| In July of 2003 Myself and Malin took a holiday in Tunisia, Partly for the Sun and Sea, but also because my Grandfather is buried there in the Massicault War Cemetery. |
| He died on the 6th May 1943 in the final push by the Allied forces into Tunis. Tunis fell on May 7th, and 6 days later the Axis forces were beaten in Africa with the surrender of over quarter of a million prisoners of war. |
| The visit was all the more emotional for the fact that John William Stevenson and I were the same age. But he will stay 32 for always. |
| The Cemetery is a small oasis of green in the middle of parched earth and Olive trees, and I have never seen such well kept Graves, the grass is like a bowling green, It made me proud these brave Men, who gave there lives so we have our freedom today have not been forgotten |
| At 32, Granddads was the oldest age we saw on a grave, the youngest was 15. The cemetery contains 1,576 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 130 of them unidentified. |
| The cemetery is located about 60 miles drive from Hammamet where we were staying, and having no Idea how to get there I asked the Barman in our Hotel if he could help? He gave us a piece of paper written in Arabic, and told us to take the Bus to Tunis and then show somebody the paper, I am still not sure what it said but it worked like Magic because we were bustled across the city by unsmiling but very helpful locals in a VERY cheap Taxi and then put on the correct bus which dropped us off right outside the cemetery. It was quite a scary Journey as we had no idea where they were taking us, and the demeanor of the locals was enigmatic, to say the least, but good as gold we arrived and returned in one piece.! |
| (Aerial view of the cemetery ) |
| Blue circle - Hotel Red circle - Cemetery |
| Big respect to the gardener who takes such excellent care of everything there and helped us find the Grave. |