Suzie’s Story

My Dad, who is now 78 years old, lost his Dad (my grandfather) on 17th March 1945 – three days after my Dad’s third birthday. We believe he was fighting in North Africa with Montgommery’s Desert Rats, fell ill and somehow ended up in St John Hospital in Jerusalem where he died.

During the Second World War, the Ramleh (now Ramla) cemetery was used by the Ramla Royal Air Force Station and by various Commonwealth hospitals posted in turn to the area for varying periods. He was buried in the British and Commonwealth War Cemetery in Ramla.

The Desert Rats, byname of the 7th Armoured Division, were group of British soldiers who helped defeat the Germans in North Africa during World War II. Led by Gen. Allen Francis Harding, they were especially noted for a hard-fought three-month campaign against the more-experienced German Afrika Korps.

I can’t begin to adequately describe how emotional our visit to the War Cemetery was. To tell you what it was like to hear your Dad say “Hi Dad” for the very first time after spending my whole life saying “Hi Dad” is impossible. It took all my strength not to just collapse in a flood of tears. It wasn’t my day, it was my Dad’s day and I held it together. The trip was for him so he could speak to his Dad, something he had never done and something I had always, and still do, take for granted.

I hope the trip gave my Dad some sort of closure. Rightly or wrongly, he has always said how war “wastes lives”.