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Trooper Sydney Moore
Caen, Normandy 23rd July - 6th August 1944
On leaving the Noyers area the regiment were posted to a new ‘harbour’ near Les Hauts Vents. It was in an orchard. The trees giving shade and cover from aerial observation. On 25th July they were on the move again. This time to a new location just south of Langrune-sur-Mer. The route took them past the now famous 6th Airborne Division D-Day landing zone near Ranville, where the airborne troops had seized the vital Orne bridgehead. Sid would have been able to see the ground littered with Allied Gliders parked nose to tail where they had landed.
The regiment was now given a defensive task of holding the ground north of Grentheville which is some four miles south East of Caen. The landscaped had changed from the frightening bocage to open rolling hills and large flat fields. This was much more suitable to armoured warfare. It was not unlike the landscape of Salisbury Plain back in the UK. You could see for miles and so could the enemy. The problem was that any movement could be seen by the Germans who would then request artillery fire. Dust was the problem. It was a hot dry summer and the chalk soil was very dry and crumbly. Any vehicle movement would cause a large dust cloud.
The 144th RAC was camped on the northern side of a small hill out of sight of the enemy. There was no cover in this countryside. Sid and all the other tank crews had to dig a six foot by five foot wide trench under their tank. Whilst two men kept watch the other three slept, cooked and ate in the dugout. Mosquitos plagued the tank crews in the evening and whilst they tried to sleep. The worst thing to endure was the intermittent shelling that caused a few casualties. The feeling of having to sit there and take it was depressing. HQ responded by allowing two squadrons to retire away from the front line and out of shelling range while only keeping one squadron at the front to deal with any sudden German attack. The rest area for the lucky crews was just north of Ranville amongst the 6th Airborne Division’s gliders. The problem was that the Grentheville mosquitos must have told all their friends where these other tank squadrons had moved to because the crews in the rest areas were pestered by mosquito reinforcements. Some troopers woke up unrecognisable as their face had swollen up so much from being bitten.
On the afternoon of the 3rd of August the regiment moved to a concentration area near Cazelle six miles north of Caen. This is where preparation and training for the impending attack of Operation Totalize took place. Caen had been finally captured on 18th July after a month of heavy fighting. On the afternoon of the 6th August the 144th Regiment RAC was on the move again. It drove through the ruined streets of Caen to its designated Assembly area inside the Cormelles Factory on the southern outskirts of the Faubourg de Vaucelles suburb of Caen on the south bank of the river Orne. That evening Sid enjoyed a ‘fraternization party’ between the tank crews and the jocks of the Highland Infantry Division who had managed to liberate some whiskey, wine and beer.
Books that cover
Op Totalize are 'Blue Flash' written by Alan Jolly (p47 covers
Sid) & 'No
Holding Back' by Brian A Reid
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