大象传媒

We finally arrived at Cassasin which was on a flat plain between the Suez Canal and Cairo. We were billeted in an Army hospital of wooden huts. To the west was a stage for concerts. This was near to a canteen run by two elderly ladies. Some 100 yds away to the north was an Italian prisoners鈥� camp. The gates were left open and the inmates used to go out to any events on the stage if they wanted.

The pebbly desert was not ideal for soccer, but we managed to play some games. After a short time we went group by group for leave. The only place we were allowed to go was Cairo; only RAF could go to Jerusalem. The railway station was not far from our hospital. When we arrived at Cairo Station horse driven carriages were waiting to take troops to different 鈥渄igs鈥�. Cliff Jones, Steve Brownnutt and I went together. Various outings were arranged for troops. One day we went to the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx; another day to Memphis and Sakkhara. On returning on the third day every man from our outfit that we met told me that I was wanted at the Military Police HQ next to the railway station. When I reported there I was told to get my kit and report to the Scottish Hospital on the other side of the river.

The radiologist was a member of the Brethren; he had served in that hospital for many years and was very strict. I slept in a room overlooking a path that a Scottish piper paraded up and down below our sleeping quarters every morning at 6am, playing his instrument to announce reveille. I did not know for a few days that troops serving in Cairo were not allowed into the centre of the city across the river. Fortunately I was never challenged by a Redcap. After nearly three weeks I was told that I was urgently required back at No.ll General Hospital.

On my return I withdrew my kit back from the company stores to find that all was there except a Darby Bible that I had been given by a Brethren family in Durban; it never did turn up. As soon as I was back I learned that our unit was due to move 鈥渦p the blue鈥� to join the 8th Army. The next day two of us, with a corporal, were sent by train to Port Said to watch the loading of the company equipment being loaded on to a ship taking it up the Med.; not that we had any idea what was supposed to be taken on board!

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