Alastair's Letters from the Invasion of Sicily

An unusual set of circumstances led to three siblings from Greenock, Scotland, meeting in Cairo during WW2.

Oldest sibling, Lt. Alastair McKillop, arrived in Iraq in December 1942 aged 29, and joined his unit, the 6th Seaforth Highlanders in February 1943.

Meanwhile, youngest sibling, RAF pilot Ronnie McKillop, arrived in North Africa in January 1943, aged 22 and was stationed in Benin, Libya, flying mostly Hurricanes and later Spitfires, with 243 Wing 33 Squadron.

Both brothers were wounded the same year, Alastair during the invasion of Sicily which he writes about in the two letters to his father that accompany this story. Ronnie was shot down twice, once over the Med and once over land, the second of which accounts for his visiting the No 5 RAF General Hospital in Cairo in September 1943.

Meanwhile Alastair had led Seaforth troops ashore in the July invasion of Sicily and had been wounded in the advance between Priolo and Augusta on the south-eastern coast on the 12th July. The letters he wrote to his father back in Greenock give a detailed account of the invasion from his point of view and detail other men wounded or killed, as well as an account of his own wounding and his perilous journey back for medical attention. He too, ended up in hospital in Cairo and the letters, written in December that year, by which time he had been made Camp Commandant at a camp in 87 Sub Area Aleppo, indicate that he is still not fit for duty.

How amazing that the two serving brothers, one RAF, one Army, should meet in Cairo in the middle of war.

Even more amazing is the fact that their sister, Isabel, about 27 at the time, had joined the Queen Alexandra Nursing Corps and was reunited with them both in Cairo that same September. We do not know how long she was there, but Alastair’s December 1943 letter indicates that he thinks she had already left for Britain.

One of Isabel’s daughters recounts that she used to tell a story of Alastair emerging out of the desert with a bedraggled group of men, eating a hearty meal and then disappearing once more into the sand dunes. There is certainly a photo of Alastair and Ronnie at the Cairo YMCA tucking into what looks like a hearty meal. Presumably it was taken by Isabel.

All three siblings survived the war. Ronnie returned to Britain and provided aerial cover for the D-Day landings.

Alastair returned to the 6th Seaforths on the Italian mainland just north of Anzio in May 1944 and was wounded again and this time captured. He spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in Germany but returned home safely at the end of the war.

Submitted by Alastair’s daughters Anne and Christine.