Service Record

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"I joined the Lothian and Border Horse Regiment; they were from the North African desert campaign, the Desert Rats. They had been out there for a couple of years already and I wasn't exactly accepted with open arms. I think it was just because I was inexperienced and I was replacing chaps who they had served with for years and they didn't know my capabilities, whether I'd let them down. It's a matter of trust. The tank crew is a tight knitted group and because you are dependent on each other so much you must have trust in your comrades. My main function there was as a driver, you are prepared to do any job on the tank and each man had his main one. I was hoping to be the number two driver as I was the youngest and most inexperienced but, I don't know the reason, my co-driver was a chap of about 27, a regular soldier. He had been in the Army seven years and he insisted that I be the No. 1 driver. I think it was that he was a little bit over the top, fed up with the war, and he just had the attitude 'your new you deal with it'."

"I reluctantly took the job as No. 1 at the age of 19. Salerno was my first time in action when the plan was outlined to us it seemed straight forward, come off the tank landing craft, up the beach, and the objective was about a mile inland. It was all right up until I hit the beach and then it became very frightening, it was my first time under fire. We had some close bursts near us, I felt the tank shuddering under the impact and the engine started misfiring which concerned me a lot because as the driver I had to keep that tank running. The commander was screaming orders to me go forward, back and sideways but with the dust, smoke and noise he couldn't find the target. we were being fired on but he couldn't find the target and he wanted me to move across about 100 yards to the left to get what they call a hull-down position. That is the tank is below ground level except for the turret because the fire was coming directly at us. I saw a good spot, I couldn't see much through my periscope because of the smoke and dust so unwittingly I raised the seat, opened the hatch, and put my head out. I could feel the splattering of the machine gun fire on the tank, it was somewhat disconcerting but I couldn't see, I was blind, and when he said move over to the left I looked out and the infantry was lying all-round the tank, taking cover so I couldn't move."  

"I said 'I can't move, infantry on the ground in front of me' and the commander was screaming, he was getting a little bit up tight and while we decided what to do there was a a great shudder on the tank and a blast of hot air and flame, I bailed out to the left and rolled to the side of the tank and lay there. I never saw the crew, which way they went, or even if any jumped out but I lay there and managed to prop myself up. But then it's all went silent, it affected my ear drums, I had gone deaf. There was blood coming out of my left ear, and I just sat there. I didn't know what to do and I started smoking. I must have sat there for about half an-hour and the infantry gradually crawled away from me so I was left alone. An American officer with three men came running up to me and he started talking to and waving his arms at me. Obviously he was asking me questions but I couldn't hear a damn thing he said, so I just waved me arms about, he just waved his arms at me and then in disgust rushed off I lay there for another half-an-hour and some medical chaps came along and took me back to the beach and they put me on a landing craft, took me back to Sicily where they looked at my ears, they were punctured so they decided I was no good, no further use to them."

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