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Name

Edward Tom Wooster

Birth: 20 June 1910, Newington, London Death: 12 December 1982    Tree Rank: Sergeant Unit: Special Tank Squadron Edward was in charge of tank transport at the battle of El Alamein and took the first 6 Churchills into action there. He became ill and was returned to England shortly afterwards. Photographs taken in 1943 suggest he may have returned to duty in Egypt, but this is uncertain.

El Alamein and the Churchill Tank

The second battle of El Alamein was fought between 23 October and 11 November 1942.
The poor speed of the Churchill nearly caused production to be ceased in favour of the forthcoming Cromwell tank; it was saved by the successful use of the Mk III at the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942.
Two Mark II had been sent to North Africa for trials and they were joined by six Mk III Churchills (with the 6 pounder gun) to form the Special Tank Squadron commanded by Major Norris King. They saw action in the Second Battle of El Alamein in October 1942. This detachment, called "Kingforce", supported the attack of 7th Motor Brigade first with three tanks at Kidney Ridge (where one was hit "repeatedly" by anti-tank gun fire (including "friendly fire" from a British gun) and another took "a lot of punishment"), then the remaining five at Tell-el-Aqqaqir. The Churchills were fired on many times by Italian and German anti-tank guns, but only one was knocked out and partially caught on fire. One tank was said to have been hit up to 80 times.
Kingforce, formed to test whether the Churchills could operate in Africa, was considered too slow to participate in the chase after the retreating Axis, sent back to Alexandria and disbanded after El Alamein. The 25th Army Tank Brigade of three regiments was sent to Africa, and went into action in February 1943 during the Tunisian campaign. It was followed by 21st Army Tank Brigade.

Churchill Mark III tanks of 'Kingforce' during the Second Battle of El Alamein
By Fox (Sgt), No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit - https://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//46/media-46991/large.jpg This is photograph E 18991 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25311784

Source: Wikipedia                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

  Page last updated

  28 February 2022