by Bryn Hammond
20. Barker, ‘Wielding the Sword’, 96/12/1, IWM Documents.
21. H.P. Samwell MC, An Infantry Officer with the Eighth Army (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1945), p.28.
22. Frank Devaney interview, 2699, IWM Sound Archive.
23. Samwell, An Infantry Officer with the Eighth Army, p.31.
24. Frank Devaney interview, 2699, IWM Sound Archive.
25. Frank Devaney interview, 2699, IWM Sound Archive.
26. Frank Devaney interview, 2699, IWM Sound Archive.
27. Samwell, An Infantry Officer with the Eighth Army, pp.31–32.
28. Howard Kippenberger, Infantry Brigadier (London: Geoffrey Cumberledge, 1949), p.226.
29. Quoted in Jim H. Henderson, The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945: 22 Battalion (Wellington: NZ Historical Publications Branch, 1958), p.205.
30. Quoted in Angus Ross, The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945: 23 Battalion (Wellington: NZ Historical Publications Branch, 1959), p.204.
31. Quoted in Henderson, 22 Battalion, p.205.
32. Figures are from OH, Vol. IV. p.36. The estimate of XIII Corps’ total artillery strength is in Tuker, Approach to Battle, pp. 241–42.
33. Private papers of K.L. Phillips, 06/2/3, IWM Documents.
34. Douglas Waller interview, 23447, IWM Sound Archive.
35. Private papers of B.E. Miles, 86/25/1, IWM Documents.
36. Michael Carver, El Alamein (London: Wordsworth Editions, 2000), p.121.
37. Peter Moore interview, 11890, IWM Sound Archive.
38. Peter Moore interview, 11890, IWM Sound Archive.
39. Peter Moore interview, 11890, IWM Sound Archive.
40. Peter Moore interview, 11890, IWM Sound Archive.
41. OH, Vol. IV. p.39 [fn] quoting Eighth Army’s after-action ‘Lessons’ from the operations. It was ironic that two critics of the timings, Brigadiers Kippenberger and Gentry, were both in 2nd New Zealand Division where mine-clearing operations were mostly successful.
42. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
43. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
44. Douglas Covill interview, 18023, IWM Sound Archive.
45. Arthur Reddish, El Alamein: A Tank Soldier’s Story (Wanganui, New Zealand: Wanganui Newspapers, 1992), p.16.
46. ‘A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EL ALAMEIN by Major A.F. Flatow, TD, OC, A Sqdn, 45 (Leeds Rifles) Royal Tank Regiment’, 99/16/1, IWM Documents.
47. Flatow, ‘PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EL ALAMEIN’, 99/16/1, IWM Documents.
48. Brigadier G. R. McMeekan DSO, OBE, ‘The Assault at Alamein’, The Royal Engineers Journal, Volume LXIII, December 1949, p.341.
49. OH, Vol. IV. p.34.
50. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
51. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
52. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
53. OH, Vol. IV. p.44.
54. Private papers of R.L. Crimp, 96/50/1 & Con Shelf, IWM Documents.
55. Martin Ranft interview, 23210, IWM Sound Archive.
56. Reddish, El Alamein: A Tank Soldier’s Story, p.17.
57. Private papers of D.N. Wimberley, PP/MCR/182, IWM Documents.
58. B.H. Liddell Hart [ed.], The Rommel Papers (New York: Da Capo Press, 1953), p.304.
59. Private papers of D.N. Wimberley, PP/MCR/182, IWM Documents.
60. G.H. Fearnside, Bayonets Abroad : A History of the 2/13 Battalion, A.I.F. in the Second World War, (Sydney: Waite & Bull, 1953), p.274.
61. Niall Barr, Pendulum of War: The Three Battles of El Alamein (London: Pimlico 2005), p.334. Barr is mistaken in portraying this unit as a recent arrival in Egypt.
62. Private papers of D.A. Main, 87/35/1, IWM Documents.
63. Reddish, El Alamein: A Tank Soldier’s Story, pp.17–18.
64. Private papers of I.D. King, 87/35/1, IWM Documents.
65. I have accepted Niall Barr’s analysis and conclusions regarding the correct time of this meeting.
66. Francis de Guingand, Operation Victory (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1947), p.199.
67. Montgomery, Memoirs, p.130.
68. Joan Bright [ed.], The Ninth Queen’s Royal Lancers, 1936-1945: The Story of an Armoured Regiment in Battle (Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1951), p.113.
69. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
70. Private papers of D.A. Main, 87/35/1, IWM Documents.
71. Private papers of D.L.A. Gibbs, P470, IWM Documents.
72. Private papers of J.W. York, PP/MCR/97, IWM Documents.
73. Private papers of J.W. York, PP/MCR/97, IWM Documents.
74. Private papers of J.W. York, PP/MCR/97, IWM Documents.
75. Private Papers of J.W. York, PP/MCR/97, IWM Documents.
76. Barr, Pendulum of War, p.343.
77. Private papers of D.L.A. Gibbs, P470, IWM Documents.
78. Private papers of D.L.A. Gibbs, P470, IWM Documents.
79. Davide Beretta, Batterie Semoventi, alzo zero: Quelli di El Alamein (Milan: Ugo Mursia Editore, 1970)
CHAPTER EIGHT
1. There was general concern about infantry casualties in British, Imperial and Dominion forces throughout the war. See David French, Raising Churchill’s Army: The British Army and the War Against Germany 1919–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), passim.
2. Unless otherwise stated all battle statistics listed in this chapter are from I.S.O. Playfair, The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume IV: The Destruction of the Axis Forces in Africa (London: HMSO, 1966 [Repr. Naval & Military Press, 2004]) (henceforth ‘OH, Vol. IV’), pp.51–52.
3. OH, Vol. IV, pp.51–52.
4. Quoted in Nigel Hamilton, Monty (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1981 [Hamlyn Paperbacks, 1982]), p.809.
5. OH, Vol. IV, p.60.
6. ‘The Battle of Egypt 23 Oct – 7 Nov 1942: Some Notes by Lt. Gen. B.L. Montgomery’, BLM28/1 Montgomery Papers, IWM.
7. Montgomery’s diary entry for 1700hrs, 26 October, quoted in Hamilton, Monty, p.810.
8. Barr, Pendulum of War, p.365.
9. Ronald Walker, The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945: Alam Halfa and Alamein (Wellington: NZ Historical Publications Branch, 1967), p.355 [fn].
10. B.H. Liddell Hart [ed.], The Rommel Papers (New York: Da Capo Press, 1953), p.308.
11. Liddell Hart [ed.], Rommel Papers, pp. 306–09. It should not be forgotten that much of what he wrote concerning the North African campaign was an attempt by Rommel to explain and justify his actions there.
12. Liddell Hart [ed.], Rommel Papers, p.309.
13. Private papers of I.D. King, 96/12/1, IWM Documents.
14. OH, Vol. IV, p.53.
15. Private papers of D.N. Wimberley, PP/MCR/182, IWM Documents.
16. ‘A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EL ALAMEIN by Major A.F. Flatow, TD, OC, A Sqdn, 45 (Leeds Rifles) Royal Tank Regiment’, 99/16/1, IWM Documents.
17. Flatow, ‘PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EL ALAMEIN’, 99/16/1, IWM Documents.
18. Flatow, ‘PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EL ALAMEIN’, 99/16/1, IWM Documents.
19. OH, Vol. IV, p.54 says the bombardment fell ‘unexpectedly far to the north’ but Barr, Pendulum of War, p.353 correctly states ‘south’. As the OH map suggests, the position they eventually occupied was to the south and east of ‘Snipe’. Lucas Phillips, Alamein, p.218 suggests they ‘finished up 900 yards approximately SSE of it’.
20. Tom Bird interview, 16303, IWM Sound Archive.
21. Dick Flower interview, 27439, IWM Sound Archive.
22. Dick Flower interview, 27439, IWM Sound Archive.
23. Walker, Alam Halfa and Alamein, p.341.
24. Dick Flower interview, 27439, IWM Sound Archive.
25. Joe Swann interview, 27438, IWM Sound Archive.
26. Ian W. Walker, Iron Hulls, Iron Hea
rts: Mussolini’s Elite Armoured Divisions in North Africa (Marlborough: The Crowood Press, 2006), p.162.
27. This Brigade of Territorials had transferred from the disbanded 8th to 10th Armoured Division and then to 1st Armoured.
28. ‘41st (Oldham) Royal Tank Regiment (TA). An account of operations 19th to 29th October 1942 written by Lieutenant-Colonel J.B. Whitehead MC TD, Commanding Officer’, (henceforth ‘41st RTR account of operations’), [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tankeddy/new_page_2.htm accessed online 25 August 2011].
29. Flatow, ‘PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EL ALAMEIN’, 99/16/1, IWM Documents.
30. ‘41st RTR account of operations’.
31. Flatow, ‘PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EL ALAMEIN’, 99/16/1, IWM Documents.
32. Flatow, ‘PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EL ALAMEIN’, 99/16/1, IWM Documents.
33. Flatow, ‘PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF EL ALAMEIN’, 99/16/1, IWM Documents.
34. Dick Flower interview, 27439, IWM Sound Archive.
35. Joe Swann interview, 27438, IWM Sound Archive.
36. War Diary of XII Battaglione Carri quoted in James Lucas, War in the Desert: The Eighth Army at El Alamein (London: Arms & Armour, 1982), pp.217–218.
37. Joe Swann interview, 27438, IWM Sound Archive.
38. Tom Bird interview, 16303, IWM Sound Archive.
39. Quoted in H.G.Parkyn, The Rifle Brigade Chronicle for 1942 (London: The Rifle Brigade Club and Association, 1943)
40. Tom Bird interview, 16303, IWM Sound Archive.
41. G.D.Martineau, A History of the Royal Sussex Regiment. A History of the Old Belfast Regiment and the Regiment of Sussex 1701–1953 (Chichester: Moore & Tillyer, 1955), p.258.
42. Private papers of E.G. Laker, 85/18/1, IWM Documents.
43. Private papers of D.N.Wimberley, PP/MCR/182, IWM Documents.
44. Private papers of E.G. Laker, 85/18/1, IWM Documents.
45. Private papers of E.G. Laker, 85/18/1, IWM Documents.
46. Private papers of E. Ayling, 78/35/1, IWM Documents.
47. Private papers of E.G. Laker, 85/18/1, IWM Documents.
48. OH, Vol. IV, p.57.
49. Barr, Pendulum of War, p.361.
50. Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman (eds.) Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke: War Diaries, 1939≠1945 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2001) [henceforth Alanbrooke War Diaries], p.335.
51. Danchev and Todman, Alanbrooke War Diaries, p.336.
52. Danchev and Todman, Alanbrooke War Diaries, p.335.
53. D.W. Fraser, ‘Brooke, Alan Francis, first Viscount Alanbrooke (1883–1963)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32091, accessed 15 Aug 2011]
54. Danchev and Todman, Alanbrooke War Diaries, p.336.
55. This chiefly derives from an inability on the part of Montgomery’s biographer, Hamilton, to accept that Montgomery himself was, initially, the chief point of resistance to a change in plan. See Hamilton, Monty, pp.827–30.
56. Quoted in Hamilton, Monty, p.828.
57. OH, Vol. IV, p.58.
58. Jon Latimer, Alamein (Harvard, Connecticut: Harvard University Press, 2002), p.261, quoting the War Diary of 15. Panzer-Division.
59. The 2/13th had ‘companies barely stronger than platoons’ according to Barton Maughan, Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Volume III – Tobruk and El Alamein (Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1966) (henceforth AOH, Vol. III,) p.701.
60. Lieutenant-Colonel Keith Magno (2/15th) subsequently died.
61. AOH, Vol. III, p.700.
62. AOH, p.702.
63. AOH, p.703.
64. OH, Vol. IV, p.61.
65. The bulldozer had been lost on a mine. See ‘26th Aust Infantry Brigade Report on Operation ‘Lightfoot’’, AWM54 527/6/9, Australian War Memorial (AWM).
66. ‘War Diary of 2/48th Aust Inf Bn, 29-30 Oct 1942’, AWM52 8/3/36, AWM [online version http://www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/AWM52/8/AWM52-8-3-36-034.pdf, accessed 21 August 2011].
67. AOH, Vol. III, p.711.
68. C.E.Lucas Phillips, Alamein (London: Pan Books, 1965), pp. 253–56. Lucas Phillips commanded the battery’s parent unit, 102nd (Northumberland Hussars) Anti-Tank Regiment.
69. War Diary of Deutsches Afrika Korps quoted in Walker, Alam Halfa and Alamein, p.372.
70. Kampfgruppe 361 comprised Panzergrenadier-Regiment I/200, Panzergrenadier-Regiment 361, one battery from Artillerie-Regiment 190 and elements of Flak-Abteilung 25.
71. Liddell Hart [ed.], Rommel Papers, p.315.
72. Robert Foulds interview, 12715, IWM Sound Archive.
73. Charles Laborde interview, 15103, IWM Sound Archive.
74. Lucas Phillips, Alamein, p.252.
75. AOH, Vol. III, p.723.
76. Leo Harry Lyon interview, 22335, IWM Sound Archive.
77. Leo Harry Lyon interview, 22335, IWM Sound Archive.
78. Leo Harry Lyon interview, 22335, IWM Sound Archive.
79. OH, Vol. IV, pp. 59 and 63; Liddell Hart [ed.], Rommel Papers, p.313.
80. This was probably the fruit of the work of Lieutenant-Colonel Dudley Clarke, which had formed part of the deception plan.
81. Walker, Alam Halfa and Alamein, p.365.
82. The unit history of the New Zealand artillery credits Freyberg with suggesting the employment of a creeping barrage for night attacks with infantry but Weir championed its use for Lightfoot and Supercharge. W.E. Murphy, 2nd New Zealand Divisional Artillery (Wellington: NZ Historical Publications Branch, 1966), p.373.
83. Quoted in J.F. Cody, 28 Maori Battalion (Wellington: NZ Historical Publications Branch, 1956), p.236.
84. Cody, 28 Maori Battalion, p.236.
85. William Watson interview, 10420, IWM Sound Archive.
86. Ian English interview, 10599, IWM Sound Archive.
87. Murphy, 2nd New Zealand Divisional Artillery, p.403.
88. William Watson interview, 10420, IWM Sound Archive.
89. Mick Collins, ‘One Man’s War’, 92/1/1, IWM Documents.
90. Mick Collins, ‘One Man’s War’, 92/1/1, IWM Documents.
91. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
92. H. Bolitho, The Galloping Third, The Story of The 3rd The King’s Own Hussars (London: John Murray, 1963), p.277.
93. Walker, Alam Halfa and Alamein, p.368.
94. Private papers of E. Kerans, 86/61/1, IWM Documents.
95. Private papers of E. Kerans, 86/61/1, IWM Documents.
96. Jackson Browne interview, 14982, IWM Sound Archive.
97. Private papers of E. Kerans, 86/61/1, IWM Documents.
98. Private papers of E. Kerans, 86/61/1, IWM Documents.
99. Jackson Browne interview, 14982, IWM Sound Archive.
100. ‘Letter describing the first few hours of the Battle of El Alamein’, Misc 93 Item 1410, IWM Documents.
101. Private papers of E. Kerans, 86/61/1, IWM Documents.
102. William Watson interview, 10420, IWM Sound Archive.
CHAPTER NINE
1. W.E. Murphy, Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945: 2nd New Zealand Divisional Artillery (Wellington: NZ Historical Publications Branch, 1966), p.405.
2. Jackson Browne interview, 14982, IWM Sound Archive.
3. Murphy, 2nd New Zealand Divisional Artillery, p.405.
4. Ian English interview, 10599, IWM Sound Archive.
5. ‘War Experiences with the 9th Battalion DLI, June 1942 – December 1943’ by Lieutenant Wilfred Scott White, Durham County Record Office, D/DLI 2/9/350.
6. Ian English interview, 10599, IWM Sound Archive.
7. Ian English interview, 10599, IWM Sound Archive.
8. Alistair Borthwick, Battalion: A British Infantry Unit’s Actions from El Alamein to the Elbe 1942–1945 (London: Bâton Wicks, 1994), p.28.
9. Jackson Browne interview, 14982, IWM Sound Archive.
10. Jackson Browne interview, 14982, IWM Sound Archi
ve.
11. J.F. Cody, The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945: 28 Maori Battalion (Wellington: NZ Historical Publications Branch, 1956), p.238.
12. Private papers of E. Kerans, 86/61/1, IWM Documents.
13. Private papers of E. Kerans, 86/61/1, IWM Documents.
14. ‘Letter describing the first few hours of the Battle of El Alamein’, Misc 93 Item 1410, IWM Documents.
15. Jim ‘Jamie’ Kennedy, ‘Alamein: The Battle’, Durham County Record Office, D/DLI/2/9/335.
16. Jackson Browne interview, 14982, IWM Sound Archive.
17. Jackson Browne interview, 14982, IWM Sound Archive.
18. William Watson interview, 10420, IWM Sound Archive.
19. William Watson interview, 10420, IWM Sound Archive.
20. Jackson Browne interview, 14982, IWM Sound Archive.
21. Ian English interview, 10599, IWM Sound Archive.
22. Ronald Walker, The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945: Alam Halfa and Alamein (Wellington: NZ Historical Publications Branch, 1967), p.385. Full battledress was worn but not kilts – except in the case of the pipers.
23. Private papers of D.N. Wimberley, PP/MCR/182, IWM Documents.
24. Jim ‘Jamie’ Kennedy, ‘Alamein: The Battle’, Durham County Record Office, D/DLI/2/9/335.
25. I.S.O. Playfair, The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume IV: The Destruction of the Axis Forces in Africa (London: HMSO, 1966 [Repr. Naval & Military Press, 2004]) (henceforth ‘OH, Vol. IV’). p.66.
26. H. Bolitho, The Galloping Third, The Story of The 3rd The King’s Own Hussars (London: John Murray, 1963), p.278. ‘Grafton’ was the codename given to the attack start line.
27. ‘The Teddy Bear Lancers’, private papers of L. Flanakin, 07/13/1, IWM Documents.
28. Flanakin, ‘The Teddy Bear Lancers’, 07/13/1, IWM Documents.
29. Flanakin, ‘The Teddy Bear Lancers’, 07/13/1, IWM Documents.
30. Mick Collins, ‘One Man’s War’, 92/1/1, IWM Documents.
31. Mick Collins, ‘One Man’s War’, 92/1/1, IWM Documents.
32. This was actually a slower rate than that for the assault by infantry of 151st and 152nd Brigades.
33. Flanakin, ‘The Teddy Bear Lancers’, 07/13/1, IWM Documents.
34. Flanakin, ‘The Teddy Bear Lancers’, 07/13/1, IWM Documents.