General Chat

On researching my family history I have found out that my great uncle FREDERICK WALKER was killed on 12.06.1944 and is buried in Ranville cemetary. The fascinating bit is the history that goes with it. He was in a jeep which was towing a trailer loaded with mines, and for whatever reason the whole thing blew up killing and injurying 18 of the regiment in the process. The incident occurred in a copse called LE BOIS DE MONTS, ROUTE DE L'ARBRE MARDIN, BREVILLE, NORMANDY. The reason for posting this message is my father visits the area every year to place a wreath in memory of his uncle and would like to know any other soldiers that were also killed or injured in the incident. The farm was vacant for many years and is now owned by a French lady and her English husband, who are also very interested in finding out more. So if you had a relation involved or who was in the Oxford and Bucks 52nd Airbourne unit at the time, please contact me.

On 6th June 1944 the brigade was to take part in `Operation Argonaut'. To be flown over in gliders under the command of Major John Howard to Normandy, Northern France. Their mission was to capture Pegasus Bridge over the Caen Canal and the bridge at Ranville over the River Orme and to hold them until the main D-Day landings took place Under cover of night on June 6, 1944, six gliders carrying 181 officers and men of the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry landed on the eastern flank of a 60-mile invasion front on the northern coast of France. The regiment had a heritage going back to the battles of Bunker Hill and New Orleans, to Waterloo and to World War I. Now its soldiers were in the vanguard of the invasion of Hitler's Europe. Howard's D Company was ordered to seize two bridges, one over the Caen Canal and the other spanning the parallel Orne River. If the Germans held on to those bridges, panzer units could move across them in a counterattack isolating 10,000 British paratroopers jumping behind the British invasion beach known as Sword, where infantry forces would arrive at daybreak. And Howard's men sought to strike swiftly to prevent the Germans from blowing up the bridges if they were overwhelmed; the British needed those bridges to resupply their airborne units.

Ellen As a suggestion - if you look up the cemetery on the CWGC website you can see all the casualties buried there. There are over 2000, so it will be a bit of a trawl through them all. You can list the 12 June casualties and perhaps identify those likely involved. I had a quick look, and of course there are others than those in the airborne forces, so a process of elimination will be needed. I also note your relative's date of death was 13 June - perhaps he died of wounds the next day? That may also apply to others. There is also a Breville cemetery with 12 june casualties. Ian