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Previous | Contents | Next One patient in particular I can never forget. I spent two nights with him in that tent. He’d been in a tank that caught fire and every part of his body was burned. He was completely covered in bandages, with holes for mouth and nose, ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next On the 5th December, 10 days after my last real meal, there was a church service, long to be remembered by those who took part in it. There was also to be communion, and whether it was the thought of bread and wine that attracted ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next It was now Thursday, 27 November. I was woken before daylight with another cup of cocoa. We were then loaded, this time on stretchers, on board a truck. Although we had to take a roundabout route to avoid the action, it was a much more ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next On 24 November 1941, when this story begins, we were attached to 21 Battalion, which had been in action at Beir El Gubi. We’d had 70 casualties and been on the move almost constantly for about a fortnight. My closest encounter with the enemy up ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next Some of the following is in the first person, written by Cliff, some in the third person, written by me based on his notes. ~ Ian. It was more than two months before Cliff was passed fit for duty. After arriving in hospital his condition ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next Some of the following is in the first person, written by Cliff, the rest, in the third person, by me ~ Ian Out of hospital The time came for Popeye and Ben to go home, and we decided on a party. John Mcllroy had smuggled in ... Read more
Previous | Contents A few days later Cliff wrote from the Signal School, N.Z.E.F., Middle East Forces. They were at 2NZEF’s main depot and training camp near Maadi, about 8 miles up the Nile from downtown Cairo. Although he couldn’t tell Dorothy exactly where they were, he did say he ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next The next stop was Ceylon — Sri Lanka — where the Mauritania berthed for over and week and the men had four days shore leave in Colombo. “Sights rarely seen” indeed, and a very different culture. In the Colombo Post Office Cliff added this note to ... Read more
Previous | Contents | Next Ten days later Cliff was back in Camp again. “My dear Dorothy,” he wrote. “Hello my dear, how are you now? To be frank with you, I’m as cheerful as a funeral. I miss you terribly, sweetheart. “Thank God that we can at least write to ... Read more
| Contents | Next “Div Sigs” — Divisional Signals — was a specialist unit of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, whose members were seconded to the various Brigades, Battalions etc to maintain communications. There were two ways to communicate: by radio or by phone (i.e. landlines — likely to ... Read more