大象传媒

Back now 55 years to Monday 5th August 1940. Having survived the BEF evacuation we sailed out of the Mersey just before midnight, no one having the first idea where to.
As far as I recall, we had on board about 3000 ORs, NCOs and Warrant Officers, 300 Officers and 50 QAs. As the voyage took six and a half weeks, competition became keen towards the end and the plainest of the QAs became really attractive. Of the 300 Officers, 30 of us were OMEs wearing two pips whereas a large contingent of the rest consisted of junior subalterns. It was not surprising therefore that we formed a fairly tight group, particularly as we expected to end up together at the same destination. Five of us, Sutcliffe, Hepplewaite, Shaw, Bell and I did much of what there was to do together. Unfortunately Bell got appendicitis 8 days out much to the joy of the ship's surgeon who had to operate. He had not had much to do except cure VD and sea sickness previously.
We moved out into the Atlantic in convoy of 17 ships accompanied by a strong escort. After 3 days most of the others left us that reduced our convoy to 7 with a light cruiser as escort. We put into Freetown on the 10th day, presumably for fuel and water for the long hop to somewhere. This was my first sight of Africa with boat loads of natives diving for pennies we threw overboard and trying to sell bits and bobs hoisted up on the ends of long bamboo poles. We were not allowed ashore of course, it was bloody hot and luckily we left the next day. The first day out of Freetown the Monarch of Bermuda left us for destination unknown. Our convoy now consisted of our Strathaird, the Empress of Britain (commodore), the Empress of Canada, the Stratheden, a Polish ship and the Andes. All carried troops and our cruiser came too.

On the day we arrived in Capetown, Sunday, we did not get ashore until just after lunch. As most places were closed, two of us took a bus to the bottom of the cableway that went up Table Mountain (3500ft). The cableway that does the last 2000ft appeared to me to be pretty flimsy in design but it worked. The view from the top was indescribably wonderful with a completely clear sky and brilliant sunshine. During our stay in Capetown, I think the troops as a whole were pretty well behaved. Although, late one evening, a small car was found at the top of a flight of steps to the Town Hall rather reminiscent of those of St. Pauls. The car was thought to have been carried up, but nobody seemed to know by whom.
On the evening of Friday 30th August we moved out into Table Bay and dropped the hook to rendezvous with other ships of our convoy to be. By morning the 7 of us were well under way again with sundry cargo vessels and our trusty cruiser, 12 in all. The rumour by now was that we were heading for Suez.
At Capetown we had disembarked all the Indian Army officers and all the QAs that we had brought from home, presumably to transfer to other ships. This meant that we were unlikely to go to India. Equally we had taken aboard a few officers and a lot of troops bound for the Middle East, so Suez seemed to be a fair bet. All this involved a change of cabins for a number of us and I came off well, I had square portholes that opened on deck!
Having turned the corner of the Cape of Good Hope, our course was now just a bit East of North. We continued with morning PT, afternoon lectures, Arabic, reading and generally getting bored. I had bought a very nice piece of leather in Capetown that I sliced lengthwise with a razor blade and plaited into a belt, using two small bit rings for a buckle. It turned out to be a very fine belt that lasted for a number of years keeping my shorts in position.
Passing Durban we were joined by another ship, it began to blow and the radio from home gave graphic news of German raids on London.
From time to time during the voyage so far we had submarine alerts but latterly more apprehension was evident. Having passed Mombassa there was a lot of activity on board in expectation of air attack. Machine gun positions were set up on deck and we had rifle drill lying on our backs to shoot sky-wards. Soon after passing Aden our escort was increased to 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 3 sloops, one of the cruisers was the Hobart. After 38 days at sea, on 12 September just over a year since the war started, we entered the Red Sea and was it hot! We had paravanes streaming out from the bows and we could see land in the distance on both sides of us. Beyond one or two false air raid warnings the trip up the Red Sea was uneventful, just hot. We anchored off the yellow sand stone cliffs of Suez on the morning of Tuesday 16 September. It had taken us 42 days to get here.
We learned that our final destination was to be the RAOC Base Workshops at Abbassia a few miles west of Cairo. However, due to the inefficiency of either the British Army or the Egyptian military machine we could not disembark until Thursday. So we spent three days on board at anchor off Suez in the stinking heat. Thursday morning arrived and - I quote from an entry in my diary -- "all hurry and bustle at a very early hour in the morning, breakfast at 5.00 and on board the barges alongside by 7.00鈥�. After patiently waiting until about 8.30 a small and very low powered tug took us in tow. It was so slow that it took over two hours to get ashore where we caught a train at 11.00. With the usual terrific efficiency, those responsible for our baggage left it on board and so with great misgivings we set off for Cairo in just khaki shorts, bushjacket and our web equipment.
After a very hot and sandy train journey all 30 of us finally arrived in Abbassia, where we were taken to the Ordnance camp and bedded down in bell tents. We spent Friday and Saturday finding our feet in the Base Workshops. It was working 24 hours a day. They put half of our draft of 30 on day shift and the other half on nights. All this time I was feeling dreadful and by Sunday evening I ended up in the military hospital in Cairo with sand fly fever. Luckily it didn't last too long and four days later they discharged me from their medical care and charged me two shillings and six pence per day for the privilege of being there! By the following Friday I was back on the job in the workshops.
My stint in Egypt was very short lived. Two days after getting back we were rehoused in a concrete building, "open plan" like a school dormitory. I went on night shift working from 3 p.m. to midnight. By this time the regimental tailor had produced a 'made to measure' khaki drill suit, 3 pairs of shorts, 4 shirts and 3 pairs of stockings for the equivalent of a little under 拢4. At the time that seemed to me to be pretty good value. The CO found the Workshops too hot during the day and only worked in his office at night. Finding himself suddenly endowed with a draft of 30 'young officers', he decided that, on rotation, he would have one of the night shift as a PA/ Orderly Dog. The lucky guy had to sit in the outer office to be at his beck and call as required during the night.
It so happened that my first and only "PA" duty occurred on Wednesday the 2nd October just 13 days after setting foot on land at Suez. Around midnight, I was reading an Edgar Wallace thriller in the outer office when 'the Old Man' came out with a signal in his hand that he had just received from the War Office. He said "Potter, I want three of your draft for East Africa, two artillery chaps and one for armoured cars, whom do you suggest?" I suggested two of my pals, Sutcliffe who was with armoured cars in France and Bell who was with one of the Gunner Regiments there also. I said also "Of course I was with the 98th Field in the BEF" rather wondering if I was sticking my neck into something I might regret. "All right," he said, "get the other two off on the Nile steamer, you had better fly down with BOAC. They want one of you down there in a hurry鈥�.
I asked him what sort of assignment this was going to be. He did not seem to know too much about it beyond the fact that it was nominally a LAD job and - "You had better swot up on your 3.7 Howitzers". "Ack Ack" I asked, "No" he said, "3.7 screw guns, those that Kipling wrote about in India". So much for swotting them up, I thought that they went out with the Ark. It surprised me that there were any left outside of museums. Still it sounded interesting and a bit of a challenge.
Bell had requested to be relieved of the assignment in view of his recent appendix operation. The Colonel granted his request and detailed Sommerford to go in lieu. I got him and Sutcliffe off on the Nile steamer with van loads of baggage and then got myself organised to fly. I had to cut all of my worldly goods down to the 60 lbs required to satisfy Mr. BOAC.
In hind sight, the chance of it being my turn to be the CO's PA that evening is most significant. Throwing out a casual reference to my past field gun experience meant that he automatically selected me for East Africa. It saved him looking through the qualifications of the rest of our draft. Being in the right place at the right time has its uses. As far as I know all the others were shortly posted to Western Desert units, were embroiled in Rommel's rough-shod offensive and I did not hear of any of them returning.
The camp guard called me at 4.30 on Saturday 5 October 1940, a quick breakfast and down to the airport at El Faraque. At 7.00 we took off in an Imperial Airways Empire Flying Boat (the Canopus) a 4 engined machine with magnificently appointed interior. It had large square portholes or windows, reclining armchairs, two each side of a wide aisle and a couple of charming air hostesses to look after us. We had 12 passengers. We flew down beside the Nile over very rugged desert, at about 10,000 feet. Another breakfast at 8.00 and we landed at 11.45 on the Nile again at Wadi Halfa on the Sudan border to refuel. Two launches came alongside, one took us off to the Company Office where they gave us iced lemonade, the other loaded with 4 gallon square tins of aviation gasolene refueled the flying boat. It was all done very swiftly and by 12.10 we were airborne again heading for Khartoum where we touched down on the Nile around 3.0 o'clock.
The temperature was absolutely stifling. The air was hotter than I could ever imagine. A car took us about 8 miles into the centre of Khartoum and I was installed in The Grand Hotel. They gave me a very large room overlooking the Nile at the front and a palatial garden at the back. In the centre of my high ceiling was a long punka 鈥榩unking鈥� slowly back and forth. On investigation I found that it was motivated by a very black Sudanese lying comfortably in the passage outside with a long string tied to his big toe. The string went through a hole at top of my wall on to the punka.
It was very nostalgic some 40 odd years later to occupy what I believe was the same room during a business visit to Khartoum as a consultant to the Sudanese Government. It did not have a punka! Instead there was a very inefficient electric air conditioning unit fitted into one of the windows. My punka walla of 40 years previously had been unaffected by the frequent electrical power cuts that I experienced in 1981 or 82.
Called at 4.00 next morning together with Hill, an RAF chap in the adjoining room, I had some paw paw and coffee. Then, together with those passengers who were going on, went by car down to Gordon's Tree where the plane awaited with engines ticking over. We took off at 6.15, destination Kisumu on Lake Victoria.
The trip down was absolutely fascinating particularly beyond Juba where the captain brought us down quite low to see herds of elephant and other big game. Hill, the guy I had breakfast with, was on leave from the RAF in the Sudan and on his way back to his farm in Kenya. He waxed very enthusiastically about Lake Victoria that was a wonderful sight from above. We landed at Kisumu about 6.30 and after customs clearance were taken by a dilapidated bus up to the Kisumu Hotel. I found there that it would be impossible to get a lift on an RAF plane down to Nairobi for several days, so I decided to take the goods train leaving at 5.00 the next morning. It was scheduled to arrive in Nairobi 'some time' two days later.
In the meantime Hill had telephoned his wife who decided to leave at once to pick both of us up. She arrived well after midnight dead tired after a pretty bad 200 mile journey over dirt roads. The following morning I set off with the two of them in their Ford V8 station wagon together with two 'boys', one dog and the baggage of both of us. It was a bit tight but nevertheless a fascinating journey up to their farm at Rongai at 6300 feet. Although almost on the equator it was a bit nippy and I wondered if I had brought enough warm clothing for this part of the World.
The Hills were most hospitable, they showed me some of their 1100 acres, their rather quaint mud walled house with its long covered verandah and their three children with their night and day nurseries. The two nurseries were separated from the main house. The spare room also was some 20 yards from the main building.
We discovered that there was a goods train leaving Rongai around 6.00 that evening so Hill arranged for the stationmaster to telephone when it was ready to leave. When we finally arrived at the station the train was waiting for me, complete with a small guard's van tacked on for my personal use. We headed across the Rift Valley to Nakuru where I had to change trains. I managed to persuade the guard of the new train to wait half an hour while I grabbed a quick meal at the hotel. This time I shared a larger luggage van with a load of fish and two other passengers. One was a Sergeant Major going to the next station 2 hours on and the other was a tough old timer coming up from Tanganyika to Nairobi to join up again. During the night it got pretty cold but we were able to put our beds down and sleep a bit in spite of odd milk churns being thrown in from time to time.
Eventually we reached Nairobi around 4.30 in the morning of 9 October 1940. I was lucky enough to find a taxi driver asleep in his cab who took my 60lbs of worldly goods and me to the New Stanley Hotel. Here, after a considerable amount of banging, I gained admittance. Sleepy staff gave me tea, a bath and some breakfast.
At a civilised hour later on and after a bit of reconnaissance I found the office of Colonel Gaisford the DDOS or top man in the RAOC in East Africa. He told me that as an Imperial Officer I was to be attached to the equivalent East African Corps, the EAAOC and command a small mobile workshop out in the northern bush at a spot called Garissa. There I joined a Nigerian Mountain Battery of 3.7 Howitzers. These guns did turn out to be Kipling's 'screw guns' of Indian Munity days.
So here started my lengthy period with the East African Forces that lasted four and a half years from 9 October 1940 until 25 March 1945. Some of this time I spent in the hostile areas of Abyssinia, I had a short visit to Madagascar and then went to Burma. In between there was a short spell in a Staff job in Mombassa and the best part of a year jungle training in what was Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

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