Captain John Cloudsley-Thompson

	General experience.
	This page: includes inventory and audio clip.

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Cairo, January 1942.

Inventory of the Donation

• 2 uniform belts
• 2 Royal Armoured Corps cloth badges
• 5 metal uniform badges
• Home Guard sleeve band
• Identity tag
• Photocopied articles written by Cloudsley-Thompson from the Royal Armoured Corps journal
• 50 photographs
• 2 original wartime letters
• Tape-recorded

April 1942. No. 1 Troop B Squadron (John Cloudsley-Thompson's second tank crew) before 'Knightsbridge'.

Left: Trooper Joe Hocking (driver, K.I.A.). Right: Trooper Alf Carr (gunner, severely wounded) holding 'Noball' their pet fox cub. Corporal Norman Mew (wireless operator and loader, severely wounded) stayed inside the 'Bivvy' because it was too hot to come out just for a photograph!

B Squadron Officers' Mess near Tobruk, January 1942.
From left to right: Captain E G S Smallwood (K.I.A.), Lieutenant Sir A Tichborne Bart, Major D J Hill-Wood MC, Second-Lieutenant J A C Pearce, Captain F A Jarvis MC, Lieutenant The Honourable Robin Maughan.

Tank in Battle

My crew used to amuse themselves training the baby fox that I had bartered with an Arab for half a piastre and two over-ripe bananas. My codename at that time was 'Highball' and they called her 'Noball'. She was soon completely tame and never tried to escape. Indeed, she became quite a Regimental figure and used to visit other tank crews to scrounge extra bully beef. Noball made a lair for herself behind the wireless set, but when the midday heat became unbearable she lay panting in a pool of oil at the bottom of the turret. One day we lost her inside the engine and the whole Squadron was held up until she had been extricated!

(Extract from the Royal Armoured Tank Corps Journal Vol 10 July 1956)

John Cloudsley-Thompson Audio Clip

Audio Clip Requires Real Player - free download here

Transcript of Audio Clip

Well, we charged in and the whole of this, which actually was the 15^th Panzer Division, I gather afterwards, started firing at us and we got fairly close. There was a block of 20 Mark 3's and then 6 Mark 3's to the right of them and I was a bit right of that and I came along, I was almost level with the Mark 3's when I saw a wadi in front, so I stopped - "Driver left halt" and started firing at those German tanks. I could see - we had a power-traverse - so we could get on to them quicker than they could on to us and I was watching their guns coming round and I was going to put down the smoke and get out as quickly as possible when the tank was hit once again, I mean we were hit many times before, in the charge in, but this time the shot came in through the front and all I knew was that the tannoy, loudspeaker, so I could talk to the crew with had broken down and air was escaping from the pressure system and so on and so I shouted "Bail out!" and my wireless operator and driver (the driver couldn't get out - he was killed). Wireless operator and gunner got out and I got out. Well, they ran ahead. The wireless operator went off in another tank and my Squadron Leader came up and stopped and I was started to run and I found my feet were wobbling and the shells kept exploding in front of me - I think that they were firing S88's from the back of the column and were firing by that time either at me or at my Squadron Leader's tank but they missed.

During this incident John suffered a severe leg injury and was evacuated to Tobruk hospital.

	General experience.
	This page: includes inventory and audio clip.