James Holland

And he just thinks, hang on a minute, that beret is not a British beret.

And he suddenly thinks, oh my God, that's a tiger.

So he immediately gets on the net, on the B net, which is the squadron net, and warns Sempkin.

Sempkin is coming down the main tilly to Conn Road, which runs along the northern edge of Fontenay.

turns into the corner just as the Tiger tank is turning at the bottom end of the Rue Massieu, which is about 300 yards long.

The Rue Massieu goes straight across the main road into a track, into a lane, where there is another farmhouse, which is now the Sherwood Rangers' regimental headquarters.

Stanley is standing in front of Robin Hood, the CO's tank,

looking at his mat, looks up, sees this Tiger tank and just thinks, looks, you know, I'm done for, as this Tiger sort of creaks into view.

Just at that moment, Semkin turns right into the Rue Massieu and they face off.

And Stanley says it was about 30 yards.

It wasn't.

It's about 300 yards.

Can't possibly have been 30 yards.

No.

but because of Semkin's greater experience he's got one up the spout he's got a 75mm round armour piercing round he fires immediately as soon as he sees it he just says fire because he's got his head out of the turret yeah

and the shell hits the gun mantlet, which is the extra bit of armour where the barrel enters the turret of the Tiger tank, spalling little bits of hot metal, splay out and blinds or hits in the face the driver who sort of goes got on him all.

screams, doesn't know, can't see anything, stops.

In the next few seconds, Stemkin fires a further nine rounds, but all of high explosive.

And that's the advantage of the Sherman tank, because it's smaller shells, it's ergonomically laid out, so right-handed gunner can load it from this side.

Loading one after the other, boom, boom, boom, boom, just keeps firing, creates lots of smoke.