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Tanks
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| Lt. Roy Farran commanded a troop of tanks at Maleme and
Galatas. I have used his book, 'Winged Dagger' as the source for
the following extracts. |
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| Farran was a young 20 year old Lieutenant in
the Kings Own Hussars, a cavalry regiment equipped with the Light Tank
Mark VIB. These were not tanks in the sense that we would use the
word today when we think of those in Desert Storm, these were light
vehicles, with little fire power and a three man crew. Not much
more than armoured cars. |
| Roy Farran went with his unit in late 1940 to
North Africa, where they would be part of 4th Armoured Brigade.
While there, the other tanks that they would operate with were the
Matildas, which they often called 'cruisers'. Both the Light Tank
and the Matilda would be used on Crete. Farran said of the Light
Tank; "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." |
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| Operating in North Africa Farran's unit was
involved in actions around Tobruk and Bardia, and in one action his tank
was put on fire by an Italian tank; "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 abandon tank, and as we were hurling ourselves
out of the hatch, another shell passed through the wireless set.
We began to run." |
| In North Africa the British saw their fortunes
rise and fall a number of times over the months and years prior to El
Alamein, and in late March the retreat from Cyrenaica started "When
the Brigade began their headlong retreat on the 1st April, the 6th Tanks
and ourselves remained in hull-down positions south of Antelat prepared
to fight to the end against the Germans". It didn't turn out
that way, Farran ended up on a ship bound for Alexandria on the evening
of the 8th, arriving there 2 days later. What with events in
Greece as well, things were not going well in the eastern Mediterranean.
After a spell of leave in Alexandria Farran was to be sent with others
from the 3rd Hussars to Crete, but not before the freighter, Dalesman,
taking him there had been bombed in Suda Bay and she "settled
firmly on the bed on which she was to rest many years". The
bombing wasn't just an inconvenience; "The tanks were the main
difficulty. Twelve in the upper hold were salvageable, but all the
others and all the transport except the trucks on the deck were under
the water. Worst of all, the wireless sets were a total
loss". They were finally ready to move on the 18th May.
The Germans invaded on the morning of the 20th, so little time to get
their bearings. |
| The battle started for Farran, in
his own
words; "We were sitting round a deal table under an olive tree
having breakfast at seven o'clock on the morning of the 20th May, when
suddenly the sky was filled with enemy aircraft. They came low
over the tops of the trees, spraying the olive groves with bullets and
dropping bombs haphazardly over our positions. There seemed so
many aircraft that they blotted out the sun. In addition to the
whistle of the bombs, the racket of the machine guns and the screaming
of their engines, some had attached sinister wailing sirens to their
wings. As the bullets tore through the leaves from one direction,
we scrambled over each other to seek shelter behind the
tree-trunk". |
| The tank crews scrambled for their vehicles and moved out
to support the infantry, Farran on his was to Galatas and it was not
long before they found themselves in a spot of bother. Under fire
from some Germans they could not see, the driver tried turning round and
wrenched off one track. Luckily they were in an area with some
cover, but they had to get out of the tank and effect a repair under
fire before they could make good their escape. |
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Light tank in Bovington Museum. Photo J Dillon |
| As they got out of Galatas an incident
occurred of which Farran was not proud, but neither did he feel too much
remorse. His tank was approached by some German parachutists with
their hands in the air. "I ordered the gunner to fire. Three
dropped dead, but two others managed to limp away into the trees.
I do not think that I would make a practice of shooting prisoners, but
Crete was different, and in the heat of the moment I had not time to
think". When he got back to the squadron area he spent the
rest of the morning guarding the road to Galatas. In the afternoon
he was ordered to assist the New Zealanders of the 19th Battalion in
clearing Galatas cemetery. While they took the ground, the Germans
beat them back, and in the evening he found himself again assisting New
Zealanders, but this time in a night attack towards Galatas
prison. During the positioning for this attack Farran ended up
with his tank driving over a tangle of wire, which they got
through but which beame caught up in one of his bogeys and would give
him a problem later. As it turned out, because of poor
communication and confusion, the attack was cancelled. It was now
the end of the 20th. |
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Both the photos above
were taken in 2003 at the Duxford Museum in the Air/Land Battle Hall |
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Photos by J Dillon |
| On the evening of the 21st he and others from
the squadron were ordered to move along the coast, towards Maleme to
take part in that nights counter-offensive.
Accordingly they made their way to the NZ Brigade Headquarters in the
village of Platanias. His troop had been selected to take part in
the attack, but as they had been on the go for some 48 hours, he was not
best pleased. The following is from Farran's book, he is
about to get his orders for the attack;
"We mounted the steps of an old farm-house
to receive the orders from the Brigadier. He was a re, open-faced
man, who looked like a country farmer and it was obvious that he was
suffering from acute fatigue. He asked us to wait for half an hour
while he had some sleep. Disgusted, intolerant, we sat on the
steps until he was ready. Then he began to explain his plan, which
had the merits of simplicity if nothing else. There was no
artillery apart from a few captured Italian guns, which had to be aimed
by squinting down the barrel, so we were to advance without a
barrage. There were no mortars because they had forgotten to pack
the base-plates in Alexandria. There were no spades, so
weapon-pits would have to be dug with steel helmets. My orders
were to advance at a slow pace down the road, since the ground was too
rough to get off into the open country. Parallel with my middle
tank, the 20th New Zealand Battalion would advance on the right and the
Maori Battalion on the left. In particular, I was to beware of two
Bofors guns, recently captured by the enemy, which were said to be
mounted near the village and would blow large holes in my tanks. I
protested that my tanks were only thinly armoured perambulators and that
this was a job for Matildas, but I was sharply brought back to reality
by the reminder that beggars cannot be choosers. All the Matildas
had been knocked out the day before. He acceded to one request,
which was that a section of Maoris should advance behind each tank, so
that I could better judge the pace and to prevent Molotov Cocktails from
being thrown from the ditches". |
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The moved forward from the start line, a
stream outside Platanias, at half-past four and by daylight were on the
outskirts of Maleme village. As they went forward the lead tank of
Sergeant Skedgewell was hit by anti-tank guns, Skedgewell was
"mashed up with the seat, the gunner was killed and the driver
badly wounded, though he managed to get the tank out and back. Farran tried to pull Skedgewell out of the tank, gave him morphia, but
he later died. By now they were also being attacked by Me109s, and
Farran crashed off into a bamboo field to try to get away from the
straffing. Disaster, the bogey damaged earlier by the tangle of
wire now gave out on him, and they had to leave the tank and run for it. |
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A Matilda at the Bovington Tank Museum. Photo J
Dillon |
| In his book Farran almost blames himself for
the loss of Skedgewell; "And then Skedgewell.
I knew and had known all along that the leading tank would be
destroyed. Because I knew that it was bound to be knocked out, I
asked the Squadron Leader if I could go in front, knowing full well that
he would say that the regulations demanded that the officer should
travel in the middle. On any other occasion, if I had wanted to go
in front, I would not have bothered to ask. And Skedgewell had
been killed. I did not care for orders when it suited me, but this
time I had chosen to obey them because I knew that I would be killed if
I did not. I should have been in that leading tank. Instead,
there was Skedgewell dead and his pretty young wife waiting at
home. I felt as if I had murdered him. And the aircraft
overhead with those terrible wailing sirens were like kite hawks over a
dead body". |
| Farran and his crew made it back to the
squadron, and then with a couple of fitters they removed a bogey wheel
from Skedgewell's tank, and under fire, repaired the bogey on his
stranded tank. He was now ordered back towards Maleme to help
cover a withdrawal of the New Zealanders. The Germans had almost
been beaten, but the withdrawal gave heart to the German
attackers. Falling back Farran spent the next two days holding a
road-block outside Canea, but then on the evening of the 25th he was
told to take his two tanks to assist with an attempt to retake
Galatas. After his remorse at the loss of Skedgewell, he now
wanted to be in the position of lead tank. The village was full of
Germans and Farran and his Corporal, commanding the second tank, went
through the village and back again, spraying the houses with machine-gun
bullets. When the infantry were ready they and Farran advanced
again on the village, in darkness. "I had got to a corner half-way through the High Street, when
there was a blinding flash inside the tank and my gunner sank groaning
to the bottom of the turret. he said that he had been hit. I
felt a sort of burn in my thigh and thought it probable that I also had
been wounded. I told the driver to turn round, but as he swung
broadside to the enemy we were hit again. My driver was
wounded in the shoulder and in consequence pulled the tiller too hard,
putting us into the ditch. We sat there, crouched in the bottom of
the turret, while the anti-tank rifle carved big chunks out of the
top. I was hit twice more - in both legs and in the right
arm. Stannard, my gunner, was in a bad way, having stopped one in
the stomach. I pushed them both out through the driver's hatch and
crawled out myself. I pulled myself along on my elbows until I was
under cover of a low stone wall. There I lay in the infernal din
(for the Germans were still shooting bits out of the tank), praying for
the New Zealanders." |
| They were eventually picked up by two more
tanks from his squadron, and taken to a dressing station. A couple
of days were spent in miserable conditions, with other patients, before
they were all captured by the Germans and taken to the 7th General
Hospital, now in German hands. Farran, around about the 29th May,
was flown off the island in a Ju52 transport, to a prisoner-of-war
hospital near Athens. |
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| The Daily Telegraph for 5th
June 2006 carried a long obituary article for Farran who died on the 2nd
June. He had earned the DSO and three MCs. The article is
full of 'derring-do', and reads like a 'Boys' Own' story. The
article is too long to copy here, but does show that it is worth getting
his book and reading some of his exploits. He finally settled in
Canada. As well as the decorations mentioned above he also won the
American Legion of Merit for his exploits in Italy, and the French Croix
de Guerre. |
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The photo is from the Daily Telegraph. |
Roy Farran is the one in the Jeep. |
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