大象传媒

The tanks which we used in our Regiment during the fighting were Churchill Tanks with a flame-throwing trailer at the rear. While we were in England, we were trained on other tanks as well. We had Valentines, Crusaders, Covenanters, Cromwells, Centaurs and for a short while Shermans. The first three which I have named were obsolete by the time of the invasion, but the other three, and the churchills, were all used a lot after D-day.
I saw the programme about the Hood and the Bismark and they were very interesting. It just shows what really happens at sea and how dangerous it is to be a sailor. When a ship is sunk the sailors have to swim as well as they can, but if a tank gets knocked out, the crew have the chance to run on solid ground.
The tinned food which we heated up on the exhaust was held in place with wire round the tins and the exhaust, but we had to make a hole in the tin to let some of the air out when it got hot. Sometimes the hole wasn't big enough and the tin would explode and you can imagine what the smell was like, food burning on the hot engine. We didn't use this method very often when we were moving.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.