Part 3 To Africa

On completing the training at Inverary, we returned to Dundonald camp, and were told to be ready for a move overseas, destination unknown. After a few days we were put on a train to Greenock and directed onto a troopship called the M.V. Tegelberg, which was a Dutch ship that had been taken over by our government. The ship was so full of troops that the only place we could find to lay down our heads was in the bottom deck, under the mess deck table. Once the ship got under way, at night there was a cacophony of sound, all around, with men snoring all over the place and the ship’s engines banging and vibrating.

We travelled in a big convoy with warships on the fringes, and a zig-zag course was steered to avoid any torpedoes. We wouldn’t have stood a chance if one struck us, as there were three decks above us, but when we had travelled far enough south, it became warm enough to sleep on the deck. Salt water was supplied for washing and it was difficult to raise a lather. Special soap was on sale at the ship’s stores, but it didn’t perform much better. To reduce my water requirements, I requested permission to grow a beard, and this was granted.

Our first port of call was Capetown, South Africa, and it looked a lovely place, after having been a month at sea. We were given shore leave for one day, and some of us went to have a look around the city. There were notices up, which stated that Negroes should not walk on the pavements, and in the public parks they were excluded from sitting on certain benches.

I saw David Fraser, who had been one of my school chums, and later a working colleague, across the road, looking into a shop window.

I went over to speak to him but he did not recognise me at first, as the beard had grown quite well. He told me that he was a D.E.M.S. rating, which meant that he was a Royal Navy gunner on a defensively equipped merchant ship.

I tried to take the rail lift up to the top of Table Mountain, but as it was covered in cloud, the lift was not in operation. We stayed in port for two days, then set off again up the other side of Africa

I heard that a few of the soldiers had not rejoined the ship, but it was never known whether they had deserted, or been robbed and killed.

We hoped that tropical fruit would be on the menu, after we left Capetown, but it was still the same old slops, slapped into a mess tin, and a spoon was the only item of cutlery required.

The journey up the East coast of Africa lasted for another month, and then we disembarked at Port Tewfik, a Red Sea port, near the bottom end of the Suez Canal. We were then transported to a Royal Artillery camp which had been set up in the desert, miles from anywhere.

The table tops in the mess tents were covered with flies, and a quick brush over only caused them to rise, and wait before they could settle again. After a few days most of us had dysentery, and some of the chaps got it so bad that they could not control themselves, and the place soon had an unpleasant smell. The toilets were holes in the ground, with big boxes over the top, with holes in them, over which you squatted, gritting your teeth, hoping that the frame would not collapse.

We went into the Sinai Desert, and practised shoots on an abandoned R.A.F. camp, with a destroyer out at sea providing shellfire. Someone had left a sign in the urinal which said “The future of Britain is in your hands”.