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deployed as a IID tank-buster unit, bombarding AHQ with signals trying to get them to change their mind – but without success. Thus, on 9 December No 6 Squadron joined No 219 Group at Edku, which was on the coast about 20 miles east of Alexandria, where it was to be equipped with Hurricane IICs, each armed with four 20mm cannon. These Hurricane IICs had previously been fitted with just two 20mm cannon in an effort to improve their combat performance, but now AHQ decreed that since there were few to no enemy fighters to contend with and targets would be mostly enemy bombers, the aircraft were to be returned to four-cannon configuration. What actually took place was that a new signal from AHQ WD required No 6 Squadron to adopt a two-flight status in which one flight would be equipped with Hurricane IICs and the second flight would retain some of the original Hurricane IIDs. The training flight at Shandur was disbanded, its aircraft sent to Helwan and its personnel to Edku, where the overall squadron strength was to be reduced to twenty-six pilots and the remainder posted away. Another signal on 25 January would order the complete removal of IIDs to No 2 Aircraft Repair Unit at Helwan and replacement with IICs.
    Whether or not Wg Cdr Porteous had rubbed someone at AHQ the wrong way by his persistent lobbying for action, on 1 January 1943 he was posted to No 74 Operational Training Unit and Sqn Ldr Donald Weston-Burt assumed command of No 6 Squadron. No 74 OTU was a training unit for tactical desert reconnaissance based at Aqir, north-east of Jerusalem in Palestine, but this pill was sweetened by the well-deserved award of a DSO for ‘courage, determination and devotion to duty during his tenure in command of No 6 Squadron’.
    Edku airfield itself was located on a narrow strip of land 2 miles wide, bordered to the south by Lake Edku and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Much of December was taken up with practising air combat manoeuvres, aerobatics, cloud-flying and formation exercises, and it was from Edku that on 3 January, then on the 8th and again on the 10th, Fg Off Clark flew operational convoy patrols. These were usually around the Alexandria coastal area, for example picking up an inbound convoy off the coast north-east of Hammam and covering it until safely in Alexandria harbour. For a change, on some days he flew practice ‘scrambles’ and interceptions against Boston light bombers – but saw nothing by way of combat action.
    Back on the ground there was plenty of time for recreation, such as hockey, rugby and football matches against neighbouring army and air force units, plus gramophone recitals and dances – one of the latter said to be ‘for the entertainment of Sisters and VAs from an Australian hospital and WRNS from Alexandria’ – and trying to avoid an outbreak of jaundice running through the squadron. As if this was not enough, there was continual trouble with thieving by the ‘natives’ who nicked anything that was not tied down or guarded – even from inside pilots’ tents!
    There now began a programme of training to accustom pilots to a ‘fighter squadron’ way of life. This included pre-dawn sorties on alternate days by alternate flights and night flying practice on a similar basis on favourable nights. Howard still found time to write home frequently, but there was little he was allowed to say about the squadron activities.
    Next day (19 January), Howard led a practice scramble with Sgt F. Harris and the squadron mounted convoy patrols of two or three aircraft during most days. After three or four weeks of this routine convoy work, things were beginning to hot up again out in the desert. Although in retreat, the Germans were proving hard to prise out of the area around Tunis and even resupply operations were being mounted by the enemy to try to kick-start a new offensive. On 21 January Sqn Ldr Weston-Burt flew to Cairo for a conference on the subject of equipping the squadron for a