The (short) story of Stanley Mathews and John Thorogood

[The_MadMan]

This is the short story of the death of two young tankers in 4 troop, C-squadron, 44th Royal Tank Regiment. They are named Stan Matthews and John Thorogood.

http://www.nieuwint.net/images/cdv/Thorogood/John_Thorogood.jpg
John 'Jack' Thorogood

http://www.nieuwint.net/images/cdv/Thorogood/Stanley_Matthews.jpg
Stanley Matthews

They both died on september 21st 1944 when their Sherman Firefly tank got hit twice by a german AT gun as they were advancing from the town of Sint-Oedenrode (near Veghel) towards the tiny hamlet of Olland. Together with a second tank they advanced without infantery and got hit when they came to a bend in the road. The driver (Stanley) was killed immediately so the tank rolled on uncontrollable untill it hit a tree stopped there. The second tank retreated and was not hit. You can clearly see both holes in the frontal armour and the tree that was taken a few hits too.

http://www.nieuwint.net/images/cdv/Thorogood/Firefly.jpg

John Thorogood (gunner) escaped from the then burning tank but was killed by rifle / machinegun fire as he tried to make his way back towards the Allied lines. The other two crew members, lieutenant David Cohen and the wireless operator (name unknown) escaped but were severly wounded.

John's brother, George, wrote a book about it: "proven beyond doubt". It describes the history of this event in more detail and the help he got from the local Dutch people who helped him in his search for the truth.

Yesterday I went to the same location and took the following photo's:

The location where the tank was hit, the house has been modernised, the road widened and the ditch has made way for a bicicle path (the bastards!).
http://www.nieuwint.net/images/cdv/Thorogood/overview.jpg

The approx site where the tank ended against a tree, unfortunantely the tree is gone now. http://www.nieuwint.net/images/cdv/Thorogood/now.jpg

In 1994 a small monument was erected to the memory of these soldiers. It says:
21-9-1944
John Thorogood
Stanley Mathews
Hun jonge leven hier gegeven (Their young lives given here)
http://www.nieuwint.net/images/cdv/Thorogood/Monument.jpg

They were buried side by side in a field near the tank and were relocated in june 1946 to the Uden War Cemetery.
http://www.nieuwint.net/images/cdv/Thorogood/Uden%20Cemetery.jpg

They still lie side by side, Matthews on the left and Thorogood on the right.
http://www.nieuwint.net/images/cdv/Thorogood/graves.jpg

[percell_086]

nice post

RIP fellows


Percell

[Hiroshima]

Stand down men...get some rest!

[JasonH]

"When he reaches the gates of Heaven,
to Saint Peter he will tell,
'One more soldier reporting, sir...
I've served my time in hell"

RiP

[Vivelamorte]

"When he reaches the gates of Heaven,
to Saint Peter he will tell,
'One more soldier reporting, sir...
I've served my time in hell"

RiP

Just out of interest, where did you get that line?

[Deep6]

Enjoyed the story and pictures!
Thanks for the Post! :-)

[Digital Marine]

"When he reaches the gates of Heaven,
to Saint Peter he will tell,
'One more soldier reporting, sir...
I've served my time in hell"

RiP

Just out of interest, where did you get that line?



its a pretty well known saying.... i think it was made up in Vietnam....


Another Marine:
We come from San Diego
The land that god forgot
The mountains high the rivers dry
the sun was blazing hot
We pealed a million onions
And twice as many spuds
The Germans called us Devil Dods
The name is plain Marine

When we get to heaven
Saint Peter we will tell
Another Marine reporting sir
I've served my time in Hell

And when we get to heaven
Saint Peter I will tell
Another Marine reporting sir
I've served my time in hell
Marine, Marine, Marine

[The_MadMan]

Enjoyed the story and pictures!
Thanks for the Post! :-)

You're welcome :hug:

[Andreas]

Good post Madman, good journalism. Stories like this one is important because war most of the time becomes a "numbers game"
Would love to learn about similar storys from around the world. By that i mean isolated episodes involving maybe 1 or 2 individuals and theire story in the midst of a larger campaign...
And NO i dont mean their deaths, but theire storys.
I read an interesting post on this board about a solider in wwII who got captured by the germans, then escaped and linked up with the russians and fought with them until he could return to his unit..

R.I.P boys...

[scrybe]

Great post and story. I wonder if the locals realise how much history took place right in their backyards.

[The_MadMan]

Great post and story. I wonder if the locals realise how much history took place right in their backyards.

They do! Perhaps not what happened around the corner but most people in the Market Garden area know what took place in 1944. New monuments are still being erected and there still is a lot of interest in the subject.

This saturday there is a lecture about the supply drops during Market Garden which Im going to attend and last saturday in the Airborne museum in Oosterbeek there were a number of re-enactors.