大象传媒

Of course we had our quiet moments whilst in Tobruk as well our hectic ones. so when it was quiet we would get time from the guns, say two hours on and two hours off.
During one of these periods I decided to visit one of my old sergents who was in charge at H.Q. we were at one of the batteries about two miles from H.Q. so I had to walk the two miles that seperated us.
This particular morning I set off acrossd open desert, rocks, camel scrub loose sand etc to my friend the few miles away.
I had only gone a few hundred yards when I heard the anti aircraft gunsdown at Tobruk harbour open up and saw the shells bursting high in the air.
We were stationed with our batteries high above Tobruk over the encampment on the edge of the desert, our forces occupied a track of land about the size of the Isle of Wight, with our backs against the sea and Tobruk harbour was our only port.
I was walking along the edge of the escarpment when a burst of engine power rushed at me and stuka was about fifty feet above me and a hundred yards or so in front coming straight at me guns blazing, I looked for cover and was very lucky in finding an old trench three parts full of sand with old sand bags threadbare and torn around the rim of the trench. Without further ado I threw myself down behind one on the bags, at the same time I felt a thud near my head the other side of the sandbag. I lay there as the stuka thundered overhead.
Rolling over onto my back I saw this black giant bird a swastika painted on each wing, go by, and a shadow following still only about a hundred feet above me.
After the stuka had crossed the horizon I went round the other side of the trench , opened my knife and dug out a copper plated bullet out of the sandbag.
That bullet I kept for ages and when we were able to get leave in Cario I gave it to an American seaman who i met in a bar. He was with a convoy which was unloading supplies in Port Said for the allies.
By the way the sergeant who was my friend, he left our regiment after the siege of tobruk and went to Cairo H.Q. He stayed in the army and became a Major General. I never saw him again but I followed his career through a captain friend of mine

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