Sam also brought back a black pair of Panzer trousers and a blue pair of Canadian bathing drawers, size 34, I suppose captured from the Americans. The first he gave to the CO and the second to Donny Player. He found also a German textbook on the American Army with some very good illustrations of American tanks and equipment.
As a result of the German tank attack the enemy lost 52 tanks, and all the credit goes to the anti-tank gunners (infantry), who did the greatest part of the damage. He appears to have put in his tank attack without previous recce, and as a result suffered the obvious tank casualties. This only goes to prove once again that the anti-tank gun will always beat the tank, especially in country like this when the gunner can wait until the tank approaches to within 500 to 600 yards. This German attack has certainly cost Rommel a great deal of blood from his nose.
Stanley was absolutely right in his assessment of Rommel’s counterattack at Medenine. Falling into the trap of an anti-tank screen used to be a habit of Eighth Army – and was what had happened to the Rangers in their first tank action at Alam Halfa. The tables were turning. Three days later, on 9 March, Rommel, by now a sick man, flew back to Germany, leaving North Africa for the last time.
Monday, 8 March
The Germans have withdrawn into the hills and appear to be regrouping, according to the BBC, for another attack, but I hardly think it likely and my own appreciation is that we shall do the attacking next.
We moved back to our old area. During the afternoon the CO and the colonel of the gunners and infantry attached to the Regiment, plus squadron leaders, went and had a look at the battlefield. We found four German tanks that had been knocked out by our anti-tank gunners and followed their approach along a wide wadi. Our gunners had let them go past and shot at them broadside. They were all Mk III Specials. We then held a discussion how the Light Squadron would have operated on that piece of ground and against similar opposition. I am perfectly convinced that, in this kind of country, if recce is to be thorough and close a certain amount must be done on foot, with the aid of the Recce Troop or carriers, otherwise the leading tank will be cat’s meat every single time.
Wednesday, 10 March
The whole morning was spent on maintenance and, according to the fitters’ report, the drivers had worked extraordinarily well.
At 16.15 hours the colonel called a regimental parade in order to say goodbye on relinquishing command of the Regiment to become second-in-command to the brigade. As usual, he made a very well-thought-out speech, pointing out that he handed over command of the Regiment to Major Player, who had seen longer service in the Yeomanry than anybody else in the Regiment. Donny Player followed with a short speech pointing out that it was entirely due to the tact and initiative of the colonel that we had been one of the first Yeomanry regiments to be made up into an armoured brigade. This was all the more creditable, remembering that at one time the Regiment, while coastal gunners, were operating in four different places, namely Tobruk, Benghazi, Cyprus and Crete. They both pointed out that, in spite of everything, we were recognized universally as one of the best armoured regiments in the British Army, and personally, I do not consider this an exaggeration.
I came on parade with corduroy trousers and none of my officers had belts on, and for this, a slight rocket arrived from our new colonel that evening, with which I quite agreed.
While troops would have been expected to smarten up for parade, attitudes to dress had relaxed considerably, as it was recognized that comfort and pragmatism were more important. In many ways, the change of attitude was led by Montgomery, who made a virtue of wearing corduroys, sweaters and a black beret, only just coming into wider use, rather than the more usual formality expected from senior commanders.
Thursday, 11 March
The squadron went out shooting on the range in preparation for a brigade shooting competition, which we hope to have before the next battle commences. Each regiment will have to produce one heavy and one light group for the competition. It will be extraordinarily difficult to decide as they all shot so well today. The brigade commander and the colonel came and watched the shooting. The colonel was wearing red on his cap for the first time and when Sam Garrett saluted him he concluded by remarking that he was pleased to notice ‘that the colonel was wearing pink’. To this came the reply, ‘Don’t pull my leg, blast you.’
Saturday, 13 March
Brigade shooting competition. C Squadron won the Heavy Tank competition and the Light Squadron of the Staffs Yeomanry won the Crusader competition. The brigadier presented two lambs as prizes.
Sunday, 14 March
We started our movement to join the New Zealanders in ‘Left Hook’. A great deal of deception will be needed and this will mean a lot of night travel. The first part of the journey will be done on transporters. At 10.00 hours, Donny Player went through all the formations with models on a sand table with the Buffs and the Gunners who are to be attached to the Regiment for this operation. We left the area at 12 o’clock, travelled 14 miles on tracks and mounted transporters at 14.00 hours, which we met along the main road. Sergeant Harding unfortunately went over a mine, which knocked out his tank. Fortunately, nobody was injured in the tank. We travelled all through the night on transporters and Michael Laycock was in charge of the transporter party.
The ‘left hook’ that Stanley mentions was an extraordinarily audacious plan to carry out a 250-mile march around the desert flank of the Matmata Hills and then to burst through a gap in the mountains at Tebaga in southern Tunisia. The idea was for a two-fisted attack – one through the Tebaga Gap and the other an assault on the main defences at the Mareth Line.
Monday, 15 March
We halted at 04.15 hours and started again at midday. The going was extremely bad in places and at times we had to offload the tanks and a certain amount of winching was necessary. Our general direction was north.
Tuesday, 16 March
We arrived to a point south of Foum Tataouine at 03.30 hours. For the last few days we have had very little sleep. We stayed in this location all the day.
Wednesday, 17 March
We lay up all during the day and hoped that our presence had not been located by enemy aircraft. At 7 o’clock in the evening we proceeded to the assembly area through the hills along a lighted track. A heavy shower of rain kept the dust down, which otherwise would have made visibility extremely difficult. We arrived at the assembly area at 12 o’clock at night, where we were met by the Recce Troop who had preceded us and who showed us our various areas.
Thursday, 18 March
Donny Player had a conference and explained the plan. Our Left Hook is to coincide with the main attack on the Mareth positions and we hope to be able to put a major portion of the German forces in the bag. Donny Player now has taken over command of the Regiment and Flash Kellett has become second-in-command of the brigade.
Flash Kellett took Sam Garrett and myself to see the New Zealand Gunner brigadier. The squadron may be required to give right flank protection to the New Zealand guns while on the move.
The New Zealanders had a sand table demonstration of the forthcoming operations, but Sam and I did not get there to attend.
Friday, 19 March
We had a lecture from the member of the LRDG who had done a recce of enemy territory around Tunis and Sousse. He gave us an idea of the going we are likely to meet. This was followed by a lecture to the Regiment from Mark Strutt, who is the battery commander of the gunners attached to the Regiment. We are trying to work out a plan for the leading Crusaders to conduct a shoot with the 25-pounders in the event of the OP not being available.
The brigade moved off at 18.00 hours and travelled for 30 miles. We reached our destination at 22.00 hours with no tank having fallen out through mechanical trouble. It was a beautiful moonlit night.
Saturday, 20 March
Continued the advance at 07.00 hours in a northerly direction, with the brigade moving in formation A. The 3rd RTR on the left, Staffs Yeomanry in th
e centre and ourselves on the right. We met slight enemy opposition, which we managed to brush aside. The Staffs lost one Crusader, which was giving chase to an enemy lorry, which had a 50mm gun inside and this caused the damage. We covered 50 miles during the day.
Sunday, 21 March
Contacted the main enemy position, which was protected by a wide minefield. It was Donny Player’s first day of battle and he commanded the Regiment extremely well. Sergeant Dring was operating on the right flank and did some good work in extricating some carriers belonging to the Buffs that had gone forward to probe the enemy front.
The New Zealanders attacked during the night and cleared a passage through the minefield.
There was later some criticism directed at General Freyberg, the New Zealand Corps commander, for not pushing 8th Armoured Brigade on through that night and securing a quick breakthrough. Some years later, in 1972, Stanley returned to the scene during a staff ride (exercise over past battlefields) with the army, and was asked his opinion on this. ‘I pointed out that at the time,’ Stanley noted, ‘I was just a squadron leader, and the problem was not mine. However, on looking back, General Freyberg must have appreciated that the 8th Armoured Brigade was weary and short of sleep after the “Left Hook” forced march, also that the brigade was not up to full strength and that a night attack by tanks over unknown ground and a possible minefield against unknown enemy strength was a great risk to take. Furthermore, and even more important, at that time he had no other armoured reserve. In my humble opinion, he took the right decision.’
Monday, 22 March
We pushed through the gap in the minefield early in the morning. The enemy had command of the high ground where they had established OPs and the shelling was extremely unpleasant, not only for ourselves but even more for the echelons and the gun positions in the rear. The enemy held wonderful observation posts. As we crossed a certain road, the squadron knocked out a 50mm gun and captured some German and Italian prisoners. We pushed on and took up position on some high ground on the left of our axis. We did a certain amount of stalking on foot as we did not want to expose the tanks. There was, however, an enemy tank on the other side of the ridge whose crew commander must have decided to do a similar stalk. As a result we both came face to face, had a quick look and beat a somewhat hasty and undignified retreat back to our respective tanks. As I rather anticipated, it was a Mk IV Special and as I was only in a Close Support I didn’t feel a great deal of enthusiasm to give battle. Sergeant Butler, who was operating on my left, poked the nose of his tank over the ridge and received a direct hit on his gun. Nobody was injured. However, we had to evacuate the tank. Neville Fearn, who was operating on the right, received a direct hit on his tank by a German 88mm AP and almost immediately afterwards he received a direct hit on the back of his tank from a 75mm off one of the tanks of our friends on the right, who mistook him for a German tank. Fortunately none of his crew were injured but the tank had to be evacuated. Corporal Hill, working along the road, came under extremely heavy shellfire and his tank was put out by HE. Unfortunately we couldn’t do anything about it and he spent the remainder of the day in the tank under fire.
Much later, Stanley mentioned this episode to his son, David. It seems that he had clambered out of his tank for the ‘stalk’ that he writes about in the diary, but had forgotten his pistol. When he came face to face with the German tank commander, he reached for his sidearm only to realize with horror what he had done. By great good fortune, the German had apparently done exactly the same.
Colonel Flash Kellett was killed by a shell, which burst very close to his tank. It must have been instantaneous, but it has been a very great blow to us all.
We were shelled during the night in leaguer, but fortunately suffered no casualties. We did not make much progress during the day and we were rather of the opinion that we should have to fight for the positions we held.
It appears Flash Kellett had been killed while shaving in the turret of his tank. Although he was no longer commanding the Sherwood Rangers, his loss was keenly felt. Although originally from the Irish Guards, he had joined the SRY in 1930 and later became Member of Parliament for Aston in Birmingham. Not only was he one of the mainstays of the pre-war Regiment, but had guided it from its deployment overseas, through its time as artillery, its conversion to an armoured regiment and its transition into one of the leading tank units in Eighth Army. He is buried in Sfax War Cemetery.
Tuesday, 23 March
We managed to push forward a little distance in the afternoon. In the evening Stephen Mitchell had to do a left flank attack with his squadron on an enemy position. It was a most unpleasant operation for him as the light was bad and the ground extremely difficult. John Walters upturned his tank in a wadi and had to leave it there for the night. We did not form leaguer until after dark, and as the Regiment was scattered over a large area, we had the greatest difficulty in getting in. I eventually got down to bed at 1 o’clock, but as we had to get up again at 5, we were all very short of sleep.
Wednesday, 24 March
A very unpleasant day. The 3rd RTR put in a tank attack on the same position as Stephen had attacked last night. We were ready to support them on the left with one heavy squadron. Donny Player then ordered my squadron to go and thicken up their fire power with my 6-pounder tanks. To reach them, I had to cover a large expanse of open ground. I decided to go as fast as the tanks would travel and as a result, thanks to the sandy ground, we kicked up such a dust that we presented a very small target. What with the shellfire and the fading light and the dust spread up by the movement of tanks, visibility was absolutely nil. The 3rd RTR had one tank knocked out, which brewed up.
The co-operation with the air force has been most excellent and we were able to point out to them the exact location of enemy tanks. As a result our Tank Busters knocked out six enemy tanks. We had orders to remain for the night in our present location. One Company of Buffs came to join us and the company commander did a recce in a Jeep and wandered into a German leaguer not more than 500 yards away. His arrival rather disturbed their rest and they opened up on us with machine-guns and mortars. There was very little sleep for us that night.
Thursday, 25 March
We remained in more or less the same position all day without being able to move forward. The New Zealand infantry came up at 4 o’clock and took over the position. We captured one Austrian prisoner but we couldn’t get much out of him as he was slightly barmy from lack of sleep and water. The whole brigade moved back in preparation for the attack next day. We understand that the whole brigade would attack in line, preceded by a very heavy barrage and followed by the New Zealand infantry. We don’t much like the idea of being used as ‘I’ tanks, but this position has got to be broken. We have heard that the attack on Mareth has not proved a great success.
Eighth Army’s assault on the Mareth Line had begun on 20 March by General Oliver Leese’s XXX Corps. It was a strong position, with antitank ditches and huge numbers of mines and wire entanglements. Also it had been raining hard so the dried-up riverbeds around it were not quite so dry after all. Leese’s attack soon floundered, hindered further by his misuse of his tanks. ‘This battle’s a mess,’ noted General Tuker, commander of the exceptional 4th Indian Division.
Friday, 26 March
So far the squadron has lost four tanks through enemy action, i.e. since we have started on the Left Hook. As regards casualties, we have been very fortunate and have had nobody killed.
Yesterday the whole brigade withdrew and regrouped for the famous Balaclava Charge. The order was that the brigade would advance in line with the heavy tanks leading, preceded by an intense barrage. The Crusaders were to follow close behind and finally the New Zealand infantry would bring up the rear. We operated with the Maori Battalion and actually carried some of the Maori infantry on the backs of our tanks.
At 4 o’clock the brigade formed up along the line of the old Roman wall, which ran almost the whole length of the bottlene
ck gap through which we were to attack. The Staffs Yeomanry were on the left, the 3rd RTR were in the centre, and we were on the right. A quarter of an hour before zero hour, the RAF made devastating attacks on the enemy positions. At 4 o’clock precisely the whole movement started. It really was most spectacular and remarkable and must have presented a most formidable and frightening spectacle to the Hun. The barrage and the dust made visibility practically nil so that the tanks almost overran the enemy positions before they could be seen.
The opposition on the right was stiff, and the Staffs Yeomanry and 3rd RTR reached their final objective before we did. The final objective was indicated by the creeping barrage firing smoke when it had reached its final destination and the tanks were notified that the objective had been reached in this manner.
I have never looked forward to seeing smoke so much in my life.
Sam Garrett was killed during this attack: he was hit by a piece of shrapnel in the head and never recovered consciousness. It must have been extremely unlucky as I understand from his crew that for most of the time he was using his periscope, and he was wearing his tin hat at all times and never showed his head above the turret. Every tank had orders to fire their Besas and throw hand-grenades at any suspected position. I got rid of all my Besa rounds and hand-grenades. Ian McKay had his tank knocked out, being hit from the right flank by an 88mm gun. All the crew were uninjured except for Calvert, the driver, who was slightly wounded.
An Englishman at War Page 32