"Operation Market Garden: Major Robert Henry Cain..." Topic
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Tango01 | 27 Sep 2014 10:51 p.m. PST |
… Victoria Cross. "Robert Cain was born of Manx parents in Shanghai, China, on the 2nd January 1909, and worked for Shell in Thailand, and later Malaya, until the war began when, in 1940, he was commissioned into the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. He was later posted to the 2nd South Staffords and participated in the glider assault on Sicily. Commanding B Company, the 35 year old Major flew to Arnhem with the First Lift, travelling in a Horsa from Manston. However they had only been airborne for five minutes when the tow rope became disconnected from the Albermarle tug, causing the glider to stagger while the tow rope coiled up and lashed back at them. The glider made a safe landing in a field, bumping over the rough ground and ripping through a fence before coming to a standstill. Cain described it as a terrible anti-climax, and said how the glider pilot couldn't believe his luck as exactly the same thing had happened to him on D-Day. Cain and his men flew out to Arnhem as part of the Second Lift on the following day. Upon landing he immediately set out to find B Company, who were presently moving forward to help the 1st Para Brigade, but he wasn't able to resume command until late on the following morning, when they were involved in vicious fighting in a dell around the area of the St. Elizabeth Hospital. The South Staffords were being heavily attacked by tank and self-propelled guns, but they weren't able to bring up any anti-tank guns to repel them. Mortars were effectively being fired at point blank range upon German infantry, but the Staffords had to rely on PIAT's to deal with the armour. Lieutenant Georges Dupenois kept several tanks at bay with his PIAT, while Major Jock Buchanan and Cain drew a lot of enemy fire by running around searching for ammunition for him. Cain did not believe that any tanks were actually disabled during the action, but the hits did encourage them to withdraw; even firing at the turrets with Bren guns forced them to move. The PIAT ammunition ran dry at 11:30, and from then on the tanks had free reign over the area and proceeded to blow the defenceless troopers out of the buildings they occupied. Lt-Colonel McCardie came to see Major Cain and he ordered him to withdraw from the dell. As they were talking, Cain recalled seeing an entire bush being blown clean out of the ground. Putting down a rear guard of about a dozen men and a Bren gun, the Company withdrew from what Cain later described as the South Staffords Waterloo. However only himself and a handful of other men succeeded in escaping…" Full article here link Amicalement Armand |
Legion 4 | 28 Sep 2014 7:23 a.m. PST |
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BattlerBritain | 28 Sep 2014 1:10 p.m. PST |
I think that Major Cain is Jeremy Clarkson's (of Top Gear fame) father-in-law. J Clarkson did a programme on him and quite impressive it was too. |
Tango01 | 28 Sep 2014 9:01 p.m. PST |
Glad you enjoyed it my friend. (smile) Amicalement Armand |
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