“I’M NOT EATING OFF OF THAT!”
As Remembered By Dorothy Mirfin (nee: Walker)
My first day in the ATS Camp – which had originally been an American “loony bin” according to the other girls and was still being adapted for our use, I was taken to lunch to the Mess Hall. I walked into this rectangular building, high brick walls, very cold and was told to sit on one of the benches alongside the “tables”. I took one look and said “I’m not eating off there!”, pointing to the “tables”. “Why not?” she asked. I said “Don’t you know what they are? They are mortuary slabs!” They even had small chrome dishes with salt in them in the central holes in the slabs. The slabs were red polished marble, long enough to hold two bodies on each and there were four slabs in the “dining room” (Mortuary). There was an uproar. As an ex VAD nurse (fulltime) you can imagine my horror. The answer was that it was the coolest place in camp!
They soon got a new Mess Hall finished and opened – POW labour, POW chefs and Mess Orderlies. I later heard of the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip being married as it was broadcast live on the Forces Radio in the Mess – I was late in from work so only myself was in the Mess Hall at the time.
Other things I remember are the trucks waiting outside the camp gates each evening for us to take our pick to go to different socials or dance events. Swimming in the Canal and getting out to let the ships go by. Ten days leave spent in camp. Nowhere to go because of the Cholera Epidemic at the time. Victoria Lido – drinking Pepsi out of cut off bottoms of Stella Beer Bottles. The Malcolm Clubs. The POWs erecting the Elephant Fountain between the ATS Camp main gate and the row of shops opposite – and watching them trying to get it to work!
No, there was no personal transport to work, we had to walk. We often started the day going for a swim in the Canal – through the back gate of the camp – across the wooden bridge over the Sweetwater Canal and so by passed the Fayid Native Village. I had to report seeing a dead Egyptian man in the water one morning!
I worked at 591 GHQ Car Coy RASC and started work at 7 a.m. We provided transport as required, including 3 ton PVC QLs. They had wooden forms fitted in some or 3 ton Bedford, Chevrolet, Austin English/Canadian/American Fords. The drivers were detached – if POW was driving then a British guard had to escort them riding in the cab. My office – a tent with trestle tables and folding wooden chairs - and I had to keep rosters of vehicles/drivers, including bus runs and carrying out vehicle inspections, brake testing etc. We covered the area from Moascar to Ismailia. Geneifa, Fayid, to Port Suez.
Some of the POWs were still kept under close guard (in caged
areas) but we were also working with POWs everyday. We had them working as
drivers, cooks, mess waiters, billet orderlies etc. Many of them spoke English
and were, of course, “Trusties”. They wore blue denim jackets
and trousers with a large black diamond shaped insert on the jacket and shirt
for easy identification. Their dance bands were good too, Wolf Anson’s
Band particularly in demand and they put on entertainment of Austrian Folk
Dances, dressed in Lederhosen and Tyrolean hats etc. during the dance evenings.