Nuseirat, Palestine, October 9th, 1942.
The first mess parade of the 2/48th's latest.
The latest "Reo's", Army slang for reinforcements, arrive at their staging camp at Palestine. These men have arrived and are queuing up for their first mess parade in their new temporary home.
Considering that this photo was taken a mere three weeks before the 2nd Battle of El Alamein in late October one wonders how many of the men in the above photo met their ends on that bloody battlefield like so many of their mates.
The 9th Division suffered disproportionately higher casualties as a result of the dangerous assault that they were tasked with undertaking against the might of Rommel's Panzer Divisions. Large numbers of troops on both sides were killed and wounded by the blanket shelling that both sides launched at each other mercilessly for a period of nearly two weeks in late October to early November, 1942.
image 025099 Australian War Memorial.
No comments:
Post a Comment