I’ve now taken Cliff’s story through to the Battle of Alamein. 1942 started off reasonably well for him in Palestine and Syria, then outside Alexandria with part of 6th Brigade. They were away from the front line until the middle of July. After that, though, they were living in slit trenches for a couple of months, getting shelled and shot at. Imagine life in a hole 50cm wide and 1.4m deep for weeks on end. “Never leave room for a mortar bomb,” Popeye had said about slit trenches.

Then a couple of weeks’ leave in Alex. followed by a real battle. ~ Ian