One Man's War: Operation Compass (Part 2)

Why was Operation Compass such a success for Allied forces in North Africa? When was Operation Compass? How did Sam Bradshaw and his friends survive in the early desert war? Join Jim and Al for part 2 of a new series focussing on one man's war, as they follow the exploits of Sam Bradshaw in 6th Royal Tank Regiment in North Africa and Italy. Start your free trial at ⁠patreon.com/wehaveways⁠ and unlock exclusive content and more. Enjoy livestreams, early access, ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and a weekly newsletter packed with book deals and behind-the-scenes insights. Get your ticket for We Have Ways Fest 6 here! Get your WHW Merch here! A Goalhanger Production Produced by James Regan Editor: Bruno Di Castri Assistant Producer: Alfie Norris Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Social Producer: Harry Balden Email: [email protected] Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Thank you for listening to We Have Ways of Making You Talk. Sign up to our Patreon to receive bonus content, live streams, and our weekly newsletter with money off books and museum visits as well, plus early access to all live show tickets. That's patreon.com/WeHaveWays.

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• 1:42Speaker 06

  It felt like a grand adventure. One of the things was you made an immediate circle of friends and I had one or two fellows from Cosby who worked at the post office. And when I joined the TA, 12 of them joined. So out of those, there was about three of them with me. We stayed one night in Valletta and in the morning we arrived at Alexandria. And it was then we realised we were in Egypt. We could see the fezes and so on. We collected our kit and marched off the ship. My first impression was of the military police because as we came down the gangplank, there were MPs on each side of the gangplank. Their eyes were strange with webs under them, even though they were only young men, and they seemed to be staring at nothing and their eyebrows were all scorched. We got on a train and set off. We didn't know it then, but we were going to Cairo, the Royal Armoured

• 2:27Speaker 06

  Corps Depot, and we were part of the RAC, which in Cairo was a place called Abassi. So Saturday midday, we arrived at Abassi. The train went straight into the garrison and we saw people standing in tank uniform at the side of the train. And there were people who we knew had gone in before us. So they said, "You've made a big mistake." We were still in battle dress and we were very, very hot. In those days, the battle dress was all hook and eye, was all hooked up to the neck. You couldn't wear a collar and tie. They herded us into the dining room and my first impression was that it was at complete odds with England. When we came to the dining room, you had to take your berry off, fold it up, wash your hands. We didn't queue up with the mess tins as we had before. You had to sit at tables with tablecloths and flowers and you were waited

• 3:11Speaker 06

  on by Sudanese waiters who wore these white jackets and fez and the colours of the regiment, which looked like a girdle, and they brought the food to you. Halfway through the meal, a very elegant officer came to the table and asked us if we had any complaints. I thought, "What a different life this is." And that was, of course, Sam Bradshaw describing his passage to Africa, Jim. What an adventure.

• 3:34Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 3:34Speaker 06

  Leaving England.

• 3:35Speaker 07

  Amazing, isn't it?

• 3:36Speaker 06

  Finding himself in Egypt. Quite extraordinary. And a world away from the barracks 500 yards from his front door in Liverpool.

• 3:43Speaker 07

  And this, of course, is the bit that we were talking about in the opening quote that you read out, Al.

• 3:48Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, these waiters. It's extraordinary. Well, welcome to episode two of our We Have Ways of Making You Talk series about One Man's War, about Sam Bradshaw. And in our first episode, we looked at Sam's...

• 4:02Speaker 07

  Literally four days of his war. I mean, that was it.

• 4:04Speaker 06

  Yeah, shocking experiences as part of Operation Crusader when the battle group 6 RTR, along with 2nd Rifle Brigade and some horse artillery, were sent to engage, or well, to try and do something about the German presence between them and Tobruk. And the Germans got the jump on them, basically. And we saw the consequences of

• 4:25Speaker 07

  Yep.

• 4:26Speaker 06

  the weapons gap that exists in the desert at this point of the war, where the Germans have anti-tank weapons either on tanks or just mounted stuff, that they can deal with the British armour at a distance where the British armour has no reply. And

• 4:40Speaker 07

  Yep.

• 4:41Speaker 06

  the consequences were that in Sam's squadron, three tanks at one point out of 19 survived. And then as he went hull down, he was then knocked out himself as well. And we saw Sam's shocking odyssey back to the rear in order to be treated for his injuries. Badly wounded in his leg. A man bleeds out in him in the ambulance as they're lost in the desert with a major with a missing arm. I mean, it's just, I think we said this in the last episode, who needs Hollywood? Who needs a script writer?

• 5:09Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 5:09Speaker 06

  Reality is writing you a script that you can't top.

• 5:14Speaker 07

  Well, yeah. And you can imagine what I was like as a young, you know, I was in my young, my early 30s when I went to see Sam for the first time. And I was sat there in his front room with him in his armchair, you know, in his blazer with his regimental tie on. And he had great big thick glasses and big, thick hair, grey hair. And he was a proper gent. He was a lovely chap. And you can imagine what I was like listening to this. I mean, I just, I just couldn't believe it. I mean, it was the most extraordinary conversation because, you know, how you fix those things up in those days is you'd write a little letter and you'd get the letter back. And then you'd ring and you'd arrange your time and then you'd drive up to Wigan and you'd think, "What the hell is this place?"

• 5:59Speaker 07

  Because, you know, this is for Google Maps. And eventually you'd find the little cul-de-sac, there's a bungalow or whatever it was on the house, I can't remember which it was. But, but, you know, and then you'd ring the bell and you have a cup of tea and you'd sit down and suddenly you're there, listening to this incredible story. I mean, it was absolutely jaw-dropping stuff because I had no idea this was what he was going to tell me. I knew he'd been in the 8th Army. I knew he'd been in 6 RTR. I knew he'd done kind of, you know, four years, five years of war.

• 6:26Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 6:26Speaker 07

  But I had no idea what he got up to at all. So I was just open mouth listening to this.

• 6:33Speaker 06

  I mean, the thing is, is, as you said, it's just four days in his war that we related in the previous episode. And the battle at 21st of November at Sidi Rezegh is like one of the sort of emblematic encounters of 8th Army and Rommel, isn't it, from the end of 1941? It shows you the problems.

• 6:49Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 6:49Speaker 06

  And at the heart of it, we touched on Jock Campbell, Jock columns and all that stuff, which is Campbell.

• 6:56Speaker 07

  Yes.

• 6:56Speaker 06

  With his battle groups and wins a Victoria Cross in this battle. The guy leading the thing, which I think long-term listeners of We Have Ways of Making You Talk will know that that tends to set our spider sense tingling here on the podcast, that that probably means it was a disaster. And if there's a VC being galled out, then it means that things have probably gone very, very badly.

• 7:20Speaker 07

  Yep.

• 7:20Speaker 06

  There's an amazing description by Alan Moorhead of Campbell. And this is a digression because what we're going to look at is Sam's life before the war and how he ends up in the army.

• 7:32Speaker 07

  Well, just while you're mentioning Alan Moorhead, the most entertaining books about the Desert War are the North African trilogy by Alan Moorhead. There's three books he published.

• 7:43Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 7:43Speaker 07

  And the descriptions, because he watches this battle and it's stunning. I mean, it's incredibly vivid. And it kind of tells you all you need to know, to be perfectly honest.

• 7:52Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 7:53Speaker 07

  It's really, really good. So I recommend it. It's still in print.

• 7:55Speaker 06

  But he says of Campbell, "He led his tanks into action riding in an open armoured car. And as he stood there hanging on to its windscreen, a huge, well-built man with the English officer's stiff good looks, he shouted, 'There they come! Let them have it!'" When the car began to fall behind, he leapt down onto the side of the tank as it went forward and directed the battle from there. They say that Campbell won the VC half a dozen times that day. "The men loved this Elizabethan figure. He was the reality of all the pirate yarns and tales of high adventure. And in the extremes of fear and courage of the battle, he had only courage. He went laughing into the fighting." I mean...

• 8:30Speaker 06

  Let them have it.

• 8:31Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 8:32Speaker 06

  But, but you know, this problem the Eighth Army have doesn't really go away for quite a while, does it, that the Germans can engage them at a, at a greater distance. And Sam's, Sam's in that ambulance because of that precise problem, isn't he? Sam, at the end of the last episode, being told by an officer, we'll patch you up and have you back at the frontline, is in that exact situation because of this, this armament gap that exists at this point in the war.

• 8:55Speaker 07

  And

• 8:55Speaker 06

  Yeah. In a way, it's the thing that haunts the story of British tank procurement for the rest of the war, isn't it? That there's this moment where

• 9:02Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 9:03Speaker 06

  We're, we're playing catch up and we never, and there's a feeling that we never quite catch up. Anyway.

• 9:08Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 9:08Speaker 06

  Sam, Sam Bradshaw.

• 9:10Speaker 07

  What about Sam?

• 9:11Speaker 06

  Let's talk about Sam, who isn't written about by Alan Moorhead, but luckily you, you found him, Jim. So he was born in Crosby.

• 9:18Speaker 07

  Yes, yes, yes, yes.

• 9:19Speaker 06

  Take us through his life, James.

• 9:21Speaker 07

  Well, yeah, so he's, um, he's, he's a working class boy. Um, this is Terrace, Terrace Street stuff. Um, his father dies when, when Sam is only 11 and, and children in the, in the 1920s and 30s, losing a, a parent young is, is by no means uncommon.

• 9:36Speaker 06

  Hmm.

• 9:36Speaker 07

  Um, but he feels a great care of duty towards his, towards his mother. Um, and to make sure he feels very kind of, um, protective of her. And so in 1938, when, when there's an opportunity to join the territorial forces, he's reluctant to leave her, but at the same time, he kind of wants to be involved and sees this as a, as an exciting kind of route for his life, which as a working class boy is kind of comparatively limited in 1930s. England and in the kind of sort of Merseyside coast. And the King's Liverpool Regiment is based near Crosby. Um, it's an infantry regiment and he joins this before he turns 18 by kind of, you know, lying about his age. And in 1939, the regiment is transferred to tanks, which is

• 10:21Speaker 07

  common across the whole of the UK, quite a lot of these, these infantry units as they're becoming more and more mechanised and so on. And Sam is retrained as a wireless operator and gunner. And then one day he's working in a local shop and he's, and he has to run out for an errand. And he's stopped by one of the neighbours on route and the neighbour goes, you're in the TA, aren't you? And he says,

• 10:41Speaker 06

  Yes, I am. Yeah. Yeah, mate.

• 10:43Speaker 07

  And he says, it's just been on the radio that all the territorial reservists must report immediately for duty. That's Birmingham, isn't it?

• 10:49Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 10:49Speaker 07

  Um, God, I completely wrong. It's just been on the radio.

• 10:54Speaker 06

  Right.

• 10:55Speaker 07

  Okay. It's just been on the radio that all the territorial reservists must report immediately for duty. He's one of these people, he's, he, he's got a clipped English accent.

• 11:02Speaker 06

  Okay, fine.

• 11:04Speaker 07

  Whatever.

• 11:07Speaker 06

  Um, but Sam, Sam goes and collects his wages and his insurance card for, for the shopkeeper and then runs home. And he says, full of excitement, I didn't realise the significance of it really. I was just a kid of 18.

• 11:18Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 11:18Speaker 06

  We've talked about this before on, on the podcast. Wars require kids of 18 thinking it's exciting and not realising the significance of the thing, don't they?

• 11:27Speaker 07

  Always have done, always will.

• 11:29Speaker 06

  And his bag has actually been packed for weeks, his uniforms over the back of his chair. He's no fool, he's seen this coming. And he

• 11:37Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 11:37Speaker 06

  Kind of relishes the prospect.

• 11:38Speaker 07

  Well, he likes, he likes army life because, you know, they're larking around in tanks and doing interesting things and learning skills and he's hanging out with his mates and, and he feels, you know, he's got that kind of sense of patriotism and he feels he's doing something worthwhile and

• 11:51Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 11:51Speaker 07

  It's, it's making him feel good about life, you know, and, um, this is, he's 18 and he's a young man and country's about to be at war and he wants to be a part of it. I mean, as you say, it's, it's, it's been ever thus.

• 12:02Speaker 06

  It's a tale as old as time.

• 12:04Speaker 07

  But it's not a massive stretch. It has to be said.

• 12:08Speaker 06

  Because the barracks is only 500 yards from his front door.

• 12:12Speaker 07

  Yeah, 500 yards from his, from his house. So he's the first one to arrive. Where do I go? You know, you just imagine it kind of here.

• 12:19Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 12:19Speaker 07

  Uh, um, but the, but by evening, the barracks is full. And the sergeant major asks Sam if he's eaten and Sam replies, no. Um, there's no canteen in the barracks, so the sergeant major tells him to go home and come back in the morning. Happy to fill his stomach, at the same time feeling slightly deflated. And, and at 2.30 in the morning, later that night, Sam's in bed at home again. There's a bang, bang, bang on the door and the police telling Sammy needs to report and Sam says, he already has. And they go, well, we've heard that one before. So Sam reports back to the barracks again and then sent home again.

• 12:51Speaker 06

  Oh, blimey.

• 12:52Speaker 07

  It's good to know that kind of, you know, local government, local organisations were crap in 1939 as well as today.

• 13:00Speaker 06

  But by the winter of 1939, um, uh, basically

• 13:04Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 13:04Speaker 06

  That, that soldiers are split up and they're sent to live in various local houses, so they're billeted locally.

• 13:09Speaker 07

  Yes, we should say that eventually he does get to the barracks and accepted and he doesn't have to go home again.

• 13:12Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, but that, but, but basically housing all these guys and feeding them, that, that they resort to billets, billeting pretty quickly. It's interesting that, because they're, they're not deployed yet either. Um, uh, uh, there, you know, there's an awful lot, um, in the TA units that have been stood up. There's an awful lot to hurry up and wait and there's not enough stuff to train with. And there's not enough equipment really to, to have everyone ready. And the BEF in France, which is suddenly filled up with all these TA battalions, has got all sorts of problems of getting them up to snuff, integrating them with the, with the regular army and there's, there's quite a lot of friction there. You've also got reservists, territorialists and regulars, which is the, which is a blend. So there's people who've been stood up from the, from having been regulars and then there's people in the TA.

• 13:57Speaker 06

  And so there's a mixture of things going on all at once in the army at this point. And the army is doing its best, but it's finding it very, very challenging, this phase of the war where they've got millions of people coming in. I think it's 1.5 million people take, but come to the colours in 1939 alone. I mean,

• 14:12Speaker 07

  It's obscene, us, isn't it?

• 14:14Speaker 06

  Imagine that as an organisation having to cope, having to cope with that.

• 14:17Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 14:17Speaker 06

  And you're expecting it's going to happen and you've got people in place to deal with it, but it's a huge challenge. So this is why they're not deployed yet either, because, because

• 14:26Speaker 07

  Where can they go?

• 14:27Speaker 06

  Yeah, exactly. Where can they go?

• 14:28Speaker 07

  And we're an island nation, there's a, there's a question of room and space and, you know, and

• 14:31Speaker 06

  Getting them somewhere, yeah.

• 14:32Speaker 07

  Transport and all the rest of it. But there's also another problem and that is, and I'm, I may have mentioned this before, but the winters were terrible in the war. Drink. It's really bad. And so guess, guess what Sam and his mates end up doing? They ended up digging out snowdrifts on railway lines.

• 14:47Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 14:48Speaker 07

  And, you know, he's 18 and this is, this is not what he signed up for.

• 14:51Speaker 06

  These are highly trained, armoured fighting vehicle people.

• 14:54Speaker 07

  Of course, a, a telegraphist, a radio operator, um, and, and loader. And, um, and, and he's conscious of his widowed mother back at home with barely any money. Um, and he's feeling kind of, you know, a bit browned off.

• 15:07Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 15:08Speaker 07

  So around Christmas 1939, the major in charge gives 12 volunteers the opportunity to go overseas. And Sam thinks, well, it'd be France, wouldn't it? Of course it's going to be France, that's, that's where it's all at. So he volunteers because he wants to be a proper soldier, he doesn't want to be digging out snowdrifts and he doesn't want to be sat at home 500 yards from his mam, feeling guilty about her. You know, so a little bit of distance is actually no bad thing in a funny sort of way.

• 15:31Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 15:32Speaker 07

  And so he gets, he, he, he volunteers and, and he's, he's on the list. And he gets sent on a train down to Southampton a few weeks later. And then he's put on a boat to Le Havre and he thinks, great. You know, he's never been abroad before, he's never been any further than Southport. And on arrival, he's taken below ground to, to what looked like cages with metal doors and, and given tins of food to eat cold and wait for further instructions. That evening, they're then taken to a train. He thinks, hang on a minute, why, why am I on a train again? And they travel for two days, only stopping for meals. And this is all getting quite exciting. But they're not in northern France, they're now in Marseille, which is on the south coast of France.

• 16:12Speaker 06

  Hmm.

• 16:12Speaker 07

  And faces out to the Mediterranean.

• 16:14Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 16:14Speaker 07

  And suddenly they're on a ship.

• 16:16Speaker 06

  That's right. And he, and off they go into the Mediterranean and he said, We first became really conscious of the war because you weren't allowed to smoke on deck and all the lights had to be out.

• 16:24Speaker 07

  But still no idea where they're going.

• 16:26Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's amazing, this, isn't it?

• 16:27Speaker 07

  You can imagine the conversation, where do you think we're going?

• 16:30Speaker 06

  Nobody knows.

• 16:31Speaker 07

  Nobody knows. They've gone to India. Rumours have been going to India, mate.

• 16:34Speaker 06

  No, no, we're definitely going to Italy. No, we're going to Egypt, you know. Oh, maybe I'll get to see the pyramids. It's all that, isn't it?

• 16:42Speaker 07

  I've heard we're going to Palestine. Because, you know, it's different regions.

• 16:48Speaker 07

  Not all Scousers.

• 16:49Speaker 06

  It's the versatility of voices on this show that, um, uh, people stay for. They come for the history, they stay for the, um, a regional accent. Um, uh, but, but

• 17:00Speaker 07

  Hey, we're not going to Palestine, are we, pal?

• 17:01Speaker 06

  But, but the thing is, is on this ship, they're all cheek by jowl, they'll all be, they'll all be, they're all living on top of each other. So everyone makes friends pretty quickly in, in, in these close quarters. They're young lads, you know, running together, it's an adventure.

• 17:12Speaker 07

  Yeah, young boys.

• 17:13Speaker 06

  And there's three other boys from Crosby also in the group. And they stay one night in Valletta.

• 17:19Speaker 07

  In Malta.

• 17:19Speaker 06

  In Malta.

• 17:20Speaker 07

  The island fortress of Malta.

• 17:22Speaker 06

  But amazing, you, you come from Liverpool, you come from Crosby and, you know, like, as you said, he's not been further than Southport.

• 17:28Speaker 07

  It's Greylarks, isn't it?

• 17:30Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's incredible. And then they're in Alexandria soon enough.

• 17:33Speaker 07

  They've been paid to do it.

• 17:35Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, this is not unlike Harry Hill's grandfather. My old mate, Harry Hill, his grandfather was in Eighth Army.

• 17:42Speaker 07

  Oh, yeah.

• 17:43Speaker 06

  Did five years.

• 17:44Speaker 07

  Right.

• 17:44Speaker 06

  And described it as the greatest time of his life. Because the war was in colour and life after that was in black and white. He was with his mates, exotic places, even the boring bits were exciting, all that sort of stuff. And like I say, was away five years, deployed in 1940, came back in 1945. Anyway, I mean, this is what it is. And they get off the ship at Alexandria and they get on a train to Cairo, but again, they don't know where they're going. Why would they?

• 18:06Speaker 07

  Yeah, just amazing, isn't it? This is no one, no one knows, no one's told. I mean, it's, it's incredible, the lack of information, isn't it?

• 18:13Speaker 06

  They're in Egypt and they arrive at a place called Abasya to join up with the Royal Armoured Corps, which they are of course part of now. And the train goes directly into the garrison. The troops are herded into the dining room, which is all quite fancy. And again, the, the sort of exoticism of it continues.

• 18:30Speaker 07

  Well, you're a working class kid from Crosby.

• 18:32Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah.

• 18:32Speaker 07

  Can you imagine?

• 18:33Speaker 06

  Who are being served, waited on by Sudanese waiters in white jackets and fezzes. I mean, what's not to like?

• 18:40Speaker 07

  Nothing.

• 18:40Speaker 06

  Tablecloths and flowers. And it's very different to anything they've experienced before. I mean, it

• 18:47Speaker 07

  Yep.

• 18:48Speaker 06

  It, it's amazing, this, isn't it?

• 18:49Speaker 07

  Yeah, isn't it?

• 18:50Speaker 06

  And then, then they're reorganised, because that's what the army likes to do. They like to reorganise people. Unless they've got the hands of them.

• 18:56Speaker 07

  Everyone on this table. Move over there, everyone on that table, move over there.

• 19:02Speaker 06

  Yeah, exactly.

• 19:03Speaker 07

  Right, you're in one Royal Tank Regiment and you're in the sixth Royal Tank Regiment. So Sam's over there, so he's in the sixth Royal Tank Regiment. I mean, it's literally as simple as that.

• 19:13Speaker 06

  Yeah, and a few days later, he's made a gunner operator. Um, loader, we might think of that as well, or is he the guy pointing the gun? He's the guy pointing the gun, isn't he?

• 19:23Speaker 07

  Yeah, he's a gunner.

• 19:24Speaker 06

  And he's got eight weeks of radio training to go with that.

• 19:27Speaker 07

  Might as well.

• 19:28Speaker 06

  Well, but also one of the things they do is they make sure everyone can do everything, don't they? So the roles are all interchangeable, so that, so that, you know, if, when push comes to shove, you can go in that tank and do that role and you're familiar with the kit. Or if the fellow next to you knocked out or injured, you can, you can take over his part.

• 19:45Speaker 07

  Yeah, yeah, and he does a lot.

• 19:47Speaker 06

  He did, I mean, yeah, eight weeks of radio training. One of the things that impressed me was the standard of training, it was first class. And that, that's interesting, isn't it, that, that there is this emphasis on radio training with armoured warfare? That this is the thing they are rolling out into the mechanised side of things. And it's not just the Germans who've thought of this, you know, he's trained as a driver, like we said. And after these eight weeks of training, he joins the squadron out in the desert. He gets the train to Mersa Matru, and then he's picked up and taken to B Squadron.

• 20:17Speaker 07

  So isn't that amazing? Because Mersa Matru, if those who've listened to the last episode, is where he ends up in the, in the hospital.

• 20:22Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 20:23Speaker 07

  To start off with, you know, it's, so, so he's already, he's starting his big journey, going back and forth, up and down the desert every two minutes. Anyway, this is the first time.

• 20:32Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 20:33Speaker 07

  No tents in the desert, so he sleeps by the tank with a blanket and a ground sheet. And he starts off as a gunner, not, not a radio operator. It's very tough living in the desert, you know, there's, there's hardly any cigarettes, there's no arterial wells for water yet. You know, I think it's falling apart, flies absolutely everywhere. And they're especially attracted to the moisture of a troop's desert sores. Which happen, you know, and this is one of the reasons why it's absolutely insane to give these people shorts. So, so they're all given, I don't think the tank men are actually, but most of, most of the soldiers are given shorts. And the idea was obviously is, well, you know, it's really hot, don't need, don't need long trousers. But the trouble is, is you get these abrasions and, and, you know, it's really, really easy in the desert.

• 21:14Speaker 07

  And, and I've been to the desert, I've been to Mersa Matru, I've been all the way out there and I can, I can tell you, it's, it's, it's not the sand sea. It, this is, this is rough scrub, it's stony. There's lots of vetch all over the place and it's really scratchy and there's so many opportunities for you to bang yourself, cut yourself, to get a little scratch. And because you're dirty the whole time, you, you, there's no real opportunity, you know, and there aren't any antiseptic wipes and, you know, wash your hands for 20 seconds and all this kind of stuff and hand sanitizer, none of that in 1940. So, you, you know, it's very easy for these, these sores to develop and that, that's how they do it and everyone has them. Um, and also you get sores because you get bitten by a mozzie or something, or a bite or something, and then you pick it and then it bleeds and, you know,

• 21:58Speaker 07

  et cetera, et cetera. You can, you can just, you can just imagine.

• 22:01Speaker 06

  Yeah, and, and, and the flies in absolutely everything, everywhere, all the time.

• 22:06Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 22:06Speaker 06

  Flies landing on your eyes and everything, it's, it's, I mean, it's a disgusting environment from that point of view. And the minute, the minute you introduce the dead to that as well, it gets far, far worse, doesn't it? Um, and once combat begins.

• 22:19Speaker 07

  It's the one thing everyone talks about.

• 22:21Speaker 06

  Yeah, is, is the, is the flies.

• 22:23Speaker 07

  You know, that you have to eat like this, sort of whisking, whisking and kind of covering up and trying to sort of shovel it in before you, you know, you, you get, you get plenty of kind of fly protein while you're, while you're eating as well. And, and the other problem is, of course, this is, you know, this is still 1940 and they haven't really, they haven't really worked out a system. They haven't really, the British authorities haven't really got to terms of the huge logistics of, of feeding and, and keeping this armed forces on the fly, on the go, that's an unfortunate phrase, but you know what I mean, you know? And, and so to start off with, they're just given one pint of water a day, you know, it's just, obviously not very much and that's for everything. So they just basically stop shaving, you know?

• 23:03Speaker 06

  Well, you would, wouldn't you? Especially as, you know, if you cut yourself with a razor, razor, then you've got, you've got a saw for a, a cut for a fly to sit on as well. That will get infected and go off. So they've all got beards and long hair, aren't they? They all, they all, they all look like, they look piratical, don't they? And he says, Sam says, I look like Sir Walter Raleigh.

• 23:25Speaker 06

  Because they, they did wear, they were wearing overalls, weren't they? They were wearing overalls in the desert at this point, the, the tank people.

• 23:30Speaker 07

  Yes, I think the tank men were, yeah.

• 23:31Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but, but still, you, you can imagine this sort of bearded, long-haired fellow in a boiler suit coming at you.

• 23:39Speaker 07

  And covered in oil and, you know, I mean, tanks are filthy businesses.

• 23:43Speaker 06

  Yeah. Then the squadron is basically given armoured patrol duties up what's called the wire, which is the line that Mussolini has deemed exists between Egypt and Libya, where there is literally wire. And the idea is they're going to go up and down that, keep, keep an eye on it. They make 45 gaps in Mussolini's wire, take that, Benito.

• 24:02Speaker 07

  Yes.

• 24:02Speaker 06

  And they mark them on the map so they can observe Italians and they, through the, through the gaps.

• 24:08Speaker 07

  Yep.

• 24:09Speaker 06

  So it's, it's an awful lot of this, isn't it, basically?

• 24:12Speaker 07

  Yes.

• 24:12Speaker 06

  Uh, I think that's four tanks, yes, okay.

• 24:15Speaker 07

  Lots of that going on.

• 24:17Speaker 06

  And then on the 10th of June, 1940, Italy, of course, somewhat opportunistically declares war.

• 24:23Speaker 07

  Sad as it is.

• 24:24Speaker 06

  Yeah, they're not an actor in the war of the Italians really, they're, they're not leading their following. And funnily enough, although they've declared war, they don't come out to fight.

• 24:35Speaker 07

  No.

• 24:36Speaker 06

  The Italians, so the Allies bypass Italian forts across the wire and they attack their supply columns.

• 24:41Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 24:42Speaker 06

  You know, why, why not? You started it.

• 24:44Speaker 07

  I don't think a lot of people know about that, though.

• 24:46Speaker 06

  It's interesting, isn't it? It's a part of the war that maybe isn't on people's radar. I mean, understandable why, you have just had Dunkirk, you have just had the fall of France, you have just had massive Stannigans in, in North West Europe and the, you know, what are the Germans going to do next? And the, the fall of Paris and the French surrender, all part of the sort of tumble of events around this. So you can see why people overlook this. And Sam thought, didn't he, in hindsight, the Italians weren't particularly interested in fighting.

• 25:14Speaker 07

  Yeah, I think you'd be right.

• 25:15Speaker 06

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 25:16Speaker 07

  Anyway, they, they, they, they moved to Mersa Matru, the regiment. Um, and then eventually in September, the, uh, and the Italians, well, the Italians moved to, um, Sidi Birani. I do remember him saying that, Sidi Birani. Um, he did say that a lot.

• 25:31Speaker 06

  Sidi Birani.

• 25:32Speaker 07

  Yeah, yeah. So the Italians advanced into Sidi, Sidi Birani, um, which is, um, you know, just inside the border and in Egypt. This is the September 1941, um, by Marshal Graziani.

• 25:42Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 25:42Speaker 07

  He's very, very reluctant to do it and does it absolutely at the kind of, you know,

• 25:46Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 25:46Speaker 07

  insistence of Mussolini. Mussolini paints this as this sort of great Italian victory. Um, but, but there's hardly any fighting, the regiment just loses one officer. Um, and then there's a stalemate for a while.

• 25:58Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 25:58Speaker 07

  Shall we take a break?

• 25:59Speaker 06

  Let's take a break at the stalemate, why not?

• 26:03Speaker 06

  We'll see you in a second.

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• 26:59Speaker 06

  Right, welcome back to Weird Ways of Making Talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland. And we're talking about one man's war, Sam Bradshaw, who is in, um, uh, B Squadron, isn't it? It's B Squadron of the sixth RTR.

• 27:11Speaker 07

  Yep.

• 27:12Speaker 06

  And we're looking at, I mean, funnily enough, this is a part of the war that I think, um, you know, we've always tried, we've always tried to avoid Forgotten stories of the Second World War, that kind of a forgotten general.

• 27:26Speaker 07

  Insecrets of World War Two.

• 27:28Speaker 06

  Yeah, someone post a post about Admiral Cunningham as one of the forgotten admirals of the Second World War, ABC. And you think, not really, no.

• 27:38Speaker 07

  No, not forgotten by us.

• 27:40Speaker 06

  He's not forgotten.

• 27:41Speaker 07

  General Cunningham, I would say possibly.

• 27:43Speaker 06

  Yes, poor old General Cunningham, yes, definitely lost to history.

• 27:46Speaker 07

  Yeah, Alan, Alan and Andrew, they make quite the pair.

• 27:49Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah.

• 27:50Speaker 07

  Who are brothers, of course.

• 27:51Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, but, but, but the idea that ABC is a forgotten admiral, you're looking for clicks. If that's what you're saying on social media. Um, anyway. Um, so the, the Italians have struck this absolutely staggering victory, I'm just reading this from some Italian propaganda, the staggering victory at Sidi Birani. Um, where, where they, uh, got the decadent English on the run.

• 28:14Speaker 07

  But Sam's already gone before that.

• 28:15Speaker 06

  Yeah, right, great. So there's been, there's a stalemate that has descended, um, but the East Africa beckons. And this is genuinely a part of the war.

• 28:23Speaker 07

  That is truly forgotten.

• 28:25Speaker 06

  That is genuinely forgotten, doesn't feature in people's sort of view of things. Um, and it's part of the British effort to sort of tidy up the edges. Um, and to, to stymie Italian power wherever they could find it.

• 28:36Speaker 07

  And give the ITI's a bloody nose, god damn it.

• 28:39Speaker 06

  And defeat them at the end of their supply line where they can't really be very effective.

• 28:42Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 28:43Speaker 06

  And so Sam's squadron moves out of the desert in August 1940 and they're travelling through the night again in wooden carriages through Cairo, through Luxor to Aswan, and then they arrive on the Nile. I mean, again, we're back to stuff that will blow your mind.

• 28:57Speaker 07

  It's pith helmets, isn't it?

• 28:58Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's pith helmets, it's the, it's the mighty River Nile.

• 29:01Speaker 07

  Where's, where's Ryder Haggard when you need him?

• 29:03Speaker 06

  Exactly, exactly. Um, and they, they manoeuvre their tanks onto barges and the troops get onto a steamer and off they go to Sudan.

• 29:12Speaker 07

  I mean, what, what, what do you think the difference is between doing that and the, and the army of, of, you know?

• 29:19Speaker 07

  General Kitchener on the way to Omdurman.

• 29:21Speaker 06

  Well, you've got, it's the technology in the form of the tanks, but that's about it.

• 29:25Speaker 07

  Yeah, but you know, going on to Nile barges.

• 29:28Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's a flying, it's, it's, it's the old column style warfare from the end of the 19th century, isn't it? Imperial columns. And they, so they arrive at a place called Wadi Helda in Sudan and it's, it's even hotter than the desert. And the Nile is low because, because it's the height of summer in August.

• 29:44Speaker 07

  That's amazing.

• 29:45Speaker 06

  The banks are cracked from the heat and then they go on to the Nubian Desert. Again, this is, this is completely Al Ryder.

• 29:52Speaker 07

  It's a long way from Crosby.

• 29:55Speaker 06

  And they, and they train then with the Essex regiment, um, doing tank support. They're trained for a month, getting it all joined up.

• 30:01Speaker 07

  Yep, but the British can't do battle groups.

• 30:03Speaker 06

  They've never worked at combined arms. Then they're on the road again to Khartoum in the jungle. So, I mean, you know, what they're going to do is attack two forts in Eritrea and hold them until the infantry can consolidate. And basically what the Allies are trying to do, as we said, they're, they're trying, basically trying to shut the Italians down in this part of Africa. In Eritrea and Abyssinia.

• 30:25Speaker 07

  Which Italians had taken in 1935 or whatever.

• 30:27Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is exactly, which is kind of arguably where the Second World War got going. Or the, or the thing that.

• 30:34Speaker 07

  This is, this is Johnny Fennell's approach.

• 30:37Speaker 06

  Sort of contagion and collapse that.

• 30:39Speaker 07

  Yes.

• 30:40Speaker 06

  It's the Italians and the Japanese and the Italians who shake the world order up to the point where Hitler feels he has run for manoeuvre. And the Italians are too strong at this stage. And also it's quite difficult operating tanks in jungle.

• 30:52Speaker 07

  Of course.

• 30:52Speaker 06

  I mean, these are, after all, these are tanks that have been designed for North West Europe. So you've got, and they may have been desertised, but now you're in jungle. It's all these fresh problems. It's amazing, this. This is absolutely amazing, Jim.

• 31:07Speaker 07

  Isn't it? He's a major's wireless operator by this point, um, which means he, he gets to see a lot of the information. It's quite a big job for, for, for a young, a young trooper.

• 31:15Speaker 06

  Excellent.

• 31:15Speaker 07

  Uh, and they begin their attack at 5.30 in the morning and, and the objective is the main gate of one of these, these forts, these old Eritrean forts, which are now manned by the Italians. And, and the plan for Sam's tank is to, is to drive into the walls. They're, they're dry stone, so should completely collapse. But when they hit the wall, they bounce off it and land on their side. And the wall is actually eight foot thick with men inside. It's like a tunnel and they do ultimately capture both forts, but, but that tank has to be disabled later. I mean, can you imagine, right? Charge it, chaps. Doink. And Sam and a few others have to abandon their tank because their, their next tank, because the traction breaks.

• 31:57Speaker 07

  And there's panics that the Italian will, will, will capture them, but, but they take their tanks, machine guns and mount them on the wall and they're instructed to wait with infantry until they're picked up and no one comes. So they wander around the jungle for two days until they find the Essex regiment troops again, um, who helped them found their tank all. Um, and on their return, the major says cheerfully, hi, Ford, you were dead, chaps. And that, that done, they're then back on the train to Khartoum, you know, it's like job done. Captured the fort. Didn't really work with the tanks, but you know, we seized the day anyway.

• 32:30Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 32:31Speaker 07

  You're now needed back in, back in Egypt.

• 32:33Speaker 06

  What tank would that be at this stage of the war? Because this, in the previous episode, we talked about Crusaders. They wouldn't have had Crusaders at this stage, would they? It would have been, it would have been.

• 32:42Speaker 07

  I don't think so.

• 32:43Speaker 06

  Some early, early cruiser tank, probably. Yeah.

• 32:46Speaker 07

  Yeah, wouldn't it? A little light thing, wouldn't it? An A26 or whatever it was.

• 32:50Speaker 06

  Yeah, something like that. It'll be something like that. So they're back on the train to Khartoum and then they're back in Egypt by, Sam is back in Egypt by November. And they're straight into it again. Um.

• 33:00Speaker 07

  Yes, just amazing.

• 33:02Speaker 06

  Involved this in a, uh, uh, in his first attack with the Fourth Indian Division. And he says,

• 33:07Speaker 07

  "To me, it was just an unreal situation. It wasn't until someone got killed that you realised it was real. The physical effect, my stomach seemed to go small all the time I was there until I was coming out to the forward area away from the war zone. And then I became a different person. My senses seemed keen and like I was walking on springs. I don't know how long you can maintain that. There comes a time when you start to fall apart." But if you just, just, just pause a, a second, I mean, and just, just think about what he's done so far.

• 33:34Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah.

• 33:34Speaker 07

  You know, this is this, you know, he's, he's joined up at 18, he's, you know, he's, he's 18 when the war starts. He's shoveling snow the previous Christmas. Since the previous Christmas, he's gone on a train to Southampton, gone on a boat to the half, gone on train to Marseille, gone on a boat to Malta, then Alexandria, then gone into the desert, trained up. Um, then gone out to the border of Libya, stooged into Libya, you know, attacking columns, come back again, then been sent to uh, uh, Sudan, clearing some forts, then back again. And it's not even, you know, it's not, it's November. It's, it's not even a year. I mean, it's just extraordinary. You just think your learning curve in that time, what you've seen, the different scenes that you've seen, desert, you've seen jungle, you've seen forts, you've been across,

• 34:17Speaker 07

  you know, a third of Africa. I mean, it's just extraordinary. Anyway, the next big objective is, is, is attacking Sidi Burani and getting it back again. And this of course is Operation Compass, which is going to be launched in December 1940.

• 34:30Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 34:31Speaker 07

  And Sam's got some insider knowledge.

• 34:33Speaker 06

  Yeah. Compass is, um, Dick O'Connor's big show, isn't it?

• 34:36Speaker 07

  Yes, it is. It's a Western Desert Force, 36,000 men.

• 34:39Speaker 06

  Western Desert Fars, as it was nicknamed, um, in earlier years, um, as it was being stuck together. Percy Hobart had been in charge of it and had licked it into shape, um, pre, pre-war.

• 34:50Speaker 07

  Yes.

• 34:50Speaker 06

  When, when the army had tried to basically give him an impossible job because they didn't like him or wanted rid of him. I mean, at some point we all need to do compass in full, won't we? Because this is one of the absolute stinging great British victories of the Second World War. Um, that happens nice and early at the point where people think we're losing all the time.

• 35:08Speaker 07

  Yeah. 1941 is quite good. Yeah. It's 1942 where all goes wrong.

• 35:11Speaker 06

  Maybe I, can we, can we swap compass for Singapore, Jim? Can I?

• 35:16Speaker 07

  Yeah, all right.

• 35:17Speaker 06

  Excellent.

• 35:17Speaker 07

  If we can do compass, I'll, I'll do Singapore and Malaya.

• 35:21Speaker 06

  Great.

• 35:21Speaker 07

  How's about that?

• 35:22Speaker 06

  Brilliant. Excellent.

• 35:23Speaker 07

  By the way, you know who's commanding the repulse, don't you?

• 35:25Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah.

• 35:26Speaker 07

  Bill Tennant.

• 35:26Speaker 06

  It's amazing, isn't it?

• 35:27Speaker 07

  Senior naval officer in Dunkirk.

• 35:29Speaker 06

  I know. It's incredible.

• 35:30Speaker 07

  Kenneth Branagh, not wearing a lid.

• 35:32Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's absolutely amazing that that's the next job he gets. Comes out of that well, unlike Admiral Tom Thumb, but there we are. Right. So Sam knows that there's a gap in the front line between Sidi Burani and the next big defence post. And that the plan is for Fourth Indian Division to attack with the Seventh Tank Regiment, who are in Matildas, which are some serious heavy metal at this phase of the war. And they attack from the flank and come in behind the front line through a corridor and cut off the retreat. And really this is, compass is hugely successful. The Italians really, the Italians do not cover themselves in glory here. And Sam is a bit disappointed, isn't he? Because they don't really put up a fight.

• 36:09Speaker 07

  It's all too easy.

• 36:10Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 36:10Speaker 07

  It's all too easy.

• 36:11Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 36:12Speaker 07

  You know, he, he wants a bit more. He wants to, uh, he wants to feel like he's, he's, he's been blooded. He wants to feel like he's knocked out a few tanks. And he doesn't consider the kind of, you know, the fort foray in East Africa as, as, you know, proper soldiering. That, that feels like a sort of colonial skirmish and nothing more.

• 36:27Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 36:27Speaker 07

  And Italians are surrendering in droves and, and the counter attacks just don't, don't come at all. And they go past all these sort of, um, you know, all these old Italian camps and there's just leather suitcases and leather baggage and, you know, amazing camping kit and all the rest of it. And he sees loads of Italian, Italians, um, that they take prisoner. They're just sitting there waiting on their suitcases. So there's no sort of canvas tote bag or, or anything military. This, it looks like they've just sort of, you know, they've come back from the holidays.

• 36:59Speaker 06

  Well, do they all have excellent loafers as well? I imagine they've all got really uh, great loafers, these Italians. Beautiful leather suitcases, great loafers.

• 37:08Speaker 07

  And cockerels. But Sam, Sam says in general, it was obvious their heart wasn't in the war.

• 37:14Speaker 06

  And I think at the, at this stage, this lot, it's fair to say that.

• 37:18Speaker 07

  Yes.

• 37:19Speaker 06

  Well, we're not going to fully go down the, the Italians were hopeless routine because they, in certain circumstances, they weren't. But on this occasion, they were out-thought and out-fought.

• 37:28Speaker 07

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 37:29Speaker 06

  Right. Well, that gets us round two.

• 37:32Speaker 07

  Well, beginning of 1941.

• 37:34Speaker 06

  Beginning of 1941. Thank you very much for listening, everyone. If you want to hear the, the rest of Sam Bradshaw's story, One Man's War. Um, and you want to hear it now, then become a We Have Ways of Making You Talk Patreon. Go to Patreon, look us up and there we are. And for the price of, I think, three quarters of a pint now, you can get yourself membership, ad-free listening, stuff all in a, stuff all in a, um, uh, uh, in a, in a great lump. And more than that, there's live cast, there's ticket offers, there's all sorts of other stuff that is bundled with that membership. Um, we thank you very much for listening. We'll see you again very soon. Cheerio.

• 38:07Speaker 07

  Cheerio.

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