Story Archive - My years in the RCAF - Ronald Gaudet

My Years in the Royal Canadian Air Force - Part 5 [Egypt and Palestine to Libya] By Ronald Gaudet Moved to L.G.100 on 13 Oct.from there to L.G.85 the next day with 7 S.A.A.F. Wing. On 14 Oct. we took off for practice formation flying and soon as we made our first dive. I knew I had airspeed indicator trouble however did not go back as it was only a practice exercise. But suddenly a call from control vectored us to an enemy force near Alamein. I remained with them and when we came in to land my ground crew said, "What a beautiful landing you made." I replied. "That is because I had no airspeed indicator." Practice makes perfect. When in Alexandria we usually stayed at the Corillion Hotel. It was owned by a French couple and they even served breakfast in our beds. It was one night some of us were there about this time and her husband came in and told us we were ordered back to our unit and a truck was waiting for us at the door. She was really upset because we would not eat first so she gave us some sandwiches to take. We were puzzled as we were not due back and were wondering what could have happened to make them recall us. When we got to base they told us Air Marshall Conningham was going to give us a talk and wanted every one there in the afternoon. He gave us a speech to the effect that there would soon be a big push and to give all we had to it. He gave us to believe this might be in three days or three weeks but it was going to take place. It did take place in a few days. After the speech another pilot and I wanted to go back to our field but the pilot driving the truck we came in stayed in the mess to drink. We decided to take the truck and go; however any time you left a vehicle you had to immobilize it so we had to find out how he had did this one. I found the throttle linkage was unhooked so reconnected it and tried to drive it away. (I had never driven a vehicle before this) and letting the clutch out in reverse (or so I thought) the engine roared at full speed and stopped just in time as there was a small shed in front of me. There was two ways to hook up the rod and the way I hooked it was wide open with the pedal at rest. I did this by feel as could not see what I was doing working through a small opening so gave up and started walking to our field. After some time we figured something was wrong as we should have reached the field by now and was getting dark. A few minutes later we heard, "halt who goes there". It was an army guard and we told him where we were going and he laughed and said, "you are lucky you found me as I am the last post and you were headed out in no-mans land". He showed us the correct way and we arrived soon after; we were sure lucky to have met him. It was somewhere in this time frame that Air Vice Marshall Tedder came to our squadron to answer any questions we had as to the way the war was going etc. He came in and sat down took out his pipe filled it lit it up and said, "Shoot your questions." We asked a couple but got the run-around on the answers so didn't ask any more serious ones as we knew we would not get a straight answer to it. Moved to L.G. 37 on 24 Oct. and went to the hospital with dysentery again on 30 Oct. Eventually I was cured again and posted back to unit from Hilo. Was waiting for transport to the squadron and looked out the window and saw one of our kites taking off and it seemed to be making a long run so I thought it must be a new pilot. On lift off, the tail was down to low and I thought he is not going to clear the trees but he did. When I got back to the squadron found out it was Andyside who was a very good pilot but the kite was full of our Xmas dinner and he thought for a moment he was going to crash. We went by train to Alexandria where I boarded a boat to Benghazi, Libya. We arrived in the harbour and had to transfer to a lighter from the anchorage. In loading the kits to the lighter they dropped one in the water and guess who it belonged to - certainly mine and it contained my blankets. So, for the next three or four nights I shivered all night in the wet blankets as there was no time to dry them. We reported to the aerodrome and stayed the night. Next morning we were issued rations and told to go to the highway and hitch back to the Squadron . We were there about three hours before a truck stopped and the driver said the reason none of them stopped was they all had orders to be loaded with anything that could be salvaged. Lucky for us he disobeyed the order. The unit was back near Tobrouk so we were about three days getting there. Joined the Squadron again at Bir Amud, Libya on 23 Dec. 1942 and on the 25th had a great meal with all the food that Andy had flown in. I woke up Christmas morning and looked out the tent flap and started laughing and the others wanted to know what was so funny. I was finally able to tell them to look for themselves and they had to laugh also. There were 4 socks hanging on the tent rope with an orange in the toe and filled to the top. A card attached wished us a Merry Christmas and to keep the sock as they were ours. I have kept the card. Had the runs again the day after Christmas. I mentioned it to the Doctor and said it was probably from the turkey but he did not say anything. On the 28th was in the ops. tent with my Mae West on waiting for a phone call to scramble and the Doctor came in and wanted to know what I thought I was doing and replied, "I am on readiness," and grinned but he did not. He went out and a few minutes later another pilot came in and told me he was taking my place and I was to see the Doctor. He had told the S/Ldr. I was not to fly as he was sending me back to the Hospital and was mad because someone goofed. When I went in to his tent and straightened up after going through the flap I nearly passed out and grabbed the tent pole to keep from falling. He looked at me and said “you are in great shape aren't you “. The Doc was sending me back to the hospital on 2 Jan. with a letter he said would get me back to England or him a Court Marital. On the 30, 31 December and 1Jan. 1943 I had a great time firing a 303 Enfield rifle the enemy had left on the field although they had cut the fore stock off to make a sporting rifle out of it. I fired 1500 rounds in those three days which I got from out dated machine gun belts. My shoulder was so sore the last day that I could not let the butt touch it. One of the things we were using for targets was small "Italian Red Devil" hand grenades. They were about the size of a small condensed milk can. We were told to be careful as although the place had been swept by the Engineers, there could be booby traps they missed. These grenades were lying all over the place outside the most used areas so we were filling our pockets to use them as targets. The last day I bent down to pick one up and my hand froze over it without touching it and for a second did not know what was wrong. On looking closer could see the pin was pulled and then knew if I had picked it up it would have exploded in my hand. This was the sort of thing they were warning us about. I marked it with a stake and reported it to the bomb disposal crew. Saturday 2nd. Jan 1943 I was in the readiness tent waiting for the truck to take me to Alexandria and in walks Burke with his arm in a sling. I was surprised as he had been O.K. last night. He was not too happy as he was on readiness this morning and coming to the ops tent in the dark tripped over a telephone cable and broke his arm. He then started to tell me of the things he had happen to him. When we were in Haifa he was in the circuit to land and hit an air pocket from the 1000ft hill next to the field and the shock blew up his I.F.F. set and they were going to have an inquiry over this. When we moved back to the desert he drew an air plane and landed at Tel Aviv to refuel and hit a propeller from a Liberator that crashed the night before and damaged his undercarriage. Before I joined the squadron he got hit with flak and tore one side of the coop-top off and was flapping up and down. He decided to land at Burgel-Arab( which was in no-mans land at this time) and tore the whole top off before it flew off and destroyed his tail section. Just as he opened the throttle to take off bullets hit from wing tip to wing tip and looking back there were three Me 109's on his tail. One directly behind and one on the left and one on the right. As he gained height and tried to turn the one on that side would give him a short burst of fire. He soon figured they were herding him back over their lines to make him land to capture him and his plane. He waited until he had 4000 ft. and pulled a quick diving turn and they were not able to turn as fast as the Hurricane. He then said," after all this without a scratch I trip over a cable and break an arm". We left at eight in the morning and got in Alexandria one-thirty at night. The road was rough so was very sore when I arrived. Did see a lot of German wrecks but not many of ours as they salvaged everything. The next day caught the train for Cairo and booked in at Heliopolis and went to the New Zealand Club and had a good meal. Entered the hospital again on 4th.Jan. On the 7th started a ten day series of which was an enema of two pints of soapy water we were supposed to hold as long as possible (for some about 10 seconds) and then 8ozs. Yatrin (someone said it was a mixture of iodine) to hold for about 8 hrs. as they put bricks under the feet of the bed to elevate our feet. Also got an inch long needle once a day which left that area as sore as a boil. Had an argument with the Nurse as they were giving them in both arms and buttocks. I would not let them give me these in the buttocks as I told her I had to have a place to lay. Besides, my reasoning was it could only get so sore and after that it made no difference. She gave in but put the needle in a small amount and wiggled it around looking me right in the eye and did this several times until it was all the way in and all the while I was grinning at her. She told me I was the most stubborn man she ever saw. And so was able to lay on my back with a small bit of comfort. But as she said we Canadians were crazy anyway. After the ten days I had a few days rest and on the 19th left for Tel Aviv at 2 P.M. arrived at 9 A.M. next morning. The 21st was my 24th. Birthday and it looked funny to see people sun bathing on the beach in Jan. I was having a banana split every day at the American Milk Bar owned by Esther a woman from Brooklyn, N.J. and her husband Morris from Europe. On the 10th left for Cairo and arrived on 11th. I was at the Hospital again for the next series. Which were pills we called “depth charges”. These were capsules that looked like two straw hats glued together at the brims. We were given a little small white pill an hour before the large one supposedly to stop us from throwing it up. The reason for the name was that shortly after we swallowed it everything in your stomach either came up or out the other end in some cases both at once. This was for another 10 days and on the 2nd. Mar. I was off to Tel Aviv again to get my strength back. On the 17th. I went to the Hayarkon Hotel with Esther and Morris to celebrate two and one half years of marriage. I arrived back at Heliopolis on 21 March and boarded next day to A4B which meant no flying. Posted to Almaza to await ship to England. On the 23rd saw Jerry Warman and he told me Nitz was up for the DFM as his leader had engine trouble and they were jumped by Me 109's. Nitz shot down one, one probable and the other two left the scene. It was at this time another fellow and I went and climbed the Great Pyramid and on coming down started to jump from stone to stone and could not stop until we hit the bottom. We were just about pooped when we hit ground level. I was in the tent with a Belgian, Peter Dills and a Scotsman, William Hunter. On 31 March the three of us and some of their friends went to Groppi's for Dinner and met Robertson. We looked at the menu and saw quail and some asked what it was like and I told them it was like partridge but what do I know. When the orders came one of them said, "its a good thing we did not order Quail eggs” There were only two little bites of meat on each one. However we had a good laugh. Moved to Helwan 5 April to await the boat and on 20 April went to town with Dills and went to the American Bar and they had ice cream brick on the menu so I ordered one. The young fellow serving us said, "A whole one". I told him yes and when he brought it out it was not like ours as it was about a foot long. Dills took one look and almost died laughing and took a little slice as he had a large cone; however I did finish it. On 11 April Dills and I went to the NAAFI and had 6 eggs, two veal steaks and cocoa for dinner and had same for supper. On the 21st. went to the New Zealand Club and a New Zealand girl and I went roller skating. There was a shooting gallery at the rink and after we finished we went over and I had a few shots and the air rifle was accurate. There were candles to snuff out which I had no trouble with. The hardest were bottles with the neck facing me. You had to try to get the shot to stay n the bottle which was easier said then done but I did good at this also. The young fellow tending the gallery came out and picked up a rifle and I believe was going to show me up to the girl. We started to work on the hard shots and it was a tie as he could not beat me. Then I said, "have you ever tried this, "and I turned the rifle upside down and blew out a candle. He put down his rifle and gave in.