Robert Newitt served in the second world war  fighting with the ("A" SQUADRON) 1ST FIFE AND FORFAR YEOMANRY (79th Armoured Brigade) as a crew member in Churchill Tanks adapted for flame throwing ops.

Below is a tank of the 1FFY training  ( thanks to Nickc from ww2Talk forum for the first pic of the croc)

 

Again Tank in Training, Note range of the flame

 

1FFY in Europe

 

 

A few tales have survived about his ww2 experiences and below you will be able to read them.

 

 

1)

He used to talk about tank battles in France, how the first tank would be blown up and whilst the tank was reloding that would be blown up, so on and so forth until the side with the most tanks would win.

2)

One time his tank was hit, his crew were dead and he scrammbled out of his hatch falling down the side of the burning vehicle. He composed himself, ran round the tank only to come face to face with a young German , they both stood there not really knowing what to do until Bob raised is weapon and shot him.

3)

After the war he had a hatred for Barberques and anything that reminded him of his war days. Not only mopping up the German infantry with the flamethrower but also what he had to see at Belsen.

" Being in the 1st Fife & Forfar Yeomanry Tank Regiment our uniform was the same as everyone elses but with a few embellishments.

Khaki battledress comprising of khaki trousers and blouse, I had a belt for my waist as it was home to my weapon which was a revolver. The belt was actually optional in our squadron. The driver and co driver had a sten gun (small machine gun) which was quite dangerous because if you dropped or banged it accidentally it would fire a round of ammunition. There were a few near misses! The radio operator who was also the gun loader also had a Sten gun.
On our heads we wore a black beret, this originated from the first world war when the French gave the Royal Tank Regiment the honour of wearing their black beret.

Towards the end of the war whilst we were in Germany, we stayed at Geillenkirken. On arriving at the town, a unit of the Guards, (I don't know which regiment) saw the regimental badges on our shoulders and assumed that we were officers, they walked by and saluted us. We of course saluted back. It was a short while after when they got closer they realised that we were the same as them!

Our berets, collar badges and shoulder badges also had an adverse reaction from the native German people as they were very similar to a German SS Regiment who had treated their own people very badly. On entering the town, the German people gave us a very wide berth."

(from BBC ww2 experiences page)

This event took place whilst in Normandy.

"Churchill tank No. 337313EX was brought ashore at Sword Beach in late June, 1944, it was a ‘special’, built at the firm of Newton Chambers in Yorkshire. It was ‘special’ because of the new turret made of experimental laminated steel interior with the standard cast outer; ‘ 313EX’ was a ‘Boffin Dream’! The ‘EX’ standing for ‘Experimental’, a tank to be watched.

Fourty-eight hour’s later ‘313EX’ had been delivered to a forward squadron of the ‘Fife and Forfar Yeomanry’, a ‘Funnies’ regiment equipped with Churchill Flame throwing ‘Crocodiles’. The ‘Fifes’ had taken a loss of tank crews over the past days and a scratch crew was hastily made up for ‘313EX’, a red triangle was painted on the turret for ‘A’ Squadron and the name ‘Alice’ painted on either side, named after the wife of the oldest crewman, Ted the driver/mech, the ‘old man’ of the crew at the age of twenty eight.

Two days later, ‘Alice’ had been readied for action.
Gun and scope tested and adjusted, a few practice rounds fired, No.19 set installed and radio tested to the squadron setting, blankets and bedding, packs and old ammo boxes fixed to hull and the inevitable ‘brew can’ wired in a handy position.

On the first day of July ‘Alice’ was on her first patrol, leading two crocodiles towards a village supposedly unoccupied by the enemy. As she approached the village outskirts with a still burning farmhouse set back from the road, a lone German Anti Tank crew with a 5cm. gun observed the troops approach.

At twenty-five yards and broadside on, ‘Alice’ was a bonus and so easy target. The German crew fired, the solid AP. shot hit ‘Alice’ just forward of the newly painted red triangle and sliced through the new laminated turret with no reduction in power. It hit the breechblock and ricocheted to the far wall of the turret where it shattered and sprayed the interior.

The three man turret crew died instantly, Ted the ‘Old Man’ driver was hit by a piece of the ‘19’ set that just about decapitated him and died in seconds. The stunned and deafened co-driver tried to pull himself from his hatch but was caught by a burst of machine gun fire from the ‘AT’ guns position.

‘Alice’ slewed off the road into a dyke losing a track in the process. The following Crocodile had seen the flash of the ‘AT’ gun and squirted two burst of flamethrower fuel onto its position. The first jet unlit but the second ignited, the German crew died and the squadron of ‘Fifes’ moved on.

Later the bodies were removed from ‘Alice’, and buried by the farm, a recovery crew winched the stricken tank from the dyke, hosed down the interior, loaded it on to a trailer and returned her to Sword beach. The people at Newton Chambers wanted the tank back to view their new turret so ‘313Ex’ and trailer were quickly loaded onto an ‘LCT’ to begin the return journey to Yorkshire."