28th July 1944 – in Operation Cobra the US 1st Army capture Coutances, near the coast west of St. Lô. US XIX Corps, who had joined the advance left of VII Corps encounter fierce resistance from 2nd and 116 Panzer, sent to re-inforce the German line. The sector south of St. Lô becomes 'stuck' compared with the rapid advance to the west.
Soviet troops take Brest-Litovsk, a historic city east of Warsaw (now in Belarus, next to the border with Poland). Germany begins evacuation of major towns in the east, including Lublin, in the face of the Soviet advance. The Russians are now just 25 miles from Warsaw.
61st Recce Regt RAC
B.L.A.
Friday July 28th
Chotie Darling,
Received your last batch of letters in very good time. So here goes in reply.
Glad to hear you got the card OK – they’re the only sort we’re allowed to send, needless to say, and as you remark it was gay if nothing else.
Hope to get a few days rest shortly when I’ll be able to write you more fully than at the moment. Actually there’s practically nothing to write about, owing to the security restrictions. I can’t tell you where I am or even what we’re doing. You’ll just have to wait until we can get together again, preferably around a thick fireplace, sometime in the autumn, after a tea of hot buttered muffins…..
What absolute rot that bloke does talk!
There’s a slight pause at the moment for tea, which my troop Sergeant is endeavouring to brew whilst keeping himself and the smoke under cover…. The word ‘brew’ has become very popular in Army Slang. A knocked out tank is referred to as ‘brewed-up’ etc, etc. Also of course the old saw – “When in doubt, “brew-up” ….”
Well, my Precious, I’ve just had some tea – bread + processed cheese and a bar of choc, and biscuits, so I’ll be alright until the morning.
Just had three letters (from home & Diller). Bryn had a good time on leave apparently. Diller said he went to work on the new barmaid at the ‘Beach’. She caught him in the act of giving her some coupons! That sounds pretty ghastly to me, though you know how irreproachably innocent Brinner is….
About half an hour ago I put my hand in my battle dress pocket straight on top of a razor blade which removed approx. ¼" off one of my fingers. As if my hands weren’t cut about enough already.
In a very charming spot at the moment – must come here after the war*. I’d love to come back here if only to be able to walk about as I pleased without having to duck all the time!
It’s difficult to judge this countryside owing to the devastation but I know of many more beautiful spots in England. There is however a certain charm, perhaps due to the fact that things are ‘different’ in some small way, from England. They have no timbered buildings, of course, everything being built of grey stone, very much akin to the Cotswold style. There seems to be no deviation from this general custom.
Wish I could have heard the last concert you saw – the old 5th** wants a lot of beating. Last time I heard it was in Folkestone just before Xmas.
I fancy I’d better close here as things are warming up.
Dicker.
*Sandy Handley and Anthony Rampling did just that, visiting with other veterans in 2004. 
Anthony Rampling is on the left and Sandy Handley on the right above and below.
**Presumably Beethoven’s 5th Symphony – Beethoven’s symphonies are mentioned in letter December 10th 1943 and Beethoven in January 1944 letters. The opening notes were used as code to announce the D Day landings to the French resistance on BBC radio.
Dick’s Commanding Officer in ‘B’ Squadron, Major Frank Harding, did not seem to have such a favourable view of their surrounds:
‘Baneful Briquessard
Dank and drear
Even at
This July year
Patrols prowling
Cross and Cross
Lightning bursts
Catch listening posts….’
(From ‘Briquessard Wood - July’ by Major Frank Harding MC, in ‘War echoes over thirty years’ published by Arthur Stockwell, 1970)
‘B’ Squadron trooper Anthony Rampling only saw Major Harding once during the war. This was at Briquessard: "He looked scared stiff."
Colonel Brownrigg tried to take a more optimistic view in retrospect:
‘Although we didn’t appreciate it at the time, our fortnight on the line at Briquessard was first-class training. But I think that if we had been there much longer our scout troops* might have lost some of their dash, which they were to need again shortly.’ (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)
*Dick’s troop was a Scout or Recce troop
Recent Comments