15 May 1944. General Montgomery briefs Allied senior
officers on the D-Day plan at St Paul's School, London.
18 May 1944. Cassino and the monastery on Monte
Cassino captured.
18 May 1944. The 4th/7th Dragoon Guards move to
Hursley Park, near Romsey in Hampshire to begin final preparations
for D-Day. These final moves of the various regiments were
extremely complicated but everyone involved remarks on how
well ordered it was. Sites such as Hursley Park would be
designated Concentration Areas. Here the regiments got together
and crews went through the initial stages of applying waterproofing
to their tanks; a process described by 7th Armoured Division
as 'hard, dirty and monotonous work'.
The next stage was a move to the Marshalling Area. Here
the vehicles were sorted into Landing Craft loads and the
final stages of waterproof sealing were done. Each landing
craft had a serial number and, when this was called over
the Tannoy, the relevant vehicles would move off to the
dockside.
19 May 1944. The Great Escape; 79 Allied airmen
escape through a tunnel from Stalag Luft III near Sagan.
Three got away, 26 were sent back to PoW camps but 50 were
killed at Gorlitz by the Gestapo.
Most vehicles featured on this website
are part of the Tank
Museum collection, many are on public display from time
to time. Please enquire
for details
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the Tank Museum Website
