7 Leaving Home
The 2/5th Sherwood Foresters War Diary for the period (WO 175/0552) has been used as the primary source of times and locations, again, the brigade and divisional diaries as well as those of other units in the division have been used to support. There are personal accounts from around 35 veterans in the book Memories of Sedjenane collated by Wally Binch in the Nottinghamshire Archive, as well as Fred Hirst’s autobiography, 'A Sherwood Forester’s Story of World War II' (1997) and accounts by Denys Crews and Richard Garrett of life at Green Hill, and Schofields manuscript autobiography in the Mercian Regiment Archive.
Secondary sources on the Tunisian campaign are relatively rare, and those that do exist do not allocate more than a few pages to the operations around Sedjenane. Ian Macksey, Crucible of Power (1969), though old, is a good overall summary of the campaign from a British perspective, and Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn (2002) from an American one. The British Official History by Major General I.S.O. Playfair (1966) has some useful maps and orders of battle. Ian Mitchell, The Battle of the Peaks (2019) primarily deals with the activities of 78th Division around Longstop in April, but also has good background material on Tunisia and the First Army at this time. A.B. Austin, Birth of an Army (1943), written immediately after the campaign by a British war correspondent describes the area around Green Hill and has been used for background on the general conditions faced by the troops in Tunisia. Saul David's new account of the campaign, Tunisgrad (2025) was published too late to be a source, but is also limited on operations in the north.
Notes
p. 117 Axis troop numbers reported in Lieutenant-General K. A. N. Anderson, ‘Operations in North West Africa from 8th November 1942 to 13th May 1943’, Supplement to the London Gazette, 6 November 1946. pp.5449–64 (p. 5463). Douglas E. Nash ‘Rommels’s Lost Battalions’, Army History 84 (2012), pp. 6–24 (p. 16) gives 47,000 German and 18,000 Italian troops by the end of December, with 330 AFVs and 360 guns.
p. 118. Eisenhower’s communications in WO 216, Cipher from Freedom Algiers (Eisenhower) to War Office, 20 December 1942. The ships carrying 139 Brigade did in fact dock at Algiers – possibly other ships carrying non-fighting personnel were redirected to Oran.
p. 119 Fred Hirst, ‘A Forester’s Story’, p. 13. Gué de Constantine station, just south of the briqueterie is ten miles from the Algiers docks according to modern route-finding software.
pp. 120-21 Descriptions of Algiers from NCA DD/SF/4/9, typescript by D.K. Crews, ‘Early Days at Green Hill’; Hirst, ‘A Forester’s Story’, p. 14; Eric Morral, in Memories of Sedjenane, p. 92–95; Summers, Lure of the Falcon, p. 139; and Richard Garrett, None But the Brave, p. 131.
p. 122 The move to the front described in Hirst, ‘A Forester’s Story’ p. 15; Maurice Needham, in More Sherwood Forester Memories, p. 69; Summers, Lure of the Falcon, p. 140.
p. 123 ‘Gert and Daisy’ from A.B. Austin, Birth of an Army (1943), p. 20.
p. 123 Ian Mitchell, in The Battle of the Peaks and Longstop Hill (2019), p. 61 says that First Army made the decision to leave behind their machine-gun platoons. The 2/5th Foresters Vickers Platoon was definitely on board the troopship Derbyshire when it left England, see Fred Gamble in More Sherwood Foresters Memories, p. 101. In IWM Sound Archive Tape #20789, Patrick O’Sullivan interview with Tom Tunney (2001), Reel 11, O’Sullivan (who was in Alan Orme’s platoon) says that they had two Vickers set to fire on fixed lines but they were never used. I have not however found any reference to the Vickers being used as a complete platoon in Tunisia.
p. 124 In addition to the battalion establishment and first reinforcements there were another three officers and twenty-one other ranks attached. Attached officers included the MO and the Chaplain and attached other ranks were mostly Catering Corps plus vehicle mechanics and armourers from the Royal Engineers Mechanical Engineers (REME) and some drivers.
p. 124 The old Territorial officers who had left the battalion could still nevertheless play a role in the war effort. For example, Captain Potter DSO, who had guided his company through Tournai in 1940, was posted to RAF Croughton, near Banbury as Local Defence Advisor
p. 125 Williamson took over as second in command of the battalion on 17 January 1943 from Major ‘Ginger’ McKechnie, who was appointed to command the 5th East Kent Regiment (the Buffs), when 36 Brigade was replaced in the front line by 139 Brigade. McKechnie went on to win the DSO with the Buffs at Medjez-El-Bab on 8 April 1943
p. 126 The 139 Brigade War Diary on 19 January lists the following units in addition to the core brigade: 1 and 6 Commandos; 457 and 360 Field Batteries RA, 14/16 Medium Battery RA, 356 LAA Battery RA, Y Troop 5 Survey Regiment RA, Detachment of 86 Chemical Weapons (CW) Mortar Company, A Troop 93 Anti-Tank Regiment RA, and one Company CFA. Within the next month, the 2/5th Leicesters and 6 Commando had been withdrawn; 277 Field Battery replaced 360 Battery, C Troop 229/58 Anti-Tank Regiment replaced A Tp 93 ATR, 379 LAA Battery had replaced 356 Battery, and 70th Field Regiment arrived and took over command of all the Artillery. Further CFA units were also added.
p. 129 Chichester Constable’s ‘death penalty’ order is in WO 175/0225 139 Brigade WD, January 1943.
pp. 129-31 Description of life at Green Hill from IWM Sound Archive #12941, Wally Binch interview with Peter Hart (n.d.), Reel 4; Hampton, IWM Tape #13260, Reel 6; Markham, IWM Tape #13561 Reel 9; Higton, IWM Tape #18618, Reel 7; Crews, IWM tape #19987, Reel 6. Willoughby Gilliver in Memories of Sedjenane p. 55; John Robinson, ibid, p. 62; Fred Hutt, ibid p. 50, Eric Morral, ibid p. 76; MRA, Schofield Manuscript, p. 51; and Hirst, ‘A Forester’s Story’, pp. 17–20.
pp. 131-32 WO 175/0552, 2/5th SF WD January 1943 says that the attack on 29 January was carried out by a single aircraft at 11.15am. However, WO 175/0463, the WD of 379 LAA Battery, states the details of the attack as given here, and I have gone with this as more likely to be accurate. WO 177/0777, the WD of 183 Field Ambulance, gives twenty-one casualties overall. See also Orme, ‘Some Experiences of War’, p. 14 and More Sherwood Forester Memories, p. 27; and Hutt, Memories of Sedjenane, p. 48, though Hutt’s dates are incorrect.
p. 132 The bomb incident described by Arthur Souter, in Memories of Sedjenane p. 84; also IWM Sound Archive #13346, Dennis Vincent Willett interview with Peter Hart (1993), Reel 4.
pp. 132-33 Relations with local Arabs covered in WO 175/0552, 2/5th SF WD, January 1943; Binch in Memories of Sedjenane p. 40; and IWM Tape #1294, Reel 4; Orme, ‘Some Experiences of War’ p. 14, More Sherwood Forester Memories, p. 28; and Memories of Sedjenane, p. 88; Dixon, ibid, p. 74; Hirst, ‘A Forester’s Story’, pp. 18. See also Austin, Birth of an Army, pp. 36–38 and Kenneth Macksey, Crucible of Power, p. 78.
p. 133 Bert Pinnock, in Memories of Sedjenane p. 52.
pp. 133-134 Barrett’s activities in the battalion from Hutt, Memories of Sedjenane p. 50. Hirst, ‘A Forester’s Story’, p. 14 and p. 19, and in Memories of Sedjenane p. 52; and Offiler, IWM Tape #16352, Reel 5.
pp. 134-35 The story of Barratt’s death is covered by several battalion members in Memories of Sedjenane, including Bert Pinnock p. 52, Willoughby Gilliver, p. 55 and Maurice Enser, p. 67; also Offiler, IWM tape #16352, Reel 5; Cowen, IWM tape #19628, Reel 1.
pp. 135-36 Cresswell incident from WO 175/0552 2/5th SF WD and WO 175/0513 2/5th Leicesters WD; the identification of Goertke as the German commander’s son comes from MRA, Schofield Manuscript, p. 54.
p. 137 Action at Thala from WO 175/0513, 2/5th Leicesters WD, February 1943 and The Story of the 46th Infantry Division, (Graz, 1946) pp. 19–21. Further descriptions can be found in Macksey, Crucible of Power, pp. 166–172, and Rick Atkinson, An Army At Dawn, pp. 382–84.
p. 137-38 WO 175/157, 46th Div. WD: 46 Div. Operation Order No. 3, 22 February 1943; WO 175/0552, 2/5th SF WD, February 1943.
p. 138 WO 175/0552, 5th SF WD February 1943 states the battalion was relieved at Beja by 6th ASH, but as they had been converted to an Anti-Tank Regiment; it is clearly a typing error, which the Argylls’ own WD (WO 175/0491) confirms. Also included in this abortive move to Beja and back were 279 Battery and a troop of 379 LAA Battery RA.