From The Press:
A POIGNANT scene unfolded in front of a York church when war veterans gathered with the family of a military hero to say their goodbyes to him. The veterans formed a guard of honour outside St Edward The Confessor Church, in Dringhouses, before a coffin containing Second World War trooper Richard Charles Eagles was carried past them and into the building.
Mr Eagles, who was a radio operator and gun loader in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, was the last surviving member of a tank crew that almost single-handedly wrested control of a village from the Nazis.
Inside the church dozens of people listened as the Rev David Porter, honorary chaplain to the Royal Dragoon Guards, paid tribute to Mr Eagles, who was known by some as Dick and by others as Bob.
“There are in Dick 87 years of love, kindness, generosity and pride in his family,” he said.
“He was a man generous in spirit and love, sharp of mind, very funny and generous with his gifts. He was a man who never forgot his friends.” Mr Eagles, who lived in the Walmgate area of the city, was then taken to Fulford Cemetery, where a Royal Dragoon Guards piper played The Lament.
The veteran was one of four men who were in the Sherman Firefly that knocked out five German Panther tanks in June 1944, in the process securing Lingevres, in Normandy, for the Allies.
Mr Eagles also took part in D-Day, landing on King Beach at 7.20am on June 6, 1944. Just over a week later, his troop, containing several other tanks, was sent to Lingevres, which A Squadron of the 9th battalion, Durham Light Infantry (DLI) and B Squadron of the 6th battalion, DLI were ordered to take.
The Sherman, which was the only tank in the village equipped with a gun powerful enough to pierce the Panthers’ armour, destroyed five of the vehicles with five shots in only one day.
* The Press attended Mr Eagles’ funeral at the invitation of his family
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