Part 6 (1/2)

I was caught out by a British major when I failed to salute him; he asked me where I was stationed and when I answered ”Shaiba.” he enquired, ”don't they salute officers there now? They used to when I was Provost Marshal.” I had not worn my greatcoat for ages when I was in Shaiba and had not polished the bra.s.s but it was much colder in Teheran and I was now wearing it. He eyed the green bra.s.s b.u.t.tons of my greatcoat with disapproval but let me off with a warning as he realised that I was on leave from that G.o.d-forsaken spot; I think he felt sorry for me.

We went to a cinema to see Bambi which I had seen before in England but this was different; the sound track was in English with French sub-t.i.tles and to one side a separate screen about seven feet square carried the dialogue in Farsi. It was just as well that I had seen it before because those who could read explained the film to those who could not and I could hardly hear the sound track for the constant babble.

Compared to Shaiba the air was cool and crisp and my friend who was a bit of an amateur astronomer said that under the right conditions the planet Mercury could be seen with the naked eye and sure enough under a cloudless sky just after sunset we saw it quite close to the sun's edge; I've often looked for it but I've never seen it since. The reason for our choosing Teheran as a vacation centre was that another couple of members of our group had gone there not long before and spoke of it approvingly; they had stayed a little longer than we and had climbed, or partially climbed, Mount Demavend that was about 19,000 feet high. We had no desire to copy them but spent the best part of a day walking northwards from Teheran seeing the wide open s.p.a.ces apparently uninhabited apart from the occasional local who viewed us with interest and suspicion as to our intent. In the city one of the main sights was the railway station, an architectural gem that had been built earlier by the Germans. Being a carpet weaving centre there were all shapes, sizes, colours and patterns on display and also for sale, many laid out on the sidewalks to be walked upon by pa.s.sers-by which surprised us. I wasn't too certain about the sanitary arrangements but on many streets I saw open gutters running between the sidewalk and the road and there seemed to be ample water run-off from the northern highland. All good things have to come to an end and after two weeks we caught the train back to Ahwaz and thence to Shaiba.

For entertainment we had radio programs relayed from Britain but we also picked up programs emanating from Ahwaz which was under American control. Rum and Coca Cola sung by The Andrews Sisters was pounded out at least three times daily. Occasionally boxing was arranged between ourselves and the Americans to what we would call amateur rules, three three-minute rounds with a two-minute break between rounds, no referee in the ring but with the contests bring controlled verbally by an officer at ringside. The styles of the two countries differed and we considered ourselves lucky if we won three out of the ten bouts.

Naturally we cheered for our own boxers but were appreciative of any American who adopted the more upright stance rather than the American crouch. There were frequent cinema shows and sometimes ENSA parties visited us on their tours of army bases; twice I recall going to shows given by touring Russian groups; though the language was unintelligible to most of us the types of turns given did not require any great understanding of Russian and their performances were first cla.s.s. I usually went along fairly early to grab a reasonable seat and was frequently annoyed when I was dispossessed by late arriving superiors; on such occasions I sometimes returned to my billet to read a book or to go to sleep; I was fairly content in my own company.

The army would not be the army if we did not have visitations at times by the top bra.s.s. I don't remember and I don't think I ever knew who the officer was who came to inspect our installations; I wasn't much interested. However the Machine Shop was set up to display our talents and virtually every machine was to be working, operators were called in from other jobs where necessary and Johnny Lockett was one such lucky one. Although he was a skilled man he had been put to work driving an internal gharri around the base on trivial errands but now he was called in to stand by a machine that was honing the bores of cylinder blocks and he was doing just that when the top bra.s.s came by. The machine had been previously set up.

”And what's going on here?” asked top bra.s.s.

”Honing cylinder bores Sir”.

”I see, and how metal are you removing?”

”Don't know, Sir.”

”You don't know! then what are you doing here?”

”Watching, Sir.”

”What's your trade?”

”Precision grinder, Sir.”

”Precision grinder and you don't know how much metal you're removing?”

”No, Sir, I was just told to come here and stand by the machine. I don't think it's cutting anything.” Johnny Lockett was not very popular with his superiors after that and I believe he went back to driving the internal gharri.

I think it was about July or August 1945 that I was transferred to Egypt, anyway while we were in transit we read that the Americans had dropped a super bomb on j.a.pan and the consensus among us was, ”There they go, bragging again,” and we put it out of our minds.

We travelled in style this time -- to start with. After WWI two Australians, seeing the potential, had acquired some vehicles and started a company, Nairn Transport, to carry pa.s.sengers and freight across the Middle East and our party was put on two of their air conditioned coaches to travel from Baghdad to Damascus. The routes had been well established by this time and the coaches left the metalled roads and went across the desert in a fairly straight line from point A to point B. I was in the second coach following the leader and for a while all went well; we kept a reasonable distance between us because our pa.s.sage stirred up a whirl of loose sand. Of course it had to be our coach that eventually broke down; our driver honked and honked until he got the attention of the leader; consultations followed. By-and-by a tow chain was. .h.i.tched to one of our front spring shackles and off we went. With no power we had no air conditioning and the heat became unbearable so we opened the windows. This was not a good idea because we were following close, a tow chain's length, behind the other coach and we were in the minor sandstorm of its wake. Soon our sweaty bodies were caked with sand and the only respite came when the front spring shackle gave way and we ground to a halt. Repairs were made and the tow chain was re-attached, this time to the other front spring shackle.

Many miles farther on this one also gave up the ghost and there were no more spare parts available for repairs, fortunately a small Arab settlement was close at hand. It was now night and we waited and waited until a relief coach reached us and took us uneventfully into Damascus.

The next day we boarded the metre gauge railway train bound for Dar”a.

My memory now fails me; I remember pa.s.sing the southern end of Lake Tiberias and arriving at Haifa but I don't know how I got there. From Haifa we took a train along the coast into Egypt, crossing the Suez Ca.n.a.l at El Qantara, finis.h.i.+ng up eventually at another desolate spot, No.2 Base Workshops at Tel-el-Kebir.

TEL-EL-KEBIR

I remember my father telling me when I was a youngster that the battle of Tel-el-Kebir was one of the last battles in which the British fought in red coats. I suppose that it stayed in his mind because it would have been still in the news when he was a child, the battle having taken place in 1882. No.2 Base Workshops was in that general vicinity but as usual it was in the wide open s.p.a.ces; it was similar to Shaiba in size and content and served the same purpose. On one of my trips to Cairo I pa.s.sed through the town -- or was it too small to be so called -- and I paused at the cemetery where the British dead of that battle were buried and my thoughts went back to my father's tales.

The European war had finished and the American claim to have a super bomb was no longer bragging, it was a reality. The debate over the use of the atomic bomb rages on but my opinion then and still today is that it was justified in that it shortened the war and saved many 1000's of lives, j.a.panese as well as Allied, maybe even mine. It depends on whose ox is being gored. We were going in the right direction and demob was in sight.

British forces in No.2 BW included quite a number of Jews who had every reason to want Germany defeated; initially they were integrated with us, they said they didn't want to be isolated in ghettos but as time went on and as they absorbed more and more of military training and organisation they felt large enough and competent enough to warrant separate status.

When I arrived at Tel-el Kebirs' camp, the Jewish camp, was an accomplished fact. I imagine that Haganah was born or nurtured there; maybe Irgun also.

The DO staff was larger than that at Shaiba and included several Jews one of whom became my friend; his parents had sent him to Palestine before the war when things looked threatening in Austria and by the time I met him all his family had perished in Dachau. He was alone in the world and he joined the British forces I sensed hostility on the part of two other Jews, one male, one female; I don't know why, I hadn't done anything to them, perhaps they thought the British were standing between them and the creation of the Israeli state.

The office work was much the same as before, nothing very exciting; one of the lads, Craftsman Edlin wis.h.i.+ng to upgrade his draughtsman's rating applied to be trade tested and was told to design a lawn mower for the officers' quarters. Since the lawn at the officers' quarters boasted about 50 blades of gra.s.s per square foot this was a little silly.