5th August 1944 – US 3rd Army liberates Vannes on the south coast of Brittany.
On 5th August Eric Brewer’s diary reads: "Back in reserve. Done Recce left of Villers Bocage." (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)
61st Recce Roll of Honour (see 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch) includes the following who died on 5th August 1944:
Sergeant Joseph Albert Dunnington (age 29) of Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, who is laid to rest in the Hottot-les-Bagues War Cemetery, near Tilly-sur-Seules.
Trooper William Joseph Stevenson (age 22) of Salford, Lancashire, who is laid to rest in the St Charles de Percy War Cemetery, near le Bény-Bocage , south-west of Villers Bocage. Trooper Stevenson was a friend of Ernie Brobbin, who found the foxcub* and “one of the many 1060 boys who lost their lives at such an early age” (Newsletter Old Comrades Association). *The fox was still living in the armoured car of ‘A’ Squadron’s Captain Compton Bishop. “In Normandy he would take it for walks at night on a lead!”
The '1060 boys' were a big intake of men from north-west England for the Reconnaissance Corps in January 1942, including Eric Postles, who's service number was 10602580.
Major Frank Harding, Commander of ‘B’ Squadron wrote a poem in memory of 61st Recce’s 1060 intake of young men ‘born about nineteen twenty-four’ who were killed. The poem ends:
“Their comrades, thus steeled by their death, became
The sterner men: those who now live believe
No generation better proved its worth.”
(From ‘On the Eve’ by Major Frank Harding MC, in ‘War echoes over thirty years’ published by Arthur Stockwell, 1970)
We will remember them.
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