The Eighth Army
This website has also been created in the
memory of both my Granddads
For a Virtual Tour of North Africa click on the image after my Introduction on this page titled "Troops Proceeding to North Africa"
When this war is over, it will be enough for a man to say, 'I marched and fought with the Desert Army.
Winston Churchill speech to the men of Eighth Army , Tripoli, Jan 1943
For a Virtual Tour of North Africa click on the
image after my introduction titled "Troops Proceeding to North Africa"
You are now on a site dedicated to the men and their Regiments of the ‘Eight Army’. Their 3000 mile march from the Western Desert to the Italian Alps is a story that deserves to be remembered. My inspiration for this site was sowed at a very early age. I came from a very little village in Surrey and as morbid as it may seem my infant school was right next door to the village cemetery. In this cemetery lay my Granddad a ‘Desert Rat’ who served with the 1/6th Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment, I would often give guided tours to his resting place. I remember every Remembrance Day going down with my Mum and Nan to lay poppies on his grave, on these adventures down to the cemetery I would ask the inevitable questions ‘What happened to Granddad?’ This is the question I have been asking ever since and I am sure is the inspiration to thousands of over people researching their family members who served in World War II.
I am not going to try and rewrite the History books, I will leave that to the experts and I am sure there will be a couple of errors in my research, which in time I hope to correct (with a little help from you). I would love to cover the whole of their 3000 mile journey and in time I will, but for now I will concentrate on the Western Desert from Egypt to the surrender of the Axis army in Tunisia, a journey of 1500 miles through some of the most desolate unforgiving regions on this earth.
Before we go any further we must not forget the men of the 1st Army and their landings at Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in the combined British and American operation code named "Torch".
You are just about to go on a fascinating journey with arguably the most famous army during World War II ‘The Eighth Army’ with the help of original photos taken at the time.
Before we embark on this journey you need to read the following “Notes for Troops Proceeding to North Africa”, you never know you may need some of the information supplied within.
Click on the image below to proceed with your journey
The Eighth Army was a British army but
was represented by some of the great fighting divisions from all over the world, here are
but a few:-
7th Armoured
56th Infantry Division (Black Cats)
51st Highland
The 9th Australian
4th Indian
1st South African
2nd New Zealand
70th Polish Brigade
The Desert Air Force
and many more from the UK and
around the world.
An original Eighth Army thanks giving card, subscription on the back reads 'Held at Rivalto near
Udine Italy at 9.00am May 9th 1945 in our camping field with the Alps in the back ground.'