British Band Of Brothers: Battle Of Bloody Ridge (Part 7)

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4:05Rejoined Dock, went up with CO in Jeep to A Squadron. Heavy shelling. Here Burkett and crew buried by infantry. On foot, located brewed-up tanks. Watson and Heslewood died of wounds at Dorset RAP, marked grave and buried two infantry left behind by regimental aid post. Only ash and burnt metal in Burkett's tank. Dorset's medical officer says other members of crew consumed by fire having been killed in action. Searched ash and found remains pelvic burns. But other tank, three bodies still inside, partly burned and firmly welded together, managed with difficulty to identify Lieutenant Campbell. Unable to remove bodies after long struggle.

4:44Nasty business. Sick. C squadron still wanting me for two burials, but after three unsuccessful attempts to reach them had to give up. ground between us and their position to exposed heavy fire each time I tried they buried troopers Howie and Mitchell themselves and leave me to mark graves etc shelled again during evening but on the whole quieter and that's the diary of Padre Leslie Skinner from Friday it's the entry from Friday the 4th of August 1944 and Skinner's the Padre with the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry so welcome to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me Al Murray and James Holland and our seventh episode or our third in our second tranche of the British Band of Brothers.

5:25Skinner's diary is... It's pretty harrowing, isn't it? It is harrowing. And I mean, matter of fact, about really harrowing stuff and also testament to the way he was determined to insert himself into this part of the regiment's business, which is the cost, which is the price of the fighting. Yeah. I mean, he actually gets wounded trying to get up to someone and bury them towards the sort of third week of June, 1944. So he's been away for a little bit, but he's back in time for Bluecoat. And this is the consequences of Operation Bluecoat, which we are beginning this episode with. You remember in the last episode, they were resting, weren't they?

6:07And they'd moved to Coman, taken over from the US 1st Infantry Division. They're resting. Because we've had Goodwood, We've had Cobra and the Allied thing is to keep the enemy reeling by colossal cracks. This is the Monty thing of colossal cracks. A great big effort on the left-hand flank of the Allied lodgement in the east, a great big one on the west to try and break out and then further pressure in the centre. Yeah. And this is Operation Bluecoat is very much the strawberry jam and cream of the Victoria sponge of which Cobra is the bottom bit and or rather Goodwood is the bottom bit. I'm going to hold you to this analogy now for the rest of the episode.

6:50Anyway, so it's now the very end of July. So the bombers come over at 7.30 on Sunday morning of the 30th of July. And this is the cue for the start of Operation Blueco. And of course, this is using RAF Bomber Command, the strategic air force to support ground operations in Normandy. And David Render, who is a troop commander in A Squadron, sees them coming over. His job is to clear this wood. They have a start line. So they are slightly to the east of Coman. And they've got to clear a wood. He's also already had a bit of a ding-dong with his counterpart in the Dorsets, who he doesn't like to cut off his jib at all.

7:35Right. and Render is although he's only 19 he's a self-assured fellow and is not one to kind of be terribly impressed by haughty captains and majors in the infantry so they have a bit of a spat about this this is also an advantage of being in a in a yeomanry regiment he hasn't got an army career to worry about has he no all he cares about is his situation his chaps so he's not he's not worried about who he pisses off is he don't care less Why would he care? But he's got a very healthy disregard for authority as well, I would say. Yeah. And so they have this spat about what they're doing and how they're going to do it.

8:13And anyway, they managed to resolve this. And the idea is to clear this wood starting at 8 o 'clock in the morning and then following the attack by the bombers. And then the main assault would start at 10. But as they're clearing the wood, they immediately lose the door seats. And this is this classic thing that they have, which is when they're operating with infantry for the first time, there's almost always a cock up. Yeah. Because they haven't got the cut of each other's jib. And it's not been made any easier by the fact that the infantry, you know, the company commander of the infantry they're supposed to be supporting and the leading troop commander have already loggerheads.

8:52Yeah. And this is really difficult. Let's start from there, right? This is really difficult coordinating these different assets when, particularly when people aren't familiar with each other. This is hard. It's not that they're screwing up something that should be straightforward. This is really difficult. And a tank regiment, first of all, you've got to get your nets to coordinate and get your radios talking to each other. And you've got to understand each other's lingua franca. You've got to understand how each other operates. This is difficult. I often think this gets lost when you go, oh, they didn't coordinate.

9:26Well, it's really hard. It's really hard. It really is. And you don't know who your men are. What you see is some sort of infantry with a kind of, you know, the faint outline of a Tommy helmet. And you think, is this a company I'm supposed to be with? Yeah. They all look the same to me. Yeah. Well, because they do all look the same. Because they do all look the same. Because they're in a uniform. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the title. Well, exactly. And tanks all look the same if you're not familiar with them. And the squadron markings, regimental markings, to a squaddy are incidental, aren't they? Are these tanks in the right place?

9:55I don't know. Are they the right tanks? Yes. And am I in the right place? These things are hard. And I think often when you can come at this and be critical, why are they not coordinating? Because it's really difficult. This stuff is hard. Being an infantry company commander is very difficult. It's extremely difficult. And that needs to be, you know, we need to always bear that in mind when looking at these situations. It's really difficult. Yeah, absolutely. So basically, there's a main road that goes from, I suppose, all the way from Con through Tilly through Hotto, all the rest of it, all the way to Comor.

10:31And Bricassar, which is their immediate objective. So A Squadron is starting off for the Sherwood Rangers attack. You always do this. You have one leading, then the next one in support. And then the third squadron will probably be not expected to be in action that day. And they'll be leading off the following morning. Or later that day, as we've seen. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, so it's A Squadron kicking off, and the lead troop is David Render's troop, which I think is five troop or four troop or something. So the wood is just south of the main road. So what would have happened is they had moved out along that road, down a track, got to what they marked up as that they've got the grid reference, six-number grid reference.

11:09So 32, 8, 54, 7, or whatever it is on the map. on their standard map, which everyone's been issued. So they are there at the start point. And what would have probably happened is something like this. David Render gets on the phone on the B-Net to John Semkin, who is back again as squadron commander of A Squadron, saying, I can't see the infantry. What do you want me to do? And John Semkin would go, well, just push on through. Maybe you'll see them. Maybe they've already started and they're in the wood. All right, I'll go through the wood. Find a track in the wood. You push on through. Don't see any infantry whatsoever.

11:43So he just keeps rumbling along with his troop of four tanks. It's now three and a firefly at the back. And he emerges down a track into Bricassar. And Bricassar is a tiny little village. And it's got a, the wood comes down. There's a sort of row of houses. There's a track on the kind of western right-hand side, if you're coming, you know, if you're in the tank, looking down southwards towards the, and then there's a village square and it kind of slopes down. as like a little triangle so the the village green is like a triangle of green yeah and he moves straight down across this and soon as he gets there he looks he looks at it just thinks well where is everyone he can't see anything and suddenly there's a massive whoosh and a big hole appears in the ground in front of it because this little triangle triangle of green you've got the track on the right hand side if you're looking southwards yeah and it slopes downwards a little bit and the whole thing is probably 25 yards wide this is a village of a couple hundred people at most yeah yeah nothing more yeah and render obviously sees this explosion sees a flash of movement in the house opposite the green quickly goes with the turret turns around gives the order of fire and this house just disappears masonry debris bodies flung into the air into the air and then the missiles stop.

13:10And suddenly it's all quiet and they give a few bursts of the coax, you know, the coaxial machine gun, hose all the houses on the other side and then they kind of wait and see what happens. And eventually they go out, get out of the tank and start investigating and Render clambers down. He's got his German MP40, which he picked up at the Rore battle. Yeah. And he goes to investigate and he finds the bodies of around six German troops. He also spots a long tube with a trigger mechanism. It's much bigger than the usual Panzerfaust. And he picks it up and ties it to the back of his tank. He doesn't realize it, but he's the first person to capture a Panzerschreck, which is a much larger version of an anti-tank rocket launcher, based very much on the American bazookas.

13:55Well, yes, because the Germans capture some bazookas, don't they, and go, this is good, but it's not powerful enough. And so they upgrade it. Anyway, basically, when you go to Bricassar now, you can see exactly what has happened because you can see the track coming through the woods you can see where renders gone you can see exactly where he stood and they're on the other side it's a nice new house it's a nice new house and you go it's got to be that one then it's it's really amazing and um he gets on the on the on the on the net and and reports to semkin and says brick of science cleared still no sign of the of the infantry what do you want me to do and he says hold the village, we're coming up behind.

14:34And once they do, he arrives, they're all there, still no infantry. He goes, push on to Kahania, which is the next village land, which is like two or three miles further down. And it's clear that the Germans haven't got any clue at all how deep the British tanks have cut into their lines. Because as Render is moving his troops south, first of all, they see all these mines laid on the road, and they're just literally just plonked on the road. So he has to get out, lift them up, chuck them into the hedge, and then on they go. And as they're moving south, they spot an entire platoon of 30-plus German infantry moving calmly across an open field.

15:10And that's that. And 15 of the Germans are mowed down. The rest are captured. By this time, already it's afternoon. Yeah. You know, nothing happens quickly in these battles. No, no, no. Yes, because the thing to remember, these tanks are inching forward. They're not steaming on down the road at 20 miles an hour, are they? Yeah. They're being cautious they're taking their time. Because otherwise, if that Panzerschreck, if this had turned out differently, that Panzerschreck had hit Dave Winder's tank, this would be a different story altogether. Yeah. Wouldn't it? Yeah. And it's clear that this is a new piece of kit.

15:47The guys are nervous, whatever. Well, it's difficult. I mean, we'll come back to it. These things are all difficult. It's not like a movie where you get someone first go every time, right? Yeah, and you can imagine some sort of, you know, not very well trained German soldier or soldier in German uniform with his brand new Panjastrek, using it for the first time, sees a huge great tank, he's got shaking hands, he's nervous as hell, misses and just thinks, got in him. Yeah. Anyway. Aye. Aye, exactly. So day two of Bluecoat, 31st of July, infantry and tanks push on to Kors Kahani, which is, as I say, it's sort of to the southwest of Bricassar.

16:28This is really rolling countryside here. This is small fields. It's not pure bockage. Still quite bockage-y. It's interesting. When you do go to Normandy, you have to find a bockage. There's lots of it, but you have to find it because there's plenty of Normandy. Which isn't bockage. Which isn't bockage. And you're sort of going, I've read all about this bockage and there ain't none. In fact, what I have here is wide open fields. great great tank country jim yeah yeah it's wide wide open spaces like where where's my bockage i paid i paid for bockage i paid for good money for bockage well this is this is not wide open fields by any stretch of imagination but this is but nor is it nor is it a patchwork quilt bockage it's the fields are patchwork quilty but they're really rounded undulating hills the thing about bockage is what you get you tend to get is is is a a slope going up yeah a slope going down or a flat bit with lots of tight fields and all the rest of it what you've got here is sort of you you know it's like herefordshire okay it's little rounded rolling hills it's also hedgerows uh a little road sort of winding their way around and stuff and yes you have got some quite big hedges and stuff but it but it's not it's not pure bockage it's it's it's the swiss normand i paid for bockage and it's and it's filled with lots of little villages which are very sweet um and they've got their war memorials from the first world war and they've got their churches and uh you know they're all sort of 200 400 people that kind of thing but the but the problem is isn't it is that the germans have mined all this and you were just talking about the plonking mines in the road, right?

18:10Fine. That means the mind is doing its job. It's slowing you down. It's making you be cautious. You've got to stop. You've got to do something about it. You know, minds don't have to be concealed to offer an embuggerance to the enemy, which is the idea of them after all is to canalise them, stop them, slow them up. You know, you stand around trying to fix minds. You're a target, aren't you? All these things. So the eye… And there's also lines to keep. You've got to keep some sort of cohesion. What you can't to do is what the Germans do in Barbarossa and sort of peer off all over the place without sort of securing their flanks.

18:45And what's absolutely clear with Bluecoat is it's got the Germans by complete surprise. You know, they haven't been expecting this. Eight core on the right, which is Dick O 'Connor's lot, if you remember from the last episode, it's a two core front. It's 30 core on the left going or east side, eight core on the right on the western side. Eight core absolutely plunders and makes for 16 miles in the first day, which is, you know, is going some, but 30 core is going less and it's 7th Armour Division on the left-hand side, the eastern side and the 43rd Wessex on the right. And Wessex, so the whole thing is like a sort of at an angle.

19:21So you've got, well that way, you've got 8 core going a big distance, then you've got 43 Division doing quite well, and you've got 7th Armour not doing quite so well. So it's sort of pivoting effectively. But you've got to keep that that cohesion. You can't just sort of, you know, you've got to keep either side of you together. So it is a bit of a process, but they have a better success than their neighbours in 7th Farmer Division. Anyway, the next day is B Squadron's turn to lead off. So this is Mickey Gold and Bill Wharton. And they're with the 7th Hampshire's and they have much better coordination than A Squadron had the previous day.

20:04Well, they've had a whole extra day to work on it. Of course, exactly that. So the opposition is light. Progress is slow due to the tricky terrain, which is, as we were saying, it's narrow fields, it's often waterlogged because it's rained so much this summer of 1944. There's many orchards. You know, you can see all those old photos that we've looked at, those aerial photographs of Normandy in 1944. Every village is completely surrounded. It's like Saturn's rings of orchards. But it's such defensible terrain, And the villages, you could turn each one into a little fortress. And the engineers have to come up and they've got a suite for mines.

20:40And, you know, it just takes place. And then there's lots of shell damage. So you've got to find routes around the craters, etc., etc. So Bill Wharton's troop leads the advance later that evening. And then C squadron follows. And Stuart Hills, who's in A squadron, eventually catches up. He says, it's a terrible mess, like every other Normandy village we fought through. You know, of course, because it's in the firing line. it's an objective so it's going to be shell the church is going to be hit there's houses there's going to be rubble on the road etc etc and Stan Perry has a pretty close call because he's leading C squadron through this derelict village can he it's not a town really it's a village head out of the turret and he gets his neck caught on a wire strung across the street and it's a trap set by the Germans and luckily the tank is driving really really slowly so he yells out to the driver to stop so he can untangle himself but you know he could have really easily been decapitated by that And they push on, and they've nearly reached Jirk, four miles south of Kahane by the evening of the 31st of July.

21:41I mean, that's not bad, is it, four miles? Yeah, so for Bricassar, that's probably like eight miles. Yeah, that's not bad, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's pretty good going. There's a big zoo at Jirk today. Really? Yeah, so as you're getting closer to Jirk, every other 200 yards, another sign going, Jirk's Zoo. But it wasn't there then. It wasn't there then. And then on the Tuesday, the 1st of August, so we started on the Sunday with Bomber Command coming over. A Squadron are now ordered to capture 0.361. Yes. With the 5th Wilchers. Yes, and this is on a ridgeline which is to the southwest of Zirk.

22:16So at this point, they're splitting. So you've got one column of B Squadron and C Squadron and Essex Yeomanry and infantry and all the rest of it going down the main road to Zirk. and then you've got a squadron now peeling off and heading up to this ridge line which lies southwest of jerk yeah south of the bois du homme that's it so there's this enormous enormous wood yeah yes yes it goes along sort of in the middle of normandy yes and it and it crosses the bottom covers this whole ridge to the south west south and southeast of jerk yeah yeah yeah um and so So Harry Heenan's troop are the first to reach the top.

22:56And luckily for them, they spot a Jagdpanther before it spots them. Yes. And a Jagdpanther is, you know, the Germans get very good at making the most of the chassis they've developed. And a Jagdpanther is basically an 80mm anti-tank gun fitted onto a Panther chassis. It can't rotate the gun. It can't do the full traverse. It's an assault gun. You point in the general direction and then fine-tune the aim on the vehicle. So the plan is to drive up to a hedgerow, get behind it, peek through, and use it as a static anti-tank gun. Fire, move to an exposition, fire again, you know. But, the Jagdpanfer, you would not want to be in there.

23:35That was actually the Challenger 2 turret. That you were in the other day, the listener doesn't know. James was dealing with his duties as Honorary Colonel, Jim, of the Royal Tank Regiment training squadron. Training regiment, yes. Training regiment. But anyway, so we went into Challenger. We're all very proud of you. Thank you so much. Over here in Airborne Forces. Thank you so much. That's brilliant. But as I was in the turret of the Challenger, I was reminded completely of the Jagdpanther turret. And I tell you what, you would not want to be a driver in the Jagdpanther. It's impossible to get to almost, and even more impossible to get out of.

24:11And weirdly, ergonomically, it makes no sense whatsoever because the loader, you load from the right of the breech rather than the left, which makes no sense because if you're right-handed, Do you want to be going that way? There used to be one of these in the atrium at the Imperial War Museum. It sort of had seven holes in it, wasn't there? When you first came in, it was on the right. And it was, I think, seven holes in it. And you could peer through the hatch and see exactly how basic it was in. Well, the Weald Foundation down in Kent have got one that works. And it's a fearsome beast, but you wouldn't want to be operating it anyway.

24:43Maybe they just couldn't get the shells in quick enough or whatever. But A Squadron are able to pummel this. the Ag Panferen and knock it out. Yeah. And then the crew bails out and then George Dring and his crew, they nail two tigers that they've also spotted. So whoever these German armoured guys coming up are, they've not really got their wits about them on this occasion, have they? No, probably knackered I should think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and also reeling. There is this thing across the German line where, and we saw it in earlier episodes where you've got these patchwork outfits stuck together, you know, grab the armour you've got, go forward, these mixed bags of people, they don't know what's coming next, the Germans, do they?

25:23Which is how, you know, you can get the jump on them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But on their way down the other side of the ridge, they're then caught in a German counterattack. But they absolutely nacerate it. Because again, what's happening, what you're seeing at this point is the enemy, as you say, are reeling. So they are hurrying back and they haven't had a chance to reconnoiter this ground because this is new ground to them as well. but they're going the opposite, you know, they're running away effectively. Then they're being told to stand or some troops have just arrived. Yeah. You know, hasty reinforcements get up there quickly.

25:56So they're being moved from the con area, these panzer troops and panzer grenadiers. They're suddenly hurried up to this, you know, the Bois du Homme to 0.361. And they're new to it. And as soon as they get there, they're being shelled by A Squadron and the Seven Pampshires. Yeah. Or whatever it is. Or whoever it is. Or Fifth Wilchers, rather. And so they're caught on the hoof and they're absolutely slaughtered. I mean, you know, it's another great day for A Squadron. Yeah. Hugely successful. And afterwards, Harry Heenan stops his tank to pick up a badly wounded Tommy while mortars are still raining down.

26:33And he writes an absolutely amazing breathless letter to his parents after this, which again, you know, I was mentioning to him that he's a sort of a boy man. Yeah. Or a man boy. And it really comes across. it's sort of full of sort of teenage bravado. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whilst at the same time, the underlying message is that he's quite sickened by the whole thing. Well, it's interesting, isn't it? Because he's being tempered by his experience, isn't he? Yes. Instead of enthusiasm. Yeah. It's interesting. And they capture some Germans. It's interesting, doesn't he? He says, finally departed as a convoy, consisting of one Sherman tank with a wounded bloke, one infantry and two jerrys on the back, followed by two jerrys with a wheelbarrow containing the near-dead remains of a third.

27:15Yep, yep. Bitter stuff, isn't it? Yes, and he says, you know, earlier, we pulled off the road and took up positions and blew them to hell. I got an entire platoon of about 30 blokes. What a lark. But it's from here, Jim, that they're going to go on, move on now to, well, I mean, it's not euphemistically nicknamed, is it? Bloody Ridge. So we'll take a break. We'll see you very shortly.

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29:13Welcome back to Airways to Make You Talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland. And we are now going to proceed to Bloody Ridge. By that evening, they've covered nearly seven miles in the past 48 hours, which is pretty good going. But then at around 11 o 'clock, C Squadron, which is in the vanguard now as they're approaching Zürich, they get attacked by a number of German planes which fly over dropping flares. Yeah. Yeah. Stuart Hill says we felt quite naked for everything was lit up like daylight. Well, the Luftwaffe operating at night. Yeah. Because the can is the truth of the matter. Skinner's not far behind.

29:49Yes. Towards evening, he noted, news of the breakthrough and the Bosch on the run. So it is a breakthrough, this, that they've actually managed to puncture the German line properly. And this is the fruit of being urged. We said before in the previous episode at the start of Plukkirk, they've been told, throw caution to the wind, just get stuck in. And we've seen evidence of that. Not waiting for your infantry. Doesn't matter if the infantry come to the start line or not, you're going to go. You're going to go to Kohangia anyway. You're going to push on anyway. And it's working, isn't it? Because the Germans are in such disarray.

30:23Well, and the good thing is, is now they've got this, the first part of this big, long, wooded ridge, the Bois d 'Homme. They've got 361 on the, so they can stop worrying about the southwestern part of that. But what they now need to do is get up onto the southeastern stretch, which means capturing Jurek, which is in a little sort of on the slope to the foot of the valley before it rises up to the ridge again. Then veer to the southeast towards a little hamlet called La Binia. And then onto a village called Onda Fontaine, which is at the top of this ridge, about kind of three or four miles away from Jurek.

30:58and General Thomas or Butcher Thomas, or Humorless Thomas. Choose your nickname. Choose your nickname. You know, you've got an option of three or four. He says, right, crack on. There's going to be no rest. Just keep going. You've got to push on Frugia, get to Onda Fontaine, which is actually, yeah, it's five miles to the southeast. And problem with this, obviously you want to exploit success, but everyone's already knackered. Yes, they've had that brief pause in Coman, but this is really, really exhausting. And they're sleeping rough by their tanks at night and all the rest of it. Anyway, orders are orders.

31:37They've got to get on with it. So around midnight on the 31st, 1st of August, they're off. C Squadron with the 7th Hampshire's leading and B Squadron with the 4th Dorsets following. and this time the infantry of the leading companies are on the tanks on that road down towards yeah because i mean i think as we make clear that what you tend to do with your armor is you have it leaguer up during the night to to refresh refuel and and stay out of trouble because after all tanks are very vulnerable in the dark to a you know approaches by lone soldiers i mean you're really vulnerable but this is different so that this is a break with doctrine in fact to do a night attack involving armour.

32:21There's a lot of this going on in Normandy, isn't there, at this point? So it's searchlights to present off a light, relying on the moonlight, all this sort of stuff. Which is, I mean, if you've been on the go for three days previously, then you're doing this at midnight, you're absolutely chinstrap, aren't you? Yeah, you're completely, you're absolutely wrecked. And Von Thomas, General Thomas, wants them to get to Montpinson, which is the highest point in Normandy which is a further kind of three miles or so I would say to south east of Onda Fontaine yeah it won't be the showed rangers doing that but the idea is the sort of the whole effort the whole effort is to get there hopefully by you know end of play on the 1st of August so Peter Soleri remember him yeah you know our wine merchant friend from London the pompous one the poetry reading one with the rabbit on his chest yeah Stanley Christopherson stitches him up on He's leading sea squadron as they reach the edge of Dzerk from the north-west around 5am, just as dawn is breaking.

33:19But getting through the village isn't easy, less because of enemy resistance, but more because the place has been bombed to buggery. And, you know, it's absolutely rubble absolutely everywhere. Yes, the plus and minus of the bombing, isn't it? It might suppress the enemy, but it then makes progress really, really, really difficult. And the place has been mined. The Germans have made sure they've mined it. Yep. So bits of the village are on fire. Yes. There's over an hour on two occasions. They have to wait until the sappers clear the path. So there's this big, long column. Tanks and infantry with infantry on them leading up front.

33:53Then there's carriers and the sextons of the Essex yeomanry. You can just sort of picture it all, can't you? Yeah. But what had happened, of course, is the Germans have left Jert because it's sort of going down into the valley and they've retreated up to the high ground of the Bordeaux-Arm. Yeah. Very sensibly where they can look down on anyone attacking. So now they've got this incredibly tricky proposition, which is to climb down and get over the river, which I think is, is it the Odon? I think it's the Odon. Sort of, you know, the very earliest parts of the River Odon, if I remember rightly.

34:23And you've got to, the road comes, you climb out of Jirk, then it drops down into the foot of the valley, and then it climbs up, and it's quite sort of steep and winding as it climbs up towards this little hamlet of La Binia. and Peter Soleri, for one, has a terrible sinking feeling as he orders his squadron to push forward to Labinia. Doesn't want to give that impression, of course. He wants to sort of be as cheerful as he always is. Yes, he wants to ginger his chaps along. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, even though they're making great progress, the German, when you do run into the Germans, they're going to do everything they can to stop you.

35:01So it's not, you can feel like you've got great forward motion, but at some point, someone's going to copy it. And, you know, it's basically, it's a leap of faith, isn't it? Yep, yep. So you've got Lieutenant Frank Galvin, who had temporarily, you remember, taken over Hill's troop at the Battle of Hotto, but now commands one troop. He's in the lead. Hill's fourth troop is following. And this road is horrible because it has got hedges, banks, either side of it. And you climb up and you climb up and you climb up. And then suddenly you're exposed as you sort of emerge. and there's sort of hills on the, there's sort of fields running away on the right-hand side.

35:40I mean, jeepers. You really wouldn't want to be going up there on point. Yeah. Anyway, off they go. Mines, of course, are always the bane of quick movement. Sappers have to be brought forward. The entire column grinds to halt until some kind of passage has been cleared. And obviously knowing this, obviously the enemy know where they put their own mind, so you zeroed it. Yeah. The point of a mine is to halt you. Yeah. Yeah, it's to stop you. Yeah, slow you down. So this leaves the armour and engineers exposed while that's happening. So smoke shells get fired in response. The tanks open fire. Then the Essex, the Omen, will be called up.

36:16But of course, you know, all this takes time. Yeah. But once they're through, C Squadron go up the road towards La Bignes. Yeah. Stuart Hill's in the lead. Their infantry have hopped off the tanks, are on foot now. And they cross the Odon, which is just a trickle at that point. It's a brook, really. and they start climbing the winding road up towards the farmstead, La Bigne. And there's a kink in the road that continues up the next ridge. And of course, I mean, you go to Normandy, I mean, I'm going to keep making this point. You go there and you think, this place is so defendable. Everything is, you know, the houses are built like strong points.

36:56They've got these great long walls. They've got high walls. They're solid stone buildings. There's hedges, there's orchards, there's trees. It's a defenders' bockage aside. It's a defenders' paradise, isn't it? That you're always either going downhill in full view or you're coming uphill into an ambush situation. And this is no exception. Well, I just so vividly remember going up this road for the first time and just thinking, oh, my God. I was sort of feeling nervous just thinking about it because you just know that there's sort of comparative calm, there's comparative science, apart from the sort of, obviously, the rumble of the tanks and the sound of the column moving.

37:35But there's nothing. And then you know that any moment now, it's going to kick off. Yeah. And so it does. Yeah. You know, suddenly machine gun. Do you want to do some sound effects? Yeah. There you go. Some mortars. Yeah. Foo! Yeah. All that. Yeah. And so the mortars and machine guns open up. They're replying with their own. So, you know, counter mortifier. and at the right hand bend there are three Mark IVs a few hundred yards ahead waiting essentially for this ambush and Stuart Hills tells his gunner to traverse right desperately trying to keep calm to keep calm he orders Dickie Dexter's gunner to fire they hit the first of the Panzers and then use the smoke in order to disguise themselves and chase the panzers, you know, they call it playing cowboys and Indians in the orchards with the other two.

38:35It's amazing. It is incredible. I can't think of anything. You know, because that sort of suggests it's all fun and games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And with them, so there's a squadron second in command who has with the forward observation officer, the Foo from the Essex Yeomanry. The Essex Yeomanry. Arthur Warburton, who's a great friend to the Sherwood Rangers. Yeah. You know, because they're in their self-propelled guns. And the idea is that Warburton will direct fire from the Sextants that the Essex Yeomanry are in onto the enemy positions. Yeah. And, you know, they've got this down now, this way of doing things.

39:08They've got this sort of firmly established. And they're moving up on the enemy, putting them under pressure, delivering counter-battery fire and all on the hoof. I mean, it's, again, you know, this is difficult. and there are more there's more German armour there's Stugs on the ridge to the south yep so they're firing HE onto the Stugs and the Stugs stop it's not clear whether they've been hit or not I mean this is all so this is a great big scrap isn't it and Galvin's troopers again leapfrog hills yeah moved itself into a little position where they've got some kind of hull down cover yeah I mean you can imagine the noise can't you it must have been absolutely immense shells crashing around, you know, guns firing, small arms, mortars.

39:58Yeah. You know, and of course, the column behind them is strung out. They're completely canalised by this road. Yeah. You know, pretty much. Yeah. Galvin's tank is hit by one of the Stugs, but not seriously. So, you know, on that occasion, he's been lucky. Then a self-propelled gun, a Stug, is hit in turn by Sergeant Whittaker, and that brews up. The second Stug is also pummeled, and its crew spotted hurriedly bailing out. but several carriers on the road are hit and then three tanks, two in three squadron and one in B because obviously they're in a row. Yeah. They're easy targets. They're stuck while ever, you know, you can see the whole thing just slowing down to a halt.

40:36So that makes them an easy target. So Lieutenant Donan Campbell, who's a close friend of Stuart Hill's, he's killed along with his crew. One of the first to be incinerated and that's the crew that Padre Skinner was trying to sort out at the beginning of the episode. Other crew members bail out, only get gunned down. One of the burning tanks, a second in C squadron, is hit, is commanded by Lieutenant Alan Burkett. And trying to escape when his tank brews up on the road to La Bignette, he's hit in the stomach and falls back into the turret, trapping his gunner and operator troopers Fred Hazelwood and Leslie Watson.

41:13I mean, can you imagine? Well, but that's Stan Perry's drill right there. that if the tank commander's killed and falls back in, you're stuck in the vehicle with him. So Stan Perry's drill was all about being shoved out by the bloke behind him in the queue. So there it is, illustrated writ large, why you need to be across that. Hazel Wood and Watson are managed to escape, but they're on fire. And as we know, they later die of their wounds. The driving lap can also bail out and safely scamper clear. But Berkett's tank, this is such a big moment. You can just picture it as well when you're there because this road is quite steep.

41:51And it starts to roll backwards down the road towards a group of infantry carriers and other vehicles. But seeing this, Sergeant Guy Saunders, who's one of the absolute legends of C-Squadrant, he's a pre-war territorial, he's a Nottinghamshire boy, absolute ledge, already got a military medal, which is the equivalent of the military cross for the other ranks as it was in those days. Yes. He calmly runs up to it, jumps onto the hull, stretches his arms down into the driver's compartment, and despite the flame swirling around the turret, pulls the steering levers so that the tank slews off the road into a ditch on the side before safely jumping clear again.

42:33Yeah. I mean, that is courage. Yeah. That's incredible. It's an amazing episode. It's incredible. Absolutely amazing episode. But despite all this, by noon, Labinia has been taken, this farmstead. And largely because, you know, the sheer weight of fire the Germans are having to endure is too much for them. So Peter Solari drives up in a scout car. He's so funny. For a conference with the infantry beside a hedge on the far side of the hamlet. He says, they're followed, a particularly sanguinary encounter. we had just about decided about the next bound forward when a mortar bomb landed in the middle of us.

43:12I mean, the way these people talk about horror is quite something, isn't it? So the infantry officer's killed. So is Celerie's driver, a trooper, Rob Howey, and an officer from the Essex Yeomanry. And he's wounded too. He's hit in the shoulder and the back by shrapnel. Only Jack Holman, who's the second in command of C Squadron, he's unhurt. and Solari's hurriedly put on a stretcher and at one point the enemy fire becomes so intense that his bearers put him down while they dive into a ditch on the edge of the film. Do you want to do it? Well yes he says some five years as a cavalry officer had given me a splendid vocabulary which I proceeded to use at the top of my voice.

43:54They returned rather sheepishly and I was carried to the jeep. So just imagine what he was saying to them. Get back over here you useless fucking you know. Yeah. Stuart Hills meanwhile while they're in an orchard that straddles the road, waiting orders and kind of unaware of what's been going on. Mortars are crashing down nearby and they've got their hatches down when suddenly there's a knocking on the side of the tank and shouting from outside. So cautiously, Hills and Arthur Reddish open their hatches. And it's Jack Mitchell, one of the pre-war men, and a radio operator in the troop. He's also, by the way, the squadron football captain.

44:29He goes, what's wrong with everybody? Come outside, bugger the bloody mortars i'm not scared of the bastards hills is thinking well that's right you might not be but yeah yeah so hills is then summoned to the on the net to an o group in labinia so he cautiously clambers down and suggests to mitchell as you return to his own tank and mitchell goes not me i'm not afraid of the bloody mortars and when he scumpers down he finds jack holman and and here's what's happening here's larry's wounded that burkett and his friend lieutenant campbell have been killed along with two other men from each of their crews and also about rob howie one of the great characters of a squadron so holman this means holman he's not very old he's still in his 20s he's the acting squadron leader yeah another bomb falls nearby slightly wounding sergeant guy saunders but it's nothing serious the battle is now quietening down a bit in the way that the sort of ebbs and flows of these battles take place you know you do have this sort of intense fire then And everything sort of, people get hit.

45:28Everyone calms down again. Then off it goes again. So, yes, Arthur Reddish decides to clamber out from the tank while it's sort of static. Go and see his friend Busty Meek. Not a very good idea. Here's an incoming shell. Has a sixth sense. It's heading right for him. So he dives to the ground, waits. And then it crashed into a little more than 20 yards away. A large piece of shrapnel clanging next to the nearest tank. He's had an absolutely close shave. I mean, this is a chance, a random chance of it all, though, isn't it? Because that might have killed him. Well, this is it, isn't it? Is that you can be experienced or you can be completely green.

46:08Yeah. But the odds are completely unpredictable on that. Yeah, completely, completely. And as Hills is running back from the Ogre to his tank, he sees Jack Mitchell, he'd been saying he wasn't scared of Malta's, lying quite dead beside his tank with a cigarette still in his mouth. Nightmare. But by the end of the afternoon, it's all sort of run out of steam by the end of the afternoon, isn't it? And they get south of Labine, you know, and then there's more resistance on the ridge beyond because this is the thing about how it works, isn't it? As you go out of Labene, it sort of curves round the road and there's a sort of open stretch on a lower part of the ridge before it starts climbing up through the woods towards the top of this Bois d 'Orm ridge.

46:54So it's sort of inch a bit forward, inch a bit forward, you know. And so you have to sort of push forward until the enemies start opening fire again before you meet more mines, before the engineers come up, before you manoeuvre the Essex Yeomanry into position. And before you get renewed orders from General Thomas saying, I need another attack, please. Yes. Straight away. This is going to take place on the morning of, you know, by this time we're on the next day of the second day. So this is now the 3rd of August that we're getting to. So all the pressure from above is what's the hold up? Get on with it.

47:26Everyone's absolutely exhausted. They're completely knackered. They're making meals inside the tanks, so the smell of tank life is bad enough. And you're cooking and you go to the toilet in there and everything. And it's hot as well. The rain stopped, it's boiling hot. None of this is particularly pleasant, isn't it? And again, they're into this cycle of moving on, sappers coming forward, the enemy shelling pre-registered positions, this leapfrogging thing, the traffic jam that comes with the, you know, the minute you're into action, you know, traffic jam, it's obviously a sitting duck. This sort of endless cycle.

48:09It's interesting. These battles are all, I mean, they're all kind of repetitive, aren't they? The encounter is essentially the same. and it's who goes first is the sort of, is the variant. Yes, yes, yes. You know, is it A squadron or C squadron on this one? Yeah, I think I said that Le Bignet was on the 1st of August. I think it's the 2nd of August that they're on Le Bignet. So we're now on the 3rd of August. So they're approaching Jurek on the 1st of August. They launch that attack. They get to the edge of Jurek by 5am on the 2nd of August. It takes all day to get from Jurek, through Jurek, up that winding road to Le Bignet, through Le Bignet, then they pause for the night.

48:46It's now the 3rd of August. And overnight, A squadron has now come up because it's done its bit on 0.231 or whatever it was. And they are taken up, they take up position on Montpied, which is on the left-hand side of Le Bignet. There's a sort of little ridge that comes around from the top of Le Bignet, then plunges down into another of these little valleys in front of it. And Montpied is like a sort of couple of farmhouses and stuff. So they're up there covering, providing extra cover as B and C squadron and the whole big column moves along the road out of Le Binier up towards the ridge line, which then ultimately leads to Ontifontaine.

49:29So that's what's happening. So this is extra fire support from the other side. So they can fire across to the ridge and give them covering fire as they're moving forward. That's what they're trying to do. and David Render's troop moves along a track looking down towards the wooded Odon Valley. Then it rises up again, eventually up to the Bois d 'Omne. And it's amazing. Here we are at the beginning of August and David Render hasn't been in action for eight weeks yet. And already he's a complete old hand. He's been there, done it, got the T-shirt. And he knows exactly what's going on and he sees an entire company of German infantry marching across in front of a wood not more, much more than 100 yards away.

50:16So immediately he orders the troop to open fire, first with their brownings and then with high explosives fired into the trees above them to cause an airburst effect of shrapnel and lethal splinters of wood. You know, inevitably, it's a slaughter. And it completely underlines the dangers of moving in a narrow line under the noses of enemy guns. But he's furious with the new boy because there's a new boy called David Alderson who's under his instruction just as he in turn had been under instruction when he first arrived eight weeks earlier. And he doesn't open fire. And he goes, why the hell didn't you open fire?

50:48And he said he seemed unsporting to do so when it was so obvious. Shoot men in cold blood. And Fender goes, I think I went a bit too far when I quoted the statistics of his chances of survival. And he was short on them considerably. He didn't learn to follow instructions. But Fender's 19. Yeah, but this shows, doesn't it? the brutalising effect of the whole thing and that, you know, your option in this situation is to harden yourself to killing and to do it. And the idea of sporting, you know, should have been left behind in England, really. It's not cricket, any of this. No. So it's still the 3rd of August.

51:29That evening, A squadron then moved from Montpied and they are told to push through C and B squadrons and take the lead. And it's, once again, it's five troops turn, which is David Render. So, you know, he's on point. And it's, I mean, honestly, you go along that road, you just can't think of anything you'd rather do less than be the point tank on an advance up that road. You really just... Yeah. So he does it himself. He does it himself. This is the interesting thing that Render thinks, well, this is unbearable. I can't ask anyone else to do it. So I'll do it. So he's in AIM. His tank's called AIM.

52:05And he says, as a consequence, I always put aim at the front of the troop. And each time I did it when leading the whole squadron, it became a little harder. Yeah. So, yes, you've got to become a hardened killer. You've got to harden yourself. But the toll of that is difficult, particularly as he's, also he's carrying the load here. He's saying, I'll go first so that someone else doesn't have to. And he hasn't got infantry on his tank at this point. And by the way, when you're a point man, you're about 200, 250 yards, 250 metres ahead of the next tank, which in this case is Johnny Lane's, who's another of the legends.

52:38And then Jackson, Sergeant Jackson, he'd given him a bit of jit when he first arrives for being wet behind the ears. Jackson's a sort of old, you know, he's 42, he's a kid. He's in the firefly at the rear. So, you know, it's dusk when they finally get moving, climbing past pot-marked farmland with shell holes. He's got about 400 yards when an anti-tank shell wishes past him like a thunderbolt from someone that was to the right. Yeah. And he shouts, what the fuck was that? Anti-tank reverse. So they come back off the road. They get hulled down in the ditch beside the road. And then Johnny Lanes, who's next, fires some rounds off some HE.

53:22And the HE gives you lots of smoke. Yeah. And obviously, if you're where the rounds come from, you're not particularly enjoying being fired at. No. regardless you know keep firing and keep firing and this is John Semkin's message just fire and fire and fire and while you're firing at them they're not going to be firing at you is basically and that gives you a bit of time to then get on his headphones speak to John Semkin on the B-net who in turn can call up the Essex Yeomanry Sexton's falling behind and within a minute or so the first 25 pounder rounds shots are ranging and winding over incredible yeah Yeah.

54:00Firing for effect. Yeah. Yeah. Right 50, add 200. However, it's sticky enough that they don't capture the road on De Fontaine that night, which means the next day. Yes. Sea Squadron go first. Yep. With the 7th Hampshire's, they stand to, they move off at dawn. Stuart Hills is going first. Yeah. And has to deal with that. And this sort of relentlessness. Yeah, they go 200 yards. 200 yards. And then they reach the first of the mines, which then have to be cleared. So it's another delay. Then on again, turning a bend in the road only to be met by a felled tree that's liberally booby trapped. I mean, you can just see it, can't you?

54:44So that's another delay as the sappers hurry forward, clear that. Then you've got to chop up the tree, blow it off, you know, bulldoze it off the road, blah, blah, blah. I mean and eventually they clear up on the ridgeline and you go so you you climb up on this ridge through the Through the trees and then it kind of turns to the right and suddenly you're out and you've now only got woods climbing gently on your left-hand side and farmland Going away on your right hand side and there's a big long straight road and at the end of that straight road Is on to Fontaine, you know, and it's quiet too quiet, you know, they're all kind of sort of where the hell are they and they reached the crossroads at the start of the village and you come down this straight road there's a crossroads and the church and the bulk of the village is on our way to the left so they turn left and see it and there's the church and a white sheet has been thrust out from a farmhouse window then another and Arthur Reddish you may remember is the lap gunner so he's the co-driver at the front of Stuart Hills's Sherman can feel sweat running down his face you know he's tense he's on edge they all are where's the enemy a platoon of infantry scuttles past and takes cover behind a stone house next to next to a junction opposite the church and now Jeff Story who's the driver inches the tank forward and immediately two anti-tank rounds swish past them and crash into the church wall you know so Hills writes reverse immediately and clearly the enemy are lying in wait in the southern half of the village so that the fact that it's not more firmly held in the northern part of the village suggests that it's only a skeleton force but you know you're not going to want to bet against it you don't want to find that find that out do you yeah yeah yeah there's some the business trying to extract themselves from that you can just imagine it there's the crossroads there's a village there's the church they're sort of inching forward the panty tank guns kind of a bit further on men scuttling about ducking and diving between the walls and the villages the tank's not quite sure where they're supposed to be yeah so they decide rather than rather than get involved they'll um have the Essex Yeomanry uh always uh flatten it yes why don't we pull back a little and and let Arthur's boys have a go this is this is Captain Arthur Warburton of course he's the forward observation officer of the Essex Germany, who's in a Sherman tank.

57:11But one of the sort of details they have to deal with is they've figured out that in the church tower, there's a German operating radio in Jan Steeples, the infantry officer they're operating with, comes up to Stuart Hills and says, you put a solid shot through it, old man. I mean, I think any church steeple, you're going to put a solid shot through it automatically, aren't you? so the first shot misses from Dick Dexter's first shot is wide but the second goes straight through it and you can imagine the church bell ringing can't you yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and the officer just goes that'll do and you know there's this there's a bit of banter there's a banter look at Dexter smirking says Sam Kerman he won't be going to heaven after desecrating a church steeple I'd give him a 50-50 chance Sam says Reddish after all his first shot missed.

58:04The poor bloke's heart wasn't in it.

58:09It's funny, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, you're going to banter in this situation, aren't you? It's that, or tell everyone how you're feeling, which is that you're terrified. But then this stonk comes in. Yep, enemy stonk. And Anderfontaine is smashed up. They proceed, brassing the whole place up with HE and machine gun fire. All kicking off. they go through the village they're out the other side of the village there's an abandoned stug one dead one dead soldier next to it with a hole through his helmet and that's that someone says any sign of the enemy and someone else says there's only dead ones yeah so they cut their engines reddish clambers out the hills clambers out he can't hear anything no birdsong no more to fire you know and and that's it the battle the battle is over yeah but on de fontaine still has to be cleared yeah before the sherwood rangers can push on that's really the end of their blue their blue coat effort uh the sri's sherwood rangers um blue coat effort yep you know and there are booby traps in the in the in the houses there you know um there's a a full uncorked bottle of wine on a table.

59:22Yes. As Stan Perry's moving through a house and the gunner reaches for it. There's a booby trap. There's a fuse attack. Connects a bottle to a mine. Yeah. Stan Perry doesn't call up a sapper though. He dismantles it himself which is... He's amazing. Very bold isn't it? Yeah. But it basically this now means they can pause Jim. They've reached their objective. They've done everything that's been asked of them by General Thomas. This surely means they can dust themselves down and carry on. yep but but it's no i mean they get they get a couple of days they get a couple of days bill wharton has a picks up a doll which they a toy doll which he puts on the front of his tank and he and he writes to his wife he says we have great fun asking over the intercom how she's going especially if we've been firing or leaving barrage has been brought down on us it must be admitted that she takes it calmly barely turning a blonde hair um and and arthur reddish says you know god It was marvellous to wake up and hear the birds singing.

1:00:22But Bluecoach still isn't over because they've got to go and capture Montpinson, which they haven't done. But the Sherwood Rangers are out for a couple of days. And then on the 6th of August, Christophsson, here's the 8th Armoured Independent Brigade, are going to be supporting the Wessexmen immediately in a new operation, which is going to be Operation Blackwater, which is the mission to cross the River Noirro. Which means literally Blackwater, Noirro. So correct that code. The rest is classified. Just can't keep up with our sheer SIGINT prowess here. And that's due to start the next morning, the 7th of August, but actually it doesn't get postponed because it's not until the 7th of August that Montpinson gets captured, and that has to be captured first.

1:01:03And the Noirro is a further 10 or 15 miles or so to the south. But anyway, the crossing of the Noirro is another epic for the Sherwood Rangers, yet another. But this is a mark of the tempo of operations now at this stage of the Normandy battle. You know, in earlier episodes, we talked about half mile by half mile progress. This is bigger leaps because the Germans are reeling. The Germans are in disarray and unable to keep up with the Allied tempo now. And while we've been looking at these operations where someone has to go first, you take one Hamlet, you move on to the next, you're up and down the ridges.

1:01:41this is all going at a much faster pace and much more ambitious in a way than the sort of grip and hold crumbling operations of the first phase of the overlord battle which are you know where you stick you stick the Germans to you this is about getting the Germans on the run and reaping the benefits of those advances so anyway we hope you've enjoyed this episode we'll be we'll be moving on with the Sherwood Rangers in our next and if you need to hear this quickly then go to our Patreon. Become a We Have Ways of Make You Talk Patreon. Go to the Patreon site, look us up. There's audiobooks, there's live casts, there's ticket offers.

1:02:19There's so much and mainly being able to listen to this all in one lump without having to wait for anyone else or the adverts. Thanks very much for listening. We'll see you very soon. Cheerio. Cheerio.

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