Page 39 - Leonard Tebbenham

th
Saturday 20 October 1945
Meteorological Office,

RAF Maiduguri,

N. Nigeria,

West Africa

As you see I have arrived safely at Maiduguri. I flew up yesterday in a Transport Command
Dakota. The journey took seven hours and it was a most boring flight (1050miles). We flew inland
from Lagos over vast tracts of almost uninhabited ‘bush’ country over the many turns of the river
Niger. Blazing sun and very little cloud and the aircraft was rolling and pitching all the way in the
bumpy air pockets.

Maiduguri is a veritable outpost of empire. There is a village near that I have not visited yet.
There is no town of any size nearer than 300 miles i.e. Fort Lamy in French Equatorial Africa.
There will be little work to do here which is a good thing because the normal work is from 08:00 to
12:30 because the sun is so hot in the afternoon and it is very tiring to do anything. The
temperature inside my room is 90°F even with a ceiling fan going. The Met has to be on the job
on three mornings at 3am, but seldom has much to do after 3pm.
The station is quite nice at first impression; about 12 officers and a chap called Anderson in the
Met who will be demobbed in January. He will double with me for ten days then he goes on
fourteen days leave. I hope he will stay a while to help me pick up the job. There is not the
slightest resemblance between the weather here and that in England. We have separate rooms
called Giddar in long tall huts made of wood with thatched roofs. The fire danger is taken very
seriously. The food here is the best in West Africa, but there is a shortage of fresh fruit and bread.

Before I left Accra they had a guest night in the Mess (Thursday). Our meal was as follows:-
Sherry, Chicken Soup flavoured with white wine, Salmon and Lettuce, Chicken Peas Potatoes
Carrot Bread Sauce Sausage meat and white wine, Pineapple & Orange Salad with Choc Sauce
and Blancmange, Cakes, Coffee and Cheese!!! What price rations in poor old England?

I am accumulating a stock of milk chocolate and I will try to get some tins of fruit. This place is
good for leather goods and I will get an assortment of things when I get settled in. Fags are 5/- for
50 here. I will send a crate by sea.

God bless you, thinking of you always.

All my love, your loving husband Len xxxx