N o .124
T he T rusty S ervant
Major Tom Bird
(E, 32-36) DSO MC*
Christopher Van der Noot, our obituarist,
writes:
Tom Bird, who died on 9 th August 2017
aged 98, was a much-decorated hero
of the Desert War in World War II. His
most famous exploit was commanding
the anti-tank company of 2 nd Battalion,
the Rifle Brigade, which stopped
Rommel’s determined panzer counter-
attack during the Second Battle of El
Alamein at Snipe, a small oval-shaped
depression 2,000 yards in front of the
British forward positions.
Before the action at Snipe, he had
already been awarded his first Military
Cross at Tobruk on 22 nd January,
1941. The citation read, ‘His platoon
penetrated minefields and wire and,
working his carrier round the flank, he
completely surrounded the strong enemy
position and forced it to surrender. His
conspicuous gallantry and leadership
ensured that 2,000 Italians were
captured.’ He was awarded his second
Military Cross at Gebel Kalakh on
25/26 th July, 1942, when in command of
a fighting patrol. This citation read, ‘He
took his patrol in with great gallantry
and determination, overrunning three
posts. He withdrew his patrol without
casualties. The success of this patrol was
due entirely to the careful preparation
and courageous leadership of its
commander.’
Snipe was one of the turning points of
Alamein: Rommel lost irreplaceable
armour to a small group of British
anti-tank guns, commanded with great
skill and courage by Bird, which had
fortuitously embedded themselves in
the Axis lines. His anti-tank company
of 2 nd Battalion, the Rifle Brigade, with
239 Battery of 76 th Anti-Tank Regiment,
Tom Bird at Wavell’s grave 2011
Royal Artillery, under command, had the
new 6-pdr anti-tank gun. Most of Bird’s
men were Londoners and were like a
family because of their long experience
of being under fire and getting away
with it. Bird drove his Commanding
Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Victor
Turner (who was to be awarded the
Victoria Cross for the Snipe action), into
a shallow depression, about 900 by 400
yards. At dawn it was revealed that the
depression lay between two Axis tank
leaguers and at 3.30am Bird deployed
the 19 anti-tank guns around it. At
6.15am a sergeant looked out and saw a
massive car park, with vehicles all over
the place – hundreds of them. One of
the enemy columns came straight for
the Rifle Brigade position, unaware of
the British deployment. When it was
30 yards away a single 6-pdr shot set it
alight. As the light improved the Axis
tank groups passed by still oblivious to
3
the British position. The 6-pdrs opened
fire – the panzers’ exposed side and rear
armour made them easy prey and each
column lost eight vehicles: the anti-tank
gunners were pleased that their new gun
worked rather well. Bird spent most of
the morning touring the perimeter and
supervising the guns: he ran from gun
to gun, slit trench to slit trench, geeing
up the men. One windy crew cowering
in a hole were told by the Commanding
Officer, ‘Come on: you’re not dead yet’,
which Bird thought an unfortunate
choice of words. Several guns were now
completely out of ammunition, so Bird
tried to effect a redistribution by jeep.
He travelled slowly over the dunes quite
heedless of the machine gun bullets
slashing the air around him. One bullet
amongst the ammunition on board and
the lot would have gone sky high. By
midday ammunition was low with only
13 guns left in action and at 2pm a
large Italian force attacked Snipe. The
Commanding Officer dashed from his
fox-hole and, with Sergeant Calistan
aiming, himself loading, six of the enemy
were destroyed at 600 yards. Suddenly
a shell burst and shrapnel pierced the
Commanding Officer’s helmet. Lying
bleeding, he watched as Calistan took
aim at 200 yards and with three shots
hit the remaining tanks. ‘Hat trick!’
cried the Commanding Officer. Bird was
not wearing a helmet because ‘it was
uncomfortable’ and around 3pm he was
hit on his unprotected head. He refused
to lie down and continued to encourage
and help his men at the guns. At about
5pm, 70 enemy tanks prepared to attack
the British Shermans and Crusaders
beyond Snipe: they were not aware of
the anti-tank guns at Sni pe and, when
they were within 200 yards, their sides
were exposed and nine panzers were