蜜芽传媒

Among The Many 鈥� the Story of George Richard Crisp
February 1920 鈥� June 1944

By Fran Crisp

George Richard Crisp would have been my husband鈥檚 uncle had he survived the War. However George was one of many who fell on the beaches of Normandy on 6th June 1944.

George was a Sapper. He joined the Army on 13th Jun 1940 enlisting into the Royal Engineers embodied Territorial Army and posted to No 1 Training Battalion and immediately to B Company. He was 20 years old and had been a carpenter/joiner. Official records state he was 5ft 6.5 inches tall and weighed 9 stone, with blue eyes and brown hair.

My husband wondered why George had been awarded the Croix de Guerre and in the course of our research came into contact with the Major who had been in charge of George鈥檚 Unit in Northern Africa.

The details in this story have been taken from official records, the book 鈥淭hat White Horse鈥� and the unpublished memoirs (hence anonymous in this article) of an officer of the 629th.

On 7th November 1940 George was posted to No 2 Depot Battalion, presumably for preparation to go abroad, and on 3rd January 1941 to the School of Mechanical Engineers Base Depot (Middle East).

The Unit was posted to 552 Army Training Company 23rd Nov 1941.

George was posted to 9th Field Squadron on 1st Nov 1942.

March 1942 saw the group at Ksar Rhilane, in the North African Desert meeting up with and being set under command of General Leclerc with the Free French. The force (L- Force) was small and poorly equipped. The 9th had travelled South for 8 weeks under extreme hardship to meet them, becoming short of water and cigarettes and cut off for 7 weeks without mail. They had to bring everything with them that might be needed to support the French, including mines, barbed wire, detectors, cement, canvas, water, petrol and rations. They had to fight off intermittent attacks from Bedouin tribesmen. On one occasion they were surrounded by armoured cars and pounded with shell fire and suffered continual aerial attacks until the RAF finally cleared the attackers off. They had no proper map to guide them to the rendezvous point with the French 鈥� just compasses and an old Guide Book from before the war!

The men worked in tattered shorts and desert boots, so George must have had a good suntan. Water of course was scarce and was not wasted on too much in the way of washing. They had a mug of water to clean teeth, hands, face, socks and underpants. Somehow they managed to shave most days however. Sanitary arrangements were just as primitive and involved digging holes in the sand a walk away from the others.

Their work was dangerous, involving clearing the route of German mines ready for the 8th Army push. Some of the mines were booby trapped. Every night the Germans went out and laid more mines, every morning, ahead of the patrols, the Sappers detected and removed them. Men were killed but they continued the work. Fighters would come over strafing. One Sapper has his ankle shot up, but he was luckier than one of the others, who had his head blown off.

George was in Sgt Thompson鈥檚 Platoon and they successfully flushed out and captured a group of Germans. It was for this they were all awarded the Croix de Guerre. Three others thus recognised in the platoon were to die with George in Normandy.

After weeks clearing minefields, the unit got instructions to take over the Eighth Army Mine School in Tripoli, where they headed for on May 7th 1943. By this time Tunis had fallen and the campaign in the Middle East was over.

The 9th was redesignated 629 Field Squadron 1 Sep 1943

On November 19th the Unit left crammed in cattle trucks to go to Algiers. They were washed from their tents in torrential rain at the reception camp, issued with Africa Star ribbons and vaccinated against smallpox (there had been a scare).

Despite all this everyone remained cheerful and on November 27th they were taken down to the docks to board the troop ship Samaria. With only a slight pang of memory of the good times they鈥檇 had, as they watched Africa disappear into the distance, the main emotion was of joy in the prospect of going home 鈥� at least for a while.

Eventually, on December 8th 1943, George would have seen a dark mass of land on the horizon and some lights flashing. The coast of England at last! They docked at lunchtime on the 9th in Liverpool, amid cheering, waving and bands playing. The Mayor of Liverpool and the people of that city gave the boys bundles of papers and magazines, the NAFFI provided tea, chocolate and cigarettes. A waiting train took them all to Leicester where they enjoyed more refreshments and in the early hours of the following morning they arrived at their destination 鈥� Guildford 鈥� in a fleet of lorries that had met the train.

Another hot meal and then they were put in their huts, where fires blazed comfortably and the beds were made up ready for them. It must have seemed like Heaven, and George would have known that he didn鈥檛 have far to travel to get home for Christmas. The people of Guildford treated the boys to dances, they were able to go to the cinema and drink good beer. Meanwhile their leave was organised and on the following Wednesday the 629 dispersed for Christmas, with George heading for Walthamstow.

New Year 1944 saw George and his mates of the Squadron working and training as usual until orders arrived on February 10th. Reinforcements arrived in their numbers.
The men were posted to 34 Reinforcement Holding Unit on 10th February 1944 then immediately to the 101 Reinforcement Group and the Squadron was inspected on March 2nd by General Montgomery on Epsom Racecourse.

On 7th March 1944 George was posted to 629 Field Squadron. Something was afoot.

The training had been concentrating on bridging, but during March the emphasis shifted to clearing beach obstacles and water proofing vehicles. George may have been among those who went to Inverness to watch an assault landing exercise or to Brancaster in Norfolk to train on the beach. It must have been apparent to George and the others that something was going to happen on a beach SOMEWHERE.

It was almost as if George knew he was on borrowed time. My husband鈥檚 father told us once that on George鈥檚 last leave home, he had said that it WAS his last leave. He鈥檇 been pushing his luck and it was soon to run out.

In April the 629 moved to Littlehampton for more beach training and even diving, we don鈥檛 know if George was involved in this last activity, but he was a good swimmer. By May Flail Tanks, Navy personnel and more heavy equipment was arriving.

The end of May saw the Squadron in a camp at Wickham. The fact that they were surrounded by barbed wire was depressing as it made them feel they were criminals as if it wasn鈥檛 bad enough waiting for the unknown but evident shadow to call them to fight.

An inspection on May 22nd by the King of 140 of the men put the lid on it. On May 28th they started moving to the marshalling areas. George would also have been preparing explosive charges. But they still didn鈥檛 know exactly why.

On June 3rd the assault craft and stores were loaded and the men embarked the ship, ready to go the next day. But the awful waiting continued as the date for the invasion was postponed by bad weather. Finally, on June 5th, they sailed and found out where they were going.

At 4 o鈥檆lock on the morning of 6th June George and the others were awoken by Reveille and had breakfast. The off was at 5 a.m., when they climbed into the assault craft and were lowered into the water. It was raining, it was cold, it was gloomy. The sea was rough and most were seasick despite the pills they had all been given. It must have been a dreadful journey and they were late, landing around 8 in the morning.

The operation did not go to plan. The amphibious tanks couldn鈥檛 launch because of the rough sea. The assault tanks were knocked out. The Infantry should have been there in support, but it wasn鈥檛. So as soon as they landed there was a hail of machine gun bullets and mortars to welcome them onto French soil. This may be when George went down, as after only two minutes of landing about 30 of the 40 men had been hit 鈥� either wounded or killed. George was certainly numbered among the dead by the end of that day when the final count was made.

From a published history of the Sappers, it seems 629 squadron, on D Day were involved in obstacle clearance on the beach. They landed a bit late, the water was deeper than expected and there was small arms fire and mortars coming down. Men swam in to remove mines attached to partially submerged beach obstacles. All this was ahead of the Infantry Landings. The 629 Field Squadron lost nearly 20% of its men, some of whom were drowned.

Four hours after the initial landing by 629th, as the tide receded, the remaining men were still clearing mines and shell from the obstacles; in total nearly 500 were removed.

One cannot imagine the dreadful sights that those landings offered. George landed on Sword beach. We don鈥檛 know exactly what time he died or how, whether shot or drowned or caught in a shell explosion. But we know he is buried in Hermanville Cemetery 鈥� we have been there. The rows of white stones stretching over the French soil, George鈥檚 one of the 1003 in that one Cemetery alone. He was 24 years old.

Medals: 1939/45 Star, Africa Star with 8th Army Clasp, France and Germany Star, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939/45, Croix de Guerre with Silver Star

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