British Band Of Brothers: Back In Action (Part 5)

**James Holland** (0:12)
We captured that edge roll without losses, but as the infantry began to occupy its ditch, the enemy mortars rained down.
Our chaps were forced to withdraw, but we stayed. One fellow was hit right in front of us. He lay prone, with whists of smoke rising from his back from shell fragments. On the right was a thickly wooded area, a farmhouse close to hand. In front, open ground for 200 yards, then dense wood. On the left was a edge roll, but some of our infantry were behind it. I concentrated my fire on the area in front.
An enemy machine gun replied, More bursts from the Browning, and the enemy cease fire. We had been told to leave the farmhouse to a Churchill flamethrower tank. It duly appeared, forced itself through the edge, and lined up facing the storm building. Suddenly, a burst of flame shot across the 100 yards to the target. The upper storey was soon ablaze. The Churchill continued the process in one second bursts. First the front, then the left side, and finally the side nearest to us.
There was a movement through the trees. To my horror, I saw a large horse tethered to the farmhouse. A burst of fire hit the animal front on. Enveloped in flames, the poor creature struggled to slip its tether. Then it fell dead. The entire incident was sickening to watch. That was Arthur Reddish of A Squadron, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry.

**Al Murray** (1:40)
Well, welcome everyone to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me Al Murray and James Holland for episode 5 of our British Band Of Brothers series. This is Hotto and Rest, this episode, and Jim there ventriloquizing Arthur and the horror of frontline combat in Normandy. I mean, the thing I was struck by, Jim, in that is he goes from this quite a matter of fact, where I talk to you about it, an enemy machine gun reply, more bursts from the Browning and the enemy ceased fire. Well, the enemy ceased fire because you'd killed them all. Like, it's not that someone went, Cease fire! That is not what happened.
This is a slug fest. This is a slug fest and it's a man for man slug fest where, you know, everyone's doing their damnedest to kill one another. And then you get this thing of the crocodile, Churchill crocodile coming up. Isn't it remarkable, isn't it, that it's the horse on fire that's the thing that's horrifying him?

**James Holland** (2:38)
Well, it's the helpless innocent, isn't it? I mean, you know, it's just, it's still so, it's just, I was looking for that quote because I was haunted by that scene. I, you know, I remembered it vividly when I was first working on this, you know, whatever it was, so, you know, four years ago, five years ago, and it's just sort of stuck with me. And Arthur Redditch is a very sort of genial fellow. He's one of those, he's a classic category C. And for those of you who don't know what we're talking about here, category A, B and C, you can divide British soldiers, or any soldiers, frankly, into A, B and C. And A's are those who are completely gung-ho, love it, it's sort of scouting with guns. There's B are the sort of platoon sergeants, the backbones, you don't want to be there, but we'll go the extra yard. The C's are the absolute majority, don't want to be there, want to keep their head down, do everything to avoid a scrap, but we'll do it. They won't run away, but they're reluctant. And then the D's are very small in number, and they're the people who just can't cover it and run away.
And he is your classic category C.
And when you say this is episode five, it is, but it's also episode new series, part two, isn't it? Really? I suppose that's what we're looking at. But anyway, we left the Sherwood Rangers after four episodes on the Roaray Ridge. And for those who listen to that, you may remember that A Squadron led by Major John Semkin had had this fantastic night attack up the ridge where they knocked out 13 German Panzers for no loss of their own, including four Tigers and a handful of Panthers and so on. And they're all pretty exhausted. And where we are now is basically the day after, the 27th of June 1944, is where we pick up the story. And I did just think it might be just worth reminding people because there's so much sort of technical stuff in here and how it all operates. And if you're not familiar with how these things are, what is an armored regiment? How does it work? What is a troop? What is a squadron? Is it worth just doing a very, very hurried recap, do you think?