Heliopolis

Monday, August 30, 1943.
We finally took off for Cairo at 0630 in #146 - minus turrets and guns. Aboard was Skipper (pilot), and his crew - except for Redbird - Bud Lyon, Doc Hall and myself.
We flew in cloudy weather en route. We followed the coast of the Mediterranean - past Sousse, Sfax, and Kairroun, Tunisia; Tripoli, Benghazi and Tobruq, Libya. We crossed into Egypt at Alexandria. I spotted the beautiful Nile Valley at 2pm., after crossing over more desert than I ever dreamed existed!
It wasn’t long before I could see the Great Pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo. This is both an ancient and modern metropolis of a million and a quarter people! The Skipper circled the city so I got a good bird’s eye view as well as some good pictures (I hope!), from the nose of the plane. After a dry run over one field, we landed at about 0230.
We took a bus from the field to suburban Heliopolis - where we were to stay - at the Heliopolis Hotel. There were three of us to a room. High-posted-metal beds, but very soft clean sheets, and soft clean pillows. There was a table and chairs; and many cabinets and dressers in the room. There was also a large 8 foot mirror, a fire place and hot and cold running water.
(to be continued.)