Work in progress
Previous |Contents | Next The following is written partly in the first person by Cliff, and the rest in the third by me ~ Ian § The Division’s mission in Syria and Lebanon had been to defend the heavy bomber airfield and to delay as much as possible any German invasion ... Read more
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 ... Read more
Previous |Contents | Next Cliff’s next letter was dated 25 May, ten days later, and he was writing from Syria. They’d traveled by bus to Haifa, then by train to Damascus. As context it’s interesting to note that Cliff was in Damascus over 80 years ago, but little more than 20 ... Read more
I’ve now taken Cliff’s story past his convalescence in Alexandria after he was shot up in late 1941 at Sidi Resegh, outside Tobruk. After recuperating he headed to Palestine for more of the same, and rubbed up against the Poms, the Jews, kibbutzes — plus lots of oranges! — before ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next By mid-May Cliff was in Palestine. They’d travelled there by train in goods vans and cattle trucks, a stop-and-start journey and a good deal of it at night while they tried to sleep. The following is from Cliff’s letters home to Dorothy. ~ Ian § ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next One patient in particular I can never forget. I spent two nights with him in that tent. He’d been in a tank that caught fire and every part of his body was burned. He was completely covered in bandages, with holes for mouth and nose, ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next It was well attended, and everyone who could walk or crawl seemed to be there. One thing is certain: everyone prayed with great sincerity for deliverance. The tiny flake dipped in wine was of little sustenance to our physical being, but in my case at ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next The rest of us weren’t too badly off, mostly leg and arm wounds as far as I can remember, though a man alongside me had three bullet holes through his lungs. Sgt. Dave Clarke, the only man I knew, was suffering from a blast injury ... Read more
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 ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next He had a history with pain, and a strategy for coping with it — swear like hell and get on with things. His approach to illness was similar — to act “sullen and aggressive”, especially towards the nurses. And he hated to be thought a ... Read more