Military Chat

I've just managed to find out some info about my Great Uncle, Ronald Cooper, born in 1923 and killed in action on the 4th September 1944 aged 21. He is buried at the British Cemetery in Pernes France and he was in the East Lancashire Regiment, his soldier number was 3607375. I managed to get a photograph of his grave from the War Graves website, but I was wondering is there any way I can find out exactly what happened to him and where he was killed. how would I get hold of these records please if at all. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

His gro death reference is listed amongs the Military Deaths on this site. Order the certificate from. http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/
This is the free preview - you would have to access the full transcript to get the info to order

RONALD COOPER
British nationals armed forces deaths 1796-2005
Collections from Great Britain
Country Great Britain
Year 1944
Rank Private
Soldier Number3607375

A DC may only say 'killed in action' or 'Died of wounds'

Alternatively, purchase a copy of his service records for £30 - they aren't on line - from the MOD
This is the link for obtaining UK service records:
http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/service_records.html

The following Soldiers serving with the 1st Battalion East Lancashire Reg are reported to have been killed on 4 Sep 1944 and also buried at Pernes British Cemetery

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx?cpage=1&sort=name&order=asc

Sergeant James Bates – Service number 3527108
Lance Corporal George Boulton – 3456722
Lance Corporal James Costello – 14613076
Corporal Arthur Haigh – 3383679
Lance Corporal William Hughes – 3383494
Lance Corporal William James Sowerby – 3608270
Private Ronald John Waters – 14583554

In addition, the following Fusiliers from the Royal Welch Fusiliers 7th Battalion were also killed on the same day.
Arthur Geary
Harry Greenwood
Albert Guiller
Edward Kelly
Walter Raybould
(Corporal) Alfred Roadknight
Harold Huxley William Russel

http://www.lancashireinfantrymuseum.org.uk/world-war-ii-1/

Falaise. The break-out was now under way and a large part of the German army in Normandy was trapped in a pocket west of Falaise On 11th August the 1st South Lancashires led an advance into this pocket down the Vire-Tinchebray road, on the extreme left of the British front. Meanwhile the 1st East Lancashires, advancing south from the Orne against the neck of the pocket, captured the little town of Bois Halbout in a spirited quick attack on 12th August, then exploited to just west of Falaise. On 19th August, when the encirclement of German forces in the Falaise pocket was completed, the battle for Normandy was effectively over.

BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 1944-45
Antwerp. The 1st East Lancashires joined in the pursuit across France, >>>fighting several actions against enemy rearguards north of ST. POL, 4th-6th September<<<, before taking part in the clearance of the vital Antwerp docks, 9th-13th September.

CWGC site says about the cemetery - Location Information

Pernes-en-Artois is a **small town on the main road from Lillers to ST. POL.** The British Cemetery is nearly one kilometre west of the town on the road to Sains-les-Pernes.

It might be worth contacting the Regimental Museum to see if they can shed any light on what occurred – you can tell them that 15 men were killed on the same day. In all likelihood they were killed in the actions against the German rearguard as quoted above

e-mail: [email protected]

Hello Michelle and welcome to the Community Boards


I'll let Michelle know how to find her replies.... :-)

Hi, so sorry for the late reply as I've not managed to get on here. Thank you all so much for your info, much appreciated. :-)