ENGLISHMEN MARCHING

By COL. WALTER ELLIOT, M.P.

It happened in 194t—the year after Dunkirk—the early summer ; much of it before the Russian war, all of it before the American war. It was an episode in the Six Wars of General Wavell—the two in Libya, against first Graziani, and then Rommel ; the war against. Italian East Africa ; the war in Greece and Crete ; the war in Syria ; the war against the Iraqi Generals (the Golden Square) and against the old Shah of Persia. Of these, Wavell won the war against Graziani (the First Libyan Campaign); the war against Italian East Africa ; the war in Syria ; the war in Iraq and Persia. He lost the war in Greece and Crete ; he drew against Rommel. All these wars he was fighting practically simultaneously. He had nothing in his favour—nothing but interior lines. Even that was a paradox ; for, though his lines were interior, his whole system hung like a plum from the longest lines of communication—t3,000 miles of sea —that any army has ever had to draw out. Nor were these lines unassailed. When he began, the most vital of them all, the Red Sea line, was flanked by Axis air and Axis sea, from Mogadishu on the Indian Ocean to Massawa next to Port Sudan.

The Brigade, Wavell's very last strategic reserve, was drawn up and sent forward when the Axis had pushed the Iraqi Generals into revolt and had brought a challenge against us from the Persian Gulf to the frontier of Trans-Jordan. The Brigade, as I have said, was pure English. It was for the main part mechanised cavalry— cavalry soldiers travelling in lorries. All soft-skinned vehicles. No tanks. Practically no armour. Practically no air. Go on and go to it. Only the Iraqi Generals and their forces to meet—and the Shah is turning out Persia against you—and, by the way, Vichy France is turning out Syria. You may be wanted there. You can't get round to Syria, of course, till you've mopped up the other two—the other two Kingdoms. When you've done that, let us know. You'll have to take on the French aeroplanes and the Foreign Legion. We can't send very much to help. The aeroplanes and the armour are in the Western Desert trying to shift Rommel.

They mustered at Tel-Aviv, in Palestine. Let the regiments be named and remembered. There was the Household Cavalry Regi- ment, whose cuirasses and white plumes we used to see on sentry duty in Whitehall or jingling across St. James's Park. There was the Wiltshire Yeomanry. There was the Warwickshire Yeomanry. There was, for much of the time, a battalion of the Essex Regiment —foot-soldiers in lorries. And there were two batteries of 25- pounders—the Grimsby Territorials, raw off the ships at the Canal.

They had to make up transport at Tel-Aviv from civil sources.

They were given the unromantic and strictly functional name of Hab-Force, and told to proceed like blazes to the great aerodrome at Habbaniyeh, almost equidistant from Suez, Aleppo, the Caucasus and the Persian Gulf. The best part of a hostile Iraqi division was there, having posted itself in the high ground above the camp, and

was plastering the bungalows and the runways over open sights. The Iraqi forces were being bombed and held by trainer aircraft. Also by a battalion of the elCing's Royal Regiment, come by sea to Basra from India and thence by air. But the need was urgent.

Blazes was the word. They pushed out into the desert in a May hot wind of no degrees Fahrenheit. Too hot even for Glubb's Arabs, the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force. A great deal hotter than Grimsby any day. The first clash was at Rutbah Wells, in mid- desert. They brushed aside opposition and hurried on. They reached the aerodrome, drove off its attackers and relieved the forces there. Having got into the aerodrome, the next task was to get out. The defenders had broken down part of the embankment to bring the river to aid the defence. This it had done, but the same flood that shut .out the attackers now shut in the relievers. They ferried across the gap through which the flood was pouring, in the round boats of these parts. This was going to take a month. They had to secure the great iron bridge across the next river and make for Baghdad before the revolt could draw breath. So one regiment drove ahead. It arrived outside Baghdad, and Baghdad capitulated in the morning.

First round over. There was much of the Great March still ahead. Next, to Mosul—Mosul of the oil. German aircraft were already beginning to land there. However, that was made secure.

Back to Baghdad. The Syrian campaign was going slowly. A new wedge had to be driven in. Up across the desert went Hab-Force, striking for Palmyra, which was held by the Foreign Legion, the local levies and eighteen Vichy aeroplanes. The Force had three days' march across the desert, throwing up dust like a sandstorm.

It had a Lysander, for co-operation. It was bombed and bombed and bombed. They sent the Lysander back to base ; there didn't seem any reason in getting good men killed to no purpose. At the end of the third day they arrived. They had to fight for Palmyra. They did, and took it. British forces were all round Syria then—right up to the Turkish frontier. Vichy capitulated. Second round over.

You would think they might have a rest? No—the assault on Russia had just begun. Hitler was pushing the Shah of Persia against us. Persia had to be made good. It meant the Persian Gulf.

It meant the railway to the Caspian. It meant touch with the Red Army. Back came the Brigade to the Euphrates, crossed the Great River again, across the plain and up into the Persian plateau by the Pai-tak Pass, to the high 6,000-8,00o foot plateau that runs to the Caucasus. They went up the Pass. The Shah's men capitulated. Third round over.

From there they marched to Teheran and linked up with the Red Army. Hab-Force was pretty shabby by this time—shabby, and ill-clothed for its new surroundings high up in the hills. Ill- clothed for its new neighbours, the perfectly-drilled, splendidly- dressed divisions of the Red Army. But the hardest blow of all was that the Russians had horses. This for the Household Cavalry— and almost more perhaps for the Yeomanry—was a comparison very bitter to bear. However, they had gained touch. The junction was made. Fourth round over.

You think they might have rested there? You would be wrong. Divisions were weak and reserves were few in the Middle East.

Back they came to Tel-Aviv. There they parted with the battered motor-trucks with which they had travelled so far. They had marched eight thousand miles, and Hab-Force was at an end. The regiments were served out at last with armour—armoured cars, tanks. Proper armour with which to seek out Rommel. They marched at length towards him and engaged. They were last heard of from El Alamein, fighting most gallantly in the Battle of Egypt. They are marching still.