Edward Colquhoun Charlton

He fought alone to cover his crew and the retreating troops.

Edward Colquhoun Charlton was born on 15 June 1920 at Rowlands Gill, County Durham, while his mother was staying with her family. His parents later moved to Manchester. During the Second World War he served as a guardsman in the 2nd Battalion, Irish Guards, part of the Guards Armoured Division, and went to north-west Europe with his regiment.

On 21 April 1945 he was co-driver of a tank supporting infantry at Wistedt, Germany. A German counterattack threatened to overwhelm the small force. Three British tanks were hit, while Charlton's tank had already suffered an electrical failure. Ordered to dismount its Browning machine gun, he took the weapon forward and fired from the hip in full view of the enemy.

His fire checked the attack and gave the surviving guardsmen time to reorganise and withdraw. Although wounded in the left arm, he continued firing. After a second wound shattered that arm, he supported the gun on a fence and fought on until further wounds and blood loss brought him down. Captured, he died of his injuries that day, aged twenty-four.

Charlton received a posthumous Victoria Cross, the last awarded for an action in the European theatre during the war. German accounts helped establish what he had done after his comrades withdrew. He is buried in Becklingen War Cemetery. His parents later presented his medals to the Irish Guards.

Official Victoria Cross citation

In Germany on the morning of 21st April, 1945, Guardsman Charlton was co-driver in one tank of a troop which, with a platoon of infantry, seized the village of Wistedt. Shortly afterwards, the enemy attacked this position under cover of an artillery concentration and in great strength, comprising, as it later transpired, a battalion of the 15 Panzer Grenadiers supported by six self-propelled guns. All the tanks, including Guardsman Charlton’s, were hit; the infantry were hard pressed and in danger of being over-run. Whereupon, entirely on his own initiative, Guardsman Charlton decided to counter-attack the enemy. Quickly recovering the Browning from his damaged tank, he advanced up the road in full view of the enemy, firing the Browning from the hip. Such was the boldness of his attack and the intensity of his fire that he halted the leading enemy company, inflicting heavy casualties on them. This effort at the same time brought much needed relief to our own infantry. For ten minutes Guardsman Charlton fired in this manner, until wounded in the left arm. Immediately, despite intense enemy fire, he mounted his machine gun on a nearby fence, which he used to support his wounded left arm. He stood firing thus for a further ten minutes until he was again hit in the left arm which fell away shattered and useless. Although twice wounded and suffering from loss of blood, Guardsman Charlton again lifted his machine gun on to the fence, now having only one arm with which to fire and reload. Nevertheless, he still continued to inflict casualties on the enemy, until finally he was hit for the third time and collapsed. He died later of his wounds in enemy hands. The heroism and determination of this Guardsman in his self-imposed task were beyond all praise. Even his German captors were amazed at his valour. Guardsman Charlton’s courageous and self-sacrificing action not only inflicted extremely heavy casualties on the enemy and retrieved his comrades from a desperate situation, but also enabled the position to be speedily recaptured.

(Supplement to The London Gazette of 30 April 1946. 2 May 1946, Numb. 37551, p. 2119)