大象传媒

The account given below was taped and transcribed by my brother Robert Baxter a couple of years before my father鈥檚 death in 2004. My mother Barbara Baxter has given her permission for me to post this slightly edited account on the 大象传媒 web site. My father did look at a copy of the transcript and said that there were a few errors. Where I have been able to identify these I have made changes and I have removed some repetition.

William Baxter RAF Serial Number - 1449088

Chapter 2
Convoy to the Middle East - April 1942

On Monday I took the train up to Liverpool where I got kitted out with my tropical gear. We then entrained and went up to Glasgow and boarded the ship - the RM AORANGI - Union Steamship Company of New Zealand - a Canadian-Australasian Royal Mail Line. It had diesel engines - not steam. We were there quite a few days. While we were there the USS Wasp - an aircraft carrier came in and tied up opposite us.

Eventually we sailed (around middle of April 1942) in a convoy. It was actually one of the largest that sailed - there were boats as far as you could see - I think around 50. We had a few destroyers around and two cruisers in the middle. It was quite terrifying when we were in a storm, because the boat next to you would suddenly point towards the ship - you鈥檇 think it was sailing for you.

The convoy took a very indirect route - right over towards Newfoundland. There were one or two days when we had to sleep in our clothes because of U boats. We used to do manoeuvres to avoid U boats - Zig Zags etc. We sailed for 15 days and eventually ended up in Freetown - I had my 21st birthday in Freetown. We also got stuck on a mudbank - to get off we had to run from one side of the deck to the other! We were on the boat for 35 days to get to Durban.

After Freetown, we were joined by a ship carrying seaplanes (Walruses) which it used to fire off from time to time. When we passed Cape Town the convoy split and our ship became the Commodore鈥檚 ship. One night there was terrific bang and the alarm bells rang. One of the boats had hit a floating mine. We saw it bow down in the water.

Eventually we arrived in Durban and we got off the ship and we went to Durban racecourse and were billeted there. Next morning we got paid and went into Durban. It was a nice town - although you noticed the racial policy. You saw signs saying whites only. We got picked up by a nice family who took us home for dinner. On the Monday morning, we re-embarked on the Mauritania (the second Mauritania). This sailed alone because it was quite fast - though when we went into a zig zag the masts went right over. That took us up to Port Suez.

Arriving in Egypt - June 1942
At Port Suez we disembarked and were taken by lorry along the Great Bitter Lake. Immediately we found out we were in quarantine - there had been a typhus epidemic on the Mauritania. We were there for three weeks and then we were taken to a medical centre and checked over. Finally we were declared OK and the postings started to come out. (This was about June 1942). We were posted to Helwan, south of Cairo to go to a signals school to learn about American equipment (because at that time there was a lot of American equipment coming in). We used to go up to Cairo on leave by train. One morning we were paraded at 5.30 AM and we had to explain our qualifications and I was put in charge of a party of 5 because I was an AC1. Then we went up to Cairo to Telecommunications Middle East out at Heliopolis.

At Heliopolis it was pretty chaotic - we nearly got into a mobile unit going up to the western desert, which I believe was later captured. Immediately we were told to report to RAF headquarters in Cairo and we were paraded before an Air Vice Marshal and he told us we were joining his radio construction unit. He said 鈥淵ou鈥檒l work for me. I鈥檓 only interested in getting the job done. You鈥檒l get no leave. Everybody here is up in the desert trying to salvage equipment鈥�. Our unit was very small - we only had a few officers - and I rarely saw them!

Salvaging equipment
Cairo was in quite a state of flux because Rommel was pushing our forces back. A terrific number of ambulance convoys were coming back. Having just arrived off the boat we hadn鈥檛 really got a clue what was going on. We went back to the telecommunications camp outside Heliopolis and we got a big Crosley lorry and we were issued with two permits which allowed us to ride outside convoys and to draw petrol. Of course we were going to the front and everything was coming back - ambulances and field guns etc. We went to the radio stations and salvaged everything we could. We cut the mast stays so they would drop to the ground - but it was the radio equipment we were really after. To get them out of the buildings we used to put a steel hawser through the window and pull the side of the building out. Eventually we were stopped by the Military Police who turned us back, and so we went back to Cairo and delivered the equipment to a maintenance unit to re-assemble.

In the western desert - supporting a bombing raid
One job we worked on was support for air-raids on German depots. Because at that time whenever we bombed the depots they were waiting for our planes - there was an information leak. So they devised a scheme whereby the air crews didn鈥檛 know where they were going when they left Cairo. The idea was our unit would set up a beacon in the desert to navigate from. So we took various equipment - a radio and some masts, a 鈥楥hance light鈥� that was used for marking the end of a runway, and some flare buckets that were to be laid out in a certain pattern. We drove out of Cairo and turned off at a certain point. We didn鈥檛 know where we were going. Eventually we came over a sand dune and there was a chap sitting there with the Arab Head Dress of the Long Range Desert Group - he was going to navigate us. We lost the Chance Light - it got bogged down in the sand very soon - and when we got to the point it was too dark so we couldn鈥檛 get the masts up. So we just laid out the flares on the ground and as the planes flew over they knew their targets from us.

Building a reserve radio station in Luxor - July 1942
Then we went to Suez to Maintenance Unit 107 to collect equipment (transmitters and mast gear). The idea was to build another radio station in Luxor in case we got kicked out of Cairo. (This was about July 1942). We then got on a goods train for Luxor. I had to ride in an open truck to guard the generator. (Well supplied with tea thanks to the hot water supply from the steam engine when it stopped).

We had to wait in Luxor for our gear to arrive, and that鈥檚 when we organised a trip to the Valley of the Kings. (The tombs were still open!). We stayed about three weeks. We built four masts in a square formation - four transmitters. We finished by the end of July / early August.

The Sudan
Then we got orders to go to Atbara in the Sudan. That meant a journey by train to Aswan and then a Sudanese paddle steamer (I think the fuel was cotton seed). Along the side of the steamer was an accommodation barge, which we used to sleep on. As we passed the temple of Abu Simbul they used to floodlight it as they went by. Eventually we arrived at Wadi Halfa in the Sudan. There we joined a train for Atbara. (The Swindon of the Sudan!).

In Atbara we built another radio station - it took us about 5 weeks. (We always waited until we were told to go somewhere else). We used to go to a club on the Nile. We used to see some spectacular storms out in the desert. (But you used to have to be careful when you operated the aerial switches to change between aerials because they used to get charged up by electrical storms). I also remember eating some most delicious dates we used to buy from the native boys.

Back in Cairo - September 1942
When we finished there we went back to Cairo (September 1942). The trains and boats were packed because there were a lot of troops going up for the El Alamein campaign. There we helped build mobile radio telephone stations (I had found in a storehouse a six channel high frequency VHF radio set - no one knew what it was about!). We were there while Alamein was on - although we didn鈥檛 hear the battle going on.

Second trip to the Sudan - November 1942 - December 1943

Then we got sent all the way down to the Sudan again to Khartoum. (November 1942). We went to an RAF base called Wadi Seidna north west of the city. It was used as part of the staging route for planes flying from UK flying from West Africa. They (Spitfires or Hurricanes) used to be offloaded in West Africa, assembled and tested and flew across to Khartoum stopping off at staging posts to re-fuel. They flew with a twin engine plane (a Blenheim or Boston) to keep long distance radio contact.

From there we were flown to the next staging post going west (El Fasha). The plan was to right across to Nigeria to re-enforce the beacons. Because they had lost some planes due to bad weather. Then, after we had done our job (in two weeks) we moved on by road to El Genina which was right on the borders of Sudan and French Equitorial Africa. The truck journey was quite something - we took a complete spare engine in case of breakdown. We had to travel in an open truck. I remember going over the mountains and we came across a whole village of troglodytes living underground.

At El Genina we stayed over Christmas. They made us very welcome. They鈥檇 been saving up all their drink. They鈥檇 built a complete bar out of boxes for jerry cans. That鈥檚 where I met George the giraffe - who used to wander onto the runway and around the station. I even had a ride on his back!

We then came back to Khartoum, going north to Wadi Seidna. (I remember seeing where the White Nile and the Blue Nile joined. You could see the difference. The Blue Nile was blue, and the White Nile was white muddy. I also saw the memorial to the Battle of Omdurman. There we built a very large transmitting and receiving station about two miles from the camp - more than 10 circuits. It took us quite a time.

Meantime the Americans had arrived. - they had a base next to us. They were supplying materials to the British and the Russians (many of the planes had Russian language instrumentation) using the same routes. They were also getting ready to support the far eastern war. They鈥檇 built the best facilities! Flush toilets, electric generators and an open cinema. And they had a brand new film every other night. It used to get passed along station to station. We used to go to them to get their crates 鈥� which were made of decent wood 鈥� to make things ourselves. We were supplied by the Posts and Telegraph department in Khartoum for the telegraph poles and copper wire for the aerials.

While I was there two of us went to El Abade and I got promoted to corporal. I found out because I got a letter and someone had crossed out LAC1 and written Corporal. I remember while we were there, we got treated to a slap up meal by the Greek community following the surrender of Italy in 1943.

To get back to Cairo we had to get lifts and I got a lift on an American DC3. The plane only had one pilot, plus a wireless operator, so I sat in the second pilot鈥檚 seat. When I went back I saw we were carrying high velocity shells - so I was quite glad to get off that one! I asked the pilot what route he was taking (we were only about 4-5000 feet up). I told him the mountains we鈥檇 been over were 7000 feet. He said 鈥楾hanks pal鈥� and took the plane straight up!

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