大象传媒

POST WAR Chapter 1: Aden

I met an Officer on the aircraft who was returning to Aden after some home leave, and asked him about the climate in Aden, he said 鈥渋t stays about 100 degrees during the day and drops a shattering 2 degrees at night鈥�. Which gave me food for thought and I was to find out when I arrived that he wasn鈥檛 distorting the truth at all.

When I arrived it was quite late at night and I had to spend the night at the airfield. I was given a room in the Officers quarters which was very pleasant but very hot and sticky. I had a meal and went to bed but couldn鈥檛 sleep for the heat, there was a ceiling fan which at first I had running slowly for fear of getting chilled but as the night progressed the fan speed got turned up and my bed got nearer and nearer to being directly under it, wearing nothing more than a towel, until by about three in the morning I was directly under the fan and it was going flat out. I was still sweating and the bed was soaked in sweat. This was to be the pattern of events during all of my two years in Aden.

I got picked up in the morning and taken to the Officers mess at Tarshyne, which was a very pleasant spot, I was soon introduced to everyone at the office and told about the etiquette of being an Officer in the 鈥淐olonies鈥�. I was taken to the Governors residence to sign the visitors book, but didn鈥檛 meet the Governor.

Having a courtesy commission made one a bit of an outcast to the regular officers and on the 鈥淩ed Sea鈥� kit which everyone wore no decorations were worn so I had to wait until the first mess function to display my 鈥渨ings鈥� and decorations. I was soon drawn into the regular officers circle and was made very welcome.

Life was quite simple here, there was a very 鈥楥olonial鈥� atmosphere about all things here, the office was very primitive and the work from my point of view very easy. We worked from seven AM until one PM, had a siesta after lunch and went for a swim before dinner. The best swimming was at a club called The Gold Mohur Club which was for Officers only, it was quite primitive but had a shark net which was essential if you wanted to swim in the sea, also a good bar with plenty of cold beer and a snack if you wanted it.

The sea around Aden was full of fish of all shapes and sizes including some nasty sharks, barracuda etc., so swimming inside the shark net was quite reassuring! Though not necessarily totally safe, I remember on one occasion coming face to face with a barracuda, which seemed to be too big to have got through the netting and I remember retreating very rapidly indeed and didn鈥檛 stop swimming until I had reached the bar.

I had a sharp lesson about the dangers of swimming outside a shark net not long after I arrived. The wife of the Station Commander was on the local beach with her children, she had paddled out about knee deep with one of her children who were on the beach with her, when she was taken by a shark and dragged out to sea, a local fisherman saw what happened and tried to beat off the shark with an oar and managed to do so, but the woman was rushed to hospital and later died. The fisherman was later awarded the George Medal for his bravery.

Life at the office was quite pleasant, we all got along together and there were various interruptions to the routine which made the time pass very quickly. Because there were plenty of fish in the seas around Aden a fisherman came into the office with a raffia bag containing all sorts of goodies - it was quite usual to see a large crab scuttling around the office, or to have a very live and nipping lobster thrust under your nose. However the delicacy which we all appreciated was some local fish called Khormaksar soles, these were very like Dover soles and were delicious.

The climate was the worst thing to suffer, the months of May, June and September were the worst, the temperature hovering around 103 degrees night and day with humidity around 80% which meant that even sitting at your desk sweat was pouring off you by the gallon. It made working with paper very difficult, you had to have a towel under your arms all the time, and as there were ceiling fans going full tilt it was necessary to have paperweights all over the desk. If the temperature reached 105 degrees and the relative humidity got to 85% everything on the Colony closed down, and we were under instruction to lay down and not do anything at all. The reason July was better was that a South East monsoon would spring up, this stirred up cooler water in the Indian Ocean and a cool breeze gave welcome relief, in fact the sea was almost too cool for swimming.

The social life was all the rage and it was seldom that a week went by without there being a function to go to.

Apart from this, we used many Arabic and Indian contractors, and received invites from them as well. Christmas time was an embarrassing time with these people, as their practise was to give presents, and we were not in a position to receive them.

One of the activities which was most enjoyable was to go on board ships which came into Aden on their way to and from the Far East. They anchored in the harbour and it was easy to get a boat to take you out to them and we went on board to meet some different people and have a drink or two. The Italian ships were very popular with us as they were air-conditioned which gave us a welcome break from the climate.

One of the annoying thing about the climate was Prickly Heat, this was caused by the sweat glands becoming blocked and it sometimes became septic which was very painful and miserable, as there was very little that the medics could do about it. The only way to overcome it was to get into cooler conditions, and Aden hospital had an air-conditioned ward for a cure. Some specialists came out from England to help find a cure but they all went down with septic prickly as soon as they got there.

After I had been in Aden about a year things started to brew up in Egypt, and eventually the British had to get out. In Egypt there was a Battalion of Pioneer Corps troops of the British Army which consisted of people from The Seychelles, Rodrigues and Mauritius. This was disbanded and a troopship was sent to take them all home. I heard about this and that the troopship was stopping at Aden on the way, it was doing a round trip, and then returning to Aden. It struck me that this was an opportunity to see parts of the world which I would not otherwise see. I enquired if it was possible to get a passage on the ship and was old that it would be OK. It was to cost me 拢1.25 per day for food only which seemed like a bargain to me. The next thing was to persuade my boss to let me take six weeks leave, which was the time it would take. He somewhat grudgingly gave his consent so I was off.

The trip was fantastic, the ship was very old but I was the only first class passenger on board apart from the conduction officers so it was a very luxurious life, the food was magnificent and certainly worth the money.

Cruising the Indian Ocean was quite magnificent, with flying fish, dolphins etc., to watch and the superb food, time passed very quickly and we soon arrived at the Seychelles. The Captain did not have detailed charts of the harbour, so we anchored about a mile out and swarms of local boats came out to greet us and offer rides ashore. The trip was quite impressive, the water was so clear that every detail of the sea bed could be clearly seen.

There were many scenes of tearful meetings between the Pioneers and their families, spoilt somewhat by the Customs people who found all sorts of illegal goods in the soldiers kit.

Having got ashore and explored the town of Victoria we got a cab to take us for a sightseeing tour. The scenery and beaches were magnificent and appeared totally deserted. In 1955 when we were there the airport had not been built, so the only visitors to the island were from the occasional cruise ship. Things were very cheap and we took advantage of this to buy one of the local items which were not obtainable anywhere else in the world, this was a double coconut, which wen halved and polished had an uncanny resemblance to a woman鈥檚 backside.

After a day at the Seychelles we sailed on to Rodrigues which is a very lonely island miles from anywhere stuck in the middle of the Indian ocean. Once again we stood off from the island and swarms of small boats came out to greet us. This time the Captain didn鈥檛 want to stay so we didn鈥檛 get a chance to go ashore, but the island looked very bleak and uninteresting and we were told that the only transport was one very dilapidated jeep.

We then set off for Mauritius, this time we were to have a fortnight here as the ship was going over to Dar Es Salaam to relieve the garrison and then return to Mauritius and pick us up again. The island was superb and I went to an Army rest camp on a glorious beach and had a great time. In order to explore the island I hired a car, but first had to go to the main town to get a driving licence. The rest camp was marvellous, the swimming was superb, and the bar sold rum made from the local sugar cane, this was very strong and very cheap and if mixed with cola made a very passable drink. So the fortnight passed all too quickly and I was soon on my way back to the port to reboard the ship, feeling slightly worried in case it didn鈥檛 appear as I had no idea at all how I could possibly get back to Aden any other way.

Anyway the ship appeared on time and we were soon under way to Dar-Es-Salaam, again there was only a short stop so we weren鈥檛 allowed to get off the ship, in no time at all we were on our way back to Aden. It was a superb trip which will live in my mind forever.

Back to work in Aden again and it wasn鈥檛 long before another chance to get away arose this time to Kenya. The airfield and various other installations came under the control of the Works Area in Aden and the staff out there wanted a hand in arranging a contract for some specialist work, so I went out to help. This time the trip was by air in a very old Valetta aircraft which bumbled along at about a couple of thousand feet at about 120 knots, as the weather was very hot the flight was uncomfortably bumpy and I was glad to get off in Nairobi.

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