Don Aiken continues our account for Wednesday 7th June:
"We made some progress on the following day, passing through Bayeux which had already been liberated by our infantry. The German opposition was stronger than we had anticipated but we advanced some distance towards Villers-Bocage before we were eventually given the order to 'harbour' down for the night and we drove into a tree-lined field, concealing the vehicles around the perimeter.
I had no idea what our position was, and what the situation was around us.
We laid out the large waterproof cover from a Bren-carrier and a couple of troops bedded down underneath it. I assume that every-one else did the same. Sentries were posted at various intervals, armed with Bren machine guns. A foot patrol consisting of Sergeant Robert Black (a Scotsman), a Corporal and 5 men was sent out to reconnoitre the surrounding area.
We were jolted awake in the pitch black of the night by the sharp rattle of a nearby Bren gun and loud, frantic shouting. Everyone grabbed their weapons and made for the commotion. What had occurred was this:
whilst we were on board the LST we had been given a Password with which to challenge anyone in the expected confusion of the situation. The Password was 'Handle' and the Response was 'With Care'. This seemed quite sensible although we had never used such a method before.
The sentry who had been posted near to us was a Yorkshireman from Leeds. He had been sat behind his gun, on his own, in the dead blackness, scared stiff (as we would all have been) when he heard the stealthy scuffling noise of someone creeping up. Panic must have set in because, instead of the password, he shouted out the normal challenge of 'Who goes there! ' This threw the approaching Glaswegian Sergeant of our recce patrol (now returning to us) right off his stride. He responded the best way he could - "Onnle (handle)wi' kearr!(with care)- Onnle wi' kearr " ! he shouted in his broad Scottish accent.
The guttural strange sounding cry must have sounded like Adolf Hitler himself to the panic stricken sentry, so his fingers jerked at the trigger - killing the Sergeant and wounding the Corporal in the foot."
(Extract republished from the BBC People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)
Anthony Rampling also recalled the accident:
“This incident I remember very well – In the early days we had blanket passwords. On this day it was ‘To have and to hold’. And the Corporal was going round the camp in the night, seeing that everything was OK. And a soldier in my troop*, George, he said ‘Halt who goes there?’ And this Corporal had quite a guttural accent (he was Irish) and he didn’t understand and he fired his Bren gun. And as he was dying his last words were ‘Good luck boys.’ That was very sad.”
*Dick’s troop.
Corporal Robert Black was from County Londonderry, Northern Ireland but Don must be right about the passwords since they’re shown in his Sergeant's notebook). The awful shot was fired by George Ingram, a butcher from Yorkshire. (Later in the war Tony remembers George finding food for the troop including a goat which he killed. They cooked and ate it out of ammunition tins.)
Eric Brewer heard the sad news over the radio:
June 7th: “Still not able to find rest of squadron so we tried to make contact but could not find them, soon loads of Gerry prisoners and in among them are ????? , they look consumptive…, Found out today that Blake (sic) had been killed, also 1 man injured in troop. Staying in harbour for night and hope to find squadron tomorrow.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)
61st Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on this day:
Corporal Robert Black, B Squadron (age 26) of Coleraine, Londonderry who is laid to rest in the Bayeux War Cemetery
Trooper Leslie Douglas William Dymond (age 26) of Chesham, Buckinghamshire, laid to rest in Chesham.
(See 61st Recce Roll of Honour courtesy of Recce Mitch.)
We will remember them.
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