 In the summer of 1941 , Wheeler and three of his batteries were assigned to fight against German and Italian forces in the North African Campaign . In September , they set sail from Glasgow aboard the <unk> Empress of Russia ; because the Mediterranean was controlled largely by enemy naval forces , they were forced to travel via the Cape of Good Hope , before taking shore leave in Durban . There , Wheeler visited the local <unk> to compare them with the settlements of Iron Age Britain . The ship docked in Aden , where Wheeler and his men again took shore leave . They soon reached the British @-@ controlled Suez , where they disembarked and were stationed on the shores of the Great <unk> Lake . There , Wheeler took a brief leave of absence to travel to Jerusalem , where he visited Petrie on his hospital deathbed . Back in Egypt , he gained permission to fly as a front gunner in a Wellington bomber on a bombing raid against Axis forces , to better understand what it was like for aircrew to be fired on by an anti @-@ aircraft battery . 
