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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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'Three Lights Equal a Gap': Soldiers Under Fire in Germany

by PERCY PARSONS (Len)

Contributed by听
PERCY PARSONS (Len)
People in story:听
PERCY PARSONS
Location of story:听
1944 GERMANY,
Background to story:听
Army
Article ID:听
A2014642
Contributed on:听
10 November 2003

As a young lad my father who fought on the Somme, with the East Lancashire Regiment 1914-18, used to tell us kids about three soldier's in a trench at night time, and always made the remark never accept the third light, the first man would light his fag, then offer the light to the second, then offer the third light to the third man all with the same match, the Germans would take a bearing on the first light, take aim on the second light,then shoot the third light.
In the 2nd WW whilst serving with the 2nd battalion The Kings Royal Rifle Corps, within the 4th Armoured Brigade (The Dersert Rats), we were foraging forward, as we approached the village of Nordkamp or Nordhousen I am not sure which, we could see the Germans moving around, the tanks put down a srong barrage of machine gun fire to soften up, It was the turn of my section under Corporal George French to clear the village, but the order was countermanded by the Company Commander, Major Peter Gosse MC, he ordered another section forward by this time white flags started to appear, the section proceeded across an open field observing the usual tactics for this kind of operaion, they got to within about a dozen yards of the white flags when they were fired upon, there were only five men in this section having substain casulties in a previous engagement, two were killed, two were wounded, Rifleman Wally Marshall was the only survivor, our section with George French leading were then ordered forward, we had to use the cover of a hedge running down the side if the field, I was the forth man back, we were about six feet apart when the rifleman in front of me was shot, we went to ground, I looked along the hedge I noticed a gap, I had an immediate flash back of what my father told me about the three lights,the sniper lined up George, aim at the second Rifleman and shot the third,I never knew the man's name he had just returned to the Company having just returned from being wounded.
To this day I will never doubt my father words as just an old soldier's tale

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