Dear Mum,
Just a few more lines to let you know how things are going over here.
Up to date I have been very careful as to what I mentioned regarding our advance up the desert but today the Adjutant told us that we could describe any of the towns we had seen as long as we didn’t
mention any of the ‘dromes we had camped on so here goes.
We left from somewhere near Alexandria early last month &, as traffic on the road was very heavy, we only travelled a little over sixty miles & camped by the roadside that night at El Alamein. As it was the fifth of November we had quite a fireworks display to celebrate the day. They started off with tracer bullets & very pistols & about 3am the next morning we were given some more fireworks in the shape of German bombs.
The next day there was less on the road & we made better time & passed through El Daba, Fuka & Sidi Hanaish. These places only consist of a couple of wrecked buildings & a bit of wrecked war material. Mesa MaMatruk was wrecked but there was tons of stores & petrol on the outskirts of the town that had been discarded by the enemy.
At Mersa we left the main road & took to the “road” through the desert. This “road” consists of an extremely rough track through the open prairie & we bounced over this for several days & so missed Halfway Pass & Bardia but I had seen these places a few months earlier so I didn’t miss much.
We struck the main road again about fifty miles east of Tobruk & then went into town. It was a very bad day so I could not take many photos but I saw stacks of sunken ships. I also saw dozens of South African natives that had been prisoners in th town & they were relieved when our forces went through. They had been drinking Italian Cognac solidly for two days & they were either staggering or laying in very queer positions all over the town but no doubt they were happy.
We stopped for a while & had a look through Tobruk Cemetery & some of the boys took photos of the cemetery & the grave of Cpl Edmonton VC.
The next town worthy of note was Derna & like all the other towns it had been bombed & shelled & not much of it was in good order. It was here that I bought the tapestry etc that I posted to you a few days ago.
From Derna we went on & down Barce Pass , through Barce township, down Tocra Pass & on to Benghazi. This part of the country was the best we have seen since leaving home & theItalians had been doing quite a bit of farming round there. Torcra Pass & on to Benghazi. This part of the country was the best we have seen since leaving home & the Italians had been doing quite a bit of farming around there. Tocra Pass was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The Pass wound its way down through green mountains & in the distance was the Mediterranean Sea.
We all wanted to see Benghazi & so the officer in charge of our convoy took the wrong turning on the outskirts of the town & led us through the city. In peace times it had been the most beautiful city in North Africa but there was now only the shells of buildings remaining in the middle of the bombing & shelling & it stands out for miles. In the harbour was a tanker that had been set on fire & it was pouring out billows of black smoke . From Benghazi we went on to Agedabia & then on through worse desert than we were in before the push & up to where we are now.
We still have hopes of being in Tripoli by Christmas or very soon after & then we should be able to get out of the desert for a bit of leave.
So much for our trip up. I will write again in a few days.
Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo & all at Cremorne
Lovingly Yours
Frank
WWII artists sketch of the road down the Derna Pass
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