Merry Christmas to all my reader - trust Santa has been profligate, and you have a pleasant and restful day with a decent hoppy, but not over cold, IPA at hand..
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| Stuart V Recce (the armoured reconnaissance version of the M3A3 chassis) of the Polish 2nd Warsaw Armoured Brigade, pictured in Bibbiena, Tuscany, Italy, Christmas* 1944 |
*Disclaimer.. it wasn't actually Christmas though... 😁
Apparently the photo was taken on the feast of Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas Day) which is celebrated in Italy on 6 December. From what I've read that the tank was nicknamed “Lucypher” and was part of the 6th 'Dzieci Lwowskich' [Children of Lwów] Armoured Regiment, of the 2nd Armoured Brigade, in General Anders’ II Corps (and they provide a rabbit hole of their own for some later time as the formation sounds hugely interesting).
The Polish soldiers had decided to cheer up the war-weary locals, especially the children, by arranging an appropriate meeting with St. Nicholas. “With military precision, the Brigade HQ and quartermasters asked for a list of every child in the area. Trucks were sent as far as Rome and Naples to search for clothes, toys and shoes. NAAFI's supplied sweets.” (from the regimental diary)
The man dressed up as St. Nicholas was an officer cadet named Edward Wojtczak [well worth a clicky].
The Stuart V recce had the turret and main gun removed for weight and speed, but it had a 50 calibre machine gun for protection - you can see the mount between the girl and St Nicholas
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