My War - Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

We stayed at the air base Mauripur near Karachi for a month giving us time to become acclimatised to the heat. For the first week we were not allowed to go into Karachi because there was some sort of unrest taking place so one afternoon a lorry was laid on to take us to the sand spit a long stretch of beach on the Arabian Sea. It was a long stretch of sand, reaching into the distance, the water was warm but refreshing so we spent the afternoon swimming with a little sunbathing to start with and gradually increased the dose of sun as the days went by. We later found that cycles were available for hire so we were able to go to the sand spit as often as we wanted.

In the mess the food was quite good and attached to the mess was an area laid out with tables and chairs with a canopy of canvas and waiter service where we could buy snacks and a cup of tea in the evenings.

After a week we were able to go into Karachi to explore and we found that it was rather like a market with stalls everywhere and we were pestered to death by the stall holders and crowds of children wanting to act as guides. This we found was something we would have to put up with until, as they used to say, our knees were brown. Cows were regarded as holy by the local religion. They were allowed to wander freely in the city and they would help themselves to the vegetables on the stalls with the stall holders pretending to stroke them and at the same time kneeing them in the ribs to stop them stealing the stock.

However the holiday had to come to an end so we were instructed to pack our belongings and be ready to be picked up by a gharry [lorry] at 4 am to be taken to the docks ready to take off in a BOAC flying boat at 5 am. It turned out to be a Sunderland Flying Boat which provided a regular service between Karachi and Calcutta.

We were seated with our backs to a window, no seat belts of course, in a sub- deck under the crew quarters. A flight of five or six stairs led to the main deck where the civilian passengers were seated. When we started the take-off run a bow wave completely covered the window until we were air borne. After a little while a stewardess brought us a large tray with lots of snacks on it, more than enough for the four of us so we had a good tuck in.

After two hours twenty five minutes we stopped at Rajsamand to pick up and drop passengers. The next stop was Gwalia on a lake attached to some religious building. All the passengers had to disembark into a boat while the aircraft was refuelled. As the lake was all part of the holy place we were not allowed to smoke while we were in the boat. So on to the last leg of the journey with just a stop at Allahabad we finally arrived at Calcutta at 13.25 where we stayed for a few days.

We saw a bit of Calcutta, mainly magnificent buildings, as we were driven to the station, the buildings were in white marble. At the station our kit was carried on to the platform by bearers on there heads in single file like a safari. As the train travelled along monkeys started reaching into the windows for titbits. We were heading for the jungle. Eventually we arrived at the local station and finally reached the squadron.

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