13/09/2024
I just noticed a great post shared by my good friend Mark Banning. The post was Mark's recollection of a tour we worked together on, 6 years ago. Unfortunately his post today wasn't shareable, so I'm kind of fumbling around, and I've got it essentially right. Mark worked with me on a number of tours over the years, and never disappointed. He is extremely knowledgeable with both WWI and WWII; has an extraordinarily pleasant personality and basically he is everything you look for in a guide. Just too bad he is taking a break from guiding. In any case, here is the post he shared today, that involved some very important guests....Thanks again Mark.
Mark Banning shared a memory.
6 years ago
Active
All this, thanks to Gary McKay ...
Mark Banning
I often have the privilege of taking people to the location of the actions of their relatives, as well as their graves in some instances, on the Western Front, but when I visit Normandy, the connection is more often than not from general as well as a national interest. However, today, that was a little different. One of my small group of two is the daughter of Major Tom Whitley, who was a company commander during the Normandy campaign with the Royal Regiment of Canada. He survived the war and had a successful career and life, passing away at the age of 90, but many of his soldiers remain here in France. One of his close colleagues, his second in command in July 1944 was a man known to all as Captain Bob, 'almost bubbling with energy', who breathed his last on 18th July 1944, when the Bren Gun Carrier he was driving hit a mine and disappeared. We visited his grave today, at Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery, as well as those killed in the same incident, and it was when Anna said, 'Dad kept in close touch with his widow for the rest of his life', that I felt a shiver up the back of my neck and a bit of dirt got caught in my eye.
The book, 'The Guns of Normandy' by George Blackburn MC, is the first volume of his memoirs of the campaign in North West Europe and is to be highly recommended. Blackburn was the longest serving Canadian FOO, and served with the 4th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery. Major Whitley's Royal Regiment of Canada was in the 4th Brigade of 2nd Division. The two men shared many fearful experiences in Normandy.