[1][2] From Sandhurst, Johnson was originally commissioned into the Suffolk Regiment in the 1931[3] and qualified at the Staff College, Camberley at decade later.
On 6 and 7 June, the battalion defended the bridgehead against attacks by the German 21st Panzer Division moving north from Caen.
[4] In the afternoon of 12 June, Lieutenant Colonel Johnson was ordered to hastily prepare his battalion for an attack on the village of Bréville (currently named Bréville-les-Monts).
At 21:45, the battalion assembled on the start line near Amfréville and an artillery barrage on enemy positions near Bréville began.
Lieutenant Colonel Johnson was conferring with a group of senior officers when he was killed by a stray artillery round.