Brothers in arms

TWO of my mother’s six brothers, John, 22 and single, and Fred, 28, who had been married for less than two years and had a young daughter, were caught up in the fighting as the Germans chased the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to the sea.

John was involved in the battle around the village of Saint-Venant in the Pas-de-Calais, defending the crossing of the river and the Canal de la Lys.

On May 24, 1940, the 3rd Panzer Division, supported by the SS Germania Regiment, occupied the village, but the following day the Germans were temporarily pushed out. John died in the course of this action and is buried in the cemetery at Saint-Venant.

Fred was engaged in the opposition to the other wing of the Nazi pincer move to cut off the BEF. He was in Belgium, holding the line of the Ypres-Comines canal. He was killed on May 28 and is buried in the Oosttaverne Wood cemetery. The eldest brother, Tom, a pre-war regular, survived the second battle of El Alamein, but then received a mortal wound in the engagement at El Agheila in Libya, in December 1942. His body was not recovered and he is remembered on the El Alamein memorial in Egypt.

There was to be no Saving Private Ryan expedition to rescue the other three brothers. They survived the war, though were not unscathed. Name supplied, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks.