TOMMY MENNIM

Thomas Rippon Mennim, Army number 4279284, was in 3 Troop, A Squadron, 9 RTR. He was the son of Thomas Rippon and Jessie Mennim, who in 1944 lived in Walker Gate, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

In Operation Jupiter, the assault on Hill 112 by 43 Infantry Division and 31 Tank Brigade on 10 July 1944, A Squadron was particularly hard hit as it advanced to support 7 Hampshires in their attack on the village of Maltot. Fourteen of the Squadron’s eighteen tanks were put out of action, and the squadron took heavy casualties; sixteen were killed, seventeen wounded, and eight taken prisoner. Tommy Mennim’s troop sergeant, Frank Quinn, was wounded and taken prisoner, and Tommy and others of the troop were killed or wounded.

In the casualty list maintained by 9 RTR Orderly Room Tommy was recorded as “Missing in action”, to which was added a subsequent note “confirmed killed in action”. The then Adjutant of the 9^th, Capt John Hodges, recorded that all the A Squadron fatal casualties were initially buried at Eterville after their recovery in or near the burnt-out tanks.

For some reason it was not possible to make a positive identification of Tommy’s body, and so he is not buried in a separate named grave. His name is on the Memorial at Bayeux War Cemetery, along with others whose death was known but whose bodies could not be identified.

Tommy had the army trade of gunner-mechanic, and it seems probable that he was the gunner in the tank of 3 Troop Commander, Lt Les Wintle. Les himself escaped injury in the Hill 112-Maltot action, but was killed when run over by a tank transporter on 5 October 1944.

If anyone reading this account has any further information about Tommy, it would be most gratefully received by Tommy’s nephew Jim Holmes. Jim’s address is:

1, East Benton Farm Cottages, Benton, Newcastle-on-Tyne, NE 12 9 SH;

Phone: 0912 660 742

Jim has very kindly provided our website with two documents relating to Tommy’s death. The first is the notification that Tommy was missing, sent on 25 July 1944, and the second the notification of his death, sent exactly one month later.

These two documents illustrate the pain that must have been suffered by so many loved ones, especially when the hope of the “missing” letter was dashed by the subsequent letter notifying death.