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Bruce, William Reginald Richard

Date of death:
September 7th, 1944
Buried on:
Commonwealth War Cemetery Geel
Plot: IV. Row: C. Grave: 13.
Service number:
176774
Nationality:
British (1801-present, Kingdom)

Biography

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War Diary mentions

3 August 1944 WO 171/1257 - 3 Irish Guards
The Bn. held a position astride the road just to the East of COURTEIL. All coys. were subjected to fairly heavy shelling,and the two forward coys. exchanged S.A. fire with the enemy who were dug in not more than 100 yards in front of them. At 'Stand To' this morning, Bn. HQ.was itself attacked by enemy forces – approximately a Pln. in strength. This attack was broken up by a section of the Carrier Pln.and Captain Bruce with a captured Spandau mounted on his carrier. The enemy suffered heavy casualties. Casualties suffered during the day were 4 ORs. killed and 16 ORs. wounded, and were mainly caused by shelling and Mortar fire.

7 September 1944 WO 171/1257 - 3 Irish Guards
The Bn took over the bridge head on the ALBERT Canal from the W.G. group at noon. The day was an unpleasant one with considerable shelling from enemy S.P. guns which caused several casualties. Captain W.R.R.S Bruce was killed early in the day and Capt. White and Lord Flunkett wounded. In the early evening, No. 3 Coy (Major M. V. Dudley) carried out a sweep in co-operation with a sqn of tks to clear the Germans from a slag heap to the WEST of the town which was dominating the bridge head. The attack met with considerable success but was unable completely to clear the large factory area and had to be content with limited consolidation. Several S.P. guns were knocked out and from this moment, the shelling of the bridge head diminished considerably. Total O.R. cas for the day was 8 killed and 16 wounded.

Sources

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