George Hercus

 This is George Hercus in May 1944, in camp at Wethersfield in the north of Essex:

He is with the other NCOs (serjeants and corporals) in the 5th battalion of the Black Watch; he is the tall man in the middle of the second row:

From "The Spirit of Angus" by John McGregor

George was the third son of John Hercus and Margaret Isabella (nee Gilmour), born on 17th February 1913 at 11 Moray Avenue, Scotstoun in Glasgow.

This view would be from a little before 1913, of course, but looks across Dumbarton Road towards what is now Scotstoun Stadium at the far end of the street.  Moray Avenue was renamed Ormiston Avenue in the 1930s.

George's father, John was also known as Jack and came from the Orkney Islands. On George's birth certificate his occupation is given as "Law Clerk" but it seems he was on the verge of greater things, as this profile of him shows (scroll to about one-third of the way down the page, although it is all fascinating).

Between 1925 and 1930, John (Jack) and Margaret moved their family to the more spacious surroundings of Thorneycroft, a house in North Erskine Park, Bearsden (I believe this is now 29 North Erskine Drive). According to Scotland's People they had eight children: John, James, George, Agnes, Thomas, Richard, Margaret and Iris.

George was a keen golfer and played for Bearsden's football club. After leaving school his occupation was in the circulation department of the Evening Times (employee George Outram and Co, the printers and publishers). I cannot be certain but he was most likely based in what is now known as The Lighthouse Building on Mitchell Street (then known as The Glasgow Herald Building):

George was married, aged 27, on Friday 19th January 1940 to Catherine Campbell McNicholl, daughter of a waterman. The ceremony took place at the Manse to St Luke's Church, now St Joseph's, on Station Road opposite Milngavie Town Hall:

They lived at 23 New Kirk Square; two others shared the address so I assume it was a flat.

In 1940 George joined the army. We know he was at the battle of El Alamein in the Cameron Highlanders. He was transferred to the 7th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and he was wounded on 15th December 1942 as the 8th Army pursued the Afrika Korps through Libya:

The battalion had just occupied Mersa Brega and there is a reference to several men being wounded by booby traps.

At around this time, his brother Richard, who was a gunner on an artillery regiment in the same area went missing.  By January 30th 1943 the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald was able to report he was a prisoner:

George was fit enough to be posted again within a few moths, this time to the Black Watch. He served with them to the surrender of the Axis forces in north Africa, during the capture of Sicily and at the invasion of Italy. 

The battalion was then brought back to the UK to rest and train for the D-Day landings, the invasion of France in June 1944. This is when the photo at the start of this post was taken. Note that George was a private when wounded in December 1942 but had risen through the rank of corporal to be a serjeant by this time.

George's battalion landed on the evening of D-Day, 6th June 1944, on the beach code named Juno, and marched to the eastern edge of the Allied lines where they were first put into the front line five days later in an attack on Breville:

Juno Beach is the green marker, top left, the Breville area is outlined bottom right

Their sector was to the east of Pegasus Bridge, the canal bridge captured by airborne troops on the night before D-Day.  They were to attack towards Breville from the south-west at 4.30am on 11th June, over about 250 yards of open ground. In the photos below, George's battalion assembled at the bottom of the photo (Allied lines marked in blue) and attacked the German lines marked in red.

Despite initial mortar fire on suspected German positions, the advance was met with very heavy fire from the Germans and the lead company (A) suffered very badly.  Two other companies (B and C) tried to advance further to the flank but were also knocked back.

In the evening of the 11^th the battalion moved to the Chateau St. Come, at the bottom right hand corner of the photo above.  On the morning of the 12^th, they were shelled and suffered some sniping.  At around 3pm, a heavy artillery barrage came down followed by a German attack in battalion strength supported by tanks and self-propelled guns.  The Black Watch had no tank support, their machine guns were quickly knocked out and only one anti-tank gun out of three was left.  The German attack was finally beaten back, but with further wounded and killed among the Black Watch – including George Hercus.

This is the chateau after the battle - the Black watch would have been positioned in slit trenches round about it, rather than fighting from the building itself.

There is a video that describes the action; the sunken road where the attack over open ground on the 11th started from is shown at the start. The chateau features about four minutes into the video, although I have seen no evidence to support the narrator's statement that some Black Watch men were trying to get away.

George was initially buried in Breville, but after the war his body was reburied in the CWGC cemetery in Ranville.

His death was reported in the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald of 1st July 1944:

A report with similar wording appeared in the Orkney Herald ten days later:

And the final mention was in the following week's Milngavie and Bearsden Herald:

His wife, Catherine, seems to have been living with her parents at Mugdock Cottage while he was away.  As of 2023 this was called the Commissioner's Cottage and will be familiar to people who walk by Milngavie Reservoir: