British Band Of Brothers: Battle Of Bloody Ridge (Part 7)

**Al Murray** (0:09)
Rejoined DOC, went up with CO in jeep to A Squadron. Heavy shelling, hear Burkitt and crew buried by infantry. On foot, located brewed up tanks, Watson and Heselwood died of wounds at Dorset RAP, marked grave and buried two infantry left behind by regimental aid post. Only ash and burnt metal in Burkitt's tank. Dorset's medical officer says other members of crew consumed by fire, having been killed in action. Searched ash and found remains, pelvic burns. But other tank, three bodies still inside, partly burned and firmly welded together, managed with difficulty to identify Lieutenant Campbell.
Unable to remove bodies after long struggle. Nasty business, sick.
C Squadron still wanting me for two burials, but after three unsuccessful attempts to reach them had to give up, ground between us and their position to exposed. Heavy fire each time I tried. They buried troopers Howie and Mitchell themselves and leave me to mark graves, et cetera. Sheld again during evening, but on the whole quieter. And that's the diary of Padre Leslie Skinner from Fridays, the entry from Friday, the 4th of August, 1944 And Skinner is the Padre with the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry. So welcome to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland. And our seventh episode or our third in our second tranche, of the British Band of Brothers.
Skinner's diary is... It's pretty harrowing, isn't it? It is harrowing. And, I mean, matter of fact, about really harrowing stuff, and also testament to the way he was determined to insert himself into this part of the regiment's business, which is the cost, which is the price of the fighting.

**James Holland** (1:51)
Yeah. I mean, he gets wounded trying to get up to someone and bury them towards the sort of third week of June 1944 So, he's been away for a little bit, but he's back in time for Blue Coat.
And this is the consequences of Operation Blue Coat, which we are beginning this episode with. You remember in the last episode, we were, they were, they were resting, weren't they? And they'd moved to Comont, taken over from the US First Infantry Division. They're resting.

**Al Murray** (2:17)
Because we've had Goodwood, we've had Cobra, and the Allied thing is to keep the enemy reeling by colossal cracks. You know, this is the Monty thing of colossal cracks. A great big effort on the left-hand flank of the Allied lodgement in the east, a great big one on the west to try and break out, and then further pressure in the centre.

**James Holland** (2:37)
Yeah, and this is Operation Blue Coat is very much the strawberry jam and cream of the victorious sponge of which Cobra is the bottom bit and, or rather, Goodwood is the bottom bit and Cobra is the top.

**Al Murray** (2:51)
I'm going to hold you to this analogy now for the rest of the episode, Hugh.

**James Holland** (2:54)
Anyway, so it's now the end of, the very end of July. So the bomb has come over at 7.3 on Sunday morning of the 30th of July, and this is the cue for the start of Operation Blue Coat. And of course, this is using RF Bomber Command, the Strategic Air Force, to support ground operations in Normandy. And David Render, who is a troop commander in A Squadron, sees them coming over. His job is to clear this wood. They have a start line. So they are slightly to the east of Comal. And they got to clear a wood. He's also already had a bit of a ding-dong with his counterpart in the Dorsets, who he doesn't like the color of his jib at all.
And Render is, although he's only 19, he's a self-assured fellow, and is not one to kind of be terribly impressed by haughty captains and majors in the infantry. So they have a bit of a spat about it.

**Al Murray** (3:55)
This is also an advantage to being in a Yeomanry regiment, is that he hasn't got an army career to worry about, has he?

**James Holland** (4:01)
No.

**Al Murray** (4:01)
All he cares about is his situation, his chaps. So he's not worried about who he pisses off, is he?

**James Holland** (4:08)
Don't care less.

**Al Murray** (4:09)
Why would he care?

**James Holland** (4:10)
But he's got a very healthy disregard for authority as well, I would say. And so they have this spat about what they're doing and how they're going to do it. And anyway, they managed to resolve this. And the idea is to clear this wood starting at 8 o'clock in the morning, and then following the attack by the bombers. And then the main assault would start at 10 But as they're clearing the wood, they immediately lose the door sets. And this is this classic thing that they have, which is when they're operating with infantry for the first time, there's almost always a cock up. Because they haven't got the cut of each other's jib.