Britain at War 2015-11

L A I EC ION P S IT ED

THE BLITZ 1940-41: 75TH ANNIVERSARY

R

BRITAIN’S BEST SELLING MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

PLUS:

on Hitler's Invasi Hit List RFC Fighter Ace's 'Kills' B Coventry UX Discovery

THE BLITZ 42 PAGES OF BLITZ CONTENT INCLUDING: Twenty Iconic Blitz Objects, top Blitz Fighter Ace, Thames Blitz Blaze Heroes

TORTURE COULD NOT BREAK HER Violette Szabó GC

AN ARMY PADRE'S SACRIFICE 'Mighty Atom' Hero

NOVEMBER 2015 ISSUE 103 UK £4.50

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 Designers: Dan Jarman, Matt Fuller, Steve Donovan & Chris Abrams 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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From the

Editor

T

HE DISCOVERY of a large German unexploded bomb in Coventry during the production period of this Blitz Special pointed up the fact that the legacy of the Blitz is still all around us. Sometimes, like this bomb, it is obviously tangible evidence of that terrible period in British history. On other occasions it is far less obvious, but its 75th anniversary, nevertheless, is a war anniversary that has certainly left its mark on Britain, and perhaps rather more pointedly than others. The term ‘Blitz Spirit’ is one that has embedded itself in the British vernacular and, like ‘Dunkirk Spirit’, is used to reflect stoical and resolute defiance in the face of the most trying of circumstances. Of course, it would be trite to suggest that such a spirit shone through all of time, or with all of the people during the Blitz always behaving honourably and courageously. Certainly, the extreme circumstances brought out the very best and the very worst of human nature. Those extreme circumstances, of course, visited the most terrible and unimaginable terrors on the civilian population and it left its scars, mental and physical, on the survivors. Many survivors are still living, and others continue to live with the legacy of the Blitz. Take, for example, the toll taken on the family of Flt Lt Richard Stevens, the leading night fighter ace of the period. His three year old daughter, Frances, was killed in an incident arising from German air action in October 1940, an episode which drove him onwards with blind hatred and a desire for revenge, ultimately bringing down an astonishing number of German raiders. Ultimately, it led to his death in action and left a widow grieving for her lost child and husband. This grief lived with her, up to her death in more recent years, and must still surely live on with John, the twin brother of little Frances. Walk around London, or other British cities, and one will still see the scars of damage on older buildings or notice the post-war construction that has sprung up in the gaps left by German bombs. These, like the German bomb find in Coventry, are the obvious scars. Less obvious are the emotional scars, or even the bodily injuries, that still live on with many survivors of the Blitz. In many respects, the Blitz has still not gone away and in its commemoration we do not mark either victory or any glorious success. Instead, we mark a truly awful period of wartime history in Britain and marvel at the endurance of the population in the face of relentless assault. One who lived through it, a Red Cross Nurse, said: ‘You lived day to day and didn’t think of tomorrow until you got there. And in the morning, you just said ‘Thank God!’ ‘ Truly, they were remarkable times that were endured by a remarkably resilient population. We remember those who died, and salute those who lived through it.

Andy Saunders (Editor)

COVER STORY

The enduring image of the Blitz is that of St Paul's Cathedral rising majestic and virtually unscathed from the flame and smoke of the Blitz, a photograph taken during a heavy attack on the night of 29 December 1940. Top right of our cover is an extracted image from the famous Blitz poster, 'Firebomb Fritz', warning of the incendiary bomb danger - bombs which came so close to destroying the cathedral itself. Meanwhile, Dornier 17 bombers fly overhead.

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FEATURES 22 REPUTATIONS : DOUGLAS HAIG REASSESSED

In the first of an occasional series looking at military reputations, Imperial War Museum oral historian Peter Hart reassesses Sir Douglas Haig – was he the incompetent ‘donkey’ of popular imagination or an underrated strategist and innovator?

30 AN ARMY PADRE’S SACRIFICE

Steve Snelling tells the inspiringly moving story of a hero Army chaplain, legendary amongst Far East POWs, after a beleaguered column was cut-off by the Japanese.

98 OPERATION IRONCLAD – SENDING IN THE MARINES

The story of a daring amphibious landing in 1942 upon which rested the British attempt to seize Vichy-held Madagascar and its important port of Diego Suarez.

106 SCOURGE OF THE TWO-SEATERS

Captain James McCudden VC was one of the deadliest and most successful British fighter pilots of the First World War. Norman Franks details this remarkable fighter ace's 'kills' achieved inside allied lines.

Contents 22 REPUTATIONS : DOUGLAS HAIG REASSESSED 4

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106 SCOURGE OF THE TWO-SEATERS

BLITZ SPECIAL

Editor’s Choice

42 LONE WOLF: TOP BLITZ FIGHTER ACE

In a story never fully told before we bypass fiction and dispel the myth to uncover the remarkable career of an unsung and littleknown Blitz hero – the night-fighter ‘ace’, Flt Lt Richard Playne Stevens DSO DFC & Bar.

114 ‘WELL ALIGHT, AND GOING WELL!’

Austin Ruddy describes the Blitz firestorm at the Purfleet oil depots as it was bravely tackled by auxiliary fire fighters from as far away as the East Midlands, leading to ten gallantry awards and the establishment of a National Fire Service.

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SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT 65

TWENTY ICONIC BLITZ OBJECTS

The Blitz of 1940 – 1941 left its mark on Britain to the extent that traces are still to be found in and around its Blitzed cities. We look at twenty significant objects and places which tell the painful tale of the nation’s ordeal by bomb and fire.

SZABÓ

In a Britain at War exclusive, the extraordinary life and courage of Violette Szabó GC is told by Lord Ashcroft using unique material not seen before.

REGULARS 6

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FIELDPOST

The latest news and events for your diary. Your letters, input and feedback.

40 FIRST WORLD WAR DIARY

This month, our analysis of the key events of the First World War reaches November 1915. There are further disasters in the Balkans, the Germans suffer a setback in Africa and the British move on Baghdad.

52 IMAGE OF WAR

An evocative image as one of the legendary Australian Light Horse regiments advances through Jerusalem.

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RECON REPORT

The editorial team seeks out a range of new titles, reviewing a reassessment of 1916, the extraordinary tale of a Great War clandestine heroine and our Book of the Month, a new oral history of the Great War.

124 GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

We detail some of November 1915’s awards for gallantry and Lord Ashcroft delves into another epic tale with his ‘Hero of the Month’.

130 THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN OBJECTS

We look at a touching last letter from a dying Somme soldier, found in the grisly aftermath of the attack on the German fortification known as the ‘Quadrilateral’.

ISSUE 103 NOVEMBER 2015

A subscription to Britain at War makes a great gift this Christmas. See pages 96-97 for details.

NEWS FEATURE 16

RETURN OF THE BARONESS: BACK ON TRACK

Our Assistant Editor presents an initial report from the team restoring a super-rare British cold war armoured vehicle back to running condition.

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98 OPERATION IRONCLAD

HITLER’S HIT LIST

We analysed the 2,800 names on a Nazi hit list and expected to find the usual suspects. We did; Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden and foreign government ministers. However, some surprise targets are found in this veritable ‘Who’s Who?’ of a Nazi Britain. www.britainatwar.com

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

Blitz UXB Unearthed: Bomb Find in Coventry

THE LARGEST WWII bomb to be discovered in Coventry for many years has been made safe after a 28-hour operation conducted by 11 EOD Regiment. The device was unearthed on the afternoon of 21 September by a mechanical digger on a building site. Thought to be a SC-1000 ‘Hermann’, the bomb was dropped during a major raid on the Armstrong Siddeley factory that used to stand on the site, now being redeveloped for Coventry University. The Hermann was one of the largest bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe during

the Blitz, and the timely discovery of the device comes ahead of the anniversary of the infamous 14 November raid, 75 years ago. The enormous raid flattened Coventry city centre and, in creating a symbol that lasts to this day, gutted the iconic cathedral. In addition, 4,300 homes were destroyed, and dozens of factories were also damaged or wiped out. It is estimated that at least 560 people were killed in the raid, a figure that could have been much higher if it was not for 79 public shelters and the fact many residents left Coventry each night

for the safer outskirts. However, despite many tonnes of bombs being dropped on Coventry, it is likely that hundreds of the tens of thousands dropped did not detonate; this was because equipment was faulty or the bombs were tampered with by those conscripted to build them. The discovery of the bomb prompted a huge evacuation of Coventry University buildings as well as local businesses. Several roads were closed, causing chaos for residents and commuters. The disposal team originally considered moving the bomb to a

safer location to carry out the controlled explosion; however, they instead opted to bury it under lorryloads of sandbags. The makeshift structure, reinforced by metal, would absorb the blast from the controlled detonation. Ironically, the Cutlass robot used by the experts was produced in Coventry itself. The bomb was finally rendered harmless on 22 September after a pair of controlled blasts. Heard several miles away, the first detonation made the bomb safe, whilst the second consumed any remaining explosive.

BULLETIN BOARD

A SC 1000 ‘Herman’ bomb slung under a He 111 bomber. The bomb was so large that it had to be carried externally. (CHRIS GOSS)

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Comrie Development Trust and Community Shares Scotland have launched a new project to create a heritage site at a former WW2 prisoner of war camp. Cultybraggan’s Camp 21, the only prisoner of war camp still standing, is set to be preserved as a living history site with ten of the listed wartime huts to be developed into places where visitors can stay and as an educational hub. The camp was used post war by the army, TA, and cadets for over 50 years, but now the local community wish to preserve the site's history. Cultybraggan was a 'black camp' holding the most committed Nazi PoWs, mainly Waffen-SS, Fallschirmjäger and U-Boat crew. Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe and SS prisoners were held in separate compounds, as were officers.

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RAF personnel based at their Middle East Headquarters were joined by their coalition partners from France, Australia, Canada and the United States amongst others as they marked the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. The multinational congregation paused for the lowering of the RAF ensign and a dedication to the Few.

A new Gurkha statue has been unveiled in Folkestone’s Garden of Remembrance by Joanna Lumley. The Nepalese First Lady, Sujata Koirala was also in attendance. The statue commemorates the 46,000 Gurkha soldiers who have sacrificed themselves for Britain. The bronze statue is of a Ghurka in modern uniform and equipment, but with the traditional Kukri knife.

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

Submariners Honour Sacrifice

SUBMARINES FROM the Royal Navy’s base at Clyde recently travelled to Dundee to honour sailors and Commandos lost on wartime operations. The Scottish city was home to the Royal Navy’s 2nd Submarine Flotilla in 1939 and then the 9th Submarine Flotilla from 1940 until the end of the war. The submarine presence at Dundee was formed from an international force of British, French, Dutch, Norwegian and Polish crews and the unit was joined in mid-1944 by Soviet Navy submarines as the stranglehold on the seas around Germany was tightened. The Clyde-based submariners were joined at the striking Dundee International Submarine Memorial by dignitaries from each of the nations that contributed to the force. In all, six submarines patrolling out of the base, HMS Oxley, HMS Thames, HNLMS O 13, HNLMS O 22, NNoMS Uredd, and USSRS V-1 were lost in their daring

missions to hunt enemy shipping, negotiate minefields off the coast of Norway, and to deploy saboteurs and other agents inside German held fjords. They took 296 Allied sailors and commandos with them. Dundee’s dockside memorial (BILL NICHOLLS)

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Heroic Stalag POW Given Resting Place

A REMARKABLE prisoner of war has been given a named resting place 70 years after his death. Lance Corporal John Coulthard, of the Intelligence Corps, died on 24 March 1945 after the ailing soldier was made to bathe in the River Elbe while on a forced march away from advancing Soviet forces, during the coldest German winter recorded. Coulthard had been captured in May 1940 and imprisoned in Stalag XXA, then making nine escape attempts in his five-year incarceration. Eventually Coulthard, and fellow inmate Sergeant Fred Foster, escaped the Polish camp and, in the spirit of their unit, gathered intelligence from SS buildings in Berlin and Munich. They made it to the frontier with Switzerland but Foster was detained by border guards. Coulthard, who crossed

successfully, returned to assist Foster. Both were recaptured and sent back to Stalag XXA. After his death on the forced march, Coulthard was initially buried in the village of Quickborn by his friends, but after his 1947 reburial in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Becklingen, his location and identity were lost. His story was discovered by Foster’s son, who decided to locate the grave of the selfless individual who put ‘friendship before freedom’. Steve Foster discovered the grave after some years with the assistance of Coulthard’s family and German historians. The MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre then confirmed his evidence and authorised a new headstone and rededication service, held at Becklingen in summer 2015.

New George Cross and Medal Tribute

A PAIR of special 50mm medals have been approved to mark the 75th anniversary of the institution of The George Cross and George Medal. The new medals were presented to each living holder of the awards at a special service at Royal Hospital Chelsea, the famous home for retired British soldiers, on the exact anniversary, 24 September, of the date the medals were instituted in 1940. The Victoria Cross & George Cross Association are offering smaller versions of the special commemorative medals for sale to the general public in

RAF and USAAF Personnel who served at RAF Debden have been remembered by a new memorial on the site. The unveiling and dedication coincided with Battle of Britain commemorations and highlighted the role Debden played in defending London and the South East. The unveiling was completed by William Clark, who learnt to fly Hurricanes at the base.

a strictly limited release. The two versions of the medal pair are available either in metal layered with pure silver, or hallmarked sterling silver. They are only available on a first come, first served basis. All profits from the sales will be distributed between The Victoria Cross & George Cross Association and The Gallantry Medallists League. For more information, please see www. gcgm75.co.uk

A local WW1 hero from Paulton has been commemorated by the local parish council. Lance Sergeant Oliver Brooks VC was the only soldier in the area, now covered by Bath & North East Somerset Council, to have been awarded the medal, won at Loos, in the Great War. The councils have cooperated with residents to unveil a stone plaque in the village.

RFA Orangeleaf, the last of the Leaf-class tankers, has left the service in Birkenhead, the same Merseyside port where she was built 40 years ago. She had served with distinction the Royal Fleet Auxillary since 1984, but supported operations in the 1982 Falklands Conflict prior to her acquisition by the RFA. She also supported British ships in the Gulf War, in the West Indies and was in company with the USS Cole as she was attacked in Aden. Orangeleaf also had an active part on operations in Sierra Leone. The single hulled tanker makes way for the more capable double hulled RFA Tidespring and her sisters, environmentally friendly tankers, purpose built for the Royal Fleet Auxillary.

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REVEALED:

Falklands Torture

SECRET DOCUMENTS have shed light on the treatment of Argentine soldiers garrisoning the Falkland Islands in 1982. Argentina’s president, Cristina Kirchner, recently ordered the handing over of all documents held by the military pertaining to the war which cost the lives of 649 Argentine and 255 British service personnel, as well as three islanders. For years, Argentine veterans, many of whom were conscripts, have complained about the conditions endured throughout their occupation. Conscripted troops formed the bulk of the garrison, as the ruling Argentine military Junta considered Chile to be a greater threat and kept its best troops in country, many conscripts were sent to the icy islands without adequate boots, let alone winter uniform. While there were stockpiles of food and supplies in Stanley, they were

not distributed as the provisions were earmarked for winter. Poorly fed, Argentine soldiers risked serious beatings and left their positions to look for food, with islanders sometimes taking pity on the soldiers. One soldier even passed a note asking for toothpaste and chocolate, but begging the recipient not to tell. Such notes partly validate the claims, but the newly revealed files contain accounts of mock executions and living soldiers being bound and left in empty graves. Some soldiers were beaten so terribly they required surgery, one soldier in particular needing an operation after being kicked in the genitalia. Others were tied into stress positions and left lying face down in wet sand. The documents serve to further confirm occurrences of abuse and torture in a conflict where 173 Argentine conscripts died in the ground campaign alone.

Gulf War Destroyer Sails For Last Time

THE ROYAL Navy’s last Type 42 Destroyer, HMS Gloucester, left British waters for the last time as ship veterans joined the public in waving her off as she passed Portsmouth’s Round Tower. Launched in 1982 the type is synonymous with the Falklands War, where two were lost. Gloucester was among the last vessels of the class constructed, incorporating lessons from the Falklands and a lengthened hull to improve seakeeping. During the Gulf War, the ‘Fighting G’ spent the longest period of time under threat than any coalition warship, boarding several vessels. Her Lynx helicopter engaged seven Iraqi warships with Sea Skua missiles, but her defining moment came when she was escorting the iconic

battleship USS Missouri. After a night of shelling Iraqi defences, the Iraqis fired Silkworm missiles at the battleship. One missed but another, on target, was shot down by Sea Dart missiles fired from Gloucester, landing 700 yards ahead of Missouri. This was the first successful combat missile-onmissile interception. Gloucester was the first Royal Navy vessel to evacuate foreign nationals from Lebanon in 2006 and she also intercepted the yacht Tortuga in August 2010 in a £4m drugs bust. Gloucester was decommissioned in 2011 as the fleet of ageing destroyers was replaced with six Type 45s. She has sailed to Turkey for scrapping.

HMS Gloucester at port in May 2011. (Tony Hisgett)

BULLETIN BOARD

WW1 Sub Hero Honoured

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A new war memorial has been unveiled in Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, in memory of 60 men who died in the First World War, and another 12 who died in the Second World War. Although those behind the memorial were the beneficiaries of a number of grants to fund the memorial, over 80% of the money was raised by the local community. The memorial is the first to be unveiled in the town and although some of the names feature on rolls of honour in local places of worship, around half the men had not been acknowledged on any memorial. At least one soldier on the memorial, Sgt John Irvine, has no known grave.

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A memorial plaque has been dedicated to the captain of British submarine HMS E14, Lieutenant Commander Edward Boyle VC, for his heroic attempts to force the Dardanelle Straits and disrupt Turkish shipping using the vital supply lines across the Sea of Marmara. The ceremony at Sunningdale Golf Club, Berkshire was attended by members of the Boyle family, who were joined by local dignitaries as well as serving and veteran submariners. Also in attendance was the head of the Submarine Service, Rear Admiral Matt Parr, and Submariners Association president Admiral Sir James Perowne. Boyle led his boat through Turkish defences just days after Allied troops landed on the

Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915, and soon earned a VC for himself and medals for all aboard by sinking two gunboats and the troop transporter Gul Djemal. This was the first of three trips into the Marmara for E14 as part of a wider effort to cut off Turkish shipping. Boyle later commanded 11th Submarine Flotilla and surface warships before ending his career, at the rank of Rear Admiral, on the battleship HMS Iron Duke. Although retired, he was recalled at the outset of the Second World War, serving until 1943. His blue plaque has been unveiled on the clubhouse at the golf club of which he was a prominent member and is the fourth plaque erected to honour First World War VC holders by the Submariners Association.

The Royal Navy has announced a series of events ahead of the centenary of the Battle of Jutland. Royal Navy divers intend to place the White Ensign on the wreck of HMS Invincible, and an Anglo-German sail past will take place on the battlesite. Other commemorative events will be held in Chatham, Rosyth, Portsmouth, Plymouth and the Orkneys.

A memorial service, where wreaths were laid over the wreck, has taken place to mark the 76th anniversary of the sinking of HMS Royal Oak. A service was also held at Scapa. The Jutland veteran was sunk at her anchorage in Scapa Flow by U-47 in October 1939, taking with her over 830 lives – including Rear-Admiral Blagrove and over 100 Boy Seamen.

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Last Echoes from Battle of Jutland Royal Navy Survey ship HMS Echo has captured a number of new 3D scans shedding more light into the Battle of Jutland. The images show the wreck of Derfflinger-class battlecruiser SMS Lützow, Admiral Hipper’s flagship and credited with sinking HMS Invincible. The brand new German warship was scuttled on 1 June 1916 after sustaining heavy damage inflicted during the battle. HMS Echo used her state-of-theart sonar array to capture the images of the ship, which had previously eluded them. They finally found the ship some eight

miles from her last known position. The images have since been provided to the National Museum of the Royal Navy, as well as the UK Hydrographic Office, and HMS Echo’s part in the story of the Battle of Jutland will be aired next year in a documentary. HMS Echo’s commander, Phillip Newell, stated: ‘These images from Lützow will ensure the ship’s final resting place is properly recognised as a war grave.’ He added that war graves ‘act as poignant remainder of the sacrifices made on both sides during the Great War’.

Scans of the SMS Lützow captured by HMS Echo. (Crown Copyright 2015)

Hidden Heroes of the Middlesex Regiment

Great War stories from those who served in the Middlesex Regiment have been preserved in a new exhibition which will be shown at Tottenham’s Bruce Castle Museum until 27 March 2016. Led by Middlesex University Professor of Journalism Kurt Barling, alongside students and Eastside Community Heritage, the exhibition records stories of ethnic minority soldiers whose ancestors served in the regiment in the First World War and uses information and imagery from the Imperial War Museum, The National Archives, and Stevenage’s National Army Museum.  The Middlesex Regiment, sent to the Western Front in January 1915, included men from across the county of Middlesex and was one of the largest regiments of its kind. Formed in 1881, the regiment received a total of 81 Battle Honours and five Victoria Crosses and suffered the loss of nearly 13,000 men. Many ethnic minority soldiers were treated poorly during their service in the regiment and often suffered discrimination,

but still fought proudly for the empire. The exhibition honours the determination and courage of nine soldiers who not only battled mistreatment, but went over the top for their country. This includes Kamal Chunchie, a Sri Lankan who journeyed to London to join the regiment, and Sam Manning, a Trinidadian Calypso singer who also headed to London and helped entertain the troops. Another soldier included is Harry O’Hara, born in Tokyo and one of the few Japanese soldiers to serve with the British forces in the war.  Professor Barling said: ‘The stories of these previously unsung heroes live on mostly in family folklore. These are people who risked their lives to join British imperial forces fighting a war that claimed millions of lives… If these stories hadn’t been captured now, they would have remained untold and lost forever…’ Graduate Alex Man, from Redbridge, was part of the team. He said: ‘This project has been the most rewarding work I've done yet, and I hope others will learn from our research.’

SMS Lützow depicted on a German postcard from 1916.

Firepower Museum to Close

BULLETIN BOARD

As Britain at War was going to press news came that the Firepower Museum will leave its current premises at Woolwich by 31 December, 2016. The museum says that a Royal Artillery exhibition will be housed at a nearby heritage site until a permanent home for the entire collection has been found at an appropriate venue. Meanwhile, all artefacts will be professionally packed and stored.

Aircraft Enthusiast Fair and Model Show Museum of Army Flying, Middle Wallop, Hampshire, 22 November The museum drops regular admission price for this popular fair for modellers and enthusiasts in the sites main hanger, don’t forget to look around the museum, which is covered in the ticket price.

From the Suez Canal to Megiddo Army & Navy Club, Pall Mall, London, 30 November Reserve your free entry for this 12.30 lunchtime lecture and join Sandhurst lecturer Dr James Kitchen as he details Britain’s multinational army in an oft forgot theatre of the First World War. To book, please call: 020 7730 0717

Violette Szabo’s GC Permanent Display Imperial War Museum London, from October 2015 The George Cross medal awarded posthumously awarded to clandestine heroine Violette Szabo is now on permanent display in IWM London’s The Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes.

Remembrance Sunday at IWM Duxford IWM Duxford, Cambridgeshire, 8 November IWM Duxford offers free admission on Remembrance Sunday as the historic fighter station remembers those who lost their lives on active service. A Dragon Rapide will release poppies from the air as a tribute.

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MUST-SEE MUSEUM NOW OPEN IN LENS REGION

THE D937 running north from Arras is a familiar route for Great War tourists. The huge German Cemetery at Neuville-Saint-Vaast, the CWGC site at Cabaret Rouge and the glaring white basilica of the Cimetière National de Notre Dame de Lorette form a well-worn path. Now an astounding new location must be added to the itinerary. No amount of photographs or description can quite prepare visitors for their first sight of the stark, deep black, geometrically perfect building of the Lens’ 14-18 Centre d’Histoire Guerre Et Paix. Commissioned from architect PierreLouis Faloci, the structure, composed of cubic ‘chapels’, houses a museum that informs and educates using a unique collection of documents, photographs and film. The latest in presentation technology effectively illustrates the ebb and flow of the front lines, reflecting every bloodsoaked advance and painful retreat. The powerful monochrome

structure sets a sombre tone, lifted at random points by floor to ceiling windows giving slices of view onto the surrounding plain and the distant spoil heaps that still dominate the skyline. Well captioned and covering areas that have previously been avoided such as the burial procedures of both sides, even hardened museum visitors will find something new and revealing. An audio guide available in French, English, German and Dutch leads the visitor through the displays chronologically and with emphasis on the region itself, including post-war reconstruction. Alone it is sufficient reason to make the cross-channel trip. Added to the better known and more established locations it becomes an essential ‘must do’. Admission and parking are free; the audio guide costs three Euros. The Centre is closed on Mondays and throughout January. http://www.tourisme-lenslievin.fr

The new museum in the Arras district is a must-see for all Great War tourists and visitors. (ROB PRITCHARD)

LIBERATION ROUTE TREASURES

FOR MANY, there perhaps exists a misconception that the Second World War in the Netherlands was all about either the bombing of Rotterdam in 1940 or events at Arnhem in 1944. Helping to set the record straight as to how the Second World War affected Holland, and to bring learning and remembrance to that process, The Liberation Route has been designed to bring together different areas and tell the personal stories of Europe’s liberation. A Dutch incentive set up in 2008, numerous partners along a marked route comprise a fascinating journey through history, with a good many surprising treasures along the way. We recently accompanied Liberation Route guides along part of the route where one striking location was the Liberation Museum, Zeeland, which majors on the history of the Battle of the Scheldt which claimed many thousands of lives. Here, at Niewdorp, visitors can

learn of the capture of Antwerp, a vital objective after the failures at Arnhem and Nijmegen. The museum, based around the collection of founder Kees Traas, is a stunning must-see destination. Undergoing expansion and improvement, with new features scheduled for opening in 2016, a striking addition is a reconstruction of the ‘Canadian Church’, built locally from a Nissen Hut by the Canadians to replace the original church destroyed in the fighting. New exhbitis pour into the museum constantly, adding to the vast array on display and some 40,000 objects still in storage. One recent acquisition being the original grave marker of Private J M Dicarie, a FrenchCanadian killed in action on 29 October 1944, which adds to the fascinating collection of tangible reminders of the cost of liberation. The Liberation Museum is open daily and situated at Coudorp 41, 4455 AH Nieuwdorp. www.bevrijdingsmuseumzeeland.nl

12 www.britainatwar.com Liberation Route 1_4.indd 1

18/08/2015 09:41

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BRIEFING ROOM |

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

BEAUFIGHTER COCKPIT ARRIVES IN UK

A BEAUTIFULLY restored Beaufighter nose and cockpit section is now on display at the Wings Museum, Balcombe, West Sussex. The stunning new exhibit coincides with the 75th anniversary of entry into RAF service of the Bristol Beaufighter. The cockpit is to be painted in the colours of an RAF Redhill 219 Squadron night fighter that took part in the latter stages of the Battle of Britain. This livery was chosen for very good reasons: in October 1940 the squadron moved south to RAF Redhill to help protect London against night raids. At the same time the squadron began to receive the new Bristol Beaufighter, including one of the first five to be issued to night fighter squadrons.

nose-mounted radar AI from ex-Halton ground rig X7688. The museum would like to thank Rob and all those involved in the restoration and for their amazing achievement and intense attention to detail. You can see the finished result at the Wings Museum, open every Saturday, 10.00 to 17.00 hrs, just off Brantridge Lane, Balcombe, West Sussex, RH17 6JT. www.wingsmuseum.co.uk

'B' Flight of 219 Squadron became the first Beaufighter unit to be declared operational and on the night of 25 October Sgt Arthur Hodgkinson shot down a Dornier, the first enemy aircraft to be claimed by the new machine. The Wings Museum cockpit arrived from Australia in early September 2015 and formed part of a trade with Robert Greinert of Warbird Restorations Downunder. It is made up from the parts of several ‘Beau’s’, including the substantial remains of a cockpit found in a scrapyard in Cape Town, South Africa. The canopy section is an original from several that were located in Scotland. Other items such as the seat, engine controls, control column are all original, as is the rare

The Bristol Beaufighter If cockpit section at The Wings Museum.

100-YEAR-OLD AERO ENGINE RUNS PERFECTLY FOR THE first time since shortly after the First World War a 200 hp Siddeley Puma aero engine was successfully run by Retrotec on 29 September. It is the latest exciting stage in the restoration to flight of a unique DH9 bomber, E-8894 (G-CDLI), as the East Sussexbased project nears completion. This DH9, one of two recovered, was found back in 2000 in an elephant stable in Rajasthan, India by Retrotec’s Guy Black. The substantial remains of these aircraft were then brought back from the sub-continent by

Britain at War Editor, Andy Saunders. One aircraft, D-5649, has already been restored to static condition for the Imperial War Museum. The second aircraft has undergone a painstaking reconstruction from what were termite-ridden remains, with the Puma engine also rebuilt in the Retrotec workshops. Started by Retrotec’s First

War ‘Hucks’ Starter, the Puma engine ran perfectly before being shut down, pending more extensive ground running. Once the testing is complete, the aircraft will be assembled and rigged at Imperial War Museum, Duxford, where Retrotec will work with museum staff to engage with the public in these processes prior to the first air test in spring 2016 – almost 100 years since the DH9 first went into service. Commenting on this milestone achievement, Guy Black, told Britain at War: ‘We were expecting that the engine would sound like a London bus, but it ran smoothly, relatively quietly and free from vibration.’

The Puma engine is fired up in East Sussex in September 2015 – the first time an example of this engine type has run since shortly after the First World War.

Close up of the 200 hp Puma engine.

A DH9 aircraft c.1918

14 www.britainatwar.com

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

NEWS FEATURE |

The FV3805 Restoration Project: Back on Track

A rare vehicle has been rediscovered basking in the sun on the Isle of Wight. One of only two built, FV3805 ‘P2’ is now set to be restored – complete with disabled access. John Ash presents an initial report from the FV3805 Restoration Group. WITH FUNDRAISING complete, work on the restoration of FV3805, christened ‘Baroness’ by a donor, is currently underway as hundreds of eager volunteers from around the world offer their services. In fact, in what they call the ‘mobilisation of the internet generation’, the team received over 2,500 emails of support, help and advice within the first 24 hours of going public. The idea to restore Baroness came from Ed Francis, a volunteer at Bovington’s Tank Museum in Dorset, who began to explore his options with the project in May 2015. “There was a lack of post war and selfpropelled guns for the museum” Ed explained, “I wanted to see a new project which would see us restore a unique British post war vehicle to running order.” Obviously funding such a large restoration project was a real issue, but Ed and his team had a plan. “Crucially we wanted to prove that crowdfunding with bloggers, gamers and ex-service

personnel could provide a valuable way of restoring the vehicle which is going to be the first disabled access vehicle of its kind in the UK, maybe anywhere.” Certainly the network of Youtubers, bloggers and users of social media has greatly assisted the project with fundraising and the project has reached a far wider audience than ever likely expected. Those following the restoration groups Facebook page have solved important questions about the vehicles history.

TRIALS

The story of FV3805 ‘Baroness’ dates back to the early 1950s, and was based upon the idea of developing an effective self-propelled gun combining the hull of the venerable Centurion with the effective 5.5 inch gun, encased in an armoured casemate atop the hull. The idea was sound and both elements would have been familiar to servicemen at the time, the project offered commonality of parts and a gun that was effective and with plentiful stocks of ammunition. It is worth noting that the vehicles design is

‘backwards’, with the engine and gearbox at the front but with gun and superstructure built over the front hull facing back over the engine deck – similar to the wartime Archer tank destroyer. A wooden mock-up met with approval, and a pair of prototypes, ‘P1’ and ‘P2’, were manufactured and tested. The design never entered service however, the wartime Sexton remained in use until 1956, and by the mid-1960s the 50 ton FV3805 had lost out to the FV433 Abbot. The highly successful ‘Abbot’ was in British Army service until the 1990s. Ed Francis’ initial research suggests the FV3805 was rejected because it was not air-portable and the 5.5in gun did not meet NATO standardisation requirements, which called for 105mm and 155mm guns in ordinary roles. The Abbot was smaller, lighter, more capable, and part of a whole family of vehicles based on the FV430 series chassis, so it too enjoyed the benefits of familiarisation and commonality. It was thought that ‘P1’ and ‘P2’ were lost, possibly scrapped. However, this was not the case.

ABOVE & LEFT: As she looks today now under cover at the Isle of Wight Military Museum. (VIA ANDREW HILLS)

ABOVE: The FV3805's Meteor Engine in a sorry state, however, the gearbox is in working order.

(VIA 'JINGLES’)

16 www.britainatwar.com

The FV3805 Restoration Project: Back on Track

| NEWS FEATURE

Look forward to updates on the project in future issues of Britain at War! ABOVE: Mockup of the FV3805. (VIA ANDREW HILLS)

ABOVE: Rear view of the FV3805 mockup.

ABOVE: The rear of FV3805 before the weather took its toll. (VIA PRESERVED TANKS.COM)

ABOVE: A close up of the badge painted onto the rear of the vehicle. (VIA PRESERVED TANKS.COM)

‘MAJOR PICTON’S PALACE’

Ed intends to see this project through and has gathered together a team of experts to help, including those from The Tank Museum, which has a keen interest in the restoration. Phase one of the restoration; moving the vehicle under cover to dry out has been completed. Restoring the gun is expected to be problematic, the original gun is missing, and there are few 5.5in guns available. Interestingly, the restoration team are looking at 3D printing a new gun, or perhaps fabricating one from metal parts. They do not plan on making the gun operable, so as long as the substitute weapon looks correct, it would be more than acceptable – especially as using a substitute would increase space inside the vehicle for passengers. That said, the team’s focus is on restoration of the running components so she can be shown to the public, and the challenge of finding a gun can wait.

unrepairable. Ed is pleased to report however, that the gearbox (from the Conqueror heavy tank) is intact. The wheels and track are also all complete, and the goal is to have the vehicle fully restored to running order by TankFest in Bovington in 2017. Of note, the teams plans are for the vehicle to be unveiled at the event with an all-female crew, and with minor modifications to the rear of the vehicle, it is hoped that the FV3805 will be fully wheelchair accessible.

(VIA ANDREW HILLS)

Following the unsuccessful trials ‘P2’ had its 5.5in gun replaced with steel plate that incorporated vision ports welded over the superstructure front. In 1964, the vehicle was again modified as a testbed for the 105mm gun intended for the Abbot, before having the plate replaced and remaining in service as an Artillery Range Observation vehicle until the 1970s, now sporting the name ‘Major Picton’s Palace’. The vehicle was then seemingly lost, before reappearing once again in 2009, this time on the Isle of Wight, at the Military Museum. Recent research has uncovered images of the vehicle from the 1980s at Duxford and the vehicle’s livery hint at a career at Shoeburyness. While ‘P1’ is still lost, research on ‘P2’ continues, the vehicle once sported the registration number 04DE85, but this has now been lost to the weather. At first, even the name was a mystery, but team was soon informed by defence company Qinetiq that the vehicle was named after the late Major Ian Picton, a touching tribute to the popular officer in charge of ‘A’ Section Trials at Shoeburyness. ‘P2’ had been slowly rusting away in the salty air since she arrived on the Isle of Wight, but

NEXT STEPS

The next steps will be to organise the stripping of the paint and components from the tank for restoration, with the biggest hurdle now being the Meteor engine which on inspection appears to be completely seized and seemingly

INFORMATION Ed and his team are keen to hear of any offers of information, help and support that can assist them with the restoration. They have been in contact with various military charities and service associations such as the Royal Artillery and REME in the hope some of their members may have photographs, paperwork or memories of this vehicle. They are particularly interested to hear from anyone with experience working with Merlin/ Meteor engines, 5.5in guns, or 3D printing/ metal fabrication. If any of our readers have some information or can support the project, visit Facebook page, https://www.facebook. com/FV3805 or email them directly at [email protected]. www.britainatwar.com 17

NEWS FEATURE |

Sonderfahndungsliste GB: Great Britain’s Most

Hitler’s Hit List Hitler’s Hit List, Britain’s Black Book Digitised

John Ash analyses a terrifying document that, now digitised, reveals how the future of British politics and culture was to be wiped out once Germany’s 1940 invasion was complete.

A

chilling hit list has been recently translated and digitised by historians, which contains over 2,800 names of those marked for death or incarceration in the event of a German triumph over Britain in 1940. Although 20,000 copies of this list were produced originally, only two survive today. The original 144-page list was drawn up by decorated SS General Walter Schellenberg, set to become responsible for policing an occupied Britain based out of a Gestapo headquarters in Birmingham.

Winston Churchill

Prime Minister Winston Churchill would naturally be a high priority target. Churchill long spoke of the dangers of Nazi Germany, where he joined Lord Lloyd, the first to speak out and also on the list. In 1934 Churchill highlighted the importance of the RAF and called for action over the reoccupation of the Rhineland despite anti-war sentiment among the cabinet and electorate. Always controversial, he lost influence during the abdication crisis, yet despite political exile Churchill was privy to secrets passed to him with permission from successive Prime Ministers, through sources such as Desmond Morton and Lord Swinton.

Military genealogy website ‘Forces War Records’ has interpreted the list and translated it into English to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. At present, the website has published its initial findings on each name on the list, including which particular department was targeting each individual. At the head of many of many Nazi departments stood prominent figures – such as Adolf Eichmann, tasked with Jewish Affairs – and many of the names on the list were wanted by multiple departments. The targets on the list would have been rounded up by the

Gestapo, the SS, and other arms, as occupation forces settled in. The list, known as Sonderfahndungsliste G.B (Special Search List G.B) – commonly known as the ‘Black Book’ – features government leaders and politicians, as well as a number of refugees from mainland Europe and even German draft dodgers. Individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and occupations are included, such as academics, journalists and editors, engineers, businessmen, directors, writers, pacifists, bankers, religious leaders, and oddly, a Dutch car dealer. The Germans also had the names

Churchill, with support from figures like future defence secretary Duncan Sandys, soon led calls for rearmament and was the fiercest opponent of appeasement. At the outbreak of war, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and sat on the War Cabinet, where he rapidly proved influential. As the country lost confidence in Chamberlain, the Prime Minister resigned, Lord Halifax declined the post, and Churchill was appointed to the role.

with Chamberlain, but he was with Winston Churchill. Attlee deputised for Churchill in two of the three inter-connected coalition committees running the country, and led the third, which dealt with domestic affairs. He became the first Deputy Prime Minister in 1942. A loyal ally throughout the war, Attlee backed Churchill in his plans to continue the war in 1940, giving him the majority he needed.

Clement Attlee

Eleanor Rathbone was another early critic of Nazi Germany and supporter of Churchill and Attlee who warned about the threat to Czechoslovakia and was a frank critic of appeasement. She chastised the government’s complacency to the reoccupation of the Rhineland, the Italian conquest of Abyssinia, and the Spanish Civil War, even going so far as to try and charter a ship to run the

Attlee led the Labour party when they decided in 1937 to drop their pacifist stance, support rearmament, and later oppose appeasement. He visited the British Battalion of the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War and even had a company named after him. After the failures of the Norwegian Campaign, Attlee was not willing to enter government

Eleanor Rathbone

of a number of intelligence agents. Chillingly, many were still active, but retirees such as prolific double agent Martha Cnockaert were still considered a threat. Other notable additions to the list include socialite Nancy Astor; Megan, daughter of David Lloyd George; political cartoonist David Low; Labour politician Seymour Cocks and Minister of Information Duff Cooper. The list would have been just the beginning of mass arrests in occupied Britain, as 450,000 people of direct Jewish descent resided in Britain in 1940, and the Freemasons and other groups were also to become targets.

blockade imposed on Spain and remove prominent republicans. From 1938, she set up the Parliamentary Committee of Refugees, and would later pressure the government to publicise evidence of the Holocaust.

Chaim Weizmann

The leader of British Jewish Zionist Organisation and the future first president of Israel also featured on the hit list. Weizmann was a leading biochemist and in the First World War developed a process of developing acetone that was of great importance for the war industry. Chaim was also instrumental in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1939 he was appointed as an honorary advisor to the Ministry of Supply, and effectively managed provisioning through the war. He was a frequent advisor to the cabinet and an instigator in the creation of the British Army’s Jewish Brigade.

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16/10/2015 16:03

Sonderfahndungsliste GB: Great Britain’s Most

| NEWS FEATURE

H.G. Wells, the prominent author and social commentator was popular in Germany and Austria, but his criticism of German politics in 1933 resulted in his books being banned and burnt.

Leo Amery, a bitter critic of appeasement, he sought allegiance with Italy to oppose Germany. Famous for his Commons ‘Speak for England’ outburst, Amery was partly responsible for bringing down Chamberlain.

Virginia Woolf, another prolific writer, and among the foremost modernists of the period. She was a strong critic of fascism, and her novel-essay ‘Three Guineas’, popular with servicemen, indicted the political system.

Sylvia Pankhurst, a devoted suffragette, Left Communist, and later anti-fascist, she opposed Italy’s campaign in Ethiopia and tried to reveal fascist fifth columnists and free interned anti-communists.

Anthony Eden, the former foreign secretary, wartime minister, and future Prime Minister was not a natural ally of Churchill, but remained a popular figure with the public and was a leading anti-appeaser.

Ernest Bevin, another opponent of fascism and appeasement who lambasted Labour pacifists. He served as a war minister despite having no constituency and became the Minister for Labour.

Noël Coward, the legendary playwright and actor was among the world’s highest earning writers, he was dedicated to war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris and working for British intelligence.

Leslie Hore-Belisha, War Secretary for much of Chamberlain’s administration and sometimes accused of being a warmonger, he tried many times to introduce conscription before succeeding in 1939.

Stafford Cripps, an important Labour politician with Marxist sympathies, he opposed appeasement and would serve as Ambassador to the USSR. He was instrumental in forging the alliance with the West.

Harold Macmillan, the future Prime Minister was branded a ‘maverick’ and a ‘born rebel’. A critic of Chamberlain, he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply in the early war years.

Neville Chamberlain, the former Prime Minister pioneered appeasement but quietly made the necessary preparations for war. He remained on the War Cabinet until his health deteriorated.

Frank ‘Francis’ Foley, the Secret Intelligence Service officer used his position in the British Passport Agency to help thousands of Jewish families escape Berlin while uncovering secrets and recruiting agents.

Sought By Schellenberg: 60 Sonderfahndungsliste Prominents Viscount Bearstead, President of Shell Transport & Trading Lord Beaverbrook, Government Minister & Press Magnate Stanislaus Adamski, Doctor of Philosophy Richard Acland, Anti-Fascist & Liberal MP Johann Willem Albarda, Dutch Socialist & Minister Lord Stanley, Later Earl of Derby, Contributed to Radio Broadcasts in 1939 Sir Norman Randal, Liaison between Scotland Yard & Security Services Lord David Davies, Politician & Leading Man in the League of Nations Bertrand Russel, Philosopher, Historian & Activist Elizabeth Cadbury, Wife of chocolate manufacturer George Cadbury Sir Alexander Cadogan, Head of British Intelligence Lady Violet Bonham Carter, Liberal Politician & H.H Asquith's Daughter Lord Robert Cecil, Diplomat & Architect of the League of Nations John Cockerill, Belgian born British General Margery Corbett Ashby, Suffragist & Liberal Politician Jonkheer de Geer, Dutch Government Minister & Nobleman Gerrit Bolkestein, Dutch Minister of Education Arkadiusz Bozek, Polish Government Minister Jan Branys, Polish Government Minister Sidney Reilly, Intelligence Officer & ‘Ace of Spies’ Vic Oliver, Jewish Entertainer & Churchill’s Son-in-law Lord Burghley, Conservative Politician & Olympic Gold Medallist Adriaan Dijxhoorn, Dutch Commander & Defence Minister Duncan Sandys, Son in Law of Churchill & Future Defence Secretary Sigmund Freud, Austrian Neurologist & Father of Psychoanalysis Viscount Wood Halifax, Senior Politician Sir Reginald Hall, Admiral & Intelligence Chief Lord Lloyd, Chief of the British Council Baron Dickinson, Politician & Pacifist

Lord Marley, Chairman, Advisory Committee for the Aid of Jews in Europe Rüdiger von Starhemberg, Head of Austrian Legitimist Movement Herbert Morrison, Mayor of London & Home Secretary Claude Dansey, Chief Agent, Z Organisation Sir Archibald Sinclair, Leader of the Liberal Party Leonard Woolf, Political Theorist & Author Married to Virginia Woolf Lord Snell, Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords George Paget Thompson, Professor of Physics BELOW: Lord Trenchard, Marshall of the Royal Air Force SS Oberführer Walter Sir Charles Trevelyan, Politician & Landowner Schellenberg in Arnold von Goissenau, Police Chief of Dresden 1943. He was later Paul Robeson, Singer & Leading Civil Rights Activist imprisioned at the Sybil Thorndike, Actress & Civil Rights Activist Nuremberg Trials. (BUNDESARCHIV) Seymour Cocks, Labour Politician & Journalist John Boynton Priestly, Writer & Broadcaster Martha Cnockaert, Retired Double Agent Pieter Gerbrandy, Dutch Prime Minister Wladislaw Sikorski, Polish Prime Minister Robert Baden-Powell, Boy Scout Leader Sir Charles Edwards, Chief Whip Tytus Filipowlez, Polish Diplomat Edward Morgan Forster, Writer Aldous Huxley, Writer Lord Ponsonby, Politician Philipp Gibbs, Writer L G Baylis, British Vice Consul Eric Cable, British Consul Robert Bradby, Professor Vera Brittain, Journalist www.britainatwar.com 19

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16/10/2015 16:04

BRIEFING ROOM |

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

BATTLE OF BRITAIN OBITUARY:

GROUP CAPTAIN ALLAN WRIGHT

GROUP CAPTAIN Allan Richard Wright, who died on 16 September 2015, aged 95, was one of three known surviving aces of the Battle of Britain writes Geoff Simpson. In the fighting during the summer and autumn of 1940 he flew Spitfires with 92 Squadron, initially from Pembrey in South Wales and then, as the Blitz began, from Biggin Hill. Men of the Battle of Britain by Kenneth G Wynn credits Flying Officer Wright (a substantive promotion from Pilot Officer on 23 October 1940) with six enemy aircraft destroyed, three probably destroyed, two shared and four damaged during the battle. He had already been credited with two destroyed, two possibly destroyed and one damaged during the Channel ports evacuation. One of Allan Wright’s victims was a Heinkel He 111 shot down at night over Bristol on 29 August 1940. On 27 September, a day of major fighting, he became 92 Squadron’s ‘B’ Flight commander, as an acting Flight Lieutenant. Three days later his Spitfire was hit by fire from a Messerschmitt 109 off Brighton. Wright was slightly wounded by cannon shell splinters and was taken to hospital after a forced landing at Shoreham Airport. Wright was awarded the DFC on 22 October 1940. He had made a considerable mark in a squadron looked up to by many in the RAF, which included such notable personalities as Bob Tuck, Brian

Kingcome, Don Kingaby, ‘Tich’ Havercroft, Tony Bartley and Geoffrey Wellum. In July 1941, having achieved further combat success, Wright was awarded a bar to the DFC and posted to be a flight commander at 59 OTU, Crosbyon-Eden near Carlisle. Allan Wright was born at Teignmouth, Devon, on 12 February 1920, the county in which he would live in later life. He became a Flight Cadet at the RAF College, Cranwell. With the outbreak of war his course was cut short and cadets, including Wright, were enlisted as regulars and as ‘airman-under-training pilots’ in the RAF. Wright was awarded a permanent commission on 23 October 1939, went to the 11 Group Pool at St Athan and converted to Blenheims. He arrived at 92 Squadron on 30 October. The squadron had been re-formed at Tangmere that month, initially equipped with Blenheims, but later converted to Spitfires. After his service in the Battle of Britain and at Crosby-on-Eden Wright served in staff posts and instructional jobs in the UK and North Africa. He also spent time across the Atlantic preparing USAAF pilots for service in Europe and had a spell flying Beaufighters in the night fighter role with 29 Squadron. He was awarded the AFC on 1 September 1944. Allan Wright retired from the RAF on his 47th birthday in 1967

as a Wing Commander, retaining the rank of Group Captain. In 1940 92 Squadron was well known for rumbustious enjoymentof life when not

flying. Wright was quieter than some and not the most frequent visitor to the pub. He was, however, much liked and respected by his comrades.

‘Great Escape’ Obituary: Flt Lt Paul Royle

FLT LT Paul Royle, one of the last two ‘Great Escape’ survivors, has died at the age of 101. The Australian-born pilot joined the RAF in 1939 and flew Blenheim light bombers before his capture in 1940. Flying a reconnaissance sortie over France on 17 May, Royle’s aircraft was forced down and he and his observer were taken

20 www.britainatwar.com

prisoner. Royle was transferred to Stalag Luft III after a spell in another prisoner of war camp, and by April 1943 plans for an ambitious escape, led by ‘Big X’, Sqn Ldr Roger Bushell, were well under way. Royle helped dispose of spoil from the tunnel known as ‘Harry’ and also maintained a lookout for inquisitive German guards

searching for any signs of an escape in the making. On 24 March 1944, the night of the escape, Royle was the 54th man to use ‘Harry’ to escape the famous camp but he was quickly recaptured barely 12 miles from the camp. Royle remained a prisoner until liberated by British troops on 2 May 1945.

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

FIELD POST

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

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Ship's Bell Mystery Unravelled

Sir - Your recent story covering the recovery of HMS Hood’s bell got me thinking of a bell I have in my own collection. It was purchased at auction for scrap but the owner fortunately decided it had more value on the collectors market and I became the new custodian. It is broad arrow marked and engraved HMS Express and dated 1941. This, however is where the mystery begins. Nine vessels have carried the name, the first launched in 1695 but strangely no HMS Express is listed from 1941, with the closest match a destroyer launched in 1934, pennant number H61. In 1939 she secretly carried the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to France. The Duke, whilst officially a  liaison officer in the  British military mission with the French Army High Command, actually had a clandestine role as an agent for British intelligence who wanted information on French defences and in particular the Maginot Line. In 1940 Express was off

Dunkirk with Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the B.E.F. and successfully rescued 2,795 troops.     On 31 August 1940 she entered a German minefield, struck a mine and her entire bow section forward of the bridge was blown off.  Four Officers and 55 Ratings, one third of the ship's company, were lost. HMS Esk and Ivanhoe went to her aid but both struck mines and sank, the incident claiming 300 lives. Despite the catastrophic damage Express was able to go astern, exited the minefield and was successfully towed to Hull. A new bow was then fitted and she was re-commissioned as a destroyer in September 1941. It seems probable the original 1934 bell was lost with the bow section, and probably lies to this day with the wreckage off Texel on Belgian coast. HMS Express later served in the Far East as part of ‘Force Z’ and at ‘the Battle of Kuantan’ accompanied the Prince of Wales and Repulse when they were sunk by Japanese aircraft off Malaya in December 1941. She rescued

1000 survivors, but when Prince of Wales suddenly capsized she scraped Express with her bilge keel and very nearly took the destroyer down with her. In 1943, Express was allocated to the Canadian Navy and renamed Gatineau and served with distinction in the Battle of the Atlantic. She was finally paid off and sold for scrap in 1947 and her hulk was used to form a breakwater at Royston, British Columbia. We assume when transferred to the RCN and renamed our 1941 bell became redundant, was removed, with whereabouts unknown - until now! I took the bell to a recent recording of the BBC’s ‘Antiques Road Show’ in Plymouth but surprisingly their ‘expert’ felt it not worthy of inclusion. I hope your readers will disagree as I recount the story here for the first time of a fine ship, her brave crew and the enigma of her wartime bell. As a postscript, the bell from HMS Prince of Wales was

recovered with the MOD’s approval in 2002 to avoid it being looted. This nearly happened with the bell from HMS Repulse, but it was traced to Singapore in 2003 and was safely recovered at the 11th hour. The Prince of Wales bell is now on public display at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Sadly, both wrecks are being illegally violated by scavengers. It seems the scrap value of her precious metals means more to these people than respecting the memories of the 840 brave souls who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Geoff Pringle, Somerset. By email.

BELOW: HMS Express manoeuvres to avoid the attacks that sunk HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales. (US NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER)

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 www.britainatwar.com 21

REPUTATIONS

Douglas

Haig

Britain’s Greatest

Commander? In our new series, we invite historians and Britain at War readers to debate and discuss the great talking points and personalities of military history. IWM oral historian Peter Hart kicks off with his personal reassessment of Sir Douglas Haig – was he the incompetent ‘donkey’ of popular imagination or an underrated strategist and innovator? ERHAPS YOU can judge a man best by his enemies. During the Great War Douglas Haig had the German Army to contend with: a supremely efficient military force. Well-trained, well-armed and well-led, it was purpose-built, not thrown together ad hoc like the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Whatever happened, the British Army was always going to be on the back foot for a substantial part of the war. To beat the Germans it would be necessary to kill, maim or utterly demoralise millions of men. With an opponent so powerful and competent this was a supremely difficult undertaking; mass casualties would be inevitable, whoever was in charge. Haig had other enemies besides the substantial threat posed by the Kaiser’s troops. He was dogged by the relentless enmity of David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, two brilliant civilian politicians who also considered themselves military strategists of the highest order. Both railed against the dominance of the Western Front, preferring to divert resources to the ‘Easterner’ campaigns against Turkey and Bulgaria. To them the Western

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Front was an anathema, nothing more than waves of attritional assaults crashing against a brick wall, when - in their opinion - a more imaginative strategy could have brought the whole Central Powers edifice tumbling down. They obstructed Haig during his period of command and then trashed his reputation in their dubious memoirs. In my view, all this has unfairly given Haig a very bad press. To this very day in popular newspapers and on television, Haig is caricatured as cold and impersonal, a religious dogmatist, blind to the power of modern weapons, ignoring alternative strategies and criminally careless of the lives he is accused of throwing away – all while tucked safely away from personal danger in his chateau far behind the lines. It is summed up by the well-known brickbat (in my view a calumny), ‘Lions led by Donkeys’ and used to hilarious effect in Blackadder Goes Forth. Many commentators, blinkered by their hatred of Haig – not a lightly chosen word – seek to brush over this ultimate triumph. They blame Haig for the tragedies of the Somme and Passchendaele; they refuse to admit that he could ever have triumphed. Yet these are the real revisionists, »

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REPUTATIONS BOTTOM LEFT: Haig as a young officer with 7th Hussars. LEFT: Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig

Reputations: Join The Debate

This series is about personal views: the opinions expressed are those of Peter Hart (author of Voices From The Front), not necessarily those of Britain at War. Do you agree with Peter Hart? Or are you unconvinced by his argument that Haig was a great commander? Start the debate by emailing or writing to Britain at War at the usual addresses. A selection of responses will be published in the next issue.

Field Marshal Douglas Haig Nickname(s) 'The Chief', 'Dougie'. Born 19 June 1861 Died 29 January 1928 (aged 66) Allegiance United Kingdom Service/branch British Army (1884–1920) Battles/wars Mahdist War, Second Boer War, First World War Awards Knight of the Order of the Thistle, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Member of the Order of Merit, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire.

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REPUTATIONS

ABOVE: The Moment of victory: Haig, his Generals and senior staff on 11 November 1918

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tearing away at the accepted view of the immediate post-war years, ignoring the views of the men who fought alongside Haig. It says far more about our own era than it does about the reality of 1918.

of hammer blows, but they stood firm and often inflicted murderous casualties on the advancing Germans. Following this, buoyed up by the promise of massive American reinforcements, the Allies launched into a 100-day ‘advance to victory’ that still beggars belief and THE FORGOTTEN VICTORY which was duly acclaimed as a triumph As a result the history of the Great throughout the 1920s. This does not War has had a strangely unfinished fit in with the current prevailing Great look – even in these centenary years. War script: nothing but mud, blood At times as a nation we seem only to and suffering. Few seem interested in be interested in defeat. There has been how the war actually ended. a great deal of coverage of the Battle So, who was Douglas Haig? He was of Mons in 1914, much comment born on 19 June 1861, the son of a on Gallipoli and Loos in 1915; we well known whisky distiller. After a can expect an onslaught of negative privileged education at Clifton College coverage about both the Somme in and Brasenose College, Oxford, he 1916 and the horrors of Third Ypres in found his true vocation on entering 1917; I suspect there will even be much the Royal Military College Sandhurst praise for the German tactics in their as a cadet in 1884. Here he did well, Spring Offensives of 1918. disciplining himself to master his new Yet there will be the usual strange profession with the single-mindedness silence over the end of the war. The that was to prove his hallmark. Allies may have fallen back in the face His career was conventional and

incorporated active service in both Egypt and South Africa, but he always seemed to shine, gaining approbation and promotion alike. This process accelerated when Haig was made Director of Military Training at the War Office, where he reported directly to the Secretary of State for War, the dynamic Liberal Richard Haldane. Together they engaged in a root and branch reform of the whole British Army. Haig’s particular responsibility was in overseeing the creation of the Territorial Force that would organise all Britain’s disparate volunteer units into one coherent structure. A stint as Chief of Staff in India followed, where he laid controversial plans to send Indian troops to fight in any European War. Finally, in 1912, Haig was given the rank of Lieutenant General and appointed to the Aldershot Command, which would form the I Corps of the BEF.

REPUTATIONS DEFENSIVE MASTERY

When the war broke out the I Corps was in the thick of the fighting during most of the major battles of the 1914 campaign. Haig’s performance was solid and at the First Battle of Ypres he showed a mastery of defensive tactics. Haig then laid the ground rules for conducting a British offensive when he directed the attack on Neuve Chapelle in March 1915. The assault succeeded until the exploitation phase - when total chaos ensued as all elements of command and control broke down. The Germans were soon able to block the narrow gap that had opened up in their line. Subsequent attacks on a wider front at Aubers Ridge and Festubert failed because there was simply not enough British artillery to allow the troops to break through into the German front line. In September 1915, an attempt to use poison gas to bridge the gap in artillery capability at the Battle of Loos was only partially successful. In December 1915 Haig was appointed commander-in-chief of the BEF on the dismissal of Field Marshal Sir John French. By this time it was evident that Haig possessed an equable temperament that rarely betrayed any trace of panic or temper, no matter how grim the state of affairs at the front. He is reported to have said, ‘No situation is either so bad or so good as first reports indicate.’

REASON AND CLARITY

Mere expressions of opinion were irrelevant to him and he demanded reasoned arguments based on fact before

making any decision. He had confidence in his own powers of judgement and would not revisit decisions already taken unless new evidence was brought before him. His own (relative) spoken inarticulacy was in sharp contrast to the force and clarity of thought demonstrated in his written work. For three years he showed a formidable capacity for sustained hard work centred at his General Headquarters located in a small château just outside the town of Montreuil. He needed to be at the centre of a web of communications - the days of the battlefield general leading his troops were long gone.

LEFT: Haig as a young man.

THE EASTERN MYTH

(IWM Q7180)

Throughout his tenure as C-in-C, Haig was criticised as a ‘Westerner’ for persisting in the concentration of

MIDDLE LEFT: Haig (left) standing with Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch (centre) and U.S. General John Pershing (Right). BOTTOM: Foch and Haig inspecting the 6th Gordon Highlanders

British military resources in support of the French Army on the Western Front. Apparently he was a fool not to have recognised the opportunities for a cheap and easy victory to be gained through Salonika, Gallipoli, Palestine, Italy or Mesopotamia as recommended by the ‘Easterners’ led by Churchill and Lloyd George. The exact reverse is true: there was no easy route to victory, no backdoor to Germany; no Allies that propped her up, the removal of which could trigger a sudden collapse. Germany operated on interior lines of communications and even in the event of a Turkish, Bulgarian or Austrian defeat would merely have rushed reinforcements to make the Alpine or Balkan mountain ranges all but impregnable. »

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REPUTATIONS TOP RIGHT: Haig in his mobile office. Using this and other photographs captured at the same time, we can roughly work out when they were taken. The map, to Haig's right, shows Allied armies far west, possibly depicting the situation after the German Spring Offensive but before the Allied advance in August. MIDDLE RIGHT: Haig and Lord Haldane in London. BOTTOM: German prisoners taken by Fourth Army, near Abbeville, 27 August, 1918. (IWM Q009271)

BOTTOM RIGHT (OPPOSITE): British troops on lorry near Joncourt, 9 October 1918 (IWM Q9529)

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If Germany was to be defeated, then better by far to concentrate on the Western Front where the British and French could fight side by side and with a minimum of logistical problems. Britain and Haig had to fight the war as it was; not how visionaries dreamt it might be. Germany was encamped in France, occupying a good part of the latter’s industrial heartland, with armies poised ready to strike at the French capital and to seize the Channel ports. Germany had managed to grab the initiative and the realities of Alliance warfare meant that Britain could not just abandon France to her fate whilst pursuing quixotic adventures in the Middle East. The defeat of France would recast the map of Europe. Above all, there was the sound principle of war that in order to achieve worthwhile success you need to concentrate on the main enemy on the main front. Haig and the other British generals realised this: the politicians were completely wrong. All their supposed easy routes to victory merely created a huge butcher’s bill allowing the Turks and Bulgarians to slaughter British troops to no purpose whatsoever. On the Western Front let there be no doubt that the French C-in-C, Joseph Joffre, was the dominating figure - reflecting the far superior strength of the French Army. Joffre’s plans for a huge joint offensive in the Somme area in 1916 were disrupted by the German attacks at Verdun which were bleeding the French Army

dry. Haig was thus forced to take up a greater share of the burden on the Somme and to commit his New Army and Territorial Divisions into action long before he considered them ready. In the end he had no choice. Yet the failure of the attack on 1 July cannot be swept under the carpet. It was a complete disaster. Nearly 20,000 soldiers died amidst an overall 60,000 British casualties in the first ever modern continental-scale battle fought by the British Army. The artillery barrage proved inadequate, the German defences too strong and the British troops too inexperienced. Yet it was not a one-day battle. Over the next five months Haig’s armies learnt many of the complex fighting skills of modern war on the bloody battlefields of the Somme. Haig always saw the fighting on the Western Front as one long-drawn out battle with the phases of combat measured in years rather than hours: 1914 and 1915 had seen the initial manoeuvring for position and the first clash of battle, 1916, had seen the wearing-out process before one side would begin to fold. He was confident that the decisive stroke could be dealt in 1917. As it happens he was wrong. The fighting had become more and more attritional in nature. Gains of land meant nothing as such. What really mattered was killing Germans and seizing tactically significant objectives that could help that grim process in

the future. In that context, the Somme has been considered the graveyard of the old German Army, as it struggled to cope with the huge demands of the Somme and Verdun in tandem with the Eastern Front battles against the Russians. In April 1917, Haig was required to fight the Battle of Arras as a diversion to a huge new French assault in the Champagne region. The British attack went well at first, but the abject failure of the main French offensive forced the attack to be extended beyond its natural life and it floundered in a welter of casualties. The Third Battle of Ypres which followed again became a grim slogging match due to a further mutation of the German ‘defence in depth’ techniques and the problem of overcoming the pillboxes now dotted over the low Ypres ridges. In the final phases, now known as Passchendaele, Haig strove to clear the last ridge - or retire all the way back to Pilckem Ridge from where the assault had started.

REPUTATIONS By this stage of the war the British had developed their own tactic of ‘bite and hold’. They aimed to seize the German front line using artillery to destroy German defence, chaperone the infantry forward behind multiple creeping barrages and then provide an impenetrable wall of shells to kill any German counter-attacking troops. But it was painfully slow, only 1,500-2,000 yards at a time , and hugely expensive in ammunition and resources. It was an interim measure and not the real answer to the tactical conundrum of the First World War. It is true that Haig and his generals made mistakes that cost thousands of lives throughout 1916 and 1917. They took risks that proved unnecessary, they missed fleeting opportunities and they followed blind alleys. All of this is undeniable. But our appreciation of these blunders is based on hindsight. Who amongst us has not made mistakes? The problems posed by modern warfare were intractable. As the war progressed on the Western Front, layered trenches were combined with barbed wire, bolt-action rifles, sputtering machine guns, mortars, deep dugouts, redoubts, switch trenches, pillboxes and ever more batteries of artillery. Worse still, the situation was not static, but constantly changing as the Germans revised their defensive tactics to reflect - or anticipate - the ongoing

changes in Allied assault tactics. Although there was an overall learning curve for the Allied High Command, a far better analogy is that of a pair of side-by-side Allied and German ‘big dippers’ careering along the tracks of war, each intent on securing the highest position, but with the occasional terrifying descent to disaster as a previously successful attacking tactic was exposed by a sudden change to the opponent’s defensive tactics or weaponry.

HAIG THE INNOVATOR

All told it is evident that Haig was far from being a ‘stick in the mud’ incapable of understanding modern warfare. In fact Haig was always keen to explore the possibilities in any new technologies. The process of overseeing the integration of new weapons of war needed management, the creation of a military culture that allowed the seeds of innovation to be harnessed to the overall effort. It needed defined requirements from the military to be given to the scientists and engineers, who could then develop theoretical and practical solutions. It needed careful thought as to how and when to employ the new weapons in battle to avoid disturbing the balance of existing military components. Throughout, Haig as commander-in-chief had acted in the fashion of the chief executive

of any large organisation. He had the MORE power to seize upon new ideas, new INFO weapons and new tactics. His interest and encouragement helped ensure the The Douglas Haig Fellowship was set up potential of innovative projects was to commemorate and actually realised. He had the power study the life of Field to ensure that new ideas did not die Marshal Earl Haig, stillborn, subsumed by the endless his achievements, press of ‘events’ that was the real those of the forces enemy of progress in the Great War. he commanded, Sadly this could not come to fruition and the continuing before 1918. The British had gone military historical to war unprepared for modern lessons to be derived continental warfare and had to correct from all of these. It these deficiencies whilst fighting in the aims to promote a field against the might of the German better understanding Army. Such a mobilisation of an entire of Haig and to give a considered response nation to arms, the development based on historical of new munitions industries, the fact to any gratuitous harnessing of innovative weapons to attacks upon his effective tactics - all this could take reputation, or on years. It did. that of the forces The German Spring Offensives he commanded. It of 1918, crunching through the is not the aim of the British lines with new artillery and Fellowship to avoid stormtrooper tactics, showed that constructive criticism. the Germans were still capable of We seek to encourage producing a devastating surprise. The further objective study. Kaiser’s generals were well aware For more information that the American entry into the war see the website: in April 1917 meant that millions of http://www. American soldiers would be arriving douglashaigfellowship. on the Western Front in a few months org.uk/home or - this was their last chance of a German contact Brian Curragh at secretary@ victory. In the end they were held. Haig demonstrated that he had not lost douglashaigfellowship. his defensive skills as he juggled his » org.uk

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REPUTATIONS RIGHT: Haig’s CWGC pattern gravestone at Dryburgh Abbey. BELOW: Soldiers of the Wiltshire Regiment advancing up a slope circa 1918. The men are spread out, and shelling has cleared some of the wire – tactics adopted after the disastrous attacks in lines typical of the early war.

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divisions up and down the line, but he also worked well under the newly appointed Allied Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch. Then came the Allied riposte - the series of ‘All Arms Battle’ summer offensives.

THE CULMINATION

The ‘All Arms Battle’ was the culmination of everything Haig, his generals and staff had learnt: a collective synthesis of weaponry and tactics giving the flexibility to overwhelm whatever the Germans might use against them. Here were the infantry: well armed with Lewis Guns and rifle grenades deploying sophisticated tactics that minimised losses. In immediate support were the heavy Vickers machine guns banded together to provide lethal firepower in attack or defence, the light and heavy mortars hurling high explosives, deadly thermite or poison gas. Concealing them were dense smoke barrages that mimicked fog and concealed the infantry. Trundling along into action alongside them were heavy tanks to crush wire and assault strongpoints; behind them came supply tanks bringing forward huge quantities of ammunition, then there were lighter tanks and armoured cars ready to push through and cause chaos in the rear in the event of a rupture in German lines. Aircraft flew above them, now not just photographing or carrying out artillery observation functions, but diving down to strafe, harass and disrupt the enemy. Aerial bombing had progressed and was not only used to kill on the battlefield, but also to sever strategic

rail communications which they needed to bring up reinforcements. Behind everything there was the artillery: truly, as the Royal Artillery motto suggests, the guns were ubique – everywhere. Within the whole murderous conglomeration they were still the supreme weapons system. In the end the Germans had no answer to the ‘All Arms Battle’ unveiled at Amiens on 8 August 1918. But this was just the beginning of the end. When the Germans eventually stemmed the initial breakthrough, the focus of Allied attacks swiftly shifted to other sectors. They never allowed the Germans to settle, to regain balance, to establish a strong line all along the front. The Allied dominance in material was such that the guns did not have to be painstakingly moved: there were enough guns and ammunition stacked all along the front to back up an attack almost anywhere. This had been impossible in previous years. It wasn’t just a matter of tactics and superior weaponry; it was the merciless application of superior resources. Time and time again reeling German divisions were ejected from strong positions that in years past they might confidently have expected to hold. There would be no let-up until the German Army finally fell apart at the seams. The First World War was not won for the Allies by the inspirational military genius of one man: a Napoleon or a Marlborough. It was not that kind of war. This was a collective challenge. Haig had a demonstrable military ability as a general, but it is

not as a ‘great captain’ that we should remember him. Rather he should be remembered as supreme ‘enabler’. I genuinely believe that Douglas Haig was Britain’s greatest commanderin-chief. He led five armies in action against an all-powerful foe. He dealt with unsupportive politicians at home and abroad. He liaised with French commanders - always a difficult undertaking. Then, after the war, Haig played a crucial part in the establishment of the British Legion and the Haig Poppy Fund, working untiringly for the ex-servicemen who had served him so well, until his death on 29 January 1928. Haig commanded far more troops in action and shouldered a greater portion of the burdens of command for a much longer period, and to greater ultimate effect, than any of his challengers. We should surely respect his achievements.

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THE MIGHTY ATOM

Heroism of an Army Padre MAIN PICTURE: Ready for war: the men of the 2nd Cambridgeshires parading at Crewe Hall, Cheshire, shortly before shipping out in 1941. Lieutenant Jimmy Clancy is the officer standing second from left.

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IMMY CLANCY felt wretched in his helplessness as hope turned to despair on the road to Singapore. The young officer spent the afternoon drifting in and out of consciousness and now he lay marooned in an ambulance, a tourniquet round his left leg and his foot a “horrible mess of blood and bone” as fighting raged around him. Repeated attempts to smash through a succession of Japanese blocks had been bloodily repulsed leaving a vast convoy of transport and troops stranded on a road through the forests

When a beleaguered column was cut-off by the Japanese and forced to abandon its wounded, a small British army padre took the first steps towards legendary status among Far East prisoners of war. Steve Snelling tells the inspiring story of a captive hero.

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of northern Johore on the outskirts of Senggarang. Wounded in one of those forlorn engagements, Lieutenant Clancy, his body racked with pain, could do nothing but lie and wait and listen to the crackle of gunfire and the crump of mortar rounds exploding disturbingly close. Finally, late in the afternoon and with no breakthrough in sight, came the worst possible news. From inside the ambulance, he heard a babble of voices. They were calling out fresh orders: “Every man for himself!”

Moments later, as Clancy and the most seriously wounded were being ferried back to the huts that served as a regimental aid post, the demolitions began. A loud blast told of the destruction of the small hump-backed bridge over the river that cut through the village, while further explosions and fires signalled the deliberate wrecking of a veritable log-jam of carriers and trucks. Not long after, with the road wreathed in smoke and the air reeking of burning fuel, more than

3,000 troops, including a number of walking wounded, melted into the jungle and swamps either side of the road. As they disappeared from view Clancy’s heart sank. Together with 44 of the most seriously injured cases, he had been abandoned to his fate. Nothing now stood between them and a ruthless enemy with a reputation for taking no prisoners than a couple of army doctors, some medical orderlies, ambulance drivers and a small, 29-year-old chaplain called Noel Duckworth.

As day faded into night on January 26, 1942, it appeared that only a miracle could save them.

‘POCKET-SIZED PADRE’

TOP RIGHT: John Noel Duckworth (1912-1980).

Small of stature but big of heart, John Noel Duckworth was already a force to be reckoned with even before he joined the 2nd Battalion, the Cambridgeshire Regiment in the autumn of 1939. His cheery demeanour and cherubic, rosy-cheeked appearance belied a fierce determination and a remarkable strength of character 

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THE MIGHTY ATOM

Heroism of an Army Padre RIGHT: Noel Duckworth, third from left, as cox of the Cambridge boat in 1935. He steered his crew to a hattrick of Boat Race victories in the mid-1930s and represented Britain at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. As a tough taskmaster, who used colourful language to urge on his crew, he acquired the nickname ‘The Bastard’. He once said: ‘The cox must be a man with a skin as tough as that of a rhinoceros, one who can give as much as he can take in more ways than one.’ BELOW: The 2nd Cambridgeshires’ cycle detachment kept watch for German invaders along the Norfolk coast during the summer of 1940. What now seems a laughable means of transport was, ironically, used to great effect by the Imperial Japanese Army during its rapid advance down the Malayan peninsula.

the officers’ mess. During two years’ spent battling boredom and preparing for an invasion that never came and an anticipated deployment to the Middle East which never materialised, he was a constant tonic. Not least when he realised “a cherished ambition” by combining his military duties with the role of acting rector of Stiffkey, a Norfolk seaside parish scandalised by its association with the so-called ‘Prostitutes’ Padre’. That same mischievous sense of humour would hold him in good stead for the challenges that lay ahead.

SACRIFICE AT SENGGARANG that had combined to make him one of the country’s most formidable rowing coxes. Between 1934 and 1936, the Yorkshire-born clergyman’s son had steered Cambridge to a hat-trick of emphatic Boat Race victories over Oxford and represented Great Britain at the infamous Berlin Olympics where, among the teams defeated en route to the final, was a crew from Japan. Serving as a curate in a deprived neighbourhood of Hull at the outbreak of war, he immediately volunteered

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to become an army chaplain. Shortly afterwards, “to the surprise and delight of those who had known him as cox of the university crew and the proud possessor of certain unclerical nicknames”, he was posted to the 2nd Cambridgeshires, a Territorial Army unit and part of the 53rd Brigade of the 18th (East Anglian) Division. Promptly dubbed the ‘Pocketsized Padre’, the high-spirited and independently-minded chaplain quickly endeared himself to the men by breaking with tradition and basing himself in the sergeants’ rather than

Ordered overseas in October 1941, the 18th Division appeared bound for the North African campaign by way of Canada, South Africa and Iraq, until Japan’s sudden entry into the war changed everything. Diverted from the Middle East to Malaya, the 53rd Brigade was sent ahead as divisional vanguard, arriving in Singapore on January 13, 1942. Given no time to acclimatise after almost three months’ at sea, the East Anglians were rushed up-country to relieve better-prepared units for a last-ditch attempt to stop the Japanese juggernaut rolling down the Malayan peninsula.

ABOVE: The 2nd Cambridgeshires receive a Churchillian salute from the Prime Minister at Gresham’s School, Holt, during the 1940 invasion scare when they were guarding the North Norfolk coast against Nazi airborne and seaborne assault.

The 2nd Cambridgeshires were sent to occupy the small, inland port of Batu Pahat with the object of guarding river crossings and helping protect lines of communication leading to the front line some 30 miles further north. They were quickly disabused of the notion that they were in a ‘back area’. The front-line was pierced and with Australian and Indian troops staging a fighting withdrawal, the Cambridgeshires found themselves embroiled in a bitter battle against Japanese troops that had landed behind them and cut the roads leading east and south. It was a struggle for which they had not trained, in conditions utterly alien to them against a battle-hardened enemy buoyed by a relentless run of victories. Typically, Noel Duckworth, having insisted on accompanying the unit to Batu Pahat rather than staying with the B echelon, was right in the thick of it. During confused fighting, the battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel

Gordon Thorne, held its ground until instructed to pull out. When that order was rescinded they fought their way back and retook the town, before being told to withdraw again. They brought with them their wounded and, by now attached to the 15th Brigade, reached Senggarang where they were halted by the first of a series of fiercely defended road blocks. From dawn on January 26 until 1630, the weary Cambridgeshires mounted attack after attack on the Japanese positions in an effort to open the road and allow the ambulances and other brigade vehicles to pass through. But it was all in vain. Finally, with the enemy pressing from behind, the brigade commander reluctantly ordered all guns and transport destroyed and for all those fit enough to break out through the

ABOVE LEFT: Noel Duckworth, far right with helmet slung across his back, with a group of 2nd Cambridgeshire officers during an exercise prior to going overseas in 1941.

jungle in an attempt to reach the nearest British forces. It was a heart-breaking decision that meant leaving around 45 of the most severely wounded men in the care of two medical officers, Captains Robbie Welsh and Jim Mark, 26 men from 198 Field Ambulance and a number of RASC drivers, all of whom volunteered to stay with them. 

NEAR LEFT: Lieutenant Jimmy Clancy was commanding No 11 Platoon, B Company, 2nd Cambridgeshires, during an attack on the Japanese road blocks near Senggarang when he was seriously wounded on January 26, 1942. He was one of 45 men whose injuries were considered so bad that they had to be left behind.

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THE MIGHTY ATOM

Heroism of an Army Padre TOP RIGHT: The Japanese infiltration tactics played havoc with the 53rd Brigade’s lines of communication. MIDDLE RIGHT: An impression of the typical Malayan wooded terrain encountered by the 18th Division sketched by a sergeant in the 2nd Cambridgeshires.  BELOW: Sergeant Bert Major, (right) here with a friend, was among the wounded left behind at Senggarang who felt they owed their lives to Noel.

As thick smoke rose above the log-jam of vehicles, Noel Duckworth made his way back to his commanding officer to find out what was happening. “On hearing the orders,” wrote another officer of the Cambridgeshires, “the padre asked permission to go back and stay with the wounded. Regretfully, Thorne allowed him to go, and he returned to help the two doctors at the Field Ambulance, now under fire from Japanese mortars.” Shortly before the bridge was blown, Captain Bob Hamond, of the 5th Royal Norfolks, crossed over the river to say farewell to Duckworth. “I was sure,” he later wrote, “that I would not see him alive again as the Japs had hitherto massacred all wounded…”

‘GRIM PICTURE’

Abandoned to their fate, they faced an anxious night waiting for the Japanese to arrive. Clancy, like Hamond, fully expected it to be his last. “We had been told that the Japanese took no prisoners, although at this stage we had no proof,” he later wrote. Most of the patients were lying outside the largest of the three huts, having been made as comfortable as possible by Duckworth and the medical team. An improvised Red Cross flag was rigged up and the whole area around the aid post was floodlit by the headlights of two ambulances to ensure the Japanese could have no excuse for mistaking them for an armed force. Their work complete, the two doctors sat with Duckworth on the steps of the hut, waiting and, in Welsh’s words, “dozing lightly”. “Meanwhile, a burning ammunition lorry crackled away,” added Welsh. “The Japs mortar-bombed Senggarang village in general, and us (it seemed) in particular. We could hear the awful hissing sound of some of these bombs flying over; the nearest landed about 50 yards from us… too close!” 34 www.britainatwar.com

Duckworth, restless as ever, found it impossible to sit back and do nothing. Convinced by the mortaring and the sporadic shooting that the Japanese had them surrounded, he headed off in different directions and, at no little risk to himself, began calling out in the darkness: “We are under the Red Cross. We are wounded soldiers. We have no arms.” Welsh and Mark were unconvinced by the tactic. “The only replies were mortar bombs from the Japs,” wrote Welsh, “and a certain amount of laughter from the MOs.” However, at least one of the wounded thought otherwise. Sergeant Bert Major, who was a member of Jimmy Clancy’s platoon, felt sure that the padre’s brave ‘broadcast’ was “greatly instrumental in our not being butchered out of hand as had so many ambulance parties earlier in the campaign”. What with the noise, the confusion and the uncertainty, Major considered it “a night not to be easily forgotten” and was relieved to see the first streaks of dawn creep across the sky. “Although firing could still be heard,” he wrote, “it was farther away.” The sight of the transport, some of it still burning, was “a grim picture to behold”, but it did at least provide opportunities for a foraging expedition.

ABOVE: Senggarang 70 years after the battle. It was on the right-hand (northern) side of the river that the wounded were left in a makeshift regimental aid post while thousands of men dispersed into the jungle and swamps in a bid to escape the Japanese stranglehold.

An attempt by a couple of men to salvage some medical panniers from one truck was foiled by some stray rifle shots and mortar bombs, but they managed to gather some useful “booty” from another nearby lorry. Not long after, at around 0700, the first Japanese were spotted on the road in front. It was a nerve-jangling moment. “We walked gingerly across to them, with our hands up,” Welsh recorded. “Imagine our relief when, on reaching the officer in charge, he held out his hand, and shook hands with the officers of our party.

numerous stretcher-loads of supplies - medical, food, clothing: in fact anything useful to us. “By the end of the morning we were practically dropping with fatigue, and literally pouring with sweat…” The enemy troops belonged to a unit of the Imperial Guards Division, the same force that had massacred more than 100 wounded Australian and Indian troops left behind after fierce fighting a few days earlier. And despite their behaviour towards Mark and Welsh there was

stretchers and personal items, such as watches, rings and pens, being taken. This was in addition “to being bullied and made a mockery of”. That worse did not happen may have been due to an extraordinary accident of chance involving the Cambridgeshires’ chaplain.

ABOVE: The bridge at Senggarang in 2012.

STRANGE MEETING

BELOW LEFT: The densely wooded country on the roads of Senggarang allowed the bulk of 15 Brigade including attached units from 53rd Brigade to evade the Japanese.

The following day, with the Japanese busily engaged in clearing the road of wrecked vehicles and repairing the demolished bridge, an officer and some soldiers approached the hut where the wounded were being treated. They were met by Noel Duckworth.  “We - the medical party - were then marched to the main road and made to sit down there. Jap soldiers then gave us tinned foods (from our own Brigade lorries!), water, and cigarettes - taking in payment watches, unfortunately! “We were cursorily searched, and a few questions put to the officers. The MOs were then taken off to collect medical supplies for the patients. Unfortunately for us the Japs took all the Quinine, most of the antiseptics available, and some dressings. Then we had to carry

LEFT: The remains of the ferry at Batu Pahat today.

still an edginess about them as they searched the aid post in the medical officers’ absence. Welsh wrote: “One patient (a Pte Brown) made a sudden jerky movement which apparently alarmed one of the Jap soldiers who shot at him twice, wounding him in the fleshy part of the right arm and in the right temple. Realising what had happened the Jap then wrapped his towel around Brown’s head.” The behaviour of other Japanese was far from decent. Clancy wrote of the wounded being physically searched as they lay on their www.britainatwar.com 35

THE MIGHTY ATOM

Heroism of an Army Padre RIGHT: A sketch plan showing the Japanese road blocks on the road between Senggarang and Rengit that ultimately forced the trapped units of the 15th Brigade to disperse into the jungle and swamps. BELOW RIGHT: Ulsterman Captain Jim Mark, of 198 Field Ambulance, was one of two medical officers who stayed with the wounded at Senggarang. The RAMC personnel and RASC ambulance drivers volunteered men to remain with the most seriously injured. BELOW: The burned out wrecks of the British transport destroyed at Senggarang. Taken by a Japanese war correspondent a copy was passed to Captain Robert Hamond of the 5th Royal Norfolks. The vehicles had originally been left blocking the road to slow the enemy advance.

He later recounted their remarkable conversation to Robert Hamond: “The officer said, in perfect English, ‘I know you. You are Duckworth, aren’t you?’ He went on to say that he had been at the 1936 Berlin Olympics…” According to Hamond, it was unclear whether the officer had been part of the Japanese crew or had been representing his country in another sport. What was certain was his insistence that his fellow Olympian was not to be harmed. Duckworth recalled: “The officer gave orders that the prisoners were to be given food and medicine and to be welltreated.” For the rest of the day, the wounded were left unguarded and the medics to their own devices. Duckworth, meanwhile, was drafted in to assist the Japanese with changing wheels on some of the British trucks they hoped to salvage. It proved, as Clancy put it, “a good thing” as it enabled the padre a Godgiven opportunity to make a thorough search of the vehicles to see what, if any, medical supplies and food remained on the vehicles. Later, Duckworth led a party back to “scrounge” what ever could be found before hiding it from prying eyes. The potentially dangerous expedition

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marked the beginning of a new career as an arch-scavenger that would add to his legendary status among prisoners of the Japanese. During the 17 days that they remained at Senggarang, Duckworth continued with his self-ordained role as the force’s hunter-gatherer. As well as leading evening prayers at dusk - on one occasion praying for rain to ease their water shortage - and conducting burial services, he maintained his foraging forays and revealed a talent for bartering which would hold them all in good stead. As chief ‘scrounger’, the padre took charge, again at no little danger to

himself, of the prisoners’ secret ‘Q department’ and insisted on keeping the secret stash of foodstuffs in his room where, according to Welsh, he kept it secure “under his eagle eye”. In spite of a brief bout of sickness, Duckworth proved himself as resilient as he was resourceful. Welsh recalled how one night after prayers, he together with Mark and the padre had taken it in turns to sleep outside the hut. “Unfortunately,” he wrote, “we chose an ant-run, and were bitten all night, excepting the Padre who, in spite of the bites, slept and snored all night.” To the men whose suffering he worked tirelessly to alleviate he was an inspiration whose cheery presence worked wonders for morale. Between ministering to their spiritual needs and nursing their physical injuries, he kept them entertained with stories of his time coxing the Cambridge and Great Britain boats.

That same indomitable spirit would become even more evident as the prisoners of Senggarang headed north on the next stage of their hellish incarceration.

‘HERO OF PUDU’

Though less well-known, Pudu Jail in Kuala Lumpur was as squalid and brutal a place as many of the worst camps along the so-called Death Railway. Designed as a maximum security civilian prison, it was the main holding camp for Australian, British and Malay Volunteer troops captured on the Malayan mainland. By the time Duckworth’s party arrived on February 22, Singapore had fallen and around 650 men were crammed into an area of the prison intended to house around 120 prisoners. One of the captives, Lieutenant Kenyon Archer, described conditions as “appalling”. He wrote: “There was no hospital; the food was terrible; [and] we had no blankets or beds issued to us.”

As a result, the death rate was correspondingly high at about 12 per cent. These avoidable losses were, observed Archer, mainly a result of “starvation and neglect”. It was in the face of such adversity, where barbaric punishment was routinely meted out to anyone who dared to challenge Japanese authority, that Duckworth emerged as the prison’s outstanding personality. Russell Braddon, a young Australian who went on to write one of the best of all PoW memoirs, credited him with being “the mainspring of the orderly way of life we managed to

carve for ourselves out of the rather improbable material of Pudu”. Fearlessly outspoken and generous spirited, he created a chapel out of a prison cell which he called ‘The Chapel of The Transfiguration’ in honour of his own church in Hull to which even a self-confessed heathen such as Braddon was “glad to go and sit and think about Home, or God…” To another Australian, Charles Edwards, a private in the 2/19th Battalion, the little padre was quite simply “the hero of Pudu”. “He tended the sick and was head of the black market, putting the small profits into the welfare of the sick,” he wrote.

More than that, he was also the prison ‘news reader’ and, as such, the source of morale-lifting intelligence delivered in clandestinely Christian code. Edwards explained: “Each evening he would have a ‘prayer meeting’ in one corner of the jail, with only two approaches… Two lookouts were posted to keep watch. If a guard approached, the lookout would give a whistle - the tune was always ‘Mother McCree’. “Padre Duckworth would have a hymn or two, then give out the news in this manner: ‘Vouchsafe unto Thee Dear Lord our brother Winston (Churchill) who this day has landed 3,000 golden eggs on Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven, Dortmund, Hamburg and Berlin. Vouchsafe unto Thee Dear Lord our brother Douglas (MacArthur) who has withdrawn from Corregidor but has vowed to return. Vouchsafe unto Thee Dear Lord the little fliers (the RAF) over the Channel who have downed 168 eagles’, and so on for all the news items. “When a guard approached, the whistle would go up, and whatever he was announcing he would stop and say, ‘Now gentleman, all stand and we will have the Lord’s Prayer.’ The guard would peer in and see us all deep in prayer…” 

ABOVE RIGHT: King of barter: Ronald Searle’s watercolour of Noel Duckworth trading with a Japanese guard to gain money to pay for lifesaving food and medical supplies. The original was gifted to Duckworth in 1959 to mark his TV appearance on This Is Your Life and was autographed by all who appeared on the programme. ABOVE LEFT: The crowded conditions in Changi, the former British barracks that was the main Japanese prison camp on Singapore island and where Duckworth and the Pudu captives were transferred in the month after this picture was secretly taken.

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THE MIGHTY ATOM

Heroism of an Army Padre to the infamous Thai-Burma Railway with the characteristic comment: “Well, if the flock goes, I suppose the Shepherd goes with them.” Part of what became known as F Force, they were bound for one of the most difficult stretches of the lunatic construction project and one of the most harrowing ordeals endured by any prisoners of the Japanese. During the seven months between May and November 1943, the ill-fed and ill-treated force was decimated by cholera and dysentery. Around a third of the 7,000 men died, with the British contingent’s 61 per cent death rate the highest recorded anywhere on the railway. At Songkurai, where Duckworth was based, the prisoners suffered the heaviest losses of all, with 678 men perishing at a rate of a little under 100 a month. His unavailing protests at the inhumane conditions and savage ABOVE: This drawing entitled Dawn Parade, by Ronald Searle captures the despair and misery of the prisoners reduced to slave labourers during the construction of the ThaiBurma Railway. Searle, who later became famous as the comic creator of St Trinians, was a sapper in 287 Field Company, part of the 53rd Brigade, which served alongside the 2nd Cambridgeshires in Johore.

The prayer meeting-cum-news session would always end with the same cheering words: “The Lord God is thy refuge, and underneath are the Everlasting Arms.”

‘COMFORT AND HOPE’

Duckworth’s Pudu travails ended in October when, together with all the other PoWs, he was taken to Changi in Singapore. There his maverick ways ran foul of his senior officers but never with the men he sought to inspire and to help survive. His spell on the island was short. After a little more than six months, he volunteered to accompany the remaining men of the 18th Division

ABOVE RIGHT: Officers passing their time during the early weeks in Changi.

RIGHT: A typical bamboo and atap hut used to house prisoners in countless jungle camps freckling the Thai-Burma railway. It was here, wrote Duckworth, that men 'lay and starved, suffered, hoped and prayed'.

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treatment of the men earned him punishment from the Japanese and the undying respect of his fellow captives. One prisoner, John Franks, recalled an incident when the padre and a medical officer confronted the camp commanders and refused to back down when their appeals were ignored. “Both were beaten severely and thrown into a pit,” he said, “where they survived on water alone for several days until they were released.” Undaunted, Duckworth continued to speak out. In the words of medical staff sergeant, Davy Jones, he was “full of bravery, never showing fear in the face of brutality”. To Idris Barwick, a medical orderly at Songkurai, Duckworth and his fellow chaplain, a Welsh Methodist minister called Foster Haigh, were”a constant source of comfort and hope”. He wrote: “They encouraged the men to more effort in their fight against death by setting an example in their faith in our God.”

Steve Snelling acknowledges the assistance given him by Michael Smyth, author of Canon Noel Duckworth: An Extraordinary Life (published by Churchill College, Cambridge).

Later at Thanbaya Hospital Camp, where the sick from Songkurai were taken, Barwick remembered him giving talks which often saw him railing against “officers and their hypocritical ways” as well as the Japanese - “our hosts” who he openly condemned as “little yellow murderers” while the guards looked on. Unsurprisingly, his lectures “never failed to draw a crowd” and the same was true of the open-air church services he staged using logs as pews and bamboo for an altar while smoke from the nearby camp crematorium wafted overhead.

‘SUPREME DEDICATION’

The ‘Pocket-Sized Padre’, by now dubbed ‘The Mighty Atom’, survived all the Japanese and the pestilential jungle could throw at him. Hospitalised back in Changi with cardiac beri-beri, he recovered sufficiently to help organise the construction of a new church, the Chapel of St Andrew and St Luke, next to the camp hospital. Irrepressible and indefatigable to the end, he took part in a final thanksgiving service at Changi 12 days after the war’s end and was selected to broadcast to the nation via the BBC on the day Lord Louis Mountbatten accepted the formal surrender of the Japanese in Singapore. Looking back on “the blackest year” of his life, he described his experiences on the Burma Railway. There, in “this Valley of the Shadow of Death”, he said, “we lay and starved, suffered, hoped and prayed”.

Back home in England, he resumed his career with appointments including Chaplain of St John’s College, Cambridge, Dean of the new University College of the Gold and the first Chaplain of Churchill College. A full and inspiring life was cut short in 1980 by a heart attack, his death hastened no doubt by his privations as a prisoner of the Japanese. To the dismay of many former Far East prisoners, the hero of Senggarang, Pudu and Songkurai received scant official recognition. Two mentions in despatches hardly did justice to his selfless gallantry and Robert Hamond was not alone in regarding it “a scandal” that his actions in defence of the wounded in January 1942 were not honoured by a high gallantry award.

His greatest public acclaim came in the unusual form of an appearance on the popular TV show, This Is Your Life, where the guests included Jimmy Clancy and Bert Major, and in the many glowing tributes paid to him by former prisoners to whom he remained a legendary figure to the very end. Jack Aldridge, who had stayed behind with him at Senggarang, summed up the feelings of many of his wartime comrades when he spoke at his funeral. Recalling his great service in war and peace, he said of the ‘Pocket-sized Padre’: “He saved the lives of thousands by his supreme dedication and serene example… he bore all the hallmarks of a Twentieth Century Saint.” 

ABOVE: Liberation: prisoners in Changi celebrate their release from captivity. Duckworth took part in the camp’s thanksgiving service shortly after the war’s end and broadcast to an audience of millions back home to mark the formal surrender of the Japanese in Singapore. BELOW LEFT: Noel Duckworth, seen here holding the famous red book, at the end of his appearance on This Is Your Life in January 1959. Among the men pictured with him were Jimmy Clancy, far left, and Bert Major, third from left, who were among the wounded left behind at Senggarang, Jim Mark, seventh from left next to the ‘padre’, ex-Pudu prisoner Russell Braddon, third from the right, and former captive turned artist, Ronald Searle, far right.

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FIRST WORLD WAR DIARY KEY MOMENTS of November 1915 include Lord Herbert Kitchener’s visit to the Gallipoli Peninsula and the establishment of a dedicated War Council in Britain. Elsewhere, there are some notable sinkings, one in particular leading to a major diplomatic incident, and the foundations are laid for a major military disaster in Mesopotamia.

HOME FRONT

3 November The first meeting of a newly constituted war committee takes place. The committee replaced the Dardanelles Committee, which focused on Gallipoli, which in turn replaced the War Council, tasked with advising on the general conduct of the war but met too infrequently. The new War Committee had responsibility for naval and military operations and war policy in general.

WAR AT SEA

17 November The British hospital ship HMHS Anglia is sink by a mine laid by German U-boat minelayer UC-5 (later captured) off of Dover. The ship was returning from Calais with 390 wounded soldiers when she hit the mine and sank in 15 minutes. Despite the assistance of HMS Hazard and a collier, 134 people died.

WAR AT SEA

8 November Italian passenger steamer SS Ancona is controversially sunk by submarine SM U-38, a German submarine flying an Austro-Hungarian flag, as Germany was not yet at war with Italy. The ship was attacked without warning off Cape Carbonara, and 200 lives were lost, including nine Americans. The sinking resulted in a diplomatic incident between Austria-Hungary and the United States.

EGYPT

6 November German submarine SM U-35, the most successful U-boat of the war, sinks the Egyptian Coastguard cruiser Abbas and damages the Noor-el-Bahr in the Gulf of Sollum. In the preceding week the U-boat sank boarding vessel HMS Tara, and 11 steamers. 17 November After being persuaded to raise jihad by the Ottoman Empire, the Senussi commence hostilities against the British by firing on and cutting the communications of the isolated British camp at Sollum, on Egypt’s west border. The resultant Senussi Campaign would last until February 1917. The Ottomans hoped to distract the British and encourage insurrection in Egypt.

WEST AFRICA

4 November Brigadier General Cunliffe besieges German forces entrenched in some 300 Sangers on the flat summited Banjo Mountain. Within two days much of the German force had deserted or surrendered and the resultant victory saw the breakdown of German resistance in the north of the country. This was a shock for the Germans, who had prepared for a long siege, and had even prepared the flat summit for farming and had over 220 cattle.

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NOVEMBER 1915 WORLD MAP BLOCKADE OF GERMANY 19 November Danish merchants and manufacturers agree to restrict supplies to Germany.

WAR AT SEA

7 November German Gazelle-class light cruiser SMS Undine is sunk off of Germany’s Rügen Island by the British submarine E19. Despite a magazine detonation, 256 of her crew of 270 survive and are picked up by German escort ships. Recent losses in the Baltic begin to inhibit German efforts to operate there.

SLOVENIA

10 November The Fourth Battle of the Isonzo begins, despite some minor Italian gains, the Austro-Hungarians hold while heavy casualties are sustained by both sides.

GALLIPOLI

4 November Lord Kitchener leaves for the Dardanelles with the intention of gaining first-hand knowledge of the situation. Prime Minister Asquith hopes he can convince Kitchener to command the theatre.

BALKANS

2 November British Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith declares Serbian Independence to be an essential war aim. 10 November Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian, and German forces launch their offensive against Serbian forces in Kosovo. By the 24th November they had captured Priština and Serbian troops were decisively defeated.

MESOPOTAMIA

11 November Headed by the 6th Poona Division, British and Indian troops begin their advance on Baghdad, a risky move that Foreign Secretary Edward Grey and others called for, but which was opposed by Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Archibald Murray. Kitchener advised that the city be taken for prestige, but then sensibly abandoned.

GERMAN EAST AFRICA

22 November General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien is appointed commander of British forces in East Africa, but does not take over his command due to contracting a serious case of pneumonia during the voyage to South Africa. The command position was filled by Smith-Dorrien’s former Second Boer War adversary, Jan Smuts, and SmithDorrien had no significant role for the rest of the war.

22 November: The bloody Battle of Ctesiphon begins as the Turks halt the British advance on Bagdhad. Although both forces retreated from the Battle and the overextended British withdrew to Kut in good order, it was the Ottomans who were able to capitalise on the situation, resupplying and reversing their retreat, advancing on Kut.

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LONE WOLF

WOLF

Blitz 'Ace'

LONE

TOP RIGHT: Richard Playne Stevens, airline pilot, 1938. ABOVE: A typical scene from the Blitz period as a night-fighter Hurricane of 151 Squadron taxies out for an interception patrol.

THE

BLITZ

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75th ANNIVERSARY 1940-2015

LONE WOLF Blitz 'Ace'

Flight Lieutenant Richard Playne Stevens is an almost unsung and unknown hero of the Blitz, although he was its leading night-fighter ‘ace’. What has been written about him has often been fanciful or just plain untrue. Now, for the first time, Andy Saunders and Terry Thompson tell the remarkable story of a remarkable pilot.

I

T WAS a moonlit night in September 1916 and the Dartford searchlights were probing to find the German Zeppelin airship Schütte-Lanz II as it drifted up the Thames Estuary towards London. Brothers James and Richard Stevens were asleep in their cottage near Gravesend when their mother called ‘Boys, quick….he’s coming down on fire!’ James recalled: ‘We rushed to the bedroom window to watch, and then how we all cheered as the airship finally split into two angry red balls of fire and fell to the ground north of the river.’ 

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LONE WOLF Blitz 'Ace'

"With that, he whipped out his special pistol and shot a rabbit from his horse which was twenty yards away. Cleanly, and straight through the head.’" ABOVE: Flt Lt R P Stevens, DSO, DFC & Bar, pictured in front of his Hurricane shortly before his death in action.

The boys had witnessed the first successful night fighter interception in history over British soil, carried out by Lt William Leefe-Robinson who was later awarded the Victoria Cross for his action. Twenty five years later and destiny was to take a hand when Richard would rise to become the RAF’s greatest night fighter pilot. By odd coincidence, he was destined to stalk his prey in the very same patch of sky that had witnessed the fall of LeefeRobinson’s Zeppelin.

‘AT HOME IN THE DARK’

Growing up in the family home at Rusthall, Kent, Richard and his family spent hours on country walks, often at night. James recalled that Richard was ‘….at home in the dark.’ Without a map, and on moonless nights, the family would 44 www.britainatwar.com

often get lost in the countryside surrounding the village. However, sister Helen recalled: ‘He had the night instinct of a cat!’ with the teenage Richard leading them back through the inky darkness to the welcoming sight of the Rusthall village lamps shining in the distance. Richard had also become a crack shot, and with his Webley air pistol fired at old 78rpm records suspended from a washing line. As the discs danced and spun he would delight at getting his pellets through the centre hole! If any missed he would be mortified as the discs shattered into black fragments onto the lawn. Already, Richard was developing gifts and talents that would later stand him in good stead; excellent night vision and excellent marksmanship. By 1928, though, an adventurous

spirit led him to go farming in Australia. He was now a young man with aspirations – albeit still searching for a role in life, having few close or special friends and being something of a loner. He was, though, becoming an ever more proficient shot. James remembers: ‘In Australia there was this girl he liked so he rode out on his horse to meet her from church. As usual, he carried his own personal armoury. Someone teased him ‘It’s all very well going around like Billy The Kid but you couldn’t hit a haystack at five yards.’ With that, he whipped out his special pistol and shot a rabbit from his horse which was twenty yards away. Cleanly, and straight through the head.’ Life in Australia, however, was becoming dull. He needed a new adventure.

LONE WOLF Blitz 'Ace'

FAR LEFT: Richard Steven’s children, twins John and Frances. On the right, Frances who was the apple of her father’s eye and her death in an accident on 1 October 1940, indirectly caused by German air action, fired yet further Richard’s consummate hatred for the enemy.

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF LAWRENCE

recalled: ‘He had a distinct fellowfeeling with both Jews and Arabs, On a spring morning in 1932 the his great hero being Lawrence of peace and quiet of the Stevens’ home Arabia. His book ‘The Seven Pillars in Kent was shattered by what of Wisdom’ had such a deep meaning sounded like pistol shots. Richard was for Richard that it became his second home! There, silhouetted in the open Bible. I think he wanted to follow in doorway, stood Richard cracking an the footsteps of T E Lawrence.’ Australian cattle-whip. His brother recalled: ‘It was his pride and joy, and he used to while away time in the garden chopping off daisy heads.’ Richard would ask: ‘Which one do you want?’ James would point to a particular daisy, and with a crack the daisy head would be sent spinning into the summer breeze. Now, with one adventure over, he was ready for the next and enlisted in the Palestine Police where he served for some four years. James

A MESSIANIC ZEAL

By 1936 he was back in Britain where he met and married Mabel Hyde and later learning to fly at Shoreham. Here, his instructor was Cecil Pashley, a famed aviator of his day and ‘founder’ of Shoreham Airport. Not only that, but by an extraordinary coincidence ‘Pash’ was first-cousin to Richard’s hero, Lawrence of Arabia. Eventually, Richard would qualify as pilot and went on to fly commercially with ‘Wrightways of Croydon’. Here, another pilot recalled seeing Stevens walking across the aerodrome wearing Arab head dress – an echo of his fascination with T E Lawrence. 

NEAR LEFT: A portrait of T.E. Lawrence who is better known as Laurence of Arabia. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BOTTOM: The painting by Eric Kennington of Flt Lt R P Stevens in his Hurricane, 1941.

LONE WOLF Blitz 'Ace'

ABOVE: Wreckage of the He 111 of 3./ KG55 downed by Stevens at Roes Rest Farm, Peckleton, Leicestershire, on the night of 8/9 April 1941. TOP MIDDLE: The crater caused by the crashing Dornier 17 at Hartswood, Essex, photographed in the snow the following morning.

These were the halcyon and pioneering days of civil aviation, but already Stevens was getting a reputation for his prodigious ability to see in the dark. Fellow pilots spoke of his instinctive and innate nocturnal capability; something which stood him in good stead on many night-time flights between Croydon and Paris. Guy Ashenden, a Wrightways radio officer, recalled why Stevens had already earned the sobriquet ‘Cats-Eyes’: ‘I flew with him in the DH86. It was said at the time that if you wanted to find a really thick fog you only had to go to Croydon airport. His night sight was nigh-on incredible. Not only did he seem to be able to see in the

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fog and mist, but he had the natural instinct of a homing pigeon.’ During this period, however, Stevens visited Germany and saw the rise of Nazism, witnessing the Jewish race being persecuted. He became determined, almost with a messianic zeal, to help destroy National Socialism. James recalled his brother’s prophetic words: ‘You people in this country do not realise the menace hanging over you. I’ve met them face to face. You just don’t understand.’

FAMILY TRAGEDY

December 1938, however, saw the birth of twins Frances and John – the boy’s second name being Lawrence, after his father’s hero

with Frances very much the apple of her father’s eye: ‘On leave he would walk up the lane to the peace and happiness of their country cottage and once he had opened the garden gate he would be welcomed by the present of flowers clutched in the tiny hands of his daughter. She was totally devoted to him and would be reduced to tears when he finally had to return to his squadron.’ Prior to the war, Richard enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve as a Sgt Pilot but continued working for Wrightways. When war was declared the airline was re-located to Barton Airport, Manchester, and for the first few months he flew with Wrightways on army co-operation flights. Then, in April 1940, he received his first RAF posting, being sent to Ringway Airport and 110 Anti-Aircraft Wing, 6 Anti-Aircraft Co-Operation Unit. Here, he was noted as ‘…a very good and professional pilot who just wanted to get on with the war.’ Meanwhile, his little family occupied a rented cottage in West Sussex and shortly afterwards, in a tragic accident, a paraffin stove overturned, causing a fire in which two year old Frances died. Her death was indirectly caused by the war, because light and heat to the house had been cut off in an air raid. Mabel was distraught, having witnessed the horrific death of her daughter, and Richard utterly devastated by the loss. As a result, he became estranged from Mabel but persistent stories that his wife and two children were killed in the night-Blitz are untrue. The loss of his beloved

LONE WOLF Blitz 'Ace'

"Most of my old flying acquaintances have been killed in action, and their loss impinges on my selfishness. My own estimation of myself and my sentiments is not immune from profanity.’"

instructors! He was an incredibly competent bad weather pilot and we could have taught him to fly the Hurricane within a week, but the ‘system’ demanded he stay the full course. This contributed to his impatience, as he regarded his time at Sutton Bridge an interruption in his programme of getting to work on his vendetta with the Germans.’ Finally, in November 1940, he was posted to 151 Squadron*, RAF Wittering, as a night-fighter pilot on Hurricanes. (*NB: Post-war, Stevens was attributed as a Battle of Britain pilot, although he did not qualify as such.) The Blitz was now in full spate, and Stevens was raring to go. Retribution would be sweet. One of the other pilots on 151 Squadron at that time, Flt Lt ‘Black’ Smith, recalled: ‘We were in the kingdom of the blind at this stage,  Frances as a result of German activity, though, had given him incentive to get back at the enemy and, by late 1940, he was posted to an Operational Training Unit flying Hurricanes. Revenge was in sight.

VENDETTA WITH THE GERMANS

At RAF Sutton Bridge his instructor, Derek Dowding, recalled: ‘He was someone outstanding in the flow of trainees. We were used to dealing with very young and inexperienced pilots and onto this scene burst thirty-one year old Stevens – vastly more experienced than any of his

ABOVE: The He 111 shot down into the sea off Canvey Island by Flt Lt Stevens on the night of 15/16 January 1941 is hauled aboard a salvage vessel LEFT: Stevens wrote to Eric Kennington from his base at RAF Wittering thanking him for his paintings.

BOTTOM LEFT: The tail fin of the Roes Rest Farm Heinkel was salvaged as a trophy for 151 Squadron, and is seen here with the addition of the squadron emblem and motto: ‘Foy pour devoir’, or: ‘Fidelity into Duty’.

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LONE WOLF Blitz 'Ace'

First, over Essex, he found a Dornier 17, and sent it flaming into the ground at Hartswood. There were no survivors and Stevens, wheeling, banking and diving in the attack, momentarily blacked out from excessive ‘G’ and in the dive from 30,000ft over stressed his Hurricane to such an extent that the aircraft was immediately grounded. After completing his attack he had been seen from the ground performing a slow victoryroll against the cold glare of the moon’s light. Taking up another Hurricane later that same night he found further prey, a Heinkel 111, and sent it smashing into the sea off Canvey Island.

STEVENS’ ROCKET

ABOVE: The commemorative scroll presented to Stevens’ next of kin after his death in action. BELOW: The wreckage of Flt Lt R P Stevens 253 Squadron Hurricane, Z3465, near Gilze Rijen airfield in the Netherlands, morning of 16 December 1941.

with the majority of pilots more concerned about not flying into the ground than looking for enemy aircraft. Then, onto this scene walked one Plt Off R P Stevens, older than any of us and vastly more experienced as a pilot. We had freedom of flight, but none of us put it to so much good as he did.’ On the night of 15/16 January 1941 he found success for the first time. Now, his finely honed flying skills, remarkable night-vision and expert marksmanship all came together in two actions that saw the very nascence of a night fighter ‘ace’.

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That night, landing at Gravesend, Stevens strode into the dispersal hut to find exhausted Defiant pilots and gunners lounging around doing nothing. Wg Cdr Cosby recalled: ‘Suddenly, in strode a chap wearing an Irvin jacket and flying boots. Looking around, he demanded: ‘Why aren’t you lot airborne?’ He was told in no uncertain words of one syllable and more than a few expletives what he could do. We asked him who the hell he was, where he came from, and in what. He told us from Wittering, in a Hurricane. We told him to bloody well go back there. He said his name was Stevens. We had never heard of him.’ The episode of the Hartswood Dornier was immortalised in a painting by renowned war artist, Eric Kennington, in a work called ‘Stevens Rocket’ which was later published, along with a Kennington

portrait of Stevens, in the London Illustrated News. Stevens was later admitted to the RAF Hospital, Halton, suffering from a burst eardrum caused by diving from 30,000ft on his first engagement. He then wrote to his father ‘….I have no fear of the night or the Hun, for it is to share the pleasure I have given the squadron and I have good hope for the future. Most of my old flying acquaintances have been killed in action, and their loss impinges on my selfishness. My own estimation of myself and my sentiments is not immune from profanity.’ Modestly, he then tells his father ‘I resent congratulations for a job that 9/10ths of the RAF could have done as easily or better’ and went on to say: ‘I have two Huns to my credit and now they have added a DFC. Sorry.’

BLACK HELMETED FIGURE

His first ‘kill’ after getting back on operations was a German bomber seen against the moon’s reflection on the sea far below. The raider stood no chance. Then, on 8 April, another victory against a Heinkel 111 which was headed to Coventry, with the aircraft shot down and crashing in Leicestershire. Here, history repeated itself as another young boy watched from his bedroom window while Stevens destroyed the bomber, sending it down in flames onto the front lawn of Roe’s Rest Farm. Two days later and he literally flew through the exploding debris of a Heinkel when claiming yet another night raider. His score was rising dramatically, with one of his victims finding out what it was like to be on

LONE WOLF Blitz 'Ace'

the receiving end of a Stevens attack, the traumatised Junkers 88 gunner telling his story: ‘We were flying very slowly at under one hundred feet in misty conditions and I thought we were invisible. Suddenly, I looked up and saw the shadow of a night fighter right on top of us. I just couldn’t believe it as the cockpit and propeller slowly moved inside our tail plane. When he opened up with his cannon I thought he had collided with us because our debris was all over him, but there, quite clearly to be seen against the background glare of our burning aircraft, was a black helmeted figure, quite clearly silhouetted in the open cockpit.’ Immediately after shooting down the Ju 88 in the event so graphically described by the rear gunner, the squadron diary recorded: ‘Pilot Officer Stevens has been awarded a bar to his DFC’. Already, he had established himself as the Prince of nightfighters.

PROPELLER BLADES COVERED IN BLOOD

In what was a short and meteoric career, Stevens had become a legendary figure in RAF Fighter Command and steadily racked up his score. Newspapers lauded him as the ‘Cats Eyes’ night-fighter pilot, whilst a senior RAF commander described him as ‘The Lone Wolf’ with tales of his exploits abounding in the service and national press. Once, when a

bomber had exploded just in front of him, the bloody remains of one German airman was found splattered across his Hurricane. He refused to let his ground-crew wash it off and his fitter, Cyril Mead, recalled: ‘How he landed in the dark I do not know. The windscreen had a large calibre bullet hole in it. The oil tank was punctured and dented and we found hair and bits of bone and human remains stuck to the leading edge of the port wing, whilst the tips of the propeller blades were covered in blood.’ Meanwhile, Stevens painted a colourful winged creature on his Hurricane’s engine cowling, RAF ensign wrapped in its tail, and spearing a swastika-bedecked eagle. Hardly subtle, the garishly surreal artwork perhaps reflected his colourful character, a feature one of his Fighter Controllers recalled. One night, he told Stevens the weather was too bad to fly. Stevens was having none of it, and took off against instructions. On another occasion his airfield was bombed whilst the squadron was on the ground and Stevens raced to his Hurricane to get airborne, only to be told he couldn’t take off because the runway lights were not lit. ‘I don’t need bloody lights’ he retorted ‘I’ll get that bastard!’ Stevens continued to claim victories and at the end of June 1941 sent a Junkers 88 crashing into the waves ten miles off Happisburgh. It was victory number twelve, but on nights

when there were no operations he was to be found studying German aircraft to determine their weak points, or else reading the works of his hero, T E Lawrence, whom he regarded as ‘his own man’; a man determined to do what was right, even if it flew in the face of authority. At the end of July he got number thirteen by keeping the enemy silhouetted against the distant and flickering Northern Lights before the waters by Haisboro Lighthouse eventually closed over another Junkers 88. The squadron diary recorded after victory fourteen: ‘Pilot Officer Stevens knocks down another, the clumsy devil. Why doesn’t he look where he’s going?!’ 

TOP LEFT: A newspaper cartoon of the period, referencing Flt Lt Richard Stevens and his exceptional night vision capability. TOP RIGHT: The rather garish artwork painted by Flt Lt Stevens as his personal emblem onto the engine cowling of the Hurricane he usually flew.

DEATH OF STEVENS SOON AFTER the death of Stevens, the war artist Eric Kennington wrote to his mother and father: ‘To him ‘lone wolf’ was deep in his nature. When I first went to Wittering he ran across the room of the officer’s mess greeting me with no hesitation. He had read The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom and connected me with T E Lawrence. I think that book by another lone wolf revealed to him the pattern of his own separate existence and made him understand all about a person who’s spirit is solitary. Stevens had high gifts and intelligence which was manifesting itself for the moment in super-normally sensing the ‘planes in the dark, and with the most sustained intention of using all his unusual power to defeat the Germans. His lightning brain only selected what it would teach him; new devices, parts of machines etc. He wished to go up every night when there were raiders over Britain while other responsible folk did not believe that he could see to land in fog and rain. I shall feel the presence of Stevens all my life.’

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LONE WOLF Blitz 'Ace'

BELOW: The original grave marker on Flt Lt Stevens’ grave at Bergenop-Zoom Cemetery, The Netherlands.

‘HIS WAS THE SKY’

By late summer the German night raids had all but stopped, but Stevens had learned his craft and learned it well in little over six months, but no longer were there bomber streams to find over Britain. Here, he had often flown deliberately and recklessly into British antiaircraft barrages knowing that this was where the Germans would be, picking out individual machines with his exceptional night vision, control his Hurricane into the right position and pick off the raiders with consummate marksmanship. In fact, just flying a Hurricane at night was challenging – let alone finding and engaging the enemy. Often, cockpit canopies would be left open for better visibility, but allowed exhaust carbon monoxide to be sucked into the cockpit as temperatures plummeted to sub-zero. Also, The Hurricane could not be left alone to fly itself, a distracting factor at night. But with Stevens being master of machine, night sky and foe

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it was inevitable he would now be sent over occupied enemy territory to seek out bombers as they took off or landed. It was called ‘Intruding’, and to undertake this new role he was posted to 253 Squadron. Gp Capt Tom Gleave was Station Commander at Manston at that time: ‘Night intruding was in its infancy and ‘Steve’ was one of the pioneers. He was someone I admired tremendously. Although quiet, and very much a loner, he was imbued with this hatred of the Hun.’ That determination, and his success rate, led to the award of a DSO on 12 December 1941. Sadly, he would not live to receive the award. Eventually, in his all-black Hurricane, Stevens set out for what would be his last operation on 15 December 1941, intruding over the Gilze-Rijen bomber base in the Netherlands. Here, he joined the circuit and shot down one Junkers 88 and damaged another before something went terribly wrong, his Hurricane crashing near the airfield

and killing him instantly. Tom Gleave was in the Officer’s Mess: ‘The ops room rang through to say they had heard ‘Steve’ calling, but could not make out what he was saying. Then, nothing more was heard from him. As the night ticked away the sad truth eventually dawned on us all.’ The bright star that had been Richard Stevens, ‘The Lone Wolf’, had been snuffed out. He was one of the RAF’s high scoring aces, its highest scoring night fighter pilot at that time and the only pilot to achieve such results without the aid of radar or another crew member and using only skill, instinct and innate marksmanship. Writing of Stevens, author H E Bates summed it up thus: ‘He is dead now – you are the living. His was the sky – yours is the earth because of him.’  Britain at War are sad to report that Terry Thompson unfortunately died under tragic circumstances on 1 October 2015. We send our heartfelt condolences to his family.

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IMAGE OF WAR

SHEIKH JARRAH East Jerusalem, 1918

6th Australian Light Horse Regiment journeys to Mount Scopus. Having fought in Egypt and deploying without their distinctive Waler Horses at Gallipoli, they returned to Sinai and fought in Palestine and Jordan. Although organised as such, Australia never operated cavalry, only mounted rifles. As a result, the famous charge of the 4th and 12th at Beersheba was made with bayonet, not sword. (VIA THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

www.britainatwar.com 53

CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE Violette Szabó GC

CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE

The extraordinary life and courage of Violette Szabó GC was famously told through the classic 1958 film ‘Carve Her Name With Pride’ although, if anything, the real story of Violette was even more remarkable than its portrayal on the big screen. Now, with his recent purchase of Violette Szabó’s George Cross medal group, Lord Ashcroft tells her story and offers ‘Britain at War’ a unique look at some of the material included in the medal sale.  www.britainatwar.com 55

CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE Violette Szabó GC

56 www.britainatwar.com

CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE Violette Szabó GC

‘S

HE WAS the bravest of us all,’ said Odette Churchill of her fellow George Cross (GC) recipient, Violette Szabó. They were words of praise indeed coming from a woman who had herself endured brutal torture at the hands of the Nazis after being captured while working for the French Resistance during the Second World War. Yet Churchill knew – and graciously publicly recognised – that Szabó’s protracted courage was second to none, resulting in her becoming one of only four women in history to receive a direct award of the GC. In July this year, in my role as a champion of bravery and a gallantry medal collector, I purchased Szabó’s medal group at auction, paying a world-record auction price for a GC for the privilege. By becoming the custodian of these treasured awards for her courage as an undercover Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent, I guaranteed that the medals would remain in Britain and that they would go on permanent public display for the first time. With Szabó’s medal

beautiful, with dark hair and olive skin, Bushell had an inner strength that was to remain a vital part of her character for all her life. “She should have been a boy,” her parents agreed, after time and again admiring her toughness. After criss-crossing England and France, the family finally settled in Stockwell, south London, from 1932. After leaving school in 1935 aged fourteen, Bushell got a job in a French corsetiere and, then, a branch of Woolworths but she switched to working at the Bon Marché store in Brixton, south London, in 1939. When the war broke out later that year, she was still only 18. From early in the war, Bushell was determined to make her mark and she and a friend, Winnie Wilson, joined the Land Army. On 14 July 1940, and to mark Bastille Day, Bushell’s mother urged her to go to the Cenotaph in central London and invite a French soldier home for a meal. Bushell accomplished the task when, accompanied by Winnie, she got talking to a French soldier and asked him back.

TOP LEFT: Violette with Tania at her flat in Notting Hill, circa 1943. TOP RIGHT: Violette on her wedding day, with Etienne. BACKGROUND: A book of French coupons, as carried by Violette on her first mission to Rouen in April 1944.

“Violette was a ‘natural’ for this type of work. She had fluent French, was a born athlete, a very good shot and had the self confidence of a healthy, adventurous, beautiful and life-loving young woman.” group came a wonderful collection of previously-unpublished documents, letters, photographs and other memorabilia. Now that this medal group has gone on display at the Imperial War Museum in London [from 7 October 2015], I am using this and other material to tell the full story of Szabó’s life and courage. And what a story it is: for Szabó not only received the GC and the French Croix de Guerre but she also, later, inspired the film Carve Her Name with Pride, starring Virginia McKenna, and was honoured with a museum in her name. In short, Szabó is undoubtedly one of the greatest heroines of modern history.

DETERMINED TO MAKE HER MARK

Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell was born in Paris on June 26 1921. Her father was English, her mother French; the couple had met when he was serving in France during the First World War. The young Violette – her married name was to be Szabó – had an older brother and three younger brothers but, being so sporty, she often competed against the four boys on equal terms. As well as being

The man, Sergeant Major Etienne Szabó, a member of the French Foreign Legion, fell in love with Bushell and less than six weeks later – on 21 August 1940 – they were married in Aldershot, Hampshire, when he was 30 and she was 19.

KILLED AT EL ALAMEIN

Inevitably, their time together was short for Szabó’s husband had to go to fight in North Africa and they did not see each other for a year. They were briefly reunited in Liverpool in the summer of 1941 before Etienne Szabó had to return to duty. They never saw each other again: she was pregnant when he departed, and he was killed at El Alamein in October 1942, four months after the birth of their only child, Tania. Szabó now faced an uncertain life as a young widow and single mother, aged 21. In October 1941, a year before her husband’s death, Szabó, ever keen to ‘do her bit’ for the war effort, had joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), serving with 481 (M) Heavy Anti Aircraft Battery. However, Szabó had to leave the battery for several months for the birth of her daughter, but she then left the baby girl with a friend in Havant, Hampshire, because London was too dangerous. 

BOTTOM LEFT: Two images of Violette as a young girl. BOTTOM MIDDLE: Violette’s National Registration Identity Card, signed by her in May 1943. BOTTOM RIGHT: A military pass issued to her while serving in an Anti-Aircraft Battery, R.A.

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CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE Violette Szabó GC

ABOVE: Violette recuperates in Bournemouth after injuring her ankle in a parachute training course; with an image of her parachute badge, the badge discovered by her father at the family home, thereby revealing the true nature of her military employment.

TRAINING AS A SECRET AGENT

ABOVE: Violette at a wedding wearing a pair of wedge shoes she purchased in Paris during her first mission to Rouen in April 1944.

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In late 1942, the SOE, which had been set up in 1940 with the aims of sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, became aware of the recentlywidowed Violette Szabó. In early 1943, she received a letter from a ‘Mr E. Potter’ inviting her for an interview at the SOE’s offices in central London. With her knowledge of French, she was exactly the kind of person the SOE wanted to recruit. Mr Potter – in fact, Selwyn Jepson, the SOE’s senior recruiting officer – explained the job requirements and Szabó expressed a desire to join the organisation. One week later, she met with the SOE for a second time where she was informed of the risks of working behind enemy lines. However, she was desperate to return to France and gain revenge for her husband’s death. Szabó joined the SOE in June 1943, when her daughter was exactly a year old, and she soon underwent training as a secret agent. Brigadier Sir John ‘Jackie’ Smyth,

the VC recipient and author, wrote: “Violette was a ‘natural’ for this type of work. She had fluent French, was a born athlete, a very good shot and had the self confidence of a healthy, adventurous, beautiful and life-loving young woman.” In the run-up to her first mission, Szabó met Leo Marks, the SOE code master: all agents were trained to code and decode messages. Marks apparently gave Szabó as her code poem the verse that he had written after learning that his girlfriend had died in a place crash in Canada. It read: The life that I have is all that I have, And the life that I have is yours. The love that I have of the life that I have, Is yours and yours and yours. A sleep I shall have, a rest I shall have, Yet death will be but a pause, For the peace of my years, in the long green grass, Will be yours and yours and yours.

FIRST MISSION

By the autumn of 1943, Szabó was well aware of the dangers that lay

CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE Violette Szabó GC

ahead. I now possess the original hand-written, and witnessed, note that she wrote on 17 November 1943: ‘I hereby appoint Miss Vera Maidment [a friend] & her Mother Mrs Alice Maidment the legal guardian of my child Tania Damaris Desiree Szabó, in the event of my death.’ She signed it simply: ‘V. Szabó’. Her first mission took place in April 1944, two months before D-Day, having been given the identity of “Corinne Reine Leroy”, the last two names belonging to her mother. She was dropped into France on April 5 on a high-risk operation at a dangerous time. Her job was to act as a courier to a French Resistance leader whose group, based in Rouen, had been broken up. Because it was not safe for Philippe Liewer, the man accompanying her, to be seen in Rouen, Szabó was given the role of visiting the city. She had to travel alone from Paris to Rouen and make contact with those Liewer

thought had been “unmolested” by the disbandment of the group. At the time, Rouen was in Occupied France and was in the specially restricted area of the Channel ports. Szabó carried out her first mission calmly and competently: she made her contacts and prepared a comprehensive report on what she found. Furthermore, she brought back a German “Wanted” poster, taken from a street in Rouen, which bore a photograph of Liewer and his wireless operator based on their false identity papers. This was valuable information because it showed that at that time the Gestapo had not been able to establish their true identities. Szabó’s mission was so successful that after less than four weeks in France, she, along with Liewer and his wireless operator, were picked up in a Lysander aircraft and brought back to Britain. Szabó was reunited with her parents, who were by now caring for her daughter. The family’s time together was, however, all too short.

PARACHUTING FROM A LIBERATOR

Szabó’s superiors soon had another mission for her – this one even more dangerous than the last. She was left under no illusions that she might well not return. She had made a will earlier in the year – leaving everything she possessed to her daughter – and told her parents that if they did not hear from her they must not inquire into her whereabouts. Her farewell to her daughter at around the time of Tania’s second birthday was deeply emotional because she realised she might never see her again and that, if this happened, Tania would be orphaned. In the early hours of June 8 1944, shortly after the D-Day landings, Szabó was back on French soil with new orders to assist the Resistance. She was to act as a courier for the same chief and wireless operator whom she had worked for in Rouen. Her code name for the mission was again “Corinne”, while she was given the fake identity of “Madame Villeret”. 

TOP RIGHT: A legal statement written and signed by Violette in respect of the guardianship of her daughter, Tania, together with a covering letter from her solicitors. TOP LEFT: The false identity card carried by Violette during her first mission. ABOVE LEFT: A “wanted” poster depicting Violette’s S.O.E. circuit leader and wireless operator, an example of which she smuggled out of Rouen in April 1944.

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CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE Violette Szabó GC

TOP LEFT: Violette’s condolence slip, as forwarded by the Army Council with her campaign medals to her parents. MEDALS: Left to right, Violette’s 1939-45 Star; France and Germany Star; War Medal 1939-45; French Croix de Guerre and George Cross.

After parachuting from a Liberator aircraft, she headed for an established Maquis – a guerrilla group – in central France, south of Châteauroux. Its role was to orchestrate attacks on German troops who were moving up to reinforce units opposing the Allied landings in the Normandy area. The Maquis was spread in small groups over a wide area: Szabó’s role was to carry instructions and money to the groups north of the main Maquis. Szabó was offered a lift by car from a young French Resistance fighter called Jacques Dufour, codenamed “Anastasie”, who knew the terrain well. On June 10 1944, after just three days back in the country, Szabó was being driven by Dufour from Sussac to Salon-la-Tour. On the way, they stopped to pick up a friend of Dufour’s, Jean Bariaud, and Szabó insisted on taking her own Sten gun concealed in the car in case they encountered trouble.

ENGAGING THE ENEMY FAR RIGHT: Violette Szabo, a portrait in oils (artist unknown - a family friend).

As the group headed into the village of Salon-la-Tour, they saw a German roadblock at a crossroads. They decided to stop the car and make a run for it: Bariaud escaped, while Szabó and Dufour, who had the Sten gun, fired at the Germans, killing or wounding at least one soldier. As they

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retreated towards a wood, Szabó was wounded. Aware that she was slowing down Dufour and determined that he should escape, she ordered him to flee while she continued engaging the enemy with the Sten gun, crouched beneath an apple tree. When she eventually ran out of ammunition, she was captured. When confronted by a smirking SS officer, she laughed and then spat in his face with typical defiance. Bariaud raised the alarm when he returned to Sussac, while Dufour also escaped, apparently by hiding in a haystack or a wood-pile. I now possess the original translation of a letter, dated 19 April 1958, in which a fellow prisoner, Madame Marie Lecomte, told Szabó’s parents how their daughter had been involved in a ‘terrific battle’ which had preceded Szabó’s capture. Lecomte, who described herself as like a ‘second mother’ to Szabó, also told how the young woman was ‘brutally assaulted’ and ‘suffered terribly’ at the hands of her interrogators. She said she was sorry to ‘reopen all your wounds again’ but she was fulfilling a promise to ‘your very Dear daughter’ to pass on such information to her parents. The letter was written, following the translation, in the hand of Szabó’s mother, Reine Bushell.

TO RAVENSBRÜCK CONCENTRATION CAMP

Despite injuries received in the battle before her capture, Szabó had been taken to the military prison in Limoges where she was brutally interrogated. Eyewitnesses saw her limping across the courtyard to the Gestapo offices for her twice daily interrogations. A plan was made by the Resistance to spring her from prison, but on the day of the escape bid she was transferred to Fresnes prison, near Paris. After further torture at the Gestapo headquarters in Avenue Foch, she went back to Fresnes where she spent her twenty-third, and final, birthday racked with pain. Through her ordeal, she repeatedly told herself: ‘I must not show any fear.’ She told her torturers nothing of use to them. The conditions in which Szabó was kept for the next five months were appalling, but there is no firm evidence that she continued to be tortured. After a short stay in Saarbrücken, she went to Ravensbrück on, or about, 25 August 1944. Those moved with her included Denise Bloch and Lilian Rolfe, fellow SOE operatives. At one point, the train had come under heavy bombing from the RAF and the German guards, fearing for their own lives, jumped off it. On board were 37 male PoWs crammed into two compartments. Szabó, who was shackled to another

CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE Violette Szabó GC

woman prisoner, managed to fill a jug of water in the train’s toilet and crawled back to give it to the desperately thirsty and undernourished PoWs. One of them, Wing Commander Forest Yeo Thomas (the so-called ‘White Rabbit’ and himself later awarded the GC) always remembered the incident and Szabó’s kindness, and he later reported it back to London.

SENTENCED TO DEATH

After a short stay at Ravensbrück, Szabó was transferred to a working camp at Torgau and participated in a mass protest against working with munitions. As a result, she and her fellow protesters were sent to a punishment camp at Königsberg. In the sub-zero winter temperatures, the women PoWs worked in thin clothes chopping wood and clearing the land. For nourishment, they received only weak soup and tiny amounts of bread. In January 1945, the three women were transferred back to Ravensbrück. By now Szabó was in a desperately weak physical condition and she was convinced she was going to die. Some time between 25 January and 5 February, the three women – Szabó, Bloch and Rolfe – were taken to Ravensbrück’s execution alley, where their death sentences were read to them. Finally, they were shot in the

back of the neck as they kneeled, one executed after the other, before their bodies were cremated. It is understood Szabó was shot last, having first seen the other two women executed. She was some five months short of her 24th birthday when she was killed. It was only on 13 April 1946 that the precise fate of the three women became known, this from the second-incommand at Ravensbrück. At the time, he was being questioned in Hamburg by Vera Atkins of the SOE, who was determined to learn what had happened to the courageous trio. Szabó’s GC was announced on 17 December 1946 when the citation ended: ‘She was arrested and had to undergo solitary confinement. She was then continuously and atrociously tortured but never by word or deed gave away any of her acquaintances or told the enemy anything of any value. She was ultimately executed. Madame Szabó gave a magnificent example of courage and steadfastness.’

'She was then continuously and atrociously tortured but never by word or deed gave away any of her acquaintances or told the enemy anything of any value. She was ultimately executed.’

‘IT’S FOR MUMMY…’

I now posses the original letter from the War Office to Mr and Mrs Bushell, dated 18 December 1946, informing them of their daughter’s posthumous GC. It concludes: ‘Though no award can in any way assuage your grief, it is gratifying to know that the gallant  www.britainatwar.com 61

CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE Violette Szabó GC

TOP LEFT: A picture of Violette’s daughter, Tania wearing her mother’s medals at a function after the war.

TOP RIGHT: Tania, holding a presentation copy of The Roman MIssal, as presented to her by members of her mother’s old Anti-Aircraft Battery after the war.

services of your daughter have been brought to the notice of His Majesty, who has recognised them in according this honour.’ On 28 January 1947, Tania Szabó, by now five years old and wearing the dress her mother had purchased in Paris on her first mission to France, received her mother’s GC from George VI in an investiture at Buckingham Palace. ‘It’s for your mother. Take great care of it,’ the King told the young girl. Later, Tania clutched the GC and told photographers: ‘It’s for mummy. I’ll keep if for her until she comes home.’ In 1949, Charles and Reine Bushell emigrated to Australia to begin a new life, taking Tania, their granddaughter, with them.

GEORGE CROSS HEROES Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is a businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. His five books on gallantry include George Cross Heroes: for more information, visit www.georgecrossheroes. com com. Lord Ashcroft’s VC and GC collection is on public display at the Imperial War Museum, London. For more information, visit www. iwm.org.uk/heroes. For more information on Lord Ashcroft’s work, visit www. lordashcroft.com. Follow him on Twitter: @LordAshcroft

62 www.britainatwar.com

The memorials to Szabó include a plaque at Lambeth Town Hall, in the south London borough where she spent much of her childhood. Szabó’s remarkable story was turned into a film, Carve Her Name with Pride, based on the book by RJ Minney and starring Virginia McKenna. The 1958 film helped perpetuate the moving story of the so-called “Code Poem” written by Leo Marks. Virginia McKenna was among many who supported an appeal launched in 1998 to open a museum in Szabó’s honour in the grounds of the home of one of the secret agent’s aunts. The museum eventually opened in Herefordshire on June 24 2000 – the closest Saturday to what would have been Szabó’s seventy-ninth birthday.

CUSTODIAN OF THE AWARDS

I purchased Szabó’s medal group at a Dix Noonan Webb auction in London on July 22 this year, paying £260,000 (plus a buyer’s premium of £52,000), for the honour of becoming the custodian of the awards. They were sold by Tania Szabó, who is now 73, to help secure her future and meet the cost of repairing fire damage at her home. I was delighted with her public response once she learned that I was the purchaser of the medal group: ‘I’m very happy with the result. They’re going into a safe place where people

will be able to view them – many thousands of people – so a good result.’ It was the first time that a GC medal group had ever fetched a six-figure sum at auction. The GC was instituted by George VI on 24 September 1940 and intended to be awarded to civilians and servicemen, and women, who displayed great bravery that was not in the face of the enemy. During the past 75 years, Szabó is one of only four women to have been directly awarded the GC, three of whom received it posthumously. I feel privileged to be the custodian of her medal group and I am delighted that is has gone on public display in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum, London. As her daughter Tania has stated, Szabó lived a life that was ‘short but lived to the full, with much happiness, joy, some deep sadness and great endeavour’. It was Charles Bushell, Szabó’s father, who summed up his daughter and her courage in a poem, Faithful Even Unto Death, written long after she died. Towards the end of the poem, he wrote: “The fatal shots were fired, and to the world was lost, Madame Violette Szabó, how well she earned her Cross. Never to be forgotten, this girl aged twenty-four Torture could not break her, she was British to the core.” 

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BLITZ

To co 1940 mmemo and - 1941 w rate the p deva laces as e take a 75th an and stating a sociated look at niversary citie t s.  ttacks on with thewenty ic of The Britis Luftw onic o Blitz o f h tow affe 's bjects ns

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THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

BLITZ 75th ANNIVERSARY TOP RIGHT: A He 111 unloads its bombs during a daylight Blitz raid. (CHRIS GOSS)

RIGHT: These vehicles caught in a Blitz attack are beyond any help from the Automobile Association outside which organisation's head office they were parked. BELOW: St Paul's stands prominently against smoke rising from Dockland fires on 7 September 1940.

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SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

erman Second World War air attacks on the British Isles, when they first came in October 1939, were not entirely without precedent. During the First World War the country had seen its first air raids when Zeppelin airships and Gotha bombers attacked London and several other towns and cities. What was without precedent, however, was the sustained onslaught we now know as the Blitz which got underway on 7 September 1940 and lasted through to 21 May 1941 when Germany was turning its attention eastwards and towards the Soviet Union. Between 7 September 1940 and 21 May 1941 there were major air raids, in which more than 100 tons of high explosives were dropped on sixteen British cities. Over a period of 267 days (almost 37 weeks), London was attacked 71 times, Birmingham, Liverpool and Plymouth eight times, Bristol six, Glasgow five, Southampton four, Portsmouth and Hull three, and there was also at least one large raid on another eight cities. This was the result of rapid escalation starting on 24 August 1940, when night bombers aiming for RAF airfields accidentally destroyed several London homes, killing civilians; Winston Churchill’s immediate response was the bombing Berlin the following night.

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Starting on 7 September 1940, London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 57 consecutive nights with more than one million London houses destroyed or damaged, and more than 40,000 civilians killed, almost half in London. Ports and industrial centres outside London were also heavily attacked. The port of Liverpool was heavily bombed along with other ports including Bristol, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Southampton and Swansea along with the industrial cities of Birmingham, Belfast, Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester and Sheffield. Birmingham and Coventry were heavily targeted because of factories in Birmingham and the many munitions plants in Coventry, with the city centre of Coventry almost completely destroyed. Given the scale of these attacks it is little wonder that traces of this momentous and traumatic period in Britain’s wartime history are still to be found, some in plain sight and others hidden away or rather less obvious. In this special supplement, therefore, we take a

look at twenty iconic or significant Blitz related objects or locations. Each tells its own particular story of one or other aspect of the Blitz, and, as memory of those related events fades or dies, so the tangible reminders live on. Here, in this issue of Britain at War, we describe in detail some of those reminders that still connect us to events of seventy five years ago. We are gratefully indebted to Gordon Ramsey for his assistance in assembling this special supplement and for providing images and information on many of the twenty objects covered. 

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

PORTUGAL STREET LONDON BOMB SPLINTER DAMAGE

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ven after the passage of seventy five years there are still traces of the Blitz on London. Some are in plain sight, and visible to the passer-by if they know where to look and what to look out for. Of course, post-war rebuilding, along with subsequent development and re-development, has swept away many such traces; the Blitzed bombsites which littered the London landscape for years after the War are now long gone. Some remnants of the Blitz, however, have become landmarks in their own right, and one such can be found in Portugal Street, WC2, just to the south of Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Here, at the junction of Portugal Street and Carey Street, stands a building which had been the head office of W H Smith & Son between 1920 and 1976 but which, on the night of 10 October 1940, was damaged during an air raid. Affixed to the outside of the building was a bronze metal plate stating that orders could be taken for the despatch of newspapers, books and magazines to all parts of the world and, during that air raid, the plate was peppered with bomb splinters. With a sense of history the damaged plate was salvaged and later affixed to the repaired building, with an explanatory notice installed beneath which explained the significance of the damaged sign. Oddly, comparatively little is known of the Blitz that night in terms of the detail which was generally contained in the Home Office Daily Appreciation Summary covering the specifics of enemy action against Britain. This was because, on this particular night, the Home Office instructed that the summary for the period in question was not issued although the reasons for this cannot be ascertained. What we do have, however, is a German bulletin covering the corresponding period:

No. 1

‘From early morning until dusk waves of reprisal attacks by light and heavy bombers continued uninterruptedly against the British Capital. Immediately following these raids, night attacks of heavy bombers started, lasting until the early hours of 10 October. Very heavy damage was caused in the docks in the bend of the Thames. Bomb explosions also caused extensive destruction to railway installations and tracks in the centre of town. During the night, numerous extensive conflagrations were observed.’ Apart from this German account, and despite the absence of any Home Office Daily Appreciation for the 10 October period, some tangible evidence of that night’s action remains preserved for all to see on a wall in a busy London Street. 

LEFT: The bomb splinter damaged plaque.

BELOW: The notice explaining the significance of the damaged sign.

LEFT: On the night of the Portugal Street raid, this Ju 88 (9K + HS, 0299) of 8./ KG51 was hit by anti-aircraft fire during a sortie to bomb London and crashed into the River Roach, Essex, at Horseshoe Corner after all four crew had baled-out into captivity.

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THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

LUFTWAFFE BLITZ PAPERS No. 2 TOP RIGHT & BELOW: Herbert Busch’s identity card. It still noted his rank as Unteroffizier, not yet having been amended to reflect his promoted rank of Oberfeldwebel which he held at the time of his death.

BELOW: A Junkers 88, marked up in its night camouflage paint scheme of 1941. BOTTOM RIGHT: A Beaufighter of 604 Squadron.

AIRMAN'S IDENTITY DOCUMENT

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nother of Britain’s other cities to be badly hit during the Blitz period was Liverpool, with its important docks being a prime target for the Luftwaffe. One of the heavy raids conducted against the city and its associated port took place on the night of 12/13 March 1941, with twenty nine Junkers 88s of II/ KG76 being a component part of the raiding force. When, on 7 September 1940, the Luftwaffe commenced its all-out assault which we now know as The Blitz it did so, initially, by bombing around the clock. By day, formations of fighter escorted bombers attacked British towns and cities (principally London) but continued the raids by night. Under cover of darkness, a fighter escort was neither needed nor was it practicably available, but the German bomber’s attrition rate against British night defences was relatively low. As a consequence, and also due to the mounting losses incurred, the escorted daylight attacks had all but drawn down by October 1940, with the overwhelming weight of attacks being

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carried out by the night bomber. Additionally, at this same time, Germany was laying its plans for an attack in the East against the Soviet Union and preparing, conserving and marshalling its forces for that purpose. Nevertheless, the night campaign continued, although Britain’s nascent night-fighter force was only just starting to find its feet and the AntiAircraft defences were not achieving any great successes - London’s AA gunners, for example, firing a quarter of a million shells at night during September 1940, most of them into thin air, with their efforts accounting for under a dozen aircraft. Night fighters were not faring much better at this time, but one of the relatively few successes did occur during the Liverpool raid of 12/13 March 1941. At 20.21 hours a Junkers 88 of 6/ KG76 was intercepted at 13,000 ft as it crossed the south coast with a Beaufighter of 604 Squadron attacking from astern, causing the aircraft to catch fire almost immediately as Fg Off K I Geddes and Sgt A C Cannon left their victim to fall flaming to the ground at Kingston Deverill, Wiltshire. Of the crew, Hptm Herbert Hermann (the pilot) baled out but his parachute failed to open with the wireless operator, Fw Karl Berger, being taken POW, albeit injured. Meanwhile, the aircraft crashed and exploded scattering

wreckage across fifty acres. The body of the flight engineer, Fw Julius Braue, was found in the wreckage and it was discovered that the observer, Ofw Herbert Büsch, had baled-out but then became entangled in an aerial mast and was dragged to his death. When investigators sifted through the wreckage they found the Ausweis (Identity Card) of twenty-five year old Herbert Büsch alongside his body. As one of those who cleared up the dreadful aftermath of the crash remarked: ‘The poor boy. He was, after all, somebody’s son.’ 

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

BILLY BROWN OF LONDON TOWN BLITZ PUBLIC INFORMATION POSTERS

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ropaganda posters provide some of the most memorable wartime images - Winston Churchill holding a Thompson submachine gun was used in Britain as a symbol of defiance, but turned around in Germany to deride the Prime Minister as a gangster. Most British posters were meant as simple, hard-hitting mantras to mind what you said in public ‘Loose Lips Sink Ships’; be thrifty and avoid waste (Hitler depicted as a ‘Squander Bug’ insect) or to be self-sufficient and grow your own vegetables in the famous ‘Dig For Victory’ campaign. The wartime pressures placed on the infrastructure of London Transport, both buses and trains, dictated a need to promote better behaviour and order by passengers thus allowing smoother running of timetables under difficult circumstances. Accordingly, David Langdon, a gifted cartoonist working in the Architects' Department of London County Council was commissioned to produce a series of light-hearted instructional posters to promote common sense and helpfulness amongst travellers. Langdon came up with the idea of ‘Billy Brown of London Town’, a pin-striped bowler-hatted city gent who dispensed helpful advice to other commuters at the appropriate moment. The posters were designed in proportions to fit advertising holders above the windows inside tube trains, the example illustrated being one of the first. The London Transport Board had become concerned by the removal of blast tape from windows of trains

and buses, presumably by passengers wanting to see out and identify various stops. Billy Brown’s admonishment: ‘I trust you’ll pardon my correction that stuff is there for your protection’ became the subject of various graffiti retorts, one of the politest being: ‘I thank you for the information, but I cannot see my bloody station’. As each poster appeared, it became common for transport users to think up suitable responses to Billy’s mildly hectoring tone. A poster designed to discourage bus passengers from congregating around the exit ran: ‘Kindly pass along the bus and so make room for all of us’ - the riposte ran ‘That’s alright without a doubt, but how the hell do we get out?’. The cartoons proved so popular that he even featured on the side of a Lancaster bomber with the bon mot :‘I trust it suffers no deflection, this stuff is for the Hun’s correction’. Born in London on 24 February 1914, Langdon was educated at Davenant

No. 3

Foundation School and had drawing in his blood. Whilst working at London County Council’s Architects' Department he contributed cartoons to the staff journal which brought him to the attention of the London Transport Board. In 1939 he became Executive Officer in the London Rescue and Demolition Service before joining the RAF in 1941, editing the RAF Journal towards the end of the war. His prodigious output included freelance commissions for Time and Tide, Lilliput, Punch, Sunday Pictorial, New Yorker, Eagle Comic, and The Spectator to name but few. His association with The Mirror Group extended into the early 1990’s alongside a lucrative side-line for leading brands such as Schweppes, Bovril and Shell. He died on 8 October 2011. Possessed of an observant eye for the incongruous absurdities of life, David Langdon became a leading social commentator in a humorous but gentle way, his Billy Brown posters remaining an iconic part of life in The Blitz. 

ABOVE: One of Langdon's Billy Brown posters.

LEFT: Artist David Langdon at work.

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THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

RECORDING THE DEAD No. 4 RIGHT: Correspondence from the salvaged Finsbury Mortuary Records.

BELOW: One of the tin files, its contents and a rusted Air Raid Warden's helmet. These are some of the objects found in the flooded basement of Finsbury Town Hall. BOTTOM RIGHT: One of the casualty report forms.

FINSBURY MORTUARY REPORTS

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n the late 1990s the basement of Finsbury Town Hall was earmarked for renovation, having lain undisturbed for years behind a locked door. Nobody really knew what to expect, but when workmen ventured down the stairwell by torchlight they found a lake of stagnant water, several feet deep, in which floated pulpy paper rubbish and an Air Raid Warden’s helmet! The council condemned whatever might be amongst the rubbish and instructed contractors to ‘skip the lot’. Fortunately, one of the workmen examined the old-fashioned tin box files and was touched and saddened to find they contained numbered folders consisting of completed Mortuary Report Forms for bomb victims, headed: ‘Death Due To War Operations’ compiled for Finsbury’s Blitz casualties. As each body arrived at the borough’s mortuary in Whitecross Street, the mortuary superintendent entered as much information as was available: age, location of discovery, cause of death, identity (if discerned from personal property on the deceased) as well as details of those who claimed the body. In some cases, features had been too badly mutilated and if no named possessions existed, a relative might have to recognise jewellery or clothing to confirm identity. Form CWD, as it was designated, was one of the more morbid aspects

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of preparations made for large-scale bombing, the Ministry of Health laying plans for as many as 250,000 deaths. The arrangements required identification and burial of the dead and registration of their graves to the maintain public morale and health. The actual death certificates merely stated ‘Death Due to War Operations’ as the cause, and once a death was registered these forms provided the only clinical examination record, as no post-mortem could be performed due to the sheer numbers involved. Mortuary superintendents were a dedicated band, going to inordinate lengths to give identity and dignity to their charges, although one can scarcely imagine the horrors they endured, under harsh electric light, to fulfil the task they were set. Sometimes, a borough’s CWD form collection has been preserved, often purely by chance or if the area's Local Studies Library was given a ‘head’s up’ when records were cleared from store. In many cases, they were thrown away as grisly and unpleasant reminders, or simply because they were deemed not worth saving. Sadly, in Finsbury’s case, the collection is incomplete due to water damage but about a third remain as a poignant record of just one London Borough’s suffering in the Blitz. The CWD forms also formed the basis for casualty lists compiled regularly in each borough. When, in March 1941, the Clerk to the Council received a circular from London Civil Defence

Region requesting names of the dead and addresses of next-of-kin, for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now CWGC) to compile a permanent record, the CWD forms provided a perfect reference. In addition, each casualty had their own unique number (given in chronological order of death and arrival at the mortuary) meaning that error could be avoided by cross-referencing the number. The final toll of civilians killed countrywide was 60,595 with 29,890 in London alone. Injured persons admitted to hospital amounted to 86,182 of which 50,507 were in London, and 150,833 were slightly injured. The final list of the dead, printed and bound as The Civilian War Dead Roll, is kept in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster Abbey, over which a lamp permanently burns. A single page is turned every day. 

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

EMERGENCY WATER SUPPLY TANKS FIGHTING FIREBOMB FRITZ

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n the outbreak of war it was realised by the fire services, particularly in London, that if water mains were ruptured, or else over utilised, leading to a drop in pressure, then an alternative means of supply would be required. Initially, portable reservoirs holding 1,000 gallons were placed on open ground in the suburbs, ready to be moved into place in areas of Central London when the need arose. To make even more use of available space, large steel structures holding up to 5,000 gallons were positioned in the middle of streets or anywhere else suitable, with the water being changed every month or so to minimise health risks. Brick and concrete examples were also constructed in areas where they could be situated for easy access by fire crews but, of course, these could not be moved and so the choice of location was critical.

Clearly, they had to be near enough to a reasonable number of buildings in order that the tank be of most use and had to be positioned in such a way that firemen could get pumps and hoses to them at a moment’s notice. The trouble was that all of these designs held only enough water for a few minutes supply, and even a later innovation which saw the waterproofing of the basements of bombed-out buildings that were then filled with water only gave a limited chance of success for fire crews to get a blaze under control before the supply ran out. A major problem also was that these water supplies provided too much of a temptation for local children to go bathing or playing around, and with their steep sides the tanks proved a death-trap. Once in, getting out was very difficult and the existence of these emergency reservoirs resulted in several tragic accidents. Many fire crews became adept at wringing the most water from the most unlikely places - rivers, streams, ponds and even sewers on occasion. An alternative, if immediate local supplies were unobtainable, was to run a series of hoses, with interspersed pumps, bringing water under pressure from some distance away to the heart of a fire. Of course, on many an occasion, the local water supplies failed or were too low in pressure

No. 5

to be of any use, and this happened in the City of London on the night of 10/11 May 1941. Important buildings and installations tended to have several concrete tanks specially constructed as their own Emergency Water Supplies and these were clearly marked ‘EWS’, together with the capacity in gallons it contained. One still stands beside the old main gate to North Weald Aerodrome in Essex and is sited opposite the former Station Commanders Office, now the home of the North Weald Aviation Museum. As most were removed post-war as obstructions to modern building needs in built up areas, this one is a rare survivor today. There are, however, a few remaining examples of Emergency Water Supply inscriptions painted on walls and buildings around London; surviving and tangible reminders of that dark period and, now, very much part of the capital’s Blitz ‘heritage’. 

LEFT: Still visible and painted onto a wall not far from the Imperial War Museum at Lambeth, London, is this surviving E W S Emergency Water Supply signage.

LEFT & ABOVE: The Emergency Water Supply Tank at the former RAF North Weald airfield, marked with its capacity of 100,000 gallons and the location of the suction point. The large ‘X’ and letters E W S were the standard markings for these reservoirs.

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THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

PAINTERS IN THE BLITZ No. 6 TOP RIGHT: Fireman George Campbell paints a colleague during the height of The Blitz.

BELOW: Rose Henrique’s depiction of crews washing ambulances after a heavy night during The Blitz.

'IMPRESSIONS FOR POSTERITY'

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ar has always provided a rich vein of subject matter for artists, from the patriotic style of Lady Butler in ‘Scotland Forever’ (the charge of the Royal Scots Greys at Waterloo) to depicting the horrors of war in Francisco Goya’s ‘The Third of May 1808’ showing the massacre of Spanish troops by Napoleon’s forces. Britain’s Home Front during the Second World War proved no exception, but in one respect it was revolutionary. Now, to one degree or another, the whole nation was on the front line once the Blitz began on 7 September 1940. This meant that many talented artists, professional and amateur, were in a first-hand position to capture events embodying what it meant to be in the eye of the storm of modern, unrestricted warfare. Indeed, most of them had already enrolled as Air Raid Wardens, firemen or ambulance drivers if they had not already been called-up for the armed forces. By February 1940 the Home Office had realised that it had enlisted a number of artists in various branches of Civil Defence and circulated a memo to

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London Region offices suggesting that these painters be given the opportunity to record their impressions for posterity: ‘where circumstances permitted’. In the case of the London Fire Brigade and Auxiliary Fire Service, the authorities decided that subject to the consent of the officer in charge, and provided that the discharge of duty was not hampered, facilities should be given to those who wished to draw or paint. One of those who took advantage of this was Buckhurst Hill Auxiliary Fireman George Campbell, a keen amateur portrait painter and caricaturist. A pre-war member of his local art club, George was soon employed as designer of instructional posters besides executing portraits and cartoons of fellow firemen in return for donations to charity. He is seen in a photo adding the finishing touches to a portrait of fellow firefighter, Billy Green, at the AFS Station in Albert Road Infants School, Buckhurst Hill. Between George’s chin and his arm is one of his caricatures, which still survives, of an unfortunately unknown but dapper First World War veteran he served with. A period newspaper article headed ‘Buckhurst Hill Fireman-Artist’ tells us more: ‘It is an ill wind that blows no one any good and the heavy London air raids have resulted in the discovery of a brilliant AFS caricaturist. He is Fireman George Campbell of Station F3X, Albert Road, Buckhurst Hill. ‘I

have always been keen on painting and I have made caricatures of all the members of my station. It was my original intention to combine them all into a frieze with which to decorate the mess. Then the raids came!’ he said. Fireman Campbell conceived the idea of selling his caricatures to raise money for firemen injured in the Blitz. When it was discovered how clever he was with his pencil, his clientele increased until practically the whole of his leisure time was taken up with sketching. He has since assisted many charitable causes and proved an unfailing money spinner during Wings for Victory and Warship Weeks. With the advent of winter he is as busy as ever. Dogs and even horses have been taken to him for sittings. Some of Fireman Campbell’s paintings have sold for as much as £5.6s’. George Campbell went on to work for the engineering firm Baird and Tatlock, and in retirement produced many cover paintings for the ‘After The Battle’ series of books. He died on 10 December 2000. A fellow art club member, W.E. Large of Theydon Bois near Epping, Essex, an ARP warden, also produced two oil paintings entitled ‘Portrait of a Gentleman 1940’ (one of his colleagues wearing gas mask and helmet) and a painting from life in central London: ‘Blackout at Liverpool Street 1940’. Little else is known of Mr Large, but his work typifies amateur painters who recorded their experiences in a momentous period

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL of theirs and their nation’s lives. The W E Large paintings were given to George Campbell as a memento of their shared time together, in peace and in war. Another gifted artist, Rose Henriques (nee Loewe), found herself employed on the Home Front, first as an Air Raid Warden and then as an Ambulance Officer in the East End of London. Born into a cultured Orthodox Jewish family she was an accomplished pianist and organist, besides being an artist of some repute with her work depicting the lives of those in Whitechapel and Stepney becoming the subject of several exhibitions in London in recent years. Both Rose and her husband, Basil, worked tirelessly for youth and charitable movements in the East End with the couple founding the St George’s Jewish Settlement when a local cigarette manufacturer, Bernhard Baron, donated funds to buy an old school. This became known as the Bernhard Baron Settlement and catered for the Jewish communities’ needs from cradle to grave; a clinic for expectant mothers, a kindergarten, youth clubs, parent groups, religious classes and even a burial scheme and boot club to provide for the poor. In her free time during the war, Rose executed many paintings and watercolours of life and bomb damage in the East End, including a previously unseen work (illustrated here) of ambulance crews washing their vehicles after a heavy night’s work. This takes the form of a watercolour study dashed off from life and on the back of the card mount is pencilled simply: ‘No.1 The Red Farm. Mrs Rose L Henriques, The Settlement, Berner Street, E1’. Post war, Rose worked in Germany leading the first group of Anglo-Jewish volunteer social workers, doctors and nurses to Celle, near the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, and where a displaced persons camp had been set up. This work for refugees and the

LEFT: A caricature of an un-named fellow firefighter by George Campbell.

re-establishment of German Jewish communities kept Rose busy for many years. For Basil, his work with the Bernhard Baron Settlement was coupled with serving as magistrate specialising in juvenile cases and he gave this painting to a Probation Officer with whom he worked in the same district, Derek Shuttleworth. Derek came from a family with the same ideals, the magistrate and probation officer working tirelessly

in attempting to improve the lot of those who had fallen on hard times in the East End. Derek had also worked in Germany in the early post-war period as a probation officer with the British Army of the Rhine, helping advise a fledgling German probation service. The painting hung in his home for many years, reminding him of the shared principles of the Henriques and Shuttleworth families and the testing times of war. 

BELOW: Large’s ‘Portrait of a Gentleman 1940’ showing a helmeted and respirator clad Air Raid Warden. BELOW LEFT: W E Large’s painting ‘Blackout at Liverpool Street 1940’, no doubt painted to illustrate that in spite of the blackout the operation of steam railway engines produced flame and spark – not to mention illuminated railway signals.

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THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

‘WITHOUT REGARD FOR DANGER’ No. 7 TOP RIGHT: Flt. Lt Cole's unusual medal group. BELOW: Press cutting relatiing to Cole's gallantry on the ground and in the air.

BLITZ B.E.M

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t would come as no surprise to anybody with but a passing interest in the Blitz to realise that many Civil Defence workers were performing acts of utmost bravery throughout the autumn and winter of 1940-41. A few were noticed by higher-ranking colleagues and recommended for gallantry awards, the George Cross and George Medal being instituted specifically because so many on the Home Front were deserving of the highest praise. Additionally, other awards such as the Order of the British Empire and the British Empire Medal were sometimes made, but being recognised in this regard was entirely down to chance. For instance, a Heavy Rescue foreman awarded the George Medal for rescuing trapped civilians from a wrecked pub hit by a V1 flying bomb later in the war remembered the award only came ‘because the senior ARP officer and local Mayor happened to witness the deed.’ He felt that many greater feats had been performed under far more trying circumstances than his, but with no senior officer around to witness them and recommend an award. A rarer occurrence was for the award of a gallantry medal as Civil Defence worker, and then to serve in the armed forces and be awarded a second gallantry award - but it did happen. Just such a man was John Cole born on 26 January 1906 at Clapham, London. On the outbreak of war he was running a window cleaning business at Merton Park, but enlisted as Warden at M114 Post, Lambourne Road. Living in Clapham, John Cole knew his ‘patch’ very well but was called out to one particular incident at Queenstown Road, Battersea, at the height of an air raid in February, 1941. The citation for his British Empire Medal reads: ‘During an air raid a woman was trapped when trying to leave a building through the hall. The side wall

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and roof had collapsed on her, leaving dangerously poised debris overhead. She was seriously injured and great care was necessary whilst effecting her rescue. Cole worked in the narrow space without regard for the danger which threatened him and it was due to his outstanding work that the casualty was safely extricated. On another occasion, Cole crawled through a hole under the floor of a collapsed building to search for people thought to be trapped in a cellar which was rapidly filling with water’. As if this was not enough, and at the age of 35, John enlisted in the RAF in June that year. Thus, he wore the uniform of an Aircraftsman 2nd Class when he went to Buckingham Palace for his BEM investiture. Training as air gunner by the end of 1942, he was posted to 467 (Australian) Sqn in April 1943 as rear gunner on Lancasters. His first of 25 operations with them was to Duisberg to deliver a 4,000lb ‘Cookie’ with other trips including Cologne, Hamburg, Nuremberg and the ‘Big B’ - Berlin. A tour of instructing with Operational Training Units followed from November 1943 to July 1944, often seen as more hazardous than flying on operations as accidents with novice crews claimed many lives. A second tour with 83 (Pathfinder) Squadron followed from September 1944 until the end of the war, with Cole undertaking a further 27 operations, including two occasions when he found himself engaged with enemy night fighters. This, and his generally cool demeanour, led to the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross, gazetted on 21 September 1945: ‘Flight Lieutenant Cole has

completed 48 operations against the enemy. His first tour was carried out in 1943 at a time when enemy opposition was at its fiercest. He visited the Ruhr nine times, Cologne three times and Berlin twice. On his second tour he joined the Pathfinder Force and completed 24 sorties with them. His work as an air gunner has been most meritorious, particularly in view of the fact that he is considerably older than the average air gunner. He has shown fine courage and resolution in the face of the enemy and successfully defended his aircraft from damage. On the night of 14/15 January 1945 his crew was taking part in an attack on Meresburg. On the way to the target Flight Lieutenant Cole, flying as rear gunner, sighted a Ju88 approaching to attack. He opened fire immediately: strikes were observed around the enemy aircraft’s engines and pieces were seen to fall from the starboard wing. The fighter broke away and did not return. On the night of 16 March 1945 Flight Lieutenant Cole’s crew was taking part in an attack on Wurzburg. On the way to the target Cole observed a Me110 positioning itself to attack. His warning to his pilot prevented the enemy getting into position and his fire drove it off. For his cool and courageous performance of his duties, Flight Lieutenant Cole is recommended for the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross.’ John Cole left the Royal Air Force with an additional Mention In Despatches on 8 June 1944 and award of the Pathfinder Badge in April 1945, all as Flight Lieutenant. Not bad for the window cleaner from Clapham! 

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

ANDERSON SHELTER ICONIC BLITZ STRUCTURE

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he principal means of air raid shelter for those with a garden was the Anderson Shelter; a thick corrugated iron six-section arched structure with two pieces per end, it was the brainchild of William Peterson and Oscar Kerrison. Designed in 1938 at the behest of Sir John Anderson, then Lord Privy Seal (later Home Secretary) with responsibility for preparing Air Raid Precautions. The shelter was to be buried 4ft into the ground, leaving the top 2ft exposed which was covered with a minimum of 15 inches of soil, the design giving elasticity in a near miss. Because it was better able to flex and dissipate blast, it was safer than a brick street shelter

which tended to collapse or be weakened sufficiently to allow the concrete roof slab to fall in. The earth covering could be turfed or planted over to minimise its impact, leading to some neighbourhoods holding competitions for the ‘Best Planted Shelter’, much as a prize marrow competition in a horticultural society show! For people on low incomes (then decreed at £5 per week - or £280 in today’s money) the local authority would supply the shelter free of charge, otherwise a £7 charge (£390 today) was made. Between February and September 1939 one and a half million had been built, with a total of 3.6 million by the war’s end. A major producer was John Summers & Sons of Shotten, Deeside, turning out 50,000 units per week. Although proving satisfactory in the early months of the war, by the winter of 1940 they became unpopular due to cold damp conditions, with condensation running down the steel walls and flooding if a sump could not be dug to take off excess water. The unattractive prospect of stumbling down the garden in the dark once the air raid warning sounded, only to endure a fitful sleep in the damp, particularly if the Luftwaffe did not show up, led to many staying indoors in the warm. This led to inevitable increases in casualties but a

No. 8

solution to this problem was found in 1941 with an indoor steel-framed, meshcovered floor shelter called the Morrison Shelter which could be installed in a downstairs room. Named after the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, the design was 6ft 6 inches long x 4ft 2 inches wide, allowing for 2 adults to sleep side by side. It could double up during the day as a dining table or sideboard, once covered with a suitable tablecloth or rug. Prime Minister Winston Churchill tested the proposed design personally at Downing Street before placing the initial order for half a million. It immediately proved a popular alternative, despite the risk of being trapped if one’s house suffered a direct hit, although the design would withstand the weight of a typicalsized house. At the end of the war, both types of shelter were reclaimed by local authorities for scrap if they had been supplied free of charge but they could be kept for a small fee. Thus, many Anderson’s lived on as useful sheds or wood stores, such as one featured here near Ongar, Essex. The collection note illustrated is typical, and in this case the spanner to tighten the bolts proved too tempting and was kept. Up and down the country examples of Anderson Shelters soldier on, although the Morrison proved not to have the same degree of peacetime versatility and is thus much rarer today. 

ABOVE: Many Anderson Shelters, like this one near Ongar, survived the war to live on as garden sheds. TOP LEFT: Schematic drawing from the 1939 handbook detailing erection of the Anderson Shelter.

LEFT: The collection order and ‘stolen’ spanner from a Walthamstow Anderson Shelter.

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THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

DANGER UXB!

No. 9 TOP RIGHT: Major Arthur Hogben (right) and a Sapper of 49 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, Royal Engineers, listen to the Valetta Grove bomb for a potentially ticking fuse, August 1974. Major Hogben was later awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for his work in bomb disposal, the award Gazetted on 17 December 1974. BELOW: The shattered section of nose from the Valetta Grove bomb, recovered after the fuse pocket had been detonated. BELOW RIGHT: With up to 12% of all dropped bombs failing to explode, bomb disposal parties during the Blitz had their work cut out, especially in London. Here, a sign warns of a UXB in Fleet Street during October 1940.

THE VALETTA GROVE BOMB

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he legacy of The Blitz continues to be felt across Britain with occasional discoveries of unexploded Luftwaffe bombs, normally during redevelopment work. London’s more recent major building projects including Docklands, Wapping (News International), the Olympic Park and others have all resulted in chilling reminders of the Blitz, when danger was never far away. For the East End of London, the most frequent unexploded bomb finds took place in the late 1950’s through to the late 1970’s, when local councils redressed housing needs, replaced old dilapidated terraced houses along with blocks of prefabricated temporary housing left over from earlier emergency measures. Somewhere between 10-12% of all bombs dropped tended to malfunction, and over 50,000 UXBs were dealt with in wartime alone. After the war, each London borough was presented with UXB registers, where locations were known, to provide reference for future building work. In many cases, pressures of dealing with incidents at important locations such as railways, roads, and factories had led to lower priority problems being put in the ‘pending tray’, but there was another UXB category which often slipped through the net; large bombs passing through a house could produce enough damage to lead to a conclusion that the explosion of a smaller bomb, say 50kg, had been responsible. Such a case occurred in Valetta Grove, Plaistow, during the Blitz. Here, the offending damage had been repaired and life gone on as normal until 1974 when the houses were demolished

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for redevelopment. On Thursday, 1 August, Ron Parkin was excavating new footings with a JCB digger when he unearthed a large rusty object, over 5ft long and 2ft wide. To get a better look, he upended it with his digger bucket and saw the pointed nose of a SC1000kg bomb in all its glory, but minus the back plate revealing its explosive filling. Realising his predicament, Ron gingerly lowered the bomb back into the trench, pointing nose uppermost, raising the alarm at 2:00pm. The call was relayed by police to 49 EOD Squadron RE, Chattenden, Kent, where a ready-response team was always on standby. Within the hour, Major Arthur Hogben and his assistant driver, Sapper Karl Bradbury, were on site to assess the situation. Speed was of the essence, as it was not known what type of fuse had been fitted and Ron Parkin’s rough handling of the bomb might have resulted in the clock restarting on a Type 17 clockwork delay fuse. In the event, it was determined by listening through electronic earphones that all was well. However, once Major Hogben exposed the fuse he found it so corroded that no markings could be discerned. Fortunately, the missing back plate provided access to steam out 550kg’s of solidified explosive without the need to trepan a hole in the case. This meant removing the filling without

first extracting the fuse and fuse pocket, a risky venture as both would heat up during the steaming process. The evacuation of almost a thousand people followed, timed so those returning home from work could be included and those on night shifts would get away before the cordon was put in place. The job of removing the explosive went on through the night, carried out by four NCOs and five Sappers, besides Hogben and Bradbury. Once the filling was removed, the fuse pocket had to be detonated in situ inside the bomb, shattering the casing into several pieces including a large nose section still bearing the marks of its 1940 journey into the earth. 

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT BOMBED ASHTRAY FROM THE ASHES

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s the night Blitz on Britain drew to a close, London had one final ordeal to face on the night of 10/11 May 1941, perhaps the worst of all. The Germans planned a maximum effort by the combined forces of Luftflotten 2 and 3 to coincide with a full moon and clear skies, giving excellent opportunities for visual bombing of central London by 571 bombers. Some crews managed two and even three sorties during the course of that night. An additional disaster for the defenders of London was the coupling of the full moon with an exceptionally low tide, meaning that as the raid progressed and

water mains fractured by bombing or becoming overloaded with demand from numerous fire hoses, the fireboats out on the River Thames could only get within 50 yards of the bank to assist. As firemen sought out new water supplies not yet crowded out by existing access points on the river, the boats were forced to run their hoses out over the mud to pump river water ashore and help fight the fires. As a last resort, sewer water was brought into use! Some 2,154 fires were reported in total, with central London and the docks being the worst hit - the aiming point was given in Luftwaffe operational orders as ‘north side of the Thames from Tower

No. 10

Bridge downstream to and inclusive of, the loop of the Thames and the districts of Stepney, West Ham, Bethnal Green, and Leyton’. Initial British Home Security estimates of casualties were over 1,000 killed and 2,000 injured but the final figures exceeded these. Even two mayors were killed; the Mayor Westminster, when he visited a shelter and it received a direct hit, and at Bermondsey, when the Town Hall was bombed. Of the fires reported, two were classed at ‘conflagration level’, eight as ‘major outbreaks’, 43 ‘serious’, 280 ‘medium’ and 1,073 ‘small’. Today, any one of the 43 ‘serious’ fires would make national news headlines. Many fires ran out of control once the firemen’s hoses spluttered to a trickle as three 42-inch mains were cut, five 36-inch and thirty four of 12-inches and over were severed, with over a hundred smaller mains ruptured. This resulted in many buildings, which might otherwise have been saved, being left to burn for want of water. Amongst them were the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, where the Commons Chamber was gutted by fire. The debris was not fully cleared until June 1942, and the restoration not completed until 1950 with the design being undertaken by Sir Giles Scott. As a fundraising and morale-boosting effort, souvenir pieces of masonry with an inset impression of the Houses of Parliament were made available for sale to the public, made from the cleared debris. Some pieces were sold as bookends, others as tobacco jars or turned into ashtrays. They still appear for sale today, making poignant reminders of London’s worst night of the Blitz. 

LEFT: Winston Churchill surveys the ruins of The House of Commons.

BELOW: Souvenir ashtray made from stone salvaged out of the Westminster rubble.

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THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

THE SHOEBURYNESS BOMBS BLITZ BOMB SPECIMENS

No. 11 TOP RIGHT: A SC1800 ‘Satan’ slung beneath a He 111 in late 1940 awaits delivery to Britain.

RIGHT: An unexploded parachute mine, or Luftmine B.

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FAR RIGHT: The SC1800 'Satan'. BOTTOM RIGHT: The Luftmine B.

vast range of bombs were employed by the Luftwaffe against Britain during the Blitz, from the B 1 E 1kg incendiary bomb, right up to the massive SC2500kg ‘Max’, the latter so cumbersome it almost exceeded the capacity of the He 111, the only bomber capable of accommodating the beast. Used but rarely, only a few selected crews were deemed qualified enough to deliver it. An eyewitness account of what it felt like to be on the receiving end of a ‘Max’ is described by a young boy in Hendon named Graham Hill, the day before his birthday on the night of 13/14 February 1941. He went on to become the only racing driver to win the blue ribbon of motor racing - the Formula 1 world

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championship, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans 24-hour race. ‘Sitting up one night in 1940, I heard a fantastic noise like an express train and I remember the cat leaping up into the air, its hair standing on end. Then there was the most almighty explosion that shook the house, broke windows and burst open the doors. An enormous bomb had fallen about a mile away and wiped out rows and rows of houses. Nobody ever discovered what it was, but it was thought to be the largest bomb then dropped in England.’ It had, in fact, been intended for the de Havilland plant at Stag Lane, Edgware, but landed in the back gardens of Ravenstone Road and Borthwick Road, some 3,000 yards away. Eighty people were killed and one hundred and forty hospitalised, plus three hundred slightly injured. Eighty four houses were completely destroyed, seventy eight made uninhabitable and eighty four temporarily so. The largest ‘conventional’ bomb was the SC1800kg ‘Satan’ which was filled with a thousand kilograms of Trialen, a no-delay impact fuse and a ‘Kopfring’ nose fitting to reduce depth of penetration as it hit the ground, thus increasing surface blast making it almost as formidable as the ‘Max’. Another Luftwaffe weapon employing blast for maximum effect was the Luftmine, originally designed as a conventional magnetic sea mine for dropping by parachute into shipping lanes. The crash on 30 April 1940 of a He111 of 3/KGr126 at Clacton-On-Sea, Essex, whilst on such a sortie proved a

turning point in how the weapon was employed. One of the two mines carried by the aircraft exploded in the crash causing massive damage to surrounding houses and providing spectacular photo opportunities for war reporters. These pictures, when viewed by the Germans, gave them an idea; why go to the lengths of designing new weapons when an existing one could be adapted? The destruction had been so extensive due to the mine exploding on the surface and producing a more localised form of damage. The more commonly used smaller calibre bomb was the SC250kg, which employed various explosive fillings of about 125 kilo’s. The SC1800 ‘Satan’, Luftmine B and SC250kg featured here all originated from the former Bomb Disposal training base at Shoeburyness and bear the scars of having been dropped in action. They were some of the most frequently used German aerial weapons of the Blitz. 

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

GARDEN SHELTER DEATHS EARLY BLITZ CASUALTIES

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n strange twists of fate, the garden shelter was not always the safest place to take cover during a raid and on the first day of the Blitz, 7 September 1940, remarkable coincidences bind together two groups of people who died within an hour of each other twenty miles apart. Both groups, one of five people in two adjoining shelters and the other of three in one shelter, died in freak circumstance when shot down aircraft crashed directly onto their shelters. That afternoon, Hurricanes of 303 (Polish) Sqn were scrambled just before 4.30pm, making contact with forty Dornier Do17s and Me 109 escorts just north of London. Fifteen minutes earlier, the air-raid warnings had sounded and among the residents leaving their homes to take cover in their shelter at 40 Roding Road was architect Eadmer Brockwell and his wife, Olive, both aged 37 and their housekeeper, Mrs Emily Gurden, 60. Their refuge was unusual in that it was a concrete and brick affair designed by Mr Brockwell himself. High above, Fg Off Marian Pisarek was in trouble, baling out of his burning Hurricane that had been hit by one of the Me 109s. As he exited his Hurricane, his foot caught on the rudder pedal and his shoe wrenched off as he fell free. Moments later his Hurricane crashed inverted, right on top of the Brockwell’s shelter, collapsing its concrete roof. Mr and Mrs Brockwell died instantly, with Emily Gurden later succumbing to burns. Just an hour later, Flt Lt George Powell-Sheddon of 242 Sqn engaged a Me 109 which he saw disappear in flames over Thameshaven where oil

storage tanks had just been set ablaze. The Messerschmitt was flown by Lt Gunther Genske of 1/JG27 who was severely burned on the face before he could escape the blazing cockpit. Semiconscious, and near blinded by his injuries, all Genske could see was a bright glare from burning fires below and he was afraid he would fall into the inferno his comrades had created. To his relief, he was lifted on the thermal of rising heat which carried him upwards and away to the northeast. He eventually came to earth at Hornchurch, blind, with no idea where he was and minus his flying boots which had come off when his parachute opened - another odd parallel to Marian Pisarek’s bale-out. The burning fighter roared over Plaistow, crashing into back gardens at Ranelagh Road, directly onto the Anderson Shelters of No 73 and 75, killing all occupants instantly. The Redman family, husband and wife, Michael aged 32 and Alice, 30 together with their six-year-old daughter Audrey died together at 73 and Agnes Rapley, 34, and Ada Goldspink ,75, died next door. Both crash sites have since been excavated, the Hurricane in 1976 and the Me 109 in 1996 with interesting artefacts recovered at each. At Loughton, Marian Pisarek’s shoe was found, still jammed in the

No. 12 TOP LEFT: Fg. Off Marian Pisarek (right) of 303 Sqn, 1940. LEFT: Recovering the wreckage of the Hurricane at Loughton, 1976.

LEFT: Casualty report relating to the Me 109 crash. BELOW: The DB 601 engine badge recovered in 1996.

rudder pedal whilst at Plaistow a badge from the DB 601 engine was amongst items unearthed – tangible reminders that sometimes during the Blitz death came from the sky in the most unfortunate of circumstances.  www.britainatwar.com 79

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

BLITZ PRISONER OF WAR No. 13 BELOW: Hans Kaufhold's hat, dagger and badges.

BELOW: Uffz. Kaufhold (standing) shortly before being shot down.

ENEMY AIRMAN'S LUCKY ESCAPE

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uring the period of the Blitz a considerable number of Luftwaffe aircrew were taken POW and, although they could not have thought so at the time, perhaps they were the lucky ones. Many others of their comrades went on to serve and ultimately die on the Eastern Front and other theatres. At least captivity would ultimately result in a safe return home.

Unteroffizier Hans Kaufhold served as a radio operator with 3/KG 55 flying in Heinkel 111 bombers, with his first operational mission over Poland on the 4 September 1939. By 15 September had flown 11 more sorties. Over the next eight months, he flew just one operational flight but on the 10 May 1940 Germany invaded France and the Low Countries. Hans was in action

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just before dawn that day, attacking the French airfield at Avord. Over the following days Hans flew up to twice daily although his 13th operational flight was unlucky when, on 27 May, the crew attacked troops near Ypres and flew into what Hans described as ‘hell’ as the He 111’s starboard engine caught fire. The pilot, Fw Heinrich Schmidt, had no alternative but to crash-land near Langemarck with the crew of five taken POW. Hans had been burned about the face and was admitted to hospital near the Channel coast where, a few days later, he was freed by German troops. Because of his wounds, Hans did not fly in the Battle of Britain and was not fit to fly again until his first mission over Britain on the night of 28 November 1940, attacking Liverpool. In March 1941 Hans became part of Ofw Heinz Söllner’s crew, but they were destined to fly just seven operational flights before being shot down. The attack against Coventry on the night of 8 April 1941 was Hans’ 38th, and shortly before midnight his bomber got airborne from Le Bourget with one 500 kg bomb and a large number of incendiaries. The night was clear, as was the coast near Portsmouth, although the conditions also made it easier for the anti-aircraft defences with the Heinkel subjected to a concentrated barrage as it headed north. The clear conditions also made things easier for RAF night fighters. The bombers

attacked in two waves before and after midnight. 151 Squadron, based at RAF Wittering, was scrambled to intercept. Flying both Defiants and Hurricanes, two of the former and one of the latter got airborne and all three met with success. Pilot Officer Richard Stevens in a Hurricane was the most successful, destroying two He 111s ‘near Coventry’ at about 0114 and 0140 hrs, one of them Hans’ aircraft which crashed near Desford, Leicestershire. Flt Lt Stevens reported attacking three times and that the Heinkel was ablaze when last seen. Indeed, it was ablaze inside and out, and the pilot ordered the crew to bale-out unaware the intercom wasn’t working. As a result, only two jumped, leaving Hans and the already wounded engineer in the bomber as it gently glided earthwards. Amazingly, the Heinkel hit the ground at a shallow angle, the tail broke off and the two crew were thrown clear. (See also our feature Lone Wolf on pages 42-50 of this issue.) For the second time during the war, Hans had been both burned and captured, but this time his captivity would last until 1946. On being reported missing, Hans’ parents received his personal effects which they stored until his return, including his summer peaked hat, Luftwaffe dagger, cased mission clasp in bronze and cased radio operator’s badge. Hans Kaufhold passed away in 2014. 

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

TROPHIES OF THE BLITZ TAKING THE 'COLOURS'

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hilst the collecting of souvenirs during the Blitz became somewhat endemic during the period of 1940 – 1941 by the general public, particularly by schoolboys, it was conducted on perhaps a somewhat grander scale by military units and although the public and schoolboys alike may well have concentrated on pieces of bomb splinter, bullet cases or aircraft fragments the military tended to seek altogether more impressive trophies. Indeed, the collection of a trophy from a defeated enemy was surely nothing new in warfare and has gone on for time immemorial. For the RAF, however, the acquisition of some battle memento to hang in either a crew-room or a mess was an almost Holy Grail although the two examples detailed resulted in such emblems being take. A regular target for RAF fighter pilots when visiting the wrecks of enemy aircraft they had shot down would often be the machine guns, although in all

probability a swastika emblem cut from a tailfin was very high on the squadron’s wish list. But it was surely the often colourful unit emblems that attracted more than one victorious pilot armed with hacksaw and tinsnips! What better object could there be to appropriately display the prowess of a squadron and its pilots than the veritable ‘colours’ of the enemy? Without a doubt, this was nothing more than a 20th Century manifestation of a much earlier military tradition of capturing and displaying an enemy’s colours. On 27 September 1940 it was the 1st Bn London Irish Regiment who ‘captured’ the ‘colours’ of 3./KG77 from a Junkers 88 shot down during one of the fighter-escorted daylight raids of the Blitz to force land at Graveney Marshes, near Faversham, Kent. The London Irish were alleged to have participated in an exchange of fire, or skirmish, with the German crew although the reality seems to be more that the London Irish fired on the German airmen to prevent them destroying their aircraft. Notwithstanding the evidence, however, the episode has gone down in the lore of the Blitz as ‘The Battle of Graveney Marshes’. (See Britain at War September 2010 issue) Understandably, the London Irish wanted their battle trophy and cut out the unit emblem and the name of the aircraft, Eule (Owl). They did, however,

No. 14

have other cause to mark this episode since their Captain John Cantopher threw a demolition device from the aircraft into a nearby ditch, thereby saving the aircraft for technical evaluation. He was subsequently awarded the George Medal for his actions. Another similar trophy was collected by an unknown individual from a He 111 of 8./KG55 shot down into Windsor Great Park on the night of 8/9 April 1941 during a sortie to attack Coventry; in this instance, the colourful ‘three fishes’ emblem of the unit which had been cut from the rudder of the crashed aircraft. Two of the crew, Oblt Bartens and Ofw Vonier, were killed in the crash while Fw Pons and Fw Hubler survived and were taken POW. In recent years the emblem turned up in the shed of a house local to the crash, discovered there by the new owner of the house. How it got there and who had originally collected it remains a mystery but there can be no doubting its origins. These, then, were the souvenirs of choice for the discerning and determined trophy hunter. Indeed, a period photograph of the fighter ace Wg Cdr ‘Paddy’ Finucane shows his office decorated with the salvaged emblems from KG26, KG30 and KG55 bombers. Surely, these were the ultimate Blitz trophies? 

ABOVE: Ofw Franz Vonier (left) and Fw Fritz Pons of 8./ KG55, two of the crew of the He 111 that came to grief in Windsor Great Park. TOP LEFT: The emblem of 3./KG77, recovered from a Junkers 88 on 27 September by the London Irish Regiment.

FAR LEFT: Wg Cdr Finucane. in his office with a selection of salvaged Luftwaffe emblems. LEFT: The three fishes emblem taken from the Windsor Great Park crash.

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THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

LOST LUFTWAFFE AIRMAN’S SIGNET RING No. 15 TOP RIGHT: Gottfried Schneider’s signet ring. Its crumpled state tells its own grim story.

BELOW: Photographed from South London, and not many miles from the crash site of the Dornier at Sundridge, these palls of smoke in the early evening of 7 September 1940 were exactly what the Dornier was intent on photographing.

TRAGIC BLITZ RELIC

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hat is recognised as the start to the London Blitz began with the daylight onslaught by nearly a thousand aircraft which crossed the English coast at about 4:15pm on Saturday 7 September 1940. Planned in response to a few desultory night raids on Berlin by scattered RAF bombers, the German’s decided to switch Luftwaffe attacks onto bombing London just as they were gaining the upper hand in the Battle of Britain, with their bombing of RAF Fighter Command airfields causing real disruption. Reichsmarschall Herman Goring vainly promised that ‘No enemy plane will ever fly over the Reich…or you can call me Meyer’ - the latter was a derogatory term as it was a common Jewish surname in Germany. Berlin was raided by the RAF in response to a misdirected load of Luftwaffe bombs landing on London which were intended for the Short Brothers aircraft factory at Rochester and oil storage tanks at Thames Haven on the night of 24/25 August. The resulting loss of face led Hitler to lift his earlier restriction on bombing London. On 7 September, British intelligence summaries of the assembly of larger

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amounts of shipping including barges on the French coast had led to the issuing of the dreaded invasion alert ‘Imminent’ with the non-appearance of German bombers until mid-afternoon only adding to the suspense. By late afternoon, with some twenty RAF fighter squadrons having been scrambled to meet the huge black mass of Luftwaffe aircraft headed for London, the skies over the Thames Estuary and Southern England became one huge dog-fight the like of which had never been seen before or on such a scale. At 6:00pm one of the German Dornier Do17s headed for London was on a slightly different mission. From the Stab (or staff) flight of KG76, aircraft ‘B’-Bruno, W.Nr 2596 was tasked with photographing the progression of damage to London Docks. Piloted by Lt Gottfried Schneider with Ofw K Schneider as his observer and Uffz W. Rupprecht and Fw Erich Rosche as gunners. Attacked by several RAF

fighters, the Dornier went out of control and collided with a Spitfire of 234 Squadron, flown by Australian Flt Lt P C ‘Pat’ Hughes. The Dornier fell to earth, minus one tail fin, at Sundridge Waterworks near Sevenoaks in Kent, killing all the crew except Eric Rosche, who was thrown out in the collision. Pat Hughes was also killed when Spitfire X4009 crashed nearby at Bessels Green, further to the west. When the crash site of the Dornier was excavated in June, 1984 many interesting relics were found, including what one item which the recovery team took initially to be a sealing olive from a pipework junction. Upon wiping away the soft mud, the letters “GS” were immediately discernible. The insignificant item took on a whole new meaning - it was the battered signet ring of the Dornier’s pilot Gottfried Schneider. A tragic reminder of how the bombing of London would claim German as well as British lives. 

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

TOWER OF LONDON RAILING TOWER'S BLITZ BATTERING

No. 16 FAR LEFT: The Tower of London and Tower Bridge stand at the extreme left edge of this Luftwaffe target photo.

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mong the many London landmarks to suffer damage during The Blitz, the most iconic must be The Tower of London. The oldest part, the White Tower, was built in 1078 by William the Conquerer as a royal palace and prison (the latter from 1100 until 1952. Among the last prisoners held there were army defaulters Reggie and Ronnie Kray, arrested for being absent without leave from The Royal Fusiliers). Its most famous role is as Royal Armoury and Treasury, home to the Crown Jewels, as well as its use as place of confinement for opponents of the Monarch. The two sons of Edward IV, Edward and Richard, were both lodged here in 1483 by their guardian, the Lord Protector, Richard Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III). Their subsequent disappearance has led to many historians to declare Richard their murderer. The last state prisoner to be held here, briefly, was Nazi Germany’s Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess in 1941 after his ill-conceived flight to Scotland to sue for peace. During the Blitz the tower was damaged by German bombs on several

LEFT: The familiar gates of The Tower of London.

occasions, not surprising as both it and nearby Tower Bridge were used as aiming points or boundary markers for bomb concentrations by Luftwaffe crews. Notable damage occurred on 23 September 1940 when several bombs damaged the castle, destroying several other buildings and narrowly missing the White Tower itself. On 4 October the North Bastion received a direct hit, killing Yeoman Warder Sam Reeves. The Bastian itself was a Victorian feature and its destruction revealed the Medieval line of the curtain wall which can be seen today when it was decided not to rebuild the Bastion post-war – one positive aspect of Blitz bombs! Again, on the night of 10/11 May, 1941 during the last great bombing raid of The Blitz, the Tower of London was damaged once again.

LEFT: The ruins of North Bastion after being hit during the Blitz on 4 October 1940.

Open to the public since the mid 1800s, it was common after the Second World War for Yeoman Warders on guided tours to point out bomb damage on the entrance gates to tourists. However, by the first decade of this century it was felt necessary to have the gates completely renovated and restored. Accordingly, the firm of Mather & Son, specialists in iron foundry and metalwork coating, were commissioned to completely strip and rebuild the gates, first installed by the Duke of Wellington when he was Constable of the Tower in 1827. This splinter damaged rail was not reinstalled as it was found that a bend introduced by the impact of one of the larger strikes had deformed it to the point it was more cost-effective to draw a new piece of steel rather than risk breaking this one along one of the impact marks in attempts to straighten it. It needed to be perfectly straight with no extrusions to mar re-assembly through the horizontal bars holding the rails in place. It thus survives independently to bear witness to the scars suffered by one of London’s oldest institutions in trial by bomber 1940-1941. 

LEFT: The bombsplinter pockmarked railing.

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THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

COVENTRY TARGET DOCUMENT No. 17 RIGHT: Like all Blitzed cities, Coventry still bears traces of the period – aside from its famed cathedral. Here, an AFS water point is still evident painted onto a wall in the city. BELOW: Luftwaffe target document for Coventry dated 5 October 1940.

BELOW: The only Coventry raider brought down on the night of 14/15 November 1940 was this Dornier 17, shot down by antiaircraft fire at Loughborough.

REMINDER OF COVENTRY'S DARKEST NIGHT

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he very name of Coventry perhaps epitomises more than that of any other British city the true horror of The Blitz. It was here, on the night of 14 November 1940, that the Luftwaffe unleashed an attack that devastated the city and killed an estimated 568 people. The raid, code named ‘Moonlight Sonata’, was intended to destroy Coventry’s factories and industrial infrastructure with a fleet of over 500 Luftwaffe bombers. The first wave of thirteen He 111 aircraft of KG100 ‘marked’ the target with flares and incendiaries with the wave of follow-up bombers dropping high explosive bombs which comprehensively knocked out utilities and cratered roads as the next wave started fires in a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs. Among the destroyed factories were Daimler, Humber Hillman, Alfred Herbert Ltd, nine aircraft factories and two naval ordnance stores although residential and commercial areas of the city and city centre were devastated and, famously, Coventry Cathedral was burnt out – the shell subsequently being retained as a memorial to loss, pain and suffering of The Blitz.

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Every target in Britain was allocated its unique target number with a bombing operational target folder available to Luftwaffe aircrew before sorties were flown. Each folder would contain the operational data, giving location, description and other key topographical details of the target. The file would also include extracts from British Ordnance Survey maps and other documents to include annotated photographs, oblique and vertical, of the target area. On these would be marked the specific target, ringed around in red, and the whole package would be scrutinised in detail by the crews before setting off on the planned operation. At the end of the war, many of these target documents, together with many thousands of aerial photographs, were recovered in Germany and Austria by Allied intelligence services. The example shown here is a vertical target map, based upon an Ordnance Survey map, showing a specific target area in the centre of Coventry. Interestingly, the document is dated 5 October, 1940, a little over a month before the devastating raid of 14 November and thus would almost certainly have been one of the documents pored over by Luftwaffe crews as they prepared for the attack. Despite the sheer weight of numbers of aircraft attacking Coventry that night, only one was brought down by British defences. This was a Dornier 17-Z of 6./KG3, downed by anti-aircraft fire at Prestwold Hall, Burton-on-the-Wolds, Loughborough, with the loss of all four crew members. The story of the attack on Coventry is, of course, well known but this surviving

target document is a chilling reminder of German preparations for the raid. Equally chilling, of course, is the sight today of Coventry Cathedral’s shell although, elsewhere in the city, there remain other reminders of The Blitz including, for example, painted traces of an AFS water point. Indeed, every Blitzed city in Britain still bears scars and traces of those momentous times. 

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

BOMB SPLINTER SOUVENIRS DEADLY BLITZ 'SHRAPNEL'

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o self-respecting schoolboy from the Blitz period would not have had pieces of bomb splinter in his collection of war souvenirs, items often ‘traded’ for bigger and better collectibles. Clearly, the bigger and better the splinter, the greater the Kudos of the owner and the greater its ‘value’. Frequently, these bomb fragments were referred to as Shrapnel but, in truth, they were not. Technically, the term ‘Shrapnel’ should only be applied to the projectiles deliberately thrown out as anti-personnel devices from a Shrapnel shell. These were devised by Major-General Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), a British artillery officer, and were in extensive use during the First World War although splinters from other shells, bombs and rockets have also since become known, colloquially, as Shrapnel. When a steel-cased high explosive bomb detonated, its casing shattered and flung out vicious shards of metal splinter in every direction. These splinters were projected at vicious speeds, perhaps red or white hot, and shredded anything in their path. The effect on anyone unfortunate enough to be struck would be devastating, and most likely lethal, with even the very

tiniest of splinters being capable of causing either death or the most serious injury. Notwithstanding their gruesomely lethal properties, these splinters became treasured souvenirs and even adults collected and kept such relics. Sometimes, perhaps, as mementoes of a bomb which came close to them and, on occasion, built into specific souvenirs that may have been mounted onto plaques or stands or else fashioned into some item or other that might, loosely, fall into the genre of ‘trench art’. Quite apart from physical injury or death caused to anyone hit, these bomb splinters also resulted in significant damage to buildings and other structures. Today, in London, it is still

No. 18

possible to see marks on substantial buildings around the city; ‘spang’ marks as they are sometimes known. For the most part, such damage was often repaired but many examples still remain. In some cases, the marks were left deliberately such as on the walls of the V & A Museum off Exhibition Road. Here, an impressive display of huge chips and craters in the masonry give testimony to the power of the metal bomb splinters which struck here with such violence. Alongside, an inscription explains the marks and why they have been left. Elsewhere in London, for example, the Guards Memorial opposite Horseguards still bears the scars of German bombs – although, in this instance, dropped on 20 February 1944, long after the Blitz. It is, though, a classic example of bomb damage that has been deliberately left and become almost a memorial in its own right. Look carefully, and it is still possible to find traces such as this all around London and in other ‘Blitzed’ towns and cities, whilst bomb splinter ‘souvenirs’ often turn up in militaria sales and junk shops – providing further evidence that Britain’s Blitz legacy still abounds.

TOP LEFT: Evidence today of bomb splinter damage from the Blitz at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Kensington. LEFT: When bombs were dropped, such as these near Southampton on 15 September 1940, the craters and blast damage were considerable. However, metal bomb splinters would have been flung very many yards causing further damage or else death or serious injury to anyone in their path.

ABOVE: A typical example of a Blitz bomb splinter souvenir. Heavy, jagged, red hot and flung at colossal speeds, these splinters were lethal to anything that stood in their path.

LEFT: Damage at V&A Museum (ROBYN

SAUNDERS)

www.britainatwar.com 85

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

JACK CANNING AND THE MATCHING LANDMINE TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

No. 19 RIGHT: Jack Canning, 4th Bn, The Essex Regiment, 1914

O BOTTOM LEFT: Jack Canning, 2nd left back row, and Matching Green ARP. BOTTOM RIGHT: Jack Canning’s ARP memorabilia.

ne group of British civilians for whom the outbreak of the Second World War proved particularly bitter were the veterans of the First World War, or Great War as it was then known. One such was Arthur ‘Jack’ Canning of Marles Farm, Epping Green, Essex, who had been a Territorial Army soldier in ‘G’ Company, 4th Battalion, The Essex Regiment. Drill nights, church parades and summer musketry camps were soon replaced with mud, dust and bullets once the men were called overseas in 1916. All of this had been shared with his two brothers, James and Alfred, until the battalion’s

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www.britainatwar.

losses forced them to be dispersed to understrength units after their own had been badly knocked about. Jack went to the 2/5th Battalion of the Gloucester’s, James to the 4th Bedfordshire’s and Alf to the 10th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles. In the last two years of the war, Jack lost both brothers killed in action and came home to a country far different from the one he had left. His brothers and his father Joseph had run Marles Farm between them, but with half the family dead and the price of crops in decline the farm had to go and Jack found himself working on a road resurfacing gang on the old A11 between Woodford and Epping. Using half of his War Gratuity to buy a bicycle to get to work, he found that at least as weeks passed he had less distance to travel as the resurfaced road grew closer to Epping and recalled he could get up a little later each morning! The 1920s and ‘30s were hard for Jack and his new wife, Eva, but he managed to get another job once the A11 was finished, this time as gardener/chauffeur for the Golds family who kept ‘The White House’ in Epping Green. This meant that the ex-soldier could keep in touch with fellow ex-territorials from the Epping Battalion at the local pub. Here, they could talk with those who understood as talk of the trenches was never aired at home. The only inkling Eva ever got of

‘The Brotherhood of the Trenches’ was when a tramp or homeless man might call asking for water for his billycan to boil up some tea. Invariably, they would be clad in old army greatcoats or maybe sported an old cloth trench cap as ex-soldiers then formed over thirty percent of the homeless. Jack instructed his wife never to refuse the request, as: ‘But for the grace of God, that could be me.’ As tough as life was, he knew it could be far worse but in the early 1930s the Golds relocated to Matching Green where his employers purchased an empty former pub behind their house called ‘The Cherry Tree’ for their staff, including Jack and Eva, together with their young son, Cliff, born in July 1928. When war was declared in September 1939 came the bitter realisation for Jack that his sacrifices away from home, together with the deaths of his brothers in ‘the war to end all wars’ had been for nothing. Already facing the inevitable, Jack had once again ‘done his bit’ by enrolling as an Air Raid Warden the previous June. Strangely, the same pattern of service life seemed to repeat itself; boring periods of training and instruction interspersed with equally dull sets of duty calls, mostly at night, and the odd spate of dealing with incendiaries or unexploded bomb reports being the only interlude. Even the shooting down at night of a He 111, on 13/14 September 1940 at nearby Down Hall, was a disappointment as the surviving pair of crewmen parachuted

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

to earth at Hatfield Heath, denying Jack the satisfaction of taking the old enemy prisoner, instead just guarding the wreck of the bomber and managing to procure some pieces of it for his young son’s collection of war souvenirs. All of this would change, however, on the night of Ash Wednesday, 26 February 1941. Having just come off night duty, Warden Canning was looking forward to his warming mug of cocoa before grabbing some sleep when an urgent banging on his door, coupled with anxious shouts

from his neighbour, brought him to his senses and the front door. ‘Come quick, there’s a Jerry parachutist coming down and he’s going to land on the green!’ In the pale moonlight something

hanging from an inordinately large green parachute could be discerned, but something seemed amiss. Taking a second look, the penny suddenly dropped and Jack threw himself and his neighbour to the ground by the front gate: ‘You bloody fool. It’s a parachute mine, not a Jerry pilot - get down!’. After a few seconds there was a blinding blue flash and an awful blast wave which sucked the air from their lungs, followed by an ear-splitting roar. Debris seemed to clatter down for ever until, at last, it seemed prudent to get up. Thinking of his family, he ran back into the house and up the stairs to find Eva and Cliff shaken but unhurt. As he came back down, past the dining table, he froze in his tracks as he spied the entire front window, sill, frame and all that had been lifted clean out of the wall and deposited by the blast, glass unbroken, upright and on the table. Across the road, the Baptist Chapel on the other side of the green, and where it had stood since 1885, was no more. All that could be done was to ensure everyone was safe, which mercifully they were. Even Mrs Burnett’s old timber framed cottage next to the chapel had survived, albeit with large amounts of thatch flung across the green. The following morning young Cliff Canning had the time of his life adding to his war trophy collection as he scavenged bright pieces of the alloy mine casing, scraps of green parachute and a long length of parachute cord from outside his house. The chapel was rebuilt in 1950, but a dwindling congregation led to its closure and demolition nearly forty years later to make way for a new house. Then, the last souvenir from that Ash Wednesday night found it’s way into Cliff Canning’s war souvenir collection - the rededication tablet cut from the wall of the chapel as it was being knocked down, and in exchange for a ‘drink’ to the builders! 

LEFT: When a Heinkel 111 was shot down on the night of 13/14 September 1940 at nearby Down Hall, Jack Canning was disappointed not to have been involved in the capture of the two surviving crew members. Nevertheless, he helped guard the wreckage and collected souvenirs for his son, Cliff. Here, Air Raid Wardens inspect the wreckage with Army personnel. LEFT: Cliff Canning’s souvenirs of 26 February 1941.

BELOW: Today, this peaceful English village scene bears no trace of the Blitz terror which struck here in 1941. BOTTOM LEFT: Matching Green Chapel in the 1900s.

www.britainatwar.com 87

THE BLITZ 1940 – 1941 SPECIAL

FIREBOMB FRITZ POSTER LEGENDARY BLITZ ARTWORK

No. 20 RIGHT: The famous poster of Britain's Blitz, 1941.

U

ndoubtedly the bestknown British public information poster of The Blitz was that of ‘Firebomb Fritz’ which ranked alongside ‘Careless Talk Costs Lives’ and ‘Dig For Victory!’ as the most recognisable and memorable of all wartime posters. The British public, however, would have been astonished if they had discovered that it had been designed by a German…named Fritz!

88 www.britainatwar.com

Fritz Rosen, a German Jew, was born in 1914 and originally worked in an architectural office in Frankfurt-amMain but went on to produce antiNazi, anti-Fascist and anti-Communist political posters under the pseudonym ‘E.Mehrmann’. Rosen fled Germany in the 1930s and lived, variously, in France and Switzerland before settling in England in 1936 where, in 1940, he was interned for five months by the British authorities as an ‘enemy alien’. In 1941 he designed the iconic

Blitz poster which was produced in its thousands by Fosh & Cross Ltd for The Ministry of Home Security and was distributed widely around Britain to raise awareness of the incendiary bomb hazard and in order to promote interest in Britain’s ‘Fire Guard’ organisation. Whilst Rosen produced many other notable designs for a whole variety of posters it is ‘Firebomb Fritz’ for which he is perhaps most remembered. He died in Brighton in 1980.

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The Britain at War team scout out the latest items of interest Peter Hart, oral historian without peer, unrivalled in his understanding of the strengths, weaknesses and methodology of the genre, has written an outstanding piece of work to continue his numerous contributions to the historiography of the Great War. Voices from the Front is the distillation of a lifetime of work spent collecting the memories of those who were there and then turning them into a unique account of four tumultuous years of war. The scale and scope of the book is enormous, so, although it is lengthy at



narrative, covering every theatre of the war on land, sea and in the air. Naturally, mere regurgitation of a mass of material would have produced an incoherent and formless account, but what sets this book apart from lesser imitations is Hart’s ability to draw out the best of what was recorded, and then to punctuate it with his own shrewd judgements. The result is a work which illuminates the subject, serves as an excellent introduction to the war for the general reader, but also offers much to the expert. A helpful introduction sets the scene, pointing out the value, but also the problems, of oral testimony collected many years after the event. Then, the reader is taken on a comprehensive tour of every

| RECONNAISSANCE REPORT

was a war which transformed individual lives and the entire course of history. By its end three empires had fallen and it had cast a shadow over both individuals and countries. There are now no survivors left, so its effect on the veterans has at long last faded, but in many ways the world is still living with the consequences. Hart’s choice of anecdotes helps us to understand its reality; his careful selections bringing the reader face to face with the war’s dangers and squalor, but also the comradeship and esprit de corps which enabled men, with the aid of near universal black humour and supplies of tea, cigarettes and issue rum, to rise above their ghastly surroundings and the grim reality of death,

BOOK OF THE MONTH

Voices from the Front: An Oral History of the Great War Peter Hart

Publisher: Profile Books www.profilebooks.com ISBN: 978-1781254745 Hardback 424 pages RRP: £25.00 Illustrations  Appendices 

well over 400 pages, every chapter is a triumph of compressed clarity; a result that very few historians could pull off whilst offering a pacey narrative which flows smoothly, grabs the attention of the reader and does full justice to the memories of a huge number of veterans of all ranks and from every walk of life. Essentially Hart is telling a familiar story, but in a novel way. The recollections carry the

aspect of the British contribution to the final Allied victory in November 1918. The main emphasis is on events and experiences on the Western Front, the primary theatre of operations, but there is also good coverage of the campaigns against the Bulgarians and Turks and extremely useful descriptions of the war at sea and in the air, a subject in which Hart has particular expertise. The book is an easy-to-read page turner, but that does not mean its contents are lightweight. This

wounds and illness. We meet tough men, weak men, conscientious objectors, men who lived with and overcame their fears and others who failed. Throughout the book we find gallantry, cowardice, boredom, cynicism, triumph and tragedy. One of the most poignant, yet gripping, sections comes at the end where Hart tackles post war realities, describing a time when men struggled in the face of indifference to adjust and to try to pick up the threads of their

References/Notes Index 



civilian lives once more. If this was hard for men looking for work, it was a task made immeasurably more difficult for those maimed or permanently disfigured in an era when plastic surgery was far less advanced than it is today. It should be compulsory reading for all who would send men to war without making full provision for their subsequent welfare. Yet, when all is considered, the main message of the book is the triumph of the human spirit of men who were proud of what they had achieved. ‘It made a man of me’, recalled Richard Trafford. ‘I’m proud to be able to say I fought at Loos, I fought on the Somme, I fought at Passchendaele and I fought when the Germans broke through in 1918. To me, that’s an honour’. It is also an honour to share via this book the achievements of this indomitable generation, and I cannot recommend it too highly. REVIEWED BY JACK SHELDON

www.britainatwar.com

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RECONNAISSANCE REPORT |

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

I Was A Spy!

Marthe McKenna, Foreword by Winston Churchill



This reprint of a classic 1932 account of clandestine activities behind German lines is as thrilling as it is unusual. Described as ‘The Greatest War Story of All’ by future war leader Winston Churchill, the gripping tale of the Belgian who spied for Britain, Marthe McKenna (née Cnockaert), is expertly told by her ghostwriting husband in this spectacular rendition charting the course of her war. Her actions during the war would become so prolific that she would be marked for death on German hit lists in the next war, and despite being long-retired McKenna featured in the famous ‘Black book’. Mentioned in Dispatches by Douglas Haig, and awarded a mix of medals from Britain, France and Belgium for her service, McKenna’s story starts from the moment of the German invasion of her native Belgium, which cut short her studies. It was the arrest of her father as a suspected francs-tireurs and the destruction of her home that set her on the path of espionage, where, working as a nurse tending to soldiers from the occupying force, she was an easy recruit for the British. For two years McKenna exploited the proximity her role as nurse gave her to German soldiers and she worked with other agents to pass gathered intelligence on to the Allies. McKenna’s other espionage activities included an outrageously ambitious plot against the Kaiser’s life, and she also allowed herself to be recruited to spy for the Germans where she passed harmless information to them before the difficulty of being a double agent led to her arranging for her contact within the German spy ring to be killed. Sabotage would be McKenna’s next undertaking and was ultimately the undoing of her exciting career as a clandestine operative when she was caught

92

after planting a bomb under a German munitions depot. Captured, and with the evidence set against her, McKenna was court-martialled and sentenced to death although her Iron Cross, presented by the Germans as a reward for her medical services to their soldiers, earned her a commutation and she was released at the end of the war after serving two years of the life sentence handed down to her. This riveting and inspiring title is a true tale of resistance, vengeance, and bravery. Aesthetically, the book itself stands out by the replication of a vintage cloth-style cover and the eye-catching silhouetted design adding yet more mystery to a book dedicated to the cloudy underworld of wartime espionage. It is a fitting tribute to the work of all agents during that war, which was a conflict arguably less well-known for its spying game than was the Second World War. It is also a fine tribute to Marthe McKenna herself. This re-issue of a gripping tale of the wartime adventures of a legendary heroine, perhaps ranking alongside the legendary Violette Szabó, is one to be welcomed. Churchill was not the only one who could not stop reading this until 4am! REVIEWED BY JOHN ASH

References/Notes Index 

photography of the British Isles. This is

Megan Westley

those with an interest in Luftwaffe

It is no hidden lesson that those

operations over Britain and makes for

left behind by the men to fight in the

compelling reading

Second World War had to bullishly

when one views

carry on in the face

towns and cities

of their own war in

with which one is

a time of national,

familiar. The quality

and private, struggle.

of reproduction is

This well-researched

superb and the

title explores life

author goes into a

for those who were

great amount of detail with the back-

left behind, and

story to each image. Additionally, he

benefits from great

explains the system and methodology

depth as the author has threw

used by the Germans in their

herself into home front life for a year,

comprehensive photography of Britain

experimenting with wartime recipes

and how that imagery was used to

and sacrificing television, even going so

plan and execute air raids against the

far as to recreate an air raid in a bid to

country and in their organisational

authenticate her findings. An enjoyable

planning of the projected invasion of the

study of wartime life in Britain.

country in 1940. It is a book which is

Publisher: Amberley www.amberley-books.com ISBN: 978-1-4456-4527-8 251 Pages RRP: £9.99

difficult to put down, once one has been

VOICES IN FLIGHT: THE NIGHT AIR WAR Martin W. Bowman

 This thorough work combines official data with the voices of some of the many airmen who served with the RAF’s

drawn into the myriad of images of locations the length and breadth of the country. Doubtless, many readers will be drawn to trying to spot their street, or their house! Highly recommended. Publisher: Fonthill Media www.fonthillmedia.com ISBN: 13 978-1-78155-119-6 223 Pages RRP £16.99

1916: A GLOBAL HISTORY Keith Jeffery

This, the latest title from Keith

in their war with the

Jeffery, primarily sets out to further

Luftwaffe. A dangerous struggle, where,

understanding of the ‘worst year of the

of nearly 8,000 aircraft lost on British

war’ and aims to move the reader away

night operations, some 5,800 were

from the Western Front, where, along

attributed to German night fighters.

with its infamous offensives, history

The book details a period of operations

has rather bogged

from late 1943 until the end of the

itself in. Jeffery takes

war, and uses the captivating words

twelve key moments

of these remarkable men to bring to

from around the world,

life many of the operations flown by

including Verdun,

them on these hazardous missions.

Jutland, and of course

Each of the fifteen chapters carries the

the Somme, but also

reader with gripping content; one of

analyses the effect

the many stand-out accounts coming

of a year of conflict had in the United

from Nicholas Alkemade, who survived

States, in the Far East and in Africa,

a 18,000ft fall without a parachute.

as well as the stalemate between Italy

Remarkable tales of remarkable men.

and Austria-Hungary and the spill over

Publisher: Pen and Sword www.pen-and-sword.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-7838-3191-3 RRP: £25.00

of the war into Greece and the Balkans

Nigel J Clark The somewhat light-hearted title of this book rather belies the true



a book that will fascinate and intrigue

Bomber Command

ADOLF’S BRITISH HOLIDAY SNAPS

Publisher: Pool of London www.pooloflondon.com ISBN: 978-1-910860-03-8 267 Pages RRP: £12.99 Illustrations  Appendices 

LIVING ON THE HOME FRONT

nature of its content which is, instead, a detailed and fascinating look at Luftwaffe aerial reconnaissance

following the advances of the Central Powers in 1915. A nod must be made to the stunning and innovative cover design, which is a tactile and physical reminder that there was much more to 1916 than the received and generally accepted versions of events. Publisher: Bloomsbury www.bloomsbury.com ISBN: 978-1-4088-3430-5 512 Pages RRP: £25.00

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92 RECON.indd 92

16/10/2015 15:58

NO NORMAL BATTLE Longstop Hill

100th Issue Competition WINNERS! In our 100th issue of Britain at War we announced our competition for readers to photograph a copy of Britain at War in an interesting location with a military history background. With the closing date on 30 September, and all entries now in, we are pleased to announce the following winners. A compilation of some of the winning entries appear below:

WINNER 1st PRIZE Andrew Wright

2nd PRIZES

Richard Pursehouse Eric Ward Miss J Whibley Abi Daly Simon Stow Derek Kearey Paul Thibaut David Brown Brian Horne Geoff Pringle

3rd PRIZE

Abi Daly

Geoff Pringle

Graham Hansford

RUNNERS UP

Flynn Spears Mikael Sandstrom Peter Riley Ronald Hutchinson Sara Taylor

Miss J Whibley

Eric Ward

On occasions Key Publishing may make offers on products or services that we believe to be of interest to our customers. If you do not wish to receive this information please state NO INFORMATION clearly on your entry.

www.britainatwar.com 93

RECONNAISSANCE REPORT |

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

U-188

december 2015 ISSUE

A German Submariner’s Account of the War at Sea 1941-1945

ON SALE FROM 26 november 2015

Anton Staller, as told to Klaus Willmann



MEMOIRS FROM surviving German submariners are rare, and those from ordinary rankers even scarcer. Consequently, this book provides an unusual view of life in the U-boat service. Conscripted just before his eighteenth birthday, Anton Staller had wanted to join the Kriegsmarine but had hoped to serve on surface vessels, not in the cramped confines of a submarine. Staller was not happy with his lot, nor of his treatment by the officers, this colouring his view of the war and how it was conducted. Nevertheless, there were times when he enjoyed the thrill of the open seas as he describes meeting up with replenishment tankers in midOcean, of flying fish capable of being airborne for fifty metres, of albatrosses, playful dolphins, of stifling heat with little oxygen in the air and, of course, action with the enemy. Often the threat was from the air and Staller recalled when a black point was seen in the sky following their wake. As it grew bigger in the sky the officer of the watch called for full speed ahead and the helm hard to port. The U-boat’s crew prepared

94

to engage the attacker, whilst the aircraft continued its approach. ‘Everybody began shooting at the same moment,’ stated Staller. ‘As it thundered overhead seconds later I turned and fired after the aircraft and was surprised the flak gun remained silent. The bombs the aircraft had dropped fell in our wake.’ Though some of the German crew were injured in the engagement, U-188 survived. On a separate occasion, when an Allied warship suddenly appeared overhead and the submarine had to dive precipitously, the crew were ordered to run to the bows to help propel the boat downwards. During one attack, the captain took the boat to unprecedented depths: ‘Fear seized me as I saw in the faces of the old experienced hands horror, panic and a difficult to describe aura of helplessness.’ So deep went the submarine, its main depth gauge stopped working. ‘Everybody could hear the sudden light crackle of the steel jacket and frames of the boat in the otherwise eerie silence. The only thing I saw in the faces of the veterans near me was naked fear. None of them had ever been in a boat this deep before.’ Staller played his part in the war, sailing from the Arctic to Penang and enduring repeated Allied attacks. He may not have chosen the U-boat arm, but he had an exciting and interesting few years. His memoir is easy to read, well translated and will surely find a place on the shelves of every U-boat enthusiast. REVIEWED BY ROBERT MITCHELL.

Publisher: Frontline Books www.frontline-books.com ISBN: 978-1-84832-760-3 Hardback. 196 pages RRP: £19.99 Illustrations  Appendices 

References/Notes Index 



CAUGHT IN THE MEACON’S TRAP

In October 1941 the RAF used electronic deception to ‘capture’ their very first example of the new Dornier 217 bomber. Confused by false navigation signals, the bomber eventually landed on Kent’s South Coast and the new bomber gave up its innermost secrets to RAF intelligence officers and technical investigators. Andy Saunders tells the story.

DRILLING FOR OIL IN WARTIME BRITAIN

With oil and fuel in short supply in a beleaguered Britain there was a pressing need to find new and reliable sources. Thus, it was inevitable that known oil resources beneath Nottinghamshire would be investigated and tapped. Incredibly, a secret field of oil drilling wells was set up in Sherwood Forest, manned by Texan oil drillers, and began pumping oil for Britain’s war effort. Joshua Levine tells the astonishing and unusual story.

A TANK ON TOUR

Having entered the First World War in 1917, the United States government found itself dealing with the same issues as faced by many other Allied nations – including the need to finance its war effort. The American population was duly targeted through numerous war loans and savings schemes and to encourage people to dig deep, as Alexander Nicoll reveals, a British tank was deployed on the streets of New York and other American cities.

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OPERATION IRONCLAD Sending In The Marines: 1942

I

MAIN PICTURE: The Marines of HMS Ramillies.

n the spring of 1942, Britain’s far-flung empire was in the gravest peril. North Africa was being overrun by the German Africa Korps and in south-east Asia the forces of Imperial Japan had captured Singapore and were threatening India. Only the most urgent reinforcement of both war fronts could prevent disaster. But Britain’s shipping routes to Egypt and India passed the island of Madagascar. If the Japanese navy, operating out of Madagascar, could sever Britain’s communications with Cairo and Delhi then the whole of North Africa and the Indian subcontinent would be at the mercy of the Axis Powers. In a desperate race against time, and under conditions of the utmost secrecy, Britain planned to seize Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, before the Japanese could strike. An overwhelming force was assembled and despatched as part of the largest convoy to have left Britain’s shores. Yet the expedition’s commanders were faced with not just military but also political obstacles, because the forces occupying the island were not those of Britain’s enemies but those of her former ally – France. This meant that the British could

OPERATION After two days of fighting the two brigades of British infantry had been unable to break through the defences of the Vichy-held port of Diego Suarez. With defeat looking increasingly inevitable there was only one chance left – to land a force behind the defenders; and there was only one body of men that could carry out this task

not open fire on the troops of what was, in theory, a neutral country. The hope was that the French would not resist.

OPERATION IRONCLAD

The military force assembled for the attack upon Madagascar’s principal naval port of Antsirane (or Antsirana), consisted of the 29th Independent Infantry Brigade Group and the 17th 98 www.britainatwar.com

Infantry Brigade with the 13th Infantry Brigade as support, along with No.5 Army Commando and associated artillery and engineers. There was also ‘B’ Special Service Squadron, Royal Armoured Corps with six Tetarch and six Valentine tanks. Designated Force 121, it was led by Major General ‘Bob’ Sturges. The naval force was led by Rear Admiral Neville Syfret in the

battleship HMS Ramilies, with the aircraft carriers Indomitable and Illustrious with nine squadrons of torpedo-bombers and fighters, two cruisers, eleven destroyers, and flotillas of corvettes and minesweepers. The troops were carried in a collection of transports and assault ships. Altogether more than forty ships sailed round the Cape and reached the seas off Madagascar in the first

OPERATION IRONCLAD Sending In The Marines: 1942

week of May 1942. At the extreme northern tip of Madagascar is the Andrakaka Peninsula. The narrow isthmus by which it is joined to the mainland is formed by two deep cuts, on the east side Diego Suarez Bay and to the west Courrier Bay. The anchorage in Diego Suarez Bay is enclosed by two, almost encircling arms of land, leaving a narrow, easily defended channel as the bay’s only entrance. On a spur of land, known as the Diego Suarez Peninsula, which projects into this magnificent bay, is the town and naval base of Antsirane. The entrance to Diego Suarez Bay was defended by heavy batteries, with searchlights on both arms. At the harbour mouth was one battery of four 320mm guns on fixed mountings and three other batteries equipped with smaller ordnance. A mining barge containing twenty-five mines was moored close to the shore at this point, which, in the event of an attack, could lay a line of mines across the harbour entrance. Further south on the Orangea Peninsula there was a battery of two 80mm field guns in a small, Foreign Legion-style fort known as Mamelon Vert which projected into the sea to guard the eastern approaches. Altogether, there were seven coastal batteries in and 

BELOW: One of the 138mm gun emplacements of No.7 Battery in Courrier Bay (ALL IMAGES ARE

FROM THE AUTHOR’S

N IRONCLAD

COLLECTION EXCEPT WHERE STATED).

www.britainatwar.com 99

ABOVE: An Admiralty map showing the approach of the ships of Operation Ironclad. Note the narrow entrance to Diego Suarez Bay.

around Diego Suarez, mounting a total of twenty large calibre guns. Any attempt at forcing the narrow and well-defended harbour entrance was considered too hazardous in the extreme. So instead, the plan of operations was that the troops would be landed in Courier Bay and from there they would seize Antrisane from the landward side.

A MAGINOT LINE IN MINIATURE

BELOW: A view of Antsirane and Diego Suarez Bay looking towards Port Nièvre taken in 1942 (COURTESY ARTHUR LOWE).

Thanks to exceptional seamanship and the actions of a local branch of the Special Operations Executive, the assault convoy entered Courier Bay without serious mishap, the gun batteries being taken almost without resitance. Hopes were high of a quick and easy victory. Leaflets were dropped by the Fleet Air Arm on Antrirane telling the Vichy authorities that if they did not fire upon British ships, aircraft and soldiers, the British likewise would not fire upon their former allies. But the French colonials would have none of it. As the British marched towards Antsirane, Vichy troops were sent to delay them whilst the main landward defences were manned and prepared. This defensive line ran from shore to shore across the neck of the Antsirane Peninsula along a low ridge, about two miles south of the port itself. The fortifications were almost three-anda-half miles long and consisted of a continuous trench system, protected by a hedge of barbed-wire, supported by a substantial fort on either end of the line – Fort Caimans to the west and Fort Bellevue to the east. Both forts overlooked the open shore line at their respective ends where steep slopes covered with scrub ran down to

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join the mangrove swamps bordering the sea. Along the length of the trench system were emplacements for 75mm guns, well-sited observation posts, and pillboxes armed with mortars and machine-guns. Parts of these defences were set in concrete like a Maginot Line in miniature. There were also a number of mobile (bullock-drawn) 75mm guns hidden in the “swathes” of sugar cane. The French positions were cleverly camouflaged and wellconcealed amongst the tall crops, making the pin-pointing of targets from the air extremely difficult and completely impossible from the ground. Approximately 1,400 yards ahead of this line was the anti-tank ditch which extended for a short distance on either side of the three roads that ran south from Antsirane through or round the French defences. Without ladders or without digging a ramp neither infantry nor tanks could surmount this

obstacle. Heavy cloud had obscured this line of defences from aerial reconnaissance and the British were unaware that the French had such formidable fortifications. When the tanks of ‘B’ Special Service Squadron cruised down the main road to Antsirane the leading Valentine was hit by rounds from a well-concealed French 75mm gun. The second infantry tank, carrying Major Simon, was also hit by the 75s using solid shot. The driver, Trooper Bond, managed to pull himself through the driver’s hatch but, as he climbed out he fell forward underneath the rolling tank. He died with the tank on top of him as he begged Simon to shoot him. The tank rolled forwards 150 yards down the road before being destroyed by volleys from French guns on both sides of the road. Eight of the twelve tanks were put out of action before the infantry of the 29th Brigade marched up and it was not until 17.30 hours that a properly-

OPERATION IRONCLAD Sending In The Marines: 1942

coordinated attack was launched, with the 1st Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers leading the way. “As we neared the town it was still broad daylight”, recalled Corporal Butterfield of the Signals Platoon. “There was a big open field in front of us. We went across that field in open formation as if we were going on a Sunday school picnic. They were waiting for us to get in range of their machine-guns and then they opened fire on us”. This heavy fire from machineguns and snipers brought Lieutenant Thompson’s platoon on the left of the road to a halt after just 100 yards. A number of men were hit with Thompson himself being wounded twice. “The guy in front of me went down, shot through the neck. I knew I had also been hit but felt no pain”, Butterfield later wrote. “It was utter chaos. Moaning and groaning all over the place”. The two platoons on the right of the road actually reached the anti-tank ditch. This obstacle was around seven feet wide with sheer walls seven feet six inches high. It was as far as the Scots were to go. It was apparent that the French were well organised and determined to resist. As darkness was enveloping the battlefield Struges had little choice but to call off the attack until the following morning.

IMPOSSIBLE ODDS

The 29th Brigade was joined by the bulk of the artillery for the second attack upon Antsirane. This attack also failed but by the afternoon the 17th Brigade had landed and

marched up to join in the fighting, though 13th Brigade remained on the transports as a floating reserve. Despite the increased man-power and firepower, Day 2 of Operation Ironclad brought no greater success. Such resistance by the Vichy French had not been expected. The assault force was not provided with, nor provisioned for, a protracted campaign. It had been assumed that faced with such a large British air, naval and military force, the colonials would bow to the inevitable and, after the exchange of a few shots to maintain their honour, the French authorities would submit. But this was not happening. To add to Syfret’s and Sturges’ potential problems, the longer the operation continued, the more time the French would have to bring up reinforcements from the

capital, Antananarivo, and other parts of the island. There was also the fear, which as subsequent events proved was well-founded, that the Japanese might appear at any moment, and that might prove catastrophic. 

TOP: HMS Ramillies, the aging Revenge-class Battleship enjoyed an active Second World War career.

ABOVE: The pillboxes adjacent to the main Antsirane road which formed the centre of the French defences. LEFT: One of the 100 guns of the Poste Optique battery overlooking the narrow entrance to Diego Suarez Bay that Anthony charged through on the night of 6 May. www.britainatwar.com 101

OPERATION IRONCLAD Sending In The Marines: 1942

ABOVE: A map of Antrirane (Antsirana) showing the approximate route taken by Price’s Marines.

ABOVE: An Admiralty map showing the French line of defences to the south of Antrirane.

RIGHT: Men of the 2me Regiment Mixte de Madagascar who defended Antsirane so stubbornly. BELOW: Port Nièvre where the Marines landed.

Sturges, meanwhile, had returned to Ramillies to request further assistance from the Navy to coincide with the frontal attack by the 17th Brigade. He arrived on the flagship “hot, begrimmed and unhappy,” Syfret recalled, “things were not going well”. Sturges was “emphatic” that the attack must be carried out before the moon rose at 23.00 hours as the French positions were too strong to be captured in moonlight or daylight in the absence of strong artillery support.

102www.britainatwar.com

Any further delay to give the troops time to rest, Sturges told the Admiral, “would be playing into the enemy’s hands.” Sturges asked Syfret for a party of Royal Marines to distract the enemy by landing in the rear of the Antsirane positions “to take the Frenchmen’s eye off the ball”. As a result, at about 14.30 hours, Captain Martin Price commanding the Royal Marine detachment on board the flagship, was instructed by the Admiral to prepare a force of fifty Marines for immediate deployment. “We want you to cause a diversion by attacking the town in reverse”, Price was told. “You will go ashore from Anthony. Your objective is the Artillery Commandant’s house, which

dominates the southern end of the town. We want you to turn to the north as many rifles as possible that are now pointing south at the Army and prevent enemy reinforcements being available for a counter-attack”. Sturges made no secret of the fact that he thought the mission was highly dangerous and he rated the Marines’ chances of success as “four to one against”. Syfret was equally pessimistic: “Anthony’s chances of success I assessed as about 50%, my advisors thought 15%, and of the Royal Marines I did not expect a score to survive the night”. It was extremely unlikely that, if the attack failed, the Anthony would be able to return. If she did manage to surprise the coastal batteries on the way in, the French gunners would be watching and waiting for her on the way out. But the situation had become

OPERATION IRONCLAD Sending In The Marines: 1942 FAR LEFT: The central gun emplacement of Fort Caimans as seen today. LEFT: The memorial erected by the by the Royal Scots Fusiliers which was located at the start line of the dawn attack on 6 May.

so desperate that Sturges believed it was worth the risk, “even”, the General conceded, “if the destroyer is lost”.

‘GOOD BYE AND GOOD LUCK’

Syfret, who believed that the intended quick capture of Antsirane had failed, was becoming increasingly concerned with the turn of events: “The night attack, planned in a hurry, to be carried out by tired troops against very strong positions, had only a 10% chance of success. Prolonged operations, which we so much wished to avoid, was the unpleasant alternative … The next few hours were not happy ones.” Price assembled the selected men and divided them into six sections and a Headquarters Section. As well as personal weapons, each man was issued with three grenades and the HQ Section included six Lewis

machine-guns and a 2-inch mortar. The Marines were embarked in HMS Anthony which, shortly after leaving Ambararata Bay, ran into a heavy sea and most of Price’s men, accustomed to the steadier movement of the big battleship, were soon sea-sick! Nevertheless, the Anthony steamed the 100 miles or so round Cape Amber to the Orangea coast and at 19.45, two hours after nightfall, the destroyer began its approach to the entrance of Diego Suarez Bay. William Henry Smith was on board Anthony and recorded the event in his diary: “At last we are going to do something in this rotten war. After a quiet day we are now on the way to the harbour of Diego Suarez with 50 marines to take positions in the rear of the town. We have to run the gauntlet of some 18 guns on shore and a mine field. When we left the Flag Ship made ‘Good bye and Good

luck’ quite a Nelson touch. If I am able to continue this story after 10 pm I will consider myself very lucky.” Lieutenant-Commander Hodges had never seen this coast before and the Orangea Pass is nothing more than a narrow break in the cliffs with dangerous reefs skirting the northern approaches. 

ABOVE: The pipes of the Royal Scots Fusiliers lead the victory parade through Antsirane after the French surrender. (COURTESY ARTHUR LOWE).

LEFT: A-class destroyer HMS Anthony, she survived the war. www.britainatwar.com 103

OPERATION IRONCLAD Sending In The Marines: 1942 RIGHT: A damaged gun emplacement of No.6 Coastal Defence Battery in Diego Suarez Bay.

Though the high ground behind prevented the entrance from being silhouetted against the night sky, Hodges charged for the gap at twentytwo knots. It was, according to The Times, “the most astonishing incident of the whole undertaking”. A searchlight on the Orangea Peninsula was switched on, its beam picking up Anthony as it crossed the harbour entrance. The shore batteries immediately opened fire upon the destroyer, but HMS Devonshire was circling some six and a half miles to sea and the cruiser responded with its 8-inch guns. With Devonshire’s second salvo the searchlight went out. Anthony also replied with her two rear 4.7 inch guns and the French batteries fell silent. The destroyer crossed the bay unscathed. However, the defenders were now fully alerted and as the ship approached the main jetty it was met with machine-gun fire from the jetty itself and from the hill above.

‘WE’RE THRO!’

BELOW: A dismounted 320mm coastal artillery piece.

At 22.00 hours, William Henry Smith completed the entry in his diary: “We’re thro!! Phew!! Relax once more. It was a great run. Plenty of guns opened up at us, but their shooting was poor and they got back better than they gave. The suspense and waiting was the worst — expecting the big shore guns to blow us out of the water at any time. Anyway they didn’t so all is well. Going through the narrow channel at full speed with 12.6 guns 500 yards away was some thrill.” In the darkness Anthony overshot the jetty. Due to strong winds Lieutenant-Commander Hodges could not risk turning the destroyer in such close proximity to the shore and he reversed engines and backed up to the jetty. The Marines had to disembark from the stern by clambering over the destroyer’s depth charges! A tall warehouse at the end of the jetty protected the Marines from much of the enemy fire as they

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assembled into their sections and moved off through the dockyard which was still burning after raids by the Fleet Air Arm. Price led his party towards the town. With a map taken from a book on coastal pilotage as his only guide, Price soon became lost. But, after stumbling through a cattle pen full of waterbuffalo, Price found his way to the Artillery Commandant’s house, which was occupied without opposition. Price then sent Lieutenant Powell with three sections further down the road. Powell got as far as the naval barracks where he came under fire from guards at the gate-house. Powell’s men replied with grenades and, moments later, the Commandant and his men marched out waving a white flag. As Powell was accepting the surrender, a French drummer began to make a signal. Believing that they had been lured into a trap the Marines leapt at the bewildered drummer. When the Commandant explained that the man was about to sound the “cease-fire”, the Marines humbly apologised. In the barracks, Powell found three British Army officers, fifty other ranks and three Fleet Air Arm personnel that had been captured earlier in the fighting. Powell searched the barracks and found it well stocked with weapons, including 2,000 to 3,000 rifles and a number of heavy machine-guns. Just one Marine was wounded, being

accidentally shot in the leg by a comrade. Price had achieved his objective and had prevented any reinforcement of the main French defences by troops from the naval barracks. He had also prevented heavy street-fighting, which would have caused many casualties and much damage to the town itself. Anthony relayed the news of the success of the mission back to Ramillies: “Operation completed successfully – coast defence gunners require further practise”. The actions of the Marines proved decisive. When the attack of the 17th Brigade supported by the 29th Brigade was delivered, the French continued to fight in as determined a manner as before, but the disturbance and confusion in their rear caused by Price’s men un-nerved the defenders. In the early hours of 7 May the French naval and military commanders surrendered Antsirane – and only just in time. In the last week of May Japanese submarines reached Madagascar and torpedoed HMS Ramilies in Diego Suarez Bay. But the British were too firmly established in Antsirane and the Japanese were driven off. The shipping routes to Egypt and India had been secured. Operation Ironclad is largely ignored by historians, yet it was Britain’s largest amphibious assault since Gallipoli in 1915 and was the first large-scale combined air, sea and land operation Britain had ever attempted. 

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SCOURGE THE RELUCTANT OF THEHERO TWO SEATERS McCudden’s Lewis Pugh Evans Victories VC in Allied Lines

Tw T w

 106 www.britainatwar.com

w wo o Scourge of the

I

N COMBAT, COMBAT, Allied fighter (or scout) pilots generally engaged the enemy on the German side of the trenches, with aircraft that were shot down falling inside their own territory. This made it difficult to assess if the aircraft had been destroyed or merely damaged, and a German pilot, finding himself in trouble, might easily put his machine into a controlled spin and disappear in low cloud or mist or simply be lost to sight by his erstwhile adversary. A British pilot might therefore return home and claim an ‘out of control’ victory. That is to say, he and a witness deemed that the spinning opponent in all probability crashed. (In the Second World War this would be classed as a ‘probable’) Of

SCOURGE OF THE TWO SEATERS

McCudden’s Victories in Allied Lines

Although not the highest scoring British fighter pilot of The First World War, James McCudden is recognised as probably the most deadly. He was also the master of bringing down enemy aircraft inside British lines, but scoring victories that could be confirmed was a complicated matter as Norman Franks explains.

course, if an aircraft went down in flames, broke up in the air, or the pilot was seen to jump or fall out, or it was definitely seen to crash, then that was a ‘kill’. Thus, the most successful fighter pilots would have a score that included both confirmed and ‘Out of Control’ victories. A pilot may well be decorated for having downed, say, ten aircraft, but this score might show six destroyed and four ‘Out of Control’. As an example, Captain Albert Ball VC DSO MC, with 44 ‘victories’, had his tally broken down into 28 destroyed, six ‘occ’, one kite balloon, and nine forced to land. During the early years of the war, hostile aircraft

seen to force land in their own territory were credited, but were not credited after late 1916. Ball, and others, scored most of their ‘kills’ behind enemy lines and it was rare to engage a German aeroplane on the Allied side. As the war progressed, more were brought down inside Allied lines, the British numbering these ‘captured’ aircraft with a ‘G’ serial – even if the machine was little more than a pile of wreckage. Several pilots brought down a few this way, but the man who stands out in this respect is Captain J T B McCudden. 

FAR LEFT: James McCudden showing his medal ribbons: VC, DSO & Mar, MC & Bar, MM and French Croix de Guerre. BELOW: McCudden’s SE5 B4863 marked ‘G’, and with 56 Squadron’s marking of a white band aft of the fuselage.

www.britainatwar.com 107

SCOURGE OF THE TWO SEATERS McCudden’s Victories in Allied Lines

LEFT: Captain James Byford McCudden in the cockpit of his SE5a

BOTH WINGS RIPPED AWAY

McCudden managed to bring down seventeen inside British lines, and achieved a total of 57 confirmed victories before his death in July 1918. In that time he had received the Victoria Cross, the DSO and Bar, and MC and Bar, plus the French Croix de Guerre. Born into a military family he joined the Royal Engineers in 1910 at the age of 15, and moved to the Royal Flying Corps in 1913 as a mechanic. Once the war began he found himself in France and

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volunteering for observer duties, which later led to pilot training. By late summer of 1916 he was back in France flying DH2 fighters with 20 Sqn and later Sopwith Pups with 66 Sqn. In the summer of 1917 he joined 56 Sqn, flying SE5a fighters, by this time having scored a modest seven victories. With 56 Sqn he became a flight commander, and his score of victories grew. His first success in bringing down a German inside British lines came on 26 September, a Rumpler CV twoseater reconnaissance machine,

BELOW: Artist's representation of McCudden's SE5a, B4891, with its distinctive red propeller spinner.

south west of Langemarck, Belgium, in the late afternoon, the German crew having just been in action with a Spad that appeared to go down. McCudden recorded: ‘The Hun went off east a little and then came back, apparently pleased at having shot the Spad down.’ McCudden opened fire and was so close he had to turn sharply to avoid collision. The German went down on fire, just north of the Ypres-Poelcapelle road. In the main it was two-seater aircraft that were most often found on the British side, on reconnaissance flights and taking photographs of Allied positions. The Rumpler came from Schutzstaffel 27b, the crew of Uffz Hans Gossler and Uffz Bruno Wiedermann both killed, the wreck becoming G.73. The aircraft landed in British lines taking Gossler with it, but Wiedermann fell or jumped from 12,000 ft and landed on the German side, having only been on the unit for 13 days. McCudden’s next downing in Allied lines came on 17 October when his Flight spotted two twoseaters near Bailleul. Seeing the SE5s, one quickly headed away east leaving the other to cover its withdrawal. McCudden attacked it, setting the LVG CV on fire. Its pilot then started to go down and with most of the fuselage fabric burnt away the fire went out. Seeing this, the two other SE5s attacked. The German pilot steepened his dive and both wings of his machine ripped away, the remainder crashing just south of Vlamertunghe. McCudden decided to land nearby and discovered the observer had jumped from the burning aircraft at 5,000 ft, the pilot crashing with his aircraft. The machine was from Flieger-Abteilung (FA) 8,

SCOURGE OF THE TWO SEATERS

McCudden’s Victories in Allied Lines

mile from where the LVG had rolled to a stop. Despite ending up on its nose, the SE5 only had a broken propeller and McCudden walked to the LVG, finding the observer, Gefreiter Erkerle mortally wounded. The pilot, Vizefeldwebel Flohig, was unhurt and POW, the LVG becoming G.94. On 5 December he took off to test his new SE5, B4891, looking for any hostile two-seaters that might take advantage of good weather to come across the lines. It was late morning, and at 19,000 ft, above Havrincout Wood, he spotted a Rumpler, manoeuvred to cut off its retreat and closed to attack over Boursies, the wreckage falling near Hermies. The luckless crew, Ltns Ernst Sauter and Fritz Pauly of FA45b both died, their aircraft becoming G.95.

BLOOD ACROSS THE WINDSCREEN

crewed by Oblt Ernst Hadrich and Ltn Heinz Schberth. Both were 23. The wreckage became G.80 and the British pilot’s 17th victory.

‘EMITTING CLOUDS OF STEAM…’

On 21 October, a Rumpler from FA5, with Uffz Richard Hiltwein at the controls and Ltn Hans Laitlo as observer. McCudden had seen this at 17,000 feet, he being 1,000 feet lower, but it flew away east. Feeling certain that this German pilot would turn back when he thought the SE5 had gone away, McCudden flew out of the area but kept an eye on the distant dot that was the two-seater. Sure enough, it came flying back and McCudden got between it and the lines. ‘Very soon I caught up with him and got into position and fired a long burst from both guns, which went beautifully. The Rumpler at once went down in a steep right-hand spin, emitting clouds of steam. I followed quickly, thinking that the pilot was all right, but I could see that the

Hun’s spiral was very steep, fast and regular.’ It finally crashed near Mazingarbe, both men perishing. McCudden’s ‘position’ would generally be slightly below and behind a two-seater, in the blind spot. Once again, McCudden put down near the scene. The observer was dead, and as McCudden was organising the pilot’s removal to a casualty centre he, too, died. Later, McCudden and his CO returned to the wreck, took pictures, and collected souvenirs.

A BROKEN PROPELLER

On 30 November, McCudden got another LVG, this time south-east of Havrincourt. It came from FA19, one of two aircraft he and his patrol found over Fontaine. McCudden hit the German’s engine and radiator, water poured out and the engine stopped. Knowing the two-seater would be unable to cross its lines, and finding the enemy gunner had holed his SE5’s radiator, he decided to land, which he did about a

On 22 December McCudden found two DFW CV above Holnon Wood, 1,000 ft beneath, and went down firing at one of them. With its engine stopped, it began to descend. McCudden went for the other, but despite several attacks failed to cause any visible damage and finally abandoned the chase over German territory. Meantime, the first DFW had begun a reasonable glide eastwards, desperate to cross the lines. McCudden had other ideas, attacked from 50 yards, and the DFW began a spiral into the ground. On landing, McCudden found his SE5 with blood across the windscreen, concluding that it was from one of the DFWs. The machine that became G.104 was flown by Uffz Biesenback, with Uffz Anton Bode as gunner, from Schusta 5. Bode was killed, his pilot POW. His next claims over the British side totalled three, plus a fourth on the German side, all on the 23 December. The one on the enemy side was the first of the day, scored at 11:25am over Anguilcourt, but less than an hour later he was on to a Rumpler CVII. Flying alone near St Quentin he found three two-seaters at 15,000 ft, flying above him. He had no chance to climb up to them before they were rapidly heading east, but then he spotted an LVG crossing the 

LEFT: A crashed Rumpler CV that McCudden brought down near Mazingarbe on 21 October 1917, given the number G.84 by RFC HQ.

LEFT: The cockpit of an SE5A. Note the Aldis telescopic gun-sight and the single Vickers machine gun. A Lewis gun was mounted on the top wing. BELOW: A more relaxed McCudden.

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SCOURGE OF THE TWO SEATERS McCudden’s Victories in Allied Lines lines at 17,000 ft and gave chase. Closing in, McCudden opened fire, stopping the enemy’s engine. The pilot began to glide away south-east, forcing McCudden to attack again in order to stop its retreat, whereupon the LVG went down and crashed.

LIKE A FALLING LEAF

Shortly afterwards another twoseater was observed, the crew appeared to be on a photographic mission and were above Péronne but failed to see the SE5 climb above them from where it was attacked. The Rumpler was still trying to climb but McCudden continued to attack, driving the German down. At 8,000 feet over Roupy a final burst caused its starboard wings to come off, the wreckage falling into British lines near Contescourt to become G.106. Landing briefly to refuel and rearm, he was off again at 13.55 flying east to Ypres, reaching 14,000 feet and at 14.30 found the Rumpler coming west over Metz-en-Coutre at the same height. Despite an attempt to dive east, McCudden’s fire sent G.107 down to crash north-west of Gouzancourt. Action continued shortly afterwards in a scrap with

several Albatros Scouts. Apart from one SE5 being damaged and forced to head down, the fight was inconclusive. British AA fire attracted their attention to an LVG of Schusta 12 flying west over Trescault which McCudden attacked, sending the two-seater down like a falling leaf to crash on a light gauge railway train in its vertical dive, knocking some of its trucks off the track. The aircraft became G.108, the crew of Vfws Kurt Boje and Friedrich Niemann both killed. With four two-seaters down, three in

ABOVE: A captured Rumpler CV that became G.117 brought down by ground fire on 28 December 1917. Note the eye and mouth marking by the propeller and the number ‘3’ on the fuselage. Note that the RFC have over-painted the German markings with British roundels on the wings. LEFT: A German LVG CV two-seater.

LEFT: A DFW CV, this one brought down on 12 July 1917 by 56 Squadron’s Lt A P F Rhys Davids, which became G.53.

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British lines in one day, there was cause for celebration that evening. It was the first time a British pilot had achieved four German aircraft definitely destroyed in one day, and brought several telegrams of congratulations including one from General Hugh Trenchard, C-in-C of the RFC.

SWIFT AND DEADLY

Bad weather then prevented any contact with the enemy until he flew a lone patrol early on the 28 December; a clear, crisp morning but extremely cold. Nearing the lines he saw a Rumpler coming over Bourlon Wood. His attack was swift and deadly, the twoseater immediately heading down in a spiral, shedding its right-hand wings before crashing just north of Vélu Wood, the crew lucky to survive as prisoners. G.111 was in the bag. Just over a quarter of an hour later McCudden found another Rumpler heading over Haplincourt, his stealthy attack resulted in the two-seater going down on fire near Flers, again in British lines. G.112, from FA(a)40, carried Uffz Oskar Güntert and Ltn Mans Mittig to their deaths. Before the hour was up, McCudden got his third, this time an LVG of FA(a)210. McCudden had regained lost height and at 16,000 ft over Havrincourt he spied the aircraft under AA fire, shells exploding around the German as he closed in. On this occasion he opened fire at long range, trying to force the two-seater to dive away clear of the bursting shells. It worked, and the enemy pilot headed down – fast. McCudden followed, and at high speed closed

SCOURGE OF THE TWO SEATERS

McCudden’s Victories in Allied Lines

to 100 yards when down to 9,000 feet. He set the LVG on fire and moments later it broke up in the air, bits and pieces being scattered over the wood below, becoming G.113. Both Ltn Walter Ergmann and Flg Albert Weinrich died. Just moments later, attacking another LVG, he saw a brief flame and then steam from the radiator, but when last seen it was still losing height but under control. His report stated: ‘Left aerodrome at 10:15 to look for EA, W. of the lines. At 11.10 I saw a Rumpler coming W. over Boursies. I got into position at 75 yards, fired a short burst from both guns, when EA at once went into a right-hand spiral dive and its right-hand wings fell off at about 17,000 and the wreckage fell in our lines N. of Velu Wood at 11.15. At 11.30, saw a Rumpler going N. Over Havrincourt at 17,000. I secured a firing position and fired a good burst from both guns, when flames at once came from EA’s fuselage and he went down in a right-hand flat spin and crashed in our lines near Flers (as far as I could judge as I remained at 17,000 ft so as not to lose time by going down and having to climb up again). EA crashed about 11.35. ‘I now saw an LVG being shelled by our AA over Havrincourt at 16,000. AA fire did not stop until I was in range of EA. I obtained a good position at fairly long range, fired a burst with the object of making him dive, which he did. EA dived steeply (about 200mph), starting at about 16,000 ft, and at about 9,000 ft fired another burst into EA at 100 yards range, when flames issued from EA’s fuselage and then he broke up over Havrincourt wood, the wreckage falling in our lines. The EA had been diving so fast that the hostile observer could not fire [even] if I gave him the chance. ‘I climbed again and at 12.15 at 18,000 I saw an LVG being shelled by our AA over Lagnicourt. EA dived down East and I caught up to him just E. of the lines, and fired a good burst from Lewis at 100 yards, when a small burst of flame came from RA but at once went out again. EA dived steeply NE over Harquion at 12.20 at 9,000 ft, under control. Returned at 12.25 as I had no more petrol.’ On 29 December McCudden bagged two more, both of them LVGs, reporting thus on the

LEFT: The observer/ gunner in the rear cockpit of his DFW CV twoseater, showing his Parabellum MG14 machine gun. The Items attached to the fuselage are signal flares.

second of the two victories which ultimately became G.119: ‘EA saw me and started a lefthand circle, the EA gunner fired at long range. After half a dozen turns EA pushed his nose down as we were drifting west. I now fired a drum of Lewis and 100 rounds of Vickers into him at 100 yards and this his right-hand wings fell off and the wreckage fell in our lines NE of Épéhy at 1.55.’ McCudden now carried a large spinner on the nose of his aircraft, taken from one of his LVGs, and had it painted bright red, helping to streamline his SE5 and in order that those in the air and on the ground could identify him. Thus ended McCudden’s year, his overall score having reached 37, with 14 of them inside British lines.

BEST OBSERVER IN THE UNIT

The year of 1918 began with his 38th victory on 9 January when he shot down a LVG over the German side of their lines, a claim that was to be 56 Squadron’s 250th victory.

On 13 January McCudden had just despatched an LVG at 09.40, then a DFW for victory number 40 at 09.50, but at 10.05 went for another LVG which came down near Lempire, inside British lines. The pilot was taken prisoner, but his companion, Ltn Max Pappenheimer, died in the air. His CO, when writing to his parents, noted their son had flown some 288 missions on artillery observation duties and was the best observer in the unit. This extract from McCudden’s combat report concerning the first of these reads: ‘I glided from the sun and secured a firing position at fifty yards without being seen, fired a short burst from both guns, when the EA went into a right-hand spiral glide, which got steeper, and then he crashed E of Le Haucourt at 9.40am’ On 2 February McCudden brought down another twoseater in British lines. This became G.130, and was an LVG CV bringing his total to 47, the machine hitting the ground just east of Vélu. 

BELOW: A rear view of the same SE5. Note that on both pictures the winmounted Lewis gun is not in position. This machine was later marked with the number ‘6’.

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SCOURGE OF THE TWO SEATERS McCudden’s Victories in Allied Lines

LEFT: British souvenir hunters scramble over a downed German two-seater in Allied lines. The soldier to the right looks like he’s been caught in the act.

A HUNTER’S ENTHUSIASM McCudden’s final victory in British lines came on 16 February, which he identified as a Rumpler CIV, actually a DFW CV. He had achieved four victories on this day, the first three over German territory, one of which was his 50th kill, although his SE5 (B4891) had been slightly damaged. However, he then took off in another machine, found a Rumpler and stalked it, letting it fly deeper into British territory before going in to attack. However, the crew finally saw his approach and turned east to get back across the lines but McCudden caught them up over Lagnicourt and his fire sent them down, the Rumpler becoming G.137. Its crew of Vfz Lorenz Zeuch and Gefr Heinrich Lechleiter of Schusta 29b both died of wounds the next day. This was the British ace’s 51st victory. He brought his total to 57 on 26 February, but the following month he returned to England on rest. Tragically, he was killed in a flying accident on 9 July 1918 whilst returning to France to

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take command of 60 Squadron. Although one might imagine that bringing down enemy aircraft inside British lines might have saved German flyers, it was far from the case. Of the 34 men involved, 26 were killed and only eight taken POW. By the time he was achieving these feats, McCudden was an exceptionally experienced fighter pilot, with a keen desire to destroy his enemy plus a hunter’s enthusiasm for stalking opponents and making approaches without being seen. Surprise was the key, but was more than ready to close right in and engage. Of the leading British pilots his score of opponents definitely destroyed was the highest, 48 of his 57 claims being in this category. When he died, James McCudden was only 23 years old. On his gravestone his family recorded: ‘Fly on dear boy, from this dark world of strife, on to the Promised Land, to eternal life.’ He was the last of three brothers to give their lives in the service of their country, all three whilst flying. 

RIGHT: Captain McCudden back in England. He is wearing a black arm band being in mourning for his brother Anthony, killed in action with 84 Squadron on 18 March 1918. James himself was killed four months later.

BELOW: A pilot demonstrates how the Lewis gun is pulled down from its top wing position in order to change the ammunition drum. If a pilot has successfully crept up below a hostile aircraft, the gun can be fired up into it.

JAMES 'MAC' McCUDDEN VC, DSO & BAR, MC & BAR, MM. James Thomas Byford McCudden was the seventh highest scoring pilot of the war and stands among the most highly decorated airmen in the history of the Royal Air Force and Royal Flying Corps. Born in Gillingham on 28 March 1895, both sides of his family had a military tradition, his father being recommended for an award for saving a wounded soldier under fire at Tel-el-Kebir in 1882. McCudden watched John MooreBrabazon become the first Englishman to fly near his home in Sheerness during 1909 but had to curb his aeronautical aspirations and joined the Royal Engineers in 1910. During an 18 month deployment in Gibraltar he taught himself the theory behind flight, aircraft construction and maintenance. By the end of April 1913, as well as a qualified Sapper, McCudden held Air Mechanic 2nd Class grading. He joined the RFC, and by 9 May, was a serving mechanic at Farnborough. His career in the RFC began less than spectacularly and while examining a Caudron Type A, the engine started and the aircraft crashed into a Farman MF.11 and his Commanding Officer’s car. His career, however, was spared by his exceptional progress and he became an Air Mechanic 1st Class. After the war began, he was volunteered to fly as an observer in France. A series of rapid promotions followed, but his excellent reputation as mechanic prevented his progress toward being a pilot. McCudden continued to fly as an observer, and in December 1915 drove off an attack by German ace Max Immelmann. In January 1916 McCudden received the Croix de Guerre for gallantry from General Joffre, French Army Commander, and within 3 days was ordered back for pilot training. By his return to France as pilot he had accumulated 121 hours flight time. The rest, as they say, is history.

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‘WELL ALIGHT, AND GOING WELL!’ Blitz Fire Service Bravery: 1940

R

y as a compan OY KEMP w ran his o director wh ery business si o h ’s y il m fa ter the . Two days af 38 Kemp er st ce ei L in eement in 19 Munich Agr for the AFS, becoming volunteered Officer, in what would a Divisional ght-year fire service become an ei then, Leicester had l career. Unti ided once, during ra n ee b ly call n o ty’s AFS sole which the ci ing gas main. In was to a burnrtnight, they would just over a folearning curve, and face a sharp w of the Blitz’s mass in the shado seems strange to it destruction r the first month of fo at th th Britain know f Britain, bo the Battle o y strenuously avoided and German other’s inland cities ch bombing ea tres of population. n ce e rg la manitarian and larly for hu Not particu largely to avoid reasons, but tacks. But, on the at retaliatory ugust 1940, several A 24 f o t mpting nigh ombers atte Luftwaffe b Thames Haven oil e to attack th the north bank n tank farm o es, became lost and am h T e don. This of th bombed Lon accidentally e RAF to mount a prompted th n the very next night. raid on Berli gh this attack was, u Meagre tho ant damage had been ic more signif Hitler’s prestige. On n o d te ic ed the infl , Hitler order 5 September step up their bombing Luftwaffe too longer would London campaign: n from air raids. On be inviolate r gave his order, the day Hitlefe had another go at the Luftwaf en – and this time, Thames Hav , setting fire to five it they found tanks. il o n the 2,000-to planning by Wise pre-war d the Petroleum Board an government was in ta ri B t n ea fuel was m with oil. The well-stocked ything from keeping vital for ever ies running to Spitfires or the war fact , the nation’s reserves ed de In g. in y even fl t, there were were so grea as an anti-invasion it plans to use t the sea on fire’. ‘se to , re measu aware of ermany was However, G able asset and began u Britain’s val attacking the nation’s ly systematical t notably at Pembroke os m s, ot p st 1940. oil de , on 19 Augu Dock, Wales s at Jarrow, Oulton Other oil farm outh, Barton and m Broad, Avon e also hit, but oil was  er w t or p New

L L E 'W H A G I AL N I O G

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ABOVE: Divisional y Officer Ro Kemp, of Leicester re Auxiliary Fi 1944 Service, in MP] [ROBERT KE

‘WELL ALIGHT, AND GOING WELL!’

Blitz Fire Service Bravery: 1940

THE

BLITZ ARY 75th ANNIVE01RS 5 1940-2

A , T D H N G A R , R T R GAH ' ! L L E W G N I O f The Blitz o y a d t s r fi e th set ablaze on sted, machine-gunned e r e w t e e fl r u il depots at P t full stretch. Bombed, bla inforced by units from o e g u h e th n a re Whe e Service was oil, local AFS units were s the conflagration which ir F y r ia il x u e in the A urning alive nds. Austin Ruddy describ tional Fire Service. b f o k is r t a a la and the East Mid rds and the birth of the N s a y a w a r fa as gallantry awa n te in d e lt u s re

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‘WELL ALIGHT, AND GOING WELL!’ Blitz Fire Service Bravery: 1940

and we had to take cover. 23.30hrs: Relief arrived and we were told to return to Brentwood for rest, a journey of about 15 miles. On way, we were caught in an air raid and had to run for a ditch. A.A. guns were in action and bombs were dropping. The noise was terrific. When things got a bit quieter, we moved off again, arriving at Brentwood at 01.30hrs Monday morning, where we were billeted at the New Ursuline Convent. Had supper of bread and cheese with tea or coffee and purchased card from nuns to write home. 02.00hrs: turned in for sleep in air raid shelter with about 100 other AFS men from all over the country. ABOVE: Divisional Officer Roy Kemp’s AFS/ NFS service certificate, showing he served from 1938-1946

[ROBERT KEMP]

ABOVE RIGHT: An Auxiliary Fire Service cap badge [AUSTIN J.

RUDDY]

only of use to Britain if it could be safeguarded. So, on Saturday, 7 September, a regional fire call was made for assistance to Midlands AFS units, from as far as Nottingham, Derby and Leicester. AFS Divisional Officer Roy Kemp was based at Leicester’s Church Gate auxiliary sub-station. The station’s fire crews had very little to do, as the war had barely reached them: that was, until the day the call-room telephone rang. The following entries are verbatim from the log:

‘MOVE OFF AT ONCE…’

RIGHT: A Dornier 17 high over the Thames Estuary, summer 1940.

‘Log of first Regional Fire Call from Division 3 HQ. Saturday, September 7th, 1940: 20.30hrs: Received telephone message to report to Brigade HQ with crew, for instructions and rations for Regional Call to Cambridge. 21.00hrs, moved off with No’s l, 2 & 4 Divisions under Divisional Officer Kemp. Received puncture at Desborough. After repair, we moved off again, but had not gone far when we were informed that another of our cars had ditched and could not proceed, so carried on without them, arriving at Huntingdon at 23.30hrs, just as sirens were sounding warning. Stopped at Fire Station and had a cup of tea. 00.30hrs: Left Huntingdon on side lights, for Cambridge, arriving at 04.30hrs Sunday morning. Had tea

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and biscuits at Fire Station (had to buy biscuits). Filled up with petrol and oil and were then taken to Queen’s College [Cambridge University] for a rest. Received mattress, but had no chance to use it, as we were informed we had to move off at once. Returned to Fire Station immediately and joined convoy of about 100 units. Sunday, 8th September, 1940: 06.15hrs: Convoy moved off for Thames Haven, arriving at 11.45hrs to find oil tanks like gasometers burning fiercely. Counted eight tanks on fire. At 12.15hrs, we went into action, when another tank caught fire. Had not got the pump to work, when the sirens sounded warning and we had to run for cover under a stack of timber, while Jerry circled round and round. A.A. guns went into action above us. We were told that Jerry was machine-gunning the men during the morning. 12.50hrs: We got to work with pump at 150lbs pressure on tank that was well alight. 16.30hrs, tank exploded and everyone ran for their lives. We were now feeling very tired and hungry, so found mobile canteen and had tea and a pie - first real meal since leaving Leicester. Then took it in turns for an hour’s rest in back of car. 17.45hrs: Started work again until 20.00hrs, when sirens sounded again

‘WELL ALIGHT, AND GOING WELL!’

Blitz Fire Service Bravery: 1940

‘THE HEAT WAS UNBEARABLE’

Sunday, 9th September, 1940: 07.30hrs: Woke up and breakfast of bread, marmalade and coffee. 09.00hrs: Took car to depot for petrol and left punctured wheel to be repaired. 10.30hrs: Left Brentwood for another fire at Purfleet, about 30 miles away, arriving at AngloAmerican Petrol Wharves at 12.00hrs to find petrol tanks burning fiercely and a large margarine factory extensively damaged by bombs. Bomb craters were everywhere, making it very dangerous to walk about, owing to train lines etc being under the water and bomb craters not being visible. An AFS station had received a direct hit by an HE bomb, but there were no casualties. 12.30hrs: Got to work. Received orders to get branches on tank to keep cool. Had to trace hose from branch to pump and get water on. We had to crawl under and climb over train wagons, up to our knees in charred debris and water. We found that the pump and breeching pieces were missing, so decided to go back to Thames Haven to fetch our own pump, reaching there at 16.15hrs. At

Thames Haven, we noticed that the two tanks we had been keeping cool the previous day were now alight and going well. 16.30hrs: We left with pump for Purfleet, the pump having been run all day and night at 150lbs pressure. We arrived back at 17.30hrs during an air raid. A.A. gunfire was all around us. Fixed up pump and got branches and a monitor to work on a tank that was going well – too well, in fact, for as I walked round the other side of the tank, I noticed two AFS men in difficulties with a branch. I had just time to kick the branch out of their hands, when the tank blew up. We had to run for our dear lives away from it, as the heat was unbearable. On going round the other side of the tank, I noticed an AFS man lying in the water. With the assistance of Auxiliary Fireman George, I got him on my back and carried him to safety, leaving him in the care of a First Aid Party. After a break for a cup of tea and a bun with the lads, we returned to operations.

A TERRIBLE NIGHTMARE

At 20.45hrs, a tank exploded with a deafening roar. Flames leapt to about 50ft and spread all round. Leading Fireman Midgley and Auxiliary Fireman Gregg were at the monitor and were very fortunate to get clear in time. It was a hectic time for a few minutes. I was reversing the car in a very rough enclosure, when the whole place lit up and I could feel the heat in the car. I noticed Auxiliary Fireman Day waving his hands and running for shelter. I didn’t stop to ask what was the matter: I switched off the engine and scrambled out to hear the sirens sounding as well, leaving the headlights on. Leading Fireman Midgley noticed them on his way to the shelter and switched them off. It would have taken a greyhound to have caught us up at that moment! At 23.15hrs, we contacted our relief crew from Church Gate and after giving them the position of our pump and branches, we left for Brentwood. It had been a hard and exciting day and we had had enough. We had 

ABOVE: The fires caused the rails to warp at the Purfleet oil depot [PETROLEUM AT WAR, 1946]

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‘WELL ALIGHT, AND GOING WELL!’ Blitz Fire Service Bravery: 1940 RIGHT: A collapsed steel oil tank at Purfleet, warped by the fire [PETROLEUM

AT WAR, 1946]

RIGHT: A close run thing! This incendiary bomb just failed to penetrate an oil tank during the Blitz [PETROLEUM

AT WAR, 1946]

BELOW: A high explosive bomb penetrated an underground oil storage tank at Purfleet – fortunately without igniting its contents [PETROLEUM AT WAR, 1946]

not gone very far, when action started above us and we had to drive without lights. We soon lost our bearings and switching on our lights to pick up our road, Jerry must have

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spotted us. We had just time to get out of the car and reach the ditch, when we heard a rushing sound and a bomb dropped not very far from us. It shook the ground we were laid on. Under these circumstances, we decided to stay put for a while and searched for somewhere to get down. We knocked at a cottage, but got no answer, so decided to look round the back of the place, where we spotted an Anderson shelter, so dived in. It was well-equipped inside and was like a drawing room to us, after being perished with cold and starving hungry. Finding an oil stove and a kettle of water, we naturally thought of a cup of tea. So, putting on the kettle and opening our emergency rations, we looked like getting a bit of comfort at last.

But, alas, before the kettle had boiled, someone’s great feet had kicked it over - and were those biscuits hard. We soon went off to sleep after our meal, but were awakened suddenly by knocks on the door of the shelter. Sorting ourselves out, I found my pen and diary on the floor. I must have dropped off while writing my log. On opening the door, we found the owners of the house. They had been roused from their beds by the ceiling dropping on them and wanted to get under cover. After a little explanation and a few apologies, we handed over our bedroom and looked around for somewhere else. Leading Fireman Midgley and Auxiliary Fireman Day found shelter in a house nearby, where the owner, a Scotswoman, let them wash their

‘WELL ALIGHT, AND GOING WELL!’

Blitz Fire Service Bravery: 1940 LEFT: A formation of Do 17 bombers approach their target, 1940.

feet and gave them clean socks to wear. The rest of us packed into the back of the car, where we remained until 05.00hrs, when we moved off for Brentwood, arriving at the convent at 05.30hrs, to find all the beds occupied! Had tea and bread and cheese while the Father woke up some of the AFS men who had not yet been into action. At 06.00hrs, we eventually got our beds and settled down to it, after a terrible nightmare.

ALL CLEAR

Monday, 10th September, 1940: We woke up at 11.00hrs and had breakfast of cold porridge, bread and an apple and were ready for anything again. At 11.30hrs, we received instructions to return to Purfleet for our pump, as fire was well under control, Leading Fireman Midgley and crew returning, while I stayed behind to look after kit etc. 12.55hrs: Sirens sounded warning, so had to don full kit again in readiness. But no action, the all-clear going at 13.15hrs. Leading Fireman Midgley and crew returned at 15.45hrs with pump, minus seven lengths of hose, but four extra branches and one stirrup pump! Had dinner of warm potatoes and meat - first warm food since leaving Leicester on Saturday [three days]. Leading Fireman Midgley and crew had been taking cover at Purfleet since 13.30hrs.

16.15hrs: Took car to depot for oil and petrol and joined convoy of about 50 units for home. Had just moved off when sirens sounded warning, but decided to keep going, the all-clear going at 16.20hrs. Reached Woodford at 16.35hrs and had to detour owing to unexploded bomb in side street. 17.30hrs: Arrived at Barnet as sirens were sounding warning. Stopped for cup of tea and noticed people with their bundles sat on roadside. 17.45hrs: All clear sounded, so moved off again, stopping at Market Harborough for a break. 20.35hrs: Left for Leicester, arriving at Brigade HQ at 21.35hrs. Reported to Chief Officer Winteringham and left for Church Gate, where we were put on exhibit amid great gusto.”1

Fireman Neale was a member of a support column sent to this major incident. Enlisting the aid of two firefighters from another unit, he secured a thirty-foot extension ladder and a wooden plank. He then climbed the iron ladder which was secured to the side of the tank and with help hauled the extension ladder to the top. 

BELOW: The fires were so intense at Purfleet, even the bricks of the surrounding bund wall began to melt [PETROLEUM AT WAR, 1946]

BRAVERY REWARDED

The adulation they received was well-deserved - and their deeds were noticed at a higher level, too. Leicester AFS Fireman Henry Bernard Neale was awarded the George Medal for bravery, as the London Gazette reported: “On 9 September, during operations at Purfleet Oil Depot, it became necessary to stop a serious leak of oil from a hole that had appeared in the top of a tank which had been on fire. The flames had been extinguished, but the oil spouting out of the tank was very likely to catch fire again. www.britainatwar.com 119

‘WELL ALIGHT, AND GOING WELL!’ Blitz Fire Service Bravery: 1940

“Neale was joined by a Senior Officer and the Depot Engineer and with the ladder now fully extended, he was dropped over the other side of the tank, where he opened a lid on the top of the tank to ascertain the depth of oil, which was found to be roughly eight-feet from the top. The senior officer then descended the ladder and with some difficulty, plugged the hole in the tank with soft wood. The whole of this operation, from start to finish, was an extremely hazardous undertaking. Apart from fires in the vicinity and the likelihood of certain gases being given off in the tank, one slip on the top would, without doubt, have proved fatal. “Neale also played a major part in saving another tank which had been holed about four-feet above the base, from which burning oil was pouring. The crews played two very powerful jets at the leak, driving the flames away, whilst two further jets were brought into action to divert the flow of oil at the base of the structure, creating a passage between the tank ABOVE: 1kg B1E German incendiary bombs left the Thames-side oil depots ablaze [AUSTIN J. RUDDY]

ABOVE: RIGHT: A Leicester AFS Morris Commercial Heavy Pumping Unit appliance in 1940. The firemen had their baptism of fire when they went to assist fighting the Thames-side oil blazes [LEICESTER

MERCURY]

RIGHT: A Luftwaffe reconnaissance photograph of the Thameshaven tanks burning after the attacks on 7 September 1940.

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and the fire. Neale and another firefighter bridged the gap between the tank and the bank with a ladder and proceeded to plug the hole with wood. While this operation was in progress, two more jets were directed

above the heads of the two men, creating both a protective water curtain and providing some degree of cooling to the tank. If at any time the two cross jets had failed to beat back the burning oil, both men would

‘WELL ALIGHT, AND GOING WELL!’

Blitz Fire Service Bravery: 1940

most certainly have been seriously injured by the flames, possibly fatally so.” Also at Purfleet, London Auxiliary Fireman Cyril Alfred Reeves entered a retort house where petrol was flooded on the floor, when a flashover occurred, igniting the petrol vapour. Another auxiliary fireman became entangled in a chain and was in imminent danger of being burnt to death. Reeves, despite the extreme heat and the very obvious prospect of becoming fatally trapped by the surrounding flames, displayed outstanding bravery in remaining to assist in the release of his comrade. For their gallantry and devotion to duty during these difficult and extremely hazardous operations, Neale and Reeves were awarded the George Medal.

A MASS OF FLAMES

But Neale and Reeves were not the first to be awarded the George Medal for gallantry at Purfleet. The previous day, a number of petroleum tanks caught fire and blazed furiously. When one of the tanks exploded, Patrol Officer

Arthur Swansborough, of Southendon-Sea Fire Brigade, immediately gave orders for the firefighters to abandon their equipment and run. One unfortunate firefighter, in scrambling over oil pipes, fell into a large hole containing oil and water and, owing to the slippery nature of the crater’s sides, found it impossible to climb out unaided. Swansborough, despite the extreme danger of further explosions and fire, immediately turned back and rescued the man from the crater, which a few seconds later, became a mass of flames from the burning petrol. The heat had been so great, both men received burns on their necks and hands. Patrol Officer Swansborough’s life-saving courageous act resulted in him being awarded the George Medal. Other gallantry medals were also awarded at Purfleet. Using a 30ft extension ladder, Patrol Officer George Payne, of llford AFS and SubOfficer Joseph Warren, of Chelmsford AFS, made a precarious climb to the top of a tank holding 6,000 tons of Benzene, to extinguish a fire. All this time, fumes were escaping from a manhole on the tank. The tank was also in a very dangerous condition, leaning to one side. If the contents had

overflowed onto the burning valve, the whole tank could have blown up, incinerating the firemen on top. All three firefighters were awarded the British Empire Medal for their courage.

ANKLE DEEP IN PETROL

Leading Fireman Charles Saitch and Patrol Officer Cecil Hearn, with other members of Brentwood AFS, were operating ankle-deep in petrol, in an area where pipelines were alight. Flames were spreading rapidly and it became necessary to drive a piece of wood into a pierced tank from which petrol was pouring. Saitch mounted a ladder to reach the hole, but was saturated with petrol. Patrol Officer Hearn assisted him, while he plugged the hole with the wood. The remainder of the crew fought the fire to prevent it reaching their comrades, thus this and several other tanks were saved. Saitch and Hearn were also awarded the British Empire Medal. Another British Empire Medal for gallantry was also awarded to District Officer John Unwin, although he had been recommended for a George Medal for his work at the Thames Haven incident and other major fires. Unwin was based at London Fire Brigade Headquarters, on Albert Embankment, and was regularly sent to major incidents to provide specialist advice, drawing on his 28-year service. In his supporting statement for an award to Unwin, Superintendent W E Norwood stated: ‘His devotion to duty has been mainly responsible for the saving of lives, and appliances endangered by enemy action.’ 

ABOVE: Leicester Auxiliary Fire Service uniform breast badge [ROGER MILES]

ABOVE LEFT: The George Medal [WIKIMEDIA]

LEFT: Leicester AFS Fireman Henry Bernard Neale was awarded the George Medal for bravery [LEICESTER MERCURY]

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‘WELL ALIGHT, AND GOING WELL!’ Blitz Fire Service Bravery: 1940 FAR RIGHT: The well known 'Fire Bomb Fritz' public awareness poster of the Blitz period.

FIREWOMAN’S BRAVERY

And it was not just firemen who were rewarded for their bravery. Twenty-six-year-old Auxiliary Elizabeth Emery, of Station 7, Carmelite Street, London, was driver to a London Fire Brigade superintendent, attending many serious fires. The London Gazette recorded: “Her conduct has been remarkable for her unchanging composure and coolness in all circumstances and the entire absence of any fear, even during heavy bombing attacks. She has invariably carried all duties assigned to her without the slightest hesitation, and in addition to her driving, has many times during severe raids acted as a runner to her Superintendent and conveyed important messages.” During the raids on Thames Haven, Auxiliary Emery “showed a brave and highly-developed sense of duty.” Whilst bombs fell, she carried fire extinguishers, climbing over fences and rough ground, extinguishing incendiary bombs which had fallen near to oil tanks. Her actions most probably avoided one or more tanks

RIGHT: Two months after he helped extinguish the flames at Purfleet and Thames Haven, the Luftwaffe paid Leicester AFS Divisional Officer Roy Kemp – seen here in the grey suit and trilby hat, centre left -  a personal visit. During Leicester’s ‘Blitz Night’, on 19/20 November, 1940, his hosiery business was completely burnt out by incendiaries and a high explosive bomb

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from being involved. For the next five nights, Emery was on duty, sometimes for as much as 14 hours. Following the oil fires, she attended many more major incidents. Her senior officer recommended she received the George Medal, however, Emery was awarded the British Empire Medal for her outstanding service.2

MISTAKES OF EPIC PROPORTIONS

It should also be remembered that Petroleum Board staff also risked their lives at incidents, assisting and advising the fire service: indeed, in the first list of George Medals in July 1940, three were won by oil installation staff.3 As for Leicester AFS Divisional Officer Kemp, two months after he had helped extinguish the flames at Purfleet and Thames Haven, the Luftwaffe paid him a personal visit. During Leicester’s ‘Blitz Night’, on 19/20 November, 1940, his hosiery business was completely burnt out by incendiaries and a high explosive bomb.4

However, on a national level, the two Thames-side incidents had greater, long-term and far-reaching significance for Britain’s fire service. When the Luftwaffe first accurately attacked Thames Haven on September 5, 1940, the resultant fires proved too large for the local brigades to handle, so, for the first time, outside help was requested from London Fire Brigade. But, in a farcical mistake of epic proportions, when the 40 fire pumps finally arrived, they were accidentally sent away by a local AFS officer. It would take several wasted hours and much administrative wrangling to get them back again. Not only that, but when AFS appliances from other cities also arrived to help, it was discovered many had incompatible hose couplings, plus different equipment and methods, much to the frustration of attending Senior London Fire Brigade Commander, John Fordham. John Horner, the General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union later wrote: “I believe that the idea of a national fire service was born in Fordham’s mind that night at Thames Haven.”5 Less than a year later, the National Fire Service was created: a more effective, organised, experienced and professional force, which helped forge today’s fire and rescue service. 

NOTES 1. 2.

Manuscript courtesy of Robert Kemp Arthur Lockyear, Warriors In Fire Boots (Jeremy Mills, 2011) pp.84-87 3. Petroleum Board, Petroleum at War (c.1946) pp.36 4. Austin J Ruddy, Tested By Bomb and Flame (Halsgrove, 2014) pp.100 5. Francis Beckett, Firefighters & the Blitz (Merlin Press, 2010) pp.26

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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

November 1915

GREAT WAR GALLANTRY NOVEMBER 1915

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 November 1915.

ABOVE: Rifleman Kulbir Thapa brings in the wounded soldier from the 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment on 26 September 1915. Some accounts state that Thapa’s gallantry was acknowledged by some of the enemy troops in their nearby trenches, so much so that ‘the German soldiers actually clapped their hands to encourage the Gurkha on’. (ALL IMAGES HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

Amongst the VCs gazetted in November 1915, a further eight also resulted from the first day of the Battle of Loos. One of these recipients was Private George Peachment. Peachment, a barber’s son, was born near Bury, Lancashire, on 5 May 1897. After schooling, he became an apprentice fitter at Ashworth & Parker, and later at a second Bury firm, J.H. Riley. On 19 April 1915, he enlisted into the 5th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, falsely giving his age as 19 years and one month (he was only 17 years and 11 months old). Peachment wore his father’s bowler hat to make himself look older than he was. His military career got off to an inauspicious start when he went absent from 19.30 hours on 2 July 1915, until 08.10 hours on 5 July, for which he was fined seven days’ pay. Peachment then transferred into the 2nd Battalion, King’s or his Hero of the Month in VC recipient. On the opening day Royal Rifle Corps upon being posted this issue, Lord Ashcroft has of the Battle of Loos, 25 September to France on 27 July 1915. He never selected Sergeant-Piper Daniel 1915, Thapa encountered a badly returned to the UK. Laidlaw. Laidlaw’s Victoria Cross wounded soldier of the 2nd Battalion The announcement of the posthumous was announced in the first group Leicestershire Regiment (believed to award of the Victoria Cross reveals what of awards made for actions during be a 20-year-old soldier from Melton happened near Hulluch on 25 September the Battle of Loos and which were Mowbray by the name of Bill Keightley) 1915: ‘During very heavy fighting, when gazetted on 18 November 1915. Of the behind the first line German trench, our front line was compelled to retire in eighteen VCs listed in The London and, though urged by the British private order to reorganise, Private Peachment, Gazette that day (all but two of to save himself, he remained with seeing his Company Commander, which were the result of the Loos him all day and night. Early the next Captain Dubs, lying wounded, crawled to offensive), no less than seventeen morning, in misty weather, he brought assist him. The enemy’s fire was intense, were presented by King George V the wounded soldier out through the but, though there was a shell hole quite during nine separate investitures German wire, ‘within spitting distance’ close, in which a few men had taken held at Buckingham Palace between of the enemy, and left him in a place cover, Private Peachment never thought December 1915 and January 1917. of comparative safety. Thapa then of saving himself. He knelt in the open One of the eighteen was the 26-yearreturned and brought in two wounded by his Officer and tried to help him, but old Rifleman Kulbir Thapa. Serving Gurkhas one after the other. He then while doing this he was first wounded in the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen went back in broad daylight for the by a bomb and a minute later mortally Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles, British soldier and brought him in, all wounded by a rifle bullet.’ Thapa was the first Nepalese Gurkha the while under the  enemy’s fire. Dubs survived his injuries and

F

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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY November 1915 time keep him from moving, but at that moment a bullet hit him in the head and killed him. After his first wound he was bound to die, in fact he was already, immediately after he received it, unconscious to any pain. I lay beside him there all day, and eventually we were both picked up in the late afternoon when the trench was taken by a flank attack. I can’t tell you how much I admired your son’s bravery and pluck. He lost his life in trying to help me and no man could have been braver than he was.’ It was Dub’s recommendation that led to the posthumous award of Peachment’s VC. Of the two non-Loos VCs announced in November 1915, one was that posthumously awarded to Second Lieutenant Rupert Price Hallowes. Born at Redhill, Surrey, in 1880, Hallowes The earliest VC action acknowledged in The London Gazette of 18 November 1915, was that of Lance-Corporal George Harry Wyatt, 3rd Battalion, Coldstream Guards: ‘At Landrecies, on the night of 25th-26th August, 1914, when a part of his Battalion was hotly engaged at the end of a street close to some farm buildings, the enemy, by means of incendiary bombs, set light to some straw stacks in the farmyard. Lance-Corporal Wyatt twice dashed out of the line under very heavy fire from the enemy, who were only 25 yards distant, and extinguished the burning straw. If the fire had spread it would have been quite impossible to have held our position. Also at Villa Cotteret, after being wounded in the head, Lance-Corporal Wyatt continued firing until he could no longer see owing to the blood which was pouring down his face. The Medical Officer bound up his wound and told him to go to the rear, but he at once returned to the firing-line and continued to fight.’

later wrote two moving letters to Peachment’s mother, Mary, spelling out how courageous her son had been both in battle and in death as he struggled to tend Dubs’s wounds. In the first, written only a month after the battle, Dubs explained: ‘I cannot tell you how sorry I am that your brave son was killed, but I hope it may be some little consolation to you to know how bravely he behaved and how he met his end … ‘When we reached the [barbed] wire we found it absolutely untouched by our

artillery fire and an almost impassable obstacle as a result. However, we had to push on, and I gave the order to try to get through and over it. Your son followed me over the wire and advanced with me about 20 yards through it till we were only about 15 yards from the German trench. ‘None of the other men of the line was able to get as far and he was the only man with me. As a matter of fact I had not noticed your son was with me, but at this point a bomb hit me in the eye, blowing it and part of my face away. I fell to the ground, but on sitting up, found your son kneeling beside me. The German fire was at this time very intense, but your son was perfectly cool. ‘He asked me for my field dressing and started bandaging my head quite oblivious to the fire. His first thought was to help me, and though there was a shell hole nearby where he might have got cover, he never thought of doing so. Of course the Germans were bound to see us sitting up, and one of them threw a bomb which hit your son in the chest while at the same time I received a bullet also in the chest. ‘Your son was beyond feeling any pain, though still alive. I tried to drag him into the shell hole and at the same

enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles on 6 August 1914, two days after the outbreak of war, and was sent to France at the end of the following December. On 7 April 1915, he was given a commission as Second Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion, The Duke of Cambridge’s Own

TOP LEFT: Private George Peachment assisting Captain Dubs in the moments before his death. Peachment was one of the youngest men in his battalion and one of the youngest Great War VC recipients.

LEFT: Lance Corporal George Harry Wyatt VC. Wyatt was promoted to Lance Sergeant on 28 February 1917, eventually being demobilised on 14 January 1919. He died on 22 January 1964.

GALLANTRY AWARDS GAZETTED IN NOVEMBER 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

18 101 13 199 459 3 56 849

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

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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

November 1915

ABOVE: One of the most bitterly contested parts of the Loos battlefield was the area around the Hohenzollern Redoubt – seen here in this recent picture. The Union Flag is located in what was the middle of No Man’s Land, whilst the pylon stands on the location of the Redoubt itself. Three of the VCs announced in November 1915 were awarded for actions undertaken in this area, namely those of Corporal James Pollock (27 September 1915), Second Lieutenant Arthur Fleming-Sandes (29 September 1915) and Captain Charles Vickers (14 October 1915).

(Middlesex Regiment). His citation in The London Gazette states that the award of Hallowes’ VC was for ‘conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during the fighting at Hooge between 25th September and 1st October, 1915’. It would seem, however, that Hallowes was no stranger to either the Hooge sector or undertaking acts of gallantry, as one contemporary account reveals: ‘On July 19th 1915, the British mined and destroyed a German redoubt at the west end of the Hooge defences, and also captured a small part of the trenches. They were, however, short of bombs, and in consequence the enemy were able to advance down a communication trench in an attempt to deliver a counter-attack. Perceiving this, Second Lieutenant Rupert Price Hallowes … with utter indifference to danger, got out of his trench and opened fire on the enemy, killing or wounding several of them.’ For these actions Hallowes was awarded the Military Cross. The same author went on to detail events a couple of months later: ‘At four o’clock on the morning of the 25th [September], our artillery preparation began, and soon after 4.30 the British infantry advanced to the attack, the

RUNNING TOTAL OF

GALLANTRY AWARDS AS OF THE END OF NOVEMBER 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 126 www.britainatwar.com

146 932 120 1,207 3,314 26 498 6,243

ABOVE: Peaceful today, this is the view looking north from the railway crossing at Landrecies in the direction from which the German troops approached. Heavily developed since the First World War, when most of the ground in this picture was farmland, it was in this area that the men of the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards dug in, supported by the Grenadier Guards. It was also in this area that Lance Corporal Wyatt undertook the actions for which he would be awarded the Victoria Cross.

14th Division on the left against the Bellewaarde Farm, and the 3rd Division, which included the 4th Middlesex, against the enemy’s position north of Sanctuary Wood, on the south side of the Menin-Ypres road. The charge of our infantry carried all before it, and the whole of the German first-line trenches were soon in our hands. But the enemy had concentrated a mass of artillery behind their lines, and our new front was subjected to so heavy a bombardment that the gains on our left could not be held, though south of the highway the 3rd Division still clung to some of the ground it had won, and managed to consolidate its position. ‘Between that day and October 1st, during which time the trenches held by the 4th Middlesex were subjected to four heavy and prolonged bombardments and repeated counter-attacks, Second Lieutenant Hallowes again most brilliantly distinguished himself, “displaying,” in the words of the Gazette, “the greatest bravery and untiring energy and setting a magnificent example to his men.” On the night of September

ABOVE: A memorial stone commemorating Lieutenant-Colonel Angus Falconer Douglas-Hamilton. Commanding the 6th Battalion, The Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, Douglas-Hamilton was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross in November 1915 for his actions during the first two days of the Battle of Loos. ‘On the 26th, when the battalions on his right and left had retired, he rallied his own battalion again and again, and led his men forward four times. The last time he led all that remained, consisting of about fifty men, in a most gallant manner and was killed at their head. It was mainly due to his bravery, untiring energy and splendid leadership that the line at this point was enabled to check the enemy’s advance.’

26th-27th, perceiving two wounded men of the Royal Scots lying out in the open, he left his trench, and, under a fierce rifle fire, coolly superintended their removal to a place of safety. Scarcely had he returned to the trenches, than the Germans started another severe bombardment, and shells of every description came raining down. The range was very accurate, and fearing that some of the men might begin to flinch, Lieutenant Hallowes, utterly regardless of his own danger, climbed on to the parapet to put fresh heart into them … ‘For six days this most heroic officer braved death successfully, but such entire disregard of danger as he displayed cannot long be continued with impunity, and on the seventh (October 1st) he met his inevitable end.’

British troops attacking on the first day of the battle, ‘swarming over the German first Line and dashing on towards Loos, the “Tower Bridge”, and Hill 70’. Four VCs announced in November 1915 related to Hill 70.

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH"

Sergeant Piper Daniel Laidlaw VC

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH"

SERGEANT PIPER DANIEL

LAIDLAW VC

BOLDNESS

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 Sergeant-Piper Daniel Laidlaw’s award is not part of the collection, Lord Ashcroft feels that it falls within the category of boldness: “At certain times people take a calculated risk. With audacity, dash and daring, much can be achieved. In simple terms, who dares wins. Boldness combines force with creative thinking. It is impetuous and often completed before anyone knows what is going on.” ABOVE RIGHT: A contemporary drawing depicting British troops assaulting German trenches on the opening day of the Battle of Loos. Note how some attackers are wearing PH Gas Helmets. (HISTORIC MILITARY

PRESS)

RIGHT: British troops advance through a cloud of poison gas as viewed from the trench which they have just left: a remarkable snapshot taken by a soldier of the London Rifle Brigade on the opening day of the Battle of Loos, 25 September 1915.

D

ANIEL LOGAN Laidlaw was born in Little Swinton, Berwickshire, on 26 July 1875. He was one of four sons of Robert and Margaret Laidlaw, who lived in Coldingham, Berwickshire. After attending the National Schools at Berwick-upon-Tweed and Lesbury, Northumberland, Laidlaw joined the Army on 11 April 1896. Until June 1898, he served in India with the Durham Light Infantry. Next, Laidlaw served as a piper in the King’s Own

(COURTESY OF MARK KHAN)

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Scottish Borderers (KOSB) until 11 April 1912. On 11 April 1906, he had married Georgina Harvie at the Baptist Church, Alnwick, Northumberland, and the couple went on to have five children: three sons and two daughters. After returning from India in 1912, Laidlaw was put on the Reserve and during this time his civilian jobs included working as a canteen manager and at a horsebreeding centre. After the outbreak of war, Laidlaw re-enlisted in

the KOSB on 1 September 1914 and, in June 1915, he travelled to France as part of the regiment’s 7th (Service) Battalion. The 7th was selected as an assault battalion for the approaching Battle of Loos and its men, including Laidlaw, trained for four weeks at Labeuvrière, near Béthune. On the night of 24 September 1915, they went to their assembly trenches and the two leading brigades (44th and 46th) were initially tasked with capturing the Lens Road and the Loos Road Redoubts. The battle began in earnest early the next day, 25 September, and, after the final bombardment of the enemy close to Loos and Hill 70, the 7th KOSB waited for the release of poison gas and smoke on the German lines. However, the adverse weather blew the gas back towards the British positions and troops manning the trenches were badly affected. Amid chaotic scenes, the 7th was ordered to attack at 06.30 hours but everyone

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH" Sergeant Piper Daniel Laidlaw VC

stayed where they were. Second Lieutenant Martin Young, the company commander, realised inspiration was required in the difficult circumstances and he shouted at Piper Laidlaw: ‘For God’s sake, Laidlaw, pipe ’em together.’ Laidlaw seized the moment and, disregarding the gas and the heavy enemy bombardment, advanced over the parapet, accompanied by Young, and marched up and down playing Blue Bonnets over the Border. Encouraged by the skirl of the pipes and roused by Young’s call for action, the men of the 7th Battalion went ‘over the top’; other troops soon followed. As the sole piper in No Man’s Land, Laidlaw was the obvious target for the enemy but he initially escaped injury. However, as he advanced towards the enemy lines, still playing his pipes, he was hit in his left leg and ankle by shrapnel. Limping forwards, he switched his tune to The Standard on the Braes o’ Mar but soon he was wounded again by shrapnel, further injuring his left leg. With the battle won, Laidlaw hobbled back to the British trenches, dragging his beloved bagpipes with him. Laidlaw later recalled: ‘I kept on piping and piping, and hobbling after the laddies until I could go no farther, and then, seeing that the boys had won the position, I began to get back as best I could to our own trenches.’ He said that his once black hair had turned white within hours of his Victoria Cross action.

On the very day of his bravery, Laidlaw was promoted to corporal for his distinguished service in the field. Sadly, the equally inspirational Second Lieutenant Young, who had been severely wounded in the fighting but who insisted on walking to the dressing station rather than being stretchered there, died from loss of blood. Over their three days of fighting until 27 September, the 7th Battalion suffered 656 casualties (dead and wounded). Laidlaw’s VC was announced on 18 November 1915 when his citation detailed how he had ‘played his company out of the trench’. His citation concluded: ‘The effect of his splendid example was immediate, and the company dashed out to the assault. Piper Laidlaw continued playing his pipes until he was wounded.’ He received his VC from King George V in an investiture at Buckingham

during the recession he was unemployed for some eight years. In 1929, however, he re-enacted his VC action for the film Guns of Loos and in 1934 he also took part in the film Forgotten Men. By now, Laidlaw was affectionately known as the ‘Piper of Loos’ – or sometimes just ‘The Piper’. For a time, Laidlaw worked as a chicken farmer and, from 1938, as sub postmaster at Shoresdean, near Berwick-upon-Tweed. After the outbreak of the Second World War, his son, Victor joined the KOSB in 1940, aged 20. Laidlaw died at his home in Shoresdean on 2 June 1950, aged 74. Hundreds of mourners attended his funeral. Memorials in his honour include a plaque on a wall at St Cuthbert’s Church, Norham, the venue for his funeral. His VC medal group was donated to the National War Museum of Scotland on 25 September 2005 when, to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Loos, pipers, including Laidlaw’s great grandson, re-enacted his VC action at the spot where he had stepped on to the trench parapet in 1915.

LEFT: Sergeant Piper Daniel Laidlaw pictured in action during the opening day of the Battle of Loos. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

LEFT: When news of Laidlaw’s VC actions became public knowledge, they became, perhaps unsurprisingly, the subject of numerous artists and illustrators – as these drawings, for different publications at the time, testify. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

Palace on 4 December 1915, while still recuperating from his injuries. Laidlaw was also awarded the French Croix de Guerre. Laidlaw’s wounds were treated at Lord Derby’s Hospital, near Warrington, Lancashire, but he eventually returned to serve in France. He was promoted to sergeant-piper on 12 October 1917, his final rank, and survived the war before being demobbed on 3 April 1919 after twenty-two years and two months of service. Despite being a VC recipient, Laidlaw found it difficult to find regular employment after leaving the military. For a time he worked at the Sunderland shipyards but

VICTORIACROSSHEROES i Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is a

businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. His five books on gallantry include Victoria Cross Heroes. For more information, please visit: www. victoriacrossheroes.com Lord Ashcroft’s VC and GC collection is on public display at Imperial War Museum, 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. www.lordashcroft.com Follow him on Twitter: @LordAshcroft

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The First W

rld War in Objects

A DYING sOLDIER’S LAST MESSAGE HOME NO.16

ON THE morning of 15 September 1916, another British attack was launched as part of the wider Somme offensive. Involving the first use of tanks, the Battle of Flers–Courcelette was intended, as Haig himself wrote, to see Allied troops ‘pivot on the high ground south of the Ancre and north of the AlbertBapaume road, while the Fourth Army devoted its whole effort to the rearmost of the enemy’s original systems of defence between Morval and Le Sars’. ‘At 6.20 a.m.,’ added Haig, ‘the infantry assault commenced, and at the same moment the bombardment became intense … The advance met with immediate success on almost the whole of the front attacked’. It was on the right flank of the attack, however, where the British soldiers faltered, faced as they were with a formidable fortified German position known as the Quadrilateral. Amongst those attacking the Quadrilateral, which lay to the east of the village of Ginchy, were the men of the 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment). The Sherwood Foresters had been ordered to follow-up the 1st Battalion Leicestershire ninety minutes after the latter had gone ‘over the top’ at Zero Hour. ‘After an advance of about 500 yards,’ notes the Sherwood Foresters’ War Diary, ‘we found the Leicesters about 150 yards in front of us so dug in in rear of them’. The German fire was intense and, strung out in No Man’s Land, the attackers desperately sought what cover they could. Gradually the enemy machine-guns and artillery fire took its toll. One of the Sherwood Foresters struck down was Corporal John Dewsbery. Born on 23 February 1891, and from Swinefleet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Dewsbery had anglicised his name from Duesbery on joining the Army in November 1914. He never returned from the attack on 15 September 1916 and it was assumed he had been killed in action that day. On 22 August the following year Mrs Duesbery received a letter from the Infantry Records Office regarding her son. It informed her that, ‘the Army Council have been regretfully constrained to conclude that he is dead, and that his death took place on the 15-9-1916 (or since)’.

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Despite ongoing correspondence, Mrs Duesbery struggled to find out what really happened to John. His body, though, must have been found at some point for a pocket book that he carried was eventually returned to her having been recovered from the battlefield. Flicking through its pages Mrs Duesbery would have encountered a moving note to her which her son had written in his dying moments: ‘Dear Mother, I am writing these few of lines severely wounded. We have done well our Batt advanced about 3 quarters of a mile I am laid in a shell hole with 2 wounds in my hip and through my back. I cannot move or crawl I have been here for 24 hrs and never seen a living soul. I hope you will receive these few of lines as I don’t expect anyone will come to take me away, but you know I have done my Duty out here now for 1 yr and 8 months and you will always have the consolation that I died quite happy doing my Duty. Please give my Best of Love to all the cousins who as been so kind to me time I have been out here. And the Best of Love to Mother and Harry & all at Swinefleet. XXX.’ John Dewsbery is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

ABOVE: John Dewsbery’s notebook which was eventually returned to his mother – and in which he wrote his last message to her. The Quadrilateral was finally captured by the 6th Division after four days of attacks on 18 September 1916, and it is probable that John’s notebook was retrieved after this time.

RIGHT: John Dewsbery pictured whilst a Lance Corporal. (ALL PICTURES

COURTESY OF KENNETH DUESBERY, GREAT NEPHEW OF JOHN; WWW. EUROPEANA1914-1918.EU)

AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE THIRD YEAR OF THE GREAT WAR A

SPECIAL

1916 - An Illustrated History brings the third year of the Great War to life in a series of fascinating features and articles.

The First Day of the Somme

At 07:30 hours on 1 July 1916, thousands of British soldiers lurched forward into No Man’s Land towards the German wire. What happened next has become the stuff of myth and legend...

The Lochnagar Mine

The opening of the Somme offensive was preceded by the detonation of a large number of mines. The largest of these was referred to as the Lochnagar Mine.

The Battle of Delville Wood

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The offensive on the Somme had raged for two weeks when Delville Wood was captured and held against several hostile counterattacks.

Largest Zeppelin Raid of the War

Despite the fact that anti-aircraft batteries and searchlight units had been introduced, German Zeppelins carried out their biggest demonstration of war against the British capital.

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