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For most parents, worrying about your teenager is just
as standard and every day as brushing your teeth. But,
for parents of the thousands of boys and young men who
emabarked on the most daring amphibious attack in modern
history, worrying whether their offspring would return
to Britain haunted their every waking moment.
From June 1st – late August 1944, Alan and Carrie
Clayson’s worries about the progress of the war
were overshadowed by fear of the fate of their 19-year-old
son Wilmer Gordon Clayson, who had been dispatched by
the British Army to France. Then came the devastating
news they feared the most: Rifleman Clayson had gone
missing in action. Would they ever see him again?
For two or three weeks before D-day a huge army was
assembled under the cover of Epping Forest. Gordon was
with Rifle Brigade, part of the Seventh Armoured Division,
or Desert Rats as they were known because of the Jerboa
on their Division shoulder flash. At the beginning of
June, the Division was moved out of Epping Forest ready
to make the journey across the English Channel to France.
June 1st 1944
Troops started to move from Epping Forest towards Tilbury
Docks. “We were given ‘Occupation Money’
which were notes specially printed for us by H.M. Forces.
As the notes were printed in francs, there were no prizes
for guessing where we were bound.”
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June 3rd 1944
Gordon and his brigade boarded troopships. His was a
small Polish ship called Southern Star that held 1500
to 2000 men from all arms of the service and their equipment.
At this stage they had no idea what was awaiting them
in France. The troopships left Tilbury and were anchored
in Southampton waters.
June 5th 1944
At first light, the largest flotilla in modern history
set sail for France. “The whole of the Channel
was a mass of shipping, including warships. During the
day we steamed towards the French coast, and rode out
the night at sea anchor about 5 miles from France.”
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June 6th 1944
D-Day. For most of the morning, Gordon and his comrades
watched wave after wave of airplanes pass overhead and
salvo after salvo of heavy shells from battleships.
From 3pm, he was transferred to Landing Craft Tanks
(LCTs), which were flat-bottomed so that they could
land directly onto the beaches. They also had a ramp
at the front which was lowered to allow Armoured Fighting
Vehicles to drive out. Their job was to get clear of
the beaches as quickly as possible and provide anti-tank
cover for the troops.
"I was in charge of an anti-tank gun which had
a crew of six – a gunner, a loader, a driver…
two Bren gunners (light machine guns) and me.”
The anti-tank gun was towed by a lightly armoured vehicle
called a Carden-Lloyd half-track because it had normal
truck wheels at the front and tank tracks at the back.
They landed at Arromanche, which was relatively smooth
apart from some sporadic German fire. From there, they
took up defensive positions covering the approaches
to the beach. They stayed there for two days while they
built up materials.
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8th June 1944
Now the battalion was up to ‘attack strength’,
it moved inwards towards Bayeux – a town which
had already been liberated. They then went north to
Caen, where they encountered tougher resistance.
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10th June 1944
Back in Dover, Alan and Carrie Clayson received a standard
postcard from their son in France. This would be the
last they heard from him for a long time.
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11th June 1944
Gordon’s division was withdrawn from the fighting
in Caen. This was probably because they were a fast
moving armoured division so they were employed to push
inland and surround Caen, thus cutting off the Germans'
supplies. They regrouped, turned southwards and occupied
Tilly-sur-Seules and Villers-Bocage.
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13th June 1944
"One thing sticks in my mind as we approached Villers-Bocage.
We were travelling in convoy along an approaching road
and reached the outskirts of the town. I was in front
of our Carden-Lloyd with our driver and our gunner Tom
Harrison. There was a church in front of us with a tower
with niches in it holding figures of saints. Tom and
I spotted a rifle poking out from behind one of the
figures and simultaneously fired our Bren guns –
shooting from the hip, as it were.”
They weren’t sure whether they had hit the sniper,
but they passed through the town without much resistance
and moved into the Bocage countryside. The scenery was
beautiful, but useless for fighting vehicles. With high
hedges, the road the division travelled along was ideal
for ambush.
And then it came. The ambush was fairly simple. A German
tiger tank came from in front, knocking out the lead
vehicle in Gordon’s convoy and killing the platoon
commander and his driver. By knocking out the lead vehicle,
the Germans had blocked the road. Because there was
no room to pass or turn, the German tank simply passed
down the line of vehicles "knocking out our trucks
and armoured vehicles as fast as they could re-load
the gun.”
By now Gordon and his battalion were taking cover in
the ditch. But they had their anti-tank gun. As the
Tiger tank turned to go back up the line of British
vehicles and cause further damage, the boys in the ditch
opened fire.
But relief at disabling the Tiger tank was short-lived.
“What we didn't realise was that there was a second
Tiger tank behind us… The next thing I knew, there
was a loud explosion and I was blown into the ditch
quite unconscious.”
What happened next was a blur. Gordon came round almost
upside down in the ditch. His right leg was at an impossible
angle and he was bleeding from several places. A piece
of shrapnel had broken his jaw, entering through his
chin and exiting through his cheek. Another piece had
entered his right arm and come out of his index finger.
There was a piece in his forehead, and numerous bits
in his chest and arms.
The next thing Gordon was aware of was two British
soldiers he didn’t know dropping into the ditch
next to him. One of them gave him a cigarette. “He
stuck it between my lips and tried to light it, but
my mouth must have been full of blood because I watched
it turn crimson. I think they thought I was dying (I
did myself) and they left shortly afterwards by going
through the hedge.”
He lay there for what seemed like an eternity. The
British soldiers who had survived had retreated to the
village. He was eventually spotted by a young German
soldier who called to his medical team for assistance.
They lifted him onto a stretcher, and put him on the
exhaust manifold of a Tiger tank and he was taken to
a German field hospital.
"I remember asking for water, which the German
orderly eventually interpreted as ‘wasser’.
When he brought me some I drank copious amounts, but
quite a lot appeared to be coming out of the hole in
my cheek. At last I was taken to a makeshift operating
theatre. By this time the Germans had little or no medical
supplies, and my right leg was removed without the benefit
of anaesthetic. Fortunately for me I think it was virtually
separated from the rest of my body, and I passed out
anyway.”
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14th June 1944
Gordon was transferred to a makeshift hospital in a
sumptuous French chateau. He was delirious for most
of this time, but tags that were tied to him describe
in German his injuries and the surgery he had for the
benefit of the next hospital. At the same time, the
British records office reported him missing.
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18th June 1944
He was transferred to another hospital. By now the allies
were forcing the Germans to retreat, and Gordon was
taken to Rennes in an old coach with no seats and straw
on the floor for the patients’ comfort.
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30th June 1944
Back in Dover, Carrie and Alan Clayson received a letter
that they were dreading. A report from the record office
at Winchester told them that their son was missing in
action.
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4th July 1944
As a concession to the American wounded prisoners of
war on their Independence Day, the Germans treated all
the patients with a bit of butter on their bread. Their
diet normally consisted of a piece of dry, black bread
for breakfast and mint and nettle soup for lunch and
supper.
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17th July 1944
Alan Clayson wrote a desperate letter to the Wounded,
Missing and Relatives department of the British Red
Cross for information about Gordon. Carrie took her
own measures to find out the fate of her son by going
to see a medium. The medium’s assurances turned
out to be spookily accurate.
In the meantime, Gordon was recovering in hospital,
benefiting from being nursed by two young French nuns.
His neighbour on the ward was a French Canadian called
George Lavalle whose flirting in French meant that the
nuns would sometimes smuggle in French baguettes which
George and Gordon would wolf down after lights out.
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21st July 1944
Gordon’s parents receive a letter from the chairman
of the Red Cross. It doesn’t calm their fears.
“We very much regret to tell you,” wrote
the chairman, “that so far we have not been able
to obtain any news of him, but you may rest assured
that every possible effort will be made on your behalf.”
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August 9th 1944
Under the command of General ‘Blood and Guts’
Patton, the American 3rd Army strikes from the South
and frees Gordon and the prisoners. “On the night
before they arrived, the Germans pulled out, including
the Gestapo whose Headquarters were in the building
opposite the hospital. Several of the more able bodied
patients broke in and liberated the wine cellars which
provided at least a bottle per man. I finished up with
a bottle of brandy and a bottle of plonk, and we greeted
the American forces in a rosy glow.”
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15th August 1944
Gordon and some of the other patients were flown to
Oxfordshire and then transferred to Litchfield hospital
in Staffordshire.
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31st August 1944
Alan and Carrie finally received a letter from the records
office telling them that Gordon was alive and recovering
in Litchfield hospital.
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13th June 2004
Gordon Clayson celebrated the 60th anniversary of the
fateful day that he so nearly lost his life, and did
lose his leg and so many of his comrades. "I have
no complaints about the way the Germans treated us,”
he said, "they were by then desperately short of
supplies, both medical and food, and they did the best
they could.”
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