D-Day 80 The Last Veterans: Richard Aldred
Richard Aldred, Age: 99, Royal Armoured Corps
Interviewed 3 June 2023
A Cromwell tank driver, Richard Aldred was attached to the 7th Armoured Division and arrived in Normandy in July 1944.
The British tank advance had been halted by German Tiger Tanks under the command of Michael Wittman, who was later decorated in person by Adolf Hitler because of this success.
He said: "What was it like when I got there? The whole place had a ghastly smell of death.
"And I am serious now, it was horrid. And the people who suffered most were not the humans, friend or foe, it was the animals. Wounded cows. We had to shoot horses.
"There are better ways to spend six weeks I can assure you.
"They hadn’t advanced all that far. We took over after Michael Wittman had decimated the Fife and Forfars. He knocked out at least Cromwells and a couple of scout cars. And we took over from that regiment.
"I was just a driver and I had to drive this Cromwell. You must understand that your visibility in a tank is seriously curtailed and you just go where you are told to go.
"Each one has got his headset on and you hear the orders. ‘Go left, go left. Put your foot down, Stop.’
"And then you hear the order ‘Gunner, traverse right. Fire at will.’ And ‘bang’ and the smell of the gunpowder and the cordite in the tank and the slight apprehension I suppose that we are all under.
"It’s a bit nerve wracking you know but you don’t let your mates down."
At Bourneville-Sainte-Croix Mr Aldred’s tank took a direct hit from a German tank.
He said: "He was in the bushes to my left. He had already knocked out one before us. We were second in line for his medicine.
"Luckily I had just turned right or we would have got it in the front of the tank I suppose. The gunnery like ours was extremely accurate.
"He looks through a telescope with cross wires. You just can’t miss."
Luckily the shot struck the vehicle’s gearbox which brought the British tank to a halt.
"I felt the thump as it hit us. It was a terrible thump. Always remember that. And the next thing I heard was ‘Bail out’.
"And I went through that hatch like a jackrabbit. Dear oh dear. All of us got out.
"What made us so cross was we were going to have roast chicken that night for supper.
"We had a dead chicken in the toolbox and we were going to fry it. But I am afraid that it was fried for us."
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