One Man's War: Deserted In The Desert (Part 1)

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4:28for a place with the least amount of stones at the end of the day but sometimes you were so tired you wouldn't even scrape the stones away with your foot. Just throw my ground sheet down and drop down on it. You never took your clothes off. At night it got quite cold. Sometimes you'd fold a tank sheet lengthways and put that down. When you're in more settled places not in a combat zone some people would make quite a decent shelter with tank sheets and camouflage netting. Some people slept underneath the tank. But you did always have the slit trench because our air support was tragic. And that was me, Al Murray, ventriloquising Sam Bradshaw, whose story we will be telling.

5:08So welcome to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland, where what we decided to do is go away from the big arrows on the maps and the grand schemes and high politics or the factories churning out not enough trucks or too many types of trucks and all the things that we've been concerning ourselves in recent episodes and look at one individual. Jim, we've chosen Sam Bradshaw, who, as I'm sure people realise, is from Liverpool. Very much so. I kind of pitched an Andy Burnham Liverpool rather than a Harry Enfield, a cham down thing. Personally, I thought that was very strong and I thought you did it magnificently.

5:46And actually, it did sound quite a lot like Sam, who I met 20-odd years ago and he was just a lovely, lovely bloke. and uh i talked to him a number of times got to know him very well uh visited him several times in his house in wigan and he was just very articulate and thoughtful about his experiences in the war which were extensive frequently traumatic um and just fascinating i mean i mean really really fascinating and of all the hundreds of interviews i've done with second world war veterans he's definitely top five i mean he's one of those ones where it just sticks you just remember it you remember the stories you remember um the things he was telling you you can remember him sitting in his armchair telling these stories when we were thinking about kind of homing in on on you know one person's experience he was one of the first people that came to my mind we're going to start with november 1941 uh operation crusader the newly formed eighth army um is doing its attack to relieve Tobruk, push back Rommel's Italian-German forces in the desert.

6:57And he is, by this time, a lance corporal in the 6th Royal Tank Regiment, the RTR. And on the 21st of November, he is in the Western Desert in Libya, about 20 miles east of Tobruk. Crusader is a big, big operation with lots pinned on it, isn't it? This is the thing. This is a big, you know, if we just briefly talk about arrows on maps, this is a big effort that's going to address the balance in North Africa and knock the Germans out, isn't it? There's a lot of hope pinned on this, isn't it? Yes. I mean, let me do a kind of one minute précis. So basically, September 1940, Italian army pushes into Egypt.

7:39The British Western Desert Fort under General Dick O 'Connor, only 36 ,000 strong, pushes back. is much more mobile defeats the italians in operation compass um in december 1940 into into january and february 1941 at which point germans think oh my god what's going to happen here we're going to lose our soft underbelly some front so we better send some reinforcements so sends over um general major general irwin rommel as he is at that point in february 1941 with two panzer divisions which then become three and joins in with the with the italians and they do stop the British and this is because in the spring of 1941 large part of the Western Desert forces it still is then gets diverted to to help the Greeks because the Germans have already invaded the Balkans and in April 1941 invade Greece as well so that critically weakens them at that point in April 1941 Dick O 'Connor and General Neame are captured by the Germans and the British are pushed back then there is in the summer there's Operation Backlacks where they try to push back again doesn't really work um to brook is overrun um uh and so begins the siege of to brook um and uh from the spring of 1941 onwards battle act which is supposed to relieve to brook doesn't work so then it's a rethink and then all this time everyone's kind of reinforcing and reinforcing and what was the western desert fort becomes british eighth army in the autumn of 1941 and there's a new um um uh person in charge.

9:07This is General Cunningham, who's the first commander of the Eighth Army, and he launches his big attack, Operation Cruise Ender, in November 1941. Thanks for playing just a minute, Jim. I'm afraid there were some hesitations, repetitions, and deviations in that. To Sam Bradshaw. So he's a lance corporal in the 6th Royal Tank Regiment, and he's about 20 miles east of Tobruk. And 6th Royal Tank Regiment are part of this new Eighth army. How they're going about this is it's, Ravalli is just after 5.30, so it's still dark. So they're basically standing two before dawn. The camp is surrounded by the regiment's 52 tanks.

9:43So basically it's a donut, a steel donut, a donut of armor, isn't it? Known as a leaguer. You camp for the night surrounded by the tanks and the troops act as guards and they're walking around in pairs with pistols and their Tommy guns watching out for trouble. I don't know, I'd have pickets further out myself but there we are um uh and this is known as a a prowler guard and so sam is on duty was on duty the previous night with his friend wilkinson they're basically from crosby aren't they yeah which is near liverpool for those who don't know it's the stretch north of liverpool that runs up the runs up the north sea coast and there's formby and crosby and all those places a friend of mine used to live in formby and i've taken that railway up to and southport at the top I've done that journey quite a few times because of Powell, like I said, used to live in Formby.

10:32They are originally TA men, aren't they? So they've joined, they've been in the TA. And of course, they were called up on the 1st of September. Everyone's stood up, aren't they, in 1939. And I think this is an interesting detail, isn't it? That Wilkinson's mother is German. And so he understands the language, but he doesn't tell anyone. Picked up post-First World War occupation. It's extraordinary, isn't it? Isn't that amazing? Yeah. First time round fraternisation. He's worried he's going to be accused of being a spy. So he's not told anyone or he's kept it under his hat, hasn't he? Well, so the night before, they're on patrol.

11:13Sam and Wilkinson are on patrol and they hear the sound of picks hitting rocks and German voices. Probably not more than 600 yards away. And Wilkinson says to Sam, They're Germans. They're Germans, mate. Yeah. That's a German NCO giving instructions. Sam is very worried, so he does the right thing. He wakes the troop officer to alert him, but the troop officer says, don't worry about it. It is nothing. Why did you wake me up? For God's sake. For God's sake, Bradshaw. What happens is the enemy then open fire with mortars and mobile 50mm anti-tank guns and ambush the leaguer. Their ammunition truck is hit and explodes immediately.

11:50A tank moves out of line and in the confusion is hit by one of their own shells and a lieutenant and two of the crew are killed. So it's mayhem. It's absolute mayhem. And this force is a withdrawal. By half past nine, the regiment is withdrawing to the south because it's too hot where they are. I mean, I think being crept up on like that and the troop officer's name is lost to history. Is it? No one knows. Is it one of those no one knows things? No one knows. Sam protected his reputation. That's very good of him. Sam was definitely protecting his reputation because he didn't forget anyone's name.

12:27His memory was prodigious. Right, okay. I can absolutely tell you that. Anyway, so the rest of the day, this is the 20th of November, they spend the rest of that patrolling the western edge of the airfield they captured the previous day. And what you have to remember about this is we are talking about the middle of the desert. So there's no buildings, there's no bedwins, there's nothing. There's two sides fighting it out. It's completely incoherent. There's no kind of battle lines as such. It's very confused because the landscape here is, for the most part, flat. Not entirely. There's lots of little cliffs and waddies and stuff.

13:03But, you know, it's not hilly, put it that way. It's very easy to get discombobulated, to get confused and disorientated about where you are, and so on and so forth. And an airfield is basically a cleared bit of desert. So the vetch has been taken away. The big rocks have been swept aside. A few tents have been put up. That's an airfield. There's no perimeter. There's no wire. There's nothing like that. People talk about the Desert War being fought on a sea of sand. Think of it like a naval battle. Anyway, there's more artillery duels throughout the morning and the afternoon and shells whistling everywhere, no one really knowing what's going on.

13:40And Sam is part of B Squadron. And he is involved in action this day, but he's told there's much more to come. And he's briefed that day of the battle plans for the next morning, which is going to be the 21st of November. And the task is twofold. First of all, to help the 2nd Rifle Brigade, which confusingly is just a battalion of, you know, 900 plus men. It's not actually a brigade. It's just called that. That is the name of the regiment. So it's the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade to secure enemy lines running along the ridge west to east to their north, all the way towards a large white Bedouin tomb known as the mosque.

14:18It's not a mosque. It's just a big old tomb in the middle of the desert. They're in Arabia, and that's what the imagination has stretched to in the British Army as to what it might be. Then they're going to drive over those lines and drop down the other side of the ridge, which is a steep 50-foot slope, into a valley and across a desert track called the Tree Capuzzo towards a place called Ed Duda. Then if successful, they link up with troops, It's breaking out of Tobruk, which is the besieged seaport. Sounds pretty straightforward. Yeah, you'd thought so. So Sam is on Proud of Guard at 2am the night before, known as Dead Man's Hour, the time where soldiers should be sleeping the deepest.

14:54And it's very quiet that night. But you can see Tobruk being bombed about 20 miles to the northwest. And the sky is lit up with orange flames. And there's a sound of explosions and anti-aircraft fire moments later. the sound carries through the empty desert night air. And he thinks of the Allied troops stuck there in Tobruk for the past 240 days. And he thinks, don't worry, we'll get you out of there tomorrow. And so he returns to his bed and tries to sleep, but he just can't. And it's now 6.30am on the morning of the 21st of November, i.e. the day that they're going to go into action. And suddenly the camp is alive.

15:34He's slept fully clothed, gets up, goes straight to his tank, which he's named ferret and all the tanks are named starting with f because they're the sixth royal tank regiment and f is the sixth letter in the alphabet so it's quite on the on the nose with the sherwood rangers i'm digging that i like that we aren't doing a b and c troop we get we it's a palate cleanser because normally it's it's you know um ardent and uh arthur and uh a killer or whatever and then and then bonzer and borrowed in borrowed in and bimble whatever and here we have F names to play with. And I imagine there was one or two where there were some robust proposals from various tank commanders that were rejected, or from their crews that were rejected.

16:15I think Ferret is a pretty strong name for a tank, particularly when it's a Nuffield A-15 Crusader. Oh, is it really? They've got themselves a Crusader, haven't they? Thought you'd be happy about that. Yeah, yeah. Well, you're on the path to the mighty Cromwell with the Crusader. You can see it, like, emerging. Which in turn leads you to the comet. which in turn leads you to comment, and then to Centurion, you know, the greatest main battle tank ever built. But basically, there's a problem with the Crusader. And I think it's interesting that you compared this to naval warfare. What? There is a problem with it.

16:48There is, right? And I think it's interesting that you compared things to naval warfare earlier. The desert is like naval warfare. Because naval warfare, as we've, those of you who've listened to our Sink the Bismarck episodes, and please, if you haven't, go back and listen to them because it's a staggering story. Gunnery is, when there's no cover, it's about gunnery, and it's about range of guns and about firing those guns and bringing the guns to bear on the enemy. And if the tank is the little battleship swanning around in the, sailing across the sea of sand. Or a destroyer. Or a destroyer or whatever you want it to be, then gunnery is the key.

17:23And the real problem here, and this is legacy of British railway gauges and all these other sort of things, and also what they had available in the factories to equip tanks with is they have a two-pounder gun, which in 1939, 1940 is absolutely the business and absolutely the best high-velocity anti-tank weapon for close country in the likes of France. But we're not in France anymore, Toto. We're in the desert. Also, the Germans, because of the Arras counterattack, I think it's one of the really interesting things about this, the Arras counterattack in May 1940, the Matildas are so well-armoured that the Germans realise what they need to do is to use their 88s.

18:05They need to up gun to deal with British armour. So they do, is the problem. I curse those Matilda IIs. In a way, in a way. The 88s, the notorious 88s of the Western Desert battles are all the fault of the Matilda II. Matilda II. On the 21st of May, 1940. Exactly. That is one way of looking at things. Everything has a consequence, right? And so the Germans, well, it's the butterfly, the butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon, isn't it? The Matilda II in that circumstance. It's caused a typhoon of steel further down there. But basically, the Germans with their Mark IV, it's a better gun platform.

18:40That has a 75mm gun that can, in terms of range, because this is all about range, more than stopping power, actually. It's about stopping power at range. The 75 they've got, and then the 88mm anti-aircraft gun can deal with a British tank, long before a British tank can deal with a German tank. The issue is this, that an 88mm dual-purpose anti-aircraft, anti-tank gun can fire a shell, an 88mm shell, 25 ,000 feet vertically into the sky. So, you know, over the desert, you know, 1 ,000 yards, 2 ,000 yards, not a problem at all. Exactly. Whereas a two-pounder, you know, once you've got about 700 yards, it's starting to go...

19:25Well, I mean, I think you're being generous. You've got to get up close. and as the German tanks get heavier. Anyway, that is the anti-tank gun in the desert argument settled and needs never to be revisited. I think we've definitively covered that. We don't need to. No one even needs to debate that ever again. Anyway, they're getting ready. So they're firing machine guns to make sure they work. They're running out their engines. They're brewing tea. They're making breakfast. It's this sort of busy, super busy period as you get ready to go. Three days previously, they've done a 90 mile advance, 90 mile march although they're in tanks they call it they still caught they would still call it a march to take enemy uh the ending landing ground at city rezeg and uh uh three enemy aircraft got airborne but 17 were captured on the ground and then run over by tanks now how much fun would that have been i mean what what aircraft are we talking here are these italian types or i'm pitching a crusader driving over the rear boom of a um me110 right now that's what that's my mental my mental image.

20:27I really, I was thinking 109s, but yeah, okay. Yeah, just because it's bigger and so you get to squash more of it. Yeah. But there's a strong sense though off the back of this that they've got to, they've got to get this, they've got to get this right. They've got to avoid, avoid losses, isn't there? Right. We'll take a quick break and then we'll return as they start engines and prepare to cross the start line.

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22:27Welcome back to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me, I'm Murray and James Holland. And engines are starting, the start line moment approaches. So Jim, who is Sam's driver? He's a chap called John Billiard and he starts running up the engines. You know, like always away with these crews. They're incredibly tight. There's a very distinct sense of camaraderie. They all know each other. But Billiard is the new boy. He's only arrived from the depot the previous night. He's married. He's got two children. He's from Manchester, so reasonably close to Crosby, where Sam's brought up. And he arrives with packs of cigarettes.

23:03So he makes himself very popular by handing them all around. And John says, have you got any advice for me? And Sam says, yeah, when you find your mark, you make straight for it. And if you have to make a run for it, for God's sake, don't stall. Can't argue that. So the early morning calm is then broken as engines start to roar and the tanks rumble forward out of their kind of, you know, barricade. And a machine gun fire tears into the sky as guns are tested. I mean, you can just imagine it, can't you? And then after this sort of weapons testing, there's a sort of quiet stillness again that then returns.

23:39And they're all waiting for the operation to commence. They know what they've got to do. They've been through their orders. They've got to get up to this ridge. They've got to go down the other side, push on through, blah, blah, blah. And Sam sits on the flight deck above the engine at the back of his tank. So for those of you who don't know what the Crusader looked like, it looks like your sort of classic old-school image of a tank, doesn't it? It's got a fairly low profile. It's got the turret in the middle, the gun sticking out, and it's got this sort of flat back with the engine hatch right at the back.

24:09So he's sitting there drinking his tea, eating his breakfast, and he hates the waiting because they're going into battle, and this is when you have time to think about things. So he tries to think of other things to distract him. He thinks of his home and his family. And then thinks, no, don't want to think about that because that'll make me homesick. And then he thinks about leaving Caro, which is always a bit of a laugh because there's no blackout there and they can do what they like. And he thinks about football and he glances down and notices a little spider. And he thinks to himself, by tonight, you most likely will be alive and I will probably be dead.

24:41I think it's interesting that he told you that, that he recalled that. But he also in the next sentence, he also said, I never thought I was going to die. Right. So he contemplates death, but he always thinks he's going to get away with it somehow. People's minds and imaginations, they're not a straight line, are they? That's the point. And of course, as you're about to go into a, you know, he's, trust me, and we'll go back all over this, by November 1941, he's seen a skimful already, so he knows what he's talking about. Anyway, five past eight, 7th Armour Brigade headquarters to which the rifle brigade are attached.

25:09Here the enemy tanks are gathering southeast to their position. Again, it's a bit like those naval battles, isn't it? Yeah. You know, the ships have been spotted. They've been spotted by a recce plane or whatever, picked up on Huff Duff or radar or whatever. So anyway, so it's decided that the 7th Hussars Tank Regiment will stay behind to tackle them, while the 6th Royal Tanks, which includes a company of the 2nd Rifle Brigade, and one Royal Horse Artillery Battery, which I think is interesting. So this is an all-arms combination. This is also known as a battle group. It's a Kampfgrouper, Jim.

25:44It's a Kampfgrouper. But the British Army is not capable of doing this in 1941. How can this be? Yeah, yeah. They have to learn it off the Germans, Jim. They have to copy it in the 1950s off the Germans. Anyway, so this little battle group is going to press ahead with the Northern attack as planned. And the person in charge of this is Brigadier Jock Campbell. And Campbell is already a legendary figure in the Eighth Army. He's charismatic, courageous, daring, you know, dashing leader with his little moustache and all the rest of it. Anyway, 8.15. Start up the engine again on ferret and start moving across the start line.

26:19And they quickly reach their first objectives. The enemy lines along the ridge from point 167 to the mosque, the aforementioned mosque. The noise of firing is deafening from inside the tank, as you can imagine. I mean, you know, this is a little crusader. Fighting chamber thick with smoke and the smell of fuel and cordite. The acrid stench of cordite. Come on, bring it on. So he's a tank commander as a lance corporal in his troop. Sam is frequently sticking his head through the hatch because he wants to get a better sense of what's going on, even though they are warned at this point, technically you shouldn't.

26:50And isn't that interesting? Because by 1944, everyone's got their head out of the hatch. But the rule in the early part of the war is, no, you don't. When you're in battle, and this is a relic, of course, from the First World War and the early stages of war, when you're in your tank, it's periscopes only. But what they're all learning, of course, is that periscopes don't cut it, and you actually need to see all around you, and you need to risk it. But outside, it's absolute chaos. and from the amount of burning tanks and explosions, he can tell it's not going as planned. I mean, how often have we heard that line?

27:21And what he doesn't know is what has also been happening that very same morning. Well, what's extraordinary is so at half past six that morning, so not long after first light, Rommel is only three miles north of where Sam and the regiment were based. Rommel has got good intelligence of the regiment's movements and the Germans are very, very, very good at listening. they have their own wise service and they're very very good at listening to to um the british and what the british are saying to each other and what they're doing and the british radio security because they're new to radio they've only really they've only they're only just sort of figuring it out and they're very bad at it and so the germans the germans have a rommel particularly has a very good sense of what what's going on because british security is is is lax and um Rommel, he knows they're coming.

28:09He knows they're coming. So he's able to do something about it. So he's able to, you know, order his guns to turn around away from Tobruk and towards the airfield to the south where everyone's preparing for battle. It's seen at the time as a sixth sense. But what it actually is, is he's got good information coming to him. He's got great intel. Yeah, great intel. He's got four flat guns from a nearby German reconnaissance unit. unit that they take up position on Belhamid Ridge, which is next to Botcher's field artillery, which is the General Botcher's artillery under Rommel. And this basically makes the Crusaders sitting ducks.

28:46Well, they're walking into a trap, aren't they? Yeah, it's striking power at range and the Germans have the striking power and they have the range here. And this is what Sam is seeing in the distance. This is what the burning tanks and explosions are, is that basically the Germans know and the Germans are ready and the Germans have the measures to deal with this. And, you know, Lieutenant Colonel Lister, him and his adjutant are captured after their tanks destroyed. His two IC and his intelligence officer are also, they're also killed. So the regiment presses on without its headquarters, essentially.

29:22C Squadron's commander, he gets badly wounded and loses his arm. B Squadron's commander is captured and tanks are brewing up all over and the men trying to escape are being machine gunned as they flee. And other men are unable to escape. They prefer not to take the risk and they're burned then and there in the tanks. It's mayhem, isn't it? It's carnage. And it's pointing full four square Eighth Army's problems at this phase of the war, isn't it? This is the problem writ large. It's that the landscape favours the German equipment and the Germans have the upper hand in terms of being able to read British movement and then deal with it.

30:01If the Germans didn't have these guns, then knowing what the British are going to do next, who knows what difference that would make. But the fact that they also have the equipment to deal with it. Sam in ferret, they get away with it, but the damage to the squadron is extraordinary. I mean, there's three tanks left. Three tanks left in his squadron, which would have been, you know, 19 actually. Yeah, so there'd be 19 in the squadron. There's only three now. Which is extraordinary. And he's lost radio contact with the other tanks. and they've run out of, they're basically running out of ammunition.

30:34He figures out, Sam figures out, actually they got through two defense lines and they're now approaching another ridge. So in effect, another one. He manages to find a dip in the ground that's big enough to dead ground. He can hide the tank in, bar the turret and the gun. The Crusade has this rhomboid turret. The Crusade has an element that it looks like it was designed by a 12 year old who's drawn a cool turret on it in a rhomboid shape to accommodate the crew and to breach the ammunition. He really does have that look. He can see the enemy guns ahead on the Belhamed Ridge. And then the tank on his right is hit and bursts into flames.

31:10Sam decides, although he's not supposed to do this, to go and rescue the guys from another tank. Yeah, they're repeatedly told, by the way, not to do this. Actually, it's a court-martial offence. Because all you're doing is you're going to go off and get yourselves killed as well. So don't make a bad situation worse. But they all ignore it because there's this terrific sense of camaraderie within a squadron, within a regiment, and you don't stitch up your mates. You go to their rescue. And he can see his mates jumping out of the burning wreckage, and he says to Billiard, Pull out and pick them up.

31:43Out of their safe spot. And they start driving towards the wreckage, and two men who have escaped run towards the tank, and the first jumps up onto the front of the tank and swings himself up, and the second leaks onto the flight deck behind the turret, So they've got these two men on and no one hears the shell coming because it's obviously come from an 88. And, you know, it arrives before you hear it. Sam suddenly feels this incredible sensation of everything stopping. You know, it is this sort of slow-mo moment. And he feels a pain in his side, like someone smashed him with a hammer. And then he sees blood on his shorts and he thinks, oh, my God.

32:17And he falls from the commander's seat to the floor of the fighting chamber in the turret. And he passes out, but he doesn't know how long for. You know, is it a few minutes? Is it a couple of seconds? What is it? And both his gunner and his loader are gone. And you can see that Billiard is still in the driver's chamber. Remember, Billiard's married with two kids. He's only arrived from the depot the night before, but he's only halfway out through the hatch of the driver's seat. And so Sam shouts, Come on, Billy, get out, son, we're going to burn. And he puts his hand out to him, but he sees that Billiard's hand is covered in blood.

32:49And he can see how badly injured he is, but he knows he can't get him out of the hatch. so he says to him shoot yourself there's no hope there's no hope for him now he can't help him he can't rescue him I mean Christ and Sam can't feel his leg at all he can't feel his leg but he still manages to hoist himself up push himself out through the hatch then he rolls down the back of the tank and falls right next to a severed leg which is presumably one of the guys he's just picked up and Ferrer is still slowly jolting forward can still see the German guns ahead and he slides off the tank and tries to run for a cover of a hillock, but his leg gives out, so he finds a bush to hide behind.

33:28And Ferret is still trundling forward, billowing smoke and flames, and he hopes that Billiard isn't alive in there, and he suddenly feels terrible remorse about leaving him. But, you know, what else can he do? And suddenly the battlefield is deserted. You know, it's like those sort of aerial battles where one minute you're in a melee, the next minute it's all gone. You know, this is one of these things where time is slightly freezing, you're in shock, you're in pain. You don't know quite how long everything's been going on. And then he eventually spots a German patrol of Germans over the ridge.

34:00And they're actually moving in one of those little mini Italian tanks. And he's terrified that they're going to spot him and shoot him. And he's still got his service revolver. So he thinks to himself, you know, what should I do? Should I shoot at them first or shoot myself? And one soldier approaches Sam who's lying on the ground. He gets about 15 yards away. And Sam is absolutely convinced this is at the end. But as the German gets closer, he stares at Sam and then shouts behind him, Ein Tutter! I.e. he's dead. And he leaves. That's as close as it gets, isn't it? Once you've escaped the inferno of the burning tank.

34:39But then he thinks, he's elated to start with, but then thinks, oh, maybe I should have surrendered. I've got no water. How am I going to survive? He is in the middle of the desert. Yeah, yeah. He's literally in the middle of the desert. swirl of instincts here. And then he hears a voice behind him. Are you wounded too? And it's a young ginger-haired man hobbling, carrying a machine gun. And the ginger man continues, oh, shit, scared, but I could have shot them. You'd never have killed all of them. No, but I'd have had a good go at them. Can you walk? No. So Sam's shock is now wearing off and the pain is starting.

35:13And the ginger-haired man goes, there's an attack coming in. Let's wait here and try and attract some attention. And so they wave their berries until they grab attention of a passing crusader. And it's one from Sam's own squadron. So two of the crew members jump down and help Sam onto a stretcher and then strap him up to the back of the tank. The tank turns round, now with permission over the radio to take Sam back. And they travel over the German defence side. They broke earlier that day. And some Germans are still in their trenches and armed, even though they've been overrun. And one soldier points his rifle right at Sam, stares at him, and then slowly lowers the battle.

35:46Good luck. He mumbles as the tank rolls past. I mean, car cripes. To which Sam says, Danka. Thanks, mate. We've said Hollywood a number of times, haven't we? Yeah. They carry on through the devastation of the battle. There's dead bodies everywhere. And they reach a mustering point. Sam's put on a stretcher next to another wounded tank man who's really badly burned. He's covered in bandages. And he tells Sam that his name is Ashbridge and he was with 7th of our Hussars fighting southeast of Sidi Rezeg airfield. So the place is full of people who are wounded and guys who are dying at this advanced dressing station.

36:27And Sam and this fellow Ashbridge are taken to a tent and a doctor asks him if he's been given any morphine. And Sam says, no, but I think the fellow next to me needs it more than I do, meaning Ashbridge. And the doctor replies. He's gone. And then to the Padre, this one's for you. And a blanket is just put over Ash Ridge's head. That's devastating, isn't it? Yeah. So the morphine he's given makes Sam pass out, and he wakes up to a massive ambulance convoy gathering outside the tent, and he's loaded into the back of one with five other men. The morphine's now wearing off again, and Sam is in absolute agony.

37:06He's never experienced pain like this before. and if he still had his pistol, he tells himself he would have shot himself. But other men around him have horrific injuries. There's one man with his nose blown off, another with an almost severed arm and the ambulance smells terrible. There's leaking wounds and excrement and the ambulance continues to drive in convoy through barren desert overnight and of course every jolt of the ambulance over a bumpy road is, well, there isn't a road, it's just a desert, is absolutely excruciating. but by the morning sam's ambulance has become detached from the rest of the convoy and the man of the with the nearly seven arm who's a major is furious with the driver he goes do you know what you're doing do you know where you are do you have a map how the hell did you lose the convoy i mean i'm kind of with the major there yeah yeah yeah yeah to be honest yeah with his seven arm and they spend the rest of the day driving aimlessly around the desert lost jeepers creepers Yeah.

38:02No landmarks, nothing to go on. And Sam falls asleep at some point, and then he wakes up with his whole body damp, and he realises that the fellow above him in the ambulance, stretched above him, has bled out all over him and is now dead. This is shocking stuff. And the driver finally spots an armoured car ahead, which is a Rhodesian patrol, and they offer to escort the ambulance to the next dressing station. two bodies are carried out of the ambulance once they arrive and sam's wound is then treated and it's dressed with a steaming poultice and he passes out from the pain but i don't think we do steaming poultices any thought more i think medicine has moved on from the steaming poultice they had their time and they had their place anyone medical listening please let us know if the steaming poultice is still applied the ambulance sets off again with sam and the remaining men but over um the battle area again this time not a proper desert track and they reach, this is really interesting they reach an American volunteer field hospital even though America isn't in the war yet there's Americans present and Sam is given more morphine and he's given a bed but the big problem is his wound is becoming gangrenous so he's kicked out the bed he's put back in the ambulance and he's got to go further into the rear to get proper treatment and he's taken to another dressing station.

39:23And this is all like scenes from hell, isn't it, Jim? That's full of essentially mad German prisoners of war who've been driven crazy because they've been accidentally attacked by their own dive bombers the day before. And they're all essentially out of their minds with battle shock. He's examined again by more doctors and then he's finally put on a plane and flown to an underground hospital in Merzema True on the Northern Egyptian coast. And an English nurse looks after him and she's clean and she's beautiful and he's dirty and stinking and ashamed of himself. And she says, how old are you? 21.

39:59I thought you were older. We'll put you on a bed and clean you up and get a barber to shave you and cut your hair. I like her. He's thinking, well, first of all, he's hugely relieved. He's no longer in an ambulance being bled all over. And he's thinking, is this it? Am I out? Is this a blighty wound? Is the war over? but can I finally go home after two years? And an officer comes over and starts asking him questions about how the battle had been going. And Sam has to admit it hasn't gone very well. And the officer replies, Your whole brigade has been wiped out. You'll get a few days leave, and then we'll have you back at the front.

40:36It's not a blighty wound. So I think we'll leave it there. Yeah, we'll leave Sam there. And then what we'll do in our following episode is we'll look at where Sam's from, who he is, how he found himself where he where he did in 90 in november 1941 um thanks very much for listening if you want to hear this right away become aware of ways to make you talk patreon uh where the perks of membership are multiple and uh you can listen ad free you can binge listen you can work your way through the whole thing if you need to um we've uh a vast back catalogue of audio books of all sorts of other stuff that maybe you want to get into your ears um and uh live casts with me and Jim kind of every other Monday.

41:13Thanks very much for listening. We'll see you very soon. Cheerio. Cheerio.

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