大象传媒

[1944 section of Jeffrey Jackson's war memoirs, edited by L Jackson
Unit: no. 2 Anti-Gas Laboratory, Royal Engineers,
Locations: Palestine, Moascar (Egypt), Atlantic
Title: "From Egypt to Liverpool 1944"]

"In June 1944 [in Palestine], we heard about the Normandy landings on the radio. Some time after this, what was called the Python scheme started, under which soldiers who had served more than a certain length of time overseas were returned to the UK. I just qualified for this, as the time that I spent in England in 1940 was short enough for my service to be regarded as continuous from October 1939. Unfortunately, I then had to leave the unit and go back to the RE base depot at Moascar, which meant horrible things like guard duty, in which I was in charge of the guard because by then I had reached the exalted rank of corporal (I would no doubt have risen higher, had I not been so anti-Army).

However, I at last left Moascar and sailed from Port Said on the "Indrapoera", a fairly small and cramped Dutch ship. It was like being on a cruise - as far as Gibraltar. Once in the Bay of Biscay, however, the weather deteriorated, and we also acquired an escort of an aircraft carrier and a number of corvettes as there were submarines about, as depth charges were exploded in the vicinity (the whole ship reverberated when they went off - not a nice feeling)."

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