North Africa Part 4
North Africa Part 4
 Click
on image to enlarge These three people were local French
residents who we hired to work in our offices. They were a great
help and relieved some of our soldiers from routine office work. Note,
we had snow several inches deep; this on the roof of our hospital building. |
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on image to enlarge Left are some foreign soldiers who
carried their food on the hoof", four legged animals which they slaughtered
for meals. |
Click on image to enlarge Right you can see how we had to fold the mosquito nets on our beds. We hated to use them in hot weather because they kept air from moving over the beds. . |
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on image to enlarge Here you see a bunch of Arabs all
piled on one wagon. Note the turbans and Fez as headgear. |
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on image to enlarge And here you see an old man we used
to see every morning we used to see on our way to work. Sometimes
that wagon was "loaded to the hilt"; you could say way overloaded. |
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on image to enlarge Women were washing their clothes.
Note the rocks upon which they scrubbed the clothing and how it was dried
hanging on trees and bushes. |
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on image to enlarge Here you see Arab children, one carrying
unbaked bread to a central bakery. It is rough and grayish dough
with a hole in the center. |
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on image to enlarge The Arabs would have as many as five
or six mules hooked up in a single row and they were always blocking traffic.
Sometimes we encountered herds of sheep which were being herded
along streets and roads. |
 Click
on image to enlarge Typical Arab children; note the absence
of western type of clothes. Most wear tops and bottoms stitched together
from rough cloth, grayish in color. These boys were always trying
to find something to do for us for which they wanted payment most often
in candy bars or some other objects which they could use to barter. |
  Click
on image to enlarge Here you see our 1st/Sgt William
Hall in a weapons carrier talking to some Arabs. Also, you see a
snapshot of him at his desk; his name plate says 1st/Sgt Bill Hall.
Sgt. Hall was not one to become overly friendly with our enlisted men who
were in his charge. He "ran a tight ship"; controlled a staff of
about 350 men. Hall was from Texas, had a heavy southern accent and still
wanted to "show those Yankees" who was boss. He was regular Army
having entered the service before the beginning of W.W.II. He was
a good soldier!! After the war, I was able to contact
him at an address in Mexico, but later correspondence was returned.
Note the Atlas mountains in the background outside Tlemcen where we operated
our hospital. The natives of this area traveled a lot on foot or
rode donkeys. There were some buses, but they were crude mostly without
windows. Passengers would hang on anywhere they could and rode on
the roof of the vehicles. These buses burned some kind of wood, making
char coal, which would run an engine to operate the bus. |
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© 1999 Willard O. Havemeier. All rights reserved.