This e-mail has been sent to you because I believe you will be interested in my dual-language book, Normandy: The Search for Sidney / Normandie: A La Recherche de Sidney. However, if I am mistaken, please let me know and I will take your name off my list of people who read and collect books about military history.
The 'Sidney' of the book's title was Corporal Sidney Bates, VC, a young, working-class, cockney boy who lived in Camberwell, South London, England. In June 1940, after the miraculous evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from France through Dunkirk, he enlisted in the Royal Norfolk Regiment, one of the elite regiments of the British Army. Four years later, by then a highly trained infantryman, he was in the assault division at the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. For two months after that he and his unit, 11 Platoon, 'B' Company, the 1st Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment, of 3 British Infantry Division, the famous 'Iron Division', fought in one battle after another as the Germans were slowly pushed back through the heavily defended hedgerow country of Normandy, the formidable bocage. Sidney fought his last battle on August 6, 1944, near the hamlet of Pavee hidden deep in the bocage about 5 miles east of Vire. There, with his outnumbered battalion threatened by German Tiger tanks on both flanks, he turned back one frontal attack after another of Panzergrenadiers of 10 SS Panzer Division. Felled three times by the enemy's machinegun bullets and by mortar, grenade and shell fragments, he fought on until he could fight no more. But, all alone, he broke up the German attack and saved his battalion from being overrun. For that act of courage and self-sacrifice he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award issued by the British for valour. Sadly, Sidney died of his wounds two days later so the award, like so many awards of the Victoria Cross, was a posthumous one. He was twenty-three years old. Finding the battlefield forty years after the battle proved to be surprisingly difficult. That was the 'Search for Sidney' of the book's title. Finally, with the help of two of Sidney's former comrades-in-arms and with the aid of local French people who had been caught up in the same battle, I found the exact field in which Sidney made his last stand. Today, carefully maintained by the locals, there is a monument nearby to record exactly where it all happened. The book was translated into French by my friend, Jean Brisset of Flers, Normandy. I could not have found Sidney's battlefield without his help. The two languages, English and French, are printed side by side in parallel columns in such a way that, with the aid of the computer, one language never outstrips the other thus maintaining the entente cordiale between our two cultures! Jean Brisset also helped me translate the other two sections of the book. The second section, The Madame Lenaud Story, refutes a libel perpetrated by Daryl Zanuck in the movie he made of Cornelius Ryan's fine book, The Longest Day. In that movie, Zanuck identified the drunken fireman who smooched the commando leader, Lord Lovat (played by Peter Lawford), fighting his way ashore, as the Mayor of Colleville-sur-Orne, a village about a mile or so inland from Sword beach. With the help of Madame Suzanne Lenauld, the daughter-in-law of the late Mayor, Alphonse Lenauld, I have proved that Zanuck's account is completely untrue. The third section of the book, written by the late Lt. Colonel Eric Lummis, is an account of how the 1st Battalion The Suffolk Regiment captured HILLMAN on D-Day. HILLMAN was the code name given to the formidable, Maginot-like German strongpoint built near the village of Colleville-sur-Orne to bar the way from Sword beach to Caen. It was the most formidable of all the objectives that had to be taken on D-Day by any of the Allied forces. Today, HILLMAN is preserved as a memorial to the 1 Suffolk Regiment. John Matheson, a Canadian notable and no mean soldier himself, wrote the Introduction. Sir John Keegan, Carlo D'Este, Paul Fussell and other well-known authors have reviewed the book favourably. Charles Whiting called it "Private Ryan in print!" It is described in detail on the website, www.batesbooks.com. The book is available in the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. The price in the USA is $30.00, plus shipping and handling and taxes (if applicable). The prices in other countries are converted at current rates of exchange. Please go to the website www.batesbooks.com for ordering instructions. Tom Bates, Berkeley, California
