Sherman Tank Crewman: Sharpshooter Snapshots: From D-Day to the Defeat of the Third Reich

By the afternoon of 6 June 1944 - D-Day - the men and Sherman tanks of the 4th County of London Yeomanry, the Sharpshooters, found themselves in their landing craft just off the Normandy beaches waiting to go ashore.It was around sunset the following morning that they began to be land on the sweeping sands of Gold Beach. From there, the Sharpshooters immediately moved inland to support the expanding Allied beachhead.In the days that followed, 4 CLY advanced south toward Tilly-sur-Seulles, fighting in the restrictive bocage countryside alongside the 50th (Northumbrian) Division.On 13 June, the regiment became embroiled in the dramatic battle at Villers-Bocage, one of the most famous tank actions of the Normandy campaign.During the events that day, ‘A’ Squadron was ambushed by SS-Obersturmführer Michael Wittmann’s Tiger I, suffering heavy losses.One of the men in ‘A’ Squadron, and more specifically 1 Troop, was John Fisher.Having enlisted in Derby in 1943, John eventually found himself p