After The Battle 178 - Eisenhower visits the Falaise Pocket

NUMBER 178

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Front Cover: General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, inspecting the wreck of a German Tiger II tank on the Trun-Vimoutiers road during his tour of the Falaise Pocket battleground on August 26, 1944. (USNA) Back Cover: Now . . . and Then. The Isle of Man is the mecca of motorcycle road racing but sadly in February 2017 it was announced that the Royal Corps of Signals Motorcycle Display Team, the White Helmets, which has thrilled audiences with stunts for the past 90 years, was being disbanded. Here they are seen performing on the former internment camp located on the Douglas seafront. Acknowledgements: For their help with the Eisenhower visits the Falaise Pocket story, the Editor thanks David Holbrook, archivist at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas; Bas Slaats and Marcel Zwarts. For their assistance with the Channel Ports story he extends his appreciation to the French Marine Nationale and the Direction des Constructions Navales (DCNS) for allowing Jean Paul Pallud to visit their installations. He also thanks Yannick Berton and Hans Houterman. Photo Credit Abbreviations: BA — Bundesarchiv; BPK — Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz; ECPAD — Médiathèque de la Défense, Fort d’Ivry; IGN — Institut Géographique National; NIOD — Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, Amsterdam; USNA — US National Archives.

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In August 1944, Eisenhower visited the Falaise battleground but the exact route and places he visited have never been identified before. Our author, Jacques van Dijke, seen here standing on the side of a Tiger tank in 2011, is the first to accurately reconstruct the itinerary. A retired colonel of the Royal Netherlands Army, his fascination with the Falaise Gap battle stems from many years since. As Jacques explains: ‘My interest was triggered by issue 8 of After the Battle, published back in 1975, which described the fighting in the ‘Corridor of Death’, the narrow passage between SaintLambert-sur-Dive and Chambois through which the last German troops had desperately tried to escape out of the Pocket. It led me to spend five summer holidays camping with my family in a field next to the Ferme d’Aubry at Bas Aubry (below), a hamlet belonging to the community of Aubry-en-Exmes and located just south of Saint-Lambert. The farm lies close to the Dives river and I spent most of my time searching for war relics in the fields and on the river banks, particularly between Saint-Lambert and the Moissy ford, the last two places where the Germans were able to cross. As time went on, my activity changed from digging in the earth to digging in the archives.’

JACQUES VAN DIJKE

EISENHOWER VISITS THE FALAISE POCKET IT HAPPENED HERE Hitler’s Diplomatic Tour in the West FRANCE The Rehabilitation of the Channel Ports UNITED KINGDOM The Isle of Man Internment Camps

JACQUES VAN DIJKE

© Copyright After the Battle 2017 Editor: Karel Margry Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey Published by Battle of Britain International Ltd., The Mews, Hobbs Cross House, Hobbs Cross, Old Harlow, Essex CM17 0NN, England Telephone: 01279 41 8833 Fax: 01279 41 9386 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.afterthebattle.com Printed in Great Britain by Warners Group Publications PLC, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH. After the Battle is published on the 15th of February, May, August and November.

‘My fascination for the now-peaceful countryside never stopped and was one reason why I decided to settle in Normandy permanently, finding a domicile 15 kilometres north-west of Chambois. Then one day I was watching a documentary on the Normandy campaign on French television and, much to my surprise, it included a short film clip that showed Eisenhower inspecting a part of the Falaise Gap battleground. In a flash, I recognised one of the localities. Knowing that area of Normandy as the back of my hand, I was absolutely sure it was at Bas Aubry.’ (In 1989, Jacques contributed the chapter on Holland for our Blitzkrieg in the West Then and Now, and in 2009 he published a monograph in French on Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge’s battlefield management of the Normandy bridgehead during July-August 1944.)

On August 26, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, departed on a tour across the Normandy battlefield in order to see for himself the carnage and destruction left by the fighting in the Falaise Pocket. The horrible sights of dead German soldiers, dead horses and wrecked German transport encountered that day led him to include them in

his memoirs as ‘scenes that could be described only by Dante’. Continuing his trip eastwards, Eisenhower went on to confer with General Omar Bradley, the commander of the US 12th Army Group, at Chartres and the following day he made an impromptu visit to just-liberated Paris, making this a two-day excursion filled with indelible impressions.

EISENHOWER VISITS THE FALAISE POCKET AUGUST 26 Eisenhower had started on his journey from the SHAEF Advance Command Post, code-named ‘Shellburst’, which was located in an apple orchard near the village of Tournières, west of Le Molay, and 12 kilo-

By Jacques van Dijke metres south-west of Bayeux. (see After the Battle No. 84). He was accompanied by his British military assistant, Lieutenant-Colonel

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In his war memoirs Crusade in Europe, published in 1948, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, devoted a small paragraph to the day he went to see the carnage and destruction meted out to the retreating German Army in the Falaise Pocket. Eisenhower wrote: ‘The battlefield at Falaise was unquestionably one of the greatest “killing grounds” of any of the war areas. Roads, highways and fields were so choked with destroyed equipment and with dead men and animals that passage through the area was extremely difficult. Forty-eight hours after the closing of the gap I was conducted through it on foot, to encounter scenes that could be described only by Dante. It was literally possible to walk for hundreds of yards at a time, stepping on nothing but decaying flesh.’ The short paragraph did not give a date of the visit, nor any clue to exactly where Eisenhower had gone to see the carnage. Most accounts agree that the Falaise Gap had been closed on August 19, 1944 in two phases — first by the Poles at Mont-Ormel around midday and then by the Americans at Fel and Chambois and the Poles west of Chambois in the early evening — but it still took 36 hours before the Germans stopped their final break-out efforts. So the clue given by Eisenhower — ’48 hours after’ — should theoretically put the visit somewhere between August 21 and 23. However, in actual fact, it was three days later, on the first day of a two-day excursion.

The same sloping field at Bas Aubry today, with the trees of the Les Sapins wood on the horizon on the left. 3

TIGER II HERE

VIMOUTIERS

STURMGESCHUTZ HERE

FROM FALAISE

TRUN

AUBRY-EN-EXMES

GACÉ

AVERNES-SOUS-EXMES

21st ARMY GROUP TACTICAL HEADQUARTERS

TO CHARTRES Reproduced from Michelin Sheets 55 (14th Edition, 1974) and 60 (12th Edition, 1972)

James Gault, who afterwards wrote a concise report about the trip. They had left ‘Shellburst’ at 0800 hours in Eisenhower’s Cadillac driven by his private chauffeur, Irish-born Mechanised Transport Corps driver Kay Summersby. Following them were at least two other cars carrying members of the war correspondents team assigned to SHAEF Headquarters, among them Merrill Mueller of NBC, Robert Barr of the BBC, Howard Cowan of Associated Press and Kenneth S. Davis and two official Army cameramen, stills photographer 2nd Lieutenant Leo S. Moore and his sergeant cine cameraman colleague, both of the 162nd Signal Photo Com4

From his ‘Shellburst’ command post at Tournières, Eisenhower’s party travelled east, probably via Bayeux and Falaise, to Trun, where they started a clock-wise circuit of the Falaise Pocket battlefield, prior to turning back east to Chartres. We have indicated the places along their route that feature in this story. pany. Driving east from Tournières, the convoy soon crossed into the British sector of the bridgehead. Gault: ‘The purpose of this trip was twofold: firstly, to see some of the results of the fighting in the gap around Trun, and secondly, to visit General Bradley whose Advanced Command Post was now situated near Chartres. We arrived at Falaise and then did a circular trip starting at Trun, going

north to Vimoutiers. It had been our intention to take the road south from Vimoutiers and complete the circle at Chambois and so back to Trun, but the road leading south from Vimoutiers was impossible. Instead of this we took a more easterly road south through Gacé. During this short tour one saw a certain amount of destroyed equipment but it was not anything like what one had been led to believe.’

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Travelling north from Trun on the present-day D916, Karel Margry was excited to recognise the spot, finding the houses in the background little changed in over seven decades. The view is north-east, towards Vimoutiers. there turn back west to Trun. However, at the turnoff, they were told that this was impossible as the road up ahead was completely blocked by wrecked vehicles (the

German escape route for light vehicles from Trun to Orbec or Le Sap had passed through Guerquesalles, just south of where they were), so instead they continued on, through

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Their first stop was on the Trun to Vimoutiers road, at a locality known as l’Hôtellerie Faroult. Here Eisenhower got out of the car to have a look at a disabled Sturmgeschutz III left by the side of the road. The Signal Corps cameraman filmed him taking pictures of it with his private miniature camera. Their next stop was six kilometres further on, on the same road just before it starts descending into Vimoutiers. Here they came across a Tiger II tank, lying upside down against the road embankment with its turret blown off. Again, Eisenhower got out of the car to inspect the vehicle. He did not know it but this King Tiger, stencilled ‘100’ on the turret, was one of schwere Panzer-Abteiling 503 and had in fact been positioned here on August 21 as rearguard protecting the German withdrawal over this road through Vimoutiers. Part of the 1. Kompanie, two of its crewmembers, Unteroffizier Franz-Wilhelm Lochmann (radio operator) and Gefreiter Willy Fischer (loader), had been ordered to remain with the tank until the last German troops had passed and then blow it up and attempt to rejoin their unit. Lochmann and Fischer had stayed with the vehicle until a first enemy tank, a Sherman (probing ahead of the Canadian 5th Infantry Brigade), had come round the bend in the road up ahead. They knocked it out with their first shot, then lit the fuses on the three demolition charges and bolted. Over the next few days, Lochmann and Fischer made their way to the Seine and eventually caught up with their unit. By the time Eisenhower inspected their former mount, it had been shoved off the road by an Allied bulldozer. Interesting as it was to inspect a specimen of the largest of German panzers, the results of the trip so far must have been disappointing to Eisenhower, yielding nothing like the wholesale destruction of German materiel that had been reported to him. Continuing down the hill into Vimoutiers, Eisenhower and Gault intended to take the first right turn at the entrance to the town for the direct road south to Chambois and from

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Right: Eisenhower’s first stop was at l’Hôtellerie Faroult, a hamlet on the Trun to Vimoutiers road, where he got out of the car to inspect a disabled Sturmgeschutz III. Among the party accompanying him was a Signal Corps cameraman and this still from the latter’s footage shows Eisenhower photographing the assault gun with his miniature camera. In the verge stands one of the party’s staff cars with LieutenantColonel James Gault, his British military aide, leaning on the right-hand door. The convoy of British lorries is heading south, towards Trun, probably bringing supplies to the civilian population there.

The StuG had been abandoned by the side of the road. Scrap collectors have already removed its right-hand sprocket wheel.

The panzer has gone but the orchard bordering the road is still there, a rare sight in Normandy today. 5

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Above: The party’s second stop was just west of Vimoutiers, where a Tiger II lay disabled against the embankment. The photo was taken by 2nd Lieutenant Leo S. Moore, the Signal Corps photographer attached to Eisenhower’s headquarters who went with him on the excursion. The only unit equipped with King Tigers and deployed in the Normandy campaign was schwere Panzer-Abteilung 503. Arriving at the front in early July, the battalion had fought east, south-east and south of Caen near Colombelles, Cagny, Bretteville-surLaize and near Mont Pinçon. Having lost most of its Tiger I tanks during Operation ‘Goodwood’ on July 18-20, the 3. Kompanie was withdrawn to Mailly-le-Camp east of Paris to be re-equipped with King Tigers, leaving the 1. and 2. Kompanie to carry on the fight in Normandy. Most of the latter‘s tanks were then lost in the German retreat to the Seine. The precise identity of this particular vehicle has long been debated but the cine still (right) reveals just enough of the blown-off turret to show its tactical number ‘100’ identifying it as the mount of the commander of the battalion’s 1. Kompanie. Apparently immobile (perhaps for lack of fuel), it was left as a rear-guard to protect the German troops retreating over this road to Vimoutiers, manned by just two of its crew members, radio operator Franz-Wilhelm Lochmann and loader Willy Fischer. They knocked out the first Allied tank that approached their position and then blew up their own tank, making good their escape. (The images show the Tiger with its hull front facing towards Vimoutiers so the crew must have guarded the position with the turret turned rearwards at six o’clock.) The vehicle was later shoved off the road, causing the 13.5-ton turret to slide off. Note that due to the blast the turret lacks its complete lower armour plate with the turret ring. Before the vehicle was moved aside scrap merchants had already broken the tracks and removed the sprockets and several idler wheels.

The same spot today, looking down the D916 road in the direction of Trun.

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Above: Continuing down into Vimoutiers, Eisenhower’s party was told the direct road to Chambois, which they had planned to take, was blocked by wrecked German transport so they decided to use an alternative route via Gacé. The Signal Corps cameraman filmed Eisenhower as he was looking out of the rear side window, while one of their party from one of the other vehicles is conferring with Colonel Gault in the front seat. Below: Karel discovered that this shot had been filmed at the south-western entrance to Vimoutiers, right at the turn-off to Chambois. At this point the D916 is called Route d’Argentan and the road south to Chambois (behind the cameraman) is the D16.

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bomb-wrecked Vimoutiers, and took the parallel road further east, leading to Gacé, 18 kilometres to the south. Had they been able to take the direct road to Chambois, this would have brought them to Mont-Ormel, the site of the stand of the 1st Polish Armoured Division, and one of the worst killing grounds in the whole Falaise Pocket.

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to pay his subordinate a short visit. This cine still shows Monty and Ike consulting a map, with Colonel Gault standing by on the left. Right: Part of the Tactical HQ was encamped under canvas. Montgomery was based at Avernes from August 25 to August 30.

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Left: The new route took Eisenhower’s party close to the village of Avernes-sous-Exmes where General Bernard Montgomery, the commander of British 21st Army Group, had his Forward Tactical Headquarters, so the Supreme Commander took the opportunity

Lieutenant Moore photographed the two commanders strolling the field where the TAC HQ was set up.

Right: We looked up the exact map reference — 493483 — for the location of the HQ in the unit’s war diary, enabling us to take this comparison of the same field just south of the junction of the D13 (the Gacé-Chambois road) and the D727, a kilometre east of Avernes. The monument on the right does not record Monty’s stay here but commemorates Lieutenant Robert Richards and Trooper David Climie of the Inns of Court Regiment who were killed near here on August 21, 1944. 8

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As it happened, the detour via Gacé took the little motorcade directly past the tactical headquarters of General Bernard Montgomery’s 21st Army Group, which was then encamped in a field near the village of Avernes-sous-Exmes, so Eisenhower took the opportunity to pay him a short visit. Gault: ‘Soon after Gacé we passed Tac Headquarters 21st Army Group and the General spent a short time discussing the situation with General Montgomery. General Montgomery told us the best place to see the results of the battle, consequently we proceeded to a small village called Aubry, which is just south of Chambois.’

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GRAND PIÈCE D’AUBRY CENT ACRES

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EISENHOWER’S APPROACH ROUTE

With Montgomery having given them road directions, Eisenhower’s party proceeded to Bas Aubry and this is where for the first time they saw the full scope of the destruction wrought upon the German army. This modern map shows the party’s probable approach route from the east. We have also indicated Aubry-en-Exmes lay ten kilometres further west. As only the main roads in the Fel and Chambois area had been re-opened, and all tracks emanating from the village of Fel were still choked with wrecked German transport, they probably approached Bas Aubry via the more or less re-opened Chambois to Argentan road, the fields on either side of which were full of abandoned vehicles and armour. Driving down the hamlet road, a mere gravel track bordered by farmhouses, littered with all kinds of junk, they arrived at the northern crossroads of Bas Aubry and there came upon another sight of the mass destruction that, four years later, would lead to the paragraph in Crusade in Europe. Eisenhower and everyone in the party got out of the cars to take in the spectacle before their eyes. Gault: ‘We were certainly not disappointed in the results because the scene was one of masses of destroyed tanks, guns, transports and equipment of all sorts lying around, including many dead Germans and horses. The smell was tremendous. It was a sight for sore eyes and one’s only human feeling was being sorry for the horses. This place was the point at which the Boche had tried to break out but had been caught by fighter-bombers and fire from the V Corps.’ Kay Summersby recalled the scene thus: ‘On August 26, I drove the General on a long and tiring trip all the way to Chartres. The most memorable portion of our route ran straight through the Falaise Pocket: it was a soldier’s nightmare of retreat and defeat. German equipment — splintered wagons, smashed tanks and lorries, banged-up and burned staff cars — jammed the sides of every roadway so tightly that it overflowed into adjacent fields. Horses, swollen in death, covered the area, each in a grotesque posi-

the bridges and fording sites used by the Germans during their retreat across the Dives river. [1] Footbridge at Moulin de SaintLambert. [2] Farm Bridge at Château Quantité. [3] Saint-Lambert Bridges (one on the main road and a smaller farm bridge alongside). [4] Footbridge at Moulin d’Aubry. [5] Moissy Ford.

tion. The litter, the gigantic, awful litter, was unbelievable. Hundreds of distorted German bodies testified to the sudden power of the Allies’ trap; some covered the grounds for hundreds of yards in all directions, others hung limply from tank and lorries; some were only gruesome parts.’ Eisenhower and his party were standing on the south-eastern corner of a wide open expanse which, between August 16 and 21, had been the epicentre of the German retreat. This had truly been the ‘killing ground’ referred to by Eisenhower in his memoirs. Known locally as ‘Les Cent Acres’ (The One-Hundred Acres) or La Grande Pièce d’Aubry (The Great Aubry Field), it measured about one kilometre from east to west and about a kilometre and a half from south to north. On either side of the field, a track or unsurfaced road ran northwards to converge just short of the stone-arch bridge over the Dives, giving access to Saint-Lambert. The eastern one — on which Eisenhower was standing — had been one of three main routes of retreat and it had been over this road that large numbers of German troops and vehicles had come streaming towards Saint-Lambert from August 16 onward. The western track (out of sight of Eisenhower) was the continuation of a hollow lane which emerged from a wooded area known as Les Sapins. At the point where the hollow lane emerged from the woods, it crossed the Bas Aubry — Tournai-sur-Dive road and it had been on this crossroads, dubbed ‘Torpedo Junction’ by the Americans, that the massed artillery of the US 90th Infantry Division had zeroed in on August 19-20. Firing some 2,000 rounds in 20 barrages, they had caused havoc

and massive slaughter among the troops and horse transport passing it. With the two small roads coming together in the north-western corner of the open expanse, just short of the narrow Saint-Lambert bridge (under fire from Canadian artillery since the early morning of August 19), it is no wonder that this became an insurmountable bottleneck for the retreating German columns. As the troops and vehicles tried to escape from the traffic jam, spreading over the Cent Acres fields and desperately looking for alternative crossing places, the whole area became a killing ground, relentlessly shelled by Allied guns. Overlooking the open expanse lay several homesteads. Along the eastern road, from south to north were a farm, the Ferme d’Aubry (Eisenhower was standing adjacent to it); next, some 300 metres further on, the Château d’Aubry, and another 400 metres on and close to the Dives, the Moulin d’Aubry. In the north-western corner, along the short stretch between the junction of the two roads and the Saint-Lambert bridge, lay another farm, La Guittonnière. All these homesteads had been in the thick of the German retreat: most of the German troops and vehicles emerging from the Les Sapins wood and making for the Moissy ford passed over the grounds of the Ferme d’Aubry; the stretch of road from the Château d’Aubry to Saint-Lambert became one great log jam and the terrain around the chateau ended up choked with German vehicles unable to cross the Dives behind it; a narrow footbridge behind the Moulin (water mill) enabled the German soldiers who found it a means of escape; and La Guittonnière was flooded by German troops retreating from Tournai as well. Those coming down over the 9

Right: Moore’s caption merely states the picture was taken ‘near Chambois’, but Jacques van Dijke identified the exact location. This is the same bend in the D717 pictured today. The view is looking north-east. 10

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The unnamed cameraman filmed the same scene but from closer in. His shadow can be seen on the right in Moore’s picture.

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hollow lane from Les Sapins — mostly men on foot and horse-drawn transport — clogged the farm grounds with stranded guns, vehicles, horse transport and some armour. Gérard Degroote, son of the tenantfarmer of the Ferme d’Aubry, kept a diary which vividly evokes the horror of these days. On August 12, while harvesting on the Cent Acres, they had seen the first German vehicle being attacked by an Allied fighterbomber as it was driving down the track behind the farm leading to Moissy ford. The first larger groups of Germans appeared next day, with horse carts and armoured vehicles. Artillery was falling and they all sought shelter in the barns and stables. One soldier was riddled by shrapnel and bled to death. A bomb hit the stables, setting the hayloft on fire. Refugees arrived from Bas Aubry and 15 civilians sheltered in a trench covered by firewood logs in front of the farmhouse. Next day, the farm was flooded by retreating German troops, and even some pretty Russian girls showed up. Long columns of trucks, horse carts and some tanks were seen arriving from Les Sapins woods and crossing the open field in front of the farm, all with destination Moissy ford. Degroote: ‘I recall one soldier who would run for ten metres, then fall flat on his stomach for cover, then get up again at least ten times before he was killed by at least ten artillery rounds. Also a cart with four horses, stampeding round in circles until finally hit by a shell, which killed all horses and six men. From the 14th to the 21st, it was impossible to go outside, or even to eat or get water from the well. On the 15th my father put up a white flag with the word “civils” on the haystack. Our buildings were bulging with soldiers recovering their wind after their run across the fields, where shells were hitting every square metre’. The shelling continued unabatedly. One round fell just in front of the house, a piece of shrapnel grazing the helmet of a soldier looking out of a window. Another hit the duck pond behind the house, blowing the birds 15 metres up in the air and killing half of them. Throughout the 16th and 17th new waves of troops, trucks and horses passed the farm, accompanied by heavy artillery barrages. Degroote: ‘We were terrified. You could hear the guns firing in the south and when you heard a whistling sound it was a relief for it meant the shell passed over. We had mattresses for protection and after each thundering barrage we just stood up in silence and looked around if there were no wounded in the room. The 19th was really a torrent, with shells falling from all sides. There was no conversation, you could hardly breathe, everyone was just praying in his own little corner. By 6 p.m. there were soldiers who had had enough and began tearing up sheets to render them into white flags of surrender. My father came into our room, got out a bottle and toasted on a happy ending. An hour later SS troops came in and looked at us disapprovingly. They called on the German soldiers in our house for a break-out attack but no one reacted so they left and the shells started falling again. Much disappointed, we prepared for another night under fire.’

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Right: Unable to drive further due to the detritus blocking the small gravel road, the party got out of their cars and walked up the road. Lieutenant Moore pictured Eisenhower standing in a bend and taking photos with his camera. Note the ex-French Laffly/Licorne V15T light artillery tractor on the left and the 10.5cm leichte FH18 field howitzer on the right.

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The cameraman then made a pan along the rows of destroyed and abandoned guns, trucks and half-tracks pictured by Eisenhower.

want to merge with this eerie throng: the stream will carry us the wrong way. ‘Shells come crashing down: unrest spreads among the swarming vehicles. The enemy artillery appears to be zeroing in. We have no doubt that the devil will soon be loose here and run back to our vehicles. We have to get to the far side of the wood so as to be at least partly out of view [of the US artillery observers on the Forêt de Gouffern ridge three kilometres to the south]. Men hurry across the side of the slope that is under enemy observation, others run along a hedge. Still others drag a wounded man.

‘As we barge our way through the halted and desperate columns, the first shells come howling in and crash into them. Barrages of 20 to 30 rounds follow each other. Panic seizes people and animals. Dispersing wildly, they wander around aimlessly. They only want to flee from death, which jumps around madly and unpredictably. It hisses from all sides. The encirclement must be very tight already. Armour-piercing shells also hiss past. The shelling is increasing, it’s raining shells. Any getting through with vehicles is out of the question here.’

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That evening (August 20) the shelling appears to have abated a little for after dusk a German officer with 17 men pressed father Remi Degroote into showing them the way to a crossing place near Moulin d’Aubry. Not wanting to meet any more Germans on the way back, Remi returned home by wading through the river. Early the following morning, the family fled from the farm, making their way south to the Americans in the hamlet of Sainte-Eugénie, in order to go to relatives outside the Pocket. However, during the day, having heard that things were quiet-

Recognisable are (L-R) a SdKfz 8 heavy tractor, a 15cm canon, another SdKfz 8 and a 15cm gun carriage.

ing down, father Remi quickly returned for there were stories of looting going on. En route to his farm, he saw the road around the fire-gutted church of Aubry ‘completely blocked by tanks, trucks and equipment of all sorts, abandoned or burned out, and killed horses’ and he could only pass by way of the fields. Back at his farm, he found his neighbour in the kitchen, loading their belongings on to a wheelbarrow. Outside in the farmyard and in the fields around, unknown people were busy searching the dead bodies and the many trucks. To give an idea of how it looked from the German side, here is an account by SSHauptsturmführer Ewald Klapdor, the batman of SS-Brigadeführer Heinz Harmel, the commander of the 10. SS-Panzer-Division (from his book Die Entscheidung. Invasion 1944, published in 1984). His column was making its way to the Les Sapins wood with the intention of going to Saint-Lambert. He recalls: ‘On August 20, the journey continues uphill to the assigned meeting point: a small wood near Aubry. Across the high ground an endless column is coming straight towards where we are driving to as well. We do not

Speed Graphic plate camera is photographer Lieutenant Moore. Right: A close-up of the same lorries seen in the previous shot. The front one is a captured British vehicle, the rear one an Opel-Blitz.

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Left: Walking further up the road, the cameraman then filmed the jumble of smashed trucks, lorries and horse-drawn carts that blocked the road from Tournai-sur-Dive. The man holding the

Peace has returned to Bas Aubry. The view is looking west along the D717 to Tournai with Les Sapins woods in the background. 11

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Walking further up the road to the turn-off to Saint-Lambert, Eisenhower gained an open view of the wide expanse of fields, locally known as the Cent Acres or Grande Pièce d’Aubry, still dotted with German vehicles and equipment destroyed by the unrelenting Allied artillery fire. As he stood taking in the devastation, he was approached by two soldiers who introduced themselves as Norwegian airmen, Flight Sergeants Schrurn

‘For safety reasons, we burn no-longerneeded maps, diaries, etc. Cigarettes and the last bottle of Royal make the round. Then the Volkswagen is also blown up. At about 2 p.m., the shelling begins to fade, the sign for us to leave. First, hedges and ditches provide protection. Then we rush across the open fields, running for our lives. In front of us lies the village [Saint-Lambert]. We reach a hol-

low track, which allows us to proceed to the edge of village. But this hollow lane is horrible. At the entrance is a ruin of burned and destroyed vehicles of all kinds. Men have dug into its embankment; some have been slain in their holes by tree bursts, another has crept in his hole and is crouching beside the dead. Dead soldiers are also lying in the roadway. We climb our way over the cadavers of dead

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‘We arm ourselves with rifles that lie about, put ammunition in our pockets and provide ourselves with hand-grenades. The roar of vehicles burning and blowing up is swallowed up by the crashing sound of the further-increasing shelling. On the high ground we are shielded by a narrow line of trees. In the dell at the exit of the wood we gather, 30 to 50 men.

and Corn, members of a squadron that had bombed a German column here a few days before. They had come to see the results of their handywork. (Their claim must refer to the early days of the German retreat as the bomb line for Allied fighterbombers had been moved to well east of this sector on the 17th, leaving the task of attacking the German columns here to the Allied artillery.)

Left: Although Lieutenant Moore’s caption does not identify the airmen’s squadron, it must have been either No. 331 or No. 332 (Norwegian) Squadron of No. 132 Wing, which at that moment was based at airfield B-16 at Villons-les-Buissons, north-west of Caen (see Invasion Airfields Then and Now). Although the scenes met at Bas Aubry were certainly impressive, it might seem a far cry from how Eisenhower put it in Crusade in Europe: ’It was literally possible to walk for hundreds of yards at a time, stepping on nothing but decaying flesh’. 12

Unless he was referring to what he had seen elsewhere on the trip, it seems that Eisenhower introduced a little poetic licence to his description as the corner where he was standing had been completely blocked by vehicles since August 16, and therefore few German soldiers would have been killed on that exact spot. By the time Eisenhower arrived here, nearly one week after the end of hostilities, the road had already been cleared of obstacles. Right: The T-junction of the Saint-Lambert road (left) with the D717 (right), looking north-east.

CRITICAL PAST

The cameraman then made a second pan showing among others (L-R) a smashed Citroën U23 truck, a 7,5cm PaK

fell on the Dives river bridge at the moment when two closely-packed columns were converging upon it. Those vehicles and beasts and men on the centre of the bridge were all pitchforked into space at once. But so many fell that soon the wreckage piled up level with the bridge itself and made a dam across the river. ‘At the far entrance to the bridge, where a number of heavy guns were attempting a crossing, a blockage was caused and took

fire. Those in front apparently tried to struggle back. Those behind being utterly bewildered tried to push on. And so the whole column was wedged immovably until it was reduced by flames. ‘I suppose there were about 1,000 German vehicles of every sort lying out in the fields behind. All these came under fire. The Germans made no attempt to man their guns. They either huddled beneath them or ran blindly for the futile cover of the hedges.

DIVES

SAINT-LAMBERT

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BAS AUBRY IGN

horses that are blocking the road and already stinking. We order some soldiers to come along but they just stare at us incomprehensively, fear and horror in their emaciated faces. They are only waiting for the deliverance offered by captivity. ‘Finally, this trench of death is behind us. But now a no-less-terrible sight confronts us. In front of the Dives bridge a cemetery of vehicles stretches out as far as the eye can see. Black, burned-out wrecks; overturned horse-carts; dead horses lying across and over each other. A motorbike is still leaning against a burnt-out truck, the charred corpse of the driver still seated on it. Horrifying! Here in front of the Dives bridge death has harvested a terrible toll.’ Alan Moorehead, war correspondent for the Daily Express, visited the area a few days before Eisenhower and filed the following dispatch (reproduced in his 1945 book Eclipse): ‘The best of von Kluge’s army came here en masse 48 hours ago. They converged upon the village of Saint-Lambert to fight their way out; long caravans of horses and guncarts, tanks and half-tracks, hospitals and workshops, artillery and infantry. It was the sort of panzer battle array that the Germans have used to terrorise Europe for four years. We knew no combination to stand against it. ‘And now, here in the apple orchards and in the village streets one turns sick to see what has happened to them. They met the British and the Allied troops head on, and they were just obliterated. Until now I had no conception of what trained artillerymen and infantry can do, and this is the most awful sight that has come my way since the war began. ‘It begins in the back streets of Saint-Lambert, where the German columns first came in range of the British [i.e. Canadian] fire. The horses stampeded. Not half a dozen, but perhaps 300 or more. They lashed down the fences and the hedges with their hooves, and dragged their carriages through the farmyards. Many galloped for the banks of the River Dives, and plunged headlong with all their trappings down the high banks into the stream below, which at once turned red with blood. Those animals that did not drown under the dragging weight of their harnesses, or die in falling, kept plunging about among the broken gun-carriages and trampled to death the Germans hiding under the bank. The drivers of the lorries panicked in the same way. As more and more shells kept ripping through the apple trees, they collided their vehicles one against the other and with such force that some of the lighter cars were telescoped with their occupants inside. ‘At some places for stretches of 50 yards vehicles, horses and men became jammed together in one struggling, shrieking mass. Engines and broken petrol tanks took fire and the wounded pinned in the wreckage were suffocated, burned and lost. Those who were lucky enough to get out of the first collisions scrambled up the ditches and ran for cover across the open fields. They were picked off as they ran. One belt of shell-fire

anti-tank gun and two wrecked SdKfz 7 medium tractors, one of them towing an 88mm FlaK 36 gun.

This 1947 aerial covers the Cent Acres and Grande Pièce d’Aubry fields between Bas Aubry and Saint-Lambert. [1] Eisenhower’s cars parked here. [2] Eisenhower’s first position. [3] Eisenhower’s second position. [4] Ferme d’Aubry. [5] Château d’Aubry. [6] Moulin d’Aubry. [7] La Guittonnière farm. [8] Dives bridge. [9] Hollow lane. [10] ‘Torpedo Junction’. 13

CHÂTEAU D’AUBRY

A close-up of the same two howitzers and gun tractor — a 10,5cm leichte Feldhaubitze 18/40 L/28, a 15cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 L/29,6 and what looks like a SdKfz 8 — as seen in mid-foreground in the previous picture. Note the shrapnel-riddled door of the SdKfz 10 on the right, evidence of the heavy shelling that fell around ‘Torpedo Junction’.

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‘They ran in the direction of the fire, shouting that they had surrendered. They gave up in hundreds upon hundreds. There was no fight left in them anymore and now, here, you can see what is left by the battle in the warm midday sunlight. It is exactly like one of the crowded battle paintings of Waterloo or Borodino — except of course the wreckage is different. Every staff car, and I suppose I have seen a hundred, is packed with French loot and German equipment. There is a profusion of everything: fieldglasses and typewriters, pistols and small arms by the hundred, cases of wine, truckloads of food and medical stores, a vast mass of leather harness. Every car is full of clothing and every officer seems to have possessed a pair of corsets to take home. ‘I have just picked my way across the wreckage to the house on the far side of the orchard [the La Guittonnière farmhouse]. It is full of Germans, Germans beaten and numbed into senselessness. Like animals, they seem to have no will of their own. They are all armed with machine-pistols and rifles but no one takes the slightest notice of them. It would be absurd to think that they would fire and nobody has time to take their arms from them and lead them into captivity.

was standing, at the far end of the field on the right. The Tournai-sur-Dive to Chambois road can be seen on the far right but because it has been blocked by destroyed vehicles a bypass track has been made through the fields.

ROSS LEAL COLLECTION

Another view of the Cent Acres killing ground, this time from near the edge of the Les Sapins wood and close to ‘Torpedo Junction’ crossroads, the main aiming point for the American artillery in this sector. We are looking back to where Eisenhower

FERME D’AUBRY

The same fields today, with the present-day D717 running along the edge of the wood. The Château d’Aubry and the 14

Ferme d’Aubry are at the bottom of the slope in mid-centre. The view is due east.

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ANDREA SUTCLIFFE COLLECTION

Left: Another concentration of wrecked vehicles at the beginning of the bypass track. The T-junction where Eisenhower Outside a Canadian soldier is mercifully going round shooting wounded horses with a Luger pistol. ‘Well, there it is; there could be no reason in this ghastly scene. I say again I think I see

stood is in front of the two big trees on the left. Right: The distinctive shape of the ridge on the horizon pinpoints the spot.

the end of Germany here. This was their best in weapons and men, their strongest barrier before the Rhine. It has been brushed aside, shattered into bits. The beaten Wehrmacht is a pitiable thing.’

It was the remains of this gruesome battle that General Eisenhower and his companions stood taking in on the morning of August 26. Gault: ‘One interesting little incident occurred while we were looking at the debris.

TRIANGLE

This map, compiled by No. 2 Operational Research Section, 21st Army Group, is ideal to illustrate how Aubry-en-Exmes became the epicentre of the German break-out efforts, with the Les Sapins—La Guittonnière—Moissy Ford triangle as its focal area. Starting on August 13, more and more logistical and other second-line units of the German 7. Armee were sent to the east. On that date, the Falaise gap was still 20 kilometres wide, bordered in the south by Argentan. Then, on the 16th, Hitler at last allowed a wholesale retreat to east of the Dives between Trun and Chambois, leaving a gap of just seven kilometres. The very confined local infrastructure could have served to evacuate one single division within a reasonable time but certainly not ten divisions, even if their infantry regiments were just a mere shadow of their organic strength. Thus, funnelled by the Forêt de Gouffern ridge to the south and the Pays d’Auge plateau to the north-east, a major part of

these divisions got trapped in the Dives valley. The few passages over the river, locally nothing but a brook with more or less steep banks, constituted an additional permeable screen causing enormous congestion south of it. The loss of Trun during August 18 considerably complicated the situation in the valley. The map, although not complete, gives a good impression of the main axes used for the aborted break-out to the north and shows the congestive destruction that existed east of the Trun—Argentan road until midday of August 21, so for less than 48 hours, most of which was caused by artillery fire. The destruction in the Les Sapins—La Guittonnière—Moissy Ford triangle actually bunched up along its sides and in the corners, leaving the fields in the centre relatively free. (Geographically speaking, the term ‘Falaise Pocket’ is incorrect, it being more accurate to call it the Chambois Pocket.) 15

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The wreckage has long since been cleared away but the stables of the château’s farm remain little changed.

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ROSS LEAL COLLECTION

There were two Norwegian pilots, a sergeant and an enlisted man, who immediately recognised the General and came up to speak to him. Both these pilots had taken part in this action and had walked over to see the results of their work. They seemed very pleased with their work.’ Gault did not identify the pilots but Signal Corps photographer Moore, who captured the scene on camera as did his cine colleague, noted down the names of the two Norwegians: they were Flight Sergeants Schrurn and Corn, probably from No. 331 or 332 (Norwegian) Squadrons of No. 132 Wing. They had come all the way from airfield B-16 at Villons-les-Buissons, north-west of Caen, where the wing had been stationed since August 20.

GABY DE COSTART/JACQUES VAN DIJKE COLLECTION

Right: A few hundred metres up the road from where Eisenhower was standing is the Château d’Aubry. In the final stages of the battle, with desperate German drivers trying to avoid the traffic jam in front of the Saint-Lambert bridge, its courtyard, the long chestnut-lined lane leading up to it and the meadows bordering the Dives behind it all ended up completely filled with abandoned vehicles and equipment.

that of the wagon on the left had taken the precaution of freeing their horses. Note that some of the animals have survived. Right: The stone shed on the left forms the link between past and present.

Left: Just a few metres further on, a Peugeot 301 staff car has ended up hanging on the bank of the Dives (note the bicycle jammed under its front wheels). Behind it are still more guns,

vehicles, carts and horses, some of the animals still alive. Right: New trees now obscure the view of the farmhouse but this is the same spot today.

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Left: More abandoned equipment at the La Guittonnière farm, located on the north-west corner of the Cent Acres killing ground. In front stands a 10,5cm leichte Feldhaubitze 18M L/28. Its crew and

16

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ROSS LEAL COLLECTION

Dead horses lining the main road at La Guittonnière, just short of the Saint-Lambert bridge.

Not the same but a similar type of railing lines the road at this point today.

Having now witnessed the stark and brutal reality of the carnage in the Pocket, Eisenhower and his companions retraced their route back to Gacé and from there continued eastwards another 100 kilometres, via l’Aigle and Verneuil, to Chartres to visit Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley at his 12th Army Group headquarters. ‘I was glad when we emerged from the Falaise section, leaving the sickly odour and sight of death far behind’, wrote Kay Summersby. En route, they had luncheon by the roadside. Two French children walked up to the party and presented Eisenhower with a flower bouquet. When they arrived at Bradley’s headquarters, set up in a barnyard on the outskirts of the city, at 4.30 p.m., they found that Bradley himself was absent, having gone on a hurried flight to Brest to confer with Major General Troy H. Middleton of the US VIII Corps.

PLUMEY

Right: Two Panther tanks, probably belonging to the 2. Panzer-Division, ended up beyond the Dives bridge at the southern entrance of Saint-Lambert. It was here that the main log jam had occurred during the German retreat, much complicating the passage of other vehicles attempting to make good their escape over the second bridge up ahead.

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However, the headquarters was vibrating with excitement. Paris had been liberated by the French 2ème Division Blindée and the US 4th Infantry Division the day before, and there were many war correspondents present at the headquarters with tales of the unbelievable jubilation there. Eisenhower at once decided to push into the French capital as well. The official reason later given in his memoirs was that he had learned that Général Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, had already established his headquarters in Paris, and that he considered it necessary to make a formal call upon him. However, from the accounts of those who were there at Chartres, it appears that he was just very anxious to see the city, a keenness spurred on in particular by Kay Summersby, who judged Paris a ‘magic, romantic word’. Eisenhower had not seen the city since 1929 (when he had spent over a year there on assignment with the US Battle Monuments Commission) and Summersby’s last visit had been in 1939. Left: The Dives at this point divides into two arms about 80 metres apart and the tanks had ended up right between the two bridges, the one seen here (on the far left) spanning the northern arm, today a dry bed. 17

Right: Having now witnessed the Falaise Gap killing ground with their own eyes, Eisenhower and his party carried on eastwards to Chartres to meet up with General Bradley at his advanced 12th Army Group command post. Somewhere along the 100-kilometre journey, they stopped to have a roadside luncheon. During the halt, two French girls came up to the Supreme Commander and presented him with flowers.

Lieutenant Moore’s photos of this day are all wrongly dated to September 3, 1944 and their captions give little clue as to the locations. This one merely says ‘somewhere in France’. Eisenhower then proceeded to Gerow’s headquarters and to Général Koenig’s, both of which were housed in the Hôtel des Invalides complex, in adjoining buildings at Nos. 8 and 6 Boulevard des Invalides. After a short conference with each, the four generals made a short tour of Paris. They first drove around the corner for a brief halt at the gilded Dôme des Invalides church to see the tomb of Napoleon in its open crypt. Crossing the Seine to the broad Place de la Concorde, they then proceeded up the Champs-Elysées to the Arc the Triomphe, its arc filled with a huge Tricolour. Here Eisenhower, Bradley, Gerow and Koenig got out of their cars to pay their respect to the Unknown Soldier. They were joined by Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, the Allied Deputy Supreme Commander, and Air Vice-Marshal Harry Broadhurst, the commander of No. 83 Group, RAF, who had made their way into Paris independently. The Champs-Elysées was filled with thousands of Parisians and a

great roar went up as Eisenhower was instantly recognised, with shouts of ‘Eisenhower! Eisenhower!’ filling the sky. The ceremony over, General Bradley changed to a Jeep, hoping to make a quick exit out of the city, but Eisenhower was nearly mobbed and his Cadillac swamped by enthusiastic crowds as it slowly made its way in low gear down the broad avenue to the Place de la Concorde. Only then was it able to flee to the open country. Eisenhower and Gault first returned to Bradley’s headquarters near Chartres, where they had lunch. They then returned to ‘Shellburst’ headquarters, arriving there late in the evening, the entire party by now very weary after an eight-hour drive. It had been a twoday excursion filled with indelible impressions. Combining as it did both the horrors of the Falaise Pocket and the happy deliriousness of liberated Paris, it was one of the Supreme Commander’s more-memorable trips of the entire 1944-45 campaign in the West.

CRITICAL PAST

CRITICAL PAST

AUGUST 27 The Supreme Commander’s convoy started for the City of Light at 7.30 a.m. on the 27th. Bradley travelled in Eisenhower’s car, which had been placed between two armoured cars, and Brigadier General Edwin L. Sibert, Bradley’s G-2 (Intelligence Chief), led the way in a Jeep, blowing his horn all the time. Entering the city through throngs of jubilant crowds, Eisenhower’s motorcade was met at the Porte d’Orléans by Major General Leonard T. Gerow, commander of the US V Corps, and Général Pierre Koenig, military commander of the FFI and de Gaulle’s newly appointed governor of Paris, who escorted them to de Gaulle’s headquarters set up in the Ministère de la Guerre (French War Office) building at No. 14 Rue Saint-Dominique. In a half-hour conference, de Gaulle asked Eisenhower for food and supplies for the city; uniforms for the Resistance forces; equipment for the divisions he was forming, and the loan of two American divisions to give a show of force and establish his position against ‘unruly elements’. (Eisenhower was unable to provide de Gaulle with two divisions but he did arrange for the US 28th Infantry Division and some units of the 5th Armored Division to parade down the Champs-Elysées two days later, August 29, on their way to the front.)

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When Bradley returned from Brest at 6 p.m., he found the Supreme Commander encamped on the doorstep of his command post trailer. Although Eisenhower had come to Chartres with more pressing issues on his mind, he suggested to Bradley they slip quietly into Paris for a glimpse of the city the following morning. ‘It’s Sunday’, Eisenhower said. ‘Everybody will be sleeping late. We can do it without any fuss’. Bradley was not too keen on going but let himself be persuaded. Always the SHAEF diplomat, Eisenhower wired Montgomery to ask if he wanted to come along. Montgomery politely declined, saying he was too busy pushing his armies to the Seine.

The following day, August 27, Eisenhower and Bradley made an impromptu visit to Paris, which had just been liberated two days before. One of their stops was at the Arc de Triomphe. Here Eisenhower steps out of his Cadillac to greet one of the many Allied cameramen present to record this first visit of the Supreme Commander to the French capital. 18

Posing in front of the famous landmark (L-R): Major General Leonard T. Gerow, commander of the US V Corps; Bradley; Eisenhower; Air Vice-Marshal Harry Broadhurst, the commander of No. 83 Group, RAF (in the second row); Général Pierre Koenig, military commander of the FFI, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, the Allied Deputy Supreme Commander.

ECPAD DAT 3622 L16

In late October 1940, Hitler went on an eight-day diplomatic tour in the West, travelling across France by special train, first to meet Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the leader of Spain, at Hendaye on the Franco-Spanish border, and then Maréchal

Philippe Pétain, the Head of State of defeated France, at Montoire-sur-le-Loir in west central France. From Germany’s point of view, the tour was a decided disappointment, the Führer obtaining nothing of substance from either Franco or Pétain.

HITLER’S DIPLOMATIC TOUR IN THE WEST operation against England’ although his main strategic aim lay in the East for the acquisition of Lebensraum and the defeat of the Soviet Union. Halder recorded that on July 31 Hitler directed that ‘Russia’s destruction must be made a part of this struggle. The sooner Russia is crushed, the better.’

By Jean Paul Pallud A first directive for a campaign against Russia in 1941 was issued on August 9 and, over the next two months, German forces in East Prussia and Poland were increased, great efforts being made to conceal this from

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After seven months of Phoney War, the Wehrmacht launched their attack in the West on May 10, 1940, and within six weeks the Netherlands, Belgium and France had been defeated, as had the British Expeditionary Force. The armistice with France was signed on June 22 and hostilities ceased three days later. The armistice divided France into two parts, two-thirds being occupied by German forces and the remainder, south of a ‘Demarcation Line’, to be under the control of a French government in Vichy led by Maréchal Philippe Pétain. Now master of Denmark and Norway, and of the Netherlands, Belgium and France, Germany controlled the coastline of the Continent from the polar circle to the Spanish border. However, from late June to December 1940 came a period of strategic, political and military vacillation over the direction in which to proceed. Hitler did not want to continue the war with Britain as the defeat of that country would be followed by disintegration of the British Empire, and he knew that the beneficiaries of such a collapse would be Japan and the United States, not Germany. In June, he initiated peace overtures to the British through Stockholm, Washington and the Vatican and was surprised when these were rebuffed. On July 13, Generaloberst Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff at the OKH (Army High Command), commented that ‘the Führer is greatly puzzled by Britain’s persisting unwillingness to make peace’. Halder also recorded that Hitler wanted to ‘draw Spain into the game in order to build up a front against Britain’. On July 16 Hitler issued his Directive No. 16 covering ‘preparations for a landing

No red carpet on the station platform at Hendaye today but, as it was during the war, the station still has a double system of parallel tracks. This is because Spanish trains run on a broader track of 1.6 metres (1672 millimetres to be exact), while French trains use the standard gauge of 1.4-metre (1435 millimetres). 19

Chancellor Hitler received his first StaatsSonderzug (State Special Train) in 1933 or 1934. Progressively, every minister or department became entitled to having his own special train — Hermann Göring, Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, the OKW and OKH, and many more — and a comprehensive building programme of ‘Sonderzüge’ was undertaken. Hitler’s prewar Sonderzug had ten coaches of uniform size, painted dark green and drawn by two locomotives. At the outbreak of war two anti-aircraft wagons were added, one behind the locomotive and another at the rear, each armed with two 20mm guns and manned by a crew of 20 to 30 gunners. Oberstleutnant Nicolaus von Vormann, the Army liaison officer at the Führer Headquarters during the Polish campaign, described the composition of the Führersonderzug, ‘although I never went into the leading coach, which was occupied by Hitler and his personal staff. The second wagon was the operations coach, with the forward half a room with a large map table, three telephones and some movable easy chairs. The telephone exchange and signals centre occupied the rear half. Next came the sleeping car for the SS bodyguard, two more sleeping cars for adjutants, doctors, soldiers and so on, and a dining car. The rest of the train was taken over by Reichspressechef (Reich Press Chief) Otto Dietrich. At each end were special wagons with light flak guns under an armoured canopy.’

This photo of Führersonderzug ‘Amerika’ was taken in April 1941 when the train was stationary for several days at a remote halt on the single-track line between Mönichkirchen and Aspang-Markt, south of Wiener-Neustadt in Austria. In the foreground is one of the anti-aircraft wagons with the 20mm guns. The train was then being used as Führer Headquarters for the German invasion of the Balkans, a function for which it was not really suited (see After the Battle No. 19). Hitler directed the campaign from this location from April 12 to 25, living in the train with the locomotive permanently under steam, ready to drive into the nearby tunnel should the need arise.

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MUNICH

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FLORENCE

HENDAYE

Hitler’s diplomatic tour to see Franco at Hendaye and Pétain at Montoire, immediately followed by his visit to Mussolini in Florence, started in Munich on October 21 and finished there on the 28th. The journey amounted to some 4000 kilometres spread over eight days, by far the longest trip ever undertaken 20

by Hitler in his personal train. The route on this map gives an approximation of that taken by the Führersonderzug, and von Ribbentrop’s Sonderzug ‘Westfalen’ which followed, as the precise routing is not recorded. Moreover, the outward and return trips to Hendaye may not have used the same lines.

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ROGER VIOLET

Shortly before 7 p.m. on the 22nd, the two German trains pulled into Montoire-sur-le-Loir, some 50 kilometres north of Tours, where a meeting had been arranged with the French Vice-Prime Minister, Pierre Laval. Completely unaware of Hitler’s impending visit, Laval had been taken to Tours by Otto Abetz, the German Ambassador in Paris, allegedly to meet with von Ribbentrop, and it was only late in the afternoon that Abetz finally revealed to a startled Laval that they were in fact going to see Hitler. Arriving at Montoire sometime after 7 p.m., the Soviets. Before the end of the year Hitler would issue his Directive No. 21 code-named ‘Case Barbarossa’ aimed at ‘crushing Soviet Russia in a rapid campaign’. As to the invasion of England, Army and Navy planners set to work following Hitler’s directive of July 16 but it was soon too apparent that there was very little shipping available for the enterprise. It was intended to use barges gathered up from inland waterways, which by themselves would give barely enough shipping space to put an effective force ashore in England, and also these unwieldly barges would be at the mercy of the slightest wind in rough seas. Consequently, by the end of July Grossadmiral Erich Raeder, the Navy Commander-inChief, opposed the operation. On September 5, Heeresgruppe A nevertheless wrote down the provisional instructions for Operation ‘Seelöwe’ but then followed a succession of postponements till October 12 when the operation was put off until the following spring (see After the Battle No. 69). With the landing in England delayed, and his main preoccupation — the attack and defeat of Russia — not possible before the spring of 1941, Hitler began to view the Mediterranean as offering the option of defeating Britain in a subsidiary theatre of war. As early as June 30, Generalmajor Alfred Jodl, the Chief of the Operational Staff of the OKW (Armed Forces High Command), had considered extending the war to the Mediterranean periphery as an alternative to Operation ‘Seelöwe’.

they were greeted on the platform by von Ribbentrop before boarding Hitler’s train. Most of the subsequent discussion was taken up with arranging a meeting between Hitler and Maréchal Pétain at this same station on the 24th. Left: This photo of Laval and von Ribbentrop leaving the station was taken about 8.30 p.m. Laval then returned to Tours from where he immediately telephoned Pétain to report on the surprising meeting. Right: The disused station now houses the ‘Musée des Rencontres’, the ‘Museum of the Meetings’.

On September 6, Admiral Raeder highlighted another danger, warning Hitler that with Great Britain demonstrating her resilience, the United States might intervene and seize the Spanish and Portuguese islands in the Atlantic, and perhaps also the French West African colonies. He stressed that in the forthcoming winter months, action should be taken against Gibraltar, the Suez Canal and Dakar. With the taking of Gibraltar and the closing of the Straits, the Royal Navy would be chased from the Western Mediterranean and German troops in Spanish Morocco would put an end to the equivocal position of the French in North Africa with the assurance that they would not suddenly join with Great Britain. When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, Generalissimo Francisco Franco declared the neutrality of Spain, even although the Spanish leader had received important support from Hitler and Mussolini during the recent civil war. In October 1939 Franco replaced his somewhat Anglophile Minister of Foreign Affairs, Juan Beigbeder Atienza, and appointed instead Ramón Serrano Súñer, a man more acceptable to Berlin. Franco’s policy started to take shape in June 1940 after the British evacuation of Dunkirk. On June 12, two days after the Italian declaration of war, Eugenio Espinosa de los Monteros, the Spanish Ambassador to Berlin, presented the Germans with a memorandum in which Franco declared he was ready to participate in the war in return for

economic support from Germany and territorial concessions at the expense of France. Initially Hitler, who at this stage had little interest in Mediterranean strategy, did nothing to encourage these offers but things changed in mid-September when he began to turn his interest to the Mediterranean. Paul Schmidt, an interpreter in the offices of Reichsaussenminister Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Third Reich’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, described a visit of Súñer in Berlin on September 23: ‘I can still clearly visualise one remarkable scene in von Ribbentrop’s office. Hanging by the window, which overlooked the old park behind the Wilhelmstrasse, was a map of the French colonial empire in Africa. Súñer and von Ribbentrop were standing in front of it. “Help yourself” was in effect the gist of Ribbentrop’s high-sounding words. And the Spaniard did help himself. He took the port of Oran; he wanted the whole of Morocco and large areas of the Sahara, and needed French West Africa to round off the Spanish West African colony Rio de Oro. Von Ribbentrop eagerly sold the goods which did not belong to him. Apparently no price was too high for Spanish collaboration.’ Global events suddenly changed when French forces at Dakar, the capital of French West Africa, sharply repulsed a British and Gaullist seaborne attempt to seize the port on September 23-24, 1940. As the Vichy French had demonstrated how determined they were to defend the French Empire against any aggression, regardless of where it originated, 21

One might think that the Germans would have used German locomotives and German engine-drivers (as seen here) to run Hitler’s train throughout the journey, but railway work is a highly technical skill, with specific signals and rules, and German engine-drivers were simply unable to run their trains on the French railway network. René Thuau, a member of the managerial staff of the SNCF (French State Railways) at Bordeaux, thus found himself in charge of hauling the Sonderzug from Bordeaux to Hendaye. He wrote a vivid report of this experience which was published in 1956 in the Almanach du Cheminot, illustrated by a series of pen drawings.

circuit around Paris to reach Montoire-sur-leLoir, about 50 kilometres north of Tours, on the afternoon of the 22nd. Von Ribbentrop’s Foreign Office train arrived first at 6.34 p.m. followed at 6.54 p.m. by Hitler’s train. The German party had organised a meeting with the Vice Prime Minister of Vichy France, Pierre Laval. (The Prime Minister, or President of the Council of Ministers, was nominally the Head of State, a position held by Maréchal Pétain – see After the Battle No. 170). Pierre Laval later stated that it was Otto Abetz, the German Ambassador in Paris with whom he had had a first contact in July, who proposed the meeting with von Ribbentrop as the German Foreign Minister was scheduled to visit France. They started out from Paris by car on the morning of October 22, Abetz saying that they were to go to Tours from where they were to be taken to von Ribbentrop at a location he pretended not to know. At Tours they had lunch, and although there were several phone calls with von Ribbentrop, Laval was still ignorant of exactly where they were to meet. After waiting all afternoon, at about 5 p.m. Abetz revealed to a surprised Laval that they were going to see Hitler personally in company with von Ribbentrop at 7 p.m. It was dark when the cars stopped in front of the small railway station at Montoire-sur-leLoir, Laval being greeted on the platform by von Ribbentrop. They then boarded Hitler’s train and met with him in his saloon. The discussion dealt almost exclusively with arrangements to prepare for a meeting in this same station with Maréchal Pétain

MEETING WITH FRANCO On October 21, 1940, Hitler departed from Munich in the Führersonderzug ‘Amerika’ to meet Franco on the Spanish border at Hendaye. Lying on the estuary of the Bidassoa river which forms the border between France and Spain at this point, Hendaye is served by the Paris—Bordeaux—Irun railway line. The operation was code-named ‘Herbststurm’ (Autumn Storm) and this journey of some 2,000 kilometres from Munich to Hendaye, via Yvoir in Belgium, was the longest ever undertaken by Hitler in his personal train. Overnight on the 21st, the train sheltered in a tunnel at Yvoir. Earlier, there had been a furore here when Hitler’s train came up against a sleeper coach that had been uncoupled from von Ribbentrop’s train and left blocking the line outside the tunnel entrance. This caused a serious delay while the Führersonderzug’s telephone network was linked into the circuit boxes that were installed in the tunnel, resulting in a stronglyworded complaint from Hitler’s personal staff to von Ribbentrop’s office. The two trains travelled across France next morning, passing through Laon to make a wide 22

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Hitler started to cherish hopes that this action might presage some sort of active military support from the Vichy government. Although a meeting was then agreed between Hitler and Franco, the Germans knew that there would be a major underlying problem in the discussions to come. Schmidt reported Hitler saying to Ribbentrop: ‘We cannot at the moment give the Spaniards any written promises about transfers of territory from the French colonial possessions. If they get hold of anything in writing on this ticklish question, with these talkative Latins the French are sure to hear something about it sooner or later.’ Hitler added that he also planned to talk to Marshal Pétain to try to induce the French to start active hostilities against England. ‘So I cannot now suggest to them such cessions of territory. Quite apart from that, if such an agreement with the Spaniards became known, the French colonial empire would probably go over bodily to de Gaulle.’

This sketch shows the platform at Bordeaux station swarming with armed guards, Reichsbahn officials in impressive uniforms with ‘red sashes across the chest and tasselled ranks of colonels on the shoulder’. Thuau vividly described how a German official approached him, saluted and inquired who he was. ‘Lokführer (engine-driver)?’ In an attempt to reply in German, Thuau replied that he was actually an ‘Haupt-Ober-Lokführer’ which left the German much impressed! Bending close to Thuau, he then whispered: ‘Monsieur, here is our Führer!’ ‘Hitler?’, asked a startled Thuau. ‘Ja Hitler. Heil Hitler!’, answered the German.

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PK photographer Harren pictured the arrival of the Führersonderzug on Platform 2 at Hendaye with Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch, chief of the OKH, waiting on the platform. The preceding frames in this roll appear to show that the train actually entered the station along Track 1 (behind the train) before being manoeuvred to park on the parallel Track 2 seen here.

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later on the 24th. It broke up about 8.15 p.m. when Laval returned to Paris, via Tours from where he telephoned Pétain to report on the surprising meeting. The two German trains left Montoire during the night, von Ribbentrop starting at 3 a.m., Hitler following one hour later. Travelling south, they had a stop at Bordeaux in the morning to change locomotives. An interesting account of the happenings at Bordeaux was given by René Thuau, a manager of the French State Railways there. On the evening of the 22nd, Thuau was in his office when suddenly a rush of phone calls came in from every managing board of the SNCF: from the Préfecture; from the Kommandantur, and from Paris, but all either directing, counter-manding or confirming arrangements. One thing was clear: three trains were to travel down to the Spanish border at Hendaye with an important German personality on board. All normal traffic was to be stopped with all trains to be parked on sidings three hours before the passage of the special trains. New directives arrived every ten minutes, first stating that the most-important train was the second, then saying that it was the first, then the third. Two electric engines had to be made ready to tow each of these trains and in each engine a chief engineer and a

Knowing he was inside the security perimeter that surrounded the train, ‘an exceptional situation’, René Thuau decided to attempt to see Hitler. He quietly walked down the platform, his blue overalls standing out in stark contrast against the magnificent uniforms of the ‘generals, admirals and diplomats’. No one appeared to take any notice of him until suddenly one German challenged him. Thuau endured a long tirade in German, of which he did not understand a word, and then, gathering the few German words he knew, finally answered that he was ‘the Lokführer of the Führer’. This title must have impressed the German as he then let Thuau go. As he reached Hitler’s coach, he suddenly saw the Führer standing three metres away. ‘He looked tired and worried’, but another German brandishing a pistol now challenged him. Using again the key words ‘locomotive’ and ‘Führer’, Thuau withdrew along the train but soon came up against the Guard of Honour barring the way and he had to stop. Then Hitler walked past: ‘He now smiles. He is the victorious general among his victorious soldiers. He is small and walks as Charlot (Charlie Chaplin’s tramp), with his knees outward.’

col department; Friedrich Gauss, head of the legal department; and Paul Schmidt, the ministry’s official interpreter. Left: Hitler and his party alighted and von Dörnberg led them along the platform to reach the section to where the Guard of Honour provided by the 11. Infanterie-Division was lined up. Right: Looking north-eastwards down the same platform today.

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Many members of the German delegation belonged to Hitler’s inner circle, like Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, his personal secretary; Otto Dietrich, the chief press officer, and Walther Hewel, von Ribbentrop’s liaison officer with Hitler. The delegation from the Foreign Ministry itself was also large, including — besides von Ribbentropf — Alexander von Dörnberg, head of the proto-

Hitler, followed by Generalfeldmarschall von Brauchitsch and Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the OKW, inspects the Guard of Honour. 23

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chief driver were to ride in addition to the normal crew. At each main station along the route two powerful steam engines were to stand ready to take over, and two powerful electric ones too. Thuau recorded the type of electric locomotives he used at Bordeaux — 2D2 5000s — and even their individual numbers: engines Nos. 4804 and 4822 for the first special train, and Nos. 4821 and 4823 for the second. Thuau was waiting on the platform when the first of the German trains entered Saint-Jean Station at 10.37 a.m. German aircraft were circling overhead while the station echoed with shouts in German, while a group of German nurses stood on the platform, saluting with raised arms and singing. It was ‘grave and religious’, wrote Thuau, ‘like at Lourdes when the Holy Sacrament is elevated in front of mystics’. All of the train’s window curtains were down and armed men with threatening looks on their faces stood on every running-board. As the engines that had hauled the train to Bordeaux were unhooked and the new pair was shunted to take over, a party of Reichsbahn officials came hurrying over to the French engineers. Two German engineers were to travel with each engine-driver to keep an eye on the French crew. The first train, with Thuau in command, departed at 11 a.m. as scheduled but sometime later a red signal light brought it to a halt in a wooded area. Dozens of soldiers jumped down and started to run along the train, weapons at the ready, while the Flak crews aimed their guns at the sky. Tension ran high and Thuau and his French colleagues joked at what might have erupted if a hare would have scurried out of the forest just then. Though obviously worried, the two Reichsbahn officials with them said nothing. 24

arrive, linked together by a connecting carpet. Potted plants had also been brought in as decoration and there was a plethora of Spanish and German flags.

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The German protocol department had made suitable arrangements for the meeting. Red carpets had been unrolled along the length of the platforms where the two trains were to

The French side of the station has tracks numbered 1 and 2, but the Spanish on their side have tracks A and B. This is looking from Platform A to B, with the two Spanish tracks in between. The train started again, soon passing through the station at Bayonne where a huge Swastika flag was flying. The German Deutsche Wochenschau newsreel of October 30 reported on the trip, featuring several shots taken from the train by the German PK cameraman that match with Thuau’s account: the crossing of the Garonne in Bordeaux; Hitler sitting at his desk and examining maps with some of his staff; the train entering Bayonne station; a nurse presenting Hitler with flowers by the

door of his wagon; nurses cheering and running on the platform as the train departs; views of the Atlantic and of seaside villas at Guétary; and finally the train entering Hendaye station, with the cameraman zooming in on the ‘Hendaye’ sign. Thuau noted the time was now 1.30 p.m. on the 23rd. A convoy of vehicles was already standing by in the station forecourt, prepared to rush the two leaders six kilometres away to a road tunnel at Cambo in the event of air attack.

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It appears that the main reason for the delay was the poor state of the Spanish tracks and signal equipment, but the considerable security measures taken all along the 20kilometre route from San Sebastian to the border, with tunnels and bridges all heavily guarded, probably contributed as well. Franco’s hagiographers later alleged that the train’s late arrival was a deliberate ploy by the Generalissimo to throw Hitler off balance but in actual fact Franco was infuriated by the delay, feeling that it diminished him in the eyes of Hitler. Driven by Salvador Dominguez, the train finally entered the station about 3.15 p.m. Its locomotive, in the blue livery of the Norte Railway Company, was number 7209 of the 7200 series nicknamed ‘Crocodile’ from its shape. Compared to the very long Führersonderzug, the Spanish train comprised only three carriages in addition to the locomotive.

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It had been planned that the trains of the two leaders would arrive in the station from north and south at the same time but Franco’s train was late. ‘As it was a lovely day,’ later recalled Schmidt, ‘no one minded. Hitler and von Ribbentrop stood chatting on the platform.’ Some time after 3.15 p.m. the Spanish train finally appeared crossing the bridge over the Bidassoa river, a few hundred metres south of the station. A band and Guard of Honour from the 11. Infanterie-Division (the German unit deployed along the Atlantic coast of France), were drawn up on the platform. Besides von Ribbentrop, Hitler was accompanied by Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, the Chief of the OKW; Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch, Chief of the OKH; Dr Otto Dietrich, the Third Reich’s Press Chief, and many others. Franco’s party included Ramón Serrano Súñer, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Eugenio Espinosa de los Monteros, Spanish Ambassador to Berlin. After a formal greeting, the two Heads of State finally walked to Hitler’s train. Schmidt described how the conference began about 3.30 p.m. with Hitler giving a most glowing account of the German position: ‘“England is already decisively beaten”, he said. Then came the key word: Gibraltar. If the English lost it, they could be excluded from the Mediterranean and from Africa. Hitler now played his trump card. He proposed the immediate conclusion of a treaty and asked Franco to come into the war in January 1941. Gibraltar would be taken on January 10

document has survived to confirm either way but it appears that the latter was closer to the truth. In any case, so Schmidt recalled, ‘as it was a lovely day, no one minded. Hitler and von Ribbentrop stood chatting on the platform.’ Right: Looking south-west down the same Platform B today.

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Left: Franco’s train had departed from San Sebastian at about 3 p.m., crossing the bridge over the Bidassoa river a quarter of an hour later. The train arrived late, one hour according to Schmidt although only eight minutes according to Ramón Serrano Súñer, Franco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. No official

Left: The carriage used by Franco had originally been built in the late 1920s for Spanish King Alfonso XIII and his family, hence the peculiar position of the door in the middle of the car. Also belonging to the Norte Company, it was painted olive-drab with

yellow stripes. It served Franco until it was phased out of service in 1956. It is now the property of the Madrid Railway Museum and in a process of being restored. Right: Another view from Platform A, looking south towards the main station. 25

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German propaganda provided a host of photographers to cover the meeting. Left: As interpreter Paul Schmidt did not really know Spanish, instead the German Foreign Ministry had provided a Doctor Gross to translate. However, his understanding of the Spanish language was only rudimentary and the film footage then taken shows Franco opening up with exuberance as Hitler greeted him on the platform with Gross looking nervously at the Caudillo, straining for a clue as to what he was

saying. Several seconds pass, with Hitler waiting, before Gross finally blurts out a translation. This picture was taken by Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler’s personal photographer. Right: As it happened, PK Harren pictured Hoffmann (in the left background) just as he was taking the shot. Gross is in the right foreground and, half hidden behind Franco, is Súñer. Below: Another photographer, possibly Spanish, was there to picture a third angle, this time facing Franco.

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by the same special units that had been used to capture the renowned Eben-Emael fort in Belgium with such surprising speed. Hitler, there and then, offered Gibraltar to Spain and, somewhat more vaguely, colonial territories in Africa also. ‘At first Franco, sitting huddled up in his chair, said nothing at all. From his impenetrable expression I could not make out whether he was taken aback by the proposal or whether he was just quietly thinking out his reply.’ Schmidt described Franco finally answering ‘in a quiet, gentle voice, its monotonous sing-song reminiscent of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer’. Franco talked evasively for some time and, when he finally said that he was ready to conclude a treaty, this was subject to so many reservations regarding the supply of food and armaments and the time of Spain’s entry in the war that ‘the agreement amounted to nothing more than a façade’. As to Gibraltar, he said that Spanish national pride could only see the fortress being taken by Spaniards. The conversation was ‘obviously getting on Hitler’s nerves’ and he got up once, saying there was no point in continuing the discussion. However he soon sat down again and renewed his attempt to obtain Franco’s

Left: Hitler and Franco then reviewed the same Wehrmacht Guard of Honour that Hitler had saluted earlier, Generalfeldmarschall von Brauchitsch and Keitel following, and Gross too (hidden behind 26

Hitler) in case of need. Right: Jean Paul had long wanted to cover this story and he visited Hendaye in April 2017. This photo looks down the same Platform B with the two ‘Spanish’ tracks on the left.

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agreement. The meeting was then adjourned at 6.05 p.m., von Ribbentrop and Súñer continuing the discussions in the Foreign Office train until 7 p.m. That night, the Spaniards were given a dinner in Hitler’s banqueting car. It had been arranged that Hitler and Franco would then depart leaving their Foreign Ministers to work out a formula on which they could agree, but the two leaders resumed the discussion for some time, which delayed their departure for two hours. Meanwhile, von Ribbentrop pressed an increasingly recalcitrant Súñer into accepting a formula for agreement but with little success. In the end, the Spaniards returned to San Sebastian having promised to deliver a final draft to von Ribbentrop by eight in the morning but when he read it he refused to accept small amendments. The protocol, for all its vagueness, constituted a formal undertaking by Spain to join the war on the Axis side. Having to leave to attend the planned meeting with Pétain at Montoire, von Ribbentrop was driven at top speed to the nearest airfield at Bordeaux. Schmidt, who

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Above: The conference, held in the operations coach of Hitler’s train, started at 3.30 p.m. Present were only Hitler, Franco, von Ribbentrop, Súñer, and two interpreters, Dr Gross and Luis de las Torres. Neither the German Ambassador to Madrid, Eberhard von Stohrer, nor the Spanish Ambassador to Berlin, General Eugenio Espinosa de los Monteros, participated. The meeting adjourned at 6.05 p.m. but von Ribbentrop and Súñer continued talks in the Foreign Ministry train till 7 p.m. The combined party then had dinner in the Führersonderzug’s dining car. According to Schmidt, Franco was seated between von Ribbentrop and von Brauchitsch and Hitler between Súñer and General de los Monteros. After dinner, Hitler and Franco renewed their discussion for nearly two hours without, however, getting any closer to a mutual understanding. Left: The conference having ended shortly after midnight, Hitler then walked Franco to his carriage, with Gross on hand to translate. The Spanish train was not in the best technical condition and when it started at 0.55 a.m. (October 24), it jolted so violently that only the intervention of General José Moscardó, head of the Generalissimo’s military staff, saved him from tumbling head first on the platform. travelled with him, described how von Ribbentrop was ‘spluttering with rage’ on the journey, cursing ‘the Jesuit’ Súñer and the ‘ungrateful coward’ Franco ‘who owes us everything, and now won’t join in with us’. As to Hitler, the best-known anecdote is that he allegedly declared afterwards that he would rather have three or four teeth pulled out than go through another bargaining session with the Spanish Caudillo. In the same vein was the first-hand account by the Spanish interpreter at the meeting, Baron de las Torres, who described how he overheard Hitler say to Ribbentrop, at the end of the morning session: ‘There’s nothing you can do with types like these’. Spain was exhausted and impoverished after its long and costly civil war, and was simply unable to contribute very much to the Axis war effort. Also, Franco knew well that Spain was completely dependent for food and fuel upon the United States and the favour of the Royal Navy and consequently he could not afford to take any risks. However, Hitler continued to nurse certain illusions regarding the Spanish intentions, illusions no doubt fostered by a pact later signed with Súñer in mid-November concerning the eventual entry of Spain into the war. In his War Directive No. 18, issued on November 12, 1940, Hitler asserted that ‘the political measures to bring about the entry into the war of Spain in the near future have already been initiated’. He directed that the aim of Operation ‘Felix’, German intervention in the Iberian Peninsula, would be to drive the English from the Western Mediterranean. To this end: (a) Gibraltar would be seized; and (b) the British were to be prevented from gaining a footing at any point on the Iberian peninsula or in the Canary Islands.

Hitler’s train left Hendaye some time after Franco’s and travelled north through the night and morning of the 24th to reach Montoire station at 3.30 p.m., well in time for the planned meeting with Pétain. This shot, although taken in 1941, shows von Brauchitsch, Keitel and Hitler, all three of whom were present at Hendaye, discussing plans in the very same compartment of the operations coach where Hitler had conferred with Franco several months earlier. Von Ribbentrop stayed behind in Hendaye, waiting all night for the Spanish response. Next morning, too late to reach Montoire by train, he was rushed by car to the nearest airfield, at Bordeaux, flying from there to Tours, and then being driven in another car to Montoire. He arrived just in time for the conference with Pétain but his train did not catch up with him until later that evening. 27

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Arriving by car in company with Laval, Pétain alighted in front of the station just before 6 p.m. A German Guard of Honour stood ready for his inspection and von Ribbentrop, just in from his race against the clock, was there to greet him.

Though the station is now disused, the forecourt remains very similar to how it must have looked in 1940.

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Plans were prepared for the entry of German troops into Spain in January 1941 with the attack on Gibraltar taking place at the beginning of February. After Gibraltar had been taken, Spanish Morocco would be occupied to close the Straits and an invasion of Portugal was envisaged. Nevertheless by December Hitler had to accept that Spain had finally declared her position and on the 10th Keitel issued an order stating that Operation ‘Felix’ would not now be carried out, ‘the desired political conditions not having been fulfilled as yet’. Although all preparations already begun were to be halted, studies continued on the Spanish problem and a series of operations against her territory were being planned right up to mid-1943. In March 1941, with the invasion of the Soviet Union looming and units being transferred to the East, the plan was amended to become Operation ‘FelixHeinrich’. Broadly following the original plan, the new operation was to be implemented as soon as the invading forces in the Soviet Union reached a line between Kiev and Smolensk, hopefully by July 15. Units could then be withdrawn to prepare for the Gibraltar operation, which it was thought could begin on October 15. Operation ‘Isabella’ was conceived in April 1941, originally due to Hitler’s fear of British landings on the Iberian Peninsula. Rather than an Axis invasion of Spain, the operation was designed as a measure by which German troops would advance into Spain to support Franco’s forces and defeat the British expeditionary force. In May 1942, with available resources shrinking, ‘Isabella’ was replaced by the similar but less-ambitious plan named Operation ‘Ilona’, renamed ‘Gisela’ in September 1942. In June 1943 ‘Gisela’ was replaced in turn by Operation ‘Nürnberg’, a contingency plan in the event of an Allied landing in Portugal or Spain. This called for a defensive strategy in the Pyrénées. By then, German capabilities had been reduced to two reinforced regiments and some labour formations. For a time, Franco maintained a pro-Axis, non-belligerency policy, by providing submarine refuelling bases, reconnaissance facilities and strategic raw materials. However, British and American supplies of food and fuel to Spain continued, effectively buying off the Caudillo to avoid any direct diplomatic and military commitment with the Axis. Then, following the British victories in North Africa in 1942, Franco switched horses, replacing in September the pro-Axis Foreign Minister Súñer with Francisco Gómez Jordana y Sousa who was sympathetic to the British. Jordana already perceived that the

Nazi propaganda was keen to capitalise on the meeting of Hitler with Marshal Pétain, the well-respected ‘hero of Verdun’, to try to gain support from the French people. Photographers and cameramen were on hand to picture von Ribbentrop greeting Pétain in front of the station and the German Deutsche Wochenschau newsreel 28

soon reported on the meeting, this same sequence appearing on November 13 in the Actualités Mondiales, the German newsreel for the occupied zone of France. Right: These stills from the footage illustrate the ‘prudent reticence’ (as interpreter Paul Schmidt described it) shown by Pétain throughout the meeting.

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Left: Keitel then led Pétain across the tracks to Hitler’s train which stood on the third track beyond the central platform. Like at Hendaye, plants had been brought in to line the path. Right: Although there was a pedestrian crossing over the tracks in the centre of the station, an alternative one was

used on this occasion so that the French would have to walk some distance along the platform to where Hitler was waiting for them. Both crossing points are visible in the photo on page 31. Right: Neither of them remain in the disused station today.

Hitler welcomed Pétain and the two Heads of State briefly shook hands as a matter of protocol, although it was a much colder greeting than the one with Franco the day before. Paul Schmidt, the interpreter, stands by with von Ribbentrop in the background.

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MEETING WITH PETAIN Having departed from Hendaye at 4.35 a.m. on October 24, the Führersonderzug steamed into Montoire-sur-le-Loir at 3.29 p.m. the same day. Hitler’s train came to a halt in the middle of the station on the third track directly in front of the building. Having received orders ‘to accompany the Führersonderzug so that, in the event of any mishaps, the Führer can continue his journey by car’, a unit of the Führer-BegleitBataillon under Hauptmann Otto von Blomberg was already at the station. Another group was detailed to guard the nearby railway tunnel at Saint-Rimay, just north-east of Montoire, where the Führersonderzug could have found shelter in case of an aerial attack. Now late after the final negotiations with the Spanish, von Ribbentrop and Schmidt flew from Bordeaux to Tours in very bad weather. ‘Any other navigator than Hans Baur [Hitler’s personal pilot] would probably have been unable to make a landing in

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Allies were likely to win the war and he battled with the pro-German parties and indeed with Franco himself, repeatedly threatening resignation. He finally succeeded in 1943 to restore Spain to even-handed neutrality. By the time of his sudden death in August 1944, even the most pro-German Spanish could see that Hitler’s game was up.

Left: The greeting was brief — only a few photos were taken and the cine cameramen even failed to record the actual shaking of hands. (However, when producing a film in 1944 of the occupation using original footage from 1940, the French producers filmed two hands shaking in studio and inserted the scene in the genuine sequences at Montoire!) Nazi propaganda

made much use of the pictures, the two photos on this page being the most well-known, and the image was to become the symbol of French collaboration with Nazi Germany. Right: The station is now closed to passenger traffic and the platform has been removed. All that remains now is one track used solely for goods trains. 29

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The conference began shortly after 6 p.m. in the operations coach. Schmidt: ‘In spite of his advanced years the smartly uniformed Marshal sat up very straight as he faced Hitler. An indirect suggestion to join in the war against England was implied when Hitler asked what France would do if she were again attacked by England, as she had been, for instance, when the French warships at Oran had refused to obey the orders of the British Fleet. Pétain understood the implication at once, for he replied that France was not in a position to conduct a new war.’ On October 30, Pétain gave a radio address to announce the meeting to the French people saying, ‘It is with honour and in order to maintain French unity, a unity which has lasted ten centuries, and in the framework of the constructive activity of the new European order that today I am entering the path of collaboration. Thus, in the near future could be alleviated the weight of the sufferings of our country, improved the fate of our prisoners, mitigated the burden of occupation costs. In this way the demarcation line could be made more flexible and the administration and supply of the territory facilitated.’ All these hopes were soon to be disappointed. of collaboration with Germany, details to be decided on a case-by-case basis; Marshal Pétain wished for France a more favourable end of the war and Hitler expressed his approval on this point. It was now about 8 p.m. and dark outside when the meeting broke up. Pétain was led back to his car and his party drove away, escorted by Führer-Begleit-Bataillon motorcycle outriders, reaching Tours about 9 p.m. There the Maréchal spent the night. Later in the evening, Laval held a press conference in front of some 20 journalists. The Germans wasted no time in informing their Italian allies, Foreign Minister Geleazzo

Ciano entering in his diary: ‘During the evening von Ribbentrop telephoned from a little railway station in France. He reports on conversations with Franco and Pétain, and is, on the whole, satisfied with the results achieved. He says that the programme of collaboration is heading towards concrete results. I do not conceal my doubt and suspicion. Von Ribbentrop also speaks of an impending visit by Hitler to a city in northern Italy to confer with the Duce.’ As far as the Germans were concerned, the Montoire meeting was a failure and Schmidt recorded in the evening how Hitler ‘seemed profoundly disappointed by the

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the rain and fog’, commented Schmidt, and they touched down at Parçay-Meslay at 3.30 p.m. They rushed by car and reached Montoire station just as Marshal Pétain arrived. (Von Ribbentrop’s train arrived much later at 10.25 p.m.) Pétain had left Vichy at seven that morning in a convoy of three cars and crossed the demarcation line near Moulins using a bridge over the Allier river, where a German Guard of Honour saluted him. They stopped for lunch at Tours, Laval and Abetz joining the Maréchal at the Préfecture in the afternoon They left there at 4.45 p.m. to arrive at Montoire at six. Von Ribbentrop saluted as the French delegation alighted in front of the railway station where a German Guard of Honour lined the forecourt. Generalfeldmarschall Keitel then led Pétain across the first two tracks to meet Hitler on the platform next to his train. There the two Heads of State shook hands as a matter of protocol. The conference was held in Hitler’s saloon car. Schmidt: ‘In spite of his advanced years, the smartly-uniformed Marshal sat up very straight as he faced Hitler. His attitude was self-confident rather than servile and he listened with calm indolence to my translation. I spoke fairly loudly because I had been told that the Marshal was hard of hearing. Beside him, a vivid contrast, sat small, dark Laval, with the inevitable white tie, gazing alternately at Hitler and von Ribbentrop with searching eyes as I translated.’ Hitler opened the meeting enumerating a list of French sins ‘without, however, showing any harshness’. He then repeated what he had said at Hendaye that Germany had already won the war, ‘England is beaten, and will sooner or later have to admit it’. Stressing that France would not forget the events at Oran and the attack on Dakar, Pétain pointed out that the British, allied to France, had transgressed badly against her since the armistice. As to the attack on Dakar, he insisted that the renegade French general that sided with the British (Général de Gaulle although it appears that his name was not mentioned) was immediately sentenced to death. Pétain said that France would take every step to defend her colonial territories from attack. When Hitler made indirect suggestion to join in the war against England, Schmidt percieved that ‘Pétain understood the implication at once, for he replied that France was not in a position to conduct a new war’. The discussions went on and on until a dispirited Hitler summed up the results. Marshal Pétain was willing to consider the principle

Left: This old postcard shows the small brick shelter on the platform that appeared so prominently in the background of the handshake photos. Right: The station having already been closed to passenger traffic in 1940, the shelter was removed in the 1950s and the platform itself and most of the tracks lifted in the 1960s. Also, the two side wings of the main station were pulled down. In 1996, the building was acquired by the town of 30

Montoire to be used for a museum featuring the historic meeting. The exhibition, which opened in 2003, includes a large-scale model showing the station as it appeared at 7 p.m. on October 24, 1940, complete with a model of the Führersonderzug in which Hitler and Pétain were then conferring. Von Ribbentrop’s train is not included as it was then still on its way from Hendaye, and it was 10.25 p.m. when it finally reached Montoire.

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Left: The conference ended around 8 p.m. and Pétain left in his 1938 Cadillac Sedan for Tours where he was to spend the night. It has been said that this was the Cadillac that was presented to him by William D. Leahy, the US Ambassador to Vichy, on behalf of President Franklin Roosevelt but this cannot be as Leahy presented his credentials at

At an unknown date, but probably already during the war, postcards of the station were sold to recall the infamous meeting of October 1940, with crosses marking the tracks where the two German trains had stopped. Some of the cards in the series even had a caption in both English and French explaining that ‘X’ was where Hitler’s train had stood and ‘XX’ where von Ribbentrop’s train had been.

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French aloofness’. He concluded: ‘The great stake for which Hitler had played had been lost as a result of the prudent reticence shown by Pétain and Laval. Pétain’s monosyllabic utterances during the Montoire discussion had clearly been meant as a rebuff, nor had any better progress been made with Laval.’ Questioned by a French Parliamentary Commission in July 1947, after his death sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment, Pétain was asked why he went to meet Hitler at Montoire. He replied: ‘It was for the return of the prisoners. He gave me hope that a flow of prisoners might return to France but this did not happen. I was deceived.’ Von Ribbentrop’s train left Montoire at 5 a.m. next morning, October 25, followed an hour later by Hitler’s. Both trains reached Yvoir that evening, the Führersonderzug spending the night sheltering in the tunnel after enemy aircraft were reported over the Meuse valley. The trains started out at dawn on the 26th, heading for Munich, and in the morning a warning was received from the German Embassy in Rome that the Italians were about to invade Greece! ‘Hitler was beside himself’, wrote Schmidt, and he ordered there and then to rush to Italy at once to stop ‘this crazy scheme of the Duce’s’. (Actually the date for the meeting was already agreed on October 28 during the telephone call by von Ribbentrop to Ciano from the ‘little railway station in France’ on the 25th.) The train crossed to Italy via the Brenner Pass in the early hours of the 28th, Schmidt describing them ‘passing through a prematurely snowy landscape, as chilly as our mood’, and they steamed into the festively decorated station of Florence at ten o’clock. ‘We already knew that we were too late, for two hours before we had received word that the Italians had marched into Greece. Mussolini greeted Hitler with a self-satisfied smile. Hitler controlled himself surprisingly well. He was a good loser, as the English say, on that occasion and there was not the slightest sign of his mental gnashing of teeth in the friendly words he exchanged with Mussolini at the Palazzo Pitti.’ Schmidt summed up this long train trip across the Continent in October 1940, and its disappointing outcome, with these words: ‘Hitler went north again that afternoon with bitterness in his heart. He had been frustrated three times — at Hendaye, at Montoire and now in Italy. In the lengthy winter evenings of the next few years these long, exacting journeys were a constantly recurring theme of bitter reproaches against ungrateful and unreliable friends, Axis partners, and deceiving French.’

Vichy only in January 1941, three months after this picture was taken. (Washington granted the Vichy government full diplomatic recognition, maintaining it even after Pearl Harbor and Germany’s declaration of war the following December.) Right: The historical station, today housing the Musée des Rencontres.

The vast green expanse that once encompassed the side tracks and the historic platform remain clearly visible. If it was not for the museum, few passers-by today would realise that this building on Avenue de la République in the north-eastern corner of Montoire once witnessed a historical meeting, and saw a handshake that became a quintessential moment in the history of French collaborationism with the Nazi regime. 31

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ROYAL ENGINEERS

It has been said that no country is so well endowed with natural harbours as France. Most ports on the coast of the English Channel have an ‘Avant-Port’, or outer harbour, being an area of water protected by converging jetties for the use of vessels waiting to berth. The avant-ports were

constructed large enough to kill the swell as the tides on the French shore have a far greater range than on the English shore. The ‘wet dock’ called the Bassin à Flot is a standard feature of the inner harbour. This is the layout of Dieppe during the war . . . and today.

THE REHABILITATION OF THE CHANNEL PORTS The rapid advance of the Allied armies across France and into Belgium in AugustSeptember 1944 made it imperative to employ every possible means of shortening supply routes; hence the rehabilitation of the Channel ports was a priority which included the urgency of bringing the major deep-water port of Cherbourg into use. All the harbours had suffered severely from demolition work carried out before their capture and repairs to Dieppe, Boulogne and Calais fell within the responsibility of the Transportation Directorate of the British 21st Army Group. DIEPPE Dieppe, the first Channel port north of the Seine to be captured, was entered about midday on September 1 and a reconnaissance to assess the damage was made the following day. No. 4 Port Construction and Repair Group of the Royal Engineers moved in on September 3-4, as well as No. 43 Mechanical Equipment (Transportation) Section, and repair work started seriously on the 5th. No. 936 Port Construction and Repair Company moved in on September 16 and carried out repair and salvage work until October 11. They moved out on October 29 leaving behind one section to finish off outstanding work. This section finished work at the end of November and moved out on December 12. The repair work divided itself roughly into three stages: (a) The immediate clearance of quays to provide a minimum of eight drying-out berths for coasters, together with the initiation of work to increase the number of coaster berths and to attain nontidal conditions in the basins as soon as possible. 32

By Jean Paul Pallud (b) Completion of the clearance of the entrance to the Bassin Duquesne for use as a drying-out basin for coasters, and to construct an LST wagon terminal and to improve the shipyard hard to take LCTs. (c) Construction of a train ferry terminal and general improvement of access and port facilities throughout. The first coasters berthed on September 7 and before the end of the month the capacity of the port was 7,000 tons per day. The first locomotives were unloaded from the ferry on September 29. Throughout the whole of the rehabilitation of the harbour, great use was made of captured stocks of materials and equipment. Large stocks of mild steel-bars up to oneinch diameter were found as well as bricks, concrete pipes, rails, sleepers, etc. Ballast for concrete work was found in sufficient quantity within a five-kilometre radius of Dieppe. In the earlier stages of the repairs, the resources of the Port Construction and Repair Companies and the Mechanical Equipment Section were strained to the limit to cover all the immediate requirements. For rapid clearance work bulldozers fitted with 20-ton Hyster winches were invaluable. Right: Following an initial reconnaissance of the port, this plan was produced by the Transportation Units of the Royal Engineers detailing the damage so that repairs could be prioritised, and split into three stages. Work began at Dieppe on September 9 and was completed on November 30.

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The Royal Engineers produced a remarkable series of drawings to illustrate the condition of the ports of Dieppe, Boulogne and Calais. This example shows typical cratering demolition of the quayside of the Avant-Port at Dieppe with the notation ‘no repairs carried out’. A total of 220,000 man hours were recorded on the reinstatement work, and meticulous records were kept on the expenditure in plant time and materials used. Plant Machine Hours — R. B. Crane: 1,279. Bulldozer: 1,451. Athey Train: 472. Dumper: 857. Lorain Crane: 338. Compressor: 2,326. Three-Ton Tipping Lorry: 5,462. Welding Set: 787. Concrete Mixer: 1,092. Trailer Pump: 62. Machine Shop Lorry: 60. Danarm Saw: 60. OxyAcetylene Cutting Set: 1,132. Low Loader: 86. Ten-Ton Floating Derrick: 4. Diesel Launch: 322. Steam Roller: 279. Materials — All-in Ballast: 2,667 cubic yards. Ferrocrete: 1,541 drums. Cement Fondu: 254 drums. Welding Electrodes: 2,540 feet. Industrial Gases: 78,600 cubic feet. Sandbags: 22,260. Explosive: 4,490lbs. Timber 12in × 12in: 1,200 feet. Timber 9in × 3in: 5,710 feet. Bolts (all sizes): 766. The main units that worked at Dieppe were No. 4 Port Construction & Repair Group under Lieutenant-Colonel James Stirling, No. 963 Port Construction & Repair Company under Major David Balfour and No. 936 Port Construction & Repair Company under Major Ralph Hindmarsh.

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BOULOGNE At the time of Boulogne’s capture, Dieppe was already in Allied hands, and emergency clearance and repairs had started, but the harbour at Boulogne was urgently needed to add its quota to the need to build-up supplies. A Port Construction and Repair reconnaissance party stood by ready to enter once the port was considered to be sufficiently clear of the enemy for the reconnaissance to be made. In actual fact there were still snipers and machine gun nests very active on September 20, and one officer of the reconnaissance party found himself pinned down all day by enemy fire and had to remain under cover till darkness fell.

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Right: The Channel ports of Bolougne and Calais have seen a great reduction in business since the tunnel was opened on May 6, 1994. 34

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Demolitions were found to be thorough, and extensive blocking of the harbour with wrecks had been carried out. The general situation was as follows (numbers refer to the plan): (1) Entrance Channel. Mined and blocked with sunken craft. (2) Avant-Port. Mined but no obstructions. (3) Port de Marée. No sunken craft but quays completely demolished and cranes wrecked. (4) Bassin Loubet. Some craft sunk against quays. Reinforced-concrete piled quay, Appontement Nord, breached in nine places but with the possibility that it could be bridged. Appontement Ouest was too badly damaged for repair. Quai Sud breached in seven places, but repairable. (5) Locks to Bassin à Flot. Badly damaged and obstructed by debris; inner gates demolished; operating machinery wrecked. (6) Bassin à Flot. Craft sunk in three groups leaving considerable lengths of quay unobstructed. Only one crater in the quays. (7) Locks to Arrière-Port. Lock gates in order and holding back the water at low tide but approach obstructed by silt and rubble. (8) Arrière-Port. Quays intact but Quai Gambetta obstructed by numerous sunken vessels. As a result of the reconnaissance, the following short-term reinstatement policy was decided upon. This was to be commenced immediately at the most promising lengths of quay, simultaneously with the mine-sweeping, salvage and wreck dispersal to be carried out by the Royal Navy. Bassin Loubet, Quai Sud and Appontement Nord: clearance of quays, provision of access and repair of breaches. Avant-Port, Quai des Excursionnistes and Quai d’Échouage: clear and repair usable lengths of quay. Port de Marée, Quai Gambetta and Quai Gare Maritime: clearance of quays, provision of access and repair of breaches. Bassin à Flot: Clear locks and reinstate outer gates. The work was allotted to No. 2 Port Construction and Repair Group, embodying Nos. 935 and 937 Port Construction and Repair Companies supported by No. 238 Company Pioneer Corps and No. 44 Mechanical Equipment (Transportation) Section. No. 935 Port Construction and Repair Company was later replaced by No. 936 Port Construction and Repair Company. The principal Royal Engineers’ effort was directed in the Bassin Loubet as promising the deepest water in the port, though needing substantial clearance of wreckage to be effective.

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Right: The operation to capture Boulogne was code-named ‘Wellhit’ and was covered in detail in After the Battle No. 86. Its whole purpose was to capture the port and to speedily repair the facilities but when the Royal Engineers went in on September 20, whole pockets of resistance were still active and demolitions were found to be thorough and extensive. On September 27, COMZ ordered a survey of both Boulogne and Calais with a view to assigning one or both to US forces and on October 5 US and British officials met at Brussels to review the port situation. In a four-day conference it was decided that Boulogne, Dieppe and Ostend should go to the British and Calais to the Americans.

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CALAIS Calais was captured on October 1 at a time when the overall military position was rapidly changing. An immediate engineering reconnaissance was made but it was not until the 22nd that a decision was reached for repairs to be carried out on a limited scale by British troops. Severe devastation greeted the reconnaissance party. The blocking of the entrance channel was not such a problem to the Royal Navy as at Boulogne but the port facilities were thoroughly and completely wrecked. Of the buildings in the port area and that part of the town bounded by the Canal de Calais, the canal basins and the Carnot Basin, little was left but heaps of rubble. All the quays were cratered as a result of prepared demolitions; all the dockside machinery and cranes were wrecked with much of the wreckage having been blown into the water. The Gare Maritime, the power station, and all the sheds were demolished. The locks, with their gates and swing bridges, were very badly damaged. No. 2 Port Construction and Repair Group was made responsible for the work, No. 935 Port Construction and Repair Company being the first on to the job, followed by Nos. 934, 936 and 937 Port Construction and Repair Companies. No. 44 Mechanical Equipment Section was quickly on the scene and, but for the service of their plant and skilled operators, the clearance of debris from quays and access roads would have proved a stumbling block to all the repair work undertaken. At the end of December, No. 2 Port Construction and Repair Group were moved forward to Holland, and No. 5 Port Construction and Repair Group with Nos. 962 and 934 Port Construction and Repair Companies took over the work.

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This plan of Calais showing the demolitions was produced for the Royal Engineers’ report in May 1945.

Today Calais port has been considerably extended to the east of the Avant-Port. 35

GRANDE RADE

7 5 6 4

PETITE RADE

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CHERBOURG When plans were drawn up for the invasion of France, one vital factor dominated logistic planning for ‘Overlord’: a deep-water port must be secured quickly to allow reinforcements to be shipped in directly from the United States. Cherbourg, at the tip of the Cotentin peninsula, was closest to the landing beaches so the planners decided that it should be captured and rehabilitated as quickly as possible. However, Cherbourg was primarily a passenger port and a naval base, the total cargo handling for the entire year of 1937 being only about 525,000 tons. As this was an average of less than 1,500 tons per day, the planners did not expect to be able to develop a daily discharge of more than 9,000 tons. Also, they anticipated that Cherbourg would only have to bear a sizeable portion of the discharge burden for a short time until a major port like Antwerp or Brest could be brought into play. Following D-Day, after the beach-heads were secured the US First Army directed its efforts toward the capture of Cherbourg. The VII Corps first attacked westwards to cut the Cotentin in half and this goal was reached on June 18 when the corps leaders reached Barneville and Carteret on the west coast of the peninsula. The next day the attack turned northwards and American forces finally fought their way into Cherbourg on June 26 (see After the Battle No. 147). The denial of the French ports to the Allies assumed a major place in the German plans, and as early as June 7 Kriegsmarine personnel had started to destroy the Cherbourg harbour installations. They carried on methodically until the final surrender and on June 27, the day after his capture at the end of the siege, Admiral Walter Hennecke, Naval Commander Normandy, was awarded the Knight’s Cross for this work of destruction, ‘a feat unprecedented in the annals of coastal defence’. Not so for Generalleutnant Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, the fortress commander, for the fall of Cherbourg came much sooner than expected. It had been anticipated that ‘Festung Cherbourg’ (see After the Battle No. 146) could hold out for several weeks, as 36

The Grande Rade at Cherbourg, sheltered by its three breakwaters, had a minimum depth of 42 feet at all states of the tide so was an ideal deep-water port. The Petite Rade, or inner roadstead, was equally useable save at low water on spring tides. [1] Darse Transatlantique. [2] Avant-Port du Commerce. [3] Bassin à Flot. [4] AvantPort. [5] Bassin Charles X. [6] Bassin Napoléon III. [7] Dry dock. Brest was soon to do, so the quick capitulation was taken hard and thereafter in Nazi circles von Schlieben was held up as the model of a poor commander. On June 27, the day following the capture of the port, Colonel James B. Cress of Advance Section Communications Zone (ADSEC) and commanding officer of the US 1056th Engineer Port Construction and Repair Group, set off with Navy and Transportation Corps officers to inspect the extent of the damage to the large, crescent-shaped, harbour of Cherbourg. Their reconnaissance soon indicated that 95 per cent of the existing quays capable of handling deep-draft shipping had been destroyed. Many of the harbour buildings, particularly in the Arsenal area, were demolished, and dozens of vessels, ranging from a large whaler depot ship to small fishing boats, had been sunk to block the entrance channels leading to the various basins and docks. In addition, the harbour was strewn with a variety of different types of mines. Planning estimates based on experience at Naples had calculated that Cherbourg could begin operations within three days of its capture. However, it soon appeared that the opening of the port early was clearly out of the question. Some conception of the problems of clearance may be gained by the survey of the main port given by Roland G. Ruppenthal in The US Army in World War II, Logistical Support of the Armies: ‘East of the port the terraces known as the Réclamation and the Terre Plein simply formed anchorage for shallow-draft vessels and had suffered little damage. The masonry sea walls there were intact, although they were heavily fortified and backed by tank traps and roadblocks. Just west of the Terre Plein, however, some of the worst demolitions on the entire port were found at the quays forming the great deep-water Darse

Transatlantique. This dock, built by the Germans between 1923 and 1935 as a World War I reparation, was about 228 metres wide and 620 metres long. Forming the eastern side of the dock was the Quai de Normandie, which had not been completed, about 300 metres of it consisting of unfilled caissons. Before the demolitions one crawler crane and five large gantry cranes weighing about 30 tons had been tipped into the water and the quay walls then blown in on top of them. ‘Forming the western side of the Darse was the new Quai de France, a modern wharf capable of berthing the largest ocean liners and including the pride of the city, the fine Gare Maritime, where passengers could alight from Transatlantique liners and under the same roof board streamlined trains for Paris. Demolitions here followed the same pattern as at the adjacent Quai de Normandie, although there was much more to destroy. More than 15,000 cubic metres of caisson masonry had been blown from the whole length of the quay wall into the Darse. The railway station, a reinforced concrete building about 240 metres long, while not totally destroyed, was badly damaged, and its utilities, such as the heating plant and electric control apparatus, were demolished. ‘Immediately to the west of the great pier forming the Quai de France and the Gare Maritime a channel led directly south into a tidal basin and wet dock — the Avant-Port and the Bassin à Flot — lying in the very heart of the city. No damage had been inflicted on the innermost Bassin à Flot, but in the Avant-Port the eastside Quai de l’Ancien Arsenal was entirely in ruins, and a swing bridge which spanned the channel between the two basins and was on the principal artery connecting the two halves of the city, had been wrecked, half of it lying in the channel and the other half mined.

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The Cherbourg harbour, looking seawards, with the Arsenal in the left background. In the centre is the Darse Transatlantique with the Gare Maritime and the Quai de France on the left and the Quai de Normandie on the right. Lying on her side with her bow against the Quai de Normandie, the Solglimt blocked the entrance to the Darse Transatlantique. She was a whaling factory ship of 12,246 GRT, and had been captured in January 1941 in the south Atlantic by the Kriegsmarine raider Pinguin

‘The principal sinkings had taken place in the entrance channels leading to the Darse Transatlantique, the Port de Commerce, and the Arsenal area. The Darse Transatlantique, for example, was completely blocked off to any deep-draft vessels by two large ships which had been sunk across its entrance. One was a 165-metre whaling ship, the Solglimt, which lay on her side with her bow against the north end of the Quai de Normandie. The other was a rotted coaster, the 95-metre Grandlieu, which completed the closure of the Darse’s entrance, extending across to the tip of the Quai de France.

‘In the Avant-Port and the Bassin à Flot about a dozen small craft had been sunk. These presented no serious trouble and were removed by floating cranes. But in the channel leading to these basins lay 16 vessels which denied entrance to the Port de Commerce to everything but small craft, such as barges. The major obstacle was a large coaster, Le Normand, the other 15 consisting of old tugs of various sizes. ‘The Arsenal area had by far the largest concentration of sunken vessels. The entrance to the first basin, the Avant-Port, was effectively blocked by two barges and an

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‘Off the western side of the Petite Rade lay the most elaborate installations of the entire port, the Arsenal and naval dockyard, containing both tidal and non-tidal basins, and dry-docks, workshops, barracks, and storage facilities. Destruction to buildings was particularly widespread in this area, some of it caused by Allied air attacks in the preceding years. All the dry-dock gates were wrecked, every bridge except one was demolished, including a retractable railway bridge, and all portal cranes had been blown up. Where facilities remained standing they had been prepared for demolition by 500pound bombs. Only quay walls were intact in this entire area. ‘Forming the north-west edge of the Petite Rade was the Quai Homet, a berth which apparently had been used by coal coasters. This quay had been cratered in nine places and the explosions had thrown much of the wall out of line. Finally, the Digue du Homet, the 1,100-metre mole which formed the western breakwater of the Petite Rade, had also been systematically demolished. The Digue du Homet carried both railway tracks and oil lines and was quayed on the port side. All these facilities were unusable, for the breakwater was blown out on the quay side at 11 places, and in two additional places had craters more than 30 metres long extending the full 20-metre width of the mole. Opposite the Digue du Homet the eastern breakwater, known as the Jetée des Flamands, had no value so far as cargo discharge was concerned and was untouched. ‘The cratered and crumbling quays, the toppled cranes, the blown bridges, and the demolished buildings represented only the most evident damage to the port. Intelligence had already revealed that the black waters of the Petite Rade and the various basins had been rendered treacherous by hundreds of mines, and the first reconnaissance disclosed that every passage or channel in the harbour was blocked by sunken ships.

together with two other factory ships and 11 support craft. Sent back to Europe, the three large ships reached Atlantic ports in France, as well as nine of the support craft although two had to be scuttled en route when challenged by the Royal Navy. Renamed Sonderburg, she was used by the Germans as a supply ship until she sank in the harbour at Cherbourg in 1942 due to the damage sustained from several air raids. She was salvaged but was then sunk as a blockship on June 15, 1944.

Sweeping operations got under way in the Grande Rade on June 30, the minesweepers moving into the Petite Rade on July 8, and within six days the western ends of both Rades had been cleared. In this shot taken later in July, USS Pinon, a Ailanthusclass net-laying ship, was pictured removing anti-submarine nets in the Grande Rade. 37

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The Arsenal area suffered from the largest number of sunken vessels: two barges and an old German-built submarine-lifting vessel of about 1,000 tons blocked the entrance to the AvantPort; eight vessels had been sunk in the Avant-Port; eight others in Bassin Charles X, and 15 barges, tugs and trawlers in Bassin Napoléon III; and many more in the channels leading to these basins. Left: The cut connecting the Passe Nord and the

diately while ADSEC engineers worked out a detailed plan for the port’s reconstruction. This was presented to the theatre engineer on July 4 and approved two days later by the Communications Zone commander, Lieutenant General John Clifford H. Lee. Ruppenthal: ‘The plan’s most striking feature was the doubling of the original discharge target for Cherbourg, raising it from 8,800 tons to 17,000 tons per day. Most of the additional capacity was to be provided by the construction of wharves along the undamaged Terre Plein and Réclamation area and sea walls, and by the construction of ‘fingers’ for additional Liberty berths along the Digue du Homet and along the Quai de France and Quai de Normandie.’ The advance party of the 1056th Engineer Port Construction and Repair (PC&R)

Group immediately started to work on the Nouvelle Plage and the Port de Commerce. They were joined by the main of the unit, and by the 332nd and 342nd Engineer General Service and the 333rd Engineer Special Service Regiments that were attached to the 1056th PC&R Group for the reconstruction of Cherbourg. In addition, a variety of specialist units were assigned, such as engineer dump truck companies, engineer fire-fighting platoons, bomb disposal squads, and port repair ships. Almost all salvage operations required the use of lifting craft, pontoons, or large floating cranes, but none of these could be brought to bear until the approaches to the various quays and channels were clear of mines. Consequently, mine clearance took precedence over even the removal of obstacles.

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old German-built submarine-lifting vessel of about 1,000 tons.’ After their first reconnaissance, Navy salvage officers and Army engineers quickly established priorities. On June 28, a fourpoint programme was established for opening as quickly as possible those areas of the port which could receive cargo with the least delay. First, the Nouvelle Plage bathing beach could be used for the landing of DUKWs; second, the Bassin à Flot in the Port de Commerce for discharge from barges; third, the Réclamation and Terre Plein area which could be used for railway rolling stock and LSTs; and, finally the Digue du Homet for Liberty ships and vessels carrying locomotives and boxcars. The establishment of these priorities was only designed to get work under way imme-

demolished swing bridge was blocked by four vessels, but since this waterway was too narrow to be of much use, no attempt was made to clear it. Instead the 342nd Engineers built a bridge across it using the main beams recovered from the sunken submarine-lifting craft as girders. Above: The Passe Nord, with Bassin Charles X in the background, was closed in the 1970s and partly filled to provide space for a car park.

Left: The Pont Tournant (swing bridge) over the locks in the Port de Commerce was so badly damaged that it could not be salvaged so on June 28 engineers set to work to cut it up with torches. They replaced it with a retractable bridge using Bailey 38

bridge sections resting on bogies that ran on rails. Right: Spanning the locks in between the two basins, the new Pont Tournant still carries the road that connects the two parts of Cherbourg harbour.

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Left: Working first on those areas where the quickest results could be expected, engineers started at Nouvelle Plage where they blew gaps in the seawall and swept away barbed-wire entanglements. This photo taken on June 29 shows one of the

Lack of manoeuvre space hampered operations throughout, and before the dangerous work was completed ten vessels, including three minesweepers, were sunk by mines and three others were damaged. Most of the casualties were attributed to the unfamiliar Katy mine, which vessels sat on and detonated when anchoring or moving about at low tide. Contrary to all expectations mine clearance proved the major factor in delaying the opening of the port, and eventually required more than three and one half months to complete. ‘In the event, salvage work got under way simultaneously with mine clearance where it could be undertaken without the benefit of lifting craft. In many cases it was found possible to raise undamaged vessels simply by pumping the water out of them and then floating them away. Others were patched at low water and then floated at high tide. In this way four of the 16 vessels blocking the entrance to the Port de Commerce were removed before the arrival of the heavier salvage equipment. This would have permitted access to the inner basins within a week of the port’s capture had it not been for the delay in mine clearance. No attempt was made to remove the coaster Le Normand which lay on her port side at right angles to the west side of the Gare Maritime. Her starboard side was approximately level with the pier of the Gare, and therefore provided a perfect foundation for a pier at which small coasters could unload. ‘Similar use was made of the two vessels which had been sunk across the entrance to

the Darse Transatlantique. The whaling factory ship Solglimt lay on her starboard side at right angles to the Quai de Normandie, her port side level with the latter’s deck and thus forming an excellent foundation for an additional pier. Only her superstructure was removed so that Liberty ships could moor on both sides. The coaster Grandlieu was utilised in a similar fashion although she had to be moved since she rested between the stern of the Solglimt and the north-east corner of the Quai de France, completely blocking the entrance to the Darse. Approximately 75 tons of concrete from the demolished buildings of the Gare Maritime lay on top of the ship and had to be removed first. Then, by the use of compressed air and tows, the Grandlieu was swung out in a 90degree arc so that she formed a continuation of the quay. On September 18, 76 days later than planned, the entrance to the Darse Transatlantique was finally clear. ‘Clearance of the Arsenal area began with the removal of the various vessels blocking the entrance to the Avant-Port. Obstacles were literally piled one on top of another in this area, and floating cranes and lifting craft eventually removed 40 tugs, barges and wrecked cranes from the three basins. The Arsenal area, like the Darse Transatlantique, was low on the salvage priority list, and it was not until September 7 that the first Liberty ship could be brought into the Bassin Napoléon III, and September 21 before the first could dock in the Bassin Charles X. The salvage task at Cherbourg was finally completed on September 29.’

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MINE CLEARANCE AND SALVAGE WORK Ruppenthal described the task ahead: ‘Various types of magnetic, acoustic, contact, and Katy mines were uncovered, either by sweeping operations or through accidents to shipping. The first three types were already well known and were found in both the outer and inner roadsteads and entrances thereto, in the Arsenal basins, and in the Darse Transatlantique. The Katy mine was new, however, and proved the most troublesome. Normal mine-sweeping would not set it off, for it was usually planted in the growth of the harbour floor. ‘Virtually no part of the harbour was clear, although the mining of the harbour apparently had been far from completed, as evidenced by the sunken barge in one of the Arsenal basins that contained the mines. Twenty-four car-loads were eventually removed from the debris in the Gare Maritime. A narrow lane had been left free inside the central outer breakwater — the Grande Digue — from the western entrance to a point opposite the entrance to the Petite Rade. Starting with this slender opening, sweeping operations got under way on June 30, the day after the enemy finally surrendered the forts on the outer breakwater. Both US and British vessels participated in the clearance operations, all under the direction of Commander John B. G. Temple of the Royal Navy. A large, roughly rectangular anchorage in the Grande Rade was cleared first, and the sweepers then moved into the Petite Rade and Darse Transatlantique.

exits blown in the seawall. Right: The equestrian statue of Napoléon I by the sculptor Armand Le Véel was unveiled in 1858 on the Place du Rampart which was then renamed Place Napoléon.

Left: Engineers then graded the beach and built three concrete exit roads for DUKWs. Work at the Nouvelle Plage was completed on July 6 although it was another ten days before unloading could commence as mine-clearing in the harbour was still ongoing. It was late in the afternoon of July 16 that the first

DUKW, driven by Private Charles I. Willis of the 821st Amphibious Truck Company, brought the first load of supplies ashore. In the background can be seen the Gare Maritime with the sunken coaster Le Normand. Right: The beach simply disappeared when Port Chantereyne for pleasure boats was built. 39

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Barges were first used to bring in engineer equipment and construction materials, and before the end of July, 63 per cent of all supplies unloaded at Cherbourg bore the castle marking of the US Corps of Engineers.

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SHORE FACILITIES In accordance with the priorities established on June 28, the development of shore facilities proceeded simultaneously with salvage operations. Work immediately started on the Nouvelle Plage, the Bassin à Flot, the Digue du Homet, and the Réclamation area for the reception of various types of craft, ranging from DUKWs to Liberty ships. Ruppenthal: ‘Development of the Nouvelle Plage was not a complicated or elaborate reconstruction job, since this beach was simply to be converted into a landing point for DUKWs and LCTs. Except for barbed wire and other scattered debris there was no heavy wreckage to clear. Engineers blasted three exits in the sea wall, graded the beach, and built three concrete roads. This work was completed in eight days, and would have permitted the reception of cargo had it been safe to bring ships into the harbour. Not until July 14, however, were the western ends of the outer and inner roadsteads declared free of mines. Finally on July 16 four Liberty ships loaded with construction supplies and vehicles needed in the rehabilitation of the port entered the harbour and anchored in the Grande Rade. Late that afternoon a DUKW driven by Private Charles I. Willis of the 821st Amphibious Truck Company brought the first load of supplies, consisting of Signal Corps wire, to the Nouvelle Plage, where a crane transferred the cargo to a waiting truck driven by Private William G. O’Hair of the 3884th Quartermaster Truck Company. A few minutes later the first supplies discharged at Cherbourg were on their way to a depot eight kilometres south of the city. Port operations were finally under way. ‘Additional construction carried out at the Nouvelle Plage during the next month, consisting mainly of a concrete loading platform and a ramp similar to the hards built in the United Kingdom, brought the beach’s DUKW discharge capacity to a rated 2,000 tons per day. Most of this work was carried by the 342nd Engineer General Service Regiment, using captured enemy supplies. ‘Less than 24 hours after the first cargo arrived at the Nouvelle Plage unloading also began in the Bassin à Flot, or wet basin, of the Port de Commerce. The heaviest damage

days before access had been cleared. When rehabilitation works were finally completed, the basin could accommodate six coasters and 13 barges. Right: This photo was taken on the Quai Alexandre III, the western side of the Bassin à Flot, looking north-westwards.

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The demolitions left complete sections of quays in the tidal Avant-Port in ruins although those in the innermost Bassin à Flot were largely untouched. Left: On July 7, divers from the Royal Navy were pictured getting ready for another clearing operation in the Bassin à Flot, but it was to take another ten

Although none of the buildings in the background have survived, this spot is still easily recognisable as the southern quayside of the Bassin à Flot as seen from the end of Quai Alexandre III. Today fish auctions are held along this quay, hence its name of La Criée aux Poissons.

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Use of the tanker berth at the Digue de Querqueville — the long western breakwater in the outer harbour — began two weeks later than planned and it was not until July 24 that the first tanker, the Empire Traveller, was able to discharge the first load of fuel.

Although many of the port areas are off limits, access to the Digue de Querqueville is open to the public. Fort de Chavagnac can be seen in the background.

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in this area had been to the eastern quay of the Avant-Port (the Quai de l’Ancien Arsenal) and to the Pont Tournant, which bridged the channel between the two basins. The demolished swing bridge could not be salvaged, and was quickly cut up with torches. In its place engineers improvised a retractable bridge, using Bailey bridging and an electric hoist. ‘Before attempting to restore the badly demolished eastern quay, engineers constructed a paved LST ramp in the north-east corner of the Avant-Port so that railway rolling stock could be brought ashore there. Two railway tracks were laid to accommodate two LSTs at the same time. But the basin was found to be too small and too crowded with barge traffic to permit manoeuvring LSTs, and the facilities were never used for the purpose intended. ‘Late in August attention shifted to the eastern quay, the Quai de l’Ancien Arsenal, where the concrete pile wharf had been completely demolished. After the removal of much of the debris this quay was reconstructed, part of it of concrete and steel, and the remainder of timber. The Avant-Port eventually could accommodate eight barges and the Bassin à Flot six coasters and 13 barges. Together the two basins had a capacity of about 2,000 tons per day. ‘The seaplane base, where a concrete ramp, or hard, already existed, provided facilities similar to those at the Nouvelle Plage. The ramp there was simply widened considerably and its craters were filled. In addition, rail lines were built down to the water’s edge so that rolling stock could be discharged directly from LSTs. When completed the seaplane base was wide enough to accommodate six LSTs discharging simultaneously, and could also be used for DUKWs. ‘Similar accommodations were constructed in the Réclamation area, at the eastern end of the harbour. A concrete sea wall was first removed there, and a concrete apron about 25 metres by 80 metres was then laid, wide enough to accommodate six LSTs. Three berths were intended for the discharge of vehicles, and three for railway rolling stock, for which purpose rail lines were laid to the water’s edge. The first delivery of rolling stock at this point was made by converted LSTs on July 31. ‘One of the most profitable and ambitious construction projects was carried out in the basin bounded by the Réclamation area, the Terre Plein, and the Quai de Normandie. This area had never been developed for unloading operations, and its sea walls were undamaged, although a few craters along the terrace had to be filled and pillboxes removed. Once this was accomplished a

Left: The nine-inch pipeline that ran along the Digue de Querqueville was corroded beyond repair, so US engineers removed it and installed instead seven six-inch pipes to carry

diesel, petroleum and aviation fuel simultaneously. Right: The wartime pipes have all been scrapped but some traces of their iron fixings remain. 41

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Known as the Réclamation and the Terre Plein, the eastern sector of the harbour, beyond the Darse Transatlantique, consisted merely of an open area bounded by a sloping seawall. Left: By filling in a few craters and removing some pillboxes, the 342nd Engineer General Service Regiment constructed a huge U-shaped timber wharf along all three sides

underwater shelf, engineers constructed five pile and timber platforms to serve as unloading wharves for Liberty ships. Later they filled in the gaps between them to create a continuous quay along about 800 metres of the 1,000-metre mole. The first Liberty ship docked at one of the platforms on August 9. ‘At the shore end of the Digue a portion of the Quai Homet was selected as a pierhead to accommodate the Twickenham Ferry, a British train ferry specially built to carry locomotives and rolling stock. Two berths were provided, one of them consisting of a ‘seat’ which could accommodate a ramp lowered into position by the ferry, permitting rolling stock to roll from the ferry to the quay, and the other providing a site where locomotives could be lifted from the ferry to the quay by means of an overhead crane which was part of the vessel itself. The Twickenham Ferry made her first delivery — several 65-ton diesel electric locomotives and other rolling stock — on July 29, all of the stock being unloaded by means of the overhead crane. ‘Early rehabilitation plans had not provided for any substantial development of the Arsenal area. Upon the port’s capture, how-

ever, ADSEC engineers immediately included the Arsenal in their reconstruction plan and counted on this area to provide at least one fourth of the port’s total capacity. Contrasted with other sections of the harbour, the quay walls in the Arsenal area were undamaged, which meant that this area could receive ships as soon as the basins were demined and cleared of the many vessels and cranes which littered the waters. Additional berths were provided by constructing timber trestles across the various openings, such as submarine and shipbuilding pens and drydocks, and by bridging boat slips with standard timber piling wharf to provide continuous quays. In this way the Arsenal area eventually provided berths for 11 Liberty ships and five coasters. It was September 7, however, before the first Liberty could enter the Arsenal area, and September 21 before the Bassin Charles X could discharge a deepdraft ship. ‘Last of the port areas to come into operation was the Darse Transatlantique. This was the most-modern and best-developed area of the port, but was also one of the most thoroughly demolished. The Gare Maritime, for example, was almost completely useless, and

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timber platform about 13 metres wide was built on wood piles directly over and straddling the sea wall to form a wharf at which barges could discharge. When completed this platform extended along all three sides of the basin and was nearly 1,300 metres long. It could accommodate 41 barges at a time, and was served by 52 stiff-leg derricks, which could transfer cargo directly to railway cars. At low tide barges dried out in this area. ‘Rehabilitation of the north-west corner of the harbour, namely the Digue du Homet and Quai Homet, had been given high priority, and work began there within a week of the port’s capture. The Digue du Homet was particularly valuable, for it promised to provide badly needed deep-water berths for Liberty ships, which could discharge directly to the rail lines running the entire length of the mole, and also berths for train ferries bringing in locomotives and rolling stock. The Digue itself was badly cratered and in two places completely breached, permitting the water to flow through. The first priority was to fill these craters and clear away the debris. This was completed in four days, after which the repair of the railway was undertaken. Since the quay side of the Digue had an

of the basin. When completed, the wharf could accommodate 41 barges at a time. Beyond can be seen German casemates and the Gare Maritime. Right: This comparison had to be taken from Quai Amiral Kniskern because this sector of the harbour is now a secure area to prevent clandestine migrants boarding ships.

Railway track was laid right down to the water’s edge so that rolling stock could be discharged directly from LSTs. 42

These photos were taken on July 31 when converted LST 21 made the first delivery.

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On July 29, two weeks later than planned, the Twickenham Ferry made her first delivery of diesel locomotives and rolling stock at the berth provided for her at the Quai Homet. Designed to transport rolling stock over the Channel, the ship

had four tracks that could accomodate up to 40 goods wagons. Today this is the location of the service base for French nuclear-powered submarines and the Marine Nationale would not permit Jean Paul access to take photos.

On July 13, a 2-8-0 steam loco comes ashore from the SS Seatrain Texas. As the cargo booms on the ship were limited to about 80 tons, the heavy lifting ship SS Lapland was brought up with its 100-ton gear. On July 25 Colonel Sibley’s organisation was augmented by the attachment of the 12th Port. Sibley used the personnel of this headquarters mainly to form a Provisional Port

Troop Command Headquarters to handle training, administration, and discipline of the six port battalions and other attached units that then comprised the 4th Port organisation.

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PORT DISCHARGE AND PROBLEMS Port operations in the harbour was the responsibility of the 4th Major Port (Transportation Corps) under the command of Colonel Cleland C. Sibley. On July 11 Colonel Sibley was designated the commander of the newly-created Area No. 1 of the Advance Section. However, because of the tremendous engineering task that lay ahead, a decision was quickly made to separate the functions of port operations from area command. On July 21, Colonel Theodore Wyman took over the Cherbourg Provisional Command, and Colonel Sibley reverted to his more limited role as commander of the 4th Port.

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tremendous quantities of debris had to be removed before the adjoining quay could be reconstructed. Utilisation of the Quai de France and of the Quai de Normandie on the other side of the Darse entailed tremendous engineer construction projects. At both quays reconstruction proceeded in two phases. T-head ramps at Liberty hatch spacing were first constructed, and standard pile timber wharf was then filled in to form continuous quays. The full length of the Quai de France, 620 lineal metres, was reconstructed in this way, providing berths for four Liberty ships when completed. At the Quai de Normandie not only the original quay was rebuilt, but the caissons of the uncompleted extension were levelled off and the gaps bridged to form an additional 365 metres of quay. This work went on round the clock for 11 weeks, and when completed provided six Liberty berths.’

Left: It took a long time to clear the Gare Maritime of the debris that included over 24 railway cars loaded with sea mines. Right: The Art Deco buildings of the Gare Maritime were badly damaged but were reconstructed after the war. They now house ‘La Cité de

la Mer’, a complex dedicated to the deep sea and its conquest, the largest exhibit being Le Redoutable, the French Navy’s first ballistic missile submarine. Commissioned in 1972, she was retired from service in 1991 and opened to the public in 2002. 43

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This floating crane is unloading a Caterpillar D7 tractor in the Avant-Port. The armoured turret on the left, apparently from a French Renault FT, has been mounted on a concrete base as part of the harbour defences.

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Port reconstruction, mine clearance, salvage, and cargo discharge went on simultaneously throughout July and by the first week in August, three weeks after the start of operations, the harbour was discharging approximately 6,000 tons per day, a figure that compared not unfavourably with the pre-D-Day estimate of 8,000 tons a day. However it soon appeared that Cherbourg had to bear an even larger tonnage and on July 24 it was decided that the port’s capacity was to be raised by a further 4,800 tons, to 21,800 tons. This was to be achieved by developing more fully the quays in the Darse Transatlantique and by a greater development of the Arsenal area. In mid-August the reconstruction plan and unloading capacity was amended still further with the result that Colonel Cress, commanding officer of the 1056th PC&R Group, then submitted plans to increase the port’s capacity by another 10,000 tons — from 21,800 to 31,900 — through the construction of a Phoenix pier, an even fuller development of the Arsenal, and further extensions to the Quai de France and Quai de Normandie. However, these plans were found to be impractical and early in September a less ambitious proposal was made to increase the capacity to 26,650 tons only but with a minimum of additional construction. This was to be achieved by the addition of wharves for two Liberty ships on either side of the large dry-dock off the Quai Homet. This was to bring the total capacity of the port to 28,300 tons through the provision of berths for 28 Liberty ships, 14 LSTs, 75 barges, 13 coasters, two train ferries, and a berth for one tanker. Landing the supplies was only one aspect of the problem as equally vital was the ability to quickly despatch the cargo from the port in order to keep the quays clear. It was more desirable that this was accomplished by rail, rather than motor transport, as this would shift a much larger tonnage. Therefore plans were made to speedily repair the existing railway facilities. Works started before the fall of Cherbourg when the 1056th PC&R Group began to repair demolished railway bridges over the Vire, Taute, Madeleine and Jourdan rivers. Following the capture of the city, one company of the 347th Engineer General Service Regiment cleared a demolished tunnel just south of the city railway station, and three other companies had repaired damage

Nord and the Bassin Charles X beyond. Right: This slipway has since been filled in but Dock No. 7 still remains on this side of Bassin Napoléon III.

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Left: Using the damaged buildings in background as a reference, Jean Paul pinpointed this spot as being taken on the western side of Bassin Napoléon III, looking east at the Passe

This comparison was taken looking southwards.

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Just south of Cherbourg, at La Roche-qui-Pend, German engineers had blown a 125-metre-long section of the tunnel on the main trunk line inland. They had used three freight wagons packed up with explosives and the tremendous explosion collapsed part of the hillside onto the track. The 347th Engineer General Service Regiment took on the task of clearing the line using explosives and bulldozers. The failure to reach the 20,000-ton goal led to a change in command when on September 29 Colonel Sibley was replaced by Colonel James A. Crothers. He promptly submitted a request to Normandy Base Section for additional personnel and for more rolling stock. As for personnel, he asked for 12 port companies, an engineer general service company trained to operate cranes, derricks and other equipment, additional prisoners of war to handle tonnage on the quayside, and a battalion of infantry to guard prisoners. As for equipment, he required 1,310 freight cars per day, sufficient to clear 17,000 tons per day. Another 4,000 tons, he estimated, could be moved to local dumps and depots via road, and 3,000 tons comprising motor vehicles would move out under their own power. Additional cargo-handling equipment, such as nets and slings, was also requested. With the extra personnel and equipment Crothers believed that Cherbourg could work 44 ships simultaneously — 23 beside the quays, 12 via working barges, four using DUKWs, and five coasters discharging coal — each averaging 500 tons per day. This tonnage, along with another 2,000 tons brought in on board LSTs and car ferries, would enable the port to unload and clear 24,000 tons.

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on the tracks into the station. Fortunately damage was light on the 1.5-kilometre-long spur from the station to the Digue du Homet, and only about one third of the 25 kilometres of track within the city needed extensive repairs. Ironically, most of the damage had resulted from Allied bombs and artillery fire. The decision to double Cherbourg’s intake made it clear that the existing rail complex would be far from adequate. Additional lines were needed on the new quays which were being constructed so that loading could take place direct from ship to rail-wagon, and the capacity of storage and marshalling yards had to be greatly expanded to handle the increased volume of rail traffic. By mid-September, Cherbourg was handling about 12,000 tons per day but the performance was uneven, at times exceeding 15,000 tons but occasionally dropping to 6,000 or 8,000 tons. Nevertheless, the figures still surpassed the targets established before D-Day. By the end of September the rehabilitation of the harbour was reported 75 per cent complete but only five Liberty berths were then available. The uncompleted 25 per cent consisted of the berths for Liberty ships where cargo could be transferred directly to waiting trucks or freight cars.

A very interesting side to the reconstruction of the harbour at Cherbourg is that German agents regularly reported by radio to Berlin on the progress of the efforts to rehabilitate the port — at least up until February 1945! During the same period, other agents operated and reported from Le Havre, Ostend and Antwerp. Referred to as V-Männer (standing for Vertrauensmänner or trusted men), these agents were initially from the FAK, Frontaufklärungskommando of the Wehrmacht, but they were taken over by the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt — Reich Security Main Office) after the dissolution of the Abwehr in July 1944. Their reports were transmitted to the Kriegsmarine and are regularly referred to in the diaries of the Seekriegsleitung or SKL (Naval Warfare Command). On July 28, the SKL reported that there were ‘80-100 vessels of various sizes up to 15,000 tons’ in Cherbourg harbour. On August 11: ‘According to agent’s report from RSHA from early July the repair of Cherbourg harbour has been taken over by the US, despite British opposition. Completion of repair is estimated at nine weeks.’ In September: ‘According to agent’s report from Cherbourg of September 12, the harbour entrance is intact despite largescale destruction in the area of the railway station [Gare Maritime]. Two large ships sunk near this station serve as jetty for tugs and small vessels. A provisory landing-stage for Liberty ships from piles and planks is being constructed.’ On October 5: ‘Agent in Cherbourg had wireless transmitter. Reports accurately and to the point via RSHA about disembarkation, e.g. ferry ships with goods trains, etc.’ Also this report from Ostend in January 1945: ‘One agent has radioed from Cherbourg on January 2 that busy traffic from ambulances was seen in the city on December 25 after numerous small vessels had put out to recover troops and wounded from a torpedoed troopship. Exact reports could not be obtained as strong blocking measures were immediately taken. Another agent from Le Havre radioed on January 3 that 12 ships had arrived and discharged numerous tanks. Both agents rank as reliable.’ The mystery remains: who was this German agent, or agents? Certainly he could not be German as by the summer of 1944 Cherbourg had been reduced to less than 5,000 inhabitants and no German could possibly hide for long in the city. He was more likely to be either a worker contracted by the Germans or an ex-forced labourer.

The tunnel was so badly wrecked that the only solution was to clear away what remained of the hillside above the tunnel.

The huge operation was finally completed on July 8, 1944. Today the railway traffic runs through a deep cutting. 45

1

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The Isle of Man in the Irish Sea — a popular holiday destination in times of peace — became an ideal location for the internment of German and Italian-born residents in the United Kingdom whose loyalty was questionable. Now Britain was at war, the empty hotels and boarding houses provided ready-made accommodation. Camps were located in Ramsey, Peel and Port Erin, but the majority were in Douglas: [1] Onchan. [2] Metropole. [3] Palace. [4] Central. [5] Hutchinson. [6] Sefton. [7] Granville. [8] Regent.

THE ISLE OF MAN INTERNMENT CAMPS Known around the world as the home of the TT motorcycle races, in 1939 the Isle of Man was looking forward to a record entry for the races that year. The Grand Prix practice sessions were planned to commence on Monday, September 4, but the previous day war had been declared by Britain against Germany and the races would not be held again until hostilities were over. On the outbreak of war there were an estimated 75,000 people of Germanic origin living in Britain, of whom some 60,000 were refugees, mostly Jews from Germany and Austria. With tensions increasing, the War Office had already prepared plans to intern aliens in the event of war under the provisions of the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act passed by the House of Commons on August 24. Regulation 18B of the Defence (General) Regulations 1939 allowed the internment of people suspected of being Nazi sympathisers and within ten days 14 people had been rounded up under 18B, several being German or Austrian by birth but since naturalised as British subjects. One of those who narrowly avoided arrest was William Joyce who had joined the British Union of Fascists in 1932. He was tipped off that he was due to be arrested under the provisions of 18B and he fled from Britain five days before the outbreak of war. He was put on trial and executed in 1946 (see After the Battle No. 136.) 46

A person subjected to 18B would be arrested without warning, the first detainees being held in Wandsworth prison if male, or Holloway if female. The men were later moved to Brixton prison but with the increase in numbers in 1940, derelict wings of other prisons were brought back into use. It had been decided that all suspects should appear before local Enemy Alien Tribunals and classified into three catagories. The first, Category ‘A’, was given to those deemed a security threat and were required to be interned at once. Category ‘B’ covered those where the loyalty of the person was suspect but who could be permitted to remain at liberty subject to various restrictions. Category ‘C’ was the classification for those who posed no risk. By the end of February 1940 roughly 73,000 cases had been examined, resulting in 569 ‘A’s, 6,782 ‘B’s and about 66,000 ‘C’s. Of the latter, 55,000 were registered as refugees from Nazi oppression. Then, on June 11, 1940, with Mussolini’s declaration of war, large numbers of Italians in Britain changed overnight from being aliens to enemy aliens. Many had been living and working normal lives in Britain for many years, speaking English and thinking British but, nevertheless, Prime Minister Winston Churchill instructed the Home Secretary to immediately intern all adult male Italians.

By Connery Chappell Two days later 10,869 had been arrested, and after another week 4,500 Italians out of 15,000, plus another 12,000 Germans of the ‘B’ and ‘C’ categories, had been interned. Now the Home Policy Committee of the Cabinet decided to widen the operation by the wholesale rounding up of all enemy aliens aged between 16 and 60. This began on June 25 and, to ease the burden, 11,400 Germans and Italians were shipped out to Canada and Australia. On June 21, the Duchess of York left with 2,100 Category ‘A’ Germans that included approximately 1,700 merchant seamen and 500 prisoners of war. Two more sailings to Canada comprised a total of 4,500, while the Dunera transported 2,550 Germans and 200 Italians on an eightweek voyage to Australia. However it was the sinking of the cruise liner Arandora Star, en route for Canada, which caused a huge backlash against the further transportation of aliens to the Dominions. She was torpedoed about 75 miles to the west of the Hebrides by the U-47, commanded by Günther Prien, on July 2. On board were 479 German and 734 Italian internees; 86 German POWs; 200 military guards plus the ship’s crew of 174, of whom only 868 were rescued.

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Right: When the German High Command joyfully announced the sinking of the British liner Arandora Star off the western coast of Ireland, little did they know that she was carrying over 1,000 internees (734 Italians and 479 Germans) plus 86 German prisoners of war. The ship was bound for St John’s, Newfoundland, and was torpedoed early on the morning of July 2, 1940 by the U-47 commanded by the U-Boat ace Günther Prien. There were also 200 military guards on board as well as a crew of 174. A Sunderland dropped supplies and stayed on station until the Canadian destroyer St Laurent reached the site of the sinking. She rescued 868 survivors of whom 586 were detainees, but 805 people lost their lives including the captain, 12 of his officers, 42 of his crew and 37 of the military personnel.

Although the sinking did not deter from sending POWs to North America, as far as aliens were concerned, the Isle of Man was more

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With the increased number of refugees arriving in Britain from the Continent, by the middle of July a further 23,000 had been interned. (Of those, around 8,500 were by then in camps on the Isle of Man.) To cope with the influx, several transit camps had to be set up in Britain including Ascot, Kempton Park, Lingfield and York Racecourses; an unfinished housing estate at Huyton near Liverpool; a tented camp at Prees Heath in Shropshire, and a derelict cotton mill near Bury, Lancashire. Conditions in these transit camps were very poor and a Parliamentary debate in July focussed attention on the large number of serious complaints that had been received by the government. It was therefore agreed that all those men that had now been registered as Category ‘C’ should be released.

convenient. Transit camps were set up using race courses and also an unfinished housing estate at Huyton near Liverpool.

So a solution had to be found closer to home which is where the Isle of Man came into the picture. Being a popular holiday venue, the island — midway between Britain and Northern Ireland in the Irish Sea — was well provided with hotels and boarding houses, all of which were now empty. Although hutted camps had been erected on the island in the First World War, now it was intended to use these empty properties to accommodate the internees. New legislation — the Isle of Man (Detention) Act — had to be passed to authorise the transfer of detainees to the island. The first official news that an internment camp was to be established on the island was announced in May 1940, stating that it was to be located in a parade of small hotels and boarding houses on the Mooragh Promenade

in Ramsey. At the same time, tenders were invited for a daily delivery of 500 pounds of bread, 240 pounds of meat on each of five days a week, 40 gallons of milk per day, plus supplies of potatoes, sugar and jam. The Government Secretariat advertised for storekeepers, clerks and typists for the administration of the camp and on May 21 it was reported that all the 30 properties that had been commandeered had been vacated, the occupants boarding with relatives or friends. All the contents had to be left behind but was valued by an assessor appointed by the Manx Government, a percentage of the value then being paid as a yearly rent. Meanwhile, two rings of barbed-wire fencing were being erected surrounding the houses on the promenade including the golf links to be used for recreation.

The Huyton Alien Internment Camp was formed around several streets of empty council houses on the Woolfall estate, made secure by high barbed-wire fencing. By the end of the war, much of the housing was very run down and subsequently redeveloped. 47

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Isle of Man Examiner, May 17, 1940: ‘Detention Camp for Aliens. Barbed Wire Enclosure at Ramsey. Mooragh Houses Requisitioned. Enemy aliens are to be placed in an internment camp on the Mooragh Promenade, Ramsey, and the Government has commandeered all the buildings in that neighbourhood for the purpose. The first intimation of some wartime scheme for the Mooragh boarding houses was a few weeks ago when the

occupiers were asked for details of all available accommodation. The next information came in the nature of a shock to the householders for a policeman called at their premises on Monday morning with an official Government notice requiring them to vacate the houses by tomorrow (Saturday)’. This is the original plan showing the properties being requisitioned for the first internment camp on the island.

GOOGLE

The residents had to be out of their houses by May 18 and to leave behind all their furniture, bedding, linen, cutlery, crockery and utensils. Pieces of sentimental or rare value could be retained with official permission. Those deposed of their properties had to go to live with relatives or friends. The first shipment of internees to reach the Isle of Man on May 27 came ashore watched by a number of islanders. According to the Ramsey Courier, ‘after a lengthy period of waiting an officer appeared and called out: “Can anyone speak English?” Then followed what was surely one of the strangest orders ever issued by a British infantry officer. The large assortment of civilians needed to be sorted into some semblance of order, as required by the military mind. He did not order “Quick march!” nor did he yell out “Get a move on!” According to the report, his command was perhaps unique in the modern history of the British Army: “Now, please get going”.’

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THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE ETO

On May 26 a party of 150 troops from the Royal Welch Fusiliers arrived to prepare for guarding the camp as the first consignment of internees was due to arrive the following day. The Princess Josephine Charlotte, a Belgian cross-Channel ferry that had recently evacuated refugees from Ostend, docked in Ramsey with the first batch of 823 males, all mainly Category ‘B’.

Mooragh Internment Camp lay at the southern end of the promenade at Ramsey, the houses being sub-divided into separate enclosures for Germans, Italians and Finns.

Right: The main internment camps on the island were all sited in the capital Douglas (see plan page 46). The first to be established there was Onchan Camp which consisted of 60 houses located on the headland at the northern end of the promenade.

ISLE OF MAN MUSEUM

THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE ETO

Preparations were on-going to create a second camp on and behind the Central Promenade in the capital Douglas. This was to comprise around 40 houses that had to be vacated by June 4. Also located on the headland immediately beyond the northern end of the promenade was Onchan Camp consisting of 60 boarding houses, and Palace Camp on the terrace overlooking the main seafront in the area known as ‘Little Switzerland’. The Granville and the Regent were at the southern end near the harbour but were later taken over by the Royal Navy to become HMS Valkyrie.

The camp had magnificent views of Douglas Bay and included a football pitch and tennis courts — certainly the best male camp on the island.

JULIAN NUTTER

One of the first published reports on life inside the camps was given by Dr George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, who had just returned from spending four days on the Isle of Man. In a speech in the House of Lords early in August 1940 he alleged that there were 10,000 men, women and children in the Manx camps, a figure that was somewhat on the low side. He added that there were 2,800 German and Austrian internees at Huyton, near Liverpool. The Bishop then stated that there were 1,900 internees in Central Camp in Douglas, and that of them 150 had been in Nazi concentration camps. Some of Hitler’s leading political antagonists were interned, 49

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he alleged, and ‘multitudes’ of men on Hitler’s black-list were to be found in Huyton or on the Isle of Man. He urged that men with such backgrounds should be released speedily. ‘In the Isle of Man and at Huyton,’ he said, ‘I was astounded at the quantity as well as the quality of the material available — doctors, professors, scientists, inventors, chemists, industrialists, manufacturers, humanists — they all want to work for Britain, freedom and justice.’ The speech was widely reported and it increased the growing feeling that the camps contained a gross wastage of valuable human material. At the same time, serious newspapers were reporting a man released from the Isle of Man as saying that he had been a prisoner in Dachau and then, for four months, in Buchenwald. The Manx camps, he said, were ‘Paradise’ compared with the German versions. ‘In Germany they would give 20 lashes for almost any minor offence.’ By contrast, he claimed that at Douglas internees were shown every consideration. He also maintained that, while Right: Central Camp comprised a block of 34 houses further down the promenade bounded by Castle Drive and Empress Drive (below). It held 2,000 men but was later taken over by the RAF.

THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE ETO

The overall commandant of all the camps on the island was Lieutenant-Colonel Sydney Slatter, a veteran of the First World War who had been given an Emergency Commission. He was later superseded, first by Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Baggalay and then by Lieutenant-Colonel A. M. Scott. Notices informed internees that ‘the measure of your co-operation and behaviour will decide the measure of your privileges and the consideration shown for your welfare. In all events, you are assured of justice.’ Discipline was simple. The immediate camp commander could award up to 28 days’ punishment for what was essentially a camp offence and all camps had a small detention unit, the Metropole for example having six cells near its guardroom. ‘Crimes’ included fighting, which would attract 14 days; wilful damage; breaking the black-out, and insubordination. An escape attempt usually attracted 14 days behind bars providing it was not compounded by the theft of a rowing-boat for example. The Manx police had no jurisdiction within the camps but they could be called in over more serious matters such as an incident involving grievous bodily harm, or a felony deserving a sentence of more that 28 days’ confinement. there had been no real medical facilities at Dachau, no one could have had better medical attention than was to be had on the island. All the aliens, he maintained, had been impressed by the good treatment they had received, and many of them were only too anxious to get out and serve in the British Army. The truth about conditions, once the first stampede was over, was that on the island they were as good as war allowed. Yet the allegations that Jews and anti-Nazis who had suffered in German concentration camps were later interned in Britain through inefficient screening is accurate enough, vouched for time and time again. On September 16, 1940, Detective Inspector Cyril Cuthbert of the Metropolitan Police arrived in Douglas to head a tribunal sitting in the Douglas Court House to consider for release internees held as Category ‘B’. The hearings, held in secret, began on October 7 and continued until September 1941, some three out of every ten behind barbed wire in August 1940 having since been released. 50

Above: The promenade at Douglas had tramlines where horse-drawn trams plied their trade on the seafront, still a feature today. Right: Metropole Camp was located at the northern end which becomes Queen’s Promenade just below the rockface of ‘Little Switzerland’ where Onchan Camp was situated.

JULIAN NUTTER

THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE ETO

The Metropole Camp, comprising the Alexander, Waverley, Dodsworth and Metropole Hotels, was mainly for Italians, and opened in the first week of July. This was followed by Hutchinson Camp which was grouped around 33 houses on Hutchinson Square behind the front promanade. Sefton and Falcon hotels also became short-lived camps in the town. One of the more-serious incidents took place in Palace Camp on the night of June 11/12, 1941, the first anniversary of Italy’s entry into the war, when three Blackshirts violently attacked one of the pro-British Italians. The three men each received six months’ hard labour, served in Douglas Prison.

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Hutchinson Camp, the largest of all, was centred on the square of that name lying inland beyond Central Camp.

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Rushen Internment Camp in the southern tip of the island comprised Port Erin Camp and Port St Mary Camp.

GOOGLE

Meanwhile, over on the west coast, the residential and holiday village at Port Erin was taken over in its entirety, together with its smaller neighbour at Port St Mary, to provide accommodation for 3,500 women, the complex being officially known as Rushen Camp. The first shipment of women disembarked at Douglas on the same Belgian ferry on May 29, followed by two more round trips to pick up more from Liverpool. The women there were billeted on residents like ordinary holidaymakers, and were able to keep their children with them, landladies being given an allowance of £1. 1s. for each internee. A cordon was to be maintained to ensure the internees did not leave the confined area that could only be entered by those on business or with authorisation. Residents were issued with passes to move in and out. On the night of September 17/18, a party of about 200 detainees were being marched back to Palace Camp after attending a concert when three men slipped away. As soon as the loss was discovered, the master plan for handling escapes swung into action with warnings being issued to all police stations, Army camps and RAF stations. It was found that a small fishing boat was missing from the harbour at Castletown so an air/sea search was begun and two days later the boat was intercepted off the Irish coast. When the men returned they claimed that they had been denied hot food and blankets. A substantial number of the detainees then began to protest on their behalf, the fracas 53

Altogether there were nine camps for men on the Isle of Man. Mooragh was at Ramsey while Onchan, Central, Palace, Metropole, Hutchinson (which was the largest), Granville and Sefton were at Douglas. Peveril was on the western coast at Peel. It was there on the night of September 17/18, 1941 that three men managed to slip away as a couple of hundred detainees, who had just attended a concert, were being marched back to the camp. They stole a boat, it being their intention to row to Ireland but they were picked up two days later seven miles off the coast. When the three men were returned to Peveril, their capture caused a number of the inmates to start a riot. This led to the tearing down of a dry stone wall to provide ammunition which was then thrown at soldiers summoned to quell the disturbance. The road outside the Creg Malin Hotel (right) became littered with debris and any other objects the inmates could lay their hands on and several windows in the hotel were broken.

CONNERY CHAPPELL

CONNERY CHAPPELL

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soon developing into a full-scale riot. Every available soldier was called in to reinforce the guard. Stones, bottles, plates, lavatory seats, timber and dustbin lids flew over the wire across Walpole Road and into the side of the Creg Malin pub-cum-hotel. Thirty windows were smashed and the roadway littered with missiles. On September 22 two Manx policemen arrived at the camp cells to arrest the three escapees who had been recaptured. Two were members of the IRA, which had mounted a bombing campaign in London just before the war, and the third was a member of the British Fascist party. They were remanded in custody in the Isle of Man Prison in Victoria Road. A week later an Army officer was walking up a narrow footpath off Ballarat Road in Peel when he felt his foot sink slightly as if the ground was hollow. Investigation revealed a hole about four feet deep with a short ladder running up from its base, the grass being held in place by a trapdoor. It was soon established that a tunnel had been dug about 25 yards long from the front room of No. 13 inside the compound on the other side of the road. It then ran under the perimeter wire and across the road before rising to the surface in the path between the barbed wire around the guardroom and the hedge of a bungalow. It was grudgingly admitted that it was a very clever piece of work, carried out with great accuracy.

On September 29 another escape attempt was made from Peveril Camp, this time via a tunnel dug under the road from the front room of No. 13 Ballarat Road (today No. 17 Peveril Road). Centre: 54

The house lay inside the wire, the tunnel emerging in the narrow path in the foreground. Above left and right: The tunnel, ten feet underground, was shored up with timber and lit with electric light.

THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE ETO

Altogether there were 57 escape attempts, the first being that of a young Italian who cut the wire at Palace Camp on the night of August 17/18, 1941. Many made the effort, not with any real hope of gaining permanent freedom, but from a variety of simple impulses like having the opportunity of airing their grievances to the authorities when caught. The last escape of note took place on March 11, 1945 from Mooragh. The two internees were at large for a week before they surrendered, cold, wet and hungry, to the postmistress at Bride. The only murder took place in April 1943 at Mooragh Camp where a quarter of the occupants were now Finnish seamen. They were made up of pro-Nazi and pro-British factions although the two were not separated within the camp. On April 20, Hitler’s 54th birthday, feelings were running high, fermented by liquor looted from the canteen. Fascist songs added to the bullying by the Nazi element and one of the Finns received a fatal stab wound. Although one of the internees was arrested and put on trial, he was found not guilty, and there the matter rested. At the beginning of August 1940, Peveril Camp was opened at Peel on the western coast of the island with the intention of using it to hold those men who were most likely to cause trouble They were sent straight to the camp from prisons in Britain. From a total of roughly 7,000 male

THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE ETO

Right: Born in 1896, Oswald Mosley was educated at Winchester and entered Sandhurst as a cadet. With the outbreak of the First World War, he was granted a commission in the 16th Lancers, later transferring to the Royal Flying Corps. It was not long before he had gained his pilot’s certificate but he injured a leg in a flying accident which left him with a permanent limp. In 1918, Mosley was elected to Parliament as a member for Harrow under the Conservative banner but it was not long before he found himself at odds with his constituency officials. A serious row led to Mosley’s departure from the party and he contested the seat at the 1922 election as an Independent when he defeated the official Conservative candidate by a substantial margin. His marriage to heiress Lady Cynthia Curzon in 1920 had a profound effect on Mosley’s political outlook and, possibly due to her influence, Mosley became converted to Socialism. He secured nomination as prospective candidate for Smethwick and duly won the seat for Labour in the 1926 election. Two years later he succeeded to the family baronetcy. internees at the end of 1940, the figure had dropped to 5,000 by April 1941 and to 4,700 at the start of May. All the original Category ‘C’ internees had gone and also a high percentage of the ‘B’s. On April 22, 1941 the internees at Peel were transferred to Ramsey to make room for 800 British Facists, the first 550 arriving on May 12 escorted by three officers and 143 other ranks. When the Lady of Mann tied up to King Edward Pier at Douglas, a large banner on the upper-works proclaimed: ‘MOSLEY FOR PEACE’. Those on board began singing and to chant out the name of the leader of the British Union of Fascists, but catcalls from the shore soon drowned them out. The BUF members were not classed as internees but detainees, a subtle difference. One conspicuously absent was the leader Oswald Mosley who spent the first part of the war in Brixton prison. Later he was transferred to Holloway prison where he was held incommunicado with his wife Diana Mitford. They were released in November 1943 but spent the remainder of the war under house arrest. By now the internee count in the Manx camps had grown to 9,700 rising to 10,024 on August 8, the highest it ever reached. From then on it slowly declined as individual cases were re-examined. The first repatriation of internees, in this case of 43 German women from Port Erin, took place in October 1941. Organised by

Sweden, they travelled to Gothenburg with a contingent of badly wounded German prisoners of war in an exchange scheme for British POWs. Then, in July 1942, 27 Japanese were repatriated in exchange for civilians. The largest single transfer of 600 aliens — women, married couples and children — took place in September 1944 which had the effect of reducing the number of detainees and internees remaining on the island to less than 2,000. This group was shipped from Liverpool straight to Gothenburg. Following the success of the landings in Normandy in 1944, it was anticipated that the facilities on the Isle of Man would be required for housing prisoners of war captured in France. By then the number of internees was slowly being reduced, so it permitted the military to convert the Douglas camps into POW cages. The last internment camp closed in September 1945 when the 580 remaining aliens were shipped to Fleetwood from where they were moved by train to London. There they were processed through a dispersal camp set up at Stanmore. Inspector W. H. Howard of the Metropolitan Police was in charge of the operation to return to Germany the troublemakers remaining in the camp at Peel. Escorted all the way by armed guards, from London they were taken via Ostend to Germany where, we are told, the escort simply turned about and left them to their own devices. Left: In the General Election in 1931, Mosley stood as a candidate for the New Party but, on his defeat, he quickly called a spade a spade and renamed the party the British Union of Fascists modelled on Italian lines. The Rome-London-Berlin axis was cemented on several occasions, one being the first Nuremberg Party Day in September 1934. Although Regulation 18B of the Defence (General) Regulations Act passed in 1939 permitted the detention of aliens, in May 1940 the government also decided to round up members of the BUF. This required an amendment to the act which was rushed through on May 22 giving the Home Secretary the power to detain any members of an organisation which in his view was ‘subject to foreign influence or control’. The following day Mosley, who had met Hitler twice and Mussolini five or six times, was arrested. Now married to Diana (née Mitford) who was a staunch supporter of Hitler she was arrested on June 29. While members of the organisation were interned as ‘detainees’ on the Isle of Man, Mosley and his wife spent the next 3½ years imprisoned in London. 55