Work in progress
Previous | Contents | Next Cliff wrote the following in the 1970s. General Montgomery, the 8th Army Commander in Chief, once asked Corps Commander Horrocks which he would prefer — six Divisions with less than adequate communications; or five Divisions with first class signals. Horrocks opted unhesitatingly for the latter, commenting that it was quite impossible to fight a…
Previous | Contents | Next What we generally think of as the Battle of El Alamein, the turning point of the war in North Africa, was in fact the second battle. The first saw the 8th Army stand and fight just 40 miles or so from Cairo, Alexandria, the Suez Canal — and major strategic defeat.…
Previous | Contents | Next Quotes from letters and Cliff’s new diary, with additions from the 1990s. Monday, 27 July 1942. I’m with 25 Battalion, with Jimmy Grant as my offsider. Our set is installed in a Bren Carrier. Jimmy is most unhappy. His wife is almost due to have a baby and he suffers from…
Previous | Contents | Next Writing fifty years later, and with just a few letters and his memory to depend on, Cliff wrote that he had only a few recollections of the days following his return to the front. This was in the days between the attacks on Ruweisat Ridge (14-15 July) and on the Mreir…
Previous | Contents | Next First, Cliff described a night attack on an imaginary enemy… 24, 25 and 26 Battalions with supporting arms were assembled before dark for the attack. Each Battalion had its own objective for the attack, which began in pitch black darkness. Controlling a formation like this in daylight usually results in…
Previous | Contents | Next Cyrenaica, the Eastern region of Libya, had been an Italian colony since 1912 and a theatre of the war since 1940. Although the Allies had decisively beaten the Italians, they’d since been pushed back into Egypt by the Germans under General Rommel. Only the strategically important port of Tobruk remained…
Contents Some of the text, mainly after Alamein, has been complied by me from Cliff’s letters to his fiancée Dorothy McCarroll, his occasional diary and postwar anecdotes. Photos, comments and footnotes have also been added by me. You can tap on most photos to view them full size. ~ Ian NEXT