Chapter 6 Enfidaville

On 24th August 1942 our unit left Long Melford to go to Liverpool. We travelled from Liverpool on the “Franco” a 20 000 ton ship that usually traded between Liverpool and Canada. We were 4000 soldiers and officers. The ship normally carried 500 people and not everyone got bunks though I got one. Some kipped on the tables and under the tables and in the morning the smell was dreadful. After we had beans, porridge or semolina I was selected to complain to the authorities. The convoy consisted of 19 troopships plus two warships travelling to the Middle East via Cape Town. We spent four days at Sierra Leone and then ten days at Cape Town. We were given a leaflet providing us with information about what to visit in Cape Town. This included such places as the Democratic Women’s League Rest-Rooms and the Loyalist War Workers’ Canteen. While staying in Cape Town I had the opportunity to visit the Gaston family who lived in Claremont in Cape Town. Vera’s brother Jack Peachey, who was in a cook in the Royal Navy, was also able to stay with them in 1943. I liked Cape Town but I was appalled by the way the blacks and coloureds were treated.

Sailing from Cape Town, we then spent four days in Bombay and ten days in Dolali, a military town not unlike Aldershot. It had taken 90 days in all to reach Dolali. While at Dolali we used to sleep or read during the afternoons as it was very hot and in the evening we went out. I often looked at the sun setting behind the distant hills and the effect was entrancing. The whole sky seemed to be one red glow for a few minutes and then darkness would come. There was no twilight as we knew it at home.

The day after arriving in Dolali we debugged our beds and went for a 'little' route march which I enjoyed very much indeed. We went by a native village which was really a collection of old shacks and mud huts in which numerous families and animals seemed to live in mingled confusion. For fuel the natives used camel manure which is dried in the sun and which added to the already strange aromas of their quarters. At sight of us the children seemed rather afraid and as we approached the nearby watering place where the workers gathered with their water vessels, they moved away from us rather nervously. Perhaps memories of the past were revived by the sight of us.

There were two or three cinemas and canteens and plenty to do and life was not too bad. We got four meals a day and much better food than on the ship. The meat, though, seemed tough compared with that at home, probably due to the scarcity of green pasture. Also, one missed the green vegetables and puddings. We often had two eggs and steak for breakfast, eggs were plentiful and it was quite common for the men to have fried chicken when they went out into the village. Natives waited outside the dining hall to collect the scraps of food which we did not eat and take them home to their wives and children. They seem to be very poor although there are some rich Indians who live in large houses and other who look very learned.

It was very dry and dusty and one got covered in dust along the roadside. We bathed several times in the nearby river and then a host of fruit sellers would gather round to sell us their bananas which we consumed in large quantities; we also had fruit sellers coming round the camp. Bananas were sold at two for one anna, that is about ½ d each and limes for 1½d each [1p = 2 1/2d]. Other natives came round to do our washing at one anna a garment, or to darn our socks or to do our corns, while others brought round tea which the troops seemed to consume the greater part of the day. We got paid in Indian money and I got ten rupees a week which was about 15s [75p]. Most of the men had a native batman or 'bearer' who looked after about eight or ten men for 8 annas each, that is ½ a rupee a week. I no longer had to act as a batman as they also had natives in the Officer's mess.

The bazaar in the village was absolutely fantastic and we could go there and bargain with the natives, arguing over the prices. Everything was very cheap and very interesting. It was strange at first, though, buying things in the bazaar. You fixed your eyes on an article and inquire the price. The assistant would say, something like 'five rupees' and you offer him one or a few annas and then you would argue until you fixed on a price. When I bought a pair of sandals we argued over the price then we went through numerous pairs until we found a pair I liked. After I had paid the assistant promptly asked me for a tip. The country seemed to be run on the tipping system.

The native troops were very fine and smart men and the Indian people seem to be very good looking generally and a lot the men were really handsome. I watched some women working and they were carrying baskets of soil on their heads, children also work here as they do not go the school unless they are high class. There were no cows but plenty of goats around so it is probably from them that the natives got their milk supply. Oxen do the work of cart horses while pony traps (tongas) are used as sort of taxis, two ponies in a trap, which took the troops to and from the village. All beasts of burden were adorned with bells which jangled as they went along.

The one sight that will always remain most vividly with me was the peasant men and women toiling in the fields or in the stone quarries with great dignity and serenity. The women carried themselves very well, probably due to the fact that they use their heads for carrying things and this gave their backs a natural poise. Many of them had a ring in their nose and we used to see them breaking stones not far from us and they worked very hard for 6d a day. Young children too worked hard and, except for the wealthiest classes, did not seem to go to school. The natives who come into contact with the British knew a little English but outside the ordinary people could not understand us.

While in India I wrote to Vera that ‘in fact the British soldier here is a sort of Lord with his bearer who cleans his boots etc and with the barber shaving him in bed and tea in the morning. One can in fact see what a good thing British rule is for the British in India. No doubt this is a wonderful country and it has a great future if it is ruled wisely and for the benefit of the inhabitants.’

‘We have seen little as yet but what we have seen has been a great eye-opener for us all and a wonderful experience. Yet I cannot feel that India is a place for our sort of people. Give me England with its green fields and moderate climate and refreshing showers. We did not dream what England meant to us until we were thousands of miles away. But what a wonderful place it is compared to the scorched earth of other lands. One misses too the birds and green fields and flowers of home. There is a lot we take for granted at home which we do not realise until we are away. And so, from the heat and dust and mystery and glamour of this beautiful country I send you and baby my love and devotion.’