Just Finished Reading: By Tank into Normandy by Stuart Hills (FP: 2002) [244pp] 

War, especially combat, is a young person's game and the author of this fascinating account is no exception. Just 20 years old when he graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he was given command of not only a Sherman tank but a troupe of 3! Even more astounding (from my perspective) was his first ever mission – to land on Gold beach on 6th June 1944: D-Day! It was, in many ways, quite the baptism... 

Second Lieutenant Stuart Hills of the Nottinghamshire Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry had been assigned a DD (Dual Drive) tank – one of Hobart's ‘funnies’ that was expected to ‘swim’ ashore to assist the first men on the beach. So, as dawn was starting on 6th June the landing ramp of the LTC his crew was on lowered and, about 600-700 yards from the beach he ordered is tank forward into the channel. Almost immediately water started pouring in. The pumps helped but it was soon apparent that the tank wasn’t going to make it. Just minutes into his first deployment he ordered the tank abandoned and watched as it slipped under the waves and sank. Everyone got out – the Sherman had a crew of 5 – but they had lost everything. Picked up by another landing craft they spent D-Day watching other people storm the beach from a distance. Only on the 7th (with the beach still under fire) did they land and make their way to their unit in order to pick up a brand-new tank. Welcome to France! 

[Side note: 32 DD tanks were deployed to support Omaha beach but started over 6 THOUSAND yards out. Because of a strong tide and still very choppy seas from a passing storm only 5 made it to shore.]  

The author goes on to relate his varied experiences from that day until the German surrender in May 1945. Fighting through the highly dangerous French ‘bocage’ country, through the Low Countries and finally into Germany itself finishing, just after his 21st birthday(!), in Hanover. Several instances along his journey in particular jumped out at me – apart from his tank sinking! Although thankfully rare, there were several early encounters with early model Tiger tanks. On one occasion the Tiger was hit multiple times by several Sherman’s without a single penetration. Only a lucky shot that caused white-hot splinters to enter through a vision port and start a small fire inside the tank caused the crew to bail out. In another encounter the author was in the lead tank stuck at the edge of a minefield awaiting engineer support. The Tiger opened fire and destroyed the last tank out of 12. Stuck, the other tanks fired smoke shells to obscure the Tigers vision and the author called up Close Air Support (CAS). Moments later 4 Typhoon ground attack planes arrived. When the smoke and dust had settled the Tiger was on its side – minus a turret. Finally, and most tense I felt, was when the authors tank was hit and disabled while fighting in a small town. The driver and front machine gunner were killed instantly but the other 3 crew were trapped because they were constantly being ‘pinged’ by a German machine-gun. The problem was that the building the tank was next to was on fire. If they stayed in the tank, they’d be slowly roasted alive but if they tried to leave, they’d be shot by the machine-gun. Luckily another tank had seen their tracer fire and dropped a High-explosive shell on the machine-gun nest allowing the crew to evacuate! 

Except in the closing weeks of the European war (when the author was in charge of a Recon Unit), most of his tenure was supporting infantry units – both British and American – in their advances across enemy territory. As the tanks supported the ‘poor bloody infantry’ the infantry themselves helped protect the tanks against the new and deadly threat of hand-held anti-tank weapons, especially the highly dangerous Panzerfaust. ‘Buttoned down’ inside a tank the crew's vision was greatly restricted so, without anyone outside the tank looking out for them, it was comparatively ‘easy’ (if incredibly brave) to pop-up 20 feet away and fire your weapon often hitting and disabling the tank it was aimed at. The author's tank was hit twice in this way. Once (luckily) causing no damage and once causing the crew to bail out.  

As you can probably tell this was a totally immersive and gripping read. I’m not surprised at all that it was the winner of the ‘Distinguished Book Award’ from the Society for Military History for Best Military Memoir in 2003. It also comes as no surprise that the author was awarded the Military Cross. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in WW2 and most especially for anyone interested in tank warfare.