SWEEPING THE RUNWAY AT SHALLUFA
George Gollings
–LAC RAF Bricklayer with Air Ministry Works Dept
It is now 1953, and a year which a lot of the lads have been looking forward to due to the fact that most in our detachment here at Fayid are due for demob.
The weeks went by quietly at AMWD with just routine maintenance jobs and cement repairs being carried out, until one morning I was called into the office. Chiefy was there and told me that a posting had come through for me at Shallufa, and I would be leaving in five days’ time. I had no idea where Shallufa was but soon found it was further south towards Suez.
The next day, being a Saturday, it was decided we should all go into Ismailia which had now, finally, been reopened for visits as long as we went in groups. We caught the bus outside the main gate and we were off along the Treaty Road. We passed little villages with their mud huts and oxen ploughing the bit of fertile ground that there was. We had an armed guard riding with us just in case we ran into any trouble, but luckily we did not on this trip. On arrival, the driver told us the time and place where he would pick us up for the return journey back to cam, also emphasizing not to be late.
He dropped us off in the centre of Ismailia and pointed out the NAAFI Club where we could get refreshments. So it was here that we started our visit with a cup of coffee and a sandwich, and a visit to the toilet. Well, when Bob saw the toilets he dashed in and excitedly flushed it, we had not seen a flush toilet for over a year now! We then decided to explore the shopping area. There was a street trader selling all sorts of leather goods. There was a good size case that I thought would come in handy for sending some of my belongings back home when the time finally comes. I knew if I were to fly back I would only be allowed to take a kit bag. The case would have to be sent back by sea. I thought I would try my hand at bartering. I enquired “How much is the case?” The trader thought for a while and then replied “Five Egyptian pounds”. Then it was my time to think a bit before saying “I don’t think so”. The trader then said “OK Tommy, four pounds”, to which I came back with an offer of three pounds. He thought again for a while and agreed and I think I got myself a bargain. I also purchased a photo album with a typical Egyptian picture of a pyramid on it from another trader which I bartered down to 50 piastas. We returned to the NAAFI Club for a meal before catching the transport back to camp. So at least I can say I visited Ismailia.
Upon my arrival at Shallufa I was dropped off at the AMWD section where I met the Sergeant who put me in the direction of the ACB billet, yes, a billet at last.
With the camp being away from the Bitter Lakes there was a swimming pool, and having now learnt to swim I accepted the offer to join my new billet friends for a visit there. I did not know that I was in for an initiation to the pool by being grabbed by four of the lads and thrown in. I hit the water and just went down to the bottom of the pool, where it seemed ages before I realized that I really had to work at my swimming to get back to the surface. This was a totally different situation to swimming in the Bitter Lakes where the water was so buoyant. I reached the surface where I was gasping for air and made it to the shallow end so that I could get my feet on the bottom and have a breather. I then started to learn how to swim again in a different environment which did not take long but was exhausting.
The next morning I reported at the office at the AMWD compound where the Sergeant introduced himself as Sergeant Walker. He asked how long I had been over in the canal zone and I felt like replaying “Too long” but I thought I had better give a proper answer so I said “Since November 1951, like most of the lads”. He then went on to explain that there was no bricklaying to be done at the moment but that they had a big job on of sweeping the runway. This, he explained, was because the lads had resurfaced the runway with tar and chippings and had put too many chippings on it. Thereby when jets took off in formation, the ones behind were getting peppered with the loose chippings, which was not a very good condition.
It turned out Sergeant Walker, together with six of us lads with a tipper lorry and driver would go out to the runway armed with hard brooms and shovels. We were then spaced out at a few yards apart in the centre of the runway and then we had to sweep the loose chippings to the side and then load the lorry with them. Then Steve, the driver, would take it to a compound for storage. Steve came from Stoke-on-Trent and he had chalked “Stoke County Council” on the sides and rea of the lorry. We were like council workers sweeping the roads. If when we are demobbed and we can’t get a job on the building we could always apply to our local council for a job, because by the time we have swept this runway we will have plenty of experience in road sweeping!
After the first journey to the compound, Steve would call in for our NAAFI break and bring it out to us where we would sit at the side of the runway and have our cheese sandwich and cuppa. We sat in what bit of shade there was along the side of the lorry, which gave us a bit of protection from the sun for a while.
Sergeant Walker was always looking towards the Control Tower for a signal which let us know if an aircraft was going to take off or land, we then had to clear the runway and stand well back. Also we had to flatten any piles of chippings we had formed in case the aircraft caught it.
By the time it came for us to knock off work we had certainly developed a knack of sweeping, but certainly had enough. We looked at how much we had cleared and then looked at the runway that still had to be swept. It will take weeks or possibly months to complete, but it is a nice steady job with plenty of sun thrown in.
The next few weeks went by and we were doing mainly the same thing day in day out. We were still sweeping the runway and we had got about half way along, and being out in the sun for that length of time our bodies were getting browner by every passing day. We were now working in just our shorts for most of the time but when we felt our body had received enough sun, we replaced our KD shirts.
A few more weeks went by and we were still sweeping the runway but at last we could see the end in sight. We were about three quarters of the way along so it would be about another couple of weeks before we finished it. But we have been told that afterwards we have to paint the white line down the centre, then the numbers on each end, so that will take some time.
It is now the middle of May and the end of the runway has been reached. It is now time to start at the beginning again painting the white line down the centre. No mechanical way of doing this. No, this had to be carried out by hand. The centre of the runway was found by laying a long line of string down, then we had a frame of timber the size of the white line markings which was laid central on the line and white paint poured into it and brushed to fill the space inside the frame. The frame was then moved to a distance between the white lines and the next line painted. The whole operation took about two weeks and that included painting the runway number at both ends.
This was the only big job I did at Shallufa: I certainly got a good tan during that period out there on the airfield every day.