"From Normandy to Baltic sea by battle tank"

Thanks to Merlin I recently learned a lot about how it is riding a tank into battle.
Merlin sent me a copy of a book ‘From Normandy to Baltic sea by Battle tank’ written by his old friend Ernst Hamilton Ex.Sgt Tank Commander 15/19 Hussars.
This book is about 43 pages and is not commercially available but I hope it will be available as a PDF document.

Ernest’s book does not describe tank combat in details, is contains no armour penetration tables,statistics, technical comparisons, tactical analysis etc.
No his book is a personal account, describing in his own convincingly soft-spoken voice about a young boy at 18 years volunteering (against his fathers knowledge and wish) as a R.A.F tail-gunner.
Being too young he ended up being trained to drive a tank instead.

Ernst describes in details how the British army accommodated equipped, trained, fed and paid (quite poorly is must be said) its soldiers.

His book is about comrade-ship, fear, good and bad luck, the horrors of being in a tank being hit, being wounded and having to abandon a burning tank, seeing comrades and close friends leaping of their burning tanks, shooting at other human beings. Happily he also remembers the more joyous moments such as driving a beautiful ‘liberated’ Mercedes Benz and relaxing (after the armistice) at the coast sailing private yachts

Regarding tanks he was first trained on Covenanters and Crusaders, later on Centaurs and Cromwell tanks.
The Centaur didn’t last very long as they experienced a severe flaw in the clutch
Quote “… which sometimes disintegrated when going down some steep hillside in a low gear, also the brake anchorage was a very weak point’.

The sections describing his training on D.D tanks is especially interesting, he describes in details how the soldiers were taught to escape a sinking tank using the Davis escape apparatus.
First drill was in a 60 feet escape tower, just like submariners, second drill was abandoning a tank located in a deep pit being rapidly filled with water, and lastly actually using the D.D tanks at sea. Being Trained on Cromwell’s they didn’t approve of the Sherman tanks being used.

In the end Ernst didn’t actually fight a D.D. tank, arriving in Normandy after D-day, He was assigned as a tank gunner in a brand-new Cromwell tank.
After his unit had taken casualties he was promoted tank commander (acting unpaid Lance Corporal).

Soon he was wounded in an action against German tanks and evacuated. As opposed to many other wounded he was able to return to service, this time as a Corporal in charge of a brand-new Comet tank, a very popular improvement on the Cromwell tank.

I think it is important to read stories like Ernst Hamilton’s personal account, it remind the reader, that tanks are not just interesting mechanical marvels, they were and are deadly and yet vulnerable and uncomfortable homes and often flaming graves of brave young men. It also tells us what we already should know, war is not an adventure or an interesting game.

In his conclusion Ernst writes “….I don’t think I could face the same dangers ever again. “ and later “ When old men get together and tells tales of our ‘Adventures’, some of the younger ones are saying to themselves ‘How could that old bastard fight a war ?’ (Well luckily for them we did fight a war and we won)”
I think that all ‘the old bastards’ deserve our sincere gratitude and respect !

 

that is what i been looking for, the personal account of a tanker,s
how soon can we get the file?
thanks!!

p.s
"those old bastards" are the most respected, by me at least, persons of the whole world, thanks to them we are what we are , free!!!!!!

 

I can't promise anything, as I wrote : I hope it will available as a PDF document, and I have written to Merlin for permission to make such a document.
Try to sen Merlin a private message.