Additional Information:

Son of Mr. and Mrs. Percy Harold Pittam, of Romford, Essex.

Cemetery:

KNIGHTSBRIDGE WAR CEMETERY, Libya

Grave Reference/
Panel Number:

Coll. grave 10. H. 20.

Location:

Knightsbridge War Cemetery is 25 kilometres west of Tobruk, in open country south of the main road from Tobruk to Derna and Benghazi. A rough track from the main road, past the cemetery, leads south to the area in which was fought the battle of the Knightsbridge "box".

Historical Information:

The defence against Rommel's drive across Cyrenaica towards Suez consisted of a number of irregularly spaced strong points or "boxes" linked by deep minefields. Those nearest the enemy were held by infantry, while those farther back served as reserve static positions and as bases from which the armour could operate. The chief "box", known as Knightsbridge, was round a junction of tracks about 12 miles west of Tobruk and 10 miles south of Acroma, commanding all the tracks by which supplies came up to the front. The Eighth Army's advance fuelling stations and airfields were at Acroma, El Adem, El Duda, Sidi Rezegh and Gambut, while Gazala aerodrome, taken from the Italians early in the campaign, by February 1941 housed two British squadrons. Knightsbridge was thus a key position, and the pivot on which the armour manoeuvred during the heavy fighting which commenced in the latter part of May 1941. Fierce actions were fought at all these places, and a battlefield cemetery was created at each for the burial of the dead. Into Knightsbridge Cemetery were gathered, from the battlefield burial grounds and from scattered desert graves, many of those who gave their lives during the campaign in Libya. The men who fought and died with them, but have no known grave, are commemorated on The Alamein Memorial which stands in El Alamein War Cemetery. The total number of burials is over 3,600. The figures for the United Kingdom forces include 10 soldiers whose graves could not be precisely located, who are commemorated by special memorials type "C", I.E. inscribed "Buried near this spot"; 1 soldier commemorated by a special memorial type "D", I.E. inscribed "Believed to be"; and 2 soldiers commemorated by special memorials type "A", I.E. inscribed "Known to be buried in this cemetery". The last two were originally buried in Sidi Rezegh Military Cemetery; but when the graves were moved from that battlefield burial ground into Knightsbridge War Cemetery their graves could not be identified.