num_pages: 192
description: Gerald and Norman Nairn - the 'body' and the 'head' respectively of one of the world's most amazing transport enterprises were born in Marlborough, New Zealand, and served in the NZEF in World War I.At the war's end, when the new Middle East countries were freed of Turkish rile, road communication suddenly became important. The Nairn brothers seized the opportunity.Tough struggles with the steam-cars of the early 1920's, political and Arab-competitor interference, lack of capital, scatterbrained European drivers - every type of difficulty was met and surmounted. And then came the breakthrough with the pioneering of the 650-mile desert route from Beirut to Baghdad.Here the difficulties were of the flat, torrid, waterless terrain and of hostile Bedouin, but again the Nairns triumphed. Buicks and Cadillacs were replaced by long-distance buses, and when World War II broke out the Nairn fleet of specially-designed air conditioned coaches, on specially-built tropical-duty tyres, was one of the wonder of the transport world.This book tells the story from the angle of Gerald Nairn, now retired and living in New Plymouth. While his brother Norman managed finance and policy, Gerald organised and maintained the Company fleet, trained and supervised the drivers, and kept the show going - and continually expanding.The story is told by Stuart Tullett, who himself served in the Middle East in World War II. As a Taranaki journalist and novelist, living close to Gerald Nairn, he had a unique opportunity to learn this extraordinary story from one of its protagonists. he has used this opportunity with superb skill.
language: English
title: Nairn Bus to Baghdad
publisher: AH & AW Reed