Continueing my September 2023 trip around the sites associated with 61st Reconnaissance Regiment in Normandy:
PART 3
Bayeux also hosts the Memorial Museum of the Battle of Normandy.
The grim story of the twelve weeks of gruelling fighting is told through wartime exhibits, helpful maps and fascinating photos. I was particularly interested to see the old maps and displays including a Bren gun and a cooking stove. Keeping clean was almost impossible as the text on 'Epidemics' explains - Dick Williams was 'sick' on 8th August, possibly with the gastro-enteritis?
There are moving photos of combatants, inhabitants and refugees and useful interpretation maps; the one on the left shows Operation Epsom and, on the right, the front-line when 61st Recce were in Briquessard Wood near Caumont.
DAY 4
The Breakout
Leaving Bayeux we headed south following the route taken by 61st Reconnaissance Regiment as they advanced in August 'squeezing' the Falaise pocket from the west. After Operation Bluecoat and the liberation of Viller-Bocage they had a short period of rest in reserve; their first for about 40 days - "Every day we were up the front, living in slit trenches" (Tony Rampling). Then they joined Second British Army in securing the edges of the pocket and clearing villages, following the spearhead of 43rd Division.
Beyond Villers-Bocage the rather flat bocage countryside gives way to rolling open terrain with ridges and large woodlands. Aunay-sur-odon is now an attractive town but it was obliterated by British bombing during the war.
Henry Ansell, a driver in Don Aiken's B Squadron No 12 Troop, was killed by shellfire near here, while brewing tea in a slit trench on 11th August 1944.
Our next stop was Mont Pinçon, a critical defensive ridge and the highest place in Calvados. 43rd Division overcame fierce German resistance to take this high point on 6th August.
Later, on 12th August, B Squadron's Lieutenant Truman (who earned his Military Cross at Amayé-sur-Seulles) carried out a classic patrol watched by 50th Division's commander, General Graham, from Mont Pinçon.
We descended from the ridge to Le Plessis-Grimault, a rather grim little village (the beautiful Caen limestone changes to a dark grey and red sandstone, giving the buildings a mournful air). Colonel Brownrigg described it as 'one of the most evil-smelling places in the Bocage'.
Lieutenant Flint earned his Military Cross at nearby Lenault on 12th August. He and a trooper were on foot patrol when they were trapped by a German platoon but fought their way out with grenades to directed fire and take the position.
50th Division and 61st Reconnaissance Regiment took over leading the advance. South of Le Plessis-Grimault Lieutenant Williams (the subject of this blog) overtook some armoured cars of a rival regiment, halted short of some suspicious-looking grass turves in the middle of the road. 'We can't get on' they said, 'Mines'. Without a word Williams threw the turves in the ditch and drove on.
B Squadron's commander, Major Harding, had been ordered to capture a hill, Point 266, north of Condé-sur-Noireau on 11th August. This would protect the flank of the main attack by 50th Division's 231st Brigade (the Dorsets, Hampshires and Devons). 'He carried out this attack with great skill, and in spite of heavy machine gun and 88mm fire, he destroyed or captured all the enemy on the hill and held it until relieved' (citation for Military Cross).
Lt. Williams described this area: 'very lovely country now – more open and rolling, something like the Sussex Downs though more wooded.' He had at least two days of rest here (and his third beer since landing). 50th Division were waiting for the 'big push' with the 11th Armoured Division who liberated Condé-sur-Noireau on 17th August. 
They advanced quickly through the pretty countryside of the Suisse Normande. Regimental Headquarters moved to Landigou, east of Flers, and then to Putanges, which was liberated by the 11th Armoured on the 19th August - the bridge at the centre of this charming little town is named in their honour.
Eric Brewer of B Squadron's Assault Troop was at Argentan on 18th and 19th August before it was taken by the US Third Army on 20th August. These were the desperate days of the closing of the 'Falaise Pocket' when the Allies were attempting to stop the German Army from escaping through the narrow route between the US and Canadian forces. Here and east of Chambois (near Trun) Lieutenant Christian Ronald Griffiths 'led his troop with the greatest boldness against forces far superior in numbers' contributing to his well-earned Croix de Guerre (Silver).
Both Don Aiken and Tony Rampling recalled passing through Falaise: "Thousands of the enemy were killed and, as we passed through the devastated area in pursuit of those who had managed to escape, I remember seeing bodies piled on top of bodies to a height of several feet” (Don Aiken).
We left the route of 61st Reconnaissance at Argentan (left). They pressed on: Eric Brewer was one of the first English in Rugles on 21st August and by 25th August he was two miles from the River Seine.
After Chambois 61st Reconnaissance Regional HQ moved to Verneuil-sur-Avre and then Bonnières-sur-Seine. The Battle of Normandy was over.
'When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.'
(Kohima epitaph)
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