Action Rear

Originally raised in 1674, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment is one of the oldest county regiments. In Dutch service until 1688, and thereafter in service to The Crown, latterly as the 6th Regiment of Foot, the regiment today forms a part of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. During the Second World War, the 2nd Battalion was integral to the greatest invasion in modern military history, the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944.

Landing in the Sword Area, Queen White Beach, they fought inland, relieving the beleaguered airborne troops at the River Orne bridges, before the ill-fated advance on Caen and the horrors and heroism of close fighting around Lebisey Wood.

The battalion faced SS, Panzer and elite Airborne forces as they held their ground and forced the passage to Caen in Operation Charnwood and Operation Goodwood and beyond as they advanced across the Seine before leaving France in September 1944.

This latest work includes extracts from previously unpublished letters and accounts from the men who were there, the men who fought and died on the sand and soil of Normandy in 1944. Personal diaries and photograph albums have been made available by the families of the men who served to produce this unique work of remembrance and thanks to all men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, especially those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

The author’s Great Uncle, Corporal Charles Tweed, landed with C Company, 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment on 6 June, and served in Normandy until being killed during the fighting around Caen on 19 July 1944.