大象传媒

鈥淭his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jan Hewett, a volunteer from 大象传媒 Three Counties Action at The British Legion on behalf of Reginald Kirk and has been added to this site with his/her permission. The person fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

Name: Reginald Kirk
Location: Burma.

Title: Knocked off tracks.

When you鈥檙e in a tank you feel as though you have some protection around you.
The gunner is the first one in, the loader second, the commander third. The gunner gets in together with the loader. The wireless operator sits beside the driver on the left in the turret itself. One side door opens up onto a 75mm gun and there鈥檚 a Browning machine gun at the side. The tank has an aircraft engine, which uses 98 high octane. This is highly inflammable. The tanks are called Grants and Lees. Across the back of the tank is an air vent for the engine. This makes the tank very vulnerable if hit from behind. The turret presents a big target. If hit the tank brews up and you don鈥檛 stand a chance.
The tank crew consists of 7 men.
We were off that morning into the unknown. We had shells all around u. We were hit by an HE (High Explosive) incendiary. It didn鈥檛 penetrate us but it slewed us round and tipped us on one side. There we were knocked off our tracks and immobile and very vulnerable. The driver could feel we were off our tracks, so he ordered 鈥滱bandon Tank鈥�.
I was the loader and I was lucky because the side door wasn鈥檛 blocked and I could open it. The loader is lucky. He stands on a plate and can pull it out and get out when everyone is out. All 6 members have 38 revolvers but the loader has a tommy gun. He gets out grabbing as much tommy ammo as he can and gives covering fire for the others to get out. The tank commander knows where he鈥檚 going but as a loader I don鈥檛 know where the enemy is. I鈥檓 an infantry man now and very vulnerable. We are in open fields with 2 big hedges at the side and trees on one side with a ditch. The Japs were there firing small ammo- small mortar fire, missing us by miles. We didn鈥檛 know if we could get back to get our haversacks etc., or the cargle of water. This was a canvas bag of water hanging on the side of the tank. You always hoped to hell it didn鈥檛 get shot. We had our own water bottles. The tank commander gave us the approximate direction as to where our own troops were, and told us to give as much as we can and then go and he would group us again.

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