Work in progress
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 trenches for a couple of…
Previous | Contents | Next Sunday 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 a benzene box.…
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 § Cliff wrote later: Things changed rapidly from then on. Kippenberger (OC 5th Brigade) described this period as the most trying time the New Zealand Division ever experienced. “Summer was at its height and flies at their worst. Strengths were so low that there was little rest for anyone. We were…
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 The following is written partly in the first person by Cliff, and the rest in the third by me ~ Ian § On the 24th he was back in Egypt with 26 Battalion at Amraya (possibly Amreya, a locality outside Alexandria), a British transit camp outside Alexandria. “Not a popular place.” …
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 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 years after Lawrence of…
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 heading to Syria and training…