Armoured Guardsman: A War Diary June 1944-April 1945

236 Pages·2008·12.41 MB·English

by  Boscawen

First published in Great Britain in 2001 by
LEO COOPER
Reprinted in this format in 2010 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
SouthYorkshire
S70 2AS
Copyright © Robert Boscawen, 2001, 2010
ISBN: 978 1 84884 317 2
HARDBACK ISBN: 978 0 85052 748 3
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 84468 786 2
PRC ISBN: 978 1 84468 787 9
The right of Robert Boscawen to be identified as
author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library
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The Author
Born in 1923, Robert Boscawen was educated at Eton and Trinity College,
Cambridge before joining the Army in 1941. He was commissioned into the
Coldstream Guards, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, father, uncle
and two brothers, and posted to the 1st (Armoured) Battalion with whom he
served in England and North West Europe, the subject of this book, until being
seriously wounded during the last month of the War. He was awarded the
Military Cross. Following a long convalescence, he joined a major oil company
before taking up the call of a parliamentary career. After two unsuccessful
attempts he was elected as Member of Parliament for Wells and later for
Somerton-Frome in which role he served from 1970 – 1992. He was a
Government Whip throughout Margaret Thatcher’s premiership and is a Privy
Counsellor.
Now retired, he and his wife live in Somerset on the edge of his former
constituency.
Contents
Glossary: Some Abbreviations of Military Terms and Equipment
Introduction
Diary
Sequel
Glossary SOME ABBREVIATIONS OF MILITARY TERMS
AND EQUIPMENT
B.L.A. British Liberation Army, comprised of 1st (Canadian)
Army and 2nd (British) Army
G.A.D. Guards Armoured Division, composed of 5th Guards
Armoured Brigade and 32nd Guards Brigade, with
Divisional Troops. About 16,000 men, 3,400 vehicles,
246 medium tanks and 48 field guns.
G.A.T. Wing Guards Armoured Training Wing, Pirbright.
Armoured Battalion 36 officers, 630 other ranks. 61 medium tanks and 11
Recce tanks.
Squadron 19 tanks, with 4 Troops of 4 tanks.
‘F’ Echelon Tanks and Scout cars.
‘F2’ Echelon One petrol and one Ammunition 3-tonner wheeled
truck per Squadron.
‘A’ Echelon 1st line Petrol and Ammunition trucks, fitters and
stores.
‘B’ Echelon Stores, Cookers and officers’ mess trucks.
R.A.P. Regimental Aid Post, normally a White Scout Car
where the Battalion Medical Officer was to be found.
L.A.D. Light Aid Detachment, part of Brigade workshops for
limited repairs to tanks.
‘O’ Group Orders Group.
H.C.R. Household Cavalry Regiment – Armoured
G.G. Grenadier Guards
C.G. Coldstream Guards
S.G. Scots Guards
I.G. Irish Guards
W.G. Welsh Guards
A.G.R.A. Army Groups Royal Artillery. Medium and Heavy
A.G.R.A. Army Groups Royal Artillery. Medium and Heavy
regiments allocated to Corps Commanders.
R.E. Royal Engineers, Sappers
R.A.S.C. Royal Army Service Corps
C.M.P. Corps of Military Police, M.P.s, Redcaps
E.N.S.A. Entertainments National Service Association
C.I.G.S. Chief of the Imperial General Staff
G.O.C. General Officer Commanding, the Divisional
Commander
M.S. Military Secretary
G.1, 2, 3 General Staff Officer, Grade 1, 2, and 3. Brigade
Majors were the former.
A.Q.M.G. Assistant Quartermaster-General
L.O. Liaison Officer
L.O.B. Officer left out of battle, usually in ‘A’ or ‘B’
echelons.
R.S.M. Regimental Sergeant-Major
S.S.M. Squadron Sergeant-Major
T.Q.M.S. Technical Quartermaster-Sergeant
D.R. Despatch Rider
L.c.t. Landing craft tank – carried five tanks
L.s.t. Landing ship tank
M.t.b. Motor torpedo boat
E-boat German torpedo boat
Monitor Shallow draft warship with two 15 inch guns for
bombarding shore installations.
Tanks, mostly described in text.
Cromwell Main tank of Reconaissance Battalion
M.10. Armoured self-propelled anti-tank guns on a Sherman
hull with 3 inch or 17 pounder gun
A.R.V. Armoured Recovery Vehicle. Sherman tank without a
turret, carried fitters and gear.
Universal infantry carrier. 3 men with Bren gun, 30
Bren Carrier Universal infantry carrier. 3 men with Bren gun, 30
m.p.h.
Flail tank Sherman tank with minesweeping flails revolving in
front
Honey Stuart light tank, with 37 m.m. gun, used by Recce
Troop.
Scout car 2-seater Humber, armoured, exceeded 55 m.p.h.
White scout car Large, half-tracked, lightly armoured
German weapons
Spandau Standard German 7.92 m.m. m.g.
Lüger German 9 m.m. automatic pistol
Panzerfaust Hand-held anti-tank rocket launcher, often called by
U.S. name Bazooka
88 m.m. German mobile dual purpose flak anti-tank gun
105 m.m. German fixed heavy dual purpose flak anti-tank gun
Nebelwerfer German six barrelled 150 m.m. rocket launcher
Mortar German 81 m.m. infantry mortar, and 120 m.m. 7 and
35 lb bombs
Teller mines German heavy anti-tank mines, 20 lbs.
H.E. High Explosive
A.P. Armour piercing shot
u.x.b. Unexploded bomb
O.P. Observation Post, artillery
i.a. immediate action
T.e.w.t. Tactical exercise without troops
D & M Driving and Maintenance
K.R.s. King’s Regulations
centreline Central axis of an attack along roads or across country
laager Armoured or other vehicles after dark behind the
‘line’ drawn up in two or three lines, sometimes with
infantry protection
infantry protection
harbour area generally out of the line where armoured vehicles
were drawn up along hedges and camouflaged
brewed-up tank set on fire
Stonk a specific gunners’ term that became a slang army
word for all shelling, enemy or friendly, and other
excesses!
T.C.V. or L. Troop-carrying vehicle or lorry. Soft, 3-ton vehicle
without protection.
15 c.w.t. truck Standard small truck, carried officers’ mess.
Scammel Heavy recovery vehicle
Sprocket Toothed driving wheel on tracked vehicles.
‘A’ set Longer range part of No. 19 wireless set, carried on all
armoured vehicles, used for battalion ‘net’. The ‘B’
set short range we never bothered with.
I.C. The crew’s inter-com part of above set.
British Weapons
Browning point 5 Heavy 0.5 inch m.g. for A.A. carried on top of
Sherman, soon discarded.
Browning 300 Standard 0.3 inch m.g. mounted coaxially in turret and
in hull of Sherman.
M.g. Machine gun
A.A. Anti-aircraft
Bren Standard .303 inch light machine gun carried by
infantry sections
Sten 9 m.m. sub-machine gun
Pistol 0.38 inch revolver
P.I.A.T. or Piat Hand-held anti-tank weapon with projectile
Mortar 2-inch and 3-inch infantry mortars 2 and 10 lb bombs
5.5 5.5 inch medium field gun, 100 lb shell
25 pounder Standard field gun, drawn by wheeled or mounted on
tracked vehicle.
17 pounder Heaviest anti-tank gun on tanks or wheels
17 pounder Heaviest anti-tank gun on tanks or wheels
S.P. Self-propelled guns on tracked vehicles of a wide
variety