1st Btn OXS & BUCKS L.I. - 1951-52
"I TRIED TO STAY IN BED"
As Remembered By Dennis K. Honey
I was nice and comfortable in a hospital bed in BMH Nicosia after an operation, when a brute of a Matron (old enough to be my granny) instructed me to get my beret straight on the locker by my bed. She asked me what regiment I was in and when I told her the Oxs & Bucks L.I. she informed me that I had been left behind as the Regiment had gone to the Canal Zone.
A few days later I was discharged and joined the rear party of the Regiment at Golden Sands, Famagusta. We were there only a few days before we boarded the LST. Suvla in the afternoon. We were allowed ashore that evening and finished up in a wine bar called “The Spitfire” which was run by an English woman who bought all our drinks because we were going to Suez! I can’t remember much about what happened but was told that an MP (bless them!) took myself and the others back to the ship on the back of a motor bike!
The next thing I knew, we were at sea in a flat bottomed LST We were all frightened as we had been given 50 rounds of ammunition each and ordered to line up around the boat as we sailed into Port Said. We were told that we had no fathers by the local 'Wiley Oriental Gents' and arrived at El Ballah later and taken to join the regiment.
Actually, I was more frightened of that Matron than going to Suez.