RAF No. 20 MU PORT SAID 1952
"SECONDMENT TO 20 MU PORT SAID – YES PLEASE!"
As Remembered By Thomas R. Williams
In February 1952, things were getting chaotic on Port Said docks – with no Egyptian labour to do all the menial tasks, the powers that be decided to ask for ‘volunteers’ from Army and Air Force camps to do these jobs. Unfortunately, I had got on the wrong side of a sergeant at RAF Kasfareet and he ‘volunteered’ me as part of a secondment to 20 MU, Port Said. There I spent a memorable 3 months unloading ships anchored in the harbour, stacking goods along the quayside and wiring up ‘drop tanks’ for aircraft onto railway wagons. No N.C.O.’s had volunteered so the whole contingent of RAF personnel were supervised by one Warrant Officer who we met at the dockside. He was helping a squad of boiler suited ‘erks’ couple up two railway wagons. Obviously be believed in doing the same job as the lads, his grease covered uniform emphasised this. After only a couple of days I realized this ‘setting an example’ had gained every ones trust and admiration – “You will be working alongside the Army on the docks, so any orders their NCO’s give or the Navy ‘bods’ instruct you to do, you carry out without ‘binding’ ….. and watch yourselves on the water – anyone who drowns will get a rocket from me!”
Our accommodation was tented, comprising a metal bed, six inches above bare sand, two blankets, a pillow and three ‘biscuits’. At night we dimly lit the place with paraffin lamps made from Dura Glit tins, but only until we got into bed before being choked by black acrid smoke coming from the wicks! We also had a nightly ritual of placing empty glass bottles inside the tent from the canvas perimeters to the edges of the four beds – this we hoped would give us warning if any local villain crawled under the canvas to eliminate us and steal our belongings. Since we could hear small arms fire continually every night coming from the Lancashire Fusiliers whose guards patrolled the dock area, we felt reasonably safe until the day we heard that a couple of soldiers had shot each other by mistake!
With no corporals or sergeants to give us grief and no ‘bull’ to worry about, life became a breeze. Up in the morning, a quick wash (we rarely bothered shaving), throw on your overalls and forage cap and assemble at the dock gates at 7:30 am for a hard days graft.
Since the ‘troubles’ started the previous October, life at 107 MU Kasfareet had become tedious and spartan. Guard duties came around every four days. The NAAFI had run out of confectionery and beer, and the meals were less than basic with no vegetables – just meat or curry plus spuds and at the side of your plate, two vitamin tablets to supplement for veg. Here at Port Said we had good meals and the NAAFI was stocked with the usual chocolate, cakes, biscuits and Stella beer – and we didn’t have to do guards or escort duties – because the Army – bless ‘em – looked after us!!!
Eventually my time there was sadly over and I returned to my RAF camp at 107 MU taking with me a few bags filled with confectionery and tinned fruit which magically disappeared as soon as I entered my billet!
The sergeant who sent me to Port Said seemed remarkably pleasant on my return and refused to send me back even though I tried to get ‘up his nose’ regularly – he thought the whole terrible experience had turned my mind – after all, I was only a pen pushing clerk.
Having a ‘chai’ break on Port Said docks
(Thomas Williams far left)