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Destroyed British tank at Galatas

A British Mk VI tank destroyed during the counter-attack on Galatas, 25 May 1941. This was one of two tanks under the command of Lieutenant Roy Farran of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment that supported New Zealand troops during the assault.

The Mk VI was one of a series of series of light tanks built by Vickers-Armstrongs for the British Army during the 1930s. It was operated by a crew of three (driver, gunner, and commander/radio operator), armed with two Vickers machine guns (.50-inch and .303-inch calibre) and had a top speed of 56 km per hour. Lightly armoured (4–14 mm thick), the Mk VI could withstand rifle and machine-gun fire but was vulnerable to heavier weapons.

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Keywords

WW2
battle for crete
tanks
Credit

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: DA-12645
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

How to cite this page

'Destroyed British tank at Galatas', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/destroyed-tank-galatas, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 15-Jul-2013

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1 comment has been posted about Destroyed British tank at Galatas

What do you know?

Jonathan Dandy

Posted: 03 Sep 2008

A distant relative of mine was killed in Crete. The action in which he died is documented in Roy Farran's book, 'The Winged Dagger'.
I was surprised to find there is no known grave for this man (I am visiting Crete soon and was going to pay my respects), as, in the book, he is described as being badly injured, but the tank in which he was in makes it back to 'relative' safety and the remaining uninjured crew were able to get out.
The War Graves Commission gave the the following information.
Sergeant SKEDGWELL, HENRY PHILLIP Unit: 3rd King's Own Hussars Regiment: Royal Armoured Corps Service No: 555863 Age: 27 Date of Death: 21 May 1941 Commemoration: ATHENS MEMORIAL Greece Face 1.
From what I understand from Farran's book and other information, Sergeant SKEDGWELL was commanding a tank similar to the one in the photo on 21 May. They drove into a village and were hit by a German antitank gun. The driver managed to get the tank away, but Sergeant SKEDGWELL was very badly injured. Farran says in his book that he gave him a large amount of morphine (they were not able to get him out of the shattered tank) and he died 20 mins later. I was searching around on the internet and found this image. I guess it could be the very tank?
Any other information would be gratefully received.