Work in progress
Previous | Contents | Next James (Sonny) After Angus was demobilised he went to work for Sonny, and to begin with business was good. “Heather was just born and things were going well,” Angus writes, “when for some reason Sonny decided to sell up and buy another place in the Balham markets”. This ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next Wartime service Angus’s first job was in a drawing office with a heating and ventilation engineer in Kingsway, London, but after some eighteen months he decided to join the Royal Air Force. “This was accomplished by buying six months extra National Health Stamps to falsely increase my ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next After that peculiar yet vivid memory of meeting his grandfather in the “wee Turkish hat” as a three year old, Angus’s next memory was when he was six — “making scooters and riding the South London roads with brother Douglas and friends”. His brother James ... Read more
Last Anzac Day my nephew Peter asked me if there was any way he could access his grandfather’s war stories to read to his kids. I had to disappoint him but said I was working at publishing them online. Well, it took the best part of a year but, finally, ... Read more
There’s a scene near the end of Dr Zhivago (the movie) where the sick Zhivago sees Lara, his lost love, walking down the street as the tram he’s on passes her by. He struggles to get off and catch up with her but collapses and dies. She walks on. We’ve ... Read more
I’ve now taken Cliff’s story through to the Battle of Alamein. 1942 started off reasonably well for him in Palestine and Syria, then outside Alexandria with part of 6th Brigade. They were away from the front line until the middle of July. After that, though, they were living in slit ... Read more
Previous |Contents | NextSunday 6 September. A spectacular dog fight this morning. Eight planes down today, four of ours and four German. I walked over to inspect some wreckage. The plane had been in a dive and failed to come out of it. There was hardly a piece left bigger than ... Read more
Previous |Contents | 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 ... Read more
Previous |Contents | Next Montgomery had taken command of 8th Army on 7 August, and things were changing. § Wednesday 19th August . Most of our Base Wallahs have been roped in as reinforcements, to our great satisfaction. We’ve heard that Churchill has been in Cairo and sacked six generals including Auchinleck. ... Read more
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 ... Read more