大象传媒

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put into Port Elizabeth. Here we spent some days before being transferred to the 'Nieuw Amsterdam', a very modern Dutch liner. At Port Elizabeth the hospitality was again remarkable. We were entertained by the Matthews family.
Japanese submarines were said to be operating off the coast of East Africa but the 'Nieuw Amsterdam' was considered fast enough to sail without convoy. The dining room was air-conditioned and it was very welcome relief from the heat to go down for a meal. We were four to a cabin with hot and cold air vents laid on to each bunk. A novel luxury then. Going aboard by the main gangway was impressive. The first thing seen was a huge painting of Rotterdam being dive bombed by Stukas and Junkers 88s. Underneath was the stark inscription "Remember Rotterdam".
On the 9th July 1942 we landed at Port Tewfik and travelled by rail and road to Quassassin near Ismalia in Egypt. Arriving late after dark we were put into tents without attempting to sort everything out until morning. There was a Naafi which most people visited for supper. Coming out into a very dark night and unfamiliar surroundings I blundered into the wrong tent next door. It turned out to be occupied by the Regimental Sergeant Major and the Squadron Sergeant Majors. The R. S.M. quavered "Who's that? Who's there?" He thought someone had come to give him what he richly deserved. It took some time for a S.S.M. to reassure him. I was too surprised to do more than to ask the S.S.M. what was the matter with him (the R.S.M.).
For the first fortnight in Egypt we had to wear topees (pith helmets) to avoid sunstroke. After that we reverted to the black berets of the tank corps. Apart from the heat, the main discomfort was from the flies which were everywhere. We had not yet reached the stage of
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putting out six cups for a brew of tea - five for the crew and one for the flies.
There were canteens staffed by Egyptians where 'eggis and chips' was a standard dish. In this twilight ef British Imperialism most of the troops referred unthinkingly to the local inhabitants as 'Wogs' although not everyone saw things that way. The eastern bazaar way of trading by bargaining was new to most of us but soon became automatic.
After some desert training we moved west from the canal zone, catching an early glimpse of the Pyramids on our way.
Our regiment was part of the 8th Armoured Division which wore a green 'GO' shoulder flash. The 47th R.T.R. was in the 24th Armoured Brigade. The other brigade in the 8th Armoured Division, the 23rd Armoured Brigade, was the first in action. They were reputed to have lost most of their tanks on a minefield after a navigational error.
Both brigades were equipped with Valentine tanks. The tanks in themselves were not bad but their main armament, a two pounder gun, was hopelessly inadequate. Some Valentines were sent to aid Russia by way of the Murmansk convoys. It was said that the first thing the Russians did was to take the gun out and put a 3" gun in. Fortunately for the outcome in Egypt, American Sherman and Grant tanks with 75mm guns as their main armament had reached the Middle East in time for some units at Alamein to be equipped with them. This was the direct result of talks between Churchill and Roosevelt, the latter being persuaded that some tanks diverted from the Far East to Egypt would have a greater impact there.
The offensive against the German Afrika Korps commenced with a
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tremendous artillery barrage at 10p.m. on 23rd October 1942. lmmediately before the battle we had experience of General Montgomery's methods. He had taken command of the 8th Army in Egypt in August 1942. After the
commanding officers had been briefed they were told to go back to their units and tell every man what was the position and what was expected to happen. It is impossible to exaggerate the difference to morale which this policy made. For the rank and file intentions became 'ours' and
not 'theirs'. There was no particular adulation of Montgomery but here was a man who knew what to do and took the trouble to explain this to the people who would carry it out.
On the 30th October the 47th R.T.R. was withdrawn from action. In the next few weeks the whole of the ill-fated 8th Armoured Division was quietly disbanded.
Along with others, on 8th November 1942 I moved from Menneopolis to Sidi Bishr, a seaside suburb of Alexandria. Swimming here was perfect and trips into Alexandria interesting. The Greek presence remaining after two thousand years was very marked.
On 11th December I met Don again. He had been on convoy work up to the Turkish border.
On 13th December a small contingent of ex-'GO' boys left Sidi
Bishr for our new unit, the 5th Royal Tank Regiment. After spending the night of the 14th near Halfaya Pass we reached the 5th near Tobruk on
the 15th. I found myself 75mm gun loader on a Grant tank commanded by Major 'Bit of a Dip' Biddell who was in charge of 'B' Squadron. His
nickname was acquired in an interesting situation. The colonel, seeing all sorts of shot and shell flying around where B Squadron's commander
had last been seen, enquired anxiously by way of the wireless as to his

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position. Back came the reply in calm, measured terms - "Well, I'm in a bit of a dip."
The 75mm gunner was 'Dizzy' Langford, a brilliant football player. In the Grant tank the 75mm gun was mounted in a limited traverse to the right of the driver, with a 37mm cannon and machine gun mounted in the turret. The turret gunner was 'Whaler' Tutheridge who was said to have been cook on a whaling ship before the war. Perhaps on the strength of this Whaler was entrusted with brewing the major's tea until, one pre-dawn stand-to, Whaler mistook a greasy dish cloth for a tea bag.
The wireless operator was Corporal Cyril Nuttall, known as the 'Duke' for his invariably immaculate turnout. The driver was Jim Mobberly.
On the 18th December the tanks were loaded on to transporters and we were off. There were long days and nights on the move. The first night's halt was at 3 a.m. near Derna. The following day we were
on the road till 11 p.m. On the 20th we passed through Barce. Here the country was very fertile with lovely roses in the gardens. The tank transporter drivers did a magnificent job getting their vehicles and loads down the hairpin bends of the Tocra Pass. Mending punctures was all in a day's work.
By the 21st we had passed through a rather battered Bengazi and on through Ghemines to Agedabia. On the 22nd we moved on to Mersa Brega and El Agheila before unloading the tanks from the transporters at 'Marble Arch'. (Just a map reference point.)
The journey had been spent mostly sitting in the tank listening to Whaler's stories. In the slang of the day, he certainly could

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'grip'. The nights were very cold but, nursing whisky bottle in his
lap, there was no freeze up in Whaler's flow.
He had been one of the 5th who fought a rearguard action into Tobruk as the first siege started. Having lost their tanks they were
attached to the Australian infantry defending the perimeter. Whaler was asked by an Australian captain if it was feasible to get up from a slit trench with a crow-bar and lever off a tank track. Such was the fighting spirit of the Australians. During the siege a supply ship managed
to get into Tobruk. The nearest Australian troops promptly invaded the vessel and drank all the beer intended for the Naafi. The British general in command issued an order that there was to be no more beer for
Australian troops. The Australians immediately threatened to surrender
if the order was not rescinded. "No beer, no fighting!". The order was withdrawn. The Australians held Tobruk on a shoe string, in marked contrast to the second siege when a garrison with a large South African element surrendered with over three million rations unused.
Whaler also had a fund of stories from the very early days of the campaign when Wavell was in command facing the Italians. The artillery at Sidi Barrani were rationed to two shells per day. They saved
them up and fired a week's ration on Sunday mornings at the road between the barracks and the town at the time when the Italian officers were accustomed to leave for their weekly visit to the brothel.
There was also the account of the Free French, coming up from Chad, who captured an Italian 'passion wagon' on a Mediterranean beach.
The occupants fled, pursued by Frenchmen who had flung away their
rifles.
The new recruits to the 5th from the 'GO' boys had to put up

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with a fair amount of leg pulling from the old hands. The 5th was part
of the 7th Armoured Division, the 'desert rats', who had a jerboa as the divisional sign. Whaler much enjoyed relating how they had been told
one morning that they were to be relieved by the new 8th Armoured Division and, by the afternoon, had heard that the relief had run onto a minefield and so the 7th would be staying in action.
The 5th were a regular battalion who by this time had had to take in many non-regulars to replace casualties. Their attitude was
that of professionals, with a very different atmosphere from the 47th.
The alternate advances and retreats across the Libyan desert during 1941 and 1942 which so bewildered people at home in England left the regulars still living from day to day. One disaster (from a military point of view) was so rapid that the Naafi had to leave their stocks behind.
"Picked up three months tea and sugar there for nothing" was one veteran's memory of that time. Another example of the general outlook was the supply truck bearing the legend 'Three flaps and four pushes'.
"German air raids on Alexandria produced typical 5th humour. Some of the 5th on leave at the time were in Sister Street, the red light district, and suffered injury claiming they were 'wounded in action'.
Christmas 1942 was spent at Marble Arch and was very enjoyable. There were bottles of drink and people tended to wander from crew to crew exchanging drink and back-chat. As usual in such situations 'Bangle' Bowman called and was welcomed everywhere.
After testing guns and having a few games of football we
loaded the tanks on to Diamond T transporters to leave Marble Arch on
9th January 1943. By the 10th we were west of Sirte. On 14th January

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we moved a further sixty miles up to battle positions. Unfortunately
our tank clutch burnt out on the 16th. Probably the clutch burning out was due to the adjustments made by our driver, now a Channel Islander named Mais. He removed the governor which restricted the engine revolutions to see just how fast these American tanks would go. He managed to reach forty miles per hour. The major transferred to another tank
and the rest of us were back with the transport echelon as spare crew. After advancing fifty three miles on the 17th we spent a pleasant
evening as guests in an Arab camp. They made tea by adding water to the leaves, boiling it up and then drinking it with lots of sugar and no milk. Tentative suggestions that their camp fire might be damped down a bit to avoid alerting German aircraft were met with deep scorn - "Tedeschi! - expletive" - spit.
On the 18th we moved another fifty miles to south of Homs
where the Germans were making a stand. Staying in the same spot for two days quite a lot of mail from home caught up with us. By the 22nd we had moved into Homs.
Tripolli fell to our troops on the 23rd January and by
the 25th we were in leaguer on the outskirts of Tripoli. On the 28th we had a couple of hours in the city. Few shops were open and the only goods on offer were curios, shaving accessories, dates and nougat.
The afternoon of 29th January was spent fishing for golden
carp with a bent needle with one surprising success. By the 31st forward patrols had entered Tunisia but we stayed put around Tripoli. On the 3rd February oil stained webbing was being rescued from the bottom of the turret or wherever it had rested for weeks. There was much blancoing and polishing for a victory parade to be held in Tripoli. The
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more enterprising found some quick lime to bleach the oil stains. This rotted the webbing but by the time it fell apart the parade and the need to wear webbing were far behind.
The parade was on the 4th February. The 51st Highland Division put on quite a show with pipers, kilts and all. Churchill was present. He got cheers from the Italian civilians but not from the troops. The drill and turnout by the 5th R.T.R. was perfect despite the months since any drill. If there had to be a ceremonial occasion the 5th would ensure it was done properly. This was pride in the unit. So far as Churchill was concerned the general attitude was - 'The old
will get his whisky and cigar tonight and tomorrow he will be off back to England.' In retrospect hardly fair to an elderly man flying around in uncomfortable planes. The fact remains that Churchill the great war leader was a myth so far as the troops were concerned. The important people were the N.C.O.. tank commanders who had learned their craft the hard way - Dave Seddon, Taff Reece, Pluto Ellis, Silas Fernside, Bing Coller and many others together with officers of the calibre of Dickie Ward, 'A' Squadron commander, who in post-war years was G.O.C. Hong Kong and Paddy Doyle, D.S.O. and bar, 'C' Squadron commander, who was a lance corporal at the outbreak of war. On the 9th February 1943 we moved towards Zuara, sixty miles west of Tripoli, in heavy rain. The Russians had recaptured Kursk.
By the 16th February, jolting along desert tracks, we had passed a French frontier post looking like something out of 'Beau Geste'. A Frenchman wearing a kepi and red trousers lived there with his family.
On the 17th we came back via Ben Gardene to collect tanks from Tank Delivery Section. There was opportunity to bathe in a hot sulphur
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spring before we found ourselves back in transit camp at Tripoli Here
we enjoyed a New Zealand concert 'Kiwi' at the Miramare Theatre. On the 27th February we were off up the 'blue' again and leaguered a few miles inside Tunisia.
I now joined a new crew as 75mm gunner on a Sherman tank. It was commanded by Captain Eric (Oscar) Wilde with Willie Dovey as wireless operator, Ginger Mills as driver and Eric Chitty as lap gunner.
This was near the Mareth Line and we moved up into battle position at
Medenine on the 1st March. This was a tense period with just one line
of tanks awaiting the expected German tank attack, Rommel having brought Panzer divisions from the First Army and American front to meet the Eighth Army advance. Anti-tank guns were awaited, particularly the
Guards Brigade from Palestine. Each dawn stand-to was followed by the realisation that this did not appear to be the day for the attack.
There was plenty of aerial activity and much use of the Browning ack- ack machine gun.
The 1st R.T.R. had taken over and we had moved into reserve before the attack came on the 6th. Over fifty German tanks were lost, mainly to the anti-tank guns which arrived just in time.
On the 17th March a mobile cinema unit came up and we were
shown 'Desert Victory', the film taken of Alamein. The most vivid memory of the screening was of Moffat, a lad from the Gorbals district of
Glasgow. He had had his hair cropped very close as quite a few lads did in the desert. Moff, however, had had a little tuft left on top to
which he tied a bit of blue ribbon. Standing up in front of the projector, a huge image of his tuft and ribbon appeared on the screen to the delight and applause of all. Moffat was a natural linguist. Pro-

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