Description
Object description
Word-processed narrative account (10pp), compiled from interviews with him by his son-in-law (July 2014), of his service as a Sapper in 77th Assault Squadron, 5th Assault Regiment, Royal Engineers (1st Assault Brigade and Assault Park Squadron, 79th Armoured Division), sailing from Gosport on D-Day (6 June 1944), in a 'Hobart's Funnies' Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) tank armed with a petard, the channel crossing where they rescued men from 72 Commando whose landing craft had sunk, seeing landing craft and DD tanks destroyed, landing on Sword Beach Red at H-Hour, near Hermanville-sur-Mer, details of other tanks in his Squadron clearing obstacles and being hit, his tank being one of only four left from 24 tanks that landed, his tank being ordered to Lion-sur-Mer to assist 41 Commando Royal Marines, his tank being destroyed by a German anti-tank gun, the deaths of members of the crew, escaping the tank and assisting injured sappers and commandos, picking up a Thompson machine gun and fighting with the infantry, capturing a German officer, recovering the bodies of his dead crew mates, joining the crew of another Churchill AVRE tank, being sent to St. Colombe Abbey and defending the area with the Middlesex Regiment, receiving a Military Medal from Field Marshal Montgomery for his actions on D-Day, and turning down a promotion to Sergeant so that he could stay with his unit, the narrative continuing with details of the assault on Walcharen (October 1944), sailing from Ostend in a 'Buffalo', the first tanks being destroyed, managing to elevate his gun to destroy an enemy gun emplacement, joining a Commando attack on a radar station, details of a poem written in chalk in a school house about the assault, and brief details of the rest of his war. The account includes quotes from war diaries and other sources.
Content description
Word-processed narrative account (10pp), compiled from interviews with him by his son-in-law (July 2014), of his service as a Sapper in 77th Assault Squadron, 5th Assault Regiment, Royal Engineers (1st Assault Brigade and Assault Park Squadron, 79th Armoured Division), sailing from Gosport on D-Day (6 June 1944), in a 'Hobart's Funnies' Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) tank armed with a petard, the channel crossing where they rescued men from 72 Commando whose landing craft had sunk, seeing landing craft and DD tanks destroyed, landing on Sword Beach Red at H-Hour, near Hermanville-sur-Mer, details of other tanks in his Squadron clearing obstacles and being hit, his tank being one of only four left from 24 tanks that landed, his tank being ordered to Lion-sur-Mer to assist 41 Commando Royal Marines, his tank being destroyed by a German anti-tank gun, the deaths of members of the crew, escaping the tank and assisting injured sappers and commandos, picking up a Thompson machine gun and fighting with the infantry, capturing a German officer, recovering the bodies of his dead crew mates, joining the crew of another Churchill AVRE tank, being sent to St. Colombe Abbey and defending the area with the Middlesex Regiment, receiving a Military Medal from Field Marshal Montgomery for his actions on D-Day, and turning down a promotion to Sergeant so that he could stay with his unit, the narrative continuing with details of the assault on Walcharen (October 1944), sailing from Ostend in a 'Buffalo', the first tanks being destroyed, managing to elevate his gun to destroy an enemy gun emplacement, joining a Commando attack on a radar station, details of a poem written in chalk in a school house about the assault, and brief details of the rest of his war. The account includes quotes from war diaries and other sources.
History note
Cataloguer SJO