IN THE DESERT

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXII, Issue 8869, 5 February 1943, Page 3

IN THE DESERT

PUSHING JERRY BACK THAMES SOLDIER’S LETTER WEATHER AFFECTS CONDITIONS ‘‘Things have been moving pretty fast over here in Egypt ami Libya, with most of our time taken np in pushing old .lorry hack o'er the desert, and it looks us though it is the finish of him this time.’' writes Private George Gomel - from the Middle Bast in a letter to his sister. Mrs Page, Cochrane Street, Thames. The letter, under date ]!>/.! 1 -It-’, tinues:"At present we are having a hit ol a spell after lighting in the front line iii Bgypl, "'here, after breaking the enemy’s line, we pushed through and hammered hell out- of him. Now we are somewhere in the Libyan Mes Old. " Bor a while there 1 was hearing shells and Stukas screaming in my sleep. This war would not lie so bad if only they didn’t mean it- when they threw things at you, and as for •Terry’s Stukas-—well, when yon see them coming down til you. you wish to God the earth would open up and swallow von.

"We get the best thrill of the lot. though, when we see our planes go over his lines and give him some hurryup. Our bombers and fighters had him licked every part of it. Watching the dogfights between his fighters and ours oxer the front line was our best pastime. "We had a terrible night last night. Tile clouds had been banking up for days and a cold wind off the Mediterranean. had been blowing. About P 1 o’clock last night down she came. "T guess yon can picture us out in the wind-swept desert, in a hole in the sand just, big enough for two lo sleep in. with a tent- over the top. It xvas O.K. for about live minutes, when the water began to gather in poo's ami fall in on top of us. there was one mad rush to grab our blankets and get out of that hole. Then' we were, standing out in the desert with a bundle of blankets and not a dry spot anywhere to put them down. All we could do was to go back to the truck and sit in it till morning. Bnt Hints’ nothing to a soldier. There have been times when we have slept in our sets for nights on end and travelled all day. drying our gear on the way. "The other day we were out. scouting. when, we came across one of old Jerry’s dumps. There were about -10 hogsheads of wine in it, so we backed up the truck and rolled one on. Although it was- terrible stuff, we had a good time that night.’’