Sergeant Sidney Capon died on 9th September 2006. He was 82.
The Director of the Merville Battery Museum made the following comment.
“I have lost a close friend. My son Gaëtan (8 years old) has also lost a special friend. They saw each other every year, they corresponded, they even exchanged presents. For Gaëtan Sid will always be his greatest hero. Sid will also be greatly missed by his circle of friends in Normandy.”
She continued. “This is what Sid told us.” “You see me now as the old man that I am, but I was a young fit man when my country called me to do my duty”. “He was just 18 years old”.
Sid took part in the attack on the Battery. He was in the party that attacked casemate no1, not with 32 men as planned, but with 7. (Lieutenant Alan Jefferson, Eric Bedford, Frank Delsignore, Harold Walker, Leslie Cartwright, Tom Stroud Sid Capon).
This is what Sid Capon wrote.
Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway, who was with us, shouted "GET IN, GET IN!"
Almost immediately Lt Jefferson fell wounded. We continued running towards casemate no1 in zigzags across the churned up ground. We seemed to be running into the centre of enemy fire. I arrived on the other side of the casemate with Eric Bedford, Frank Delsignore and Harold Walker; we four were there. We threw two grenades inside and the Germans came out of the room on the left of the corridor and exited the casemate through the door. During this attack I heard shouting and explosions from casemate no2. ‘Mines, mines’. I never saw Lieutenant Mike Dowling again, he had been killed”.
French version
