3 DIV. SIGNALS REGT 1952-54

As Remembered By Brian Furlong

I was initially stationed with 3 Div Sig Regt, in Mackworth Camp, in ‘M’ Troop, in Moascar Garrison, which was one of the last camps before the desert. As an ex-boy soldier with a regiment consisting mainly of National Servicemen, I was often asked how long I had to serve as a Regular and they would go away shaking their heads in disbelief that someone would volunteer for the Army instead of being conscripted. In my tent of 4, the other 3 were conscripts and used to faithfully cross off each day on a calendar with the utterance “Days to do are getting few”.

One time that we had the camp all cleaned up ready for the annual admin inspection, a ‘kamseen’ swept through the lines demolishing all the tents and leaving everywhere in disarray. After that, our C.O. got permission to send some 10 tonners to TEK to collect loads of old telephone poles which we
subsequently brought back and made them into ranch style supports around each tent, tying all the guy ropes on them.

I rode shotgun escort on our trips to TEK. In my time there had been cases of despatch riders being decapitated by the Arabs who stretched wires between trees. So jeeps were used instead and were modified by having a ‘V’ shaped angle iron welded onto the front at head height so that if any wires were strung across trees this would cut them in half.

As our regiment was a static one, our C.O. decided we would go on a big exercise called ‘Exercise Butlins’ which took us into Sudan at a place called Bir Odeib, down by the Read Sea. In reality it was an exercise to take the regiment for a welcome break away from the stifling heat of the desert, to get the fresh breezes of the sea air and we all had a fabulous time. We would see the morning patrol of the camel corps of the Sudanese Army come by who gave us a cheery wave each time. We all used to go swimming using snorkels, seeing the fascinating display of the underwater sea life with so many fishes of all different colours and sizes around the corals. I also remember climbing the local mountains where we could see Turkey in the distance.

Out and about around Mackworth Camp, Moascar

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