Joseph Harry Pettitt was killed in the Battle of Overloon on 16/10/1944 and is buried in the cemetery there. He was a Corporal in the 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment (Service No. 6151189).
 
He was born on 8th May 1907 to Joseph Henry Pettitt and Alice Eliza Elizabeth Pettitt (nee Stone) in Sutton, Surrey. His parents had married in 1906 in Horsey, Norfolk.
 
In both 1911 and 1921 Joseph Harry Pettit was living with his family at 105 Clarence Road, Sutton, Surrey. His father, Joseph Henry Pettitt, was born in 1877 in Pimlico, London. He was described as a Milk Carrier in 1911 and a Tram Conductor for the South Metropolitan Electric Tramways & Lighting Company in 1921 (though by 1939 he was again shown as a Milk Roundsman). His mother, Alice, was born in 1876 in West Flegg, Norfolk. Joseph Harry was the eldest of their children. His siblings were Charles Louis Claude born 1911, Audrey Sylvia born 1915 and Ralph Cyril born 1917.
 
Joseph Harry Pettitt married Winifred M Kendall in 1926 in the Epsom district. Winifred Mildred Kendall had been born in 1907 in Mildenhall in Suffolk. They had three children: Claude W born 1926, Donald born 1934 and Hazel A born 1937.
 
By September 1939 Joseph and Winifred were living at 107 Clarence Road, Sutton, Surrey, next door to Joseph’s parents who were still living there with  two of their adult children. Joseph was described as a journeyman plumber. It seems that Donald and Hazel were living with Joseph and Winifred while their eldest child, Claude, was living next door with Joseph’s parents.

Hazel has been able to provide details of his military record.
 
It indicates that he enlisted on 19th March, 1942. It claims he joined the East Sussex Regiment – though no such regiment appears to have existed (the nearest equivalent being the Royal Sussex Regiment) – so it may instead have been the East Surrey Regiment. The record goes on to say “embodied Territorial Army and posted to 12 (or L2) Infantry Training Corps”. On 18th August 1942 he was posted to the 10th Battalion.
 
Assuming this was the 10th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, it was one of six hostilities-only, territorial battalions in the Regiment. It was formed at Kingston on 4 July 1940, but was based in locations in Devon and Cornwall up to June 1942 when it returned to Devonport. It moved to Essex in January 1943 joining the 45th Division for three weeks before being deployed to Cookstown and Portglenone in Northern Ireland.
 
Joseph himself was appointed Lance Corporal on 1st October 1942. He attended a course in Regimental Provost Duties at Military Prison from 13 to 25th February 1943 – so it isn’t certain if he then also went to Northern Ireland.
 
The 10th Battalion returned to West Sussex at the end of 1943. During this period many men were transferred out for service in the Middle East and in the 21st Army Group. Its final task was to prepare and run a camp marshalling sub-area in Hambledon, Hampshire, for Operation Overlord until disbanded in August 1944.
 
On 29th March 1944 Joseph was promoted to Acting Corporal and on 27th June 1944 was granted the War Substantive Rank of Corporal. He was posted for overseas service in North West Europe on 13th July 1944. On 27th July 1944 he was transferred to the East Yorkshire Regiment and posted to the 2nd  Battalion 21 Army Group.
 
Joseph will have joined the 2nd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment after it had already lost many men at D-Day. The Battalion had undergone a great deal of preparation for this over several years. Many of the reinforcements may not have had such comprehensive training, but hopefully Joseph had as he had been in the Army since 1942. A substantial number of reinforcements joined the Battalion on 31st July when it had returned across the Orne to Beuville, near Caen in France, and Joseph may have been part of this strengthening of the Battalion.

The 2nd Battalion played a part in action to secure a road junction at Vire in mid August but played no further part in the Battle of Normandy. In September they were in Belgium and successfully crossed the Escaut canal as part of the ill-fated Market Garden operation, arriving in Gemert in Holland on 26th September where they received a tremendous welcome.
 
October saw the 2nd Battalion involved in some of the heaviest fighting since the end of June, amid continual rain and mud. The battalion played its part in capturing Overloon on 12th to 15th October, suffering 49 casualties.
 
On the 16th October the battalion received fresh orders to attack Venray. Delays meant that the battalion came under smoke mortar fire and did not set off until 5pm, with a participant saying “it was one of those cases of hanging about waiting with nothing to do under fire, when nerves get very strained”. When they did set off progress was slow as the tracks were difficult to follow and sniping in the vicinity “made people rather jumpy in the dark”. It must have been around this time that Joseph was killed.
 
The following day the attack on Venray continued, finally reaching the town. By first light on the 18th, the Germans had withdrawn and the battle was over, at the cost of nine “other ranks” killed, forty-one, including one officer, wounded, and eleven men missing. Survivors recall the action in Venray was particularly intense, with all their training coming into play. The Divisional Commander described the troops of 3rd Division during this period of fighting as “desperately gallant soldiers with a wonderful spirit”, having concluded that the conditions under which they had fought were “quite Bloody”.
 
Joseph’s military record shows medals issued for him were the 1939-45 Star, France and Germany Star and War Medal 1939-45.

Joseph’s daughter Hazel says that when aged about 8 – so around 1945 – she and her mother visited Joseph’s grave in the Netherlands. They had been invited there by the family who had billeted Joseph prior to the attack on Overloon. They lived in Gemert. They could speak no Dutch and the family could speak no English so they communicated by signs. The family lived on a small farm – more a smallholding – with maybe just a few cattle etc. It was an old house with a fireplace in the corner which could heat the whole house. The family was an extended one with included uncles etc. all living together. Information provided by the Gemert Archives team indicates that a number of properties around Gemert were used as billets. In some cases this might just involve sleeping in a barn with or without straw while in other cases families welcomed men into their home and gave them beds, which must have been a real luxury at that time.
 
Not long after the visit to Gemert, Winifred Mildred Pettitt died a widow in 1952 in hospital in Surrey aged just 45 while her daughter was just 15. She was still living at 107 Clarence Road.
 
Claude went on to marry Jean Watkinson in Surrey later in 1952. They had one child, Keith Pettitt, in 1955 but all have now passed away. Donald Pettitt married twice but there were no children from either marriage and he, too has passed away.
 
Hazel married Zdzislaw Jozef Feliks Kozera in Surrey in 1963 and she now lives in Wellington, New Zealand. They had two children, both born in New Zealand: Teresa Alicia Kozera (called Tereska) and Veronica Anne Kozera (called Veronika). Tereska married Paul Anthony Alsford in 1987. They live in Wellington, New Zealand. They have 2 sons, Simon, who lives with his wife and children in New Zealand and Nicholas who lives with his wife and child in Perth, Australia. Veronika married to become Veronika married then divorced. She lives in Perth with one son, Konrad, while her other son, Daniel, lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Hazel, Tereska and Veronika have all helped with this biography.

FindMyPast website: Civil and Parish Birth, Marriage and Death Records; England Census and 1939 Register Records; Electoral Rolls; Military Records
Military records from ForcesWarRecords website
Military record obtained by Joseph’s daughter, Hazel Kozera
Information from Gemert Archives regarding billeting via Leo Janssen
Photos and information from Hazel and also Tereska and Veronika Kozera – Joseph’s granddaughters
Further details of precise birth, marriage, death locations from Joseph’s cousins Tony Pettitt and Pamela Page
Wikipedia entry for the East Surrey Regiment
Information on the East Yorkshire Regiment from a thesis written by Tracey Cragg for her PhD with the Department of History, University of Sheffield 2007 “An `Unspectacular’ War? Reconstructing the history of the 2nd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment during the Second World War”.   

Research Elaine Gathercole