Britain at War 2013-09

VICTORIA CROSS BY ROYAL COMMAND: ITALY 1943 TM

BRITAIN’S BEST SELLING MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

COMPANY SERGEANT MAJOR PETER WRIGHT

Victims of The Few:

THE SECRET MISSION SUBMARINE

DAM BUSTERS 70: FINDING THE HEIGHT

THE ALCONBURY EXPLOSION

Issue 77 SEPTEMBER 2013 £4.30

BATTLE OF BRITAIN DAY 1940

FIRST WORLD WAR ARMED TRAWLER SURVIVES IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC BAW_Front_August_77UK.indd 1

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Notes from the Dugout www.britainatwar.com Should you wish to correspond with any of the ‘Britain at War’ team in particular, you can find them listed below: Editor: Assistant Editor: Editorial Correspondent: Australasia Correspondent: Design:

Martin Mace John Grehan Geoff Simpson Ken Wright Martin Hebditch

Editorial Enquiries: Britain at War Magazine, Green Arbor, Rectory Road, Storrington, West Sussex, RH20 4EF or email: [email protected]. Advertising Enquiries: For all aspects of advertising in ‘Britain at War’ Magazine please contact Jill Lunn, Advertisement Sales Manager Tel: +44 (0)1780 755131 or email: [email protected]. General Enquiries: For general enquiries and advertising queries please contact the main office at: Britain at War Magazine Key Publishing Ltd PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincs, PE9 1XQ Tel: +44 (0)1780 755131 Fax: +44 (0)1780 757261 Subscriptions, Binders and Back Issues: Britain at War, Key Publishing, PO Box 300, Stamford, Lincs, PE9 1NA Email: [email protected]

Subscriptions, Binders and Back Issues Hotline: +44 (0)1780 480404 Or order online at www.britainatwar.com

Executive Chairman: Mangaging Director/Publisher: Group-Editor-In-Chief: Commercial Director: Production Manager: Marketing Manager:

Richard Cox Adrian Cox Paul Hamblin Ann Saundry Janet Watkins Martin Steele

‘Britain at War’ Magazine is published on the last Thursday of the proceeding month by Key Publishing Ltd. ISSN 1753-3090 Printed by Warner’s (Midland) plc. 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 +44 (0)20 7429 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 the 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 Key Publishing Ltd. Whilst every effort had 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. We are unable to guarantee the bona fides of any of our advertisers. Readers are strongly recommended to take their own precautions before parting with any information or item of value, including, but not limited to, money, manuscripts, photographs or personal information in response to any advertisements within this publication.

© Key Publishing Ltd., 2013

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Whilst it is a fact that I plan each issue of the magazine with great care, sometimes the unexpected occurs. Such is the case in this current issue. Having already intended to include an article which features the Royal Navy’s Auxiliary Patrol Service, a subject which does not usually receive a great deal of attention, I then received interesting news concerning a surviving Auxiliary vessel, HMT Viola. This armed trawler had not only had an active career as an anti-submarine vessel but after the First World War was sent to the South Atlantic where she was involved in numerous Antarctic expeditions. Remarkably Viola still survives, laid up in South Georgia. Here she continued to play her part in history. In 1982, Argentine scrap metal merchants landed on South Georgia, having been contracted to scrap plant and machinery on the island, including the old trawler. As we now know, this was just a pretext for the occupation of South Georgia which precipitated the Falklands War. Too interesting to ignore, the story of Viola was included in this issue, along with that of Motor Launch ML 357 of the Patrol Service, which, as its captain described, attacked three German submarines in 1917. Life is full of the unexpected – even when producing Britain at War Magazine! Martin Mace Editor

COVER STORY

Sunday, 15 September 1940 saw the climax of the Battle of Britain when the Luftwaffe launched a massive series of attacks against London, the Luftwaffe flying over 1,000 sorties. Although the RAF claimed to have shot down 183 enemy aircraft, German losses numbered fifty-six bombers and fighters, albeit many of the attackers returned to Occupied Europe badly damaged. In “Victims of the Few” on page 74, Chris Goss tells the story about two German bombers which only just made it back. This month’s cover painting, by the aviation artist Mark Postlethwaite GAvA, depicts Hurricanes of 303 (Polish) Squadron in action against Dornier Do 17s on that day. For more information on the painting, and the prints or posters available, please visit: www.posart.com

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DAMBUSTERS 70:

FINDING THE HEIGHT

Speed, range and height were the critical criteria for a successful Upkeep release during the Dams raid, Operation Chastise. Speed could be controlled by the Flight Engineer manipulating the throttles and the range by the Bomb Aimer using his special sight. As Rob Owen, Official Historian of the No. 617 Squadron Association, explains, height was a trickier problem.

Editor’s Choice: Page 29 A MOST DRAMATIC INCIDENT: 1917 At the beginning of 1915 a German-led Ottoman force invaded the Sinai Peninsula and attacked the Suez Canal. It marked the start of the fighting in the Middle East. When, two years later, General Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force captured Jerusalem, it was the first defeat of a Central power that resulted in a substantial loss of territory in the First World War.

Page 43

Page 89

Features 29 36

A MOST DRAMATIC INCIDENT

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SEEING IS BELIEVING

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“THE SECRET MISSION SUBMARINE”

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See Editor’s Choice

THE ALCONBURY EXPLOSION

At 20.30 hours on 27 May 1943, a huge explosion, caused by a bomb being loaded into a USAAF B-17, brought death and destruction was wrought to this airfield. In the final months of 1917, ML 357 attacked three U-boats – attacks which were graphically recounted in a letter written by the motor launch’s captain in January 1918.

The remarkable story of how the submarine HMS Seraph became the USS Seraph, and for the first and only time a Royal Navy vessel was commanded by an American captain.

THE WAR AT SEA

A series of notebooks and diaries maintained by one Merchant Navy officer reveal a small part of the fight to beat the German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic.

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WARTIME SILVER RECOVERED FROM WRECK

Odyssey Marine Exploration, a world leader in deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, has announced that it had completed the recovery of more than sixty-one tons of silver bullion from a wartime shipwreck.

ISSUE 77 SEPTEMBER 2013

Free Book! Page 15

64 74 80 89

Page 21

AVRO ANSON GUNSHIPS

As a reconnaissance aircraft the Avro Anson was not built for aerial combat. That was, writes Robin J. Brooks, before 500 Squadron got its hands on them.

VICTIMS OF THE FEW: Battle of Britain Day 1940

Sunday, 15 September 1940 saw the climax of the Battle of Britain when the Luftwaffe launched a massive series of attacks. Here, Chris Goss tells the story of two German bombers which only just made it back.

THE MESSINES MODEL

In the heart of Staffordshire’s Cannock Chase lies a tangible reminder of the area’s use in the First World War. For there, hidden for generations, lies a scale model of the Belgian town of Messines.

LORD ASHCROFT’S “HERO OF THE MONTH” In the latest instalment in a series examining his “Hero of the Month”, Lord Ashcroft details the actions of Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher GC.

ROYAL COMMAND VC 105 THE Steve Snelling chronicles the remarkable story of the Coldstream Guards hero who became a Victoria Cross recipient by Royal command.

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See pages 48 and 49 Claim your FREE Evader or Pedestal book worth £7.99 when you subscribe to Britain at War magazine.

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BRIEFING ROOM

News, Restorations, Discoveries and Events from the UK.

FIELDPOST Your letters.

KEY MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ARMY 9: Yomping! British Troops Advance

Across the Falklands, 1982.

DATES THAT SHAPED THE WAR

We chart some of the key moments and events that affected the United Kingdom in September 1943.

OF WAR 88 IMAGE 23 November 1941: A Wet Landing. REPORT 101 RECONNAISSANCE A look at new books and products. I WOULD SAVE IN A FIRE 114 WHAT Katherine Buckland, at the Redoubt Fortress, reveals that she would save a WAAC’s First World War archive.

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VETERANS TURN OUT FOR CAPEL-LE-FERNE ANNIVERSARY

VULCAN COULD FLY UNTIL “THE END OF 2015”

THERE can be few more magnificent spectacles than a low-level flypast by an Avro Vulcan, followed by the earthshaking roar of its four Rolls Royce Avon engines as it points its nose to the sun and accelerates skywards. Fortunately this thrilling experience has been witnessed by thousands at air shows around the UK thanks to The Vulcan to the Sky Trust (VTST), the charity which owns and operates Vulcan XH558. It had been thought, however, that 2013 would be the last year that the awe-inspiring reminder of the UK’s former V-bomber force, which carried Britain’s nuclear deterrent at the height of the Cold War, would grace the skies. That was until its engineering team and specialists at Cranfield Aerospace combined to find possible solutions for the technical challenges which lie ahead. The first problem faced by the teams, and technically the most challenging, is that of modifying the leading edges of the wings. The second is to make sure that adequate stocks of essential system components are held. The final requirement is that of completing XH558’s winter service, including dealing with any issues that have arisen during the 2013 flying season. “We now have confidence that we can design the wing leading

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edge reinforcement plates that we need to carry on,” explained VTST Chief Executive Dr Robert Pleming. “In 2012 we knew that a wing modification would soon be needed to extend the Vulcan’s flying life, but the data we had was insufficient to feel that it was feasible, so we announced that this year 2013, was likely to be our last flying season. “A lot of the practical design data we required simply no longer exists. Now, with the help of Cranfield Aerospace, we’ve got the information we need, and the next stage is to look into the process of manufacturing the plates and installing them on the aircraft. There are of course still many obstacles to overcome, but I’m delighted that it looks as if we are going to be able to fly on.” Under the name “Operation 2015”, VTST hopes to raise sufficient funds not only to purchase the spares to keep the Vulcan in the air, but also for the preliminary work to begin. “I’d just like to ask people to continue to come with us down this extraordinary path,” concluded Dr Pleming. “What we are doing is undoubtedly a challenge, but thanks to everyone’s support, we are close to delivering what everybody wants.”

·

For further updates and more information, please visit: www.vulcantothesky.org

AROUND ten per cent of the surviving airmen from the Battle of Britain were present at the annual Memorial Day at the National Memorial to The Few, Capel-leFerne. Eleven holders of the Battle of Britain Clasp were presented to HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Patron of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust and guest of honour, reports Geoff Simpson. The event marked the 20th anniversary of the unveiling of the memorial by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The large crowd heard Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon, President of the Trust, announce the imminent start of work on The Wing, the site’s new visitor and learning centre. Sir Michael stressed that funds were still needed to ensure that the building would be properly fitted out. The service of thanksgiving was led by the Venerable Ray Pentland, retiring Chaplain in Chief of the RAF. There was a flypast and display by a Hurricane and a Spitfire of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. In a separate development the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust has taken into its keeping a large collection of papers associated with Pilot Officer Herbert Case of 72 Squadron whose Spitfire crashed at Capel-le-Ferne on 12 October 1940, during the Battle of Britain. The papers, handed to the Trust by Pilot Officer Case’s nephew Anthony and his wife Caroline. They include letters written to members of his family by Herbert Case, who was 24 when he died. Officially, his Spitfire dropped out of formation during a patrol led by 72 Squadron’s CO, Squadron Leader Ted Graham. However, witnesses reported seeing the Spitfire being attacked by Messerschmitt Bf 109s before it crashed. One of them, an Army officer’s wife, wrote a letter to Herbert Case’s mother, describing what she saw and enclosing a piece of wreckage from the aircraft.

LEFT: HRH Prince Michael of Kent, GCVO, Patron of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust, salutes the memory of The Few at the National Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne. (Courtesy of Barry Duffield)

ABOVE: HRH Prince Michael of Kent, GCVO (left) chats to Wing Commander Tom Neil, DFC & Bar, AFC during the Memorial Day at Capel-le-Ferne. In the Battle of Britain Pilot Officer Neil flew Hurricanes with 249 Squadron. He is one of the very few surviving aces from the Battle.

RANKS OF THE FEW ARE FURTHER DEPLETED FLIGHT Lieutenant Gerald Charles Trewalla Carthew, who has died, qualified for the Battle of Britain Clasp, flying Hurricanes with 253, 85 and 145 Squadrons, writes Geoff Simpson. A Canadian from Alberta, Carthew joined the RAF on a short service commission, starting his training in June 1939. He was posted to 17 Squadron in May 1940, moved to 213, 229 and 85 Squadrons and arrived at 253 Squadron on 6 June 1940. On 11 September he was credited with a share in the destruction of a Dornier Do 17. Two weeks later he returned to 85 Squadron and then flew with 145 Squadron in midOctober. Carthew later served on administrative duties and left the RAF in 1946. The Battle of Britain Fighter Association is now down to forty-five full members entitled to wear the 1939-1945 Star with Battle of Britain Clasp. SEPTEMBER 2013

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We welcome the submission of items of news. So if you have a story, information on an event, photograph or discovery to share then please write to us, or email us at: [email protected]

THUMPER III NOSE ART PRESENTATION FOLLOWING last year’s 30th anniversary of the War & Peace Show, the event moved from the previous Hop Farm site at Beltring to its new home at Folkestone Racecourse. The change in location had also brought about a new name – The War And Peace Revival. During the event, which took place between 17 and 21 July 2013, the Britain at War Magazine team took the opportunity to make a presentation of a replica nose art panel to Wing Commander John Bell DFC. The nose art was produced especially for the event by Farlam Airframes, whose exceptionally well researched and finished panels are pieces of art to be hung in your office, study or home. The nose art featured on the panel is the same as that carried on Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Lancaster, PA474, which had been repainted as Thumper MkIII. One difference between the artwork produced by Farlam Airframes and that seen on PA474 is the mission tally – on the replica panel this was ended at twenty-seven, mirroring Wing Commander Bell’s logbook. Wing Commander Bell was the bomb aimer on the crew led by Pilot Officer (later Flight Lieutenant) R.E. “Bob” Knights DSO, DFC, which served first with 619 Squadron and then with 617 Squadron. It was after this crew had been posted to 617 Squadron in January

1944 that they began to fly Avro Lancaster B1 DV385, an aircraft that they christened Thumper MkIII. For the first time, The War And Peace Revival also saw the introduction of the “The Britain at War Magazine Award” for the best large living history display. As those who visited the event would appreciate, deciding the winner and runner-up was no easy task. However, after much deliberation, first place was awarded to the remarkable Red Ball Express display set up (and operated!) by the 514th QMTC Red Ball Express, whilst the runner-up was the trenches and working light railway of the Queen’s Royal West Kent Regiment Living History Group. • For more information on Farlam Airframes’ work and the panels they produce, please visit: www.farlamairframes.co.uk

ABOVE: Wing Commander John Bell DFC at the controls of Jeremy Hall’s Lancaster B.I cockpit section. (Courtesy of Mark Khan) LEFT: Britain at War Magazine’s editor, Martin Mace, presents Wing Commander John Bell DFC with the replica nose art panel created by Farlam Airframes. The background is provided by Jeremy Hall’s Lancaster B.I cockpit section. (Courtesy of Mark Khan)

FIRST WORLD WAR RFC AND RAF SERVICE RECORDS TO BE DIGITISED

THE National Archives has announced a project to digitise hundreds of thousands of service records of First World War Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force airmen. The contract to digitise this record set, known as AIR 79, was awarded to findmypast.co.uk following a competitive tender process. It is estimated that, once digitised, the collection will comprise 360,000 transcripts and 800,000 scanned full-colour images dating back to 1912. The handwritten records begin with the creation of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912 and continue into the inter-war period. The records within the AIR 79 series are split into two distinct sets. The first part, comprising 2,807 pieces containing 315,000 named individuals’ records (with approximately 650,000 images), constitute the records of those airmen who SEPTEMBER 2013

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enlisted during the First World War and who may have continued to serve up until 1928. The second set of records is largely identical records of service men who enlisted during the First World War but who continued in service after 1928. Amongst those trades covered by the records are fitters, riggers, drivers, batmen and even a vulcanizer. Each of the handwritten records, which were completed on printed forms, may contain information on an individual such as date and place of birth, date of joining, physical description, religious denomination, next of kin (spouse and children), promotions, date of discharge, units served in, and the award of any medals. As a result of the digitisation project, these records will be made available and fully searchable online for the first time.

Villagers in Somerset have started a campaign to give their area a war memorial for the first time, reports Geoff Simpson. Up to now the names of the local fallen have been recorded on plaques at the church. Money is being raised and names to be included on the memorial are being collected in the districts of Puriton, Downend and Dumball at the western end of the Polden Hills. June Holland of the organising committee said the intention was to build the 6ft memorial on the village green at Puriton and to have it ready for Remembrance Day in 2014. It is planned to bury a time capsule. One villager expressed the hope that the names of those who died at the former Royal Ordnance Factory, Bridgwater, which was situated near Puriton, would be included on the memorial. Anyone who would like to make a donation or suggest a name to be included on the memorial can contact June Holland on 01823 276995. The Heritage Lottery Fund has announced the first projects to receive money under its £6m “First World War: Then and Now” small grants programme. The aim of the programme is to help communities explore, conserve and share their First World War heritage. Projects that have received funding include “Tracing Your Roots Back to Gallipoli”, which has a £9,900 grant to research the involvement of Bolton’s soldiers in the Gallipoli campaign. At the time of the closure of the Aircrew Association as a national organisation several years ago it was felt that a permanent tribute was appropriate, writes Andy Thomas. Ideally, the tribute would be a memorial that would also be of benefit to future generations. For some years members had been donating artefacts and material to the Aircrew Association’s archive that had been held at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington. Eventually it was decided that a properly managed archive would be a fitting memorial and one that could inform and educate future generations. Thus the Aircrew Association Archive Trust (A3T) was established and, in developing further the fruitful partnership with the Yorkshire Air Museum, additional finance was secured to supplement the Association’s residual funds to allow the creation of a purpose-built facility. During a ceremony at Elvington on 24 July 2013, this new building was opened. 7

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ARMY SEARCHES FOR RELATIVES OF SOLDIERS KILLED IN 1914 At the end of 2011 Newark Air Museum sought assistance in connection with RAF Winthorpe, which was opened in September 1940. Good feedback was received for the wartime era, but the museum’s researcher Colin Savill is still trying to fill in a few gaps in the story from the post war years –1946 through to 1959. This period is not quite as well documented and its is believed that there might still be people out there with relevant information – in particular the museum is interested in establishing contact with personnel from 54 MU (Maintenance Unit), which has connections to RAF Winthorpe. Two other units of interest are 61 MU and CSDE (Central Servicing Development Establishment) at the base from 1953 to 1956. Information can be sent to the museum via email: enquire@ newarkairmuseum.org The UK’s Minister for International Security Strategy, Dr Andrew Murisson MP, and the French Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Kader Arif, recently signed a letter of intent, establishing cooperation between the two countries in organising events to mark the centenary of the First World War. Amongst the list of forthcoming talks and events arranged by the various branches of the Western Front Association is one that has been organised by the Scotland (North) Branch. Taking place at Elgin Library on 7 September 2013, the speaker is actually the branch’s chairman, Derek Bird. His talk is entitled “The Great Escape: Holzminden, July 1918”. The following day the Scotland (South) Branch will be hosting a talk in Edinburgh by John Cameron on the 7th Royal Scots and the Quintinshill railway disaster. On 11 September 2013, regular speaker Alan Wakefield, Head of Photographs at the IWM, will give a presentation entitled “First World War Aerial Photography at the IWM”. Hosted by the Essex Branch, it will be held at Legion House in Hornchurch. The Unknown Warrior, and the story of his journey to his final resting place, is the subject of a talk by Martin Hornby – hosted by the Lancashire and Cheshire Branch in Stockport on 13 September 2013. The Cambridgeshire Branch will be holding a talk by Tim Lynch on “The World War One Home Guard” at Offord Cluney on 22 September 2013. For full details of each event, and the many others arranged, including how to attend, please visit: www. westernfrontassociation.com/great-warcurrent-events 8

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THE Army is trying to trace relatives of a number of servicemen whose remains were discovered on a First World War battlefield in 2009. All of the dead were from the 2nd Battalion the York and Lancaster Regiment and were killed during bitter fighting near Beaucamps-Ligny in northern France in October 1914. They were unearthed by a mechanical excavator on a building site. Amongst those the Army are keen to establish contact with are any surviving relatives of Private Ross Jeff, who lost his life on 18 October 1914. He was born in March 1894 in Moss, Doncaster and worked as a railway porter before enlisting in 1914. It is believed that he may have a great nephew somewhere in the UK. Private Henry William Parker was another killed on 18 October. He was born in March 1888 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He had two sisters, Naomi and Nellie, and two brothers, Fred and George, the latter also joined the Army, and returned to Sheffield after the war. Private David Wilson Williams was born in April 1891 in Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, the eldest in a family of eight children. His father was originally from Ebbw Vale, but moved north to work in the steel plants of Teesside. Private Williams enlisted in Pontefract in 1906 and served in India before being posted to France. An account of the events of 18 October 1914 is given in a divisional history: “On the 18th October a reconnaissance in force was ordered, which was brilliantly carried out. The Buffs and the York and Lancaster on the right captured Radinghem without much opposition and advanced across a small plateau, three hundred yards in width, towards the woods in which stands Chateau de Flandres. They here came under a heavy cross-fire of machine guns and shrapnel, and were counter-attacked and driven back. The situation, however, was saved by Major Bayley’s company of the York and Lancaster, which had worked around on the left and threatened the flank of the counter-attack, which thereon withdrew.

The York and Lancaster suffered considerable casualties in this little action.” Some of the fifteen soldiers re-discovered near Beaucamps-Ligny were killed in subsequent fighting. Private Gavin Lowe was born in 1884 in Alyth, Perthshire, and worked as a hotel porter before enlisting in 1905 in Taunton, Somerset. He served first with the Somerset Light Infantry but transferred to the York and Lancaster Regiment in 1908. He was killed on 23 October 1914. Lance Sergeant George Edwardes was also killed on the 23rd. The 26-year-old had been born in January 1888 in Middlesbrough and lived with his mother and brother Thomas at 9 Fleetham Street. Before enlisting in 1910 he worked as a clerk canvasser in Barnsley. Private John William Taylor, again killed on the 23rd, was born in 1892 in Morley, near Leeds. He and his two older brothers were raised by their widowed mother, whose husband had died in a mining accident in 1900. Private Taylor’s eldest brother Ralph married Hannah Traunter; they had six children – John, Herbert, Harry, Gladys, Minnie and Joyce. His older brother Joseph had two sons, John and Harry. It is believed that Private Taylor had two nephews, Raymond and Eric, born in 1920 and 1926 respectively; and it is understood that they both made their homes in Morley. Lynne Gammond, from the Army Media Communication Team, said: “It is always difficult to trace surviving relatives of those who were killed in action so long ago, but we believe it is important to give those families closure wherever possible. So we would be very grateful to anyone who can help us find anyone connected to these men.” · If you think that you can assist with this appeal, please contact Lynne by telephone on 03067-701322. Alternatively you can email her at: [email protected] BELOW: Currently those members of the York and Lancaster Regiment detailed on this page are officially commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial which stands in Berks Cemetery Extension. (Courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

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“THANKFUL VILLAGES” TOUR

AT 08.00 hours on Saturday, 27 July 2013, Medwyn Parry and Dougie Bancroft left the village of Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, near Aberystwyth, to embark on a tour of the United Kingdom. Travelling by motor bike, their journey covered some 2,500 miles and lasted nine days, finishing back at Llanfihangel y Creuddyn on the evening of 4 August 2013, having visited every one of the fifty-one “Thankful Villages” in the United Kingdom. The term “Thankful Village” was first coined by the British writer, historian and journalist Arthur Mee. Throughout the 1930s Mee had toured England, researching and writing his King’s England series of books. One day, having been on the road for many miles, he stumbled across Woolley, near Bath in Somerset. It was here that he first experienced “the thrill of joyfulness to find no sad memorials” to those killed in the First World War. By the time that his tour of the country was complete, Mee had covered some half-a-million miles, and visited or passed by no less than 10,000

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hamlets, villages and towns. Despite such endeavours, he would only discover the pitifully small number of twenty-three places to which he felt able to apply the phrase “Thankful Village”. Spread across twelve counties, Mee noted that these twenty-three communities enjoyed a “rare distinction”, and must therefore have been “thankful indeed, in an age when family and community life broken by war was [still] the norm”. The aim of the tour was to raise funds for charity, the target sum being £51,000 – which would be donated to the Royal British Legion. Anything above that amount would be divided between the Royal British Legion, the Fire Fighters Charity, and the Aberystwyth & District MAG. Amongst the locations visited by Medwyn Parry and Dougie Bancroft, at the start of their fourth day on tour, was the village of Knowlton, near Canterbury in Kent. In 1914, the Weekly Dispatch organised a competition to find the village that had seen the largest percentage of its population, of serving age, join the Armed Forces. When the results were announced in March 1916, it was Knowlton that was declared the winner. No less than twelve from a total of thirty-nine residents, a percentage of roughly 31%, led by the local Squire, Major Elmer Speed, had left to serve the colours. All twelve returned. Nevertheless, as the two bikers discovered, Knowlton still has a memorial – one dedicated to the “Bravest Village in England”. Taking the form of a seventeen foot high cross, and paid for by the proprietors of the Weekly Dispatch, the memorial can still be seen today, standing proud in the village churchyard. A warm welcome awaited Parry and Bancroft at each of their destinations – the residents of Arkholme and Nether Kellet, for example, had a large party arranged. Arkholme is a contender for what Mee referred to as the “most thankful” of Thankful Villages. In the 1911 Census, the population of Arkholme is given as 319 persons, of whom 179 were male, and living in sixty-two separate households. A stone tablet on the north wall of the church at Arkholme names fifty-nine men from Arkholme who served in the First World War and who all returned. For its part, Nether Kellet has the distinction of being one of fourteen Double Thankful Villages, where all those who served returned in both world wars. At each of the Thankful Villages Medwyn Parry and Dougie Bancroft presented a certificate and a slate plaque to commemorate their participation in the

first ever national Thankful Villages Run. For more information on the tour, or to assist with the fund-raising, please visit: www.thankfulvillagesrun.com ■ ABOVE LEFT: The presentation of the

commemorative tablet at Shapwick on 28 July 2013. (Courtesy of the Thankful Villages Run)

ABOVE: The Lancashire village of Nether Kellet is another of the Double Thankful Villages. Inside the Church of St. Mark, on the north wall, there is a memorial to the men of the village who served in both world wars. Near the church, by the village playing field, can also be found the Peace Stone which commemorates the end of the Second World War. BELOW LEFT: The Thankful Villages Run at the Peace Stone in Nether Kellet on Saturday, 3 August 2013, the eighth day of the tour. (Courtesy of Ian Taylor; www.geograph.org.uk) BELOW: Another of the fourteen Double Thankful Villages visited by Medwyn Parry and Dougie Bancroft was the small village of South Elmham St. Michael, deep in the Suffolk countryside. The evidence of South Elmham’s good fortune can be found in the form of two rolls of honour hanging inside the church – the one seen here represents the First World War. (HMP)

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THE Commonwealth War Graves Commission has recently completed a project to mark the crash site of an RAF crew killed in the Scottish Highlands during the Second World War. The Operations Record Book (ORB) of

No.19 Operational Training Unit, based at RAF Kinloss, contains the following brief entry for 13 April 1941: “Anson N9857 carrying out a cross-country flight was reported missing and, despite an extensive search, no trace has been found of this aircraft”. Six weeks later, on 25 May, the wreck was discovered by chance by a shepherd. A team departed from Kinloss the following day. The ORB continues: “After considerable difficulty and being led by two volunteer guides, [the] party located the aircraft which was a total wreck. Owing to six weeks having elapsed since the aircraft was lost and the subsequent advanced state of decomposition of the bodies of the crew, it was considered advisable to bury them on the scene of the accident, particularly in view of the extreme difficulty which would have been experienced in carrying the bodies down the mountainside.” The six men from the Anson’s crew were duly buried on Ben More Assynt LEFT: The original memorial cairn, with

N9857’s turret beside it, pictured during the 1980s. (Courtesy of David J. Smith)

RIGHT: A newspaper cutting detailing

the death of Flying Officer James Henry Steyn DFC. (All images courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission unless stated otherwise)

BELOW: An RAF Chinook flies in the equipment and replacement memorial to the crash site of Anson N9857 Ben More Assynt.

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in the only official war grave on high ground in the United Kingdom. “A cairn of peat surmounted by large boulders was then erected over the graves,” concluded the ORB. The crew is officially commemorated by the Commission on a memorial in Inchnadamph Old Churchyard, twenty miles north of Ullapool – this being the nearest graveyard to the crash site. The pilot that day fateful day in April 1941 was Flying Officer James Henry Steyn DFC, a 23-year-old South African from Johannesburg. The rest of the crew consisted of 28-year-old Pilot Officer William Edward Drew from Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, the Observer; 20-year-old Flight Sergeant Thomas Brendon Kenny, from Barnsley, Yorkshire, who was the Wireless Operator/Air Gunner; 20-yearold Sergeant Jack Emery from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, who was an Wireless Operator/Air Gunner under

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WORK AT UK’S REMOTEST WAR GRAVE COMPLETED

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training; Sergeant Charles McPherson Mitchell from Ballater, Aberdeenshire, a 31-year-old Observer under training; and 20-year-old Sergeant Harold Arthur Tompsett from Croyden, Surrey who was also a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner under training. Of the six, three, Steyn, Drew and Kenny, were all “screened”, i.e. that they had completed a tour of operations and had been posted to an Operational Training Unit as instructors so that they could pass on the lessons and benefits of their experience. Steyn, for example, had recently been screened after completing forty-four operations with 10 Squadron. On 13 April 1941, Flying Officer Steyn had taken off at 10.18 hours, setting course for Inverness. The rest of the routing for the flight was Oban, Stornoway, Cape Wrath, Achnashellach Station and the return to RAF Kinloss. At Oban they sent a radio message saying that they had descended to 500 feet in order to remain below the cloud base. By the time the Anson was overhead Stornoway airfield (which had closed due to snow) the crew had run into bad weather and visibility was poor. At 13.02 hours, N9857 sent a further message confirming their turning point at Cape Wrath. They indicated that they were attempting to climb over the bad weather. Approximately ten minutes later, RAF Stornoway picked up a very faint Morse message, believed to be from

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N9857, reporting icing. Nothing further was heard from the Anson again. The Anson’s crash site was in a gently sloping boggy area near a fast-flowing stream which forms a waterfall nearby. Writing in 1985, the aviation historian David J. Smith gave the following description of the crash site: “The cairn of rocks over the grave is in the centre of the scattered remains of the aircraft and the intact gun turret has been placed next to it … Apart from the turret, the largest components are the engines, with the bent propellers still attached, and the retracted undercarriage … The intact tail wheel is another instantly recognisable item, as are the lengths of bicycle-type chain used for the manual retraction of the undercarriage. Light sheet metal panels have been blown some distance by strong winds and some lie in the bed of the stream. Virtually all the myriad parts which make up an aircraft of that era can be found lying in the peat.” The spread of wreckage that once existed at the location suggests that the Anson hit one of the surrounding outcrops of rock. Anson N9857 was little more than a year old went it crashed. It had initially been allocated to No.14 Flying Training School at Kinloss early in 1940. When this unit departed for Cranfield in April the same year, the Anson was transferred to No.19 OTU. In 2012, the Commission decided to replace the existing cairn, which had deteriorated on account of the harsh climate, with a granite marker weighing some 600 kilograms, to identify and protect the aircrew’s burial site from becoming lost or disturbed in the future. Work began in May 2013. The site on Ben Moore Assynt is one of the Commission’s most remote sites in the UK and the logistics of replacing the cairn proved challenging. However, the Commission’s efforts were supported by a variety of interested parties, including the RAF which assisted by providing a Chinook helicopter from RAF Odiham to airlift the new marker, necessary tools and materials onto the mountain. Speaking after the task was completed, Master Aircrew Steve Macdonald from Joint Helicopter Support at RAF Odiham said: “It’s a very humbling experience. I can honestly say that in my thirty years in the Royal Air Force it’s one of the most fantastic projects I’ve been involved in because there are very few places where the crews are actually buried where they

ABOVE LEFT: Another of those killed in the crash on 13 April 1941 – Sergeant Harold Arthur Tompsett.

ABOVE RIGHT: The memorial to the airmen

from Anson N9857 which was erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at the entrance to Inchnadamph Old Churchyard, Assynt, Sutherland. (Courtesy of David J. Smith)

BELOW LEFT: The new marker placed on the last resting place of the six-strong crew of Anson N9857. BELOW: A view of the crash site with the new grave marker in place.

crashed and now these men will always be remembered.” The Commission has kept the families of the crew informed throughout the project. For Bernie Tompsett – nephew of Sergeant Harold Arthur Tompsett – the installation of the new marker has been a great comfort. He said: “It was a time when so many families learned of the tragic loss of their loved ones … Perhaps we are fortunate that they came to rest in such a beautiful part of Scotland.” The Commission’s Peter Francis added: “The Commission is delighted that we have been able to carry out this work and we are very grateful to all the organisations and individuals who have so generously assisted in the project. We couldn’t have done this without them. The new stone will secure the grave site for years to come and help honour the sacrifice of six brave young men.” ■

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TALBOT HOUSE OFFER REWARD FOR LOST ‘ROBIN’

IN December 1915 two British army chaplains – the Reverends Phillip “Tubby” Clayton and Neville Talbot – opened a soldiers’ rest and recreation centre, named Talbot House, in Poperinge (or “Pops”, as the soldiers called it), near Ypres. Talbot House (usually abbreviated to Toc H – “Toc” signifying the letter T in the signals spelling alphabet used by the British Army in the First World War) was named in memory of Lieutenant Gilbert Talbot, the brother of Padre Neville Talbot who was serving with the 7th Battalion The Rifle Brigade when he was killed at Hooge in the Ypres Salient on 30 July 1915. The house was styled as an “Every Man’s Club”, where all soldiers were welcome, regardless of rank, to enjoy rare moments of peace and entertainment. Just what it was like in that haven of rest and leisure in the midst of the death and destruction of the fighting around Ypres was described by one man, Douglas Legg: “Through an elaborate, iron grilled, doorway I could hear the sound of laughter and music. On pushing through the door I found myself at once in a different world. It was amazing. I felt like Alice when she stepped through the looking-glass. There were soldiers all around me, of course, and army slang in the air, but, in stepping across that threshold, I seemed to have left behind me all the depression and weariness of the street.” Talbot House remained open until Christmas 1918 when virtually all its contents were shipped to Britain and the keys handed back to its owner. The importance of Toc H was not lost on General Sir Herbert Plumer who, in 1929, noted: “In all my experience I have never known a place so vital to morale as Talbot House.” The closure would not be the end for Toc H, however, as plans were already afoot to open a Talbot House in the UK. On 15 November 1919, Tubby Clayton arranged a meeting in London to discuss the possible reopening of Talbot House. In a manner reminiscent of the old house’s Notice Board, the agenda (timed for “Zero hour”!) was worded: “The attack on the problem of re-opening Talbot House will be carried out by a Round Table Conference thirty 14

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ourselves with wishing you all many happy returns of the day and remaining your obedient ancestors in Toc H.” The hopes of the Toc H supporters were finally realised when the old building in Poperinge was purchased for the Talbot House de Poperinghe Association. The original Round Robin, a copy of which is shown here, was last seen at the Toc H archives in London but now appears lost. Obviously, with the centenary of the opening of Talbot House fast approaching, the recovery of this document is of great importance. If anybody has seen the document recently or can provide any further information concerning the Round Robin that could help to retrieve the document, it is requested that they contact Talbot House. Nearly a century on, Talbot House needs your help. ■

in number, troops will be drawn from Talbotousians past, present, and to come. The attack will be covered by a creeping barrage of business advisors supported by expert Londoners.” On the sixth anniversary celebration of the opening of the original Talbot House on 15 December 1921, held at the nowdemolished Grosvenor House in Park Lane, London, the members of the Round Table signed a “Round Robin” document. The intention was that the words of this document should be read aloud once again on the centenary of the opening of Talbot House. Measuring over two feet square, the Round Robin was signed by all present, including Prince Henry, who represented the Prince of Wales, at that time travelling overseas. The text of the Round Robin read as follows: “Address to be read at the centenary family party of Toc H on the fifteenth day of December, A.D. 2015: Whereas it is as unlikely that we shall be able to join your festivities as that you will join ours to-night, we indite this Round Robin to you. Not knowing you, we have the utmost confidence in you, and thrust that our sentiments are reciprocated on the same terms towards all those whose signatures are attached – with the inevitable exception of those whose names have plagued you in your history books. But like all great causes, Toc H is similar to the ‘wood’ in ‘Alice’ where names of persons are lost. To be serious in a document of this character would be unconvincing in the last degree. We will therefore content

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For more information on Talbot House, please contact: www.talbothouse.be

TOP: The “lost” Round Robin. (Courtesy of Talbot House)

ABOVE: Talbot House, on Gasthuisstraat,

Poperinge, as it is today. When selecting the location for Toc H, Clayton Clayton chose the Coevoet house which had been temporarily vacated by its owner, a wealthy local hop merchant. The house had received significant damage from shellfire, especially the hop loft and the garden. Repairs were begun by the Royal Engineers in September 1915.

LEFT: The garden at Toc H. SEPTEMBER 2013

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FULL MILITARY HONOURS FOR FOUR AIRMEN SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS AFTER THE CRASH IN WHICH THEY WERE KILLED

DOUGLAS Boston Mk.V BZ590, an 18 Squadron aircraft, took off from Forli near Rimini at 20.45 hours on 21 April 1945, the crew’s target being a river crossing on the Po at Taglio di Po, followed by an armed reconnaissance of the Po Valley. The aircraft failed to return and was believed to have been brought down by anti-aircraft fire just days before the end of the war in Europe. After BZ590 failed to return, all four crew members on board were listed as missing believed killed. Those four men were Sergeant David Raikes, who was the pilot, Flight Sergeant David Perkins, the navigator, Flight Sergeant Alexander Bostock, the wireless operator and air gunner, and Warrant Officer John Hunt RAAF, the air gunner. All of the crew were aged 20, except for Hunt who was 21. Eye-witnesses of the last moments of BZ590 would later recall the crash with clarity, it having been nicknamed locally as the “Pippo”. The wreckage continued to burn for a number of hours after it was shot down. Based on these accounts, the remains of the aircraft were unearthed in 2011 by the Italian amateur archaeological society Archeologi dell’Aria, a group that searches for the remains of Second World War aircraft. Their excavation near to Ferrara uncovered human remains and some personal effects, items which ultimately set in train the process which resulted in the identification of the missing airmen. On Thursday, 18 July 2013, the crew was reburied with full military honours at Padua War Cemetery in Italy. Relatives of the airmen, who had travelled from the UK and Australia, attended the burial service, as did current personnel from 18 Squadron, which now operates the

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Chinook helicopter from RAF Odiham in Hampshire. The service was conducted by Reverend Flight Lieutenant Paul Collins, Station Chaplain at RAF Odiham. The first reading was given by David Raikes, whose uncle and namesake was the pilot of BZ590. Flight Sergeant Raikes was an aspiring poet (his family published some of his work during the 1950s) and in a fitting tribute his nephew read Let it be Hushed which was written shortly before his death and details the loss of another crew who crashed into the sea. Roger and Tim Raikes, the brothers of the pilot, both now in their eighties, had also travelled from Wales. Tim said of Sergeant Raikes: “I only saw him once during the war when he came home from

ABOVE: The crew of Boston BZ590. From left to right are the pilot, Sergeant David Kennedy Raikes RAFVR, the navigator, Flight Sergeant David Millard Perkins RAFVR, Wireless Operator/Air Gunner Flight Sergeant Alexander Thomas Bostock RAFVR, and the air gunner, Warrant Officer John Penboss Hunt RAAF. (All images © Crown/MoD Copyright 2013) BELOW: During the burial service at Padua War Cemetery, the Queen’s Colour Squadron carried out a number of the ceremonial duties, including providing the six-strong bearer party. leave in 1943 and he read me to sleep one night. He was a big, kind, older brother to me, he was fun-loving. I was eleven and my mother and I were alone in the house, and the telegram came. My mother opened it and passed it to me. My

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BOSTON BOMBER CREW RE-BURIED

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father was at work and she said ‘he will have one more day without knowing this. I can’t tell him. Put it on the mantelpiece and when he comes home, show him’. So I was left all day with this task hanging over me and that’s what I did and it’s a day I’ve never forgotten. The news was devastating. My parents were different people at the end of the war. I’ve been waiting all these years and thought he would never be found. We had to come here, see the crash site and to meet the other relatives and the warmth of the people has been marvelous. There are so many emotions, it was a joy to hear that his ’plane had been found.” The families of the other men killed in the crash would all experience similar sufferings following the loss of BZ590. On 7 November 1945, the mother of Warrant Officer John Hunt RAAF wrote to the authorities: “Could you give me any further information regarding my son … who was reported missing in a Boston aircraft over the Po Valley, on the 21st April 1945. The telegram listing him as missing was wrongly addressed to Jeannette Hunt. I have married again, and my name is Mrs. Jeannette Madge. I do hope you have some further news as this

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last six months has been hell, just waiting for something to come through, but so far I haven’t heard one word. Please let me know if he is alright or if he is gone.” Wing Commander Lee Turner who read the exhortation said: “It is a privilege to pay our respects to our colleagues and remember the ultimate sacrifice that the crew made for their country. Just as then, 18(B) Squadron personnel are currently serving on operations; this time in Afghanistan and the connection with our forebears remains strong. As a squadron we remember them.” The day before the service, the families visited a museum in Felonica which houses a display dedicated to Boston BZ590. Fabio Raimondi who identified the crash site, and subsequently led the team that excavated it, presented Warrant Officer John Hunt’s family, who had travelled from the Shoalhaven Region of New South Wales, with his watch, inscribed with his name and service number. A ring that had belonged to Flight Sergeant David Perkins (originally from Honour Oak in London) was also recovered and will be passed on to family members who were unable to travel to the ceremony. Wes Madge, Warrant Officer Hunt’s half-brother, who had travelled from New

South Wales, admitted that the initials engraved on the watch, HJ, were actually those of a brother. The underage John Hunt had been so keen to enlist – initially in the Army, subsequently transferring to the RAAF – that he had done so by using an elder sibling’s identity. Badly tarnished, the watch still shows his service number.

FAR LEFT: A lone piper plays a lament at the crash site of Boston BZ590 in northern Italy.

ABOVE LEFT: The ring of Flight Sergeant

David Perkins which will be passed on to family members who were unable to travel to the ceremony.

ABOVE: Ray Madge, the half-nephew of Warrant Officer John Hunt, plays the last post at the graveside on 18 July 2013. BELOW LEFT: The funeral service underway. BOTTOM: A Boston bomber similar to the

ill-fated BZ590 taking off from a rain-soaked airfield in Italy, March 1944.

Among the officials present was Wing Commander Wes Perrett RAAF from the Australian Department of Defence. He said: “Australia has eleven hundred crew that are still missing from World War Two and when we do identify a lost crew member, find out what happened to them and where they ended up, together with reaching out to the next of kin, it is very special … The ceremony is the opportunity to bury the crew together as one, as they served together and died together.” Speaking after the service, Glenice Hoffman, cousin to Flight Sergeant Alexander Bostock (who was originally from Kimberley in Nottinghamshire) and who had travelled with her husband from Sussex, said: “My memory is seeing the heartache that his mother was living through and did live through for the rest of her life. Not knowing where her son was and getting the news that her twenty-year-old had disappeared, believed to be dead, in the last few weeks of the war while everyone else was euphoric that it was finished, was tragic. For me, being the only surviving relative, hearing so much about him all my life, it’s a privilege and an honour to be here to bring some peace.” ■

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GATEWAY TO CHURCHILL’S SECRET ARMY REMEMBERED

LEFT: Mrs Mabel Stranks pictured outside the Highworth post office. (Courtesy of CART)

ABOVE: The old post office in Highworth – the so-called “Auxiliary Gateway”. (Courtesy of Bill Ashby) BELOW: The panel that was unveiled by CART. (Courtesy

of CART)

DURING the dark days of 1940, with the threat of a German invasion hanging over the UK, a secret resistance force was being set up across the country. Scores of volunteers who were engaged in reserved occupations were being asked to undertake what amounted to a suicide mission in the event of an invasion. It is difficult to imagine what role the sleepy Wiltshire market town of Highworth and its postmistress, Mabel Stranks, could have played in this drama but over the last few years their considerable significance has been revealed, and now a new panel is being placed at the former post office in Highworth commemorating their part. The aim for the resistance force, or Auxiliary Units as they were officially known, was to have small groups of highly trained, well-armed men who in the event of an invasion would disappear to their operational bases hidden beneath the British countryside. They would wait for the invasion to literally pass over them and then appear at night to disrupt the enemy supply chain, destroy transport and supplies, “deal” with collaborators and generally make a nuisance of themselves to allow the regular army to counter-attack. In order to get the level of skill needed a training camp was required and Coleshill House, less than three miles from Highworth, was selected as the perfect location. All of those that volunteered signed the Official Secrets Act and had to be properly vetted before 18

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being allowed near Coleshill. To maintain this secrecy and to ensure that those who had not been selected and vetted did not get through to the camp, recruits were ordered to arrive at Highworth and report to Mrs Mabel Stranks. The post office was the perfect “gobetween” with strangers visiting all the time and the postmistress known for her unassuming nature and discretion. When they arrived the recruits would ask for Mabel Stranks, give a password and be told to wait. Mabel would then go into her office and make a series of phone calls. A car would then arrive and those “screened” as official by Mrs Stranks were driven to Coleshill House by the most indirect route. Those suspected as being unofficial by Mabel were taken elsewhere. The post office at Highworth proved to be such an effective tool that it was aptly given the name the “Auxiliary Gateway”. Now a panel has been unveiled by the Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team (CART),

the group behind the British Resistance Archive, which is dedicated to finding out more about the Auxiliary Units. The panel provides information about the Auxiliary Units and the role that Highworth post office and its postmistress played. Tom Sykes, founder of CART, said: “This is a remarkable story of an incredible woman and the part she played in one of the most secretive organisations of the Second World War. The bravery of Mrs Stranks cannot be underestimated. The life expectancy of an Auxiliary Unit member was just fourteen days, and she was all too aware of the reprisals that had been meted out by the Germans to anyone found to be resisting or helping those that were. She never accepted recognition for her part in this secret operation and like many of those she screened, never talked to anyone about her role until her very last days.” ■ ·

For more information on CART and its work, please visit: www.coleshillhouse.com

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ON Monday, 22 July 2013, Odyssey Marine Exploration, a world leader in deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, announced that it had completed the recovery of more than sixty-one tons of silver bullion from a wartime shipwreck, writes Martin Mace. Carrying a cargo of pig iron, tea, general cargo and silver ingots, SS Gairsoppa, under the command of her captain, 40-year-old Master Gerald Hyland, had joined the United Kingdombound convoy SL.64 (the SL indicating Freetown to United Kingdom) at Freetown in Sierra Leone. Departing without a naval escort, Convoy SL.64 sailed north through the dangerous waters of the Atlantic, intending to rendezvous with convoy HG.63 (HG standing for Gibraltar to United Kingdom), which was escorted by two warships. As the convoy reached the northern latitudes, Gairsoppa, loaded down with a heavy cargo of some 7,000 tons, was forced to reduce speed due to high winds and ocean swells. As the weather worsened, on 14 February 1941, Gairsoppa, running low on coal and with insufficient fuel to keep up with the convoy, was forced to detach from the convoy and sail independently to Galway in western Ireland. It would prove a fatal move. Two days later, in the evening of 16 February 1941, Gairsoppa was spotted

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by the crew of the Type VIIB U-boat U-101, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Ernst Mengersen, 300 miles south-west of Galway. Torpedoed on the starboard side in No.2 hold, Gairsoppa sank within twenty minutes (the U-boat’s log book, kept using German times, gives the time of sinking as just after midnight on the 17th). Of the ship’s crew, thirty-two made it into lifeboats. Despite this, only one man, Second Mate Richard Hamilton Ayres, survived the ordeal that followed reaching shore after thirteen days in a lifeboat. The master, eighty-one crew members and two gunners were lost. * At the time of her sinking, Gairsoppa operated under the auspices of the UK’s Ministry of War Transport. During the First World War, the British Government insured privately owned cargo under their War Risk Insurance program. After making an insurance payment of approximately £325,000 (1941 value) to the owners of the silver cargo lost aboard Gairsoppa, Gairsoppa the UK Government became the owners of the

ABOVE: The sixty tons of silver recovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration in July 2013 from the wreck of SS Gairsoppa, is documented, collected and stored aboard Seabed Worker as the salvage teams continued its work 300 miles off the coast of Galway, Ireland. (All images courtesy of Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., www. odysseymarine.com) LEFT: One example of a .999 fine silver ingot recovered from lot four of the insured cargo documented for SS Gairsoppa shipwreck site. Three of the Gairsoppa’s four lots contained .917 fine silver ingots. BELOW LEFT: Built at Palmer’s Co, Newcastle, SS Gairsoppa had been launched on 12 August 1919, originally with the name SS War Roebuck, having been ordered by the Ministry of War Transport. The order was subsequently taken over by the British India Steam Navigation Company which renamed her in October to Gairsoppa after the stunning waterfalls in south-west India with the same name. insured cargo – some contemporary sources, including Lloyd’s War Losses, indicated that the value of the silver cargo lost aboard the 412-foot steel-hulled cargo ship was actually £600,000 (1941 value), a value which is today believed to be worth an estimated £70m (the difference between the two amounts is possibly explained by additional uninsured government-owned silver aboard). One record clearly indicates that 2,817 silver bars were loaded at one port and another report lists an unconfirmed amount of silver specie (which refers to coinage). On 25 January 2010, it was announced that the British Government, in the form of the Department for Transport, had awarded a salvage contract to Odyssey Marine Exploration for the recovery of the silver bullion on SS Gairsoppa. Under the agreement, which followed standard commercial practices, Odyssey bore the risk of search and recovery and, in return, was permitted to retain 80% of the net salved value of the silver cargo after recovering expenses. The wreck itself was located in 2011, approximately 4,700 metres below

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WARTIME SILVER RECOVERED FROM WRECK

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ABOVE: The Odyssey crew inspects the silver bars as they are recovered from Gairsoppa and unloaded on deck of Seabed Worker. ABOVE RIGHT: The Odyssey Marine

Exploration crew used remotely operated vehicles to conduct recovery operations on the SS Gairsoppa site. Pictured is the first bar recovered in July 2013.

BELOW: Odyssey’s Senior Project Managers Andrew Craig and Ernie Tapanes inspect the first silver bar salvaged in 2013 from SS Gairsoppa. A recovered lamp can be seen in the foreground. the surface of the North Atlantic in international waters 300 miles off the coast of Ireland. The work to salvage the valuable cargo began the following year. Indeed, during the summer of 2012, Odyssey recovered 1,218 silver ingots, weighing nearly forty-eight tons, from Gairsoppa. This, it was reported at the time, represented approximately 43% of the insured silver bars, or approximately 20% of the total silver cargo which research had indicated may be on board. “With the shipwreck lying approximately three miles below the

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surface of the North Atlantic, this was a complex operation,” commented Greg Stemm, Odyssey’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our capacity to conduct precision cuts and successfully complete the surgical removal of bullion from secure areas on the ship demonstrates our capabilities to undertake complicated tasks in the very deep ocean.” In May 2013, the Odyssey crew aboard Seabed Worker returned to Gairsoppa’s wreck site to continue recovery operations. On 22 July 2013, Odyssey announced the recovery of an additional 1,574 silver bars (more than sixty-one tons) – the deepest and heaviest recovery of precious metal from a shipwreck site in history, eclipsing Odyssey’s own record set in 2012. Between the two operations, in total Odyssey has recovered approximately 110 tons of silver (nearly 3.2 million troy ounces or 2,792 ingots), which represents more than 99% of the insured silver documented to be on board. The silver has been transported to a secure facility in the United Kingdom. Whilst some wartime records suggested that additional uninsured government-owned silver may have been aboard SS Gairsoppa when she sank, Odyssey reports that to date no such cargo has been located. Serial numbers and other markings from the silver bars recovered to date all match the contemporary insured silver cargo documentation. “This was an extremely complex recovery which was complicated by the sheer size and structure

of the SS Gairsoppa,” continued Greg Stemm. “To add to the complications, the remaining insured silver was stored in a small compartment that was very difficult to access. The recovery of more than 99% of the insured silver cargo under these adverse conditions is a testament to the skill and ingenuity of the offshore team.” The recovery operations were conducted from the 291-foot Seabed Worker, which was equipped with 5,000 metre depth-rated remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and heavy launch and recovery systems. Additional specialized deep-ocean equipment was fitted by Odyssey on the ship for the project. Seabed Worker remains at sea to continue Odyssey’s 2013 North Atlantic Expedition, which includes SS Mantola, a 450 foot British-flagged steamer lost in 1917. Mantola reportedly carried approximately 600,000 troy ounces of silver insured under the UK War Risk insurance program. As for those of Gairsoppa’s crew who followed their ship’s cargo to its watery grave, eleven are commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial, seventy others, all Lascars, are commemorated on the Bombay/Chittagong War Memorial. ■

SEPTEMBER 2013

15/08/2013 07:29

VETERAN OF THE AUXILIARY PATROL SERVICE STILL SURVIVES IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC

DEEP in the South Atlantic at the deserted whaling station of Grytviken in South Georgia lies an old steam trawler. Viola was launched in 1906 and is today the oldest surviving steam trawler in the world with its engines still intact. On 4 September 1914, just a few weeks after the start of the First World War, this little ship and its crew of Hull trawlermen sailed off to play their part in defending the sea lanes around Britain from enemy attack. Over ninety years later, it has yet to return to its home port from that voyage. Viola was launched at Cooke, Welton and Gemmell’s shipyard at Beverley on the banks of the River Hull for the Hellyer Steam Fishing Company in 1906. She started her fishing career in March 1906 and for the next few years she was part of what was known as the Hellyer Boxing Fleet (so named because the fish that they caught were transferred in boxes to cutters which took them to Billingsgate). With the outbreak of war in August 1914, Viola, like many other Hull trawlers, was requisitioned by the Admiralty to

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become part of the Auxiliary Patrol Service. She was armed with a 3-pounder gun and sailed off to war the following month. Her skipper for much of the war years was Charles Allum whose home was in Hull, as was most of her first crew. The youngest crew member, also from Hull, was Charles Turner who was only 15 years old. HMT Viola was initially assigned to Auxiliary Patrol Area II based on Shetland (see page 45), where it undertook boom duties and patrol operations with occasional escort work. Her patrols often took her from Muckle Flugga to Fair Isle. Whilst stationed in Shetland she saw action against at least one U-boat and one member of her crew also drowned. By September 1916 HMT Viola had been refitted with a 12-pounder gun and transferred to the River Tyne for minesweeping and patrol operations. No stranger to innovation, Viola was one of the first Royal Navy vessels to use depth charges, and was one of the earliest to be fitted with hydrophones. The little steam trawler was in the thick

of the action in the later stages of the First World War. In 1917 she opened fire on a U-boat attacking a merchant ship off the Farne Islands – the submarine was driven off. Viola was also involved in the rescue of the crew of a French coal barge, Cognac, which was being driven ashore at Scarborough in a fierce storm. For these actions, Charles Allum was Mentioned in Despatches. Though Charles Allum eventually left Viola, the trawler remained on the maritime front line. On 13 August 1918, Viola, together with a number of other armed trawlers, played a major role in sinking the German U-boat UB-30 off Whitby. An observant look-out on HMT ABOVE: The former HMT Viola pictured at the deserted whaling station of Grytviken on South Georgia. (All images courtesy of Dr Robb Robinson) BELOW LEFT: Viola’s ship’s bell hangs once again over her decks. BELOW: For much of her First World War service HMT Viola’s captain was Charles Percy Allum. Though he had been born and brought up in London, Allum sailed out of Hull as a trawler captain. He remained at sea after the war and, despite being over 60 years old, was called up again in 1939.

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ABOVE: A picture of Viola underway – when this image was taken the trawler was named Dias. ABOVE RIGHT: A recent shot of the deck of

the former Auxiliary Patrol Service vessel HMT Viola.

BOTTOM: Another view of the former HMT Viola at Grytviken. The funnel was removed recently after being damaged in high winds – it would be a fitting move if this could be refitted to the vessel in time for the forthcoming First World War centenaries.

BELOW RIGHT: The CWGC headstone of Deck Hand Thomas Craven who, part of the crew of HMT Viola, was drowned in Lerwick Harbour on 7 November 1914. John Gilman spotted the submarine’s periscope; the trawler immediately went in to ram, but as the U-boat was diving all the former could achieve was to scrape its keel over the submarine’s casing. John Gilman’s crew then dropped two depth charges which brought oil and wreckage to the surface. Two hours later UB-30 was sighted surfacing by HMT John Brooker and HMT Viola, the two trawlers drove the submarine down again with depth charges and gunfire. Ten minutes later UB-30 re-surfaced and, after being attacked yet again, this time by John Gilman and another trawler Florino, the submarine sank with all hands. The following month Viola also appears to have been involved with a number of armed trawlers, destroyers and an airship, R27, in the sinking of UB115 off the Northumberland coast. This action is believed to have been the first to have involved the use of an airship in the destruction of a submarine. At the same time, UB-115 was probably the last U-boat sunk in action in the North Sea during the First World War. HMT Viola was decommissioned early in 1919 and returned to the job of fishing. However, Hellyer, having lost at least fifteen of their vessels in the war, decided to sell off their remaining North Sea Boxing Fleet and Viola was sold to a

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Norwegian company. She was initially renamed Kapduen and then Dias. In 1927 the vessel was sold again, this time to Compania Argentina de Pesca Sociedad Anonima, known as Pesca for short. Pesca operated from Grytviken in South Georgia and required a vessel for sealing. In 1960 Pesca sold out to a British firm and the ex-trawler returned to the UK flag. In 1964/5 the whaling station at Grytviken was closed and Dias, together with the other surviving vessels Petrel and Albatross, was mothballed and laid up. A caretaker looked after them until 1970. During the 1970s, the vessels settled in the water under the weight of accumulated winter snow. The ex-trawler, although laid up, had an unwitting role in the Falklands War. The initial spark for the war had been the landing of the Argentinean scrap metal merchants on South Georgia. They had been contracted to scrap plant and machinery on the island and the old trawler was supposed to be one of the first things they cut up. Instead, they hoisted the Argentinean flag and the rest is, of course, history. * In recent years, a group of interested individuals including Dr Robb Robinson (from the Maritime Historical Studies Centre at the University of Hull, whose great grandfather served as a Mate on the trawler in 1907), Lieutenant Commander Tony Ellerbeck DSC (who, as a Fleet Air Arm helicopter pilot, saw action at South Georgia in the Falklands

War), Alan Hopper (Director of Fishgate), Lyle Cragie Halkett (one of the salvors of SS Great Britain) and Ian B. Hart (former curator of the South Georgia Whaling Museum and a Shackleton Research Fellow) have been involved in researching the vessel’s history, raising awareness of its situation, and examining ways of ensuring its long term preservation. During this period, the vessel’s original bell was located by Dr Robinson on a farm in Southern Norway and funds were raised for its return to Hull. Having hung for a time in the city’s Fishgate Fish Market, the bell was then loaned to the South Georgia Museum for display on condition that it would be rung on the vessel on Remembrance Sunday 2008 to mark the start of two minutes’ silence on the ninetieth anniversary of the Armistice to remember the role of fishermen and fishing communities in the Great War. The former HMT Viola still lies at the abandoned whaling station of Grytviken which is situated on Cumberland Bay in South Georgia. It is now the property of the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Though there has been much thought given to renovating Viola and returning her to the UK, no definite plans have been formulated. A few years ago Viola was refloated for a number of weeks and is still believed to be in a recoverable state. It would mark the end of a wonderful story, if the little ship that had set off for war in 1914 finally made it back home. ■

SEPTEMBER 2013

15/08/2013 07:29

‘Britain at War’ Magazine, Green Arbor, Rectory Road, Storrington, West Sussex, RH20 4EF. [email protected]

LETTER OF THE MONTH

THE MÖHNE DAM AND MRS GIBSON CONTINUED SIR – The Dambuster described by R. Fletcher in his letter in the July issue was Pilot Officer A.F. Burcher DFM, RAAF, the rear gunner in Flight Lieutenant John Hopgood’s Lancaster, ED925 “AJ-M”. Hopgood was deputy leader of the first wave. ED925 was hit whilst en route to the target, four of the crew being injured – Burcher suffered what he referred to as “only scratches”. Despite this, the crew pressed on and were second to attack the Möhne Dam. The German anti-aircraft guns, their crews alerted, opened fire, scoring many hits on the already damaged bomber. As the Upkeep was released, flames were seen engulfing the port wing. On 10 May 1993, Squadron Leader Burcher was interviewed at his home in Tasmania by Ken Llewellyn RAAF. The transcript of this interview makes fascinating reading. In it, Tony describes what followed on that fateful night in May 1943. “Next minute I heard, ‘Christ, the engine’s on fire’. Hoppy said, ‘Feather it, press the extinguisher’, and the flames got even worse so he said, ‘Right, prepare to abandon aircraft’. And then soon he said, ‘Right, everybody get out’.” Burcher’s training crept in and having unplugged his intercom, he was about to abandon the Lancaster when he decided to re-connect it so that he could inform Hopgood that he was going. “I plugged in again and said, ‘I’m abandoning aircraft’ and Hoppy said, ‘For Christ’s sake, get out’. We were about to go. And then I saw Minchin coming along and dragging his leg and he was on hands and knees … “He was in a hell of a state. I didn’t know what to do but he was dragging his parachute with him; it was a detachable parachute and I took it from him and put it on. I was on a rear step with the door

open – I’d opened the door – and he wasn’t moving so I thought, there’s only one thing to do and throw him out. I grabbed his D-ring on his parachute and threw him and hung onto it, breaking his parachute. But I don’t know to this day whether I did the right thing or not. I still do agonise about it.” Having launched Sergeant J.W. Minchin out of the Lancaster, Tony was just about to follow suit when the inevitable happened. “It was about 300 feet when the aircraft blew up. And, of course, at that time when Minchin went I was squatting on the step, which is a step just by the door, and … suddenly there was a great rush of air and the next thing I felt was a belt across my back. I hit the fin apparently, the top of the fin. Normally you would go out underneath the tailfin but I actually hit it so I was going up in the air. “The next thing I knew I was being jerked in the air and as I was jerked … I just literally hit the ground at the same time … A combination of things saved my life that night: a) the fact that I got that little bit of extra time by throwing Minchin out; b) the fact that the parachute when it opened jerked, because normally with a parachute jump it is the equivalent of a twelve foot fall on your foot, so with a broken back I was told by the doctors that if I’d had that impact of a twelve foot jump on a broken back, it would have snapped my spine completely. And, of course, I didn’t know until later on but I had a broken knee cap as well; and the fact that I’d landed in the middle of a recently ploughed field which cushioned my fall; and fourthly, where I landed, although it was in a field it was in a little bit of a valley so that must have given me a bit of extra height; and finally, if Hopper had gone straight ahead, I’d have landed in the flood waters, so I would probably

have drowned. So everything was on my side that night.” Having survived, Burcher set about trying to prevent his capture, unaware of the severity of his injuries. “I actually crawled across this field and there was a culvert on the other side going under the road. I thought my back was only sprained, I didn’t think it was broken and I thought I’ll just hold up here till it gets better … I don’t know whether I was delirious or not because I had lost some blood and I had been pretty badly knocked about. I heard this train, at least I thought I did.” This sound may well have been the flood waters. “So after about three days, I obviously wasn’t feeling any better and there were a lot of rats in this culvert and I think they might have been attracted by the blood or the dried blood or the blood on my hands – they were becoming a bit of a nuisance. I was really getting fed up with them so I thought I’d try somewhere else and I was crawling across a road when this kid, Hitler Youth, pushing a bicycle came along and of course that was it. He picked me up.” Despite being delirious and in a semicomma at that the time he was discovered – his own description – Tony would later still be able to recall the initial interaction with the German youth. “He spoke English, incidentally … He said – of course, I had an airman’s jacket on – ‘Where the hell did you come from?’ I said, ‘Up there’. He said, ‘What aeroplane were you in?’ I said, ‘A Tiger Moth’. Well, even the kids in Germany knew that Tiger Moths didn’t fly over Germany and I got a kicking for that. “He realised when he kicked me that I wasn’t in a very good state so he desisted. Soon after that a policeman came by, also wheeling a bicycle. I suppose round looking for somebody, but

RIGHT: The Möhne Dam today. (Courtesy of Dominik Schäfer)

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 24

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SEPTEMBER 2013

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at ww

‘Britain at War’ Magazine, Green Arbor, Rectory Road, Storrington, West Sussex, RH20 4EF. [email protected]

HARRY “BUTCH” BAKER

ED

able

they were always patrolling at that time, but this was three days after. Together they got me between the two bikes – they put some fence posts between the two bikes and put me on that and took me into the local police station. “Whilst I was in this police station I remember they had a flat board, no mattress on it, and I said I wanted a doctor. Whether or not they could get a doctor … I think what they were trying to do was to get hold of some medical authorities because it was only an ordinary little village police station. “And so, one evening, I said, ‘Could I have a drink of water?’ and this bloke looked at me incredulously. He said, ‘Vasser?’ Of course the German word for water was vasser. I said, ‘Ja, vasser’. And so he went away and he came back with his NCO – who I gather it was his NCO – and he said, ‘Vasser?’. I replied, ‘Yes, vasser’, and he went away and came back with this Lieutenant who spoke English and he said, ‘Do you want water? And your mob have just blown our bloody supply up.’ “It was then that I realised that the raid was successful – I didn’t know anything. By the way, when I was lying on the ground I heard the other two bombs go off. After I heard two I didn’t hear any more then I heard the aircraft running away, so I wasn’t too sure whether it was successful. But by telling me that our mob – I forget how he put it – but ‘your people have blown up our water supply’, I realised that the raid must have been successful.” A remarkable survivor from a remarkable raid. Peter Watts. Queensland, Australia.

SIR – I read with much regret of the death of Harry “Butch” Baker in the August issue. I got to know him quite well in the 1990s when I was researching for my Derbyshire Fighter Aces of World War Two (Tempus 2004) and feel he deserves a fuller epitaph than the one which appeared. Harry was born in 1920 in Clowne in north-east Derbyshire, a subject of wry amusement to him throughout his life. He joined the RAF on a short service commission in 1938, and after training was posted to 616 Squadron, before a spell with 55 OTU and a move to 19 Squadron in November 1939. He saw action over Dunkirk, shooting down a Messerschmitt 110 and damaging a second. After hospitalisation following a road accident, he was posted to 41 Squadron. It was whilst he was with this unit that he shot down a Messerschmitt 109E, shared a Heinkel 111, damaged a second, and force-landed his Spitfire on one occasion after a clash with 109s. His wedding, scheduled for August 14, had to be postponed until October due to other commitments! Perhaps Harry’s busiest day was 15 September, when 41 Squadron engaged a formation of Heinkel 111s approaching London in the afternoon. He recalled diving on a phalanx of enemy bombers and hosing them with his eight Brownings as they came on in line-astern. He later wrote: “I saw a formation of Heinkels beneath me and in front coming head-on. My first reaction was to do as much damage as I possibly could. I flew across the top of them, pressing the tit as soon as one came into my gunsight. I was not worried about the escorts as they were too high to interfere. I kept going straight on, and saw my tracers hitting the nose of the Heinkel at the rear of the formation, and continued my dive underneath it.” A little later, over Southend, he saw a lone Heinkel under fire from a pair of Hurricanes, and followed their attacks with a six-second

burst from astern which exhausted his ammunition. The stricken raider forcelanded on a mudbank near Foulness, with Harry claiming a half-share and a damaged for the sortie. In October Harry was moved to 421 Flight where he destroyed two more Me 109Es, shared a third and damaged two more. In January 1941 he was posted to 74 Squadron, claiming a Messerschmitt 109F whilst serving with this unit. After spells as an instructor and treatment for a broken ankle, he joined 127 Squadron in the desert in May 1942, where he shared a tent with Ian Smith, future prime minister of Southern Rhodesia. In September he was posted to Malta as CO of 229 Squadron where he damaged two Me 109Fs in combat. After a period of sickness he carried out non-operational duties before a final tour with 118 Squadron and demobilisation as a Squadron Leader in 1946. Subsequently he tried his hand at tea planting in Ceylon, followed by a spell with Peruvian State Railways when he was sure he met the French war criminal Klaus Barbie. He then joined a Grimsby company operating cargo vessels where his expertise led to several directorships, before retirement in 1985. With a score of 5 enemy aircraft destroyed, 2 shared destroyed and 4 damaged, the lack of a suitable decoration seems a slur on a dedicated fighting airman. Barry M. Marsden. By email. ABOVE: Flying Officer Harry Baker, a photograph taken at his wedding in October 1940. BELOW: Harry, second from right, poses in front of Presentation Spitfire 11a P8388 (ZPW), Black Vanities, with fellow pilots of 74 Squadron. Whilst piloting this fighter he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109F in May 1941.

at www.pen-and-sword.co.uk SEPTEMBER 2013

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‘Britain at War’ Magazine, Green Arbor, Rectory Road, Storrington, West Sussex, RH20 4EF. [email protected]

FIRST WORLD WAR BOMBING RAID INFORMATION APPEAL SIR – I wonder if you or any of your readers could help me to find information about a First World War air raid carried out by British aeroplanes on a target in occupied Belgium, far behind the German lines. The following statement from the (British) General Headquarters on 15 September 1917, was published in the magazine Flight on 20 September 1917 (page 982): “On the 14th (September 1917), 11 heavy bombs were dropped by us on the railway stations north of Charleroi [in Belgium].” More specifically, the bombardment occurred near the railway station of Luttre (Pont-àCelles), located a few miles to the north of Charleroi, which was a major railway junction. According to witnesses, there were nine aircraft with British markings involved. The bombs targeted a German ammunition train and a lock on the canal from Charleroi to Brussels. Three civilians were killed and major damage caused to the lock and service buildings. I would like to know precisely which British squadron carried out the raid on 14 September 1917. From which airfield did the aircraft take off from, and where did they return to? This was probably one of the earliest British heavy bombers raids in occupied Belgium, taking place some distance behind the German lines. There were similar raids at the same target, again performed by British heavy bombers, on 4 November 1917 (seven Germans soldiers were killed or wounded) and 21 November (or possibly December) 1917, but I have no other information on this subject. Mrs Michèle Heck, Braine-l’Alleud (Belgium). Ed – if anyone can assist Michèle, she can be contacted on the following email address or through the usual editorial address on page 3: [email protected] 26

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HMCS ORANGEVILLE SIR – As I was reading the “Dates that Shaped the War” in your July issue I was reminded of an incident that occurred in July 1943. This was on Friday, 23 July when the keel of the Castle-class corvette HMS Hedingham Castle was laid down at Leith in Scotland. While on the stocks at the Leith shipyards of Henry Robb, Hedingham Castle was transferred to the Canadian Navy and she was re-named HMCS Orangeville, eventually sailing under the pendant number K491. Though the Canadian ships carried names, they did not have official badges and so, I once read, one of the workers at Leith thought that he would create one for Orangeville. He designed and carved in wood his impression of scenes

that represented Canada – forests and streams. He also added a windmill, mixing up his countries somewhat! The town of Orangeville (located in south-central Ontario), like many other towns and cities in Canada, adopted “their” ship, and, in the course of time, the town received a copy of the unofficial ship’s badge. This, so it would appear, clearly appealed to the townsfolk of Orangeville as the town, not having its own coat of arms, decided to adopt the ship’s badge. To this day, despite the windmill, it remains the town’s official coat of arms. Roy Blacker. By email.

SQUADRON LEADER PETE TUNSTALL SIR – I am sad to learn that Squadron Leader Pete Tunstall died on 27 July 2013. Pete was shot down in 1940 flying with 61 Squadron in Bomber Command and spent the rest of the war a prisoner of war. After a number of escapes he ended up in Colditz in 1942. He became “a goon baiter”, which meant that anything he could do to upset or annoy the Germans he did. Such acts involved anything from starting a fire to stealing a ladder from an electrician as he repaired a camp light, which Pete then cut up (as it would not go up the stairs in Colditz) and left a small piece for the electrician to come back to. These were all classic examples of the acts that Pete carried out day in day out. As well as working closely with Douglas Bader, Pete faced a Court Martial at least four times, including for sending messages back to the UK on the back of photographs. In 1945, when Colditz Castle was liberated by the Americans, he still owed the Germans many days of confinement. Sadly for all his efforts for MI9 in sending messages back he received no award at the end of the war. He was recommended for a possible MC but he had crossed swords with the Senior British Officer, Colonel Willie Tod, who refused to endorse the recommendation and Pete

received nothing. I met Pete on many occasions when he was over for the Colitz reunions in London – he lived in South Africa for many years – and he was always excellent company. That sense of mischief that the Germans had to endure for three years was always there. In 1984 I spent three days in Pete’s company, including a trip down the Thames on a boat inhabited by former members of Colditz Castle. It was a trip I shall never forget. Whilst Pete shrugged it off, I know he was upset over the treatment given to him at the end of the war. When captured in 1940 the Germans said to him: “For you the war is over”. To this he replied: “It damn well is not.” He certainly kept his word, fighting the war in the only way he could. Perhaps it was a case of a regular Army officer and a wartime RAF pilot not quite seeing things in the same way. Near the end of the war, Tod had wanted Pete to stop his “goon baiting”, but Pete felt unable to do so. The war was still on and the Germans were still the enemy. A wonderful man whom we should always remember. Alan Cooper. By email. ABOVE: A recent view of Colditz Castle. (Courtesy of Dr. Bernd Gross) SEPTEMBER 2013

14/08/2013 11:40

A most dramatic incident

At the beginning of 1915 a German-led Ottoman force invaded the Sinai Peninsula and attacked the Suez Canal. It marked the start of the fighting in the Middle East. When, two years later, General Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force captured Jerusalem, it was the first defeat of a Central power that resulted in a substantial loss of territory in the First World War.

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Fall of Jerusalem.indd 29

I

n a long and difficult campaign throughout late October and early November 1917, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), consisting of XX Corps, XXI Corps and the Desert Mounted Corps, had pushed the Germanled Ottoman Turks gradually further north and east. Victories at Mughar Ridge, Beersheba and Gaza had enabled General Edmund Allenby to set his sights on the Holy City of Jerusalem.

The city lies high up, some 2,450 feet above the Mediterranean, in the plateau of central Judea. In ancient times its military strength lay largely in the deep valleys almost surrounding its site, and the powerful walls rising from these valley slopes made the city almost impregnable from all sides but the north, where the absence of a valley was, in Roman times, compensated for by a triple wall. BELOW: The moment when Jerusalem surrendered. Reputedly taken at 08.00 hours on the morning of 9 December 1917, this picture shows the moment that the Mayor of Jerusalem, Hussein Bey al-Husayni, in the centre with the walking stick, met Sergeant F.G. Harcomb and Sergeant J. Sedgewick of 2/19th London Regiment under the white flag of surrender. Hussein Bey al-Husayni, who had been the Mayor of Jerusalem since 1909, signed the official decree of surrender a few days later, handing the keys of the city gates to General Edmund Allenby. He died shortly after in January 1919. (All images courtesy of the Library of Congress unless stated otherwise)

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A MOST DRAMATIC INCIDENT

Its old walls presented no barrier to the modern British and Commonwealth forces that had gathered there in November 1917. Allenby, though, did not want to fight in the vicinity of the Holy City. If any of Jerusalem’s sacred sites were damaged it would present the Turks with a propaganda weapon they would be all too ready to use. So, rather than a direct assault he planned an encircling movement, cutting Turkish communications, thus compelling the garrison to surrender. That, at least, was the plan. * Operations began on 19 November with XXI Corps’ 75th Division, which consisted mostly of West Country regiments, moving up the main road from Jaffa to Jerusalem. This was the only metalled road in the entire area. The 52nd (Lowland) Division and the Yeomanry Mounted Division advanced on the left flank of the 75th Division, all three meeting up to cut the NablusJerusalem road. The remainder of Allenby’s force held defensive positions to ensure the security of the attacking columns. The 52nd (Lowland) Division and the Yeomanry Mounted Division had the difficult task of crossing the Judean hills. “Great hills overhanging deep valleys 1,500 or 2,000 feet almost sheer down in many places,” wrote BrigadierGeneral Guy Dawnay. “Hill villages perched as in Italy on the tops of conical mountains. No roads – or only one, that to Jerusalem.”1 The very day the advance began the weather broke, with heavy and cold winter rains making conditions arduous for the troops clothed and equipped

Fall of Jerusalem.indd 30

for desert warfare. Turkish troops were also encountered, many of whom holding strong defensive positions from which they were only driven out with difficulty. This was a concern for Allenby, as it meant that the Turks were set on defending Jerusalem. “Only small rearguard detachments had yet been encountered,” he noted, “and the great difficulty found in dislodging them from positions so admirably suited to their tactics augured ill for the moment drawing nigh when the Turks should be met with in strength.”2 Already, the three divisions were in trouble with their transport, as the Official History explains: “Neither the camels nor their Egyptian drivers were suited to rugged country of this nature or to the climate. The Egyptians had proved themselves efficient, tireless, and cheerful in the plain; but the rocks, the cold, and the rain bewildered and terrified them ... in many cases

MAIN PICTURE BELOW: The view of the countryside to the east of the village of Nabi Samwil. It is over this rocky, boulder-strewn countryside that the Commonwealth troops completed the final stages of the advance on Jerusalem – which lies three miles east of the spot where the photographer is standing. LEFT: A view of the Jaffa to Jerusalem road,

along which the British forces marched on the Holy City, which was photographed from the former Ottoman-fortified hilltop at Deir Yesin (also referred to as Deir Yassin). The fortifications there were part of the outer defences of Jerusalem, which lies a few miles to the east, and which were assaulted and captured by British troops on 8 December 1917. The following day Jerusalem fell to General Allenby’s forces.

BELOW: The battered remains of the Mosque at Nabi Samwil pictured after the fighting of 21-22 November 1917, when the village was captured by the British during the advance on Jerusalem. During the attack the guns of two Turkish batteries, installed on a nearby spur and shooting over open sights, repeatedly shelled the village. Such was the extent of the damage that the Mosque’s tower collapsed on 27 November 1917. their spirits were broken by their miseries and it was hard to prevent them seating themselves by the roadside in the belief that only death would deliver them.”3 By 21 November, the Allied troops had reached the dominating hill of Nabi Samwil. With just three miles to the Holy City, it was small wonder that this feature was referred to as “the key to Jerusalem”. The hill was stormed by the 234th Brigade (2nd Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, 1/4th Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 2/4 Dorset Regiment and locally-raised battalions) that evening. Taking the next important height, the El Jib, however, proved beyond the capacity of infantry alone. The first attack took place on the 23rd, delivered by the 5th Battalion the Somerset Regiment, supported by 2/3rd Gurkhas. They had 2,000 yards of open ground to cover before they could reach the high ground where the Turks were waiting. “The attack was conducted with great gallantry,” continued the official report. “Directly the extended lines of the Somersets emerged they came under shrapnel and high explosive fire. The battalion went steadily forward, despite its losses, and actually reached the foot of El Jib. A few men even succeeded in scrambling up the terraces, carrying three Lewis guns with them, and entering the village, but they were all killed or captured.” After repeated assaults over the course of two days, Allenby called off the attack.

14/08/2013 11:44

A MOST DRAMATIC INCIDENT

The Turks even undertook a serious attempt to re-capture Nabi Samwil. It was clear that the Turks were going to make a very stout defence of Jerusalem. Despite this setback, Allenby was pleased with his army’s progress so far, as he later wrote: “The narrow passes from the plain to the plateau of the Judean range have seldom been forced, and have been fatal to many invading armies. Had the attempt not been made at once, or had it been pressed with less determination, the enemy would have had time to reinforce his defences in the passes lower down, and the conquest of the plateau would then have been slow, costly, and precarious. As it was, positions had been won from which the final attack could be prepared and delivered with good prospects of success.” It was true that the British forces were just one step away from being in a position to mount the final assault upon Jerusalem. That one step was the capture of El Jib and the last series of heights. For this Allenby decided that he would need to reinforce and refresh his troops. So, whilst the road was improved to allow transport and artillery to move rapidly from the coast, XX Corps marched to the relief of XXI Corps. As the EEF consolidated its position and built up its strength for the assault upon El Jib, the Turks attacked its lines, achieving a number of shortlived successes. In one such raid on 4

Fall of Jerusalem.indd 31

December 1917, the Turks came upon 21-year-old Second Lieutenant Stanley Boughey of the 1/4th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers at El Burf: “When the enemy in large numbers had managed to crawl up to within 30 yards of our firing line,” ran the wording of The London Gazette two months later, “and with bombs and automatic rifles were keeping down the fire of our machine guns, he rushed forward alone with bombs right up to the enemy, doing great execution and causing the surrender of a party of 30. As he turned to go back for more bombs he was mortally wounded at the moment when the enemy were surrendering.”4 For his actions that day, Second Lieutenant Boughey was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. Whilst such raids were taking place, the bulk of Mustafa Fevzi Çakmak’s Turkish Seventh Army, some 16,000 strong, remained strongly entrenched in the hills to the west of Jerusalem. To overcome such strong positions, XX Corps’ commander, General Philip Chetwode, devised a plan whereby his men would pivot at Nabi Samwil on the left, with his right swinging round the western suburbs of Jerusalem before cutting the Nablus road. This would enable him to bring up his artillery along the Jaffa road, the only one along which heavy guns could move. By the end of the first week of December XX Corps was ready and on the night of 6/7 December the 179th Brigade of the 60th (2/2nd London)

LEFT: A Turkish shell embedded in the wall of the Mosque at Nabi Samwil. The village was subsequently rebuilt and resettled in 1921.

ABOVE: A 1917-dated aerial photograph of Jerusalem and its surroundings. The British advance on the city was, generally speaking, made from the left hand side of the image. BELOW: Taken on 9 December 1917, this picture shows Sergeant F.G. Harcomb and Sergeant J. Sedgewick of 2/19th London Regiment pictured with a Major Barry, who, the original caption states, was “one of the first officers to enter” Jerusalem.

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A MOST DRAMATIC INCIDENT

Division took the high ground to the south of Aim Karim, some three miles to the south of Nabi Samwil. Private J. Wilson was with the Machine Gun Corps units assigned to the division: “We are moving tomorrow morning for the Jerusalem operations. Apparently the place is to be ours by Sunday [11 December] ... We were ordered to dump our packs, including bivvies and blankets, so we knew we were in for something hefty ... we soon discovered why we had dumped our packs. We could never have got through with those burdens on our backs. The distance on the map which we

Fall of Jerusalem.indd 32

went that night was roughly two miles as the crow flies. Not being crows, however, we had to do the journey as the donkey walks and found it a very different matter. Up hill and down ravine, winding about along ridges, and down precipitous paths, the whole way literally strewn with stones and boulders, it took us seven hours without stop.”5 The weather also turned against the attackers once more. A dense mist prevented aerial observation and heavy rain brought the troops to a standstill and the attack stalled. “Whole teams of gun-horses came down together on the slippery road, to kick and flounder in the darkness and block the struggling traffic. Camels fell with their legs splayed outwards, split at the quarters, and had to be bundled off the road after their loads had been taken off. Several of their Egyptian drivers died from exposure.”6 The men and animals then passed a “wretched” night in cold, driving rain. “Owing to the nature of the country which they had to traverse, they had advanced without greatcoats or packs, and the waterproof sheets which they carried rolled on their shoulders were their only protection,” wrote the official historian. “For water they had in most cases to be content with a half-bottleful saved from the morning, while, as all the convoys had broken down owing to the slippery state of the tracks, rations had not arrived when the troops left their bivouac, so that they had to rely upon their iron ration till

ABOVE LEFT: The Ottoman letter of

surrender which was handed to Lieutenant Colonel Bayley, by the Mayor of Jerusalem, Hussein Bey al-Husayni, on 9 December 1917.

ABOVE: General Allenby’s party is pictured about to walk through Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate during his formal entry into the city on 11 December 1917. The leading figure is that of Borton Pacha, the British Military Governor of the city, followed by his two Aides-de-Camp. Further behind, from right to left, are Colonel de Piepape, commander of the French detachment, General Edmund Allenby, and Lieutenant Colonel D’Agostino, CO of the Italian troops. Unlike the Kaiser during his visit in 1898, out of respect for the status of Jerusalem as the Holy City Allenby elected to dismount and enter on foot. “I entered the city officially at noon, 11 December,” he later wrote, “with a few of my staff, the commanders of the French and Italian detachments, the heads of the political missions, and the Military Attaches of France, Italy, and America ... The procession was all afoot, and at Jaffa Gate I was received by the guards representing England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, India, France and Italy. The population received me well.” LEFT: The guns of a British Heavy Battery on Mount Scopus following their participation in the offensive that led to the capture of Jerusalem.

the following morning.” The main attack on Jerusalem was to be delivered that morning, 8 December 1914, and, for once, the poor weather actually favoured the attackers. At 02.00 hours, protected by night and cloaked in mist, the British troops moved off. The Turkish positions had been

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LEFT: The first British guard on the Jaffa Gate following the surrender of Jerusalem on 9 December 1917. Allenby considered the protection of the city’s many historic and religious sites to be of great importance. “Guards have been placed over the Holy places,” he wrote soon after his arrival. “My Military Governor is in contact with the acting custodians and the Latin and Greek representatives. The Governor has detailed an officer to supervise the Holy places.”

RIGHT: The Jaffa Gate today. MAIN PICTURE BELOW: A staged photograph of Sergeant F.G. Harcomb and Sergeant J. Sedgewick of 2/19th London Regiment on a hillside outside Jerusalem.

constructed in 1916 and developed over the subsequent months to allow three tiers of fire. Chiselled out of the hillsides theses defences should have made any approach deadly and there was to be no softening-up of these positions by the artillery – Allenby believed in a “bolt from the blue”. Surprise was therefore Allenby’s tactic, but it was Allenby who was to be surprised, in what was described as “one of the most dramatic incidents of the war”.7 * On the morning of 8 December, Lieutenant Colonel H. Bayley, the commanding officer of the 303rd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (60th Division) was cautiously approaching Jerusalem, having met no resistance so far that day. “At the top of the hill I came to houses on the outskirts of the town, still no sniping,” he wrote. “Suddenly ahead I spotted a white flag and to my utter astonishment it appeared through

Fall of Jerusalem.indd 33

my glasses that numbers of persons surrounded it and that three were coming towards me ... Well, I beckoned the leading one and he came up to me ... He said the Turks ... had bolted in the night and that the mayor of the town was at the flag ... I walked on to him and there he was with three chairs in a row on the road. I sat down with the mayor on one side and his chief of police on the other, when the mayor formally said that he wished to hand over the city to the British authorities as the Turks had fled, so I accepted the city.”8 Apparently the mayor and his contingent had been wandering round trying to find someone to surrender to. His first appeal was to two mess cooks of 2/20th London Regiment who had become lost during the night and had blundered into Jerusalem in search of water. The cooks declined the mayor’s offer of surrender, feeling that their rank did not merit such an honour. The mayor then came upon Sergeant F.G. Harcomb (also spelt Hurcomb) and Sergeant J. Sedgewick of 2/19th London Regiment. These two also refused to accept the surrender of the greatest city in the Middle East and the mayor had to continue searching for someone to capitulate to. Eventually, after two junior

officers of the 60th Division had also refused to accept such a responsibility, the mayor stumbled upon Lieutenant Colonel Bayley and Jerusalem was finally handed over to the British. The capture of Jerusalem marked the effective end to the 1917 Palestine campaign, though operations continued until the end of the year, as the Turks mounted counter-attacks upon the new British defensive line in front of Jerusalem. The Egyptian Expeditionary Force had now captured Mecca, Baghdad and Jerusalem, with Medina under siege and certain to fall. Turkey had lost control of the great religious cities which meant the Arabs no longer needed to honour their allegiance with the Ottomans. From this time onwards the momentum of the Arab Revolt accelerated. In a despatch dated 15 December 1917, Allenby listed the achievements of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force: “In forty days many strong Turkish positions have been captured, and the Force has advanced some sixty miles on a front of thirty miles. The enemy had been heavily defeated, only the nature of the country saving his forces from complete destruction. Over twelve

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ABOVE: British guards at the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, December 1917. ABOVE RIGHT: A recent shot of the same part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre’s façade.

ABOVE FAR RIGHT: After the evacuation of

Jerusalem by the Ottoman Seventh Army, enemy troops undertook a number of counterattacks with the aim of recapturing the city. One of these, launched at 01.30 hours on 27 December 1917, was centered on Tell el Ful. This hill east of the Nablus road about three miles north of Jerusalem was defended by the 60th (2/2nd London) Division. Though ultimately unsuccessful, this attack did drive some British units back, Turkish troops capturing a number of positions. Here, in the aftermath of the counter-attack, a British burial party is pictured at a Turkish mass grave at Tell el Ful.

BELOW: A future British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, is pictured with Bishop MacInnes of Jerusalem at what is now known as Jerusalem War Cemetery on 26 March 1921. The occasion was a memorial service to remember the fallen of the fighting in the region during the First World War. The cemetery is located on a neck of land at the north end of the Mount of Olives and west of Mount Scopus. A total of 2,515 men were buried in the cemetery.

Fall of Jerusalem.indd 34

thousand prisoners and more than one hundred guns had been taken, and the Turkish casualties for the period were approximately 25,000, almost half as many again as the British, which were about 18,000. Jerusalem had been captured without damage to a single sacred building.” In the context of the First World War, such gains were unprecedented. Why though had Jerusalem been so abruptly abandoned? The surrender of the city appeared, at first, a mystery. The Turks had defended with great determination up to that point and had given every indication that they would fight to hold onto the Holy City. It transpired that the capture of a small sector of the Turkish front-line trench by a British patrol on the night of 7 December was magnified by false reporting into it being the loss of the whole of the city’s western defences. General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, who had been the commander of the Turkish Eighth Army, later explained that when the commander of the Turkish forces, Ali Faud Bey, learnt of the imagined capture

of the western defences, he, “having received orders from the army group to withdraw on Jericho in case of the loss of Jerusalem, feared to execute a counterattack lest he should be unable after it to carry out these orders, and therefore evacuated the holy city forthwith”. So, after all the fighting and sacrifice, the most important city in the entire Middle East was delivered up to the British through a simple error in communication. ■

NOTES:

1. The Guy Dawnay papers, Imperial War Museum, 69/21/2, quoted in Anthony Bruce, The Last Crusade, The Palestine Campaign in the First World War (John Murray, London, 2002), p.156. 2. C. Falls and A. F. Becke, Military Operations, Egypt and Palestine from June 1917 To The End of the War (HMSO, London, 1930), pp.196-7. 3. Ibid, p.193. 4. The London Gazette, 12 February 1818. 5. J. Wilson papers, Imperial War Museum, 84/52/1, quoted in Anthony Bruce, op. cit, pp.160-1. 6. Falls and Becke, op. cit, p.243. 7. Ibid, p.252. 8. Bruce, op. cit, pp. 162-3.

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★★★ ★

★★★

★★★★

★

At 20.30 hours on the evening of 27 May 1943, USAAF ground personnel were arming B-17 Flying Fortresses when a 500lb bomb detonated on the flight line at RAF Alconbury. The explosion set off several other bombs. As debris from the blast rained down, the shockwaves travelled hundreds of feet in every direction. In an instant, death and destruction was wrought across the Cambridgeshire airfield.

O

n the evening of Thursday, 27 May 1943, after delivering some supplies to the maintenance hangars, Ted Penn stood around talking with the men in the dispersal area who were loading 500lb bombs into the B-17 Flying Fortresses of the Unites States Army Air Force’s 95th Bombardment Group (Heavy). The 95th was, at the time, based at Alconbury Airfield in Cambridgeshire, designated USAAF Station 102. The 95th was formed in late August 1942 at Geiger Field in Washington. After final training had been completed at Rapid City Army Air Base in South Dakota, the group flew to Britain along the southern route via Florida, Trinidad, Brazil, Dakar and Marrakesh. The aircraft arrived in the UK in early April 1943. The ground crew sailed on RMS Queen Elizabeth which docked at Greenock on 11 May. In April 1943 the 95th began arriving at Alconbury, joining the Flying Fortress-

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Alconbury Explosion.indd 36

equipped 92nd Bombardment Group (Heavy). For the next six weeks the airfield at Alconbury was crowded with the largest number of B-17s ever based there. After a period of practice and familiarisation, the 95th, part of the Fourth Combat Wing, began operations on 13 May 1943. The target that day was the Luftwaffe airfield at St. Omer. The mission was, recalled Leonard Herman, “short and simple”. Lasting four hours and fifteen minutes, mission No.1 encountered almost no opposition: “There was very little flak,” recounted Herman. “There were no fighters at all.” The second operation came the following day, when the 95th’s B-17s were despatched to bomb targets at Antwerp. It was on this raid that the unit lost its first aircraft. Less than twenty-four hours later it was the turn of Emden, a mission that was achieved without loss. The same could not be said of Mission No.4, which was to Lorient. This resulted

in the loss of the second 95th Bomb Group Flying Fortress, which crashed on landing. It was for just such missions that the B-17s were being prepared for on 23 May, being loaded up with 500lb bombs. Rather than arming the bombs after they had been loaded, the men fuzed the bombs on the ground where they could be more easily reached. This method was faster and more efficient, if potentially more dangerous. BELOW: The memorial to the events of Thursday, 27 May 1943, which was recently unveiled at Alconbury. The building in the background was one of the original wartime watch offices, or control towers. It was actually the second watch office constructed at Alconbury; the original, which had a bay window, was a wooden shed that was relocated from RAF Wyton. The third control tower was built to the more common 343/43 design and is in the American compound. The fourth one is a post-war structure located in the middle of the airfield. (Courtesy of Richard E. Flagg)

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blankets and the gunners were cleaning As the loaders had nearly finished their their guns. Frank Metzger, my navigator, job, they told Penn to set off for dinner and I were sitting on a separate blanket. and they would join him shortly. “One of I was leaning over close to the ground, the guys, I didn’t know his name, told me blowing into the ear of a small Chihuahua to get on my bike down to the mess tent dog my radio operator had traded a so I could be first in line,” remembered flashlight in for in Bélem, Brazil, in a Penn. “Halfway down the hill, I heard a somewhat teasing manner. terrific explosion and the force rocked “The explosion took place in the B-17 me on my bike. I hopped off and saw a about seventy feet away from us while tremendous fire.” we were only a few The time was feet from the rear around 20.30 hours. “Halfway down the hill, entrance of our ship. “The fellows I had been talking to had all I heard a terrific explosion Metzger was killed I suffered a gone,” added Penn, and the force rocked me on instantly. bomb fragment that “and I could just as well have been killed if they my bike. I hopped off and went into the pleural Members of my hadn’t told me to go saw a tremendous fire.” cavity. crew were all injured in ahead. Nothing was left some manner or other. of their ’plane but a big “We tried to get up and run away from crater.” the site at the instant of the explosion, but The effects of the blast were heavy clods of dirt kept pounding us to devastating. Eyewitnesses later reported the ground. It completely destroyed the seeing an engine from the exploding bomber fly through the air, punch through B-17, blowing a hole in the ground about 6 feet deep and 30 feet in diameter. another B-17 and finally come to rest “My ship suffered a glancing blow from wedged beneath a third parked over 600 an engine from the exploded airplane just feet away. forward of the rear exit and the fuselage Lieutenant Gale House, the pilot of was punctured with holes throughout. B-17 42-29808, recalled the moment that Sgt. Cords had been in our airplane when tragedy struck. “My crew was sitting on

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ABOVE: Smoke billows into the sky following the explosion on 27 May 1943. (USAF via NARA) BELOW LEFT: The scene of the explosion at Alconbury pictured in the immediate aftermath. The original wartime watch office which features in the main image on the previous page can be seen in the middle of the shot nearest the flight line. (USAF via NARA) BELOW RIGHT: The crater left by the explosion that destroyed B-17 42-29685. Once again, note the watch office building in the background. (USAF via NARA) the explosion took place and came out of the ship with multiple bleeding wounds and was a yellow ghost. Apparently a fragment had disintegrated a package of sea marker that was always carried on the ships and this powdered dye had him completely covered.” It was, concluded Lieutenant House, “a rough beginning for the group”. For the 95th Bomb Group’s Communications Officer Frank Knox, as for many others, this was the first experience of the horrors of war, and of the destruction a bomb could do. “I was in the operations headquarters, the operations building, when the explosion occurred. Of course everyone

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MAIN PICTURE BELOW: Debris is pictured strewn across the flight line at Alconbury. The aircraft on the left is B-17 42-29808, whilst that on the right furthest from the camera is 42-29706. The former Flying Fortress was that normally flown by Lieutenant Gale House who, as well as having witnessed the tragedy on 27 May 1943, participated in the 95th Bomb Group’s first mission, in this aircraft, two weeks earlier. (USAF via NARA) ABOVE LEFT and RIGHT: Two further

images which detail the damage caused to Lieutenant Gale House’s B-17, 42-29808, in the explosion. (Both USAF via NARA)

RIGHT: The Airfield Research Group’s Paul

Bellamy (on the left) shows members of the 95th Bomb Group Heritage Association the exact spot where the bomb being loaded into B-17 42-29685 exploded. (Courtesy of Richard E. Flagg)

faint. Men ran to aid him. He was gone. Others, a few feet away from him were untouched. “One combat crew was lounging in the afternoon sun near their ’plane. Nine of the crew members were lying flat on the ground. The navigator Frank Metzger, was sitting upright. The nine men were not physically hurt; Lieutenant Metzger

was killed by concussion. Their ’plane was broken in the centre with the two sections completely separated.” Leonard Herman was actually off duty at the time of the explosion: “One afternoon, pilot Johnny Johnson, navigator Tommy Lees and I were sitting in the balcony of a movie house in the town of Alconbury. The shock wave of a giant explosion reached us. We jumped out of our seats and ran out of the film house. We caught the first Army transportation back to Alconbury air base. “When we got there the base was in turmoil. There was a big hole in the ground. As we walked across the field, every once in a while you stubbed your toe or you tripped against a piece of human anatomy. Mostly it was elbows, or arms or part of a leg. It really was an absolute disaster.” The disaster

resulted in four B-17s being destroyed, “crumpled like old paper”. Eleven others were written off, the damage so severe that they would not be fully repaired for many months. Nineteen men were killed (sixteen from the 412th Bomb Squadron, two from the 334th Bomb Squadron and one from the 335th Bomb Squadron) and twenty-one others were wounded – almost all of whom were ground crew. An engine from one of the B-17s, 42-29685, left a trail of destruction, smashing its way through the fuselage of 42-29808 before coming to rest against wing/fuselage joint of 42-29706; those from the other

“As we walked across the field, every once in a while you stubbed your toe or you tripped against a piece of human anatomy.” SEPTEMBER 2013

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THE ALCONBURY EXPLOSION

ABOVE LEFT and RIGHT: One of the most

badly damaged of the B-17s engulfed in the blast, aside from 42-29685, was 4229833 – seen here on the left as the fires still smoulder, and on the right once the smoke had cleared. (Both USAF via NARA)

RIGHT: The memorial to the nineteen who

were killed on 27 May 1943, and which incorporates an original post-war USAF Alconbury sign frame, is located near surviving wartime buildings and is only a short distance from the scene of the disaster. (Courtesy of Richard E. Flagg)

MAIN PICTURE BELOW: James Mutton of the 95th Bomb Group Heritage Association speaks during the unveiling of the memorial at Alconbury on Monday, 27 May 2013. Built in 1938 as a satellite for RAF Wyton, the airfield at Alconbury initially had three runways. Until 1942, it was the base for Nos. 15, 40 and 156 Squadrons RAF. In 1942 the airfield was expanded to a 500 acre site, the length of the runways was increased and twentysix hardstandings were added. From 1942 onwards the site was used by the US Eighth Air Force. (Courtesy of Richard E. Flagg) destroyed aircraft were thrust, badly damaged, several feet into the ground. “Here, in one second,” remarked Clifford Cole, “went the lives, the effort,

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Alconbury Explosion.indd 40

and the careful schooling of some of the Air Corps’ most vital assets, the men on the line. They could get more ’planes, but dedicated, trained maintenance personnel were irreplaceable.” Vital lessons were learnt. “We were loading fuzed bombs into our B-17s,” noted Harry Conley, “which was our procedure then because it was fast and easy to fuze the bombs on the ground where we could readily reach them … This was the last time we loaded fuzed bombs.” It had been, he concluded, “a very tragic and expensive lesson”. * The 95th Bomb Group went on to fly a further 321 combat missions without a comparable loss on the ground. Despite the disaster at Alconbury, the 95th would go on to become the only American Eighth Air Force group to

be awarded three Distinguished Unit Citations and the first USAAF group to bomb Berlin. The 95th also claimed the most enemy aircraft destroyed – 425 in total – of all the Eighth Air Force Bomb Groups. Though Clifford Cole would remark after the explosion that the men “were to take their share of good and bad fortune in the air”, no-one present with the bomb group on 27 May 1943, though, would ever forget the explosion at Alconbury. ■

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A ROYAL ARTILLERY VETERAN HAS RETURNED TO THANK THE ITALIAN VILLAGERS THAT HELPED HIM EVADE CAPTURE ALMOST SEVENTY YEARS AGO continued Eric. “It did terrible damage. We were trapped behind a watertight door and the front of the ship was going down. I had never before anticipated the thought of dying, but I thought I would die. But the sailors finally managed to get us out, and somehow they kept the engines going and we limped back to Alexandria.” Around 360 personnel were lost in the

bombing, of whom 100 were soldiers; a further 280 were injured. After extensive damage control had been undertaken, Orion limped on to Alexandria at twelve knots, providing a spectacular sight as she arrived in the harbour with the mast wedged into the her funnel and significant battle damage. After the Allied withdrawal from Greece, Eric found himself once again in the desert. Here his troop was involved in a running battle with Italian and German forces from El Alamein up to Tobruk. When Rommel’s forces surrounded the town, Eric’s troop was forced to surrender. Marched across the desert to Benghazi, Eric survived on half a pint of water a day and hard biscuits before being shipped to a PoW camp at Macerata in eastern Italy. “We had to make the best of it. I spent my time making things from old tins. I made bellows to make force draft fires and one chap made a grandfather clock which actually worked! We were treated pretty fairly by the guards but rations were low and we were very dependent on Red Cross parcels, which often got filched.” When Italy capitulated news was received that the Germans were soon to take over the camp. Consequently, Eric and two comrades decided to make a daring night time escape LEFT: Lance Bombardier Eric Batteson. (Big Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return 2 Programme)

BELOW: British artillery in action during Operation Compass, following which Lance Bombardier Eric Batteson found himself sent to Greece in April 1941. (HMP)

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A CELEBRATORY RETURN FOR PoW ESCAPEE LANCE Bombardier Eric Batteson crouched in the dark watching the camp guard’s every movement before seizing his split second moment to escape to what would be an uncertain and precarious freedom high in the Italian mountains. Now, thanks to the Big Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return 2 programme, the 92-year veteran from Chester has made an emotional pilgrimage to thank the villagers of Colleregnone, in the municipality of Montemonaco, who took great risks to feed and shelter him. He even stayed in the same house owned by the same family who gave him refuge. Having completed his field training as a Lance Bombardier in the Royal Artillery in 1939, Eric Batteson first fought in Egypt in 1940, before being deployed to help defend Greece. “If we hadn’t moved back we would have been totally swamped,” he said of the fighting there. “The Germans were much better armed. The British Matilda tanks were no match for the Panzers and the Stuka attacks were terrible, we were relentlessly dive bombed. I was asleep in the back of a truck when one attack began. My battery commander, the signaller, and driver all leapt out into a ditch but I was still in the truck when two huge bombs landed, one in front and one behind. I was very lucky that day.” Eric was duly evacuated from Crete on the Leander-class light cruiser HMS Orion bound for Alexandria. On 29 May 1941, Orion was attacked by Axis aircraft. “I was in the forward part of the ship when a bomb went down the ammunition hatch and exploded,”

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SUBSCRIBE & SAVE by slipping through an unlocked gate and scrambling to freedom in the Italian mountains. Guided west by the stars they climbed by night but then switched to daylight travel to avoid stumbling over ledges in the dark. Reaching the village of Colleregnone, tired and starving, they spotted a farmer up a fruit tree and took the gamble to approach him. Eric recalls: “My memory is centred on those wonderful people who helped us. At first we would hide out in isolated places and the village girls would bring us food. Then after five months the snow came and the families hid us in their houses. They were taking a great risk. The

16

Germans had recently rounded up eleven young men from a neighbouring village and shot them as a warning to anyone collaborating with the Allies.” The three men were eventually betrayed and re-captured by the Germans, being transported by train to a PoW camp in Germany. “Here there were heavy Allied bombing raids,” Eric explained. “We weren’t very popular. We would see civilians pushing their dead relatives in wheelbarrows. We were glad the German soldiers were protecting us. But treatment was a bit mixed, especially from the prison guards running the forced slave labour gangs. They were regularly bashed about. One man was shot dead because he didn’t want to urinate in front of the others.” As the Allied bombing increased Eric and his compatriots were deployed to clean up after an intense raid damaged a local oil refinery. He said: “One guy was always doing subtle sabotage and would put cement powder into air pressure instruments, and slightly open the valves on oxy acetylene canisters so that when they came to be used they were empty.” Eric remained at the camp until he was liberated on 14 April 1945, before arriving back home in time for VE day. Following his return to Collegerone, Eric said: “I think we must have been legend in that village, they remember everything. I used to be a whistler and they told me ‘don’t do that, Italian men don’t whistle’. They passed this down to their children who still joke about it. I can’t tell you what I feel about these people. They did so much.” *

Since 2004, over 51,000 people have made commemorative trips with funding from the Big Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return schemes with grants totalling over £25 million. The Big Lottery Fund has also extended its Heroes Return 2 programme so that it no longer has a fixed deadline for applications. This will ensure Second World War veterans from the UK, Channel Islands and Republic of Ireland who have yet to take advantage of the funding since the programme opened can continue to apply for grants to cover travel and accommodation expenses to enable them to make trips back to places across the world where they served. They can also receive funding to take part in an official commemoration in the UK. For details contact the Heroes Return helpline on 0845 00 00 121 or visit: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/heroesreturn

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TOP LEFT: The building in which Eric

Batteson was given shelter in the village of Colleregnone. (Big Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return 2 Programme)

TOP RIGHT: Eric Batteson, front left, pictured sat next to his wife with relatives of the villagers who gave him shelter whilst evading German forces in Italy. (Big Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return 2 Programme)

LEFT: Eric Batteson pictured in North Africa

prior to his capture. (Big Lottery Fund’s Heroes Return 2 Programme)

BELOW: The Leander-class light cruiser HMS

Orion, on which Eric Batteson was evacuated from Crete.

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Whereas the First World War at sea is best remembered for the actions of the larger warships, a large proportion of the everyday duties of the Royal Navy was performed by smaller motor launches. An example of this is the actions of ML 357 which attacked three German submarines in the final months of 1917. These attacks formed the contents of a letter, revealed by Rick Mayall, which was written by the commander of the motor launch in January 1918.

O

n 9 April 1915, the British Admiralty placed an order through Canadian Vickers for fifty anti-submarine boats to be built by Elco of Bayonne, New Jersey, USA. These boats were seventy-five feet long, powered by a petrol engine capable of driving the boat at nineteen knots and were armed with a single 13-pounder gun and, in most cases, also carried depth charges. Each had a crew of eight. Though they performed well over the years, these motor launches, or “MLs”, of which 580 were ordered in total (though their specifications

changed in later models), were found to be difficult boats to operate. To enable them to achieve the required speed, every possible measure was undertaken to reduce weight. This included adopting a very small rudder which made it difficult to maintain course in a following sea, and the sharp bow and cut-away stern meant that the boat dipped severely in heavy seas. ML 357 was part of the second batch of boats ordered by the Admiralty. She was eleven feet longer than the original motor launches and a 3-pounder replaced the bigger gun of earlier models. She operated out of Falmouth, in the Auxiliary Patrol’s Zone XIV area, from the parent ship HMS Dreel Castle. On 15 October 1917, Lieutenant James Buller Kitson DSO, RNVR became her new skipper and that same night the boat was detailed to help safeguard a convoy of French ships.

ABOVE: A painting depicting two vessels of the Auxiliary Patrol in action against a German U-boat during the First World War. By December 1914 there were sufficient numbers of patrol vessels available to the Royal Navy to provide coastal patrols of moderate strength in the waters surrounding the home islands. From this modest beginning, the Auxiliary Patrol grew to about 5,000 yachts, gunboats, trawlers, whalers, motor launches and drifters by the war’s end. (HMP)

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“Sometime after dark a torpedo crossed my bow about 10 yards off and hit a ship about ½ mile inside of me,” Kitson subsequently wrote, describing the events of that night to his brother. “I immediately followed that wake of the submarine which must have just dived and its wake was clearly visible. I went ahead of it and dropped 2 [depth charges] and after the second one had exploded a large explosion was heard well under the water and which shook up us to the extent that I thought at first we had been torpedoed. However when we went about and came back we came through quantities of oil etc. but it was so dark and so rough we did not see any wreckage.” ML357 then went to the rescue of the men from the stricken ship, which was firing distress rockets. Kitson and his crew was able to save all twenty-six French crewmen. Nothing more was seen of the submarine and Kitson presumed it had gone down. Though the Admiralty told Kitson that, judging from the report he submitted, the German vessel may not have sunk, he was informed that Naval Intelligence believed the submarine

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lost. This, according to Kitson, was his first victim. ML 357’s, and Kitson’s second victim, was on 15 November 1917. This time the motor launch was on a hydrophone patrol with another ML, searching for submarines. “We heard a submarine and depth charged it and afterwards heard it again and saw its periscope break water,” ran the words of Kitson’s personal account. “So we depth charged it again. Then there was silence for three hours then we heard it again and saw its periscope again so I waltzed in and pipped him all round. Nothing was heard again; we remained hydrophoning for 3 days the weather being dead calm. Tons of oil and 15 fathoms of water. We had the whole area swept and divers down but nothing found.” Once again Kitson was informed by his friend in Naval Intelligence that it was believed that a German submarine had been lost. Two up. The third incident was on 12 December and was, as Kitson remarked, much more thrilling. This time ML 357 was on duty screening a French Coal Trade Convoy which had left Penzance around the middle of the afternoon, sailing for Ushant. The ships in such convoys were usually organised in pairs or three

ABOVE: HM Motor Launch ML 531 underway.

Generally speaking, the Royal Navy’s motor launches in the English Channel and North Sea were deployed in flotillas of six craft. The main flotilla groups were those based in Dover, Harwich and Scapa Flow, whilst numerous smaller ports, such as Falmouth, had at least one ML flotilla. It is known that ML 531 was commanded at one stage by a Canadian, Lieutenant Russell Odell RNVR. (Courtesy of Gordon Smith; www.naval-history. net)

LEFT: A pair of motor launches, similar to ML

357, in port. Nearest the camera is ML 217. Note the depth charges on the launch’s stern. (Courtesy of Gordon Smith; www.naval-history. net)

MAIN PICTURE BELOW: Another of the USbuilt ELCO motor launches, ML 482, pictured at anchor. This craft was part of the second, and biggest, Admiralty order – for launches numbered 51 to 550. Ordered on 8 June 1915, the last of the batch was delivered in November 1916. (Courtesy of Gordon Smith; www.naval-history.net) abreast, all of which was led by a wirelessequipped trawler. Another Auxiliary Patrol trawler was stationed on each beam and finally a fourth brought up the rear. Outside the convoy, beyond the port and starboard trawlers, two MLs on each side kept station. After the incident on 15 October when the torpedo had ran across him, Kitson had decided that rather than just potter along at eight knots to keep pace with the convoy, it would be far safer if he travelled faster and zigzagged. Furthermore, the speed of the motor launches was not being fully utilized. If the MLs were allowed to

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LEFT: The various patrol zones of the

IV

Auxiliary Patrol in Home Waters during 1917. Lieutenant James Kitson’s ML 357 was based at Falmouth and assigned to Patrol Area XIV. The base ship for those MLs operating from Falmouth, HMS Dreel Castle, was a former ninety-seven-ton Kirkcaldy drifter that had been requisitioned by the Royal Navy in 1915, initially for service as a net tender.

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XVII VIII

RIGHT: A close-up view of the bows of ML 83

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Falmouth

XIV

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as one of the crew, according to the original caption, “sinks a mine with a rifle”. Aside from duties with the Auxiliary Patrol, a number of the motor launches would be awarded Battle Honours. ML 110, for example, served in Dover Command and was awarded the Battle Honours “Belgian Coast 1914-18” and “Zeebrugge, April 1918”. This vessel was lost in the North Sea on 23 April 1918, during the raid on Zeebrugge. (Courtesy of Gordon Smith; www.naval-history.net www.naval-history.net)

BELOW RIGHT: HM Motor Launch ML 81 on patrol. Commanded by Lieutenant Hugh Hunter RNVR, this vessel served in the North Sea, as well as possibly the English Channel, during its time with the Auxiliary Patrol. Early in 1917 it was damaged by a petrol fire at a Scottish port, either Aberdeen or Peterhead. (Courtesy of Gordon Smith; www.naval-history. net)

search beyond the convoy they stood a better chance of detecting waiting for a few more revs making our speed enemy submarines. He put his views to about 15 knots. We then ran into a thick the Admiralty, remarking that ships were patch of fog and I was just thinking of being torpedoed after dark on pitch black on his own and zigzag around looking for telling the man at the wheel to go right nights. This could only be achieved by a submarines. about and steer in for the convoy, when submarine that was on the surface or at This was the case on the night of 12 we came out of the fog, and there right in least with the conning tower above the December 1917. The sea was absolutely front of us, not more than 50 yards ahead, surface so that the crew could keep a look calm with no moon and a very clear, frosty was the most enormous submarine I have out for shipping. The way that Kitson saw sky. ML 357 was operating on her own on ever seen or dreamt of, lying perfectly the situation was that U-boats would wait the port side of a convoy with two other motionless on the surface, broadside to on the surface using their hydrophones to MLs on the starboard side. Patches of us, and I was certain she had men on the pick up passing convoys. Once a convoy fog began to develop which gradually deck. had been detected “She had 2 big the submarines “She was submerging rapidly but I rammed her full bang right guns (22-pounders would keep out think), and I made where I wanted; there was the most almighty crash and a loud Isure of sight until the in a flash it ships had passed funny sounding explosion and for a second we stuck then cleared would be an action, and then steam up and she would him the other side of him.” behind and attack only have to fire a ship by aiming for its stern light, which became more widespread and denser. at us to pip us altogether, so I put on a all the ships carried. To add weight to his The Falmouth patrol boats normally full speed to make it more difficult for argument, Kitson pointed out that in all travelled with each convoy for fifty or sixty her to hit us, and to make it easier for the convoys which had lost a ship, it was miles before handing over responsibility me to manoeuvre, at the same time we one of the last ships that was the victim. to the adjacent patrol and ML 357, being opened fire just like hell, but as you know Despite his reasoning, his idea that the about fifty miles from Penzance, had a 3-pounder with common shell (we had motor launches should zigzag in search approximately one hour more to travel no armour piercing) even at close range, of the enemy was not approved by the that night before it could turn for home. as their conning towers are 3-inch armour Admiralty and the MLs continued to “I said to the man at the wheel, ‘keep and they have 2 or 1½-inch belt covering travel along sedately at the speed of the her out a bit convoy. The Admiralty’s rejection of his farther this trip’ idea, though, did not stop Kitson. After and at the same dark he would disobey orders and go off time I rang down

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ABOVE: ML 285 pictured during overseas service. As well as operating in Home Waters, Royal Navy motor launches were based overseas at ports including Taranto and Otranto in Italy, or Lemnos and Imbros in the Greek islands. Further east ML flotillas could be found in Alexandria and Port Said, patrolling the Suez Canal, and toward the end of the war, in Beirut and Tripoli. There was even a flotilla on the West Indies station. Over 6,000 men served in motor launches during the course of the First World War. them down to the water line except the bow and stern. It was a case of going hard to port or starboard to clear her as it was too late to stop. “We had 18 knots by then, and whichever way I chose [it would] put our gun out of action, so I chose hard-a-port which would bring me across her bow, however, the submarine started to go ahead and dive ... and as our boats won’t reverse engines direct and drop depth charges it was too late for me to avoid her I said, ‘here goes, we will ram the brute’, and I took the wheel, all the while we were firing and getting hits on him and went at her choosing a place as far forward to clear the armour belt and gun. “She was submerging rapidly but I rammed her full bang right where I wanted; there was the most almighty crash and a loud funny sounding explosion and for a second we stuck then cleared him the other side of him. He was then semi-submerged [and] as our bows only draw 4.6 [feet] we did not hit him till just where our propeller shafts come out about under our ward room, so we

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LEFT: Auxiliary Patrol motor launches photographed from the deck of HMS Hermione. On the outbreak of war in August 1914, Hermione became the Southampton guardship. From 1916 through to 1919, it was the parent ship for the Auxiliary Patrol’s vessels operating from Portsmouth and covering patrol area XII. (Courtesy of Gordon Smith; www.naval-history. net) RIGHT: The sketch drawn by Lieutenant

James Kitson following ML 357’s battle with a U-boat on 12 December 1917. (Courtesy of Rick Mayall)

BELOW: Looking down on the Quick-Firing 3-pounder fitted on an Auxiliary Patrol motor launch; it appears that this is the Hotchkiss naval gun, as opposed to the Vickers design. The Hotchkiss QF 3-pounder naval gun was introduced in 1886 to defend against small fast vessels such as torpedo boats and, in due course, submarines. It was also used ashore as a coast defence gun and later occasionally as an anti-aircraft gun. (Courtesy of Gordon Smith; www.naval-history.net) really hit him in our strongest place; our propellers were bent all to blazes also the shafts and the rudder.” After this there was silence. The gunner on the launch’s 3-pounder managed to get one shot off at the conning tower and

the crew could hear the submarine racing off at speed, her wake clearly visible. ML 357, on the other hand, was badly damaged. “We had immediately filled right up to the after engine room bulk head, and the stern went under water and the bows up.” The crew quickly switched the depth charges dropping gear to ‘safe’. With the propeller and shafts bent the engines would not move and for a few “pretty awful” moments the crew thought the boat was going to sink immediately. Kitson ordered life belts and the life boat to be deployed whilst he fired off two red Very flares which was the warning signal to the convoy to scatter. Then what Kitson called a most marvellous thing occurred – the submarine reappeared almost alongside ML 357! “You could have thrown a brick at her. She came up like a large cork and remained perfectly motionless and seemed to be starting to sink again, and we all noticed a most peculiar thing, she was broadside to us right on one side just a plain curved object with no conning tower or guns showing, so we immediately opened fire again (we were all still at the gun) and we simply plugged her, 6 shots in quick time and every one a hit. You couldn’t miss it, so close you could see the explosions; and all the time SEPTEMBER 2013

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LEFT: With some of its crew lining the

deck, ML 191 sails into harbour. The typical strength of an Auxiliary Patrol motor launch crew was eight. Though ML 191 survived the war, it is listed in the war loss section of Jane’s Fighting Ships as having sunk on 29 September 1919, possibly in the North Sea whilst en route to Norway. (Courtesy of Gordon Smith; www.naval-history.net)

BELOW LEFT: Two images showing part of the accommodation below deck of a motor launch. On the left is the captain’s cabin, whilst on the right is a view that is captioned as “looking forward to the galley”. (Courtesy of Gordon Smith; www. naval-history.net)

she sank and was quickly submerged, that was the end.” ML357 was still afloat and the engine room bulkhead was holding. The crew was able to start the pumps and began dispelling the water she had taken on. Nevertheless the boat was immobile and still in danger of going down. Kitson fired off distress rockets and he ordered most of the crew into the dinghy. He then took up a position on the bows, shooting off rockets and Very lights with his leading deck hand. Luckily the trawler that was escorting the convoy on the port side had seen the explosions from the engagement with the submarine and was already heading at full speed towards the sound of the gunfire. By this time ML 357 had listed to starboard and was low in the water and to the approaching trawler the motor launch appeared to be a submarine. She loaded her gun and aimed to ram ML 357. Kitson had just one white Very light left and when he realised that the trawler

Seeing is believing.indd 47

was aiming straight for him he fired this last flare. “It lit the whole sea up all round and showed them what we were and they went hard over but I can tell you they scraped by us at full speed and nearly rammed us, at any rate their wash nearly did for us.” Kitson was able to pass a wire across and when secured the crew transferred to the trawler. The two MLs from the starboard side then appeared and Kitson, as senior officer, ordered them to sweep the area with their hydrophones for any sign of the U-boat. This they did for fortyeight hours without result. ML 357 was towed back to shore and beached at high tide. This caused the last remaining bulkhead to burst and she sank. After several hours work ML 357 was sufficiently patched up for her to be taken back to dry dock where it was found that she had eight large holes in her stern bottom, both propellers were bent and the rudder damaged. * Kitson was called before the Admiralty to give his report. They “laughed at me and said that it was impossible for such a tin pot little ship to damage a super submarine, much less turn it over on its side.” When Kitson insisted that he had the evidence of all the crew and his SubLieutenant, they conceded that “it

BOTTOM: The original caption on this image of ML 369 underway simply states “On the up!” One British naval officer complained of the “stinging spray and vibration of the engines” which made for unexpected motion and discomfort, and the noise when under way which was “deafening”. However, being so light, the MLs could survive in very heavy seas “for they behaved like an empty cask among breaking seas”. (Courtesy of Gordon Smith; www.navalhistory.net) might have been a fluke”. Kitson reasoned that whilst under normal circumstances the motor launch would not have been able to sink a submarine by ramming, when ML 357 struck the German boat she was semisubmerged with only about three feet of the conning tower showing. This would have meant that the U-boat’s tanks would still have been at least partially flooded, making her unstable and therefore more likely to be knocked over by the impact of the motor launch hitting her at speed. “To hell with the long-haired Admiralty experts,” said Kitson, dismissing the board’s findings. “I know I sank the submarine absolutely no doubt.” * A post-war examination of German U-boat losses revealed that none were lost through the action of Kitson and ML 357. Nevertheless, Kitson firmly believed that his unorthodox tactics of zigzagging beyond convoys scared off enemy submarines on a number of occasions. Though it is now evident that ML 357 did not sink any German submarines, Lieutenant James Buller Kitson was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross to add to his Distinguished Service Order. Announced in The London Gazette on 22 February 1918, the award was made “for services in action with enemy submarines”. ■ · The Editor is extremely grateful to Gordon Smith

of the excellent website www.naval-history.net for permission to reproduce many of the images included in this article, which in turn come from the John Hunter Collection.

14/08/2013 11:48

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“THE SECRET MISSION SUBMARINE” F rance had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Germans in 1940 and many in that country blamed Britain for dragging France into the war in the first place or for failing to adequately support her when invaded. The British Expeditionary Force’s evacuation from Dunkirk, the capture of French ships in UK ports and the attack upon the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir only served to confirm in the minds of large numbers of French men and women that Britain was just as much an enemy of France as was Germany and Italy. Attacks upon the French colonies of Dakar, Madagascar and Syria further reinforced the view that Britain could not be trusted. The USA was seen by the French in an entirely different light. This divergence of approach between the Allies in their dealings with France became a serious issue when, in 1942, an invasion of French North Africa was proposed. A landing by US troops in North Africa was likely to be unopposed by the French. However, if the invasion force included British troops, the situation might be quite different. A solution to this problem might be found if a senior French figure could be persuaded to give the operation his backing. The question

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to be answered was which individual with enough creditability could be persuaded to agree to the invasion of French territory? * Général d’Armée Henri Honoré Giraud stood before the German Ambassador to the French Government in Vichy, Herr Otto Abetz. Giraud had been the commander of the French 7th Army in 1940 when the Germans had invaded France. Giraud had been captured and taken prisoner, being held in the top security prison at Königstein Castle near Dresden. On 17 April 1942, he escaped by lowering himself down the cliff of the mountain fortress. With the help of the Special Operations Executive he travelled to Switzerland and was slipped quietly into Vichy France. Once in Vichy he revealed himself to the Vichy Government. Soon all of France knew of his daring escape. This did not go down well with the Germans who demanded that Vichy should hand him back. This, though, was not something that the Vichy authorities could easily

He was a great hero of France and if General Giraud could be persuaded to support the Allied landings in French North Africa much of the possible bloodshed could be avoided. Giraud agreed to travel to North Africa but he refused to travel in a British warship. So the only available vessel, the submarine HMS Seraph, became the USS Seraph, and for the first and only time a Royal Navy vessel was commanded by an American captain. do. Giraud was now regarded as a great hero by the French and if he was meekly returned to the Germans it would demonstrate just how weak Pétain’s regime really was. So, instead, Giraud was asked to surrender himself to the Germans and a meeting was arranged between Giraud and Herr Abetz. The German Ambassador told Giraud that his presence in Vichy had caused a breach in relations between the two countries. Giraud was unmoved by this. Abetz then offered the French general a deal. If Giraud handed himself over to Abetz then Germany would release 50,000 French prisoners of war. “If I accept that offer what guarantees have I got that you will keep your promise?” Giraud asked. “The word of Germany,” replied Abetz. Giraud knew how much trust could be placed on the word of Germany, so he called Abetz’s bluff: “I will go back, Herr Abetz, if Germany will release all the married French prisoners of war.”

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“But Général,” gasped Abetz, “do you know there are about 400,000 married prisoners?” “Of course I know,” said Giraud. “I shall stay at Lyon until they come home and you have my word that I shall then return to Königstein.”1 Abetz angrily broke up the meeting. As Giraud was leaving the building he was confronted by Pétain’s Prime Minister, Pierre Laval, who demanded that the General should give himself up. Giraud told Laval exactly what he thought of the Prime Minister and marched off home. For the next three months Giraud rarely left his home, expecting any moment a knock on the door which would herald his arrest. Then, in October 1942, he received a message from Général Charles Mast, the officer in command at Algiers. There had been rumours that the Allies were planning on invading French North Africa and Mast wanted to know what stance he should take if an invasion occurred. The two men then continued a secret correspondence in which Mast suggested that if Giraud went to Algiers and rallied all the garrisons in North Africa to his

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side, the Allies could enter North Africa unchallenged and the Germans would be presented by a fait accompli. This was a daring suggestion as such an act would in all probability be considered treacherous by Pétain. Mast also indicated that he had contact with the Allies through Robert Murphy in the US Embassy in Algiers and that the Americans would smuggle Giraud out of France to lend legitimacy to the Allied invasion. Giraud, however, saw his position somewhat differently than the Americans did. “The Americans are amateurs at war,” he told Mast, “but they have the valuable asset of enthusiasm. They will recognise that France has always produced the finest soldiers of Europe and will be certain to accept my advice and leadership in the interest of total victory.” Mast encouraged Giraud, writing that: “I think you may be assured from my talks with Murphy that, once you arrive in Algiers, the Allies will see the military importance of your presence and accept that you are the only logical commander for the North African theatre.” Giraud also made it clear that he was quite happy to cooperate with the Americans but that he would be having

nothing whatsoever to do with the British. There was, of course, not the slightest chance of Giraud taking command of the entire operation. His presence alongside the Allies was merely to appease the French and his opinion of the British counted for nothing. Though Giraud demanded confirmation of his appointment of MAIN PICTURE BELOW: The second Royal Navy ship to carry the name, the S-class submarine HMS Seraph is pictured here whilst underway at Barrow-in-Furness on 8 June 1942. Built by Vickers Armstrong and the third in its class, Seraph was laid down on 16 August 1940, launched on 25 October 1941 and commissioned on 27 June 1942. Assigned to the 8th Submarine Flotilla in the Mediterranean on 25 August 1942, HMS Seraph was soon engaged on Special Operations duties. (Royal Navy Submarine Museum) ABOVE LEFT: HMS Seraph’s first captain –

Lieutenant Norman Limbury Auchinleck “Bill” Jewell, MBE, DSC, RN – leans on the edge of the submarine’s conning tower.

ABOVE RIGHT: HMS Seraph’s key passenger

during Operation Kingpin, who was also identified by the codename Kingpin, was Général d’Armée Henri Honoré Giraud, seen here during his daily walk whilst a prisoner of war during 1940 or 1941. (NARA)

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“THE SECRET MISSION SUBMARINE”

ABOVE: Major General Mark Wayne Clark, who acted as General Eisenhower’s personal representative during Operation Kingpin, reviews a US Honour Guard for the Royal Navy’s Submarine Service, and in particular HMS Seraph, at Oujda, Tunisia, in 1943. Lieutenant Jewell was awarded the MBE for “special services” when he landed Clark safely on the Algerian coast. (Royal Navy Submarine Museum) RIGHT: HMS Seraph remained in active

service after the war. In 1955 she was fitted with armour plating and used as a torpedo target boat. She was attached to a squadron commanded by none other than her first commander, now Captain Jewell. She remained in commission until 25 October 1962, twenty-one years to the day after her launching. When Seraph was scrapped, a number of parts were preserved as a memorial at The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, South Carolina, where General Clark served as president from 1954 to 1965. This picture shows the “Seraph Memorial” as it is today. (Courtesy of Russ Pace)

BELOW: It was from this stretch of the French coast at Le Lavandou, in the Provence-AlpesCôte d’Azur region in south-eastern France, that Général Giraud set off to rendezvous with HMS Seraph on 5 November 1942. Travelling with Giraud were his son and three staff officers. (Courtesy of Béotien Lambda) commander of the operation, which was codenamed Torch, before he left France, this was not forthcoming. Nevertheless, he was persuaded to prepare himself to be taken from France by submarine. The Vichy police had been keeping a close eye on Giraud but he was able to escape with the assistance of the local Resistance. Giraud and his party were driven towards Nice, making their way to the beach at the tiny resort of Le Lavandou. The French police had been alerted to Giraud’s likely escape and they were searching the coast. Giraud and his three companions were forced to hide in bushes hoping they would not be discovered before the time the expected ‘American’

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submarine would arrive to rescue them. The mission to pick up the French general was called Operation Kingpin. * Colonel Brad Gaylord was a member of the United States Army Air Force and he was uneasy in the confines of His Majesty’s Submarine Seraph. He was introduced to the officers of Seraph as Operation Kingpin was explained to them. The officers were told that Giraud had expressly stated that if a Royal Navy submarine turned up to collect him he would refuse to go on board. Unfortunately there was not a single US submarine within 3,000 miles of the South of France. HMS Seraph, which was already in the Mediterranean, was available and was given the task of picking up Girard but, for this trip she would have to become an American boat – the USS Seraph! However, HMS Seraph, commanded by Lieutenant Norman “Bill” Jewell, RN, was no stranger to such special duties work, having already transported a group of top US personnel to a point on the Algerian coast for a meeting with a deputation of French officers and officials. Heading the American party on that occasion was Major General Mark Wayne Clark who was acting as General Eisenhower’s personal representative. Accompanying him was BrigadierGeneral Lyman Louis Lemnitzer, the man responsible for planning the invasion of French North Africa, Colonel Arch Hamblem, who was a logistics expert,

and Colonel Julius Holmes, who was acting as a translator. Captain Jerauld Wright, who as Eisenhower’s Naval Liaison Officer would perform the same role in the negotiations with the French. Wright’s specific objective was to persuade the French to sail its fleet anchored in Toulon round to North Africa to join the Allied cause. The American party was picked up by HMS Seraph from Gibraltar, where it was also loaded with supplies and equipment including collapsible canoes, additional weapons and radios. Three Commando officers – Captain Godfrey B. Courtney, Captain R.P. Livingstone and Lieutenant J.P. Foote – were also taken onboard to deal with the technical details of the landing of the US party. It was Lieutenant Jewell’s job to get the submarine to the exact point along the Algerian coast and wait there for the return of the Americans. It was the Commandos’ job to get the negotiating team to the shore and back to Seraph. This mission was called Operation Flagpole. The submarine slipped out of Gibraltar on the night of 19 October 1942. Clark explained to Lieutenant Jewell and the three Commandos the exact place where

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LEFT: A close up view of the

bridge of HMS Seraph which, taken on Christmas Day 1943, shows three ratings removing their Jolly Roger from the submarine’s periscope standard. On the Jolly Roger the aircraft relates to an Arado seaplane damaged on a slipway, whilst the handcuffs relate to fourteen Germans picked up from a caique during a patrol. The bars top right on the flag denote Special Duties operations. (Royal Navy Submarine Museum)

BELOW LEFT: The information plaque on the “Seraph Memorial” which was unveiled in 1963. Located between Mark Clark Hall and Jenkins Hall at The Citadel, both American and British flags fly from the memorial to symbolize that this Royal Navy submarine was placed under the command of an American naval officer during Operation Kingpin. It is the only shore installation in the United States permitted to permanently fly the Royal Navy Ensign. (Courtesy of Russ Pace)

the rendezvous with the French was to take place. Unrolling a large-scale map of the Algerian coast, Clark pointed to a pencilled cross. “That is where we are going,” Clark explained. “There is a house just there, a large house with white walls and a red-tiled roof. It sits on rather a large hill about halfway between the shore and the coast road. There is a path leading up to it and, down by the beach, a small grove of olive trees where I think we might hide the boats after we land.”1 Specific though these details seem, to Jewell they appeared impossibly vague: “That sounds like all Algerian coastal scenery, sir. The whole country is filled with white houses with red-tiled roofs.” Clark, nevertheless, was confident that the house could be found. HMS Seraph cruised through the night. The sea was calm and a full-scale practice was undertaken with the canoes (actually collapsible Folbots) with the submarine stopped on the surface. The practice having been considered satisfactory Seraph sailed on and, at the precise point indicated on the map, Jewell brought the submarine to a halt on the night of the 20th. Clark confidently identified the large white red-tiled house. An identifying signal from a special lamp which could only be seen with infra-red glasses was expected but none could be seen. With dawn approaching, the decision was taken to wait until the next night. Jewell had been told that the reception party would be at the rendezvous for the next two nights, so Seraph sailed back out to sea. That night, 21 October, SEPTEMBER 2013

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Seraph returned to the coast. An anxious wait ended shortly after 23.00 hours when a thin, pale light gleamed from the white house. Running almost silently, Seraph crept in under the guns of French Algeria. A few minutes before midnight, she stopped only 500 yards from the beach. Thanks to the earlier practice, the Folbots were handled well and the VIP party headed for the shore, despite Captain Courtney capsizing his canoe and ending up in the sea when he clambered off the submarine. The three Commandos were under strict orders to keep their British uniforms concealed. Seraph returned to deeper waters, spending the rest of the night charging her batteries before diving as dawn approached. At 20.00 hours Seraph crept back to the shore. Contact was made with Clark and his team and an attempt was made to paddle out to the submarine. The weather, though, had changed considerably. The sea was rising and the surf, already rough, had become impassable for the tiny Folbots. The first attempt failed and it

BELOW RIGHT: The centre of the memorial, up through which rises one of Seraph’s periscopes, consists of a frame on which are mounted these plane wheels from its control room which were donated by the British government following the submarine’s scrapping. (Courtesy of Russ Pace) was not until 04.00 hours that the men, having stripped off their uniforms, finally succeeded in forcing their way through the surf. Seraph reached Gibraltar on 25 October and disembarked her collection of US generals. The Commandos, however, stayed with Seraph. Her clandestine work was not finished. * The meeting with the French officials had gone well but Général Mast had said that he could only guarantee the loyalty of the Algerian garrison he commanded. What was now needed was for Général Giraud to be taken to North Africa to assume control of the French forces and ensure a safe landing for the Allied armies – another job for HMS Seraph. Seraph, though, was a British submarine and as Giraud had made abundantly clear his opposition to being transported by the Royal Navy, some degree of deception was required. So,

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ABOVE: HMS Seraph returning to Fort

Blockhouse, Portsmouth, in December 1943, following a busy thirteen months’ of action which included the submarine’s participation in Operations Flagpole and Kingpin. Fort Blockhouse was the location of HMS Dolphin, a shore establishment which was the home of the Royal Navy’s Submarine Service from 1904 to 1999. (Royal Navy Submarine Museum)

BELOW RIGHT: Also on display on the

memorial’s interior is this “specimen Jolly Roger”. The accompanying letter (on the opposite page) details what each of the emblems indicates. As well as its part in Operations Flagpole and Kingpin, HMS Seraph also participated in Operation Mincemeat, the highly successful British deception (or disinformation) plan that has been made famous by several books and the film entitled The Man who Never Was. Seraph also served as a beacon ship during the invasion of Sicily and participated in the D-Day landings. (Both images courtesy of Russ Pace)

for the only time in history, a British vessel was placed under the orders of an American naval officer as Captain Jerry Wright USN was given command of HMS Seraph. Lieutenant-Colonel Bradley Gaylord was also seconded to Operation Kingpin as an interpreter. On 5 November 1942, the USS Seraph, flying the US Navy ensign, was at a point some twenty miles east of Toulon. There they waited for the celebrated French general and his party. In due course a small white rowing boat appeared from the shadows. “It was one of those old French fishing boats about as broad in the beam as it was long,” recalled Gaylord. “It was painted white, with red paint round the gunwales and on the seat. Sitting in the bow was an old fisherman ... In the stern sat General Giraud – 6 feet odd, dressed in civilian 54

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clothes and wearing a grey fedora. His gloved hands were folded over a walking stick and a rain-coat was thrown over his shoulders like a cloak. It was the first time I had ever seen him and he looked like an old-time monarch visiting his fleet.” As the boat hit the submarine, Giraud stood up, put one foot on the gunwale of the fishing boat and made a great leap as the two vessels bounced away from each other. Giraud missed Seraph’s deck and went down between the fishing boat and the submarine. Luckily he landed on the submarine’s ballast tanks just below the surface and he was quickly hauled onto the deck, followed by the rest of his group. With the general safely onboard, the pantomime began. Seemingly unconcerned at his fall, Giraud shook hands formally with Captain Wright who, with Gaylord interpreting, welcomed him aboard the USS Seraph! “The transfer had been made swiftly and silently,” Jewell later wrote. “The smack seemed to drift away from us to vanish mysteriously into the blackness of storm and night … The party of men on the casings lost no time coming aft, heading for the tower.” This was where Jewell had

waited as the events unfolded, and from where he gave his orders, softly so as not to be heard by Giraud, for Seraph to turn about and head out to sea – for too long the submarine had loitered in hostile, shallow waters. Having climbed up the conning tower, Giraud reached Jewell on Seraph’s small bridge. It was then that the carefully planned deception nearly unravelled. “As he reached my side,” recalled Jewell, “I saluted and from pure force of habit murmured: ‘Welcome aboard, sir.” The fact that the submarine’s real captain had spoken in his best English and momentarily forgotten his role as a junior officer in the American Navy was “greeted by a dirty look from Wright and a chuckle from Gaylord”. Giraud simply gave Jewell a quick smile and said “Merci, m’sier”. The moment of danger had passed. Though Wright was nominally in

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command, he did not know the finer details of operating a British submarine and Jewell had to give all the necessary orders. In the spirit of things the British crew affected American accents, often imitating what they had seen in films. Eager to play his part when everyone had gathered below in the wardroom,

one of the Commandos, Captain Godfrey Courtney, turned to Captain André Beaufré, who was the French General’s Chief of Staff. “Say Captain,” drawled Courtney in his best American accent,” you people must be goddam tired. I reckon you should save the gabbin’ till tomorrow, hit the hay right now and grab

yourselves a right useful slice of shuteye.”2 As the French officer’s eyebrows shot up in amazement – Beaufré, with a British wife, spoke perfect English – Gaylord quickly intervened to present the suggestion more suitably to the General. As Seraph set course for Gibraltar, ABOVE: HMS Seraph alongside at Fort Blockhouse on 24 December 1943. On the bridge, left to right, are: Lieutenant F.G. Harris, RNVR, of Sale, Cheshire; Lieutenant N.L.A. Jewell, of Pinner, Middlesex, the Commanding Officer; Warrant Engineer M.M. Stevenson, DSC, RN, of Glasgow, the Engineer Officer; and Lieutenant W.D. Scott, RN, the First Lieutenant. Note the 20mm anti-aircraft gun aft of the conning tower. The “Ferdinand the Bull” artwork painted on the bridge “signified instructions not to be belligerent whilst engaged on special duties” – this did not prevent Jewell making twelve torpedo and gun attacks. (Royal Navy Submarine Museum) BELOW: A wartime press photograph of the two captains of HMS Seraph during Operation Kingpin – for which the submarine was duly dubbed by the newspapers as “The Ship With Two Captains”. On the left is Jerauld Wright, United States Navy, with “Bill” Jewell, Royal Navy, on the right. Wright would later note that “Seraph’s exploits set her apart”. (Courtesy of Robert Martin)

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ABOVE: One of HMS Seraph’s forward torpedo loading hatches on display at The Citadel. (Courtesy of Russ Pace) RIGHT: The head of HMS Seraph’s search

(navigation) periscope – one of the many exhibits that can be seen at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport.

BELOW: The end is nigh for “The Secret Mission Submarine” – HMS Seraph is pictured at a breaker’s yard at Briton Ferry on the River Neath after her decommissioning in October 1962. (Royal Navy Submarine Museum) Jewell had time to consider how Operation Kingpin had gone. “The whole performance had gone off exactly as I had foreseen,” he noted. “When the General directed his remarks to any single person, he chose Captain Wright as his target, a sure indication to us that our little ‘American plan’, as we had come to call it, was succeeding perfectly.”3 In due course, however, Wright revealed the deception to Général Giraud, pointing out that he was in fact on a British submarine and that Wright himself was a member of Eisenhower’s staff. “Giraud,” noted the historian Terence Robertson, “seemed unaffected by the disclosure”.4 * Operation Torch was due to begin on 8 November. Seraph could not possibly get to Gibraltar until the 10th. The only

way that Giraud could reach North Africa was by aircraft. It had been planned that a Catalina would meet Seraph but the submarine suffered a wireless transmitter failure and was unable to contact Gibraltar. Lieutenant Jewell decided to take the risk of travelling during daylight on the surface. It was the only chance they had of being spotted by the Catalina. It also meant that it might be seen by enemy aircraft. Luck was on Jewell’s side and at 08.50 hours on the 7th, the Catalina located Seraph. The flying-boat landed close to the submarine and the Folbots were unpacked once again. Giraud and his party were on the fore deck when a shout from a look-out interrupted the farewells: “Aircraft dead astern coming this way. Elevation 10 degrees, distance about 8,000 yards.” The aircraft was coming in low and fast. “Look like Ju.88, sir,” added the lookout. Jewell responded immediately. The decks were cleared; the Frenchmen, Giraud included, were literally thrown down the conning tower hatch by the British crew. It was only at the last minute, as Jewell himself was halfway through the hatch, that he identified the aircraft as an Allied Hudson. Alarm over, Général Giraud was transferred without further mishap and he reached Gibraltar later that day, just a few hours before the invasion of North Africa began. There was, however, a problem. Giraud, furious at the deception which had been played upon him, and even angrier that he was not being given command of Operation Torch, refused to co-operate with the Allies, declaring that if he took a lesser role “his honour would be tarnished”. Everything that Lieutenant Jewell, his

crew, the Commandos and the American generals had done over the previous days, all of which added to HMS Seraph’s unofficial title of “the secret mission submarine”, seemed to have been entirely in vain. The next day, however, the stubborn French general, seeing that if he did not agree to join the Allies he would be completely side-lined, relented. Operation Torch was a relative success. The French in Algiers, under Mast, handed over the city to the Allies. It was a different matter, however, in Casablanca and Oran, where the French resisted and when the pompous Giraud tried to take over command of the French forces he was ignored. It was in fact Admiral Darlan who was accepted by the French as their leader and when, on 10 November 1942, he ordered the French troops to lay down their arms, they obeyed. ■

NOTES:

1. Terence Robertson, The Ship with Two Captains (Evans Brothers, London, 1957), pp.40. 2. Ibid, p.83. 3. N.L.A. Jewell, Secret Mission Submarine (ZiffDavis, New York, 1944), p.68-9. 4. Terence Robertson, Ibid, p.83.

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British Troops Advance Across the Falklands, 1982 The British operation to retake the Falkland Islands following the Argentine invasion of March 1982 was a desperate gamble. The hastily-assembled British task force had to undertake an amphibious landing in rough seas thousands of miles from home against an enemy who could call on air support from bases only a few hundred miles away. Faced with such opposition, the task force came within an ace of disaster. Many ships were lost to Argentine air attack, both from aircraft and deadly Exocet missiles. The tally could have been far worse had not many Argentine bombs failed to explode. When a number of helicopters were lost with the sinking of transport ship SS Atlantic Conveyor, Royal Marine Commandos and troops of the Parachute Regiment were forced to undertake a gruelling a forty mile march to the capital town, Port Stanley. This trek was conducted in bitter winter weather across difficult terrain that included boggy moorland and rocky hills, with the troops

(Image: NAM 2004-12-35-13, Neg. 107634)

KEY MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ARMY: 9

YOMPING!

carrying packs that weighed up to 119lbs. This feat of endurance caught the public mood in Britain, encapsulating British grit in the face of adversity, and “yomping”, the Royal Marines’ slang term for marching, entered the English lexicon. The conflict climaxed with a series of vicious night battles against Argentine positions in the mountains surrounding Port Stanley. In this photograph, Royal Marines of 42 Commando can be seen advancing in the area around Mount Kent, across the rocky terrain that was typical of the Falklands. While the men of this unit had been flown into position by helicopter and so had been spared the worst of the marching across the island, they still undertook a bold flanking manoeuvre to unleash a surprise attack against the Argentine defenders of Mount Harriet that ended in complete success. NEXT MONTH: Battle for Helmand – British troops in action in Afghanistan, 2006

www.nam.ac.uk

Each month, through a series of ten iconic images from its archives, the National Army Museum’s Justin Saddington documents key moments in the history of the British Army since 1914, presented in order of historical importance.

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THE WAR AT SEA

J

ames Hamilton-Smith was born in Wolsingham, County Durham on 21 February 1907. He joined the Merchant Marine in the early 1920s and served his apprenticeship as a 16-yearold aboard SS Eastmoor in 1923. By the time he was 19-years-old, James had passed a variety of seafaring and navigation exams and was appointed as Third Officer aboard the 2,733 ton freighter SS Bloomfield. He subsequently

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served as Third Officer aboard a number of different merchant vessels until he left SS Lumina at North Shields on 28 September 1930, to remain ashore in his native North-East. Ten years would pass before, in July 1940, James Hamilton-Smith decided to go to sea once again. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Britain’s Merchant Fleet had been the largest in the world. Even so, by the summer of 1940 the pressure of maintaining the vital supply of raw materials and foodstuffs in the face of German aggression, particularly from the Kriegsmarine’s U-boats, was taking its toll. One of the solutions was the creation of a Merchant Navy Reserve Pool of Labour, the primary intention of which was to reduce delays in ships sailing. As this offered seamen continuous, instead of casual, employment, it may have been this that tempted James to volunteer for the Merchant Navy Reserve.

At least 32,000 Merchant Navy personnel were killed or died during the war at sea between 1939 and 1945. One of those who survived was James Hamilton-Smith who, having served in the Merchant Navy in the 1920s, re-joined in July 1940. A series of notebooks and diaries he maintained, presented here by his grandson David Mitchell, reveal a little of the rudimentary training that British seamen were given, as well as a small part of the battle to beat the German U-boats. To aid in anti-submarine operations, officers and crew were given rudimentary information or training regarding the appearance and operational characteristics of German and Italian submarines, together with basic drills to be carried out when the enemy was spotted, either on the surface, or at periscope depth. As part of this, James kept a pocket notebook and drew ink MAIN PICTURE BELOW: An Allied convoy pictured having formed up ready to cross the Atlantic. Most of the ships that sailed in the ON series of convoys were in ballast, although some carried coal or other export goods. A total of 14,864 ships sailed in 307 ON convoys, including SS Rosewood which sailed with ON.54 in early 1942. (HMP) LEFT: James Hamilton-Smith pictured

during his service in the Merchant Navy. (All images courtesy of David Mitchell unless stated otherwise)

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silhouettes of the various German and Italian submarine classes known to the Allies at that time, and made notes of the aforementioned drills. The U-boats were broken down by tonnage, size and the roles they were thought to be designed for. “Types of German submarines,” he wrote, were: “a. Coastal and Training type, 250 tons; b. Home Operational type, 500 + 517 tons, c. Overseas ocean type, 712 + 740 tons, d. Large minelaying type, 1060 tons.” The notebook contains information regarding appearance and means of disguise, radius of action, cruising speeds, running submerged, dive depths, and maximum range when submerged. It also details methods employed by U-boats when attacking shipping, both day and night, and covers surface and submerged attacks, torpedoes (range and speed), turning circles (submerged), periscope profiles and behaviour after attacking. In one two-page section, James detailed an anti-U-boat drill – or, more specifically, the “action to be taken when U-boat is sighted; steamer not in convoy”. It illustrates just how ordinary merchant crews were prepared to deal with a U-boat if they found themselves isolated and attacked by one. Initially, the seamen were told to alter course and increase to full speed, man the ship’s gun and any available machineguns, send “the special signal”, and, lastly, see that the smoke floats are ready for use. “If periscope is at close range and

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ABOVE LEFT and ABOVE: Two shots of a young James Hamilton-Smith as an apprentice on SS Eastmoor. ABOVE RIGHT: The notebook in which

James Hamilton-Smith made notes of Axis submarines and the various drills that Allied merchant ships were to carry out if encountering a U-boat.

MAIN PICTURE BELOW: Another transAtlantic convoy, pictured this time from the air. before the beam, steer to ram,” the advice continued. “The U-boat will probably increase speed to 5 or 6 knots and attempt to dive deep. Your action will at least have the affect [sic] of spoiling her attack. “Rouse the gun’s crew and pass down the bearing of the periscope. A few shots from a Lewis gun at the last sighted position would assist. Point of aim should be ahead of the periscope; a near miss might damage the glass and would ‘fluster’ the attacker. If at close range, fire the Lewis gun. “Pass the word at once to the wireless operator to send the special signal. If this is received it may save your own and other ships. “Prepare your smoke floats. If the U-boat fails with her torpedoes she may surface and attack with her gun. If she can outrange your ship and has a higher speed the smoke may prove a valuable protection, particularly in a head wind or light stern breeze. “If a U-boat is sighted on surface

at long range or well abaft the beam, turn stern on and proceed at full speed. Should you suddenly meet a surfaced U-boat at close range and before the beam, for instance at night or in a fog, turn to ram at full speed steering well ahead to allow for her advance. Fire with your Lewis gun at her bridge and gun position if within 1000 yds. If it is obvious that you cannot ram, turn to bring your gun to bear.” Suitably trained, James HamiltonSmith soon found himself back at sea. His first ship was SS Anglo African which he joined as Third Officer on 30 July 1940. He remained part of Anglo African’s crew until 1 September 1941, during which time it had sailed in a variety of convoys to and from Bermuda, Halifax, Aden, Suez, and Sydney. On 2 October 1941, James joined the 1,530 ton SS Sherwood, though this time as Second Officer. He remained with this ship, which plied the Home Trade, for three weeks, leaving on 23 October 1941. The following day James signed on with the crew of SS Chatwood, returning to the rank of Third Officer, as the ship undertook Coastal Trade until 12 November 1941 when he left her at Blyth. On 11 December 1941, he joined the 3,548 ton MS Rosewood at Leith and served under the ship’s master, Captain Robert Taylor, as Third Officer until 5 May 1942. According to James’ diary, on 28 December 1941, Rosewood sailed from Leith en route to Methil Roads. Here she

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ABOVE: James Hamilton-Smith, seen here third from the left, pictured with a group of shipmates. FAR LEFT: James Hamilton-Smith

drawings of various German submarines.

LEFT: When referring to Italian

submarines in his notes, James HamiltonSmith does not give a favourable impression of their crews. “Unfortunately for the Italians,” he wrote, “the personnel of their U-boat service are not likely to show the resource of their opposite numbers from Germany”.

was formed up into an escorted convoy for the onward journey to Loch Ewe, where she arrived on 1 January 1942. There the crew anchored to await the sailing time for the next stage of their journey. Five days later, on 6 January 1942, Rosewood sailed for the Dutch dependency of Curaçao in the Caribbean. The crossing of the Atlantic was to be made as part of Convoy ON.54, comprising thirty-eight merchant ships including vessels that had sailed from Liverpool. The “ON” code letters indicated a UK to North America bound convoy that sailed between 1941 and

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1945 on the North Atlantic route; this series ran alternately fast and slow but fast only from 1943. James Hamilton-Smith’s diary entries suggest that for the first three days the convoy proceeded relatively peacefully. Then, on the 9th, he wrote that there was “bad weather in the offing”. The following day he noted that his prediction had been correct: “Fierce squalls and mountainous seas. Whole gale.” For nearly two days the convoy battled on, the various ships and their escorts desperately trying to maintain station. However, the weather was so bad that by Monday, 12 January, James was forced

to note that the convoy had been broken up by the gale. The only positive effect of the bad weather was that it was seemingly keeping the German U-boats at bay – at least for Convoy ON.54. Other vessels at sea elsewhere were not so lucky, as James’ notes of radio messages received by Rosewood’s radio room testify. On the 13th, for example, it was noted that an “unknown British steamer [was] foundering in gale”. The next day the 4,113 ton British steamer SS Dayrose, which was en route to Halifax, reported that it had been torpedoed. The offending U-boat was U-552, the cargo ship being sunk near Cape Race. Also on the 14th James recorded that two US Revenue Cutters had been torpedoed off Rhode Island near Nantucket Light. For its part, the gale that had hit ON.54 continued to rage. Hamilton-Smith’s entries for 15 January inform us that during the day Rosewood located three vessels, all tankers, from the convoy, along with a single escorting corvette. Having been “appointed

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ABOVE: Despite the urgency of war, the Merchant Navy continued operating much as it had done in peacetime – as this letter of reference, written by the captain of SS Anglo African, testifies. ABOVE RIGHT: Some of the diary entries

written by James Hamilton-Smith during his time on SS Rosewood and the passage of Convoy ON.54 across the Atlantic.

BELOW LEFT: A shore pass issued to James Hamilton-Smith whilst Rosewood was docked at Curaçao after ON.54. BELOW RIGHT: The Board of Trade Continuous Certificate of Discharge issued to James Hamilton-Smith. This document contains personal information and a record of each voyage undertaken by the recipient. The certificate also acted as both a passport and a reference. The captain of a ship would record the name of the ship, the dates of the voyage and the ability and conduct of the seaman on that voyage. guide of convoy,” Rosewood hove to, to ride out the storm. Also on this day James wrote that a “US oil tanker [had been] torpedoed off Nantucket” – this is believed to have been Coimbra which, en route from New York to the UK, was sunk by U-123. Overnight the gale increased in strength, so much so that during the 16th the small group of ships of which Rosewood was part “became separated

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again”. The coded instruction “Proceed Independently” was then issued to the ships of ON.54. Rosewood duly steamed on for her destination alone. As Captain Robert Taylor sought to put as much distance between his ship and the U-boat’s traditional hunting grounds as possible, news of other disasters on the high seas continued to be received by his crew – many of which continued to be recorded by Hamilton-Smith in his diary. On the 19th, SS Malay reported that it was being shelled by a submarine off the North Carolina coast (near the Wimble Shoal Buoy); Milo had suffered such serious damage in the gale that it was sinking; Mobelsa had run aground and required assistance; an un-named oiltanker had been torpedoed and declared itself helpless; another oil-tanker was storm-damaged; and Laristan had run aground. Over the next two days, the storm continued and the distress calls kept being made. On 22 January 1942, Hamilton-Smith noted that SS Athelcrown had been torpedoed. En route from Cardiff to the Caribbean, the 11,999 ton tanker had strayed into the path of U-82 south-east of Newfoundland. Of note here is the fact that some of the survivors spent the period from 30 January to 7 February 1942 on the wreck of the tanker Diala before being rescued. Meanwhile, wrote James, the “weather [was] slowly moderating”. This improvement may also have given the U-boats

the opportunity they needed to locate at least one vessel from ON.54 – in this case the unlucky victim was the Belgian Gandia. At 22.21 hours on the evening of the 22nd, Gandia was hit on the stern by one of two torpedoes fired by U-135, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Frederich-Hermann Praetorious, about 420 miles east of Cape Race. The Captain, Master Maurice Potié, sixtyeight crew members (of whom sixty-two were Belgian) and ten gunners tried to abandon ship in four lifeboats, but two of them were destroyed by rough seas while the remaining boats were only partially filled. Most of the crew drowned when their ship sank, including Potié. Ten survivors in one of the boats were picked up by USS Bernadou on 5 February and eventually landed at Reykjavik. Four survivors in a second boat were found by the Portuguese motor trawler João Corte Real and landed at Oporto on 26 February. Gandia was the only loss from ON.54. At about the same time that U-135 returned to its base at Saint-Nazaire at the beginning of February 1942, Rosewood had also docked at Curaçao. The return journey back to the UK was safely achieved, and appears to have been James Hamilton-Smith’s last voyage as a member of the Merchant Navy. On 27 May 1942, he was discharged from the Merchant Navy Reserve as being “physically unfit for further service”, the result, it is thought, of deteriorating eyesight. The notebooks and diaries he had maintained during the previous two years have survived to provide a small but fascinating insight into the Battle of the Atlantic between 1939 and 1945. ■

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AVRO ANSON GUNSHIPS

(Main image courtesy of Ronald Dueñas)

Originally designed as a passenger aircraft in 1933 before being redesigned for military reconnaissance, by the outbreak of war in 1939 the Avro Anson was obsolete, slow and inadequately armed in comparison with the latest machines. This, of course, was not a problem as the Anson was a reconnaissance aircraft; it was not built for aerial combat. That was, writes Robin J. Brooks, before 500 Squadron got its hands on them.

I

t was early in 1939 that 500 (County of Kent) Squadron, part of the Auxiliary Air Force, exchanged its single-engine Hawker Hinds for Avro Anson Mk.Is. Powered by two Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah radial engines and fitted with fixed pitch propellers, the Anson had a capacity for carrying a 360lb bomb load and was armed with one fixed .303-inch Browning machine-gun firing forward and a Vickers K machine-gun in the dorsal turret. Following the squadron’s conversion to the Anson it revealed its aircraft at the last Empire Air Day held on Saturday, 20 May 1939. August saw the squadron at RAF Detling and, with the prospect of war becoming ever more likely, all the auxiliary squadrons were embodied into the RAF and placed on active service. On Sunday, 3 September 1939, the men and women of the squadron heard the Prime Minister state that the country was at war with Germany. Thirty minutes after the broadcast two Ansons took off to patrol the immediate area. Just two days later the squadron carried out its first attack when a pair of its Ansons was undertaking a Channel patrol. As one of the two aircraft dropped down below the cloud, a member of its crew, Flying Officer Keppel, spotted a German U-boat, apparently stationary, on the surface. Keppel quickly called out to the pilot, Squadron Leader Crockart, at which point the Anson dived and dropped its bombs in the vicinity of the vessel. By the time the captain had turned round for a machine-gun attack, the submarine was fast submerging. Flying Officer Green, the captain of the second Anson, began to position for a run-in but it was too late. No further sight of the U-boat was observed. November saw 500 Squadron maintain a routine of photographing shipping, bombing enemy harbours and undertake drifting mine spotting off the South Coast. At the same time, the enemy became curious about the activities of the Ansons seen over the Channel and

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occasionally came within the range of the guns. One advantage with the Anson with its slow speed was that the enemy fighters often underestimated just how slow it was and shot past, allowing the gunner to get in some shots; rarely though did these hit the enemy. The winter of 1939/40 was one of the worst in living memory with snow and ice covering most of the country. Squadron Leader W. LeMay arrived to command the squadron at a time when his command had the additional task of escorting leave boats from France. The squadron gunnery officer at this time was Flying Officer Harold Jones. For some time Flying Officer Jones had been concerned with the ineffectiveness of the Anson in combat and was determined to do something about it.

ABOVE RIGHT:

Personnel from 500 Squadron, both aircrew and ground crew, pictured outside the No.1 hangar at RAF Detling during 1939. On 7 November 1938, the squadron was transferred to Coastal Command, the first Ansons being received the following March. Shortly before the outbreak of war, 500 Squadron was mobilised and began flying patrols over the Channel and the North Sea. (All images courtesy of the author unless stated otherwise)

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An example of the limited defensive armament can be understood from a combat report of Anson MK-B on 15 May 1940: “When making a square search for minesweepers, to become aerial escort, attacked … at 07.35 hours, by Heinkel He.111k while flying at 600 feet above MK-B. E.A. attempted to get into position directly above MK-B so as to release bombs. “As MK-B dived to sea level, E.A., released several bombs. These fell about 50 yards behind MK-B. E.A. then dived behind MK-B carrying out front gun attack. As E.A. came alongside, it turned away to the left and

climbed steeply, thus giving his rear gunner a target. Rear gunner of MK-B then released 50-60 rounds. E.A. then carried out a second attack by diving and using front gun, and repeating the climbing turn. While in this position rear gunner of MK-B got in a broadside attack, this time releasing another 50-60 rounds. It is thought that E.A. was hit as he made off at top speed.” It was clear that the Anson needed considerably more firepower. So, after obtaining the permission of his new CO, Flying Officer Jones got the squadron’s armourers to mount two additional .303inch machine-guns in the Ansons, both of which were to fire from the windows along the fuselage. This extra fire-power was further supplemented at a later date, as will be seen, by the fixing of a cannon to fire through the fuselage floor. Several of the Anson crews took part in Operation Dynamo. Having taken off from Detling at 17.31 hours on 25 May 1940, Anson MK-U (N9731), in company with two others, carried out a dive bombing

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AVRO ANSON GUNSHIPS

ABOVE: The crew of Sergeant Lucien Colarossi (seen here on the far right) prepare to board their 500 Squadron Anson at RAF Detling. It is believed that Colarossi was killed on 4 April 1942, having been promoted to Warrant Officer and posted to 413 Squadron RCAF, in the Far East. Commemorated on the Singapore Memorial, he left behind a widow, Norah May Colarossi, in Maidstone, Kent. ABOVE RIGHT: Sergeant William Shier

pictured in front of a 500 Squadron Anson. Shier was killed on the night of 10/11 July 1940, when the Anson flown by Sergeant James Wilson crashed whilst taking-off from Detling. Shier and Sergeant Leo O’Kelly were buried at Detling’s St Martin’s Church, whilst Sergeant Wilson’s body was taken back to his home town of Ayr and that of Sergeant Horace Worton to Enfield.

MAIN PICTURE BELOW: A 500 Squadron Avro Anson pictured in the skies over Kent. attack on a pair of enemy torpedo boats at 19.12 hours. Having failed to sink the Kriegsmarine vessels, the Ansons launched a machine-gun attack during which MK-U was hit in the port engine. Height could not be maintained and this prompted Pilot Officer Grisenthwaite to ditch his aircraft fifteen miles off Texel,

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Holland. After taking to the dinghy, he and his crew were safely picked up by the destroyer HMS Javelin and returned to Dover. Not so lucky was the crew of Anson MK-L (N5227) which all perished at sea on 29 May 1940. Flown by Pilot Officer I.S. Wheelwright, the Anson was last seen on the surface off the Dutch coast. All four on board were lost. A couple of days later the crew of Anson MK-N (N5065) had a lucky escape as the navigator, Flight Lieutenant Richard Rodgers, recalled: “Dunkirk had fallen toward the end of the month and we were covering the evacuation. Several times we managed to avoid being shot down and got back home, but on the 30th we were attacked by a number of enemy fighters at low level. The fuel tanks caught fire and we were pounded with bullets. Sergeant Jack Hoskins, the pilot, pancaked the aircraft onto the sea during which I was thrown forward on impact and broke my left collar-bone and left shoulder. “We came down in the sea about seven miles off the coast at 18.20 hours. The

sun was shining and the sea was calm. Sergeant Hoskins, under heavy attack, skillfully bought the aircraft down not far from one of the many small ships that were bringing home the soldiers from the beaches. We were fortunate to be picked up by a tug which was already full with troops. “Watching the old Anson slowly slip beneath the waves, I realised I was in considerable pain and also suffering from shock. A kindly Petty Officer strapped up my shoulder and gave me some rum to drink. During the night we were transferred to a paddle steamer, The Royal Daffodil, and the following morning we arrived at Ramsgate. From there I was taken to Farnborough hospital where I remained for six and a half weeks. I had completed 35 operational patrols during the month. I later learnt that my W/T SOS had been received by the powerful receivers at Manston and I was extremely pleased to hear this as when

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one is transmitting under attack, it is difficult to concentrate.” The month of May ended with both tragedy and gallantry. On the night of 30/31 May 1940, several Ansons had taken off to bomb enemy-held harbours in France. Anson MK-W (R3389) failed to release its bombs and turned back for Detling. As the weather had closed in from the start, the crew looked desperately for a break in the cloud to denote just where they were. Crossing the South Coast one of the Anson’s engines began to splutter and it became doubtful whether or not they would make Detling. However, with a break in the cloud, the crew saw they were just crossing the Thames estuary and a few miles from touchdown. Approaching on the final run-in, the stalled engine suddenly burst into flame at the same time as the other spluttered through lack of fuel. Warning the crew, Pilot Officer David Bond

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dropped the Anson down on to the grass just as the fire from the engine began to spread. With a rending of metal the undercarriage collapsed and the aircraft slid on its belly along the wet grass, by now almost totally enveloped in flames. To Corporal Daphne Joan Pearson, lying on her bunk in the WAAF quarters, it was not unusual to hear the Ansons splutter a bit when returning from a raid. On this particular night however, she heard and saw something that was terrifying and ominous. Serving in the Medical Section, Pearson quickly pulled on her clothes and Wellington boots, seized her tin hat and ran out of the building towards the aircraft. A huge glow indicated the scene of the disaster as she scrambled over a hedge, fell down an incline and over a slight bank until she arrived at the burning wreckage. There she saw two men staggering around in a dazed condition. “There are

ABOVE LEFT: Sergeant Leo O’Kelly pictured inside one of 500 Squadron’s Ansons. Aged just 20 at the time of his death, Kelly was Sergeant Wilson’s Wireless Operator/Air Gunner.

ABOVE: One of the many incidents involving Avro Ansons during 500 Squadron’s time at RAF Detling. two still in the aircraft” one shouted as they made their way to the newly arrived ambulance. Too shaken to attempt to get the two airmen still in the Anson out themselves, they barely noticed the slim form of Daphne run past them towards the stricken aircraft. There Pearson saw that the two pilots were still strapped in their seats.

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ABOVE: Another view of a 500 Squadron

Anson whilst airborne over Kent.

BELOW LEFT: One of 500 Squadron’s Avro Ansons after a “bad landing”. The sign carries the warning “Caution loaded with bombs!” BELOW RIGHT: A view of RAF Detling taken from an altitude of 2,000 feet during October 1942 – by which time 500 Squadron had departed. Close inspection of this image reveals damage to hangars and dispersal sites, along with the presence of trench shelters. Having established that the co-pilot was already dead, she released the other man from his harness and dragged him clear of the burning fuselage. Regaining consciousness for a moment, Pilot Officer Bond murmured something about the bombs still on board. Daphne then realised that at any moment the Anson would explode. With all her strength, she pulled Bond away from the aircraft and up the nearby ridge that she had previously fallen over. Laying him on the ground on the far side she removed her tin hat, placed it upon his and covered him with her body. He pointed to his face where she saw blood and a tooth protruding from a large gash. She reassured him about his face and was about to pull the tooth out when the Anson blew up in a tremendous explosion. But for the ridge protecting them from the splinters of metal and the shock wave, they would both have perished. So great was the blast that several helpers rushing to assist were

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blown over. Only when she was satisfied that she could do nothing more did Daphne leave the scene of carnage. Completely unawed by her heroic deed, she wrote to her mother in Cornwall stating that she had been involved ‘in a little something”. “My name has been sent to the King,” she added, “but I hope nothing will be done about it. When I read of the things our boys did at Dunkirk and what our crews are doing here my little bit is nothing at all.” The authorities, however, had different thoughts on the courage of this brave WAAF and Daphne Pearson was awarded the George Cross. Throughout the hectic month of May 1940, 500 Squadron had clocked up 1,286 flying hours. This frantic period of activity looked set to continue; indeed, 1 June 1940 dawned in a dramatic fashion. That morning Pilot Officer “Pete” Peters was ordered to lead a section of three Ansons to Dunkirk with instructions to patrol the evacuation beaches. At about 10.40 hours, whilst flying at fifty feet above the sea near Ostend, his copilot, Sergeant D. Spencer, spotted a gaggle of nine Messerschmitt Bf 109s diving down to attack. Seeing the other two Ansons take the brunt of the attack, Peters ordered them to return to Detling whilst he dropped even lower in order for the attacking fighters to overtake him. As Spencer and LAC Pepper moved to man the extra machine-guns that were fitted to fire through the windows of the “greenhouse”

cabin, Peters throttled back. The subsequent combat report describes what followed: “Anson was attacked by 3 Me 109s, one coming [from] astern and two from two points on the starboard quarter. “Anson took violent avoiding action and successfully turned and twisted, not presenting a steady target at any time to the enemy aircraft. During the engagement the Pilot and Air Gunner accounted for two ME. 109s, it has definitely been established that they dived into the sea and sank. Two other ME. 109s received heavy bursts of machine gun fire and must have been seriously disabled. These bursts were from the front and amidships guns of the Anson. Tracer bullets were seen to enter both ME. 109s. “The engagement continued for about 15/20 miles out to sea, when the enemy aircraft made a last concerted attack with no effect.” A third aircraft swiftly left the area having seen what happened to his comrades. A jubilant crew headed back to Detling where news of the affray had already become known. When the ground crew inspected the Anson a bullet hole was found going through the front cabin but no bullet was found. Sometime later when Pilot Officer Peters was having his parachute re-packed, the bullet was found embedded in the silk. The incident led to the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross to Pilot Officer Peters, whilst Distinguished Flying Medals were

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AVRO ANSON GUNSHIPS

awarded to Sergeant Spencer, the newlypromoted Corporal Smith and LAC Cunningham. Another loss for 500 Squadron came during the night of 13/14 June 1940, when Anson MK-M (N5225) and its crew failed to return from a convoy escort duty. A similar loss occurred on 28 June when MK-E (N5226) also failed to return from escorting another convoy. The one bright incident was when Sergeant Prentice, the gunner in MK-N, shot a Bf 109 down into the Channel during an escort patrol. July 1940 was to prove equally costly. On the night of 10/11 July three aircraft were detailed for a night time Dundee patrol – this being the codename for patrols of the enemy coast between Dunkirk and Dieppe. The weather was at its worst and although doubt had been expressed as to the suitability of the conditions for flying, two Ansons took off successfully. Disaster then struck when the third, MK-F (N5228), lost control as it lifted off from the wet grass. The aircraft crashed into Civily Woods about half a mile from the airfield. All on board were killed. With the appalling weather, their bodies were not found until the next morning although a search party led by Squadron Leader C.D. Pain found the charred remains of the aircraft that night. “With regard to Sergeant Wilson’s crash in MK-F, I remember the occasion very well as I was the Orderly Officer that night,” he later recalled. “The woods

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in the area of the crash were covered in fuel which kept igniting. The bombs had exploded on impact and we could find no recognisable parts of the Anson and certainly not the crew. Realising we could do no more due to the weather, we returned to base and at first light, when the weather had improved, returned to the scene of the accident. We found the remains of the crew with two of them in a kneeling position amongst the scorched trees and grass. It was a dreadful sight and one I shall always remember”. That same night Anson MK-D (N5220), on a North Sea patrol, crashed at 23.30 hours south-west of Den Brielle in Holland after being attacked by Heinkel He 111s. Flying Officer A.W. Whitehead, Pilot Officer A.R. Mathias and AC1 W.C. Hubbard perished in the crash, whilst Sergeant H.J. Smith survived and became a PoW. Late July saw several enemy aircraft fall to the extra guns of the Ansons. At around this time some of the mountings that the guns were placed upon were beginning to work loose with the constant vibration and recoil. A local Maidstone company, Tilling-Stevens Ltd, manufactured a more substantial mounting and presented several to the squadron. With Channel patrols and convoy protection continuing, the blackest day in the history of Detling airfield was about to dawn. The station diarist recorded the

ABOVE LEFT: Evidence of an Anson’s success

in combat – a poor quality image of the Heinkel He 111 that was shot down into the English Channel by Squadron Leader C.D. Pain on 12 July 1940.

ABOVE: Some of the personnel of 500 Squadron’s ‘A’ Flight pictured at Detling during 1939. BELOW: A funeral service for some of the victims of the devastating Luftwaffe raid of Tuesday, 13 August 1940. One WAAF stationed at Detling later gave this account of the attack: “I looked out of my bedroom window at about four in the afternoon and saw a soldier running. We take very little notice of the noise of planes for they are about continuously, but to see a soldier run is unusual. Looking out further I saw more soldiers running and realised there was a raid right on us - we had had no warning. I dashed down into our dug-out only just in time. The noise was terrific, and I was deaf for two days afterwards. When I came out I shall never forget the sights which met my eyes.” Two WAAFs received the Military Medal for remaining at their posts throughout the attack. following of Tuesday, 13 August 1940: “Grouse shooting began yesterday. Detling shooting began today”. The station had been relatively quiet all day. Several air raid warnings were issued with colour codings but none lasted long. That was until 15.53 hours when it turned red. Minutes later a force of Junkers Ju 87s appeared over the airfield and began to drop bombs. The attackers, from Luftflotte II, were led by Hauptmann von

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AVRO ANSON GUNSHIPS

ABOVE: In this picture of a 500 Squadron Anson over Kent the censor has taken the step of covering over the aircraft’s serial numbers. In April 1941 the squadron began converting to Bristol Blenheims, these also being used for reconnaissance, shipping patrols and escorts, and bombing raids on enemy coastal targets. In November 1941 the first Hudsons were received and in March 1942 the squadron moved to Scotland for patrols over the Atlantic and the approaches to the Clyde and the Irish Sea. RIGHT: The RAF Detling memorial in Detling village.

BELOW: An aerial shot of Detling airfield in 1946, at which point it was in use as the base of the Home Command Gliding Centre. Brauchitsch. Diving down from the cloud, the Stukas achieved the measure of surprise they needed. Although the Observer Corps had tracked the enemy aircraft since they had crossed the coast, the local post had tried in vain to call Detling to warn them that a raid was imminent but, due to the fact that the airfield only had two telephone lines and at that precise time both were engaged, they were unable to do so. Many of the base’s personnel were taking tea when the first bombs fell. The accuracy of the raid was good with much of the grass landing area becoming full of craters – there were also several direct hits on the hangar which contained some of the Ansons. In the fires that

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followed, many of the aircraft inside were destroyed. A direct hit on the semi-sunk operations room caused this bombproof building to collapse. The Station Commander, Group Captain Edward Davis, a former tennis champion, fell dead with a piece of jagged concrete driven straight through his skull. Casualty Clearing Officer and local undertaker Wallace Beale plus personnel from the local ARP services sped to the airfield. Of the sixty-seven people killed, many needed only the five-foot long coffins reserved for unidentified remains. A further ninety-four were seriously injured and were taken to Preston Hall hospital in Aylesford by a fleet of ambulances. Clearance work went on all through the night and during the next few days but at no time did RAF Detling become non-operational. A mass funeral was held at Maidstone cemetery for the majority of the dead. With operations back to normal at the end of the month, a special mounting was designed and constructed which would enable the Ansons to carry a cannon. Consequently, it is reputed that 500 Squadron became the only squadron in the RAF to fly aircraft fitted with a freemounted cannon that fired through the spars in the floor. It was said that when it was fired rearwards, the recoil added another five knots to the Anson’s speed! Over the next few months several

enemy aircraft were claimed to have fallen to the added fire-power of 500 Squadron’s Ansons. * On 1 April 1943, to mark the twentyfifth anniversary of the formation of the RAF, King George VI instituted Squadron Standards. These fringed and tasselled silken banners, in the centre of which is the squadron badge surrounded by white scrolls inscribed with the required battle honours, are mounted on a pike surmounted by a golden eagle. Though 500 Squadron was to earn six more battle honours, foremost on the standard is “Channel and North Sea – 1939-41”. Hanging high above the nave in All Saints’ Church – the parish church of Maidstone in Kent – this standard is testimony to a squadron that turned an ageing machine into a formidable weapon. ■

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that shaped the WAR

SEVENTY YEARS ON, WE CHART SOME OF THE KEY MOMENTS AND EVENTS THAT AFFECTED BRITAIN IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR 2

2

3

3

The term “radar” was officially adopted by the RAF in preference to the abbreviation “RDF” (standing for Radio Direction Finding) which had previously used to describe this equipment. A team of eight men drawn from No.10 (Inter-Allied) Commando and No.12 Commando carried out Operation Forfar Item. Targeting German defences and troops at Saint-Valery-en-Caux, with the principle aim of undertaking the reconnaissance of a searchlight battery and capturing prisoners, the mission was a partial success, though nearly all of the equipment was lost on the return. The Eighth Army’s XIII Corps, which was composed of British and Canadian units, launched Operation Baytown. General Montgomery’s men crossed the Straits of Messina to land at Reggio di Calabria covered by a heavy artillery barrage from Sicily. The Italian forces in the area offered no resistance. In a ceremony in Valletta’s Main Guard Square the Air Officer Commanding, Sir Keith Park, presented Gloster Sea Gladiator Mk.I N5520, which had become known as Faith, to the people of Malta. The only surviving Gladiator from the Hal Far Fighter Flight, which had defended the island during the early days of the Axis siege, N5520 was in a poor state.

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8

General Eisenhower announced the surrender of Italy to the Allies. General Pietro Badoglio, the man who had assumed power after Mussolini had been deposed, had begun secret negotiations a few weeks earlier. The conditional surrender paved the way for Allied forces to land in southern Italy without being opposed by Italian troops.

10

“Be pleased to inform Their Lordships that the Italian Fleet lies at anchor under the guns of the Fortress of Malta.” It was with these words that Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, the Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, signalled to the Admiralty the surrender of the Italian Navy. Flying black flags of surrender and escorted by ships of the Royal Navy, units of the Italian fleet had anchored off Valetta’s Grand Harbour. More ships headed

BELOW: Following the official Italian surrender, Anglo-American forces landed at Salerno, as part of Operation Avalanche, on Thursday, 9 September 1943. The British involvement consisted of X Corps, which was composed of the British 46th (North Midland) and 56th (London) Divisions and a light infantry force of US Rangers and British Commandoes of Brigadier Laycock’s 2nd Special Service Brigade. In conjunction with this the British 1st Airborne Division made an amphibious landing at Taranto (Operation Slapstick) and then captured the airfield at Foggia. This image shows British soldiers manning a machine-gun on the beach at Salerno while a column of smoke rises from a transport ship in the background. (Imperial War Museum; NA 6720)

for Gibraltar and other Allied ports, removing the naval threat in the Mediterranean.

15

RAF Regiment units were deployed for action by air for the first time. No.2909 Squadron was flown into the Greek island of Kos during British landings there; No.2682 Squadron was flown into Southern Italy.

15

The 12,000lb High Capacity Blockbuster bomb (not to be confused with the 12,000lb Barnes Wallis designed Tallboy) was used for the first time when Lancasters of 617 Squadron made a low-level attack on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. The intention was to use the Blockbusters to break down the embankments of the canal. This raid, and a second on the following night, was a disaster. Five out of eight aircraft were lost, including a number of veterans of the Dambusters raid, and the squadron’s new Commanding Officer, Wing Commander George Holden.

16

The battleship HMS Warspite was severely damaged off the Salerno landing beaches by Fritz-X radio-guided glide bombs dropped by Dornier Do 217s of Kampfgeschwader 100. One of the bombs struck Warspite near her funnel, ripping through her decks and causing significant damage, making a large hole in the bottom of her hull. Although the damage had been considerable, Warspite’s casualties amounted to nine killed

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and fourteen wounded. Warspite had to be towed to Malta for repairs.

16

British forces occupy the islands of Leros and Samos in the Aegean Sea.

16

In what became known as the “Salerno Mutiny”, about 600 men of the British X Corps refused assignment to new units as replacements. The men had previously been advised that they would return to their old units at Sicily, but instead found themselves landed at Salerno. The situation remained unresolved by 20 September, though of the three hundred in the field, 108 decided to follow orders, leaving a hard core of 192. These men were all charged with mutiny under the Army Act, the largest number of men accused at any one time in all of British military history. All were found guilty, and three sergeants were sentenced to death, though the latter sentences were subsequently commuted to hard labour.

21

During a debate in Parliament, the Secretary of State for War, Sir James Grigg, was asked how many enemy aircraft were shot down by the batteries of Anti-Aircraft Command between 3 September 1939, and 31 July 1943, and of this number, how many had been during the Battle of Britain. In reply, Sir James said: “The answer to the first part of the Question is that 739 were certainly shot down. The answer to the second part is 312 if the period referred to is taken to be August and September, 1940.”

22

The German battleship Tirpitz was attacked in Kåfjord in Norway by midget submarines, or X-craft. Six X-craft were assigned to attack Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Scharnhorst, also in Kåfjord. X6 and X7 were able to drop their limpet mines beneath Tirpitz, causing severe damage to the battleship.

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22

The “spoof” raid technique was used by RAF Bomber Command for the first time. This was where a number of aircraft carrying Window (large numbers of aluminium strips which when dumped into the sky generated a cloud of false radar echoes) were despatched to one target whilst the main raid was directed to another. The main target on this night was Hanover whilst the “spoof” target was Oldenburg, the latter being “attacked” by twenty-one Lancasters and eight Mosquitoes of No.8 Group. The losses on the Hanover raid were lower than the recent average, suggesting that the new tactic was a partial success. Also worthy of note is the fact that the attack on Hanover included five USAAF B-17s, the Americans’ first night time raid on Germany.

23

As the Treasury needed to collect more tax from many more people, it was announced that from 1944 onwards Britain’s taxpayers would be included in a new pay-as-youearn plan, trials of which had been successfully completed. It was intended to deal with weekly wageearners, with the burden being upon employers to collect the tax. The man who developed the scheme, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Kingsley Wood, did not live to see it come into effect; he had died suddenly at his London home on the morning of the day on which he was due to announce PAYE in the House of Commons – 21 September 1943.

25

Having sailed on 19 September, advance elements of the US Second

Infantry Division arrived in Northern Ireland, marking the start of what became known as the “second American troop build-up” in the UK. ABOVE: On 12 September 1943, General

Harold Alexander, whose 15th Army Group (comprising Lieutenant General Mark Clark’s US Fifth Army and General Bernard Montgomery’s Eighth Army) provided the invading infantry, reported to London that: “I am not satisfied with the situation at Avalanche. The build-up is slow and they are pinned down to a bridgehead which has not enough depth. Everything is being done to push follow-up units and material to them.” In due course the beachhead was secured and, following German counterattacks, the breakout continued. Here, men of the 2/6th Battalion Queens’ Regiment are pictured advancing past a burning German PzKpfw IV tank in the Salerno area, Wednesday, 22 September 1943. (Imperial War Museum; NA7137)

BELOW: Figures released by the Ministry

of Labour on Wednesday, 1 September 1943, revealed that the British population was more completely mobilized than that of any other country at that stage of the war – far more so than Germany’s. Ministry of Labour figures revealed that there were 22,750,000 men and women in the services, Civil Defence or essential war work such as munitions and service industries. With another million doing voluntary war work, that accounted for over 70% of the 33 million people aged between 16 and 64. One million people over 65 were also in full-time employment. (HMP)

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Sunday, 15 September 1940 saw the climax of the Battle of Britain when the Luftwaffe launched a massive series of attacks against London, flying over 1,000 sorties. Although the RAF claimed to have shot down 183 enemy aircraft, German losses numbered fifty-six bombers and fighters, albeit many enemy machines returned to Occupied Europe badly damaged. Chris Goss tells the story about two German bombers which only just made it back. ABOVE: One of the biggest aerial battles ever seen was fought out in the skies over south east of Britain, and the English Channel, on Sunday, 15 September 1940. This painting, by the aviation artist Mark Postlethwaite GAvA, depicts Hurricanes of 303 (Polish) Squadron in action against Dornier Do 17s on that day. For more information on the painting, and the prints or posters available, please visit: www.posart.com 74

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n Saturday, 14 September 1940, Gruppe I and Gruppe II of Kampfgeschwader 76 (KG 76) had a much needed day off from their assault upon the United Kingdom. This was but a brief respite from their persistent attacks designed to weaken Fighter Command to the point of collapse. The next day, though, was to see the two German bomber groups form part of the mightiest effort conducted by the Luftwaffe throughout the entire course of the Battle of Britain. The first attack of the day manifested itself at about 11.00 hours when fighterbombers of II Gruppe of Lehrgeschwader 2 (II/LG 2) attacked London. Twenty minutes later Dornier Do 17s of KG 76 appeared over the capital’s suburbs but due to the number of Spitfires and Hurricanes sent to intercept them, damage was slight. Feldwebel Rolf Heitsch of 8/KG 76 recalled the events of that day clearly: “The attack height was about 6,000m, our target a factory to the east of London, close to the Thames. On the return flight as the right-hand Kettenhund [a Kette was a three aircraft tactical formation similar to a vic], I was the aircraft the enemy would target. Whilst in a left hand turn, we found ourselves at the rear of the formation and it was then that the fighters attacked.”

The fighters Heitsch refers to were probably those of 609 (West Riding) Squadron. “As the slowest Do 17, they attacked us from behind,” Heitsch continued. “Trying to take evasive action by flying up and down, they hit us with three bursts with the result that we only had 4/5ths power from the engines. The right engine was totally destroyed and the left engine was just idling. We managed to get between two cumulus clouds and had to force-land in a field which sloped uphill and was occupied by cows at their midday rest. When the ’plane came to a halt, we could not get out because the exits had been so badly damaged by gunfire.” It transpired that Heitsch’s Dornier, having been attacked by Flying Officer John Dundas and Pilot Officer Eugene “Red” Tobin of 609 Squadron, had crashed at Castle Farm, Shoreham. Soon the Home Guard arrived and Heitsch found himself a prisoner for the remainder of the war. It is believed that his crew’s target that day was actually the railway junction at Latchmere End. The reason that some of the Dorniers had been so vulnerable was because, as Heitsch explained, the bombers had been delayed and taken off thirty minutes late but this information had not been passed onto the fighter escort. There was also a strong north-westerly wind blowing SEPTEMBER 2013

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resulting in the fighters consuming more fuel. The combination of these two factors meant that the escort had to turn back home before the bombers reached London. The consequence of this was that when many of the bombers arrived over the target they were entirely alone. Until this day, Fighter Command’s policy had always been to despatch a limited number of fighters to engage the enemy. Their objective was to preserve as many pilots and aircraft as possible whilst still opposing every enemy raid. This strategy was challenged by the commander of 12 Group, Air ViceMarshal Leigh-Mallory. His view was that if Fighter Command put as many fighters into the air as possible they would be

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able to inflict very heavy casualties upon the enemy, thus quickly defeating the Luftwaffe. On 15 September 1940, Air ViceMarshal Keith Park, who in command of 11 Group was a supporter of the limited numbers policy, decided to give LeighMallory’s “Big Wing” theory a chance. As it happened, that morning Winston Churchill dropped into the Operations Room at RAF Uxbridge and was able to witness the events of that day for himself. As a result of Park’s decision, when more German aircraft, bombers and escorts, were detected moving across the Channel, Wing Commander Douglas Bader led a mass of no less than fifty-six fighters from 12 Group to support the

squadrons of 11 Group. For once the escorting German fighters would be outnumbered. The next attack was against the Royal Victoria, West India and Surrey Commercial docks in London’s East End. BELOW LEFT: A shot of a Dornier Do 17 of 2/KG 76, on which the unit’s distinctive emblem can clearly be seen painted beneath the cockpit. The Staffel Kapitän of 2/KG 76, Oberleutnant Rudolf “Halli” Hallensleben, is standing on the right. (All images courtesy of the author unless stated otherwise) BELOW RIGHT: The crew of F1+JK pictured after their unorthodox landing in a French field. From left to right are: Unteroffizier Wagner (radio operator), Oberleutnant Martin Florian (observer), Obergefreiter Sommer (flight engineer) and Unteroffizier Hans Figge.

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ABOVE: Luftwaffe personnel inspect the wreckage of F1+JK near Poix.

Losses were high with eight Do 17s destroyed and seven damaged with nineteen aircrew killed, nine captured and ten wounded in KG 2. KG 3 suffered six aircraft destroyed and four damaged with fifteen aircrew killed, ten captured and four wounded. The Heinkel 111s fared no better – seven destroyed, five damaged, with twelve aircrew killed, twenty-two captured and six wounded by both units. Feldwebel Herbert Tzschoppe was with 1/JG 53 flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109 at the rear of the escort formation. “The Staffel Kapitaen, Oberleutnant Ohly, had to turn back with radio trouble and the lead was given to Oberfeldwebel Mueller. We were flying at about 3,500m and had to fly with our flaps down so that we could stay close to the slower bombers. “During a turn we were attacked by Spitfires coming out of the sun – Mueller was hit in the arm and broke away and my ’plane was hit in both wings. I wanted to get back to France ... and tried to hide in the clouds which were at about 1,500m. However, when I came out of the clouds, I was hit by a second burst so I threw off the cabin roof and undid my seat belt ... “A third burst hit home – from the instrument panel there came flames like an oxyacetylene torch and my hands and face were severely burned. An explosion followed and I found myself hanging on a parachute.” Below him he could see the burning

local woods with a friend, heard the sound of a dogfight and looked up to was slightly injured when F1+JK crashsee Herbert hanging under his parachute. landed; he is seen here finishing off a bottle The German soon landed in a tree, and of champagne given to him by his Staffel on releasing himself fell to the ground, Kapitän, Oberleutnant Rudolf Hallensleben (pictured on the left). Florian would hurting his knees. Looking up, Herbert survive the war; the fate of the other two could see John and his friend both armed crewmembers is not known. with shotguns, standing close by and he immediately surrendered to them, BELOW: Another view of the wreckage of F1+JK. Unteroffizier Figge would be forced handing over his flare pistol with great to endure a second crash-landing during the difficulty because of his burnt hands, just Battle of Britain on 24 September 1940. On as locally-billeted New Zealanders arrived. this occasion his aircraft was intercepted in The Spitfires took a heavy toll on the bad weather by a fighter west of Eastbourne during a nuisance attack on London; the German escorts, and, once again, the resulting damage led to a forced-landing six Dorniers were exposed to the machinemiles north-east of Boulogne. guns of the British fighters. One of the most spectacular losses suffered by the German bombers was a Dornier Do 17 The attackers this time were Dornier 17s flown by Oberleutnant Robert Zehbe of of II and III/KG 2 and II/KG 3 together 1/KG 76. Attacked by swarms of RAF with Heinkel 111s of I and II/KG 53 and fighters, it was claimed shot down by I and II/KG 26. This made a total of 114 at least six RAF pilots, one of whom, bombers flying in three parallel columns Sergeant Ray Homes of 504 Squadron, three miles apart. Together with its large caused the ’plane to break up, the escort the whole formation stretched for majority of the wreckage falling on some thirty miles. Victoria Railway Station. Again, the Fighter Command fighters The German crew (which, threw themselves at the unusually, included two bombers and their escorts with Observers), tried to bale dogfights occurring over much out of the stricken bomber. of Kent, London, East Sussex Two, Obergefreiter Ludwig and Essex. London was spared Churchill’s question to Park, 15 September 1940 Armbruster and Unteroffizier Leo serious damage as when the remains of his fighter hit the ground Hammermeister, were captured. Robert Luftwaffe aircraft arrived over London, three miles south-east of Canterbury. As Zehbe managed to land by parachute the German bomber crews found their he looked up, he saw that he was being where he met a hostile reception targets obscured by cloud. Unable to find circled by two Spitfires. The pilot of one and died of his injuries the day after, their primary targets, their bombs were saluted him, to which Herbert returned whilst Unteroffizier Gustav Hubel and dropped on the south-eastern outskirts the compliment. Unteroffizier Hans Goschenhofer were of the capital as they turned for home, all Meanwhile, on the ground 18-yearboth killed outright. the time being attacked mercilessly by old John Sampson, out shooting in his The Luftwaffe fought back and twentySpitfires and Hurricanes. ABOVE RIGHT: Oberleutnant Martin Florian

“What other reserves have we?” “There are none.”

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nine of Park’s and Leigh-Mallory’s aircraft were destroyed during the course of the day. Unteroffizier Heinrich Ruehl of 1/JG 53 was flying in a Schwarm escorting a formation of Do 17s: “Short of London, the bomber formation was suddenly attacked from the front by two enemy squadrons. The front-most squadron attacked through the bomber formation and pulled up ... During this, I saw a Spitfire [sic] which flew through the bomber formation pulled up and turned. At this moment, I took aim and opened fire and saw in between the wing and the fuselage a tongue of flame shoot out.” The British fighter immediately caught fire and dived into the increasing cloud and, although the crash was not observed, both he and Unteroffizier Kopperschlaeger were each credited with a Spitfire. It is likely that they had pounced on the Hurricanes of 303 Squadron which lost two aircraft – one pilot baling out, the other never to be seen again. In general it was the Hurricanes which engaged the bombers, leaving the fighters to the Spitfire squadrons. Flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109E-7 of 2/LG 2, Unteroffizier August Klik also encountered Hurricanes at 14.50 hours: “We were told good weather and not much opposition. However, things were very different. “Before we reached Tonbridge, heavy AA fire welcomed us and the sky began to cloud over (seven tenths

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cloud cover). Suddenly, the sky was full of British fighters. The first group of bombers was torn apart and disappeared into a protective cloud bank. During the subsequent air battle we were pushed away to the east ... The variable amounts of cloud and the tumult of battle made it difficult to tell the difference between friend and foe. “The cloud cover then broke up and just in front of me, a Hurricane approached from the right, in a steep turn. It was fifty metres and firing a broadside – nothing could go wrong for me! I was therefore so surprised that I made the mistake – like a beginner. I put my aircraft into a steep climb to see if my burst had hit home when there were hits in my starboard wing. Two ’planes were heading straight for me but the hits in my ’plane’s wing must have come from another ’plane from behind and the left because the two aircraft did not show any muzzle flashes (perhaps they were as surprised as I was!). “500m below me on my right, there was a long cloud bank. It was the only protection against half a dozen British fighters.” Klik was followed down by Flying Officer Leonard Haines of 19 Squadron. “I had dived after it,” Haines later reported, “and as it finished its dive, I recommenced my attack. I was going faster than the enemy aircraft and I continued firing until I had to pull away to avoid collision. The enemy aircraft

half-rolled and dived vertically with black smoke coming from underneath the pilot’s seat, it seemed.” Klik quickly assessed the situation. All his instruments showed normal readings except for the radiator temperature gauge which was alarmingly high. It was getting hot in the cockpit and Klik tried to push back the hood to its second notch, ABOVE: Unteroffizier Hans Figge’s crippled Do 17 managed to get as far as five miles north of the French city of Poix before it crash-landed. Whilst flying with 3/KG 76, Figge was shot down over Russia on 12 July 1941, but he and his crew managed to evade capture and return to German lines. His luck ran out on 25 August 1941, when his Junkers Ju 88 crashed on take-off from Raskopolje. Two of his crew were killed and one wounded; six groundcrew were also killed and another ten injured. Hans Figge died of his wounds the following day. BELOW LEFT: Members of 2/KG 76 inspecting the destroyed engine of F1+JK. Unteroffizier Hans Figge is standing second from the left, whilst Oberleutnant Martin Florian is to his left, facing the camera with his head bandaged. Again to his left are Oberleutnant Rudolf Hallensleben and Leutnant Fritz Köhler. Hallensleben would become the Kommodore of KG 76 in January 1943 and, at the end of 1944, would be responsible for German bomber operations over the Western Front. He would be awarded the Knights Cross and German Cross in Gold but was killed on 19 April 1945, when his staff car was strafed by American fighters near Leipzig. Fritz Köhler would be awarded the German Cross in Gold and later assumed command of 2/KG 76. He was killed on 30 January 1943, when his Junkers Ju 88 crashed into the Mediterranean off Sardinia during an attack on Algiers. BELOW RIGHT: Groundcrew pictured beside a 609 (West Riding) Squadron Spitfire.

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but the hood suddenly blew off. The fuel gauge also began to flicker. He now had a decision to make. He was faced with three options. The first was that of baling out, the second was to attempt a forced landing, and the third option was to fly back over the Channel in the hope of being rescued from the sea when his fuel finally ran out. “Point number three was not worth the risk,” Klik considered. “Point number one only in an emergency as a few days earlier we had been warned not to bale out as Polish pilots shot at every parachute over the coastal area!” This left Klik with a forced landing to make. This he achieved, landing at Shellness Point on the Isle of Sheppy. “After five minutes he concluded some Home Guards came and took away my sunglasses, watch and pistol. In return for these, they offered me a bottle of beer!” Of the bomber groups KG 76 lost six

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bombers with another two badly damaged, whilst twelve of its aircrew were killed, ten captured and three wounded. One of the damaged aircraft was coded F1+JK of 2/KG 76. Flown by Unteroffizier Hans Figge, the crippled Do 17 managed to get as far as five miles north of the French city of Poix. With one engine stopped due to a fighter attack, he successfully crash landed and the crew clambered out. His aircraft was later assessed as being 60% damaged. Another of the Dornier Do 17s that managed to just about make it back was coded 5K+AM of 4/KG 3. With its starboard engine stopped and port engine struggling, Leutnant Sieghard Schopper managed to crash-land on the sand dunes at Mardyck to the east of Calais. Schopper had been lightly wounded on 31 August 1940 whilst attacking Hornchurch but this time he was unscathed as was his observer, and Staffel Kapitän, Oberleutnant Bernhard Granicky. However, Feldwebel Felix Gwidziel (radio operator) and Feldwebel Heinz Kirch (engineer) were lightly wounded. For all their efforts, the Luftwaffe,

ABOVE: One Dornier Do 17 that did not make it back across the Channel on 15 September 1940. This is Feldwebel Rolf Heitsch’s Dornier Do 17 at its crash site at Castle Farm, Shoreham, Kent. LEFT: An unusual picture of a 609 Squadron

Spitfire taken whilst the aircraft was taxiing down the Andover-Salisbury road towards the dispersal at RAF Middle Wallop.

BELOW LEFT: One of the Do 17s that just about made it back to France on 15 September 1940, was this aircraft of 4/KG 3 which, coded 5K+AM, crashed near Calais. The pilot was Leutnant Sieghard Schopper. BELOW RIGHT: Another view of Leutnant

Schopper’s Dornier Do 17 5K+AM. Sieghard Schopper would be shot down and reported missing north of the Russian town of Medyn on 18 January 1942.

which mounted more than 1,000 sorties during the course of the day, achieved little. The bombers did cause damage to railway lines but rail traffic was only disrupted for three days. London Docks were untouched. Deteriorating weather conditions put an end to operations on that fateful day. * The significance of Schopper’s and Figge’s escape back across the Channel lies in the enemy losses claimed by Fighter Command that day. The total claimed by the RAF was 185. This was

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the most victories claimed on any day during the Battle of Britain. As a result 15 September 1940, has become known as “Battle of Britain Day”. These figures, however, proved to be wildly inaccurate. The actual number of aircraft lost by the Luftwaffe was just sixty-one. Whilst this is still a very large number of fighters and bombers to lose in a single day, it was in fact only the third worst day for the Germans during the Battle of Britain. Over-claiming of victories was common throughout not just 15 September or even the Battle of Britain, and all sides were guilty. The reasons for this are understandable. In the heat of battle with fighters swarming across the sky it is not always easy to determine which particular pilot fired the fatal shot. Many, of course, were therefore counted as ‘shared’ kills. Others, though, were claimed by a number of pilots as individual ‘kills’ and sometimes enemy aircraft believed to have been shot down in fact made their way back to base. The result was inflated victory figures.

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The reporting of high enemy casualties was good for morale, both for the pilots themselves and the wider public. There were also political reasons for exaggerating success. Typical of this was the battle between Park and Leigh-Mallory over the “Big Wing” principle. The successes of the Big Wing were inflated in an effort to demonstrate that this policy was the one that should be adopted by Fighter Command. If Schopper and Figge had been claimed by any of the men of 11 or 12 Group, the most that could have been recorded was that they were “probables”. In fact both were genuine “kills”. Exaggerated though Fighter Command’s claims were, the Do 17s of Schopper and Figge may have been two victims of “The Few” that were never recorded. ■

ABOVE: Unteroffizier August Klik’s LG 2, awaits its Messerschmitt Bf 109E-7, of 2/LG fate at the hands of the scrap man. BELOW: Leutnant Schopper’s crew pictured after their crash-landing. Left to right are Feldwebel Felix Gwidziel, Feldwebel Heinz Kirch, Oberleutnant Bernhard Granicky (Staffel Kapitän) and Schopper himself. Granicky would be shot down once more during the latter stages of the Battle of Britain, and again during an attack on Minsk on 26 June 1941 (when he was killed). Felix Gwidziel would be shot down with Bernhard Granicky on 26 June 1941, but managed to evade capture only to be shot down and reported missing near Kirow on 2 October 1941. The fate of Heinz Kirch has not been established.

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THE MESSINES MODEL In the heart of Staffordshire’s Cannock Chase lies a tangible reminder of the area’s use as a training ground in the First World War. For there, hidden for generations, lies a scale model of the Belgian town of Messines, the scene of the great British offensive in June 1917. Lee Dent and Richard Pursehouse reveal the story behind the model and the recent investigative excavations.

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ake a look at any map of Great Britain, locate the county of Staffordshire and you will find Cannock Chase clearly marked. Surrounding this area you will find the towns and villages of Stafford, Cannock, Rugeley, Hednesford and Brocton: one place that you will not find is Messines. However, in one respect, ‘Messines’ is there, its cobbled streets, brick houses, church and windmill lie all but forgotten, buried since it lost its long battle with nature. The foundations of the ‘village’ were laid down in early 1918 and had been virtually completed by May of that year when it was ready to play its part in instructing men in the art of war. The men, newly arrived drafts of reinforcements from New Zealand, would no doubt have looked upon the ‘village’ with a sense of pride – as before them in minute detail lay a model, its Lilliputian dimensions an exact replica of the Belgian village of Messines, the scene of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade’s

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greatest triumph on the Western Front. * The 5th (Reserve) Battalion New Zealand Rifle Brigade moved to Brocton Camp, one of two camps (the other being Rugeley) on Cannock Chase, on 27 September 1917. Some 1,925 men under the command of Major Rawdon St. J. Beere arrived from Tidworth in Wiltshire; they joined men of the 27th Reinforcements, who had already arrived ten days earlier via Liverpool on His Majesty’s New Zealand Transport Athenic. In January 1918 the Reserve Battalion was renamed the 5th (Reserve) Battalion, consolidating its position within the Brigade, with the camp becoming known as the New Zealand Rifle Brigade Reserve Depot. It is probable that around this time the decision was taken to build a model of Messines. Constructed in concrete, its buildings were bricks or shaped stone blocks with key features such as the church and windmill being represented.

Also incorporated were roads and the extensive German trench systems that had occupied the ridge in and around the real village in Belgium. The model had been constructed by the New Zealanders using German labour from the nearby prisoner of war camp in Brocton Coppice. The effectiveness of large-scale terrain models for the instruction of troops before battles such as Vimy Ridge, Messines and Passchendaele had been proven. Lieutenant-Colonel J.G. Roache DSO had commanded the 1st Battalion New Zealand Rifle Brigade at Messines; he would have been familiar with II ANZAC Corps’ terrain model near Romarin in Belgium during May/June of 1917. As commander of the Brigade’s Reserve Depot he was able to authorise and oversee the construction of the model. Messines, a location so important to the brigade, would have imbued a sense of pride in those being instructed. Its relevance to the brigade would have been further emphasised by this ‘training

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aid’ being located in ‘H’ Lines of Brocton Camp – the barrack area of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade – and not in the areas of this camp usually associated with training. The New Zealanders departed Brocton camp on 14 June 1919. The final act by Lieutenant-Colonel Shepherd (the last Depot Commander) was to entrust the ‘Messines’ model to Major-General R. Wanlass O’Gowan, Commander of the Cannock Chase Reserve Centre, which was the administrative body overseeing both Brocton and Rugeley camps. In turn, Cannock Chase Reserve Centre closed on 7 February 1920, and the camps began to be dismantled. Everything that was salvable was auctioned off. The auction sales were to continue into 1921 and it would appear that the ‘Messines’ model was simply destined to be forgotten by the military authorities. It soon began to show signs

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remarkable piece of First World War history; the scale model of the village of Messines that was constructed on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire during 1918. The sign board in the middle of picture names the road feature as “Huns Walk”. The identification of the road name allowed the authors, Lee Dent and Richard Pursehouse, to orientate the photographs with original trench maps of Messines. (Courtesy of David Battersby)

ABOVE LEFT: ‘H’ Lines in Brocton Camp.

The camp, a sharp contrast to the tented accommodation the battalion had left behind at Tidworth in Wiltshire, would no doubt have given the men of the 5th (Reserve) Battalion New Zealand Rifle Brigade a sense of permanence and relief that they would not spend winter under canvas. (Courtesy of Phil Mills)

ABOVE RIGHT: The II ANZAC Corps’ model

of Messines at Romarin, Belgium, pictured on 6 June 1917. This model is larger than the Brocton example, covering the whole II Anzac Corps area of attack, although both are constructed to the same plan and elevation ratios. In less than twenty-four hours the men in this photograph would have achieved all of their objectives; a testament to the extraordinary planning that was to symbolise the Battle of Messines. (Courtesy of The Chase Project)

of neglect, with weeds gradually taking hold of much of the model. On Saturday, 15 October 1921, learning of the deterioration, the Stafford YMCA, Scouts and Stafford Wolf Cubs, spent the day cleaning the model. Vacated by the military authorities, usage of the land eventually reverted back to the Anson family, the owners of the Shugborough estate. Although the model was back to its former glory, its fate was sealed; the sale of the last huts from Brocton Camp meant the

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ABOVE: Richard Pursehouse photographed in 2007 with the first section of the Messines model he uncovered whilst walking his dog. (Courtesy of The Chase Project) ABOVE RIGHT: Some of the surface debris

which led to the re-discovery of the Messines model. The site was covered in gorse bushes and a loam-type covering. Very little of the model was visible on the surface, with only random shards of concrete giving a clue as to what may lie beneath. (Courtesy of The Chase Project)

BELOW: Dolores Ho – the Archivist of the National Army Museum in New Zealand – managed to locate this photograph of the Messines model under construction. To the left of the photograph can be seen two German prisoners (identified by the circles on their backs) from the prisoner of war camp in Brocton Coppice: irrefutable evidence of the involvement of German prisoners in the construction of the Messines model. (Courtesy of the National Army Museum New Zealand) model lost its protective shield. Increased exposure to the elements subjected the concrete to more damage, with weeds once again taking hold. In April 1931 an article in the local Express and Star newspaper outlined the plight of the model. The author, simply known as ‘Pitman’, described its neglected state, but confirmed that “lots of the works remain as sound as first

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laid down”. Vandalism, it seems, is not a modern phenomenon as there were “signs that despoilers have been at work on the model”. Pitman lamented, “it is feared that in another few years this relic of wartime will be gone”. This, it appears, was enough to spur a local resident into action. An ex-Grenadier Guardsman – Ernest Groucott, aged 70 – had, by 1932, taken it upon himself to supervise the ‘restoration’ of the model. He had seen the model constructed by the New Zealanders, as he had been engaged in driving officers between the camp and local railway stations. As the camp began to close down he became “caretaker of the hutments” until finally his services were no longer required. Living nearby, he had become increasingly concerned at the level of deterioration of the ‘Messines’ model. Ernest began the ‘restoration’ and was joined in his task by a group of young men from Hednesford, who helped clear the area. Due to the newspaper’s coverage the previous year, visitors had also become more frequent, one couple even putting down “half a crown” to start a ‘Messines’ restoration fund. In February 1932 the Express and Star featured Groucott’s exploits and

appealed for help and money to aid the “enthusiastic ex-Guardsman”. Ernest had become the self-appointed caretaker of the model, installing a small hut and even putting up a flagpole for the Union Flag provided by his son. Visitors were given a guided tour and Ernest, for a small fee, would indicate the relevant positions of towns and villages for fifty miles around ‘Messines’. The return of the military to the Chase in the Second World War ensured its further isolation and deterioration; the only visitors were local children who took delight playing on their ‘secret’ village. Post-war, Scout groups staying at the nearby Beaudesert Park Campsite would stumble across the curiosity while on nature hikes, no doubt oblivious to its origin. A local resident recalls playing on the model, still clearly recognisable as a ‘village’, with his friends in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In particular he remembers the church, “made of bricks with a pocket watch still cemented into the tower as if to be the church clock”. His last memory of the ‘village’ in the mid1950s was seeing the church, complete with its pocket watch, in a neighbour’s garden. The model had by the 1960s

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vanished from view, seemingly reclaimed by nature, a few bricks or areas of cement the only visible evidence that something man-made had been there. Ownership of the land passed from the Anson family to Staffordshire County Council with Cannock Chase, in 1958, being designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Over time, visitor numbers would increase, with few realising the important role the area had played in both world wars. The significance of the area’s military past prompted the County Council in 2006 to commission survey work to establish what remained of the camps. A partial survey of the old Brocton Camp area revealed the ‘footprints’ of huts and associated rubbish tips, as well as what were believed to be practice trenches. Features such as the filter beds, a weighbridge and the water tower base were known, as was the supposed location of the ‘Messines’ model. While an excavation of a trench and rubbish tip in 2006 had proved successful, a walkover of the site of the model at the same time had led to the conclusion that little or nothing remained of it. It was in 2006 that Lee Dent and Richard Pursehouse first met via mutual friends, Shaun Caddick and Andy Preece, on a trip to the Somme battlefields. During the trip Lee raised the subject of ‘military’ remains closer to home; a scale model of a Belgian village on Cannock Chase. Of the four friends, two had heard of the model, and the associated rumour of it being built by German prisoners. The conversation was forgotten until September 2007, when a chance find of a picture of the model prompted Lee and Richard to find out more. Their first port of call was the County Records Office – which had very little to offer on the model, but provided a sewer plan for Brocton Camp. A leaflet giving an overview of Cannock Chase in the Great War, produced SEPTEMBER 2013

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by the County Council, conveniently gave a location for the Messines model. “It was literally X marks the spot,” said Richard. Armed with this information, a visit to the site was immediately undertaken by Richard. What he found was not what he expected: “The photograph showing the Messines model which Lee had found was really impressive but all that I found was a large overgrown area, dotted with trees and gorse, no village, no roads, no trenches, nothing.” Disappointed, he bent down and picked up a stick to throw for his dog: “I picked up the stick – but it wasn’t wood – it was concrete. I moved a few more feet and found another bit, but this time it was flat with a raised piece of concrete on top.” More searching found an exposed piece of concrete next to a gorse bush root but this time Richard could not pick it up, it was fixed solidly in the ground. The two men approached the County Council for more information. They were advised by the Council’s representative that very little was known about the model except for what had been written in the book A Town for Four Winters. The site had been walked over the previous year but nothing of the model appeared to have survived, and it was believed that nothing had been seen of it since the 1960s. Also mentioned was the fact that military academics had doubted the accuracy of the model, as they could not accurately match the trench features in the available photographs with those on a trench map of the same area in Flanders. Believing that the Council had no

ABOVE: The area on which the model is situated has been cleared in preparation for a full excavation of the site scheduled for September 2013. Of note is the raised bank on the left of the view, which is believed by The Chase Project to be a raised viewing platform. (Courtesy of The Chase Project) BELOW LEFT and RIGHT: Two detailed

shots of a junction and a stretch of road on Staffordshire’s Messines model. Measuring ten centimetres across these representations of roadway can be up to thirty-five metres long. (Courtesy of The Chase Project)

objection to them investigating the site further; the pair returned to the area where Richard had found the partially buried concrete. Investigation of the ground revealed that the vegetation covering the concrete was only about five centimetres thick, and could be pulled back with ease. A groove, bordered on both sides by a formed lip, approximately two centimetres wide, was revealed in the concrete; a feature the pair believed must be the representation of a trench. They worked for about five hours, uncovering an area approximately four metres by three metres. Lee explained: “As more material was removed a mixture of features came into view. Apart from what we had

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ABOVE: Lee Dent photographed in October

2007 with the area of the Messines model which was later identified as including Ulcer Trench and Ulcer Support (in foreground). The curved feature directly in front of him is a trench railway. The area between the features (centre) is broken up but contained a band of pebbles which were identified as a roadway. These details were passed to Birmingham Archaeology to help with the Monument Report commissioned by Staffordshire County Council in December 2007. (Courtesy of The Chase Project)

BELOW LEFT: Lieutenant-Colonel J.G. Roache (centre of front row) and his staff in 1917, pictured shortly after taking command of the 5th (Reserve) Battalion New Zealand Rifle Brigade at Brocton Camp. (Courtesy of the National Army Museum New Zealand) BELOW RIGHT: In December 2007 staff from Birmingham Archaeology subjected the model, including the area uncovered by Lee Dent and Richard Pursehouse, to topographic, gradiometer and cyrax surveys. An assessment of the monument’s condition was also undertaken. A further three test pits had been allowed by Natural England to ascertain further information regarding condition, survivability and types of materials used. Only one of these test pits revealed features that could be identified and compared to the wartime Ploegsteert trench map. (Courtesy of The Chase Project)

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determined were trenches, a band of uniformly shaped pebbles, approximately ten centimetres wide, crossed part of the area. This initially caused a bit of confusion as the pebbles were not set into the concrete, but it was quickly realised that they were part of the model and not just a random collection. “A third major feature in the trench, a curving groove approximately six centimetres wide, was bordered on both sides by block-shaped concrete. The groove was more substantial than those identified as trenches, and had slots in the base at ninety degrees to the sides. The slots, one of which contained a fragment of shaped wood, were about five centimetres apart and measured approximately two centimetres wide and one centimetre deep. We weren’t at all sure what it, or the pebbles, represented. The concrete that the model was made of was pretty well intact around the features, but was less so in the flatter areas in between.” Photographs and measurements were taken before the area was covered over using the original material that had

been removed, fully restored after the impromptu excavation. What Lee and Richard had established was that more of the Messines model had survived than anyone, it would seem, had expected. Details of the find were relayed to Ian Wykes, Group Leader (Sustainability and Cultural Environment) and Stephen Dean, Principal Archaeologist, at Staffordshire County Council, who greeted the news with a mix of incredulity and surprise. The initial surprise that the evidence laid before them showed the existence of the ‘Messines’ model, was tempered by the realisation that a grave “communication error” had occurred that could have serious repercussions for Lee and Richard. The area in which the ‘Messines’ model is situated is designated as a Special Area of Conservation. As such any work carried out in that area had to be licensed by Natural England with the agreement of the land owner, in this case, Staffordshire County Council. The fact that Lee and Richard were unaware of the area’s designation and the belief they had been given the “okay” to investigate by the landowner made no difference;

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THE MESSINES MODEL

they were informed that the matter had to be referred to Natural England and a prosecution for “unlicensed digging” was likely. Having reviewed the situation, in the end a prosecution was not pursued. It was pointed out, however, that any further disturbance of the area would not be treated so leniently. For Lee and Richard, a valuable lesson learnt, the next step was to continue their investigations “above ground”, researching through archival records to see what more they could learn. Richard had, meanwhile, obtained a previously unseen picture of the model from local historian Mr David Battersby, so it was decided that the question of the model’s accuracy needed to be addressed. Richard recalled, “We had several views of the model and our dig photographs, so we had a unique opportunity to match known features against a trench map of the Messines area. The photograph that been lent to me by David, had signboards clearly visible on the model and after a bit of computer wizardry we were able to make out -un- W—k, marked on one of them. “Helen, Lee’s partner, suggested that it meant Huns Walk, as a road leading from a crossroads to the north side of Messines, bore that name on a map she had seen ... This was crucial as we were now able to orientate the detail in the photographs with the map. We matched our dig photograph to an area south-west

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ABOVE LEFT: The level of detail on the model is staggering. This close up shows the slots that were cast to take the wooden sleepers on which the metal tracks of the trench railway lay. (Courtesy of The Chase Project)

ABOVE: In February 2012, Northamptonshire Archaeology commenced work to locate the western edge of the model. In the distance can be seen the first trench which did not establish the edge of the model but did locate an area of ground later identified as a garden. The second trench (in the foreground) was to prove more fruitful. Carol Simmonds and Simon Markus (standing) of Northamptonshire Archaeology prepare a half metre wide trench on the western slope of the model. (Courtesy of The Chase Project) ABOVE RIGHT: Confirmation of the western

boundary of the Messines model starts to be uncovered. The stones just surfacing in this trench represent its western edge. They match the stones which could be seen in the foreground of the construction photograph. Using stones to edge boundaries in this manner could be found in other areas of the camp; in the prisoner of war camp, stones were used to edge flower beds and pathways. (Courtesy of The Chase Project)

BELOW: A view of the Messines model, possibly taken in 1921, prior to being cleaned by the Stafford Scouts and Cubs. Grass and weeds can be seen taking hold on many of the model’s features. The zigzag shape trench in the foreground of the photograph was confirmation that the model was constructed using aerial photographs; the trench did not appear on the April 1917 trench map (the final printed map issued before the battle), indicating it was a very late addition to the German defences. It can be found as a hand drawn addition on a headquarters map dated May 1914. The accuracy of the replication of the trench on the model can only have been possible by having access to aerial photographs. All other details on the model are replicated from the April 1917 map. (Courtesy of Staffordshire County Council)

of the village; a trench system known as Ulcer Trench and Ulcer Support.” With time Richard and Lee’s persistence – combined with the help of Dolores Ho, the Archivist of the National Army Museum, New Zealand – brought results. In December 2007 Birmingham Archaeology was commissioned by Staffordshire County Council to reopen the area Lee and Richard had re-discovered in order to provide a Monument Assessment Report. During the re-excavation Lee visited the site and was able to inform Martin Brown, one of those tasked with compiling the report, of their findings to date. Lee explained: “Martin was recording the area we had dug in October, while his colleagues were busy with all manner of other tasks, including laser scanning of the exposed area. Using Martin’s original Great War trench map, I was able to show him exactly where the trenches on the model would have been at Messines. “I had only worked out the previous night that the curved feature in our photos was a trench railway, and it was amazing to be able to see that the map and model match perfectly. The attention to detail was fantastic – underlined by the fact the model’s builders had not only represented the trench railway, but also the wooden sleepers on which it lay, making sense of the shaped piece of wood found in one of the slots. “I walked with Martin over the area it

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THE MESSINES MODEL

LEFT: Dolores Ho visited Britain in 2011 and joined fellow Chase

Project members Lee Dent and Richard Pursehouse for a tour of the camps. Dolores is a pivotal member of The Chase Project; her efforts in searching the archives across New Zealand have enabled the team to gain a better understanding of what was happening at Brocton Camp. Freda, a Harlequin Great Dane, was the mascot of the 5th (Reserve) Battalion whilst it was stationed at Cannock Chase. Freda died in December 1918 and was buried in ‘H’ Lines Brocton Camp. Members of the brigade erected a memorial in her memory. The current monument is the fourth to adorn Freda’s grave and was erected in 2001 by The Friends of Cannock Chase. (Courtesy of The Chase Project)

was believed the model covered and I was able to put forward a theory Richard and I had about a raised area that ran around three sides of the model. We had concluded it was a viewing platform which would give a view over the model without having to climb a tower.” More information was now coming in from all directions. Dolores learnt that the model had been built, “under instructions from Lieutenant Colonel J. G. Roache, for the use of the Regimental School to instruct officers and NCOs in Topography”. Details of the size of the model – “40 yards square” – also came BELOW LEFT: An area of roadway on the model exposed by the activity of rabbits. Animal activity, as well as damage by root systems, will undoubtedly have taken a toll on the model. Here rabbits have burrowed beneath a roadway, leaving the fragile structure suspended and unsupported. (Courtesy of The Chase Project) BELOW RIGHT: This section of exposed Greco-style trench remains on the Messines model illustrates the robustness of the features on the model, as opposed to that of the inner areas. The conclusion reached by The Chase Project is that the main features on the model were laid out first, followed by a screed consistency of concrete to fill the areas in between. The screed material being thinner, is more susceptible to damage and therefore it is expected areas of the model may exist in a skeletal type form. (Courtesy of The Chase Project)

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ABOVE: While most of the work carried out by Birmingham to light, as did its Archaeology at the site of the model was of a highly technical nature, construction ratios of a more mundane, though no less important survey of the surface debris was undertaken. One of the more interesting finds identified 1:50 in the horizontal by Martin Brown was a piece of mortar “into which had been set a line and 1:25 in the vertical. of bunter pebbles”. It was concluded by Martin that the pebble line The construction ratios may have represented a route-way or the British lines whose potential of the Brocton model presence on the model was, at that stage, unknown. It would take weeks of examination of the trench maps and available photographs were subsequently of the model for Lee Dent to conclude the pebbles were the remains found to replicate the of contour lines. (Courtesy of The Chase Project) model at Romarin in Belgium; though the bordered by the viewing platform, so latter exceeded the two thousand yard the search for the western edge formed front represented by Brocton. Compass the main objective of an evaluation bearings taken during a field trip to by Northamptonshire Archaeology in Messines in 2008 suggested accuracy February 2012. Two other objectives, also stretched to how the model was ascertaining the depth of burial and orientated on the ground at Brocton. the state of preservation of the model, In due course, the Monument formed the balance of the brief issued Assessment Report declared that by Staffordshire County Council’s Historic the model’s site was a monument of Environment Officer. ‘international’ as well as ‘national’ In March 2012, Northamptonshire significance and outlined the steps Archaeology released its report that should be taken to ensure its concluding that, “The archaeological preservation. It would not be until 2012 evaluation was successful in identifying that the opportunity would arise for the western edge of the terrain map of further excavation of the model. the Battle of Messines”. Stephen Dean, County Archaeologist, Staffordshire’s ‘Messines village’ contacted The Chase Project (the name adopted by Lee and Richard for their work remains the only known surviving example of a First World War terrain model. Its on the site) with the news that funding was being made available to ascertain the construction in concrete only adds to its uniqueness as most were fashioned from true extent of the model, prior to a full the ground on which they stood, lost to excavation of the site – at a date to be the plough as war gave way to peace. ■ arranged. Three sides of the model were

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The Western Front Association founded 1980

the

Great War 1914-18:

understood

The attack at Messines in 1917 was a carefully planned and executed, limited objective success. The detonation of the mines and the occupation of the ridge showed how such “bite and hold” attacks could succeed. The battle also emphasised the importance of mining as a tactical weapon, despite the time and effort involved.

The Great War is a fascinating subject, with a complex blend of military, social, science, political and economic history. To understand more about the 1914-18 period, and to appreciate the context in which the Battle of Messines of 1917 was fought, join us at The Western Front Association.

The Western Front Association understanding the Great War 1914-18: explore | learn | share www.westernfrontassociation.com The Western Front Association is a registered charity no 298365

A WET LANDING

L

ocated six miles north-west of Grantham in Lincolnshire, the construction of RAF Bottesford, which began in November 1940, was undertaken by George Wimpey & Co. Ltd. The airfield was built to the Class A standard set by the Air Ministry, the main feature of which was a set of three converging runways each containing a concrete runway for takeoffs and landings, optimally placed at sixty degree angles to each other in a triangular pattern. Bottesford became operational in November 1941 with the arrival, from RAF Waddington, of 207 Squadron, part of Bomber Command’s No.5 Group. This squadron had the honour of being the first to be equipped with the Avro Manchester. Seldom in history has the marriage between a new airframe and new engines been a happy one, and the Avro Manchester was certainly no exception. Designed to Air Ministry Specification P.13/36 as a twin-engine medium bomber with the new Rolls-Royce Vulture 24-cylinder, the first of the type’s two prototypes flew on 25 July 1939. It was the Vulture engines that were the Manchester’s most troublesome feature, as the crews of 207 Squadron were about to found out. The first mission from Bottesford was undertaken on the evening of Sunday, 23 November 1941, when a force of fiftyone Handley Page Hampdens and a pair of 207 Squadron’s Manchesters were tasked to attack the docks and naval facilities (and the U-boats based there) at Lorient. Conditions over the port allowed for clear identification of the targets and the bomber crews departed having observed fires in the vicinity of the harbour; the two Manchesters had safely delivered their ten 500lb bombs. Despite the fact that all of the aircraft involved returned safely, earlier on the 23rd 207 Squadron had already suffered its first loss. Pilot Officer A.W. Hills, at the controls of Manchester Mk.I L7300, EM-F, had taken off from Bottesford to fly the short distance to Waddington. As well as his crew, on board were three passengers (one officer who was en route to join a course and two air traffic controllers), a total of nine. As soon as he was airborne, Hills set course to follow the Lincoln-Boston canal and railway line at an altitude of 500 feet. Everything seemed well with the aircraft until, without warning, the port Vulture engine simply stopped and the bomber yawed to starboard. Whilst the Vulture engine was 88

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23 November 1941 renowned for its inability to deliver its designed power, reliability issues could be far worse – as those in L7300 had discovered to their cost. Whilst the nearby airfield at Cranwell was considered as a suitable diversion, Hills opted to press on. At this point disaster struck when the second engine packed up. As John Hamlin details in Always Prepared, the story of 207 Squadron, “with too little altitude it was not long before the Manchester hit the ground, breaking apart before plunging at some speed into Fiskerton Lake, some eight miles east of Lincoln”. The force of the impact had torn the tail section from the Manchester. As the rest of the bomber splashed to a halt in the lake, watched by a number of anglers around the water’s edge, those on board were able to clamber out through the open fuselage at the rear or the escape hatch in the roof of the cockpit. Thankfully, injuries were generally of a minor nature. The copilot, Pilot Officer Plaistowe, who had been standing at the time of impact, suffered the worst injuries in the form of a fractured skull. In his account, John Hamlin went on to reveal how the injuries affected Plaistowe: “Charles Smith, the Wop/AG, took him to nearby Applegarth Cottage, where the occupants dried him and wrapped in a rug to await the arrival of an ambulance from Lincoln. When after nearly an hour it had not arrived, one of the anglers offered to take him and one of the air traffic controllers to hospital by car … As the car turned into Lincoln High Street, Pilot Officer Plaistowe opened the door and, minus rug, ran naked down the street!” Completely bare, with his body covered in blood, Plaistowe only covered a short distance before being stopped by a Policeman. At this point an ambulance was finally found and the injured airman delivered to Lincoln hospital. This image shows personnel from 58 Maintenance Unit beginning the salvage of L7300 on 4 December 1941, following its unplanned immersion. Interestingly, one of the passengers involved in the crash was Pilot Officer F.A. Roper, who suffered minor injuries. Roper was an American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force who, following the events of 23 November 1941, went on to complete a full tour of operations with Bomber Command – the first US national to do so. He subsequently transferred to the USAAF and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. (Courtesy of Mark Hillier) SEPTEMBER 2013

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LANCE CORPORAL MATTHEW CROUCHER GC

Jon Enoch/eyevine

In May 2007 Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher was mobilised by the Royal Marines Reserve and attached as a Reconnaissance Operator and Heavy Weapons specialist to 40 Commando. In September that year 40 Commando was deployed to Afghanistan. In the latest in his series, Lord Ashcroft examines how, five months later, Lance Corporal Croucher faced down death by diving on a trip wired grenade to save the lives of his men.

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att Croucher was on tour with the Royal Marines in Afghanistan when he was involved in an episode of high drama in 2008 that captured my imagination. Indeed, I was so won over by his selfless, spur-ofthe-moment bravery that I wrote a newspaper article arguing why he should be awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain and the Commonwealth’s most prestigious gallantry award. Croucher was born in Solihull, near Birmingham, on 14 December 1983. The older of two children and the son of two teachers, he had wanted to be a Royal Marine Commando – and pull on the famous green beret – since he was thirteen. After completing the nine-month Royal Marines training course, which Croucher described as “thirty weeks of sheer hell”, he was awarded his green beret, aged just seventeen. In March 2003, Croucher found himself aboard HMS Ark Royal bound for Iraq, with Delta Company Royal Marines. His unit was part of the British spearhead for the invasion of Iraq as part of the Second Gulf War and, alongside US Navy Seals, he was one of the first 200 western troops into Iraq. It was here too, in battle, that the young Marine got his first “kill” before seeing plenty more action as the Allies quickly overthrew Saddam Hussein’s

TOP: A Royal Marine Commando in action at Forward Operating Base Inkerman, to where Lance Corporal Matt Croucher was deployed in September 2007 as part of Operation Herrick VII. (© Crown Copyright/MoD 2013)

ABOVE: Lance Corporal Matt Croucher GC. (The Lord Ashcroft Collection)

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ABOVE and ABOVE RIGHT: Lance Corporal Matt Croucher holds up the day sack that he used to help smother the blast from the grenade on Saturday, 9 February 2008. (The Lord Ashcroft Collection)

BELOW: Compounds in the Sangin Valley – images which give an impression of the environment in which Lance Corporal Matt Croucher and his colleagues were operating on 9 February 2008. On the right of this picture is the so-called Green Zone; the Helmand river is just out of view to the right. (© Crown Copyright/MoD 2013) brutal regime. Later, from August 2004 to February 2005, Croucher returned to Iraq serving with 40 Commando as part of Operation Telic 4. In October 2004, he received a fractured skull when a roadside bomb went off during a routine patrol but, by the end of 2005, Croucher was back in Iraq for a third time, after transferring to

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the Royal Marines’ Reserve. This transfer to the Reserve allowed him to take up lucrative private security work, where he became part of “The Circuit”, a new world of professional bodyguards and security guards. However, after being seriously injured in a motorcycle accident back in Britain, Croucher decided to turn his back on “The Circuit” to redeploy as a lance corporal reservist in the Marines. However, Croucher had first to undertake an OPTAG (Operational Training and Advisory Group) course with 40 Commando before deployment to Helmand province as part of Operation Herrick VII. By mid-September 2007, he found himself at FOB (Forward Operation Base) Inkerman in the Sangin Valley. Conditions were spartan and it was dangerous too – British servicemen had dubbed it “FOB Incoming” because it attracted so much Taliban fire. It was a physically and mentally demanding assignment. His first patrol, for example, had been due to last four or

five hours but, in fact, lasted for fifteen hours, whilst through November, there were numerous battles with the enemy. By February 2008, Croucher was based in the Sangin Valley at Forward Operating Base Robinson – known as “Fob Rob” to one and all. It was situated at the edge of Helmand’s so-called “Green Zone”, where the Taliban were hiding out in large numbers on both sides of the Helmand River. Like FOB Inkerman, FOB Robinson was at the “sharp end” and those based there knew they would see plenty of action. Furthermore, it was winter and night-time temperatures constantly plunged well below freezing. One day Croucher was informed that he would be part of a mission involving forty men. He was to be a member of a four-man Commando Reconnaissance force CTR (Close Target Reconnaissance) team tasked with searching a Taliban compound. It was intended to be a quick “in and out job”, gaining intelligence on a suspected bomb-making factory so that it

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ABOVE LEFT: The specially adapted fishing

reel and line which Ogden-Smith took with him to Normandy to assist in the beach reconnaissance work. Of the mission on New Year’s Eve 1943, MajoratGeneral could be targeted a laterLogan date.ScottBowden CBE, DSO, MC later recalled: “As we By back 01.00 hoursheavy on the of the swam through surfday towards our mission – 9point, February 2008 the men rendezvous I thought my – companion [Ogden-Smith] trouble, when on the patrol was hadinreceived theirI heard final him shouting. But when I turned to help, he briefi ng in which, if their mission was only wished me ‘A Happy New Year’. I told compromised, they were ordered to him to, ‘swim you b*****, or we’ll land back on make a fighting retreat with heroics”. the beach’. However I wished him“no ‘A Happy New Year’ in return, we used our infraWith full battle kit,and including Night Vision red torches(NVGs), to signalthe to our support boat, Goggles group then left then rendezvoused with the MGB.” (The Lord the base, leaving some fifteen metres Ashcroft Collection)

between each man so as not to present a ABOVEtarget RIGHT:to Onany 16 January HMSforces. group hidden1944, Taliban X-20, crewed by Lieutenant K.R. Hudspeth As they ventured out into the DSC & Bar RANVR and Sub-Lieutenant night, they wanted be closeLieutenant enough not to B. Enzer RNVR,to transported Commander DSO DSC–RN, lose contactNigel withWillmott those in front but far Major Scott-Bowden and Sergeant enough apart to survive if theOgdenman in front Smith across the channel to undertake stepped a landmine or triggered a Operationon Postage Able. During this booby-trapped mission, which wasgrenade. intended to last four days, periscope-level reconnaissance of When they reached the enemy the shoreline and were compound, theecho-soundings four-man team split in undertaken during day time, whilst at night half. Croucher and his comrade checked the two divers (Scott-Bowden and OgdenSmith) made their waywhere ashore.they found some out a stable block 200kgs of bomb-making fertiliser, along with batteries, circuitry and wires. After gathering evidence of the bomb-making facilities during their forty-five minute recce at the compound, the four men regrouped outside and prepared to return to FOB Robinson. In an interview for my book George Cross Heroes, Croucher vividly recalled the incident that came so close to claiming his life. “Our job that night had been reconnaissance. We wanted to get in and out with as little noise as possible but with as much evidence as we could gather. But after our stay in the compound I went off at a slight tangent. “I had NVGs but it was still relatively hard to see. Suddenly I felt a tension just below my knee. Then I heard the distinctive noise of a fly-off lever ejecting from a hand grenade. “I looked down and saw the grenade on the floor. I realised that meant I probably had a three to five second delay before the grenade exploded. In the darkness, I had walked through a four-metre tripwire that led to an old pineapple-style Russian grenade. “This had been attached around a stake and driven into the ground. I was, to say the least, a little bit worried and I had to decide, in a split second, what to do. There was nowhere to take cover. Everything seemed to go into slow

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motion. Ads [his comrade] was now directly behind me, just feet away. He was followed by Scottie.” Croucher shouted “Grenade! Take cover!” even though he knew his comrades barely had time to react. “Ads hit the deck behind me while Dave, last in the patrol, darted back behind the building wall for cover,” continued Croucher. “So I thought my best option was to throw my day sack on the grenade and lie on it with my back towards the grenade, hoping my day sack would provide some protection. “I threw my day sack off one shoulder on to the grenade and at the same time dropped to the ground. Then, pulling my legs up, I tucked my head back so my body armour and helmet would make a shield against the inevitable blast. “I counted to about six or seven seconds and I began to wonder whether the grenade would ever go bang or not. I gritted my teeth and thought about what might happen. Then it eventually did explode. “I saw a plume of orange sparks go shooting to the sky. The next thing I knew I had been flung through the air – not

TOP: Royal Marine Commandos pictured

clearing a compound in the Sangin Valley. (© Crown Copyright/MoD 2013)

ABOVE: A jacket which was inside Matt Croucher’s day sack and which clearly displays the effects of the explosion. (The Lord Ashcroft Collection) BELOW: Lance Corporal Matt Croucher’s medals – which are currently on display in the Imperial War Museum. From left to right are the George Cross, the Iraq Medal (with “19 Mar to 28 Apr 2003” clasp), Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan (with the “Afghanistan” Clasp, which is awarded for service specifically in Afghanistan), and the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal. (The Lord Ashcroft Collection)

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far, only a metre or so. I was lying face down in the dirt. It was total confusion and I was covered in dust. My ears were ringing, my head was spinning and I had blood coming out of my ears and nose. I checked that my arms and legs were still attached and worried about everything else after that. “I immediately smelt the cordite from the grenade – there was a distinctive burning smell. I wasn’t sure who it was, but I could feel someone frantically patting me down. Later Scottie and Dave told me they had run their hands under my armour to check for injuries, searching for holes in my combats that would signify a shrapnel entry point. My face and eyes were caked in dust and I struggled to breathe. But they [Ads, Dave and Scottie] helped me up and I found my feet.” As he surveyed the scene in the near darkness, Croucher could see that his day sack had been blown fully ten metres away from him

after the shoulder strap had been sliced through by shrapnel. Croucher was in no doubt that the badly damaged day sack had saved his life. Although his helmet and body armour were peppered with grenade fragments, his equipment had prevented potentially lethal shards of metal from penetrating his body and, like his comrades, he had suffered only relatively minor injuries. Later on, the back-up team arrested seven suspected Taliban who had returned to the compound. They also retrieved Croucher’s day sack, which had been severely damaged in the explosion. Miraculously, a thorough check-up back at the base revealed that Croucher had nothing worse that mild concussion, perforated ear drums, and cuts and bruises. I was deeply impressed by Croucher’s

unselfish actions and I wrote an article for The Sunday Telegraph on 6 April 2008, calling for him to be awarded the VC. Croucher refers to this in his book Bulletproof. I wrote: “It is widely accepted that to be awarded the Victoria Cross a serviceman needs to show such astonishing courage that nine times out of ten he would die carrying out the action. If that is the case, Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher is absolutely entitled to be awarded Britain’s most prestigious bravery award.” However, the authorities ruled that Croucher should instead receive the GC – on the grounds that he was not “in the face of the enemy” when the incident occurred – and his gallantry award was announced on 24 July 2008. Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, said of Croucher: “His action epitomises the ethos of selfless devotion to duty, courage and comradeship in the Marines.” Croucher was presented with his award by the Queen on 30 October 2008, when his citation was read out. He was accompanied by his parents, sister and his maternal grandparents. His citation ended: “Lance Corporal Croucher is an exceptional and inspirational individual. His magnificent displays of selflessness and gallantry are truly humbling and are the embodiment of the finest traditions of the service.” After the 2007-8 tour, Croucher transferred back into the Royal Marines’ Reserve and helped set up a security company, Pinnacle Risk Management, that now operates all around the world. His remarkable GC, along with his day sack, are on display in the Imperial War Museum in London. ■ GEORGE CROSS HEROES

Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is a Conservative peer, businessman, philanthropist and author. The story behind Matt Croucher’s GC appears in his book George Cross Heroes. For more information visit: www. georgecrossheroes.com Lord Ashcroft’s VC and GC collection is on public display at the Imperial War Museum. For more information visit: www.iwm.org.uk/heroes For more information on Lord Ashcroft’s work, visit: www.lordashcroft.com. Follow him on Twitter: @LordAshcroft.

MAIN PICTURE: A grenade explodes in a

compound in the Sangin Valley, an image that was taken during another patrol in 2008. (© Crown Copyright/MoD 2013)

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Speed, range and height were the critical criteria for a successful Upkeep release during the Dams raid, Operation Chastise. Speed could be controlled by the Flight Engineer manipulating the throttles and the range by the Bomb Aimer using his special sight. As Rob Owen, Official Historian of the No. 617 Squadron Association, explains, height was a trickier problem. 94

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ccuracy was vital to the success of the Dams raid. Released from too great an altitude, Upkeep might sink without bouncing, break up on initial impact with the water or worse detonate in proximity to the aircraft. Released from too low a height the plume of spray thrown up as the weapon hit the water might strike the aircraft and damage it, possibly even bring it down. Additionally without a means of accurately maintaining low level flight the pilot might unwittingly enter a shallow dive, striking the ground or water without warning. At first it was hoped that the crews of 617 Squadron might achieve accuracy visually through practice. This was soon dispelled. At dusk, ground and sky tended to merge, more so when there was industrial haze as in the Ruhr. Moonlight and reflections could also play deceptive tricks. In the film The Dam Busters someone jokingly suggests letting the navigator

down on a long rope to call out as the water approaches. This was not entirely scriptwriter’s licence, as one might suppose. At the beginning of April 1943, for example, Wing Commander Guy Gibson suggested using a line, weighted to hit the ground at 100 feet, which would cause a jerk to warn the pilot. A number of similar suggestions were investigated. Wireless operators who had forgotten to wind in their trailing aerial often got their first reminder as the dials on their set flickered when the aerial earthed on the ground – usually just before it was torn away as it snagged an obstruction. A similar principle was used to operate the controls of the de Havilland Queen Bee, a pilotless, radiocontrolled target drone version of the Tiger Moth. In this case, a trailing wire of appropriate length dragging on the ground set the aircraft controls to the correct landing attitude. Might something similar be devised as an initial height indicator for the Dambusters? SEPTEMBER 2013

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After this warning the pilot would have to fly on his altimeter. Therein lay a new problem. The standard aneroid (pressure operated) altimeter was not sensitive enough to provide the degree of accuracy required at low level. In any case, ambient barometric pressure over the target would be impossible to predict. The dropping trials of Upkeep, taking place in daylight, used a radio altimeter. A pulse from the aircraft, bounced off the water below, was timed and translated into height. Ideal over open water for heights up to 150 feet, it was less reliable over the enclosed waters of a reservoir surrounded by hills. It also created a false sense of security, giving only an indication of the ground directly beneath the aircraft. The instrument would not detect any sudden rise in terrain height ahead before the aircraft flew into the ground. Flying a heavily laden aircraft low at night, the pilot needed to be looking outside the cockpit, not concentrating on his instruments. SEPTEMBER 2013

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ABOVE: Dambusters Heroes, by the aviation artist Philip E. West, depicts the moment that Lancaster AJ-J, ED906, the aircraft flown by Flight Lieutenant David Maltby, released its Upkeep towards the Möhne Dam. This was the fifth aircraft to attack in the early hours of 17 May 1943 – note the “spotlight altimeter calibrator” in use. For more information on this painting, or on the various prints that are available, please telephone The Art Studio on 01747 828810 or visit Philip’s website at: www.aviationfineart.co.uk RIGHT: A Lancaster drops one of the trial

devices at Reculver on 12 May 1943 – one of a series of iconic images that represents the development of Upkeep and which shows the difficulties encountered in accurately obtaining the height required for Operation Chastise.

There seemed no easy solution until the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough produced a report dating from September 1941. This described optical methods of calibrating a conventional altimeter fitted to an aircraft flying over the sea at night. The first method used two lights fitted to the aircraft: one in the nose, the other in the 95

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FINDING THE HEIGHT

ABOVE: This is believed to be the only existing photograph that shows the First World War predecessor of 617 Squadron’s “spotlight altimeter calibrator”. (Author) ABOVE RIGHT: This view of the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Museum Avro Lancaster Just Jane shows two of the positions from which the spot lights were observed during the tests undertaken by Squadron Leader Henry Maudslay on 8 April 1943 – the starboard cockpit blister and the bomb aimer’s position. The wireless operator’s starboard window is out of view. (HMP)

tail, shining downward and angled so that their beams intersected beneath the aircraft at a given altitude. A trial installation had been carried out using a Vickers Wellington. The front beam had been inclined slightly forward and to the left of vertical, the rear beam set to intersect this at a height of 200 feet. The point of intersection would be forward and to the left, visible to the pilot. With the latter being close to the light source, the front spot appeared to remain stationary. The rear beam spot appeared ahead of the fixed spot when the aircraft was too high, and behind it when too low, making corrections easy. A different version of this method was developed by removing the front light and giving the pilot what was, in effect, a “ring and bead” sight fitted to the outside edge of his port window. At the correct height the spot from the rear lamp would be central in the sight. A further variation used a single spotlight mounted in the tail and a tubular, rearward angled sight looking downwards towards the point where the rear beam would strike the water when the aircraft was at the

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correct height. Test flights of the twin spotlight method proved that it was possible, but impractical, for the pilot to observe the spots on the water. However, the lights could be seen from the bomb aimer’s position and instructions issued to the pilot via the intercom. There was no difficulty in determining whether the aircraft was above or below the correct height by both the position and brightness of the spots. After a little practice it was found that it was possible to judge the height to about plus or minus five feet. The system worked well over water and even better over fairly level land. The single lamp and rearward sight method also worked, but suffered from the tubular sight having a restricted field of view. The 1941 report also acknowledged the idea’s pedigree, dating back to the First World War. During this conflict a Captain Jenkins had developed an “Optical Night Height Altitude Indicator”. A trial installation was fitted to a BE 2c and tested at Orfordness in August 1917. Jenkins’ system comprised two fixed fourvolt lamps, spaced five feet apart fore and aft on a tubular frame mounted to the side of the aircraft. These projected a pair of marks onto the ground. A third adjustable light then was positioned to shine between the other two, its angle being read off. This angle could be converted to height using a set of tables. It was workable up to 500 feet; a twelvevolt version was planned for use up to 1,000 feet. In practice, the lamp spacing was too short to give great accuracy; the set up too

cumbersome for service use. The idea re-emerged briefly during the inter-war period as a possible night landing aid for flying boats. At about the time of the 1941 Wellington-based experiments it was also being considered for use by 44 Squadronc Handley Page Hampdens as an aid to minelaying (although it is unclear as to whether it was ever used for this purpose). The idea was soon adapted for the Lancaster. On 4 April 1943, Squadron Leader Henry Maudslay flew one of 617 Squadron’s original standard aircraft from Scampton to Farnborough for a trial installation. Two Signalling Lamps, Type B, were used. The front one was mounted in the bombing camera position, to port of the centreline and just forward of the bomb doors, directed 30 degrees to starboard of vertical. The rear lamp was some forty feet

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to the rear, aft of the bomb bay, in a hole cut into the Lancaster’s redundant under turret blanking panel. The rear beam shone 40 degrees to starboard and 15.1 degrees forwards giving an intersection of the beams at 150 feet – the original intended height for the release of Upkeep. With a beam spread of 6 degrees, at a height of 150 feet each spot was fifteen feet wide. The spots could be observed by the navigator standing with his head in the observation blister on the starboard side of the cockpit canopy. As the aircraft descended the front one appeared to be stationary but the rear was either ahead if the aircraft was too high, or behind if too low. At the correct height the touching spots formed a figure “8”. The equipment installed, on 8 April Maudslay flew the aircraft back to Scampton. En route trial runs were flown over The Wash for three quarters of an hour shortly after sunset with conditions equating to those of a full moon. The spots were switched on and could be seen from 500 feet from the starboard cockpit blister, the bomb aimer’s position and the wireless operator’s starboard window. Maudslay was guided by verbal instructions given by either his navigator or an RAE observer, who was also aboard. Neither had used the equipment before. After a few minutes practice there was no difficulty in achieving runs to within plus or minus ten feet of the specified height, measured against a specially calibrated sensitive altimeter. As a further experiment, a hand held signalling lamp was shone downwards from the bomb aimer’s window and

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LEFT: A diagram detailing

the positioning, fitting and adjustment of the spotlights. Note how there are two positions marked for the rear lamp – the rearmost was that used for standard Lancasters, the one with the rear lamp in the bomb bay was used for aircraft modified to carry Upkeep. (Courtesy of the RAF Museum)

MAIN PICTURE BELOW: A picture that illustrates the dangers faced by the crews of 617 Squadron – a plume of water from one trials device, dropped below sixty feet, hits the Lancaster involved on 12 May 1943. This was the aircraft, ED921, flown by Flight Lieutenant John Leslie Munro. Fuselage panelling can be seen falling away from the damaged tail section.

two other lamp fronts that spread the beam into a line were tried. Neither was deemed to be as good as a plain glass front. With the installation proven, six sets of lights were to be made available at Scampton by 16 April to permit the squadron to train. A further twenty sets would be prepared by 25 April, ready for fitment to the modified, operational aircraft. Installation and set-up took approximately two man-days per aircraft, involving a modified wiring circuit and switch for the lights, cutting the

aperture for the rear light and mounting the lamps. With the latter installed, each aircraft was jacked up into flying attitude and the distance between the lamp centres marked off on the hangar floor. From these points, the position on the hangar floor through which the beams should shine to intersect at the required height was calculated. The lamps were then switched on and adjusted until the centre of the each spot shone on the correct point on the floor. It was precise work, requiring accuracy of adjustment to 1/4 inch. The lamp brackets were then drilled and locking bolts fitted to fix the lamps firmly in position. All seemed to be going well until Sir Arthur Harris, Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, heard of the proposed solution. Once again his mistrust of inventors came to a head. Annotating a Minute on 15 April 1943, he wrote tersely: “I will not have aircraft flying about with spotlights on in defended areas. Get some of these lunatics controlled – if possible, locked

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up.” As an afterthought he added: “Note – beams of spots will not work on water if glassy calm. Any fool knows that.” After further discussion, Air Vice Marshal Sir Ralph Cochrane, AOC No.5 Group, contacted Ben Lockspeiser at the Ministry of Aircraft Production: Harris had a good deal of experience with this type of height finder (Harris had been involved with flying boats during 1932-33) and a surface of calm water did not reflect the light so that intersection of the beams took place some distance beneath the surface. Cochrane suggested that a check be made to see whether this was in fact the case. Further trials by 617 Squadron duly proved Harris’s fears unfounded since most water had a slight “chop”. Nevertheless, the crews too had concerns about flying in to attack a defended target at low level “lit up like a Christmas tree”. By 23 April, four of 617 Squadron’s aircraft had been fitted with the “spotlight altimeter calibrator” and ten crews had experienced its use. The following day Barnes Wallis summoned Wing Commander Gibson to Weybridge for a progress meeting. There Gibson was informed that trials had demonstrated

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that for Upkeep to work it must be released from a height of only sixty feet. The Dambuster crews carried out training over The Wash and over the airfield, where observers with theodolites checked the aircraft height. By 1 May eighteen crews had practised with the system. The equipment was simple to use and extremely effective. If they descended below the required height pilots were instructed to pull up immediately to a safe altitude before making another attempt. Training with the original standard aircraft continued at 150 feet, but the operational aircraft, adapted and equipped to carry Upkeep, were to have their lights fitted further forward in the bomb bay so that the travel of the spots at sixty feet was roughly the same as those in the training aircraft. This position also shaded the lamp and obviated a problem previously experienced of oil smearing the lamp glass. To reduce visibility from the ground, the forward lamp would be fitted with a projecting tubular shade. The first of the Upkeep aircraft was fitted at Farnborough and returned to Scampton on 2 May. To help fit the remainder, two RAE technicians stood by,

ABOVE: The front spotlight shield (the tubular structure protruding out of the bombing camera port) fitted to Wing Commander Gibson’s Lancaster, ED932 (AJ-G). The whip aerial for the VHF radio (used for communicating between aircraft) can also be seen on the lower starboard side of the nose. (Author) BELOW LEFT: Proof that the “spotlight altimeter calibrator” system worked (along with the other techniques used by the crews of 617 Squadron during Operation Chastise) – a pair of images which show the Möhne Dam before and after the attack on the night of 16/17 May 1943. The aerial reconnaissance picture taken before the raid shows the main power station (marked as ‘A’), the compensating basin (‘B’) and the anti-torpedo boom (‘C’). The second photograph was taken “several hours after the attack”. The original caption states that “turbulent water and foam cover the site of the power station destroyed in the flood; the dam surrounding the compensating basin has been destroyed and houses and farms washed away.” (HMP) ready to travel to Scampton if required. Progress was good. By 7 May eighteen operational aircraft had been fitted and their crews were proficient. Two more aircraft would be fitted, the final one when a new Lancaster was delivered to replace that damaged by Squadron Leader Maudslay who released an inert practice Upkeep from too low a height at Reculver on 12 May. One final machine would be delivered to the Squadron on the afternoon of 16 May, the day of the operation, to be used as a reserve, but it arrived too late for the lights to be fitted. In the event this aircraft was taken on the raid by Flight Lieutenant McCarthy’s crew, who were detailed to attack the Sorpe. Fortunately the lights were not essential for their attack profile, releasing Upkeep from as low as possible without spinning. Like the bomb sight, the spotlight altimeter employed basic trigonometric principles. Simple but effective pieces of equipment, both contributed in no small measure to the success of Operation Chastise. ■ SEPTEMBER 2013

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Overall size 71cm x 45cm (28" x18")

Overall Limited edition of 200.

Image size 63cm x 30cm (24" x 12")

R 13 O U W 20 O L O E R N E EW C E R E N GE UR E F RD O PA CH BL Y 16 RO ILA ER B A EV AV H IT W

DAMBUSTERS - APPROACHING THE EDER

by

Mark Postlethwaite

Squadron Leader Henry Maudslay flying Lancaster ED937 'Z' Zebra makes his first approach to the Eder Dam during Operation Chastise, 17th May 1943. Tragically, all seven crew members aboard ED937 died an hour later when their Lancaster was shot down on the return journey near Emmerich. Overall size 71cm x 43cm (28” x 18”) Image size 62cm x 32cm (24” x 12”)

DAMBUSTERS -THE OPENING SHOTS

Numbers 1-150 25 Artist’s proofs 25 Remarques

signed by the artist signed by the artist signed by the artist

£60 £75 £250

Overall size 71cm x 43cm (28” x 18”) Image size 62cm x 32cm (24” x 12”)

THE AMERICAN DAMBUSTER

Single limited edition of just 300 fine art paper prints. Numbers 1-200 signed by the artist and Sqn Ldr ‘Johnny’ Johnson. £75 Numbers 201-250 signed by the artist only. SOLD OUT All other editions SOLD OUT

Single limited edition of just 300 fine art paper prints. Numbers 1-250 signed by the artist. £50 All other editions SOLD OUT Overall size 71cm x 43cm (28” x 18”) Image size 62cm x 32cm (24” x 12”)

DAMBUSTERS -DUSK DEPARTURE

Overall Size 59cm x 42cm. (24” X 16”) Image size 54cm x 26cm (21” x 10”)

DAMBUSTERS -A MOMENT IN HISTORY

Single limited edition of just 200 fine art paper prints. Numbers 1-150 signed by the artist. £60 25 Artist’s Proofs signed by the artist. £75 25 Remarques signed by the artist. £250

Single limited edition of just 120 fine art paper prints. Numbers 1-100 signed by the artist. £60 25 Larger Artist’s Proofs signed by the artist and Eileen Albone. SOLD OUT

Mark Postlethwaite has been a professional, independent aviation artist for over 20 years. This means that his prints, originals and commissions have no gallery, agent or publisher fees built in. As such his commissions start at just £2000 and you get to deal directly with the artist. For more details, please visit the website or contact him via the address below. Postage per order. £3 UK, £6 Europe, £10 Worldwide.

Mark Postlethwaite, Sidewinder Publishing Ltd, 11 Sheridan Close, Enderby, Leicester, LE19 4QW England.

Tel. 0845 095 0344

email. [email protected] www.posart.com

www.facebook.com/markpostlethwaitegava

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Reconnaissance Report... The Britain at War team scout out the latest books, DVDs and items of interest.

THE RED LINE The Gripping Story of the RAF’s Bloodiest Raid on Hitler’s Germany

BOOK OF THE MONTH

John Nichol

Publisher: Collins www.harpercollins.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-00-748683-0 Hardback. 298 pages RRP: £20.00

Nuremberg had not been attacked for seven months. Its factories produced tanks, armoured cars and diesel engines and on its outskirts was an aircraft repair facility. It was also the scene of the famous rallies which had inspired the German nation. It was therefore both a symbolic and strategic target of considerable importance. As the main focus of Bomber Command’s efforts in recent months had been Berlin, it was unlikely that the Germans would suspect a massive raid upon another city. Consequently Harris proposed flying directly to Nuremberg rather than attempting a more devious route which might help to confuse the German defences. There were diversionary attacks, or “spoof” raids planned. Utilizing 139 aircraft, false raids would be delivered against Aachen, Cologne and Kassel, where target indicator flares would be dropped as if they were the precursor to a major raid, and fifty Halifax bombers would head across the North Sea to give the appearance of a raid heading towards Berlin or Hamburg. With the Germans suitably distracted, 572 Lancasters, 214 Halifaxes and nine Mosquitos would bomb Nuremberg at 01.10 hours on 31 March 1944, ending at 01.22 hours. In those twelve minutes 2,600 tonnes of bombs would be dropped by aircraft passing over the target at a rate of fifty-seven bombers per minute. The bomber stream was making steady progress at 23,000 feet, the Germans aware of its existence but unsure of its destination. The first of the German night fighters had been scrambled a little after 23.00 hours. Of the various raids that were developing over Germany, the Luftwaffe had to decide which one was the principle attack. As it happened, they correctly chose the most southerly of the bomber streams. The target was not Berlin or Hamburg in the north, but Nuremberg in Bavaria. When the night fighters made contact with the bomber stream, they found the aircraft to be clearly silhouetted, with the moon above and the searchlights below forming an alleyway of light which soon

Illustrations ✔ References/Notes ✔ Appendices ✘ Index ✔

became a passageway of death. “I had never seen anything like this, and certainly not with as much clarity,” recalled Dick Starkey, a member of the crew of 106 Squadron’s Lancaster ND535, ZN-Q. “The brightness of the moon meant that you could see it all in great detail. Fire would rip through the aircraft until it reached the bomb bay, which would blow up and shower debris around like flaming confetti. The flames died as what remained of the aircraft plummeted to the ground; then there would be another massive explosion on impact.” So many bombers had fallen in that way, the earth was ablaze. The trail of burning wrecks on the ground guided more German pilots to the bomber stream, and having found the lumbering bombers, in the clear night sky the German night fighters could hardly miss. “I flew along, following the crashes on the ground,” remembered Leutnant Wilhelm Seuss, “and I saw a Lancaster in a searchlight, and I shot it down. I could have picked up bombers on my SN-2 [radar] but it wasn’t necessary. The stream was tightly concentrated and I shot down two more very quickly.” Of the 795 aircraft that set out on the night of 30 March 1944, eighty-two were lost on the outward route and near the target. The action was much reduced on the return flight, when most of the German fighters had to land, but ninety-five bombers were lost in all – sixtyfour Lancasters and thirty-one Halifaxes, representing 11.9 per cent of the force despatched. Bomber Command had 743 dead or wounded and a further 159 became prisoners-of-war. It was Bomber Command’s worse night of the war. John Nichol relives this terrible night through the words of those involved and in doing so paints a harrowing picture of the experiences on board the bombers. The Red Line is full of fast action, moving from aircraft to aircraft as they battle with the Luftwaffe. The story reaches its climax as the bombers reach Nuremberg, release their devastating payload and somehow try to evade the night fighters to reach home. It is a dramatic story excitingly told. • Reviewed by John Grehan.

(© MoD/Crown Copyright 2013)

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Reconnaissance Report... WELLINGTON’S RIFLES

The Origins, Development and Battles of the Rifle Regiments in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo from 1758 to 1815

Ray Cusick Publisher: Pen & Sword; www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-78159-287-X Hardback. 192 pages RRP: £19.99

BOOK REVIEWS

The tactics we expect an infantryman to adopt, that of independent thinking, the use of cover and concealment, aimed fire, were, at one time an anathema to the British military establishment. In the eighteenth century such principles were considered at best, ineffective or un-manly and even bordered on the cowardly. The accepted method of engaging the enemy was by carefully controlled volleys from infantry formed in close lines. With muskets only capable of an effective range of about 100 yards, aimed fire was seen as irrelevant – it was rate of fire which counted for everything. Spending time aiming the weapon cost time and that meant less shots could be fired. A well-trained battalion of, say 600 men, could fire 1,800 rounds per minute (at least in the early stages of a fire-fight before the muskets clogged up and casualties began to mount), producing a hail of bullets. Providing the men held their nerve and continued to reload and fire quicker than their opponents their chances of success were high. This was seen as being particularly the case if the battalion was advancing upon the enemy. Taking time to load and aim carefully meant that momentum was lost. It seems astonishing to us to consider that the following observation from an officer in 1804, little more than ten years before the Battle of Waterloo, should be considered remarkable: “The flintlock musket is an instrument of a missile force. It is obvious that the force, which the missile ought to be directed with aim, otherwise it will strike only by accident. It is evident that a person cannot take aim with any correctness unless he be free, independent and clear of surrounding encumbrances.” It would prove to be a long time before the establishment figures adopted the principles espoused by that officer (who was actually an Army Surgeon) on a large scale. Infantry battalions did have one company of light infantry (out of a tencompany structure) which would be deployed ahead of the battalion line to harass the enemy. When the opposing forces closed on each other, the

THE MERCHANT NAVY

Richard Woodman At one time British ships carried half of the world’s trade, transporting every conceivable freight from and to all four corners of the globe – and in times of crisis its tremendous merchant fleet has also offered military assistance. In fact, the merchant convoys and armed cruisers that defied the German blockades to supply Britain in the First World War were so pivotal that they were recognised as a second ‘navy’ – the Merchant Navy. As this Shire guide shows, this fleet again saw action in the Second World War, continuing to keep Britain provisioned. Publisher: Shire Books; www.shirebooks.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-74781-232-6 Softback. 56 pages RRP: £6.99

D-DAY DIARY Life on the Front Line in the Second World War

Carol Harris Around 150,000 soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy during the first day of the largest amphibious operation in history. Within a month the remarkable total of more than one million men had been put ashore. As memory becomes history, firsthand accounts of this incredible invasion force become more and more precious. In D-Day Diary, historian Carol Harris collects together some of those accounts, detailing testing and training, deception, airborne assault, crossing the channel, and, of course, the events on the beaches themselves. Publisher: The History Press; www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-7524-6220-2 Hardback. 191 pages RRP: £12.99

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light infantry company would fall back and join the rest of the battalion line. A few skirmishers were introduced into the British Army at the beginning of the nineteenth century who were armed with rifles. All guns in use with the British Army at that time were muzzle loaded and because of the rifling in the barrels and because the use of tight wadding, rifles were harder, and slower, to load than muskets. Though rifles were capable of much greater accuracy – the standard British rifle, the Baker rifle, was sighted at 200 yards and one rifleman, Tom Plunkett, reputedly shot a French officer at 600 yards – because of the reduced rate of fire, only limited numbers of specially-trained troops were employed as riflemen. When the line infantry’s weapons could only fire effectively at 100 yards, there was no point in the men attempting to conceal themselves. Now that the riflemen could fire at much greater distances they could hide themselves and pick off the enemy. So the bright red coats of the line infantry were discarded and the riflemen wore dark green and their braid and accoutrements were black. The men were also trained to operate freely, choosing their own ground. The late Ray Cusick’s fascinating book explains the development of the rifle and the early use of what today would be considered standard infantry tactics. This is no dull academic study, though. The story of the development of the rifleman is explained by relating the battles in which they fought. Beginning with the Duke of Marlborough, through Frederick the Great and General Wolfe to the Duke of Wellington, the great battles of these eras are brought to life. Wellington’s Rifles is therefore both enlightening and entertaining.

· Reviewed by John Grehan Illustrations ✔ References/Notes ✘ Appendices ✔ Index ✔

THE DAMBUSTER WHO CRACKED THE DAM The Story of Melvin ‘Dinghy’ Young

Arthur G. Thorning When the famous raid took place against the Möhne dam, it was the bomb delivered by Melvin Young’s aircraft that, according to Guy Gibson, made “three good bounces and contact”. Once the dam had been breached Gibson, with Melvin as his deputy, led the three remaining armed aircraft towards the Eder Dam. On the return trip Melvin Young and his crew fell victim to enemy guns. This is the story of that young man from childhood, through his days at Oxford and his career in the RAF which culminated in the most memorable air raid of all. Publisher: Pen & Sword; www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-78303-015-6 Softback. 178 pages RRP: £12.99

FROM BORNEO TO LOCKERBIE Memoirs of an RAF Helicopter Pilot

Geoffrey Leeming In 1961 Geoffrey Leeming achieved his boyhood ambition to become an RAF pilot. He flew in the little-known Borneo Confrontation of the 1960s flying Whirlwind helicopters which supported the land forces operating along the Indonesian border with long and hazardous flights over dense, frequently uncharted, jungle. Most of the author’s remaining helicopter service was in the Search and Rescue role. This period culminated in his traumatic involvement in the immediate aftermath of the explosion of the Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie. Publisher: Pen & Sword; www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-84884-765-3 Hardback. 220 pages RRP: £19.99

BRITAIN’S COLD WAR BOMBERS

Tim McLelland Britain’s Cold War Bombers explores the creation and development of the jet bomber, tracing the emergence of the first jet designs (the Vickers Valiant and the Avro Vulcan) through to the first-generation jets which entered service with the RAF and Fleet Air Arm, leading to the present day. Each aircraft type is examined, including amongst many, the Canberra, Victor, Buccaneer, Sperrin, Scimitar, Nimrod, Phantom, Sea Harrier, Jaguar, Tornado GR1/4 and Typhoon, looking at how the design was created and how that was translated into an operational aircraft. Publisher: Fonthill; www.fonthillmedia.com ISBN: 978-1-78155-052-6 Hardback. 336 pages RRP: £25.00

SEPTEMBER 2013

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS Reconnaissance Report...

The La Boisselle Study Group reports that it has completed eighteen days’ work on the site, investigations which focussed on surface archaeology around the Granathof farm complex. All of the group’s work is financed by donations, and to aid this year’s fundraising it will be hosting an evening of lectures at Reading University on Friday, 18 October 2013. There will be an update on the latest work and the unique value of the La Boisselle Project from Peter Barton and Jeremy Banning. This will be followed by a talk from Tessa Dunlop (BBC’s Coast). Entitled “English Princess to Warrior Queen”, it examines Marie of Romania during the First World War. The final talk of the evening will be by actor and comedian Hugh Dennis talking about his family’s wartime experiences and what he learnt by walking in their footsteps whilst appearing in the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? Tickets are priced at £20 (including glass of wine on arrival). For more information, please visit: www.laboisselleproject.com/lecture

On Saturday, 21 September 2013, the Tank Museum at Bovington in Dorset will be hosting a new event – the “Britain at War Show”. The museum’s Event Manager, Vicki Pol, said: “This September event will allow us to examine a specific aspect of the British wartime experience. We’re starting by looking at the National Service years.” As well as the National Service theme, the show will also be highlighting the events of the Korean War. “The Korean War is often overlooked when we examine our military history,” continued Vicki, “so on this sixty year anniversary it is fitting that we shine a light on it. As a result, we are really keen to hear from any Korean War and National Service veterans – particularly those who served in tanks – as we put together the programme for the event.” It was the National Service Act 1948 that led to the United Kingdom’s peacetime conscription after the Second World War. This piece of legislation ensured that from 1 January 1949, males between 17 and 21 years old were compelled to serve in the armed forces for a period of eighteen months, following which they remained on the reserve list for four years. There were exceptions, the main ones being those men employed in coal mining, farming or serving in the Merchant Navy. In response to the outbreak of the Korean War, the period of National Service was extended to two years, though the reserve period was reduced by six months. This conflict, along with others of the era, such as the Malayan Emergency and the Cyprus Emergency, saw National Servicemen used in combat operations. During the Korean War, for example, conscripts in the Gloucestershire Regiment fought in the Battle of the Imjin River. Focusing on the Korean War and the National Service years, the new Britain At War Show will include a National Service era tank action display, displays from a range of privately owned military vehicles, vintage and militaria trade stalls, and special talks and tours. The museum is also keen to hear from Royal Armoured Corps National Service veterans in the lead-up to the event, particularly if they have photographs relating to their service. These can be brought in or emailed in advance to: [email protected] The museum is also offering Britain at War Magazine subscribers the chance to save over 30% on the normal admission price. To qualify for your discount, simply present the carrier sheet (the paper insert that is posted with your magazine with your name and address printed on it) at admissions on the day of the event. The individual named on the sheet will be entitled to admission at the discounted Group rate. The Britain at War team will be at the show – we look forward to seeing you there!

THE SKETCHBOOK WAR Saving the Nation’s Artists in World War II

Richard Knott This is not a book about art, rather the stories of nine courageous war artists who ventured closer to the front line than any others in their profession. Edward Ardizzone, Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Anthony Gross, Thomas Hennell, Eric Ravilious, Albert Richards, Richard Seddon, and John Worsley all travelled into the dangers of war to chronicle events by painting them. Portraying how war and art came together, this is the true story behind the war artists who fought, lived and died for their art on the front line of the Second World War. Publisher: The History Press; www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-7524-8923-0 Hardback. 240 pages RRP: £20.00

UNCLE BILL The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal Viscount Slim

Russell Miller In 2011 the National Army Museum conducted a poll to decide who merited the title of “Britain’s Greatest General”. In the end two men shared the honour. One, predictably, was the Duke of Wellington. The other was Bill Slim. Had he been alive, Slim would have been surprised, for he was the most modest of men. Of all the plaudits heaped on him during his life, the one he valued most was the epithet by which he was affectionately known to the troops: “Uncle Bill”. This biography has been written with the full co-operation of the Slim family. Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; www.orionbooks.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-297-86584-1 Hardback. 466 pages RRP: £25.00

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DOUGLAS BADER The RAF Pilot Who Shot Down 20 Enemy Aircraft Despite Having Lost Both His Legs

Dilip Sarkar A fighter ace and highly decorated war hero, Douglas Bader became a household name in the 1950s. Indeed, his name remains the one the general public associate most with the Battle of Britain. That he overcame his disability and flew into battle is remarkable. Dilip Sarkar has spent over twenty years researching the life and times of Douglas Bader. The result is this book, written in close co-operation with his fellow wartime pilots, which deconstructs the popular myth cemented by wartime propaganda and the 1950s book and film Reach for the Sky. Publisher: Amberley Publishing; www.amberleybooks.com ISBN: 978-1-4456-1276-8 Hardback. 363 pages RRP: £25.00

TEN BRAVE MEN AND TRUE The Victoria Cross Holders From the Borough of Tunbridge Wells

Richard Snow Stories of Victoria Cross actions are always full of excitement and drama and this book is no exception. These particular ten men earned their laurels across the world and across the decades – from Russia to New Zealand, Mesopotamia to North Africa, Italy to Canada and Afghanistan, from the Crimean War to the Second World War. Each of the ten entries provides highly detailed accounts of the actions which resulted in the awarding of the VC as well as extensive biographical information. The book is packed with images and photographs. Publisher: Menin House; www.tommiesguides.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-908336-38-5 Softback, A4. 341 pages RRP: £19.99

SECRET WEAPONS Death Rays, Doodlebugs and Churchill’s Golden Goose

Brian J. Ford This book charts the history of secret weapons development by all the major powers during the war, from British radar to Japanese ray-guns, and explains the vital impact that each of these often bizarre weapons and developments eventually had on the outcome of the war. Such items include jet aircraft, V-2 rockets, bouncing bombs and, of course, nuclear weapons. Many of the bizarre, if imaginative schemes never made it beyond the drawing board or planning stages but do represent some of the most unusual concepts ever imagined by man. Publisher: Osprey Publishing; www.ospreypublishing.com ISBN: 978-1-78096-721-9 Softback. 280 pages RRP: £9.99

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Reconnaissance Report... NO FLIGHT FROM THE CAGE The Compelling Memoir of a Bomber Command Prisoner of War During the Second World War

Calton Younger Publisher: Fighting High; www.fightinghigh.com ISBN: 978-0-95711-635-1 Hardback. 240 pages RRP: £19.95

There are many books written by those that had to endure the German prisoner of war camps. Each are full of fascinating anecdotes and stories of great determination to try and escape or to at least make life as difficult for their captors as possible. This particular offering is especially rich in such material. Australian Carlton Younger joined 460 Squadron in 1942, flying Wellingtons, before his last flight on the night of 29/30 May that year. Tasked to attack the Gnome Rhône factory at Gennevilliers near Le Bourget, his aircraft, Z1391 UV-R, was hit by flak and brought to the ground. Of the five crew only Younger and fellow Australian Sergeant G.H. Loder survived, both to become PoWs. After being helped by a variety of French farmers Younger was arrested by gendarmes. He soon found himself in the hands of the Germans. “Pour vous,” a large Feldwebel growled, “la guerre est finis”. Incredibly his German captors, as they drove Younger towards the Luftwaffe’s headquarters in Paris, suggested to him that, as he would not be seeing much of the outside world in the future, he might like to see the sights of the French capital! They drove him around for a while until the car broke down. As Younger noted, at this mid-stage of the war the intense bombing of Germany was in its infancy and the Germans had not developed the hatred towards the British bomber crews that came in the final years. Eventually Younger found himself at Dulag Luft and he recounts the many stories of escape attempts and the humour of camp life. It was the last months of his confinement, and the last months of the war, however, which are the most poignant. In March 1945, the Allies crossed the Rhine and the news of the approach of the British forces was met

17th MANCHESTERS A History of the Battalion and the Men Who Served With it in the Great War

John Hartley This extremely detailed book is a comprehensive guide to one of the Manchester Pals battalions, formed as part of Kitchener’s New Army on the outbreak of war. The 17th (Service) Battalion (2nd City Pals) was formed in late August 1914, initially from the clerks and warehousemen of the city’s major employers. The men saw action at the Somme, Arras, Ypres, and the German Spring Offensive of 1918. Extensive research has enabled mini-biographies to be written about nearly 1,000 men who formed the original Pals. This is a record of their achievements and losses. Publisher: Reveille Press; www.reveillepress.com ISBN: 978-1-908336-53-8 Hardback, A4. 355 pages RRP: £35.00

FROM AUSTER TO APACHE The History of 656 Squadron RAF/AAC 1942-2012

Guy Warner It was on 31 December 2012, that 656 Squadron celebrated its 70th anniversary. Over the intervening years the squadron has served with great distinction in India, Burma, Java, Malaya, Borneo, Hong Kong, the UK, the Falkland Islands, Bosnia, Kosovo and, most recently, in Afghanistan. In 2001 the Squadron was chosen to be the Army’s first Apache attack helicopter squadron. Overall it has amassed well over 200,000 operational flying hours making it the most operational squadron in the entire history of army air warfare. This is 656’s story, told in full. Publisher: Pen & Sword; www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-78159-098-2 Hardback. 314 pages RRP: £25.00

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BOOK REVIEWS with nervous excitement by the prisoners. Younger observed the Volkstrumm at that time undergoing training practises just outside the camp. “They were old men, crawling round the hillocks, wriggling forward on flaccid stomachs, running painfully bent. A group of them settled into some bushes for a smoke, and we kept them posted of the whereabouts of their officers and NCOs, enjoying the ensuing game of hide-andseek. Were these ancients all that stood between us and liberation?” As Younger observed, it clearly was because on 5 April the prisoners were told that they were being moved as the Allies were closing in and the camp itself was struck by a few wayward incendiary bombs. With just a few guards to control them, the prisoners were marched away. As Younger recounts, the march was just as arduous for the guards as it was the prisoners. “Some of the marching guards were elderly men, and for them too, this was drudgery. Two prisoners broke from the column, stumbled down the embankment, making for the wood, jogging like cart-horses. A frying-pan and a pannikin hanging on strings from the pack of one of them clashed and jangled, clashed and jangled. A guard took steady aim, then lowered his rifle. For almost a minute he could have had the escapers in his sights. Then they vanished among the trees.” No Flight From the Cage was first published in 1956 and it is little wonder that this revised, extended and updated edition has been brought to press for a new generation to read. It is well worth its place on any bookshelf.

· Reviewed by Alexander Nicoll Illustrations ✔ References/Notes ✘ Appendices ✘ Index ✔

PROFILES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR The Silhouettes of Captain H.L. Oakley

Jerrry Rendell H.L. Oakley was one of the most talented and prolific silhouette artists of the twentieth century. He joined up in the summer of 1914, but continued to create arresting images, including one of the most famous recruiting posters of the day, that was used not only across Britain, but around the Commonwealth. He served with the Green Howards and continued throughout his military career to create silhouettes of the front, from famous officers to the men in the trenches, showing life on the frontline during the First World War in a whole new light. Publisher: Spellmount; www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-7524-9352-7 Softback. 207 pages RRP: £16.99

ONCE THERE WAS A WAR John Steinbeck

This is a collection of some of the finest correspondence from the Second World War, courtesy of one of America’s most distinguished authors. Produced for the New York Herald Tribune when the war was at its height, John Steinbeck sent despatches back to the US from Britain, recounting the courage of the bomber crews, the tragic air-raids and the “strangeness” of the British, before being sent to Africa and joining a special operations unit off the coast of Italy. Steinbeck’s reports never fail to evoke the human side of an inhuman war. Publisher: The Folio Society; www.foliosociety.com Hardback. 196 pages RRP: £24.95

ABOVE YPRES The German Air Force in Flanders 1914-18 Bernard Deneckere

This book provides details of the German aircraft types, the flying squadrons, the formations and organisation of the German Air Force which flew over the Belgian battlefields throughout the First World War. It is divided into chapters by year, including the situation of the German Air Force at the outbreak of war and during the invasion of Belgium. The aerial action relating to every major battle in Flanders is covered as well as such operations as the bombardment of Dunkirk in 1915 and the activities of the Naval Squadrons and seaplanes. Publisher: FireStep Publishing; www.firesteppublishing.com ISBN: 978-1-908487-30-8 Hardback, A4. 164 pages RRP: £25.99

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When an attack on a Germanheld hill in Italy ran into trouble seventy years ago this month, Company Sergeant Major Peter “Misty” Wright lost his temper and altered the course of the entire battle. Steve Snelling chronicles the remarkable story of the Coldstream Guards hero who became a Victoria Cross recipient by Royal command.

VC

B

eneath a sweltering September sun, the thin line of troops straggled down the steep slopes to be swallowed by the thick scrub carpeting the small valley north of Salerno. Two companies, roughly 200 men, sweated as they stumbled through the tangle of bushes and trees which they hoped would mask their progress from prying eyes. It was uncomfortably hot and incongruously quiet. Bringing up the rear with a reserve platoon, Captain Christopher Bulteel thought “nothing could have been more lovely and peaceful”.1 “Sometimes in the distance a gun banged,” he wrote, “but it was in another world. Birds sang lazily, and we could hear faintly the singing of the little brook in the bottom valley.” As they pushed on, he thought he could even hear the distant sound of a church bell softly chiming the hours. It was around midday

on 25 September 1943, and Nos. 1 and 3 Companies of the 3rd Battalion, the Coldstream Guards, represented the vanguard of the British advance north from the hard-won Allied beachhead on the rugged shores of the Gulf of Salerno in southern Italy. Operation Avalanche, the first great battle to liberate the continent of Europe, was seventeen days old and way behind schedule. The more optimistic among the planners had talked of seizing Naples by the evening of the third day, but, more than two weeks on, the port remained in German hands and fighting in the maze of hills a few miles

ABOVE: The Allied invasion of Italy at Salerno gets underway. This image shows British troops and vehicles from 128 Brigade, part of the 46th (North Midland) Division, being unloaded from LST 383 on 9 September 1943. The main invasion force landed around Salerno in Operation Avalanche, while two supporting operations took place in Calabria (Operation Baytown) and Taranto (Operation Slapstick). (ww2images) ABOVE RIGHT: Company Sergeant Major Peter Harold

Wright VC. Born at Mettingham in Suffolk on 8 August 1916, he was the sixth of fourteen children. Peter was two when the family moved to a farm at Kirstead in Norfolk. He worked on the family’s farms in Norfolk and Suffolk before joining the Coldstream Guards aged 20 on 7 October 1936. He left the army in 1946 and returned to farming in his home county where he remained until his death, aged 73, on 5 April 1990. (All images courtesy SEPTEMBER 2013of the author unless stated otherwise)

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ABOVE LEFT: Peter Wright, seen here

on the right, and a fellow member of the 3rd Coldstream Guards in North Africa. Following the fall of Tobruk, the battalion was withdrawn to Syria and rebuilt.

ABOVE RIGHT: Peter Wright as a Sergeant in

the Western Desert. He served in the carrier and anti-tank platoons before being wounded during the defence of the Knightsbridge Box in the Gazala Line fighting of June 1942. “I thought I had lost my eye,” he later said. “We suffered a lot of casualties, lost a lot of men. I thought we were going to be overrun.”

BELOW: War comes to the desert. A group of Coldstream Guardsmen pose for the camera early in the North African campaign. Peter Wright is in the trench on the extreme right. inland continued as fierce as ever. Not until the beachhead was finally secure were British and American troops able to begin the break-out battle. The plan was for the British 46th (North Midland) Division to carry out the main thrust towards the Nocera defile which led through the mountains into the Naples plain. As part of the scheme, the 56th (London) Division, with the 201st Guards Brigade leading, was to feint north through the hilly Avellino valley. Here, the country was close and terraced and progress was painfully slow. By the afternoon of 24 September, the Guards Brigade had advanced just two miles to capture the 600ft high Capella Ridge. Beyond it, about half a mile across a small valley, lay another steep, thickly wooded spur marked on the map as Point 270.

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valley and the “vast semi-circle of steep This was the hill, which was sometimes mountains bare and bright in the morning known as the Pagliarolli feature, that the two companies of Coldstream guardsmen sun”. In fact, even as the Coldstreams were had been assigned to capture. It had briefly been occupied the previous day by moving out to recapture the position, the Germans were re-occupying the two companies of 6th Grenadier Guards, rocky crest in greater strength. Ground before being abandoned as untenable. that had previously been held by two Brigadier Julian Gascoigne, however, companies was now taken over by a thought differently. He ordered the 3rd well-armed and well-led battalion of the Coldstreams to re-occupy the hill the 29th Panzer Grenadier Regiment which following morning. quickly set about converting Point 270 There was no equivocation. The into an impregnable instructions handed down, via Major “I was mad, mad at seeing fortress studded with posts David Forbes, to the all those men, some of them machine-gun and slit trenches. commander of No.1 While they dug Company, Captain only youngsters, killed and themselves in, the Dick Ker, his platoon wounded. I was flying about Coldstreams plodded commanders and Company Sergeant all over the place and, to be on, completely ignorant of the trouble Major, Peter “Misty” Wright, left them in no honest, I couldn’t care what that lay ahead. The plan was to use the doubt about what was happened to me.” cover of the dense expected of them. vegetation to infiltrate as far as the foot of Wright, a 27-year-old farmer’s son the hill. Once in position, having traversed from Suffolk with seven years’ experience a wide semi-circle across the enemy front, of soldiering in war and peace already they were to make a right-angled turn behind him, recalled: “We were to attack designed to bring both companies in line and capture the hill. There was no ‘could – No.1 on the right and No.3 on the left – be’ about it. We were told that we would to scale their objective. capture it.”2 At first all went well. With No.1 Quite what opposition they would face Company leading, the guardsmen traced was not clear. According to Bulteel, the a snaking line along a sunken path before Grenadiers returning from the hill had curving beneath the hills to the right. “glibly” estimated there might be three German machine-gun posts. From Capella There remained about the valley a “deep Ridge, however, it had been impossible to peace”, but the further they went the more nervous Bulteel became. “It was discern anything beyond the layout of the

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too good to last,” wrote the 3 Company subaltern.3 He was right to be suspicious. Just as he approached a farmhouse at the base of Point 270, the unmistakable rip of Spandau fire suddenly broke the stillness to remove any last lingering doubts. “As No.1 Company broke cover, and emerged into the more open ground around the farm, the Germans opened up with every weapon they had,” wrote Bulteel. Plainly, there were far more than three machine-gun posts opposing them. Scrambling for cover, Bulteel did his own rapid calculation. He thought there must be at least “a dozen Spandaus” firing at once. Without waiting to form up, No.3 Company began scrambling up the slope. One platoon took what seemed a suicidal route up a series of recently harvested terraces devoid of cover, while Bulteel led his men into the “relative safety” of a curtain of trees. The wood was thick and no one else was visible, but the firing increased into “a continuous torrent of cracks and shrieks and roars”. The noise seemed “unbearable” as streams of bullets mingled with the crump of mortars and blasts of grenades rolled down the steep slope from above. “This was no German ‘outpost’. The High Command had got it wrong again,” noted Bulteel. At that moment, it seemed to him SEPTEMBER 2013

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that they were all “doomed”, that there was no way through the lethal storm, and that “the only sensible course of action was to turn our backs to this torrent of fire and run, like rabbits, down the steep slope and into cover”. A few did fall back, but incredibly the majority pushed on, hauling themselves up the slopes by the roots and branches of the tinder dry broom and juniper bushes that covered the hill and many of which were now burning fiercely. By then, some of the German machine-gun posts were firing at point-blank range and, in the words of the Regimental history, “only blind courage forced the guardsmen up through the burning scrub to silence the Germans with bayonet and tommy-gun”. On the right, No.1 Company took a fearful battering. Within the space of a few chaotic minutes, all the company officers were knocked out. Captain David Ker, the bespectacled company commander who Bulteel had seen “stumping by under a large steel helmet”, went down with severe wounds to both legs. Lieutenant

ABOVE: New recruit. A 20-year-old

Guardsman Peter Wright is in the back row, far left, in this March 1937 photograph taken before he accompanied the 3rd Battalion to Egypt.

LEFT: Desert victors at Tripoli, 1943. This

picture includes many of the warrant officers and sergeants who had served with the 3rd Coldstream Guards since it shipped out to the Middle East in 1937. The newly promoted CSM Peter Wright is seated second from the left on the front row. Major David Forbes, MC, who commanded the battalion during the attack on Point 270 and who subsequently wrote Wright’s VC recommendation, is seated in the front row, sixth from the left. He was fatally wounded on 8 November 1943, and died five days later.

BELOW: Another view of the landings

underway at Salerno on 9 September 1943. The 201st Brigade, which included the 3rd Coldstreams, landed four hours after the leading troops hit the beach. The 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards was in action from the second day onwards and during three weeks of fighting lost eight officers and sixty men killed. A further ten officers and 163 men were wounded. The capture of Point 270 resulted in 120 of these casualties.

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Lionel Buxton took charge and led on until he was wounded, leaving two recently arrived officers to press on through a blizzard of bullets. Nineteen-year-old Lieutenant John Jory was last seen alive attacking a machine-gun nest and it was left to the company’s newest officer to lead up the last few yards of the hill. By some miracle, Lieutenant Rogn Gunn, who had only joined up with the company the night before the assault and was barely known to anyone in the battalion, broke through the first line of defences only to succumb to a sniper’s bullet as he made the mistake of pursuing some fleeing Germans down the farther slope. Barely fifteen minutes had passed since the initial burst of fire and, though he didn’t immediately realise it, CSM “Misty” Wright had become the senior ranking man in No.1 Company. Or what was left of it.

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Following up behind with the company stretcher bearers, he was appalled by the carnage wrought among the lived with. men he had trained and The burning hill was strewn with dead and wounded. One of the first casualties he came across was Captain Ker. He was covered in blood from “head to toe”, yet despite the severity of his injuries he managed to pass on orders to Wright. “He said, ‘carry on, get up front and see what is happening … and do what you can’,” recalled Wright.4 Quickly moving forward, he picked his way through the smouldering undergrowth. On his way up, he found the body of Lieutenant Jory, “dead where he had dropped”. The further Wright went the more wounded he found. He recalled: “I told the stretcher bearers to get them out, because the undergrowth was alight.” Among the seriously wounded men he came across was Lieutenant Buxton, who later succumbed to his injuries. Not far away he found the body of 21-year-

LEFT: A map showing the breakout from the Salerno beachhead and the position of Point 270.

ABOVE: One of the 3rd Coldstreams’ 6-pounder anti-tank guns which fought a successful action against German half-tracks during the defence of the Salerno beachhead south of Battipaglia. BELOW: Breakout. Axis prisoners of war are pictured being guarded by British and American soldiers on 19 September 1943, as the push inland from the Salerno beachhead begins – the hills and mountains in the distance would be the scene of bitter fighting in the days and weeks to come. (Press Association Images) old Lieutenant Gunn and the sight of him lying dead was enough to turn his anger into a blind fury. “I was in a bit of a state,” he later said. “My wife says I must have been mad and it‘s probably true. I was mad, mad at seeing all those men, some of them only youngsters, killed and wounded. I was flying about all over the place and, to be honest, I couldn’t care what happened to me.” Dashing off in search of the remnants of Gunn’s platoon, he turned a corner on the right flank and stopped dead in his tracks. Below him, dug in on terraced steps cut into the side of the hill were three machine-gun posts, one on each level. “It was a hell of a shock,” he later

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RIGHT: British troops pushing inland pass

a pair of knocked-out German tanks beside the main road from Pasanara to Salerno on 21 September 1943. Four days later CSM Wright would undertake the actions for which he would eventually be awarded the Victoria Cross. (Press Association Images)

BELOW LEFT: Holding on. A section of CSM Peter Wright’s No.1 Company dug in along a canal bank near Battipaglia on 14 September 1943. On that day a last attempt by the Germans to smash through the beachhead was defeated.

fire being directed at him. As he later remarked, “He took no notice of it at all.” of Peter Wright’s Victoria Cross action was By Wright’s own estimation, he had “lost commissioned by the Regiment in 1988. control” of his senses. Fortunately, the (Reproduced by kind permission of the sight of him tearing down the hill with rifle Coldstream Guards RHQ) and bayonet thrust in front of him was sufficient to cow most of the machinesaid. “They were no more than thirty yards gunners manning the posts below him. away. I just saw the steel helmets and Having already witnessed the fate dropped flat.” of their comrades, several took to their By luck rather than design, he had heels. From the first post, Gifford saw a stumbled across the enemy positions number of Germans in the second pit that had decimated his company and quit their gun and run in an attempt to were still delaying the Coldstreams’ escape Wright’s wrath. Much the same advance. Collecting grenades from the process was then repeated at the last post dead dotting the slope, he scrambled with similar results as Wright followed in away in search of more guardsmen before through the smoke with rifle and bayonet putting his bold plan into action. From “just to make sure”. one party sheltering just below the crest Incredibly, one man, with the stoutof the hill, he took three more grenades, support of six others, a rifle and bayonet and called for “He rushed on by himself to the other two hearted had routed three well-sited volunteers to accompany him. Guardsman H. Buckley recalled positions in turn, throwing his grenades and machine-gun posts that had threatened to defeat a battalion hearing him shout: “Come on firing his rifle from the hip.” attack. Officially, those who with me. The Jerries are all witnessed his action that afternoon other two positions in turn, throwing his frightened and running away.”5 credited him with single-handedly grenades and firing his rifle from the hip.” Of course, this was a bare-faced lie, transforming the course of the fighting Any vestige of surprise had been well but it was sufficient to induce half a dozen on Point 270. Unofficially, they reckoned and truly lost by Wright’s initial onslaught men – Lance Corporal Aylott, Guardsmen “Misty” had gone “quietly, bloody mad”.6 and as he raced down the slopes the Abraham, Buckley, Gifford, Kelly and Mills ground was being raked by machine-gun His part in the battle, however, was not – to follow him as he dashed back up the and mortar fire. Somehow, perhaps out over yet. Having paid such a heavy price slope, machine-gun fire spitting at his of fear or panic, most of the shooting was to gain a slender hold on the hill he was heels. wild and inaccurate. “I was very lucky,” not about to give it up without a struggle. According to Guardsman R. Gifford, As the senior man in his company still Wright led them to a vantage point above he later admitted. “Bullets were zooming past me. One struck me on the back but it standing, he knew it was his job to rally the first machine-gun nest with the others wasn’t anything much.” the survivors and hang on as best they in clear view further down the hill. “He To Guardsman Gifford, it seemed as could till reinforcements arrived. told us to give him covering fire while he though he was entirely oblivious to the Years later, Wright’s memory of the went forward,” wrote Gifford. “He himself BELOW RIGHT: Peter Archer’s vivid painting

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went on alone until he was twenty yards from the nearest post.” It was time for Wright to direct his rage onto the unwitting enemy machinegunners beneath him. “From where I was lying, I was able to lob grenades into the post,” he said matter-of-factly. At the sound of the first blasts, he leapt up and followed on, down the hill and into the post, arriving in time to despatch one and possibly two of the survivors as they bolted. Further up the hill, his covering party watched the explosions and his lone charge before chasing after him. “By the time we had reached him, he had killed one of the enemy and the others had fled,” noted Gifford. “As soon as we had joined him, he rushed on by himself to the

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ABOVE: Captain Christopher Harris Bulteel. He was awarded the Military Cross for “outstanding and determined courage” during the assault on Point 270. He joined the 3rd Coldstreams from the 6th Battalion in January 1943. After the war he was an assistant master at Wellington College (194961) and had a spell as an Anglican Franciscan Friar at Cerne Abbas before returning to teaching as headmaster of Ardingly College (1962-80). He died in 1999, aged 78. ABOVE RIGHT: Lieutenant Lionel Studd

Buxton. As second-in-command of No.1 Company, Buxton was badly wounded during the attack on Point 270 and died five days later, aged 23. He is buried in Catania War Cemetery, Sicily.

BELOW: A wounded soldier is brought down a wooded hillside during the fighting near Salerno in September 1943. The price of victory on Point 270 had been a heavy one. According to the Regimental history, the 3rd Coldstreams lost 120 men killed and wounded in capturing the hill. Roughly half the casualties were suffered on the right flank and, such were its losses, No.1 Company had to be temporarily disbanded. (ww2images) precise order of events which followed his capture of the machine-gun posts was a bit fuzzy. “It was all a bit confused,” he said. “We were fired on for a while and then it calmed down a bit. Later in the

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evening, they put in a counter-attack with infantry but it was very weak. It was as if they were testing us.” The fighting on the left flank where No.3 Company had been attacking was no less severe. Losses had been heavy. One platoon had almost been wiped out and another cut to ribbons before the survivors succeeded in clawing their way onto the bare crest. Once established, Captain Bulteel ordered his men to dig in while he went in search of No.1 Company. On his way, he came across Lieutenant Lionel Buxton, “lying desperately wounded, hardly conscious”, and then the bodies of Lieutenant Jory and Lieutenant Gunn. Alarming thoughts of a massacre loomed, before, to his “enormous relief”, he found Wright. With water and ammunition in short supply, the Coldstreams, including the remains of Nos. 1 and 3 Companies and reinforcements from No.2 Company, faced an anxious few hours on the hill. Mortars and artillery fire continued to pound the surrounding hills and enemy snipers hidden among vineyards and olive trees on a nearby col remained a menace. It was only after nightfall, according to Wright, that they were able to safely evacuate their many wounded. As for the dead, they had to be left till the morning, by which time the snipers had been driven away and supplies could at last be brought up. Wright, who had impressed everyone by his “cheerful efficiency” during a tense

When Peter Wright’s Victoria Cross was announced in September 1944, he was hailed as one of the “Fighting Wrights” on account of his family’s remarkable record of service to King and Country. Of eight brothers and five sisters, no fewer than ten were in uniform. Bob was a prisoner of the Japanese, having been captured at the fall of Singapore while serving with the Suffolk Regiment. Russell was serving with Eighth Army in Italy and Nelson was, rather aptly, on mine-sweeping duties with the Royal Navy. Four of the other brothers – Donald, Roger, Basil and Gordon – combined Home Guard duties with work on the family farm at Wenhaston, while Stanley, at 15, the youngest brother, was a cadet in the Air Training Corps. Of his five sisters, Marjorie was serving with the Women’s Land Army and Kathleen was a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment. Though all were proud of their brother’s great distinction, they knew little of the circumstances behind his act of gallantry beyond what had been officially recorded at the time of his initial award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal in January 1944. As his mother remarked: “We shall never know from Peter’s lips how he won the VC. He just won’t talk.” His was a genuine modesty that was reflected in the letter he wrote to his parents immediately after the fight for Point 270. Studiously avoiding any mention of the battle, still less his part in it, he merely stated: “I have not got much to write about but here’s hoping this finds you all OK.” It had been much the same ever since the day he left home, a strapping, six foot tall 20-year-old, to join the Army in 1936. It had been, he later recalled, a “spur of the moment” decision. Having worked on the family’s farms either side of the Norfolk-Suffolk border since leaving school at 14, he had simply grown bored with life on the land. “I was just fed-up,” he said. “I thought about joining the RAF, but that fell through. Then I thought about the Horse Guards because I was used to working with horses on the farm, but the length of service was too long so I joined the Coldstream Guards on the advice of the recruiting sergeant.” By his own reckoning, he did not take to soldiering straight away. “It was very tough. The discipline was strict, the food was horrible and after the first fortnight I wished I was back on the farm,” he said. “Bit by bit, though, things improved. I became fitter and began to enjoy it.” Posted to Egypt with the 3rd Battalion in 1937, he spent seven months in Palestine. At the outbreak of war, he was a newly-promoted Lance-Sergeant serving with the Western Desert Force, initially in the battalion’s carrier platoon and later in the anti-tank gun platoon. Wounded in the head during the heavy fighting around the so-called Knightsbridge Box, he narrowly escaped capture at Tobruk in June 1942. The ambulance in which he was travelling managed to join a small column of the battalion’s transport which succeeded in breaking through the German cordon. Promoted Quartermaster Sergeant in the reformed battalion, he ended the campaign as a Company Sergeant Major in No.1 Company, marching in the Victory Parade in Tunis. His involvement in the Italian campaign having been cut short by an attack of malaria after the fight for Point 270, he saw no further active service, being retained at Pirbright as an instructor. His original plan to soldier for four years eventually lasted ten years before, in 1946, he left the Guards to marry and return to his roots. The rest of his life was spent farming in his native Suffolk and supporting ex-service organisations. Every year until his death aged 73 in 1990, he made a point of attending the annual memorial service at the Guards’ Chapel where the sacrifices made in his toughest battle were always in his mind. “I know their names still, every one of them,” he once explained, “so they’ll never be forgotten, not by me at any rate.”

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night, felt anything but cheery as he took charge of the burial party in his sector. “It was horrible work, very disheartening,” he recalled years later. “Most of them I knew because we’d trained together since Tripoli, but some had only joined us a few days before.” Much of 26 September was spent collecting personal belongings and identity discs before burying the dead where they had fallen on the scorched slopes of Point 270. * It was not long before the hero of Point 270 found himself on the casualty list. Barely two days after leaving the hill in the midst of a torrential rainstorm, “Misty” Wright contracted malaria and, much to his chagrin, was promptly shipped off to hospital in Algiers. Having recovered, he spent time in camps in North Africa where he tried in vain to join drafts of reinforcements being sent back to Italy. His desperate pleas to be allowed to rejoin the 3rd Battalion fell on deaf ears. “Those of us who had been out in the Middle East since 1937 were told we had to be sent home,” he recalled. Boarding a troop ship on Christmas night 1943, he eventually reported to Regimental headquarters at Pirbright to discover that he was to be awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his “magnificent leadership” and “outstanding heroism” which was adjudged to have been instrumental in the successful capture of Point 270. His initial reaction was one of surprise and pride tinged with disappointment that he had been too ill to write an account of the action giving credit to the men who had supported him. “To be honest, I didn’t think I’d done anything special,” he said. “I had done what I was trained to do. If you are a senior member of a company you take charge … When one goes down, the next one takes over. If I hadn’t done what I did, I would have probably got a general court martial rather than a DCM.” So far as Wright was concerned, there was nothing more to it. On 6 June 1944, while Allied forces were battling ashore on the beaches of Normandy, he travelled to Buckingham Palace to receive the medal he had earned during the Salerno SEPTEMBER 2013

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breakout fighting nine months earlier. That, he thought, was the end of the matter. However, an epic story of gallantry above and beyond the call of duty was to have one final and unparalleled twist. A few weeks later, while Wright busied himself with his new role as training instructor, King George VI journeyed to the Italian battlefields. There, he held an open-air investiture during which he honoured senior officers and presented VC ribbons to soldiers who had earned the nation’s highest honour during the fighting around Monte Cassino. The King, however, had another Victoria Cross recommendation on his mind. It had been vexing him ever since June, as he made plain to General Harold Alexander, the Commander-in-Chief in Italy, when they met. Dispensing with the usual protocol, the King “expressed his opinion” that CSM Wright’s actions had been worthy of the VC for which he had been recommended by his commanding officer with a citation that had been endorsed by his Brigade, Divisional and Corps commanders before being

ABOVE LEFT: How The Victor comic

portrayed Peter Wright’s courageous actions in its issue of 1 February 1964.

ABOVE RIGHT: Throughout the rest of his

life, Peter Wright, seen here with members of the Blythburgh branch of the Royal British Legion, remained a strong supporter of exservice associations.

BELOW LEFT: The secret cypher telegram sent by HQ Advanced Allied Armies Italy to the War Office on 25 July 1944, outlining the King’s belief that Peter Wright’s actions were worthy of the highest award. BELOW RIGHT: The proposed press release confirming the unprecedented VC award sent to the King for his approval in September 1944. downgraded to an “immediate DCM” by Alexander himself. In effect, he was telling the former Irish guardsman, himself no stranger to deeds of great heroism, that he had made a mistake and, not content with that, he urged that the matter be given further consideration. Such a Royal intervention was unprecedented and sparked a flurry of

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THE ROYAL COMMAND VC

ABOVE: A page from Peter Wright’s Soldier’s

Service Book.

ABOVE RIGHT: Peter Wright’s autographed

copy of the menu for a dinner held in the sergeants’ mess of the Training Battalion of the Coldstream Guards to celebrate the award of his VC, a year and two days after the action.

ABOVE FAR RIGHT: From war to peace.

Peter Wright VC returns to life on the land at Church Farm, Blythburgh in Suffolk. In 1956, he took over the tenancy of Poplar Farm on the Helmingham Estate where his family still farms.

RIGHT: The “Hero of Salerno” featured

on the front cover of Soldier Magazine in April 1989 to celebrate his medals being displayed as part of an exhibition of all of the Coldstream Guards’ thirteen Victoria Crosses. Of his own award, Peter Wright insisted: “I was only doing my duty and what I had been trained to do. There was no thought of fear, it was just instinct.”

BELOW: Many of those who lost their lives in the fighting at Point 270 lie in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Salerno War Cemetery – men such as Lieutenant John Jory, who, at 19, was the youngest of No.1 Company’s officers. In total, fifty-seven men from the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards are buried there. (Courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) exchanges between Advanced Allied HQ and the War Office. Staff officers in Italy were in a quandary as to what to do, as a confidential telegram sent by secret cypher on 25 July 1944, makes clear. “Presumably if his Majesty wishes he can cancel Gen Alexander’s award and (?

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By Royal Command.indd 112

Grant) a VC,” it commented uncertainly before concluding: “Grateful for confirmation within three days.” The answer came back in the affirmative and on 5 September Advanced Allied HQ in Italy wired the War Office again with a suggested press release setting out the unique circumstances behind the cancellation of the Distinguished Conduct Medal and its substitution by the award of a Victoria Cross to be gazetted two days later. The proposed announcement stated: “The award of this particular VC nearly a year after the action is an illustration of the very personal interest which His Majesty takes in awards for gallantry.” True though that undoubtedly was, it took a while to convince “Misty” Wright that the journalist who arrived at Pirbright to break the news to him had not made a terrible mistake. Years later, veteran Daily Mirror reporter Noel Whitcomb remembered Wright’s “absolute astonishment”. “He kept on saying, ‘I’ve already got the DCM for that. It must be someone else.” Only when official confirmation came through from Regimental headquarters did an “enormous” celebration begin. What “Misty” fondly remembered as a “big piss-up” and Whitcomb described as “a huge surge of pride” was reflected in the actions of a single sergeant who sidled up to the bar of the sergeants’ mess and promptly ordered twenty-five pints with which to toast the Coldstreams’ first Victoria Cross of the war. Later that year, the Royal Command

hero returned to Buckingham Palace to receive the Victoria Cross from the sovereign whose insistence had ensured justice was done. The King appeared shy and nervous, but as he pinned the VC on Wright’s uniform he quietly said: “I am very pleased that you have got it.” With that, CSM Wright turned about and marched out, a VC on his chest and a DCM in his pocket, all for the same action. “I’d taken the medal with me to hand back,” he later explained, “but no one asked for it so I kept it. Later on, I gave it to the Regiment for its museum because it didn’t belong to me anymore.” ■

NOTES:

1. Christopher Bulteel, No Dishonourable Name: Salerno, September 1943, (William Clowes, London, 1947). 2. Author interview. 3. Christopher Bulteel, Something About a Soldier, (Airlife, Shrewsbury, 2000). 4. Author interview. 5. Guardsman H. Buckley, Statement for the recommendation of a Victoria Cross to CSM P.H. Wright. 6. Guardsman R. Gifford, Statement for the recommendation of a Victoria Cross to CSM P.H. Wright.

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NEXT MONTH: NO NORMAL OCTOBER 2013 ISSUE ON SALE FROM 26 SEPTEMBER 2013

132

ER PAGE BUMP ISSUE

BATTLE

The struggle to capture Tunis in the bid to drive the Axis forces from North Africa reached a climax in the spring of 1943. Dominating the entrance to the Medjerda valley and the route to the coastal plain around the Tunisian capital was the 900foot Djebel el Ahmera, or Longstop Hill. It was held by the enemy but it had to be taken if there was any hope of victory in North Africa. On 22 April 1943, the British attacked.

SUNK OFF TOBRUK

There was only one route of supply to the beleaguered garrison of Tobruk – by sea. With Rommel desperate to force the garrison to surrender, every effort was made to blockade the port with each Allied ship being forced to run the gauntlet of the Axis bombers, especially the dreaded Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers.

“tip and run”

70th anniversary When he wrote his despatch on the anti-aircraft defence of the United Kingdom between July 1939 and April 1945, General Sir Frederick A. Pile described Friday, 27 March 1942, the first day of the Luftwaffe’s Tip and Run raids, as “a day battle had begun”. To mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the German campaign the following year, our October issue is a 132-page special issue.

AGROUND AND UNDER FIRE

When HM Submarine E15 ran aground and was captured by the Turks in the Dardanelles it sparked a wave of attacks which culminated in one of the most daring naval operations of the First World War. Steve Snelling charts the extraordinary struggle to destroy the E15.

THE FIGHT IN THE NIGHT

All day the British Expeditionary Force had held its ground at Mons against the German First Army only to learn that the French were withdrawing. Left with no choice, the British commander, Sir John French, ordered a retreat in line with his Allies. Two days later, on 25 August 1914, with the Germans hard on their heels, the Guards Brigade stood and faced the enemy on the banks of the River Sambre.

PLEASE NOTE THAT CONTENT IS SUBJECT TO ALTERATION

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F T

Al e cond the Arctic

WHAT I WOULD SAVE IN A FIRE

GEOFF SIMPSON ASKS A TOP CURATOR OR TRUSTEE WHICH SINGLE ITEM IN THEIR COLLECTIONS THEY WOULD REACH FOR IN THE EVENT OF A DISASTER.

A WAAC’s FIRST WORLD WAR ARCHIVE

The Redoubt Fortress and Military Museum, Eastbourne, East Sussex There was growing feeling amongst women, during the First World War, that they should play a greater part in the war effort. On 21 July 1915, for example, a march took place in London promoting the demand that women should be given a greater role. They did indeed become bus conductors and train guards and then, as “Munitionettes”, they began to replace men in munitions factories. At the same time Lady Londonderry’s proposal that there should be a Women’s Legion, to cook for the Army, was agreed by the Army Council. This was only the start. From a base in Dartford, the Legion provided cooks, waitresses, gardeners, then motor transport drivers, who served, in particular, with the Royal Flying Corps. Then came the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), with the slogan, “Every Fit Women Can Release a Fit Man”. In the spring of 1917, despite much male opposition, members of WAAC began to serve behind the lines on the Continent. Though the WAAC had many characteristics of a civilian organisation, uniform was worn. At the Redoubt Fortress and Military Museum in Eastbourne – housed in one of the defences against a Napoleonic invasion of southern England – a significant collection is held of material relating to one WAAC. Katherine Buckland, Heritage Assistant, explains the attraction of the documents produced by WAAC cook Mary Wells at the nearby Summerdown Camp. “These extraordinary objects including diaries, photographs, documents and autograph books belonging to Mary Wells, a WAAC cook, provide instant, tangible access to an incredible story of a woman working at Summerdown Camp. We can connect directly with the past through the emotive passages in the diaries and the heartfelt messages from men going back to war in the autograph books. I would save these objects from a fire because they are unique, irreplaceable and hold

an immense amount of historical value. “The diaries give us the chance to discover incredible personal stories as well as learning about local heritage and daily life in a First World War convalescent camp. We’ve read about scandal, terror and love stories that have remained untold for almost 100 years. “The photographs include rare images of Mary Wells and her friends dressed in their WAAC uniform (that we learn from the diaries arrived late!) as well as a mischievous photo of Mary dressing up in the Blue Boys’ [patients] uniform. We also have an unusual opportunity to pair the diaries’ tales of the Blue Boys with the roguish photos of the soldiers in the camp. The autograph books contain incredible sketches and paintings by Mary and other staff and patients at the camp. “Summerdown Camp was an innovative convalescent camp in Eastbourne during the First World War. At the time, it was the largest in the country.” The Redoubt Fortress and Military Museum, “a fortress in the heart of Eastbourne”, features the Royal Sussex Regiment regimental collection (weapons, uniforms, badges, drums, medals and documents), The Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars regimental collection (featuring, for example, a uniform worn at El Alamein) and the Sussex Combined Services Collection, created by Brigadier Edward Caffyn to commemorate the role of Sussex in the Second World War. ■ • The Fortress and Museum are currently open every day until 17 November, from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. In the Outpost Café visitors may be tempted by such delights as Captain’s cupcakes, Sapper’s sandwiches and Bombadier’s brownie. Further details of what to see can be found at: www.eastbournemuseums.co.uk

ABOVE: One small part of WAAC cook Mary Wells’ archive – a postcard depicting “Blue Boys” in Eastbourne. ABOVE RIGHT: A 1918-dated photograph of Mary Wells in Blue Boys uniform.

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