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StanEllis5
Active Service with the Eighth Army

Hello, my name is Ellis Stanley, Army Service number 2092841. I have written my memoirs of World War Two as I lived it. I served through the war from first day to last, and served as a vehicle mechanic, reaching the rank of Corporal. I was a soldier in the Army firstly in the UK, then in North Africa, and finally in Italy and Greece. After Victory in Europe, I was posted to Italy again until I was returned to Aldershot and demobbed in 1946. These memoirs have been edited to conform to People’s War standards, and are spread over 12 title pages, and cover my service in locations as listed below. They have been transcribed by Andrew Voyce, an Open University graduate.

StanEllis1 UK- The Phoney War part 1
StanEllis2 UK- The Phoney War part 2
StanEllis3 UK- Northern Ireland and preparations for the desert
StanEllis4 North Africa- The journey by troopship and the Battle of El-Alamein
StanEllis5 North Africa- Active service with the Eighth Army
StanEllis6 North Africa- The final defeat of the Afrika Korps
StanEllis7 Italy and Greece- Arrival in Italy and joining the Battle of Monte Cassino
StanEllis8 Italy and Greece- Monte Cassino
StanEllis9 Italy and Greece- Some matters of everyday soldiering
StanEllis10 Italy and Greece- The end of the war for me: Victory in Europe
StanEllis11 Demob- Time after the cessation of hostilities
StanEllis12 Demob- Postscript

Active service with the Eighth Army

Travelling about through the Eighth Army.

When you’re in a big Army area like that, you sometimes have to make your own way. Which seems a bit strange, doesn’t it?- It did to me! ‘Use your initiative!’ they say. ‘The Royal Sussex and the Indian Div are at El Adem. Make your way up there! When you get to Div Headquarters, they’ll tell you where the regiment is.’ You know. But of course when it came to it, really, there’s transport running all the time. So it wasn’t really a problem. In fact most of the lifts I had were with the New Zealanders. They were up there as well. They seemed to be running transport because of their tanks. So you’d thumb a lift, as it were, and they’d drop you at the nearest point. When I arrived, of course, there were other REME personnel there. One was a Sergeant armourer, who dealt with the rifles, machine guns, and things like that. And the vehicle people were a sergeant, and a corporal, myself, and one other. There were certainly over a hundred vehicles. They had Bren-gun carriers, and the same sort of thing towed their anti-tank guns- six pounders- they were a very light sort of gun that they could handle around. This was getting near the front line. Loads of the people there said, to get up further, they had to have their trucks back to lift them. Once they’d got enough petrol forward, these vehicles (which had been commandeered to get petrol supplies to the fighting) came back, were serviced as required by us lot, then loaded up and we travelled up. Usually the drivers were very interested in their vehicles, because they relied on that vehicle to get them about…And most of them slept on them…They didn’t want to be stuck in any uncertain places. They didn’t want to get broken down, because they might attract attention from the German air force, or anybody else who was about. The thing with the desert was- we were all on the north coast, as it were: Tobruk, Benghazi, and all those places. But, on the other hand (to the south) it was wide open desert. It wasn’t always possible to drive over it, but there weren’t any barriers at all. If you didn’t keep a sharp eye out, you might find that enemy vehicles might be approaching you from that side. So they were well aware of all those problems, the people I’d joined. The Qattara Depression was quite impenetrable. (This was a low-lying area of desert to the south of the coast road for most of the length of Egypt.) It was very soft sand. Well that would be all right for tracked vehicles or tanks. But you can’t get your small vehicles across there. Even with four wheel drive they had trouble.

Front line service in the desert, near the action.

Once we left the Qattara Depression behind, there was a danger of infiltration from the south. And we had our people out there- the Long Range Desert Group. They used to drive all over the place. They used to annoy the Germans- go up on their flanks, and so on, and do reconnaissance for the main Army. If anything was out there that they thought we ought to know about, they’d tell ‘em. We didn’t have a mess hut or anywhere formal to eat. This is what was called ‘Company Cooking.’ In other words, every group of say, ten men had their rations issued, like tins of corned beef, meat, veg, packets of biscuits. There were no showers or baths. Never heard of them. I don’t think there were any facilities for showers until the Army were back in civilisation, and they found some places where you could get washed. What if you got toothache? You had a medical officer travelling with you, a doctor, and a padre. Before you go abroad, though, they give you a little bit of a check-up; any teeth that are doubtful, they extract. They don’t mess about with it, take it out- I lost quite a few that way. You can see why they did it- because they don’t want people out there with toothache. Nothing can be done about it out there, really. If they pull it, and it goes wrong, it’s another bother. So: any doubt, take ‘em out. That’s what their theory was. It was all done in the UK. So, when the trucks came back from their petrol duties, we loaded up, repaired and serviced as necessary, of course. Moved up to Eighth Army, Benghazi, Tripoli. The Army had got on- quite well- by then. That was quite a long way across North Africa by then. It was Tobruk, Benghazi, Tripoli- hundreds of miles from Cairo. It didn’t seem to worry us, really. If you had to go to Cairo, you’d have gone. I’m sure the staff cars used to go back there to tell the officers any special information. I’ve got a mention of a move up to Eighth Army, Benghazi, Tripoli.

The German Afrika Korps is driven back to its last stand.

Then we got to the Marath Line, which was another line the Germans held, decided to hold us up, which they did. And then they were engaged in a silent night attack in Biederbil, and very strong defences they were. And it was when you get to strong defences, you’ll take casualties all the time, then. I’m not sure whether Marath is a place or just a name. Anyway, they’d got that line so strong, the Germans, that we couldn’t really penetrate it. They thought- well, as it’s all open round that way, they dispatched the 7th Armoured Division and the 4th Indian Division to move out, round the mountain, as it was. It turned out to be thirty-six hours of driving, waiting, and one thing and another. We came back into Tunis, then. The move round the Marath Line, they were successful. Two of their main divisions were the 7th Armoured- they were tanks- and part of our Indian Division, I don’t recall any tanks, but they had armoured cars. Veterans, of course, experienced. Our Sussex Regiment was part of the Indian Division, which had more Indian soldiers. The Sussex was one battalion, and then we had Sikhs, Gurkahs, Punjabis, a battalion each, up the front end. And they were all backed up by artillery, all sorts of things, and their supply services. At the Marath Line we were fairly well near to the front line. Quite sudden moves came on, y’know you thought, not much preparation goes on, they’d just say: Ah, we’re off- we’re moving out. In half an hour! So you had to be careful what you’d taken to pieces, to make sure you could keep up with them all! So I’d already learnt that. The drivers and all were well experienced, so they didn’t let me do any stupid things. Anything major had to go back to the workshops, because I was a front-line mechanic. First Line Repair. If it’s a major job- anything that’s stopped the vehicle being driven, really. They didn’t want it stopped out in the middle of the desert somewhere. So got it back to the workshops, the workshops then, days later, they could tell you, your vehicle’s ready, or whatever. But the regiment has its own MT section, as it were, and they dealt with things like that. Anything that broke down, and I couldn’t fix it on the spot, they would tow it, because they didn’t want to leave all our gear, or somebody’s gear, back with it. So either we’d fix it when we had time, or it would be repaired at the workshops. Preferably we’d drop it into the workshops- with a bit of luck. It might be a part that’s not readily available. Yes, that was quite an experience, that drive around there. Thirty-six hours driving and fighting non-stop. They had to fight their way through. Went right round and they came up through the American Army and the British Second Army. There were some of them there. I suppose they took advice as to which was the best way to go. As soon as the Germans saw them, I suppose they let them know. They went through and they didn’t seem to have a big problem getting through there. And they went right through to Cape Bon. That’s a little bump on the coast of Tunisia. The Italians had sort of backed off. The Germans were the main contenders. ( The main problem that Rommel had was with getting enough supplies through to his army. We know this with hindsight, but you wouldn’t necessarily have known that at the time.) We didn’t know that (Rommel’s problem with supplies), but he was restricted, and of course he was short of fuel and so on. Which restricted his activities. The German Tiger tanks were massive vehicles. But it needed fuel in particular.

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