John Stanley Tucker Jones

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

John Stanley Tucker Jones, Corporal 5829258, 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. Killed in action on the 6th of June 1944, aged 28.

John Stanley Tucker Jones was born at Newton, north Wales on the 12th of December 1915, the son of Emlyn Pryce Lewis Jones, a school master, and Edith Jones of The School House, Penybont Fawr, Mochre in Montgomeryshire later of 71, Grosvenor Road, Claughton-cum-Grange, Birkenhead in Cheshire. He was christened on the 30th of January 1916. He matriculated for St Catharine’s College, Cambridge as a pensioner on the 4th of November 1935 where he read Divinity. He graduated with a BA on the 20th of October 1939 and was awarded a MA on the 24th of January 1942. He was married at Birkenhead in 1942 to Florence Mary Jones (née Stonehouse) of Claughton-cum-Grange in Cheshire.

At 8.30am on the morning of D-Day, the 6th of June 1944, the 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment landed on the “Queen White” section of Sword Beach, an hour after the leading wave had landed. Their objectives were the capture of a German gun emplacement, code named “Morris”, and an enemy headquarters bunker complex, code named “Hillman”. Both positions were inland of the beaches and had been heavily bombed by Allied aircraft. The Battalion could call on naval support from the ships offshore if needed, as well as call on support from the 33 rd and 76th Field Regiments of the Royal Artillery, the 246 th Field Company, Royal Engineers and tanks of the North Staffordshire Yeomanry and of the 13 th/18th Hussars. The capture of the two enemy positions would secure the exits from the beaches.

The Battalion quickly cleared the village of Colleville-Sur-Orne before heading for “Morris”. As they prepared their assault on the position its defenders surrendered. Sixty seven prisoners were taken and were marched back to Colleville. The Battalion then advanced towards “Hillman”, which was the headquarters of the 736th Grenadier Regiment and was situated on the Périers Ridge behind Ouistreham and 2.3 miles behind the beaches which it overlooked. It consisted of eighteen underground bunkers, two of which were command bunkers, and was spread over an area of ten acres. The bunkers were connected by a maze of trenches, with machine gun positions at regular intervals, all of which were surrounded by barbed wire and by mines. It commanded a field of fire of 2,000 feet and had remained relatively untouched by the bombing it had been subjected to before the invasion had begun.

A reconnaissance of the complex was undertaken by Captain Reggie Ryley of A Company who ordered a mortar and artillery barrage on the bunkers before the first attack was made at 1.05pm. The Royal Engineers cleared a path through the minefield and breached the barbed wire using Bangalore torpedoes before an Assault Platoon passed through the clearing. The Platoon was met by heavy machine gun fire and was forced to take cover. At 3pm, the tanks were ordered up to fire into the bunkers at close range but their shells bounced off. A wider path was then made through the minefield which enabled the tanks to get on top of the position where two were knocked out. The bunkers were cleared, often with explosives being dropped down the ventilation shafts, with fifty prisoners being captured and most of the complex was taken by 8.15pm that night. The last bunker surrendered at 6.45am the following morning when the German commander, Oberst Ludwig Klug and around seventy men were taken prisoner. The Battalion had suffered casualties of two officers and five other ranks killed, with twenty four other ranks wounded.

John Jones is buried at Banneville-La-Campagne War Cemetery, Plot X, Row B, Grave 27. He is commemorated on the war memorial at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge.