LUNT Donald Howard

Appears on the Army casualties list for Worcestershire.

The following information has been researched by The Black Country Society:
Donald Lunt was the only son of Albert and Mabel Lunt of Field House, Oldswinford. He enlisted in the Worcesters before the war and was commissioned in the 7th (Territorial) Battalion. They crossed the Channel to France in January as part of the 48th Division, their old Great War Division. Soon afterwards, however, they were transferred to the 2nd Division and posted to the ‘Gort Line’, the advanced position of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). After two months of fitness training they were faced with the German invasion of France and Belgium which started on the 10th May. They advanced through Belgium and formed a defensive line on the River Dyle east of Brussels. From the 20th May they were under continuous pressure from the German forces and forced back forty miles to the improvised Escaut Line. At Guignies near Tournai they were caught by heavy shell fire and suffered serious casualties. They were then ordered south east to protect the flank of the BEF. On the 25th they reached Givenchy and the La Bassee Canal, where they were attacked by Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division. ‘A’ Company was overwhelmed and the other forward Company trapped before the order came to fall back on Dunkirk. Only about 400 thoroughly exhausted men reached safety by the 30th May, just half of the complement of 800. Of the rest, 250 were killed or wounded and 150 were taken prisoner. Second Lieutenant Donald Lunt died during the retreat. He is also commemorated on the war memorial at St Mary’s Church, Oldswinford and on a plaque attached to a reading desk in the nave.