Back to Baghdad
We got to Sarafand looking forward to leave, through into the Lebanon, Beirut, Tyre and Sidon, and Haifa. After one day in Sarafand and two on leave in Tel Aviv, we were ordered back to Aleppo by the same route!
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With water melons (Jimmy in truck, right) |
I should say here how I spent my two days leave. We went to Tel Aviv and walked around the shops - they were big town shops - not your Arab sort. Very modern town - we went into the tea or coffee shops, bought fruit juices. I rememebr in particular "Aziz" fruit juice, especially the grapefruit. The juice was in a large iced glass square container and grapefruit twirled around on the top. You bought a pint, or a half. I stayed at the Tipperaray Club. It was run by the British women - from the Embassies, the Society of Friends and the Sally Army. The club was similar to the YMCA. However the military police came down from Sarafand and rounded us all up. We just couldn't believe it and wondered what awful catastrophe must have occurred.
Well, north we went, and mustered in Aleppo, and moved off across the East Syrian desert to Deir ez-Zor, down the Euphrates. Deir ez-Zor was a beautiful village, with plenty of water which was pumped up from the river. There were plenty of trees and green grass. We knew that there were still roaming bands of Raschid Ali's supporters, so we took precautions at night.
We had with us a heavy Albion workshop truck, holding every kind of tool and equipment to carry our repairs. It had lathes, welding equipment and and could handle all types of work - all trades. We were always repairing this most essential truck. The heavy bracket holding the fan belt and the dynamo kept breaking with constant vibration. We had repaired it at Deir ez Zor and were hopeful that it would last all the way to Baghdad. It was not to be. It broke down half a days journey away. The whole column could not be stopped so a dozen of us "tiffers" were left, with our lorries, to repair the truck, and the others rolled on. We pulled the Albion to the edge of the Euphrates and tried to camouflage ourselves. We were very apprehensive. We had not even one machine gun - only our rifles - and we got dug in and got the ammo our ready.
It was when I was on look out that I saw dust swirls in the distance. Then as they came nearer, I could see the sand was in long trails. We all dived for our holes and waited. It turned out to be a battalion of Gurkhas with British officers. They stopped; the Gurkhas leapt out, and set up machine guns about half a mile away. The Gurkhas don't hang about! They observed us then sent out a Scout Car with the Colonel in it. "Who the hell left you here?", shouted the Colonel. We're left to repair the truck", we replied. "This is the most dangerous place imaginable! You can't stay here", shouted the Colonel, outraged. We answered that we were to journey on to Baghdad when we had the Albion ready, and that we'd been before and knew the way! He would have none of it. "We can't leave you here. We'll escort you back to Deir ez Zor" and they did, and we towed the Albion and we mended it and then we were not allowed to leave!
We had to wait and join the next convoy to Baghdad. This proved to be a company of transports taking supplies to Habbaniya only. We joined them. En route we went through the most Arab town I had ever been in. We saw it in the distance, shimmering - the walled city of Abu Kemal. They opened the gates and we went through. The populace kept out of sight. The streets were hardly wider than our trucks.
We held together at night and travelled all day. A good day's jouney would be 100 miles, but some days we could only manage 30 - detouring, digging out. To stop refections off the windscreens, we oiled the glass and stuck on sand, then cleared a slot to look through. Lots of the Bedfords had their windscreens broken with rifle butts for the same reason.
We got to Habbaniya, and left the convoy and went straight, by compass to Baghdad. The military police at the road blocks, gave us directions to our column. We were beside date palms but it was terrifically hot. We worked from first light till about 8.30am. Then it was too hot and we had to stand down. We lay under the trucks all day. I remember seeing an Arab lying straight in the shadow of a lamp standard. He moved round with the sun!
I was amazed at the number of Indian troops in Baghdad - around 30,000. Sikhs in armoured cars; infantry divisions of Gurkhas and Sepoys - the Indian 10th Armoured Division.
The bunds, or high river banks on the Tigris had been blown, and the river had flowed over the countryside. The higher land had made little islands, and here some of the Iraqis had set up batteries of 25 pounders. They were British made guns and we might have needed them. The Iraqis, all dead, lay or crouched over their guns. We were sent with our trucks to get as many guns as possible. We had to wade in mud, up to our waists, to get to the islands. We had to take guns because the pyeards, wild dogs, were everywhere, eating the bodies. All exposed flesh had been eaten away, licked clean. We just pushed the bodies aside and pulled the guns with hawsers. Then into the river to wash. On our previous visit to Baghdad we had never thought that we might need the guns.