Sappers posts are truly amazing. Giving the sort of non glorified insite that can only come from first hand experience.

I have just reached the taking of Caen, I read and re-read the posts on Chateau de la Londe. As I mentioned earlier my fathers route must have closely matched Sapper's as he also landed at Sword, went on to the taking of Caen, to Brussels & the crossing of the Rhine.

I was therefore gob smacked when Richard Harris wrote "To add to the racket, the Middlesex joined in" If he is writing of the Middlesex regiment of the Royal Engineers then this was my fathers regiment. To think that their paths so closely matched is an incredible link to find.

I have been told that no two soldiers experiences in a battle will ever match because they are so focussed on their immediate surrounds and "surviving" And I am sure this is true. But for me this feels like I am reading of my fathers experiences.

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Brian Messenger