Cox, Christopher Action Rear

Voices of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. D-Day and Normandy Campaign 1944

The Royal Warwickshire Regiment was originally founded in 1674 and is one of the oldest county regiments. Until 1688, it served the Netherlands, then the Crown, most recently as the 6th Foot Regiment. Today, the regiment is part of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. During the Second World War, the 2nd Battalion played a key role in the largest invasion in modern military history, the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944. After landing on the Sword Beach section of Queen White Beach, they fought their way inland to relieve the beleaguered airborne troops at the bridges over the Orne River before experiencing the ill-fated advance on Caen and the horrors and heroics of the close combat around Lebisey Wood. The battalion faced SS, tank and elite airborne troops as it held its position and forced its way to Caen and beyond in Operations Charnwood and Goodwood, advancing across the Seine before leaving France in September 1944. This work contains excerpts from previously unpublished letters and reports from the men who were there, the men who fought and died on the sands and soil of Normandy in 1944. Personal diaries and photo albums have been provided by the soldiers' families to create this unique work of remembrance and gratitude to all the men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, especially those who gave their lives for freedom. The author's great-uncle, Corporal Charles Tweed, landed on 6 June with C Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and served in Normandy until he was killed in action near Caen on 19 July 1944.