PillBlogs: In Remembrance

In previous years I have written about minefield accidents and I predicted in last year's Remembrance piece that I would be writing about similar events this year. I have found many more, but I'm going to focus on two events, one tragic, the other poignant.

The tragic event is the death of Signalman A. Gardner on 7th July 1942.

An army demonstration of the Snake was being held in a valley near the end of a runway at Friston Aerodrome on the cliffs just east of Cuckmere Haven. The Snake comprised a metal pipe of explosive that was to be pushed from a tank across a minefield and detonated to clear the mines.

The war diary tells the rest of the story:

At 07.55 hrs a tank which had arrived on the aerodrome to demonstrate a new method of exploding a minefield was being serviced near the cliff edge when it got out of control and crashed 130 feet [approx. 45m] over the cliff and into the sea below. The occupant of the tank, Signalman Gardner, 2372889, of the Royal Tank Corps [sic] sustained multiple injuries despite gallant rescue work and a blood transfusion in the Medical Crash Room on the aerodrome prior to removal to the local hospital.

No further information has yet come to light on this; I can only presume that Gardner was working on signals equipment inside the tank when it fell. He seems to have been the only occupant, so why the engine was running without a driver present, (unless Gardner himself was driving) is unclear.

The demonstration eventually took place 8 days later before a crowd of 3,000 service personnel who were probably completely unaware of the tragedy; the photograph below shows one possible site of the accident.

Signalman Gardner succumbed to his injuries and was laid to rest in Langney Cemetery, Eastbourne.

The second event is related to John McCrae, author of the famous poem In Flanders Fields, composed in 1915.

A Canadian war diary eloquently describes the event:

Among numerous visitors received at Brigade HQ...were Lt-Col Colin Russel and Lt-Col William Cone....These two distinguished medical officers were very much interested in examining the coastal defences and we all enjoyed meeting them very much indeed. While visiting the...positions on the Camber front, an interesting incident occurred.

Colonel Russel and Colonel Cone were examining a flame trap when Colonel Russel remarked, "There's a lark." He turned his back on the flame trap and stood completely absorbed in watching a lark which rose from the grass in the midst of barbed wire and mines singing beautifully. As the bird rose to the peak of its flight and then settled back into the grass, the late Colonel McCrae's lines

"And in the skies the larks still bravely singing fly"

were recalled. Colonel Russel had known Colonel McCrae and seemed much moved by this incident.

A poignant event of the Second World War in which a fallen comrade (McCrae died in 1918) was remembered; I found this particularly pertinent in the year that the First World War generation all but passed from our living memory.

- Pete

Hibbs, Peter PillBlogs: In Remembrance (2010) Available at: http://www.pillbox.org.uk/pillblogs/detail.asp?ID=272 Accessed: 08 September 2010