"Lance Corporal Harry Nicholls VC, 3rd Bn Grenadier Guards"

by David Rowlands

Image Size 52 x 36 cm


21 May1940: Harry Nicholls was a Nottingham man, one of a family of thirteen, who enlisted in 1936 and soon distinguished himself as a boxer.

As the Germans advanced rapidly through Northern France in 1940, the British Expeditionary Force withdrew, trying to avoid encirclement. At the River Escaut, the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards found themselves digging in near the village of Pecq. Mist lay over the water, when at 7.30 am on the 21st May the enemy attacked. A sudden mortar and machine-gun barrage opened up, and the Germans were quickly rowing their rubber boats across the river and beaching them on the western bank.

LCpI Nicholls was commanding a section in the right-forward platoon of his company when ordered to counter-attack. At the very start of the advance he was wounded in the arm by shrapnel, but continued to lead his section forward against German machine gun positions on a slight ridge backed by poplar trees. The enemy opened heavy machine-gun fire at short range.

Realizing the danger to his company, he immediately seized a Bren gun and dashed forward, firing from the hip. Guardsman Nash supplied him with ammunition from his pouches. Nicholls succeeded in silencing one machine gun, and then two others, in spite of being severely wounded. He then went up on to a higher piece of ground and engaged the German infantry massed behind, causing many casualties, and continuing to fire until he had no ammunition left. He was wounded at least four times in all, but absolutely refused to give up.

His action changed the whole course of the battle. He had saved his comrades from almost certain annihilation, and had inflicted so many casualties that the Germans withdrew all their survivors across the river.

Harry Nicholls was reported to have been killed in action and in August 1940 his widow received his Victoria Cross from King George VI. It was not until many months later that he was discovered alive and in a prisoner-of-war camp. He was repatriated in May 1945, returned to Nottingham to a hero’s welcome and was himself presented with his Victoria Cross by the King. It was the first VC to be gained by any soldier in the Second World War.

I interviewed Mr Percy Nash, who helpfully told me his recollections of the action.