Saturday, 15 March
We had a football match against the navy in the afternoon, which we won. After tea I boxed with Mike Laycock and as usual my nose bled. Good exercise.
A young naval officer stayed to dinner as his motorbike broke down. ‘Scottie’ Myles and I spent half an hour trying to start the damned thing.
Sunday, 16 March
At the moment I can’t see the end of the war. Germany, I hear, has concentrated all her latest bombers and fighters on the Bulgarian and Greek frontier. America has just passed the Lend Lease Bill, which is one in the eye for Germany. One feels that there has been so much preparation for destruction by both sides that before it all ends there will be a tremendous amount of bloodshed. Of course, it may end in stalemate but I do not think so. I have a feeling that Germany may make a landing by air in Syria. She landed 20,000 troops in Holland all from the air, and that was with opposition.
According to the wireless, our shipping losses lately have been considerable. Germany is certainly concentrating on our shipping both in the Atlantic and out here.
The Lend Lease Bill signed by Congress on 11 March meant that the United States could now provide Britain and other Allied nations with goods and war matériel without contravening its own neutrality laws. These had been set up in the 1930s as part of an effort to keep America out of any future European wars and, in a nutshell, forbade the selling of any arms to foreign powers on credit or lending belligerent nations money. Britain had got around this by buying with hard cash, but by the beginning of 1941, having largely stopped exporting goods once war had begun, was suffering from a lack of foreign exchange and running out of cash. The United States was not only sympathetic towards Britain but also concerned that Germany, if allowed to dominate all of Europe, posed a threat to her own sovereignty. The trouble was, even though Roosevelt had been re-elected for an historic third term the previous November, the isolationist lobby was still a powerful body and a proportion of the American public felt very strongly that America should keep out of the war. Lend Lease meant that the US could continue to help Britain without actually becoming directly embroiled in the war. However, not only was rising American economic might now being channelled towards the Allied war effort, many believed it signalled an important step towards the United States’ eventual entry into the war. Certainly, Lend Lease nailed America’s colours even more firmly to the mast.
Stanley was echoing the concerns of Britain’s war leaders about the rate of shipping losses, which were admittedly considerable. However, Germany was still not achieving the monthly targets of Allied shipping sunk that was believed to be necessary to force Britain out of the war and, as it happened, March 1941 was to see a change in Allied fortunes in the Battle of the Atlantic – for the time being, at any rate. The Germans lost three leading U-boat aces that month, while the announcement of Lend Lease showed that an early decisive strategic result in the shipping war was out of their reach.
Tuesday, 18 March
Today the Barona was blown up by a mine in the harbour, dropped by enemy aircraft the other day. She sank in about 10 minutes. Stuart Thompson arrived on her yesterday and she was on her way back to Alexandria with prisoners. The prisoners panicked, and the shouts could be heard at the BOP. I saw the whole thing. It was a most depressing sight. I have had no confirmation about loss of life. I understand she used to be the Lord Mayor’s yacht, and used by the Duke of Windsor for his cruise in the Mediterranean when he took Mrs Simpson.
Thursday, 20 March
We are still at Tobruk. That is RHQ, C Battery under Henry Trotter, A Battery under Stephen Mitchell, and Z Battery under Michael Laycock. X Battery is at Benghazi under Peter Laycock and B and Y are in Crete under Tony and Sydney.
Tony and I have had a letter from Mike Parish who is now in Crete. He appeared in very good form. I must write to him.
The colonel came back today from Cairo and Alexandria. He set off from here with the intention of visiting our batteries in Crete, but was quite unable to get further than Cairo, owing to transport. He came back with a very strong rumour that ourselves and the 1st Cavalry Division are all getting horses back again, and will go to Greece as horsed cavalry!
Apparently there are a good many Greeks in Cairo, and we are supplying horses to them. The prospect of fighting with horses is not very alluring – suicidal, actually.
Saturday, 22 March
All the morning I worked in the gun pits, which have to be enlarged. We have put these 4-inch guns in Italian gun pits, which are really too small for them. I got hold of the REs and they lent us a compressor to work a drill for blasting. An Australian came up and worked the engine for us. He was a typical tough Aussie, aged 47! When I asked him where he came from he immediately showed me about a dozen photos of his wife and family in Sydney, also two photographs of the public executions of Arabs, which the Italians used to have annually in Benghazi.
My stomach is not at the present in very good working order, and I have got toothache. Otherwise I am keeping very fit, and taking plenty of exercise, in the form of manual labour. In the last 10 days, two more mails have come in, but not a single letter for me. The doc has received 20 this month!!
Monday, 24 March
I have got toothache, a boil coming on my face, and a stomach out of order – otherwise in perfect health.
Jack Whiting is quite out of control these days. Last night he insisted on bringing into the room we share a stale old goat cheese that stank like the deepest drain in Jerusalem. He is always in great form and is a most amusing person.
I fear that we are losing a lot of shipping in the Atlantic through German submarines. Having established bases on the French coast, it makes the position very difficult for us. Our need for destroyers for escorting convoys is very great.
The 4-inch guns are not ready yet, and we are still converting the pits, and making sleeping quarters for the men. I have never done so much manual labour before, and as a result have grown blisters on my hands.
Wednesday, 26 March
In the afternoon I went to the dentist at the CCS. The place was run by the Australians and was all rather primitive. I almost gave up, but decided to face it. He was a most charming Australian who actually didn’t hurt me at all – but he didn’t cure my toothache! It’s still just as bad.
There was a great deal of blood about the place, and he had to work his drill by foot. But I suppose we are lucky to have a dentist here at all.
Saturday, 29 March
We had a regimental cricket match against the Wiltshire Yeomanry. We got beaten badly. I did not play as I was on duty. They had a very good team, including Charles Awdry. Jack Whiting played, also Thompson. He had to hitch-hike all the way from the south side. Doc Brooks, our best player, could not play.
We heard news tonight that there had been a big naval action in the eastern Mediterranean, but we have heard no details. We heard a rumour yesterday that the Italian fleet had been seen off Benghazi and that C Battery had stood to.
I had a grand mail. Letters from Daddy, Mummy, Clive, John Hanson-Lawson, Ione, Bridget, and Diana Pelham.
As I was duty officer I had to sleep the night in the BOP. It was a good chance to write some letters. Poor old Stephen has a touch of pleurisy and is in bed so I am in charge of the battery.
Sunday, 30 March
A large-scale naval battle has taken place in the eastern Mediterranean, and so far we have heard three Italian cruisers and two destroyers have been sunk, and one battleship damaged, without any harm at all to our fleet.
One of our small craft reported that she had sighted Italian cruisers. We sent out a reconnaissance plane, which confirmed that the Italian fleet was 40 miles off Derna. Cunningham, C-in-C Mediterranean Fleet, decided to turn out everything that we had got and as a result our fleet was waiting for them. The news tomorrow will be most interesting.
Two naval officers from Navy House came to dinner. One fellow called Drew was a South African, and is harbourmas
ter here. He has lived in Johannesburg for 10 years, so I had a most interesting conversation with him. We had a great many mutual friends, and strangely enough his sister is engaged to Bill Ward-Jackson. I must write and ask Daddy whether he knows the name at all. The other naval officer was a grand person. I can’t get his name. He was on the Southampton when she sank. One could not meet two more delightful men. They came up on a motorbike, and we have just seen them off. We had great fun in getting the thing started.
It seems most strange that there has been so little air activity over England, and we have not had a raid here for over a fortnight, touch wood. The colonel leaves tomorrow for the front line to have a look at the Armoured Division and learn a bit about how tanks operate.
Fifty Australian nurses have just arrived in Tobruk! I have not seen one yet! It will be the first woman I have seen for many a day.
Admiral Cunningham had been trying to draw out the Italian Fleet ever since the Battle of Calabria the previous July, but had finally picked up signs that the Italians were planning a big operation towards the end of March. Ordering his second-in-command, Vice Admiral Pridham-Wippell to sail four cruisers and a number of destroyers from Piraeus in Greece, Cunningham then arranged to rendezvous west of Crete with his own part of the fleet from Alexandria. On the afternoon of 27 March, Pridham-Wippell neared an Italian cruiser squadron and, after an exchange of fire, managed to push the Italians towards Cunningham’s advancing force. It was now clear that unless Cunningham attacked that night, the chance to strike the Italians would be gone. However, night actions were fraught with risk because of the confusion involved. Unknown to Cunningham, one of the Italian cruisers, the Pola, had been damaged by British aircraft that afternoon and two of the enemy’s heavy cruisers had been ordered to slow and help the listing vessel, unaware that the main British Battle Fleet was near and preparing to attack. One of his gunnery officers that night was Philip Mountbatten, later Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and he and his fellow sailors made short work of the Italians. Opening fire at just 4000 yards – effectively point-blank range – all three Italian cruisers were destroyed in short order. The only British loss during the entire battle was one two-man aircraft. It was an emphatic victory and, after Taranto the previous November, ensured the Italian Fleet never posed a significant threat ever again.
Tuesday, 1–Friday, 11 April
I have sent all this year’s diary back to Alexandria by sea.
Michael Gold sent a suitcase back, and I sent my diary and cine films in the case to be stored at HMS Nile, Alexandria. It is not a ship but a kind of transit camp for the navy.
Life has been so hectic for the last few days that I have got rather behind with the diary so I shall give a brief description of events from 1 April to 11 April.
The Regiment is still at Tobruk, and we are manning the coastal defence guns. We have evacuated Benghazi and X Battery are back here with us. We have also evacuated Barce and Derna and the Huns and the Italians are now around Tobruk. Troops have been rushed up and we are now manning both the inner and outer perimeter. We are urgently in need of tanks, which I hope are coming up from Alexandria.
I hear also that they have cut the Bardia road, which, if they have, means that we are cut off from Egypt, except by sea. Air activity has been intense, especially on this point here. We have had a couple of 1000-lb bombs within a few hundred yards of us. Old Stephen was making for a shelter, which was hit by a 1000-lb bomb. A lucky escape. It rather shook the old boy! They hit both hospitals here, the one on the shore and the other in the town, killing about 20 in all.
Soon after, X Battery arrived back from Benghazi, 60 of them, under Jack Abdy. Roger Nelthorpe and De La Rue went back to Mersa with 5000 prisoners. They have not been able to get back by road and I suppose eventually they will return by sea. After X Battery came back from Benghazi, they had no guns to man so we formed a mobile striking force to go out to the perimeter to any vulnerable point. The force was under Peter Laycock, and officers from this unit were Scott, Derrick Warwick and myself.
We received the code-word to turn out about 4.30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. When it came through we were halfway through calibrating our 4-inch naval guns. One of the artillery majors was in charge of the proceedings but in the early morning a captain and subaltern arrived with the news that the major was ill so couldn’t attend. We all expressed sympathies but just as we were going to commence a car drove up and out of it jumped the major himself. His landing from the car was not too good and it didn’t take us long to realize that he was as tight as a lord! He made rather a precarious journey from his car to the guns, just managed the steps of the gun pit and finally crashed into No. 1 gun, much to the amazement of the gun crew and Jack Whiting. He was most rude to Jack, who had never said a word, and told him that after being with guns all his life there was nothing he didn’t know about them. He then endeavoured to conduct the shoot.
The young subaltern from the gunners was most worried about it all and said to us, ‘I do apologize about the major, but we locked him in his room before we left and thought that he was secure there but he has got out.’
We then went out on patrol in most decrepit old trucks supplied by Ordnance and rendezvoused at the El Adem crossroads about six miles out and there formed up with the remainder of the mobile force, which consisted of ourselves, a party of gunners with Breda guns, and 50 of the navy from Navy House with two naval officers! We then proceeded on to El Adem, which we had to take over from the 18th Lancers who were going to patrol further out. We also had six Bren carriers attached to our force, all under Peter Laycock.
That night our troop was in reserve and we made our HQ with the 18th Lancers. They were a grand crowd and couldn’t have been kinder to us. They supplied us with a first-class dinner under most difficult circumstances, and plenty to drink. They have not long arrived from India and have been operating out in the desert, Indian troops officered by British. A Major Fowler was in charge.
That night I slept in the back of a lorry, and spent a most uncomfortable night as I had no blankets, it was very cold, and we had a sand storm most of the night.
At dawn the next day I had to go on a patrol, and with me I took three Bren carriers, one 8-cwt truck and one 15-cwt truck with eight men. I had naturally never operated with Bren carriers before but I worked on the basis of cavalry tactics and sent two carriers out as advance points with the other acting as point commander. The other two trucks followed behind. I went in the 8-cwt truck. We were in touch with HQ by wireless most of the day.
When we arrived at El Gubi, I remained there with one Bren carrier, which had the wireless, and sent the other two carriers and the 15-cwt truck off on single patrols in different directions. We saw nothing except some Arabs on camels, whom we rushed across to inspect, thinking they might be parachutists in disguise. We also sighted a 15-cwt truck, which we stalked and found was one of ours which had gone over a Thermos bomb.
The 15-cwt truck shot a buck, which we brought back with us. It must have been an excellent shot as they were travelling at 50 m.p.h. when they fired. Those Bren carriers move like the wind. The three on patrol with me belonged to the KRRC. They had been in a good deal of fighting during this campaign. Each carrier has an NCO in charge.
On our way home we had some trouble with the 8-cwt truck but we got her back all right. When we eventually arrived we found Peter Laycock rather worried about us as news had come through that another patrol had sighted some German tanks about seven miles from where we were. But we had seen nothing hostile. At 6 o’clock the rest of the striking force had been recalled and others had taken over.
It certainly was an amazing force that Peter had to command. I thoroughly enjoyed my patrol and we certainly went like the wind across that desert!
It was no wonder that Stanley had been busy because much had happened in the North African campaign during that time. The Sherwood Rangers in Tobruk had been formed into an ad hoc mobile strike force of some 125 men and a fur
ther 100 Royal Navy personnel, who would be expected to plug any gap in the perimeter defences of Tobruk, should it be needed, and at 15 minutes’ notice. It looked as though they might well end up being flung into action.
General Rommel had been sent to North Africa with just two divisions and told to stop any further British advance but not to take the offensive himself. However, he recognized that the British forces were now vulnerable. Not only were they still only two divisions strong, they were also fresh to combat as the 7th Armoured and 4th Indian had been replaced by the 2nd Armoured and 9th Australian Divisions. Moreover, their lines of communication were at least a thousand miles from Alexandria, and the British were distracted by events in Greece. Ignoring his orders to hold fast, Rommel began a limited advance on 24 March to capture El Agheila, and so began a rapid and startling advance that was to push the British back across Cyrenaica in just a fortnight.
Having captured El Agheila with ease, on 2 April, Rommel split his force into three columns: two raced across Cyrenaica, while the third headed along the coast to Benghazi, which it captured, unopposed, on 4 April. Three days later, Derna fell, too. It was a bad day for the British because General Richard O’Connor, the XIII Corps commander, and General Philip Neame, the military C-in-C of Cyrenaica, were both captured, stripping the British of their commanders in one strike. Both were outstanding soldiers: O’Connor had done brilliantly with Operation COMPASS, while Neame was a hugely talented and respected VC winner and Olympic gold medallist. Also captured that day was Neame’s ADC, Dan Ranfurly, formerly of the Sherwood Rangers.
An Englishman at War Page 15