Lieutenant-Colonel N.W. Finlinson
2/6th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment
2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment

 

We were waiting in the ruined streets of Cambes and all about us on the pavements and in the shelter of the derelict cottages the men of the battalion (the 2/6th) stood or lay waiting for the order that would take us into battle for the first time. Occasionally a German mortar whistled overhead and crumped behind us in the back end of the village. Otherwise there was complete silence. Those who had to move did so on tiptoe; those who had to talk spoke in whispers; those who would have liked to whistle to ease the tension knew that they must keep quiet. The faces we could see were sad and grim …

(Quoted in Your Men in Battle: The Story of the South Staffordshire, 24)

Born on 13 December 1902 in Bromley, Kent, Norman West Finlinson was commissioned with the South Staffordshire Regiment from Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1923. He was promoted to captain in 1935. Following an appointment to Sandhurst in the early Second World War, by 1944, Finlinson had assumed command of the 2/6th Battalion. It deployed to France with the 59th Division later in June 1944.

In the battalion’s first action at Galamanche, Finlinson earned the D.S.O. “calmness and imperturbability in the heat of battle”:

Shortly after crossing the start line his leading companies suffered heavy casualties and became disorganised through the loss of officers and NCOs. The reserve companies in trying to keep going the momentum of the attack encountered enemy in strong positions in the houses and suffered heavy casualties. Lt-Col. Finlinson immediately appreciated the necessity for quick action and personally organised various parties from the support company and headquarter company, collected stragglers and issued orders for resumption of the advance to the final objective.

Heavy casualties in Normandy and manpower shortages meant the British could not sustain the 59th Staffordshire Division. It was broken up in mid-August and the 2/6th Battalion provided reinforcement drafts. Finlinson waited for another command postings. He took over 2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment in the 49th Division in October 1944 but the appointment lasted only one month.

Finlinson died on 2 May 1987 in Bath, Somerset.