D-Day 6th JUNE 1944 - CHESTERFIELD'S STORY
D-Day – the term brings to mind World war 2, our minds eye produces a vision of thousands of troops landing on the beaches of Normandy in France. In military terms it simply refers to “the first day” “the start” of any operation, if it wasn’t for the success of Operation Overlord on 6th June 1944 then we probably wouldn’t give the term a second thought.
Thanks to the brave troops who took part in the largest seaborne
invasion in history we commemorate the most celebrated D-Day in our history today,
76 years on
from the first day of Operation Overlord. The actions on that one
day led to the eventual overturn of Hitler and his Nazi oppression throughout Europe.
Chesterfield’s part in the D-Day landings….
I wrote a blog post for the 70th anniversary of
D-Day telling some of the stories which emerged from Chesterfield in relation
to the day. The blog “D-Day for the Chesterfield townsfolk” is still available to read, just click on the title.
I remember back in 2014 when I wrote my previous D-Day post that I was
surprised to learn that Chesterfield’s Royal Hospital received wounded troops
from the landings. The Derbyshire Times
wrote “the numbers of admissions have been gradually reduced to bring the
beds available for Service cases up to 50% of the hospitals capacity”. Patients were discharged from hospital
care and sent home, the hospital assured the locals that “as soon as the hospital
is able to resume its normal activities it will do so” but were told that for
now only “cases requiring urgent hospital treatment can be admitted to the
wards”.
Over 150 men were treated at Chesterfield Royal
Hospital the following week. They arrived by road buses from the base hospitals in nearby Nottingham, the first 20 men
on Sunday evening 11th June, over 80 men on the afternoon of 12th June and the
remainder more than 40 men on Tuesday 13th June. It didn't take long for
the news of the Royal Hospital's heroic patients to spread around the town and
the Chesterfield inhabitants were soon assembled as a large crowd to applaud and
cheer their brave soldiers.
The men were reported as being a "cheerful crowd of men" their uniforms were
soiled but they were in good spirits. The majority of the men had been
wounded by sniper fire in the opening hours of the invasion. The fact
that so many had gunshot wounds to the arms was causing great amusement, the
men were joking about the lack of skill the German marksmen had in the accuracy
of their shot.
One young lad of around 20 years old had his bullet removed from the side of his torso, he was said to have been looking forward to returning the bullet to its owners; the Germans.
One young lad of around 20 years old had his bullet removed from the side of his torso, he was said to have been looking forward to returning the bullet to its owners; the Germans.
Local lads amongst the hospital casualties….
There were two local men amongst the troops who were
given hospital care at the Royal; Lance Corporal Fred Gibbions of Heaton Street
and Sergeant Samuel George Evans of Rooths Row, Barker Lane.
Lance Corporal Frederick Gibbions was born in 1915 the son of James
and Annie Gibbions. At the outbreak of
WW2 Fred was living with his mother at 33 Bank Street, Brampton. He worked as a quarrier at the time, quarrying
stone for the use on roads. In 1941 he married
Florence Barnes and set up home just around the corner from his mother at 28
Heaton Street.
Frederick joined an infantry regiment and was present at the D-Day
landings, he gave the following description of the day to the Derbyshire Times….
“He landed
on the beaches just after 10 a.m. on D-Day and was wounded
about noon after
they had advanced through barbed wire and minefields.
He was about a mile and a half inland when he
was hit.
The first thing he knew was
that his arm went numb.
The sniper would
be less than a mile away”
As far as I can ascertain Fred and Florence had three children; Alec,
Pamela and Joy. He returned from war
service and died in 1960.
Sergeant Samuel George Evans was born in 1912, he was the son of
James and Ada Evans and lived at White Houses, Hasland Road. Samuel worked as an electrical arc welder and
married his sweetheart Edna Ingleson in 1937.
At the outbreak of WW2 the couple had a daughter named Pamela,
followed by a son named George, two young children left at home with their mum
whilst Samuel went off to war. Samuel
was recorded as an “Army Reserve 4th Queens Own, Trooper no.
551760” on the 1939 Register. We
know that during WW2 he served with a Royal Armoured Corps.
Unfortunately, at this time I haven’t been able to find out any
further information with regards to Samuel’s war service. After the war the couple had another son,
named James. Samuel died in 2001 aged 88.
Chesterfield ladies call to help….
Derbyshire Times 16th June 1944 page 1
The ladies were asked to “adopt” a wounded soldier after the influx of men arrived at Chesterfield Royal Hospital. The men were away from home, with no family or friends near, this was a lovely gesture and I’m sure lots of local ladies stepped up to offer their kind attentions at this time.
I wonder if any romances blossomed from this volunteering?
Chesterfield with troops in “spirit” ….
An amazing story made the front page of the Derbyshire Times after Ordinary Seaman Bernard Harvey had returned home on leave to St Augustines Avenue he told of his sighting.
Chesterfield can possibly lay claim to being the only town to send the troops into battle with a bottle of their favourite beer alongside. “It was doing its best to put Chesterfield on the invasion map”.
Bernard was the son of Mr and Mrs W Harvey, he was on duty on one of the destroyers at the D-Day landings. Prior to the war Bernard was a member of the Sea Cadets in Chesterfield. Unfortunately, Bernard lost sight of the patriotic beer bottle as his destroyer “was too busy ramming E-Boats and fighting of aircraft attacks to follow the progress” of the bottle.
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I would love to hear from anyone who has any connection to any of the men or stories on either of the D-Day blogs.
Please contact me or leave a comment below.
Apologies if I have mentioned you or your family and you wish for this to be removed, I have tried to keep identification to a minimum if there is a possibility of the person still living.
I will happily remove the details if you contact me.
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Please contact me or leave a comment below.
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