The Story of LES BAYNTON

...This was the best trained and most powerful armoured division in the German Army and the Essex had no armoured support. Despite being fiercely attacked by the enemy armour including flame throwers mounted on half tracks, they held their positions.

At one point, a German tank commander stood up in the turret of his panzer and shouted 'In seven days ve vill be in London!' At this, a cockney voice answered from the undergrowth 'Not on our b**** railways you won’t!' which was followed by a roar of laughter from the Essex lads. This so disconcerted the German officer that he slammed down his turret lid and trundled of in his tank. This was at a place called Verrieres Wood, ever since known as 'Essex Wood'.

On the route to the Seine, pockets of strong resistance were at first encountered in the Forest of Brotonne. The RAF were called in and buzzed the area with a squadron of Typhoons which soon had the enemy moving.

We followed on their heels, sweeping for mines in and alongside the road through the trees to keep the column moving. There was no time to check properly for the usual booby traps under the mines as speed was of the essence. It was a bit scary to say the least! However the majority of the enemy managed to get across the Seine by night but they left all their motor transport – mostly put out of action. It included some Morris 15 cwt trucks captured by them in 1940. We managed to salvage a German Kubelwagen – a kind of amphibious jeep, which came in useful. They had shot hundreds of Belgian draught horses and those floated up and down the river with the tides each day."

On reaching the Seine, the sappers built Bailey pontoon rafts powered by outboard motors. They carried across amongst others the Belgian Armoured Brigade. There was one tragedy when a truck full of Les’ own infantry drove on to a raft and straight off the far end. Fifteen of them were drowned as they were weighed down by the full kit they were carrying.

"We didn’t know there was a tidal bore on the Seine, but suddenly one evening, just as we were about to drop anchor in mid-river, a 12 foot high wave came roaring up-river and caught our raft and smashed it up. We were sinking fast. That wasn’t a good start... to be shipwrecked on the River Seine! Luckily, we were rescued by means of powerful storm boats...