In late September 1941 Cliff began keeping a new diary in an old notebook.1 I’m posting his entries for the days 21-24 November here to set the scene for his account of the looming Battle of Sidi Rezegh.
Cliff and his mates had been in Egypt since mid May — “We’ve seen the pyramids in the distance,” he wrote to Dorothy in his first letter — and they’d spent the five months since exploring Cairo and training. The diary opens with him frustrated by the “begging, thieving” Egyptians who’d knicked his goggles.
Fast forward to late September and the entire 5th Brigade was heading out to what became known as the Kaponga Box, South West of Alamein, where they’d be digging in fortifications that would become an important part of the defensive line the following year.
October was devoted to yet more training, including on their signals duties, and issues critical to a “war of movement” in the desert — navigation, large scale manoeuvres of motorised units, maintaining dispersed formations (to minimise casualties in the event of attack) and so on — and all the above at night, without lights. On one daytime exercise the navigator made a mistake, and they were roundly abused for driving their trucks through another camp at tea time. An argument ensued, in which it was decided Cliff knew best. “Arrived home after dark in a great cloud of dust.”
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Things were warming up. On the 14th October Cliff and Wilo were told their new job — providing communication between Colonel Jim Allen, the C.O. of 21 Battalion, and 5th Brigade HQ.
On the 21st came instructions from the Brigadier to get streamlined for action, to get rid of surplus gear and to burn all letters and communications of any kind.
Then, on Sunday 26th October, after church parade and watching a game of football, Cliff wrote that he was “surprised to hear that Wilo had gone to the Casualty Clearing Stn. Evidently Wilo had asked Doctor to examine his heart. I don’t expect him back here again. Go for a swim after lunch and have a game of water polo. Good fun.”
On Sunday, 9 November he wrote that he’d been allocated his new work mate, George Darroch. George had arrived just a few days ago from base camp at Maadi.”Very quiet and uncommunicative. Has fair technical knowledge of wireless.”
Not long after that the Brigade headed West towards the Libyan border, and into two weeks of constant movement leading up to the Crusader battle, which began on the 18th. It was exhausting for Cliff. As an essential link between 21 Battalion and Brigade HQ, he and George were expected to be on deck 24 hours a day, and George turned out to be less capable in some respects. At some point in those two weeks Colonel Allen lent them his Batman, Len Hunter, to help out. Len became a good friend to Cliff and all three shared some dramatic experiences.
At one point Cliff, writing after the event, became confused about dates. I’ve corrected them but made very other changes to the text. ~ Ian
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Friday 21st Nov
Saturday now and my brain is so dull from lack of sleep that I’m having some difficulty to remember even what happened yesterday. Have lost our bearings properly now. Too tired to trace our route although I know our approximate position. Off my maps now. C.O. has my map of this area. Stay in camp until approx. 3 pm and then move north. Stop before dark. Enemy artillery dropping shells pretty close. We are either out of range or he can’t quite land them in the right place. Bn now remote from rest of Bde. Wireless sole communication. Found it necessary to erect end-fed aerial. Busy night. George is too slow and inexperienced & consequently I had to work until 2/30 am Saturday morning.
Saturday 22nd Nov
Try to sleep but just doze. Disturbed by O.C. sending message and other distractions. Enemy artillery landing shells pretty close but unsuccessful. Move fwd again. Arrive present position about lunchtime. Engaged immediately by artillery. Artillery duel all afternoon. Coys sent fwd on arrival engaged enemy. A.C. [Plant?] right. Some mistake made. Seven wounded brought back before dark. One serious. One chap walked back from front about 1 to 1-1/2 half miles with a bullet in each arm & one in his side & still cheerful. Says our arty doing great work. Our linesmen arrive with Bde line. But shortly afterwards it went out. 3 pm now. I’m on the set and our artillery is giving them merry hell. Medium heavy. Shaking the truck.
(25th 24th now and things aren’t quite as lively so will try to catch up on this.)
About 11:30 pm Saturday night [22nd] I was struggling to keep awake (George was asleep) when we and several other M.T. [motorised transport] were ordered to pack up and we went out forward to evacuate our troops.2 Several bogged and two burnt of the trucks which took them out. This position is very much stronger than had been thought and we engaged them at a point where resistance was not expected. They are well dug in with machine guns firing on set lines, wire encircling them, also have several pill boxes. Our boys have had a hell of a day and haven’t been able to raise their heads.
About 11:30 pm Saturday night [22nd] I was struggling to keep awake (George was asleep) when we and several other M.T. [motorised transport] were ordered to pack up and we went out forward to evacuate our troops. Several bogged and two burnt of the trucks which took them out. This position is very much stronger than had been thought and we engaged them at a point where resistance was not expected. They are well dug in with machine guns firing on set lines, wire encircling them, also have several pill boxes. Our boys have had a hell of a day and haven’t been able to raise their heads.
I forgot to mention that we had a very heavy downfall of rain this morning shortly after engaging enemy which made ground extremely boggy and impossible in places for M.T. and also made our job much unpleasanter although the heavy mist covered advance in first instance. Unable to dig in and tried to make holes by chopping ground with bayonet and scratching it out with their hands. Machine gun fire very consistent whilst trying to get men out and tracer and incendiary bullets looked quite pretty chasing each other across one’s line of vision.
My first time under fire and at first didn’t even trouble to lay low until I saw others doing so. Didn’t think of it somehow. Every time bullets whistled past impulsively looked up to look at them as if expecting to see something there. Too tired to worry over much. Len and I ducked down by the truck when we heard one whistle very close on one occasion and it was just as well for the ones following must have cut just over our heads. Len swore one had just grazed the top of his tin hat and one must have struck the truck chassis. I haven’t looked for a hole yet but heard it strike. One hit CO‘s car window. Just as well Jerry didn’t know for sure we were there or we would have got it pretty hot. Take four men on board, wait for the rest to load up and then we set off back. Arty put across a barrage to cover us. They have fired over 3000 rounds today or since we arrived. Blew up one of Jerries’ ammo dumps during the morning. Set off back as I seem to have said before and bedded down about 3:30 am. George worked rest of night. I sat in front of truck and just died.
Sunday 23rd Nov
Leave position at 11 am. Follow C.O. to Bde and Div HQ. Catch a convoy which was on the move. Travel right through night & get out of wireless range of Bde HQ. Since then have been so tired that things have become somewhat muddled & can’t quite remember exactly when certain happenings took place. For instance this afternoon we were asked if we had had any water issue today and we said no and that we had been given a mug full yesterday. (We haven’t had any since Friday.) We were given that water this morning (25th 24th) and it seems ages since then. Enemy are on the run and we are following them up. Bde is in reserve today & we are reserve Bn. 20th Bn (4th Bde) is in front of us.
Stop for the night, or morn, approx. 3 am Monday. I took over the set and worked till 5 am but unable to raise central or other stations. Out of range. Low power unit is very limited. Driving has been terrific and have struggled to keep awake. Sleep for about an hour on the set. Move at 6 am and take a position in Wadi about 2 mls ahead. Small tank battle in progress on left and we are engaged by Arty. Few shells land among us with effect. Dig in and charge batteries which were flat. Erected Wyndam aerial but failed to contact Bde. Move once more approx. 12 pm. Travelling at greater speed now.
Div HQ followed us up yesterday and we saw quite a bit of General Freyberg who was shocked at our casualties received Saturday. Haven’t been made known yet but at least 40 I should say were evacuated wounded and several killed. Indians went in on Sunday morning with tanks and found enemy had departed. Evidently mistook our evacuation trucks for reinforcements and got out of it. Engaged by many Arty and watch tank scrap on left. Lob a few shots across but Jerry and us were soon on the move again. Bed down pretty early and got a good night’s sleep. Brigade is out of wireless range still and it was useless trying to get them. Sleeping in back of truck, George in trench we had dug.
Tuesday Monday 24th Nov
10:30 pm now and I have been writing diary from Friday. Things have been pretty lively and I’m losing count of the days so this record of events from time point of view is very inaccurate. Feel 100% this morning after a good sleep. There has been a noticeable absence of cooked food of late & we George and I have been using our tinned stuff which is proving very helpful. Last night we fried up some tinned sausages and had some apricots. Can’t do that too often or we shall run out very quickly. Bully stew for breakfast this morning and since then a cup of tea. A tin of bully and biscuits issued this morning for use during the day. Moved forward at approximately 8 am. Engaged by machine gun and arty approximately midday in a Wadi forward of us.
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The diary ends there. Shortly afterwards the Bn moved up for the Sidi Rezegh attack.
Footnotes
- I’m grateful for the notebook because it gave Cliff room to spread out — as in his letters home but without a censor reading — instead of the tiny diaries he occasionally used.
↩︎ - This will have been the action at Beir El Gubi that Cliff refers to in the Sidi Rezegh narrative.
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