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This story is transcribed by me Graham Shepherd , from notes and discussions with Bill Ashley , and will be added to the site with his permission . He understands the sites terms and conditions .

On Friday 13th April 1945 we had breakfast early , it was a beautiful spring morning and all the wild flowers were out and the leaves on the trees in different shades of green - it reminded me of home .

We No. 1 Squadron of the No. 4 Troop the Irish Guards set off in our tanks to what we called the start line , where we decided to brew up , so out came the petrol cooker , and tea was soon made . During tea Jack Ashbridge said to me " Bill if we get through this day , we shall see the end of the war " . Just then the Household Cavalry came up to us and after discussions with our Officers they set off up the road to carry out a reconnaissance and after disappearing around a right hand bend we immediately heard the sound of fire , and to our astonishment the two armoured cars were coming back to us like hell and told us that the Jerrys have got everything up there in the woods , its like a Hornets nest - it didn't sound very good for us .

Shortly afterwards the artillery opened up and we went forward with our infantry and soon came under heavy fire but the road and ground along the left hand side of the woods was not suitable for tank war fare , so our Squadron Commander ordered us to pull back about a mile where we found a sandy track that went through a valley about two hundred feet below the woods , and as we moved slowly forward keeping a careful lookout we came across a cottage and an old lady and two small children came out . We gave the children some sweets and tinned meat and told them to stay inside and they would be all right .

We continued along the valley and then turned up the side of the hill and stopped at the top with turret down from where we could see the Germans . The gunners had plenty of targets and the fire fly was ordered to take on the heavy stuff while we the 75鈥檚 took on the rest . The order to fire was given by the troop leader but I could not see what was going on from the drivers position , but as the 75 recoiled I could hear Jack our gunner and Bob our wireless operator saying " that's got the bastards " . As we moved onto level ground I could see that we were giving the Jerry hell and we had caught him off guard . The Artillery were putting a creeping barrage right through the woods - it was devastating to watch , but all the spring foliage was stripped from the trees . We were ordered to cease fire and started to advance , leaving our 3 company friends to clear the rest of the wood .

We then made our way back to the road we should have been on , but it was littered with all sorts of obstacles including mines , but the Royal Engineers had done a good job in moving many of them . After we had travelled some distance we came across more forest , and the Jerry were there in strength and I might add soon pinned our infantry down . We managed to get to a road junction with a guest house on the right hand corner . The turrets of our tanks traversed right and we started putting down heavy fire and as we were getting the upper hand the troop Sergeant was told to move his position and turn right but as he did this we heard a violent explosion and they had hit a mine . Fortunately we then saw all five crew come running around the corner and take cover in the dyke on our left . Our troop Officer told us to move up to the T junction where he intended to get out of the tank to do a recce around the corner . I dipped the clutch engaged first gear increased the revs. and slowly let out the clutch , but there was an almighty bang and we couldn't see for smoke - we seemed to have gone sky high and then down again with a bump - we had also hit a mine . I could just hear the order to bail out , and we all joined our other crew in the dyke . We were very fortunate to all survive the experience .

Jerry started to withdraw and we all made our way down the dyke that was our cover and were eventually picked up by one of our trucks and taken back to Eshalon where we were dropped off at a big house which was full of all kinds of stores and I was amazed to meet an old friend from back home . Although we thought we were in for some rest this was not to be as we had to load up the half truck with spares and get off back and get those tanks up and running . Sergeant Egan was in charge of No. 1 squadron fitters and when we got back to our two tanks we set about fitting new sprockets , idlers , rollers and links to the old tracks at the side of the road near to the guest house . Next to the guest house stood a large chestnut tree in full bloom and lying there were our infantry pals who had been wounded , some severely .

We had just got started when Jerry opened up - he was right on target with air bursts and there were our wounded pals who had no cover , but to our amazement there was Major Rippon our MO who was checking and assessing the wounded and shouting to the medical orderlies to get the worst casualties away to the field dressing room . We all thought what a brave man he was who seemed to be immune to shrapnel - both officers and men had the greatest respect for him .

It was quite late and dark when we finished out tasks due to Jerrys interruptions and set off to rejoin our squadron and in the distance we could see fires raging . Since we did not have a map reference we just followed the road and alas came to a fork in the road so we went left and saw a large lake to our left and the reflections of the burning houses in the lake were a sight I will never forget , it was a perfect picture .

When we arrived by the lake we had a real shock as dozens of displaced persons came from no where , all cheering and very pleased to see us . They told us that Jerry was at the other end of the village with SP鈥檚 and infantry - guess we should have gone right - and since two tanks would not have been much use against them we turned around in quick time and took off back and took the road to the right where we eventually found our squadron harboured up .

It had been a long Friday 13th , but a lucky one for No. 4 troop .

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