On 12th July Eric Brewer had "moved to a new position near 'Udler Bocad' (sic) Gerry mortaring, snipers active - Lt Peters just missed bullet." He was there for two days. On 13th July two tanks were knocked out and another overturned with two crew killed and on the 14th "mortaring and snipers" were "still a nuisance". On returning to base for a rest he wrote to his parents telling them he was "in Div 50th reserve and as usual doing nothing except sleep". Also (on the 15th) that they had "just got our first bottle of beer from the NAFI and also white bread for one meal every two days, which works out at about two slices every two days." (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)
Sandy Handley returned to Bayeux sometime in mid-July:
“At the end of July we had to play an infantry role (see Briquessard) - by this time we had had our trusty Humber MK111 back in our troop.
We had had to go back to Bayeux to R.E.M.E. workshops again and were surprised when the officer at the workshops said “You’re lucky”. Although he’d said previously they wouldn’t have any spares for our Humber MKIII they had found a drop arm off an old ambulance and repaired our car (a transplant so to speak). I found out from our driver a drop arm was a part connected to the steering mechanism.
So we waved cheerio to the boys at the R.E.M.E. and Bayeux. I wished I’d got a specialist trade like the R.E.M.E. but their job wasn’t always safe at base; their job became pretty hazardous sometimes, towing knocked out tanks out from the front under fire.
Now we’d got our Humber back we felt a bit more settled - Dan, our Corporal, surveying the scenery as we went along, and the driver (I can’t remember his name, may have been Bill or Bob), and me sitting on the gunner’s swivel seat with the Bren gun on the mounting, which was attached to the small turret. No press buttons or levers here. Whatever way I wanted to point the Bren, I shuffled my legs and hobnailed boots to move the top of the turret around.
The large Humbers had a 37mm and 1 & 2 machine gun and were swivelled around by a handle. I’d had training on these in England, both for gunnery and radio procedure. Everything was noisy: the engine was at the rear and the loud mush from the radio jangled my nerves a bit. I can’t remember having earplugs issued; the noise was nerve racking. The light Humber was much quieter.” (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)
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