Dad had spent three rather peaceful and sunny years on Gibraltar with the 703rd Artisan Company, Royal Engineers. Here he was able to observe preparations for pivotal battles elsewhere (Malta, North Africa, Sicily) but stayed well out of harm's way. However, this blessed situation was shortly to change.
He sailed for England on September 25th, 1943, and after about a week at sea, arrived at the King George V dock at Clydesbank. Then to Leicester, Wigston Fields, Queniborough (Royal Ordance Factory) near Rearsby, and Rudgswick near Horsham. Then to Aldershot (Gibraltar barracks) in Dec 1943 for a six-week intensive training course. They spent a few months at Weston on the Wirral peninsular until July 1944, except for a while in June 1944 spent in Upper Norwood, East London, cleaning up after V1 attacks. Then to Newhaven ready for crossing the channel.
On August 8th the company crossed to Normandy in a U.S. Army LCT and landed at Sword beach. They camped in an orchard near Bayeux until early September. That is all he ever said about this time, a time that encompassed the titanic struggle for nearby Caen.
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| Remains of the floating harbour, Arromanches, 2005 |
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| Two of Dad's granddaughters, Arromanches, 2005 |
After the breakout from Caen, Dad crossed the Seine at Vernon on a pontoon bridge (probably a Bailey Bridge built by his company). Thence to Brussels via Amiens, Poix, Evreux, Charlesvoix, Tournay and Mechelin.
The War Diaries for the 703rd for 1940 and 1944/5 can be found in the National Archives, Kew. My transcriptions are available here.
Dad had an Aunt Louisa (Johnson), who had a son Charles who died in the battle for Caen in July 1944. Unfortunately he never said (or knew?) Louisa's married name (they some distance away in Desford, Leicestershire) and contact had been lost a long time ago), and Johnson is a very common name. However, after some digging I found a Louisa Johnson
married a fellow called Burton in 1912 in Dad's home town of Worksop, and they lost their son Charles, a Trooper fighting with the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps in
"Western Europe" on 6th July 1944. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists his grave in the Hermannville Cemetery, 13 km north of Caen. The site www.forces-war-records.co.uk lists a Charles Thomas Burton as having been born in Lincolnshire but lived in Leicestershire. This is suggestive, as the Johnson family lived in South Lincolnshire before moving to Worksop and thence to Desford.
But then my cousin tells me his Mum talked of a cousin who died in Normandy
called Walter Johnson, so unless Louisa married another Johnson (not
impossible), he has to be Harry or William's son ( two other brothers
who survived to adulthood were bachelors). Harry did indeed have son
called Walter, but he seems to have died in 1971. The Commonwealth War
Graves Commission reports two Walter Johnsons in the British Army died
in 1944: one died on D-Day and had a father named William, but his family were from London, and "my" William Johnson, lived in Doncaster.
So at the moment, the betting is on Charles Thomas Burton.
