873/871 ME COY, RE 1946-47
"ALWAYS ON THE ROAD"
As Remembered By Ron Mitchell
I was posted to 873 ME Coy RE. In April/May ’46 the company moved lock, stock & barrel, south across the Sinai desert to the Canal Zone, Ferry Point, near Ismailia to our new depot and for some reason we were re-numbered as 871 ME Coy. Our Company was engaged in a lot of construction work at Fayid. Along with 872 ME Coy we had a big part in the construction of the sports stadium and power station, and, later on, the new GHQ site with the imminent move of GHQ from Kasrel-Nil Barracks in Cairo.
Our trucks were a mixture of Mack 6x6 Tractor Units and AEC Matador 4x4 tractor
units, roughly 6 or 7 of each with Dyson 20 ton trailers, Rogers 40 ton tank
trailers and Carrymore 18 tonners behind the AEC’s. We hauled a lot of
equipment from 140 EPD at Quassasin to many sites in Egypt, the most memorable
was the haul of a 42RB Face Shovel weighing over 40 tons to an RE Quarry at
Benina, South of Benghazi.
Contrary to some opinions, we had a good life on the road, our unit was very easy going, spit and polish and guard duty was unheard of, although it was impractical as we spent most of the time away from the depot, sometimes for weeks at a time. We lived in the back of the truck (wagon) and ate wherever we could, often making our own meals, we had rations, water and a primus stove, and the old faithful, the bucket of sand doused with petrol for our brew ups on the road. We were probably considered scruffy by some outfits but we worked hard, some days we were on the road for up to 12 hrs at a stretch and if we had to park up overnight in a Guards depot or the like, we were shown a remote corner of the camp ‘backstage’ and urged to be out of the place before morning parade so as not to lower the tone of the place.
In ’47, we were still making occasional trips to Palestine & Lebanon, hauling plant back down to the Canal Zone, mainly to Quassasin. Most of it was D8 Cat Dosers and Le Tournea or Onions 12/15c/yd Scrapers and the practice in our outfit (and other RE units) was to load the Cat D8 on the trailer and tow the wheeled Scraper behind. This combination was just over 100 feet long and sometimes over 60 ton gross.
Sometime around April 47, four of us came home on LIAP leave. Arriving at Huddersfield
Station in the middle of a heavy snowfall, I got on the trolley bus for home.
About three and a half miles out of town I had to get off as the bus couldn’t
go any further. Fresh out of the heat and dust of Egypt into bitter cold and
wall high snow of Yorkshire, big pack and kit bag over my shoulder with another
two miles to trudge home through the arctic weather, I wished I had stayed in
the Middle East.