A Dying Tank Strikes Back!

On being advised that ammunition to stock the new tanks would not be forthcoming until the morrow I asked for, and received, permission to see if anything could be salvaged from our knocked-out tank.

What a difference a day doth make! Retracing our route from the start line through the forest with its shell-splintered trees, Bill Wheatley and I did so accompanied by the singing of birds and the hammering of woodpeckers upon tree trunks. On emerging from the woods, there lay before us a tranquil scene, only the aftermath of battle and the riven earth being evidence of what had taken place just one day before. To our surprise we saw a Canadian officer nearby with an easel busily painting away. It was not until many years later I found out who he was.

We found that Ballyrashane-4 had been indeed hit four times, thrice on the side one of which had torn off the forward track cover which had killed Harry. The fourth hitting the turret exactly in the middle of the red square, 'B' Squadron's insignia, obliterating HQF Troop's identification. There was nothing left to salvage, either inside or outside the tank.

Yesterday, when visibility was but a few yards, we were not able see the dug-in Panther Turret that was sited just a few yards in front of us. Today we could clearly see that the turret had been pierced just to the right of its gun.

Ignoring the sign Achtung Minen, planted just over the ditch in which we had sheltered, Bill and I made our way to the turret and climbed on in. On looking through the neatly drilled hole in the turret, there was the muzzle of Ballyrashane-4's main armament staring right back at us. That our dying Churchill had claimed a kill, was confirmed when we found a somewhat misshapen 6-pdr A/P projectile - my one regret is not keeping it as a souvenir!

On our return, we told the powers-that-be of our discovery. Perhaps I will never know whether destruction of the Panther turret emplacement, listed on Page 35 of the Regiment's Battle Report, was credited to Ballyrashane-4. Whether or no, her dying effort could well merit a place be in the Guiness Book of Records!

One notable aspect of the battle was the knocking out of two Panthers, by our Churchills, the first to be destroyed by tanks of the Western Allies. During the war, the NIH took many photographs this is one of the Panthers taken the day after the battle and, rarely, one of the few in colour.

Thursday, 25th May 1994

After spending most of the day getting tanks ready again for battle, we paraded for a Service of Consecration, in the early evening, to say farewell to the thirty-two of our comrades and the many Canadians who had lost their lives two days previously. The Service, conducted by Padre Elwyn Hughes and his counterpart from Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, was held at the foot of a narrow strip of land, bounded on three side by trees, the site of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade Cemetery, Pignataro. Regrettably, in my opinion, the dead were later removed from this hallowed ground to be re-interred in the Cassino War Cemetery.

As the Service progressed, a mist started to fall on the upper reaches of the Cemetery. As the two Padres gave their final blessings upon those assembled, the sounds of a bagpipe could be heard. Then, down the slope and out of the mist, came bearded Pipe-Major Edmund Esson MBE, of the Seaforth Highlanders, playing the Scottish Lament tearing many an eye. We learnt later that the Pipe-Major headed the team that recovered the bodies of the killed, of both Regiments, from the field of battle.