My Way - Chapter 9 - En Route for India

Chapter 9 En Route to India

Having completed the heavy conversion unit it was time to join a squadron. After talks about medical problems to be met in tropical countries, suitable injections etc., we were sent on embarkation leave.

At the appropriate time we were recalled from leave, kitted out with tropical gear, bush hat etc. and loaded up into the bomb bay of a Liberator Bomber. Inside the bomb bay we found a double row of seats all along the length of the aircraft so close together our knees were interlocked with those facing and to reach the toilet at the rear of the plane we had to crawl over the knees of the others. The toilet was a funnel on the end of a rubber pipe passed through the side of the fuselage.

Our first stop was a place called Castel Benito at Idris in North Africa. Our next stop was Cairo. The camp was located in such a position that the pyramids were clearly visible. Next morning it was announced that a coach would be laid on to take us into Cairo and pick us up at the coach station for the return.

In Cairo we were pestered by youngsters wanting to act as guides so in desperation we eventually let one of them show us to the Health Museum were we were able to pay him off. After that we wandered back into the centre of town and found a service club, which offered a three course dinner at a very reasonable price. After dinner our navigator Jimmy Cleland fell asleep and I went for a stroll out side. The streets were narrow with buildings looking like rabbit warrens with dark passages. Small boys kept touting for their young sisters of 12 years old so eventually I returned to the service club mainly to escape from the attention. I found that all my friends must have left for the bus station so I hailed a gharry. The driver insisted on cash in advance and from time to time demanded either a cigarette or more cash. After a while and a few threats he finally dropped me off in a deserted bus station clearly I had missed the coach.

I was just wondering what I should do when my skipper and two or three of his officer pals came along. After a brief discussion we agreed that we had missed the coach and so headed back into Cairo to a bar they knew about. It turned out to be officers only so they crowded round me and we charged in but the doorman spotted
me but was persuaded to let me in as long as I remained in the back corner away from the counter. However the chaps kept me well supplied with John Collins.

Round about midnight the place closed and we took a taxi. I was given the seat beside the driver on the grounds that I was the navigator (the others being pilots) although I had no idea where the airfield was. I told the driver it was near the pyramids but I expect he knew perfectly well where to take us. So we made it to bed about 12.30.

At 1.30 Jimmy managed to wake me up to say that we were taking off at 2am and that I had missed my breakfast. So into the Liberator once more. After a stop somewhere in the Middle East to refuel we eventually arrived at Karachi which was to be our base for the next month while we got acclimatised. When we stepped out of the plane it was like stepping into an oven.

Our accommodation was a tent erected on a concrete slab the beds were a wooden frame with woven rope covered by a 1/2-inch thick canvas mattress, sheets and pillow. We later found that when we went on a trip we had to roll the pillow and sheets inside the mattress and take it with us. Each morning an Indian came to brush the sand off the concrete base using a besam without a handle so that he had to crouch down to work with the result that he was breathing the dust and his lungs were clearly in a terrible state.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.