大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from CSV Actiondesk on behalf of Mr J Ellison and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Ellison fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

A lot of people think the Western Desert is like the Sahara, all sand-dunes but what a big mistake that would be. Lying about the desert is no picnic; it's lousy with fleas, scorpions, lizards and bull ants the size of frogs. It's a terrible place to be, even the wild dogs and bedouins don't like it, especially the sandstorms. That is one thing the Bedouins are good at, they can tell hours before hand when a sandstorm is going to come.

I can remember the first time I went up the desert, we travelled by vehicles to Sidi-Barrani. When we arrived at our destination, according to our map reference, there was not a soul to be seen, until the Sergeant saw something move. He ordered one of the men who was acting as runner to go and investigate; then all of a sudden heads were popping up all over the place. We found out that it was part of 30th Corps HQ. Their camouflage was that great, that they had tanks and vehicles dug in covered with netting and bracken you could hardly see a thing.

We were shown how to make a dug out so we could have a rest. We were given 2 IPI tents, then we dug a hole 15 foot square and 15 foot deep. Then we turned one of the IPI tents upside down to cover the floor and the walls of the hole we had just dug. The other IPI tent was spread over the top of the hole. Bolders were then spread all the way round the edge to keep it down and to stop it blowing away. It was very comfortable especially when the sandstorm was raging. We had to spend all day cleaning our weapons and equipment by shaking the sand out of our boots and clothing because the sand used to get everywhere.

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