The RAF Regiment – Operation Overlord

In June 2023, Warrant Officer Shaun Griffin and a party from RAF Shawbury, including four RAF Regiment gunners, went on a Staff Ride to the battlefields of Normandy. This was led by Paul Grimley, ex-Regiment gunner. The trip included visits to Commonwealth War Graves Cemeteries (CWGC) at Ryes and Ranville.

I had been following the progress of Shaun’s trip on “Messenger”. On 15 June, Shaun told me that he was going to visit Ranville Cemetery. Doing a quick search on the CWGC website, I produced a short list of RAF personnel buried at Ranville, of which most were aircrew. However, when checking each for their Squadron affiliation, one individual stood out. He was an LAC of the RAF Regiment. His details were as follows:

 

 

At the time of his death, 2729 Field Squadron was based at RAF Boxgrove, near Chichester, in Sussex; as it had been since April of that year. Furthermore, the Squadron did not arrive in Normandy until 11 August 1944, a month later.

 

And this is where it got interesting. Many of the dead were buried in temporary graves, often near where they fell. After the War they were centralised into larger CWGCs. The location of preliminary burial sites is provided with the airman’s details. For LAC David Lumpkin, this was near the village of LES MESNIL, and he had been buried on 19 July alongside troopers from 29th Armoured Brigade of 11th Armoured Division. LES MESNILS is located to the south-east of CAEN just north of the BORGUÉBUS RIDGE. By mid-July, however, the LAA RAF Regt squadrons were still deployed on the airfields to the north and west Caen, which suggested that he was not serving in that role.

 

 

Further searching in the history of 11th Armoured Division [Taurus Pursuant] found that the date coincided with that of Operation GOODWOOD. This was a major British offensive in the Battle of Normandy, which took place from 18–20 July 1944.

 

The autobiography of Major-General ‘Pip’ Roberts, GOC 11th Armoured Division [Roberts, G.P.B. ‘Pip’. From the Desert to the Baltic. William Kimber, 1987], included the following:

 

The clearing up of the homesteads of LE MESNIL FREMÉNTEL had been completed and Roscoe Harvey and his Tac HQ [NW: OC 29th Armd Bde] moved off further west and came to rest on our (eastern) side of the embankment… It was a wretched spot, because it was in full view from the BORGUÉBUS RIDGE and from the village of BORGUÉBUS itself…

 

A small disaster took place almost immediately; attached to 29th Armoured Brigade’s Tac HQ had been a FACP (Forward Air Control Party) which was a cut-down Marmon-Herrington armoured car [NW: more likely a Humber Light Recce Car or Humber Scout Car] containing an RAF officer, wireless operators and two wireless sets, and their task was to talk to pilots direct and guide them on to targets. The RAF were to use and did use the ‘cab-rank’ system, whereby there was always a flight of aircraft in the air waiting for targets to be given to them. This was the first time this had been tried and all had great hopes for it.

 

Only minutes after the armoured brigade’s Tac HQ had arrived at their’ embankment’ position and the RAF had just got contact with the ‘cab-rank’, a shell scored a direct hit on the armoured car; the RAF officer was badly wounded and the armoured car was a write-off.

 

The map reference for the first burial site matches the location mentioned in this account. Roberts makes no further mention of this incident nor of any other casualties or fatalities, but a direct hit on the armoured car would presumably have had serious consequences for the W/T operators inside. The temporary burial of LAC Lumpkin alongside men of 29th Armoured Brigade HQ would explain his presence there and with LES MESNIL being only a few miles north of BORGUÉBUS a logical place for the burial to occur.

 

Therefore, it seems from this account and his mention in the 2729 Squadron ORB that LAC David Lumpkin had some time earlier been assigned to, or had volunteered for, work on an RAF FACP. Further scanning of the 2729 ORB earlier in 1944 finds no mention of any call for volunteers or posting of personnel on this role. What we do have is an RAF Regiment gunner who was deployed on Forward Air Control work during the Normandy battles.

 

On 15 June 2023, Shaun Griffin and his fellow gunners were able to visit the grave and pay their respects to RAF Regiment gunner LAC David Lumpkin. Paul Grimley now takes his tour parties to visit the grave.