大象传媒

(Transcript of interview with David Talbot on 14/6/02)

I was at school at Bradfield College, near Reading, when war was declared. I was a junior commander in the OTC and the Head who was the CO took me on as his adjutant.
In 1940 I volunteered for the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and begun my squarebashing
Later I saw a letter in the Times for prospective engineer officers to volunteer to go on a six month course at Birmingham University. We happened to be at the university when the big raid on Coventry took place so the whole lot of us went down to see if we could help. This mainly involved moving rubble and looking after casualties etc.
From there we were fast tracked into an engineering course at Beaumont barracks, Aldershot.
Eventually I passed out as junior officer and was posted to 42nd div of the East Lancs Territorial division in 1941.
In 1942 we went down to Orford Ness to a secret training area where we experimented with ways of improving tanks in preparation for the assault on Germany, but most of our ideas were totally impractical. One was called a goat, which was a big frame fixed on the front, filled with explosives to blow a hole in a wall but it was hopelessly unstable. Also Snakes which were water pipes filled with explosives which were placed across minefields.
We were there right up till D-Day and finally went over at end of July.
Our first real combat experience was during the assault on Le Havre. The port was heavily defended on the landward side with extensive minefields, anti-tank ditches and pill-boxes.
After artillery and air attacks, we advanced following the flail tanks but some mines were left and one tank was blown up. They had 88mm guns from a heavily defended position and we had petards but they had a range of only 80 yards. Several tanks were destroyed and the total assault took 3 days and finally we heard an enormous explosion as the Germans blew up the docks area and rendered it useless. I was awarded the MC for my role as tank commander.
Later we moved up into Holland with our tanks on transporters where our operational role was clearing the Scheldt estuary to allow ships to go up.
Then we moved down to support the American 84th division to try and take the German town of Gilenkirken which was actually in the Seigfried line. This was the subject of some serious fighting with many casualties on both sides. Our troop had laid a bridge over a cutting in the railway line but I had to get out of my tank and was shot in the shoulder. I was hospitalised in Paris and eventually sent back to an American hospital in the UK. In Feb1945 I rejoined my troop who by this time had advanced to Niemegen.
Our next assignment was the assault across the Rhine. We had been trained in crossing with rafts which attached to 3鈥� steel cables and capable of carrying up to 60 tons across the river.
There was heavy fire all the time and ours was the first tank across the Rhine, 12 hours after the first infantry and the barrage was one of the heaviest I had experienced.
We did not cross into Germany but were sent north to clear Arnhem and then pushed on further northwards towards the Zuider See to cut off the German retreat.
Our troop joined up with a Canadian division outside a small village called Otterlo. As we advanced in our 5 tanks, we met an infantry platoon coming down towards us and we let fly with everything and in the village Germans were everywhere. My tank was hit and disabled so I had to dismount but met up with Canadians to form a plan. Eventually we cleared the village of about 1000 German troops and for this action I was awarded my second MC.
On VE day we were back in Holland in a lovely little town called Kevorden and when we heard Winston Churchill鈥檚 broadcast both British and Dutch went mad.

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