Pipeline to Battle; An Engineer's Adventures with the British Eighth Army
by: Rainier, Maj. Peter W.

Softcover. Washington DC/NY, Infantry Journal and Penguin Books, reprint, 1944, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Paperback, 305 pages. Frontis map. The author became the oldest Junior Subaltern (Second Lieutenant) in the British forces and became known later as the "water bloke" by building an ever-extending pipeline to furnish filtered fresh-water to the British troops pursuing Rommel's army into Tunisia. From the very beginning and especially from the Battle of El Alamein onwards, he traveled the whole 2,000 mile mine-ridden way providing life-sustaining water to the British Eighth Army who spearheaded the allied Tunisian Campaign in a dozen bitter battles that ended in victory on 13 May 1943. The Sappers retired Peter William Rainier as a Major in June 1943 just after the hostilities in Africa had ended. He is remembered as one of the few original members of The Army of the Nile (General Wavell's "thirty thousand") who survived the three long years of fighting allowing him to witness the final victory over the Axis powers in Africa. Clean, bright copy.