5 KINGS MARKER: SITREP 7: 23/7/9

1ST JULY 2009 (AKA 1ST JULY 1944)

On Parade

  The British Contingent numbered twenty six, including a 5 KINGS DDay veteran, Don Rose, his wife, their sons and granddaughter – One son and granddaughter flew in from Australia just for this event! – three 5 KINGS TForce veterans, Harry Henshaw, David March and Tommy Wilkinson, David and Robert Fachiri, the son and grandson of 5 KINGS DDay veteran, Bobby Fachiri MC, and Bob White, the son of 5 KINGS DDay veteran, Sergeant White MM. 

  The French fielded a similar number, led by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Hermanville-sur-Mer, with Councilors and the Veterans Association with their standards, and Mme Perdriel and her friends. Mme Perdriel helped her mother keep ‘open house’ for 5 KINGS from June to November 1944 and she brought with her to the Ceremony photographs of the time.

The Plaque

  Despite our concerns that the Mayor had decided, quite late on in the day, to fix it to the floor of the site for safety reasons instead of the site’s wall, thus making it difficult to photograph with key personalities in the background, in fact its head is raised from the floor. It is also situated in a quiet corner of the site in a semi circle of bushes. An excellent epitaph to our 5th Battalion was thus presented: indeed it was much more of the stone memorial originally envisaged than a plaque.

The Unveiling

  On this blistering hot day, the Ceremony went as well as we could have dared hope. All arrived in good time and our standard bearers were in position on either side of the memorial on schedule, as per the Order of Ceremony.

  David Chadwick opened the proceedings, explaining the raison d’etre of the memorial and thanking the Mayor and the people of Hermanville for their support. The Mayor then welcomed our party and emphasized how his township determined to support the installation of the plaque, because of its close connections with the Battalion. Don Rose then spoke and explained that his lasting impression of DDay was the enormous, intolerable cacophony of noise. He, very appositely, said his feelings that day were for the innocent, local civilians, who, completely out of the blue, were being killed and injured and whose homes were being destroyed by the bombing and shelling and yet they continued to support the battalion as best they could. He then presented to the Mayor a walking stick, which he had crafted himself and had attached to it a metal tag stamped “Mayor of Hermanville-sur-Mer.”

  Don Rose carried out the Unveiling by lifting off the Union Jack which was draped over the memorial. David Fachiri recited “They shall not grow old ………..” All responded “We will remember them.” A two minute silence followed, its ending marked by Eric Jones quoting the regimental motto. Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Association and by Bob White for his father. The Mayor laid a huge bunch of flowers on behalf of the Council. David Chadwick then brought the proceedings to a close.
 Many photographs were then taken, both formal and personal and many addresses exchanged.

Juno Beach

  As planned, after the Ceremony most of the British contingent went to visit the plaque dedicated to our 8th Liverpool Irish Battalion at the Canadian Juno Beach Centre. 8th KINGS were in the Juno Beach Group, just as 5 KINGS were in the Sword Beach Group.

Dinner 1st July

  An emotional day was perfectly rounded off with Dinner at the Hotel Mercure with a toast to The 5th Battalion The King’s (Liverpool) Regiment.

Funding

  As indicated in Sitrep 6, the donations received in the short time we had given ourselves to raise funds were not as high as we might have hoped for. However, with only a wall plaque to pay for and the British contingent paying their own traveling and accommodation costs, we have managed to keep within budget and may have a little over to help towards a veteran’s expenses.  Whilst we were unsuccessful as a group with our Lottery bid, individuals were able to get Lottery funding as World War 2 veterans.  Moreover, as indicated above, we sailed away from France leaving behind us not a simple wall plaque, but a true stone memorial and all from donations from Kingsmen, their families and friends.

Lasting Memory

  The evening before the Unveiling we were meeting the “TForce contingent” for the first time, when a gentleman bounded in and shook hands with everybody. We assumed it was David Rose, Don Rose’s son, but it turned out to be the 88-year old 5 KINGS DDay veteran himself. We knew at that moment that we had found the perfect gentleman to carry out the Unveiling and were thankful we had decided on 2009 for the event, when we could be sure such a person was available, rather than delay it until 2010.

                                                       Nec Aspera Terrent

Eric Jones & David Chadwick   23/7/09