Thursday 19th December 1940
8a.m. Soon be off now; the guns are already moving. “... More men! More guns! More men for the guns!..”
(8:15p.m. In bivouac just beyond Sidi Barrani) Cold but interesting journey. Notice: “RASC Reception Depot for captured Vehicles” We must be doing quite a trade in them!
Over a hill and Mersa Matruh lay before us. Looked nice in the cold sunlight; pretty lagoon with ships in it. “Hotel Metropole” “Kinema” Obviously quite a pleasant and civilised place in peace time. Now – eerily empty and bomb shattered. Then, into no-man's land, or “the blue”. “Charing Cross Water Point - 'Ware Mines”! Smashed telegraph poles, broken road, abandoned Iti vehicles. Many lorry loads of queer looking, blue uniformed men passed us, going to the rear – Iti prisoners, hundreds of them. Ambulances, prisoners and empty supply vehicles, going down. Loaded supply vehicles, men and guns, going up.
I drove M1 for the last two hours. The Iti defences – abandoned guns of all types; rifles, equipment strewn everywhere. Little evidence of fortification or digging-in. Graves. Sidi Barrani, a small village, absolutely in ruins. Rough road of loose stone now. A monument beside the road. A section of guns, pointed westward which seemed to have put up a fight – there were empty shell cases all around. Then this bivouac. We deepened an Iti slit trench and Sid and I dug a bed for ourselves nearby. A small but tasty meal, hot tea. No water supply as yet. Up to the present, we have heard no gunfire and seen no planes except our own.
(8:15p.m. In bivouac just beyond Sidi Barrani) Cold but interesting journey. Notice: “RASC Reception Depot for captured Vehicles” We must be doing quite a trade in them!
Over a hill and Mersa Matruh lay before us. Looked nice in the cold sunlight; pretty lagoon with ships in it. “Hotel Metropole” “Kinema” Obviously quite a pleasant and civilised place in peace time. Now – eerily empty and bomb shattered. Then, into no-man's land, or “the blue”. “Charing Cross Water Point - 'Ware Mines”! Smashed telegraph poles, broken road, abandoned Iti vehicles. Many lorry loads of queer looking, blue uniformed men passed us, going to the rear – Iti prisoners, hundreds of them. Ambulances, prisoners and empty supply vehicles, going down. Loaded supply vehicles, men and guns, going up.
I drove M1 for the last two hours. The Iti defences – abandoned guns of all types; rifles, equipment strewn everywhere. Little evidence of fortification or digging-in. Graves. Sidi Barrani, a small village, absolutely in ruins. Rough road of loose stone now. A monument beside the road. A section of guns, pointed westward which seemed to have put up a fight – there were empty shell cases all around. Then this bivouac. We deepened an Iti slit trench and Sid and I dug a bed for ourselves nearby. A small but tasty meal, hot tea. No water supply as yet. Up to the present, we have heard no gunfire and seen no planes except our own.
posted by Paul Wilson at 6:41 pm
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