59th (Staffordshire) Division 1939-1944

Photographs

From 59th Division, Its War Story

The reprint edition of the division history did a terrible job reproducing the photos. Here are scans from the first edition.

Click each thumbnail for a larger view.


(1)

(2)

(3)

(1)-top: Men serving with the 2/5th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers march through the battered village of Fontenay-Le-Pesnel on their way to join 197th Brigade north west of Brettevillette, 16 July 1944. [Ref. Imperial War Museum, Film A70 83-4]

(1)-bottom: Sappers serving with the 510 Field Company Royal Engineers return with a collection of defused Teller mines. Villers- Bocage, 4 August 1944. [Ref. Imperial War Museum, Film A70 111-5]

(2) An abandoned tank and a divisional route-marker greet 59 Div troops as they enter the devastated and empty town of Villers-Bocage. 4 August 1944. [Ref. Imperial War Museum, Film A70 113-7]

(3)-bottom: From the west bank near the village of Goupillieres, the camera looks towards the powerhouse and weir over the Orne where sappers serving with the 509th Field Company Royal Engineers have laid a single-span Class 40 Bailey bridge over the remains of an old bridge destroyed by the Germans. 9 August 1944 [Ref. Imperial War Museum, Film A70 118-3]

(3)-top: 1954 view of same.

The 59th Division, Its War Story
by Peter Knight

The division history, written for the 10th anniversary of D-Day. Currently out of print. Often available at abebooks.co.uk. Get the original edition if you can. The reprint edition is just a photocopy in a binding, with poor reproductions of the maps and photos.

Thanks to Ian Porter for contributing these scans (Sep 2004).

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