GODDARD, PETER HOLLAND, P H Lieutenant 124418 Special Air Service Regiment, A.A.C. 03/09/1944 29
~~~~~~~~~
Peter Goddard was the officer in charge of a group of three SAS having a quiet lunch in a cafe in Tannay with some Maquis, when artillery fire could be heard in the distance. They were told a German convoy was shelling a castle (a known Maquis base) on a hill north of Ouagne on the D23 road. The armoured column was moving from Brinon-sur-Beuvron towards Clamecy.
Goddard offered to help the partisans attack the Germans. The plan was that the Maquis would attack from the front, while the SAS crew hit the enemy from the rear. The other two SAS men, Lilley and Howe, were in the leading jeep when they turned a bend at the hamlet of Plessis and saw the column stretching away in front of them. The last enemy vehicle was a truck carrying a 3.7cm flak gun.
Shells whooshed and crumped into the distant building. Goddard's jeep pulled up alongside the other, and the ex-accountant announced that he was going to capture the gun. Lilley scanned the column, and saw no sign of the Maquis. He advised Goddard against any intervention as he did not consider that they could do any good against the odds.
Goddard insisted. He pulled on a pair of leather gloves, and removed the single Vickers from the driver's side of Lilley's jeep. 'You cover me,' he told the sergeant-major. Lilley unclipped the Bren from behind his seat, and lay prone on the verge. He popped off covering fire. Goddard sprinted down a ditch, his Vickers cackling, firing tracer. Lilley fired bursts in support. The Germans spotted Goddard, and enfiladed him before he had gone a hundred yards, killing him instantly. A terrible waste of life.
His body was taken to Tannay and interred in the comunnal cemtery there.
With respect, his name is inscribed on the French War Memorial in Tannay. To this day groups of SAS ex-servicemen attend his grave to give tribute to a man who died in action.
~~~~~~~~~
Peter Goddard was the officer in charge of a group of three SAS having a quiet lunch in a cafe in Tannay with some Maquis, when artillery fire could be heard in the distance. They were told a German convoy was shelling a castle (a known Maquis base) on a hill north of Ouagne on the D23 road. The armoured column was moving from Brinon-sur-Beuvron towards Clamecy.
Goddard offered to help the partisans attack the Germans. The plan was that the Maquis would attack from the front, while the SAS crew hit the enemy from the rear. The other two SAS men, Lilley and Howe, were in the leading jeep when they turned a bend at the hamlet of Plessis and saw the column stretching away in front of them. The last enemy vehicle was a truck carrying a 3.7cm flak gun.
Shells whooshed and crumped into the distant building. Goddard's jeep pulled up alongside the other, and the ex-accountant announced that he was going to capture the gun. Lilley scanned the column, and saw no sign of the Maquis. He advised Goddard against any intervention as he did not consider that they could do any good against the odds.
Goddard insisted. He pulled on a pair of leather gloves, and removed the single Vickers from the driver's side of Lilley's jeep. 'You cover me,' he told the sergeant-major. Lilley unclipped the Bren from behind his seat, and lay prone on the verge. He popped off covering fire. Goddard sprinted down a ditch, his Vickers cackling, firing tracer. Lilley fired bursts in support. The Germans spotted Goddard, and enfiladed him before he had gone a hundred yards, killing him instantly. A terrible waste of life.
His body was taken to Tannay and interred in the comunnal cemtery there.
With respect, his name is inscribed on the French War Memorial in Tannay. To this day groups of SAS ex-servicemen attend his grave to give tribute to a man who died in action.
GODDARD, PETER HOLLAND, P H Lieutenant 124418 Special Air Service Regiment, A.A.C. 03/09/1944 29
~~~~~~~~~
Peter Goddard was the officer in charge of a group of three SAS having a quiet lunch in a cafe in Tannay with some Maquis, when artillery fire could be heard in the distance. They were told a German convoy was shelling a castle (a known Maquis base) on a hill north of Ouagne on the D23 road. The armoured column was moving from Brinon-sur-Beuvron towards Clamecy.
Goddard offered to help the partisans attack the Germans. The plan was that the Maquis would attack from the front, while the SAS crew hit the enemy from the rear. The other two SAS men, Lilley and Howe, were in the leading jeep when they turned a bend at the hamlet of Plessis and saw the column stretching away in front of them. The last enemy vehicle was a truck carrying a 3.7cm flak gun.
Shells whooshed and crumped into the distant building. Goddard's jeep pulled up alongside the other, and the ex-accountant announced that he was going to capture the gun. Lilley scanned the column, and saw no sign of the Maquis. He advised Goddard against any intervention as he did not consider that they could do any good against the odds.
Goddard insisted. He pulled on a pair of leather gloves, and removed the single Vickers from the driver's side of Lilley's jeep. 'You cover me,' he told the sergeant-major. Lilley unclipped the Bren from behind his seat, and lay prone on the verge. He popped off covering fire. Goddard sprinted down a ditch, his Vickers cackling, firing tracer. Lilley fired bursts in support. The Germans spotted Goddard, and enfiladed him before he had gone a hundred yards, killing him instantly. A terrible waste of life.
His body was taken to Tannay and interred in the comunnal cemtery there.
With respect, his name is inscribed on the French War Memorial in Tannay. To this day groups of SAS ex-servicemen attend his grave to give tribute to a man who died in action.
~~~~~~~~~
Peter Goddard was the officer in charge of a group of three SAS having a quiet lunch in a cafe in Tannay with some Maquis, when artillery fire could be heard in the distance. They were told a German convoy was shelling a castle (a known Maquis base) on a hill north of Ouagne on the D23 road. The armoured column was moving from Brinon-sur-Beuvron towards Clamecy.
Goddard offered to help the partisans attack the Germans. The plan was that the Maquis would attack from the front, while the SAS crew hit the enemy from the rear. The other two SAS men, Lilley and Howe, were in the leading jeep when they turned a bend at the hamlet of Plessis and saw the column stretching away in front of them. The last enemy vehicle was a truck carrying a 3.7cm flak gun.
Shells whooshed and crumped into the distant building. Goddard's jeep pulled up alongside the other, and the ex-accountant announced that he was going to capture the gun. Lilley scanned the column, and saw no sign of the Maquis. He advised Goddard against any intervention as he did not consider that they could do any good against the odds.
Goddard insisted. He pulled on a pair of leather gloves, and removed the single Vickers from the driver's side of Lilley's jeep. 'You cover me,' he told the sergeant-major. Lilley unclipped the Bren from behind his seat, and lay prone on the verge. He popped off covering fire. Goddard sprinted down a ditch, his Vickers cackling, firing tracer. Lilley fired bursts in support. The Germans spotted Goddard, and enfiladed him before he had gone a hundred yards, killing him instantly. A terrible waste of life.
His body was taken to Tannay and interred in the comunnal cemtery there.
With respect, his name is inscribed on the French War Memorial in Tannay. To this day groups of SAS ex-servicemen attend his grave to give tribute to a man who died in action.
Inscription
GOD BE IN MY HEART AND IN MY THINKING; GOD BE AT MINE END, AND AT MY DEPARTING
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