Victor Arthur Wright 12 Mar 1920 – 1st Dec 2007
Victor was at the liberation of Belsen so that would put him in a unit of the 11th Armoured division. Diane says he was in the Royal Artillery and was involved in laying a smokescreen on Omaha beach, I presume his gun would have been on a landing craft like the Tanks were, so it could shell the beach. Diane says he was in Belgium which would be true if in the 11th and got as far as Magdeburg which is in what was East Germany in the north where they came under fire from the Russians accidentally.
When Victor entered the camp he saw that the people were very tall, only to discover that it was that they were so malnourished. He witnessed the Americans marching Josef Crammer ‘ the beast of of Belsen’ with a ball and chain fastened to his leg , every time he dropped it the Americans would punch him .
This is Victor holding the flag that was from Law Haw Haws broadcasting studio. There is a newspaper article to accompany this.
There is some footage of the 11th Here from the Imperial War Museums collection.
These are the Artillery Units in the 11th Armoured
13th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (Honourable Artillery Company) (from 1 June 1942)
151st (Ayrshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
75th Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery (from 1 June 1942, left 2 June 1945)
65th (Norfolk Yeomanry) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery (from 2 June 1945)
58th (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery (from 1 June 1942)
Somehow I don’t think he’d be in one of the Scottish units or the Norfolk one either, particularly as the Norfolks didn’t join up until 1945. The 75th weren’t involved in D Day so my money is on the 13th Royal Horse.
They may well have had horses in WWI but by WW2 they were a mechanized unit
From Wikipedia:
13th (HAC) Regiment, RHA
The 11th (HAC) Regiment, RHA, served in North Africa at the Battle of Knightsbridge with 25-pounder guns and, after re-equipping with the M7 Priest self-propelled gun, in the Second Battle of El Alamein where it was commanded by Bill Leggatt. The regiment’s guns were the first guns ashore in the invasion of Sicily; then they took part in the Allied invasion of Italy and the Italian Campaign.
The 13th (HAC) Regiment, RHA, (equipped with Sexton self-propelled guns) fought in Normandy, the Netherlands and across the Rhine into Germany as part of 11th Armoured Division.[48]
What were originally Cavalry or Horse Artillery units became either Tank, Armoured car or self propelled gun units.
The 11th certainly got as far as Artlenburg where they crossed the Elbe and went on to Luneburg
Magdeburg is further south and was in the Russian occupied zone so its a feasible story.
As the 13th were in North Africa, then Sicily, then Italy and finally Normandy if Victor had joined up early in the war then he may have taken part all 4 landings, Africa (supporting Operation Torch), Sicily (Operation Husky), Italy (operation Avalanche) and Normandy (Overlord). Only specialised units, mainly Artillery units managed to get involved in those landings so its pretty rare to be on all 4 beaches.
Diane 1944- Present
The Wrights Family History 