Normandy 1944 - WW2 Medal Group to Trooper L.J. Mancey, 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry ( RECCE Reconnaissance regiment attached to the 51st Highland Division )

Five campaign medals to 7899102 Trooper L.J. Mancey of the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry with box of issue ( issued by Cavalry & RAC records and sent to 134 Vartry Road, Tottenham, London , N.15), his matching dog tags, medal bar and some original paperwork confirming three of these medals and dates of service all stamped O.C. B Coy, 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry. New to market and contained in a box with a label to the outside inscribed "My Husbands War Medals 1939 - 1945 L. J. Mancey". The medals have at one time been held together with cello tape, the 8th Army clasp is original, and there is also included in the box a rose and MID bronze leaf. I have not been able to attribute the latter, but it came with the medals in this box. Unfortunately the medal entitlement slip is of little help as it appears that another hand has added additional spurious ticks! There is absolutely no Battle of Britain clasp included, but this has been ticked. Medals in GVF condition and will improve with residue of cellotape removed. Like many WW2 groups, it poses more questions than it provides answers. An interesting research project for a Yeomanry / Reconnaissance Corps collector.

The 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry was a unit of the Territorial Army formed in August 1939. The regiment did not serve in the BEF during the Fall of France, and after Dunkirk it began training and being re-equipped before it arrived in Egypt as part of 8th Armoured Division (which never fought as a whole Division) in 1942, after a short period in Iraq serving with the 9th Army as an Armoured Unit, It served with distinction at the Battle of Alam el Halfa and the Second Battle of El Alamein, as part of 4th Armoured Brigade within 7th Armoured Division (the 2nd DY was the 1st Regiment to enter Tunis at the same time as 11th Hussars).

In 1943 the 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry returned to the United Kingdom to join the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, as the divisional reconnaissance regiment until the end of the war. They were equipped with Daimler Armoured Cars. It then served with this Division during the Normandy campaign and then through the rest of the battles in Northern Europe, taking part in Operation Market Garden in 1944 and in the Ardennes after the German offensive in December 1944 which became known as the 'Battle of the Bulge'. The Regiment then fought in area of the Rhine for the early part of 1945 and crossed the Rhine in March during Operation Plunder and remained with 51st Division until the end of the war, in the Bremerhaven area of Germany, in May 1945.

A62

Code: 56982