Battle for Enfidaville - 7th Ox & Bucks - Description of it by my Dad. Part 1

[JamesLoader]

7th Btn Ox and Bucks Lt Infantry
M.E.F.
Started June 14th Completed 25th.


Dear Richard,
I hope you wont mind my writing in pencil but last week my pen get mislaid, stolen or strayed & I am also quite at a loss what to do as the ordinary relief nib just wont write in my hand.
Well, I’m not going to say anything about my journey in April etc. as that has been fully described in letters to Mamma, instead I feel you might care to have a vivid picture of the actual fighting and how I felt about it. What I saw and heard etc.
The first time we definitely knew that we were going towards the line as when we were at Tripoli on the way up. At that time we didn’t consider it at all likely that we would go straight into the line as had been travelling for just over a month, and needed at least a day or more to get ready. But we soon realised that it was by no means improbable, as on the first day out from Tripoli we had to cover an additional 50 miles into Medeline? That day, so the second day found ourselves only about 70 miles south of the fighting.
The next day 29th, things got more probable as the Coy Commanders had to go off ahead to meet the C.O. and we brought on the rest of the battalion. A very short journey finishing about 10 miles south of Enfidavalle. As soon as we got there we were simply swamped with rumours 1. We were to go into an attack that night 2. That the other battalion ahead of us had been almost wiped out etc etc.
Well I wasn’t taking any risks and so got ammunition grenades etc issued out. But in the end we heard that we would not be doing anything til the night of the 30th. What we didn’t know – which was lost as well as we had a lot to straighten up before I felt that we were ready to go into the line.
Friday 30th say all these odd thoughts put right. The most memorable thing about the day was the constant stream of our fighter bombers going towards the enemy or returning – batches of 20-30 going over every five to ten minutes.
In the afternoon we finally heard what was to happen – we were to go up and take over a sector of the line on the right about ½ mile from the coast – nothing of Enfidaville. The usual parties of guides and Coy Commanders set off about 1600 and I was left to bring up the Coy and 18:45. Everything went very smoothly and among other things some mail arrived and we were able to issue it to the men just before starting off – I myself had five or six letters.
It was dark by the time we got up to where guides met us and so I left it to them to get us where we had to go. Our positions were in among olive groves on the ? slope of a slight ridge – jerry was at least a mile away on the next ridge. A Coy were in the reserve and so for the first two days we had very little to do. In that position we heard the first shells fired at us in anger. To begin with any whistle in the air was the signal for all to jump into slit tranches but it took less than a day to get used to them and have a pretty good idea where it was heading for.
At one lecture we were told back in Kirtesk, that Tunisia was very bad for mosquitos – we discovered the truth of that remark – never have I been so well and truly bitten as I was during the days and in the long ? they were not malarious.- otherwise we would all be down with that bloody disease by now.
Well we spent two nights in our reserve position and then on May 2nd moved up to take over a front line area a bit to the left. Just the same distance from jerry only this time no troops between us and him.
During this week the only real activity on our own part was patrolling and we had some of those out every night. Now I have always considered them about the most unpleasant thing of all. Just one or two men with you and only your own wits to help. Consequently when the first patrol had to go out to considered that the poor officer going might just as well make his will and pray for a pass to heaven. But it turned out not to be so. We had no trouble on these patrols and when I took one out myself on the Thursday night I found it remarkably simple and not in the least nerve racking. Time seemed to fly and it was a bit of a rush to get back before first light, but we didn’t contact any patrols and were able to recce what we had to without being molested by anything apart from mosquitos and fleas.

[JamesLoader]

Come Saturday May 8th things began to be a bit different and no one knew what was going to happen. We all thought it was merely s move to another sector of the front. That afternoon the Coy Commander went to a conference and while he was away, we were relieved by some other troops and spent the afternoon waiting for Roger (Coy Commander) to return with details of the fate that awaited us.
Now, to our front were a couple of little humps that were held enemy with several MGs (Machine Guns) – These had always been a bit of a nuisance to us, but by taking them it would not necessarily have helped the war as we were already in a bit of a salient and such an attack would have made it much longer and more unpleasant. These hump we called from right to left “Brown Willy” and “The Little Hump” beyond them running parallel to  our line was a wadi which by virtue of its Tunisian name was called “Ghastly Wadi”. I will attempt a bit of a plan to show the subsequent moves.
Running North South were, to the right, the main road to Tunis and through our Btn area a railway line – rather a nuisance and Jerry has some fixed lines of fire on this line. Also between Brown Willy and our positions was another little wadi not deep anywhere where we moved for the first 24hours of battle. The wood NE of Brown Willy was in enemy hands most of the time which made things worse as I will mention later on.
At 17:45 Roger came back and told us that we were attacking the humps, A Coy reserve in an hours time – I myself was to go with Regt HQ:
1. To at as liaison RHQ to A Coy.
2. To meet an R.E Officer as I was to take a patrol out as soon as it was dark and the objectives taken.
Thus I only had a minute or so to get things ready and then set off with my servant into the unknown. We found Regt HQ everybody coming around to no purpose and also found out what I had to do with the patrols. These Res – the officer himself wasn’t going to come with them – had to recce N of Ghastly Wadi for mines, and were loaded up with detectors and what nots.
Zero arrived – off we went. The gunners were putting up a terrific show. The smoke was so thick to the front that we couldn’t see where we were headed for. What was going on behind the smoke we could only tell by what we heard. Without much trouble the forward Coys were over the humps and into the Ghastly Wadi, while A Coy moved up, in the dark as it was by now to go to a posn in the first wadi between the road and Railway where the men began to dig in.
Here I left them, and while going up towards Brown Willy to find the CO had my first experience of mortar fire at very close distance – in the open. The bombs gave a bit of a warning and like greased lightening my gunner and myself fell to the ground. The bloody things went off all around – two or three about ten yards away but only succeeded in showering us with earth.

[JamesLoader]

At about 21:00hrs I set out with this patrol of mine. I didn’t feel at all happy about it as I will explain :
1.   I didn’t know anything about were the enemy had withdrawn to.
2.   Only knew that our troops were somewhere along the wadi.
3.   Didn’t know whether there were any minefields on the way up.
4.   Had the terrific patrol of 14 men of my own and 8 sappers who had to be split up into three separate parties and find out
a.   Whether the bridge was blown and/or mined
b.   Whether there was a minefield north of Ghastly Wadi between railway and railway bridge.
c.   Anything to West of railway bridge
Well, we went to the right, up between Brown Willy and the road and somehow all 23 of us missed a bloody great tripwire minefield that was in that area, and eventually found the right forward Coy who were just south of the wadi. I dropped off one party at the bridge and another a bit to the west and took the rest myself to the west of the railway bridge. Everything went off alright, though, at one time it looked as if I had lost one of my sappers. We hung about there a bit and finally I was able to send all the patrol back without harm, having discovered no mines in the wadi or forward. Whether this was true or not at that time I do not know, but several people went up on mines just by that railway bridge over the next two days.
I got back to A Coy about 3am to find my batman just finishing off a very nice little two-man weapon pit so I scrounged a tin of grade B salmon and some army biscuits and we prepared for a little sleep and whatever there might be to come. I think we had about 4hours undisturbed sleep and then we were rudely awoken by some bloody mortar bombs.
These damned things were aimed at us intermittently throughout the day. Sometimes they were close, sometimes much too close. The nearest one to us fell just as we were enjoying our breakfast of salmon. It fell about five yards away and simply filled our trench with sh*t – worst of all ruining the remains of the salmon in the tin. We later discovered that it was a direct hit on the next door trench and killed one occupant flat out and badly wounded the other. Well the day passed slowly and hot and we slept as much as the mortars allowed.
In the afternoon things quietened down we learned that we were to go up to reinforce the two forward companies who were having rather a sticky time of it. At 4:45 we started out with a hell of a barrage supporting us, a troop of tanks on our front and another large attack going in on our battalions left front.
A Coy had to cross the railway line and then go up to reinforce B Coy in the Ghastly Wadi to the left of the railway bridge. Off we went and as we approached the little hump the tanks went into action against a couple of bloody MG34s (machine guns) in the wood right over to the right. It was a marvellous sight seeing them just sitting still and firing off belt after belt. After a minute or two they signalled us on and we advanced up to the crest folly expecting to be greeted by withering fire from the enemy to the front.
It was simply extraordinary we just moved up and over straight into the wadi without a shot being fired. The smoke that the gunners had put down was just like a London ‘pea-souper’ and I suppose Jerry just couldn’t see anything.
Once in the wadi we soon contacted the other company and by a little show of force ie a few mags from our Bren Guns we were able to send the infiltrating Jerry running back.
The Battalions attacking on our left were not so lucky – they came up against a hell of a defence and also ran into mines so that we were still isolated with one flank completely open on the left and the one on the right rather uncertain.
That night we were pretty busy digging in along the wadi – occasional mortar bombs came over but none of them at all close. The most unnerving thing at first was the steady fixed line of MG fire that the enemy kept up at night. It is said to be a sign that he is nervous and fears an attack – I don’t know – all I do know is that his fixed lines were beautifully placed and if we hadn’t had the depth of our pits in the wadi it would not have been at all comfortable for us.
Day dawned and no rations had come up. I went along to the railway bridge where they should have been and found no rations, only four new bodies – results of the mines that I think Jerry had laid the first night after my patrol had finished. So the rest of the day was spent eating out the reserve rations we carried. Water was also a trouble – bit some of us managed to find a few cans on blown up carriers and tanks in, and forward of, the wadi.

[JamesLoader]

All this time Jerry was pretty quiet to the front – if he had wanted to stage a big counter attack he could have and it would have been very unpleasant for us. Going to the difficulty of getting stuff up to us we didn’t waste ammo by firing into the blue so Monday was spent peacefully.
That night news came of a possible relief and sure enough at about 2am they arrived – they had had several casualties on the way up and Jerry was very shaky on the trigger - a nuisance as it held the relief up and we had to hurry over things in order to get out and clear by first light.
We just did it – and were we pleased to get back to the fairly quiet area to find the cooks at ready with a hot meal ration of two pints of tea was there wand some of us still wanted more. And so ended my first experience of battle for after the meal we went 2-3 miles back and were not called upon to go into the line again before Jerry surrendered the following afternoon.
One or two very useful things were learnt that you may care to know about :
1.   There is never insufficient time to dig wherever it is. The first thing to do is to dig ones slit trench and if you have a parquet then it must be  full 5 ft wide
2.   Never rely on supplies getting up regularly in particular on the first night of an attack. Cost here when in action every soldier carries in his haversack a tin of Bully and a packet of biscuits – it saved us and it has saved  a lot of others before us. This may not seem to apply to a Tank crew, but I would recommend it even to them.
3.   If we went on patrols we always took our Bully, biscuits, plenty of cigarettes and a book. This sounds as if one was hampering ones movement, but officers who have been right through from Alamaine swear by it. If wounded one can lie out for a day and gain a chance of getting back the next night and the book presents one from thinking too much and perhaps losing ones nerve.
4.   Beware of mines and booby traps. An organised minefield cannot be helped and is probably allowed for in the order. But the Jerry revels in setting trap no matter how simple either to catch the attacking infantry in the heat of the assault or to get the prying nosey parker among the followers up. I saw one in a bit of trench that the Jerry kept apparently occupied in fact they kept well clear of it and there was a nice little trip along the parapet attached to a couple of stick grenades in the trench already to catch a man going in with the bayonet. Never touch things in a captured unless a Jerry was actually killed whilst in occupation of it – then one will be pretty safe.
5.   You can never carry too few cigarettes and matches, they are more valuable than anything else. I learnt it through bitter experience – I got through my meagre twenty in the first day and had to scrounge rather unsuccessfully during the rest of the time. Also the Italian cigarettes are not worth smoking, I don’t know about the German ones. I expect they will be made of erdatz grass.
Well this seems to cover things, all my other news seems to go to home by normal channels so you probably have heard it all.
How is the job going – still on or is there something else on the way now ? Lets hear about it – pos with all your news
With all best wishes
Oliver

[GrahamSimons]

Amazing stuff! Please can I persuade you to send a photocopy and transcription to the IWM and the regimental museum?

[JamesLoader]

Of course.
He has a few other letters and a diary of POW camp.
Cheers

[JamesLoader]

who do I send them to ?
Weirdly enough there is/was a collection of photos on there to do when my Dad's Oflag is awaiting the american arrival. My dad's diaries match the photos.
Happy to send anything, anywhere... :-)

[GrahamSimons]

who do I send them to ?
Weirdly enough there is/was a collection of photos on there to do when my Dad's Oflag is awaiting the american arrival. My dad's diaries match the photos.
Happy to send anything, anywhere... :-)

https://www.sofo.org.uk/visit-us/
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/managing/offer-material

[JamesLoader]

 

on it now