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This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Lincolnshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Norman Elsdon and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Elsdon fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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On the 14th April 1943, I start this brief account of our activities in the Tunisian Campaign. The paper I originally used for the notes was Italian, the pen American and the ink probably German, found in the Gabes Gap.

Our initial move at the start of the campaign was from rest at Ben Gardane. We started with an all-night march across the desert. The rumbling of the tanks and guns in the dark was most impressive. At this time, I was using a jeep with a large Italian captured gun attached to the side — more impressive than effective! Our job was to race up and down the column of armoured cars and lorries to keep them in order; this meant bumping over the desert at times at weird angles. No lights were allowed.

At dawn we pulled in for a quick brew. An odd car or two had had to be left by the wayside during the night, having gone off the indistinct track. After breakfast and another short trip, we eventually pulled up in a valley. For the next week we rested there while the rest of the army took up positions ready for one of Montgomery's famous left hooks. During this time we ate, slept, overhauled our vehicles and guns and altogether prepared ourselves for the next battle. The object of this exercise was that we should, along with the New Zealand Division, outflank the main fortifications of the Gabes Line.

One evening we moved out into the desert, lining up to commence our advance. Once again, it was a most encouraging sight to see the columns of tanks rumbling by, creating great clouds of dust. Until about one o'clock in the morning we surged across the sands. At dawn we moved on again. Recollections were of bumping over rough ground, pausing for observation on a slight ridge, then Allied fighter planes appearing. The squadron leader threw out yellow smoke bombs to show we were 'friends'. The pilots obviously did not trust us so as they passed low overhead, they opened up with their machine guns, the result of which was that an ammunition lorry exploded. Later, we saw planes attacking in what seemed to be vertical dives. This was the first time I had seen artillery shells bursting; although half a mile away, it made one realise that this was the edge of war.

About a day later we topped a ridge and in the valley below battle was raging. The plain was seething with tanks. All around them, following them as they moved away, were puffs of smoke which signified shell bursts. Just below us I recall seeing two armoured cars racing to shelter pursued by shells. Some shells burst just over the ridge and shrapnel dropped nearby.

In the afternoon we had orders to go down into the valley; being in an unprotected jeep we weren't exactly overjoyed. Passing over one rise in the ground, an anti-tank gun shell hit the tank at our side. Going over the next rise, the air became a bit too hot so we lay low for a few minutes until it was more peaceful. We then decided to reverse out quickly but — just our luck — the jeep would not start so I had to resort to the starting handle, after which we took a less prominent course. However, as the shrapnel was still flying overhead, the HQ to which we were attached decided to move back to a less vulnerable position.

The German gunners spotted us moving but the nearest shell they fired was some fifty yards away and we were soon hull down in a wadi. We stayed there for a few hours. At one stage we had to go off in our jeep to get some batteries for one of the armoured cars. As Messerschmitt 109 fighter planes were patrolling the road and were liable to come down firing at 'deck level', we had to traverse and naturally kept a very wary eye on the horizon. However, during the half hour we were on the road they did not carry out a patrol, fortunately for our comfort.

The road was blocked at some points so we had to make detours on to the desert, all the time keeping a very wary eye on any signs of mine-laying which we knew the retreating Germans had carried out. Just as we got back to the wadi, some Kitty Hawk fighters zoomed across, so we promptly dived for cover. A New Zealander called out, "OK, they're ours," — "I know, so were they yesterday". Sure enough, the first plane put in a burst on the far side of the road, then changed its mind and carried on. It was probably very difficult, with the continual movement of troops on the ground, to know which were the enemy and which the friendly troops. Just before dusk we left the wadi and went off to leaguer for the night.

Next day we went back into rest. This enabled us to do some cleaning up, both to our clothes and to ourselves. We spent a day or two here. One late afternoon, German dive-bombers appeared beyond the ridge to attack some of our positions. The attack was suicidal; the ack-ack guns opened up from point blank range and the bombers suddenly, grotesquely, stood up on end, then crashed in flames. About this time a hoard of prisoners passed by, an Italian officer making some Arabs who had been wandering about suspiciously keep in step in military fashion.

Then began the big push. Squadron after squadron of RAF planes started the attack, followed by the artillery. The infantry then went forward to mop up. Next morning we moved forward, doing a 'right flank' while the heavy units went forward through the Hamma Gap. All around was abandoned equipment, tanks, guns and lorries. There was any amount of dust from the streams of vehicles on the move.

At this stage, I remember incidents rather more than the sequence of the passing events. At one spot the Squadron Leader decided to carry on patrolling with only one jeep. We won-or-lost the toss and stayed put, waiting for their return. Soon after they had moved off, shells started to fall all over the plain, so we spent the next quarter of an hour in a slit trench which was close at hand. It was difficult when hearing the whine of a shell not to wonder where the next one was going to land. The jeep driver was a nervy type who was trembling rather. I remember particularly a lizard settling on my boot, his heart beating furiously; either he did not like the shells or disliked our invasion of his domain. Then we returned to have some food and a brew. Things were quiet after that so we slept on the plain.

The next day, the jeep was borrowed by someone else, so I travelled on top of the petrol lorry. Suddenly a sniper opened fire. I ducked and, looking around, realised that everyone else had dived off the lorry; they had had more experience than me. I quickly followed.

The scene that next comes to mind is of tearing down a straight road into Gabes. There we first met French citizens. As our jeep was the handiest vehicle at their level, they flocked around us. We didn't stop long and were soon off again along some tortuous, sun-baked tracks. Suddenly we came up with some HQ armoured cars who warned us that the enemy was just up the road. So we pulled off the road and brewed up — the answer to all emergencies. Some time after, along came the New Zealanders — "Pipped us again," — disappointed that we had beaten them into Gabes.

Now the road was packed with vehicles. Some Messerschmitts strafed the road lower down. We spent the night on the desert just outside the town; it poured with rain but the hot sun of the day soon dried us out. About this time we went back into rest down by the sea. I had one bathe and we were soon on the move again.

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