大象传媒

Tanks For The Memories

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Sylvia Perry from 大象传媒 Essex on behalf of Charles Carter and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I joined the army in February 1942 and because I was from the farming fraternity I had previous knowledge of tracked vehicles. After six weeks training at Colchester I then went to Ashton-Under-Lyne to join the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers 鈥淩ough Engineering Made Easy鈥�. I then saw service and did different tank related courses and then went to Scotland with 20 other tank drivers. We were the initial Armoured Recovery Units at Troon. We were trained in water proofing and testing. Two large crawler tractors were deliberately left in the sea some distance from the shoreline so that at high tide they were completely submerged. We then had to recover them and strip them down to see what damage had been done. After 2 鈥� 3 months there they brought in the D D Shermans. These tanks had a canvas apron mounted on metal tubing surrounding the mid-section so that they would be floating whilst under engine power in the sea.

We hopped down the coast until we reached Tonbridge and were there until D-Day was approaching. We had an issue of tanks to the 3 units but we thought from rumours that we were bound for the Italian Campaign. However, during the last day of May (Saturday?) we received 3 DD鈥檚 and in convoy went to an undisclosed map reference to the Hogs Back, Guildford. We were then told we were going to Southampton. We arrived to find all the roads were chock-a-bloc with armoured vehicles of every type.

We drove to the docks where we had to remain, confined to barracks. On the 3rd in the early hours we loaded up on an L.C.T. ( landing craft tank ) with 8 on each craft. Because of the poor weather we bobbed about round the Isle of Wight for 24 hours whilst the invasion was postponed. Then on the 5th we were moved out into the Channel. At 3 a.m. on the 6th we were directed through the lines of shipping and posted in front of the war-ships which were all lined up. The sea was pretty rough, we couldn鈥檛 see much from inside the tank but at 3 p.m. we cast off and headed for France 鈥� our destination was to be Sword beach. We had a small Royal Marine boat with a red disc displayed which we had to follow to arrive at the correct point. Our destination was Leon Sur Mer which was on the left flank of the beach area. We were there for three days then eventually reached the area of Caen We went to the beach and began the recovery of the many knocked out and damaged tanks. We only attended tanks which could be moved, picked up and repaired. We were only allowed to remain in one spot for a maximum of 15 minutes because we鈥檇 be picked off by the |German defenders, heavy artillery, which was still very active in the area.

In this particular instance we came upon a Sherman which had track damage. The system was to get as close as possible to the tank and effect a body or track damage repair. To do this we used a four foot metal pole which had steel tips. This was used to prise off the old track by sticking it with a fourteen pound sledgehammer. I used the hammer and Eddy Painter held the pole against the tracks. On one occasion we found the uneaten meal of a German crew still warm. It was the first time I鈥檇 had German sausage. We were hungry and it went down a treat.

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