I took the militant to Keighley yesterday as part of a display organised by the town council for a veterans display.
As it was hot, we retired to the local pub, where I had the real privelage of talking to a couple of veterans, both well into their 80's.
one used to serve on Dukws amongst other things, the other was a gunner and wireless operator in Chuchill tanks.
As usual, they were slow to speak about what they'd done, no doubt not aware that everything they said was fascinating.
To the point,
they raised a couple of interesting ideas, which I know we all could pass a bit of time chewing the fat over
First item : jerry cans, the British used to use 2 gallon tins, but after being used a couple of times they used to leak badly, so after the desert campaign, they started to use discarded German cans, and the British then had replicas made in Egypt?
Second item: the reason our tanks were so small compared to those of the Germans, was due to the railways? The fact that our tracks were so near ( up and down lines) meant that there was a smaller width available when transporting the tanks by rail, something that the Germans didn't suffer with as there lines were further apart?
Final point: Tank crews, I didn't realise that the crew on a British tank had to operate it and carry out repairs & servicing, whereas our American counterparts had a crew to 'fight' in with tank, and completely seperate crew to repair and maintain it. The guy gave an example where once he was in a Sherman with an American driver, he asked the driver about certain parts and controls of the tank, and the reply was ' I don't know - I only drive' !
Anyway just a bit of something to give you something to post about, not saying any of the above is true, or not, but interesting to know a little more about it.
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Simon Daymond
I took the militant to Keighley yesterday as part of a display organised by the town council for a veterans display.
As it was hot, we retired to the local pub, where I had the real privelage of talking to a couple of veterans, both well into their 80's.
one used to serve on Dukws amongst other things, the other was a gunner and wireless operator in Chuchill tanks.
As usual, they were slow to speak about what they'd done, no doubt not aware that everything they said was fascinating.
To the point,
they raised a couple of interesting ideas, which I know we all could pass a bit of time chewing the fat over
First item : jerry cans, the British used to use 2 gallon tins, but after being used a couple of times they used to leak badly, so after the desert campaign, they started to use discarded German cans, and the British then had replicas made in Egypt?
Second item: the reason our tanks were so small compared to those of the Germans, was due to the railways? The fact that our tracks were so near ( up and down lines) meant that there was a smaller width available when transporting the tanks by rail, something that the Germans didn't suffer with as there lines were further apart?
Final point: Tank crews, I didn't realise that the crew on a British tank had to operate it and carry out repairs & servicing, whereas our American counterparts had a crew to 'fight' in with tank, and completely seperate crew to repair and maintain it. The guy gave an example where once he was in a Sherman with an American driver, he asked the driver about certain parts and controls of the tank, and the reply was ' I don't know - I only drive' !
Anyway just a bit of something to give you something to post about, not saying any of the above is true, or not, but interesting to know a little more about it.
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