Thetford Battle Report

By Staff Sgt Wright

Sunday 29th

At nearly 6-30 am the following morning the men had all awoken, those that could sleep anyway. Spirits were high, there had been a lot of jokes and pranks played during the night around the fire, men had shared their letters and photos of girlfriends, wives and children, I’d put on a brave face but Cpl Costin knew that something was wrong, I told him about my letter, he turned to me offering a piece of his ‘D-Ration’ and said ‘At least we still have chocolate.’, this bought a smile to my face, even if it was for a small moment.

By 7-30 am all the men were assembled and Sgt Grover was ordered to lead the men to a position east of ours, he was then to proceed through the woods after doing some communications work for the signal corps, and join the main attack force from the south. Upon reaching our position we noticed several units of SS and Fallschirmjäger engaged in action with the Rangers to the North. They were in full retreat across open ground so we had a clear view of numbers. At this point I decided to change our course of action and to sweep over the open ground to the east and then move north to cut the enemy troops off.

Cpl Berry moved 2nd squad to my right flank and Sgt Grover moved 3rd squad to my left we then moved steadily north into the enemy positions. When we were about 100 yards away from the enemy we had visual contact, unfortunately so did they and all hell broke loose. I pushed all three squads hard, moving forward at an amazing fast pace so not to let the Germans gain any ground ahead of us. By now the Rangers had stopped attacking from the west and were regrouping. Having cleared the positions after a good thirty minutes of non-stop action we had ended up with several prisoners, one that had an arm injury, Pvt Woods offered the man water and Cpl Costin attended his wound. I had to admire the courage these troops had shown even if they were the enemy. Along with the two prisoners we commandeered a Kubel wagon, motor cycle and side car. After some interrogation the Germans revealed that ‘Tiger 1’ a crack German unit were to the west heading in our direction. Looking at the area it was decided to wait and set up an ambush as the Rangers pushed them in our direction.

Positions were set up on both the right and left flanks utilising the automatic weapons to lay down heavy fire cover at the front of the attack. All rifle men were situated in positions suited best to pick off the Germans as they came through the pass.

Approximately half an hour passed and we noticed enemy movement behind us and in the distance could see Rangers to our right. Then came the forward attack. The German attack was ferocious and we lost several good men. There was a mad rush to take our positions and I killed four enemy as they charged across the open ground. Two SS troops managed to get to the left flank of myself, Cpl Costin and two privates who were nearby, I took a shot to the shoulder but the quick thinking of Pvt Woods and Cpl Costin saved my life, revealing their own positions but killing the two enemies in the process. At this point we withdrew to the east to where Sgt Grover was regrouping the squads. A message was sent to us at this point revealing that the movement behind us was the position of the German CP. The Rangers we saw to our right were headed in that direction, also on our far left flank were some other allied troops whom we were not sure of the regiment but they appeared to be British paratroopers.

As usual the ‘Bloody Bucket’, the 28th were given the task of a full on assault. The men were tired but moral was high and after a short break they were ready to move out. Spread out in line formation we moved in on the German position. The rattling sound of the Mg42’s could be heard in the distance, as we got within 150 yards they opened up on us. Unit by unit we moved with speed offering covering fire as soon as they hit the ground, enabling the next unit to move forward. Within a matter of minutes we had overrun the initial positions and were into the main complex clearing the Germans, several put their hands ups and I remember smiling as one shouted ‘Mickey Mouse’, perhaps to signify that he had no desire to die. There were some very ferocious skirmishes including a half track that had an Mg42 on top of it that cut down several men before it was blown up with grenades.

We lost 80% of our men that day.

The main attack force pushed on, us now in the rear. When we arrived at the CP we were told the good news that the 28th were pulling out due to high casualties – finally I could go home and sort out that ‘Dear John’.



Staff Sgt Wright
12130464
28th Infantry Division