91ÈȱŹ

III. The Troop and the Tank

There were three tanks in a Troop; a crew of four in the ‘Valentine’ which was the first tank used by the Squadron and five in the ‘Sherman’. The Troop was led by a Lieutenant, the other tanks by a Sergeant and a Corporal respectively. I was the gunner operator in the Corporal’s tank.
The driver of our tank was a well-built Somerset youth; a straight nose, small eyes and an oval face; by mid day he had grown black stubble. In civilian life he drove a coal lorry, a ‘Reo-Speed Wagon’ and as he lived in Midsomer Norton, was presumably connected with the coal industry in that area. He is mentioned first as he was the lynch pin of the tank. Cliff saw that the tank was fuelled and stocked with ammo. He also supervised the stowing of bedding which was wrapped in a tarpaulin lashed on the top of the rear engine casing, and he generally made sure the tank was fully operational. He was wounded in the legs in Germany when he attempted to rescue me after the tank had been hit. Unlike the ‘Valentine’ the ‘Sherman’ had a co-driver who was also tall and came from Birmingham. Wilf very rarely spoke and appeared to have a look of blank surprise on his face; a pleasant boy who was returned to the UK from Nijmegen with battle fatigue. He rejoined the Regiment in Germany before the campaign ended. Stan the gunner took his job seriously. He joined the Regiment as a band boy and came from Liverpool, of dark complexion he too was not very communicative, spoke with a slight impediment and did not look at the person he was talking to. He was killed on the 8th September 1944 at Oostham, Belgium. Ken became his replacement as gunner. The Corporal was about 30 years old; older than the other members of the Troop who were 19 or 20. He was also large and walked with a confident gait and tended to assert himself. The fact that he was myopic was not very encouraging. He had the top bunk in the corner of the hut at Heveningham and slept on an inflatable ‘Li-Lo’. This met its end in France when a mortar bomb landed next to the rear of the tank. Wilf, the Corporal, was invalided home in the middle of the Normandy campaign. In the bottom bunk below the Corporal was the Lance Corporal who drove the Troop Leader’s tank. Dennis had been a Territorial and looked the real cavalry soldier with a fairish moustache. Similar to the rest of the Troop he was cheerful, helpful and respected; with shy eyes he looked at the speaker sideways and usually responded with a chuckle. He was killed a week after D-Day on the 14th June at Verrieres.
Some of the members of the Troop and Squadron paired up. Doug and Eddie were close companions giving each other support and friendship. Both were killed on the same day as Dennis together with both the Johns during the action at Verriùres. One of the Johns looked very young with a fresh complexion and middle class. The other John was my friend and was from Newcastle. Off duty we were rarely apart. He was the Troop Leader’s wireless operator. The two Johns were similar in appearance and background; well brought up and polite. In another Troop if you saw Baker then Bosco was not very far away - street wise they say now. This pairing was quite common.
The Troop lived at one end of the hut; we worked trained and spent our leisure time together; the majority were killed or wounded.
The Sergeant lived in a separate hut; he was from South Wales. He could assert his authority but was gentle with it. He too was killed on the 14th June at VerriĂšres and with one of the Johns, was never found. They were listed on the Memorial at Bayeux as missing. (During a recent trip to VerrĂšres/LingĂšvres a local farmer told me that two bodies that were found buried by the farm wall close to the area where they were killed were thought at the time to be the graves of two Germans. These could have been the graves of the Sergeant and John)
The Lieutenant was about 25, older than the majority of the Troop and public school. Usually he remained aloof and this could have been due to shyness or an inability to get on with the ‘lower orders’. He was wounded soon after D-Day as were two of his crew. He did not return to the Regiment until the end of the campaign and ignored Wilf, the co-driver, when they eventually met up.
After the Troop Leader was wounded a replacement Second Lieutenant took over the Troop fresh from the UK and the action at VerriĂšres the 14th June was his first. He too was killed.

The ‘Valentine’ tank converted to the amphibious version termed DD - Duplex Drive - was the tank which ‘B’ and ‘C’ Squadrons trained with for the invasion.
The DD version of the ‘Sherman’ was used for the beach landings and the standard type, which were delivered in July 1943, for the campaign in NW Europe. It had a high profile and was powered by two 150 horsepower engines. It had a good turn of speed, maximum about 29 miles per hour. The 88 mm German anti-tank gun outclassed the 75-mm gun of the ‘Sherman’ and the tank was no match against the German ‘Panther’. The 75-mm was unable to penetrate the frontal armour of the ‘Panther’. The cast armour of the ‘Sherman’ lacked the toughness of steel plate. I found that a bullet from a German ‘Spandau’ machine gun had penetrated right into the armour of the turret and after another engagement a mortar bomb had gouged gashes out of the engine casing. As additional protection track plates were welded on to the turret and to the front of the tank and these did deflect armour-piercing shells. The turret was electrically operated for traversing and the gun had a gyro stabiliser. I was the gunner operator in the Corporal’s tank and sat on a small pull-down seat to the left of the main 75 mm gun. My job was to load the 75-mm gun and the 300 Browning machine gun, which was situated to the left of the main gun. The turret had a No 19 wireless set in a rear alcove and was capable of sending and receiving messages when ‘A’ set was switched for long distances, ‘B’ set for inter-Troop communications and it could be switched for intercom between crew members. The set had to be ‘netted’ on to a wavelength. If the ‘rear link’ switch was accidentally on then all intercom conversation was heard on the ‘A’ set. On one occasion during an exercise Joe, an operator, was heard chatting by the whole Squadron. The Squadron Leader came on the air to say “Get off the net” in a very irritable way. Joe was heard to say “Niggly isn’t he” and then realised he was the culprit.
On the rim of the hatch to the turret a 500 Browning machine gun was mounted for anti-aircraft defence. We found that the gun was not very reliable and was in the way for getting in and out of the turret, especially in a hurry. Joe was injured in the stomach just before D- Day during a practice firing. He rejoined the Regiment in France and was wounded during the early days of the Normandy campaign. The Browning on our tank was given away to a Canadian by one of the crew.
The turret had only one hatch for the commander who stood behind the gunner. There was no hatch for the operator - one was fitted on much later models - and to exit he had to duck under the main gun and in an emergency wait for the gunner and commander to get out. In action it was impossible for the operator to get out quickly - the tank would brew up in two or three seconds, which meant certain death.
The tank track was narrow and so was not able to traverse soft ground. A ‘Whirlwind’ aircraft engine powered the first ‘Sherman’ we had. Before it could be started the engine had to be turned over manually with a handle similar to a car-starting handle to get rid of the hydrostatic lock in the bottom cylinders. The replacement tank we had in France was a diesel. The ‘Sherman’ tank was renowned for bursting into flames and had the nickname ‘Ronson Lighter’. The Germans called it ‘Tommy Cooker’. When they burnt, they burnt fiercely and it was unbelievable that a vehicle which was mostly of metal could be so inflammable.
The driver sat on the left in the front compartment with two steering columns and with his own hatch. The co-driver sat on the right with a 300 Browning machine gun also with his own hatch. If the main gun was traversed in the wrong direction over one of the front hatches, then it could not be opened. There was an escape hatch in the floor but it was difficult to release.
In France a fourth tank was added to the Troop. This was the ‘Firefly’ with a 17-pounder gun. This was a large gun firing Sabot armour piercing ammunition. The shell consisted of a hard centre and soft casing. When it struck armour the soft casing did not penetrate but impelled the hard shell forward. It was very effective against the ‘Panther’. Because of the large shell case the co-driver’s compartment in the ‘Firefly’ was a storage compartment so the complement of the tank was four. It is most probable that the Germans considered the 75mm ‘Sherman’ quite safe to chase until they realised that there was a more formidable version to contend with.
The amphibious version of the ‘Valentine’ and ‘Sherman’ - the DD tank or Duplex Drive - was the brainchild of a 54 year old Hungarian, Nicholas Straussler. There was a narrow deck around the tank above track level which supported a vertical canvas screen. The screen could be raised by columns of compressed air and secured in place by stays similar in style to stays on the hood of a pram, locking when in a straight line. Cams on the stays were activated by the driver that released the locking joint when the screen collapsed to lie on the deck. You had to stand clear of the screen when it collapsed as it went down with a crash and would have made a nasty mess of a foot.
The tank was steered by a tiller at the rear and was driven by propellers that could be lowered or raised on dry land. The tank was also fitted with a bilge pump.
The ‘Valentine’ had a mast with ‘Port’ and ‘Starboard’ lights.
The tanks in the water looked similar to boats, the majority of the vehicle being below the waterline. The principle of displacement enabled the tanks to float.

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