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experience. It was a Blenheim taking off but on another runway was a truck full of airmen moving along it and just where the runways crossed, so the plane and truck arrived. At that point the pilot had managed to get the plane airborne but one of the wheels caught the top of the truck and the undercarriage was ripped off. This caused that engine to burst into flames. The pilot managed to fly the plane over the P.O. W. camp before it crashed into flames. It really was a most distressing incident. Whilst at Helwan we were allowed to go into Cairo. I'm afraid I didn't like the place at all, it was very noisy, dirty, smelly and hundreds of "shoeshine boys" and lots of "baksheesh, George" and one thing that took a lot of getting used to - flies, millions of them. We stayed at Helwan for just over a week whilst other airmen arrived. We were also kitted out with khaki battledress, although we were now wearing shorts during daylight hours and long slacks at night. Also we now had mosquito nets to sleep under. Mosquitoes in the Middle East were a malaria carrying species. One morning we all clambered onto a truck with all our kit and we left Helwan. Going through Cairo we took the road past the pyramids of Giza and then by the Mena House Hotel where Mr Churchill stayed. We then took the desert road to Alexandria. On this road we overtook lots of tank transporters, each one carrying a Valentine tank all going up to the front line. The majority of these tanks were destroyed in Rommel's next advance. They were no match for his Tiger tanks and his 88s. We reached Alex in the late afternoon, then on along the coast road through Abukia, finally arriving at Idku. This was where we joined our squadron, namely 46 Squadron. This was not a new squadron; it was the re-forming of the squadron after its terrible losses in the Norway campaign at Narvik. It was the first squadron ever to land Hurricanes on a carrier. Unfortunately it was sunk by enemy action and pilots and planes were lost. The squadron was now equipped with Beaufighters. It was to be a night fighter unit in the defence of Alexandria and the Canal Zone. We were in ridge tents, six men to a tent. I was still with Bert Payne and Taff Griffiths in the same tent. Our bedding was laid out on the sand and nets tied to the tent roof. It wasn't ideal but we soon got used to it - asps, lizards and all. I was again on the flights, for which I was very thankful. I didn't want to be on the maintenance section. About every fourth night you did night duty crew, this meant being in the flight tent all night until the day crews came on in the morning. Although a night fighter unit meant working a 24-hour day there was plenty of action at night with "Jerry" over Alex and the squadron had a number of kills. Also at Idku were another two Beaufighter squadrons, Numbers 272 and 252. These were day fighter units, they were naval co-operation units and they worked very hard indeed. They did convoy escort duties and attacking enemy shipping as well as ground staffing. They were really very hard working squadrons. When on ops we would watch them take off and then in the afternoon they would return with quite a number of them shot up, mostly hydraulics, which meant they could not lower their wheels. This meant a belly-landing but the Beau, being a very strong aircraft and being put down on hard sand, it really did not suffer too much damage. Of course, bent props but it would slide along the sand and come to rest all right. As there was only the one landing strip, when one of the planes had landed the others would have to fly around until the strip was clear again. Their ground screws had a very efficient system. About three quarters of the way down the runway they had a mobile crane on each side and as soon as a crippled plane put down and came to rest so a sling was put under each main plane (wing) and then the cranes hoisted it up until the Fitters could get underneath and pull the wheels down and locked. It was then towed off the runway and all was ready for the next plane. It all worked wonderfully well; sometimes I wished they had asked us to help. All we could do was look on. If a plane had one wheel down landing could be dangerous. It was much safer to put it down with both wheels up. During all my time in the R.A.F. I saw many crashes but there was always something inside saying "Oh, God - no". The airfield was a dried up salt lake, hard sand, between the coast road and the sea. On the other side of the road was a large lake and we were told that to come in contact with that water and you would have to see the M.O. straight away. There were parasites in the water. Chapter 4The squadron soon settled down to the job it was to do. Daily inspections, air tests, any repairs that needed to be done and at night on readiness waiting for the call "scramble" and then it was all go to get the planes airborne as quickly as possible. Then the wait for their return. Sometimes we would listen to what was going on over the R T (radio). If they came back with gun patches missing we knew they had been in action. The planes were then |
