At a loss - 2nd fife & Forfar C sqn members killed at Bakel 24/9/1944

At a loss i am trying to find a pic and name of the tank My Great Uncle was in when he was killed on the 24 sep 1944 in Bakel i have the names of the other men that died with him, Tomas Paget, Fredrick Cornwall, Alexander Forrester, Edward Hodge and Lesley Adams but would love a bit more info about the tank the men any stories from survivers that served with him Clifford Colley Do hope someone has some info as we are going over to holland for the 80th anniversary in september and would love to know his story

- 2nd fife & Forfar C sqn members killed at Bakel 24/9/1944

 

Hi Emma,

Good luck with your research. I've got some of the war diary for September 1944 (WO 171/853) at it records:

24 September
At 1400 hrs we moved through DEURNE, which had been captured by the 23 Hussars and moved north. About two miles from BAKEL ‘C’ Sqn contacted enemy tanks and our two leading tanks and an OP tank were knocked out. Lieut. E.A. Lamont carried out an outflanking movement to the left and engaged some of the tanks but did not succeed in knocking out any of them. No further progress was made that night ad the Regt harboured in a cold and wet field between BAKEL and DEUREN. Lieut. A. Forrester was killed that afternoon.

Hopefully that is useful and more folks will be along to help with more information.

Regards

Tom

 

Thank you very much this is about as much info as i already have we only have one photo of my great uncle what looks like his enrolment pic trying desperately to find more out but thank you so much for you help and reply

 

A photo of the original burial from Findagrave of Thomas Paget.
Trooper Thomas Paget (unknown-1944) - Find a...

 

Have you applied for his service records

Requests for personal data and service records: a detailed guide

 

yes but upto 12 month wait at the moment what i would really like to find out is the date he enlisted as that way i can work out where he was

 

Clifford Colley's Service Number was: 14307321.
From: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2961467/clifford-colley/

That number has not appeared here before today. His name appears in two threads from your posts.

I assume the others listed in Post 1 are from the other three tanks, did they take you anywhere?

Did this site yield up a photo? See: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1273687546088264/search/?q=colley Too many entries to go through. Might be worth joining and asking - assuming you use such sites.

This appears to originate from a Dutch source in my bold:

From: Adams, Leslie Frank - TracesOfWar.com

On the Dutch site there several B&W photos including one of him and a newspaper clipping. (I know I am late to this thread). See; note screenshots are not allowed: Clifford Colley - Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers Deurne

I would suggest you contact the site owner before your September visit.