Love Letters from a Desert Rat: 'Alex and Nan'

by Liz MacIntyre (Editor)

Overview

When Liz Macintyre's mother died she found a collection of 300 letters from her father Alex, spanning his service in Italy and Egypt in World War II. His career began in 1940 sailing down the west coast of Africa, then up to Egypt, and the next few years were spent chasing Rommel and the Afrika Corps all over North Africa. By 1943 he was in mainland Italy, where he spent the rest of the war. Beautifully written, Alex’s letters offer an intimate account of war from a regular "desert rat" and cover such daily matters as football, insects, and sandstorms alongside accounts of survival in the Italian mountains, escape during the retreat at Tobruk, and leave in Cairo and Palestine. Nan wrote as many letters to Alex as he wrote to her, but he had a ritual of burning the letters as he went so that he would not have to carry them with him and sadly none have survived. However, Alex's letters often answer her questions point by point so the reader can easily envisage Nan’s feelings as well as following Alex’s personal account of war.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780752447063
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	03/01/2009
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Liz Macintyre's father Alex died of a heart attack in 1961, when Liz herself was only six, and so she never really knew him; the letters she uncovered among her mother's things enabled her to get to know her father. A teacher, she lives in Glasgow.

Table of Contents

Map 7

Introduction 9

1940 11

Romance

Journey to war

New surroundings

Marriage proposal

Nan's reply

1941 24

News of embarkation

Brief reunion in Glasgow

Durban, South Africa

First impressions of Cairo

Hospital, leg trouble

Wedding anniversary

Sandstorm

1942 44

His 'wee fire'

Being a 'Desert Rat'

Foot rot

Leave in Cairo

Sandfly fever

Leave to Jerusalem and Palestine

'Tale of Woe', Tobruk story

Change of work, now a Gunner

Story of his Christmas and the 276 Battery

1943 85

Back to the desert

The 'angry' letter

Rumours of home leave

End of land fighting, North Africa

Not coming home

Trip to Tunis and Carthage

Story of westward attack, Egypt to Tunisia

August, Central Mediterranean Forces (Sicily)

Stage debut

October in Italy

Turkey meal

Bandaged hands

Wedding anniversary

Xmas day boss, Captain Macintyre!

1944 160

Electric light!

Trip to Bari

Hospital and another leg operation

Rome trip

Disbanding of the 276 Battery

Pompeii

Posted to new unit

Radio course

Rumours of leave

Wedding anniversary

1945 217

'Our wee corner' at home

Florence trips

Teeth trouble

News of a boat, perhaps!

Back to lorries

Venice/war in Europe over

His papers arrive

At Rome

At 'X' Special Transit Camp, Naples

Postscript 251

Index 255