大象传媒

A most gentle man, very sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, my father's war time experiences must have made a particularly strong impact upon him. He rarely talked of them until shortly before his death in 2004.

When terminally ill he painstakingly typed out a few short notes for me and recounted verbally a few short tales in which failing memory left more gaps than substance. I guess he wanted the experiences to live on after him and so I repeat them here...

Corporal Reginald Charlton Taylor
Army No. 2329892
Royal Corps of Signals 30/10/1939 to 09/04/1946

鈥淭he Corporal who captured a Battalion鈥�.

This story was related not in any sense of heroism 鈥� just a surreal incident among the many that ordinary men experienced in those extraordinary times鈥�

Towards the end of the war Corporal Taylor was attached to the 48th Royal Tank Regiment, subordinate to Captain 鈥淐halky鈥� White. To the best of my father鈥檚 recollection, along with the 46th and 42nd Regiments, they formed the 21st Army Tank Brigade, their lead tank being named 鈥渧ingt et un鈥�.

Charged with maintaining a communications line stretching west-east from an HQ in Bagnacavallo to Ravenna, Corporal Taylor was repairing a telephone line in a ditch one evening when armed Italians surprised him. 鈥淪oldata Inglese鈥� he shouted in something that must have been close enough to Italian to be understood because the phrase was excitedly repeated among the Italians. Corporal Taylor was marched at gunpoint to the Italian officers, where he was treated to wine and somehow given to understand that more Italians than he could count wished to surrender to him !

My father knows he led the Italian officers back to his own commanders but could not recall how he did so or what happened subsequently. (Perhaps a consequence of my father鈥檚 deteriorating memory 60 years on, or perhaps because of the wine consumed at the time ?).

VE Day - Mustering to attack Yugoslavia

The only recollection my father had of the end of the war in Europe was not being aware that the war had ended.

His unit was at Stanghella, mustering to attack Yugoslavia. Security was so tight that his unit was not told of the plan for at least 2 days, or that the war against Germany had ended.

This led to the normally revered Mr Winston Churchill being regarded as a self-seeking warmonger with total disregard for the needs and the release hopes of his war-weary troops.

Dissociated memories.

- being awarded a home made cardboard medal 鈥� the 鈥淕ripper Medal鈥� by his comrades early in the war, in honour of the enthralling (fictional) stories he would relate to while away rest time.

- saying cheerio to a mate heading out to battle 鈥� the man relating to my father that he had previously been in 6 tanks that had been disabled in battle and having certain resignation that 鈥渉is number was up鈥� in the seventh tank His foreboding was justified, he was killed in action that day.

In Africa;

- being in the lead tank of an assault and the tank braking down just before reaching the crown of a hill: The tank that took over from my father鈥檚 was totally destroyed in flames by a direct hit the moment it reached the crown of the hill and was visible to the enemy. (The battle at 鈥淛ebel Jaffa鈥� ?)

- watching a mate with jet-black hair turn white-haired in a matter of weeks, following a prolonged and bitter artillery barrage.

- the carnage of the aftermath of a tank battle; holding a cigarette to the lips of a seriously injured soldier (possibly German ?) beside a destroyed tank.

- a shell landing in his armoured car, and turning out to be a smoke shell, not a high-explosive shell.

- being threatened with being 鈥減ut on a charge鈥� for asking at a battle plan presentation 鈥淲hat about the German aircraft sir ?鈥�. For whatever reason, that offensive never took place. My father wondered whether his question had anything to do with the decision to abort it

- coming across a deserted oasis of fruiting trees and ancient ruins and wondering about their origin and their fate.

- witnessing a captured German cower in terror when a RAF fighter plane passed overhead

In Italy;

- fury at being told by officers that resistance in Italy was finished and that the only opposition remaining comprised of old men and boys, then encountering stiff resistance from well equipped and physically intimidating German troops.

- the immense collective relief when hostilities finally ceased.

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