Brigadier General Sydney Radley-Walters was a tank commander in the Canadian Army and was the Western Allies leading tank killer during WWII.
In the final part of his interview, Radley-Walters finishes his recount of the D-Day invasion, including the battle of Buron, Operation Totalize, and capturing Caen, and more. He also talks about the booby traps he encountered, air support, the smell of death, his tactics as a tank commander, and how he, without knowing it, killed Michael Wittmann, the Black Baron, an infamous German tank commander and tank Ace.
Radley-Walters is credited with destroying 18 German tanks and many other armored vehicles, and he was awarded an Order of Military Merit, the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross, and a Canadian Forces Decoration.
During the episode, Radley-Walters describes the aftermath of death inside the tanks:
“The smell of death, it sticks on you. And if you take a body and bury it or pick up a person who's dead and move them around, it gets on your hands, it gets on your clothes. You can't get rid of it. And it gets on a tank. Even though they took the tank back, they wash it all out, they repaint the inside with white paint and it's glistening, you get that horrible smell. The men, they called a ‘Jonah’ and they said, ‘We won't get back in that bloody Jonah, like the belly of a whale. We're we're going to get the new tank.’"
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Happy Holidays!
Maj James Dunning Part I: British Commando in WW2
COL Douglas C. Dillard: Paratrooper in the Battle of the Bulge
Sgt. J. Edward ‘Swede’ Pearsall: The Surrender of Wake Island
CPT Le Roy Torres: The Burn Pits
MGen Roger Rowley: Missing D-Day
Introducing: It Was Said Season 2
Navy Corpsman Jack Hessman: The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir
SSG David Bellavia: Medal of Honor in Iraq
SPC Rocky Bleier: From Vietnam to the Super Bowl
Specialist Nathan Dowds: Paratrooper in Iraq & Afghanistan
BGen Sydney Radley-Walters (Part I): A Tank Ace on D-Day
Brig. Gen. Robin Olds: WWII & Vietnam Pilot (Part II)
Brig. Gen. Robin Olds: WWII & Vietnam Pilot (Part I)
MAJ Richard Neece Ojeda II: A Lifetime of Service
CPT Jason Kander: PTSD After Afghanistan
Capt. Tom Smith: Combat Pararescue in Iraq and Afghanistan
Maj. Gen. Frederick “Boots” Blesse (Part III): His Heroes
Maj. Gen. Frederick “Boots” Blesse (Part II): “No Guts, No Glory”
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Recruiting Future with Matt Alder
Conflicted: A History Podcast
This American President
Professional Book Nerds
FIVE MINUTE NEWS