25/07/2023
DAD - Duncan Douglas Craig
HILL 112
Tank Sergeant 23rd Hussars Service Number 2568493
Casualty List 1507
25th July 1944 his tank got hit.
I was on duty in Singapore in March 1970 when I was
asked to accompany my Lieutenant Commander, who
was the captains secretary, to the flight deck. He told
me that my dad had taken his life and I was given 2
weeks compassionate leave. The flight from Changi
to Heathrow took forever. I remember flying on a
Qantas plane and that’s all I remember. My mind will
have been all over the place. Anyway Dad was cremated
and I got to know his elder brother Alex all over again.
Quite a character. He suffered badly from sleep apnea,
at the time the illness was hardly known but he had it!
Thoughts of my dad kept chipping away. He never ever
spoke of his war career – just little droplets. I was help-
ing dad to build our conservatory – quite large, brick
and glass. I would ask innocent questions like “how
come I never met my grandparents on your side?” He
told me grandma Kate died of cancer. “How did your
dad die?”. I kept asking until one day he said “he put his
service revolver to his head”. Nothing else was said. I
didn’t have the courage to go any further, after I realised
how much dad pained when he’d told me. He did say
that when he joined the Hussars in 1934, I think, he was
given a horse.
We later discovered dad was a twin – his sister was Catherine.
Why hide the fact you have a twin sister? Grandma Kate
gave birth to dad and Catherine when she was 42.
I had been told by my mum, grandma and grandpa that
he had been blown out of his tank and had to undergo
facial reconstruction. He and his oppos were in the 23rd
Hussars and involved in Operation Greenwood at Hill
112. Apparently he had 200 stitches in
his face which had to be replaced on a daily basis. He
was the tank sergeant so he had his face above the
parapet. He was lucky! His colleagues, who were his
family, brothers, drinking buddies, confidantes didn’t
fare so well. I don’t want to even think about it. Dad
must have had this on his mind on a daily basis – he never
said a word. He and his colleagues had been together for
many years. They had been evacuated from Dunkirk in
the spring of 1940. That was never mentioned. All I got
from dad was one of his mates was a chronic alcoholic
who if he had a yearning, would drink diesel!! He also
had a buddy nicknamed Lugless Douglas – who knows,
it could have been the same colleague. And that is all I
know of his military history. Just sentences passed down
while building that conservatory in York. When I was
serving Queen and country in the Royal Navy, brother Ian
recounted that often dad would pass a magnet over his
arms and with the aid of a needle would extract another
bit of shrapnel! 25 years after his horrendous part in the
battle for Hill 112.
Another thing that nags at me – did dad discover his dad
in his garden shed after he’s shot himself with his service
revolver? I’ve looked at South London Press, to no
avail. It doesn’t bear thinking about!
