MLH13
Sergeant First Class
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2019
- Messages
- 1,024
Outstanding display! And equally appreciate the history lesson. Well done! {bravo}}
Mark
Mark
Radio contact was made with the 1st Battalion, now about a thousand yards behind the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP]. By this link contact was also made with the separated part of the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Battalion. It was told to get through to the main body with as much of the reserve ammunition in the Bren carriers as possible, so that the attempt to reach the bridge could be resumed.
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A Bren carrier loaded with ammunition duly arrived, with a group of men (variously reported as between twenty and forty strong) at about 2.30 p.m. Lieutenant Leo Heaps, a Canadian officer attached to the 1st Battalion drove the Bren carrier and Lieutenant Burwash, an officer from the 3rd Battalion's HQ Company led the infantry.
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It was known that Major Dennison of A Company had been badly wounded, but Burwash could give little news of the remainder of the battalion. Peter Waddy’s company had led the 3rd Battalion's advance all the way from the dropping zone twenty-four hours earlier, but Major Waddy was killed when he went out into the open to unload the ammunition from the Bren carrier. Major Bush was watching and said:
“Peter Waddy had no need to go out, but he was very impetuous; he would have a go at anything. 'It's all experience,' he would say with his boyish appearance. I saw him killed. There was just a blinding flash and the muck being blown about from this one mortar bomb, and there he was, prostrate. There was not a mark on him - killed outright by blast”.
His young company sergeant-major, twenty-three-year-old Reg Allen, also died with him. Allen had just been awarded an American decoration for his bravery in Tunisia. (author's note: I have not managed to find further information on him or what decoration he received). It is thought that they were the only fatal casualties of that long stalemate.
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Soon after this, parties of Germans were seen to the west of the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] Battalion houses, threatening to surround the battalion's position. Again, Maj. Alan Bush describes this:
“One patrol was only twenty yards away. I could see every bit of their equipment. I remember one had a big fat arse and I thought, 'What a target!' They were being very casual. Three of our men were ready to open fire, but I ordered them not to. RSM Lord was there and he nodded approval; you can't start a battle with the divisional commander and the brigadier in the same house”.
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