Posted Missing Telegrams from Western Desert

[VRob]

Does anybody know how long it would take for UK relatives to be advised of the status of men who fought in major desert actions like Gazala?

I'm guessing that it would be quite a long time, as the 8th Army became very fragmented at that time and information would need to have been processed at Divisional HQs and passed back to Cairo for transmission? Does a time period of about a month sound reasonable between the date of an engagement and the date a telegram would be received in the UK? It seems to me that for relatives whose men served in the desert, receiving news of them must have been a particularly difficult and stressful time, as news of major actions would have appeared in newspapers long before any advice of their status (either airgraphs, letters or War Office telegrams) would have been received.

Just wondering if anybody could shed any further light on this with personal anecdote or references?

[Tom Canning]

Vrob -
At the time of the Gazala Gallop - there was no such thing as an airgraph as they didn't appear until Monty bitched to Churchill in the August of '42 when he took over the 8th Army - they finally appeared at the end of '42

So it might have taken a month to get news back to the UK - officially - much later - i.e September '44 it took two weeks for a telegram to reach my parents that I was "missing believed wounded" in Italy !

Cheers

[VRob]

Thanks for the reply, Tom. I think a month -- or two -- seems about right given the extra difficulties of lines of communication in the desert.

I'm a little confused on your airgraph comment though. I had thought they were in use well before August of '42. (Apparently the Auk received the first one -- from the Queen -- in August '41). The Royal Engineers Museum site says:

"In 1940 the Minister of Transport, Lieutenant Colonel Moore-Brabazon RFC, put forward the idea that airgraphs be used to reduce both the bulk and weight of mail travelling between the MEF and the UK. The matter was referred to the APS and the GPO, who jointly investigated the possibility of using airgraphs. This eventually led to a service being instituted between England and Egypt in 1941 when 70,000 airgraphs were sent in the first batch and took three weeks to reach their destination."

And from the Marfleet Society site:

"The figure of ten million airgraphs despatched from the United Kingdom to the Middle East was reached at the end of May, 1942. The total weight of film involved was less than one ton (1016 kg.). The equivalent weight of air mail letters would have been in excess of one hundred tons. By October 1st, 1942, when about one million airgraphs were being sent in each direction, in and out of the country, each week, the total number of airgraphs handled reached forty-five million."

There's also documentary evidence from Alex Macintyre ('Love Letters from a Desert Rat') to indicate that he was regularly writing airgraphs from the Western Desert in April '42.

Are you suggesting that airgraphs were not generally available to men in the field?

[Tom Canning]

Vrob -
you may very well be correct in saying that Airgraphs were in use prior to 1942 - however when Monty took over the 8th Army in Aug 12th 1942 - he noted that a large part of the low morale caused by the shambles of the retreat from Gazala - was a lack of mail for the troops from the Uk.

On Churchill and Alanbrookes return from Moscow - Monty made a strong complaint about the slow service of mail - Churchill promised to look into the matter - and lo and behold - the Airgraph appeared - later in 1942 - and continued and was reinforced in later '43 with the "green" envelope which was unsullied by the censor and in which we could send home little trinkets etc.

Later at the Gothic Line -Italy '44 - I lost a 40 Ton Churchill Tank which happened to roll down a mountain side squashing a driverless Jeep in the process - the Jeep driver finally aproached with a request for a "green" envelope- he was subject to some abuse until he explained that he wanted to send his Jeep home to his "Mum" !
Cheers

[Oldman]

Tom
I have an Airgraph dated November 1942 that my father sent my mother to let her know he was alright after the El Alamein battles.

Vrob
Talking to a neighbour his father was wounded at El Alamein and notification took
17 days it was just a stark name and number stating wounded in action no further details, if he can find it I will post it for you.

[51highland]

Could have been longer than 2 months. My Mother received a telegram of Dad being wounded in France june 13th '44 on the 7th July '44.

[VRob]

Originally Posted by Oldman

Vrob
Talking to a neighbour his father was wounded at El Alamein and notification took
17 days it was just a stark name and number stating wounded in action no further details, if he can find it I will post it for you.

That would be great, cheers for the info!

Rob

[Tom Canning]

vrob - sheeesh wrong again - second time to-day .....said the Villa would beat Spurs ....

Cheers

[handtohand22]

I hope this throws some light on the subject. My father and a couple of uncles were serving in the Western Desert (MEF) They were there that long they said MEF stood for Men England Forgot.

I noted at the time I queried the telegram...

During WWII there were limited and restricted modes of communication. So, how do you let your loved ones know you and your brother were well after a major battle? Tom would send his wife a telegram whenever possible.

What happened just before June 29th 1942 ?

On June 14th, the 8th Army had to withdraw from it's forward positions in Gazala.
On the June 20th 1942, Tobruk was captured by the Germans and the 8th Army retreated to El Alamein.


"Some of 5 Battery managed to escape from the Germans when Tobruk was captured. This included Jules Dorrian, Willie Hutchinson, Jerry Towser, J McGinn and Harold Montgomery.

These men kept going until they reached the dockyards and met up with some Royal Navy personnel. They all helped each other to escape by building rafts and launched these out into the Mediterranean at dusk. The tide allowed the rafts to drift out of sight of land. A British submarine surfaced close to the rafts, gave the escapees some fresh water and then sent a signal to other Royal Navy units in the area. Patrols were dispatched out and successfully located the rafts. These survivors from the 5th Battery were posted to the 6th Battery." Robin Martin (2004)

"Harry Campbell was recuperating at the hospital in Tobuk when Rommel attacked. He made his way to the shoreline and swam out to sea. He was picked up by a British Royal Navy destroyer. The destroyer took him to the Navy Base in Alexandria and he was returned to the Battery again." Sammy Lake (2004)

[Verrieres]

Not Western Desert but an Italy casualty just to give you some idea of the time frame in the receiving of the various telegrams/letters.


4699867 Pte Ronald Steele 16DLI was wounded on the 13th September 1944 On the 24th September 1944 Ronald Steele’s mother was notified that her son was in 71st General Hospital with a wound to the head .He was transferred to 93rd [British] General Hospital where his condition deteriorated . On the 10th October 1944 a further letter from the Infantry Record Office at York, was received by the family informing them that Private Ronald Steele had been transferred to the seriously ill list .Yet another letter was received on the 27th October 1944 informing them that their son Ronald Steele had died of his wounds on the 20th October 1944, He was 21 years old .Today Ronald lies in Bari Military Cemetery, Italy Section XI Row A Grave 5.

Verrieres