I had always planned to visit the Cemetery and War Memorial at El Alamein on my way to Libya, and got my chance today…I left Cairo at 8.00am and headed back through the Western Desert… When I got to the Mediterranean, I hung a left and headed towards Libya… Just like that…!!
The entry to the Cemetery at El Alamein...
Stepping through the archway...
The headstones march off into the distance...
About 80 km west of Alexandria, lies the town of Alamein, and just off the main highway leading to Marsa Matrouh, is a little signpost pointing the way to the place where the Memorial and Cemetery is located.
I expected to find something a lot more substantial, than the rather unpretentious building that is almost completely hidden from the road, and lies on the southern side of a gentle slope leading into the desert… I dismounted and left the Big Fella under the watchful gaze of a policeman, stationed permanently at the gate, and walked down a wide path to the low building…
As I stepped through the wide archways, I was confronted by rows and rows of headstones, marching off into the distance…
The headstones march off into the distance...
The first headstone I walked up to and read...
I was the only person there, and in the silence of the midday sun, I stepped slowly down off the marble stairs, the sound from my boots making a noise like a drum, and walked towards the first line of graves…
The very first one I stopped to read, was that of a South African…! I stood rooted to the spot in amazement at the co-incidence… Less than 7% of the graves here contained my countrymen…
I crouched down and read:
Private J.R.F. Wolmarans, died here on the 24th of October 1942, at the age of just 24…
My throat went dry, and I felt a pin-prick behind my eyes as I read the words under his name…
“At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them…”
I looked out into the desert that lines the horizon, and tried to imagine the hell that was the battle for this dry and dusty piece of Egypt…
Private Wolmarans was killed on the second day of the battle for El Alamein, which commenced on the 23rd of October, and ended on the 4th of November 1942. After a week of enduring constant artillery bombardment by German and Italian forces, the Eighth Allied Army rallied to drive the Axis forces back towards Libya and so began the Allied march that liberated North Africa, sending the Germans and Italians into full retreat…
The El Alamein Cemetery contains the bodies of 7367 men, of which 815 are unidentified… Some are buried together in the same grave with the simple words “Known to God” chiseled into the headstone… A further 603 were cremated and are also honoured here… The Alamein Memorial bears the names of a further 11 945 soldiers and airmen who have no known grave. Men whose broken bodies were never discovered or collected in the aftermath of the battles they fought in…
Plaque commemorating the fallen...
List of the numbers of soldiers by country, who are honoured here...
There are 495 South Africans buried in the Al Alamein Cemetery, while the bodies of a further 1255 South African soldiers and airmen were never recovered and listed as “Missing in Action”…
On the walls of the building in front of the graves are the names of the regiments and divisions of South African soldiers who lie buried here: The Natal Mounted Rifles, The Umvoti Mounted Rifles, The Royal Natal Carbineers, The South African Artillery, The South African Armoured Corps…
I stood for a while under the shade of a stunted tree, letting my emotions get the better of me… My eyes wandered over the thousands of headstones, standing stark among the few purple bougainvillea shrubs that dotted the walkways between the graves…
View down the centre of the Cemetery from the roof of the building...
I was pleased to see that not a single scrap of litter defiled the area, and I silently thanked whoever was responsible for keeping the cemetery so clean… Egyptians should be made to visit this place, and perhaps they would begin to do something about cleaning up their own monuments and memorials…
The Big Fella waits while I honour the dead and grapple with my past...
I climbed the stairs leading onto the roof of the sandstone building, and looked down upon the cemetery from there. I felt as though I was on a parade ground, looking out over thousands of troops, standing stiffly to attention…
My mind flew back almost 30 years, to another dry and dusty land, rooting around in my own memories of war and the brutal cost that accompanied it… To the sound of helicopter gunships and cannon fire, to the shouted commands….and the screams… To the dead and dying… To friends and brothers-in-arms taken away too young…
While I cannot in all honesty say that I served in a just and worthy cause, here before me lay the bodies of thousands of men, of whom could truly be said, that they fought and died in the interests of world peace…
With tightness in my chest, a humming in my ears, and pain behind my eyes, I silently saluted them, overcome with emotion…
For I too, was once a soldier… And you needed to be that to understand…
Sombre moment at El Alamein...
©GBWT 2010
Thanks for sharing your emotional day with all of us. Your feelings and gifted way with words brought a lump to my throat; even though I was never a soldier……
Safe passage to Libya, love and miss you stax!
Keep travelling safely Ronnie. I remember my visit to Ypres in Belgium when I was 15 (loooooooong time ago!!) – miles and miles of white headstones honouring those who had died, so I and others could be free to visit many years later. And later that day the haunting sound of the Last Post, even now still played every day – memories like these are what makes us who we are and what we believe in.
Thank you, for I too was once a soldier……..
YES , I knew this would be good. and Indeed , Thank you …
“At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them…”