大象传媒

It was decided early on in the war that the war was going to be fought with armoured vehicles rather than trench warfare, so they formed what was known as the R.A.C 鈥� it was another fighting unit. I began with the R.A.C, but my job eventually became an instructor on track vehicles and tanks. I spent the rest of my war service as an instructor teaching officers to drive tanks. They hadn鈥檛 any real accommodation for soldiers when we were sent so we were advised wherever we could to try and find out own lodgings - which I was able to do. I found my lodgings and then spent the rest of my war service with my son down at Camberley 鈥� at what was called then 鈥榯he Royal Military College鈥� training on armoured vehicles.

My job was teaching the officer cadets to drive and maintain tanks, how to look after them and that sort of thing.

We used to sound off in the morning and go out into the common with the tanks 鈥� taking them up and down. Of course the crew were in the tank, there was always the Commander who stood up in the top and said what he wanted to do, there was a gunner 鈥� the man with the guns, and the wireless operator.

I had to sit on the front of the tank and the driver was down below and we had earphones and I鈥檇 tell him what to do and how to go about it. It was a matter of practice you know because with a tank you don鈥檛 have a steering wheel 鈥� you have two levers and a track vehicle is steered by slowing down or speeding up on the track on which you want to go. It took a bit of getting used to. It wasn鈥檛 a difficult job how to teach people, but it took some time.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Becky Barugh of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Herbert Lewis and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Herbert's stories:

• A long sort of sock
• 鈥滱ll genuine tickets please鈥�
• All sorts
• 鈥橩itted out for civilian life鈥�
• Shropshire during the war
• My only night in a shelter
• Riding a horse up the steps
• It seemed a bit of a silly thing to have to do
• The first of the V1鈥檚
• There was always plenty of cheese
• We weren鈥檛 told鈥�

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