大象传媒

I was 19 and was conscripted into the army, I had no choice - everyone who was 18 or above was conscripted.

I was posted to Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk for my Primary Training.

After the Primary Training we were conscripted in Groups of six, I was sent to Frogmoore Hall to train as a Miltary Policeman.

From there I was posted to the 48th Armoured Division who were based in Horseham. From there we travelled all the way across France in armoured vechiles to Marsielle.

And then we were posted to Egypt. We sailed for a fortnight and stopped off at Naples, Malta and then to Tobrook and then to Crete, and finally to Portside in Eygpt. The journey was wonderful, it was July, and was so warm that we all slept on deck!

I remember one morning, when we were sailing between Italy and Sicily in the Mercina Straights. I woke up early and there was a slight ripple on the water which was every colour of the rainbow, and I could see in the distance, clear as day, Mount Etna, with snow covering her peak, and a wisp of smoke rising from the very top! It was so beautiful, and something I will never forget.

When we arrived at Portside, there were lots of young boys diving into the mucky water gathering coins that on-lookers were throwing in for them. What was most unusual was the fact that they were all naked!!!

We disembarked and got a train to Cairo, where I had a wonderful time.

My job started at about 8 o'clock in the evening, and myself, a major and an Eygptian Left tennant had to patrol all the British Camps to check that everything was in order. There was a rather large red-light district in Cairo, and every night we had to patrol it looking for soliders who might have been led astray (shall we say)! We always arrested anyone we found there, we only ever found one Major with his trousers round his ankles!!!

Once every two months we rounded up the 'ladies of the night' and took them to the hospital for a health check.

I spent 14 months in Cairo and enjoyed every minute of it!

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