by Bryn Hammond
35. Quoted in Paul B. Baker, Yeoman Yeoman: The Warwickshire Yeomanry, 1920–1956 (Birmingham: Regimental Association, 1971), pp.56–57.
36. Bolitho, The Galloping Third, p.278.
37. Mick Collins, ‘One Man’s War’, 92/1/1, IWM Documents.
38. Mick Collins, ‘One Man’s War’, 92/1/1, IWM Documents.
39. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
40. Currie, disregarding the risk, was sat on top of his tank. Calling Grosvenor to join him, he informed him, ‘Well, we’ve made a gap in the enemy anti-tank screen, and your brigade has to pass through, and pass through bloody quick’. Grosvenor replied, ‘I have never seen anything, sir, that looks less like a gap’. This story appears in C.E. Lucas Phillips, Alamein (London: Pan Books, 1965), p.293. However, it does not claim to be based on a personal experience account and may well be an imagined conversation. Nevertheless, it’s a good story!
41. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
42. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
43. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
44. Quoted in Bernd Hartmann, Panzers in the Sand Volume Two 1942–45: The History of the Panzer-Regiment 5 (Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2011), p.62.
45. Quoted in Hartmann, Panzers in the Sand Volume Two, p.62.
46. B.H. Liddell Hart [ed.], The Rommel Papers (New York: Da Capo Press, 1953), p.318.
47. Liddell Hart [ed.], The Rommel Papers, p.318.
48. Figures quoted on the Axis History Forum http://forum.axishistory.com/ and transcribed from records held by the US National Archives and Records Administration (from National Archives Microfilm Publication T313 Records of German Field Commands: Panzer Armies, Reels 467,470, 471) suggest the two armoured divisions had a total of only eleven Mark IVs of this type available on 1 November. My thanks to the members of this forum for the very useful material they have published across various threads.
49. Arthur Reddish, El Alamein: A Tank Soldier’s Story (Wanganui, New Zealand: Wanganui Newspapers, 1992), p.27.
50. Reddish, El Alamein: A Tank Soldier’s Story, p.23.
51. Reddish, El Alamein: A Tank Soldier’s Story, pp.27–28.
52. OH, Vol. IV, p.67.
53. Leo Harry Lyon interview, 22335, IWM Sound Archive.
54. OH, Vol. IV, p.69.
55. Martin Kitchen, Rommel’s Desert War: Waging World War II in North Africa, 1941–1943 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 339–40; Liddell Hart [ed.], The Rommel Papers, pp.318–19.
56. Kitchen, Rommel’s Desert War, p.341; OH, Vol. IV, p.68 [fn] and p.69; Niall Barr, Pendulum of War: The Three Battles of El Alamein (London: Pimlico 2005), p.392.
57. OH, Vol. IV, Appendix 3(a) Rommel to OKW, No. 135/42, 19.50 [German Time], 2November.
58. Barr, Pendulum of War, p.391 and Ronald Lewin, The Life and Death of the Afrika Korps: A Biography (Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2003), p.173.
59. Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman (eds) Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke: War Diaries, 1939–1945 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 2001) [henceforth Alanbrooke War Diaries], p.332. By ‘GHQ’, Brooke was referring to the German High Command.
60. Private papers of D.A. Main, 87/35/1, IWM Documents.
61. OH, Vol. IV, p.70.
62. Private papers of D.A. Main, 87/35/1, IWM Documents.
63. Private papers of D.A. Main, 87/35/1, IWM Documents.
64. Private papers of D.A. Main, 87/35/1, IWM Documents.
65. Private papers of D.A. Main, 87/35/1, IWM Documents.
66. Private papers of D.A. Main, 87/35/1, IWM Documents.
67. R.H.W.S. Hastings, The Rifle Brigade In The Second World War 1939–1945 (Aldershot: Gale & Polden, 1950), p.160.
68. Barr makes the valuable point that losses were almost as heavy as those in the action at ‘Snipe’ on 27–28 October. Barr, Pendulum of War, p.394.
69. Keith Douglas, Alamein to Zem Zem (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), p.26.
70. Reddish, El Alamein: A Tank Soldier’s Story, pp.27–28.
71. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
72. Lieutenant A.L. Deans, RTR, ’Report on Special Tank Squadron attached to 7th Motor Brigade from 20th Oct to 4th Nov 1942’, 8 December 1942, in private papers of Lieutenant A. L. Deans, 73/211/1, IWM Documents.
73. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
74. OH, Vol. IV, p.71.
75. Liddell Hart [ed.], The Rommel Papers, pp.320–21.
76. The full text of Hitler’s order is in Liddell Hart [ed.], The Rommel Papers, p.321 [fn].
77. Barr, Pendulum of War, p.399. Mussolini’s message is in OH, Vol. IV, Appendix 3, p.476.
78. Arrangements had previously been made for 90. leichte-Afrika-Division to assist in the withdrawal of 164. leichte Afrika-Division.
79. Private papers of D.N. Wimberley, PP/MCR/182, IWM Documents.
80. OH, Vol. IV, p.75.
81. Private papers of D.N. Wimberley, PP/MCR/182, IWM Documents.
82. OH, Vol. IV, p.75.
83. Sir Francis Tuker, Approach to Battle: A Commentary – Eighth Army, November 1941 to May 1943 (London: Cassell, 1963), p.254.
84. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents.
85. Nila Kanten interview, 18391, IWM Sound Archive.
86. Private papers of A.D.R. Wingfield, PP/MCR/353, IWM Documents. Captain Allen Grant Singer was the adopted son of the philanthropist Washington Singer, and Master of Foxhounds with the Hursley Hunt in Hampshire between 1936 and 1940. Sadly, he was killed on 5 November. This account contradicts suggestions that Thoma was cowering in a foxhole when captured. Wolf Heckmann, Rommel’s War in Africa (London: Granada, 1981), pp. 480–81.
87. Carol Mather interview, 19629, IWM Sound Archive.
88. Private papers of M.E. Parker, 88/4/1, IWM Documents. Parker commanded 257 Anti-Tank Battery, 65th (Norfolk Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment, RA.
89. Antonio Tomba, Sabbia e reticolati. Dal diario di un carrista dell'Ariete in Africa settentrionale (Roma: Italia Editrice New, 2008).
90. Quoted in Hartmann, Panzers in the Sand Volume Two, p.63. Selmayr became Regimentsarzt on 3 November.
91. Hans von Luck, Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck (London: Cassell, 2002), p.118.
92. G.P.B. Roberts, From the Desert to the Baltic (London: William Kimber, 1987), p.119.
93. Private papers of J.W. York, PP/MCR/97, IWM Documents.
94. Danchev and Todman (eds) Alanbrooke War Diaries, p.338.
95. Danchev and Todman (eds) Alanbrooke War Diaries, p.338.
96. This analysis draws on Kitchen, Rommel’s Desert War, pp.344–51.
97. Emilio Pulini interview, 2924, IWM Sound Archive.
98. Gervase Markham interview, 16716, IWM Sound Archive.
99. Nevill Howell interview, 20937, IWM Sound Archive.
100. Hans von Luck, Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck (London: Cassell, 2002), p.119.
101. Barr, Pendulum of War, p.407.
102. Barr, Pendulum of War, pp.402–03.
103. According to Lieutenant-Colonel William Watson of 6 DLI, Brigadier Jocelyn Percy of 151st Brigade was dismissed by Lieutenant-General Oliver Leese shortly after the battle for failing to provide adequate motor transport for his brigade in the pursuit.
104. OH, Vol. IV, p.89.
105. Private papers of Brigadier G.M.O. Davy CBE DSO, PP/MCR/143, IWM Documents. Brigadier George Davy was Director of Military Operations, Middle East General Headquarters and strongly critical of Montgomery for his caution in operation immediately after Alamein.
106. OH, Vol. IV, p.95.
107. Private papers of C.W.K. Potts, Con Shelf & 92/28/1, IWM Documents.
CONCLUSION
1. Jonathan Fennell, Combat and Morale in the North African Campaign: The Eighth Army and the Pa
th to El Alamein (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p.9.
2. Tom Bird to The Times, 27 September 2001. I am extremely grateful to Tom’s son, Nicky Bird, for bringing this letter to my attention and to Tom and Nicky for permission to quote from it.
3. Howard Kippenberger, Infantry Brigadier (London: Geoffrey Cumberledge, 1949), p.190.
4. B.H. Liddell Hart [ed.], The Rommel Papers (New York: Da Capo Press, 1953), p.325.
5. Kippenberger, Infantry Brigadier, p.190.
6. Private papers of C.W.K. Potts, Con Shelf & 92/28/1, IWM Documents.
7. Private papers of C.W.K. Potts, Con Shelf & 92/28/1, IWM Documents.
8. Gervase Markham interview, 16716, IWM Sound Archive.
9. Frank Devaney interview, 2699, IWM Sound Archive.
10. Frank Devaney interview, 2699, IWM Sound Archive.
11. Private Papers of J E Brooks, 84/13/1, IWM Documents.
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Barnett, Corelli, The Desert Generals (London: Phoenix, 1999)
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van Creveld, Martin L., Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
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