William Hubert Small

Awarded Croix de Guerre with Vermillion Star.
Citation:-

Captain Small's handling of his Sound Ranging Troop in the battle for the liberation of France has been beyond praise. His Troop, without previous battle experience, was rushed into action at Caumont on 27 June 1944, within just over 24 hours of landing. Followed a special mortar location base sited in the the areas the forward battalions in the Odon Valley. This experiment gave outstanding sucessful results despite conditions of shell and mortar fire which forced two other SR Troops out of action through sheer inability to maintain their communications. Great numbers of batteries were subsequently located when the troop extended to a normal SR base. Possibly, however, Capt Smalls most outstanding performance was the installation of a 1,000metre Orne base. With little or no information about friend or foe, Capt Small carried out his recce on the day of the advance. Alone in a jeep usually moving between the Recce elements of two Divisions and their leading infantry, he covered miles of country infested with mines and odd pockets of enemy. As often as not, Capt Small was by hours the first British soldier to traverse the lateral roads along which SR bases communications have to run. He took desperate risks with a result that he was able to deploy his troop at 19.00hrs the same evening - get it into action by midnight and working to full efficiency by the following afternoon. A deliberate deployment of such a base on a firm front cleared of mines has been known to take four days. 
Proposed HH Clegg passed 12 Corps 20.12.1944, Army 18.1.1945
                    signed Lt Gen N.W.Ritchie Cmd 12 Corps                                            WO 373 / 186 Pt 4A French citations

Extract from the American 3rd Battalion, 26th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division Journal

June 28th - We are still in the same defensive position. Lt. Sampson of Co. "I" led a combat patrol through Co. "C" at 0105 hrs into field 72505945. Encountering mortar fire, patrol withdrew to road, moved east on road then went down hedgerow where they ran into barbed wire and sounded alarm. Flares went up and the patrol threw hand grenades and sent BAR thru on flank. This drew more fire. The patrol had Polish soldier call but received only more enemy fire an answer. Lt. Chauncy of Co. "M" was unable to contact his headquarters. At 0545 Capt. Small, British Survey Regt. called to inform us that he has a small outpost to the left of the hard road leading to Caumont which is part of a sound ranging outfit and wants to be kept posted on our tactical situation. He will have a lance corporal act as liaison for exchange of information. ( to see the full journal http://www.historicaltextarchive.com/books.php?op=viewbook&bookid=22&cid=7)