Suez Canal
17.3.16
Dear May,
We are having a holiday today today – partly because it is St Pat’s & partly because there is a very unpleasant wind blowing & the dust is dreadful. We are still here & are having quite a good time. It is pretty well all guard & patrol work & of course most of it is done at night. We usually do a couple of hours work in the morning, patching up the trenches but I am afraid we don’t earn our 5/- a day at it.
[Page 2]
Since coming here I have learned to swim & can go about a chain now. If we are here much longer I might swim the canal. It is about 100 yds wide here & most of the men have been across. You would be surprised at the amount of shipping that goes past. It makes the place seem quite busy. When a big passenger boat goes past we all get down on the foreshore for “backsheesh” & get quite a lot of tobacco etc thrown to us. We have one of the old Turkish boats here & often go for a bit of row in it. It is used chiefly for taking stores down to the other posts. I see by the Ensign that they have
[Page 3]
taken 1 one of the boats over to N.Z. They are nothing much to look at but it will be an interesting relic. We strike our turn at guard work about every second night & I have been on 1 night patrol, 2 nights in the observation post in the trenches & 1 24 hour guard over the camp & tonight I’ll be on again somewhere. In the trenches we work 12 hour guards & as there are four to each post we have to do 2 watches of two hours each. It is rather monotonous work as there is nothing to see. The sand is fairly level & is just a vast plain right back to the horizon. Of course we have to
[Page 4]
sleep beside our post & when our shift is up we give the next man a roll over & then lie down in the trench with an oilsheet underneath & a blanket on top & watch the stars, until inspite of weighty & rather cumbersome equipment, we drop off to sleep. Just before dawn we stand to arms until it is properly light & at 6 am we are relieved. The patrol work is rather more interesting and there are 3 on at a time but the shifts are longer. We have to patrol from this to the next post & guard the canal. No strangers are allowed near it & all native craft must tie up at dusk & are not allowed to sail until day light. Occasionally one will try to work the “no savvy”
[Page 5]
game but a couple of shots over her bow or through her rigging & we very soon hear “orright mister” & they pull to the side & tie up. After patrolling up & down for 4 hours in the middle of the night one is apt to think that it is a lot of useless work but of course it is most important that the canal should be kept clear & if the enemy could only get a few mines into it they might soon blow up enough ships to block it for months. I don’t think I told you about our insect friends here. We are sleeping in dug-outs & they are simply swarming with fleas, lice, mice & rats & many an hour’s sleep we lose with them.
[Page 6]
They don’t trouble me a great deal but some of the men are red all over with bites & any time they like to take off their shirts then can catch from half-a dozen to 20. I examine my togs every day & so far I have not caught one but very often at night I can feel them advancing in extended order across my back & occasionally one or two start digging themselves in, but by morning they are all away. What surprised me most was the number of rats & mice here. They are racing about all day & all night. It is a common thing to feel them running about our blankets at night & twice they have run across my face. There are holes
[Page 7]
all through between the sandbags & they hop in & out just like rabbits along a hedge and they are frightened of nothing. I saw a chap catch a mouse with his hand as it was running past him at dinnertime. We have discovered a simple & very good mouse trap. We get an old bottle & put some cheese in the bottom of it & then stick the neck of it in a hole between the bags & let the bottle hang down slightly. The mouse runs in but can’t climb up the smooth glass again. Every now & then we walk along & can easily see if we have got a catch, but although we have had some good hauls they seem to be as plentiful as ever.
[Page 8]
I have just discovered that Min Looney is at Port de Koubbeh Hospital near Zeitoun. If I have any luck I will get a day off to go & see her when we get back to Ismailia. I was often there before we left Zeitoun but she didn’t arrive until a few days after we left. We are getting a good deal of “gift” stuff here, especially from the Queen Alexandra Fund. We have had rolled oats, condensed milk, tinned fish, writing material etc & are living like lords. We expect to go back to Ismailia in a day or two to prepare for the big move but we are not quite sure where it will be to. All well
Love from Len
