While such broadcasts were informal and occasional in the First World War, by the Second World War there were radio stations in Cairo broadcasting to the troops in the desert, which helped to alleviate this sense of isolation. These radio stations also helped to develop a distinctive culture in the Eighth Army. The most famous song of the Desert War was ‘Lili Marlene’, a German song, which was picked up and enjoyed by the Eighth Army as well. ‘Lili Marlene’ was unique in that it was the theme song of both the German and British armies in the desert.
Desert warfare has always been very different from the nature of combat in Europe, and the campaigns fought in both World Wars were no exception. While desert terrain poses enormous problems in terms of distance, climate, water, supplies and navigation, it also provides opportunities in terms of space and freedom of mobility. The close, attritional nature of the struggle in Gallipoli, Salonika and on the Western Front during the Great War was not replicated in the Sinai or Palestine. Instead, the fighting was much more open and mobile and generally against lighter opposition. General Sir John Shea pointed out that:
‘…there was a tremendous difference between fighting in France, and the fighting in Palestine. Because in France it was purely trench warfare. Hard work and frustration. You really could not see what you were doing. Whereas the great part of it was that you were in open warfare. It was a war of movement. You were keeping going. You could see what your troops were doing and you could use your reserves as you wished, when it was necessary. It was entirely different and it was a great happiness to fight there compared to the frustration of trench warfare in France.’38
Units that had become accustomed to the open, mobile fighting in Palestine found the Western Front an unpleasant change of environment. The 74th Yeomanry Division was transferred to France during the crisis of April-June 1918 and found its first taste of combat in France on 2 September 1918 altogether different from the conditions in Palestine.39
British troops in the Second World War also experienced the tactical opportunities offered by the wide open space of the desert:
‘…the thing about desert warfare is the mobility, the fact that you could just go anywhere within your limits. You couldn’t go too far south or you’d set off into the soft sands and you couldn’t do that. You’d come to a dead halt. I suppose the mobility is the thing, the capacity to be able to continually outflank each other.’40
However, there was an important distinction in the nature of mobility between the First and Second World Wars. While tanks were used during the Battle of Gaza in 1917, and the Duke of Westminster’s armoured car squadron was the first experiment with motorised warfare in the Western Desert, most soldiers in the First World War were restricted to the mobility offered by horses and their own legs. The Australian Light Horse gained fame for their ability to ride around the Turks – quite literally – but one British infantryman remembered that all his travels in the desert had been, All on foot. Never had a ride on a horse or anything… But I think I walked every inch of the way from the Suez Canal, Kantara, right up to Jerusalem. Every inch was covered on foot. Not in one day – not in two days either!’41
While the soldiers of the First World War were restricted to age-old forms of transport, the British Army that fought in the desert in the Second World War was almost wholly motorised. The mechanisation of the Army, and the opportunity for mobility that this conferred in an area devoid of natural barriers, meant that the fighting in the Western Desert in the Second World War was more fluid, chaotic and confusing than any before. During the ‘Crusader’ battle in November 1941, one soldier’s battalion met with German tanks:
‘The tanks fire a few shots after, but we’re soon out of range, and keep moving at fair speed for ten miles, with hundreds of other vehicles streaming in concourse. It looks like a stampede, but everything’s under control. Apparently these “scarpers” are accepted desert technique; when there’s no cover at all and no particular bit of ground is tactically worth much sacrifice, getting thrown up against heavily superior enemy forces leaves no option but to clear out, the quicker the better – discretion proving the better part of valour every time.’42
This unparalleled mobility also had some unforeseen effects. With few features or places worth fighting for (with the exception of Tobruk), the armies could seize and relinquish vast areas of ground in a matter of days. As each army advanced, its supply lines became stretched, and its spearheads consequently weaker, while the enemy, retreating on to his supply lines became correspondingly stronger. This see-saw effect led to the famous ‘Benghazi stakes’ in which the armies found themselves advancing and retreating over the same desert five times in the space of two years.
The mechanisation of the armies in the Second World War was only one area of contrast. During the Palestine campaign of 1917–18, the Australian Light Horse had thought nothing of mounted charges against Turkish trenches, as one veteran related:
‘The Turks, on the whole, right through the whole campaign, didn’t seem to like the steel – you were safer with them at 100 yards than you were at 600 yards. At 600 yards they were wonderfully good shots and they’d shoot you right up to the trenches, but the minute you got amongst them with the steel it was always a surrender.’43
While the Australian Light Horse gained a fine reputation for the speed and daring of its mounted actions in Palestine, such exploits were a thing of the past by the Second World War. An episode during the Eritrean campaign demonstrated just how much had changed after the 20-year interval. During the advance to Keren, the headquarters of Gazelle Force, a reconnaissance unit commanded by Colonel Messervy, was charged from the rear by a squadron of Eritrean cavalry:
‘Out of the scrub they burst, galloping furiously and throwing those little Italian hand grenades at anyone they could get. The guns were rapidly turned round and opened fire at point blank range. Gazelle headquarters dived into their slit trenches and started to fire with everything available. But the charge was stopped less than thirty yards from the guns and the few surviving cavalrymen fled, pursued by an armoured car. Out of the sixty men who made the charge, twenty-five dead and sixteen wounded were left on the ground. It was a most gallant affair. It demonstrated beyond all doubt that this obsolete arm could not be used to attack troops armed with modern weapons.’44
Horsed cavalry had had its day by 1939, but a mounted Yeomanry cavalry brigade was sent to Palestine in 1939. However, by the time these troops saw action at Alamein, their horses had been replaced by armoured steeds.45
While Allenby’s men were familiar with the names of the settlements they fought over in Palestine, the featureless nature of the Western Desert meant that the few landmarks and towns in the area took on heightened significance during the campaign fought in the Second World War. Benghazi, Tobruk and Mersa Matruh became household names in Britain, but there was little to remind soldiers of past military history. Bir Hacheim, identified only by two hummocks in the middle of the desert, had been the site of the rescue of the prisoners from HMS Tara in 1915 during the Senussi campaign, but gained greater fame during the Battle of Gazala in May 1942 for the tenacious defence of the French Foreign Legion.46 Just as their forebears had named trenches on the Western Front after familiar domestic landmarks, so soldiers in the desert identified positions with familiar names to bring some element of home to the barren landscape. The Guards defensive position or ‘box’ during the Battle of Gazala, known as ‘Knightsbridge’, is one of the most famous. But although one of the fiercest tank battles of the Desert War raged there, there was nothing to distinguish this piece of desert from another apart from the name.
One unique feature of the Desert War in the Second World War was the development of the ‘Krieg ohne Hass’ (War without Hate). With the battle areas largely devoid of population (with the exception of the townspeople of Benghazi, Bardia and Tobruk), the armies could concentrate simply on fighting one another. Although the fighting was certainly intense and bloody, a mutual respect developed between the armies to the extent that Rommel became an almost mythical figure amongst the British troops. This spirit also manifested itself in the generally correct and proper treatment