Michael Billings Collection - Wallet 4 - Part 2 of 14

Written
2.1.42
Received
17.3.42
Hospital
Suez

Egypt. 2.1.42

Darling,
With me in the hospital here near Suez is an 
Aussie  who was brought straight here off the ship and is
awaiting a Medical Board when he can be moved to the
Aust. hospital at El Kantara further up the Canal. As he
looks like being sent home he has agreed to take this letter
back with him.  It is a description of my wanderings as well as
I can remember them since arriving here and as such a tale
would hardly pass His Nibs the Censor, it sounds quite a
good scheme to let you know a lot more than I have been
able to in letters sent through the Army Post Office.   Although 
the activities of our show so far have not been at all exciting
This sort of annual report will interest you, I think and clear
up some matters I infer from your letters you're in the dark
about. If this reaches you and if it does it wont be for
months yet, you can show it it to you mother and if you like mine, but as 
some of the names and places are taboo, that's about the limit
I think compatible with safety for me. So lets to our story.
As you remember we left Melbourne on 5th 
Feb and picked up our convoy, the Queen Mary,  Aquitania 
Nieuw Amsterdam down near the Antarctic I think and with 
H.M.AS. Canberra as watchdog, we formed up and went 

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full speed for Fremantle. Took us about a week to get there
and as the Bight behaved and the weather was fine, we
enjoyed that part of the voyage. Two half day's leave in Perth
and the people in the West gave us a great time. Off then across
the Indian Ocean and a few days out poor old Syd's foot got
bad and from then until we reached Bombay, he was in the
ships hospital. The weather was as hot as hell and the ship,
crammed with troops,like a furnace. Not content with depriving
me of my cobber, Fate awarded me a job in the galley where
from 7a. m to 7p. m I manipulated a plate washing machine
wreathed in clouds of steam in a temperature of just on 130°
The brightest spot was my nightly visit to the Second Engineer
who supplied each night 2 pints of iced beer but the four days
spent as slushy took about a stone off me. Arriving at Bombay
we stood out in the harbor for 3 days awaiting transhipment
and one morning, a small ship tied up to the Mauritania
and then I took my farewell of Syd who was taken ashore
in the small boat. The next day, an Indian gunboat took us
off and we were embarked on the Westernland, a Dutch
passenger ship in Bombay Docks and given leave until 10p.m.
Tried to locate Syd. but had no luck and then went on a
quick look at the town. Was little time but what went to
Malabad Hill, Grant Road, and after dismissing to

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the taxi, repaired to Gruns Cafe for grub and grog. Did not
see much more of India and returned to the ship and looked
her over. Real troopship, hammocks and about two feet per man
and dirty and rusty to boot. After a long trip from India to
The Red Sea, we entered that stretch of water and set out for
Suez, quite a fair-sized convoy with destroyers and sub. chasers
dashing hither and thither.  At that time the Italians were still
in possession of Somaliland and Eritrea but no attacks
were forthcoming and we anchored a day's sail from Suez, 
short of food and water. We stayed there three days living on
next to nothing and at last moved into Suez Harbor and
a wonderful sight it was positively thronged with ships
from majestic liners to rusty tramps, must have been nearly
a hundred ships Waited there another three days for barges
to disembark and at last we stepped off and were towed
to Port Tewfik at the entrance to the Canal We then had
a good feed and piled into a train which took us to Kantara
about half way up the Canal where are stationed big punts.
Detraining there, we were fed again and we then crossed the
canal and marched to the rail head for the train to Palestine.
Crammed in like sardines, we travelled all night and about
5 a m reached El Maghdal where a fleet of Army trucks

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met us and took to our and camp at Khassa. Khassa was
About 15 miles from Qastina where your brother John was
camped just then. After a lot of mucking about. we settled
down at Khassa doing route marches, drill, guards and
fatigues while awaiting our equipment. We were then warned
for embarkation to Crete along with one of the batteries of
the 3d Ack. Ack. They got theirs but ours was delayed
until Crete was lost and we stayed put. Just as well as
their battery were just about wiped out and I fear ours would
have met a similar fate. Anyhow ours came along and as
the Syrian campaign was just opening we were ordered to
Aqis Drome where the planes bombing Syria were based
Did not see much action these but did a hell of a lot of
digging and sandbagging to keep us busy. Living conditions were
crude there, no cover and we dug in and put up our little
bivouac tents over the holes. Water was scarce and scorpions
and centipedes numerous but although I was bitten three
times, I was so tough no trouble resulted. This drome was
in the paddocks between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and each
week, we were given b a half days leave and picking up
a bus at Rehovot used to go to Tel Aviv for a Spree.
We went to Aqus Aqis the first week in June and stayed
there for about 6 weeks hardly firing a shot.

5/
The first week I spent on the 3.7 guns but was transferred
as section Ack. Ack Bren Gunner and two of us were
camped away from the others, living beside our little L.M.G.
three feet underground. No wonder I was fit; this was our
daily routine. . 4.30 Man the gun, take her to pieces and
have her shining, then have a shave and a catslick and
cook our breakfast (usually bully beef and biscuits). From
then until lunchtime, dig out gunpit.  fill sandbags (all
that done under a blazing sun and myriads of flies. From
lunchtime until 4.30 rest if you could rest with the heat and
flies.  4. 30 until 8. 30 (Sunset) with a half hour for Pea
practice on our Bren. By heck. I got to be a pretty classy
machine gunner before I was though. 8.30 was stand
down and I had 17 days doing just that before I got my first
half day off. No wonder I felt fit. That period at Aquis was
the most strenuous spell I've put in over here and one place
when I never had a minutes Sickness. Before I pass on
to our next move, I'll tell you of a few incidents that occurred
there. First there was my first flight. One day I nicked off
to the R.A.F. for a shower and up on the tarmac a Blenheim
was warming up for a trial flight. The Sgt.  Mechanic hailed
me "Aussie would you like a flip'. I succumbed to

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the temptation and so they got me a chute and stowed me in the
gunners turret. We taxied down the runway and faced into
the wind The pilot switched on his engines and away
we sped. What a great sensation when she lifted off the
ground and as we climbed to a few thousand feet I felt a
bit scared, squatting right down near the tail. We stayed up
for nearly half an hour and I saw more of Palestine in
that time than I saw all the rest of the time I was there. Whew,
when we came back to land, the pilot dived and my guts nearly
hit my eyebrows. However we leveled off nicely and he made
a perfect landing. When I climbed out a bit white around
the gills but very elated. Riding around with these Air Force
blokes is thrilling alright. I've never told you of that flight as
dire penalties are visited upon soldiers flying under the lap. On
another ca occasion a bomber was taking off fully loaded
but as she left the ground the port engine cut out and
crash right on lop of a parked plane. She went afire but
the crew got away and the next minute, the bulles started
going off like crackers, a brilliant impromptu display. Then
up went the petrol tanks with a flash and a roar and
we thought the show would soon die out. We were only
a couple of hundred yards away when all of a sudden

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two 250lb bombs blew up sending sparks and debris everywhere,
you bet I went to ground smartly. Some of our chaps sneaked up
to the wreck later and salvaged a twin Browning machine gun
and they got it back into working order later. That joint was a
harvest for practice rounds as when the planes guns were tested
the  RAF blokes used to leave tons of ammo lying around. The
last spill I saw there was a real movie stunt one, a Blenheim
was coasting in to land when an engine died and she
came down in the paddocks like a pancake tipped right over
and came to rest like a shot goose. The crew just crawled out
hopped in a tender and just left their bus, no use anymore to
them. Saw a classy bit of flying one day, a Wellington came
in but his landing wheels jammed and he could not put her
down. He ascended again and in the distance you could see
him jettisoning his fuel in preparation for a crash landing.
Back he came and put her down without wheels. As the
plane met the bitumen, a sheet of flame streamed out but
she kept an even keel and came to a standstill like a
bird.
Well July drawing to close, the French were on
the run in Syria so orders to move into Syria reached us
so one night we packed up and stole away silently. We
reached Haifa that night and camped in the olive groves
at the foot of Mount Carmel of biblical fame.

8/
Off again early and our convoy meandered up the coast road
passing place where days before out cobbers of the 7th Division
had had some fierce encounters. Litani  River, Tyre, Sidon
Merjayoun, Wadi Damour.  Wrecked vehicles, bullet marked
walls and hastily dug graves bore eloquent testimony of the
fighting but we got through to Beirut unassailed. Felt a
bit ashamed to be peacefully cruising along when a few days before
our fellows fought there their way inch by inch. Still our
turn will come, I suppose. The Syrian show was not given
much prominence in Austn papers but for the number of troops
employed, the casualties were very high and the fighting
greatly of close range stuff  with and hand to hand work.
H The country is rocky and mountainous and with the Foreign
Legion against them, our chaps had a stiff trot. The Pioneers
who were with us at Pucka did a great gob but were badly
knocked about. Poor Darcy Eccles was in that mob. Two
VC’s were won in the Syrian business by Aussie infantry and there
have been only three won  by the A. I. F since the war began.
Well, we reached Beirut without mishap and
were camped on the playing field of the American university
and started off to dig and sandbag another gun. site.
We always get our guns ready for action first and then proceed

9/
to build a revetment around them, protection for the crews
going up gradually as we build around the guns. We were very
stuck for room there but we all found a place to sleep and
dump our gear. Being a fair sized front we expected an early
visit from Jerry but he did not put in an appearance for a
while. Anyway,  the heads suddenly found out that if we fired
from our present position, all the houses at the back of the camp
would probably collapse so we moved away round the coast
to a French coastal fort where we had to start building all
over again. It was a bonzer spot right up on the cliffs
facing the Mediterranean and much healthier. Though every
place I saw in Syria, the mosquitoes were there and malaria
is very rife. And of course a heap of our chaps were soon down
with it including your humble servant although few of us
got malaria. Ours was something milder. Our new hang-out
was had good sleeping quarters, electric light and showers so
after building the gun position, we had a rather lazy life waiting
for the Luftwaffe to get going but we had very little action
Although the cow was often nearly and had us out of bed
quite often. Meanwhile our Headquarters as usual had established
themselves at the Casione Joffre, a large barracks in the
town and every time we were not manning out guns
we trucked up to H.Q at 10 am and went on leave