51 Highland Division

On the 31st of March the complete carrier platoon under Capt. Adamson, the Intelligence Section under myself, and three patrolling parties of one N.C.O. and seven privates from B, C, and D companies commanded by Lieuts. Faid and Bowden and Capt. Joe Corcoran respectively, moved up to the New Zealanders' area where a keep was formed in front of the Wadi Akarit position. The task was to gain information of enemy intentions and dispositions, and to get to know the ground. Patrols were sent out each night, and observation posts were established well forward of the keep. Patrol reports and Intelligence information indicated that the positions held by the enemy along the line of the Wadi Akarit and the anti-tank ditch were strongly fortified. Enemy transport movement was observed going on all the time, and it was deduced that the enemy were reinforcing. The position itself formed a natural barrier against attack, as from the sea for some distance inland the wadi was impassable for vehicles. Where the wadi became shallow and passable for vehicles, a very effective anti-tank ditch was constructed which linked up with the hills farther south known as the Djebel Roumana.

On the 2nd of April, after three days' rest, the battalion moved to a brigade concentration area near the Oasis de Usseps about three miles east of Oudref. The harbour party, which left the old location before the main part of the battalion, under the command of Lieut. Walter Lees, failed to turn off the main road at the correct place, and ran on into the enemy lines. An attempt was made to turn the trucks, but the enemy mortar and machine-gun fire was so intense that the order was given, "Every man for himself." Three other ranks including my batman, Private Lang, were the only troops who escaped back to our own lines, and the remainder of the party, consisting of two officers and twenty other ranks, were taken prisoner.

The plan of attack for the battle was somewhat com­plicated. The 51st Highland Division were on the right of the Eighth Army attack but 'south of the coast road, the 50th Division in the centre, and the 4th Indian Division on the left. The New Zealanders were to be ready to push through the gap which the attacking infantry made. On the extreme right, north of the coast road, the Guards Brigade were to create a diversion by pushing forward under an artillery barrage and maintain positions close up to the enemy's foremost defended localities.

Of the 51st Highland Division, the 154th Infantry Brigade were on the right, and the 152nd Infantry Brigade on the left. The 154th Brigade ordered the 7th Argylls to attack

v and capture the positions on the Wadi Akarit, and the anti­tank ditch to the north of Djebel Roumana. The 7th Black Watch were then to pass through us and mop up by swinging left along the anti-tank ditch with a view to linking up with the 2nd battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders of the 152nd Brigade, who were to mop up by swinging right along the Djebel Roumana. Our commanding officer named the Argyll objectives after the Regimental Battle Honours, such as Somme, Balaclava, Corunna, Beaumont Hamel, and Alamein. The place chosen for the attack was immediately west of the junction of the Wadi Akarit and Oglat es Smala, and the battalion were to break through the enemy positions on a front of one thousand yards and form a bridgehead. Air photographs showed the principal defended localities to be a long low sand-hill running parallel to the Wadi Akarit about three hundred yards behind it. On the right of the front there was another position three hundred yards beyond the sand-hill, and two strong positions were behind the anti-tank ditch which ran north-west from the wadi. Up till a few days before the attack no minefields were discovered by our patrols. On the night of the 4th of April, however, a patrol discovered a minefield one hundred yards deep which covered the length of the wadi and the anti­tank ditch. The mines were mostly the wooden box type, newly laid, widely spaced, and easily seen.