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. In Holland we got to know one local family named Wulmsen who owned a farm about a mile from our billet. They invited a couple of us to their home and we spent some very pleasant evenings with them. They had a daughter named Liese who was around my age. The regiment tried to organise a dance to which I would have invited Liese, but in this deeply Catholic area the local priest was boss and he insisted on so many rules that the dance never materialised. The army had been trying out extensions to the Sherman's' tracks, which were then known as 'Spuds'. These were found to be a big advantage in muddy ground. These are now known as 'Duckbills'. The regiment started fitting these to all vehicles in early December. At the same time the tracks were also changed from rubber to steel. These gave better grip in mud but were inclined to skid on hard roads. The weather had been deteriorating during December and one morning we woke in our billet to find that it had snowed quite heavily during the night and snow had drifted in through a gap in the roof and formed a very thin wall of snow across the floor. It was about three feet long and a foot high but very thin. It looked quite pretty but soon disappeared. On Christmas Eve, I was on guard and temperatures had dropped so far that the tanks' tracks were in danger of freezing to the ground. The Germans had started their Ardennes offensive on the 18th December and the Greys were on standby so our tanks had to be ready to move. I spent the whole of my guard starting up a tank, moving it forward a few feet, then driving it back and switching off. At least the guard duty went fairly quickly. On Christmas Day we did not get our tea served in bed, as was the custom, but the army did manage turkey with most of the trimmings for dinner. The regiment organised a party for the local children which was very popular. It probably did a lot of good with the local Pastor. After dinner a couple of mates and I went for a walk and about a mile from the village we found a dump of 5.5 howitzer propellant charges. These were white cotton bags filled with explosive. We opened one bag and laid a trail up to the mound of charges. Then we put a match to the trail and stood well back. It went up with a mighty 'whoosh', and we had a lovely warm up. The warmest we had been for weeks. It made our Christmas complete. Ron Levett, 2001
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