OLD EPSOMIAN LODGE VISIT
TO D-DAY LANDINGS
Our
Freemasons lodge normally sojourns for a long weekend each year in Ypres or the
Somme, but this year, we decided to broaden our military and masonic horizons
by visiting either Verdun or the Normandy landings and D-day won! Phillip,
Jonathan, Jerry, Gavin and Phillip’s guest and brother, Jason, comprised the
party on this tour. Click HERE for previous tour reports to the Western
Front.
PREAMBLE
Historical Perspective
Prior to D-Day
In order to gain a proper
historical appreciation of the D-Day landings, it is important to put events in
context, which I very briefly attempt as follows:-
·
The Germans had lost out in Africa to Montgomery
- We learnt after the Dieppe raid in ’42 that
Coastal ports were too well defended to take. The British and Canadians
had suffered their own disaster at Dieppe on 18 August 1942. More than two
thirds of a 6,000-man raiding force had been left behind on the shingle
beach, dead, wounded and prisoners.
- German General Paulus had to surrender in
Stalingrad losing @ 250,000 troops.
- From ’44, U-Boats became more the hunted than
hunter and were nearing extinction.
- USA were building up forces and German
industry wasn’t able to replace wartime losses.
In
1941, Churchill told Mountbatten: “You are to prepare for an invasion of Europe
for unless we can land in Europe and fight Hitler, we can never win this war.
You must devise and design the appliances, landing craft and technique to
effect us to effect a landing - you’ve got to turn the whole of the south east
of England into the springboard for the attack!” (Thames Television Interview).
Why Visit D-Day Landing Sites in
Normandy?
The
D-Day landings (“Operation Overlord”) represent the largest seaborne assault
the world has ever seen. It involved some of the most audacious and colourful
military commanders in the history of warfare, many of whom were already legend
at the time including Montgomery, ”Bomber” Harris, Trafford Lee-Mallory, Patton
and Bradley for the Allies and the Germans included Rommel, Sepp Dietrich, Kurt
“Panzer” Meyer and tank Ace, Michael Wittman.
The scale of the landings was vast: The
Allies landed around 156,000 troops in Normandy with the American forces
landing 73,000: 23,250 on Utah Beach, 34,250 on Omaha Beach, and 15,500
airborne troops. In the British and Canadian sectors, 83,115 troops were landed
(61,715 of them British): 24,970 on Gold Beach, 21,400 on Juno Beach, 28,845 on
Sword Beach, and 7900 airborne troops.
These landings were made possible
through the naval operation entitled “Neptune” and involved 1,213 naval combat
ships, 4,126 landing ships and landing craft, 736 ancillary craft and 864
merchant vessels all operated by some 195,700 military and civilian personnel.
- 11,590
aircraft were available to support the landings.
- In the airborne landings on both flanks of the
beaches, 2,395 aircraft and 867 gliders of the RAF and USAAF were used on
D-Day.
- By the end of 11 June (D + 5), 326,547 troops
and 54,186 vehicles had been landed on the Normandy beaches.
- Total Allied casualties on D-Day are estimated
at 10,000, including 2,500 dead. British casualties on D-Day have been
estimated at approximately 2,700. The Canadians lost 946 casualties. The
US forces lost 6,603 men.
- Casualties on the British beaches were roughly
1,000 on Gold Beach and the same number on Sword Beach. The remainder of
the British losses were amongst the airborne troops: some 600 were killed
or wounded, and 600 more were missing; 100 glider pilots also became
casualties. The losses of 3rd Canadian Division at Juno Beach have been
given as 340 killed, 574 wounded and 47 taken prisoner.
- The breakdown of US casualties was 1,465 dead,
3,184 wounded, 1,928 missing and 26 captured. Of the total US figure, 2,499
casualties were from the US airborne troops (238 of them being deaths).
The casualties at Utah Beach were relatively light: 197, including 60
missing. However, the US 1st and 29th Divisions together suffered just
over 2,000 casualties at Omaha Beach.
Travel
Arrangements
Some
of us arrived in Normandy via the Portsmouth to Ouistreham Ferry (left
Portsmouth at 11 pm arrived at 7am) and others left Folkestone on the Chunnel
at 7pm and arrived in Normandy at 1:pm. The drive was @ 400 miles. Our advice is
to take the car over with the ferry – it’s a much easier journey and the port
is in the midst of all the beaches and hotels.
We
stayed at the Hotel De La Marine in Arromanches (+33 2 31 22
34 19) which was a good ** hotel with a nice restaurant, friendly staff, an
accommodating bar, a great coastal view and ensuite rooms.
MULBERRYS
The view
from our hotel in Arromanches included one of the Mulberries, being a temporary
concrete harbour constructed at Gold
Beach; when fully operational, it had the capacity to move 7,000 tons of
vehicles and supplies per day from ship-to-shore. These unloading facilities
were essential as previous experience at Dieppe in 1942 showed that the Allies
could not successfully attack and secure a port from the sea and therefore had
to bring all their necessary facilities to unload with them.
Each
Mulberry harbour consisted of roughly 6 miles of flexible steel roadways that
floated on steel or concrete pontoons. The roadways terminated at great pier
heads that were jacked up and down on legs which rested on the seafloor.
These
structures were to be sheltered from the sea by lines of massive sunken
caissons and lines of scuttled ships. It was estimated that construction of the
caissons alone required 252,000 cubic metres of concrete, 31,000 tons of steel,
and 1.4 million metres of steel shuttering.
Today,
you can quite clearly see the remains of the Arromanches Mulberry structures.
You can only guess at the enormity of the original structures when complete.
ST MERE EGLISE
This
village was situated behind Utah Beach and was the location for landings by the
American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions who were given the task of securing the
Western Normandy flank.
The
American paratroopers found themselves scattered over a wide area and many
drowned in nearby marshes. Nevertheless St Mere Eglise was captured at 4:00 am
and then successfully repulsed several counter attacks suffering heavy
casualties in the process.
During the parachute landings, Private Steele
famously landed on top of the town centre church and became trapped for several
hours after snagging his parachute on the roof. He was shot at and injured in
his foot. He played dead but was later taken prisoner. His effigy hangs there
still.
The
American Airborne Museum now stands on the site of a house destroyed by fire
during the fighting. it is composed of two buildings. The first one is parachute shape and
shelters a glider, many weapons and equipment. One can view a film recalling
the fighting from 5 to 6 June 1944.
The second building
presents a transport aircraft Douglas C47, uniforms and historic objects.
Outside is an M4 Sherman tank (pictured)and other vehicles.
UTAH
BEACH
Then
we sojourned to Utah Beach. The Utah landing area was approximately three miles
long and was located northwest of the Carentan
estuary on sandy, duned beaches. Compared to German fortifications at Omaha Beach,
the defences at Utah, based on fixed infantry positions, were sparse.
Defences
along the causeways consisted mostly of strong points equipped with automatic
weapons. Coastal and field artillery batteries were located some two miles
inland.
The
Americans accidentally landed slightly off course; the assistant division
commander, Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr, quickly realized the
error. Uttering his famous remark, "We'll start the war from here!"
he ordered the division to advance. Three hours later, exits 1, 2, and 3 had
been secured, and by Midday, contact had been made with paratroopers from the
101st Airborne Division around the town of Pouppeville.
By
the end of the day, the 4th Division had pushed inland about four miles, and
its westernmost units were within a mile of the 82nd Airborne's perimeter near
Sainte Mere-Eglise.
PEGASUS
BRIDGE
This bridge is towards the right flank of the British and Canadian
sector near the village of Benouville. It spans the Caen Canal and the other
nearby bridge goes over the Orne. It was crucial for the Allies to ensure a
rapid mechanised advance on D-Day and deny the Germans an opportunity to use
both bridges for a counterattack. To lose them would result in all troops East
of the Canal being trapped.
In “one of the finest flying feats of the war”,
three Horsa gliders, carrying men of the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry
commanded by Major John Howard (pictured right), accurately crash-landed in the
marshy terrain immediately adjacent to the Caen Canal bridge, known ever since
as “Pegasus” Bridge after the winged horse emblem worn by these liberators.
Immediately
after landings, Howards troops began to storm the bridge. A German soldier
(Sergeant Hickman) recalled that witnessing a “Para platoon in full cry had
frightened the daylights” out of him. Lt Brotheridge and his Bren gunner,
Private Grey, had made it across the bridge to the other side, but just after
the Lieutenant threw a grenade at the German MG post on the far shore, he
caught a burst of machine gun fire and was killed. Corporal Parr and another
section made it across the bridge, and began to shout the codeword for success,
"Ham and Jam!”
Within five
minutes, and for the loss of just two killed, the Paras had secured the bridge
and liberated the first French building – the Café Gondrée, pictured left.
Subsequently, the Paras held the bridge until relieved later that day by forces
that had landed on “Sword” beach, while other units of the 6th Airborne also
secured several bridges over the Orne, the Ranville–Hérouvillette area east of
the river, and the Merville Battery.
Later in the morning, the Germans
counterattacked with unsupported tanks but were successfully repulsed,
predominantly by Sergeant Thornton
who waited until the tanks were right on him before he fired the first of only
two PIAT rounds that he had left.
The
British Airborne assault was an outstanding success, resulting in the capture
of both objectives and the liberation of the first building in Europe, the
Gondrée Café. The Gondrée Café was run by Mr Gondrée at the time of the
landings and his daughter Arlette, a small child at the time, was present.
Immediately upon being liberated, it is believed that Mr Gondrée unearthed a
substantial quantity of champagne that he had buried in his back garden to
share with the troops. The café is still there doing brisk business and is now
managed by Mme Arlette Gondrée.
MERVILLE BATTERY
This
was another important Atlantic Wall defence hastily built on Rommell’s orders in
1944 and is situated just off the coast, slightly to the East of Ouistreham.
Merville
comprised four casemates with reinforced concrete six feet thick. At the time, these
imposing structures were believed to house substantial 150 mm guns. The local
defences were formidable and included belts of barbed wire fifteen feet thick,
minefields one hundred yards wide and anti tank ditches. The site was manned by
a garrison of 160 men responsible for 15 to 20
weapons pits, each containing 4 to 5 machine guns and possibly three 20mm
anti-aircraft guns.
The silencing of the Merville battery fell to
Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway's 9th Battalion. They trained for six weeks
before the show on exact replicas of the site constructed near Hungerford to
make sure every man fully understood his role and were familiar with what would
prove to be extremely dangerous surroundings. On the night however, the 9th had
a bad drop at 0250 hrs owing to heavy flak and the attack began with only 150
lightly armed men of the original 635 man force.
Otway considered his position as follows:-
"By 02.50 hours the battalion had grown to one hundred and fifty strong
with twenty lengths of Bangalore torpedo. Each company was approximately thirty
strong. Enough signals to carry on - no three-inch mortars - one machine-gun -
one half one sniping party - no six-pounders - no jeeps or trailers or glider
stores - no sappers - no field ambulance, but six unit medical orderlies - no
mine detectors - one company commander missing. The commanding officer decided
to advance immediately."
The
daring attack captured the battery within 30 minutes at a cost of half the
attacking force. The defending Germans paid a terrible price: Only 6 men of the
160 man garrison were uninjured in what undoubtedly involved ferocious
hand-to-hand fighting, phosphorous grenades and shooting at whatever moved in
the dark. Afterwards, the remnants of
Otway’s force went on to their next objective being a fortified châteaux on
high ground near Le Plein. For his brave exploits that day, Otway was awarded
the DSO. Several days later he was injured in a bomb blast that rendered him
unfit for further combat. Who knows what he could have achieved later in the
war when circumstances were more likely to be in his favour?
Casemate
no.1 now houses an excellent museum.
HILLMAN BATTERY (POINT 61)
This battery is situated in Colleville Montgomery
and stood in the way of Allied forces landing on Juno Beach and their objective
being to reach Caen on the day of the landings. Hillman (known as “Point 61” to
the Germans) comprised an underground fortress including minefields, bunkers,
guns and cupolas and is one of a twin codenamed “Morris” which is situated
within the town.
On
the day of the landings, the 1st battalion Suffolk Regiment were
sent to capture “Morris” and then advance out of town to take “Hillman”.
Morris, which sadly we didn’t have time to inspect, consisted of four 105 mm
battery guns housed in concrete emplacements, barbed wire, machine guns and
mines. Morris was taken by Midday with 67 enemy soldiers surrendering.
Hillman was commanded by Oberst (Colonel) Kruger
and was the Regimental headquarters of 736 Regiment. It had a compliment of 150
crack troops and wouldn’t be taken easily. This underground, fully ventilated
complex included 7 machine guns, two light infantry guns, an anti tank gun,
three steel cupolas, trench systems, 12 bunkers, mine fields four rows deep and
barbed wire. The site occupied an area of 600 yards by 400 yards. A cupola is
pictured below left and the machine gunners’view looking out is pictured right.
Hillman had escaped from the pre-invasion aerial
and naval bombardment and so was well able to defend itself against initial
advances by the Suffolks. The attacks on Hillman lasted all day and only
started to draw to a close when tanks earmarked for the dash to Caen were
diverted to attack Hillman; infantry attacks alone proved suicidal.
By Midnight, the Germans realised that protracted
fire fighting was futile. Oberst Krug rang his General in Caen for orders and
is reported to have said “The enemy are on top of my bunker. I have no means of
resisting them and no means of communicating with them. What shall I do?” to
which his General Richter replied, “I can give you no more orders. You must
make your own decisions now. Goodbye”
Krug surrendered the next morning with 2 officers and 70 other ranks,
knowing he had held up the Allied advance to Caen. He is pictured right after
he surrendered.
When
we visited, we were fortunate to be offered a guided tour of those bunkers now
in the hands of “Les Amis Du Suffolk Regiment” who are now restoring them to
their former glory. They have recommisioned the ventilation plant, lit some
rooms, cleaned up some walls and floors and preserved for posterity what must
surely be the most heavily fortified bunkers near the Normandy coastline. They
are to be congratulated for their great work.
During our guided tour, we visited several bunkers
and tunnels, a restored machine gun cupola (which could withstand armour
piercing tank shells), machine gun loopholes and torbruk emplacements. We were
even shown how the ventilation openings were made grenade proof so that when
grenades were thrown down them, they rattled down the pipe and rolled out of an
exit vent some two seconds later to land unexpectedly at the throwers feet.
LONGUES - SUR MER BATTERY
This
battery is located due North of Bayeux and is 4 miles to the west of
Arromanches. It is situated on top of 65 metre cliffs overlooking “Gold”
landing beaches The site featured in the film “The Longest Day”.
This battery was one of the more substantial
defences out of 1,600 others forming the “Atlantic Wall” along the Normandy
coastline and was constructed in 1943, although were still not quite finished
by D-Day. It forms three parts: The type M272 Casemates (concrete structures
15M long and 10m wide housing large 152 mm guns with 120 degrees arc of fire),
a huge control bunker and various defensive works.
The
guns, situated in casemates some 300 yards inland, weighed 20 tons and had a
firing rate of 6 shells a minute each and a range of 13 miles. For camouflage,
each casemate was covered in asphalt and had grass growing in pits dotted
around the upper surfaces of the structure. The structures were then netted and
made to blend with their surroundings.
The control bunker was situated at the head of the
cliff and has a good view of the sea. This bunker is two stories with the upper
floor being used for observation purposes and the lower level housing maps,
range finding equipment and the radio room. This structure looks monstrous
because it was built to withstand the heaviest bombardments from 1000 KG bombs
which could leave 7M deep craters.
The Battery was commanded by Oberleutnant zur
Zee. It was still not completed by D-Day and it is unlikely that the gunners
had finished their training and perfected the skills necessary for accuracy,
given their lack of hits on D-Day.
The
Battery was repeatedly bombed in the run up to D-Day. The casemates and observation
tower survived but on 28th May, the communication lines were totally
cut. Life as a gunner at the Longues Battery in those weeks must have been very
fearful.
At
0537 on D-Day, Longues became the target of the French Cruiser Leygues and the
US battleship Arkansas operating in Omaha. The Battery replied without hit.
Then the guns registered on ships in Gold with greater accuracy and engaged in
a duel with the cruiser Ajax at a distance of 11,000 Metres. Finally, Ajax
assisted by Argonaut knocked out three of four casements. Although it returned
fire later that day, it was forced to surrender on the 7th June with
184 troops to the 2nd Btn Devonshire Regiment after having fired a
total of 170 shells.
Today
the battery is still in an excellent state of preservation and is probably the
only battery in the region to have kept most of its guns and is therefore a
great site to visit.
OMAHA BEACH
"Omaha"
was the code name for the second beach from the right of the five landing areas
of the Normandy Invasion. Today it has an eerie quietness, sombre plaques, and
hauntingly distressed cliff tops that fringe the length of the beach and coast
road.
It
was the largest of the assault areas, stretching over 6 miles (10 kilometres)
between Port-en-Bessin on the east and the mouth of the Vire River on the west.
The western third of the beach was backed by a 10-foot- (3-metre-) high
seawall, and the whole beach was overlooked by cliffs 100 feet high. There were
five exits from the sand and shingle beach. The best exit was a paved road in a
ravine leading to the village of Vierville-sur-Mer, two more were only dirt
paths and two others were dirt roads leading to the villages of
Colleville-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.
When
we arrived, we went straight for the Dog Green sector, not knowing that it was
the setting for the worst casualties along the entire Omaha sector. When one
looks from the monument along the beach, one can appreciate why landing there
was so difficult and then surviving was so improbable.
At
the time of the landings, British Intelligence neglected to inform the
Americans that 352nd German Infantry Division recently arrived to
bolster existing defenders. Furthermore, on D-Day itself, recent storms had
raised tide levels so that the width of the beach was reduced to a mere 30 feet
– hardly enough to manoeuvre tanks and transport.
Conditions were so difficult that Col George
Thompson, 16th Infantry Regiment, shouted to his men on
disembarkation: “They’re two kinds a people are staying on this beach: The dead
and those about to die – lets get the hell outta here!!”
From
the beginning everything went wrong at Omaha. Special "DD" tanks
(amphibious Sherman tanks fitted with flotation screens) that were supposed to
support the 116th Regiment were launched too far out to sea and most sank in
the choppy waters of the Channel - only 2 of the 29 launched made it to the
beach. With the exception of Company A, strong winds and currents ensured no
unit of the 116th landed where it was planned.
Whilst
struggling to land, it is worth considering what defences were adopted by the
Germans to frustrate the American landing forces:
8 concrete bunkers with artillery
35 pillboxes ensuring interlocking fire every 100
yards of beach.
4 artillery batteries
6 mortar pits
18 anti-tank guns, one per 400 yards of beach
35-40 rocket launcher sites
85 machine gun sites, one for every 80 yards of
beach
6 tank turrets
Throughout
the landing, German gunners poured deadly fire into the ranks of the invading
Americans. Bodies lay on the beach and floated in the water. Men sought refuge
behind beach obstacles, pondering the deadly sprint across the beach to the
seawall, which offered some safety at the base of the cliff. Destroyed craft
and vehicles littered the beach and at 0830 hours all landing ceased at Omaha.
The troops on the beach were left on their own and realized that the
conventional exits were not the best way off the beaches.
Meanwhile, navy destroyers steamed in and scraping
their bottoms in the shallow water, blasted the German fortifications at
point-blank range. By 1200 hours German fire was noticeably decreased as the
defensive positions were taken from the rear. Then one by one the exits were
opened. The Americans suffered 2,400
casualties at Omaha on June 6, but by the end of the day they had landed 34,000
troops. The German 352nd Division lost 20 percent of its strength, with 1,200
casualties,
There
is a museum at Omaha, but it is very disappointing given that the world’s major
Superpower landed close by and made history on D-Day. Jonathan thought the
entrance through the museum should be through the front of a landing craft,
exiting to sand, spray, unexpected flashes and the sound of gunfire – now that
really would be worthwhile!
LA CAMBE
La Cambe cemetery, pictured below, is situated near
the N13 road and Omaha Beach and is the largest German military cemetery in
Normandy. 21 400 German soldiers are buried there. In the middle stands a six
metre hill, surmounted by a granite cross which represents the common grave of
296 combatants.
This cemetery appears slightly more spacious and
brighter than the German cemetery with which we are familiar at Langemark on
the Western Front in Belgium. Like Langemark, there are ornate megalithic
shaped gravestones, black plaques lying face up in place of headstones and the
virtual absence of flowers. Whilst the site is perfectly maintained, its
blackness gives it a sorrowful ambience and is a powerful reminder of the
futility of the Normandy campaign for German troops after D-Day.
The
real reason for the visit was to reflect on the achievements of Hauptmann
Michael Wittmann of the Waffen SS. He claims the title of the world’s most successful tank
ace: In an astonishing career, he destroyed 138 enemy tanks, 132 anti-tank guns
and other heavy artillery pieces, not to say hundreds of other light vehicles
and shot up countless infantry. He died just after noon on 8 August when his
tank, (a Tiger numbered 007), caught fire and the turret blew off – in English
parlance – “he got brewed up”.
His
most famous exploits occurred on June 13th 1944, although by then he
already had legendary status in Berlin and was one of only 150 to wear the
coveted Knights Cross with oak leaves and swords. That day Brigadier “Looney”
Hinde had pushed his armoured division a little too hastily into Villers-Bocage
and then parked, much to Wittmann’s surprise who was occupying the commanding
terrain of point 213 nearby. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, Wittmann raced
into the village with his Tiger without waiting for reinforcements and within
the space of five minutes devastated the leading element of 22nd
Armoured Brigade.
On entering the town with machine guns blazing
to ensure the dismounted troops kept their heads down, Wittmann turned to a
dozen unmanned Cromwells parked close together and with gunner and loader
working like demons, all twelve of the enemy tanks were quickly destroyed. The
next victims for Wittmann's hot and smoking 88mm KwK were four very dangerous
Fireflies, each of which were despatched with clinical precision.
Standing behind the burning Fireflies were
fourteen Bren and Lloyd gun carriers towing 6pdr field guns, the first two of
which were obliterated with a single AP shot from the 88mm main gun. On noting
the ease by which these vehicles were destroyed, the remaning dozen were taken
out with heavy fire from the pair of MG34s operated by Woll and bow gunner
SS-Sturmmann Günther Jonas.
As the Tiger now moved cautiously towards the
centre of town, the next encounter was with a Sherman of the 5th Royal
Artillery, which was quickly dispatched. Wittmann then came upon a pair of
Cromwells belonging to the RHQ of the CLY, both of which had broken away from
the main group; both of these were destroyed by the 88mm gun. A third Cromwell,
that commanded by Captain Dyas, waited for the Tiger to pass before making its
way out from the side-street in which it was hiding and started to follow the
lone Tiger up the road.
Dyas managed to get a shot off against the
massive German vehicle, but instead of claiming his prize, he saw the shell
bounce harmlessly off the Tiger's thick 100 mm armour. Dyas was not to get a
second chance; the Tiger's massive gun turned itself on the now helpless and
exposed British vehicle and an accurate shot from Woll succeeded in blowing
Dyas clean out of his cupola, leaving him dazed, but unhurt. His gunner and
driver were not so fortunate.
In all, Wittmann's
Tiger had destroyed twenty-one enemy tanks and an unspecified number of
half-tracks, troop carriers and Bren gun carriers; in what what one of the most
astonishing feats of arms during the war, he had single-handedly prevented the
British advance through Villers Bocage. For his achievements, he earned not
only congratulations from his commander, “Sepp” Dietrich, but was awarded
“Swords” to his Knights cross, personally by Hitler.
There is controversy over how Wittmann died. He
was caught in the slaughter at Falaise and was probably hit by an RAF bomb on 8th
August 1944. Many years after the war, his grave was found whilst undertaking
roadway improvements and he is now buried in La Cambe to the far right hand
side of the cemetery on row 3, block
47.
AN OLD EPSOMIAN HONOURED
Some
research before the trip informed us that Lt. William MA Lewis (256530), an Old
Epsomian had died on D-Day and was buried in Bayeux Cemetery (pictured below)
in row K10, grave No. 14. His records show that he was aged 22 and was in the 4th/7th
Royal Dragoon Guards in the Royal Armoured Regiment.
Naturally,
we had to visit his grave and reflect on his exploits and those of his
Regiment.
We
understood that in 1943, his regiment became famous for its ‘Funnies’,
specialised vehicles under the command of Major General Hobart. On 6th June,
1944, the Regiment landed on Gold Beach; ‘B’ and ‘C’ Squadron landing 5 minutes
before H (attack) Hour at 0720 Hrs in amphibious D D Sherman tanks.
On
the first day ‘A’ Squadron (with the 7th Battalion Green Howards) landed and
followed a route through Crepon and liberated Creully. This small town is where
the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards Memorial is situated. The Regiment later took
part in the bitter fighting at Cristot against elements of the 12th SS Panzer
Division Hitlerjugend. It was during the engagement at Cristot that three
members of the Regiment, who had been taken prisoner, were shot dead by their
captors; one was wounded, and another tortured.
We
have not yet examined his records at Kew to amplify the circumstances
surrounding his brave but untimely end but intend doing so.
Main web site and enquiries to