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This is the story of Thomas Arthur Murray, born 25 January 1918, who was sent overseas in May 1942 with the 10th Armoured Division of the 8th Army.

Build up to the Battle of El Alamein

"I was a rifleman in the 7th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade - a unit that in pre-war days was formed in Lloyds Shipping Office, thus the majority of the officers were gentlemen of influence in Lloyds.

We arrived in Egypt when things were at low ebb for the 8th Army. In the battles, which had been raging in the western desert, we had lost one of our main bastions, Tobruk. The army had been pushed back to our furthest point, and our backs were very near the Suez Canal. There was no way we could retreat without giving Egypt to the Axis Forces.

We had a few weeks of training in the back areas - more to acclimatise us to the conditions of living in the desert. We had much to learn. The pictures we had seen in the papers back home gave us a really false impression of the fit, healthy looking soldiers enjoying the sun and open-air life of the desert; they did not show the true facts of the swarm of flies that pestered you day and night, and the desert sores that we all suffered from at some time or other - those of fair skin were never without them.

So we settled down and learned how to cope as best we could on a diet of corned beef, sand, bread (when we got it, unfit to eat), and hard tack biscuits.

Commander Montgomery

At approximately the time we arrived in Egypt so did our new Commander Montgomery, who managed to visit all divisions and battalions under his command. He gave us all the impression that there was no way in which we were going over to the offensive until we had superiority in manpower and firepower.

The man himself, Winston Churchill, came out soon after, giving us stirring speeches, and when he left rumour was rife that no British soldier would cross the Suez Canal on his own feet. Then followed a lull with little offensives by either side, but we had a massive build up of men and materials. Then we had orders to carry out an orderly retreat and lure the enemy armour to a point where they had little room to manoeuvre.

The RAF took over and hit with everything they had; they lost a great deal of armoured strength, something that was crucial in the days that followed.

New manoevres and leave

We were taken back to the rear areas, where we took part in massive schemes and planned manoeuvres with whole divisions - obviously a prelude to a major offensive. All soldiers were given a week of leave but we were restricted to Cairo.

A pal of mine requested permission to visit the Holy Land, which was not granted. He was told if he would wait until things settled down, they would allow him to go. Unfortunately he was killed in the Battle of Alamein and never did see the Holy Land.

In debt to the Battalion

Every soldier who was given leave had to have a minimum of £5.00. I was a married man and had to have several advances of cash when on leave in Britain, so was always in debt to the Battalion. I was to receive the sum of 25p per week; consequently, with the £5.00 I was to receive for leave in Cairo, I would owe the company £3.00. The officer pointed this out to me, and told me that if anything happened to prevent me paying this £3.00 in the future, the officers of the company would have to pay this sum.

I assured the officer I would do my best to see I was not killed in the coming battle.

Dummy moves

We secretively made our way up to Alamein to prevent the enemy noticing the movement of such a large force. Dummy models of tanks and trucks were littered in strategic points in the desert, which we occupied when moving. Then we reached our starting point.

24 October, 1942

The night before the battle commenced the whole Battalion was briefed as to roles in the forthcoming battle - what position we were to take and who was on our flanks.

The battle commenced with a huge barrage, which for those days was tremendous. The sky was lit and fires of burning petrol dumps littered the desert. The engineers, who had moved in first to clear the enemy minefields, had made a path for us to pass through in our trucks. It was such a clear night you could actually see the bombs dropping from a lone Stuka raider, which didn’t exactly give us a boost.

After what seemed years we reached a position where we had to make our stand. Unfortunately, the ground was rock hard where we were, which made it tough to dig our firing positions.

A Vickers water-cooled machine-gun

I was on a Vickers water-cooled machine-gun and we were too far back on a ridge, and had a field of fire of only about 200 yards, not nearly enough to be effective. We settled in still feeling very exposed, firing occasional bursts over the ridge where the fire of a German 88mm gun seemed to come from.

Two men had gone back a few yards to dig a hole for us to retreat to, should we be attacked, and prepare some sort of food for us. So we past the first few hours of our part in the battle.

Later in the morning we had numbers of Italian and German soldiers obviously shell shocked, a condition we called ‘bomb happy’, giving themselves up, no doubt through the tremendous barrage they had experienced.

Injured

It was a shock to realise how young these soldiers were, and for me it was an indication of how bad things were for the Axis armies that they could send such youngsters into battle.

Still later in the morning we heard the heavy sound of motors and soon after we saw tanks coming at us. When 200 yards away they moved over to the side, stopped and opened up on us and simultaneously the heavy guns we were equipped with opened up and very quickly about six of the tanks were burning fiercely.

In the ensuing battle I was hit in the leg when crawling back to the prepared position, and so was a spectator to what happened. All our trucks were burning and jeeps were being thrown in the air by the fire of these tanks as if a giant hand had tossed them into the air. The fire from these burning tanks was so fierce I could feel the skin being lifted from my face.

Our company Commander, a very brave man, took charge of me and put me on a Bren Carrier, a position I didn’t relish as I’ve never felt so exposed in my life. From there I was taken to a field hospital and sent back in stages to a hospital in Alexandria. My part in the Desert Campaign had ended."

Tom did more than his share

Tom was wounded at the Battle of El Alamein, during 'Operation Lightfoot'. He was shot in his left leg at 6am, picked up by the 2/8 Australian Field Ambulance and taken to No 1 New Zealand Casualty Clearing Station. Tom was in 'D' company and during 'Operation Lightfoot' it lost more than half its strength.

Tom was operated on within four hours of being wounded, and, after a time, taken on the hospital ship ‘Oranje’ to the Oribi Military Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. When Tom was recovering he received letters from his Commanding Officer Major Trapps-Lennox MC, who wrote, ’The Platoon put up a great performance that day, and you did more than your share. That day work is something which you can always remember and look back upon with great pride.’

In August 1943 Tom was sent back to the UK and was finally discharged on 15th October 1943. He was awarded the 1939-45 Star, African Star with 8th Army clasp, and the War Medal 1939-45 for his service.

Tom died in November 2001 but wrote this many years ago for one of his grandsons. We still have his call-up letter, the medical card that was put around his neck when he was shot, and his medals.

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