Tiger 131 letter

Some 79 years after the capture of Tiger 131, The Tank Museum in Dorset has had a letter donated, written by a soldier engaged in the fighting that led to its capture in Tunisia, April 1943.

Trooper William Ratcliffe was a Churchill tank crewman in 48th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment. After the German surrender in May 1943 he wrote a long letter to his sister and described the fighting on 24 April which led to the capture of Tiger 131. That day, William and his comrades in B Squadron 48th RTR were part of a larger tank force that was ordered to support British infantry as they attacked a position called Point 174. The attack was successful, but soon afterwards the Germans launched a counterattack using infantry, artillery, and tanks.

William and his fellow crewmen fired at the Germans and helped the British infantry on Point 174 hold on. During the battle one British shot hit Tiger 131 under the gun barrel, disabling the turret and forcing the crew to abandon the tank. Trooper William wrote: ‘We were ordered to move again up near Medjez el Bab but on our way up Jerry had made an advance and before we could go on he had to be pushed back so we were given the job and we went into action at 2:30pm it was a glorious afternoon the sun was shining and all of a sudden the guns started shells started flying and machine guns started chattering and we gave Jerry all we had got it was a tough job ... we lost a few tanks but they were made OK later though we had a few chaps killed and wounded but the job was done.’

The Tank Museum is very pleased to be able to preserve and share this first-hand account of the battle from one of the men who was there. ■