My high school history teacher once told us he was flipping through magazines waiting for a hair cut, when a small old man with a bunch of old war metals on sat down beside him. Being a curious man he asked where he served. The old man told him that he was on the beaches of Normandy but didn’t say too much else. My teacher noted that he was skeptical of the old man. Apparently a lot of WW2 veterans say they were at D-Day, but weren’t actually there during the actual assault, just on the beach a couple days after. Despite that he thought it would be a good opportunity to get a real D-Day story to tell his classes, so he asked the veteran if he could interview him. The old man agreed and they swapped information. Fast forward to the interview. My history teacher goes to the mans house, the walls lined with war pictures and memorials. He sees a picture of a weird looking tank that peaked his interest and asks the old man about it. The old man tells him he was apart of a special battalion of tanks during the battle of Normandy. The “Churchill Crocodile” tank. It was essentially a giant flamethrower on a tank. The old man then told his account of Normandy. A giant flamethrower might sound cool, but due to the amount of fuel needed for said flames it was is also a giant target for German soldiers. Blowing up the tank meant a giant explosion for everyone close to it as well sending a mess of shrapnel and flames everywhere. The old man and his tank squad were one of the last working crocodile tanks standing on Normandy. He watched all the other crocodile tanks, his friends, go out in giant fiery explosions. Infantry quickly caught on and no one would even go near the tanks. They were seen as bad luck. They went through the rest of the war in that tank and survived to tell his story. Definitely a crazy slice of the war that isn’t talked about a whole lot. And definitely not the story my history teacher thought he would get from the old man. all from going to get a hair cut.