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Outline of the active Military Service of Richard Parker
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Richard Parker was born in Chorley on 21st September 1923, the son of Thomas and Alice Parker, of 13 Pilling Lane, Chorley.
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He attested in the Territorial Army on 3rd March 1942 at age 18 – joining the 70th Bn Border Regiment. He subsequently enlisted in the 55th (Suffolk Yeomanry) Anti Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery on 16th April 1942, serving in H Troop, 219 Battery.
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A Group photograph of 219 Battery taken in September 1942 –
Richard Parker will be pictured here but unfortunately I’m not able to identify him.
The 55th ATR did not see active service until the Normandy Campaign and the War Diary shows that the Regiment undertook intensive training until that time. ​
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The 55th Anti Tank Regiment landed in Normandy in the first few days following D-Day. 219 Battery left Gorleston for the marshalling area at Tilbury on 5th June and embarked for Normandy on 8th June at Victoria Dock. During the crossing, on the 11th June, the troopship carrying 219 Battery (the SS Fort MacPherson) received a direct hit from a German radio-controlled glider bomb which, thankfully, failed to explode. A surviving member of the 55th ATR, James Palfrey, described the bomb as dropping deep into the troop ship but failing to go off… “the Royal Engineers on board took out what they thought was the fuse and it was winched up and dropped over the side. The whole ship cheered!”. 219 Battery disembarked on Gold beach on 12th June, and the whole Division took a few days to gather itself together before being moved into the line.
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On 25th June 219 Battery was engaged in the attack on Fontenay le Pesnel, taking its place in the line at Bronay, with the Troops moving forward at 0600 to deploy as infantry in readiness for an expected German counter-attack. H Troop moved forward during the afternoon and, at the so-called Hell’s Corner, was caught in the open and subjected to heavy shelling. By nightfall all troops were consolidated into a comparatively small area, however a German observation post was directing very accurate mortar fire into the area. This was a trying time for 219 Battery, being dug-in with much mortaring and shelling of their positions but with nothing for them to return fire to. On 29th June H Troop fired at the church tower of Juvigny which was being used as an observation post by the Germans. Several hits were scored and the enemy at once replied with mortar fire, but H Troop had anticipated this reaction and had quickly departed back to their original positions.
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The third week in July saw the whole Regiment move into the Caen sector, motoring through the ruins of the city in very bad weather – everywhere was a sea of mud with appalling mosquitoes - with 219 Battery being positioned at Cagny. In his booklet “From D-Day to VE Day” the 55th ATR CO Lt-Col Brian Gooch remarks on the exposed nature of their positions with heavy shelling during daylight hours and bombing by night. He comments specifically on the neat circle of 88mm (German) guns surrounding the village of Cagny and the pond “with the awful-looking dead Hun floating in it”. Richard Parker was killed in action on 8th August and it may be presumed that this occurred in Cagny… his last letter home was dated 1st August and in it he mentions that he was bothered by the smell of a dead horse (killed by shellfire) which was only 30 feet from his dug-out and had been there for about a week (and so must have been in Cagny) being unable to be moved as “Jerry’s only 400 yards away and he keeps sending mortars over”.
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The precise details of how Richard died are not known, but he was the only member of the Regiment who was killed on that day and there is no mention of a major action undertaken by the Regiment in the War Diary for that day, so it seems likely that he was killed by an incoming mortar shell or by a sniper rather than general action involving anti-tank defence.
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Richard, pictured below with his parents on the occasion of the marriage of Thomas Parker and Jane McGann in 1943, was interred initially at St Honorine de Chardronette before being finally laid to rest in the Ranville War Cemetery – his initial grave marker is pictured (below centre) and the current memorial headstone (below right).
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