大象传媒

"Being the first meeting between the British and Italian troops in the Western Desert by the then 553998 Cpl W. Salt"

The three armoured cars of No 3 Troop B Squadron of the 11th Hussars P.A.O. (Cherrypickers) were a few metres from the barbed-wire frontier between Egypt and Cyrenaica. The Italian Fort Capuzzo was a few kilometres to the North, while Fort Madelina was some distance to the South. Our job was to maintain observation of the frontier and to radio back to Sqdn Hq anything of significance. The troop wasn't really expected to engage any considerable force, their job was reconnaisance. The cars were really civilian cars covered with armour plate and equipped with a 303 Vickers machine gun and a Brengun. Although old, the cars were really tough, we'd been swanning around in them for the last five years. For this patrol the troop commander was Sgt Tom Bowyer with me as second-in-command.

On the morning of January 10th 1940 it was business (or lack of it) as usual, nothing in sight except bare desert. The lads (except for the radio-operator and lookouts) were taking it easy, cleaning the breakfast dishes in the sand, yarning, smoking and listening to the radio (one of the car's radio sets had been "doctored" so that we could tune in to the 大象传媒). One of the lads ambled over to Tom and I and asked whether we were aware that we were at war with Italy, stating that he had just heard it on the 大象传媒 news. We hurried over to the radio concerned and were just in time to hear the announcement that we really were at war. Astounded but not alarmed, Tom put in a call to Sqdn HQ for verification and was informed that this was indeed the case, but that we shouldn't get excited, nothing much was about to happen. The Sqdn Ldr George Paul suggested we go over the wire and have a look round the enemy territory, a suggestion that was eagerly taken up. Anything that would relieve the momotony was welcome.

Our first operation was to make a gap in the wire frontier. This consisted of 3 rolls of barbed-wire stretching as far as the eye could see, so we drew up one of the cars and attached it by a towing-chain to the wire. One good tug and many yards of Italian barbed wire were torn free creating a huge gap. As we exulted, our lookout reported a large plane heading towards us from the direction of Fort Capuzzo. We knew that it must be an enemy plane by the sound of its engines (multi-engines make adistinctive sound and the only planes we had were single-engined), so this had to be an enemy bomber. As the bomber approached we hurriedly made for our cars and prepared to take evasive action. If the plane actually attacked, the strategy was for the car under attack to go hell for leather while zigzagging wildly, while the other two cars halted in order to get a good steady aim at the plane.

As the bomber approached the gap in the wire, the pilot must have spotted our defacing of the wire, because he turned towards us, dipped the nose of the plane and the gunner starting firing. Being thus attacked was a new experience for us, seeing spurts of sand as the gunner lined up his guns on us, hearing the rattle of the shells as they struck the armour-plating of the cars. Strangely, we weren't all that scared, we just hoped that the bullets wouldn't come through. We did feel exhilerated at being able to retaliate. Our plan appeared to be working, as after chasing us for a few hundred yards the pilot broke off the action and continued towards Madelina. As he left, we turned round and made our way back to the gap in the wire. A quick check assured us that we had not suffered any casualties or damage to any of the vehicles. Elated at the result of our first engagement, Tom reported the escapade to HQ. We then took a stroll through the gap keeping a sharp lookout for any aircraft. The bomber did reappear, apparently heading back to Fort Capuzzo, but it didn't bother us. The rest of the day was uneventful.

The next morning Tom and I again decided to walk through the gap. Tom was leading, and as he walked I noticed that small dark patches appeared in the sand. Puzzled, but not really apprehensive, I called to Tom to halt and went up to him. I brushed the sand away from one of the dark patches, uncovering what appeared to be the metal top of a large box. We noticed that the sand across the whole of the gap had been disturbed. Together we removed the sand from around the box and, not noticing any wires, lifted it out. We'd never seen anything like it, but guessed that it was some kind of infernal device, probably a mine. Bringing up one of the cars we hauled the thing out, then towed it around trying to detonate it, but without success.

We then dug up a further nine mines. It seemed to us that the bomber pilot would have reported our presence at the gap, and the damage we had caused, and this had resulted in the enemy visiting the gap during the night and laying the mines to teach us a lesson. We wouldn't have been aware of this as we had pulled back a kilometre or so from the frontier. The fact that Tom and I had repeatedly walked over the mines without effect had made me think that they required a much heavier weight to detonate them, they were probably anti-tank mines.

With the troopleader's permission, but not cooperation, a large screwdriver and a pair of pliers, I began to dismantle the first mine (the one we had towed around). The rest of the lads gave me every encouragement but from a respectable distance. I made notes and diagrams as I went along and saved all the pieces. Although the very strong coil springs under the lid appeared to confirm that it was an anti-tank mine, I did realize afterwards that what I had done was very folish, as the device could have been internally booby trapped.

We had decided to deposit all the mines into a large crater in the sand and to attempt to detonate them there, but as we were doing this we had another visitor from Capuzzo. This was only a half-hearted attack, but we hastened to put some distance between us and the mines in case the enemy caused them to explode. After the plane had disappeared we returned to the hole, put he remaining mines in, poured a few cans of petrol over them, then Tom ordered his driver to drive very close by the hole while he fired a Very pistol into it. A huge flame shot up, alarming the driver who almost stalled the car. He had time to just get clear of the inferno before the whole lot (perol and mines) went up with a tremendous bang that was heard clearly back at HQ. I signed the report on the dismantling of the mine and handed it to Tom for his counter-signature.

"On 1/4/1941 the two following reports appeared in the London Gazette:
A) The award of a Military Medal to Sgt T Bowyer.
B) The award of a Mention in Despatches to Cpl W. Salt."

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