Sunday, February 11, 2007

After the fight on the 11th day

The was after the action with German truck-borne anti-tank guns, still early on the 11th day of the Crusader Battle. When the crew of the truck that was hit by the 37mm round, fired from Robert Crisp's tank, had bailed out and surrendered, the nearby Germans all chose to do the same thing. They all climbed on the tanks. Since Robert Crisp had no idea where the 3rd RTR had gone, he decided to go to the 4th Armoured Brigade HQ and leave the German prisoners for them to handle. He looked around and could see what he thought was the HQ and drove towards that spot. When he got there, Brigadier Gatehouse was "cross" and was not thrilled with the Germans. He asked Robert what he had been doing when he should have been fighting German tanks. Robert explained that they had knocked out four anti-tank guns and that the prisoners were mostly anti-gunners and that taking them prisoner was better than leaving them to knock out Stuarts tomorrow. This is based on the account in Robert Crisp's book Brazen Chariots.

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