- Contributed by听
- L Jackson
- Article ID:听
- A1113940
- Contributed on:听
- 18 July 2003
An account by my father, Jeffrey Jackson, of his time in Palestine, Transjordan, Lebanon and Syria with No.2 Mobile Anti-Gas Laboratory, Royal Engineers:
'In June 1944, while in Palestine, we heard about the Normandy Landings on the radio. Some time after this, what was called the Python scheme started, under which soldiers who had served more than a certain length of time overseas were returned to the UK. I just qualified for this, as the time that I spent in England in 1940 was short enough for my service to be regarded as continuous from October 1939.
Unfortunately, I then had to leave the unit and go back to the Royal Engineers' base depot at Moascar, which meant horrible things like guard duty, in which I was in charge of the guard because by then I had reached the exalted rank of corporal (I would no doubt have risen higher, had I not been so anti-army).
However, I at last left Moascar and sailed from Port Said on the Indrapoera, a fairly small and cramped Dutch ship. It was like being on a cruise - as far as Gibraltar. Once in the Bay of Biscay, however, the weather deteriorated, and we also acquired an escort of an aircraft carrier and a number of corvettes as there were submarines about. Depth charges were exploded in the vicinity, which made the whole ship reverberate - not a nice feeling.'
-- Read all L Jackson's edited contributions about her father's service
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