D-Day 75th Anniversay: Memories of my Granddad
Did anyone watch the D-Day 75 flypast go out through Essex today?
A poignant moment for many watching. Not least because the powers-that-be think this will be the last such display as the veterans are now sadly so old.
My granddad – Thomas Hopkins – was part of D-Day landings. In June 1944, he was Acting Captain for the 21st Army Group. He – and his men – went across on the D-Day landings on 11 June 1944.
The entire D-Day landings took from the 6th June to 30th June 1944 to complete.
This from Wikipedia
“The 21st Army Group operated in Northern France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany from June 1944 until August 1945, when it was renamed the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR).The 21st Army Group had six armoured divisions (including the Polish 1st Armoured Division), ten infantry divisions, two airborne divisions, nine independent armoured brigades and two commando brigades. Logistical units included six supply unit headquarters, 25 Base Supply Depots (BSDs), 83 Detail Issue Depots (DIDs), 25 field bakeries, 14 field butcheries and 18 port detachments. The entire army group was supported over the beaches and through the Mulberry artificial port specially constructed for the purpose.“
My Granddad was quickly swallowed up in the fighting in Normandy where he made contact with and fought alongside the French Resistance.
His war was hazy. He never told anyone about it. Not surprisingly, because when he came home, he divorced my grandmother. And promptly married the daughter of the local French Resistance leader where he had been based in 1944.
By the end of the war, he was appointed Acting Major. A rank confirmed on him in 1954 after he relinquished his commission. He was awarded on OBE in 1960 due to his services as an architect in the reconstruction and rebuilding of London after the war.
Sadly I didn’t know him, as I was a toddler when he died in the 60s.
First two photos taken sometime between 1942 and 1944, when he was a cavalry officer. Last photo when he was a young man in the 1930s, shortly after he was in charge of Eric the Whale – the 80 ton embalmed whale – at Southend’s The Kursaal.
Tonight, I’ll be raising a toast to Captain (later Major) Hopkins. And all the others that risked or gave their lives on those beaches in Normandy throughout June 1944.
My Grandpa: Thomas Hutchinson Hopkins. A scally-wag and rogue. But a brave D-Day hero nonetheless.
Thomas Hutchinson Hopkins
📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚
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| Post: June 2019 © Kate J Cole | Essex Voices Past™ 2012-2019 |
Comment (1)
Barbara Gurney| 7th June 2019
What an interesting ancestor. What a pity you didn’t know him Kate.