British icons from the Second World War: Churchill with his cigar and his Victory sign, General Montgomery in his black beret. I read the story of the beret yesterday with the death of Jim Fraser, aged 92, a humble tank driver in the North Africa campaign. Jim drove the tank from which Monty liked to address the troops. Monty also liked to wear a broad-brimmed Australian hat. The problem was that the desert wind kept whipping the hat off; the tank had to stop so that the hat could be retrieved.
This finally proved too much for Jim. He recalled in his memoirs: "I shoved my beret up into the turret, muttering: 'Tell him to wear this and we'll get there quicker.' The aide-de-camp handed the beret to Monty who tried it on and liked it." Immortality for the ordinary man!
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Jim (in the goggles) with Monty in Jim's (first?) hat
Jim, wounded three times, a winner of the Military Cross, and a proud beret wearer to the end. |
I especially enjoy your notes like this one. Anecdotes like this about tank driver Jim makes for a personal connection with a figure or event. Monty was, after all, with human foibles. Also, I remember how history books not long ago included detail or human interest points via boxes on a page. One of your many, many writing talents is inserting these into the flow of the writing.
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