1st KOSB WAR DIARIES

1st KOSB WAR DIARIES - NORMANDY

Sunday, 23 July 1944

D +

NORMANDY

WD CHECKED ✓

START LOCATION

SANNERVILLE

FINISH LOCATION

SANNERVILLE

WAR DIARY

SUMMARY OF EVENTS AND INFORMATION

Own artillery active at first light.

About ten shells fell to rear of Bn HQ area from SE direction.

Two enemy stretcher bearers approached "A" Company forward positions and asked to bury their dead. After finding it was genuine our stretcher bearers and party went out.

One platoon of "D" Company moved forward towards 2 RUR to take up position North of railway line.

Enemy shelling continued at intervals.

Four deserters from 346 Fus Bn came in through "D" Company lines.

ALTERNATIVE SOURCES

Personal accounts, other War Diaries and excerpts from books

Captain 2/IC of A Company, James Gray wrote, "On July 23, two enemy Stretcher Bearers (SBs) approached ‘B’ Coy position and asked that they and ourselves should bury our dead who were lying in ‘No man’s land’. A party of SBs under our Padre, Capt Wilson, went out and did this job. As in Cambes Wood some very good patrolling was done, and several prisoners were taken mostly from 364 Fusilier Battalion and 192 Panzer Grenadiers."

From Border Telegraph - https://www.bordertelegraph.com/news/17684958.heroes-remembered-75-years-d-day-landings/

"Later on the 23rd, they (the Germans) proposed a truce and the Battalion Chaplain and stretcher-bearers, with a Company Commander, had the unusual experience of spending over an hour with the enemy, while the bodies of their comrades were collected and removed to an orchard, where later in the day they were buried".

WIG Wilson, A Short History of the 1st Bttn KOSB in North West Europe