Britain at War 2010-12

Will power. Douglas Bader was legendary for his dogged determination and will power, refusing to let the loss of both his legs prevent him from flying Spitfires in the Second World War. These qualities of determination and will power are shared by the men and women, past and present, of the Royal Air Force family

For more information, please phone us on 0800 169 2942 and ask to speak to ‘Legacy Support’, look us up on the web at www.rafbf.org or write to: Legacies Officer, RAFBF, 67 Portland Place, London W1B 1AR.

who secured and maintain our freedom today. Qualities that, sadly, are often needed to fight different battles such as disability, age, accident, illness and poverty. The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund has a duty to assist such family members. You have the power to help by remembering the RAF family as you remember your family in your will. Because, where there is a will, there is a way to help.

Registered Charity No. 1081009

Notes From the Dugout www.britain-at-war-magazine.com Should you wish to correspond with any of the ‘Britain at War’ team in particular, you can find them listed below: Managing Director: Editor: Assistant Editor: Design:

Andrew Todd Martin Mace John Grehan Dave Cassan Hayley Reese Martin Hebditch

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Cabbell Publishing Ltd., Woodman Works, 204 Durnsford Road, Wimbledon, London, SW19 8DR. Tel: +44 (0) 208 971 8486. Fax: +44 (0) 208 971 8480 ‘Britain at War’ Magazine is published on the last Friday of the preceding month by Green Arbor Publishing Ltd, Unit 7 Woodman Works, 204 Durnsford Road, Wimbledon, London, SW19 8DR. ISSN 1753-3090 Printed by Acorn Web. Distributed by Seymour Distribution Ltd. (www.seymour.co.uk) All newsagents are able to obtain copies of ‘Britain at War’ from their regional wholesaler. If you experience difficulties in obtaining a copy please call Seymour on 0207 429 4000. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part and in any form whatsoever, is strictly prohibited without the prior, written permission of the editor. Whilst every care is taken with material submitted to ‘Britain at War’ Magazine, no responsibility can be accepted for loss or damage. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or Green Arbor Publishing Ltd.

On Wednesday, 10 November 2010, I was honoured to be invited to the private unveiling of the new Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum – home of the new ‘Extraordinary Heroes’ exhibition which we featured in last month’s issue. Being surrounded by the largest collection of the highest awards for bravery in the world, I soon found myself immersed in the stories of how these medals were won. In so many cases there are no adjectives that can adequately describe the courage, determination and self-sacrifice these individuals displayed. In every single instance these courageous and incredible people knew that they were placing their lives in extreme peril – and they did so willingly. Each of the stories behind the Victoria Crosses and George Crosses on display in the gallery is different and each individual faced their own set of circumstances. Inevitably when reading these astonishing stories the question “what would I have done if I had been in their shoes” repeatedly comes to mind. No-one can ever tell how they would react in such circumstances. We can only hope that we would “do the right thing”. Those whose stories are portrayed in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery each faced such a challenge and tackled it head-on. In reality there is only one way you can really appreciate what this fascinating exhibition stands for, and that is to visit it. For more information and the link to the Gallery’s website, see our news piece on page 6. Martin Mace Editor

COVER STORY:

OPERATION CARTHAGE

Precision bombing of individual targets is often perceived as a relatively recent development – a far cry from the massed bombing raids of the Second World War. Yet with the low-level attacks on Amiens prison (the subject of this month’s front cover) and the Gestapo headquarters at Aarhus, the Mosquitoes of 140 Wing had shown that they could achieve almost pin-point accuracy. Unfortunately, as Ken Wright explains in ‘Casualties of War’ on page 23, when they bombed their next target in Copenhagen, tragedy struck. This month’s cover image, by the renowned aviation artist Philip E. West, depicts de Havilland Mosquitoes of 21 Squadron RAF, 464 Squadron RAAF, and 487 Squadron RNZAF during the Amiens strike – Operation Jericho. For more information visit: www.swafineart.com

Whilst every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders, the sources of some pictures that may be used are varied and, in many cases, obscure. The publishers will be glad to make good in future editions any error or omissions brought to their attention. The publication of any quotes or illustrations on which clearance has not been given is unintentional.

© Green Arbor Publishing Ltd., 2010

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CONTENTS ISSUE 44

Features 23

CASUALTIES OF WAR Precision bombing of individual targets is often perceived as a relatively recent development – a far cry from the massed bombing raids of the Second World War. Yet with the low-level attacks on Amiens prison and the Gestapo headquarters at Aarhus, the Mosquitoes of 140 Wing had shown that they could achieve almost pin-point accuracy. Unfortunately, explains Ken Wright, when they bombed their next target in Copenhagen tragedy struck.

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THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY The war had swung decisively in favour of the Allies and the Germans had withdrawn to the Hindenburg Line and their fortifications behind the Canal du Nord. The Germans knew that if they could not stop the Allies at this point there would be little chance of victory in the west. The coming battle was one the Germans dare not lose. For the British divisions it would mean an attack before dawn.

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APACHE RESCUE Flying just ten feet above the water, and shrouded in a cloud of mist thrown up by the downdraft from their rotors, two Apache attack helicopters of 656 Squadron, Army Air Corps, swung across the Helmand River, heading towards a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan – with, writes David Cassan, four Commandos strapped to their wings!

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RETURN TO DUNKIRK In this seventieth anniversary year of the Dunkirk evacuations a BBC production team returned to the battlefields of northern France to look at this much-documented episode of British history from a different perspective – from the point of view of the archaeology of the Dunkirk beaches. The team’s task was, writes Paul Reed, to help bring a fresh perspective to a familiar story.

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“LOOK AT THEM GO” There have been a number of live radio broadcasts which created major sensations at the time they were delivered and are still remembered today. One such broadcast, recorded live by a BBC reporter in July 1940, was a dramatic account of a combat during the Battle of Britain – but was this reality radio just a little too graphic for the stiff-upper-lipped Britons?

DECEMBER 2010

UXB MALTA

Editor’s Choice:

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SECRETS OF THE SUCCOTH GLEN SUPERFORTRESS: ON A REMOTE SCOTTISH HILLSIDE LIE THE REMAINS OF A USAF AIRCRAFT WHICH CRASHED TO EARTH, KILLING ALL THE PASSENGERS AND CREW. BUT THE DECLARED RANKS OF THOSE ON BOARD AND THE CARGO THEY WERE CARRYING REMAINS SHROUDED IN MYSTERY. JAMES CARRON EXAMINES THE FATE OF THIS COLD WAR AIRCRAFT, A VETERAN OF THE BERLIN AIRLIFT.

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SECRETS OF THE SUCCOTH GLEN SUPERFORTRESS See Main Picture above.

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EDITOR’S CHOICE: UXB MALTA Throughout the years 1940 to 1943, some 17,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Malta. Its people had to endure 154 days of air raids without a single day’s respite and at the height of the attacks the enemy flew more than 9,500 sorties against this island in one month alone. As more than fifteen per cent of the bombs failed to explode, it was a busy time for the men of Bomb Disposal. A ROYAL PARACHUTE In the Heritage room of 501 Squadron’s headquarters at RAF Brize Norton is an old parachute. It is one of the squadron’s proudest relics. Adrian Cooper explains how this seemingly mundane object became one of the squadron’s most prized mementoes. THE SAINT Sometimes it is just little things that make a big contribution to morale. For the men of the 10th Royal Hussars in North Africa their tanks meant much to them, so one crew decided to give their machine a name.

piracy patrols and on humanitarian aid and rescue duties are kept busy around the world.

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NEWS FEATURE Violent end for Falkland’s veteran: US warships have sunk former Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel off North Carolina.

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FIELDPOST Your letters.

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FREE PRIZE DRAW In this month’s free prize draw, one lucky reader will have the opportunity to win a bundle of books worth over £115 from Osprey Publishing. Five runners-up will receive a copy of Osprey’s Military History Quiz Book.

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THE BEST OF EVIDENCE IN CAMERA During the Second World War the Air Ministry produced a weekly (then twice-monthly) publication called Evidence in Camera. Each month we present a selection of the images included.

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RECONNAISSANCE REPORT A look at some of the new publications and products that are available.

UNUSUAL MEMORIAL 105 ATheMOST sacrifice of so many in the First World War is commemorated on impressive memorials and in immaculate cemeteries across the many battlefields of that conflict – as well as in the town squares or churchyards of communities throughout the United Kingdom. But in one Kent archive is a unique reminder of those who served on the Western Front – one that is completed in the men’s own hand.

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BRIEFING ROOM News, Restorations, Discoveries and Events from around the UK. NEWS FEATURE A new memorial commemorates the death of the two-man crew of an RAF night fighter in October 1940. NEWS FEATURE The Royal Navy in Action: British warships employed on counter-

CAMERA AT WAR Allied successes against the Luftwaffe’s Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors over the Bay of Biscay.

99 DEBRIEF A Piece of History, Dates That Shaped the War and much more! AT WAR 1914-18: IN NUMBERS 114 ATheRAILWAY First World War is one of the most fascinating periods in the history of the many railway companies in the United Kingdom – none more so than for the Great Western Railway, not only for the work done by the company and its employees at home, but also on active service.

Subscribe now and Enjoy A FREE EIGHT DVD Box Set See page 84 for offer details.

EXTRAORDINARY HEROES EXHIBTION OPENS IT DOORS

 THE WORLD’S LARGEST GATHERING OF VICTORIA

CROSSES AND GEORGE CROSSES GOES ON DISPLAY AT THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM JUST how best do you present a collection of medals relating to events from a number of wars, conflicts and also peacetime? That was the extraordinary challenge that faced The Lord Ashcroft Trust and the Imperial War Museum when Lord Ashcroft offered his unique collection to the museum for display, reports Tony Gledhill GC. Housed in the new Lord Ashcroft Gallery, the 212 Victoria Crosses (164 from Lord Ashcroft’s collection plus the forty-eight held by or loaned to the IWM) and thirty-one George Crosses span the centuries from the Crimean War to the war in Afghanistan. Rather than merely displaying them in chronological order, the Trust and the IWM have devised an intriguingly different approach. The actions that led to the award of these medals have been categorised and the medals grouped together under the relevant category. The seven categories are: leadership, sacrifice, aggression, skill, initiative, endurance and boldness. The idea behind this is to encourage visitors to examine an individual’s reaction to the difficult decisions which he or she faced. In every instance the person was confronted with an unlooked for and unexpected situation and it was their response to the circumstances they found themselves in which was so exceptional. This thought-provoking experience is achieved by the retelling of these remarkable events through interactive touch-screens, life stories, video montages and sound clips which explore the lives and actions of all the featured recipients. In addition to the multi-media presentations, the visitor will see a number of large models recreating aspects of some famous VC and GC actions. For example, there is large-scale model of Avro Lancaster ME669, Z-NO, suspended from the gallery ceiling (see above). This was the 106 Squadron aircraft in which Sergeant Norman Cyril Jackson VC RAFVR was travelling when he climbed out on to a wing in order to extinguish a fire – an action for which he was subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross. Jackson’s medals are displayed in the ‘Sacrifice’ category of the exhibition, an attribute described in the gallery thus: “In what is apparently the simplest quality of bravery, Sacrifice epitomises selfless responsibility. Noble, strong, dependable, life is offered up to protect, save or comfort others. It is not always lost, but it is always freely given.” As visitors to the exhibition will discover, Jackson is certainly far from alone in this category. Other objects on display for the first time include the extensively-damaged

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backpack of Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher CG which he used to save his comrades when he threw himself onto a Taliban grenade in Afghanistan in 2008. Another item that can be seen by visitors is the diving suit worn by Acting Leading Seaman James Magennis during the attack on the Japanese cruiser Takao in Singapore for which he was awarded the VC in 1945. To mark the opening of the Gallery, the IWM has also commissioned significant new works for its collections. Among these is a portrait of Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry VC by the acclaimed war photographer Don McCullin. This is a thoroughly absorbing and inspirational collection and no visitor can leave the exhibition without feeling both moved and exhilarated. • For an insight into the construction of the scale model of Lancaster ME669, visit the Britain at War website. • For more information on the new exhibition, visit: www.iwm.org.uk/heroes TOP: A view of the new Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes exhibition. Nearest the camera are the medals that have been listed under the ‘Boldness’ category. This is defined thus: “At certain times people take a calculated risk. With audacity, dash and daring, much can be achieved. In simple terms, who dares wins. Boldness combines force with creative thinking. It is impetuous and often completed before anyone knows what is going on.” (All images Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum) ABOVE: The helmet that Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry VC was wearing on 11 June 2004. LEFT: The George Cross awarded to LieutenantColonel Mahmood Durrani GC for his heroism in withstanding Japanese torture during the Second World War. A Captain at the time of his ordeal, Mahmood Durrani was the only prisoner of war taken by the Japanese to be awarded the George Cross and survive his captivity.

DECEMBER 2010

WARTIME LANDING CRAFT REPRIEVED FEARS that the remains of three Second World War landing craft located in Poole Harbour will be destroyed have been allayed, writes Nick Hall. The three craft, thought to comprise two LCT (Landing Craft Tank) Mk.IIIs or IVs and one smaller type, were used as a makeshift jetty to protect a ferry berth when the continental ferry port was built at Hamworthy in the 1970s. The berth is located at the end of New Harbour Road in Poole. The berth fell into disuse as larger ferries came into service, and planning permission has recently been granted for a new marina, which will be named Port of Poole Marina, to be developed on the site. It will be protected by a floating breakwater and will provide pontoon moorings for up to eight super-yachts and a multitude of other craft.

USAAF CREW REMEMBERED

Work on the development is underway and the £800,000 marina is

ON 17 October 2010, a memorial was unveiled near Guildford in Surrey to commemorate the death of four men in 1944, writes Frank Philipson. At about 11.00 hours on 25 October 1944, USAAF C47 Skytrain 42-100766, named Lilly Bell II, crashed at Hurst Farm, Jacobs Well, near Guildford in Surrey. Part of the 89th Troop Carrier Squadron, 438th Troop Carrier Group, the C-47 had been on a routine flight transporting signalling equipment from Greenham Common to the airfield at Denain/Pouvry in northern France. While attempting to clear high ground by rapidly gaining height through cloud, the aircraft stalled, turned on its back and dived into the ground. The four airmen who died in the crash had all taken part in dropping operations on D-Day and on subsequent airborne operations to liberate Europe. During the service a few moments silence was followed by a piper playing a lament and a flypast was performed by a Dakota. The memorial was then unveiled by Dr. John C. Wright, the son of the Co-Pilot, Flight Officer John E. Wright. The pilot was First Lieutenant Mercer W. Avent; the Flight Engineer Sergeant John R. Hillmer; and the Radio Operator was Staff Sergeant Dale E. Dellinger. (Image courtesy of Gaynor White)

expected to be fully operational by the beginning of April 2011. The last MoD landing craft unit at Poole was closed in 2009 with the departure of 120 instructors of 10 Landing Craft Squadron to Devonport near Plymouth. The move brought to an end an historic training role that dated back to the Second World War. The Poole base had, for example, supplied some 1,200 British naval personnel to operate American landing craft during the D-Day operations. Despite the redevelopment, the landing craft, which are reputed locally to have taken part in the D-Day landings, will remain in place. A spokesman for the marina said that they still had an important protective role to play. “If they were to be moved,” he said, “the jetty alongside them would very likely be undermined and could collapse”.

BATTLE OF BRITAIN COMMEMORATIONS BOOST WEBSITE TRAFFIC

EVIDENCE of the enormous public interest in this year’s Battle of Britain 70th anniversary commemorations is revealed in visit figures for the website of the London Monument to The Few, writes Geoff Simpson. The site normally receives between 7,000 and 8,000 visits per month. For both July and August this increased to about 11,000 per month and in September the figure leapt to 18,000. Edward McManus, who runs the website, commented: “The increase in website visits and, in addition, enquiries about ‘The Few’ demonstrate just how much interest there has been in the subject. Now the challenge for all of us determined to keep the memory of 1940 alive is to maintain the attention to the subject that has been generated.” The names of all the Allied airmen who took part in the Battle are listed on the Monument on The Embankment. HRH the Prince of Wales performed the unveiling ceremony in 2005. The website can be visited at: www.bbm.org.uk

DECEMBER 2010

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BATTLE OF BRITAIN PILOT FLIES AGAIN  AN RAF VETERAN WHO LOST HIS LEFT ARM DURING THE

SECOND WORLD WAR, HAS MADE HISTORY AFTER GETTING BACK BEHIND THE CONTROLS OF A FIGHTER ’PLANE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SIXTY-FIVE YEARS.

gave me a dose of morphine and a cigarette. They said sorry they hadn’t come to help me, before explaining that I’d crashed in the middle of a minefield!” Sadly, surgeons were forced to amputate his left arm after it became gangrenous. However, to this day, he still counts his blessings that he came through his near death experience. “I was lucky I was in a Hurricane,” he said. “A Spitfire would have broken up completely. I don’t think I would have survived if I’d been in anything else.” Mr McInnes spent several months convalescing in military hospitals in Egypt and South Africa before returning to the UK. Remarkably, despite losing his arm he was able to fly again before the end of the war. He was released from the RAF in 1946 with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. The Vampire, which was made of wood with aluminium wings, made its maiden flight on 20 September 1943, but arrived too late to see combat. The first RAF fighter with a top speed exceeding 500 mph, the type was last used operationally by the Swiss Air Force in the 1980s and the last time it was used in combat was during the Rhodesian Bush War. The aircraft in which Mr McInnes flew, Vampire T.11 WZ507, was built in 1952 at the de Havilland factory in Christchurch, Dorset. Delivered to the RAF in 1953, WZ507 remained in service until 1963 when she was put on static display by the Solway Aviation Society based at Carlisle airport. Following restoration, WZ507 became the first ex-RAF jet fighter to be put onto the UK civilian register.

BATTLE of Britain veteran Flight Lieutenant Archie McInnes, 91, flew the United Kingdom’s only airworthy de Havilland Vampire on Saturday, 16 October 2010, writes Chris Richards. In the year that veterans marked the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Mr McInnes took to the skies from North Weald airfield almost seven decades after leaving the Royal Air Force at the end of the Second World War. In the company of experienced pilot Mark Hooton, Mr McInnes was handed control of the former RAF jet fighter during a return flight to Cambridge. Speaking after his landing, Mr McInnes said: “It was an unforgettable experience. It is the first jet I have ever flown in and it is so different from what I used to fly.”

Mr Hooton, who co-owns the Vampire, said it was a “privilege” to have a Battle of Britain veteran in the cockpit alongside him. “He flew us around Chelmsford and down to the reservoir south of Chelmsford,” he said. “He just flew it like any other pilot. The fact that he hadn’t been in any aeroplane for more than sixty years failed to show.”  • Mr McInnes’ flight was organised by Kevin Broughall, who works at Weald Aviation and helps maintain the Vampire. Mr Broughall said that he arranged the event to help raise the profile of the aircraft, which needs spares and funds to keep it airborne. “It’s an important part of our history and we want to keep the Vampire flying for another fifty to sixty years if we can,” he added. For more information, visit: www.vampirepreservation.org.uk

TOP LEFT: Flight Lieutenant Archie McInnes in front of de Havilland Vampire T.11 WZ507. BELOW: Archie McInnes at the controls of WZ507. (All images courtesy of Northcliffe Media)

Mr McInnes joined the RAF in 1939. Having completed his training he was commissioned in August 1940. He went on to fly Hawker Hurricanes with 601 Squadron at RAF Exeter, before joining 238 Squadron at RAF Chilbolton in Hampshire on 8 October 1940. Following his time here, McInnes was then posted to North Africa, still with 238 Squadron. It was while serving in North Africa that Mr McInnes lost his arm after he was shot down by a pair of Messerschmitts in 1941. He recalled candidly: “I tried to warn my squadron that they were behind us but nobody heard me at all. I managed to avoid the first one but his mate caught me across the back and I knew I was going down. The last conscious memory at this point was 220 mph on the clock and going up!” Despite crashing into the desert at high speed and fracturing his arm badly, Mr McInnes survived and dragged himself to safety. “I knew I had been hurt but I didn’t really feel anything,” he remembers. “I saw a couple of guys in Jeeps in the distance and I got up to them and they

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DECEMBER 2010

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“Our Service men and women know that, whatever they are asked to do, NAAFI will be with them.” The Prime Minister, David Cameron “There must be very few Service men or women who have not had some cause to be deeply grateful for the existence of this remarkable institution at some point in their careers.” Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards KCB CBE DSO ADC

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BATTLE OF BRITAIN BUILDINGS LISTED

 THREE BUILDINGS AT THE HEART OF RAF NORTHOLT’S

OPERATIONS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR HAVE BEEN PROTECTED BY THE TOURISM AND HERITAGE MINISTER JOHN PENROSE MP.

The Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox MP, said: “The nation has a duty to recognise the great sacrifices made by those serving in our armed forces. The bravery that was displayed during the Battle of Britain continues to inspire generations of servicemen and the Government’s decision to list these buildings will ensure the achievements of those who fought in the battle are never forgotten.” THE military airfield at Northolt became operational in June 1915 when Royal Aircraft Factory BE2c aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps commenced defensive patrols against the German Zeppelins raiding London. These flights marked the start of an existence which spanned two world wars reports Martin Mace.

The Tourism and Heritage Minister, John Penrose MP, added: “As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain it seems entirely fitting to list these buildings which played such a pivotal role during the Second World War and beyond. Their national significance and historical importance merit the protection provided to them by listing and serve as a reminder of the great sacrifice, courage and determination showed by all those who worked at RAF Northolt during the war years. 

In the 1930s, RAF Northolt was the first station to operate the Hawker Hurricane and during the Second World War was again one of the key airfields in the defence of London. During the Battle of Britain, 11 Group’s airfield at Northolt was home to the Northolt, or ‘Z’, Sector Operations Room and staff, as well as no less than eight different Fighter Command squadrons. One notable flight took place in 1944 when a Consolidated B24 Liberator, Marco Polo, flew non-stop from Washington to Northolt, taking a mere nineteen hours and forty-six minutes to do so. The buildings which have been given listed status are a C-type hangar, a former squadron watch office, and the former Operations Block. The hangar was used throughout the Second World War to house, amongst others, Churchill’s personal aircraft in which he flew to many important meetings with Allied leaders. The watch office had an undisputed role in the Battle of Britain and was the building from which RAF Northolt’s pilots were often scrambled. The Operations Block, meanwhile, was an early part of Air Vice-Marshall Dowding’s so-called ‘Dowding System’, a method of communication which is acknowledged as the first integrated air defence command and control system in the world. The decision to list the buildings was taken on the advice of English Heritage. The Grade II listing means that the architectural merit of the buildings must be taken into account of in any future applications to develop the site.

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MAIN IMAGE: A view of the recently listed former squadron watch office and, in the background, the C-type hangar at RAF Northolt. Interestingly, in 1946 the airfield was loaned for civil use whilst Heathrow Airport was under construction and by 1952, Northolt was the busiest airfield in Europe, handling a total of 50,000 air movements annually. (Copyright AHB(RAF)) ABOVE LEFT: Another view of the former squadron watch office. (Copyright AHB(RAF)) ABOVE: Two views of the former ‘Z’ sector Operations Block at Northolt. (Copyright AHB(RAF))

DECEMBER 2010

E R I F F O R A PILL D E R E B M E REM

E URING TH G FIRE D T IN A T A D T E S R A EMBE A DEV K 40 IS REM C 9 1 O F D O E K R SUMME PEMBRO

evacuated. A sign of what lay ahead for the whole country it had been the largest fire in Britain since the Great Fire of London. The bleakest period for the fire fighters was 22 August. On this day five Cardiff firemen were killed in one incident when one of the burning tanks buckled in the heat and burst open. Hundreds of other firemen sustained various injuries. For some, even taking much needed rest meant danger was near. On 6 September the Temperance Hall in Dimond Street, where a large number of off-duty firemen were sleeping, was bombed and badly damaged. Eighteen were injured, two seriously. Miraculously, there were no further fatalities. The Temperance Hall, a prominent building, was reduced to a roofless shell and was later demolished. In all, 650 firemen from twenty-two Brigades, from as far afield as Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff, fought the Llanreath fire. Over fifty fire pumps and nine miles of hose were used and a pontoon was constructed into the Pembroke River to bring sea water to the heart of the blaze. In the early stages of the incident, pumps had run dry when the tide went out contributing to a major expansion of the fire at a critical time. Other statistics include the cost of feeding the firemen – £480 – and a staggering £800 phone bill for Pembroke Dock Fire Station, whose firemen had been first on the scene.

AT 15.15 hours on Monday, 19 August 1940, three Junkers Ju 88s flew through clear skies from their base in France – their sights firmly on Pembroke Dock. Flying up the Haven waterway, the bomber crews picked their targets at leisure; there were no RAF fighters or anti-aircraft guns to oppose them. Pembroke Dock was undefended. One of the seventeen oil tanks at the Admiralty Depot at Llanreath was hit by a bomb. This started a fire which rapidly escalated, becoming the largest oil blaze ever experienced in Britain, a blaze that lasted for eighteen days and which could be seen from North Wales. In that time eight storage tanks – each with 12,000 tons of oil – were completely destroyed. A huge black cloud spiralled hundreds of feet into the air. At night the reflection could be seen from 100 miles away. When it rained it rained oily water. During the eighteen days of the blaze, the Luftwaffe made further attacks - once at night - the aircraft guided by the tower of smoke and flames. As a result, Llanreath became a virtual ghost village as families were

As well as a new exhibition commemorating the disaster arranged by the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust and Pembroke Dock Museum Trust, this summer saw a 70th anniversary service of remembrance. Fire brigade veterans joined clergy, civic leaders and present-day fire service personnel at South Pembrokeshire Golf Club on the 70th anniversary of the Luftwaffe raid – the golf course includes the former site of the wartime tanks. Among those present was veteran fireman Wyndham Scourfield of Narberth whose first fire duty as a 17year-old newly-enlisted member of the Auxiliary Fire Service was to help fight the blaze. Mr Scourfield read the Roll of Honour of the five Cardiff firemen who died at Llanreath. A wreath was also laid by Ted Owens who as a teenager acted as messenger for the firemen.
TOP LEFT: A dramatic RAF aerial photograph of the blaze at Llanreath taken on 19 August 1940. A total of thirty-three million gallons of oil were lost during the fire. ABOVE: Dense black clouds of smoke from a burning oil storage tank pour across a road at Llanreath. LEFT: The fire at Llanreath, just to the west of Pembroke Dock, continues to burn. (All images courtesy of the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust: www.pdst.co.uk)

DECEMBER 2010

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BEAUFIGHTER CREW MEMORIAL UNVEILED

Eric “Lofty” Gardiner. R2065 was equipped with the Mk.IV AI radar which, at the time, was still regarded as experimental.

 MEMORIAL COMMEMORATES THE DEATH OF THE CREW

OF AN RAF NIGHT FIGHTER IN OCTOBER 1940 IN the autumn of 1940, every measure was taken to try and stop the Luftwaffe from bombing London during its night-time raids. Initilly, London’s main defences were the scores of anti-aircraft guns, searchlights and barrage balloons posted around the city but they inevitably had only a limited success. However, the RAF had another weapon up its sleeve – radar.

The Beaufighter was visualised as a night fighter as soon as it became apparent that there was ample room within its fuselage to accommodate the bulky AI equipment. Once its role had been identified it was necessary to fit it with armament powerful enough for it to be able to disable or destroy an enemy aircraft as soon as contact had been made. As a result the Mk.IF Beaufighter was fitted with four 20mm cannon in the fuselage nose (later models also included four 0.303-inch machine-guns in the starboard wing and two more in the port wing). RAF Redhill was less than ideal for the Beaufighter with its muddy grass runways and the station was not popular with the aircrews. Because of its geographical location and being situated on what was once a marsh, the aerodrome was more often than not shrouded in fog. The runway lighting was primitive to say the least with the crews forced to rely on two “goose neck” flares, one placed each end of the runway. The weather on the night of 30 October 1940, was at first clear but quickly worsened to minimum visibility. It was during the return flight that R2065 flew in to Beech trees on high ground near the village of Balcombe in West Sussex. The aircraft’s crew, who had desperately been trying to locate Redhill, was instantly killed when the aircraft erupted into a ball of flame and wreckage. At the time of his death Worsdell had been in line for promotion to Flying Officer. On 30 October 2010, a memorial organised by Daniel and Kevin Hunt, the Curators of the Wings Museum at Balcombe, was unveiled, marking seventy years to the day when the two young airmen lost their lives. Relatives of Sergeant Gardiner - two cousins and a great nephew - were in attendance, together with flag bearers from the Haywards Heath Branch of the RAFA. It has not been possible to trace relatives of Kenneth Worsdell.

To operate night-time patrols with the aid of AI, or Airborne Intercept, radar, 219 Squadron was deployed to RAF Redhill in Surrey and equipped with the specially-adapted Mk.I Bristol Beaufighter. The squadron was one of the first of five squadrons to receive the Mk.1F variant in October 1940 (the others being 25, 29, 600 and 640 squadrons).

ABOVE: The aircraft which came to grief at Balcombe Place in West Sussex: Beaufighter R2065. (Courtesy of the Andy Saunders Collection) BELOW: Relatives of Sergeant Eric Gardiner and Daniel and Kevin Hunt of the Wings Museum during the unveiling of the memorial. (Courtesy of the Wings Museum)

On the night of 30 October 1940, Beaufighter R2065 took off from RAF Redhill at approximately 18.25 hours, the crew tasked to undertake a routine patrol around the London area. At the controls were 20-year-old Pilot Officer Kenneth Worsdell and his Air Gunner, 27-year-old Sergeant TOP: In 2009, the Wings Museum located the crash site of R2065. After applying for an MoD licence an excavation was carried out during which a number of interesting relics, such as these pieces of the gunsite, were recovered for display in the museum. Most of the wreckage was burnt out on the surface and removed by an RAF recovery team at the time. (Courtesy of the Wings Museum. For more images and information, visit: www.wingsmuseum.co.uk) ABOVE LEFT: Sergeant Eric Cecil Gardiner on his wedding day in September 1939. (Courtesy of the Wings Museum) ABOVE RIGHT: Kenneth Wilson Worsdell. Worsdell was buried not far from the crash site, at Nutfield in Surrey. (Courtesy of the Andy Saunders Collection)

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THE ROYAL NAVY IN ACTION

 BRITISH WARSHIPS EMPLOYED ON COUNTER-PIRACY

PATROLS AND ON HUMANITARIAN AID AND RESCUE DUTIES ARE KEPT BUSY AROUND THE WORLD IN a time of great uncertainty for the Royal Navy, its ships and personnel have recently conducted a variety of notable operations during a busy two-week period, writes Martin Mace. In two separate incidents, for example, HMS Montrose and RFA Fort Victoria successfully intercepted pirates in the Indian Ocean whilst deployed on Operation Ocean Shield. Beginning in December 2008, this is the name of NATO’s counter-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa with naval patrols being centred on the Gulf of Aden and the Somali Basin. On Wednesday, 13 October 2010, the Plymouth-based Type 23 Frigate HMS Montrose was alerted to the presence of a pirate gang of ten men acting suspiciously in a small boat off the coast of Somalia. Believed to have originated from a known pirate camp, the gang’s boat, loaded with ladders and fuel drums, was towing two other smaller vessels that have been traditionally used for pirate attacks against merchant ships and leisure craft. The Montrose immediately launched her Lynx helicopter and a boat of Royal Marines and sailors to intercept the suspect craft. Four of the pirates attempted to flee to the shore, whilst the six remaining men stopped in the water. At this point the Royal Navy boarding team confiscated all the pirates’ equipment. This had not been the frigate’s first success against what is referred to as a Pirate Action Group, or PAG. In the early hours of 24 October 2010, the Captain of the German-owned merchant ship MV Beluga Fortune sent out a distress signal after his ship had been attacked by armed pirates in the Indian Ocean some 750 nautical miles off the Somali coast. As she was the nearest warship, HMS Montrose was immediately despatched to assist. A maritime reconnaissance aircraft also located the merchant ship but was unable to establish contact with the crew.

boarded the vessel and released them from the safe room. For her part, at the beginning of November, the combined fleet stores ship and tanker RFA Fort Victoria apprehended suspected pirates operating off the Somali coast using a party of Royal Marines and her Merlin Helicopter from 820 Naval Air Squadron. The pirate craft was found to be equipped with six AK-variant assault rifles and a rocketpropelled grenade launcher with four warheads and six RPG booster charges. On 1 November 2010, the Plymouth-based Type 22 Frigate HMS Cornwall, rescued five survivors from a sinking inflatable boat in the Mediterranean. At the time her crew had been conducting routine flying operations sixty miles off the Algerian coast whilst en route to the Indian Ocean, also to participate in Operation Ocean Shield. A floating object was first spotted by the Flight Commander of the ship’s Lynx helicopter, Lieutenant Commander Steve Gamble. On closer inspection, the object turned out to be a sinking fourteen-foot inflatable boat with a broken transom – and which contained five people. Lieutenant Commander Gamble, said: “I just happened to glance out of the port window of the aircraft as we turned to approach the ship and caught a quick flash of colour, which I first thought was a fishing float. However, not having seen any fishing activity in the area we decided to have a closer look and to our surprise it was five people clinging to the remains of a dinghy. It was simply pure luck that we spotted them.” Following several days of storms to the west, the sea conditions were challenging. HMS Cornwall immediately altered course to close with the inflatable and launched her sea boat to recover the survivors. Shortly before twilight five people were rescued from their craft. It is reported that a further five people had died when the inflatable boat had overturned before being spotted by the ship’s helicopter. Despite an extensive search by HMS Cornwall no trace was found of the missing people. As has long been the case, humanitarian relief work is part of the Royal Navy’s every day duties. At the beginning of November, the Portsmouth-based Type 42 Destroyer HMS Manchester was the first aid ship to reach the Caribbean island of St Lucia in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Tomas.

Once they became aware that the Royal Navy vessel was en route, the pirates abandoned the merchant ship, but not before setting fire to part of the superstructure. The Beluga Fortune’s crew had, meanwhile, locked themselves in a safe room or ‘citadel’ in an effort to prevent the pirates from taking them hostage. On the afternoon of the 25th a team of Royal Marines from HMS Montrose

BELOW: Royal Marines and sailors from HMS Montrose investigate the boats with suspected pirates onboard. ABOVE: Royal Marines from HMS Montrose board the MV Beluga Fortune after an attack by armed pirates in the Indian Ocean. (Unless otherwise stated all images ©UK MOD Crown Copyright 2010)

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Operating from the ship and ashore at Soufrière, HMS Manchester’s crew concentrated on providing essential electricity, water and food to the stranded people of the remote village of Morne Fond St Jacques on the slopes of Soufrière volcano. The warship also provided assistance, through the use of its Lynx Helicopter, to the Turks and Caicos Islands authorities after Hurricane Tomas hit the archipelago on Saturday, 6 November 2010.

ABOVE LEFT: The Royal Marines from HMS Montrose enter the fire-damaged superstructure of MV Beluga Fortune in an effort to locate the merchant ship’s crew. ABOVE: The five people rescued by the crew of HMS Cornwall were taken onboard the frigate to receive medical assistance and were eventually put ashore in Algiers during a scheduled port visit by the Royal Navy warship.

Meanwhile, the Portsmouth-based Type 45 Destroyer HMS Daring spent most of October working with the United States aircraft carrier USS Enterprise off America’s eastern seaboard proving that the Type 45’s weapon systems and sensors can be integrated with those of one of the Royal Navy’s closest allies. As well as conducting a very extensive sea training programme, Daring also hosted visits by the US Navy and Coast Guard. Following the announcement of these Royal Navy actions and deployments, the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards, said: “The Royal Navy’s role in responding to events worldwide promotes the interests of the UK and her allies. Assisting St Lucians facing natural disaster and keeping the waters of the Indian Ocean safe for the world’s merchant fleets is all part of securing alliances, trade and influence for Britain. The Royal Navy’s men and women reflect the spirit, flair and commitment which are the hallmarks of the British Armed Forces.”
LEFT: The RFA Fort Victoria in Plymouth Sound. (Courtesy of D.M. Gerrard) MAIN IMAGE: The Lynx helicopter from HMS Manchester lowers supplies to members of the ship’s crew.

DECEMBER 2010

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VIOLENT END FOR FALKLANDS VETERAN

 US WARSHIPS HAVE SUNK FORMER ROYAL FLEET

AUXILIARY SHIP OFF NORTH CAROLINA THE former Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Ness-class fleet stores ship Stromness was sent to the bottom off North Carolina on 27 October 2010, after being used as a missile and gunnery target by ships assigned to the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group, writes Nick Hall. Ordered on 7 December 1964, the Stromness was built by the shipbuilders Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd. at Wallsend and launched on 16 September 1966. At the time of the Argentinean invasion of the Falklands in April 1982, RFA Stromness was lying in a Royal Navy dockyard having been stripped of stores and sensitive equipment in preparation for disposal as a result of Secretary of State for Defence John Nott MP’s 1981 Defence Review.

other ships she came under frequent air attack during which she survived several near misses. In the eleventh week of the Falklands War, for example, the Stromness, along with her sister ships RFA Fort Austin and RFA Tidepool, narrowly missed being hit by a number of 1,000lb bombs. On the night of 25/26 May, RFA Stromness departed San Carlos Water and eventually returned unscathed to Portsmouth on 19 July 1982. However her RFA days were numbered. In January 1983 agreement was reached for her sale to the US Navy, and eleven months later she became the Combat Stores Ship USNS Saturn operated by the Military Sealift Command. She remained in US naval service until April 2009, and was later allocated for target use. During the exercise, the US Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS Mitscher and the guided-missile cruisers USS Philippine Sea and USS Gettysburg launched missiles and fired their 5-inch guns, Close-In Weapons Systems, and 25mm and .50-calibre weapons at the former supply ship. In addition, aircraft and helicopters launched from USS George H. W. Bush employed bombs and air-to-surface missiles. Following the sinking, Captain Jeffrey Wolstenholme, US Navy, said: “The sinking exercise focused on integrated strike group operations, command and control procedures, pre-planned responses to maritime threats and surface action group operations. As the strike group prepares for a combat deployment in spring 2011, the sinking exercise provided a unique opportunity to practice combat scenarios, to include tactics and procedures. “The first day’s attacks were aimed at Saturn’s superstructure to prevent hull integrity breaches. The attacks designed to sink the ship occurred on the second day. Every watertight door and hatch was closed on Saturn to ensure the maximum watertight integrity of the ship, so it would stay afloat until the final event where it was sunk with 5-inch rounds.”  LEFT: US Navy personnel look on as fire takes hold of the former RFA Stromness. Note the damage to the ship’s hull caused by the impact of shells or missile. (Courtesy of Nick Hall) BELOW: Naval Air Crewmen 2nd Class William Morrison, assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 70 embarked aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, fires a Browning GAU-16 .50-calibre machine-gun from a MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter at Saturn during the sinking exercise. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Tony Curtis)

The decision to send a Task Force to the South Atlantic saw the instructions to mothball the Stromness rapidly reversed. Whilst the initial disposal work had taken a number of weeks, she was readied for sea and loaded with a huge range of supplies – including a portable fuel-handling terminal and thousands of feet of aluminium runway planking – within a matter of days. Having been hurriedly reactivated and, under the command of Captain J.B. Dickinson RN, she sailed on 7 April 1982, to join the Task Force. On 21 May 1982, the Stromness, carrying two companies of 45 Commando and 2,750 tons of equipment, was the first RFA vessel to enter Falkland Sound. That night, the British Amphibious Task Group under the command of Commodore Michael Clapp mounted Operation Sutton, the amphibious landing on beaches around San Carlos Water, on the north-western coast of East Falkland facing onto Falkland Sound. The men from Stromness were landed at Ajax Bay (Red Beach). Over the next few days the “Strom” was used to bring additional troops to San Carlos Water after embarking them from other vessels further offshore. Along with

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DECEMBER 2010

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LETTER OF THE MONTH IMPROPERLY DRESSED SIR – In the early 1980s I was invited to the Founder’s Day ceremony at The Royal Hospital Chelsea, in the best of company, “old soldiers”. Her Majesty The late Queen Mother had inspected the parade of standing pensioners and was making her way round those in wheelchairs under the canopy of the building. The last man in this three sided square was immediately in front of myself and my colleague. He was sitting in a wheelchair with a nurse in attendance. He had already caused a stir by dropping a tissue on the carefully raked gravel. As Her Majesty approached, accompanied by her Equerry, the General, Adjutant and the R.S.M, she bent down and said: “Good Morning to you. I hope you are keeping well? Are they taking good care of you?” The veteran duly replied, “Yes thank you Mam”. As she turned away towards the saluting base the pensioner said “Excuse me Mam, can I kiss your hand!” The General coughed weakly, the Adjutant inspected his spurs, the Equerry smiled politely and the R.S.M turned puce. Without so much as a blink Her Majesty replied, “Yes

of course, how lovely of you to ask”. With that she rolled back her glove and our man duly kissed the back of her hand. As she turned to leave he took out of his inner pocket a small sepia photo of a young girl. He then asked her to sign it. The General looked up for heavenly advice, the Adjutant wanted to dig the flower beds, the Equerry’s smile stayed the same, and the R.S.M started to draw his sword. Her Majesty looked at her group and with a sweet smile said, “Pen please”. However, that in itself was a problem as they all had laced-up frock coats. Nevertheless, a pen was found, and her Majesty then said, “I need something to write on”. Off came the General’s hat. After that everything else was an anti-climax – except for the rousing three cheers and two hundred tricorn hats thrown in the air. The lady next to me said, “I bet he will be in trouble”. To this the nurse replied: “No, what can they do. He is ninety plus and in a wheelchair”. Brian Cane. West Sussex.

[email protected] Dodge and apologised for the escape; the second was by Wings Day asking for a gold ring to be sold and monies given to the NCOs; whilst the third, by Peter Butterworth, was hoping they would meet after the war. Many years ago I was in correspondence with Major Rumpel and his wife. My interest being Colditz, I particularly wanted to know about Bader’s time at Dulag Luft. Rumpel was not complimentary of his [Bader’s] attitude, particularly as he [Rumpel] had arranged delivery of Bader’s spare leg to replace the one damaged in the crash. The reason was that Rumpel had wanted Bader on his Permanent Staff when he left hospital. However, Rumpel soon came to regret his actions and ordered Bader’s transfer for insubordination. Rumpel even refused to acknowledge three letters that Bader subsequently wrote asking for an interview. The letters came to light after Rumpel passed away and his wife sent me a package referring to Dulag Luft. Included were the “farewell letters” and a menu for 5 April 1942, which was signed by the senior German officers and Permanent Staff at the camp. Amongst the signatories were eighteen “escapees”. This number included the controversial Squadron Leader Elliot and Squadron Leader Tony Freeman, later sentenced to eight years for broadcasting for the enemy. Of particular interest to me were signatures from Buckley (Royal Navy) and Bushell (RAF) – in my opinion the two greatest escapees of their respective services. Their final escapes cost them their lives. The menu also carries the signatures of Long and Casey, shot after the Sagan escape, and the famous Colditz locksmith Vince Parker. In conclusion, amongst the other items was a comic escape plan drawn up by someone on recapture and also given to Rumpel. This illustrated a man running and the locations he passed through ending near the Swiss border with a Policeman hiding behind a wall and then the escapee behind bars. Sadly unsigned! Michael Booker. Surrey. CAPTAIN ROBERT DAVIES GC

The author of the Letter of the Month may select a book of their choice (maximum value £25) from the extensive range of titles available at

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk DULAG LUFT SIR – I read with interest the Dulag Luft article and subsequent letter from P. Newton. The first RAF tunnel escape was indeed at Oberusel in 1941, whilst the first Army escape tunnel was at Laufen in September 1940, when the six (did

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this qualify as a mass escape at the time?) on recapture were sent to Colditz. The Dulag Luft tunnel was broken on 2 June 1941. This is verified by three letters in my possession; all three sent to Major Theo Rumpel. The first was written by Major John

SIR – Your article on the work of Lieutenant Robert Davies who won the George Cross with the Bomb Disposal Squad [“Saving St Paul’s”] brings to mind the sad end to this brave man’s military career. After defuzing the St Paul’s bomb, Davies was posted to the Middle East, although he returned to the United Kingdom for an investiture at Buckingham Palace in February 1942. But, within a few months, his career had taken a turn for the worse. In June 1942 Davies found himself courtmartialled on twenty-four charges of theft and

DECEMBER 2010

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fraud of “the gravest kind”. These related to the improper use of the services of soldiers in building a civilian air raid shelter, stealing timber and 500 sand-bags. He was also accused of stealing a quantity of women’s underwear which in the unfortunate wording of the day had been “exposed in consequence of war operations”. Davies ordered his batman to send some of the clothes to his wife and the rest to an unnamed lady in Cornwall.

all ground checks completed the Flight Sergeant in command of the inspection team fired up all four engines prior to operating the landing flaps via a lever beside the pilot’s seat. Unfortunately alongside the flaps’ lever was another to raise and lower the undercarriage and the Flight Sergeant selected the wrong one.

CHURCHILL’S AVRO YORK SIR – It was the image of Churchill at the controls of his Avro York in Issue 42 that caught my attention. The old memory cells not being as sharp as they once were, these days I maintain a booklet of interesting notes and other data for reference. The first item in Part II, repeated below, was an article describing the fate of the very first Avro York destined for Winston Churchill in 1943. Unfortunately, although I usually record the source I did not on this occasion, so cannot attribute it to any particular individual: “Having previously had a rather Spartan American Liberator bomber, captained by an American pilot on standby in Montreal Canada, it was decided that the Prime Minister should have a dedicated British aircraft fitted out for flights overseas. The Avro York … was one of the first off the assembly line and was fitted out with a private suite for the PM and sleeping arrangements for up to ten passengers. A large saloon-cumconference room was included with proper toilets and a galley, the aircraft captained by an RAF Wing Commander with pre-war flying experience with Imperial Airways and at that time commanding 24 Squadron based at Northolt.

“The result was that the aircraft sank onto its belly, the propellers gouging large lumps out of the concrete that pummelled the outer skin of the aircraft. For a few seconds nobody said a word then it was a mad scramble to get out, but with the body of the aircraft now sitting on the runway the door could not be opened and escape had to be made via the roof astronomer. The outcome was that, at 1943 prices, the £45,000 aircraft was declared a total loss. The poor Flight Sergeant was courtmartialled and sentenced to nine months in an RAF Prison.” It is not difficult to imagine the sudden feeling of complete horror suffered by the poor Flight Sergeant when the enormity of what he had done hit home, or no doubt the rather inappropriate amusement it may have caused in the Sergeants’ Mess. Don Barrett. Twickenham.

Temporary Lieutenant Robert Davies. (HMP)

Whilst admitting to thirteen charges of presenting cheques without ensuring that he had sufficient funds in his account, he denied the charges of “receiving from soldiers’ moneys collected by civilians”. This was money given to his men by grateful people after they had safely removed bombs in the course of their duty. Davies suggested pooling the money, but none of his men ever received any of the funds. He was also accused of pocketing £21 5s 6d entrusted to him to pay members of the Bomb Disposal Squad, as well as obtaining money by false pretences. He was found guilty on most of the charges and was sentenced to serve two years imprisonment without hard labour. He was also cashiered from the Army.

“What is little known is that the first Avro York fitted out as noted above was delivered to RAF Merryfield near Taunton for final checks before being accepted into service. Being of shiny aluminium with none of the usual drab camouflage paint it attracted considerable interest from the station and any visitors. With

BELOW: aviation artist Philip E. West, Churchill's Maiden Voyage in Ascalon depicts Avro York Mk.I LV633 having just taken off from Gibraltar on 28 May 1943. Also on board with Winston Churchill, often referred to by the York’s crew as “The Owner”, were Eden, Generals Alexander, Ismay and Allenbrooke, Air Marshal Tedder and General Marshall. For more information, visit: www.swafineart.com

Gary Jenkins. By email. STRESS OF THE JOB SIR – There is a sad ending to the story of Lieutenant Robert Davies. It was a story that was told about at most training courses during the war. Davies and his crew had done a superb job clearing dozens of UXBs in London and elsewhere, though the incident at St Paul’s Cathedral was the one most talked about, along with Davies’ lonely drive to transport the bomb to Hackney Marsh for demolition. However, Davies, now a Captain, soon found himself at Clerkenwell Court to give evidence in favour of two of his team found to be under

DECEMBER 2010

the influence and causing damage to property (plus a policeman). He got them off because of the dangerous work these men had been active on for many months. Sadly, he was back in court six months later where he was found guilty of looting ladies

clothing from a bombed factory, stealing from evacuated residences, issuing false cheques and withholding donations from a grateful public which should have gone to the Royal Engineers’ bank. In October/November 1940 Davies was cashiered in disgrace and sentenced to eighteen months in prison.

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He later lived in Lakenba, New South Wales, where he died aged 74 in 1975. His George Cross was sold to Charterhouse Bank for £90,000 in 1982. Was it the months of “on the job” stress that caused the fall of Robert Davies?

The hull has been cut as far back as the hawse pipes and down to the level of the boot topping on both sides. On the starboard side No.2 deck has been removed to about half way along the tank deck.

Noel Cashford MBE. By email.

At the Police station, and “after some delay”, they saw the Officer in Charge who in turn reported the UXPM to the Admiralty. The man instructed to deal with the device was Temporary Lieutenant Ronald James Smith RNVR, a peace time timber merchant. A Police Constable was also instructed to accompany Henderson and Tanner back to St Paul’s “to make his report”.

ANOTHER ESCAPE FOR ST PAUL’S SIR – I was most interested in the article ‘Saving St Paul’s’ in Issue 43. Your readers may like to know that this was not the only escape that the cathedral had during the Blitz. At 02.50 hours on 17 April 1941, St Paul’s took a direct hit from an HE bomb, probably a 500kg one. It exploded between the saucer dome of the central bay of the North Transept and the Cathedral floor. Falling masonry ripped the floor open and penetrated the crypt below, leaving a large hole. No doubt this incident preoccupied the St Paul’s Staff on duty for some time. Then, shortly after 04.00 hours, the Cathedral’s sub-Librarian, Gerald Henderson, discovered an Unexploded Parachute Mine (UXPM) close to the north-east corner of the cathedral. He had probably been checking the North Wall and Transept from the outside to see what damage had been caused by the HE bomb. He noticed silk cloth blowing around, tugged it and found it was part of a parachute with a very large unexploded mine attached to it!

ANOTHER LUTYENS MEMORIAL Whilst Smith set about working on the UXPM’s fuze, a large vehicle passed nearby and started it ticking. It is a story of luck for Smith for he was able to ignore the ticking fuze (it normally ran for seventeen seconds before detonating the mine) and complete his task. Ronald Smith was subsequently awarded the George Medal.

I have always felt Temporary Lieutenant Ronald Smith did not get the credit he really deserved for, like Lieutenant Davies, saving St Paul’s. Chris Ransted. By email. HAUNTED BY A POEM

The portions she can remember are as follows: “Enormous ponderously adrift as the dim veils of evening throng, sonorously the bombers lift their song … In each lives a man whose vigil lasts from dusk to dawn, match me that vigil if you can.” Have any of your readers ever come across the poem? Catharine V. White. By email.

As you know, these “monster” size bombs on the surface had the capability to flatten anything close by, so Henderson quickly returned to the crypt and informed Canon Alexander of his discovery. After that, accompanied by the Dean’s Verger, Mr. Tanner, he walked to Snow Hill Police Station to report the matter.

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SIR – Having just read ‘Memorial to the Missing’ in Issue 42, it reminded me that Sir Edwin Lutyens was responsible for another famous memorial – the Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall.

These large parachute mines were, due to their size, normally dropped in pairs from the same aircraft. It is possible, therefore, that the parachute mine which fell on 110 Fleet Street (which is at the south-east corner of Ludgate Circus, about 220m from the site of the St Paul’s UXPM) on the same night was dropped from the same aircraft as that which fell beside the cathedral.

SIR – I am writing on behalf of my mother Mrs Pamela Ormerod (75). A poem has been haunting her for the last 55-60 years, but she would love to have a full copy of the poem and know who wrote it. She read the poem in a book in the late 40s early 50s. She thinks it was called “Tail Gunner”.

A symbol of London during the Blitz – St Paul’s standing relatively unscathed amongst the devastation surrounding it during 1941. (Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial)

Deryck Swetnam. By email.

Ed – If anyone can help identify the poem, please contact Catherine at the following email address, or by post to the editorial office address: [email protected] HMS STALKER SIR – I can report that the cutting up of the former HMS Stalker, a Second World War Landing Ship Tank or LST, and the last remaining steam-powered landing ship in the world, continues slowly.

The Cenotaph was originally commissioned by David Lloyd George as a temporary wood and plaster structure to be the centrepiece of the Allied Victory Parade in 1919. At its unveiling the base of the monument was spontaneously covered in wreaths to the dead and missing from the First World War. Such was the extent of public enthusiasm for the structure that it was decided that it should become a permanent and lasting memorial. Even before the First World War had come to an end, Lutyens had been appointed as one of three principal architects for the Imperial War Graves Commission and it was to him that the task of designing the permanent Cenotaph fell. Built of Portland Stone and unveiled by His Majesty King George V on 11 November 1920, the Cenotaph’s body is adorned by a simple carved wreath with the words “The Glorious Dead”. As many local war memorials in villages, towns and cities across the United Kingdom drew their inspiration from the Cenotaph you could argue that Lutyens’ plans of this structure had much farther reaching consequences than the Thiepval Memorial – that being despite the fact that it is said that it took Lutyens just six hours to complete his design! David Murdoch. By email.

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The Thin Red Line

During the Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854, the British red-coated 93rd (Highland) Regiment. aided by a small force of Royal Marines and some Turkish infantrymen, routed a Russian cavalry charge. 93rd Highlander Officer 93rd Highlander Sergeant Loading 93rd Highlander Standing to Repel 93rd Highlander Kneeling to Repel 93rd Highlander Standing Firing 93rd Highlander Wounded Capt William Morris 17th Lancers Mounted Russian Hussar Charging Mounted Russian Hussar Engaging ‘Helping a Friend’ 93rd Highlander helping a wounded

The Charge of the Light Brigade

The disastrous but gloroius charge of British cavalry, consisting of the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, 17th Lancers, and the 8th and 11th Hussars Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854

colleague CRW 22 93rd Highlander Kneeling Firing CRW 23 11th Hussar Charging CRW 24SL ‘THE RESCUE’ - A mounted 11th Hussar Sergeant rescuing a 17th Lancer. Limited Edition CRW 25 93rd Highlander Piper CRW 26 Coldstream Guards Officer with Flag CRW 27 Coldstream Guardsman Advancing CRW 28 Coldstream Guardsman at the Port CRW 29 Coldstream Guardsman - Standing Firing CRW 30 Coldstream Guards Drummer Boy

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Coldstream Guard Kneeling Firing Coldstream Guard Standing Loading 93rd Highlander Officer Flag Bearer Mounted Capt Nolan Pointing Mounted 93rd Highland Officer Falling 17th Lancer Russian Officer Russian Standing Firing Russian Standing Loading Russian Bugler Florence Nightingale & Wounded Soldier

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Casualties of War

Precision bombing of individual targets is often perceived as a relatively recent development – a far cry from the massed bombing raids of the Second World War. Yet with the low-level attacks on Amiens prison and the Gestapo headquarters at Aarhus, the Mosquitoes of 140 Wing had shown that they could achieve almost pin-point accuracy. Unfortunately, explains Ken Wright, when they bombed their next target in Copenhagen tragedy struck.

I

n some ways, the Germans had tried to make their occupation of Denmark as easy on the Danish people as they could and they even allowed the democraticallyelected Government to remain in power. As a consequence, the Danish Resistance movement was slow to develop. However, as the war progressed the Danes began to actively oppose the invaders and a highly organised network began to develop. This meant more work for the Geheime Staatspolizei, or the Gestapo as it is better known. By 1944, increasing numbers of Danes had been arrested by the Gestapo and some of these were held in the headquarters of the Gestapo and the

Deutsche Sicherheitspolizei (German Criminal Police) Departments 4 and 5, which were located in the Shellhus in Copenhagen. This modern building dating from 1934 had belonged to the Shell Oil Company before the war. Located on the corner of Kampmannsgade and Vester Farimagsgade, this six-story steel and concrete structure also housed the offices of three of the most important Gestapo or SS personnel in Denmark: Sturmbannführer Dr Karl Heinz Hoffman (the Gestapo’s head in the country), Kriminalrat Eric Bunke and Sturmbannführer Hans Hermannsen. Inspired by the successful raid on the Gestapo area headquarters in the Aarhus University complex by twenty-four RAF Mosquitoes on 31 October 1944, Danish Resistance leaders made repeated requests to the British to carry out a similar type of attack on the Shellhus. Attacking a single target in a city centre in a friendly country clearly

DECEMBER 2010

involved unusual risks. It was estimated that civilian casualties might be as high as 300 and aircraft losses were also likely to be considerable. Such an attack would therefore only be sanctioned if absolutely necessary. Ole Lippmann, the UK-based representative of the Danish Resistance (Freedom Council) was infiltrated back into Denmark to assess the situation. On 15 March 1945, he submitted the following report: “Military leaders arrested and plans in German hands. Situation never before so desperate. Remaining leaders known by Hun. We are re-grouping but need help. Bombing of SD Copenhagen will give us breathing space. If any importance at all to Danish resistance you must help us irrespective of cost. We will never forget RAF and you if you come.”1 MAIN PICTURE:

Operation Carthage underway on 21 March 1945. The Gestapo headquarters building, the Shellhus, can be seen in the lower right hand corner with smoke from a bomb strike rising from it. Note the Mosquito on the left of the photograph. (All images courtesy of The Museum of Danish Resistance 1940-1945 unless stated otherwise)

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CASUALTIES OF WAR

It was known that thirty members of the Danish resistance movement (the Modstandsbevægelsen) and five of the Danish Freedom Council were being held on the top floor awaiting their fate. After consultations, the RAF eventually agreed to the request. Just after 08.30 hours on the morning of 21 March 1945, a force of eighteen de Havilland FB Mk.VI Mosquitoes from 140 Wing (which was comprised of 21 Squadron RAF, 464 Squadron RAAF and 487 Squadron RNZAF) took off in three waves. After several weeks of meticulous planning, Operation Carthage was under way.

BRITAIN AT WAR

The attacking Mosquitoes flew in three waves of six aircraft. The route to Denmark was made over the North Sea to avoid flying over enemy-held territory, preventing flak and radar detection. This, though, meant a flying time of over five hours, stretching the Mosquitoes to the limit of their endurance.

Accompanying the 140 Wing aircraft were two specially modified Mosquitoes from the RAF’s Film Production Unit (FPU) and an escort of thirty-one RAF North American Mustangs from 64, 126 and 234 Squadrons. Of the latter, three would return before reaching Denmark after hitting birds in flight.

For the actual attack one of the FPU aircraft (DZ414), which was carrying two 500lb HE bombs and two 500lb M.76 incendiaries, would join the first wave. The famous Air Vice Marshal Basil Embry DSO, AFC, flew in the first wave in the No.3 position, though Squadron Leader E.B. “Ted” Sismore, in 487 Squadron’s RS570, was the raid leader. * The weather over the North Sea was stormy, with surface winds gusting to fifty knots. To avoid radar detection the Mosquitoes flew at an altitude of just fifty feet which, with the strong winds, made flying difficult and hazardous.

With help from the Special Operations Executive and the Danes, a highly-detailed relief scale model of the square mile of Copenhagen city centre had been built and although the Shellhus was the only building in the area that was camouflaged (with green and brown stripes) it was not easily identifiable at 300mph and at a height of sixty feet.2

Flying Officer Robert E. Kirkpatrick RCAF (21 Squadron) and Sergeant R. Hearne, an RAF photographer with 4 FPU, were flying DZ383, a photo-reconnaissance Mosquito attached to the third wave: “We flew low-level all the way and Commanding Officer [sic] Embry said anyone flying higher than him, he would personally shoot them down. Don’t know how

24

he would have known as he was No.3 in the first flight.”3 A side effect of flying low-level over the North Sea was the accumulation of salt spray on the aircraft. Pilot Officer Peter Lake, a navigator flying in a 464 Squadron Mosquito piloted by Flight Lieutenant W. Knowle “Shrimp” Shrimpton, in the second wave, summarised the difficulty of the flight: “Flying across the North Sea was very difficult at low-level on this operation. The windscreen became caked in salt spray and made it difficult to see. This was bad enough for the pilot but at least he had a windscreen wiper on ABOVE LEFT:

Another shot of a 140 Wing Mosquito passing over the Shellhus during the raid – an image that once again emphasises the extremely low-level height that the RAF crews flew at during the attack. Note the barricades arranged in the street in front of the Shellhus which can be seen near the Mosquito bottom right.

ABOVE RIGHT:

Captured by a quick-thinking Danish citizen, Mosquitoes from one of the waves of attacking aircraft are pictured flying low over central Copenhagen during Operation Carthage.

BELOW:

A 464 Squadron Mosquito test firing at night. (Courtesy of author)

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CASUALTIES OF WAR

BRITAIN AT WAR LEFT:

One of the Mosquitoes pictured weaving through the sky over Copenhagen, once again at literally roof-top height.

BELOW LEFT:

The Shellhus burning fiercely after the RAF attack on 21 March 1945. This is a view of the façade facing the road known as Kampmannsgade. The majority of the bombs dropped hit the wing of the building facing west toward Nyropsgade (arrowed).

BELOW RIGHT:

Basil Embry also recalled the problems with the salt spray. “Near the Danish coast,” he later wrote, “I opened a side window and managed with difficulty to clear a small portion of the windscreen through which I could get a limited view ahead.”5 Despite the difficulties of the North Sea crossing, the force flew on and eventually reached the checkpoint at Lake Tissø on the western side of the Danish island of Zealand. Here the force split into its attacking formations, all of which would approach Copenhagen from the south-west. The first wave consisted of seven Mosquitoes (including one of the FPU aircraft), the second was a further six Mosquitoes, whilst the last comprised of the remaining Mosquitoes (again, one being an FPU ’plane). The first wave, lead by Group Captain Robert Bateson DSO, DFC, flying Ted Sismore’s aircraft, led off, at minimum altitude, with an escort of eleven Mustangs. As they “streaked across the beautifully green Danish countryside” many Danes waved whilst others saluted the fast-moving Mosquitoes. The RAF crews also noted that the Danish flag flew from many of the houses.

5

Bateson made the first low-level bombing attack at a height of just 100 feet at 11.14 hours. Speed was increased to 300 mph. The escorting Mustangs also increased speed and began to seek out the German flak positions.

next was witnessed by Flight Lieutenant M. Hetherington who was flying as No.6 on the starboard side and slightly to the rear of Kleboe:

Bateson released his bombs, hitting the first and second floors, closely followed by the second aircraft which scored a hit in the centre of Shellhus at ground level. Air Vice Marshal Embry followed, also hitting the target. Though taken by surprise by the first wave of the attack, the German anti-aircraft gunners were soon in action and Flight Lieutenant David Drew DFC’s 64 Squadron Mustang Mk.III (KH460) was hit by flak and crashed in Fælled Park. Drew was killed.6 The next in line to enter what was quickly becoming a veritable hornet’s nest was Wing Commander Peter Kleboe DSO, DFC, AFC, RAFVR, and his navigator Flying Officer Reginald Hall RCAF. What happened

“We watched each other and attempted to follow the leader by ‘biting hard into his tail’ and at the same time staying clear of his slipstream. We followed each other like shadows. We knew that we had to turn, but apparently Wing Commander Kleboe had not seen the pylon or had reacted too slowly. Suddenly, through the side window I observed Kleboe’s aircraft climb at a very steep angle and fall off to port. Squadron Leader A.C. Henderson and I instructively threw our aircraft to starboard and continued on towards the target.”7 The elevator rudder on Kleboe’s Mosquito had struck a light tower situated in the Dybbølsbro rail yards some 800 yards from the target, and the aircraft crashed in a street just behind

BAW 400TX

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35mm

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DECEMBER 2010

Flying Officer Kirkpatrick continues: “At Lake Tissø about twenty miles west of Copenhagen, the first flight from HQ and 21 Squadron went on, the rest were to circle the lake to maintain accurate timing and safe separation. One circuit for 464 Squadron, twice for 487 and three times for us in DZ383 [and] then we were to proceed to the target to take our photographs.”

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his side of the aircraft. People seem to think all the navigator has to do was look at his instruments so they never put a windscreen wiper on the navigator’s side.”4

In this remarkable picture taken in the immediate aftermath of the attack it is possible to make out two people in the process of escaping from the top floor of the Shellhus (circled). One of the prisoners held in the Gestapo headquarters was the politician Poul Sørensen. Having managed to get out of his cell, Sørensen came across three fellow prisoners, one of whom was Carl WedellWedellsborg, a member of the Resistance. Finding some German belts, WedellWedellsborg tied them together and attached them to a window frame. Climbing down this improvised escape rope, the four escapers managed to reach the fourth floor. From here they were forced to jump down to the road below. Two of the four, including Wedell-Wedellsborg, were killed in the attempt. The other death was that of Mogens Kornerup Prior, who was already badly injured through a recent Gestapo beating when he made his bid for freedom. The remaining pair survived, though Sørensen was badly injured. Note the two unidentified persons by the windows on the second floor.

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CASUALTIES OF WAR

BRITAIN AT WAR

the Jeanne d’Arc French Convent School. One Danish civilian eyewitness was later to recount seeing two bombs detach from the doomed aircraft. One fell on a four storey house some 300 or so yards beyond the light tower and exploded killing eight people. The wrecked Mosquito quickly caught fire and rivers of burning fuel and oil leaked out across the crash site. This, combined with exploding ammunition, resulted in a large plume of black smoke that rose into the sky – a factor that was to have terrible consequences.

error, these Mosquito crews unloaded their deadly cargoes in the vicinity of the burning wreckage.

Some of the aircraft from the following second wave and at least five from the third wave mistook the smoke from Kleboe’s crash site as their target. Unaware of their

The smoke did not deceive Pilot Officer Peter Lake: “As we came in over the scene, I realised the smoke was not the target and I shouted to ‘Shrimp’ not to bomb. Wing Commander Bob Iredale RAAF who was leading the second wave [in SZ968 with Flying Officer Johnson] decided to go around again and try and determine what the real target was. However, a number of crews from the following second and third waves accidently bombed the school very near to the crash site.”

Sadly, the French Convent School, being so close to the crash site, was hit. Accounts vary as to whom and how many were killed during the bombing raid. As a result, the figures of eighty-six children, ten nuns, eight teachers and twenty-one other civilians being killed are only approximate. Many others were wounded.

“Shrimp” – Flight Lieutenant Shrimpton – later explained the incident in more detail: “Peter yelled, ‘Don’t bomb, smoke to port!’ He signalled to me that something was wrong. Were we on target? This all took place

some ten to fifteen seconds from what we believed to be the target. Enough time to see that the building in question was not damaged, but not enough to evaluate all the facts. Therefore, I aborted the attack, cleared the building and closed the bomb doors. Throttling back and keeping low, I commenced a left-hand orbit. “After a moment we had left the flak area and I reduced the rate of turn. We then had the opportunity to assess the situation and make a plan. The building which we were confident was the target was not damaged, no fire or smoke. We decided that the preceding aircraft had probably bombed the wrong target. Was the fire a decoy? ABOVE LEFT:

Another view of the Shellhus immediately after the RAF strike. This photograph was taken from a spot in Vester Farimagsgade towards the side of the structure facing Kampmannsgade. It is reported that at the time of the raid there were nine prisoners being held on the top floor of the western part of the building. As this was the area where the majority of the bombs fell, six were killed instantly. All fourteen prisoners in the southern wing survived – no bombs hit this part of the structure.

ABOVE RIGHT:

A cyclist has stopped to watch as the Gestapo headquarters in the Shellhus is consumed by flames.

LEFT:

Fires are still burning in the Gestapo headquarters in this view of the building seen from Nyropsgade. It is stated that the Shellhus was hit by eight 500lb bombs. Of this number, six fell on the western wing towards Nyropsgade, the remaining two on the eastern wing towards Vester Farimagsgade. Following the explosions, the west wing collapsed, starting a fire which soon spread to the rest of the building.

BELOW:

A civilian runs for cover in the street known as Maglekildevej, some half a mile west of the Shellhus, after a number of bombs dropped by the Mosquitoes have exploded.

26

DECEMBER 2010

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CASUALTIES OF WAR

BRITAIN AT WAR

“We decided to get ourselves into position for another run-up to the target. Then, realising that we were alone without orientation of our position, we commenced another orbit. After about 325° we both became re-orientated, first by Peter’s recognition of the run-up track and as a result of that my identification of the target. Here we determined that the Shellhus had been hit. We could see dust and smoke. I continued to turn on the runup and as we came in we both agreed that the job had been done. We observed heavy damage to the base of the building and lots of dust and smoke. More bombs might have unnecessarily endangered the Danes in the building so we aborted the attack.”

pile of smoke. I thought I was lost. They had navigators and they were so close I either had to turn right 360° or get closer to them because of the blast radius of the delayed action bombs. I slipped right next to No.4 and we went through the smoke and they unloaded their bombs. Unfortunately, we were to learn later the bombs hit a French school.

Flying Officer Kirkpatrick was equally confused: “I was about two minutes from target when I saw four ‘Mossies’ coming from my left and turning east towards a big

“My windscreens were fouled with salt spray and difficult to see through so I joined two ‘Mossies’ from 464 north of Copenhagen. One was on fire on the starboard wing and his escort waved me off so I proceeded home by myself.

ABOVE:

The badly damaged Shellhus and its surroundings pictured on 28 March 1945.

BELOW LEFT:

The French School in Frederiksberg Allé after having been hit by bombs from some of the 140 Wing Mosquitoes.

BELOW RIGHT:

A close-up view of a 464 Squadron de Havilland Mosquito. (Courtesy of the author)

28

“The other four ‘Mossies’ turned north but, as ordered, I had to go further east to drop the incendiaries I was carrying a few blocks from the target to create a diversion in case some of the prisoners were able to escape. Turns out I burnt up a few houses east of the school and west of the Shellhus.

“As it turned out, the aircraft in the second wave were also diverted by the smoke and missed their run in. They circled and the leader bombed [the] Shellhus but two were shot down and one took his bombs home.”

Basil Embry’s attack, meanwhile, had been more successful. As his aircraft raced over the suburbs of Copenhagen, his co-pilot Squadron Leader Peter Clapham, called out: “That’s the target. Straight ahead of us over those small lakes.” “We were now tensed for the moment of bomb release,” Embry subsequently recalled. “Suddenly a bridge appeared ahead of us and I saw some poles, possibly light standards, sticking up. I eased the aeroplane up a little and then down again a few feet. By this time Peter had the bomb doors open, and the target seemed to be approaching us very fast. “I pressed the bomb release and pulled up just over the top of the Shell House [sic], and then down again almost to street level. Glancing up, I could see flak bursting above us, certainly not more than ten feet above. Below us I saw people in the street throwing themselves flat and others dashing for doorways. Soon these hectic moments were over, and we were clear of Copenhagen and on our way back to Norfolk.”8 Christer Lyst Hansen, a prominent member of the Danish Resistance and one of the prisoners who managed to escape and release other

DECEMBER 2010

CASUALTIES OF WAR

BRITAIN AT WAR I heard someone screaming in German. I hammered on the cell door but no one came. Taking my stool, I hammered again at the door which eventually opened. The roof of the building had been blown off.”9 * The attack was over in five minutes. “We picked up some flak on the way home that damaged the starboard engine and the ‘Mossie’s’ nose,” reported Kirkpatrick. “The engine kept running ok but as it was a long trip, and we were sweating fuel, I had to keep monitoring the ‘Mossie’s’ eight tanks so I flew reciprocals. I certainly wasn’t comfortable with the situation and decided as soon as the English coast appeared [that] I would land at the nearest airfield which turned out to be Rackheath [in Norfolk]. Fortunately, there was no air traffic at the time.

prisoners, described his experiences during the bombing to an RAF interviewing officer after the war: “I heard the aircraft coming from the west, flying very low, just above the roofs. The noise was terrific, and the air was sucked out of the cells. Then I heard the explosions like door slams, which I think were the bombs falling on the house. Immediately after the first aircraft had passed over I heard the first explosion. Three or four more followed in quick succession. With the second explosion, the whole building shook as thought it were an earthquake. “It was perfectly quiet for a moment and then

DECEMBER 2010

“Got the landing gear down ok but had no brakes so just had to coast to a stop. A Jeep load of Military Police arrived and Sergeant Hearne asked one of the MPs to take a picture of us examining holes in the cowling and nose. We were then taken to the airfield tower. I ’phoned our base to come and get us and they said they will do it in the morning. Sergeant Hearne said he would be in London before then as the film of the raid needed to be developed urgently. I don’t remember much about my brief time at Rackheath – probably slept most of the time. I never saw Sergeant Hearne again but did see re-runs of the film he took.”

FAR LEFT:

The surviving Mosquitoes were back home by 14.30 hours. Four of the Mosquitoes had been lost. Aside from Flight Lieutenant Drew’s ’plane, a second 64 Squadron Mk.III Mustang had been damaged by the fierce flak and was forced to crash-land near Ring Kobing on the west coast of Jutland. The pilot, Pilot Officer R.C. Hamilton RAAF, was taken prisoner.10

MAIN PICTURE:

One of those who escaped from the Shellhus during the attack was Mogens Fog. A physician, following the German occupation Fog played a strategic role in the Danish Resistance. In 1942, for example, he helped set up the Frit Danmark, the illegal nonpartisan Resistance newspaper. Having become an active member of the Frihedsrådet (Danish Freedom Council) in 1943, he was betrayed and arrested by the Gestapo in October 1944 and incarcerated in the building’s top floor.

ABOVE:

A portrait of Helmuth Bartholdy Jensen. Arrested in February 1945, Jensen was one of the eight Danish prisoners killed during Operation Carthage.

BELOW:

A hand chain used by the Gestapo recovered from ruins of the Shellhus after the RAF attack. The ruins of the Jeanne d’Arc French School in Copenhagen’s Frederiksberg Allé photographed in the days after the strike.

29

CASUALTIES OF WAR

ABOVE:

The empty shell of the Shellhus photographed sometime in May or June 1945.

BELOW:

The memorial to the eight members of the Danish Resistance movement, the Modstandsbevægelsen, killed during the attack on 21 March 1945, which can be seen today on the rebuilt Shellhus. (Courtesy of Sune Hundebøll)

For 140 Wing, the loss of eight of their own was bad enough but the greatest tragedy was the news of the death of so many innocent people. Saddest of all was the death of the children caught in the devastation caused by the impact of Wing Commander Kleboe’s aircraft. On the positive side, the bombs that did hit the Shellhus killed (again an estimation) 100

BRITAIN AT WAR

Gestapo officials and collaborators and allowed eighteen Resistance members and two of the Danish Freedom Council on the sixth floor to escape. Only six prisoners were killed in the raid and two died while attempting to escape from the upper floor.11 The day after the raid, photographs taken by a reconnaissance Mosquito from 34 Wing revealed that the top storey and the roof of the south front of the Shellhus had been destroyed whilst the remainder was partially gutted. The roof and top story of the east wing was in ruins and the floors below severely damaged. The west wing had been demolished almost to ground level. Based on the photographic evidence and his own observations, Embry was moved to state: “It will always remain a miracle to me that anyone inside the building survived to tell the tale.” Almost all the Gestapo files on the Danish resistance movement were destroyed in the strike. The task was all but completed when Resistance members managed to “liberate” two other important filing cabinets containing a list of Danish traitors who were collaborating with the Germans. Although the raid ultimately achieved its aim, there was a general feeling amongst some of the participating crews that the attack might have achieved the same result and avoided such a high toll of casualties if there had been fewer aircraft involved. * Though the deaths of the innocent children and staff at the school was a great tragedy, such casualties of war were accepted by the Danish people with little resentment and today at the new Shellhus building there is a memorial to the nine aircrew that lost their own lives trying to do the right thing. n ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The author wishes to thank Mark Lax and Leon Kane-Maguire for permission to quote from The Gestapo Hunters (Banner Books Australia, 1990); Peter Lake for allowing excerpts from The Gestapo Hunters; Robert Kirkpatrick for permitting access to his personal memoirs; and the author Ove Hermansen for his invaluable advice.

30

ABOVE:

The Shellhus today. In 1995 a memorial plaque commemorating the nine members of RAF aircrew who were killed during Operation Carthage was unveiled by Air Commodore E.B. “Ted” Sismore DSO, DFC, AFC, on the wall of the Shellhus. At the same time a propeller blade from a Mosquito was fixed to a plinth – it can be seen on the end wall in this photograph.

NOTES

1. Martin W. Boman, Moskitopanik: Mosquito Fighters and Fighter Bomber Operations in the Second World War (Pen & Sword Aviation, Barnsley, 2004) pp.14950. See also, Martin Bowman, Mosquito, Menacing the Reich, pp.244-257. 2. During his pre-raid briefing Air Vice Marshal Basil Embry DSO, AFC recalled discussing a house near the Shellhus with Major Truelson, the Danish officer in London in charge of Danish Resistance intelligence. Pointing out to Truelson that the building would almost certainly be damaged, Embry received a wry grin and the reply: “The Germans use it for immoral purposes and so if one bomb hits it by accident, it would be excellent!” (Quoted in Basil Embry GCB, KBE, DSO & Three Bars, Mission Completed (Methuen, London, 1957), p.276). 3. Robert Kirkpatrick flew nine more missions after the Copenhagen raid of 21 March. At the war’s end, he along with many others who participated in the raid on Copenhagen were honoured by King Christian X, and given cufflinks engraved with a Danish symbol. 4. Mark Lax & Leon Kane-Maguire, The Gestapo Hunters (Banner Books, Australia, 1990). 5. Sir Basil Embry, Ibid pp.277-278. 6. The 22-year-old pilot, who hailed from Wool in Dorset, was buried in Bispebjerg Cemetery in Copenhagen. 7. Bowman, Moskitopanik, p.154. Hetherington was at the controls of 21 Squadron’s HR162. 8. Sir Basil Embry, Ibid pp.278-279. 9. Report on the attack by Squadron Leader E.M. Salzer, 12 June 1945, (AHB Copenhagen, File AHB/ EMS/8/COP). 10. Norman L.R. Franks, RAF Fighter Command Losses of the Second World War: Volume III (Midland Publishing, Earl Shilton, 2000), p.159. 11. In his autobiography, Sir Basil Embry states that all the prisoners were liberated “without the loss of a single life” and that twenty-six members of the Gestapo were killed.

DECEMBER 2010

The war had swung decisively in favour of the Allies and the Germans had withdrawn to the Hindenburg Line and their fortifications behind the Canal du Nord. The Germans knew that if they could not stop the Allies at this point there would be little chance of victory in the west. The coming battle was one the Germans could not lose. For the British divisions it would mean an attack before dawn.

T

he great German offensive of 1918 had long since been blunted. Now it was the Germans who were being driven back as the Allies mounted a general offensive that would only end when the enemy sued for peace. In September 1918 the German High Command still hoped to be able to halt the Allies at the defensive system known as the Hindenberg Line. General Haig, on the other hand, believed that he could break through the Hindenberg Line and bring the war to a speedy conclusion, or at least drive the Germans back to their own frontiers. The area selected for the main attack was the rolling down-land between the Canal de l’Escaut (Scheldt) and the Canal du Nord.

DECEMBER 2010

This was a front of between 10,000 to 12,000 yards wide. The assault position was directly along the boundary between the British and Third Armies. The British First Army was to lead the crossing of the Canal du Nord to secure the northern flank of the British Third Army which would, for its part, cross its sector of the Canal du Nord and seize the Scheldt Canal. The two armies would then move across the northern extension of the Hindenburg Line and capture the city of Cambrai. Construction of the Canal du Nord, which was built to link the River Oise to the DunkirkScheldt canal, began in 1913. With the outbreak of war in 1914 work on the canal was halted and it was left in varying stages

of completion. This naturally-strong barrier had been made even more formidable by the Germans as they had dammed and flooded the area along the canal north of Sains-lèsMarquion, rendering it virtually impassable. This left only a narrow (around 4,000 yards) section of the canal that was passable. This was to the south of the canal between Sainslès-Marquion and Mœuvres. Aerial reconnaissance and operations by the ground forces had revealed that all the bridges across the canal had been broken and that the east (German) bank of the canal was held in strength. The ground to the rear of the canal had also been fortified. After preliminary operations, the Allies were ready to attack. The Guards’ Division would

31

THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY a far greater chance of receiving a fatal wound whilst crawling over the parapet than when standing upright. Several men were hit during those first few seconds including the Company Sergeant Major.

ABOVE:

German prisoners, carrying a wounded man, follow a British tank through a cutting made in the bank of the Canal du Nord near Mœuvres, 27 September 1918. (IWM Q9345)

lead the way for the British troops, and to show the men just what to expect a relief map was made on a sloping bank by a roadside. The men were assembled around the map, one company at a time. The canal was indicated by a white tape, and the various roads, trenches and other features were marked out with coloured stones. It was considered that the canal was too formidable a barrier along most of its length to be assaulted in the face of the enemy, so the Guards were to storm the canal on a narrow front of only 150 yards. The attack began at 05.20 hours on the morning of 27 September 1918. The 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards was amongst the leading units. By Zero Hour each company had assembled in the trenches in two waves of two platoons each. Separated by about fifty yards, and, following the barrage, they would rush the German front line trenches and push on to the canal bank. They would descend into the bed of the canal, cross it and climb the opposite bank. They would then halt and re-form before assaulting the double line of German trenches. Having achieved this, they would consolidate their new position ready to repel any counter-attacks. This was scheduled to take three hours. The second main wave of troops would then push on through the newlyestablished line, link up with the leading elements of the First Army and continue to drive back the Germans, allowing them no opportunity to make a defensive stand. Guardsman Frederick E. Noakes of No.2 Company, was in the midst of the action and he now takes up the story: “About half-past four we scrambled out, stiff and cramped, into the cold air and crept along the trench to our appointed ‘jumping-off’ place. This was only a short distance away, and lining the trench we stood under the parapet and awaited the coming of ‘zero hour’ ... The guns had ceased firing altogether, and only an isolated shot or spasmodic rattle of a machine-gun at rare intervals broke the stillness that hung over No Man’s Land ... 32

“At last the order was passed along in a whisper to fix bayonets, and we knew the time had come. A few minutes later, three big guns spoke out in regular sequence, far from the rear. The scream of their shells had hardly ceased to vibrate in our ears when, with a tremendous simultaneous crash ... the barrage opened. “Shells in hundreds, in thousands, of every size and calibre, shrieked down close over our heads and burst in front of the trench, at first close to the parapet, then gradually creeping towards the German lines, a flail of death-dealing eruptions which must surely sweep everything living from its path. Mere words can convey no idea of the culminating barrage, surely the greatest and most intense in the history of war. Devilish force unchained, the power of Hell let loose, trampling the earth beneath fire-spurting feet, the mighty crash and clangour of ten thousand guns. Great gouts and fountains of flame, scarlet and green and gold – thousands of flashes stabbing the night incessantly – an indescribable hell of noise that numbed the senses and stupefied the brain – that was the Barrage.” It appeared to those watching from the British lines that the bombardment had taken the Germans completely by surprise. But the enemy soon recovered and their machineguns began to spray the tops of the parapets over which the attackers would shortly have to climb. Then the signal was given and the Guards scrambled up the short ladders. Their objective was to get up and onto the ground above as quickly as possible as the enemy’s bullets were sweeping low and there was

By this time the German artillery had begun to respond. “Great fans and fountains of flame sprang up as if by magic from the ground, for the uproar was so great that one could no longer distinguish the sound of separate shell-bursts, even when close at hand,” Noakes recalled. “They were all welded into a homogeneal [sic] solid-steel universe of thunder that seemed as material and all-pervading as the atmosphere, stabbed through by the zipp and whine of bullets. The acrid smell of lyddite fumes was everywhere. It seemed impossible that anyone could come alive through that cyclone of destruction.” Having “gone over the top”, the men had to turn half-left to advance in the direction of the canal. They moved, according to Guardsman Noakes, in single-file at a “half-trot”, weaving their way through the broken wire and round the shell-holes.

THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY

BRITAIN AT WAR

“The sensation of standing up and crossing open ground under heavy fire is one which I find difficult, almost impossible, to describe in any ordinary terms,” confessed Noakes. “The terrific uproar around made conscious thought and feeling impossible, and I stumbled forward with the others over the churned-up ground, picking my way carefully, almost methodically through the unseen obstacles, heedless of the bullets which constantly cracked past, and watching, as if they did not concern me, the showers of sparks which shot up from the ground on all sides as shells exploded; in the general din, they seemed to be almost noiseless. It was like walking in a nightmare of hell, a whirlwind of thunder and flame.”

low bank not far from the canal. It was still dark, though there was a “greyness” through which objects could be vaguely discerned. The Guards had to remain where they were, unable to go forward, and still under heavy artillery fire. “Something,” observed Noakes, “had evidently gone wrong”.

ABOVE LEFT:

The reason for the delay was that the leading platoons had come up against a machinegun emplacement known as “Mouse Post” underneath the far end of one of the broken bridges. From here the German machineguns were sweeping the place where the Guards were supposed to climb down into the canal bed. The men had tried but found it impossible to cross the lip of the canal bank.

ABOVE:

The Guards reached the edge of the canal only to be held up by intense machine-gun fire. The men dropped into cover behind a

Acting Captain Cyril H. Frisby decided to take matters into his own hands. Seeing that this was “the keypoint of the whole scheme” and

FAR LEFT:

DECEMBER 2010

The Royal Engineers clear away the wreckage of a bridge across the Canal du Nord at Mœuvres which was blown up by the Germans during their retreat on 27 November 1917. This photograph, which graphically shows the kind of terrain over which the British and Canadian soldiers advanced on the first day of the battle, was taken on 28 November 1917. (IWM Q6331) Allied infantry going forward during the Battle of the Canal du Nord, 27 September 1918. (National Library of Scotland)

BELOW:

German mortars captured by the men of the 4th Canadian Infantry Battalion during the Canal du Nord offensive. Both of the mortars have been marked by the 4th Battalion, which captured them on 27 September 1918. (Courtesy of the Library and Archive of Canada) Guardsman Frederick E. Noakes of No.2 Company, 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. (Courtesy of Frontline Books: www.frontline-books.com)

33

THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY

BRITAIN AT WAR by moving along the captured trenches, throwing grenades into the entrances of all the dugouts. According to Noakes, not a single living German was found. In the cold light of day it was clear that the Germans had suffered a serious reverse. As the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards made itself secure in the captured German trenches the second main wave passed through and the battle receded into the distance. Eventually the Guards were relieved and returned to more comfortable billets. “My last recollection that night,” Noakes recalled after the war, “is of Captain Frisby, exhausted as he must have been and wounded into the bargain, limping along the lines, asking if everyone was reasonably comfortable and apologizing for the absence of supper.” * With the Canadian divisions of the First Army also achieving their objectives, and winning six VCs in the process, the road to Cambrai was open. The stage was set for the last great battles of the First World War. n

realising “the seriousness of failing to capture the canal crossing” he asked for volunteers to join him in making an attempt to rush the machine-gun emplacement. The first to step forward was Lance-Corporal Thomas Norman Jackson. Following Jackson’s example, two others volunteered for this difficult, almost suicidal, mission. Having prepared themselves, the four men stood up and ran for the canal. In the face of point-blank fire from two machine-guns they slid down the bank rushed across the bed of the canal and bombed the German emplacement, which was strongly fortified with steel girders and concrete blocks. Incredibly, the Guardsmen seized the enemy position, capturing twelve men and their two machine-guns. The advance could now continue and the rest of the Coldstreamers moved up to the edge of the canal. “The steeply-sloping sides, originally faced with brickwork, were badly broken by shell-fire in many places,

ABOVE LEFT:

A horse team of the Royal Field Artillery pulling an 18-pounder field gun up the slope of a cutting through the bank of the Canal du Nord near Mœuvres, 27 September 1918. (National Library of Scotland)

MAIN PICTURE:

Canadian supply units crossing the dry bed of the Canal du Nord in the aftermath of the fighting on 27 September 1918. The wrecked bridge in the background was deliberately destroyed by the Germans, while the dead soldier in the foreground is grim testimony to the recent fighting. (National Library of Scotland)

34

so that descent was comparatively easy,” continued Noakes who saw the canal as being like a gigantic trench across their path. “We climbed and slithered to the bottom, crossed piles of rubble and pools of mud and water, and scrambled up the farther bank. Here, Captain Frisby was waiting just below the summit and despite the hail of bullets which was still sweeping the ground, he gave a helping hand to each of us who needed it and had a cheerful word for everyone as we passed him.” Unsurprisingly, Captain Frisby, who, despite suffering a bayonet wound in the leg, carried on throughout the day, was awarded the Victoria Cross. For being the first to volunteer, Lance-Corporal Jackson also won the VC. His award, however, would be a posthumous one for Jackson was killed later in the day. The formidable obstacle of the Canal du Nord had been crossed and it was still early morning. The men of the Guards Division were told to consolidate. This they did

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The remarkably descriptive quotations of Guardsman Noakes are taken from his memoir The Distant Drum, published by Frontline Books. Guardsman Frederick Noakes fought on the Western Front for the last eighteen months of the First World War. In 1934, he wanted to write up his “adventures” while his memory was still “undimmed”, using the letters he wrote home during 1917–1919 as a basis. His eloquent text, moved friends to persuade Noakes to publish the work privately in 1952. It is this work that has been published by Frontline Books and which has been made available to Britain at War Magazine readers at the special offer price of £15.99 including UK P&P. To order, visit the Frontline Books website (www.pen-and-sword.co.uk) or call 01226 734222, quoting ‘DISTANT20.

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Flying just ten feet above the water, and shrouded in a cloud of mist thrown up by the downdraft from their rotors, two Apache AH1 attack helicopters of 656 Squadron Army Air Corps swung across the Helmand River, heading towards a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan – with four men strapped to their wings!

APACHE RESCUE A few hours earlier, as dawn broke on the morning of 15 January 2007, combined Allied forces led by Royal Marines of 45 Commando had launched the final ground assault phase of a major offensive to clear the Taliban from its positions around the town of Garmsir. Code-named Operation Glacier, the offensive would also involve 7 (Sphinx) Battery, 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, 42 Commando, and Scimitar reconnaissance tanks of the Light Dragoons in a ground fire-support role. Preceding the operation a series of diversionary attacks to the north of Garmsir had been undertaken using units of the Afghan National Army (ANA). The main focus of the attack was now Jugroom Fort, the main Taliban stronghold in the area. At 02.00 hours the final stages of the offensive began in earnest with a prolonged artillery barrage from 29 Commando Regiment RA. This was combined with a massive aerial bombardment of Jugroom Fort by USAF Rockwell B1 stealth bombers. From their start-line just over three miles west of Garmsir, 120 men of Zulu Company, 45 Commando, mounted the rear compartments of their Viking Armoured Personnel Carriers and headed towards the Helmand River. Having forged their way across the open desert and scrubland the amphibious Vikings then began to plough through the shallow swirling waters, currents and sandbanks that make up the Helmand River which, at this point, was over half-a-mile wide. Artillery fire from 29 Commando Regiment’s L118 105mm Light Field Guns arced overhead as the vehicles made their way across the river. On the far side 81mm mortar fire from 42 Commando, which, overnight, had secured itself a fire-line close to the west bank of the river, could be seen pounding the fort complex. Behind 42 Commando the Scimitar tanks of the Light Dragoons were also moving forward to take up their flanking positions. Close air-support

DECEMBER 2010

for the operation was to be provided by two incoming Apache helicopter gunships, call signs “Ugly Five-Zero” and “Ugly Five-One”. Both were part of 3 Flight, 656 Squadron, 9 Regiment Army Air Corps. As the Vikings climbed up over the east bank of the river the main structure of the fort, now just 500 yards away, came into view – along with the heavy machine-gun and anti-aircraft positions mounted on its bomb-damaged watchtowers and huge outer mud and brick walls. All around could be seen the odd glimpse of the caves, tunnels, ditches and trenches known to link the Fort with its numerous other positions and outposts. With the British column soon racing across the open poppy fields towards its objective, the walls of Jugroom Fort lit up with muzzle flashes and tracer fire from the Taliban’s weapons. From the watchtowers the insurgents trained their heavy machine-guns onto the advancing Royal Marines and dirt and splintered rock exploded all around the armoured vehicles as the enemy soon found its range. The Vikings’ gunners quickly returned fire and the rear-compartments of the vehicles reverberated as rounds from the Browning .50-calibre machine-guns were sent on their way towards the stronghold’s walls. Suddenly, three blinding flashes lit up a wooded area to the north-east of the advancing Marines. These were closely followed by the tell-tale swirling smoke trails of rocket propelled grenades. The first RPG round slammed into the ground just yards in front of the column, showering the Vikings in dust and debris. The second and third RPGs exploded close by on the flanks of the lead vehicles. Cleared to enter the battle space, the pilot of the lead Apache, “Ugly FiveZero”, banked round and, entering the area, trained his 30mm chain gun on the tree-line where the RPGs had come from. As he did so, a short, but devastating, ten-round burst of high-explosive shells was unleashed on the insurgents.

37

“Ugly Five-One” now joined in the strike. Repeated twenty-round bursts from the two gunships tore through the woods, the distinctive chatter of the chain guns occasionally interrupted by secondary explosions as the Apache gunners found their targets and RPG rounds ignited. As the Apaches continued their aerial assault on the insurgents the Viking column screamed to a halt just short of Jugroom’s fortified outer walls. Even before the vehicles had come to a halt, the rear compartment doors were kicked open and Zulu Company stormed out, heading towards a breach in the bomb-damaged structure. At this point, enemy fire rained down onto the Marines. From every direction insurgents emerged from within the maze of tunnels and ditches that surrounded the complex. Within moments the men of Zulu Company had found themselves in a “kill zone” and engaged on all sides. The Marines were now caught in cross-fire laid down between the fort and the woodland to the north and to the east – even from the very scrubland they had just traversed in their Vikings. They were less than five minutes into the operation when the British started to take casualties. The insurgent forces, sensing victory, moved in on Zulu Company. The fighting was starting to get up-close and personal – bayonets were fixed. Marines were now engaged in hand-tohand fighting with the Taliban. They were going to have to get out, and get out fast.

The Commandos began to fight their way through the insurgent lines back to their Vikings under covering fire from the two Apaches which were circling overhead. The Army Air Corps crews worked quickly, selecting and then engaging their respective targets. With the gunships fully engaged in suppressing the Taliban forces, both in and around the fort complex, additional air-support would be needed to help 45’s withdrawal. In particular, it was desperately needed to secure the insurgents’ tunnel entrances that lay between the Viking column and its escape route across the Helmand. A call was put out to an American Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt, on patrol in the area, to assist. The USAF pilot, call sign “Tusk”, obliged with devastating efficiency. In a single pass the A-10 pilot laid down a six-second burst from his GAU-8/A Gatling gun that tore through the tunnel system, destroying the Taliban position. Pulling back to their start-line, the battle-exhausted Marines could at least console themselves that despite the mission being a failure, only four of their comrades had been wounded – and they had been safely evacuated by a Chinook medical team. ABOVE: A US Air Force A/OA-10 Thunderbolt, enveloped by gun smoke, photographed during a live-fire exercise at the Alaska Pacific Range Complex on 29 May 2007. The seven-barrelled GAU-8 “Avenger” Gatling gun boasts an incredible firing rate of 4,200 rounds per minute. During his six-second engagement over Jugroom Fort, call sign “Tusk” released some 420 of his 30mm High Explosive incendiary rounds into the Taliban tunnel entrances. (Image courtesy Airman 1st Class Jonathan Snyder USAF/US Department of Defense) LEFT: In a cloud of dust kicked up by its tracks, Marines of 42 Commando exit their Viking Armoured Personnel Carrier during an assault on Taliban positions during Operation Sond Chara, December 2008. (Image courtesy Corporal John Scott Rafoss USMC/ISAF) BACKGROUND IMAGE: A convoy of Viking BvS10 Armoured Personnel Carriers of the Queen’s Royal Lancers photographed on 12 August 2008, conducting security operations near Kajaki Dam, Helmand Province. (Image courtesy Gunnery Sergeant Clint Runyon/ US Department of Defense)

38

DECEMBER 2010

Then somebody asked the question ... “Had anybody seen Lance Corporal Mathew Ford?” Slowly the painful truth dawned on the men of 45 Commando; one of their own was unaccounted for. Ford had last been seen leading his section in a close-combat struggle at the breach in the fort’s outer wall. In the heat of battle he had been left behind. There was no other option open for the men of 45 Commando; they were going to have to go back. * Volunteers for the rescue mission stepped forward as Lieutenant Colonel Rob MaGowan MBE RM, commanding officer Operation Glacier, and 45 Commando’s RSM, Warrant Officer Colin Hearn, prepared the Vikings for their return to the battlefield. However, it would take time before the column could be made ready, time that Mathew Ford could ill-afford. MaGowan also realised that with the Taliban alert and probably expecting another attack, this mission could, in terms of British casualties, prove to be very costly. Yet, in the words of RSM Hearn, “there was no question of not doing anything – it was just how we were going to do it”.1 As preparations began a radio call was received from the pilot of “Ugly Five-Zero”. He reported that the AAC crews had located Mathew Ford and that they could identify the position where he lay. The pilot also proposed a faster, alternative, rescue plan. A plan that was every bit as ambitious as it was audacious. “Ugly Five-Zero’s” captain recalled that during combat training helicopter crews had been told of an American emergency procedure used to recover downed Apache crews, airlifting them out of harm’s way on the short stubby wings of the aircraft. His plan was to fly a rescue party of four Marines, one on each of the wings of “Five-Zero” and “Five-One”, back to Jugroom Fort and then land the aircraft close to the south-west corner of the walls where Ford lay. Then, having recovered and strapped Ford to one of the Apache’s wings, fly him back out to safety! The manoeuvre had never been undertaken by any British pilot, and certainly not when flying into a hostile situation as the crew of “Five-Zero” was now suggesting. As MaGowan sought permission from Battle Group

TOP: With its wings swept back a US Air Force Rockwell B-1B Lancer makes a low-level high-speed pass. The pressure produced by the aircraft’s speed has caused the water vapour around the fuselage and wings to condense into cloud. (Image courtesy Greg Stansbery USAF/US Department of Defense) ABOVE: The resulting explosion after a Rockwell B1 bomber targets an insurgent position in the Iraqi village of Zambraniyah. (Image courtesy Cpt. Paula Kurtz/US Department of Defense)

HQ for the rescue attempt to go ahead, the first of the volunteers came forward – despite the obvious and very real danger. The first to be selected was thirty-year-old Royal Engineer, Captain David Rigg. For Rigg, volunteering was “an instinctive reaction ... We all felt responsible and we all wanted to help”.2 He later remarked: “In these circumstances everyone is drawn together – Royal Marines, Army, Air Force. Everyone is in it together. You just pull together and do it. It wouldn’t have mattered who he was, he was one of us.”3 The other three chosen were Marine Gary Robinson, Marine Chris FraserPerry and, finally, RSM Colin Hearn. Hearn later recalled thinking: “They are my men, I should be responsible for getting them out. I’m RSM of the unit, he’s a Royal Marine the same as me – there was no way we were ever going to leave him, or anyone else, on that battlefield.”4 As the Apaches landed and powered down, the four-man rescue party made its way across the makeshift landing pad. Hastily sketching out a rough layout of the fort complex in the desert sand, the flight crews briefed the Marines – talking them through the approach, Taliban positions, where the main breach in the wall was, where the helicopters would land and, essentially, where Lance Corporal Ford could be found. Additional air-support for the operation would be provided by “Ugly FiveTwo” and “Ugly Five-Three”, now returning to the area having escorted the Chinook and the earlier four casualties back to Camp Bastion. They would rendezvous with the rescue force over Jugroom. ABOVE: A satellite image of the Taliban stronghold of Jugroom Fort. The fort is set back on a tributary of the Helmand River, south of the town of Garmsir. The arrow indicates the route taken by 45 Commando in their Viking BvS10s during the final assault phase of Operation Glacier. (© Google-Imagery, ©DigitalGlobe, Infoterra Ltd & Bluesky, Geoeye, Map data ©2009 Tele Atlas)

DECEMBER 2010

The Army Air Corps pilots estimated the Royal Marines would have around two minutes to complete their task before the Taliban forces moved in for the kill. Also, in order to try and protect the rescuers from the bitter chill factor of the freezing Afghan winter, the Apaches would only be flying at around forty knots – a third of their usual attack speed.

39

2 3

1 The four-man rescue team clambered up onto the Apache’s wings and using karabiners taken from the pilots’ flight suits secured themselves to the grab handles used by air-crews as they climbed into their cockpits. Positioned adjacent to the rear pilot seat, and immediately in front of the air-intakes to the Apache’s powerful Rolls-Royce engines, the noise would be deafening. During the flight there would be no chance of communication with each other or the aircrew, a fact that would have a significant effect on the mission and, in particular, two of the rescuers. As soon as the Marines were braced in position the two Apaches took off. Flying low over the Helmand River, in the distance they could see mortar and artillery fire continuing to pour into Jugroom Fort. The pilots throttled back and waited for the cue for their mission to start. Thousands of feet overhead a lone American B1 bomber, call sign “Bone One”, was lining up to deliver a precision-guided 2,000lb bomb onto a small, deserted, village lying just north-west of the intended landing zone. It was hoped that this diversionary tactic would confuse the Taliban and buy the rescue teams an extra few seconds on the ground. As the Apaches made their final approach the radio sparked up: “Bone One – bomb away – impact five-zero seconds.”5 Moments later a huge explosion shook the air. A thick black column of smoke slowly drifted up into the sky as the heavy dust cloud from the shock-wave spread out in all directions, engulfing the Taliban stronghold. Rising up from behind the river bank the two helicopters began their run across the 500 yards of open poppy fields. Sweeping in low over the terrain the pilot of “Five-Zero” called “check fire”. The indirect support-fire from the mortar units on the river bank and 105mm artillery of 29 Commando Regiment, five miles to the west, immediately ceased. From behind the helicopters, red and yellow tracer fire from the Marines on the west bank of the Helmand River continued to arc overhead, along with 30mm shells from the flanking Scimitars. Flying conditions were hazardous. Visibility was reduced to almost nil as the dust and debris from the tank bombardment combined with the

collapsing smoke column from the B1 bomb blast. The Apache pilots were now flying on instruments, skill and intuition. A barrage of AK47 and tracer rounds, fired from the walls of Jugroom Fort and its outer defences, targeted the two gunships as they closed in on their target. Strapped on the outside of the heavily-armoured helicopters, the four rescuers forced themselves tight up against the Apaches’ fuselages in a desperate attempt to reduce their profile and protect themselves from the incoming enemy fire. All Marine Robinson remembers of the short flight was trying to remain focused on his role in the mission: “All that was going through my head was what to do when we got on the ground and just make sure I knew exactly where I was going so I could reach Lance Corporal Ford as soon as possible and get out myself. It [the reality] only really dawned on me once we cleared the river and were just about to land and I saw some muzzle flashes.”6 As “Five-Zero” came in to land close to where Ford lay, the pilot realised that the uneven terrain, coupled with an unexpected amount of debris, would make it impossible for both aircraft to touch down safely. In zero visibility and with his wingman blind, but close behind him, he made a split-second decision. A diversion was needed to allow time for “Five-One” to land and evacuate the stricken Mathew Ford. Heaving back on his collective the pilot of “Five-Zero” pulled up, passed through the breach in the outer defence wall of the fort, swung his aircraft round and having laid down a burst of suppressing fire from his 30mm cannon, brought the helicopter to rest – inside the main compound of Jugroom itself. Hearn and Robinson, unaware of this last-minute change of plan, immediately scrambled down from their wing positions and headed off into the dust-storm. Believing they were outside of the fort, as originally briefed, they broke right – heading deeper into the compound and towards the inner defence walls. On board the grounded Apache, Staff Sergeant Keith Armatage, instantly realising the Marines’ mistake, untethered his SA80 from its mounting, cracked open the cockpit and set off after the two men.7

MAIN IMAGE: 45 Commando’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Rob MaGowan, looks on as his men cross over to the waiting Apaches. (Courtesy of Sergeant Gary Stanton RAF) RIGHT: An image taken by infra-red camera of one of the Apaches as they make their final approach into the fort. (© MoD Crown Copyright)

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OCTOBER 2010

5 4 Outside the walls, confused by “Five-Zero’s” sudden change of tactic, the pilot of “Five-One” continued with the original plan, placing his aircraft down hard on the ground. As the Apache sank into the soft earth, FraserPerry and Rigg leapt down from the aircraft and blindly headed off into the choking smog towards where they knew Mathew Ford lay. The powdery soil kicked up by the downdraft from the Apache’s still turning rotors added to a heady mixture of dust, debris and acrid smoke. A full minute of the rescue operation had now passed. Fraser-Perry and Rigg were nowhere to be seen. Sitting within the eerie silence of the grounded, defenceless (the guns’ automatic safety device engages on landing) Apache cockpit the twoman crew anxiously peered out into the gloom, vainly hoping to catch a glimpse of the returning rescue party. One of “Five-One’s” pilot’s, WO1 Ed Macy, mused on their predicament: “We’d lost the element of surprise, we’d lost all visibility, we’d even managed to lose each other.”8 As visibility slowly began to clear, the flight crew of “Five-One” were able to just about make out the shadowy figures of Fraser-Perry and Rigg, now attracting heavy Taliban fire, struggling in the deep soft earth to heave Lance Corporal Ford back towards the waiting helicopter. With the two Marines in obvious difficulty it was now Macy’s turn to leave the relative safety of his aircraft. Un-holstering and chambering his 9mm Browning, Macy opened the cockpit and leapt down from the Apache, instantly finding himself sinking into the soil and under heavy fire. He vividly recalled the “reek of cordite” that seared his nostrils and that “compared to the air-conditioned silence of the Apache cockpit, the noise was simply unbelievable”.9 RPGs screamed through the air as the insurgent forces attempted to target the Marines, the grounded Apache and now Macy himself. But where were the two Marines from “Five-Zero”? For them, it transpired, things were not exactly going according to plan. Having been joined by Armatage, Hearn and Robinson made their way back across the compound and, dodging insurgent sniper fire as they ran, finally crossed the breach in the western defence wall. In visibility of

ABOVE: A remarkable sequence of images taken as the four-man rescue party prepares for the recovery of Lance Corporal Mathew Ford. In Picture (1), the volunteers stand over a map of Jugroom Fort marked out in the sand as they are briefed by the Army Air Corps pilots. Picture (2) shows Rigg and Fraser-Perry, having clambered up on to the Apache, holding on ready for take-off – as seen in Picture (3). In Picture (4) a confident-looking Colin Hearn waits for the mission to start. In Picture (5) – also seen on page 37 – Rigg and Fraser-Perry hold on as “Five-Zero” takes off, bracing their feet against the Apache’s Hellfire missile rails. The flight to Jugroom Fort would be particularly exhausting for Fraser-Perry as there were only three karabiner straps available for the team; he was the rescuer that drew the short straw when they were handed out. (All images courtesy of Sergeant Gary Stanton RAF)

less than ten yards they had slowly fought their way 200 yards northwards, along almost the entire length of the outer complex. However, in the dust and confusion, they had been heading in the wrong direction. Having stumbled across, and promptly despatched, a Taliban RPG team, it was only when the three had found themselves at the remains of the watchtower on the north-west corner of Jugroom Fort that they realised their mistake. Worse, they were going to have to turn around and re-trace their steps. All the while, AK47 fire fell down on them as insurgents, now gathering on the ramparts, began to chase them back down the length of the fortified walls. Inside the compound the grounded Apache was also attracting the attention of the Taliban, taking direct machine-gun and sniper fire from both the main fort and the insurgents scrambling along the western walls in pursuit of Hearn, Robinson and Armatage. Unable to return fire with the gunship’s primary weapon (again the safety was on) the pilot had become an easy target for the ever-increasing enemy fire. With little option, he called in for air-support from “Ugly Five-Two” circling overhead. Moments later cannon fire tore into the enemy positions, ripping through the fort’s daub and brick walls, scattering masonry all over the compound. “Five-Two” laid down a second burst, and then a third – this time concentrating its formidable firepower on the insurgents that could be seen congregated along the top of the defences. Directly on the other side of the wall Hearn, Robinson and Armatage dived for cover as the ramparts above them exploded, showering them with debris. Back at the scene of the rescue, Macy had managed to link-up with Rigg and Fraser-Perry who were struggling in the “talcum powder” soft earth to heave Ford’s twenty-stone bulk out from a deep ditch they had stumbled into. Tracer rounds flashed overhead as Macy reached down and, grabbing hold of Ford’s tunic, helped the Marines haul the motionless Lance Corporal out of the trench. Heaving Ford up between them they set off back towards the waiting Apache, stumbling every few feet in the soft ground. The route ahead of them erupted as AK47 and machine-gun fire yet again targeted the group, not just from the insurgents following, but now also from enemy positions in the wooded tree-line. As they scrambled their way ever closer to the helicopter another RPG narrowly missed the rescue party as it whistled across their path. The insurgents were flanking them and closing-in when “Five-Two” made a low pass over the group, laying down deafening bursts of cannon-fire into their would-be assailants as it screamed overhead. A couple of hundred yards to the east, the crew of “Five-Three” was busy engaging the Taliban machine-gun posts hidden in the woods.

DECEMBER 2010

41

Exhausted, and having finally collapsed on to the ground, Macy and Rigg began to haul themselves, on hands and knees, through the strengthsapping soft earth, dragging Mathew Ford behind them. As they crawled yard by yard towards the waiting Apache, Fraser-Perry took up the rear guard role, stumbling backwards as he emptied clip after clip of suppressing fire from his SA80 into the Taliban as they began to closein. Gasping for air, Macy and Rigg looked up from the dirt where they lay. The Apache was very close – only about seven yards away. Suddenly three pairs of hands reached down, grabbed a hold of Mathew Ford’s shoulders, and hauled him clear of the ground – it was Hearn, Robinson and Armatage. As the five soldiers hoisted Ford up between them and they began their final push towards the waiting aircraft, the air resounded to a series of deafening explosions as “Ugly Five-Two” and “Ugly Five-Three” unleashed their remaining Hellfire missiles into the insurgents who had been rapidly closing-in. The Apaches thundered overhead once again; this time the tree-line to the east burst into flame as the gunships fired the last of their multiple-launch flechette fragmentation missiles and pounded the Taliban positions with cannon fire. Overhead both “Five-Two” and “Five-Three” were now declaring “Winchester” – they had used up all of their ordnance and every last round of ammunition.10 Also low on fuel, they would have to pull out and begin the thirty-minute flight back to Camp Bastion. Enemy gun fire began to fall away as Macy, Rigg, Fraser-Perry and Armatage, using all available karabiner straps, secured Mathew Ford to the helicopter, under-slinging him to one of “Five-One’s” wings. With all the karabiners used up the exhausted rescuers would have to hang on with their last ounces of strength when the Apaches took off to fly them to safety. “Five-One” wound its engines up to full power as Hearn and Robinson, closely followed by Armatage (who had remained to check Ford’s fastenings), began their dangerous journey back to “Five-Zero” which was still waiting for them on the ground inside the fort compound. For “Five-One”, however, the drama was not quite over. With her rotors screaming at full power, and just as she freed herself from the soft terrain, a southerly squall blew through, buffeting the helicopter from behind. In the following tail-wind “Five-One” began to lose altitude and nose-dived back into the ground. As the pilots struggled to control the Apache, the wind eased off slightly as suddenly as it had arrived – just enough for the crew to bank the helicopter round, turn its nose into the wind and, under cover of the intense supporting fire from the Royal Marines on the

west bank of the Helmand River, make their escape out through the dust cloud. Thirty seconds later “Five-Zero” followed. Though it must have felt an age, they had been on the ground for five minutes and ten seconds. Despite the valiant efforts of the rescue teams, it was later found that Lance Corporal Ford had died from wounds received in the cross-fire. In the words of Lieutenant Colonel Rory Bruce, the UK Task Force spokesman, the story of this mission is “an extraordinary tale of heroism and bravery of our airmen, soldiers and marines who were all prepared to put themselves back into the line of fire to rescue a fallen comrade”.11

An Army Air Corps Westland Apache AH1 ‘Longbow’ on final approach to Camp Bastion, December 2006. (Mirrorpix)

NOTES: 1. Daily Mail Online, “Marines Strap Themselves To Chopper For Daring Rescue”, 20 January 2007. 2. Daily Mail Online, Ibid. 3. MoD Military Operations Release: “Daring Apache Rescue Attempt”, 22 January 2007. 4. MoD Military Operations Release, Ibid. 5. Ed Macy, Apache (Harper Perennial 2009). 6. MoD Military Operations Release, Ibid. 7. Sunday Times, “Marines Tied To Helicopters Snubbed In Rescue Medals”, 9 September 2007. 8. Ed Macy, Ibid. 9. Ed Macy, Ibid. 10. The term “Winchester” is used by combat pilots worldwide when declaring they have

42

no ordnance or ammunition left. The term originates from the early First World War One pilots and aircrews who, when having used up all of their machine-gun rounds, only had their Winchester side-arm left to defend themselves from enemy pilots. Ironically, it is reputed that the reason these early combat pilots were issued with such side-arms was not to protect themselves, but so that they could “take the painless way out” if trapped at altitude in a burning cockpit – rather than leap out of the aircraft or burn to death. 11. MoD Military Operations Release: “Marines Attempt Daring Apache Rescue During Afghanistan Operation”, 17 January 2007.

OCTOBER 2010

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RETURN TO

DUNKIRK B

attlefield Archaeology of the Second World War is something that is still very much in its infancy in France. Very few professional archaeologists appear to have any great interest in this era and, like the early days of First World War archaeology, most of the work is done by amateur groups. Yet, with interest in the subject steadily growing, remarkable discoveries are being made and few areas offer such exciting prospects for new finds as Dunkirk. When the BEF, along with elements of the French, Belgium and expatriate Polish armies, raced to Dunkirk to avoid being surrounded by the advancing German forces, an enormous amount of military hardware was cast aside. By the end of April 1940, before the Blitzkrieg was unleashed against France, there were 394,165 British soldiers in France. More than 235,000 were in the main force and nearly 80,000 were performing duties in the lines of

In this seventieth anniversary year of the Dunkirk evacuations a BBC production team returned to the battlefields of northern France to look at this much documented episode of British history from a different perspective – from the point of view of the archaeology of the Dunkirk beaches. The team’s task was, writes Paul Reed, to help bring a fresh perspective to a familiar story.

communication. In addition there were also 9,000 men on their way to join their units, over 2,500 unallocated soldiers and over 23,000 serving at various headquarters. The amount of arms and equipment to support such a body of men was huge and most of it was destroyed either by enemy action or to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Germans. Where this was not possible the material was simply abandoned on the road to Dunkirk or within its environs. The historian Sean Longden described the scene that met the eyes of the retreating soldiers as they approached Dunkirk:

removed vital engine parts and threw them into ditches and canals. Lorries stood with their bonnets open, tangled wires, holed sumps spilling oil onto the road. “Everywhere were cars with smashed windscreens and slashed tyres. Motorcycles, their petrol tanks cracked open by axe blows, lay in heaps alongside twisted bicycles. The ground was littered with the remains of smashed car batteries abandoned on the roadsides along with the sledgehammers that had destroyed them. One soldier saw an officer seated upon a packing crate. The forlorn man was holding his head in

“Burnt out trucks littered the verges on the outskirts. The entire town was surrounded by the wreckage of vehicles. It seemed bizarre to the arriving soldiers that drivers, who had so lovingly tended these vehicles, should now be destroying them. “Soldiers stood in front of trucks smashing windscreens with rifle-butts, as others

ABOVE:

A British gas mask was found in the peat level of the sand. This proves to be a good means of conserving items, and the mask was taken away for cleaning. (All images courtesy of the author)

MAIN PICTURE:

Presenter Jules Hudson holds the cleaned gas mask showing the remarkable condition it was still in after seventy years.

RETURN TO DUNKIRK

ABOVE:

A German soldier inspects Allied equipment, stores, vehicles and horse transport abandoned close to the beach. While most personnel had tried to damage or destroy their abandoned kit, much of it, particularly the vehicles, proved repairable and was re-used by the German army in places such as Russia and North Africa.

BELOW LEFT:

A First World War period 26-cwt 6-inch howitzer on pneumatic tyres. Much of the British artillery at Dunkirk was of First World War vintage, and, most, if not all of it, had to be left behind.

BELOW RIGHT:

Presenter Jules Hudson with one of the team, Paul Devos, having just un-earthed one of the support struts from a lorry that formed part of the vehicle pier at Zuydcoote.

his hands, unable to watch the destruction. The soldier realised it was his own brigade commander. Utterly dejected, the brigadier could not watch as his driver battered his staff car with a pick-axe. “Vehicles were not the only victims of this destruction. Like hideous metal trees, the ruptured barrels of wrecked artillery pieces pointed skywards, as if taunting the natural world with man’s ability to wreak havoc.”1

46

BRITAIN AT WAR

One officer from the British 1st Division’s 3rd Brigade recorded the scene at BrayDunes: “The scenery provided ... a picture of the abomination of desolation ... vehicles abandoned, many of them charred relics of twisted metal on the roadside and overturned in the ditches. Light tanks and guns poking up out of the [water]. Horses dead or dying from want of water. Here and there civilian or French Army corpses lying in the open. An unforgettable spectacle.”2 It is estimated that the British Army left behind 2,472 guns, almost 65,000 vehicles and 20,000 motorcycles. Also abandoned were 416,000 tons of stores, more than 75,000 tons of ammunition and 162,000 tons of petrol. Even though many of the troops held onto their personal weapons and their haversacks, they were ordered to drop these to facilitate their embarkation onto the boats and the ships and lighten the loads of the overcrowded vessels. Not all of the abandoned material was simply discarded. The British were also ordered to burn or disable their trucks and abandon them along the roads leading to Dunkirk to hinder the progress of the Panzers. Train

lines were obstructed with masses of wreckage. In some instances, the vehicles that were destined to be abandoned were put to good use in the actual evacuation of the soldiers. As many of the larger vessels, including some of the “Little Ships”, could not get close to the beaches, especially at low tide, some method of enabling the men to reach the vessels moored in deeper water had to be found. So, on 30 May 1940, Royal Engineers set about building makeshift jetties. Around fifteen three-ton lorries were placed side by side on BrayDunes’s hard sand during low tide. Bullets fired at their tyres punctured them

DECEMBER 2010

RETURN TO DUNKIRK

BRITAIN AT WAR

and this, together with sand thrown into the backs of lorries and the fact that the vehicles were lashed together after the covers were stripped off their superstructures, ensured that they did not move when the tide came in. Decking panels from bridging trucks laid across the backs of lorries, along with planks “liberated” from a local timber yard, served as the walkway along which soldiers could make their way out to the launches and boats that came to collect them.3 It was one of these vehicle piers that was rediscovered by a group of French archaeologists from the Dunkirk M é m o r i a l du Souvenir Museum, which is located close to the Mole in Dunkirk and which tells the story of Operation Dynamo. This was brought



to the attention of the team involved in the BBC’s Dig 1940 which was then invited to view their discoveries.

ABOVE:

Historian Paul Reed from the BBC party (whose maternal grandfather, Alex Marketis, served at Dunkirk with the Royal Army Medical Corps and was evacuated in late May) takes up the story: “We returned a few weeks later to meet the [French] team on the beaches near Zuydcoote and they gave us a demonstration of what it was possible to find, which on this first occasion largely consisted of buttons and cartridges.

LEFT:

“While this certainly gave us some evidence of the fighting, other elements of the television series to be screened would include the excavation of Spitfires and Stukas, as well as dives on 1940 wrecks [the RAF lost 177 aircraft in the fighting to defend the evacuation and 243 vessels were sunk]. We hoped that Dunkirk wouldn’t be overshadowed by these seemingly more impressive digs.

went back to Dunkirk with the production team and our presenter, Jules Hudson, the team of French archaeologists took us to one of the locations where a vehicle pier had been located. They had undertaken some work here before and found quite a lot of material. One of them told us they had the impression that soldiers being evacuated by the piers were discarding material into the sea as they left, no doubt keen to minimise their burden in case they had to go into the water themselves.

“We needn’t have worried. As often happens on a shoot, nothing is predictable. When we

The BBC production team filming a member of the group of French amateur archaeologists who work on behalf of the Dunkirk Museum. Some of the smaller relics found on the beach, close to the vehicle pier: among them pieces of ’37 webbing, a button stick, issue razor and the butt plate of an SMLE.

BELOW:

At low tide the Germans, amazed by what has been left behind, walk out to the wreck of the ship which had taken a direct hit from a bomb during an air attack. It became one of the most impressive and most photographed wrecks on the beaches.

47

RETURN TO DUNKIRK

BRITAIN AT WAR

RIGHT:

The remains of both the Crested Eagle (marked by the left hand circle in this image) and the Devonia, another paddle steamer lost in the Dunkirk evacuation (the right hand circle) can be seen on the beaches near Bray. The Devonia had made several journeys to and from the beaches before it was abandoned. As presenter Jules Hudson found when he visited it, the Crested Eagle is today used as a mussel farm. The building bottom right is at the end of Boulevard Georges Pompidou in Bray-Dunes, to the east of Dunkirk itself. (© 2010 Google-Imagery, ©DigitalGlobe, Aerodata International Surveys, Cnes/Spot Image, Geo-Eye, IGN France)

“In the few hours of a clear sunny morning that followed, the team found a huge amount of relics of the evacuation, all in a very small area of beach. Much of the material was personal – the sort of things soldiers had in their haversacks or webbing equipment. In one or two places they found supporting struts from some of the vehicles – the metal poles that held up the canvas on their backs – clearly indicating we were close to the piers. “One of the highlights of the finds was a British gas mask; covered in peaty sand. When it was cleaned the original material was intact, most of the glass eyepieces complete and the date inside – 1939 – clearly visible. Jules Hudson, himself an archaeologist, was both amazed and moved by the finds, as he too had a grandfather who had been at Dunkirk with the Royal Armoured Corps. “While the group didn’t find a complete tank or truck buried under the beaches of Dunkirk

during the making of the programme, the sort of personal and poignant material that was found ensured this aspect of 1940 would be fully covered in the final film. As is often common when making documentaries much more is filmed than is ever used, and one sequence we couldn’t include was a visit to the museum to see some of the previous items the group had found on the beaches, which included a shell-encrusted Bren gun, a bottle of beer with liquid still inside it, and the shipping line-issued binoculars used by the Captain of the Crested Eagle, one of the ‘Little Ships’ lost at Dunkirk in 1940. Some of these items, and those found during the filming, will feature in a future special exhibition at the museum. “Our final scenes on the beach took Jules to some of the wrecks still visible at low tide. During the research for the programme we were amazed to find that a number of wrecks survived not just in the depths of the sea off Dunkirk, but on the beaches themselves.

Close to Bray-Dunes are the remains of the two paddle steamers, Crested Eagle and Devonia. While much of their remains had been salvaged both during and after the war, they are clearly visible as ship wrecks. A home to mussel farms today, they are another poignant remnant of Operation Dynamo, and the Crested Eagle especially so as more than 300 servicemen perished when it came under air attack. “While amateur archaeology by individuals is not permitted in Northern France, and you are unlikely to find much just by walking the beaches at Dunkirk, even seventy years later they remain a special place to visit,” concludes Paul Reed. “Combined with a look at the wrecks, a tour of the war graves in and around the perimeter, and the excellent museum, Dunkirk is certainly a place we should remember. The team behind Dig 1940 hopes the series will do some justice to the key year of 1940, and tell the familiar story of the ‘Miracle’ of Dunkirk in a new and fresh way.” n LEFT:

A selection of cap badges and personal equipment found on the Dunkirk beaches which is on display at the Dunkirk Museum. A number of First World War-era badges have been found by archaeologists for units that did not exist in 1940, such as the MGC badge seen here roughly in the centre of the picture.

BELOW:

Little remains of the Dunkirk perimeter today, but this concrete bunker, part of the northern end of the Maginot Line, was used by the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment in their defence scheme.

NOTES

1. Sean Longden, Dunkirk, The Men They Left Behind (Constable, London, 2008) pp.46-7. 2. Cited in Hugh Sebag-Montefiore: Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man (Penguin, London, 2006) pp. 434-5. 3. Ibid, p.415.

48

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“ LOOK AT THEM GO!” I

t was Sunday, 14 July 1940. A BBC radio team had set itself up in a house overlooking the port at Dover to record the ongoing air attacks by the Germans against British shipping in the Channel. That afternoon a westbound convoy, codenamed Bread, was scheduled to pass along the Dover Strait and the team went to the top of a nearby cliff for a grandstand view of anything that might happen that day. Gardner sat in his car to watch the action with a steel helmet on his head and a mattress strapped to the roof. Reporter Charles Gardner had already started his recording, reading from his prepared script, when the Luftwaffe made its appearance. The tape was still running as Gardner abandoned his notes and described what he saw, as it happened, in vivid detail:

“The Germans are dive-bombing a convoy out at sea ... there are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven German dive-bombers, Junkers 87s. There’s one going down on its target now ... Bomb! No! He missed the ships. It hasn’t hit a single ship. There are about ten ships in the convoy, but he hasn’t hit a single one. “And ... there, you can hear our anti-aircraft going at them now. There are one, two, three, four, five, six – there are about ten German machines dive-bombing the British convoy which is just out to sea in the Channel. “I can’t see anything ... No! We thought he had got a German one at the top then, but now the British fighters are coming up. Here they come. The Germans are coming in an absolute steep dive, and you can see their

There have been a number of live radio broadcasts which created major sensations at the time they were delivered and are still remembered today. One such live broadcast by a BBC reporter, describing an action in July 1940, was a dramatic account of a combat during the Battle of Britain – but was this reality radio just a little too graphic for the stiffupper-lipped Britons? bombs actually leave the machines and come into the water. You can hear our guns going like anything now. I am looking round now. I can hear machine-gun fire, but I can’t see our Spitfires. They must be somewhere there.” Unknown to Gardner and the rest of his BBC team, three Hawker Hurricanes of 615 Squadron, on a standing patrol to protect the convoy, had already become engaged in the action. “Oh! Here’s one coming down. There’s one going down in flames. Somebody’s hit a German and he’s coming down with a long streak, coming down completely out of control ... a long streak of smoke. And now a man’s baled out by parachute. The pilot’s baled out by parachute. He’s a Junkers 87, BELOW:

A bomb just misses the stern of a Royal navy escort during the Luftwaffe attack on the convoy codenamed Bread off Dover on the afternoon of Sunday, 14 July 1940. This is the same attack described by the BBC reporter Charles Gardner in his famous broadcast. (ww2images)

DECEMBER 2010

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“LOOK AT THEM GO!”

ABOVE:

What appears to be a 615 Squadron Hurricane during the Battle of Britain. There were two RAF fighters lost on the 14th. The other was a 111 Squadron Hurricane (P2958) which crashed on take-off from the squadron’s forward base at RAF Hawkinge. The pilot was unhurt and his aircraft repairable. (ww2images)

BELOW:

Taken a few moments, if seconds, after the photograph on the previous page, a second bomb falls even closer to the British warship. (Courtesy of the Andy Saunders Collection)

and he’s going slap into the sea ... and there he goes. Smash! A terrific column of water and there was a Junkers 87. Only one man got out by parachute, so presumably there was only a crew of one in it. “Now, then, oh, there’s a terrific mix-up over the Channel! It’s impossible to tell which are our machines and which are Germans. There was definitely one down in this battle and there’s a fight going on. There’s a fight going on, and you can hear the little rattles of machine-gun bullets.”

BRITAIN AT WAR

“Grump! That was a bomb, as you may imagine. Here comes one Spitfire. There’s a little burst. There’s another bomb dropping. Yes. It has dropped. It has missed the convoy. You know, they haven’t hit the convoy in all this. The sky is absolutely patterned with bursts of anti-aircraft fire, and the sea is covered with smoke where the bombs have burst. But as far as I can see there is not one single ship hit, and there is definitely one German machine down. “… I am looking across the sea now. I can see the little white dot of a parachute as the German pilot is floating down towards the spot where his machine crashed with such a big fountain of water about two minutes ago.” The action died down briefly as the German dive-bombers made their way back to France after their unsuccessful attack on the convoy. Then a dog-fight developed overhead: “There we go again. What? Oh, we have

just hit a Messerschmitt. Oh, that was beautiful! He’s coming right down. I think it was definitely that burst that got him. Yes, he’s come down. You hear those crowds? He’s finished! Oh, he’s coming down like a rocket now. An absolutely steep dive ... Here he comes, down in a steep dive ... no, the pilot’s not getting out of that one. He’s being followed down ... No, that man’s finished. “Oh boy! That was really grand! There’s a Spitfire behind the first two. He will get them. Oh, yes. Oh boy! I’ve never seen anything so good as this. The RAF fighters have really got these boys taped. Our machine is catching up the Messerschmitt now. He’s catching it up. He’s got the legs of it, you know. Now right in the sights. Go on, George! You’ve got him!” Gardner’s full report, which lasted just over seven minutes, went out on the BBC Home Service at 21.00 hours that same evening, Sunday 14 July, and was repeated at 13.00 hours on the Monday. The general public had never heard anything like this before from the BBC. Details concerning the war were normally delivered in matter-of-fact news summaries so when Gardner’s broadcast hit the airwaves the nation was both excited and shocked. The account created such controversy that the independent press, amongst others, was outraged and the BBC undertook an investigation. Was this how the war should be reported or was this not the British way of doing things? * Throughout the country, everyone was talking about the broadcast. One veteran pilot of the First World War was highly indignant at the manner with which Gardner had delivered his report and he wrote to the Times: “Where men’s lives are concerned, must we be treated to a running commentary on a level with an account of the Grand National or a cup-tie final?” By contrast, another reader was uplifted by the broadcast: “To me it was inspiring, for I almost

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DECEMBER 2010

“LOOK AT THEM GO!”

BRITAIN AT WAR felt that I was sharing in it, and I rejoiced unfeignedly that so many of the enemy were shot down, and the rest were put to ignominious flight.”1 A Home Intelligence report concluded that “a considerable majority spoke enthusiastically of the broadcast”, but women in particular reacted against the treatment of war as a game. After all, “A battle isn’t a Boat Race.” “His callous Oxford accent made it worse”, concluded the same report.2 Worried about the strength of the conflicting views the broadcast had aroused, the BBC, through its Listener Research Department, undertook an urgent survey of its listeners. A group of 220 “Honorary Local Correspondents” and a group of industrial welfare workers (seen as being able to present “intelligent” replies on behalf of manual workers) were asked to give their opinions. This was done via a questionnaire which was sent out on Friday 19 July. The questionnaires were collected on the following Tuesday and the results examined. Of the 166 Local Correspondents that responded only eight had not heard the broadcast and of the thirty welfare workers only one had missed Gardner’s report. Every single person had heard of the broadcast and a number of the Correspondents, especially those that worked in factories, said that it was the only topic of conversation on the Monday morning “and that it was exhilarating to have something real to talk about instead of rumours.” The first question put to both groups was: “Do you think it was widely appreciated or widely disliked?” The replies were that out of the 199 people that responded, 109 gave it widespread appreciation and could find absolutely nothing to criticise. Just three people were stated as having widespread criticism and did not appreciate the broadcast at all. The remainder fell somewhere between the two extremes. The BBC investigation noted that “a number of Local Correspondents say that the only criticism they came across was in the press,

DECEMBER 2010

and that they could find no support for the press protests when they made enquiries from their colleagues, friends, customers, etc. “But where criticism is reported, it takes, for the most part, one of two forms. Some replies say that it comes from women, or those with relatives in the RAF or anti-aircraft units, though it should be noted that others go out of their way to report that some women, children and relatives of personnel appreciated the broadcast highly.” Personal views were also sought. A school headmaster in Scotland approved “very strongly” of the broadcast: “I find that it acted as a real tonic to many people and gave them something to talk about which created a much more healthy atmosphere than the baseless rumours which are commonly discussed. There is no denying that people will talk, so give them something good to talk about.” A Chief Engineer from the Radio Relay Company in East Anglia was equally positive: “This commentary did more to dispel gloom and the idea of German supremacy than all the talk so far broadcast with the object of keeping up our morale”. A sceptical “working class” housewife from the Midlands also considered the broadcast had a beneficial effect on a nation which was still reeling from the disasters in France: “It

ABOVE:

The original caption to this image states that it shows a “Messerschmitt Bf 109 and a Mk.II Spitfire in a dogfight over the outer harbour at Dover during the height of the Battle of Britain”. On the day that Gardner recorded his broadcast, the Luftwaffe lost at least two aircraft during the engagements over the Channel near Dover – a Messerschmitt Bf 109 and a single Junkers Ju 87. The pilot of the 109 survived, though wounded, whilst the crew of the Stuka was killed. (Mirrorpix)

BELOW:

Another view of the westbound convoy being attacked on 14 July. On this day, the 779-ton cargo ship SS Island Queen (of the British Channel Islands Shipping Company), en route from Blyth on the Northumberland coast to Cowes on the Isle of Wight with coal was sunk by German aircraft off Dover. (Mirrorpix)

53

“LOOK AT THEM GO!”

BRITAIN AT WAR

MAIN PICTURE:

A grainy photograph of a pilot descending by parachute to land in the Channel near the convoy on 14 July 1940. (ww2images)

may go a long way to clear the doubt from a lot of people’s minds about our pilots taking on the odds they are doing as quite a few think the reports are cooked”. For some, however, the broadcast made uncomfortable listening: “Having personally witnessed combats and viewed the remains and bodies, to me the broadcast caused a slight nausea,” complained the manager of an aircraft equipment factory. “The description for public entertainment of brave men going to their doom at the instant of occurrence did not appeal to me but nevertheless gave some unwholesome satisfaction.” * One listener had remarked: “I fancy that [Gardner’s] commentary caught something of the spirit of the pilots themselves. If our cause is a just and worthy one, then to rejoice in its success is the obvious thing.”3 Sadly, it was not just British victories that the BBC team had observed.

RIGHT:

Pilot Officer Michael Robert Mudie’s CWGC headstone in Molesey Cemetery. The Operations Record Book of 615 Squadron contains the following entry: “At 15:00 hours Red section were patrolling convoy near Dover, when convoy was attacked by 40 Ju 87s which were escorted by Me 109s. Pilot Officer M.R. Mudie (Red 3) was shot down, and jumped by parachute … Red 1 and 2 put several bursts into Ju87s but were unable to observe results as they were being attacked.” (Courtesy of Andrew Todd)

BELOW:

A member of staff at the BBC processing the results of its Listener Research surveys. Every day throughout the war, 800 listeners, representing a cross-section of the whole public, are interviewed. Their answers are carefully recorded and filed – as was the case with the survey following Gardner’s broadcast. (HMP)

What Gardner actually saw at first was the encounter between the Ju 87s and the Hurricanes of 615 Squadron. As the combat developed they were joined by twelve Supermarine Spitfires from 610 Squadron, together with even more Hurricanes – seven from 151 Squadron and a further six from 615 Squadron. They engaged the Messerschmitt Bf 109s of II/JG 51 which, around thirty in number, were protecting the Ju 87s that had attacked the convoy.4 It is more than likely that the pilot that the BBC reporter described baling out of his aircraft over St Margaret’s Bay at

54

about 15.30 hours was not a German. It was possibly Pilot Officer 42073 Michael Robert Mudie escaping from his 615 Squadron Hurricane L1584. He was rescued from the sea but he had been badly wounded and he died of his injuries in Dover hospital the following day. Twenty-four-year-old Mudie, who had joined the RAF on a short service commission in March 1939, was buried in Molesey Cemetery, Surrey. Of the 597 sorties flown by Fighter Command that day, Michael Mudie was the only casualty.5 n

NOTES

1. Quoted in Robert Kershaw, Never Surrender: Lost Voices of a Generation at War (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2009), p.133. 2. Paul Addison and Jeremy A. Crang, Listening to Britain (Bodley Head, London, 2010), pp.229-231. 3. Robert Kershaw, Ibid, p.133. 4. Patrick Bishop, Battle of Britain: A Day-By-Day Chronicle, 10 July to 31 October 1940 (Quercus Publishing) p.91. 5. Kenneth G. Wynn, Men of the Battle of Britain (CCB Associates, Croydon, 1999), p.365.

DECEMBER 2010

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SECRETS OF THE SUCCOTH GLEN SUPERFORTRESS

On a remote Scottish hillside lie the remains of a USAF aircraft which crashed to earth, killing all passengers and crew. But the declared ranks of those on board and the cargo they were carrying remains shrouded in mystery. James Carron examines the fate of this Cold War aircraft.

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eep in the highlands of Argyll, Succoth Glen is a desolate place to die. But that probably mattered little to the airmen aboard Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-62276 as their aircraft plunged headlong into the hillside and exploded. All twenty men on board died in the inferno. Twisted shards of metal flew across the moor and the blaze that raged for almost twenty-four hours blackened a vast swathe of land. Over sixty years on, much of the wreckage remains and there is a well-tended memorial to those who died. But mystery still shrouds the final moments of the ill-fated flight, and the intriguing secrets some believe the ’plane held.

MAIN PICTURE:

Wreckage of Boeing B-29A Superfortress 44-62276 on the hillside at Succoth Glen. (All images courtesy of the author unless stated otherwise)

INSET PICTURE:

The pilot of the Succoth Glen Superfortress: First Lieutenant Sheldon C. Craigmyle. (Courtesy of Tammy Caine)

The B-29 and its crew were heading back to the United States after a three-month tour of duty in post-war Europe. Although not directly involved in the supply flights undertaken during the Berlin Airlift, it was one of a fleet of B-29s sent by the United States Air Force to Britain and Germany in 1948 in a show of force designed to protect air corridors and discourage the Soviets from attempting to sever the vital lifeline. In January 1949, after successfully patrolling the Berlin Airlift corridors, 4462276, of the 32nd Bomb Squadron, 301st Bomb Group, and a second Superfortress, 034, were preparing to leave their adopted base at RAF Scampton for the return home. From the Lincolnshire

SECRETS OF THE SUCCOTH GLEN SUPERFORTRESS

ABOVE:

The view of Loch Goil from area of Succoth Glen. In its final moments, the B-29 flew up the Loch and impacted on the hillside near the spot from where this image was taken. The small village of Lochgoilhead lies at the head of the Loch nearest the camera.

BELOW LEFT:

The Succoth Glen B-29A, 44-62276, pictured at Goose Bay, Labrador, on 14 April 1948. (Courtesy of Keith Beckett)

BELOW RIGHT:

In the seconds before the crash, the Superfortress clipped the summit of Beinn Tharsuinn, seen here.

airfield, they were scheduled to fly to Keflavik, in Iceland, for refueling before crossing the Atlantic to Smoky Hill Air Force Base, Salina, Kansas. The airmen were all looking forward to seeing their families and friends. On the morning of 17 January 1949, the pilots were briefed on the conditions they faced. The weather, it was noted, would be particularly challenging, with freezing temperatures and poor visibility forecast. The crew’s route would take them through a cold front and an area of low pressure off the west coast of Scotland and there was a likelihood of heavy icing in all clouds that might be encountered. At 08.00 hours, the second B-29, piloted by Captain Donald E. Higgs, took off, followed five minutes later by 44-62276, flown by First Lieutenant Sheldon C. Craigmyle. He was accompanied in the cockpit by co-pilot First Lieutenant Myrton P. Barry and navigator First Lieutenant Richard D. Klingenberg. Bombardier First Lieutenant Robert A. Fritsche completed the four-man flight crew. The other sixteen men on board were passengers.

58

Craigmyle was an experienced and decorated B-29 pilot, having flown missions over both occupied Europe and the Pacific during the Second World War. Barry, his co-pilot, had also been decorated for his bravery, flying B-17s over occupied Europe during the conflict. Although he returned to civilian life after the war, he had re-enlisted in 1948. From Scampton, the two Superfortresses thundered north over England, and soon crossed into southern Scotland. As predicted, both pilots ran into the cold front. Captain Higgs flew through it at an altitude of 5,500 feet and experienced no problems with icing. However, Craigmyle, who was travelling at a higher altitude, was less fortunate. Higgs later recalled that at “approximately one hour and fifteen to thirty minutes after take-off, I was in contact with 2276 and he gave me his position as approximately twenty-five miles south-west of Prestwick, cruising at an altitude of 8,500 feet. “At that time he told me he was picking up heavy ice and was going to call Prestwick and obtain a new altitude, which I heard him do over his radio. He asked for a new altitude of 14,000 feet and was given 14,000 feet by the Prestwick radio.” With conditions rapidly deteriorating, Higgs was instructed to set a new course for the coastal airbase at Prestwick. Craigmyle continued north, having reported no difficulties when he was in contact with Prestwick. There is no evidence to indicate he received the same instructions as Higgs who tried at intervals to contact the other B-29 but, on each occasion, he was unsuccessful.

BRITAIN AT WAR

Higgs headed for Prestwick but the airport was closed due to low visibility and he was told to return to Scampton where he landed successfully. Craigmyle remained on course for Iceland, flying north over the west coast of Scotland after requesting the change of altitude. Whether or not he managed to lift the B-29 to 14,000 feet has never been established. With heavy icing on the wings, it is possible the aircraft was becoming increasingly unstable and more and more difficult to control. The B-29A he was flying was an upgraded version of the original B-29. Built at Boeing’s Renton plant in Washington State, it featured an improved wing design with greater strength and a longer span – 142ft 2ins. This presented a substantial surface for ice to form on. The ’plane was, however, equipped for winter and bad weather flying and prior to its departure from Scampton had undergone a complete 100-hour inspection and a satisfactory test flight. There are no records of any radio transmissions after Higg’s final contact with Craigmyle. To understand a little of what happened next we only have the statements of witnesses on the ground to go on. The B-29 made it as far as Loch Goil, about forty miles north-north-west of Prestwick. Plumber Hugh Sleeth, who lived in Lochgoilhead, a small community at the top of the loch, reported that at around 09.50 hours he heard the roar of an aircraft overhead. “It appeared to come from Beach, a hill on the east side of Loch Goil, and was going

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in the direction of Beinn Lochain, west of Lochgoilhead. We thought from the roar of the engines that the ’plane was too low for the hills. We could not see the ’plane for the low mist,” he stated. “When the ’plane seemed to be over Beinn Lochain way the engines suddenly stopped, and there was a sound which I describe as a plop.” Another Lochgoilhead resident, David MacLachlan, a carpenter by trade, also heard the sound of an aircraft coming from the direction of Beach. But again he could not see it because of the mist. “Within two or three minutes of first hearing the ’plane, I heard a crash which was preceded by what appeared to be a sudden acceleration of the engines. I thought the crash was either on Beinn Lochain or Beinn Tharsuinn,” he remarked later in his statement to USAF Accident Officer William R. Harmon.

DECEMBER 2010

The witnesses estimated that the mist was down to about 500 feet. Sleeth, MacLachlan and another local man, Duncan Campbell, met up minutes later and discussed what they had just heard. While Sleeth went to the village police station to report the matter, the other two men set off into the hills to investigate further. Others soon joined the search. At around midday, attracted by the smell of burning, MacLachlan and another man, Alexander Douglas, found the crashed B-29 on open hillside to the north west of Beinn Tharsuinn. “We could not approach close to the main part of the ’plane for flames and heat,” MacLachlan said. “Wreckage was strewn over a considerable area. We made a hurried round of the area. There were no signs of life. I counted at least six trunks of the dead.”

ABOVE and LEFT:

A map showing the location of the crash site and Succoth Glen and left, the path of the aircraft in its final moments.

BOTTOM:

The crash site and memorial in Succoth Glen as it is today some sixty years after the event.

A horseshoe of low hills encircles the upper reaches of Succoth Glen, the valley where the ill-fated Superfortress ended its journey. The ground rises gently from the west. On the east side, however, the slopes are steeper and flecked with rocky buttresses and dark crags. They should have presented no obstacle for a veteran pilot like Craigmyle, who had 3,500 hours of flying time under his belt, 1,500 hours of these in B-29s. Craigmyle was one of the most experienced weather instrument pilots in the 301st Bomb Group, having flown in Alaska with the 97th

59



BRITAIN AT WAR

ABOVE LEFT: Bomb Group during the winter of 1947-48. This may explain why he decided to push on when Higgs turned around and headed for home. Having reached the crash site, witnesses reported seeing bodies lying at various distances from the wreckage. Meanwhile, David McCallum, one of the men who joined the search, spotted a fresh mark on the hillside. “On the back of Corrow Hill I saw a fresh mark as if a wing tip of the plane had struck it,” he said. “It was not a large mark and not noticeable from any distance.” Despite Craigmyle requesting an altitude of 14,000 feet, when the B-29 crossed Loch Goil the aircraft was flying at around 2,000 feet, the height of the hills where it came

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Though very poor quality, this photograph is believed to be one of the very few taken of the wreckage in the immediate aftermath of the crash. The wintery and inhospitable conditions at the time are evident.

With little prospect of finding any survivors a recovery rather than a rescue mission was mounted. But it posed more questions than it answered and brought new ambiguity to the incident.

ABOVE:

In his book, Whensoever – 50 Years of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service, author Frank Card records that the RAF Kinloss Mountain Rescue Team was initially requested to attend. Members of the team were given an approximate location of the crash site and arrangements were made for them to fly to Glasgow. From there the Royal Navy would take them on to Succoth Glen. However, just before the team left its base in north-east Scotland, it was unexpectedly stood down. Members were told the Americans had contacted the RAF, saying they would deal with the matter themselves.

These remains of a watch have been recovered from the crash site in the years since the accident, and can now be seen at the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum. They are a reminder of the human cost of the crash.

LEFT:

Dominating the immediate vicinity of the crash site at Succoth Glen today is this large section of part of the bomber’s landing gear.

BELOW:

One of the larger pieces of wreckage at the crash site – a section of one of the B-29’s wings

However, according to Card, no one visited the crash site in an official capacity for three days. Then RAF Kinloss received another call requesting their assistance. On 22 January 1949, accompanied by 200 US naval personnel and a fleet of vehicles, the RAF men set off for Succoth Glen from the village of Strachur, on Loch Fyne. Former team

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to grief. One possible explanation for this low altitude is that Craigmyle had descended in a bid to clear some of the ice from his wings. But, if this was the case, it proved to be a fatal error.

DECEMBER 2010

BRITAIN AT WAR

leader William Patrick, attending his first callout at the time, described the scene: “It was a dreadful sight when we first reached the ’plane,” he remembers. “The American Air Force had provided body bags and we went round gathering body parts. We had to account for twenty to match the number of people on board, and we did. We were assured there were only twenty bodies to be accounted for, which we delivered. It was pretty horrific. There were limbs all over the place, but without a shadow of a doubt we picked up twenty torsos and wrapped them in blankets.” Personal belongings were also gathered up. Intriguingly, so were many thousands of dollars worth of high denomination banknotes, including $500 and $1,000 bills, along with gold insignia that would normally have been issued only to ranks far higher than those of the men on board. According to the US records the highest-rank of

SECRETS OF THE SUCCOTH GLEN SUPERFORTRESS

ABOVE:

any of the people travelling in 44-62276 was that of First Lieutenant. “We couldn’t help noticing that there appeared to be a number of very high ranking officers on board,” Patrick continued. “I myself handled three pairs of solid gold pilot wings and pinned them securely on to their uniforms. That sort of insignia was for ranks way beyond what they were supposed to wear.” The mountain rescue team was also surprised to witness an American padre burning belongings and papers found in the wreckage. Why he was doing this, no one knows, but it has prompted speculation there may have been top-secret files on the aircraft. When confronted by members of the mountain rescue team, he simply pulled rank and told them it was none of their business. “We were amazed when he started a small fire and began burning the documentation,” continued William Patrick. “We could not see the logic in this and quickly came to the conclusion that he was no padre.”

Another view of the remains of 44-62276, this time taken looking down the hillside.

LEFT:

A YMCA cloth badge, dated 1944, recovered from the crash site.

BELOW RIGHT:

One of the Boeing’s four 2,200 horsepower Wright Double Cyclone R3350 radial engines which still lies below the memorial cairn at the crash site. The R3350 was one of the most powerful radial aircraft engines ever manufactured in the United States.

BELOW LEFT:

Another of the men on the aircraft – T/Sergeant John B. Lapicca, pictured here with a cousin. One of the most moving items subsequently located in the wreckage was the remains of a Western Union telegram believed to have been sent to John Lapicca informing him of the birth of his daughter Roseanne. (Courtesy of the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum)

of the crash site, the Accident Board concluded that the heavily-iced aircraft scraped a wing on top of the hill, became inverted and crashed into the hillside some 700 feet below. From the position of the wreckage, it was

The recovery mission and crash scene examination were hampered not only by the remote location but also by freezing rain and snow. But, eventually twenty bodies were gathered from the wreckage and the surrounding hillside and transported to a mortuary in Frankfurt, Germany, where the task of confirming the identities of the dead began. Based on the available evidence and an investigation DECEMBER 2010

61

SECRETS OF THE SUCCOTH GLEN SUPERFORTRESS

determined that the aircraft struck the ground at a very high angle of dive and was almost completely buried in the soft spongy ground. The Board also noted that the wreckage burned for “almost twenty-four hours” after the initial impact.

involved, a visitor to the crash site found the remains of another body. No one has been able to establish who this person was and why he was on the ’plane. All official records confirm there were twenty men aboard 4462276 when it took off from RAF Scampton.

“Since there were no survivors, it is impossible to determine the exact cause of the accident,” the report’s authors added. “However, from the facts it is the opinion of the Board that the primary cause factor was heavy icing.”

Another RAF officer informed William Patrick of the unexpected find. He said: “I was stunned when he told me he and his team had buried a twenty-first body three months later. He was emphatic about it. He said the

The Accident Board recommended no further action be taken, but the matter did not end there. Three months after the recovery operation, to the astonishment of everyone

ABOVE:

The remains of the B-29’s rear turret. The American flag flown over United States Capitol (the meeting place of the US Congress) on 16 March 1993, in memory of the airmen who died in the B-29 crash, is now on display at the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum.

LEFT:

Buckles found amongst the wreckage.

BELOW:

Fragments of a pottery doll recovered from the crash site. There can be little doubt that many of those onboard the Superfortress were looking forward to seeing their families and friends and delayed Christmas celebrations were doubtless on the cards. Was this doll to be a Christmas present that never reached its intended recipient?

62

BRITAIN AT WAR

burial was carried out very discreetly close to the impact site.” In April 2004 the story of the ill-fated flight took yet another twist when the Daily Mail reported that the B-29 may have gone down with thousands of dollars of diamonds on board. At the time of the crash the smuggling of contraband on flights between Europe and America was not uncommon and, according to Texan Erwin Eckhert, a veteran of the 301st Bomb Group quoted by the newspaper, Craigmyle was carrying the treasure home in a bottle to fund a new life. This was to be the last flight of his military career. He planned to return to his hometown of Madison, Indiana, where, with his wife of six years, Allene, he would set up a jewellery business. “I knew Craigmyle well,” Eckhert told the newspaper’s reporter. “He was a jeweller by trade and was getting out of the Air Force to start his own business. He had been buying good diamonds in the Netherlands and in Germany and he stuffed them into a long,

DECEMBER 2010

BRITAIN AT WAR LEFT:

The surrounding forest is slowly encroaching upon the crash site, softening the scars of the tragic events of 17 January 1949. Many of the men killed in the accident had survived one war, the Second World War, only to perish in another – the Cold War.

RIGHT:

A plaque on the memorial cairn at Succoth Glen bears the names of the twenty men who lost their lives at this spot. In January 2009, on the 60th anniversary of the tragedy, relatives of the dead airmen, including Craigmyle’s widow Allene, and former RAF mountain rescue team member William Patrick, visited the crash site.

BELOW RIGHT:

In October 1993, Cadets from 2296 (Dunoon) Squadron Air Training Corps and members of the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum erected a memorial cairn (seen below) at the top of the crash site. This photograph, taken during the unveiling ceremony, again illustrates the conditions that sometimes prevail in this part of Scotland. (Courtesy of the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum: www.dumfriesaviationmuseum.com)

three gold rings, have surfaced and personal effects have also been uncovered. In 1981 a tin box belonging to one of the crew, Sergeant John Lapicca, was unearthed beneath a section of wreckage. It contained love letters from his wife, family photographs, flight documents and other papers and personal items. Some of these, along with other recovered objects and personal effects, are now displayed at the Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum in Dumfries, Scotland.

slender Alka Seltzer bottle. There was at least $50,000 worth of diamonds. They’ve never been found.”

Whether or not Craigmyle was carrying the diamonds, Eckhert’s claims only add to the mystery surrounding the final flight of 4462276. For many years rumours were rife that the Superfortress was carrying top-secret papers. One account has even suggested there was a cargo of nuclear material on board. Eckhert dismisses such theories, believing there was nothing more clandestine on the ’plane than black market goods.

Aside from the diamonds, over the years a number of valuable artefacts, including

In Succoth Glen itself, a substantial amount of wreckage still remains, although it has

DECEMBER 2010

suffered at the hands of time. Rusting landing gear and the remains of the four Wright engines give some idea of the scale of the B-29. There are smaller items too, like a rusty buckle that now sits by the cairn. Whilst tiny in comparison to the engines, landing gear and torn sheets of aluminum, it is, nevertheless, a poignant reminder of the human cost of the crash. Although open hillside at the time of the disaster, the crash site now lies within a forestry plantation. Trees and Mother Nature are slowly enveloping the wreckage of the Superfortress, shrouding still further the mysteries of the last, fatal, flight of 44-62276 and its crew. n

63

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UXB

M A LTA I

Throughout the years 1940 to 1943, some 17,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Malta. Its people had to endure 154 days of air raids without a single day’s respite and at the height of the attacks the enemy flew more than 9,500 sorties against this island in one month alone. As more than fifteen per cent of the bombs failed to explode, it was a busy time for the men of Bomb Disposal.

t was on 11 June 1940, that the enemy aircraft were first heard droning over Malta’s Valletta harbour. The day before Mussolini had declared war on Britain and one of the Italian dictator’s very first actions was to sanction an attack upon the little group of islands off the Sicilian coast. This was the first part of what was to have been Operation Herkules, the code-name of the Axis invasion of Malta. For centuries the Royal Navy had maintained a powerful presence in the Mediterranean Sea. Its bases at Gibraltar, Malta and Alexandria spanned the Mediterranean but the rapid development of air power meant that Malta, situated so close to Italy, was seen to be increasingly vulnerable to air attack. In the mid-1930s, the Royal Navy took the decision to move its Mediterranean headquarters from Malta to the safer waters of the Egyptian port of Alexandria. In the event of a sustained attack, it was not thought that Malta would survive. Mussolini had long seen Malta as a target for invasion. His dream was of a vast empire

in North Africa and Malta’s position astride the shipping routes through and across the Mediterranean gave it great strategic importance. It was also only sixty miles from Sicily. That first attack of 11 June 1940, was small compared with what was to come. It consisted of just ten Italian Cant Z.1007 Alcione bombers, with a few Macci C.200 Saetta fighters as escort, which dropped bombs on three locations on the island. Yet even against this tiny force the RAF was outnumbered, being able to muster no more than half-a-dozen Gloster Gladiators. Incredibly, at this stage of the war the island possessed only forty-two anti-aircraft guns and two dozen searchlights.

With day after day of attacks, the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal Section(s) on Malta was in almost continual action. Every bomb which fell on Malta or its sister island of Gozo and did not explode was the responsibility of this unit unless it lay on an

Though the RAF later received a number of Hurricanes and eventually Spitfires, it was usually vastly over-matched and when, in January 1941, the Luftwaffe’s X Fliegerkorps arrived in Sicily to support Rommel’s Afrika Korps, Malta became the target of one of the most intense bombing campaigns ever witnessed.

MAIN PICTURE:

One of many. Lance-Corporal Tom Meager prepares to move an unexploded bomb from its shaft beneath the main bus station in Valletta, 13 January 1942. (Courtesy of National War Museum Malta: www.heritagemalta.org)

ABOVE:

Lieutenant G.D. Carroll, 1940. (Courtesy of G.D. Carroll)

UXB MALTA

BRITAIN AT WAR

ABOVE:

Another of Malta’s landmarks damaged during the Italian and German Blitz on the island – the Porte Reale Bridge. (HMP)

BELOW LEFT:

In Malta’s narrow streets bombs often had to be removed by handcart. (Courtesy of National War Museum Malta)

BELOW RIGHT:

Members of the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal section on Malta in the summer of 1941. From left to right are: Lieutenant G.D. Carroll; unidentified; Sapper Laurence Miller; Sapper Harry Turner; Sapper Daniel McCarthy; and a second unidentified soldier. (Courtesy of National War Museum Malta)

airfield or within the confines of the Royal Navy dockyard. In just two years between December 1940 and December 1942 the Bomb Disposal units dealt with more than 7,300 unexploded bombs.1 The workload was ten times that of the average for a bomb disposal section across all theatres of war. Lieutenant George Daniel Carroll RE arrived in Malta on 21 April 1941, having learnt his trade in the London Blitz. He assumed responsibility for bomb disposal across Malta and Gozo, relieving Lieutenant Edward Talbot who had worked as the first, and only, Bomb Disposal officer for the previous five months. The Bomb Disposal squad comprised just twenty men.2 Carroll was soon facing his first Italian bombs, including several new types. As dawn broke one morning in November after a heavy raid the previous night, the streets of Valletta were covered with hundreds of small metal cylinders. Carroll was called.

66

“They were small, pale coffee colour, and they had a cap on top which was split into a propeller,” Carroll recalled. “It was designed to hit the ground but not to go off until it was disturbed. An aircraft starting up, or passing vehicles, would produce a vibration, causing it to explode suddenly and cause panic. The bombs were designed to drop in the dust of North Africa, where they could lie undetected but, affected by vibration, to go off unexpectedly at a later time.” But instead of being dropped in the desert, they had been dropped on Valletta. They looked very much like Thermos flasks and could easily attract the curiosity of innocent passers-by, especially children. They were released from the aircraft in canisters containing dozens of bombs which scattered as they landed, covering an area of up to 300 square metres. The only way to deal with the AR-4 antipersonnel “Thermos Bombs” was to blow them up where they lay. It was soon discovered that one of these devices lay in the window of a jeweller’s shop in the centre of Valletta. The jeweller begged the Bomb Disposal squad not to explode the bomb in situ as it would destroy all his stock. They invited him to remove the items himself but the man would not go anywhere near the bomb. So the Bomb Disposal men calmly removed all his goods and then blew his shop to bits.

Meanwhile, the Valletta police, not knowing exactly what they were dealing with, had collected nineteen Thermos bombs and placed them in a lower basement room of the Royal Opera House. Once again Carroll was called in. These ones could not be exploded without causing major damage to the building, so a method of removing them without setting them off had to be devised. The engineers built a grab which they could slide round the bombs. Attached to the grab was a cord which lifted and carried the device along a string railway out of the building. All nineteen bombs were safely removed but the operation took two full days. The Thermos bombs were not the only unusual weapons which Carroll and his team had to deal with. There was a notice issued to the effect that the Germans were dropping “shaving stick” bombs and “fountain pen” bombs, though none had yet been seen by the Bomb Disposal men. But when Carroll received a message from an anti-aircraft unit at Vittoriosa that they had found a fountain pen bomb, off he went with sandbags and steel helmets. When Carroll arrived at the anti-aircraft unit’s hut he was told that the fountain pen bomb was on top of a cupboard safely out of reach. “I climbed up to get it ... I put it on my [open] hand and carried it [to the car] put it carefully on the sandbags, covered it with more sandbags, put up a red flag on the car, and we drove back”.

DECEMBER 2010

UXB MALTA

BRITAIN AT WAR

ABOVE LEFT and RIGHT:

The Royal Opera House in Valletta with, front right, the building with the balustrade across its front over which Lieutenant Carroll climbed whilst dealing with an unexploded bomb on 12 February 1942. It was only on his return that he was informed that the device was British: “… The bomb was sent up by the Navy. To deal with Stukas they invented a system whereby they sent up into the air a pot of explosive with a rocking cap on top – the fuze mechanism – attached to a thousand feet of wire, with a parachute at the end.” The intention was for the attacking aircraft to snag the wire, pulling the “pot” into the wing at which point it exploded. The image on the right is a similar view taken towards the end of 1942. (Both HMP)

RIGHT:

An SC500 bomb on display in Mosta Church, also known as the Rotunda of St Marija Assunta. Mosta was in the direct flight path of Axis aircraft retreating from or heading to the RAF airfield at Ta’ Qali. As a result the town was heavily bombed in the first four months of 1942, and civilian casualties were high. (HMP)

BELOW RIGHT:

Though Carroll had saved the Royal Opera House, the building was eventually destroyed. This photograph of the badly-damaged structure was taken after the bombing of Tuesday, 7 April 1942. (Courtesy of National War Museum Malta)

As it was only a small bomb, Carroll first dealt with other UXBs that required his attention and it was only later that he found the time to deal with the novelty device: “We had a bench with a vice and there were some sleepers nearby left from the old railway. I asked my Sergeant to get the sleepers and lean them against the vice, to get some boxing gloves (they would at least reduce any injury), goggles and steel helmets [and] we went down” to the workshop.

Another strange device was the “Butterfly Bomb” which first made its appearance in 1942. It was so named because as it fell an outer shell hinged open to form “wings”. The tiny 2kg bombs were packed into containers holding up to 100 each. The container opened as it left the aircraft, releasing the winged bombs to float down like sycamore seeds. The rotational action of the wings armed the fuze as it descended. After it landed, the slightest disturbance would set the bomb off. A bulletin was hastily prepared to warn people of these weapons: “Many people in Malta last Monday found in their fields, their gardens, courtyards and on their roofs, a queer yellow contrivance consisting of a small round box with metal wings attached. It was a ‘present from Jerry’. A ‘Yellow butterfly bomb’, as this type of German anti-personnel bomb is called. To move it means death.” *

On Thursday, 12 February 1942, Carroll was called again to the city’s Royal Opera House. To the right of the Opera House was a building that ran across the present square with a balustrade on top from which a bomb was hanging suspended over the street. When Carroll reached the square he saw that the balustrade had a tiny ledge jutting out towards the street. The only way that Carroll could get to the bomb was to crawl along this ledge. He went up to the top of the building and inched along the ledge on his knees. When he finally reached the bomb, he found that it was another type that he had never seen before. It was small, made of metal and it was attached to a wire. Carroll could not attempt to defuze an unfamiliar bomb on a narrow ledge overlooking the street. So he cut the wire and carried the bomb in his hands back down to the street.

Carroll went on to describe the process for disarming this dangerous device. He had no knowledge of how it was armed or how to disable it. All he could do was to open it up with the probability that it would explode as he did so. “In dealing with a new bomb like this, you had to have a witness and recorder. My sergeant was there [outside the door] with a pencil and note-book and I called out to him ‘I’m putting the barrel of the fountain pen in the vice so that the cap can be freed’ ‘Yes, sir’, and he wrote it down. Now I had to wait two minutes. ‘I’m attaching a piece of surgical tape to the cap, wrapping it round so that, if I pull, it will unscrew.’ ‘Yes, sir,’ he wrote it down and I waited. ‘Now I’m going to pull the tape to loosen the cap.’ ‘Yes, sir,’ and he wrote it down.” “I pulled it and it unscrewed, and I waited. ‘I am now going to pull it off.’ ‘Yes, sir.’ I pulled it off and it was a fountain pen!” DECEMBER 2010

67

UXB MALTA

Malta’s 2,000th raid occurred on Tuesday, 7 April 1942. The centre of Valletta took a terrible pounding, suffering the impact of 280 tons of bombs. In that spring month the enemy mounted 9,600 sorties, day and night, having flown 4,900 sorties in March. By 20 April, 333 people had been killed. Malta’s RE Bomb Disposal dealt with more than 267 HE bombs of 50kg or over. For the attacks against Malta the Luftwaffe could count on 520 aircraft and the Regia Aeronautica had some 300 at its disposal. * Odd though it may seem, it was an unexploded bomb that came to symbolise Malta’s stubborn resistance. At around 16.30 hours on 9 April 1942, the Luftwaffe

BRITAIN AT WAR

undertook its second raid of the day. The parishioners of Mosta, a town to the northwest of Valletta, were attending mass in the Catholic Church. This beautiful building is famous for its dome, which is the third largest unsupported dome in the world. The Reverend Salvatore Magro was a young priest at Mosta. He later described what happened after two German aircraft flew over the church and released their bombs: “At about 16.40 hours one of the bombs pierced the dome, bounced twice off the wall, skidded the whole length of the church and finally came to rest without exploding. At the time there were about 300 people attending the service and, while the majority [had] sought refuge in the side chapels, some remained kneeling. The dome was damaged but inexplicably no one was injured.”3 The priest taking the mass took command of the situation and ushered his congregation out into the street. As usual, Carroll was called. It turned out to be a German SC500 (the SC standing for Spreng

Cylindrisch). This high-explosive generalpurpose bomb had penetrated the dome nose-first making an almost perfectly round hole in the famous roof. The continual bombardment of Malta, at a level never before experienced by man, and rarely if ever since, had a damaging effect upon the population’s and the garrison’s morale.4 This was described by the British Army Medical Service: “The conditions in Malta in 1941 and 1942 were such as to expose even the most stout-hearted among its garrison to the risk of breakdown. Violence continually descended from the skies and, save for the gunners and the fighter pilots, there was no means of retaliation. It had to be endured. To the endurance and to the resilience of everyone there is a limit.” The result, in medical terms was “anxiety neurosis” which the military authorities tried TOP:

The remains of the Royal Opera House as they are today. One account of the bombing on the evening of 7 April 1942, gives the following description: “The portico and the auditorium were a heap of stones, the roof a gaping hole of twisted girders. The rear end starting half way from the colonnade was however intact ... In 1946 German prisoners-of-war in Malta reportedly offered to rebuild the theatre for a nominal charge. The Government declined to accept the offer …” (Courtesy of Robert Reichert)

MIDDLE RIGHT:

There are many grand buildings in Valletta, but few are grander than the Grandmaster’s Palace in Palace Square, also known as St George’s Square. Various plaques and memorials adorn its walls, including this one, which commemorates the award of the George Cross to the Island of Malta by King George VI. (HMP)

FAR LEFT:

The hole in the dome of Mosta Church caused by the German SC500 bomb on 9 April 1942. Mosta is a town situated in the middle of the island of Malta, to the north-west of Valletta. (Courtesy of National War Museum Malta)

LEFT:

The wartime repair to the hole in the dome of Mosta Church can still be seen today – as indicated by the red circle. (HMP)

68

DECEMBER 2010

UXB MALTA

BRITAIN AT WAR RIGHT:

UXB MALTA

A member of the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal section on Malta at work on an uncovered bomb. (Courtesy of National War Museum Malta)

Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal 1940-1944

to play down with the following points in one of its bulletins: “Fear is the weapon which the enemy employs to sabotage morale; Anxiety neurosis is the term used by the medical profession to commercialise fear; Anxiety neurosis is a misnomer which makes ‘cold feet’ appear respectable; To give way to fear is to surrender to the enemy attack on your morale; If you are a man, you will not permit your self-respect to admit anxiety neurosis or show fear; Safety first is the worst of principles.” The bulletin ended with these words: “In civil life, anxiety neurosis will put you ‘in the club’. In battle it brings you a bayonet in the bottom.” The population and the fighting people of

Malta proved tough enough and, as it is well known, the island was awarded the George Cross. This was granted by King George on 15 April 1942, with the words “to honour her brave people, I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous in history”. The last raid on Malta occurred on 20 July 1943. It was the 3,340th alert since 11 June 1940. In total tens of thousands of bombs, amounting to 17,000 tons, were dropped on Malta, destroying some 30,000 to 35,000 buildings (11,000 in April 1942 alone). Some 1,493 civilians were killed and 3,674 wounded out of a population of just 270,000. As for George Carroll, he left Malta in June 1942 and survived the war. He had served continuously through some of the toughest months of the bombing, working through over 2,000 alerts. n

Through violent winter storms and blazing summer heat, despite frequently interrupted sleep and meagre rations, the men of the Royal Engineers Bomb Disposal teams battled to reach, excavate and render safe thousands of UXBs on the island of Malta. Day after day, and in 1942 hour after hour, they approached live bomb after live bomb, mindful that it could explode at any moment. Drawing on interviews with survivors, extracts from contemporary diaries and research from hundreds of previously unpublished wartime documents, UXB Malta, by S.A.M. Hudson, is the first book to reveal the work of Army Bomb Disposal on the island of Malta in the Second World War. For more information or to order your copy, please visit: www.thehistorypress.co.uk

NOTES

1. S.A.M. Hudson, UXB Malta, (The History Press, Stroud, 2010), p.227. 2. Lieutenant Edward Talbot was killed on 9 October 1941, whilst a passenger on one of two 107 Squadron Bristol Blenheims which collided during an antishipping sweep off Cape Alessio, Sicily. 3. S.A.M. Hudson, Ibid, p.150. 4. The London Blitz, which killed more people and destroyed more buildings due to the concentration of people and houses experienced its longest period of continuous bombing, amounting to fifty-seven days, between September and November 1940. This is little more than a third of the 154 days endured by the Maltese.

MAIN PICTURE:

Overlooking the entrance to the Grand Harbour of Valletta is the Siege Bell Memorial. Erected in 1992 and dedicated by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, it commemorates over 7,000 people who lost their lives during Siege of Malta between 1940 and 1943. A plaque on the base of the memorial carries the following inscription: “This bell tolls in memory of those who gave their lives during the Siege of Malta …” (Courtesy of Jim Hellier)

DECEMBER 2010

69

TACKLING THE “SCOURGE OF THE ATLANTIC”

1 2

It was on 5 August 1940, that the Battle of the Atlantic took a new turn. On this day, the first examples of the Luftwaffe’s Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor commenced systematic anti-shipping operations from the recently-captured Bordeaux-Merignac airfield in western France. Patrolling in wide sweeps out over the Bay of Biscay and into the Atlantic west of Ireland, the Fw 200s were capable of continuing around the north of Britain to land in Norway - flight-paths that encompassed many of the Allied convoy routes. Operated by Kampfgeschwader 40 (KG 40), which was formed in June 1940, the Condors soon began to make their presence felt. In the first two months of operations, the KG 40 crews claimed the sinking of some 90,000 tons of Allied shipping. By February 1941, this had reached around 363,000 tons. These successes were achieved despite the Fw 200 being fitted with a rather crude bombsight and the attacks often being made at extremely low altitude in order to bracket a target. The threat from these anti-shipping patrols was so real that Churchill once wrote: “To the U-boat scourge was now added air attack far out in the oceans by long range aircraft. Of these, the Focke-Wulf 200, known as the Condor, was the most formidable.” However, by mid-1941, the writing was on the wall for the Condor. In August the first Fw 200 was shot down by a Hawker Hurricane launched from a CAM-ship (Catapult Aircraft Merchantman). Then, in

3 the following weeks there came a series of defining actions. Between September and November 1941, the British escort carrier HMS Audacity, carrying Grumman Martlet II fighters, accompanied a number of convoys between Gibraltar and home ports. In a number of engagements, her fighters shot down at least three Fw 200s and damaged a number of others. As the Battle of the Atlantic continued to develop, so did the Condor losses – as the images in this month’s Camera at War illustrate. Pictures (1), (2) and (3) show the final moments of a Fw 200 of 2/KG 40 that was attacked and shot down by four Bristol Beaufighters of 248 Squadron on 29 July 1943. With the pilot, Oberfeldwebel Alfred Bolfrass, and one of the gunners killed, the Condor ditched in the Bay of Biscay some seventy-five miles north-west of Cap Finistère. The remaining five members of the crew took to their dinghy, as seen in Picture (3), and were subsequently rescued by an Allied ship. Focke-Wulf Fw 200 C-5 F8+NT of 9/KG 40 – seen in Picture (4) – was

4

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DECEMBER 2010

5

forced to ditch in the Bay of Biscay on 23 August 1943. Oberfeldwebel Alfred Billing and five of the crew were rescued. Only the Flight Engineer, Oberfeldwebel Hans Gentsch, did not survive. Note the fins of the two bombs in the outboard position under the starboard wing. A number of damaged Fw 200s landed in Spain during the war. In the beginning they were often repaired and returned to their bases in France. As the course of the war altered following Operation Torch (the Allied invasion of Africa), the Spanish government interned four aircraft that subsequently arrived. Although their crews were still allowed to return to Germany, their aircraft were sold by the Luftwaffe to Spain. One of the three flyable Fw 200s was then operated in the Spanish Air Force, the others used for spares. One aircraft that would not fly again was a Condor that was brought down on 13 August 1943. A Fw 200 C-5 of 9/KG 40, it had tangled with a Consolidated B-24 Liberator of the 1st Squadron of the 480th AntiSubmarine Group over the Bay of Biscay. One of the Luftwaffe crew, Unteroffizier Werner Zerrahn, recalled what happened: “… We had been briefed to fly an armed reconnaissance sortie over the Bay of Biscay as far as the Azores. Flights like this had a duration of about ten to twelve hours ... During our approach, we were able to make out a convoy and reported its position to Bordeaux by sending a coded radio message. Only a few minutes later, a B-24 Liberator appeared which caused a lot of trouble.

6

“The enemy’s speed was considerably higher than ours and we received many hits. Our gunner, Obergefreiter Heinz Wagner, was wounded and holes in the fuel tanks caused the loss of quite an amount of fuel. Fortunately, we reached a layer of cloud and with the last drop of fuel we were able to make a good belly-landing in a harvested field of maize near La Coruna in Spain.” This was the third of five combats between the American 480th AntiSubmarine Group and KG 40. In the running battle on 13 August, at altitudes ranging between 2,000 feet and sea level, the gunners on the Liberator, piloted by Lieutenant Fred W. McKinnon, expended no less than 1,790 rounds of .50-calibre ammunition to bring down the Condor flown by Oberleutnant Günther Seide. With its No.3 engine seen to be smoking, the Fw 200 force-landed at Camarinas in Spain. After spending a few days in La Coruna and Valladolid, the German crew travelled to Madrid; two weeks later they were back at Bordeaux. Picture (5) shows the Fw 200, werke number 0221, on the ground, the impact of the crash having caused the two starboard engines to have broken away from their mountings and the tail unit to collapse. In this picture note the shadow of the Liberator on the ground, clearly showing its belly-mounted AN/APS 15 search radar. As they circled, the US crew took further photographs of their “kill” – Pictures (6) and (7). (All images courtesy of Chris Goss). 7

DECEMBER 2010

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Project73:Layout 1 16/11/2010 12:33 Page 1

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A Royal

PARACHUTE In the Heritage room of 501 Squadron’s headquarters at RAF Brize Norton is an old parachute. It is one of the squadron’s proudest relics. Adrian Cooper explains how this seemingly mundane object became one of the squadron’s most prized mementoes.

T

he weather across southern England on the morning of 13 September 1940, was cloudy and unsettled. The skies above were empty. Then, at around 09.30 hours the first of a number of individual enemy aircraft crossed the coast near Hastings at the rate of about one every eight minutes. Most of the raiders headed for London at high altitude and on a variety of different courses. The cloud and the altitude of the attackers made interception almost impossible – but at least Fighter Command would have to try. At RAF Kenley the men of 501 Squadron, after having conducted an uneventful early morning patrol, had put their feet up believing that the poor weather conditions would deter the Luftwaffe from mounting any raids. Soon, however, the Operations Officer from 11 Group HQ was on the ’phone. MAIN PICTURE:

Taken some time after the Battle of Britain, this photograph of Squadron Leader James “Ginger” Lacey DFM standing by the propeller of a Hawker Hurricane, was taken at RAF Milfield, near Berwick, on 21 January 1943. (IWM CH8459)

DECEMBER 2010

75

A ROYAL PARACHUTE

ABOVE:

Workmen busy repairing bomb damage near the gates of Buckingham Palace on 14 September 1940. (Mirrorpix)

ABOVE RIGHT:

“Ginger” Lacey trying out the “Royal Parachute” and scarf. The parachute remained a treasured and rather unique memento for Lacey until his death in 1989, when it was presented to the 501 Squadron Association. When 501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force reformed at RAF Brize Norton in 2001 as an Operational Support Squadron, the parachute was presented by the Association to the squadron, where it now takes pride of place in its Heritage room in their Headquarters building, along with other 501 Squadron related artefacts. (Courtesy of the 501 Squadron Association)

BELOW:

The manufacturer’s label on the “Royal Parachute”. (Courtesy of the 501 Squadron Association)

A lone bomber had been spotted somewhere over central London and a volunteer was needed to go and find it. By this time the weather had deteriorated even further. As well as heavy rain, there was now a shroud of low, unbroken cloud covering the whole of the south-east. The men were warned, therefore, that anyone who did volunteer to go up would probably not be able to land again and might very well have to bale out. Sergeant James Harry Lacey RAFVR, nicknamed “Ginger” because of “his shock of carroty hair”, was as restless as anyone else at dispersal. He tended to be something of

BRITAIN AT WAR

a loner and the idea of a lone sortie stalking some unsuspecting prey appealed to him. He quipped that he had always wondered what it was like to bale out and, grabbing his flying helmet, he left the crew-room and headed out in the pouring rain. Lacey had joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 1937 as a Sergeant Pilot, becoming a professional aviator and a civilian flying instructor with the Yorkshire Aero Club. By the time war clouds gathered in 1939, and he was mobilised from his civilian job for full-time service in the RAF, Lacey had amassed well over 400 hours flying time. With the outbreak of war, Lacey was posted to 501 (County of Gloucester) squadron based at Filton. Initially, the squadron flew anti-submarine and shipping patrols along the Bristol Channel before being moved to Tangmere in December 1939. Here the squadron continued to fly routine shipping patrols, this time over the English Channel. During this time, Ginger established himself as one of the most experienced pilots on the squadron, and he was certainly one of the most experienced at night-flying. If there was anyone capable of finding a single aircraft in the dark clouds that hung over the south-east it was Ginger Lacey. Lacey was soon airborne in his Hawker Hurricane Mk.I, P2793 coded SD-G, and almost immediately entered the thick cloud. He soon found himself flitting in and out of dense cloud-banks as he followed directions from the ground controller who guided him towards the last reported position of the enemy aircraft. Lacey was directed east, climbing to 14,000 feet until he finally broke out above the cloud. Now his considerable prewar flying experience, including instrument flying, proved invaluable. The controller’s instructions then took Lacey around to the south, then to the east again, then south-east and back east again.

74

Lacey had been flying around for some two hours with no sign of the enemy. Soon he would have to give up and consider his options for getting back to the ground. Then his luck changed. “I saw a Heinkel He 111 slipping through the cloud tops, half in and half out of cloud,” Lacey later recalled. It was “making for the coast. I didn’t know where I was because I had not seen the ground since taking off.” Lacey swiftly swung his Hurricane into a curving dive towards the Heinkel and, closing the range quickly, he fired his first burst at only 100 yards which killed the bomber’s rear gunner. Lacey saw the German lying prostrate over the edge of the rear cockpit coaming. As he closed in further on the Heinkel, the bomber dived into the nearest cloud-bank. Lacey throttled back so as not to overshoot and he was able to follow the raider into the cloud and maintain visual contact. The bomber turned and weaved several times, staying in the cloud, but generally making for the south-east and heading for France. Lacey found it difficult to see clearly in the dense cloud through the thick armoured glass of his windscreen, so he allowed the Hurricane to drift off to the right so that he could keep the Heinkel RIGHT:

The “Royal Parachute” manufactured by the Australian firm Light Aircraft Pty Ltd which was presented to Sergeant James “Ginger” Lacey in recognition of his actions over London on 13 September 1940. (Courtesy of the 501 Squadron Association)

DECEMBER 2010

A ROYAL PARACHUTE

BRITAIN AT WAR LEFT:

The buckle on the presentation parachute. (Courtesy of the 501 Squadron Association)

RIGHT:

Accompanying the “Royal Parachute” was a white silk scarf which had been signed by more than 100 of the female employees of the factory, some of whom had been involved in the manufacture of the parachute. It is seen here being examined by Lacey (on the right) and a number of colleagues. (Courtesy of the 501 Squadron Association)

BELOW RIGHT:

Sergeant James “Ginger” Lacey being presented with the parachute by Air Vice Marshall Sir Quintin Brand KBE, DSO, MC, Air Officer Commanding No. 10 Group. Brand had himself destroyed a German Gotha bomber in the last German air raid on England in 1918. (Courtesy of the 501 Squadron Association)

in sight through the left quarter-panel of his windscreen. Sticking closely to the bomber as it manoeuvred in the clouds, Lacey followed the Heinkel which even turned a full circle to try and confuse its pursuer. Eventually, the Heinkel eased up to break out of the cloud cover and into the clearer skies above, thinking, no doubt, that it had thrown off the RAF fighter. But Lacey’s Hurricane also emerged from the clouds. The two enemies could now see each other clearly. Lacey dropped astern of the Heinkel, ready to slide left into a firing position behind the bomber. Just then he saw the Heinkel’s dead gunner being pulled aside and another crew member took his place – and opened fire on the Hurricane from just feet away!

Shots rattled against the Hurricane and a gaping hole appeared at the bottom of Lacey’s cockpit. It was immediately obvious that the entire radiator had been shot away. The engine temperature was already beginning to climb into the red and Lacey knew that it was only a matter of time before the engine seized. He had just moments left to destroy the bomber. He jabbed hard on the gun button and held it there until his machine-guns ran out of ammunition. At such close range Lacey could hardly miss and within seconds both engines of the Heinkel were on fire – but so too was Lacey’s own ’plane. He suspected that it might be a glycol fire rather than an oil fire, but such considerations were of purely passing interest to the Sergeant Pilot as he now saw that he too was, quite literally, on fire – his trouser legs were alight. Lacey had wondered what it would be like to bale out; now he was going to find out. Fortunately Lacey was able to clear his cockpit easily. As his parachute cracked open, Lacey drifted down through the solid cloud, finally emerging at a height of 500 feet above the ground, just in time to see his Hurricane dive to earth and explode at Abbey Farm at Leeds near Maidstone in Kent. Below him, Lacey was amused to see people

DECEMBER 2010

running backwards and forwards. One man ran directly below him and he could not resist the temptation to shout out “hey”. The man stopped and looked all around. So Lacey called out again, “right above you”. The man looked up and Lacey concluded that he was a member of the Home Guard because as soon as he saw Lacey dangling from his parachute he raised his shotgun to his shoulder and took aim. Lacey later said that he knew it was a double-barrelled shotgun because he was looking straight down the barrels and that “they looked like twin railway tunnels!” Lacey yelled at the man not to shoot, accompanying his plea with a barrage of Anglo-Saxon abuse. He continued to shout at the man until he landed in a crumpled heap in the field. As the Home Guard came running up, Lacey said, “hang on, whilst I get at my pocket and show you my identity card.” The man lowered his shotgun and replied, “Don’t bother. I don’t need to see your identity card. Anyone who can swear like that couldn’t possibly be German.” * Ginger Lacey had sustained some bad burns, especially around his legs. His trouser-legs had in fact been burnt off up to the knee and he had beaten out the flames as he floated to earth under his parachute. His face was

75

burnt as well, but not too badly because he was always careful to pull down his goggles whenever he was about to go into combat. He had seen too many other pilots with burned eyes and was determined to avoid the same fate. Lacey had landed near Leeds Castle which was at that time being used as an outstation of the Shorncliffe Military Hospital. He was immediately taken there for treatment. An Army doctor wanted to admit Lacey but the pilot insisted that he be taken straight back to his unit at Kenley. The doctor agreed to this on the proviso that he reported sick to his own Medical Officer as soon as he arrived at the air base. When Lacey got back to Kenley, he dismissed the Army ambulance at the main gate and after going back to his quarters to change into a new pair of trousers (which concealed his burnt legs) he walked over to the Officers’ Mess to report to his Commanding Officer, Squadron Leader Harry Hogan. It was only then that he learnt of the significance of his action that day. The Heinkel he had engaged, which was possibly a He 111 P-2 of Stab 111/ KG 55 (G1+AD, werke number 2910), had in fact bombed none other a building than Buckingham Palace. The Heinkel he ABOVE:

A wartime portrait of “Ginger” Lacey. Lacey had once said that he had always wondered what it was like to bale out – he would eventually do so on at least nine occasions. On one of these instances he dropped over two miles before opening his parachute, and said afterwards “It was a great sensation”. (Courtesy of the 501 Squadron Association)

ABOVE RIGHT:

Some of the signatures on the scarf. (Courtesy of the 501 Squadron Association)

76

engaged, if it had indeed been G1+AD, was commanded by Feldwebel Kurt Neubacher, made it back across the Channel but was so badly damaged that it crashed near Etretat, north-east of Le Havre. All onboard were killed. As the man who is believed to have shot down the Buckingham Palace attacker, Lacey quickly gained some notoriety and he was later personally thanked by members of the Royal family, including Queen Mary. But the praise for his actions did not end there. A factory of the Australian company Light Aircraft Pty Ltd, which had been converted to the manufacture of parachutes, sent the first one made by them to Lacey to commemorate his achievement of 13 September 1940. The quick-release box of the parachute was specially engraved to record the fact that it had been presented in recognition of his “gallant services” over Buckingham Palace. The so-called “Royal Parachute” was presented to Lacey at RAF Chilbolton in Hampshire, in July 1941. By that time Lacey had been commissioned and held the rank of Flight Lieutenant. Unsurprisingly, Lacey never risked taking the treasured parachute into the air. *

Returning to the events of 13 September 1940, the fact that Lacey had not volunteered any information about his injuries meant that he was able to go straight back to readiness at dispersal. Back on operational duties, Lacey was shot down again on 17 September, just four days after surviving the encounter with the He 111. Once again he was on his own, this time trying to “bounce” a formation of fifteen Bf 109Es over Kent. Diving on the German fighters from above and behind, he misjudged his closure speed and, without managing to fire a single shot at any of them, he overshot and found himself in a rather embarrassing situation sitting in front of the entire German formation! His new Hurricane, Mk.I V7357, was shot to pieces and he was obliged to bale out once again. On landing by parachute, Lacey found himself once more near Leeds Castle in Kent. As with a few days previously, he was again taken there for treatment. Predictably he was presented to the same Army doctor he had met on his last visit. The doctor had assumed that Lacey was convalescing from his earlier burns in a hospitable somewhere and was “most” annoyed that the pilot had ignored his previous medical advice. n

LEFT:

Flight Lieutenant James “Ginger” Lacey in the cockpit of his 501 Squadron Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I at Colerne, Wiltshire, 29 May 1941. At this time, Lacey had been credited with twenty-three victories, gained over France and the United Kingdom between May and October 1940. He became a Flight Commander shortly after this photograph was taken, and after a period as a test pilot and instructor, was posted to the Far East, where he commanded 17 Squadron. His final victory score was twenty-eight. (Courtesy of the 501 Squadron Association)

DECEMBER 2010

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THE

SAINT T

he tanks distributed to the 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales’s Own) in the First World War and later – the Mark VIs, VICs, A.9s, A.10s and A.13s – were all named when they entered service. This was a throw-back to the days when this proud regiment rode into battle on horseback, and the tanks were given the names of race-horses or of the officer’s own late charger. The naming of the tanks was done by the officers without any involvement by the crews. The horse names were selected with the first letter of the name applicable to the designated alphabet letter of the relevant squadron. So, all ‘A’ Squadron tanks had names beginning with A, ‘B’ Squadron tanks names began with B, and so on. One veteran of the 10th Royal Hussars, Sergeant Ron Huggins, later recalled this practice:

Sometimes it is just little things that make a big contribution to morale. For the men of the 10th Royal Hussars in North Africa their tanks meant much to them, so one crew decided to give their machine a name.

“At the Battle of the Somme Line with the B.E.F. in France between May and June 1940, my A.13 Cruiser tank was named Agility after a steeple-chase race horse, although I played no part in the selection of its name. Another example was a ‘B’ Squadron Light Tank Mark VIC which was knocked out by an anti-tank gun at Huppy-sur-Somme. It bore the name Blenheim after someone’s charger.”

After suffering heavy losses, particularly in tanks, the Eighth Army withdrew to positions on the Gazala – Bir Hachem Line. It was during this period of time that the crews were static, but, as Sergeant Ron Huggins, who commanded a Crusader Mk.II, No. T43617, of ‘A’ Squadron’s 1st Troop, described, the men and tanks of the 10th Hussars still received the attention of the Luftwaffe:

However, when the regiment was reequipped with Crusader and Stuart tanks in 1941, prior to being shipped out to North Africa, the practice of naming tanks was not continued. Part of the British 1st Armoured Division, the 10th Hussars arrived in North Africa just in time to face Rommel’s second push from El Agheila. The 10th Hussars also saw action at the Battle of Saunu during the Eighth Army’s Operation Crusader between November 1941 and January 1942.

MAIN PICTURE:

Crusaders on the move during the Desert Campaign – the battlefields on which this tank made its name. The Crusader was one of the primary British cruiser tanks of the Second World War and is often stated as being the most important British tank of the North African Campaign. (All images courtesy of the Tank Museum unless stated otherwise)

BELOW:

The “Saint” logo that was applied to Crusader Mk.II, No. T43617 – as drawn one of the tank’s crew, Sergeant Ron Huggins.

THE SAINT

BRITAIN AT WAR

the men of the 10th Hussars also had some spare time:

“During the stalemate period … our division was deployed in the wide open desert behind the line and its British and German minefields. Our tanks were scattered some 200 yards apart from each other because of enemy air attacks. One such attack happened on a Sunday morning when a lot of the regiment were assembled for a ‘drum-head service of worship’ held by our Regimental Padre. “We were suddenly attacked by enemy Me 109s … and all ranks had to scatter and make a run for it to slit-trenches and crawl under tanks to avoid the Luftwaffe’s machine-gun strafing. There were no serious personnel casualties, but a 15-cwt water-carrier was destroyed and a few tanks hit by bullets. The wide dispersal of our tanks saved us from a lot of damage – [though] it was a route march to visit a friend in a neighbouring tank!” But, as Sergeant Ron Huggins explained,

80

“We had periods of time to ourselves in which to relax, usually during the extreme heat of the day when you could burn yourself on the hot metal of the tank (120 degrees) or in the early evenings, when reading, doing some washing of clothes (in petrol!) and writing letters home. There was nothing else to do in the vast expanse of open desert.” “My tank driver, Trooper Walter George Eldridge (“Elgie”) was an avid reader of the crime writer novelist, Leslie Charteris. As a writer, he was very popular at the time, and his detective character in his crime novels went under the name of ‘The Saint’. There was even a ‘logo’ for ‘The Saint’ of a running skeleton with a halo above its head. This logo appeared on the front of all Leslie Charteris’ paper-back novels. “Trooper Eldridge used to get these novels sent out to him from home in the mail. He received two or three at a time and would loan them out to other ‘tankies’. So during some of his relaxation periods, he would be seen sat down on the sand with his back

LEFT:

Sergeant Ron Huggins pictured during his time in North Africa. When Ron’s crew received its first Sherman tank, again driven by Trooper Walter Eldridge, it was promptly named The Saint II.

ABOVE:

Another view of Ron Huggins – this time whilst training in a Covenanter. The Covenanter was the first cruiser tank design to be given a name and, except for a handful of trials or evaluation examples, the type was never deployed outside of the British Isles.

BELOW:

A superb view of a Crusader in North Africa. The Crusader was developed by Lord Nuffield’s organisation as a rival to the Covenanter, which it closely resembles. Its sleek lines gave it a modern appearance, which made it a popular subject for war photographers, and it had a remarkable top speed for a tank of the period. This was due to a combination of the excellent Christie suspension system and a powerful V12 engine, both of American origin.

against a tank bogey wheel engrossed in a ‘The Saint’ novel. “One day, he said to me ‘Eh, Sarge, our tank ought to have a name’. I hadn’t given it a thought up until then. I asked Elgie what he had in mind, and he suggested that we should name our tank ‘The Saint’ and have it painted on the tank turret in black paint, together with the running skeleton logo. I must admit that the idea appealed to me.”

DECEMBER 2010

THE SAINT

BRITAIN AT WAR

Huggins knew that he would need permission before he could interfere with Army property, so he approached his Troop Leader, Second Lieutenant Watson. The Lieutenant was unwilling to make such a decision and he took Huggins’ request further up the chain of command. When confronted with this, Major Archer-Shee also refrained from making a decision and he too sought permission from a higher authority! The matter went as far as the regiment’s commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel “Roscoe” Harvey – but he too procrastinated and nothing more was heard about Huggins’ request for some days. As the senior personnel pondered over this weighty problem, Trooper Eldridge took matters into his own hands. He thinly stencilled the name “The Saint” in capital letters on both sides of the tank turret with the running skeleton sketched above.

directional signs, etc.” recalled Huggins. He spent a whole afternoon in the boiling-hot sun doing the necessary artwork. The result was “a right professional job” and the other crews came round to admire the design. Even Colonel Harvey was impressed. Shortly afterwards an order was circulated to the tank crews that they could name their tanks if they wished, as long as the words did not have a double-meaning or were not in any way offensive. Not all the crews took advantage of this but many did and wives’ and girlfriends’ names began to appear on some of the tanks. Others painted the names of their home towns. Colonel Harvey had come to the conclusion that “it was all good for morale”. As for “The Saint”, it was lost in action during the final stages of the battle on the Gazala Line around Tobruk in June 1942. n

Acknowledgement: This article is based on an account written by Ron Huggins which is held in the Tank Museum Archives under reference 10RHN005. For more information on the Museum, visit: www.tankmuseum.org

ABOVE:

A Crusader being moved on a low-loader in North Africa. The Germans certainly admired the Crusader for its speed but British crews were soon uncovering problems with the tank’s reliability. Serious faults were discovered in various components, from air cleaners and fan drives to the water pump and engine lubrication system; all matters to do with cooling, which was so vital in the desert. (Mirrorpix)

BELOW:

The 10th Hussars memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. After the fighting in North Africa, the 10th Hussars fought in Italy. In the post-war period, the regiment served as part of the occupation forces in Italy and then Germany, with overseas deployments to both Jordan and Aden. In 1969 the 10th Hussars was amalgamated with the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert’s Own) to form The Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales’s Own). (Courtesy of A. Carty)

When Huggins saw his driver’s handiwork he called Eldridge over and told him that he was “taking a liberty”. Eldridge said that if his sergeant so ordered, he would rub the stencilling off with petrol. But before restorative action could be taken, Lieutenant Watson saw the offending graffiti. He said that the CO had not actually been adverse to the idea and that he would pursue the matter once more. True to his word, Watson again put forward Huggins’ suggestion and later that day he asked Eldridge if he could borrow one of his Leslie Charteris books as he wanted to show the name and the logo to the squadron leader and the adjutant. “What a fuss Elgie had started!” bemoaned Huggins. Finally, permission was granted but the Colonel wanted to see the finished product and he reserved the right to have it removed if the workmanship was not up to a good standard. Eldridge, however, had everything planned. He had a friend in the Regimental Fitters gang who had been a painter and sign-writer before the war. With a bribe of a few cigarettes, the fitter duly set to work on both sides of the turret – “fitters always had a variety of coloured paints for making up DECEMBER 2010

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3 APRIL 1945

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ver recent years Britain at War Magazine has featured a number of photographs of Bailey bridges constructed during and immediately after the Second World War. This month’s Image of War is a photograph of the longest example ever constructed.

On 19 January 1945, one correspondent, T.S. Douglas, wrote an account of the Bailey bridge in The War Illustrated. “A revolution in military engineering has earned high praise from Field-Marshal Montgomery,” he noted. It is “a permanent way which can be assembled on the spot to span a river or gap and carry the weight of the heaviest tanks. Speed and simplicity are its keynotes … a Bailey bridge can be erected in three hours by forty men”. In North West Europe alone some 1,500 Bailey bridges were constructed, totalling over twenty-nine miles of fixed and three miles of floating bridges. Continuing his description of the bridge’s design, attributed to Donald C. Bailey OBE, a civil engineer in the Ministry of Supply, Douglas added that the “longest Bailey bridge so far constructed is believed to be the 1,200 feet bridge over the Sangro River in Italy – a triumph of military engineering. The longest floating Bailey bridge (1,096 feet) was thrown over the Chindwin in Burma in December 1944.” But within weeks of these words being printed, both of these records would be broken – and by a large margin. Following Operation Market Garden in September 1944, an uneasy stalemate developed in the east of the Netherlands in front of the German frontier. At Gennep, a small town barely two miles from the border, German infantry held the eastern bank of the River Maas. Even as the dust was still settling in Arnhem, the railway bridge that crossed the Maas here was deliberately blown-up. The Germans were only too aware of its potential importance to an Allied offensive. On 10 May 1940, it was one of the few bridges along the border that the Dutch Army failed to demolish. It was swiftly put to use by the invaders who poured men and equipment across it, both by rail and wheeled transport. By blowing it up in the autumn of 1944, the Germans hoped that the Allies would not be able to turn the table and repeat the same achievement. For the next five months, Gennep found itself quite literally on the front line. Shelling, destruction, evacuation, and looting became a factor of

DECEMBER 2010

THE LONGEST BAILEY BRIDGE EVER BUILT

daily life for those members of the population who opted to remain. Then, on 8 February 1945, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s 21st Army Group launched Operation Veritable. The intention was, in simple terms, to clear and occupy the land between the Rhine and Maas rivers. After six days of fierce fighting Gennep was finally liberated by the men of the 51st Highland Division on 14 February 1945. It was troops from the Black Watch and Gordon Highlanders who bore the brunt of the struggle. But even before the Germans had been completely cleared from the town, British engineers were at work bridging both the River Maas and the flooded land to the west. For the immediate future, the men of 7 Army Troop Engineers, a force comprising of HQ 7 Army Troop Engineers, 71, 72, 73 and 503 Field Companies RE, 277 Field Park Company RE and 149 Pioneer Company Pioneer Corps, toiled virtually night and day to construct a Bailey bridge – a structure that would become known as the Gennep Bailey. In technical terms, the initial structure was a Bailey Pontoon Bridge Class 40. It consisted of three main parts: a bridge of six sixty-one-feet landing bays on Class 40 landing piers; a 962-foot Bailey viaduct supported on steel bridging cribs; and a 2,133-foot viaduct of forty-two-foot floating bays. The combined length was an impressive 4,008 feet or three-quarters of a mile. Never before had a Bailey bridge been constructed over such a distance. In this picture, the River Maas can be seen in the top half of the image. Almost all of the remainder of the image in the foreground is the flooded (by the retreating Germans) low-lying land west of the Maas. The town of Gennep can be seen top left, and the demolished railway bridge top right. One post-war historian, that of the 2nd Battalion The Middlesex Regiment, recalled this Bailey bridge. It had been invaluable to his battalion on 24 February 1945, when it, along with the rest of its division, had been ordered forward to concentrate in the area of Goch near the German city of Kleve. The men had, he wrote, crossed the Maas at Gennep “over the finest and longest military bridge yet built”. (HMP)

83

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With the fall of the Netherlands, the airfield at Bergen, more correctly referred to as Bergen/Alkmaar, was swiftly occupied by the Luftwaffe. By 1943, when the images seen here were taken, it was being used predominantly as a night fighter base. As a result, it soon found itself being the subject of Allied air attacks. In one of the earlier attacks, undertaken by USAAF aircrews flying RAF Bostons from RAF Swanton Morley in Norfolk, the Allied aircraft had been ordered to target two airfields in Holland – one of which was Bergen/Alkmaar. During the attack here, one of the Bostons was shot down over the base’s perimeter by anti-aircraft fire. It was, noted one an American report at the time, “a foretaste of what to expect from German airfield defences later”.

During the Second World War the Air Ministry produced a weekly (subsequently twice-monthly) publication called Evidence in Camera. Eventually comprising of eight volumes, totalling some 102 issues, this publication, which had “to be kept under lock and key when not in use” was “a collection of illustrations” relating to the work of both Allied photo-reconnaissance and operational aircraft. Each month we present a selection of the subjects covered and images included.

Another of the many raids carried out took place on 7 September 1943. On this day the US Eighth Air Force despatched a force of twentynine Consolidated B-24 Liberators to Bergen/Alkmaar. Three

2

THE LUFTWAFFE AIRFIELD AT BERGEN/ALKMAAR

1

of the bomber crews reported bombing the airfield at 08.57 hours, whilst a further nineteen attacked a convoy off Texel Island. None of the B-24s were lost or damaged and the attack was completed without loss. It is possible that the images seen here, published in Evidence in Camera at the end of September 1943, were taken in preparation for this raid.

3

At the start of the Second World War the Dutch Air Force, the Koninklijke Luchtmacht, was a small force with a limited number of modern aircraft. Still a part of the Dutch military, and not an independent arm as with the RAF or Luftwaffe, it possessed, in 1940, five main airfields. One of these was near the small town of Bergen on the north-east coast of the Netherlands. It was at Bergen on 10 May 1940, that the Dutch Air Force suffered some of their worst losses on the ground when a dozen of its new Fokker G1 fighters were destroyed during German attacks just after dawn. At most other Dutch airfields, some or all of the aircraft succeeded in getting airborne.

DECEMBER 2010

Picture (1) shows how the hangars at Bergen/Alkmaar were heavily camouflaged with draped material garnished with cut vegetation . In three cases dummy villa roofs (arrowed), complete with gables, had been erected at the end of one hangar roof in an attempt to mirror residential houses in the surrounding area and distract attention from the true size of the hangars . Pictures (2) and (3) are oblique views of the hangars on the airfield and again show the lengths that the Germans had gone to in an effort to camouflage these structures. The view in Picture (2) is marked by the number 1 in Picture (1), whilst that in Picture (3) is indicated by the number 2 . As the original caption points out when referring to these low-level images, note the tilted moveable screens, marked ‘A’, used to conceal the entrance when not in use . In the foreground in Picture (2) is an observation tower or anti-aircraft post (‘B’). The letter ’C’ in Picture (3) indicates the draped camouflage material used on some of the buildings. 

87

2

U-BOAT CONSTRUCTION AT DANZIG As the war against the U-boat threat intensified, so did the attention paid by the Allied air forces to those ports and bases where the submarines were constructed and repaired, and which were home to shipyards operated by firms such as Danziger Werft and F. Schichau-Werke. 1

The smaller of these two shipyards, Danziger Werft, which was badly affected by Allied bombing, had constructed some forty-two Type VII U-boats by the end of the war. Schichau-Werke, on the other hand, built ninety-four U-boats at Danzig – a mixture of Type VIIC vessels and the later Type XXI (the the first submarines designed to operate without the neeed to periodically surface). The earlier of the shots seen here – Picture (1) – is believed to have been taken in late 1942. It shows the construction of U-boats underway at Danzig, though the yard involved is unidentified. The original caption states that six submarines are under construction beneath the camouflage screens indicated by the letter ‘A’, though the screens do not, however, cover the conning towers of the vessels. ‘B’ is the location of three “500-ton U-boats” being built on the slips; ‘C’ marks two further submarines in a basin being fitted out; whilst ‘D’ is another moored at the quayside. The last two U-boats, indicated by the letters ‘E’, are in the two floating dry docks. Picture (2), a different yard in Danzig, was taken during the winter of 1943/1944. The original caption informs us that the U-boats identified by the letter ‘A’ are of 500-tons, whilst those shown at ‘C’ are larger, believed to be of about 740-tons. 

A HEINKEL He 111Z “ZWILLING” SHOT DOWN The design for the unusual Heinkel He 111Z Zwilling resulted from a requirement for a glider-tug capable of towing the large German cargo-gliders such as the Messerschmitt Me 321 Gigant and the planned Junkers Ju 322 Mammut. In simple terms, the He 111Z entailed the merging of two He 111s – initially, four He 111H-6s were modified.

This resulted in a twinfuselage, five-engine aircraft in which the pilot and his controls were located in the port fuselage, along with, usually, the first mechanic, radio operator and an air gunner. The observer, second mechanic and a further air gunner were carried in the starboard fuselage. The He 111Z’s operational history was minimal. One example was caught by an RAF fighter over France on 14 March 1944 (some accounts state that the date in question was 26 February 1944). It is this engagement captured in these three stills taken from the attacking aircraft’s combat film. Strikes can be seen on “the centre section near the fifth engine”. This Zwilling was one of eight lost by the Luftwaffe that year. At the time the He 111Z was towing a Gotha Go 242. First flown in 1941, the Go 242 was a twin-boom design capable of carrying twenty fully-laden troops or an equivalent cargo, such as a small vehicle like the Kübelwagen. A total of 1,528 were built – the example in this sequence appears to have cast off from the tug as soon as it came under attack. 

88

DECEMBER 2010

PROBLEM PICTURE From the very first edition, each issue of Evidence in Camera contained what was eventually called a “Problem Picture”. Selected from the “normal operational photographs”, each image invited the reader to guess what the object(s) indicated are – exactly as we do here! The answers are at the bottom of the page.

A CHANGE IN FORTUNE

A

C

When the instructions for Operation Seelöwe, the invasion of the United Kingdom, were issued by Hitler, one of the most glaring deficiencies in the Kriegsmarine’s capability was the lack of landing-craft. The solution was to convert inland river barges for the task and as a result a programme of requisition and conversion began in the summer of 1940. Approximately 2,400 barges were brought together in the northern European ports from across the Continent – roughly 860 from Germany, 1,200 from the Netherlands and Belgium and 350 from France. The British response to this activity, mainly in the form of attacks by the aircraft of Bomber and Coastal Commands, came to be referred to as the Battle of the Barges. Picture (A) shows a number of these craft gathered together at Boulogne on 8 February 1941, “when [the German] armies were massed at the Channel ports for the invasion of Britain”. The postponement of Seelöwe saw the barges become redundant – albeit temporarily. Indeed, the remainder of this set of images “reflect the marked change in German fortune since early 1941”.

B

DECEMBER 2010

Answer: “Oil burning on the sea.”

Pictures (B) and (C) were taken at Wilhelmshaven; the former in June 1943, the latter on 11 December 1943. They show “invasion barges, of the type moved from Channel ports, now equipped with smoke generators for the defence of Wilhelmshaven”. The last image, Picture (D), taken in late 1942, shows a barge (arrowed) being used to transport debris and rubble during damage clearance in Cologne. 

D

89

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Reconnaissance Report... KILLING THE BISMARCK Destroying the Pride of Hitler’s Fleet Iain Ballantyne Publisher: Pen & Sword www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-84415-983-3 Format: Hardback, 304 pages, illustrated Hardback RRP: £25.00 The German battleship Bismarck was one of the most famous warships of the Second World War. The story of the chase by the Royal Navy and the Fleet Air Arm to find and destroy her is one of the best-known of all the naval encounters during that conflict. So, what can another book add to such a familiar tale? Well, surprisingly, Iain Ballantyne has uncovered what is described as a previously unacknowledged fact about the sinking of the Bismarck – that the ship was about to surrender when it was sunk. This claim is based on the report made by a Tommy Byers onboard HMS Rodney. He stated that he saw a black flag flying from the Bismarck’s main yardarm at around 09.30 hours on 27 May 1941. (At around 08:00, Rodney had closed to within twenty-one nautical miles of Bismarck, with their enemy well illuminated by the morning sun in the background; at 08:47 her guns had opened fire). The black flag is used to signify a plea for surrender, because a white flag still looks like a battle ensign from a distance. Byers also announced that he saw (from a range of about 2,000 yards) a man waving semaphore flags. He reported this to Lieutenant Commander Crawford who “did not want to know”. Another man on HMS Rodney, Lieutenant Campbell, also saw a white light sending a Morse signal from the Bismarck. Before Campbell could read the signal the light was blown to pieces by a 16-inch shell. Could it possible that this signal, sent at such a late stage in the battle, was a form of communication of surrender? Just how likely is this scenario? From the

German accounts all command and communication on the on the Bismarck had broken down because of the massive damage that had been inflicted upon her, so the possibility of an order to surrender being given by any of the remaining senior officers is unlikely. If an attempt was indeed being made to surrender then it may have been made by a number of lower ranks.

adequately referenced.

BOO The appendices are particularly interesting, OF T K H and include a MON E photograph taken from TH the deck of HMS Norfolk apparently showing the exact moment when HMS Hood blew up. The image, currently in the collection of the Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, only came to light in 2009. Previously the only known images of the event merely show a smoke column on the far horizon. • John Grehan is the Assistant Editor of Britain at War Magazine.

However, assuming that the crew of the Bismarck did wish to surrender, how likely is it that the British warships would have complied? Firstly, it was thought that a large body of German aircraft was flying to the Bismarck’s aid and secondly, the British ships were worried about the possibility of attacks upon them by U-boats. In such circumstances, as Ballantyne points out, it would have been “folly” for the Royal Navy to have halted its bombardment of the Bismarck and remain in the area to see what the German ship was going to do. Neither could they have simply left the pocket battleship afloat as it could have been towed back to France as “a very visible example of heroic Nazi endurance on the high seas”. So, as Lieutenant Commander Crawford told Byers, “If they are asking to surrender, it is too late for that now.” This included, Killing the Bismarck is a fine book. It is a very detailed and carefully researched account of this great naval battle. It is packed with eye-witness accounts and is

BOTTOM: The Bismarck photographed from the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen on 24 May 1941, following the Battle of the Denmark Strait and before the two German ships separated. Bismarck is down by the bow, the result of hits received in her engagement with HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Hood earlier in the day. (US Naval Historical Center) BELOW: Survivors from the Bismarck being rescued by the crew of the Royal Navy’s County-class heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire. The Dorsetshire was able to recover only 110 of the Bismarck's crew from the water, before being forced to leave to evade a suspected U-boat. (Mirrorpix)

BOOK REVIEWS

Reconnaissance Report... THE HEROINES OF SOE F Section: Britain’s Secret Women in France Squadron Leader Beryl E. Escott Publisher: The History Press www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-7524-5661-4 Format: Hardback, 240 pages Hardback RRP: £18.99 Possibly the most famous of the SOE agents are the women. The actions of such brave girls as Violet Szabo, Noor Inayat-Khan, Odette Sansom, Nancy Wake and Pearl Witherington have filled many books and been the subject of a number of dramatic films – Beryl Escott herself has written about some of these women previously. Another book on these remarkable women would therefore seem unnecessary. This one, however, is slightly different in that it tells the story of some women whose deeds are not usually detailed. Take, for instance, Mary Herbert. Born in Ireland on 1 October 1903, the daughter of a Brigadier-General, she joined the SOE in May 1942 and was smuggled to France by boat on 31 October. She joined the SCIENTIST network, for which she worked as a courier carrying secret messages between the members of the resistance group. Women were often used in this role as it was easier for them to travel in German-occupied France than men. This was because young Frenchmen were often taken into forced labour to support the German war effort and if they were seen wandering around they were liable to be stopped and interrogated.

however, managed to persuade the Gestapo that she was not a British agent. She could speak some Arabic (as well as some German) and she succeeded in convincing her interrogators that she was a French woman from Egypt. Remarkably, she was released. Now she had to try and find her baby amid the chaos of France following the D-Day landings. At the same time Claude de Baissac, freed from his SOE duties, was looking for his long-lost Mary. Incredibly, the three were eventually reunited, quite by chance, and they returned to the safety of Britain. On 11 November 1944, Mary and Claude were married at Corpus Christi Church in London. Such a happy ending was unusual for the other thirty-nine women of the SOE that operated in France. Some suffered terribly at the hands of their captors. Fourteen of them were executed. The reason for their execution was not that they were such feared subversives but it was hoped that by killing them the truth about the shocking treatment they had been subjected to would be concealed. But such things can never be hidden and much of what they had to endure is told in this book. The Heroines of the SOE is an absorbing read and despite the disappointment of being entirely deficient of source information it is a fine book which adds much to the literature of one of the most intriguing aspects of the Second World War. • Reviewed by John Grehan Brookwood Memorial in Surrey – where many of the female SOE agents who lost their lives, such as Violet Szabo, are commemorated. (HMP)

In the hot-bed clandestine atmosphere of wartime Paris she had an affair with her circuit leader, Claude de Baissac, and fell pregnant. But de Baissac was recalled to the UK and redeployed elsewhere in France. Her heart was broken. In December she gave birth to a baby girl, whom she named Claudine after her departed lover. Now she was not only living under the every day threat of capture by the Germans but she had a child to look after on her own. Inevitably she was found by the Gestapo and arrested. The French social services took the baby away and Mary was imprisoned. For most of the SOE agents seized by the Germans all they could expect was torture and eventually execution. Mary,

MISSING BELIEVED KILLED

SPITFIRE VOICES

Amelia Earhart – Amy Johnson – Glenn Miller & The Duke of Kent Roy Conyers Nesbit Publisher: Pen & Sword www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-84884-319-6 Softback. 208 pages. RRP: £12.99

Life as a Spitfire Pilot in the Words of the Veterans Dilip Sarkar Publisher: Amberley www.amberleybooks.com ISBN: 978-1-44560-042-0 Hardback. 320 pages. RRP: £20.00

The uncertain fates of the likes of Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson and Glenn Miller have fascinated readers and aviation historians ever since they disappeared. Even today, more than half a century after their final flights, what happened to them is still the subject of speculation, conspiracy theory and controversy.

SCOTTISH AIRFIELDS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR Volume 3: The Grampians Martyn Chorlton Publisher: Countryside Books www.countrysidebooks.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-84674-169-2 Softback. 192 pages. RRP: £12.99 The aircraft that flew from thirteen airfields in the Grampians during the Second World War had a crucial role to play, helping keep the North Sea open to Allied ships and taking the fight to the enemy. In this book, the latest in Countryside Books’ Airfields Series, the author delves into the history of these locations.

92

This publication is an important piece of oral history of the Spitfire from the pilots' perspective. Drawing upon veterans' personal letters, diaries, contemporary documents and the memories of their families and comrades, this is the story of pilots who were thrown into a maelstrom of life or death aerial combat.

WE ARE SOLDIERS Our Heroes. Their Stories. Real Life on the Front Line Danny Danziger Publisher: Sphere www.littlebrown.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-84744-396-0 Hardback. 285 pages. RRP: £17.99 Through his many interviews with the people who fight our wars for us, the author provides a fascinating insight into the reality of what we ask of our armed forces. Indeed, Danziger takes the reader to the heart of the 20th and 21st century soldier’s experience, from the Falklands to Afghanistan.

DECEMBER 2010

BOOK REVIEWS TANKS ON THE SOMME From Morval to Beaumont Hamel Trevor Pidgeon Publisher: Pen & Sword www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-84884-253-8 Hardback. 152 pages. Illustrated RRP: £19.99 On 15 September 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, tanks were sent into action for the first time. In this book the historian Trevor Pidgeon provides a detailed account of tank operations during the second phase of the Battle of the Somme, reconstructing the actions of individual tanks during each engagement. The book also features field walks of the sites of the major tank actions.

GALLIPOLI VCs of The First World War Stephen Snelling Publisher: The History Press www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-7524-5653-9 Paperback. 274 pages. Illustrated RRP: £9.99 This book contains new material from recently released archives and tells the stories of the thirtynine men whose bravery on the battlefield was rewarded by the Victoria Cross, among them the war’s first Australian VC, first New Zealand VC, and first Royal Marine VC. It represents the highest number of VCs won in a theatre of war other than the Western Front.

THE CAPTAIN’S STEWARD Falklands, 1982 Barrie Fieldgate Publisher: Melrose Books www.melrosebooks.com ISBN: 978-1-905226-46-7 Hardback. 412 pages. Illustrated RRP: £24.99 Barrie Fieldgate was, as the title suggests, the Captain’s Steward onboard the frigate HMS Broadsword, which operated in the South Atlantic during the Falklands War. As expected, the core of this book comprises the observations of a Falklands War veteran during the period of that conflict, providing a detailed insight into life at sea as part of the Task Force.

DESTROYER DOWN An Account of HM Destroyer Losses 1939-1945 Arthur S. Evans Publisher: Pen & Sword www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-84884-270-8 Hardback. 216 pages. Illustrated RRP: £19.99 At the height of the war the Royal Navy was commissioning four new vessels a month, which was only sufficient to replace those which had been sunk or severely damaged. Some eight thousand destroyer men did not survive. Here the author details many of the sinkings that occurred throughout the war and includes many first-hand accounts from those involved.

LUFWAFFE FIGHTER PILOT Defending The Reich Against the RAF and the USAAF Wolfgang Fischer Publisher: Grub Street www.grubstreet.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-906501-83-6 Hardback. 213 pages. Illustrated RRP: £20.00 Having enlisted in the Luftwaffe, Wolfgang Fischer spent nearly five of the six years of hostilities in uniform. During this time he was given a succession of postings varying from a long-range recce unit; as a decoder in a met office; to a bomber squadron; and as a flying instructor, before joining the famous Richthofen Geschwader in Italy, from where he was flying when he was shot down.

DECEMBER 2010

Reconnaissance Report... BEHIND ENEMY LINES The Autobiography of Britain’s Most Decorated Living War Hero Sir Tommy Macpherson Publisher: Mainstream www.mainstreampublishing.com ISBN: 978-1-84596-636-2 Format: Hardback, 272 pages Hardback RRP: £17.99 It is truly surprising that the exploits of Tommy Macpherson have not been brought to the wider public before now. He is just one of twentyfive men ever to be awarded the Military Cross three times, three French Croix de Guerre and the Legion d’Honneur. An officer in the Cameron Highlanders, Macpherson volunteered for No.11 Scottish Commando in 1940 which was recruited from men of the Scottish and Highland regiments. After action against the Vichy forces in Syria, Macpherson was singled out for a secret mission. He was duly despatched by submarine, with a party of SBS men, to reconnoitre a landing spot on the North African coast. The group carried out their task but the submarine failed to show at the rendezvous point for the return and the men set off on foot to try and make their way back to the British lines. Predictably, they were spotted and arrested by Italian troops. Imprisoned in an Italian PoW camp, which was later taken over by the Germans, Macpherson made a number of attempts at escape. The result of this was that he was moved to Germany and placed in a camp run by the Gestapo and then to Stalag 20A, near Torun in Poland. Incredibly he escaped yet again and managed to make his way to Sweden, via a ship out of Danzig. Soon after recovering back in the UK, Macpherson joined the men training for Jedburgh operations behind enemy lines. He was dropped into France on 4 June 1944, in his battledress complete with kilt. Two days later the Normandy landings began. With the opening of a second front in the south of France on 15 August 1944, the Germans began to withdraw their garrisons. Amongst those was the SS Das Reich armoured division. Macpherson’s team, and the French resistors operating alongside it, had to try and obstruct this battle-hardened division from moving northwards. They blew up bridges, cut down trees to block roads and fitted booby-traps to stop them being removed. So successful were Macpherson and his teams the Germans began to fear ever forcing their way back to rejoin the rest of the German Army. Though the Germans were better armed, and far better trained and organised than the makeshift Resistance groups, Macpherson’s people made such a nuisance of themselves the German commander agreed to meet to discuss the situation. Though, in Macpherson’s words the Germans, some 23,000 in total, could have cut through the resistors “like knife through butter”, the Scot persuaded Major General Erich Elster that he was hopelessly outnumbered and could never break through. Seeing a British Army officer in Highland uniform clearly helped Macpherson’s case and he “bluffed” the German general into surrendering! A lone twenty-four-year-old Scot had forced the surrender of 23,000 Germans. With the liberation of France, Macpherson continued with his Special Forces work. He was dropped into northern Italy to destroy the roads and railways running through Venice up to Austria through the Ponteba Pass. Once again Macpherson proved to be a thorn in the side of the Germans. Though Macpherson’s exploits have been given little recognition in his home country, the Italians fully appreciated his actions. In 1994 they erected a memorial in his name as a token of their gratitude for Macpherson’s endeavours fifty years earlier. Without doubt, Behind Enemy Lines is the astonishing story of one man’s war – an account that has been long overdue. • Reviewed by Robert Mitchell.

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Reconnaissance Report... THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN From the BBC Archives Publisher: BBC Audiobooks Ltd www.bbcshop.com ISBN: 978-1-408-42752-1 Format: CD RRP: £12.99 This is a collection of recordings of personal accounts and interviews of some of the great characters that fought and won the Battle of Britain. The first recording is of Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding explaining the difficulty he had in persuading Churchill not to send any more fighters to France in May 1940. The French wanted not just the squadrons of Fighter Command to be sent to France but the whole of the RAF which would be placed under their own generals! According to Dowding, if that had happened it would have been the end of the war “there and then”. Yet Churchill desperately wanted to support Britain’s allies by sending them more aircraft and he simply would not listen to Dowding’s arguments. This is how Dowding managed to persuade the Prime Minister not to throw away what would shortly become Britain’s first line of defence: “Churchill said nothing. He just sat with a fixed expression on his face and I could see I wasn’t getting anywhere. Well, I knew that Churchill had a fondness for elementary mathematics, and that some people can be convinced through their eyes in a way that they can’t be convinced through their ears. So I had equipped myself with a diagram showing a red line going down with the expenditure of Hurricane aircraft ... I put this diagram down on the table and said: ‘This is the state of affairs today, sir. This is the loss of Hurricanes in the last ten days. That brings us down to this spot. If this loss continues at the same rate, there won’t be a single Hurricane left in France or in England’ – and that did the trick!” There are also replays of broadcasts, such as those of Beaverbrook thanking the British people for their contributions to the famous “pots and pans” campaign to provide aluminium for the building of Spitfires. The main part of the CD, however, focuses on the pilots of Fighter Command. Interviews with these veterans are themed. The first theme, for example, is that of the impersonal nature of aerial combat. The interviewees state that they did not see the German aircraft and their crews as an enemy to be killed but simply as a target to be destroyed. Some of their descriptions are funny, some poignant, all are interesting. Unfortunately some of these men are not named, nor are the incidents they describe identified. There are interviews with people on the ground who watched the air battles unfold and a live recording of spectators commenting on the actions in the skies above adds an air of real drama. One individual, again not named, thought that the Battle of Britain was given undue prominence over other events in the war and he reasoned that this was because it became a form of public entertainment for the people of London and the south-east. “Anyone could walk out of their house on any day and see one or two battles going on”, he explained. “Because of this it was on people’s minds more and was given more importance.” Disc Two of the set includes the personal account of Flight Lieutenant J.B. Nicholson describing the action on 16 August 1940, when he won the VC (see page 99). As Nicholson did not survive the war this is an invaluable recording from the BBC’s archives. Indeed, at a time when the number of Battle of Britain veterans is rapidly dwindling, this fascinating CD still allows you to hear what happened from the men themselves – including some famous and pivotal individuals.

CD/BOOK REVIEW THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR Sandra Gittins Publisher: The History Press www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-7524-5632-4 Format: Softback, 256 pages Softback RRP: £16.99 It is difficult for us in the 21st century, being accustomed as we are to road and air transportation, to appreciate the significance of railways in both world wars. In terms of both the movement of troops and most especially in the shipment of munitions, the railways were of supreme importance, not only in the UK but also on the Continent. The remarkable aspect of this is that the railway companies, which in many cases also operated crossChannel ferries, established routes which took their trains from all parts of the country, across the Channel to the front lines. To accomplish this railway engineers undertook massive infrastructural operations in France. Nor was it just the Army that was supplied by the GWR. The Admiralty was dependant on steam coal for the fleet from the collieries in South Wales, transporting most of it by sea to Scapa Flow via the local ports, but owing to the danger of submarine attacks it was necessary for the coal to be taken north by rail. The GWR ran regular trains from Pontypool Road as far as Warrington where other railway companies took over on the route to naval ports north. All trains were specially signalled to ensure a clear route. Coal was also transported to Plymouth, Dartmouth, and Southampton. Although there were munitions factories within the GWR area there was a great deal of cross-country traffic passing through, with empty shells being sent to filling factories, guns and tanks from the north and Midlands travelling south to the ports. The GWR factories also carried out a great deal of work themselves, mostly at Swindon. All manner of items were made for the government from ambulance stretchers, water tank carts to leather work for saddles. But it was the engineering expertise of the GWR that was called upon to complete the manufacture of 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns from forgings supplied by the Royal Ordnance. Shell manufacture was also undertaken with metal billets being rolled in Swindon Works to be made into different size shells. Though Sandra Gittins’ book is packed with information about the huge organisation that was the GWR, she also introduces the reader to some of the railway’s employees. Thousands of members of its staff were army and navy reservists as well as members of the Territorial Force and with the outbreak of war they were called up for military service. One GWR employee, Private Henry J.C. Eades, who was a GWR Policeman at Plymouth, was serving with the 1st Devonshire Regiment which was holding a line in the Achiet-le-Petit area. On 22 August 1918, prior to the battalion withdrawing, Private Eades and Lance Corporal Onions were sent out as scouts to investigate the situation at the front following a heavy bombardment. They entered what they thought was an unoccupied trench. Suddenly 250 Germans appeared, and without hesitation Eades and Onions opened rapid fire. They obviously didn’t think they would survive, but to their surprise the Germans surrendered! The Devon men lined the Germans up and marched them off to their C.O., with Onions in the lead, and Eades brining up the rear. Onions was awarded the Victoria Cross, and Eades the DCM. The regimental history records that a VC had hardly ever been earned by a stranger incident. After investigation it transpired that the Germans were to counter-attack a nearby British position, but had got hopelessly lost. Shortly after this event Eades was wounded, and he died on 1 September 1918. The Great Western Railway in the First World War is a detailed and thorough history of this proud old railway which contributed so much to the eventual Allied victory in 1918. Not since 1922 has the history of this company been examined and recorded in a single volume. This publication is completed with the GWR Roll of Honour, a list of those GWR employees who lost their lives in the Great War. Included in this list is Sandra Gittins’ great-uncle. • Reviewed by Martin Mace.

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BOOK REVIEW WHEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS The Story of the Footballers’ Battalion in the Great War Andrew Riddoch and John Kemp Publisher: Haynes www,haynes.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-85733-077-2 Format: Softback, 360 pages Softback RRP: £6.99 On Thursday, 21 October 2010, the strains of the Last Post echoed through the air near Delville Wood Cemetery in the French community of Longueval on the Somme. The occasion was, writes Nick Ames, the unveiling of a memorial to the so-called “Footballers’ Battalions”. The Footballers’ Battalions gained their name from the fact that their ranks included, amongst others, professional and amateur players, referees, administrators and supporters from many British football teams. The first of the battalions, both part of the Middlesex Regiment, was the 17th (Service) (1st Football) Battalion, which was formed in London on 12 December 1914, by William Joynson Hicks MP. According to Frederick Wall, the then secretary of the Football Association, the England international centre-half Frank Buckley was the first person to enlist. Initially, problems with contracts generally meant that only amateur players like Vivian Woodward and Evelyn Lintott were able to volunteer. Nevertheless, the full battalion landed in France in November 1915. Such had been the eventual strength of enlistment, that a second battalion, the 23rd (Service) (2nd Football) Battalion Middlesex Regiment, was formed on 29 June 1915. The battalion landed in France in May 1916. To mark the unveiling of the memorial, Andrew Riddoch and John Kemp’s well-researched book When the Whistle Blows was published in paperback. It examines the recruitment and service of the 17th (Service) (1st Football) Battalion. As the authors reveal, the battalion went on to fight on the Somme, where 500 of its officers and men were killed in less than three weeks.

Reconnaissance Report... This book tells in much detail how the sportsmen played their part in the conflict with Germany and her allies from 1914 until 1918. Among those who died were Lance Corporal Sid Wheelhouse, former captain of Grimsby Town and “a model player both on and off the field who endeared himself to all who knew him”. Private Bob “Pom Pom” Whiting had been a goalkeeper for Brighton and Hove Albion and Chelsea and had been “renowned for the phenomenal distance of his goal kicks”. He was killed in action on 28 April 1917, while attending to the wounded. Of his experiences before his death, Whiting once said: “I can honestly tell you it is all work and very little play.” Manchester United player Oscar H.S. Linkson, a Private in the battalion, was killed on 8 August 1916. His body was never found or identified and he is named on the Thiepval Memorial. Bristol Rovers goalkeeper Peter Roney suffered what would now be called post-traumatic stress and died a broken man, while Joseph Mercer of Nottingham Forest was wounded and captured and never recovered his health, dying a few years after the Armistice. For some, their service marked the end of their careers. Vivian Woodward, for example, began his career at Clacton Town Football Club and joined Tottenham Hotspur in 1901. He was injured in 1916 and did not return to top class football. One of the most highly decorated men in the battalion was 29-year-old Captain Allastair McReady-Diarmid. Though only attached to the 17th from the 4th Battalion, McReadyDiarmid was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his part in halting a German counterattack at Cambrai in 1917. Armed with a revolver and bag of hand grenades he is reported to have killed or wounded ninety-four enemy soldiers before he himself died in a bomb blast. As Frank Buckley once stated, he estimated that over 500 of the battalion’s original 600 men were killed. Heroes is a word commonly used to describe today’s footballers – for the men who feature in this book the term is wholly appropriate.


“When war broke out there was antipathy toward – particularly professional – footballers,” said Mr Riddoch. “It was felt they were not contributing to the war effort. People who didn’t like the pro game used the fact that matches were taking place and crowds of young men were watching them. Disgruntled amateur players and officials joined in while others felt matches taking place just was not appropriate.”

MIRRORPIX

“Unlike the other Pals Battalions, which were an exercise in civic pride or the results of workers coming together, this was a reaction to a feeling that footballers were not ‘doing their bit’. It was a stigma which followed them around, even into the trenches.”

ABOVE: The 5.75-foot high stone memorial was funded by a series of bucket collections and donations at Football League grounds. ABOVE RIGHT: Recruits on the march before their departure to France. (Both images courtesy of Nick Ames)

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Reconnaissance Report... THE CHANNEL ISLANDS AT WAR John Grehan reviews a new threepart documentary which examines the story behind the only part of British soil to be occupied by German forces in the Second World War. As a nation we have tended to scorn the countries of Europe that seemed to readily succumb to, and even actively participate in, their occupation by the Germans in the Second World War. We have perhaps assumed the moral high ground.

DVD REVIEW Take for instance the occupation of the tiny island of Sark. When the Germans first reached Sark after neighbouring Guernsey had been occupied, they were invited to tea by the ruler of the island, Dame Sibyl Hathaway. When they arrived at her home, La Seigneurie, she insisted that the Germans signed the visitors’ book before she agreed to surrender – to which the Germans duly complied. With the German surrender at the end of the war, in the week of 10 to 17 May 1945, this redoubtable woman was left in command of the German garrison on the island. Another tale concerns that of a waitress in a café who, when serving some Germans, was greeted with “Heil Hitler”. She responded with “Heil Churchill” – an action for which she was promptly deported to Germany.

The only reason that we were not occupied by the Germans was because we were separated from the rest of Europe by the English Channel. Yet part of the British Islands was indeed occupied – the Channel Islands – and this dark period in the islands’ history shows us how we Britons might have responded if Hitler had invaded Britain in 1940. Immediately following the fall of France the British Government decided that the islands were indefensible. Furthermore, the British Government had already considered that the islands were of no strategic importance. Churchill abandoned them to fend for themselves with an instruction to “passively collaborate.” In many respects the occupied and the occupiers found a way to live side by side without conflict. Some, though, were not prepared to accept German rule and a number tried to escape (a few successfully, a number dying in the attempt) and efforts were made to pass on intelligence to the British authorities. Others deified the Germans by hiding wirelesses so that they could pass on news from the BBC. But with almost two Germans to every islander (at one time there were more Germans per square mile in Jersey than in Germany) any organised resistance was impossible. Inevitably there were those whose actions were construed as being more than “passive”. The extent to which Channel Islanders actively helped the Germans has long been questioned. After the liberation the Government commissioned an inquiry, the Morrison Report, but it has never been published. After the fifty-year ban on publication ended a further prohibition was imposed. The continuing secrecy has prompted inevitable speculation. This fascinating subject is thoroughly investigated in the documentary. There was also the period when, following the start of Operation Overlord, the islands were cut off from the Continent resulting in months without the usual food shipments. During this time the islanders were painfully starving and burglary and thefts rose to unprecedented levels. Another disturbing situation which the islanders had to deal with was the forced deportation of all people not born on the islands. There was also the treatment of Jews living in the islands. They faced the same kind of discrimination as Jews on the French mainland and eventually transportation to concentration camps. Though narrated by John Nettles the story of those memorable times is largely told by the survivors themselves and they offer not only a personal insight into the conditions they had to endure but also many fascinating anecdotes.

This three-part documentary is a thorough and explicit examination of the German occupation of the Channel Islands, the continuing interest in which shows that it remains a most controversial period of British history. The film certainly pulls no punches and indeed its desire to reveal the truth about the occupation makes for some uncomfortable viewing. Amongst the many disturbing interviews is one by Geoffrey Messervie Norman who witnessed what happened to one of the Russian slave labourers that were transported to the islands: “I watched the OT [Organisation Todt] guard beat that man – I’ve never seen a man cry before – I’ve never forgotten how helpless I felt and you want to twin my island or St Helier, or tell me to be nice to these people – you’re out of your bloody mind.” Churchill left the islands to their fate and the islanders did what they could to survive – for survival was all that they could hope for. This is what is clearly shown in this very insightful series. More than anything, this documentary provides a glimpse into what life might have been like in German-occupied Britain. Would we have behaved any differently than the rest of occupied Europe? Watch this film and find out. Publisher: UKTV, distributed by Channel Island Publishing Format: 3 x 45 minute programmes. RRP: £14.95 (including UK P&P) www.channelislandpublishing.com ABOVE: John Nettles interviewing Ruth Walsh from Guernsey for the documentary. (Courtesy of CKPSTOCK.COM) BELOW: Members of the The Channel Islands Battle Group being filmed on location for the The Channel Islands at War. (Courtesy of Graeme Delanoe, C.I.B.G.)

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Hitler’s fortress in the Alps, the Eagle’s Nest, Obersalzberg. Photograph taken from the private collection of Major Richard D Winters.

‘The story of Easy Company has been told before... but never so personally as it is here.’ —THE INDEPENDENT Easy Company: 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, In Photographs is the official veteran-signed limited edition book by the ‘Band of Brothers’. Compiled by E-Company historian Jake Powers, Easy Company is a unique historical document that draws upon the exclusive testimony of 23 of the company’s surviving veterans and features over 400 rare photographs and items of memorabilia – including maps, diary extracts and rosters – many taken from the personal archive of one of the most celebrated soldiers of the war: Major Richard D Winters. With new contributions from Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Damian Lewis, each copy is personally signed by at least six Easy Company veterans. Also included is a DVD of exclusive interviews with the veterans and facsimiles of Major Winters’ personal annotated map of Hagenau and ‘Jump Into The Fight’ rare 1942 recruitment leaflet.

Each copy is personally signed by at least six Easy Company veterans.

Easy Company: 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, In Photographs is a limited edition of only 1,000 hand-bound copies worldwide. Available to order now. GENESIS PUBLICATIONS Fine Limited Editions Since 1974 T: +44 (0) 1483 540 970 W: www.bandofbrothersbook.com

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As w e piec ll as a lo e o the f of histo k at a fa sc r y, w iles h Arch e dip inating eld a t i Wha ves, and the Nat into one of t th e io pres ent o nal Pape ur re rs S a gula id. r

A VICTORIA CROSS WINNER’S UNIFORM COLLAR Andy Saunders reveals the story behind a remarkable piece of history – a piece of blood-stained uniform worn by Flight Lieutenant James Brindley Nicolson when he carried out the actions for which he won Fighter Command’s only Victoria Cross. The story of Battle of Britain pilot Flight Lieutenant James Brindley Nicolson was well known after he became RAF Fighter Command’s only Victoria Cross recipient of the Battle of Britain and, indeed, of the whole war. Flying a Hurricane of 249 Squadron he was involved in combat with Messerschmitt Bf 110s over Southampton on 16 August 1940, when his aircraft was hit and set on fire. What happened next is best conveyed through the wording of the official citation for award of the VC in the London Gazette of 15 November 1940: “During an engagement with the enemy near Southampton on August 16th 1940, Flight Lieutenant Nicolson’s aircraft was hit by cannon shells, two of which wounded him whilst another set fire to his fuel tank. When about to abandon his aircraft owing to flames in the cockpit he sighted an enemy fighter. This he attacked and shot down although as a result of staying in his burning aircraft he sustained serious burns to his hands, face, neck and legs.

“At this point a group of Royal Engineers came running and yelling into the field and they were clearly intent on shooting the airman, believing him to be German. I ran towards them shouting ‘No!

He’s one of ours!’ and with PC Coleman managed to calm the situation. Clearly they had been responsible for the shooting earlier as the gunfire had come from the RE’s base at Sparshatts Garage and from the Canadians in the docks. Later, I found eleven recently-fired .303 cases in a field near the RE’s base. The LDV got the blame for firing at Nicolson, but I know it was the REs. In any case, at that time we in the LDV had .300 rifles not .303.” Whatever the truth of the matter, it seems certain that Nicolson had been fired on and further injured by those on the ground. Sadly, James Nicolson, then a Wing Commander, was >>>

“Flight Lieutenant Nicolson has always displayed great enthusiasm for air-fighting and this incident shows that he possesses courage and determination of a high order by continuing to engage the enemy after he had been wounded and his aircraft set on fire. He displayed exceptional gallantry and disregard for the safety of his own life.” Nicolson left us his own testimony in the form of his Combat Report of the action. In this it states that, having described the combat, “I then abandoned aircraft with difficulty and after dropping some 5,000ft pulled cord – I was shot in the buttocks by an LDV just before landing”. It will be noted that the London Gazette citation studiously avoided any mention of Nicolson being shot at by the LDV as referenced in his own report! However, that aspect of the event is one that is open to some debate. Haulage contractor Robert F. Stanley, one who was there on the ground, takes up the story: “In 1940 I ran a transport company and as this was a reserved occupation I couldn’t join up and had to settle for the Local Defence Volunteers instead. On 16 August I was on duty in Park Road when I saw a Hurricane overhead descending with a trail of smoke. The pilot baled out and I decided to follow him to be on hand if help was required. “In Paynes Road I commandeered a van and set off in hot pursuit of the airman, now drifting westwards. Keeping the descending pilot in sight I was then horrified to see tracer bullets winging towards him from the ground. Arriving at the point where he had landed a Mr Dukes and myself released the pilot from his parachute. ABOVE: Flight Lieutenant James Brindley Nicolson VC’s iodine-stained RAF uniform collar. RIGHT: A portrait of James Brindley Nicolson VC in his RAF uniform. (All images courtesy of the Andy Saunders Collection unless stated otherwise)

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killed in a flying accident on board a B-24 Liberator in the Far East on 2 May 1945. His body was never found after the aircraft crashed into the Bay of Bengal and he is commemorated on the Singapore (Kranji) Memorial. * When researching the story of James Nicolson during 1978 and 1979 for the forthcoming epic tome Battle of Britain: Then and Now the author of this article, Andy Saunders, tracked down and visited James Nicolson’s widow and was astonished to discover that she still had her late husband’s burnt and tattered uniform, life-jacket and one shoe from that VC action on 16 August 1940. Stuffed into an old suitcase under her bed it had not seen the light of day for nearly forty years. Mrs Nicolson was quickly convinced of its unique historical significance and its undoubted national importance. However, she confided that she had only recently considered putting this “old bundle of rags” into the dustbin. By great good fortune, the visit secured the relics for preservation and Mrs Nicolson passed the items to the author with a letter stating that he should: “… be responsible for the display and preservation of the uniform and associated items and that henceforth he should continue to ensure they should be displayed in an appropriate location and in an appropriate manner.”

At that time, the author was involved in the establishment of the then embryonic Tangmere Military Aviation Museum. Indeed, he became its first curator. It therefore seemed natural that these items should be displayed there - as they still are today. As for Nicolson’s Victoria Cross, this was also held by Mrs Nicolson and when visited she eventually managed to find the medal, in its case, at the bottom of her sewing box! This was sold by Mrs Nicolson at auction on 27 April 1983, when it was purchased, along with his other medals, by the RAF Museum. At around this time the author and Tangmere Museum commissioned the now well-known painting by Robert Taylor “Battle of Britain VC”’ and this painting now hangs above Nicolson’s displayed uniform. During the author’s contact with Mrs Nicolson she gave him, as a personal gift, another significant part of the uniform James Nicolson had worn that day in August 1940 – his RAF uniform collar. It is stained with marks of iodine ointment poured onto the wounded pilot and is clearly inscribed with indelible laundry marker: J B Nicolson. Truly a piece of history if ever there was one!


TOP LEFT: The medals of Wing Commander James Brindley Nicolson VC, DFC, who was 29-years-old at the time of his death. These medals can be seen by visitors to the RAF Museum. TOP RIGHT: A contemporary wartime illustration, produced for the Ministry of Information, depicting Nicolson baling out of his Hurricane, Mk.I P3576, on 16 August 1940. (HMP) ABOVE: A rare, possibly previously unpublished, photograph of Nicolson, in the centre, taken during the Battle of Britain. The CO of 249 Squadron, Squadron Leader John Grandy (who took dictation off and signed Nicolson’s VC action Combat Report) is on the left; the squadron’s Adjutant, Pilot Officer E.N. Lohmeyer, on the right. RIGHT: Flight Lieutenant James Brindley Nicolson pictured playing shove-halfpenny at the west of England hospital where he was sent to recuperate after the events of 16 August 1940. (Mirrorpix)

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WHAT THE PAPERS SAID NAAFI NEWS The House Organ of Navy, Army & Air Force Institutes Spring 1946 << Cover Story: “White-coated NAAFI employee on the cover is Mrs Grace Hutchinson, now at Northern Command office, York. At the time this picture was taken she was serving at the NAAFI Club, Leeds. Occasion was VJ Day, 1945. A sailor and an airman swept Mrs Hutchinson into the street to join in the celebrations, and a cameraman secured one of the happiest pictures of the day.” (HMP)

CARRYING ON “Mr Harry Eaton, who has managed the HQ Bakery, Kennings Way, for thirteen years, seeing his staff grow from 27 to 160, and output multiplied fifteen times. That output – from eighteen ovens – is impressive. It includes in one week: 35 tons of slab cake, 2½ tons of Swiss roll, 300,000 small cakes, 72,000 meat pies. Despite bombs that fell on and around HQ Warehouse, the Bakery carried on, maintaining round-the-clock production.” “True s

to Surrey w r y: a girl mobile van, wav hen a Spitfire p driver was on he landed h ed a signal that ilot, flying low, sr rounds in across tois ’plane in a field he was coming potted the ’plane an the van, had a beside the road. down and H d took off cup of te a, returne strolled again. ed to his

WINS THE MILITARY CROSS

THE MOBILES WENT TO WAR

“We have pleasure in recording the award of the Military Cross to Captain Thomas Shannon MM. Captain Shannon has been serving in Cairo since 1943, but he earned his award in 1940 when he was organising NAAFI services in Crete. During the invasion of the island he went into action with his staff, and was twice wounded before being taken prisoner.

“The presence of a NAAFI mobile in the mechanised column at the Victory Parade was a fitting tribute to a branch of NAAFI service of which we may all fell proud.

“Leaving a German hospital, he was sent to Salonika, where he organised the escape of forty-two Allied soldiers. For this he was sent to a punishment camp in Poland, but in 1942 was transferred to Germany. During his imprisonment in four Nazi prison camps he helped to organise further escapes, and finally, in November 1943, he managed to return to England via Sweden. He spent several months in hospital before leaving to resume his duties in the Middle East.”

battle a l Alameintter y was E e th r tly afte charge of a ba ly r y: Shor dle slow “Tr ue stortiller y off icer insy vehicle tr un tion out of p a a im h tr fl con I e a Britis he NA AF that bl---y ed to se astonish line of fire. ‘Get my gun sights’. Tit. And the is x across h yelled, ‘you’re in , made a hasty e here,’ he drift in the dunes mobile, a nt on … battle we

“Starting from scratch, NAAFI had 300 vans in order in 1940, and 150 on the road within a few months. At a peak period of the war, the fleet comprised nearly a thousand vehicles – over 500 vans and 175 trailers at home and some 300 overseas. “The mobiles were soon under enemy fire. During the Battle of Britain a van was serving a group of airmen in S.E. England when an enemy ’plane flew low over and sprayed bullets. The airmen dived for cover: the NAAFI man ducked. Bullets tore into the van – but a minute later, tea was being served as usual.

“Four canteen girls travelled from Aldershot to Claygate on March 19th to receive Gallantry Awards for resisting armed men who attempted to rob their canteen. Sir Lancelot C. Royle, Chairman of the Board of Management, [presented] one of the medallion bracelets to Mrs Elsa Blackler, counter assistant, while the other three recipients, Miss Eva Mary Smith (charge-hand), Miss Jessie Butler (cook) and Miss Elizabeth Cunningham (cook) look[ed] on.

“Famed among Eighth Army men in Italy were two mobiles named No Orchids For and Miss Blandish. Both did heroic work right up with forward units, often bogged down in terrible mud and mountainous terrain, but always making their objective. The former evoked a signal of commendation from Lieutenant General Sir Oliver Leese. One CO wrote: ‘We are the most forward troops, 300 feet from the Boche who is active with mortars. The NAAFI van No Orchids For has just brought my lads valuable NAAFI supplies, which were more than welcome’.

“EFI [Expeditionary Force Institutes] Chief Petty Officer N. Welsby showed gallantry aboard HMS Volage during a bombardment of North Andaman Island, and gained a DSM. Mr T. Mills rescued a drowning boy from the River Medway and gained a Royal Humane Society certificate. Sergeant R.B.C. Mitchener displayed heroism in extricating wounded and giving first aid during an air attack on Antwerp, for which he gained the BEM.”

“The first mobiles were at work in Normandy on D plus 34, and within a few weeks over a hundred were in operation. Many operated under shell fire and in fluid areas … At Bourguebus, a mobile drove 100 yards beyond the British line and was caught in a local counter attack. A mortar shell hit the driving cab, instantly killing both of the crew.”

SALUTE THE BRAVE

DECEMBER 2010

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THE DUSTY ARCHIVE

Containing 900 years of history, the National Archives is the United Kingdom’s official government archive. In this month’s “Dusty Archive” we discover the moving story contained within the covers of just one of the many thousands of files held at Kew.

THE LASTING EFFECTS OF WAR THE FIRST WORLD WAR CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTIM EVEN AFTER THE ARMISTICE At around 00.15 hours on 1 December 1918, Police Constables Malcolmson and Moore came across the man they were looking for. Lieutenant Sidney Stewart Hume RAF was walking along Queen Street in Hammersmith, dressed in pyjamas with a khaki bed jacket and slippers – and a Webley Service Revolver in his pocket. Malcolmson ran up behind Hume, lifted him off his feet, took the revolver from his left-hand jacket pocket, and, with the help of PC Moore, carried the Lieutenant to Hammersmith Police Station – they had caught a killer. Earlier that night, Lieutenant Hume, who was a patient at Latchmore House mental hospital in Ham Common (not far from the National Archives where his file is kept), had confronted one of the orderlies, 38-year-old Private Robert Aldridge, 35 (Millbank) Company, Royal Army Medical Corps. Hume was in the toilet at around 22.30 hours when he called out to the orderlies. Private Aldridge went to see what Hume wanted, only to find the officer pointing a gun at him. Hume told Aldridge to put his hands up, at which point Aldridge “jumped forward” into the toilet. Hume opened fire, shooting the orderly in the head, above his left eye. Aldridge died almost immediately. Hume then slipped out of the hospital down the fire escape. After being cautioned at Hammersmith Police Station, Hume was taken by taxi to Richmond Police Station where he was charged with murder. Hume did not deny the charge: “I pointed the revolver at the orderly and told him to put his hands up; he was braver than I thought he was and refused. I then fired, and he fell to the ground.” Hume said that he wanted to make a statement to Scotland Yard explaining why he had killed the orderly. “I am not mad,” He said. “I did it for reasons so important that I have put myself in this position. I did it for the reason that my statement could not be suppressed; it was for the benefit of England.” Major Norman Oliver, the officer-in-charge at Latchmore House, later explained Hume’s condition by stating that he had been “suffering from delusional insanity”. Hume believed that he had been taken prisoner in Germany where he had been hypnotised and experimented on by German doctors. He believed that the same treatment was being carried on at Latchmore House and he wanted the public to know about this.

In fact, Hume had been shot down near Croisilles-Hermies on 27 May 1917, whilst flying his 66 Squadron Sopwith Pup over the Western Front. He had only flown his first operation patrol the previous day. Captured by German troops, Hume was subsequently imprisoned in a number of PoW camps in Germany – including those at Schweidenitz and Holzminden. From here on, it would seem, Hume’s condition deteriorated. One account, in his old school magazine, states: “The treatment [Hume] … received was of such a nature as to cause mental derangement, on discovery of which, the enemy sent him across to England.” Hume was exchanged along with fifty-one others and arrived back in Britain on 25 August 1918. Initially sent to Netley Military Hospital near Southampton, Lieutenant Hume was admitted to Latchmore House on 27 August 1918. During his time at this institution his condition had appeared to improve and eventually he was not considered to be a danger to either himself or others. Due to this improvement he was periodically allowed to go home in the care of his relatives, who conveyed him to and from the hospital. Hume had kept a revolver at home and it was presumed that during one of his home visits he retrieved the gun and sneaked it into Latchmore House upon his return. Because he was not considered dangerous he was not searched when he returned from any of his home visits. * Charged with murder, Sidney Hume appeared in front of the Kingston County Bench on 2 December 1918. When the charge was read out to him he made no comment. After the evidence of his arrest had been given, he was remanded in custody. His full trial was never held, and Sidney Hume remained a patient in Broadmoor for forty-nine years. He was eventually released on 15 February 1968, and died in another institution on 20 September 1984, as much a victim of the First World War as Robert Aldridge and the untold number of others who lost their lives. • The file detailing the death of Private Robert Aldridge and the subsequent court case against Lieutenant Hume can be found in file reference MEPO 3/258. ABOVE: The Cross of Sacrifice in Reading Cemetery, the last resting place of Private Robert Aldridge. Aldridge left behind his wife, Matilda, and two sons aged eight and nine. The War Graves Plot is situated at the back of the cemetery, in the right hand corner from the entrance. (Courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

A German PoW camp similar to this in which Lieutenant Hume was incarcerated – this example was at Parchim, a town in Mecklenburg on one of the roads from Berlin to Hamburg. (HMP)

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DATES THAT SHAPED THE WAR: DECEMBER 1940 Seventy years on we chart some of the key moments and events of the Second World War. Sunday, 1st

The RAF’s Army Co-operation Command is formed by raising the status of No.22 (Army Co-operation) Group, previously part of Fighter Command, to that of a Command. Under its CO, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Barrett, the Command’s function was to act as the focus for activities connected with the interaction of the British Army and the RAF. • Commanded by Captain H.V.M. Hardy, DSO, RN, the Armed merchant cruiser HMS Carnarvon Castle is badly damaged in action with the German raider Thor (Schiff 10) south-east of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Monday, 2nd

Spanish dictator General Franco, ignoring pressure from Germany, signed a financial pact with Britain. At the same time Franco gave a categorical assurance to Britain and the United States that under no circumstances would Spain join the war against Britain or allow Spain to be used for military operations. The pact with Britain meant that Spanish funds in London which have been frozen since the start of the Spanish Civil War were released.

Tuesday, 3rd

President Franklin D. Roosevelt boarded the heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa to undertake a round of inspections of the bases acquired from the United Kingdom under “Destroyer-for-Bases” agreement.

Friday, 6th

British forces carry out preparatory moves for the start of Operation Compass, the first major Allied military operation of the fighting in the Western Desert. Some 25,000 British and Commonwealth troops advanced more than forty miles into the Italian-occupied desert, before hiding themselves and their equipment from the Italian Air Force.

Wednesday, 11th Flying Officer Charles Herold Dyson of 33 Squadron, at the controls of Hawker Hurricane N2640 in support of forces involved in Operation Compass, reputedly destroyed seven Italian aircraft in a single action before being shot down himself. The engagements were witnessed by Army personnel on the ground who verified the claim of six Fiat CR.4s, but also added a Breda Ba.65 which was stated to have been hit by one of the falling CR.42s. Dyson was uninjured and he returned to his base six days later. Thursday, 12th An assessment of the fighting in Operation Compass reveals that the Western Desert forces had taken 38,300 Italian and Libyan prisoners, and captured 237 guns, seventythree light and medium tanks, and over 1,000 other vehicles. British and Commonwealth casualties were just 624 killed, wounded and missing. TUESDAY, 3 DECEMBER 1940 The Ministry of Food announced an extra ration of four ounces of sugar and two ounces of tea per person for Christmas. For many, this second Christmas of the war would be interrupted by the Blitz and the effects of the Luftwaffe attacks. Here, a member of staff at Holburn underground station decorates a Christmas tree whilst being watched by a lady and young child equipped with blankets and other possessions for another night spent sheltering in the underground network. (Mirrorpix)

DECEMBER 2010

TUESDAY, 10 DECEMBER 1940 Two German spies, Jose Waldberg and Karl Meier, became the first people to be executed since the start of the war following their conviction under the Treachery Act at the Central Criminal Court on 22 November 1940. Waldberg was a German citizen born at Mainz in 1915, whilst Meier, a Dutch Subject of German origin, was born at Koblenz in 1916. They were hanged at Pentonville prison in London. The pair had landed in the United Kingdom several weeks earlier with a radio transmitter, British money and some iron rations. They planned to spend the nights hiding in the woods, and their days collecting information. The radio set they brought with them is seen here having been put on display for the British press. (Mirrorpix)

Tuesday, 17th President Roosevelt outlined the Lend-Lease scheme to supply Britain with arms and equipment. He told reporters: “We should do everything to help the British Empire defend itself.” Thursday, 19th In a speech at Westminster, Churchill stated that the first task of the government was to protect the people at home and ensure they get a good night’s rest whether at home or in an adequate and sanitary shelter. He concluded by adding: “The ARP, the Home Office, and the Ministry of Health are just as much in the front lines as are the armoured columns chasing the Italians about the Libyan Desert.” • The British Purchasing Commission completed a $750 million shopping list of war orders. The list had been prepared at President Roosevelt’s request, pending approval by Congress. The first contract was for sixty merchant ships, to be completed within twelve months. The biggest single request was for 12,000 aircraft, costing about $300 million. Guns, tanks and other war material supplied for Britain would total $425 million. Friday, 20th

The first “Rhubarb” nuisance raids (small-scale fighter or fighter-bomber attacks on ground targets) were flown over France by two Supermarine Spitfires of 66 Squadron. The aircraft were ordered to fly low and bomb any target that presented itself in the area of Le Touquet, France. • On this day, in the third supplement to the London Gazette of three days earlier, the award of the George Cross to Sub-Lieutenant Peter Victor Danckwerts RNVR was announced. Despite not being trained to handle magnetic mines he volunteered to attempt to defuze them, which he did successfully, and on one occasion worked continuously for almost two days whilst dealing with sixteen mines.

Saturday, 21st In a meeting with staff from the Ministry of Supply, Churchill is updated on the state of UK’s stockpile of mustard gas and the number of gas shells filled and available for use. As of 9 December, he was informed, there were 1,485 tons of mustard gas. More, he was assured, would be available soon. Monday, 23rd

The first RAF “intruder” sorties (offensive night patrols over enemy territory intended to destroy hostile aircraft and dislocate the enemy’s flying training organisation) were mounted by Bristol Blenheims of 23 Squadron. This duty had been transferred from Bomber Command which had flown “security patrols” to harass Luftwaffe bombers participating in night raids on the United Kingdom.

Tuesday, 24th It was announced by the Canadian defence minister that a full Canadian corps will be formed in Britain. Thursday, 26th Blind approach equipment begins to be introduced into operational Allied aircraft for the first time.

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JANUARY ISSUE ON SALE FROM 31 DECEMBER 2010 INVESTIGATION REQUIRED The choice was stark but clear. Should they remain at home and face the prospect of life under Nazi rule after the Germans had invaded Britain, or risk an ocean passage where the U-boats prowled the waters in search of prey? The families of 100 children chose to send their loved ones across the Atlantic to Canada believing that they would be saved from the horrors of war. But, as Robert Mitchell reveals, the sailing of the SS City of Benares ended in disaster.

THE SILENT SIEGE When Allied troops invaded Normandy in June 1944, the decision was made to by-pass Jersey and the other Channel Islands. This meant that the islands remained in German hands until the end of the war. It also meant that food supplies sent from France by the Germans ceased – and the Channel Islanders and the German garrison slowly began to starve. John Grehan examines this desperate period in Jersey’s wartime history.

BAD DAY AT BULLECOURT The tanks would make all the difference. The Fifth Army’s assault upon the Bullecourt section of the Hindenberg Line would be preceded by a company of tanks which would beat down the German wire and make a pathway for the attackers. But, only two of these new machines of war would survive the day.

HUNTING THE THEBERTON ZEPPELIN At around 03.30 hours on the morning of 17 June 1917, a German Zeppelin crashed just outside the small village of Theberton near Leiston in Suffolk. We examine the facts behind its loss and the recent archaeological examination of the crash site.

THE MYSTERY OF THE DISAPPEARING (AND REAPPEARING) GEORGE CROSS Flying Officer Anthony Tollemarche was awarded the George Cross for risking his life to try and save a passenger in his Bristol Blenheim that crashed whilst on an exercise in 1940. Sadly his medals were stolen in 1988, seemingly gone forever. Then, seventeen years later, a passer-by noticed something glistening in the sand on a beach 10,000 miles away.

ONLINE For January 2011, as well as the latest news stories, we will be featuring a selection of fascinating and unique articles on our website, including ‘Big Wings and Little Wings – the Kai Taik Mascots’ and ‘D-Day: One Year On’: www.britain-at-war-magazine.com PLEASE NOTE THAT CONTENT IS SUBJECT TO ALTERATION