大象传媒

3.East African Campaign

After our somewhat elementary training spell and a short embarkation leave, we found ourselves on board a Castle Line ship at Durban en route to East Africa. The ship had been hurriedly partly converted to a Troopship and crammed with troops. We endured about a three week unescorted trip to Mombassa via almost India to avoid enemy submarines.

The ventilation arrangements for the lower decks were somewhat lacking in what they were supposed to do, with the result that all who could find a spot on the decks hauled their mattresses up each evening and slept under the stars; each morning we were woken to hearty shouts of "Wakey..wakey" from the ship's crew detailed to slosh down the decks, which resulted in a frantic rush to get our bedding out of the way of the hoses. The days were spent in reading, cards, etc. Of course the inevitable Crown and Anchor table was set up.

On arrival at Mombassa, we were entrained to Gilgil camp near Nakuru north of Nairobi, which was the main staging camp for the South Africans. After a short stay at Gilgil I was included in a group of Sappers sent as replacements to the 16th Field Co, S.A.E.C., then at Garissa on the Tana River in the NFD or Northern Frontier District of Kenya, on the border with Italian Somaliland.

The 16th Field Coy had been one of the first Sapper units formed in 1940 and had been at sea enroute to Kenya when war had been declared; they had built the first stage of Gilgil Camp. While building Gilgil there were no washers for the roofing nails for tying down the corrugated iron sheeting and they had to resort to using the Kenya one cent money pieces, which were about the size of a South African penny with a hole in the centre and made ideal washers. Apparently at the end of the war when Gilgil ceased to be used the locals descended on the camp en masse and stripped off all these improvised washers!

After Gilgil the 16th were then moved to Garissa to set up the first line of defence for Kenya, where they were preparing the intensive trenched fortification. They were attached to the 11th African Division made up of troops from the Kings African Rifles of Kenya, and the Gold Coast Troops with Indian Infantry and Artillery; the 16th Field was the only white troops in the Division other than the South African Air force units. We served with this Division throughout the East African campaign and were detached from the South African forces except for a few isolated instances.

I had only been at Garissa a short time when I went down with an attack of malaria and landed in a Field Hospital run by the Gold Coast Medicals with a form of malaria particular the Gold Coast. I was superbly treated at this hospital. (This malaria re occurred at intervals and in fact I experienced attacks almost yearly through to 1953).

大象传媒 at Garissa was mainly supposed to be the supervision of the Labour Companies in digging the trench system (a la the First World War) and shoring up the sides and tops with sandbags. The temperatures were in the 100 degree F range and the Labour Companies were only allowed to work from dawn to noon because of the heat, but this fine distinction was not considered in the best of the war effort for South African troops so after the Labour Companies knocked off we Sappers took up their tools and laboured on till late afternoon in their place.

The prospect of bathing in the river after work was eagerly looked forward to despite the necessity for armed guards having to be placed upstream and downstream as a precaution against crocodiles. On one occasion the Italian Air Force arrived while we were enjoying our swim but no one paid them much attention despite their bombs; we all watched in amazement at a buck Gold Coast sergeant with a Boyes rifle blasting away at the planes. This was because the Boyes rifle, about six feet long firing a 0.55 shell and intended as an anti tank weapon, had a kick which knocked one back about two feet when fired even when lying on the ground, or broke your shoulder blade if not well tucked in, and there was this guy flat on his back after each shot but still getting up and blasting away time after time.

One of the Italian bombs gave some of our lads an experience few of them forgot. Jock Stewart, our platoon officer was ordered to search for an unexploded bomb, which had fallen on the Somaliland side of the river. The Somalia side was sparse scrub vegetation with thorn bushes as opposed to the Kenya side, which was dense bush. Jock and his team found the bomb and were busy attending to it when an enraged elephant charged them; all escaped but two or three managed to charge their way right into a thicket of thorn trees and it took the rest about an hour to cut them out. The elephants were the cause of many false alarms by getting involved with the thick belt of mines we had laid on the Somaliland side; blasts at dead of night could not always allow continued sleep. The company had an explosives magazine on the Kenya side at the river and one night the guards spent the night up trees as a pride of lions decided to do a check up on our work! However it was quite a pleasant spell at Garissa doing the fortifications, which were never put to any test, and maintaining the flying ferry and the pontoon floating bridge we put across the river. Our platoon clerk, Pikkie McFerson, a diminutive lawyer from Tulbach kept us in order by collecting scorpions and hanging them by threads on his office tent pole to dissuade anyone from leaning on it.

In December 1940 the 16th moved down to Thika near the famous Blue Posts
Hotel, near Nairobi, where we stayed for about a month and most of us had the pleasure of a short leave in town. To be able to put up at a Hotel and sleep between sheets with hot baths as desired was bliss. Casual leave from the Theca camp for an evening was also possible and the 16th was gathered late at night by trucks driving up and down with those already collected singing the then popular song 'Bless them all' to attract those still enjoying their freedom!!

After this spell we moved to Bura, also on the Tana River but further downstream than Garissa, early in January 1941 to prepare for the push into Somaliland and beyond.

The push, when it came, was actually led by a detachment of 16 Field Co Sappers from our platoon who were mounted on six light motor bicycles with the foot brake disconnected and replaced with a hook which dug into the ground when the foot broke was engaged; the object being to lift the Italian mines when these were seen by the riders. These riders led the advance, riding in two rows of three to get full coverage of the track they followed, and immediately behind them was a Sapper truck with relief drivers and a Captain Wingate with his band of Somali irregulars which he had recruited, followed by the armoured cars of the fighting troops. (We met up with Wingate later in the lake area south of Addis Ababa who then had a band of Abyssinian Shiftas and who got us out of a bit of trouble). The riders narrowly avoided being zapped by the leading South African armoured cars just short of Kismayu who were leading the South African Division up from Marsabit, when their South African helmets were fortunately recognised in time when the two advances met. I believe none of these riders received any official recognition for their undoubtedly heroic effort. The leader was Cpl Titherleigh who later earned a MM.

Our trip across the Ogden desert of Somaliland was without any incident we never encountered any real Italian resistance, though the shortage of water was extreme one water bottle each man per day for all uses in the heat of the desert is no joke! On arrival in Kismayu our first objective was food and drink. Vino we got, but our first order of fish was so laced with olive oil that we could not stomach it!!

After Kishmayu we headed up to Mogadisho, again uneventful except water was still an ordeal. The trip afterwards from Mogadisho to Jigjiga on the rail line from Addis Ababa to Jibutie was an experience that put all previous journeys to shame. The terrain was flat and loose sand and a Division driving hell for leather and spread out widely, with each driver taking his own route to avoid the vehicles ahead of him, can raise unbelievable dust. What with the dust and the ever present shortage of water even for drinking, which made the chance of washing only a dream, the fact that there was no enemy action was only an anticlimax. On one occasion we came across a large water hole about 30 feet in diameter with the water level some 20 feet down and equipped with ropes and hoisting poles, and this was going to be our saving grace; unfortunately, we found to our disgust the Italians had dumped three or four dead camels into the water hole.

Once we got to Harrar we found ourselves working night and day repairing the road through the passes to Diradawa and on to Addis Ababa where the Italians had really excelled themselves in blowing all the possible places they could to hold up our advance. However they were unable to provide for the SAEC Sappers ingenuity and the demolitions were repaired in a short time. Blasts on tight corners on mountain roads were quickly built up with empty petrol drums laid on top of each other as masonry and filled with soil in the way revetments are currently built with precast concrete walling on our national roads. All the Companies were employed together with a large number of prisoners. On one occasion when we were loading up a gang of prisoners into a truck one of our Sappers, Sid Warrman I think his name was, who was to guard the prisoners, when climbing into the truck managed to knock his rifle against the tailboard and shot himself through both thighs, fortunately just missing his family jewels. The trip in the back of Jock Stewart's van with me applying pressure to his arteries on both legs to stop the bleeding and with his pulse fading at times to be revived at each bump we hit until we got to the nearest Forward Hospital has been unforgettable. Fortunately one of South Africa's foremost Surgeons was on an inspection visit there at the time and Sid was well cared for.

We followed the Transvaal Scottish into Addis Ababa shortly after the 5th of April and found ourselves in evacuated Italian Barracks near the aerodrome and were given some welcome leave. In celebration the platoon gave me a fine party for my 21st on 18th April 1941, in of all places the local Officers 'Club'. The girls were given the night off!!

The clearing up of the area around the lakes south of Addis Ababa was the next of our activities. I found myself allotted to an armoured car regiment and went on reconnaissance patrol perched on the mudguard of the leading armoured car with the idea that as soon as I saw what looked like a landmine I should stop the car, hop off and remove the mine out of the way so that the armoured car could proceed. Needless to say I was more than relieved to find that the roads we used had been overlooked by the enemy and that over the some two or three days of the patrol my mine removal services were not much required. What I did appreciate was that the Colonel, on whose armoured car I rode, took it on himself to ensure that I was well looked after as if I was some very precious animal; he even went to the extreme of serving me my food!! One occurrence that however was not so enjoyable was when we were strafed by our own South African Air Force, who made sure we were given a full measure before they broke off fortunately their aim was far from being accurate.

After that our platoon went with a medium force against a reported group of Italians still holding out. This force went into a camp one afternoon and we saw some black troops with the transport offloading drums of petrol at a rate which would have taken them right through to dark. Suddenly it was reported that a patrol had seen a group of Italians about to attack supported by tanks, and the transports were ordered to reload and get the hell out of the area to prevent the petrol being captured; then, whereas it had taken two men to offload a drum, we were now to witness the unbelievable sight of one man loading a drum by himself, and within minutes the trucks were loaded and on their way out of the area.

A defensive camp was set up at this point and as an anti tank measure all the pick heads were collected from the pioneers and placed in heaps around the perimeter, with a couple of us Sappers stationed at each heap armed with .45 Revolvers collected from the Officers in the camp. It was then explained to us that when the Italian tanks came past the heaps we should stick a pick head into the tank's track and so immobilize it and then jump up onto the tank, open the hatch and shoot the occupants!! Needless to say we Sappers were not very keen on this wonderful idea particularly as we knew that a Rhodesian Sergeant had done the very same a short while earlier and had disappeared into the bush on the tank. The story that he had been awarded an instant Victoria Cross did not impress us one bit. Fortunately our friend Capt Wingate came to our rescue, this time with his band of Abyssinian Shifters; they went out that night to the Italian camp and were reported to have quietly cut the throats of each alternate sleeping enemy that must have taken the stuffing out of them because we never had any opposition again. It was no wonder that Wingate much later as a General commanded the jungle forces in Burma the famous Chindits.

After this we found ourselves looking after a bridge on the Juma River but not for long as our whole platoon contracted malaria. We headed for Addis Ababa with our trucks being driven by those who were suffering the least at the moment and with frequent stops for changes of drivers we headed on. We were with a convoy of a several thousand Italian prisoners all loaded on their trucks and armed as protection against the native Abyssinians with the whole convoy of prisoners proceeding ahead of their escort four unarmed South African Air Force Officers travelling in an open captured Italian touring car in the rear. The fear against the Abyssinians, either Shiftas of the Italian forces or the Shifta members of the local Abyssinian Warlords was very real as they had the reputation of not taking prisoners but of collecting genitalia as war trophies.

When we reached Addis we left the convoy and headed for the Victoria Regina Hospitale, parked our trucks in the front and all entered for admission. Our stay in hospital was limited to the period we could stand the treatment twice daily a stern Italian nursing nun, the ward sister, would march down the ward, turn in at a bed and without a word but by a clearly understood gesture deliver a charge of quinine via a needle about 6 ins long into the unhappy recipient's buttock.

While in hospital after recovering from the bout of malaria I found myself before a Medical Board and they decided that I had flat feet and that I should be declared unsuitable for further active service. Shortly thereafter I found myself on a hospital train en route to Djibouti to join a Hospital Ship to return to the Union. However, when we got to Diradawa I smartly discharged myself and caught a train back to Addis Ababa where I rejoined the company and carried on with them hearing nothing more of the Medical Board!! The trip on the Djibouti Express was something; the train was wood fuelled and had to stop frequently for reloading wood from piles at the side of the track so that time schedules did not exist.

After a short period of convalescence we were sent as a Company to Asmara in Eritrea, where we assembled stores, and then we were sent on to Masawa on the coast. Asmara is only 67 miles from Masawa but there is a 6,700 feet difference in elevation and in Masawa on the coast of the Red Sea it is hot. Not just ordinarily hot real hot!! Apparently the powers that be had imported Chinese stevedores to handle the ships in the port but they had lost most due to the heat. Of course there was a war on and the ships had to sail loaded and how else would all our stores go unless we loaded them ourselves so there we were now as stevedores. It was bad enough on the docks or on the decks but in the holds it was something to experience.

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