Page 20 - Flaming Cauldron – Issue 56

ACC ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

helmet, but he was a good lad and we I had to get rations, work out so much per
got on very well. When I wrote home, man etc. There was no little office hut to
I always mentioned that I hoped I was quietly work in, I was billeted with the
posted with George. I hoped they would men with only the bed to work on. So
notice because all the mail was censored. it all finally got me and I ended up with
They took notice; I was posted with sores up my nose and a carbuncle just
George, but the wrong George. by my wrist. I had to go to hospital and
He was a regular soldier in peacetime have it lanced it was a terrible state, so
and was probably a cook before the war I decided I didn’t want the stripes.
and was now a member of the A.C.C. We I went and told the messing officer, he
were posted to an R.A.S.C. unit, which didn’t like it but accepted it. They then
according to my orders, were at Aberdan had to send me back to Baghdad.
in the Persian Gulf. So back on the train to I didn’t know when I would be sent
the Persian Gulf which was a tiring twelve back, but it so happened, that the unit
hour journey. We made tea on the way, in was not wanted anymore and was being
a tin, from the steam from the engine. sent to Egypt and probably to action in
We arrived in the dark at the British Italy or wherever. So I was with them
R.T.O. This was a house on the edge of for about six months. I still had to do
the river, with just a British Corporal in were there was because America was my job, feeding 250 men, until they sent
charge of rail journeys. I reported to him supplying the Russians with planes. So me back. I travelled with them and they
and he informed me the unit was on the they built a road from the Persian Gulf dropped me off as they passed the school
Island of Aberdan in the Persian Gulf right up through the desert of Iran, into of cookery in Baghdad.
and that he would get us across by boat the Caucasus and delivered the parts in I looked a real sight with my arm in
tomorrow. huge crates by lorry, day and night. Now a sling and my face all twisted with sores
There was a garden at the back of the this road was built up with sloping sides up my nose, carrying kitbag over my
building and he had a little hut for one (like some of our motorways) and had shoulder with good arm. The Sergeant
at the back, where he slept. He said we lights all the way up for night travel. Major in charge of the school was a
could ‘kip’ down near it, so we did. But There was also a train and for us to get First World War soldier; he wore riding
before we did we wanted a cup of tea there we had to wait two days (that’s the breeches and leggings. He was a real sol-
and a bite. We had rations and the tin for British Army all over) so the Corporal dier; he was waiting when I walked in.
making tea. I looked around the garden suggested we went to ask the Americans He knew all about me coming, he took
and over in the corner there was a fire if we could go up on one of the lorries, one look at me and told me to report
going, with an Indian cooking a meal BUT NO! They had let one or two go up sick in the morning. I did and landed in
and in the centre was what seemed like a before and one had got killed. The lorries hospital in Baghdad for three weeks.
tap with running water. So I filled the tin travelled so fast they sometimes toppled I came out fighting fit and wondered
and went over to the Indian. I made signs over the edge. So we had a long wait and where I was going as a private, but it was
asking if I could boil the water, he nodded, another tiring journey. We did finally get not to be. They sent me to an ‘Ack Ack’
so we went and got something to eat out there and found out what the R.A.S.C. Regiment about thirty to forty miles
of our kitbags and then went to make the unit did. They supplied the American outside Baghdad. They were stationed
tea. I saw a lot of scum on the top of the Lorries with petrol, day and night. on a Bluff, which overlooked an old First
water and skimmed it off, added tea, milk One thing that sticks in my mind is World War airfield in the desert. The
and sugar and enjoyed a lovely cup of tea. the grave of our butcher which was by boundaries of the airfield were barbed
It had been a long tiring journey, but of itself on the side of the road and though wire, but had all the necessary buildings
course you must remember it was dark, it was only one it was the only thing left inside the perimeter. Apparently it was
the only light in the garden was the fire behind when we moved and to me was a used as a jumping off airfield for planes
in the corner and what moonlight there stark reminder of war even though there on their way to India in peacetime; they
was. We then made our beds and went was no fighting here. even had a theatre there.
to see the Corporal about the morning. My first job in charge was out in the I was a Corporal in charge of a Battery
He said have you had a cup of tea. We desert where conditions were not ideal about 100 men, another Corporal was in
said ‘it was lovely’, he said ‘where did you as there were flies galore. I’ve never seen charge of the other Battery. I had three
get the water’, we answered ‘out of the so many; we had fly nets on the cook- cooks who were all good lads. The desert
tap in the garden’ and he said that came house door, also on the dining room in Iraq consists of sand and small stones,

from the river and they do everything in hut. There was about six foot in between not just sand like in Africa. Now the unit
the river. them; it was a battle for the lads to keep was on the Bluff about half a mile from
Next morning we went over to the them off their food, as they moved from the main road, so they put empty petrol
Island to cook for the unit, but it wasn’t one to the other. The regular soldier, who tins to mark the way in from the road.
there, so we returned to R.T.O. We was posted with me, really wanted my One night they took a lorry load
found where they were, they were about stripes and made it quite clear. He didn’t of us to the theatre and while we were
forty miles from Tehran (capital of help and he had to do cooking by him- there a sandstorm blew up and when we
Iran) out in the desert. The reason they self using my menus if I was not there. got back to the place to leave the road

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