大象传媒

We arrived at Durban, South Africa on 26TH April 1942. We were all given two day鈥檚 shore leave, but we had to return to the ship each night. It was quite hot here during the day, so we wore our khaki drill uniforms. It was very lovely in Durban, and everyone was so kind. Wenty and I had a smashing time, on the second day ashore we were invited to dinner by a middle aged couple, a Mr and Mrs A Fields. They picked us up in Durban and after taking us around the shops and other places of interest, they drove us to their lovely house overlooking the harbour, a few miles from town. It was beautiful, they had servants and a cook/housekeeper. We had a really marvelous evening with them, then they drove us back to the ship. Before we left, we gave them our home address and they wrote to our relatives to let them know we were safe and well. We left Durban on 28th April 1942, and dropped anchor in a bay off Madagascar.

On May 5TH 1942, we went ashore in assault boats and commenced an attack on Vichy French Forces. On 5th and 6th May 1942, the 17th and 29th Independent Brigades went into action with Commandos supported by our 13th brigade. On the night of the 6th May 1942 we marched over very rough country for about 18 miles. Woods and buildings were burning, lighting up the night sky and we saw some casualties being brought back to a temporary field hospital. In the early hours of the following morning a halt was called, sentries posted and the remainder of us slept just where we were, fully clothed. We were in a wood about three miles from where the commandos met their first opposition. They received some casualties and lost a few vehicles, including two bren carriers. Enemy casualties were heavy and several snipers were killed. I found four of them dead in the woods were we slept, they were coloured troops.

About an hour after daybreak, the French forces put down a barrage with 75mm guns, but most of the shells fell in the valley below us and did very little damage. French forces in the north of Madagascar surrendered that day, 7th May 1942 at 12 noon, and we occupied the airport, Camp Arachart Aviation Militaire. We stayed there for two days unloading bombs and guarding the airport until a unit of the South African Airforce took over.

We then moved out into the bush where we stayed for another twelve days. We made beds out of empty wooden fuel crates and built shelters with rushes and tall thick grass to protect us from the heat of the sun, in fact we were like Robinson Crusoes. Most afternoons were spent bathing in a river or washing our clothes. A few of us went down to a little village and asked the natives to climb up and pick coconuts. Peanuts, limes and bananas were very plentiful too. One afternoon four of the lads and myself visited a small farm. The owner welcomed us and gave each of us a glass of rum. He sat talking to us in fairly good English, and before we left he showed us around his farm. Our last day at Madagascar was 20th May 1942 and we marched through Antsarance and embarked on the Franconia once more at Diego Surez. As he was about to embark, a young lad from one of the rifle companies slipped, fully equipped, from the jetty and was drowned. In conclusion to the Madagascar Campaign, I would like to add that the Fleet Air Arm did very good work in Bombing the Drome. They left the landing strip undamaged for our own planes, also some living quarters and a fuel store on the other side of the field. Several enemy planes were destroyed in the hangers which received many direct hits.

At sea, a terrible disease which must have been picked up in Madagascar, broke out on board and caused very many sudden deaths. Burials at sea took place every day and the hospital ward was full of very ill soldiers. We arrived at Bombay on May 30th 1942 and as we sailed into harbour, the yellow and black flag denoting disease on board was hoisted. When we docked, two Red Cross trains were waiting to take the very ill to hospital. After disembarking we spent two days in a camp just inside the city. We then boarded a train for Armednagar, passing on route through Poona. At Armednagar we were all inoculated in both arms and put on a course of pills against Malaria and the disease from Madagascar. The camp at Armednagar was very good, we had 鈥楥ha Wallahs鈥�, 鈥楧hobi and Doodi Wallahs鈥� and camp cleaners. The huts were kept cool with fans.

We did a little training and a few route marches. In the evenings I either went to the camp cinema or went down to the Bazaar. It was always stocked with silks, ivory carvings, filigree silver trinkets, sweets, shoes, clothes, and of course the shoe shine boys and photographers. How I loved those evenings, the pleasant warmth, the croaking of the Bullfrogs, the crick-crick of the crickets and the hypnotic sound of the native bands. I visited the tomb of Salabat Khan which was on a hill about three miles from our camp overlooking a lovely valley. The guide said it was known locally as Happy Valley. Before entering the tomb, I was asked to remove my boots and with the guide, I proceeded down along a winding staircase into a dark room. In the centre, on an ornate dais stood the coffins of Salabat Khan and his first wife. It was pleasantly cool in here and the only light in the tomb was obtained from two round holes, about a foot in diameter, high up in the wall directly above the head of each coffin. At noon when the sun was high in the Heavens, a beam of sunlight fell on the head of each coffin and then moved slowly down over each coffin until the sun passed out of sight.

For two weeks, three chaps from our company and myself were detailed for a special guard duty on a seriously ill soldier at the British and Indian Military Hospital at Sarash. While we were there the monsoon season started. The first rains came with a heavy thunderstorm, and as the rains teemed down the whole surface of the earth steamed as if it were boiling.
We left Armednagar by train on 17th August 1942 and returned to Bombay where we embarked on the SS Lancashire on the 20th August 1942. Eight days later we docked at Basrah in Iraq and traveled by train to Zubair near Ishar. Zubair is in the desert and we were in tents. The heat was terrific during the day, often up to 110 degrees. We did nothing outside after 9.30 am except to fetch our meals. We lay around in the tents with hardly any clothes on trying to keep cool. Each evening after sundown we all went for a shower which was really very refreshing, and then if we wanted to, we could go the a canteen nearby. The sandstorms were much worse than the sun. We only had about three days that were clear. For the remainder, the sand blew under the walls and flaps of the tents even when they were well pegged down. It got into everything, our tea and food, our hair and eyes. Before we could put our boots on in the mornings we had to tip out all the sand.

We left Zubair on 12th September 1942 and arrived in Baghdad on the 17th. We stayed in a rest camp overnight and then moved on to the end of the railway line at Khanaquin City. We unloaded all the kit from the train and proceeded by motor transport. We crossed the border into Persia and arrived at Kermanshah on 18th September 1942. We dug our tents in and posted strong guards as the local natives were very silent and light fingered thieves. It was nearly all guard duties while we were here. Each battalion did company and battalion guards, then had to find divisional guards for a week, so we didn鈥檛 get many nights in bed. At Kermanshah there was an oil refinery, and while we were there I saw an ENSA show called 鈥淢iddle Easters鈥�, and three mobile cinema shows. The only drinking water had to be delivered by army water truck. To wash, we had to go down to the river about half a mile from the camp, so we used to take a Jerry can with us to fill up so we had some water to wash clothes. The local inhabitants were very dirty and primitive, living mostly in single storied huts made from straw and oxen dung. They were shaped rather like a tea cosy or old fashioned beehive. They even cooked on fires fuelled with the dried oxen dung. Their livelihood was obtained in most cases by selling fruit and trinkets or on road repairs. A few worked in the oil refinery. Agriculture in Persia was very primitive too, ploughing was done with very crude wooden ploughs drawn by oxen, and the seed or grain scattered by hand.

On the 12th November 1942 we left Kermanshar by transport. After passing through Kangavah and Sultanabhad we reached (Ghom) Qum on 16th November 1942. Qum had a population of about 8000 and is said to be the third Holy City of the Muslim world. Its golden domed mosque added a splash of colour to an otherwise drab town. The only other attractive building was the fine modern railway station built by the Germans in payment for oil. I started a three-week driving course with several other chaps from our platoon just before Christmas, and it was great fun. Christmas at Qum was the worst on of the war. We had a decent dinner in a large tent and then we had to go back to our tents dug deep in the ground. The locals shunned us, and there seemed to be no spirit of Christmas. On Sunday 3rd January 1943 the battalion moved up to Teheran for six days to relieve another unit on 鈥榗ontrol post鈥� duty. It was to check all lease-lend goods and local products going into Russia. Russian officers and soldiers took over all vehicles and goods at this point. We checked and handed them over and examined all returning transport from Russia. I was rather pleased with Teheran, it was a much nicer place than I had expected. We were camped in tents on the racecourse. In the cinemas, British, American, Russian and Arabic films were shown. Beer of quite good quality could be bought in most cafes. There were some American and Polish troops and a few RAF in Teheran. The Persian officers were dressed very smartly with uniforms not unlike the Germans except for the colour, which was a sandy brown. On Friday, those of us not on duty, went to see the Teheran ARMY team play a British ARMY team at the Amjaduls Stadium, admission was 10 rials. The Shah of Persia and many high-ranking officers attended the game. We returned to Qum on 9th January 1943. We traveled both ways in our own transport, a distance of about 120km each way. From the 12th to the 20th January 1943 we settled down to training again. The battalion did a few route marches and field exercises, and I and six of the lads in our platoon had a course of Bren carrier driving. Having passed our Motor Transport Driving Test, it was really good fun with lots of laughs and a few bumps and bruises. On 10th February 1943 we heard we were going to move again, and started to pack up all our kit. Having passed my driving test on MT and Bren carriers, I was picked to go as second driver on one of our platoon 15 cwt. trucks. The driver was Smuger Smith. The MT were to travel first as advanced party, the battalion to follow four days later, and a rear party of DRs and RP鈥檚 on motor cycles to follow three days after the battalion.

I left Qum on Friday 12th February 1943 with the MT, and this is a rough daily record of our journey and a few things we saw until we arrived at our destination of Damascus (Syria). The mileage I have given are approximate and often taken from the speedometer of our truck. On the first day we traveled 83 miles, arriving at Sultanabhad at 3pm where we stayed the night in an Indian camp under canvas. It was bitterly cold that day and it had started to snow before we arrived. They gave us a very good dinner at this camp and at the canteen we were able to buy 50 cigarettes, 2 bars of plain chocolate and some biscuits. Smuger and I heated some water and had a wash and shave. We drained the radiator of the trucks and then went to bed. Breakfast was early and we were in convoy again at 8.30am. Our next halt was at Malaya which we reached at 2.30pm, a distance of 73 miles. It was another very cold day with snow at times. At this camp Cpl. Simmonds had to drop out of the convoy and return to the CCS at Qum as he was found to be a Diphtheria germ carrier. The remainder of the drivers, including Smuger and myself who had slept in the same tent as Cpl. Simmonds were isolated from the remainder of the party, but allowed to carry on. This was quite fortunate for us as it meant the six of us would have a tent to ourselves while the others would still be 10 to 12 in a tent. The wind blew very hard that night and it was bitterly cold. Once during the night we woke up to find all the tent walls flapping about, so we stuck our bayonets in to hold them secure. The next morning, we left Malaya at about the same time as the previous day. We only traveled 53 miles that day and stopped at a small town called Hamedan at 1pm. It was another bitterly cold day and we passed through many snowdrifts on the road which made driving quite hazardous and very tiring. We had to sleep in our trucks that night as the camp we stopped at was waterlogged. The next morning, Monday 15th we drove through the Sultak Pass, the mountain slopes were covered in snow. At 1.30pm we arrived at Kangavah having traveled 85 miles. After having a wash and some dinner, I got ready to do my turn on guard on the transports which were all parked in a field by the roadside. Our next stop was at a Polish transit camp near our old camp at Kermanshah. We arrived there at about 1.30pm. It was a good camp with plenty to eat, and a good supply of things to buy in the canteen. We had plenty of room in the extra large tents. I noticed one improvement to Kermanshah since we had been there before, it was the roads, they had been rebuilt and surfaced with tarmac.

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