Sand, Fly's and Kings

Chapter 5
Sand, Fly's and Kings

We disembarked ship at Port Tuifa Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs and pyramids, but we were not going to see any of that just yet. Instead we were sent by truck to a big base camp at Geniefa. It was a raining camp for all sorts of regiments and a 100 of us that were Argyles joined the rest of the 1st Battalion that had just escaped from Crete. Here we met Colonel Anderson the O/C of the 1st Battalion. He was a really good officer and well liked by the men as he was always fair to them. We were also introduced to the RSM. He walked down the parade line saying "You, you and you 1st platoon" ect. When he got to me he said "Carriers". So that's how I ended up being a driver in the HQ carrier platoon. More of that later.

Geniefa camp was close to the sea and was all tented, also living there were 60% of all the fly's in Africa. The camps aim was to give us our first taste of desert living, the heat, the sand and the fly's. The tents took eight men and were hotter than hell in the day and freezing at night. Training was hard going in the heat and every day we would do exercises in the hills surrounding Geniefa, doing platoon tactics and weapons training. We learnt how to survive in the desert by drinking as little as possible and at the right time of day. We were told always to check our boots in the morning before putting them on to make sure there was no scorpions in them. We were shown how to dig a Long Drop (latrines). And how to keep our rifles from getting clogged with sand. All the training took part in the mornings since it was too hot to work in the afternoons. So after lunch we were usually given the afternoon off. Most of us went down through the local Arab village to the sea for a swim or a game of football on the beach. A mate of mine took some photos of us.

After six weeks of desert training the Battalion was sent to Alexandria Barracks in Alex. The Barracks were a nice change from the desert with good ablutions and a big parade ground. No more hot tents and cold nights. But the fly's managed to follow us there. I was convinced that Egypt was just one large fly factory. They got in your eyes, in your food and in your cloths.This camp was all wooden huts with HQ platoon having a hut to its self. We had some more photos taken here. You can view lager images of all my war time pictures in the gallery.

Our job in Alex was to mount guard at a house called Mena which was being used as a conference house for Churchill, Roosevelt, Joe Stalin and the Chines Generelnisimo Chiang Kai-shek. Sometimes we would see glimpses of these great world leaders as they held talks in the gardens. The Carrier platoon had to make patrols around the house for 2 weeks and as the house was close to the Pyramids we did start to see a bit of ancient Egypt.

After guarding Mena we were sent on a new guard duty at one of King Farooks palaces near the sea. The King was there at the time and our job was to make sure that he stayed under house arrest and did not abscond from his country. Every other night we were off duty and would go into Alex to enjoy the bars and cabarets. We would arrive on the local Egyptian Pony and trap costing about 5 acars. Most nights would end with us getting into fights with the Yank Navy because they used to call us men in skirts. We soon put that right.