Fallen Haverhill soldiers honoured during WWII cemetery visit

The Mayor of Haverhill has laid poppy crosses on the graves of two Haverhill soldiers who died fighting in Normandy during the Second World War.

Cllr Tony Brown visited Private Albert Barber and Trooper Dennis Smith's graves at the Ranville War Cemetery, as part of a tour of the Normandy battlefields by the Friends of the Suffolk Regiment.

The visit was just four weeks before what would have been the 74th anniversary of the death of the two soldiers.

Both landed in Normandy on D-Day.

Pte Barber was 28-years-old when he was killed in action on July 18, 1944 during the battle for Manneville.

He served with the King's Shropshire Light Infantry, 2nd Battalion and although originating from Haverhill, his parents were Albert and Alice (nee Pask) Barber, he was married and living in East Acton, London at the time of his death. He had a daughter born in 1945.

Tpr Smith was born in Haverhill in 1923, the youngest of Stanley and Florence Smith's three children.

He was serving with the 13th Royal Hussars (as tanks) Royal Armoured Corps that was part of the operation to reclaim Lirose and Manneville.

Tpr Smith, like Pte Barber, died on July 18. He was almost 21-years-old.