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This story has been entered onto the sight by Sophie on behalf of John Gribbon who fully understands the conditions.

John Gribbon was a member of the 11th Armoured Brigade also known as Black Bull; which proved itself throughout the campaign in North Western Europe an outstandingly fine division, even after sustaining considerable losses. This division had heavier casualties than any other armoured brigade in Second Army. However there was always a sound and well trained nucleus to fall back on.
Here are some memorable and exciting recollections of his time.

My earliest memory was that of the first operation, Hill 112. We had just landed upon the soil of France on June 13th and 14th 1944. The exact spot was the Normandy coast on D- Day.
We progressed slowly against a determined opposition. I was feeling very excited, everyone thought of it as an adventure. We had never done anything like this before. Morale was never low; we had excellent commanders who bestowed encouragement. We were covering fire for our commanders to cross the river to attack. We were told to support the infantry and cover them in case of an attack. Drastically the Germans spotted us in the beating hot sunlight. As terror engulfed me I heard echoing sounds of gun fire as the airburst on top of the guns. I dived out of the way. Unfortunately many friends of mine lost their lives; many were wounded or caught up with shrapnel metal. But I was extremely lucky I escaped with just a banged knee. It happened so quickly I only became aware of how lucky I was until hours afterwards.

When engaged in battle you had little time or inclination to address yourself to the battles of other people. So I learned on one of our later achievements. We were in the Falaise gap. It was a terrible day I remember the mood of the men we had injury’s lack of sleep and lack of food. I was in a tank at the time of the attack, we were trying to capture a small city called Antwerp, unfortunately to my dismay German airforce started firing above me. I was only concentrating on fighting my own battle when hearing the terrifying shouts of the men burning alive in the tank. I scrambled towards them sweat pouring down my face, but it was too late the tank exploded just metres in front of me. But what could I have done? You have to cope in battle with having no regrets or feeling any guilt. They died fighting for their country that’s what they would have wanted.

Food was always scarce we had to live off the land. Often we raided farms evacuated by Germans. There we would find chickens and milk. Chasing the chickens was a very tedious job as men ran around chasing after them. It was a humorous sight as we tried impatiently to twist their necks as they clucked around our feet.
As you can see from the picture and newspaper clipping it was an extremely important brigade. We fought tremendously with great enthusiasm. Here are some more astonishing facts and figures from ‘Taurus pursuant a history of the 11th armoured brigade’. We were also the first British troops to liberate the horrific concentration camp of Belsen.

Ordnance services issued the following numbers of vehicles and started to replace those destroyed by enemy action or damaged beyond repair as a result of accidents

327 Motor cycles
140 Jeeps
74 Half track
135 Three tonne Lorries
198 Carriers
124 Scout cars
48 Bren guns
476 Pistols
179 Piats
143 2inch motors
1166 Pairs of binoculars
2200Watches

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