Since I'm slowly (oh, sooo slowly) collecting the forces
that fought at the battle of Ortona I thought it best to include some of the Canadian
Shermans who were tasked to support their fellow infantry in their assault on the town. These were A and C Squadron's tanks
from The Three Rivers Regiment (a regiment that originated from Trois-Rivieres a town between Montreal an Quebec City). One of extraordinary things I discovered while
researching the battle was that there were three brothers who all served in A
Squadron, Joe, Gord and Bill Turnbull.
Gord and Joe both served as tank commanders, while
Bill, the youngest, was a crewman in another Sherman.
At just eighteen, Bill had been to first to enlist in October 1940. Gord and Joe followed a few weeks later. Joe, the eldest at twenty-five, had served in the Spanish Civil war in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. He had first tried to join the Royal Canadian Air Force but when the recruiters discovered about his past service in Spain, which was seen as an illegal act at best and smacked of Communism at worst, they had rejected him out of hand. So a few weeks later he tried again, this time with the Army and conveniently neglected to bring up his fighting in Spain and as such was welcomed into the fold.
At just eighteen, Bill had been to first to enlist in October 1940. Gord and Joe followed a few weeks later. Joe, the eldest at twenty-five, had served in the Spanish Civil war in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. He had first tried to join the Royal Canadian Air Force but when the recruiters discovered about his past service in Spain, which was seen as an illegal act at best and smacked of Communism at worst, they had rejected him out of hand. So a few weeks later he tried again, this time with the Army and conveniently neglected to bring up his fighting in Spain and as such was welcomed into the fold.
The three brothers were very devoted to one
another and Joe in particular felt a great weight of responsibility to get his
two younger brothers through the war alive.
This was a tall order with all of them serving in the same tank squadron.
In August 19143, in Sicily, eighty-four men in the regiment were killed or
wounded and in one battle alone, ten of the thirty tanks of their squadron were
knocked out by enemy fire.
 |
| Charles Comfort's 'Canadian Armour at Ortona' |
After Sicily, the three Turnbull brothers participated
in the heavy fighting along the Moro River and then were tasked to enter the vicious
urban combat of Ortona.
Joe wrote to his new wife, Peg, just
before entering Ortona, explaining why he had become somewhat distant in his correspondence over the previous few months. ‘We are not fighting Italians now but the Germans, and they are
in every sense equal to the toughest and finest soldiers in the world. They
will not retire. They have to be killed. And there is only one way we can beat
them, Peg, we have to be just a little bit tougher and that means we have to be
put aside finer human feelings.’
Early in the battle Bill was wounded in the
leg and evacuated. A few days later Joe had his tank knocked out in the tight
confines of the town’s center. After
helping his crew to bail out of their Sherman Joe became separated from them
and was forced to take refuge in a nearby cellar from raking machinegun
fire.
Joe’s brother, Gord, saw his older sibling’s
tank get knocked out and then observed the escaping crew come under heavy fire.
He quickly brought his main gun to bear on the machine gun position and
silenced it. Nonetheless, the resulting dust
and debris obscured Gord’s vision so he could not spot his brother afterwards.
It was not until the end of the battle,
when Gord was searching the ruined town for his brother that he came upon him
sitting in a shellhole, looking off into the distance, singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to himself (it was indeed his birthday). Joe looked up and saw Gord, stopped singing, and the two
brothers sat together for awhile in quiet companionship.
In the end, after serving through the rest
of the Italian Campaign and then through North West Europe the Three Rivers Regiment and
the three Turnbull brothers returned home to Canada.
These three 1/72 scale plastic Shermans are
from PSC. Though I'm a bit of a muppet when it comes to doing-up vehicles I found they were great little kits to
work. I built one as a ‘Firefly’ with its
signature 17 pounder gun. This in fact is a
bit of cheat as ‘Fireflys’ were not issued in the Italian theatre until quite
late in the war, but I've always liked the look of them and I thought I would indulge myself.
I like vehicles that look like they've been lived in, with lots of supplies, parts, etc. So I sourced the extra stowage bits (mostly resin with some white metal) from Milicast Models.
Fairly pricy but well worth it I think.
When researching the Three Rivers Regiment I came across a great picture of
one of their Shermans with a BSA bicycle strapped to the back of the tank.
I assume the crew
thought it handy for scooting around when they were halted. I
thought this quite neat and so sourced a bicycle from SHQ’s 20mm Volksturm range,
trimmed off the base, added some new handlebars and positioned it atop the rear deck of one of the Shermans along with its other stowage.
I painted the trio in a basic British bronze
khaki without the black 'Micky Mouse' camo pattern often seen in the Italian theatre. It is argued that the Regiment didn't use it
at this time and in fact the vehicles may have been holdovers from the North African campaign. I then heavily drybrushed
and dappled them in dust tones as many of the pictures of Shermans at Ortona shows
them as being completely filthy and begrimed from the rubble and clouds of dust.
The decals, as discrete as they are, are correct to the Regiment and
are from Milicast as well.
So there you have it folks. Three Shermans, from the Three Rivers, for
three Brothers.
Thanks for visiting!
