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There’s a scene near the end of Dr Zhivago (the movie) where the sick Zhivago sees Lara, his lost love, walking down the street as the tram he’s on passes her by. He struggles to get off and catch up with her but collapses and dies. She walks on. We’ve ... Read more
Previous |Contents | NextSunday 6 September. A spectacular dog fight this morning. Eight planes down today, four of ours and four German. I walked over to inspect some wreckage. The plane had been in a dive and failed to come out of it. Previous |Contents | NextSunday 6 September. A spectacular dog ... Read more
Previous |Contents | What we generally think of as the Battle of El Alamein, the turning point of the war in North Africa, was in fact the second battle. The first saw the 8th Army stand and fight just 40 miles or so from Cairo, Alexandria, the Suez Canal — and ... Read more
Previous |Contents | Next Montgomery had taken command of 8th Army on 7 August, and things were changing. § Wednesday 19th August . Most of our Base Wallahs have been roped in as reinforcements, to our great satisfaction. We’ve heard that Churchill has been in Cairo and sacked six generals including Auchinleck. ... Read more
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Previous |Contents | Next The New Zealand Division had been transferred to Syria and Lebanon in part to recover from the hammering it had taken in Operation Crusader. After the action in which Cliff was wounded, the New Zealanders had in fact captured Sidi Resegh, temporarily linking up with the garrison ... Read more
Previous |Contents | Next Cliff described some 6th Brigade training manoeuvres in the Syrian desert to give “some idea of life with the Infantry”. He wrote this in the 1990s. It certainly wouldn’t have passed the censor in his letters home. ~ Ian § First, Cliff described a night attack ... Read more
Previous |Contents | Next Cliff’s next letter was dated 25 May, ten days later, and he was writing from Syria. They’d traveled by bus to Haifa, then by train to Damascus. As context it’s interesting to note that Cliff was in Damascus over 80 years ago, but little more than 20 ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next By mid-May Cliff was in Palestine. They’d travelled there by train in goods vans and cattle trucks, a stop-and-start journey and a good deal of it at night while they tried to sleep. The following is from Cliff’s letters home to Dorothy. ~ Ian § ... Read more