Look for a view of the contents and an indication if it goes beyond 1944, indeed if any of the three 3 R Tks contributors mention events in early April 1945?
Looking for any info that might cover events in Eversheide, North of Osnabruck, on the morning of April 3rd, 1945. ...or the Bridging operation in Stolzenau on April 5 - 7th, 1945.
OG Do you have a copy of the book 'The Sharp End' by Johnny Langdon: his Troop (1Tp, A Sq, 3RTR....which was also my late fathers Troop) were there. If not I can sort that for you as well.
Hi SDP, I do have those extracts from Johnny Langdon's book and I think I got them from you about a yeatr ago, so once again thanks for your generosity here. These Langdon extracts have been an immense help as he does actually give credit to the RE Officer who did the actual cutting of firing wires for the demolition charges. He doesn't even get acknowledged by Bill Close, Patrick Dealforce or Taurus Pursuant. I'm all for a bit of unit bias when necessary but actually excluding the chap who did the deed and giving the acolades to the one of your own is kinda harsh! You mentioned your Dad as being part of Johnny Langdon's troop, did your Dad leave any kind of memoir or diary of the period? Just wonderingif he mentioned the Sapper officer and anything else about the shelling of Eversheide later that morning?
OG Sadly dad left nothing of that type apart from some photos of his Comet tank T335335 'Celerity' and some other photos of chaps who I assume were in the same Troop (Google Comet tank Celerity Pannell and all will be revealed!). I didn't even know he was in 1Tp A Sq 3RTR until Dick Taylor discovered dads name in Langdons book (extract below).
Thanks for that but I have enough books on my creaking bookshelves without adding more to them, especially one that I'm not yet sure contains the info I require. So, if anyone has a copy and can post a page that covers April 3rd 1945 then I'd be grateful Had a look on Google for Celerity, there's a lot of stuff on her and nice to see that she's been retrieved and restored. I hope you get to go visit the old girl one day, or have you done so already?
BAIV restored another Comet tank but marked it up as Celerity: the original Celerity was scrapped in Hong Kong in 1959 (long story so not relevant on this thread). Having said that, they did a superb job and showed it off at the War and Peace Show at Folkestone a couple of years ago. I attended that show and can only say that, even though the Tank was not the original Celerity, I felt like a little boy with a whole shed full of new toys: got to crawl all over it and go for a ride, sit in the Drivers seat etc etc. It's now been exported to a collector in the USA. Good on him! PS: will find my copy of Panzer Bait and post scans later.
Wait... So was BAIV right in selling their Comet as a Tiger-killer or wrong? Given that was a huge part of their marketing.
A Comet was a Tiger killer: the Comet tank of Sgt Harding (3RTR) knocked out Tiger F01 on the Esseler Damm on Friday 13th April 1945. See my Three British Comets Fehrmann Tiger thread and search Google for Comet Aller Tiger for details. This incident is also described in Langdons book (wish dad had told me he had been there!)
Thanks for looking SDP, if it turns up I'd be glad to know what, if anything, is in it regarding April 45.