大象传媒

I was recalled from Embarkation Leave on Christmas Day 1941 and we eventually sailed from Liverpool in the dark. We had no idea where we were going except that we had been given tropical kit.

Next morning we were sailing north off the Scottish coast. We had no escort and made a wide loop across the Atlantic, down the American coast and then back across the Atlantic to Gibraltar.

Here we were delayed because our onward vessel had been torpedoed but after a week a ship originally designed to transport cattle between Holyhead and Belfast turned up. The men went on board but immediately walked off because of the dreadful conditions. The boat was open from end to end, with engines, open latrines and living quarters all in one. A Medical Officer was called and he condemned the ship but we were told we must sail as no alternative was available. We had hammocks attached to the rafters along which the rats ran at night.

We crept down the West African coast calling at Gambia and Freetown and, finally, were put ashore at Takoradi on the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and for centuries known as 'The White Man's Grave'. We were told that because of the conditions and tropical diseases our time there would count double for overseas service.

At Takoradi various buildings had been commandeered and a large landing strip laid down. This was the secret route to get Fighter Aircraft to the Desert War in North Africa without which that war could not have been won. With the help of the Free French a series of landing strips had been built en route to Khartoum, spaced so that Fighter Aircraft could make the journey on their limited fuel. These planes were shipped from the UK in kit form and assembled at Takoradi to be flown in hops across Africa to the front line. No ships were available to take planes the long sea route via the Cape and Red Sea.

Many men died of Malaria, Yellow Fever, Blackwater Fever, Septicaemia and Pneumonia but there was a Hospital with Nursing Sisters (the only women involved) and Male Orderlies. I had a hernia operation and caught pneumonia under the anaesthetic which turned to pleurisy. I completed the tour but got bronchitis soon after my return to England and finished the war at the Central Photographic Interpretation Unit. After discharge my health took a turn for the worse and I was declared 30 per cent Disabled as a result of overseas service.

The Takoradi venture is as little known today as it was at the time but it is officially recorded at the War Office as the 'West African Reinforcement Route'.

There is no Memorial there to the men who died or to the pilots who braved the hazardous route across primitive country to get the air supremacy and photo intelligence that enabled the British to win the Battle of El Alamein.

Without Takoradi and victory in the Middle East who knows when the war would have ended!

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