Operation Bluecoat: Breakout from Normandy by Ian Daglish

Author:Ian Daglish
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027100; HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781783034499
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2010-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

The timely appearance of M10s.

the six Sexton troops in action at la Crière.

The Leicester Yeomanry’s losses would have been heavier still but for the timely appearance of 17-pounder M10 tank destroyers of Q Battery, 21st Antitank Regiment. Sergeant Farrow, in command of one of these M10s, fired three 17-pounder rounds through the stone walls of a cow byre towards the estimated position of an unseen enemy tank. Next day he was pleased to discover that his blind fire had indeed penetrated both stone and armour and blown up the Panther. Not all were so fortunate. Battery Sergeant-Major Woolley (C Troop) engaged a German tank but his M10 was disabled by return fire. Baling out through the forward hatches, co-driver/operator Alan Henshall and relief driver (replacement for an injured crewman) ‘Jock’ Campbell were surprised to see their commander emerge from the wreck of the turret. BSM Charlie Woolley (possibly in shock?) ordered the two to escape while he attempted to drive the M10 to safety. But its armour was quickly penetrated, Woolley dying in the burning wreck. Henshall and his companion made for the Leicester’s gun lines, but before they reached friends, a bullet parted the hair on Henshall’s head and killed Campbell. BSM Woolley, relief driver Gunner Campbell, and loader Lance-Bombardier Sowerby, killed on 3 August, today lie together in St-Charles-de-Percy.21

In all, the Leicester Yeomanry had lost four Sextons and two officers’ Sherman tanks, together with twenty-two other vehicles. By early evening, the survivors resumed firing from the ground they had occupied before their move south to point 176.

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