William Edwards' War Diary pages 2 and 3

Jump To Details

Move your pointing device over the image to zoom to detail. If using a mouse click on the image to toggle zoom.
When in zoom mode use + or - keys to adjust level of image zoom.

Date:5th of November 1942 - 22nd of November 1942 (c.)

Description:Edwards married a girl from Irving Street in Lee Bank - or Edgbaston B15 as it was then. During the Tobruk campaign he kept a diary which we are publishing here for the first time. Where words are unclear we have used question marks.

Lorries burnt out. 9000 prisoners reported taken. Saw hundreds of them driving themselves back down the line all flying the white flag. Some were crying after our boys had smashed them and they fought each other for water. This same day they sent a dive bomber to kiss us good morning.
Nov 7. Moved up ten miles and believe it or not but we got three eggs from a “w**g”. A “w**g” reported Ities in their camp. Went in and took four prisoners. They had been drinking rain water for five days, gave ‘em bully and water. They dam nigh fought each other to see who could wash. Ike did us next morning for the cook after they’d had grub.
Nov 8. Started off with the Ities in my lorry, and when we turned them off to make their way to Alex they saluted us all and shook hands. We finished up that day at Gerawla.
Nov 14. Moved up to Bug Bug.
Nov 15. Kicked us out of bed at 4.30 after one lousey bombing attack. Went past “Hellfire Pass” (transcription note this was the army name for Halfaya Pass) and up “Sollum Pass” where for two miles too long I thought I’d want some toilet roll. We had no grub that day till 2.30 in the afternoon. And when at least we did stop we had “breakfast” in a sandstorm along with pouring rain. We then moved up to Tobruk. It’s a sight to see the number of ships sunk in the harbour and the town itself is in ruins.
Nov 19. Called out on a job, broken pipeline and had to drive down a track with a nice drop on one side. PS. More toilet nearly needed.
Nov 21. News has just reached us to say another of our lads has since died of his wounds received at the start of the push. Repairing pipeline again. Wash after five days.
Nov 22. Orders to dubbin boots, more army B.S. I’ve no boots hardly on my feet let alone clean them.

Related themes:

Military Service Irving Street Edgbaston 1939 - 1945 (World War II)

Add to album

Link to this resource Give Feedback

Image courtesy of: Mrs Pamela Edwards

Donor ref:Pamela Edwards (67/7782)

Source: Mr Ron Butler , Mrs Gwen Hatton , Ms Angela Dyer , Mrs May Williams , Mr Arthur Sadler , Mrs Janet Abbotts , Ms Rose Pearson , Mrs Dolly Ray , Mrs Pamela Edwards , Mrs Betty Queen , Mr Ken Smith , Ms Julia Wagstaffe , Woodview Primary School , Ms Carol Woolley , St Thomas's School , E.R. Mason Youth Centre , Mr Bernard Allen , Mrs Gladys Russell , Mrs Pat Jones , Ms Angela Maloney , St Thomas Old Scholars , Mr Ken Bonham

Copyright information: Copyrights to all resources are retained by the individual rights holders. They have kindly made their collections available for non-commercial private study & educational use. Re-distribution of resources in any form is only permitted subject to strict adherence to the usage guidelines.