大象传媒

When we were training for the Alamein move on the river Nile, there used to be a bloke on the other bank of the river. He would whistle bird songs and bird calls. I never found out who he was. Beautiful it was. Sitting on the side of the Nile whistling these tunes. Take any bird off. I never got to know who he was. I tried to whistle, but it's no good.

I liked it in the desert, funnily enough. Mad dogs and Englishmen, play in the noon day sun - that's the one about us playing football at midday in the sun. I found a dingo puppy there and she tagged onto me. Of course I couldn't take her home when I went back, so a mate of mine said, "All right, Smokey, you leave her with me." So I had no worries there. We used to build our own messes, being the Royal Engineers. We were having a rest period once, and I saw a donkey outside. So, I got on his back and rode him through the sergeant's mess! The only thing I didn't like was when we had sandstorms. Only the sand being blown up in the air, but it didn't half sting your face. You can always tell when a sandstorm is coming. The wind comes up and the sand would hit your face and really make it sore. We used to bury our heads under our arms. One day I took a truck out on patrol. We'd invented a suncompass to find north - only two pieces of hardboard together on a base. We went out and the sun went in - up came a ruddy sandstorm. Of course, in a sandstorm you've got nothing, you can't find your way. One of the blokes said, "That's knackered it!" Anyway, we turned round and tried to find our way back to camp. We made it - it was all luck.

We were very short of water. We used to use the square cans petrol came in to clean the water. We had one can with holes in the bottom - fill that up with sand. The water we'd used for washing went into that one and the sand filtered the water into another can. At one place where we were holed up we were only allowed water to clean our teeth once a day - no water to wash. And we stunk to high heaven. You couldn't look after yourself toilet wise. When you had a cup of tea if you let the sand's dust settle on it, you'd get dysentry - gippy tummy, they used to call it. Within minutes you could see a very fine film on top of the tea. It was no pleasant thing in the desert. That's how we had to live.

When we were just going into the desert a truck caught up with us with our mail from home. I had a little dog at home. I opened this letter from my sister. It said, "Chum is dead". I loved that little dog, I thought the world of him. A little black and white mongrel, wherever I went he followed me. He even used to follow me when I went to the toilet. That's the worst bit of news as we moved up to the front.

My boys and me arrived at Alamein long before the battle started. We got there quietly and started clearing the German mines. We lost two or three blokes doing it. Then we laid our own mines, which were made by the local Arabs. We showed them how to make a mine - a very simple thing. We left a lane for our troops and put out white tape so they could see where to go - anybody who got on the wrong side of the tape was likely to be killed. This was all done before we attacked. Montgomery was there before the battle and we were paraded in fours. "Oh, I don't want all this," he said, "Come gather round boys, gather round." We flocked to him. He didn't want any bull, Montgomery. When the battle started we lay down in the sand in case the Germans broke through our lot going up - give us a second chance to push them back. We chased right the way up north after Rommel. We all admired Rommel. We got right the way through and he escaped.

In my unit there wasn't a good man amongst the leaders. No guts among them. At night an officer would say to me, "Oh sergeant, would you get some men together and go out on patrol tonight?" Brave lads my men, I never had to say to them, "You, you and you - we're out on patrol." They'd all chime, "We'll come with you sergeant." I never had to detail a man for anything. Real soldiers, some of them not much taller than that - little uns - I used to call them the midgets. You don't know here you're walking to on patrol. I had a revolver and the blokes had Sten guns. We walked down this waddy and we didn't know where we were going really. So I said to the blokes, "If we come on a German patrol in this postion , we haven't got a chance in hell." So we sat on our arses for half an hour and then went back. Well, it was dicey, you know? Black as hell that waddy.

I got wounded at Alamein. I stood on an S-mine, you could only see the four spikes sticking out of the ground. I got wounded all up my legs, neck, shoulders and arms. A mine will burst at your feet, come up to waist height and burst again. I managed to climb a cliff and reach a first aid station. I was worried about getting sand in the wound and the muscle was damaged. We were laid up outside this tent. We were on stretchers, one after another, waiting for our turn to be treated. A nurse came over and she brushed my hair and caressed my face. Filthy we were from fighting. She said, "We'll look after you soldier." They were wonderful those American nurses on the battle field.

When we we left North Africa we were put in trucks and it said, "Port Nine." We thought we were going home, we were all a bit chuffed. We ended up in Anzio. They normally trained us before every invasion, but they never even told us where we were going....

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