Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry in Normandy

Hi All,

Opened this thread to run in conjunction with reading the excellent 'By Tank into Normandy' by 2nd Lieutenant Stuart Hills who was a Troop commander in C Squadron, Nottinghamshire Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry on D-Day.

While the idea for the thread came from reading the book, Forum members are welcome to add any comments or information pertaining to the Regiment during the Normandy Campaign.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

I am looking for a confirmed black & white photo of a SRY Sherman in Normandy. Trying to see what tone the yellow TAC sign on the turret side looks like in B&W. Failing that, any confirmed 8th Armoured Brigade unit which used yellow TAC signs.

The Flames of War page here shows all British and Commonwealth armoured units' signs used in Normandy.

Thanks,

Pat

 

Sean/Niels,

Sean thanks for the colour correction; blue should standout well on B&W film against a darker toned turret - if we ever find any footage

Yes please, if you have copies of their war diaries, I would be most apprecative. There are very rough sketches in the book pertaining to particular actions but a quick look last night gave difficulty locating them on GE.

Niels, I will keep an eye out for German wrecks. The copy of the book I am reading is by orionbooks.co.uk and has a photo of a captured panther in the central collection of photos between pages 128/129. I am sure you already have it but if not I'll send you a scan. The number on the turret is 314 (third digit I am not sure of) and the caption reads:

Regards,

Pat

 

Thanks Sean,

I like the improved CWGC site very much - very sleek with useful new search functionality!

To begin 2nd Lieutenant Stuart Hill's Normandy Campaign, we meet him as his crew are reversing their Sherman DD tank onto Landing Craft Tank No. 442. The obvious implication of being last to load was not lost on the young officer fresh out of Sandhurst!

Following a grueling Channel crossing on D-Day morning, LCT No. 442 with the two other tanks of Lt. Hill's Troop from a total of five on board, lowered it's bow door and the aptly christened Sherman 'Bardin Collos' (Arabic for something like 'little chance'), now the first tank to exit, moved forward. However, problems with the chains holding the doors at the correct unloading angle delayed the tank entering the water at the extreme left flank of Jig Red, Gold Beach. The SRY were in the vanguard of the great Invasion and C Squadron was in direct support of the 1st Battalion, The Dorset Regiment.

Finally clear of the door, 'Bardin Collos' had a number of close calls as the German AT gunners tried hard to hit the swimming tank. Whether from these explosions or some other cause the tank quickly began to leak seawater from the floor and was soon fully submerged under the waves. The tank's crew all managed to exit the sinking steel coffin and scramble into a rubber dingy. They were picked up by a Landing Craft Gun (LCG) and spent the night onboard. With the craft returning to England on D+1, Lt. Hill and his crew borrowed another dingy and paddled to shore.

They were in Normandy but without a mount!

More follows...

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

Before we follow Lt. Hills and C Squadron, SRY inland, I would like to see if we can make some ties on the coast at Gold Beach.

I had a Google for 'LCT 442' (the one which landed Lt. Hills' tank) and found this excellent account of the landing by her second-in-command, 1st Lieutenant Stan Smith RNVR. LCT 442 was a vessel of the 15th LCT Flotilla in D Squadron of G Force.

A more candid account of her actions on D-Day is given by another member of her crew, Able Seaman John Goldsmith here. Note how he reserves special mention for the captain of the other LCT which hit 442, causing additional time and trouble in extricating the ship from the bottom and returning to England for repairs.

The uboat.net site has this page on her; nothing remarkable of note though.

C Squadron, SRY were supporting the 1st Bn, The Dorsets as they landed on Jig Sector, Gold Beach. Below is an extract from the map titled 'The British Assault' found amongst the plates on pages 240-241 of Chester Wilmot's "The Struggle for Europe":

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The Map shows the landing point of the 1st Dorsets. Note the beach exit circled red which is protected by Widerstandsnest 35 and the nearby Mont Fleury Battery (Wn 35a) circled in purple.

Below is a GE screenshot showing the same two Widerstandsnest locations today. The exit laneway has a distinctive double curve (arrowed red) which should be noted for ties to aerial reconnaissance cover I am currently digging up in the NCAP archive:

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The red rectangle is zoomed to below:

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I based the broken red line showing the extent of Wn 35 on the map here.

Can anyone confirm or correct these boundaries?

Thanks,

Pat

 

Hi All,

During my night, John has been busy tracking down Bigot Maps of the Gold Beach area - thanks John; much appreciated

Below is an extract from one of the maps he has forwarded and appears to confirm the boundaries of Wn 35, except perhaps that my SW corner may have been indicated too far inland:

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Note the minefield protecting this position running west and east from the exit road along the sand dunes. The note reads 'minefield 2 rows deep'.
The extract below is from what I take to be an earlier edition as the telephone lines to both Wn 35 and Wn 35a appear to be missing when compared to John's copy above:

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Is there a date on your copy John?

I also went onto the Imperial War Museum site last night and found some interesting Sherwood Ranger Yeomanry related images from the Gold Beach area:

B 5244 shows a Bren Gun Carrier of the 1st Dorsets which Lt. Hills' C Squadron was supporting during the landings on Jig Red Sector, Gold Beach. I have never seen a 'carrier' with a wading screen before - I presume this is a wading vehicle with no 'swimming' abilities.

B 5252 may not be from the Jig Red sector of Gold Beach but I wonder if it still remains today? It appears to me to be facing inland - anyone able to confirm this or its location?

B 5258 shows a Sherman from A Squadron driving onto the beach from a beached LCT. A Squadron was in reserve for the landings and and were not equipped with the DD variant of the Sherman. The bomb crater might be useful to possibly tie down the location from aerial cover - I have found several NCAP photos with a crater like this on its own near the water line.

B 5259 shows the same Sherman marked '52' from A Squadron being landed. Does this number indicate that there were at least 52 tanks in this squadron? I done a Google search and discovered from this page on the 8th Armoured Brigade in North Africa that the SRY had a total of 46 tanks plus 6 armoured cars during the Desert Campaign.

Does anyone have a TO&E for the SRY in Normandy?

Thanks,

Pat

Edit: On zooming the original of the Bigot Map, the note inside the eastern Wn 35 minefield now appears to read a more realistic 'minefield 6 rows deep'

Pat

 

Thanks Sean,

Did all these 5cm guns face inland?

Of your list, the only one I have seen is the one in St. Aubin shown in this GE street view link. IIRC, there is damage to the muzzle brake from a tank round.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

I found some recon cover of Jig Red, Gold Beach flown during the landings with the first extract below being from NCAP_ACIU_US7GR_1733_8092.

Drawn from information kindly supplied by Dale Johnson, it's interesting to note that this sortie was flown by Major Norris Hartwell, CO 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group, USAAF out of RAF Mount Farm. His aircraft for this sortie was F-5B Lightning #42-67382, which this page places with the 22nd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, one of the four squadrons in 7th Recon Group.

Image Credit: RCAHMS/www.ncap.org.uk​

The smoke, blowing in a south easterly direction, is from burning gorse fires just behind the beach; most likely the result of naval gunfire. Note the two read arrows indicating the double bend in the exit laneway. LSIs (I think) can been seen at the water's edge, just after beaching.

Quite by chance, I also found another oblique shot on Fold3 here:

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It may be from Major Hartwell's sortie, but more likely it's from a different mission - the tide is not as high as that seen in the first shot above. The two extracts below show what appears to be some form of barrier or collapsed culvert on the exit laneway (circled blue) and what seems to be two tanks within the perimeter of Widerstandsnest 35. Our resident armour experts might be able to confirm or correct my theory, but I suspect the lead vehicle might be a flail tank with the flail indicated by the red arrow:

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The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, being part of 8th Armoured Brigade, were tasked with supporting the push to capture Bayeux by the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division. While this operation was underway, Lt. Hills and his crew spent the night of 7th June under tarpaulins on Gold Beach and eventually located the Brigade's Forward Delivery Squadron and were assigned a shiny new Sherman. The crew spent three days at the FDS getting their new tank war ready.

While all this was going on, A Squadron had being supporting the Essex Regiment as they took the high ground outside Bayeux. The town was captured on D+1 without much German opposition. The book then states that on the 8th June, the entire 8th Armoured Brigade, including the SRY, moved south and the Regiment were ordered to occupy some high ground known as Point 103, looking down on a small Norman village called St Pierre.

The gallop from the beach stopped here.

More follows...

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

Point 103 I take to be the high ground at top right on the IGN map below:

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Sean, did you point out this location to me back in the summer? Apologies if you did, and can I ask you to confirm the location if you do know it here again please? Thanks Sean.

As A Squadron had no infantry support when they first arrived at Point 103, two officers from the squadron, the famous war poet Captain Keith Douglas and his close friend Lt John Bethell-Fox, decided to make a reconnaissance of the village of St Pierre on foot. Both men spoke French and were able to ascertain from one of the locals that the village was occupied by Germans with armour support. On the way back the two men ran into a German patrol. Both parties were so surprised at the chance meeting that they quickly dispersed without opening fire on each other. Both men returned safely to Point 103.

The following day, 9th June, German mortar and shell fire began to fall on Point 103 and tanks were seen in the village below. As the SRY shermans came forward to do battle, they were outlined on the exposed skyline and three tanks were knocked out in quick succession. A lieutenant from B Squadron, Peter Pepler was killed when attempting to get to his tank.

Sometime during the battle, Douglas and Bethell-Fox again went forward on foot to find the location of a hidden enemy position, apparently on their own initiative. This time however, they were not so lucky. Douglas was killed by a mortar shell while running back towards his tank.

I found this BBC4 documentary on the life of Keith Douglas, in which we hear his friend, John Bethell-Fox speaking about the poet back in 1974. It's a well put together piece of work and worth watching if the reader has the time:

[video=youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5yTX0eWW6s&feature=player_embedded[/video]​

The regimental chaplain, Padre Skinner asked permission of the acting CO, Michael Laycock, to go forward to recover Douglas's body but was refused on the grounds that the spot was under direct enemy fire at the time. He was however, able to do so the following day and buried Keith Douglas near where he was killed, despite sporadic enemy fire. Padre Skinner also buried Lt. Pepler and made a sketch map showing the location of both graves. Captain Douglas is now buried in the nearby Commonwealth War Cemetery at Tilly-sur-Seulles. The 9th of June was a sad day for the Sherwood Rangers but far worse was to come...

Does anyone know where Captain Douglas and Lt Pepler were killed?

Thanks,

Pat

 

Thanks Sean,

Only getting to this late tonight. I will try to tie the three locations to a GE extract tomorrow.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

Thanks to Sean, I have eyes on the sketch map created by Rev. Skinner showing the locations where he buried Captain Douglas and Lieutenant Pepler. As Sean does not recall the source of the map, we are not sure who holds the copyright. So to be on the safe side, I created a diagram showing it's notation. The copyright notice is there to prevent unauthorised usage only and not to claim ownership:

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The map reference 853704 is shown below, just to the west of Point 103 and appears to show the location several hundred yards north of the laneway marked on the diagram - that's if I have the cross hair correctly placed of course :-/

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As with many sketch maps produced after the event, this one does not match the ground exactly, but none-the-less I am going to risk placing the two locations on a GE screenshot for you guys to check and correct if required. Also, there appears to be two versions of the map produced by the Padre; both are very similar but have slightly different measurements in places:

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Note the area marked 'woods' at top centre - again if I have joined the dots correctly!

Comments and corrections welcomed and appreciated.

Regards,

Pat

 

To continue...

While Stuart Hills and his crew continued awaiting orders to rejoin the Regiment at the Forward Delivery Squadron, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry suffered another serious blow on the 11th June.

Having returned from a rest, the Regiment found itself once again at Point 103 amid a fierce German counterattack in the Tilly sur Seulles area. Two squadrons, A and C, were tasked with co-operating with the 7th Armoured Division, the famous 'Desert Rats' of North Africa fame. As this push was underway, Regimental Headquarters and B Squadron remained in St Pierre, just up the road. A conference was being held in one of the houses in St Pierre and when it was over, a group of officers were congregated around the nearby command tank 'Robin Hood' when a German 105mm shell landed beside the tank. The acting CO, Major Michael Laycock and the Adjutant, Captain George Jones were both killed by the blast, as was the Intelligence Officer, Lieutenant A. L. Head.

It was a cruel blow to the Regiment at a critical time when the invasion bridgehead was still very much in the making and by no means well established. Major Laycock was the younger brother of Major General Robert Laycock of Commando 'Layforce' fame and by then Chief of Combined Operations. Captain Jones had grown up on the Laycock family estate, and it is fitting that both he and Major Laycock were later buried together in Tilly sur Seulles Commonwealth War Cemetery, less that 1.5 miles from where the three men were killed. The Google Maps 'street view' here shows the memorial to the three RHQ officers outside what I take to be the farmhouse where the conference was held - though the larger neighboring 'Maison de Trois Cheminees' may also be the site of the heavy blow which struck the Regiment on the 11th June.

Can anyone confirm the location?

My NCAP account has expired over the weekend and there being wind of a possible free account awaiting official sanction, I cannot zoom the only digitised cover from the archive - NCAP_2TAF_400/0283_4016 - flown thirteen days later on the 24th June. Can any of you guys with a current account please check to see if the wreck of 'Robin Hood' is visible at the crossroads?

Thanks,

Pat

 

Hi Rob,

We will be glad to help with researching your your grandfather.
Do you know if he was a tank commander when he transferred to the Sherwoods?

Regards,

Pat