大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Edward Fawcett for Three Counties Action on behalf of James Ford and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.I was called up into an infantry regiment and in December 1942 the regiment was converted into an armoured corps,141st RAC( The Buffs ). We were on Churchill gun tanks and in early '44 we were converted to be flame throwing tanks, the only ones in the Army.On 23rd June we went to Normandy.The regiment went into action at the end of the month.It was split up working with different units and even different armies,for instance British, Canadian, American but never the French.For instance at the end of Novemberwe went in to take Geilenkirchen with a "green" American unit and we got shot up pretty bad.January '45, Operation Black Cock. We went NE from Sittard and got to a place called Echt because there was a hold up there.We went forward and did some flaming there but had to go back but we returned the next day.I was in a gun tank, the command tank.In an attack we went forward and found ourselves ahead of the infantry and the "crocodiles"(the flame throwing tanks),stopping adjacent to a farm where we hit by Panzerfaust(anti tank gun).The tank jammed in reverse gear and we had to abandon the tank because we were being hit.I managed to get to a slit trench in the garden of the farmhouse with the wounded gunner.We waited for an advance but it never happened, the Germans came instead.It felt unreal, we never thought of being taken prisoner.I was marched back to a German base where a guard tried to remove my tanksuit.I disagreed ! and won.The next day with a single guard,me pushing a bicycle(so the German could ride back) we went the 20kms to Dusseldorf.Then via various houses and four different trains we reached the outskirts of Hanover.The lack of food was very obvious,we often only had a small piece of black bread,a little thin gruel to last a whole day At one station we were so flaked out we sat down and the German civilians who went by spat on us.Eventually we ended up up at Stalag XI B at Fallingbostel on the 31st January 1945. Waiting to be let in the main compound a squaddie on the other side of the wire said throw the tank suit over or you'll lose it.Ididn't know whether to trust him at first but I took the chance and through it over.When I went through I lost my pullover to the Germans but the squaddie gave me back the suit.The POW's in that camp were reasonably well disciplined.I was moved to Stalag 357 on 22nd February which was all aircrew,I wonder if the Germans thought I was aircrew because of my tanksuit? This was a well organised camp,food was scruplously divided.The "chips"(news about the war) came every day from a hidden radio.On 6th April 500 POW's marched out NE ward. We stopped at night, sometimes in barns often in the open with snow on the ground still,hence the love of my tanksuit.We crossed the Elbe at Laurenberg on 17th April after walking maybe 80 to 100kms.At one point I collapsed into a ditch,I just couldn't go on.The German at the end of the column said "komm" and went on and I got up and caught up hoping for food.We marched a further 60km then turned westwards because we thought they heard the Russians were coming.We told the guards to stay with us to protect us and some of us even carried an elderly German guard's rifle for him! We only moved 14km west when we came to a standstill on 2nd May.Then Scout cars of the 7th Armoured went by,pausing briefly for a chat.When we saw them we were so happy, we were free, that was enough.

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