Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 75 Brit. invaded Syria in June ’41 and the Aussie division was held up by a mountain torrent called the Litani. They put 500 of us in 3 miles behind the French lines up against three battalions of Algerian Regiment (1 Battalion French Foreign Legion, 1 Battalion of Spahis cavalry and a mobile force of French 75 MMs and armoured cars and 1 troop light tanks). They had 10 troops of 50 Commandos per troop on that job, and 1 troop to stay on board the ship, and to do Anti Aircraft and Lewis gun on the Landing Craft Auxiliary’s. (One bloke offered me a month’s pay to change places.) We were lucky and 11 troop was to hold the hills inland farthest from our own lines. Those darn frogs threw everything but the kitchen sink at us. Boy oh boy what a barney! Still scared thinking about it – 4 large French battalions and a mobile armoured force up against 500 Bren and Tommy guns, and we walked through them. Only 8 of us got onto our ridge and then the Spahis came in with cavalry. We had 8 machine guns. My pal Jack Gregory (Manchester Regiment) and I sitting down to it with 50 cal. French mg’s. Boy oh boy it was duck soup. They had 200 yards of open flat plain. Stayed on that ridge ‘till the French sent out 3 large cruisers from Beirut and they put down heavy stuff. Moved back and linked up with the remnants of 2 other troops. Stayed with them for 2 days and 60 of us were told to get out via the beach. Got ambushed and only 4 got away. I took to the sea; lost my pen and pencil there with my shirt in the wire and the razor you gave me. Cried like a kid about that. Swam it for 4 hours ‘till I couldn’t go it anymore and landed luckily just by an Aussie forward position. No clothes and my wallet under my tin hat (a bullet penetrated his helmet but glanced off his wallet). The machine gun sniped the 4 of us all the time – 2 wounded, 1 drowned. Taken to Haifa and onto parade formed up as right marker for our troop, and nobody fell in beside me. Only one of 11 troop to get out. The senior officer was a Captain. The C.O. and all his staff went. I got ordered to go to O.C.T.U. was told when the general asked me if it was my own wish and if I volunteered, I was to say "Yes, Sir’. Only saw the famous Nov. ’41 push from the rear of the OCTU. In Cairo 3 of us went from our Commando unit after Syria. Then to HQ Cairo for a month after Commission but got sent up the Blue (Mediterranean) for crashing a 15 cwt. truck into the Provost Marshal’s veranda. Was he ever livid! Trained with Special Air Service paratroops for a short time but never did an operation. Then sent up to Gazala line to do battle patrols for my Battalion (the 4th Green Howard’s’ 150 Brigade 50th Montgomery Division.) Used to do night patrols and prisoner snatching. Rommel (German General) did his big push and put us all ‘in the bag’. Some fool put me up for a ‘gong’. Got the MID (Mention in Dispatches), for the Lord knows what. Was taken by the Bosche (Germans) to Benghazi, handed to the Ities (Italians) and taken to Italy. Got away and was recaptured. Sent to a special punishment camp for 2 months. Used to get 30 days solitary every quarter regular as clockwork. Got away on the Italian armistice and was partisan for 4 months. Did some exciting work with them. Got bronchitis so was copped 3 days before Christmas ’43. Knew I was a partisan so plunked me up against a lovely grey stonewall. It was in the Gothic line they got me. Stonewall was in the civilian jail in Florence. Had 2 hours of standing looking at a squad of 12 Waffen SS blokes with awfully dangerous looking rifles. Didn’t continued ... continued ...
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