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Pte. George Henry Davis
British Army 2nd Batallion Durham Light Infantry
from:Sunderland
(d.27th May 1940)
George served in the 2nd Battalion of the DLI, alongside his older brother, Lance Sgt Thomas Davis. Thomas was my grandfather, George would have been my great uncle. They were attacked on the morning of 27th of May 1940 by a Panzer Regiment in the village of St Venant, some 40 miles south of Dunkirk. During the retreat, George and Thomas jumped into the canal to the north of the canal in an attempt to escape from the Germans.
I think George and Thomas were in D Company of 2nd DLI, tasked with defending the ground to the west of St Venant, between the railway line and the canal de la Lys just to the north. It is likely that George died towards midday on the 27th, as he was last seen swimming across the canal with Thomas. Thomas reported in a letter back home from his prison camp that he and George were swimming, then George stopped and wasn't seen again.
I believe the 3rd Panzer Division lay to the south of DLI lines, and the German SS infantry lay to the west. As the Panzers moved northwards, it became a battle of guns against tanks. The British troops had no options but to retreat, with many losing their lives in the open ground between the railway and the canal. Thomas was pulled out of the canal by the Germans and taken prisoner. George's body was pulled from the canal about a mile east, snagged on a burnt out barge, and buried alongside the canal.
A couple of years after his death, the International Red Cross dug up his body by the side of the canal, and re-interred him in the St Venant Commonwealth Cemetery. Before re-burial, his remains were examined and the records show that there were no visible signs of gunshot wounds on his remains. This led me to speculate that perhaps he was not shot, but drowned. The morning of the 21st was a particularly hot one, and the brothers had had to race across a cornfield for about a kilometre while under heavy machine gun fire from the chasing Panzers. It is quite possible that George, although only 25, was weakened by the chase, and his exhaustion and equipment combined to drag him beneath the water to his death.
The exact date of death is not known: he disappeared on the morning of the 27th of May, and his body recovered on the 1st June. His grave in the St Venant Commonwealth cemetery bears both dates, although it is most likely the former is the true date.
