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On arrival in Iraq we collected new equipment at Shaiba Base, as the equipment that we had in India was more out of date than the equipment that we had in England at the beginning of the war. We then moved up through Iraq to the Persian border at Khanaqin and later on to the PaiTak Pass where we spent the winter on the mountainside. My own tent being a single one-man effort which I had dug down in the mountainside; quite comfortable but very cold during the snowy period. In the spring of 1942 I left 6 Ind Div Signals and joined 5 L of C Signals in Baghdad and was promoted to Major. While there I took my company and built the telephone and telegraph line for the new railway that was being built from Kut to Khaniqin; also I was given the job of installing a large telephone exchange for Paiforce HQ that had just arrived in Baghdad. After this I went to Kirkuk to provide communications for the defence of the oil wells. It was while I was here that I Had sealed orders, which turned out to be instructions to sever all the civilian communications, railway post office and oil companies for the duration of the Tehran Conference, which was attended by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. During this period I managed to get my first leave since leaving the UK and I went by lorry, that was returning after delivering oranges from Palestine , to meet my brother in Jerusalem, who had also arranged some leave and we went by rail to Luxor, to see the Tombs of the Kings and Tutankamens Tomb; after this I went back to Iraq by coach, which was a lot more comfortable. In 1944 I was posted out of Iraq having served the maximum amount of time in a warm area and joined a British Unit for a short time at Ameria which is close to Alexandria .

The camp at Ameria was close to the Italian prisoner of war compound and this had to be evacuated in order to provide space for Greek Army troops that had mutinied; the Italians being put in an open tented area, as we could trust them not to escape. Soon after I was posted back to the Indian Army and formed a Raiding Force Signals unit near the Pyramids, before moving over to Haifa in Palestine. While I was still in Cairo Ralph who was at Army HQ arranged somehow that four of our family met together for a meal in Alexandria, Ralph, Jim, and our cousin Lysbeth (a Wren Officer) and myself. Another interesting occasion was when the Egyptians found 3 people in Ameria who had murdered one of King Farouk's lady friends and after they had been found guilty arranged a public hanging on open ground between the village and the police station, which just happened to be alongside our camp, an occasion that I do not wish to be repeated. For a while during our stay at Haifa we trained with the Indian Armoured brigade in Syria and the Lebanon, before we went over to Symi, 15 miles north of Rhodes in the Dodecanese. The total force being about 1700, where we controlled the movement of all German forces stationed on Rhodes. During our time on Symi , with the assistance of the Royal Navy , we used to go over to Turkey (being still neutral) to get fresh vegetables and play basket ball against the locals .Eventually at the end of the European war , the German General in Command had to come over to Symi ,in a captured British Frigate to surrender to our Brigadier . During this period we had blocked most of the German Communications and they had to pass their Red Cross messages through us to the Turks, who were still neutral . We eventually took over from the German Forces in Rhodes, which amounted to over 17,000 troops who were all captured and taken off to Egypt.

Shortly after this I was posted back to the UK. Having completed my full term of overseas service. What excitement at the thought of getting together again with Anne after all this time. We arrived in Liverpool easily July 1945 and went on immediate leave and I shall never forget our reunion on New Street station in Birmingham and our first night together at the Queens Hotel in Birmingham .We then had our very much delayed honeymoon at Sandy Cove Hotel in Berrynarbor , where we had the company of two other honeymooners , one being Ruth with her first husband , who died a few years later.

After leave I reported to Catterick base camp, where I was luckily posted to London to take over London District Signals. Anne was able to join me as we arranged to share a flat with friends. In March 1946 I was demobed with the rank of Major.

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