My Years in the Royal Canadian Air Force - Part 4 [Scotland to Cairo] By Ronald Gaudet We boarded a Freighter and sailed from Scotland in a convoy of about eighty ships until we were around the Azores. I woke up one morning to find we were all alone in the middle of the Atlantic. We were given times and positions for submarine watches and needless to say did them very seriously. One of our boys was an Australian and he found out some of the engine crew were from there too so was spending a lot of time with them. One day he came to me and asked if I would do him a favour as he had told them he had a friend who could carry an electric motor they had just repaired down to the engine room. We went up on deck to the electricians shop and there was a large motor on the work bench and they said it took four men to bring it up and two men to put it on the bench so no way could I take it down alone. However I picked it up and it did not seem too heavy so I took it across the deck and to the stairs down to the engine room and looked down maybe seventy feet or more of very steep steps. The ship was pitching and rolling but fortunately there were pipe rails on each side so could hook my arms over these and hang on or I would have gone head first, motor and all. By the time I got to the bottom my left hand was just barely able to grip the shaft. They told me to put it down by the foot of one of the centrifuges for cleaning the base oil for the two main engines. The motor position was about seven feet off the floor and they asked if I thought I could lift it up there which I did. So my friend turned to them and said, "I told you he could." They said they didn't think it was possible. I then had a good look at the machinery; the main engines were huge and there were two of them. Also, there were four auxiliary engines big enough to have a catwalk around them. One day I was on submarine watch in a gun tub near the top of the engine room and heard a loud crack. Then something hit the roof behind me and after a pause a loud clanging down below and for some reason I thought it was a rocker arm that broke on a main diesel engine. The ship slowed down to about six knots and then everyone was on watch without orders. We were like this for several hours and my Australian friend told me it was a rocker arm on one of the main engines that had broken. One of the boys reported a submarine on our port side but I saw it at the same time and it was a whale blowing so it was a false alarm. We were berthed between decks and hung our hammocks over the tables which sat about 20 men on benches. One morning I decided to have a little fun so told the crew on our table I was not going to get up and as I was directly over the table we could not have breakfast. Of course I was only kidding but that tried to dump me out of the hammock and found it was not that easy as I somehow always stayed in it. There were six or seven working on this and I suddenly saw a light glimmer in one of the boys eyes but I out guessed him and grabbed the ends of the ropes to my hammock as he was going to untie it and dump me out. In the end they gave up and I got up and we all had a good laugh. I believe this is why the Aussie figured I could carry the motor down to the engine room. One day I was setting next to the side of the ship and it was a hot meal and at the far end of the table from me was an urn of hot coffee. It was rough that day and suddenly the ship took an extra large role and I was at the low end and everything on the table came at me. It was too crowded to get up fast enough so slid back as far as I could and plates were going between my legs but my concentration was on the urn. I was able to grab it before it upset on me. I was also lucky that I was back far enough to escape getting all the dinners on me. We landed in Cape town South Africa but they would not let us debark as they did not have any word about who and where we were going; in other words we were in the wrong port. We were allowed ashore but had to sleep aboard and as we were in hammocks over our mess tables we were not too happy. It was two days before they got word from London where we were going and moved into billets. One of these days we decided a group of us would go up on Table Mountain. So, about forty of us walked up to the cable car shed and we all looked up at the top of the mountain and all but four of us said," I am not going to trust my life to those little cables." I thought they were joking but they turned and went back. Tommy, Mac, Judy (John Garland), and I went up and took some pictures. I went over to the edge facing the city and stood with my toes out over the edge and looked down about two thousand feet. Now I get a sick feeling from the roof of a house. One day we decided to go roller-skating so Tommy, Mac and I talked one of the ships officers of our age to go with us. He said he had never roller-skated before so we asked if he could ice skate and he replied he had. We assured him it was the same thing. He spent most of the time hanging on the rails and getting off the floor but on the other hand girls were helping him along so had the laugh on us. I had not had roller skates on since I was eleven but skated as if it was yesterday. Eventually we were put on a train and arrived in Durban where we boarded the Ile de France and by the time we got to the Red Sea I started my bout with dysentery although I didn't know it at that time. I had eaten a lot of grapes which I bought at stops along the train route without being washed in disinfectant. We landed at Tufik and loaded in a truck and were taken to a camp along the Suez Canal and I went to the M.I.R. on sick parade. The next day some of the boys came in and told me they were moving to another camp and as I did not want to get separated from them I talked the Doctor into letting me go. On arrival at Almaza (along the Suez Canal) where we awaited posting to a squadron. I did not report sick as was afraid we would move again. After a few days I was so weak that on going to the toilet and was only 50 feet away had to sit for 20 min. to get strength to get back to the tent. The reason was that I could not eat. One evening when I got back from the toilet the other three in the tent told me I was going on sick parade or they would carry me there. Next morning I went sick and the Doctor asked if I was passing any blood and told him no so he passed me a bedpan and said, "prove it" so when I came back I told him I was as most of it was blood. Entered hospital and while taking a shower an orderly gave me a small glass and told me to drink. I almost gagged as it slowly trickled down my throat. When I returned to my cot the nurse gave me a large glass of what looked like water so drank it and tasted salty. I asked what it was and told me it was salts and I asked what the other was and she said it was castor oil. I told her there must be some mistake but was told this is the treatment. The salts were given every four hours day and night for a few days. My stomach was so sore I would hold the sheet up so it would not touch my stomach and went to the bathroom every hour. I was lucky I could hold it long enough to get there as others were going in their bed. I did not get much sleep all this time and was in for 17 days. I lost so much weight the boys did not recognize me when I got back unless I spoke to them. A case of Typhus broke out in one of the camps so we were all confined to our own little camp area and an Officer and two of us Sgts were in charge. We had to set up a guard and were to allow no one in or out of our area. One day some of the men asked us to come to their tent as they wanted to show us something. They had a box for a table and in the middle sat the biggest spider I had ever seen. The body was about 2 to 3 inches in length and almost as big around as my little finger with hair about one half inches long on the body and legs. Its legs covered an area about a foot in diameter and had compound eyes a bright red and they appeared to be snapping. They bad hit it with a rolled up newspaper and half its legs were crushed and the tail end of its body. This sounds bad enough but it also had four teeth that it was clicking and could be heard all over the tent. They called it a sand spider but I never did find the correct name. Needless to say the next couple of nights I was awake at different times wondering if one was dropping down from the roof of the tent. After the proper period was up we returned to normal procedure. I was guard commander one night and the next morning when we went off duty the Flt/sgt. told me to take the men and clean up the grounds as the Arabs working around there went to the bathroom where ever they happened to be. So I told him he could get them to clean it up but I would not ask the men to do so. Thought I would be charged but nothing happened. I was posted to 243 Wing at Kilo 8 outside of Cairo on 1 July and got a couple hours in a Hurricane. The first landing I made was a bit scary as on getting close to the ground the ground appeared to be going up and down. I tried to follow it at first but gave up and looked at the altimeter and pulled the stick back at 50 feet and dropped in. I mentioned this to the boys in my tent and they said it was the same for them. It never happened again so I guess it was the heat waves and not being used to it. I also had my first look at the Pyramids and Sphinx as flew over them to get a good look. We were in our tent one day and heard an explosion but did not think it strange as they often test fired the cannons on the Hurricane and they were very close to our tent. A few seconds later an Arab stuck his head in our tent asking for water(in Arabic) and had both hands holding his stomach with the blood coming around them and small holes in his chest leaking blood. Also, some blood was trickling out his mouth. We pointed to the direction of the water and away he went . We went out to see what happened. An airman came by and said “that will teach them”. We asked him what happened. A Cpl. drove up to the ammunition tent to pick up some ammo. and had some Arabs to do the loading. He told them to wait outside for him while he went in to see where and what he was to load. There was a pyramid of hand grenades close by and they gathered around it and one of them picked up the top one and pulled the ring and pin out and dropped the grenade on the ground and was showing the nice ring to the others when the grenade exploded. The one that came to our tent died on the way to the hospital and some of the others received small wounds. These were helped to the M.I.R. while the mortally wounded one walked on his own. One day one of the boys in our tent brought a 20 mm. round in to make a lighter and had removed the bullet and charge and was going to use a nail to fire the primer. We told him it was too dangerous to try. We went to town and when we returned his hand was all wrapped up as he had hit the primer with a nail using a rock and set the primer off and it blew out and tore a piece out of his hand. It was around this time we were being pushed back towards Alexandra and it looked as if the enemy was going to push us out of Egypt. It was no longer safe to go down town at night unless in a group so we began to buy pistols. I bought a Walther P 38 which was a beautiful weapon and very accurate. They had killed a couple of RAF one night in Cairo so we were not taking any chances. There was a New Zealand Club in Cairo and the Canadians were allowed in so we spent a lot of time there. The food was good and also they had good ice cream so became a meeting place for our friends. We were posted to 244 Wing at Helwan the other side of Cairo on 10 August. I arrived at Helwan and flew for 8 hrs.5 min. in a Hurricane I and IIB and practiced dog fighting, attacks, and shadow firing etc. The later was good practice as one Hurricane would fly along and then I could shoot at his shadow so had a moving target to shoot at. On 4 August I delivered a Hurricane 2B to Ismalia and on landing there my right tire was flat but although it was tricky I managed to bring her to a stop without having a prang (crash in our language). They had sent the crash truck and ambulance out but turned back as they saw I was going to be O.K. When I went in the control tower to sign in they congratulated me on the safe landing as they were sure I was going to crash under those circumstances. I arrived at 80 Sqdn. 244 Wing on L.G. 92 which was a sand field on the Cairo to Alex. road. This was on the 10 August. 1942. John (Tommy) Thompson, John (Mac) Maclaughlan and John (Judy) Garland were with me and had been since leaving England. We were now flying Hurricane IIC with four Twenty Millimeter Hispano cannons. We had an English pilot, Montgomery, join us and he was living in our tent. On the 13 August he and Tommy were both on readiness and went on a patrol and did not return. From what I could learn our Sqdn Leader dove for the deck without saying a word and everybody just broke left and right and they think that they collided as someone saw a large fire on the ground too large for one aircraft. This was quite a blow to me as I had been close to Tommy since we were at O.T.U. and also have two out of our tent go at one time. After this I made it a rule not to get too close to anyone. We were in the tent one day and heard a Kittyhawk coming close to the ground by our tent and being next to the tent flap I looked out and the pilot was doing a slow roll close to the deck. I told the others about it and said, "some day he won’t make that and live". At that instant there was a loud crash and he was in the deck and dead. On August 14 we had scramble over base for 30 min. and again on August 22 for 50 minutes. On August 31 we had a scramble over Alamein. It was one of those days when the dust was up to 10,000 ft or more and the sun was low in the sky towards sunset. Nearing the bomb line we were around 13,000 ft. and one of the leaders reported 30 plus Stukas down below at 11 o'clock. Then immediately someone reported 20 plus 109's at 3 o'clock high. My thought at that moment was what do we do now as there are only 12 of us. This was my fist time in action. The question was not long being answered as the Flight Commander called, 'Blue section go down and attack'. I was number two in this section. On the way down I hear,"Yellow section go down and attack and we will stay up and take care of the 109's." Smith was our leader and at this time we were flying three lines of four astern, so down we went and attacked a Stuka; after Smith fired and pulled up I let a short burst go and had to pull up fast as I almost collided with the target. In the melee we were all over the sky. The Stukas were dropping their bombs on their own side of the line and heading for home. As we often had trouble with our radios and didn’t hear anything I looked for another Hurricane. I saw a kite and flew towards it but to one side in case it was not a friend. Eventually we all joined up in a long lazy S and dove for the deck and learned what they meant by low flying. We were so low our props were just clear of the deck. At the same time all except three leaders were weaving. It was kind of unnerving to be that close to the ground and have weaving Hurricanes coming at you from all directions. I was thinking of going up a little when another pilot beat me to it. Immediately this voice came on, "What are you doing way up there." He was at about 25 ft. When we got back to base it was dusk and had a problem finding the field. In the field next to us they were just starting up to disperse their Kittyhawks and they knew our problem so they turned on their landing lights so we could find our field. The leader called and told us to all land at once as we were low on juice. In fact mine read five gallons on landing. This was necessary as if one landed the rest would have to wait till the dust settled before we could see the field again. The amazing thing was we did not even scratch a wing tip. On talking it over on the ground they figured I hit the gunner, as there was no return fire after my burst. We never could figure why the 109's did not come down although we were happy they did not under the circumstances. My number one apologized for leading us in too fast as the Stukas were slow. On I September scrambled over EL Alemein for 1 hour 20 min and on 2 September Escort Tac R (Tactical Reconnaisance) for 1hour 26 minutes. We escorted an Officer from the Observer Corps to see what the Germans were doing on the ground. He would fly at 3000 ft and us at 4000 to make sure he got back with the information for the army. This caused the enemy to fire every gun they had at us so we were flying through flack while there. Sept 3 Scramble dover East of Burg-El Arab -1 hour 20 min Sept 3 Escort Tac R - 50 min Sept 4 Patrol Burg-El-Arab -1 hour 5 min Sept 5 Patrol Burg-El-Arab - 1 hour 25 min Sept 6 Tac R Escort - 1 hour On 10 September we were on a Tac R. Escort; an army observer Officer would fly one of our planes to be on the same radio frequency and our job was to escort him over the enemy position so he could see what the defences were like. He would fly around 3000 ft. and we were 1000 above him so when the enemy opened fire we were flying through shell bursts (flak) so thick we were bouncing all over the sky. I was number two and suddenly we dove for the deck and back to base. The crewman said “you have a small hole in your right wing”. My leader wanted to know why I came back after he called and told me to stay with rest of the squadron. I told him I had heard nothing at all and on checking my radio it was not working. His fore and aft trim control was shot off and took both hands to fly back. Later on in the ops tent while waiting for another scramble Andyside an Australian was saying he had never seen so much flak. They even threw the kitchen sink at us but could not hit the broad side of a barn. Just then his rigger came in and told him “it was a good thing you didn't do a victory roll as your main spar is shot in half”. He got teased over that one for sometime after. Sept 11 Flew in a Hudson from LG 92 to Tel Aviv Sept 17 Flew a Lodestar from Tel Aviv to LG 92 Sept 26 At EL Bassa Palestine Sqdn formation - 1 hour 00 min Oct 3 At EL Bassa Palestine Sqdn formation - 1 hour 5 min Oct 5 Follow the leader - hour Oct 7 S.A.A.F. Wing at LG 85 Oct 14 LG 100 to LG 85 - 25 min Oct 18 Practice then vectored to the enemy - 1 hour 40 min Oct 21 Scramble over base - 40 min Oct 22 Scramble over base - 35 min Oct 23 Scramble over base - 1 hour Bir Amud, Libya Dec 27 Shadow firing and practice flying - 1 hour 25 min Dec 27 Shadow firing and practice flying - 1 hour Three of us went over to one of the other squadrons to see some of the boys we knew. On the way back to our tent we could hear our friend a JU 88 coming to try and to keep us awake by dropping a bomb or two at odd intervals. They did this on just about every moonlight night and this was one of them. The ack ack opened up on it and something whistled by my head and landed at my feet. I saw it spinning around and bent over to pick it up and burned my fingers as it was the nose cone of a shell and still hot. I kept nose cone . On another of these nights I came awake and realized the tent was as bright as day and the others were gone so I thought I had overslept. I was on readiness that day. I suddenly thought I would be on the carpet for this so looked out the tent flap and there were four sodium parachute flares coming down and I was in the center of them. At this time I realized there was a J.U.88 circling overhead and coming on a bomb run so I pulled on my shorts and tin hat, ran out and headed for the slit trench beside the mess tent. I heard the bombs coming just before reaching the trench and dove head-first into it at the same time the bombs exploded. I landed on top of the boys already there. Afterwards they said they thought; that they had been hit by the bomb. Daylight came and as I was on readiness taxied my kite to the take-off position. We lined up our kites in a row so we could all take off at once because of the sand blown up by our propellers. My position this morning was on the extreme left. We got a scramble and opened up to take off and when my tail came up was headed right into a bomb crater and the only option was to throttle back a bit and move to the right of the hole as there was no room on the left of it. When we came out of the dust I was behind a bit of course but soon caught up. When we came back and were waiting for another scramble the engineering officer came in and his mouth was swelled up. He explained that he heard the bombs coming down and dove in his slit trench and hit the edge with his mouth and please do not make me laugh. Up to this time we did not have a slit trench for our tent but we dug one before dark that day. On one Tac R trip an M.E. 109 fired at me until his ammo was gone but he could not hit me as we were in a turn and he was not allowing any deflection as he was pointing right at me. I was in Cairo one week end and while out window shopping looked up and saw Downwind Blake. We both stopped dead in our tracks and both at the same time said, "I thought you were dead." We were both very much alive and had a long chat. One of problems in the desert of course was water and we normally had two Bowsers (water tank trucks) but at times one would break down and we were then rationed to our canteen full for the day. So we had to wash, shave, drink and laundry out of it. The boys would make tea and save enough tea to have their shave with. The other pest was flies which kept you waving with one hand while eating with the other. Also of course was the sand and it was in every thing. We used to spit all the sand out of our mouth and then hold our lips tight together but in a few seconds time if you ground your teeth together then the sand would be there. The Squadron moved to El Bassa, Palestine for a rest period on 25 September. We drew lots and Mac and I had to go by road. we had a 500 wt truck and Mac drove. We were in Palestine going around a curve and met a bus coming the other way and he came close enough to hit his side mirror on our truck and I received splinters beside my left eye. I guess I must have seen it coming and turned my head in time. Of course our truck was right hand drive but they drive on the right there. We were called back suddenly for the big push although we did not know it at the time. We packed up our gear and were waiting for the time to leave and somehow the question came up as to weather a pistol bullet would do through our tin roof so some one pulled out his pistol and fired a shot through the roof and settled the argument. We then put objects on the shelf at one end of the hut and stood at the other and took turns shooting at them. Someone fired and I heard a whistle by my ear and I told them we better stop as this was a stone hut and the bullets were bouncing back at us. Some said no way so I turned around and picked up several spent slugs so we stopped. Then we heard a shot from out side and we ran out and there was Andyside flying a model M.E. 109 and shooting at it with his pistol. We all run up to get in on it but he nailed it just as we got there. Drew a truck again and went back with an engine mechanic Sgt. Just as we pulled into the field in the desert we got bombed. And a piece of shell came right at us and we both ducked below the wind shield and it smashed the glass but we were not hit.