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Snake valley was a 'flying boat' base crammed between the jungle and the sea near Mombasa in Kenya. It was well away from any enemy lines and considered a 'safe area'. Even so the usual security had to be implemented, after all we were still at war. Non-Combat personnel always had to multi-task and one of the least enjoyable duties was the night watch. On this particular hot summers night in July 1944 My father Lewis James Humphries and four of his comrades were doing their best to keep awake by playing poker in the guardhouse near the main gate of the base, under the trees at the edge of the jungle.

Suddenly, a gigantic Black Mamba snake dropped through the open skylight onto the card table below. The weight of the snake was sufficient to smash the card table to pieces with cards and drinking glasses scattered across the room! Lewis and his comrades were so shocked that they fell backwards, their chairs falling over in the confusion. The snake reacted quicker than them and tried to make a swift exit. unfortunately the men were in between it and the open door so they all thought that it was attacking them. Two of the men ran for their lives but the remaining three managed to defend themselves by killing the snake with their machettes and bayonets!

This was the most combat action that any of them saw during the war, apart from the night that the base was 'attacked' from the sea. But that is another story........

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