An Englishman at War

by James Holland

  We got a great reception when we arrived back here with our new car. She looks like an old-fashioned bus with solid tyres. We took the Yeoman signaller with us to get the car. He really is a great chap and has been an enormous help to us in every way. Some naval people came in to dinner, one petty officer and three officers. They are all engaged in diving operations, trying to clear the harbour. The petty officer amazed us all by telling us his experiences in Norway, Holland and Dunkirk. We had an air-raid alarm during the evening and I think they dropped some bombs on the aerodrome the other side of the harbour.

  Wednesday, 5 February

  Some wretched RASC private picked up a fountain pen, unscrewed the top and was blown to pieces. It had been dropped during the raid the other night. A magnetic mine went up in the harbour, and just missed a merchant ship, but I am afraid she has been damaged. A small schooner also blew up, and the harbourmaster, who was aboard, is missing. They don’t know the cause yet.

  We ran out of bread – none was issued with the rations – so Micky and I went off to scrounge. We came back with five loaves. Micky is an absolute champion at the game. The town of Tobruk is rather a sad sight. We came across one Blenheim bomber, which had crashed into a house. God knows what happened to the British pilot. It had made a dreadful mess of the house.

  For dinner we had with us two Australian officers, called Cohen and Dunlop. They had been in the attack on Capuzzo, Bardia and Tobruk, and they were both most interesting. In the attack on Bardia their battalion had lost 13 out of 14 platoon commanders, and two company commanders. Total casualties, I think, were 105. Tobruk casualties were very small. At the moment their battalion is staying here, and not going on to Benghazi. Major Cohen is in charge of the large prisoner concentration here. He told us that our organization for prisoners was quite appalling: 25,000 have had no food, water or blankets for 48 hours. But we had hardly expected such tremendous numbers. The small concentration which we have next door have been billeted in quarters under which I gather there are considerable quantities of cordite and high explosives.

  I went down to the underground magazine right next door to the 6-inch gun near the OP. There are still a tremendous amount of charges and rounds. That part all escaped damage when the main magazine was exploded. We have christened our new lorry Anne. When we get her started she goes pretty well.

  We are gradually settled in, and making ourselves comfortable. A NAAFI arrived in the town today from which we got a large supply of drink. Our duties up in the OP as regards the Terror are not very arduous. Her Captain Hoare came up and visited us. He asked us to go aboard some time, and have a meal with them. We get very little news about the rest of the war. I gather that they are still advancing on Benghazi, and that there have only been two raids over England during the last 14 days. It might be the lull before the storm. A most unpleasant sand storm is pelting up.

  When visiting the petrol dump, about three miles outside the town, I ran into Ian Downing. He has an anti-aircraft section quite close to Bardia. He and I shared a room in Bir Salim.

  Thursday, 6 February

  It has been most unpleasant. A sand storm has raged throughout the whole day. It is quite impossible to keep the sand out of our room. The whole place is covered. When I woke up this morning my pillow and head were a mass of it. Visibility was nil, so it was not much good being up in the OP. You couldn’t see more than 20 yards ahead.

  I have never been so bitten in my life. I don’t know whether it is mosquitoes, fleas or bed bugs but I itch all over the whole time!

  British forces were continuing to push back the Italians. It was on this day that Benghazi surrendered to the British along with six Italian generals.

  Friday, 7 February

  Donny Player arrived today, having motored up from Alexandria with four new 15-cwt trucks and 10 men. We have billeted the men in the town. Jack Whiting, one of the new officers, came up with him.

  Some of our guns have arrived, but there seems certain doubt as to who will put them in position. It’s no good us doing it as we don’t know the first thing about siting guns!

  I understand quite unofficially that we shall be on this coastal defence work until June at the latest, then return to Palestine to train as an armoured division. In that case it will be a very long time before we see any real active service. We shall need at least eight or nine months’ training.

  Saturday, 8 February

  Much to my amazement, the colonel turned up today. He had motored all the way up here from Alexandria. He stayed for lunch and then drove straight on to Benghazi, which fell yesterday. He said that he would take one of us on with him. We tossed for it, and Micky Gold, the lucky dog, won! He told us that X Battery under Peter Laycock will probably go to Benghazi, and that was his reason for going. He will also liaise with the Armoured Division and find out all he can in preparation for our becoming mechanized. I understand that the Armoured Division entered Benghazi first, and have pushed on for 40 miles. The question now is whether we shall push on to Tripoli.

  At 5.15 Donny and I went on board the Terror for the evening shoot, and stayed for dinner. As usual they were all most charming. An oil tanker struck a magnetic mine in the harbour and went up: 18 people were killed. The flames were terrific.

  Sunday, 9 February

  Arranged for 30 prisoners to clean out the billets, which our men will occupy when they arrive, also to clean out some Italian gun pits, which we might use for the three-pounders when they arrive. After lunch Donny Player and I took a truck and went out on the Bardia road to have a look at the defences, both the inner and the outer perimeter. We saw the tanks, which they had dug in, and from which the Italians fired. They offered a wonderful form of protection, and if they had stuck there they should have been impregnable. Likewise the wire and the tank traps were formidable. The guns and the ammunition left behind were still a mess. There were hand-grenades in the thousand. We went pretty carefully, as there must be a good many mines and booby traps about. We collected quite a few souvenirs on our journey.

  We got back about 5.45 in time for the manning parade, but the Terror did not wish to have a practice shoot. It’s been a beastly day, rained practically the whole time and very cold. The visibility has been bad all day. But our billets are pretty comfortable. We occupy one large room, part of the Italian naval barracks for those who used to man the guns. Three sleep one side and three the other. We eat in the same room off a long table running down the centre. We were most fortunate to find a kitchen with stove here.

  At the moment Donny occupies a small room adjoining, which really belongs to the port war signallers. He has gone to bed with a rotten cold tonight. His asthma has been giving him trouble.

  The colonel told me yesterday that a mail had come in, and that there were two letters for me, which he had left with Lawrence Biddle, our new adjutant. It’s now about 11.30, and all the others have gone to bed. The only light which we have, of course, is an oil lamp, and as the oil is running out, I too, must hit the hay. Never have I seen such utter waste as I have in the last few days. The time, money and energy the Italians must have spent in this country is astounding, and all in vain; and what a place it is. There is absolutely nothing here but desert and, to my mind, it’s not worth one single Italian life. It will ever be a source of amazement how we broke through their defences so easily. They must have been preparing for years.

  The Italians had been preparing for years, but this preparation had been marked by ineptitude at almost every turn. Mussolini was not as absolute a leader as Hitler, still answerable to both the King and the Grand Council, and many of his senior commanders were ageing and out of touch. Red tape and an ineffective bureaucracy hampered every move, while Italy was simply not rich enough, economically advanced enough or blessed with enough natural resources to fulfil Mussolini’s military aims. The navy was the most advanced and modern part of the armed services but lacked experience, while within the army, too much emphasis had been placed on infantry –
most of whom were poorly trained and equipped. The successes in East Africa in the 1930s against what were largely tribesmen had flattered to deceive. In truth, Italy was simply not ready to fight a modern war; her string of defeats was ample testimony to that.

  Monday, 10 February

  C Battery and B Battery arrived today by sea from Alexandria. Henry Trotter is still in charge of C Battery, with Lovett as a subaltern. The latter was a squadron quarter master sergeant in the Regiment and has recently been commissioned. He is a very able and most charming person, in spite of the fact that many people considered it a mistake that he should get a commission in his own regiment.

  We have still got the same mess but we shall have to get another bigger place when the other batteries arrive. It’s pretty cold up here in Tobruk, especially at night. The men’s billets in the town are not very good, and water is quite a problem.

  The First World War had done much to break down the rigid class structures within the army, although matters had reverted somewhat during the 20 years that had followed. However, with the onset of war once more, commissioning from the ranks became more common once again, and increasingly so as junior subalterns, especially, had proportionally the highest casualty rates.

  Tuesday, 11 February

  I was on duty in the OP during the morning. A great deal of shipping came into the harbour. I can’t understand why we have not had more raids, especially with all the shipping coming in.

  In the afternoon Donny and I managed to procure a Breda gun from the navy. Actually Captain Hoare, the gunnery officer from the Terror, handed one over to us. They are excellent guns both for AA and A/T. We had an interesting conversation with a gunner today who is in charge of salvage operations. He told us that a systematic combing of the outer perimeter begins tomorrow. They anticipate finding a tremendous quantity of guns and ammunition. Donny and I are endeavouring to get hold of all the Bredas we can lay hands on, and unofficially form ourselves into light AA batteries because our chances of popping off our naval guns at the moment seem very remote indeed.

  A and Z Batteries arrived this evening; RHQ was with them. The colonel and Micky Gold are still at Benghazi. The three-pounder and 4-inch guns have arrived, but nobody seems to know who will mount them. We hardly know how to fire the guns, let alone mount them.

  I hear tonight that we have broken off diplomatic relations with Romania. That may mean that Germany will walk in there, and also endeavour to march into Greece. Turkey’s attitude will be interesting. There is a rumour that the Free French will attack Tripoli from the west and take it; also that we have landed at Dunkirk and advanced 60 miles. But there is no confirmation at all.

  The officers who arrived today, including Stephen, Jack Abdy, Lawrence Biddle and Michael Laycock, decided to stay the night on board. The men, of course, came off. Donny and I had tea at Navy House. Some officers off the Terror were there. They expect to move quite soon and suggested that their BOP staff should move with them. It would be grand if she went off to Benghazi or any other place for coastal defence work and demanded that we should go with her! Too good to be true!

  Breda was an Italian armaments manufacturer and produced a number of guns. The one Stanley refers to here was the Model 35 20/65 20mm dual-purpose anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun. It had a range of around 2500m, a practical rate of fire of some 150 rounds per minute, and a velocity of about 850 metres per second. All in all, it was a pretty good and reliable weapon.

  Wednesday, 12 February

  Those who arrived yesterday were busy all day getting into their new billets. The town is really in a dreadful mess: no water, no light, no latrines, and the billets need a great deal of cleaning.

  Donny and I spent most of the morning inspecting possible positions for our guns. The two-pounders we are firing were made in 1897! We had an advance officer with us who was most helpful. In the afternoon the officers and NCOs watched a demonstration of firing the Breda guns by an ack-ack battery. An urgent message came from Captain Hoare, the gunnery officer of the Terror, for Donny Player to go on board to see him and the captain; and later in the afternoon we saw two other officers from the Terror who told us the ship would be leaving tomorrow, and the BOP staff had to leave with her. That would mean that Roger, Derrick and I plus two NCOs would all sail in the Terror for the unknown destination, to man the observation posts in any port to which she went. That would be very much more exciting and interesting than sitting in Tobruk behind coastal defence guns.

  Now that all the others have arrived we have started another officers’ mess. We still have ours just below the OP, but now we have Geoffrey Brooks and Stephen, which could not be better. Good old Stephen is in tremendous form, and it’s grand to see the old chap again. He is now a captain and battery commander of A Battery.

  No official news about the war elsewhere. I gather that the Free French have walked into Tripoli from the west, and that the Armoured Division have gone well out forwards from Benghazi towards Tripoli.

  News might not have reached the Sherwood Rangers at Tobruk, but the Italian Tenth Army had by now been destroyed by a stunning outflanking manoeuvre at the Battle of Beda Fomm in the western edge of Cyrenaica. On hearing the news, the British commander, General Richard O’Connor, signalled to Wavell, ‘Fox killed in the open.’

  That day, a further 20,000 men, 200 guns and 120 tanks were captured, prompting Anthony Eden, the foreign secretary, to ape Churchill’s famous speech about the Few and say, ‘Never has so much been surrendered by so many to so few.’ Since the launch of Operation COMPASS in December, O’Connor’s troops had captured more than 130,000 prisoners, 400 tanks and nearly 2000 guns, as well as twenty-two generals.

  However, on the same day, Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel arrived in Tripoli. The Germans had reached North African shores.

  Thursday, 13 February

  Today I boarded HMS Terror and set sail westwards, with Roger Nelthorpe, Jack Whiting, Jack Abdy, two NCOs and our four batmen. Donny Player was to have come, but as the colonel is away, and he is in command of the Regiment, Jack came in his place. I understand that we shall be OP staff for the Terror. I am very excited to be one of the four! They have made us very comfortable on board, and made us members of the wardroom. Commander Haines is the captain of the ship. I have a cabin up on deck.

  After dinner I played bridge with the first officer, doctor and paymaster and won! It was about the first time that I have played since leaving England. Smith, my batman, is most thrilled about his trip, and tells me that forward is very good, and that they are well looked after.

  We set sail tomorrow at about 6 o’clock. Before coming on board we had a talk with the harbourmaster, Commander Drift. He is an enormous fellow, about six foot, with a terrific stomach and red beard. He is most entertaining. He told us that during the last week in Tobruk they had buried eight naval officers and 30 other ranks as a result of magnetic mines in the harbour and air raids.

  Friday, 14 February

  We had an escort of one destroyer against submarines. The gunnery officer, Captain Hood of the Royal Marines, has mounted six Italian Breda guns on the deck, which were captured at Tobruk and Bardia. We have offered to man one of these guns. So, in the event of an alarm, Roger, Jack Whiting and I will man one on the port side. They are excellent guns, and can be used either against aircraft or against ground troops. All the ammunition are tracer, and very excellent.

  Life is most pleasant on board, and all the members of the wardroom could not be more kind to us. I feel more than ever now that I made a mistake in not joining the navy. We spend our time going round various parts of the ship, eating, drinking and sleeping. During stand to at 18.00 hours we climbed up into the directing tower and watched the shore.

  Saturday, 15 February

  At last we arrived at Derna. As far as we can see from the ship, the town has not been damaged. It looked a much more pleasant place than Tobruk. There were actually some green trees. I understand there is an excellent water supply
. We were going ashore but as there was a strong wind and the sea was rather rough, they did not let down a boat, which was rather disappointing.

  At 11.30 we set sail again westwards. During the afternoon we went all over the engine rooms with the chief engineer. At 4.30 in the afternoon we fired the Italian Breda gun, which we are manning. Now we have three destroyers as escorts; we signalled them that we were going to fire for practice; and they all joined in, which was rather fun.

  Again bridge after dinner; same four and again I won. The last four days have been for me about the best so far of the war.

  Sunday, 16 February

  Today we arrived at Benghazi, which we captured from the Italians nine days ago. We tied up alongside at 11.30 approx., and full marks go to the captain, Commander Haines, for the way in which he brought the old Terror into the harbour because he had not got an inch to spare. Last night there was an air raid on Benghazi – we could see the flashes as we approached. They dropped a good many magnetic mines in the harbour itself, and outside, and also bombed the town. The minesweepers escorted us into the harbour, and some of us saw two mines go off in front of us as we approached.