On the 22nd of August 1944 an SAS patrol with two jeeps was
travelling on the road behind enemy lines towards a little French
village Les Ormes. Derrick Harrison was the member of this five man
patrol. As they reached the village border they saw a curl of thick
black smoke. Then a women came across to them on bicycle she told them
that SS soldiers gathered civilians around on the main square of the
village and about to execute them. There was no time to call the
French resistance so the patrol decided to attack immediately. The two
jeeps went in separately. Harrison and his driver Jimmy Hall went to
the main square, where thanks to their surprise attack the civilians
could escape. The SS forces returned fire. Jimmy Hall died at the
beginning of the firefight and their jeep got disabled as well.
Harrison was left on his own and got several wounds but he could pin
down the enemy till the others, Faunchois, Stewart and
Breaton got there with the other jeep. He only got time and strength
left to climb up to the moving vehicle and get out of the village as
fast as they could.
Thanks to their valor the civilians could escape the Germans lost sixty
killed or wounded and withdrew from the village after the skirmish.
This historical event was the inspiration of this diorama.
