North Africa

Backwards Across the Atlantic

Saturday 2nd August Boarded Warwick Castle left Gurock 9:30pm, about thirty ships in convoy nothing of...

The Outbreak of War: From the Point of View of a Scots Guard

I was in Hyde Park on the Saturday afternoon and watched the first German aircraft fly over to bomb the...

HMS Sirius and Seven Invasions

The invasion went very well because many of the French in N. Africa were prepared to fight the Germans. The...

Sid’s Story Part 3 — Still in North Africa

In the harbour at Alex boats were loaded with Bren carriers, tanks, ammunition, etc. When the boats had all...

The Lighter Side of War -CHAPTER 17: Kairouan - A Holy City - June 1943

In the 7th century A.D. Muslim Arabs had conquered the Middle East and Egypt, then Okba, a companion of the...

Memories Buried In Their Minds, For Ever and Ever.

Liverpool: Meols: Farndon- North Wales: Tripoli- Libya and Marsa Matruh- Egypt. Liverpool: Meols: Farndon-...

A Merry (Murderous) Christmas in Algiers (1942)

On Christmas Eve there was a murder which made a stir in the world and would involve many coded messages...

HMS Barham - Period Between Bardia and Matapan

HMS Barham — Period Between Bardia and Matapan, 1941....

The Story of My Brother

His name was William Charlton Lawson and his rank when he died was Flight-Sgt. in the Royal Air Force, a...

Henry Rock's War: RASC in North Africa and Italy

200 of us left Hereford Station early one morning and proceeded to Sheffield where I spent three days...

Self - Catering Holiday in North Africa

That poor Wireless Op. underneath cursing the hot tea spilling down the back of his shirt as he tries to...

Dad's Secret Diary

From what we have learned, Dad served in India, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, then later in North Africa with the 8th...

Algiers; With 145 RAC

Some things are sent to protect us as Ken,Jimmy and Freddie became Infantry Officers and were killed in...

Lambert's War

My father served in the 8th Army REME and his rank as shown on his release certificate, was W/WOI I...

Another Day a New Life

My god how we must have stank in that heat with little water to spare for washing, and my best friend...

Called to the Colours (continued): Over The Waves

The cookhouse was quite a walk away over the sand dune and every meal involved waiting in a ling queue with...

The Lighter Side of War - CHAPTER 12: Notes on the war in North Africa prior to 133's landing

At the same time, German General Rommel arrived in Tripoli, in turn launched lightning attacks when the...

Jack Blane's War

No 7266456, Pte J Blane Royal Army Medical Corps No 3 Casualty Clearing Station. I spent Christmas 1942 at...

West Yorkshire Regiment

The West Yorkshire were part of the 9th Indian Brigade 5th Indian Division the 8th Army. March arrived and...

My Trip Home: From Egypt

We hit the heel of Italy near Bari and landed at a large American Airfield covered with hundreds of Flying...

Life in the Desert and Alamein: With the Royal Engineers

When we were training for the Alamein move on the river Nile, there used to be a bloke on the other bank...

Jack Merewood: To War with the Bays. Part 3

Colin, our driver, shouted over the intercom: ‘My periscope's shattered, I can't see where...

An Italian Prisoner of War Remembers Somerset

Eventually he arrived at a PoW camp just outside the village of Goathurst, near Bridgwater, in Somerset; at...

The Lighter Side of War - CHAPTER 18b: Sousse: Couscous then where to next? Italy? Blighty? The Riviera? A Restcamp?

Frej, the lad who worked in the army cookhouse, heard that Butch and two friends had had couscous at the...

Life as an RAF Pilot: Chapter 4 to Egypt

We were normally confined below decks during the hours of darkness, but were told that we could go on deck...

Dad's Journey

Dad said their situation was so bad because the Italians had so very little themselves, that he...