The Evacuation
Ten women and fourteen children (plus one government official) left Lydda at two o’clock on the morning of Monday the 3rd of February for Marseilles. They landed there late in the afternoon on the specially chartered “North Explorer, a four-engined T.W.A. Skymaster of the Braathens South America and Far East Company. ( I think this must have been the flight my brother was on -editor) The aircraft had arrived in Palestine only a few days previously to open up the Oslo-Lydda service. This aircraft was henceforth to operate a shuttle service from Lydda.
Late evening on the 4th
of February 34 evacuees plus 14 children arrived at Orly airport after a very
rough flight from Lydda. The onward flight of the evacuees to London was also
delayed because of the adverse weather conditions. The British Embassy in Paris
had an urgent request to find some milk for the children. A search of Paris
produced a small quantity of tinned and powdered milk.
The wives and children of British officials of the Shell Company in Jerusalem and a woman employee also left Lydda on the 3rd of February on board a specially chartered Arab Associated Airways plane which made two trips to Cairo.
The evacuation of the residents of Haifa who had gathered at the Peninsula Barracks was to be carried out by rail from Haifa to Cairo. Due to this rail evacuation changes were caused to the departure timetable (on 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th of February) the 6.30 am (Haifa-Cairo) and the 5.30 pm (Cairo to Haifa) trains were cancelled. Also the 7.15 train Jerusalem-Jaffa and the 8.25 train Jaffa-Jerusalem were cancelled from 5th to 8th inclusive.
When travelling by train, the evacuees would occupy first and second class carriages. Each train would have a sleeping car attached to accommodate those whom the doctor considered to be in need of a berth. An inspection of the railway line would be made beforehand to endure that it had not been interfered with.
Most of the evacuees would be moved to Maadi in the Nile Valey by rail and by air where they were expected to spend about two weeks before continuing their journey to the United Kingdom. King Abdullah of Trans Jordan had invited evacuees to enter Trans Jordan, but there was difficulty in accepting this offer because of the lack of suitable accommodation in that country. An official was sent on an air tour of the country to recce the situation. There was a plan to sent to Trans Jordan, the people who had spent many years in Palestine and did not have a home to go to in England (for example our family), but this plan did not materialize The Lebanese Government agreed to accept 100 evacuees[1]. The Syrian Government refused the British Government’s request to take a certain number of evacuees (it is thought at the time that this decision would be revised in view of the acceptance by the Lebanese Government, but this was not to be). Those with relatives in Egypt were being allowed to stay there.
The High Commissioner, General Sir John Cunningham accompanied by Mr. W. R. McGeagh, District Commissioner, saw the first group off and then went to Sarafand and later to Lydda Station and saw the first train from Haifa pass through en route for Egypt.
Sarafand
The evacuees from Jerusalem, Ramleh, Jaffa and Sarona were conveyed to Sarafand in buses ambulances and staff cars and were accommodated in Telavera Barracks, also a prewar barracks within Sarafand camp (the largest military camp in Palestine). It was at this camp that Jewish recruits to the RASC received their training during the war preparations. The camp was made ready to receive and accommodate the British families pending their final evacuation. Telavera Barracks was built to accommodate 600 personnel but now had to be made ready to accommodate some 2,100 women and children. Everything was done to make the evacuees feel at home. A special canteen was opened. The camp had a shopping centre, recreation rooms, a cinema giving four performances a day and a concert hall. Military bands gave performances to entertain the newcomers. All the details, including the provision of baby food, had been attended to. Rooms were provided with armchairs and tables of flowers and this testified the efforts the Army undertook to make the families being evacuated feel at home.
In response to the anxieties of the evacuees, who questioned the need for an evacuation, a meeting was convened at Sarafand. Officials were quick to point out that this was not a protest meeting organized by the evacuees, but a gathering at which the arrangements for evacuation could be explained. It was officially stated that “all evacuees have expressed themselves well pleased with the army’s arrangements and the smooth running of the scheme”,
On the 5th of February 340 evacuees were conveyed by a fleet of busses to Aqir airport at Lydda. A fleet of 10 RAF Halifax bombers was waiting to fly a shuttle service to Alamza airport near Cairo. They were driven straight onto the tarmac alongside the plane. To me, at the age of twelve, this was the most exciting part of the evacuation - my first experience of flying and in a Halifax bomber to boot! The passengers emplaned and were ready to leave within 15 minutes of arriving at the airport. However the departure was delayed by some 30 minutes as a report had come through from Cairo that the airport there was under a ground haze. A senior RAF officer said “Safety first is our motto. We are ensuring maximum comfort for our passengers. So far the operation has run very successfully”. The evacuees were accompanied by 40.000 lbs of luggage The aircraft made two return flights each - ie 20 Flights. A draft conducting officer, a member of the parachute regiment, was appointed for each party. He was to assemble his passengers in Sarafand, escort them to the plane and remain with the group right through the journey to Egypt. Each plane took 18 passengers (including the officer) - nine seated on the metal bench running along the length of each side of the aircraft.
On the 6th of February the share of the RAF in evacuating British families was completed when a further 168 persons were flown to Egypt on the Halifax bombers from Aqir Airport (plus 22,000 pounds of baggage).In all 508 persons and 62,000 pounds of baggage had been transported by the RAF.
Haifa
On the th of February 360 British evacuees (almost all women and children) including 50 under the age of 4 entrained within an hour at Haifa. A hot meal was provided en-route. The party was escorted by three army chaplains and by nursing sisters. The train stopped at Lydda Station to pick up those from Sarafand travelling by train.
On the 6th the last group of British evacuees which was assembled at Peninsular Barracks - 119 women and children and 21 men left Haifa. Again they were joined by a group from Sarafand at Lydda Station.
The last train left Sarafand for Cairo on Friday the 7th of February 1947. Operation Polly had now been officially completed.. In all 1396 women and children (civilian and military families) (and some men) have been evacuated[2]. Only a few remained - those who were ill. They too would be able to depart when fit to travel. With their departure “Operation Polly” had been officially completed.
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Comfort on the Air Husbands whose wives left Palestine in Operation Polly were consoled last night (Thursday 6th) by P.B.S. announcer of “Police Post”, the police request programme - who played “Somebody stole my Gal!” as the first item on the programme. “For all the grass widowers - and we hope they won’t be for long.” said the announcer as he opened the programme at 10 o’clock. |
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Palestine Post - Friday 7th of February 1947 - With the evacuation of police dependents and civilians being completed Operation Polly was applied to Army families. Wives and families of officers and other ranks were removed from Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel-Aviv on the first stage of their journey. Families from Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv went to Sarafand and they will leave from there by air and rail |
Arrival in Egypt
When the Halifax bombers arrived at Almaza airport the evacuees were conveyed by a fleet of army vehicles to Maadi Camp which had been previously occupied by Anzac troops. On arrival at Maadi the evacuees were taken to the mess and then were allocated to huts.
Some were accommodated in six-room or four-room white stone huts. The rest were camped in dormitories - 15 to a hut. Each room had three to four beds and families were housed together. Native servants were available to clean the rooms and bring hot water[3] so that the house work has been reduced to a minimum.
We were accommodated in Hut No. 164 in which we occupied one room, all four of us.The room was sparcely furnished but was adequate bearing in mind the limited amount of luggage we were able to bring with us. The family in the adjacent hut was the Downing family, the wife and daughters of Lou Downing, old friends of our family.
| The Downings at Maadi |
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Our address at Maadi: Hut 164 G Area, Internment 300 Camp Staff, GHQ Southern, MELF |
Those arriving by train at Abbassia were to experience the first major breakdown of the Army’s slick organization designed to make the evacuees feel at home. When they arrived at 2 am they were told to enter open lorries for the one hour long drive to Maadi camp.
When the escorting padres of the 6th Airborne Division protested ambulances were provided for the women with children under the age of three.
When they arrived at Maadi, the women, instead of being allowed to go to bed, had to undergo documentation and it was 5 am when they retired to bed, 25 hours after reveille in Haifa.
Next day breakfast was cold and there was a cold lunch for which they were obliged to wait and hour and a half, remaining two and a half hours in the dining room with servants in confusion and no sign of an officer anywhere.
The personnel of the camp was just not in a position to deal effectively with all the problems that arose. Apart from the lady volunteers who were overwhelmed by such a large community, there was a reduced military staff to cope with the increasing work to be done as more and more evacuees arrived.[4] Evacuees, young and old, innocent victims of events, stunned by the suddenness which their homes and lives have been disrupted and the uncertainty of their future, in no uncertain way showed their feelings - boredom, annoyance, worry, irritation and fatigue. The cinema was the only form of recreation on offer. Children were left to their own devices.
Word soon got back to husbands in Palestine who were incensed by the first reports coming from their distressed wives and families.
A newspaper report gives no hint of the trouble:
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Saturday 9th - About 900 British women and children evacuees from Palestine are settling down in their new and temporary life in a military camp near Maadi, the fashionable Cairo suburb. Wednesday 12th of February |
The Chief Secretary of the Palestine Government came to Maadi on Monday 10th of February to see for himself the conditions at the camp.
On his return to Jerusalem , this is what he had to say:
“I talked to many people there,” Sir Henry said , “and they are much happier than when they first arrived. Nobody could call the camp very comfortable, but both the Army and the families themselves have done wonders during the last few days. I heard very few complaints except the obvious wish to know when they would be going”.
Sir Henry said that a full list had been made of the destinations chosen and of women with young children who would be granted priority. Members of G.H.Q. and the British Embassy had assured the Chief Secretary that everything possible was being done to provide passage,
There are nearly 1,100 members of civilian families in the camp and of those about 900 are going to the United Kingdom. The children wanted fresh eggs and fruit, and these are going in today. There is now an adequate camp staff to deal with the hundreds of enquiries.
“Everybody was cheerful”, the Chief Secretary added, “and asked me to say that it was not so bad as some of them thought at first.”
On the 13th of February an answer to the Chief’s Secretary’s comments was written by Doris Hays was published in the Palestine Post:
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Cairo Wednesday - We have been down here in Maadi camp - where the Kiwis trained and concentrated for desert battles long ago - that the Chief Secretary, Sir Henry Gurney, has returned to Jerusalem with comforting words for our husbands from whom we were so suddenly separated in the evacuation last week. He may be unaware of the following facts from this camp of angry women: I list them: Two cases of measles have already been reported. The overtaxed cookhouse (the food is improving) has already caught fire twice; we eat in the NAAFI[5] most of the time; At nights the camp is without light; German prisoners guard us. We are advised: “Don’t walk around the camp after dark”. We queue for telephones (the camp post office has no cable facilities); we queue for food; there is nothing we don’t queue for which really matters; There are no plans for our onward passages to Britain. Rumours sweep the camp. One day, we are all to fly home; Dakotas are ready at Almaza Airport. Next day, liners are to be diverted to Suez to take us home. But in our hearts we are beginning to think we are here for weeks. We read the papers and we think: “Of course, because of the fuel crisis at home, they are going to keep us here indefinitely”. Frankly we are worried and we are fed-up. After Sarafand, where the Army really got organized and gave us a wonderful time, this is the end. Why, here they even met the troop trains from Haifa with open trucks. The 6th Airborne Division padres with the women and children protested - but it wasn’t until then that the Army produced ambulances for women with children under three. Even then the women had to wait in queues, standing up with their children, until late in the evening while the Army documented them. Dinner that night was cold. So was breakfast the next morning. As camps go, this is a good one. But it is no place for women and children. Most of us have friends in Cairo; but up to this morning the order was: “Sorry, you are all on a block visa; you can’t go into town”. It wouldn’t be so bad if we really thought it necessary to be here, sharing rooms in huts amid the sand, with our washing waving in the wind. But if there is a woman here who believes it necessary, I have yet to meet her. |
The Public Information Office on the 13th issued a statement on the position of the British evacuees at Maadi Camp awaiting transportation for their onward journey.
“The statement that there are no plans for transporting the evacuees home are totally incorrect”
German prisoners- of-war were employed only as waiters in the Dining Room and not as camp guards.
All the huts are lit by electric light and the camp is illuminated by searchlights.
Despite the assurances of the Public Information Office German prisoners-of-war were indeed used as guards. As a child I spoke German and I was befriended by one of the guards, a German POW, with whom I used to converse every time he was ‘on duty’. He used to give me money to get him cigarettes from the NAAFI”.
As a result of the Chief Secretary’s visit efforts were made to improve conditions at the camp. Families were allowed to leave the camp. Our family was able to go into Cairo, visit the Cairo Zoo and also pay a visit to the pyramids. Also lessons were arranged for the children, though to them this was hardly reckoned as an improvement. A vehicle, a troop carrier, would call round to each hut to pick up the reluctant pupils and take them to a hut where a member of the Royal Army Education Corps was waiting to impart knowledge.
Also arrangements were made to improve telephonic communication so that wives could talk to husbands by installing a direct line from the Sports Club in the Greek Colony Jerusalem to Maadi camp. The arrangement was reported in the press:
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13th February, Jerusalem Many parted husbands and wives talked together tonight when a direct telephone line from the Sports Club to Maadi was put in use for about three hours. Working alphabetically all husbands from A - H waited to speak in turn to their wives who were waiting at the other end. Each person had three minutes for a private conversation, before a tactful intervention brought the call to an end. About 50 couples spoke tonight. Another fifty couples will speak tomorrow- thus completing the list of husbands in Jerusalem. Husbands thus received first hand reports of conditions at Maadi. |
The evacuees were assured that their repatriation to the United Kingdom was imminent. The camp had to be evacuated by the end of February 1947 and, therefore, before then, everyone would have left.
A daily plane had been laid on to take 10 priority cases to the United Kingdom. The first flight was due to take off on the 12th of February but it had to be postponed until the following day owing to bad weather.
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20th February 1947 Jerusalem The Government has agreed to pay the passages home of the families awaiting transport at Maadi. Women may arrange to go elsewhere than Britain at the Government’s expense, providing the cost does not exceed the passage to Britain. |
Twenty two British evacuees from Maadi arrived at Nicosia Airport in Cyprus on the afternoon of Sunday 16th of February abroad a BOAC Dakota from Egypt. In the absence of any arrangements on their behalf by the authorities, the evacuees had to make their own plans for their stay on the island[6].
The S.S. Ascania and the S.S. Circassia were to convey evacuees to Liverpool. On the 20th of February the first evacuees to leave were women with children under two years old and persons over 65 and the sick. 160 women and children (99 young children) arrived in Liverpool on the Cunard Liner “Ascania” on the 4th of March. 263 arrived on the S.S. Circassia (100 children over 3 years and 80 babies).
On Monday the 4th of March we left Port Said on board the Empress of Scotland bound for Liverpool. The ship, formerly the Empress of Japan, had been converted to a troop ship and was conveying soldiers home from the Middle East. Our arrival in Liverpool coincided with the coldest spells that England had experienced for decades - the winter of 1947. Members of the Red Cross met us and provided us with warm clothing. Evacuees who had no homes to go to were conveyed to DP (displaced persons) camps at Bridge of Wier (Lintwhite Hostel) near Paisley, Scotland or Kidderminster. Our family went north to Scotland. Lintwhite was a hutted camp. Our family occupied tow rooms in a hut. My mother and sister in one room; my brother and I in the other. There was a communal mess where we had to tender meal tokens and there was a communal bath-house segregated by sex. Among the families who had been sent to Lintwhite Hostel there initially was great indignation that the Government should have dumped them in such a place. Soon however they settled in and made the best of a bad situation. They formed a small community[7], took turns to organise afternoon tea and exchanged news received from their husbands still in Palestine, news from Bevingrad, news of their former homes and news of the disintegrating British presence in Palestine.