大象传媒

...We then started on the journey, up the Red Sea, which was supposed to be the hottest place in the world and it certainly lived up to it.

We disembarked at Tewfik [Bur Tawfiq] at the entrance to the Suez Canal on September 12th 1943 and were taken by lorries to Kasfareet to await our posting. We lived under canvas and slept on the sand which wasn鈥檛 so bad really except that sand gets everywhere that you don鈥檛 want it to. We had many a bath in the Suez Canal, the water was lovely and warm but very salty.

At last we were all posted but unfortunately to different stations. Two of us were posted to Aboukir - just outside Alexandria, and considered ourselves very lucky as most of the others were posted to places miles from anywhere. We arrived in Aboukir on Sunday 26th September, but did not report until the next morning so we took the opportunity of seeing Alex. Reported on Monday 27th September and got ourselves settled in tents as the billets were full up. About the only thing that I was worried about was getting some mail from home, but I was soon satisfied with a big stack of letters which took me two hours to read. What a thrill it was to read them.

On the Tuesday we started work. I was started with the 鈥淥utside Gang鈥� in the hangars and it proved very interesting. We started work at 7 am and finished at 5.30 pm, rather a long day, but it is surprising how quick the time passed.

My opinion of Egypt was that it was not as good a country as I have been led to believe and candidly I was very disappointed. In the first place the thing that struck me most was the absolute filth that the people lived in and the stink, oh boy, talk about smell, well! You don鈥檛 know what a stink is until you鈥檝e visited Egypt. It hits you right between the eyes wherever you go. The villages here make the slums of England look like palaces; in fact, at first I thought they had been heavily bombed until I was told that they hadn鈥檛 had anything here at all and that was just their natural way of living.

In the evenings there was always the cinema which had some quite good films on, or there were two NAAFIs and also a very nice club, the 鈥楲t John Club鈥� where they served tea and cakes, it was a good place for writing letters in comfort and also had a wireless and arm-chairs.

After a hold-up at first as regards to the mail it got more regular. I think there is nothing better to cheer you up when you are far away from home and I looked forward to a letter every night when work was finished and if there wasn鈥檛 any, well I鈥檓 sorry to say I got very moody and 鈥榗heesed.鈥�

Chapple and I used to make for Alexandria nearly every Sunday to go to the Rhythm Club and hear good swing music, which is very scarce out here except for a few occasional records they used to get at the cinema.

October 3rd was my first wedding anniversary and I spent most of it in the tent all day I鈥檓 afraid, but my thoughts were in Blighty [Near London] every minute wondering if I should be there for my next one.

Heard from Bill Bayley, at first, he was in North Africa, but was moved with the Central Med Forces.

Put the clocks back one hour November 1st and it got dark quite early then which made it pretty grim in the tent.

November 4th sent off handbag to Doll, hope she gets it alright and likes it.

November 18th moved into a proper billet which was very welcome after being in a tent since leaving Blighty. I was just about developing a permanent stoop which you get living in a tent. There were three of us in a room which was very comfortable and what made it better still was the fact that a wireless was in my room and that helped to pass the time away quicker in the evenings, also gave me the opportunity to hear plenty of swing music which also helped to cheer me up and keep me from getting cheesed.

November 27th was a day I shan鈥檛 forget for a long time. Geraldo and his band visited the camp and gave us a terrific show with Dorothy Carless, Len Camber, Doreen Villiers, Ruth Howard and none other than Johnnie Lockwood with whom I spoke for a few minutes about Jessie. He remembered her alright and promised to say hallo to her when he got back. All the time I was talking to him, Geraldo was standing just behind me with some of his boys and Dorothy Carless 鈥� it certainly was a great thrill.

Nothing much happened until Christmas Eve and I shan鈥檛 ever forget that day as long as I live. The boys in the section put together and bought some bottles of 鈥榝ire water鈥�. Anyway, we started drinking at 2 o鈥檆lock that afternoon and by half past seven really and truly soused: the last thing I remembered was rolling over the Tennis Club to get a bottle of wine that I had won in the Christmas draw; and by all accounts I shouted and hollered for my prize but didn鈥檛 get it as the chap wasn鈥檛 there. They then tell me that they brought me back to the billet where I went out like a light on the bed and was very sick. They then put me under the tap but I鈥檓 afraid I don鈥檛 even remember that. Anyway, I came to about half past ten that night, feeling like nothing on earth, to find that two parcels: one each from Doll and Mum had arrived. I was so missed up that I didn鈥檛 know until Christmas morning what had come from who, but I soon sorted it all out. They certainly came at the right time anyway.

I went to Alex for the weekend with Corporal Harris: a Londoner who got me into the billet. He is also my H.C.O at work. We had quite a nice time there with plenty of beer, no more spirits for me!

The holiday was perhaps marred a little by the death of one of the chaps on the camp who went down to Aboukir village on Christmas Eve and was found dead on Christmas morning 鈥� evidently he had been murdered. There is a certain sect of the Egyptians that hate us and love to catch us on our own to beat us up and rob us, so that we took the precaution of suspecting all of them: that is one of the reasons I hate this blasted country so much. They never as for a moment know, caught anyone for the crime. The boys wanted to go down to the village and wipe a few of them out but the village was put out of bounds.

I had put in for my leave for a fortnight, but the week before I started, the order came through that all leave was cancelled, really in a way I wasn鈥檛 sorry as I was going on my own and wasn鈥檛 looking forward to it all that much. The reason for the cancelling was that a lot of postings were about for Blighty and they want everyone to be in camp. Then the next thing was that a lot of work came in and the only way we could cope was to do shift work so four of us started it with two on each shift, my pal was Johnnie Robinson a very nice chap, a schoolteacher in Clovie Street. Anyway, we got the kites out on schedule and that鈥檚 all that mattered. It鈥檚 funny that here we were far away from home and cheesed as much as anybody could be and yet as the kites rolled out of the hangar you got that feeling that after all you were doing something to help finish the war. Then one day, who should walk in but Cyril, he had been posted from 161 M.V to the transit camp just down the road from us, boy it sure was good to see him again, we spent quite a few weekends in Alex.

I shall write here about the way the people in Blighty were led to believe that the men in the Middle East were enjoying themselves immensely and were having nothing other than a good time. The thing that burned us up here was a picture printed in the Sunday Pictorial of November 7th 1943 of a Tommy spending his leave in Alex. He was surrounded by girls in bathing suits feeding him with cakes and tea. The caption underneath said that 鈥榳henever a serviceman spent his leave in Alex, the doors were thrown open to him and he was welcomed with open arms鈥�.

This was nothing but lies and I was surprised that the Sunday Pictorial had printed it without finding out the true facts, but I expect they were acting under orders from the Ministry of Information and printed it to improve public relations with Egypt. Anyway, I will say here and now for anybody to believe if they want to, that the only doors that were thrown open to us were the doors of brothels and money grabbing cabarets and if you were a mug you went in and if you weren鈥檛 a mug you stayed out. The only thing that bothered us was the fact that you couldn鈥檛 get a drop of beer without having a fat slimy, filthy looking female sliding over to you wanting you to buy drinks for her, I don鈥檛 know what they took us for, anyway, they were always told by me the few times we did go in for a drink to scram and I鈥檓 telling you that wasn鈥檛 the only word we used to get rid of them. Real swearing was about the only English they knew and understood and we sure let them have it.

I used to think that Piccadilly and the surrounding districts were bad but they were a clean and pure lot compared with the inhabitants of Alexandria.

Once again we were entertained by a band from Blighty, this time it was none other than Harry Roy with Marjorie Kingsley and Mary Lee. They put on a very good show with plenty of comedy and naturally Harry Roy went very near the mark with some of his cracks.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Becky Barugh of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Dorothy Cottis and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Cottis fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Walter's letters and diaries:

• 1) Scotland to South Africa 鈥� In Letters
• 2) Onwards to Aden 鈥� In Letters

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