all the kings enemys

hi all
today i got to visit a genuinely nice bloke gerry, who gave me some stories of his war time years of which i feel i should share.
gerry started his story with him working at the local newspaper ( grimsby telegraph)as an apprentice, but also being in the territorial army apparently at a barracks on augusta street , grimsby .
(he did enjoy the part of when he returned from war to be given a bank book of which were his wages from the telegragh apparently he didnt know that they had to continue his pay while away. nice returning gift 5 years pay)
at the outbreak of war he was assigned to the royal lincolnshire gunners unit as a signalman,
after training he was in france/belgium and spent his 21st birthday on dunkirk beach, he recalled being on the beach at night in darkness and being directed by a navyman from on shore down a make shift pier heavilly shelled by the germans
,"i cant tell you when to jump but there are gaps in the pier when you see one just jump" he did keep jumping and made it to the waiting royal navy destroyer waiting at the end of the pier completely dry and still carrying his rifle only to be told " no room for that lad throw it in the sea"
he says the ship had plenty of french on board which leads me to believe he was one of the later brits to be recovered, i believe there was a brits only policy early on ,but not 100% sure.
he went on to say that the destroyer on its return was sunk by the enemy, he was full of praise for the navy and what they did at dunkirk a proper hats off .
from england he was reposted to the eighth army in the middle east with 25 pounder artillery pieces ,fighting rommel and the itallions where he mentioned the menace of tiger tanks very big and scary compared to everything else at the time.
next he was sent to burma/india with the chindits leaving the artillery behind he said he was trained on gliders for use in the jungle wow , when i showed such surprise in this he mentioned the high loss of men while using these unfortunately placing alot of blame at the feet of american dc3 pilots (sorry i am only trying to accurately recall what he said).fighting the jappanese notorious as we all know of their cruelty, on mentioning this to him , he said the chindits were equally cruel and they gave as good as they got, attrocities happened on all sides.
finnally he ended the war back in europe fighting the germans again around dusseldorf ,but said he never saw action at this stage of the war.


so the title of this post ALL THE KINGS ENEMIES
well this is from a book that gerry said he has participated in writing
"its in the library go get it out" he said
and i can gaurantee i will i have looked it up on google already
it comes from the lincolnshire gunners claim to fame
quote:


This is a remarkable account of the Lincolnshire Gunners during the Second World War. There was probably no unit in the British Army (nor indeed any other army) which served in so many theatres of war. France, Belgium and the retreat from Dunkirk: the South Coast of England where, for many months invasion was expected at any time: North Africa, Iraq (they captured Baghdad), Syria, and back to North Africa: then to India and on to become Chindits in Burma – now becoming infantry, leaving behind thir guns.

not wanting to undermine anything our armed forces do today,( infact they are still the best in the world) i believe they do 6 month tours of duty and then home ,but gerry and his comrades spent 4 years in the middle east and far east ,4 years ,i just can not imagine it, 2 or 3 weeks away from family for me is torture enough,when i get to meet people of those times it really is a humbling experience for me.
i only got a small time with gerry perhaps only half an hour or so but even at 90 years old he was recalling place names dates facts etc with ease something i am sorry to say i can not duplicate so if some things i have posted are not correct i appologise, but what he told me touched a nerve,folk like that are not going to be here forever and i feel snippits like i have gained today need sharing.thanks gerry and much respect

 

I know nothing but were there any tiger tanks in n.africa?

 

There were dispatched a few to Tunis.

 

Certainly, Tigers first entered service in late August 1942 and began to be produced at the rate of 25 vehicles per month. Some did reach North Africa before the surrender of the Germans in May 1943.

 

Well i did say i know nothing.. A tank is an alien craft to me. Thanks for confimation

 

The Germans hoped for the 25 per month, but I don't think that production projection was met for until the second year at least.

First Use

In August 1942, the first 4 production vehicles equipped one platoon of the 1 Company/502nd schwere Panzerabteilung and were sent to Russia at the request of Hitler.(8,p.128)

This was against the advice of the Wehrmacht who wanted to build up the strength of them and use them in the summer offensives in 1943.

On August 29, they joined Army Group North south of Lake Ladoga.8 During the 1st week of September, 1 Tiger (the other 3 were temporarily out of commission) went on an uneventful security patrol. The first action was around Leningrad on September 23, 1942. The attack took place on flat road through a swampy area where the Russian gunners were able to stop them by shooting at their tracks(8 & 9).

The 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion was sent to the southern part of the Eastern Front in December 1942.(8) It was sent to help with the counter attacked that was to break the ring around Stalingrad.(8)

Africa

Encountered by British near Pont du Fahs, Tunisia in February 1943 in Tiger Unit 501. The 2 Tigers that were sent into this battle, accompanied by 9 PzKpfw IIIs & IVs, were knocked out by British 6 pounder guns, of the 72nd Anti-tank Regiment, RA(8), at a range of 500 yards against the flanks of the Tigers.

It was found that extensive reconnaissance was needed to determine if the terrain was going to be suitable for the heavy Tigers.(8) Often the Tigers were placed in the rear of a wedge of Panzer IIIs and IVs.(8) The Panzer IIIs and IVs were to secure the flanks from anti-tank guns and the Tigers to give the main fire support.(8)

8.German Tanks of World War II, Dr. S. Hart & Dr. R. Hart, 1998
9.Tanks of World War II, Duncan Crow, 1979

See:

Germany's Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf E, Tiger, SdKfz 181 - World War II Vehicles, Tanks, and Airplanes

 

Very true, good point.

....but I fear we have hijacked this thread....sorry about that

 

i was surprised to hear this from gerry as well, thinking it was too early for tigers
interesting to have the facts though so no worries on the hijacking please keep going
does any one have any info on gliders in the jungle as this was also a surprise to me.
there is some real top knowledge on this site confirming what little i know

i would really like to spend some more time with gerry but i was invited into his home for work.and to invite myself back i am not sure,but i will read the book and then perhaps have better reason to knock on his door and talk again.

 

Good on you, ktmjohno! I think you should do as Gerry suggested, and read the book.

Then I think your idea of politely contacting him again would be a good one. Since he told you all those things, it seems he might want to talk about his years of service. If he doesn't, he can simply say no.

This is history that shouldn't be lost, if it can be preserved.

 

Wtid45's area with the gliders in burma. Pm him and he may have info on that one.

 

Yep, dont get me wrong i wasnt challenging anything, i genuinely didnt know and wanted to. As you can see the knowledge round here is extraordinary.

 

ktmjohno Good on you for taking the time to listen, and even more so, for sharing Gerry's story with us. In just over 12 hrs his story, and the title of his book!, has reached little old New Zealand and who knows where else.
Under similar circumstances I once met an old war vet, so i can understand how you feel about not wanting to invite your self back to his home. But I will tell you this, i wanted to go back but i second guessed myself. Now he's gone and i regret not going back hugely.
I hope you won't repeat my mistake

 

Well said, KrazyDimondRX. I once met a veteran of the Papua New Guinea campaign as I went to his house to do some work for him. He was very friendly, and now I regret that I didn't ask him to tell me more about his history. I'm sure he would have been willing, since he volunteered the fact of his service without any questions from me. But I didn't think of it at the time, and now I've moved far away.

I'm sad that I missed that opportunity. I think some veterans might want to share their stories while they can. If so, we should be sensitive and allow them the chance -- always, of course, not pushing.

Now that every mobile phone is a video camera, we have a great ability to pick up these bits of our history, and remember our veterans, before they're lost forever.

 

The working Tiger I at Bovington was captured in the North African campaign. Its crew abandoned it when their turret jammed after being hit on the turret ring by a 6pdr shell from a Churchill tank.

At 0.27 in this U-Tube video you can see the dent on the bottom of the turret front where the shell bounced off before jamming the turret

YouTube - Tiger Tank 131 at Bovington Tankfest 2008

 

Right you are redcoat. My short reply was meant to reduce the risk of threadjacking....

 

Operation 'Thursday' March 1944, was to be more than a raid or a reconnaissance Wingate saw it as nothing less than a full scale invasion.It's strategic function was twofold:firstly, to divert Japanese attention from Stilwell's advance towards Myitkyina and cut enemy lines of communication to the northern front;secondly, by aggressive operations in the Mogaung-Indaw area,to intefere with the Japanese build up for 'UGo' .Once the Chindit Brigades had been inserted, they were to construct heavily defended base, or 'strongholds' .This was to be achieved by sending in 77 and 111 LRP BDE by Waco CG-4A Gliders, of which 32 landed at LZ 'Broadway'' out of 67 that had taken off things improved however when the rest of the gliders and C-47s landed at LZ 'Chowringhee' within the next four days, 9,000 troops .1,360 mules and 250 tons of equipment had been landed without further casualtys.Gliders were also used again to send in light Bulldozers to bulid a Dakota strip in May 44 landing at LZ'Blackpool.

 

thanks wtid45
top info.
after reading your post on the gliders i now remember gerry telling me he took part with loading the mules ,and suffered injury from a kick enough to hospitalize him,i think it was a painfull groin injury as that was where he pointed to
sure he said that was when he got sent back to europe .
its excellent when all of the facts come together