大象传媒

Chapter 6

We spent Christmas 1941, such as it was, at Martuba, I travelled to Tobruk on Christmas Eve in the pouring rain, 100 miles or so and got nothing for the troops except 20 Players cigarettes each. Shortly after this we moved to Barce, B Echelon leading, the road was washed away so we had to make a detour, it took us all one day to do the trip in the pouring rain, not at all pleasant. We occupied some barracks at Barce for a couple of days, but I found it better to sleep in my truck it was more comfortable. I did a very good deal with a farmer in Barce; I got some pig and piglets in exchange for some bully beef and biscuits. I arranged for them to be slaughtered overnight and carried them with us to Benina next day for issue to the troops; we reached there on New Years Eve 1941. We stayed at Benina nearly a month, I was very comfortable erecting my camp bed in a house opposite Battalion HQ together with Frank Day, Archie Edwards and Ali Bates, I had a vivid red eiderdown for my bed, of which I was very proud, water and electric light was on tap and we had a very safe air raid shelter underneath the scullery. My office was next door in the Meteorological office and my stores were next door to that in two civilian shops, on the whole very comfortable. For once we had a good officers mess in the local police station and we fed very well. Life here was fairly quiet except of course for air raids, but my shelter was very efficient and although bombs dropped very near, no damage was caused, however the anti tank platoon suffered casualties. I bought a watch in Benghazi for one of the boys, a unique watch too, it showed half time at football matches by twisting the dial, later on I damaged it and eventually threw it away in disgust. Letters from Kit came through here quite well and how I used to look forward to them, I was writing regularly too. I was told that I might get a job as escort to prisoners to South Africa, how I prepared and looked forward to this even going so far as to get some extra kit up from the dump and Sticky split it up, wanted and not wanted on voyage but as it turned out all to no avail.

About the 25th January 1942 we got our orders to prepare to move on Plan A or B, A forward B back, on the morning of the 26th, Plan A was put into operation and we moved forward to a place called Ghemins arriving there about 1600 hours. I had previously been told that petrol would be available at this place but on arrival found out that the dump was to be at Benghazi, consequently I had to send all the way back again to get a load. I did not go up to the Battalion because my petrol lorry had not returned. It was my intention to move B Echelon area on the following morning the 27th January 1942 but this order was not carried out. Early on the 27th the CO returned from leave, I couldn鈥檛 tell him where the Battalion was because I had not been told. My ration convoy was due to leave at 1045 hours but after getting all prepared the order was cancelled, I was in two minds whether to disobey the order and take a chance. At about 1400 hours a conference was held at Echelon HQ, which was interrupted by a ground strafe, the Cameron Highlanders lost their petrol lorry by fire, I dived for cover in doing so I damaged my watch. At the conference we were ordered to return to Benghazi in the neighbourhood of Benina aerodrome and to leave there at 1800 hours the same evening. Eventually we got on the move, my party was about in the middle of the convoy, and we halted as ordered at the aerodrome and started to prepare tea being under the impression that we were not leaving before 1800 hours.

On the previous day I had been joined by Sgt Ettridge with his anti tank gun, about 1630 hours I received a message from the Brigade Staff Officer ordering me to send the anti tank gun forward to the head of the column as German tanks were coming down the Benina road. We suddenly received orders to push on and moved down the Benina bypass, after going some way along the column turned off toward Benghazi and halted. I went along the bypass to find the reason for turning off and came across Sgt Ettridge with his gun and a platoon of the Welch Regiment He said that tanks were ahead and what should he do, I could only tell him to hang on until the convoy was through. Turning about I went along the column and came across a captain in the Indian Medical Service and asked him what the hold-up was, he said he was in the Medical Service and did not know what to do. I told him which way to go and also get a move on.

The column moved once again until we came across the Welch Regt HQ busy packing up and blocking the road, after a lot of swearing the road was cleared and we were able to get on. Once passed the Benina and Barce road junction I breathed a sigh of relief and pushed on steadily for Karmusa as I hoped. After travelling for another 5 kms I came across Mike Allden BMTO, he asked me to send forward any guns that I had got because the head of the column had come up against a road block, I therefore sent my two bren guns forward, a short distance on I came across the rest of the column halted on the road. On going forward I found out that the roadblock had been established at El Coefia, by this time darkness had fallen and it became difficult to find out what was holding us up.

Lieut.-Colonel Lavender then appeared and decided to attack but as his Battalion was not with him, my B Echelon were used but as they only had rifles it was unsuccessful, one private was killed and two others were wounded. A Carrier of the 4/16th Punjabs came along and that got knocked out, the 65th Anti Tank Regt brought up some 2 pounders, they suffered the same fate. The road by this time was rather crowded, then the Welch came along causing chaos, 2 companies went into attack but that was the last seen of them. At about 11 pm the road behind us was blown up, as were the dumps in Benghazi. I gave instructions for any papers of importance to be destroyed. During the night we received various orders from the head of the column telling us to prepare to move, I saw the wireless truck being destroyed and several officers leaving the column. At 5 am on the 28th January 1942 a message was passed down the column telling us to destroy our vehicles and to do as best we could, but we were not to set them on fire. I gave orders to do this and set off for the coast with Fred Hearn, Baker and Glue, by this time it was just getting daylight. Between the road and coast was a bog and a hell of lot of water and in working our way round this we got very dose to the road block and were fired upon by machine guns and a 2 pounder, this caused us to take cover quickly, the only place this could be done was in the water. We started off well and truly wet and what food, cigarettes and matches we had were in a sorry state. From this position we could see our leading troops of our column being taken prisoner, some of our lorries tried to dash by, some being successful owing to the Germans being otherwise occupied but only a few lighter ones managed it.

We eventually reached the coast rather the worse for wear, here we met up with several others who were drying themselves, I knew we were fairly safe from their armoured vehicles because of the terrain, but before halting to dry ourselves I decided to go along the coast a bit farther. Fred Hearn I left behind with some of his own troops and I continued with several of my men, I tried to get them to travel in small groups but they continually joined up. I eventually picked up with Padre Jones and later in the day Lt Green RE, during the afternoon I called a halt for a spell for two reasons, one to decide on my next course of action and the other to bypass the village of Driana under cover of darkness. I decided that the only possible way for me was to make for Tocra and then turn inland. The food Glue and I had was not much good after being soaked in salt water. Padre Jones had half a bottle of gin and a bar of chocolate and Jack Green had nothing, while we were resting Mick Allden and some of the Brigade staff came along. A corporal of the Welch Regt came along with a platoon, I advised him not to go on in daylight otherwise they would be caught at Driana, he did not take the advice and was caught. Just before dusk we started off again the going was dreadful and the night got very cold. We passed Driana without incident and continued on well into the night and eventually stopped for a sleep making holes in the sand in which to get a bit of shelter but it was too cold to sleep.

In the early hours of the 29th January 1942 we moved on again, it being my intention to reach the outskirts of Tocra that night but everything went wrong, the going was worse than the previous day in some places we were close to the road and had to move with extreme caution because of the enemy traffic on the road. In other places we had to wade into the sea and then into sand dunes, it rained and the wind was terribly strong. I was trying to keep to about 4 miles in the hour with the 10-minute halt but in this I was frustrated because Padre Jones could not keep up. During the afternoon the Padre said he could go no further, I hadn鈥檛 the heart to leave him behind so we had another long halt and a bite to eat. We were all very hungry and dying for a hot drink but we had to conserve what very little drinking water we had leave alone heat any up. Later on in the afternoon we pushed on for another 10 miles or so and I could see that all of us were nearly done for the day, having but very little to eat so once again we halted for the night. It was far too cold to sleep and in any case I couldn't, I lay thinking of Kit and the boys and what would the Regiment think of me if I didn鈥檛 get back somehow or the other. So after a sleepless night we moved on again the ground was even more worse than the previous day, some places we had to scramble over rocks, in others knee deep in sand and in one place walk 戮 mile up to the waist in water. This was far too much for the Padre and Jack Green but I didn't weaken this time and left them behind. Our own pace was much slower at this stage and must have looked a motley crowd; I had to make the halts much longer.

The night of the 30th January 1942 was much like the others sleepless for thinking and cold. By this time we were nearing Tocra which I knew we could not pass in daylight so decided that we would get as close as possible during the day, once again we moved off so as to get a good rest before nightfall. We reached an old building on the coast in which to hide during the day, it had some occupants when we arrived, one RAF and two RA. Our water had run out by this time so we dug a hole in the sand, but we only got salt water out of it however we warmed it up and put 0X0 in it, not what one calls good. We took advantage of washing our feet in the sea, which refreshed us considerably, but the weather was too cold to make it pleasant. All afternoon we rested, I prayed for a cloudy night as the fort at Tocra was quite close to the foreshore. At dusk we started out it was cloudy; I was excited thinking this would be one of the last obstacles but my hopes were dashed to the ground. The sky cleared and it was just like daylight. We came across a water hole at which we had a good drink and all filled our water bottles. We got within 陆 mile of the fort when we could see it was useless so we just sank down behind some bushes and tried to sleep. On the morning of 1st February 1942 we pooled what food we had which was hardly nothing and then as expected we were rounded up like a lot of sheep. I was taken away from the troops and put under a guard and given a bottle of water some biscuits and bully. How terribly degraded I felt, what would happen to Kit, what would happen about money, how would she manage, what would the Regiment think, all kinds of things went through my head in fact I felt like crying and couldn't eat what had been provided for me.

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