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German Memorial at El Alamein |
El Alamein, German Memorial: Conditions for Soldiers in the Western Desert
Jo Lancaster, Acquisitions Officer, IWM
My 'stand' is on conditions for soldiers serving in the Western Desert. I'm going to focus on three main areas: climate and terrain, food, water rations and clothing and health and sanitation.
As part of my research I listened extensively to interviews with veterans of the desert war from the Sound Archive's collection. Extracts from some of these interviews are featured throughout.
Climate and Terrain
 Sound Extract - John McGregor, 5th Bn Black Watch on coping with the desert climate. (Ref:12572/6)
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The Western Desert is not the rolling sand dunes that people imagine, but a rocky plateau covered with dirty sand, stones and small rocks, largely devoid of water and civilisation.
It is, of course, very hot. In the summer (May-October) the daytime temperatures range from 20-60 °C and it is often 40 °C in the shade. The highest temperatures are reached in the late afternoon. At night the temperature plummets. The extreme heat of the day and intense cold of the night made life uncomfortable for the troops serving here. The shortage of water of course increased their discomfort. The heat was a particular problem for tank crews. The inside of a tank was sweltering, made worse by the heat of the engines and the guns. It is, of course, possible to get used to the heat after a while and most men did. Newly arrived troops generally spent time acclimatising in the delta area before moving into the desert.
Sandstorms were a particular problem for the troops. These could happen at any time, but were at their worst in May and June. Sand got into absolutely everything and what's more further irritated any wounds a man might have, particularly desert sores. According to Stuart Hamilton in his book Armoured Odyssey, being caught in a sandstorm was like "being in a hot pea soup fog. You just could not see your hand in front of your face and the cursed sand got into every single orifice in the body. It got into the eyes, the nose, mouth, ears, anus…It got into the engine, it got into the guns, it got into the wireless set, it really was incredible."1
It rarely rains in the desert, but when it does the rains are extremely heavy. This was of course problematic but also provided a brief respite from the heat and opportunity for the troops to wash themselves and their clothes in the rain.
Being so far from civilisation caused problems in itself. There was nowhere for the men to go to relax once their duties had been completed. In the desert there were no bars, no entertainment and no women. When the troops weren't fighting life could be immensely boring. Only those who were able to get back to Cairo were able to get respite from the monotony of desert life.
Food and Water Rations, Clothing and Equipment
Sound Extract - Peter Vaux, Headquarters, 13th Corps on food rations. (Ref:20950/15) |
Rations for the 8th Army generally consisted of biscuits, bully beef, Machonachies M & V (meat and vegetable stew in a tin), canned milk (carnation) and plenty of tea. Other common 'delights' included tinned fish, tinned cheese, tinned bacon, jam, P,B & L (peas, beans and lentils) and the occasional tin of fruit (usually peaches from Australia or South Africa). The severe lack of fruit and vegetables was a problem and contributed to a number of health problems including desert sores, which I will talk about in more detail later. Vitamin tablets were issued to try and make up for the lack of fresh food.
Being so far away from civilisation there was little opportunity to supplement the rations. Occasionally soldiers would barter with the Arabs who came into the desert specifically to trade with the troops. They might swap a shirt for some eggs. However, the soldiers would often find that they been swindled and had, for example, bought an egg that had had it's contents blown out.
Instead troops tried to be more inventive with the ingredients they did have. The biscuits were generally tough and unappetising. They could be improved greatly by being crushed up, soaked in milk, heated and made into a kind of porridge dubbed 'biscuit burgoo.' Sometimes a bit of jam would be added, though one desert veteran likened the melon and lemon jam they got from Palestine to Polycell2. Bully beef, a plentiful but much maligned food, could be sliced and eaten with the biscuits as a sandwich, fried, or made into a stew with oxo cubes and an onion, if you could get one.
Although there were many grumbles about the food, the men of the 8th Army were generally better off than the Germans or the Italians, who largely survived on 'Alimento Militaire', tinned sausage, which was generally viewed as the worst diet in the desert. Fruit and vegetables were virtually non-existent. The Germans and Italians were extremely grateful for any food they could loot from the Allies, particularly tins of fruit and even bully beef. Both sides would happily loot from each other. Although looting in the towns was frowned upon, in the desert it was seen as a perfectly acceptable way of acquiring goods that were otherwise unobtainable.
Troops on the move often cooked food and brewed tea on a makeshift stove dubbed the 'Benghazi Burner.' This was basically half a tin filled with sand soaked in petrol and set alight.
Sound Extract - John McGregor, 5th Bn Black Watch on water rations. (Ref: 12572/6) |
In the hot, dry desert, natural water supplies were practically non-existent. Water had to be transported in. Memories of exactly how much water each man received vary. The official ration was a gallon of water per man per day, though men rarely received that much. The Allied water containers were flimsy and rather leaky. The Germans, on the other hand, used a metal container with a cap and strong handles known as the Jerry can. These were a prized item and were looted from the Germans whenever possible.
Half of each man's water ration went for cooking and topping up the radiators of vehicles. Men had to ration what was left for drinking, washing and shaving. They became experts at shaving and washing from a mug of water. One can imagine that they didn't smell very pleasant, but then everyone smelt the same. A method of filtering water was devised so that water could be reused. This was generally ˝ a tin filled with sand, topped with another sand filled tin with holes in the bottom, through which the water was filtered.
Water was an extremely precious commodity. One veteran described how he walked two miles back to a former gun site to retrieve a bottle containing a couple of mouthfuls of water that he had accidentally left behind3.
There was rarely water for washing clothes. Petrol, however, was generally plentiful and proved to be a good substitute. Clothes were washed in petrol and left out to dry in the sun, petrol evaporated quickly and left no smell.
Sound Extract - Peter Vaux, Headquarters, 13th Corps on clothing. (Ref: 20950/15) |
Dress was a lot more casual in the desert than in other theatres of war. Most men wore ammunition boots, KD shorts and a shirt, though the shirt was often dispensed with due to the heat. The sun helmets or topees the men were issued with were discarded almost straight away. Officers could often be distinguished by the soft suede desert boots many obtained from Cairo or the coloured silk scarf worn around the neck, useful for absorbing sweat and keeping out sand.
Although clothing was minimal during the day, the desert nights were cold enough to warrant wearing a sweater and often a greatcoat.
Most men had to live with the absolute minimum of equipment. This was particularly true for the infantry, whose 'battle pack' consisted of little more than iron rations, a sweater, a scarf, a field dressing, ammunition and an entrenching tool.
Health and Sanitation
Sound Extract - John Luxford, 1st Bn King's Royal Rifle Corps on desert sores. (Ref:10485/4) |
Life in the desert had a hugely negative impact on the health of both Axis and Allied troops. In the Middle East in 1942 for every 1000 men the British Army suffered 48 battle casualties and 506 non-battle injuries and cases of sickness. It was even worse on the German side - German medical reports for 1942 show 68,879 reporting sick at some time, 28,488 of which were in such a bad state they were evacuated to Europe4. One reason for the high levels of sickness in the German army could be their proximity to Italian troops whose attitudes towards hygiene left a lot to be desired.
Illnesses suffered included diarrhoea (gippy tummy), constipation, dysentery (though not so much in the 8th Army), jaundice and desert sores. Desert sores were a particular problem. The lack of vitamins in the diet meant that a cut or a graze would often develop into a nasty sore. The sores took a long time to heal and there was no effective treatment available, only a kind of blue ointment, which had little effect. The sores dogged both Axis and Allied troops. Stuart Hamilton suffered from these sores himself;
"We had been up in the desert for something like ten months and all the time without fresh vegetables, meat, fruit etc. so that we were lacking, I would imagine, in certain vitamins. This caused a horrible thing called desert sores. One only had to bang an arm or a leg against the tank, or gun, or something and break the skin and within 24 hours one would have a very unpleasant, suppurating sore - rather like a boil. The only treatment available was to smother it with a cream or ointment which was a sort of purplish, gentian blue in colour and it was quite normal to see a man in old, faded shorts and dirty shirt, with his beret in the back of his head, with both his hands bandaged and bandages on one or both knees and spots or purple, blue patches. I even had a sticking plaster on my classic nose where I had cracked it on the edge of the turret. These boils were damn sore and they certainly helped to pull one down in spirit and feel pretty miserable."5
Fatigue was also a problem and had a negative impact on a soldier's well being. The working day in the desert was long, often starting at first light and ending well after dark. During the battle of Alamein some men went without sleep at all for the first couple of days and after that only managed to grab the odd couple of hours here and there. Fatigue not only compounded any ailments one might have but also slowed the thought processes and made it difficult to perform duties effectively.
Sound Extract - Frederick Jones, 7th Bn Rifle Brigade on flies. (Ref:10689/3) |
Flies were a serious problem in the desert and posed a very real risk to the health of troops. The number of flies in the desert had been limited before 1940. When the troops arrived, however the flies were attracted to the food, human sweat and faeces and most of all dead bodies. The desert was eventually "filled with millions and millions of flies…They moved promiscuously from food to sweat to faeces to rotting flesh and back again, spreading disease"6. They were virtually impossible to get rid of and just had to be tolerated. Fortunately, respite came after dark when the flies disappeared until sunrise the next day. There were commonly thought to be more flies in areas where Italian troops were located, flies were naturally attracted to the rubbish, faeces and dead bodies that they generally left lying around.
Hygiene was of great importance in the desert to try and reduce the risk of disease. It was important to dispose of rubbish sensibly, bury your dead and ensure that latrine facilities were hygienic. Allied and German attitudes towards hygiene were equally rigorous. Italian hygiene, however, left a lot to be desired.
Latrine facilities depended on where you were in relation to the fighting. If you were going to stop somewhere for more than a couple of days you could afford to make a more permanent type of toilet, this usually consisted of a trench, occasionally with a box to sit on and hessian draped round it. Those at the 'sharp end' made do with a shovel and a walk. According to Arthur Reddish "a spade was an essential item of equipment. One dug a hole, squatted and then restored the desert to its original condition. There was no false modesty and to see a man squatting was a non event."7 Such primitive facilities were not helpful to those suffering from chronic diarrhoea; on the other hand they could also be a recipe for constipation. When troops moved on the latrine trenches were often burned out, covered over and marked with a sign.
Life in desert, then, proved to be quite a challenge for the average soldier. The extremes of heat and cold, sandstorms, lack of water, boring food rations, health problems and flies, all conspired to make life rather uncomfortable. However, the climate could be tolerated once one got used to it, the food rations may have been boring but at least they didn't go hungry, ailments such as diarrhoea and desert sores were a nuisance but generally not life threatening. If you managed to keep healthy, life wasn't quite as bad as one might think.
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