Hello to all. I've not been a member of this site very long but this is obviously one of the most if not the most informative and comprehensive sites that are available on the subject matter of WW2. Anyway, I'm interested about finding any information on the above serviceman with a view to locating existing relatives. This soldier died on 6th June 1944 age 23 and he is buried at Beny Sur Mer Cemetery in Normandy. There is a number on his headstone: B 63616. And he was a member of the Queens Own Rifles of Canada. There is a bit of a story behind my reason for trying to locate relatives which I may explain if and when any information is forthcoming. So if anyone can offer me a bit of guidance I'd be grateful. Note: there is also a plaque at the Canadian Cemetery at Beny Sur Mer commemorating the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (MG). ATB Stan50.
Note: there is also a plaque at the Canadian Cemetery at Beny Sur Mer commemorating the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (MG). ATB Stan50. This might be of interest to you. Ottawa Camerons;"....... "B" Company (Major J.M.Carson) successfully silenced an 8.8cm gun which blocked the approach towards Beny-sur-mer, and Lt. Woodward of that Company earned the MC for his bold and aggressive actio. Later, Major Carson followed up the tanks of the 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade into Beny-sur-mer and Anguerny. His brilliant leadership and example were largely responsible for the 8th Brigade attaining its objective before nightfall."
Hi Stan50 I've got some contacts with the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada Regiment, also with the curator. You could end me a PM. .303
Stan, Here is an excerpt to help you along. Charlie Martin's excellent book is also a good place to start. Toronto's Queen's Own Rifles (QOR) landed at 'Nan White' beach near Bernières at 8:05. The enemy fortifications on the 'Nan White' sector had been barely dented by the preliminary bombardment. The DD tanks were supposed to 'swim' in ahead of the infantry to diminish German resistance but were forced by high waves to land after them. When the QOR regiment stormed the beaches, they received the worst battering of any Canadian unit on D-Day. 'A' Company landed to the west of Bernières. Charlie Martin, Company Sergeant-Major, 'A' Company described the landing in his book Battle Diary: "As we moved farther from the mother ship and closer to shore, it came as a shock to realize that the assault fleet was disappearing from view. Suddenly there was just us and an awful lot of ocean, or English Channel if you prefer. All that remained within sight was our own fleet of ten assault craft, moving abreast in the early-morning silence in a gradually extending line facing the shore, the A Company boats on the right and the B Company boats on the left." "The moment the ramp came down, heavy machine-gun fire broke out from somewhere back of the seawall. Mortars were dropping all over the beach. The men rose, starboard line turning right, port turning left. I said to Jack, across from me, and to everyone: "Move! Fast! Don't stop for anything. Go! Go! Go!" We raced down the ramp, Jack and I side by side, the men closely following. We fanned out as fast as we could, heading for that sea wall… None of us really grasped at that point, spread across such a large beach front, just how thin on the ground we were. Each of the ten boatloads had become an independent fighting unit." "Our part of the beach was clear but there were mines buried in the sand. On the dead run you just chose the path that looked best. Bert Shepard, Bill Bettridge and I were running at top speed and firing from the hip. To our left we spotted a small gap in the wall. They had placed a belt-fed machine gun there as part of the defence and only one man was on it. We knew from our training that you cannot be on the move and fire accurately at the same time. If you stop you become a target. In any case, Bill did stop for a split second. He took his aim and that seemed to be the bullet that took the gunner out, although Bert and I were firing too. We got to the wall and over it, then raced across the railway line." 'A' Company was hit by heavy machine gun fire and heavy mortar fire. They got off the beach quickly and began clearing the town of Bernières. 'B' Company landed 250 yards east of its objective, directly in front of an enemy pill-box which inflicted 65 casualties within the first minutes. The assault depended on the resolve and courage of the remaining men to race across the beach to the seawall with no cover in between. Doug Hester, 'B' Company: "Then we saw the five pillboxes on top of the sea-wall. These were our first objective. About 500 yards out, they had us in their sites of their small arms and began shooting. When the craft got into shallower water, the Royal Marines lowered the door. The three in front of me including Doug Reed were hit and killed. By luck I jumped out between bursts into their rising blood. Cold and soaking wet, I caught up to Gibby...the first burst went through his back pack. He turned his head grinning at me and said, "that was close, Dougie."...the next burst killed him." In a mad dash three riflemen reached the main pillbox. Using their grenades and Sten-guns, and firing through the gun slits, they destroyed the defenders within. Lieutenant Herbert, Lance-Corporal Tessier and Riflemen Chicosk were awarded medals for their attack on the main pillbox. The remaining riflemen in 'B' Company outflanked the positions, broke through the beach defences and moved into the town. 'A' Company came under heavy machine gun fire as they moved into the town of Bernières. They advanced using fire and movement. Several soldiers would stay firm, providing covering fire while the others would move up to the front. Once they were in position and ready with covering fire, the others would come up. By 8:45, 'A' Company had taken the road through the village at its southwest point. 'B' company also advanced into the town and by 9:00 Bernières was secured. The Fort Garry Horse DD tanks landed shortly after the infantry and fired steadily at the German pillboxes and strong-points from their beach positions. After the AVRE's were able to clear a beach exit, the Fort Garry tanks moved up from the beach and into the town around 9:30. The QOR moved to their 'Forming Up Place', reassembled into groups and moved out with the Fort Garry Horse tanks south towards Anguerny seven miles up the road
Thanks for the replies and the information which has been useful. I have made some progress with what I've tried to achieve here and hopefully can furnish more details if I can complete the task. I'm now waiting and hoping that something positive is going to happen. Having got so far with this I now have to sit back and wait for a response from the parties I've contacted.
OK, so here we go with the full story. I have an interest in D.Day and Normandy as my late father in law came in at Arromanches a week after the landings - he was in the RASC - and I have an uncle still alive who landed on D + 1 on Gold beach who served with the REME. Both had non combatant trades but none the less both were very often on the receiving end of enemy action. My uncles ship was bombed on its' way in and although the bomb fell in the sea a hatch was blown in and many were injured. Anyhow, both of those relatives had very interesting stories to tell. My uncle I managed to persuade to be taped so I have his account for all time. My father in law who drove Richard Dimbleby into Belsen I was unable to get him to expand very much on his war, but what information I do have I'll always remember. Anyhow, this is not a post about my relatives this is about Freddy Harris. So, it must be about 15 years ago that we - my wife and I started going to places like Normandy and Arnhem. I wanted to see for myself those areas involved with WW2. So having now comprehensively seen most of what I wanted to see last year I found myself trying to think of somewhere different to go near the end of our trip there in June. I always take a lot of literature with me and suddenly rememberd some poetry I had with me which was written by veterans and I'd collected from the D.Day musem in Portsmouth many years ago - this must have been soon after it was opened - about 1985. One of these poems was written by a soldier called Cyril Crain. He had written and handed into the museum at least five poems, all very poignant. They all were very good but one in particular was called 'My Buddy.' In this brief poem he tells the story of landing and during the assault he sees his friend, his buddy fall - Freddy Harris. So I decided that I'd go and find out where this soldiers resting place was - just out of curiousity really. There are two Canadian cemeteries in Normandy and we found the right one first time. Beny Sur Mer cemetery is like all WW2 cemeteries - peaceful, perfectly manicured lawns and if it wasn't for the fact that it was the resting place of many war dead it could almost be called beautiful. So we found the grave and there under a stone I found a copy of the poem and a note from Cyril Crains neice asking any passers by whether they had any contact with the Harris family in Canada. If so would they write to her at the address she'd left. I took a lot of photos - I take loads of photos wherever I go - marvellous things these digital cameras - just keep clicking away. So anyway we finished our holiday and came home. A month or so ago now I felt pretty unwell and spent a lot of time indoors messing around with the computer - I am still learning bits and pieces. I suceeded in making a still movie and was quite impressed with the result and so I put my video onto 'YouTube.' (This was about the Bethnal Green Underground disaster in 1943 - my grandfather was in the Home Guard and was one of those who removed the dead from the staircase). Pleased with the result of that I decided to put something together about Normandy. I thought I'd use the Canadian soldier Freddy Harris to remind people that it wasn't just the Americans who were there - which seems to be what a lot of people think. Although a lot of the photos I used were of around Arromanche I put the cemetery photos into this video. If anyone's seen the film 'A Foreign Field' I made the end of the video a bit like that. Anyway, with so many photos in this the only bit of music I could find suitable was 'Hymn To The fallen' better known as the 'Saving Private Ryan' soundtrack. (Love the piece of music or hate it). At the end of my video, to make it actually real, I added a few lines saying that the author of the poem left at the grave of Freddy Harris was seeking to find any relatives of him. I further put that a copy of the poem was held at the D.Day museum in Portsmouth U.K. I was going to leave it at that but suddenly thought that perhaps I really ought to tell Cyril Crains neice of what I'd done on YouTube and it would give her the option of contacting the D.Day museum to make sure they had either her or her uncles details there should anyone see the video and try and make contact. Thus with some trepidation I wrote a brief letter to the niece in the Midlands. A day or so later I had a really nice reply and was asked to ring this lady, which again with a bit of trepidation I did one evening. During our chat it was confirmed that no contact had ever been made with the Harris family. Time was obviously running out as Cyril was in his late eighties. So, anyway we said goodbye and I wished her and her uncle all the best. But I went away and pondered on this for a while. Thus I did some basic searches on the internet and lo and behold found something interesting. I discovered an online magazine called 'Britannia and Castle' which in December 1999 had published the poem 'My Buddy' in one of their editions. Move onto February 2003 and Beryl Harris wrote to the magazine from Canada saying that she was the sister in law of Freddy Harris and would like to get in touch with Cyril Crain. Thus the editor tried to put both parties in contact with each other. For some unknown reason no contact happened. When I contacted the editor of this magazine he forwarded my email onto Beryl Harris in Canada and she soon emailed back to me. From here I contacted Cyril Crains neice and told her of what had occurred. From here both parties linked up and contact was established for the first time since the end of the War. However there is a twist to the end of this tale. Cyril Crain is being taken back to Juno beach this year and the Canadian museum at Juno beach want to use him as an example in a temporary display as the British soldier. Ironically the Canadian soldier they have chosen to accompany him will be Freddy Harris. Aparrently they are both to be represented as a manequin display, kneeling down on Juno beach. So at the end of the day the link up was most probably going to occurr naturally anyway. I just caused it to happen a month or so earlier. But the important thing is that it has now happened and it would seem that both families have a lot to talk about. The Harris family is by the sounds of it no ordinary family either. One relative invented the safety cap on bottles of tablets that we see in every day use and also started off the use of pre packaged goods such as screws and nails. Another member of the Harris family has won a Nobel prize as a scientist. But back to Freddy Harris, the person this thread is all about. The family heard various versions of where he died on the beach - just a few paces from the landing craft, further up the beach.... but Beryl Harris says it doesn't really matter. What is odd though is that she says that Freddy Harris's mother awoke that morning saying that she had heard someone calling 'Momma' in her sleep. That morning a French priest later came onto Juno beach and gave the dying their last rites. Mrs. Harris likes to believe she heard her son speaking to her in her sleep just before he died. Here's some more information on Cyril Crain. BBC - WW2 People's War - D Day with "the Queens own Rifles of Canada" & poem 'My buddy' I also found this: Keith and Lesley's Web Site | The Stevensons in Nottingham - which gives a much more detailed account of Cyrils D.Day. And lastly - here's some more of Cyril Crains poems: http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv101/STANF09/img112.jpg http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv101/STANF09/img115.jpg http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv101/STANF09/img113.jpg http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv101/STANF09/img114.jpg http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv101/STANF09/img118.jpg ATB, Stan.
Four Corporals of the Queens’ Own Rifles. L-R: Earl Stoll, killed in action (DOW), Sept ’44; Gerry Rayner, killed in action, July ’44; Sgt. Freddie Harris, killed in action D-Day, June 6, 1944; Sgt. Barney Danson, wounded in action Aug. ’44. Photo courtesty of the Memory Project www.thememoryproject.com
Barney Danson, the lone survivor of the 4 in the previous photo, was born in Toronto. He joined the QOR in 1939. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant and served until he was severely wounded, losing an eye, in Normandy. Danson was elected as an MP in 1968 and in 1976, he was promoted to Minister of National Defense. While Minister of National Defence, he was appointed the Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, his regiment. Barney Danson - Wikipedia
