大象传媒

On the approach march towards Medjez el Bab to begin what was to be the last battle of the North African Campaign, the composite force of both 1st Army and 8th Army under the command of Lt.Gen Brian Horrocks, who had distinguished himself with the "blitz' attack around the Mareth Line in order to capture El Hamma. Unfortunately, the American 2nd Corps under command of Gen. George S Patton had been badly mauled by an understrength 10th Panzer Div. and had allowed the two other Panzer Divs.the 15th and 21st. to escape and so this final battle had to be fought, but there was a slight problem.

There was an enormous wadi which had to be bridged and the enemy Artillery had registered this feature and consequently the engineers building the Bailey Bridge were falling like snowflakes, the wadi then acquired the nickname of "St.Peter's crossing".Thereupon a very 'plummy' English voice was heard asking "why does this Tunisian wadi carry an English name" ? this query was answered by an equally Irish broque " if you try crossing there to-day - you're sure to meet St.Peter"!

As History now records, Tunis fell within 36 hours and the campaign finished at Cap Bon five days later when the Afrika Corps turned around and all quarter of a million of them surrendered.

When the battlefield was cleared of much of the debris of war, the 21st British Tank Brigade was ordered to proceed to the area around Bone, which is now called Annaba in Algeria, to set up camp and to await reinforcements, and further orders. This was done and in very short order a camp sprung up on a hill some 20 miles south of Bone, this was all very regimental with paths laid out, stones lining the paths all properly white-washed,flag poles erected, notice boards appeared, the Tank park was set up with barbed wire all around with empty cans containing a few stones which would rattle when disturbed, to alert the guards in case anyone wanted to make off with a 40 ton Churchill Tank !

The small City of Bone was quite attractive as the war had by passed her wide treelined Boulevards and street cafe's where the speciality was fried egg on a bun washed down by the interminable muskatel. It boasted a cinema where we endured many a brigade lecture without nodding off, and it was there that Wee Wully Fenn from Glasgow learned not to place a Cadbury's dairy milk bar in his K.D.uniform shirt while watching "Mutiny on the Bounty" for the seventh time !

It was also in Bone that the so called "Salerno Mutineers" were incarcerated whilst awaiting the so-called "trial" at Phillipville further along the coast. This story has finally been told to the eternal shame of all who took part in that appalling charade of British Army Justice. Three sergeants were condemned to death and all the rest of the 190 odd were given very long sentences, for an incident which should never have happened and it was only by good fortune that the Adjutant General, Gen. Adams was visiting Algeria that the sentences were commuted. Nevertheless the men had the records follow them to their new units and life became unbearable for them and most ended up by deserting into the hills of Italy.A general pardon is still awaited for these men who were stripped of all medals, honours and service records.

But back to our new camp,each troop had three eight man tents which was quite luxurious inasmuch as only five men per tank slept there, ditches were dug to the usual depth of six inches all around to carry off the rain which we were advised was a very seldom ocurrence. These ditches were modified immediately after the first rainstorm to a depth of 24 inches all around, duckboards magically appeared in case anyone was lost in these ditches.

-- 2 --
The rains,the subject of much speculation as the Sahara desert was not a million miles away and it was felt that all this rain could be channelled down there to it's everlasting benefit.The fact that we were running the Tanks up and down the hills all day long did not improve the situation as a 40 ton Tank creates a great deal of mud which, in turn has to be cleaned from all working parts !

Our squadron area was well laid out and we were complimented by a succession of new Regimental C.O's to a ratio of a new one every six weeks, why, we were never told.One C.O. was big on communications so it was wireless training ad nauseum, another was big on maintenance so the Tanks were run constanly, yet another was big on discipline so it was blanco and more blanco.

One feature which invariably came up for a gold star was our latrine which was a work of art and built by a journeyman carpenter,my gunner Harry Gray, the pit itself was a standard 8'o long x 6.'o deep x 2'o wide, but capped by a raised platform with four cut-outs, complete with lids. The whole wooden supersturcture had been hand sanded in order that the medical staff should not be bothered by extracting splinters from the nether regions of the users. This was situated some hundred yards from the main tent lines and faced south to-wards the majestic Atlas Mountains, and it was a joy to sit and ruminate, with three colleaques first thing in the frosty mornings and feel the warming glow of the Sirocco which had it's origins in the vast Sahara away to the south.

Sports was a big item and very soon a soccer pitch had been laid out which doubled as a camel grazing ground which meant that they had to be cleared off before we could play and so it came about that in the course of camel clearing, a young camel had been, unfortunately hit by a stone, she then told her mother who became irate and chased the first soccer player she saw who just happened to be our Tank driver, Charley Bailey from Keithley, Yorks, who was called "Camel Legs Bailey" ever after.

We had many visitors from adjoining units such as the 1st Para Div, 4th Inf Div,6th Armed Div and Marines, whose Officer prevailed upon our Troop Leader to allow him to drive a Tank as he knew all about it! He was fine on the flat until he decided to go into a small wadi - the wrong way and overturned the damned Tank. We were hard at work to try and put it back on it's tracks before the Squadron leader heard about it .. too late and so a general rollocking all around was in order !

It was at this camp also that my friend with whom I had joined the Army, Frank Alison, in a fit of homesickness wandered over with half a bottle of Cherry Brandy and proceeded to get pie eyed until finally passing out and had to be carried back to his lines at C squadron! It was here also that the news was brought from R.H.Q. that Cpl. "ginger" Robert's wife had been killed during an air-raid on London.

The cookhouse was the centre of all interest and it was in the adjoining mess tent that squadron concerts were held frequently and the two stars were Briggs(5'1") and Thirkel (6'2") both from the Halifax area who were invariably first up on stage to give us their rendition of "Gert and Daisy.They both spent a great deal of time in the cookhouse doing very menial tasks. Mention of the cookhouse leads me to a most unfortunate situation which arose through no fault of the cooking staff !

-- 3 --

It was decreed from on high in the Army Kitchens in the U.K. that we would enjoy the delights of a new development which had the main benefit of conserving space in the Merchant Navy ships to allow the storage of even more ammunition and guns in the sea passage from home. We would therefore have served a sufficient quantity of "Dehydrated Meat", true enough - this was "enjoyed " at least, the Orderly Officer heard NO complaints, but then he was a very big, burly, South African International Rugby player who never did get many complaints ! Major Christopher Newton-Thompson.M.C. died in May 2002.

Later that evening, when the sun was wending it's way towards Morocco, it was noticed that our showcse latrine was quite busy and very soon became a veritable stampede with most trying "to get there in time" - many didn't, which was not too pleasant in the a.m. when it was very noticable. This was the result of the "dehydrated meat dinner" was the general consensus and everyone suffered the main effects which quickly cleared. At that time the senior N.C.O.'s and Officers dined later in the day as only gentlemen should and thus they were all unaware of the problems attending the "dehydrated meat dinner". It was much later therefore that the senior N.C.O.'s felt the need to visit the facilites of our showcase latrine which had been very busy until they made their visit with the result that the main supporting beam gave way with a mighty crack and the Squadron Sergeant Major, along with the Squadron Quartermaster Sergent, the Squadron Sergeant Cook, and the Squadron Sergeant Mechanic/Fitter of A squadron, 145th regt R.A.C. of 21st Tank Brigade, British 1st Army, landed , as they say.... in the mire.

It was extremely difficult to keep a straight face for some time after that incident, meanwhile no more dehydrated meat was ever served again.

Mosquitoes and the attendant Malaria was a big problem in that area and so very strict measures were taken to control the problem as we had lost one driver, Albert Fairclough from Yorkshire who was sent back to England as being incurable having had constant Malaria over some nine months.The main control was to mix up one shovel full of " Paris Green -Arsenic" with 50 shovelsful of sand, mix well and spread over all the pools of water within half a mile of the camp. When the Anepholes Mosquito Larvea finally came up for air, this poison was sucked in and it was goodbye to yet another mosquito before taking flight.

One poison party was supervised by a corporal who was not the brightest star in the firmament who confused the instructions and thus when the villager's cattle came to drink, they keeled over .. dead ! Naturally the Buzzards came to clean up the envirionment... they also keeled over...dead. Now the North African Vulture is a gourmet meal for many villagers and so ... we had a local hospital full of very sick villagers! It was understood by many that a promissory note was handed over to the Head man of the village which had been signed... on the spot... by one Winston S. Churchill !

It was just as well that we were on our way to the real war in Italy.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.