DDs in Italy

Yes look at there website
The 7th Queen's Own Hussars

 

Not good results for the ones with the Kiwis!

a squadron of duplex-drive tanks

The amphibious tanks, however, failed ignominiously: two of the three attached to 21 Battalion bogged while trying to get into the water, and the third sank a few yards from the shore; one attached to 23 Battalion sank after being rammed by a storm boat, another lost a track, and the third accidentally punctured its buoyancy apparatus by firing its machine gun.


II: Crossing the River Po | NZETC

 

I know you meant yourself!
Anyway they didn't do too well with the Kiwis did they, bet that was funny seeing that cock up.

From the same site you found pictures it seems they weree training with DD tanks in 1944.
In the autumn of 1944 the armies in Italy were faced with a particular problem which had never confronted them on such a scale before, the crossing of large rivers and extensive flooded areas. Training in DD (duplex-drive) tanks was a novel experience. When waterborne the drive was transferred to two propellers and the tracks again came into play when the tank reached a depth of about nine feet of water on the opposite bank. Buoyancy was obtained by the watertight structure of the hull and canvas screen which was erected before entering the water. Steering was the main difficulty and a good deal of practice was needed before a straight course could be kept. The tanks could only swim Lake Bracciano when the lake was calm. Great things were expected of the DD tank and many senior commanders faced with the problems of crossing the watery plains of the Po and the Adige came to see, and steer, for themselves. 'A' and 'B' Squadrons of 7th Hussars were equipped with DD Valentines, while 'C' Squadron retained their Shermans, but became expert in rafting with Class 40 rafts capable of carrying a Sherman tank.


Engagements fought by the 7th Armoured Brigade in 1944

Notice in the photos the tracks,
On 14th April they fitted Platypus Grousers to all 54 DD tanks, which were effectively metal fins attached to tracks to give a better grip in deep going.



'A' Squadron, 7th Hussars, (by now re-equipped with Sherman DD tanks) crossed the Po on the evening of 25th April, with no casualties, but one tank hit an underwater obstruction and sank like a stone.


On the 27th April 1945 at 11 pm at Pioppe, five DD Shermans swam the River Adige,

Another seventeen DD Shermans loaded up a company of 5/5 Mahratta Light Infantry (8th Indian Division) and set off along Route 16 to Battaglia, sped through Padua along the autostrada into Venice, there they harboured in the Piazzale Roma instead of the docks.

Of the fifty-seven 7th Hussar DD tanks that had set off and eighteen were still fit for swimming at the end (Venice lagoon or Trieste). All of the rest except one were recoverable.


Engagements fought by the 7th Armoured Brigade in 1945

 

Is this a class 40 raft?



Cheers for the info Owen - I have to admit to have been a bit lazy in this instance and didn't look around for more info


Dunno, ask a sapper!

I've learnt something too. Cheers.

PS My Wife's Grandad, who escaped from Dunkirk ended his War in Venice too.

 

Kyt,
Royal Signals.
Pre-war Regular.
Was on North-West Frontier and had Alexander as Brigade Commander, have photos at in-laws.

WW2
Lines of Communication.
France and out at Dunkirk. Then North Africa , Sgt by then. Lot of time at Bizerta, up Italy to end up at Mestre over the causway from Venice. They did some good hiking trips post-War up the Dolomites.
He died April 1995, two months before our Wedding.

Have big tin off photos, will ask in-laws if I can post some.

 

RIP Owen's grandad-in-law

He certainly saw a lot of service. Pictures would be great.

Really ought to shouldn't I?
There are some good squad photos in 1930s India with Indian troops.
Up the Khyber Pass with Alex, few of his Hockey team. Tunisia, Italy etc.

We had his Lada Samara when he died, he called it his T-34.

RIP, Fred Murrell.

 

A very old thread I know but some interesting stuff on it nonetheless.
I'll add an extract from The Tiger Truimphs, chapter 20

The Tiger Triumphs. The Story of Three Great Divisions in Italy. 1946. Chapters 20-21.

April 25th will long be remembered by men of Eighth Indian Division as a day of almost lunatic confusion. Traffic jams blocked every approach to the Po. Bulldozers broke down on the launching ramps. German guns accurately shelled the embarkation sites. Nevertheless the time table was preserved and at 2200 hours two companies of Royal West Kents were waterborne to lead the crossing. They landed against negligible opposition. Before dawn 3/15 Punjabis also were over the river. A squadron of 6th Lancers rafted their armoured cars across and explored the countryside for five miles ahead. On the left, 17th Brigade began a similar crossing soon after midnight, with Royal Fusiliers leading. The amphibious Shermans followed with infantry clinging to the tanks. Support arms followed, and the Indian brigades pushed into the north in full cry.
Everywhere groups of Germans stood along the roadside, shoulders drooping, hands held aloft. A low-flying screen from Desert Air Force searched the countryside ahead of the armoured cars and tanks. By the evening of April 27th patrols from 6th Lancers, 1/5 Gurkhas and 1/12 Frontier Force Regiment had reached the Adige, fifteen miles beyond the Po. This substantial river, even. swifter than the Po, ordinarily would have been regarded as a serious obstacle. But the pace was ever quickening, and the exciting procession of sights and sounds---deliriously happy Italians, girls with flowers and old gentlemen with wine, the vast debris of a broken army everywhere, the long columns of dead-faced enemies trudging into the south---had galvanized all from commander to sepoy with a single urge---to be in at the death. General Russell had ordered his men to hurry, and he also issued a set plan for the crossing of the Adige. The two instructions did not coincide, so the first took precedence. 19th Brigade swarmed over the river on anything that would float---rafts, rowboats, even on battens and spars. When the amphibious tanks arrived sepoys who could not swim took a firm hold and were towed across. Thus Eighth Indian Division passed over its last river in Italy.
Glittering prizes gleamed ahead. Twenty-five miles to the north of the Adige stood the ancient university city of Padua. Beyond, fifteen miles of autostrade stretched to the end of the causeway which ran across the lagoon to Venice. General Russell rose in his stirrups. 19th Brigade group with 6th Lancers was ordered to dash through in lorries. A company of Frontier Force Rifles mounted on amphibious tanks of 7th Hussars raced forward by another road. 68 and 69 Field Companies, working at top speed, threw a bridge across the Adige on the night of April 28th. The armoured screen of 6th Lancers tore into the north, covering fifty-two miles in a morning. But there were other runners, and in inside positions. Fifty-Sixth London Division had scrambled across the Po to the west of Ferrara. Still further west the New Zealanders, ever in the van, were thrusting from the south-west at full speed. With the Kiwis came 43rd Gurkha Lorried Brigade, hurdling rivers, brushing aside opposition and oblivious of everything except that the end was near.

 

- there was also the longest Bailey bridge built over the Po also- it all helped to finish off that Campaign

that'll be the one mentioned here.
The Tiger Triumphs. The Story of Three Great Divisions in Italy. 1946. Chapters 20-21.
The great width put an immediate Bailey bridge out of the picture. (Later, South African sappers built a triple Bailey bridge over 1,000 feet in length on this site---perhaps the longest on record.)