LETTER No. 2 Continued from Bombay p.16
May 23rd 1942
Dear Mum,
I am continuing this letter from the squadron base at Sidi Hanish in the Western Desert near the Lybian (Libyan) Desert. Our forward lines are a few miles from Tobruk. I have been stationed at the base but as soon as the next push starts I will be going into the front lines. Don’t worry about my getting hurt because so far the casualties of the squadron are only about 3 killed & about 15 prisoners in 22 months of battle.
This part of the letter can contain a lot more information than the following ones because I am giving it to one of the lads that we relieved & he will be able to post it in Aussie or deliver it.
The trip from Columbo to Bombay was rather uninteresting. We were only a few miles from the coast & all we saw was the mountainous peaks of the Himalayas a good few native dhows (sailing boats) & several villages.
We sighted Bombay a few days after I started writing the first few pages of this letter. We sailed straight into the harbour & dropped anchor. I was on duty on the bridge & I had a look at the town through the ship’s telescope.
The ship stayed at anchor in the harbour until the next day & then moved into the docks. We packed our gear & bid good-bye to the old “Dilwara” & went into the barracks at Colaba, a suburb of Bombay, until another ship arrived to take us the rest of the trip.
We arrived at the barracks about 4 o’clock in the afternoon & by the time we had a shave & a brush up & caught the bus to town it was too dark to see very much so we went to the Services Canteen & had a dance & then went around to the Taj Mahal Hotel to have a look at it because the sailors had told us so much about it & it really was everything that they said it was. We arrived back at camp about 11 o’clock.
The next day we attended the morning parade & straight after same we went into town. We started our tour at the markets. Some of the things I saw there were beautiful & I could easily have spent 100 pounds. I bought you a model of the Taj Mahal & Betty a necklace & posted them straight away. If the things do not arrive by about the middle of July let me know & I will write to Bombay & they will trace them for me because they said it would take about 6 to 8 weeks to get there. I also sent a cable from the G.P.O.
I can’t tell you about everything I saw because it would take much too long but let me know what size shoes & clothing you & Betty take because if I had known there at Bombay I would have been able to buy shoes, pyjamas, dressing gowns etc at prices you could hardly credit. I can also get these things at Cairo & Alexandria when we go in on leave.
i will tell you about the cities when I get home & from what I hear that won’t be very long because our stay in the desert is only 12 months.
Well on the sixth of May we went on to the S.S. Varela a ship of about 8,000 tons & loaded with Indian troops & as we were the only white troops on the ship we resented it very much.
The troops on board were Ghurkas, Bengals, several other Indian battalions & a division of Sikhs also about 200 Cingalese troops.
We told the CO that we would not sail on the ship unless we had the forward part to ourselves so the Cingalese troops were taken off but the Ghurkas still did their cooking on the forward troop deck and believe me their food stinks.
We were in the harbour until next day & then they started giving us boat drill we were told to put on our life jackets but as they had been worn by the Indian troops & were rather dirty we all refused, anything for an argument. We received orders from every officer on the ship but these naturally carried very little weight & in the end we were given new, clean ones.
We drew up anchor at 4.15 on May 7th & headed for Aden.
Every day we had a talk by one of the officers of the Indian Army on different parts of India & also the Burma Rd.
The sea at this part of the trip was as calm as a mill pond & when we were about a day out of Aden the steering gear fell to pieces & the ship went round & round in circles until it was put together again.
We arrived at Aden on May 4th & had to be loaded with coal & so we stayed there until the next afternoon. We weren’t given any leave because the ship was quarantined & even if leave had been granted there was not much sense in going ashore because where we were anchored was just off the military barracks and there was very little to see except a few camels & a lot of barren mountains which could quite easily be seen from the ship. I forgot to menton that the ship was quarantined because of smallpox but the case was taken ashore at Aden.
We left Aden about 1 o’clock on May 15th for Port Tewfick on the entrance to the Suez.This was the last part of our sea trip & everyone was very pleased & counted the days. We passed through the Narrows, or entrance to the Red Sea at about 12 o’clock that night.
The following night we passed a hospital ship which was quite a contrast to ours because it was a blaze of lights which was reflected in the calm sea & reminded me very much of a Manly Ferry. Made me feel quite homesick.
On May 18 a concert party was given by the Indian Entertainers a group of people who were travelling to the Middle East to put on shows for the Indian troops here.
We arrived at Port Suez on the 20th Mayn& disembarked & we were taken to a transit camp.vjust on the outskirts of town. That afternoon & night we had a look around the town. There was very little to see. We were also told that we would be at the squadron base within 48 hours. This was a great surprise to all of us.
We were up at 5 o’clock the next morning & caught the train for Cairo arriving there about 10.30 but as our train for the Western Desert did not leave for about 8 hours we had plenty of time to look around.
We had lunch at the Empire Club & walked all over the town. It was a beautiful city & very clean compared to the places we have seen on the way over.
We left Cairo at 6.30 & were going right through that night but when we stopped for tea about 10 miles from Alexandria the Jerries came ove & bombed the town & we could not get through. It was our first real experience of a bombing raid &nbelieve you me its not a very nice feeling when you know that bombs are landing so close. We stood on a hill & watched it all.
Anyhow we slept the night in the train & after breakfast near morning we were on our way again.
The first 60 miles was along the Nile & the countryside at this part was beautiful & green because the whole place is irrigated. Their farming equipment is very primitive, using donkeys & oxen where we would use tractors or machinery.
The remainder of the trip was through devestated & war torn country. The desert was covered with heaps of twisted steel that used to be cars & trucks & we also saw a lot of crashed aeroplanes. This part of the country was where the AIF made the push & took Tobruk, hence the place was covered with sandbags & slit trenches.
When we arrived at Fuka, about 100 miles from Alex. we saw an ammunition train that had been hit with a bomb two days before. It was spread over an area of about 1/2 a mile. We arrived at Sidi Hanish about 4 o’clock that afternoon & were taken to the base camp about 15 miles away & were told which tent we would sleep in. That night we sat talking to the old hands until about 9 o’clock & then decided to get some sleep. We had no sooner got into bed when the Jerrys came over & dropped flares at either end of the ‘drome & we were all waiting for him to come back & make & make a run over us & blow the place to hell but our night fighters went up & chased them away shooting one down. It crashed & went up in flames about a mile away. The rest of them dropped their bombs in Merea, a railway siding about 8 miles away. Lovely welcome for us wasn’t it. Still we take no notice of that out here now.
Being back at base we have a very easy time as the only work we do is big repairs to planes that have been shot up at the front. When work comes in everyone hops in & does his share & it only runs out at about one hours work every two days. The remainder of the time we spend in our tent or down at the Mediterranean having a swim. The thing you hear about the beautiful colour of the Mussos Lake is all true. It is as clear as crystal & the most beautiful blue I have ever seen. All of us lay around in the sand & there isn’t a swimming costume between the lot of us. The place look like the local nudist colony.
We are only supposed to be issued with 1/2 gallon of water every day & with that we are supposed to shave, wash & do our hair. The way we overcame it is to grow a beard, swim in the Mussos Lake & I have cut my hair off at the roots. You have never seen such a queer lot in all your life.
We bought a 1941 Chevrolet truck for four pounds & we use this to run down to the beach & tear around the ‘drome. Petrol is naturally on the Air Force. (as it was written). So you can see we are having a rather good time.
Every time a Kittyhawk comes back from the front the pilot takes a few dives at our mess & I have seen them travelling at 350 mph & going below the level of a tent.
Yesterday one of the R.A.F. pilots was doing this & he missed in his judgment & ended up in a heap of ruins out in the ‘drome. He won’t do it again.
I will write another letter next week to let you know what I am doing but I, naturally won’t be able to say as much as I have here.
I won’t have time to write a letter like this to Betty so you can have our Betty give her a ring & she can read this one.
The boys are leaving in a few hours & I will close now. Love to all at home & give my regards to all the boys.
Lovingly Yours,
Frank xxxx
PS. Please send the Sunday Truth to me each week. DON’T WORRY BECAUSE I AM HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME
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