THE DAY THE C IN C’s ROLLS ROYCE WAS RETURNED TO BLIGHTY
As Remembered By Ken Bird
A day in June 1953 orders came to get my 15 cwt Bedford ready for escort duty, together with a 3 ton Bedford, a number of personnel (possibly eight) and to draw Sten guns from the Armoury.
The two vehicles were lined up on the road outside REME LAD ready to go. It was then that we found out that the job in question was to escort the C in C’s Rolls Royce (registration no. EYX 367) To Port Said. The 3 ton Bedford was to be at the front, then the Rolls Royce and then my 15 cwt at the rear.
We proceeded to move out of 58 Coy RASC gates, the gate guard lifted the barrier pole and we turned left down the link road, past Fayid Cemetery on the left, past the Menaret on the right, across the Sweetwater Bridge with the open air butchers on the left, to the end of the road past Freddie Mills shop. We then turned left along the shore of the Great Bitter Lakes, past the Officers houses on the left (where I stayed occasionally) and past the last home of the Rolls Royce in C in C’s compound on the right.
Memory fades a little but I think we went through a zig-zag chicane, just before we got to Ismailia. Somewhere in this region we negotiated a narrow bridge (Nefisha Bridge). I suppose that I was alert as the bridge was narrow and I was keeping my distance from the Rolls Royce in front of me. Suddenly in front of me (like a slow movie), although I hadn’t heard a thing, the squaddies in the front lorry dived flat on the floor and we came to a halt with me stuck on the bridge. I could only guess that there was some danger ahead, so I slid down in my seat with the spare wheel behind me for protection. The seats on the 15 cwt’s are level with the floor so, consequently, I was almost flat on my back tryingto look over the bottom of the windscreen. My next intention was to reverse – flat out and backwards, blind. At that moment I saw a couple of soldiers inspecting the Rolls Roye so I got out and tried to find out what had just happened. Apparently a sniper had fired some shots which had gone over the Rolls Royce.
Order was resumed and we continued on our way to Port Said. The Rolls Royce was later taken along the docks and this was the last I saw of her.
On the return journey in front of me now was the C in C’s new Humber Super Snipe.