William George (Billy) Gale was born in Platt on May 30 1917, the only child of George, a farm labourer who worked at Platt Farm and Georgina (née Ladhams.) Billy grew up at Caxton Cottage in Crouch and attended Platt School from June 6 1922, until August 27 1929, when he transferred to Borough Green Council School. The family moved to Kettle Cottage on what was then known as Crouch Road, and in 1939, Billy signed up with the 7th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, with Jack Noakes, a relative of his who lived on Station Road in Borough Green. He was likely involved in the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940 and fought through Normandy after the invasion.

On D-Day, Billy’s unit took ‘V’ formation with two other artillery regiments in the run into Sword Beach. He was a lance bombardier on a 105mm Priest self-propelled gun and would have performed the impossibly hard job of firing his gun from the landing craft before it reached shore called a ‘run-in shoot’. The three regiments in their LCT’s followed the infantry assault onto the beaches whilst targeting specific hard-point positions. The landing craft with the guns then turned away and rejoined the third wave of assault craft to land the guns. The 7th was tasked with destroying WN20 ‘COD’ – an Atlantic wall surrounded by an extensive network of barbed wire and a minefield located northeast of Hermanville-sur-Mer at the place-dit La Brèche.

Colonel Nigel Tapp, commanding the 7th Field Regiment, wrote a detailed account of the assault on Sword Beach, which gives an excellent flavour to what Billy would have witnessed himself.

“We were up at 0400 hrs on June 6, getting ready to open up the wireless. H Hour was 0725 hrs DBST [Double British Summer Time]. We were to start shooting at 0655 hrs and wireless was to open at 0625 hrs. In the (ship) Dacres I had one ships set on the Regimental command net and in reserve two 68 portable crystal sets. The wireless worked perfectly and by 0600hrs all Regimental nets were working and through.
As the sky and sea lightened, I saw a sight that I shall never forget. The sea was a dark glossy blue flecked with white horses; it was covered with craft as far as one could see. Far away to the south I could see the smoke of the RAF bombing of the French coast. At 0644 hrs ranging of the regimental guns began and by 0655 hrs the guns opened up at 10,000 yards…”

Tragically, almost a year after arriving on the continent, on April 8 1945, Billy drowned while transporting one of the Priests across the Rhine at Arnhem. Jack Noakes was reputedly two vehicles behind at the time Billy died. He was buried near Nijmegen in the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery.
Photograph of William Gale courtesy of Ian & Dianne Ritchie.