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. After the liberation of Germany he was based in Lintfort. This is his story.

The telephone exchange was the German Army model, which we had previously used at Wismar. The indication of an incoming call was a small flap that dropped when the line was rung. Beneath it was the socket for the operators jack.

Late one night the Signals Sergeant, Don Porter, came into the exchange having been drinking in the Sgts. Mess all the evening. He had decided that the front panel of the exchange looked a little drab. He had brought a tin of green paint with him and proceeded to paint the front of the exchange with it.

This caused no problem until the morning when the paint had dried. When the first call came in it failed to drop the flap. Although we could hear the relays operating in the exchange there was no way of telling who was ringing.

All the operator could do was to check every line by plugging in the jack to each one and ask if anyone was calling. Obviously, this was done in the order of seniority, starting with the C.O. By the time the operator had tried all the extensions, some of the callers were getting very irate. It took us all the morning to clean all the paint off.

We had a further piece of excitement early one morning when there was a loud bang, smoke and then flames shot out of the switchboard. Where the telephone line to the Officer's Mess crossed the main road in the town, the line had sagged and rubbed on the tramline until the insulation had worn away.

This line carried a high voltage and when it fed this to the exchange, caused the damage. Both the Officers and Sgts. Mess phones were also burnt right out. All the instruments ended up a charred mass. Luckily we had a spare exchange and telephones and the damage was soon put right.

There was much more serious damage caused when one of the Crocodiles (flame thrower) was travelling down the high street. The tank skidded on the cobbles and hit one of the supports to the overhead cables supplying the trams.

The metal bent right over until the cables touched the ground. There was a huge flash and a hole was burnt in the road. Fortunately the power then failed, before anyone could be electrocuted. It was quite a few days before the trams were running again.

Ron Levett, 2001