大象传媒

We were rushed down to the station about 11.30am to join a train for Port Said due to go out at 12 noon. Eventually it drew out slowly until we were out of the station and there it halted for nearly an hour before it set off again. We travelled on to Ishmalia on the Suez Canal. The rather strange young man who was the guard in charge of the train suggested we went into the town to have a meal as the train would not move for some time. We were rather dubious but off we went. When we returned the guard said we would have to sleep in the van with the kit, so we settled down for the night with last words from that young man, 鈥淒on鈥檛 put your heads out through the night as I shoot at anything that moves!鈥�

When we woke up it was early morning and we saw that we were travelling along side the Canal. At Port Said we drew up near the Harbour where the ship that was to take our luggage. After a time watching the loads being dragged and partly carried by a large group of Arabs who chanted as they moved the gear; it was rather fascinating to see this kind of loading of a ship! Eventually the corporal suggested that we took turns to watch the unloading whilst the other two were free to go around the town. It was indeed a fascinating town. The shops seemed well supplied and the people rather smartly dressed, especially the young women who wore rather short widely spaced yashmaks, short skirts and no stockings; not at all like we would have expected for Arab women young or old.

On the third day an urgent telegram arrived from our unit. We were to return as quickly as possible and make our way to Alexandria as we were to sail next morning to Tripoli. On our way between Ishmalia and Cairo we watched a sand storm coming towards us from the east. All windows were closed and sunlight was cut out until the storm passed by. We arrived at Alexandria, after what seemed a long wait at Cairo, about 6 p.m. and a truck was at the station to take us to the ship, but we did not sail until next morning.

When we set out in the morning from Alexandria the sea seemed quite choppy. As we turned west into the Mediterranean the sea was very choppy and it was quite difficult to walk across the wet deck as the waves sprayed it. Soon, however, our colonel decided we needed something to do and he offered his men to help with the look-out from the highest point of the ship. Consequently we private soldiers took it in turns to keep watch in what looked like a huge tub situated up above the deck several feet higher than the top of the bridge which was about twenty yards aft.

The next day I was called to be on look out for enemy ships or submarines. What a joke! I had put on as much clothing as possible with a heavy coat and a waterproof sleeping sheet wrapped on top. I could not imagine a submarine surfacing in that sea! I was instructed to call across to the men on the bridge if I saw anything suspicious. Sometime later I saw smoke rising above the horizon and after some minutes I spotted a ship, so I did my best to notify the bridge. Shouting was no use; the noise of the gale was too much, but eventually a man turned my way and waved and lifted his binoculars; he too had seen it.

Was I glad when my relief appeared! I would have been overjoyed to have had a hot shower, but that was out of the question. At least I could sit down realising my turn was over and I could sit below until we arrived at Tripoli; that was in about another 2 days. When we arrived we were billeted in a hospital taken over by the RAMC. The radiographer there was a man who trained with me in London. We were able to walk into the city some days. It was often quite deserted of the locals.

One evening I was in a ward when the sirens announced an enemy air-raid. The patients were very nervous. Then there was a loud whine of a plane diving to the ground; obviously the pilot wanted to do as much damage that he could. Then came the crash; the plane had just missed the hospital!

The time came shortly after for us to move out and 鈥渟et up shop鈥�. Army trucks arrived and took us and our tentage etc., about twenty miles or so eastward on the coast. We put up small tents that took six men. I was with Cliff Jones, Frank Fraser, Steve Brownnutt, Bernard Bloomfield and Ken Harnden. The 鈥渙ther ranks鈥� tents were about 400 yds. from the coast near a hedge of a field of grape vines not yet bearing fruit; that came later. By night-fall, about 7pm, we needed to wash and the only way to do it was to get into the sea; so we did and it was cold!

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