Latest news with #ShermanTank
The Guardian
5 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Cecil Newton obituary
My father, Cecil Newton, was one of the last surviving British Army Sherman amphibious tank soldiers who landed in Normandy in the first assault on D-day, 6 June 1944. Two years previously, he had joined the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards as a gun loader, training in the innovative and top-secret Duplex Drive (DD) 'swimming' tanks. On 3 June 1944, they sailed from Lepe Beach in Hampshire for France. Wading ashore on Gold Beach at dawn, they attacked the target blockhouse and the crew surrendered. On attacking Verrières on the 14 June, they prevailed, but 90 infantrymen and troopers, including Cecil's best friends, were killed, haunting him all his life. They fought through devastated Normandy villages, the liberation of Lille, Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands, and into Germany, where his brother Frederic, of the 5th Royal Tank Regiment, was killed by surrendering prisoners. Cecil, who has died aged 101, later founded the Creully Club to ensure that the names of the 127 of his regiment killed in Europe were not forgotten. From the terrible battles he participated in, Cecil believed strongly in the need for resilient links across Europe to help prevent further wars, and flew the EU flag, with the regimental flag, from his garden. Every May he would cycle in Normandy to check on the memorials he helped erect. He was born Hugh Cecil Newton in Llanrwst, Wales, to Katie (nee Thomas), who was from an Anglesey farming family, and Frederic, a cotton broker in India who then worked in the Hindu newspaper London office, when the family settled in Muswell Hill, north London. Cecil was educated at the Stationers' Company's school, but with the outbreak of war was evacuated to Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. On finishing school he joined the Home Guard at Muswell Hill and volunteered as a naval clerk in Leicester Square. In 1942 he volunteered for the army, and after training at Bovington Camp, joined the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards. The next two years were spent in training, before heading to France. When his tank was hit in the battle for Tripsrath, Germany, in November 1944, a shell shattered his leg and he was shot in the chest. Cecil developed gas gangrene, but thankfully penicillin was available. After six months in hospital he was invalided out of the army. After the war Cecil trained as a surveyor and started the Swindon office of Bare, Leaning and Bare, becoming a partner, and settled in Aldbourne, Wiltshire, with his wife, Joy (nee Lidstone), a nurse and botanist whom he married in 1955. He worked on numerous projects in Wiltshire, including the Railway Village in Swindon. His civilian interests included helping found the Aldbourne Civic Society, which led to the protection of bronze age barrows in the parish, bird-watching, cycling, painting and playing the piano. In 2016, he was given the Légion d'honneur and honorary citizenship of Creully, and in 2019 the primary school in Creully was named after him. Joy died in 2012. He is survived by their three children, Claire, Richard and me, and two grandchildren, Joseph and Oscar.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Funeral celebrates life of much-loved D-Day veteran
The funeral of one of the last survivors of the assault on the D-Day beaches in 1944 has been held at Wiltshire crematorium. Cecil Newton, from the village of Aldbourne and died at the age of 101, was 20 years old on D-Day when he was part of a tank crew sent to attack a German blockhouse. His amphibious Sherman Tank was among the first to land on Gold Beach on 6 June. Described as "feisty, driven, a little bit mischievous", he was involved in the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations, and even had a French school named after him. Major Graeme Green, the regimental secretary for the Royal Dragoon Guards, described Mr Newton as a "great guy" who always had a "little glint in his eye". He added that Mr Newton was "driven to commemorate his fallen comrades". At the funeral earlier at North Wiltshire Crematorium, near Royal Wootton Bassett, a message was played from the Cecil Newton Primary School in Normandy. Mr Newton was a trooper in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards and a loader in an amphibious Sherman Tank crew. "I was never nervous. I was too young to be nervous. I hadn't got the imagination," he said in a BBC interview about D-day. Along with his crew, he was in action for just a few moments. "It was just off the landing craft into the water, an engagement with the blockhouse and then we sank," he said. More news stories for Wiltshire Listen to the latest news for Wiltshire Later in the war, in November 1944, he was severely wounded with a leg injury and was shot three times when his tank came under attack in a German village. He described himself as "exceptionally lucky to survive" the later attack. Amongst those he knew who died in the war was Mr Newton's brother Frederic - shot dead by two Germans who raised their hands to surrender, but then opened fire. In June 2024, Mr Newton travelled back to France to take part in the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations. He also visited a French school named after him and some of the places his comrades fell in battle. Follow BBC Wiltshire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. D-Day veteran Cecil Newton dies aged 101 D-Day veteran says friends' sacrifice a 'waste of life'
BBC News
02-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
D-Day veteran and tank crewman Cecil Newton dies aged 101
One of the last survivors of the assault on the D-Day beaches in 1944 has died, his family has 101 Cecil Newton, who served in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, died peacefully in his sleep on 20, after boarding a landing craft at Lepe Beach in the New Forest, his amphibious Sherman Tank was among the first to land on Gold Beach on 6 June son, Paul Newton, who passed on the news of his death to friends, said: "Thank you all for your friendship for my father and for supporting his efforts to remember those of the 4/7 RDG who did not come back." Mr Newton's tank crew was in action for just a few minutes after landing on Gold Beach in objective was to knock out a German block-house that was defending the tank was among several not to make it off the beach when it sank in a water-filled shell hole, but all the crew got were later among the first British troops to enter the city of Mr Newtown was severely wounded when his tank came under attack in a German village in November suffered a serious leg injury and was shot three times as he got out of his June 2024, Mr Newton, who lived in Aldbourne, in Wiltshire, travelled back to France to take part in the D-Day 80th anniversary also visited a French school named after him and some of the places his comrades fell in battle. You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
