| Ddisgrifiad / Description | "Some of the Background Facts to the Front Page Stories in the Daily Press on 5 August 1948, all of which went under similar headings to 'He Did Not Like Boats so Hitchhiked 2500 miles in Eight Days', written by the hitchhiker himself three years after the event so that he would not forget any more of the little facts that made the story as the years rolled by."
Written by IWJ and marked 'Copyright and Not for Publication in Part or in its Entirety'.
The manuscript describes how the author (a Corporal in the British Army) and his friend Harry Salisbury end up in Cyprus following the evacuation of No. 4 Forces Broadcasting Unit from Palestine in May - June 1948.
Realising that the Army had nothing in writing to confirm his 'foolish' decision (made 3 months earlier) to defer his release for 6 months, he decides not to sign the paperwork. It is only later that he realises that in so doing, he is effectively severing his ties with the British Army.
Determined that when he does leave Cyprus it will not be 'aboard a miserable troopship' but by plane, he is eventually told to sail to Port Said in Egypt, from where his air-passage would be arranged. He subsequently discovers that he is actually destined to spend 10 days in a transit camp in Egypt awaiting a ship which was later due to call at Cyprus!
Making an excuse to leave the queue for the Egypt-bound ship, the author manages to locate the friend who drove him to the dock and makes his escape.
There follows an account of how, armed with a fake pass and 1 1/2d in cash, he 'hitchhiked' his way home across Europe, bluffing military and national authorities and covering an average of 300 miles per day. |