ON PATROL IN EGYPT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 225, 14 October 1940, Page 5

ON PATROL IN EGYPT

LIFE IN THE DESERT TANEATUA SOLDIER'S DESCRIPTION Life in the desert while on patrol with mechanised forces is well described by Private R. Rawson, of Taneatua, in a recent letter to relatives. - - "Have been out in the desert since last week," he writes, "and what a place it is! For hundreds of miles you see nothing but gravel arid sand although on our last patrol we saw one bird and oiie tree. That tree was a great sight after seeing none for a few days. "Our next trip is not a long way off and you may not hear from me for six or seven weeks. We will betravelling most of the time, and our days are long and hard. Up before dawn, we have bfeakfast and then away. A few minutes rest | every hour to check over machines and about half an hour for lunch, going until dark and sometimes after. . "The sand is our bedstead and the sky our ceiling. Do me better than clicking heels, sloping arms and saluting all day. Haven't saluted an officer for weeks. All that is forgotten on our jaunts . . . . . The Precious Water. "Bare necessities we take with us, even leaving our razors behind. Can you picture us after going for five or six weeks without a shave or wash? Can carry only enough water for drinking and it is far too precious to waslv with. A gallon per man per day is the ration . . that's for our motors and cooking too. Doesn't sound much, does it? We get one pint of tea for our breakfast and our water bottle full (two pints). For dinner we have a pint of limejuice and two pints of tea at night. That makes six pints. After tea we get one more pint in our bottles and the other goes for' cooking and engines. If one is a bit careless with his motor, he fills.up out of his water W>ttle and goes Avithout himself. Our plates and cooking gear are washed in the sand raid never see a drop of water.

"One goes for miles on flat gravel: can do from one to sixty per hour. It will be rough, undulating, with gullies. It will be hard going and bumpy, then it will be an old lake bed, like powder: chalk mostly r soft and treacherous. Then sand, flat and smooth, good if going at speed but not so hot when going slow. Then sand-dunes, hills of pure sand, white and steep. When one see? them, first they look like snow. "I lik« it best at night—under the stars. I always think of the old home -country at night. ; Every thingis so quiet—not a sound " and it is just ideal for dreaming. Off wfe. go to sleep, and then morning, with another hard day ahead.""