The Art of Tetman Callis

“We all had dysentery and that was worse than the enemy fire. During daylight you couldn’t leave your hole to relieve yourself. Still, when the Germans dropped ‘surrender leaflets’ they made good toilet paper. Your tin hat came in handy, too. You could use it as a shovel, a cooking pot, a toilet and a wash basin. Two boots made a good pillow. We had two litres of water a man a day and little except bully beef to eat; we ate it at night when it was cold and not too greasy. But there was always plenty of tea—a great morale-booster, with Carnation milk and lots of sugar.” – Private John Youden, 2/13th Australian Infantry (quoted by John Bierman and Colin Smith in The Battle of Alamein)