240086 Pte. John Edward Lee British Army 7th Btn. Gordon Highlanders from:Birmingham My father Jack Lee fought in North Africa (aka Desert Rats) during WWII. He operated a Bofors gun (Swedish anti-aircraft weapon). It was hit by a Junkers Ju 87 (Stuka) bomb which rendered him with a perforated ear. He was hospitalised in Italy and recovered, although not his hearing in the right ear.
He told me that when he first got to Tobruk they accidentally hit a local man in their four-ton-truck. The officer in charge ordered the driver to back over the man. He was told that locals regularly jumped in front of trucks so they would be looked after by the British but this had become so widespread that there was little space left in field hospitals.
There was a regular trade by the local Arabs in British passbooks. They would slip into the tents at night and knife the Tommy, take his passbook and sell it to the Germans for five pounds. This did not endear the troops to locals. Having said that, the troops did have small wins in that they would sell tea to the locals, but underneath the tea was mostly sand. When the locals discovered this, they would chase the seller with a scimitar.
Water in the desert was so scarce that dad would save some of his tea for lubrication for shaving. When digging in the Bofor gun, Dad's battalion uncovered a stock pile of Spam. I think he mentioned it was from WWI - not sure but they had spam with everything ... after the war he never touched spam again.... can't blame him.
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