Libya1951/A night in the Sahara!
A follow on to my Libya1951 thread is as a unit we had to prepare for the British nationals arriving at El Adem airport, ready for their flight home. This included painting emergency signs and a party of six worked through the day making these preparations. We then had to make our way back to Tobruk via a single lane of concrete elevated above the desert sands. The vehicle was a standard 3 tonner with a canvas covered rear, which housed all the materials plus us four squaddies - the driver was a sergeant with an officer alongside of him. All was quite normal for the first half hour of the journey, with us all bouncing about in the back, when suddenly there was a scream of brakes, the truck swerving violently followed by everything tipping upside down - this seemed to go on forever until finally we came to a halt. All I could hear was the wheels spinning round together with moaning and shouting. Apart from feeling dazed I seemed to be alright and dragged myself out of the upturned truck onto the desert floor - it was very dark but with a full moon - I was able to take stock of myself and noticed, to my horror, I was covered with what I thought was blood - it turned out to be red paint that I'd been using earlier!! When we all recovered from the shock, we found that the sergeant was quite badly injured and the other three in the back had nasty wounds - both the officer and myself seemed to be the lucky ones. Problem now was, how to get back to base - we were in the middle of the desert, with men who urgently needed medical attention. The officer then detailed me to walk the estimated ten miles to Tobruk and raise the alarm - however just before I set out, headlights appeared on the road and as it came closer to us we could see it was a huge Arab lorry piled high with scrap metal. The officer stood in the middle of the road and flagged it down - as soon as it came to a halt, he pulled out his service revolver and declared that he was going to confiscate the vehicle! After a lot of cursing and swearing on the drivers part, he got out of his cab - followed by what must have been 10 others, who must have been sat up with the scrap metal. We then loaded the sergeant on board, with the officer driving, the others had to fit in where they could. I was then handed the revolver and told to wait by the damaged truck, until I could be picked up by a recovery party. He emphasised the fact to use the gun if I had any trouble from the disgruntled locals!! When I think about it now, I was only 19 years old, in the middle of the Sahara desert, at night, alone with a bunch of Arabs who have just had not only their lorry 'stolen' from them but also their possession. I waited what seemed a lifetime - the group in the meantime had collected brush and scraps of wood and had made a small fire and were sitting round it, obviously planning on what to do next - every now and then glaring at me standing there with a revolver pointing at them. Finally I was picked up and the Arabs were reunited with their lorry also they were compensated for the inconvenience. I discovered later, that my left leg had been badly gashed - all hidden by uniform and red paint, which meant I had to spend 7 days in the Tobruk military hospital. Today my injury (now a long scar) is known by my grandchildren as 'Grandad's war wound'! I found out later that the accident was caused by a local a Arab on a donkey dashing across the road in front of our lorry and we swerved trying to avoid him.
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Thank you for your two very informative posts David, very much appreciated by myself if perhaps by no one else on this platform. A great adventure with a good outcome for you and your truck companions. Via Balbo then was narrow with no hard shoulders, soft verges, rocks and trees which all played their part in the frequent overturning of trucks (military and civil). More please, of Libya, of the planned evacuation of families/British citizens from Egypt, 19 Inf Bde and if possible or your time in Tripolitania. Nice photo of two smart soldiers in their BDs. :)
Thank you Bluebelle, I seemed to be getting plenty of 'views' but very little reaction - what I would really like is to find someone else who was involved in the little known operation in 1951. You seem to know Libya well ( didn't know the road was called Via Balbo!). My Libyan experience was flying from Lyneham in Wiltshire to Tripoli and spending a week there before being flown to Cyrenaica, where I spent the rest of the time before demob in '52. The street rioting fizzled out (nothing to do with us!) and we had time to sun ourselves and swim - I actually had 7 days leave in an army holiday camp at Apollonia, which was great.
Hi David,
I had meant to answer your first post but have been having a bit of trouble with vertigo so had a day or two off site. I was in Egypt in 1949 with the 16th/5th Lancers and stationed at Fanara which is about twenty miles south of Ismailia by the side of the Great Bitter Lake. We moved to Libya early 1950 where we stayed until I was demobbed when my National service days ended. I really enjoyed the tale and am at present on another site doing a series of anecdotes about my time in Libya and it seems people are enjoying them. I was looking forward to more from you along the same lines so just where were you in Cyrenaica? We moved to BARCE but only for a few months when we went to Zastava although I believe the name has been changed since then. Cyrenaica was in fact part of Libya and geographically was next to Egypt unlike Tripolitania which made up the rest of the country. So, any more good tales to come?
PS. Did you ever go up or down that zig-zag road from the top of the escarpment to the coast road leading to Derna? Terrifying especially when the wagons were driven by the Mauritian drivers.
I had meant to answer your first post but have been having a bit of trouble with vertigo so had a day or two off site. I was in Egypt in 1949 with the 16th/5th Lancers and stationed at Fanara which is about twenty miles south of Ismailia by the side of the Great Bitter Lake. We moved to Libya early 1950 where we stayed until I was demobbed when my National service days ended. I really enjoyed the tale and am at present on another site doing a series of anecdotes about my time in Libya and it seems people are enjoying them. I was looking forward to more from you along the same lines so just where were you in Cyrenaica? We moved to BARCE but only for a few months when we went to Zastava although I believe the name has been changed since then. Cyrenaica was in fact part of Libya and geographically was next to Egypt unlike Tripolitania which made up the rest of the country. So, any more good tales to come?
PS. Did you ever go up or down that zig-zag road from the top of the escarpment to the coast road leading to Derna? Terrifying especially when the wagons were driven by the Mauritian drivers.
Hi Terry,
Thanks for responding - yes I remember the zig-zag road very well, in fact we had occasion to go to Barce - I remember it well, in fact I was allowed to drive the 3 tonne we were in(no experience!), on a lonely stretch of the road. Did you ever visit Apolonia or Cyrene? - if you're interested in history, it was fabulous. The ancient ruins at Cyrene were extensive and at the time non-commercial and completely open. We did a 1 day tour of the area from our army holiday camp. Did you ever get leave while you were in the middle east?
Thanks for responding - yes I remember the zig-zag road very well, in fact we had occasion to go to Barce - I remember it well, in fact I was allowed to drive the 3 tonne we were in(no experience!), on a lonely stretch of the road. Did you ever visit Apolonia or Cyrene? - if you're interested in history, it was fabulous. The ancient ruins at Cyrene were extensive and at the time non-commercial and completely open. We did a 1 day tour of the area from our army holiday camp. Did you ever get leave while you were in the middle east?
Hi David,
Sorry for the delay in responding - I never got the chance to explore. When we moved to Libya there was so much work on I hardly had time to break wind and my time wasn't far from being up. We used to swim on a beach near Tocra and I now wish I'd taken the chance to walk down and look around. It seems it was a very important town way back in Roman times and there's still a lot of ancient ruins and such around.
You'd probably enjoy the stories I mentioned before and I have put them under the heading of 'Pull up a sandbag'. You must have heard that expression! Anyway, if you add any more I'll cetainly read them.
Cheers.
Sorry for the delay in responding - I never got the chance to explore. When we moved to Libya there was so much work on I hardly had time to break wind and my time wasn't far from being up. We used to swim on a beach near Tocra and I now wish I'd taken the chance to walk down and look around. It seems it was a very important town way back in Roman times and there's still a lot of ancient ruins and such around.
You'd probably enjoy the stories I mentioned before and I have put them under the heading of 'Pull up a sandbag'. You must have heard that expression! Anyway, if you add any more I'll cetainly read them.
Cheers.