"Second Army continued to push forward south-east of Caumont, gaining a few miles a day by hard labour and hard fighting...For the men among the corn and hedges, each morning seemed to bring only another start-line, another tramp through incessant mortar and shellfire, coated in dust, to another ruined village from which the Germans had to be forced by nerve-racking house clearing...The fields at evening were landmarked with upturned rifles jammed in the earth to mark the dead." (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition.)
Don Aiken of ‘B’ Squadron takes up the story of 61st Recce - on 3rd August 1944 61st Recce was again approaching the town of Villers-Bocage (south of Bayeux), which had been a key objective on D Day:
“1944 August
There then began a gradual crumbling in the German defences as more and more pressure was exerted.
3rd August
We began probing again and one day as we approached the small town of Villers Bocage, on a broad front, we drew to a halt as we approached an obvious ambush point between the hedge-rows. This was a sharp bend in the road which was dominated by a farmhouse facing straight up the road. At this moment the Assault Troop*, which had been making its way through the fields and hedgerows on our right, came under fire from German infantry and sustained some casualties.
My car was leading the patrol on the road, and every nerve was tensed for any eventuality. I was astounded when a small wicket gate, in a garden wall at the side of the house, suddenly opened and six big German S.S. troops emerged and ran across the front of the house. It was exactly like a shooting gallery at the Fairground with the ducks bobbing along from one side to the other. However, I didn't get a prize off the top shelf because I couldn't turn my turret fast enough, probably due to the turret ring having been invaded by sea water, sand and dust, and my bullets merely splattered the brickwork behind them before they disappeared round the corner.
We sat there on the road, about 50 yards in front of the house, for about an hour. My light-armoured car was in the lead, and the Troop officer’s armoured car was sat about 20 yards further back. I don’t know to this day what we hoped to gain by standing there, but I felt terribly exposed in my open fronted, open topped turret, with the enemy lying in wait ahead. The feeling was later justified as a phosphorus grenade landed on the road a few feet to the left of my car, spitting and fizzling spitefully as it lay there.
As it happened the unit of S.S. troops up ahead must have been merely an outpost, without any heavy weapons, or we would otherwise have paid dearly for such senseless tactics.”
(Extract republished from ‘Establishing a Foothold in Normandy’ by kind permission of Don Aiken)
*Eric Brewer, of 'B' Squadron's Assault Troop, was “Still Recceing – found mortar sites. Corporal Bater killed.” (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 3rd August 1944:
Corporal Horace Edmund Bater (age 24) from Lee, London
Lance Sergeant Robert Grant Ell (age 27) from Harrow Weald, Middlesex
Trooper William Henry Heaton (age 33) from Malvern, Worcestershire
Trooper Robert George Stevens (age 21)
All are laid to rest in the Bayeux War Cemetery. (See 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch.)
We will remember them.
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