Hi all, I'm wondering if anyone has a copy of this book about Roy Farran's wartime experiences. I'm kicking myself because I either read a library copy or I bought and then sold it. Anyway the library no longer has a lending copy (maybe they decided to take that one I read and put it into the reserve collection). What I'm after are any good quotes about the Light Tank Mk VI which I recall being what he crewed in the first part of the war, as I am planning to write on twitter about each (and every!) Allied tank used during the war. I thought I might start with light tanks as there aren't so many to cover.
Hi Chris, I happen to have a copy to hand and have had a quick flick through (as quick as you can without an index!) to find any quotes. Below is what I have found. "I think the Light Tank Mark VIB must be the most uncomfortable vehicle ever invented. It is like travelling along on the inside of a sharp-cornered rocking-horse and it is impossible to move anywhere without skinning your elbows." p42. "Navigating in a Light Tank Mark VIB is bound to be a haphazard affair, since the cruel way in which it bounces about its crew makes it nearly impossible to hold a compass on an even tilt.If the sun is clouded over, the only sound way to navigate is by actually getting out of your tank to take a bearing once every twenty minutes. This method is not very practical in the middle of a battle." p44. "We were within two hundred yards of them when, simultaneously with my driver, I realised that they were Italian M11's mounting a thirty-seven millimetre gun, which could make short work of our flimsy light tanks." p46. "Our light machine guns could not hope to penetrate their [Italian M13] thick armour, yet their thirty-seven millimetre guns would make short work of a light tank." p60. "We had a slight advantage over them in regard to speed, which enabled us to halt to fire a few defiant bursts from odd ridges without losing too much of our lead." p60 "As I was speeding away over the flat ground at the bottom, the fourteen black monsters opened fired from the top of the cliff. The first shell came into the bottom of the tank by some miraculous ricochet; a few moments later another penetrated under the gun mantle, which was facing the rear, and passed between the gunner and me to burst in the petrol tank behind the driver. Flames shot up in front of my face as I gave the order to abandoned tank, and as we were hurling ourselves out of the hatch, another shell passed through the wireless set." p61. Interesting note - this tank of Farran's was called "Beau Sabruer". p62 "In those days there were no tank transporters and the cruiser regiment had long out-driven its official track mileage...We were told after the battle of Beda Fomm that our own light tanks could not be expected to go for much more than five hundred miles, which did not allow us much latitude in the event of a battle. In point of fact, all these tanks did more than the experts ever expected, and we had far exceeded our official mileages in patrolling before the enemy attacked." p70. "At the beginning of the last week of March our light tanks had at last begun to give up the unequal struggle against the bumps and camel scrub. We were therefore moved up to the old battlefield at Beda Fomm to re-equip with salvaged Italian tanks..." p72. "We were fitted out with the same old type of light tanks with which we had been equipped in the desert - battered ancient hulks, which had been hastily patched up in Waadian workshops. There were no proper fittings to the cooling system for the guns and the wireless sets arrived so late there was no time to fit them before we embarked." p84. I have probably missed some along the way, but hope what is above is of some help. Andrew
