大象传媒

This story of edited extracts from the transcript of an audio recording made by Sid Read of his memories of service in the Royal Engineers, is submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a member of Market Harborough Branch, Royal British Legion on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Read fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Sid was posted to the Eighth Army and set sail from Scotland in the Queen Elizabeth for twenty-eight days.

鈥淲e called at Freetown, Simonstown and then up the Red Sea to Port Taufiq and I was sent to a place called Ismailia under canvas. We were sent there to be hardened off, to get used to the heat and the sun, and I can assure you that it was not a very pleasant experience.鈥�

From there Sid was posted again and took four men to Haifa in Palestine. 鈥淚 can remember taking these four men over the Suez Canal to a place called El Qantara鈥�. (where) we had to change our currency from Egyptian to Palestinian money. We got on a train for, I think, three or four days. We went over the desert and I can remember Jaffa (and) Ben Jamina, where we stopped and had food 鈥� biscuits and 鈥榗orned dog鈥�, because that鈥檚 all we ever had.鈥�

When Sid and his companions arrived in Haifa, they stayed at an army camp in Sarafan. Sid worked as a checker in Haifa docks until he was posted back to Mustafa Barracks in Egypt. After a few weeks he was posted to Haikii where 鈥渨e had to wait until Montgomery was ready to make the push. I remember going up the desert on a lorry with the rest of the Company. We used to call it 鈥榰p the blue鈥�. I can remember when all the guns started to go, the 25-pounders. I slept on the ridge that night at El Alamein when the Germans had fallen back.鈥�

After moving on to Merza Matruh and Bardia, Sid moved up to Tobruk.

鈥淭he next morning we were woken at dawn and told that the Germans were falling back that fast that we couldn鈥檛 keep up with them, so we were called on parade and went in convoy up to Benghazi. When we got to Benghazi we went into a bombed-out hotel where the Germans had been which was about half a mile from the docks. We had to bed down in the hotel for the night to sleep on the floor, or anywhere we could find. There was a smell in the hotel I shall never forget, a smell that told us the Germans had been using it.鈥�

Sid worked in the docks ferrying supplies to the advancing troops. 鈥淲e worked all day and that evening when it was dark we had our meal 鈥� corned beef, hard biscuits and tea. The moon came up and you could read a newspaper because it was really bright. We were told that as soon as it got to that stage the German aircraft would come to bomb the harbour, and sure enough this is what happened.

鈥淭he boats that had got into the harbour loaded with all the supplies must have known what was going to happen, and eight blasts on the siren was enough to let us know that aircraft were approaching. We stood in silence on the verandah of the hotel, about four or five steps down. I stood looking over the wall about two feet up and all of a sudden we heard the drone of aircraft engines and we knew the planes were there somewhere. Suddenly a searchlight went straight up into the sky and it picked out a German aircraft which was just coming in to bomb the harbour, (a Junkers Ju88, I think). The minute that the searchlight picked the aircraft up all the other searchlights in the area homed in on it and all the guns anywhere near were firing at this aircraft to shoot it down.

鈥淏ut what we had forgotten, all of us, was that there was something coming our way. And it was, it dropped in the yard about 15ft away. I heard the 鈥榳hoosh鈥� and dropped down behind the wall and then I was 鈥榖arking like a dog鈥� to get rid of the mortar and everything else that had come out of the woodwork! It was funny, but it was dead serious, if you know what I mean. It did for three men standing in the doorway at the top of the steps. My little mate, 鈥榃righty鈥�, a lad the same age as me, early twenties, walked up to me crying 鈥淚鈥檝e broke me legs, I鈥檝e broke my legs. I said 鈥楧on鈥檛 talk like a fool, you鈥檙e walking on them鈥�. He said to me 鈥業t鈥檚 alright for you鈥�. And then someone else came to me and said, 鈥業s that blood, is that blood?鈥�, pushing his arm in front of me, but it wasn鈥檛, it was water! When we had recovered we looked at one another and realized we鈥檇 made it again, we鈥檇 escaped.鈥�

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