5355 AC WNG, RAF KASFAREET 1951-53

As Remembered By Bill Huggins

I was posted in November 1951 to 5355 AC Wing, based at RAF Kasfareet. The Wing had detachments from Port Fouad to Kabrit/Shallufa, and I visited them all. 5355 ACW was the Pioneer Corps of the RAF, with all the trades one would find in any large building firm.

From our UK base we were to report to Lytham St Annes, for jabs etc. Cpl Turner, on our Draft, refused jabs hoping to delay or cancel his overseas posting! He was “bolshie”, always laughing and joking – just didn’t want to go. We moved onto Cliffe Pypard (a former Russian Signaling Station). Then to Lytham for our flight to Egypt (RAF Fayid). We had acr delays but Cpl Turner, who arrived the following day, flew on and was in Egypt before the rest of us. (Sadly fate was not on his side, for he was working on vehicles he was not familiar with, and was killed. A sad journey for us but particularly for him to a Military Cemetery at Fayid).

We landed at Fayid and were driven to the Transit Camp at El Hamra, Dry bread, tin plates scraping on sanding tables – a rude awakening! Next day we were driven across the Treaty Road to Kasfareet. We were booked in by Sgt Tich Darnell and his clerk, Jnr Tech Wildinson (a NS, qualified architect!). I can still hear Cockney Darnell shouting “Cam on Wilkie, get yer big fat arse darn and start writin!” On a rough bit of sand with a few tents erected we were pointed in the direction of a pile of canvas on the ground – our new home G.2. We were lucky though, our specialized “pioneers” quickly laid on electricity and water (not for the loos though), but we had a shower unit only 10 yards from our tent.

In our four man tent were me, a Regular Corporal, a National Service Airman and a three year National Serviceman (they got more pay).

The working day was quite short, 0800 – 1300 hrs and our benevolent Lancastrian Wing Commander was concerned that we might have too much time on our hands and get despondent! So he ordered me to organize daily cross country runs. Strange though, when we cut down on it, people would come up to me to continue it!

The Fanara Lido (a.k.a. Great Bitter Lake) was only a mile or so away, over the Sweet Water Canal and on the Canal Road. One would get cool (and salty) and then walk back to camp and have a shower.

The food was quite good, tiffin was excellent with stuff for salads. We joked about the meat we got, opining that it was camel meat – but it tasted OK.

Sport was very popular and varied, football, rugby, cricket and tennis – we had a good Club House with 6 courts – 2 of which were enclosed with sand and diesel, heavily rolled, were very true and fast. We had two young Scots National Service lads, the Scottish tennis No’s 1 and 2 on base. We also had an excellent Egyptian coach, Abdul, who had played internationally for Egypt pre-war. He was a smart businessman too. When we didn’t think we were playing well, he would suggest we should get a new racquet which he would kindly sell us! I wasn’t very good at tennis but somehow was selected to umpire the Station Singles Final. Afterwards, the very condescending Sqdn Leader winner complemented me on my performance. Grrh!

Duties were a drag, Station/Wing/Weekday/Weekend. Especially guard duty. 80 or so of us, early tea at 1530, on parade at 1600 hours. Then the inspection and one airman would be selected as being ‘smartest on parade’ and would be stood down. Two National Service airmen of our Wing were always immaculate (they were civil engineer graduates), one day they were both on guard duty – who would be selected, would it be John M or Taff D? Can’t recall who it was, but they didn’t speak to each other for days! On the Airfield/ATC building guard area, one of the two guards would be locked outside the fence and up in the Tower operating the searchlight. Occasionally one was shot at, but there were no casualties. The marquees were very old and dry, with bits of canvas hanging down so a guard lighting the primus to get a brew up often caught the canvas on fire and everyone dashed outside pretty quickly. A Ghost Patrol wandered round the station – one night the Cpl i/c used his Sten, firing at alleged intruders but nobody believed him, he was a twitchy guy. Once on sentry I spotted a naked intruder inside the fence, I shouted at him, but like a shot he went straight through the wire! We checked the wire but there were no breaks.

Station Orderly Cpl was an awful job. One had to check the Corporals Club was closed at 2230 hours. Then stroll across to the NAAFI to ensure it was closed. At 0100 hours up to the Police HQs for early call to the Dog Handlers. But the worst one was for the catering staff. At about 0400 they were very rude and didn’t always get up so I resorted to a tactic which did not go down well in the billet of 30-40 airmen. I just switched all the lights on – and RAN!! Our staffing was a bit casual. Our Chief Clerk, a great and intelligent man, had not done the job before so we were loaned a sergeant from RAF Kasfareet who was a little better. However, we found that he had been court martialled for spending Sergeants Mess money on supporting greyhounds, and at his Court Martial his escort was our original sergeant! Talk about Fred Karno! We also found that our new sergeant was fond of the pop!

I mentioned our luck in quickly getting electricity and water on our tented site. I was also lucky with our next door neighbours in G.1. One of the inmates was Geordie Harrison, a driver who drove ‘goods’ from boats arriving at Fanara Wharf. He obtained lots of tongue and groove timber, cement (they dug down almost four feet then cemented the floor). The tent walls were nice tongue and groove wood with sliding ‘windows’ etc! Each night they would have a ‘cook-up’ and at the call “Huggins, grub up”, I would join them for a tasty meal – and a nice mug of tea.

There were a number of characters and I’ll briefly mention them; Ben Hawes, a 50+ LAC Wks Asst (Labourer) a quiet, always smiling guy. He was a Balloon Operator in the War and still had his tools for splicing wires. Rumour was that his wife was killed in an air raid. When he was reaching retirement age, the Wing Commander, a hard man, called him in regarding his discharge, I didn’t hear what went on but I gather it was a sad and moving occasion, even for the C.O., a hard man.

One of our Blacksmith/Welders used to visit Fayid at weekends to sample the Stella. On the way back to camp one day he jumped over the bridge into the Sweet Water Canal; the word was that if you went in the Canal you would need all sorts of jabs – or you would die! This never happened, fortunately, and just shows you shouldn’t really believe all you hear.

The Wing Cdr was a character. One day I heard him rollicking the WO Clerk of Works, saying, inter alia, “You are a lazy so and so”. Two weeks later, on a Station Parade, he presented the LS & GSM to the WO, stating that he was an example to us all!

Each year we had to do a week’s combat training, weapon assembly, range practice and desert survival. Because of my training, I, a Corporal, was put in charge of Sergeants and F/Sgts – again I wasn’t popular.

My Boss insisted on visiting our detachments throughout the Zone and we were often on the road well outside the permitted hours and several times got lost in Port Said and Ismailia. One of our new N/S officers took me as his driver to visit Deversoir. En route he hit and killed a goat and was all for finding the owner to report it – I suggested this was not a good idea!

The Army had a Lysander aircraft at Kasfareet and the pilot offered to take our officers for a flight. F/L Clark and P/O Spink tossed up for the trip. Spink won but sadly the plane crashed and both he and the pilot were killed. I saw the wreckage in the hangar – unrecognizable as an aircraft.

The Education Officers at Kasfareet used to give lectures on various subjects and I went to several. In fact, I was at one when news came of King George V1’s passing. The lecture then became a resume of the late King’s reign, and I recall the lecture was also attended by the Station Warrant Officer.

In the desert behind our Civil Cantonment Office, outside Kasfareet, the Army did a lot of parachuting of men and machinery, usually as we were going to tiffin. If a chute didn’t open, one quickly ‘disappeared’ or one might have been detailed to guard the ‘whatever’.

The selection of troops in the Canal Zone was haphazard to say the least. National Servicemen did a maximum of two years and so many (too many) were badly selected! In September 1952 on our relatively small unit, we had to send 189 airmen home for discharge, quite an elaborate procedure and complicated by our Admin Officer who insisted on seeing all about to return to the UK (why? I really don’t know).

One perk was a week’s leave in Cyprus at Famagusta. I ran the scheme for our Wing and I knew that the SS Charlton Star was ending its trips. My mate and I went on this trip – and we were in Cyprus for almost 4 weeks! The return trip was by an Indian Navy ship – and yes, my head was at the sharp bit that lead through the waves!

After 18 months, 5355 AC Wing was split into 4 pieces. I was now on 5001 AC Sqdn and we moved from our nice office back into Kasfareet – again nice offices. Our new Admin Officer was the RAF Pistol Champion and did ‘dry practice’ every day. He gave me a dress jacket, very smart, and certainly not for Corporals – but I wore it. We also got a Kenyan soldier on staff who showed us how to grow ground nuts, loofahs. He washed the CO’s car and shelled the CO’s peanuts! A good guy, Ogiri, he taught me a bit of Swahili.

After almost 2 years, the Wing Cdr looked at our Tented (hutted) Site and said it looked like “Shanty Town” – which it did. He order it to be demolished and the bulldozers did just that! And so after 2 years we were back where we started, in 4-man 180 lb canvas tents.

Such a variety of sport, and I dabbled at most of them. Mainly rugby, but then athletics. We had a great Cross County team and won all the league races. Our coach was WO Ernie Harrison (who should have been in the 1936 Olympic Games except for the “old school tie brigade”). He convinced me I could beat the Inter Services half mile champion (albeit at quarter mile) but I didn’t.

Eventually I was tour ex and crossed the road again to El Hamra. I was only there a couple of days before flying back to the UK. Amusingly the AOC visited El Hamra and asked the staff how long troops spent there? Maximum 2-3 days he was told… He then asked several ‘erks’ how long they had been there and they replied 3-5 days!

When I got home, I went upstairs for my Dad worked nights. He looked up and uttered two historic pieces, “You’re not very brown” and “When do you go back?”

(My apologies for the quality of the photos - but the best I could do)

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