URBAN MYTHS

Getelmen i need your help please, many moons ago when i was a 15/19 Hussar,i was told of the tank that put its barrel through the pub window and fired a blank round. Ihave even been told that the small vilage was a place called Hutzel. I am lothe to believe this because,
1) i dont remember ever seeing a blank round for tanks.
2) the story is always from some one who knew some one.
3) the damage must have been tremendous, so probably made the news.

So any help gents over to you. thanks Dave.

Yes I remember that, it was a Tiger Tank, one of several hundred that were found stored in an underground Tank Park in Grafenwohr after the war.

If you think all you can do is try to take the piss dont bother and eff off.

dandc wrote:

Getelmen i need your help please, many moons ago when i was a 15/19 Hussar,i was told of the tank that put its barrel through the pub window and fired a blank round. Ihave even been told that the small vilage was a place called Hutzel. I am lothe to believe this because,
1) i dont remember ever seeing a blank round for tanks.
2) the story is always from some one who knew some one.
3) the damage must have been tremendous, so probably made the news.

So any help gents over to you. thanks Dave.

This "incident" was touched on before Dan.

1) When I first heard the story the centurion was still in use. 20 pounder or 105 mm gun I don't know but I think they both fired from a cartridge, so I suppose it would be possible to have a blank.
2) Nobody ever knew which unit it was supposed to have been, it was always "some Tanky mob".
3) Firing a "blank" of that size into a small gasthaus type room would've caused death.

For me that particular story is a load of old cobblers.

You could fill a book with Urban Myths.

Cheers brum, my sentiments also.

Another story that went around in the early 60s was of disenchanted dingbat, who decided it would be a good idea to defect to the east.
I think he may have been in Berlin but either way, the story went that this character, (from the Royal Welsh Fusiliers it seems), was welcomed by Soviets with open arms then, after they'd got all the info from him that they could ,they sent him back to the west.
I don't recall ever hearing what was supposed to have happened to him when he got back.

I do believe that these stories have a grain of truth in them somewhere though !

Like the one pulling the string,shouting "heel rover".

Quote :

Royal Welsh Fusiliers

Is this when the soviets took an interest in sheep???OOps ..Am i taking the piss?/

Gordon. wrote:

Quote :

Royal Welsh Fusiliers

Is this when the soviets took an interest in sheep???OOps ..Am i taking the piss?/

Don't think so, Old Bean. That definitely comes under "Generating Banter", that is if anyone apart from me, wants to keep it going!

Centurions, both 20 pounder and 105mm had available blank rounds, in the early 70's at Warminster, Ajax 2RTR, it is said, would go pheasant hunting if they had a few left over at the end of an exercise. This was just hearsay on my part, I was there but never witnessed the event, but the idea was that the tank would go charging into the undergrowth and if a pheasant broke cover, a blank was let off killing the pheasant stone bonkers dead with the shock wave. It is said these birds sold at a premium in town as there was no lead shot to dig out.

By the cringe !

The gunner chappie would have to be a bit schnell on the traverse wouldn't he ?

NO directivity of shot required. Shock wave.

It was always gun front, as the tank approached, the pheasant always break directly away from whatever scares them, as indeed they do when beaters are employed in a pukka pheasant shoot...........almost went off on a tangent there with pheasant pluckers and suchlike!

Heard that story to about the tank in the 60's and yes it was supposed to be a British out fit that did it. It was in 67 when I heard it.

There was a story about a Canadian who defected to the east, had something to do with being AWOL and drunk and thinking that was the answer to his problems.

Also when we first got APC's , M113 in Germany, apparently when first swam by an infantry unit, they forgot to close the door on the ramp. Could be possible.

Guy Bouchard Canadian Army Canada 1960 Defected to East Germany[61]
John Strobl Canadian Army Canada 1960 Defected to East Germany[62]


These two characters were the ones

So !

Again a grain of truth ! I wonder how the story finished up with it being one man from the Royal Welsh Fusiliers who defected ? !

There was the one that went round in "Crusader"time. The usual German railway level crossing and a guy tied a horse to the barrier pole. Up went the pole and the horse with it. Down it came onto the bonnet of a Brit land Rover. The horse owner tried to sue the Brits for scaring the horse.

Don't believe it but I heard it at least twice.

The legends I heard in BAOR were:

1) A number of German Leopards were passing though a village, only to find that a row of parked cars was hindering thier passage, after a quick shout of "moven ze wagens" thay shrugged and drove over the top of all of them (naturally no unit was ever named and I suspect the model of tank and number of vehicles trashed changed with time and the number of beers consumed)


2) Chieftan crews being bribed by fritz (sorry Indeginous Population) to demolish old farm buildings for the compensation


2) A Jock arrested by those friendly chaps in Red Hats was being taken to Frankfurt but the RMP mistook the road and headed towards Frankfurt am Oder rather that Frankfurt, till they hit the IGB

As per usual with these things it was told and retold but originated from some bloke who was in the know and it was all hushed up

First two might have some credence but the third, even I when wet behind the ears thought it smelled like Billingsgate on a hot afternoon.

Chemist wrote:

There was the one that went round in "Crusader"time. The usual German railway level crossing and a guy tied a horse to the barrier pole. Up went the pole and the horse with it. Down it came onto the bonnet of a Brit land Rover. The horse owner tried to sue the Brits for scaring the horse.

Don't believe it but I heard it at least twice.

Yep heard that one too....

and the Brit Tank Driver who was waiting at a junction when confronted by a horde of german CND types who started screaming "why did you join the Army" etc, his reply "Cos I like bayonetting babies, now f*** o***"

There must have been millions of tales like that

ScaleyDave wrote:

The legends I heard in BAOR were:

1) A number of German Leopards were passing though a village, only to find that a row of parked cars was hindering thier passage, after a quick shout of "moven ze wagens" thay shrugged and drove over the top of all of them (naturally no unit was ever named and I suspect the model of tank and number of vehicles trashed changed with time and the number of beers consumed)


2) Chieftan crews being bribed by fritz (sorry Indeginous Population) to demolish old farm buildings for the compensation


2) A Jock arrested by those friendly chaps in Red Hats was being taken to Frankfurt but the RMP mistook the road and headed towards Frankfurt am Oder rather that Frankfurt, till they hit the IGB

As per usual with these things it was told and retold but originated from some bloke who was in the know and it was all hushed up

First two might have some credence but the third, even I when wet behind the ears thought it smelled like Billingsgate on a hot afternoon.

The one by Chemist is new on me, probably after my time.
2) We often thought that was the case, certainly, I once watched a troop of Leopards drive through a field of standing crops, even though there was a road running alongside the field.
In the mid-70s, the duration of an exercise was often governed by the amount of damage done. On one ex the word went around that once a million marks worth of damage was done it would be stopped.
Sitting waiting for a Greenjackets column to clear a village I watched a 432 driver deliberately run over a parked car.
Whether there was a million mark limit or not, that exercise DID finish early !

Chemist wrote:

There was the one that went round in "Crusader"time. The usual German railway level crossing and a guy tied a horse to the barrier pole. Up went the pole and the horse with it. Down it came onto the bonnet of a Brit land Rover. The horse owner tried to sue the Brits for scaring the horse.

Don't believe it but I heard it at least twice.

The original dit involved a man and a dog, a horse and cart, a brand spanking new merc and a backfiring Stally! And it went something like this:-

A man and his dog were waiting at a level crossing next to the barrier, behind him was this brand new Merc and behind that a horse and cart then along came this Stally and as the driver came to a halt it backfired causing the horse to rear up on it's back legs and then came down on the boot of the Merc! The bloke with his dog saw what was happening, tied his dog to the barrier and went to assist the geezer on the horse and cart. In the meantime 'Casey Schmidt' on the Hannover to Hamburg express passed through the crossing and once he'd cleared it the barrier went up along with 'Fritz the Hund'!

I did hear a story in the mid 1960s whilst serving in BAOR, that some disgruntled squaddies got beaten up in a German Pub that was the home drinking den of many Italians living in Germany then. Some of those squaddies were quite badly injured, so one of the senior officers of the Regiment says.. "Right lads...lets go down and sort 'em..!" So quite a few squaddies piles into a Bedford 3 Tonner, drove down to said German Pub, and backed the 3 Tonner through the front of said premises. No more British Army squaddies were beaten up for a long time by the Italian youth who lived in that town.

Not sure if this was an urban myth, or one of those reports that arose around some Scottish Regiment being called 'Poisoned Dwarfs' when there was trouble between them and local German youth. This usually flared upa after a night on the town imbibing large quantities of German Ale after getting a belly full of booze in the NAAFI Bars before heading off camp for a punch up.

I do know that several of my mates said that the Italians who lived in the Krefeld area of Germany near 28 (BR) Sigs Regiment, adn 16 Sigs Regiment would carry flick knives with them, so some off duty squaddies took to carrying knives as well when they went out of barracks. I never heard of any injuries, the blokes on the camp used to drink in pubs away from the local Italian immigrant communities in the Krefeld area.

I can remember being searched by the HM Customs at Dover Port once when coming home on leave to Blighty by train and ferry. I did have a small knife on me, but the blade length was under 3 and a half inches. That was a long time ago now.....

Quote :

Not sure if this was an urban myth, or one of those reports that arose around some Scottish Regiment being called 'Poisoned Dwarfs' when there was trouble between them and local German youth.

True....The Cameronians

The British press called them the "Poison dwarfs". It seems that they picked up on the German name for them, (whatever that was).
A bit like the German name for the British football supporters, "Inselaffen". What bothers me is that, it seems to me, in the mentality of the German race, the British are all "Inselaffen".

I was present at the birth of three "urban myths".
In Hemer, we shared a barracks with an Infantry Regt that must remain nameless.
Every so often the two battalions of this regiment rotated.
During the move of the incoming battalion, we had their MFO boxes etc. stacked under gun covers on our square.
1).It was said that a freezer was among the stuff that we were accommodating, and its contents defrosted and leaked blood down the slope of the parade ground and evoking images of victims of IRA executions being smuggled out of NI.
It was said that the owner of the freezer thought that its contents would stay solid long enough for him to make the move into his new home.
2). At this time we had had our pay arrangements moved to German banks. (Commerzbank, Dresdener Bank, und so weiter.). part of this process resulted in us being presented with a little wallet. stuffed with Euroschecks, (apologies for any misspellings). Incoming Infantiers believed that as long as you had cheques, you had money and were buying stuff with reckless abandon, until the Powers That Be put a stop to it.
3). A member of this mob was a model railway enthusiast and, to expand his burgeoning layout, thought it expedient to knock holes in the walls of his lovely, ex-Canadian married quarter, to allow free movement of his rail network.

1) Believable, but not substantiated.
2) True, confirmed orally by senior members of aforesaid regiment,
3) As above.

It used to be said, on a TV programme, "The truth is stranger than fiction" !