Britain at War 2014-10

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BRITAIN’S BEST SELLING MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

WW1 VC

Sgt John Rhodes: Greatest Grenadier

Eagle Day Messerschmitt 110

Uncovering an ‘Adlertag’ Raider

Western Front

Battlefields: Iconic Sites 20

BALLOON BARRAGE

The untold story of Britain’s Barrage Balloon Defences in the Second World War

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

OPERATION VARSITY

The Largest single Airborne Operation in history as Allies take a foothold across the Rhine

A REMARKABLE SPITFIRE DISCOVERY ON ORKNEY

OCTOBER 2014 ISSUE 90 £4.40

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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: Andy Saunders Editorial Consultant: Mark Khan Editorial Correspondent: Geoff Simpson Australasia Correspondent: Ken Wright Design: Dan Jarman EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES: Britain at War Magazine, PO Box 380, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 9JA Tel: +44 (0)1424 752648 or email: [email protected]. ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES: For all aspects of advertising in ‘Britain at War’ Magazine please contact Alison Sanders, 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: Richard Cox Managing Director/Publisher: Adrian Cox Group-Editor-In-Chief: Paul Hamblin Commercial Director: Ann Saundry Production Manager: Janet Watkins Marketing Manager: Martin Steele ‘Britain at War’ Magazine is published on the last Thursday of the preceeding month by Key Publishing Ltd. ISSN 1753-3090 Printed by Warner’s (Midland) plc. Distributed by Seymour Distribution Ltd. (www.seymour.co.uk)

Welcome I

AM delighted to be taking over the editorship of ‘Britain at War’ from my colleague Martin Mace who has moved to pastures new. He will certainly be a hard act to follow! Since the magazine’s establishment I have been associated with it as a regular contributor and have always marvelled at the scope and quality of its content. There is no shortage of endlessly compelling stories and the 75th anniversary of D-Day and the centenary of World War One continue to reveal material on topics that one might imagine to have been exhausted long ago. Such stories, and particularly those relating to the human experience of war, continue to fascinate and it is particularly encouraging to see many from younger generations becoming engaged with aspects of Britain’s military history. I can think of two particular examples. One of my first assignments was taking part in the remarkable project to plant over 800,000 ceramic poppies in the moat of The Tower of London marking the World War One Centenary; one poppy for each British casualty. The project is being carried out by an army of volunteers and I couldn’t help but be struck by the number of very young people involved - each of them having their own reasons for taking part; in many cases, to honour a family member. Meanwhile, in a wholly unique project, a group of talented young musicians were inspired to write and produce a stunning World War One themed musical as a moving tribute to just one hero of that war; Captain ‘Reggie’ Salomons (see news section). Notwithstanding the increased awareness and interest in both world wars, the last survivor of the First World War died in 2009 and our tangible links to the Second World War lessen as we lose veterans from that conflict, too. It is thus increasingly important that we remember and record their testimonies whilst honouring their service, with ‘Britain at War’ magazine proud to be at the forefront of that recognition. I look forward to joining the team at Key Publishing and continuing the delivery of fascinating stories covering Britain’s war on land, on the sea and in the air and of the men and women involved.

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.

Andy Saunders (Editor)

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 bonafides 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. 2014

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40 DEATH OR GLORY GRENADIER

Sgt John Rhodes became the most highly decorated British Grenadier ever, winning the DCM and VC during heroic actions in the First World War. His exploits in patrol leading, and later pill-box busting, became legendary. Without a doubt, Rhodes was an extraordinary soldier but sadly he never lived to see the confirmation of his supreme award for gallantry.

Contents ISSUE 90 OCTOBER 2014

25 PAGE SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT 57 TOP TWENTY BATTLEFIELD SITES OF THE WESTERN FRONT

In a special supplement that continues ‘Britain at War’ magazine marking the commemorations surrounding the centenary of the First World War, we highlight battlefield visiting and also pick out a ‘top twenty’ of iconic and historic battlefield sites on the Western Front.

FEATURES

26 ATTACK OF THE EAGLES

On 13 August 1940 the Luftwaffe launched its ‘Adlertag’ (Eagle Day) assault across a wide front, attacking the RAF in the air and on the ground. The operation, overall, did not go entirely to plan and in this feature one specific air action involving a group of Messerschmitt 110s that were engaged by RAF fighters high above the Dorset coast is examined.

33 EXERCISE ADLERTAG

Following on from ‘Attack of The Eagles’ this feature charts the archaeological investigation of one of the crash sites of the Messerschmitt 110s downed over Dorset on 13 August 1940. The project was undertaken as part of the MOD-sponsored ‘Operation Nightingale’ project which uses archaeology to help rehabilitate injured British service personnel.

48 HMS ROCKINGHAM – FRIENDLY FIRE EPISODE HMS Rockingham sailed from Rosyth on 25 September 1944 to patrol off the Scottish coast as safety ship during live firing exercises. In the event it was her crew who would need to be rescued after an unfortunate ‘friendly fire’ episode.

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REGULARS 6 BRIEFING ROOM

News, Restorations, Discoveries and Events from around the world.

22 FIELDPOST Your letters.

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RAF ON THE AIR: ‘From Ceylon to Sumatra’ Another in our series focusing on broadcasts by the BBC that covered aspects of RAF operations. This month we cover the story of a B-24 Liberator crew involved with a ‘Special Duties’ squadron making drops in Burma, Malaya and French Indo-China for the Special Operations Executive.

87 WHAT I WOULD SAVE IN A FIRE

This month’s artefact is a RAF Bomber Command target map of a very significant target – Berchtesgaden. Its importance is highlighted by a senior staff member at Hughenden Manor, High Wycombe.

95 WORLD WAR ONE DIARY

NEW SERIES

Throughout the centenary period of the First World War we will cover, in diary form, the principal events of the month one hundred years ago.

103 IMAGE OF WAR

The RAF’s 1,000th Lockheed Hudson aircraft is completed and delivered.

104 GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

NEW SERIES

The first announcements of British and Commonwealth gallantry awards appeared in the The London Gazette during October 1914. In this, the first part of a major new monthly series covering the period of the First World War commemorations, we examine some of the actions involved and summarise all of the awards announced during that month.

116 DATES THAT SHAPED WORLD WAR TWO

FREE BOOK

Claim your FREE Albert Ball VC or Cruise of the Sea Eagle book worth £10.95 when you subscribe to Britain at War. See pages 38 and 39.

We chart some of the key moments and events that affected the United Kingdom during October 1944.

119 RECONNAISSANCE REPORT A look at new books and products.

130 THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN OBJECTS The ‘Brodie’ steel helmet is this month’s iconic object from the First world War.

Editor’s Choice 88 BATTLE OF CAMP BASTION

To mark the cessation of British combat operations in Afghanistan during October 2014 we look at the story of the Taliban’s assault on Camp Bastion when fifteen insurgents managed to get inside the perimeter of the main ISAF operating base during 2012, causing very significant damage during what was a boldly audacious attack.

96 BARRAGE BALLOONS

The story of barrage balloons in the overall picture of the air war over Britain is often overlooked but in this feature the part played by these silver monsters of the sky is examined in detail. Surprisingly, the hazard they presented to allied aircraft was significant and far more ‘friendly’ aircraft were either destroyed or damaged by the balloons.

109 OPERATION ‘THESIS’ – CRETE 1943

After the German occupation of Crete the Allies had been relatively impotent in terms of making any meaningful assault on this important island. However, during 1943 the RAF came up with a plan to carry out a mass attack using about one hundred Hurricanes and a number of medium bombers.

124 BREACHING THE LAST BARRIER

On 24 March 1945, as the war in Europe was drawing to its conclusion, the Allies mounted the biggest airborne assault in military history with ‘Operation Varsity’ as they sought to take some of the remaining bridges over the Rhine.

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BRIEFING ROOM |

BULLETIN BOARD

FORMER ROYAL Navy sailor George Graydon, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, and who now lives in the United States at Sarasota, Florida, has been awarded the Ushakov Medal from Russia, honoring his service in the North Atlantic convoys. Russian President Vladmir Putin of the Russian Federation signed a decree awarding all participants in the Russian Arctic convoys the Russian Federation Naval Medal and in May, as part of Victory Day celebrations, he awarded medals to twenty British veterans. Graydon was unable to attend the Moscow ceremony, but received his medal on 11 August from Vlad Chernyshov at the Russian Embassy, Washington D.C. AS ‘BRITAIN at War’ was getting ready to go to press came news that the Boultbee Flight Accademy at Goodwood, near Chichester in West Sussex, had become the first organisation in the UK to be given approval by the Civil Aviation Authority for the carrying of feepaying passengers on an ‘informed consent’ basis. Further details as to costs, availability, commencement of the scheme etc are not yet to hand but it is anticipated that demand for flights on Boultbee Flight Academy’s two Spitfire TR IX two-seaters will be high. For more information, the academy may be contacted via their website, here: http://www. boultbeeflightacademy.co.uk/ WAR MEMORIALS across East and West Sussex are to be recorded as part of a project to commemorate the First World War. Residents are being invited to research war memorials in East and West Sussex, Brighton and Hove, as part of Recording Remembrance - a project launched by East Sussex and West Sussex County Councils’ Archaeology teams. Members of the public, schools and history groups are encouraged to research details about war memorials and submit their findings via the East Sussex First World War website: www.eastsussexww1.org. uk/take-part There is also the option to research an individual included on a war memorial and link this information to the specific memorial record. Recording Remembrance is part of a wider project to commemorate the First World War across the area and will run until 2018. The information gathered about the war memorials will be added to local and national records about these significant and historic monuments as a permanent record for future generations.

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News • Restorations • Discoveries • Events • Exhibitions from around the UK

Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands TO COMMEMORATE the centenary of World War One, the BFI National Archive has restored one of the finest films of the British silent era: The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands. The film is described as ‘a thrilling reconstruction of two decisive naval battles from the early stages of the conflict’. The BFI’s new restoration of this virtually unknown film commemorates two key battles faced by the Royal Navy in the early days of the First World War; the Battle of Coronel on 1 November 1914 and the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914. The Battle of Coronel, off the coast of Chile, was a triumph for German Admiral von Spee and saw the first defeat of the Royal Navy for a hundred years. The retaliatory strike was instigated six weeks later by Admiral Fisher who sent two large battle cruisers, Invincible and Inflexible, to restore

British sailors wave goodbye to their comrades off to avenge the sinking of HMS Monmouth.

British supremacy. Summers’ film was originally released on Armistice Day to act as a memorial to the thousands who died. Filmed on real battleships supplied by the Admiralty, this monumental production was shot mostly at sea near Malta, with the Isles of Scilly a convincing stand-in for the Falklands.

‘Firing the Big Guns’ was the caption to this still from the film production.

Scenes of naval warfare have rarely been captured on film with such a degree of authenticity. No models and no trick photography were employed, although some interiors were recreated in the studio.  Bryony Dixon, Curator of Silent Film, BFI National Archive, says: “This new restoration will showcase the hugely ambitious filmmaking task undertaken by Walter Summers, a much underrated director who called on the full resources of the Admiralty to film using actual battleships. Scrupulously fair in its treatment of the enemy, the film was hugely successful in its day and is a fitting memorial to the thousands of sailors who died on both sides.” The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands is presented with a newly commissioned score, composed by Simon Dobson and performed by The Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines. The film will be released in cinemas nationwide on 17 October 2014.

Death Of 1940 Hurricane Pilot

FLIGHT LIEUTENANT Peter Raymond Hairs, MBE, who died on 24 August 2014, aged 99, fought in the Battles of France and Britain with 501 Squadron, writes Geoff Simpson. He had joined the RAFVR in 1938 and undertook training at Gatwick and Little Rissington. Peter Hairs was commissioned towards the end of 1939, before being posted to the 11 Group Pool at St Athan, where he converted to Hurricanes. He arrived at 501 Squadron on 25 January 1940. The

squadron went to France in May 1940 and, during the fighting there, Pilot Officer Hairs was credited with destroying one Dornier Do 17 and damaging another. He added to his score on 5 September 1940, during the Battle of Britain, when he shot down a Messerscmitt Bf 109. On 13 October, with the Battle nearing its end, Hairs was posted, as a flying instructor, to Kidlington. He later undertook an instructor’s course at RAF Cranwell and then continued to serve as an instructor in the United

Kingdom and Canada. In December 1943 Hairs returned to the UK and served with 276 Squadron operating in the air sea rescue role. On 5 May 1944 he went to 19 OTU, Kinloss as OC Bomber Defence Training Flight, before a spell in India on administrative duties. In June 1945 he was Mentioned in Despatches. He left the RAF on 30 October 1945 and was made MBE on 1 January 1946. In later life he was a bank manager and sat as a magistrate.

Exhibitions from around the UK • Events • Discoveries • Restorations • News

| BRIEFING ROOM

Great War Officer Records Revealed at National Archives THREE YEARS of work by volunteers at the National Archives mean that details of 140,000 officers who served in the First World War can now be found on the organisation’s website, reports Philip Curtis. The thirty-five volunteers, working with staff at the Archives, dealt with 139,912 documents. David Langrish, Records Specialist at The National Archives commented: “The National Archives has over two hundred kilometres of paper records and an estimated six million on the First World War alone. With this many records, we rely on the kind and generous support of volunteers who help us to make history accessible for everyone.”

effects were returned by the Germans via American diplomats. Today Lieutenant Anderson lies in Hautrage Military Cemetery. Also lost at Mons on 23 August 1914 was Lieutenant Leslie Richmond of the Gordon Highlanders. The research showed that: “He was born in Australia in 1888 and his pension record reveals that his first born child arrived on 30h January 1915 after his death .... following .... gunshot wound.” A letter in the file indicates that a local woman buried Lieutenant Richmond at St Symphorien as she did Lieutenant Maurice Dease of the Royal Fusiliers, who was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. The National Archives website is at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.

In announcing the culmination of the project the National Archives highlighted some of the well known people whose records were included. The file on Second Lieutenant John Kipling, Irish Guards, son of Rudyard Kipling, record him as missing, presumed dead, in September 1915 and includes letters from Kipling enquiring about the fate of his son. There are also details of very early casualties, for example, Lieutenant Colin Knox Anderson of the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) who was killed in action at Mons on 23 August 1914. The file records that he was shot through the head and, “owing to retirement could not be buried, nor body recovered”. His personal

Channel 4 Spitfire Documentary A documentary charting the reconstruction of Spitfire Mk I, N3200, by the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford will be transmitted on Sunday 12 October at 19.30 to 21.00 hrs. The programme, called ‘Guy Martin’s Spitfire’, is fronted by presenter Guy Martin who takes the viewer on an intriguing journey from the Spitfire’s discovery and recovery, through the re-build process and right up to the first post-restoration flight of the aircraft. On 26 May 1940, while covering the evacuation from Dunkirk, Spitfire N3200 was shot down and crash-landed on a beach in northern France, where it slowly sank into the sand. Its pilot, Squadron Leader Geoffrey Stephenson, the CO of 19 Squadron, escaped and headed for Belgium but later became Prisoner of War. The wreckage was finally recovered in the 1980s and stored anonymously in France for more than 20 years until it was purchased by an American enthusiast and collector and then being delivered to Duxford for the painstaking reconstruction process. Motorcycle racer and lorry mechanic Guy Martin describes himself as a huge Spitfire fan and

joined the restoration team for the aircraft’s two year re-build. In this film he celebrates the people behind the famous fighter including its pilots, the factory workers who built them and the fitters, riggers and armourers who worked around the clock to repair, reload and refuel the fighters in order to keep them in the air. Spitfire N3200, as part of 19 Squadron, had been based at RAF Duxford and fittingly that is where the restoration project was based. North One TV, the production company for the film, say that Guy’s mechanical skills were pushed to the limit as he took part in every aspect of the

re-construction, following the original drawings in forensic detail all the way through to its inaugural flight and included him testing Browning machine guns to see their devastating firepower. The adventures of Sqdn Ldr Stephenson reads almost like something out of a Boy’s Own comic story and his private diaries, written while imprisoned in Colditz, have been uncovered for the first time for the film. Guy also invites the pilot’s two daughters for an emotional day at Duxford in ordfer to witness their father’s N3200 flying again. It is certainly an unusual and fascinating film giving an insight into Spitfire restoration.

Presenter Guy Martin traces the story of Spitfire N3200 in the forthcoming Channel 4 TV documentary.

BULLETIN BOARD

THE ROYAL Canadian Air Force has announced that recovery is planned during October 2014 for the Northrop Nomad that crashed into Lake Muskoka, Ontario in December 1940, reports Philip Curtis. The remains of the crew, Flight Lieutenant Peter Campbell of the RAF and Leading Aircraftman “Ted” Bates, RCAF were found in 2012 and laid to rest with military honours. The aircraft was involved in a mid-air collision during a search for a missing airman. In 2012 the Hon Rob Nicholson, Canadian Minister for National Defence, commented, “This recovery (of the remains) will provide closure to the families of Flight Lieutenant Campbell and Leading Aircraftman Bates, as well as reassure them that the ultimate sacrifice made by their loved ones will never be forgotten.”  The Nomad was designed as a light attack bomber, but was obsolete by the outbreak of the Second World War. During the war the type was used for training purposes by the RCAF. AN AVENUE of one hundred and twelve trees on Hill 112 in Normandy has moved a step closer, with a donation of £1,120 from the Invicta Military-Vehicle Preservation Society, co-organiser of the Combined Ops Show. Since 1999 a Churchill tank has stood on the hill near Caen as a memorial to the men of 9th Royal Tank Regiment lost in the ultimately successful fighting to recapture the hill in July 1941. Money to purchase the tank was raised by Albert Figg who served with 112 (Wessex) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. He now hopes that poplar trees can be planted leading to the memorial. Possession of Hill 112 was considered very important by both the British and Germans, as it dominated a large area of country. A number of infantry regiments also suffered heavy casualties as areas of the battlefield changed hands frequently. A LOCAL hero has been honoured by the RAF in Lithuania. The runway apron used by Typhoons on policing duties over the Baltic region has been named in honour of Flight Lieutenant Romualdus Marcinkus, who served with the RAF in the Second World War. Marcinkus had been in the Lithuanian Air Force. Before the Russians occupied his country he went to France and joined the Air Force. He later escaped to Britain and flew with 1 Squadron. He was shot down and badly injured on 12 February 1942 during the “Channel Dash” and became a prisoner. He was one of those re-captured and murdered after the “Great Escape” from Stalag Luft lll in March 1944.

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BRIEFING ROOM |

BULLETIN BOARD A SPECIAL service has been held to remember the death of the first man to land an aircraft on a moving ship. Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning, DSC, of the Royal Naval Air Service, landed his Sopwith Pup aircraft on HMS Furious on 2 August 1917. Dunning, whose father was Sir Edwin Dunning of Jacques Hall near Harwich, made aviation history with the landing in Scapa Flow in Orkney but he would be tragically killed five days later, aged 25, while attempting to make another landing on the vessel. Dunning had previously been wounded in June 1916. John Cowan, Secretary of Harwich and District Branch Royal Naval Association, said: “He was killed during his second landing attempt of the day, when an up draft caught his port wing, throwing his plane overboard. Knocked unconscious, he drowned in the cockpit and lies buried in a family grave at St Lawrence Church, Bradfield.” The service was conducted by the Rev Christopher Woods, chaplain to the Harwich and District Branch of the Royal Navy Association, at St Lawrence Church, Bradfield, AN RAF pilot killed in a Second World War Spitfire crash has been commemorated at Slamannan near Falkirk. Sergeant John Silvester crashed on 14 February 1941, while serving at 58 OTU, based at RAF Grangemouth. He was from Worcestershire and had joined the RAFVR in the spring of 1940. The crash site was excavated in 2013 by members of the Dumfries & Galloway Aviation Museum. The memorial, featuring the aircraft’s propeller, has been placed in the memorial garden in Slamannan and members of Sergeant Silvester’s family were present for the unveiling. His grave is in Omberseley (St Andrew) churchyard in his native county. THE FIRST sod has been cut for the planned International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) on the outskirts of Lincoln. The ceremony was performed by Squadron Leader Geoffrey Whittle, DFM, who served with 101 Squadron in the Second World War. His award was earned on the night of 27/28 September 1943, as part of the crew of a Lancaster attacking Hannover and engaged by searchlights, heavy flak and a night fighter. The Pilot and Flight Engineer received the CGM. Marking the event was a flypast by the two remaining flying Lancasters and one airworthy Vulcan. Memories of veterans are being collected as part of the IBCC project, which also includes a memorial to the “Bomber Boys” who flew from Lincolnshire.

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News • Restorations • Discoveries • Events • Exhibitions from around the UK

Flare Gun Find in Dornier A FLARE gun, still in its correct position in the fuselage, is a new find during the restoration of the Dornier Do 17-Z at the RAF Museum, Cosford, reports Geoff Simpson. The gun has been checked for safety, cleaned and will eventually become a major display item associated with the aircraft which was raised from the English Channel in 2013. Cleaning has also revealed a bullet hole in one of the Dornier’s propellers. Major recent work has included the de-riveting of the forward fuselage and its separation from the tail boom, which had

Aircraft technician John Warburton at work on the fuselage of the Dornier 17 in the conservation centre at the RAF Museum Cosford.

The flare pistol found in the wreck, before and after conservation work.

(RAFM PHOTOS)

suffered major damage during the aircraft’s time on the seabed. The separation allowed work to progress on the forward part. According to a statement from the museum, “Amazingly, there have been no signs of further deterioration anywhere on the Dornier since it left the sea over a year ago. The two year schedule of restoration is said to be on track.” Although it will eventually be displayed at the RAF Museum, Hendon, the Dornier is currently on view at the Michael Beetham Conservation Centre at Cosford. There is also a small display of

artefacts associated with the aircraft at Hendon. Although it has not yet been positively identified it has been suggested that the Dornier forced-landed on the Goodwin Sands on 26 August 1940 after being attacked by RAF fighters although there are other ‘candidates’ for the identity of the specific aircraft and crew.

Spitfire Pilot Memorial at Burgess Hill THE TOWN Council at Burgess Hill in West Sussex have announced that there will be the unveiling of a memorial on 22 October to a Belgian Spitfire pilot who was killed in a crash on the outskirts of the town during 1944. The ceremony is being held at 11.30am that day at the town’s war memorial. On 12 July 1944 Fg Off Arthur Patiny, a Belgian serving with 349 Squadron, was flying Spitfire IX NH484 from RAF Funtington and engaged on ‘dogfight practice’ when his aircraft crashed at high speed into Greenlands Fields, Keymer Road, Burgess Hill. Patiny had made no attempt to bale-out and it was concluded following the RAF accident investigation that he had somehow been incapacitated or become unwell and his Spitfire had gone out of control. The Spitfire caused damage to trees in the field, and nine cattle grazing there, all in calf, were reported to have been so traumatised by the event that all

spontaneously aborted. Two nearby houses, ‘Paddocks’ and ‘Parklands’, were also damaged by the crash. Although the body of Patiny was retrieved from the wreckage and identified by name and nationality from papers in the pocket of his tunic jacket he was reported by the local Sussex Express newspaper of the period to have been Polish and

Belgian Spitfire pilot Fg Off Arthur Ghislain Patiny, 153064, RAFVR, during his training prior to his attachment to 349 Squadron. (G.PEARSON)

this misconception has persisted in the area for many years. During the late 1970s or early 1980s the crash site was located and partially excavated by the London Air Museum, but it is understood that this excavation was abandoned when the team discovered it not to have been a Battle of Britain related incident which had been the focus of the group’s interest. Subsequently, housing development has partially covered Greenlands Fields and during the construction of lock-up garages it is known that the builders discovered buried aluminium but made no connection with a crashed aircraft. Instead, it was concluded that somebody had simply buried scrap aluminium there and the site was concreted over. Initially, Patiny was buried in Brookwood Cemetery on 16 July 1944 but his body was moved, postwar, to Floreffe-Buzet in Belgium. Now, his loss on active service over Britain will be permanently remembered close to the place of his death.

Royal Airforce Charitable Trust F_P.indd 1

02/09/2014 11:37

NEWS FEATURE |

Spitfire Discovery on Orkney

Spitfire Discovery on the island of Orkney THE DISCOVERY of significant remains of a Spitfire LF Vc aircraft on the island of Orkney during August has given rise to speculation that there may well be further Spitfire-related finds yet to be uncovered there, writes Andy Saunders. So far, a complete port wing, sections of rudder, a radiator housing from the starboard wing, propeller spinner cone, slipper tank and sundry other Spitfire parts have been unearthed on a former wartime dump. Whilst not unprecedented in terms of airfield dump recoveries within the UK (the hulk of a Spitfire was uncovered at RAF Kenley some years ago) it is certainly an interesting and unusual find and was a discovery made by the Aircraft Research Group Orkney & Shetland (ARGOS) following extensive investigations of a dump site on one of Orkney’s former RAF airfields. Initially, the team were sceptical about the possibility of there being anything of great interest on the dump but when one of the team members examined aerial photographs of the location he spotted what he felt sure was ‘something aircraft shaped’ at that location. As things turned out, the eagle-eyed observation made during the examination of the aerial photographs was entirely accurate. During April of this year the BA Dowsing Team from Aberdeen visited the island to assist ARGOS in its quest, and not withstanding the fact that reservations are often expressed as to the accuracy or efficacy of dowsing, per se, the dowsing team were able to confirm that something of interest lay at the dump site.

ABOVE: The Aircraft Research Group Orkney & Shetland team uncover the leading edge of the Spitfire wing, preparatory to completely excavating and lifting it out of its burial place in a rubbish pit.

One of the ARGOS team members explained that the dowsers were able to pinpoint exactly where to start digging and that this very specific guidance was followed, saying: ‘If we had started digging where we had wanted to, then we would have crushed the wing.’ Initially, the team uncovered the usual debris associated with rubbish dumps at military sites; broken crockery, old boots, bottles, tin cans, discarded webbing, toothbrushes and broken light bulbs.

ABOVE: The complete port wing is lifted carefully onto a trailer ready for removal from site.

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However, when the team worked towards the edge of the area indicated by the dowsers they came across the edge of a buried wing. Digging carefully, the ARGOS group members exposed what turned out to be an open machine-gun bay and before the wing had been completely exposed a part number prefixed ‘300’ was found on an internal component indicating straight away that this was indeed Spitfire. Once the wing had been completely exposed by digging carefully around and under it, the complete structure was lifted clear on nylon strops suspended from a front-loader farm machine. Once out of the ground it quickly became clear that this was a clipped-wing variant of the Spitfire and closer examination revealed it to be a ‘C’ type wing and thus, with its clipped wings, a LF Vc mark. The question remains, though: which specific aircraft did this originate from? And how did it end up on this dump? The easier of those two questions to answer, at this time at least, are the generalities of the latter question since it might be assumed that this wing is from a damaged and writtenoff Spitfire and the finds associated with the discovery may well all point to substantial remains of a single Spitfire being present at the site, albeit broken down into component parts. However, although other Spitfire components were found in the same dump it is by no means certain that all originate from the same aircraft although it might not be unreasonable

Spitfire Discovery on Orkney

| NEWS FEATURE

ABOVE: Other Spitfire parts recovered with the wing included this front portion of a rudder assembly. The fact that components other than the wing were discovered give rise to the belief that significant other finds yet remain on site.

ABOVE: The wing laid out, post recovery, showing its underside with medium sea grey camouflage and roundel still clearly in evidence. (ALL PHOTOS COURTESY ARGOS)

to conclude that they probably do. As to the question: ‘Which Spitfire?, this is a slightly more difficult nut to crack at this particular time. There are clues, however. First, and although we know this to have been a Spitfire LF Vc aircraft, a minute examination of the wing by the recovery team, and subsequently by a professional Spitfire specialist, has not resulted in any obvious serial number coming to light at the time of going

to press. Unfortunately, it is clear that the wing armament had understandably been removed prior to this wing (or the aircraft) being scrapped and once the guns had been removed it is obvious that the wing access panels for the armament have

ABOVE: Examination of the recovered wing later revealed it to have been a Westland-built Spitfire.

ABOVE AND LEFT: The radiator housng and propeller spinner cone.

not been replaced. Either they were retained as ‘spares’ or they were dumped separately and have not yet come to light -but they may well have carried the vital clue! Often, these removable panels were helpfully marked with the RAF serial number of the particular Spitfire and whilst they may yet come to light elsewhere in the dump they elude the team at this time. Significant, though, are other numbers stencilled in various places around the internal structure of the wing and these have proved to be Westland Aircraft build numbers. Thus, the strong possibility that this was a Westland constructed Spitfire must be considered. At the very least, it is clear that this wing was built by the company. One other tantalising ‘clue’ was found with the wing, although it may yet be unrelated or else a complete red herring; an aircraft battery marked ‘341 Sqn’. Spitfire equipped 341 Squadron were based at RAF Turnhouse between 15 January and 21 March 1943, although the unit seems only to have been Spitfire Vb equipped and so it is, at best, a rather tenuous ‘clue’. In any event, and although the battery may well be associated with the Spitfire wreck uncovered, it could equally be that the battery was ‘borrowed’ from another unit or was re-issued from stores.  www.britainatwar.com 11

NEWS FEATURE |

Spitfire Discovery on Orkney

ABOVE: Much of the internal structure of the wing was found to be in exceptionally good condition considering its location for the past seventy plus years.

ABOVE: A view of the underside of the wing, showing the apertures for the access panels to the weaponry. These panels were missing and none of the wing guns were present. In itself, the wing is a remarkable find but it is believed more Spitfire components remain buried on the dump.

So, a long way from a real ‘clue’ perhaps? Much work is yet to be done on identifying the story of this wing and the Spitfire it came from. Furrther investigations of the dump itself are planned as there are thought to be more Spitfire buried there. Whether the wing,and associated parts came from a Spitfire based at the Orkney airfield concerned, or just happened to crash on or near the airfield, is open to question. However, if it involved a squadron based on the airfield then either 66, 129, 312, 453 and 602 Squadrons have been suggested. Clearly, removal of a damaged airframe to a repair facility would have involved transit over water to the mainland and whilst not necessarily difficult or impossible this might well have been an influencing factor when deciding to dump this airframe rather than

remove it from the island for spares recovery, repair or even scrap processing. Moving forward, ARGOS have pointed out that the site is on private property and the wing will be subject to more intensive investigation and the site to more extensive excavations in the near future. For the time being, however, the team are unwilling to release more specific information about the site or its precise location and continue to work with the landowner in taking this fascinating project forward. Given that the dump is not an aircraft crash site it is not subject to the provisions of the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. However, the ARGOS team have stressed they are intent on ensuring that the project is carried forward in a professional manner and following any appropriate protocols.

ABOVE: A view of the top surface of the wing showing RAF roundel and camouflage still intact.

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ABOVE: A close up of the wing tip, showing the distinctive ‘clipped’ style of the LF Spitfires. This turned out to be a Spitfire LF Vc variant, built by Westland Aircraft Ltd.

ABOVE: The brightness of the roundel colours are plainly evident in this image of the upper wing surface. The aperture of the missing access panel can also be seen here.

ABOVE: The oil cooler under the port wing.

NEWS FEATURE |

The Dreamers – A Musical First World War Tribute

The Dreamers A Musical First World War Tribute IN THE year that commemorates the centenary of the Great War two talented young musicians, James Beeny and Gina Georgio, have written a contemporary and inspiring musical drama called ‘The Dreamers’. The show takes its name from Siegfried Sassoon’s war poem about soldiers called, simply, ‘Dreamers’ writes Andy Saunders. As part of the six-piece band Virgin Soldiers, James and Gina have supported such major acts as Keane, McFly, Toploader and Joan Armatrading but in 2013 they turned their attention to researching a subject for their planned First World War show. They wanted to base it around a ‘local hero’ and very quickly settled on Captain David Reginald Salomons from Kent who was leading his men to Gallipoli in 1915. Coincidentally, ‘Britain at War’ magazine had just run a feature on the episode in which Salomons lost his life (see ‘Britain at War’ February 2012, Issue 58) and this had been followed up by a story on BBC South East’s regional ‘Inside Out’ programme. As a result, James and Gina were led to ‘Britain at War’ editor Andy Saunders who subsequently became historical advisor to the band in order to help them with their accurate creation of what is a musical drama using a combination of narration and music to tell the story of the loss of HMS Hythe off Cape Helles, Gallipoli, on the night of 28/29 October 1915. On the Hythe that night was the company of 1/3 Kent (Fortress) Coy, Royal Engineers, led by Major Ruston and with Captain David ‘Reggie’ Salomons, one of the officers, on board. The men were being ferried ashore at Gallipoli during the hours of darkness BELOW: The Sarnia, later HMS Sarnia, the vessel which collided with HMS Hythe off Gallipoli with catastrophic consequences for the men of the 1/3 Kent (Fortress) Coy, Royal Engineers.

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ABOVE: Tim Rice, one of the principal narrators, pictured during filming with the show’s creators, James Beeny and Gina Georgiou.

when the vessel collided with HMS Sarnia and sank in minutes with an appalling loss of life. In total, some 128 men – all from the community of Southborough near Tunbridge Wells – lost their lives, drowned as HMS Hythe went down, with another fifteen soldiers from other units plus eleven crew of the ship. Salomons, concerned to the end for the welfare of his men, gave up his own lifejacket to a man who could not swim and ended up paying the price of his gallantry

with his own life. One of those who survived, Driver Frederick Mills, would later write: “If he was not thinking of others then one would imagine he would have gone straight for his own life belt, of which he had a beauty. It would have been impossible to sink in that. It is my own opinion that if he had thought of himself first he would have been saved. If I am right he died a hero’s death and we honour him. I am not asked to write this but I am sure that every man would say the same. His name is repeated daily.”

The Dreamers – A Musical First World War Tribute

It was only when survivor Major Ruston wrote to ‘Reggie’s’ father, Sir David Salomons Bt, that the family first became aware of the extraordinary selflessness and devotion to duty and care for his men that Captain Salomons had displayed. However, almost one hundred years later the very letter written by Ruston mysteriously turned up in a Hastings militaria shop, although it has now been returned to the Salomons estate and deposited with the museum at Salomons House, Southborough. The contents of that letter, and the overall story of ‘Reggie’ Salomons’ heroic death on active service, proved to be very much the inspiration that ultimately led to the creation of ‘The Dreamers’ production. The band, Virgin Soldiers, will be joined on stage by a cast of twenty-one talented young people from all over Kent and Sussex, many of them still at school or college. The production will employ the use of large LED screens to feature the narrators and bring this story of the Great War to life. It will be narrated by actors Amanda Redman and Christopher Beeny, with special guest appearances by Sir

ABOVE & RIGHT: The letter from Major Ruston to Sir David Salomons, telling Sir David how his son had died a heroic death.

Tim Rice, Philip Glenister, Sylvia Syms, Sue Holderness and Michael Buerk. Christopher Beeny, who is James’ father, starred with Thora Hird in ‘In Loving Memory’ and more recently in the series ‘Last Of The Summer Wine’ but is probably best known for his part as Edward the footman in the 1970s series ‘Upstairs,Downstairs’ in which he portrayed a former soldier who had returned shell-shocked from the trenches of the Western Front. In the run up to the show the cast has released the lead track, The Dreamers Anthem, which is now available to download online. It can be viewed here: http://www.virginsoldiers. com/ All profits will go to Stars Foundation for Cerebral Palsy and ‘Never Such Innocence’, set up for the centenary to raise funds for five military charities. The cast launched the anthem during two nights of performances at Australia House in May, and have also performed the song at West End Live previews in June. They have also appeared on BBC Radio 1 as well as having performed The Dreamers Anthem at Leeds Castle Open Air concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and were the closing act for the ‘We Will Remember Them’ concert in aid of the charity 'Combat Stress' at St John’s, Smith Square, London on 11 September. However, the main performances

| NEWS FEATURE LEFT: Captain David Reginald ‘Reggie’ Salomons

will be at The Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells, on 16, 17 and 18 October 2014 and will present an opportunity to see the premiere performances of a unique theatrical experience before its West End debut in 2015. Amongst all of the varied commemorations marking the centenary of World War One, this event stands out as wholly unique. Written, researched, produced and performed by a group of young artistes in their twenties, or younger, makes ‘The Dreamers’ a most powerful production, containing extremely moving music and lyrics with dramatic narration from household names. Without a doubt, the enthusiastic involvement of Sir Tim Rice, the very doyen of stage musicals, is evidence enough of the highly professional quality of this unusual production. Tickets for this unique show are available from The Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells, by following this link; http://www.virginsoldiers.com/thedreamersuk or by telephoning the theatre on 01892 530613. www.britainatwar.com 15

NEWS FEATURE |

Another Lancaster Arrives in Lincolnshire

THE NUMBER of Avro Lancaster bombers in Lincolnshire increased substantially in August 2014. As well as the resident Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster PA474 based at RAF Coningsby, and the privately owned NX611 ‘Just Jane’ located at nearby East Kirkby, these aircraft were joined by the arrival of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Avro Lancaster MK.X C-GVRA to take part in a UK tour. The three complete Lancaster aircraft were also joined by the substantial part of a Lancaster airframe the original nose section complete with a reconstructed section of rear fuselage of Lancaster Mk.10 KB976, which was recently moved from Brooklands in Surrey to RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. The substantial nose and fuselage section of KB976 is owned by aviation enthusiast Jeremy Hall who remarkably also owns a second Lancaster nose section – that of an as yet unidentified MK B.1 version. The move was required as Brooklands Museum required additional space and felt that the Lancaster did not relate to the aviation heritage of Brooklands. KB976 is also a Canadian manufactured Lancaster. It was part of the first production batch of 300 aircraft ordered from Victory Aircraft Limited, Malton, Ontario. Serial number in this batch included KB700-KB999. The first 75 aircraft of this batch were equipped with Packard built Rolls-Royce Merlin 38 engines. Whilst the remaining 225 aircraft were equipped with Packard built Rolls-Royce Merlin 224

engines. Deliveries commenced to England in September 1944 and were completed in May 1945. The average rate of production was approximately 4 aircraft per week. KB976 was flown to England in May 1945 and initially allocated to No.32 Maintenance Unit at St Athan in South Wales before being allocated to 405 Squadron RCAF, coded LG-K. It arrived to late to see operational service. The aircraft was originally fitted with three gun turrets, an FN5 front turret, a Martin mid-upper turret and an FN20 rear turret . After the war, KB976 was modified to a ‘long nose’ Mk.10 AR (arctic reconnaissance) version and served with 408 Squadron (coded MN-976), one of only three aircraft modified to this specification. The other two aircraft also still survive – KB882 on display at the RCAF Greenwood Air Base, Nova Scotia, and KB 839 preserved as a memorial at St Jacques Airport Edmonton, New Brunswick. The modifications to the Mk10 AR version included adding equipment such as six camera positions, search/navigational

radar, electronic surveillance aerials, and new nose and rear fairing, with the survival equipment in the rear turret. KB976 was the last operational Lancaster in the world, being officially struck of charge on May 26 1964. The aircraft was initially sold into private ownership in 1964 for the princely sum of C$205. KN976 changed hands a number of times until eventually being acquired as part of the Charles Church collection in 1987 and stored at BAE Woodford. It was whilst it was stored here that the aircraft was badly damaged as the result of a hangar collapse. The original long nose section was acquired by Jeremy Hall in 2005 who maintains it as a private project aimed at paying tribute to the 10,643 Canadians who died whilst serving with bomber Command during the Second World War. The nose section and a fuselage will remain at RAF Scampton for the present and it is hoped will it will be incorporated and displayed with the RAF Scampton Heritage Centre which is housed in one of the original Second World War hangers at Scampton.

Another Lancaster Arrives in Lincolnshire BELOW & TOP: The nose section and fuselage of KB976 are moved from Brooklands to RAF Scamton. Note the aircraft is painted in a different colour scheme on its opposite sides to represent the Lancaster's full service history.

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NEWS FEATURE |

Historic Building Under Threat

Historic Building Sold WILTON PARK on the edge of Beaconsfield Old Town has been occupied by the military since 1940. The site played as vital a role as Bletchley Park during the Second World War but is still surrounded by secrecy. It has now been sold for development and under current plans at least 300 homes are to be built there. Redevelopment plans mention the importance of the camp’s historical past, but state that no buildings date from before the 1950s. Whilst conducting research for a forthcoming book on tracing Second World War prisoners of war, historian Sarah Paterson has identified that one of the buildings - Shean Block (named a few decades ago after a Royal Army Education Corps Brigadier) was actually erected in 1942. It is virtually the sole surviving reminder of the important wartime activities conducted there during the Second World War. Wilton Park had two distinct parts known as Camp 300 and Camp 20. Shean Block was originally the Headquarters of Camp 20 and has been in almost constant use since the War (as a Sergeants Mess, Russian Language Wing, Housing Offices, Examination Centre and for Media Ops) with its Cold War usage also being

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significant. The site also has international significance, as MIS-X (a department set-up to train American military personnel in escape and evasion activities) were based here, and awards were distributed from here to citizens of occupied countries who had assisted escapers and evaders. Another wartime activity that took place here was the packing of escape aid kits that were issued pre-operationally to aircrew. The site went through several incarnations during the period 1940-50, the best known of which was the re-education facility for German prisoners of war which operated between 1946 and 1948 in Camp 300. German civilians also participated in this, and between 1949 and 1950 German civilian courses took place in Shean Block. The Foreign Office ran these courses and when the War Office demanded their site back they moved to Steyning, West Sussex, which still operates as a global conference centre under the Wilton Park name. A more secret role was that of Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre for German and Italian aircrew, submariners and those deemed to have valuable information before they were sent to permanent camps. The intelligence gleaned here was vital to the Allied war effort, with formal interrogation sessions and bugged cell eavesdropping

(one of three sites that served this function; the other two were Latimer House and Trent Park). Finally, it was the Headquarters of MI9 – the branch of military intelligence concerned with Allied Escape and Evasion. It gave advice, training and ingenious escape aids to those vulnerable to capture, and assisted escape committees in POW camps abroad, especially Germany. It fostered escape-mindedness, kept up morale and also received valuable intelligence in the form of coded letters and debriefings of prisoners, returned prisoners and evaders. English Heritage has stated that more research needs to be done on the building. Sarah Paterson is hoping that Shean Block can be saved or at the very least ensure it is properly researched and recorded and a memorial/heritage centre placed on the site. TOP AND BELOW: The buildings at Wilton Park, including Shean Block.

Liverpool Pals Memorial

| NEWS FEATURE

Liverpool Pals Memorial A MEMORIAL to the Liverpool Pals who served during World War One was unveiled by HRH The Earl of Wessex on 31 August. It followed a three year campaign by The Liverpool Pals Memorial Fund to create a permanent tribute to remember the men and boys who volunteered writes David Smith. When setting up the Fund, its Committee declared: ‘What is important to remember about The Pals is that these men were not regular soldiers but were volunteers mainly from the business community in Liverpool and the surrounding areas, such as Cheshire (now Wirral), North Wales and Lancashire. They will have worked in the same buildings as some of us, lived in the same houses, drunk in the same pubs. They were ordinary men who volunteered to serve King and Country leaving behind them the safety of home and the security of employment. Many were never to return.‘ The £85,000 memorial, designed and created by Liverpool sculptor Tom Murphy and funded through donations, takes the form of a bronze-coloured resin two-panelled frieze. It is set above the entrance to the underground Merseyrail Wirral Line in Lime Street Station concourse. It tells the story of the Liverpool Pals through a series of dramatic images – from their formation through to their emotional farewells when they left the city, onward to scenes from the battlefield, their return from war and the commemoration this year. On 27 August 1914, Lord Kitchener made his famous appeal for volunteers, 100,000 being required. Lord Derby of Knowsley Hall to the northeast of Liverpool put forward an idea to the Liverpool Press to form Pals Battalions and announced a meeting to be held the following day. He suggested that men wishing to join a

battalion of comrades to serve their country together should attend. Lord Derby addressed the packed meeting, saying: ‘This should be a battalion of Pals, a battalion in which friends from the same office will fight shoulder to shoulder for the honour of Britain and the credit of Liverpool. I don’t ask you to uphold Liverpool’s honour; it would be an insult to think that you could do anything but that, but I do thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming here tonight and showing what is the spirit of Liverpool, a spirit that should spread through every City and Town in the Kingdom.’ Recruiting opened on 31 August at St George’s Hall, the massive neoclassical building opposite Lime Street, the city’s main station. By 10.00 am 1,050 men had enlisted and within days thousands more followed. The Pals became part of the King’s Liverpool Regiment, there being sufficient men to form four battalions and two reserve battalions. Due to the suddenness of the call up, there was a serious shortage of equipment. As a result, the Pals started their training with only 100 outdated rifles per 1000 men. They were

TOP AND ABOVE: The memorial plaques to the Liverpool Pals at Lime Street Station concourse and a recreation of the Pals' signing-up on 31 August 1914.

billeted around the area in makeshift camps at Sefton Park, Knowsley Hall, Hooton Park Race Course on the Wirral and at Prescot. By early 1915 the progress of the war on the Western Front, or lack of it, meant that the Pals had to prepare for trench warfare and so had to practice digging on land at Knowsley Hall. Further training was undergone at Grantham and Salisbury Plain. In the meantime, Liverpool’s example was followed in other towns and cities and it was early November 1915 before all the Pals battalions embarked for France. The Battle of the Somme commenced on 1 July 1916, a date on which the British Army suffered its heaviest losses ever, with 19,240 men killed in one day. The Liverpool Pals took the village of Montauban from the Germans, one of the very few successes of the day, but in doing so lost over 200 men killed. On 30 July, the Pals took part in an attack on another village - Guillemont. This time their efforts were to no avail and 500 men were lost in what came to be known as Liverpool’s blackest day. Thereafter the pals took part in a number of other major engagements, including the Battles of Arras and Passchendaele. During the latter, 11 officers and 223 other ranks were killed between 31 July and 3 August 1917. By the end of hostilities in the Great War, the Liverpool Pals had lost 2,800 men out of some 6,000 who had enlisted. Following the unveiling, the focus shifted to St George’s Hall where a recreation of the Liverpool Pals signing up took place – exactly one hundred years to the day since it happened, in answer to Lord Derby’s call for recruits. Now they have a fitting memorial at the station across the road where they left for active service with so many of them destined never to return. www.britainatwar.com 19

NEWS FEATURE |

Port Sunlight Remembers The Great Send Off

BELOW: The 2014 'volunteers' assemble to re-create the great Port Sunlight send-off on 7 September 2014.

Port Sunlight Remembers

The Great Send Off ON SUNDAY 7 September 2014, employees of Unilever Port Sunlight on the Wirral joined members of the local community to recreate an event which took place 100 years ago, as a reminder of sacrifices made by the people from the garden village of Port Sunlight writes David Smith. On 7 September 1914, seven hundred Lever Brothers employees travelled the fifteen miles from Port Sunlight to Chester by train and then walked the mile to the Cheshire Military Museum at the Castle to enlist in the 13th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment. They were the largest group of volunteers from any works in the country to sign-up to fight in the First World War. Many never came home. Exactly one hundred years later, another seven hundred Port Sunlight volunteers, many in period costume, travelled from Port Sunlight to Chester and walked to the Cheshire Military Museum at the Castle, accompanied by the Lyceum Brass Band. The aim was to recreate and remember that momentous day. Unilever Works Director Andy Hinch said: “The seven hundred Lever Brothers employees signing up for the First World War was a defining moment for the factory, the village and for the Wirral as a whole. This is an event for us as a community to come together, young and old, and to remember the courage and sacrifice of our forefathers.” Each 2014 volunteer was given the King’s shilling and a card with historical information about one of the original seven hundred Lever Brothers employees. These had been carefully and painstakingly researched by the Port Sunlight Village Trust as no list of the original men exists. In his words: “Putting names to

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faces has been an emotional piece of work. Many of them left a stable work and family life, some with young children whom they never saw again. Many were killed in action or died of their wounds. But The Great Send Off will not be a sombre occasion. We will sing the songs that they sang, we will be full of hope and pride, just as they were, and we shall have the same sense of fellowship that they had.” For the final stages of their walk to Chester Castle, the Port Sunlight Volunteers were joined by soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Mercian Regiment, representatives from ex-Service organisations, and Army and Air Training Corps cadets, who marched to mark the Battle of Mons. Major Eddie Pickering, Curator of the Cheshire Military Museum and organiser of the association’s annual Battle of Mons commemoration service and parade, said: “This year will be particularly special. Not only does it mark the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Mons where the 1st Battalion of The 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment stood firm before an overwhelming enemy advance and

ABOVE: The Port Sunlight volunteers assemble on 7 September 1914.

suffered massive losses, but the two parades coming together, 1,000 people strong, really will be quite a spectacle and a very moving experience for all.” The seven hundred volunteers began their journey by marching through the original Lever Brothers factory gates, now part of the Unilever site, before forming-up outside the company offices at Lever House where they were addressed by an actor playing the part of William Hesketh Lever, later Lord Leverhulme. After a rendition of Lever’s original speech the actor departed later in a magnificent RollsRoyce of the era. After the speech, the large party walked with banner flying and brass band playing to the nearby station for the trip to Chester. Merseyrail laid on a special train and a huge crowd waved them off. There was an air of jamboree about the event, certainly just how it was in 1914 as the volunteer soldiers marched off without any inkling of the horror to come. The reality of that horror is to be seen on the magnificent Port Sunlight war memorial with its ranks of names and impressive statuary. The memorial is at the opposite end of an avenue from the Lady Lever Art gallery and is one of the highlights of this extremely attractive conservation area. With an almost unbearable poignancy, the dedication stone states: ‘Unveiled on December 3rd 1921 by Sergeant E G Eames of Port Sunlight who lost his sight at the first battle of the Somme in France 1916.’ The event was organised by Port Sunlight Village Trust in partnership with the Cheshire Military Museum, Merseyrail, and Unilever Port Sunlight and with financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and McAdam Roofing Ltd.

FIELD POST

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LETTER OF THE MONTH

Canada’s Most Decorated Navy Officer SIR – I am writing to you with regards to an article in the September issue of your magazine. The story in question is that by Steve Snelling concerning Commander Gordon Campbell and HMS Dunraven. In it there is a photograph of Dunraven and HMS Christopher. The latter ship managed to get a line across to Dunraven, and the caption with this photograph states that HMS Christopher was commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Frederick “Fritz” Peters, who went on to be awarded the Victoria Cross. I thought that I might add a little flesh to that bone. Frederick “Fritz” Peters was educated in Victoria, British Columbia, and from there he went to Naval School in England. He graduated as a midshipman and three years later he received his commission as a sub-lieutenant. During the First World War he was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order, the first ever given to a Canadian, as well as the Distinguished Service Cross. His Victoria Cross was awarded for his involvement in Operation Reservist during the Second World War – which was in turn part of

Operation Torch. The plan was to send two sloops into Oran harbour to capture the place before the French could sabotage the port’s installations. Described as a ‘suicide charge’ the two sloops, HMS Hartland and HMS Walney, the latter being commanded by Fritz Peters, tried to force the harbour’s boom defences. His citation reads as follows: “The ‘Walney’ and ‘Hartland’ were two ex-American coastguard cutters which were lost in a gallant attempt to force the boom defences in the harbour of Oran during the landings on the North African coast. Captain Peters led his force through the boom in the face of point-blank fire from shore batteries, and a destroyer and cruiser – a feat which was described as one of the great episodes of naval history. The ‘Walney’ reached the jetty disabled and ablaze, and went down with her colours flying. Blinded in one eye, Captain Peters was the only survivor of the seventeen men on the bridge of the ‘Walney’. He was taken prisoner but was later released when Oran was captured.” A General Order issued by the Allied Force Headquarters – No.19 which was dated 23 November 1942 – adds the following: “Captain Peters distinguished himself by Captain Frederick Thornton Peters VC, DSO, DSC & Bar is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

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Commanded by Lieutenant Commander (later Captain) Frederick “Fritz” Peters, the destroyer HMS Christopher, on the right, managed to get a line to the sinking Q-ship HMS Dunraven – as described by Steve Snelling in his article. Despite what Campbell described as a “nasty sea” valiant efforts were made to save the Q-ship by Peters. (COURTESY OF STEVE SNELLING)

extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy during the attack on that post. He remained on the bridge in command of his ship in spite of the fact that the protective armor thereon had been blown away by enemy shell fire and was thereby exposed personally to the withering cross fire from shore defenses [sic]. “He accomplished the berthing of his ship, then went to the forward deck and assisted by one officer secured the forward mooring lines. He then with utter disregard of his own personal safety went to the quarter-deck and assisted in securing the aft mooring lines so that the troops on board could disembark. At that time the engine room was in flames and very shortly thereafter exploded and the ship turned on its side and sank.” The Royal Naval Association website provides the following description of the mission, Peters’ release from captivity and his subsequent fate: “Operation Reservist was deemed a failure with a disastrous loss of allied Special Forces personal. Two days later the port surrendered to US forces who had landed nearby as part of Operation Torch. Peters was released from captivity and bizarrely hailed a hero by the French who

carried him shoulder high through the town before handing him over to allied forces, he was flown to Gibraltar where after a short stay in hospital recovered enough to be transferred back to the UK. “In a strange twist of fate the RAAF Sunderland he was being carried in crashed in heavy fog due to an instrument failure whilst attempting to land near the breakwater in Plymouth Sound on Friday the 13th of November 1942. Of the 14 people on board Peters and 2 other wounded men were the only fatalities, the 11 man crew escaping, though the pilot attempted to save Peters [some accounts stating that he held on to Peters for ninety minutes] he was unable to and it is recorded that Peters disappeared under the waves of the Sound. Despite a search his body was never recovered.” As well as the Victoria Cross, for his part in the action at Oran, Captain Peters posthumously received the US Distinguished Service Cross, the highest American honour that can be bestowed on a foreigner. As he has no known grave, 53-year-old Peters’ name appears on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. George Peters (no relative). By email.

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PoW Escape Information

SIR – In the Field Post section of your July issue, there was a request for information from a Mr David Roth concerning a place in Italy named Montevano. The various tourist boards that Mr Roth has enquired with are quite correct in stating that such a place does not exist. I do believe, however, that I can identify the location of his uncle’s escape.

It is, I think, the village of Trevano (Como), which is a mountain locality that is approximately 120 yards from the Swiss border. The intervening distance is covered by thick woods. The village and its topography can be easily located using Google maps. I believe that local pronunciation of the two syllables in the name is what caused the confusion. Mauri Beyer, University of Pavia. By email.

RAF Losses During the Fall of France, 1940

DEAR SIR – I particularly enjoyed the article by Chris Goss in your last issue (‘Left Behind’) with a fascinating selection of images depicting RAF aircraft shot down in France during the run up to the Dunkirk evacuation. During the late 1940s my father served with REME as a National Service soldier and was posted to Germany. Here, he picked up some books in a flea market and tucked inside one of those he purchased were some photographs of German soldiers and this image of a Hurricane wreck sitting on a beach (above). On the back is simply marked, in German, ‘France June 1940’. I did wonder if this may well show one of the wrecks depicted in Chris Goss’ selection, and

having examined the photographs carefully I think it may well depict the same Hurricane that appears as image number two in the published selection, except that it has sunk further into the sand in the published image. In my photograph it hasn’t yet become quite so beaten up, but I also wonder if it could also be the same Hurricane as your main image that appeared at the foot of page 39 in that issue? The bits torn out of the tail might well point to a souvenir hunter hacking away the bear and ragged staff squadron emblem that appeared on that particular Hurricane. I thought this additional photograph would be of interest to your readers. James E Gadd (by email)

The Humbie Heinkel Recalled

DEAR SIR – I was attracted to your article on the Humbie Heinkel in your latest edition of Britain at War. My father was a friend of the late Alex Imrie who, as a young boy, witnessed the crash of the German bomber and told how that he was a beater for a shoot in the Lammermuir Hills that day along with a number of other local schoolboys. When word came that bigger game in the form of a huge German bomber had been brought down at nearby Kidlaw Farm, the boys could hardly wait for their beating assignment to be over and raced, helter skelter, for the scene of the crash (seen below). Making their way up to the German ‘plane through knee high heather the excited boys found the bomber laying on an uphill incline, riddled with bullets and with its back broken – exactly as shown in your photograph. By this time a large crowd had gathered, and there was also a large contingent of armed RAF airmen, not to mention the local constabulary, who all kept a beady eye on the boys knowing full well that they were intent on taking souvenirs. Although they stayed until dark, no opportunity presented itself to the young lads to fill their pockets with trophies and, by now, a rope barrier had been thrown up and it was made clear they could not cross its line. With renewed optimism the group of boys made their way back to the site in the

morning but it quickly became clear that any chance of taking anything home was out of the question and, by now, a group of RAF officers were present and taking great interest in the cockpit and engines. Disheartened, the boys eventually lost interest in hanging around but Alex was astonished to get home and find that his father had prised a manufacturer’s plate from the tail of the Heinkel with his penknife. Obviously, the activities of older and more responsible individuals was not quite as closely scrutinised and watched as had been the clearly far more ‘suspect’ youngsters. In fact, Alex thought that his father appeared in the main photograph of the bomber, bareheaded and back to camera by the tailplane – no doubt eyeing up his intended trophy. However, it seems that richer pickings were to had elsewhere as, coincidentally, an RAF Oxford had crashed just two days previously at nearby Lammermuir Law. Alex later researched this, and found it was an Oxford of 13 Flying Training School, Drem, which dived into the ground for unknown reasons killing Cpl B F Evans and Cpl C Thorpe. The aircraft, N4592, was badly smashed up and nobody seemed interested in stopping the young boys from taking what they wanted – although for the lucky few who got their hands on bits of Heinkel the exchange rate was four bits of Oxford for one bit of the German plane! Robert McNay (by email)

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The Battle Of The Sittang River Bend SIR – I read with great interest the “RAF on the Air” feature in issue 89 detailing one squadron’s involvement in the Battle of the Sittang River Bend. I feel I may be able to add some additional information to this article, but from the perspective of an individual on the ground. Brigadier Charles Ian Jerrard was the Commanding Officer of the 98th Indian Infantry Brigade, which in tirn was part of the 19th Indian “Dagger” Division which was operating in that area. As the narrative within the article states “155 and 19 Ind Div against the rest”, this would have included Brigadier Jerrard’s Brigade. Brigadier Jerrard wrote up the complete history of the 98th Indian Brigade and it is from his personal recollections/memoir that the following is reproduced, having the original title “Organisation of Air Support 21-31 July”: “The support given by the R.A.F. during these operations falls into two distinct phases; first operations 21 and 22 July; second, operations from 23 July onwards. “During the first of these phases one fighter squadron (Spitfires) was available to 19 Div on call. In view of the fact that active operations were taking place only within my (98 Brigade) area this meant that I had a call on the complete squadron. Sufficient aircraft were therefore available for a ‘cab rank’ to be organised for what were expected to be the critical hours of the day. An ALO [Air Liaison Officer] was living with the squadron at Toungoo airfield and was kept fully in the picture by the Div ‘O’ and ‘I’ staff. Communications from Div HQ to ALO was by direct line. “A VCP was located at Brigade HQ throughout the operations. All aircraft coming over the area were ordered to contact the VCP on arrival, and again on completion of their sortie. In this way it was possible to get brief reports from pilots as soon as an attack had been carried out. It was also possible to give pilots any last minute instructions and changes in

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A Spitfire Mk.VIII provides the backcloth to a group photograph of 155 Squadron personnel in the aftermath of the Battle of the Sittang River Bend. (Wing Commander A.G. Conway)

the situation. “During the first phase with aircraft on the ‘cab rank’ it was found possible to put in air attacks onto ground targets within 5 minutes of receipt of the request from the infantry. When aircraft were standing by, at instant readiness, on the airfield, air attacks were put in at times varying from 15 minutes to 40 minutes from receipt of the demand at Brigade HQ. This almost instant availability of air support was instrumental in saving a great deal of time during operations of such a fluid nature. Under such fluid conditions after a time lag of 2 hours, the ground situation may have so changed that the original target may have ceased to exist. “Another factor, i.e. the weather, also allowed full advantage to be taken of the instant availability of aircraft. Although, during most of the period, rain fell continuously during the daylight hours, there were times when the rain fall was much more intensive that at other times. During the ‘let up’ intervals the ground was usually visible. With aircraft ‘on top’ it was possible to take full advantage of the ‘let up’ periods. The necessity of always having alternative targets for aircraft to attack was clearly illustrated under these conditions. “The vagaries of the weather sometimes resulted in an unexpected, but none the less welcome availability of aircraft. On

at least three occasions’ aircraft, which has been unable to locate their targets in the 17 Div area, made contact with the VCP at Brigade HQ and requested targets. On two occasions this was able to be done with most satisfactory results, on the other occasion no ‘safe’ target could be given at the time of arrival of the aircraft. “The second phase, which began on 22 July, was inaugurated by the Spitfire Squadron at Toungoo being brought under control of Army/ Air HQ. This step was undoubtedly necessary due to the large area in which operations were now taking place. The availability of aircraft in support of Twelfth Army at the time is not known to the writer, but it is believed that the maximum effort over the whole Army area was two squadrons of Beaufighters, one squadron of Mosquitoes and one, possible two, squadrons of Spitfires. “From 23 July onwards, air support for operations of 98 Brigade became rather a matter of chance. Insufficient aircraft were available to provide a ‘cab rank’ and the time lag between demand and the attack being delivered increased to 1.5 hours at best and 3.5 hours at worst. “Valuable time was lost through two other causes. The first of these causes was postponement, by Army/Air HQ, of the ‘time over target’ after an attack had been accepted for the time originally

demanded. On 23 July, two postponements of the T.O.T for an attack on Lebyingly resulted in the infantry being delayed from 1300 hrs to 1500 hrs. “The only alternative to loosing time in this manner is to cancel the air strike and accept the proportionately higher casualties, an alternative which may not always be acceptable. Even if the alternative is accepted, a considerable waste of time cannot be avoided since, once an air strike has been accepted, ground troops cannot move forward of the ‘predicted line’ until an acknowledgement for the cancellation has been received. The delay in receiving this acknowledgement may be as great as the delay in waiting for the postponed attack. “The second cause of loss of time was due to the delay in passing demands over ASU channels. With such a high volume of traffic passing over ASU wireless group was passing during the operations, a delay of one hour, in passing a demand, was not uncommon. Frequently a further hour elapsed before reply to the demand was received. Thus if a demand was refused, a loss of two hours might easily result. The effect of this during fluid operations can well be imagined.” I hope your readers find this of interest. James Luto. By email.

'Brit

ATTACK OF THE EAGLES 13 August 1940

Eagles Attack

On 13 August 1940 the Luftwaffe launched its 'Adlertag' operation - Eagle Day. For one of the Messerschmitt 110 units involved it saw heavy losses. Andy Saunders tells the story.

MAIN PICTURE: Hptm Horst Liensberger, the Commanding Officer of V./(Z) LG 1, prepares to taxi out for take off in his Messerschmitt 110 on a sortie over England during the early stages of the Battle of Britain. (ALL IMAGES FROM

LUDWIG VON EIMMANNSBERGER UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

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of the

s

ATTACK OF THE EAGLES 13 August 1940 LEFT: Hptm Horst Liensberger, the Austrian CO of V./(Z) LG 1, led the unit during its difficult sortie on 13 August 1940 and throughout the remainder of the Battle of Britain until his death in action on 27 September 1940. RIGHT: A cheerfully confident Ltn Altendorf in the cockpit of his Me 110, shortly before the fateful operation on 13 August 1940.

T

HERE IS no doubting the fact that in the period running up to 13 August 1940 the RAF’s Chain Home radar stations covering the coastline from the Solent and immediately westwards into Dorset had sometimes failed miserably. A classic example had been the inability or failure of the CH stations to detect the incoming raids that had inflicted terrible damage to Portland naval base on 4 July in which the ant-aircraft ship HMS Foylebank had been sunk in harbour with a huge loss of life whilst, that same day, a convoy far out into the channel had also been badly hit. That failure, which attracted the ire of Admiral Max Horton who called it a ‘…disgraceful episode’, had seen not a single RAF fighter getting off the ground to engage the raiders. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, when asked to be assured ‘…that air (RAF) is contributing effectively’ was furious to discover the truth of the episode. No doubt stung by the collective displeasure of senior naval commanders who felt their assets were not being protected by the RAF, and by the Prime Minister who issued ‘Action This Day’ instructions, RAF Fighter Command with its associated radar network had to ensure it didn’t happen again. Things were handled a little better on 10 July when another attack on Portland came in, and again on 8 August when the Luftwaffe mounted heavy raids against Convoy CW9 ‘Peewit’. By 13 August, then, RAF Fighter Command’s 10 Group, and the radar stations that covered the group,

had more properly got their act together with sensitivity for raids that seemed to be threatening shipping or naval establishments. After all, the attacks had for the most part been hitherto directed at such objectives although when the controllers glanced at their operations room maps on the morning of 13 August they could see that no convoys were due through, or were even in the channel area, save for an assembly of merchant ships waiting at Spithead. Thus, it was not unreasonably concluded that the raid detected as building over Cherbourg at around 11.40 hours was a bomber force headed for harbour installations such as Portland, Portsmouth and Southampton. However, and as it transpired, the formation that was being tracked was a massed group of Messerschmitt 110s reported first as ‘twenty plus’ and with another formation then located at 11.54 of ‘twelve or more’. Both formations were now on parallel courses taking them directly toward Portland. To the controllers there was no means by which to judge the actual composition of the force but their likely intent was clear: another bombing attack on Portland. Reacting to this threat three Hurricane squadrons were scrambled; 213, 238 and 601. In fact, and notwithstanding the Luftwaffe’s change of tactics implemented on this day away from ports and directed instead at RAF airfields and radar stations, the incoming force was intended to be the fighter cover for a raid mounted by the Junkers 88s of KG 54. However, and in almost of a repeat of the fiasco over East Kent earlier that morning when the Dornier 17s of KG 2 had continued on to target unaware that the mission had been aborted and their fighter cover withdrawn, so the Junkers 88s of KG  www.britainatwar.com 27

ATTACK OF THE EAGLES 13 August 1940

54 were called-off whilst their fighter escort, the Messerschmitt 110s of V./(Z) LG1, continued on, blissfully unaware of the abandonment of the mission. As they headed for the Dorset coastline so the unit’s CO, Hptm Horst Liensberger, searched fruitlessly for his anticipated charges but they were still nowhere to be seen. As he searched, however, distant specks that were intercepting RAF fighters came into sight and grew ever larger as they bore down rapidly on the Me 110 formation. Reacting immediately to the threat, Liensberger ordered his aircraft into a defensive circle but before the circle could be closed some of the RAF fighters were already onto them. Nevertheless, off Lulworth, the formation had wheeled and arced into a tight radius as the twenty-three Me 110s closed in a defensive ring and flew round and around with each fighter protecting the tail of the aircraft in front.

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Both 238 and 601 Squadrons found themselves in a good position to engage, well above the formation of Me 110s, and battle was joined between 12.10 and 12.20 hours across Weymouth Bay. Here, the Hurricanes of 601 Squadron, up from RAF Tangmere, eventually tore into the defensive circle, breaking its cohesion, and claiming an total of two Me 110s definitely destroyed, six probably destroyed and a further six damaged. Meanwhile, 238 Squadron claimed another two destroyed and one probable along with a Dornier 17 also confirmed destroyed. (In fact, the latter was almost certainly a case of mistaken identity with the Do 17 more likely to have been a Me 110 that had simply been misidentified.) However, 213 Squadron failed to find the formation of Messerschmitt 110s although the damage already being inflicted by 238 and 601 Squadrons was drastic. One of the surviving Luftwaffe aircrew that

LEFT: In this evocative photograph, a disconsolate Ltn Altendorf gets ready to fly back to Germany as he surveys his kit and possessions before they are loaded on board his Me 110 following the disbandment of V./(Z) LG 1 in France on 2 October 1940. After the losses to the unit which had culminated on 27 September 1940, and commenced on 13 August with Adlertag, there was no option but to stand-down the decimated Gruppe. ABOVE RIGHT: Fw Hans Datz, a pilot with the V.(Z)/LG 1’s 13th Staffel, relaxes beside his Me 110, L1 + JH, the aircraft in which he was shot down on 13 August 1940 resulting in the death of his radio operator, Uffz Georg Lammel. BELOW: The dramatic wolf’s head emblem of V./ (Z) LG 1 on the nose of one its Messerschmitt 110 aircraft.

day, Uffz Wilfried Arndt of the 15th Staffel, later gave a graphic account of events that day after returning from the mission with his pilot, Lt Rudolf Altendorf: ‘On 13 August we took off from CaenSouth at 11.15 for England. We were outnumbered by the British fighters and therefore adopted a defensive circle. Suddenly, a British machine attacked the Me 110 in front of us and Lt Altendorf turned to the right and fired at the enemy. The latter rolled over its right wing, diving away, and with Altendorf right behind it. He fired everything he had, but apparently in the heat of the dogfight an ammunition drum from one of the 20mm cannon came away, it not having been secured properly. When we dived, it flew upwards and I felt a heavt blow on the back of the head and something hit the canopy above me. At first I thought we were being shot at, but there were no aircraft to be seen. As a result of our split-S we were at low altitude and alone and so flew back to France. Only now did the consequences of the massive blow to my head set in, and I fell asleep. Altendorf later told me that a British fighter then appeared behind us and we would have been dead but for a pair of Me 109s, heading back to France, appeared on the scene and shot the fighter down. The Me 109s then escorted us home, probably having seen me unconscious in the rear cockpit. After landing I was taken on a stretcher to the sick quarters where I eventually came-to.’

TOP PICTURE: Fw Hans Datz in the cockpit of his Me 110, along with radio operator Uffz Georg Lammel. The two men were shot down into the sea, with Datz being rescued and taken POW and Lammel losing his life. His body was later recovered from the English Channel.

Another of the aircrew involved, a pilot with 15./(Z) LG1, Uffz Werner Schumichen, takes up his story: “Our 15th Staffel of the V./(Z) LG1 was flying a defensive circle at 7,200 metres (approximately 24,000 ft) and 14 and 13 Staffeln were at 300 and 600 metres below us, respectively. While we circled round and round, the British fighters placed themselves in a favourable, menacing and higher attack position while remaining at a safe distance well outside our defensive circle in order to dive into the circle from above at maximum speed, and then dive away. After about six circuits in the circle I suddenly heard my radio operator cry out and at

ABOVE: This is L1 + KL, the Me 110 flown by Ofw Wagner and Uffz Heldt of the 15th Staffel of V./(Z) LG 1 in which the pair were lost during the operation on 13 August 1940.

the same instant took hits in the port engine and the instrument panel. The engine dropped from 1,800 to 1,000 RPM immediately after the attack, which was made by three fighters. I applied left rudder and skidded out of the stream of bullets and then got the machine up to 400 kph in a gentle dive but leaving a trail of smoke behind us. Seconds later there was a loud bang behind me in the area of the radio operator when something caused a fire and Ogefr Giglhuber had to bale-out. It was more difficult for me to abandon the aircraft because with the radio operator, rear canopy and machine gun all gone it pitched

RIGHT: Profile image of Horst Liensberger’s Messerschmitt 110.

nose down and in no time my speed rose to more than 500 kph. With my seat parachute, I was wedged firmly between the the upper edge of the seat and the roof of the canopy. After a great deal of effort I got both of my legs into the slipstream and was flipped over and thrown clear, losing one fur lined boot and a sock in the process. I let myself fall free for several seconds, counting from one to nine, and then I pulled the ripcord. The shock of the parachute opening was so great that I lost consciousness, At about 2,000 metres I was wakened by a loud noise – a British fighter circled me and its pilot waved. Hanging in my parachute, the sea wind blew me several kilometres out over the Channel.’ As Schumichen drifted down into the sea, others of the unit were having a hard time, too. Also hit was the Me 110 flown by Fw Datz with crewman Uffz Lammel, their aircraft catching fire under a hail of .303 rounds after falling out of the defensive circle. Wounded in the leg, Lammel was unable get out of the aircraft under his own strength and so Datz executed a half-roll throwing his radio operator

out of the aircraft whilst himself Datz managed to bale-out, but with a badly burned face. Drifting in Weymouth Bay for several hours, Datz was eventually rescued and taken POW although the body of the unfortunate Lammel was later found in the water. Meanwhile, Uffz Bruggow of the 15th Staffel, watched in horror as a flaming Me 110 dived vertically into the sea, his close friend Uffz Paul Heldt on board: ‘Their aircraft dived straight towards the water at high speed. I was desperate because there was no sign of movement from either man in the machine. I radioed: ‘Paul, baleout…..jettison the canopy….bale-out!’ He didn’t. I wiped away a few tears, but had to tear myself away from what was happening if I was to survive and not share their fate. Furiously, I fired at everything that showed itself behind our machine, near or far, or tried to position itself behind us.’ As the Me 110 slammed into the English Channel taking with it Heldt and his pilot, Obfw Heinz Wagner, so the already broken defensive circle was getting increasingly ragged under repeated attacks from the Hurricanes. 

MESSERSCHMIT T 110

NAME: MESSERSCHMITT 110 TOP SPEED: 562 KM/H RANGE: 850KM WINGSPAN: 16.25 M

LENGTH: 12.1 M ENGINE TYPE: DB601 ENGINE ARMAMENT: 5 X 7.92MM MACHINE GUNS, 2 X 20MM CANNON

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ATTACK OF THE EAGLES 13 August 1940 Meeting the same fate as Heldt and Wagner, Ltn Gunther Beck and Fw Karl Hoyer of the 13th Staffel were also shot down into Weymouth Bay and although RAF intelligence reports indicate that two bodies were retrieved from the water only one of them, Beck, has a known grave and lies buried alongside Georg Lammel at Portland’s Royal Navy Cemetery. Meanwhile, as Schumichen and his crewman Ogefr Otto Giglhuber bobbed on their lifejackets in the water, the decimation of V./(Z) LG 1 continued above them as Hptm Horst Liensberger gave the order to break what was left of the defensive circle and run for home. Schumichen takes up the story again: ‘I saw Giglhuber come down in the water before me, approximately four kilometres away. A British lobster fisherman had obviously watched my landing and came over in his boat and pulled me out of the water. After I had handed over my pistol, belt and parachute he smiled and offered me a cigarette. We exchanged a few words as we headed for Giglhuber and together we pulled my radio operator out of the water. When I climbed out of the boat I had difficulty walking on the stony beach with my bare foot and a soldier rushed over and gave me one of his shoes. A short while afterwards we arrived at a coastal observation station where I received a warm welcome from a uniformed man who told me he had been treated well as a POW in Germany from 1916 – 1918. I was allowed a shower and given a meal of fish, with some wine, and a very welcome packet of cigarettes.’ Giglhuber, too, later recorded his recollection of that traumatic and eventful day: ‘We had taken off from Rocquancourt at around 12 noon (Central European Time; Editor) with orders to escort a unit of bombers. While we were flying in a defensive circle, suddenly three Hurricanes came directly out of the sun. In the air battle that followed we

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ABOVE: Plt Off ‘Billy’ Fiske’s Hurricane was also hit and damaged, but he too escaped unhurt although he was severely wounded in action on 16 August 1940 and died the following day, the first American to die on active service during the Second World War. RIGHT: The Ehrenpokal, or Goblet of Honour, awarded to Hptm Liensberger on 28 August 1940 in recognition of his leadership of V./(Z) LG 1.

received hits in the starboard engine and fuel tank. For a while, we dived away and then there was a bang and smoke and flames came into the cockpit. On orders from my pilot I jettisoned the cockpit hood and tried to get out but I was unable to do so because of our high speed. I was still struggling to get out when there was another big bang behind me and I was suddenly out and falling. 'I think I struck the tail because I had bruises on my left shoulder and for weeks I could hardly move my arm. I pulled the ripcord and descended into the sea, coming down about five kilometres from the coast from where a fisherman rescued me. He already had my pilot in the boat with him.’ Schumichen and Giglhuber’s rescuer had been lobster fisherman, Albert Marshall, and so far as can be established, their Me 110 fell to earth at Swalland Farm, Kimmeridge, on the Dorset coast and the crash site was excavated during January 1960 by the Army after accidental discovery in October 1959. In truth, though, there was nothing found in 1960 to directly connect the crash site to either

Schumichen or Giglhuber or to their Me 110 with its known identification codes, L1 + FL, although it is reported that the propeller spinners were yellow with a narrow red ring although other circumstantial evidence certainly points toward Giglhuber’s aircraft. That said, some confusion exists in terms of establishing with any certainty which aircraft fell where. That confusion is compounded by the crash of yet another Me 110 of the unit which fell out of the same aerial battle to crash a little further west on the coastal path at Arish Mell, Lulworth, and inside what is now the periphery of Lulworth Camp and its AFV gunnery range. Local ARP reports give a date and time for the crash, making it certain that this was another of the V./(Z) LG 1 losses but no RAF intelligence reports exist to offer us further clues. Unfortunately, at this stage of the Battle of Britain, virtually no reports on German crashes were compiled by the RAF’s Air Intelligence A.I.1(g) section that dealt with technical intelligence matters although, by the end of August 1940, quite detailed reports were being made on each crash. Equally sparse in detail that might help establish who came down where are the reports of the RAF’s Air Intelligence A.I.1(k) branch who dealt with the interrogation of aircrew as well as any examination of papers, identity discs etc. recovered from bodies. Just to complete the cloak of mystery, the Luftwaffe loss reports of the period do not match aircrew to the Werke Nummers of their respective aircraft. Again, this particular Luftwaffe reporting protocol came into effect towards the end of August 1940. So, all of this conspires to leave a bit of a mystery in terms of the minutiae of that

ATTACK OF THE EAGLES 13 August 1940 specific battle and all we have, from the Dorset ARP records, is the following entry for that day: ‘About 16.00 hrs [sic] two or three ‘planes in the sea off Lulworth Cove. German pilots in sea. Fourteen parachutes in the sky. At 12.20 hrs a Messerschmitt crashed on the cliff at Arish Mell Gap. The machine had burnt out, the occupants had baled-out over the sea.’ So, as to who came down where, and in which aircraft, this is difficult to determine but mention of the various aircraft downed at around 16.00 hrs almost certainly refers to a number of Junkers 87 Stukas that were shot down in the sea off the Portland and Weymouth area at that time. With regard to the earlier Me 110 losses, however, we do have an overall picture of the casualties sustained in this action by V./(Z) LG 1. In total, we know that six aircraft of the unit were a complete loss and, of these, one was written off after crash landing back at Cherbourg-Theville airfield in France and two crashed on land in Dorset. It must therefore be concluded that another three fell into the English Channel, although four others returned to France with varying degrees of combat damage and four wounded aircrew on board. Of the latter, Gefr Alfred Haas of the 14th Staffel was seriously wounded by bullets and taken to Caen hospital where one of his legs had to be amputated. Certainly, it had been a disastrous operation for the Me 110s of Horst Liensberger’s unit, and in 1964 the author Cajus Bekker wrote: ‘When Liensberger’s group finally returned from this difficult mission, five machines were missing with their crews and others counted dozens of bullet holes. The mission had a postscript two days later: ‘And then there is the case of the

Zerstorer (destroyer) unit sent out on its own’ said Goring. ‘How often have I already issued verbal and written orders that the Zerstorer Me 110 units are only to be committed when necessary for reasons of range?’ In fairness to Liensberger, though, this was not a hot-headed ‘free hunt’ to England by his Me 110 unit. Instead, it was another of the debacles that had plagued the Luftwaffe operations on Eagle day, 13 August 1940. All Liensberger had done was take his unit to rendezvous with the bombers he was to escort and, completely unaware that the operation had been postponed, he led his formation onwards across the English Channel hoping to find and join up with their intended charges. Thus, Goring’s criticism was either misinformed or unfair although the Reichsmarscall’s displeasure apparently did not harm Liensberger’s reputation or standing, for on 28 August 1940 Goring saw fit to award the coveted Ehrenpokal (Goblet of Honour) to the young Austrian commander of the V./ (Z) LG1. Final word on the operations of the unit that day should go to Liensberger himself. In a postcard home on 13 August 1940 he wrote: ‘In the midst of feverish activity between two missions (the unit had

ABOVE: Ogefr Wilfried Arndt (left) had a lucky escape on 13 August 1940 over the Dorset coastline. Here, he explores the debris-strewn beaches at Dunkirk during June 1940 along with Ogefr Giglhuber as the pair examine heavy artillery shells alongside an abandoned British truck. Giglhuber was shot down and baled-out into the sea during the 13 August 1940 operation and was taken POW. MAIN PICTURE: The Hurricanes of 238 Squadron were amongst the RAF fighters that caused havoc amongst the formation of V./(Z) LG 1 Messerschmitt 110s over Lulworth on 13 August 1940.

flown an escort much earlier that morning to Brighton/Guildford without loss: Editor). It is so hectic over there that one scarcely has time to observe the effect of one’s fire before another enemy is already there. They are plucky chaps, and some of them are great ‘stunt’ pilots. We are going over there again in two hours. Things will turn out all right.’ But things, this time, would turn out very far from ‘all right’. Liensberger would later add a postscript to his postcard home: ‘Today was a hard day for us, but we did it. Our Gruppe was alone over there. They were afraid that none of us might return, but we don’t make it so easy for them, even though we lost machines.’ With losses totalling just over 25% of the force committed on 13 August 1940, the damage inflicted on V.(Z)/ LG 1 was not something that could be sustained longer-term as the Battle of Britain continued to mount. The intensity of operations being flown by the unit, and the continued losses of aircraft and experienced crews, came to a head on 27 September 1940 when no less than seven aircraft of V.(Z)/ LG 1 were lost, with their crew members either killed or POW. Amongst those killed that day was Hptm Liensberger (see Britain at War, Issue 20, December 2008) and against the background of such catastrophically heavy losses that had effectively commenced on 13 August, the unit was disbanded on 2 October 1940. Almost seventy-five years later, the events of the engagement on 13 August 1940 became the focus of attention for a team organised by the MoD’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation when some of the unanswered questions were pursued with forensic attention to detail. 

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EXERCISE ADLERTAG Operation Nightingale

EXERCISE

ADLER TAG

Messerschmitt 110 Wreckage Uncovered Following on from ‘Attack of Eagles’ Mark Khan describes the recent archaeological excavation undertaken as part of Operation Nightingale on the crash site of a German Second World War aircraft, thought to be one of those aircraft shot down on 13 August 1940 – Adlertag or “Eagle Day”

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HE LATEST in a series of ‘Operation Nightingale’ projects commenced on Monday 18 August. The aim of this latest project named ‘Exercise Adlertag’ was to archaeologically investigate the crash site of what was believed to be a German Messerschmitt 110 fighterbomber that crashed on 13 August 1940 within what is now the part of the UK Ministry of Defence live fire gunnery ranges at the Armour Centre near Bovington, Dorset. ‘Operation Nightingale’ is an initiative set-up by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and The Rifles. It uses archaeology and cultural heritage opportunities to help personnel injured on operations, including Afghanistan, return to their regiment or prepare for civilian life. DIO is the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) property

and services provider. The programme helps DIO to fulfil its statutory obligations and illustrate heritage best practice; in this case providing case studies to help English Heritage revise guidance notes on aircraft excavation. Since its inception in 2011 this most successful project has investigated a series of archaeological sites, both military and non-military. The organisers of previous projects have seen that military archaeology engages participants and inspires their imagination and the initiative has previously assisted with the recovery of three Second World War aircraft; Short Stirling I R9313 at Lurgashall in Sussex, Consolidated Liberator II AL595 at Lyneham, and Supermarine Spitfire I P9503 on Salisbury Plain. Exercise Adlertag was conducted on entirely MoD-owned land that lies 

ABOVE: The ‘scatter field’ of debris was carefully plotted and all detector readings examined and finds marked. However, many finds were found to be the remains of fired ordnance originating from gunnery range activity.

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EXERCISE ADLERTAG Operation Nightingale

THE AIM OF THE PROJECT • • • •

Discover at what depth were the remains of the aircraft Establish the condition of the remains Attempt to establish the precise cause of the crash Identify what mixture of ammunition the aircraft was armed

with Establish if there was any surviving evidence from the engagement, to help establish precisely what caused the aircraft to crash • Glean any information at all about the British aircraft involved • Establish any information relating to the final moments of the airframe • Understand what an archaeological recovery of the airframe

•

adds to our knowledge Establish if these techniques inform revised crash investigation guidance • Establish if modern crash investigation techniques can be of use for historic work • Understand if any other (non air-crash) archaeology in the immediate vicinity existed and if so how was this affected by

•

• •

the events of 1940 Establish if all the human remains issues were dealt with Identify the specific aircraft involved

within the restricted access area used for military training. The team was led by DIO Senior Historic Adviser, Richard Osgood and composed of ‘Operation Nightingale’ personnel. Assisting the core team on this project (including many from The Rifles) were professional archaeologists and members of 1710 Royal Naval Squadron

RIGHT: The main trench is examined for finds as the excavation continues on down to establish the original impact crater. LEFT: Parts examination is undertaken back at the finds tent with each recovered piece carefully examined. BELOW: Squashed flat by the impact, this near complete set of engine exhaust ejectors from one of the cylinder banks were found together a few metres from the impact crater.

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(Aviation Forensics), 42 Regiment, Royal Engineers, 5131 (BD) Squadron RAF and 1 Air Mobility Wing RAF. Due to the nature of the location, which is within an area used for firing of live ammunition for many years, serving Ordnance Disposal personnel were on hand to manage any hazardous munitions uncovered.

buried at Portland. Due to the fact that one of the crew of these aircraft was missing (Uffz Karl Hoyer), the possibility existed that the crash site could contain human remains. Under such circumstances, then all work would have to cease immediately and HM Coroner and the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) of the MOD would need be contacted.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Whilst believed to be the crash site of an aircraft belonging to V./(Z) LG 1, its actual identity was unknown. Research indicated that likely candidates were either an aircraft piloted by Lt Günter Beck or Fw Hans Datz. Lt Beck was flying with Uffz Karl Hoyer operating as Bordfunker (radiooperator). Beck is listed as being killed and is buried at Portland RN cemetery, whilst Hoyer is listed as missing. The other possible airframe was piloted by Fw Datz, who was flying with Uffz. Georg Lämmel as Bordfunker. Datz was made prisoner of war, with Lämmel being killed as a result of the actions on 13 August 1940 and also

THE CRASH SITE The location site of the crash was well known locally, and with a crater still in existence marking the site of the actual impact. Permission was required from DIO Ops (Training) South West and permission from the MoD under the Protection of Military Remains Act (PMRA) 1986. A condition of the PMRA License was that Dorset Council received a Project Design and subsequent report on the excavation. Also, and since the site of the crash lies within an area of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), this also required permission from Natural England for the project to take place.

EXERCISE ADLERTAG Operation Nightingale

As the site of the crash had been well known about for many years, it was also known that aviation enthusiasts had previously visited the location on a number of occasions during the 1980s. Local first hand accounts also existed and described an aircraft hitting the ground with terrific force, blowing up and making an impact crater. A well-known enthusiast, the late Peter Foote, had recorded in great

detail some artefacts that had been discovered at the crash site in the early 1980s and, amongst other items, these included several pieces of Daimler-Benz DB601 engine, fired 7.92 mm cartridge cases (some molten due to fire), parts of two 20mm cannon shell cartridge cases, parts of MG15 and MG17 machine gun mountings, 2 exhaust stubs, a fuel injector, concertinaed pieces of aircraft skinning, a rear portion of engine

TOP LEFT: The dark mark that can be seen on the trench wall is the 'robber trench' showing where a previous dig has taken place. TOP RIGHT: All discoveries were taken to the finds tent where they were meticulously cleaned, examined and recorded. LEFT: A rusted portion of generator, was amongst the items identified by using period technical manuals. BELOW: Small fragments of coloured perspex canopy were also found.

mount, a large gear wheel on a shaft, a hinged inspection door with light blue paint and part of a corroded propeller. Items of wreckage were also noted to have been scattered up to 100 yards away from the actual impact crater. Whilst some of the components noted could clearly help indicate the aircraft type, some of the more interesting finds included several portions of structure bearing inspection stamps recorded ‘GWF 140’, signifying the aircraft had been built by Gothar Waggonfabrik A.G. Located in the City of Gotha, in central Germany, the principal product of the aircraft division of this company was the twin engine Me 110 fighter aircraft. Additionally, part of a DB601 engine main identification plate was also discovered marked ‘BENZ DB601A 219221’. No individual aircraft identification details were found during these early visits, although evidence of intense fire was noted on the wreckage.

EXERCISE ADLERTAG The excavation site, located high on the Dorset coastline, lies overlooking 

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EXERCISE ADLERTAG Operation Nightingale

the scenic Worbarrow Bay but prior to excavation some research was carried out in relation to the impact crater as well as to the area around the site. A geophysical survey of the crater was carried out, as well as the analysis of a number of aerial photography images taken over a timeframe covering 1941 to 1996. A preexcavation plan was made of the crash crater, along with a non-intrusive metal detection survey carried out indicating ‘hotspots’ where metal objects were located under the surface. Excavation involved the opening of four trench sites, two of which were located directly in the area of the crash site crater. Work

MAIN PICTURE: This was the Me 110, L1 + FH, flown by Fw Datz and Uffz Lammel , when they were shot down off Lulworth on 13 August 1940.

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carried out in these trenches required close supervision due to the potentially hazardous nature of some finds and thus all excavation was monitored by a team from 5131 (BD) Sqn, RAF, who were responsible for undertaking ordnance clearance in the region during the entire project period. Potential hazards identified that might arise from the actual crash itself included 20mm cannon ammunition as well as instruments fitted to aircraft of this period which contained radioactive radium in their dials. Whilst recognising the potential hazards, however, it was likely that the nature of impact and subsequent fire was such that much of the potentially hazardous material would have been

TOP LEFT: Richard Osgood, team leader on Exercise Adlertag and MOD Defence Infrastructure Archaeologist , hard at work in one of the excavation trenches. ABOVE RIGHT: A large number of heat-exploded 7.92mm cartridge cases were unearthed, originating from the fixed forward MG 17 machine guns and flexible rearward firing MG 15.

destroyed. Previous experience has shown that where instrument faces have survived such an impact, then the luminous radium paint is disrupted from the instrument face and is no longer present, although it remains possible that low-level residual radiation might remain. Additionally, and since the site was within an MOD live-firing range area, then the possibility of unexploded ordnance being uncovered that arose from firing on the ranges at this location was highly likely. Clear instructions were issued that should this occur all excavation would cease immediately until the ‘all clear’ had been given by the bomb disposal specialists. A short distance away, downhill from the excavation site, a finds tent and control point had been established. For those moving between the two sites, a steep climb from the finds tent to the excavation site seemed to get harder each time its was attempted! Archaeological fieldwork took place over five days and finished on Friday 22 August. Full film and written recording of the recovery and finds were carried out with Richard Osgood taking the lead role in this aspect of the project. Members of 42 Regiment Royal Engineers additionally recorded the environs and the crash site crater using laser scanning. Overall, the project proved to be extremely worthwhile for those taking part and resulted in a multitude of small

EXERCISE ADLERTAG Operation Nightingale airframe, engine and other components being recovered and a full archaeological analysis of the excavation and artefacts discovered will now take place, post excavation, and result in a formally recorded project report.

ARTEFACTS A full inventory of artefacts recovered during the excavation will be created, this being stipulated as one of the conditions of the Protection of Military Remains Act License. As these were all recovered as the result of a formal archaeological excavation, so the finds were context-recorded and 3-D spot located, assigned a unique ‘small finds number’ and recorded onto Excel spreadsheets for inclusion as part of the site archive. All the artefacts recovered remain the property of the Ministry of Defence until such time as they are signed over to the RAF Museum, Hendon, or other Museum collections or repositories. Items comprising bulk corrosion, or sometimes solidified molten aluminium, were simply recorded by area. Prior to the excavation a number of components visible on the surface in good condition were also recorded and recovered. Many of these contained large elements of the original paint scheme (including a reddish undercoat or etching primer and blue topcoat) still in evidence. Whilst some parts have already been identified, many more currently remain unidentified. From those that were uncovered and identified during the excavation, a fascinating picture has emerged. Whilst a full analysis of the site and artefacts has yet to be performed, evidence uncovered as a result of the excavation indicates that the aircraft crashed at very high speed resulting in a dramatic impact, causing the airframe to completely fragment into many pieces. Even

ABOVE: A portion of airframe skin bearing black and white paintwork, thought to be a portion of the wing or fuselage German cross. FAR LEFT INSET: Part of the engine block of one of the aircraft's DB 601 engines which is embossed '3205' . ABOVE RIGHT INSET: Illustrative of the total disintegration of the DB 601 engines, this was the sheared head of one of the engine valves.

major components, such as the engines, appear to have been shattered into relatively tiny pieces by the impact. No evidence of human remains were uncovered during the excavation, although pieces of what may have been personal equipment (eg buckles from the one of the crews flying helmets) are awaiting further investigation. This might be consistent with a crewmember baling-out of an aircraft, as the flying helmets were connected via a cable to the radio throat microphone and headphones and it was often simpler, and safer, to just remove the helmet and radio connection which might otherwise get caught up as the crew member baled-out of the aircraft. However, there is anecdotal evidence that a portion of parachute harness buckle may have been recovered from the site in the 1980s and this, obviously, would be consistent with at least one crew member perishing in the aircraft. Unusually for formal archaeological

excavations, the project was visited by an eye-witness of the history being uncovered when Mr Meaden was brought to view the excavation. A twelve year old boy at the time of the crash, he had been chased away when he later visited the crash scene which he recalled as a smoking crater although he had no knowledge as to the fate of either crew member although vividly recalled watching its vertical plummet to earth. Whilst no conclusive evidence has yet emerged to establish the identity of the aircraft, the archaeological excavation of the crash site during Exercise Adlertag certainly confirmed the identity of the aircraft as that of a German twin engine Messerschmitt 110 fighter. It is hoped that further examination of the mass of finds may eventually uncover the true identity of this mystery Battle of Britain aircraft that had been lost on the Dorset Coastline seventy-four years ago and has for so long remained un-identified. 

www.britainatwar.com 37

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DEATH OR GLORY GRENADIER John Rhodes VC

Death or Glory

Grenadier

MAIN PICTURE: For most conspicuous bravery: artist Sean Bolan’s evocative painting of John Rhodes’ Victoria Cross action at Houthulst Forest on October 9, 1917, during the closing weeks of the Third Ypres campaign. Commissioned by the Sergeants’ Mess of the 1st Grenadier Guards, it was unveiled at Elizabeth Barracks, Pirbright, in 1999, in honour of the most highly decorated sergeant in the regiment’s history.

40 www.britainatwar.com

DEATH OR GLORY GRENADIER John Rhodes VC During the First World War, John Rhodes scaled the very peaks of valour in Flanders’ muddy fields but, as Steve Snelling relates, the most highly decorated noncommissioned officer in the history of the Grenadier Guards died without knowing of the ultimate recognition bestowed on him for his final act of extreme valour.

A

LIGHT cannonade stabbed the morning mist as around 500 guardsmen pushed off into the murk of no-man’s-land. Lost to sight but not to sound, their “perilous progress” towards the enemy’s trenches was marked by “a great rattle of machine-gun fire”. (1) To Second Lieutenant Carroll Carstairs, a 29-year-old American serving with the 3rd Grenadier Guards, it appeared as though the “full orchestra of battle” was on. “The air seems alive with invisible wires being twanged,” he later wrote, “while the earth is thumped and beaten.” 

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DEATH OR GLORY GRENADIER John Rhodes VC

Somewhere ahead of him, the leading waves, men who had appeared as “sinister shadows… cold and wet and dulled with fear”, were faring badly as they edged nearer to the shell-ravaged ruins of Fontaine-Notre-Dame around 07 00 hrs on 27 November 1917. What Carstairs described as the “zip, whiz, whistle, spin, sing and sigh” of bullets sounded like “a continuous

ABOVE: Queuing for war: a long line of Grenadier reservists returning to the Colours at the start of the First World War. John Rhodes was among those who headed back to Buckingham Gate where he found himself posted to the 2nd Battalion which departed for France on 12 August 1914.

LEFT: The young guardsman: a pre-war studio portrait of John Rhodes, complete with swagger stick. He served three years with the 3rd Grenadier Guards before transferring to the reserve in early 1914.

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scream” to the unit’s medical officer, Captain Harold Dearden. The slaughter was terrific. “Our poor lads went down like grass before a reaper,” he later recalled. Hampered by the fire and broken ground, the stretcher bearers struggled to reach the casualties. Around half were killed or wounded, but some, at least, managed to get through. In the cold, drizzling rain, Carstairs stumbled across one such party as they made their way back through the mist. They were carrying a sergeant who he recognised straight away. “He was a fine big man,” noted Carstairs, “but lying deep in the stretcher and covered with a blanket, seems immeasurably to have shrunk. Only his head, immense and white, like an indomitable will, appears to keep life in him.” The shock was tangible. John Rhodes had seemed indestructible, his feats of daring the stuff of regimental legend. In the space of a little more than two years’ front-line soldiering, he had been awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal and Bar and recommended for the Victoria Cross. Now Carstairs could only pity him. He tried to speak to him but Rhodes, though conscious, could barely utter a word. “Poor man, I am thinking, poor man!” as the bearers lurched away, “his great strength and courage… ebbing fast”.

‘LUCKY FOR US’ John Harold Rhodes was a man apart. Described by those who knew him as “modest, open, genuine, fearless, staunch and daring”, he was a plainspeaking Staffordshire coal-miner’s son who found his metier on the battlefields of France and Flanders. Born in the village of Packmoor, near Tunstall, on 17 May 1891, the eldest of ten children, he had the reputation of being something of a daredevil as a boy. His father served with the Royal Scots Fusiliers before finding work in the coal-mines, but John, who had followed him into the pits, chose instead the Grenadier Guards enlisting in 1911 at the age of nineteen. Transferring to the Reserve in 1914, he enjoyed the briefest of civilian interludes before the international crisis brought his civilian life to a premature end. Mobilised into No 2 Company, 2nd Bn, Grenadier Guards at Chelsea, he was in France within nine days of Britain’s declaration of war. By 23 August, following a 24-mile march under a blazing sun which left him feeling “dead beat”, he was on the southern outskirts of Mons, amid the slag heaps and pit heads of Belgium’s coal-mining country and where units of the British Expeditionary Force had fought their first major encounter with the German army. 4th Guards

DEATH OR GLORY GRENADIER John Rhodes VC LEFT: A knockedout tank beside a track through the remains of the village of Poelcapelle pictured after the fighting of 1917. It was in this area that Rhodes carried out the actions for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. (NARA)

Brigade, sited on the right flank near the village of Harmignies, was not engaged in the initial encounter, but their baptism of fire was not long in coming. In a letter home, Rhodes told how his unit had been ordered to reinforce the 1st Division which was “hard pressed”. He recalled: “The guns were going it heavy at the time we advanced up towards the firing line, and [we] had got to… a bank when we were met with a deadly maxim and rifle fire. “It was lucky for us we were underneath the bank or else I don’t think many of us would have lived to do much fighting. All we could do was to lie low, as to advance would have been suicide. “We stuck it there three hours and then we had orders to retire…”

‘FIXED BAYONETS’ So began the gruelling thirteen day retreat from Mons to the Marne, during which his battalion averaged twenty three miles a day in fierce heat with “hardly any sleep and not too much grub”. Two days’ “plodding” along roads swarming with refugees brought them wearliy into Landrecies, where they were billeted for the night by the river Sambre. Thankful for the chance of a rest and a wash, they were treated to a barrel of beer to “wash the dust out of our throats”. What followed, however, was a rude interruption destined to take pride of place in the regiment’s history.

BELOW: Pre-war: John Rhodes as a young man, around the time he enlisted in the Grenadier Guards in February, 1911. The eldest of 10 children, Rhodes was the son of a Staffordshire miner who had seen service with the Royal Scots Fusiliers.

“We were just settling down to have a good blow-out when the alarm was given,” wrote Rhodes in his unvarnished record of the drama. “We rushed out with fixed bayonets thinking the Germans were on us. “[But] after standing-to for about half an hour we were told two German spies had been caught dressed in French uniforms. Of course you can guess their fate. “We went back to set about the ‘feed’, didn’t we have a blow-out. We were just settling down for the night when the alarm went again in earnest. We had not time to get properly dressed, any order so long as we had our bayonets fixed and ammunition.” (8) For days Rhodes and his pals had been “…wishing they would let us turn round and have a smack at the Germans instead of running away”. Now, at last, they had their chance. “We were all half-dressed,” wrote Rhodes. “It appeared the Germans had surprised us. A gendarme brought the news, the Germans were surrounding the town. It was a very dark night which made matters worse. “The Coldstreams happened to be on the side of the town on which the Germans advanced. They formed line and gave them a warm reception. My Batt. was told to defend two big houses on the end of a street. “We barricaded them and then the battle began and didn’t they let it up. Our commanding officer told us we had to hold on at all costs, no matter what happened, which meant if the Germans broke through we should have to do a bit of pig sticking. 

Stretcher bearers struggle through the mud. One who recalled such scenes during the fighting at Passchendaele was Corporal J. Pincombe, 1st Battalion, Queen’s Westminster Rifles: “Stretcher bearers coming through the mud to bring the wounded out … doctors and orderlies working in their shirtsleeves, even in the rain … everywhere, all over the road and shoved to the aside, were broken wagons, gun carriages, and dead horses. You couldn’t speak the gunfire was so terrific … to either side there was nothing but mud, mud for miles.” (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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DEATH OR GLORY GRENADIER John Rhodes VC “Well, it was a terrible time… Shells were bursting over the house and bullets pattering against the walls. They set fire to three haystacks in front of the Coldstreams which lighted [sic] up the sky. “The Coldstreams fought well, inflicting heavy loss on the Germans… We had a terrible time in those two houses. Wounded Coldstreams were passing us and we had no idea how things were going on, but we intended doing our bit if required. “The shelling and firing was carried on until about 3 o’clock in the morning when we were informed the Germans had retired…” (9) The repulse brought only temporary relief. Wary of the enemy’s presence, the Guards left Landrecies in a hurry, and minus most of their kit to continue the long trek south. Surprised again by the Germans a few days later near Villers-Cotterets, they found themselves outnumbered “Ten to one”, according to Rhodes, and only managed to escape being cut off “by a hair’s breadth”. The days of retreating, however, were almost at an end. On 3 September, Rhodes crossed the Marne and three

BELOW: Twice a hero: just weeks after earning his first gallantry award, a Distinguished Conduct Medal, Lance-Corporal John Rhodes, illustrated here on the left, earned a Bar for his bravery in rescuing guardsmen buried alive by a mine explosion near Givenchy on 6 August 1915. This contemporary artist’s impression shows him working with Guardsman Timothy Barton, who received a DCM, to release the trapped men under fire. Both men were wounded in the action. BELOW LEFT: The ruins of a small château in Houthulst Forest pictured after the end of the war. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

days later the tide of battle turned as French and British troops went over to the offensive.

‘I SAW STARS’ Encounters with rear guards of enemy cavalry was followed by stiffer resistance in wooded country. Rhodes had a “near squeak” when a man next to him was shot and killed. “It was a warm time and no mistake,” he wrote, “but we shoved on.” Passing smashed artillery, they harried the retreating Germans all the way to the Aisne where they put in another attack. “Talk about a hail storm,” wrote Rhodes, “it wasn’t in it. There were bullets galore. It was marvellous how we got into position at all without more casualties… “I blazed away. It was like Hell upon earth. My chums rolled over one after another, but we stuck it… The fighting lasted all day [and] my platoon got cut off from the rest of the Batt.” (11) Led by Lieutenant Prince Alexander of Battenburg, they took up position behind a wall where they clung on for two days without relief, “living on potatoes and carrots” from nearby fields. The war of rapid movement was over, and within a month the remnants of the 2nd Grenadiers made their acquaintance with the mud of Flanders and the immortal salient 44 www.britainatwar.com

where for four weeks a decimated BEF heroically fought the German army to a standstill. “They charged us almost every day,” wrote Rhodes, “but their shelling was the worst.” His survival was little short of miraculous. “One day I was helping to make a dug-out and was chopping a tree down when a piece of shell cut the tree in half about a yard above my head,” he wrote. “It was a close shave, one of many whilst in that position.” Fate continued to smile on him as the rain turned to snow. On a cheerless Christmas eve, just days after being given his first stripe and command of a section, he was occupying a trench knee-deep in slimy sludge near Givenchy when the Germans began bombarding them with minenwerfers. “One came and completely buried one of our Sgts,” wrote Rhodes. “After helping to dig him out, being out of wind, I had just settled down when another came and dropped in front of my trench. I saw stars and landed up to my neck in mud and water, but they had me out in no time.” Driven out of a trench for the first time, the Grenadiers scrambled back to a support position from where they beat off the enemy. With that, the lines more or less froze into a bloody stalemate that was broken only occasionally by the most resolute and resourceful of men.

DEATH OR GLORY GRENADIER John Rhodes VC Writing to a relative, he admitted : “It is marvellous that I am still sticking it when such a lot of our chaps have gone under. A good many had only been out here a day or so before either getting killed or wounded and some who have been back wounded have come out again only to get killed which is hard lines. There are very few of us left now who first came out with the Batt.” For all the hardships, a spirit of dogged determination shines through the few of his letters that have survived. Despite the wretched conditions, and the loss of many close comrades, he seemed ever “in the pink”, and ever willing to “have another packet at the Huns”. However, after months of fighting, he was under no illusions as to the scale of the task confronting them. Writing in July 1915, he observed: “Let us hope I see the end of the war and that it won’t be long, which I am rather doubtful of.” Inevitably, a touch of fatalism occasionally crept in and referring to his award in the same letter home he explained that he had only received the ribbon of the DCM and not the medal which he said was being “kept back at Buckingham Gate until the end of the war, or else the end of me”.

‘NARROW SHAVES’ Typical of such men was John Rhodes. During periods of relative inactivity he was a leading figure in the battalion’s efforts to ‘dominate’ no-man’s-land. Seemingly indifferent to danger, his forays between the opposing lines were frequent, but one in particular, on 18 May, 1915, stood out and resulted in his first award for gallantry - the Distinguished Conduct Medal. In a letter written to one of his brothers a few weeks later, he dismissed the incident, saying: “I suppose by now you know all about the DCM. For myself, I’m tired of writing about it… I earned the medal for… going out and getting valuable information and also for getting the wounded in while being fired on.” There was, however, rather more to it than that. While leading a reconnaissance patrol into no-man’s-land he ignored machinegun fire to get near enough to the enemy to pinpoint key positions. Then, having scrambled back to his own trench, he discovered that two men from the unit were lying wounded out in the open. Despite being in full view of the enemy, he dashed out twice to rescue them and on each occasion returned unscathed while the guardsman accompanying him was wounded. It was yet another in an ever-longer list of what he called his “narrow shaves”.

‘RUBBING ALONG’ For the time being, at least, the luck was all with him but on 6 August, near Givenchy, the Germans exploded two mines which lifted the ground “in one great convulsion” and buried a number of men from a Grenadiers’ working party beneath a mass of debris. Hearing that men were trapped, Rhodes and another guardsman, Timothy Barton, (18) hurried to their rescue. Despite a “sharp fire” from shells and enemy riflemen, they stuck to their task. Among those dug out alive was the platoon commander, Lieutenant Harry Crookshank, later 1st Viscount Crookshank and a minister in Churchill’s post-war government. He had been completely buried in about four feet of earth and would inevitably have succumbed but for the selfless rescue effort. It was a gallant endeavour made all the more remarkable by the fact that Rhodes had persisted with his share of the digging despite being wounded in the right shoulder. The result was a Bar to his DCM and spell of hospitalisation which led, in turn, to a period of convalescence and a home posting to the 5th (Reserve) 

BELOW: Street fighting 1914-style: an artist’s impression of the 2nd Grenadiers’ defensive battle fought from behind barricades in the streets of Landrecies on 25 August 1914, during the retreat from Mons. Rhodes, then still a guardsman in No 2 Company, described the struggle there as ‘a terrible time’. Recalling their hasty retreat with a note of irony, he wrote: ‘We had to leave the town in a hurry, having no time to call for our kits. We were dead tired and didn’t we look happy!’

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DEATH OR GLORY GRENADIER John Rhodes VC

Pillbox Busters

OF THE sixty-one Victoria Crosses awarded ‘for valour’ during the course of the thirteen-week struggle known as the Third Battle of Ypres, more than half were presented for actions involving the capture of pillboxes or fortified farms. Though uniformly brave, the often single-handed assaults on the concrete fortifications which were a feature of the German defences in Flanders varied markedly. Here are a quartet of examples of pillbox-busting, VC-style: Private Wilfrid Edwards, 7th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 16 August, 1917 With his unit’s attack stalled in front of three pillboxes, Private Wilfrid Edwards pressed on alone. The 24-year-old company runner hurled three bombs through the loophole of one blockhouse and then clambered up onto the roof from where he forced all but one of the garrison to surrender. He then entered the blockhouse and brought out the last-resisting gunner at rifle point (below right). Sergeant Ned Cooper, 12th King’s Royal Rifle Corps, August 16, 1917 A concrete blockhouse set in a ruined farmhouse threatened to wreck an advance made by the 12th KRRC near Langemarck until Sergeant Ned Cooper staged his own one-man assault. Reaching the side of the strong-point, he called on the garrison to surrender, but was surprised when the enemy emerged from a hidden entrance behind him. In fright, his revolver went off, the enemy ran back inside and he had to persuade them out a second time. His took 45 prisoners and seven machine-guns (top).

Acting Company Sergeant Major John Skinner, 1st King’s Own Scottish Borderers, August 16, 1917 During an attack near Wijdendrift, Acting CSM Jock Skinner, a 17-year veteran with a Distinguished Conduct Medal already to his name, helped subdue fire from two pillboxes before crawling up to the walls of a third blockhouse. Disappearing round the back, he bombed the machine-gunners and forced the men inside to surrender. Then, he moved onto the next pillbox and dealt with it by throwing grenades through the loopholes. All told, his singlehanded action resulted in the capture of 60 men, six machine-guns and two trench mortars (above left). Private Fred Dancox, 4th Worcestershires, October 9, 1917 Confronted by a pillbox near the shell-pitted Broembeek, 38-yearold sanitary orderly Fred Dancox took matters into his own hands. With men being shot down all around and messages flying back for mortar support, he darted from shell-hole to shell-hole to reach the back wall of the blockhouse. Then, clutching a grenade in one hand, he coolly walked inside and cowed the garrison into submission. Backing out, he menaced some 40 enemy troops into running back to British lines while he strolled back with the machine-gun under his arm.

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Battalion as a newly promoted lancesergeant instructor. His sixteen months’ in England was also a period during which he gained a wife but was followed by a return to action in January 1917 with the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards in France. By all accounts, his time away had done nothing to shake his confidence, nor his faith in the Allies’ ability to finally defeat the enemy. Writing home to his brother, Jabez, two months after returning to the front, he was in typically optimistic mood. “I am rubbing along alright and am in the best of health… considering the weather. It was terribly cold when I first came out but it is much warmer now… On the whole there is not much to grouse about considering the circumstances. “We have been doing well of late… and the Germans must look out when the weather cheers up.”

SEA OF MUD Unfortunately, the weather in 1917 showed little sign of cheering up. After the bitter winter, the Spring push around Arras was launched in April amid snow showers, while the great offensive in Flanders was fought out in a sea of mud following one of the wettest summers on record.

By autumn large parts of the battlefield east of Ypres resembled a swamp. A web of wooden duckboard trails snaked across a pitted wilderness studded with concrete pill-boxes and farmhouses converted into miniature fortresses on which the fluid German defence rested. Almost 10 weeks of relentless fighting had carried the British line barely three to four miles, and at horrendous cost. The success of ‘bite and hold’ tactics, with limited attacks behind creeping barrages, persuaded Field Marshal Haig to persist with a campaign that many considered futile. Rhodes, though, appears to have left no record of the most significant action of his career, or at least none that survives, and details of the fighting on 9 October 1917 are sketchy and contradictory. What is not in doubt, however, is the degree of valour displayed by a man whose reservoir of courage appeared limitless.   For five days prior to the attack it had rained without break and hardly a tree, hedge, wall or building could be seen amid acres of slime devoid of landmark or natural cover, save for mud-filled craters. Rhodes’ battalion’s objective lay on the northern flank, beyond a flooded watercourse called the Broembeek, in the splintered remains of Houthulst Forest. ‘Zero Hour’ was 05 20 hours, but 3rd Grenadiers’ involvement was not scheduled to begin until two hours later. By this time, the first objectives were to have been captured.

SHEER AUDACITY The initial advance behind a carefullyorchestrated bombardment, went like clockwork, the Broembeek crossed “without difficulty” and enemy lines breached. By 07 30, when the 3rd Grenadiers started their advance, the day’s first two objectives were secure. Moving forward, the battalion faced a daunting passage over open ground raked by fire but between them and the southern fringes of Houthulst Forest lay a number of pill-boxes; squat, menacing, and formidable. And so it might have proven but for the outstanding courage of John Rhodes. While other units employed more conventional tactics to out-flank and eventually subdue the block-houses, the 26-year-old Grenadier from the Potteries adopted a more direct approach. Running ahead of the Lewis gun section he was leading, Rhodes, who had already “accounted for several enemy”, made straight for the strongpoint a hundred yards short of their objective. His solo charge took him unscathed through fire from enemy machineguns and, nearing the pill-box, he spotted three men emerging and, without hesitation, headed for the same doorway and “effected an entrance”. It would seem that his shocking presence and audacity was sufficient to induce instant surrender by men convinced he was the vanguard of a much larger force. The number of men captured, according to his subsequent Victoria

Cross citation, totalled nine and included an artillery observation officer from whom “valuable documents were taken”. It was a position that seemed nigh on impregnable and it had fallen to a single non-commissioned officer in spectacular fashion, almost certainly sparing the lives of comrades.

‘GREATEST HONOUR’ Rhodes came through the rest of the day’s fighting untouched and shortly afterwards scribbled a letter home to his wife, enclosing a few souvenirs of his most astonishing feat of arms including a photograph of the German officer he had captured. In the same note he mentioned that he had been recommended for a high distinction. Later, on 26 November, the day that his richly-merited Victoria Cross was officially announced, Lizzie Rhodes received another letter from John, saying he was still uncertain if the award would “definitely” be granted. The following morning, as newspapers at home celebrated his honour, John Rhodes followed the barrage for the last time and towards the ruins of FontaineNotre-Dame. Rhodes was still none the wiser about the VC when his luck finally ran out. Hit and wounded, with bullets smashing his thigh, he was barely alive when he reached 48 Casualty Clearing Station and succumbed as he was being lifted onto a bed. Not long afterwards, his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Thorne, arrived with confirmation of his award, but, as he wrote to Lizzie, “it was too late”.

ABOVE: Soldiers of a field artillery brigade from the Australian 4th Division on a duckboard track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in the Ypres salient, on 29 October 1917. This provides an iillustration of the conditions on the Passchendaele battlefield at the time of Rhodes' actions. (COURTESY OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL; E01220)

OPPOSITE LEFT: Men of the 4th Battalion Coldstream Guards beside a wrecked gun outside a captured German pillbox on the outskirts of Houthulst Forest during the fighting in October 1917.

The most highly decorated Grenadier guardsman of the First World War, or of any other conflict before or since, was buried nearby, “on the side of a hill facing the sun”. Passing his grave, the unit’s chaplain, Captain the Reverend Stephen Phillimore, was moved to write a touching letter to Rhodes’ widow who had been left alone to bring up the son her gallant husband had never seen. “It is one of the cruellest things of this war that just at the moment of great things the best are taken away,” he wrote. “Your husband had won the greatest honour any soldier could have and had won it over and over again; yet he was always the same, quiet in his manner, never boastful, always doing his duty, a pattern to soldiers and a pattern to us all.” Truly, he was the greatest Grenadier. 

(IWM; Q6047)

RIGHT: John Rhodes lies in RocquignayEquancourt Road British Cemetery, France. (VIA DONALD C JENNINGS).

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FRIENDLY FIRE SINKING HMS Rockingham

H

MS ROCKINGHAM was originally the USS Swasey, a Clemson-class destroyer which had been commissioned into the US Navy on 31 July 1919. She had been placed in reserve in 1939, but was brought back into service and transferred to the Royal Navy as part of the Lend-Lease Agreement. She was re-commissioned as HMS Rockingham at Halifax, Nova Scotia, from where she sailed for the UK. Rockingham was re-fitted to Admiralty requirements at Devonport, and in February 1941 was allocated for service with 8th Escort Group. She served on convoy escort duties in the Western Approaches and the Atlantic until August 1943 when she was withdrawn and nominated for use as an Air Target Ship. Rockingham refitted for her new role and posted to Rosyth in January 1944. One of her functions was to act as a safety ship during air targeting exercises to rescue

any airmen that might find themselves in the sea. It was in this capacity that she sailed on Monday, 25 September on what would prove to be the destroyer’s final journey. Her time operating out of Rosyth had been far from uneventful, as one crew member, Philip E. Marshall, recalled: “Rockingham steamed up and down the Firth of Forth, carrying out two types of training. Sometimes a ’plane, towing a drogue, would fly past, and ships’ crews would be given

FRIENDLY FIRE

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RIGHT: Royal Navy and US Navy personnel inspect depth charges aboard Wickesclass destroyers in 1940. In the background are USS Buchanan and USS Crowninshield. After transfer to the Royal Navy, Buchanan became HMS Campbeltown, of Saint-Nazaire fame, whilst Crowninshield became HMS Chelsea. (US LIBRARY

OF CONGRESS)

LEFT: The crew of HMS Lancaster look on as HMS Rockingham’s stern settles beneath the waves.

the chance to practise anti-aircraft firing from our decks. More often, we were ‘attacked’ by Barracuda aircraft dropping torpedoes. “The Barracudas were intended to replace the old ‘Stringbags’, the Swordfish, but they were heartily disliked by those who had to fly them. Apparently they were difficult to handle, and there had been several accidents ... Once, the ’plane towing the drogue passed too close ahead of us, so the towing wire sliced across our bows with the effect of a chain saw. Those on the Bridge flung themselves on the deck, just one signalman having his oilskin cut as he went down a fraction too late. Another time, the torpedoes, genuine ones but without explosives, passed underneath us, being set deep, but [the captain] swung around 180° and retraced his course, narrowly missing being hit by the tin fish, now nearing the end of their run and surfacing.”

TOP LEFT & MAIN PICTURE: Disaster in the North Sea – the destroyer HMS Rockingham sinking on Wednesday, 27 September 1944.

(ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF MARK KHAN UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

BAD WEATHER AHEAD

Reckoning] position somewhat unreliable. A sunsight had been taken in the forenoon but the violent motion of the ship nullified its accuracy. A position line possibly indicated that the ship was to the northward of her D.R. position. At dusk heavy rainstorms prevented the taking of starsights, and by the time the moon became visible, it was almost setting.” The situation Lieutenant-Commander Cooper found himself in was extremely hazardous. In heavy seas, poor visibility and unsure of his exact location, he requested a transmission from one of the coastal stations to help him achieve a more accurate bearing. Eventually, a bearing was received from the station on May Island and then from “Copperknob”, which the operator on Rockingham stated was “first class”. 

The veteran destroyer set off on her last patrol under Temporary Acting Lieutenant-Commander J.C. Cooper, RNVR who later provided a detailed report for the Admiralty: “H.M.S. ‘ROCKINGHAM’ arrived on station at the northern end of the patrol line at 2210 on 25 September and commenced patrol at 10 knots ... On arrival weather conditions were reported to [Naval Air Station] Crail. They were short, steep seas, wind force 6-7, conditions unsuitable for rescue of air crews, surface wind 50 knots.” Following Lieutenant-Commander J.C. Cooper’s weather report, NAS Crail cancelled the planned exercise and Rockingham was ordered to return to harbour. “By this time weather conditions had made my D.R. [Dead

HMS Rockingham sailed from Rosyth at 15.35 hours on 25 September 1944. Her objective was to patrol off the Scottish coast as a safety ship during air targeting exercises to rescue any airmen that might find themselves in the sea. As it transpired it would be the men on board Rockingham that would need rescuing.

SINKING

Kirkwall John o’Groats

NORTH SEA Moray Firth

Fraserburgh Peterhead

Inverness

Aberdeen

SCOTL AND

 

Montrose Oban

Perth

Dundee Firth of Forth

Glasgow

Edinburgh

Ayr

Carlisle

Newcastle upon Tyne Durham Middlesbrough

A map showing the approximate position in which HMS Rockingham struck the mine.

IRELAND

ENGLAND WA L E S

www.britainatwar.com 49

As Cooper was to observe, the operator later denied having pronounced the bearing as being good. Though a mathematical error was found with the Copperknob bearing, a bearing from May Island enabled Rockingham to be able to produce a cross-bearing and establish the ship’s position. Now confident that he was on course, and with the sea subsiding a little, Cooper ordered an increase in speed from 12½ knots to 15 knots and with regular Gyro compass readings being taken to keep the destroyer on course, Lieutenant-Commander Cooper, having been on the bridge all night, retired to his cabin.

A BROKEN BACK “At about 0404, I was struck on the head by a piece of falling Radar gear,” continued Cooper. “I rushed onto the bridge and ordered ‘Stop Engines’. Investigation by the First Lieutenant showed that the ship had been mined aft on the port side and her back had apparently broken just forward of the after superstructure. The tiller flat was flooded and the after mess decks filling rapidly. Members of the after gun’s crew and a number of ratings on the after mess decks were injured. “The Engineer Officer’s examination indicated that the port propeller had been blown off and that water was

entering the after engine room at a steady rate through the bulkhead glands and couplings.” As would be expected all available fire and bilge pumps were brought into operation, as well as a 70-ton portable pump. This meant that the water level was kept well below the platform plates. All but one of the wireless aerials had been blown away, and the remaining one was earthing against the ship. This, though, was quickly repaired and a signal was sent to the Commander-in-Chief, Rosyth: “Am mined in position 56 degrees 47 minutes N, 01 degrees 31 minutes 30 seconds W. Situation serious.” A second signal was subsequently sent, which simply read, “Help needed urgently.” Distress signals were also made by searchlight, signal projector fireworks, and Oerlikon tracer rounds being fired vertically into the sky. At around 05.00 hours the starboard anchor was released in around thirty-five fathoms in a vain attempt to bring the head round wind to stop the pounding of the waves against her side. Those men not employed on damage control were ordered to prepare to abandon ship. At 05.52 hours, HMS Lancaster (another former US Navy warship) made contact with Rockingham, requesting that she should fire further Oerlikon tracers vertically. With this Lancaster was able

TOP LEFT: HMS Rockingham’s stern gun pictured moments before it is consumed by the waters of the North Sea. BOTTOM: The first batch of the former US Navy warships arrives in British waters. The so-called “Destroyers for Bases Agreement” was signed on 2 September 1940. Under its terms, the UK received fifty mothballed American destroyers, for which in return the United States received land rights on British possessions.

(HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

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to locate the badly damaged destroyer. Having arrived on the scene, HMS Lancaster crew quickly established Lancaster’s that Rockingham was on the edge of a Royal Navy-sown minefield which was probably part of the so-called East Coast Barrier. She had evidently run into a British mine. Remarkably, only one crewman was killed; 19-year-old Stoker 2nd Class Ronald Gant “had apparently been blown over the ship’s side”. By that time the pumps were controlling the inflow of water, Cooper explained, but Rockingham could neither raise steam nor steer. This meant that Lancaster was going to have to sail up to the minefield to rescue Rockingham’s crew. “Prepare to abandon ship stations had been secured,” Cooper reported, “and at 0850, on HMS ‘Lancaster’s’ instructions, the cable was slipped and HMS ‘Rockingham’ commenced to drift out of the minefield, HMS ‘Lancaster’ following round.” At 09.51 hours, by dint of what Cooper described as “fine seamanship”, Lancaster’s whaler managed to transport the ship’s Medical Officer, SurgeonLieutenant D.R. Kerr, over to Rockingham. He was then able to help take care of the wounded who had been placed in Cooper’s cabin and the wardroom. Shortly afterwards, Lancaster began its first attempt at securing a tow line to Rockingham, but with winds up to Force 7, and with the damaged ship now lying stern-on to the waves due to the aft

FRIENDLY FIRE SINKING HMS Rockingham

ABOVE: Unable to raise steam or steer. HMS Rockingham drifts out of control, the various attempts at taking her in tow having all failed. Under the terms of the Lend Lease deal, the fifty former US warships were required to be named after locations which existed on both sides of the Atlantic – in the case of HMS Rockingham, this was a town in North Carolina and a village in Northamptonshire.

being flooded, the line parted before it could be made fast. Both ships were still in a precarious position in strong winds and very heavy seas and it was four hours before further efforts could be made to pass over a tow line. “At 14.00 hours another attempt was made,” Cooper recalled, “and by more fine seamanship on HMS ‘Lancaster’s’ part, whose Commanding Officer held her in position perfectly, a tow was passed in an exceptionally short time, and at 1417 towing was commenced with 2 shackles of cable veered, later increased to 5, and HMS Rockingham

slowly came round into wind.” More ships began to arrive in the shape of HMS Vanity and His Majesty’s Trawlers, Strephon, Harry Melling, and Robert Stroud. Cooper asked the trawler skippers if they could take station close by in case they were needed.

STERN FIRST

TOP MIDDLE LEFT & RIGHT: HMS Lancaster closes in on HMS Rockingham in an attempt to take the latter in tow or trans-ship some of its crew. ABOVE AND LEFT: Another pair of images taken from HMS Lancaster. The Admiralty concluded that the destroyer’s loss “was undoubtedly caused by striking a British mine due to navigational difficulties”.

The weather then took a dramatic turn for the worse, with winds reaching Force 9. At 16.35 hours, the tow cable parted again. In agreement with HMS Lancaster, Cooper transferred his wounded (two of which were stretcher cases) to HMT Harry Melling, and non-essential personnel to HMT Strephon. These operations had to be conducted by boat, and to help quieten the waves, Vanity pumped oil onto the intervening sea. Further attempts were made to re-attach a tow to Rockingham, all of which failed. “At 1940, in view of the weather conditions, with forecast of no improvement,” Cooper summarised, “[and] the rapid approach of darkness, I reluctantly decided to abandon ship.” With the small ships being tossed around it took until 20.15 hours before Vanity was able to place herself close enough for Rockingham’s remaining crew to be taken off. “At 2038,” Cooper concluded, “I witnessed HMS ‘Rockingham’ sink stern first by herself.” Lieutenant-Commander Cooper had abandoned ship, and saved his crew, with only minutes to spare. 

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THE RAF ON THE AIR Squadron Leader Peter H. Stembridge DFC



    12 

PART

During the Second World War, RAF personnel regularly described their activities on the radio for listeners of the BBC. These broadcasts described their experiences in their own words and in effect provided the human stories behind the official communiqués. Each month we present one of these narratives, an account selected from over 280 broadcasts which were, at the time, given anonymously. BELOW: One of 8 Squadron’s Consolidated B-24 Liberators pictured at Kallang, Singapore, after landing there on 2 October 1945. Note the wrecked hangar in the background. (ALL IMAGES COURTESY

OF F.F.H. CHARLTON UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

TOP RIGHT: Liberator GR VI KH331/W was the aircraft used on the mission described by Squadron Leader Peter Stembridge DFC and Bar in the radio broadcast.

T

O MAINTAIN its covert operations and to sustain guerrilla groups in Japaneseoccupied Burma, Malaya and French Indo-China, the Special Operations Executive required long-range air support from the RAF. Several Consolidated B-24 Liberator equipped squadrons were switched to the “Special Duties” role. Likewise, in the absence of significant Japanese naval activity in the Indian Ocean some general reconnaissance Liberator units were also switched across to this role in early 1945. The included the crews of 200 Squadron, which had just completed an intensive period of Leigh Light training for night-time antisubmarine warfare duties.

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To support Force 136 (SOE’s umbrella organisation for their activities in South East Asia) teams undertaking a guerilla campaign in Burma and Malaya, 200 Squadron moved to RAF Jessore (now in Bangladesh) with a detachment at RAF Cuttack. Flying Officer Charlton and his crew, flying KH331/W, conducted 200’s first SD operation on 15 April 1945. This sortie was part of Operation Conclave – a decoy mission to drop equipment within reach of the enemy so as to draw its attention there and away from areas of real activity. Another typical sortie was that of 26 April, when stores were dropped in

the hills north east of Rangoon, or that undertaken two days later to the Malay Peninsula when almost a ton of arms and supplies was delivered despite awful weather. This was 200 Squadron’s longest trip to date. Operations continued through May 1945, with forty-seven sorties having been flown up to the 15th – of which thirty-seven were successful (eight were abandoned owing to bad weather). Then, on the 15th 200 Squadron was re-numbered as 8 Squadron, though this did not affect operations as on this day the “new” squadron undertook seven SD missions.

A week later 8 Squadron moved to Minneriya in Ceylon, where it resumed work on 4 June. From Ceylon its crews concentrated on very long range missions to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, flights which resulted in an average sortie length of over eighteen hours; some were as long as twenty-one hours. The eventual Japanese surrender resulted in a marked increase in

activity for the SD squadrons as there was an imperative to get relief teams and supplies dropped into Allied PoW camps across South East Asia. The Squadron’s CO, Wing Commander J.M. Milburn, ended his August monthly report with these prophetic words: “Moreover, all are fully aware that

ABOVE: Flying Officer Charlton (rear, second from the right) and his Liberator crew pictured in Ceylon before the Japanese surrender.

even when the last shot has been fired a great volume of work remains to be done. It is not without a measure of pride that this Squadron looks forward its share of these responsibilities.” From the surrender to 30 August 1945, 8 Squadron flew twenty-two further missions, but these were to sustain the SOE teams. Then, on the 30th, it flew its first PoW relief sortie under the codename Operation Mastiff. Because of his previous experience flying into Sumatra, Flying Officer Ferrier Charlton was selected to captain this first sortie for which he flew his regular aircraft, Liberator GR VI KH331/W. The mission was to drop supplies at Medan in north-east Sumatra on the Straits of Malacca. On return the event was announced in a Press release and became the subject of a radio broadcast:

“RAF Liberators of the Indian Ocean Air Force flew a round trip of 2,800 miles from Ceylon to Medan, in Sumatra, to parachute Red Cross supplies and medical aids to prisoners of war. Twenty-four hours previously, a Liberator had dropped leaflets to the Japanese guards and prisoners giving details on the supply dropping expedition to follow. On this initial trip, photographs were taken which enabled those following to locate the camps and make sure the supplies fell in the proper places. Between three and four thousand Dutch prisoners are believed to be in the Medan area, as well as a large number of British and Americans. 

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THE RAF ON THE AIR Squadron Leader Peter H. Stembridge DFC

ABOVE: Not only did Flying Officer Charlton’s Liberator carry decorative nose art named after a pioneering pre-war long-range aircraft, but it also carried his name. Note that the nose guns have been removed.

“One of the Liberators was captained by Flying Officer F.F.H. Charlton, who made several flights over Sumatra. With the exception of the pilot, all members of the crew were making their first visit to the Dutch East Indies and were naturally enthusiastic to be taking part in one of the greatest errands of mercy ever undertaken. For five hours the aircraft flew through low cloud and occasional showers of rain until the conical sloped hills of the coast of Peliang were sighted. Ships of the British East Indies Fleet were anchored in the harbour. The White Ensign was flying above the town. “As the aircraft flew over Sumatra in good weather, villagers or farmers waved, but on the whole the inhabitants seemed to be going about their everyday tasks. Reminders of war were occasional. In a corner of the jungle, burned out remains of an enemy aircraft could be seen. Near Pankalanbrandon Harbour was the wreckage of a large sized enemy tanker, no doubt blown up by a mine. “After a couple of hours flying over Sumatra, the navigator, Flying Officer J.A. d’Alpuger, announced the approach to the target. Parcels and packages were arranged in readiness for the dropping. The spot for the actual dropping was a large open space,

TOP RIGHT: Loading supply canisters onto an RAF Liberator. (P.D.G. FARR)

ABOVE: The pilots of a Liberator confer as they approach the DZ during one of the supply flights. RIGHT: As well as stores, 8 Squadron’s Liberators also dropped thousands of leaflets announcing the Japanese surrender and the fact that relief was at hand.

ABOVE: A PoW camp seen from a Liberator during one of the supply drop missions. (P.D.G. FARR)

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manufacturer’s specification and on takeoff our flight engineer was always stationed at the forward end of the bomb bay catwalk with his hands on the tanks’ emergency jettison lever on the event of engine trouble!” However, all went well as the 8 Squadron Operations Record Book noted: “Operation successfully completed. All chutes opened and supplies dropped on southern end of D.Z. Weather good.”

easily distinguished by an ornamental fountain at one end. Just by was the Roman Catholic college in which the prisoners were believed to be housed.  “As soon as the aircraft began circling the inhabitants of the town rushed out and before long the roads were crowded with people waving wildly. Some brought table clothes out of the houses and waved these. The first lot of supplies dropped to the ground and people ran across the open space to collect them. Every package landed safely in the prescribed area. People collected them immediately and loaded them into a motor car.” Throughout the following month 8 Squadron’s Liberators mounted almost sixty operational drops to SOE units or PoW sites, a rate matched by other SD units. Sergeant Spencer Jenkins recalled his first Mastiff mission, which was flown in Liberator GR VI KH191/A: “I was flying as co-pilot to Fg Off Archie Walker and crew, and my first sortie, code named ‘Mastiff’ was to drop food and medical supplies to 15 Prisoner of War Camp at Rantauparapat in central Sumatra. The duration of the flight was 19 hours and 15 minutes base to base, and to give us this range we were fitted with four bomb bay auxiliary tanks, and all extraneous items such as armour plating had been removed. Our all-up weight was in excess of the

Following the liberation of Singapore, from early October sorties were flown into Kallang, with 8 Squadron sending its first in on the 2nd. Two days later Flying Officer Charlton’s crew flew there, returning on the 6th; it was the last trip of his tour having completed twenty-two SD flights and for which, in December, he was awarded the DFC. Charlton’s was one of four DFCs awarded to 8 Squadron, whilst Squadron Leader Peter Stembridge, the flight commander who is believed to have made the short broadcast described above, received a Bar to his earlier DFC. 

Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

Western Front

The Menin gate, Ypres, pictured during the 1930s. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

Battlefields Twenty Iconic Sites www.britainatwar.com 55

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Introduction | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

Visiting the Western Front Across the Years O

VERSEAS TRAVEL, even to the relatively nearby European mainland, was not commonplace for those living in the British Isles until some while after the Second World War. However, in the immediate aftermath of the First World War there were the beginnings of ‘battlefield tourism’ for those who could afford it. Of course, there were those who wanted to visit out of sheer curiosity or through an interest in military history but probably the greater number of such visitors were those simply wishing to make pilgrimages to grave sites of loved ones and fallen comrades. Given that it is generally accepted that nearly every family living in Britain at that time had either a family member killed or wounded, or had somebody they knew who fell into that category, then the compulsion to visit in those early post-war years can be understood.

Today, in the midst of centenary commemorations of that war, battlefield tourism with visits to cemeteries, memorials and museums is something of a growth industry and whilst the impact felt by visitors today has less ‘immediacy’ than it had, say, in the early 1920s, the resonance felt by those who travel to these places is no less tangible. Indeed, many of those making such pilgrimages a century on will go out of their way to visit the graves of family members or else will follow in the footsteps of their forbears who, in many cases, lived and died in what was a veritable hell on earth. In many cases it will certainly be the first time that specific war graves have ever been visited by family members of that casualty and the poignancy of such visits seems hardly lessened by a century’s passage. As to the battlefield sites themselves, the passing of one hundred years has allowed nature to heal many of

the scars on the countryside – such that today’s neat fields, verdant woodland and ordered military cemeteries belie an other-worldly horror that engulfed these landscapes on the Western front. Indeed, visitors to these locations so soon after the events that had taken place there would certainly have gained a far more vivid impression of the ghastliness of it all than will the 21st century visitor who needs to exercise a greater degree of imagination in the now relatively ‘sanitised’ countryside and reconstructed towns. It was certainly far different in 1919 and 1920. Writing of their experiences, then, one visitor described what they called ‘a ruthless gaiety’ about the battlefields where postcards of the sites were sold along with ‘authentic souvenirs’. For many, though, they wished to take away what were only painful memories of loved ones who had fallen here but, all the same, 

MAIN PICTURE: For many of the early visitors to the battlefields of the Western Front, their trip was driven by a desire to see where a loved-one fell or was buried. In some cases, the family and friends of those who were killed on the Western Front began to travel to France and Belgium even before the Armistice. This image depicts a visitor to Gouzeaucourt New British Cemetery (located ten miles south west of Cambrai) searching for the grave of one of the fallen. The wooden cross in the foreground denotes the last resting place of Lance Corporal B.S. Allen, 2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, who was killed on 2 April 1917. (ALL IMAGES HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

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WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Introduction BELOW: The badly damaged Notre Dame Church in Armentières pictured after the war.

ABOVE: A surviving pillbox on Hill 60 pictured during the 1920s – a shot similar to that taken by many of those who have visited this site before and since. The area surrounding this pillbox is far more overgrown today.

physical souvenirs seemed as popular then as they sometimes are today. Then, as now, such mementoes were often dangerous and in the immediate post-war years there was a heavy civilian death toll among farmers and land-workers who struggled to repair the land, as well as among those who cleared away the scrap metal and general detritus of war or the children who grubbed amongst the ruins for souvenirs. Against this backdrop, so the first battlefield visitors made their way to the sites of the Western Front although as some momentum gathered pace the trickle of visitors became a flow, if not a flood, and the whole apparatus and infrastructure of battlefield tours came into being. As early as 1920, one British railway

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company was organising “weekend tours of the battlefields of Belgium” for £8 and well-known tour operator Thomas Cook & Son became one the leading battlefield tour companies of the 1920s. Meanwhile, other organisations set up tour parties of the principal battlefield sites and cemeteries and, to this end, the YMCA organised tours of the Somme for £6 and were followed by other bodies such as The Church Army, Red Cross, British Legion, The St Barnabas Society and the Ypres League. All of these institutions serviced the growing need for families to visit gravesites and, to a much lesser extent, for veterans of the fighting to return. For the most part, though, those who had fought in the dreadfulness of

BELOW: An early battlefield tourist inspects the inside of a dug-out.

it all probably had little stomach to return to a place which could generally only have the most unpleasant of memories for them. Bereaved families, though, who could not afford the tour prices could also avail themselves of free trips from 1921 to grave sites through the St Barnabas Society. Of course, it is also important to bear in mind that those making visits at this time not only saw the trenches and battlefields pretty much as they had been but the ground about was still littered with explosives of one sort or another. Additionally, the collection of

Introduction | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

Antwerp

Bruges

Ostend 12

Ghent

FL ANDERS

Dunkirk Calais 19 18

9 1

15

11

Passchendaele

Brussels

10

Ypres

St Omer Hazebrouck

BELGIUM

Lille Tournai

7 13

Béthune

6 8

Vimy

Lens

Douai

Valenciennes

Mons 20

Arras

FRANCE

Cambrai 16

3 2

Albert

14

Bapaume

17 4

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fatalities from battlefield graves and the taking of them to cemeteries that were still under construction was, then, very much underway. Some bodies were still in partly collapsed trenches, water filled craters or sometimes emerging from the soil as the churned-up land dried out and, literally, delivered up its dead. One overwhelmed visitor in the early spring of 1920 spoke of ‘the pervading stench of death from the mingled corpses, both human and equine’. The Western Front battlefields were, at that time, hardly the most attractive of tourist destinations. Of course, all visits to the old Western Front came to halt with the outbreak of war in 1939 although there are reports of some British servicemen, relatives of casualties lost in the 1914 – 1918 conflict, finding and visiting the graves of their kin as they faced the same enemy once again and in just the same area. With the withdrawal from Dunkirk in 1940, the only battlefield visitors that would come for some years were the occupying German forces and a particularly notable visitor, one Adolf Hitler, is known to have visited the area where he had served in the Imperial German Army during that war. However, visits to the battlefields by members of the public did not start again until the late 1940s. Now, in France and Belgium, visitors found a

ABOVE: A map showing the locations of the twenty iconic sites featured in this supplement.

countryside that in places had not yet fully recovered since 1918 and had once again had more death and destruction of war visited on it and with yet more British and Commonwealth graves, often joining side-by-side with those of the earlier conflict. Perhaps, for a while into the 1950s and 1960s, there was, to a degree, some desire to draw a veil over both wars but by the late 1960s, at least, a new genre of war books and war films began to

emerge and by the 1970s a growing thirst for knowledge and information was developing in generations not even born when either the First or second World Wars had been fought. Now, for the first time, historically based rather than sentimentally or emotionally based tours were being organised on a commercial basis. Today, in the midst of the centenary commemorations of 1914 – 1918, a plethora of tour options are available 

RIGHT: An early battlefield tour guide – this case one of the famous series by Michelin which was published in 1919. FAR RIGHT: Coming more up to date than the Michelin publication, the 2014 Battlefield Guide for The Somme, 1916, by Scotland and Heys.

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WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Introduction for those wishing to visit the sites of the great Western Front battlefields. Specialised tours offered by a variety of companies are now available and, generally, are to a very high standard of organisation and professionalism. Often conducted around the varied locations by ‘badged’ Battlefield Tour Guides, professional historians or military authors these excursions offer much to those with a penchant to visit Western Front sites. Principally, the tour guides know not only their subjects but also where to look and what to look for. Often, they will point out unusual sights or else nuances relating to military burials etc. They know the very best places to eat and they can often ‘bring alive’ the subject of a specific action as one looks at an otherwise featureless field or wood. Of course, there are other options including ‘bespoke’ tours for individuals or small groups or, quite literally, do-it-yourself tours based upon a personal itinerary that might be researched via the internet or printed publications. Into the latter category fell one of the earliest published guides; ‘Before Endeavours Fade’ by Rose Coombs MBE. First published in 1976, the original version has several times been updated by the publisher, ‘After The Battle Publications’ with many of the locations from 1976 bearing little resemblance to those sites today as new roads and development continue to alter the landscape of ‘The Great War’. Other published guides, for example, include such fine works as ‘Understanding The

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ABOVE: Souvenirs of battlefield sites came very much into their own during the immediate post-war years, this silk and lace embroidery of The Cloth Hall at Ypres being typical. (G PEARSON)

RIGHT: Visitors inspecting a German Howitzer near the Cloth Hall.

BELOW: The dangers encountered by the early battlefield visitors is evident in this picture of “the main road at Hill 60”.

Somme 1916’ by Thomas Scotland and Steven Heys (Helion Books, 2014, ISBN 978-1-909384-42-2) which provides an excellent understanding of this complex and wide ranging battle. However, whatever tour option for the Western Front one might choose it is inevitable that at least some of those listed in our top-twenty iconic battlefield sites will be on most visitor’s itinerary. Today, names like Tyne Cot, Lochnagar Crater, Ypres,

Vimy Ridge and the more ‘generic’ Somme and Flanders and locations have all become well known and almost part of the British consciousness and psyche of the First World War. We present, here, some of the most iconic sites. Visit them. Feel the atmosphere. But please bring home only your memories and photographs. Not battlefield souvenirs. By Andy Saunders 

Essex Farm - Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

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Essex Farm P

OSSIBLY BECAUSE of its links with the poet Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, the area known as Essex Farm, situated on the banks of the Yser Canal two miles north of Ypres, is now one of the most visited locations within the Ypres Salient. Essex Farm was the location of an Advanced Dressing Station (ADS) during the First World War. It was there that McCrae, a medical officer and then a Major, arrived in the early hours of 23 April 1915 when his brigade moved up the Yser Canal for “seventeen days of Hades”. McCrae’s Commanding Officer, Edward Morrison, recorded the following description of the site: “HQ was in a trench on the top of the bank of the Ypres Canal. John had his dressing station in a hole dug in the foot of the bank. During periods in the battle men who were shot

actually rolled down the bank into his dressing station. Along from us a few hundred yards was the headquarters of a regiment, and many times during the battle John and I watched them burying their dead whenever there was a lull. Thus the crosses, row on row, grew into a good-sized cemetery.” On 3 May 1915, McCrae wrote the well-known poem In Flanders Fields after burying a close friend. It was first published, anonymously, in Punch on 8 December 1915. As mentioned by Morrison, the presence of the ADS had resulted in the creation of a new cemetery on land immediately to the south of Essex Farm. Now known as Essex Farm Cemetery, it was in use from April 1915 to August 1917. The burials were made without definite plan and some of the divisions which occupied this sector may be traced in almost every part of the cemetery.

MAIN PICTURE: One of the concrete bunkers of Essex Farm ADS that can still be seen. For a long time after the First World War these structures were flooded and inaccessible. Eventually purchased by the Ypres Town Council, the site underwent restoration and preservation. An information board at Essex Farm contains a useful plan of the ADS site, informing the visitor what each of the chambers were used for.

(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

ABOVE RIGHT: One of the rooms in the main bunker at Essex Farm ADS. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

LEFT: During 1915 timber and sandbag construction was most probably used for the dug-outs and shelters at Essex Farm.

Among the 1,200 servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery are the graves of Private Thomas Barrett, 7th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment, who was awarded a Victoria Cross for his bravery during a patrol in the area, and Private Valentine Joe Strudwick, 8th Battalion Rifle Brigade. Aged just 15 when he was killed on 14 January 1916, Strudwick is acknowledged as one of the youngest battle casualties of the war. Surprisingly, much evidence of the ADS still remains to be seen at Essex Farm, though it is almost certain that these concrete structures were built after McCrae’s time there. Continue a little further north along the embankment, and you will come across another large concrete bunker. Located in the lee of the canal embankment, we know that, at some point, it was used by the Royal Engineers as an Orderly Room as an inscription was made in the concrete to this effect. Essex Farm can be reached by taking the N369 north from Ypres towards the village of Boezinge. It is on the right hand, or eastern, side of the road.  www.britainatwar.com 61

WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Twenty Iconic Sites - McCrae's Battalion Memorial

McCrae’s Battalion Memorial

L

OCATED IN the centre of the village of Contalmaison on the Somme, on a green next to the church, is a memorial to the men of the 16th (Service) Battalion (2nd Edinburgh) Royal Scots. Also known as the 2nd Edinburgh City Pals, McCrae’s Battalion or the Scottish Sportsmen’s Battalion, it was formed in Edinburgh by Sir George McCrae VD. The battalion’s ranks included sixteen playing footballers, including the entire first team squad, a number of support staff and boardroom members from the Heart of Midlothian Football Club (more commonly known as "Hearts"). Following the outbreak of war, a public debate upon the morality of continuing professional football while young soldiers were dying at the front was started. A motion was placed before the Scottish Football Association (SFA) to postpone the season, with one of its proponents, Thomas Forsyth, declaring that “playing football while our men are fighting is repugnant”. Whilst the SFA waited for War Office advice, the noted East London philanthropist Frederick Charrington was also orchestrating a public campaign to have professional football in Britain suspended. Meanwhile, the group from Hearts had enlisted in Sir George McCrae’s new volunteer battalion, joining en masse on

25 November 1914. The battalion was to become the 16th Royal Scots and was the first to earn the “Footballers’ Battalion” sobriquet. The volunteers also included some 500 Hearts supporters and season ticket-holders, 150 followers of Hibernian and a number of professionals footballers from Raith Rovers, Dunfermline and Falkirk, along with amateur players from Dalkeith Thistle, Linlithgow Rose, Newtongrange Star, Pumpherston Rangers and West End Athletic. On the morning of 1 July 1916, at the start of the Battle of the Somme, the 16th Royal Scots went “over the top”, the leading platoon climbing over the parapet at 07.35 hours. An account of the battalion’s actions that day states: “The 16 R.S. following the 15 R.S. appear to have crossed No Man’s Land with few casualties but the Battn. on the left (10th Lincs and 11th Suffs) suffered heavily – very few reaching the enemy lines. The Brig on the left the 102nd was also held up, as was the 8th Div on the left of the 34th. The Battn. left flank was therefore exposed. The advance appears to have been pushed forward at good speed and despite the heavy casualties some of the 16 R.S. are said to have reached Contalmaison.” By 17.40 hours, a message had been received at Battalion HQ from the Officer Commanding ‘B’ Company, Captain

RIGHT: The memorial at Contalmaison which commemorates the actions of the 16th (Service) Battalion (2nd Edinburgh) Royal Scots on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

(BOTH IMAGES HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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ABOVE: Located overlooking the Rue Principale, the main road which runs through the village of Flers, is this memorial commemorating the players, staff and supporters of Clapton Orient Football Club who served in the 17th (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, better known as the “Footballers’ Battalion”.

Armit, which stated “that he, four of his own men and 150 O.Rs of different units were holding position on German support trench and that enemy was present in neighbouring trenches.” It is generally accepted that the 16th Royal Scots, despite the many difficulties encountered during an attack that had seen 250 men killed, had managed to penetrate deeper into German territory than any other regiment on 1 July 1916. The idea of a memorial to the 16th Royal Scots was first suggested in 1919, though it was not until 2004 that the memorial cairn was finally completed. Constructed using stone brought from Scotland and bronze panels that were cast in Kirkwall, the memorial is described in one account as being “the last of the ‘original’ Great War memorials to be built”. 

Lochnagar Carter - Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS BELOW: A panorama of Lochnagar Crater as it is today. The buildings of the rebuilt village of La Boisselle can be seen in the background. (ALL IMAGES HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

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Lochnagar Crater A

S PART of the opening of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, at 07.28 hours on the morning of 1 July 1916, a massive explosion erupted under the German position known as the Schwaben Höhe near the village of La Boisselle. Two minutes later the whistles blew along the length of the front involved in the British offensive and the first of almost half-a-million men went over the top. Composed of two charges of ammonal in separate chambers, amounting to 36,000lb and 24,000lb respectively, the Lochnagar mine and a further 40,000lb one known as the Y Sap mine had been sited either side of the main Albert to Bapaume road. The tunnel for the Lochnagar mine had been started on 11 November 1915, by the men of 185 Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers – though it was completed by 179 Tunnelling Company RE which took over in March 1916. By February 1916 the tunnel was almost 800 feet long at a depth of around fifty feet. As the tunnellers drew nearer to the German line, progress was slowed due to the need to be as silent as possible whilst excavating. In such difficult conditions, the miners worked without boots, walking on sandbags, and talking was limited to a whisper. At 07.28 hours on 1 July 1916, Captain James Young RE, from 179 Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers, fired the mines. Deep underground the two charges detonated and, combined,

formed one massive crater. The shower of stones and debris from the explosion, amounting to more than 300,000 tons, shot as high as 4,000 feet into the air and continued to rain down on the Germans for almost a full minute after the explosion – an explosion which constituted what was then the loudest man-made sound in history. The crater the mine gouged out of the hillside upon which the Germans had built the Schwaben Höhe was almost 100 feet deep and 450 feet across. The German strongpoint had disappeared. As the whistles blew the troops of the 34th Division climbed out of their trenches. A company of the 10th Battalion the Lincolnshire Regiment moved forward to seize the crater which had created a vital breach in the enemy line. It was through the gap the mine had blown in the German defences that the

ABOVE RIGHT: Captioned as a “mine crater at La Boisselle”, this is almost certainly a picture of the Lochnagar Crater. Note the entrance to a dug-out on the far slope. LEFT: This poignant memorial can be found near the lip of Lochnagar Crater. It marks the spot where the remains of Private James Nugent, 22nd (Tyneside Scottish) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, were found on 31 October 1998.

British would pour forward to take the German second line. The 10th Lincolnshires hung onto the crater as night fell on the first day of the Somme. “The mine”, reported Captain Henry Hance, the Commanding Officer of 179 Tunnelling Company, “was wholly successful. An enormous crater was formed, extending considerably behind the enemy trench, which, with its occupants and machine-guns etc, was entirely destroyed for a considerable length, as well as all his dug-outs for a considerable distance beyond the actual crater being entirely closed, and large portions of his trench being buried. There can be no doubt that the mine generally caused him considerable loss, and by the violence of the shock to his garrison, and the shelter afforded by the lips of the crater itself, enabled our attacking infantry to reach his trenches here, and to pass over them in the first assault, with comparatively light loss.” It was one of the few tangible achievements of that terrible day.  www.britainatwar.com 63

ADVERTORIAL Battlefield Tours

Battlefield War Research Society Battlefield Tours

IAN AND Jeannie Alexander have organised Battlefield and Memorial Tours for over thirty years, through their War Research Society with great success, having taken many thousands of people to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors and visit their last resting place. Their extensive programme of more than fifty-six tours ranges from Somme to Singapore, Ypres to Yalta, Normandy to Nijmegen, Arnhem to Africa, Rorkes Drift to Russia, Stalingrad to Sevastopol, Dunkirk to Dambusters, Alamein to Anzio and many more locations. Our family orientated tours are run in a relaxed and comfortable way in the company of like-minded people. The benefits of travelling with us include: Free travel, on coach tours, to your designated pick up point from anywhere in England, Wales and Scotland, via National Express. Excellent hotels with private facilities in all rooms; bed, buffet breakfast, evening meals, with packed lunches available on certain days. Detailed itineraries, information and map packs. Free entrance to all museums/attractions. On coach tours, executive coach travel with experienced regular coach drivers. No changing coaches! Learn from our experienced guides and couriers. The depth of knowledge of the organisers is reflected in the quality experience to be found by those participating in these tours. Tel: 0121 430 5348 Fax: 0121 436 7401 Email: [email protected] Web: www.battlefieldtours.co.uk Address: 27 Courtway Avenue, Maypole, Birmingham B14 4PP

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Bird Battlefield Tours

TOURING THE battlefields of the 1914-18 war began in 1919, with the Michelin Tyre Co. actually producing guide books the same year. Families of the bereaved came to look for their loved-one’s grave or see the ground where he fought. Bird Battlefield Tours follows that tradition and many of their clients come to see their relative’s headstone. They will be conducting 1914-18 Centenary Tours with the emphasis on remembrance. They specialise in tailor-made, convivial tours. BIRD BATTLEFIELD TOURS was founded thirty years ago by military historians and authors Tony and Nicky Bird. You will find that your fellow enthusiasts will vary from the expert or knowledgeable to first-time battlefield tourists wanting to share and learn something of their ancestors’ experiences. Men and women, young and old, join their tours. You can be assured of like-minded company. You do not need to bring background reading, as they provide a small library of relevant books and maps for you to consult during the tour and in the evening. They do, however, suggest some pre-tour reading for those unfamiliar with historical background. Because numbers are restricted early booking is advisable. Their tours include: Waterloo, Mons, Le Cateau, Wilfred Owen’s death and grave. The Western Front: Ypres, Vimy, Somme, Verdun. For Second World War enthusiasts we visit sites such as the Falaise Gap and the D-Day beaches. They also run their ever-popular Champagne: Wine & War Tour. Tel: 0208 7520956 (mobile 07930 880046) Email: [email protected]  Web: www. birdbattlefieldtours.com Address: 19 Hale Gardens, London, W3 9SG.

Tours Battle Honours

BATTLE HONOURS provides award-winning Battlefield tours. Walking the ground is the best way to study a battlefield. By following in the footsteps of our past we dig deeper into the subject. Tours under twenty people ensure a quality guide-to-client ratio. Personal visits: we guarantee personal visits as part of the walk, ensuring your experience in placed in context and far more than just a cemetery visit. By remembering one we remember them all. Our Guides are all renowned authorities, with tours led by Clive Harris, Gary Sheffield, Gordon Corrigan, Andrew Robertshaw and Jack Sheldon. This ensures that our tours are led by experts for enthusiasts. Our Tours include: Ypres Armistice 2014 – Our annual end of season walking tour to the “immortal salient” returns with a series of new walks. We will also attend the torch lit ceremony at Crest Farm on the evening of 10 November, the Menin Gate and Ypres for the morning of Armistice Day, as well as the legendary book fair in Passchendaele. Gallipoli 2015 – No battlefield is as dramatic in setting and evocative in memory as Gallipoli. Our ever popular walking tour incorporates the initial landings of 25 April 1915 through to the eventual evacuation in January 1916. Walking Verdun – This year see a return of our popular walking tour of that most majestic of battlefields, Verdun. Based in the nearby Hotel Tulipier, this tour will feature a series of walks across the shattered landscape enabling us to reach areas that are not accessible to traditional coach parties. Tel: 01438 791020 Email: [email protected] Web: www.battle-honours.co.uk Address: F31 Business Technology Centre, Bessemer Drive, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2DX.

ADVERTORIAL Battlefield Tours

Featured here are some of the battlefield tour companies dedicated to providing quality tours of First World War sites, including those on the Western Front.

Flanders Battlefield Tour

FLANDERS BATTLEFIELD Tour is well known for organising daily tours of both the Ypres Salient and the Somme, amongst other Western Front areas. It is run by Jacques Ryckebosch and Genevra Charsley who both are extremely passionate about the history of the First World War. Prior to Flanders Battlefield Tour Jacques was, for many years, curator at Talbot House (TOC H as it was known by the soldiers/veterans) in Poperinge, meeting, and becoming good friends with, many First World War veterans. Genevra Charsley has been a member of the Western Front Association since 1997 and has assisted with the Poppy Parade on Armistice Day in Ieper (Ypres) since 1997. Both Jacques Ryckebosch and Genevra Charsley are members of the Guild of Battlefield Guides and both have featured on the BBC and other international television channels. Both Jacques and Genevra, along with their guides, all come highly recommended and as they reside within the Ypres Salient they are always well informed and involved about the latest discoveries and developments. Not just a battlefield tour company but a way of life, behind every single marker stone within the cemeteries, behind every single name on a memorial and behind every single name of those that survived to return back home there is an individual, more personalised story waiting to be told.  Flanders Battlefield Tour’s visit areas include: Ypres Salient, Fromelles, Aubers Ridge and Neuve Chapelle, Mons, Loos, The Somme and Vimy Ridge. Jacques and Genevra can arrange bespoke tours, retracing the footsteps of individual soldiers, battalions, regiments and nationalities. Additional areas can and are considered upon request. Tel: 0032 (0) 57 360 460 Email: [email protected] Web: www.ypres-fbt.com Address:Boeschepestraat 29, B-8970 Poperinge, Belgium

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WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Twenty Iconic Sites - The Last Tree, Delville Wood MAIN PICTURE: The remains of trenches and shell craters in Delville Wood. The CWGC’s adjacent Delville Wood Cemetery is the third largest CWGC cemetery on the Somme. Both the South Africa (Delville Wood) National Memorial and the Museum to the South African Forces can be seen at Delville Wood. (COURTESY OF CHRISTINE MCINTOSH)

The Last Tree, Delville Wood W

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HILST THE first day of the Battle of the Somme features as one of the most significant days in British military history it was only one day in a four month-long additional struggle, with numerous battles being fought throughout that time, from July to November 1916. Located between the villages of Longueval and Guillemont, Delville Wood was the site of a particularly ferocious battle – for which reason it is sometimes known by the name “Devil’s Wood”. By 14 July 1916, the fighting on the Somme had led to the development of a salient in the British line. Jutting out into the German front, this salient was threatened on the right-hand side by enemy positions in Delville Wood. The British commanders knew that before any further eastward advance could be

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made, the threat from this direction had to be neutralised. It was to the men of the South African Brigade that the task of taking Delville Wood was given. The attack was made on 15 July. “Attacking with great determination at 6.15am they rapidly cleared the southern sector, despite the difficulties posed by tangled undergrowth, fallen trees and shell craters,” notes the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. “A second advance took them almost to the wood’s north-west edge, where they dug in. The Germans retaliated with ceaseless shelling, machine-gun fire, and a succession of aggressive counterattacks. Fighting continued by night and day as renewed South African assaults wore themselves out against German defences.” Despite heavy rain and strong German counter-attacks (which forced a number of critical withdrawals), the South African troops clung on to their tenuous hold of parts of the wood. Six days passed before they were relieved. During this time, on 18 July, a German officer wrote this description of Delville Wood: “[It] had disintegrated into a shattered wasteland of shattered trees, charred and burning stumps, craters thick with mud and blood, and corpses, corpses everywhere. In places they were piled four deep. Worst of all was the lowing of the wounded. It sounded like a cattle ring at the spring fair.” Captain S.J. Worsley, MC was a survivor of the fighting in Delville Wood: “Every semblance of a trench seemed full of dead-sodden, squelchy, swollen

ABOVE: Delville Wood pictured in September 1916. South Africa purchased the site in 1920, and it now serves as a memorial to those of that nation who fell in the war. LEFT: A memorial stone in Delville Wood informs the visitor that this is "The Last Tree", adding that it is "the only surviving original tree of the battles of 1916". (COURTESY

OF CHRISTINE MCINTOSH)

bodies.  Fortunately the blackening faces were invisible except when Verey lights lit up the indescribable scene.  Not a tree stood whole in that wood. Food and water were very short and we had not the faintest idea when any more would be obtainable. We stood and lay on putrefying bodies and the wonder was that the disease (dysentery) did not finish off what the shells of the enemy had started.” Bitter fighting for the wood continued for another six weeks, the advantage continuously changing from one side to the other. An attack by the 14th (Light) Division on 29 August 1916, forced out all but a remnant of the German defenders, though the wood was only completely cleared of enemy troops following the fall of Ginchy on 9 September 1916. 

The Red Baron’s Crash Site - Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

The Red Baron’s Crash Site I

F ONE aircraft was to represent the First World War it would be the red Fokker triplane of Manfred von Richthofen. With an astonishing eighty aerial victories, the Red Baron became a legend in his own, short, lifetime. Little wonder that the site where his aeroplane came down with von Richthofen, killed by a single bullet, still in his seat, is marked by a signboard. Von Richthofen’s last combat has been the subject of much investigation, with considerable uncertainty surrounding the identity of the individual who fired the shot that ended the career of Germany’s most famous fighter pilot. It was on Sunday, 21 April 1918, as the German Spring Offensive was faltering, that von Richthofen’s Jasta 11 took to the sky to engage the Sopwith Camels of 209 Squadron which had undertaken an offensive patrol over the Somme. It is thought that during the ensuing dogfight von Richtofen became disorientated and he drifted further west, i.e. towards the British lines, than the normally cautious Red Baron would ordinarily have done. As he pursued one of the Camels – that flown by Lieutenant Wilfred “Wop” May – along the valley of the River Somme he crossed the British positions at an uncharacteristically low level, exposing himself to ground fire from the troops below, in this instance men of the Australian 14th Artillery Brigade near Vaux, who shot at the German aeroplane

with their machine-guns and rifles. He was also spotted by Canadian pilot Captain Arthur “Roy” Brown who dived down to engage the Fokker Dr.I, 425/17. Brown wrote in his combat report that the triplane “went down vertical and was observed to crash by Lieutenant Mellersh and Lieutenant May”. Whether it was Roy Brown or the troops on the ground who fired the fatal shot has never been determined, but a bullet penetrated the German pilot’s heart and lungs. It would seem that von Richthofen did not die immediately as he put his triplane down in a mangel, or beet, field. The aeroplane was found with its engine switched off, indicating that the dying pilot had tried to coast to the ground.

ABOVE: The remains of von Richthofen’s Fokker Dr.I triplane pictured at the aerodrome of 3 Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps at Bertangles on the Somme. As the nearest Allied air unit, 3 Squadron AFC, initially assumed responsibility for the Baron’s remains. (COURTESY OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL; E0244)

LEFT: An official portrait of Manfred von Richthofen which was taken circa 1917. He is wearing the Pour le Mérite.

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As soon as the Fokker came to a standstill, nearby troops swarmed around and when they realised who the pilot was, the aeroplane was stripped of almost all its fabric by souvenir hunters. The loss of the fabric meant that the angle of the fatal shot as it passed through the body of the aeroplane, which might indicate whether or not it had been fired from the air or the ground, could not be determined. The field where von Richthofen’s ’plane came to rest is alongside the road from Corbie to Bray, the Rue de Bray (D1), an area which was occupied at the time by the British 5th Brigade. It is marked by an information panel. The Red Baron’s body was initially taken to the aerodrome at Poulainville, just north of Amiens. He was buried with full military honours in Bertangles Communal Cemetery (there is also an information panel there), though his body was later moved to Fricourt German Cemetery before it was eventually re-interred in Germany. 

MAIN PICTURE: The information panel that marks the site where Manfred von Richthofen put his triplane down in the last few seconds of his life on the morning of 21 April 1918.

(COURTESY OF WWW.BBMEXPLORER.COM)

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WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Twenty Iconic Sites - The Hohenzollern Redoubt

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The Hohenzollern

Redoubt

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HE GERMAN defensive work known as the Hohenzollern Redoubt was considered by the British to be the strongest such feature on the whole of the front destined to be attacked at the start of the Battle of Loos on 25 September 1915. This formidable strongpoint south-west of the village of Auchy jutted well out into a wide stretch of No Man’s Land, as it was intended to protect the important, flat-topped slagheap known to the British as “The Dump”. Although only about twenty feet high, the Redoubt afforded the German troops views – and fields of fire – in all directions across the battlefield.

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Preparations for the British attack included the digging of Russian saps out into No Man’s Land, to close the distance to be covered by the assaulting troops, and effective heavy shelling. The task of capturing the German position fell to the 26th Brigade of the 9th (Scottish) Division. Despite suffering numerous casualties, the initial units of the 26th Brigade successfully passed through the gas and smoke to breach the enemy wire. The front face of the Redoubt was soon in British hands, allowing successive waves to reach Fosse Trench, at the rear of the Redoubt, soon after 07.00 hours. Some units continued their advance, in places covering as much as 1,000 yards of what had been enemy-held territory. The Germans, all too aware of the importance of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, immediately began to plan its recapture. Over the coming hours and days a number of counter-attacks were made; though much ground was regained, the Redoubt remained in British hands – though often at great cost. One of the many involved in the battle to hold the Redoubt was Captain Fergus-Bowes Lyon, the brother of the future Queen Mother. As the website of the Western Front Association notes, “fighting continued to rage [in the area of the Redoubt] for the next few days, with both sides making repeated attacks. The Germans gradually gained the upper hand, possibly because of

MAIN PICTURE TOP: The track leading to the Hohenzollern Redoubt which can be seen in the distance marked by the electricity pylons. (ALL

IMAGES COURTESY OF JON COOKSEY AND JERRY MURLAND)

ABOVE: Looking towards the Hohenzollern Redoubt from the former British front line. LEFT: This memorial to the men of the 46th (North Midland) Division stands alongside the D39 road to Vermelles in sight of the Hohenzollern Redoubt.

their superior grenades, until, by October 3rd, the east face, and then the rest of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, were recaptured. So, after eight days of fierce fighting, all that the British attackers had to show for it was one piece of trench attached to the Redoubt – plus thousands of casualties.” On 13 October 1915, the 46th (North Midland) Division launched yet another attack after gas had been released. The division suffered heavily, experiencing 3,643 casualties, mostly in the first ten minutes. The only gain for these losses had been the seizure of the west face of the Hohenzollern Redoubt. According to the Official History of the War, “the fighting on the 13th-14th October had not improved the general situation in any way and had brought nothing but useless slaughter of infantry”. Private Sidney Richards, serving in the Machine Gun Section of the 1/5th Battalion, the South Staffordshire Regiment, made the following entry in his diary to describe the events of 13 October: “It was absolute hell with the lid off. Dying and wounded all over the place. Shall never forget this day.” 

The Sugar Loaf - Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

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N A bid to draw German troops away from the battle raging to the south on the Somme, it was proposed by General Haig that a diversionary attack should be made at another point in the line where the First Army and the Second Army sectors met. The plan for what became known as the Battle of Fromelles was that infantry from both armies, more specifically from the British 61st Division and the Australian 5th Division, would capture the dominating Aubers Ridge, including the German-held villages of Aubers and Fromelles. Amongst the enemy units in this part of the Western Front was the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment. Along their 2,000-yard front the Bavarians had built seventy-five concrete emplacements, the strongest of which were sited upon their main defensive work known to the Allies as the Sugar Loaf Salient. This was a bastion-like fortification that protruded beyond the German line, enabling it’s machineguns to cover the entire length of the Bavarian sector. The Allied attack was scheduled for 04.00 hours on 17 July 1916. Though the preliminary bombardment appeared to have been effective, reports from patrols sent into No Man’s Land the night before the attack painted a different picture. It was found that the German barbed-wire had only been broken in a few places; around the Sugar Loaf it was fully intact. Of the emplacements on the 16th Bavarian’s front only

eight had been destroyed and just seven damaged. At Zero hour the British and Australian troops went over the top. The unsubdued machine-guns at the Sugar Loaf inflicted calamitous casualties on the attackers. Serving in the Australian 15th Brigade, W.H. “Jimmy” Downing, later provided this description: “Stammering scores of German machine-guns spluttered violently, drowning the noise of the cannonade.

The air was thick with bullets, swishing in a flat criss-crossed lattice of death ... Hundreds were mown down in the flicker of an eyelid, like great rows of teeth knocked from a comb ... Men were cut in two by streams of bullets [that] swept like whirling knives ... It was the charge of the Light Brigade once more, but more terrible, more hopeless.” Despite the determined German resistance, some of the attacking troops, from both the British and Australian divisions, successfully reached the German trenches. For a while the

ABOVE: Temporary graves pictured by the Germans in July 1916. It is believed that these graves, beside what appears to be a battered German trench, are of men killed in the fighting at the Sugar Loaf. (WITH THE KIND

PERMISSION OF DR.

Australians occupied and held parts of the German front line, largely accomplishing their initial objectives. Such success, however, was short-lived; the attackers soon being expelled by German counter-attacks. With little to show for it, the Battle of Fromelles ended with more than 7,000 men killed or wounded, 5,000 of whom were Australians. The website of the Australian War Memorial describe the Battle of Fromelles as “the worst 24 hours in Australian history ... Not the worst in Australian military history, the worst 24 hours in Australia’s entire history.” Of the Allied casualties, many had fallen trying to take the Sugar Loaf. Today the site of the Sugar Loaf can be seen some 300 metres to the west of V.C. Corner Cemetery (the only all-Australian cemetery in France), which in turn is on the Rue Deleval north of Fromelles. 

The Sugar Loaf FRANZ KESSLER)

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MAIN PICTURE: The exposed expanse of what was No Man’s Land, between the Allied and German front lines, on the Fromelles Battlefield, as seen on 11 November 1918. The remains of trenches and pillboxes which formed part of the defences at the Sugar Loaf can be seen, marked by the wooden stakes, on the right of the picture. (COURTESY OF THE

AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL; E04029)

TOP RIGHT: The view from the German observation post located in the Church at Fromelles, looking over the area where the British and Australian soldiers attacked on 19 July 1916. The Sugar Loaf is beyond the shattered tree line on the left side of the image. (COURTESY OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL; E04032)

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WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Twenty Iconic Sites - The Grange Tunnel, Vimy Ridge

The Grange Tunnel, Vimy Ridge 8

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HERE ARE few places on the Western Front where the modern-day visitor can visit and explore sites relating to the underground war, despite the many miles of tunnels that were dug by both sides during the First World War. There is, nevertheless, one fine example that can be visited close to the magnificent Canadian Memorial on Vimy Ridge. The ridge, which was held by the Germans, is the highest point for miles around and naturally its capture became a key Allied objective. This task was handed to the Canadian Corps. The Vimy sector had originally been held by the French Tenth Army but was taken over by the British XVII Corps. The British soon discovered that the Germans had dug a considerable network of tunnels from which they had launched attacks against the French positions. The British response was the employment of specialist Royal Engineer tunnelling companies which sought to counter the German mining. The British tunnelling companies gradually created an extensive underground complex with possibly as many as fourteen subways up to 1,300 yards long at a depth of some thirty-three feet or more. Some of these tunnels connected the reserve lines to the front lines allowing the troops 70 www.britainatwar.com

to pass in safety. Those tunnels that stretched out towards the enemy lines were used to detonate mines under the German positions. This underground network incorporated or included concealed light rail lines, hospitals, command posts, water reservoirs, ammunition stores, mortar and machine gun posts, and communication centres. The attack upon Vimy Ridge was delivered on 9 April 1917, and, after four days of bitter fighting, the Canadians seized the ridge with the loss of 3,598 killed and 7,004 wounded. The battle saw the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fighting together for the first time, and the capture of the ridge was considered to be Canada’s finest achievement of the war, consequently the

ABOVE LEFT: A section of the Grange Tunnel at Vimy. (COURTESY OF ROBERT CAGER)

BELOW: The grounds of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial also include the Vimy Monument, preserved trenches and craters (some of which are seen here), memorials and cemeteries. It is open to the public year round. (COURTESY OF CHRIS DAVIES)

ABOVE: An entrance to one of the tunnels at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. (COURTESY OF CHRIS DAVIES)

Canadian authorities decided to build a suitably imposing memorial. Work on the memorial began in 1926 and as the Canadian engineers were examining the site, they came across the entrance to the Grange Tunnel. It was covered over with brush, but in good condition, and the decision was made to incorporate the tunnels into the proposed memorial park. The result was that a section of the outpost lines of both sides was restored with a stretch of the tunnel being open to the public. The Grange Tunnel, or Subway, is a tunnel system that is approximately 900 yards long. Complete with side tunnels and various chambers, or rooms, it was constructed between November 1916 and March 1917 by the men of 172 Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers with the help of troops from the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade. The historian Major Michael Boire writes that “tunnel guides explain [to visitors] how this cool, humid, subterranean passage, hurriedly burrowed into the compacted flint and chalk of an Artois hill, was part of a 13-tunnel underground labyrinth. It protected the assaulting infantry battalions of the Canadian Corps from the terrible and ever-present dangers of German bombardment as they made their final move from their reserve trenches in the rear, forward to their assembly trenches in the very front of the Canadian line.” 

Western Front F_P.indd 1

10/09/2014 09:38

WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Twenty Iconic Sites - German War Cemetery

German War Cemetery

At Langemark

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EDICATED IN 1932, the German War Cemetery at Langemark, part of the municipality of Langemark-Poelkapelle a few miles to the north of Ypres, is one of only four First World War German cemeteries in Flanders. It evolved from a small group of graves created in 1915 and has seen numerous changes and extensions over the years. However, many of those visitors who pass through the darkened vaults of the entrance hall are unaware that they are following in the footsteps of one of the most infamous personalities of recent world history. In June 1940, after his armed forces had achieved victory in the west, Adolf Hitler himself trod those same pathways and passed through that same entrance to pay his respects to the German dead of the First World War – a war in which he had served just a handful of miles away to the

south of Ypres. It was at Langemark that what became known to the Germans as the Kindermord – the “Slaughter of the Innocents” – took place in late October 1914. The young, eager and hopeful German war volunteers – the university and high school students who had rushed to join the army before it was all over – had advanced south down the road from the village of Koekuit and swung headlong into the controlled, accurate and murderous rifle fire of the regulars of the BEF in the fields to the north of the present day cemetery. Contemporary reports record that they were shot down in quantity as wave after wave came on and piles of bodies lay heaped in front of the British positions. The attack failed. The historian and author Jon Cooksey notes that “it was at Langemark that any hopes of continuing a war of manoeuvre were brought to a halt

MAIN PICTURE: The German War Cemetery at Langemark. Within the confines of the cemetery are three concrete blockhouses, two of which can be seen here. These were captured by the Allies in October 1917. (COURTESY OF JON COOKSEY)

RIGHT: The names of the two British casualties can be found on this plaque to the left of the entrance, on the face of the first German memorial stone. (COURTESY OF THE COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION)

LEFT: Within the confines of the German War Cemetery at Langemark is the Kameradengräb. This mass grave contains the bodies of 24,917 casualties from the First World War, of whom 7,977 remain unidentified. (COURTESY OF TIM BEKAERT)

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with a bloody jolt. The Western Front was forged here. Their sacrifice, and the name Langemark, was used by Hitler and his followers as a rallying cry during the early 1930s for all those who believed that the Germany had turned its back on its First World War fighting men.” Many of the dead from the Kindermord lie within the perimeter of the cemetery at Langemark, some of the 44,000 men buried there. Maintained by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge, the cemetery is also the last resting place of two British soldiers: 19-yearold Private Albert Carlill, 1st/4th Battalion The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and Private Leonard Lockley, 4th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders. Both men died late in 1918; Lockley in October and Carlill just a week before the Armistice. The pair had originally been commemorated in nearby CWGC cemeteries (Carlill, for example, at Cement House Cemetery), but have recently been officially recognised as being buried at Langemark. 

Hellf ire Corner - Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

Hellfire Corner F

ROM THE relative safety of the severely-damaged streets of the city of Ypres, the men of the BEF marched to the front line of the Ypres Salient along the road towards the small town of Menin. About two miles from Ypres, the Ypres-Roulers railway cut across the Menin Road near a crossroads. On maps of the time this place was called the “Halte”, and it was where tram-cars stopped to pick up passengers from the farms and cottages to take them into Ypres or, if travelling in the opposite direction, to Menin or Courtrai. This spot proved an ideal point for the German gunners, who had a good view of it from their positions on the higher ground further east, to set their sights. Little wonder that this intersection soon acquired the nickname of “Hellfire Corner”. Regarded as being amongst the most dangerous locations on the Western Front, it soon became standard practice for the infantry to make their way over the crossroads at the run and for cavalry to gallop. Even motor vehicles passed Hellfire Corner at full speed. To help troops pass Hellfire Corner, canvas screens were erected along the Menin Road to conceal movement, which was generally undertaken at night during the cover of darkness. Just what it could be like trying to travel up from Ypres to the front through Hellfire Corner was described by Driver G.L. Burton, 40th Division Motor Transport, Army Service Corps:

ABOVE: A hand-coloured copy, produced for an exhibition in the 1920s, of an original by the Australian photographer Frank Hurley. It shows a shell exploding at Hellfire Corner. (STATE LIBRARY OF NEW SOUTH WALES)

ABOVE: Hellfire Corner is no longer a crossroads, the road junction having been replaced with a large roundabout. In this view, Ypres is behind the photographer. (COURTESY OF NICKSAREBI; WWW.FLICKR.COM)

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“We used to go through Ypres at night with no lights on our lorries, of course, as the road was under enemy observation from the various hills around. But there would be plenty of Very lights from our own guns and Howitzers in the ruins, and enemy shells bursting among the wrecked houses and roads. “It was just fumes and dust and smells all the time, and sometimes there was gas too, sometimes incendiary shells. You could see them glowing red among the brick ends. “It was so important to get the ammunition and supplies up that we were taking chances and running the lorries right up to Hellfire Corner, on the other side of Ypres on the Menin Road. I’d been the last to set off and when I got to Hellfire Corner it was chaos. The lorries were scattered all over the place and even those that hadn’t been directly hit had run off the roadway, in among all the debris, and the drivers were sheltering in the ruins … We decided to try and get the lorries back on the road facing home … The shells were simply thundering down … The road was littered with bodies and debris and shell-holes all over the place.” It was only with the capture of Passchendaele in November 1917 that the Germans lost their final positions on the ridge overlooking the Menin Road, and Hellfire Corner was no longer the death-trap that had cost so many lives for so long. 

MAIN PICTURE: Horse-drawn transport braves Hellfire in daylight – note the camouflage screens. This well named locality, seen here looking east away from Ypres, was, notes the original caption, “continually under observation and notorious for its danger. At night this road was crammed with traffic, limbers, guns, pack animals, motor lorries and troops … The dead bodies of horses, mules and men were often to be seen lying where the last shell had got them. The neighbourhood was piled with the wreckage of all kinds of transport. A ‘sticky’ spot that was always taken at the trot.”

(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Twenty Iconic Sites - Furthest German Advance

ABOVE: Photographed during a battlefield tour in the 1930s, this is another of the Demarcation Stones erected in the area of the Ypres Salient. Two of the four grenades on each of the corners can be seen, with the gas mask holder on the right side. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

Furthest German Advance,

Ypres Salient

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VER A quarter of a million men from the British and Dominion armies died in the fighting around Ypres during the First World War. It was partly to remember their sacrifice that the Ypres League was formed on 28 September 1920, as well as to support those veterans who had fought in this part of the Western Front or pilgrims making the journey to the Salient. One of the projects the League contributed to was the creation of a line of Demarcation Stones that indicated the furthest extent of the German advance on the Western Front. The League paid for seven of these markers to be erected in the Ypres area. The markers themselves were the idea of the French sculptor Paul MoreauVauthier, himself a veteran of the fighting at Verdun. It was in 1920 that Moreau-Vauthier first proposed his suggestion of creating a series of stone markers that would be placed along the Western Front to indicate the furthest extend of the German advance in any particular part of the line. His plans received the support of the Touring Club of France, which in turn invited the

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Belgian Touring Club to join the project. Carved from pink granite, each of the markers was topped by a laurel wreath surmounted by the helmet of whichever Army stopped the Germans at the point marked – be that British/Commonwealth, French or Belgian. There are carvings of grenades and palms at each corner, along with a water bottle hanging from a strap on one side and on the other, again hanging from a strap, a gas mask holder. Each stone carries the following inscription in three languages: “Here the invader was brought to a standstill.” The first of the markers funded by the Ypres League was that installed at Hellfire Corner – see the previous page. Still extant, this stone was unveiled on Sunday, 6 August 1923. A reporter for the Aberdeen Journal provided this account: “At Hell Fire Corner, the first of the seven demarcation stones of the Ypres Salient, which the Ypres League is erecting in collaboration with the Belgian Touring Club, was unveiled here this afternoon, Baron de Vingk of Hooge taking the leading part in the ceremony. “King George, the patron of the League, sent a telegram in which his Majesty declared that future generations would be

MAIN PICTURE ABOVE: The Demarcation Stone which is located two miles north-east of the centre of Ypres on the Zonnebeekseweg (N332), a road connecting Ypres to Zonnebeke. This particular stone is close to the CWGC’s Aeroplane Cemetery. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

RIGHT: Unlike the previous two examples, this Demarcation Stone at Stuivekenskerke near Diksmuide, West Flanders in Belgian, is not topped by a British helmet.

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grateful for the steps now being taken to mark the historic battle sites. A message of sympathy with the aims of the League was also received from the King of the Belgians.” A total of 240 markers were planned, of which twenty-eight were to be erected in Belgium and 212 in France. Work began in 1921. However, by the time the project ended six years later, only 118 had been completed; twenty-two in Belgium and ninety-six in France. A number of the maker stones have been destroyed in the years since (including as a result of the fighting in the Second World War) but many still exist. 

Trenches of Death, Diksmuide - Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

Trenches of Death,

Diksmuide A FTER THE German Army had been halted on the Marne in September 1914, its last chance to turn the Allied positions and move upon Paris lay in sweeping round the Channel coast. To counter this, the Allies would also need to extend their front to the north-west. These moves would become known as “The Race to the Sea”. In mid-October 1914, the Belgian Army arrived, exhausted, on the floodplain of the River IJzer (also known as Yser). Its Commander-in-Chief, King Albert I, urged his men to prevent one of the last unoccupied areas of his country from falling to the Germans. The BEF, for its part, was still moving on Ypres when, on 19 October 1914, the Germans launched a series of assaults that they believed would see them achieve the breakthrough they sought. In the days that followed the British and Belgian armies were barely able to hold their ground in the face of this determined onslaught. By 24 October 1914, Sir John French, the BEF’s commander, had come to the conclusion that “the utmost we could do to ward off any attempts of the enemy to turn our flank to the North, or to break in from

the eastward, was to maintain our present very extended front, and to hold fast our positions until French reinforcements could arrive from the South.” Somehow French needed to shorten his front and the idea was put forward to flood the low ground to the west. On the night of 29/30 October 1914, eight weir gates on the River IJzer were opened. Over the course of the next few days a vast area was inundated. The rising waters forced both sides to abandon their attempts at forcing a breakthrough. The Germans remained close to the IJzer, while the Belgians troops took up positions behind the dyke of the NieuportDiksmuide railway. Between the two sides lay nothing but water and marshes. By the end of November 1914 the “race to the sea” had resulted in the elimination of open flanks and all opportunities to outmanoeuvre the enemy were lost. Both sides dug in. From the North Sea coast of Belgium southward through France to the Swiss border, hundreds of miles of trenches eventually marked the opposing front lines – and at the northern end, a few miles inland from the coast at

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MAIN PICTURE BELOW: Part of the Trenches of Death site at Diksmuide. The bank of the River IJzer is just out of view to the right. TOP RIGHT: A strongpoint in the trenches at the Dodengang. INSET BELOW LEFT: Part of the Trenches of Death photographed after the end of the war.

Nieuwpoort, are the preserved Belgian Army defences known as the Dodengang, or Trenches of Death. This sobriquet developed during the bitter fighting near Diksmuide throughout the early months of the war. It was not until 1916 that the impregnable nature of the opposing trench systems was finally accepted. From then on, artillery fire and gas attacks were the main methods of striking at the enemy; so frequent was the threat of gas that each Belgian soldier in this stretch of the line was issued with two gas masks. The development of battlefield tourism after the Armistice resulted in the Belgian Ministry of Public Works undertaking the conservation of the Trenches of Death site, located at the junction of Dodengangstraat and IJzerdijk about a mile north-west of Diksmuide, in 1924 – the use of concrete was required to prevent erosion and decay. The site today includes two parallel 400 metre long stretches of trenches dug into the dyke of the IJzer, the fighting trench and a rear support trench, firing positions, observation posts, shelters and a saphead, all of which face the ruins of a German bunker. 

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WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Twenty Iconic Sites - The Tunnellers’ Memorial

The Tunnellers’ Memorial

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OR MORE than ninety years, the battlefields of the Western Front had no memorial to mark the courage and sacrifice of the many thousands of men who tunnelled and fought underground during the First World War. That changed on 19 June 2010, when a Tunnellers’ Memorial was unveiled at Givenchy-les-la-Bassee, in Northern France, in an area where mines were first blown on the Western Front shortly before Christmas in 1914, and the area where the very last British mine was blown in August 1917. The memorial also stands on the surface near where two of those tunnellers who were killed in action, Private Thomas Collins (14th Battalion Welsh Regiment on attachment to 254 Tunnelling Company RE) and Sapper William Hackett (254 Tunnelling Company RE), remain entombed forty feet below ground. In the early hours of 22 June 1916, Collins and Hackett were at work in a section of the British tunnel system known as the Shaftsbury Shaft, part of a system that stretched about two thirds of the way out under No Man’s Land, when the Germans exploded a mine of their own. Collins, Hackett and the 76 www.britainatwar.com

rest of his team were trapped, still alive, underground. Sapper John French later wrote of the rescue work in his diary: “We can speak to them through the air pipe and they are all alive. We have been working all day trying to get to them, pumping air in to them and pumping water out to keep them from being drowned.” The following day French wrote: “Those five men are still entombed. We have been working night and day trying to get them out … They are still alive and we can speak to them.”

ABOVE LEFT: A drawing depicting Sapper Hackett refusing to leave Private Collins. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

TOP RIGHT: An artist’s impression of the Tunnellers’ Memorial. The base of the memorial is circular, the same shape and dimension of the Shaftsbury Shaft. On the circular base stands a rectangular block, the same dimension as the tunnel leading off the shaft in which Hackett and Collins lie. (COURTESY OF PETER COOK)

LEFT: The Tunnellers’ Memorial at Givenchy-lesla-Bassee. (COURTESY OF

MICHAEL FORSYTH VIA TONY EDWARDS)

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On 24 June 1916, he noted: “Got out three of the five men last night. One of the others, Thomas Collins, had some ribs broken and could not crawl through the very small hole that had been driven through. The other fellow, William Hackett, offered to stop with him until they could make the hole bigger so they passed some food to them. They had no sooner done that than there was another fall and they were entombed again.” Work went on throughout the next two days, in a strenuous effort to rescue the two men. But on 27 June, French wrote: “Abandoned all hope of getting those two chaps out this morning and stopped all rescue work for the condition of the shaft was so bad as to endanger the lives of the men working down there and they think that they are both dead. That chap Hackett died a hero for he could have come out with the others but would not leave his injured comrade.” Hackett and Collins remain buried, together, at the same spot to this day. Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood VC subsequently wrote that Hackett had made “the most divine-like act of self sacrifice”. On 4 August 1916, in a supplement to The London Gazette, it was announced that Hackett had been posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. 

Butte De Warlencourt - Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

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HE BUTTE de Warlencourt is an ancient burial mound of Roman origin that lies alongside the Albert-Bapaume road, north-east of the village of Le Sars on the Somme. Less prominent today than at the time of the Battle of the Somme, the Butte had soon gained an evil reputation; it was never captured during the fighting in 1916, although on 5 November men from the 50th (Northumbrian) Division did reach it briefly. It was only gained by the British when the Germans abandoned this position in their 1917 retreat to the Hindenburg Line – only to be lost when the enemy advanced again during the spring of 1918. The British 21st Division took the Butte again (without opposition) on 25 August 1918. One of those involved in the attack on 5 November 1916, was Lieutenant Colonel Roland Bradford VC: “The Butte itself would have been of little use to us for the purposes of observation. But the Butte de Warlencourt had become an obsession. Everybody wanted it. It loomed large in the minds of the soldiers in the forward area and they attributed many of their misfortunes to it. ... So it had to be taken.” It is therefore no surprise that the Butte de Warlencourt featured in the itineraries of the early battlefield guide books – such

as that published by Michelen in 1919. The author began his description by pointing out that the site was “tragically famous in the British Army”. The guide goes on to state: “The Warlencourt Ridge proper consists of two superimposed eminences: a bare plateau about two-thirds of a mile in width – now covered with graves – and a chalky shell-torn hillock, which was the centre of the German position. Pierced with subterranean galleries, furrowed with several successive lines of trenches, surrounded by a triple belt of entrenchments bristling with barbed wire entanglements and flanked at every angle by redoubts with innumerable mortars and machine-guns, such as was the ridge which, like an impregnable fortress, faced the British trenches throughout the winter of 191617.” Charles Carrington, a veteran of the fighting on the Somme, wrote the following description of the Butte de Warlencourt: “That ghastly hill, never free from the smoke of bursting shells, became fabulous. It shone white in the night and seemed to leer at you like an ogre in a fairy tale. It loomed

ABOVE: A photograph of the Butte de Warlencourt, as seen from the Albert-Bapaume road, which was taken on 2 October 1919. (COURTESY OF

THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL; E05701)

MAIN PICTURE: The Butte de Warlencourt as it appears in 2014. (COURTESY

Butte De Warlencourt 14

OF BOB PATERSON)

up unexpectedly, peering into trenches where you thought you were safe: it haunted your dreams. Twenty-four hours in the trenches before the Butte finished a man off.” In 1917 an American author, interestingly named Winston Churchill, toured the battlefields of France in order to provide an account of them for an American readership: “Presently, like the peak of some submerged land, we saw lifted out of that rolling waste the ‘Butt’ of Warlencourt – the burialmound of this modern Marathon. It is honeycombed with dugouts in which the Germans who clung to it found their graves … Everywhere along that road, which runs like an arrow across the battle-field to Albert, were graves.” The Butte de Warlencourt marks the very limit of the British advance on the Somme in 1916. Considered as symbolic as the Lochnagar Crater at La Boisselle (see page 63), in 1990 the site was purchased by The Western Front Association to ensure its preservation for future generations. 

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WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Twenty Iconic Sites - Cheddar Villa Bunker

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HE BATTLE of Pilckem Ridge, which opened on 31 July 1917, was the opening attack of the Third Battle of Ypres. The Allied offensive that day had mixed results; a substantial amount of ground was captured and a large number of casualties inflicted on the German defenders, except on the tactically vital Gheluvelt plateau on the right flank. Amongst the successes was the capture of the community of St Julien (now St. Juliaan) by the men of the 39th Division, who took a large number of prisoners on the way. Zero hour for the attack had been set at 03.50 hours – dawn – but, due to mist and clouds, it was still dark when the British bombardment began. Six minutes later the men climbed out of their trenches and headed out into No Man’s Land behind a creeping barrage. The German front line, some 300 yards distant, was quickly taken in the 39th Division’s area. Amongst the defences captured was a substantial concrete bunker and strongpoint in the area named on British maps as Cheddar Villa.

ABOVE: Part of the interior of the Cheddar Villa bunker.

ABOVE: A single unexploded shell, part of the Western Front’s so-called “iron harvest”, pictured on a farm wall near the bunker.

Cheddar Villa Bunker 15

BELOW: The rear of the German bunker at Cheddar Villa. Note the large rear entrance that provided so little shelter to one platoon on the night of 7/8 August 1917.

(ALL IMAGES HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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Cheddar Villa was in fact the name given by the Army to a farm on the west side of the road from Wieltje to St. Julien, the Brugseweg (the N313). It was a spot of the Western Front that was no stranger to fighting. Indeed, on 25 and 26 April 1915, during the Battle of St. Julien, severe fighting took place there. The farm remained in Canadian hands until the Second Battle of Ypres, when it was captured by German troops following a gas attack. The enemy soon set about the construction of the bunker there – the farm is marked on their maps as the Falscher Court Vanheule. A substantial structure, it included room for ammunition storage, a shelter staff and an observation post on the roof. Following its capture on 31 July 1917, the bunker was put to use as a command post and a regimental aid post. The only problem was the large open rear entrance (having been built by the Germans) now faced the enemy, making it a dangerous place. This problem became apparent on the night of 7/8 August 1917, when the bunker was being used by a battalion of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry (accounts vary on exactly which battalion) after it had taken over this part of the line. A platoon was also sheltering there when a shell came straight into the entrance opening – exploding with awful, but predictable, results. A number of men were killed, others being “horribly mutilated”. A short distance from the bunker, on the opposite side of the farm buildings but on the same side of the Brugseweg, is the CWGC’s Seaforth Cemetery, Cheddar Villa. Resulting from the fighting in 1915, the cemetery was originally called Cheddar Villa Cemetery. However, in 1922 this was changed, at the request of the Officer Commanding the 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, to represent the fact that more than 100 of those buried in the cemetery belonged to that battalion. 

A War Poet's Death - Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS MAIN PICTURE: The stretch of the Sambre-Oise Canal where Lieutenant Wilfred Owen MC was killed in action on November 1918 – as seen from the bridge in Ors. The actual spot where Owen was killed is about 100-200 yards to the north-east of the bridge. There is a Western Front Association plaque next to the bridge which provides information on Owen’s death, as well as the four Victoria Crosses which were won in the same action – two of whom are buried near Owen. (COURTESY OF ALAN JENNINGS; WWW.WW1BATTLEFIELDS.CO.UK)

16

A War Poet’s Death

“W

HAT PASSINGBELLS for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle.” These are the opening lines of the poet Second Lieutenant Wilfred Edward Salter Owen’s most famous poem, Anthem For a Doomed Youth, which he wrote in the autumn of 1917. The horrors and apparent futility of the First World War evoked strong emotions amongst the men at the front, which found an outlet in poetry, and few are better remembered than those by Wilfred Owen. On 21 October 1915, he enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles Officers’ Training Corps, from where he was posted as a second lieutenant to the 3rd/5th (Reserve Territorial Force) Battalion, Manchester Regiment. Soon after joining the Manchesters he began to write the war poems for which he later became famous. After time on the front line, in which he was blown off his feet by a trench mortar shell, Owen was diagnosed with shell shock and was repatriated to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. There he met fellow poet, Siegfried Sassoon. Owen eventually returned to the front. On 1 October 1918, he led units of the 2nd Manchesters to storm a number of enemy strong points near the village of Joncourt. It resulted in Owen being awarded the Military Cross. The citation for this award states it was “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in the attack on the Fonsomme Line on October 1st/2nd, 1918. On the company commander becoming a casualty, he [Owen] assumed command and showed fine leadership

BELOW: Owen is buried in Ors Communal Cemetery, a short distance from where he was killed in action. (COURTESY OF

THE COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION)

and resisted a heavy counter-attack. He personally manipulated a captured enemy machine gun from an isolated position and inflicted considerable losses on the enemy.” With the war nearing its conclusion, on 4 November 1918 the 2nd Manchesters were ordered to force a crossing of the Sambre-Oise Canal to attack the German positions on the far bank. Success depended upon the efforts of the 206th and 218th Field Companies of the Royal Engineers together with men from the 32nd Division’s pioneer battalion, the 16th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment). Their task was to construct rafts, pontoons and bridges (rigid and floating) so that the attackers could first negotiate the wide and deep ditches beside the canal and then get across the canal itself to form a bridgehead on the far bank.

ABOVE RIGHT: The CWGC’s record for Wilfred Owen states that he had “enlisted in The Artists’ Rifles in October 1915. Commissioned into the Manchester Regiment in June 1916. Was a poet of repute, although during his lifetime, only a few of his poems appeared in print. The Atheneum of December 1919, nominated Owen’s work Strange Meeting as the finest of the war.”

At 05.45 hours, an artillery barrage crashed down, and when it ended Wilfred Owen led his platoon of ‘D’ Company of the 2nd Manchesters down to the tow-path. The Germans, though, were waiting, and heavy fire was brought to bear upon the British troops as they tried to cross. Wilfred Owen did not survive. Somewhere along, or opposite, the bank of the canal he was killed. His friend, Second Lieutenant Foulkes, who was wounded in the attack, said that Owen was last seen trying to cross the canal on a raft under very heavy gunfire. Just one week later the Armistice was signed. Owen was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant the day after his death. His mother received the telegram informing her of his death on Armistice Day itself, the message reputedly arriving as the church bells were ringing out in celebration.  www.britainatwar.com 81

WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Twenty Iconic Sites - Mouquet Farm

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S THE Allied offensive on the Somme raged on during the summer and autumn of 1916 it led to a number of costly subbattles. Amongst these engagements was the bid to seize the ridge beyond the village of Pozières. It was hoped that if the ridge could be taken, the German fortress of Thiepval would be isolated, leaving the Germans with the decision to either abandon Thiepval or leave it all but surrounded. The ridge beyond Pozières was dominated by Mouquet Farm, which the Germans had turned into a formidable strongpoint. The German positions on the ridge would be rendered untenable if the farm could be taken. This task was handed to the Australian divisions of 1 Anzac Corps. The attack on Mouquet Farm was set for 8 August, with the intention that this would see the capture of the trenches and approaches in front of the farm, which then would be followed by an assault upon the farm itself, the latter being scheduled for 14 August. The Australian 4th Division launched its attack along the western slope

MAIN PICTURE: The view looking towards Mouquet Farm from the Australian Imperial Force Memorial – the latter is located beside the D73 road between Pozières and Thiepval. The panel informs the visitor that the “farmhouse was then located to the left of the farm road on the crest before you”, adding that its “deep cellars and tunnels were connected to a complex network of German trenches in the fields”. (COURTESY OF

of the ridge towards Mouquet Farm. Unfortunately the shelling that had taken place from both sides over the previous days had been so intense that all landmarks had been obliterated and the attacking troops soon became disorientated. The consequence of this was that the battalions attacking the centre actually over-shot their objective. Coming under fire from both flanks, they suffered heavy casualties and had to withdraw. Those on the right flank also took their objective, but were able to hold onto the ground they had seized. It was a different story on the left flank where no progress was made against stiff enemy resistance. The attack was maintained for the next six days and by the date scheduled for the assault on the farm itself, the trench system around had still not been taken. The Australian 4th Division had, though, suffered 4,649 casualties and on 15th August was replaced by the Australian 1st Division. With no apparent possibility of a quick conclusion to the fighting, the 1st Division was ordered to consolidate the ground that had been won. This was only

just achieved in time as, the following day, the Germans launched a counter-attack, which was driven off. The British launched a major attack all along the Somme front on 18 August, which included an attack by the Australians, with small gains being made on their flank. The fighting continued until 16 September when the farm was captured by Canadian troops. The farm was re-captured by the Germans but finally taken and held by the British forces on 26 September. The 1st Anzac Corps had lost more than 6,000 men in the Battle of Mouquet Farm and had to be withdrawn from the front for two months. The cost of capturing the few hundred yards of No Man’s Land and then the farm itself was noted by the Australian official historian Charles Bean: “The reader must take for granted many of the conditions – the flayed land, shell-hole bordering shell-hole, corpses of young men lying against the trench walls or in shell-holes; some – except for the dust settling on them – seeming to sleep; others torn in half; others rotting, swollen and discoloured.” 

Mouquet Farm GEOFF ACKLING)

17

ABOVE: The area photographed in September 1916 after shelling. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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The Ramparts, Ypres - Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

The Ramparts, Ypres 18

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N EARLY 1916 the 12th (Pioneer) Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Nottingham & Derbyshire Regiment) was stationed in the front line at Ypres when the men came across an abandoned printing press. A sergeant who had been a printer in peacetime salvaged it and put it back to work producing a newsletter for the troops in the Salient. The first edition, produced by Captain Roberts (as the editor) and Lieutenant F.H. Pearson (sub-editor), was a struggle. Published on Saturday, 12 February 1916, only one of the twelve pages could be printed at any one time, and there were no ‘y’s or ‘e’s left after a single page had been set up.

RIGHT: One of the surviving casemates in the ramparts at Ypres. This particular example, no doubt similar to that used by the editorial team of The Wipers Times, is one of a number that can be seen on the eastern side of the city, a short walk south from the Menin Gate in Aalmoezeniersstraat. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

LEFT: Bomb, or, more likely, shell damage to a building in Aalmoezeniersstraat directly opposite the casemate seen top right. BELOW: A view of part of the ramparts at Ypres – more specifically the Lille Gate on the south side of the city – pictured after the Armistice.

(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

The attentions of the enemy, and an abundance of rats, did not help. Despite such conditions, Captain F.J. Roberts and his team managed to complete the printing of the first issue of The Wipers Times, an edition that ran to just 100 copies in total. Priced at a nominal twenty francs, the paper sold out immediately, and a legend was born. “We lived in rat-infested, waterlogged cellars by day,” recalled Captain F.J. Roberts. “As an existence it had little to recommend it. The editorial den was in a casemate under the old ramparts built by Vaubin … He gave us the only moments of security we had for three long months, and often we drank to his shadow.” The ramparts of Ypres are said to be the best preserved in Belgium. Their history stretches back ten centuries when the construction of the city began on the banks of the Ieperlee. Initially, the ramparts were little more than an earth wall with moats; subsequent changes and additions, predominantly through the work of the famous French engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban around 1680, saw them developed into a complex series

of defences complete with bastions, advance fortifications, moats and islands. So well built were the ramparts that the casemates and dug-outs within them served as an important sanctuary for Allied troops in the First World War. “Our casemate,” continued Roberts, “will always be vividly remembered by those who knew it. We had a piano – loot from a neighbouring cellar where it had been propping up the remnants of a house – a gramophone, a printingpress and a lot of subalterns … When Fritz’s love-tokens arrived with greater frequency and precision than we altogether relished we would turn our whole outfit on together. The effect of ‘Pantomime Hits’ on the piano, ‘Dance with Me’ on the gramophone, a number of subalterns, and 5.9 and 4.2s on the roof has to be heard to be realized.” The last issue of The Wipers Times was published on 20 March 1916. On 29 March 1916, the 12th Sherwood Foresters marched to a new camp near the village of Neuve Eglise some eight miles south-south-west of Ypres. A tradition of naming the newspaper after the district or location in which it was printed began, and The "New Church" Times was born on 17 April 1916.  www.britainatwar.com 83

WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS | Twenty Iconic Sites - Yorkshire Trench, Boezinge

Yorkshire Trench, Boezinge 19

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N 1997, work on the construction of a new light industrial complex on the banks of the Ieper-Yzer Canal between the city and the village of Boezinge began. A short distance from the site of Essex Farm (see page 61), the builders were aware that they were working on a battlefield site. Indeed, no sooner had work begun than evidence of the fighting there during the First World War began to reveal itself. By the time that work on the industrial estate had been completed, alongside large quantities of unexploded munitions and abandoned equipment the remains of no less than 205 men, of three different nationalities, had been found. Many of the British casualties discovered here were from an action by the British launched against the German positions on 6 July 1915. The British units involved in the action were in the 11th Brigade of the 4th Division.

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Sections of the trenches dug in the area were also unearthed, with the result that the local authorities took the decision to acquire a small plot of land for the creation of a memorial site by the staff of the In Flanders Fields Museum. The area that was eventually selected had been the site of “Yorkshire Trench” during the war, this being the name given to a front line position dug by units of the 49th (West Riding) Division near the Yser canal at Boesinghe (as it was spelt then) during 1915 and 1916. The site was first excavated in 1998. The author Ross Wilson provides this description in his book Landscapes of the Western Front: “The excavations produced evidence for the structural development of the trench, through the discovery of several ‘A-frames.’ These supports, which have the appearance of an inverted capital ‘A’ were used from 1916 in British trenches to facilitate drainage. The frames ensured that the duckboards on the bottom

MAIN PICTURE BELOW: A section of the reconstructed trench system, as it would have been in 1917. The path on the right indicates the course of a 1915 trench line.

RIGHT: Now filled with water and relined, this is an incline that led down from Yorkshire Trench to a relatively extensive deep level dugout, a plan of which can be seen on site. (BOTH HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

RIGHT: After a number were unearthed in the area beyond the trench towards the canal, these Livens projectors were put on display.

of the trenches were lifted up from the sodden ground … The remnants of the corrugated iron sheets that supported the trench walls were also visible as an orange staining in the soil. The finds from this initial excavation included a detonation box, a Lee Enfield rifle, medical ampoules, eyeglasses from gas masks, a pistol holster and a supply of Mills bombs that had been placed on the fire step of the trench.” Such was the scale of the Yorkshire Trench site, that further archaeological digs were made. During one such dig in 2000, finds included another rifle, a chest with Vickers machine-gun ammunition, and preserved duckboards. “Perhaps the most remarkable find,” adds Wilson, “was the signpost for ‘Irish Bridge’, which instructed soldiers to march single file. The bridge itself is believed to have been a quarter of a mile away to the south of Yorkshire Trench and was one of the many bridges that traversed the flooded area”. Located alongside the road through the industrial park called Bargiestraat, the Yorkshire Trench site is permanently open and free of charge to visit. There are information panels in Flemish, English and French, and a reconstruction of the A-frame duckboard supports. 

Shell Damage, Mons - Twenty Iconic Sites | WESTERN FRONT BATTLEFIELDS

Shell Damage, Mons 20

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CROSS THE battlefields of France and Belgium most of the physical evidence of the fighting in the First World War has long since vanished under the plough, or through the works of developer or the encroachment of Mother Nature. There is one site, however, where the evidence appears almost as fresh today as when it was inflicted, on the very last days of the war. This is on a building, which now houses the Institute of Hygiene and Bacteriology in Mons. Mons was, as far as the British Army was concerned, the area where the fighting began, and where it ended. Near the city are the well-known memorials to the first and last shots of the war. These are on the itinerary of most battlefield tours around Mons but, plaques apart, there is little else to be seen. Yet on the wall of the Institute of Hygiene and Bacteriology on Boulevard Sainctecllette

in Mons is to be found damage caused during the fighting on 10 and 11 November 1918 when Mons was liberated by the Anglo-Canadian forces. The reason why this damage, almost certainly the result of a shell fired by a Canadian artillery piece, evokes such strong emotions is that on those last days of the war men were not only still fighting, but also being killed. Both sides were well aware that the war was coming to an end and nothing either side did in those last twenty-four hours or so could materially affect the outcome of the war. Yet soldiers from both sides still fought, often at close quarters. The war, after so many years of savage, unprecedented slaughter, had become personal. The Allied armies had been driving back the Germans since 18 July 1918, after the failure of the German Spring Offensive. The final phase of what became known as the Hundred Days Offensive ended

TOP AND ABOVE: The shell damage from 11 November 1918, which can still be seen on the exterior of the Institute of Hygiene and Bacteriology which is located on Boulevard Sainctecllette in Mons. (ALL IMAGES

HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

LEFT: Led by a band, almost certainly from the 42nd Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada) Canadian Expeditionary Force, Canadian troops march through the streets of Mons on 11 November 1918 having fought their way into the city in the last hours of the fighting on the Western Front.

with the “Pursuit to Mons” which saw the city being liberated, mainly by the Canadians, on 11 November. Amongst those soldiers who entered Mons that day was Lieutenant J.W. Muirhead, who saw the corpses of three British soldiers “each wearing the medal ribbon of the 1914 Mons Star. They had been killed by machine gun fire that morning. As we got into Mons there were bodies of many of the enemy lying in the streets, also killed that day ... Boys were kicking them in the gutter ... The bells in the belfry were playing ‘Tipperary’.” So often the observation is made that the futility of the war is exemplified by the fact that after so many lives had been lost by the opposing forces so little had been gained that the opening and closing shots of the war had been such a short distance apart. There can be no more egregious example of futility than the fighting of 11 November 1918; and in a street in Mons, on the outside of the Institute of Hygiene and Bacteriology, is the visible evidence of those last acts of what was known as the Great War.  www.britainatwar.com 85

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15/08/2014 16:18

Geoff Simpson asks a top curator or trustee which single item in their collections they would reach for in the event of a disaster.

BERCHTESGADEN BOMBER COMMAND TARGET MAP Hughenden Manor, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire

AS BOMBER Command strove to break German resistance, many men and women worked behind the scenes, playing important roles in getting the “Bomber Boys” to their targets. Vital to the effort was Operation Hillside, the personnel of which were tasked to provide the maps showing the way. Hillside operated from Hughenden Manor near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, once the home of the Victorian Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, who became Earl of Beaconsfield. Now Hughenden is in the care of the National Trust and this month’s “Save in a Fire” item has been chosen by House Steward, Fran Penny. “Although produced in 1944 for Operation Foxley, a neverimplemented plan to kill Hitler,” Fran commented, “this map was used for one of the final bombing raids of the war. It was feared that fanatical Nazis would make a final stand at Berchtesgaden, and so on 25 April 1945, 376 aircraft, mainly Lancasters, mounted a raid against the Eagle’s Nest, the Berghof and the SS guard barracks. Crews taking part in the raid had mixed views. Some were excited at the thought of perhaps

being able to kill Hitler himself, whilst others were concerned at the thought of attacking a possibly heavily defended position so late in the war. The raid was however a success, and only two Lancasters being lost. Hitler of course was not there, and committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin five days later. “This map is an original which, produced at Hughenden, was used in the raid. Although not in perfect condition it is a poignant and evocative item, drawing to a close the role of Hughenden and Operation Hillside in the war effort.” Such was the importance of that role, that a special order was issued after VE Day congratulating the Hillside personnel for helping ensure the success of, for example, Operation Chastise and the airborne landings on D-Day. Bomber Command Losses by W.R. Chorley records the details of the men who lost their lives in one of the Lancasters so close to the end of the war. On the Berchtesgaden attack the fatalities occurred in the aircraft flown by Flying Officer W.T. De Marco RCAF, of 619 Squadron, who himself was killed. Other members of the Lancaster’s crew to be lost were WO2 N.H. Johnston, RCAF, Sergeant E W Norman and

The Platterhof, located near the Berghof, pictured after it received the attention of Bomber Command during the attack on Berchtesgaden. After the Nazis had taken over the Obersalzberg, the original Platterhof was remodelled, and a large multi-wing hotel erected around the original building. Intended to be a national people’s hotel, the Platterhof never served that purpose. Instead, it facilitated high-ranking Nazi dignitaries and other important visitors. In 1943, the necessities of war turned the Platterhof into a military hospital and convalescence home. (US NATIONAL ARCHIVES)

The Bomber Command target map of Berchtesgaden which was produced as part of Operation Hillside at Hughenden Manor near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL TRUST)

WO2 G.V. Walker, RCAF. Sergeant F.J. Cole, Flight Sergeant A.H. Shannon and Flight Sergeant J.W. Speers RCAF, survived as prisoners of war. Those who died are buried in Austria at the Klagenfurt War Cemetery. The complete crew of the other Lancaster that failed to return, from 460 Squadron RAAF, were all reported to be prisoners. The skipper was Flying Officer H.G. Payne RAAF and all but one of his crew were also members of the Royal Australian Air Force. Flying from RAF Binbrook, the attack had particular significance for 460 Squadron, it being its last operation of the war and taking place on ANZAC Day. One rear gunner

recorded that, “no travel poster could ever depict the magnificence of the day, the Alps glistening in the sunlight, the green fields below and receding behind into the distance the blue waters of Lake Constance”. Today Hughenden Manor has a significant collection of wartime maps and is seeking to add more. The wartime role is explained in the Second World War room in the cellars, where there are accounts and interactive displays. There is further wartime material. “Experience the immersive wartime displays in our ice house bunker and find out why Hughenden was high on Hitler’s hit list,” says the National Trust.

HUGHENDEN MANOR The house is open seven days a week, 10am-5.30pm. On busy days timed tickets are issued. Further information on planning your visit can be obtained from: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/Hughenden

www.britainatwar.com 87

THE BATTLE OF CAMP BASTION Costly Taliban Attack

The Battle Of Camp

Bastion

MAIN PICTURE: The crew of a Jackal open fire. The Jackal is a high mobility weapons platform, with a unique air-bag suspension system allowing rapid movement across varying terrain. It is designed to protect personnel against roadside explosions and mine attacks. (© CROWN/MOD COPYRIGHT, 2014) (© CROWN/MOD

T

HE BASTION, Leatherneck and Shorabak complex (known as BLS) was the largest and most important coalition base in south-west Afghanistan, hosting the south-west Regional Headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), an Afghan National Army training facility, and serving as the main hub of the US Marine Corps. As well as thousands of British, US and Afghan troops, the BLS Complex also housed large numbers of civilian contractors. The BLS Complex covered approximately forty square miles, and could accommodate almost 30,000

88 www.britainatwar.com

personnel. The perimeter of the complex is composed of approximately twentyfive miles of fence line. It was, by any standards, a big base. Into this, late on the evening of Friday, 14 September 2012, walked just fifteen Taliban fighters. The insurgents had undergone military training in Pakistan before crossing back to Afghanistan on 13 September 2012. They had made the journey in groups of twos and then regrouped in Kandahar. They travelled west to Helmand province by truck, where they hid in a safe house in Washer district, which surrounds Bastion and adjacent Camp Leatherneck, the largest US

Marine Corps base in Afghanistan. The one insurgent who survived the subsequent attack told investigators he had been recruited for a “big, important mission” about four months before it occurred. It was necessary because several insurgents who had been trained previously for the same mission previously had been killed when their improvised explosive device detonated prematurely. Having arrived at a location near Camp Bastion the next evening, the 14th, the insurgent force walked for around one-and-a-half to two hours to reach the BLS perimeter. They initially travelled towards the perimeter

THE BATTLE OF CAMP BASTION Costly Taliban Attack At approximately 22.00 hours local time on Friday, 14 September 2012, fifteen heavily-armed Taliban insurgents dressed in US Army uniforms penetrated the main US and UK armed forces base in Helmand province in Afghanistan. To mark the draw down of UK personnel from Afghanistan, Dave Cassan describes one of the most costly Taliban attacks of the insurgency.

through a network of dry river beds that run nearby from the east, then literally crawled as they got closer. The subsequent report into the events of 14 September, undertaken by US Lieutenant General William Garrett and the US Marine Corps’ Major General Thomas Murray, revealed that, “after cutting the fence with wire cutters, the attackers moved through the fence, and crossed the boundary road one at a time until forming a defensive perimeter on the west side of the road. Tower 16, which is approximately 150 [meters] southwest of the breach point, was unmanned based upon the tower

manning rotation set by the UK commander responsible for force protection on Camp Bastion.”

THE CAMP’S DEFENCES At the time of the attack, the base security force for the BLS Complex consisted of 110 members of 2nd Battalion, 10th US Marines, 134 British troops, 288 troops from the Jordanian Armed Forces and 255 contractors with the company Triple Canopy. Combined, the US Marines and British forces could generate three or four squad-size foot patrols around the base per day. At the time of the attack, a single Marine squad was outside

the wire on the Leatherneck side of the base, conducting surveillance on the point of origin of recent rocket attacks. For the defence of Camp Bastion, the target of the insurgent mission, there were twenty-four concrete guard towers, set anywhere from fifty to 250 meters away from the perimeter fence. Eleven of them were occupied at the time of the attack. Tower 17, the one nearest to the breach point that had guards, did not have a good vantage point of the ground. It would have been “difficult to observe an approaching attacker who was attempting to conceal his movement, even on a night with better illumination, and even if the guard 

TOP RIGHT: Lit up at night, a pair of USMC AV8Bs rest in their sunshades along either side of a runway at Bastion. The attacking insurgents initially went unhindered as they charged their way down the tarmac throwing grenades into the shelters. (US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)

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THE BATTLE OF CAMP BASTION Costly Taliban Attack

was constantly scanning back and forth with a night-vision device,” the after-action report discovered. The attack was not the first time that individuals had breached the perimeter of Camp Bastion or Camp Leatherneck. In one example, an intruder sneaked into Leatherneck in June 2012, fleeing after guards began to close in on him. The base also had a problem with “scrappers”, the term applied to individuals who would take or steal metal to sell for cash.

ABOVE: An AV-8B under maintenance in its hangar in the days before the Taliban attack. The personnel seen here, from Marine Attack Squadron 211 (VMA-211), were, it is stated, the first to engage the insurgents on 14 September 2012. (US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)

A REPUTATION ENHANCED IT WAS in October 2001 that British forces first went into action in in Afghanistan under Operation Enduring Freedom. The British element, consisting of Royal Navy ships and men, was code-named Operation Verity. The ground force in Verity was drawn from 40 Commando, Royal Marines. With the ending of Verity, NATO established the International Security Assistance Force, in which British forces played a key part under the title of Operation Herrick. This endeavour, which began in June 2002, is finally drawing to a conclusion with the withdrawal of British forces and the ending of combat operations. During the twelve years of Herrick, British forces have suffered considerable losses in combat and non-combat situations. As of 31 July 2014, the total number of UK military and civilian personnel killed was 453, of which 353 were killed in action and fifty-one died of their wounds. The remainder died of disease or were the victims of accidents or other violent actions whilst on deployment. In addition to this, 304 individuals were very seriously wounded and another 310 were badly wounded. There were also 7,399 men and women, civilian and military, who were admitted to hospital, of whom 2,183 were as a result of combat injuries. Despite the difficult circumstances the British personnel had to operate in, their reputation as a highly professional force has been substantially enhanced during their time in Afghanistan. For the British armed forces Enduring Freedom will, no doubt, be an enduring legacy.

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Garrett and Murray also found that there was surveillance video previously recorded of two other breaches at Bastion. In one case, two people breached the fence near the airfield but left through the same hole without incident. Many people throughout the chain of command had expressed concern about the fence breaches, but accepted them as “related to scrapping or theft activity”, the generals’ report said. But these activities, it would seem, were not all they appeared to be. According to one journalist, for months, disguised as farmers, the insurgents had been “sending men to crawl inside the outermost lines of barbed wire, testing the foreigners’ alertness and responses”. The result was that the insurgents were well-informed and knew a great deal about the layout of the BLS Complex. Before setting out on their mission, the attackers had posed before a video camera. The footage showed a whiteboard marked with red and blue lines and symbols – showing the base’s concentric defences, its fuel dumps, and their chief target, the fighter jets on the airfield. It was a crude but accurate map of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing’s site at Camp Bastion. An American journalist, Matthieu Aikins, painted a picture of complacency within the Complex: “The Brits had built Bastion back in 2006, but the Marine surge had made it big, and now, with its hospital and morgue, it was like a small city, staffed by armies of cooks and cleaners and supplied by a chain of fuel

and food trucks coming in over the mountains from Pakistan. “Ten years into the war, and the military had perfected the art of comfortable base living: Wi-Fi, surfand-turf on holidays, Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments in the rec center. The citystate of Bastion even had its own prince: the redheaded Captain Harry Wales, as Prince Harry was known on the base. He had arrived for a three-month tour flying an Apache helicopter, prompting a Taliban threat to kill or kidnap him. ‘We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him,’ Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid had told the press four days earlier. The military laughed off the idea.”

THE ATTACK IN THE NIGHT Launching their attack, the insurgents, under the cover of darkness and wearing stolen US military uniforms, were not detected until they actually opened fire. The American uniforms had been purchased in markets in Pakistan after they had been looted from US supply conveys which were attacked by militants as they were passing through Pakistan en route to Afghanistan. After the convoys were hit by Al Qaeda insurgents, local civilians routinely “liberated” fuel and supplies, much of which was subsequently sold on. A BBC report shortly after the attack stated: “Fifteen heavily-armed insurgents dressed in US Army

THE BATTLE OF CAMP BASTION Costly Taliban Attack uniforms and armed with PKM general purpose machine guns, AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades broke through perimeter defences and initially targeted tower guards with heavy fire.” It was later thought that the insurgents may not have been armed with rocket-propelled grenades, though many of those present give accounts that suggest otherwise. “An RPG suddenly streaked out of the darkness and slammed into one of the fuel bladders,” recalled one serviceman by way of an example. “With a massive boom, the jet fuel ignited into a towering fireball, momentarily turning night into day.” The attackers’ targets were the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harriers on the US Marine Corps’ flight line. They either rolled or placed underneath the Harriers a number of hand grenades. The insurgents also set fire to a bulk fuel storage facility, sending flames soaring over 100 feet into the air. Three RAF fire crews cautiously approached the scene; at this early stage it was unclear exactly what had caused the blaze. However, as the RAF crews approached the blaze they heard the distinct sound of a burst of machine-gun fire. Nevertheless, they believed that the sound had come from the blaze and they continued forward. The crew soon realised that they could not get their fire-fighting engines close to the blaze because of a number of obstacles. They quickly rolled out the hoses and began dousing the flames. Within minutes the crews came under attack from the insurgents as grenades exploded close by.

TOP: A Jackal armoured vehicle of the Force Protection unit – these vehicles and their crews deployed rapidly to counter the Taliban attack. (© CROWN/MOD COPYRIGHT, 2014)

ABOVE: Royal Air Force Military Police personnel guarding the Main Entry Point at Camp Bastion. (© CROWN/MOD COPYRIGHT, 2014)

Sergeant Simon Allsopp was the crew commander responsible for helping control the chaotic scene. “One of the crew shouted that he saw a rocket explode nearby,” he later recalled, “and as I looked up I could see another one flying through the air. I yelled at my crew to stop fighting the fire and take whatever cover they could find”. The shout of “Contact” went up – the fire crews now knew they were in the middle of a fire fight. Sergeant Allsopp tried to radio for an update but came under heavy small arms fire. “As I tried to contact the HQ a burst of tracer was fired directly over

our heads. For a moment it was quite surreal and then out of nowhere the Royal Air Force Regiment Force Protection assets arrived on the scene and immediately engaged the insurgents.” Corporal Rob Wallman-Durrant was in charge of Fire Crew: “We were told to try and find another way to get closer to the blaze but we were blocked by a huge ditch on one side. Just as we were about to go round the other side two RAF Regiment Force Protection vehicles went screaming past us.” As soon as he realised how close they were to the fire fight Sergeant Allsopp gave orders to all his crew to withdraw. At this point they were halted by the cries of “Man Down”. A RAF Regiment Gunner lay injured; the fire fighters immediately provided first aid. Corporal Parry was one of those present: “We only had basic first aid equipment with us so we had to improvise and use whatever we could. I used the sling from my rifle as a tourniquet before we dragged the casualty to safety.”

RAF REGIMENT FORCE PROTECTION IN ACTION As well as the dark of night, another major difficulty experienced by the men of 51 Squadron RAF Regiment was that, as already mentioned, the insurgents were dressed in US uniforms, making identification impossible until the British personnel were fired on – confirming that they were faced by the enemy. The attackers were also wearing trainers instead of boots and they all sported the ubiquitous large beards. 

A US AV-8B Harrier in a soft shelter (often referred to as a sunshade) at Bastion – a number of these structures were destroyed or damaged in the Taliban raid. (US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)

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THE BATTLE OF CAMP BASTION Costly Taliban Attack The RAF Regiment, part of the RAF Force Protection Wing based at Camp Bastion, was supported by a British Army Agusta Westland Apache, of 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, and US Marine Corps machinegun equipped Bell AH-W Super Cobras which took off while under fire from the insurgents. The helicopter crews would find themselves flying at virtually ground level in the dark, both inside the BLS perimeter and the camp’s environs, desperately trying to differentiate friend from foe and prevent a “blue-on-blue”, or “friendly-fire”, incident. The RAF troops, who were located on the opposite side of the huge base, sped to the scene in their Jackal armoured vehicles, arriving just twelve minutes after the attack began. They pushed out onto the airfield whilst RAF Police from the Bastion Security Squadron maintained security at key installations throughout the camp. Flight Lieutenant Andy Beney, the Force Protection Wing’s battle captain, was located in the Operations Room during the incident: “Everyone responded decisively, situational awareness was quickly established, and we were quick to deploy the necessary

ABOVE: A British Apache firing at low-level at night – a scene which would have been witnessed on 14 September 2012. (© CROWN/MOD

COPYRIGHT, 2014)

BELOW LEFT: An RAF fire fighter in action at Bastion – though it was not only fires they were required to combat on the night of 14 September 2012. (© CROWN/MOD

COPYRIGHT, 2014)

BELOW: An Apache landing at Camp Bastion. (© CROWN/MOD

COPYRIGHT, 2014)

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assets in order to deal with the attack as effectively as possible.” As the RAF Regiment incident controller, Sergeant Al Bedford was also in the Operations Room at the time of the attack: “We were attacked from multiple firing points; however, we quickly co-ordinated ground troops and air assets to suppress the enemy and then utilized those assets to clear the airfield of any remaining insurgents. We also co-ordinated medical support to the gunners on the ground and ensured resupply was timely, allowing the lads to maintain their momentum.” Sergeant Roy “Doc” Geddes was tactical commander of an RAF Regiment Flight consisting of thirty gunners on the airfield during the attack. He was himself injured during the assault, sustaining fragmentation injuries from what was described as a rocket-propelled grenade. “I was the Quick Reaction Force commander when we responded to the

attack,” he recalled. “As I moved onto the airfield I could already see some Harriers on fire. We were soon engaged with the enemy who used small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades; however, my gunners were quick to react and returned fire, suppressing the enemy position.” The RAF gunners moved methodically across the airfield engaging in various fire fights as they dealt with pockets of resistance over a period of some four hours. The US Marines also responded, led by Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Raible, the commanding officer of Marine Attack Squadron 211. This coalition counter-attack was described by Lance Corporal Cole Collums who advanced to a forward position close to the enemy. He began firing at one of the insurgents while taking fire from multiple locations. “He [the insurgent] kept popping his head out, and I kept shooting at him; I thought, ‘This guy is

THE BATTLE OF CAMP BASTION Costly Taliban Attack an idiot. He just keeps sticking his head out,’” said Collums. “Only later did I realize that I was doing the same thing.” After neutralizing the insurgent, Collums heard the telltale sound of a grenade landing near his position. “I knew exactly what it was when I heard it.” The grenade went off before Collums had a chance to react. He was hit by a concussive blast, peppered by grenade fragments, and launched through the air. Despite the explosion and his injuries, Collums got back up and rejoined the rest of the Marines positioned roughly ten yards to his rear. After other Marines had quickly treated his wounds, he remained in the battle. After the grenade blast and a subsequent lull in the fighting, the insurgents fired what was described as another rocket-propelled grenade at the Marines’ position. One of the Marines shot the insurgent firing the RPG, so it strayed high and detonated on the wall of the hangar behind the Marines. Shrapnel from the explosion further wounded Collums and two others. One of the latter was Major Cudo: “I was thrown up against the wall and there was ringing and disorientation. I had no idea what was going on, and I just remember being dragged back into the hangar. It was just a small piece of shrapnel [sic] in my face but there was blood everywhere so they didn’t know how bad it was at first.” Tragically, Lieutenant Colonel Raible was killed in this action.

COUNTING THE COST When the last of the insurgents had finally been dealt with, it was time to count the cost of the night’s engagement. Alongside Lieutenant Colonel Raible, another US Marine, Sergeant Bradley Atwell, an aircraft electrical, instrument

and flight control systems technician with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 16, had also been killed. A further twenty UK personnel and eight American troops were wounded, along with eight civilian contractors who had been injured when their bus was targeted by the insurgents during the attack. During the four-and-a-half-hour-long night time engagement, the gunners of 51 Squadron RAF Regiment had fired in excess of 10,000 rounds of ammunition. Meanwhile, damage across the base was extensive. A total of six AV-8B Harriers had been destroyed; two more were badly damaged. Other aircraft damaged included one Beechcraft C-12 utility aircraft and a C-130E Hercules. Amongst the various helicopters attacked were three Bell Boeing MV-22B Ospreys and one British Sea King Mk.7 Airborne Surveillance and Control helicopter. Two British

ABOVE: A number of Royal Navy Sea Kings overfly Camp Bastion – an example of one of these helicopters was damaged during the raid. (© CROWN/MOD

COPYRIGHT, 2014)

RIGHT: In the aftermath of the attack the US Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, toured the complex to see the damage. (US NAVY)

BELOW: One of the USMC's AV-8B Harriers pictured after the Taliban attack. (US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE)

Jackal vehicles were also significantly damaged, three fuel bladders and five sun shades (used as aircraft hangars) were destroyed – though this was only a small part of the effects of the raid. The total cost has been estimated at $200 million. Indeed, some accounts state that this incident resulted in the largest loss of US airpower in a single incident since the Tet Offensive, in 1968, during the Vietnam War. The investigation by Garrett and Murray was highly critical of the complex’s security arrangements and in a US Central Command memo that was released on 30 September the same year, Camp Commandant General Jim Amos announced that two of his general officers had been found at fault for allowing the attack to occur. They were asked to retire. The bodies of some of the attackers were found with spray-paint cans and lighters – the investigation found that the insurgents planned to use them as mini-blow torches to set fire to tents in an effort to kill as many troops inside as possible. This was a salutary reminder of just what might have happened if the British and US personnel had not responded so quickly. The Rapid Reaction Force lived up to its name.  www.britainatwar.com 93

WORLD WAR ONE DIARY OCTOBER 1914

1 WESTERN FRONT - The Advance to the Aisne Ends. After the Battle of the Aisne, in September 1914 the French and British armies attacking the withdrawing German armies meet stubborn German resistance and the advance grinds to a halt. 3 WESTERN FRONT - Transfer of the British Army from Champagne to Flanders Commenced. French and British Armies arrived in Ypres, passing through the town to the east and taking up defensive positions to hold up the advance of the German Army. 4 WESTERN FRONT - Lens and Bailleul occupied by the Germans. 4 WESTERN FRONT – the Royal Naval Division reaches Antwerp. A force comprising First and Second Naval Brigades, combined with three British infantry brigades, forming the 10,000 strong Royal Naval Division arrive to defend Antwerp. 4 WESTERN FRONT - The Defence of Antwerp begins. 6 WESTERN FRONT - The British 7th Infantry Division is disembarked at Ostend. The 7th Division, a Regular Army division was formed by combining battalions returning from outposts in the British Empire at the outbreak of the First World War. 8 EAST AFRICA - British troops at Gazi were attacked by a German force. The British hold out forcing the attacking Germans to withdraw. 10 WESTERN FRONT - Antwerp surrenders to the Germans. The Royal Naval Division retire from the city. In the confusion of the withdrawal, most of the 1st Brigade (the Hawke, Benbow and Collingwood Battalions) crossed the Dutch frontier and were interned at Groningen. Only the Drake Battalion got away, having left the city early. 10 WESTERN FRONT - Battle of La Bassee begins. The British attack aiming to recapture the area around Lille and break through into Belgium. 10 WESTERN FRONT - Operations in Flanders begin. 12 WESTERN FRONT - Lille capitulates to the Germans. 12 WESTERN FRONT - Battle of Messines begins. Sir John French believing that there were only weak German forces in front of the BEF plans a general advance to the north east of Lille. The British advance and force the Germans to evacuate their most forward positions in Armentières. 13 WESTERN FRONT - Ghent occupied by the Germans. 13 WESTERN FRONT - Battle of Armentières begins. British III Corps attack. The Germans pull back. Armentières captured on 15 October. 14 WEST AFRICA – The German held town of Yabasi in German Cameroon is captured by Allied forces. 14 HOME FRONT – The first Canadian troops arrive at Plymouth.

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14 WESTERN FRONT - Bailleul reoccupied by the British. 15 WESTERN FRONT - Zeebrugge and Ostend occupied by the Germans. 16 THE EMPIRE - The New Zealand Expeditionary Force sails from Wellington. 17 THE EMPIRE - Troops of the Australian Expeditionary Force embark to fight on the Western Front. 17 HOME FRONT – anti-German sentiments in London result in riots in some London boroughs.. 18 WESTERN FRONT - Battle of the Yser begins. The Belgian Army defends the Yser Canal against German attacks. 20 WAR AT SEA - The British vessel SS Glitra becomes the first merchabt ship to be sunk by a submarine after being intercepted by U-17 and scuttled off the Norwegian coast. 21 WESTERN FRONT - Battle of Langemarck begins. Part of the wider first battle of Ypres. It begins as an encounter between troops of the British I corps and German troops, both advancing to make an attack. It ends with the Allies on the defensive around Ypres holding off the first of a series of fierce German attacks. 22 SOUTH-WEST AFRICA - 600 rebels of Rebel German sympathiser Colonel Marie Maritz routed at Keimoes. 23 MIDDLE EAST – British Indian Army forces operating from Bahrain, evict Turkish Forces from southern Mesopotamia. 24 WESTERN FRONT - Battle of Langemarck Ends. 26 SOUTH-WEST AFRICA – Portuguese Colonial Angola invaded by the German forces. 26 SOUTH-WEST AFRICA – The Occupation of Edea. British and French assault German forces stationed in the village of Edea. German Forces forced to withdraw. 27 SOUTH AFRICA – General Botha disperses South African Rebel General Beyers Commando near Rustenburg. 29 WESTERN FRONT - Battle of Gheluvelt begins. The Germans attempt to break the British lines between Ploegsteert Wood and Gheluvelt. The hard-pressed British line falls back, but does not break. 30 WAR AT SEA – The British hospital ship HMHS Rohilla wrecked off Whitby. 31 WESTERN FRONT - Battle of Gheluvelt Ends. A German attack breaks through the line, and reaches Gheluvelt. The entire British line is close to collapse, and orders were drafted to retreat. The situation was restored by a counterattack by the 2nd Worcesters. 31 WAR AT SEA - HMS Hermes sunk by a German submarine in the Dover Strait.

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BALLOON BARRAGES Hazard to the Allies

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BALLOON BARRAGES Hazard to the Allies

B

ALLOON BARRAGES, an almost iconic element of wartime Britain, became an integral part of the country’s air defence system but one that has largely been ignored in the histories of air warfare. Certainly, it is a not particularly ‘glamorous’ aspect of the air war although the balloons were a passive form of defence which proved extremely effective in forcing enemy raiders to fly higher. Thus, given the limited technology of the time, enemy aircraft sometimes bombed even less accurately as a result. That they were also lethal to our own aircraft was an unfortunate by-product and one that is significant in the history of the air defence of Great Britain.

EARLY DAYS

MAIN PICTURE: A barrage balloon about to be raised from the car park of the State Cinema in Kilburn, London, during 1939. The original caption states that the cinema was one of four across the capital that were “co-operating in the Balloon Barrage Recruiting Week”: “From dusk to 11 o’clock at night the balloons will be illuminated by powerful searchlights. The displays are taking place at Kilburn, Finchley, Cricklewood and Hendon. The balloons and searchlights are being provided by the 906th and 907th Balloon Barrage Squadrons and the 33rd and 36th Anti-Aircraft Battalions of the Royal Engineers.” (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

Before the war, a separate Balloon Command under the operational control of RAF Fighter Command was formed, and eventually became responsible for many thousands of balloons covering strategic targets all over Britain although the barrage balloon story actually began towards the end of the First World War. Then, three so-called ‘balloon aprons’ were employed in the defence of London and formed by tethering four or five balloons in a single line and stretching a network of light steel cables between them. The weight of these, even using the lightest possible cables, was a very serious load on the comparatively small buoyancy of the balloons employed for this purpose. The network, too, tended to sag and draw the balloons together into a bunch and it was difficult to lower the entire arrangement without fouling houses, trees and overhead lines. The three Balloon Apron Squadrons were formed with headquarters at Barking and Woodford in Essex, and at Shooter’s Hill in southeast London. 

The sight of barrage balloons above wartime Britain was a familiar one between 1939 and 1944 and they were, perhaps, a comfort to those on the ground behind their defensive ‘curtain’. But they were sometimes as much a hazard to allied aircraft as they were to the enemy as David Smith explains.

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BALLOON BARRAGES Hazard to the Allies

ABOVE: Preparations for war are underway – a barrage balloon is being inflated so that it can be raised in the grounds of the Tower of London, 7 November 1938. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW: Released to the press in March 1940, this photograph shows the ascent of a barrage balloon from a barge anchored on the Thames.

Despite the problems with handling these balloons they were, nevertheless, considered ‘effective’ although not so much as a means of destroying enemy aircraft but simply because they forced them to fly at predictable heights which could then be saturated with anti-aircraft (AA) fire. During the First World War at least one Gotha bomber is known to have flown into the cables but, remarkably, escaped with only slight damage. The renewed requirement for air defences in the threatening years of the 1930s produced an alternative to the apron method. The modern balloon barrage would consist

(G PEARSON)

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merely of the cables by which the balloons were held captive. Later on, extra hanging cables were added, some with explosive devices attached. At first sight, such a defence might appear rather illusory, but if a few simple calculations are made it will be found that it is much more effective than might be imagined. Assuming an aircraft of 70-foot wingspan passes through a line of balloons tethered at one hundred yard intervals there would be rather less than one chance in four of its hitting a cable - a pretty formidable risk which no attacker could afford to take. Even though contemporary bombers of the period were able to

reach altitudes above 20,000ft, a balloon barrage at only 10,000ft, if it were of sufficient density, might at least reduce the fighters’ task of finding the bombers by 10,000ft out of perhaps 20,000.

PROBABILITY OF IMPACT At that time, low-flying aircraft were less vulnerable to AA fire and defending fighters. This was due to the fact that there was less time for a gun or searchlight to be trained on an aircraft before it had disappeared again and intercepting fighters also found the raiders difficult to spot against the close background of an intricate countryside or an urban sprawl. So, the balloons also served to potentially drive attackers up to an altitude where they could more easily be engaged by searchlights, guns and aircraft. Obviously, balloons flown at any altitude in daylight made good targets in fine weather but such conditions were also those in which guns and fighters could operate most effectively. Night and bad visibility were the times when a balloon barrage was most needed by the defence, and it was in such conditions that the balloons would be fairly immune from attack. The first method of siting balloons was to moor them approximately on the perimeter of the area to be defended. If, however, they were sited equidistantly over a circular area, then the probability of impact was from two to three times as great as it was when the same number of balloons were sited equidistantly but only round the circumference. These methods were

BALLOON BARRAGES Hazard to the Allies known respectively as ‘field siting’ and ‘perimeter siting’. One method by which the effectiveness of a balloon barrage might be reduced would be to fly through it in line-ahead formation with, perhaps, specially-equipped aircraft in the lead. Such a method of attack, which amounted really to sweeping, would be more effective against perimeter-sited rather than field-sited balloons although a number of Luftwaffe aircraft that operated over Britain were known to fitted with cable fenders or cutters, and at least one Heinkel 111 was brought down in Britain fitted with such a device. Dive-bombing, however, was a mode of attack which no defence system could afford to ignore and it would be met to a certain extent at least by field-sited balloons, whereas the perimeter method would be of little or no value. Lastly, by using field-siting, a barrage of very high impact value could be achieved without the necessity of handling balloons in dangerously close proximity to one another. However, in

ABOVE & BELOW: The inflation process of a barrage balloon underway, using highly volatile Hydrogen gas stored in groups of cylinders, (AUTHOR)

the case of dive bombing raids, it was not unusual for German fighters to ‘sweep’ the target area and shoot down the balloons in the target area prior to the attack.

EXPERIMENTAL WORK In 1936 the Royal Aircraft Establishment began experiments to determine both the effects of balloon wires on aircraft and possible countermeasures. There had been a precedent during World War One when Major Roderic Hill, CO of the Experimental Section at Farnborough, had flown an Fe 2b into a cable at Orfordness on the Essex coast. Fitted with a long bowsprit, from which wires ran to each wingtip where a cable cutter was fixed it was certainly a risky experiment In the event, a wingtip broke on impact but the incredibly courageous Hill, who

had no parachute, was able to recover from the resulting spin and land safely. Not surprisingly, this was the only experiment made at this time! Most of the 1930s tests were flown by Flight Lieutenant (later Air Commodore) A E Clouston who began his work with a Miles Hawk, flying into a fishing line attached to a parachute and simply thrown over the side of the cockpit at 5,000ft. While the string was unwinding, Clouston would circle and line up for a straight run at it but he soon determined that even this light string would cut into the wing and the longer the string, the deeper the cut. When sufficient data had been gained, the tests switched to flying into proper wire. Since wire would probably slice right through the Hawk’s wooden wing so the Merlin-engined Fairey P.4/34, similar to but smaller than the Fairey Battle, was employed for these live 

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BALLOON BARRAGES Hazard to the Allies

A FRIENDLY FIRE BARRAGE BALLOON INCIDENT OPERATED BY 18 Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Fairoaks, this Tiger Moth (T6188) shows the effects of an encounter with a British barrage balloon. Though the exact date of the incident is unknown, Stuart McKay, the author of the definitive De Havilland Tiger Moth, provides this account: “During transition, the Tiger Moth hit a suspended barrage balloon with its wheels; the fabric bag was punctured by the propeller and escaping hydrogen gas ignited against the hot exhaust from the Gipsy Major engine. “Instantly enveloped in a ball of flame, fabric on the starboard upper trailing edge, in-board of the interplane strut, starboard lower trailing edge inclusive of the aileron, and complete upper surfaces of the starboard tailplane and elevator, all caught fire. The flames were extinguished only by an instinctive and violent sideslip to port in an effort to keep them away from the crew and the petrol tank as much as anything. Finding that the aircraft continued to fly, albeit with crossed controls, the crew elected to return to base where the Tiger Moth was landed normally. “The coincidence of the descent onto a golf course of a blazing barrage balloon and the appearance of a heavily-singed Tiger Moth landing at a local aerodrome had to be explained. The release of the story as told, placated those for whom it was intended and attracted welcome publicity for the amazing survivability of the aeroplane. But in reality, and behind closed doors, it was admitted that the crew of a Tiger Moth operating above a cloud layer had spotted the silvery manifestation of a balloon suspended and apparently motionless, and hidden from all observation by the furry carpet of vapour, had indulged in the well-known practice of airborne spot landing. On this occasion the ‘landing’ had been firm or slightly off target. “Fortunately, although the balloon had been ruptured and exploded, all had survived. T6188 (84636), the aircraft involved, was repaired and remained part of the post-war establishment at Fairoaks until finally struck off charge in May 1950.” (WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF STUART MCKAY)

tests. These first experiments were conducted over Salisbury Plain using parachutes and light wire and with the aircraft often returning to Farnborough towing hundreds of feet of cable. Clouston was highly unpopular when painters were pulled off ladders and, on one occasion, a cycle rack holding ten bikes was caught at the RAE’s main gate and dragged noisily across the airfield! As impact speeds were deliberately increased during the tests, so the wire would whip and gash the aircraft like a giant axe. A thick steel mesh canopy was added to protect the pilot, and the trials were continued against wires hanging from a balloon over waste ground in Norfolk. Each time, the length of wire was increased until it started cutting deeply into the wing’s main spar. It was discovered that the last few yards of wire had a habit of whipping in a complete circle around the wing before finally dragging free. If an explosive charge were attached to the end of the wire it was clear that it would make contact with the upper surface of the wing and blow the aircraft to pieces. As Clouston wryly observed in his autobiography The Dangerous Skies: ‘This, however, the scientists were prepared to take for granted and without any practical demonstration on my part.’ Having established what happened when an aircraft hit a cable, so the tests turned to protection against the wire hawsers and by sheathing the wing leading edge with steel it was found that the wire, unless it was very long, did not cut into the wing but 100 www.britainatwar.com

BELOW: It was not only aircraft of the RAF which fell victim to barrage balloons in “friendly fire” incidents, as these two pictures of a Fleet Air Arm Fairey Swordfish Mk.I (L9726) testify. (BOTH IMAGES

COURTESY OF THE W.A. HARRISON COLLECTION)

made heavy scratches and slid off at the tip. The next stage was to try to completely eliminate the danger of the wire by fitting special cutters into the wing tip. Thus, when the wire ran along the leading edge, so it slipped into a slot where an automatic cutting device, fired by a cartridge, severed it. This very simple but effective device was designed by James Martin of the Martin-Baker Company, later to become famous for its ejector seats. Just before the outbreak of war, Flight Lieutenant J A 'Johnny' Kent (later Gp Capt, DFC & Bar, AFC, Virtuti Militari)

took over from Clouston, making some of the tests from Mildenhall against a balloon at Lakenheath but the operation moved in mid-1939 to Exeter Airport, using a balloon site at Pawlett Hams in a sparsely populated area of Somerset, near Bridgwater. ‘Johnnny’ Kent carried out the first collision there on 26 September 1939 against a steel cable at 180 mph. The cable cut into the wing and jammed, forcing him to land at Exeter with 500ft of the wire in tow. Kent was lucky, but some time after he left RAE for operational flying a Fairey Battle crashed after losing a wing to a deliberate cable strike. Both occupants baled out, but one was killed when his parachute caught on the tail. The experiments evidently continued well into the war as Wellington P9210 from RAE crashed on 24 March 1942 with the accident record card stating guardedly ‘Aircraft destroyed in the air by the satisfactory working of a weapon with which RAE is experimenting. Aircraft disintegrated and pilot thrown clear.’

BALLOON COMMAND Meanwhile, much practical experience in the development of balloon barrages had been gained. Within the new Balloon Command which came into being on 1 November 1938 under the command of Air Vice-Marshal O T Boyd, CB, OBE, the Auxiliary Air Force had formed Balloon Squadrons which, by August 1940, had reached a total of 49. These were numbered in the 900 series, up to five squadrons being administered by a Balloon Centre. Several of these Centres in a particular

BALLOON BARRAGES Hazard to the Allies

geographical area came under the control of a Barrage Balloon Group with training in balloon handling given at RAF Cardington in Bedfordshire, where No 1 Balloon Training Unit was based. Unfortunately, balloon production was unable to keep pace with demand so that on the first day of war less than half the planned Balloon Command establishment could be deployed; 444 in London and 180 elsewhere in the country. Losses due to weather changes far exceeded expectations and squadrons were forced to conserve stocks by keeping about two-thirds of the balloons deflated. There was also a growing demand for balloons to be flown from waterborne moorings in estuaries as a deterrent to minelaying aircraft, or towed behind tugs as protection for coastal convoys. On land, the balloons were often flown from winch-equipped lorries for ease of mobility while permanent sites used combinations of screw pickets, buried railway sleepers and sandbags to hold them down. One of the most important factories making balloons was at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, where many thousands were produced. The Admiralty suggested that balloons carrying explosive charges should be allowed to drift towards an incoming bomber stream and whilst this might be useful when bad

weather grounded the fighters, wind direction was obviously critical and an organisation of some complexity would be needed to co-ordinate their release at the best moment. Surprisingly, the Air Ministry agreed to the scheme and a meteorologist was attached to HQ Fighter Command to advise when conditions were most promising. No 30 Group, Balloon Command, took steps to release a drifting barrage 55 miles long, seven miles wide and 4,000ft deep from sites on the outskirts of London when the right moment came. Preparations were complete by mid-December 1940 but the first trial on 27 December was disappointing. Communications were so poor that the order for release was followed by a delay of more than half an hour before the first balloon ascended and about one third of the 900-odd balloons inflated proved defective. Others exploded soon after release, or else descended prematurely. Observations of two special test balloons suggested that those which continued on their course were flying much too high.

BOTH ABOVE: Airmen from the Dover Balloon Barrage raise one of their balloons from a mobile winch truck during the Battle of Britain. The Dover balloons were frequently shot down by German fighters during the summer of 1940. BELOW: The balloon barrage around London came very much into its own during the summer of 1944 when the curtain around London resulted in the destruction of a considerable number of V1 Flying Bombs. Here, debris from a V1 is seen at a barrage balloon site. (G PEARSON)

The German report of the night’s events refers to numerous parachutegrenades being encountered, but there is no evidence that the barrage achieved anything of value and although a further trial was planned it does not seem to have taken place.

FIRST VICTIMS One of the first Luftwaffe aircraft to fall to a conventional balloon was a He 111 of KG27 on 13 September 1940. Returning from a raid on Merseyside, the bomber struck a cable over Newport, Monmouthshire, and plunged into a residential area. Two children were killed on the ground as well as three of the crew, only the pilot bailing out in time. Over Plymouth on 22 July 1940, a Ju 88 tried to avoid a balloon but stalled and landed on top of it. Luckily, the propellers did not penetrate the hydrogen-filled envelope and the aircraft slid off with no forward speed. The crew prepared to bail out, then their pilot regained control and was 

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BALLOON BARRAGES Hazard to the Allies RIGHT (OPPOSITE PAGE): A dogfight in progress over the south-east of the UK on 3 September 1940. Note the lone barrage balloon on the left. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

TOP RIGHT (OPPOSITE PAGE): RAF airmen from a barrage balloon site inspect the remains of a Heinkel 111 that was brought down at South Shields on the night of 15/16 February 1941 after striking a balloon cable. MIDDLE RIGHT (OPPOSITE PAGE): Wreckage of a Heinkel 111 that fell onto Beckton Marshes on the night of 19/20 November 1940 after striking a balloon cable at 2,800 ft. All of the crew were killed when the bomber fell to earth near Jenkins Lane. LEFT: A barrage balloon falls to the ground in flames after being shot down by a Luftwaffe fighter during an aerial attack over the Kent coast on 30 August 1940.

(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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able to drop his load of mines and escape. Another Luftwaffe loss was a He 111 at South Shields on 16 February 1941. After catching a wing on a cable the bomber dived into the ground. All five of the crew were killed, including one who baled out but was unlucky enough to be electrocuted on trolley bus wires. Of the British aircraft unfortunate enough to fall victim to the balloon barrage, at least some managed to survive the collisions. The Sheffield barrage saw at least two such incidents; a Hampden which crashed-landed in a public park in the city and a Wellington which limped back to base. Most incidents, however, were fatal with the aircraft being brought down in a spin from a relatively low altitude thus giving the crew no time to escape. There were a few lucky escapes, though.

A HAZARD TO FRIENDLY AIRCRAFT One of the lucky survivors involved a Miles Magister which struck a cable over Birkenhead. The pilot regained control at 200ft and ditched in a dock. On another occasion, a Blackburn Botha wandered into the same barrage and had to ditch in the Mersey. ATA pilot Lettice Curtis, though, in her book The Forgotten Pilots, describes the perils of balloon barrages: “The main areas between London and Scotland which had to be given a wide berth were Birmingham and Coventry, the Liverpool, Widnes, Warrington and Manchester balloon complex and most inconveniently Crewe with its junction of six railway line where one was prevented one following the main-line, north-south railway. Further north there was a barrage round Barrow-in-Furness which, in bad visibility, made crossing Morecambe Bay just that much more difficult. On the east side of Birmingham there were balloons at Rugby, Nottingham, the Humber and of course Newcastle upon Tyne.” Delivering aircraft to and from airfields within the barrage areas, particularly Eastleigh (today’s Southampton Airport) and Castle Bromwich was notoriously difficult. When these were the intended destinations, it was standard procedure for aircraft without radio to land first at Middle Wallop or Lichfield respectively, to obtain a briefing on the current positioning of safety lanes. However, balloons which had broken free were often a potential hazard and drifting balloons were destroyed as soon as possible. Fighters were sent after them, although on one occasion a Spitfire disappeared over the English Channel possibly having collided with the wayward balloon it was chasing.

BALLOON BARRAGES Hazard to the Allies

CHANGE OF POLICY Towards the end of 1941, and with the reduced scale of attack, there was a change of policy with respect to balloon barrages in view of the very high accident rate to friendly aircraft. With improved communications and equipment increasing the speed at which close-hauled balloons could be raised in an emergency, so a large number of provincial barrages were henceforth grounded throughout the day and night except when hostile aircraft were known to be operating although, despite these measures, there were still many cable collisions. By 1942, however, that total was much reduced but one of the worst accidents occurred over central London on 6 October, 1943. Dakota FD899 of 512 Sqn struck two cables, ripping off much of one wing. Although the pilot tried to land in Regents Park the aircraft became uncontrollable and the inevitable crash killed all nine on board.

FLYING BOMB CAMPAIGN & ‘DRAW-DOWN’ Balloons, however, came into their own again during 1944 when the V1 offensive began, with the original deployment against the flying bombs utilising a belt flown from the high ground between Cobham in Kent and Limpsfield in Surrey and kept permanently airborne. The strength of the belt was doubled by drawing on other barrages around the country,

with only the one at Scapa Flow left untouched. By the beginning of July 1944 a thousand balloons were in position, flown or grounded at the discretion of the Barrage Commander in the anti-V1 operations room at RAF Biggin Hill. Arrangements were also made to add a further 750 balloons so that the barrage could be extended slightly to the west, and at the same time increased in density. On 28 August 1944, guns, fighters and balloons destroyed sixty-five, twentythree and two V1s respectively. Of the ninety-seven that approached London that day, only four reached the city. When the onslaught ceased, an astonishing total of 231 flying bombs had been brought down by balloons which, in this instance, had certainly proved their worth. However, the value of the barrage balloon had been declining and No 1 Balloon Training Unit closed in November 1943, having trained some 10,000 RAF and WAAF operators and 12,000 operator-drivers. RAF Cardington’s Gas Factory, though, continued to produce hydrogen supplies until Balloon Command finally disbanded in January 1945. However, were the balloon barrages generally effective or had they, overall, been an enormous waste of manpower and resources? The Under-Secretary of State for Air, when asked in Parliament in October 1945 as to how many enemy aircraft had been destroyed by balloon cables

BELOW: This Heinkel 111 H-8 hit the top of a mist covered hill near West Lulworth at 21.40 hrs on 22 May 1941 during a sortie to bomb Yeovil. Still on board were two 250kg bombs and one 500kg bomb, but of greater interest to RAF Intelligence Officers was that this aircraft was fitted with a barrage balloon ‘fender’. (G PEARSON)

replied “24 piloted and 278 nonpiloted. Unfortunately, 91 of our own aircraft collided with cables, causing 38 of them to crash.” In giving that figure it is clear that the government was being somewhat economical with the truth because the figure relating to our own aircraft is less than half the actual total. It seems, too, that the number of enemy aircraft destroyed was similarly distorted, perhaps to gloss over unpalatable facts. However, the deterrent value of the barrage balloon was incalculable and they remain an abiding image of the war on the Home Front. Over London, they are often described as having something of a magical beauty as they hung, glistening silver, in the sunlight. The evocative opening paragraph of Richard Hillary’s The last Enemy also paints a vivid picture: “September 3 dawned dark and overcast, with a slight breeze ruffling the waters of the Estuary. Hornchurch aerodrome, twelve miles east of London, wore its usual morning pallor of yellow fog lending an added air of grimness to the dimly silhouetted Spitfires around the boundary. From time to time a balloon would poke its head grotesquely through the mist as though looking for possible victims before falling back like some tired monster.” It was an observation that highlighted the true menace of the balloon barrage to friend and foe alike.  www.britainatwar.com 103

Great War

Gallantry October 1914

The first announcements of British and Commonwealth gallantry awards appeared in the various issues of The London Gazette published in October 1914. In this, the first part of a major new monthly series covering the period of the First World War commemorations, we examine some of the actions involved and summarise all of the awards announced that month.

ABOVE: By the naval artist William Lionel Wyllie, this picture depicts some of the Royal Navy destroyers steaming in to engage the cruiser SMS Mainz during the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914. (ALL IMAGES HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

I

T MAY seem obvious to us today that individual courage should be recognised and rewarded, but that is far from having always been the case with Britain’s fighting forces. Until the Crimean War, just sixty years before the start of the First World War, there was no means of formally rewarding acts of individual valour. Soldiers were expected to do their duty without considerations of additional reward. At that time officers purchased their commissions and the speed at which an officer rose through the ranks depended more on money and influence rather than bravery or ability. For deserving privates or lower non-commissioned officers all that existed up to 1854 was a good-conduct award which included a medal and

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additional pay. However, if such a soldier wanted his good-conduct medal he had to buy it himself and if he was promoted to the rank of sergeant the extra pay was cancelled. Everything changed when Britain’s first ever War Correspondent, William Russell of The Times, sent back his reports from the Crimea. The first official reports from the British commander Lord Raglan were published in The London Gazette. The difference between Raglan’s accounts and those of William Russell were remarked upon by a number of newspaper readers at the time, including this letter on 3 December 1854: “While everyone is glowing with admiration of our noble Crimean Army, we seek in vain in the official

dispatches with names of individuals in connection with specific deeds of daring, to become, as it were, household words among us. I venture, therefore, to suggest a partial remedy for the state of things – at any rate, until Lord Raglan shall add to his high reputation for courage by breaking through the red tape meshes of official routine, and diving the place of honour in his dispatches to those who have best deserved it without regard to rank or precedent.” That reader was not alone in raising this issue which was also debated in Parliament. Such was the outcry, the government was forced to act, and on 12 December 1854 it was announced that an award would become available to non-commissioned ranks only for

“Distinguished Conduct in the field”. As well as a medal, recipients received a small gratuity, depending upon their rank. Each commanding officer of a regiment was permitted to recommend a specified number of deserving individuals. So for a cavalry regiment, for instance, the names of one sergeant, two corporals and four privates could be put forward. An example of the kind of act that was recognised for the Distinguished Conduct Medal was that of one of the men involved in the Charge of the Light Brigade. “Lieutenant Jolliffe and Sergeant F. Short of ours did some good hard work at the guns,” wrote one witness. “The former cleared off a number of gunners with his pistol, and the latter disposed of several drivers, and their horses as well, thus materially preventing the enemy from removing the guns.” Sergeant Short duly received his DCM. With acts of valour finally being recognised, the precedent had been set. This led to a demand for an award available for all ranks. The then Secretary of State for War, the Duke of Newcastle, therefore announced “a Cross of Military Merit shall be given, which shall be open to all ranks of the army, and which, I hope, will be an object of ambition to every individual in the service, from the General who commands down to the privates in the ranks.” This was to become the most highly regarded award of all for bravery in the face of the enemy, the Victoria Cross. The DCM and the VC amongst other medals continued to be awarded throughout Britain’s colonial conflicts and, unsurprisingly, when the UK’s armed forces went into action in August 1914, the first acts of courage began to be displayed and the first

medals awarded. Indeed, the first awards were announced in various editions of The London Gazette published in October that year. Amongst the early engagements represented in the sixty-three awards gazetted in October 1914 were a number relating to the Battle of Le Cateau. During the fighting on 26 August 1914, no less than seven men from the 27th Battery, Royal Field Artillery received the DCM for “bravery and devotion in withdrawing guns by hand under a heavy fire near Ligny, France”. The incident in question occurred towards the end of the battle to the west of Ligny when, according to a later report, “the gunners, taking advantage of every lull, had succeeded in running back four guns and limbers to the sunken road in the rear when an increase in the German artillery fire compelled them to abandon the remaining two. The battery then formed up and awaited its opportunity: eventually it made a dash to the southwest, and, though it was pursued by German shells, got its four guns safely away.”

TOP: SMS Mainz sinking on 28 August 1914. ABOVE: Also sunk at Heligoland Bight was the German destroyer V.187. Here boats from HMS Goshawk, captained by Commander the Hon. Herbert Meade, are rescuing survivors. Meade was awarded one of the nine DSOs gazetted in October 1914. LEFT: In the fighting, HMS Laurel was hit by Mainz. For their actions in dealing with the damage on Laurel, Chief Stoker George H. Sturdy and Stoker Petty Officer Alfred Britton (seen here) were both awarded the DSM, these being gazetted in October 1914.

Of course it was not only in Belgium and France that fighting took place in those early days of the war. The action at sea had started almost as soon as war had been declared and the Admiralty was keen to establish the dominance of the Royal Navy from the outset. It was seen that enemy destroyers patrolled the German coastal waters and a plan was devised to draw the German destroyers away from the coast and then pounce on them with larger, more powerful Royal Navy warships that would be waiting over the horizon. The bait would be the submarines of Commodore Roger Keyes and the First and Third destroyer flotillas led by Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt. At dawn on 28 August 1914, Tyrwhitt’s flotillas, led by the light cruisers HMS Arethusa and HMS Fearless reached the pre-arranged rendezvous point near Heligoland Bight. Visibility was down to just three miles due to a light mist. Nevertheless, as expected, the British ships were spotted by one of the German destroyers. Tyrwhitt sent four of his destroyers to engage the German ship; the resulting gunfire alerted the other German destroyers which turned round to join in the battle. But it was not only destroyers that the Germans had at sea, and before long two cruisers were bearing down on Tyrwhitt’s flotillas as six more German cruisers raised steam to join in the battle. Arethusa was heavily  www.britainatwar.com 105

GALLANTRY

AWARDS

GAZETTED IN OCTOBER 1914 Victoria Cross Distinguished Service Order Distinguished Service Cross Military Cross* Distinguished Flying Cross* Air Force Cross* Distinguished Conduct Medal Conspicuous Gallantry Medal Distinguished Service Medal Military Medal* Distinguished Flying Medal* Air Force Medal* Total

9 8 22 1 23 63

* Indicates an award that has not yet been instituted. Mentions in Despatches are not included in this survey.

engaged, suffering severe damage until HMS Fearless steamed directly towards the enemy, drawing fire upon her and away from Arethusa. The results of this included the award of the Distinguished Service Order to Fearless’s captain. The citation for this award was as follows: “I beg again to call attention to the services rendered by Captain W.F. Blunt, of H.M.S. ‘Fearless,’ and the Commanding Officers of the Destroyers of the First and Third Flotillas, whose gallant attacks on the German Cruisers at critical moments undoubtedly saved ‘Arethusa’ from more severe punishment and possible capture.” On the afternoon of 8 October the first successful British air attack on Germany took place, when two Sopwith Tabloids of the Royal Naval 106 www.britainatwar.com

RIGHT and OPPOSITE PAGE BOTTOM: Early on the morning of Sunday, 13 September 1914, LieutenantCommander Max Kennedy Horton, captain of the E-class submarine HMS E-9, sank the German cruiser Hela. For this, and a further action, he was awarded the DSO in October 1914. ABOVE: HMS E-9.

During the German night attacks on 25 August 1914, one British detachment at Landrecies was surrounded. Private W.J. Price of the 15th Hussars at once swam across the Sambre canal and made his way through the enemy’s lines to reach the detachment’s officer, Lieutenant G.H. Straker, who was seemingly unaware of his predicament. By warning him, Price saved Straker’s Troop which was in imminent danger of capture. For his gallant conduct he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, which was announced in The London Gazette on 22 October 1914.

Air Service (RNAS) attacked the Zeppelin airship sheds at Düsseldorf and Cologne. Squadron Commander D.A. Spenser-Grey failed to locate the sheds and bombed Cologne railway station as an alternative. Flight Lieutenant R.G. Marix, however, attacked the Zeppelin shed. The citation for his award of the DSO read: “From a height of 600 feet he dropped two bombs on the shed, and flames 500 feet high, were seen within thirty seconds. The roof of the shed was also observed to collapse. Lieutenant Marix’s machine was under heavy fire from rifles and mitrailleuse and was five times hit whilst making the attack.” Lieutenant Marix succeeded in destroying both the shed and Zeppelin L9. The diversity of the actions for which medals were gazetted in October can be gauged by such awards as

that to Corporal 28055 E.J. Goodhart and Able Seaman ON217245 Albert Edmund Sellens. Corporal Goodhart was awarded the DCM, “For conveying messages under very dangerous circumstances by day and night, and never failing to deliver his messages.” By contrast Corporal Sellens received the DSM when he was “stationed at the fore torpedo tubes; he remained at his post throughout the entire action, although wounded in the arm, and then rendered first aid in a very able manner before being attended to himself.” Many of the citations in The London Gazette were very brief, single-sentence entries, leaving us to imagine the danger or difficulty that the men were faced with that they overcame. Such an entry is that concerning the DSC awarded to Gunner James Douglas Godfrey who was simply “in charge of the torpedo tubes.” Some, on the other

hand, gave a degree of detail. An example of this are the actions which led to the award of the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal (the first to be gazetted in the First World War) to Able Seaman Ernest Randall Cremer. The announcement stated: “On the 25th September, Submarine ‘E.6’ (LieutenantCommander C.P. Talbot), while diving, fouled the moorings of a mine laid by the enemy. On rising to the surface she weighed the mine and sinker; the former was securely fixed between the hydroplane and its guard; fortunately, however, the horns of the mine were pointed outboard. The weight of the sinker made it a difficult and dangerous matter to lift the mine clear without exploding it. After half an hour’s patient work this was effected by Lieutenant Frederick A.P. Williams-Freeman and Able Seaman Ernest Randall Cremer, Official Number 214235, and the

LEFT: Of the twenty-two DCMs which were gazetted in October 1914, seven were awarded to men of the same unit – the 27th Battery, Royal Field Artillery. In each case, The London Gazette entries state that they were for “bravery and devotion in withdrawing guns by hand under a heavy fire near Ligny, France, on 26th August [1914]” – the very actions that is depicted in this drawing.

released mine descended to its original depth.” Williams-Freeman, for his part, was awarded one of nine DSO’s announced in the same month. There was also a case of an “elected” DCM for the actions of ‘J’ Battery, Royal Horse Artillery on 8 September 1914. The entry in The London Gazette reads: “The whole of his section behaved with conspicuous gallantry at Gibraltar, France, on 8th September, and he has been selected by the vote of his comrades for commendation.” The man selected by ballot by his comrades was Gunner 47904 C.B. Carry. Truly a man amongst men. 

GREAT WAR GALLANTRY: NOVEMBER 1914 In the second part of our major “Great War Gallantry” series we summarize the British and Empire Gallantry awards gazetted in November 1914. As this includes the first Victoria Crosses of the conflict, Lord Ashcroft will also return with a new format “Hero of the Month”.

The First Zeppelin Shed Raid ON 22 September 1914, two aircraft from No.1 Squadron Royal Navy Air Service, those flown by Major Eugene Gerrard and Flight Lieutenant Charles Collet, were detailed to attack the Zeppelin base at Düsseldorf, whilst two aircraft from No.2 Squadron RNAS, these being flown by LieutenantCommander Spenser Grey and Flight Lieutenant Reginald Marix, were to target similar Zeppelin sheds at Cologne. As they neared the target, however, the weather worsened with the ground covered by 100% cloud. This caused Gerrard, Grey and Marix to abort the mission and return to base. Collet, meanwhile, reached a point where he believed he must be close to the Zeppelin sheds, he switched off his engine and began a gliding descent. Breaking through the cloud at 400 feet, Collet spotted his target – remarkably it was barely a quarter of a mile away. Collet successfully released his three bombs with what The London Gazette described as “deadly precision”, one exploded 100 feet short, another landed sixty-five short of the target and failed to explode, whilst the last also missed and failed to explode. This image is of Flight Lieutenant Charles Collet in the cockpit of his aircraft. For his part in the attack on 22 September 1914, Collet was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. www.britainatwar.com 107

n o i t a Ope r s i s e h T

OPERATION THESIS A Cretan Folly

A Cretan Folly When the Air Officer Commanding the RAF’s Air Defence Eastern Mediterranean Command (ADEM) authorised a large air strike against the German occupied Crete in 1943 a formidable armada of Hurricanes and Baltimore bombers set out to hit the island fortress, but with somewhat mixed results. Barry M Marsden tells the story.

T

HE LOSS of Crete in 1941 meant that the Axis forces had a base threatening the main convoy route between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, thus forcing supplies of men and materiel into the long supply line around the Cape of Good Hope and the Suez Canal. During June 1942, though, British commandos carried out raids on

Cretan airfields, destroying Luftwaffe aircraft and petrol stores. In retaliation, however, the Germans murdered fifty Cretans. A year later, another raid was mounted and resulted in the destruction of yet more enemy aeroplanes but triggered a revenge killing of fifty-two more citizens. It was a murderous act, and one of the ‘triggers’ for Operation Thesis. 

ABOVE: Group Captain Max Aitken who masterminded Operation Thesis, the July 1943 air attack on Crete.

MAIN PICTURE: Armourers replenish the ammunition of a North Africa-based Hurricane of the Desert Air Force.

(WW2IMAGES)

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OPERATION THESIS A Cretan Folly

ABOVE: The principal fighter used on the operation was the Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIC which was armed with four 20mm cannon.

BELOW: Baltimore FA390/A was lucky to reach North Africa after the mission. Here the wreckage floats in the surf with several rather underclad airmen checking it out. This machine sports the later turret, housing two .50 calibre Brownings. (MARK LAX)

THE REQUIRED TONIC EFFECT Following the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 the focus of operations shifted away from the Eastern Mediterranean although much thought was given to thwarting German air units based in Greece, Crete and the Dodecanese Islands. Crete was a major problem, especially with strong fighter and bomber forces based there and, importantly, the island’s airfields were being utilised by aircraft transiting from the Greek mainland to Sicily. Operation Thesis was the brainchild of Group Captain Max Aitken. A successful fighter pilot, Aitken had some dozen enemy aircraft to his credit, being posted to HQ Eastern Mediterranean in 1943 to serve in the Fighter Tactics Branch. At his disposal he had a hundred or so Hurricanes with very little to do after the spotlight of war had shifted westwards. Aitken would later write that lack of action 'resulted in a dangerous psychological situation, which might have a disastrous effect on the morale of the squadrons’. It was therefore decided by the Air Defence Commander that a large-scale offensive operation employing most of the squadrons in the Command would produce ‘the required tonic effect’ – and authority for a daylight attack on Crete by all available single-engine aircraft in 219 and 212 Groups, and certain aircraft in 212 (Naval Co-operation) Group, was given by the AOC-in-C. Taking part in

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such an operation was rendered highly dangerous by the longest sea crossing such a formation had ever undertaken.

Diamantopoulos). This wave was led to their targets by two Bristol Beaufighters from 227 Sqn as navigator-leaders. A further fifty four Hurricanes took A BARRAGE OF ‘FLAK’ off from Bu Amud and el-Gamil airstrips, Aitken’s plan was approved, and including nine from 123 Sqn (led by Sqn authority granted for a daylight attack Ldr Ken ‘Hawkeye’ Lee DFC) nine from on Crete by all available single-engine 134 Sqn (Sqn Ldr ‘Stratters’ Stratton DFC), aircraft in 212 and 219 Groups and, nine from 41 (SAAF) Sqn (Major W. J. additionally, certain aircraft in 212 B Chapman), nine from 237 Sqn (Sqn (Naval Co-operation) Group. It was a Ldr John Walmisley), nine from 94 Sqn risky operation, and one that involved (Sqn Ldr A.V. ‘Darky’ Clowes DFC, DFM) the longest sea crossing such a large and nine from 7 (SAAF) Sqn, (Major C. formation had ever undertaken. The Van Vliet DFC). The formation was also intention was to mount a massed guided by 227 Squadron Beaufighters. attack aimed at destroying Crete’s Meanwhile, the Baltimores were wireless transmitter stations and scheduled to carry out land and shipping other communications and military strikes against Suda Bay, Heraklion, establishments. This would be achieved and other targets of opportunity. Eight by using eight Martin Baltimore medium bombers, in two box formations of four bombers from 454 (RAAF) Sqn as the each, and led by S/Ldr Lionel Folkard in main strike force, plus some ninety Baltimore AG995, set out on the 230 mile Hurricanes from Air Defence Eastern flight. However, as they approached Mediterranean (ADEM) who would hit Suda Bay they were greeted by intense communications facilities and other flak which disabled the port motor of targets of opportunity with the operation AG995. Despite serious wounds and set for Friday 23 July 1943. On that damage to the aircraft that had been date, the massed formations left their caused by his own bombs, Folkard North African bases comprising thirty managed to force-land on a beach near six Hurricanes that set off from LG08 Heraklion. The crew survived, despite at Sidi Barrani, six from 74 Sqn (led by the fact that the Baltimore had skated Sqn Ldr J ‘Spud’ Hayter DFC), six from over mines which were set off with 451 (RAAF) Sqn (Flt Lt E K Kirkman), six explosions erupting behind the crashing from 238 Squadron (Sqn Ldr H. Cochrane bomber. The badly wounded airmen DFC), nine from 335 (Greek) Squadron (Flt managed to vacate the smashed-up Lt G. Pangalos and FLt Lt N Volonakis), Baltimore before its bomb load exploded, and nine from 336 (Greek) Sqn (Flt Lt S. blowing the aircraft to bits.

OPERATION THESIS A Cretan Folly

ABOVE: Martin Baltimore 111s of 454 RAAF Squadron warm up before an operational take-off. Eight aircraft from this unit provided the main punch of the sortie. The nearest bomber, AH158/O, is armed with the four .303 Browning dorsal turret. (MARK LAX)

‘AN INAUSPICIOUS START’ Of the second wave of Baltimores, all four were shot down (FA409, AG869, FA247 and FA224) with only three survivors out of the sixteen crewmen. Three of the Baltimores disappeared without trace, although the crew of the remaining aircraft, FA390/A, had a close call. Flying as No.2 to Folkard, F/Sgt Ray Akhurst ventured over Maleme airfield at a mere fifty feet and heavy AA fire knocked out the starboard engine and damaged the airframe. The Baltimore struggled back to base at 140mph, despite severe vibration, and with the crew throwing out all they could to lighten

the machine. Akhurst had planned to crash-land on a beach near his airfield at Gambut, but found the foreshore littered with debris from a sunken freighter. As he turned back over the sea, so his remaining motor stopped when the aircraft ran out of fuel. With considerable measures of both skill and luck, he managed to ditch in the surf with the aeroplane floating ashore the next day. Empty fuel tanks had provided the necessary buoyancy and allowed for two lucky homing pigeons to be rescued from the wreck. Akhurst received an immediate DFM for his ‘skilful and determined flying’ but it was little compensation for

the unit’s ‘darkest day’ and one which had decimated the squadron’s flying establishment. Unfortunately, the Hurricanes fared little better. Ken ‘Hawkeye’ Lee, of 123 Sqn, a veteran of the Battles of France and Britain, recalled a visit by Aitken to El Adem ahead of the Thesis operation. He addressed the assembled pilots, saying: ‘Right chaps, tomorrow morning two Beaufighters are going to come over and navigate for you. You are going to fly to Crete at sea level and knock hell out of the place.’ Aitken nominated Lee as Wing Leader, but Lee’s cryptic comment reflected his scepticism as to the wisdom of the operation: ‘No maps. No photographs. No specific targets. Just go and give them hell.’ It wasn’t an auspicious start. 

ABOVE FAR LEFT: 134 squadron operated a mix of Hurricane IIBs and IICs at the time of Thesis. Here ground staff pose on a Mk.IIC piloted by Fg Off W. Wright, seen at bottom right. Note the belt of 20mm ammunition on the shoulder of the standing airman. (IAN SIMPSON).

ABOVE LEFT: Squadron Leader Bill ‘Stratters’ Stratton, seen in the centre of this group of 1 Squadron pilots, commanded 134 on Operation Thesis. (NO.1 SQUADRON ARCHIVES)

LEFT: An excellent shot of Baltimore ‘C’ for Charlie of 454 Sqn. The bar across the fin and rudder is a locking device. (MARK LAX)

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OPERATION THESIS A Cretan Folly

AIR ARMADA Lee’s air armada approached the island at low level, releasing their long-range tanks as they reached the coast from where they roared inland and up a picturesque valley. Here, they saw nothing, but as they returned antiaircraft fire opened up on them. Lee, piloting KZ141, suddenly realised that his trousers were covered in oil and immediately noticed that his oil and engine temperatures were rapidly climbing into the red. As he returned, the Hurricane’s engine cut and he was forced to belly-land in the narrowest of gaps and between two olive trees, a feat the Germans couldn’t believe was deliberate. Lee managed to set off the thermite demolition bomb which destroyed his fighter, but as he scampered away he was knocked flat by a severe blow to his midriff. A German soldier, taking a pot-shot at him, had hit Lee’s webbing belt with the bullet passing through the buckle and out through the ammunition pouch. By rights, he should have died. Lee was promptly marched off to the nearby village and taken to a group of German army officers who smartly saluted and offered him a late breakfast consisting of omelette and brandy! A squadron commander was a rare catch indeed, and he was duly taken off by staff car to the German HQ at Heraklion

and from there to Athens by Junkers 52 where he met other POW survivors of the raid. Two other 123 Sqn Hurricanes had failed to return with Fg Off John Le Mare (RCAF) killed, although West Indian Flt Sgt ‘Fanny’ Farfan was spirited away by locals, evaded capture and returned to Egypt in September. 238 Sqn, meanwhile, lost two pilots through anti-aircraft fire although both Flt Sgt P. A. George (RAAF) who had been flying KZ130/J and F/Sgt H. Raiment (RNZAF) in HW483/P were made prisoners of war. George survived an offshore ditching but was machinegunned, fortunately inaccurately, as he swam ashore. The Squadron CO, Sqn Ldr H P Cochrane DFC, piloting HL657/D, was fortunate to get back to base with his badly damaged Hurricane. No 134 Sqn, led by Sqn Ldr W H Stratton DFC, a Battle of France veteran, lost Fg Off ‘Bill’ Manser (HW299) who apparently made a successful forced-landing but was later reported killed, and Sgt D Horsley (HW372) who also died. Two other flyers from the squadron returned wounded; Fg Off L Lowen in HV905 with a leg wound and Fg Off W H Wright in HW605 who was seriously wounded in the chest.

GREEK UNITS The two Greek units, both opertaing from Sidi Barrani, lost four aircraft

"You are going to fly all the way to Crete at sea level and knock hell out of the place." 112 www.britainatwar.com

with only one pilot surviving from these losses. W/O Athanasakis of 336 Squadron, flying BP232, lost a drop tank on take-off,but gallantly if not ill-advisedly chose to continue despite the fact that he must have known he lacked sufficient petrol to return home. His companions alerted him to his predicament, but he pressed on with the mission all the same. Both Greek squadrons attacked the radar station at Ierapetra, in the southeast of Crete and also hit military installations in the face of heavy antiaircraft fire. Athanasakis reported that his fuel was low and was going to have to land. Wt Off Konstantinos Kokkas, also a Cretan, recalled: ‘We hit camps, cars, cannon stations and every military target that was in front of us. Everywhere, though, the anti-aircraft guns responded. We passed through the Agios Nikolaos plain and this is where I heard Athanasakis yelling that he was force-landing.’ Apparently, the Greek flyer crashed near a German patrol that immediately pursued him, although the gallant pilot shot it out with the enemy using his pistol but eventually ran out of ammunition and was subsequently killed. The remaining Hurricanes flew on to Heraklion where they strafed a German camp but lost Wt Off

TOP LEFT: Trinidadian Flt Sgt ‘Fanny’ Farfan of 123 was lucky to survive a force-landing on 23 July. He was rescued by partisans and returned to Egypt by the SOE. (BRIAN

CULL)

ABOVE: Sergeant Bill Evans of 94, who flew BP237/E over Crete, poses on the wing of his Hurricane IIC. The outboard cannon on this aeroplane appear to have been removed to save weight. (IAN SIMPSON)

OPERATION THESIS A Cretan Folly

Skantzikas, shot down in KW250 by antiaircraft fire. Kokkas reported that ‘the flak was ferocious’ and ‘I saw a German flag fluttering in a building on my right and sent a burst into it. We were almost touching the windmills and milk-white houses while the Cretans below were throwing their hats into the air, dancing with joy and waving their hands.’ He saw Skantzikas, a former classmate, his aircraft covered in oil, heading for a crashlanding which he survived. Sadly, two pilots from 335 Squadron were also lost. Flt Sgt Doukas was shot down near the south shore of Mirabello Bay. Athough initially reported as a POW he was, in fact, killed. Flt Sgt Laitmer crashed into the sea near Tymbaki, his fate witnessed by a pilot of 238 Sqn. Wt Off Kountouvas reported being attacked by a Junkers 88 south of the island, but escaped unharmed. Interestingly, and despite the mayhem, other pilots reported a ‘relatively uneventful’ operation! Fg Off Reg Sutton of 451 (RAAF) Squadron, for example, reported that the Sidi Barrani Hurricanes were led in by the two Beaufighters at wave-top height and said of Operation Thesis: ‘There were no targets where they were supposed to be and where there was not to be any flak, there was bags of it. For the rest, nothing! I fired my guns on

ABOVE LEFT: Sqn Ldr Arthur ‘Darky’ Clowes of 94 Squadron, led the ‘Derna Wing’ with 237 and 7 SAAF Squadrons on the mission. ABOVE RIGHT: A battle-worn 12-gun Hurricane IIB of 134 is prepared for action. The two extra outboard machine-guns were mounted near the end of each wing leading edge. (IAN SIMPSON)

BELOW: Hurricanes of 237 Squadron also took part in the operation. Here two Mk.IIBs scramble from a desert airfield, the view clearly showing the Vokes air filters under the noses of the fighters, essential in the dust of North Africa.

the way out for the sake of firing them.’ On their return the squadron found the North African coast hidden by a violent dust storm. Although scheduled to land at Tobruk several Hurricanes had to put down on a road, short of fuel. There was absolutely no visibility over the airfield, but despite two landing accidents in the atrocious conditions nobody was injured.

A SLIPPERY CUSTOMER! The two Beaufighters leading the el-Gamil Hurricanes were flown by Wg Cdr Russell Mackenzie in EL516/Y and Fg Off ‘Wally’ McGregor (RNZAF) in JL619/X. The pair intercepted an Arado 196 floatplane at sea level as they neared the coast, with Mackenzie scoring hits although without apparent result and the Arado fleeing at wave height. A short time later another Arado, or perhaps the same one, was attacked but again without result. The slippery customer also appears to have survived a burst from a Hurricane from 94 Sqn. The twenty-seven Hurricanes from el-Gamil were led by Sqn Ldr ‘Darky’ Clowes, veteran of the Battles of France and Britain, and his unit, 94 Sqn, approached the island at nought feet at 08.20 hrs, making landfall on the south coast twenty miles from the western tip. The pilots of two aircraft, Sgt W Imrie (KW935/A), and Flt Lt S Whiting (HW738/G), were unable to jettison their long-range tanks but

the formation followed the coast until landfall between Maleme and Canea, just east of the islet of Dio and strafed barracks and buildings in the town of Alikianos, a generator and a dam on the River Peatanias and a wellcamouflaged camp outside the town. Unfortunately, Sgt Imrie reported he had been hit and crashed among trees on a mountainside to the south-west of Alikianos, his end marked by a mushroom cloud of black smoke. The squadron flew on, strafing Kastella Selinos on the south coast hitting a wireless transmitter hut before shootingup a lighthouse on Gavdhos Island and a wireless unit with its accompanying masts. On return it was found that Fg Off Howley’s machine (HL886/R) had slight damage to its airscrew and Fg Off Henderson’s HM118/L had bullet holes in its fuselage. Captain Kirby of 7 (SAAF) Sqn had a close shave when his fighter, KX961, clipped a high-tension cable, damaging the propeller tips and radiator. He returned with a length of cable wrapped round his airscrew but reported: ‘very little was seen.’

DEBIT AND CREDIT No 41 (SAAF) Squadron had Lt. W J K Bliss failing to return, whilst their CO, Major Chapman, was hit on a strafing run over Moires near the south coast by a shell that penetrated the port wing root damaging his glycol and oil systems. 

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OPERATION THESIS A Cretan Folly RIGHT: Major Corrie van Vliet, CO of 7 SAAF Squadron, is pictured playing with the unit mascot. (BRIAN CULL)

FAR RIGHT: A pensive Bill Evans ponders events in an image taken around the time of Operation Thesis. (IAN SIMPSON)

RIGHT: W/O Konstantinos Kokkas, a Greek flyer with 336 Squadron, returned safely from Operation Thesis. (BRIAN CULL)

BELOW LEFT: Captain Harold Kirby of 7 SAAF had a narrow escape when he hit hightension cables, returning with a souvenir which he displays for the camera. (BRIAN CULL)

He nursed the faltering Hurricane back to Bu Amid and although the engine seized up over the airfield he glided in to a safe landing. Lt. Cyril George, from the same squadron, also forced-landed when his engine seized-up due to flak damage. Meanwhile, five other 41 (SAAF) Sqn Hurricanes suffered minor damage. Of the fifty four fighters which set off from Bu Amid and el-Gamil, eight were lost, with four pilots killed, three POW, one escapee and another two wounded. Three Hurricanes were very badly damaged. In total, thirteen Hurricanes were lost on the operation with eight pilots killed, four taken prisoner of war and one who evaded capture. To add to this sorry tale, six Baltimores were lost with fourteen crewmen killed and six taken prisoner. Overall, the operation’s losses had minimal return but during the withdrawal cover by Spitfire Vc aircraft of 80 Sqn, Fg Off J C R Waterhouse, piloting JK142, engaged a Junkers 88-D (4U+6K) of 2.(F)/123, shooting it down in flames resulting in the death of Uffz F. Dieroft and his crew.

A CRETAN TRAITOR Intelligence operatives on the island radioed information back to Cairo on the effectiveness of the operation, including information that three Hurricanes flew low over the village of Souyia, where they encountered machine-gun fire. They returned and engaged the suspected gun-site, fortuitously killing a Cretan traitor, Tzimanokes, who had betrayed seven British soldiers hiding from the Germans. At Hag Nikolaos, bombs from the Baltimores fell on an Italian army camp, killing four soldiers, whilst at Ierapetra bombs killed twenty-one military personnel, three civilians and wounded thirty more soldiers. At Pakhiano a motor vessel was unsuccessfully bombed but a strafing 114 www.britainatwar.com

attack killed one sailor and wounded two others, including the captain.

POST OPERATIONS Air Commodore Mark Lax, historian of 454 Squadron (RAAF), was surely right when he described the concept of an attack on Crete as ‘fundamentally sound’. However, he pinpointed factors that led to failure, including the fact that the planners had forgotten the Allies were operating on double summer time but Axis forces were not. The plan assumed the enemy would be at breakfast and be caught unawares, but breakfast was over when the air armada appeared and the troops back on duty. Secondly, the fighters took some time to form-up and the unfortunate Baltimores arrived first, thus alerting the island’s defences. Group Captain Aitken, drawing up a post-action report, concluded: ‘On the face of it, the material damage to the enemy was in no way commensurate with the loss of thirteen Hurricanes and five (sic) Baltimores, together with other aircraft casualties and damage. On the other hand, it is undeniable that the unpalatable medicine administered to the enemy, coupled with the fine tonic effect on 212 and 219 Group, made the operation a success on balance.’ Whether the surviving pilots and aircrew from Operation Thesis shared this rather optimistic assessment might be open to doubt.  Sincere thanks are due to Brian Cull for permission to use the chapter in his ‘Fighters over the Aegean’ (Fonthill 2012) as a framework for this article, and consent for certain photographs. I am also indebted to Mark Lax, who wrote and published ‘From Alamein to the Alps’ a history of 454 Squadron RAAF (2006) for his kindness in providing photographs from his book. Finally, I am much obliged to Ian Simpson for supplying images of 94 and 134 Squadron aircraft and personnel. Any other photographs are from my own collection.

ImaGe oF WAR THE LOCKHEED Hudson was a military version of the Lockheed 14 Super Electra civil airliner, the first examples of which were ordered for the RAF in June 1938 (at the cost of £17,000 apiece), some of which entered service with Coastal Command the following year. As the aircraft was intended by the RAF to serve largely in a maritime role with Coastal Command, it was named after the sixteenth century navigator Henry Hudson. Although it never received the level of wartime publicity given to some aircraft, the Hudson can nevertheless claim an impressive list of “firsts”. These include being the first Allied aircraft to shoot down an enemy aeroplane in the Second World War (a Dornier Do 24 claimed by 224 Squadron) while operating from the British Isles, the first aircraft to capture a U-boat (U-570, which surrendered to a 269 Squadron Hudson on 27 August 1941), the first aircraft to sink a Japanese warship in the war (this being a RAAF-operated example) and the first aircraft equipped to carry airborne lifeboats for air sea rescue duties. In time the RAF received just over 2,000 Hudsons. Of this total, 800 of them were commercially purchased, the remainder being supplied under the various Lend-Lease contracts. It was the RAF’s 1,000th Hudson which was the centre of so much attention on Friday, 18 July 1941. On that day, with the aircraft having just rolled off the production lines, Viscount Halifax, the British Ambassador to the United States, and his wife travelled to the Lockheed factory at Burbank California to officially accept it. In an impressive ceremony, the Hudson was inspected by Lord and Lady Halifax. With the legend “Lockheed’s 1000th Hudson bound for Britain” painted on the side of its fuselage all that has been established of the aircraft’s identity is that its serial number begins with the letters “AM”. A reporter for Time magazine noted that “thirty thousand U.S. workmen, employed by the big Lockheed airplane factory at Burbank, Calif., waited in the field beside the plant. In white shirts,

Friday, 18th July 1941

bareheaded in the California noonday sun, they watched with the intent, quizzical, unfathomable expressions of U.S. workmen in a crowd. On the platform, Lord Halifax finished his brief speech of thanks to the men for the production of planes for Britain.” For her part, Lady Halifax also spoke to the large crowd: “May I say to you and all the good work people of Lockheed and Vega, the people of Great Britain will welcome the arrival of yet another Hudson, as they have the others.” The workers’ response was described as “ear-splitting and prolonged”; there was the same reaction when Lockheed’s president, Robert E. Gross, informed those present that Hudson No.1266 was already on the assembly line. In a prepared address broadcast by the American MBS Network, Lord Halifax also passed on the personal thanks of an RAF pilot who had flown a Hudson on a sortie over Occupied France. Telling the story, which was recounted in the Cumberland Evening Times (published in Maryland), the Ambassador told the crowd: “‘Hell,’ the pilot said to me, ‘it [the Hudson] was shot to pieces. Pretty nearly everything was shot to pieces. Look at the rudder, not much left of it, but the old kite brought us home 350 miles on one lung. Not another aircraft in the world could take the punishment this one did today and yet make its landfall. If you ever get to California drop into the Lockheed factory and tell them thanks for me. This is a kite that doesn’t know when it’s beaten.” With the speeches over, one of Lockheed’s test pilots, James “Jimmie” Mattern, took off in the 1,000th Hudson. After circling the airfield twice in salute, he then flew off to the east. Not everyone, however, welcomed the British Ambassador’s presence. During his visit, both at the factory site and afterwards at Los Angles City Hall, he was “picketed” by women who represented organisations opposed to a US entry into the war. Amongst the various banners they carried was one which carried the slogan “Bundle Back to Britain Halifax, FDR may want you, we don’t!” (HMP)

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OCTOBER 1944

DATES THAT SHAPED THE SECOND WORLD WAR Key Moments and Events that affected Brit Britain

The Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Dingle Foot MP, informed the House of Commons that the UK government was taking steps to ensure that Nazi leaders and other German nationals of interest could not escape by sea from neutral countries. He went on to state: “For the last two years His Majesty’s Government has administered a system of passenger and crew control on all neutral ships sailing to or from European ports. As the House is aware, neutral ships, whether inward or outward bound, are not allowed to pass through our controls without a ship navicert, and this document is in no case granted until the list of passengers and crew has been approved by our Consular authorities at the port of embarkation. In recent weeks every outward bound Spanish ship has been required, as a condition of her ship navicert, to call at a British contraband control base, where we can satisfy ourselves that no unauthorised persons are on board.”

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The crews 617 Squadron carried out an attack on another German dam – in this case the Kembs Dam on the Rhine just north of Basle. The dam held back a large reservoir which it was feared might be released to flood the Rhine valley in the face of advancing US and French troops. The raid, made using Tallboy bombs, was a success and the dam’s lock gates were destroyed.

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The Ministry of Social Insurance is formed, only to be renamed the Ministry of National Insurance on 17 November 1944.

The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary arrived in Moscow for discussions with Marshal Stalin and M. Molotov. They were accompanied by the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and the chief staff officers of the Minister of Defence, together with other military advisers. This meeting followed on from the Second Quebec Conference in September which Stalin had been unable to attend. The US ambassador to the Soviet Union was also present.

9

Athens was declared an open city by the retreating Germans as British paratroopers captured Megara airfield some twenty-eight miles outside of the city. The declaration preserved the city and its monuments from the devastation of combat.

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 OPERATION MARKET GARDEN

During a debate in Parliament on TUESDAY, 3 OCTOBER 1944, the Prime Minister was asked if the government was considering “recommending to His Majesty that some special honour or designation should be granted to the British Airborne Forces, in recognition of the heroic deeds at Arnhem”? To this Churchill replied: “I do not think that the award of a special medal would be appropriate. Indeed, were such special distinction to be considered for this very gallant episode it would have to be considered with many other noble and memorable battles and actions that have taken place and may yet take place, at sea and in the air, as well as on land.” A further suggestion of introducing the designation “Royal British Airborne Forces”, or something similar, was also declined. Here, women and children watch Arnhem survivors filing into church, where they held a memorial service for their comrades of the British 1st Airborne Division who fell in the epic battle, in an English market town, 19 October 1944. (HMP) The highest number of sorties flown by Bomber Command aircraft in a single day, 1,576, was flown as part of Operation Hurricane, a maximum effort attack on Germany. The previous day, Sir Arthur Harris had received the directive for the offensive. It included the following instructions: “In order to demonstrate to the enemy in Germany generally the overwhelming superiority of the Allied Air Forces in this theatre ... the intention is to apply within the shortest practical period the maximum effort … against objectives in the densely populated Ruhr.”

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 GENERAL DEMPSEY KNIGHTED

During a visit to the British 2nd Army, on SUNDAY, 15 OCTOBER 1944, King George VI knighted Lieutenant General Sir Miles Dempsey (GOC 2nd British Army) on the battlefield. This is described in some accounts as being the first occasion that this had happened on a battlefield since Agincourt in 1415. Dempsey was in fact one of three generals knighted on this date, the last of a five-day tour of Holland and Belgium. For the ceremony, he brought with him a sword from Buckingham Palace. “Staying as the guest of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery,” noted one reporter, “the King slept each night in the caravan ‘Monty’ captured from the Italian Marshal Messe in the African campaign and lived all the time on ordinary Army rations. Occasionally as he drove and flew across the battle zones the King heard the rumble of gunfire and the occasional crump of shells and mortar bombs bursting near.” (HMP)

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Having been formed in 1943 from those elements of RAF Fighter Command and other units dedicated to the aerial defence of the UK which remained after the formation of the Second Tactical Air Force, Air Defence of Great Britain was renamed RAF Fighter Command.

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A force of eighteen Lancasters of 9 Squadron returned to bomb the Sorpe dam – one of 617 Squadron’s targets during Operation Chastise in May 1943. Despite the fact sixteen of the raiders dropped their Tallboys and that strikes on the dam were reported, there was no breach.

15

It was announced that the total British expenditure during the five years of war up to 2 September 1944, was £24,000,000,000. Of this figure, just under half was met by taxation, the remainder by borrowing.

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DATES THAT SHAPED THE SECOND WORLD WAR Key Moments and Events that affected Britain ain

OCTOBER 1944

 ATTACK ON WALCHEREN

On TUESDAY, 3 OCTOBER 1944, a force of 252 Lancasters and seven Mosquitoes attacked the seawall on Walcheren island in the Netherlands. The island dominates the mouth of the Scheldt estuary and was heavily defended by German coastal batteries which prevented Allied shipping from using the port of Antwerp. The intention of the raid was to breach the seawalls and cause widespread flooding, hopefully disabling some of the batteries. This low-level vertical aerial photograph was taken shortly after the daylight attack. It shows seawater pouring through the breach in the wall at the most westerly tip of the island, the gap being in turn widened by the incoming high tide which is inundating the village of Westkapelle (top right). Eight Lancasters from 617 Squadron had been standing by to follow-up the initial attack if no breaches had been made, but were not needed and returned to the UK with their cargoes of valuable Tallboy bombs intact. No aircraft were lost on this operation. (HMP)

A specially adapted Avro Lancaster took off from RAF Shawbury to conduct a record-breaking long distance flight. The aircraft, nick-named Aries and flown by Wing Commander D.C. McKinley, duly completed the first round-the-world trip by a British aircraft.

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Based at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire, the RAF’s Central Navigation School was renamed the Empire Air Navigation School.

Twenty-four de Havilland Mosquitoes of Nos. 21, 464 and 487 Squadrons, escorted by eight North American Mustangs, carried out a successful low-level attack on the Gestapo Headquarters at Aarhus in Denmark in order to destroy German records relating to the Danish resistance groups.

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Following a series of exercises on the north Norfolk coast, in which some troops were deployed in German uniforms and used captured enemy weapons, the Secretary of State for War was informed that such training caused “considerable alarm locally” and “that the British troops involved run grave risk of being shot by volunteers whose duty is to defend these shores”.

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Token Publishing F_P.indd 1

03/09/2014 09:37

The Britain at War team scout out the latest items of interest

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HISTORY IS all around us; in the hills and fields, the cities and the towns. So familiar do we become of our immediate environment, or so poorly informed, that we fail to appreciate the events, great or small, that have occurred over the centuries on our very doorstep. In many respects all history is local history. Even if a particular occurrence is of worldwide significance, it takes place in someone’s local area. Thus it was with Arnhem in September 1944. Before that date Arnhem was an ordinary Dutch city standing astride the Lower Rhine. It was a pleasant and, to some degree, prosperous place, little touched by the war. Then the British 1st Airborne Division landed and Arnhem changed forever. Those quiet, leafy streets became the backdrop to one of the most intensely fought battles of the Second World War. One of its streets, Utrechtseweg, was the main thoroughfare between Arnhem to the adjacent village of Oosterbeek. It was along this street that men and machines moved backwards and forwards throughout the battle which

raged from 17 to 25 September 1944. Almost every house and every turn along this road and those nearby was the scene of one event or another, and each has its story to tell. Take for instance that described by Major Geoffrey Powell of the 156th Parachute Battalion when the property he was in suddenly became the scene of battle: “Fifteen minutes later, the trim Dutch house had been wrecked. Every pane of glass had been smashed, and every picture and mirror knocked from the walls; there was no time to be careful. In the centre of each room barricades had been built, well back from the windows out of sight of the Boche, but sited so every scrap of ground outside was covered. Sideboards and chests-ofdrawers stuffed with books or bedding made the barricades, the contents of the furniture flung in heaps into the corners of the rooms. Mattresses were rolled down to the basement, ready for use, if needed, by the wounded men. More books, crammed into drawers, were blocking those windows not required for shooting through.” Another soldier, Private Don Canadine-Bate (who would go on to become the Sports Editor of the

K | RECONNAISSANCE REPORT BOO

Daily Mirror), despite the life-ordeath situation in which he was involved, was still moved by the effect of the fighting on the ordinary Dutch residents on or near the Utrechtseweg: “It was heart-rendering to see the tragic look of pain and bewilderment that this Dutch lady was unable to keep from her eyes as she watched her beautiful home being pulled to pieces.” It is easy to imagine oneself in that awful situation. This is how history should be written. It is local, personal. All too often when we read of the battles of earlier times we are comfortably detached from its brutality. Yet warfare is always personal and Robert Kershaw shows us just how personal it can truly be. The battle to secure the vital road bridge over the Lower Rhine was part of the largest airborne assault ever mounted and, had it succeeded might have brought the Second World War to a speedier conclusion. In that operation thousands were killed or severely wounded. Yet all this momentous action took place in ordinary fields and building, and along Utrechtseweg, a simple street in Arnhem. REVIEWED BY JOHN GREHAN.

BELOW: At about 13.00 hours on 18 September 1944, Sergeant Dennis Smith of the Army Film and Photographic Unit took this picture of a Vickers Medium Machine-Gun crew, possibly from the 2nd South Staffords, training their gun “on a house holding snipers”. The building in question was one of those overlooking Utrechtseweg at the western end of Oosterbeek. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

OF THE MONTH

A STREET IN ARNHEM The Agony of Occupation and Liberation Robert Kershaw

Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing www.ianallanpublishing.com ISBN: 978-0-7110-3754-0 Hardback. 304 pages RRP: £20.00 Illustrations  References/Notes  Appendices  Index 

www.britainatwar.com 119

RECONNAISSANCE REPORT |

The Britain at War team scout out the latest items of interest RETREAT AND REARGUARD SOMME 1918

BLOOD AND STEEL The Wehrmacht Archive: Normandy 1944

The Fifth Army Retreat

Donald E. Graves



NO HISTORY of a military campaign is complete unless it presents both sides of the operation. With the fighting in Normandy in 1944 being so focussed upon the D-Day landings, few books deal in any detail with the German side of the fighting. This book by Donald E. Graves helps restore the balance. Blood and Steel is a compilation of original orders, diaries, letters, and after-action reports. All are fascinating in their own right but it is inevitable that the personal comments of the German soldiers are amongst the most interesting. For example, the lowered morale of the German troops in early July is apparent from the diary of Private Bucher of the 24th Infantry Division. “You can say what you want,” said a sergeant to Bucher, “but I went yesterday [11 July] to see the sad bunch of replacements and there you won’t find a single soul who still believes in victory. Everybody states that the war is lost.” Another diary is that of an officer in the Boulogne garrison during the Allied siege in early September 1944: “Encircled in Boulogne. For days I knew there was no getting out of it for us. It is very hard to get used to the thought of having one’s span of life nearly finished. If fate is favourable I may become a PoW ... I wonder if my children will have to grow up without the help of their father?” Donald E. Graves tries to present a fully-rounded portrayal of the Wehrmacht in Normandy at this period. This includes extracts from the Telephone Logs of the Seventh Army and the Fifth Panzer Army. These provide a narrative of events as they unfolded. One such extract is from Hitler’s Chief of Staff to the Chief of Staff of the Western Command. In this it states that Hitler “desires” that the Allied bridgehead should be “annihilated by the evening of 6 June, since there exists a danger of additional sea and airborne landings ... all units will be diverted to the point of penetration in Calvados. The beach-head there must be cleaned up by not later than tonight.”

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Jerry Murland

enemy-held shore could be seized. Publisher: Penguin; www.penguin.com ISBN: 978-0-141-03609-0 Paperback. 436 pages RRP: £9.99

over hard-won ground until the tide turned back in their favour. In this book, the author, Jerry Murland, examines in detail the battles fought by British, Irish

OPERATION TABARIN

Britain’s Secret Wartime Expedition to Antarctica 1944-46 Stephen Haddelsey

and South African regiments in the area

 IN 1943, with the

from Saint-Léger in the North to La Fère

German Sixth Army

in the South. Publisher: Pen & Sword; www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-78159-267-0 Hardback. 238 pages RRP: £25.00

annihilated at Stalingrad

VULCAN BOYS

From the Cold War to the Falklands: True Tales of the Iconic Delta V Bomber

and Rommel’s Afrika Korps in full retreat after defeat at El Alamein, a new front was opened. Its battles would be fought not on the beaches of Normandy or in the jungles of Burma but amid the blizzards and glaciers of the Antarctic. Originally conceived as a means by which to safeguard the Falkland Islands from Japanese invasion and to deny

Tony Blackman

harbours in the sub-Antarctic territories

 THE VULCAN, the second of the

the expedition also sought to re-assert

three V Bombers designed to guard the

British sovereignty in the face of

United Kingdom during the Cold War has

incursions by neutral Argentina. Publisher: The History Press; www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-7524-9356-5 Hardback. 256 pages RRP: £18.99

become an aviation icon like the Spitfire. Its delta shape has become instantly recognisable – as has the dramatic noise it makes when the engines are opened for take-off. Vulcan Boys is based entirely upon first-hand accounts by the operators and crews themselves. It tells the story of the aircraft from its design and conception through the Cold War when it played out its part in providing Britain’s nuclear deterrent as well as its role in the Falklands War. Publisher: Grub Street; www.grubstreet.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-909808-08-9 Hardback. 224 pages RRP: £20.00

ENGINEERS OF VICTORY

The Problem Solvers Who Turned the Tide in the Second World War

to German surface raiders and U-boats,

LETTERS FROM THE FRONT Letters and Diaries from the BEF in Flanders and France 1914-1918 Kevin Smith

 PRESENTING LETTERS and diaries of soldiers themselves, many unseen for nearly 100 years, the author, Kevin Smith, allows individuals as diverse as Field Marshall Douglas Haig and Private Smith to have a clear voice. With enough narrative to recall how the First World War unfolded, a wealth of detail brings the life in the trenches back to life. What began with high hopes and horses ended

Paul Kennedy

with disillusion and tanks. From the build

 IN ENGINEERS of Victory Paul

immediate post-war reduction, Letters

Kennedy reveals the role of those he

from the Front touches on many topics.

considers the “problem-solvers and

Publisher: Fonthill Media; www.fonthillmedia.com ISBN: 978-1-78155-338-1 Softback. 239 pages RRP: £14.99

middle-men who made the difference”



were taken safely across the Atlantic, command of the air was won and an

German offensive forced the Allies back

References/Notes Index 

he investigates include how convoys

period of great danger for the Allies.

and the prelude to their final defeat, the

Illustrations  Appendices 

a “creeping barrage”. The subjects

how Blitzkrieg could be blunted, how

eventually catastrophically unsuccessful

Publisher: Frontline Books www.frontline-books.com ISBN: 978-1-84832-683-5 Hardback. 227 pages RRP: £19.99

out how to sink German U-boats with

offensive – or Kaiserschlacht – was a

of bitter fighting and huge losses. While

REVIEWED BY ROBERT MITCHELL.

or Captain “Johnny” Walker who worked

 THE GERMAN Spring

Both sides were exhausted after years

Rommel, far more practically, demanded that the enemy must be prevented at all costs from getting their hands on Cherbourg, and of stopping the US and Anglo-Canadian bridgeheads from joining up. Hitler, though, issued his famous order which committed his troops to fighting a battle they could not win. This was timed at 17.00 hours on 10 June: “Chief of Staff Army Group ‘B’ presents the views of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces (Hitler) that there should be neither a withdrawal, fighting to the rear, nor a disengagement rearward to a new line of resistance, but that every man will fight and fall, where he stands.” This is a fine collection of documents, though somewhat randomly collated. My personal favourite amongst these documents, and one which demonstrates just how diverse they are, is a letter to a soldier on the front line from his brother in Strasburg: “At home we are still too well ‘protected’ by thousands of Gestapo and SS men, who are ‘unavailable’ for the front lines during the war ... better to be a prisoner of war of the British or Americans than to die a hero’s death for the Führer.” Defeat for Germany was clearly just a matter of time.

specialized British armoured vehicles,

in ensuring victory for the Allies. In this he means people like Major General Percy Hobart who invented the

up at the beginning of the war until the

The Britain at War team scout out the latest items of interest

BRITAIN’S FORGOTTEN FIGHTER ACE

COMMAND AND MORALE The British Army on the Western Front 1914-1918

Captain Albert Ball VC

Gary Sheffield

Walter Briscoe and H. Russell Stannard



THERE ARE few more contentious subjects than that of command on the Western Front during the First World War. It is the insistence on persevering with what appeared to be suicidal assaults despite horrendous casualties that seemed so inexplicable both to men at the time, and more people since, that has been the subject of so much debate. Gary Sheffield approaches this discussion through a number studies of individual commanders and particular battles. It is easy to condemn the Allied commanders for their policies but it is far more difficult to propose a realistic alternative to the general plan of the perpetual offensive policy adopted by Haig. This was put into words by the subject of one of those individuals Gary Sheffield studied, General Sir Henry Rawlinson. In a letter to the Adjutant General in May 1915, he wrote: “I don’t see at the moment how we are going to force the enemy back to their own frontier except by the very slow process of siege operations or the attrition of the hostile personnel caused by the pressure which is being and will be brought upon Germany by all sides. What we really want to do is to kill the greatest possible number of Germans in the shortest possible space of time. Up to the present the idea of gaining ground has been too prominent and the idea of causing heavy losses to the enemy has not formed a sufficiently important element in the schemes that have been devised.” Rawlinson’s plan to achieve the objective of killing lots of Germans quickly, was through the principle of ‘bite and hold’, which he believed would result in proportionately greater enemy losses than the grand battles which had cost so many lives. Sir John French saw only big battles as the way to victory, as indeed did Haig. Rawlinson’s belief in ‘bite and hold’, and Haig’s desire for a great assault leading to a significant breakthrough exploited by cavalry, led to failure at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Rawlinson refused to throw in the reserves which might

| RECONNAISSANCE REPORT

and planning, the problems of raising,

and weapons. Publisher: Exisle Publishing; www.exislepublishing.com ISBN: 978-1-921497-42-1 Hardback. 310 pages RRP: £24.99

buried with full military honours, and when the death was announced it was international news. This biography of Ball was first published after his death, and features tributes by the then Prime Minister Lloyd George and Major-General Sir Hugh Trenchard. Publisher: Amberley Books; www.amberley-books.com ISBN: 978-1-4456-2236-1 Softback. 224 pages RRP: £14.99

FIGHT FOR THE AIR Aviation Adventures From the Second World War

SURVIVING THE NAZI ONSLAUGHT The Defence of Calais to the Death March to Freedom Carole McEntee-Taylor

 TED TAYLOR, 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, was sent to France in May 1940 as part of Calais Force. Initially sent to open up supply lines to the rapidly retreating BEF, they soon found themselves defending Calais against the might of the 10th Panzer Division. Outnumbered by at least three to one

John Frayn Turner

they held out for four days until they

 THIS COLLECTION of

to surrender. For the next five years

air warfare stories covers

Ted found himself part of the huge

the entire span of the

slave labour force in Poland under

Second World War, beginning when

the administration of Stalag XXA and

the Royal Air Force faced enemy forces

Stalag XXB. This is Ted’s story. Publisher: Pen & Sword; www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-78383-106-7 Hardback. 213 pages RRP: £19.99

on its own until the dropping of the Atomic bombs on the Japanese in 1945 by the USAAF. Fight for the Air offers a mixture of accounts about such large and well-known battles and operations as the Battle of Britain, the hunting of Bismarck, the air battles over Malta, the U-boat war, operations in the Far East, the huge Allied bomber raids over German cities, as well as more specialist

ran out of ammunition and were forced

THE FIRST WORLD WAR In 100 Objects Peter Doyle

missions such as the Dambusters and

 THE 100 objects

Operation Chastise. Publisher: Pen & Sword; www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-78346-303-9 Hardback. 248 pages RRP: £19.99

featured in this book

1918: YEAR OF VICTORY

The End of the Great War and the Shaping of History

are categorised into eight general themes, which are ‘Nations to War’, ‘The Soldier’, ‘First Moves, 1914’, ‘Developing Trench Warfare’, ‘The War Deepens and Expands, 1915-16’, ‘Plumbing New Depths, 1917-18, ‘War at Sea, in the Air’, and ‘At Home’. The diversity of items adds an additional element of interest, with objects such as the Loos Football, a German Death Card, a Chinese Labour

Edited by Ashley Ekins

Badge through to a surviving German

 THE CHAPTERS in this book have

Mk.IV tank all being featured.

their origins in an international

Publisher: The History Press; www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-7524-8811-0 Hardback. 352 pages RRP: £25.00

conference, 1918 Year of Victory,



continuing impact, including strategy

field, and developments in technology

with Richthofen’s Jasta 11, his body was

References/Notes Index 

of the Great War, its memory and

Britain: each, at the time, was the

was killed in May 1917, during a dogfight

Illustrations  Appendices 

into issues surrounding the ending

training and maintaining armies in the

the best English flying man”. When Ball

Publisher: Praetorian Press www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-78159-021-4 Hardback. 249 pages RRP: £25.00

research and to share their insights

to Germany, Albert Ball was to Great

Richthofen would describe Ball as “by far

REVIEWED BY ALEXANDER NICOLL.

of nations gathered to present their

 WHAT MANFRED von Richthofen was

aerial champion of his country. Indeed,

have tipped the battle in the Allies favour. The result was that very little ground was bitten off for his men to hold. On the other hand it could be argued that by not throwing more men into the battle, many lives were saved. In this example can be seen the difficulties of command in such circumstances. As this book is a collection of Gary Sheffield’s magazine articles and book chapters, the chapters in Command and Morale are standalone topics. Under the general heading of ‘Command’, are, amongst others, ‘The Australians at Pozières: Command and Control on the Somme, 1916”, ‘Hubert Gough, An Army Commander on the Somme and Ancre’, ‘Vimy Ridge and the Battle of Arras, April-May 1917’ and ‘The Indispensible Factor: British Troops in 1918’. Those subjects under the heading ‘Morale’, include, ‘The Operational Role of British Military Police on the Western Front’; ‘The Effect of the First World War on Class Relations in Britain: The Career of Major Christopher Stone DSO MC’, and ‘A very good type of Londoner and a very good type of colonial: OfficerMan Relations and Discipline in the 22nd Royal Fusiliers, 1914-1918’. There is also an introductory section entitled, “Context”, which includes “Not the Same as Friendship: the British Empire and Coalition Warfare in the Era of the First World War”.

Great War. Scholars from a number

convened by the Australian War Memorial in November 2008 to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the

pillbox in Tyne Cot Cemetery or Ashford’s

www.britainatwar.com 121

RECONNAISSANCE REPORT |

The Britain at War team scout out the latest items of interest

FLYING FILM STARS

NOVEMBER 2014 ISSUE

The Directory of Aircraft in British World War Two Films

ON SALE FROM 30 OCTOBER 2014

Mark Ashley



THIS BOOK, according to the introduction, “describes every single aircraft appearing in every single feature film made or produced about Great Britain and its people during the most terrible conflict in the history of humanity, World War Two”. Perhaps second-guessing exactly what was going through my mind as I read these words, the author then goes on to pose the question, “Every single aircraft?” The answer: “Yes, every single traceable and identifiable aircraft of the World War Two era appearing British war films made from October 1939 up to Year 2013.” This is a period covering seventy-four years and 181 films in total. Such a task “is achievable”, points out Mark Ashley, “thanks to modern technology”. Using freezeframing and stop-motion imagery the author has researched and analysed each film in order to identify every individual aircraft. He explains the role of each one in each film and, where possible, its current location. Of the total of 181 films, forty-four actually have no aircraft in them at all; they consequently only receive a brief mention in this extensive A4-sized 368 page publication. A further twenty-eight of the films only have a small degree of aviation content. It is perhaps worth pointing out at this stage that the author defines a “British war film” as being one “that enacts a story set during World War Two, which is financed by a British film studio, produced by a British film producer working for a British film production company using British film technicians and directed by a British film director, and is then released to the cinema by a British film distributor”. The book is split into eight chapters, which, aside from the two that detail the war years themselves and 1946 to 1950, are split into the individual decades. To test the author’s claims regarding the scope of his work, I decided to look up the entry for a film that I had watched recently – the 1977 epic A Bridge Too Far. In this film’s entry, Ashley points out that “aviation, of course, plays a major role in this giant re-telling of Operation Market Garden. Not since the Battle of Britain (1969) and Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) have so many

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aviation assets been assembled for a war film production.” He goes on to state that “the aviation elements provide some of the best scenarios in the film. A total of 28 aircraft, powered and glider, were assembled together for the production. Although the scenes showing the aerial armada taking off on the opening day of Operation Market Garden are meant to be taking place at airfields in England, they are all shot at the Royal Netherlands Air Force base at Deelen in Holland. Much of the aerial filming took place between 31st August – 21st September 1976.” It transpires that a total of eleven Douglas C-47 Dakotas were either purchased or loaned from four separate sources. One was a genuine Market Garden veteran – although the author does not actually identify this aircraft. Other types also make an appearance, including the Spitfire that appears in the scene of a photoreconnaissance variant passing low over the head of a Dutch schoolboy on his bicycle. This was Spitfire HF.Mk.IXb MH434 making its fourth film appearance. Built in 1943 at Vickers, Castle Bromwich, MH434 is still flying today. Despite covering an unusual aspect of military aviation history, this is an extremely detailed piece of work. The more I read through the many entries, all of which are supported by a very comprehensive directory, the more I found this an interesting and intriguing publication. REVIEWED BY ALEXANDER NICOLL.

Publisher: Red Kite; www.redkitebooks.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-906592-15-8 Softback, A4. 368 pages RRP: £30.00 Illustrations  Appendices 

References/Notes Index 



OBLITERATED!

The Blitz on cities such London and Coventry was directed at the destruction of civilian and industrial centres, but the Germans also sought to neutralise the Royal Navy by attacking its home bases. In the spring of 1941, the Luftwaffe turned its attention to attacking the Devonport dockyard at Plymouth. It was, however, the city itself which was hit and in the course of a few nights the centre was all but destroyed.

FATAL FINALE

She was built to match the Royal Navy’s new breed of warship – the battlecruiser. Armed with twelve 21cm guns and protected by an 18cm armoured belt, SMS Blücher formed part of Admiral Franz Hipper’s formidable cruiser squadron. Yet at the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, Blücher was struck a fatal blow. An officer onboard the British light cruiser HMS Aurora, which first spotted the German squadron, described this great battle in the North Sea.

EASY ELSIE AND THE TAMING OF THE BEAST

At around 11.15 hours on the morning of Sunday, 29 October 1944, Flying Officer Bill Carey RAAF lined up his 617 Squadron Lancaster, NF920 Easy Elsie, and made an emergency landing inside the Arctic Circle in Sweden. He and his crew had just participated in Operation Obviate, an attack on Tirpitz. The remains of the aircraft are still in situ; seventy years on, Andy Brockman explores the remarkable story of Easy Elsie.

LESSONS LEARNT Breaching the Last Barrier

LESSONS LEARNT BREACHING THE LAST BARRIER Six months after the attempt at seizing the road bridge across the Lower Rhine at Arnhem had resulted in defeat, the Allies once again sought to mount a huge airborne operation to capture bridges in enemy-held territory. Would the failures at Arnhem be repeated, or had lessons really been learnt?

D

AWN ON Saturday, 24 March 1945, broke fine and clear. The early spring sun shone brightly on the airfields in south-east and southern England, lighting up the wings of a huge fleet of transport aircraft, tugs and gliders. British and US airborne forces were about to take to the skies in the largest operation of its kind since the tragedy of Market Garden, in which the attempt by the British 1st Airborne Division to seize the bridge across the Lower Rhine at Arnhem had proven to be too ambitious and had resulted in the loss of almost 9,000 men killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The question that had now to be answered was how much had been learnt at Arnhem? Would Operation Varsity help bring the war to a rapid conclusion, or prove to be another terrible waste of life?

Varsity was part of Operation Plunder in which Montgomery’s 21st Army Group would force the passage of the Rhine. In addition to the British 6th Airborne Division and the US 17th Airborne Division, Montgomery had at his disposal seventeen infantry and eight armoured divisions, five armoured brigades, a Canadian infantry brigade and a brigade of the Royal Marines, with a total of 35,000 vehicles. Thirty-six landing craft were also to be used to carry the Royal Marines across the river to take control of the town of Wessel on the attackers’ southern flank. In conjunction with Montgomery’s effort in the north, the American 1st Army (Lieutenant General Hodges) and 3rd Army (General Patton) would drive in from the south where they had already established

bridgeheads across the Rhine. The Germans would be trapped between the two arms of the Allied advance.

MAKING THE DIFFERENCE The first difference between Varsity and Market Garden was that the airborne forces would not be dropped beyond the protective range of artillery support. The Arnhem crossing had proven to be a bridge too far because, amongst many other reasons, the lightly-armed airborne troops had been out-gunned by the enemy. 

MAIN PICTURE: British Airborne troops amongst the wreckage of a glider on the edge of a landing zone near the town of Hamminkeln on 25 March 1945. (ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF

HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

www.britainatwar.com 123

LESSONS LEARNT Breaching the Last Barrier For Varsity, the British 6th Airborne Division, landing on German soil north of Wessel, would always be within range of the medium artillery of the 21st Army Group. Another difference was that unlike Market Garden, leading elements of the ground forces would already be across the river when the airborne troops began landing, so that they would not be left to fight alone for days on end as they were at Arnhem. A third difference was that whereas the airborne troops at Arnhem were dropped over the course of a few days,

ABOVE: Elements of the ground forces pictured on the move on 25 March 1945. Here a Sherman DD tank of 44th Royal Tank Regiment, 4th Armoured Brigade, is seen passing Universal Carriers of the 6th Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers east of the Rhine.

the two divisions – approximately 17,000 men in total – would be landed in a single day, making it the largest single drop in history. This time, surely, nothing could go wrong?

PLANS The leading corps of the 21st Army Group was confident of being able to cross the Rhine, but once over this imposing river it would enter a plain which could be dominated by the high ground forming the western edge of the Diersfordter Wald (Diersfordt Forest). This wooded stretch of hills had to be

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captured at all costs, and this was the primary task of the airborne troops. Beyond these hills runs the River Issel, which along the British 6th Division sector was traversed by one railway and two road bridges. To seize and hold them would mean that the path to the heart of western Germany, and beyond to Berlin itself, would lie open. The American Major General Matthew Ridgway was in command of the operation with General Richard “Windy” Gale as his deputy. The 6th Airborne was led by Major General Eric Bols, with the 17th Airborne

ABOVE LEFT: Airborne troops drive a Jeep out of a crashed Horsa glider during operations east of the Rhine, 25 March 1945. BELOW: An armada of USAAF tugs and gliders pictured as Operation Varsity begins on the morning of 24 March 1945. (US NATIONAL ARCHIVES)

being commanded by Major General William Maynadier “Bud” Miley. In planning the operation they knew that the Germans had two weak divisions in the sector chosen for attack – the 7. Fallschirmjäger-Division (7th Parachute Division) to the north, with the 84th Infantry (Volksgrenadier) Division to the south – and that their only reinforcements were a number of hastily-improvised units. One of the latter was composed of special anti-airborne troops as the Germans were well aware that along with the failure at Arnhem, there had been the successes of the capture of the bridges at Nijmegen and Eindhoven, so further Allied airborne operations were likely. The specific task of the 6th Airborne Division was divided between the two parachute brigades and the 6th Air Landing Brigade, with the 3rd and 5th Parachute Brigades aiming to land on the northern flank of the area to be captured and then to hold it against any enemy counter-attacks; whilst the Airlanding Brigade was to seize the Issel bridges. The airborne artillery and support units would land between the two zones. The 17th Airborne would drop to the south of the hills to protect the flank of the 6th Airborne.

LESSONS LEARNT Breaching the Last Barrier

ABOVE: Having previously been a target for the Allied air forces, by virtue of its importance as a crossing point of the Rhine, the artillery of the bombardment of Wessel, in preparation for the commencement of Operation Varsity, began on 23 March 1945. Some 3,000 guns completed the town’s destruction, thought further aerial attacks were also made on the night of 23/24 March. By the time it was captured, 97% of the town had been destroyed. (US NATIONAL ARCHIVES)

preceded the attack upon that town by Commando troops [the Royal Marines] had been mis-timed. If this was so, then the whole landing zones would be obscured by the clouds of dust which would be blowing from the rubble created by the attack.”1 The attack had not been mis-timed and the aircraft, flying at 2,500 feet, were able to locate the landing and drop zones. By 09.45 hours, three hours and (NARA) ten minutes after the aircraft had taken BELOW: The view off, they were over the Rhine. from the cockpit “It was at once clear that we were of a Horsa glider over enemy territory,” recorded during the Lieutenant Colonel Darling, “for airborne drop east of the Rhine, not only could we see the chutes of  25 March 1945. the 3rd Parachute Brigade on the LEFT: Soldiers from the US 89th Infantry Division crouch down in their assault boat as it comes under enemy fire near the German town of Sankt Goar, on the west bank of the Middle Rhine, 26 March 1945.

To accomplish this it meant that the 6th Airborne would have to carry out the first major tactical – as opposed to strategic – air landing of the war. Both the parachute battalions and the air landing troops would have to land either very close to, or actually upon, their objectives. The only other example of this was in the first few minutes of 6 June 1944, when the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry landed immediately adjacent to the Pegasus and Horsa bridges in Normandy. Operation Varsity, though, would be on a far larger scale. To help with this a new type of glider, the Horsa Mk.II, was to be used. Like the Hamilcar, the Mk.II variant possessed a hinged nose which, as soon as a landing had been made, could be swung back, therefore allowing the vehicles or equipment inside the aircraft, either jeeps or anti-tanks guns, to be driven or pulled straight out onto the ground and immediately ready for action.

LIFT OFF By 24 March 1945, everything was ready and at 07.00 hours, in, as we have seen, ideal weather, the great

armada took to the skies. Every one of the 320 aircraft of 38 Group RAF allocated for the operation took off successfully. Ahead of them went the escorts: “Escort over the battle area was provided by 83 Group RAF,” ran the words of the post-operational report. “One thousand two hundred and twenty seven Thunderbolts and Mustangs of VIII USA carried out supporting sweeps ahead of the main force. Heavy bombers of VIII USAAF had made strong attacks on airfields in north-west Germany on the previous days and on D-Day before P-hour. As a result of these counter measures, the enemy was reduced to a state of impotence in the air and no enemy air reaction was reported by the air forces.” The transport aircraft and the tugs and gliders rendezvoused over Hawkinge in Kent and, passing over the field of Waterloo, turned northwards and crossed the Meuse. “From there I could see the Rhine, a silver streak” recalled Brigadier G.K. Bourne, “and beyond it a thick, black haze, for all the world like Manchester or Birmingham as seen from the air. For the moment, I wondered whether the bombing of Wesel, which had

ABOVE: The rear fuselage section of a British Horsa glider straddles the railway line near Hamminkeln railway station, 25 March 1945. In the background a party of German prisoners can be seen under guard whilst waiting to be moved to the rear.

www.britainatwar.com 125

LESSONS LEARNT Breaching the Last Barrier

ABOVE: Paratroopers advance through the town of Hamminkeln during airborne landings east of the Rhine. BELOW RIGHT: Regimental SergeantMajor Evans of the 12th Battalion (Airborne) The Devonshire Regiment examines captured German helmets in Hamminkeln, 25 March 1945.

ground and hear the fighting, but also we could hear the sharp clack of flak directed at our aircraft. It was now only a matter of minutes. Somehow, in spite of the tension, these seemed peaceful moments. All the hurry and scurry of planning, checking and inspecting was over, and all that could now be done was to jump when ordered.” The height at which the parachutists jumped was 1,800 feet, somewhat higher BELOW: Sherman DD tanks, with their floatation screens being erected, during the crossing of the Rhine on 24 March 1945.

126 www.britainatwar.com

than usual, which meant they were in the air for longer. This made it possible for the German anti-aircraft shells to burst among them as they drifted down. On the other hand, the parachutists had more time to identify their drop zones and work out where they were. The picture presented by the 3rd Parachute Brigade was described by one of those watching the hundreds of men drifting down through the dusty haze and landing on fields, on

fences and in trees: “As fast as they disentangled themselves from their chutes more parachutists dropped among them from succeeding waves and added to the general confusion. Above all this was the roar of passing aircraft, the sharp crack of small arms fire … and the deeper thumps of heavy and light flak … we received nothing but help from the American crews [of the Dakotas], who in spite of the considerable flak flew straight and level over the dropping zone.” Helped no doubt by the greater than usual height, only one of the Dakotas carrying the 13th Parachute Battalion suffered injury, and of the aircraft carrying the 12th Parachute Battalion two were hit and set on fire. The pilots of both these aircraft battled on and the parachutists were able to jump safely.

LESSONS LEARNT Breaching the Last Barrier CROSSING THE RHINE Rushing up to join the airborne troops were the Royal Marines and the men of the 15th (Scottish) Division. Before dawn, almost as soon as the Marines’ amphibious crossing of the Rhine was underway, the Royal Engineers, with the largest ever accumulation of bridging equipment, started working on their ferry and bridging operations. They had to breach the massive earthen flood dykes before they could bring forward and off-load all their items of equipment. “Our Engineering Company was in the front of the assault under a huge barrage of artillery,” wrote one Sapper. “It was our job to bulldoze the ramps down to the river, drive in the posts to guide the tanks down to where the floating bridges were being assembled and place them into position.” As with Operation Market Garden, it was a brigade of the Guards which was to be the first armoured unit across the Rhine. On this occasion it was 6 Guards Armoured Brigade and, conscious of the failure to reach the airborne troops at Arnhem, the Guards felt their responsibility keenly: “It was difficult at the time to forget the tragedy of the previous September when another tank formation of the Brigade of Guards had been given the task of joining up with another airborne force.” Generally, the parachute drop was successful and the paratroopers were immediately into action. The 12th Parachute Battalion found that its rendezvous was under fire at very close

BELOW: British troops beside a damaged Waco glider during Operation Varsity.

range, but a platoon under Lieutenant P. Burkinshaw captured the four 88mm guns responsible. According to one source, Private Gay of ‘C’ Company, 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion, landed in a tree and was unable to climb down. His rifle was in his kitbag attached to him by a rope. As he was hauling it up a German officer approached the tree, climbed it, pulled Gay by his rigging lines towards the trunk, and then cut them with a knife. Gay was then able to climb down to the ground, where the German officer was waiting for him with his rifle, which he handed to the astonished parachutist, 

ABOVE: British Airborne troops pose beside a road sign outside Hamminkeln in the immediate aftermath of the landings during Operation Varsity.

ABOVE: Gliders in a field outside Hamminkeln during airborne landings east of the Rhine, 25 March 1945. The glider nearest the camera, RJ246, is an Airspeed AS.51 Horsa I built by Harris Lebus.

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LESSONS LEARNT Breaching the Last Barrier

AN OPERATION VARSITY VC THE 3RD Parachute Brigade included the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion which dropped on Drop Zone ‘A’. Its objective was to seize and hold the central area on the western edge of the woods. Amongst them was a medic, Corporal Frederick George “Toppy” Tophanm The London Gazette of 3 August 1945, detailed his actions on 24 March 1945: “At about 11.00 hours, whilst treating casualties sustained in the drop, a cry for help came from a wounded man in the open. Two medical orderlies from a field ambulance went out to this man in succession but both were killed as they knelt beside the casualty. Without, hesitation and on his own initiative, Corporal Topham went forward through intense fire to replace the orderlies who had been killed before his eyes. “As he worked on the wounded man, he was himself shot through the nose. In spite of severe bleeding and intense pain, he never faltered in his task. Having completed immediate first aid, he carried the wounded man steadily and slowly back through continuous fire to the shelter of a wood." During the next two hours Corporal Topham refused all offers of medical help for his own wound. He worked most devotedly throughout this period to bring in wounded, showing complete disregard for the heavy and accurate enemy fire. It was only when all casualties had been cleared that he consented to his own wound being treated. His immediate evacuation was ordered, but he interceded so earnestly on his own behalf that he was eventually allowed to return to duty. “On his way back to his company he came across a [Universal] carrier, which had received a direct hit. Enemy mortar bombs were still dropping around, the carrier itself was burning fiercely and its own mortar ammunition was exploding. An experienced officer on the spot had warned all not to approach the carrier. Corporal Topham, however, immediately went out alone in spite of the blasting ammunition and enemy fire, and rescued the three occupants of the carrier. He brought these men back across the open and although one died almost immediately afterwards, he arranged for the evacuation of the other two, who undoubtedly owe their lives to him. “This NCO showed sustained gallantry of the highest order. For six hours, most of the time in great pain, he performed a series of acts of outstanding bravery and his magnificent and selfless courage inspired all those who witnessed it.” For his actions Corporal Tophan was awarded the Victoria Cross.

ABOVE: Accompanied by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey, General Officer Commanding the British 2nd Army, Winston Churchill crosses the Rhine in a Jeep on 26 March 1945.

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saying: “The war is over, and if there is anything I can do for you I am at your service.”3 Staff officer Brigadier Bourne landed with the 6th Airlanding Brigade: “In accordance with orders, but against my will, for I wanted to see what was happening, I had strapped myself in. We began to go down in a steep glide, and I listened with strained interest to the excited converse of our two pilots, neither of whom had been on operations before … Presently, I heard the first pilot say to the second, ‘I can see the railway. Then I felt much relieved, and soon I saw the landscape flying past the windows. We landed very fast, went through a couple of fences and stopped with a jerk. All of us, consisting of the Defence Platoon of Divisional Headquarters, nipped out

and took cover under a low bank on top of which was a post and rail fence. There was a lot of shooting about a mile away. We had arrived only about 600 yards from the pre-ordained spot.” Sergeant Leonard David Brook was with ‘E’ Squadron of the Glider Pilot Regiment: “We had shed 1,500 feet off our height in a tense minute or two as we shot earthwards amid the huge black shapes of our friends cart-wheeling and diving in uncontrolled ways never intended as tails, rudders, flaps or whole wings were shot off. We were not aware of the tense troops behind us who could do nothing but pray, or of the fully laden jeep and trailer which would crush us if we dived in helpless as we saw one Horsa do. Luckily the free flight of a Horsa was heard as a gentle hiss, but as we increased speed to 140 knots it was a roar of wind as we spotted the

BELOW: An Achilles tank destroyer on the east bank of the Rhine links up with airborne forces whose abandoned Horsa gliders can be seen in the background, 26 March 1945.

railway line and seconds later the station. I saw a battery of 5 Bofors guns frantically training on us as we flashed by too fast for them to score another victim.”4 Though there was considerable opposition from the German ground defences, many of the gliders landed within 200 yards of their objectives and some as close as fifty yards, despite the dust created by the bombing of Wessel which reduced visibility to less than 300 yards. Of the gliders which carried the Air Landing Brigade, the support elements and the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineer detachments and the Air Landing Brigade, ninety per cent touched down on the landing zone. Yet of the 416 gliders which reached the battlefield only eighty-eight landed undamaged. Of the remainder, all were hit, mostly by light flak and small arms fire, and thirty-seven were completely burned out. The casualties among the glider pilots amounted to between twenty and thirty percent. With the troops on the ground and able to deal with the immediate opposition, the

LESSONS LEARNT Breaching the Last Barrier BELOW: Churchill tanks of 6th Guards Tank Brigade halted in Dülmen, Germany, on 30 March 1945. BELOW LEFT: German prisoners being transported to the rear in a DUKW with Red Cross markings on 26 March 1945.

battalions began to join up. One by one the various objectives were taken. The 3rd Parachute Brigade, under Brigadier J. Hill, took somewhat longer to clear the woods which surrounded their allotted objectives, but towards early afternoon they had fought round them and captured between 600 and 700 prisoners. By 13.00 hours the last enemy position was seized. All had gone very well up to this point and the next stage was for the ground forces to link up the airborne

US crossing was actually watched by General Eisenhower from the ruins of a church tower. The bridges over the Issel were captured by the men of the Air Landing Brigade and by 27 March a total of twelve bridges capable of carrying armour were in Allied hands. The road towards Berlin was open.

RESULTS

LEFT: As the Allied advance in Germany continues, a paratrooper from the US 17th Airborne Division gets a light from a Churchill tank crewman of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade near Dorsten, a town about sixteen miles south-east of Hamminkeln, on 29 March 1945. LEFT: British Airborne troops offer water to German prisoners from a Luftwaffe field division during the Rhine crossing operations, 24-25 March 1945.

troops. The leading elements of 15th (Scottish) Division made contact with 3rd Parachute Brigade at 14.00 hours. The US 17th Airborne had experienced similar success. “The Rhine was crossed with almost incredible ease at three points north of the Ruhr and south of Wessel by advance elements of Lieutenant General William H. Simpson’s 9th Army early this morning,” ran a report in the New York Times. “Two divisions, spearheaded by a unit which made the Rhine its eighth crossing of war, had little trouble spanning the river and within a few hours of landing has seized several towns and advanced about 3,500 yards. “Everything went right for the 9th Army. The section of the river selected by the lead veteran unit was 300 yards wide and twenty-four feet deep … During the night the infantrymen received instruction from the Navy in the use of assault boats and large amphibious craft … The soldiers streamed in long lines to the beaches where the boats lay waiting.” The

Eisenhower called Varsity “the most successful airborne operation carried out to date”, which was to a great degree stating the obvious. Nevertheless, most aspects of the operation went well. Casualties, though were high, amounting around 2,500 killed or wounded. This has been attributed to the fact that the landings were undertaken during daylight. The aircraft, particularly the gliders, suffered severely from antiaircraft fire as the ground defences had not been suppressed to the degree that was hoped for, despite the enormous number of fighter aircraft employed. Maybe, therefore, not every lesson from Market Garden had been taken on board. There was, however, a lesson learnt from Varsity – that slow-moving gliders are too vulnerable to flak and they were never used again. 

NOTES 1. 2.

3.

4.

By Air to Battle, The Official Account of the British Airborne Divisions (HMSO, London, 1945), 141-2. Tim Saunders, Operation Varsity, The British & Canadian Airborne Assault (Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2008), pp.110-11. Hilary St. George Saunders, The Story of the Parachute Regiment 1940-1945 (Michael Joseph, London, 1950), p.306. Sergeant Brook’s story can be found on the following excellent website: www.paradata.org.uk

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The First W

rld War in Objects

THE BRODIE STEEL HELMET THE BRITISH Army went to war in 1914 wearing soft, peaked caps. Trained to fight and manoeuvre swiftly or to lie concealed, the British soldiers had little need for a clumsy, heavy headpiece. All that changed towards the end of the year when both sides dug in and the nature of warfare was completely altered. The Germans and the French also began the war in soft headgear; it was the latter who first considered introducing a steel helmet, the characteristic Casque Adrian.. The British soon followed, undertaking experiments with the Adrian helmet. The conclusion drawn from these tests was that the Casque Adrian helmet, which was first issued to French troops in April 1915, was not strong enough and so an entirely new design was developed. In August and September, the British authorities made experimental versions of a helmet invented by John Leopold Brodie – from who the design drew its name. The first Type ‘A’ Brodie Helmet was made of mild steel with a raw or un-edged brim that was between 1½ and 2 inches wide, and had a slightly flattened dome. Relatively easy to manufacture (particularly when compared to the Casque Adrian), production of the Type ‘A’ had only been under way for a few weeks when, in September 1915, the specification was changed following the intervention of the distinguished metallurgist Sir Robert Hadfield. Hadfield had suggested altering the helmet’s method of manufacture to use mangalloy – a hardened manganese steel (or Hadfield’s Steel as it became known) which was even

NO.3

ABOVE: This helmet is the prototype of Type ‘B’ Brodie Helmet, of which 150 were originally manufactured for the purpose of sending to France for testing under field conditions (149 were delivered in September 1915). Attached to one side of the external shell is a paper label that once recorded: “Steel Helmet Type B approved 26th September 1915.” (IWM; UNI377)

more resistant to shrapnel, airburst fragments and other debris such as stones and solid plant material thrown-up by bombardments. According to the author Dan Shadrake the Type ‘B’ “increased protection by up to 10 per cent over Type ‘A’s, and 50 per cent over French Adrians”. As well as being made of hardened steel, the dome on the Type ‘B’ was no longer flattened and it also had a slightly narrower rim. Due to the limited numbers available, when the helmets first arrived at the front they were put into “Trench Stores”, only being issued

ABOVE: Helmets in use in the front line – according to the original caption, the individuals in civilian attire are War Correspondents. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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to units when they took their turns in the front line. The public were soon informed of the helmet’s introduction. The following appeared in The Illustrated War News on 17 November 1915: “Head-wounds have been more than usually numerous during the war, owing to the trench-fighting, and more than usually severe, owing to the extensive use of shrapnel. But the danger, although it cannot be avoided, can be minimised. Our Army has now followed the French by adopting steel helmets, calculated to stop shell-splinters and shrapnel. Even in cases of extreme risk, not only has death been avoided, but injuries have been confined to bruises or superficial wounds. Cases have occurred in which the wearers have been hit, but saved by these helmets from what without them would have meant certain death.” By early 1916, 250,000 helmets had been issued and that summer enough helmets had been manufactured to permit a general distribution. However, the helmet was considered too shallow, too reflective and that the edge of the rim was too sharp. The result was the development in May 1916 of the Mk.I helmet. This had a two-part liner and a mild steel “folded” rim. It also was painted khaki and given a texture roughened with a covering of sawdust or sand as the khaki paint was drying. This gave the helmet a matt surface, thus eliminating reflection.