One Man's War: Operation Compass (Part 2)

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3:29Al Murray: It felt like a grand adventure. One of the things was you made an immediate circle of friends, and I had one or two fellows from Cosby who worked at the post office. and when I joined the TA, 12 of them joined so out of those there was about 3 of them with me. We stayed one night in Valletta and in the morning we arrived at Alexandria and it was then we realised we were in Egypt. We could see the Fezzes and so on. We collected our kit and marched off the ship. My first impression was of the military police because as we came down the gangplank there were MPs on each side of the gangplank. Their eyes were strange with webs under them even though they were only young men and they seemed to be staring at nothing and their eyebrows were all scorched.

4:09Al Murray: We got on a train and set off. We didn't know it then, but we were going to Cairo. The Royal Armoured Core Depot, and we were part of the RAC, which in Cairo was at a place called Abassia, so Saturday midday we arrived at Abassia. The train went straight into the garrison and we saw people standing in tank uniform at the side of the train. And there were people who we knew had gone in before us, so they said, you've made a big mistake. "'We were still in battle dress and we were very, very hot. "'In those days the battle dress was all hook and eye "'and was all hooked up to the neck. "'You couldn't wear a collar and tie.

4:42Al Murray: "'They herded us into the dining room "'and my first impression was that it was at complete odds with England. "'When we came to the dining room you had to take your berry off, "'fold it up, wash your hands. "'We didn't queue up with the mess tins as we had before. "'You had to sit at tables with tablecloths and flowers "'and you were waited on by Sudanese waiters "'who wore these white jackets and a fez and the colours of the regiment, which looked like a girdle, and they brought the food to you. Halfway through the meal, a very elegant officer came to the table and asked us if we had any complaints.

5:11Al Murray: I thought, what a different life this is. And that was, of course, Sam Bradshaw describing his passage to Africa, Jim. What an adventure. Leaving England. Amazing, isn't it? Finding himself in Egypt. Quite extraordinary. And a world away from the barracks 500 yards from his front door in Liverpool. And this, of course, is the bit that we were talking about in the opening quote that you read out, Al. Yeah. Yeah. These waiters. It's extraordinary. Well, welcome to episode two of our We Have Ways to Make You Talk series about One Man's War, about Sam Bradshaw. And in our first episode, we looked at Sam's literally four days of his war.

5:50Al Murray: I mean, that was it. Yeah, a shocking experience as part of Operation Crusader when the battle group 6RTR, along with 2nd Rifle Brigade and some horse artillery, were sent to engage, or well, to try and do something about the German presence between them and Tobruk. and the Germans got the jump on them, basically. And we saw the consequences of the weapons gap that exists in the desert at this point of the war, where the Germans have anti-tank weapons either on tanks or just mounted stuff, that they can deal with the British armour at a distance where the British armour has no reply. And the consequences were that in Sam's squadron, three tanks at one point out of 19 survived.

6:33Al Murray: And then as he went hull down, he was then knocked out himself as well. And we saw Sam's shocking odyssey back to the rear in order to be treated for his injuries. Badly wounded in his leg. A man bleeds out in him in the ambulance as they're lost in the desert with a major with a missing arm. I mean, it's just, I think we said this in the last episode. Who needs Hollywood? Who needs a script writer? Reality is writing you a script that you can't top. Well, yeah. And you can imagine what I was like as a young, you know, I was in my early 30s when I went to see Sam for the first time. And I was sat there in his front room with him in his armchair, you know, in his blazer with his regimental tie on.

7:14And he had great big thick glasses and big thick hair, kind of greying hair. And he was a proper gent. He was a lovely chap. And you can imagine what I was like listening to this. I mean, I just couldn't believe it. I mean, it was the most extraordinary conversation because you know how you fix those things up in those days is you'd write a little letter and you get a letter back and then you then you'd ring and you'd range a time and then you'd drive up to Wigan and you'd think what the hell is this place because you know this is for google maps yeah eventually you'd find the little cul-de-sac there's a bungalow or whatever it was on the house I can't remember which it was but but you know and then you'd ring the bell and you have a cup of tea and you'd sit you'd sit down and suddenly you're there listening to this incredible story.

8:02I mean, it was absolutely jaw-dropping stuff because I had no idea this was what he was going to tell me. I knew he'd been in the Eighth Army. I knew he'd been in Six RTR. I knew he'd done kind of, you know, four years, five years of war. But I had no idea what he got up to at all. So I was just open mouth listening to this.

8:19Al Murray: I mean, the thing is, as you said, it's just four days in his war that we related in the previous episode. And the battle at 21st of November at Sidi Rezeg is like one of the sort of emblematic encounters of Eighth Army and Rommel, isn't it, from the end of 1941. It shows you the problems. And at the heart of it, we touched on Jock Campbell, Jock Columns and all that stuff, which is Campbell with these battle groups and Windsor-Victoria Cross in this battle. The guy leading the thing, which I think long-term listeners of We Have Ways of Making a Talk will know that that tends to set our spider sense tingling here on the podcast that that probably means it was a disaster and yeah if there's a if there's a vc being doled out then it means that things have probably gone very very badly yep there's an amazing description by alan moorhead of um campbell and i think this is the digression because what we what we're going to look at is is sam's life before the war um and how he ends up in the army well just but while you're mentioning alan moorhead the most entertaining books about the desert war are the north african trilogy by alan moorhead there's three books he published yeah and the descriptions because he watches this battle and it's stunning i mean it's incredibly vivid and it kind of tells you all you need to know to be perfectly honest it's um it's really really good so i recommend it and still in print but he says of campbell he led his tanks into action riding in an open armored car and as he stood there hanging onto its windscreen a huge well-built man with the english officer stiff good looks he shouted there they come let them have it When the car began to fall behind, he let down onto the side of the tank as it went forward and directed the battle from there.

9:59Al Murray: They say that Campbell won the VC half a dozen times that day. The men loved this Elizabethan figure. He was the reality of all the pirate yarns and tales of high adventure. And in the extremes of fear and courage of the battle, he had only courage. He went laughing into the fighting. I mean, ha ha! Ha ha! Let them have it! But, you know, this problem that Eighth Army have doesn't really go away for quite a while. is it that the germans can engage them at a greater distance and sam's sam's in that ambulance because of that precise problem isn't he sam at the end of the last episode being told by an officer we'll patch you up and have you back at the front line is in that exact situation because of this this um armament gap that exists at this point in the war and yeah in a way it's the thing that haunts the story of british tank procurement for the rest of the war isn't it that there's this moment where yeah where we're playing catch up and we never and there's the feeling that we never quite catch up anyway sam sam bradshaw our hero sam let's talk about sam who isn't written about by alan moorhead but luckily you you found him jim so he was born in cross in crosby yes yes yes yes take us through his life james well yeah so he's um he's a he's a working-class boy um this is terrorist terrorist street stuff um his father dies when when sam is only 11 and and children in the 1920s and 30s, losing a parent young is by no means uncommon.

11:23But he feels a great care of duty towards his mother and to make sure he feels very kind of protective of her. And so in 1938, when there's an opportunity to join the territorial forces, he's reluctant to leave her, but at the same time, I mean, he kind of wants to be involved and sees this as an exciting kind of route for his life, which as a working class boy is kind of comparatively limited in 1930s England in the kind of sort of Merseyside coast. And the King's Liverpool Regiment is based near Crosby. It's an infantry regiment. And he joins this before he turns 18 by kind of, you know, lying about his age.

12:03And in 1939, the regiment is transferred to tanks, which is common across the whole of the UK. quite a lot of these these infantry units as they're becoming more and more mechanized and so on and sam is retrained as a wireless operator and gunner and then one day he's working in a local shop and he's and he has to run out for an errand and he's stopped by one of the neighbors on route and the neighbors goes you're in the ta aren't you and he says yes i am yeah yeah mate and he says it's just been on the radio that all the territorial and reservists must report immediately for duty that's birmingham isn't it yeah god i completely wrong it's just been on the radio no okay it's just been on the radio that all the territorial and reservists must report immediately for duty he's one of these people who's he's got a clipped english accent okay fine whatever um but sam sam goes and collects his wages and his insurance card for the shopkeeper and then runs home and he says full of excitement i didn't realize the

13:02Al Murray: significance of it really i was just a kid of 18 yeah we've talked about this before on the podcast wars require kids of 18 thinking it's exciting and not realizing this is the difference of the thing don't they always have done always will and his bag has actually been packed for weeks his uniforms over the back of his chair he's no fool he's seen this coming and he yeah kind of relishes the prospect when he likes he likes army life because you know they're locking around in tanks and doing interesting things and learning skills and he's hanging out with his mates and he feels you know he's got that kind of sense of patriotism and he feels he's doing something worthwhile and yeah it's making feel good about life you know and um this is he's 18 and he's a young man and country's about a bit war and he wants to be a part of it i mean do you say it's it's it's been ever thus it's a tale as old as time but it's not a massive stretch it has to be said because the barracks is only 500 yards from his front door yeah 500 yards from his from his house so he's the first one to arrive where do i go you know you just imagine it kind of here yeah um but the but by evening the barracks is full and the sergeant major or sam if he's eaten and sam replies no um there's no canteen in the barracks so the sergeant major tells him to go home and come back in the morning happy to fill his stomach at the same time feeling slightly deflated and at 2 30 in the morning later that night sam's in bed at home again there's a bang bang bang on the door and the police telling sam he needs to report and And Sam says, he already has.

14:31And they go, well, we've heard that one before. So Sam reports back to the barracks again and then sent home again. God, blimey. It's good to know that local government, local organisations were crap in 1939 as well as today.

14:47Al Murray: But by the winter of 1939, basically, their soldiers are split up and they're sent to live in various local houses. So they're billeted locally. Yes, we should say that eventually he does get to the barracks and accepted. and he doesn't have to go home again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But basically, housing all these guys and feeding them, they resort to billeting pretty quickly. It's interesting because they're not deployed yet either. No. There's an awful lot in the TA units that have been stood up. There's an awful lot to hurry up and wait. And there's not enough stuff to train with. And there's not enough equipment really to have everyone ready.

15:23Al Murray: And the BEF in France, which is suddenly filled up with all these TA battalions, has got all sorts of problems of getting them up to snuff, integrating them with the regular army, and there's quite a lot of friction there. You've also got reservists, territorialists and regulars, which is a blend. So there's people who've been stood up from having been regulars, and then there's people who are in the TA. So there's a mixture of things going on all at once in the army at this point. And the army is doing its best, but it's finding it very, very challenging, this phase of the war, where they've got millions of people coming in.

15:54Al Murray: I think it's 1.5 million people come to the colours in 1939 alone. I mean... It's absolutely nuts, isn't it? Imagine that as an organisation having to cope with that. Yeah. And you're expecting it's going to happen, and you've got people in place to deal with it, but it's a huge challenge. So this is why they're not deployed yet either, because... Where can they go? Yeah, exactly. Where can they go? And we're an island nation, and there's a question of room and space and, you know... Getting them somewhere, yeah. Transport and all the rest of it. But there's also another problem, and that is, and I may have mentioned this before, but the winters were terrible in the war drink it's really bad and so guess guess what sam and his mates end up doing they ended up digging out snow drifts on railway lines yes and you know he's 18 and this is this is not what he signed up for these are highly trained armored fighting vehicle people of course a telegraphist a radio operator um and loader and um uh and he's conscious of his widowed mother back at home with barely any money um and he's feeling kind of you know a bit browned off yeah so around christmas 1939 the major in charge gives 12 volunteers the opportunity to go overseas and sam thinks well be france won't it of course it's gonna be france that's that's where it's all at so he volunteers because he wants to be a proper soldier he doesn't want to be digging out snow drifts and he doesn't want to be sat at home 500 yards from his mam feeling guilty about her you know so a little bit of distance is actually no bad thing in a funny sort of way yeah And so he volunteers and he's on the list.

17:22And he gets sent on a train down to Southampton a few weeks later. And then he's put on a boat to Le Havre. And he thinks, great. He's never been abroad before. He's never been any further than Southport. And on arrival, he's taken below ground to what looked like cages with metal doors and given tins of food to eat cold and wait for further instructions. That evening, they're then taken to a train. And he thinks, hang on a minute. Why am I on a train again? and they travel for two days, only stopping for meals. And this is all getting quite exciting. But they're not in northern France. They're now in Marseille, which is on the south coast of France and faces out to the Mediterranean.

18:01And suddenly they're on a ship.

18:02Al Murray: That's right. And off they go into the Mediterranean. And he said, We first became really conscious of the war because you weren't allowed to smoke on deck and all the lights had to be out. But still no idea where they're going. Yeah, it's amazing this, isn't it? You can imagine the conversation. Where do you think we're going? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. We're going to India. Rumors are we going to India, mate. No, no, we're definitely going to Italy. No, we're going to Egypt. You know, maybe I'll get to see the pyramids. It's all that, isn't it? I've heard we're going to Palestine. Because, you know, it's different regions.

18:35Al Murray: Not all Scoutsers. It's the versatility of voices on this show that people stay for. They come for the history, they stay for the regional accents. Uh, but, but. Hey, we're not going to Palestine, are we, pal? But, but the thing is, is on this ship, they're all cheap by jowl. They'll all be, they'll all be, they're all living on top of each other. So everyone makes friends pretty quickly in, in, in these close quarters. They're young lads, you know, running together. It's an adventure. Yeah, young boys. And there's three other boys from Crosby also in the group. And they stay one night in Valletta.

19:05Al Murray: In Malta. In Malta. The island fortress of Malta. But amazing. You, you come from Liverpool, you come from Crosby and you know, as you said, he's not been further than Southport. Great larks, isn't it? Yeah, it's incredible. And then they're in Alexandria soon enough. They've been paid to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, this is not unlike Harry Hill's grandfather. My old mate, Harry Hill. His grandfather was in Eighth Army. Oh, yeah. Did five years. All right. And described it as the greatest time of his life. Because the war was in color, and life after that was in black and white.

19:38Al Murray: He was with his mates, exotic places. Even the boring bits were exciting. All that sort of stuff. And like I say, was away five years. deployed in 1940, came back in 1945. Anyway, I mean, this is what it is. And they get off the ship at Alexandria and they get on a train to Cairo. But again, they don't know where they're going. Why would they? Just amazing, isn't it? No one knows. No one's told. I mean, it's incredible the lack of information, isn't it? They're in Egypt and they arrive at a place called Abbasia to join up with the Royal Armoured Corps, which they are, of course, part of now. And the train goes directly into the garrison.

20:10Al Murray: The troops are herded into the dining room, which is all quite fancy. And again, the sort of exoticism of it continues. Well, you're a working class kid from Crosby. Yeah, yeah. Can you imagine? Who are being served, waited on by Sudanese waiters in white jackets and fezzes. I mean, what's not to like? Nothing. Tablecloths and flowers. And it's very different to anything they've experienced before. I mean, it's amazing, this isn't it? Yeah, isn't it? And then they're reorganized because that's what the army likes to do. They like to reorganize people unless they've got the hands of them everyone on this table move over there everyone on that table move over there yeah exactly right you're in one royal tank regiment and you're in the sixth royal tank regiment so sam's over there so he's in the sixth royal tank regiment i mean he's literally as simple as that yeah and a few days later he's made a gunner operator um loader we might think of that as well or is he the guy pointing the gun he's the guy pointing the gun isn't he he's gonna and he's got eight weeks of radio training um to go with that might as well well but also one of the things they do is they make sure everyone can do everything don't they so so the roles are all interchangeable so that so that you know if when push comes to shove you can go in that tank and do that role and you're familiar with the kit or if the fellow next to you um uh knocked out or injured you can you can take it over his part yeah yeah and he does a lot he did i mean yeah eight weeks of radio training one of the things that impressed me was the standard of training it was first class and that that's interesting isn't it that that there is this emphasis on radio training with armored warfare that this is the thing they are rolling out into the mechanized side of things and it's not just the germans who've thought of this you know he's trained it as a driver like we said um and uh after these eight weeks of training he joins the squadron out in the desert he gets the chain to mercer matrue and then he's picked up and taken to b squadron so isn't that amazing because mercer matrue in if those who've listened to the last episode is where he ends up in the hospital to start off with.

22:11So he's already, he's starting his big journey going back and forth up and down the desert every two minutes. Anyway, this is the first time. No tents in the desert. So you sleep by the tank with a blanket and a ground sheet. And he starts off as a gunner, not a radio operator. It's very tough living in the desert. There's hardly any cigarettes, there's no arterial wells for water yet. Everything's falling apart flies absolutely everywhere and they're especially attracted to the moisture of the troops desert soars which happened you know and this is one of the reasons why it's absolutely insane to give these people shorts so so they're all given to i don't think the tank men are actually but most of most of the soldiers are given shorts and the idea is obviously is well you know it's really hot they don't need don't need long trousers but trouble is you get these abrasions and you know it's really really easy in the desert and and i've been to the desert i've been to mercer m'true i've been all the way out there and i can i can tell you it's it's it's not the sand sea it this is this is rough scrub it's stony there's lots of vetch all over the place and it's really scratchy and there's so many opportunities for you to bang yourself cut yourself they get a little scratch and because you're dirty the whole time there's no real opportunity you know and there aren't any antiseptic wipes and you know wash your hands for 20 seconds and all this kind of stuff and hand sanitizer none of that in 1940 so you know it's very easy for these these saws to develop and that that's how they do and everyone has them um and also you get saws because you get bitten by mozzie or something or a bite or something and then you pick it and then it bleeds and you know etc etc you can you can just you can just imagine

23:47Al Murray: yeah and and and that flies in absolutely everything everywhere all the time yeah flies landing on your eyes and everything it's it's i mean it's a a disgusting environment from that point of view and the minute the minute you introduce the dead to that as well it gets far far worse doesn't it um once combat begins it's the one thing everyone talks about yeah this is the is the flies yeah you know that you have to eat like this sort of whisking it whisking and kind of covering up and trying to sort of shovel it in before you you get you get plenty of kind of fly protein while you're while you're eating as well and the other problem is of course this is you this is still 1940 and they haven't really worked out a system.

24:28The British authorities haven't really got to terms with the huge logistics of feeding and keeping this armed forces on the fly, on the go. That's an unfortunate phrase, but you know what I mean? Yeah. And so to start off with, they're just given one pint of water a day, which is obviously not very much and that's for everything. So they just basically stopped shaving.

24:48Al Murray: you know well you would wouldn't you especially as yeah you know if you cut yourself with a razor then you've got you've got a saw for a cut for a fly to sit on as well yeah that will get infected and go off so they've all got beards and long hair aren't they they all they all they all look like they look piratical don't they and he says sam says i look like sir walter raleigh because they did wear they were wearing overalls weren't they they were wearing overalls in the desert at this point but the tank people yes i think the town men were yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so but but still you can imagine this sort of bearded long-haired fella in a boiler suit coming at you and covered in oil and yeah yeah you know i mean tanks are filthy businesses yeah then the squadron is basically given armored patrol duties up what's called the wire which is the line that mussolini has deemed exists between egypt and libya where there is literally wire and the idea is they're going to go up and down that keep keep an eye on it they make 45 gaps in Mussolini's wire take that Benito yes and they mark them on the map so they can observe Italians and they through the through the gaps yep so it's it's an awful lot of this isn't it basically yes uh I think that's four tanks yes okay lots of that going on and then on the 10th June 1940, Italy, of course, somewhat opportunistically declares war.

26:10Al Murray: Say it as it is. Yeah. They're not an actor in the war, are they? The Italians really, they're not leading their following. And funnily enough, although they've declared war, they don't come out to fight. No. The Italians. So the Allies bypass Italian forts across the wire and they attack their supply columns. You know, why not? You started it. I don't think a lot of people know about that though. It's interesting, isn't it? It's a part of the war that maybe isn't on people's radar. I mean, understandable why. You have just had Dunkirk. You have just had the fall of France. You have just had massive shenanigans in North West Europe.

26:44Al Murray: And what are the Germans going to do next? And the fall of Paris and the French surrender, all part of the sort of tumble of events around this. So you can see why people overlooked this. And Sam thought, didn't he, in hindsight, the Italians weren't particularly interested in fighting. yeah i think you'd be right yeah absolutely anyway they they they moved to mercer matrue the regiment um and then eventually in september the uh and the italic well the italians moved to um city barani i do remember him saying that city barani um he did say that a lot city barani yeah yeah so the italians advanced into city city barani um which is um you know just inside the border in Egypt.

27:25This is the September 1941 by Marshal Graziani. He's very, very reluctant to do it and does it absolutely at the kind of insistence of Mussolini. Mussolini paints this as this sort of great Italian victory, but there's hardly any fighting. The regiment just loses one officer, and then there's a stalemate for a while.

27:45Al Murray: Should we take a break? Let's take a break at the stalemate. Why not? We'll see you in a second.

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29:30Right.

29:30Al Murray: Welcome back to We Have Ways of Making Talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland. And we're talking about one man's war, Sam Bradshaw, who is in B Squadron, isn't it? It's B Squadron of the 6th RTR. And we're looking at, I mean, fully enough, this is a part of the war that I think, you know, we've always tried to avoid forgotten stories of the Second World War. That kind of forgotten general. In secrets of World War II. Yeah. Someone post a post about Admiral Cunningham as one of the forgotten admirals of the Second World War, ABC. And you think, not really. No. No. Not forgotten by us. He's not forgotten.

30:11General Cunningham, I would say, possibly. Yes. Poor old General Cunningham. Yes. definitely lost to history yeah alan alan and andrew they make quite the pair yeah yeah yeah

30:21Al Murray: yeah yeah no i mean but but but the idea that abc is a forgotten ad brawl you're looking for clicks if that's what you're saying on social media um anyway um so the the italians have struck this absolutely staggering victory i'm just reading this from some italian propaganda the staggering victory at city barani um where where they uh got the decadent english on the run but sam's already gone before that yeah right great so there's been there's a stalemate that has descended um but the east africa beckons and this is genuinely a part of the war that is truly forgotten that is genuinely forgotten doesn't feature featuring people's sort of view of things um and it's part of the british effort to sort of tidy up the edges um and to to stymie italian power wherever they could find it give the itais a bloody nose god damn it and defeat them at the end of their supply line where they can't really be very effective.

31:13Al Murray: And so Sam's squadron moves out of the desert in August 1940, and they're traveling through the night again in wooden carriages through Cairo, through Luxor to Aswan. And then they arrive on the Nile. I mean, again, we're back to stuff that will blow your mind. It's Pith Helmets, isn't it? Yeah, it's Pith Helmets. It's the mighty River Nile. Where's Ryder Haggard when you need him? Exactly. Exactly. And they maneuver their tanks onto barges, and the troops get onto a steamer, and off they go to sudan i mean what what do you think the difference is between doing that and the and the army of of you know general kitchener on the way to omdaman well you've got you've it's the technology in the form of the tanks but that's about it yeah but you know going on to nile barges yeah it's a flying it's a it's it's the old column style warfare from the end of the 19th century isn't it imperial columns and they so they arrive at a place called wadi halda in sudan and it's It's even hotter than the desert.

32:11Al Murray: And the Nile is low because it's the height of summer in August. This is amazing. The banks are cracked from the heat. And then they go on to the Nubian Desert. Again, this is completely El Ryder. It's a long way from Crosby. And they train then with the Essex Regiment doing tank support. They train for a month, getting it all joined up. Yep. But the British can't do battle groups. They've never worked at combined arms. Then they're on the road again to Khartoum in the jungle. Sure. So, I mean, you know, what they're going to do is attack two forts in Eritrea and hold them until the infantry can consolidate.

32:45Al Murray: And basically what the allies are trying to do, as we said, they're basically trying to shut the Italians down in this part of Africa, in Eritrea and Abyssinia. Which the Italians had taken in 1945 or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Which is kind of arguably where the Second World War got going or the thing that - Yes, this is Johnny Fennell's approach. Sort of contagion and collapse. Yes. It's the Italians, the Japanese and the Italians who shake the world order up to the point where Hitler feels he has room for manoeuvre. And the Italians are too strong at this stage. And also, it's quite difficult operating tanks in jungle.

33:22Al Murray: Of course. I mean, these are, after all, these are tanks that have been designed for Northwest Europe. So you've got, and they may have been desertised, but now you're in jungle. It's all these fresh problems. I think it's amazing, this. This is absolutely amazing. Yeah. isn't it he's a major's wireless operator by this point um which means he he gets to see a lot of the information it's quite a big job for for a young a young trooper excellent and they begin their attack at 5 30 in the morning and and the objective is the main gate of one of these these forts these old eritrean forts which are now manned by the italians and the plan for sam's tank is to is to drive into the walls they're dry stone so should completely collapse but when they hit the wall they bounce off it and land on their side and the wall is actually eight foot thick with men inside it's like a tunnel and they do ultimately capture both forts but but tank has to be disabled later i mean can you imagine right charge it chaps doink and sam and a few of us have to abandon their tank because their next tank because the traction breaks and there's panics that the italian will will capture them but but they take their tanks machine guns and mount them on the wall and they're instructed to wait with infantry until they're picked up and no one comes so they wander around the jungle for two days until they find the essex regiment troops again um who helped them found their tank corps um and on their return the major says cheerfully i thought you were dead chaps that that done they're then back on the train to khartoum you know it's like job done captured the fort didn't really work with the tanks but you know we seized the day anyway yeah you're now needed back in back in egypt what tank would that be at this stage of the war because this in the previous episode we talked about crusaders they wouldn't have had crusaders at this stage would they it would have been it would have been i don't think so some early early cruiser tank probably yeah yeah wouldn't it a little light thing wouldn't it an a26 or whatever it was yeah something like that it'll be something like that so they're back on the train to khartoum and then they're back in egypt by sam is back in egypt by november and they're straight into it again um yes just amazing involved this in a in his first attack with the fourth indian division and he says to me it was just an unreal situation it wasn't until someone got killed that you realized it was real the physical effect my stomach seemed to go small all the time i was there until i was coming out of the forward area away from the war zone and then i became a different person my senses seemed keen and like i was walking on springs I don't know how long you can maintain that.

35:56Al Murray: There comes a time when you start to fall apart. But if you just pause a second, I mean, and just think about what he's done so far. Yeah, yeah. You know, this is this, you know, he's joined up at 18. You know, he's 18 when the war starts. He's shoveling snow the previous Christmas. Since the previous Christmas, he's gone on a train to Southampton, gone on a boat to Le Havre, gone on a train to Marseille, gone on a boat to Malta, then Alexandria, then gone into the desert, trained up, then gone out to the border of Libya, stooged into Libya, you know, attacking columns, come back again, then being sent to Sudan, clearing some forts, then back again.

36:36And it's not even, you know, it's November. It's not even a year. I mean, it's just extraordinary. You just think your learning curve in that time, what you've seen, the different scenes, you've seen desert, you've seen jungle, you've seen forts, you've been across, you know, a third of Africa. I mean, it's just extraordinary. Anyway, the next big objective is attacking Sidi Barani and getting it back again. And this, of course, is Operation Compass, which is going to be launched in December 1940. Yeah. And Sam's got some insider knowledge.

37:04Al Murray: Yeah. Compass is Dick O 'Connor's big show, isn't it? Yes, it is. It's a Western Desert Force. 36 ,000 men. Western Desert Farce, as it was nicknamed in earlier years, as it was being stuck together. Percy Hobart had been in charge of it and had licked it into shape pre-war. when the army had tried to basically give him an impossible job because they didn't like him or wanted rid of him. I mean, at some point, we all need to do Compass in full, won't we? Because this is one of the absolute stinging great British victories of the Second World War. That happens nice and early at the point where people think we're losing all the time.

37:38Yeah, 1941's quite a good year. It's 1942 where it all goes wrong.

37:41Al Murray: Maybe I... Can we swap Compass for Singapore, Jim? Can I... Yeah, all right. Excellent. If we can do Compass, I'll do Singapore and Malaya. Great. How's about that? Brilliant. Excellent. By the way, you know who's commanding the repulse, don't you? Yeah, yeah. Bill Tennant. It's amazing, isn't it? Senior naval officer in Dunkirk. I know. It's incredible. Kenneth Branagh, not wearing a lid. Yeah, it's absolutely amazing that that's the next job he gets. Comes out of that well, unlike Admiral Tom Thumb. But there we are. Right. So Sam knows that there's a gap in the front line between Sidibarani and the next big defence post and that the plan is for 4th Indian Division to attack with the 7th Tank Regiment, who are in Matildas, which are some serious heavy metal at this phase of the war.

38:23Al Murray: And they attack from the flank and come in behind the front line through a corridor and cut off the retreat. And really, this is, Compass is hugely successful and the Italians really, the Italians do not cover themselves in glory here. And Sam is a bit disappointed, isn't he? Because they don't really put up a fight. It's all too easy. Yeah. It's all too easy. Yeah. You know, he wants a bit more he wants to uh he wants to feel like he's he's he's been blooded he wants to feel like he's knocked out a few tanks and he doesn't consider the kind of you know the fort foray in east africa as as you know proper soldiering that feels like a sort of colonial skirmish nothing more yeah and italians are surrendering in droves and the counter-attacks just don't don't come at all and they go past all these sort of um you know all these old italian camps and there's just leather suitcases and leather baggage and you know amazing camping kit and all the rest of it and he sees loads of italian italians um that they take prison they're just sitting there waiting on their suitcases so there's no sort of canvas tote bag or or anything military this it looks like they've just sort of you know they've come back from their holidays do they all have excellent loafers as well i imagine they've all got really uh great loafers these italians beautiful leather suitcases great loafers and cockle feathers but sam sam says in general it was obvious their heart wasn't in the war and i think at this stage this lot it's fair to say that yes well we're not going to fully go down the italians were hopeless routine because they've in certain circumstances they weren't but on this occasion they were out fought and out fought yes yes yes right well that gets us round two well beginning of 1941 beginning 1941 thank you very much for listening everyone If you want to hear the rest of Sam Bradshaw's story, One Man's War, and you want to hear it now, then become a We Have Ways of Making You Talk Patreon.

40:14Al Murray: Go to Patreon, look us up, and there we are. And for the price of, I think, three quarters of a pint now, you can get yourself membership, ad-free listing, stuff all in a great lump. And more than that, there's live cast, there's ticket offers, there's all sorts of other stuff that is bundled with that membership. We thank you very much for listening. We'll see you again very soon. Cheerio. Cheerio.

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