No. 3 SQDN- EGYPT COMMAND SIGNALS REGT 1946-48

As Remembered By Stuart H. Barker

I was called up on the 4th July 1946. Although I had been in the ATC because I’d always wanted to go into the RAF, when the papers came it was the Army. They were short of recruits it seems. It was years later that I found out that, if I’d gone to the officer commanding the ATC, I could have been transferred to the RAF but in those days when you received a letter from the government with the discipline, you just did as you were told.

My first 6 weeks were spent at Richmond in Yorkshire on the basic training by the Green Howards. I quickly realised, even after a week, that the safest thing to do was never be first, never be last, keep a low profile and never volunteer for anything. The six weeks were, in my opinion, the time required to transfer from what I call an ordinary person into a zombie – just to do what you were told without thinking why you are doing it or what you’re doing it for. In other words, do as you’re told, don’t answer back and let the time roll on.

After I’d finished my training they decided I was to be in the Royal Signals – I’d been a refrigeration apprentice from 14 to 18 and I thought the most likely place to be would be the Royal Engineers where I could have been some use, especially after I got to Egypt with all the refrigeration and air conditioning that was necessary there. But typical of the Army, the Royal Signals it was. Five years after discharged I received a letter from the Army saying that if I had to go back I would be transferred to the Royal Engineers – they’d certainly left it a little bit late. I was transferred to Catterick which was just up the road from Richmond so I didn’t have to travel very far but it still took the Army from 6 in the morning till 8 at night to get me there.

The next twelve weeks were the happiest of my Army career. At 18 I was a keen motor cyclist having had a little motor bike before I came in and they decided to train me as a dispatch rider. I was given a 500cc side valve 16H Norton, petrol to put in the tank, all the gear – helmet, big coat, gloves, proper trousers, lace-up boots etc – the whole lot and for twelve weeks I had to learn to ride a motor bike and drive a Jeep. This to me was heaven. After we’d finished our training we went to a place called Thirsk and there we waited for our next orders to come through. In the meantime there was some trouble in London to do with a meat strike and as they wanted dispatch riders to deliver messages all over London we were sent down there. I can remember staying at a big Park Hotel where we slept on the dance floor. We spent a week there travelling all over London, mainly getting lost but fortunately it wasn’t like it is now, in 1946 there wasn’t all that much traffic.

After we’d returned my posting came through and we went down to Dover and from there to Calais. We got on a train which we seemed to take about 2 days before we eventually came to a place called Toulon where there was a transit camp and there we waited for a ship. We embarked at Marseilles, sailing for Port Said. Now this was in the winter and we went through the Straits of Messina; I always thought that the Mediterranean could be lovely and calm but it wasn’t on that occasion, even the sailors on board were sick. At Port Said we got on the train to go to Cairo and, as we were passing through the various stations, all the kids were throwing stones at the train. I said to my mate Geordie “why are they doing that?” and he said “Cos they don’t want us here”. I replied “Well I don’t want to be here either so can I throw some stones back?” “No you can’t” he replied, “you’ll get put on a charge”. I came from a colliery village, the house didn’t have electricity and the only thing we had was a battery operated wireless, we didn’t know what was going on in the world. I hadn’t a clue what I was doing in Egypt and it was only years later I found out we were there to guard the Suez Canal because they were worried the Russians or somebody were going to take it from us and consequently we wouldn’t be able to get our ships through to India, New Zealand, Australia and down the east coast to Kenya, but that’s something I only found out later.

At Cairo we stayed in another transit camp until our posting orders came through. I consider myself very lucky I didn’t get sent to Palestine because there we were getting trouble from the Arabs and the Jews and we were in the middle so I was very pleased I got posted to Egypt. I was initially posted to Moascar to the 2nd Egypt Command Signal Regiment and from there I went on to No. 3 Sqdn ECSR at Qassasin. Even now when I ask some of the lads in The Canal Zoners, very few seem to know where it was but it was located between Ismailia and Moascar Headquartters and Tel el Kebir and it was used as a transit site, not for individual soldiers but for whole units. The whole unit would arrive and the units that were in the area, the base ones, had to prepare the camp ready for them coming in. They used to stay for 6 to 8 weeks or so until their orders came and then they pushed off, some to the Far East, some to Kenya and some down the east coast to the colonies there. So, basically, the signals office was the communications, something like the post office and we supplied them with their orders.

The camp itself was quite reasonable. We had stone walls, windows and proper doors – the only part that was tent was the canvas roof so we were pretty lucky compared to the lad who were in tents. Once we got into the routine of the work, we didn’t have a lot of bull, we used to have a parade on a Saturday morning and that was the only time we saw the OC. Now working in the Signals Office was a bit monotonous in as much as the office was open 24 hours a day like most of the signals. We went on at 8 o’clock in the morning and worked till one, off then till six, then back on at six and work till 8 o’clock the next morning. Then we had that day off and came back at one o’clock until six the next day. This went on the whole time that I was there, it never altered, and holidays didn’t mean a thing. With regard to social life – there wasn’t any. We had an open air cinema and further down the road we had a swimming pool. Yes, a swimming pool in the middle of the desert, but apart from that we never got leave, we never went into town or to Cairo – in other words I never had any connection with Egyptians at all.

Then, for some strange reason which I could never understand, they decided I had to go on an infantry course. We signalmen were not very good at being infantry men I can tell you but anyway it was a change of get away from Qassasin. The course was at Moascar and we did a month’s infantry training, learning how it fire guns, running around with a Sten gun and all that sort of thing but I rather enjoyed it. When I got back and the reports came through I had passed and shortly after that for some reason (don’t ask me why for I don’t know how the Army works) I was promoted to Lance Corporal. I didn’t mind though as it only meant that I was in charge of the tent, the rest of the job was just the same. Then I got promoted again to a full Corporal. A full Corporal is by far the best NCO to be, you’re still with your mates and you’re still one of the gang. Shortly after that they decided they were short of sergeants and I had to go away on a six week course to train to be one. I went to a place called El Ballah which was very close to the Suez Canal where you could see the ships going down the Canal but all you could actually see was the funnel moving through the sand. Another peculiar thing was that it was on salt flats and when the sun came up in the morning there was a fog which came up from the salt. It rose to about five foot so all you could see walking round for a while was the heads of the people - very strange. This was not an enjoyable six weeks I can tell you but like everything in the Army, one day follows another and you cross it off the calendar but the officers didn’t like to see your calendar crossed off so you used to have to hide it on inspections. Eventually I got through that course and got posted back to my unit where, after a while, I was promoted to Sergeant.

My life then changed completely. Naturally I had to move away from my mates to a separate section where the sergeants were but we had a sergeant’s mess and had actual service when you went in for breakfast where the table was laid, it was heaven. We also got a new CSM who was quite young. He had connections and used to get us a vehicle to take us to the Bitter Lakes where we had picnics by the lakeside and went swimming in the lakes and across the Canal. Life was definitely a lot better after I got be a sergeant.

Then October 1948 came along and it was time for me to be demobbed. I went to the transit camp at Port Said, got on a boat but didn’t come straight home as we had to go to Salonica to pick some people up, then to Malta and Gibraltar, through the Bay of Biscay and then onto Southampton. A train up to York to be demobbed where they’d lost my papers so, consequently, I had to wait there until they sorted things out. Finally I was officially demobbed and got a train back to Newcastle and back to my little home village in County Durham.

When I look back on it I consider that I was very lucky to get to Egypt when the Egyptian were not against us. In my time we had barbed wire around the camp but we didn’t do guards, we didn’t have to. The only place that was guarded was TEK where there was loads of stuff that could be pinched whereas in our depot there was nothing worth pinching. I think that compared with most of the lads that are in The Canal Zoners who seem to have been there in the fifties, they seemed to get a lot of trouble due to Nassar wanting to take over control of the Canal. We never had any terrorist attacks or anything like that, so my time in Egypt was fairly good.

I’m 83 now and the number of lads that are still alive that were there in the 40’s must have declined as I’ve never been able to find anybody with a similar Army number (19006566) or for that matter, anybody who even knows where Qassasin was. If there is still anybody out there then please do get in touch .

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