The name Shaiba covered an area in southern Iraq to the west of Basra,
of indeterminate boundaries as far as I could tell; in fact although
I've tried hard to locate it on several maps it doesn't seem to warrant
a mention but it was the address for our tented transit camp, for an RAF
station and for No.1 Base Workshops. Again the army establishment was
in the middle of nowhere, flat empty barren desert all around; we knew
where the RAF station was located because we could see the planes just
as they appeared or disappeared below the horizon but we could not see
any of the buildings. We did at times go across there by lorry if a
visiting ENSA group was putting on a show, or to see a good film; I
remember seeing a production of No, No, Nannette on one occasion but I
didn't go there frequently.
The area covered by our workshops and accommodation was vast; I heard
but never verified that the perimeter fence exceeded four miles in
length. The buildings, both workshops and billets, were much the same
as those at No.5 ABW but there were many more of them and they were
equipped to deal with the assembly and repair of all types of fighting
vehicles, guns and transport or any sort of engineering problem with
which we may have been confronted. Working hours were set to coincide
with the coolest part of the day, reveille at 6am, marching off to start
work by 7am and knocking off at 2:30pm by which time the day's
temperature was at its highest. Most sensible soldiers then stripped
off and lay on their charpoys doing nothing for a while to cool down but
there were some athletic types who decided to play soccer even though
the temperatures were well above 100°F and they didn't seem to suffer
from it. This period of our doing nothing appeared to upset some of our
superiors who decided to put the concept of soldiers first and tradesmen
second into practice and inaugurated regimental training sessions that
took place later in the afternoons. There was some resentment over this
order and this revealed itself in the reduction of workshop output, some
vehicles having GO SLOW chalked on them. The hint was taken, regimental
training ceased and production returned to normal.