British Band Of Brothers: Disaster At Berjou (Part 8)

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3:29Lieutenant F. Galvin, C. Squadron, Sherwood Rangers, BLA. 15th of the 8th, 44. My darling June, thanks dear for the really grand letter I received last night. You were in a really chatty mood when you wrote it, darling, and you seemed nice and happy. I'm afraid that my letters may be really poor just now, for I'm really busy at the time of writing, dear. But I guess as long as you get a note telling you I love you, dear, you won't grumble. If and when we get a quiet spell again, you can be sure that I will settle down to write real letters again. You talk about having photos taken, dear. Well, yesterday I had it taken again in my tank, a more or less rear view with some PBI near me.

4:12So you may see it, darling. You ask which is my favourite photo. Well, dear, I haven't really got a favourite, for I love them all. Well, dear, I have to close now. Excuse scrappiness of this letter. So cheerio. All my love as always, lots of love and kisses and that was a letter by Lieutenant Frank Galvin written on the 15th of August 1944 the day before he goes into action on Operation Blackwater which we flagged up at the end of our last episode welcome to We Have Ways to Make You Talk with me Al Murray and James Holland for episode 2.4 or 8 of our Band of Brothers series 32 of our story of The show had rangers.

4:57They finally got to Hamburg. Yeah. Yes. So about the Noir-O, Operation Blackwater, the Noir-O. And in the last episode, we looked at Operation Bluecoat, which was the strawberry jam in the Allied Strategic Victoria sponge and cream. So I just felt that just jam on its own wasn't quite enough. It sort of underplayed the importance of what British man. Yes. But do you do cream or jam first? And eight core of the cream. There we go, right? It all works out. That essentially, these are this series of colossal cracks on the German line, which have caused the German line to fall apart. And this means that in France, the broader picture is General Patton's Third Army.

5:39He is now in Brittany. He has arrived after being on the bench, basically. Yep. He's arrived. He's now broken out into Brittany. And he does this incredible breakout. There are no Germans there. But he does an incredible... Does this have to... That was Saudi MF, Pat. Yeah. But, I mean, you know, if you like arrows on maps, he's doing extremely well. Yeah, he's doing lots of that. The actual issue for the Germans here is they are in great risk of great danger of being encircled. They've been pushed into southern Normandy. They're under tremendous pressure from all angles. So what do you do? You order a counterattack.

6:18Hang on a minute. Did you just suggest one of the stupidest things anyone could possibly suggest in all of military history? Let's hear this idea. All right, of course. Oh, there we go. Fair enough. He's the greatest commander ever. He's the greatest commander. He's struck by genius here. And he orders a thing called Operation Lutich, Liege. And that's the idea of a Western-facing counterpunch towards Avroche. And what will happen is we'll split them in two and they'll be divided. And that'll be the end of the war and we'll win. And you will win. Oh, by the way, it's going to be 1 ,000 fighter planes.

6:461 ,000 fighter planes. and my fear what will we do with this how are we going to do this you'll use all of your reserves but Sheer German will will do it and so on and the problem with this of course is that Hitler's conception of the forces at its disposal is always basically it's back of he doesn't smoke it's back of a vegetarian sausage packing calculation

7:12he's got out his Lindner and Carney sausage pack and he's written written a calculation When he sees a division on his inventory, he thinks it's in full bloom, right? But Bluecoat has resulted in the destruction of 2nd and 21st Panzer Divisions. All but gone. So whatever he might be planning, whatever armies he might have up his sleevies, so to speak, right? They're not what he thinks they are. There's a difference between paper and reality. Precisely. And also, the Allies have got their own momentum, their own plans. So hot on the heels of Bluecoat, you have Total Eyes, which is the Canadians, similar like hammer blow onto the general.

7:50Down that ridge that runs north-south from Conte-de-Falaise. Yeah. And, you know, this is a famously innovative operation with, you know, searchlights and blokes riding on tanks. It sounds quite a lot like... And Kent Out. And Michael Whitman breathing his last. Exactly. But this also sounds an awful lot like what's been going on in Bluecoat, actually. And the Normandy campaign is now in sight. Like the German army is falling apart. Here in the West has had it, basically. And here being the army, German army. And you would get out if you had any sense, wouldn't you? Yes, you would. This means that the Blackwater operation, the Noir operation has been postponed because the Germans, the wheels are coming off.

8:28Yeah. Which means the Sherwood Rangers get four days off in a place called Coulvin, which is north of Jurek. Which is nice, but it's not as nice as Chouin. No, but a change is as good as a rest and they're getting a rest. And in Bluecoat, eight men in C squadron have been killed. So eight men already been killed just in that bit in C Squadron 9, which might not sound like a lot, but that's basically two crews. Yeah. I mean, gone. That includes two troop leaders and their commander, Peter Soleri, has been badly wounded and is out of action we heard in that situation where he had a mortar land in the middle of an O group.

8:59And Chris Johnson is very funny about Soleri because he says, you know, he was such a charming fellow, but he would never use kind of, you know, one word when 20 would do. And he said, you know, you always see when Peter was on the air because you say forsooth I do see and yonder hill what may perchance be possibly a tiger tank get on with it just get on with it well and if he only if he would use 20 where one would suffice you could just imagine the him turning the air blue when he's lying in that stretcher yes we're quiet says a cavalryman learned a few words well he learned he would have used them by the score I imagine yeah yeah yeah so Skinner's having a terrible time because he's having to as we said at the beginning of the last He's having to scrape the bits out and all the rest of it.

9:44Jack Holman is now the commander of C Squadron because Solari's gone. So that's the fourth squadron commander since D-Day. Stephen Mitchell's become second in command. I mean, it's quite a lot, isn't it? It's high churn, isn't it? Heenan's quite happy, Harry Heenan. The occasional rest are very highly organised. As soon as we come out, we have beer, baths, no, not brothels. Enter shows, pictures, and a whole lot all laid on. and George Formby comes to entertain them. Isn't that amazing? Yeah, when he's cleaning your windows. I mean, he's the biggest entertainment star in the country by miles. And for him to show up...

10:19Like Taylor Swift turning up. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it sounds like you're joking there, but that is actually what it's like. It's like the Beatles showing up. I'm boggled in a way, but God bless George Formby for doing his bit in that way. Yep. You know. Stuart Hills is struggling. I mean, why wouldn't he be? Really, really hit by Campbell's death. Yeah. It's not just that you're losing your mate. It's the fact that this guy has been incinerated to carbon. Yeah. And he knows that. And so you're thinking about yourself, but you're also thinking, feeling sad for your friend. Yeah. He's also had to personally bury Howie and Mitchell, which he finds very difficult.

10:55Starting to wonder when his luck is going to run out. He's only 20. Bill Wharton and his friend Colin Thompson, drinking a lot of whiskey. Wharton's also a bit worried about Mickey Gold. says he hasn't been so intimate with Colin and me of late although that's nothing to go by as he was ever subject to many moods so he's the kind of you know Mickey God's the sort of life and soul one minute and then a bit black dog the next fair enough you know I mean I often when when we're looking at these and when you're when you're going through these when people are offering snapshots of their emotional state it does also raise it makes you wonder how would I handle any of this you know because that is one of the you're right today Al well you know up and down you know Yeah, I'm fine.

11:36Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Because often you think, this is one of the great questions when you look at the dramas of the Second World War. How would I manage? What would I do? Where would I fit into the picture? But when you hear of all these differing reactions, you know, of course someone is subject to moods. I mean, what are these guys are going through on a daily basis? Just that business of being, taking it upon yourself to be the first tank in the troop to go first on point, knowing that you're most likely to get it. So Mickey Gold escapes and goes to see his French girlfriend in Bayeux.

12:08He seems to like taking friends with him. Yeah. She's got a fiancé, though. You've got to admire his moves. He's got game. He takes Stanley with him this time. Right. Christopherson remembers that Michael, speaking French fluently, was in great form and kept the whole family in fits of laughter. So he's cheered up. And you would do, wouldn't you, if you're suddenly surrounded by good-looking girls and you're in Bayeux, which hasn't been largely untouched by the war, and you're having a bit to eat. and you're not on steel rations anymore. Literally escapism, isn't it? I mean, fair enough. Yep. But, and then they returned to Coulvain at the end of the afternoon and now it's the business of getting ready for crossing the Noirot, the Blackwater.

12:48And the Mortin counterattack, the Operation Lutich has meanwhile failed because the Americans hold the Germans up and then there's this, when you go to Mortin, there's this very high pronounced high ground at Mortin And you look right out across the plain towards Javran. You can see Saint-Mont-Michel, can't you? Yeah, exactly. You can see miles and miles and miles and miles and miles. And you can see how the Germans, once their counterattack had sort of run out of shock and surprise, are caught in this great fat open plane. And the tactical air forces and the American artillery actually have an absolute feast getting stuck into the Germans.

13:26And in its own way, actually, Lutich hurries things up in terms of the defeat of the Germans because they feed themselves into the potential encirclement. And this is the development of what's known as the Follet's Pocket, as Operation Tractable in mid-August, which is the further push south. And 8th on a brigade, their role is to be part of this push south to try and close. Blackwater is a sort of annex of tractable. Yeah, it's a sidebar to tractable. They're going to push south to close the western end of the pocket. And the Germans are in disarray. You know, John Semkin's men on the first day, they catch a Prussie.

14:03Another little of these little villages of 400 souls. And pick up 100 prisoners. And this is always a sign that the Germans are falling apart, is when actually these lads four weeks earlier would have probably argued the toss, wouldn't they? Yeah. But now they're thinking, hand the hook. Sod this, chuck our rifles away. Yeah. B-squadron also clears les aies. Yeah, which is a little farming hamlet. Yeah, and then Sea Squadron catches some high ground overlooking the Noirot Valley. Yeah, and it's amazing that ground because this is a big sort of ridge line of open fields. And you can see the valley sort of plunges down towards the Noirot and then climbs back up again.

14:42And you can see on the far side to the south, on the other side of the Noirot, you can see where their objective is, which is this village of Berju. You can't see the village, but you can see the wooded ridge line that they've got to get to. and on the night of the 15th of August, Stan Perry is summoned by Stanley Christopherson. And I remember Stan talking about this and he said, I remember him saying, I think every single member of the regiment would have done anything for him. This is Stanley Christopherson. He said he had a facility for knowing people and befriending people, whatever their rank, whatever their style.

15:17If Stanley said jump in the air three times, you jumped in the air three times. Anyway, he wants Perry for a special mission. So Stanley tells him that, and because he's had this little stint with the SAS, he thinks he's the right man for the job. And he goes, you know, we've got to get this objective of Berju and 0.337, which is this high ground on the far side of the river. And obviously the Germans have destroyed all the bridges over the Noirro. But there is a possible forwarding point that has been identified, which is near the little village of Cambacor. and Cambercourt is on the southern side of the Noirot, at the foot of this ridge line, on the top of which is the village of Berjou.

16:00And the slopes there are just a little bit gentler, and there's a track through a gorge that leads down to, well, not a gorge, but it's sort of, you know, it's a little valley that runs down to the main valley of the Noirot. And he thinks that there might be a crossing point where the tanks can just get across without having to worry about bridging. so he wants Perry to scout this point in more detail and find out whether it is crossable so this is you know it's just like it's darkness it's like 11 o 'clock at night or something so he sets off of an infantryman from the DCLI the Duke of Cornwall's light infantry whom they're going to be attacking with whom they haven't operated with yet and a sapper with a mine detector they skirt around some Germans who are smoking at a machine gun post and the infantryman says oh should we shoot him and Stan says no absolutely not because then it's all going to kick off you know we're going to shoot him we'll shoot him on the way back but not on the way there so so give him an extra half hour to finish his fag yeah so they go down where where the bridge has been there's a there's a railway bridge and then there's a and then there's a road bridge road bridge has been crushed and actually the falling point is literally just to the left of that so that would be to the east of it as you're looking southwards it's the only spot along there where they could have crossed because the banks are fairly, they've been crushed by cattle and stuff.

17:19And it is quite low there. He's a bit worried about the sandy bottom, but he just can't see an alternative spot and there isn't one. So they head back, lobbing and hurl some grenades at the group of smoking Germans just for good measure. Good, thank you for making sure that happened. Yeah. Gets back to camp, reports to Stanley, gives information and Stanley goes, okay, crack on, go and get your head down. A few hours later, he's woken up well like literally an hour later he's woken up by jack holman who is the new co of c squadron since peter soleri got wounded um at labinia it's now 3 a.m on wednesday the 16th and jack holman goes right stan our job is we're going to lead the attack crossing the noiro with the dcli um and you've already wrecked it so you can be the point man you go first you go first perry rubs his eyes gets his troop together curses and down they go so they're in their tanks they're rolling down towards the bank.

18:13And at the bank, a sapper tells Perry that they won't be finished clearing the mines for another hour. And Holman just goes, don't care, just get on with it. Well, it's on you then, chum. Yep, get on with it. That's what the sapper says. All right then, chum, it's up to you. Yeah. Good luck. But they get across, and they get across without hitting any mines. They get back up onto the road, and the road runs parallel to the river for maybe, I don't know, half a mile. How are they doing this? Is someone walking ahead by the light of a cigarette? because that's a thing you get, isn't it? There's someone on foot ahead of the tank.

18:44They're not just driving. Oh, no, it's light now. Right, it's light. They might have started at three, but then you've got to get everyone going. You're not moving to a half past four. Okay, okay. Then it's five, then it's six. Okay, good, good. I was just, you know, still in the wee hours there. No, they're definitely not in the wee hours. Right. It's now first light, they're across. And there's quite vicious fighting. And the DC and I, and what happens is you go up to Canberra Court and then there is a turning off to the left and it loops round and then there's a hairpin and then climbs up through this wooded ridge up towards Bergeu.

19:18And I guess it's probably a mile and a half long, something like that, to the top. But it's wooded all the way along the bottom and the road obviously gets up on the kind of the shallower bit of the hill. But as the ridge line gets sharper and steeper and it's wooded and the fighting goes along the bottom of the Noirot Valley and as they're about to turn off Stan is on point he's there they're just about to turn left to go up this road that's going to lead up to Bergeu and he gets accosted by a captain in the or a major in the DCLI and he goes oh don't go up there well I need you to come and help us clear Canbercourt and clear the bottom of the river and Stan goes well no I'm sorry you know my orders would go straight up to Bergeu and he goes look I'm outranking you and he goes hang on a minute and he gets onto the net and he calls up Jack Holman and he goes I'm here with this major from the DCLI.

20:10What do you want me to do? Holman goes, get your ass up to Bergeu now. So he goes, sorry, chum, got to go. But the consequence of this is that they're heading up with no infantry. Yes, and you need infantry. And what is the consequence of all this? Why are they in such a hurry? Why aren't they just pausing for a minute and just going, hang on a minute, we can't do this without infantry. Well, the reason for this is some bigger picture stuff, isn't it? We said in the last episode, there was this wedge with eight core kind of taking a big stride, then 43rd Wessex Division doing better, and then 7th Armour not doing very well.

20:42That's the problem. And they've still been very, very slow. So Dempsey, commander of British Second Army, has sacked Butnow as core commander of 30 Corps, and also Major General Erskine of the 7th Armour Division, the old Desert Rats. And Thomas, I think, is feeling the heat. He's been told to get on with it. He doesn't want to be fired. So he's going to push on. So he's, and this is filtered down, and he's also just sacked Brigade Commander. Right. I think the 130th Brigade Commander. Well. Norman Leslie. He's all there. He's been fired a couple of days beforehand for being a bit slow, at a time when they're not being slow.

21:16And a couple of days before that, Stanley's thinking, God, I'm going to be next on this. And of course, that's not the case. But I think it is that pressure from Thomas, who is in turn feeling the heat, that is making them operate more hastily than they should do. And he's a thruster anyway, isn't he? So when someone whose reputation is a thruster thinks, he's going to double down, isn't he? Yes. And Jack Holman has only just taken over from Sea Squadron, from Peter Solari, and he's been told, whatever you do, just get on with it. Well, he's made a terrible decision, is the truth of it. Because you should not be sending a troop of tanks, a squadron of tanks, up a single road on its own, like that, winding with high hedgerows on one side and on the other, through woods, up onto a village without the infantry.

22:03Yeah, because all it takes is one bloke with the Panzerfaust. And if your infantry were there, then they're clearing the hedgerow there, taking potshots at the people that need to be chased away or suppressed or killed one way or another. And if they're not able to do that, it's conceptual failure. So Stan in the lead, 200, 250 yards ahead of the next one who is his troop sergeant, trundles up, trundles up. And start off of it's quite close. The hedgerow is quite high. You know, anyone, any German, wait a minute, wouldn't really be able to see them unless they were literally in the hedge and it's pretty dense there.

22:39Goes around the hairpin, pushes up, heading up towards the tree line on the top of the ridge. Suddenly there's a gap on the side and there's a little farmhouse that falls away, maybe 70 yards away, 50 yards away. And there's an open field and the hedgerow on the other side of the open field, which is, I would guess, sort of 50 yards, 60 yards, something like that. and from there, a German with a Panzerfaust has taken a shot at Stan's tank. Misses, but knocks off the aerial. So he's all right, but the aerial isn't. And what that means is it now got crew intercom, but the B-net and the A-net are gone.

23:18We can't talk to anybody. Can't talk to anybody. Yeah. And so he can't communicate with the guys behind. And behind him, they wouldn't have seen this because they're 250 yards behind. and 250 yards behind where they're hit is before the hairpin. So they're still crawling up behind him. So he is on his own. And you can just imagine, can't you, that the Germans are busy with fighting the DCLI in the corner, but they can see this column of tanks. And someone said, go over there, quit, and try and stop them. So a couple of guys have kind of run over with their Panzerfaust and taken a pot shot. Stan Perry then sprays the hedgerow with his machine gun, whatever.

23:52Might kill the German, might not. But anyway, trundles on, and he thinks, God, I don't want to be on this road anymore. So he veers off the road, runs parallel to it through some fields, but eventually you hit the tree line. So you then have to come back onto the road. And this is a lonely road that climbs up at an angle through this tree, this wood on this tree line. You can see you've got trees on that side, quite a steep slope, trees on the other side, and you've just got to hope for the best. Fortunately, he does make it to the top. Yeah. And he gets through, and just at the top, as you emerge, you come through the woods and then you turn to the left and suddenly there you are.

24:29You're on this high plateau of undulating fields. And on one side, you've got a field that pushes away to slightly rising to some hedges on the far side. And then on the other side, it rises slightly more steeply. I mean, not dramatically steeply, but up to a kind of bit of noticeable high ground, along which there are some trees and yet more hedges. There's also a calvary. So you're coming along here and the track passes by. So there's a little triangle where the Calvary is. And the Calvary is the cross of Christ and all the rest of the crucifix. And at that point they pause and one of his crew is a Catholic and says, do you mind if I get out and say a prayer?

25:07And Stan goes, no, you can't. You can say your prayer here. And he thinks, oh, this is a bit hot around here. So he's just about to shut himself into the turret when he feels a massive sting on his arm and realizes he's been shot in the arm. He's all right it's gone clear through the muscle yeah but he has been shot there's a lot of blood and stuff he goes oh i'm a bit of trouble here chaps um and and suddenly there's another whoosh doesn't know what hit him but basically the right hand track has been knocked off so he just thinks i can't communicate with anyone i can't see anyone where the hell is the rest of the troop no one's behind him he's all on his own and he thinks right well i have to try and maneuver down so he does they manage to maneuver on one track with lots of shoving and breaking and all the rest of it and turns around and heads off down this track and he isn't hit again.

25:54Unbeknownst to him, the troop sergeant has also been hit behind him. No one's killed, but it's disabled the tank. So he's really on his own here. Yes. And they've run into third Falschmjäger. They're on the left on the hill, on the high ground behind the trees. And first SS Panzer... Who are on the right behind another hedge line. ...leave standout SS Adolf Hitler. And the enemy are concentrated on the high point. As he would be. As you would be, yeah. But again, they've got a sandwich protecting. So the road goes straight on into the village of Berju, which is maybe 400 yards further on. But you've got these anti-tank weapons, whether it's an anti-tank gun or whether it's Panzerfaust or whatever it is, and machine guns and stuff, on the right with the SS guys.

26:36And then you've got the Fauschmjäger on the top, and you've got snipers in the trees, and you've got, it's machine guns really, and mortars. So they haven't got anything more than that. but more to start to rain you know are raining down as soon as the next lot of tanks arrives which is frank galvin's when frank galvin who's the next troop in line turns up he goes straight on yeah so he pushes on to the village why i have no idea i mean you know why would you do that well because everyone's saying push on get on with it yeah but you've got to clear the the red line and the way to the ridge line is there's this little triangle so you've got the main road coming up You've got the cavalry on your left-hand side.

27:16Then you've got this track doubling back down which Stan has managed to hobble in his tank. There's hedges there. And then there's another hedge leading up. There's plenty of other hedges leading up to the summit of the hill on which the Falschermjäger are, offering some kind of protection. So the obvious thing to do is to go down that track, hull down it, wait for the infantry to turn up, and then push on. But Galvin alone heads on down into the road into Bergeau. And he hasn't gone very far from the cavalry, maybe 100 yards or something. And then, bam, something, some kind of anti-tank round hits him.

27:53And it hits him in the turret, and the whole thing brews up. And because they haven't fired their guns yet, they're full of ammunition. Full of ammunition. Off it goes. The turret blows up, disappears off into the sky, lands in a field. Every single one is incinerated. So that letter that we read out at the beginning, that was written the day before. Well, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll take a break to digest that and return to Bajou after the break.

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29:58Welcome back to Weird Ways of Making You Talk. With me, Al Murray, and James Holland. So, in the push to Bajou, Frank Galvin has ridden ahead. Got himself done in. Got himself and his crew killed. It's terrible, isn't it? And the rest of his squadron, they don't know where he is. There's no response from him. They haven't heard from him. No, and they have gone down the side. Yeah. They've gone down this track. Yeah. Well, Arthur registered in Stuart Hillsdale. So they're the next, they're the third troop in line. And he's waiting below the - He's still in the woods, waiting for the signal from Galvin.

30:30Doesn't come, so he just thinks, well, you know, what do I do? So he's waiting there. And meanwhile, Corporal Arthur Brooks, who's also in Galvin's troop, has pushed on down the track and gets hammered by enemy machine gun fire from the from the fauschenjager on the top of the hill so he desperately needs hill and he's on the a net trying to call for backup and hills can hear him so he just thinks there's still no response from galvin so hills thinks oh god you know with a heavy heart he's got to push on and he then hears on the net that a platoon of infantrymen have finally reached brooks probably not enough but But at least some infantry are starting to appear through the trees.

31:11It'll do, yeah. So he orders his troop to get up to the cavalry and turn left and go down the track and join Brooks, who's bravely trying to hold on with some bullets and mortars whizzing around everywhere. And they managed to link up with Brooks, who's carrying wounded men from Perry's second tank onto his own. And Hills orders him now to get back onto the road and head back down towards the river. Then Hills and his three tanks advance while opening fire on a copse 100 yards ahead. This is up towards them. So they now come off the track and they're now into the field. They're using the hedgerows as cover as much as they possibly can.

31:47And as Arthur Reddish notes, the next five minutes were absolutely horrendous. And they finally learn that Galvin has been hit. Someone spotted the brewed up tank. And then Brooks's tank is hit. And Guy Sanders, the one who got the MM at Alamein, who jumped off and leapt into the front of the tank that was rolling back down the hill at La Bignette and seen it off the side of the road. He jumps down to help Brooks, who's wounded. But as he does, a whole salvo of mortars crashes down. And both he and Brooks are killed. and another sergeant in Galvin's third tank is also shot in the head by a sniper and killed at the same time.

32:32So it's a total catastrophe. And you remember, it's C squadron who get pummeled at the binya. You know, this is Peter Soleri. This is Lieutenant Campbell. So eight men in the squadron are now dead, seven wounded, and a further one has been, they don't know it yet, but has been mortally wounded as well. So eventually it'll be nine men killed. You know, six of these casualties are tank commanders. Four of whom are dead. Four of whom are dead. Including Guy Sanders, who is an absolute legend. And Hills is just sitting in his tank while all this is unfolding, thinking, Jesus. And Hills wrote a whole load of stuff immediately after this.

33:10And he wrote, those taking part in a battle never know what is in front of them, what is going to happen. And it is uncertainty and ignorance that jars the nerves and causes that well-known sinking feeling in the upper half of one's abdomen. the point that one can never tell when or from where the fatal shot will come and one is always expecting it i mean can you imagine how tough that must be when you know that people are falling all around but this is this is the you know these last two episodes have been all about this sensation hasn't it these kind of encounters and you think had they coordinated with the infantry how differently would this day have gone would they they probably would have ended up clearing the Valley and not getting up to Berger at all, just helping the infantry.

33:51And they'd be staging the next day to do this. But it might have gone quite differently because they'd have had infantry support. By the afternoon, so this is all morning, by the afternoon, the infantry are arriving, which means they can now start putting in an attack. And of course, they can call upon the Essex Yeomanry. So Hills is able to move his troops to the sort of comparatively safe position. And there are a number of hedgerows along, as it climbs up to the summit of this hill, there are hedgerows which you can hide behind and all the rest of it. So he's able to then call in because his radio is still working.

34:26Essex Yeomanry, good old Essex Yeomanry, you know, Arthur Warburton and his boys, pummel the hill. That's too much for the Faustenjäger. And after that, yes, there's a massive explosion when they hit what is clearly an ammunition dump for the Faustenjäger. So that's quite lucky. And it's getting, by this point, that, you know, dusk is falling. So this is all day this has taken. And eventually, they're able to push on, clear through, burst through the hedges and clear the summit. And Jack Holman finally gets on that and says, right, calls you back, you know, calls them back to Liga. But it's been a hell of a day for the squadron.

35:02I mean, I can't stress enough how bad it is to have kind of effectively nine men killed from one squadron in one day. Arthur Reddish has never been happier in his life to get out of the fray. He's also smashed his hand as the... Hatch comes down. Hatch comes down on it, yeah. So he wakes the next morning to birdsong and he listens happy to this birdsong and then he remembers the nightmare of the previous day because he's really good mates with Brooks and Saunders and even Galpin and co. Germans, of course, are now on the run. The Sherwood Rangers managed to capture Bourgeois that next day, the 17th of August.

35:38It's clear the whole village. Stanley Christopherson looks around goes over and sees what's happened. You know, he just feels absolutely dreadful about what's happened the day before. Everyone's feeling kind of sore about the whole thing. They managed to get a bridge over the Noirro. General Thomas is pleased. Oh, great. RHQ is set up in a farmhouse just outside Bergeau. Leslie Skinner has some terrible catching up to do. He finds and buries Brooks and Sanders' bodies. But Galvin's tank is still burning. there's a whole number of dead germans lying around the tank too and he says fearful job picking up bits and pieces and reassembling for identification and putting in blankets for burial this was more than normally sick making really ill vomiting you do feel for him yeah yeah don't you um but there's always a moment of levity and like many moments of battlefield levity it involves someone going to the toilet yes of course um so there's a c squadron trooper who's relieving himself over a hole he's dug because after all the most important piece of equipment on a sherman tank is the shovel stanferry told us a few episodes ago um suddenly he's facing an armed german yes um both jump up ha in shock um the german to surrender the trooper to protect his modesty and uh padre skinner remembers the side of the heroic trooper clutching his trousers with one hand and marching his still armed prisoner down the hill to captivity was quite a sight Yes.

37:02I hope he got to finish his crap, though. Yeah, well, who knows?

37:08Stan Perry, of course, is injured. Yeah. He's got his bullet in the arm. So he leaves and returns to England. He's patched up in hospital in Normandy, then put on a ship to Portsmouth, and then transfers to a hospital train. And? While the train is stopped at a level crossing, he gets off and sneaks to a pub where his pints are all bought from him by other customers and the staff. Wonderful. And he's also gifted a big basket of chocolate and fruit. And the train then takes him to a military hospital and Manchester as an operation to remove a bullet, which is still in his arm at that point. Anyway, the Normandy campaign ends for them on the 19th of August as Polish and American troops join up and close the Fale's pocket, encircling the bulk of the German forces in Normandy.

37:49And it is an immense victory for the Allies. You know, two German armies have been destroyed. Perhaps two dozen tanks out of two and a half thousand get out. 50 ,000 men, that's it. And, of course, the Sherwood Rangers have more than played their part. So I think, you know, you'll agree. I mean, the Germans, it's 300 ,000 killed, wounded, or taken prisoner in Normandy. I mean, although the truth is the numbers are... No one knows. Yeah. Right, Jim? Well, they do. They have a pretty good idea. And what is really interesting is that the average daily casualty rate is something like, I think it's 3 ,865 or whatever it is.

38:26Or maybe it's more than that. Anyway, whatever it is, whatever the figure is, it is more than the average daily casualty rate of Verdun, Passchendaele, and Le Somme. 77-day campaign. You add all the casualties together. And the greatest concentrations of... Yeah, I think it's 3 ,865. And the greatest concentrations of troops in any encounter in the war. You have bigger armour formations, bigger armour encounters, much, much denser troop movements and armoured confrontations than on any front in the second war. anywhere any any front anywhere and and you know there are russian observers aren't there watching this who are going i can't believe you you know how many divisions you they've got squeezed into this area that you're taking on particularly around col but the russians find it kind of unbelievable well yeah i mean you know the um british second army and the um is facing and the canada the british and the canadians are facing seven panzer divisions just in that area which is the greatest density of enemy panzer divisions ever in the war now the thing is this summer you went back to Bergeu to unveil a memorial to the show arranges didn't you let me rewind a little bit more actually because what happened was when I was originally working on this it was it was still Covid in France it was really really tight and I couldn't get there I just wasn't allowed to go to France so I rung up great friend of the show Paul Woodidge Woody and said look Woody is there any chance you could get down to Bergeu and just do some video footage of it so I can get the layer of the land stuff because you know, Stan Perry gave me such a vivid account of it.

39:58And Stuart Hills gave such a vivid account. And then you've got all the other testimonies and stuff. And he said, yeah, sure. So he went with his great friend Colin, who's a lovely, lovely fellow, sadly, no longer with us. And they went down, they filmed it. And he said, and Woody came back, he said, Jim, you know, there's the most amazing thing there. So he said, what happened to Galfin's tank was they had to clear it off the road so so they cleared it and as they cleared it it rolled over so it was upside down and it was on the side of the road and he said the most amazing thing is the hedgerow grew around it so it was there for a couple of years or something till like late 40s until it was scrapped yeah until it was scrapped i was there and and he said it's the most amazing thing because you you can see it and he said there's the most brilliant little museum in burjoo he said you know when you whenever you can you've got to get over there so anyway i just couldn't wait to go and eventually got there and had a look around it and we were sort of scrabbling around in there and there was this this beat Pedro yeah and I hooked up with Louis Bon and and I was there with Joey because it was before you came out that's right yeah yeah yeah so Joey and I were there and we were beetling around in the Joey our former producer former producer 750 episodes 750 episodes and and we were there and we were there with Louis Bon who was this young guy who runs this museum He's totally, totally into it.

41:21And he said, oh, yeah, but he said Galvin's tank wasn't hit here. He said it was actually hit about 20 yards back, but was pushed into this bit, which is why the hedge goes around it. Then we started looking around, and we started finding bits, bits of Galvin's tank. Bloody hell. So there were bits of metal in the hedgerows, and Louis came up and said, look at this. And it was a mangled 75-millimeter shell casing. God. Which I've still got. I've got it on my study at home. And anyway, he said, I found all sorts of stuff here. And then you go to the little museum, and there's all sorts of the most incredible artifacts that they found.

42:03Anyway, I just thought, it's really bad that no one knows about this. You know, this is just this completely, no one's heard of Operation Blackwater. No one's heard of Bergeau. There's this absolutely amazing museum, but no one goes there because it's not on the beach line. You know, it's not Omaha Beach. But this is the thing with Normandy battlefields is they are very well curated for D-Day. Yeah. And in fact, it's amazing. And if you're going there for some holiday, you can have everything. You can absolutely fill your boots with Second World War tourism along the coast. Yeah. But I think the point we've made with these last few episodes is that the battle goes way beyond the beaches, way beyond Limbaugamont.

42:47Absolutely. And grinds inland. Yeah. And there are all these extraordinary locations you can visit where, you know, if you go up to Hill 112, for instance, at the Epsom Battlefield, and you stand there, and the memorial there is beautiful there and very well presented, and you can see all the way back to the beachhead, basically. Yeah. But even that's part one. Yeah. And we are many chapters into that now. Yeah. And you'll never understand the Normandy battle if you think of it only in terms of D-Day. You'll never understand it if you think once they're ashore everything is grooving. And this is one of the most rewarding places you can go and visit.

43:23Because, and a few weeks later I was there with a little group of people. We were doing a little battlefield tour following the footsteps of the Sherwood Rangers. And everyone was, I was saying, God, you know, last time we were here we found all these bits and pieces. And anyway, these guys then found a whole load more. And one of the guys on there was a guy called Tuggy May, who's a wine merchant in Kensington. and he said you know we really should do a memorial for these guys here and I thought do you know what you're absolutely right Tuggy that's exactly what we should do so it was a sort of little bit of a kind of thing that kind of got in my mind so then last summer well yeah 2025 I then got together a group but you weren't around sadly so I got David Christopherson who's Stanley's son and Rob Gallimore friend of the show and Saul David and my great mate Giles who was over from Australia and we walked it we walked the route We started at the moment that Stanley Christopherson had landed on Jig Red.

44:15We went to that spot and we walked the entire route of the Sherwood Rangers, which is why I know about Bricazar and all these places and all the rest of it. We even went to Hotto and around that wall in Hammerwood and all that. We went literally everywhere. And we got out there to raise money for this memorial. And the brilliant Stuart Bertie, great friend of the show, So I'm mad keen on this subject. Friend of the 506th and the Band of Brothers gang. If you've seen any photographs of We Are Vice Festival, Stuart. He's your man. Brilliant, brilliant photographer. Brilliant, brilliant architect.

44:46He came up with the design. Because I said, it'd be good to do it kind of sort of, you know, rusted metal, you know, that kind of sort of vibe. Because it, you know, and it would last that way. And he said, yeah, but let's not make it a tank. Oh, because do you remember when we were in, there was a cutout of a Sherman tank, wasn't there, in that rusted? I said, that's how we should do it. And he said, yes, but not as a tank. We should do the men. So I had this photograph of a whole load of Sherwood Rangers getting their investiture of their MMs at Buckingham Palace in 1943, including Guy Sanders, including George Dring, various others.

45:21And we used that as the basis of our nine men. So they're silhouetted. And right in the middle is Guy Sanders. And it's really, really moving. It's a brilliant, brilliant memorial. and we made this memorial and we raised some money for it. And when we were there visiting on the walk, we hooked up with Louis Bon again and he'd found, I think, three of the cat badges. Christ. When it had rolled over, all the five crew had been incinerated. But the cat badges were still in the base of the tank. So when they'd rolled over, it had fallen out of the turret. So it's obviously probably the three from the turret.

45:57And he found them all those years later. And there they are. They're now in the museum. Anyway, another thing, I've just got to just mention this because it was just so weird. At Chalk a couple of years ago, I was at the Chalk History Festival and this fellow came up to me. He said, my wife's aunt was Frank Galvin's widow and we've got lots of letters. Oh, goodness me. Including the last letter that she wrote on the 15th of August that has never been opened because it says return to send a deceased, you know recipient deceased oh god yeah he said personally I think we should get at it but he said you know doesn't want to do it you know it was never opened in the time shouldn't be opened and it still hasn't been but they've donated it and a whole load of other letters to this museum in Bergerie profoundly moving so to have that I wouldn't open it no well they haven't and there it is it still aren't soon I'm with them on that you don't know okay well they haven't and so it's just always a little coincidence And anyway, when we had the opening of the memorial on August the 16th last year, it was amazing.

47:07Because I'd always felt really, really kind of upset that no one remembered Guy Saunders. Because Carl, the brilliant Carl McDermott who you've met, who's kind of unofficial, or maybe he's now even official, historian of the show at Rangers. And he's absolutely brilliant. Irish guy. His grandfather was killed at Gill in Belgium, which we'll come to in another series. He couldn't track anyone down from Guy Saunders. And eventually he did. And we managed to get them invited to the memorial. And I think it was his niece. Guy Sanders' niece. And they had no idea. They didn't know anything about, really anything about his wartime career.

47:42You know, he was just this sort of distant figure. He'd gone. He'd just gone, yeah. Lost in the wartime. So they were there and it was just, I can't even begin to tell you how moving it was to have all these family members there. John Semkin's son was there. Various others. It was just absolutely amazing. You know, the local French MP was there, you know, the mayor and so on. And it was it was such a moving occasion. I can't begin to tell you. Well, I think it's fantastic that you've done all that, Jim. And I think what's really good about this is we go through these stories all the time. You know, we routine these incredible stories for people to listen to and hopefully enjoy and learn from.

48:22But there's actually the connective tissue to commemorating the people that died in the war that destroyed Nazism, which is, you know, a good thing. Those links are something that you're active in keeping alive and making sure that the people are commemorated. I think it's really special, Jim. And I think, and this is the other thing that's appealing about the Second World War. This is only generationally in terms of families five minutes ago. It's people's grandfathers. It's people's fathers. and I think while we do these stories it's important to remember that and to mark this when we went to Arnhem to look at the commemoration there that was that was very moving because that's so alive and the fact that you've done something that is keeping this alive I think is really really important and special well uh I mean it's nice to be able to do that I mean you know credit to Tuggy for coming up with the idea in the first place huge credit to to Stu for his amazing design but also full credit to Louis Bon and his father who run the Blackwater Museum which is just amazing I really would urge anyone if you're ever in Norwich just get down there it's so it's really moving because it's in a farmhouse that was part of the battle and so they've still got bullet holes and shrapnel marks in the in the ceiling and things like this I mean it's absolutely amazing prise yourselves away from Omaha Beach yes and get down there if you possibly can but it gets it's not far it gets better and this is the final bit because this year another great friend of the show Jim Clark who owns this Sherman tank, which is done up in the colours of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry.

49:52He was over in Normandy and he said, right, I'm going to take it down there. And he took it to it and we reenacted the route of Stamperry and C Squadron going up that hill, going down what Stan called a gorge, down towards the crossing points. Now a bit of the Mulberry Harbour is now the bridge. I mean, just you couldn't wish for more. We crossed over the Noirot. We turned right onto the road towards Camber Corp. Then we turned up left up the road, which is now called Rue Lieutenant Galvin. Which is brilliant. Up we went. Paused exactly the spot, pretty much. Give or take five yards where Stan Perry stopped next to the cavalry.

50:38It's still there. There it is. and I can't even begin to tell you how moving that was to see a Sherman tank in Sherwood Rangers livery for the first time since August 1944. Incredible. It was amazing. Wow. Well, thanks everyone for listening. That concludes the second leg of Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry history. We will join them on the Great Swan when they return. They will return. As they bust out from the collapse of the German army after the Battle of the Flays Gap. thanks everyone for listening don't forget if you become a patron you can get all this stuff in great big digestible lumps there's also at least a thousand episodes now for you to go back and rifle through and of course if you want to if you want this stuff in person if you want to eyeball James and I as we war waffle in this style then come to We Have Ways Fest the 11th to the 13th of September at Black Pit Brewery next door to Silverstone and it's a fantastic weekend of talks tanks very convivial the odd glass of refreshing cold drink may get consumed, and the odd hot dog.

51:45We would love to see you there. Go to wehavewaysfest.co.uk, buy your tickets. Spitfires will streak across the sky, that's a promise, unless the weather's shit, obviously. We'll see you there. Thanks for listening, everybody, and cheerio. Cheerio.

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