Page 19 - Flaming Cauldron – Issue 56

ACC ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

Diary of movements and events of Mervyn Razey

during the Second World War 1939 – 1945 Part 2

In the Summer edition of The Flaming Cauldron we featured the first It was so hot salt was sweated out of your body
installment of Mervyn Razey’s fascinating story of his time during the and by midday your khaki shirt was white, espe-
Second World War. In Part 2, Mervyn describes his arrival in the Persian cially on the back. But when you finished you got
Gulf, promotion to Corporal, his return through war torn Europe, being a bucket of water, rinsed it out and hung it on your
accommodated in St Omer in France for a few days leave in Paris, before tent peg or rope and it was dry in half an hour.
finally returning home after the end of the War. I am most grateful to Mervyn’s The Royal Palace was very near. We had an
son Phil for sharing his father’s story. Editor Indian Regiment in tents in front of ours. They
We arrived in The Persian Gulf landing at Shyba. were very smart in their khaki’s and white puttees.
We disembarked, on to a sort of stony desert and It was a sight, watching them put on their turbans,
into a big marquee. yards and yards of it. If it wasn’t rigid, they’d take
It was evening and we were told to bed down it off until it was. They made lovely sweet tea in
for the night. It was going dark very quickly and the morning. I got friendly with a Sergeant, he
the only light in the marquee was an oil lamp hang- was quite old, but very smart, who had been in for
ing on one of the poles. Our beds were a blanket on donkey’s years. I used to squat with him in the
the sand with your kit bag for a pillow. So we made morning and he’d give me a cup of tea.
up our beds with one blanket on the bottom one on We were taught how to make use of anything to
the top. Then we all sat down on the sand around cook on. To make an oven you acquired an old oil
the pole with the light on, lit up our cigs and dis- drum and cleaned or burnt it out. You then made
cussed where we were going, we had no idea. Then some mud bricks to stand it on, got two decent size
one of the lads decided he was ready for bed and in tins, both holding about two pints, one was for oil
he got but wow! Out he popped, quicker than he and one for water. You then got a piece of rag or cloth
got in. He had been stung by a scorpion. We had and a splash plate to rest on and off you went baking
been told they were poisonous. There was an M.O. or roasting. You made a hole the size of a matchstick
tent, so we carried him there. He was stung on the in the two tins and put one matchstick in each. Then
knee. He was told it wasn’t a poisonous one but he you lit the rag soaked in oil, pulled the matchsticks
would have sort of ‘pins and needles’ feeling for a out until you got a ratio of 2:1 of oil and water run-
couple of days. ning down into the splash plate. You were then ready
Next morning we boarded a train at Basra for to cook. Doing it could be mucky sometimes.
Baghdad, our final destination; it took twelve hours After my course, until I got posted, I looked after
to get to the army catering corps school of cookery. the cooking of all the meat when it needed to be
It was situated within walking distance on the edge cooked to feed the great number of units in the area.
of the main road leading onto the city and near the You had to learn how to cut up joints of Iraqi beef.
bridge over the river Tigris, which you may have There were cooks there being taught all the time.
seen on the television. I worked in the compound outside, but while
We were housed in one man tents outside the the joints were roasting, I often got bored so I used
main buildings. We were issued with khaki shirts to go inside to see what the others were doing.
and shorts and ‘sand fly’ nets. We had to make up If the Sergeant was busy helping someone or if
our beds as soon as we crawled out of them in the anyone wanted a hand, I used to help them.
morning and tuck the nets in. At night you crawled He must have been the one who recommended
in and tucked yourself securely in. If a fly got in it me for promotion. I had already passed my exam.
would keep you awake until you killed it. The only
way you could see it was when the light from a So I became CORPORAL M. RAZEY 10631943.
lighted match struck its wings. We were there for While I was there I had made friends with a
about two weeks. An Improvised oven made cockney chap named George. He was tall, skinny
We were told it could reach up to 139 degrees from a discarded Oil drum and looked rather funny in his shorts and Pith
in the shade. I got sand fly fever once and I was in
hospital for a fortnight. It also took a month for a
scrape on my knee to heal up. Some of the lads had
ulcers on their legs which wouldn’t heal up and a
couple died of dysentery.
We had to have a six week course of cooking out
in the desert and were shown how to make ovens
and fires. Our working day was 8 a.m.-12 p.m.,
then a rest in the afternoon until 5 p.m., then work
until 7 p.m. and then out into Baghdad.
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