Sergeant Clifford Woodward

Clifford Woodward was the son of George Taylor and Margaret Woodward (Martin); husband of Edith Jane Woodward (Lindon), of Shirley, Warwickshire, he enlisted in the Hampshire Regiment and volunteered for airborne forces.

Sergeant Woodward successfully completed parachute training at RAF Ringway, and also glider training. He was posted to D Troop, 3 Airlanding Anti-Tank Battery, Royal Artillery, and took part in Operation Overlord (Normandy).

Sgt Woodward was killed in action on 20 August 1944, aged 28, in the village of St Richer after a particularly heavy period of enemy shelling on D Troop's gun position.

From 14 to 16 August the allies advanced towards Falaise in operation Totalize. On 16 August, 21 (British) Army Group sealed west, north and part of the east German front. 12 (US) Army Group sealed south and part of east German front. The pocket now contained one million German soldiers and equipment. Regrettably a gap some four miles wide was not covered by either the British or the Americans. On 19 August the 'gap' in the allied 'fence' was sealed by the allies. All German units left in the 'pocket' tried to get to St Lamber in a counter-attack headed by 2 Panzer Division, seeking escape. On 20 August the German counter-attack commenced with a ferocity that required the re-positioning of many allied units, including D Troop. One of the D Troop guns was withdrawn to reserve. A second gun was ordered to a new defensive position whilst under fire from 2 Panzer Division and Sgt Clifford was killed when the towed 17 pounder gun ran over him. He was buried in Ranville War Cemetery, Calvados, France.

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