'Swimming', 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), near Tripoli, Libya, 1943

Photograph by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale, MC, 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two, North Africa, 1943.

One of the bathers is identified as 'Joe Ward'.

Tripoli had been a key port for Axis (German and Italian) forces during the North African campaign; it eventually fell to the Allies in January 1943. While 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) had fought its way to Tripoli after the Battle of El Alamein, the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), sailed into the port in June 1943. The regiment had been withdrawn to Egypt to reorganise, re-equip and train for an assault on the island of Sicily. The men of 3rd County of London Yeomanry, now part of an invasion fleet, were only in Tripoli for a week before re-embarking for Sicily, as part of Operation HUSKY.

Sergeant Joseph Lawson Ward would later be killed on 17 July 1943 during the campaign in Sicily. The war diary of the Sharpshooters for 17 July 1943 records his death as 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) supported the assault on the bridge at Primosole. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records his grave at the Catania War Cemetery.

From an album containing 241 photographs compiled by Major W H J Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters).