Berlin
NAFFI opera ticket for La Boheme at Deutsches Operhaus – Berlin
Monty inspects the Desert Rats at the Luftwaffe base in Berlin. Ted is standing in front of his ‘A’ Company A34 Comet Tank ‘Another Duffle Bag’. All ‘A’ Company tanks had names beginning with the letter ‘A’.
Ted meets the ‘Top Brass’
Monty inspects , Ted has an arrow marker above his head. Note the ‘Desert Rat’ Gerboa insignia on the sleeves.
Pathe News including the Berlin Parade, look out for Ted & ‘Another Duffle Bag’ at 3:01 minutes.
Screen shot from Pathe News showing Ted & ‘Another Duffle Bag’ in the foreground.
Comments
Corporal Ted Hicks of the Desert Rats: A Desert Rats Tale 
Wonderful Photograph of the Inspection of the Desert Rats, this can be seen on film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhST-nbRII0. Apart from the middle tank in the foreground “Another Duffle Bag” and the others are A34 Comets that the Desert Rats received after VE day
Barry, that’s fantastic, thank you.
Michael
I’m sure that I don’t have this number, I’ll take another look through what I do have to see if I can find any clues. Thank you for your kind offer.
Michael
If you know what the end of census number of ‘Another Duffle Bag’ was (starts T3354??) I can tell you when it was decommissioned and what it’s fate was.
If this section is still live Another Duffel Bag was T335462
So it seems I’ve got it wrong. ADB is actually T335471 and NOT T335462, sorry.
Still here Michael.
According to the Key card T335462 was renumbered as 15ZR81.
It’s engine number was R42094 which was later swapped out for 42515.
Disposal date was 02/05/1958
The notes are “S/O SOLD – 51 GVD – ROF. Birtley – CAM/58/SALES G1/52” from 51 General Vehicle Depot to Royal Ordnance Factory Birtley one of eight struck off to Birtley that day.
Mark 1A T335167 09ZR24
Mark 1A T335219 17ZR99
Mark 1B T335460 20ZR44
Mark 1B T335462 15ZR81
Mark 1B T335539 12ZR95
Mark 1B T335606 12ZR53
Mark 1B T335617 09ZR55
Mark 1B T335827 16ZR56
Great thanks for that ! Are there any records as to what action (or where) this tank might have experienced ? Aeroplanes often have their ‘hits’ credited to them – did tanks (and crew) ?
Hi Michael,
T335462 is a post war Mk1B Comet so was not in action during WWII. The Desert Rats received a mixture of new Mk1Bs and Mk1As from the three tank regiments of 11th Armoured division, 23rd Hussars, 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and 2 Fife and Forfars, which were the only ones fully equipped with Comets in their advance from crossing the Rhine to the Lubeck / Hamburg area in Northern Germany.
The highest census number I have seen for a tank that saw active service is T335354 which was the command tank in my father’s troop, 3 Troop, C Squadron 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry (2FFY).
The actions squadrons were in can be found either the individual war diary for the regiment or in Taurus Pursuant: A History of 11th Armoured Division. There is not any details below squadron level, unless it is to name a particular officer, and there was no tradition of recording kills on individual tanks.
There is the briefest description in the book of the action C sqn 2FFY was engaged in at Loccum near Petershagan on 7th April 45 in which seven german 88mm guns were destroyed which earns my father’s tank commander Sgt Jim Thompson-Bell the Military Medal, but more in Jim Thompson-Bell’s taped recollection at the Imperial War Museum.
Their tank T335001 with the distinctive 3A is shown crossing the Weser at Petershagan on the morning in a photograph in the Imperial War Museum collection, and a brief few seconds of film at the same spot. T335001 is now in the American Heritage Museum and is the only A34 with provenance back to service in WWII.
Over on Facebook there is a ‘A34 Comet Tank Appreciation Society’ page and within their albums are details of my father’s tank and others in the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry during WWII along pictures of T335001 in service with the Irish army in the 60s and 70s then in the hands of private collectors.
The American Heritage Museum now has his tank on display along with a brief history of it’s service from the Rhine, to Belson, where 11th Armoured Division liberated the concentration camp and on to Lubeck by the Baltic, But more importantly it gives credit to the original crew Larry Smith, Jimmy Phythian, and Ted Gwalter, Stan Weston and Jim Thompson-Bell.
This is fantastic information Barry, thank you very much for sharing.
Regards
Michael
Wow, loads of information, thanks indeed. So – I have a still (agency) photo of the inspection by Monty in Berlin (video referenced at the beginning of this post) and Another Duffel Bag is a Cromwell (as well as the others in that corner – afaics). However the picture I have of “ADB” is a Comet so a little confused now . . .
Can you post pictures here ?
Michael. D.
Or, put more simply, could there have been two tanks called Another Duffel Bag, one being a Cromwell (that went through the war) and one being a Comet (used for the ‘march’ into Berlin)?
The use of the name ‘Another Duffle Bag’ on a Cromwell that saw active service that then transferred to a Comet in Berlin post VE day seems very likely.
The photograph of Monty in Berlin above shows a Cromwell in the middle foreground.
1 RTR tanks all had names beginning with A, 2 RTR with B, the 3 RTR Comets with a C, examples being ‘Crete’, ‘Corinth’, ‘Camelot’ and of course Stephen Pannell’s father’s ‘Celerity’ T335335.
Incidentally, the Bronco A34 Comet model kit which Stephen helped develop and which carries marking for ‘Celerity’ was actually modelled from my father’s tank T335001 when it was in the Jacques Littlefield collection.
I have a photograph from my father’s collection of the whole of 2nd Fife and Forfar C squadron laagered in Germany c.late April 45 and there are two Cromwells that were used for reconnaissance parked up with three troops of 4 Comets each and a further HQ Comet along with a various support trucks.
The Cromwells were ideal for reconnaissance with a top speed of around 40mph where the heavier Comets were limited to 32mph to preserve tracks and suspension. Although my father did say that in the final dash to Lubeck on the Autobahn the Comets were doing every bit of that for hours on end, at one point passing a staff car full of extremely perplexed German officers barrelling towards them in the far lane.
Brilliant, thanks again so much !!
My Fathers first tank was a Cromwell called Duffel Bag – so when he / they went to 1RTR “Another” was added to it – I’ve no idea as to if it was the same Cromwell . . . ?
“ADB is actually T335471 and NOT T335462, sorry.” Do you have the key card for what is now ADB – T335471 ?
I think it’s likely that ‘Another Duffel Bag’ was a different tank, tank commanders and crews held on to the names and variations were often used when tanks were replaced. Putting ‘Another’ at the beginning is a clever way of complying with the 1RTR naming convention of starting with an A and continuing the name of the earlier tank.
T335471 was later renumbered 09ZR73.
It had three recorded engines R41951, 41284 and 41750.
The key card entry shows the disposal date as S/O SOLD – 41 GVD – ROF Birtley – BRN/1/62319/02/1958.
The next two census numbers are T335472 for ‘Avanti’ and T335473 ‘Antiseptic’. ‘Antiseptic’ is shown on parade next to ADB and that might possibly be Avanti three tanks along.