Canuk - Quite the story by Bernie and his m/c guns - we used to bump into them now and again as I was with the British Tank bde which was the main support for 1st Div and my regiment was with 2nd bde - so I know what Bernie is talking about here - and I agree with him - the Gothic Line was probably the worst battle of the lot in Italy...but no one thinks about it as all the publicity was all going to the NW Europe Battles Cheers
You may have noticed that Bernie is the shorter of the two veterans in my profile photo. It was my privilege to spend many hours with this great gentleman on our 2007 Normandy tour.
Canuck, Thankyou for posting that story. It makes me more proud of my late father the more I read stories like this. Regards Tom
My pleasure Tom, Bernie had a very interesting story to tell about being in support of the Seaforths on the night Oct. 21st, 1944 and listening over the radio to a running commentary of the battle up ahead and which he learned later was Smokey Smith winning his VC. My trip to Normandy was one of those 'things to do before you die' and there was always some reason not to do it. I owe it to my wife's wisdom to book it as a gift for me. The real gift, as it turned out, was having the six veterans along. As we all know, the window of opportunity for that is closing rapidly as so many have become frail. The opportunity to spend time with those amazing guys for 10 days is something I'll always treasure.
Canuck - that must have been some radio commentery on that part of the battle where Smokeywon his V.C. - I was in hospital at that time but Smokey and his pals from " C " company Seaforths would often stand on the back of my tank for a ride into action - my squadron was bogged down at that time and so they went in with the PIAT' and Tommy guns - we got the Panther which dicted and used it against the enemy for a while until ny pal who was the gunner stepped on a schu mine ! Cheers
So Tom, did Smokey have a reputation while he was in Italy or did that come later? Did you have many Fireflies in your troop while in Italy? If so, how much impact did they have. Sorry for all the questions. Always curious.............
Canuk - Smokey had the usual yo-yo existence - as he was a corporal one day and a private the next -corporal a week later .... he was made sergeant when he was in Korea just to keep him out of the way as it would not do for a V.C.to get killed - after he was straightened up and accompanied the Prime Minister and GG on their overseas trips - he blossomed into a real character. I tried to have few words with him when he visited Chilliwack for the unveiling of a WW1 V.C. - Piper Richardson - but was pushed aside. We never had anything so fancy as the firefly until about a month before the war ended as I understand it...we did have a demo of their power by an Artillery outfit prior to the Gothic Line to-do - we were very impressed and asked when we could have some - they nearly wet themselves laughing as they were all going into NW Europe - one Canadian anti-tank unit has a whole battery of them but lost them all in the Liri Valley - don't know if they were ever replaced. The Churchill turret ring was too small to take a 17 pounder anyway so they were only good for our Shermans - we did have ONE 95mm per squadron though and we "borrowed" the Panther that Smokey ditched when he won his V.C. Cheers
