大象传媒

The attack on Blerick was to be a perfect set-piece assault with .armour from the 79th Armoured Division in support of the 15th Scotish Division. The Dutch town of Blerick was on the west side of the river Maas which divided Blerick from the larger town of Venlo.
Blerick was surounded by a wide, deep anti-tank ditch and extensive mine fields and our task was to cross the ditch and liberate the town. I was a driver of a Kangaroo which was a Canadian Ram Tank with it's turret removed so that infantry could be carried onto the objective with some protection. The Royal Scots Fusiliers had boarded our vehicles during the night and at first light we were ready to advance. A light rain was falling and as the artillery barrage opened up we jumped out of our skins and I wondered what it must be like at the other end. The Flail Tanks of the 22nd Dragoons started flailing and made lanes for us up to the anti-tank ditch, the Churchill Bridge Laying Tanks from the 81 Assault Engineers laid six bridges over the anti-tank ditch. We were given the order to advance and moved quickly to the bridge, I was on lane two and as I crossed the bridge I saw a Flail tank in front flailing a lane though the second mine field. We were under heavy shell and mortar fire and I was driving closed down, that is, useing my preriscopes to see the ground. They kept misting up so I opened my visor and propped it open with the stay. We were moving along a plateau with the town of Blerick on our left front. My Commander was Sgt Bracewell and Gunner was Cpl Johnston and we were carrying the Company HQ of the RSFs.
As we approached the end of the high ground the Flail Tank Commander waved me on signalling he had finished flailing, I overtook the Flail Tank and the Infantry Commander asked Sgt Bracewell to take hime to a row of cottages some 200 meters away. In front was a steep slop and I slid down that and accelerated towards the cottages. About half way to our objective we hit a large mine that not only blew our track left off, but remmoved the front suspension unit and forced the escape hatch into the interior of the tank.( The escape hatch on the Ram Tank was under the hull gunner's seat) The infantry dismounted and advanced to the row of cottages, I looked round and found my Commander on the floor and the Gunner badly injured. I looked out and saw another Kangaroo knocked out some 100 meters to my right and as we were under heavy mortar fire I decided to get the crew out into a shell hole in front of the tank, being outside with some shelter from the tank seemed to be the best place to be as a motat inside would not give anyone a chance. Later when the motar fire eased off I carried my Commander into the nearest cottage and went back for the Gunner, the Commander was paralysed and was passing in and out of consciousness. The Gunner was badly injured in the legs and was in a lot of pain. I went back to the Kangaroo and collected the first aid box and sorted out a shot of morphine to give him. Morpphine was contained in a small tube with a needle at one end and was a part of a tank crew's first aid kit. I pulled back Cpl Johnston's tank suit and tried ti inject the drug, but the fluid ran back into my hand. I tried again and this time I was able to inject the dose. It took some time to work, but eventually the pain eased. We were conversing all the time and my imediate concern was to get them evaquated. During the time we were in the cottage, although it had a cellar, the stairs were to steep for me to negotiate with two injured comrades. I realised at this time what little first aid training we had received and I felt powerless to do anything more to ease their suffering.
At about three in the afternoon the shelling eased and the fighting moved on. I ventured out to locate medical help, eventually I located a Company HQ of the RSF and was able to get my crew evaquated to a First Aid Station by Jeep Ambulance.
I remained with the RSFs for three days and rejoined my regiment later. In those days there was little debriefing and no counselling, one just got on with it and several days later I was at an Armoured Replacement Squadron in Belgium collecting a new Kangaroo and rejoining my regiment in time foe the Ardennes Offensive, that's another story.

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