
civilians some had been diverted from the British stores in exchange for
cash and sentences had now been pronounced.
In those early days no master plan
existed showing the layout of the installation and to remedy this deficiency I
was quickly instructed in plane table surveying, a subject in which I had no
previous experience. Jim and I spent weeks and weeks out in the sun wearing
the pith helmets that had now replaced our cork topees, getting browner by the
day as we toiled away with plane table, tripod, sighting rule and chain (well,
we didn’t have a chain but we managed with a 100-foot steel tape), gradually
building up a map of the camp to our superiors’ satisfaction. Just before
this project was complete I was taken off for some other drawing office work. Not
a great deal of real engineering work was done in the DO, mainly modifications
to drawings to implement changes to armoured equipment; the six wheeled Staghound
seems to be the one vehicle I recall. But one must not forget the other
onerous duties, keeping up to date all the pretty coloured charts and graphs in
the Company Office so that the clerical staff could see how many soldiers they
had, where they were and how many were sick. We also had the task of
addressing the parcels that the commissioned ranks sent home to their families
as we could print more neatly than they could and anyway it was beneath their
dignity to do anything so menial.
I suppose that now would be a good time to explain the
reason for our existence in that area. Between the two world wars Britain had
been awarded by the League of Nations the mandate to govern Iraq and had
military forces in the country, notably the RAF in its permanent station at
Habbaniyah; naturally some Iraqis objected to this arrangement and caused a bit
of trouble but their big chance came when Britain declared war on Germany.
Under their leader Rashid Ali they tried to drive the British forces out. A
major engagement occurred at Habbaniyah but the RAF personnel successfully
resisted them. The early part of the war had not gone too well for the Allies
and by 1942 Germany had advanced in North Africa to the borders of Egypt and in the east was on the road to Tiflis (now Tiblisi). It seemed that unless these
advances were stopped which at that time appeared doubtful the two armies would
join somewhere in northern Iraq and drive southwards taking control of the
oilfields of Persia and Iraq. This would have had serious consequences for
the Allies.
There existed at this time in Shaiba a very large ordnance
establishment, No.1 Base Workshops which besides being well equipped to service
tanks, guns and other military hardware also stored vast amounts of everything
else an army required. For this reason it was decided to interpose No.5
Advanced Base Workshops between Shaiba and the advancing Germans. That’s why
I was there. Fortunately the German armies were halted at El Alamein and Stalingrad so the personnel of No.5 ABW were later relocated.
Anyone who has worked in an engineering shop will recognise
some of the sounds associated with various operations, for example a bench
grindstone on being started up has a peculiar whine, very high pitched when top
speed has been achieved; this is followed by a clatter as metal is presented to
the stone. I heard this whine and then nothing. Why? I went over to this
grindstone and saw a man grinding away at the sole of his gym shoe. The QM
had issued an edict to the effect that no gym shoes (or shoes, canvas)
would be replaced unless the soles were worn through. These shoes like so
many other pieces of army equipment had been stored over a long period in the
open air in the blazing sun and consequently their uppers had rotted. This
lad had been left with a pair of fairly good soles but hardly any useful uppers
and not wishing to fight the stupid edict, knowing he could not win, decided
that he could beat the system.
The workshop compound was fairly deserted at night but
the Company Office stood within it so night time pickets had to be supplied.
The duties were negligible apart from lowering the REME flag at dusk and
raising it again at dawn; there must have been a reason for this but it escaped
me. The hours before bed were boring and lonely but looking around the place
and viewing some of the documents was interesting. Apart from Army Council
Instructions (ACI’s) there were other papers printed on yellow paper,
applicable to Paiforce, whose title eludes me now. One item caught my eye, I
can’t recall the exact wording but in essence it said, ‘If a soldier were to be
executed then his next of kin should be informed that he died while on active
service’. Technically correct I suppose but why not tell the truth? To
spare the family pain and disgrace? Or to protect he system and avoid answering
awkward questions? As Churchill remarked, “Truth is the first casualty of
war.”
Drinking water supplied to the cooks was brought in
daily in the evening in a two wheeled trailer that was then parked adjacent to
the cookhouse ready for their early morning chores. Breakfast and evening
meals were taken in the mess room in the camp but the mid-day hot meals were
delivered to the various workshops by lorry; they were kept hot by being stored
in ‘hay boxes’ forerunners of the present day coolers and these too were kept
adjacent to the cookhouse. I mentioned earlier that there was a severe
shortage of tyres among the Iraqis, many civilian lories could be seen on the
roads, well loaded and carrying as many Arabs as could possibly hang on, with
only on tyre on what should have been a twin wheel. The British had tyres and
the Iraqis were envious. Arriving early one morning the cooks discovered a
hole in the perimeter fence and the axle of the water trailer resting on two
hay boxes. The two wheels and their tyres were missing. The hay boxes had
been placed under the axle of the trailer and the sand scraped away beneath the
tyres until they could be freely removed. We knew where the intruders came
from because there was a small Arab settlement a quarter of a mile from our
camp.
The gap in the fence was repaired and a watch kept; some
days later another gap appeared and expecting another attempt at stealing an
ambush was set up. Two REME personnel (I was one of them) armed with our
SMLE’s and two privates of the Royal Sussex Regiment armed with Bren guns got
into position after dark and waited for the intruders to appear. I wasn’t too
happy about this because it could be the first time I had a human target in my
sights. Fortunately for me and the possible intruders the Orderly Officer and
the Orderly Sergeant came along in their jeep, stopped by the gap, illuminated
it with their headlights, then got out and inspected it, thus warning any
watching Arabs that we were expecting them. I was very glad when daylight
came and I still had five unused rounds in my rifle.
Not all nights passed so uneventfully however. One
unlucky guard on the last shift of his duty going from the guard room to awaken
the cooks interrupted a robbery that was taking place in the cook’s hut. He
was set upon and stabbed several times, he survived but the robbers escaped.
We were allowed leave on occasion, the nearest site for
any sort of entertainment was Baghdad and we could take day trips there but
could not stay overnight. When I first arrived there was still some residual
hostility towards British troops and we were instructed to go around in twos
and to wear side arms but this rule was later relaxed. A lorry was made
available each Saturday and Sunday to make the somewhat uncomfortable journey
into town.
Adjacent to our camp a mobile cinema put on films twice
a week, these were mainly old ones that we had seen at home; with only one
projector there was a pause as the Arab operator changed reels. Often he had
difficulty with the numbering of the reels and this led to some interesting
results, sometimes a murder would be solved before it had been committed.
When such a mix-up occurred the restive audience would yell,”Get yer money
ready, Shafto,” harking back to similar situations in WWI. Waiting for an
audience to arrive an Arab stood with his wares, beautiful green grapes that he
sold at 50 fils a pound, about the price of ten good cigarettes. Someone had
obviously instructed him in Imperial measures and, “One pow-und.” he shouted as
he weighed them on a primitive hand held scale using a railway spike as the
nearest thing to a pound weight.
Besides being able to buy English cigarettes we could
also get Canadian ones, Sweet Caporal but not all favourite brands were
available at all times. The army issued a free ration of Victory cigarettes,
a nondescript brand that were just about acceptable as a last resort and which
were often given away to Arab civilian employees. We could get Palestinian
beer and Canadian Black Horse but I never saw any British brands. Beer
was rationed of course, I think it was two bottles per man per week and
non-drinkers often used their rations for barter or for cash.
DESERT LIFE
The days passed slowly and routinely and the sweltering
summer gave way to winter. Winter could not be described as being very cold
but after the high temperatures the contrast was palpable. On six or so
nights the water in the chatties would freeze and then we piled everything
including our greatcoats on our beds and even then we sometimes shivered. Our
huts were unheated but in some of the work huts primitive fireplaces were
made. These consisted of two low brick walls 18 inches high, three feet long
and about one foot apart. On top of these was a steel plate that carried a
funnel at its front and a flue pipe at its rear; the funnel was fed through
small pipes from two cans, one containing water and the other containing
discarded engine oil. The two fluids dropped through the funnel on to a piece
of pipe which caused them to splatter; oil soaked rags were used to start the
combustion and then the flames quickly roared along under the steel plate and
up the flue pipe. The heat was controlled by adjusting the flow of the fluids
in the cans. Our small Drawing Office was so heated.
The office was also home to ants (small, medium and
large) and red ants, mice, termites and temporarily to visiting hornets and
scorpions. The termites built their tunnels of regurgitated wood fibre up one
wall, along the insulated electrical wires and down the central wooden roof
support to the nest that housed their queen. She was a bloated white
creature. They were constantly building, repairing and enlarging the tunnels
and nest. Red ants contested possession of this area and we watched the
perpetual battles unfold.
Arab incursions into the workshop compound were a bit of
a problem and in order to combat them the sergeant-major announced that the
perimeter fence would be mined. The mines were really hand grenades, not the
No.36 or Mills bomb but the No.69, a plastic cased type. I suggested to him
that if he were to record their position then we could add the information to
our map of the camp or record it on a separate map. He agreed. Off he went,
several hours passed and then he and a couple of his accomplices returned.
“Gimme the map.” he politely requested and I did so. Now the scale of the
plan was such that the whole area covered a sheet measuring about four feet by
three feet. He looked at it for a bit and then stabbing at it with his stubby
forefinger he said, “We put one or two here, some about there and a few in this
part —- .” Relative to the scale of the plan his stubby forefinger
spanned about 20 or 30 feet so his information was useless and we never did
have an accurate record of the disposition of the mines. Presumably after the
passage of more than 50 years they have been discovered, probably to the
disadvantage of the discoverers.
Our OC had an unusual name, Bonallack that was often
mispronounced as bonny-lack and to remedy this gaffe a notice appeared on Daily
Orders to the effect that, ‘The Colonel wishes it to be known that in the
pronunciation of his name the accent should be placed upon the penultimate
syllable.’ Uncomprehending soldiers stood around the notice-board saying
things like, ”Wot’s ‘ee mean?” or “Wot the ‘ell’s a penultimate syllable?”
The kinder more knowledgeable types explained it to them. Of course this
lesson was purely academic for as far as we lesser mortals were concerned we
never had occasion to address him as other than Colonel or Sir.
It fell my lot one moonlit night to stand guard on the
Officers’ Quarters and I clicked for the 6-8 and the 12-2 shifts. The first
period passed uneventfully and not much was happening on the second shift; I
was wandering about, looking at the moon and counting the grains of sand and
longing for my bed when I heard shots nearby. Duty called and I hastened to
the spot where I believed they came from. In front of me stood, or rather
swayed, a Scottish lieutenant; I assumed he was Scottish as he was wearing
trews but in the British army one can never tell. In the hand that he was
slowly waving around was a smoking Smith and Wesson. “What’s up, Sir?” I enquired
He continued to sway and wave. “Shnakes,” he said, “shnakes, there’s shnakes
in my bed.” and he pointed. I followed his gaze to his bed that was out in
the open since it was a warm summer night; his batman had made it nice and
comfy for him complete with a tent type mosquito net. With my bayonet I
gently raised the edge of the mosquito net and prodded the apparent corpse of
the serpent; there was no movement; gaining confidence I approached closer to
solve the mystery. The snake was in fact one of the tapes of the net,
carelessly coiled on the pillow and he had put three bullets into it. I don’t
think he believed me as I assured him that all was well, I left him gently
swaying and went back to looking at the moon and counting the grains of sand.
There were some lighter moments in the desert life, near
Easter time a day’s entertainment was usually organised, not quite a fairground
atmosphere but something approaching it. A few more talented types showed of
their skills on army motor cycles, some in trick riding and others in racing.
One such fanatic was Johnny Lockett who after the war rode briefly for the
Norton team until a crash involving a head injury persuaded him to retire from
racing. The main event of the day however was the Donkey Derby where
steeds were hired from local Arabs to take part in a series of races. A sort
of auction was held in which bids were asked for various mounts; the successful
bidders became the jockeys. Some sort of prizes, I forget what, went to the
winners.
THE DONKEY AUCTION
Humorous situations occurred as inexperienced soldiers
tried to persuade their mounts to greater efforts or in some cases even to
start. The outcome of one race manifested itself when that good old standby
of military law Section 40 of King`s Regulations was invoked; Daily Orders
informed us that one, No.732 Craftsman Smith, was charged with `conduct
prejudicial to good order and military discipline in that on the occasion of
the Donkey Derby he did wilfully and cruelly goad his mount with a railway
spike.’ Needless to say he didn`t win on either day. The day`s festivities
were often rounded off with a concert given by the Band of the Royal Sussex
Regiment. A civilian lady singer appeared so frequently with the band that
she was made an honorary sergeant.
We were more than a little incensed to read a report in
one of the British newspapers of one of the infrequent visits of an ENSA
show. A female member was quoted as saying that ‘bacon and eggs are no luxury
in Paiforce.’ Poor dear, she obviously had been a guest of the Officers’ Mess
and didn’t know any better.
Fairly near Al Musayyib was the ancient city of Ur of the Chaldees, the reputed birthplace of Abraham. It had been discovered and
excavated in the 1920’s by Sir Leonard Woolley; as with most deserted
habitations in that land it first appeared to him as a Tel or hill,
rising up above the surrounding flat land. I visited the site with a group
led by our padre. Woolley excavated one half of the site down to below ground
level, carefully preserving and documenting all he found; below ground level he
found a layer of silt that he thought could only have been laid by water and
thus he concluded that it was evidence of the biblical flood of Noah’s time.
I believe this theory has now been discounted. Below this silt layer were
pieces of broken pottery and I picked one up. At that time it was quite a
large part of the bottom of an unglazed earthenware urn but due to an
unfortunate accident when my kitbag fell off a lorry I now have only a very
small fragment. We wandered along the excavated streets that were bordered by
low walls of sun baked plano-convex bricks and marvelled at the state of
preservation. Although the Romans are generally credited with its
introduction there was, dating back to a much earlier period, a semi-circular
arch still existing. In places one could see, outlined by bricks, the
formation of the rooms of houses. In the nearby museum were plans showing how
the city was believed to have been laid out, dominated by the ziggurat.
A second trip of similar
ancient historical interest was made to Babylon, again organised by the padre;
the excavations here seemed to be on a much larger scale and had been made by
German archaeologists at a time when Germany was extending her political
interests in the area. They carted off quantities of the better preserved
relics and displayed them in the Berlin Museum; whether or not they survived
the bombing of WWI I don’t know. Again we were amazed at the skills of the
ancient artisans, building blocks fitting together with scarcely any visible
joints. Bricks here were a bit different from those at Ur, they were about
one foot square by four inches thick made of sun baked straw reinforced mud
and in their centres many carried an imprint in cuniform characters that I was
told translated into This was built by King Nebuchadnezzar. I have a
portion of such a brick, not in this case purloined by me but given to me by
another member of the group who got tired of carrying it The site had its own
interesting museum and the whole was guarded by some smart Arab soldiers,
members of the Arab Legion that had been formed after WWI by the British and
that was under the command of Glubb Pahsa, an officer seconded for the
job.
Iraq was a monarchy and the king at the time was a young
boy, Feisal but because of his age the de facto ruler was a Regent; both
were to be assassinated in the 1950’s. In the interests of public relations
our workshops made a model of an armoured car suitable for riding in and also a
model of a two wheeled water trailer; these were presented to Feisal. He was
not over-pleased however because the armoured car was not powered.
Quite a few Arab civilians were employed by the army in
various capacities, some clerical and some labouring depending upon their
abilities. In general we got on well together though early on I learned not
to offer cigarettes from an open packet as ten would be accepted in one grasp
with profuse thanks, rather I found it more economical to hand them out one at
a time in which case I would have some left for myself. There were Iraqis who
showed an aptitude for our type of work, some indeed who were smarter than we
were and where possible they were trained as tradesmen. Some difficulties
were encountered such as when a sergeant-instructor was told by his pupil that
there was no such thing as the law of gravity, it was the pressure of air that
kept things on the earth. Generally however the training was successful.
Life was not without its humour, one trainee was given for his trade test two
pieces of green wood to weld together, and he tried. After a minute the
instructor said, “How’re you doing, Johnny?” “Thik hai, Sahib.” replied
Johnny as clouds of acrid blue smoke enveloped him, smiling as he went about
his impossible job. After a while he realised that he was being teased and
took the joke in good humour. He was then given the real test which he passed
easily.
Eventually the time came for No.5 ABW to disband. There
were no special farewells but an informal parade took place at which we were
thanked for our services; after that we dispersed but not before we set fire to
the officers’ latrines and enjoyed the sight of some tardy members fleeing the
flames. I forget the actual details of our departure, we were split up to
some extent and I together with others boarded the train, southward bound,
heading for our new home, No.1 Base Workshops, Shaiba.
No.1 BASE WORKSHOPS
The name Shaiba covered an area in southern Iraq
to the west of Basra, of indeterminate boundaries as far as I could tell; in
fact although I’ve tried hard to locate it on several maps it doesn’t seem to
warrant a mention but it was the address for our tented transit camp, for an
RAF station and for No.1 Base Workshops. Again the army establishment was in
the middle of nowhere, flat empty barren desert all around; we knew where the
RAF station was located because we could see the planes just as they appeared
or disappeared below the horizon but we could not see any of the buildings.
We did at times go across there by lorry if a visiting ENSA group was putting
on a show, or to see a good film; I remember seeing a production of No, No,
Nannette on one occasion but I didn’t go there frequently.
The area covered by our workshops and accommodation was
vast; I heard but never verified that the perimeter fence exceeded four miles
in length. The buildings, both workshops and billets, were much the same as
those at No.5 ABW but there were many more of them and they were equipped to
deal with the assembly and repair of all types of fighting vehicles, guns and
transport or any sort of engineering problem with which we may have been
confronted. Working hours were set to coincide with the coolest part of the
day, reveille at 6am, marching off to start work by 7am and knocking off at
2-30pm by which time the day’s temperature was at its highest. Most sensible
soldiers then stripped off and lay on their charpoys doing nothing for a while
to cool down but there were some athletic types who decided to play soccer even
though the temperatures were well above 100°F and they didn’t seem to suffer
from it. This period of our doing nothing appeared to upset some of our
superiors who decided to put the concept of soldiers first and tradesmen
second into practice and inaugurated regimental training sessions that took
place later in the afternoons. There was some resentment over this order and
this revealed itself in the reduction of workshop output, some vehicles having
GO SLOW chalked on them. The hint was taken, regimental training ceased and
production returned to normal.
MUD-BRICK AND STRAW HUTS, No.1 BASE WORKSHOPS, SHAIBA, 1945
Of the vehicles sent to us for repair some were too far
gone to be put back into service though they were still driveable — barely,
and these were used for internal transport, delivering hot meals for one
thing. Borrowing the word from India we called them gharries and
Johnny Lockett removed from his skilled occupation of precision grinder was
able to master his to the extent that he could drive around almost clutchless.
Our drawing office was six strong, one from an
architectural firm, four from engineering firms and one, a sergeant, a free-lance
artist. We had ample supplies of drafting materials and were generally well
equipped though we had no print machine, only a glass frame for sun exposures
and a lead lined tank for the water developing and fixing of prints. Besides
cartridge paper and tracing paper there were plenty of rolls of tracing linen
that were rarely used for the designed purpose, once the starch was washed out
it made very nice bedsheets, a little narrow perhaps but quite useable. We
had two types of print paper, one a standard blueprint and the other a brown
line; these were called in army parlance ferro-prussiate and ferro-gallic
respectively.
Insignias of rank do a lot to inflate egos and the
Company Office WO came in full of his importance and the superior status of
clerks, he demanded immediate attention and three prints of a particular
drawing.
“What colour d’you want?” asked the sergeant.
“What d’you mean?”
“What colour d’you want?”
“What choice is there?”
“Ferro-prussiate or ferro-gallic.”
“Eh?”
“D’you want ferro-prussiate or ferro-gallic?”
“What’s the difference?”
“Brown lines or white on blue?”
“I think it had better be the ferro-whatsit, white on
blue.”
And he departed, a little wiser and somewhat chastened.
Drafting skills and the associated engineering knowledge
were not generally appreciated; an Indian corporal, a Company Office clerk, a baboo,
looked in one day, viewed the work being done and said with an air of
complete confidence in his abilities, “You show me sergeant — three days I
do your job.”
The DO was supplied with a bike, an army version, heavy
and unwieldy. Most bikes we were used to in Britain were equipped with two
hand brakes but this one had a coaster brake, trying to pedal backwards would
apply the brake to the back wheel. Riding a bike in Iraq presented some difficulties, the terrain was a mixture of hard ground and loose sand,
not always easy to tell apart, and loose sand would quickly bring you to a
halt. One day before the hot weather began I was wearing battledress but not
gaiters; I rode off across the desert; almost simultaneously my trouser leg
got caught between the chain and the sprocket, the bike found some loose sand
and I fell off. Lying on the ground attached to the bike I tried to
disentangle myself but with the coaster brake I couldn’t reverse the
direction. There was nothing for it but to wind my trouser leg right around
the sprocket, not an easy task when you’re lying on the ground attached to a
heavy bike. The trouser leg was not badly damaged, some minor perforations
but a lot of black grease. Usually after that I walked.
DO STAFF No.1BW, SHAIBA, 1944
Jim Parks Jack Walker
Jock
Pulsford John Village John Cox
And
that bike
As the warmer weather began we had to start sunbathing,
for the first couple of days stripped to the waist we spent five minutes in the
sun; the time in the sun was gradually increased until we eventually acquired a
healthy tan.
Near to our establishment was a prisoner-of-war camp
housing Italians who had been captured in the Western Desert battles; when Italy capitulated they became, overnight, co-operators and were allotted billets within our
compound. We fraternised and they were allowed to use our facilities but
could not buy beer which was rationed, though occasionally a non-drinker’s
bottle would be surreptitiously diverted. Over the bar was a sign that read Vietato
per soldati Italiani the translation having been provided by one of our
cooks who had been a chef in pre-war Italy. Before the war a DO member had
started to teach himself Italian and had with him a vocabulary; this we used to
bridge the communication gap. We supplemented this by recalling as best we
could our schoolday French and substituting what we believed to be a
corresponding Italian accent got along fairly well.
It was decreed that the mobile cinema showing old films
would be replaced by a permanent theatre that would also show old films. It
would not be an Odeon but would be a more posh theatre and the design job was
given to the DO as we had some architectural experience at hand. It was to
have a sloping earth floor bounded by brick walls with a little enclosure for
the projectionist. When the design was completed the actual building task was
given, using standard army intelligence, to a pre-war cinema projectionist.
The sand was bulldozed up to a wedge shape and then the brick walls were added
but instead of the bottom course being laid on horizontal footings and stepped
at intervals to obtain the required increase in height the bricks were laid on
the sloping floor with the courses following the same angle. How they managed
the coins beats me.
With the cinema in full swing the Italians naturally
wanted to share in the entertainment and to the army this presented a slight
problem for although they were regarded as co-operators complete integration
was not yet an official policy, memories of hostilities were still fresh. As
a compromise someone thought up a great idea, the cinema would be divided into
two parts separated by a rope cordon, the front one third would be for the
Italians and the rear two thirds would be for the British. I think the
Italians would have accepted this arrangement even though they had been
allocated the worst viewing positions had it not been for the actions of a
couple of Brits who started a call of “Baa, Baa, Baa.” This was soon taken
up by the rest of the Brits until the place sounded like a farmyard at shearing
time. One by one the Italians got up and walked out and the Brits thought
they had scored another victory but two nights later they found that the cinema
was still divided by a cordon which this time ran from front to back so that
the two groups now sat side by side each having good, intermediate and poor
viewing positions. Peace reigned.
As might be expected in the army, government items that
should be within the QM stores often found their way into other hands.
Authorities found that the easiest way of dealing with this problem was to
announce that on a particular time and day a kit inspection would be held, but
that on the previous night the QM stores would be open and all illegally held
items could be returned with no questions asked. The kit inspection would
still be held but it would catch far fewer people and fewer charges would be
laid. One fateful day the lieutenant and sergeant appeared at my bed and
turned out my kit. ”Ah, ha,” said the lieutenant as he extracted a steel
rule, “government property.” Well he didn’t actually say, “Ah, ha,” but I
gleaned that from the expression on his face. I assured him that it was my
personal property but he would have none of it. I pointed out that it bore no
bench mark or other mark identifying it as being government property but he
said, “No, — take his name and charge him, sergeant.” They both passed on
through the hut and later the sergeant came back to take particulars; in the meantime
a thought struck me, I went through my wallet and as luck would have it I found
what I wanted. I presented the sergeant with a bill of sale from a shop in Aldershot registering the purchase of a steel rule complete with its serial number. He
viewed this, mumbled something and disappeared. Did I ever get an apology for
being accused of stealing? Pigs might fly.
Due to the very hot sandy dusty conditions in the
country we were not supposed to spend more than two summers in Iraq and to ease things for us the army arranged that everyone would, at some time during that
period, be sent on a two week compulsory leave to Beirut. Imagine, compulsory
leave! The journey was taken in four stages and the transport was a small
convoy of army lorries with Indian drivers and co-drivers. We drove only on
metalled roads and our first overnight stop was at a place called Wadi
Mahomadi where the only signs of habitation were our huts. After a good
night’s sleep we set off the next morning for Rutbah which lay on an oil
pipe line guarded by Military Police but which seemed just as deserted. We
stayed there for the night. Our lorries held about eight of us and we lolled
around in the back; for comfort it was agreed that our army boots should be
removed. Lafferty declined. Ingram, a member of our boxing team insisted.
Lafferty’s boots came off. At this point as our lorry started weaving we
discovered that our co-driver was missing, there was only one man in the cab,
the driver, and he was dozing off. Perhaps it had been this way ever since
the start of the journey but we weren’t very happy about the situation so we
made the driver keep whistling; whenever the whistling stopped someone would
lean out and reach round into the cab window and poke the driver to bring him
round.
We passed through Dar’a in what was then called
Trans-Jordan and our third night’s stop was at Damascus, one of the oldest
continuously occupied cities in the world and here things were much more
civilised. On the forth leg we crossed over the mountain range into Beirut. The road was serpentine; when we started out it was quite a hot day and we were
in tropical kit, we were told that at the crest, some nine thousand feet up, we
would feel the cold; I was a little doubtful about this but at the higher
points snow lay on the roadsides and I certainly did. Mount Hermon was
pointed out to us in the distance as we drove. Descending from the crest Beirut and the curve of the Mediterranean spread out before us, it was a wonderful sight,
the beautiful blue sweep of the sea contrasting with the brilliant white of the
houses set in the green of the trees. However our attention was soon drawn
away from this scene as we realised that instead of changing down to negotiate
the winding road our driver either from ignorance or inability stayed in top
gear and drove on his brakes, and no amount of shouting or banging on his cab
persuaded him to pay any attention to us. We got in to Beirut without any
further incident but I guess his drums and linings were in a bit of a state.
Until this time right from the beginning
of the war we had never been allowed to wear civilian clothes or go about
untidily dressed, there had never been any respite from the feeling of being
controlled, but now within the camp we were allowed to spend the day in
swimming trunks even when going into the mess tent for meals though of course
we dressed to go into the city. What a feeling of relief, we were human
again.
It was a wonderful two weeks, thoroughly refreshing;
most of the days were spent on the beach swimming and breasting the breakers
but we went into the city as well. It is sad to compare the beautiful Beirut of those days, a most civilised place, with the devastated Beirut of the 1980’s.
Civilised it was but they were also prepared for the influx of rowdy soldiery;
in one bar a wide shelf about seven feet off the floor was fronted with chicken
wire and on this shelf behind the chicken wire a three piece band played away,
protected from missiles hurled by inebriated pongos.
This was the life; we could have got used to it but the
day came when we had to board the lorries again and head back to the desert.
The trip, otherwise uneventful, was marred by an accident; one of the lorries
in the convoy carrying the cooks and their utensils took a corner too fast and
overturned. Two Indian cooks were killed.
During the next two years I was twice detached from Shaiba
for short periods. First of all I was posted to Baghdad where I was
billeted in a camp but by day I was employed in a large private house in Mansoor Street. Military and local civilian staff worked there. It was interesting to
see the Arab girls arrive daily in western dress and watch as they left for
home in the evening to not very attractive accommodations where they changed
into non-western dress. My original task was not very important but as they now
had a tame draughtsman on hand other work was found for me and one whole day
was taken up with making small prints of some publication or other. This
involved taking a print frame out in the sun for very short periods and because
I would only be exposed to the sun for seconds at a time I didn’t wear my pith
helmet. However during the course of the day the time spent in the sun was
cumulative and later I had to report sick. Obviously I didn’t disclose my
foolishness to the MO and so I was diagnosed as having sand-fly fever, that
good old stand-by when they didn’t know what was really wrong with you and I
was sent to hospital. I remember having a temperature of 104°F and I vaguely
remember going into and coming out of delirium. A few days later I started to
improve but then contracted dysentery and so spent another while in hospital.
After discharge it was decided to send me away for a couple of weeks
convalescence; I hoped it would be to the RAF at Habbaniyah where they had air
conditioning but no, I was sent to the YMCA in Baghdad and eventually returned
to Shaiba.
The train trip back was
interesting. Theoretically I was on my own but there were many other soldiers
on that train and in order to keep ourselves supplied with cool drinking water
we all had our filled charguls hanging outside the carriage windows using the
train’s movement for quicker evaporation. After many miles we came across an
unusual sight; there had been a derailment and rolling stock was strewed
everywhere, blocking the line. A new track had been laid by-passing the
obstruction; as we slowly made our way along this loop most of the passengers
moved to the right side of the train to get a good look at the damage. When
things returned to normal it was discovered that all the charguls had been
removed from the left hand side of the carriages, railside Arabs knew that we
would be occupied gawking and took advantage of our distraction; they found
charguls useful too.
My second posting was to an army assembly plant at An
Nasiriyah where the main job was the uncrating and assembly of those
vehicles from the USA that were to be forwarded to the fighting areas My task
there was insignificant and lasted only about three days. The boss man was a
Colonel D’Albuquerque and he had arranged something that I thought novel for
the army; he set a daily quota for the output of vehicles and when that target
was reached then work finished for the day. A window in his office was fitted
with a cuscus tatty, a poor man’s air conditioner similar to the units
fitted to the ambulances; water had to be sprayed over the unit and whenever
his office became a little too warm he would summon an Indian soldier and using
the universal mixed language would shout, “Pani, Pani, Pumpee, Pumpee,”
whereupon the Indian would grin and start pumping.
While I was there a shortage of small springs became
apparent and some assemblies were held up; now the crates invariably held every
last item required to build the vehicles so a kit inspection was ordered;
nothing was found. On further investigation an unusual bed was discovered;
the owner had decided to improve his creature comforts and had diverted the
springs and linked them together to provide a more luxurious charpoy for
himself; his pleasure didn’t last very long however, the colonel saw to that.
I left before I could find out what punishment he got.
It was generally accepted that in the army a batman, an
officer’s servant, was a volunteer who wanted a softer life and a little more
cash. Not always true. We had an officer who was so unpopular that nobody
wanted the job and since it was infra-dig for a commissioned man to look after himself
one soldier was ordered so to serve. If you doubt this then you should ask
the aforementioned Lafferty who did his best to get out of this chore but
without success. He tried to refuse to take the cash but was ordered to
accept it; he held this job until someone else could be persuaded to take it
on. Of course Lafferty should have thrown the money away or else given it to
a deserving Arab.
At times we were taken off regular duties and given some
military instruction and exercises. Various weapons were discussed, some were
demonstrated and others we had to practice with. One which we only saw
intrigued me, it was a mortar that went by the name of Blacker Bombard, it
had a limited range and fired two types of bombs, smoke and high explosive;
what seemed strange to me was that the lethal range of the high explosive bomb
was greater than the distance that the bomb could be hurled. We didn’t fire
that one. We did take our turns at firing a two-inch mortar, both smoke and
high explosive and when we all had had a go there were a few bombs left over.
The sergeant asked if anyone would like to finish them off and the offer was
taken up. There’s always one in every crowd and this lad set the mortar as
near vertical as he could and dropped in a high explosive bomb. The rest of
us didn’t wait around but radiated outwards faster than we ever thought
possible. Fortunately near vertical was not really vertical and no injuries
ensued.
My rifle which in Britain had been extremely accurate
was no longer so when I retrieved it in Iraq, perhaps it had had a bad sea
trip, got banged around or otherwise warped but it was so much off that I
checked the serial number to be sure; it was mine. To complete the course we
hurled a few Mills bombs, fired a Bren gun, marched around a bit and behaved as
soldiers were supposed to do and then we returned to our more sedentary
duties. The commissioned ranks had also to be kept up to scratch and a series
of tactical exercises was introduced. An assorted collection of craftsmen,
NCO’s, a sergeant-major and a lieutenant was assembled one day together with
their vehicles and other paraphernalia; they set off across the desert to a
location that I believe was only a map reference. After two days the
lieutenant had to admit that he was completely lost and so were they all. He
was somewhat upset and said, “I feel terrible, I ought to shoot myself.” and
the sergeant-major enquired, ”Then why don’t you — Sir?” The suggestion
was not taken however and a search party later led the group back to base.
Attempts were made to keep us occupied and clubs were
formed. There was the musical appreciation group with its portable gramophone
and limited records, the photographic club again with equipment scarcities, a
current affairs program that naturally kept clear of politically sensitive
subjects, while anyone interested could learn to drive an army lorry. One
enterprising officer tried to revive an interest in calculus and actually
collected a few members though how long the course lasted is anyone’s guess.
Attached to us were some Indian Army troops under
British officers; the make-up was a little unusual, many of the soldiers had
been temporarily released form prison on the understanding that if they served
for the duration of the war they would then become free men. Most of their
crimes were of a political nature, some included murder. They seemed to have
an intense loyalty towards their officers and I encountered them in the
following way; for our sports minded colleagues just kicking a soccer ball
around wasn’t sufficiently satisfying, they wanted a regulation sized pitch
marked out. The hard baked sand didn’t take paint very well but discarded
engine oil could be used instead. Since I could measure with a steel tape and
knew how to construct right angles using the three, four, five principle
and could count beyond 50 I was given the pitch proportions and told to get on
with it. For help I was put in charge of six Indians who would hack out the
narrow shallow channels with their picks along string lines that I had laid out
and these they would fill with oil producing very dark lines. There were six
of them all armed with picks and only one of me armed with an empty rifle.
However I was told that they were quite harmless and could be persuaded to
behave under the threat of confiscating their pay books which would have the
effect of breaking their contracts resulting in their going back to prison. I
had no trouble at all, in fact they were a cheery group quite happy to work.
In the army I came across quite a cross section of
humanity, running the whole gamut of characters. I am reminded of a
sergeant-major, a peace time regular, who discovered one day that things were
missing from the Company Office; he decided to do something about it. In the
office there was a large wicker basket used for laundry and into this he
contorted himself pulling down the lid nearly shut so he could peep out and
identify the thieves. He waited and waited but nobody came in because the word
had got around; eventually he emerged very stiffly, defeated. Early one
morning he had occasion to phone the captain; it was a wall mounted instrument,
he took the receiver off its hook and stood rigidly to attention facing the
mouthpiece; when the captain answered he snapped a perfectly smart salute and
said, “Good morning, Sir — I am now saluting you.” And then he carried on
with whatever else he had to say.
I forget exactly how it came about but one time when I
was in Baghdad I got roped in for guard duty, this time it was to watch over a
prisoner. The prison was only a tent top surrounded with barbed wire and
there was only one prisoner. It was all very informal, we chatted a bit and
he didn’t seem to be at all concerned with his predicament. I asked him what
he was doing there and he said that he was being charged with theft. “Of
what?” I asked. “A jeep,” he replied. Apparently he had acquired a jeep and
sold it to an Arab. “For how much?” I asked. “Four hundred dinars.” he
answered. At that time the Iraqi dinar and the British pound were at par.
He seemed to be quite happy, perhaps he had the money stashed away somewhere.
A new item was now added to our kit to improve our lot;
to alleviate some of the discomfort and soreness around our shirt collars due
to perspiration we were issued with scarves puggree, squares of light
cloth, khaki coloured. This was the same material that was wound around the
crowns of our pith helmets; some lads, fashion conscious, decided not to wear
them in the accepted manner and this led to an order being issued to the effect
that ‘Scarves puggree will be worn loosely around the neck and not in a
triangular cowboy fashion.’
Most of us were classified in one of many trades but
there were a few who were not tradesmen and they were classified as general
duties and they could be given any task not requiring any special skill.
Three of these were attached to the Company Office where their main duty seemed
to be making tea. A vacancy occurred in one of the workshops for a clerical
type and I was ordered to take this job on a short term basis, for about three
weeks. I didn’t jump at the chance, actually I didn’t think much of the idea
but I went. The work was simple, checking parts in and out of the shop and
took in total less than 30 minutes a day and it was boring, boring. The three
weeks stretched into six weeks and eventually into ten weeks. I complained
several times that the job could be easily done by a general duties type
but was constantly fobbed off. After a while I asked to see the colonel and
then the bureaucracy slowly slipped into gear, my request went upwards from
rank to rank until at last an appointment was made for two weeks hence. The
very morning that I was to see the colonel I was told to get back to the DO
again. When I approached him after going through the rigmarole of marching
in, saluting smartly and agreeing that I was indeed the soldier he thought I
was he said,
“You have a complaint?”
“Yessir.”
“You want to return to the Drawing Office?”
“Yessir.”
“But I see you are back there already.”
“Yessir, this morning”
“Then there doesn’t seem to be any complaint now does
there?”
“No Sir.”
“Now don’t think that your return has anything to do
with your making a complaint, it’s purely coincidental.”
“No Sir, certainly not, Sir.” I lied.
“Dismiss.”
I did so, inwardly fuming at having to take part in this farce that
could have been settled weeks before at a lower level and which would have
saved the colonel from looking so foolish.
Opportunities sometimes allowed us to do something out
of the ordinary and two of us asked if we could spend our two weeks leave in
Teheran, in Iran. Strangely enough permission was granted and we set off in
the evening crossing into Iran at Ahwaz. The journey took about 20 hours
passing through Dizful, Khorramabad, Arak and Qum and countless numbers of
tunnels through the mountain ranges before reaching Teheran. It was an
interesting trip carried out in upholstered luxury. We were billeted in an
army camp but were left to our own devices day and night. After Shaiba Teheran
was a lively bustling city; we did some window shopping looking at the Russian
made Leica cameras that were much cheaper than but inferior to those made in
Germany. There was a plethora of uniforms about of various branches of
various forces of various countries not counting the wonderful uniforms of the
cinema doormen — quite confusing; I was saluted several times by Russian
soldiers who were probably just as uncertain as I was.
I was caught out by a British major when I failed to
salute him; he asked me where I was stationed and when I answered “Shaiba.”
he enquired, “Don’t they salute officers there now? They used to when I was
Provost Marshal.” I had not worn my greatcoat for ages when I was in Shaiba
and had not polished the brass but it was much colder in Teheran and I was
now wearing it. He eyed the green brass buttons of my greatcoat with
disapproval but let me off with a warning as he realised that I was on leave
from that God-forsaken spot; I think he felt sorry for me.
We went to a cinema to see Bambi which I had seen
before in England but this was different; the sound track was in English with
French sub-titles and to one side a separate screen about seven feet square
carried the dialogue in Farsi. It was just as well that I had seen it before
because those who could read explained the film to those who could not and I
could hardly hear the sound track for the constant babble.
Compared to Shaiba the air was cool and crisp and
my friend who was a bit of an amateur astronomer said that under the right
conditions the planet Mercury could be seen with the naked eye and sure enough
under a cloudless sky just after sunset we saw it quite close to the sun’s
edge; I’ve often looked for it but I’ve never seen it since. The reason for
our choosing Teheran as a vacation centre was that another couple of members of
our group had gone there not long before and spoke of it approvingly; they had
stayed a little longer than we and had climbed, or partially climbed, Mount Demavend that was about 19,000 feet high. We had no desire to copy them but spent
the best part of a day walking northwards from Teheran seeing the wide open
spaces apparently uninhabited apart from the occasional local who viewed us
with interest and suspicion as to our intent. In the city one of the main
sights was the railway station, an architectural gem that had been built
earlier by the Germans. Being a carpet weaving centre there were all shapes,
sizes, colours and patterns on display and also for sale, many laid out on the
sidewalks to be walked upon by passers-by which surprised us. I wasn’t too
certain about the sanitary arrangements but on many streets I saw open gutters
running between the sidewalk and the road and there seemed to be ample water
run-off from the northern highland. All good things have to come to an end
and after two weeks we caught the train back to Ahwaz and thence to Shaiba.
For entertainment we had
radio programs relayed from Britain but we also picked up programs emanating
from Ahwaz which was under American control. Rum and Coca Cola
sung by The Andrews Sisters was pounded out at least three
times daily. Occasionally boxing was arranged between ourselves and the
Americans to what we would call amateur rules, three three-minute rounds with a
two-minute break between rounds, no referee in the ring but with the contests
bring controlled verbally by an officer at ringside. The styles of the two
countries differed and we considered ourselves lucky if we won three out of the
ten bouts. Naturally we cheered for our own boxers but were appreciative of
any American who adopted the more upright stance rather than the American
crouch. There were frequent cinema shows and sometimes ENSA parties visited
us on their tours of army bases; twice I recall going to shows given by touring
Russian groups; though the language was unintelligible to most of us the types
of turns given did not require any great understanding of Russian and their
performances were first class. I usually went along fairly early to grab a
reasonable seat and was frequently annoyed when I was dispossessed by late
arriving superiors; on such occasions I sometimes returned to my billet to read
a book or to go to sleep; I was fairly content in my own company.
The army would not be the army if we did not have
visitations at times by the top brass. I don’t remember and I don’t think I
ever knew who the officer was who came to inspect our installations; I wasn’t
much interested. However the Machine Shop was set up to display our talents
and virtually every machine was to be working, operators were called in from
other jobs where necessary and Johnny Lockett was one such lucky one.
Although he was a skilled man he had been put to work driving an internal gharri
around the base on trivial errands but now he was called in to stand by a
machine that was honing the bores of cylinder blocks and he was doing just that
when the top brass came by. The machine had been previously set up.
“And what’s going on here?” asked top brass.
“Honing cylinder bores Sir”.
“I see, and how metal are you removing?”
“Don’t know, Sir.”
“You don’t know! then what are you doing here?”
“Watching, Sir.”
“What’s your trade?”
“Precision grinder, Sir.”
“Precision grinder and you don’t know how much metal
you’re removing?”
“No, Sir, I was just told to come here and stand by the
machine. I don’t think it’s cutting anything.”
Johnny Lockett was not very popular with his superiors after that
and I believe he went back to driving the internal gharri.
I think it was about July or August 1945 that I was
transferred to Egypt, anyway while we were in transit we read that the
Americans had dropped a super bomb on Japan and the consensus among us was,
”There they go, bragging again,” and we put it out of our minds.
We travelled in style this time — to start with. After WWI two
Australians, seeing the potential, had acquired some vehicles and started a company,
Nairn Transport, to carry passengers and freight across the Middle East
and our party was put on two of their air conditioned coaches to travel from Baghdad to Damascus. The routes had been well established by this time and the coaches
left the metalled roads and went across the desert in a fairly straight line
from point A to point B. I was in the second coach following the leader and
for a while all went well; we kept a reasonable distance between us because our
passage stirred up a whirl of loose sand. Of course it had to be our coach
that eventually broke down; our driver honked and honked until he got the
attention of the leader; consultations followed. By-and-by a tow chain was
hitched to one of our front spring shackles and off we went. With no power we
had no air conditioning and the heat became unbearable so we opened the
windows. This was not a good idea because we were following close, a tow
chain’s length, behind the other coach and we were in the minor sandstorm of
its wake. Soon our sweaty bodies were caked with sand and the only respite
came when the front spring shackle gave way and we ground to a halt. Repairs
were made and the tow chain was re-attached, this time to the other front
spring shackle. Many miles farther on this one also gave up the ghost and
there were no more spare parts available for repairs, fortunately a small Arab
settlement was close at hand. It was now night and we waited and waited until
a relief coach reached us and took us uneventfully into Damascus. The next
day we boarded the metre gauge railway train bound for Dar’a. My memory now
fails me; I remember passing the southern end of Lake Tiberias and arriving at Haifa but I don’t know how I got there. From Haifa we took a train along the coast into Egypt, crossing the Suez Canal at El Qantara, finishing up eventually at another desolate spot, No.2
Base Workshops at Tel-el-Kebir.
TEL-EL-KEBIR
I remember my father telling me when I was a youngster
that the battle of Tel-el-Kebir was one of the last battles in which the
British fought in red coats. I suppose that it stayed in his mind because it
would have been still in the news when he was a child, the battle having taken
place in 1882. No.2 Base Workshops was in that general vicinity but
as usual it was in the wide open spaces; it was similar to Shaiba in size and
content and served the same purpose. On one of my trips to Cairo I passed
through the town — or was it too small to be so called — and I paused at
the cemetery where the British dead of that battle were buried and my thoughts
went back to my father’s tales.
The European war had finished and the American claim to
have a super bomb was no longer bragging, it was a reality. The debate over
the use of the atomic bomb rages on but my opinion then and still today is that
it was justified in that it shortened the war and saved many 1000’s of lives,
Japanese as well as Allied, maybe even mine. It depends on whose ox is being
gored. We were going in the right direction and demob was in sight.
British forces in No.2 BW included quite a number of
Jews who had every reason to want Germany defeated; initially they were
integrated with us, they said they didn’t want to be isolated in ghettos but as
time went on and as they absorbed more and more of military training and
organisation they felt large enough and competent enough to warrant separate
status. When I arrived at Tel-el Kebir ‘S’ camp, the Jewish camp, was an
accomplished fact. I imagine that Haganah was born or nurtured there; maybe
Irgun also.
The DO staff was larger than that at Shaiba and
included several Jews one of whom became my friend; his parents had sent him to
Palestine before the war when things looked threatening in Austria and by the time I met him all his family had perished in Dachau. He was alone in the world
and he joined the British forces I sensed hostility on the part of two other
Jews, one male, one female; I don’t know why, I hadn’t done anything to them,
perhaps they thought the British were standing between them and the creation of
the Israeli state.
The office work was much the same as before, nothing
very exciting; one of the lads, Craftsman Edlin wishing to upgrade his
draughtsman’s rating applied to be trade tested and was told to design a lawn
mower for the officers’ quarters. Since the lawn at the officers’ quarters
boasted about 50 blades of grass per square foot this was a little silly.
DO STAFF No.2 BASE WORKSHOPS TEL-EL-KEBIR
Back row (l to r)
George. Sgt Madders. Cfn Grey. Cfn Pulgram. Sgt
Wassel.
Cfn Brewster. Cfn Edlin. Cpl Johnsoon. Faris
Seated
Sgt Simon. S/Sgt Tudor. Herta Weiskopfova. Lt
Hackman. S/Sgt Rollason
Squatting
Tony
To control traffic in and out of the compound barriers
were placed across the roads at suitable places; these followed standard army
design, probably unchanged for a couple of centuries, a pole spanning the width
of the road, pivoted at one end and counterweighted. Alongside the
installation an Arab sat on a cushion on an upturned petrol can, waiting for
customers. I don’t believe he had any means of identifying friend or foe but
when he was satisfied he raised the pole to allow a lorry through. There was
one drawback to this system however, come quitting time he would pick up his
cushion and off he would go, back to the wife and kids, often leaving the pole
neither vertical nor horizontal but at about 45°. An unsuspecting lorry
driver coming in after dark and seeing no horizontal barrier would charge
straight ahead and that would mean vehicle repairs and a replacement pole. To
overcome this shortcoming design ideas were solicited and I got busy with a
matchbox, a penholder (the wooden rod type, then current), paper clips and a
light spring that I wound out of some fine wire. The principle I used was not
original. Simply put, the operating lever in this case the bent paper clip
due to spring action would only stay in one of two extreme positions and the
pole, in this case the penholder would also only stay on one of two extreme
positions. I gave the model to the sergeant who seemed impressed and it was
passed up through the ranks, everyone trying to beat it. Eventually it
finished up in the hands of Brigadier Butters; he seemed satisfied and gave the
go-ahead to modify one of the existing barriers. The most suitable one was
close to the DO and this we decided to modify. At this stage it should be
pointed out that design ideas are transformed into finished products by means
of engineering drawings, these really have the status of legal documents to be
followed precisely. This is at variance with the beliefs of some people who
think that a drawing is only a pretty picture of something that has already
been made; more than once I’ve been asked, “Where do you get the model you’ve
copied?” The barrier was duly examined and drawings prepared showing exactly
what had to be done to modify it to the new design and the drawings were issued
to the machine shop.
In charge of the machine shop were two Polish officers
whose names to me were both unpronounceable and unspellable and they oversaw
the modifications. I believe their hearts were not in the job, they resented
being told what to do even via drawings by a lowly craftsman but since the
brigadier had ordained it they had to comply. “Vy don’t ve do like in ze old
country?” they asked, meaning that they wanted to make a barrier operated by a
pinion and quadrant, like in ze old country that could be similarly be left up
in the 45° position. They took matters into their own hands and decided not
to work on the existing barrier but to start from scratch; they didn’t even
build it across a road but selected a spot near the machine shop. A steel
tube was used for the pole and metal strips dangled from it to simulate a solid
barrier when the pole was horizontal. To balance the extra weight of the
strips the counterweight had to be increased and then the tube began to bend so
they rammed a solid bar inside the tube. Two channel sections were concreted
into the ground to support the tube and the pivot rod was beautifully mounted
on ball bearings; the only thing was the thing didn’t work. Ignored were all
my design instructions particularly regarding the relationship of the centre of
gravity to the pivot point that were detailed on my drawings and that had been
approved by the major in charge of the DO. The springs and shock absorbers
that had been salvaged from scrapped vehicles were also not mounted where they
should have been. In short the Poles had created something of a dog’s
breakfast and they awaited the brigadier’s inspection with some concern. He
was not pleased. The project was abandoned and when I left to be demobbed
some five months later it still stood in isolation in the desert, a stark
monument to false pride and stupidity.
With the end of the European war conditions had eased a
little and I took advantage of this to spend a couple of days in Cairo; I did
the usual tourist things, viewing the Sphinx and climbing a little way up the
Great Pyramid at Giza. Coming down to earth again I found some Arabs with
their camels gathered at the base of the pyramid waiting for people like me and
of course I couldn’t resist being photographed aboard a static camel.
Another half day was spent in the Cairo Museum where Tutankhaman’s historical
artefacts were the main attraction. We could also go occasionally to a spot on
the Suez Canal, Lake Timsah, for a weekend where the army had established Ferry
Point Leave Camp, where tent tops were situated amongst pine trees and
where discipline was relaxed. The trip by army lorry took us by Zagazig and
the Sweet Water Canal where to fall in meant a series of unpleasant injections
by the MO. We lazed and swam and ate and sun bathed and for the first time
saw little sea horses I found that I could float in the canal whereas I
never could in fresh water but I also found that there were leeches in the
water and a couple attached themselves to me.
DO & CLERICAL STAFF No.2 BASE WORKSHOPS. AFTER VJ DAY
Sometimes we went into Ismailia, a nearby town for a
change of pace, perhaps to the open air cinema or to buy something to send
home; I remember sending packets of jordan almonds and dates back to Britain. The war with Japan was now officially over but mopping-up would still take some
time and troopships of pink Brits were constantly passing; we used to cheer
them up by yelling, “Get yer knees brown, Pinky.” or, “Yer going the wrong
way.” Many of the old stagers among us were fried to a deep brown and could
easily pass for natives and some used to swim out to the troopships and
emulating the natives dive for pennies thrown by the unsuspecting pink Brits.
The army had spent a lot of time over the years teaching
us to do the most uncivil things and now they attempted to re-humanise us; for
this purpose members of the Army Educational Corps were sent out to lecture us
on several subjects dealing mainly with the practical side of living, buying
houses, mortgages, how to deal with uncooperative neighbours, a little applied
psychology and the like; quite useful really.
With my Jewish friend I took the opportunity to go to Palestine; we stayed in Haifa in the Hotel Mizpah on Hadar Harcarmel. We did the
rounds there and then split up for a while as he had friends in the area, later
we went on to Jerusalem staying at the YMCA. On my own I wanted to see a bit
of the city and as I was wandering around trying to decide which way to go I
was accosted by a self-appointed guide who insisted on showing me the sights.
I said, “No — no — NO” but I couldn’t shake him off, whichever way I
turned he was there chatting away and pointing out things that he thought I
should see. Actually he spoilt my day and when the tour was over I felt
obliged to give him something, he told me his fee and I gave him half; that
didn’t please him but he might have learned that “no” means “no.”
I went on to Tel Aviv where I booked in at Toc H, Talbot
House; wanting to see as much as possible I parked my belongings on my bed
and off I went into town. I don’t remember too much of the place, I wasn’t
there long enough. It was a lovely sunny day and the brilliant whites of the
buildings stay in my mind — and of course the beach. Going back to my room
I discovered a letter on my bed, it was addressed to A British soldier,
somewhere In Israel and bore at its top right-hand corner what purported to
be a facsimile of an Israeli stamp though of course Israel didn’t exist at that
time. The gist of the message inside was to this effect, If you are
ordered to open fire on Jews, disobey the order.” I carried this letter
around with me for ages until after I was demobbed when I put it aside with
other memorabilia and although I’ve hunted and hunted it has unfortunately
disappeared. After my stay in Tel Aviv I returned to Jerusalem for a few
days, looked around again, this time without a guide and got set to go back to Haifa. This was on November 11th 1945 and there had been some Israeli
terrorist bombings. The bus company decided to go on strike but I managed to
flag down a jeep and hitch a ride all the way. Arriving at Haifa the Military
Police stopped me from returning to the Hotel Mizpah as more bombings
were expected and I was forced to put up at The Union Jack Club near the
waterfront. The accommodation was dormitory style, one floor up and my
companions for the night were all Jews, about six of them, members of the
British forces. The conversation naturally turned to the unrest in the
country and I was given a comprehensive and detailed account of Jewish history
and of their aspirations. I was told with some exaggeration of all the famous
people in the world who were Jews, some claims I knew to be true, of others I
was uncertain but I didn’t argue. After three-quarters of an hour of this one
said, “We’re wasting our breath, he doesn’t believe us.” and the conversation
turned to more innocuous subjects before we drifted off to sleep. The next
day I went along to the bus station feeling a bit peeved to think that I was
the owner of an unused return half ticket and was prepared for a minor
confrontation but to my surprise the bus company offered me, without the
slightest murmur, half the cost of the original fare. The Military Police
allowed me to go back into my hotel to collect my belongings; I bought some
Christmas cards that had pressed flowers inside labelled Flowers from the
Holy Land and then with Louis I returned to No.2 Base Workshops.
Now that the war with Japan was over the steady homeward
flow began of those British civilians who had been their prisoners. Some were
to pass through our area. Our work was tending to wind down and thinking
mainly of the children one workshop was turned over to the manufacture of toys;
these were fairly simple ones generally in wood and although we didn’t have
exactly a production line going we certainly made large quantities and lots of
wheeled ducks were painted by me.
PAINTING THE DUCKS
The other main sights to see long before the creation of
the Aswan Dam and Lake Nasser were Luxor, Thebes and Karnak and together with
Jock Grey I went to Cairo and booked up a trip at the YMCA. Our train
companions were an American, Howard Sorrel and an ATS girl whose name now
eludes me. We stayed at the Hotel de Famille in Luxor on an upper
floor. In the afternoon, hearing an unusual sound of human voices we looked
out of the window and saw a procession approaching at a jog trot; this was an
Arab funeral and the women were wailing. The coffin was carried shoulder high
by six or eight bearers who changed places frequently, it was open topped but
covered with a green baize cloth and the occupant was having a rough ride,
bouncing around in keeping with the jog trot.
Later we were given an extensive tour around the
antiquities of Luxor and Karnak; then crossing the river by dhow and going
overland by estate car we reached Thebes and The Valley of the Kings. There
we toured several tombs including that of King Tutankhamen.
THE VISIT TO LUXOR, KARNAK AND THEBES. NOVEMBER 1945
A small boy approached us surreptitiously and in return
for a few piastres offered to show us a mummified head; this was strictly
illegal of course but we paid and took some photographs. Our guide took us
back to his house and showed us some of the antiques he had acquired; he gave
us all mint tea and then brought out more modern items for sale. I bought two
small alabaster vases, others bought mementoes also but one lad after asking
the price of a particular object started to haggle not realising that in his
own house the guide felt obliged to sell for the lower price. Seeing the look
of consternation on his face we tumbled to his dilemma and made up the
difference on later purchases.
Rummaging through the relics of those days I recently
came across a letter that I had sent to my mother back in 1945 and amongst the
scribble I found the corpse of the mosquito I had swatted in mid-blood-suck and
sent home; there was still a red stain on the letter.
Life drifted on. Just before Christmas I had a cable
from father telling me that mother had had surgery and was seriously ill; I
applied for compassionate leave and travelled to Cairo for an interview in the Hotel
Semiramis. The officer said that it could be arranged but since my demob
was imminent I would probably get home quicker if I let things take their
course. I did.
Before we were demobbed we had to undergo a medical
examination to ensure that we couldn’t make any post war claims for incapacity
due to our service; at the same time we were asked what medals we were entitled
to. I said that I didn’t want any medals, being only too glad to be getting
home again. We were never actually discharged from the army but placed on ‘Z
reserve’ and were instructed to report any change of address to the
authorities. In January I was on the homeward stretch, first to Qassassin by
lorry then by train to Alexandria. We assembled at the quayside; “Right,
lads,” said the sergeant, “pick up your monkeys and parrots and get fell in
facing the boat.” We wasted no time boarding the Colorado Springs
Victory. She was American, a welded Liberty Ship and naturally had
an American crew. The sleeping arrangements were not hammocks like the
British but were double decker steel framed beds The route taken was known as
Medloc; we steamed across the Mediterranean between Italy and Sicily, passing a
smoking Stromboli as we headed for Toulon. Being an American ship we didn’t
have oatmeal for breakfast but were served what they called farina which
many years later I discovered to be cream of wheat. The dock area of Toulon was a bit of a shambles, bomb damage everywhere and sunken ships. On our way
through the town we came across many roadside graves, bayoneted rifles stuck in
the ground surmounted with the German helmets of those who didn’t make it.
It was bitterly cold in Toulon and what was unusual for
the south of France there was snow everywhere. Three of us filled in time by
taking a walk to the east of the town and when we had had enough we hitched a
lift back to camp. A French jeep came by with two French sailor types, they
stopped for us and we jumped in the back only to find that it was already
partially filled with four Chinese and one dead sheep. We headed quickly in
the direction of Marseilles where I think they were going to board a ship and
we were passing our camp at high speed; thinking that we may be shanghaied we
kicked up a rumpus and were dropped off a couple of hundred yards west of the
entrance. Next day our train journey took us up through a snow covered France to Dieppe where more devastation was visible. One more night in a camp, then on to a ferry,
The Maid of Orleans, to Newhaven. It was not a smooth trip, we were
kept below deck and three hours later we emerged somewhat queasy but glad to be
back in Britain.
We went by train to Aldershot but I have no recollection
of the journey nor the name of the barracks to which we were sent, I was just
happy to be so close to freedom again. Niggling thoughts about what I could
expect when I got to Bristol worried me. I hadn’t had any news since I had
father’s cable but there was nothing I could do. The morning after our
arrival we were sent in groups by lorry to Woking to get fitted out with civilian
clothes; we were allowed to keep our greatcoats, boots, socks, tropical shirts
and shorts and then we were let loose in this large army clothing store.
There was a huge selection to choose from and I collected a raglan-sleeved
overcoat, a brown two-piece suit, a shirt, socks, a trilby hat and I believe
some shoes, though I’m not certain about the shoes. Once I was outfitted I
lost no time in collecting a travel warrant and caught the trains for Bristol, changing from the Southern Railway to the Great Western Railway at Ash.
As the only hats I had ever worn were those at school
and in the army both being compulsory I later gave the trilby to my uncle and
the boots also because things were still scarce in Britain and the boots came
in handy for work on his allotment garden. The tropical kit I gave to my
neighbour as I vowed never to wear khaki
again.
IN THE END
Father met me at the front door and the news was not
good, perhaps I was still naïve but I had never thought of losing any of my
family, not even during the air raids and I was shocked. All the family
rallied round and mother was looked after at home, whatever could be done was
done but there was no future; she had awaited my return and gave me my prized
possession, an Omega watch, on Valentine’s day; she died two weeks
afterwards.
The world now looked very different and the jubilation
with which I had anticipated my return to civilian life faded. I decided to
take stock, contemplating the future and looking back over the past. What
difference had the last six-and-a-half years made to me? I believe that the
army life had hastened or indeed was responsible for my conversion from a
youthful naïve romantic into a mature cynic. The grateful country offered
university education to its returning servicemen but I was coming up to 28 and
didn’t fancy another four years on a meagre income. I was not earning much
before the war and although I had trade pay and an overseas allowance when I
left the army, I was far from wealthy. Some firms made up their employees’
pay to the level of their civilian pay but mine didn’t. I opted to continue
working initially with my old firm and let the future unfold as it would but I
was already thinking of that beautiful country still in my memory, South Africa. I applied for a job there and was given an interview and a medical and I
was accepted. However I was told to wait until a future date when I would be
contacted again with travelling arrangements. Funnily enough the
representative’s parting remark was, “I hope you’re not like that other Bristol chap I interviewed, when we contacted him he didn’t reply.” However history did
repeat itself, I met my future wife, changed my address and forgot to advise
him of the new one.
In the aftermath of the war I got to thinking and
wondering; I had never been in a tight spot and tested; true I had been in the
Plymouth and Bristol blitzes but so had 1000’s of civilians. I don’t think I
was any more or less scared than others, probably I was average. I would like
to have known just how I would have measured up had I been in a more military
action but fate decreed otherwise. I shall never be certain now but if I consider
myself to be average I can always be persuaded that I would have acquitted
myself as well as anyone else. I got to wondering too why I had survived
six-and-a-half years in the army and emerged unscathed and in one piece when so
many others who had joined the forces long after me were now dead or maimed.
This has often led to slight feelings of guilt, particularly at armistice-day
parades.
My country had been at war with three adversaries but
the first Italian I saw was a prisoner-of-war in Iraq; the first German I saw
was a prisoner-of-war in Alexandria just prior to my demob and I have never yet
seen a Japanese soldier. However I did have some enemies, a few real and many
potential; anybody adorned with stripes, pips crowns or rings could make trouble
for me and a few did. This does not mean that I was anti-authority because I
did encounter many whom because of their leadership qualities I would have
readily followed but there were others on whom power did not sit well. I
didn’t have much to do with RAF personnel and can’t comment on them but most of
the Royal Navy types of all ranks that I came across seemed to be rational
beings. Of the army the peace-time regular officers with some years of
service appeared to be the most considerate of their charges but the wartime
intake of people unused to exercising authority produced some very
objectionable characters.
What had the army done for me and what had I done for
the army? I don’t really know. I had gone where I had been told to go, done
all the things that I had been told to do, (with some minor glitches) but I
cannot assess what contribution I had made to the war effort Being part of a
team I was probably indirectly responsible for some enemy deaths, even making
the plotting table may have contributed but I’m not aware of any and have no
worries on that score. Perhaps the army knows, I don’t. Then what had the
army done for me? When I left I was as physically fit as anyone had the right
to be, I had a short fuse and was perfectly capable of looking after myself,
very different from the lad who joined the Territorials in 1939. What skills
had the army given me? Well for one thing I had demonstrated that on a lucky
day I could, unarmed, overpower an opponent charging with a fixed bayonet (the
bayonet in a scabbard of course), three times out of five actually,
theoretically I knew how to split a mouth from ear to ear (the lips tear like
paper I was told) and I knew that hobnailed boots rubbed down an opponent’s
shin would stop him temporarily from whatever he was doing. There were some
other party tricks too. Additionally I had had some experience in plane table
surveying but none of these attributes had a place in the kind of life I
envisioned. What the army had given me was a tour around many parts of the
world that I probably not have achieved otherwise but this had to be paid for
in loss of earning capacity and wasted hours. I quite enjoyed the camaraderie
and I also appreciated the opportunity of living communally 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, for six-and-a-half years. Nobody can keep their guard up
for that protracted period and I was able to study uninhibited human behaviour
first hand. The group I studied was almost infinite in number and thus I
acquired an ability to judge character that has stood me well over the years
even if I did become a little cynical.
Inevitably I suppose the question has to be asked, was
it worth it, would I do it again? And although I fretted at times under the
discipline the answer has to be a resounding ‘Yes’, I wouldn’t have missed it
for anything.
To end this tale we now pass on to 1952. The Korean
war was still going on and I suppose that somebody thought of ‘Z reserve’. A
small package addressed to me arrived one day by registered post; inside was a
Territorial medal duly inscribed with my name and the words For Efficient
Service, complete with a length of the appropriate ribbon. I suppose I
should have been pleased but I had already said that I didn`t want any
medals. A week or so later I had another letter, not a particularly friendly
one, berating me for not having advised the authorities of my change of
address; actually I had moved twice since leaving Aldershot. By getting my
signature for the registered package my latest address had been confirmed.
Hurrah for military intelligence, they had triumphed again. I have moved
three times since those days but as I’m well into my 80`s I don`t imagine that
tracking me down again will be worth their while.
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