Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An extremely rare Normandy June 1944 (D-Day Plus 1) operations D.S.O. group of six awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel R. G. Kreyer, Cheshire Regiment, late Indian Army and Royal Warwickshire Regiment

Distinguished Service Order, G.VI.R., 1st issue, the reverse of the suspension bar officially dated ‘1944’; India General Service 1936-39, 1 clasp, North West Frontier 1936-37, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt., 1-12 F.F.R.); 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; Defence and War Medals, mounted as worn, good very fine or better (6) £5000-6000

D.S.O. London Gazette 31 August 1944:

‘In recognition of gallant and distinguished services in Normandy.’

The original recommendation states:

‘Major Kreyer took command of the 2nd Royal Warwicks when the C.O. was killed during the early stages of the attack on Lebisey on 7 June 1944. On entering the wood the Battalion came under very heavy and unexpected sniper and machine-gun fire from all directions in very thickly wooded country. Communications between companies broke down. Casualties were very heavy and considerable disorganisation resulted. With complete disregard for his personal safety, Major Kreyer took over control and restored what had become an extremely critical situation. Later, when enemy tanks attacked, the Battalion having lost its anti-tank guns, with great coolness he re-organised the troops to meet this unexpected menace with the result that the last attack failed to achieve its purpose. Finally, on orders from Brigade, he successfully withdrew the Battalion in good order from its position which had become untenable. Throughout the operation his cool judgment, leadership and contempt of danger were of a high order and a great inspiration to all ranks.’

Robin Grey Kreyer, who was born in April 1910, was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on the Supplementary Reserve in September 1930. Afterwards placed on the Unattached List for an appointment in the I.A., he arrived in India in October 1932 and was posted to the 1st Battalion (Prince of Wales’s Own) (Sikhs), 12th Frontier Force Regiment, at Sangor.

Kreyer was advanced to Lieutenant in December 1934 and was mentioned in despatches ‘for distinguished services in connection with the operations in Waziristan, North West Frontier of India, 16 September to 15 December 1937’, while attached to the 5th Battalion, Queen’s Own Corps of Guides (London Gazette 16 August 1938 refers).

Just one year on from this announcement, however, Kreyer disappears from the Indian Army List, a fact that goes someway to supporting a contention that he was compelled to resign his commission as a result of some petty offence.

So it was that he enlisted in the ranks of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment on the renewal of hostilities in 1939, and went out to join the B.E.F., almost certainly with the 2nd Battalion, whom he would later command immediately after D-Day. This assumption being right, he would have participated in the bitter fighting at Wormhoudt in late May 1940. Mercifully he was not among the 80 or 90 men - most of them from the 2nd Warwickshires - who were taken prisoner, herded into a barn and murdered by the S.S.

Undoubtedly, though, Kreyer distinguished himself, for in a somewhat unusual announcement made in The London Gazette on 21 March 1941, it was ordained that ‘Lance-Corporal Robin Grey Kreyer (44716), Royal Warwickshire Regiment’ was to be appointed a substantive Lieutenant (w.e.f. 15 February 1941).

By the time of the Normandy landings in June 1944, Kreyer had risen to the rank of Major and was serving as 2nd in command of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, part of 185 Infantry Brigade, 3rd British Division. As such, he must have been among those who landed at Sword Beach on D-Day, an incident recorded for posterity by a fellow Battalion officer:

‘Dawn came - few had had much sleep - even fewer managed to eat breakfasts - some looked very ill in spite of sea-sick pills ... land was just in sight, and the rumble of naval guns rolled back to us across the water, as we steered in line ahead through the narrow lanes swept by the mine-sweepers, towards the shore. Soon it was time to assemble, as the craft fanned out into line abreast. Kits were put on - guns checked over - all was ready, and the men moved forward to their stations. Occasionally a whining sound would swish over the ship, our first experience of an angry missile ... We could see the spouts of water shoot up as enemy bombs and shells fell into the sea; and small clouds of black and white smoke rise up as the enemy fire came down on the beaches. The naval guns had lifted to targets behind, but our ‘planes swept overhead ... Nothing hit our craft as we raced in, but other companies were not so lucky ... At last we touched the beach. Down went the ramps and ashore we stumbled, lugging our kits through the last few yards of shallow sea, up breathless and anxious on to the sandy beach ...’

Other companies were indeed ‘not so lucky’, one Warwickshires’ L.C.I. (Landing Craft Infantry) hitting a mine as its bow grounded, and another being hit three times by shellfire offshore and having both of its landing ramps shot away by mortar fire. Further casualties were sustained later in the day, when, according to the regimental history, ‘a glider fleet of the 6th Airborne Division’s follow-up units appeared over head, circled and came in to land right among the Warwickshire men, undeterred by the black puffs of flak that greeted them. One glider unhappily descended on top of two B Company signallers who, wearing headphones, had not realized the danger. Both were killed.’

In fact, by the evening of D-Day, having moved a mile or two inland along the River Orne, Kreyer’s Battalion had sustained four fatalities and 35 wounded. Yet far worse was to follow when the Battalion was allocated to attack Lebisey on D-Day plus 1, the 7 June 1944, the village and wood having been occupied by a Battalion of the 125th Panzer Grenadiers (21st Panzer Division), a ‘fresh unit of formidable fighting quality’. It was here that Kreyer won his immediate D.S.O., taking over command of the Battalion when his C.O., Colonel “Jumbo” Herdon, was killed by machine-gun fire. As the regimental history states, ‘it was some consolation that his 2nd in command, Major R. G. Kreyer, took over with admirable firmness’, firmness of command that he successfully displayed until the arrival of a replacement C.O. on 11 June 1944. Battalion casualties, meanwhile, had increased by 10 officers and 144 other ranks on the 7 June alone, an indication of the ferocity of the fighting during Kreyer’s tenure of command.

Inevitably, perhaps, he was wounded in the subsequent fighting around Cuillerville Wood, when the Battalion came up against Tiger tanks and endured ‘the worse shelling than it had to endure at any period in the whole campaign.’ He was, however, able to rejoin his unit on 27 July 1944 and went on to participate in all of its actions in the push to the Rhine. Indeed it was not until March 1945 that he left the 2nd Warwickshires to take command of a battalion of the Cheshire Regiment - ‘while glad at his promotion,’ states the regimental history, ‘the Battalion was very sorry to lose an officer who throughout the campaign had served so faithfully.’