Written partly in the first person by Cliff, the rest in the third by me ~ Ian
After Tebaga Gap Cliff’s diary became an abbreviated1 mix of troop movements, passing observations and occasional tragedy. At Alamein he’d been sent into action with the Engineers after having first been posted to HQ. This time he remained with HQ as 8th Army pushed on towards Tunis, another two hundred miles away:
Monday 5 April: Do some washing and have a bath. Meet Frosty who is now a Lt. May be a Capt soon. OC Carriers 25 Bn. Led 13 Plat into last scrap. Only he and Coy Cmdr came out of his Coy. Move on 1/2 hrs notice from 8/30 am tomorrow morning.
Tuesday 6 April: Have not moved today after all. Attack took place this morning. HD 4 Indian Div & 50 Div took part. Enemy launched two counter attacks. HD had to withdraw from their objective. Attack on a whole successful. Barrage began 0400 lasted about 6 hrs.
Wednesday 7 April: Work from 0230 to 0500 hrs. 1200 to 1730. 2200 to 0300. Move about 0830 hrs. Enemy has flown. Total PWs at end of day approx. 1250. We passed through Wadi Akaret tonight over A/TK ditch, through minefield etc. Passed many PW on way back. Also some MET equipment. Letters from Dot and Mum. Stop for night about 11 pm.
Thursday 8 April Work till 3 am. A dirty dusty day. Arose at 0645 and were on the way by 0800 hrs. Italian general with staff of 500 captured today. I’m feeling very tired and sleepy. Work from 0700 to 1200 and from a 1700 to midnight. Pass by E tip of salt lake today.
Friday 9 April: Work from 0730 to 1230 and 1730 to 2000 hrs. 0100 to 0700 hours. 24th Bn knock out MK3 and MK3 Special concentration on right. Have passed through grasslands and cultivations today. Must have done about 30 miles. Everything is going ahead fast. Patrol in contact with small rearguards. Enemy has still got quite a few tanks including MK6 “Tigers” 60 tonner carrying 88mm guns. Thousands of acres of grasslands. Quite a change.
Saturday 10 April: Plans altered & we are to head for coast & outflank some forces to S. Move at 0800 and keep up good pace all day. Little enemy resistance. Country improved as we went. Cross the rlwy & end up on good road. KDG posn about 10 mls from coast. 8 Armd N of them & us to SSW. 1st A NW of us. Sfax reported clear of enemy this morning.
Sunday 11th April: Brigs Miles & Hargest2 escaped to Switzerland. Are camped among olive trees. A lovely place and a wonderful display of wild poppies and other wild flowers. Move after tea and settled down again about 8 pm. Shorty went to Sfax. Fax today with Barcough (LO). Says Sfax is a big town and was nice once. Now battered about. Brought back some wine.
Monday 12 April: Breakfast 0600 hrs. Move about 7am. Spend day stopped on road. Later about 6pm set off covered about 20 mls N of Sousse. Contacting enemy. We are about W of Sousse now. 5 Bde in lead we in reserve.
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Takrouna
The Div was fast approaching Takrouna and Enfidaville. Takrouna would be their last major engagement in North Africa, and “the scene of many brave deeds” as Cliff wrote under this photograph, where it looms in the distance, giving little sense of the challenge it presented as the inland flank of yet another narrow front between it and the sea.
“In front of us are many defence lines in foothills and high mountains beyond,” he wrote on the 16th. “Looks like a tough proposition.” And next day, “an attack is being planned but we have been told very little about it.”
And on the 19th, “An attack comes off some time tonight but we still haven’t been told anything. ACV is going up as TAC HQ” — meaning they would be close to the front line. “Should have a lively time. Here’s hoping for a lot of luck.”
In fact 6 Bde had little trouble reaching its objectives. “The enemy ran away. Bde casualties only about 82.” There was still consistent shelling up forward on the 21st, but for Cliff being stationed at Brigade HQ was a holiday after the Battalions. Two of his mates had been wounded during the attack, though, and Brig. Gentry was replaced that morning, having been appointed Deputy Chief of Staff. Two days later Cliff was also transferred.
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5 Brigade weren’t as lucky as the 6th. On the 22nd and 23rd Cliff wrote in his diary:
Maoris have taken Takrouna after sticky fighting. 5 Bde casualties heavy. Takrouna is a steep, rocky feature riddled with tunnels, has a castle on top. Enemy threw grenades in RAP [Regimental Aid Post]. Maoris went mad with grenades and bayonets. Threw them over cliffs and if still alive at the bottom got to work with Tommy gun. Enemy has a wonderful position for defence and will take some shifting. 5 Bde was to be relieved, but it was called off at last moment. Battalions are having a sticky time with shellfire…
There are vivid accounts of the battle in Kippenberger3 and on the Maori Battalion’s website and elsewhere, but New Zealand History summed it up in a paragraph:
On 19-20 April 1943 the New Zealand Division set off to clear the foothills between Enfidaville and Takrouna. While the 6th (NZ) Brigade, on the right, achieved its objectives without too much difficulty, the 5th (NZ) Brigade suffered heavy casualties as it pushed forward in an area dominated by Takrouna, an outcrop of rock rising steeply from the plain at the end of a ridge. Troops from 28th (Maori) Battalion managed to scale the heights and seized the summit after fierce fighting. Determined counter-attacks forced the New Zealanders off Takrouna but it was retaken on 21 April by a small group led by Sergeant Haane Manahi. Men from other units also joined the assault, including Sergeant Walter Smith (23 Battalion), who used telephone cables to pull himself up to Takrouna’s main ridge. One senior British commander described this action as ‘the most gallant feat of arms’ he saw during the war. Smith received a DCM for his part in the battle. Manahi was recommended for a VC but was instead awarded a DCM.
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Resentment
In a letter to Dorothy Cliff simply said they were “in the middle of an action”, and nothing about the ferocious fighting or heavy casualties. His current job was safer and more interesting, he’d told her, and the long letters home about his personal experience in the front line naturally became a thing of the past. Neither did he write about Takrouna after the war, bar this anecdote about how they were “bombed by the Yanks” on May 4, which had rated a bare mention in his diary:
This was a flight of 18 bombers flying in a broad V-shaped formation, intent on pattern bombing. I was a little concerned for they appeared to be flying in the wrong direction and I could sense danger. Then, as they flew towards us over a distant hillside I could see that they were American. They had bombed us before and couldn’t be trusted. They were flying low enough for me to see the bombs leaving the planes and explosions on the distant hillside. We were for it. I looked for a sheltered hollow in the ground, and some engineers alongside sought the shelter of our tank. The tank was not for me for I had seen what happens when a tank gets a direct hit. Luckily for us the leader of this group apparently realised we were not the enemy and stopped the pattern bombing. They had only released the first stick… I only saw one truck go up in flames and don’t know what other damage was done.
What he did write home about was his bitterness at being overlooked for promotion, and the quality of some, maybe many, of the officers and NCOs.4 “We were two Lance Corporals under strength in our section,” he wrote, “and I had great hopes of filling one vacancy.”
And there was the unfaithfulness of wives and girl friends back home. He knew it was asking a lot of them, including Dorothy, to stay loyal, but…
Bill was asking after you and sends his love. Congratulated me on our engagement & he thinks, as I do, that I’m a lucky man. He too, poor chap, has joined the “turf” club. His fiancée turned him down in favour of the airforce. I sympathised with him but that wouldn’t help much. In Ailsa’s last letter she informed me that she had turned down Bob, her soldier fiancé, who had been away six months, down and is now contemplating engagement to the airforce also.
It was as well another link to his growing resentment of the Americans, in which he wasn’t alone. In a letter the previous September he’d written, as part of a wider gripe to Dorothy, that it was a “fine thing” sending the Yanks over to New Zealand while the Div was stuck in the Middle East:
The Aussies are pretty hostile too. I believe it was published in at least three Aussie papers that their Div had elected to stay here and fight rather than go home. Men’s wives have been going crook at them in their letters for it. Consequently, we hear a lot of stories, some of them true, maybe, funny and otherwise. A typical one is about an Aussie who had a letter from his wife saying she had adopted a four days old baby. Pretty hot, eh? Our boys are pretty cheerful, though, and seem to take things as they come, even though it’s pretty tough.
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Transfer
He continued writing the following day, but much happier:
I am writing this from the innards of a Mark 3 Honey tank, and believe it or not I’m in the New Zealand Divisional Cavalry. After my yesterday morning tirade you may have expected something like this to happen but like me you wouldn’t expect it to happen so soon. Ray, Dink and I were discussing the army’s peculiarities, in particular Div Sigs, when along came George Huntingdon who told me to pack up as I was on transfer to “C” Section. That was at 1:30 pm and I was to be at Div Cav at 3 pm. Just another silly idea arising from the dull brains of our insufficiently worked officers…
I’m very happy to be here, believe me, for this unit has a great reputation and there will be little or no humbug. C Section is run by a Staff Sergeant, and other than that there is a Regimental Sigs officer belonging to Div Cav who keeps an eye on us. In other words no Sigs officers here. Div Cav HQ are forward of Brigade HQ about 3 miles so it’s not so quiet up here. Lieutenant Ball met us and introduced himself and shook hands with me (see the difference already?) in a way that immediately began to restore my faith in human nature. Then along came the Adjutant who, with a disregard for formalities which almost made me cry Eureka, introduced himself and then took down my particulars.
It turned out that two of the operators were old mates, and there were four of them to man the set instead of the normal 2 or 3, which meant that they were able to take regular breaks back at B Echelon.5 “Must be one of the best oprs jobs in Div Sigs.”
I got my revolver yesterday and it is a .45 so I’m a real gunman. On the tank we have a 37mm gun and three Browning machine guns so we are armed to the teeth. Yesterday Bob and I cleaned a couple of MGs, and I have pretty well mastered the intricacies of a Browning, and know enough of the 37 to be able to fire it. We are with AHQ, and may not get the chance to use them but there is nothing like being prepared. At least we will be able to have a real go at hostile aircraft now. Each tank crew cooks for itself in Cav, so I will have to take a turn now and again… Henry cooked tea last night and it was excellent. Fresh roast meat, roast potatoes & beans & gravy followed by rice containing a few raisins to make it tasty. It was our first fresh meat for ages and Henry made a wonderful job of cooking it.
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Surrenders and celebrations
Cliff’s diary is pretty quiet until the 11th of May:
Tuesday 11 May: Very vigorous enemy activity this morning, and looks like a counter-attack from here. Young Fascists are still fighting, also 90th Lt and others. 6 Bde is now forward. Enemy still throwing fair amount of stuff at us.
Wednesday 12 May: Enemy ceased organised resistance from 10 pm tonight. Have been in communication with enemy throughout day, and they finally arranged liaison and capitulation after threatened with bombers. Impossible to write full story here.
Thursday 13th May: According to rumour 90th Lt demanded right to surrender to NZ Div and Freyberg. Italians were last to throw in the sponge. Young Fascists evidently have held out longest. We have only been able to watch from a distance and haven’t seen much. Prisoners pouring back today and looking remarkably clean and well considering. Tremendous amount of equipment and transport captured. A small party were allowed to go to Tunis today. Brownie has gone.
Next day, all of “C” Section had dinner together, and Henry took their photo. And on Sunday 16th they began the 1900 mile (3000km) journey back to Alexandria. Cliff never got to see Tunis, and the Div effectively by-passed the places they had fought so hard to take — Tripoli on the 20th and Benghazi on the 24th (they camped on the outskirts and Cliff did manage to look around the town and Cathedral, “everything pock-marked with bomb splinters”). Then Tobruk on the 28th and Alamein on the 31st. On Tuesday the 1st of June they passed through Cairo with flags flying. They were back in Maadi that night to very good news — married men and a certain percentage of single men from1st, 2nd and 3rd Echelons (the men who had fought in Greece and Crete) were to return home on furlough.
Div Sigs paraded for Freyberg a couple of days later, and during the inspection Cliff was justifiably proud when the General stopped to ask him where he’d won his decoration.
Footnotes
- HD: Highland Division
A/TK: anti-tank
MET: Military Equipment Transport
MK3: Panzer Mark 3 tank
KDG: King’s Dragoon Guards
LO: Liaison Officer
↩︎ - Brigadier Hargest had been C.O. of 6 Brigade during Operation Crusader in November 1941 — the man who Cliff and George were the “only means of communications” with at Sidi Rezegh. He was captured later in the battle, escaped, made his way back to England in late 1943, and was killed by artillery fire in Normandy.
↩︎ - Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger, Infantry Brigadier, ch. 23.
↩︎ - To tell you my miserable story, we were two Lance Corporals under strength in our section and I had great hopes of filling one vacancy. Our OC has been evacuated and in his place a new Lieutenant arrived. That was okay so far but now he has whistled up a Lance Corporal from his old section, one of his favourites probably (I could use another word which comes to my mind) and now it seems like the same old story over again. No promotion for original members of the Section but fresh NCOs brought in. I have seen so many nitwits and yes men promoted in this army, and taken orders from so many, that I’m beginning to lose faith in human nature… I’ve so much contempt for some of our officers that they know it and that undoubtedly is the reason why I don’t get anywhere. Thank God they’re not all the same or life would become unbearable.
↩︎ - Responsible for administrative and support functions behind the front lines, including supply, transport, and medical services.
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