To War With The Bays: 29 - Alix Sally
...We'd also occasionally listen to 'Axis Sally'. She was a young lady with a very sweet voice. Her English was perfect, and her broadcasts went something like this: 'Hello boys, how are you tonight - cold, miserable, homesick? How about a record to cheer you up? Let's hear Deanna Durbin singing "Beneath the Lights of Home".'
She played the record and then: 'Home, How long is it since you last saw home? A year, or two? Well don't worry, back in Blighty there are thousands of American and Canadian soldiers taking care of your wives and sweethearts. They've plenty of money, and gum for the children too. Let's have a Bing Crosby record now.'And so on...
Jack Merewood continues his account of warfare in the North African desert.
To read earlier chapters of Jack's engrossing story please click on Two War With The Bays in the menu on this page.
Our new tanks were now arriving a few at a time, not up to full strength yet but soon would be. So now we were out driving and firing the guns. Once some soldiers from an infantry regiment were invited and we went over the tanks with them answering any questions we could. We also gave talks and instruction on the guns to some of our more recent recruits and gave demonstrations to the Free French too.
Ted Wanless, a Geordie who had been with the Bays since the Wareham days but in No. 2 Troop, had been made a lance-corporal and moved to our troop. He and a few others who were being groomed as possible tank commanders were sent out with us 'old gunners' to practice. One day I took my turn at commanding too.
As the war went on and we saw more and more action, the thought came to mind how the old tank crews were dwindling in numbers. Would there come a time when there wouldn't be any old ones left? When the next action came up, back they went with new crew members and inevitably we lost someone.
The fighting was now many miles west of us and we listened to its progress on the wireless in the tank. When we started the push from El Alamein the Russians launched their attack from Stalingrad, and we were heartened to hear that they too were making good progress.
We'd also occasionally listen to 'Axis Sally'. She was a young lady with a very sweet voice. Her English was perfect, and her broadcasts went something like this: 'Hello boys, how are you tonight - cold, miserable, homesick? How about a record to cheer you up? Let's hear Deanna Durbin singing "Beneath the Lights of Home".'
She played the record and then: 'Home, How long is it since you last saw home? A year, or two? Well don't worry, back in Blighty there are thousands of American and Canadian soldiers taking care of your wives and sweethearts. They've plenty of money, and gum for the children too. Let's have a Bing Crosby record now.'And so on.
Unfortunately for Axis Sally the propaganda didn't work. We'd make fun of her then switch off. The trouble was she played records we liked, which of course was the whole idea.
Into December and the weather turned really cold and wet, and sometimes we had torrential downpours. During one such storm, accompanied by thunder and lightning, our tent was flooded. A day or two later, to prevent a recurrence of this we dug a trench round it. The tent itself stood up very well to the weather, and we were grateful to the Germans for leaving such a good one behind.
I developed a boil on my wrist and eventually had to go sick with it. The M.O. put some drawing ointment on it and I had to have my arm in a sling.
21 December 1942: ' . .. couldn't play in football team today. Arm in sling. Paddy squeezed my boil, oooooh!!' By Christmas Eve I got rid of the sling and soon the boil got better.
