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Lieutenant Gilbert Roy FAZAN (129362)
Royal Sussex Regiment attached to No. 1 Troop, No. 6 Commando Date of birth: 9th September 1915 Date of death: 7th June 1944 Killed in action aged 28 Buried at Ranville War Cemetery Plot III Row O Grave 3
Gilbert Roy Fazan was born at Hull in Yorkshire on the 9th of September 1915 the eldest son of Dr Eric Alfred Charles Fazan MC, TD, DL, JP, MRCS, LRCP and Alise Catherine (nee Helmsing) Fazan of “Belmont”, Wadhurst in Sussex. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Seconds House from September 1929 to July 1933. He was a member of the Shooting VIII from 1930 to 1933 and won the Girling Rifle in 1930. He gained his School Certificate in 1931. He was a Corporal in the Officer Training Corps achieving Certificate A in 1932. On leaving school he trained as a chartered account and later became a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Following the outbreak of war he attended an Officer Training Unit before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment on the 20th of April 1940. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 20th of October 1941. He transferred to the Commandos where he served with No. 4 Troop No. 6 Commando from the 21st of June 1943 and with No. 1 Troop from at least the 5th of June 1944. During his training he was billeted for a while at The Rectory at South Stoke near Arundel in West Sussex. Here they trained in mock battles among a group of requisitioned farm buildings. They were based at Hove shortly before moving into camp for the invasion of Normandy on the 26th of May 1944. They embarked for the invasion at Warsash in the Solent on the 4th of June 1944. No. 6 Commando came ashore on at 8.40am on D Day, the 6th of June 1944 on the “Queen Red” Sector of Sword Beach. On their way inland, at the village of St Aubin d'Arquenay, one Troop separated from the main force and assaulted four German pillboxes and an artillery battery manned by Italians which had been holding up the advance inland. During this action they captured sixteen prisoners and killed twenty four of the enemy, spiking the guns before moving on. Shortly after this an enemy patrol was seen approaching the village which was ambushed, killing a number of the enemy who turned out to be Russians. Three and half hours after landing, and under fire from rocket firing Nebelwerfers, they linked up with British paratroopers and glider troops who were holding Pegasus Bridge at Benouville. They then joined with the 9th Battalion Parachute Regiment for an attack on the village of La Plein and dug in for the night. During the night they were targeted by snipers in the hope of a response which would give away their position, but they remained silent. The following morning their position was hit by mortarfire which caused No. 1 Troop four casualties, including Gilbert Fazan, who was killed. The epitaph on his grave reads-“Speed he loved and laughter and the sun. A song, wide spaces and the open air.” He is commemorated on the Roll of Honour of the Members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Articled Clerks.

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