大象传媒

While maintaining the radar for the anti-aircraft defences of Cairo, I became friendly with a bomb disposal officer who received an urgent request to deal with a bomb that had been found in the Egyptian State Railways works near Cairo Main Station. He asked me to provide transport, as he was by then in transit to a posting in Malta and not with his own unit. This I did most willingly as I wanted to go too. We tore off from Abbassia camp, exceeding the speed limit and hoping to be mistakenly stopped by the Military Police (as bomb disposal vehicles were exempt and had red mudguards to denote this). We didn't have the adornments but we had the authority; no luck, though.

When we got to the works all the personnel were outside and the Egyptian Army was guarding the empty building. The bomb was on a train of tenders from superannuated steam engines. These had been converted into mobile water tanks, which were used to take water to a station between Cairo and Ismalia on the Canal, where it was stored for the replenishment of locos.

The two heroes set off to do their duty and found the 'bomb' on the footplate of one of the ex-tenders. It was an 18-pounder shell without nosecap, standing upright on its base, and had already been fired. As it had not exploded when it hit the earth (not surprising as it was unfused) it was unlikely to do so now. So I picked it up and we returned to the gate and gave the all clear. Why it was there, no one could say. We thought an enterprising employee had found it in the sand and was taking it home to sell it as a trophy and had forgotten it.

As a reward we were taken round the works, and I was permitted to blow the whistle on an engine.

I was also friendly with the successor to my companion and he kindly allowed me to light the fuse of the charge he was using to destroy various bits and pieces of ordnance that tend to appear in a war zone. These included two Italian hand grenades that I had foolishly kept by my kit at the camp. They were given me by an officer down from the desert who said they'd be more use than the revolver I was carrying, as I could throw them over my shoulder when running away from the Afrika Korps.

After lighting the fuse one's instinct was to run like blazes; but, no, decorum demanded that the officer/s in charge stroll away to the safety point, talking airy persiflage if more than one were present.

Shortly afterwards a very loud bang accompanied by a cloud of sand left a large jagged piece of tin at my feet, very thought provoking as I was not wearing a tin hat. As an encore I was allowed to repeat the performance with electrical operation of the detonator by a dynamo exploder.

RAF encounter

Another startling event occurred when I was flying a small barrage balloon, about 15 feet long, on a site close to the Nile, carrying equipment for calibrating a radar set. As the balloon was a hazard to aircraft, I had to have formal permission so that aircraft warning notices could be issued; this I had.

Then I received a frantic phone call from AA HQ to haul the balloon down. The AOC-in-C, Sir Sholto Douglas, had seen it from his office window in Cairo and, without bothering to ascertain the facts, said it was a hazard to the Sunderlands landed on the Nile and ordered out a fighter to shoot it down. Just as we were tying the balloon down a Thunderbolt swooped over, presumably to drop on my unit and myself in a balloon full of blazing hydrogen. The court of inquiry wouldn't have done much for Sir SD's career if the Thunderbolt had succeeded because inevitably casualties would have been caused. I still flew the balloon at the same place later when the facts of life had been explained to the AOC. As might be expected, no Sunderlands came my way.

When doing a similar job near the runway at Heliopolis aerodrome, planes were taking off and dodging to each side of the balloon. I got panicky and phoned the duty officer at the 'drome, but he assured me all was well and 'Not to worry, old boy,' so I didn't.

I took my bomb disposing friend to this site to see what we did, and on the way back he noted a number of detonators lying in the sand by some derelict tanks. These should not be left lying around, as they were very dangerous, so he collected them and blew them up, shortly afterwards the RAF fire brigade arrived, seeking the aircraft reported to have crashed.

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