STEAM AT WAR 3




The 130Km length of railway between El Daba and Mersa Matruh was divided into six sections with more or less equally spaced passing loops and manned station hutments. Train separation was maintained by a token system similar in its workings to the tablet system used on our own NZ Railways. Egyptian railway personnel continued to man all stations and small detachments of our own people duplicated the staff. There were five trains a day each way carrying troops, war materials, petrol and water westwards and returning with troops going on leave, damaged war equipment and Bedouin nomadic tribes people being removed from what was to become an active war zone.

The trains were manned by Egyptian State Railway crews consisting of engine driver, fireman and guard covered by our own crew equivalents. Mersa Matruh was situated on a most picturesque harbour. It had been a newly developed holiday resort sponsored by the Egyptian Government. The public buildings and private homes were all of art-deco style architecture. It had been reduced to a ghost town from persistent bombing and all civilians had been removed. There were frequent nightly air-raids by single high-flying bombers that contributed to broken sleep rather than further material damage.

Prisoners of war taken in the fluid battle fronts were temporarily held in compounds bordering the town. The Libyans who loathed their Italian masters were cheerful in their fate, needing only token guarding and supplied labour gangs serving the allied forces. The Italian and German prisoners had no love for each other and were secured in separate compounds where the Italians sang and endlessly erected grottoes to the Virgin Mary. The Germans looked sullen, angered and shocked that capture and imprisonment had become their fate. These prisoners were brought out on heavily guarded trains.

At this stage of the operation the 16th Railway Operating Company's function was to oversee the railway workings and tabulate day to day procedures in preparation for our take-over of the system as the war zone extended eastwards.

Two fatalities struck the company quite early. The first was an air attack on a moving train one afternoon when a flight of Messerschmidt fighters made a strafing run from the rear disabling the locomotive, wounding the Egyptian crew and the NZ driver and killing the NZ fireman. The second occurred in the night at a crossing station where a train crashed into the rear of a stationary train loaded with petrol. The NZ fireman and both members of the Egyptian crew died in the inferno. The NZ driver who had opted to ride in the tail-end brake van escaped injury.

On a turn on this duty following a night run to Mersa Matruh my return train was booked to depart at mid-day. In the morning a mate and I went for a swim in the harbour. While disporting ourselves we noted a train departing an hour earlier than listed and guessed rightly that I should have been on it. I checked out the form and found that a second train was about to depart in the mid-day time slot so without drawing attention to the irregularity I boarded that one. Evidently, the driver of my rightful train was making the most of the opportunity to spin out the journey and collect extra time pay. On the other hand my adopted driver may have been having thoughts about the not unusual evening air raids and hurried things along. The result was that we were held at every station long enough for me to consult with our men on duty and faithfully copy into my log sheet their records of the preceding train. Immediately upon arrival at base I hastened my completed document to the orderly room sergeant clerk who shuffled these bits of paper and who warmly congratulated me upon my promptly delivered and excellently detailed report. Upon one's perceived diligence and devotion to duty are one's personal records are enhanced!