The Desert Song

After long months in the desert a section of us were given leave to Cairo. Whilst we were there the ENSA (that’s the Army Entertainment Branch) were putting on a show called The Desert Song. It was well attended with troops from the local garrison named Casta Nil Barracks. It went well until a line in this young ladies song which was ‘My desert is waiting to come there with me’. This caused uproar with booing and shouting. I felt sorry for the cast, they were doing their best, and I suppose it was a poor choice of show for desert weary troops.

After disembarking at Port Said we were sent to a unit holding camp midway between Port Said and Cairo. We were there awaiting posting to our units. Every morning we had parades and inspection by a different officer. We had a Lance Corporal who never had a hair on his head, and each morning he was told ‘to get your hair cut’. Our sergeant saved the day by saying ‘excuse me Sir, the man’s wearing a wig!’

After this happened a few times the sergeant said, “Get the b**** thing trimmed up a bit, as it was very shaggy around his neck”.

On another occasion we had an inspecting officer with a very bad stammer. He picked on this man and said 'you haven’t shaved this morning', and the man replied 'yes I have Sir” also stuttering. The Officer went white with rage, and was going to strike him down until the sergeant stepped in and said, “excuse me Sir, this man’s afflicted like yourself”.

The sergeant defused the situation again as it was almost like mutiny to take the rise out of an Officer.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.