大象传媒

This story was submitted by Bill Spry and is added to the site with his permission. Bill had been called up after serving with the Territorial Army and had arrived in West Africa aboard the AMC Esperance Bay.

When our draft arrived in Africa we were posted to the R.W.A.F.F. (Royal West Africa Frontier Force) Signals Unit, with its H.Q in Accra
After I had been in Accra for a month I was told that I would be going to The Gambia to take charge of the Wireless Station there. As no ships ever travelled directly between the Gold Coast and The Gambia (its always The Gambia, I don鈥檛 know why) I would have to go via Freetown in Sierra Leone.
On 15th January 1942 I boarded the S.S Almanzola and arrived in Freetown on the 19th and went to the Transit Camp there. This camp was notorious for the time you could spend there. It was said that there were skeletons there of men who were still waiting for a ship! In the event I was there 33days. I eventually boarded the S.S New Northland, en route for The Gambia. It was a tiny little vessel. I don鈥檛 think any U. boat would waste a torpedo on it!
There was only one cabin which I shared with two officers. These two, together with the captain of the vessel, were almost fanatical lovers of the card game 鈥渃ontract bridge鈥�. It needs four to play this game. I was conscripted to be the missing player.
As I had never previously played anything more difficult than 鈥渒nockout whist鈥� they had to teach me how to play the game which is quite complicated.
We arrived in Bathurst, capital of The Gambia, on 23rd of February 1942 and I took charge of the W/T station there. We had to send and receive messages, in code, between ourselves and Accra which was just over a thousand miles away.
While I was there I had, as usual, an African servant who washed, dried and ironed my clothes everyday. Even in Burma I had an African Soldier as my servant.
After the USA entered the War, The Gambia became a hive of activity. They wanted to use the colony as a refuelling stop for warplanes going from America to the Middle East.
As usual they did things in a very big way. They brought over large prefabricated huts for their soldiers to sleep in (our mud huts weren鈥檛 good enough for them). Also large bulldozers, which they used to clear the jungle and then they built an aerodrome. They also built a large open air theatre and a P.X (similar to out N.A.A.F.I. where there was a caf茅 and a shop).
We were very much the poor relations in all this activity but they were very good to us and gave us full access to all their facilities. Big name Hollywood stars on their way to entertain the USA troops in North Africa would put on a show to which we were always invited.
Eventually, after eighteen months in West Africa I became entitled to six weeks 鈥渞ecuperative leave鈥� (given because of the bad climate). Married men - like me -went back to the UK. Single men were sent to South Africa where they were made very welcome. Some men met and married S.A girls.

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