SPENDING much of my time in Belgium, I’m often on a road in Antwerp, which is forever a reminder of my home in the North-East – the road is called Kolonel Silvertopstraat.

When I take the tram into the city from the E34 motorway, I find myself getting on at a stop called Halte Kolonel Silvertop. Nearby stand three 22-storey housing blocks – they are called De Torens Silvertop, and their 2,000 residents shop at the Silvertop Supermarket.

At first, these place names don’t seem very British, let alone North- Eastern, but for years I wondered about this Kolonel Silvertop, because I knew there was an old Northumberland Catholic family called Silvertop with links to Minsteracres, the retreat near Consett, in County Durham.

That family had grown from the British soldier and mineralogist Charles Silvertop, who fought with the Duke of Wellington against Napoleon in the Spanish Peninsular War, and then, on becoming a brigadier in the Spanish army, had gained the nation’s highest honour, Knight of the Order of Carlos III.

Like many British Catholics, Silvertop had fought alongside the Spanish struggling to liberate their country from the French revolutionaries, so I wondered whether he had fought with Wellington at Waterloo, in Belgium, in 1815, which was why the Belgians remembered him with their road, housing blocks and tram stop.

But as the tram rattles a kilometre into Antwerp, it passes a new memorial: a Second World War tank on the edge of the Mastvest park.

Originally it was mounted nearby in 1945, but it was taken away for restoration in 2011. It was rededicated earlier this month in a ceremony headed by Prince Laurent of the Belgians, the British Ambassador and dignitaries from the wartime Allied nations on the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Antwerp from the Nazis.

I, too, was privileged to attend, and I discovered that the newlyerected steel plaques, inscribed in the languages of the Allied armies, commemorate the role of Colonel David Silvertop in the liberation.

He appears to be three generations below Charles in the Silvertop family tree. He was born in 1912, four years before his father, Commander Arthur Silvertop, was lost when his ship was sunk in the Battle of Jutland.

DAVID, a former pupil at the Catholic Ampleforth College, in North Yorkshire, served with distinction in the Second World War as a tank commander fighting with Montgomery’s Desert Rats, and was awarded the Military Cross with the 4th Armoured Brigade as they pushed Rommel’s Afrika Korps 3,000kms across North Africa.

He was injured at the crucial battle of Medenine, in Tunisia, in March 1943, the final battle which caused the Axis troops to retreat to Sicily, and shortly afterwards was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, gaining command of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (3rd RTR). After the D-Day Normandy landings, David took part in the July 1944 Operation Overlord, near Caen, and then the breakout and overnight advance to Amiens, catching the Germans by surprise at dawn and liberating the French city, which is now twinned with Darlington, on August 8.

Another rapid advance into Belgium took David to the southern suburbs of Antwerp, on September 4, 1944. His column was held up at Boom, where the Germans defending the city had prepared the bridges for demolition.

But a local road and bridge engineer, Robert Vekemans, was able to guide the column to an un-defended bridge at Willebroek and they were able to attack German troops guarding the main bridge from behind, capture the crossing and head to the city along the road then known as Liberty Street – but which after the war was named Kolonel Silvertopstraat for him. AFTER their hectic advance from Normandy to Antwerp – more than 600kms in eight days, harassed all the way by German rearguard actions – an armoured advance unparalleled in the Second World War, the Allies took time to service their tanks in Antwerp, and to refit and receive reinforcements in readiness for the final push across the Rhine into Germany.

This was to be David Silvertop’s last rest from fighting.

When the Operation Market Garden parachute landings failed at Arnhem, he was ordered to cross into The Netherlands and help relieve the trapped army. In the late afternoon of September 25, standing alongside the brigade commander in the village of Sint Anthonis, in Nord Brabant, planning the next stage of their operation, he was killed. The circumstances are unclear. British military reports say two German half-tracks came out of a farmyard, spraying the group with bullets. Silvertop and two other officers were killed, and the commander, Brigadier Roscoe Harvey, who weeks before had recommended Silvertop for the Distinguished Service Order, was injured.

“It was no consolation the halftracks were summarily dealt with immediately,” wrote a major who had fought alongside Silvertop.

Elsewhere, the incident was described differently. Another source says: “After the capture of Sint Anthonis, on the border between Belgium and Holland, a group of SS prisoners was being walked through the streets. As they passed the tanks of the 3rd RTR, one of them threw a grenade, killing the regiment’s commander Lt Col Silvertop – every one of the SS prisoners was shot. The tank crews took swift revenge.”

That the people of Sint Anthonis hold to this version of the story is shown by the inscription on the village memorial, “The Sun of Our Hope”, which commemorates Silvertop and his two officers and their part in the liberation of the village.

TODAY, David lies in the small cemetery of the Catholic church of Sint Matthias, at Ooplo. The municipality has commemorated him by naming the central square Kolonel Silvertopplaan.

In 1995, in the middle of Kolonel Silvertopplaan, they erected a magnificent memorial, inscribed in Dutch: “To remind the people of Sint Anthonis of the regained freedom and peace with this memorial to Kolonel Silvertop and two of his men killed by a hand grenade.”

There can be little doubt Silvertop was respected by his troops.

On the eve of the 1st Battle of El Alamein, waiting in their tank, his men had nothing to do but talk and doze. More than 50 years later, one of them wrote: “By late afternoon, the tank was packed for battle and a larger super Thermos flask, Major Silvertop’s latest acquisition, was filled with tea.”

As the light faded, engines burst into life and the regiment roared off in the swirling dust to take on Rommel’s Afrika Korps.

When the regiment was preparing for the D-Day landings in June 1944, many of its men thought they had already done their bit by holding the enemy back in the 1940 Dunkirk retreat, then fighting in Greece and across North Africa.

Historian Max Hastings quotes a staff officer: “The 3rd RTR were virtually mutinous. They painted the walls of their Aldershot barracks with slogans such as ‘No Second Front’ , and had it not been for their new commanding officer, David Silvertop – the best CO of an armoured regiment I met during the war – I really think they might have mutinied in fact.”

His gallantry was first recognised in July 1942 with a Military Cross.

The corps commander, in recommending the award, wrote: “He has shown outstanding gallantry and coolness in action during the whole operation. He has been in the thick of fighting, had his tank hit several times and has never shown the slightest sign of worry.”

In July 1944, he led his regiment in the breakout from Normandy, and in recommending him for the DSO (an order second only to the VC), Brigadier Roscoe Harvey said the attack had been failing until Silvertop seized the moment.

The brigadier wrote: “On July 19, pushing on with great dash and determination, he (Silvertop) quickly restored the situation and was mainly responsible for the early capture of this important point.

The village (of Bras) was captured, yielding 150 prisoners and much equipment. No praise can be too high for this officer’s outstanding leadership and personal courage.

The previous day (his) was the leading regiment behind the barrage in the breakout of the armour. He displayed the same high qualities of leadership and devotion to duty which was an inspiration to those under his command.”

THIS DSO recommendation had been signed off by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery on August 11, but it was not gazetted until October 19 – after Silvertop’s death.

General Sir Miles Dempsey, commander of the British 2nd Army in the invasion of Europe, wrote in a testimony to Silvertop: “His perseverance, as well as coolness and cheerfulness under all conditions, (meant) that he was being always followed wherever he commanded.

It was largely this spirit which contributed to the rapid progress towards Amiens and Antwerp.”

Lt Col Silvertop was born for a military life, with Brigadier Charles and his own father, Commander Arthur, as inspiration, but here in his homeland he is practically the unknown warrior, whereas in Belgium, there are streets, housing blocks and even a tram stop named after him.

n Bill Lawrence works with the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers in Brussels and within the European Commission Social Dialogue Committee for the construction industry. He also researches the history of the First World War Belgian community at Elisabethville, Birtley. He can be contacted via email at: birtleybelgiansWW1@ yahoo.co.uk