I'm almost sure that my yesterdays post caused server crash by some divine intervention.
Because post disappeared I recreated it.
Topic itself is intended not to discuss soldiers activities in such military establishments but their very existence
often denied by military authorities on Allied and Axis sides.
They were part of military logistic chain. Obviously during the war Home Front was not aware, (or wouldn't want to be aware),
about officially sanctioned military brothels.
I learned about such things listening to one of my father stories when I was old enough to be seated with his friends and listen to some really amusing things.
Just a bit of an explanation. In 1942 and 1943 Iraqi Desert resembled huge tent metropolis with military camps from all nations
fighting on Allied side in North Africa. Baghdad was a very friendly city, which was doing excellent business as the closest place where soldiers could
could go for short term leaves. Longer leaves were usually spent in Cairo, Alexandria or Teheran.
My fathers Polish Carpathian Lancers Regiment had its camp in oasis about 90 miles from Baghdad. Like every Allied unit camp had it's perimeter and was closely guarded - locals loved weapons and were not uncommon to find in the morning that occupants from one tent had their throats slashed and their rifles or Thompsons disappeared.
My father had this day a duty as Guard Commander, when in front of the tent used as a guard house, parked jeep with two British Red Caps.
They wanted to talk. One of them, sargeant had a wallet in his hand; the other Briton held pair of trousers.
Sargeant asked about Captain M.
My father said: - " There is no Captain M in this Regiment".
(He said that, because rank "Captain" was unknown in Polish Cavalry. For cavalry officer being called Captain was an insult.They used traditional "Rotmistrz", which come from German "Rittmeister" or tsarist Russia - "Rotmistr".)
British Sarge flegmatically opened the wallet, took out officers ID and read: "Captain John M, Polish Carpathian Lancers Regiment.
He left trousers with the wallet in the brothel. Girls called us. Everything is there. Even money. Give it back to him."
They handed wallet, trousers, jumped into their jeep and drove out
My father was left with an open mouth. He was just able to say: "Jesus Christ, it is our padre…". Unmistakenly face on ID photo belonged to their regimental chaplain.
After all adventures in Baghdad he was so intoxicated that went out on the street without trousers and fetched ride with Australians. They were always helpful and for them someone without trousers was perfectly normal.
(Some Aussies drove dressed only in their slouch hat or often Polish beret with white eagle - if drinking with the Poles.)
I hope you'll like this story.
Just to start discussion and gather more info, two links:
Love, Sex and War: The Girls They Met 'Over There.' John Costello
And second is a page with British soldier poems - it also mention… guess what? … the brothel!
A British Soldier Remembers WWII- Poems
Cheers,
Lancer44