My Conversation with an old T-34 Tanker

[Runyan99]

I had just gotten off the train at Cambridge, with the intention of taking the bus to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. I inquired at the information desk, and I was assured the next bus would be along at 1140. I checked my watch and saw that it was 1130, so I figured everything was rosy.

I was waiting at the bus stop for quite awhile. The promised 1140 bus never showed, or perhaps had already been there and left. I passed the time by watching the other people at the bus stop.

One grey haired fellow, who must have been in his late fifties caught my eye. He seemed to be impatient, checking his watch and seemingly looking around the corner for a bus which never seemed to come. I figured he and I were in the same predicament.

"You going to Duxford?" I asked.

He immediately nodded, and walked over to me. He seemed glad to have someone to talk this over with.

"Have you ever been to Germany?" he asked me. I told him that I had not.

"All of the buses run on time in Germany", he went on. "I remember one time I was waiting at a stop in (German town forgotten), and they told me that the bus was going to be there at 2:44. 'Oh sure' I said, but sure enough I saw the bus come around the corner and wait at the bus stop down the street. It was 2:42, and that bus waited there until 2:44 and then rolled on to my stop".

After his lecture on the punctuality of German buses, I asked him where he was from. I could not quite place the accent, and was naturally wondering if he was German.

He told me he was from Cyprus. We began to chat about the Museum at Duxford. He seemed terribly interested in airplanes, and he knew quite a lot about them. More than I did. You might say he was an old warplane grog.

Being practically ignorant of airplanes (I can barely distinguish a Hurricane from a Spitfire), I redirected the conversation, telling him I was more of a tank-man myself. I told him I went to the Museum in London, and I mentioned that they had a T-34-85 there.

"Yes", he said, "but if you notice, that T-34 has no engine. If you go up to the balcony and look down, you can look inside the rear deck and you can see straight through the tank."

I had not really paid attention at the time, but upon reflection it seemed that he was right. I had gone up to the balcony and looked down at the T-34, and I do recall there being some daylight underneath the rear deck.

It was not long before he mentioned that he had served in the T-34.

"Really?", I asked. "What did you do?"

"I was a gunner."

"Wow, when was that."

"Ummm, the seventies, seventy two?" It was a question. He did not seem to exactly remember the year. But there was a lot he did remember.

"So simple those things were" he told me several times. "Of course, at that time, the tanks were very old, and the metal was starting to degrade. They broke down all of the time. I remember once, we were on an excercise. We had just begun, and the wheel, the ummm, what is it..?"

"The road wheel?", I offered.

"Ya. The road wheel, it cracked, straight down the middle. We called for help, and a truck came with a new one, and the truck was really down low because the wheel was so heavy. We had to get out and fix the thing. We had to get the whole track off. We had to use a sledgehammer, and hit the, um..."

"Pins?", I offered again. His English was sometimes spotty. But then to be fair, I do not even know what language they speak in Cyprus.

"Ya, the pins. We hit them with a sledgehammer, and then, we had to get a truck, and hook the truck up to the track, because it was so heavy. Then the truck backed up and pulled the track off. Then we had to pull the wheel off and replace it with the new one. It was pouring down rain, and it was miserable. Of course, we were missing the whole excercise by the time we got the thing on there."

"How long did it take you, from start to finish?" I asked.

He thought, "Oh about three hours I guess."

Interesting story. In the end, the bus never did come, and we had both been there for nearly an hour. We ended up sharing a cab together, and finally got to Duxford.

You just never know who you will meet.

[Franko]

Great story. Now, can you imagine doing that under fire?

F

[Grisha]

Nice story, Runyan99

[Gyrene]

Nice story Runyan, nice writting style too!

You should consider writing short stories.

Franko:I think they'd porbably ditch the tank if they were under fire from another tank.

Gyrene

[Michael Dorosh]

Excellent story; I love meeting guys like that. Sometimes you have to dig for the info, but stuff like that is pure gold.

Very well written, too. I only wish I had recall of some of the conversations I've had - or a tape recorder.

[Pzman]

Yeah, good story. Last week, my parents were out camping and they met a former Canadian solider who had fought on D-Day. He told them some stories, but they couldn't remember them. Lucky we know where they live, maybe sometime in the next few months or so, we will meat up with them again, and I can ask some questions.

[ August 01, 2002, 01:28 PM: Message edited by: Panzerman ]

[Guest Mike]

Originally posted by Franko:

Great story. Now, can you imagine doing that under fire?

No - which is probably why tankers bailed and ran if their vehicle was immobilised!!

[Sitting Duck]

Originally posted by Mike:

No - which is probably why tankers bailed and ran if their vehicle was immobilised!!

My CM Tankers usually just sit around in the tank until they get blowed up. Like a sitting duck. Hmm...

Best,

Sitting Duck

[Guest Mike]

That's very silly of them!!

But in CMBO chances are that yuor tankers haven't quiet recovered from losing their tracks when the next round misses the track and hits the tank!!

What you'll also see is abandoned vehicles where the damage has been done by artillery or mortars, or by guns not quite big enough to penetrate teh armour.

Any immobilised tank crew WILL get out and run if the tank takes enough non-penetrating hits. It's one of the reasons that 37mm and 40mm AA are so nasty - lots of hits, good chances of geting gun and track hits, and then teh crews bail.