大象传媒

Chapter 1

This story of my journey to and from Greece in 1941 whilst serving in the Royal Air Force, started at Christmas time 1940.
With about three thousand others of the Army and Royal Air Force I travelled on the 鈥淒uchess of Richmond鈥�, then requisitioned as His Majesty鈥檚 Transport. We knew not where we would end up.
On arrival in Egypt ten weeks later I joined 54 R.S.U. and made a short trip to the Western Desert from Aboukir to El Adem then to Greece. What follows is not a report but more a story.
Today, so many years (57) later I write this story from memory and without research. I have not stated many dates 鈥� I destroyed my diary in Greece. The period was from early March to the beginning of May 1941.
During the period in Greece many incidents occurred and are stowed away in my memory. Every man who served in such circumstances will know that these memories only revive at times and are too numerous to detail in the story that follows.
Our unit was being formed, the trucks that were to be ours had been delivered, tools and stores were being collected. All the paraphernalia of a mobile unit such as tents and sawyer stoves, pickets, sand bags (empty), shovels for trenching, sick bay requirements, E.P.I.P. (Egypt, Palestine and Iraq Pattern) tents for H.Q. and tented workshop. As time went by we would learn all about Egypt, Palestine and Iraq Patterns tents!
A selection of technical tradesmen, of which I was one, were 鈥渂undled together in a heap鈥� in true Air Force fashion and told we were off to Greece. This time we loaded our tools and gear onto a ship called the 鈥淐ameronian鈥�. It too, was already full of Australian and New Zealand troops. There was about 40 of us, (RA.F.).
鈥榃hat was known as an R.S.U. was a mobile Repair and Salvage Unit. Manned by all technical trades, the unit carried out engine changes on forced landed aircraft, repaired damage, or boosted the manpower situation of a squadron that was having serviceability trouble.
Repair and Salvage (R.S.U.) men lived like nomads. Often in the roughest of outdoor conditions. Small teams of technical men did the highly technical jobs they were trained to do, wherever required. They cooked their own food, erected their own tents, drove their own trucks, drew rations as required, acted on their own initiative once their orders were known 鈥� and they recovered dead bodies 鈥� sometimes.
We were going across to Greece to be attached to 53 R.S.U. at Hassani, a Greek airfield close to a place called Edem near Athens.
The Mediterranean was grey and rough as it can be at that time of the year. The ship was so crowded that the galley could hardly cope with the meals. Boiled rice and corned beef was the main diet. I was glad we were only on that ship four days.
The Australians had a pipe band and they assembled on deck after 鈥渢ea鈥� to play until dark. A 鈥榡am packed鈥� trooper painted grey, tired troops glad of any diversion, a gusty wind, choppy sea and the bagpipes calling 鈥淲ill ye no鈥� come back again鈥�. That scene has stayed in my mind ever since.
I began to notice what war did to the farmers and bushmen from New Zealand and Australia. I likcd them very much. They were what they called themselves 鈥� 鈥淏astards from the Bush鈥�. In the early days of World War II they joined, as I was often told, 鈥淭o get shootin鈥� at the bloody Germans鈥�. A week or two hence it was the other way round. The Germans would be shootin鈥� at us. When with that type of Australian, of that generation, one
could leave one鈥檚 wallet on one鈥檚 bed 鈥� it would still be there on one鈥檚 return.
Arrival at Piraeus was not what it should have been. The docks were out of service. A munitions ship had been bombed and it had blown the place to bits causing damage to other ships. The docks were unusable. As we lay at anchor 鈥� doing nothing, wasting time we thought, there was quite a lot of daylight left.
I was looking over the ship鈥檚 side with a man called Lofty Maybour 鈥� a Corporal Coppersmith one of the rare pre-war trades 鈥� weighing up the scene, a large brown object moved past the ship. Lofty said it was a mine; I didn鈥檛 know what it was. Lofty told one of the crew who grunted and looked over the side, by then it was gone from sight. I did not feel too happy about it, I must say.
The Australian and New Zealand soldiers of those days were the most genuine men one could find oneself amongst. They had an adult attitude to the war. 鈥淛ack鈥檚 as good as his master鈥� and although it has been said their discipline was slack I thought their true discipline lay, not in forming fours and saluting. They had the true discipline of a united will to perform the task an Army, Airforce or Navy has to do.
At Piraeus small ships plied to and fro all day; our party had been one of the first off the ship. We could still see them going and coming at mid-day. We landed in the little round harbour that had, since ancient times, been the fishermans harbour.

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