A View from the Turret: A History of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment in the Second World War

A View from the Turret: A History of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment in the Second World War written by Bill Close who sadly died in 2006 at the young age of 91, is currently being rewritten and updated by his Son, and is i believe going to be republished by Pen & Sword.

Having read the original, i personally have to say it was one of the best Armoured Regimental books, covering from Calais 1940 too the Baltic, it now goes for a fair price.

Hopefully early next year it will be available.

 

...3rd Tanks did more than their share in WW2 - as the saying went " 3rd Tanks Vs 3rd Reich "

 

I met Bill a few times at dad's reunions. A really nice man and told some fantastic stories.

 

Bills book was republished by Pen and Sword per post #1. It's title is:

Tank Commander
From the Fall of France to the defeat of Germany
The Memoirs of Bill Close

Having got a copy of 'A View from the Turret' I must admit that I was a little disappointed by the latest Pen and Sword version as it's a word for word copy of the original. That being the case, they should, in my mind, have used the same title rather than coming up with something different, itself implying that it was a rewrite with additional content (and hence the new title). Bit of a lost opportunity but in no way detracting from the top notch quality of the original.

I was also fortunate in being able to speak to Bill briefly by telephone a couple of years or so before he died. Needless to say he had no recollection of my father which I found totally understandable as there are lots of guys in a Regiment! More recently I've discovered that he was a close friend of my fathers Troop leader and knew my fathers tank commander as well.....now, if only I'd known that at the time!

.

 

What tank was he in? My day was in a Honey Recce troop.

 

Ray

In North West Europe, Sherman until mid December 1944 when they received Comets. Then briefly back to Sherman's for the Battle of the Bulge. When that was over it was back to training on the Comets and then into combat with the Comets for the final push into Germany from March 1945 to the end of the War.

 

Just realised that it's you Stephen.

 

Ray. Small World!

 

I have some videos of Bill talking and making a speech at reunions in Normandy and London. Having them converted to computer format now.

 

In View from the Turret Bill Close claims that it was a 3 R Tanks man who, in April 1945, bounced the bridge at Eversheide and actually got out of his tank to remove the demolition charges on the bridge, with only seconds to spare. Sadly, his account does not match 3 R Tank own war diaries nor the citation for that tank commanders MM for the action. In fact the Tank Commander raced across the Bridge to give covering fire to an RE officer and his Sgt, both of whom removed the charges and there's a good chance that they had in fact been on the bridge, surreptitiously disabling the charges, for several hours before 3 R tanks actually arrived at the Bridge. Later that the RE officer was killed and was never written up for this action. His Sgt was written up for in May just as the war ended!

 

So actually View from the Turret and Tank Commander are the same book!?

Is there any reason to prefer buying one over the other?

I haven't read Close's book yet but I read somewhere it's more of a history of the unit than a first person memoir like Joly or Crisp's books. Is that correct?

 

Choice depends on whether you want a 'first edition' or the cheaper/latest edition by Pen and Sword. I've got both, as mentioned previously, thinking they would have different content but, so far, they appear to have identical text. If you want a 'collection' version then go for View from Turret. If you just want to read it then go for the P&S rendition.

Your second question is correct: quite history of a unit in style.

 

Thanks SDP! You're right, View From The Turret seems to be more expensive being older and I guess in more demand than some books.