"Further info on the Sexton" Topic

Passing this along…

Today I've (finally) found THE info that I've casually researched for many years, of my father's details as a Gunner in 90 Field Regiment Royal Artillery 357 Battery (I've previously looked-in vain for 92nd field and failed ~ explains Why ! )

He was in main, the driver of the Batt OP tank – now found to be 'Aurora' ~ pretty-good definitive for One individual among the millions serving!!

The question I'm responding to, is about the 'Imitation gun' mounted and I can from 'memory' relate His stories (few) about….

There was a 'tin' barrel on his tank, which used to 'flex' because the metal gauge was so thin. There was no breach obviously. The Reason for it being unarmed was, the space in the turret at a premium, was occupied by multi-net radio-sets ~ to talk to multiple batteries and commanders etc. all netted separately. He of course carried the OC / FOO. The limitation on available space also precluded a co-ax but, he was fitted with a roof mounted Bren-gun (sometimes) ~ would you credit, Twice it was Stolen off the laagered tank !

He was 25lb Gypsies in North Africa (Indian Division Artillery) (2nd Battle of Alamaign etc) and were returned UK to re-equip for what turned out to be Normandy. He landed Sword Beach at D -20m … LCT designed to carry 4 ~ they (you're probably aware) found that by leaving the inner doors open, that a fifth tank could be crammed-in…. His was #5 solo in the bows. D-30 they sailed-in 'shelling' (not him) the coastal defenses and then did a U-turn short and were sailed through by the assaulting Infantry landing-craft, then U-turned again to land in close support. At this point, there was supposed to be a 'start-engines' signal – His tank was powered by x4 omnibus engines, which had to be individually started and then syncromeshed so, it took 20 minutes to achieve.

He was sat 'head-up in his tank when the ramp crashed down and green tracer came in ~ signal neglected, they'd arrived at Normandy ! He then (head rapidly down) had to start/engage his 4 engines sat in the mouth of the LCT under small-arms fire for the Most rapid start-up he'd ever achieved !! – with of course, the gunned Sextons of his troop blocked-in behind him.

Some other stories but not many as, with vets aplenty (now its PTSD) he was affected by, yet survived the war, though the 'smell' of wet broken bricks caused him 'instant' vomiting (flashbacks), including having been in the action against Wittman at 'damn name escapes me ~ Tilley-sur-seul ?' where (story) the battery shelled a French village over 'opensights' ~ sheltering Panzers ~ while the villagers stood alongside his tank 'Cheering' every explosion that was knocking their houses Down ! (He didn't get-it'! ).

Hope this has been of some interest.

Wow!!!

Always great to hear a Vets story, especially for me a Brit and Normandy.

The Wittman reference seems to indicate Tilly-Sur-Seulles, which isn't too far from Villers Bocage.

Amazing to hear those stories! My wife's father went ashore in one of the first boats on Omaha beach. Said it was much worse than the first few minutes of Saving Private Ryan movie.

Vivid and interesting stuff, with useful details.

At the risk of nit-picking: I remembered that the SP Regts on SWORD were equipped with Priests in place of theit normal towed 25-pdrs.

This link link confirms that 90 Fd Regt was a Sexton unit in 1944 as part of 50th Inf Div, but this would mean it landed on GOLD rather than SWORD. This makes much more sense of the references to Tilly or Villers-Bocage, which are otherwise well to the W of SWORD.

My ex-fiancée's grandfather was an MP in the British Army. Even when I met him in his 80s he loved motorcycles. He stole a German BMW motorcycle and brought it home with him from the war.

He told me that when they landed in Normandy they landed at a sea wall and couldn't drive straight out due to the height difference. They partially lowered the ramp and jumped their motorcycles onto the wall. They had fun making bets about who would, or wouldn't, make the jump.

Sextons certainly in Normandy landing. One knocked holes in one of the heavily fortified bunkers.
I think 105mm ammo was in short supply. Quite a number of UK Priests had guns dismounted and used as Infantry carriers in a big attack. Defrocked Priest!

3rd (British) and 3rd Canadian Inf Divs each had their Field Regts (three in each Div) equipped with M7s, with a fourth non-Div Regt attached to 3rd Cdn Div. The Field Regts in these two Divs were all supposed to convert to towed 25-prs at the first available opportunity. In the event they were still equipped with the Priests well into July as I recall.

50th (Northumbrian) Div had one Field Regt converted to the Sextion (90th, as noted above). Its other two Field Regts stayed as towed 25-prs. For the assault landing, two non-Div Field Regts were attached (86th and 147th). They were likewise both SP units, with the Sexton. All three of these SP Regts stayed SP during the campaign, and 90th remained in theatre when 50th Div returned to the UK.

There was an informative thread over on ww2talk.com a while ago now re OP tanks. They were not all 'defanged' as the RAC did not want perfectly good gun tanks rendered useless by having the main gun removed. There were around 150 Sherman tanks produced with no main armament for the OP role, however Sherman Vs were used with their 75-mm gun still in place as well.

I'm not sure if the thread found anything on whether the OP tanks in SP Field Regts were more likely to be without main gun armament or not. HQs of both Armd Bdes and Tank Bdes had eight OP tanks for use by attached FOOs, with a nominal RAC crew of two men, and it seems they would be more likely to retain their main gun accordingly.

Gary