Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-11-17
Whitehead
Continued From First Page

planes and trucks. AS far as I could
see dust swirled and billowed over
the army on the move.
The sight made you feel warm
inside with the knowledge that this
time the Allies were going for the
knockout and that there was stuff
going up to do the job.
came into the desert looking
for the advance Raj unit to which
I am to report. But as yet, I am
unable to catch up with it. 1t is
always just ahead. Planes move
into airdromes right behind the
enemy withdrawal. That is how
fast this advance is going right now
1 left Cairo yesterday with only
vague idea of where 1 was headed
In TACT, no one could say definitely
where the advance units were. They
had moved since the last reports.
The plane that brought me up was
a Blenheim with a glass-inclosed
front and so had a. grandstand
seat over the battle area where
Rommels defense was broken. The
pilot was lean, lanky Raj Flight
Sergt. Peter Bartlett of Noting
ham, England, flying fool if I ever
rode with one.
Wells Oiled by Nazis.
We piled bed roll, typewriter and
duff1e bag into the plane and then
stacked in carton of American
canned beer and groceries.
1T is a good idea to take some
food along was told, because we
are moving fast and sometimes even
battle rations may be slim. Take
beer because the Germans have oiled
the wells
This Is expensive because canned
foods come high in this country with
pork and beans at 40 cents a can.
chocolate bars at 48 cents, soup Sc
cents and beer at 40 cents.
l climbed into the nose of the
ship and the yellow-haired kid
headed across the green-checked
fields of the Nile Valley toward the
brown desert sand dunes The des-
ert floor is criss-crossed with tracks
OF trucks and tanks in crazy-quilt
pattern.
We were flying about an hour
when Pete turned the nose of the
Blenheim down.
l though we were going to pillow
into the sand. I looked back to see
If anything were wrong. Pete
grinned. Then he leveled off and
skinned over the desert in a ride
l will remember as long as I live.
We were not more than feet off
the ground at times, hurtling along
at almost 200 miles an hour. I could
almost have reached out and scooped
up handful of sand.
Tanks Pyres for Crews.
And then 1 saw why Pete had
brought us down SO low. Ahead
were the gaunt, fire. blackened skele-
tons of what once had been Rom
mels tanks.
They Uttered the desert over an
area known as The Hill of Evil
Men, Many of them must have
been funeral pyres for their crews.
Many were knocked out by Ameri-
can-made Sherman tanks which
broke through the minefields behind
the nighttime bayonet attacks of
the infantry.
Sometimes it seemed that we were
oninu n iy,fo ~ II
but Pete would touch the controls,
hop over, then grin like a devil.
AS far as 1 could see, the only OBJ
jectS on the desert were wrecked
tanks.
There was plenty of evidence that
the Germans and Italians had dug
in to hold the Ell Alamein line.
Trenches, gun implacements, dug
outs and the remains of fortified
positions were thick. I could almost
identify abandoned articles of cloth
ing and small equipment, we were
flying so low.
Pete is marvel at this sort of
flying which, was told, is the safest
way for a slow plane to travel to
escape detection by the enemy.
He learned it doing low-level
bombing over enemy occupied Chan
mel ports. Although Pete is only
20, he has been flying almost three
years with the Raj
Over to the right of us was the
blue Mediterranean and the coast
road along which were streaming
transports. There were truck borne
Sherman tanks, guns of all kinds
and hundreds Of vehicles rolling
along without even sign of inter-
ference from Jerry.