"Operation GOODWOOD, 18th-19th July 1944"

Ref: DR030

by David Rowlands

Image Size 58 x 38cm

Following the invasion of Normandy, Allied attempts to expand their front inland were meeting dogged German resistance. A plan to penetrate southwards, called Operation GOODWOOD, was the largest armoured operation ever conducted by the British Army.

The Caen-Falaise plain is undulating with extensive fields of crops, interspersed with woods and villages. The German defences were much stronger and better prepared than the Allies had anticipated. 3rd Royal Tank Regiment was in the thick of the fighting, and Sergeant Frederick ('Buck') Kite exemplified the courage of the tank crews, winning two bars to his Military Medal in under a fortnight.

Major Bill Close in his Sherman led 3 RTR through the tunnel underneath a railway embankment, then the tanks fanned out across the cornfield and advanced uphill towards the enemy on a front of almost two miles. Suddenly, heavy anti-tank fire tore into them. Many tanks were struck and their crews were forced to bale out. Tanks were blazing with smoke spiralling from them, and their crewmen dotted the landscape as they made their way back. Carriers dodged about, picking up the wounded to take them back to the aid-post at the foot of the embankment. This was the moment I was asked to depict for the Regiment, at the same time showing Buck Kite's Sherman, named 'Shufti's Hope', prominently to the fore.

The Sherman tank was armed with a 75mm gun. However, a quarter of the Shermans were armed with a 17-pounder gun (which had a longer barrel), and were called 'Fireflies'. Fred Kite and Bill Close both explained to me the details of the action, and described to me how a tank commander, in his black beret and holding his microphone, would always be visible with the hatches open. The weather was hot and sunny, and there was a lot of dust.

The bull is the badge of 11th Armoured Division. The regiment's unit code sign is 52 on a red background. On the turret is a yellow triangle denoting A Squadron (within which is a small red 4 denoting 4th Troop).