大象传媒

OUSSELTIA PLAIN

We had a gun position organised on Ousseltia Plain by 5th February.
On that day we went forward to an American Battery HQ and used their jeep to make a further recce of the area. This was more frightening than riding MC13. The driver must have been a cowboy back home.
Our stay in this position was between 5th and 16th February. During that short period we were still groping to try to discover just what the fighting scene was all about. Early on I was sent back on MC13 to bring up some more vehicles. I spent hours by the roadside alone in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the convoy., Eventually it came, but once again I seemed to be fighting a solo War all on my own.
There was also considerable confusion regarding the air activity which was going on around us. There were several sorties by enemy planes and also flights by RAF fighters. Sometimes it was very difficult to sort out. Also for the first time we became aware of formations of Flying Fortresses. Another feature was the weather. It was much colder up here than nearer the coast. Over a period of three days we had winds, rain, snow and sunshine all mixed together. The strong winds caused the most discomfort, there was no escape from it.
For the next two months the action in North Africa continued around the Ousseltia - Maktar area. We had just become fairly well organised on the Ousseltia Plain position when we were ordered back to Maktar. It was on this run that MC13 finally gave up. The gear box collapsed twenty yards from the Battery Command Post. There was nothing I could do about it; it had become a salvage job.
We moved on to near Pichon which was a sticky position with enemy activity in front of us and to our right flank. Also the weather was still bad. Not so much cold as wet and extremely muddy which made life more than a little unpleasant.
The North African campaign moved on and our next gun position was near Ousseltia Pass. We did a series of moves and I recall that there was a breakdown in ration supply as our lines of communication were extended. A certain element of hunger, coupled with the wind, rain and mud was not helping our morale.
I went down with flu' and spent five days at RHQ Medical Unit. My sleeping quarters was the back of a 3 ton truck. The flu' was unpleasant but I welcomed the rest. It also coincided with my twenty-sixth birthday, as the diary records. I expressed the hope to myself that I would not be in North Africa on my next birthday. I had now had a few birthdays in the Army and considered that I was overdue for one in 'civvy street.' Little did I realise at that time that my wish would not be fulfilled for several years.
On the 13th of April there was some real news. As reported by the B.B.C., the 1st and 8th Armies had joined on the Kairouan - Sousse road, so we were making real progress.
The action in this area was coming to an end. We hoped that the North African Campaign might soon be over and in that we were not entirely wrong but the last big battle was still to come and with it a lot of hard fighting. It was also to bring casualties amongst the original squad from Redford Barracks, Edinburgh. You did not get time to think until events were on top of you. Maybe it was just as well; this was total War and we were in the thick of it.

BATTLES TO END THE NORTH AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

The date of 18th. April 1943 is worth recording. On that day we met units
of the 8th. Army who arrived at our gun position at midday to take over from us. It was all part of a much bigger plan to speed up the end of the North African campaign. Later on the same day, we packed up and moved in convoy, and by night drive, to a base area. By 19th. April we were in a 'hide' some thirty miles behind the lines at Souk El Khemis. Actually this was a bit of a bonus for Souk El Khemis was a nice spot beside a river and as the heat was now intense, we spent quite a lot of time in the water. Also, there was one of our aerodromes nearby with lots of planes around which made it all sound very civilised.
However, our respite was brief. On 20th April we went forward and did a complete survey for the Regiment under cover of darkness. It was 'hot' in more senses than one but we did complete the survey and returned in time for breakfast.
The next three days saw us preparing for the big push, the first of the big engagements to end the campaign in North Africa. We were in action by the evening of the 22nd. with one of the biggest barrages put down to date and at 2 pm on the 23rd. the famous Longstop Hill, which was blocking our advance on Tunis, was reported captured. There was some confusion, however. We were still in the same gun position two days later but at 1400 hrs. on 25th.April - Easter Sunday - Longstop Hill was at last officially captured after heavy fighting.
The battle was by no means over, however. We remained in our exposed gun position on the plain then we moved nearer Longstop Hill as the battle continued and it was clear that we were taking more ground and consolidating our position but the Infantry were suffering heavy casualties.
On the 27th April, we had orders to move forward and recce gun positions in the lee of Longstop Hill itself. This was one of the trickiest recces we had done to date. The position was wide open and Jerry could sweep it with his
artillery which he did, repeatedly. At one survey point, the only thing that saved me was a handy slit trench. If that slit trench had not been there I was a goner. We hared it back from the survey point just as quickly as we could. I made the journey on the pillion of the CPO's motor bike. I don't know where the bike came from but I wasn't asking questions.
The guns were supposed to come in when the survey was complete but due to the exposed position this did not work; their only chance was to come in under cover of darkness. We got back behind Longstop Hill and dug in a Command Post. The shot and shell subsided a little at dusk and by some miracle we managed to get some sleep but a report had got back to the guns , waiting to take up their positions, that we were cut off.
The guns came in at first light and the battle re-started.
By 28th April the battle was at its peak. We were nearly over-run by enemy tanks and 90th. Battery were firing over open sights. We 'stood-to' several times with small arms but the tanks were stopped just short of the gun position.
We were still on Longstop on the 5th. of May but by then the battle was receding and quite clearly the forward Infantry were beginning to advance towards Tunis itself. This was the sort of situation that we were to become familiar with particularly during the campaign in Italy which was still ahead of us. One day we would be in the thick of shot and shell; the next morning there would be a strange stillness over everything. The battle had moved on. That happened at Longstop. We could hardly believe it. It was almost as though the place did not look right without the noise and crunch of enemy shelling.
I never forgot Longstop Hill. It was a vicious pitched battle with well trained troops on both sides. Jerry was not giving in easily. We also paid the price in casualties, amongst them one of the original Edinburgh squad, Johnnie Robertson, who was killed at 89 Battery OP together with my very good friend Sergeant Frank Stockton who was in the same OP party. Lieut. (now Captain) Bill Taylor my old CPO was also a casualty. He was wounded and evacuated to England.

ADVANCE ~ CEASE-FIRE

On the 6th of May the long expected move arrived. We moved to an
advanced position in the afternoon. We dug all night in pouring rain, then we had orders to move again without firing a shot.
But things were going for us at long last. We advanced up the main Medjez - Tunis road to a hide near Massicault. There was heavy traffic everywhere and our next 'hide' was near St. Cyprien but it was now developing into a mopping-up operation.
On the 9th of May ( a Sunday ) we were still on the move and from the high ground we could see Tunis in the distance . We skirted the city and brought the guns into action between Tunis and Hamman Tif. We set up the Command Post in a convenient farmhouse but again we never fired a shot.
We moved again on May 11th. and whilst the journey down to Hamman Tif was extremely, hot and dusty, it was clear that the actual fighting was virtually over. We were back in civilisation with crowds of civilians lining the roads and cheering us as we passed. There were literally thousands of Jerry prisoners on the roads too, many driving themselves back to the Tunis area in their own transport.
Our farmhouse Command Post was to be the last in the North African campaign. Later, on the evening of May 12th., we got the official ' cease fire' and for us the campaign in North Africa was over. On the morning of the 13th. we closed down the Command Post and officially brought the guns out of action. Our farmhouse became a billet and the gun position was now a wagon line.
So that part at least was over. Instead of feeling elated, however, everyone felt flat and very tired, a typical reaction to months of being in action without a break and to our baptism of War. We knew that there were other campaigns still to come, where, or for how long, we had still to find out.
It wasn't all gloom, however. North Africa without a war could be quite a pleasant spot but that's the next leg of the story.

NORTH AFRICA ~ WITHOUT A WAR

Dates are quite important at this stage. The reason is that we were
destined to do quite a bit of 'dodging around' along the North African strip for the next four months. It was all tied up with the grand plan for the invasion of Sicily and Italy, 'the underbelly of Europe' as Winston Churchill called it. The Army, in its wisdom, saw fit to move us around over hundreds of miles of desert road, then changed its mind and brought us all the way back again. We were almost tourists ahead of our time but the going was rough and the accommodation far short of four star. However it was better than being in action and at times even almost enjoyable.
The first set of dates range from 14th May 1943 until June 19th.
The first and most pleasant thing that happened was that we could bathe in the blue waters of the Meditteranean. At that point I couldn't swim but I learned quickly enough. Anyway, I floated. The salty waters of the Med. were ideal for the learner.
The army, however, could not change its long standing habits. No sooner were we out of action than parades and ' bull' once more became the order of the day. It made me sick and I rebelled whenever possible. The favourite trick was to get on some form of special duty, such as Guard Commander. This meant special 'spit and polish' but it was a personal effort I did not mind. Also, I took a special delight in barking out orders as Guard commander I always had rather a loud voice and I used it to good effect, especially if the RSM was around. He was convinced that no junior NCO could mount a Guard. I proved him wrong and we became quite good friends in the process.
Also for the first time, I had the advantage of living in the Sergeants Mess. Looking back now, I recall our Battery Sergeant Major, Bill Studd. Bill's bark was always worse than his bite. A regular soldier, he was always breathing down some ones neck but he was the first to offer me a drink in the Mess and we remained firm friends right to the end of the war.
We made several sight seeing trips to Tunis itself. These in the main were a bit of a wash out. War had played havoc with the town and any form of civilian food was impossible to obtain. We usually managed some very inferior wine or coffee. It was much more pleasant by the sea and we retraced our steps to Hamman Tif for yet another dip in the Med.
About this time the victory parade was held in Tunis. I missed it. I wasn't included in the contingent from the Battery and it meant very little to me at the time. It was only much later, when I saw it on the news reels that I realised that I had missed quite an event.
Soon we were on the move again to the French town of Setif. This was quite good for towns like Gulma and Setif were reasonably civilised. Our base area was a large camp just outside the town. An interesting fact at that stage was that we had never lived in a building since leaving England (except for the odd Command Post in action and then the building was more likely to be part ruin). Somehow we were quite used to this way of life by now and it was no real hardship.
We made quite a number of leisure visits to Setif. One could walk or hitch a lift easily. Naafi facilities had become available and some semblance of French cooking was coming back amongst the civilian restaurants. It was not too bad at all.
There was also some short leave to Constantine.
Soon, however, our stint at Setif was over. We had orders to prepare for a long move by convoy and Tripoli was mentioned. Rumour had it that the invasion of Europe was in the air and this move was tied up with whatever the plans were to be. We made the move to Tripoli all right but it didn't work out as rumour had predicted. But then, in the army, it seldom did.

INTO THE DESERT ~ AND OUT AGAIN

On 20th. June our journey to Tripoli started.. We travelled by Constantine,
Bon Chebka and El Guettor. We were now in real desert country and experiencing violent dust storms and the infamous Sorroco wind which baked your skin and made your thirst fifty times worse. By the third night we were at Gabes and in sight of the sea. We had another night at Ben Gardine before crossing the frontier into Tripoli and we rendezvoused at Sabratha which is the site of the old Roman city of that name. It was at Sabratha that we came to a dead stop and started to reverse ourselves. Such are the strange ways of Army command.
We camped at Sabratha on the 27th of June. As the days wore on we realised that plans somewhere up the pipe line had been altered but there was nothing much we could do about that. Our immediate worry was to try and cope with the heat. Daily it became hotter until life was practically unbearable, so much so that the only relief was the sea and then only temporary. I have an entry in the diary ' far to hot to write I'm cooking.'
However, on the 15th of July we had hurried orders to pack and prepare to move. We started back the way we had come by Ben Gardanes, Gabes, Gapa, Aine M'Lila and St. Arnaud and by July 13th. we were back where we started, in camp some twenty miles outside Setif.
And there we stayed. Over the next two months we did a bit of re-training. There was even a spot of leave and far too many unnecessary inspections. I was at the rest camp at Mansauria when we were recalled. Things were moving again and this time it definitely looked as though our time in North Africa was coming to an end.

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