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Captured Italian tank |
"How are we going to get this crate through the lines, boss?" Will O'Shea asked of his tank commander. They were some miles from where they thought the army was, they needed to come up with some way of getting home. They were all sitting in the shade at the side of the vehicle. The inside of the crate was like an oven.
Sergeant O'Connell thought a bit before answering. Before he could do so, Private Caddick chimed in, "Well, if we had paint we could maybe paint a Union Flag somewhere."
The rest of the crew just looked at him.
Fitzhugh smirked and said, "Too right mate, and we had some extra steel and the like we could disguise the crate as a bleedin' Matilda."
Caddick blushed, "It's just a thought, Corp, no need to get vicious."
Fitzhugh bristled then stopped when O'Connell gave him a stern look. The entire crew was tired, stressed, and anxious to rejoin their unit.
"You might be on to something, Alan." O'Connell nodded at Caddick. Leaning over he drew something in the sand.
"Did I see a tin of grease down by your position, Ian?" Sullivan was the bow gunner in their regular tank, so that's where he was sitting. The Italian tank only had a four man crew, everyone sat in their regular positions except for O'Shea, he swapped out with Fitzhugh, the Italian tank's main gun only had a gunner and no separate loader. So O'Connell had one of them ride outside the tank, the other inside.
Now they all looked at what O'Connell had scratched in the dirt.
"What is that?" Fitzhugh thought the drawing rather crude, but it reminded him of something, before he could say another word, Caddick spoke.
"It's a desert rat! That could work!"
"Use the grease to paint it on the tarp, drape the tarp over the front of the crate, it just might work." Fitzhugh slapped Caddick on the back, "How are you with a brush, laddie?"
The final product bore a reasonable resemblance to 7th Armoured's jerboa insignia. With that and the tarp disguising the M13/40's turret and forward hull, O'Connell thought they stood a fair chance of not being killed by their own side.
"Ya know, Sarn't, some sort of white flag might be helpful as well. To let our blokes know we ain't, ya know, hostile." Fitzhugh shrugged, he felt badly about giving Caddick guff earlier. The kid's comment had sparked the whole grease-painted tarp idea.
"Where are we going to get white cloth?" Sullivan asked.
Fitzhugh perked up, "Our drawers are almost white!"
O'Connell chuckled and said, "Maybe when first issued, but now ..."
Fitzhugh finished the thought, "They're pale enough I wager, tie a pair to the Lee-Enfield, it'll get the point across."
"Better than nothin', Sarn't." Sullivan agreed.
"Leftenant, come 'ave a look at this, Sir. It's a tracked vehicle, but it's bloody odd looking. Some sort of insignia painted on the top, can't quite make it out."
Lieutenant Grimshaw came out of the makeshift bunker and into the main trench. It was a slapdash affair, not meant to be permanent. They were expecting orders to fall back all the way to Benghazi at any minute.
Lifting his field glasses, Grimshaw looked in the direction Sergeant Sanders was pointing. Sure enough, it was a small armored vehicle, apparently with a tarp over the top of the superstructure. The tarp had a crude jerboa painted on it, rather like that used by the 7th Armoured.
"Running gear looks Italian, too tall for a Semovente, my guess is an M13/40. Are those fellows on top waving a set of underwear from a stick?" Grimshaw was confused, his gut told him to hold fire, a lot of stragglers from the battle near Agedabia were still coming in, some in an odd assortment of vehicles.
"Ready the two-pounder, Sarn't, just in case."
"Sir!"
As the vehicle got closer, Grimshaw focused his glasses on the men on top of the vehicle. He counted four, knowing that the Italian tanks had a four man crew, he knew there were more men inside. The chaps on top, infantry? But one vehicle? If they were Italian, they were suicidal.
"Sir!"
"What is it, Sarn't?"
"The chaps on top are wearing British kit, and one of 'em is a ginger."
"A what?"
"A ginger, Sir, red hair. These chaps look burned to a crisp. I'd put a pound on them being Irish. Don't look like any Italian I've ever seen."
"Keep the gun trained on them, I'm going to wave them in. Heads up lads!" he shouted to the rest of the platoon. Grimshaw knew that northern Italy held a lot of fair-haired Italians, but redheads were rather rare in Italy.
Lieutenant Colonel Gilbert from regiment was shaking his head as he examined the tarp with its crude depiction of a desert rat, as the lads called them. "Quite effective, if somewhat crude, O'Connell. Well done."
"Thank you, Sir. Can we keep the crate?"
"Well, we are short of armour, so we'll keep it, but I want you lads on the next lorry to Tobruk. Get you a proper tank. We'll probably dig this one in here as a bunker or something."
"Very good, Sir. Uh, can we keep the tarp? It's served us well."
"Oh yes, quite. I'd think about reproducing your rather fanciful jerboa on your next tank. Quite distinctive, if somewhat crude."
"We're tankers, Sir, not artists." O'Connell pointed out.
"Yes, it rather shows, doesn't it?" Gilbert smiled as he said that. "Carry on, Sergeant."
"Sir!" O'Connell saluted then led his crew to the supply point where they might get lucky and catch a ride to the rear. He rolled the tarp up as he walked.
"We keeping the Eyetie tank, Sarn't?" Fitzhugh asked as O'Connell walked up.
"The army is, we're back to Tobruk to get a proper tank."
As the crew followed them, O'Connell handed the tarp to Sullivan. "Keep this, it's been lucky for us, hasn't it?"
"Sure has, Sarn't." Caddick answered.
As they walked, O'Connell was still a little steamed at the artist crack from the lieutenant colonel. He turned and said, "Fitzie, when we get our new crate, I want to name her Rembrandt. For the artist, ya know?"
"Sure Sarn't, but ... - Ah, I get it, for Caddick's artwork."
"Yes, the officer from regiment wasn't impressed, but the Leftenant who waved us in thought it damned clever. As do I. Now let's get hopping, Jerry and his Italian friends are expected shortly, I want to be well on the road to Tobruk when that happens."
Ingenuity and a wee bit o' luck carries the day for O'Connell and crew. Good thing no kites for either side were up mucking about.
ReplyDeleteYes, a pilot looking for a target of opportunity would have ruined their day!
Delete"Kelly's Heroes" covers that very well in just one scene.
DeleteYes, indeed.
DeletePERFECT!
ReplyDeletejuvat
I was looking for pictures of captured tanks being used in North Africa and found that one. The kangaroo reminded me of the jerboa and then ...
DeleteInspiration!
Thanks, juvat.
That was a great idea!
DeleteThanks!
DeleteFabulous story, these men are real people, not caricatures or stick figures. Your muse is bringing us right there onto the deserts of northern Libya with them.
ReplyDeleteBTW: "...he drew something in the sTand."?
D'oh! Fixed it.
DeleteAnswering the question I had in my head, "How were they going to get back?"
ReplyDeleteRiding on the outside of a tank in the desert can be somewhat less than comfortable, I imagine.
Riding inside could be worse. Temperatures inside a tank could exceed 100 degrees.
DeleteI seem to remember something about the troops sitting on their packs or on tarps as the surface metals was hot enough to actually cook during the heat of the day.
DeleteSaid vehicles could be very uncomfortable at night, also.
Had to, the steel got intensely hot. Had similar experience with equipment on Okinawa in the summer. You touch it, you get blistered, or worse.
DeleteSame issues during high summer at Kwaj. Even with shoes on, we didn't walk on the roads, walked on the white stripe on the edge of the roads. Didn't walk on the grass or sands, as that was someone's lawn and that was a no-no back in the early 70's.
DeletePacific atoll, hot? I can well imagine.
DeleteA steel flight deck in the Indian Ocean wasn't exactly cool. You could feel the heat coming in through the soles of your boots.
DeleteThey do tend to heat up.
DeleteYea! Creativity saves the day, the crew, the tank, and a snooty officer doesn't appreciate it. Another day in the war. Thanks, Sarge.
ReplyDeleteThere's always that one guy.
DeleteIf you're fortunate, it's only one. If you're really fortunate you don't work for him.
DeleteBG
Too true.
DeleteToo, too, too true.
DeleteI guess you've seen that in person. Me too.
DeleteExcellent- and once again, the perfect picture, or maybe perfect text to tell a story.
ReplyDeleteOT- Are you familiar with Guy Sajer's "The Forgotten Soldier" an autobiography from a German soldier on the Eastern front? Paperback 465 pages, well used. Looks pretty interesting. Yours if you want it, otherwise it becomes merchandise.
John Blackshoe
Great book, lost my copy years ago, so if you want to give it a good home ...
DeleteNow I am wondering if there was a tank or other piece of big equipment that changed hands multiple times. Just think of the story it could tell.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know some French and English tanks from 1940 were acquired by the Germans and then handed over to the Italians, which ended up fighting the Americans in Italy.
Telling the story from the equipment's point of view. Kind of a dumb version of a Bolo. Could be interesting, neat foray into Sci-Fi for a good author.
Mike Z. Williamson, "Forged in Blood"; part of a sword's life over a thousand years ....
DeleteBeans - The biggest problem would be getting spare parts to keep the thing running. But it would make a good story.
Deletehtom - I will be looking for that one!
DeleteThe Germans acquired all sorts of small arms, vehicles and artillery via capture or surrender. In typical methodical German fashion these were all give new German designations for inventory and accountability. The designations ended with a letter in parentheses indicating the national origin. Examples- a= American, e= English, f= France, r= Russia, t= Czeckoslovakia, etc. The British STEN Mark 2 submachine gun was the "Maschinenpistole 749(e)"
DeleteIt is likely that some gear did change hands multiple times, but I have not seen much documentation for that.
Some of the poor designs, or onesy-twosey odds and ends weapons were probably just stuck in storage or scrapped. But larger quantities were often issued to lower priority units, or those raised in occupied areas, for home guards, police, plant guards, etc.
Here is a partial list of the small arms:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_designations_of_foreign_firearms_in_World_War_II
For the artillery type stuff; there is a separate list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_designations_of_foreign_artillery_in_World_War_II
I am sure there are other lists for complete armored vehicles and transport vehicles.
The story of war trophy souvenirs for individuals, as opposed to official capture for reissue is a separate story.
The surplus industry brought huge quantities of WW2 small arms into the U.S. since 1945, much of it via Sam Cummings (with ties to the CIA) when went to the collector market (or sometimes the CIA got some, like for Brigado 2506 and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba). Russian stockpiles of captured German K98k rifles and P-38 pistols were sold into the U.S. collector market within the last 20 years (known as "Russian Captures"). Many of those were refinished by the Russians before being places in storage and eventually sold. There are credible reports that there was an underground site in Ukraine with literally millions of weapons and tons of ammunition, some dating back to WW1, including WW1 Maxims, WW2 lend-lease Thompson SMGs that went to Russia as part of the TOE for the tanks we sent them, and all sorts of other collectibles. Reportedly most of the recent stuff was issued to Ukrainian forces, and that the Russians eventually destroyed the storage site ending further use of its contents.
I believe that some of the tanks on the collector market have been from former USSR countries, pulled out of bogs or lakes but otherwise in restorable condition. (Hopefully they were uninhabited when recovered.)
Weapons are regularly reused when captured, even in our own Civil War. They are neat historic relics when their use by a specific unit can be verified, and those with more diverse histories are even more interesting.
John Blackshoe
I have read one account of a motorcycle & sidecar combo that changed hands a few times in the Libyan desert, then was recouped during the fight through Normandy,
DeleteNice, if you track that down, send me a link!
DeleteI have a Czech rifle with German markings. G-24(t).
DeleteBack in 69-70 my Scoutmaster had a rifle with a swastika, hammer & sickle and a star stamped on it. He picked it up from a dead VC outside his tent one night.
DeleteNow that rifle got around!
DeleteThe Australian 9th Divison during the seige of Tobruk used large quantities of captured Italian equipment, tanks (the photo at the beginning of this story probably was taken before or during the seige), artillery, machine guns. There were so many artillery pieces that infantry units started scrounging them and formed themselves into the "Bush Artillery", often the sights had been destroyed so the diggers used them by aiming through the bore before loading a shell and they proved very handy in repelling the German assaults.
DeleteIn rough circumstances one makes do with whatever is at hand.
Delete@ HE Beans:
ReplyDeleteso - give it a try; you've certainly got a way with words.
Too much Ferret Brain, not enough stay-on-tar... squirrel! But thanks for the support. May see what happens.
Deleteboron - I like the idea.
DeleteBeans -Accept the challenge, I bet you could do it.
DeleteMore brilliance, especially the use of grease on a tarp. I suspect that being rather crude it would have been more effective than a properly painted Union Flag.
ReplyDeleteGood point, the enemy would have tried to make it perfect!
Delete