Word: waks
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...know yet what the newspapers have published about the capture and destruction of El Wak and the part that the South African troops played, but just in case you are interested I am going to give you a firsthand account...
...colonel addressed us on Friday evening the 13th and informed us that we'd be leaving at 6 a.m. the following day for the purpose of capturing El Wak. Big cheers, beer, sentiment, fellows pulling others to the side and rather shamefacedly asking for nice letters to be written to their families in case anything happened, water checked, rations checked, grenades charged, etc. . . . We were a pretty huge force. . . . Troops from the Gold Coast and East Africans accompanied...
Sunday 5 a.m. we arrived at our jumping-off point. . . . Try and sleep and find it impossible and then the news comes through that our plans have to be changed. The road to El Wak is mined and the Banda are strung in front of the fort in very large numbers and it's our job with A Company in front to mop them...
...Wak fort and a post strongly held in front of it were being shelled throughout our advance and had already been taken when the colonel and C Company moved up. A Company is placed in reserve and we are told to march back to our transport, which is moving up along the road to meet us. We literally stagger along the road. One of my blokes falls, all he can say is, "Water! Water!" and then he passes out and is picked up by ambulance and is taken back. We reach the transport and collapse beneath the trucks which provide...
...feasting was at hand. The British had no major force to spare for a strong thrust at the 100,000 Italians cut off from home in Ethiopia, but at Gallabat, Kassala and down in Italian Somaliland they delivered jabs and jolts. In a swift raid they seized El Wak, across Kenya's east border, took 120 prisoners, seized or burned important Italian supplies...