52nd (Lowland) Reconnaissance Regiment joins the advance of Operation Veritable. General Eisenhower later commented that this "was some of the fiercest fighting of the whole war" and "a bitter slugging match in which the enemy had to be forced back yard by yard".
On 14th February the 52nd (Lowland) Division had moved slightly north and were put in the right of the British line. Its Reconnaissance Regiment crossed the Maas using a new bridge at Cuijk, now occupying the east bank of the flooded river and advancing south on the extreme right of Veritable.
WAR DIARY of 52nd (Lowland) Recce Regt RAC February 1945
– Lt Col J.B.A. Hankey OBE
Date 15th Place BOXMEER 7640:
‘Advance parties left to recce regimental area near GENNEP (on the other side of the Maas, north-east of Boxmeer) 8045. Recce elements 95 US Division arrive to take over from Regiment.’ 157 Brigade O.O. No 9 attached.
Date 16th Place BOXMEER: 1 casualty Weather – Fine
‘Regiment arrives in GENNEP area. ‘C’ Squadron moved GENNEP – AFFERDEN (south of Gennep) road but held up by road block and large crater on road with flooding on either side. Enemy position just SOUTH of road block opened up and registered 1 killed. ‘C’ Squadron patrolled all night but enemy withdrew.’
Gennep was a 'shockingly ruined townlet' recently taken by the Black Watch (51st Highland Division). Dick was presumably here with the rest of 'C' Squadron.
(From the War Diary of the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment held by the Archive and Reference Library, the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset and 'Mountain and Flood: the History of the 52nd (Lowland) Division by George Blake; Jackson, Son and Company 1950.)
Dick’s 1945 diary for February:
16 Wed - Wrote Brinner.
52nd Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on 16th February 1945:
Sergeant Walter Everson
who is laid to rest in the Milsbeek war cemetery near Gennep.
(See Roll of Honour for Milsbeek and Ottersum.)
We will remember them.
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