Ron Levett's memories of his time in the British Liberation Army during World War II.

Ron Levett, born in Alfriston, East Sussex, enlisted in 1943 and joined the Royal Armoured Corps. After completing his training as a Driver Operator he was sent to Belgium to join the British Liberation Army, where he was posted to the Royal Scots Grays and then to the Regimental Headquarters (RHQ) signals troop. Their task was to liberate Belgium, Holland and ultimately Germany. This is his story.

The column moved off at 0700 hrs and our transporters carried us to Eysden in Belgium, arriving at 4 pm. During the march Capt. Warrender, who was standing up in the turret, hit his head on the branch of a tree under which he moving and had to be evacuated to hospital.

While we were in the battle area our crew had 'acquired' a number of bicycles, and while we were at one of the innumerable halts during the move, managed to barter them with the Belgian civilians who ran along beside us.

Most of the crews rode on the engine covers of the tank. Unfortunately the exhaust pipe on the Diamond T tank transporter is brought out at roof level, so we all got a good dose of diesel exhaust and some of us were sick.

The first thing we did on arrival at our new area was to make a brew up. The transporters were parked just up the road from our position and we noticed that one of the drivers was about to pour fuel onto an already lit cooker.

All the tank crews dived to the ground, expecting an explosion but nothing happened. Then the penny dropped. The Jerry can he was tipping up contained diesel fuel, nothing like the high-octane fuel that our tanks used, and needed heating before it would burn.

Day passes to Brussels were allowed and I had one day in the city. We used our own unit transport and I had a very pleasant day back in civilisation. The day was marred however by an accident on the way in.

The driver in the truck in front of ours had muddy boots, which slipped on the clutch pedal. The truck lurched forward and the two men nearest the tailgate fell out. Both were injured, one more seriously, who died of a fractured skull before reaching hospital.

After too short a break from the war the regiment's tanks were again loaded onto transporters on the 16th March, carried to Venlo, in the Netherland, and over the river Maas, to a village called Massbrek.

While we were stationary I saw the Westminster Dragoons drive past in their flail tanks. These were Sherman's fitted with a revolving drum carried on brackets in front, with a large number of chains hanging down from the drum. When the engine revolves this, the chains hit the ground and explode any mines hidden there.

Later a column of very large transporters drove past, each one carrying a Landing Craft Assault. The brigade, less the 44th Royal Tank Regiment (RTR), who had remained in Belgium to conceal their DD tanks, now moved up to the area of Udem. Our RHQ troop moved just after midnight on the 17th March and arrived at a devastated Udem in the early hours of the morning.

We immediately set about making ourselves as comfortable as possible and found a house that had still got a few rooms that could make habitable. The kitchen was almost intact and still had a kitchen range, which, with the aid of wood from the damaged houses, provided us with a hot meal.

This cooker had a boiling area on its top surface. The flue was a cast iron pipe bolted to the rear of the top plate. The cooker worked fine until one of the lads decided that the fire needed some encouragement and poured on a 'bully' tin of petrol.

The cooker was still very hot and when he applied a match the resultant petrol vapour exploded. All the rings from the top of the cooker blew off and the flue shot across the kitchen leaving the soot of ages over all of us. It took us a long time to clear up but no one had been injured and I think we all learnt a lesson about the power of petrol vapour.

We decided to make some pancakes but we had no eggs and our flour was not self-raising. One lad had a tin of Andrews Liver Salts so we added some to our batter. It worked surprisingly well and the pancakes rose in quite a spectacular fashion, to be enjoyed by all.

Ron Levett, 2001