Work in progress
Well, it wasn’t the smallest car in Italy, which would be very small indeed, but it wasn’t large, and it was certainly bare of most creature comforts. It was also a little wider than it seemed from my (unaccustomed) side of the car, and twice I clipped another vehicle with ... Read more
| Contents | Next Tell the kids also that Dad and I always had a combative relationship, but I’d never been closer to him than this. I can’t remember exactly when we stopped bickering with each other, but this trip was a rather graceless step on the way. Rather graceless on ... 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
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) ... Read more