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The Night Shift, Egypt, June 1942

On or about 30 June 1942, I joined the Night Shift. We were a retreating Army making our way along the coast road. Tobruk, Sidi Barrani, Mersa Matruha were now enemy territory and we were approximately 110 km from Alexandria, pursued by Rommel’s Afrika Korps. By the side of the road near the deserted El Alamein railway station was a small party of military police. On establishing our identity, we were ordered off the road and checked. As the remaining troops of the First Field Squadron Royal Engineers, we were to help in the creation of an anti-tank minefield to check the eastward flow of Rommel’s forces.

We made our way southward from the road and established a temporary base in the desert. It was from here that the Night Shift would work. Every evening at sundown, with our lorries loaded with E.P. Anti-Tank Mines, Barbed Wire and Steel Pickets, we would make our way to a map reference and commence to lay our mines to form the minefield.

First, a line of pickets would be laid, running north to south on the enemy side and linked together by a single strand of barbed wire. At a fixed distance, and running parallel to the wire, rows of mines would be laid. At the completion of the minecharging a “home” barbed wire fence would be erected and the infantry lay out their weapon pits and slit trenches behind. Each night a new area of minefield would be laid. We would commence at sundown and be away before sunrise. As a regular “Night Shift”, our activities were not welcomed by the enemy and they were not slow to commence objections.

Tactic number one was to send a patrol equipped with radio into “No Man’s Land”. The patrol would radio the guns, giving our rough location. We always knew when we had been spotted. The tell tale flash of the German Artillery would commence in the German lines and we would lie down and hope that some random shell would not choose us as its target. This was an unpleasant experience.

Some nights the Fleet Air Arm and the RAF would conduct a vendetta against the enemy. A very effective method too and detested by the Germans. The Fleet Air Arm, flying slow flying biplanes and having a rough idea of the German positions, would quietly overfly them. With equipment probably well tested on bombing raids by the RAF, parachute flares would be launched over the enemy positions by the slow flying biplanes lighting up the area. With remarkable precision, the bombers of the RAF would arrive and drops their loads into the area well illuminated by the chandeliers. On occasion, the light would illuminate the “Night Shift” also and we would stand almost dead still. It was probably frightening the enemy and us also.

At length the minefields were created and our unit, amongst others, was withdrawn to be reformed after its losses at Tobruk.

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