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The advance was continued to VILLIERS Le SEC where the 5 East Yorks were engaged in heavy fighting in the village (where their Colonel was wounded). 'B' Company were sent to the right of the village and D company to left. This had. the effect of making the enemy go, but D company came under heavy mortar fire and had casualties. The Bn. was ordered to halt temporarily at this village. Meanwhile C company with B squadron 4/7 Dragoon Guards had fought a most successful action at the alleged "rocket site". It was in fact, a deeply dug command post and some thirty prisoners of war were captured including a German Colonel. At this halt some carriers, mortars and anti-tank guns came up; but none of these platoons was absolutely complete. The arrival of the Colonel's jeep was the signal for a burst of spandau fire from a wood thought to be clear, which sent jeep and driver to ground in the ditch, luckily without serious results to either

The Bn moved South of VILLIERS Le SEC to a good position on high ground. Messages, telling of 30 enemy A.F.Vs advancing North, kept coming in on the Rear Link. But we were suddenly called forward to attack an area from which enemy were holding up 5 East York. This attack was laid on extremely quickly with support from the S.P. regiment, B company 2 Cheshires (M.M.G.) and one squadron of tanks (4/7 Dragoon Guards) (protecting the right flank). It met no opposition, the enemy probably having cleared off. The Bn. reorganised on their objective for the night, being 3 or 4 miles short of their final objective for 6 June.

The outstanding feature of D Day was the atrocious weather. No landing could have been made in worse weather. While this may have put the enemy off their guard, it certainly handicapped the supporting bombardment by Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. We were lucky to have succeeded in landing and moving 5 miles inland with as few as 80 - 90 casualties. These unfortunately included two company commanders, the Carrier Commander and some valuable N.C.Os.

Although some of the Germans fought well, they were not up to the standard of those we had met in Sicily and North Africa. They were mainly from a coastal division and contained some foreigners and old men. But we already had had a taste of the chief problems of the war in Normandy - the sniper in close country and villages and the mortar anywhere where the enemy could see movement. There were two sorts of snipers, the professional, who hid well shot well, and would not surrender and the soldier who had been by-passed in thick country, who was prepared to show some resistance before surrendering to strong forces and whose chief ambition was to pick off an easy general padding in his jeep. His shooting was not accurate.

Throughout D Day the Bn. was admirably supported by 4/7 Dragoon Guards particularly in the landing and in the attack on the "rocket site". The Westminster Dragoons and A.V.R.E. did their job well in the bench minefields The Herfordshire Yeomanry were excellent to work with, but had no opportunity for a shoot in support of us.

On D + 1 the Bn. moved forward without serious opposition to the St. Leger feature We actually went forward of this to an excellent position overlooking the railway but pulled back to conform with the rest of the Brigade. Here we dug in in difficult defensive county. We had difficulty in establishing a joint post with 151 Brigade at the bridge at CONDE SUR SEULLES; but this was eventually achieved after two days. We remained in this position till 11 June, disturbed by nothing more serious than a little sniping, some shelling and a determined and skilful recce by German armoured cars. The joint post was quite seriously attacked and our mortar with it did good work, scoring a direct hit on a German half track carrier, which "brewed up“. We captured a soldier of 12 SS Panzer Division in civilian clothes, because someone noticed his military boots. This was a period when a good deal of stuff came up from the rear But there was just enough enemy activity to keep the soldiers from real rest. Patrolling and a stand-to at 4.30 and 11.30 made the nights unpleasantly short.