D Day Landings

One Rushden man reported missing on 6 June 1944 was William Philip Sargent, of the R.A.M.C. Airborne Troop.  He was the younger son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Sargent, of Pightles Terrace, Rushden.  He was aged 24 years and had been married the previous year.  In September 1944 he was reported “killed in action.”  He had joined the Army in January 1941 and served with the bomb disposal squad before transferring to the R.A.M.C.

Another Rushden man, Sergeant William George Goode, of Hall Avenue, Rushden, who was serving with the Warwickshire Regiment in France, received praise for the way he successfully led a party out of danger.  The extract below is taken from the Rushden Echo and Argus dated 14 July 1944:-.

  It was a case in which the Warwickshires were strongly represented on the beach on “D-Day” when a British Infantry Division was given the task of securing the left flank of the Allied force, the flank bounded by the Canal de Caen and the River Orne.

  The Royal Warwickshire Regiment had an action all to themselves on Wednesday, June 7th in Lebisey Wood.  Through this wood runs a road to Caen, and the point reached by the Royal Warwickshires was considerably in advance of the other troops in the British force.  It was known that the wood was occupied, but the exact strength of the enemy had not been measured.

  Several companies of the regiment penetrated the wood, and came under heavy fire.  The enemy seemed to be all round them in strongly defended localities.  Enemy tanks were there too.  Many of the attacking troops spent 12 hours in the wood and were engaged in heavy fighting most of the time.  The Warwicks eventually withdrew, with casualties, to Bieville, which is also on the Caen road.

  Major R. G. Krever, of Oxford, who gave an account of the action had a special word of praise for Sergt. W. G. Goode, of Rushden, who successfully led a party out of the danger spot. 

  Sergt. Goode, aged 29 years, was born at Rushden but spent most of his life at Wellingborough, until his marriage in November, 1919, to Miss Margaret Lord, of Earls Barton, the couple then coming to reside in Hall-avenue.