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Sword THE ASSAULT LANDINGS IN NORMANDY
D DAY: MIDNIGHT JUNE 5 -- MIDNIGHT JUNE 6 Ack 6/6/58
What is your full name? HUBERT VICTOR BURY BAXTER
What is your present address? 51 LOWER JACKWOOD CLOSE ELTHAM, LONDON S.E.9.
Telephone number:
What was your unit, division, corps? ANTI-TANK SECTION 1ST BATN. KINGS OWN SCOTTISH BORDERERS. 9TH BRIGADE 3RD DIVISION
Where did you land and at what time? HERMANVILLE EARLY MORNING
What was your rank and age on June 6, 1944? PRIVATE. 25 years.
Were you married at that time? YES What is your wife's name? Did you have any children at that time? YES GIRL 1yr. old.
When did you know that you were going to be part of the invasion? Not for sure, until we were actually on the Tank Landing Craft.
What was the trip like during the crossing of the Channel? Do you remember, for example, any conversations you had or how you passed the time? We were on a Tank Landing Craft, and I remember there was only a very small cabin, which held about a dozen of the lads at a time, Myself I spent most of the time laying on one of the stretchers, which we were carrying on our Carriers. Our section had Bren Carriers to tow the Anti-Tank Guns
Were there any rumours aboard ship? (Some people remember hearing that the Germans had poured gasoline on the water and planned to set it afire when the troops came in.) We had heard this rumour and were most apprehensive about it, but we were told the landing would be a complete surprise to the Germans.
Did you by any chance keep a diary of what happened to you that day? No.
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2 . Were any of your friends killed or wounded either during the landing or during the day? Yes. [crossed out] I very [end crossed out] My friend [inserted] who was on another tank landing craft [end inserted] also a Carrier Driver following [crossed out]my[end crossed out] me off of the beach, a shell hit the front of his carrier killing all the section, except my friend who was very badly burnt, also blind for many weeks.
Do you remember any conversations you had with them before they became casualties? No The last news that the Corporal in charge of the gun crew, (which got killed [inserted]he included[end inserted]) had had from home was that his wife had just had an happy event, a baby daughter. I know that was the best letter he had before we left Gosport.
Were you wounded ? Yes but later on in August
How were you wounded? By German 88 Gun firing anti-personal shells.
Do you remember what it was like — that is, do you remember whether you felt any pain or were you so surprised that you felt nothing? No pain at first just surprised at feeling the warm blood running down my legs.
Do you remember seeing or hearing anything that seems funny now, even though it may not have seemed amusing at the time? Or anything unexpected or out- of-place? Yes when we were quite a distance from the beaches but well within sight of the burning houses, [crossed out] quite a few shells splashed into the sea near us. I remember a chap from Glasgow swearing about our Navy dropping their shells short. It was a few minutes before we realised that it was the enemy firing at us. There was quite a rush to get well down in the carrier.
Do you recall any incident, sad or heroic, or simply memorable, that struck you more than anything else? A [crossed out] few [end crossed out] hundred yards or so from shore the Naval Officer in charge of our Craft, asked for a volunteer to wade ashore, to make sure there were no hidden obstacles under the water. I remember our surprise when a chap we all considered very meek and mild volunteered. I certainly would not have liked the job. We were all aware that any hidden obstacles would most likely be mined.
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3.
In times of great crisis, people generally show either great ingenuity or self-reliance; others do incredibly strange or stupid things. Do you remember any examples of either?
Do you know of anybody else who landed within the 24 hours (midnight 5 June to midnight 6 June) either as infantry, glider or airborne troops, whom we should write to? Jimmie Mill 14 Gladstone Terrace Edinburg This is the chap I mentioned on sheet 2 whose carrier was hit.
What do you do now? [crossed out ] I [ end crossed out] Printer (Composing)
Please let us have this questionnaire as soon as possible, so that we can include your experiences in the book. We hope that you will continue your story on separate sheets if we have not left sufficient room. Full acknowledgement will be given in a chapter called "Where They Are Now."
Cornelius Ryan Joan O. Isaacs The Reader's Digest
I remember the grand sight it was seeing the hundreds of gliders coming in, and that [inserted] first [end inserted] night watching the unfortunate gliders burning in the fields. A chap from Dumfries jumping off my carrier before we were off the beaches to take a ring off of a dead German. all these things flash through my mind. The French resistance men coming to us to help. and the French [crossed out] [unintelligible] [end crossed out] women taking the coloured parachutes.
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BR E Baxter Sword
Private Hubert Victor Bury Baxter, age 25 at D-Day, a driver of a Bren-gun carrier in an anti-tank section of the 1st Battalion King ’s Own Scottish Borderers, attached to the 9th Brigade of the British 3rd Division. His nickname was "Chug”. He came in on a LCT which contained 12 vehicles which included Bren Gun carriers each towing a 6-pound anti-tank gun. The sergeant in charge of his Bren Gun carrier -- Sgt. "Dinger" Bell -- never had seen eye to eye with him and for that matter, neither had Baxter. Prior to D-Day, Private Baxter had presented himself before his sergeant and saluting smartly had said, "I demand a transfer because I frankly don ’t like you, Serge." To which Bell just as bluntly said, "Baxter, you’re bloody well detailed to me as a driver, and that ’s where you’re bloody well going to stay." So a row had been brewing up between them for a long time, and even though this was D-Day Baxter didn’t feel the slightest bit co-operative towards the Sergeant and visa versa.
The Bren gun carriers were started in the LCT as they made their run in towards the beach. Baxter was sitting low in the carrier because he was the driver and the sergeant was sitting at his right on a higher level because he was the commander. One of the irritating things that Baxter did not like was that every time the sergeant wanted his attention, he would bang him on his tin helmet with his left hand and yell in a most exasperating way, "Bash on, bash on." He said to Baxter, "Wind up your bloody seat so you can see where you’re going when we get out of this thing." Baxter said "No bloody fear, I’m staying down here." There were 5 men altogether aboard this Bren gun carrier , the driver, the sgt., a Bren gunner, and the crew of the anti-tank gun which they were towing. Baxter ’s Bren gun carrier was the second off the LCT, and when they came off they went into about 4 ft. of water which they negotiated successfully, and once on the beach they immediately removed the canvas water-proofing. Ahead of them they could see white tapes leading through the mines on the beach and to their left and right lots of obstacles, wrecked self-propelled guns, many beached landing craft and dead and wounded. They drove up off the beach after some time and on to a road. On the right was a big dug-out which was being used as a First Aid post. It was as they passed this dug-out that Baxter saw his first dead Germans. He hopped out of the Bren gun carrier to have a look at his steering gear which was not functioning right. As he did, he noticed that the driver of the carrier ahead of him had jumped out also to pick up one of the rifles belonging to a dead German.
In an odd way this seemed a horrible thing to Baxter, and he could not help but think about the Bren gun carrier/ [insert] driver [end insert] He yelled out at him, "If anybody ever deserved to get the same thing, you do," to which the driver replied, "Listen mate, even if it had been you I’d have done the same thing." At this Sergeant Bell exploded and yelled , "Of all the bloody fools; bash on."
There was a lot of sniping and mortaring now as they drove on the road cleaning off the beach. To his right Baxter saw his good friend, Private Jimmy Mills, driving his carrier in another column. As they passed that column by, Baxter yelled over, "Good luck, Jimmy, it ’s your turn next."
The pair had been together for almost 3 1/2 years and as Baxter ’s vehicle clanked by he could not help but remember one funny thing about Mills: he had hair like barbed wire which he could never comb. But he was quite sure that on this day of all days Mills wasn’t worried about his appearance.
Suddenly he heard a heavy explosion behind him. Instinctively he stopped his vehicle and turning round saw Mills' carrier in flames after receiving a direct hit. Everybody on board had been killed and his pal was severely burned and wounded. The commander of that carrier, a Lance Corporal, had received news only the day before that his wife had given birth to a daughter. Baxter was stunned by the sudden and terrible explosion and was momentarily frozen. He was brought back to reality by the roar of Sgt. Bell, "Bash on!"