大象传媒

Chapter 5

At the end of July or the beginning of August 1941 we moved to a place called Jarabub, a distance of about 300 miles across desert, this and the return journey was a nightmare for the. For the move I was allotted seven 10 ton vehicles to move my stores, of course they were far too heavy for such a move, I spent most of the 300 miles digging them out of the sand. The route taken was for the majority of the distance across virgin desert and so from the very outset the going was unknown. The vehicles were driven by RASC drivers who had very little experience of desert driving; the CO took the opportunity of practising driving in desert formation, my position as usual at the rear of the column. The pace set was about 15 miles in the hour, which was naturally far too slow for the heavy vehicles, in consequence they either got bogged in the sand or increased their speed so much that instead of being at the rear they were at the head of the column. I therefore had to adopt tactics of moving by bounds, but I was liable to get lost owing to continually changing course, at the end of the day鈥檚 trip I was able to report all vehicles in, which was something. Next day we continued very much as for the previous day and reached Girabub via the Melfa Pass. The column was strafed from the air just before reaching the pass but suffered no casualties although one burst came uncomfortably close to my PU. Jarabub was reached in the late afternoon and looked a proper one-eyed hole, the temple of Sinuses being the only place of importance; the rest of the place was huge hills and loose sand. The 4/16th Punjabs had removed the Italians prior to our arrival. I moved back towards Siwar the following day and established B Echelon at about 10 miles from Battalion HQ but in doing so I had to cast off my 10 tonners. The going was so bad that they couldn't make it, we had to off-load on to 30 cwt lorries and continue the trip in them hoping that I had seen the last of 10 ton vehicles. The whole district which we were now occupying was most uncomfortable, the heat was terrific, I have never seen so many flies and midges in my life, it was necessary to wear a sand fly curtain on one鈥檚 helmet in order to get a bit of comfort and above all the water was salty consequently all of us had the 'runs', sometimes it was not possible to use the authorised places. It was nothing to visit the latrines 7 or 8 times during night and it was impossible to get a good cup of tea because the milk just curdled.

One of the lighter sides of life during our stay there was the supply of fresh meat which could not of course be brought from Matruh because owing to the heat it just went bad before it reached us, it was therefore decided to send our meat on the hoof. One evening just before dark two lorries reported to me loaded with live sheep, the drivers bringing the instructions how they were to be distributed the following morning, but what was I to do with them in the meantime. The shepherd instinct in me rose to the occasion, in my stores I had some wire netting with which I had a pen made, in order that someone could keep an eye on them I had it constructed within the vision of the sentry. Before dark I had them herded together and was very proud of it too, I also arranged for our Battalion butcher, who by the way was doing batman to me whilst Glue was on leave, to commence killing our Battalion share at some godforsaken hour of the morning. Having done this settled down for the evening and went to bed, about midnight I was awakened by 鈥榖aa baa' and looking out I saw all my sheep disappearing over the desert, what a game ensued. By morning I was still about 10 missing, so careered around the countryside looking for them, the last of my flock was not found until midday. However alls well that ends well I had some nice liver, bacon and kidneys for my evening meal. During my trip round looking for the sheep I came across a water hole sufficiently large enough for about 20 men to have a good swim. I tried it out myself it was jolly good but very salty so that one just floated in it, you did not sink. I used to lay in it with the sun on me. I organised bathing parties but told the men to keep it quiet or we should have the whole Battalion and that would spoil it, however someone must have spoken out of turn because one afternoon the CO and said he would like a bathe, of course next day a company turned up hence forth my private pool became a public one.

At this period I was missing Glue very much, he had gone on leave but in the meantime diphtheria had broken out in the Battalion and no one was allowed to leave or join, so had to put up with Blaber who did his best but was far and away below Glue, I couldn鈥檛 rely on my early morning shaving water and tea neither did I look as clean and tidy as usual. Ben Dalton was the other officer with me and his batman was on a par with Blaber, so we did not live at all well in the mess, I was highly pleased when Glue eventually rejoined. The spot I had my bed erected was not very comfortable being under a cliff but it was safe from air raids, one day I was able to lay in bed and watch an RASC convoy being bombed in perfect safety. Our stay came to an end about the end of August or the beginning of September 1941. When we were ordered back to a site on the coast opposite Kilo 41 on the Sidi Barani road, west of Matruh. The trip back was uneventful taking two days, again I was allotted 10 ton vehicles but this time I knew how to manage them, the rest of the Battalion were carried in them, many a lorry load pushing like hell.

I was not too badly off in the new spot, had my stores in a cave and had my old camp bed erected under a brick wall, with Glue again doing batman to me I was back in my old stride. Our stay here was fairly short after about 10 days we were moved farther along the coast to a small spot called El Shamas, turning off by the Kilo 101 on the Sidi Barani road. From this position we fitted for the November Push, we were also issued with Battledress, I had much fun in the fitting of this, it being the first time since the outbreak of war that we had worn it. About the 7th November 1941 I was sent off to Cairo to collect canteen stores etc, this was a distance of about 350 miles. I started off one morning at 6am arriving at Abbasia at 4.30 pm the same evening, not bad going but the good going had its effects, immediately after arrival I went into a barbers shop and promptly fainted, I came to with Glue reviving me. It was too late to do any business that evening so I put up at the Garrison Mess and went into Cairo but again I did not know what to do with myself. I went on the verandah of Shepherds for a drink but got ogled by a terrible lurking wench so made my way out and back to the mess. Next morning I did my business of buying stores at the NAAFI etc, went to the bank to get some money and there met Ben Dalton, how pleased I was to see him. We went to his hotel, the Carlton for lunch and arranged to meet him again in the evening; we met in Jimmies Bar, which was extremely good and from there on to a show and so back to the mess. It was the last evening I was to spend in Cairo and it turned out the best I have spent in that town. The next day at about midday we started our return trip, staying the night on the Alexandria - Matruh road, joining the Battalion the next day.

On the 11th November 1941 we started our move forward for the push, the first few days we spent at Sofafi then a few at North Point and so by a series of night moves to our position West of Sidi Omar, B Echelon was just inside the wire, south of Bir Sherfersen. It was my job to draw rations from the supply point by day and take them up to the Battalion by night, this was quite easy all the time the Battalion was stationary but once they got on the move it became increasingly more difficult. While the Battalion were in this position, west of Sidi Omar, I had to go up to them so as to reach them after dark. For the first trip I was given an escort of anti tank guns but after that I had to do it on my own, unescorted, and as German columns were all over the place it wasn鈥檛 too pleasant a job. To make matters worse the Battalion laagered each night fairly close and it was easy for me to miss them in the dark. On the day of the attack on Sidi Omar, B Echelon moved outside the wire to a spot about 5 miles along the Trigh El Abd. The following morning we got the message that the Battalion had attacked and suffered heavy casualties, I immediately went up to them entering Sidi Omar by the north gap, I passed poor old Dickie Deacon on the way and then saw the dressing station which was a bad sight with Doc Bapty working like a hero. I met the Brigadier and the CO by a Jerry 88 mm gun and felt very proud of the Battalion when the Brigadier said "what do you think of your boys now! Quartermaster". The dead were still lying about, the Battalion had certainty done a good job and a few days later it was realised how very important it was. The same day I had to go back for more rations, B Echelon had in the meantime moved to Bir Sherfersen, this time I had to move by the south gap of Sidi Omar and got Frank Day to give me a route in order to avoid the minefields, as both the other Quartermasters of the Brigade had been blown up by mines everyone was saying it was my turn next. Following Frank's instructions I push off and got about 3 miles into my trip when Jerry artillery opened up on my convoy, we did a very smart right wheel and got behind a hill everything being alright except that a U bolt on my truck was broken but managed to make Bir Sherfersen in fairly good order. Having replenished, I went up to the Battalion again the following day, but having distributed my stores found that I couldn't get back again as Rommel's tank column had broken through and we were more or less surrounded. I began to wonder what would happen to the rest of B Echelon, during the night the whole of the 4th Division HQ started pouring into Sidi Omar, I kept a sharp lookout for my column but they did not arrive until the following morning; I was greatly relieved when they did. Now the importance of the capture of Omar proved itself otherwise the 4th Division would have been put in the 'bag'. So here we were in Sidi Omar in a good defensive position. Jerry in occupation of Omar Nuord and his tank columns all round us. I was allotted a good trench with dugouts and was responsible for my own protection, it became a veritable fortress, I had Jerry mortars and machine guns and an anti tank gun and felt quite proud of my command. I only had to give the order to occupy alarm posts once and that during the afternoon when attacked by tanks but they were beaten off by the Artillery, who suffered a lot of casualties. I had a very good view of it from my trench, we also got shelled regularly but to no effect, I don鈥檛 think we had a casualty from this. I used to sleep at Battalion HQ trench in case I was wanted at any time, it was my habit to sleep on the top of the trench, early one morning, 4 am, I awoke to the noise of aircraft, I looked around, the place was lit up by flares, I very soon went to ground and spent the next 2 hours there being strafed from the air. It was found out later that the attack was by our own aircraft, the Fleet Air Arm; I met some of the pilots later in captivity and had much pleasure in telling them what I thought of them.

Owing to the rationing of water I had been unable to shave for a considerable period, must have looked a horrible sight. The CO insisted on my photograph being taken before I was permitted to shave my beard. The Battalion got a very good write up on the Omar action, Quentin Reynolds the famous American broadcaster was present during the show and was able to give an eyewitness account of it as well as writing in the press. After a short stay in Omar we pushed on, dates I cannot remember, but I know that it was just one hell of a rush until we reached Martuba just east of Derna, but before getting there we had halts at various places, at one of these by Bir Dudar, B Echelon was strafed by low flying aircraft, Sgt Smith was wounded, the same aircraft that attacked us also attacked the Battalion. It was at this place Doc Bapty and Harry Hawkes got wounded. During this move it was as much as we could cope with to keep up with the Battalion who were continually on the move although I got up to them almost every night but the last mad rush up to Martuba had me licked. I chased the Battalion for 2 days reaching them late one night, the CO asked me how much petrol I had got and when I told him 400 gallons, he said that was no bloody good, I never felt so disgusted in all my life, nevertheless I chased off before dawn and by 1000 hours managed to collect some and replenish the Battalion. The next day B Echelon moved into Derna immediately after it was captured, the area allotted to the was on the aerodrome amongst some of the biggest bombs I have seen, on the landing fields were almost 150 destroyed aircraft, a very good sight, in this position I was in front of the Battalion so had to take rations back to them, I met the CO on the way back and he wondered where the hell I had sprung from. Shortly after this I moved B Echelon up with the Battalion, it wasn鈥檛 a comfortable position by any means but I didn鈥檛 have so much travelling to do. Derna was a nice looking place from the escarpment but there was nothing in it.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.