Made in Myrtle Street (Prequel) (7 page)

‘You there. Get off that animal and rejoin the queue. I will be taking this one over,’ he commanded.

The man looked impassively down at him but didn’t move and the Arab minder urged the camel forward.

‘Do you hear me? I am ordering you to get off that camel. I am your superior officer and you will do what I say immediately,’ the officer shouted angrily.

‘Well, sir,’ the soldier eventually said, ‘’Appen there might be a bit of a problem there. I’m a bit high up like. You’ll have to have a chat with the Gyppo there. It’s his camel.’

The officer’s already crimson face became like a glowing beacon. He pointed his stick angrily at the Arab. ‘You. Get him down off there immediately.’

The camel’s minder began to jabber incomprehensibly, his thin brown arms flailing like a demented windmill as he pointed his long, almost black, finger firstly at the officer and the camel, then generally in the area. ‘Perhaps, sir, he’s explaining that officers only travel by first class camel,’ a soldier seated on the animal behind suggested helpfully. ‘These for the ranks do tend to whiff a bit.’

The men around began to laugh, adding their own less-than-helpful contributions to the rapidly expanding debate. The officer, trembling with anger, waved his stick threateningly at the Arab.

A European dressed in a pale linen suit and white trilby stepped forward from the waiting crowd. ‘Excuse me. If I may be of assistance.’ He smiled placatingly at the irate British officer. ‘I think that the minder is pointing out that there is a queue and that you might like to join it along with the rest of us who are waiting for a ride.’ He smiled again and nodded his head towards the back of the line.

The officer, eyes bulging and fists clenching and unclenching, erupted into a pneumatic, sweating frenzy. ‘I am a Major in his Majesty’s British Army and I will not have some filthy native telling me what to do,’ he fumed. ‘I am not queuing with this working class rabble. I have important duties at Headquarters to get back to.’

The Arab tried to ignore the bawling Englishman but the camel, clearly discomfited by the antics of this sweaty, twitching object jumping around in front of him, felt less generously disposed. It turned its massive head, curled back its thick, rubbery lips to reveal great, slab like, brown teeth and spat in the Major’s face.

The soldier on the camel managed to keep his face fairly straight but others in the queue were less restrained. One man, seeing the officer attempting to wipe his face with the cuff of his sleeve, was heard to shout that it was nice to see the Major doing a bit of spit and polish, another informed him that the camel must have taken the hump with him, whilst a third suggested that the concert party, of which the Major was a woefully inadequate director, should be renamed as Fosdyke’s Follies.

‘It’s a pity it didn’t bite the little bastard’s head off his stupid fat shoulders,’ Liam muttered almost inaudibly. Edward turned and was surprised to see the burning hate in his friend’s face.

‘Why, who is it?’ he enquired. ‘Can’t say I have come across him before.’

‘No you won’t have. The only action he gets involved in is emptying whisky bottles.’

The officer, now turning from crimson into an unpleasant puce, was retreating down the dusty road and threatening to put everybody on a charge. His spluttering progress was accompanied by raucous jibes and loud laughter.

‘Where do you know him from?’

‘His name’s Fforbes-Fosdyke. His dad was a General and now owns a lot of property round Salford and Hulme. That little sod thinks that’s what entitles him to behave like an absolute dog’s dick.’

Edward heard a rumbling growl and saw Big Charlie lumbering to his feet. For a moment he stood frowning at the comic figure before turning away and finding a seat under a palm tree a few yards away. His chin rested on his knees, his arms grasping round his calves as he stared fixedly at the retreating figure.

‘What is it with this Fforbes-Fosdyke, Liam?’ Edward asked. ‘He’s obviously an unpleasant character but you and Big Charlie both seem really put out by seeing him.’

‘Aye, he’s the sort that would make rats seem like nice company. Anyway, least said soonest mended.’

***

29 Myrtle Street

Cross Lane

Salford 5

Great Britain

4th January 1915

Dear Dad,

Thank you for the Bible that you sent me for Christmas. It was very nice. I took it to Sunday School to show Miss Howard but I think that she was going to cry. I heard Mrs Jones telling Mrs Willoughby that Miss Howard has a sweetheart in somewhere called Flanders.

I asked Mam if Miss Howard is sad because you are in Egypt because I am sad when I think about you.

Me and our Edward went to the gas works yesterday for some coke. It’s a bit cold now. The horses were slipping on the ice on Cross Lane which made us laugh. We took our Mary’s pram out of the back yard.

Do you still love us in Egypt or do you get very sad?

Uncle James came round yesterday with a rabbit that he caught on Dorney Hills but it didn’t look like my Floppy. Mam hung it on the rack in the kitchen with a piece of string. It smelt a bit funny.

Who does your washing in Egypt? Mam was darning our Edward’s socks yesterday and she said that you will be having to darn your own socks now. Has the Army given you one of those mushroom things like Mam has?

I will finish now because we are going to get your wages and buy something to go with the rabbit.

Dad, will you bring us some of that sand home so that we can play in the backyard with it. Mam said that you are in a great big desert so it should be alright.

Love,

Laura – age nearly 8

Ps. Mam said to put ps to say something else and to tell you that we are all well and we all send our love. Mam said to hurry up because I have taken all morning to do this but I forgot to tell you that I got a nice doll for Christmas made out of wood. I have called her Dorothy because she is pretty like Miss Howard and I heard Mrs Willoughby call her Dorothy. But the bible is the best thing ever.

Ps2 Will you be coming home soon?

Chapter 3

Suez, 1915

Egypt was becoming, for the soldiers from Lancashire, a tediously hot and ultimately frustrating experience. Their capacity to take on board liquid was not met by the Army’s willingness to supply it and Big Charlie’s pleas that he did not have the build to be a Gyppie fell on largely unsympathetic ears.

Liam spent two days in detention on a charge contrived by Major Fforbes-Fosdyke who had emerged from the theatre tent in a haze of whisky fumes. Liam, unfortunately passing by at the time, had been ordered to run down at double-quick time to the officers’ mess to get another bottle of whisky to use as a stage prop as it was essential to the plot and the smooth progress of the rehearsal. Liam had taken the liberty of suggesting that, as all the Arabs took things at a very slow pace in order to conserve their energy ‘in this sodding heat’ then, particularly as he was now off duty, he had no intention of running anywhere. He would, however, oblige the Major but would only walk down to the officers’ mess.

The cell, apparently, did have the merit of being cooler during the day than the desert but he had yearned for his greatcoat during the night.

Although for much of the time the contact with the enemy had been restricted to minor skirmishes, the Army remained unshakeably keen to develop their abilities as soldiers. In the early months of 1915 they were increasingly taken out on route marches in the desert where, throughout the day, they suffered with the extreme heat, the dust and the flies. Even worse were the sandstorms which made breathing difficult and drove sand deep into their clothes.

At the end of the day the plummeting temperatures meant that any nights spent out in the desert in bivouac became long, sleepless, freezing hours waiting for the sun to come up.

There had been intelligence received, in October of the previous year, that the Turkish army were about to mount an attack. The Allied troops had been quickly put into position, the threat had petered out, and life had settled back into the normal dusty, perspiring routine.

By mid January 1915, however, the Turks were ready to advance again, having now assembled a force of two divisions, with another one in reserve, plus assorted camel and horse units. This was a relatively small army for supporting their ambitious plan to seize the Canal and, ultimately, to remove the Allied troops from Egypt, but they had many problems to overcome and a larger force might have made the task impossible.

The Turkish army had to march across two hundred miles of desert and this had needed careful timing in order that they could complete it during the short rainy season. They had taken the central route across the Sinai, enduring a hard, exhausting ten day march. Their objective was to capture Ismailia and therefore the critical drinking water supplies.

As the Allies prepared themselves for the attack, Edward and his battalion were moved back to the barracks at Alexandria and artillery was put into place alongside the west bank of the Canal. The guns were mostly concealed by the pines that were growing within a hundred yards of the Canal.

British aircraft tracked the progress of the Turks and, on 28 January 1915, observers identified a large column of troops on the central route. British and French ships entered the Canal and opened fire on the tired and exhausted army whilst the infantry manned defensive positions. Allied patrols initially clashed with the Turks on 2 February, but a sandstorm eventually halted the action.

At 3.00am the following morning a force of around twelve thousand Turkish and German troops made an attempt to cross the Canal. Being happily unaware of the close presence of the Allied artillery, and gleefully congratulating themselves on their success in reaching the Canal, they were carelessly loud in their attempts to launch their steel pontoons. The echoing metallic clangs, the loud splashes and the excited chatter gave the grateful British gunner commanders the opportunity to find an accurate range and position in the dark.

When it started, the thunderous onslaught from the British artillery came as a complete surprise to the shocked and startled Turks and they quite sensibly responded with an early retreat.

Elsewhere, the Indians also inflicted a serious defeat on the Turkish and German troops and captured many prisoners. The enemy soldiers, hopelessly beaten, turned and fled. For the next two days the British and Allied soldiers followed the retreating army and, in total, 1,600 prisoners were taken.

Various units of the East Lancashire Division had been engaged in defending against this Turkish attack but, once this first threat had subsided, life in the Canal Zone for Edward’s regiment returned to its previous pattern. The officers resumed their training programmes with a renewed enthusiasm and the soldiers looked forward to any opportunity they could find to explore Cairo and its facilities.

The Turkish army, much to the irritation of Liam who accused them of deliberately trying to mess up the rugby matches that he had arranged, did make another attempt to take the Suez Canal on the 22 March. Once again they were routed fairly expediently by the Allied soldiers and the fixtures were only minimally affected.

***

Mustapha Barracks,

Alexandria,

Egypt.

20 February 1915

Dear Pippin,

I do still love you all just as much and miss you all the time. I get very sad as well, Darling, but hope that this job will be finished soon and then we can all come home.

It is very hot here during the day but then it gets very cold at night and we have to put our coats on top of our blankets.

Some parts of this country are very old and are just like it was when Jesus was alive. We have seen the men lifting the water out of the river with buckets that are tied to wooden poles with ropes. Then they tip the buckets and pour the water onto the fields to grow their vegetables.

I think that Miss Howard is mostly sad because her boyfriend is away in Flanders but she is probably also a little bit sad, as well, for all of you children if your Dads are away from home. Tell Miss Howard that we have seen lots of camels and they carry very big parcels and they don’t need much to drink in the desert. If you get close to them they are very smelly and they spit at you if they are angry.

Your writing is very good now so keep trying hard at school. Are you good at sums as well?

Don’t forget to help your Mam with Sadie and Mary and make sure that Ben doesn’t get into any mischief.

I sometimes do my washing but mostly it is done by the Arabs that work in the barracks. They are also pretty good at darning socks.

I am pleased that you liked your bible and I know that you will look after it. I bet that you were really excited when you opened the parcel from Father Christmas and found a doll.

Love

Dad

***

Increasingly, the war seemed very distant for Edward and his colleagues and the Egyptians themselves seemed to be fairly unmoved by their presence. The training marches were becoming a feat of endurance. The wind was oppressively hot and the sun beat down mercilessly as the soldiers marched through the desert in full marching order. Even when they rested, the only respite for them was to shelter behind a blanket stretched over a couple of rifles. The feeling amongst the soldiers was that the main purpose of the army was to get you as fed up as possible so that you welcomed any change. More and more they felt a little bit cheated. This was not what they had trained for and what they had volunteered for. They wanted the chance to show what Salford men were made of. They wanted to give the Hun that bloody nose.