Letters from Arthur Seaforth Blackburn to his family, 1941 - Part 20

Lt Col. A.S Blackburn 
SX6962   2/3 M.G.Bn 
AIF Abroad 
10/9/41 
  
My Dear Bob. 
It seems a tremendous time since last I received a letter 
from you. I don't know if any have gone astray but I certainly 
haven't had one for fully a month. I have just got back from a  
very interesting trip of over 1000 miles across the desert & up to a 
town on the Euphrates River. I got delivery of a new car the night 
before we left so had a good oportunity to run it in across the  
level desert. The vehicle I have got now - I have been trying to 
persuade the authorities to issue one to me ever since I got here - is 
what is known as a " battle-buggy". It is a Ford V8 with the axles  
of a one ton van but the body is designed especially for long trips. 
 I will try to get a snap of it to send to you. It is designed to give an 
utter maximum of carrying capacity for luggage & passengers combined with 
comfort etc.  It has windows all the way around which slide forward 
or back instead of up & down so that you can open all or any one. 
There are six movable windows on each side. There is a huge space 
at the back of the rear seat for luggage & there is a f  an adjustable 
steel table on the back of the front seat which is far more solid 
& steady than the one in the ordinary army car. Attached to this table 
is an electric light which shines down onto the table & gives a very 
strong light. It is much squarer in shape than a car & is so 
arranged that one can sleep in it at night if necessary. The whole 
back of the car is a hinged door half of which can be lowered & the

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other half raised thus opening up the whole back of the car for putting in luggage 
etc. It is very difficult to describe but a side view of the body looks like 
this the space at the back of the rear seat being available for luggage. 
The body is really like a box on wheels with doors in the side & the back 
being made like a lid.  I am afraid you won't be able to follow it from 
that description but I am hoping to send you a snap with this & that 
will help to make it clear to you.  On the way across the desert 
we came across quite a large number of gazelles. These are 
small deer and are extremely pretty, although of course the 
ones we saw ran away much too quickly for us to be able 
to get a look at them. It seemed queer to see them away out 
in the desert like that, where there seemed to be neither 
food nor water. We spent the first night at an aerodrome 
in one of the towns where there was quite a lot of 
fighting. We slept in the hanger & it was extremely interesting 
to see the damage which had been done to it. The 
galvanized iron roof & sides looked like a sieve, it 
was so full of bullet holes where it had been 
machine gunned from the air. Two or three days 
after we captured the place the enemy raided it 
themselves & caught two of our aeroplanes in it. Both 
of them were severely damaged. Lying around in the 
desert around the town were several enemy planes 
which had crashed- a Dornier, a messerschmitt , two 
Lysanders & a Junkers, so there must have been a 
lot of fighting & raiding going on near the place. 
In the town itself there was a partially wrecked 

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ambulance plane but as it has been stripped of its engine &  
everything else except the bare framework, I do not know 
whether it had been ours or enemies. It was marked all 
over with red crosses & carried, I understand, three stretchers 
for removing badly wounded cases. After leaving that town 
we set out across the desert for 200 miles. In the whole 
distance we only saw one village & very few signs of 
life otherwise. Now & again at long intervals we would 
see some Bedouins in the distance but in the main it 
was just flat bare sandy or rocky plane. There was  
very little attempt to make a road except that every 50-100 
yards there was a small mound of earth to mark the 
direction to be followed. That continued for nearly the  
whole distance and was I understand done by the  
Foreign Legion. Twice on the trip across the desert we 
came upon wells of clear pure water. Goodness knows 
how they were ever found or why they contain  
water for in each case they were 50-60 feet deep & in 
the middle of sandy wastes. Towards the end of our  
trip across the desert we came upon the biggest mob herd 
of camels which I have ever seen. There were not 
hundreds of them but thousands - or so it appeared. They were 
strung out for over an immense area & for fully twenty minutes 
we were passing through them . They were in charge 
of about 20 Bedouin Arabs & I don't think I have

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ever seen a more villanous looking lot in my life. At the 
end of this stretch of desert we reached our destination, a 
town on the Euphrates River. The town has a population of 
about 20,000 and was a big post of the Foreign Legion. On 
the outskirts of the place, a golf course had been 
established. The greens had been made by packing rocks & 
limestone over and area & then covering it with cinders. It 
seemed very queer to see a place golf course like that in the middle of 
the desert. Alongside it was a racecourse. There is little or 
no wood or trees in this area, so the course etc was worked 
out on the desert with big stones. The grandstand was 
built of stones & was quite a big building. I understand the 
French used to run two or three meetings a year there. 
Whilst in the town I met a most interesting man called 
Shlash Pasha. He is a Turk who fought against us in last 
war. After last war he became very friendly to Great Britain 
and became so pro-British that about five years ago the 
French made him leave Syria & refused to let him return. 
Now however the British have insisted upon his being 
allowed to return & so he is once more with his own 
family etc. He is a magnificent looking man - most  
of these locals look too oily & sly - & looks you straight 
in the face. He was dressed in European clothes except for 
a magnificent Arab head-dress & wore four medals - one 
of them being a British decoration. He had at some time 

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received a cut across his face & the scar was very visible. Strangely 
enough, however, this scar added to his looks instead of spoiling 
same. He looked a magnificent fighting man. I met him in 
the office of the British Political Officer for the district & as soon as 
we had met, a native servant - a real nigger, jet-black - came 
forward with coffee. He presented each of us with a small 
handleless cup, no saucer, & then poured into each about a spoon- 
ful of hot coffee, with no sugar or milk. The custom was to 
drink this at once in one gulp & then a similar amount would 
be poured in. This went on until you had drunk about a 
cupful altogether. The idea is, so far as I could gather, that the 
coffee is too hot to drink at once if the cup is full but a very 
small quantity poured out seperately into a cup cools it down 
instantly sufficiently to drink. I was talking to him for some time 
and was very glad to hear him say that he is certain that 
Turkey will not help Germany, but will come in on our side next 
year. Well Bob, this is about the end of my allowance of 
writing paper for an air-mail letter. I learn from mother's 
letter that you have gone over to Melbourne for a  
spell. I am sure you would enjoy that & Mary 
would appreciate it too. I suppose by now you have 
settled down to the strenuous job of "last term". 
I imagine you will be very delighted when the 
end of the year came & your period of waiting is 
over. You have never told me how you got 
on with your enquiries re A.I.F. jobs etc. Have 

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you managed to get any further with it and have 
you written to Mr Joyner to see what he can do 
for you. Do write to me soon old man & tell me all 
about yourself & how everyone is getting on. I received 
another lovely typed letter from you yesterday, Wody. 
You really have come on wonderfully. I was sorry that 
the sports had to be postponed & hope your house won 
when they did come off. I will be waiting to hear that 
next mail. I still look forward immensely to your 
weekly letters, Margie darling. You seem to have 
been doing wonderfully well in your exams. I hope 
you enjoyed your holidays in the hills. 
Goodbye old dears for this letter. Look after Mummy 
& keep on writing & telling me all the news. 
With love to you all 
Daddy. 
  
Arthur S Blackburn