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This
photo of Graham with his ^ crew is stamped "November 1944" Can you tell me anything about these lads ? Jim Stainsfield, Gordon Fletcher, or Bill Abtill ? |
| As far as I can recollect, from my brother's account of the action, this Guards Armoured Division Churchill Tank named "HULL" and it's crew survived the chase from the French coast, D-Day + something, right through to North Germany where it was abandoned on the Autobahn near Hamburg. I caught up with him in 1945 when my unit, 2nd Batn. Irish Guards, were stationed at the "Estorff Kaserne" Wandsbek and the Grenadier Guards were at Bergedorf on the other side of Hamburg. I remember he had a tin trunk under his bed, full of Cigarettes and Chocolate which was the local "currency" in those days ! With a fellow-soldier , in 1989, I re-traced the movements of the GAD from the Normandy beaches, right through, France, Belgium and Holland, across the Rhein and North to Luneburg Heath where the surrender documents were signed. Driving an elderly Volvo, it took me 11 days to do the round trip visiting the city of Luneburg, and the house where Himmler committed suicide while my fellow traveller was on duty outside, then Bergen-Belsen, and the East-West Frontier post on the Elbe river, then the Mohne Dam on the way back. We were probably the last two British veterans to stand astride the line dividing East from West before they pulled "The Wall" down three weeks later. |