大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Helen Oram, Scotland csv on behalf of Thomas T Carmichael and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Initially I was in the 51st Highland Division but was disengaged and joined the Tank Corps as part of the British Expeditionary Force, 1939-40. Our first actions were at Ath, a small village in Belgium. We soon discovered that the Germans had a very fine army, with much superior equipment. We were using old, First World War equipment and did not have enough transport.

We were doing rearguard actions, setting up roadblocks. We came back through Tournai and Lille, passing droves of refugees, civilian and military.

We joined the Welsh Guards and the Yeomanry at the hill-top town of Cassel. There we got bombed and shelled. The Germans surrounded us on the hill. We could see black smoke in the distance, rising from the beaches of Dunkirk. Captain Palmer told us, "Make for it."

We moved to the north of the hill to a chateau, where we looked down on to German units. There were German spotting planes operating. We saw thirty German bombers going over to bomb the beaches. We had no air support. We had four gun artillery dating from the First World war and three of the guns were knocked out.

Around midday there was a big storm and torrential rain. This gave us the opportunity to move. We dumped everything on to the Welsh Guards and travelled for about ten miles to the outskirts of Oostcapell. Brigadier Norman ordered us to hold a cross-roads for six hours to allow the units through. We held the cross-roads but were outflanked. German Mark 3s were shooting up the hedges and ditches. Behind the road-block a colonel, the M.O. and others were killed and men wounded.

Captain Palmer was called to a conference of colonels. He gave me the order, "Carmichael, pick me up". He took a short-cut across to a small farmhouse. I was driving a light tank up up the farm road. I hung up my earphones and suddenly realised what was happening. I had not seen two German Mark 3s coming through the fence. I heard a thud and the engine stopped. I baled out.

This was the final skirmish. It started to get dark. I lay watching tracer shooting across the field. I rolled across the field and into a ditch. The Germans were shooting up the ditches. A lot of wounded were trying to get across the field. I bumped into Brigadier Norman who was in the ditch as well. With the darkness the shooting died down and the German tanks disappeared.

We were told to make for Bray-dunes. "Pull back and go to the other side of the canal." We got up to the canal and held it for a bit. There was a lot of stuff like trucks and lorries abandoned in the canal.

I walked for ten miles during the night, hungry and tired, having not slept for days. I got to the stage that I wasn't worried any more. I got to the dunes. There was no evacuation from the shore. The German battery was shelling the beaches.

The date was either the 1st or the 2nd of June. Two mine-sweepers turned up. The tide was coming in. I was lucky. I got on to one of the mine-sweepers and they picked up the remaining units. The stoker gave me a mug of tea and a sandwich of bully.

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