Gilbert Roy Fazan

This story is shared by the Trust with kind permission from John Hamblin, Researcher.

Gilbert Roy Fazan, Lieutenant 129362, Royal Sussex Regiment attached to No. 1 Troop, No. 6 Commando. Killed in action on the 7th of June 1944, aged 28.

Gilbert Roy Fazan was born at Hull, Yorkshire on the 9th of September 1915, the eldest son of Dr Eric Alfred Charles Fazan MC, TD, DL, JP, MRCS, LRCP and Alise Catherine Fazan (née Helmsing) of “Belmont”, Wadhurst in Sussex.

He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Seconds House from September 1929 to July 1933. He gained his School Certificate in July 1931. He was a member of the Shooting VIII from 1930 to 1933 and served as Secretary in 1932. He won represented the school at Bisley and won the Girling Rifle trophy in 1930. He served as a Corporal in the Officer Training Corps achieving Certificate A in November 1932.

According to the Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser of Friday 23 June 1944 he was a great lover of bird life and in his youth he was an enthusiastic member of the Tunbridge Wells Homing Pigeon Club, taking part in many races. Later he took up motor racing and was a member of the Tunbridge Wells Motor Cycle Club, participating in races at Brooklands and at Donnington.

On leaving school he trained as a chartered account and later became a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Following the outbreak of war he attended an Officer Training Unit before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment on the 20th of April 1940. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 20th of October 1941.

He transferred to the Commandos where he served with No. 4 Troop, No. 6 Commando from the 21st of June 1943 and with No. 1 Troop from at least the 5th of June 1944. During his training he was billeted for a while at The Rectory at South Stoke near Arundel in West Sussex. Here they trained in mock battles among a group of requisitioned farm buildings They moved to Hove and then, on the 26th of May 1944 they moved into a marshalling camp ahead of the invasion of Normandy. They embarked for the invasion at Warsash in the Solent on the 4th of June 1944.

No. 6 Commando came ashore on at 8.40am on D-Day, the 6th of June 1944, on “Queen Red” Sector of Sword Beach. On their way inland, at the village of Saint Aubin d'Arquenay, one Troop separated from the main force and assaulted four German pillboxes and an artillery battery manned by Italians which had been holding up the advance inland. During this action they captured sixteen prisoners and killed twenty four of the enemy, spiking the guns before moving on. Shortly after this an enemy patrol was seen approaching the village which was ambushed, killing a number of them who turned out to be Russian prisoners.

Three and half hours after landing, and under fire from rocket-firing Nebelwerfers, they linked up with British paratroopers and glider troops who were holding Pegasus Bridge at Benouville. They then joined with the 9th Battalion, Parachute Regiment for an attack on the village of La Plein and dug in for the night. During the night they were targeted by snipers in the hope of a response which would give away their position, but they remained silent.

The following morning their position was hit by mortar fire which caused No. 1 Troop four casualties, including Gilbert Fazan who was killed.

In the article in the Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser of  23 June it reported: Deep sympathy will be extended to Dr. and Mrs. Fazan, his two sisters and two brothers, P./O. M. G. Fazan, R.A.F., and Lieut. B. J. Fazan, formerly in the Royal Sussex Regiment, and now in the Royal Tank Corps in India. His Brigadier, in a letter to Dr. Fazan, said "You will be proud to hear that your splendid son was killed when blowing up a vital bridge over which enemy armour had to be prevented from crossing. He died in the best tradition of Commando service, and the Job he carried out was a complete success."

Gilbert Fazan is buried at Ranville War Cemetery, Plot III, Row O, Grave 3. He is commemorated on the Roll of Honour of the Members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Articled Clerks and on the war memorial at Lancing College.
The epitaph on his grave reads:

“Speed he loved
And laughter and the sun;
A song, wide spaces
And the open air.”