For educational purposes
The men of the British Armoured Division gained the nickname Desert Rats during their epic campaign against the Axis forces under Erwin Rommel in the deserts of Egypt and Libya.
Thereafter, the Desert Rats fought with great distinction in Sicily, Italy and North-West Europe. Their long road took them from the Suez Canal to the Nazi capital of Berlin.
The men of the British Armoured Division gained the nickname Desert Rats during their epic campaign against the Axis forces under Erwin Rommel in the deserts of Egypt and Libya.
Thereafter, the Desert Rats fought with great distinction in Sicily, Italy and North-West Europe. Their long road took them from the Suez Canal to the Nazi capital of Berlin.
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LearningTranscript
00:30In July 1945, the leaders of the victorious Allied Powers of the Soviet Union, led by
01:00Hitler, gathered amid the ruins of Berlin for their last conference of the war.
01:09The crusade against Nazi Germany was over. That against Japan was drawing to a close.
01:20Part of the victory celebrations was a parade in Hitler's former capital by troops of the
01:25British 7th Armoured Division, the Desert Rats. They were watched by Field Marshal Bernard
01:31Montgomery, under whom they had fought. It was the end of a long journey for the Desert
01:39Rats. Their war had begun in the deserts of Egypt and Libya in 1940. Two and a half years
01:47of hard fighting took them into the hills of Tunisia, where they fought another campaign.
01:59The Desert Rats then crossed the Mediterranean and fought in Italy. Finally, they landed
02:08in Normandy and advanced through Belgium, Holland, and France.
02:14Now, these gladiators stood amid the ruins of Berlin, capital of the enemy they had fought
02:20so gallantly. The birthplace of the 7th Armoured Division
02:28was Egypt. The opening of the Suez Canal was a major
02:36breakthrough in the war. When the war clouds began to loom over Europe in the 1930s, Egypt
02:44came under threat. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had ambitions to expand his African
02:52empire. This consisted of Libya and territories in the Horn of Africa. In 1935, his forces
03:03invaded Abyssinia. The Italian army was forced to retreat.
03:10The British in Egypt were now under threat from sizable Italian forces based in neighbouring
03:17Libya. The Italian army was forced to retreat.
03:24The British in Egypt were now under threat from sizable Italian forces based in neighbouring
03:31Libya. The Italian army was forced to retreat.
03:40At the same time, German rearmament and Hitler's expansionist policy in Europe caused the British
03:47reluctantly to rearm. One of the steps they took was to create a
03:56mobile division in Egypt. Major General Percy Hobart, a leading tank
04:04warfare expert, was sent out from Britain to form it.
04:11Within a year, he had created a unit which could operate with confidence in the desert.
04:16But by the summer of 1940, Hobo, as he was known, had fallen foul of the high command
04:21in Egypt and been forced to retire from the army. The troops whom Hobo had trained in
04:27Egypt never forgot what he had taught them. In February 1940, the mobile division was
04:35renamed 7th Armoured Division. It adopted the jerboa, or desert rat, as its symbol,
04:41one which was still cherished by the division's descendant, 7th Armoured Brigade, during the
04:46Gulf War 50 years later. I blinded them with my headlights, so he
04:50suddenly froze in my path, and the only way to get him out of the way without squashing
04:54him was to pick him up. And he's been with us ever since.
05:06This formation sign gave the division its nickname, the Desert Rats, by which it would
05:11be known ever afterwards. 7th Armoured Division had three main elements.
05:18There were two armoured brigades, 4th and 7th. Each consisted of three armoured regiments
05:24with a total of 150 tanks and a battery of twelve two-pounder anti-tank guns.
05:31The tanks used were the three-man Mark VI light, armed only with a machine gun, which
05:36had been designed for reconnaissance, and the larger, four-man cruiser, with a two-pounder
05:43gun, which fired an armour-piercing round. The third element was the support group, which
05:52consisted of two motorised infantry battalions and a regiment of 24 25-pounder guns.
05:59In addition, there was a reconnaissance regiment, the 11th Hussars, with its Rolls-Royce and
06:04Morris armoured cars. The 11th would remain with the division throughout the war.
06:13Like all the pre-war British Army, the original Desert Rats were professional, regular soldiers
06:20who had signed up for a minimum of six years. From the start, they regarded themselves as
06:26an elite unit, since theirs was the first purely armoured division in the British Army.
06:35When World War II broke out, the 7th Armoured Division was deployed forward to the Wild,
06:41the fence that marked a frontier with Italy's colony of Libya. With only 30,000 men in
06:47Egypt, the British were heavily outnumbered by the 250,000 Italian troops in Libya. But
06:53for the first nine months, Mussolini kept Italy out of the war, so the Desert Rats could
06:59only watch and wait as Hitler launched his blitzkrieg in the west in May 1940.
07:12However, on the 10th of June, 1940, Italy finally declared war on Britain and France.
07:25For the Desert Rats, the fighting began in earnest the next day.
07:32Patrols of the 11th Hussars crossed the wire and carried out a number of ambushes.
07:48Over 70 Italian soldiers were captured.
07:54Throughout the next few weeks, the Desert Rats continued to attack Italian forts and
08:00other positions as they waited for the numerically superior Italian forces to invade Egypt.
08:15On the 13th of September, the Italian offensive began.
08:24The British needed to conserve their forces, so the Desert Rats fell back while maintaining
08:30contact with the advancing enemy.
08:34After three days, the Italians halted 60 miles inside Egypt and began to build a series of
08:40fortified camps.
08:44Two weeks later, Archibald Wavell, the British commander-in-chief in the Middle East, received
08:50a welcome reinforcement.
08:54A convoy of 150 tanks arrived from Britain.
08:58Wavell could now plan a counter-offensive to drive out the Italians.
09:12At the end of November, the Desert Rats undertook the first of two exercises.
09:18This was, although they didn't know it, a dress rehearsal for Wavell's offensive.
09:24The second exercise, which followed a few days later, was the deployment for the actual
09:29assault, although the troops were not told this until they crossed the start line on
09:33the 9th of December.
09:36British morale was high, even though they were vastly outnumbered, since the Italians
09:40seemed to have lost the initiative by stopping to dig in.
09:48Supported by Matilda tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment, the 4th Indian Division, the
09:58other formation in what was called the Western Desert Force, had little trouble in overrunning
10:03the Italian camps and advancing along the coast.
10:06The Desert Rats simultaneously covered the open desert flank.
10:12By the 20th of December, no Italians, except prisoners of war and the dead, were left on
10:18Egyptian soil.
10:20There was now a pause while Wavell redeployed the Indians to East Africa to help eliminate
10:25the Italian colonies there.
10:30In their place came the 6th Australian Division, which renewed the offensive by capturing the
10:35Libyan ports of Badia and Tobruk.
10:42Pursued by the Australians, the Italians began to withdraw along the coast road to Benghazi,
10:48capital of the eastern Libyan province of Cyrenaica.
11:00General Dick O'Connor, commanding the Western Desert Force, now sent the Desert Rats across
11:06the base of the Cyrenaican bulge.
11:114th Armoured Brigade made an epic march through almost impassable terrain and arrived just
11:17in time to cut off the Italian withdrawal south from Benghazi.
11:22The three-day Battle of Bédarfont, which followed, completed the destruction of the
11:27Italian 10th Army.
11:313,000 Desert Rats captured 20,000 men, besides enormous numbers of vehicles, tanks, guns
11:43and other equipment.
11:48It was the first British land victory of the war and was greeted with jubilation at home.
11:53The legend of the Desert Rats began amid the publicity about the decisive role they had
11:58played.
12:00As a tribute, the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, parodied Winston Churchill's
12:05famous statement during the Battle of Britain,
12:08Never has so much been surrendered by so many to so few.
12:17But the euphoria was short-lived, for a new factor in the desert campaign now emerged.
12:23Hitler sent General Erwin Romm and his Afrika Korps to Libya to help his Italian ally.
12:34The scene was now set for an epic contest between two elite forces.
12:39A contest which flowed back and forth across a thousand miles of desert battlefield for
12:44more than two years.
12:48While the Afrika Korps was preparing to make itself felt, the Desert Rats had been sent
12:54back to Egypt to draw breath and refit.
12:58Their place was taken by the 2nd Armoured Division, which had just arrived from Britain.
13:04But part of 2nd Armoured was then sent to Greece, along with other troops.
13:09The British forces in Cyrenaica were seriously weakened.
13:14Rommel was quick to take advantage of this, and attacked towards the end of March 1941.
13:20He rapidly drove the British back into Egypt.
13:29The port of Tobruk, largely held by the Australians, remained the sole British toehold in Libya.
13:37But this was now under close siege.
13:45During the summer of 1941, the Desert Rats returned to action, and came up against the
13:50dreaded German 88mm anti-tank gun for the first time.
13:58This fearsome weapon was capable of destroying the enemy in a matter of seconds.
14:04This fearsome weapon was capable of destroying any British tank at a range of 2,000 yards,
14:10far beyond any British tank gun.
14:13The Desert Rats suffered heavy casualties in two attempts to drive Rommel back.
14:23In July 1941, Churchill replaced Wavell with General Sir Claude Auchinleck.
14:28The new commander-in-chief was determined not to attack Rommel again, until he had built
14:33up the strength of what had now been renamed the 8th Army.
14:378th Army was now becoming a truly empire force, with Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans
14:43and Indians all serving in its ranks.
14:49There was also a brigade of Free French.
14:54And one of Poles, who were part of the garrison of Tobruk.
15:06But the core remained 7th Armoured Division, the original Desert Rats, whose nickname was
15:12often used to describe the whole of the multinational force which had formed around it.
15:23The war in the desert had now taken on a routine for the Desert Rats.
15:27At night, the tanks withdrew into what was called a close liga.
15:32Orders were given out for the following day.
15:36Supply columns arrived to replenish the tanks and other vehicles with fuel and ammunition.
15:54The crews cooked a meal and carried out maintenance.
16:01Only then could they get some sleep.
16:03But they still had to take turns in guarding the liga.
16:09An hour before dawn, everyone would be up and awake.
16:18By first light, the tanks would have dispersed to their daytime positions.
16:22When no fighting was taking place, which was for much of the time,
16:26the Desert Rats spent their days watching for any move by the enemy.
16:37Navigation in the desert was largely by sun compass, which worked on the sundial principle.
16:43Bearing and distance were worked out on a map, the bearing set on the sun compass
16:48and the vehicle's myelometer used to measure the distance travelled.
16:54During the day, the temperature was often so high that it was easy to fry an egg on the metal of a vehicle,
17:00as both sides quickly discovered.
17:19At other times, swirling sandstorms blotted out everything.
17:25The sand got everywhere.
17:31The Desert Rats lived entirely off their vehicles.
17:36Water was strictly rationed, and that used for washing often ended up in vehicle radiators.
17:48Food was invariably tinned.
17:50Fresh bread, fruit and vegetables were a luxury.
17:54The diet, monotonous.
17:56Tea was the Desert Rats' staple drink.
18:07Not until nightfall would the tanks withdraw back into close liga.
18:18The Desert Rat was lucky if he got more than four hours sleep a night.
18:23Nevertheless, the troops remained remarkably fit, healthy and cheerful.
18:28For many of them, the war in the western desert had a romance which was unknown on any other battlefield,
18:34as Field Marshal Lord Carver, who served with 7th Armoured in the desert for two years, makes clear.
18:40And on the whole, that was a very clean war.
18:43There were practically no inhabitants who were suffering.
18:48The moments of extreme danger or discomfort were few and far between.
18:54And in between, it was really, although a rough life, in many ways a very pleasant life,
19:02with good people, good comrades, a feeling that you were doing something terribly important,
19:08and of course involving one 24 hours out of the 24.
19:12It was a pure soldier's campaign, played out on a massive sand table,
19:17with few civilians or other distractions to get in the way.
19:26Auchinleck's offensive opened on the 18th of November, 1941.
19:31Its object was to relieve Tobruk and drive Rommel out of Cyrenaica.
19:37The 7th Armoured Division fought a grim tank battle for control of the airfield at Sidi Rezegh,
19:4325 miles southeast of Tobruk.
19:46It was one of the Desert Rats' most epic actions.
19:50On the 21st of November, they won no less than three Victoria Crosses.
19:55One went to Brigadier Jock Campbell, who displayed extraordinary courage,
20:00continually leading tanks forward in his open car.
20:03Tragically, Campbell was killed three months later in a car crash,
20:06after he had taken command of the division.
20:12Lieutenant George Gunn of the Royal Horse Artillery commanded a troop of four anti-tank guns.
20:19His unit was attacked by 60 panzers.
20:23All his guns except one were knocked out,
20:26but he continued to man this until he was killed.
20:33Rifleman John Beeley also sacrificed his life,
20:36after single-handedly overrunning an anti-tank gun position,
20:40which had been holding up his company.
20:43Eventually, the Tobruk garrison managed to link up with the attacking troops.
20:49The Eighth Army once more drove the Axis forces out of Saranayka.
20:53But it had not delivered the killer blow,
20:56and the ebb and flow of the Desert War continued.
21:00Rommel attacked again in January 1942,
21:03driving the Axis forces out of Saranayka.
21:06The ebb and flow of the Desert War continued.
21:10Rommel attacked again in January 1942,
21:13driving the British back to a defensive line at Gazala.
21:18Both sides now planned to renew the offensive,
21:21but Rommel got his blow in first at the end of May,
21:24using his armour to outflank the Gazala line.
21:30The British tanks were widely dispersed,
21:32and unable to concentrate before the panzers were amongst them.
21:36General Pete Messervy, commanding the Desert Rats,
21:39had his headquarters overrun and was captured,
21:42but quickly escaped and resumed command of the division.
21:48June 1942 was a month of desperate tank battles,
21:51followed by withdrawals, as Rommel maintained the pressure.
21:56Tobruk fell, and the Eighth Army was driven back to the El Alamein line,
22:00the last defendable position before the Suez Canal.
22:15Rommel attacked on the 1st of July, but was unable to break through.
22:20British attempts to push the Afrika Korps back were equally unsuccessful,
22:24and by the end of the month, both sides were exhausted.
22:32In early August, Prime Minister Winston Churchill
22:35came out to see the brave, but baffled Eighth Army.
22:41The Eighth Army was the last of its kind.
22:44Winston Churchill came out to see the brave, but baffled Eighth Army.
22:51He brought in a new command team,
22:53Harold Alexander as commander-in-chief,
22:55and Bernard Montgomery to take charge of the Eighth Army.
23:01Montgomery already had a reputation as a dynamic general
23:04who believed in showing himself to his troops.
23:07His first priority was to restore the self-confidence of the Eighth Army,
23:11and convince his men that Rommel and the Afrika Korps were not invincible.
23:17By now, the Desert Rats were organized and equipped very differently from 1941.
23:24They still possessed two armoured brigades, 4th and 22nd,
23:28but the amount of infantry had been increased to a lorried brigade,
23:32the 131st Queens.
23:35The division had also recently been re-equipped with two new American tanks.
23:44One was the Grant, with its hull-mounted 75mm and 37mm turret guns.
23:54The other was the Sherman, with a 75mm gun.
23:58Both tanks were a match for the German panzers,
24:01but their guns were still far outraged by the German 88s.
24:06At the end of August 1942, Rommel attacked again at El Alamein.
24:12Montgomery was ready for him.
24:1422nd Armoured Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Pip Roberts,
24:18a veteran Desert Rat, stood in the path of the main German attack
24:22and repulsed it, destroying some 40 tanks.
24:26Once again, the Desert Rats had been at the right place at the right time,
24:29and added fresh laurels to their reputation.
24:33Monty now prepared to go over to the attack at El Alamein.
24:36Although his army now outnumbered the Germans and Italians,
24:39he faced a well-entrenched enemy,
24:41whose flank unusually in the desert could not be turned,
24:44because it rested on the virtually impassable Katara Depression.
24:49The need to get his armour through Rommel's extensive defences
24:52meant a vital role for the Desert Rats.
24:56As night fell on 23rd October 1942,
25:00the Desert Rats and other units of the 8th Army prepared for action.
25:05Montgomery's assault at El Alamein began with a barrage of 900 guns.
25:15Then sappers went forward to clear lanes through the Axis minefields.
25:26The infantry set up bridgeheads the other side of the minefields.
25:41After five days of savage fighting, the tanks passed through.
25:46But the Axis forces held on tenaciously,
25:49and the Desert Rats were unable to break out.
26:00The German anti-tank guns took a heavy blow.
26:04The German anti-tank guns took a heavy blow.
26:08The German anti-tank guns took a savage toll,
26:11as one British tank commander later described.
26:15There was a sudden shock, and the flames burst out under us.
26:20So I gave the order to bail out, and we threw ourselves down in the sand.
26:24I could see that only two tanks had got to the ridge, our officers and mine,
26:29and we'd both gone up in smoke.
26:31We joined up with the other two tanks,
26:34and we'd both gone up in smoke.
26:36We joined up with their crew.
26:38There were nine of us altogether.
26:40We were lying there in the sand, and we saw one of our tanks to the right go back.
26:45We watched it going out of the way,
26:47and I remember one fellow saying,
26:51It was a scene which was to be repeated time after time,
26:55until at last Montgomery switched the weight of his attack from the south to the north.
27:01Gradually, Rommel's defences were worn down.
27:07By the 4th of November, the Axis forces were in full retreat.
27:11Churchill exulted that this was the end of the beginning.
27:15Thus, for the next two and a half months,
27:17the Eighth Army pursued its stubborn enemy,
27:20the desert rats often in the lead.
27:31They entered Benghazi, 450 miles from El Alamein, on the 19th of November.
27:38But every so often, Rommel would turn at bay
27:41and mount a stiff rearguard action to keep the British at arm's length
27:45before withdrawing once more.
27:48Nevertheless, on the 23rd of January, 1943,
27:52the desert rats entered the Libyan capital, Tripoli,
27:55having advanced more than 1,000 miles in 11 weeks.
28:04The Union flag was hoisted over the port through which the Afrika Korps
28:08and the Soviet Union had joined forces.
28:12The Union flag was hoisted over the port through which the Afrika Korps,
28:17arch-enemy of the desert rats,
28:19had originally arrived to begin their epic confrontation.
28:23The contest that had ebbed and flowed across the deserts of Libya
28:26and western Egypt for two and a half years was finally over.
28:33Having reviewed his triumphant men, Montgomery paused.
28:37He needed to re-establish his now overstretched supply lines,
28:41but this time there was no danger that the Eighth Army
28:44would be sent reeling back by a sudden counter-blow.
28:47For while he retreated, Rommel had been confronted with a problem
28:51which obliged him to continue falling back into Tunisia.
28:59On the 8th of November, 1942, American and British forces
29:03had landed at the other end of North Africa in Morocco and Algeria.
29:09They had then advanced into Tunisia to engage Axis forces
29:13which had been deployed from Europe
29:15to prevent Rommel from being attacked from the rear.
29:19The Germans and Italians managed to halt the Allied advance
29:2220 miles short of Tunis.
29:28A stalemate followed until February 1943
29:32when the Axis launched an attack on the Allied forces in western Tunisia.
29:42This temporarily knocked them off balance.
29:45The Americans in particular suffered heavy casualties.
29:55Montgomery now began to advance into Tunisia from the east.
30:00Rommel turned on the Eighth Army.
30:03On the 6th of March, his panzers confronted it at Mednin.
30:09It was the six-pounder anti-tank guns of the Desert Rats Queen's Brigade
30:13which played the main part in stopping the assault in its tracks.
30:18One gun, manned by Sergeant Krangles,
30:21accounted for no less than 14 panzers.
30:30While First Army advanced from the west,
30:33Eighth Army pushed up Tunisia's narrow coastal plain
30:36overcoming Axis defences at Marath and Wadi Aqabit.
30:53At the end of March, the Desert Rats met up with the US units
30:56At the end of March, the Desert Rats met up with the US units of First Army.
31:00The relatively inexperienced Americans were fascinated
31:03to meet the men of this now legendary unit
31:06and US cigarettes and rations provided a welcome change.
31:14When the Desert Rats linked up with the British elements of First Army,
31:17the contrast between the two was stark.
31:20The latter, with their green-painted vehicles and conventional uniform
31:24and their tendency to do things by the book,
31:27looked with surprise at the Desert Rats.
31:30Their battered, sand-coloured vehicles, deep tans,
31:33varied dress and seemingly relaxed attitude to life
31:36made them seem like a band of gypsies.
31:43Eventually, Eighth Army was held at Enfidaville,
31:46at the top of the coastal plain.
31:49It was told to pass forces across to First Army for the final offensive.
31:54Among these was 7th Armoured Division,
31:56which hoped to spearhead the advance on Tunis.
31:59The armoured cars of the 11th Hussars,
32:01which had been the first to enter Tripoli,
32:03were among the first troops to enter the Tunisian capital.
32:12When the Axis forces in North Africa finally surrendered on 11th May 1943,
32:17a quarter of a million prisoners fell into Allied hands.
32:22For the Desert Rats, the main interest
32:24was the survivors of the Deutsches Afrika Korps,
32:2715th and 21st Panzer Divisions,
32:30who had been their main and much-respected opponents
32:33for well over two years.
32:36The lull in the fighting provided an opportunity
32:38for the Desert Rats to be reorganised in a more balanced way,
32:42to reflect the experience of the recent campaign.
32:45Two brigades remained, 22nd Armoured,
32:48with three tank regiments totalling 150 tanks and a motor battalion,
32:52and the Queen's Brigade,
32:54with three motor battalions and a machine gun battalion.
33:02It was also a chance for the Desert Rats to relax and recuperate.
33:11They were able to take leave, even to Cairo,
33:14but apart from those posted back to Britain to hand on their experience,
33:17the prospects of seeing their homeland again remained distant.
33:22In June, morale was boosted when the division was honoured
33:25by a visit from King George VI,
33:27who came to pay his respects to this now famous unit.
33:39The completion of the North African campaign
33:41was a watershed in the story of the Desert Rats.
33:44For the first time, they were to leave North Africa,
33:47where they had carved out their reputation,
33:49and cross the Mediterranean to set foot in Europe
33:52as part of the invasion of mainland Italy.
33:58The plan was for Montgomery's Eighth Army
34:01to land in the toe of the country,
34:04while Mark Clark's US Fifth Army assaulted at Salerno.
34:09For the first time, the Desert Rats would not be fighting with Eighth Army,
34:13for they were assigned to support the American landings.
34:22The first US troops ashore met stiff German resistance.
34:30But units of the Queen's Brigade were able to land on D-Day
34:34to secure an assembly area for the division.
34:39And five days after the initial assault,
34:42the tanks of the Desert Rats came ashore.
34:49They then took part in the advance north to Naples.
34:54Conditions were very different from North Africa.
34:57The terrain was mountainous,
34:59and the Germans took full advantage of this.
35:01The roads winding their way across precipitous slopes and bridges
35:05were continually blown.
35:09There was no opportunity to carry out the swift, outflanking moves
35:13that the division had got used to in the desert.
35:16Patience and ingenuity were needed to keep the advance going.
35:21Nevertheless, the Desert Rats entered Naples on the 1st of October.
35:26They then continued to advance northwards.
35:29But now they faced the autumn mud.
35:32There were also numerous rivers to be crossed.
35:38In November 1943, after three months of stiff fighting,
35:42most of the division was withdrawn into reserve.
35:50The following month, Montgomery left Eighth Army
35:53to take command of 21st Army Group for the invasion.
35:56He made a farewell speech to the men under his command.
36:01What can I say to you as I go away?
36:05When the heart is full, it is not easy to speak.
36:09But I would say this to you.
36:12You have made this army what it is.
36:16You have made its name.
36:19You have made it what it is.
36:22You have made this army what it is.
36:25You have made its name a household word all over the world.
36:30Therefore, you must uphold its good name and its tradition.
36:37But several household names would be going with him,
36:40for Montgomery insisted on taking three of his crack divisions back to Britain.
36:4551st Highland, 50th Northumbrian, and the Desert Rats.
36:53When they arrived back in England in January 1944,
36:57many of the veteran Desert Rats had been away for four years and more.
37:01But there was little time for relaxation.
37:04They had left their equipment behind in Italy
37:07and had to start again to prepare for the Normandy invasion.
37:11The opportunity was taken to redesign the divisional side.
37:15This smarter rat, with his elegantly long tail,
37:18continues to be worn by today's Desert Rats.
37:22The 7th Armoured Brigade.
37:26One thing, however, did not change.
37:28The Desert Rats continued to serve under Montgomery's overall command,
37:32and they welcomed his visits.
37:39At the end of May, 7th Armoured Division moved to sealed,
37:42tented camps near the English south coast.
37:53There they were briefed on their role in the invasion.
38:02And from there they drove their vehicles to the embarkation ports
38:06and loaded them aboard the vessels that would take them across the English Channel.
38:15The Desert Rats were not involved in the initial assault on D-Day.
38:23Their tanks came ashore on the Normandy beaches the following day
38:27and moved swiftly into action.
38:35They played a crucial part in fighting off the German armoured assaults
38:39which attempted to destroy the Allied beachhead.
38:44Once more, the Desert Rats had to adapt their tactics to a new terrain.
38:49The Normandy countryside, known as the Bocage,
38:52with its claustrophobic lanes between high hedges and small fields,
38:56gave an enormous advantage to the German defenders.
39:00Lying in ambush and sometimes firing at almost point-blank range,
39:04the much feared German 88 proved even more formidable than in the desert.
39:10And the Allies were also faced by the formidable Tiger tank.
39:14Not only was this armed with the deadly 88mm gun,
39:17but its frontal armour was impervious to any Allied tank gun.
39:25But Normandy did have its compensations.
39:28Every Desert Rat who fought there remembers Calvados,
39:31the fiery apple liqueur of the region, and camembert cheese.
39:40In July 1944, 7th Armoured Division took part in Operation Goodwood,
39:44Montgomery's massive armoured push to the east of Caen.
39:50This was designed to draw the bulk of the German tanks onto the British sector,
39:54so that the Americans could break out from Normandy.
40:02The assault was preceded by a massive attack by RAF Bomber Command.
40:11The initial stages went well.
40:15But then...
40:24German defenders, dazed and confused by the carpet bombing, were made prisoner.
40:34But the enemy soon recovered and brought the advance to a halt.
40:39Despite this, Goodwood enabled the Americans to begin their breakout.
40:43And soon the German defences began to crumble,
40:46as General George Patton's US Third Army thrust deep through them.
40:55Now came a pursuit, which reminded veteran Desert Rats
40:59of the advance through Libya after the victory at El Alamein.
41:03On the 28th of August, 7th Armoured Division crossed the river Seine,
41:07after an advance of more than 120 miles.
41:13Nine days later, the Desert Rats had thrust forward another 200 miles
41:17to liberate the ancient Belgian city of Ghent.
41:20It seemed as though victory was at last in sight.
41:28As the Allies advanced through France,
41:31As the Allies advanced through France and Belgium in the late summer of 1944,
41:35so their supply lines, which still ran from the Normandy port of Cherbourg,
41:40became ever more stretched.
41:42Finally, they snapped, and the race towards Germany's border ran to a halt.
41:53For the Desert Rats, who had managed to advance across the Dutch frontier,
41:57this meant a period of static warfare.
42:02Autumn turned to winter, and the 7th Armoured resumed its advance.
42:06But it was slow going against German defences,
42:09which had largely recovered from the disasters of the summer.
42:14While some Desert Rats were able to get home on leave to celebrate Christmas,
42:18the majority were in the front line.
42:21Despite the setbacks, the end of the war was obviously in sight,
42:25and the epic odyssey of the Desert Rats was not forgotten.
42:29On Christmas Day itself, Corporal Bob Pass,
42:32who had fought with 7th Armoured Division all the way from El Alamein,
42:35was selected to broadcast a Christmas message on the BBC.
42:39And then the journey home did start,
42:42over North Africa, into Tunis,
42:45across the Mediterranean, into Italy,
42:47and a half bit of the journey there, and still going on.
42:51Then back home again, but again just to start another journey.
42:55Partly over the sea the night before D-Day.
42:58Journeying home with our backs to home.
43:01The beaches, Normandy, France, Belgium, Holland,
43:06and at last, Germany.
43:08Yes, a long road.
43:11Tragically, within a few weeks Bob Pass would be dead,
43:14killed as he went forward to take the surrender of some Germans hidden in a wood.
43:22The final heroic stages of the war for the Desert Rats
43:26began in January 1945,
43:28when the division took part in bitter fighting
43:31to clear the Germans from the approaches to the River Rhine.
43:34They then went briefly into reserve
43:36to prepare for the crossing of Germany's last major natural obstacle in the West.
43:45This took place on the 24th of March.
43:52The division crossed the Rhine the following day
43:56and began its final advance northeast through Germany.
44:14But there were still fierce battles to be fought
44:17against German soldiers in the West.
44:20There were also battles to be fought against Germans
44:23who refused to accept that the war was lost.
44:26But nothing could hold up 7th Armoured Division for long.
44:38On the 16th of April, the Desert Rats liberated a prisoner of war camp,
44:43Offlag 11b, near Fallingbostel.
44:46Among those freed were members of the division
44:49who died earlier in the campaign,
44:51as well as numerous paratroopers who had fought at Arnhem
44:54and veterans of the fighting in France in 1940.
44:58The crowning moment for the Desert Rats
45:01was taking the surrender of Germany's principal port, Hamburg,
45:04on the 3rd of May.
45:11The division then moved northwards towards Kiel.
45:20And as they advanced,
45:22the Desert Rats found themselves responsible
45:25for ensuring the safe passage of the enemy delegation
45:28which negotiated the surrender of the German forces
45:31facing Montgomery's 21st Army Group.
45:38The surrender itself was signed on the 4th of May
45:41and three days later, hostilities came to an end.
45:45But for the Desert Rats, their journey was not quite finished.
45:51After a month of occupation duties,
45:537th Armoured Division received the honour of providing
45:56the bulk of the garrison for the British zone in Berlin.
46:00The Desert Rats entered the city on the 4th of July
46:03with General Lew Lyon, their commander, taking the salute.
46:08And on the 21st of July, the division was again on parade,
46:12enjoying its greatest day,
46:14a victory march past in front of Churchill,
46:17Alexander and Montgomery.
46:28Afterwards, Churchill addressed the division.
46:31Dear Desert Rats,
46:33May your glory never fade.
46:35May your laurels never fade.
46:37May the memory of this glorious pilgrimage of war
46:40which you have made from Alamein via the Baltic to Berlin
46:44never die.
46:46It is a march unsurpassed in the history of war.
46:53No finer tribute could have been paid to these gladiators
46:57whose dash and spirit brought victory.
47:00No finer tribute could have been paid to these gladiators
47:03whose dash and spirit personified all that was best
47:06in the British Army of World War II.
47:30© BF-WATCH TV 2021
48:00© BF-WATCH TV 2021