Squadron Sergeant Major William Ramage

Squadron Sergeant Major William Cockburn Ramage, ” C ” Squadron, 5th Royal Tank Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps. He was killed in action in Normandy on 13th June 1944, aged 27 during the fierce fighting near Bayeaux and is buried in Hottot-Les-Bagues War Cemetery, Calvados, France where his Headstone is inscribed ” Ever In Our Thoughts”. He had been born in Eccles, Berwickshire and was the son of Stephen and Jane Ramage of Cathpair, Stow and the husband of Olive Joan Ramage of Haslemere, Surrey. His Unit were equipped with the Cromwell and Sherman Firefly tanks. On 13th June 5th Royal Tanks were in an armoured column near the village of Villers Bocage when they were ambushed by German Tiger tanks under the command of the panzer ace Michael Wittman. Four of the Regiment’s Cromwell tanks were lost that day. ( On 8th August Wittman himself was killed when he in turn was ambushed  by tanks from the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry and the Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment ). The photo shows a Cromwell tank in Normandy.

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