Sergeant Frank W Dunkley

Frank Wilfred Dunkley was the son of Benjamin Frank and Lilian Cathrine (Wills) Dunkley, of Roade, Northamptonshire, he enlisted in the Northamptonshire Yeomanry on 14 April 1938, 3 days after his 17th birthday!

He was a Fitter/ Mechanic by trade, rising through the ranks, in the Royal Tank Regiment. He served in Italy and North Africa. He volunteered for Airborne forces and attended RAF Ringway on course number 66 from 24 May to 4 June 1943. His course report stated “Good leader, efficient worker, good.”

He was posted to D Squadron of the 1st Battalion SAS on 14th March 1944 and was parachuted in near to Chambon la Foret in the Forest of Orleans in France on 14th June 1944.

This was after D Day, as part of Operation ‘Gain’. They were tasked with causing mayhem behind enemy lines, disrupting lines of communication between Germany and the German front line.

They worked with the French Resistance (The Maquis) blowing up railways and bridges, working in small groups operating on foot in areas close to their base. Jeeps were dropped by parachute in late June, enabling them to spread further and set up further bases.

On 6th August the base near Chambon la Foret was raided by the Germans after a double agent gave details of its location in the Foret d’Orleans, all of the men in the camp escaped and dispersed into the forest.

Sgt. Dunkley was out on operations in Thimony with Major Ian Fenwick and 3 others. On the 7th August they received a garbled message saying that all of the men in camp had been wiped out. They set off in the Jeep to return to investigate.

Unknown to them they had been spotted by a Feisler Fi 156 Storch observation aircraft which had radioed their location to the German troops on the ground.

Frank was manning the rear Vickers machine gun in the Jeep when, not far from the camp site just outside Chambon La Foret, they were stopped by a lone Frenchwoman. She told them that there was a German ambush ahead and that all the men and boys from the village had been captured and locked in the church under armed guard.

(In June 1944 at Oradour sur Glane the total population of the village [648 people] had been killed in reprisal for the acts of sabotage perpetrated by the SAS and the French Resistance in the region.)

Major Fenwick responded by saying ‘Thank you Madame but we intend to attack them’ and drove into the ambush at the crossroads in Chambon with all guns blazing. Three died, one was taken to hospital and Frank was last seen being led away in handcuffs.

He was taken to Gestapo HQ in Chilleurs aux Bois and was murdered under Hitler’s ‘Commando Order’ the following day, 8th August, aged 23.

Thanks to Frank and his colleagues sacrificing their lives, the Germans having achieved their objective, the men and boys of the village were released.

Frank was a hero and is simply remembered on the war memorial at Roade and on the Bayeux Memorial Panel 18 Column 2, most likely his unidentified body was found with Troopers Ion and Packman who were murdered at the same time and buried at Chilleurs-aux Bois communal Cemetery.