Major Douglas Covill
Awarded an Immediate DCM for courage under fire in Italy
MAJOR DOUGLAS COVILL, who has died aged 101, was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1945 at the Battle of the Argenta Gap and subsequently became Mayor of Winchester.
In April 1945, a series of battles took place in northern Italy to secure the eastern flank of the 8th Army. The Argenta Gap, an important strategic feature, was flanked on the left by the River Reno and on the right by flooded country and Lake Commachio.
On April 17, Covill was a troop sergeant in the 10th Royal Hussars supporting 24th Guards Brigade in an attack on the Fossa Marina, a large canal and a major obstacle in the assault on the Gap. When his tank was hit by a bazooka and caught fire, his driver was killed, his gunner had a broken leg, and the tank, now well ablaze, continued to move towards the enemy.
Covill, a small man, hauled his gunner, a large man, out through the turret, pushed him off the tank and dragged him into a ditch where they were pinned down by machine-gun fire. Using hand signals, he called up one of his troop’s tanks and directed its fire on to the Spandau machine-gun post. He then carried the wounded gunner and placed him on the back of the tank.
When his troop leader was killed by a sniper he ran across open ground under fire, took over the tank, and with the two remaining tanks continued to give vital support to the hard-pressed infantry. He was awarded an Immediate DCM.
Douglas Frederick Covill was born at Croydon on November 14 1920. Known as Dougie, he was 14 when he left school, and he joined the 10th Royal Hussars in 1937. In May 1940 his regiment was sent to Normandy to support the French army.
He was a lance-corporal gunner in a light tank, and when his tank commander was killed by a sniper he took his place for the rest of the short campaign. During the evacuation from France, the 10th Hussars embarked from Brest in an Isle of Man ferry and reached Plymouth on June 17.
In November 1941, the regiment deployed to North Africa. Equipped with Crusader tanks, and part of 7th Armoured Division, they saw action in Operation Crusader, the Battle of Alam Halfa and the Second Battle of El Alamein. In the course of one fierce engagement, Covill’s tank was knocked out. He was wounded but soon returned to his troop.
In April 1944 the regiment moved to Italy, and he was wounded again by shrapnel during the battle to break through the Gothic Line. It hit him in the chest, just missing a main artery, but he was back in action for the final offensive.
After the end of the campaign in North-west Europe, the regiment spent much of the post-war years on occupation duties in Trieste, Austria and Germany. In 1959, he was commissioned and served as a quartermaster with his regiment in Germany. He was appointed MBE in 1968.
After retiring from the Army and settling at Alresford, Hampshire, he represented the district as a Conservative member of Winchester City Council for 10 years. In 1988 he was elected Mayor of Winchester. Among other activities, he was a leading Freemason, county president of the Royal British Legion in Hampshire and chairman of the Distinguished Conduct Medal League.
He and his family moved to Storrington, West Sussex, in 2001. He played a good game of bridge and kept in close touch with his old regiment.
Douglas Covill married, in 1947, Inge Jeske, a German girl whom he met when his regiment was stationed at Lübeck on the Baltic coast. She predeceased him and he is survived by their two daughters.