Rod of Moses by John W Green

Author:John W Green
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RAF, Aden, Egypt, 1920s, King Solomon, Queen of Sheba, wormholes, Lee-on-the-Solent
ISBN: 9781911105060
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2016
Published: 2016-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

When the postings came out, the ‘old’ Flight C was split up and dispersed to various aerodromes in the UK: the quartet of Jack, Gus, Clive, and Ginger ended up at Henlow. This was a bit too far for Jack to visit Blean, but he did keep in touch. He sent letters and sometimes cards to both young Mary and Brian on their birthdays.

The quartet spent almost two years at Henlow, working on many different types of aircraft. All four of them during their time there became reclassified as ACIs (Aircraftsmen first class), and in the April of 1923 they all were posted to the RAF Depot Egypt, near Cairo, where Squadron 47 was based.

As the Vickers Vernon with almost two dozen airmen packed in it came into land at the airbase, completing the last leg of the flight from Hendon, Jack recalled Dave’s enthusiastic descriptions on the train of Wing Commander Bowhill’s escapades in Somaliland. Was it really four years ago? It would not be long before the new arrivals in the ‘dark continent’ would become witnesses of acts of more derring-do themselves. How Dave would have enjoyed this posting!

As they started clambering down the short ladder to the ground, Clive - who was the first to disembark - called out ‘who the bloody hell said this was the ‘dark continent’? The sun’s so bleeding bright it effing well nearly blinds you, and it’s hot enough to fry your nackers.’ Everyone in the disembarking contingent agreed with his assessment as they set foot on the dusty runway. No nice, firm, comforting tarmac runways here - tarmac would have melted.

The quartet were about to experience a dramatic change in their duties. During the two years they had been stationed at Henlow, they had only attended three crash sites between them. Within a week of arriving in Egypt, each of them had attended a ‘recovery and retrieval’ operation which involved a crash, and all of these had been within twenty miles of the airfield. Deployment on ‘recovery and retrieval’ was to become something they would experience with a frequency and regularity that was never monotonous and often tragic. Sometimes it was possible to retrieve material and parts for use in the repair of other damaged aircraft, but more often than not the operation would just end up with the burning of the remains of the crashed plane.

As they were close to Cairo, when they were granted ‘passes’ they were permitted to go off base, but they always had to be back on base by 23:59 hours. No-one was allowed to sleep off the base. This meant that they were able to visit many of the antiquity sites, including the pyramids, which was something that most of the people back home only read about in books.

Soon after their arrival at the depot the ‘newly arrived’ were given a lecture, complete with a graphic slide show, about the dangers of venereal disease, and were warned to keep away from the local brothels.

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