The Tiny British Bren Carrier Trick That Obliterated German Tanks In Seconds
British Trick Files
34,866 views
27 October 1942, WW2, El Alamein: a British motor battalion that rode into battle in tiny Bren carriers dug nineteen 6-pounder anti-tank guns in beside the Axis tank parks overnight. At first light the German tanks rolled out side-on, straight across their sights.
This documentary follows Lieutenant-Colonel Victor Buller Turner and the 2nd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, with the six guns of 239 Battery, 76th Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, at the position code-named Snipe. It centres on Sergeant Charles Calistan's gun, where Turner took the loader's place, and on Lieutenant Toms' jeep run through machine-gun fire. Against them came Rommel's counter-attack: German tanks of the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions, Kampfgruppe Stiffelmayer, and Italian M13/40s and Semoventes of the Littorio Armoured Division.
The story looks at the Universal Carrier, the "Bren gun carrier" and one of the most common armoured vehicles of the war, and at the QF 6-pounder, the anti-tank gun that Dunkirk held back. It shows why a motor battalion owned its own anti-tank guns, and why a gun placed at night could beat a Panzer III it could not beat head-on. It also covers what the medal citation's "ninety German tanks" really meant, how the wrecks were counted a month later, and how the same lesson broke Rommel's last attack in Africa at Medenine. A WW2 documentary on the Second Battle of El Alamein, Kidney Ridge and the Western Desert campaign, told through the men and machines at one hollow in the sand.
Chapters
00:00 "Not less than ninety German tanks"
01:06 The committee's count
01:50 Turner, Calistan and the motor battalion
03:00 The Universal (Bren) Carrier
04:44 The 6-pounder, and why it came late
06:26 Alamein, 26 October: the night march to Snipe
08:49 Dawn: the tanks turn side-on
09:50 The morning goes wrong
11:28 Ninety German tanks?
12:26 1 p.m.: Calistan's gun and the burning jeep
13:49 The afternoon waves
15:12 Withdrawal and the count
17:05 Medals, and Medenine
18:37 The carriers missing from the citation
Sources and further reading:
The London Gazette, issue 35790, 17 November 1942, p. 5023: the Victoria Cross citation of Lt-Col Victor Buller Turner ("not less than 90 German tanks", "Wherever the fire was heaviest…", Turner as loader, 35 tanks in flames and at least 20 immobilised, the 4,000-yard night march, 40 prisoners, attacks from 5.30 a.m. to 7 p.m.). Text as reproduced in Wikipedia, "Victor Buller Turner", which also gives his brother Alexander's VC and his later life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_...
Wikipedia, "Defence of Outpost Snipe": the timeline, the forces (about 300 men, 13 + 6 six-pounders, 16 sappers, 22 carriers), the morning claims, the 47th RTR episode, Calistan's gun and Lt Toms' jeep, the afternoon waves, the north-west-face sergeant, losses (16 carriers, 10 guns destroyed and 5 damaged, 72 casualties), the committee's count and Rommel's "murderous" fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence...
Books cited there:
I. S. O. Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East, Vol. IV (History of the Second World War, HMSO, 1966), pp. 54–59: the committee's count of 52–57 vehicles, with 22 German and 10 Italian tanks and 5 self-propelled guns confirmed destroyed.
John Latimer, Alamein (2002), pp. 241–254: 21 German and 11 Italian tanks.
Barrie Pitt, The Crucible of War, Vol. III, pp. 151–165: 34 tanks and self-propelled guns destroyed.
C. E. Lucas Phillips, Alamein (1962).
Cooper (1978), pp. 381–382: Axis tank strength, 114 fit for action on 27 October.
Wikipedia, "Second Battle of El Alamein": the course of the battle, Stumme and Rommel, and the 22 German and 10 Italian tanks found at Snipe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_...
Wikipedia, "Universal Carrier": armour, engine, speed, crew, weight, lineage from the Carden-Loyd tankettes, production of about 113,000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers...
Archival photographs via Wikimedia Commons: Imperial War Museums (public domain), German Federal Archives / Bundesarchiv (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE), Australian War Memorial and other archives; each photo is credited on screen. The London Gazette page: Crown copyright, Open Government Licence.
Maps: NASA Blue Marble; Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016). 3D scenes are reconstructions, not footage.
#BrenCarrier #6Pounder #WW2 #MilitaryHistory #WW2Documentary #TankHistory #ElAlamein
4 Comments
The Tiny British Bren Carrier Trick That Obliterated German Tanks In Seconds
British Trick Files
34,866 views
27 October 1942, WW2, El Alamein: a British motor battalion that rode into battle in tiny Bren carriers dug nineteen 6-pounder anti-tank guns in beside the Axis tank parks overnight. At first light the German tanks rolled out side-on, straight across their sights.
This documentary follows Lieutenant-Colonel Victor Buller Turner and the 2nd Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, with the six guns of 239 Battery, 76th Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, at the position code-named Snipe. It centres on Sergeant Charles Calistan's gun, where Turner took the loader's place, and on Lieutenant Toms' jeep run through machine-gun fire. Against them came Rommel's counter-attack: German tanks of the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions, Kampfgruppe Stiffelmayer, and Italian M13/40s and Semoventes of the Littorio Armoured Division.
The story looks at the Universal Carrier, the "Bren gun carrier" and one of the most common armoured vehicles of the war, and at the QF 6-pounder, the anti-tank gun that Dunkirk held back. It shows why a motor battalion owned its own anti-tank guns, and why a gun placed at night could beat a Panzer III it could not beat head-on. It also covers what the medal citation's "ninety German tanks" really meant, how the wrecks were counted a month later, and how the same lesson broke Rommel's last attack in Africa at Medenine. A WW2 documentary on the Second Battle of El Alamein, Kidney Ridge and the Western Desert campaign, told through the men and machines at one hollow in the sand.
Chapters
00:00 "Not less than ninety German tanks"
01:06 The committee's count
01:50 Turner, Calistan and the motor battalion
03:00 The Universal (Bren) Carrier
04:44 The 6-pounder, and why it came late
06:26 Alamein, 26 October: the night march to Snipe
08:49 Dawn: the tanks turn side-on
09:50 The morning goes wrong
11:28 Ninety German tanks?
12:26 1 p.m.: Calistan's gun and the burning jeep
13:49 The afternoon waves
15:12 Withdrawal and the count
17:05 Medals, and Medenine
18:37 The carriers missing from the citation
Sources and further reading:
The London Gazette, issue 35790, 17 November 1942, p. 5023: the Victoria Cross citation of Lt-Col Victor Buller Turner ("not less than 90 German tanks", "Wherever the fire was heaviest…", Turner as loader, 35 tanks in flames and at least 20 immobilised, the 4,000-yard night march, 40 prisoners, attacks from 5.30 a.m. to 7 p.m.). Text as reproduced in Wikipedia, "Victor Buller Turner", which also gives his brother Alexander's VC and his later life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_...
Wikipedia, "Defence of Outpost Snipe": the timeline, the forces (about 300 men, 13 + 6 six-pounders, 16 sappers, 22 carriers), the morning claims, the 47th RTR episode, Calistan's gun and Lt Toms' jeep, the afternoon waves, the north-west-face sergeant, losses (16 carriers, 10 guns destroyed and 5 damaged, 72 casualties), the committee's count and Rommel's "murderous" fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence...
Books cited there:
I. S. O. Playfair et al., The Mediterranean and Middle East, Vol. IV (History of the Second World War, HMSO, 1966), pp. 54–59: the committee's count of 52–57 vehicles, with 22 German and 10 Italian tanks and 5 self-propelled guns confirmed destroyed.
John Latimer, Alamein (2002), pp. 241–254: 21 German and 11 Italian tanks.
Barrie Pitt, The Crucible of War, Vol. III, pp. 151–165: 34 tanks and self-propelled guns destroyed.
C. E. Lucas Phillips, Alamein (1962).
Cooper (1978), pp. 381–382: Axis tank strength, 114 fit for action on 27 October.
Wikipedia, "Second Battle of El Alamein": the course of the battle, Stumme and Rommel, and the 22 German and 10 Italian tanks found at Snipe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_...
Wikipedia, "Universal Carrier": armour, engine, speed, crew, weight, lineage from the Carden-Loyd tankettes, production of about 113,000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers...
Archival photographs via Wikimedia Commons: Imperial War Museums (public domain), German Federal Archives / Bundesarchiv (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE), Australian War Memorial and other archives; each photo is credited on screen. The London Gazette page: Crown copyright, Open Government Licence.
Maps: NASA Blue Marble; Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016). 3D scenes are reconstructions, not footage.
#BrenCarrier #6Pounder #WW2 #MilitaryHistory #WW2Documentary #TankHistory #ElAlamein