大象传媒

We now found that we were to sleep in four tier bunks in a very crowded mess deck. We stowed our gear and set about finding our way about the ship. We soon forgot about the discomfort of our living accommodation when we discovered that there were about fifty WRNS on board, which seemed to make the prospect of the voyage quite bearable!

The ship left harbour quite quickly and we soon found ourselves in convoy again. I seemed to have got rid of all my seasickness in one go and had no further trouble. We still didn鈥檛 know where we were going, but after about a week at sea it became known that the next evening we would be passing through the Straits of Gibraltar. We were normally confined below decks during the hours of darkness, but were told that we could go on deck to see the lights of Gibraltar and Spain. This was an ideal opportunity to get the WRNS to ourselves for a while because below decks it was virtually impossible to isolate yourself. There was a lot of scuffling and whispering going on that night. One of our chaps trying to find a quiet corner managed to topple over a huge heap of crates full of empty beer bottles, this caused quite a bit of hilarity and chaos because the deck was covered with beer bottles all rolling around, which in the darkness proved to be quite a hazard. The next morning one of our chaps was on a charge of 鈥渋mproper and indecent conduct under a blanket鈥�. All in all a good night out!
We travelled on through the Mediterranean passing Malta and then drove into a fierce sandstorm which got the seas up so much that some of the smaller ships had to run for cover and the convoy was totally broken up. We finally arrived at Alexandria where we disembarked.

There were about twenty of us pilots on board and we were put on a train and sent down to Cairo and to another transit camp, this time in a huge hotel the Heliopolis Palace, which sounds very posh but we just had bare rooms again. The hotel did have one thing going for it, in the basement there was a row of shops where you could get anything from a haircut to a Persian rug. Also across the street was a patisserie where we went for morning coffee and the most delicious sticky cream cakes.

Having left the rigours of England and rationing we thought that as there was plenty of food around we would have a bit of a binge, so we went into the centre of Cairo on the Heliopolis tram, and went to Groppi鈥檚, a famous restaurant and ordered a meal which we thought looked good. Unfortunately after we had finished the first course we were full up so we asked the head waiter if he could hold back the rest of the meal and went out for a walk to stimulate our appetites. We then came back and finished our meal staggering back to the hotel rather bloated.

We kicked our heels here for about a month during which time we found a services club where we could have a swim and sit and have a cool drink, for by this time it was getting very hot.

Having been through an OTU course we fully expected to now be sent to an operational squadron, once again we were to be disappointed and found ourselves on our way to another OTU in Egypt at Ismailia.

The reason for this we were told was to do a conversion to flying spitfires, which didn鈥檛 seem too bad to us.

When we arrived at Ismailia we found that we weren鈥檛 to fly Spitfires straight away but started again on Harvard鈥檚, which reminded me of Rhodesia, this seemed so long ago now. This was to give the instructors a chance to judge our capabilities, and we were soon on Hurricanes again. This seemed a bit unnecessary to us but we soldiered on. It was about now that we heard that there was an outbreak of Bubonic Plague in the neighbouring town. This caused the medics to get into a bit of a panic and the station was shut down for a week whilst we all had plague jabs. These were quite horrendous and consisted of an injection of what seemed to be about a pint of serum into our backsides. We were warned not to take any alcohol for at least three days as there could be a reaction. This episode put the whole station to bed for about three days which proved most uncomfortable as our backsides were quite sore!

We finally started flying Spitfires, it was quite a memorable experience and very enjoyable. In fact a couple of the chaps got quite carried away and finding a lone Wellington flying along decided to beat it up and had a whale of a time. It wasn鈥檛 until they had been on the ground for a while that they found out that the aircraft they had beaten up had contained the Air Officer Commanding the Middle East Air Forces. They were hauled up in front of the Station Commander, given a severe reprimand, reduced in rank to Aircraftman and grounded. A high price to pay for a few minutes fun!

Having finished our OTU we went, you鈥檒l never guess, to another transit camp! This time at Aboukir, an airfield near to Alexandria. We were quite happy with this as it was on a marvellous beach, and you could get to Alexandria on a tram from just outside the gates. Looking back I think that Alexandria was one of the nicest towns I visited during the war. It was a pleasant seaside town with good beaches a French background and marvellous food.

It was with some misgivings therefore that we were told to embark on a ship called the Circassia, again destination unknown. I have remarked previously that as my rank increased so the standard of accommodation deteriorated this was to end the sequence as we were put into hammocks. I tried it for a couple of hours and decided that it was not for me. We found a four for bridge and played for the whole voyage which actually lasted about four days, with dummy catching a nap in an armchair now and again.

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