Hello, I have joined this forum to hopefully find some information about my father George Stanley Harper, the information I have is he served with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, his service number was 5115812 he inlisted in Birmingham in 1940 and on the top of the page its says Territorial Army registration number QCAM. 89.3. he was posted to France on the 20th July 1944 where he was the driver of a bren gun carrier, he went over a landmine somewhere around Caen on the 13th August 1944, he was badly injured but all the rest of the crew were killed, what I would like to know is there any way of finding out about the incident and finding the names of those who were killed, also where it happened, as you can see from my posting I now live in Normandy, about an hour away from Caen. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. June
Welcome, June to this fine place. I would guess that one of our British members might be of help, as might Skipper. Good luck in your quest.
Good evening June The most authorative book I know is "Caen: The Anvil of Victory." I know a little about Caen because I have my father's maps. He was a sapper with the Canadian Army and he was injured there as well. Caen was probably the bloodiest battle in Europe, along with Ortona, where ... oddly, both my uncle and my wife's step-father fought. I have ordered a copy of the book ... I've had one before but it evaporated. It has detailed maps with information on specific units. If I get the book, I will post information. John Wroe, Parry Sound Ontario Canada
Hello June...welcome to the forums. I'm sure that someone here will be able to point you in the right direction. Indeed, it looks as you've already received a couple of tips! Good luck with your search.
Hello June, and welcome to this fine place. I suggest you post your question in two places: (i) the geneological research or information request sections of this forum, and (ii) at our sister site, ww2talk.com. You will need to register at ww2talk.com in order to post but it will likely be worth your time, as that site gets more English visitors.
Thank you all for your advice and information, the book on Caen sounds very good, I'll have to do a search on that one. Thank's again. June
Hi Skipper, Sorry I've taken so long to answer you, I work as a pet-sitter here in Normandy/Calvados so I'm away from home quite a lot. No Dad never came back to France and never talked about his time over here, the only place I remember him mentioning was he was blown up near Caen, and because I live less than an hour from there I'd dearly love to put flowers on the graves of the men who were killed in the same explosion as my Dad who survived.
Hello June, without a name of any of his crew it would be hard to find out who is buried where, but the large majority of British Normandy casualties are buried in Bayeux. Out of 4400 fallen , 1800 there are Commonwealth. They have a name register. 1800 names is a long list , but in an afternoon you could compare dates and Regiments and once you find one man , the others should be buried next to the identified member. If you have at least one name then you could get a confirmation of the exact burial place at www.cwgc.org Hope this helps.
