VD, a Spanish girl and a run on penicillin
One of the local social spots to visit was the naval hospital that held dances and social gatherings. The café/pub near the main gates was our watering hole and meeting place. The hospital was situated well out on the same route as the Europa Signal Station well away from the dockyard that meant the café/bar more elite clientele than normal. There was a steady stream of regulars from the hospital and various messes.
Gibraltar also appeared to be the dropping off place for forces personnel with VD problems (particularly syphilis and gonorrhoea). The hospitals endeavoured to clear up any diseases before the onward transport to the UK. This hospital had literally thousands of patients in 1945/46. The predominant treatment was very heavy dosages of penicillin. It was a very busy hospital indeed!
Our contact man in the hospital was a sick bay PO who joined the watch squad and did a fair business. He liberated penicillin from the large surplus along with a drug called “M & B” that was in great demand in Spain. We endeavoured to fill the gap and it turned out to be a very lucrative enterprise.
He also had a 17-year old mistress in La Linea who he subsidised to the tune of £1 per month, and a host of goodies twice a month. Her name was Lolita of which she was extremely proud, as there was a Lolita matador at the time that visited La Linea on the matador circuit and at night Lolita used to imitate this matador with her young brother being the bull. Acceptable when one was half soaked and requiring entertainment.
At first we used couriers from the dockyard mateys but they could not keep it quiet and the quantities were too small. So we settled for the fishermen (one boat only) who brought the parcels in from Tangiers. The smaller the operation - the better! A number appeared to be related to families’ around the Spanish coast. We had our landing craft, a white ensign and a blue duster but it was not welcome at all working the beach.
Right along the beach above the high water mark lived what looked like exceedingly poor people in makeshift accommodation. Their homes were quite ramshackle in construction and the final covering was flattened tin cans that had washed ashore. The weather had turned these tins red with rust and here and there you could still see various labels for the likes of Carnation Milk or Baked Beans – probably derived from RN flotsam that had drifted ashore. The only fixed items in these domains were pebble and shell pedestals for holding religious artefacts.
Families of six or seven were quite common in an area of 12’ by 12’ or smaller. When one considers how cold it can get during the autumn and winter, it’s a wonder anybody survived.
But there again after the big storm some vessels carrying deck cargo timber lost the lot over the side. These people collected it as we saw it stacked around each abode, rarely thought about building a tidy hut with it though. They sold it to merchants who probably fleeced them.
Begging and bumming was a major occupation of the families. I wondered if these were the wreckers of the Thorshovdi, a number of them had to start afresh as their ramshackle huts could not withstand any wind over 30 mph. It appeared to be a very hard life but the people were very cheerful.
Gibraltar also appeared to be the dropping off place for forces personnel with VD problems (particularly syphilis and gonorrhoea). The hospitals endeavoured to clear up any diseases before the onward transport to the UK. This hospital had literally thousands of patients in 1945/46. The predominant treatment was very heavy dosages of penicillin. It was a very busy hospital indeed!
Our contact man in the hospital was a sick bay PO who joined the watch squad and did a fair business. He liberated penicillin from the large surplus along with a drug called “M & B” that was in great demand in Spain. We endeavoured to fill the gap and it turned out to be a very lucrative enterprise.
He also had a 17-year old mistress in La Linea who he subsidised to the tune of £1 per month, and a host of goodies twice a month. Her name was Lolita of which she was extremely proud, as there was a Lolita matador at the time that visited La Linea on the matador circuit and at night Lolita used to imitate this matador with her young brother being the bull. Acceptable when one was half soaked and requiring entertainment.
At first we used couriers from the dockyard mateys but they could not keep it quiet and the quantities were too small. So we settled for the fishermen (one boat only) who brought the parcels in from Tangiers. The smaller the operation - the better! A number appeared to be related to families’ around the Spanish coast. We had our landing craft, a white ensign and a blue duster but it was not welcome at all working the beach.
Right along the beach above the high water mark lived what looked like exceedingly poor people in makeshift accommodation. Their homes were quite ramshackle in construction and the final covering was flattened tin cans that had washed ashore. The weather had turned these tins red with rust and here and there you could still see various labels for the likes of Carnation Milk or Baked Beans – probably derived from RN flotsam that had drifted ashore. The only fixed items in these domains were pebble and shell pedestals for holding religious artefacts.
Families of six or seven were quite common in an area of 12’ by 12’ or smaller. When one considers how cold it can get during the autumn and winter, it’s a wonder anybody survived.
But there again after the big storm some vessels carrying deck cargo timber lost the lot over the side. These people collected it as we saw it stacked around each abode, rarely thought about building a tidy hut with it though. They sold it to merchants who probably fleeced them.
Begging and bumming was a major occupation of the families. I wondered if these were the wreckers of the Thorshovdi, a number of them had to start afresh as their ramshackle huts could not withstand any wind over 30 mph. It appeared to be a very hard life but the people were very cheerful.