"John Hodges, who has died aged 93, was awarded an MC in Italy in 1944 and subsequently had a successful TEACHING CAREER. On June 17 1944, Hodges was COMMANDING one of the forward troops of 3rd the King’s Own Hussars (3 KOH) in the advance on Città della Pieve, north of Orvieto. The approach to the town curved around the side of a hill; on one side was a steep drop, on the other an unclimbable bank. Above them, the orchard was teeming with German paratroopers. Hodges’s troop of three tanks nosed carefully around the CORNERand past an enemy 88mm anti-tank gun with its crew lying dead beside it. Between him and the nearest HOUSES, there was 500 yards completely devoid of cover. Suddenly, two anti-tank guns OPENED up from 400 yards away. Hodges’s troop sergeant’s leading tank was hit and slewed across the road, its rear end see-sawing over the edge of the precipice, blocking the way forward. The tank behind was also hit and immobilised, its 75mm gun silent as the gunner had had some sort of breakdown and, impervious to threats or inducements, was lying huddled on the floor of the turret. Hodges’s tank returned fire until a high-velocity shell passed within an inch of his head with the noise of an EXPRESS train. He yelled “Bail out!” down the intercom — but his crew, unaware just how precarious their situation was, chose to stay put. Related Articles Hodges jumped out and, using hand signals, directed his driver to reverse around the corner. He then remembered that, concealed inside his sergeant’s tank, there was a precious bottle of Canadian whisky; so he moved forward and mounted the tank. There was already a round “up the spout” and he fired, as he said afterwards, in the general direction of the town, having aimed by kicking the barrel with his feet. The citation for his MC recorded that he had knocked out three enemy guns and had ENABLED the infantry to get into the town without suffering casualties. More important to him, however, was the successful recovery of the treasured whisky. John HENDERSON Hodges was born at Abergavenny on July 31 1921 and EDUCATED at Monmouth School, where he was good at sport and won a prize for playing the piano. In spring 1940 he went to Paris and studied Phonetics at the Sorbonne and the British Institute. When the sound of approaching German artillery could be heard, he climbed over the railings at the Gare St Lazare and fought his way on to the last train leaving Paris. At Bordeaux, he took a number of trains before ARRIVING at St Malo and finding a vessel bound for Southampton. After basic training at Warminster, Wiltshire, in August 1942 he was commissioned from Sandhurst into the East Riding Yeomanry. In January 1943, after three months at sea, he arrived at the Royal Armoured Corps base camp near Cairo where he transferred to 3 KOH, which had suffered bad losses at the Battle of El Alamein." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11253144/John-Hodges-obituary.html
