Start Digging, You Bastards!

By: Tom Gilling

Narrated by: Ian Ferrington

July, 1942. The North African campaign rages. The Allies have been forced to retreat from Gazala, and are being pursued through the sandy wastes by 'The Desert Fox' – Field Marshal Rommel and his Panzerarmee. The target of the enemy is Cairo – if taken, the Axis powers will control the Suez Canal and be within striking distance of the oil fields of the Middle East, tipping the war in Hitler's favour.

In their way is the Eighth Army, spearheaded by the battle-hardened troops of the Ninth Australian Division and the Second New Zealand Division. General Montgomery depends on these soldiers to break the resistance of the formidable Afrika Korps and turn the tide of the war.

Bestselling author Tom Gilling recounts in vivid detail the brutal fighting, deadly artillery barrages and momentous tank battles that characterised the desert war, culminating in two immense clashes around an isolated Egyptian railway halt at El Alamein. This fateful desert conflict tested the courage and endurance of every soldier.

©2025 Tom Gilling (P)2026 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

'Gilling tells it well ... You can almost feel the sand and grit.' (Honest History)