Bill Bellamy > Quotes

“However I was out of touch with Titch because of the distance, although at one point in the afternoon I heard him call for all echelons to return. I kept this news to myself, as I decided that it didn’t apply to us. The regiment would certainly need to be refuelled and as we were the only echelon in the area I stayed where I was.”
― Bill Bellamy, Troop Leader: A Tank Commander's Story

“I often found during the war that I was able to stand back and look at the scene around me as if I was not actually a participant but that it was all a dream. This was one of those occasions, when a sense of unreality pervaded and I felt out of touch with self, a sort of ‘sugary’ feeling came over me as if I was being manipulated gently into doing something which I wanted to do, but over which I had no control.”
― Bill Bellamy, Troop Leader: A Tank Commander's Story

“Later that month, my tank driver, Chamberlain, was badly burned when, having primed the stove with petrol, he took the half empty jerrycan and laid it down behind him. Unbeknownst to him, a trail of petrol led from the stove to the jerrican, and when he threw a match on to the stove, the jerrycan blew up. His resultant injuries were so severe that he had to be evacuated and didn’t return to the crew until September.”
― Bill Bellamy, Troop Leader: A Tank Commander's Story