Ron Levett's memories of joining up and training in the Royal Armoured Corps during World War II.

After completing the Driving Course, our intake then packed up our kit and moved by truck to Lulworth Camp, which is situated on the coast near Lulworth Cove. This is the Gunnery Wing of the RAC. It has been in use since WWI for gunnery training.

Our first contact with firing from a tank was on the pellet range. This consists of a tank turret fitted with an air rifle inside the barrel of the main gun, which in this case was a '2 pounder'. The target in front was a sand tray with models of tanks and trucks.

We also practised loading the Browning 30 calibre machine gun, stripping and cleaning it. After a week in the classrooms we were ready for the real thing.

We marched down to the ranges where we found three Sherman tanks waiting. We took it in turns to act as loader and gunner. Everyone fired three rounds of 75mm shot (Armour Piercing,) and three rounds of shell (High Explosive) these were fired at moving and stationary targets of vehicles on the hillside about a mile from the firing position.

The turret was traversed with a pistol grip held in the gunner's right hand. There was a trigger on the pistol grip, which fired the 75mm. The elevation was controlled by a hand wheel for the gunner's left hand. This was also fitted with a trigger, which fired the machine gun.

Loading the 75mm was the worst job. After the gun fires, the ejection of the used case is automatic, the case falling inside the turret, which then fills with white smoke smelling heavily of ammonia. I found the best thing to do was to keep my head down until the smoke had cleared.

The shell case is then too hot to touch and must remain on the floor of the turret until it has cooled. It can then be thrown out of the pistol port, a small hatch in the side of the turret beside the loader.

The officer in charge of our party then decided to carry out a troop shoot. The troop leader fired two rounds of High Explosive (HE) to zero his aim. When he was satisfied he passed the information over the radio to enable the other tanks to line up their guns.

The elevation was given in degrees from the horizontal, taken from an instrument called an inclinometer that was fitted to the side of the gun. The side-to-side traverse was given as a compass heading. The loaders put one round into the breech, held one round on their laps and kept one round on the floor.

When the command to fire was given over the air, all guns fired simultaneously with the next two rounds following as fast as the loader could put them into the breach. This meant that nine rounds of HE would land on the target in short succession.

The tank had an early system of stabiliser fitted to the 75mm, based on a gyroscope, but it was so inaccurate that I never heard of anyone attempting to use it in action. The gunner's sight for both weapons was a telescope fitted inside a periscope. This had cross wires plus a number of cross-wires for different ranges.

We then fired a practice with the 'co-ax' - the co-axially mounted machine gun beside the main gun. At the bottom of the hill were pop-up targets representing enemy troops. The ammunition belts were loaded with one tracer round to five balls so we could see where the bullets were hitting.

There was also an opportunity to try out the 50-calibre machine gun mounted on the cupola, or turret ring. This was designed as an anti-aircraft weapon, but we fired again at the infantry at the bottom of the hill. This was a very heavy weapon with a slower rate of fire but had a devastating effect on enemy troops.

Now we were finished with individual training our squad moved back to Bovington and we all went home on a weeks leave. This was in spring 1944. When I arrived home, my mother wasn't in so I went round to where Kate was living with Ern in a small cottage behind the Market Cross Inn.

Kate cooked me a very good meal, a real fry up which I enjoyed very much. One thing always annoyed me was the way that as soon as I went in the pub for a drink the usual remark was 'Hello, on leave again? When are you going back?' The leave was soon over and it was back to Bovington.

Ron Levett, 2001