Wednesday 20th January 1943
Mileage on the trip here: 118+172+130+160+25. Altogether 605 miles from Cairo. Good!
This mud is amazing. Never experienced such a glue-pot in the Army. But to me, at any rate, it's better than dust!
Yesterday afternoon and today have been deadly. Worrying, working, planning the canteen. Went into Damascus to find the bulk NAAFI and change our currency. £E = £S 9.057... We were open tonight, after a fashion, with inadequate heating and lighting and no cakes, bread or chocolate. No primus for brews, but we got hot water from the cook house. There's still a lot to do. Days of work. The very mud which comes in on the boots of every man who enters, constitutes a problem. From time to time, I look longingly up at Jebel Mezzar, still hidden in clouds at it's summit. This afternoon snow suddenly appeared on it's upper slopes. I'm going to climb that hill!
I shall write no poetry, much as I'd like to do so, until we've settled down to routine. Can't write unless things are normal and ordered!
Tonight's receipts (£S 46.261) bring my cash in hand to £S 127.785. Not so much as it sounds, in a standard currency. Our total profit is good though. Over £20 sterling now.
This mud is amazing. Never experienced such a glue-pot in the Army. But to me, at any rate, it's better than dust!
Yesterday afternoon and today have been deadly. Worrying, working, planning the canteen. Went into Damascus to find the bulk NAAFI and change our currency. £E = £S 9.057... We were open tonight, after a fashion, with inadequate heating and lighting and no cakes, bread or chocolate. No primus for brews, but we got hot water from the cook house. There's still a lot to do. Days of work. The very mud which comes in on the boots of every man who enters, constitutes a problem. From time to time, I look longingly up at Jebel Mezzar, still hidden in clouds at it's summit. This afternoon snow suddenly appeared on it's upper slopes. I'm going to climb that hill!
I shall write no poetry, much as I'd like to do so, until we've settled down to routine. Can't write unless things are normal and ordered!
Tonight's receipts (£S 46.261) bring my cash in hand to £S 127.785. Not so much as it sounds, in a standard currency. Our total profit is good though. Over £20 sterling now.
posted by Paul Wilson at 6:59 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home