大象传媒

[Did you train other units in desert fighting?]
Oh no. The only training that was done was the Basudas. Africans, the Basuda tribe. They used them, they seemed to be the most intelligent.
The AA guns were manned by Basudas, except for the NCOs. We got quite a few of the personnel that were paid off. They were from the heavy AA, we got them as reinforcements to the Light AA. That鈥檚 the only training we done, to these Basudas.

They were big, enjoyable people to be with. They were v childish, always laughing and making jokes. This sergeant in charge of a squad of them, they called him 鈥淪ergeant tell-off鈥�. Tell-off means, when a sergeant gives you the order to tail-off you stand in an line and shout your number in the line 鈥� 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, a gun crew. Because he kept telling them to tail-off, they called him 鈥淪ergeant Tell-off鈥�. The Major in charge of the battery, they called him 鈥淒addy Snow-ball鈥�.

They had a set of drums. A few guitars, but it was mostly drums.
You鈥檇 hear the bang-bang-bang.
They didn鈥檛 play modern music. They had their own, that they were brought up with. To send messages, like the American Indians and the South African natives. They used to send messages by Drums.

[Did they serve in Italy too?]
I don鈥檛 know. I think so. That Heavy AA battery was sent to Italy eventually, and they were used as Field-guns. Because there was no AA work to do, so there was other work that they could do with the guns. They used them for field-guns. They were a very accurate weapon, they deserve credit for what they did.

One of our guns and a gun crew were captured at Tobruk. They were taken to a POW camp. But they all survived as far as I recollect. They all came home again.

Teddy Doherty鈥檚 still alive. The rest of them, I don鈥檛 know.

[How many were in a crew? Sergeant, bombardier 鈥
6 men, including the sergeant.

[Who were the men who got captured?]
Ivan Montague,
Robinson, Bobby Cairns, Jimmy Hamilton. Albert Harvey.

First day there was 4 men captured. The next day, 2 or 3 men got out, then they got captured the second with a whole lot. A gun crew, then half a gun crew. There was about 9 all together.
That was after the German attack at El Agheila.

Rommel opened his attack the first week in January. The last battle at Gazala was fought some time in June, and Tobruk fell around June. The 5th battery was in Tobruk. Our sister battery, and 3 or 4 of the men escaped.

Along with some other personnel. They swam out to sea, some of them, and were picked up by the Navy. As I understand it.

The 4 men that got out of Tobruk were Montgomery,
Gerry and Dorian.
McGinn and Treasure.
They joined the 6th Battery, and that鈥檚 how we got to know them.

Hutchison was the other boy.
And it should have been the 6th Battery in Tobruk, but they switched the 5th. I don鈥檛 know why.

There was a lot of men captured at Tobruk.

[Did you mix with the LRDG?]
The LRDG picked their own men.
They were mostly ex-Guards, most of them. They were a very closely-knit unit. They didn鈥檛 mix with anybody else.

If you weren鈥檛 with them 鈥� You saw them at a distance, the sand churning up. You knew their vehicles, they had no windscreens on. The sand rising behind them like a fountain.
They did what they wanted to and got back. Nobody knew anything about it.
We used to see them quite often. We were 4-5 miles away. Nobody ever asked us to have any dealings with LRDG. They were completely on their own.

We were involved on a shoot, supposed to be. We were out, it was getting dark. It was dark, and you could see so many miles.
Camouflage was put up, we were told to sit there and not move. Next day we could see clouds of dust in the distance, on the horizon. Planes taking off and landing 鈥� stukas. The field-guns we were with, we called them 鈥渓ong toms鈥�.
The day wore on and on until night time again. After dark we went back to where we were.

A few days after we heard that LRDG headed in and planted limpet-bombs all round the aircraft and away again. We were there as much as a decoy as anything else. If they鈥檇 been looking for the LRDG they would have strafed us instead. We didn鈥檛 know at the time. We didn鈥檛 know until about a week afterwards.

[But you would have been able to defend yourself from Stukas better than the LRDG]
We had the 4 bofors and 4 long toms. We were supposed to give the AA protection, and so we would have if we鈥檇 been strafed. But we were camouflaged with no movement. No smoking or lights of any descriptions for a whole 24 hours.

That鈥檚 when Robert McDonald took ill with appendicitis. He didn鈥檛 go away in daylight, they kept him until dusk. 4 strong men took him away in an ambulance. We didn鈥檛 know he had it until the next day.

We went from Gazala to that place. 1942, or late 1941. March, I think.

We went to the NZ construction company. They were building a railway from Mersa Matruh to Tobruk. We had to give them protection. The men were being strafed while they were working.

Escorting the train. 18 Beda guns. 6 guns per troop. A troop was looking after the men and women, B and C were with the trains. That鈥檚 how they got the planes that were coming down to sabotage the railway.

The first time I got leave was in Tripoli.
And I got leave in Alex 鈥� Alexandria.

When we went away up [Italy] we had what they called BMA money. It was the same as sterling. Pounds sterling in funny notes.

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