DESERT VICTORY

all [Music] the Western desert is a place fit only for war thousands of square miles are nothing but Sand and Stone a compass is as necessary once off the road as it is to a sailor at sea water doesn't exist until you bore deep into the Earth you bath in your shaving mug flies have the tenacity of Bulldogs bruises is readily turned to Desert sordes days that are very hot can be followed by nights of bitter cold when the hot C in Wind brings its sandstorms life can be intolerable the Arabs say that after 5 days of it murder can be excused the tide of this war in the desert has ebed and flowed but as Advanced after we lost to Brook never had our backs been so close to the sez wall we had lost 80,000 men and much [Music] booty there were earlier lines of Defense on which general Orin Le might have stood CID Baran or M matru for example that he was deliberately falling back on El alamen no more than 60 M from Alexandria to raml advancing at considerable speed Egypt with the Nile Delta which gives it life Cairo British General headquarters and Africa's principal city Alexandria Egypt's Chief port and base of our Mediterranean Fleet and sewers gateway to the Far East all these must have seemed dazzlingly near as near as a mirage and as it proved as much an illusion it was a wise decision of General Orin to come back to Al alamen much the strongest natural line of defense between the Libyan Frontier and the Delta moreover rl's lines of supply were here stretched to the limit on the right our flank rested on the Sea on the left it approached the catara depression a trough the size of whales 1/3 of its salt marsh and all of it territory that no vehicle can cross [Music] [Applause] on this 40 m front General Orin took personal command his the total responsibility not another yard deck were we going his much depleted Army dug blasted and wired itself in and laid protective mines our front was one of discontinuous belts of minefields with strong points and machine gun and anti-tank gun imp placements but it was as yet extremely slender here General Orin Lake waited and with him men who had fought at gazala in City R others who had been twice to Benghazi others who had escaped from be hakeim and to Brook the eighth Army had made a fighting Retreat of 400 miles and a battle which approached in its importance the Battle of Britain was now at hand the Middle East sez and infinitely more was at stake The crucial days had come [Applause] the line hell after several days of attack and Counterattack the British Australians Indians and South Africans were still there fighting as dogged as our infantry at waterl the immediate Cris was passed but anxiety [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] remained into this situation stepped Mr Churchill bringing his own inspiration and vigor he brought good news of reinforcements both in men and suppli supplies which had already rounded the cape for 5 days he visited the Army and Air Force explaining the task and its importance and most dramatic of all he brought new commanders General Alexander and General montgom Alexander one of the last men out of Dunkirk and whose small army withstood the Japanese the whole length of Burma and Montgomery who took over the eth Army a man who lives as sternly as a and who is as much a part of his modern iron sides [Music] battles swallow up weapons faster than you can build them at home in Britain the Machinery of War poured from the factories and British women worked alongside men on the shells the ships the tanks the aircraft the explosives in no country are women so thoroughly organized for war [Music] in the United States bigger and more powerful tanks were coming off the assembly lines the Shermans for instance with their 75 mm gun and all R Travis going to Egypt for the first time although American material used at Len was a small proportion of the ho it was vital to Our [Music] Success the eth Army had the longest lines of Supply that the history of War has ever known there are two main routes to the Middle East from Britain and America the First by sea round the Cape 12,000 miles menaced by OTS which nothing but the resolution of our merchant seamen and the Navy's guard over them has kept open and the second by air across the middle of Africa over the Niger and then North along the Nile [Music] Val Landing grounds have been cut from The Jungle on this route fly aircraft brought by ship to ports on the west coast and they assembled the work has its own problems among them malaria [Music] [Music] behind the line great reinforcement in the line rumel had come for us again it was 2 months later he told his troops that on this day they were going to come Kyra but 5 days afterwards he withdrew he left nearly 300 tanks behind to prove his generalship [Music] [Music] in 2 or 3 months we recreated and greatly enlarged the eighth Army into middle east ports came men from the United Kingdom India and South Africa the 44th home counties Division and the 51st Highland Division had actually left Britain in May June and it was at the time to brookf that President Roosevelt who had Mr Churchill with him at the time ordered the first Sherman tanks to Egypt long range planning was yielding its reward [Applause] the Air Force kept [Music] guard RL with a supply line one10 the length of ours was himself buing up his supplies as hard as he could go but for a considerable proportion of them there was no future are United Air Forces sore to that [Music] [Music] the Royal Navy and Fleet air arm also were busy destroying rl's convoys within a few weeks our Mediterranean submarines sank or damaged 24 enemy ships in August 11one of all that was shipped to him 80% went to the bottom [Music] fire meanwhile the eighth Army trained to the last H the physical fitness and hardness of an army is one of the biggest battle winning factors in war when two first class Fighters meet He Who sticks it longest wins in the end this has been proved time and time again and applies to all ranks from General officers the private soldiers and this includes all branches of the army whatever their job and wherever they be fighting fit and fit to fight [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] towards the middle of October preparations on both sides were nearing completion in the north rl's forces stretch from the coast to a 10 miles Inland here were the B of his German infantry comprising the 90th light and the 164th divisions together with the Italian Trieste division in the South holding a front of 14 miles were three Italian divisions these were strengthened by the rest of his German infantry the center was left deliberately weak held by a single Italian division the bolognia holding a front of 16 miles behind the Infantry in the north were two armored divisions one German and one Italian and similarly in the South the British line began in the north with the ninth Australians and below the them the first South Africans the 51st Highland Division who had St Valerie to avenge and the fourth Indian division Veterans of abisinia and the Western desert held the center in the South were the 50th division from the teas and time with the fighting French of be hakeim and contingents of Greeks the Tactical Reserve was found by the 44th division from counties close to London our armored divisions were three all United Kingdom men some Veterans of a score of desert battles others new to the work one division the famous seventh held the extreme South the other two were in close support in the north with the second New Zealand Infantry Division alongside Rumble was full of confidence he was saying to journalists in Berlin you may rely on our holding fast to what have G we hold the gateway to Egypt with the full intention to [Music] act Hitler was experiencing one of his historic intuitions he saw before him the destined conqueror of Egypt and on him he bestowed the Baton of field Marshal roml hoped that if we attacked first we should strike at his Center that hope we deliberately encouraged by the disposition of our forces having allowed our armor to break through he saw himself destroying it by attacks from both flanks that done his own offensive would be [Music] launched General Alexander Admiral Harwood and air marshal tedar planned L men together it was to be a joint operation unity of command had become a reality in the desert itself General Montgomery and a vice Marshall Cunningham lived cheek by JW there was no divided command said General Montgomery there was only one command General Montgomery realizing that a citizen Army fights best when it knows exactly what's going on and what it is going to do saw to it that the plan of battle was known to everybody from General to private Soldier and it came down from one rank to another till the chain was complete so that senior officers fighting in their third desert winter shared the knowledge with Troopers going into action for the first time the battle was against fixed lines and against fixed lines General Alexander said the tactics are just like breaking down a wall with a crowbar you drive it in as far as possible and then lever this way and that to make a small hole then you enlarge it as soon as you have made a hole large enough your armored divisions go through to wreck the enemy's artillery and lines of communication as for General Montgomery he said his intention was to hit the enemy for six Right Out of Africa the final preparations began [Music] [Music] and now that all knew what was to be done and all was made ready there were final moments of normal desert life of rest of washing clothes of a swim in the sea for those near the coast of cooking the evening meal the coming of dawn over the Mediterranean the sunset with A Touch of Green in the horizon The Mirage turning sand into water and sprinkling that water with the sails of small ships many a soldier saw these things perhaps for the first time and he wrote his letters home and smoked and talked things over or lay silent as he listened to the pipes playing Highland lad e [Music] [Music] the Battle of alamen began in the evening as light failed the final moves were made [Music] the eighth Army watched rl's lines lying in Moonlight and Shadow at 0us 30 the barage begins at the same moment the sappers will move forward to clear gaps in the enemy minefields marking the gaps with white tapes after 30 minutes the bars will lift from the first objectives and creep forward at zero hour 10:00 the Infantry will advance [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] ah [Music] he [Applause] you [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w I