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(However a most urgently needed supply of ammunition had managed to to have just scraped through, with great difficulty. An officer called into our Command Post to sdvise of its arrival, wished us good luck, turned to leave, but was shocked to find that it was quite impossible to do so.He said "My God!I am with you for the duration! - they are all over the bottom road." I had received a message from our signal Sgt. Benham wishing me the very best of luck, and to cap it all, I also received one of the strangest messages of all time -'Cancel bath parade!' When I passed that over to Major Raworth he was so enraged that he said "Pass me that 'phone Ledbury, and proceeded to put the originator into place with "What the b....y h.ll do you mean cancel bath parade? Don't you realise we are fighting for our very existence up here" Thereupon he slammed the receiver down in his fury. Just after this our Battery Command Post became completely cut off from the outside world. I was no longer able to pass on firing orders to our guns, which I had been doing continuously since the start of the battle.Given the compactness of the area of operations,it felt reminiscent of being attacked on board a large battleship. Those mortars continued to whizz above our heads whilst attacking Hampshire Farm just down the track below us, and occasionally one or two obviously failed to explode, The Battery Commander would say to me "There is another one filled with sand.")At about 15.20 hours, under covering fire from some thirteen tanks in hull down positions (firing machine and guns), further tanks advanced down the road. A panzerMark V1 was loading. This was holed three times in the turret by Sgt. Henderson,s gun A panzer Mark 1V tried to pass, bur this in turn was knocked out by No.1 gun. A further tank was set on fire by No.1 gun. The enemy held back and shelled and machine-gunned the positions, particularly "F" Troop which was more easily spotted. Both troops were in action against enemy tanks over open sights. The enemy tanks in hull down positions had a great advantage over our guns. They engaged our guns one by one and set on fire ammunition dumps-killed the detachments and smashed up the guns.At 16.00 hours an attack against "F" Troop's southern flank from the Mateur road again developed. Sgt. Henderson smashed up the leading tank but directly afterwards he and his entire crew were killed by a direct hit. The tanks then came over the ridge and on to "F" Troop position, three guns of which were still in action. These engaged the enemy at ranges of from fifty to ten yards with Lieut. Taylor, the batmen, cooks and all survivors running from gun to gun and servicing each in turn."F"Troop was silenced by approximately 17.30 hours. Tanks then moved down the road between "F" Troop and "E" Troop and surrounded "E" Troop. (Lieut.Taylor had been killed when a mortar had landed at his feet.An unexpected visitor to join the Major and myself in the Command Post was Bernard Redman who had crawled almost all the way down to us to avoid being seen by the enemy. When asked by Major Raworth what was the position up there he replied "I'm afraid that they have nearly all gone, Sir.") As it grew dark at about 18.30 hours, bren guns and at least one gun of "E" Troop were still in action against the enemy tanks at ranges of ten to twenty yards. The tanks smothered the gun position with machine and gun fire. Any man who moved was immediately shot, tracer ammunition being used. Some tanks went round the position swivelling round on their tracks and crushing in the slit trenches. At 17.51 hours the last message came over the W/T., "Tanks are on us", followed a few seconds later by the single letter "V" tapped out in morse.- When the battle began there were nine Officers and 121 O.R.s on the gun positions, Command Posts and O.P.s. Nine survived the action. One Officer and seventyeight O.R.s, who were at the Wagon lines or detatched from the Battery, survived.

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