View From A Jeep
By Joe Petrak, Flight Engineer on Lt. D.R. O'Sullivans
Crew
June 13th, 1943 Mission # 134 Gerbini Italy. On this mission we got
badly shot up and had to land at Malta. We lost T/Sgt R. Henderson, RO and
S/Sgt F. R. Lewis ARO, and S/Sgt W. M. Howie Amorer, were wounded.
June 14th our crew was returned to Berka 2 - 3 missions later we were
granted rest leave in Tel-Aviv. July 1st I had sever stomach pains and
was sent to 24th station hospital, had my appendix removed and diagnosed
and treated for acute dysentery. On August 3, 43 was released from hospital
and flown to Kilo 13 and was told no flights were going East but they needed
a relief driver for a convoy going to Tobruk. Told them I didn't have a
G.I. Drivers license _ "Hey, no problem!!" I had one with travel papers
in 10 minutes.
I know it is hard to remember in detail of things that happened 56 years
ago, so the following is word for word from my diary. (which I snuck home
in my boot, due to the war they did not want any information out regarding
places and missions):
"August 3, 43 10:30 hours convoy started and drove through
Cairo passed the Pyramids and Sphinx and turned toward Alexandria. The
road from Cairo to Alexandria was hot, dusty and trying. The desert was
on either side just one yellow sand dune after another. Before Alexandria
we turned and headed West into the Western desert. The spoils of war were
strewn across the desert - tanks, trucks, and artillery shells, all various
types and sizes. They lay just as the enemy had left them. It looked very
impressive from the air, and more so from a speeding jeep.
At 14:30 we rolled past El-Alamein where one of the bloodiest air-battles
and tank battles was ever fought in Africa. The field lay about 20 miles
from the road simmering in the scorching noon sun. Then through El-Daba
and the devastation of bitter fighting grew more evident. At 16:30 we past
Fuka. At this place one of the Luftwaffe largest bases existed and that
was still evident. Me-109s, still stood as the Germans left them. ME-110s,
JU-87s (better know as the stuka), Fiats, Capronis and Macchis. Most were
intact, but some were broken in half by bombing that must have gone on
for days at a time. Here and there lay many burnt wreckage's of planes.
Some flattened to the earth, other with their burnt and charred tails pointing
to the sky serving as grave stones for their pilots. Graves speckle the
countryside no matter which way one looked.
We rolled toward the setting sun, passing more burnt out tanks, overturned
trucks and plots of land encircled with barbed wire with signs at their
edges reading "danger land mines". At 1900 into Mersa Matruh that was
blown to hell. Then at 2230 we stopped for the night and slept in the jeeps.
Aug 4, 43 Wednesday. Up at 0600, breakfast and at 0700 we are on our way
again. We swung toward the Mediterranean and followed its coastline to
Sidi Barrani. This town looked like some ghost town. Building were leveled
to ground, and the roads were torn to hell. A few miles out we left the
main road and traveled a dusty by-pass. The dust was so thick, you couldn't
see 10 feet in front of you.
Then came Buq-Buq. Then to Sholum and through the famed "hell's fire
pass". The wreckage was the worst I've ever seen. I can readily understand
how the Axis forces held that pass for two months. It was a road that hair-pinned
up a mountain side. Whole sections were blown away and made driving difficult.
Over the pass and on to Bardia. That was a town that was no more. Across
the Egyptain-Libyan border into Cyrenaica and on to Tobruk. Tobruk lay
across the border that was littered with wrecked ships, almost everything
was in that harbor - ships, planes, tanks, trucks, artillery - all half
submerged. Only God knows of all the stuff that lay on the bottom. The
town itself was vacant of civilian life. The buildings were completely
gutted and only four bare walls stood. It seemed to have been a very pretty
city at one time sitting on a hill overlooking a harbor.
From Tobruk past the grave yard of Italian and German planes. Up another
mountain with the road zig zagging up one side and down to a city named
Derna. This of course was hit by the fighting, but not as bad as the previous
ones. Out of Derna, another zig zag mountain road and on to Cyrene. Here
the landscape has taken on a different aspect. No longer desert, but its
green trees covered the hills that folded one on to the other. It looked
like Northern Michigan. The scenes of war were still evident but not as
bad as before. Through Cyrene, what's left of it, and on to Barce we wound
down a mountain road into a deep ravine. The walls rose as high as 300
feet of solid rock, reddish in color. One of the most beautiful places
I've ever seen in Africa. Through Barce, also shell torn and destroyed,
and on to Tocra then through more green forest covered hills, up Tocra
Pass, same mountain zig zagging road, and down to the flat desert plain
between Tocra and Benghazi. At 2030 I got off at Berka 2 gate and bid the
convoy "good luck". We traveled over 800 miles in 48 hours on one of the
most treacherous roads I've ever seen, but glad to be back with my crew."
