AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL 1946-47

As Remembered By Montague Taynton

I was stationed at airfields in the Canal Zone in Air Traffic Control - 107 MU Kasfareet, HQ Medme Ismailia and Fayid. A typical day at 107 MU started with Reveille 05:00 hrs. Breakfast 05:30 hrs, shifts in the Control Tower were either 06:00-13:00hrs or 13:00-18:30 hrs. Tiffin at 13:00 hrs and dinner at 18:00 hrs.

Tented areas at 107 MU - small tents for 2 persons on the sand with metal legs in tins because of scorpions. Larger tents with boarded floors for 3-4 persons. Barrack blocks. Sleeping under mosquito nets. Clothing was left out at night on tin trunks next to our beds in the barrack blocks. One night all our wallets were removed and left in a pile at the end of the billet, minus all our money. Nobody heard a thing!

Toilets, starting with wooden seats over a pit, each compartment seperated by sacking, then toilet seats over large coal scuttles. Egyptians were employed emptying the latter into large bins on the back of lorries with the contents slopping off all over the place as the lorries moved.

Billet boys in the Barrack Blocks who looked after our beds and laundry, being paid two and a half piastres per week by each of us.

Para and supply dropping from aircraft from 107 MU

Sweetwater Canal with dead animals floating by and the locals washing in it.

Camp Cinema - Open Air

Sandstorms

2 Italian Battleships moored in the Great Bitter Lake

Swimming - 107 MU at the Malcolm Club, Great Bitter Lake. Ismailia at the Blue Lagoon, Lake Timsah. Fayid at the Victoria Lido, Great Bitter Lake.

Guard Duties - 107 MU at the Great Bitter Lake. Ismailia at the RE Bridge, Main Gate & Canal. Fayid at the Malcolm Club & Airfield. Whilst on Guard Duty one night the Guard Commander, a sergeant, was shot dead by intruders at the perimeter fence between the Camp and the Airfield.

200-300 German POW's from the Western Desert on fatigues, utilised as MT drivers and on Cookhouse duties. I have a photo frame and cigarette case in Perspex and a duralumin trinket box made by them, purchased with cigarettes.

Other things I remember are - drinking cold water from a Chatti. Supper at the YMCA Fayid. Rationing in England in 1946 and sending home by post tins of butter, dried fruit, soap, clothing and shoes. The beer - Stella & Regal. The bus from Ismailia to 107 MU. Christmas 1946.

The Sunderland Flying Boats landing on the Great Bitter Lake on their way from Bahrein, Habbanyia & Ceylon to England. Personnel from 107 MU Flying Control serviced the Control at Fanara, going out in a launch from the jetty to meet them.

Airfields in the Canal Zone 1947 - Ismailia HQ Medme - Deversoir 256 &650 Sqdn - Kasfareet 107 MU - Fanara Flying Boat Control - Fayid Staging Post & 13 sqdn - Kabrit 78 & 216 Sqdn - Shallufa 104, 37, 70 & 49 Sqdns - Abu Sueir

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