A SHORT service will be held at the Worcestershire Regiment Memorial Stone in Gheluvelt Park, Worcester, on Friday to remember the 1st Bn Worcestershire Regiment who on August 26, 1944, helped to liberate the town of Vernon in France.

There, after the D Day landings, the bravery of the men of the 1st Bn changed the course of the Second World War. In torrential rain and faced by withering machine gun fire, its soldiers clawed their way up a vertiginous gorge and forged the first crossing of the river Seine, across which Allied tanks rumbled into northern France and on towards Brussels.

The 1st Bn had been in the vanguard of the Allied advance towards the Seine and were given the task of forcing a crossing of the river at Vernon, where it is about 250 yards wide. All the bridges had been smashed by Allied air raids, so a new one would have to be built, capable of taking the tank corps that was on its way. The actual crossing of the river was unopposed, but as the Worcester’s moved up the steep road on the other side, they came under brutal enemy fire. The infantrymen should have been supported by the first wave of tanks, but these didn’t arrive in time, so it was left to the foot soldiers to fight yard by yard up the densely wooded terrain.

The townsfolk of Vernon, which is 50 miles north-west of Paris, have never forgotten the exploits of the Worcestershire Regiment and each August they place wreaths on the graves of the 26 men who died there.

The ceremony in Worcester is being organised by the Worcester Branch of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association and will start at 11.15am on Friday. It will also remember the men of the 7th Bn who fought in the Burma campaign and at the siege of Kohima when their action helped halt the Japanese advance into India. It is 63 years since the 1st Bn served in Malaya during the Emergency of 1950-1953. The service will remember the 21 soldiers who did not return, their names being read out and any Malay veterans will be most welcome at the service.