|
The next morning we left Daba behind and travelled on along the coast road. We passed by the airfield at Fuka. Here there was quite a lot of wrecked Italian aircraft. It was round about here that I saw a Sherman tank fire its gun, the sound of the explosion seemed to roll over the desert for miles. The next place we got to was Mersa Matrum. Here there was another N.A.A.F.I., it was named "The Ship Inn". I bought a nice new Schick razor there. Lots of Italian prisoners were now passing us on the way to P.O. W. camps. They seemed so glad that for them the fighting was over. They were all smiles and waving of arms but the German prisoners were all silent and sullen. That night we stopped in the desert just before reaching Sidi Barrani. When I awoke the next morning there was a strong smell of paraffin. It seemed a tin of the stuff on the truck was leaking all night and I was sleeping in a pool of it. This caused the rubberised finish on my groundsheet to peel off, making the sheet useless. It just wasn't waterproof any more. On our third day trek we passed through Sidi Barrani. This place was just a pile of rubble, not a building remained intact. We then came to another N.A.A.F.I. at Buq-Buq, this was called "The Two Bears". I have often wondered about these N.A.A.F.I’s with all the retreating and advancing of the warring armies over the years. Did they clear the places of all stock or did they just leave it, and did the Germans run the places as their equivalent of the N.A.A.F.I.? They must have had such things. I know that each side used each other's trucks and tanks, so perhaps they did the same with these places, too. It was then on the long climb up Sollum Pass: from the top was a grand view of the Bay of Sollum. We then passed Fort Capuzzo, a real Beau Geste fort, and lots of white flags here. We by-passed Bardia and stopped for the night somewhere near Gambut, a large airfield there. Whenever the convoy made a stop in the desert it seemed there was not a living soul for miles around but after about ten minutes an Arab would appear carrying a basket of eggs, asking if we wanted to buy. We would barter our ration of cigarettes for his eggs. These cigarettes were called "Vs" and they were awful. The next morning, as we approached Tobruk, I could see all the white buildings that were still intact and in the harbour were lots of sunken ships. There was a very large German cemetery here. After passing Tobruk we took the road inland instead of the coastal road through Derna. This road went across the Jebl Akbar. This was a more fertile region. It was here that Mussolini had tried to install Italian settlers. They had built small houses, each with a plot of land, all in straight lines across the country. We spent that night by our trucks out in the open and I remember it was very cold indeed. Some water had been left in a bowl and in the morning it was covered with a film of ice. December in the desert wasn't very brilliant. The next day we had two passes to negotiate, Tocra and Barce. Two of the trucks in the convoy were very large Thomeycrofts and they had quite a job getting round the very tight bends. However, we all got through all right. At intervals along this road were notices saying "Keep your distance - low flying enemy aircraft" and every so often we came across little cemeteries at the side of the road, just a few graves and simple crosses. I wasn't very happy sitting up on top of the trucks expecting enemy aircraft to appear at any time and start shooting at us. I'm glad to say that did not happen. We were now coming to Benghazi, quite a large city, some nice buildings and a very nice cathedral. On the side of some of the buildings were large pictures of Mussolini and the words "Il Duce". We passed through the side streets and out into the country on the coast road and eventually we reached the airstrip we were to operate from. It was by the side of the road, just hard sand and scrubs. The strip was marked out with empty four-gallon petrol tins and these being silver in colour shone clearly in the moonlight, so it could clearly be seen when enemy aircraft came over at night - and he came over every night. We were there except Christmas and Boxing Night. A very heavy ack-ack was put up over Benghazi with searchlights too. What a pity we were not in our usual role of night fighters. We had only just arrived that first evening and hadn't even settled in when he came over and we all dived under the nearest truck. Already there were about three of our planes. These had been flown from Idku with a few ground crew as an advance party to erect tents and prepare for our arrival. We were again in ridge tents but this time didn’t sleep on the sand. Most of us had nailed pieces of wood together in an oblong fashion and had then stretched a piece of canvas over it all. This was supported on empty four-gallon petrol tins. At least it was a bed off the sand. Our Mess was a large EPIP tent, as was the flight tent. You had to be very careful just where you walked. I remember seeing the prongs of land mines protruding up through the sand, it was very dangerous. We had passed three more airstrips after leaving Benghazi but I never saw any sign of other aircraft anywhere. I think we must have been the only squadron so close to the front line. Our planes went out on ops, shooting up shipping in Tripoli and any1hing else they could find. It must have been so very different for the aircrews. Our Christmas dinner had to be flown up from Idku. It was brought to us in a "Beau", the pilot being Flight Sergeant Ledwidge. Later on in 1943 he was promoted to Pilot Officer and awarded the D.F.C. for ops in the Dodecanese Islands. |
