71 HAA 2 AGRA Arm Flash
B Troop 186 HAA Bty RA – February 1954
My Tent
Inside my tent - Home Sweet Home
71 HAA Camp at Fayid
On Exercise
On Exercise
On Exercise
71
HAA RA – FAYID
As Remembered By Brigadier (retd) Fraser Scott
In May 1953 I was posted to the Canal Zone and found myself in 71 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regt RA at Fayid. I was a flapper major (there were too many gunner majors so the young ones did captain’s jobs). I was B Troop Commander and here is a photograph of us. We were 2 AGRA:
71 HAA 2 AGRA Arm Flash |
B Troop 186 HAA Bty RA – February 1954 |
My Tent
|
Inside my tent - Home Sweet Home |
71 HAA Camp at Fayid
|
On Exercise |
|
On Exercise
|
On Exercise |
My family joined me
in the autumn of 1953 and my wife brought Jean Bird with them as mother’s
helper – a super girl. With so few English girls there she was in her
element. A Royal Signals officer connected our quarter (unofficially) to the
Fayid military telephone exchange so that he could ring her up; all was well
until some woman wanted to ring my wife, didn’t know the number, told
the operator that she knew we had a phone, with the result that it was disconnected!
Jean was more involved with 42 Engineer Survey Regt (also in Fayid) as this Christmas 1953 pantomime programme show, with her the producer and the principal girl.
 |
 |
It didn’t end there; she became
enamoured of one of the officers but he was posted to Habbaniyeh in Iraq. So
when, in 1954, she left us she went to stay with the Gunns (also of 42) and,
in due course, married him.
Who else remembers all this?
ONE BROKEN ENGINE, ONE TEDDY BEAR & CHICKENPOX
ALL ABOARD THE EMPIRE HALLADALE
71 AND 73 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiments were being disbanded and I was posted to 80 Light Anti-aircraft Regiment in Moascar. That regiment had been in Egypt longer than any other unit. We were to go to Malta – the men and families on the Empire Halladale – our equipment separately (the Navy took my civilian car, a 1937 Vauxhall, to Malta for ten shillings!).
We were all packed up, everything handed over, when our CO, John Ashton, was rung up to say that we couldn’t go as the ship wasn’t ready. He replied that we had nowhere else to go so we went. Here is the ship waiting for us (our two daughters on the quay looking at it). One of the engines had broken.
We were taken to the
ship on lighters and climbed up the steps to the ship (daughter clutching teddy
bear). Here is the lighter loaded with other ranks.
Because the regiment had been in Egypt so long we were played onto the ship
by a band on the quay.
We went slowly to Malta, with only one engine, and arrived in the Grand Harbour at 8 am on a Sunday morning with all the church bells ringing. We had a case of chickenpox on board so put up a flag signal. Those on shore thought that it was smallpox – panic! – but it got sorted out and we disembarked.
FAREWELL TO 71 HAA REGT RA OCA
The 71st Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regt RA OCA had their final dinner on the 14th July 2007 in the Sergeants Mess at Woolwich Barracks
At the AGM before the dinner it was discussed whether to continue and voted against it. The numbers attending are fewer each year and the R. A. are no longer in the Woolwich Barracks.
This is a photo taken after the dinner.
Nobby Clarkson, who started the OCA and organised the first dinner in 1994,
is shown middle front.
71 HAA went to the Canal Zone in
1949 staying until we all left in 1954 when the regiment was disbanded.