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little point of some interest is that Gerry might have taken my place in Northern Italy .....my regiment - 145th RAC being a Territorial mob - was broken up for spares in Dec 1944...and at the same time 142nd RAC which was in 25th Tank bde along with the NIH was also broken up ....so NIH moved into our place in 21st Tank bde....51st RTR went on to become an Armoured Engineers bde...and I finished up with 16th /5th Lancers
A good friend of mine in "civvy" street was Terry McGrath of NIH - "C" squadron whereas Gerry was in "B" squadron.
One of the complexities of life in the British Army was the training schedule - initial Tank training at Barnard Castle was with Pursuit Tanks i.e Crusaders - Covenanters - Cromwell's etc - on arriving overseas to join the regiment - they had Churchill assault Tanks......on returning to active duty after hospitalisation..retrained on Armoured Cars ......on joining 16/5th Lancers ... they had Sherman pursuit Tanks !
Finally just before demob we had Armoured cars ...then I left..to be recalled for Korea in the Inns of Court regiment - an Officer Training regiment ! !
Heigh Ho... Cheers
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