162713 Major Martin Ralph George WATKIN, Intelligence Corps: 27/05/1945

Killed in an incident with Private Floyd W. Craver


MAJOR MARTIN RALPH GEORGE WATKIN

Service Number: 162713
Regiment & Unit/Ship
Intelligence Corps

Date of Death
Died 27 May 1945

Buried or commemorated at
GOLDERS GREEN CREMATORIUM

Panel 3.




United Kingdom

• Country of Service United Kingdom
• Awards Mentioned in Despatches
• Additional Info Husband of E. Joan Watkin, of Manchester.
• 
  

 

Haven't heard of this one before, some rather curious leads to follow-up on:

Band Of Brothers on Instagram: "S/Sgt Charles E. "Chuck" Grant was born March, 1922, in Pittsburgh, but grew up in Los Angeles. He enlisted in the Army August 18, 1942, even though his job at an airplane factory meant he was exempt from military service, as it was deemed vital work to the war effort. Grant volunteered for the paratroopers and was placed in 2nd platoon of Easy Company, 506th PIR, at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. Grant was remembered as a smart, good guy, who always looked out for everyone, and he soon made sergeant. He was one of the NCO's who handed in their stripes in protest against company commander Captain Sobel in England. Babe Heffron, who joined Easy after Normandy, remembers that whenever he had guard duty in Aldbourne with Grant, Grant would instead sneak them off to the pub in the nearby village of Membury. Grant made his first combat jump on DDay, June 6, 1944. He made it through that campaign unharmed and then jumped into The Netherlands in September, 1944 (pic lower left is Grant with locals). He was wounded on Sep 20 when he was shot in the hip and buttock. He recovered to rejoin Easy in time to head to Belgium in defense of the town of Bastogne. He fought through the bitter conditions as a squad leader. He later became platoon sergeant of 2nd platoon. In May, 1945, the unit was stationed in Austria. Grant was shot in the head by a drunk G.I and had to undergo surgery to save his life. The surgeon called him "the toughest man I have ever seen" as he hadn't believed Grant would survive the surgery. Thankfully, Grant went on to recover, and although he had health problems such as paralysis on one side of his body and speech problems, he was able to live a full life. He married, raised a family, and ran a tobacco shop. He attended the Easy reunions each year and kept in touch with his war buddies. Grant passed away Oct 12, 1982, and was portrayed by Nolan Hemmings in Band of Brothers. Currahee to one of Easy's strongest ♠️♠️ • Pictured with Skip Muck lower right • Dog tag courtesy of Gettysburg Museum of HIstory See next post for more on the shooting in Austria ♠️♠️ #bandofbrothers #easycompany #charlesgrant #ww2 #506thpir #101stairbornedivision

#ww2history"
Hauptmann (Captain) Eduard Altacher - German Forces | Gallery

 

Well here is the first clue:

Snag this is via Twitter and series of eleven tweets on May 27th 2020.
From: https://twitter.com/EasyCompany506t/status/1265663253151129600

Then:

From: https://www.reddit.com/r/BandofBrothers/comments/1404907
/what_happened_to_the_drunk_private_after_the/?rdt=37442

Then an ever longer story. See: Floyd W. Craver - Wikitia

 

Yes I didnt post the twitter very long
Interesting sad story

 

Commissioned 21 December 1940:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35040/supplement/257/data.pdf

Wartime appointments in the War Office, Algiers and France, including liaison with US staff, before Germany / Austria.

MiD gazetted 2 August 1945



Commemorated on the Hampstead Garden Suburb Heritage virtual museum:

Hampstead Garden Suburb Virtual Museum : Photograph : Free Church Memorial display for The Fallen in WW2 - Martin Ralph George Watkin bio2 [WW2-8-23]

with biography:
Hampstead Garden Suburb Virtual Museum : Photograph : Free Church Memorial display for The Fallen in WW2 - Martin Ralph George Watkin bio1 [WW2-8-22]


His 'Section' Head at SHAEF may have been Lt Col John Langshaw Austin:
Austin, John Langshaw, 1911-1960
J. L. Austin - Wikipedia
noted for “he more than anybody was responsible for the life-saving accuracy of the D-Day intelligence”, an interesting epithet, quoted in ......
John Langshaw Austin (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
...... with an insight to 'The Martians' at:
Thomas Nagel · Leader of the Martians: J.L. Austin’s War


..... so Watkin may have been one of 'The Martians' .......?