11th August 1944 - Florence, in Italy, is liberated by the British 8th Army
Major Frank Harding’s citation for the Military Cross includes this account from Normandy:
“On 11th August he was ordered to capture a hill, pt 266, north of Condé-sur-Noreau, thereby protecting the left flank of the main attack by 231 Brigade. He carried out this attack with great skill, and in spite of heavy MG and 88mm* fire he destroyed, or captured all the enemy on the hill and held it until relieved.” (See 61st Recce battle honours.)
Major Harding was commander of 61st Reconnaissance Regiment's 'B' Squadron, which included Don Aiken, Eric Brewer in the Assault Troop, Eric Postles in 10 Troop and Tony Rampling and Sandy Handley in No 5 Troop with Dick Williams as their lieutenant.
*The 88 mm was a German anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery gun.
Eric Brewer was "On Recce near same place, plenty of mortars, shells and spandoes" but still found time to write home re-assuringly that there was "nothing to do except sleep and write or listen to the radio; we seem to be getting some good programmes lately...heard some Sinatra and Bing last night...PSS The Yanks seem to be doing fine don't they?" The next day he was "Back at base - shell killed one chap, injured two." (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)
According to Don Aiken they were somewhere near Aunay-sur-Odon,which occupies a vital crossroads position between Caen, Vire, Bayeux and Falaise. The town had been completely destroyed by Allied bombing in the middle of June.
Don describes how 61st Recce lost another of the 1060 boys that day:
“On the 11th August we moved into an apple orchard close to a cross-roads, at Aunay-sur-Odon, which was under shell-fire. The Troop H.Q. armoured car had positioned itself in the corner of the orchard and they had dug a trench underneath it, filling in the gap below the car with a sheet of corrugated iron that they had found. The driver, down in the slit trench, had then begun to brew up tea for the troop.
We were given the signal that it was ready and I climbed out and crossed over towards the H.Q. car, along with a lad from another car, when suddenly a German shell fell short of its target and made a direct hit on the corrugated iron sheet. The blast blew us both underneath another car and we lay there with hearts in our mouths.
Then I said “I'm going to dash for it”, and as I stood up and took a couple of steps I heard another shell whistling its way towards us. The next thing that I remember is being reseated in the turret of my car. A member of another crew, who had been watching through his periscope, swore that I had leapt from the ground, straight into the top of the turret (a height of almost 6 ft.) without touching the sides!
The tragedy was that Henry Ansell, a popular young man, had caught the full blast of the explosion which had blown the corrugated iron into large pieces and torn him apart. Corporal Mulchay lost an arm and Trooper Alan Penn was wounded in the head.”
(Extract republished from ‘Establishing a Foothold in Normandy’ by kind permission of Don Aiken)
61st Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on 11th August 1944:
Trooper Henry Edward George Ansell (age 22) of Totton, Hampshire,
who is laid to rest in the St. Manvieu War Cemetery, west of Caen, near Cheux. Trooper Ansell was one of the 1060 Boys mentioned in Major Frank Harding’s poem of that name.
(See 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch.)
We will remember them.
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