Cyprus Calls
By
WO11 Denham RAOC
August
Bank Holiday Monday, 1956, enjoying a day with my young family when the
postman calls, he has delivered the brown postcard saying Sgt. A.Denham
RAOC must report to Deepcut Barracks as you are recalled for the Suez Emergency,
I was in the Army Emergency Reserve category "A". no need for travel warrant
as we had one in our recall documents, just in case you see.
Anyway
off to Deepcut on the following day where the documentation reception was
waiting for us, it seems that they were quite well organised.
We were told that there would be a parade twice daily where names were called for onward posting, my name was called on Thursday morning, we were then assembled at the Company Office where we were told where we were going, a number of the troops were posted around the country to replace troops going overseas, no such luck for me, Cyprus calls, so it is off to the stores for KD issue, then medical room for jabs, by 18.00.hrs I was at the railway station going home on 7 days embarkation leave. So in the space of just 3 days I had gone from a part time soldier to a fully kitted troop ready for action.
On return from leave we were shipped to Southampton and boarded the Shaw Savil Line ship New Australia bound for Cyprus, On board were Guards Regiment and Royal Artillery units, the senior S/Major was with the R.A. he told us on the very first parade that for the duration of the journey he did not want to see any of the Corps personnel on his parade, he thought that he was degrading us by saying that, but I can tell you we were all chuffed to know that we would not be drilling with the rest of the units.
On route we stopped off at Malta for water and supplies, we had 12 hours shore leave, the Army had to show the flag by doing a quay side parade, but as with all the R.S.Ms ships parade we were not invited so we in fact got 3 hours longer ashore than the "elite troops".
When we docked at Famagusta we spent the first night under canvas before going on to our various units, we travelled by 3 ton trucks and were told to be aware at all times of terrorist activities, we all had our Lee Enfield rifles, but not one round of ammunition between us.
My destination was Lakatamia to the ammunition depot, and believe it or not so was the R.S.M. but as it turned out he was not a bad bloke once you got to know him, the depot at that time carried only small arms for the emergency services, but very soon we were working quite hard when the heavier stuff started to arrive.
I spent a couple of months at Limasol docks where most of the ammo was sent to from U.K. I was the only RAOC person there and I was doing the job of an Ammunition Examiner even though I was only a storeman, most of my meals were taken on the ships, so I was quite well fed, my sleeping accommodation was in the auxiliary police station.
Eventually it was back to Lakatimia waiting to get back to Blighty, we had a number of nights out in Nicosia always in at least pairs and always armed, I bought myself a jacket and trousers which meant I was able to carry a service revolver instead of a rifle or Sterling sub machine gun. A number of the troops came back home on Royal Navy ships, I don't know how, but I came home on a Comet of RAF transport command, we landed at Blackbush in the middle of the night, taken by buses to Millbank in London where we were issued with travel permits and pay and ration allowances and sent home on leave, whilst on leave I received notification that I was released from full time service and was posted back to my reserve unit. On my next annual camp I was presented with the GSM. with clasp Cyprus, I stayed on in the reserves until 1968 reaching the rank of WO11. |
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