大象传媒

Written by Michael Green:
I was 18 and a half when I was called up on February 4th 1942 and had to travel up from Salisbury to the garrison at Colchester (Hyderabad Barracks) to start my 6 weeks basic training. Miraculously I was posted as top recruit and because of this the Sergeant Major offered me the opportunity to train as a physical training instructor and to participate in a course at Kingston-Upon-Thames with the opportunity of coming out as a sergeant. I turned this down as I felt that as I had done well at shooting with the rifle and the Bren gun and I really fancied something in heavy artillery or tanks and since, prior to call up, I had worked a crawler tractor instead of horses on a farm, it seemed like a good idea.

On parade I was presented with two silver spoons (both second hand) for first in rifle shooting and one for accuracy with the Bren and consequently the adjutant gave me a verbal test on shooting, one of the questions being 鈥淲hat do you do if your troops are attacked by aircraft?鈥� my answer was to take cover and order guns to fire with 鈥榦pen sites鈥� which meant basically long distance.
Perhaps because of this I was near to going with Ox& Bucks Light Infantry but eventually I managed a posting to REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) at Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester on a course for driving and driver mechanic on D.D. 鈥榮wimming鈥� Sherman tanks.
We shifted around a lot and moved from the north down to Harlow in Essex then on to Bovington in Dorset and back to Ashton-under-Lyne.

Of the 25 men on this course 12 of us progressed further and we were packed of to Troon in Scotland to join a specialized unit which was to work further on the so called 鈥榮wimming tank鈥�. Churchill had ordered urgent work to be done on the development of the tank able to operate at sea.
This first work was to drive two D.8. Jack Holden caterpillar tractors out to sea at low tide and leave them there for two days. When brought back they were dismantled completely and every part checked out for damage by sea water.
After much work we were back down to Bovington climbing earth walls in our tanks at 35 to 40 degrees and other hair raising tests. The secret when hurtling down a sheer drop was just before you hit the bottom was to accelerate away before the nose dug in!
Back up to troon, the sea going tanks tests and fitments were completed and 5 out of the original 12 left there as fully qualified and 鈥榬eady for action鈥� as it were.

The D.D. (Dulux Drive) Sherman 鈥榮wimming鈥� tank was a normal Sherman tank made water tight and with special flotation equipment attached. This consisted of gas cylinders which would allow a flow of lighter than air gas around steel tubes which in turn pumped up heavy duty inner tubes all around the tank. This would raise a surrounding canvass shroud up the sides of the tank to above turret level. (There was also a small bilge pump to get rid of water coming in over the side but it was not very effective). There were two 鈥榮crews鈥� at the back for in water propulsion which were not independent of the main shaft. This kit applied to tanks with the normal large calibre guns and to my A.V.R (armoured vehicle recovery) tank which basically was the same but without the main turret gun but retaining heavy machine guns.

After travelling to various army units down the East Coast of England without our tanks we eventually met up with them at Tunbridge Wells. This was 3 days before 鈥楧鈥� day but of course we didn鈥檛 know at the time. There were rumours we were off to Italy and maybe something big was on but anyway we got our marching orders and our Sherman Swimming tank hit the road at 10.30pm with orders to check our map reference orders once on the Guildford By-Pass!
Orders were to go to Southampton and I will never forget the council estate we parked up in when we got there. All the roads were named after flowers. We parked in Primrose Road.
The unit we were attached to was the 13th /18th Hussars and tasked to recover and repair tanks in the field under battle conditions. In action we were to get to tanks damaged or broken that were saveable. Normally we only gave about a couple of hours work maximum to save a tank depending on conditions and risk.
So the action began and on 鈥楧鈥� Day we were at sea for two days (due to one cancellation). Things were getting pretty bad as we were in a landing craft holding 8 tanks being fairly tossed around and therefore sea sickness and fitness for battle was becoming a concern. Then at 3am in the morning we were brought through the lines of hundreds of ships and ahead of the warships that were ready to give the German coastal batteries a pasting. There were 5 marker buoys dropped for our landing craft to line up on and then beyond the buoys was a lone landing craft which we followed on the way to 鈥楽word鈥� landing beach (Lion sur Mer).

Of course I could see nothing of what was going on in my tank and could only listen to reports from our commando over the radio phone. Anyway at 3 miles out at sea (much too far) we were launched and if the boat dipped into a wave as you went off you virtually had it鈥� straight down! I was lucky hit a smooth patch and was under way as thousands of shelled wined overhead towards the German instillations, courtesy of the British Navy.
We lost 21 tanks out of the 40 going in and I never saw my four mates again. When we reached the beach at about 6.50am the only troops ahead of us were the commandoes and we were under heavy machine gun and small arms fire and of course mines were everywhere. We pulled the lever to release the gas which activated the surrounding flotation gear to concertina alongside of the tank and out of the way.
Eventually we crossed the sand dunes and pushed inland as far as possible under orders to turn back under heavy fire. We had to convince the Germans at this stage we were not just the thin line we really were, so we were ducking and weaving in the battle of the hedge rows as it was known. A big problem was as our tanks went over the hedges and banks the belly of the tank was very exposed and we suffered badly in this situation from accurate shooting from the anti-tank gunners. Fortuitously an on the spot invention called the angle iron, three large metal V鈥檚, were welded on the front of the tank which enabled them to push through rather than going up and over.

After about three weeks we were able to move on but was caught up in a fierce tank battle at Tilly sur Seulles where we lost 135 tanks in one day. By the time we had got beyond Caen the 13th/ 18th Hussars were torn apart and we had to join up with the 20th Hussars before reforming up later on during the battle across Europe.

Eventually we moved across France into Belgium and on to Holland. I remember a wonderful stop in Belgium, called Louvain, where a Stella Artois brewery was situated (and perhaps still is) and we were gratefully loaded up with stacks of fine larger beer! Also in Holland near Nijmegan I got to know a Belgium chap called Frank Verbist who had been evacuated there. We became firm friends and I vowed I would help him with his English after the war. I did and we have remained friends now for 60 years. Nearer Nijmegan we lost 12 out of our 13 Sherman鈥檚 in one action鈥� not such a good day! Also trying to circumnavigate Arnham I was injured when an 88mm shell that had reached the end of its trajectory, (which I saw coming, turning over and over) hit the lower front of my tank and exploded. I suffered a nasty foot wound but was able to carry on after medical attention and only bootless for a short period of time.

My war ended at Lunenburg Heath near Hamburg where the surrender was signed (May 4th 1945), but before I left Germany for home I helped sorting out usable lathes from the bombed Krupps factory at Potsdam. They were all shipped home to England, like I suddenly found myself, because instead of staying on for two years as an occupational soldier I was called back to the land under what was called 鈥楤鈥� release and so very soon I was back to my 鈥榩eaceful鈥� crawler tractor, my war was over.

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