大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Lincolnshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Norman Elsdon and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Elsdon fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

This period is rather vague in my memory; we travelled back into the desert and stayed for a few days in a wadi, doing the usual cleaning up and maintenance. Some planes flew over and dropped a few bombs beyond the ridge. The night before we moved, we went out into the plain, ready for the advance. We slept in the numerous slit trenches but had no intruders. At dawn we prepared to advance. On the horizon we saw Allied planes ringed around by enemy 鈥榝lak鈥�. One shuddered, turned back, lost height, rose again, then glided earthwards, making for the plain we occupied. A hundred yards away it bellied, stood upright on its nose, then flopped. We raced over but the pilot 鈥� a colonial 鈥� calmly stepped out of the plane, so we merely drove him back to our HQ. I also remember that we lost our breakfast, a mess tin and a couple of knives in the rush.

So we moved off. Before long, a sudden 鈥榗rump鈥� advised us that we were being bombed. A second alter, three of us were on top of one another in the nearest trench. It was soon over, a lorry or two had been blown up. So on we went again, finally halting before the, by now, well known 鈥楪abes Gap鈥�. Towards evening six twin-engined bombers flew over, bombing and strafing us 鈥� we were in a trench very quickly. Up went the ack-ack from the anti-aircraft guns; three were hit and one pilot baled out with shells bursting below him. One plane came to a spectacular end; it seemed to stop in the sky, stand slowly on end and then head straight into the desert sands. Great clouds of smoke marked the spot. In the early hours of the following morning, when I was on wireless watch, the tracer bullets could be seen flicking across the dark sky tracking enemy planes.

During the night the artillery and infantry attacked in force and in the morning we were able to pass through the Gap. One Axis soldier lay dead at the side of the road, completely shattered. Although we are usually in advance of the main forces, casualties are always cleared up very quickly. Then we fanned out into the desert and came across some enemy lorries, which were shot up. We sorted through the kit they were carrying and I found a Beretta revolver, much to the disgust of some of the 鈥榦ld soldiers鈥� who had been looking for one for a long time. Prisoners were walking into our lines without escort, probably glad to be out of it all 鈥� no time for us to provide escorts.

Day by day we moved on. One morning, sitting on a ridge above a plain, we suddenly saw our Squadron HQ do a sudden about turn and pass us. We soon realised why 鈥� the German鈥檚 latest heavily armoured 鈥淭iger鈥� tank had just hove into view. A Sherman tank about ten yards to your right was firing at other tanks some thousand yards away whilst against us, the O.P. (Range Finding Observer) was radioing orders back to the gunners. The artillery fire became too close, so off went the enemy tanks. We then moved along one wadi, up the steep ridge, across the plain, then into the shelter of a further wadi. Suddenly, an armoured car appeared from the enemy direction 鈥� all our guns turned on it. It turned out to be British; the car commander seemed quite peeved to be told he had nearly been shop up. We moved to a square white building to make further observations. A few enemy shells dropped around us but they soon stopped, so we moved off again and came across a single track railway and a small building which seemed to serve as a station. A young native lad lay there, his shoulder shot away to the bone. Some of the natives spoke French so we gave them a shell dressing and I tried to explain how to apply it 鈥� they would not let us touch him. Nothing much could be done for hi; such is war.

Just before dusk, we moved forward again. I drove a jeep across the desert; a strange experience just blindly following the vehicle in front 鈥� no light, naturally. Soon after midnight, we pulled off the track. I recall going to sleep in amongst the corn. And again with the dawn we moved on. That day we were stationary out on the plain, complete with our echelon. I was standing beside the jeep admiring a squadron of our fighter bombers passing overhead. But the first suddenly seemed to stand on its side 鈥︹�滾ook out鈥� to the driver 鈥hen they peeled off and I saw two bombs leave the plane. Then we left and wandered away from the vehicles and came close to 鈥檛erra firma鈥�. The bombs were a minor worry. What we were expecting next was that they would come down and strafe; the RAF are deadly at that game and there wasn鈥檛 a scrap of cover. Maybe they realised their mistake because after bombing they left us, much to our relief. The only casualties were four punctures and some scratches. Fortunate, really.

Then we went forward again to do some observing of the enemy who were in a small farm among the groves of fruit trees. I recall spending a chilly afternoon on a ridge, the jeep having been sent out to watch the HQ鈥檚 right flank. There didn鈥檛 seem to be any sign of the enemy moving in our direction, so we brewed up. Their position was shelled. They sent a couple of shells at us but nothing happened and at dusk we returned to the plains to leaguer. Fires lit too late by some unit attracted the bombs but we escaped, although we slept the night 鈥榖elow deck鈥�.

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