Fighting with the Desert Rats: An Infantry Officer's War with the Eighth Army

This is a descriptive account of what it was like to serve as an Infantry Officer with the Desert Army in the Western Desert and Sicily between 1942 and 1943.

The author is Major H.P. Samwell, MC, who was unfortunately killed on 13 January 1945, whilst serving with the 7th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 51st Highland Division.

The chapters include:

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EGYPT AND ITS WARTIME POPULATION * JOINING THE EIGHTH ARMY
THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN * THE ATTACK IS RENEWED *

IN A SOUTH AFRICAN HOSPITAL (The author was very badly wounded during the fighting, an event he graphically describes – along with lying in a trench, with an injured German soldier, awaiting rescue)

AT THE INFANTRY TRAINING DEPOT AND UP THE LINE * FROM SIRTE TO TRIPOLI * EARLY DAYS IN FRONT OF THE MARETH LINE * ROMMEL ATTACKS * PATROLS AND KEEPS * HOSPITAL IN TRIPOLI

UP THE LINE AGAIN * RESTING IN SFAX * ENFIDAVILLE AND THE END OF THE CAMPAIGN *
TRAINING FOR SEA INVASION (Sicily) * FOLLOWING THE SICILY CAMPAIGN FROM AN AFRICAN BASE
LANDING IN SICILY AND MOVE TO MESSINA * PROBLEMS OF OCCUPATION