Chapter 9
El Alamein

After doing our various guard duties in Alex we were sent into action with the rest of the 8th army at El Alamein. The North African war at the time I arrived in Egypt was not going in our favor. Rommel, the desert fox, had driven General Wavells 8th army all the way across North Africa to a line not far from Alex, where the Afrikakorps had halted their advance because their supply lines were over stretched. People in Alex started to panic, thinking the the Afrikakorps would be at the city walls very soon. But the British line held and we were able to build up our reserves.

This was the situation when we arrived at the front line. During the first week at the front line two of us from each platoon were sent forward to do stag duty in the forward observation post in no-mans-land, to observe the enemy movements and would have to stay there for 24 hours. We never really saw Jerry while up at the OP but he could see us because the enemy would send over few shells that would explode pretty near to us but we were just out of range of their guns, but still it was very frightening.

While not at the forward observation post the battalion were stationed just behind the lines. Everyday the Luftwaffe would bomb us using Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers. This is when we suffered our first casualties. The Germans introduced a new idea to the terror of war, they added sirens to the Stukas fixed wheels calling them " Jericho's Trumpet's " The wine from the sirens as the Stukas dived was a very terrifying sound and when you heard this you wanted to find the biggest hole possible, get in it and stay there.

The Luftwaffe managed to destroy allot of our rear transport, killing a few of our blokes at the same time. The Stuka quickiy gained my respect as something that would lighten my chances of getting back home alive. I was learning what war was all about very quickly.

Our Battalion was part of the 4th Indian Division. All this time the line was static waiting for one of the opposing sides to make a move. A new General had arrived to take over the offensive to Rommel. His name was Monty. Everyday we would see more tanks, trucks, artillery, troops and aircraft arriving at the front ready for the big push. One day a small dapper General turned up at the Battalion lines. The whole Battalion was paraded in front of him. He looked us over for a moment then told us to break ranks and gather round him. This was General Montgomery's way of getting to know his troops and making sure all the men under his command knew what was going to happen in the coming battle, he personally told us all how the 8th army was going to win the battle and what our part would be. Because of his simple and blunt approach to addressing the troops on the ground we all had allot of confidence in him. He then  told us when and how we were going to “Hit Rommel of six”. All of us cheered when he said that. After he left we were all given a piece of paper with personal message from him. It was a great morale buster.

The Battle of El Alamein began on the night of 23rd October 1942 with 882 field and medium guns opening fire at once, pounding the German and Italian artillery postions. The whole sky was lit up by this artillery barrage. It was like daylight and the noise was deafening. This Artillery fire signaled the start of the biggest British attack of the dessert war. We watched this spectacular sight from our positions in the carriers. It was the biggest fire work dispaly I've ever seen in my life and I'd have hated to be on the the receiving end of all that hot lead that was flying though the air. The barrage went on until 4 in the morning and then the troops advanced.

On our right the Aussie Division started to advance westward with the Jocks of the 51st Highland Div moving out on our left. Three times we were ordered to start up our carriers and get ready to move out, and three times the order was canceled. This got on our nerves, we really want to get started and get it over with. Finally the RSM gave the order to advance. It was almost day light and sappers from the Royal Engineers guided us through cleared paths they had made in the German mine fields - "devils gardens" as the Jerry's called them

Our Division was facing the Italian 25th Infantry Division "Bologna" We started to advance towards the Italians line of defense stopping only twice when we were shelled by Italian artillery that had not been silenced in the 882 gun bombardment earlier that night. Our tanks had broken ahead of us and had wrecked havoc amongst the Italian lines. We could make out the shape of the Crusader tanks to our front when ever they engaged an Italian position. The British Crusader with it's 6 ponder was one the first British tanks that carried a gun that could do any good against the tanks the Germans were throwing at us.

We saw hardly anything of the battle raging in front of us. It all seemed to be very confusing time, with no lights to guide us we had to rely on directions from the officers who seemed to be holding their maps upside down. The more we advanced the more we realized that the Italians did not have much fight on them after putting up a strong resistance to our overwhelming advance and they stared surrendering to our lead troops in droves. There was not much action to see but we came across lots of burnt out Italian tanks that had been destroyed by our tanks. I had never seen a battle field before and the site of so many dead was sickening.

We captured hundreds of Italian soldiers in the next few days without them putting up too much resistance as they knew that the battle was lost for them. They had been abandoned by their German Allies and the British amour was superior than their tanks and we have more of them. I felt sorry for the Italian soldiers because it seemed that they had been left to fend for themselves by their German Allies. 

We got talking to some of the prisoners we captured and started bartering with them using cigarettes and bully beef. One Italian gave me a wooden carving of Mussolini in exchange for a pack on Victory Vs cigarettes which were bloody awful. I still have it to this day. After four days the Battalion was withdrawn from the battle and the next day Monty had won his battle, Jerry was on the run and I had survived my first encounter with the enemy.