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.

'C' Sqdn carried out a further attack together with the Kings Somerset Light Infantry (KSLI) against heavy opposition. The attack started at 0050 hrs and all objectives were taken by 0400 hrs. 4 SP guns and 3 Mk1V Panzers had been knocked out and 70 prisoners taken.

Later that day we heard that the Canadians had taken Udem. The infantry had been carried in Kangaroos (Ram tanks with turrets removed so that they could carry eight infantrymen in comparative safety) for the first time.

The regiment moved forward and formed a line south of Udem, with 'A' sqdn on the right, 'B' on the left, RHQ in the centre and 'C' in reserve.

The following day was quiet and was used to maintain tanks but during the following night there was some shellfire and one or two Armour Piercing (AP) shots came through the leaguer.

During the night one of the scout car drivers, who was sleeping in his vehicle, felt a bump at the rear and when he had a look in the morning, found an AP round stuck in the engine louvers. It must have been right at the end of its trajectory.

The attack had been planned for the afternoon, the objective being the high ground south of the Balberger Wald. RHQ moved into a position between some farm buildings. We had only been there a short while when a sniper opened up with a Spandau machine gun, from the copse to our right.

No one could get out until help arrived in the shape of a Churchill Crocodile flamethrower. This clanked up the road until it was within about two hundred yards of the copse. The flame gunner drenched the trees with fire and the whole copse burst into flames. No one could have lived through it.

There was a wide-open valley between the regiment and the objective with an anti-tank ditch 15ft deep and 20ft wide, with trenches and multiple barbed wire system. It was raining with low mist and ground conditions were very bad.

We had to drive along a road to our starting position, which was beside a group of buildings. Just as we arrived at the farm a Sherman standing in front of us, was hit by a mortar round.

Unfortunately the crew had stowed a can of petrol on the front, which exploded. The petrol ran down into both front hatches, setting driver and co-driver alight. The gun was aligned over the driver's hatch so he could not get out that way. For some reason the co-driver decided to leave by the escape hatch, released it and came out that way.

The tank was rather deep in the mud and the co-driver stuck, so we had to pull him out through the mud. We put him out with our fire extinguisher and then helped the driver out through the co-driver's hatch. He was also extinguished and helped onto the back of our tank.

A German Medical Orderly then arrived helping a wounded German infantryman. The orderly was very tall, wearing a German army greatcoat. They were also helped onto the back of our tank.

Sgt O'Connell then handed me the fire extinguisher and said 'Put that fire out,' meaning the burning tank that had a circle of fire all round the turret ring. I was just about to start when a further salvo of mortar rounds started to fall so I dived into the nearest slit trench. I then realised that was only a slightly better position.

Right beside my slit trench was parked the brigade scissors bridge, which was mounted on a Valentine tank chassis. The track of this vehicle was right along the side of the slit trench and was slowly crushing the side of the trench. I hopped over a low wall of a pigsty next to the trench and through the low door into the building.

When the mortaring ceased I came out to find that the fire had gone without any help from me. 'A' sqdn were having a very tough battle about half a mile further down the road, judging from the radio calls I could hear. Darkness had fallen and we heard that many tanks had become bogged down in the very muddy ground. Some of them were sunk up to their bellies.

An order came through the radio for our tank to go back to a certain crossroads to meet the brigade Armoured Recovery Vehicles (ARV's) and escort them back to RHQ. We had to find our way along a narrow track with a deep water-filled ditch on either side. The only illumination was 'Monty's Moonlight' (search lights shone on cloud) and our driver was very worried about falling into the ditches.

Sgt. O'Connell told me to light a cigarette, hold it behind my back and walk along the middle of the track so that the driver could follow my guidance. I found this a bit worrying because I couldn't see how close the tank was on my heels.

However we arrived at the end of the track and could turn on to the road. The cross roads were about a quarter of a mile away and we settled down to wait for the ARV's.

We heard an aircraft overhead and the noise altered as he started to dive. We managed to get all the hatches closed when a bomb fell in the field next to us. A huge amount of mud was thrown up into the air, a lot of which fell all over our tank.

We had quite a job opening the hatches because of the weight of the mud. In spite of our efforts the ARV's never did show up, they must have found another route to our bogged down tanks. We had a job to find our way back to the RHQ site and spent the remainder of the night at the edge of a wood.

When we made our way down the road from the wood in the morning we found ourselves in front of the forward troops of another regiment. They put us back on the right road. The forward squadron, 'B' sqdn, with the KSLI infantry carried on the backs of their tanks, had managed to get six tanks over the scissors bridge, had lost one tank to AP.

The infantry had, however managed to protect their tanks from enemy infantry who were using 'Panzerfaust' the German version of the 'Bazooka.' The high ground at the Balberger Wald and the village of Neuenbauershof had been cleared of the enemy.

There was some shelling during the following night but by the next day we heard that the Canadians were now level with us and our flanks were secure. The next two days were quiet and were spent our time on cleaning and maintenance.

I had my 19th birthday on the 6th of March. We then discovered that we had been squeezed out of the operation. The battle had lasted only five days but to me they had seemed a lot longer. It was some of the fiercest fighting of the war, forcing a gap in the Siegfried line against German Paratroops and SS men defending their homeland for the first time.

The brigade was ordered back to Belgium to rest and re-fit. 44th Royal Tank Regiment were to train on DD Sherman's (swimming tanks). We travelled on tracks back as far as Nijmegen where we were to meet the tank transporters. We drove through the night using only the red tail light on the vehicle in front for guidance, arriving in Nijmegen at 0130 hrs.

The transporters were lined up along the side of the road and we drove our tanks on to them. When RHQ had loaded and we had climbed out we found that the rear-link operator, Sigmn Tilly, was still fast asleep in the co-driver's position. Our driver banged on the side of the tank with a hammer and shouted, 'Come on Tilly, wakie wakie.'

The hatch opened, Tilly climbed out and stepped off. It was of course, pitch dark and he could not see how far off the ground he was. Luckily he wasn't really awake and hit the ground rather relaxed, so no damage was done.

Ron Levett, 2001