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.

On the 17th April the regiment, with 'C' sqdn leading swanned across country north of Verden. RHQ halted along a road with private houses along the right hand side, and an open area of marshy land, criss-crossed by ditches on the left.

When the time came to move on, our tank refused to start. When we took the engine covers off, we found that the engine had seized up. A house on our right had been set on fire by a burst of tracer through the window. As it started to get dark the fire had by now taken hold and we were silhouetted against the flames.

The rest of the regiment had gone on and we were left alone. The fields to our left were known to be full of German marines, so we took in turns to carry out sentry duty, sitting in the turret cupola, holding the tank commander's Sten Gun. Every noise and every light in the distance made me very alert, but nothing untoward happened.

The following morning our fitters arrived in their White half-track. We removed all our personal kit and bedrolls from our tank and loaded them into the half-track. The fitters then proceeded to weld down the hatches of our tank, which was then left looking rather forlorn beside the road.

As we drove away I couldn't help feeling a sense of homelessness. At mid-afternoon we caught up with RHQ and spent that night sleeping in the back of the half-track. I felt very exposed having no top on the vehicle, especially when one or two mortar rounds fell in the vicinity. The following morning I was transferred to the second-in-command tank as front gunner.

On 18th April 'A' sqdn moved into Verden and contacted the infantry and moved on to Davelsen, which had been reported clear. This was inaccurate and First Troop had to assist the Ox & Bucks in clearing it. This took about twenty minutes.

'A' Sqdn then moved on to a village called Langwedel where they were met with heavy shellfire. A party of some 30 Germans cut the road between 1st Troop and the remainder of the squadron, but were driven off by concentrated shellfire.

A roadblock had been set up in the centre of the village consisting of a concrete block on both sides and sections of railway line dropped into slots in the blocks.

We found that the best way of clearing these obstacles was to fire a round of 17pdr Armour Piercing into each of the concrete blocks, then use High Explosive to move the remainder. Finally the brigade bulldozer Sherman cleared the rubble away to the side of the road.

On 19th April 'C' Sqdn attacked towards Etelsen. Snipers and an SP gun held them up but 1st and 4th Troop engaged them. 2nd and 3rd Troop took the village and 130 prisoners. One tank was hit by 11 rounds of 88mm fire, which blew its tracks off. The crew dismounted just before it caught fire.

The squadron were still in the village the next day and were heavily shelled. They had one man killed and three wounded. On 20th April, 'A' and 'B' sqdns moved forward until the leading tank crossed the road and railway junction where it was hit and set on fire.

This area was covered by a heavy concentration of 88mm guns. Two were knocked out by 3rd Troop. One young officer saw a gun flash and opened fire in that direction. He was hit 5 times by 88mm.

The remainder of the squadron laid down a heavy smoke screen and eventually pushed on up the road. On the next day, two troops of 'C' sqdn moved on to Baden against heavy shelling and sniping. They took the village along with 150 prisoners.

The following day the regiment was resting and spent the day on maintenance and cleaning up tanks. With five men living in such a confined space the inside was inclined to get full of all sorts of dirt and rubbish, so the chance to clean it out is very welcome.

The cooks brought up the rations, including fresh bread. So far, the field bakeries had kept up with the advance and we had accumulated quite a store of unused biscuits. One of the crews had 'liberated' a pub with a good store of wine. This was good quality wine but unfortunately our untrained palates did not appreciate it.

On April 23rd 'B' Sqdn sent 2 Troops to support infantry attacking Aachim, the attack being preceded by aerial bombing. We still had Typhoons on call and a RAF liaison officer travelled in his own tank, which was a Sherman with the gun removed, but fitted with a dummy gun so that the enemy could not distinguish his vehicle from the Greys tanks.

On the approach road to the town the Germans had buried an aerial bomb deep in the road, connected to a wire running to a concealed bunker. When a Churchill Crocodile flame-thrower was over the bomb he detonated the bomb.

When my tank drove up the road later in the day we had to cross on a section of Bailey bridge over the crater. The trailer from the flame-thrower had been shifted into a gap in the hedge. The Churchill itself, all 40-odd tons, had been lifted bodily over the hedge beside the road and was lying upside down in the field. Mercifully the crew could not have felt a thing.

Ron Levett, 2001