Maurice Albert Wyndham Rogers

Alone across a minefield, he silenced two machine-gun posts.

Maurice Albert Wyndham Rogers was born in Bristol on 17 July 1919. He joined the Wiltshire Regiment as a drummer boy and later served with its 2nd Battalion. His wartime service took him to France, where he was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940, and subsequently to Madagascar, the Middle East, Sicily and Italy.

On 1 August 1943 near Gerbini airfield in Sicily, Rogers led a carrier reconnaissance under enemy fire. When his carrier was disabled, he reported enemy positions, directed mortar fire and helped recover the vehicle despite continued bombardment. For this separate action he received the Military Medal, announced in the London Gazette on 18 November 1943.

On 3 June 1944 near Ardea, during the breakout from the Anzio beachhead, his dismounted carrier platoon was stopped by machine-gun fire before a wired and mined German position. Rogers advanced alone with a Thompson submachine gun and grenades, crossed the wire and minefield, and destroyed two machine-gun posts. His example enabled the platoon to resume the attack. A grenade wounded his leg as he approached a third post, but he continued forward and was killed by close-range fire. The platoon captured its objective.

Rogers was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross in the London Gazette supplement published on 10 August 1944. He is buried at Beach Head War Cemetery, Anzio, Plot X, Row D, Grave 8. His VC and MM honour courage in two distinct actions.