Qom and Teheran
We moved on towards Qom. We passed through Iranian villages - poor, poor people, filthy and dirty, in rags, most of them with sores and all of them pock-marked. They came begging, and we threw them our Indian biscuits. They kept their distance. They were in a terrible state of ill-health. So many were just lying on the ground, we just had to step over them. If the biscuits fell in the muck, they dived onto them - men, women and children. The men wore pantaloons, and had bare feet.
We were camped one place for a few days and a reasonably clean chap came up and made signs that he would do our washing. About six of us gave over our socks and vests and off he went. We never expected to see him again, but he retuned with the washing done and pressed and folded. Thereafter he considered himself a sort of bat-man to us, and he did the odd jobs and we paid him with a few coins. However, the "mozzies" were bad and we had to move a short distance up hill. A lot went down with malaria. We could hardly believe our eyes when he arrived next day, driven in a garry, by a driver with a whip! Our few coins had made him into someone of consequence. The driver and garry waited patiently all day for him. I suppose when we moved on he would attach himself to another crowd.
We by-passed Qom. It is a golden city - of domes and minarets. It is the holiest city in Iran. In fact, it is one of the holiest in the Middle East. It would not have done for us to enter it, so we manoeuvred round it slowly.
Then our company were gathered together for lectures and the purpose of our journey was made clear. The Russian offensive was well under way, and it was thought that German troops would make their way down between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and occupy Iran. Churchill was famous, or infamous rather, for opening "second fronts". We were told that at Teheran we would meet up with Russian troops. We were warned that there were to be no incidents - no accidental guns going off etc. We were also informed that there was quite a large German civilian presence in Iran. They were mostly engineers or technicians, and they had several factories.
It was late August '41 when we reached Teheran. We were directed to ground beside one of the factories and settled in and looked around. The factory made ammo and small arms and tools. We had to smarten up - no "shit order"! - but we were pretty grubby and our uniforms were the worse for wear. However, we did our best, carried rifles, tins hats on.
We saw the Russian troops now and again. My impression is of long marching columns, carrying machine guns between two, with bandoleers and grenades fixed to their belts. There were a lot of horses. Teheran was well and truly occupied.
It was a beautiful town with straight streets, and intersections with floodlit statues. It was very grand, something like Edinburgh new town. The mountain behind the town, Denravend, was about 15,000ft and snow-capped. It was hot in Teheran, but nothing like Baghdad.
On the second day there, five of us set off to explore the town. There was no restriction on our movements, but the Gurkhas and Sikhs stayed put, and the Russians too. The five of us did the shops and then went for tea in the poshest hotel. We had Russian tea in glass cups with silver holders, waiters serving and gorgeous cakes- big gateaux. We divided the bill by five and it came to 4 1/2 d each!
That evening we went to another hotel and into the garden for a concert. There were beautiful flowers and the stage had a background shaped like a cockle shell. We bought beer and listened to the band and singers - no, not Persian music, but a western touring group. I remember particularly the song, "A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square".
Persian Cavalry
Next evening the staff sergeant came with a job. A water bowser had a wheel blown off with a a mine. It had to be repaired right away in case we were ordered to move. We had to dismantle the bowser and build it on to a 15cwt Bedford truck. We set up floodlights and brought the faithful old Albion workshop. We stripped it down and rebuilt it on the Bedford - all trades working - welders, joiners, fitters. We worked all night, six of us mostly and finished by breakfast.
In Teheran, many trucks were required for ambulance work. My truck was one such. It was tidied up and had to accommodate six stretchers and a medical orderly. We were to take sick and wounded to Baghdad.
Before we left, some chaps broke into the German factory and brought a box of tools, a big cross-cut saw and a screwdriver. They thought they would be handy! We hid them in the truck. On the day of leaving we picked up the sick and the orderly and started the very same way back to Baghdad. I was second driver. First driver was a jolly Scots chap from West Lothian. Its funny I have forgotten his name. He sang a lot; he had a good voice. Our patients liked his singing. They were ill with malaria and dysentery. He helped the orderly with them. Teheran was left mostly with Indians in occupation. We off loaded the sick in Baghdad.
Throughout our journey in the desert, whenever we stopped, Arabs would appear from nowhere and stand watching us cook, and work. Where they came from, and how they came, we never knew. They would come back at night, silently in the darkness, past the sentries and trading began. It was like a Persian market. We sold them the German tools but I kept the screwdriver, and they had no use for the saw. We flogged the things we had bought in Persia - clothes, blankets, carpets - haggling over prices. Of course what they wanted was ammo and small arms. Our lot never sold guns but lots of others did. We had a surplus of small arms, because we naturally lifted guns when we came across them. Stupid to leave them and have them used against you in the future. Months later, in Cairo, I was sent to buy a cross -cut saw, by the staff sergeant, so I sold my one to the army!
We set off to cross the Iraqi desert, first to Habbiniya, were we hoped to camp with the RAF whom we had "liberated" on the outward journey. To our surprise this request was refused! We made our way via Rutba Wells and after quite an uneventful journey reached Sarafand.