He paused for a minute, looking down at the ambulances moving off.
“I’m sorry about Duncan, Nigel and the others,” he continued, turning to look me straight in the eye. “Duncan was a difficult man to command and I’m sure he was a difficult man to serve under, but he produced results and that’s what counts. He thought that you showed great promise, by the way, although he’d never have told you so.”
I was surprised but did not think it appropriate to comment, so I simply nodded.
“Oh, one other thing, Andy,” said the Colonel as he began to descend the ladder. “If you care to give me a list of names for suitable awards I’ll give it my full backing.”
“Too bad about the Major, sir,” commented Sergeant Warriner after a few moments’ reflection. “I suppose that last effort was too much for him. Should have stayed in the crypt with the rest of the wounded.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, taken aback.
“As we ran in I saw him standing behind you in the square.”
I felt the hairs rise on the back of my neck.
“Major Flint had been dead for nearly four hours by then. The doctor will confirm that. Did you see him after we’d pulled back into the church?”
“No, sir,” replied the Sergeant, a look of bewilderment crossing his face. “But I did see him standing behind you in the square just as clearly as I’m seeing you now. I’ll take my oath on it!”
Warriner was an honest man, not given to too much imagination, and I knew that he was telling the truth.
“Wouldn’t let go, would he?” I said, at length.
“Looks that way, sir,” he replied, in his matter-of-fact way. “Wanted to be sure the company was in good hands, that’s all. When he was satisfied, he left us. That’s the only explanation I can offer. Now I don’t know where soldiers go when they die, sir, but wherever it is he’ll be grateful to you.”
Shortly after, another battalion from the brigade arrived to take over the village from us. I marched what was left of A Company to a nearby field where we spent the night. I found it difficult to sleep until I realized why. For the first time since D-Day the sound of the guns was absent. The silence was uncanny.
Epilogue
To my sorrow, A Company was never re-formed. Following the great Allied victory in Normandy, our armoured divisions swept north to liberate Belgium while the Americans embarked on a whirlwind advance to the German frontier. During this period we were told that our entire division was to be disbanded and used to reinforce other divisions. The problem was that the United Kingdom’s manpower resources had become stretched to their limits.
My recommendations for awards won during the battle for St Marc were accepted in full. Sergeant Brumby, but for whose self-sacrifice we might have been overrun, received the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross. Sergeant Warriner, who had commanded the most difficult sector of the defences as well as acting as company sergeant major throughout, added a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) to his Military Medal (MM). As he had been involved in active service throughout the Desert War and from D-Day onwards I felt that he had done enough and this was also accepted. He was confirmed in the rank of sergeant major and posted to a training regiment in England. I am not sure whether he was grateful or not. Sergeant Mason, later killed in Holland, received the MM, as did Corporal Baker, who rose to the rank of sergeant. He has recently been demobilized and returned to his family. A recommendation was passed to the Royal Artillery that Bombardier Seward, who had carried out his dead officer’s task and ensured that we received artillery support when we needed it most, should receive the DCM, and I am pleased to say that this was approved. Several more men were Mentioned in Despatches.
Of the old Three Platoon hands, Grover has reached the rank of corporal and decided to remain in the Regular Army, where, at last, he seems to have found his niche in life. He is said to be a strict disciplinarian, but then he knows his own tricks best. Haggerty was promoted to lance corporal twice and lost his stripes on both occasions because of his illegal business activities. I am told that, but for his MM, he would have spent time in detention barracks. He has now returned to Liverpool, apparently a great deal richer than when he left it. Helsby-Frodsham received a serious leg wound during the closing stages of the action, rendering him unfit for further service in the infantry. Rather than have him idle his time away in some depot, I produced several brilliant water-colour sketches he had made of the fighting in Normandy and suggested that he was appointed an official war artist. The appointment was sanctioned and he recently came to see me with the news that he had been commissioned by the Regiment to paint the final stages of the battle for St Marc. I took Allen with me when I started my present job, fearing that no one else would put up with him. He has now returned to the Savoy Hotel and is probably driving its guests to distraction with his endless chatter.
As for myself, I was sent on a course to learn my duties as an Intelligence Officer, then joined my new brigade, of which the newly promoted Colonel Armitage is second-in-command. After a while, I was sent on a short leave to England. My parents accompanied me to Buckingham Palace, where the King presented me with the Military Cross. A shy, quietly spoken man with a slight stammer, he had obviously been briefed about the action at St Marc and asked me several well-informed questions about it. One could not help but like him.
For the rest of the War, most of my duties involved the interrogation of prisoners. When the fighting ended, I found myself interrogating Nazi Party officials, members of the Gestapo, and SS concentration camp guards. They were all guilty of horrific and inhuman acts. I do not know which of them I detested most – those who claimed that they were only obeying orders, or those who showed no shame at what they had done and went smirking to the gallows. They were evil personified and it had been worth fighting a war to rid the world of such men.
Historical note
The Allied invasion of Normandy, Operation Overlord, was the largest amphibious operation in history. It involved no less than 1,213 warships, 4,126 landing ships and landing craft, 736 support vessels and 864 merchant vessels, plus two pre-fabricated Mulberry harbours, which Andy mentions in his story. Air cover was provided by the combined might of the British and American tactical air forces, supplemented by the heavy bombers of the US Strategic Air Force. Prior to launching the invasion, elaborate deception measures successfully convinced the Germans that the Allied landings would take place in the Pas de Calais, which offered the shortest sea route between the United Kingdom and France. As a result, most of their armoured divisions were held back in this area. As the Allied troops moved to their embarkation ports, southern England was sealed off from the rest of the country for security reasons. Simultaneously, French Resistance groups attacked road and rail communications in northern France to hinder the movement of enemy reinforcements into the battle area.
After postponement due to bad weather, the date of the invasion, codenamed D-Day, was set for 6 June. Shortly after midnight, one British and two American airborne divisions were dropped to secure the flanks of the invasion area. The seaborne assault, under the overall command of General Sir Bernard Montgomery, commenced at 06:30, when the tide would leave the German beach obstacles exposed. On the right, Lieutenant General Omar Bradley’s US First Army landed on two beaches designated Utah and Omaha; on the left, Lieutenant General Sir Miles Dempsey’s British Second Army, including a large Canadian element, landed on beaches designated Gold, Juno and Sword. As Andy narrates, on the British and Canadian sectors the specialized armoured vehicles developed by the 79th Armoured Division proved invaluable in overcoming the enemy’s beach defences and casualties were far lighter than had been expected. The Americans, however, lacking such vehicles, sustained over 3,000 killed and wounded on Omaha Beach alone. Nevertheless, by midnight, 57,000 American and 75,000 British and Canadian troops, plus their equipment, had been put ashore and the process of linking the beach-heads had begun. Allied losses amounted to 2,500 killed and 8,500 wounded; the full e
xtent of German losses remains unknown.
The Allied strategy during the Normandy campaign was for the British and Canadians to maintain constant pressure on the enemy, thereby preventing the transfer of German reserves to the American sector, where the great breakout from the beach-head was planned. This meant that much of the fighting took place in close bocage country, where the Allies could not make full use of their armour. Consequently, losses among the infantry were high, sometimes approaching the level sustained during the Battle of the Somme in World War I. For their part, the Germans, who also lacked air cover, were handicapped by Hitler’s “no withdrawal” orders and forced to endure the terrible effects of naval gunfire.
On 1 August the Americans broke out of the beachhead and began swinging round the enemy’s left flank. Simultaneously, the British and Canadians began forcing back the enemy right flank, so that by the middle of the month the German armies in Normandy were trapped inside a shrinking pocket south of Falaise. The exit from the pocket was finally closed on 19 August. Some 10,000 Germans had died within it and 50,000 were captured. Also captured or destroyed were hundreds of tanks, self-propelled guns, armoured cars, artillery weapons and motor vehicles.
The episode involving Andy’s batman, Private Allen, and the Tiger tank is based on a real incident that took place during the bitter battle for Hill 112. The operation to close an enemy escape route from the pocket is based on the actions fought at, respectively, St Lambert-sur-Dives and Mont Ormel, during the last stages of the campaign.
Early in his story Andy mentions that one of his ancestors, Michael Pope, served as a drummer boy during the Crimean War. Michael’s adventures can be found in another My Story book, Crimea.
Timeline
19 August 1942 British and Canadian raid on Dieppe obtains much useful information regarding the nature of the German coastal defences.
6 June 1944 D-Day. US First and British Second Armies secure five beach-heads on the coast of Normandy.
7–12 June Beach-heads joined to form continuous 50-mile front.
19–22 June The Great Storm. American Mulberry harbour seriously damaged.
26 June–1 July Operation Epsom, the British Second Army’s offensive across the Odon and Orne rivers south-west of Caen.
29 June Americans take Cherbourg.
9 July British take Caen.
18–21 July Operation Goodwood, the British Second Army’s offensive south-east of Caen.
20 July Realizing that he was leading Germany to a terrible defeat, a group of senior German generals attempt to assassinate Hitler with a bomb planted in a briefcase. They fail to kill him. He takes a ferocious revenge on them.
25 July Operation Cobra, the American break-out west of St Lô begins.
30 July Beginning of Operation Bluecoat, the British Second Army’s offensive towards Mont Pincon and the Vire river, pinning down German troops ordered to oppose the American breakout.
6–7 August Americans beat off weak German counter-attack at Mortain. US Third Army turns German left flank. British capture Mont Pincon.
8–11 August Operation Totalize. First Canadian Army’s offensive towards Falaise, Phase I.
14–16 August Operation Tractable, the First Canadian Army’s offensive towards Falaise, Phase II, pushes in the German right flank. The German armies in Normandy are now trapped within a shrinking pocket south of Falaise.
17–19 August Trapped German armies struggle to escape eastwards but surrender when the last exit from the pocket is closed.
17–26 September Allied airborne operations in Holland secure bridges at Eindhoven and Nijmegen but end in gallant failure at Arnhem.
16 December 1944–16 January 1945 A major German counter-offensive in the Ardennes is defeated.
8 February–10 March The Allies secure the left bank of the River Rhine in Germany. The Americans capture the bridge at Remagen intact on 7 March.
22 March The Americans cross the Rhine in force at Oppenheim.
23 March The British cross the Rhine at Wesel.
30 April Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin.
2 May Berlin falls to the Russians who have arrived from the east. Advancing British and Russian armies make contact.
5–8 May Unconditional surrender of German armies in western Europe.
Experience history first-hand with My Story – a series of vividly imagined accounts of life in the past.
While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Andy Pope is a fictional character, created by the author, and his story is a work of fiction.
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First published in the UK by Scholastic Ltd, 2004
This edition published by Scholastic Ltd, 2016
Text © Bryan Perrett, 2004
Cover photography © CollaborationJS, 2016
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