RA 23rd FIELD REGT 1954-55
As Remembered By Glen R. Clarke
"BUSINESS AS USUAL"
We were dug in on the slopes of the rocky escarpment known as Gebel Geneifa waiting the arrival of a RECCE party from the Royal Horse Artillery who were based somewhere on the flats below us. Our trip down from our base camp at El Ballah had commenced in the early hours in order to get ourselves in postion before first light, and we were fully togged up for a fairly lengthy period of desert activity. The boss had clued us in on the journey South, our objective to provide additional Fire Control/O.P. Expertise to the RHA in a large scale exercise involving units from the Armoured Brigade and there would be 'Live' firing out on the desert ranges once the show got underway. Our first objective was to monitor troop or transport movement using the road crossing situated directly below us and report back to RHA Control once the radio net was established. Both my Oppo Gil and I were aware of the importance that Captain Wilson attached to our doing well in this show, not that we needed any prompting as we had been together as a team for about 10 months doing a number of 'Specials' but this was the first with armoured units, who tended to have radio proceedures of their own, especially when things were getting exciting .... we'll see.
I scanned the horizon through the flap of our camouflage and saw a smudge of dust raising above a distant ridge. We watched as the convoy made slow progress towards the crossing and could make out the unmistakable outlines of very large tanks (Centurions?)riding piggyback on tank transporters. There were also a couple of smaller vehicles plus Don/Rs fusing about up and down the convoy. A small vehicle, accompanied by a Don/R proceeded over to our side of the rail crossing and parked up off the surface that was loosely termed as a road. Evenually, after much 'huffing and puffing' the leading transporter made it to the start of the gradient that gave access to the crossing point, the remainder pulling up in line astern. Captain Wilson was making notes, whilst informing us thatthere were the 'enemy' making their way to the start line, but from our long association, I felt sure that he was already working out grid references, ranges, angles of trajectories and all the other data necessary to bracket them as potential targets.
The first transporter commenced its crawl up the gradient; appeared to squat on the crossing momentarily before descending on our side. Once clear, numbers two and three also negotiated the crossing safely followed by number four. The boss continued scribbling, probably bracketing the three targets parked on our side of the road. I concentrated on the progress being made by number four which was now straddling the railway lines, and that's when things started to go wrong. The forward momentum stopped, although indications were that the rear wheels were still spinning, trying to maintain tractionas there was a mixture of smoke, dust and gravel spewing out from the rear. Ant-like bodies were scurrying about frantically, but the transporter looked to be completely bogged down. I cast anxious glances up and down the track,because this scenario was a recipe for disaster. It looked as if they were disengaging one of the leading tractors to use as an additional tow truck and pull and stranded transporter free.
A piercing shriek of a train whistle sounded from the South. The Silver Arrow was coming up the line at speed en route to Cairo or Port Said from Suez. They must have heard it at the crossing because people were dispersing in all directions, leaving the metal monster sitting defiantly on its carriage, gun muzzle pointing ominously in our direction. The Silver Arrow rounded the bend at speed giving the unfortunate driver his first and only view of the tragedy that was to follow. He didn't have a chance, sparks gushed from the locomotives wheels as brakes were applied, but the train thundered on, the momentum such that when the leading bogey wheels crashed into the low leader body of the train it leap-frogged up and over the tank turret dragging the first couple of carriages with it. Other carriages capsized with the force of the impact: it was utter carnage, the sounds of tortured twisted metal could be heard from our vantage point. We stared in disbelief at the scene of almost total destruction, metal was strewn all over the place. There was no fire or explosion, just a deathly silence, nothing moving, it all seemed so unreal, as if we had witnessed a scene from a Hollywood Epic, only this wan't make-believe, this was hellishly brutal. We were too far away to be able to give any assistance, or to do anything useful, in any case most of the unfortunate passengers in the train were probably beyond any help that we could administer.
Time to switch our 19 set on - search the frequency for our Netting Call. "HEAR NETTING CALL - NET NOW" the voice of the control set operator cut through the ether, loud and clear followed by the high pitched whine of the Netting Call. I zeroed it out to its lowest pitch and locked onto the frequency ... "WE'RE ON AIR SIR" ..."HELLO CALL SIGN (....) CONTROL IS RECEIVING YOU LOUD AND CLEAR, AWAIT FURTHER ORDERS, OUT".... and so it was business as usual!