The diary’s and accounts of Lt Karsten, WO2 JA Dyer and Cpl Frank Wallbank.

26 October 1942.

Just before dusk (25th), 3 of our Officers left in a Dingo, to bury the brother of one of them who was killed the previous day, and hasn’t been seen since – the O.P. Reports the destruction of a Dingo which appears to have been theirs. The only other casualty today was one other officer killed.

A very quiet night but dawn saw 2 raids and action up by the coast. About 40 fighters were constantly patrolling over and a group of bombers has just returned- one less in number.

A heavy raid by 34 Stukas on our front line at dusk and several raids by single bombers during the night- 2 lots being about 400 yards from us – and 3 small raids at dawn were all we saw of him today.

27 October 1942.

‘C’ Squadron and as many of ‘A’ Squadron as were battle-worthy, again went up to the Miteriya Ridge, where they sat all day.

It was uneventful, just as the usual shelling which made it unpleasant and necessitated moving about when you got too hot.

Meanwhile, ‘B’ Squadron were collecting tanks as fast as they could go, recovering from minefields and out of workshops, by the end of the day they had managed to gather a dozen or so battle worthy tanks.

During the day Stukas came over fairly high and dropped bombs rather haphazardly in ‘B’ Squadron area.

No damage was done however, the Squadron Second in Command was very pleased with the Stukas as he managed to get off three belts of .50 AA Browning without a stoppage before they were out of range.

Bombers have been constantly passing over in groups of 18 with fighter escort and permanent patrols of about 40 fighters can always be seen and heard. Yesterday our casualties were 2 men wounded.

At 10 pm today, our Brigade withdrew for a rest, moving back about 7 miles.

Related topics

  1. A short history of 3rd The King’s Own Hussars
  2. Middle East (Egypt and Libya) timeline
  3. Vickers-Armstrong Mk VIB light tank
  4. A10 Cruiser tank
  5. A13 Cruiser tank
  6. A15 Crusader tank
  7. M3 Stuart ‘Honey’ tank
  8. M3 General Grant tank
  9. M4 Sherman tank
  10. Object: 2pdr Armour piercing round