A’ Squadron 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) preparing for action near the German Radar...

A’ Squadron 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) preparing for action near the German Radar Station near Douvres, Normandy, 7 June 1944. Photograph by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two, North West Europe, 1944. The Sharpshooters’ war diary records ‘A’ Squadron’s tanks supporting an attack by the 5th Black Watch and Canadian forces on Douvres Radar Station on the evening of the 7 June 1944. ‘A’ Squadron tanks and Churchill Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) armed with petard mortars attacked the strongpoint but withdrew after losing a number of vehicles to mines and anti-tank fire. On the 17 June, after a bombardment by naval and ground artillery, Royal Marine Commandos supported by AVREs and mine-clearing tanks, successfully stormed the radar station. ‘A’ Squadron’s Sherman tanks including a Firefly variant armed with a 17 pounder gun concentrate prior to attacking a wood to the west of the station. The war diary records, ‘It was necessary to obtain possession of a wood West of Douvres as this was the only point of observation on the town’. The diary also records incidents of friendly fire between the Black Watch and the Canadian North Shore Regiment during this action. From an album containing 210 photographs compiled by Major W H J Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), 1944.