DESERT VICTORY

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. The western desert is a place fit only for war. Thousands of square miles are nothing but sand and stone. A compass is as necessary once off the road as it is to a sailor at sea. Water doesn't exist until you bore deep into the earth. You bath in your shaving mug. Flies have the tenacity of bulldogs. Bruises readily turn to desert sores. Days that are very hot can be followed by nights of bitter cold. When the hot camp comes in wind brings its sandstorms, life can be intolerable. The Arabs say that after 5 days of it, murder can be excused. The tide of this war in the desert has ebbed and flowed. But as Raml advanced after we lost to Brookke, never had our backs been so close to the Suez war. We had lost 80,000 men and much booty. There were earlier lines of defense on which General Orin Lake might have stood. City Barani or Mesa Matru for example. But he was deliberately falling back on Elame no more than 60 mi from Alexandria to RML advancing at considerable speed. Egypt with the Nile Delta which gives it life. Cairo, British general headquarters in Africa's principal city. Alexandria, Egypt's chief port and base of our Mediterranean fleet, and Sewers, gateway to the Far East. All these must have seemed dazzlingly near, as near as a mirage, and as it proved, as much an illusion. It was a wise decision of General Orinlex to come back to Alammen. Much the strongest natural line of defense between the Libyan frontier and the delta. Moreover, Raml's lines of supply were here stretched to the limit. On the right, our flank rested on the sea. On the left, it approached the Creta depression. A trough the size of Wales, onethird of its salt marsh, and all of it territory that no vehicle can cross. On this 40 mi front, General Orinch took personal command. His the total responsibility. Not another yard back were we going. His much depleted army dug, blasted, and wired itself in and laid protective mines. Our front was one of discontinuous belts of minefields with strong points and machine gun and anti-tank gun imp placements, but it was as yet extremely slender. Here, General Orin Lake waited and with him men who had fought at Gazala in city Raz, others who had been twice to Benghazi, others who had escaped from Behake and to Brook. The eighth army had made a fighting retreat of 400 miles. And a battle which approached in its importance the battle of Britain was now at hand. The Middle East sewers and infinitely more was at stake. A crucial days had come. Heat. Heat. The line held. After several days of attack and counterattack, the British, Australians, Indians, and South Africans were still there, fighting as dogged as our infantry at Waterloo. The immediate crisis was passed, but anxiety remained into this situation stepped Mr. Churchill. Bringing his own inspiration and vigor, he brought good news of reinforcements both in men and supplies which had already rounded the Cape. For 5 days he visited the army and air force, explaining the task and its importance. And most dramatic of all, he brought new commanders, General Alexander and General Montgomery. Alexander, one of the last men out of Dunkirk and whose small army withstood the Japanese the whole length of Burma. And Montgomery, who took over the Eighth Army, a man who lives as sternly as a crumbl, and who is as much a part of his modern iron sides. Battles swallow up weapons faster. than you can build them. At home in Britain, the machinery of war poured from the factories and British women worked alongside men on the shells, the ships, the tanks, the aircraft, the explosives. In no country are women so thoroughly organized for war. Heat. Heat. In the United States, bigger and more powerful tanks were coming off the assembly lines. The Shermans, for instance, with their 75 mm gun and all round travelers going to Egypt for the first time. Although American material used at LMEN was but a small proportion of the whole, it was vital to our success. The Eighth Army had the longest lines of supply that the history of war has ever known. There are two main routes to the Middle East from Britain and America. The first by sea round the Cape 12,000 miles menaced by yubot which nothing but the resolution of our merchant seaman and the navy's guard over them has kept open and the second by air across the middle of Africa over the Niger and then north along the Nile Valley. Landing grounds have been cut from the jungle. On this route, fly aircraft brought by ship to ports on the west coast and they're assembled. The work has its own problems. Among them, malaria. Behind the line, great reinforcement. In the line, Raml had come for us again. It was 2 months later. He told his troops that on this day they were going to Cairo, but 5 days afterwards he withdrew. He left nearly 300 tanks behind to prove his generalship. In two or 3 months, we recreated and greatly enlarged the eighth army. Into Middle East ports came men from the United Kingdom, India, and South Africa. The 44th Home Counties Division and the 51st Highlands Division had actually left Britain in May and June. And it was at the time to Brookfell that President Roosevelt, who had Mr. Churchill with him at the time, ordered the first Sherman tanks to Egypt. Long range planning was yielding its reward. The Air Force kept guard. RML with a supply line on one/tenth the length of ours was himself building up his supplies as hard as he could go. But for a considerable proportion of them, there was no future. Our United Air Forces saw to that. The Royal Navy and Fleet Airarm also were busy. destroying Rumble's convoys. Within a few weeks, our Mediterranean submarines sank or damaged 24 enemy ships. In August alone, of all that was shipped to him, 80% went to the bottom. Meanwhile, the eighth army trained to the last ounce. The physical fitness and hardness of an army is one of the biggest battlewinning factors in war. When two first class fighters meet, he who sticks it longest wins in the end. This has been proved time and time again and applies to all ranks from general officers to private soldiers. And this includes all branches of the army, whatever thy job and wherever they be. Fighting fit and fit to fight. Heat. Heat. towards the middle of October. Preparations on both sides were nearing completion. In the north, Ruml's forces stretched from the coast to a point 10 mi inland. Here were the bulk of his German infantry comprising the 90th light and the 164th divisions together with the Italian Trieste division. In the south holding a front of 14 mi were three Italian divisions. These were strengthened by the rest of his German infantry. The center was left deliberately weak, held by a single Italian division, the Bolognia, holding a front of 16 mi. Behind the infantry in the north were two armored divisions, one German and one Italian, and similarly in the south. The British line began in the north with the 9inth Australians and below them the first South Africans. The 51st Highland Division who had St. Valeria to avenge and the fourth Indian division veterans of Abbiscinia in the western desert held the center. In the south were the 50th division from the teas and tine with the fighting French of behim and contingents of Greeks. The tactical reserve was found by the 44th division from counties close to London. Our armored divisions were three all United Kingdom men. Some veterans of a score of desert battles, others new to the work. One division, the famous seventh, held the extreme south. The other two were in close support in the north with the second New Zealand Infantry Division alongside. RML was full of confidence. He was saying to journalists in Berlin, "You may rely on our holding fast to what we have got. We hold the gateway to Egypt with the full intention to end. Hitler was experiencing one of his historic intuitions. He saw before him the destined conqueror of Egypt and on him he bestowed the baton of field marshal. RML hoped that if we attacked first, we should strike at his center. That hope we deliberately encouraged by the disposition of our forces. Having allowed our armor to break through, he saw himself destroying it by attacks from both flanks. That done, his own offensive would be launched. General Alexander, Admiral Harwood, and Air Marshal Tedar planned LLEN together. It was to be a joint operation. Unity of command had become a reality. In the desert itself, General Montgomery and Air Vice Marshall Cunningham lived cheek by jaile. There was no divided command, said General Montgomery. There was only one command. General Montgomery realizing that a citizen army fights best when it knows exactly what's going on and what it is going to do, saw to it that the plan of battle was known to everybody from general to private soldier. And it came down from one rank to another till the chain was complete. so that senior officers fighting in their third desert winter shared the knowledge with troopers going into action for the first time. The battle was against fixed lines and against fixed lines, General Alexander said the tactics are just like breaking down a wall with a crowbar. You drive it in as far as possible and then lever this way and that to make a small hole. Then you enlarge it. As soon as you have made a hole large enough, your armored divisions go through to wreck the enemy's artillery and lines of communication. As for General Montgomery, he said his intention was to hit the enemy for six right out of Africa. The final preparations began. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Where? And now that all knew what was to be done and always was made ready, there were final moments of normal desert life, of rest, of washing clothes, of a swim in the sea for those near the coast, of cooking the evening meal. The coming of dawn over the Mediterranean. The sunset with a touch of green in the horizon. The mirage turning sand into water and sprinkling that water with the sails of small ships. Many a soldier saw these things perhaps for the first time. And he wrote his letters home and smoked and talked things over or lay silent as he listened to the pipes playing island less. The battle of Elmen began in the evening. As light failed, the final moves were made. The eighth army watched Raml's lines lying in moonlight. Light and shadow. At 0 minus 30, the barrage begins. At the same moment, the sappers will move forward to clear gaps in the enemy minefields, marking the gaps with white tapes. After 30 minutes, the barrage will lift from the first objectives and creep forward. At 0 hour, 10:00, the infantry will advance. Fire heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat.