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.

We were now on the outskirts of Bremen, the first large town we had entered. Tanks are not very good for fighting in built-up areas and we had bypassed most of the other towns in Germany. At midday on the 24th April, RHQ set up a headquarters in a school.

As usual the Troop signal-men, of which I was a member, ran extension cables from the C.O's tank into the building so that the Forward and Rear-link wireless sets could be operated from inside. We also rigged up lighting using 12v lamps and wireless batteries.

My tank was in a road at a right angle to the main road, and sitting in the front gunner's seat I had a good view, when a battery of 88s started shelling one of the squadrons, which was just across the other side of the field opposite.

Luckily these were anti-aircraft guns, and although they were the same guns which caused us so much trouble in the field, were not supplied with any armour piercing ammunition. After a dozen or so rounds had been fired they turner their attention on the school.

When they started falling uncomfortably close the C.O decided to move RHQ back to a quieter area. Signals troop then had the job of stripping out the equipment from the school under fire.

I found myself lifting a 125AHC battery, which must have weighed around 65lbs, straight up onto the back of a Sherman, a lift of about seven feet. It is amazing what an incentive high explosive can be! I climbed back into my own tank at high speed and pulled the hatch shut. The shells were bursting in the air, and there was a danger of shrapnel from above.

Later on, when we had moved back about half a mile I climbed out of the hatch, I found that shrapnel had damaged the hatch handle. That night we drank a large amount of our 'liberated' German wine.

The next move was into a quiet suburb of Bremen. We were lined up in a residential area and I was standing next to my tank when a little old lady, dressed in black, came up to me and said in quite good English, 'I believe you are collecting these,' and handed me a Box Brownie camera.

She explained that Dr. Goebells had warned them that the 'Black Yankees' were coming to their city. She was very relieved that young white Englishmen had come. I was so astonished that I accepted her gift.

Later that day we moved further into the city. Driving was very difficult because of all the bomb damage. It was a job to see where the actual road was in places because of the rubble strewn across it. The tramlines were hanging down across the road and tanks skidded on their steel tracks in and out of the cables.

We stopped in a rather upper class district, and were just settling in when a civilian came up out of the basement where he had been hiding, and fired a Panzerfaust into the Sherman which was nearest, ran back into the basement and disappeared.

The tank caught fire and was destroyed. Our infantry at this time were still members of 52nd Lowland Division and there were further complaints about their unsuitability for working with tanks.

There was quite a lot of looting in this street. I found a radio, some Dutch silver coins and a small automatic pistol. Someone found a box full of fireworks, which caused a panic when some idiot put a match to them. When they started exploding, with rockets zipping along the street crews jumped into their tanks and turrets started revolving towards the source of the noise.

It eventually calmed down. The regiment had acquired a collection of vehicles on its way across Germany, including a very nice Fire Tender, which would make a recreational vehicle when hostilities ceased. The squadron down at the harbour wanted to know if it would be OK to take a German Navy destroyer 'on strength'.

On April 28th, after two days rest in Bremen, the regiment moved off, covering 25 miles without a breakdown. It remained in position for the remainder of the night.

The following morning we moved off at 0900 hrs to Puttensen, a distance of 70 miles, still with no breakdowns. We now joined up with 6th Airborne Division. 'C' Squadron managed to get over the Elbe River with the paratroopers. The biggest problem seemed to be the shortage of maps. We had outrun the supply.

We now had the job of carrying the paratroopers of the 6th Airborne Division on the backs of our tanks for the advance to the Baltic Sea. 'C' Sqdn were already over the Elbe, but the bridge had been allocated to 11th Armd Div, so the C.O. and eight tanks of Recce Troop, plus the C.O's scout car went down to the river and managed to infiltrate themselves in with 11th Armd.

After crossing the river they went on to Adendorf, where they pulled off the road onto the local racecourse to have breakfast. Although they signalled the following 11th Armd. to carry on, they followed our tanks.

Eventually they managed to sort things out. This small advance party spent the night at Boizenburg, while the rest of the regiment had moved up to Scharnbeck but were still not allowed access to the bridge.

On the night of the 1st May the 6th Airborne were given an allotment for the American bridge at 0700 hrs the following morning. To get the message to the regiment, the C.O. sent Capt. Hanbury back in the Weasel with instructions.

Because the bridges were one-way traffic only, he had to swim the river in the Weasel. After delivering his message he went back across the river and caught up with his Recce Troop who were by this time advancing at full speed northwards.

Ron Levett, 2001