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John George (my grandad) was 304721 Lt. J. S. B. George of the 107 Regiment of the Royal Armoured, Corps, part of the 34th Army tank brigade. This was an independent Armoured Brigade, acting as reserve untis to support the infantry. He was in "A" squadron during the heaviest fighting of the Normandy campaign, transfered to "B" Sqn on 19/8 and to "c" Sqn on 22/9, where he remained with the 1st Troop of Churchill tanks until VE Day on May 8th 1945.
The regiment landed at Courselles on June 30th and July 1st, 3 weeks after D.Day. By then the Normandy bridgehead was well establiches. The regiment was based at Cully.

July 14-15th: Moved to the assembly line at Mouen and crossed the river Odon.

July 15th: Regiment's first action to capture Esquay. "A" and "B" Squadrons supported the infantry. Visibility was very poor, owing to the use of excessive amounts of smoke. The commander of the "B" Squadron was kill by anti-tank gunfire, his tank was destroyed, darkness fell while the forward tand troops wee still in an orchard, and there was difficulty in navigating back to the forward rally place. The regiment had to remain there until first light, and was shelled by the enemy throughut th 24 hours.
This area of Normandy, the Bocage, had many small fields with narrow lanes edged with hedges on high banks, and steep valleys which was not good for manoevring tanks.
July 16th: Back to Mouen to reform, ready for a large scale atach on Esquay and Bon Repas. The tactical aim was to capture ground to the South West and South of Caen to link up with the forces advancing round the East of Caen. This attack was called off, as it would not have been possible to hold the two villages.

July 17th: Crossed the R. Oden again and then supported infantry attacks on the enemy line at Evrecy.

July 18th: Regiment relieved by another unit, and moved to Marceler by night.

July 19th: To Cristot, for 48 hours rest.

July 21st: Back to the front at Rourmauville for another week.

July 28th: By now, the Americans had broken out of the Cherbourg peninsula, and the British army was trying to join them near Villiers Bocage, so the regiment was suddenly switched to take part in a 2 day pursuit of the Germans to the R. Orne.
August 2nd: Raid on Esquay, to check whether the 10th Panze Division had withdrawn. "A" Sqn was in support on the left flank, giving tremendous machine-gun support at the advance. Bassage, followed by "Crocodiles" infantry was a bit slow and temporarily "lost". Smoke cover was good, tanks gave support with 200-300 yards of visibility. Infantry under fairly heavily light machine-gun fire. Tanks engaged all hedges to their front with machine-guns and high explosives. One tank caught fire and had to be written off. Prisoners of War were taken. One Churchill tank was apparently captured by the enemy, and there was firing at a leading troop hitting 3 British tanked and piercing their armour. The gunner of the Troop Corporal's tank got badly6 hit.
The infantry withdrew at H hour + 50 and the leading tank withdreww through support troops at H-Hour +60. One "Crocodil" and the "Churchill" lost trancks on unchartered mine-fields but they were later recovered. This was concidered a successful raid- prisoners were taken for later interrogation only and tankk was lost and 1 officer wounded. The smoke cover prevented long-range enemy artillery engaging our tanks.

August 5th: The R, Orne was reached at a point opposite Grimbasq. The river was fordable, but the banks on the W.side were too steep for tanks and the railway embankment on the other side was an additional obstacle.

August 6th: Infantry crossed the river at 2200 hours and quickly established a bridghead 2 miles wide and 1 mile deep at the hamlet of Brieux.
August 7th: With the help of a section of the Royal Engineers "A" Squadron, followed by "C" Squadron crossed the river. Throughout the day, the bridgehead was heavily mortared, from enemy in the Foret de Grimbosq. It was decided to extend the gridgehead to the South "A" Squadren with other troops involved. There was very heavy fighting, one infantry officer gained the V.C, a tank sergent the m.m. "A" Sqn suffered very heavy tank casualties. As darkness fell, the enemy tank, were unable to move, our infantry stood firm, and one small group with anti-tank guns was organized to stop the enemy crossing over the river. They could not stop him taking the road leading to the Brieux cross-roads, which at the time was the only exit from the river.

August 8th: "B" Sqn crossed the river, cleared the mines but suffered so many casulties that they could do no more than hold a small perimeter round the river crossing. At midday another counter-attack was beaten off by a composite half-squadron of the remnant of "A" and "C" Squadrons. With the help of artillery, the enemy's Tiger tanks were driven off. By evening the bridgehead was comparatively firm again and the regiment was relieved by another Battalion of the Brigade. Three officers got the MC but there were severe casualties to officers,men and tanks.

August 9th: Although damaged tanks had been recovered during the battle, by now only 1 Squadrons strength was available out of 3. This composite Squadron crossed the Orne again and advance for 8-10 days fighting mainly small actions to cross the Flers-Falauise road.

Grandad made some comments on the action which were probably written around August 18th:
"Orne red with blood... Colonel Bain-happy (names of some officers/men killed) Remains of Regt- 8 tanks!!...to Falaise (illegible word) Squadron and refit Thank God!!"

In once battle Grandad was blown out of his tank and my Granny believes it was in this one:
"August 18th. Falaise after Orne Brid'head and packet. 1st rest since landing 19th. To "B" Sqn from "A" Sqn 22nd. Bathed in the Orne. 23rd rGT moves-new Colonel.

The Regiment then move3d forward to take part in the next battle for Le Havre and Granny thinks it was at this point when they passed through the Calvados area and his troop "liberated" a Calvados artillery. Some men were out of action for a couple of days.
Later the regiment went through Belgium, Holland and crossed to the Rhine in April.

The above information my Granny wrote out for me and my cousins but one story which isn't included which I remember her telling me was about the time when my Grandad's tank was blown up and he was the sole survivor. At the time my Gran never knew my Grandad but she read an article about it in the paper and was so moved that she cut out the article and kept it. Years later they married without knowing that Granny had kept this article and only when they were looking through stuff that she had kept from the war did they realise the coincidence.

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