Personal Information

RA 125/15 Med. Regt. Joe Hurrell was a Signaller in the Royal Artillery (FOP 19 set) and mentioned in dispatches for his part in the invasion of the island of Walcheren in the Netherlands in 1944, having volunteered to fight alongside 47 RM Commando on the Scheldt Estuary, directing artillery fire on to the German gun positions. Along with Capt. Bishop and a fellow Signaller, Albert Tipping, he set off at 1am on 1 November, and for two days, amid the heat of the battle and under fire, transmitted coordinates back to the 15th Medium Regiment on the other side of the estuary. The men finally made their way back to the body-strewn beach at Westkapelle, from which they swam to a Royal Navy craft for extraction. Finding that Joe could not swim, Albert and Capt. Bishop somehow managed, in full kit and in icy cold waters, to get themselves and Joe to the boat. The subsequent journey to Ostend was squally and they were all seasick.