Herouville 2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment Plaque

A plaque to the 32 men of the Lincolnshire Regiment who died in the liberation of Herouville on 8th July 1944 and the further 208 who died in the battles for France, Belgium, Holland and Germany.

At 04:30 am on the 8th July 1944 B Company of 2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment crossed the start line for the attack on Herouville, they suffered casualties from anti-personnel mines and machine gun fire but succeeded in reaching the town. B Company were followed up by A Company and the Battalion Command Group. Casualties were also caused by the enemies shelling of the concentration area.

The Germans launched a counter attack with infantry but were successfully beaten off, although during the counter attack a platoon led by Lt Lodedale was cut off and would not be relieved until evening, at which point all but 7 men of the platoon were casualties.

By 09:00 am the consolidation of Herouville was complete with C Company having moved up and D Company acting as a firm base at the start line.

During the day the Battalion would face heavy enemy shelling and mortaring of their positions, C Company would also suffer casualties after allied aircraft dropped bombs on their positions.

At 20:00 pm the Germans launched a second counter attack with tanks and infantry, C Company knocked out one tank with a PIAT and forced a second tank to withdraw after scoring three hits on it. Self propelled anti-tank guns also scored hits on two German tanks. After being successfully fought off the German counter attack petered out.

On the same location there is also a plaque to 7 children who died in December 1945

An official acccount of the battle for Herouville can be found in the 2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment July 1944 War Diary