January 1945 In October 1944, 249 Battery, 63 Anti-Tank Regiment (Oxfordshire Yeomanry), Royal Artillery arrived in France and moved forward into Belgium. The battery’s duties consisted mainly of guarding the flank of advancing troops as they moved into the Noord Brabant region of the Netherlands. In January 1945 249 Battery established their headquarters in the Dutch village of Heusden. As the first Allied soldiers the villagers had seen they were made…
The effects of the winter thaw of 1945 were varied for the men of the Oxfordshire Yeomanry. The roads of Noord Brabant suffered considerable damage and according to the War Diary of 7 February…”All available men from the Regiment were sent on road repairing….road to be repaired was the Deurne to Venray Road.” 10 February ‘C’ Troop of 249 Battery were moved to the Boxmeer area to protect a bridge across…
The War Memorial from the Oxford Co-operative and Industrial Society Ltd
Ronald Mogg became a poet under the most discouraging circumstances. Trained as a journalist, he volunteered for the Royal Air Force during World War II. Shortly after joining the service his Wellington bomber was shot down and Mogg was imprisoned in Germany along with one other survivor of the crash. He spent much of the war in various POW camps including Stalag Luft I, III and VI. It was in…
Folding Parabikes could be loaded onto a Horsa glider or carried on a parachute drop. Over 70,000 were produced by BSA (British Small Arms) in Birmingham and hundreds were taken ashore or dropped from the sky on D-Day, 6 June 1944. Soldiers were given the impression that the bicycles were essential kit but they were quickly dumped as unnecessary nuisances.
