Britain at War 2015-07

ruined berlin OCCUPYING THE NAZI CAPITAL

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BRITAIN’S ON THE

MAGINOT LINE

BEST SELLING MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

BATTLE OF BRITAIN

AUSSIE ACE

1940

Did Spitfire Ram Dornier?

ARMOURED WARFARE Facing

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TRAWLER MYSTERY UNRAVELLED The Truth about the sinking of the Castleton June 1940

CHANNEL ISLANDS ‘BLITZ’

Bombs and Tomatoes in Defenceless Island Port, 28 June 1940

rats, snipers and mud: WINTER TRENCHES horror 1914

JULY 2015 ISSUE 99 £4.50

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From the 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 Assistant Editor: John Ash Editorial Correspondents: Geoff Simpson, Alex Bowers, Mark Khan Australasia Correspondent: Ken Wright Designer: 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 Commercial Director: Ann Saundry Production Manager: Janet Watkins Group 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) All newsagents are able to obtain copies of ‘Britain at War’ from their regional wholesaler. If you experience difficulties in obtaining a copy please call Seymour on +44 (0)20 7429 4000. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part and in any form whatsoever, is strictly prohibited without the prior, written permission of the Editor. Whilst every care is taken with the material submitted to ‘Britain at War’ Magazine, no responsibility can be accepted for loss or damage. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or Key Publishing Ltd. Whilst every effort had been made to contact all copyright holders, the sources of some pictures that may be used are varied and, in many cases, obscure. The publishers will be glad to make good in future editions any error or omissions brought to their attention. The publication of any quotes or illustrations on which clearance has not been given is unintentional. We are unable to guarantee the 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.

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Editor I

T SEEMS to be tank season again! With the Tank Museum’s awesome Tankfest coming up just as this magazine goes to press (27 and 28 June) and the War & Peace Revival just around the corner (22 – 26 July) it seems only appropriate that we should not only feature a tank on the cover but also have some measure of tank content. Indeed, the editorial team do rather find themselves in a ‘tankish’ frame of mind right now, but a recent tour of Normandy with the Director of the Tank Museum may well have something to do with it as it has rather tended to concentrate minds in that direction. Not only that, but with a son who until just recently was a full tank crewman with the Queens’ Royal Hussars I do find that it isn’t just the readers who sometimes twist my arm for ‘more tanks’! Whilst the tank on the cover is not directly related to any specific content in this month’s magazine it is, nevertheless, a wonderful image that is somehow redolent not only of the Tankfest and War & Peace Revival but also of the courage and sacrifice of those who went to war in them. Or, in this case, those who went to war on them. This fantastic image (courtesy of The Tank Museum) shows soldiers of the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group riding on a Churchill tank in northern Italy on 14 March 1945. Of course, as men of this Brigade moved up into Germany they were confronted with the reality of what had become of many millions of their kin. Whilst these appalling atrocities were brought to an end by the combined military might of the Allies through land, sea and air power it was the tanks on the ground that smashed a spearhead for the way through Fortress Europe. Ultimately, of course, the goal was Berlin and in this issue we look at the early days of the occupation of that city, the former capital of the Third Reich. In remembering the part tanks played in the Second World War, and in celebrating the dedication of men who did battle in them, we can only look back in awe at the impressive might of the vehicles themselves and the truly incredible bravery of those who crewed them. Remember, for instance, the raw courage of those who crewed the Sherman ‘Crab’ flail tanks which drove forward at the head of an advance at just 3 MPH, in a straight line through minefields, directly towards the enemy and with the gun pointing to the rear. It is men like these, of course, who are remembered at the living history extravaganzas that are Tankfest and the War & Peace Revival shows. Look out for us at both events, and particularly at the War & Peace Revival. Please come to say hello. Taking place on 22-26 July at Folkestone Racecourse, we hardly need to tell our readers that the War & Peace Revival is the World’s largest military vehicle spectacular and your favourite magazine will once again be sponsoring the Victory Marquee. We will also be selling magazines, subscriptions and other merchandise from our stand, located between the Main Arena and The Living History area. Lookout for the giant maroon Britain at War flags! And why not order your event tickets today, being sure to pay us a visit when you are there? For full details head to: www.warandpeacerevival.co.uk We hope to see you there. Meanwhile, we sign-off this issue with our own special salute of thanks and gratitude to the ‘tankies’.

Andy Saunders (Editor)

JOHN ASH JOINS BRITAIN AT WAR Britain at War magazine are pleased to introduce a new member of the editorial team at Key HQ in Stamford. John Ash joined us during May as full-time Assistant Editor and we look forward to him working with us in our mission to increase the value and content of the magazine. John will also be working with us developing our social media presence and in updating our website. He will also be producing copy for the magazine itself and is a welcome addition to our organisation. Welcome on board, John!

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FEATURES 26 INTO THE CAULDRON

COVER STORY

More first-hand accounts from the men of the South Nottinghamshire Hussars as they continue their struggle against German armoured forces in the North African desert.

68 ATTACK ON THE CHANNEL ISLANDS

Small in scale, huge in meaning. The terrifying and deadly aerial blitz that shook the Channel Islands in June 1940 leaving the islanders under no illusions as to what was to come.

44 DEATH OF AN AUSSIE ACE

84 THE SHIP THAT SANK ITSELF

54 BERLIN SQUALOR

92 MAGINOT BRITS

Australia’s top scoring Battle of Britain ace. The fascinating story of Pat Hughes who rose from a category of ‘no outstanding qualities’ to ‘natural born good shot’. Berlin was the once magnificent heartbeat of Nazi Germany. But in the months after VE-Day, it was a place of degradation and filth, as observed by one British lieutenant.

The unfortunate tale of a French destroyer and the devastating accident that brought about her untimely end off the coast of a Scottish town. The little known story of the British effort to assist the French in the defence of the infamous Maginot Line as the Phoney War escalated into a very real war.

Contents ISSUE 99 JULY 2015

26 INTO THE CAULDRON 4

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54 BERLIN SQUALOR

SMASHING THE HINDENBURG LINE 1918 THE LAST GREAT CAVALRY CHARGE 1918

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A subscription to Britain at War offers great savings on cover price. See pages 78 and 79 for more details.

REAL LIFE IN STALAG

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XXB

Eric Laidler POW 1940-45

HEROIC RIDE OF FLOWERDEW VC

The Chianti

WW2 NERVE CENTRE

Raiders

REGULARS

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BRITAIN’S BEST SELLING MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

GALLIPOLI 100

NAVAL DISASTER

‘Q’

6 BRIEFING ROOM

Italian Air

Attacks on Britain

AUTUMN 1940

CENTRAL REVEALED

The latest news and events for your diary.

Secret Home Counties Base

PLUS:

Korean War Memorial, Blitz, Leicester’s Defenceless at Auction, Dambuster Relics Biggin Hill Update, NEW PHOTOS FOUND PLUS more of your History Local Military

THE ONE THAT

GOT AWAY CONVOY RESCUE

AIRCRAFT OF A GERMAN POW ESCAPEE SHIPS 1943: How The SS Stockport Faced the Atlantic U-Boat Peril

EXPOSED: DO-OR-DIE

THE BOLD VOYAGE OF HMS DORIS

FEBRUARY 2015

ISSUE 94 £4.40

1915: How One British Gunboat Attacked the Ottoman Empire

THE FIRST

BIG PUSH LANCASTER HERO: BOMBER COMMAND’S RESISTANCE LAST VC + SOE HEROINE SPEAKS OF WW1 Shock Sections, Saboteurs In The British Countryside. Are They Fact or Fiction?

Neuve Chapelle, March 1915: What Really Happened

LAST THROW OF THE LUFTWAFFE DICE + THE RACE TO RANGOON 1945

MARCH 2015 ISSUE 95 £4.40

22 FIELDPOST

Your letters, input and feedback.

50 IMAGE OF WAR

Spitfires and trucks being readied for 2nd Tactical Air Force.

52 FIRST WORLD WAR DIARY

Our month by month guide to the First World War reaches July 1915, a month which saw a terrifying new weapon and notable successes.

80 IMAGE OF WAR

Valentine I tanks of 6th Armoured Division on rail flat cars.

90 DATES THAT SHAPED WORLD WAR TWO

A new leader and a new era. The events of July 1945 examined.

102 GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

We continue our monthly look at some of the Great War’s bravest. Plus another Hero of The Month from Lord Ashcroft.

111 RECONNAISSANCE REPORT

This month includes a Battle of Britain title and stories from wartime children.

114 THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN OBJECTS

A fascinating First World War poster and its golden tale.

Editor’s Choice

34 WINTER IN

THE TRENCHES Agonising cold, ever looming death or injury, never ending mud and the signs of a new neurological disorder. Oral testimony brings to life the harrowing first winter of the Great War.

62 TRAWLER TRAGEDY – THE TRUTH?

Can the mystery of the fate of Grimsby based trawler Castleton be solved? Using recently discovered documents, author Bill Norman comes up with some answers.

NEWS FEATURES 11 M.33 MONITOR

The flurry of activity surrounding a small but significant warship.

12 COLDITZ ANNIVERSARY

The 70th anniversary of the liberation of the infamous castle detailed.

14 DUNKIRK COMMEMORATIONS

The ‘Little Ships’ return on the 75th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuations.

19 NICOLSON VC

RAF Honour Battle of Britain VC.

92 MAGINOT BRITS

20 MALAYSIAN SALVAGE

Arrests made following illegal naval shipwreck salvage. www.britainatwar.com

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

Western Front Tunnel Found

THE LEGACY of the First World War on the Western Front continues to this day. The ‘Iron Harvest’ of dangerous unexploded munitions comes to light regularly along with the detritus of war, while surprising new finds also emerge. The Durand Group, which voluntarily undertakes research and investigation of military-related subterranean features including military mining systems, tunnels, subways, dugouts and bunkers has recently investigated an opening leading into a German tunnel system in France. Group members investigated the tunnel, located on private land, using specialist equipment. Its entrance had become exposed as the result of historic collapse and was found to lead into a tunnel that appeared to lead some distance. Experienced in cave rescue, mining engineering and bomb disposal, the group uses equipment designed for working underground.

Hazards are to be expected. One of the more insidious is that of highly dangerous ‘foul air’ resulting from low concentrations of oxygen and high concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), often produced as a result of organic decomposition within tunnel systems. The normal concentration of oxygen in ambient air is approximately 21%. As the level of oxygen falls, negative effects are felt, and at below 10% it becomes potentially fatal. The team recorded dangerous levels in the German tunnel, returned quickly and without mishap to the surface and ruled it unsafe to progress the exploration. Decomposition of timber used in the shoring system is likely to have led to such dangerous air quality. German tunnel engineers used timber far more extensively than their British counterparts. Further exploration will now only be undertaken once an appropriate ventilation system is in place. Meanwhile, the curious are strongly warned about attempting to explore systems of this nature without proper experience and equipment.

The tunnel entrance location in a wooded area.

The dedication of new names on the Easington War Memorial.

Names Added to War Memorial TWO NAMES have been added to the war memorial at Easington in East Yorkshire following pressure by local people reports Geoff Simpson. The commemoration of one First World War man and one from the Second World War was led by a service conducted by a former Bishop of Bradford. On 26 March 1916 Lieutenant Francis William Jennings of the Leicestershire Regiment was killed when a washed up mine he was dealing with exploded on the beach at Easington. He was buried in the local cemetery. Two other officers survived the explosion. Also buried at Easington is Pilot Officer Jack Buchanan, who was serving with 29 Squadron on February 15 1941 when a Beaufighter, of which he was the pilot, crashed at Scopwick, Lincolnshire, with no survivors. Jack Buchanan was born in north London and had flown with the same squadron in the Battle of

Britain. At the time of his death he was engaged to Eve Cussons who came from Easington. She chose the village cemetery as his place of burial. A plaque has been placed on Pilot Officer Buchanan’s newlyrefurbished grave recording his status as one of The Few (above). Represented at the service were 29 Squadron from RAF Coningsby as well as RAF Digby.

Bomb Found Near Wembley Stadium

IN THE latest in a recent spate of discoveries (see previous issues), another unexploded Second World War bomb was uncovered in the London area on 21 May. During excavations as a result of construction work in the Wembley area, very close to the world-famous stadium, a 50kg SC 50 high explosive bomb was found at the junction of Fulton Road, Wembley Park Drive and Empire Way. It is reported that the bucket of a mechanical digger actually struck the device.

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Bomb disposal teams of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment Royal Logistic Corps were called out, assisted by soldiers of the Royal Engineers. They built a safety structure around the device to limit the damage from any explosion and to allow the safety cordon, initially set to over 1000m from the site, to be significantly reduced in size. The RLC Ammunition Technical Officer (ATO) worked through the night in challenging conditions to make the device safe.

(© CROWN COPYRIGHT 2015)

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

| BRIEFING ROOM

See Inside A Tank New Tank Museum Virtual Reality Project

THE TANK Museum, which needs no introduction to regular Britain At War readers, is to produce a series of virtual reality 360 degree videos of the interior of selected tanks. They will also offer the opportunity to experience riding on the top of a turret of a tank. The concept of 360 degree virtual reality video is being pioneered by this project, in partnership with wargaming.net. The innovative technology works by using multiple cameras that concurrently film a 360 degree panorama. The images are then ‘stitched’ together using special software to allow a virtual 360 degree video experience. To see it, the user simply uses the GOOGLECARDBOARD viewer combined with a smartphone. The GOOGLECARDBOARD viewer is a simple cardboard device, folded together into which a compatible smartphone is inserted. Using an app or internet browser the video is then played and viewed on the phone, contained within the viewer. Using the movement sensors contained in the phone (which are used to adjust the visible screen to landscape or portrait display) the viewer software then moves the image in relation to head movements. It is therefore possible, for instance, to sit ‘virtually’ inside a tank, using the viewer to look around a 360-degree landscape. You can also view it on PC or tablets using standard mouse or keyboard controls. Currently, the thousands of visitors to the museum are able to view the exteriors of the tanks on display but not to see inside (MARK KHAN)

(MARK KHAN)

HL Flower with HRH the Prince of Wales at the then annual Battle of Britain Fighter Association summer get-together in 2010.

Last of The Few Hubert Luiz Flower

them. This technology will help to provide the ability to do this for selected vehicles. Supported by museum staff, wargaming.net also have two specialist military advisors assisting them. Experts in armoured warfare and former tank commanders Richard Cutland (ex British Army) and Nick Moran (ex US Army) are able to offer their considerable experience to add context to the project. Videos are planned to be made available to the wider global wargaming community and general public at the same time. For those visiting Tankfest at the end of June, Google is providing 10,000 units of World of Tanks branded Google cardboard viewers.

THE DEATH took place on 15 April 2015 of Hubert Luiz Flower who flew in the Battle of Britain as a wireless operator/air gunner in Blenheims of 248 Squadron, reports Geoff Simpson. Luiz Flower was born on 24 November 1921 at Ballasalla, in the south east of the Isle of Man. His date of birth makes him one of the youngest men to fly in the Battle, but with many dates of birth unknown and new participants discovered, it cannot be certain that he was the youngest. Flower joined the RAF as a boy entrant in September 1937 and trained as a wireless operator. He went on to receive air gunner training and joined 248 Squadron at Sumburgh on 26 July 1940, as a Wop/AG. This was one of the Coastal Command squadrons attached to Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. He flew 126 sorties during his service with Coastal Command

before serving later with the West African Communication Command. He also flew in the Berlin airlift with 27 Squadron. Having completed a nine-year engagement with the RAF Flower retired as a Master Signaller, at that time equivalent to the rank of Warrant Officer. In 1952 Flower graduated from the London School of Economics and then served in the Colonial Service, retiring in 1965 as Provincial Commissioner for the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. He was called to the Bar in 1967 and then worked in the Solicitors’ Office of HM Customs and Excise. Flower transferred to the Lord Chancellor’s Department and retired in 1982. He did not claim his Battle of Britain Clasp until June 1999, having not realised for many years that he was entitled to it. He then attended commemorative events for a number of years.

HMS Goliath Commemorations (MARK KHAN)

MAY 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the loss of Canopusclass pre-Dreadnought battleship HMS Goliath. Commemorative services marked the sinking of the ill-fated battleship across the UK and Ireland, including a service held in Penzance, Cornwall, another in the Irish village of Coonagh, where 8 men from village died, and a wreath laying by Dave Llewellyn, who travelled to Gallipoli

in memory of 16 Manxmen killed in the sinking as well as others who died elsewhere in the campaign. Goliath was sent to support French operations when she was torpedoed off the coast of Cape Helles, the most south-westerly tip of the Gallipoli peninsula, on 12 May 1915 by Turkish destroyer Muâvenet-i Millîye. She capsized within 4 minutes, taking 570 of her 700 strong crew with her.

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

PLACES TO VISIT

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Aviation Paintings of the Year

WHERE: The Mall Galleries, London WHEN: Until 21 July The Guild of Aviation Artists 45th annual summer exhibition, a must for enthusiasts of aircraft art.

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HELP WANTED: WHO WERE THESE MARKS & SPENCER EMPLOYEES?

READER GRAHAM Lelliott recently contacted Britain at War after a chance discovery at work. Graham takes up the story: ‘I do maintenance for Marks and Spencer stores and found a pencilled inscription on the wall (see attached) which appears to be a small memorial to two employees employed at Worthing Store who

The War & Peace Revival

WHERE: Folkestone Racecourse, Kent WHEN: 22-26 July The world’s largest military vehicle extravaganza, with living history displays, military vehicles, and re-enactments.

Woodhall Spa 1940’s Festival WHERE: Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire WHEN: 18-19 July

Yeovilton Air Day

WHERE: Yeovilton WHEN: 11 July Premier airshow of the Royal Navy

The Royal International Air Tattoo

WHERE: RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire WHEN: 17-19 July The mighty Vulcan, an assortment of Spitfires and Hurricanes, and of course the Red Arrows.

Flying Legends Air Show

WHERE: IWM Duxford, Cambridgeshire WHEN: 11-12 July Display of rare historic aircraft, culminating in the renowned ‘balbo’ – a massed formation flying finale.

Buxton Military Tattoo

WHERE: Devonshire Dome, Buxton, Derbyshire WHEN: 4 July Now in its sixth year, the UK’s finest military bands perform.

WFA Events

The pencilled memorial found by reader Graham Lelliott on the wall of the Marks and Spencer store in Worthing, East Sussex.

were called up for active service during the Second World War. It appears that they were in the RAF and were killed over enemy territory in 1945. I’m very keen on finding out more about them. I have written an article for the Worthing Herald and have tried the Marks and Spencer company archive but they weren’t able to offer any help. ‘The names of the two men are Sgt S. Williams and R. B. Finn, both presumably from Worthing. Is it possible to find out somewhere what aircraft they were in and where they were killed or is it a needle in a haystack?’ Taking up the challenge, editor Andy Saunders soon established that P/O R B Finn was the pilot of a nightfighter, Mosquito NFXVII, HK296, 68 Squadron

operating from Coltishall when he was lost. However, we will need more information on Sgt S. Williams, which is where the ever-resourceful readers of Britain at War come in. Please contact the usual addresses with any information which might clarify the identify of Sgt Williams. As Graham Lelliott says: ‘They were two of around 2,000 men employed by Marks & Spencer who were called up to serve in the armed forces. They were also two of the 96 employees who died on active service; 59 became prisoners of war. I do personally feel they deserve to be remembered properly on a plaque in view of both staff and customers, rather than pencilled on a brick wall at the back of a cupboard.’

Anatomy of a Gas Attack 8th/9th August 1916  Marc Thompson returns to the Royal Marines Association Club (Eastney), Portsmouth, on 27 July at 7.30pm to continue his story of the Hampshires during the Great War.  

The BEF’s Artillery 1915 – Improvise and Expand

 At 2pm on 18 July, Geoff Spring will present a talk at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall on the BEF and the Royal Artillery, his talk will cover the actuality of war, changes in the organisation, doctrine, shells, and guns of the Royal Artillery and the results these changes had at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. 8

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Relevant excerpts from company records.

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27/05/2015 09:13

WE WILL BE ATTENDING SHOWS IN THE UK ON A REGULAR BASIS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR MAINLY LEEDS AND BIRMINGHAM OUR NEXT FAIR WILL BE ON

Sunday 12th July 2015 @ Pudsey Civic Hall, Leeds

THE WEBSITE IS CONSTANTLY BEING UPDATED, SO BE SURE TO CHECK ON A REGULAR BASIS PLEASE VISIT:

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WE WILL GIVE YOU THE VERY BEST PRICES FOR YOUR COMPLETE COLLECTION OR SINGLE ITEMS

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With over 35 year’s hands on experience, my aim is to bring you the collector, established or novice, original pre 1945 construction German Militaria. With a price to suit everyone, you will find a mixture of readily available items, together with the more desirable items from that period. You will find a good selection of Daggers, Helmets, Headgear, Medals, Combat Awards, Equipment, Badges, Documents, and much much more. Please take the time to browse through the items in my on-line shop, I am sure you will not be disappointed. Each item is guaranteed original from the 1933 -1945 3rd Reich period, unless otherwise stated.

The Memorial Pegasus museum

is dedicated to the men of 6th British Airborne Division. The 1st liberators to arrive in Normandy on June 6th 1944. Archive films, a guided visit and many interesting and authentic objects enable the visitors to relive this momentous time. The original Pegasus Bridge is on display in the park of the museum along with a full size copy of a wartime Horsa glider.

Open everyday from February to Mid - December Only five minutes drive from the Brittany Ferries Terminal at Caen/Ouistreham

Tel: +33 (0) 231 781944 Fax: +33 (0) 231 781942 Memorial Pegasus Avenue du Major Howard 14860 RanvilleNormandy • France www.memorial-pegasus.org

M33 Monitor Restoration

| NEWS FEATURE

from hulk to a gem: m33 monitor restoration Recent visitors to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard will have noticed a hive of activity in one corner of the dockyard surrounding a small but significant warship writes Rob Langham.

Monitors M27 and M23 at Murmansk, 1919.

FOR MONTHS the ship was hidden under a covered structure in Number One Dry Dock to enable work to continue through winter. The cover has now been removed, revealing the M29-class monitor M33. Built in 1915 by Workman, Clark & Co of Belfast (Harland & Wolff sub-contractors) M33 was soon sent with her sisters to Gallipoli, arriving during early August 1915 to support the Suvla Bay landings and other attacks in the ANZAC sector. The monitors’ shallow draught and guns helped provide vital fire support for troops on land. However, the speed at which M33 was designed and built resulted in faults that soon became apparent. M33’s designed displacement was 355 tons but changes such as increasing ammunition and fuel capacity necessitated a much heavier 580 ton displacement. Consequences included an increase in draught, which was calculated at being just four feet (in reality it was six), the steering gear and rudder being much less effective than designed and with ballast added to solve trim issues. When in action, the firing of M33’s two 6 inch guns distorted the decks and bulkheads around her turrets, with concussion shearing rivets and damaging furniture, electrical fittings and chinaware. Despite her shortcomings, M33 provided valuable support throughout the Gallipoli campaign, the subsequent Salonika campaign and other actions in the Mediterranean and Aegean. After decommissioning in April 1919 M33 was rapidly re-commissioned for service with the Russian Relief Force, fighting against the Bolsheviks. Entering Archangel in June, M33 saw action in the Dvina River Campaign. A few months later, after replacing her guns and other equipment with dummy versions constructed from wood, pipes and biscuit tins, M33 had a narrow escape during her withdrawal as only then could she sit just high enough in the water to pass over sandbanks and travel upriver.

Despite being essentially an expendable vessel and floating gun platform that utilised minimal crew and resources, M33 continued to be useful. (NB: In addition, heavy naval losses and the loss of two battleships sunk by the U-21 made the use of the Monitors more attractive) In the 1920’s M33, renamed HMS Minerva, was used as a minelaying training vessel and later as a fuel hulk and floating workshop. Despite serious structural issues, and the fact that M33 was an uncomfortable home for her small crew, she remained in use until 1984. Officially laid up she was then offered for sale as RMAS Minerva Hulk C23. Fortunately, the significance of this little warship was recognised and in 1987 she was sold to the Hartlepool Ship Preservation Trust, restorers of ironclad HMS Warrior. M33 did not quite capture public imagination as Warrior A typical Stirling crew. (D HASKELL) had, and finances prevented restoration from proceeding as hoped. M33 was subsequently bought by Hampshire County Council and moved to Portsmouth in 1991, entering Number One Dry Dock in 1997. Her hull received desperately needed work, including electrolytic desalination on her interior to stop further deterioration. Two 6 inch guns (the aft gun from HMS Canada and believed fired at the Battle of Jutland) and a 6 pounder anti-aircraft gun were sourced, while gun shields, anchors and other fittings had to be replicated. Work continued where possible, but funding always proved challenging. In 2007 M33 was drastically changed by repainting her ‘dazzle’ anti-submarine

camouflage first worn in 1918. The pattern, consisting of black and white angular shapes, was designed to confuse observers as to which way the warship was travelling. The First World War centenary draws a lot of attention on M33 and other surviving artefacts of the conflict, especially the cruiser HMS Caroline and sloop HMS Saxifrage (now known as HMS President). In 2014, M33 was transferred to the National Museum of the Royal Navy to continue restoration and to be opened to the public permanently. The project to open M33 - the last surviving British warship of the Gallipoli campaign – will cost a further £2.4 million pounds. A grant of £1.8 million pounds was made by the Heritage Lottery Fund and a crowdfunding campaign was initiated. M33 is set to open on August 6, 2015 (centenary of the Suvla Bay landings) and will be the centrepiece of a high profile event to commemorate Gallipoli. The newest addition to Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard will also feature displays on Gallipoli including what is described as a ‘stunning immersive battlefield experience’. Together with the National Museum of the Royal Navy’s 2015 exhibition ‘Gallipoli: Myth & Memory’, M33 will tell the vital role of the Royal Navy during the campaign, including the bombardments and landings as well as supply and fire support roles that continued until evacuation in January 1916. Into the future, M33 will be a permanent reminder and living memorial to those who served in the Gallipoli campaign.

M33 after receiving her new dazzle camouflage scheme. (PHOTOS VIA ROB LANGHAM)

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NEWS FEATURE |

Colditz Anniversary

The 70th anniversary of the liberation of the famous prisoner of war camp took place in April. Tony Hoskins, who enjoys a significant association with Colditz, describes what happened.

ABOVE: Colditz Castle from the bridge over the River mulde - formally the Adolf Hitler Bridge. (ALL PHOTOS TONY HOSKINS.)

ABOVE: Locally made replica Colditz glider in the lower attic.

ON THE evening of 15 April 2015 nearly 200 people, both locals and visitors, packed into the Church of St Egidien to start 24 hours of events marking 70 years since the liberation of the nearby Oflag IVC – Colditz Castle. Decades before, the battle for Colditz had begun in earnest on the morning of 14 April 1945. For such a small settlement, it was well defended against the Allies. As well as the castle garrison, Colditz was home to an infantry regiment of mostly German National Militia (Volkssturm), but by the morning of 14 April, this had been swelled by a Waffen SS Division of 800 troops, bringing with them some 88mm Anti-Aircraft guns, which were set up on the hill east of the castle, and a large supply of anti-tank Panzerfausts for the Volkssturm.

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The prisoners, knowing that the advancing American and Russian forces were getting near, met with the Castle Kommandant. He had been given orders to march the prisoners from the castle to the east, but as the prisoners highlighted, this put the lives of both themselves and the Germans at risk. After a day of negotiation, the Kommandant surrendered himself and his guards to the prisoners, this being perhaps the safest option for all parties. It was decided that all would remain in the castle as with the SS unit in town, it would have been unwise for the Kommandant and his men to leave. The German defence of Colditz was greater than the Americans had imagined. The defenders’ machine gun and sniper fire was both accurate and continuous, and with the Germans advancing across the river towards the railway station in an attempt to encircle the attacking American company, it was evident that the GIs would not get across the river that night. It was probably around this time that the SS troops entered the HASAG slave labour concentration camp just south of Colditz, murdering 400 Hungarian Jews. A handful survived by hiding under the dead bodies of their fellow countrymen. Howitzer shelling of the town began again on the morning of the 15th, this time ranging on the eastern side of the town and the castle itself. Shells landed on the prison guardroom; one smashed the window of Wing Commander Douglas Bader’s window, fragments of this shell injuring a French prisoner. Hurriedly, the prisoners began making flags with materials the Germans had supplied for theatrical costumes and began writing messages on banners to hang from the windows. More banners were laid out in the prison courtyard in the hope that American reconnaissance aircraft would spot them, but sadly the shelling continued. The next shots skimmed past the castle, smashing through the trees above the exercise fields.

In another barrage, a German sergeant was killed on the bridge outside the southern entrance to the castle. By now a Union Jack and French flag had been fashioned and hung from the windows of the castle, but again these were unfortunately not spotted by the gunners. As more shells fell on the castle, the prisoners who until then had been avidly watching the events taking place in the town were ordered down into the safety of the cellars while the fighting continued. Two shells hit the Kommandantur building, but no casualties were sustained. Shortly after, an American gunner spotted the flags, and with his comrades now in the town, enquiries were made with the civilians which confirmed the castle housed POWs. Next day, it soon became apparent that the SS had withdrawn from the town during the previous night, and by 11am, the GI’s reached the castle. The town had been taken by the Americans, and the inmates of the castle liberated. There was much celebration – many of the prisoners had been there since 1940 – but with no way of actually relocating these men, most stayed in the castle until 19 April when transport arrangements were finally made to bring them home. Four men, including two platoon sergeants, had been killed; a further 8 men had been wounded.

THE ANNIVERSARY

Seventy years on, relatives of prisoner Will Anderson had gathered at the Castle to host a musical celebration to mark the prisoners’ liberation. Shortly before the evening concert on the 15th, a small ceremony was held in the castle with an exchange of flags, marking the efforts of the prisoners to preserve life in the castle from friendly fire all those years before. This time though, whereas the prisoners had received material from the German soldiers with which they made flags, now 70 years on, flags made by Will’s family were presented back to the castle.

Colditz Anniversary

The social significance of the 70th Anniversary to the locals was clear. We from abroad were marking the arrival of the American forces and the subsequent freedom of many men held against their wishes in the town. To the people of Colditz, the same period marked the start of Allied occupation – although it brought peace to the region after 6 years of war, it ultimately led to 45 years of Russian control right up to the reunification of Germany in 1990. To have so many locals attend that evening concert in the church was special for all involved.

ABOVE: French tunnel leading down under the foundations from the chapel.

For me, it was a very special occasion. A TV documentary I had been involved with in 2012 had brought significant exposure for the castle in its derelict state, and with this circulated around the world, broadcast on every continent, renewed awareness in the castle has significantly increased visitor numbers in the years since. As a result of work carried out during the making of that documentary, both in the glider attic and the French tunnel under the chapel floor, much more material and historical research has come to light, and the castle wanted to present this to the increased visitor numbers. Subsequently, as

TONY HOSKINS IN EARLY 2012, Tony and his South East Aircraft Services team built a full size radiocontrolled replica of the Colditz Glider, and launched it from the roof of the castle for a Channel 4 documentary, broadcast that autumn. Since then, Tony has given lectures and presentations across the UK, to universities and private groups.

part of a phased restoration plan over several years, €1.8M was released by the Saxony Government for the restoration and inclusion of improved visitor access to the chapel and glider attic. The grand opening of these restored areas of the castle, and the glider display was to occur on the 70th anniversary and I had been invited to the castle to attend. The official castle commemorations began at 1pm on the 16th with the Musik Akademie in the former German quarters hosting officials and dignitaries, including both the British and American Ambassadors, the mayor of Colditz and the Minister for Saxony Government, as well as castle management and invited guests. Musical accompaniment was provided by the Grove Singers, a chamber choir of 36 voices led by Cavan Roberts. Together with speeches from various dignitaries, including David Ray, Secretary of the Colditz Society, there followed at 2pm, a tour of the newly renovated Chapel and Glider Attic for the VIPs and photographers. There were also public tours with castle stalwart, Steffi Schubert, well-known English speaking tour guide and a ‘must meet’ for anybody who visits the castle.

RENOVATIONS

The chapel renovations have turned an area previously closed to the public into a clean and functional area, which, although typical of how it would have appeared in the 19th Century, also preserves the Ghost hole under the pulpit, and portions of the French tunnel where it comes up from the cellars to pass under the floor, and where it routes down under the foundations. For the first time, visitors can climb the restored stair cases to reach the upper Chapel floors, and from the third level, can continue up the stone spiral staircase to the upper levels under the main glider attic. The upper room, mainly houses artefacts from the 2012 Documentary ‘Escape from Colditz’. A central display stand runs a 10 minute screening of the building and flight of the 2012 replica of the glider, interspersed with both archive footage and prisoner interviews. Available in both English and German, it gives a broad insight into life at the castle, and this ingenious attempt at escape. Behind the seating area,

| NEWS FEATURE

behind a glass partition, are the remains of the subject glider. Although currently not accessible to visitors, it will form part of the second stage of renovations in the castle, but for the moment can only be viewed through the partition. Visitors make their way from this upper room, into the lower attic space. Here they will find another replica glider, commissioned by the castle in 2005, and built by local man Herr Stelzer at Leipzig-Altenberg airport. The original plan had been to fly this machine, but instead, it was decided the machine should be placed in a museum. Until very recently, this replica had been displayed at the Luftwaffe Museum at Gatow, Berlin, but with the opening of the attic loft space, it was brought to Colditz at the end of 2014. Here it recreates the famous attic photo taken by an American GI on the liberation day, the iconic image itself is reproduced in large scale on the very wall the prisoners intended to dismantle in a bid for freedom. Having travelled to and from Colditz at regular intervals now for 3 years, I can say that the transformation of this part of the castle is magnificent. Over the coming years, and the completion of the next stages, the castle will return to a state worthy of its varied history.

ABOVE: The Chapel at Colditz Castle.

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NEWS FEATURE |

Dunkirk Commemorations

Return of the

Little Ships The 75th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation brought a fleet of Little Ships and much more to the French port in a series of evocative commemorations. Rob Pritchard kept a diary of the four days of events for Britain at War.

ON A bright May afternoon the first day of events was focussed on the quayside. Amid eager anticipation for the arrival of the Little Ships, the waterside soon filled with a mix of spectators, journalists, period vehicles, bagpipers, loudspeaker vans and most importantly, veterans. ‘Star turn’ among the latter was 93-year-old airman, Arthur Taylor. Back in 1940 his role was as a ground controller (usually known as a ‘Forward Air Controller’ in modern forces) working with 13 Squadron and its Lysander army cooperation aircraft and the Royal Artillery units of the BEF. Once the Blitzkrieg was launched ‘his’ Lysander lasted just three days and Arthur found himself without an effective role. Absorbed into the ground element of the BEF he was forced back towards Dunkirk as Lord Gort’s plan to save as many as possible from death or captivity swung into action.

21 May 2015

BELOW: The RNLI lifeboat Rosa Woodd and Phyllis Lunn was launched in 1933 and was Shoreham's 5th lifeboat. She made three trips to Dunkirk and back but no records exist of those rescued.

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It should not be forgotten that an important part of the Dunkirk story was the animosity felt by the surviving soldiers towards the RAF. “Where is the RAF?” was reportedly a familiar refrain on the beaches and in the town. Arthur himself stands testament to the truth of this: RAF personnel evacuating through Dunkirk were told to cover up their uniforms. He was pulled to one side by a senior British officer and given a coat before he was allowed to join the others queuing for their boat back to England. Arthur still vividly recalls his time queuing on the Eastern Mole and how those on the beach would scatter in a prearranged drill as the bombers approached in order to provide a less tempting target. He was eventually lifted off the Mole by the minesweeping trawler Lord Grey, returning to the Air Force and serving with them through the remainder of the war and into the 1960s. Just after six o’clock on the 75th anniversary, the procession of returning Little Ships was led into the harbour by the 33ft motor yacht Papillon to an outbreak of cheering and some powerfully amplified ‘period’ music

emanating from a tiny little French van on the quayside. As boat after boat entered the arena the applause never stopped, each craft greeted enthusiastically to the obvious delight of the crews who had brought them across the English Channel in a loose convoy, escorted by two Royal Navy patrol vessels.

22 May 2015

WITH THE Little Ships tied up alongside the quay and attracting considerable attention, the focus switched inland to the significant Commonwealth War Graves commission cemetery and memorial off the Furnes road. As beautifully neat and well-tended as all such cemeteries are, this one appeared to have been even more spruced-up for the service to be held. It is situated in one corner of the town (civil) cemetery and holds the graves of some 460 WW1 burials, nearly 700 WW2 burials and a set of imposing grey plinths listing the names of 4,500 casualties of the early war and evacuation with no known resting place. It is thus a small, but no less saddening, memorial in the manner of the Menin Gate and Thiepval.

Dunkirk Commemorations

| NEWS FEATURE

ABOVE: The London Fireboat Massey Shaw, although never intended to be sea going, made three cross-channel return trips and off the beaches acted as tender between the shore and larger ships.

ABOVE: On the 2nd/3rd of June the motor yacht Elvin crossed the Channel grossly overloaded and landed 33 Allied troops at Ramsgate.

Amid these memorials a touching and solemn commemoration took place with Prince Michael of Kent among those laying wreaths and inspecting the colours. Media interest was high and it was plain that a considerable number of those attending were French dignitaries and nationals, proud to share in the 75-year commemoration. Outside the packed Memorial Cemetery the period vehicles that had yesterday lined the quay were joined by even more and then neatly parked where they attracted wide passer-by attention. As in previous years, the organisation was the responsibility of The War and Peace Display team who, supported by the Invicta Military Vehicle Preservation Society and the Norfolk Military Vehicle Group had brought around 30 correct period vehicles across the Channel. In contrast to 1940, none of these were going to be disabled and abandoned on the Dunkirk beach.

ABOVE: Aldeburgh lifeboat, Lucy Lavers, was one of 19 RNLI boats involved in Dynamo. This was her first commemorative trip since a major restoration.

Echoing the human veterans in the cemetery, among this group was a highly significant vehicle, a Humber Super Snipe Staff Car that was itself a genuine Dunkirk veteran. The vehicle had a very chequered career during and after the Second World War, being abandoned by its first owners – the British Army – during the evacuation, to be pressed into service with the Kriegsmarine U-Boat service in Cherbourg. Here it remained until being repossessed when the port was taken on 27 June 1944. It was then put to work by the French, used by the Le Moy pompiers (fire brigade) towing a trailer pump for a good many years after the war finished. Returning to the UK it has been restored and is now shown by its owner, Alexander Scott. Back at the harbour another moored Dunkirk veteran was open for inspection as well as hosting a number of exhibitions. The paddle steamer Princess Elizabeth was originally built for the Southampton

ABOVE: In 1940 the Cornish lugger Maid Marion was diverted to Le Havre were she rescued a full boatload of troops.

to the Isle of Wight run, and named for the present Queen. At the start of the war Princess Elizabeth was taken over by the Admiralty and converted into a minesweeper. Just a year later, she was on her way to Dunkirk where her first task was to clear the mines from the narrow channel off the beaches. Only when this task was completed could she start the work of embarking the waiting troops. On her first journey, 29 May 1940, she and her fellow minesweepers embarked a total of 3,415 troops. One, the paddleminesweeper Oriole, had deliberately beached herself early that morning, to allow 2,500 troops to pass over her decks to other ships, before she refloated on the next high tide that evening. When Princess Elizabeth came again, on Saturday, 1 June, she arrived in the middle of a furious air attack when, among others, the destroyers Keith and Basilisk and the minesweepers Skipjack and Brighton Queen were sunk. By evening,

ABOVE: MFH ferried troops from the beaches to larger vessels. Later she picked up 140 men from the Eastern Mole and returned to England.

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NEWS FEATURE |

Dunkirk Commemorations

ABOVE: The cabin cruiser Jong loaded steamships Foam Queen and Jaba with French and British troops picked up from the beaches.

ABOVE: The lifeboat Mary Scott was abandoned on the Dunkirk beaches.

the fog came down and Princess Elizabeth had to return to Dover. She made a third trip in the night of 3/4 June, joining in the last desperate effort to rescue some of the remaining troops. Among others, she brought back to Dover 500 Frenchmen that day. Six of her sister paddle steamers were sunk during the operation. The Brighton Belle and Gracie Fields on Tuesday 28 May, Crested Eagle and the Clyde Waverley on Wednesday 29 May, Devonia on Thursday 30 May, and Brighton Queen on Friday 31 May. Now, fittingly, the heroic survivor belongs to the city of Dunkirk and is maintained in superb condition. THE WEATHER, which had so far been very pleasant, turned grey and cold for the major event of the Saturday, a commemorative ceremony at the Operation Dynamo Memorial. With a cutting wind off the sea and a dank and

23 May 2015

BELOW: The former Isle of Wight pleasure steamer Princess Elizabeth was pressed into service to great effect and is today maintained by the town of Dunkirk in pristine condition.

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ABOVE: RNLI lifeboat Prudential towed seven wherries carrying water to Dunkirk. Later she transferred 2,800 men from small boats to ships offshore.

ABOVE: Among the last vessels to leave Dunkirk, HMS Fervant.

pervading haze the veterans showed every bit as much courage has had been required 70 years ago as they sat through a lengthy ceremony. Sailors from the French Navy, The Royal Navy, a band and a host of local dignitaries made an impressive sight gathered around the Memorial crafted by the architect Albert Laprade and the sculptor Maurice Ringot from original cobblestones that, during the war, had formed the road surface on one of the Dunkirk quays. Two French youngsters gave a specially written address conjuring up a picture in words of the dark moments of 1940 and the death and destruction that had been visited on their town.

Then, by far the most moving moment of the whole weekend was when Arthur Taylor was helped from his wheelchair by two burly soldiers and gently assisted to walk the 40 or 50 metres to the memorial, there to lay his wreath in tribute to all his comrades in arms who fell 

ABOVE: The most moving moment of the four-day commemoration came when 93-year-old veteran Arthur Taylor, an RAF ground controller in 1940, walked 40 metres from his wheelchair to lay a wreath to his fallen comrades.

Open everyday from 10am to 5pm local time. 2015 Admission Prices Adults: €5.00 - Groups: €4.00 - School Groups: €3.50

Memorial Du Souvenir F_P.indd 1

08/04/2015 15:00

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Dunkirk Commemorations

ABOVE: The service at the CWGC cemetery was well attended by both French and British public and officials.

ABOVE: The War and Peace Display Team and the Invicta Military Vehicle Preservation Society added authenticity to the event.

ABOVE: White Heather arrived at Dunkirk on 1 June 1940, she carried troops to larger vessels and then completed three trips direct to England.

ABOVE: Hilfranor was sunk in shallow water by German dive bombers. Allegedly French soldiers raised her and got as far as the Goodwin Sands.

during the evacuation. As he stood back and saluted smartly, erect and steady in the biting wind the emotion was tangible. He turned, flanked by his helpers, and a spontaneous outbreak of applause broke out from all around the ceremony, not stopping until he had regained his wheelchair. The two soldiers, their task complete, stepped away. Few present realised that these were his grandsons - Royal Marines Major Stuart Taylor, and Warrant Officer Ian Taylor, of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Once again Prince Michael of Kent laid a wreath and inspected the colour party. This time he wore his uniform as Honorary Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy Reserve. The assembled period vehicles made their way back to the centre of Dunkirk where they formed a key part of an impressive parade through the streets.

24 May 2015

EFFECTIVELY THE last day of the commemoration was marked by a quayside service for the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships, and a service near the wreckage of the paddle steamer Crested Eagle which is still visible at low tide between Bray and Zuydcoote. Built in 1925 as a river cruiser taking excited holidaymakers on trips up and down the Thames she was requisitioned for Operation Dynamo. On 28 May 1940 she was despatched to Dunkirk and the next day loaded some 600 men, many of them wounded, from the Eastern Mole then set off to clear the beaches. Unfortunately within half a mile or so the Luftwaffe found her, their bombs wreaking havoc and at least one finding the fuel tanks. The resulting fire was

BELOW: Mimosa is a 48ft motor yacht requisitioned in 1940 for 'Operation Dynamo'. Under Lieutenant Commander Dixon she made three trips to the beaches off Dunkirk.

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horrific and between that, the waves and gunfire from the Germans, very few men survived. The exact toll will never be known. The formal events are now over, but for those moved to make the pilgrimage there is plenty to see at Dunkirk still. An excellent museum covering both Operation Dynamo and the gruelling siege at the war’s end can be found near Bastion 32. http://www. dynamo-Dunkirk.com/en/ . Comprehensive information is available on the tourism website at http://www.dunkirk-tourism.com/ The 75th Anniversary was marked splendidly, honouring the promise that ‘We will remember them’. Credit is due to the French people and their tourism department for the arrangements, the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships and their intrepid crews for crossing the channel in their lovingly cared for boats, and finally the members of the War and Peace Display Team and the Invicta Military Vehicle Preservation Society: www.thewarandpeacerevival.co.uk.

RAF Honour Battle of Britain VC

| NEWS FEATURE

RAF Honour Battle of Britain VC Seventy five years after he won the only Second World War Victoria Cross of RAF Fighter Command the RAF have remembered its recipient, Flt Lt James Brindley Nicolson, in a unique way writes Andy Saunders.

THE SUBJECT of Flt Lt James Brindley Nicolson and his Battle of Britain Victoria Cross have been the subject of much reader debate and interest in this magazine since running a feature on him in our November 2014 issue. His story continues to excite and attract attention and it thus nice to see that the Royal Air Force of 2015 have paid tribute to James Nicolson VC in this 75th anniversary year of the Battle of Britain by marking up its 29 Squadron display Typhoon fighter in 1940 period camouflage and bearing the code letters GN-A as worn on the Hurricane flown by Nicolson when he was shot down on 16 August 1940. Apart from the Battle of Britain period camouflage, roundels and code letters the Typhoon carries the honour-title inscription ‘Flt Lt J Nicolson VC’ under the cockpit rail. However, when it was painted up and resplendent in its new markings Britain at War noticed that one small but important detail was missing: a little-known personal emblem of a red Devil thumbing its nose that Nicolson had had painted on his 249 Squadron Hurricane.

As a result, Britain at War editorial staff teamed up with model aircraft enthusiast Steve Budd earlier this year to gather more research detail on the emblem and although no known photographs of it exists there was some artwork reference material available in the London Illustrated News of 30 November 1940 and a drawing of the VC action by artist Bryan De Grineau. According to that publication, De Grineau had obtained details on the markings of the Hurricane directly from Nicolson himself who subsequently endorsed the artistic representation as being accurate. Additionally, Nicolson’s widow, Muriel, had confirmed during interviews in the 1970s and 80s that James had written to tell her in detail during 1940 about the emblem that had been painted on his Hurricane. Although the reference sources were a little vague there were sufficient details available to allow the Editor of Britain at War to commission a full-size representation of the emblem from the late Michael Payne. This was executed as long ago as 1982 on the opening of Tangmere Military Aviation Museum and the acquisition of Nicolson’s burnt uniform, Mae West and shell

damaged shoe for display there along with a now famous painting of the action commissioned from the renowned aviation artist, Robert Taylor. As such, the replication by Michael Payne was regarded as the nearest likely representation of Nicolson’s personal marking and the various bits of gathered research material were submitted by Steve Budd for consideration by the RAF and the hoped-for application of the emblem to the Typhoon. After being referred ‘to the highest levels’ in the RAF the emblem was eventually agreed and signed off by the AOC with the result that it was finally applied to the Typhoon earlier this summer. On 21 May it was rolled-out at RAF Coningsby for a press preview in the presence of Mr Jim Nicolson, nephew of James Nicolson VC. Now fully marked up in its 1940 war-paint, and complete with the unique Red Devil badge, the Typhoon will be joining the air show display circuit this anniversary summer in a duo-display with one of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Spitfires. Interest in Nicolson VC has always remained high and will doubtless be boosted further over the period of the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain through the RAF’s fitting tribute.

ABOVE: Flt Lt Anthony ‘Parky’ Parkinson, Spitfire pilot of the Battle of Britain Memorial tribute ‘duo’, with Jim Nicolson, nephew of Nicolson VC.

ABOVE: Typhoon ZK349 in its Flt Lt James Nicolson VC 75th anniversary tribute scheme at RAF Coningsby on 21 May 2015. (BARRIE MAY)

ABOVE: A close-up of Flt Lt Nicolson’s Red Devil emblem. (BARRIE MAY)

(BARRIE MAY)

www.britainatwar.com 19

NEWS FEATURE |

Breaking News

MALAYSIA: ILLEGAL SALVAGERS ARRESTED In a follow up to our recent story about the threat to the wrecks of HMAS Perth and USS Houston from illicit salvage, Andy Brockman reports on the recent arrest of two alleged illegal salvage crews and proposed new efforts by the Royal Malaysian Navy and the Ministry of Defence to protect military wreck sites in the Far East

US Navy divers based on USNS Safeguard carrying out a survey of the wreck the USS Houston.

Britain at War magazine can report that the UK Ministry of Defence is in negotiation with the Royal Malaysian Navy in the hope of conducting a survey to ascertain the level and nature of the damage done to historic Royal Navy shipwrecks in the Far East by unauthorised salvage. The news comes as concern has been growing over the threat to historic Royal Navy ship wrecks, in particular vessels lost during World War One and World War Two, which the public regard as war graves, from unauthorised treasure hunting and commercial salvage crews, often operating from converted trawlers. Although the threat to lost vessels is world wide, particular concern has been expressed at the vulnerability of World War Two wrecks in the Far East where there is a thriving local scrap metal trade. In recent months four fishing vessels suspected of conducting unauthorised salvage operations on the wrecks of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, sunk by the Japanese 22nd Air Flotilla in 180 to 230 feet of water fifty miles off Kuantan on 10 December 1941, have been arrested by the Royal Malaysian Navy. Two of the arrests came in November 2014 and a further two vessels were arrested on 29 March this year when the patrol vessel KD Pahang [Commander Nikmat Azhar Mahmud] spotted two trawlers acting suspiciously. Commander Mahmud told the newspaper, the New Straits Times that when his crew investigated the first trawler “Only a Thai national was on board and he failed to convince our personnel that he was at sea carrying out

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fishing activities. We later discovered pieces of metal and copper in the trawler. “Minutes later, our personnel spotted a second trawler and were forced to fire warning shots before arresting 11 Vietnamese crewmen. The boats’ crew did not have valid identification documents…” The arrested sailors were taken to the Malaysian naval base at Tanjung Gelang to be handed over to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency to face further investigation and possible charges. All four arrests were reported to the Ministry of Defence in London by the Kuala Lumpur based Defence Section of the British High Commission.   The High Commission has asked to be kept informed regarding the outcome of the arrests, but at the time of writing is still awaiting a response from the relevant authorities in Kuala Lumpur. The Ministry of Defence points out that the wrecks of Prince of Wales and Repulse are both protected under the UK’s Protection of Military Remains Act (PMRA), but this act is only enforceable against British passport holders or British flagged vessels. As a result the MoD states it is actively engaging with the Royal Malaysian Navy and local media to deter, disrupt and prevent further illegal salvage activity on the two wrecks. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence also confirmed to Britain at War that while the the UK Government was awaiting the results of the local legal process in Malaysia, it had taken legal action in the past. In particular, in May 2014 when an auction in Australia was due to include items taken from HMS Repulse, and from another Far East wreck, HMS Exeter. Exeter was

lost on the morning of 1 March 1942 along with the destroyers HMS Encounter and USS Pope, when the three ships ran into a battlegroup consisting of the Japanese heavy cruisers Nachi, Haguro, Myoko and Ashigara and their escorting destroyers. The allied ships had been attempting to reach Ceylon [Sri Lanka] following the disastrous Battle of the Java Sea. Faced with the potential auction of the illicitly obtained material the Ministry of Defence confirmed that “With the assistance of the British High Commission and the Australian Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Auction House was approached and reminded of the relevant international conventions on sovereign immunity and of the (Australian) Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act.” The spokesperson added “I am very pleased to be able to report that the Auction House immediately withdrew the items, and handed them over to the High Commission.” As a result of the two most recent incidents, the First Sea Lord (Admiral Sir George Zambellas) wrote to the head of the Royal Malaysian Navy, Admiral Tan Sri Aziz, to thank him and the RMN for their support in deterring the salvage attempts and stressed the importance that the United Kingdom attaches to these two sites, which are the grave and memorial to the 840 officers and men lost in the action, including the force commander Admiral Sir Tom Phillips. The Ministry of Defence confirmed it is also planning to conduct a joint Royal Navy and Royal Malaysian Navy diving survey of the wrecks to establish precisely what has been going on and what damage has actually occurred. Subject to final agreements between the two Governments, the survey, which will be the first such research led study since the “Job 74” survey in 2007 [https://explorers.org/ flag_reports/Flag_118_-_Kevin_Denlay_-_Update. pdf ], should take place later in 2015.

Wreckage on a salvage barge in the Far East. (COURTESY OF ANDREW FOCK)

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VJ DAY 70

The National FEPOW Fellowship Welfare Remembrance Association invite you to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of VJ Day at a Service of Remembrance At The Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London

‘To remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and to honour those who survived’

On Saturday 15th August 2015 at 11am The Rt. Rev’d Nigel Stock, Bishop at Lambeth and Bishop to the Armed Forces is to preach

Tickets available ailabl bl by emailing: [email protected] or Tel: FEPOW Chaplain, Mrs Pauline Simpson on 01692 630674 Web: www.nationalfepowfellowship.org.uk

FIELD POST

Our Letter of the Month is sponsored by

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'Britain at War' Magazine, PO Box 380, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 9JA | [email protected]

LETTER OF THE MONTH

First Military 'Wings' Down-Under SIR – Regarding your feature ‘South Seas Debutants’ in the March issue of Britain at War, I was interested to read further detail about Australian exploits in New Guinea. Andy Thomas’ research painted the picture very well, albeit with a couple of minor discrepancies. However, and perhaps most importantly, Mr Thomas accurately observes that the departure of the Australian Army to investigate German interests in the region was the first time that Australianowned aircraft had been specifically considered for use in a military sortie, regardless that they ended up being returned to Point Cook, still in their crates. Four aircraft had been ordered by the Australian Government during July 1912 with the anticipated use for training at the Australian Army’s recently acquired ground at Point Cook, about 25km south west of Melbourne. As mentioned by Andy Thomas, Henry Petre considered the site suitable as it was close to a railway, adjacent to a coastline and therefore at sea level and close to a major centre - Melbourne. The first four aircraft comprised two Deperdussin Type A wing-

(RAAF MUSEUM)

warping monoplanes which were ordered from the Deperdussin factory at Highgate, London with two Royal Aircraft Factory BE2a’s being ordered from British & Colonial Aeroplane Company at Bristol. The BE2a’s were a 1912 early variant with unequal span wing-warping control. In the December of 1912, the Australian Government, almost as an afterthought, ordered from British & Colonial a Military Boxkite as the fifth aircraft, because the others were considered to be far too advanced for elementary flying training. Only two BE2a variants were ordered and delivered. A BE2c was ordered but only the fuselage arrived and the order was abandoned, while another BE2e found its way ‘downunder’ after the War. Delivery of the BE2a’s was delayed until February 1914 because British & Colonial were having trouble making wire strainers to a suitable tolerance, their samples having to be tested at Farnborough prior to full production. Also of note were the wings used for these aircraft. The standard chord for every BE2 (and

BE12) variant is 5’ 6”. Two original BE2 wings are still extant at the Moorabbin National Air Museum to the south-east of Melbourne and although these wings are able to be verified from a contemporary plan as authentic, they differ in that they both have a chord of 5’4”. Much consideration over this led me to believe that they were a one-off variant to do with weaknesses with this particular wing. But that would have meant that every wing required in Australia would have to have been made to this custom specification. A chance discovery by Mr John McKenzie of Southampton of a photograph of a collection of wing profiles associated with BE2s clearly shows that there was a chord which was 2” shorter than all the others in the photo, suggesting that this was an available option. How widespread this wing was is unclear and many of the wings at Point Cook were probably made at the workshops there to this pattern as replacements, there being frequent ‘mishaps’. In any event, Australia’s two BE2a’s remained with this shorter chord, unequal span, wing-warping configuration until 1918 when both aircraft were struck off service. It might only

seem a small detail of history, but it was one that became important in a BE2a build project I have subsequently been involved with. After all, two inches is a very big deal in this context rather than it being just a small detail of history! I am visiting the UK on a working holiday from the Melbourne area where I am an Active Volunteer with the RAAF Museum at Point Cook. From 2007 to 2014, I undertook the research and scratch-built construction of a BE2a to resemble CFS2, the aircraft involved in this New Guinea campaign and featured by Andy Thomas. This was a gift to the Australian Nation and was a component of the centenary celebrations to do with Australia’s first military flight on 1 March 1914, when Lt Eric Harrison flew a Bristol Military Biplane (Boxkite) at around 6.50am. The RAAF Museum has available for display all three original types. I enclose two photos: a BE2a under assembly at British & Colonial, taken by Harrison while he was in England supervising the completion of the Australian order, and one of my machine, on display at the RAAF Museum, Point Cook. Andrew Willox. By email (Dereel, nr Ballarat, Australia)

The author of the Letter of the Month may select a book of their choice (maximum value £25) from the extensive range of titles available at www.pen-and-sword.co.uk 22 www.britainatwar.com

Jersey Tourism F_P.indd 1

04/06/2015 12:37

FIELD POST

Our Letter of the Month is sponsored by

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'Britain at War' Magazine, PO Box 380, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 9JA | [email protected]

Raid on the Eagles Nest

SIR - Following my article ‘Raid on the Eagles Nest’ in the June issue of Britain at War I thought readers may like to see a picture of a section the camouflage netting used to disguise Hitler’s Berghof. I found it in the roots of a tree which was

Butterfly Bomb

growing on the rear retaining wall and had blown down the week before I visited the site. A good find after some 70 years, although anyone discovering this material without knowing what it was would have no idea of the story behind it! For the late 1930s it was made from what was then an advanced form of plastic and would have been pulled up over the house using ropes or an electric pulley system. I would be very interested to know if Britain at War readers can tell me any more about the netting, or anything about the machine used to make the artificial fog which was meant to cloak the valley in smoke in order to disguise the Berghof from enemy bombers. Nick Milton, By email.

VE Day Missive

SIR - Having just read your piece on VE Day in the May issue of Britain at War magazine I thought you might be interested to know about the part played by my mother in the historic events surrounding VE Day. In the overall scheme of things it was, perhaps, just a very small part of the VE Day story but it was clearly something of truly momentous significance to my late mother, Audrey Eccles (nee Milligan), who was then just 20 years old and serving as a Telex Operator with the Royal Army Corps of Signals. On 8 May 1945 she was detailed to send out this historic message from Montgomery’s HQ in Germany advising of the war’s end and with the message actually being ‘signed off’ in her name: Audrey Milligan. The attached photographs are of the original message and it is interesting to note the contents of the signal. It is also worthy of comment that from the

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final paragraph of the message it seems that even 70 years ago the press were not entirely trusted! As to the signatures on its reverse, my mother had the foresight to get everyone who was on duty at the time to sign the back of this message and the document remains in the family as a treasured and unique artefact. I thought the readers of your excellent and always fascinating magazine might be interested in seeing my mother’s keepsake of VE Day. Stuart Eccles, via email.

SIR - In your magnificent article about the gallant men of Bomb Disposal Companies in Britain at War (June 2015) it was stated that ‘In the Butterfly Blitz of 1943, swathes of eastern England were deluged with deadly anti-personnel bombs’. Actually, that isn’t quite correct. The Butterfly raids were quite specific. On the night of 12/13th June 1943 the fishing port of Grimsby and the neighbouring town of Cleethorpes, plus an RAF airfield in Suffolk, were deluged with those bombs. The Luftwaffe attacked Grimsby by dropping high explosives bombs and several thousands of small anti-personnel or Butterfly Bombs as they came to be known due to the way they fluttered down to earth on their twin vanes. Within seconds of landing each bomb was armed and lethal. The Bomb Disposal teams worked heroically to contain those unique

weapons which were scattered and lodged in every conceivable situation. I was living in Grimsby at the time and I remember that night being hurried along by my mother to the communal air raid shelter and my brother shouting and looking up. There, illuminated by a pathfinder flare, was a German bomber. The raid killed 99 people in Grimsby and Cleethorpes that night and the ‘Butterflies’ continued to kill and maim long after the war. A month later on the 13/14 July the Luftwaffe attacked Grimsby once again but this time not with the Butterfly bombs. The authorities had hushed up the problems that the bombs were creating and this had the desired effect. Apparently the Germans never used them in any other serious attack during the war. Although I was very young in 1943, the memory is still very vivid for me. Tony Eaton, Northallerton, By email.

Soldier of Fortune F_P.indd 1

10/06/2015 14:19

INTO THE CAULDRON Voices From The Front MAIN PICTURE: The Panzer IV was used extensively by German forces. Depicted here is an early variant armed with a short 75mm gun – betraying the tanks origins as an infantry support vehicle. The low velocity ‘stubby’ 75mm would have been ideal for firing high explosive at entrenched positions and anti-tank guns. Engaging armour, would in theory, have been left to the 50mm gun armed Panzer III.

T

HE FIRST phase of the Battle of Knightsbridge in the Western Desert had begun on the night of 26 May 1942, when Rommel despatched a mobile force around the left flank of the British forces in the Gazala Lines (see last issue). After several bruising clashes, their advance was stemmed and they fell back to regroup in the ‘Cauldron’ area between the Knightsbridge Box and the 150th Infantry Brigade Box. At this moment, Rommel’s communication and supply situation was so critical that he resolved to smash through the British minefields guarded by the 150 Infantry Brigade Box. If this could be achieved it would serve the dual purpose of providing a greatly shortened supply route, as well as a means of escape back to his own lines should it become necessary.

In the second excerpt from his visceral story of the Battle of Knightsbridge, told first-hand by the men who were there, Peter Hart reveals just what happens when troops are required to fight to the last man and the last round. 26 www.britainatwar.com

His gambit succeeded. After severe fighting the 150 Brigade Box was overrun on 1 June and Rommel thus secured a direct route through to his original outflanking forces concentrated in the Cauldron. Critically, in the wider confusion of a complex battle, the British generals remained unaware of this development. It seemed to them that Rommel had been beaten back. Therefore, to capitalise on an imagined success a small general advance was ordered into the Cauldron on 5 June. The plan was for 10th Indian Brigade, part of 5th Indian Division, to move westwards, after a heavy preliminary artillery

bombardment, and to drive a wedge through the German anti-tank screen. Once this had been achieved the 7th Armoured Division would follow up, pushing through the gap to destroy the German forces in the Cauldron. Since 1 June the 107th (South Nottinghamshire Hussars) Regiment had been in position north-east of the Knightsbridge track junction in company with the 7th Armoured Division and the 11th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery. Throughout 4 June, the gunners were kept busy preparing a fire programme for a barrage of 135 rounds per gun in support of the advance of the 10th Indian Brigade. Once this was

into the

e

INTO THE CAULDRON Voices From The Front complete, the South Nottinghamshire Hussars were to return to the control of the 22nd Armoured Brigade. At 06.00 on 5 June, they were to rendezvous with their tank regiments near Bir el Harmat, before joining in the advance pushing west into the Cauldron, where it was believed they would only be facing a weak German rearguard. The artillery barrage started at 03.30 in the morning. I knew what it would be like when the barrage started, the first ‘FLASH’ and ‘CRASH’. All the noise and the screaming of shells. Then you knew the enemy would reply and back into the

old carnage. I wished that no gun would ever fire again. I was war weary. Then you got the ‘Take Post!’ You get on the gun just tensing yourself. Everything is very still and quiet then the shout through the megaphone, ‘Zero, Minus Five... Four... Three... Two... One... FIRE!’ A screaming ‘CRASH’ as every gun along the front opens up and the battle is started. There is no longer then time to think about being wounded, or killed, or lonely, or tired - you’re involved, the gun is firing and leaping about and you’re firing the programme. Sergeant Ray Ellis, 425 Battery.

The guns then moved forward as planned, but they soon realised that Rommel was not retreating. After the barrage was fired it was, ‘Cease Firing! Rear limber up!’ We closed down, clamped the gun, hooked it onto the limber, the gun towers came up and we moved into the advance as the whole front moved forwards. It was just before dawn when we came up to this crest and everything opened up around us. He was waiting for us - he must have had it all ranged and ready - because the very first shells landed right among us. It was appalling. The sky ahead was a sea of flames as all their guns opened up. It was carnage but we just kept going because what the hell else could we do? Sergeant Ray Ellis, 425 Battery. The South Nottinghamshire Hussars had run into a trap. 

CAULDRON www.britainatwar.com 27

INTO THE CAULDRON Voices From The Front

OTHER ALLIED UNITS INVOLVED 7th Armoured Division “The Desert Rats”

Originally a mobile force assembled in Egypt before the war and first commanded by armoured warfare expert Major-General Percy Hobart, the 7th was given its legendary name and number on 16 February 1940, soon after adopting its famous Jerboa insignia. Taking part in most major battles in North Africa, the division performed well against the Italians in the early campaign before being withdrawn to Egypt. By June 1941, the Afrika Korps had arrived and made its presence very much felt and the 7th was involved in Operations Battleaxe and Crusader and later in the Battle of Gazala. The 7th was involved in both El Alamein battles before fighting in Tunisia, Italy and North West Europe.

22nd Armoured Brigade

The 22nd Armoured Brigade was formed from 3 Yeomanry regiments on 3 September 1939 and fought in North Africa before moving to Italy, where the 22nd helped capture Naples, and later North West Europe, where the brigade was involved in Operation Perch. In North Africa, the unit was part of several major battles including Tobruk, Gazala, and El Alamein and was commanded at various times by the 1st, 7th, and 10th Armoured Divisions. In turn, the 22nd commandeered various regiments and battalions itself, including the 107th South Nottinghamshire Hussars Regiment and 50th Reconnaissance Regiment, for much of the first half of 1942.

5th Indian Infantry Division “Ball of Fire”

One of the few allied divisions to fight all 3 major axis powers, the 5th Indian was heavily involved in the North African Campaign throughout 1942. At the time of the Battle of Gazala, the 5th Indian were new in theatre and their first engagement was mismanaged and poorly supported. After sustaining heavy casualties, the division was withdrawn, but later fought well at the First El Alamein and at Alam Halfa before being deployed to Burma. The unit’s heavy involvement in defeating of Japan’s 55th Infantry Division in February 1944 was the first decisive victory in Burma in 2 years. Post-war, the 5th Indian was the first unit to be landed in Singapore in September 1945. RIGHT: “‘Get your head down, Ray!’ I found a little hole, lay in it and started to try and build rocks around it.” Rocky desert terrain offered little protection. While sandy ground could absorb part of an explosion, on hard and rocky ground the effect was amplified with thousands of extra pieces of natural shrapnel.

I have never seen anything like it. In the distance there was this big arc of little tongues of fire. I realized to my horror that this was practically the whole of the Afrika Korps waiting for us. Soon after the first flashes, everything fell on us. The fire was absolutely murder. We were on this down slope and they were sitting on the edge of this shallow bowl. Absolute chaos, that really was the beginning of the end. Lance Sergeant Ted Whittaker, 425 Battery. The guns were forced to drop into action in a hollow with a long escarpment stretching out in front of them. Most of the Indian infantry were soon forced back, as the Germans began to counter-attack hard. It would prove a terrible place for the guns. It was a little bit like a saucer, sloping upwards from the centre. We were put in position on a very exposed piece of ground with the enemy in front of us where they could see us better

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than we could see them. They had the opportunity of coming round both of our flanks underneath the lips of the saucer. From the moment we dug ourselves in as best we could, it never felt like a happy place to be. Sergeant John Walker, 425 Battery. To the left were the survivors of D Troop of 520 Battery; 425 Battery were in the centre; 426 Battery was to the right and slightly in front. In all they had 21 guns, with only a few British tanks between them and the best part of two German Panzer divisions. The Germans gradually worked their way round open flanks to surround the whole position. That night, the South Nottinghamshire Hussars officers conferred with mounting alarm. They had been given orders by Major-General Herbert Lumsden, commanding the 1st Armoured Division, that they were to ‘stand and fight to the last man and the last round’. Nevertheless, in view of the situation, their senior officers asked for permission to withdraw. Just before dawn, I got through to our Brigadier, Brigadier Carr. I told him the situation was untenable, but I thought with the help of all my smoke shells, I could get the wounded out, most of the guns and what few men remained. Major Robert Daniell, Regimental Headquarters. Daniell’s intention was to take advantage of the known reluctance of German tanks to advance into areas masked by smoke shells, to withdraw the South Nottinghamshire Hussars

back towards the Knightsbridge escarpment. He met with short shrift from Brigadier Carr. He said, ‘Bob, you are to stand and fight in the position where you are now, you are not to move! Do you understand me? You are not to move at all!’ I told him that if I obeyed I would lose every single man I had. He replied, ‘You are a Horse Artillery officer, you have been properly brought up and you know that in battle you will obey orders, or take the consequences’. Major Robert Daniell, Regimental Headquarters. It seemed that the South Nottinghamshire Hussars were considered expendable in the overall scheme of things. It was dark and cold and I was standing by the gun when two figures approached, Captain Slinn and Lieutenant Timms. They stopped for a chat and I asked, ‘What’s the situation, Sir?’ Captain Slinn said, ‘We’re being left to fight a rearguard, Sergeant. We’re going to stop and it’s one of these fight to the last man and last round jobs! It’s going to be a bloody awful day. I think there will be very few of us left alive at the end of this day.’ Sergeant Ray Ellis, 425 Battery. The men of the South Nottinghamshire Hussars were almost totally exposed to attack from both German tanks and infantry when dawn broke on 6 June. Their British tank support, which had withdrawn overnight, had not returned. During the night they told us not

INTO THE CAULDRON Voices From The Front his turret off. That was how we were trained to hit them. Although I say it myself we were good! Sergeant Faulkner was at the trail giving orders and at the same time looking for any danger to the left or right. I was laying the gun. On the telescope you’ve got a cross and you would wait for the tank to come across there and as he got there you would say, ‘On! On! On! Fire!’ You would fire just as the tank’s nose reached the cross allowing for the distance. Gunner Dennis Mayoh, 426 Battery. The first attack was beaten off and the Germans withdrew. But Captain Pringle was acutely conscious that they were beginning to run short of ammunition. to be alarmed: the British tanks were going out to re-fuel and re-arm. On 6 June we stood to from before first light. As it got light we looked up the ridge and there were the tanks in position - we could just see the tops of them silhouetted. As it got a bit lighter we knew we were for it - they were German tanks hull-down. Lance Sergeant Ted Whittaker, Signaller, 425 Battery. The young gunners realized that it really would be a fight to the death. Then you knew that was it! I felt shattered. How does a young man feel when he thinks his life’s going to finish there and then? You’d made a picture in your mind of the Germans and he was about 9 feet tall, big, strong and swarthy - invincible! Bombardier Albert Parker, 425 Battery. The fighting re-commenced at 08.25 on 6 June.

There was the roar of the tank engines coming up the sides. It was a much more confused battle than the 27th. It was very confused, fast, we were shooting like mad. I remember shooting at both lorried infantry and tanks. We still never got hit ourselves, not even by a machine-gun bullet, yet they were spurting along near us all the time. Sergeant John Walker, 425 Battery. The gun layers had a difficult task keeping their guns trained on the ducking, weaving enemy machines as they approached. Even a direct hit would not necessarily cripple a tank unless it was hit in a vulnerable part. If the tank was going sideways from right to left, or left to right, we had to hit him in the tracks. If the tank was coming for you, as it moved up and down, we had to try and aim for the belly. If not the belly then the top of the gun, which should have knocked

You were saying to the chaps as they fired a shot, ‘For Christ’s sake go easy, we won’t have any left!’ I was quite happy we could cope with the situation - we could have done if we’d had enough ammunition. We wanted lorryloads of the damn stuff. Captain William Pringle, 425 Battery. 

LEFT: “They brought in their artillery and we heard it open up. You think, ‘Oh, bloody hell!’ Then that started to fall among us.” – Hastily improvised defences were the only protection from unforgiving enemy fire. LEFT: Incredibly exposed even in the best of prepared positions, artillery units equipped with field guns and howitzers and their chain of accompanying vehicles rarely found itself on the frontline where there would be little protection other than that improvised. BELOW: Although a howitzer and not a dedicated antitank weapon, the 25 pounder gun could seriously threaten enemy armour, especially when dedicated armour piercing shells were used. (TANK MUSEUM)

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INTO THE CAULDRON Voices From The Front

ABOVE: Leaping into action. Armoured units often had to react quickly to battlefield situations. (TANK MUSEUM)

BELOW: British soldiers meander their way past a knocked out Valentine tank. It was not always possible to recover a stricken or knocked out vehicle, and many vehicles were abandoned as the British retreated. (TANK MUSEUM)

Thwarted, the Germans stood back and poured fire into the South Nottinghamshire Hussars position. Gradually the German pressure began to grow. They brought in their artillery and we heard it open up. You think, ‘Oh, bloody hell!’ Then that started to fall among us. Then we took cover, that’s when you get in your slit trench and you hide behind any little rock you can find. If you press flat you could probably get your body under the ground, but the hams of my bottom were probably just sticking above the surface! They called in their air force as well and it was absolutely devastating. The noise, the bombs crashing down, shells at the same time, all onto the area round the guns. Sergeant Ray Ellis, 425 Battery. As the day wore on the South Nottinghamshire Hussars began to suffer serious casualties and most of the gun teams were sorely depleted. In the middle of the morning they

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came again with their tanks and they got very close. Their artillery were still firing, the Stuka raids were coming over regularly and when the tanks attacked you had to get out of your slit trench and go and sit on the gun amidst all the shell fire, machine-gun fire and cannon fire from the tanks. The air was just alive with red hot steel. I hit a Mark IV tank and it slewed round and burst into flames. The next thing I remember I was in the air as if someone had picked me up and thrown me in the air - spinning in the air! We’d had a direct hit on the gun. I dropped, ‘WHHOOMPH’, on to the ground. I lay there a second or two dazed and then, before I picked myself up, I went up spinning in the air again and dropped again. This time I think I was unconscious for a short time. An 88 millimetre had dropped two shells straight on the gun position. When I came round I was dazed and I can remember kneeling and hearing the battle going on in a dazed sort of way. I stayed like that for quite a long time. Then it went quiet again and I realized the tanks had been fought off. I looked round and my gun was upside down and the crew were draped on the floor all round. I thought I must be wounded but I couldn’t feel anything. My shirt and body was all black, my clothes were all blood stained and I was in a hell of a state. The whole crew had been killed and my next thought was for self preservation - a very strong instinct - ‘Get your head down, Ray!’ I

found a little hole, lay in it and started to try and build rocks around it. Then the shelling started again and they changed it to air-burst spraying down all their red hot shell splinters. Sergeant Ray Ellis, 425 Battery. The medical officer, Captain A McFarlane, and his medical orderly Harry Day were at their regimental aid post, which they had set up around a three-ton lorry. I had great difficulty in restraining men suffering from shock and in a comatose condition from walking away from the comparative shelter of the shallow basin around the truck and walking towards the enemy guns. One had to be very careful, they were very badly wounded and they had to be slowly shepherded back. They didn’t know where they were going, they wanted to go away. Medical Orderly Harry Day, Regimental Headquarters.

INTO THE CAULDRON Voices From The Front

All this had to be carried out under shell-fire. One of the wounded in the truck had a compound fracture of the humerus. The doctor was replacing the splint and the man’s head was resting on my thigh as I was kneeling on the floor of the truck. An armour-piercing shell came straight through the truck and took the man’s head completely off. I rolled over with the near miss and my shorts were covered with his blood. Medical Orderly Harry Day, Regimental Headquarters. The German tanks drew ever closer to the gun positions. As the gun teams were knocked out scratch-teams were formed to try and keep at least some guns firing for as long as possible. I heard Major Daniell shouting, ‘Are there some gunners? I’ve got a 25 pounder here - somebody man it.’ I

thought, ‘I can’t sit here’. I jumped up and said, ‘Here, Sir!’ and there were two other fellows. He said, ‘There’s a few rounds in there you might as well fire them’. Then off he drove. There was this German tank a few hundred yards away. I guessed the range. There were three rounds, no armour-piercing. We loaded this H.E. and fired and it went over the top of this tank. The turret turned and WHHUMP. To my horror I was the only one standing. The machine-gun bullets had gone straight through the gun shield. Lance Sergeant Ted Whittaker, Signaller, 425 Battery. Ray Ellis had recovered his senses after being blown up, and made his way over to a crewless gun. A shell burst right over Number One gun and the crew just fell to the ground and nobody moved. It

occurred to me that with two guns out of action that was half the strength of the troop gone - and the next time they put in an attack they would get through. With a great deal of reluctance I got out of my hole and went over to Number One gun. The gun was in a parlous state, the shield was all riddled, at least one of the tyres was flat, but it was workable. From somewhere men started to appear - they were signallers or specialists or drivers, but they helped to man the gun. These men were not gunners, but you could tell them what to do. As one was mown down then somebody else appeared. It eventually got to the point where they were not just South Notts Hussars, they were strangers. I remember a man from the Royal Corps of Signals coming on to the gun position. This man caught a burst of machine-gun fire right in the bottom part of his body, he jumped in the air then fell to the ground. I looked at this lad and he was frightened - his eyes were terrified. I crouched down to try and console him, all the noise going on round, ‘You’re all right lad, you’re all right, don’t worry you’re not badly wounded we’ll soon have you away, I reckon you’ve got a Blighty!’, trying to ease his fear. I noticed the sand was settling on his eyes, he was dead, he died in my arms. Sergeant Ray Ellis, 425 Battery. 

ABOVE: Valentine tanks traverse a minefield. Even friendly minefields had to be cleared and crossed with caution, and could considerably slow any advance. (TANK MUSEUM)

MIDDLE LEFT: “They called in their air force as well and it was absolutely devastating.” - The Stuka remained a potent and feared weapon, so long as it was adequately protected. Dive bombing went hand in hand with the use of artillery and tanks and proved to be an effective mix. (TANK MUSEUM)

MIDDLE RIGHT: Another example of the Panzer IV. Ever reliable and increasingly well armed, the Panzer IV was used for the duration of the war. (TANK MUSEUM)

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INTO THE CAULDRON Voices From The Front

QF 25-POUNDER GUN

A late model 25-pounder gun and limber. Note the muzzle brake installed to later versions, to allow greater flexibility in munition types. (HUBERT ŚMIENTANKA) The Ordnance QF 25-pounder was the British Army’s primary artillery piece from just before the war to the 1960s (being retained until the 1980s for training) and also saw service extensively with Commonwealth and various free forces. Although a smaller calibre (87.6mm) than most other contemporary field guns, it was quickly recognised as one of the better artillery pieces in use. The lightweight 25-pdr was extremely flexible and popular, noted for its high rate of fire, long range, quick response time and considering its small calibre, punchy, reasonably lethal, shells. Seeing service in all theatres of the Second World War, Korea, and Malaya amongst other conflicts, over 13,000 25-pdr guns were produced. Remarkably, ammunition for this iconic British weapon is still being produced in Pakistan and the gun remains in service in a handful of nations. MIDDLE LEFT: Taking a moment; whenever and wherever possible! A British soldier shelters behind a knocked out Panzer and enjoys a much needed cigarette during a lull in the desert fighting. (TANK MUSEUM)

BELOW: A 25 pounder gun and ammunition limber operating in the desert.

It was a brave fight, but their stocks of armour-piercing shells were exhausted. With hindsight, many of the survivors believed that the regiment’s resistance continued longer than was strictly necessary for sensible military reasons. It appears that the driving force behind the resistance was Major Robert Daniell. Brigadier Carr had invoked his pride as a regular Royal Horse Artillery officer and Daniell had embraced the challenge. Never mind. We were told to stand and fight to the last man and the last round and that’s what we did! I was directly given the order and I had no

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idea of surrender at all. My natural inclination had been to move the whole bloody lot half a day earlier and get them out of trouble. I never would order anybody to surrender and no Horse Artillery gunner officer has ever surrendered. Major Robert Daniell, Regimental Headquarters. The action he took was quite remarkable and had its antecedents in another age of warfare. I knew that the guns behind me had no ammunition. I knew that Barber’s battery had got ammunition if I could get guns to it. If I could get the four guns together I could face four ways. I could therefore stop any tank from running over them. You must remember I’d seen the German tank run right over the British gun. I found these two gunners and shouted to them to follow me. Major Robert Daniell, Regimental Headquarters. His last-ditch orders were a death sentence to many of the men who struggled to obey. There was ammunition exploding, gun limbers and ammunition trucks blowing up. Flames, smoke, horrible stink of gunpowder. I went up to E Troop, I thought I might as well be with my pals. Major Daniell drove up and shouted, ‘Form British square, go and form up on 426 Battery’. They were over to our right. The gunners went to hook the guns in and I went to get on the limber of the first gun in the troop. There were two or three chaps sitting on the limber. The nearest one, Harrison, was a Derby County footballer. They told me to ‘‘F’ off!’ The truck was moving and I put one foot in the foot rest, so I was hanging on the side of the door. We went a few yards and there was the most horrible explosion, the most enormous crash

- it brought us to a standstill. There were some awful moans and it was a terrible sight: this shell had hit these blokes and this poor Harrison was practically in half. I dropped off the door and threw myself flat. The driver Stevenson, had got half out of the door and the next armour-piercing shell came straight through the driving cab and he was left hanging over the door. I was absolutely horrified at what had happened to these people I had been talking to only minutes before. I felt I could have sat down and cried. Lance Sergeant Ted Whittaker, Signaller, 425 Battery. Gun detachment commander Sergeant John Walker can only have been a few feet from Ted Whittaker when the shells hit the gun towers from point blank range. A shell came right through my driver and the front of the vehicle. The vehicle was wrecked and my driver was killed and we decided that was enough. There was nothing we could do. The German tank was about 15 yards away, no more. Other guns on the same site had already surrendered and they were just driving through us. Sergeant John Walker, 425 Battery. Colonel William Seely had spent the entire day travelling from troop to troop in his Honey tank helping organize the defence wherever needed.

INTO THE CAULDRON Voices From The Front

Finally his tank was hit and burst into flames. The driver, Gunner Chadbourne managed to drag out the mortally wounded adjutant, Captain Peal, but Seely and his wireless operator were trapped and died in the flames. One way or another most of the guns had been destroyed by this time and Ellis believed his was the last in action. I was left with just one man: a complete stranger - he wasn’t a South Notts Hussar. He was standing on the right of the gun. I was pulling the gun round and aiming at the tank then getting on the seat, aiming and firing. He was opening and closing the breech and I was loading. It was a bit chaotic. I’d just fired a shell and I’d got hold of the trail arm when I heard a machine gun, which sounded as if it was a few inches behind me. This man was just splattered as he was flung, spinning against the inside of the gun shield. I looked behind and could see the tank within 20 or 30 yards behind me with the gun still smoking. I tensed myself waiting for this burst of fire which never came. I shall never know whether the gunner had compassion, ran out of ammunition, or saw something that distracted him. I like to think he had compassion realizing that it was the end. Every gun was out of action and as far as I know that was the last shot fired by the regiment. Sergeant Ray Ellis, 425 Battery. The fighting was over and the cost of resistance was horribly clear to the few survivors.

I was very, very thirsty and I walked over to Peter Birkin’s armoured vehicle. In it were the bodies of the driver and Jim Hardy. He had been cut in two but his water bottle was sort of hanging there. I got my knife, cut his webbing, took the water bottle and drank this lukewarm water from old Jim’s bottle. I looked down at his lifeless face and I just burst into tears – reaction, I suppose, seeing an old pal from the day I joined the regiment. Sergeant Ray Ellis, 425 Battery. Surrender was almost inevitable as the German tanks rolled over the gun position. A big clank, clank, clank right on the side of me and a German tank stopped. A German officer, with his cap on and earphone, leaned out and said, ‘Where are you going?’. I looked at him and made the classic remark, ‘With you!’ ‘Hop up’, he said, ‘For you the war is over!’ Signal Lance Sergeant Ted Whittaker, 425 Battery. Ironically, in view of the devastation his orders had unleashed in the final stages, Major Robert Daniell escaped. He was absolutely determined not to surrender under any circumstances. He persuaded his driver to accompany him on a desperate bid for freedom and after many tribulations he managed to regain the British lines. Behind him the shocked

survivors who had looked to him for leadership had learnt something about both themselves and the nature of war. A German tank rolled up and there was a German with his head poking out the top and he just beckoned me up onto the tank. I jumped up there and I could see he was a sergeant. We looked at one another, we’d been fighting each other all day and we both shrugged our shoulders and looked up to heaven - what a bloody silly thing it was! It was a matter of two enemies who had no enmity. Sergeant Ray Ellis, 425 Battery. Overall during the Battle of Knightsbridge some 76 of the SNH were killed, at least 16 more were reckoned to have died of their wounds and most of the rest were taken prisoner. It had been a bad day for Nottingham. 

ABOVE: A British soldier inspects a knocked out Panzer IV tank. Whilst German armour had a healthy reputation, it was by no means invulnerable and at this early stage of the war it was often more vulnerable than Allied vehicles. (TANK

MUSEUM)

BELOW: Valentine tanks charge across the desert. (TANK MUSEUM)

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WINTER IN THE TRENCHES, 1914 Voices from the Front nt was appalled at Private Harold Stainton of the 1/10th King’s Liverpool Regime supposed to occupy. were they that ’ ‘trench the in found he ns conditio e the primitiv of purgatory. kind this for him prepare He had found nothing in civilian life to The old fields. two between ditch widened a merely was trench, y "This, an ex-enem , was low parapet our now side, parapet, now the parados, was reasonably high. The reverse of measure some but cover fire no offering sorts of and ineffective; out of it grew a hedge d about 18 containe ditch the , garrison its from Apart tactics. surprise protection against g stench. Dugouts lined inches of water and slime, numerous corpses, and the most appallin corpses of bayoneted the with filled been had those as but, the higher side intermittently German and lying dead a on foot one keeping By itable. uninhab were they s, German of the water and, at the diagonally along the clayey bank I was able to keep my body out a trench at the edge of d occupie who enemy, the of sight of out head same time, keep my a dead Tommy minus was water, the wood 15 or 20 yards away. Near me, half afloat in the osition and with decomp of gases the by swollen badly one leg. Beside him a dead Bosche, any at burst to ing threaten was face, parchment-like moment. I was convinced that only the buttons of his mud-soaked tunic held him together."

Biting, agonising cold, constant sniper threat, terrifying shellfire, rotting bodies, gangrene, frostbite and the slow emergence of a ‘new’ nervous disorder. The true horror of trench life in the first winter of the First World War is vividly brought to life in the oral testimonies of men who were there.

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The trenches were often full of mingled mud and water. Lord Edward Gleichen commanding 15th Brigade remembered his tours of the front line. "Oh that mud! We have heard lots about Flanders mud, but the reality transcends imagination, especially in winter. Greasy, slippery, holding clay, over your toes in most places and over your ankles in all the rest - where it is not over your knees - it is the most horrible ‘going’ I know anywhere. The state of the trenches is indescribable."

WINTER IN THE TRENCHES, 1914 Voices from the Front This was bad enough, but then the temperature began to drop below freezing. The winter of 1914 proved to be a truly awful one for the men of the BEF. The cold penetrated their bones, reducing their consciousness to little more than an agonised discomfort. There was no hope of remission, no chance in the cramped, disjointed trenches for a brisk walk, or vigorous exercises to warm the blood. Here there was nothing but standing about in freezing water, black and dank.

MAIN PICTURE: Sgt Clifford Malins and 2nd Lt James Nicholl of the 1st Cameronians looking for snipers in the appropriately named Cabbage Patch Trench. Most early trenches were little more than ditches, lacking drainage, revetting or sandbags and with inadequate parapets.

T

HE TRENCHES occupied by the British in the winter of 1914 were not the carefully considered fortifications of the pre-war field engineering manuals. They had been dug during the battles of the Aisne, the Race to the Sea and First Ypres. Lines taken up in circumstances of vicious combat, fought over to the death. The terrible casualties incurred by the British Expeditionary Force meant that there was not yet the manpower to systematically improve the trenches, so by and large they remained in a dreadful state. They were not continuous and had no carefully laid out arcs of fire. Most were little more than ditches, lacking drainage, revetting or sandbags, with inadequate parapets, and often only a token smidgeon of barbed wire to slow down a German attack across No Man’s Land. Some officers had headquarter dugouts, but the men were lucky if they managed cubbyholes scooped out of the walls of trenches.

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WINTER IN THE TRENCHES Voices from the Front

And then there was the snow, as Lieutenant Sir Edward Hulse of the 2nd Scots Guards recalled. "It has been snowing hard, after two nights’ sharp frost, and it is lying about 2 inches deep, except in the foot of the trenches, where by the continual passage of men up and down, it has become a freezing cold slush of mud, and chills one’s boots right through. We have not changed our boots or socks even, and far and away the worst part is the cold in one’s feet at night, which makes sleep impossible for more than half an hour or so at a time."

In such conditions the nights seemed endless; dawn always seemed an eternity away. It was no real surprise and, as Lieutenant Arthur Ackland of the 1st Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry discovered, the men began to fall prey to an excruciating new ailment that afflicted their sodden feet. "The bottom of the trenches became deep in icy mud. In this they stood, up to their knees, day and night, for we could not spare a man from the trenches, and soon we began to experience what we call now ‘frostbitten feet’. No one quite knows what it is but I think myself it comes from the continual pressure of the mud and the lack of ventilation to the feet. Anyhow, it is a dreadful thing and the men suffered agonies from it." The severity of the frostbite, the or less serious but still painful ‘trench foot’, ranged from a mere tenderness to the touch, to a deadne ss with a loss of all feeling. The feet could become red and swollen with blisters and at worst the toes would turn black. Severe cases could cripple a man for life. Prevention meant, first of all, avoiding immersion in cold water for long periods, but – as this was clearly not possible – then the feet needed to be well-rubbed dry and cleaned before dry socks were put on. In most cases this was equally unlikely. The real answer would prove to be the combination of a proper drainage system, the use of raised duckboards at the bottom of the trenches and the regular applica tion of whale oil to the feet. But none of these were possible in 1914.

TOP RIGHT: Troops of the 1/5 London Rifle Brigade at Ploegsteert, which would become famous as the location of the alleged Christmas Truce. MIDDLE LEFT: Captain H.E. Lee, serving with a Scots Regiment, writes home from a trench on the Western Front in the winter of 1914/1915. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS) ABOVE: No Man’s Land in front of the positions of the 1st Royal Scots Fusilers with German trenches positioned along the tree line. In the words of Lord Edward Gleichen: ‘Oh that mud! We have heard lots about Flanders mud, but the reality transcends imagination, especially in winter.’

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WINTER IN THE TRENCHES Voices from the Front

When at the front, the men had to follow the relentless rhythms of trench life. The men had to be fed and the ration parties suffered greatly in their wearisome task of carrying up the food to the men at the front. Private Edward Roe of the 1st East Lancashire Regiment recalled a typical rations party. "It is an agony of endurance trying to get rations up to the firing line. The nights are dark and wet; the turnip field is pitted with shell craters, which are full of water. The dykes on each side of the road to headquarters are full of water. The regimental transport dumps the rations on the road opposite headquarters in an indiscriminate pile, and get out of it as quick as they can. The party gets loaded up and struggle towards the firing line. Will he open up with his machine guns before we get there? Or will we be lucky enough to get back to the trenches without coming under machine gun fire. Those are our thoughts as we struggle along with our loads. ‘Ping! Ping! Ping! Swish!’ Down go the boxes, sandbags and rolls of cheese. We dive into the dykes on either side of the road. We are up to our necks in water, but we’re alive. “Come on, lads, let’s get a move on before he starts again!”

TOP LEFT: A typical scene in a British trench in the winter of 1915. Note how the front of the trench is revetted with boards held in place by saplings. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

TOP RIGHT: 1st Cameronians at Houphie in December 1914. Shallow trenches and gaps in the parapet led to easy pickings for German snipers all too often.



LEFT: Some officers had headquarters dugouts but troops very often had to put up with no more than a cubbyhole dug from the trench wall.

This was no one-off ordeal - it had to be carried out each and every night. Many of the men were exhausted beyond measure, indeed the freezing cold could reduce normally vigilant NCOs and officers to a near lifeless torpor. In most battalions, the average period of sentry duty lasted for 2 hours, with one man per section on watch during daylight and one man in three throughout the night. Private Harold Stainton of the 1/10th King’s Liverpool Regiment had one memorable lonely vigil. "In the first gleam of half-light before dawn when the trees of the Petit Sois were emerging from silhouette into things with shape and form, I was peeping over my sights through the base of the hedge when a large form silently rose and obscured my sight of the trees. It could only have been an enemy, and instinctively I took a quick rough bead on the massive target and squeezed the trigger. Whatever it was sank to the ground and out of my vision. Now I was tense with suppressed excitement, I felt sure that I had disposed of a murderous sniper and in a bated whisper told my neighbour so - but where was the evidence? I had to wait impatiently for dawn to break before finding it - the grey uniformed body of a big and bulky German lying silent and still 3 or 4 yards away."

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WINTER IN THE TRENCHES, 1914 Voices from the Front Given the all-too-real threat of cold steel from some German raiding party if they failed to maintain a vigilant watch across No Man’s Land, many a sentry must have pondered on the feasibility of operating his rifle bolt with hands reduced by the cold to a helpless numbness. At night patrols would occasionally be sent out to gain information as to the identity and activities of the Germans occupying the trenches across No Man’s Land. Lieutenant George Roupell of the 1st East Surrey Regiment went out

several times. "I usually took the same men with me, always volunteers at this time, and Corporal Parkes always came. We climbed out of our trenches, got through the wire and across the stream, and then started to crawl. It was quite exciting work, every noise, even if it was made by one of our own men made us halt and we used to lie flat for ages."

During the shortened winter days, German snipers were a deadly threat, taking ruthless advantage of the shallow British trenches and the all too common gaps in the parapet. It only took a momentary lack of concentration and a soldier could be hit. Corporal Charles Kelson of the 1st Somerset Light Infantry recalled getting a nasty facial wound from a German sniper. "I heard a bang and then felt something and the ground came up to meet me. All I could see was the blood spurting. It was a rifle bullet that knocked me out. It took me just at the side of my left nostril, passed through my lip, struck out the teeth from that of that side of my mouth and then turned upwards into the palette. I remember spitting my teeth out but I swear there was no bullet among them. Soon after I was hit General Hunter Weston came up to me and patted me on the shoulder saying, “Hard luck Corporal, jolly bad luck! Never mind you’ll get your own back some day!” And off he went!"

ABOVE: Lieutenant Kerr MC uses an improvised trench periscope, effectively a small mirror on a stick, in the Rue de Bois sector in February 1915. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS) TOP LEFT: A member of the 2nd Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers doing his best to drain a flooded trench near La Boutillerie using an improvised pump. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS) TOP RIGHT: Men of the 11th Hussars at Zillebeke during 1914. MIDDLE LEFT: Note the water underfoot. The previously little known condition of trench-foot flourished in such inhospitable conditions. MIDDLE RIGHT: An early type of issue trench periscope in use. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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A friend of Private William Quinton of the 2nd Bedfordshire Regiment was less fortunate on 21 December. "In shallow parts of our trench, unless one ducked when passing along it, the head would be brought above the top of the parapet. Only for a second or two perhaps, but in that brief moment the crack of a rifle would be heard and another of our chaps had paid the penalty for being careless. These snipers seldom missed. We lost a lot of men sniped, among them my chum - Frank. I found that he had been shot clean through the head and had collapsed and died without a sound. It was a shock to me, and I was not able to see the rough wooden cross that marked his grave till some days later. When I did the ground was under a foot of water, and just the top of the cross showing, made from old ammunition boxes, trimmed up with a jack-knife or bayonet. I read the inscription marked on the rough wood with indelible pencil: “RIP, Pte. F. Toull, 2nd Batt. Bedf. Regt. Killed in Action. Dec. 21st. 1914.”" Of course, the British responded in kind, but sniping was a dangerous and cold-blooded busi ness. Considerable patience and a forensic ability as a marksm an was essential. Many men could not overcome their scruples and forbore to take opportunistic shots at an identifia ble individual, as opposed to blasting away at the anonym ous surge of a German mass attack. Somehow it seemed far too personal. Brigadier General Lord Edward Gleichen recalled an amusing incident which explained this attitude perf ectly. "When going round the trenches, I asked a man whether he had had any shots at the Germans. He responded that there was an elderly gentleman with a bald head and a long beard who often showed himself over the parapet, “Well, why didn’t you shoot him?” “Shoot him?” said the man ; “Why, Lor’ bless you, Sir, ‘e’s never done me no ‘arm!” A case of “live and let live,” which is certainly not to be encouraged. But cold-blooded murder is never popular with our men." Nonetheless, many Germans wou ld die at the hand of British snipers.

WINTER IN THE TRENCHES, 1914 Voices from the Front No skill, no caution, no ‘second sense’ could do much to keep a soldier safe from shell fire. A trifling adjustment to the dials of a German gunner a couple of miles away - or the wobble of a shell in flight - that would make all the difference between life and deat h. The Germans also had very effe ctive trench mortars that lofted their high-explosive shel ls high into the air, plunging down right into the British tren ches. The British were very conscious that they had no com parable weapons to match the Germans. They had not prep ared for this kind of war and were forced to rely on makeshi ft measures which varied from the most simple of solutions to Heath Robinson contraptions of mind-boggling complexity. Yet such improvised weapons had no chance of being properly tested and could prove lethal to their own side. This app lied most of all to the early British hand grenades, whi ch combined an inherent unpredictability with the prop ensity of untrained men to make silly mistakes, as witn essed by Lieutenant James Hyndson of the 1st Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. "Perhaps they will improve someday , but the type of bomb now produced for our edification is mad e from an ordinary ‘plum and apple jam’ tin with an attached fuse which has to be lit by a match before throwing. Strange to relate, they have had no bombing instruction during thei r peace training, and no one knows anything whatever about the bomb and its habits. One of the first produced was put by some irresponsible idiot on the heating stove in the officers’ mes s, and then forgotten. It was not spotted for some time: not, inde ed, until it was nearly red hot, and the individual in question was ordered to remove it and drop it in a bucket of water. Duri ng this process, most of us made ourselves extremely scarce, feeling profoundly grateful that it had not exploded." The British were simply not read y for trench warfare. They lacked most of the necessar y equipment: not just mortars and hand grenades, but even the bare essentials like sandbags, waders, ordinary digging tools. It would take months to put things right.

One risk was obvious to everyone at the front from the moment they first approached the lines to the moment they took their leave. At any moment German shells could crash down upon them, randomly killing and maiming the wary and unwary alike. Major Gerald Burgoyne of the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles was a tough individual, used to dealing with disciplinary problems amongst his men with his bare fists. But he found German bombardments a terrible ordeal. "Their shells were bursting now on the near edge of my trenches, then 10 to 15 yards to my immediate front, and at each tearing scream we all crouched close to the inner wall of the trench. Nearer, nearer, we heard the shell; after a time it was possible to tell whether it was coming to right or left of your position, but equally possible to say with certainty, “There’s one for us!” And the few seconds terrible wait! Would it burst in front or behind, or would it be the one? Somehow curiosity to see what happened, prevented one being afraid, and anyhow it was no use feeling afraid; we had to stick there. For the whole of that hour the din was awful, awe inspiring. The whole of creation was trembling, for the heavy shells were bursting so close to us, that columns of liquid filth mixed with stones and bricks were shot 200 feet in the air, to fall back on to our devoted heads. When they were relieved next day, even such a ‘cool’ customer as Burgoyne was in a real state: "As I got out of the trench I could have stuck my fingers into my ears and screamed like a girl. Those bombardments had fairly strung my nerves real tight."

There was a steady trickle of casualties in the trenches even when the line was ‘quiet’. The advanced dressing posts were usually located in some convenient buildings as close as was possible to the front line. Every wounded man had his own story, their lives all had an intrinsic value, but many needed urgent attention and not all would get it. The doctors had to be impartial, assessing the chances of recovery, performing a simple triage on the serious cases, in order to determine how to use their talents and time to best effect. Lieutenant Arthur Martin of the 15th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps soon discerned common elements in the ruined flesh that surrounded them. "Shrapnel wounds were always bad; the round bullets of lead always ripped and tore the tissues about so terribly. The Mauser bullet did not cause nearly so much damage, but it sometimes produced very lacerating wounds. The Mauser bullet ‘turns over’ when travelling through a limb, and this turning means tearing of tissues on the path of the bullet, and often a huge jagged wound like that produced by an explosive bullet." The shells caused indescribable injuries that took almost every imaginable form. "The first case attended to was that of a young soldier of the Norfolks who had been struck by a shell in the abdomen. His intestines were lying outside the body, and loops were inside the upper part of his trousers. Under chloroform we did what we could. He died painlessly four hours afterwards. There were many bad shell wounds of the head; one necessitating a trepanning operation. One poor fellow had his tongue half blown off."

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WINTER IN THE TRENCHES, 1914 Voices from the Front ders itself as One threat lay in the soil of Flan re. awa Martin was soon all too rs of the doctors "Gas gangrene was one of the terro unexpected lly at this time. It was a new and tota we did not first at and nds, wou complication of the sing danger. pres this of face the in do to t know wha p of bacilli called The gangrene was caused by a grou g, and grow in the arin e-be spor all are anaerobes, they ches is full of these absence of air. The soil of the tren an open wound, into d duce organisms, which, if intro become to limb the e caus and ad grow and spre gangrenous." ible distinctive Wounds thus affected had a terr enough, y earl ht caug If ll, sme tive putrefac y led to dela but , there was hope of recovery h. Another deat e rabl mise a n ofte amputation and ged. mer old enemy of mankind also re-e . When tetanus "Tetanus - or the so-called lock-jaw and muscular ns ulsio conv the n whe f, manifests itsel to treat, and dy mala spasms come on, it is a terrible tion of injec the time this At most of the cases die. recovery, but if a re ensu not does m seru nus anti-teta man, then none this serum is given to every wounded us." will develop tetan ained a terrible In 1914 both these diseases rem d. threat to all wounde RIGHT: Winter in Flanders Fields. Men of the Honourable Artillery Company in a trench at Lindenhoek in February 1915. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW LEFT: The effects of the winter rains on a British trench. Here Lieutenant R.C. Money, a Scots Officer, is seen making his way down a flooded communication trench at Bois Grenier.

BELOW: Men of the 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, part of the 19th Brigade, in a support trench at Bois Grenier, early 1915. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

Many of the casualties had serious mental traumas that were not easy to understand, being well beyond the experience of most doctors. Fortunately, Martin had the sense to adopt a reasonably sympathetic approach. "I attended one young officer and three men who had been buried in the earth when their trench was blown up. The officer and one man were unconscious, and when the man recovered consciousness he was nervy and excitable. He had a startled, terrified expression, and when in bed he would peer round in a wild, anxious way, and then suddenly pull the blankets well over his head and curl up underneath as if anxious to shut out his surroundings, or what he thought were his surroundings. He seemed really to be living through some terrifying experiences of the past few days antecedent and up to the time when his trench was blown up and he was engulfed in the mud and debris. The officer recovered consciousness more slowly, and spoke in a curious staccato speech; his nerves were completely gone, and he had fine tremors of the lips and tongue and fingers. He told me that his memory had gone, that he had only a hazy recollection of recent things, which seemed far away and dim." The collation of symptoms that would be known as ‘shellshock’ gradually became as familiar to the doctors as the more obvious physical wounds. Nervous twitches, uncontrollable shouting and screaming, night terrors and many other afflictions were the result of mental trauma. Yet some doctors retained their inherent prejudices and many soldiers would suffer from the medics’ failure to recognise that shell shock was a very real problem given the ferocious stress of modern war.

(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

FAR RIGHT: A moment of rest and relaxation near Blauwe Poort Farm, south of Zillebeke Lake, in early 1915. Woods such as this would soon be obliterated by shelling. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

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Life in the trenches was a terrible trial for the men of the BEF. For the most part they endured, but there is no wonder that many seiz ed the opportunity of the Christm as Truce gave for a few days of relative peace. It offered a chance to satis fy their curiosity about the Germ ans and time to improve their tren ches and defences in condition s of relative safety. But in that terrible winter of 1914, only one thing might have cheered up the average Brit ish soldier: the thought that the Germans were suffering as muc h as they were - and in that they were surely right. The Great War infli cted its misery on both sides of No Man’s Land - war, it seemed, was a hell on earth for everyone. 

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DEATH OF AN AUSSIE ACE Battle of Britain

Death of an

Aussie Ace When Pat Hughes completed his flying training he was deemed to have ‘no outstanding qualities’. Yet he would go on to be Australia’s highest-scoring Battle of Britain ace. Kristen Alexander tells his story.

MAIN PICTURE: 9 June 1940. Despite the relaxed setting, Pat looked careworn and older than his 22 years as he tried to smile for Kay Brodrick’s camera during an early summer picnic. (AFTER THE BATTLE)

BELOW LEFT: 19-year-old Hughes, photographed after his ‘Wings’ parade at 1 Flying Training School, Point Cook, December 1936.

A

USTRALIA’S HIGHEST scoring Battle of Britain ace was a child of the Monaro, a region of pastoral and mining riches at the foot of New South Wales’ Snowy Mountains. To Paterson Clarence Hughes, known as Pat, it was ‘unrivalled in the magnificence and grandeur of its beauty’. Pat’s father, Percy, a great-grandson of a first fleet convict, was a teacher in a succession of one room schools. He married local girl Caroline Vennell in 1895 and raised a large family. Pat, their youngest son, was born on 19 September 1917. The family moved to Sydney, New South Wales’ capital, in 1928.

Percy and Caroline’s youngest son loved sport and devoted much of his leisure to field, court and pool. He was in the premier team of the fourth grade Rugby League competition and later moved up to first grade. He played tennis, swam for his school and attained the surf life saving bronze medallion. He spent hours constructing crystal radio sets and tuning into programs from all over the world. But his first love was aviation. He was always making balsa wood model aeroplanes and reading about the premier Great War airmen of both sides of the conflict, including Mick Mannock, who he considered ‘the best of all the British pilots’. Pat’s boyhood enthusiasm for model aeroplanes translated to something more substantial and he took a couple of joy flights. He believed the Royal Australian Air Force would ‘be the thing in [a] couple of years’ so he applied for and was offered a cadetship at the RAAF’s training school at Point Cook, near Melbourne, Victoria.

EARLY FLYING He soloed on 11 March 1936. ‘It is quite unnecessary and impossible to tell how I felt’, he wrote afterwards. ‘I went mad, whistled, sang and almost jumped for joy.’ When he completed his pilot training in November he was assessed as ‘energetic and keen’ but ‘has no outstanding qualities.’ It would be a wrench leaving ‘the best family in the world’ but Pat 44 www.britainatwar.com

decided to join the Royal Air Force rather than stay in Australia when he finished his cadetship as he wanted to ‘try and do something special’. After additional training in England, he was posted to 64 Squadron in June 1937 and became adept at flying the RAF’s rigid fighter attack formations. In November 1939, two months after the declaration of war, he was posted to the newlyforming 234 Squadron as a flight commander. Within months, in a unit experiencing on-going leadership problems, the 22-yearold was looked on as the de facto squadron leader. The young Australian was recognised as a ‘natural born good shot’. He developed an uncompromising combat style; he believed in getting as close to the enemy as possible. Indeed, he was known for opening fire at 100 yards closing to 50. Or less. It was dangerous — and his Spitfire was hit on many occasions — but it was highly effective and his personal tally continued to mount after his first shared victory on 8 July 1940.

HEART OF THE BATTLE As the Battle of Britain progressed, Pat was up at first light, often in the air three times a day, turning in long after sunset. It was a demanding and exhausting time. During the period 31 August–6 September he carried out 12 sorties in seven days. 

DEATH OF AN AUSSIE ACE Battle of Britain

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DEATH OF AN AUSSIE ACE Battle of Britain On 7 September, the Air Ministry issued an ‘attack imminent’ alert. Conditions that day, however, belied the urgency of the statement. There was some early activity, including a few reconnaissance flights and smaller formations but little else. The light morning haze near the channel areas burned off and the day was fine and hot with little cloud. Fighter squadrons took advantage of the welcome lull in enemy activity and relaxed in the hot sun, resting and simply enjoying the pleasant day and unexpected respite. Pat especially needed it. The night before, he had gone to see Pilot Officer Gregory ‘Krikey’ Krikorian, the squadron’s intelligence officer. He was tired, and spots kept appearing in front of his eyes when he was flying. Krikey recognised that Pat was suffering from tension but reassured the younger

BELOW: Pat Hughes and Flying Officer Butch, who, according to fellow 234 Squadron Bob Doe, ‘had more flying hours in Spitfires than some pilots’.

man that everything was all right. It was such a quiet day that Nell Geal, who lived in Sundridge, Kent, was convinced the enemy would not be coming. Even as she laid out tea for her 10-year-old grandson Desmond and his 4-year-old brother, Tony, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, who had travelled with his entourage from Berlin to Cap Gris Nez in the Pas-de-Calais, was broadcasting on German radio that ‘as a result of the provocative British attacks on Berlin on recent nights, the Fuhrer has decided to order a mighty blow to be struck in revenge against the capital of the British Empire’. The Luftwaffe was ready to retaliate and ‘today I have

RIGHT: Hughes held onto his RAAF uniform for as long as possible. ‘When he wore his best uniform—it was Royal Blue with gold rank badges’, recalled Bob Doe, ‘he looked fantastic.’

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(AFTER THE BATTLE)

BELOW RIGHT: Kay Brodrick, the woman who stole Pat Hughes’s heart, 1940. They were married for only a few weeks before his death. (DAVID MOOR)

(STEPHANIE BLADEN)

TOP RIGHT: Dornier 17-Z engaged by a Spitfire, 1940.

(BUNDESARCHIVE_ BILD_146-1969094-18)

heard above me the roaring of the victorious German squadrons which now, for the first time, are driving towards the heart of the enemy in full daylight, accompanied by countless fighter squadrons’. Then, with binoculars fixed to his face, he watched as they swarmed across the channel. From 3.45pm, enemy aircraft massed on a wide front from Beachy Head to the North Foreland. Over 300 Dornier Do17s, Heinkel He111s and Junkers Ju88s, escorted by 600 Messerschmitt Me109 and 110s, stepped up in dense layers ranging from 14,000 to 23,000 feet, droned inland. The deadly armada comprised the greatest bomber force ever convened accompanied by every available German fighter. Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park, the Air Officer Commanding 11 Group, despatched defending squadrons to key airfields and industrial targets, ordering them to patrol away from the coast. The first was in the air by 4.20 pm. Within ten minutes, all of the 21 squadrons within a 70 mile radius of London were on readiness including 12 Group’s Fowlmere and Duxford squadrons and 10 Group’s 609 and 234 squadrons. With the clanging of the scramble bell, Pat Hughes and his friends roused themselves from the somnolent sunshine and rushed to their waiting Spitfires. The massive formation crossed the coast in two waves; the first towards the Thames Estuary and the second, an hour later, ‘ploughed on’, as historian Stephen Bungay put it, ‘like a battering ram’ towards Central London and the East End docks. The first bombs were dropped on the Ford factory at Dagenham, followed by high explosives and incendiaries on the Beckton gasworks. Nine Hurricanes from 43 Squadron were among the

first to face the onslaught. Three climbed to engage the fighters; six targeted bombers. The defenders were engulfed and the first of many RAF deaths in combat that day occurred at 4.45pm. Fighter Command’s squadrons could do little but pick at the seemingly impenetrable Luftwaffe hide. Some enemy fighters fell but the defenders could neither down nor deflect the Luftwaffe bombers. 303 (Polish) Squadron alone attacked with little interference from the escorts, but only because 603 and 1 Squadrons had drawn them off. Ten minutes before the last of the bombs were dropped and the raiders were on their return track to France, 234 Squadron was ordered to patrol Kenley and Biggin Hill. Red and orange flames vied with black engulfing smoke to obscure the

DEATH OF AN AUSSIE ACE Battle of Britain

‘Two men took to parachutes,one of which failed to operate and the wearer, the Spitfire pilot, died among the flowers in the garden of a bungalow’;

view but 234 Squadron had no trouble making out a large number of enemy aircraft at heights ranging from 16,000 to 22,000 feet. At about 6.00pm, when they were southeast of Folkestone, Squadron Leader Joseph ‘Spike’ O’Brien (who had recently taken command of the squadron) ordered Pat Hughes and Blue Section to attack the bombers; he and the rest of the squadron would cover them. Pat thrust Spitfire X4009 towards a formation of Do17s and picked out a straggler, a photo-reconnaissance machine. Tasked with photographing the London docks, it had already sustained damage from attacks by 602 Squadron’s Spitfires and 79 Squadron’s Hurricanes. Pilot Officer Keith Lawrence followed Pat and watched him make a quarter attack on the Dornier. The Australian’s machine gunnery was so concentrated that Lawrence ‘saw a large piece fly off the E/A’. Next, he saw one of the Dornier’s wings crumpling. The stricken aircraft plunged into a fatal spin. ‘Immediately after I saw a Spitfire which I assumed to be Blue One [Pat] spinning down with about third wing broken’. Minutes later, the Dornier crashed into the River Darent; witnesses saw it turn ‘like a leaf falling ... in a nose first spin’. Black smoke could be seen for miles as it burned. X4009 crashed in a meadow

belonging to Dark’s Farm on the border of Sundridge and Bessels Green. ‘Two men took to parachutes’, recalled Desmond Hall, ‘one of which failed to operate and the wearer, the Spitfire pilot, died among the flowers in the garden of a bungalow’; Pat had fallen into William Norman’s garden at 16 Main Road.

WHAT HAPPENED? There has been much conjecture about Pat’s last action. There is a gap in Keith Lawrence’s combat report; he did not see what ensued in between the break up of the Dornier and Pat’s out-ofcontrol dive. Nor did anyone else from 234 Squadron. Had Pat taken his trade mark get-in-close tactic to the extreme with his Spitfire so near his target he could not dodge the debris? Had he then lost control, striking the enemy aircraft in mid-air? Or had the stricken Dornier veered into his Spit? Had the young man’s exhaustion caught up with him and he misjudged his attack, overshot and accidentally struck the Dornier? Had the spots before his eyes returned and he hadn’t seen the deadly fragment? Any one of these scenarios is plausible. There has even been speculation that Pat had been felled by friendly fire. On the face of it, this is credible. Fellow squadron member Pilot Officer Bob Doe reported chasing a Hurricane

BELOW: Map showing key 11 Group airfields around London. 234 Squadron was attached to 10 Group but Pat Hughes died during the first day of the Blitz on London. (MAP BY DIANE BRICKNELL)

which, when he dived past it and looped, followed him, firing all the time. Sergeant Alan ‘Budge’ Harker ‘saw what I thought was a Me109 attack a Spitfire, as I was about to attack I recognised it as a Hurricane, he was definitely firing’ at Doe. But when X4009 was excavated, there was no sign of spent RAF ammunition in the wreck and the speculation fails to explain X4009’s broken wing. There is one possibility that does. 

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DEATH OF AN AUSSIE ACE Battle of Britain

ABOVE: Hughes in full cadet uniform proudly displaying his wings at 1 Flying Training School Point Cook, December 1936. (RAAF MUSEUM)

RIGHT: Small fragments from Spitfire X4009. The locking tap for the brake lever from the control column, and the oval cover plate from the underwing picketing/ tying down point. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION VIA

ANDY SAUNDERS AND THE LATE GREG HUGHES)

Thousands of feet below Pat’s final combat, Desmond Hall’s father was watching. A coalman during the day, Charles ‘Bob’ Hall was a member of the local Home Guard. He also worked in the special police on sentry duty at Fort Halstead, a secret establishment about three miles away, located on the crest of the Kentish North Downs. He was at home before night duty at Fort Halstead. While Desmond could hear the ‘awesome wail of racing engines’ from his grandmother’s garden, he couldn’t see anything but, located on a hill, Bob Hall’s cottage and garden afforded a clear view of Pat’s final combat. ‘According to my father and other witnesses’, Desmond Hall wrote years later, ‘a Spitfire and a Dornier 17 appeared to collide’. Bob Hall maintained all his life that the Spitfire deliberately rammed the Dornier.

RIGHT: Australian Battle of Britain Honour Board, RAAF Edinburgh. The names marked with an asterisk, like Pat Hughes, were trained at 1 Flying Training School, Point Cook. (STEVE LEWIS)

BOTTOM RIGHT: Pat Hughes’ grave in the churchyard of St James’s in the parish of Suttonon-Hull, Yorkshire. (LOUISE BLADEN)

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But despite his contention, Battle of Britain historian Andy Saunders considers it unlikely. Whether the collision was accidental or deliberate, Pat was the eighth Australian to die in the Battle of Britain. He was just 12 days short of his 23rd birthday. The last of 234 Squadron’s Spitfires landed at Middle Wallop at 8.00 p.m. Besides Pat, Squadron Leader O’Brien had also been lost in action. The combat successes—small consolation for the loss of two fine men—were tallied. Three Me109s, one He111 and one Do17 destroyed, one Me109 probably destroyed, one Do17 and one Me109 damaged; Pat was credited with the destruction of the Dornier. His final personal tally was 14 and three shared destroyed, one shared destroyed unconfirmed and one probably destroyed. He had achieved the majority of these victories in seven encounters over three weeks, mostly against skilled Me109 combatants. The pilot who was assessed at the end of his cadetship as having ‘no outstanding qualities’ and ranked 28th in his class was, with all the part shares, a triple ace and Australia’s highest scoring Battle of Britain pilot. He was later ranked in the top ten Battle pilots. Bob Doe, who survived the war, was just ahead of him. Pat was also rated in the top three Australian aces of the Second World War and in the RAF’s top 50. Time passed and details trickled in. The squadron heard 28-year-old Spike O’Brien, who had done much to restore morale in the squadron since

taking command on 17 August, had been killed in combat over St Mary Cray. They also discovered Pat’s fate. Krikey Krikorian, who knew that Pat was not 100 per cent physically and mentally fit when he took off that afternoon, blamed himself for the Australian’s death. ‘In a way, I felt responsible’, he said. He regretted that he had failed Pat. There was a bad feeling when the pilots and ground crew realised they had lost two men. Indeed, it was a ‘black day’, recalled Joe Roddis, Pat’s one time fitter. ‘No one had more air sense than Pat’. As far as Roddis was

concerned, the former RAAF cadet who (unbeknown to him) had been rated only 60 per cent for qualities as an officer, was the ‘best CO we ever had’, even if he had only stood in the squadron leader’s stead. Most of 234 Squadron’s pilots had known or flown with Pat since November 1939. They admired him and ‘felt the loss deeply’.

DEATH OF AN AUSSIE ACE Battle of Britain

BELOW: 234 Squadron with Hughes sitting front left.

(STEPHANIE BLADEN)

REMEMBERED For Keith Lawrence, who had shared in Pat’s first victory, they had lost ‘a most skilled pilot, a born leader, a fearless and determined fighter pilot, who, by his example in engaging the enemy at such close quarters and with such success, commanded the greatest respect from his pilots’. Penned a little over a week before their deaths, Spike O’Brien’s recommendation for Pat’s Distinguished Flying Cross summed up the squadron’s feelings about their young flight commander and one time de facto CO: ‘This officer’s outstanding courage and leadership has inspired all those under his command with his dash and gallantry’. Air ViceMarshal Sir Quintin Brand, Air Officer Commanding 10 Group, concurred. He ‘very strongly recommended’ the award of the DFC for ‘a very gallant officer’. As Keith Lawrence put it, Pat ‘was in the top echelon of Battle of Britain pilots’. In going to England, the Australian had undeniably done ‘something special’. The conclusion of a schoolboy ‘story’ Pat wrote which evokes a strong attachment to the Monaro area where he grew up provides a strangely apt epitaph. ‘The watcher rose slowly to his feet, and with the beauty of that autumn evening impressed on his soul, he started again on his journey. For a moment he was lost to view behind an outcrop, but then for a short time he stood, vaguely outlined against the lighter gloom of a wide-arched sky— and then he passed from sight—over the skyline.’

Like the watcher, Paterson Clarence Hughes passed over the skyline but not entirely out of sight. The Monaro honours their former son with a memorial in Cooma. A plaque has been placed on the garden wall at Christ Church, Kiama, a coastal town in New South Wales that Pat remembered fondly from visits to his sister, and his medals are on permanent display in the Australian War Memorial’s Anzac Hall. Britain, too, remembers Pat. On the 65th anniversary of Pat’s death, a wall plaque was placed at 16 Main Road, Sundridge, in memory of ‘an Australian who fell in the garden here’. It was initiated by Desmond and Tony Hall. Throughout their school years they had walked past the sites where Pat had fallen and his Spitfire had crashed. Their father never forgot witnessing Pat’s demise, and Desmond and Tony continued to live ‘the excitement of it all’. With the assistance of the Battle of Britain Historical Society they decided to honour the Australian who had died in battle close to their home. Bob Doe was present when the memorial was unveiled, and in recollection of the man who had saved his life on at least one occasion, he remarked that Pat had ‘earned his place in our history as one without whose efforts we would not be free today’. He went on to add that ‘I saw some of the things he did and know that he was fully qualified to enter our history’s Hall of Fame’. He concluded with his heartfelt gratitude for ‘an Australian who came to help us when we needed him, God bless him’.

On 23 August 2008, as part of Shoreham Aircraft Museum’s Local Memorials Project, a commemorative stone was dedicated to Pat at Sundridge. Bob Doe gave the eulogy and again remembered his former flight commander with admiration and affection, praising his flying skills and leadership abilities. On 2 June 2013, Joe Roddis, visited the Shoreham memorial. Joe was overcome by memories of that long ago time and moved by the memory of the death of someone so vibrant. ‘I can still picture Pat at Middle Wallop’, he recalled. ‘He was such a character’ and, like so many of his fellow pilots in the Battle of Britain, ‘he died so young.’ 

ABOVE: Pat’s medals, including his DFC, were lost for many years. His brother William’s visit to this memorial plaque at Christ Church, Kiama, New South Wales, led to the fortunate discovery of them. They are now on display at the Australian War Memorial. (MICHAEL MOLKENTIN)

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IMAGE OF WAR

RAF STARVEALL FARM, OXFORD 7 June 1944

Spitfires and trucks are massed at a RAF Maintenance Unit ‘somewhere in England’ on or around 7 June 1944 and being readied for dispatch to 2nd Tactical Air Force units in Europe. It is believed this photograph was taken at 39 MU based at RAF Starveall Farm in Oxfordshire. (1940 MEDIA LTD)

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FIRST WORLD WAR DIARY JULY 1915 saw a notable persecution of the war in Africa and the Middle East. On the Home Front, political efforts resulted in changes to the laws of the Great Britain to increase control over labour disputes to ensure better control of the war effort. The National Registration Act was also introduced to allow a better management of the labour force. Considerable successes were made throughout Africa with the Germans being defeated in South West Africa. Notable successes were also made in the Middle East against the Turks. On the Western Front in Belgium, the flamethrower one of the terrifying weapons that would be used during the First World War was used for the first time by the Germans with devastating effect.

HOME FRONT

2 July The Munitions of War Act, 1915, becomes law in Great Britain. The Munitions of War Act was a piece of emergency legislation designed to increase government control over the direction of the British war effort. Its main feature was to suspend trade union rights in the munitions industries for the duration of the war. Strikes in factories engaged on ‘war work’ were made illegal and all labour disputes were to be submitted to compulsory arbitration. The Ministry of Munitions was also formed on this date.

HOME FRONT

15 July The National Registration Act becomes law in Great Britain. As the war continued, it became increasingly clear that the United Kingdom was going to suffer a manpower shortage. Voluntary recruitment was not going to provide the numbers of men required for the continued prosecution of the war, both for the armed forces and in industry. As a result the Government passed the National Registration Act, as a step towards stimulating recruitment and to discover, for example, how many men between the ages of 15 and 65 who were not in the armed forces were engaged in each trade. The information supplied under the Act provided manpower statistics and also enabled the military authorities to discriminate between persons who should be called up for military service and those who should in the national interest be retained in their existing employment.

WESTERN FRONT

30 July Action of Hooge. The small village of Hooge had been occupied by the Germans since their advance in 1914. The enemy was determined to hold this tactically important ground. The British, were determined to remove the Germans from Hooge. To this end British commanders planned to explode a mine under the position without any advance bombardment to provide the German defenders an inkling of an impending attack. The mine under Hooge was exploded on 15 July After a fierce struggle, the crater was secured by the British troops. The Germans fought back by launching a short, concentrated three-minute bombardment, then deployed a new weapon – the flamethrower. The new flamethrower had devastating effect. The crater was taken by the Germans and, despite valiant British counter-attacks, the Germans regained their positions at Hooge.

CAMEROONS

8 July Operations at Campo and on the Nyong River. A British force was directed to clear small hostile detachments in the Campo area. Two or three enemy camps were found deserted and destroyed, and it was ascertained that no major enemy convoy activity was passing along the River Nyong. The Germans however had organized small parties of levies to harass the vessels passing along the river. British and French reinforcements were sent to the area and succeeded in breaking up the German detachments.

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SOUTH WEST AFRICA

1 July Otavifontein in German South West Africa was captured by South African forces. German forces led by Major Hermann Ritter fought a delying action against General Bothas advancing forces but were routed resulting in an overall German breakdown that would soon result the campaign coming to an end.

JULY 1915 WORLD MAP INDIA

10 July Operations in Baluchistan against dissident tribesmen end.

DARDANELLES

12 July GALLIPOLI - Action of Achi Baba Nullah. Allied forces made a sixth and final attempt to capture Achi Baba, a prominent hill position featuring a commanding view of Cape Helles. The attack was unsuccessful gaining approximately only 350 yards before being called off.

MIDDLE EAST

4 July Lahej (in South Arabia) was taken by Turkish forces. In late June 1915 a force of British and Indian troops had been sent to Lahej, 25 miles north of the port of Aden, which had been was besieged by Turkish forces. The column reached Sheikh Othman, around 19 miles from Lahej, that morning, but the hot midsummer conditions had caused many casualties. The 109th Baluchi Infantry reached Lahej by dawn the next day and were joined by the Brecknockshire Battalion of the South Wales Borderers. However, a string of Ottoman attacks and a lack of ammunition, eventually forced the British forces to abandon Lahej. Affair of Sheikh Othman. After the failed attack on Lahej on 4 July the British forces were forced to fall back. The Turkish troops followed up the withdrawal occupied Shaikh Othman, a town about two miles inland from the harbour of Aden. On 20 a British force from Aden, launched a surprised attack on the Turkish force at Shaikh Othman, completely defeated them and drove them out. Establishment of E Persian Cordon. A force of British Indian Army troops set up a cordon in East Persia to prevent enemy infiltration from Persia into Afghanistan to protect British interests in from subversion by German agents.

MESOPOTAMIA

4 July First action for Nasiriyah. The British advance in Mesopotamia following the path of the River Euphrates continued against the enemy held Nasiriyah. On 5 July the 30th Infantry Brigade, commanded by Major-General Melliss, advanced to attack the enemy. Considerable opposition was encountered, but eventually both riverbanks were cleared of the enemy, creating the opportunity to continue the advance to Nasiriyah itself. Naval craft were then able to sweep for mines, and the river channel was cleared.

SOUTH WEST AFRICA

9 July German forces in South-West Africa capitulate to General Botha. After the German defeat at Otavifontein on 1 July 1915 a German emissary, brought a proposal that the German forces and their equipment be interned until the end of the war. This was flatly rejected by Botha, who immediately set about continuing his preparations to advance. A second emissary then arrived, asking for South Africa’s terms for a cessation of hostilities and requesting a meeting. General Botha agreed to this. His terms were harsh but the Germans had three options: to surrender, to resume fighting to the end, or to resort to guerrilla warfare. As a result the Germans chose to formally surrender, and did so at Khorab.

EAST AFRICA

13 July Second action of Nasiriyah. Further operations continue against Turkish positions south of Nasirayah. Difficult terrain and a resolute defence by the Turks resulted in a frontal attack being strongly repulsed. British residency at Bushire (South Persia) attacked by Tangistani tribesmen. As a result of the work of German agents who had created alliances with dissident Tangistani tribesmen they attacked the British residency at Bushire. As dusk fell that evening the insurgents attacked the outposts but were repulsed. Another. attack early next day was also defeated and the Tangistanis then disappeared.

11 July A British force occupies the German held territory of Mwanza on the southern shore of Lake Victoria. Affair of Mbuyuni. A British force attacked a German camp from which raiding parties had been attacking British encampments and railway lines. As a result of the Germans sending re-inforcements, the British attack is beaten off and forced to withdraw. German light cruiser SMS Königsberg was destroyed in Rufiji River, in German East Africa, by Royal Navy monitors.

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l ta y i ap cit c nt ned 2nd e c i ifi e ru the . n ag th s of tory e mered rne is s c on ent k Ba lls h s hi ion ran te t of vis t F uto L n i io d D nan es t uc ure ute Jam r t s o ie . de rm n. L iers d o d an th A ati sol n io he 7 ccup ose t sta of t n o f th a ev ops ssia ne o d o he tro e Ru as t e , er anc f th nt w v o v o e as , ad lity gim w 5 a e n i On l 194 e re re R r e ly th hi Friday, B s 4 April or 2 Ju and on f 1941, Frank v Barnes attended tle On st-h De t . a the territorial drill r B ete fi ion hall in Vicarage Lane, e l l East Ham, London for his Th mp sawatta enlistment medical. He was o d c an B assessed as ‘Grade A’, and duly declared fit for active service. Frank Barnes was going to war. Having worked for his father’s haulage company, Frank was enlisted into the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC). Little more is known about his early military career, but it is evident that he showed promise and was considered officer material. Consequently in April 1943 Frank, then a Lance Corporal, received instructions to proceed to Wrotham Camp near Gravesham, Kent to begin his training. On 20 January 1944, Frank became Second Lieutenant C.M.F. Barnes. In March, Frank attended an officer training course on waterproofing, in preparation for the forthcoming D-Day landings. Afterwards he was attached to No.164 Company (Armoured Division Troops) RASC, part of the 9th Armoured Division.

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SQUALOR IN THE RUINS Berlin 1945

In October 1944 Frank received what he called his ‘bombshell’ when he was informed that due to the large number of officers already in the RASC he had been selected to transfer to the infantry. Consequently, Lieutenant Barnes was transferred to 17th Platoon, ‘D’ Company, 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment on 9 November.

When Frank joined the 2nd Devons it was attached to the 7th Armoured Division – the famous ‘Desert Rats’ – and located at Nijmegen in the Netherlands. In January 1945 the division took part in the bitter fight to clear the Roer Triangle in the south of Holland. In March, once across the Rhine, it forced a crossing of the River Weser. Though Frank was wounded

on 20 April, he remained in Germany after the German capitulation.

DESTINATION BERLIN On 14 June 1945, the 21st Army Group instructed the 7th Armoured Division to stand by for a move to Berlin. Frank, who was a fluent German speaker thanks to his German mother, was to be part of the move. BELOW: Officers of the British 7th Armoured Division’s advance party share cigarettes with Russian officers in front of the battle-damaged Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, 2 July 1945. Lieutenant Frank Barnes, serving with the 2nd Devons, can be seen second from the right.

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TOP MIDDLE: Frank Barnes’ journey to Berlin had not been without drama. It was at this spot on the entrance to Harburg, a borough of Hamburg, where he was wounded on 22 April 1945. Frank can just be seen in the undergrowth beside the sign. TOP LEFT: The telegram sent to Frank’s family reporting that he had been wounded. He recovered in time to participate in the Desert Rats’ entry into Berlin.

The division’s advance to Berlin was to be led by a reconnaissance party, which set off at first light on 1 July. The journey was trouble free until it reached the River Elbe. There the original bridge had been destroyed and the Soviets had constructed a new bridge over the river. The General Officer Commanding (GOC) the division, Major-General Lewis Owen ‘Lew’ Lyne CB, DSO, was leading the column and after the first few vehicles has crossed, a Soviet sentry appeared on the far side and stated that his orders were to allow no vehicles of any type or nationality across the bridge, and that all traffic should use the temporary bridge in Magdeburg – a structure known as the Friendship Bridge. Arguments and persuasion by the GOC proved to no avail, and it was eventually decided that if the Magdeburg Bridge lived up to its name, things might prove easier on that route.

RIGHT: During his time in Berlin, Frank took numerous pictures of the sites that greeted him. This is a view of the Reichstag as seen from the Tiergarten where the final battle was fought – evidence of which still littered the street.

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The column turned around, and the remainder of the journey passed without incident, except for lengthy halts at each Soviet barrier, when it seemed necessary for the sentry to obtain permission from Moscow before allowing the column to pass. On Tuesday, 3 July, the day after he had first entered the city, Frank was able to pen the following letter to his mother describing his memorable journey into Berlin, as well as the reception that these initial British troops received (NB: all extracts are reprinted as originally written): ‘Well at last we have arrived and believe me we have had some shocks. It all started at the bridge at Magdeburg when the Russians would not let the advance party thro’ – they said that the British were not coming until Wednesday and that was that.

SQUALOR IN THE RUINS Berlin 1945

‘Well after several stops on route by odd sentries to check up on us we eventually arrived and of course no one knew where we were to go. So we sat in the Queen Elizabeth Strasse for a couple of hours, a very great attraction to all. The German attitude amazed us, they all waved and smiled and asked if we were going to stay, offered us tea and several came up and spoke to us in English. One actually asked one of the chaps if he knew some relations of hers in Paignton. ‘Another woman came up and said that she had lived in Berlin 36 years, and was English … Another came up and said in the best Cockney, ‘Did I come from London?’ She said she had married a German and had been happy with him, but did not know where he was. She asked me if her English was good, so I said with that accent you couldn’t be anything else. She promptly burst into tears.’

It seemed that there were very good reasons why many Berliners were, noted Frank, ‘so glad to see us’. These he went on to describe in his letter home: ‘Apparently the Russians have taken everything, trainloads of furniture, every bike they can see. All food, in fact everything they can possible lay their hands on. ‘There appear to be very few men and so they have made the women sweep the streets, among many other things. She also said that the majority of the woman between 12 and 70 have been molested one way or another. If they fancy a woman they take her and no arguments. That’s why all these people ask if we are staying and will restore law and order. I am sure that when the main body [of the division] arrives tomorrow they will be cheering in the streets. ‘The Russians have taken too all the horses and even the railway lines – mind you the Germans did that in Holland. So I suppose its poetic justice, altho’ I am quite sure that two wrongs do not make a right, and this is sowing the seeds of a future war without any doubt.’

They appear to be a very low type … All their transport is either American trucks, or very ancient Fords of the old AA type (we have a couple left). After seeing all our transport, which was simply terrific, varnished and all, it was no wonder the Ruskis stood open 

RIGHT: Private Frank Barnes in 1941.

TOP: A shoulder title of the Devonshire Regiment – as worn by Frank Barnes. ABOVE: A side view of the Reich Chancellery as it looked soon after Frank reached Berlin. MIDDLE: The barracks occupied by the 2nd Devons in Berlin in 1945.

‘OUR REAL SHOCK!’ ‘The biggest shock of all came later,’ continued Frank. ‘We passed all sorts of Russian Army, and were not impressed.

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mouths. ‘They also have bags of horses, and very poor carts, their equipment is very poor, and I am sure that the only way they beat the Germans was by sheer weight of numbers. We were most unimpressed with it all. They look very dirty too, and as it turned out, they are. BOTTOM ‘Well, to get back to our real shock! LEFT: We were to go to the Herman Goring The [sic] Barracks in Spandau. Well we Ministry of went, it has been a wonderful place, a Propaganda pictured from trifle bombed perhaps, but everything a balcony a barracks should be, wonderful at the Reich swimming pool, gyms, sports grounds, Chancellery. a real lovely place, BUT … the Russians had been billeted there. MIDDLE: The main ‘Never, in my whole life have I entrance hall seen such filth and squalor. They of the Reich have completely cleared the place Chancellery. of all movable furniture. They have Frank has urinated and excreted (pardon my written on the reverse of French) literally everywhere, and this picture: afterwards wiped their hands on the ‘Even in walls. No words of mine can express its ruined the filth. It’s literally unbelievable. state its Animals are not as dirty, at least they architecture use one corner. All this filth still lies and size can still awe’. about and the flies!!!! ‘Every door that was locked has been forced. In the workshop, lathes and equipment worth thousands, have been wantonly destroyed and it’s generally enough to make you weep. Jerry, even in his worst moments, was never as bad as this. Sheer wanton destruction.

ABOVE: Lieutenant Frank Barnes in his office, Berlin, 1945. MIDDLE RIGHT: A dining room in the Reich Chancellery. ‘Here was where Hitler held his celebrated breakfast for diplomats’, noted Frank.

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‘As a result the only habitable places to our standards are the M.T. [Motor Transport] Garages and so there we will stay for a week or so, until some of the other places can be made habitable. We went to the Burgo Master [sic] for labour and they sent 200 women. These woman work like the devil and say they are glad to do it for us. All very sordid and its hard, in fact impossible, to stand by when you see these woman lifting heavy weights, and working in all this unbelievable filth, so I have given all or nearly all my cigarettes away, and that’s fratting (fraternising).’ In fact, as interaction with the Soviet forces continued over the days and weeks after the German surrender, relationships proved increasingly troublesome, to such an extent that one senior British officer, Brigadier Owen Wales, felt compelled to issue a message to his troops: ‘I feel that probably some of you must resent the rigid security which is maintained by the Russians throughout the whole area in which we are living and working, and I therefore hasten to advise you not to take offence at this or to interpret it as an indication of mistrust and suspicion. Our Russian allies have developed an extremely high standard of security, which they have clearly decided to maintain in spite of the fact that hostilities have ceased. ‘It is not for us to question this policy, and we must therefore accept the rather unexpected circumstances in which we find ourselves with good grace and without loss of temper or dignity. I am taking steps to ensure that the maximum freedom of movement is afforded to British troops in this area.’

CITY IN CHAOS The BBC’s war correspondent Richard Dimbleby had preceded the British troops. He duly recorded the first BBC broadcast from the German capital: ‘As a clean, solid, efficient city, it has ceased to exist. In its place is a brokendown, evil-smelling rabbit warren of craters, and hulks of buildings, and everywhere dust and dirt and squalor. It’s true you can go into one or two streets and see no more damage, as you look along the sidewalk, than you might see in London. But turn the corner, and again and again you come face to face with a chaos and a confusion that reminds you of those picture postcards showing ruined towns of the last war, the result of 65,000 tons of bombs, and the savage street fighting of two months ago. The spirit of the people has been shattered too … They’ve no spirit at all, only an instinctive urge to live. And that’s not very easy for the Berliner today.’ The city was indeed in chaos. There were desperate shortages of food and water, and the ever-present threat of

SQUALOR IN THE RUINS Berlin 1945

TOP: ‘D’ Company’s rest room in Berlin, 1945. ABOVE: During his tour of the Reich Chancellery, Frank took this photograph from one of the balconies.

mass epidemics loomed large. ‘Already the stench in parts of the centre of Berlin is nauseating,’ Dimbleby noted, agreeing with Frank Barnes, ‘and the city’s water system is polluted. There’s not yet been a major epidemic of typhus or cholera, but most of the population is in such a weak state that if an epidemic did start it would spread like wildfire. For three months now there’s been no refuse collection of any kind.’ Dimbleby made it clear in his broadcast that he had little sympathy for the Berliners but like Frank Barnes and many other British soldiers, it was difficult for them not to feel a degree of concern for the Germans and the plight they were now in: ‘Great quantities of food and drugs are needed now before winter. Not necessarily because we have pity for these people who are slowly starving, but because if we let them get any weaker there will be epidemics of disease later in the year, and we cannot allow epidemics where we have Allies troops stationed. There are already enough dead bodies. They are estimated in thousands, still buried in

the great heaps of rubble in this city and never to be rescued, enough for us to avoid any more deaths if possible.’ Another member of the 7th Armoured Division, Tom Ritson, described an equally vivid picture of the German capital: ‘Berlin [in] July 1945 beggars description. It was then two months since the Russians had stormed the city street by street in bitter fighting. No serious attempt had been made to clean it up. At least half of all the buildings had been destroyed. There was no electricity, water or drainage ... the stench of the dead bodies in the ruined buildings and the corpses coming to the surface in the various lakes within the city area.’

STARVING MILLIONS On 4 July 1945, the main body of the 7th Armoured Division, following hot on the heels of Frank’s reconnaissance force, officially entered Berlin. As part of his division’s arrival, Major-General Lyne, who had also been announced as the first Military Governor of the British Zone of Berlin, took the salute from a hastily erected podium. 

BOTTOM LEFT: Frank had labelled this building as being ‘the Air Ministry’. BELOW LEFT: The Russians had already taken almost everything that could be moved, but Frank was able to find one ‘souvenir’ in the Reich Chancellery, or Reichskanzlei, on 2 July 1945. This metal fob is believed to be a ticket from a male (the word ‘heer’ is on the reverse) cloakroom at the Chancellery. Its well-worn appearance is due to the fact that Frank used it after the war, and indeed until his death, for his own keys.

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ABOVE RIGHT: Lieutenant Frank Barnes pictured in 1945.

As was to be expected, Lyne had many immediate duties and tasks to undertake. One of these was highlighted by the Daily Mirror on 5 July: ‘The Union Flag will be hoisted over Berlin at midday tomorrow. General L.O. Lyne, Commander of the ‘Desert Rats’, ordered that the highest of the steel flagpoles in the Olympic Games Stadium, in British territory, should be used. The Germans objected; they said flagpole which could be found at the foot of the Franco-Prussian War memorial in the Großer Stern. For the parade one company was found from each of 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, 1/5th Queens, 2nd Devons and the Canadian Composite Battalion. They were formed up facing East on the West side of the Monument, and, after Lieutenant General Sir Ronald Weeks had inspected the parade, the Union Jack was hoisted, and the first visible sign had been given to the German people that the British troops were in occupation.’ The problems facing the Allies were very real. Though more than a million people had fled Berlin before the arrival of the Soviets, it was estimated that in the British sector alone there were 900,000 persons, with a further 750,000 in the American sector. The Russian

RIGHT: According to Frank’s caption on this picture of one of the Soviet troops stationed in Berlin in 1945, it shows ‘the only nice Russian I met’. BOTTOM: Frank took this picture of the Russian War Memorial in Berlin when it was unveiled on 11 November 1945.

the pole could not be moved without heavy equipment. Gen Lyne ordered the burgomaster to get on with the work immediately and to have the pole in position by 9pm tonight under the threat of heavy penalties.’  The Germans seemingly took the hint, as a contemporary history of the 7th Armoured Division revealed: ‘It was arranged that … [a parade] should be [held] on the 6th July when the Union Jack was hoisted on the biggest

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sector was home to 1,100,000 people. Unfortunately no-one in authority on either the British, US side or Soviet side planned for supplying Berlin after the German defeat, as a report in The Times of 9 July 1945 made clear: ‘This is a matter that might have been settled before the British and American entry. It is clear that the Russians expect the British and American sectors to be supplied with food and fuel from their own occupation zones, if not from their own countries, whereas the British view is that supplies should come, as is usual, from the surrounding countryside, which in this case is entirely in Soviet hands … ‘The Russians have spoken about food being provided by their quartermaster branch, but to judge from the frequency with which cattle are seen being rounded up by Red Army men the Soviet troops themselves may be living to a large extent on the country. There is, however, a constant movement of people into the countryside in search of food, prices in the black market are prohibitive to the great mass of citizens, and that they are going hungry is clear at a glance.’

FACT VERSUS FICTION Aside from the day-to-day problems of life in the Berlin, the recently-arrived British personnel in the German capital had the opportunity of being able to vote in the General Election on

SQUALOR IN THE RUINS Berlin 1945

MIDDLE: Some of the men of the 2nd Devons’ ‘D’ Company outside the battalion’s barracks in Berlin in 1945. LEFT: Hoisting the Union Flag in Großer Stern on 6 July 1945. BELOW: A view of the Brandenburg Gate, from Unter den Linden, pictured by Frank in the summer of 1945.

5 July – the first election held in the UK for ten years. A polling booth for the headquarters of the British area command was set up in a post office in the Charlottenburg district, and at intervals during the day a loudspeaker van patrolled streets in the neighbourhood urging all ranks who had not already done so to vote that evening. Voting throughout the British zone in Germany had been on a unit basis under the supervision of selected recording officer. Those soldiers who elected to vote by post received a ballot paper and a copy of election addresses of candidates for his constituency. A few days later Frank was able to write again to his mother, though his mood had little improved: ‘Sorry that there has been such a gap, but we have been so very busy. I am heartily sick of this filth and squalor. However we have made an impression now and soon it will be habitable. I don’t think I shall ever forget this smell, I smell it everywhere. ‘Don’t worry if the post is delayed, I shall not be getting yours either. We are practically cut off here, no transport can go back thro’ to our areas without an escort. The Russians are definitely unfriendly and have locked up our chaps, trucks have gone out and never re-appeared. They apologised profusely afterwards.

‘We are all very tired of them. The whole Brigade was held up for three hours by a snotty nosed little sentry who refused to get an officer and when one arrived he refused to do anything. Eventually they had to get on to the Highest Levels. ‘I should like you to show this to anybody that’s interested and keep it afterwards. I am very tired of all the tripe the papers are printing and feel that the truth should be shown and believe me, this is the un-biased truth. The facts are here, it’s unfortunate that more people can’t see them.’ On a slightly brighter note, Frank wrote that, ‘I had my photo taken by the Daily Express, Mirror and Sketch, so keep your eyes open’. Frank remained in Germany until 1946. One of his letters from his time in Berlin has survived: ‘My Station Nov to Dec 1945, the Lehrter Bahnhof – once the pride of Berlin, it became the scene of much bitter fighting. One of the principle inlets from the Russian zone it became one of the Hell Holes of Berlin. We were obliged to station a permanent guard upon it. So there we were for two months. Many of the sights and happenings were unbelievable and unforgettable. They will live for ever in the memories

(ALL IMAGES AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)

of all who were connected with it.’ In March 1946 Frank’s regiment was transferred from the 7th Armoured Division to the 5th British Infantry Division, a change which saw it move to Wolfenbüttel, south of Brunswick. Frank was demobbed in 1946 and returned home to the family run business in London. Frank continued to serve in the Territorials with the RASC until 1951 and attended every Devonshire Regiment reunion until his death in 1995. One can only wonder how his and others’ experiences of Berlin in the aftermath of the German surrender became a subject of conversation amongst the veterans. 

ABOVE: One of Frank’s photographs of the Lehrter Bahnhof station in Berlin, which was the responsibility of his battalion in November and December 1945.

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2 ) s r y 6 (5 e g r o e . d n ry G a h k c e D ) s r y 0 4 ( s i n n Den d n a h k O c e a D h n k c oh e D ) s r y 5 4 ( s e m a J e m m i r harles T ) s r y 9 1 ( t r e b l A C ) s r y Leslie 4 6 ( k c o t n i L c M r e d r 3 ) exand s r y 0 5 ( e g r o e G s a m Tho e t a M ) s r y 5 4 ( n e hn All TRAWLER TRAGEDY: THE TRUTH? The Fate of the Castleton BELOW: Forty-three year old Walter Sibley was the Skipper of Castleton when she was lost. No trace of him was ever found.

N WEDNESDAY, 26 June 1940, the 211-ton Grimsby steam-trawler Castleton (GY 449) left its home port for the northern fishing grounds. On 28 June it disappeared without trace and none of its crew of ten was seen alive again. Eight families in the Lincolnshire port and two in nearby Cleethorpes felt the pain of the loss. Over the days that followed, the sea revealed the broad location of the tragedy when the bodies of three

crew members were washed ashore at scattered sites among the Orkney Islands. Later, a ship’s boat bearing the trawler’s name was discovered - but there was no indication of the cause of the loss and no indication of its precise location. Official records listed the vessel as ‘Lost in vicinity of Orkneys. 28 June 1940. Cause unknown’, which is how Castleton remains listed to this day. The conventional wisdom for the loss nevertheless seems to have been that the vessel had been sunk by a German submarine. At first, U-62 was credited with putting a torpedo

through the trawler – but then it was subsequently shown that the success attributed to U-62 had actually occurred against a different ship, on a different date and in a different place. Later, others hazarded a guess that U-102 was the cause, simply because ‘..it should have been in the vicinity’ where Castleton might have gone down – but, again, no evidence was offered in support of U-102’s possible claim. In the absence of evidence, it looked as though the loss of Castleton was destined to become one of the many mysteries of the sea. Then Chance intervened.

Opinions have differed over the years about the mysterious fate of the trawler Castleton, lost with all hands in June 1940. With the recent emergence of relevant documents, Bill Norman believes he now knows the truth.

TRAWLER 62 www.britainatwar.com

) s r y 3 4 ( r e t l a d. Sibley,W y 3 5 ( m a i l l i W , t Stewar e g r o e . G -hand Cook, Henry 0 4 ( s i n n mmer. Ryan, John De k c e D s) Cook Squires, John m a J s e d l rd Han Dillon, Char b l A e i l s e L , e n Osbor M r e d n a x e l A , e Whit G s a m o h T , d r a Hubb 5 4 ( n e l l A n h o J Webb, TRAWLER TRAGEDY: THE TRUTH? The Fate of the Castleton

NEW EVIDENCE

Around May 2014, I was sent a substantial number of copies of German wartime air operations’ documents from a contact in Denmark. The documents related to anti-shipping operations carried out by aircraft of the German Küstenfliegergruppen. The Küstenfliegergruppen operated under the control of the German Navy (the Kriegsmarine) and were the German equivalent of the Fleet Air Arm. Quite by accident, among the documents I found the combat report of the bombing attack carried out by a Dornier17z (coded 7T+EL) of 3./606 Küstenfliegergruppe (3rd Squadron, No.606 Coastal Reconnaissance Group) against the British trawler “GY 499”, east of the Orkney Islands at 9.30am (BST) on 28 June 1940. Of course, the port registration number is not quite that of Castleton’s actual number (GY 449). However, given that the bomber crew recorded the number while flying at a speed of nearly 200mph and during the drama of a low-level bombing attack, in the area where Castleton – the only British trawler lost that day – was thought to have gone down, the similarity is, I believe, too close to be mere coincidence. 

MAIN PICTURE: The ill-fated Grimsbyregistered Steam Trawler GY 449 Castleton. (VIA

STEVE FARROW)

LEFT: The crew of a Küstenfliegergruppe 606 Dornier 17-Z 5 prepare for an attack against a shipping target.

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2 ) s r y 6 (5 e g r o e . d n ry G a h k c e D ) s r y 0 4 ( s i n n Den d n a h k c e a D h n k c oh e D ) s r y 5 4 ( s e m a J e m m i r harles T ) s r y 9 1 ( t r e b l A C ) s r y Leslie 4 6 ( k c o t n i L c M r e d r 3 ) exand s r y 0 5 ( e g r o e G s a m Tho e t a M ) s r y 5 4 ( n e hn All TRAWLER TRAGEDY: THE TRUTH? The Fate of the Castleton

ABOVE: Dornier 17-Z 5 aircraft of Küstenfliegergruppe 606 are readied for further anti-shipping sorties at KielHoltenau. (VIA

JÖRN JUNKER)

MIDDLE LEFT: Henry Cook was the fiftysix year old 2nd Engineer on board Castleton. His body was washed ashore at Flotta, Orkney, on 7 July 1940. (VIE JEN RINGWOOD)

MIDDLE RIGHT: John Webb who was the Mate on board Castleton pictured with his young family c.1930. (RICHARD WEBB & CHRISTINE DARE)

In June 1940, 3./606 was temporarily attached to KüFlGr. 106 based at Rantum, on the German North Frisian Sea island of Sylt. On 28 June 1940, three Do.17z bombers of 3./606 were each ordered to carry out a reconnaissance of established German patrol lines between 57º00N – 59º00N in the North Sea. 7T+EL – crewed by Hauptmann Heinrich Golcher (observer), Oberleutnant Rudolf Diehl (pilot), Stabsfeldwebel Friedrich Werner (mechanic) and Oberfeldwebel Josef (?) Solbach (wireless operator) – was allotted the patrol line that corresponded with geographical co-ordinates 58º15’00N/001º36’00”W and 58º57’00”N/001º36’00”W, the line beginning c. 54 miles east of Dunbeath and ending some 45 miles east of Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands. Although for navigation purposes the Kriegsmarine calculated and plotted position in degrees of longitude and latitude, for the purposes of radio communication and security they transmitted those positions in code, using a system of grid squares (Quadraten) that corresponded to geographical locations. 7T+EL’s

RIGHT: The official Admiralty list of merchant shipping losses shows the loss of the Castleton to be recorded as ‘C.U.’ – Cause Unknown. However, the background story of her sinking can now be told.

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geographical co-ordinates coincided with the patrol of the line of squares AN Qu.1698 u.K.M - AN Qu.1635 o.K.M. The refinements u.K.M. and o.K.M. stood for ‘lower’ edge centre’ and ‘upper edge centre’ respectively and allowed more accurate positioning within the relevant squares. 7T+EL had probably just completed its reconnaissance task when it found Castleton, in square AN Qu.1631 1.o.E (left upper corner), at geographical co-ordinates 59º03’00”N/001º48’00W (some 20 miles east of the island of Stronsay, Orkney). The crew’s combat

report explains:  ‘At 1030hrs (9.30am BST) in position Qu.1631 1.o.E, a British trawler of c.300 tons and sailing a northerly course came into sight on the port side. Speed 8-10 knots. Own height 300 metres; own speed 280km/h. 4/10 cloud at high altitude. Isolated mist patches at 400 metres. Wind southerly. Strong. 10 metres per second. Visibility 5 nautical miles. Hazy. ‘The first approach was made from out of the sun. After the British flag had been properly identified, the steamer was covered with machine-

) s r y 3 4 ( r e t l a d. Sibley,W y 3 5 ( m a i l l i W , t Stewar e g r o e . G -hand Cook, Henry 0 4 ( s i n n mmer. Ryan, John De k c e D Cook quires, John S m a J s e d l rd Han Dillon, Char b l A e i l s e L , e n Osbor M r e d n a x e l A , e Whit G s a m o h T , d r a Hubb 5 4 ( n e l l A n h o J Webb, TRAWLER TRAGEDY: THE TRUTH? The Fate of the Castleton

FATE OF THE CREW

gun fire. Numerous hits were seen in the superstructure, funnel and hull.’ The bomber made four attacks on the trawler, dropping 2-3 bombs on each occasion (its total bomb load was 10x 50kg bombs) from altitudes varying from 50m to 120m, and raking the vessel with MG fire before and after each bombing run. Most of the bombs fell wide, some scored near misses – but one was on target: ‘…a hit in the bow... tore a large hole in the starboard hull after penetration of the deck. Heavy smoke and steam were streaming out of the foredeck. Probably steam lines were torn...After the 2. attack the crew left the ship, which was listing heavily to starboard, and stayed about 500m distance from the steamer... When the trawler was left, after 30 minutes, it was sinking and its forecastle was on fire. Air photographs were taken. Defence by the ship was not observed but the aircraft does have two ricochet cracks on the right side of the fuselage.’

It is currently not known how many of the crew survived the sustained attack and were able to take to the trawler’s lifeboat. Nor is it known exactly what happened to those survivors in the hours following the evacuation of the Castleton. However, the situation cannot have been easy. At the time of the attack, the crew of 7T+EL recorded the wind as being Southerly, Force 5 (which would have produced wind speeds of 19-24mph and wave heights of 6-8 feet), but conditions worsened over the following 24 hours. The records for 28 June 1940, stored at the National Meteorological Archive, Exeter, show that by 6.00pm that day, wind conditions in the area had increased to South-easterly, Force 6 (which would have produced wind speeds of 25-31mph and wave heights of 10-13 feet); by noon of 29 June, wind conditions had worsened further, to Force 6-8 (‘strong to gale’), to produce wind speeds of 25-46mph and wave heights of 10-25 feet. Speculation suggests that, at some point, conditions became too difficult for the survivors to cope and that the lifeboat, on which they had pinned their hopes, capsized. Three bodies were later washed ashore at scattered sites in the Orkney Islands: that of

Alexander McLintock White, on 29 June, in Newark Bay, Sanday; that of John Ryan, on 6 July, at North Taing, Auskerry; and that of Henry Cook, on 7 July, at Quoyness Point, Flotta. They were buried locally: White, in Lady Old Churchyard, Sanday; Ryan in St. Olaf’s Cemetery, Kirkwall; and Cook in the Parish Churchyard, Flotta. I believe that they still lie there. The rest of the crew were never found: they are commemorated on the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleet Memorial at Tower Hill, London. We know that at least two of the German bomber crew did not survive the war. At 0253hrs on 28 July 1941, Rudolf Diehl and Friedrich Werner were killed when their aircraft ( Ju.88 7T+ML/wnr. 6396) was intercepted over the Thames Estuary by Flying Officer C.R. Miles (pilot) and Sergeant Hall in a Beaufighter of No.29 Squadron, based at West Malling. The Beau’s lethal combination of cannon and machine-gun fire caused the bomber to ‘blow up with a terrific explosion’ before the remnants of the aircraft plunged into the sea some eight miles north-east of Sheerness. The two other members of the bomber crew (not Golcher and Solbach) survived to become prisoners of war. 

TOP LEFT: Whilst this isn’t actually the Castleton burning and sinking, the desperate plight of the trawler’s crew, far from land, can be easily imagined from this image. TOP RIGHT: Luftwaffe map showing the position where the Castleton was sunk by a Dornier 17-Z 5 on 28 June 1940.

BELOW: On 25 June, 1940, nineteen year old Leslie Osborne married his eighteen year-old sweetheart Evelyn Stark at the Parish Church of St Andrew, Grimsby. Just three days after his wedding young Leslie was lost at sea. BRENDA OSBORNE)

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2 ) s r y 6 (5 e g r o e . d n ry G a h k c e D ) s r y 0 4 ( s i n n Den d n a h k c e a D h n k c oh e D ) s r y 5 4 ( s e m a J e m m i r harles T ) s r y 9 1 ( t r e b l A C ) s r y Leslie 4 6 ( k c o t n i L c M r e d r 3 ) exand s r y 0 5 ( e g r o e G s a m Tho e t a M ) s r y 5 4 ( n e hn All TRAWLER TRAGEDY: THE TRUTH? The Fate of the Castleton

KÜSTENFLIEGERGRUPPE 606

FORMED AT Kiel Holtenau at the begining of November 1939 under the command of Oberst (Gp Capt) Hermann Edert, Küstenfliegergruppe 606 (literally ‘Coastal Flying Wing 606’) flew the Dornier 17 on maritime reconnaissance and anti-shipping operations. Having operated over the North Sea and then participated in the invasion of Norway, in mid-July 1940 the Gruppe moved to Westerland and then at the end of the month to Lannion in western France. Now commanded by Major (Sqn Ldr) Joachim Hahn, the unit adopted the cockerel badge (‘cock’ or ‘rooster’ in German). As Küstenfliegergruppe 606 would be flying against maritime targets or flying over sea, the unit flew the modified Dornier 17 Z-5 which incorporated two flotation devices in bulges either side of the nose. In the event of ditching they would give the crew more time to escape the aircraft. (These unusual features may be seen in some of the photographs of the unit’s aircraft) Most aircraft flew with naval observers. One of these men, who would later return to U-boats, explained: ‘I was based with 606 from 3 October to 18 December 1940. I then had to return to the Navy where we were needed for U-boats. Our job was that of Observers and without exception we were commanders of the bombers because of our knowledge of navigation over the sea. Most of my time with 606, we were acting as Pathfinders for attacks on such cities as Liverpool, Bristol and London. This meant we took off at dusk across the Channel to mark the target with incendiaries. ‘Our navigational equipment in the Do 17 Z were very primitive and added to the inexperience of the crew and the defences over England, this resulted in a heavy loss of life and aircraft...’ Despite much success, for which Hahn was awarded the Ritterkreuz (Knights Cross) on 21 October 1940, by the end of that year, the ageing Dornier 17 was replaced by the much improved Junkers 88. Kampfgruppe 606, as it was now known, continued to fly over the United Kingdom until December 1941 when it moved to Sicily for operations in the Mediterranean and against Malta. In September 1942, Kampfgruppe 606 was re-designated I Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 77 (I/KG 77) but still retained its distinctive cockerel badge, although Major Joachim Hahn had relinquished command in December 1941 to help form KG 6. Promoted to Oberstleutnant (Wg Cdr) he was killed on 3 June 1942 when his Messerschmitt 108 was bounced by two Spitfires flown by Flt Lt Eugene ‘Jeep’ Neal and Flt Sgt Stan Cosburn of 401 Sqn. It crashed at Gamaches near Le Treport in France.

A bomb bursts alongside another victim of a Luftwaffe antishipping strike.

POSTSCRIPT

On 7 April 2015, I received an email from Christine Dare, the granddaughter of John (‘Jack’) Allen Webb, who was lost with the Castleton. Having recently retired, she had spent some time researching her family history and had found details of my own research results online. The following is an edited version of her email to me: ‘I would like to give you my sincere thanks for solving a mystery that has weighed on my father’s mind all these years. My father is Jack’s last surviving son (Richard David Webb), now aged 90. ‘As you know, the original theory was that Castleton was sunk by a U-boat having mistaken the trawler close up for a warship at a greater distance. This theory has always been dismissed by my father, who for many years believed that the trawler had strayed into a newly-laid minefield and the exact cause of its sinking covered up by the Admiralty. When Castleton set off

on its last voyage, my father was 16 and working in a factory prior to joining the RAF. He heard about the minefield on the radio and remembers saying to a colleague that he hoped his dad had heard the broadcast. ‘Ironically, Jack usually sailed as skipper, his usual fishing ground being various locations in the North Sea. On this occasion it was deemed to be too dangerous and redirected to the Orkneys. Walter Sibley was brought in as skipper as he was more familiar than Jack with the Orkneys...’ 

ABOVE: The Memorial to Merchant Seamen at Tower Hill, London, records the names of the seven crew members of the Castleton whose bodies were never found.

ABOVE: One of Küstenfliegergruppe 606’s Dornier 17-Z 5 aircraft prepares for another long and hazardous flight out over the North Sea. The unusual bulges each side of the nose of the Z-5 aircraft housed extra dinghy equipment in the event of a ditching in the sea.

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ATTACK ON THE CHANNEL ISLANDS Jersey and Guernsey Blitz

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ATTACK ON THE CHANNEL ISLANDS Jersey and Guernsey Blitz

The view through the forward machine-gun position of a Heinkel He 111 as it flies over Corbière Point, Jersey. (CHANNEL ISLANDS OCCUPATION SOCIETY)

W

ITH THE fall of France and the signing of the armistice with Germany on 22 June 1940, the situation facing the people of the Channel Islands was bleak. Ten days earlier, following the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk and other French ports, the safety of the Channel Islands was a subject of a detailed report completed by the Chiefs of Staff Committee and presented to the War Cabinet at the meeting on the morning of 12 June. The report included the following observations: ‘We have examined the strategic importance of the Channel Islands in the light of the present situation … Should the Germans succeed in occupying the whole north coast of France, the Channel Islands could evidently not be held by us for long; but under these conditions they would no longer be of value to the enemy who would have many better mainland harbours and aerodromes available. On the other hand, it is inconceivable that the Germans would occupy the adjacent mainland and leave the islands untouched. ‘If the enemy should decide on the occupation of the islands, he could in existing circumstances land an overwhelming force in troop-carrying aircraft, and there is little we could do to interfere with his initial action.’1 

Compared to the devastating bombing raids endured on the British mainland, the German aerial assault upon Jersey and Guernsey was a minor affair. But to those who faced the bombing and the strafing, the attack of 28 June 1940 was a terrifying and deadly ordeal, as Simon Hamon reveals. www.britainatwar.com 69

ATTACK ON THE CHANNEL ISLANDS Jersey and Guernsey Blitz Since the production of that report the Germans had indeed been able to occupy the adjacent French coastline. This made it likely that the Germans would attempt to occupy the Channel Islands. Any attempt at defending the islands would inevitably fail and in the process expose the inhabitants to all the horrors of war. Churchill, therefore, decided to demilitarise the islands and all service personnel and most of their equipment were withdrawn to the UK. This decision was made on 19 June. The islanders now knew that they stood alone to meet whatever fate awaited them. The Germans, however, were unaware that the islands had been demilitarised. So, when nine Heinkel He 111s of KG 55 took off from Villacoublay to the south-west of Paris on 28 June, their crews believed they had been tasked to attack enemy-held territory. The Beobachter,, or Observer/Navigator, on one of the Heinkels, six of which targeted Guernsey, was Hans Grah:

‘With a Kette, we shall attack troop embarkations, and ships departing the British Channel Islands. We take off at 18.35 hours. The flight-path was over Caen to the British Channel Islands, Guernsey and Jersey. We look at the interesting northern French landscape, small fields, filled with hedges. From above the coast of the Cherbourg peninsula we already see, lying in the

BELOW: The immediate aftermath of the Luftwaffe attacks on Jersey and Guernsey on 28 June 1940, as viewed from Glategny Esplanade.

haze, the islands. We fly on, the first raid against England … ‘We then flew over the quays of St. Peter (Port). Everywhere on the island the glass roofs of the greenhouses light up in the sun, Guernsey is famous because of its tomatoes. On the quay stands a mass of vehicles, troops, also a small ship lies there.

LEFT: Another view of the effects of the Luftwaffe attack on Guernsey on 28 June 1940. The smoke seen here is coming from White Rock in St Peter Port, Guernsey.

‘Turning – the other machine has already bombed, hits on a warehouse – we approach, the bombs being aimed at vehicles, the first bomb, the second and so on, marvellous, none are falling wide. Big pieces of debris fly about, a fire burns. Next run, again everything into the vehicles, below its burning fiercely. The small ship will also get something. We descend to a lower altitude, circling over the island, no defences! Again bombs at the vehicles … ‘A few bombs still remain, so heading to Jersey, it is already burning in the harbour there, the second Staffel having bombed there, the remainder are dropped, a steamer the intended target, but unfortunately everything goes into the water.’

(NORMAN GRUTT)

(NORMAN GRUTT)

BELOW: A view of the badly damaged London Sheds on White Rock, St. Peter Port. (VIA PETER CANN)

70 www.britainatwar.com

ATTACK ON THE CHANNEL ISLANDS Jersey and Guernsey Blitz

The mass of ‘troops’ and vehicles that the German bombers had aimed at on the quay in Guernsey’s St. Peter Port had little do with the war. They were, in fact, civilians, and the vehicles were their cars and lorries carrying enormous quantities of the produce that had, as Grah noted, made Guernsey renowned – tomatoes.

‘I at once realised that an air raid was on and quickly closed the door and threw myself flat in the passage where I lay more or less terrified for the best part of an hour listening to the hateful noise of German ’planes overhead and bombs being dropped at intervals. The concussion in the large empty building was terrific, and it seemed to me that

ABOVE: The clean-up in St Peter Port after the bombing, with tomato vehicles destroyed. (AUTHOR’S

COLLECTION)

where all the lorries were burning. In the café it was a genuine panic – everyone on the floor. But after the first burst I managed to get them down into the cellar. I don’t think the air raid lasted more than ten minutes at the very most. But we naturally expected them to return and finish the job off – which they didn’t do. 

BOMBING RAID

ABOVE: This small boat was recovered.

(CHANNEL ISLANDS OCCUPATION SOCIETY)

The attack was described by Miss A. Le M. Mainé, who also referred to 28 June 1940 as ‘the blackest day Guernsey had ever seen’: ‘It was, of course, the height of the tomato season and, as usual, if perhaps unwisely, dozens of motor cars and lorries were formed up in two rows along the White Rock waiting to ship their produce. It was a beautiful summer’s day and the pier presented a very animated appearance. I, myself, spent most of the afternoon on the Jetty … I was just about to leave college, and had actually opened the door when I heard machine-gun fire and bombs being dropped.

the place might be hit at any moment and collapse. There appeared to be three attacks with a short interval between, but the whole raid lasted about 45 minutes.’2 Frank Stroobant ran a café in St. Peter Port which was known as ‘Home from Home’. From there he could see the White Rock, which was the north arm of the harbour, where all the tomato vehicles were waiting to off-load their produce: ‘We were all in the café. The first time I realised it was a raid was when all the windows came in. They were blitzed by machine gun bullets. Looking out, we could see a blaze on the White Rock

A painting by artist David Le Cheminant depicting the bombing raid on St. Peter Port Harbour 28 June 1940. (MALCOLM WOODLAND)

www.britainatwar.com 71

ATTACK ON THE CHANNEL ISLANDS Jersey and Guernsey Blitz less lucky, chose to panic down the gangway plank and make for the sheds and warehouses on the wharf. They were caught by a raking machine gun fire from the second and third Nazi planes and went down in rows like ninepins. The policeman taking the tickets on the gangway was blown to pieces and the shed went up in flames.’4

A TRAGIC CASE

‘The air raid warden came in to see me and said: ‘Frank, this is a mess.’ And I looked out and saw that by this time the White Rock was a pall of smoke. And that is where the casualties happened because many of the lorry drivers had, for safety, dived under their vehicles and, of course, when they were machine gunned and the petrol tanks exploded.’3 The small ship that Hans Grah mentioned was probably the regular mail boat, Isle of Sark. This vessel was armed with a single machine-gun, and with all the military and their weapons having left the islands, the Isle of Sark’s gun was the only one left to protect the harbour. On board Isle of Sark was Mrs R.J. Stephen: ‘Three planes with their engines shut off swooped out of the sun … There was a terrific explosion as the first bomb fell, splinters rattled on to the deck and a man standing next to my small boy sagged on to the deck with blood pouring from a wound in the groin … some ran to get below, but others

72 www.britainatwar.com

ABOVE: Bomb damage to the Clock Tower at the end of the White Rock on the Weighbridge, St. Peter Port.

(NORMAN GRUTT)

RIGHT: Bomb damage to the harbour wall on the Careening Hard, St. Peter Port. (NORMAN

GRUTT)

BELOW: Taken after the raiders had departed, this image shows damage to the London Sheds on White Rock, St. Peter Port. (NORMAN GRUTT)

Dr Alistair Rose played a vital role in Guernsey both before and throughout the eventual German occupation of the Channel Islands. He was inevitably involved in dealing with the aftermath of the German raid, and left a detailed account of the treatment of the wounded: ‘As we pulled up at the hospital, the first cases were arriving and we began to get news of what had happened … The wounded arrived in a steady stream, many of them seriously injured, and soon we had upwards of 50 cases awaiting operation. The killed, it transpired later, numbered much about the same. ‘The St. John’s Ambulance Brigade, as could be expected of them, bravely answered the call and went down to the quay to pick up the wounded. While they were there, the planes attacked again and the ambulance was

riddled. The driver was killed, and another member seriously wounded; others had narrow escapes. One of the latter told me how he took refuge beneath the ambulance. He heard the whine of the falling bomb which struck not 30 feet away, and he was lifted a foot off the ground by the concussion, and had the horrible experience of seeing the chassis sinking down on top of him. He thought he was done for, but luckily it was just due to punctures in the tyres!’5 Dr Rose went on to describe ‘another very tragic case’, in this instance that of a young French youth who had been brought in from the harbour: ‘I forget his name now, but I remember he had a companion called Paul. I will call him H., although that was not his name. Paul was not seriously hurt, and made a good recovery, but H. had been taking cover and was just getting up when a bomb fell near him. A piece of the bomb must have entered through his trouser pocket (for there was no hole in the clothing) and penetrated his thigh. ‘Unfortunately, it damaged the femoral artery, which is the main artery to the limb. H. and Paul, had arrived in Guernsey in order to get to England to serve in the army of General de Gaulle. H. was a brave little soldier. Throughout the frequent relapses from

ATTACK ON THE CHANNEL ISLANDS Jersey and Guernsey Blitz

haemorrhages which occurred at intervals during the following weeks, he would always gain courage by singing the Marseillaise. The artery was tied but it was damaged so high up, that ligature was not effective, and the poor lad gradually bled to death.’ Islander Bill Green later described the scene at St. Peter Port, where ‘lines of tomato vans and lorries waiting with produce for shipment to the mainland were left as smouldering wrecks’. He added that, ‘49 vehicles were burnt out or seriously damaged. Bomb craters were everywhere. The weighbridge was extensively damaged and its clock stopped at few minutes before seven … The whole of the front, from the States Offices, where every single window was broken, right along to Les Banques suffered considerable damage – there was hardly an unbroken window to be seen. Well over one hundred windows were broken in the Royal Hotel.’6 It had not only been the harbour and its facilities that had been targeted or hit by the raiders, as Bill Green went on to recall: ‘Whilst the main raid was concentrated against the White Rock, the … bombers also dropped bombs in other parts of the island. In the country a bomb was dropped near the St Saviour Reservoir and another at the race course at Vazon. A number of houses were damaged by bombs. In the Strand, Strand Villa, an adjoining cottage and another house received considerable structural damage. Two bombs fell, one in the front and another at the rear of this group of properties.

ABOVE: Workmen clearing the debris, and starting the repairs, at the bomb-damaged London Sheds on White Rock, St. Peter Port. (JOHN

GOODWIN)

BELOW: This damage to a house on the Strand in Guernsey was caused by a bomb which fell and exploded some half a mile from its intended target at the harbour. (CHANNEL ISLANDS

OCCUPATION SOCIETY)

‘At the Guernsey Brewery over one hundred windows were blown out. A house in St Andrews, at La Vassalerie, suffered considerable structural damage, all the windows and doors being blown in. Fortunately none of the occupants were injured as they had taken cover. The Germans machined-gunned other areas of the town and haymakers in the fields, without causing any serious injuries.’

TARGET JERSEY As six of the nine German bombers were attacking targets on Guernsey, the remaining three Heinkels continued on towards Jersey. Moments later they appeared over St. Helier, where scenes similar to those experienced in St. Peter Port were played out.

In St. Helier, Jersey’s main port, Leslie P. Sinel, who was on the staff of the Island’s Evening Post, wrote in his diary that it had been a quiet and uneventful day until around 18.45 hours, at which point the raiders struck: ‘Bombs were dropped at La Rocque and in the Town Harbour vicinity, the planes sweeping over roads with their machine-guns blazing. Houses were wrecked at South Hill, stores were set on fire in Commercial Buildings and hundreds of panes of glass were shattered in the weighbridge vicinity, stained-glass windows of the Town Church being damaged. Bombs also fell in the harbour itself, which was primarily the German objective, several small boats and yachts being destroyed. Eleven people were killed and nine injured, either by pieces of shrapnel [bomb splinters] or machine-gun bullets.’7 R.E.H. Fletcher was sitting in a friend’s garden after tea when they were both startled to hear a very heavy report some distance away: ‘‘What was that?’ I asked. My friend suggested that it might be that part of the French Fleet was being destroyed. Before I could venture my opinion a tremendous explosion seemed to lift us from our chairs and much too near to be pleasant so we both jumped up to see if we could discover its cause. Immediately over our heads appeared three German planes followed by another three and as they were machine gunning whilst passing we innocently thought we were spectators of an air battle.’8 Dr Averell Darling was the Resident Medical Officer on duty in Jersey General Hospital that day. He later recorded his memories of what happened:  www.britainatwar.com 73

ATTACK ON THE CHANNEL ISLANDS Jersey and Guernsey Blitz

LIFEBOAT UNDER FIRE

ON 29 June 1940, the decision was taken by the RNLI to remove the two lifeboats remaining in the Channel Islands to the British mainland. A crew could not be raised for the Jersey lifeboat, so a plan was put together for this vessel, Howard D, to be brought to Guernsey and then travel on to the UK with Guernsey’s lifeboat. The crew sent from Guernsey to collect Howard D travelled on board the Guernsey relief lifeboat Alfred and Clara Heath. This crew of seven, Coxswain Fred Hobbs, Second Coxswain Fred Zabiela, Bowman Bill Gourney, Harold Hobbs, Alec Hobbs, Fred Zabiela Jnr and Gerald Dunstan as Engineer, left the moorings at St. Peter Port at 16.05 hours to head across to Jersey. ‘All went well until they reached Noirmont Point about 15 minutes steaming from the Jersey Harbour, when three German aeroplanes appeared astern and dived down to a few hundred feet above the lifeboat and machine gunned the Boat and crew. The crew layed [sic] flat on the bottom of the boat, the Coxswain to keep a look out.’ The Coxswain turned for the St Aubin’s breakwater and immediately began zigzagging before running the lifeboat up onto the beach, in amongst the rocks, in an effort to gain some cover. Everyone immediately jumped over the side of the boat. Moments later, as the bombers continued on towards St. Helier, the men realised that Harold Hobbs had been shot through the head, hit by a bullet which had ricocheted off the nearby rocks. Gerald Dunstan had also been wounded, a bullet grazing his knee. The Jersey Evening Post carried the following piece on 29 June 1940: ‘Mr Harold Hobbs, who is aged 34, was the son of the coxswain of the Guernsey lifeboat … “There were six of us in the Guernsey lifeboat and we were off Noirmont when six planes machine-gunned us. They fired enough bullets to kill a battalion, and killed my son outright. He did not suffer, that is one consolation. The rest of us were quite unhurt.”’ The lifeboat, meanwhile, was still serviceable, with only a few holes from the machine-gun rounds visible above the waterline. The crew lifted Harold back in the boat and made for Elizabeth Castle, just outside St Helier, where they waited before finally entering the harbour at 19.45 hours.

ABOVE LEFT: The Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s Alfred and Clara Heath, seen here before the war in Victoria Harbour, St. Peter Port. (AUTHOR’S

COLLECTION)

INSET: Harold Hobbs in his Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve uniform. (TONY HOBBS)

BELOW: Workmen remove debris and rubble after the raid. This picture was taken by one of the first German soldiers to arrive on the island. (AUTHOR’S

COLLECTION)

74 www.britainatwar.com

‘I was in the male surgical ward dealing with a patient when I heard the noise of planes. I looked out of the window and saw three Heinkel bombers. As I watched I saw bombs beginning to fall. I left the patient and went through the hospital down to Casualty. And almost as I got there the first victim arrived, He had a great hole blown in the side of his chest and he died within a matter of moments. Fifty per cent of those who were admitted to the hospital and who died were killed by bombs. The other half died from machine gun bullets.’9 Islander Ralph Mollet also recalled the attack on Jersey: ‘The planes flew over Samarès, firing as they went; over Havre des Pas the bullets were seen ploughing the sand on the beach; two bombs were dropped on Mount Bingham, killing Mr John P. Mauger near his house, and damaging many houses nearby. Two fell on the Fort and the District Office, and others fell in the Old Harbour, setting fire to many small boats. ‘The planes then went over the Island to St Ouen, returning to St Helier, machine-gunning the Albert and North Piers, dropping bombs on Commercial Buildings, setting fire to Norman’s woodstores. The furze on Fort Regent caught fire and burnt for several days. The planes, after again machine-gunning various parts of the island, then dropped two bombs on the Yacht Hotel and two on the Pomme d’Or Hotel. Messrs Robert Fallls, Leslie Bryan, and W.C. Moodie were killed on the piers, and Messrs F.W. Ferrand and Wm A. Coleman in Mulcaster Street.’10

THE DEATH ROLL No sooner had the sound of the German bombers’ Daimler-Benz DB600A engines receded into the distance, than 

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ATTACK ON THE CHANNEL ISLANDS Jersey and Guernsey Blitz

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Channel Islands Invaded THE FULL story of the air raids on 28 June 1940 is detailed in the latest volume in Frontline Books’ ‘Voices From the Past’ series. By Simon Hamon, Channel Islands Invaded dramatically reveals the events leading up to, during and immediately after the German invasion of a part of the British Isles through newspaper reports, official documents and the accounts of those who were there. To receive an exclusive 20% discount, plus free UK postage, please quote ‘185117’ when ordering by telephone on 01226 734267, or online at: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

people across Guernsey and Jersey began to emerge from where they had sought cover or safety to assess the damage wrought. Understandably, the raids were heavily reported throughout the United Kingdom. An article in The Times, which bore the straplines ‘29 Killed in Brutal Raid. Channel Islands Bombed. Demilitarized Area Attacked’, began with the Home Office announcement from earlier in the day: ‘Air attacks took place on Jersey and Guernsey yesterday. Material damage was done to property and many civilians were machine-gunned in both islands. At least six persons

were killed and several injured in Jersey, while in Guernsey 23 persons were killed and 36 were injured. As stated last night, the Channel Islands have been demilitarized and all armed forces and equipment have already been withdrawn.’11 One of many who wrote to The Times, the author and linguist James Bertrand de Vincheles Payen-Payne detailed his outrage at an ‘unprovoked and malicious attack by the mad murderer of Berchtesgaden’. Further coverage was given in The Times on 1 July 1940, this time under the headline ‘The Channel Isles Raid Death Roll of 33’: ‘In the ferocious raids on the demilitarized Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey the death-roll among the defenceless civilian population was 33. In Guernsey 23 persons were killed and 36 injured, while 10 were killed and several more injured in Jersey. The raids were made about the same time as it was announced that the bulk of the populations had been safely evacuated a week ago. But for the timely evacuation the casualties would undoubtedly have been very high, for against islands which had not even a gun to protect them the enemy bombers swooped low enough to take deliberate aim as they showered down high-explosive and incendiary bombs and machine-gunned the streets. ‘Among the particularly revolting acts of the raiders were the machinegunning of a lifeboat while it was on an errand of succour to Jersey, killing the son of the Guernsey coxswain, and a similar attack on an ambulance taking wounded to hospital. ‘The demilitarization of the islands

TOP LEFT: Evidence of the aerial assault on the Channel Islands on 28 June 1940 can still be seen. This bomb damage is visible today at Albert Pier, St. Helier. Within days, the harbour, indeed the Island itself, would be in German hands. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

ABOVE LEFT: The wreckage of a sports car destroyed in Mulcaster Street, St Helier, during the bombing. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)

BELOW LEFT: The last resting place of one of those killed in the bombing on 28 June 1940. As Ralph Mollet recalled, Leslie Charles Henry Bryan was killed on the piers in St Helier. (DAMIEN HORN; CHANNEL ISLANDS MILITARY MUSEUM)

began early last week. The seaport was stripped and the soldiers and airmen, munitions, stores, and equipment were safely shipped over to England.’ The whole object of the demilitarisation of the Channel Islands had been to prevent an attack of this nature. The British government no doubt did not want to advertise the fact that the islands were there for the taking but it quickly realised that this was an error. So to make sure that such a terrible event did not happen again a message was eventually passed onto Berlin through the United States Ambassador to Britain, Joseph Kennedy: ‘The evacuation of all military personnel and equipment from the Channel Islands was completed some days ago. The islands are therefore demilitarized and cannot be considered in any way as a legitimate target for bombardment. A public announcement to this effect was made on the evening of June 28.’ By the time this announcement had been made it was, of course, too late. Though the news that the Channel Islands had been demilitarized was finally received by Berlin, resulting in no more bombing raids, this fact also meant that the path was now clear for an unopposed German occupation of the Channel Islands. 

NOTES

1. The National Archives, CAB/66/8/27. 2. Imperial War Museum, Department of Documents, Accession No.11109. 3. Quoted in Roy McLoughlin, Living With the Enemy (Starlight Publishing, Jersey, 1995), pp.20-1. 4. King-Hall Newsletter, 2 August 1940. 5. Dr Alistair Rose, ‘Impressions of the Occupation of Guernsey’ in the Channel Islands Occupation Review, No.28, 2001, pp.6-28. 6. William M. Bell, Guernsey Green (The Guernsey Press Co. Ltd, Guernsey, 1992), p.91. 7. J.P. Sinel, German Occupation of Jersey: A Diary of Events from June 1940 to June 1945 (Jersey, 1945), p.12. 8. Imperial War Museum, private papers of R.E.H. Fletcher, 2986. 9. Roy McLoughlin, op. cit., p.21. 10. Ralph Mollet, Jersey Under the Swastika (Hyperion Press, London, 1945). 11. The Times, 29 June 1940.

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September 1941 Valentine I tanks of 6th Armoured Division on rail flat cars ‘somewhere in England’ around 1941. Part of the Home Forces from September 1940, the Division moved to North Africa in 1942. On 12 September 1941 HM King George VI inspected the Division at Lakenheath, Suffolk, where he reviewed an astonishing total of 14,500 men and 4,500 vehicles. (THE TANK MUSEUM)

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THE SHIP THAT SANK ITSELF Greenock Disaster 1940 The Maillé-Bréze was a Vauqelin-class large destroyer that was launched on 9 November 1931. Built by Ateliers et Chantiers de St Nazaire-Penhoet, MailléBréze was 129 metres long with a displacement of 2,400 tonnes and a main armament of five 138mm (4.2inch) guns as well as, significantly, 7 × 550 mm (22-inch) torpedo tubes. She was capable of a maximum speed of 36 knots.

with the Home Fleet or on escort duty off the fjords of Norway, French and British ships, side by side, learned to sustain and to parry the fierce attacks of Germany’s formidable air force.’ Among those French ships that took part in the Battle of Norway was the destroyer Maillé-Bréze. She was part of the 9th Destroyer Division which operated in the Mediterranean, watching the Italian navy which was, at that time, considered France’s greatest threat. She sailed on 1 April from Toulon to join the forces being assembled for the Norwegian campaign at Scapa Flow, arriving there seven days later.

CAMARADERIE

ABOVE: The former French admiral’s pinnace gig Cuthbert berthed at Emerald Quay in Shorehamby-Sea, which contains the two brass plaques.

A

TTACHED TO the dark lacquered panels of the pinnace gig Cuthbert are two brass plaques. One bears the name of Contre-Amiral Betermier, the other the name Maillé-Bréze. The owner of Cuthbert knew little about the boat’s history, or of the significance of the two plaques. A little research, however, brought a surprising link with the past.

The outbreak of war in September 1939 brought the navies of Britain and France closer than ever before, and when the two nations’ fleets took part in the Norwegian campaign in early April 1940, French historians were able to write: ‘Never in history had there been more cordial relations than those established in the battle area off Norway. Not merely was this collaboration in the technical field, but the far more important field of human relations – the spirit of camaraderie between the French officers and their brethren of the Royal Navy. Whether they sailed

THE SHIP THAT 84 www.britainatwar.com

THE SHIP THAT SANK ITSELF Greenock Disaster 1940 In company with the French cruiser Emile Bertin flying the flag of Admiral Derrien, Maillé-Bréze sailed with elements of the Home Fleet to the Norwegian coast. Its task was to watch for German convoys heading for Norway. Maillé-Bréze was then ordered back to Scotland to Greenock on the estuary of the River Clyde to escort a convoy of troops heading for Namsos. On 19 April the convoy was attacked by a German submarine and MailléBréze gave chase but was unable to engage the U-boat. Three days later Maillé-Bréze escorted the auxiliary cruiser City of Oran which had been damaged by a bomb in the Namsos fjord back to Greenock. MAIN PICTURE: Maillé-Bréze, at 2,400 tonnes was much larger than standard Royal Navy destroyers of the period.

The destroyer’s next task was to escort Convoy FS.2., which left the Clyde at 04.30 hours on the morning of 25 April. Along with the destroyer Épervier, and two French sloops, she shepherded three freighters to Scapa Flow. After handing over the convoy to the protection of British destroyers, MailléBréze sailed back to Greenock. It was her last voyage.

TERRIBLE ACCIDENT On 30 April 1940, Maillé Brézé was lying at the Tail of the Bank off Greenock in a crowded anchorage when, at 14:15 hours something went terribly wrong. A torpedo tube malfunctioned and launched an armed torpedo on the deck. One source stated that a quartermaster was lubricating the launching platform of No.1 torpedo tube – which he had turned inboard – when it was activated, the torpedo shooting across the deck and into the bridge. Steward Albert Plançon, was one of those on board: ‘At the time of the explosion I was on my way to the wardroom. I felt the ship rise and fall on the port side; I fell off the ladder

ABOVE: The plaque inside Cuthbert from the French destroyer Maillé-Bréze.

and found myself, somehow, on the bridge when material rained down from heaven on me. The sentry near me slipped quietly to the deck, killed by a piece of shrapnel … an officer asked me to look for rum to comfort the most shocked. They were covered in blood, with limbs amputated, screaming in pain. First aid arrived and I did what I could 

In a small marina at Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex is an old wooden boat. Apart from its obvious age this boat seems ordinary enough. Yet this former admiral’s pinnace gig has a link to one of the Second World War’s most tragic naval disasters in British waters. John Grehan explains.

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THE SHIP THAT SANK ITSELF Greenock Disaster 1940

ABOVE & BOTTOM RIGHT: The wreck of Maillé-Bréze before she was broken up. TOP MIDDLE: The Maillé-Bréze on fire in the Clyde. (COURTESY, TERRY, WORLD

NAVAL SHIPS FORUM)

BELOW: Apart from its five 138mm guns that formed its main armament, the Maillé-Bréze also carried 4 × 25 mm and 4 × 13.2 mm AntiAircraft guns.

to help evacuate the injured but the explosions becoming increasingly strong we had to abandon ship.’ Leading Hand, Jean Louarn was working at the time of the explosion: ‘At once it was screams, howls … a torpedo had exploded in the tube, partially destroying the bridge structure … While the bow was beginning to sink, wounded and dying were transported in the back and placed on boats. We were directed to the aircraft carrier Furious. The commander and second in command brought the flag and ran it up the mast.’ Pierre Deffin, was a quartermaster mechanic: ‘Moments before the explosion I went up to take the air on deck, because I was performing demanding work on a steam collector

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of the boiler rear. A sailor engineer was located at the entrance of the descent leading to this boiler. Of the explosion I recall a terrible bang, a huge flame passing down, the lamp hitting me on the head and above the space where moments earlier stood my comrade, who had vanished!’ Gunnery Officer Lieutenant de Vaisseau Lanxade distinguished himself during the chaotic scene that followed the detonation of the torpedo, which set fire to the fuel tanks and the forward magazine. Luckily the magazine did not explode. He helped many of the wounded and organised the throwing of some ‘packs’ of ammunition into the sea to save them from being ignited despite fingers being badly burnt.

RESCUE ATTEMPTS Others who risked their lives were among a rescue party sent from HMS Furious. Led by Lieutenant DS Johnston, the party included a doctor and sick berth attendant to help treat the casualties. Even though the ship was ablaze and Johnston had been told by one of the French sailors who had been blown into the water that the forward magazine was not flooded and was therefore in danger of exploding, the men from Furious climbed aboard. A boat from the Motor Vessel Blaven also went across to help. They found a number of men trapped in the forecastle as the torpedo had damaged the bow hatch. They were unable to free these men and the doctor is reported to have

THE SHIP THAT SANK ITSELF Greenock Disaster 1940

administered doses of morphine to all who were able to force their arms out of the portholes. When the deck became too hot for the party to remain, the doctor passed the syringe and the remaining doses of morphine through one of the portholes. Other ships and small craft came to the rescue, including HMS Barfield, a boom defence vessel, but because of continuing explosions, she could not get close enough to use her hoses. Many of the larger vessels weighed anchor to avoid the debris falling all around. One youngster in Greenock recalled the incident: ‘In April 1940 I was a primary-school pupil in Greenock, and the first indication of the seriousness of the incident was when the police burst

in and ordered the school evacuated, with the accompanying injunction “Don’t look out of the window!” We were directed up the hill away from the waterfront and at every turn stood a policeman intent on preventing us from stopping to goggle at the blaze and keeping us moving out of the danger area. We quickly gathered that the destroyer was ‘stowed to the gunwales’ with ammunition and a horrendous explosion was feared should the fire reach the magazine. ‘A local nurse was a friend of the family and she later told of how the Old West Kirk in Campbell Street had been commandeered as a dressing-station to deal with some of the casualties, as the numbers threatened to swamp the resources of the local infirmary. I

believe that other church halls in the town had been similarly pressed into service.’ At 15:15 hours the crew abandoned ship due to the danger of explosion (apart, of course, from those sailors still trapped below deck). Around 16:30 hours, a few sailors returned to the ship with Greenock firemen to flood the aft magazine. There are conflicting stories about what happened next. One version is that by 19:30 hours the fire was controlled by the Greenock firemen, but by that time, Maillé Brézé was so low in the water that she began sinking before she could be towed, and she went down with those still trapped in the forward part. The other version is that the tug Marauder took Maillé Brézé, which 

ABOVE: Fred Hillyer and comrades move depth charges from the MailleBréze as it was being salvaged. ‘As we were attaching the depth charges to the horns on the ship,’ Fred recalled, ‘one of them was dragged across the deck and sparks flew up in every direction. We all instantly ducked, we were very lucky.’

(COURTESY FRED HILLYER)

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THE SHIP THAT SANK ITSELF Greenock Disaster 1940 was still afloat, in tow, but the tug had to drop the tow as the bow compartments had become red hot in the fire, and the forward magazine was still in danger of exploding. Some members of the crew went back on board with a number of Greenock firemen to open the sea-cocks so that the destroyer would sink and no longer be a danger to other vessels. Five and a half hours after the first explosion the Maillé Brézé sank by the bow, settling on a sandbank which was clear of all the navigation channels. For 14 years the masts and funnels of the French destroyer remained visible above the waters off Greenock until, in 1954, the wreck

TOP LEFT: Contra-Amiral Betermier’s plaque inside Cuthbert. His connection to both vessels remains a mystery. MAIN PICTURE: A total of six Vauquelin-class destroyers built for the French navy. All were either lost at sea or scuttled in November 1940 at Toulon rather than allowing the Germans to seize them. This, the Kersaint, is one of the latter.

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of the Maillé Brézé was raised by Lifting Craft of the Admiralty Salvage Department and at least four Admiralty Salvage Vessels, including ASV Barglow, ASV Succor and ASV Kinbrace. She was taken to the Ardmore sandbank. The bodies of the crewmen trapped in the forecastle were removed in August 1954 with full naval honours, after which a requiem mass was held in St Lawrence’s Church in the east end of Greenock. The remains were then taken to France for burial, and the ship was taken to Smith & Houston’s breakers yard in Port Glasgow. Altogether 25 men lost their lives and another 48 were wounded, though different numbers have been given. The captain of Maillé-Brézé, Commander Glotin, was court-martialled in Toulon on 4 November 1940, but was released.

THE SECRET The news of the disaster was kept a secret until the following report was published in The Times of 10 August

THE SHIP THAT SANK ITSELF Greenock Disaster 1940 1940: ‘The Maille Breze was about a mile off shore when there was a big explosion. Windows in the nearest town and for miles inland were shattered by the detonation. There were heroic rescue efforts, and the wounded were taken off and brought ashore to hospital. All doctors and nurses in the area were mobilized and a stream of ambulances drove to the quayside, where Roman Catholic priests ministered to the dying. After the main explosion, and while flames were rising from the ship, there was a series of smaller detonations. Masts and funnels were lying over the side … The secret of the ship’s destruction was wonderfully kept. Thousands of people had shared for nearly four months the knowledge of a loss which it was vitally important at the time to keep from the enemy. Yet no one spoke. At the port where the crack destroyer went down, a Press representative was told: “The way the news was kept secret is a wonderful

tribute to the public’s sense of duty and responsibility and an example to every one engaged in work of national importance.”’ There were five other -class destroyers. Vauqelin-class All were sunk. In 1953 another Maillé-Brézé was launched and, after retirement, become France’s first floating naval museum. But what of ContreAmiral Betermier? He was born in July 1932 and so clearly was not on board Maillé-Brézé when she suffered her catastrophic accident. He entered the French navy in 1951, and the following year he qualified vaisseau Was as an Enseigne de vaisseau. he in the UK with the Marine Nationale when Maillé-Brézé was salvaged in 1954? 

TOP RIGHT: The memorial to the men of the Maillé-Bréze at Brookwood Military Cemetery. FAR LEFT: Another poor photo of MailléBréze, as she lies sinking. NEAR LEFT: The name of the Maillé-Brézé lives on today, as a floating museum in Nantes and is preserved as a national historical monument.

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JULY 1945

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

Following the arrival of an initial reconnaissance force and then a small advance party, the main body of the first British division, the 7th Armoured Division, officially entered Berlin. The division, the famous Desert Rats, was led by the 11th Hussars as Major-General Lewis Owen Lyne CB DSO, the General Officer Commanding the 7th Armoured, and commander of the British forces in Berlin, took the salute from a hastily erected podium.

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The first election for ten years was held in the UK. Most observers, including the Soviet leader Stalin, believed that the Conservatives, led by Winston Churchill, would win – despite the publication of opinion polls that showed Labour six points ahead. The turnout was 72.8%.

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The Type XIC/40 U-boat U-530 had been at sea on her seventh war patrol when Germany surrendered. However, its crew, under the command of Oberleutnant Otto Wermuth, did not comply with its orders and remained at sea. The submarine finally gave itself up on this date at the Argentinian port of Mar del Plata. Wermuth refused to explain why it had taken the submarine more than two months to reach there, why the submarine had jettisoned its deck gun, why the crew carried

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 WORLD'S FIRST ATOMIC BOMB DETONATED

At 05.29 hours on the morning of MONDAY, 16 JULY 1945, the world was changed forever when the first atomic bomb was tested in an isolated area of the New Mexico desert. The so-called Trinity test (pictured here) took place on the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, about 230 miles south of the Manhattan Project’s headquarters at Los Alamos, in the desolate Jornada del Muerto Valley. The blinding flash of light, followed by the shock wave, made a vivid impression on residents who lived within a radius of 160 miles of ground zero. Windows were shattered as far as 120 miles away in Silver City, and people living in Albuquerque saw the bright light of the explosion on the southern horizon and felt the tremor of the shock waves moments later. (US NATIONAL ARCHIVES)

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no identification, or what had happened to the ship’s log. U-530’s arrival quickly led to speculation that it had participated in the escape of highranking Nazis. The first meeting of the Inter-Allied Governing Authority (or Komendatura) for Berlin was held. It had been agreed on 12 September 1944 that the authority, ‘consisting of three Commandants, appointed by their respective Commanders-in-Chief, [would] be established to direct jointly the administration of the Greater Berlin Area’. The agreement was later amended to include the French.

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Standing beneath the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin, Field Marshal Montgomery invested Marshal Georgy Zhukov with an honorary appointment as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. The King’s Company of the Grenadier Guards formed the guard of honour, while tanks of the King’s 8th Royal Irish Hussars were drawn up on either side.

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The RAF’s Second Tactical Air Force was re-designated the British Air Forces of Occupation (BAFO). With the end of the fighting in Europe, the RAF in Germany was initially tasked with assisting the British Army in maintaining order within the British Zone and supervising the disarmament of the Luftwaffe. BAFO’s first commanding officer was Air Chief Marshal Sir William Sholto Douglas. American and British carrier-based aircraft of Task Force 38 and Task Group 37.2 attacked the Yokosuka naval shipyard and airfields near Tokyo damaging the battleship HIJMS Nagato and sinking a destroyer, a submarine, two escort ships and a patrol ship.

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With three weeks having elapsed since polling day, to allow the votes of those fighting overseas in the armed forces to be counted, the results of the General Election were announced. With 48 per cent of the vote, Clement Attlee’s Labour Party gained a parliamentary majority of 146 seats, which remains the largest in post-war British history. The swing of twelve points to Labour was unprecedented, and remains a record for a post-war election. The election marked a watershed in British history, ushering in the welfare state and the National Health Service.

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

JULY 1945

 BRITISH VICTORY PARADE IN BERLIN

To mark the end of the fighting in Europe, Winston Churchill, accompanied by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery and Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, reviewed elements of the 7th Armoured Division during a British victory parade in Berlin on SATURDAY, 21 JULY 1945. The soon-to-depart prime minister is seen here inspecting men of the 8th Hussars, prior to the start of the parade, from an M3 armoured personnel carrier of the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade on the Charlottenburger Chaussee. The troops being inspected were from the 8th Hussars’ ‘A’ Squadron, which was equipped with Cromwell and Challenger tanks, while in the background are the Chaffee and Honey reconnaissance tanks of the HQ Squadron Recce Troop. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS) Operating 55 nautical miles south-west of Phuket, Siam (now Thailand), the Algerine-class minesweeper HMS Vestal was targeted and hit by a kamikaze aircraft. So severe was the subsequent damage, that Vestal was subsequently scuttled. She was the last Royal Navy warship to be lost through enemy action in the Second World War.

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 THE POTSDAM CONFERENCE

On TUESDAY, 17 JULY 1945, the ‘Big Three’ – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British prime minister Winston Churchill (replaced on 26 July by Clement Attlee), and US President Harry Truman – gathered together in Potsdam, Germany, to hold the Last Allied conference of the war. Despite numerous disagreements, the Allied leaders did manage to conclude some agreements at Potsdam. For example, the terms of Japan’s surrender were agreed; the Council of Foreign Ministers tasked with drawing up peace treaties; Poland’s frontiers discussed; the status of a demilitarized and disarmed Germany under four zones of Allied occupation was confirmed; and the decision made to hold war trials. The Potsdam Conference continued until 2 August. (US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

The Japanese Prime Minister, Kantarō Suzuki, issued a statement which said that ‘Japan is not on her knees’ and that ‘Japan is determined to fight tooth and nail for every inch of her sacred land’.

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In the course of Operation Struggle, the crew of the Royal Navy midget submarine XE3 attacked and sank the Japanese cruiser Takao which was moored in the Johore Straits, off Singapore. A second midget submarine was to target the heavy cruiser Myõkõ. Takao was badly damaged: the charges laid by XE3 exploded at 21.30 hours, tearing a hole some 60 by 30 feet in the warship’s hull, flooding several compartments. The explosion put her gun turrets out of action and damaged her range-finders. The cruiser was immobilized for a ‘considerable time’. The submarine’s captain, Lieutenant Ian Fraser DSC, RNR, and Leading Seaman James Magennis were both awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions, while Sub-Lieutenant William Smith RNZNVR was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Engine Room Artificer Charles Reed the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal.

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MAGINOT BRITS Phoney War to Action 1940 BELOW: Captain Tony Colley, commanding C Company, 7th Royal Norfolks, ‘looking for Jerry in the Siegfried Line’, according to the original caption for this photograph taken in the Ligne de Contact near Bizing. No-man’s-land in this sector straddled the frontier of France and Germany and was between a mile and two miles deep in places.

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HE ROAD from Filstroff twists through lush meadows and forested hills before tumbling into a valley freckled with small villages. In this sleepy corner of Europe where the borders of eastern France and western Germany are all but indistinguishable, the pastoral peace is broken only by a chorus of birdsong and the chug of tractors. Hereabouts, the rural landscape betrays little of its painful past, but the evidence of history is irrefutable: it was here, along the wooded ridge separating two ancient enemies that the Phoney War turned real for hundreds of British soldiers 75 years ago.

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Somewhere on this stretch of high ground overlooking the Franco-German frontier lay an entrenched position, roughly circular in shape, studded with dug-outs and surrounded by barbed wire, known as the International Post. Shielded in part by the sheltering branches of the Bois de Filstroff, it was occupied,

in the spirit of ‘entente cordiale’, by two British and French platoons and represented the outermost limits of the most colossal, costly and yet utterly futile network of fortifications ever constructed. And it was from here, some seven miles in front of the vast subterranean forts comprising the vaunted Maginot Line, that Second Lieutenant Johnny King scrambled over the sandbag parapet into no-man’s-land at the head of a small patrol on the morning of 13 May, 1940, in the hope, as he put it, ‘of catching a few Germans’. Following six largely uneventful weeks as

In a struggle far-removed from the fighting retreat to Dunkirk, British troops were engaged in a strange and little-known battle within sight of the German frontier. Steve Snelling tells how the Phoney War turned real in defence of the vaunted Maginot Line.

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part of the British Expeditionary Force’s small contribution to France’s most prestigious defences the shooting war had finally begun in earnest. To the north, the Wehrmacht’s Blitzkrieg offensive was steamrollering across the Low Countries. While German airborne forces secured bridges and assaulted forts, armoured columns confounded French strategists by pushing through the seemingly impenetrable forests of the Ardennes thus bypassing and rendering redundant the massive forts designed to either deter or defeat any invasion. In stark contrast to the rapid and alarming advances in the north, the forces ranged either side of the border in front of Filstroff had not budged an inch since Johnny King’s unit had taken their place in the British sector of the 90-mile long Maginot Line.

RELUCTANT CONVERTS The arrival of the 7th Battalion, the Royal Norfolk Regiment, in Lorraine in the first week of April was part of Britain’s continuing commitment to the defence of France’s long eastern frontier with Germany. Since November 1939, nine British brigades had taken it in turn to serve a tour under French command on the Saar Front. Conceived partly as a way of silencing those critics who sought to question Britain’s willingness to shoulder its share of the land war, the attachment was also a practical means for providing units with frontline experience. In common with most other units in the BEF, the 7th Royal Norfolks, made up largely of territorials with a smattering of militia men and reservists, had seen no action since landing in France in January, 1940. 

Y ABOVE LEFT: British troops from C Company, 7th Royal Norfolk Regiment at work in April 1940, constructing a post in the forward sector of the Maginot Line in front of Bizing. Officially titled the Ligne de Contact, the defences were far from complete when the British took over a brigade-length stretch along the FrancoGerman border. ABOVE RIGHT: A British unit sketched taking over one of the fortified villages in front of the main Maginot fortresses in early 1940. The battalion is parading prior to marching into the Ligne de Contact.

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MAGINOT BRITS Phoney War to Action 1940

ABOVE: A party of British troops make a striking pose for the cameraman as they man one of the advanced outposts in the Ligne de Contact. BELOW: A group of officers and NCOs from the 7th Royal Norfolks outside C Company headquarters in Bizing. BELOW RIGHT: Artists’ impressions of one of the first engagements between British and German troops in front of the Maginot Line in late 1939.

Reluctant converts from infantrymen to pioneers, they had toiled through a harsh winter, labouring to improve road communications and to protect arms dumps while also fulfilling mundane guard duties at key military installations. Even by Phoney war standards, the tasks allotted to them were far removed from anything the territorials among them had ever imagined. The chief enemies were boredom and the extreme weather, for which the BEF appeared singularly ill-prepared. ‘Your boots froze on your feet, the weapons froze, petrol froze. Everything froze,’ recalled Ron Palmer, a sergeant in A Company. ‘Food would come up in containers… but by the time you got into your mess tin it was frozen. One boy wore his balaclava so long his whiskers grew through it.’ Digging was almost impossible. The frost was several feet deep and crowbars and picks were required to

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break through the crust. Men were hospitalised suffering with frostbite and accidents in the wretched conditions provided a steady stream of casualties. Little wonder then that the arrival of milder spring weather and a decision to transfer the battalion to the Saar front should have been greeted with relief. Within days, Lieutenant Colonel Archie Debenham’s unit found itself serving alongside the only brigade of the BEF then in contact with the enemy. Part of the 48th (South Midland) Division, the 144th Brigade, comprising 2nd Royal Warwickshires, 5th Gloucestershires and 8th Worcestershires, were manning advanced positions some 20 miles north-east of Metz and around seven miles in front of the gargantuan concrete forts at Kemplich and Klang. One company’s arrival was interrupted by a small-scale German attack. ‘The sky was lit by the flashes of guns,’ recalled Corporal Ernest McMath. ‘Eventually, we

reached Bizing and on one of the walls somebody had written in white-wash, “The last tram passed here on such and such a date…”’

PANTOMIME WAR First impressions of the so-called Ligne de Contact were far from complimentary. Second Lieutenant Henry Bett reckoned the outposts in his sector ‘might have stopped a reasonably aimed pea-shooter’. Assigned the northernmost positions on the edge of the Grossenwald, near the evacuated village of Grindorff, Major Eldred Wilson was shocked to discover that the French ‘hadn’t bothered digging any defences at all in this area’. The fighting itself appeared to be of a desultory nature and conducted according to a peculiar set of rules. To the Norfolks it seemed as though there was a tacit understanding between the two sides to limit the conflict to patrols, a few pin-prick raids and regular bombardments which deliberately avoided billets either side of the lines.

MAGINOT BRITS Phoney War to Action 1940 NEAR LEFT: A camouflaged mobile battery of French ‘75s’ firing in support of British troops occupying an advanced section of the Maginot Line. The first British brigades which took it in turn to operate in the Ligne de Contact relied exclusively on French artillery support.

A typical feature of this pantomime war was the daily dose of ‘hate’ meted out by a battery of French horse artillery which galloped into the British sector each afternoon to loose off a few rounds at a crossroads on the enemy side before wheeling off to the rear. Such was its orchestrated predictability, it was reckoned by British officers that you could set your watches by it. To Captain Paul Hawkins, a young company commander in the 7th Royal Norfolks, the actions of the ‘gipsy six’ as the gunners were dubbed was utterly pointless. ‘It was just a question’, he said, ‘of showing the flag.’ As well as being handed the unenviable task of improving sanitary

arrangements behind the lines, the unit was quickly set to work strengthening defences which, contrary to allied propaganda, were at best feeble and at worst non-existent. In a mirror image of the trench lines that came to dominate the Western Front 25 years earlier, new positions were dug and wired in complete with sandbag-topped wooden breastworks. Dotted along the line were machinegun posts, all sited to fire along fixed lines, while tin cans were strung along the barbed wire to serve as an early warning system. Most of the work was carried out in daylight in unison with enemy efforts on the other side of no-man’s-land. ‘We could see the Germans working on

the hills opposite, about a mile away,’ recalled Major Wilson. ‘They sent over mortar shells quite often, but we weren’t in the open and the wood gave us a certain amount of cover if not protection.’ Patrol activity on the British side was limited. The Norfolks sent out their first one on the night of April 16-17 and even then it was only after the Germans had chased off a standing patrol from the 2nd Royal Warwicks. Led by Second Lieutenant King, the small party was ordered to make sure a nearby wood was ‘free of Germans’. Also on the patrol was fellow officer, Second Lieutenant John Wood, who later recalled: ‘It was daylight and it shows how ignorant I was that I put a tin hat on. So did Johnny King and we went through that wood, pinging away, as bits of  branches kept hitting our helmets. ‘We got to the far end of the wood where there was a pond and up shot a brace of ducks. We didn’t find any Germans, thank God.’ In fact, encounters between the two sides at that stage were rare, though there was little doubt that the Germans were the bolder and more dominant force in this martial equivalent of shadow boxing. On more than one occasion, their patrols penetrated as far as the villages of Bizing and Halstroff where the Norfolks were billeted.

‘They used to shout out, “Are you there, Tommy?”’ recalled Private Chris Bailey. ‘But we weren’t supposed to answer. In fact, we weren’t allowed to do anything. We were told to let them through and, so long as everything was quiet behind us, we let them out again. But if anything happened in the rear we had to set to and stop them getting out.’ ‘Once, just to make a point,’ said Sergeant Palmer, ‘they rang the church bells and set light to one of our 15 cwt trucks which was parked between two houses.’ Sometimes embarrassment turned to farce. One night, while manning an outpost in the front-line, Second Lieutenant Bett heard what he took to be a German raiding party trying to cut a path through the wire in front of his position. 

MIDDLE LEFT: Subterranean stronghold: a railway line deep inside one of the Maginot Line forts. A triumph of engineering, the defences were built on a scale and with a sophistication that was mindboggling but not all were impressed. BOTTOM RIGHT: British troops in one of the Maginot Line’s forward positions reminiscent of the First World War trench lines that straddled the Western Front.

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MAGINOT BRITS Phoney War to Action 1940 BELOW: The officers of the 7th Royal Norfolk Regiment at Aldershot in November 1939 prior to crossing over to France. Included among them are: Lieutenant Colonel Archie Debenham, seated sixth from left, Major Eldred Wilson, seated fourth left, Captain Paul Hawkins, seated ninth left, Second Lieutenant John Wood, standing second from left, Second Lieutenant ‘Jock’ McKenzie, standing fifth from left, Second Lieutenant Henry Bett, standing 14th left, and Second Lieutenant Johnny King, standing 15th left. Also pictured is Second Lieutenant David Jamieson, standing seventh from left. To his chagrin he did not accompany the battalion overseas on account of him being considered too young. Later, as a member of the reconstituted 7th Battalion, he earned a Victoria Cross during the fighting in Normandy in August 1944.

BOTH BELOW: The other side of the hill, a German war artist’s view of the patrol actions on the Saar Front, the only active sector of the Western Front during the so-called Phoney War. The illustrations show a German raiding party cutting their way through barbed wire entanglements before attacking a post and bringing away a prisoner and their own wounded. MIDDLE RIGHT: Artist’s impression of the March 1940 patrol encounter in which Lieutenant James Hudson and Fusilier John Worsley, of the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers, distinguished themselves, earning the Military Cross and Military Medal.

‘I called out to them in German, “Bitteschun, ruhe! Wir kanne nicht schlafen” [Please give it a rest. We can’t sleep] and the fellow laughed, wished us good night and left.’

‘FIRE 5 SHOTS’ Such good humour, however, did not last. By late April, the British portion of the Maginot Line had been expanded from a brigade to divisional sector and the 51st Highland Division arrived with an altogether different mind-set involving a far more belligerent attitude to fighting the war.

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No longer would the Germans be allowed to roam at will across no-man’s-land. A programme of aggressive patrolling was immediately instituted with the intention of seizing the initiative and such was the increased length of the British front line the 7th Royal Norfolks, under orders to stay and support the Scots, soon found themselves in their preferred infantry role. Barely 24 hours after Major General Victor Fortune formally took command of the British sector, two platoons of Norfolks carrying borrowed Bren guns and antiquated anti-tank rifles, for which training had been hastily arranged, took their places in the Ligne de Contact. Second Lieutenant Bett led his men into a position on the edge of the Bois de Grossenwald while Second Lieutenant Jim Walker shared the International Post on the right flank with a platoon of their French allies whose habit of smoking, talking and clattering their mess-tins he found unnerving. He recalled: ‘Our modus operandi was to have a third of the platoon on sentry duty at a time. The French… had similar arrangements but it seemed to us that they had a far more relaxed attitude to life.’ Five days later, on 7 May, another Norfolk platoon was engaged in a fire-fight with an enemy patrol which was followed by a brief but accurate bombardment that resulted in the battalion’s first operational fatality of the war. Signs that the Phoney war was drawing to a close were confirmed on May 10 when the Germans launched

an all-out assault in the West with two powerful Army Groups smashing their way into Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. The devastating attack prompted a pre-arranged move northwards into Belgium by the BEF and units of the French army, but on the Saar front the tense stand-off continued a little longer. Second Lieutenant Johnny King’s Number 13 Platoon, which had taken over three section positions in the International Post three days earlier, spent the first day of Hitler’s longawaited assault peering skywards as the Luftwaffe launched a series of strikes against Allied airfields around Metz. The following morning German troops were observed in a wood to the left. King, who had led the battalion’s first patrol into no-man’s-land almost a month before, immediately took out a small party, but, as he later reported, ‘the wood was much too large and thick and they got away’.

MAGINOT BRITS Phoney War to Action 1940 So scattered were the British and French posts on the fringes of the Ligne de Contact that, as King remarked, it was ‘quite easy’ for the enemy to infiltrate Allied lines and just as easy to escape back to their own. For the next two nights King’s platoon were on permanent alert in anticipation of an all-out attack that did not materialise. In the early hours of the following morning, 13 May, he led another patrol into the wood on his left flank with the intention of catching unawares any Germans foolish enough to attempt a second incursion. But, in the event, it was he rather than the enemy who was taken by surprise. He noted: ‘I had arranged [beforehand] with my platoon sergeant to fire 5 shots if he wanted me back; at about 0415 hrs I heard these shots and immediately returned to the post. ‘The enemy just then put down an artillery concentration… from 0430 to 0800 hrs and scored direct hits on 3 dugouts, killing 3 men and wounding 4 others.’ The bombardment, which claimed four more French lives in the International Post, heralded the first major attack on the British sector of the Maginot Line during its almost six month-long occupation. In areas held by units of the 153rd and 154th Brigades, the struggle was intense with counter-battery fire hampering

the enemy attack before accurate rifle and Bren-gun fire brought it to a complete standstill.

‘GOD GIVE ME STRENGTH’ Some of the heaviest fighting took place on the flanks where the defences only recently inherited from the French had yet to be strengthened. Many casualties were suffered but the damage wrought might have been worse but for the courage displayed by Sergeant Sidney Newman of the 4th Black Watch. Time and again as attack followed attack, he switched his Bren-gun from one threatened position to another to ensure that every assault was successfully repelled. His cool leadership combined with a ‘total disregard of danger’ inspired all

BOTH ABOVE: Two cover images of the popular War Illustrated magazine of 1940 celebrate Britain’s contribution to the Maginot Line defences. BELOW: A small group of British troops taken prisoner following a raid on an outpost in the Maginot Line in March 1940 are led away by their captors.

in his post to hold out and was later recognised by the award of a Distinguished Conduct Medal. Similar defiance was shown by the men of No 11 Platoon of C Company, 7th Royal Norfolks, who were spread among five section posts towards the northern end of the Grossenwald. Led by Sergeant Bill Bunkle, they had taken over the position the previous day and during the evening they were joined by Second Lieutenant John Wood who had just returned from special leave in Metz. Wood later reported that the night had passed quietly until 0400 hrs when artillery and mortar fire opened ‘all along our front’. 

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MAGINOT BRITS Phoney War to Action 1940 BELOW: Ron Palmer photographed with a German guard as a prisoner of war. Together with the majority of his unit and a large portion of the 51st Highland Division, he was captured at St Valery-enCaux in June 1940.

ABOVE: Ron Palmer, a sergeant in A Company, 7th Royal Norfolks, recalled a German raiding party infiltrating the village his unit was occupying, setting fire to a 15 cwt truck and ringing the church bells!

MIDDLE RIGHT: Chris Bailey, a private in the 7th Royal Norfolks, remembered how German night patrols used to taunt the men manning advanced outposts, calling out: ‘Are you there, Tommy?’

‘All 3 of my forward section posts on the front edge of the wood were hit and 2 men were wounded,’ he wrote. ‘The artillery fire ceased after about 15 minutes and was then put down behind us. An enemy infantry attack was then made. ‘Owing to the forward posts having been destroyed… by shell-fire no action could be taken against this attack until the enemy were inside the wood and as the telephone cable was cut defensive artillery fire could not be asked for.’ Though effectively cut off, the Norfolks held their ground and stopped the enemy attack dead in its tracks. Recalling the action more than half a century later, Wood was modest about his part in it all. ‘There was a lot of firing,’ he said, ‘but… I hadn’t got anything to shoot with except a pistol which was absolutely useless. ‘I was left with what might be called a watching brief, but having gone up the night before without a greatcoat I

Wood dismissed the affair as ‘chocolate soldier stuff’, but others, including his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Debenham, viewed it differently. Prisoner interrogations revealed that around 1000 German troops, some of them belonging to units recently transferred from the Siegfried Line, had taken part in the attack on the Grossenwald outposts. Five dead Germans were later recovered from in front of the Norfolks’ position and for their part in repulsing the attack Wood was mentioned in despatches and Bunkle awarded a Military Medal.

was frozen. My teeth started to chatter, and Bunkle said to me, “Say, God give me strength” I told him that I wasn’t frightened, just frozen cold. “It will help you to say that,” he added, so I replied, “To please you, Sergeant Bunkle, I will”. I said, “God give me strength, and now let’s get on with the war”. ‘The attack didn’t last long. They got to within 20 yards of our position. We killed a few and the rest withdrew quite hurriedly. We only lost one man [killed]. ‘When the attack was over we heard a voice calling out, “‘Allo! Allo!” It was a wounded German and he seemed only too pleased to be a prisoner… ‘We stayed there for the rest of the day and at one point some of the chaps from one of the posts in front of us came running back saying the Germans were coming again, but it was a false alarm. It was damned nearly dark before I got an order to withdraw. We were only too glad to be going back.’

BRITISH MAGINOT MILESTONES

1.

Captain Peter Barclay and Lance-Corporal Herbert Davis re-enact the patrol which earned them the British army’s first gallantry awards of the Second World War.

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2.

Corporal Thomas William Priday was the British army’s first operational fatality of the war.

An artist’s impression of Corporal Priday’s original grave in the British sector of the Maginot Line.

3.

MAGINOT BRITS Phoney War to Action 1940

‘DODGING SHELLS’ Despite the ferocity of the assault and the vulnerability of some of the defences the German push had been everywhere defeated in the sector held by 51st Highland Division. However, a larger attack on the same day against French forces in the Moselle region had made better progress, forcing a withdrawal from the Ligne de Contact into the main Maginot defences. By 15 May, with pressure growing on parts of the British line, it was clear that only a retreat to the Ligne de Recueil, the third line of outpost defences about a mile in front of the Maginot forts, could prevent advanced units being cut off following the pull back of French forces on either flank. In some places, a phased withdrawal had already begun. Lieutenant Colonel Debenham was ordered to take over a portion of the Ligne de Recueil near the village of St Francois la Croix from the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers. The Scottish pioneers, who had been left to hold a 3,000-yard front with barely 300 men and seven Bren guns, were pleased to leave the defence in Norfolk hands, although they did agree to leave three of their machine-guns and all of their wireless sets. Their relief was understandable. Like so much about the Maginot Line, the positions inherited by Debenham’s men were more illusory than real. As the Norfolks’ commanding officer later wrote, ‘the Ligne de Recueil… looked better on tracings than on the ground… Most of the posts, wiring and anti-tank ditches were in the early stages of construction with no communication trenches or camouflage at all’. To make matters worse, German artillery observers clearly had the

ABOVE: Captain Paul Hawkins, seated eighth from the left, with members of the 7th Royal Norfolk Regiment at Downham Market in June 1939.

ABOVE: Chris Bailey, seated on the right, with a group of fellow prisoners in Stalag IX C where he was incarcerated following his capture at St Valery-en-Caux. RIGHT: Prisoner 1353: Second Lieutenant Henry Bett’s PoW papers. Recalling his early impressions of the Ligne de Contact, he reckoned the outposts in his sector ‘might have stopped a reasonably aimed pea-shooter’. 

position in their sights. Unhappy at missing out on a planned leave because of the enemy offensive, Private Bill Crump made a doleful entry in his diary: ‘Spent time guarding mined crossroads which Jerry methodically shelled each night. One or two fell uncomfortably close… Got packed up ready to make a strategic withdrawal…

were despatched to the last two platoons of the Norfolks remaining in the Ligne de Contact, but they had yet to make their way back when the arrival of elements of the 7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, late on 15 May, signalled the beginning of a fullscale withdrawal. Still feeling the effects of his twisted ankle, Bill Crump noted: ‘Left la Croix in a hurry and on foot about 2am blowing up crossroads behind us. Limped to Kedange woods by about 8am…’ From there, the Norfolks were ferried further back, beyond the curve of Maginot fortresses, to Metzeresche where they were eventually reunited with their two ‘missing’ platoons. 

Dodging shells instead of on way home, and twisted ankle in doing so…’ Thankfully for both Crump and Debenham they would not be required to stage a ‘mission impossible’ and defend St Francois la Croix. Even as the Norfolks’ officers were digesting hurriedly prepared plans to hold the village, word reached them from 51st Highland Division headquarters that both the Ligne de Contact and its support positions along the Ligne de Soutiens were to be evacuated. New orders were issued telling the men to ‘roll blankets and pack kits’ and to be ready to pull out ‘probably during [the] night [of] 15/16th May’. Similar instructions www.britainatwar.com 99

MAGINOT BRITS Phoney War to Action 1940

ABOVE: The great fortress at Hackenberg, now a museum and visitor attraction, formed part of a 90-mile barrier designed to protect France from German invasion across its exposed eastern border. BELOW LEFT: The view today from the old British front line in the Ligne de Contact near Bizing. The village of Waldwisse which formed part of the German forward positions nestles in the valley. BOTTOM RIGHT: A plaque on the wall of the Hackenberg fortress in the remains of the Maginot Line defences pays tribute to the British contribution to the defence of Lorraine during the early months of the war.

‘BADLY KNOCKED ABOUT’ The last tour of the Ligne de Contact had proved an eventful one for Second Lieutenant ‘Jock’ McKenzie’s No 7 Platoon. They had taken their turn in the International Post in the early evening of May 13 following Johnny King’s successful defence. ‘The whole post had very badly knocked about by the morning’s shelling,’ wrote McKenzie, ‘but we managed to finish off the necessary repairs to the wire before nightfall.’ Aside from ‘a fair amount of small arms fire’ on both flanks, the night passed without incident. It proved the calm before the storm. ‘All next day,’ noted McKenzie, ‘shelling was heavy all round and on the French post in front.’ Despite suffering a number of casualties, the French stuck it until the evening when they withdrew, abandoning the position. From then on, amid periodic bouts of shelling, parties of Germans were seen, sometimes in the woods on either flank, sometimes, more disturbingly, among the trees behind them. At 1600 hrs on 15 May, 50 enemy troops were spotted approaching the crest of the hill in front of their position. They were met by stout resistance from a neighbouring French position while an artillery concentration bracketed the abandoned post keeping the Germans at arm’s length.

ABOVE: One of the cupolas perched on the reinforced concrete defences of the Hackenberg fortress which lay behind the British sector of the Maginot Line. After visiting a similar fort in January 1940, General Lord Alanbrooke wrote: ‘The fort reminded me of a battleship built on land, a masterpiece in its way… And yet! It gives me but little feeling of security, and I consider that the French would have done better to invest the money in the shape of mobile defences such as more and better aircraft and more heavy armoured divisions than to sink all this money into the ground.’

The Germans then retaliated with a bombardment of their own and for around 15 minutes the International Post was swallowed by a pall of smoke and dust as mortar and artillery shells rained down. Casualties were remarkably light, but one of the shells destroyed the post’s telephone cable effectively marooning its British and French occupants from the outside world. Out of communication and unaware of the orders to pull back, they were still clinging to their position as French

artillery unwittingly put down a bombardment on the woods they thought had been evacuated. With the Germans pressing ever closer and their flanks exposed, their fate in hapless isolation would almost certainly have been sealed but for the gallant intervention of a French liaison officer. Despite having heard, erroneously as it turned out, that the village of Filstroff together with the International Post were surrounded by enemy troops, Lieutenant Aitoff  had sought permission to try to reach and extricate the ‘lost’ garrison. Taking an armoured vehicle loaded with ammunition, he drove into Filstroff and then made his way, alone and on foot, to the outpost. His arrival at 0400 hrs signalled the evacuation of the last British troops from the Ligne de Contact.

‘BLEAK OUTLOOK’ It would be another four and a half years before British units would advance as near to the German border 100 www.britainatwar.com

MAGINOT BRITS Phoney War to Action 1940 Having escaped from the frying pan, the Norfolks were about to enter the fire. As Lieutenant Colonel Debenham remarked: ‘It was obvious the enemy would soon turn his attentions from Dunkirk to the Somme and, as the troops were very thin on the ground, with no defence lines and practically no air force or armour, the outlook was not good.’ His frank assessment proved entirely accurate. For the overwhelming majority of the 51st Highland Division and their assorted English comrades-inarms, a struggle that had begun in front of the Maginot Line would end, a little more than a month after the Germans launched their offensive, at the small port of St Valery-en-Caux. again, though, sadly, for all too many of the 7th Royal Norfolks the return to the Reich would be much sooner and would prove to be altogether more humiliating. Within days of McKenzie’s withdrawal from the International Post, British involvement in the defence of the Maginot Line would be at an end and 51st Highland Division, together with its Norfolk pioneers, taken first into reserve and then transferred, initially west of the Moselle and then to the north of the old Verdun battlefields with rumour following rumour all the way. After one 15-mile march, the 7th Royal Norfolks boarded a train bound for ‘no one knew where’. Sergeant Palmer recalled: ‘One of the officers said to me, “Don’t let your men take their equipment off, you’ll only be on the train an hour…

We thought we would withdraw and act as a stumbling block to the Germans.” All the talk was of Sedan and trying to stem the German tide. ‘Halfway to wherever it was we were meant to be going we were suddenly told that we were not going to Sedan,’ recalled Captain Paul Hawkins. ‘Instead we were to go in reserve near Paris, to which we all gave a cheer.’ Their joy, however, would be shortlived. By May 29, with the Dunkirk evacuation in full swing, the Norfolks were travelling in a convoy of bulletriddled buses bound for Clais in northern France and a supporting role in 51st Highland Division’s forlorn effort to bolster the French army’s doomed attempt to hold an ever more fragile line along the river Somme.

There, on June 12, a series of retreats and defeats culminated in capitulation for the last British defenders of one of the most expensive but ultimately worthless military follies ever to be built. 

LEFT: A monument near Verdun dedicated to André Maginot, the French Minister of War, who sanctioned the construction of the defensive line which bore his name. BELOW: The village of Bizing as it is today. In 1940 it formed part of the Maginot support line and was occupied by the 7th Royal Norfolks.

BELOW: Choloy War Cemetery, where some of the Norfolks killed during the clashes in the Maginot Line are buried.

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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY July 1915

GREAT WAR 07.15

GALLANTRY Throughout the First World War, the many announcements of British and Commonwealth gallantry awards appeared in the various issues of The London Gazette. As part of our major monthly series covering the period of the Great War commemorations, we examine some of the actions involved and summarise all of the awards announced in July 1915.

i A portrait of Lance Corporal Leonard Keyworth.

p i Keyworth died of wounds in France on 19 October 1915 and was buried in Abbeville Communal Cemetery, seen here. The Regimental Museum’s website states that he is commemorated on the City of Lincoln War Memorial and on the Great War Memorial in Silver Street Methodist Church, Lincoln, while Dantzic Street, Southwark, London, was renamed Keyworth Street in his memory.

I

N CONTRAST to June 1915, there were far fewer awards announced in The London Gazette in July the same year – including just five Victoria Crosses. One of the latter – that made to Lance Corporal Albert Jacka of the 14th Battalion Australian Imperial Forces and which is described by Lord Ashcroft in this issue – would become one of the most acclaimed Great War VCs. That earned by Lance Corporal Leonard Keyworth, on the other hand, is less well-known, despite it being awarded, as described at the time, for an act 'of almost incredible bravery and contempt for death'. Born in Lincoln on 12 August 1893, Leonard James Keyworth first attempted to join the Lincolnshire Regiment at the outbreak of war in 1914. Rejected, but undismayed, he joined the 24th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (The

Queen’s) on 16 September 1914. He was soon destined to bring them credit and glory. The date in question was Tuesday, 25 May 1915. Keyworth’s battalion had made a successful assault on German positions near Givenchy, and during the following night a bomb attack was arranged to follow up the success. Very difficult ground had to be crossed and only 17 out of 75 men survived, among whom was 22-year-old Lance Corporal Keyworth. During the very fierce encounter that ensued he stood fully exposed for two hours on the top of the enemy’s parapet and threw about 150 bombs among the Germans, who were only a few yards away. One author wrote that the account of Keyworth’s actions that night read 'more like a page

(COURTESY OF THE

COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION)

102 www.britainatwar.com



from the most extravagant of the romances of adventure than sober fact'. That same writer went on to add: 'Keyworth’s battalion having already made a successful assault on a part of the German line, determined to follow up this success by a bomb attack. The bomb-throwers … advanced to the attack from a small British trench situated on a slight hill, less than forty yards from the enemy’s first-

GREAT WAR GALLANTRY July 1915

line trenches; but though the distance was short, the ground between had been so badly cut up by shell-fire that they could not progress very rapidly, and before they were half-way across, the majority of them had already fallen beneath the withering fire from rifle and machinegun which was opened upon them. But the rest, undismayed by the fate of their comrades, came bravely on, and among them was Lance-Corporal Keyworth. 'Halting a few yards from the parapet, Keyworth began to throw his bombs. Then, springing on to the top of the parapet itself, he took deliberate aim at the Germans beneath him and rained his deadly missiles upon them with the most murderous effect. When his stock was exhausted, he leaped down, replenished it from the bag of some dead or dying comrade, and then returned to the attack. For two hours he continued thus, hurling, it is computed, I50 bombs on the panicstricken Huns, until the trench was a veritable shambles, choked with the

bodies of the dead and of shrieking, mutilated wretches, and presented an easy prey. And, marvellous to relate, though out of his seventy-four comrades no less than fifty-eight were either killed or wounded, and though he was continually standing fully exposed on the top of the parapet, so near to the Germans they could well-nigh have touched him with the muzzles of their rifles, Keyworth escaped without a scratch, which goes to show that dare-devil bravery such as he displayed on this occasion is often its own justification, creating as it does in the minds of an enemy a degree of amazement and consternation which renders him quite incapable of opposing it with his usual coolness and courage.' Lance Corporal Keyworth’s award of the Victoria Cross was gazetted on 3 July 1915. The investiture was undertaken by HM King George V at Buckingham Palace just nine days later. Along with two other VC recipients from other regiments, Keyworth subsequently received a hero’s welcome during a visit to Lincoln. At his old school in the City he addressed the assembled staff and pupils and his decoration was passed round among them. His VC was later purchased by his old regiment for £460 and formed

part of the collection held in the Regimental Museum at Clandon House in Surrey – the same building that was recently devastated by fire. Also involved in the same action as Keyworth was Captain Donald Whitely Figg. For his part in the fighting Figg was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Order, this also being announced in The London Gazette on 3 July 1915: 'For conspicuous and continuous gallantry on the night of 25th-26th May, 1915, and following day at Givenchy, when, after taking part in an assault on a trench, he led repeated rushes with bombs into a German work, and when most of the bombers were killed continued the attack singlehanded. His extraordinary bravery and disregard of danger enabled the dangerous flank he commanded to hold its own against constant assaults by the German bombers and riflemen. On the 26th May, when his line was enfiladed by rifle and very heavy shell fire, his determination held his men to their ground until relieved four hours later. For seventeen hours his conduct was a brilliant example to the hard-pressed men around him, and more than anyone in the Battalion he contributed to the successful retention of the position won.' 

o Lance Corporal Leonard Keyworth in action on the night of 25/26 May 1915. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY July 1915

GALLANTRY AWARDS GAZETTED IN JULY 1915 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

5 34 72 111

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

i

An artist’s depiction of the action for which Second Lieutenant Moor was awarded the Victoria Cross. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

p A view of the

countryside in which Second Lieutenant Moor carried out the actions for which he was awarded the VC. This is the area around Krithia, as seen from an Allied front line trench.

(AUSTRALIAN WAR

MEMORIAL; G02065)

Lance Corporal Jacka’s VC was one of two gazetted in July 1915 for actions on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The other was that awarded to Second Lieutenant George Raymond Dallas Moor of the 3rd Battalion, the Hampshire Regiment – though he was also an Australian, being born on 22 October 1896, in his mother’s sister’s home in Pollington Street, St. Kilda, Australia. On 4 June 1915, the Allies made a third attempt to capture the heights of Achi Baba and Krithia. After a hard struggle an advance was made of about 500 yards on a front of three miles and two lines of Turkish trenches were occupied. The following day the Ottoman troops launched a ‘furious’ counterattack on the British. The citation for Moor’s VC describes what followed:

104 www.britainatwar.com

'A detachment of a battalion [south of Krithia and on Moor’s left], whose officers had fallen, broke for a moment and began to retire. Realizing the danger to the rest of the line, Second Lieutenant George Raymond Dallas Moor, of the 3rd Battalion The Hampshire Regiment, who was about two hundred yards away on the left, dashed back and rallied the men. He then led them forward and recaptured the lost trench.' Moor was evacuated from the Peninsula soon after this action suffering from dysentery. After recovering he joined the 1st Battalion in France and was badly wounded in the arm. Returning to the front, he went on to be awarded the Military Cross and Bar. Moor died of Influenza on 3 November 1918, and was buried in the Y Farm Military Cemetery, Bois-Grenier. An almost forgotten campaign led to the award of the Victoria Cross to 31-year-old Captain Eustace Jotham. During operations against the Khostwal tribesmen on 7 January 1915, Captain Jotham, of the 51st

Sikhs (Frontier Force), and a small party of about twelve of the North Waziristan Militia were attacked in a steep narrow valley at Spina Khaisora (also known as Tochi Valley) in the North-West Frontier Province of India). Being almost surrounded by an overwhelming force of some 1,500 tribesmen, Jotham gave the order to retire. 'But on seeing that one of his men had lost his horse,' notes one account, 'Captain Jotham turned back to try and rescue him. He was most unfortunately shot, but his gallant deed was posthumously rewarded with the VC.' Two of the 34 Distinguished Service Orders gazetted in July 1915 were for the same action. Captain Amyas Eden Borton (the Black Watch attached Royal Flying Corps) and Captain Anthony Marshall (28th Light Cavalry, Indian Army, attached Royal Flying Corps) were serving with 8 Squadron when they undertook an aerial reconnaissance flight over the neighbourhood of Staden on 7 June 1915. Borton, a Flight Commander, was the pilot. 

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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY July 1915

p The moment Captain Eustace Jotham was shot and killed on 7 January 1915. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

'Captain Borton was wounded in the head and neck by a bullet fired from a hostile aeroplane,' states the citation in The London Gazette, 'and although suffering severely from loss of blood he continued, with the assistance of the Observer, Captain Marshall, to bandage his wounds and completed the reconnaissance on the prescribed course. His injuries are such that he is not yet out of danger. 'Captain Marshall continued his observations after rendering all possible aid to the Pilot, who was gradually losing consciousness, notwithstanding that the German aeroplane was persistently attacking. The valuable report supplied by this Officer is as detailed and complete for the last as it is for the first part of the reconnaissance.' It is interesting to note that Borton, who remained in the RAF until 1933, is recognized as having invented the slang term ‘archie’ for anti-aircraft fire. The usage is believed to have come about because Borton was probably the first pilot to shout the words 'Archibald, certainly not' (from a popular music

hall song of the era) as he flew between the exploding German shells. Captain Henry George Moreton Railston of the 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own) was awarded another of the DSOs gazetted in July 1915. One author has left us this account of what happened 'as the enemy advanced to the attack at the Grafenstafel Salient' east of St. Julien near Ypres: 'Railston … gave the order to open fire, and, picking up a rifle, himself brought down a German officer and two men. But the parapet and the parados of his trench, and then the traverses, were soon demolished by the terrible shell-fire of the enemy, and before long a shell burst in his own traverse, in the centre of five men. Four were killed, but the survivor had a marvellous escape. 'Under the splendid lead of Captain Railston every man did his utmost, either in keeping up rapid rifle fire, or bandaging wounded comrades, or else collecting ammunition from the bandoliers of the dead and wounded.

But owing to the deadly shell-fire the trench was soon in a terrible state, and all the time the Germans were advancing along the British front, concentrating in considerable numbers on some dead ground among standing crops. When not at the parapet with a rifle, Captain Railston was tending the wounded. His clothes were riddled with bullets and he was wounded in the leg, but he refused to abandon his section of the trench.' A trained engineer, Henry Malkin Hance was a General Manager to the Indian Manganese Co. Ltd. At Nagpur when work broke out in 1914. Though he joined the Indian Army, his skills as a miner ensured that he was soon attached to the Royal Engineers. By 15 June 1915 he was serving with the men of 176th (Tunnelling) Company. Formed at Lestrem in April 1915, the 176th (Tunnelling) Company moved soon after to the Neuve Chapelle area facing Bois du Biez, arriving near Givenchy in June 1915. Hance features in the pages of The London Gazette in July 1915 for his 'excellent work and great determination in the preparation of a mine which was successfully sprung at Duck’s Bill (near Givenchy) on 15th June, 1915. The success of the mine was largely due to Lieutenant Hance’s personal efforts and his fine example under very difficult circumstances.' He was one of 72 men awarded the Military Cross during that month. 

u Another Victoria Cross announced in July 1915, was that of Lance Corporal Joseph Tombs, of the 1st Battalion, The King’s (Liverpool Regiment). Seeing wounded men lying about 100 yards in front of the British trenches at Rue du Bois on 16 June 1915, Tombs crawled out repeatedly under a very heavy shell and machine-gun fire to rescue them. He brought back four men; 'one of them was so severely wounded that unless he had been immediately attended to he must have died. Lance Corporal Tombs therefore placed a riflesling round his own neck and round the man’s body, and in this way dragged him back to the trenches.' (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

RUNNING TOTAL OF

GALLANTRY AWARDS AS OF THE END OF JULY 1915 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

92 721 56 871 2243 9 269 4261

www.britainatwar.com 107

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH" Captain Albert Jacka VC, MC & BAR

CAPTAIN ALBERT LORD ASHCROFT'S

"HERO OF THE MONTH"

JACKA&BAR VC,MC

The position known as Courtney’s Post had been established by the Anzacs on the morning of 25 April 1915, the day of the first Allied landings on Gallipoli. Just over three weeks later, the Turks launched large-scale counter-attacks. In the fighting that followed at Courtney’s Post, one of the defenders gained the distinction of being the first Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross in the First World War.

AGGRESSION BOLDNESS • INITIATIVE • LEADERSHIP SACRIFICE • SKILL • ENDURANCE

The many Victoria Crosses and George Crosses in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum in London are displayed under one of seven different qualities of bravery. Whilst Captain Albert Jacka’s award is not part of the collection, Lord Ashcroft feels that it falls within the category of AGGRESSION: ‘For many actions killing is the means to the end. To prevail, maximum force has to be applied. Aggression is invariably fast and adrenaline fuelled. It epitomises the idea of ‘hot courage’, acting quickly in the mayhem of battle.’

i A studio portrait of Lance Corporal Albert Jacka. (COURTESY OF

THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL; A03408)

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A

LBERT JACKA was born in Layard, Victoria, Australia, on 10 January 1893. He was the fourth of seven children born to Nathaniel Jacka, a timber worker, and his English-born wife Elizabeth. When Albert, usually known as Bert, was five years old, his family moved to Wedderburn, Victoria. After leaving school, Jacka worked as a labourer with his father and, later, an engine cleaner before, aged 18, joining the Victoria State Forests Department. He was also a talented sportsman and he excelled at cycling. On 8 September 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). On 10 November, he was posted to the 14th Battalion, AIF, as an acting lance corporal and on 22 December he embarked for the Middle East for two months training. On 25 April 1915, Jacka took part in the

historic landings at Gallipoli, landing at Anzac Cove. His Victoria Cross was awarded for outstanding bravery at Courtney’s Post, Gallipoli, where some of the severely depleted 14th Battalion had been sent to support Anzacs who were under relentless attack from the Turks. At 03.30 hours on 19 May 1915, a party of Turks crept up to the trench occupied by Jacka and his comrades and the enemy threw in eight bombs. Three men were killed and all of the rest, with the exception of Jacka, were injured. The Turks then jumped into the trench and most of the remaining Australians fled. Jacka, though, kept up a relentless fire on the enemy and thereby prevented their advance. Jacka was then asked if he would charge the Turks if some men could be found to back him up. ‘Yes, two or three,’ he replied. With three volunteers, and leading from the front, Jacka launched his counter-attack on the mouth of the communication trench. However, the soldier who followed him was shot three times and the charge was abandoned. Instead, Jacka asked one of the other volunteers to keep up a steady fire while he went along several trenches, crossed No Man’s Land and then ambushed the Turks from the rear. Jacka shot five Turks and bayoneted two others, killing all seven men. ‘Well, I managed to get the beggars,’ he said the next morning. His VC was announced on 24 July 1915. Jacka was promoted to sergeant and then company sergeant major while still in the Dardanelles and, after the evacuation from Gallipoli, he went to Egypt, where he was promoted to second lieutenant in March 1916. He served on the Western Front from 7 July 1916 and again displayed quite exceptional bravery at Pozières on 7 August that year.

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH" Captain Albert Jacka VC, MC & BAR

He and 14 other men from the 14th Battalion were sent to relieve Anzacs who were holding an advanced trench under heavy German bombardment. Early in the morning, the Germans attacked and swept through the Anzac ranks. By now, only seven Australians were uninjured and Jacka himself had been slightly wounded. As the Germans began to round up Anzac prisoners and wounded, Jacka told the seven fit men to attach their bayonets, saying: ‘If we stay here they are bound to capture us and I would sooner be dead than a prisoner. The supports cannot be long in coming. Let’s go for them.’ With these words ringing in their ears, the men advanced at scores of Germans, shooting their rifles from the hip. In fierce hand-to-hand fighting, Jacka received multiple wounds as the Germans started to encircle the Australian troops. However, support arrived in the nick of time: many Germans were shot, 50 were taken prisoner and several Australian prisoners were freed.

Bill Jacka, who visited his brother at the regimental aid post, left the ward thinking: ‘I won’t be seeing you again.’ However, Bert Jacka, despite even being reported dead at one stage, defied the odds and survived. Having been evacuated to Britain, Jacka belatedly received his VC at a Windsor Castle investiture in September 1916. However, he was resentful that he had not also been given a Bar to his VC for his actions at Pozières, which he felt were six times more demanding than his heroics at Gallipoli – in fact, he was awarded the Military Cross for this gallantry. Jacka returned to his battalion and was awarded a Bar to his MC for several one-man patrols at Bullecourt, where, on one occasion, he personally guided British tanks into position. Yet again though, many thought his extreme bravery worthy of a Bar to his VC. Promoted to captain in December 1916, Jacka was finally removed from the war by a mustard gas attack in May 1918 at Villers-Bretonneux, which led

to him undergoing life-saving surgery. He is widely regarded as the greatest front line soldier of the First World War, a man who could be terrifyingly aggressive when facing the enemy. Charles Bean, Australia’s Official War Historian, said: ‘Jacka should have come out of the war as the most decorated man in the AIF … Everyone who knows the facts, knows that Jacka earned the Victoria Cross three times.’ Jacka was the first Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross in the First World War. This distinction earned him the sum of £500 which had been put up by a Melbourne businessman for the first Australian to be so honoured. Demobbed in 1920, Jacka married a year later, though he never fully recovered from his injuries. After the war, he co-ran ran an electrical goods business and was later elected Mayor of St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne. However, he collapsed at a council meeting and died, just over a month later, on 17 January 1932, aged 39. 

o Lance Corporal Albert Jacka confronting the Turks on 19 May 1915. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

u General Sir

William Birdwood (centre) shaking hands with Captain Albert Jacka VC, MC, of the 14th Battalion (left), after presenting him with a Bar to his Military Cross for bravery during the first attack on Bullecourt, near the Hindenburg Line. The ceremony took place at Ribemont on 12 May 1917.

(COURTESY OF

THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL; E00438)

VICTORIA CROSS HEROES

i Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is an international businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. An account about Albert Jacka appears in his book Victoria Cross Heroes even though Jacka’s medal group is not part of Lord Ashcroft’s VC collection. For more information, please visit: www.victoriacrossheroes.com Lord Ashcroft’s VC and GC collection is on public display at Imperial War Museums, London. For more information visit: www. iwm.org.uk/heroes. For details about his VC collection, visit: www.lordashcroftmedals.com For more information on Lord Ashcroft’s work, visit: www. lordashcroft.com. Follow him on Twitter: @LordAshcroft www.britainatwar.com 109

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



IT IS appropriate that in this 75th anniversary year of the Battle of Britain a third and updated edition of one of the standard reference works on the battle has been published. Men of the Battle of Britain by Kenneth G Wynn was first published in 1989 with mini-biographies of Allied airmen known to have qualified for the award of the 1939-1945 Star with Battle of Britain Clasp. After Wynn had extensively updated the manuscript an anonymous benefactor ensured that all rights to the book were acquired by the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust, custodian of the National Memorial to The Few at Capelle-Ferne, Kent. The resources available to the Trust meant that further work could be carried out by a team of researchers including trustees, Geoff Simpson, Richard Hunting, CBE (Chairman of the Trust), Wing Commander Andy Simpson and Robin Green. Other team members included Edward McManus, Gerry Burke and Laurie Chester. Major contributions also came from a wide range of people including Tom Dolezal, (son of Pilot Officer Frantisek Dolezal of 310 and 19

Squadrons), Kristen Alexander, Britain at War Editor Andy Saunders, Dr Tony Mansell, and a number of ‘The Few’ themselves. As a result of the efforts of Ken Wynn and the Memorial Trust team much new information and fresh photographs were uncovered, leading to additions and deletions and a number of considerably increased biographies. One point that has become clear is that it remains impossible to put a firm figure on the number of men who qualified for the Battle of Britain Clasp. More names are still emerging, not least from the ranks of the wireless operator/air gunners who flew in the Blenheim squadrons. For example, the case of Aircraftman Connolly, who is recorded in the logbook of Flight Sergeant Lingard of 25 Squadron and clearly shows operational sorties on 6 and 25 September 1940 in which Connolly participated, yet he does not appear in existing lists and nothing more is known about him. Names have been changed, too, in some cases. After making contact with a nephew it was possible to confirm that “Reginald Albert Lloyd Duviver” of 229 Squadron, as previously listed, was in fact Pilot Officer Reginald Albert Lloyd Du Vivier who had attended Malvern

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College and is now commemorated on a Battle of Britain memorial there. Du Vivier was lost on 30 March 1941 and his name appears on the Runnymede Memorial. In many cases information has come from relatives, friends and school archives to make such changes. A considerable number of men who earned the Battle of Britain Clap survived the war only to die soon afterwards. For instance, the death of Sergeant (later Flight Lieutenant) Douglas Barker Crabtree who served with 501 Squadron is a case in point. It is recorded that, “Crabtree was killed in a civil flying accident on June 24 1950. He was the pilot of a Percival Proctor that crashed at Tosside, Yorkshire. The aircraft was on a flight from West Hartlepool to Blackpool when it landed in a field at Brockthorn Farm, Tosside in mist. Witnesses reported that the pilot said he had lost his bearings and had a faulty radio. While attempting to take off about an hour after landing it hit a dry stone wall and exploded. All three passengers were also killed. The inquest, held at Settle, recorded a verdict of misadventure. At the time Crabtree was manager and an instructor at Greatham Airport, West Hartlepool.” This may well be the last edition of this standard and valuable

BOOK OF THE MONTH

MEN OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN By Kenneth G Wynn

Publisher: Frontline Books (in association with the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust) www.frontline-books-com ISBN:978-1-47384-767-5 Hardback:616 pages RRP: £60.00 Illustrations  Appendices 

References/Notes Index 



reference work although updates and corrections will appear on the website of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust. Less than 30 of the airmen whose stories are told in the book are still alive. A most highly recommended book. REVIEWED BY DAVID INGLES.

www.britainatwar.com 111

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The Britain at War team scout out the latest items of interest THE GIRLS WHO WENT TO WAR

TILL THE BOYS COME HOME:

The First World War Through Picture Postcards Tonie and Valmai Holt



IN THE early part of the 20th Century the picture postcard was the ‘social media’ of the day and millions of cards were posted daily with their assortment of amusing, informative, thoughtful or just plain silly images. From cartoons to artwork, from patriotic to educational, the postcard was loved by everyone and it was the case that far from killing-off the medium the First World War seemed, if anything, to enhance its popularity. Quite apart from being a useful means by which to quickly communicate with the folks back home, the postcard very soon became a vehicle through which to communicate strident militaristic and propaganda messages as well as being a useful recruiting and morale boosting aid. In fact, every conceivable genre of card was produced by every warring nation between 1914 and 1918 and, as artwork and pieces of social history the cards of the time make for a fascinating study. In this respect, well known military history authors Tonie and Valmai Holt and avid collectors of military postcards take the reader on a journey that is almost a window on the war. In many cases it is literally possible to trace the course of the war, as well as follow the social changes and even the changes of the public’s mood. Of course, humour, love and affection were ever-popular subjects and especially so during times of stress, danger and separation with the work of Bruce Bairnsfather’s ‘Ole Bill’ being extremely popular. However, perhaps it is the cards depicting historical scenes and personalities that are sometimes the most fascinating with notable actions and battles and particular war heroes being popular. Into these categories, for instance, we find scenes depicting the

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downing of Zeppelin airships over Britain and, from the German perspective, postcards of the air aces of the day; Fokker, Goering, Boelcke and von Richthofen among them. Dramatic paintings, too, were popular with garish scenes of air battles and naval engagements being popular. The Holts cover all the different postcard genres, from each combatant nation, and provide a wealth of background and factual data to accompany what is a really superb piece of work. Beautifully printed, we find well over 700 separate examples in this magnificent book and with each postcard captioned and described in some detail. Such is the quality of reproduction that this book is little short of being as good as having a collection of the very postcards themselves and it would certainly be a useful guide if one were entertaining an idea to collect First World War postcards. Certainly, and despite the undertones of war, the artwork almost always has a lively and colourful resonance which rather belies the dark backstory to almost every card. Just as part of the social history of the war this is a must. As a guide and study to the collecting of period postcards it is essential. REVIEWED BY ROBERT ANSELL-HUGHES

Publisher: Pen & Sword www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 9 781473 823525 Hardback: 336 pages RRP: £25.00 Illustrations  Appendices 

References/Notes Index 



1943

The Turning Point

Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi

John Christopher & Campbell McCutcheon

 EFFECTIVELY ‘MOTHBALLED’ after the First World War, the women’s service branches were quickly re-activated and re-mustered on the outbreak of war in 1939 and with over half a million young women joining up in the ‘Wrens’, the WAAF or ATS. Although a Royal Proclamation expressly forbade women from firing deadly weapons, this didn’t keep them out of harm’s way and many were killed or injured on active service and, in fact, many ATS served on anti-aircraft gun-sites or operating searchlights. The role of women in war is a fascinating one, and a topic which is often neglected. This book is an important and inspiring work, packed with personal stories and detail and will become a useful study on the social history of the 1939 – 45 war. Publisher: Harper Collins www.harpercollins.co.uk ISBN: 9 780007 501229 Softback: 340 pages RRP: £7.99

 THE AMBERLEY series ‘The Second World War in Photographs’ are now well established into what is clearly a popular format which gives a photographic glimpse of the subject year. In 1943 the end of the war edged closer as its spread and ferocity yet grew as the change in fortunes for the Allies which started in the previous year allowed for greater optimism that they could ‘finish the job’ and the tipping point of 1943 saw allied forces finally going very much onto the offensive, against enemies who were becoming outnumbered, out manoeuvred and gradually worn down through defeats, attrition and often overwhelming losses. This book, like all the others in the series, helps to chart the progress of war in that year through over 200 fascinating and often rare photographs, a considerable number in colour. Publisher: Amberley www.amberley-books.com ISBN: 9 781445 622132 Softback: 160 pages RRP: £15.99

CHILDREN’S VOICES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR: Doodlebugs, Gas Masks & Gum Christina Rex

 THE LATEST title in a growing range, this book successfully captivates the reader with a unique and fresh perspective on the Second World War. Interestingly, these stories have been collected not only from Britain, but also from European countries such as The Netherlands and Germany, and from even further afield. Presenting numerous unique accounts from children of various ages, the book encompasses a wide range of wartime topics ranging from evacuation to victory, rationing to education, and almost everything in between. Each story told is surrounded by an innocence which only adds to even the most harrowing or happy tale. Publisher: Amberley Publishing www.amberley-books.com ISBN: 978 1 4456 4720 3 Paperback: 272 pages RRP: £8.99

MUD, BLOOD AND DETERMINATION

The History Of The 46th (North Midland) Division In The Great War Simon Peaple

 WHILST UNIT histories may be regarded as often ‘niche’ in the overall context of telling the stories of Britain’s wars they are equally often valuable pieces of the jigsaw of a war’s history, especially so when they record in such detail as this work the histories of significant Divisions such as this. The book’s overall theme is of how the ordinary Tommies of the 46th Division learned to fight more effectively and ultimately seized the Hindenburg Line. The poignant chapter on a ‘shot at dawn’ soldier of the Division and detail of the poor postwar treatment the many miners who were part of the Division make this not only a military history but also an examination of the social, political and economic context and consequences of the war. Publisher: Helion & Company Ltd www.helion.co.uk ISBN: 978 1 910294 66 6 Hardback: 216 pages RRP: £25.00

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

GALLIPOLI FIRST DAY COVER from Fdcovers.com



SOMETHING WHICH should prove popular with stamp collectors, historians, collectors of memorabilia and those who simply wish to keep a small part of the massive commemorative effort is the new Gallipoli 1915 first day cover. This cover features proudly a tastefully designed cachet depicting several ships of the Allied fleet off the coast of the Gallipoli peninsula. Of course, a cover would not be complete without stamps, and the pair of accompanying the cover (part of a set of six) and their frank mark do not disappoint. Created by Turner Prize winning painter and print maker, Howard Hodgkin, the first stamp is a depiction of the well-known image of a British soldier paying his respects at a grave on the peninsula.

The second stamp is a piece of artwork which is a painting of poppies in Hodgkin’s abstract style. On the cover’s reverse, the details and importance of the campaign in Gallipoli are presented in a concise and highly readable fashion – touching on the huge importance and relevance the campaign and its outcome has in Turkey, Australia, and New Zealand to this day. Situated below this is information regarding the Victoria Cross, outlining the origins of the medal and its significance. On the inside, each of this campaign’s many British recipients of the Victoria Cross, including the famous ‘Six VC’s won before breakfast’ are represented. Each man’s name is accompanied by his image and tale of extreme valour, self-sacrifice and bravery, well presented in a display flanked by maps of the Dardanelles Straits. All in all, this Gallipoli first day cover is a beautifully put together and wellpresented piece paying tribute to a historically significant and divisive campaign on its 100th anniversary.

BATTLE OF BRITAIN 75TH ANNIVERSARY CUFFLINKS TMB Art Metal



ON OCCASIONS, products for review arrive at the offices of Britain at War which are extraordinarily outstanding and in a league of their own. It is certainly the case that one of the latest products from TMB Art Metal certainly ticks both of those boxes with their stunning Battle of Britain 75th anniversary cufflinks crafted from metal taken from Spitfire P7350 of the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Spitfire P7350, which first flew in August 1940, underwent a restoration programme during which various items of original structure and skinning had to be removed and replaced and these parts were acquired by TMB Metal Craft for transformation into sets of finely crafted cufflinks which are now available for sale in conjunction with the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Shop. The cufflinks, marked with the words ‘Battle of Britain 1940’ etched into each stalk, come in the form of a beautiful poppy flower sculpted by

artist Stephen Allen and each set comes with a Provenance Certification and inside a nicely made wooden presentation box. To say these are stylish items would be something of an understatement and they certainly make for a wonderful keepsake and an absolutely ideal gift for the man who is passionate about Spitfires and otherwise has everything! TMB Art Metal is a small London based company dedicated to producing provenance sculptures, cufflinks and other items, the unique key to all being that they incorporate in their making metal or material originating from the actual iconic subject the item represents. A number of their recent products, including these Battle of Britain cufflinks, have been produced in co-operation with the Royal British Legion and are sold to benefit the Legion through its official Poppy Shop. www.poppyshop.org.uk www.tmbartmetal.com RRP: £99.99

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august 2015 ISSUE ON SALE FROM 30 JUly 2015

NORTH SEA CONVOY RESCUE

When seven ships from convoy FS 559 blundered onto treacherous sandbanks off the British coast on a gale-blown summer’s night in 1941 a human catastrophe was averted only by the extraordinary heroism of an intrepid band of lifeboatmen. Steve Snelling charts the remarkable story of one of the greatest rescue operations of the Second World War.

IN THE BAG

Whilst the majority of RAF fighter pilots brought down during the Battle of Britain were downed over the mainland, or in coastal waters, a few of them were unfortunate enough to fall into German hands and become POW. This was either through landing in France or being rescued from the sea by the Germans. Chris Goss tells their story.

‘A MOST PLUCKY CHAP’

Leutnant Max Seller was a German Jew killed during an attack on British trenches in 1915. His enemies buried him amongst their own near Ploegsteert, calling him ‘a most plucky chap’. However, his headstone did not reflect the fact that he was of the Jewish faith. German historian Rob Schäfer tells the fascinating story, and how the Commonwealth war Graves Commission have now agreed to give Max Seller a Jewish headstone.

www.britainatwar.com 113

The First W

rld War in Objects

the SOVEREIGN WILL WIN POSTER THE BRITISH Sovereign 22-carat gold coin was regarded as the ‘chief coin of the world’. It was the basis of Britain’s currency in that one Sovereign was worth £1. Britain’s maintenance of what was known as the Gold Standard meant that Sterling was recognized across the world as the leading international currency. Many other countries sought to maintain parity of their currencies with that of Sterling by also adopting their own gold standards. With the imminence of war in 1914 it was evident that the Treasury would need a vast increase in its income to fund the fighting. The Government could raise revenue by increases in income tax and other indirect taxes, but these would be long-term developments. The Government needed money and needed it immediately. With gold being a universal medium of value and exchange, the obvious solution was to liquidate the country’s gold reserves. This would enable Britain to pay for goods from abroad in gold coin and bullion. So vital was this measure that when the Government finally accepted that war would be declared at the beginning of August, the Bank Holiday was extended to three days to allow time for the passing of the Currency and Bank Notes Act, in which Britain withdrew from the Gold Standard. All the gold coin held privately would also be needed and the Government urged the general public to hand in their Sovereigns. Just one day after the declaration of war, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, underlined the importance and urgency of the nation’s requirement for gold in a speech to the House of Commons: “We thought it desirable to make arrangements with a view to economising the supply of gold. There was a danger that individuals … might selfishly attempt to hoard gold in order, conceivably, to put themselves in a better position than their neighbours. I think it is vital that it should be made clear to those individuals, and to the nation at large, that any man who does that is inflicting a great injury on his fellows. In this tremendous struggle finance is going to play a great part. “It will be one of the most formidable weapons in this exhausting war, and anyone who, from selfish motives of greed or from excessive caution or cowardice, goes out of his way to attempt to withdraw sums of gold and appropriate them to his own use – let it be clearly understood that he is assisting the enemies of his native land, and he is assisting them more effectively probably than if he were to take up arms. Perhaps it will be an additional inducement to him not to do so if he knows that he will not benefit himself in the end. This is of enormous importance …” LEFT: Another poster issued in 1915 by the Parliamentary War Savings Committee. War loans were a vital element of the UK’s war effort, with the public encouraged to put their savings into such schemes. This poster depicts a pair of cupped hands overflowing with silver coins; the coins turn into bullets as they fall in front of a voucher for the 1915 loan. (US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

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NO.12

ABOVE: The poster issued by the Parliamentary War Savings Committee in July 1915 which proclaimed that ‘The British Sovereign Will Win’. Printed by David Allen & Sons Ltd. of Harrow, Middlesex, it was the ninth poster published by the committee. Following the war, the Sovereign never regained its place in domestic circulation and, with the exception of a few rare occasions, it wasn’t until 1957 that The Royal Mint began producing gold Sovereigns again in the United Kingdom, this time as a bullion coin.

(US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

In order to help maintain the circulation of money in the United Kingdom, the Government issued two Treasury Notes on 7 August 1914, one to the value of £1, the other to the value of ten shillings, both of which would be used in place of gold Sovereigns. Over the following months, posters, such as that seen here printed in July 1915 and claiming ‘The British Sovereign Will Win’, were produced, all calling for people to hand in gold Sovereigns at their nearest post office in return for these new Treasury Notes or for War Loans. The British public dutifully answered the call and soon the new notes replaced the gold coins. By the summer of 1915 gold coins had to all intents and purposes disappeared from circulation.

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