Britain at War 2016-07

THE SOMME 1916-2016: ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL PLUS:

Dunkirk Film Revealed Lord Ashcroft’s Somme VC Hero HMS Hood Bell Unveiled

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BRITAIN’S BEST SELLING MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

EAGLES IN THE RAF Volunteer US Fighter Pilots who joined Fighter Command

RAIDING BREMEN

The Daring and Suicidal Daylight British Attack

BATTLE OF THE

SO MME Special Bonus Content Includes:

Fighting Above the Trenches . Build-Up to Battle . The Battle Outlined The Fighting . The Aftermath & Cost . Words of Those Who Were There

JULY 2016 ISSUE 111

UK £4.60

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From the Editor... I

T IS an unquestionable fact that the Battle of the Somme was not only the most cataclysmic battle for British forces during the First World War but it was also one that absolutely remains seared into the consciousness of the British nation. More than any battle, in any conflict, it surely epitomises the slaughter and horror of modern warfare and the industrial scale of conflict which, in all its ghastliness, revealed itself to the world in July 1916. This month, our extra supplement special content naturally focuses on the theme of the Somme battles - but looking at events through the perspective of those who were there and fought on the ground, both British and German. Renowned military historians Rob Schäfer and Peter Doyle take us through the events of the battle from both sides of No Man’s Land in accounts that are both harrowing and revealing and give us a clearer insight into what it meant to fight, and very often to die, in those terrible battles. Meanwhile, and although the focus of attention across the years has largely surrounded the ground fighting on the Somme, a crucially important aerial battle was being waged in the skies above the trenches as the Royal Flying Corps fought for air supremacy and battled to provide a vital ‘eye-in-the-sky’ for the gunners of the Royal Artillery. To a large extent, it was the coming-of-age of both the RFC and of air power. Britain at War Magazine pays tribute in this special centenary issue to all of those who fought, suffered and died on the Somme.

Andy Saunders (Editor) EDITORIAL

Editor: Andy Saunders Assistant Editor: John Ash Editorial Correspondents: Geoff Simpson, Alex Bowers, Mark Khan, Rob Pritchard Australasia Correspondent: Ken Wright ‘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)

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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. The average sale for the period Jan-Dec 2015 was 10,843, print and digital copies monthly.

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© Key Publishing Ltd. 2016

FEATURES

32 Reputations: Rising High

Oliver Thébault assesses the career of prominent Great War leader Sir William Robertson, the only man to join the British Army as a Private and leave as Field Marshal.

42 Martha’s Demise: A Battle of Britain Photo Album

A recent discovery of a ‘photo album at a boot fair sheds light on life under the battle-torn skies of Britain in 1940 and charts the last moments of a Heinkel He 111 bomber. Andy Saunders pieces together the story behind some unique photographs.

50 Valour at the Third Attempt

Steve Snelling charts the story of one of the most audacious daylight raids of the war, the RAF’s twice aborted and daring low-level attack against the German port of Bremen.

92 Sherwood Forest’s ‘Black Gold’

Noted historian Joshua Levine explains how Sherwood Forest and its rare reserve of high-quality oil became so vital to the British war effort.

114 From Fledglings to Eagles

Alistair Goodrum takes up the story of American volunteer pilots eager to fight for Britain in the RAF long before the United States officially entered the war.

FREE BOOK!

Claim your FREE Shot Down in Flames book when you subscribe to Britain at War. See pages 40 and 41 for more details.

Contents ISSUE 111 JULY 2016

32 Reputations 4

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92 Sherwood Forest's 'Black Gold'

SOMME SPECIAL 22 Somme Success

Editor’s Choice

The Imperial War Museum’s Peter Hart explains how the Royal Flying Corps won its Battle of the Somme and ‘came of age’ as it evolved into a vital war-winning arm.

63 The Somme – 1916

Marking the centenary of this milestone battle of the First World War, historians Peter Doyle and Robin Schäfer look at the battle through the eyes of men on both sides who served, fought and died in the horror of the Battle of the Somme, using the soldiers own words and compelling testimonies to tell the story on a very personal level. Plus, John Ash offers a tribute to the fallen and challenges perceptions after groundbreaking new research from the National Army Musuem unveils how 'forgotten' the battle really is. Across twenty-six pages of special content we reveal imagery and accounts that have never been seen before. Lest we forget.

100 The Final Engagement

Veteran Harrier pilot David Morgan returns with another first-person account of a dangerous and nerve-tingling battle against Argentine fighters over the Falklands.

REGULARS 10 News

News, restorations, discoveries and events from around the World.

18 Field Post

Your letters, input and feedback.

48 First World War Diary

Our continuing look at the key events of the First World War arrives at July 1916 as the legacy of the Great War’s brutality is forever seared into history during the Battle of the Somme.

109 Recon Report

Our reviewers take a look at new books and products and choose Alexandra Churchill’s excellent new Somme book as our Book of The Month.

124 Great War Gallantry

Our monthly look at gallantry awards announced in the London Gazette reaches July, which includes another ‘Hero of the Month’ as selected by Lord Ashcroft.

130 The First World War in Objects

A Royal Navy ensign from a capital ship at the Battle of Jutland is this month’s Great War object.

NEWS FEATURE 6 Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan’s new war film goes into production.

THE SOMME 1916-2016: ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL PLUS:

Dunkirk Film Revealed Lord Ashcroft’s Somme VC Hero HMS Hood Bell Unveiled

R

BRITAIN’S BEST SELLING MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

EAGLES IN THE RAF Volunteer US Fighter Pilots who joined Fighter Command

RAIDING BREMEN

The Daring and Suicidal Daylight British Attack

BATTLE OF THE

SO MME Special Bonus Content Includes:

114 From Fledglings to Eagles

Fighting Above the Trenches . Build-Up to Battle . The Battle Outlined The Fighting . The Aftermath & Cost . Words of Those Who Were There

JULY 2016 ISSUE 111

UK £4.60

COVER STORY

High over the battlefields of the Somme, Manfred von Richthofen in his Albatross engages Major Lanoe Hawker VC in his DH2 of 24 Squadron on 23 November 1916. The engagement resulted in Hawker’s death as he became Richthofen’s eleventh victim.

❅

(ILLUSTRATION BY PIOTR FORKASIEWICZ – [email protected])

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NEWS FEATURE |

Hollywood Comes to Dunkirk

The Port of Dunkerque, which suffered occupation by German forces for longer than any other French town, was the scene of an evacuation that would have a significant impact on the progress of the Second World War. It is closer, geographically, to the UK than any town apart from Calais, yet has been sadly neglected by British tourists - even those who have an interest in the period writes Rob Pritchard. HOW GALLING it must have been to the town council and the local inhabitants to see the ‘Debarquement’ industry in Normandy steaming ahead as a major economic contributor, one which has been given regular boosts by the film and television industry with the epic ‘Longest Day’ and the more recent ‘Band of Brothers’. The sad fact is that a successful and hard fought invasion leading to victory would always have greater box office pull than a forced withdrawal, even discounting the fact that the events of 1940 had virtually no involvement for the United States military or civilians and might thus be viewed from Hollywood as of little interest. It is easy therefore to understand the intense excitement in the area when it was announced that a full-blown

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Hollywood movie is to be made, presently called ‘Dunkirk’ and masterminded by a major directorial talent, Christopher Nolan. Nolan is best known for his work on the recent Batman movies and the science fiction films Inception and Interstellar. This will not be the first time the evacuation has featured in a cinema production. Back in 1958 the British black and white film ‘Dunkirk’ starred John Mills, Bernard Lee and Richard Attenborough in a screenplay that majored heavily on the story of the ‘Little Ships’ and their civilian crews. Lacking somewhat in historical accuracy as most of the small boats were in fact crewed by the Royal Navy, it nevertheless played its part in building the legend of the evacuation, at least in British minds. More recently Operation Dynamo featured in the film ‘Atonement’ with a well-recreated beach scene featuring a very lengthy tracking shot that has much detailed background activity.

Hollywood Comes to Dunkirk

| NEWS FEATURE

RIGHT: The film’s director at work. The new movie is to be shot in IMAX and 65mm which should give it great cinematic presence. BELOW: Film technicians at work on the eerily reminiscent ‘sunken’ shipping.

Late last month Britain At War was invited to attend a press launch at which representatives of both the town and the production company would share their thoughts on the project. The invitation was made even more attractive as the launch was to be based in the ever-expanding and rather excellent ‘Dunkirk Museum 1940’ an enthusiastically run project housed in the casemates of Bastion 32, a stone’s throw from the East Mole and the wide open beaches which were the scene of so much real life drama over seventy years ago. LEFT: This archive picture shows the early use of the East Mole to board ships moored alongside. From the relaxed nature of the troops it is obvious this was before the structure came under heavy attack from the Luftwaffe. BELOW: The modern-day mole has been wooden clad to recreate its appearance at the time of Operation Dynamo.

Anyone hoping the press launch would add much in the way of illumination as to the plot and content of the film was in for disappointment. Christopher Nolan’s wife, Emma Thomas, who acts as producer was wholesome in her praise of the town and the co-operation the crews were receiving, but very tight-lipped about the content of the movie. What is evident is that this is a project close to the director’s heart, it being said that as far back as 2013 he visited the town and maintains a determination that as much of it is shot in the actual locations as is possible. It is also noticeable that the cast list contains some well-known names, including a British boy band star, but no major female lead; this could strengthen the expectation that it will be an action movie, more fact-based rather than a romance set against the background of the events of 1940. Nolan himself seems averse to cluttering up his action films with much in the way of relationships, something audiences can probably be thankful for in that they shouldn’t

face in this movie some of the awfulness that was the love interest in ‘Pearl Harbor’. What is fascinating is to see how the film crew are transforming areas of the town and shore, restoring them to an approximation of their 1940s state. Dunkerque suffered a lot of damage during the conflict and the reconstruction has been a mixture of restoration and complete rebuild, so cannot feature in the movie without appearing anachronistic. Dominating the shore is a massive and very modern Palais des Congrès de Dunkerque – Kursaal, 15,000 square metres of exhibition and conference space, and likely to be very intrusive in any modern day filming. In a few weeks this has been transformed into a totally believable early twentieth century factory that convinces even from relatively close up. Several of the restaurants along the front have been closed for the duration, others cleverly hidden, or taken back in time to appear to be something more appropriate. 

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NEWS FEATURE |

Hollywood Comes to Dunkirk

ABOVE: Close examination of this Corvette reveals it to be a wooden fabrication, but the attention to detail is evident here. Period vehicles provide useful background screening, as do a variety of ‘flats’.

At the edge of the harbour, the East Mole, originally intended to be the major embarkation point but badly damaged by the Luftwaffe, has also been prepared for its role in the film. The 1940’s structure was of timber, but post-war this had been replaced by a stone-built version. Now, two sections have been cleverly clad to resemble the East Mole as it was. In the harbour itself there is evidence of Nolan’s commitment to use as little CGI as possible. The post-war French destroyer Maillé-Brézé has been towed from Nantes, where it has been a museum ship since 1988. It stopped enroute at Saint Nazaire to have its dazzle camouflage replaced by an overall grey and some equipment removed to enhance its similarity to a 1930s destroyer. Moored alongside it are a ‘hospital ship’, a couple of small patrol vessels and a slightly eccentriclooking corvette which, on closer examination, turns out to be an all-new, wooden construction. One has to suspect that this particular prop is not going to come to a good end in the film. A team of more than 300 extras has been recruited and kitted out in replica French and British period uniforms. Their presence is boosted by a large number of cut-outs, whilst a wealth of period trucks and other transport feature both in action and as a useful way of screening extraneous backgrounds. The location filming in Dunkerque continues through the early weeks of June and will include some aerial activity as well as the land and sea-based content. We’ll be able to judge the

ABOVE: The Kursaal very convincingly disguised as a pre-war factory. Even close up the disguise appears very authentic. The cladding is largely plywood, painted to represent rusting steelwork. Some modern ISO containers are incorporated too.

finished item from July 21st 2017 in a cinema near you. But there is no real reason to wait until then. Dunkerque is just a two-hour DFDS Ferry ride from Dover, the fare somewhat lower than the one to Calais. There is a great deal to enjoy that includes not only the Dynamo Museum, but the newly restored Fort des Dunes which played its part in the Dynamo evacuation. On 2 June the fort was attacked by the Luftwaffe and two bombs exploded in the courtyard. Among the dead was the 12th Motorized Infantry’s General Janssen. Another raid on 3 June heavily damaged

the fort, killing six more officers. The repeated attacks and heavy damage led the French Army to abandon the position which was later used by the Wehrmacht. Today, much of the bomb damage is still visible and from this year the opening hours of the fort have been extended. A walk along the beach reveals period artefacts and structures, including remnants of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall and even a number of wrecks dating back to the drama of May 1940, particularly the Crested Eagle Thames paddle steamer at Zuydcoote which is clearly revealed at low tide.

BELOW: As dusk falls Nolan’s ‘fleet’ lies moored in the inner harbour.

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Memorial du souv F_P.indd 1

01/04/2016 16:37

NEWS FEATURE |

War and Peace Show 2016

e c a e P War and 6 1 0 2 w Sho

This year's spectacular War & Peace Show sees the event under new ownership although the organisers are committed to expanding and enhancing the show which also maintains its close partnership with Britain at War magazine. THE WAR and Peace Revival 2016 is set to hit the military show calendar in spectacular style at the Folkestone Racecourse, Kent from the 19th to 23rd July. Now in its 34th year, the world’s largest and longest running military vehicle event is enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year with many camping on site. Last year’s announcement that the event would close following the 2015 show sent a shock wave throughout the military show community but fortunately, with a new team of organisers at the helm, the show is very much here to stay. The previous owner of the event, Rex Cadman created a fantastic show that brings together military enthusiasts and show visitors from all over the world. The new team, headed by John Allison, are completely dedicated to ensuring that this success continues for all involved with the show and for all those who visit each year. ABOVE & BELOW: A Panzer IV with long 75mm sits camouflaged near the crew's emcampent. An M3 Grant is let loose in the arena.

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Thousands of military vehicles from around the world, representing fighting forces from WW1 to the present day, will be on display. For 2016 there is an even bigger line up of vehicles including tanks, armoured and amphibious vehicles, jeeps, cars, artillery, motorcycles, emergency vehicles and commercial vehicles. The 2016 show will feature a new WW2/Vintage motorcycle marquee, a vintage tractor display and a vintage steam engine display area.

The Living History lines provide a unique picture of life in military conflict. Realistic, down to the smallest detail, visitors will see depictions from WW1 to more recent conflicts. Visitors can gain an insight into the lives of British troops fighting and living in the trenches, GI’s advancing through Vietnam, Russians relaxing with an accordion after a hard day in battle or Germans planning their next strategic move. Re-enactors have a wealth of historical knowledge and many true stories about the particular units they represent and are only too happy to share this with visitors. The Arena is the place to be if you want to see, hear and smell the action. Troops and Vehicles including heavy armour and artillery will come together to reconstruct historical battles. With the use of pyrotechnics and blank ammunition this is as real as it can get. The busy Arena programme is also packed with military vehicle demonstrations and competitions.

War and Peace Show 2016

| NEWS FEATURE

ABOVE: Filling almost every square inch of the showground, the massive War & Peace show returns to Kent this year.

The Vintage Village area gives an insight into what life was like ‘back home’ during WW2. Complete with general stores, post office, village pub, Home Guard depot, tea rooms and ‘Victory Garden’, visitors can take a gentle stroll and watch the many demonstrations being given by the re-enactors. A new sheep farming exhibit will show the hard work carried out by shepherds during the war, and the new-born lambs will be a very popular attraction for younger visitors. The Airfix Model Zone will have hundreds of models on display with plenty of demonstrations given by some of the best model makers from the modelling world, all on hand to give the latest tips and advice on modelling techniques. The popular Battle of Britain exhibition will have aircraft parked on the dispersals with crews waiting for the order to scramble while overhead Spitfires will be seen flying over the showground.

ABOVE: Painstaking attention to detail, the arms and equipment of a postwar SAS encampment.

Hundreds of trade stalls will be brimming with militaria goodies, whether you are a serious collector or a casual opportunist buyer, there will be something of interest for everyone. Within the trade stalls a Zeppelin bar has been added so shoppers can take a well deserved break. Britain at War magazine are proud to support the show and the Britain at War Victory Marquee and surrounding area will feature a fun filled daily programme of activities, music and dancing for all ages. Night time entertainment includes the popular ‘Jive Aces’ and the magnificent ‘Sticky Wickets’ (see the War and Peace revival website for details). The new ‘Gentleman’s Lounge’ furnished with vintage furniture and Chesterfield sofa’s, offers visitors the chance to sit and browse through books and to meet with the authors. A hundred years ago the ‘Great War’ was

ABOVE: The Battle of Britain exhibitors await the squadron scamble.

being fought and this is marked by the WW1 exhibition. Visitors will be able to walk through the trenched entrance and see the hundreds of WW1 exhibits on display from uniforms and equipment to personal effects. WW1 soldiers will present their personal stories of the Somme and explain the army’s battle plans. Other new features to the 2016 show include the addition of a land train service to carry visitors around the showground. A downloadable App has also been developed which once downloaded on to a smart phone, will guide visitors around the showground and give information on what they can see. The War and Peace Revival is a family experience and to recognise this, accompanied visitors under the age of 16 will be admitted free. The future of the War and Peace Revival is looking very bright and the team look forward to seeing you at this years show!

ABOVE: One of the many hundreds of vehicles to be seen at the War & Peace Show.

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BRIEFING ROOM |

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

Death of Battle of Britain Veteran

FLIGHT LIEUTENANT Alexander Hendry Thom, DFC, who has died aged 96, flew Hurricanes in the latter part of the Battle of Britain, writes Geoff Simpson. Thom was born on 25 May 1919 and began to train as a quantity surveyor before the Second World War. He joined the RAFVR in the summer of 1939, undertook weekend flying at Perth and was posted to the Initial Training Wing, Hastings, on the outbreak of war. Later he converted to Hurricanes at 6 OTU, RAF Sutton Bridge and joined 79 Squadron at Pembrey on 6 October 1940 as a Sergeant Pilot, before moving to 87 Squadron at Exeter. On 21 July 1941 he and Fg Off G L Roscoe shared in the destruction of a He 111 off the Scillies, and on 20 October1941 probably destroyed a He 111.

The next day he shared in the destruction of another He 111, this time with Fg Off E G Musgrove. Commissioned in early December 1941, Thom was appointed ‘B’ Flight Commander in July 1942 and awarded the DFC in August. In November 1942, 87 Squadron moved to North Africa where Thom downed a Me 210 off Tunisia on 19 April 1943. He was posted away in May to be a flying control officer at Bone but returned to 87 Squadron and took command on June 27 1943. He left for the UK in September, becoming an OTU instructor. He was appointed Flight Commander, Fighter Affiliation Flight at 84 (Bomber) OTU in May 1944 before his posting to RAF Peterhead, as adjutant. Thom finished his RAF service at HQ 13 Group as a staff officer and

was released from the RAF on 4 December 1945. He qualified as a quantity surveyor and remained in that

profession until retirement in the 1980s, eventually holding a senior post with the Western Regional Hospital Board in Scotland.

British Submarine Wreck Uncovered

ON 5 April 1940, shortly before the German Invasion of Norway, HMS Tarpon left Portsmouth never to return, but as Oliver Thébault reports, she has now been found. Commissioned on 8 March 1940, just over a month later she would have vanished. Upon leaving port, the T-class submarine headed for Norway in what would be her

last patrol. On 9 April 1940 the Germans launched Operation Weserübung, their invasion of Norway and Denmark, which put Tarpon on the ‘frontline.’ She was ordered to patrol the waters around Skagerrak/Jutland on 10 April but went missing between 9-14 April, officially listed as overdue on 22 April. Records suggest she

was sunk by Q-Ship Schiff 40 (Schürbek), and it is speculated Tarpon botched her attack and was sunk with her 59 crew. The Schürbek was itself sunk by HMS Sunfish the same month. However the final resting place of Tarpon has since remained a mystery. A mystery that is until March 2016 when famed submarine

hunter Gert Norman Andersen found the wreck. Andersen located the submarine in a surprising place, in deep water off the town of Thyborøn, Denmark, rather than in her expected position around Skagerrak. The discovery has confirmed Tarpon was depth charged. The site has now been designated a war grave.

PLACES TO VISIT

BELOW: HMS Taku in Malta. Taku was a Group One T-class boat, similar to Tarpon, and survived the war. (IWM)

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Perspectives on the Somme A one day conference on 9 July (10:00 – 17:00) will feature 5 speakers including professors Gary Sheffield and John Bourne. Venue: Manor Academy, Millfield Lane, Nether Poppleton, York, YO26 6AP. Book at WFA Office 020 7118 1914. BM Box 1914, London, WC1N 3XX. Fee of £30 includes lunch. Cheltenham & Gloucester Branch On 12 July at 19:30 in ‘Guns at Passchendaele’, Peter Hart will talk about the break out of the Ypres Salient by British troops in July 1917. Venue: National Star College, Ullenwood, Cheltenham, GL53 9QU. Contact: [email protected] Tel: 01242 691422. Open to all.

Dublin Branch Carole Hope’s talk ‘Initiation by Gas: 16th (Irish) Division at Loos, April 1916’ starts at 14:30 on the 16 July. Venue: Lecture Theatre, Collins Barracks, Museum of Ireland, Benburb Street, Dublin 7. Contact: [email protected] Tel: 01 895831 or 00353 1 895831 (from the UK). All welcome.

Lancashire (East) Branch Chris Payne will talk about ‘How British Conscripts Helped to Win the War’ at 20:00 on 27 July. Venue: Masonic Hall, Nelson House, Nelson Square, Burnley, BB11 1LA. Contact: [email protected] Tel: 01282 422772.

Britain at War Magazine is pleased to support the Western Front Association in listing a monthly selection of WFA events around the country. For more information, go to: http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/

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13/06/2016 10:22

NEWS FEATURE |

Jutland Wrecks Targeted By Salvors

JUTLAND WRECKS

TARGETED BY SALVORS ON 30 May 2016, the day before the centenary commemorations of the Battle of Jutland, viewers of BBC1’s ‘The One Show’ watched a report naming a Dutch salvage company as responsible for illicitly removing artefacts from the wreck of HMS Queen Mary, sunk at Jutland with the loss of 1,266 officers and men. Andy Brockman reports. As the sound of the last post faded over the CWGC cemetery at Lyness overlooking Scapa Flow, and the poppies and forget-menots dropped from HMS Duncan and FGS Brandenburg drifted away on the waves of the North Sea, the thoughts of Government and the maritime heritage community turned from commemoration to the issue of how to protect the wrecks of the 24 ships, British and German, lost at Jutland from illicit salvage. Two recent publications have thrown the issue into sharp relief. First, maritime archaeologist, Dr Innes McCartney’s new book, “Jutland 1916; the Archaeology of a Naval Battlefield” revealed that of the ships sunk at Jutland, at least fourteen, or 60%, showed clear signs of having been targeted for salvage, with condensers and propellers the most likely items to be removed, on account of the scrap value of copper and manganese bronze. Second, the investigative

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heritage website the PipeLine, published results of an investigation into allegations that at least one Dutch salvage company was deliberately targeting Jutland wrecks and had removed an estimated £200k worth of non-ferrous metals from the wrecks of HMS Indefatigable and HMS Queen Mary alone. As well as protection from unauthorised interference by designation under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, such an action is also against international law because salvage from a Sovereign Immune military vessel

without express permission of the Flag State is forbidden under Article 4 of the International Convention on Salvage, 1989. Of course, if a crime is suspected it is necessary to obtain evidence and the case of Queen Mary is clear-cut. In 2000-2003, when Dr McCartney made his first detailed archaeological surveys of the wreck, parts of the upside-down stern of the ship, including the X turret magazine and aft engine room spaces, remained relatively intact. However, a 2015 survey revealed the same areas had been opened up, with wreckage and cordite cases scattered across what is now a crater in the seabed. Dr McCartney also noted possible evidence for the use of explosives and mechanical grabs of the type used for salvage. Illicit salvage out of sight of land goes unwitnessed, and that is true for most of the fourteen cases at Jutland identified by McCartney. However, in the case of three vessels, HMS Indefatigable, HMS Queen Mary and the German light cruiser SMS Rostock, there is physical evidence linking to a prime suspect. In particular, the key to the investigation, conducted by a group of maritime archaeologists, came in a set of photographs supplied by a whistle-blower from the marine salvage industry.

Jutland Wrecks Targeted By Salvors

A salva ged Admir alty patt ern cond enser on board the MV Goo d Hope

A crew membe r poses with the Royal Mono gram from a gun tamp ion salva ged from HMS Quee n Mary.

The photographs clearly showed a converted beam trawler using a large mechanical grab, guided by closed circuit television cameras, to recover an Admiralty pattern boiler room condenser of the type installed in Royal Navy warships during the first half of the 20th century along with large British Clarkson cordite cases which could only have come from a battleship or battlecruiser. However, the image which proved the matter showed a unique metal monogram from a decorative gun muzzle tampion from HMS Queen Mary. This artefact proved conclusively the identity of the vessel plundered because there has only been one HMS Queen Mary in the entire history of the Royal Navy; the 26,000ton battlecruiser which

blew up and sank on 31 May 1916 with the loss of all but 20 of her crew. Investigation showed that the salvage was undertaken by the MV Good Hope, belonging to the Dutch company Friendship Offshore BV, based at Terschelling. Asked when the Government had first been informed about the possible looting of Jutland wrecks, The Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans, Mark Lancaster, stated in an answer published on 6 June 2016 that the MOD has been aware of accusations that the wreck of Indefatigable had been targeted since 2010, and Queen Mary since 2011. Asked what steps are being taken to assert the UK’s right of Sovereign Immunity over wrecks from the Battle of Jutland and other Royal Navy wrecks, Mr Lancaster

| NEWS FEATURE

responded that protection was sought: ‘By invoking the principle of Sovereign Immunity, and by designating specific vessels under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 and the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 we endeavour to protect these important sites where we are able.’ On the specific case of alleged unauthorised salvage from Queen Mary, Mr Lancaster went on to say: ‘After due consideration, following liaison with UK and international authorities, it was concluded by MOD Police that no further action could be taken.’ However, it is now clear this decision was taken before photographs aboard Good Hope became available. Pressure to re-open the investigation is now likely. Additionally, at least one UK national was on board the salvage vessel during removal of artefacts from Queen Mary. That person could be questioned under the PMRA, which makes it an offence for any UK national to interfere with a designated wreck. It is an accident of history that the centenaries of Jutland and the Somme fall within a month of each other, thus highlighting disparity in the treatment of war dead on land and those who died at sea. Burial with military honours of service personnel in CWGC cemeteries around the world occurs regularly, but for those lost at sea there is apparent inaction when ships which are effectively graves are ripped apart for profit. Friendship Offshore BV were asked to comment on allegations they had engaged in unauthorised salvage from Queen Mary, contrary to the International Convention on Salvage. No reply has been received. Dr Innes McCartney’s book ‘Jutland 1916; the Archaeology of a Naval Battlefield’ is published by Conway and will be reviewed in the next issue of Britain At War.

TOP LEFT: For now, HMS Shark, memorial to Cmdr Loftus Jones VC and 86 men, appears not to have been heavily salvaged. BELOW: HMS Queen Mary, lost at Jutland and now heavily plundered for scrap metal.

www.britainatwar.com 15

NEWS FEATURE |

HMS Hood Bell Unveiled

HMS HOOD BELL UNVEILED At a poignant and touching ceremony, the newly recovered and restored bell from legendary battlecruiser HMS Hood is put on public display in Portsmouth, Andy Saunders reports.

AT A dual-ceremony performed by HRH The Princess Royal at the Royal Navy Dockyard, Portsmouth, on 24 May the bell recovered from the wreck of HMS Hood in 2015 was unveiled before being placed in the new Battle of Jutland exhibition ’36 Hours: Jutland 1916 – The Battle That Won The War’. The Princess Royal unveiled the conserved bell beneath the towering hull of HMS Victory in front of assembled guests who included relatives of many of those lost on the Hood after a short service of remembrance and commemoration, 75 years to the day since the ship was lost with 1,415 souls in the waters of the North Atlantic. With official approval, the bell was recovered from over a mile-anda-half below the surface by high-tec robotic devices in an operation funded by Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, albeit that some disquiet and controversy over the disturbance of the wreck has since ensued. The late Ted Briggs, however, one of the three survivors from HMS Hood, had always expressed a wish that the bell be recovered as a memorial to his lost ship mates. After its unveiling, the bell was ceremoniously rung by The Princess Royal for the first time in 75 years as she sounded eight bells. The bell was then carried by six Royal Navy sailors to Boathouse 5 at the Dockyard and put in its

16 www.britainatwar.com

place of honour in the new Jutland exhibition before the exhibition was officially opened by The Princess Royal. Here, it was later viewed close up by invited relatives of those who were lost on the ship – including brothers, sisters and children of some of those lost.

ABOVE: The newly restored bell from battlecruiser HMS Hood on prominent display as part of the '36 Hours: Jutland 1916' exhibition.

The Jutland exhibition, marking the centenary of the battle, comprises a magnificent collection of artefacts including weapons, mementoes of those who served, documents, medals, uniforms, equipment and art. As the only dedicated Jutland-related exhibition, the displays are certainly unique. Quite apart from their uniqueness, however, the exhibition stands out in its own right as a powerful reminder of one the deadliest sea battles in naval history. Particularly noteworthy are the stunning audio-visual and interactive displays created by partners in the project, the online gaming company Wargaming. The Jutland exhibition, including the HMS Hood bell, is open daily from 10am as part of The Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Summing up the emotion of the day, and the impact that the recovered bell has had, one of the casualties’ elderly daughters tearfully reached out to touch the bell, murmuring softly ‘Oh Daddy!’ as she turned away. Certainly, the bell will continue to have an impact on those who view it across generations to come and who will have no direct connection to those dreadful events of 24 May 1941. Britain at War magazine covered the loss of HMS Hood in a special commemorative issue (Issue No 109) published in May 2016. Copies are still available by contacting Key Publishing on 01780 480404 or via [email protected]

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FIELD POST

Our Letter of the Month is sponsored by Pen & Sword Books

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

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Condor Combats

Dear Sir - Chris Goss’s excellent article on the early combats involving the Focke Wulf Condor described in detail the loss of the first one over Norway on 23 May 1940 to a Gladiator of 263 Sqn flown by Fg Off H F G Ede. Christened Herman Francis Grant, he was born and brought up in Weber in the Pembroke area of the colony of Bermuda, the only child of Ernest and Winifred Ede. His father was a marine engineer and by late 1917 was Engineer Lt Cdr Ernest Ede serving on the destroyer HMS Pellow. However, on 12 December 1917 he was killed in action when the ship engaged German torpedo boats off Norway. He had never seen his infant son who, on leaving school in 1935, entered the RAF College, Cranwell, as a Flight Cadet. Young Grant Ede joined the RAF rather than the RN at the behest of his mother who did not wish her son to follow her late husband to sea. In his two years at Cranwell Ede undertook officer and flying training. A fine athlete, he was a member of the College swimming team.

BELOW: Former Cranwell cadet Fg Off Grant Ede achieved several successes over Narvik but was lost when HMS Glorious was sunk. (BERMUDA

MARITIME MUSEUM)

Grant Ede graduated as Pilot Officer in December 1937 and, selected as a fighter pilot, later joined 111 Sqn at RAF Northolt flying Hurricanes. After returning to England to rebuild after the first Norway expedition in April 1940, Grant Ede was a number of pilots who joined 263 Sqn and returned with it to north Norway, its Gladiators flying off

the aircraft carrier HMS Furious. Grant Ede first encountered the Luftwaffe on 23 May when he attacked an intruding Bf 110 which he claimed damaged. This may well have been the aircraft of 3./ZG 76 that force landed on a frozen lake after a being damaged in a combat. Later he intercepted a He 111 over Bardufoss at 500 feet, attacking from the beam before Fg Off Bill Riley (who was also mentioned later in Chris Goss’s article) put out the starboard engine. Flt Lt Ceaser Hull then appeared and shot out the port engine and the Heinkel went down. Grant Ede was in action again on 25 May when flying Gladiator N5705 he shot down the Condor as was well described in the article although he identified the large four-engined aircraft as a Ju 90. An hour or so later he was airborne again and encountered what he again identified as Ju 90 which after a lengthy series of attacks crashed into Finoy Island. In fact, his victim was almost certainly the prototype BV 139

four engine floatplane that was being used by the Luftwaffe as a transport. Late in the evening a third of these large aircraft was shot down by Plt Off Philip Purdy and Sgt Herbert Kitchener. To destroy three such large aircraft in one day was a significant feat for the biplanes. Patrols continued on 7 June prior to the Squadron embarking its ten serviceable Gladiators onto HMS Glorious. No 263’s achievements were considerable. In 13 days of flying it had engaged in some 72 individual combats claiming at least 26 victories, and possibly as many as 35; only two Gladiators were known to have been lost in combat. On 9 June Glorious and her escorts were engaged and sunk by the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with the loss of 1,519 lives, including the whole of 263 Sqn - one of whom was Fg Off Grant Ede. For his actions over Norway he had been awarded the DFC. Grant Ede was the first Bermudan to be killed in action during WW2 and it remains a particularly tragic irony that, like his father before him, he too was lost at sea off Norway and like his father he also has no known grave. Andrew Thomas, by e-mail.

BELOW: Beaufighter Ic T3237/PN-K of 252 sqn was the aircraft flown by Flt Lt Bill Riley when he shot down Oblt Richter’s Condor on 16 April 1941. (ULSTER AVIATION SOCIETY)

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 18 www.britainatwar.com

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FIELD POST

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

Memorial Cairn Puzzle Dear Sir - I wonder if any of your readers can add any further information to the brief details on the plaque mounted on a cairn overlooking Cuckmere Haven and The Seven Sisters cliffs? The Cuckmere is an insignificant river of East Sussex, passing through the South Downs in a wide

valley near the village of Alfriston and reaches the sea four miles further south at Cuckmere Haven. Cuckmere Haven is easily identified from the sea as it is the only break in the range of chalk cliffs that stretch from Seaford in the west to Beachy Head and Eastbourne in the east. The location is the site of a world-renowned view in an area

of outstanding natural beauty. The memorial cairn stands in a field on the west side of the Cuckmere valley near the coastguard cottages. According to the plaque on the cairn, a company of Canadian soldiers set up camp in the field in 1940 ignoring advice given by a local soldier not to do so as they would be in a very vulnerable position. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened, and the camp was attacked by bombs

and cannon fire. An unspecified number of the Canadians were killed, including the Company Commander who had taken up residence in the nearby Coastguard cottage. I have struggled to identify the date or any details of this incident and I’m hoping that somebody can fill in the missing details of this tragic event. Peter Jeffery By email.

LEFT & RIGHT: The memorial cairn and plaque at Cuckmere Haven overlooking Seven Sisters, East Sussex.

Fairey Battle Crew at Lamaronde

Dear Sir - A few years ago in your magazine you covered the story of a Fairey Battle and its crew of 12 Squadron (L5546, PH-U) and the recovery of wreckage from the village of Lamaronde, France, where it was lost in 1940. A memorial

constructed from one of the aircraft’s propellers was later installed at the local Mairie. One of the crew who were killed, and who is commemorated on the memorial, was LAC Charles S Burt. Charles was my late father’s step-brother and he sent to my father a photograph of a formation of squadron Battles. He is flying in PH-A and captioned the picture saying that he was reading the novel ‘Captain Blood’ when the photograph was taken! I also enclose a photograph of his original grave marker when he was buried with his comrade, Sgt J P Boddington. I am delighted that he is now also appropriately commemorated and not forgotten by the villagers of Lamaronde. I thought this might be of some interest to your readers. Dane Curtis. By e-mail.

LEFT AND ABOVE: The original grave of the Lamaronde crew and photograph of LAC Burt flying in PH - A.

www.britainatwar.com 21

SOMME SUCCESS

War in the Skies Above the Battlefield

22 www.britainatwar.com

SOMME SUCCESS

War in the Skies Above the Battlefield

T

HE ORIGINAL role of the RFC was visual reconnaissance. As continuous trench lines developed on the Aisne in September 1914, aircraft were the only method of finding out what was going on behind the front line and to maximise information brought back cameras were taken aloft and, although photographs were often blurred, military requirement led to technological development. By 1916, cameras were clamped outside the cockpit, producing pin-sharp photographic mosaics of everything below. The art of photographic interpretation began: gun batteries were visible even when camouflaged, machine gun posts stood revealed; barbed wire, dugout entrances and headquarters – all were immediately obvious to experts. The RFC enabled gunners to identify key targets invisible from the front line using wireless to connect the observer in the aircraft to gunners on the ground with fertile minds creating the ‘clock-code’ to provide corrections that would range shells onto targets. Once the Royal Artillery swallowed their pride and got used to taking fire orders from RFC observers, the potential became obvious. The battlefield would never be the same again.

DANGEROUS SKIES

It was soon evident that no army could allow enemy aircraft free access for reconnaissance and artillery observation. They had to find a way to shoot them down. Anti-aircraft guns were developed, but accuracy was poor. The search began for ‘scout’ aircraft capable of shooting the enemy out of the sky and in late 1915 the Germans gained the upper-hand with Fokker EIII monoplane scouts. Of limited performance, it had one great asset – a forward-firing machine gun that used interrupter gear allowing it to fire straight ahead through the whirling propeller. Two young inspirational Fokker pilots, Lts Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, set about honing skills that formed the basics of aerial scout tactics; surprise by diving down out of the sun, opening fire at close range and looking to kill with minimum risk. Mastering their profession,‘victories’ began to mount. The standard British aircraft, the BE2c, had been ordered in thousands when nobody conceived the necessity for anything other than a stable observation ‘platform’. Now faced with agile Fokkers they struggled to survive in dangerous skies. During 1915 the RFC proved its value to the High Command of the British Army. No longer an optional extra, they were fundamental to the business of winning the war on the ground, mainly through a symbiotic relationship with the 

LEFT: A FE2b of the RFC over the Western Front in 1916.

Somme Success Whilst the Somme is remembered for its brutal slaughter on the ground, a war was also being waged in the skies above. Peter Hart tells how the Somme saw the Royal Flying Corps begin to mature into its role within the ‘All Arms Battle’ that eventually won the war.

www.britainatwar.com 23

SOMME SUCCESS

War in the Skies Above the Battlefield RIGHT: Oswald Boelcke. CENTRE: Max Immelmann. BOTTOM: A captured Fokker E.III.

guns. Charged with a series of onerous interlinked tasks, the RFC provided a comprehensive service of photographic reconnaissance and artillery observation, flying contact patrols during attacks and carrying out bombing raids to disrupt communications and harass the Germans. All this had to be achieved whilst beating back the air threat and depriving the German Army of aerial facilities. In the face of the potent Fokker threat, truly Herculean efforts were demanded of the RFC in the months leading up to the Battle of the Somme.

He developed a relentless offensive aerial strategy; a simple and effective concept of scout patrols penetrating deep behind the lines to beat back German aircraft and keep them as far as possible from the front, accepting with equanimity the consequences of occasional German aircraft breaking through to prey on British machines. Trenchard ordered his men to keep on flying over the line despite the ‘Fokker scourge’, his only compromise that formations of aircraft were sent out on missions formerly carried out by lone aircraft. Underpinning

COMPLETE CONTROL OF SKIES

The Somme would also be the first great test for the theories of aerial warfare by Brigadier General Hugh Trenchard who took command of the RFC in August 1915. Having already established a close working relationship with General Sir Douglas Haig, the two men had much in common; less fluent in speech than on paper and both utterly committed to victory. A brash, booming man intolerant of failure, Trenchard nevertheless had a panache that allowed him to get away with some bold statements: ‘I’m not asking you to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. Just because I’m condemned to ride about in a big Rolls-Royce and sit out the fighting in a chair, you mustn’t think I don’t understand.’

24 www.britainatwar.com

everything was the principle that losses were acceptable to get results. The gamble worked and covered the cracks until the arrival of a new generation of British aircraft - the FE2b, DH2, Nieuport Scout and Sopwith 1½ Strutter allowing the RFC to seize complete control above the Somme just at the time when it most mattered July 1916.

SOMME SUCCESS

War in the Skies Above the Battlefield

‘A STING IN OUR TAIL’

The FE2b was a two-seater pusher aircraft with the engine behind the pilot and performed a multi-purpose role carrying out offensive patrols, reconnaissance and bombing. A sturdy aircraft, they were not fast, but proved difficult to shoot down. Captain Harold Wyllie was flying one with 23 Squadron, RFC: ‘Went on reconnaissance. Unfortunately, the camera jammed. Five Fokkers hung on our tails but did not close in to fighting range. The wind was strong against us coming back. We were lucky not to have another running fight. Perhaps they realised we carry a sting in our tail. These running fights are the devil. It is annoying to have to be passive resisters, caring only about getting back with the report and the photos.’ The FE2b observer had a forwardfiring Lewis gun with a second fitted on a telescopic mounting between the two cockpits. To use it, the observer stood on his seat and fired the Lewis backwards over pilot and upper wing to partially cover the blind spot to the rear. Perched as he was with only his feet and ankles actually in the cockpit he was almost completely exposed and could easily fall to his death. The other key British aircraft to make its debut early in 1916 was the DH2. A single-seater pusher fighter of slightly comical appearance it, perhaps more than any other aircraft, was instrumental in winning domination of the Somme skies. Even the ace Max Immelmann found them a threat: ‘I met two English biplanes southward of Bapaume. I was about 700 metres higher and therefore came

up with them very quickly and attacked one. He seemed to heel over after a few shots, but unfortunately I was mistaken. The two worked splendidly together in the course of the fight and put eleven shots into my machine. The petrol tank, the struts on the fuselage, the undercarriage and the propeller were hit. I could only save myself by a nose-dive of 1,000 metres. Then at last the two of them left me alone. It was not a nice business.’ Major Lanoe Hawker VC developed tactical thinking to a peak of sophistication that encapsulated both his personality and the abidingly aggressive ethos inculcated into the RFC: ‘Tactical Orders by Officer Commanding No. 24 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps: “ATTACK EVERYTHING.’

SIGNIFICANT AERIAL SUPERIORITY

For the offensive, the RFC concentrated 185 aircraft in the Somme area, plus aircraft flying in from outside the sector on bombing missions. Of these, 76 were the new scout aircraft but the Germans could only deploy 129 aircraft of which only a meagre 19 were scouts and were seriously hampered by commitments battling the French over Verdun. Just in time, the Allies achieved significant aerial superiority over the Somme as the Fokker menace spluttered out – symbolised by the death of Max Immelmann in combat with an FE2b in late June. Fearful of losing their other famous ace, the Germans despatched Oswald Boelcke to the Eastern Front. Now, as 2nd Lt Gwilym Lewis of 32 Squadron discovered, the DH2s ruled the skies: 

ABOVE: Pilots with a DH2 at Vert Galand, France, 1916. BELOW: The cockpit of Oswald Boelcke's Fokker E.III.

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SOMME SUCCESS

War in the Skies Above the Battlefield

ABOVE: A DH2 aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps. BOTTOM (L): A DH2 taking off, France, 1916. BOTTOM (R): Lt. Cecil Lewis.

‘If a Hun sees a DH2 he runs for his life; they won’t come near them. It was only yesterday that one of the fellows came across a Fokker. The Fokker dived followed by the DH2 but the wretched Fokker dived so hard that when he tried to pull his machine out his elevator broke and he dived into our Lines; not a shot was fired.’ When the British went ‘over the top’ on 1 July 1916 the RFC contact patrols were in the air to determine the exact progress of troops on the ground, the information vital to supporting artillery. It had been found through bitter experience that conventional means of communication frequently broke down. That morning, Lt Cecil Lewis was flying a Morane Parasol, his eyes glued to the ground. ‘We went right down to 3,000 feet to see what was happening. We had a klaxon horn on the undercarriage of the Morane and when they heard us hawking at them from above, they had little red Bengal flares, they carried them in their pockets, they

26 www.britainatwar.com

would put a match to their flares and we would note these flares down on the map! It was one thing to practise this, but quite another thing for them to really do it - particularly when things began to go a bit badly. Then they jolly well wouldn’t light anything - and small blame to them because it drew the fire of the enemy on to them at once. So we only got about two flares on the whole front. We were bitterly disappointed.’

AN UNMITIGATED DISASTER

Saturday, 1 July was an unmitigated disaster for the British. The barrage had not served its purpose, German defences were too strong, their troops too well trained and British troops too inexperienced. The offensive carried on regardless. It had to. This was no isolated battle but the major Allied offensive and a key component of the ‘Grand Strategy’. In the months of fighting that followed, the RFC continued to play a stellar role. It was absolutely central to detailed planning

of attacks for contact patrols to determine where the troops had got to, while aerial photography exposed locations of unseen trenches, machine gun posts and mortars. This aerial domination allowed the artillery to slowly get a grip. German High Command, all too aware of the situation, reflected its anguish through General Fritz von Below: ‘The beginning and the first weeks of the Somme battle were marked by complete inferiority of our own air forces. The enemy’s aeroplanes enjoyed complete freedom in carrying out distant reconnaissances. With the aid of aeroplane observation, hostile artillery neutralised our guns and was able to range with the most extreme accuracy on trenches occupied by our infantry; the required data for this was provided by undisturbed trench reconnaissance and photography.

SOMME SUCCESS

War in the Skies Above the Battlefield On the other hand, our own aeroplanes only succeeded in quite exceptional cases in carrying out distant reconnaissances; our artillery machines were driven off whenever they attempted to carry out registration for their own batteries. Photographic reconnaissance could not fulfil the demands made upon it. Thus, at decisive moments, the infantry frequently lacked the support of the German artillery either in counter-battery work or in barrage on the enemy’s infantry massing for attack.’

ODDS OF SURVIVAL

The pilots and observers of the RFC were worked to the very limits of physical and mental endurance. Compared to the infantry, casualties were slight, yet in a squadron a casualty a day would soon wipe out the original personnel. Although their ranks were ceaselessly regenerated by replacements, it did not require much perception to work out that the odds of an individual surviving a prolonged tour of duty in action were minimal. Understandably some began to crack under the strain; 2nd Lt Harold Balfour was one such.

LEFT: A camera fitted to the outside of a BE2c. CENTRE: Major Lanoe Hawker VC. BELOW: A BE2c, 1916.

‘I can remember my bedroom companion in the farmhouse in which we were billeted felt as I did, and how each of us lay awake in the darkness, not telling the other that sleep would not come, listening to the incessant roar of the guns, and thinking of the dawn patrol next morning. At last we could bear it no longer, and calling out to each other admitted a mutual feeling of terror and foreboding.’ During the summer and autumn of 1916, one British pilot tasked with protecting vital army cooperation aircraft began to emerge as an iconic figure: 2nd Lt Albert Ball who flew the French single-seater Nieuport 16 Scout. This was a streamlined tractor biplane, superior in every respect to the Fokker with the sole exception of armament. The only firepower was a fixed Lewis gun above the wing centre section firing just above the propeller. Ball took to flying ceaseless patrols across German lines and became the epitome of the RFC offensive spirit. No odds seemed too great for him. On 22 August he ran into a large German formation.

‘Met twelve Huns. No. 1 fight. I attacked and fired two drums, bringing the machine down just outside a village. All crashed up. No. 2 fight. I attacked and got under machine, putting in two drums. Hun went down in flames. No. 3 fight. I attacked and put in one drum. Machine went down and crashed on a housetop. All these fights were seen and reported by other machines that saw them go down. I only got hit eleven times, so returned and got more ammunition. This time luck was not all on the spot. I was met by about fourteen Huns, about 15 miles over their side. My windscreen was hit in four places, mirror broken, the spar of the left ‘plane broken, also engine ran out of petrol.’ 

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SOMME SUCCESS

War in the Skies Above the Battlefield

ABOVE: The Albatross DI. RIGHT: 2nd Lt. Harold Balfour. CENTRE: A map drawn from a photographic interpretation. BELOW: Albatross aircraft of the Imperial German Air Service.

It seemed that he could fly into a hail of bullets time and time again, emerging with his aircraft shot to pieces but himself unscathed. But Ball’s individualistic tactics were beyond duplication by pilots without his ‘berserker’ approach. When Ball eventually returned to England in October 1916, he had claimed 31 victories.

STRANGULATING GRIP

British efforts towards the end of that awful summer were increasingly dominated by the preparations for the next major attack, the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on 15 September. Once again, reconnaissance and artillery observation was at a premium. Everything had to be risked to save the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of infantrymen. A secret weapon, the tank, was unveiled that offered some hope of loosening the strangulating grip of

28 www.britainatwar.com

trench warfare. Yet German artillery fire still crashed out, flaying British jumping-off positions to catch the infantry in the wastes of No Man’s Land. However successful the RFC had been in directing counter-battery fire, there were still not enough British guns devoted to this most essential of tasks. During the battles the German line was bent, bashed, biffed and bitten into – but retained its overall integrity. The British could not break through. The RFC broke new records for the number of hours flown and the intensity of the aerial fighting.

Yet mid-September marked the point when the pendulum of aerial warfare began to swing back to the Germans. The German renaissance was triggered by the return to the Western Front of Oswald Boelcke in command of Jasta 2 equipped with the new Albatros D I armed with synchronised twin-Spandau machine guns firing through the propeller. With careful streamlining and powerful Mercedes engine it could reach speeds of nearly 110mph. One of the new pilots flying alongside Boelcke was Lt Manfred von Richthofen, his first victory coming on 17 September when he shot down

SOMME SUCCESS

War in the Skies Above the Battlefield an FE2b crewed by Lts Lionel Morris and Tom Rees. Richthofen’s account shows he was still raw as a scout pilot, but his Albatros so totally outclassed the FE2b that he had a substantial margin of error. ‘At last a favourable moment arrived. My opponent had apparently lost sight of me. Instead of twisting and turning, he flew straight along. In a fraction of a second, I was at his back with my excellent machine. I gave a short burst of shots with my machine gun. I had gone so close that I was afraid I might dash into the Englishman. Suddenly I nearly yelled with joy, for the propeller of the enemy machine had stopped turning. Hurrah! I had shot his engine to pieces; the enemy was compelled to land, for it was impossible for him to reach his own lines.’ Morris and Rees were dead and Richthofen was on his way to become the greatest scourge of the RFC.

PAINFUL BLOOD SACRIFICE

The Albatros was superior to any Allied scout on the Western Front. Trenchard, aware of the threat, was determined that the RFC would continue to do its duty and

was not a man to bend with the wind. The only silver-lining for the RFC was the death of Oswald Boelcke in an accidental mid-air collision on 28 October. Boelcke, a great mentor to his pilots, led from the front with some 40 ‘victories’. Yet in one sense his work was done. Jasta 2 had learned well, and Richthofen, by then with six victories, would take on his mantle. The new German scouts extracted a painful blood sacrifice as the offensive dragged on into late-autumn. Yet, although casualties rose sharply, the RFC managed to deliver what Haig required right to the bitter end. One of the great lessons of aerial warfare had been learnt; air supremacy meant the ability to keep army photographic reconnaissance and artillery

observation aircraft above the front the question of casualties incurred was almost immaterial. On 13 November, the Battle of the Ancre was launched as the last gasp of the Somme Offensive. Assisted by reasonably effective artillery bombardment, the infantry made initial progress. The attacks continued for a few days, but as the weather 

ABOVE: Captain Albert Ball VC. ABOVE LEFT: The cockpit of Albert Ball's SE5a. BELOW: Morane Parasols of 3 Squadron, RFC.



www.britainatwar.com 29

SOMME SUCCESS

War in the Skies Above the Battlefield

ABOVE: A FE2b of the RFC, 1916. ABOVE RIGHT: Manfred von Richthofen. RIGHT: Lt. Lionel Morris. BOTTOM: DH2 aircraft of 32 Squadron RFC lined up in France, 1916.

worsened it became obvious that nothing more of real value would be achieved and on 18 November, Haig suspended the attacks. But in the air there was one last symbolic battle.

DUEL TO THE DEATH

At 13.00 on 23 November, Major Lanoe Hawker VC, who led his squadron from the front throughout, took off for another patrol in his DH2. During the patrol he was separated and had the misfortune to encounter Richthofen. It would be a desperate duel to the death in an unfair fight. All the DH2 could offer in aerial combat against the Albatros DII was the ability to turn in fast

30 www.britainatwar.com

tight circles. The DH2’s single Lewis gun provided inadequate firepower against the belt-fed twin Spandaus. Richthofen left his account of the fight: ‘The wind was favourable to me, for it drove us more and more towards the German position. The circles which we made round one another were so narrow that their diameter was probably no more than 250 or 300ft. My Englishman was a good sportsman, but by and by the thing became a little too hot for him. He had to decide whether he would land on German ground or whether he would fly back to the English lines. Of course, he tried the latter. When he had come down to about 300ft he tried to escape by flying in a zigzag course, which makes it difficult for an observer on the ground to shoot. That was my most favourable moment. I followed him at an altitude of from 250ft to 150ft, firing all the time. The Englishman could not help falling.

The swing of the technological pendulum had left the RFC in a position of marked inferiority and the FE2b and the DH2 had had their day. The use of pusher aircraft to overcome the lack of an effective machine gun synchronisation mechanism had been temporarily successful, but powerful and faster tractor aircraft like the Albatros were now dominating the skies. For the RFC, the Battle of the Somme marked the point where it came of age as a fighting service. The air battle had been fought almost entirely over German lines and the RFC successfully carried out its role even when the tide of air war turned. The aces may have got the glory, but the pilots and observers in obsolescent BE2c were the real heroes. Of the 545 RFC casualties (233 fatal) suffered between the start of June and end of November 1916, the majority were over the Somme. But in the tragic ledger of that battle their losses have to be offset against the enormous value of their work. For the RFC it was, at least, ‘Somme Success’. 

WesternFront F_P.indd 1

10/06/2016 09:18

REPUTATIONS

SIR WILLIAM

ROBERT

ROBERTSON

PRIVATE TO FIELD MARSHAL: RISING HIGH Continuing our series examining the reputations and perceptions of great Commonwealth military leaders, Britain at War reader Oliver Thébault examines the career of Sir William Robertson and the controversy of his clashes with Lloyd George. IR WILLIAM Robertson holds the honour of being the only man to have risen from the rank of Private, the British army’s lowest rank, to Field Marshal, the highest rank. He served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff and was a staunch defender of Haig and the Western Front focus. This support for Haig and criticisms of campaigns such as Gallipoli and Salonika caused friction with the War Cabinet and importantly Prime Minister Lloyd George. But were his views justified? William Robertson was born into humble circumstances on 29th January 1860 at Welbourn, Lincolnshire. Much of his early life remains a mystery, as he rarely spoke of it, but it is known he had two brothers and four sisters, and that he was literate. He left school aged thirteen and worked as a domestic servant for four years before joining the army.

S

EARLY CAREER

Robertson enlisted in the 16th Lancers in November 1877 at Aldershot. Joining the army at that time was considered by many as an 32

act of desperation rather than that of pride, his mother commenting “I would rather bury you then see you in a red coat”. The late-Victorian army was dominated by class boundaries and opportunites for promotion for common soldiers were meagre. Purchasing of commissions and flogging were common practice up until only a few years before his joining the ranks. Soldiers were subject to harsh discipline, poor living conditions and rations, and were notorious for heavy drinking, fighting, and a reputation for idleness. Robertson, however, stood out; strong and athletic, he dominated troop competitions, and - unusually for his class and time - was educated and intelligent. Driven by the hard work ethic of his parents, Robertson steadily began to rise through the ranks. In February 1879, whilst still at Aldershot, Robertson became Lance-Corporal, rising rapidly to Troop Sergeant-Major by March 1885. He was the youngest sergeant in his regiment, and readily took advantage of training opportunities, becoming an instructor in musketry and signalling. By 1887, his skills and intellect were recognised, and he »

REPUTATIONS Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet Nickname(s): ‘Wully’, ‘The Cleverest Man in the Army’, ‘Old Any-Complaints’. Born: 29 January 1860 Died: 12 February 1933 Allegiance: United Kingdom Service/branch: British Army Rank: Field Marshal Commands: Commandant Staff College Camberley, Director of Military Training, Quartermaster-General BEF, Chief of Staff BEF, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Commander Home Forces, British Army of the Rhine. Battles/wars: Chitral Expedition, Siege of Malakand, Second Boer War: Battles of Paardeberg, Poplar Grove, First World War. Awards: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Distinguished Service Order, Mentioned in Despatches.

33

REPUTATIONS CLIMBING UP THE RANKS

RIGHT: An artist’s depiction of the capture of General Cronje’s Laager by British troops at the Battle of Paardeberg, 18 February 1900. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW: General Cronje surrenders to Field Marshal Lord Roberts, and shake hands surrounded by troops and wounded on either side, following the Battle of Paardeberg. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

34

was gazetted as 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Dragoon Guards, quite of a rarity even in the post-Cardwell reforms age. However, Robertson could barely afford the costs associated with being an officer, and was always regarded as an outsider. By fortune, he was transferred to India in December 1888 where pay was higher and expenses were smaller meaning he was better able to sustain himself – though he still struggled to cover the costs of

necessary luxuries of the officer’s mess. Robertson therefore devoted his time to martial and academic pursuits; winning competitions in fencing, tent pegging (skewering 'tent pegs' with a lance or sword from horseback), best officer at arms, and learning to speak six Indian languages. Robertson’s linguistic mastery made him perfect for posting to the volatile North-West Frontier, where he served in the Intelligence Corps.

It was while serving on the NorthWest Frontier that Robertson received his first taste of action, during the Chitral Expedition, the attempt to relieve a British fort under attack from rebels in 1895. Whilst on a reconnaissance mission (and unwell) Robertson was betrayed by his two guides, who tried to kill him with his own sword. Robertson’s skill at arms, honed through many competitions, won through and he fought off his attackers. For this action Robertson was awarded the DSO. He was then promoted to Captain. He then applied for a Staff position, but found his lowly beginnings to be an obstacle. Staff College required he learn yet another language, German or French, something Robertson could ill-afford to do. However determination shone through and Robertson devoted his free time to self-study and in 1896 passed the entrance exam. Robertson’s entrance into Staff College came at a tumultuous time as the British Army was reorganising with a more continental focus. He studied alongside others destined for greatness such as Haig, Allenby, and Milne and it was at Staff College Robertson's ideas on war formed. He, like Haig, strongly believed in fighting

REPUTATIONS

decisive battles and was critical of periphery fronts, seen as distractions. After graduating, Robertson took a job at the War Office, and in 1900 was posted to South Africa. Robertson’s South Africa was brief, less than a year, and he was soon ordered back to the War Office as head of foreign military intelligence. It was here Robertson’s intellect was proved as he correctly identified the rise of Germany, and the Kaiser’s global ambitions, as a threat to Britain. In 1903 he was promoted to Colonel, one of the youngest of his time, and in 1907 assumed several important roles within the army. In December 1907 he took the position of Commandant of the Staff College at Camberley, which came with promotion to Major-General. Robertson’s approach to officer training was well-received, and in 1913 he became Director of Military Training at the War Office.

THE EARLY WAR YEARS

At the outbreak of war in 1914, Robertson was appointed Quartermaster-General for the BEF and acted exemplary, moving supply bases from Belgium to the French coast following the retreat from Mons. Robertson cut the red tape of the pre-war army and did his best to keep troops supplied that winter. He often visited the men to ask asking if there were any supply issues, earning him the nickname “Old Any-Complaints”. In January 1915 he was promoted to Chief of Staff for the BEF. It was here, when trying to deal with the challenges

of trench warfare, Robertson and his peers devised the ‘step-by-step’ approach to fighting. Following the offensives of 1915, Robertson appreciated that German lines could not be broken in one fell swoop, and it was impossible to achieve an easily-exploitable breakthrough in trench warfare. German reserves needed to be worn down in a series of attritional battles, by winning limited objectives, gradually chipping away at the defence line as a whole. Although ‘step-by-step’ theory was not completely employed until 1917, it gradually became the norm until the general breakthrough of summer 1918.

war. This was described as taking out the ‘pit props’ supporting the German war machine. Kitchener too was reluctant to fully commit to the Western Strategy and hesitant to send the New Armies into the field, preferring the French to deplete German reserves before Britain delivered a decisive blow in 1917. Robertson, whose position in the BEF gave him traction, was vehemently opposed to these policies stating “every man, horse, shell and gun” should be sent to the Western Front. But in spite of his best efforts and those of his peers the Eastern Policy won out with the decision to open new fronts against the Ottoman Empire. However British Eastern Policy was largely unsuccessful, the Ottoman Empire proved far more formidable than had been considered. Far from providing an opportunity to exploit, Eastern Strategy resulted in yet more failures and stalemate. In its very nature Eastern Policy was a compromise, with British forces spread out across two fronts. A combination of underestimating ones enemy and incompetence doomed the strategy to failure. However, Gallipoli, Salonika and the Siege of Kut, did convince the British Government to go all out in its efforts on the Western Front. »

LEFT: An ammunition wagon explodes during the Battle of Paardeberg, 18 February 1900. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW: Elements of the British Expeditionary Force head across the Channel to France in 1914 – some of many millions who would make the same journey (sometimes never to return) over the next few years. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

EASTERNERS AND WESTERNERS

Robertson was a firm believer that the war could only be won on the Western Front, with Germany the focus of British efforts, but the establishment was divided as to how the war should be conducted. Historically, Britain had preferred naval actions and peripheral fronts, such as during the Napoleonic wars, but against Germany these strategies seemingly had little effect as their main trading partners were also continental, and the transport of men and supplies was via railways, rather than on the high seas at the mercy of the Royal Navy. With mounting casualties on the Western Front members of the War Cabinet, such as Churchill and Lloyd George, became disillusioned and began to advocate an eastern policy to knock Germany’s allies out of the 35

REPUTATIONS

ABOVE: A contemporary depiction of 1st Bat. Lancashire Fusiliers landing on ‘W’ Beach, 25 April 1915.

(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW: Three 8in howitzers of 39th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, fire from the Fricourt-Mametz Valley during the Battle of the Somme. (US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

36

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME

With the failure of the Eastern Policy, the Western Front became the focus of British efforts. In December 1915 Robertson was appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff and became sole advisor to the War Cabinet. Robertson had an uneasy relationship with his predecessor, Kitchener, who was reluctant to forfeit his powers and resign himself to a civilian position as Secretary of State. Around the same time, Haig replaced French as commander of the BEF, a promotion which Robertson approved of. During the Chantilly Conference of December 1915 Robertson lobbied for increased attention to the principal fronts of

the war, and strengthened AngloFrench relations. The conclusion of the conference decided that all Allied powers should mount offensives in 1916, to overwhelm Germany. The Anglo-French contribution would come in the shape of an offensive on the Somme. However, the Germans struck first in March 1916 at Verdun, which consequently diminished French commitment to the Somme, which became a British-dominated affair. Von Falkenhayn’s attempts to ‘bleed the French Army white’ at Verdun were taking a terrible toll on French forces, and it became increasingly clear the French needed relief. With French involvement diminished,

British commanders such as Haig were given a much freer hand when it came to organising the offensive. Haig was convinced he could achieve his breakthrough, however others, such as Robertson, were less optimistic. Robertson again reiterated his idea of the step-by-step attack, to grind down the Germans. However Haig was adamant with enough artillery breakthrough could be achieved, and in his position as CIGS Robertson could exert little influence on the conduct of battlefield fighting. The Army was heavily divided between the two schools of thought and Haig’s and Robertson’s strategies both saw widespread support. Though Robertson’s ideas in retrospect may seem more realistic, with the withdrawal of French forces there were rightful concerns as to whether the ‘New Armies’ could go toe-totoe with the experienced Germans in attritional warfare. It was hoped a heavy artillery barrage would mitigate the difficulties in using largely inexperienced troops. In the event the barrage failed to have its desired effect, so when on 1 July 1916 British troops advanced from their trenches to be met with barbed wire, machine guns and a determined enemy. However, in spite of the costliness of the battle, Robertson stood by his man. Though less optimistic and in disagreement with many of Haig’s ideas, he knew any battle on the Western Front would produce high

REPUTATIONS casualties. In discussion with Haig and his subordinates in the planning stage of the operation Robertson had been critical, however to the War Cabinet he presented a united front. Perhaps fearing an open show of disagreement and accusations of blundering might revive the abortive Eastern Strategy. Robertson continued to offer Haig his support, even though he may have disagreed on his direction and was reluctant as CIGS to lecture his commanders in the field. In the event as the Somme Offensive continued the idea of breakthrough evaporated and step-by-step tactics emerged. On 14 July the British offensive was reinvigorated with attacks mounted down narrower fronts, using greater concentrations of artillery (per yard) than on 1 July,

these proved far more successful; however, even these later operations proved costly and Robertson became anxious over the deployment of manpower, urging that operations should be undertaken in a more ‘methodical and careful manner’. He became increasingly critical of the continuation of the offensive for what he saw as diminishing returns. By November, British forces had however achieved a victory of sorts; a large amount of ground had been taken, although at a slow pace with great loss of life. British troops and commanders gained valuable experience which would prove crucial in the battles of 1917 such as at Vimy and Arras. The German army was severely bloodied and lost much of its pre-war bedrock which the British had so feared.

CLASH WITH LLOYD GEORGE

ABOVE: At 06.30 hours on 1 July 1916, these men from the 1st Bat. Lancashire Fusiliers were filmed waiting to go ‘over the top’ near Beaumont Hamel.

The high casualty rate sustained in 1916 withstanding, Robertson remained a steadfast supporter of the Western Strategy; this brought him into conflict with Lloyd George who was increasingly skeptical as to the abilities of the men charged with running the war. When Lloyd George became Minister of War, and then Prime Minister in 1916, he sought and gained greater influence on strategy - something Robertson vehemently disagreed with. At the inter-Allied conference in Calais 1917, Lloyd George supported greater AngloFrench cooperation with Nivelle »

ABOVE: Men of 125th Brigade bound for Cape Helles, May 1915, having just boarded Trawler 318. Photo taken from troopship SS Nile. (US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

BELOW: British infantry cross a sunken road in front of the village of Montauban during its capture, 1 July 1916. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

(CRITICAL PAST)

37

REPUTATIONS RIGHT: The Barrow War Memorial being unveiled by Field Marshal Robertson in 1922. The Barrow Park Cenotaph is the main war memorial in Barrowin-Furness, Cumbria. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW: Canadian soldiers returning from the trenches, with 'souvenirs' after the Battle of FlersCourcelette, part of the Somme Offensive. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

38

at the helm, at the expense of much of the BEF’s independence, which undermined British Commanders and increased his own influence. Robertson and Haig argued fiercely against this, and fortuitously were victorious, as Nivelle’s grand strategy almost cost his country the war. Where the French floundered, the British met with success during the ‘bite and hold’ battles of Vimy and Arras during April and May 1917. Lloyd George continued his arguments for a reinvigorated Eastern Strategy, refusing to sanction the Passchendaele Offensive until the last minute. Like the Somme, Passchendaele proved incredibly costly and undermined Robertson’s position. Poor weather conditions, combined with artillery fire, turned the battlefield into a quagmire, exacerbated by poor commanders on the ground. Haig, Robertson and Rawlinson though in disagreement as to whether the offensive should take the form of a step-by-step attack or a breakthrough all agreed the right flank was of the utmost importance. However Gough (GOC 5th Army) simply did not understand this was key, failing not only to see the importance of the flank, but also denying XIV Corps

the opportunity to send an extra division to reinforce it; this greatly contributed to the heavy losses incurred by 5th Army. The battle also suffered from some confused direction seemingly switching from a breakthrough attempt to a step-bystep attack. Yet, despite the incredible cost, Passchendaele resulted in British victory, and was a great setback to the German war effort. Lloyd George was however appalled by the heavy casualties, manipulating the situation to his advantage once again by reviving Eastern Strategy.

Robertson warned that German victory in Russia would lead to reinvigorated efforts against the Western Front, but was ignored. Lloyd George and Henry Wilson’s orchestration of the Supreme War Council (SWC) meant he was becoming marginalised. Robertson understandably opposed the SWC, even though it did mean closer Allied cooperation, and this would be his downfall. Under immense political pressure he was forced to resign as CIGS in February 1918. Henry Wilson took up the post.

REPUTATIONS

LEGACY

Robertson however it would seem would have the last laugh, for as he predicted the Germans mounted an offensive in the spring of 1918 with help from their divisions newly returned from Russia. The Spring Offensive reversed almost all the gains won in 1917, but was stopped by a determined British defence along the Somme. The German Army lost many of their most able and determined troops, and had stretched their supply lines to their absolute limit. Though the offensive was ultimately a costly German defeat, Lloyd George became entangled in a series of debates in which he had to fight for his political life. Robertson made it known Lloyd George had deprived manpower to the Western Front in order to pursue a campaign in the Middle East, and argued he should bear some responsibility for the collapse of the British line. Unfortunately for Robertson, Lloyd George’s political prowess won. Robertson’s demands he be re-appointed CIGS were ignored, and he was instead made Commander of Home Forces in June 1918; He consequently had little part to play in the Hundred Days Offensive in which

the German army finally disintegrated under the pressure of a well-armed, well-led and experienced BEF. In November 1918 the armistice was signed with the German army in tatters and Germany ripping itself apart from mutiny and revolution. Robertson then took command of the British Army of the Rhine. His post-war career was uneventful, but in 1920 he was promoted - much to the chagrin of Lloyd George - to Field Marshal by Winston Churchill. This made him the first and only man to rise from the army’s lowest rank to its highest. He received several other awards and was promoted to Baronet in 1919. Robertson died on 17 February 1933. Robertson’s fractious relationship with the political establishment led to him being a forgotten figure, maligned rather than celebrated; an obituary in the Manchester Guardian was highly critical of him and even questioned his intellect. In the 1919 list of war honours and grants, Robertson received £10,000, a sum dwarfed by that of his peers Haig (£100,000) and French and Allenby (£50,000). This treatment is unfair, as frequently Robertson anticpated German moves and helped devise

alternatives to the all-out offensive on the Western Front. He argued repeatedly against splitting men and resources across multiple fronts, especially when the Central Powers were winding down their efforts elsewhere and when it is considered the Allied follies in the Middle East, dwarfed by the Western Front, necesstated engaging an entire rival empire while using a fraction of the resources. A high riser, Sir William Robertson, a highly capable officer misjudged by time.

ABOVE: Berks cemetery extension in the 1920s. The cemetery, at Ploegsteert south of Ypres, was begun in June 1916 and used continuously until September 1917. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW LEFT: Original graves in the London Rifle Brigade cemetery near Ypres. In his advocation of attritional warfare, Roberston received criticisms over high casulties. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

39

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SHOT DOWN IN FLAMES TH WOR99 . £9

On 12 August 1940, during the Battle of Britain, in an engagement with Dornier Do 17s, Geoffrey Page was shot down into the English Channel, suffering severe burns. He spent much of the next two years in hospitals, undergoing plastic surgery, but recovered sufficiently to pursue an extremely distinguished war and post-war career. This eloquently written and critically acclaimed autobiography tells of his wartime exploits in the air and on the ground. He was a founder member of The Guinea Pig Club – formed by badly burnt aircrew – and this is a fascinating account of the club, of the courage and bravery of ‘The Few’, and of Geoffrey’s later life and achievements, most particularly in the creation of The Battle of Britain memorial. Softback, 256 pages.

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MARTHA'S DEMISE

42

MARTHA'S

DEMISE

A RECENT BOOT FAIR DISCOVERY REVEALED PRIVATELY TAKEN PHOTOGRAPHS DEPICTING THE CRASH OF A HEINKEL 111 BOMBER IN SURREY DURING THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN IN SEPTEMBER 1940. ANDY SAUNDERS RESEARCHES AND UNRAVELS THE BACKGROUND.

LEFT: Two soldiers sit on the severed tail of the Heinkel at Dormansland, Surrey.

P

HOTOGRAPHS DEPICTING shot down German aircraft during the Battle of Britain are, of course, somewhat plentiful and it is probably true to say that researchers and historians have located and identified just about every ‘known’ image from press agency photo archives, museum collections and various other official and unofficial sources that depict downed Luftwaffe hardware. It is always fascinating, therefore, when hitherto ‘unseen’ images emerge – and especially so where photographs of the events depicted are from private

sources or show an incident where no photographic record was previously known to exist. Such is the case involving a photograph album which was recently picked up for just a small sum at a boot fair by Britain at War reader Mark Wenbourne.

TOUCHED BY WAR Luftwaffe bomber unit Kampfgeschwader 26 (KG26) had been operating against targets on the British mainland and over its coastal waters since October 1939 and by September 1940 many of its aircrew were seasoned veterans of such operations. (Designated the ‘Löwen

Geschwader’ (Lion Squadron), the unit had adopted a rather striking lion emblem as its units badge.) For one of the crew of a He 111 of the 3rd Staffel (3./KG26) shot down over Britain on the 11 September, war flights had already been conducted since 19 April against targets in Norway and, subsequently, attacks carried out on Glasgow and along the east coast of the British Isles. Whilst losses were sustained by the unit they were relatively as nothing when compared to the casualties which began to mount during the summer of 1940. For manyin Britain, though, the reality of war was still very much removed from everyday life and

A BATTLE OF BRITAIN PHOTO ALBUM

43

LEFT: Glynn Ward captured the moment that the Heinkel's bomb load exploded on 11 September 1940, just as one of the crew descended by parachute above. The white blob of the 'chute has been added as an inset image by the photographer.

RIGHT: One of the shattered Junkers Jumo 211 engines. BELOW: A game of cricket between the boys of Charterhouse and Eton on 15 June 1940 belies the fact that total war was in full swing. although June 1940 saw the culmination of fighting on the Western Front across Belgium and France, and the eventual Dunkirk evacuation, it was still largely a very remote and slightly unreal affair for the majority of the British population. That Charterhouse schoolboy Glynn Ward found it so is evidenced by his fascinating album which he called ‘1940 – A Year of Photography’. For the most part, his album consists of nicely framed landscape views along with portraits of his fellow pupils and charts the year, month-by-month. The idyll of the owner’s apparent rural life, and the almost cosseted safety of life at one of Britain’s more famous public schools, is well reflected in the studies he has included and range from ‘A Snowy Lane’ through to Gladioli and a composition involving ‘A Broken Tree’.

MARTHA'S DEMISE

44 LEFT: Heinkels of KG26 en-route to Britain. (CHRIS GOSS) LEFT: This KG26 lapel badge stick-pin was recovered from the crash site by a soldier. (PETER D CORNWELL)

With its Leica trademark inside the front cover, and details of the lens used and focal length etc. inscribed at the foot of each photograph, this is the album of a photography enthusiast and one whose life only shows signs of being touched by war as it reaches September. Indeed, and as fighting raged not more than 200 miles away around Dunkirk, Glynn Ward photographed a cricket match between Charterhouse and Eton College on 15 June. Less than one month later, the Battle of Britain had begun and it was inevitable that some of Ward’s studies would reflect at least some aspect of the battle.

PEPPERED IN FACE When the ‘Blitz’ against London began

on 7 September 1940, KG26 were very much in the vanguard of air attacks on the capital and, on that date, the crew of the 3./KG26 He.111, identified by the code letters 1H + ML, W.Nr 3157, took off at 16.35 hours as part of a force of 145 bombers escorted by Messerschmitt 110 fighters. Although they returned safely on this occasion their aircraft was hit twice by anti-aircraft fire, once in the fuselage, and with the pilot peppered in the face by glass splinters. A fist-sized hole was also punched through one wing by

BOTTOM: This KG26 He 111 suffered a mishap on the ground where it appears to have run into a French civilian vehicle. (CHRIS GOSS) shell splinters. Lucky to escape, the same crew were off again on another Londonbound sortie just two days later but were obliged to turn back when their fighter escort failed to materialise on time at the scheduled rendezvous. Nevertheless, and although the pace of war was quickening, the crew of 1H + ML had a day off from operational flying when the head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, arrived at 3./ KG26’s base in Wevelgem, Belgium. There, according to one of the 1H + ML crew, ‘… he promoted a lot of us.’ If the crew of 1H + ML were amongst those promoted, then they either did not live long to enjoy any

A BATTLE OF BRITAIN PHOTO ALBUM

45

elevated rank or else would ‘enjoy’ their new status within the confines of a POW camp. Indeed, the very next day they were back in the air on another London-bound sortie. But it would be a one-way trip.

GIGANTIC PLUME OF SMOKE Already, Glynn Ward had watched the

daily battles unfolding above Charterhouse as he returned for the autumn term and it was during the late afternoon of 11 September that the incessant roar of aircraft overhead was punctuated by an equally incessant rattling of machine-gun fire. To those on the ground, the gunfire seemed to

go on for a long time. And little wonder. Overhead, the formation of 3./KG26 Heinkel 111s, part of a larger formation of some 150 bombers returning from attacking the London docks, and escorted by a similar number of fighters, had been set upon by a mass of defending RAF fighters. The 1H + ML, which had fallen behind and out of formation after once again being hit in the wing by flak, was singled out for attack by no less than nine Spitfire and Hurricane pilots. It was a somewhat unequal contest. The outcome was inevitable. Very rapidly, and as the bomber was raked from stem to stern with bullets,

the so-recently injured pilot, Oblt Wolf Abendhausen, with his engines failing, could no longer hold the aircraft aloft. Before he could order his crew to bale-out, however, three of them had been killed in the relentless fighter attacks. Only he and Uffz Hans Hauswald, the radio operator, could escape by parachute and drifted down above Lingfield in Surrey as their aircraft plummeted earthwards to crash at Hoopers Farm in Eden Road, Dormansland. Watching events unfold, Glynn Ward rushed for his trusty Leica and managed to snap the scene as a gigantic plume of smoke rose from the

TOP LEFT: A KG26 Heinkel 111 is readied for another sortie. (CHRIS GOSS)

TOP RIGHT: Aircrew of KG26 are visited by Herman Goring at Wevelgem on 10 September 1940. (CHRIS GOSS) LEFT: A crew member views the bullet-holed fuselage of a KG26 He 111 after rurning from a raid over Britain. (CHRIS GOSS)

MARTHA'S DEMISE

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RIGHT: Glynn Ward's 1940 photo selection ended with a shot of boys around a bomb crater at Founder's Court, Charterhouse School, November 1940. BELOW: Aircrew of KG26 are briefed prior to a sortie. (CHRIS GOSS) crash scene when the Heinkel exploded on impact. Seemingly, at least some of the bomb load was still aboard. As a white speck in the top corner of the photograph frame, Glynn also captured the descending parachute of Abendhausen or Hauswald. Already, of course, he had contravened the Control of Photography Order which prohibited the photographing of subjects of military interest. But he was not going to let that stop him photographing something that was a tad more dramatic than wild flowers and cricket matches!

Rushing to Hoopers Farm, Ward found a scene of utter devastation and what was left of the bomber was scattered far and wide, the engines shattered and broken apart and the now skeletal tail section blasted into a nearby coppice. Surreptitiously, but still taking care to properly frame his subject and to note exposure, shutter speeds and lens details, Glynn shot a series of images of the scene. Through his flagrant disregard for the illegality of taking such pictures, he left us with a fascinating photographic record of a Battle of Britain incident for which, hitherto, no such record had been seen.

THE END OF 'MARTHA' Having being damaged over the target

and slowed down, the aircraft was badly hit by RAF fighters which had struck the bomber in one engine causing it to lose coolant, overheat and then stop. Shortly afterwards, the other engine was hit and stopped and ‘Martha’s’ fate was sealed. Picking amongst the debris, RAF investigators noted that wreckage was spread over a wide area. Little of any value could be determined from what was left although the Junkers Jumo 211 engines, though shattered, were found to have been built on 23 October 1939 and 3 June 1940 respectively. In what was left of the fuselage were the bodies of Uffz Henry Westphalen (Observer), Gefr Fritz Zähle (Flight Engineer) and Uff Bruno Herms (Air Gunner). From one of them was retrieved a notebook in which the brief details of 1H + ML and its unlucky crew had been recorded. On the leading edge of one wing, remarked an RAF Intelligence Officer, was inscribed a large yellow ‘M’ – the individual code letter for the aircraft represented in the fuselage marking:- 1H + ML. Or, in other words, ‘M for Martha’. It was but a briefly existing monument to ‘Martha’s’ crew, surviving only until the mangled wreckage was taken away as scrap. Fortunately, a more enduring record of the passing of aircraft and crew have been preserved through the saving of Glynn Ward’s cheaply disposed of but invaluable 1940 photographic record.

Wartime Events

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FIRST WORLD WAR DIARY MUD, BLOOD, Gas, and Shells. After a heavy crescendo of bombardment along a large section of the Western Front, the detonation of the Lochnagar Mine at 07:28, in La Boisselle signals the start of a tremendous campaign. Fittingly, the explosion was vast in scale, heard over the continuous rumble of gunfire, and ripples of sound from Lochnagar were said to be heard from London. However, it would be the devastating loss of life on the First Day of the Somme which reverberated the most.

WAR AT SEA

9 July: The German submarine merchant Deutschland arrives at Baltimore, Maryland, from Bremen. The Deutschland and her sisters were intended as blockade runners, and, unarmed, were considered to be merchantmen by the United States. She could carry 700 tons of cargo. Deutschland arrived in America carrying $1.5m of rare dyes, gems, and medicines, and returned to Germany with nickel, tin, and rubber valued at $17.5m. The activities of German commercial submarines cause concern in France and Britain.

WESTERN FRONT

1 July: Lasting 141 days, until 18 November, the Battle of Somme would eventually result in a victory, albeit it pyrrhic, for the British, French, and Empire troops involved. The largest battle of the Great War was a move to further divide German troops after the Chantilly Conference but French element of the offensive was scaled down due to the ongoing battle at Verdun. The Somme would claim more than a million casualties by its conclusion, with nearly half being German. The opening of the great battle involved five French and 13 British divisions from three armies across a long front. In some areas, the offensive was very successful, the French enjoying a victory in the South and the British making substantial gains in the Albert and Maricourt sectors. Fricourt was also taken. However, the day is remembered for events in the northern area of battle, where the British attacks were brutally repulsed. Tragically, on the bloodiest day in British military history, 57,470 soldiers became casualties on the first day, with 19,240 killed. 1 July: The two week Battle of Albert opens the Battle of the Somme and is where both the bulk of success and tragic loss of life takes place. The French 6th Army and British 4th Army win a considerable victory on the First Day, but around Gommecourt the British attack was an utter disaster, with Field Marshal Haig even suspending the attack there and opting to concentrate on furthering the successes in the southern battle area. The battle is known for the air dominance established by Anglo-French air components, as well as the effective artillery observation which air superiority facilitated. 14 July: British 4th Army attacked German positions with the aim of capturing Bazentin le Petit, Bazentin le Grand and Longueval, the latter adjacent to Delville Wood. The subsequent Battle of Bazentin Ridge was made by four divisions along 6,000 yards of front before dawn and after a hurricane bombardment. This bombardment was followed by a creeping barrage and the result was success, with infantry capturing most of their objectives. However, the attack was not followed up due to a breakdown in communications and consistent and heavy casualties. 15 July: An attempt to secure the British right, the seven week long Battle of Delville Wood was a costly but valuable success for the British. The battle is remembered as the Western Front debut for the 1st South African Infantry Brigade (with a Southern Rhodesian component) and their determined and bitter struggle to hold the wood, and in doing so they sustained more than 2,500 casualties (of approximately 30,000 total British). German losses are largely unknown, as the records were destroyed by bombing in the Second World War. 19 July: The combat debut on the Western Front of the Australian Imperial Force ends in defeat at the Battle of Fromelles. The two day battle has been described as the ‘worst 24 hours in Australia’s entire history’. The ill-conceived attack underestimated the German defences and the repulsed attackers were outnumbered by the Germans 2:1. Around 7,000 Australian and British casualties are sustained, compared to 2,000 German.

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the

JULY 1916 WORLD MAP HOME FRONT

6 July: David Lloyd George succeeds Lord Kitchener as Secretary of State for War. 11 July: A 35-year-old woman, Mary Slaughter, is killed when a German U-Boat, believed to be SM UB-39, surfaces yards from Seaham harbour entrance and shells Seaham village and colliery, near Durham.

WAR AT SEA

27 July: Captain Charles Fryatt is executed by order of a German court-martial in Belgium, despite the fact he was a civilian. He had attempted the ram U-33 on 3 March 1915 with his ship, the SS Brussels, and was captured on 25 June 1916. Damned by the inscription on his gold watch, a reward for trying to ram U-33, Fryatt was tried as a Franc-tireur, found guilty, and executed, causing uproar in Britain, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States.

EASTERN FRONT

2 July: Another large Russian offensive, centred on the battle of Baranovichi, is launched by General Alexei Evert. Over the course of the month, four large attacks on German positions were repulsed. Russia committed more than 400,000 men to the offensive and outnumbered the Germans 6:1, but were only able to seize parts of the first German defensive line, Russia lost 80,000 killed, wounded, and missing, while the defenders sustained some 13,000 casualties.

WAR AT SEA

8 July: The Russian hospital ship HS Vpered is torpedoed and sunk by German U-Boat U-38 while traversing the Black Sea.

SALONIKA

25 July: The newly-reconstituted Serbian army arrives at Salonika, ready to bolster the international forces already there. 30 July: Russian troops, travelling from France, also land at Salonika and join the Allied force.

WESTERN FRONT

23 July: The Battle of Pozières Ridge opens, this combined action by British and Australian troops was partly intended to divert the German’s attention away from the wider Battles of the Somme. The two week engagement is remembered primarily as an Australian event, and they sustained some 23,000 casualties, as many in one battle as in the entire Gallipoli campaign. The high casualties became a key argument in the conscription debate at home. The battle was another Allied success, and placed them in a strong position to attack Thiepval from the rear.

MIDDLE EAST

19 July: A large Otto-German force leaves Oghratina and aims to strike the Suez Canal by establishing artillery positions near Romani and shelling shipping. 27 July: Yenbo, a port city serving Medina, surrenders to Arab forces. By September, Rabegh and Qunfida, other important Red Sea ports, fall. A number of defecting Ottoman troops, and French Muslim soldiers are then able to join the Arab Revolt, assisting the Royal Navy and Anglo-Egyptian troops already there. www.britainatwar.com 49

V

VALOUR AT THE THIRD ATTEMPT Low-Level Bomber Command: 1941

Twice-aborted amid rancorous recriminations, Operation Wreckage was one of the most audacious daylight bombing missions of the Second World War and paved the way to a ‘bloody summer’ of low-level raids 75 years ago. Steve Snelling charts the story of the costly but heroic attack on Bremen.

BELOW: The Bremen raid signalled the start of a ‘bloody summer’ of daring daylight attacks by 2 Group’s Blenheim squadrons which Churchill compared to the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’.

T

HE FOG rose up like a shroud to swallow the formation of low-flying bombers. But, in keeping with their orders, the 15 Blenheim bombers pressed on blindly above an invisible North Sea. Leading the way, Wing Commander Hughie Edwards soon lost sight of all but his nearest ‘wing men’. And even those he could ‘barely see’ through the murk. Then, after almost an hour’s flying on instruments alone, the sky suddenly

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cleared to reveal the outline of the German coast. Edwards searched in vain for the rest of his attack force. But to his ‘astonishment’ all he could see were the two aircraft that had stayed with him the whole way from Swanton Morley. It was a depressing moment. Only a few hours’ earlier, he had briefed his crews in characteristically forthright fashion, impressing upon them the importance of getting through to the target. The question now was whether to press on regardless in what could only

alo

be a futile gesture or to abort in the hope of trying again. Edwards put off the decision as long as he dared. ‘We circled around for five minutes,’ he wrote, ‘then, because it was intended to be a raid… of at least full squadron strength, I sadly decided to return to base.’ For the second time in three days the RAF’s attempt to carry out a lowlevel strike against the German port of Bremen had been thwarted by bad luck and dodgy navigation. It was the early morning of 30 June 1941 and a frustrated Edwards

T h ir d lour Attempt at the

headed back to face the music from Air Officer Commanding 2 Group, Air Vice-Marshal Donald Stevenson, a man hardly noted for his forgiving nature.

‘PRIMARY OBJECTIVE’

Code-named Operation Wreckage, the attack on Bremen represented the first in a series of hazardous and politically-motivated bombing raids promised by Churchill in the wake of Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union launched eight days’ earlier.

In a pledge of solidarity to his new ally, the Prime Minister declared: ‘We shall bomb Germany by day as well as by night in ever-increasing measure, casting upon them, month by month, a heavier discharge of bombs.’ It was a signal for an intensive and costly daylight bombing campaign waged by the Blenheim crews of 2 Group against some of the most heavily defended targets in western Europe - with Bremen first on the list of targets.

Raiding the north German port was a daunting prospect. It meant a near 1,000-mile round trip and involved having to fly between the ‘fortress’ of Heligoland and a necklace of islands bristling with fighter bases, radar stations and anti-aircraft batteries. Having negotiated these, aircrews faced a 60-mile journey over enemy territory culminating in a bombing run through a ring of heavy anti-aircraft guns and light flak batteries and a veritable forest of barrage balloons. 

BACKGROUND: Wing Commander Hughie Idwal Edwards.

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VALOUR AT THE THIRD ATTEMPT Low-Level Bomber Command: 1941

‘A TOUGH ONE’

ABOVE: Edwards gained his first gallantry award during hazardous anti-shipping operations carried out by the Blenheims of 2 Group. BELOW: Aviation artist Frank Wootton’s evocative painting shows Hughie Edwards’ Bremen lead aircraft, GB-D 6028, as part of the appeal to restore a Blenheim Mark IV to flying condition in the 1980s.

Bremen marked the deepest penetration of the Reich attempted by the lightly armed bombers of 2 Group and far and away their most challenging operation of the war thus far. Designed as a hit and run raid, without the protection of fighters, the objectives were two-fold: to strike a sudden and unexpected blow against a ‘valuable military target’ and to trigger a round-the-clock aerial offensive that would divert much-needed resources away from the Eastern Front. Instructions issued on 27 June emphasised the importance of

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‘hitting the enemy hard while he has his hands full… with the object of causing him to divide his air forces’. To that end the 18 crews committed to a ‘roof-top attack in broad daylight’ on one of Germany’s key strategic ports were left in no doubt about their priorities. Even without cloud cover, the attack was ‘not to be abandoned’. The orders stated: ‘Bremen is the primary objective, and must be attacked’ and ‘The attacking aircraft are NOT to deviate from this objective…’

Operation Wreckage was scheduled for 28 June under the direction of Wing Commander Laurence Petley of 107 Squadron. His attacking force composed nine Blenheims from his own squadron, based at Great Massingham, and nine from Hughie Edwards’ 105 Squadron, a few miles away at Swanton Morley. News of the target had come as a shock even to crews well-versed in near suicidal sorties against enemy shipping and as ‘live bait’ for fighter sweeps across the Channel. No attempt was made to disguise the hazards of a mission that would test to the limit the endurance of the aircraft as well as the courage of the crews. Having been briefed on the strike’s significance, the ‘105’ crews were addressed by Edwards. Not much given to pulling his punches, he bluntly told them it was going to be ‘a tough one’ and that they would need ‘a lot of luck if they were all to get back in one piece’. Squadron Leader Anthony Scott spent the night before the raid writing a ‘goodbye’ letter to his family and such was the anxiety felt by some that the unit adjutant, Flight Lieutenant George Lovett-Campbell, felt moved to join one of the crews as an unauthorised passenger. ‘I’ll come with you,’ he said and, in an attempt to calm fears, added: ‘nothing will happen to us.’

ABOVE: Squadron Leader Anthony Scott out-lived the Bremen raid by just three days. His Blenheim was shot down during an attack on enemy shipping off The Hague on July 7, 1941. There were no survivors.

suffered a badly injured right leg that left him with a pronounced limp and a battle for fitness that would delay his entry into the war by 17 months. Resuming flying duties only in February 1941, he was promoted to command 105 Squadron in May and seemed determined to make up for lost time. A succession of perilous low-level shipping strikes was climaxed on 15 June by a daring attack on a 4,000-ton coaster off The Hague. 

As it was, the first attempt proved a damp squib. Led part of the way by Flying Officer Bill Edrich, the Middlesex and England cricketer, the formation headed across the North Sea in near perfect conditions with almost total cloud cover, a sea mist, some light rain and the slightest of breezes. Though three aircraft were forced to abort with mechanical troubles, the remainder emerged intact into a clear sky near the German coast only to come under fire from an enemy convoy spread out beneath them. No damage was done, but the element of surprise had gone. Under the impression that the attack was supposed to take the enemy unawares, Petley abandoned the mission. The crews returned without loss,

ABOVE: 105 Squadron with a hayrick for a backdrop at Swanton Morley shortly after Operation Wreckage in July 1941. BELOW: Wing Commander Hughie Idwal Edwards.

only for Petley to be sacked as raid leader. With Edwards installed as his replacement, the attack was hastily re-scheduled for two days later, with aircraft from Watton-based 21 Squadron taking the places of those from 107 Squadron.

‘NO WAY - IT’S MINE’

Forceful by nature, and highly combative, Hughie Edwards was the archetypal ‘press on’ leader. A 26-yearold Western Australian of Welsh stock, he was a pre-war RAF recruit whose combat experience had been limited by a near-fatal crash. Forced to bale-out from a crashing aircraft, he was very nearly dragged to his death when his parachute snagged the plane’s radio mast. As it was, he www.britainatwar.com 53

VALOUR AT THE THIRD ATTEMPT Low-Level Bomber Command: 1941

But neither Sinclair’s exhortation nor Edwards’ fighting spirit could counter the forces of nature. The sea fog which saw his formation scattered across the North Sea left the Australian with little option but to abort the mission for a second time. Unlike the first attempt, the raid was not a complete failure. Emerging alone from the mist over the East Frisian Islands, Squadron Leader Scott attacked Terschelling, bombing a radio station, a harbour jetty and a merchant ship which he claimed destroyed. Two other ‘105’ Blenheims found other targets of opportunity and one ‘107’ crew had trumped them all by making a solo strike on Bremen. Attacking from 50 feet in poor visibility, Flight Lieutenant Howard Waples bombed a factory building and timber-yard before being chased

ABOVE: Sergeant Ron Scott, second from the right, with his crew members Sgt Stuart Bastin, wireless operator/ air gunner, left, and Sgt Walter Healy, observer, right, together with another 105 Squadron pilot Sgt Arthur Piers. Scott’s crew were killed during an antishipping strike from Malta on August 26, 1941.

Braving a hail of defensive fire, he swept over the ship at mast-height, machine-gunning the decks before releasing his bombs. The result was a severely damaged coaster and a muchenhanced reputation, not to mention a DFC gazetted on the day following the second failed attempt to carry out Operation Wreckage. Hours earlier, the crews of 21 Squadron heard a pep talk by Group Captain Laurence Sinclair GC DSO. ‘Gentlemen’ he began, ‘tonight, and at this very moment, we are bombing Bremen. We want to prove to the Germans we can bomb them 24 hours a day, and you, gentlemen, will attack in daylight soon after the heavies have left. No excuse will be tolerated. You must get to the target.’

RIGHT: The Bremen raid featured on the front and back cover of The Victor comic on August 4, 1962

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into cloud by a couple of Me109s. Three more fighters shot pieces off his Blenheim on the way back, but Waples held on for a crash-landing at Marham. Brave effort though it was, it could not deflect the ire of 2 Group’s intemperate commander. While accounts vary, it seems clear that Edwards came within an ace of suffering the same fate as Petley. The plain-speaking Australian, however, refused to go quietly. When it was suggested he might stand down for the third attempt in favour of the commanding officer of 21 Squadron, Edwards responded in what he called ‘typical Australian’ fashion with a firm: ‘No way - it’s mine!’

‘EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF’

Planning for the third attempt began immediately. Originally scheduled for 2 July, the troubled Operation Wreckage was twice postponed due to bad weather, before being set for 4 July. Once again, the composition of the bomber force was changed. Of the 15 Blenheims slated for the mission, nine were from Edwards’ 105 Squadron, with six of the crews having taking part in the previous two efforts. The remaining six aircraft came from Wing Commander Petley’s 107 Squadron, which had lost two aircraft flying a diversionary op for the second attempt. Following the past failures, and a fraught few days spent waiting for the ‘green light’, Edwards kept his briefing short for what would be his 36th operational sortie. ‘The only instruction I gave were the tactics of the route, and what we were to do at Bremen’ he later recalled. ‘We would fly in fairly close formation to the outskirts of Bremen, then spread out in line-abreast with adequate spacing in order not to present a compact target for the flak gunners, and to give Bremen as much cover damage as possible. Thereafter, it was to be every man for himself for those fortunate enough to get away from the target.’ In line with the original orders, the attack was to be ‘concentrated in time’, with a maximum of 10 minutes between the arrival of the first aircraft over the target and the departure of the last, and the aiming point being the built up area between the main railway station and the docks. At 0521 on 4 July the waiting and the talking ended at Swanton Morley as nine Blenheims led by Edwards rushed

across the grass and roared skywards at the start of their 2½-hour flight to Bremen, some 475 miles away. By the standards of later raids, their payloads were modest: each aircraft carried just four 250lb bombs and 25 incendiaries. The damage inflicted would be more psychological than physical. Flying in three-aircraft ‘vic’ formation they joined up with Petley’s six aircraft just off Cromer before Edwards took them down to 50 feet and headed east, straight into the rising sun. So far so good, but it was not long before the bad luck which had dogged the operation returned. One after another, three of Petley’s Blenheims turned about and headed home: the first due to ‘unsynchronised’ guns, the second because of pilot sickness and the third due to mechanical troubles which left it lagging behind. 

ABOVE: Hughie Edwards, second left, in informal pose with fellow 105 Squadron officers at Swanton Morley in July 1941.

ABOVE: 107 Squadron at Great Massingham in June 1941. Among those featured are: Wing Commander Laurence Petley, fourth from left seated, who led the first attempt on Bremen, was sacked as leader of the second and was killed on the third attempt; Flight Lieutenant F Wellburn, sole survivor of the crews from the four aircraft lost on the mission, seated far right, and Pilot Officer Bill Edrich, the England cricketer, who took part in the first aborted effort, far right back row. RIGHT: A remarkable shot of Hughie Edwards’ Blenheim GB-D 6028 during the third and final attempt to carry out Operation Wreckage on July 4, 1941.

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VALOUR AT THE THIRD ATTEMPT Low-Level Bomber Command: 1941 RIGHT: War artist Reginald Mount’s 1943 version of the low-level Blenheim raid on Bremen with Hughie Edwards leading the way. BELOW: A narrow escape! Hughie Edwards' Blenheim displaying some of the flak damage suffered during the Bremen raid, including the shell strike that wounded Gerry Quinn in the gun turret.

The 12 remaining aircraft pushed on, but as they neared the German coast they were spotted four times in quick succession, the last by three patrol ships some three miles north of Wangerooge. By then, there could be little doubt as to their destination. However this time there would be no turning round. With all hope of surprise gone, Edwards simply pressed on for Bremen, just 60 miles away. Dropping to around 30 feet, the formation swept across a patchwork of fields freckled with cattle. ‘People working in the fields stopped to wave to us’ recalled Edwards. The alerted defences, however, not likely to be so easily fooled. Near Heerstedt, the three following ‘Vics’ moved up level with Edwards’ leading three, Petley’s depleted force on the left and the 105 crews on the right, spread across about 1¼ miles of air space. A strangely silent army camp flashed beneath their wingtips as they roared towards Bremen. Passing above, below and sometimes through a cordon of telephone and high-tension cables, they were confronted by scores

RIGHT: A German officer poses alongside the remains of a 105 Squadron Blenheim. It is almost certainly the aircraft piloted by Flying Officer Michael Lambert (GB-M 7486) which was last seen on fire and heading inland.

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of balloons, billowing 500 feet above the city, and a veritable arsenal of antiaircraft weaponry. Now, as Edwards had warned, it became a question of every man for himself.

‘FLAK WAS TERRIFIC’

As the Blenheims jinked between a forest of lethal balloon cables, they were met by a storm of fire from guns sited around the railway station, in factory yards, perched on rooftops and in the dockyards. The heaviest and most intense barrage came from batteries of 105mm and 88mm guns near Burger Park.

Within what seemed like seconds, the 12 aircraft became 10 as two of the 107 Squadron Blenheims, including Petley’s, were blasted out of the sky. Next to go was a ‘105’ Blenheim piloted by 20-year-old Sergeant William Mackillop. Set ablaze by a direct hit in the fuel tank, Mackillop held on long enough to drop two bombs before ploughing into a factory. By then, another ‘105’ aircraft was streaming flames. Flying Officer Michael Lambert’s Blenheim sheared off and headed inland, but moments later crashed into a street and exploded, killing everyone on board. In the space of a few devastating minutes Edwards’ force had been reduced by a third, but he was too busy to notice. ‘The flak was terrific and frightening’ he wrote. ‘It was bursting

all around me for 10 minutes… at around 50-100 feet.’ Nearly all the remaining eight aircraft were hit, most of them repeatedly. Edwards’ aircraft was hit by a shell that burst in the rear cockpit, seriously wounding wireless operator/ air gunner Sergeant Gerry Quinn in the knee. ‘There was a distinct smell of cordite in the air’ wrote Edwards. In return, the surviving Blenheims unleashed their own barrage as they raced low over the target area, bombing and machinegunning whatever and whoever lay in their path. Among the recorded bomb strikes were hits on a large factory, a timber yard, the nearby railway yards and the docks which Edwards’ left wreathed in smoke.

Breaking away in all directions, two of the aircraft disposed of their last remaining bombs on railway facilities and an airfield lined with Junkers 88s three miles south of the city. Edwards flew as low as possible over the heart of Bremen before banking left to circle the city, at which point he spotted a stationary train with about 20-30 carriages loaded with logs and brimming with guns which promptly opened up on him. He didn’t hesitate. Roaring in to the attack, he later remarked: ‘I had great pleasure in using up the ammunition from my one front gun which silenced the opposition.’ Heading away towards Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven, Edwards made for the cover of some clouds, but finding it too patchy to be of any assistance he dived down to sea level and made his way back to base, alone. 

ABOVE: The wreckage of one of the two 107 Squadron aircraft lost on the raid. LEFT: The Bremen raid entry in 105 Squadron’s Operations Record Book. A note three days earlier mentions Wing Commander Edwards’ award of the DFC.

LEFT: Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse: AOC Bomber Command hailed the Bremen raid as ‘an outstanding example of dash and initiative’.

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VALOUR AT THE THIRD ATTEMPT Low-Level Bomber Command: 1941 BELOW: In a continuation of the daylight offensive ushered in by the Bremen raid, 54 Blenheims from 2 Group raided the power station at Knapsack near Cologne and a nearby generating plant on August 12, 1941. These dramatic pictures show the assault on Knapsack. The Cologne operation was the biggest daylight bombing attack of the war so far and resulted in the loss of 12 aircraft. RIGHT: Hughie Edwards leaving Buckingham Palace after his VC investiture with his wife Pat and his mother in law.

‘THEM OR US’

All eight bombers made it safely home, the sole-surviving Blenheim of the ‘107’ triumverate touching down at Great Massingham at 1015, followed 16 minutes later by the first of the ‘105’ contingent at Swanton Morley. Most, bearing evidence of the fierce opposition, were peppered with flak holes: one being forced to land without brakes and another, its hydraulics shot up and two wounded on board, ploughing along the grass on her belly. Edwards was the last home at 1112, trailing a length of telegraph wire. As ground crew moved in to hoist the injured Quinn out of his turret an inspection of the aircraft revealed how close to disaster they had come. As well as a smashed radio rack, a large chunk of the port wing had been shot away and an aileron badly damaged. Edwards estimated they had sustained 10-20 direct hits, most of them on the lower side of the fuselage between the wing and the tail-plane. In his

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logbook, he scribbled: ‘Low level attack BREMEN. Formation 12 a/c – leader. Intense barrage.’ At the third time of asking, Operation Wreckage had been accomplished, but at a heavy cost. A third of the attacking force had been shot down and of the four crews lost, only one man, ‘107’ pilot Flight Lieutenant F Wellburn, survived as POW. Among the 12 dead was Irish-born Warrant Office Sam Magee, 107 Squadron’s armaments officer. He had persuaded his commanding officer to let him fly with Wellburn as a spare machine-gunner armed with a Vickers gas-operated gun which he planned to fire through the wireless operator’s escape hatch before dropping a handheld 40lb anti-

personnel bomb over the target. Despite the losses, the raid was hailed a resounding success, as evidenced in the announcement just 18 days later of the award of the Victoria Cross to Hughie Idwal Edwards for ‘the highest possible standard of gallantry and determination’. There were also awards of a DFC and a Bar to the DFM for Edwards’ navigator Pilot Officer Ramsay and wounded wireless operator/ gunner Gerry Quinn and DFMs for another ‘105’ crew: Sergeants Bill Jackson, James Purves and William Williams. Air Marshal Sir Richard Peirse, AOC Bomber Command, described the raid as ‘an outstanding example of dash and initiative’ and the man who

BELOW: The Rotterdam harbour raid carried out by 35 Blenheims in two waves on July 16, 1941 was a follow-up to the Bremen raid. A total of 22 ships, as well as port installations, were damaged in the attack at a cost of four aircraft.

came close to removing Edwards from leadership of the operation went even further. Air Vice Marshal Stevenson insisted that the raid, ‘so gallantly carried out, deep into Germany, without the support of fighters, will always rank high in the history of the Royal Air Force’. What Peirse regarded as ‘a great contribution to the day offensive’ paved the way to further high-profile and hazardous low-level raids against Rotterdam harbour (16 July), Cologne’s Knapsack power station (12 August) and the submarine pens at Heligoland (26 August). Bremen signalled the start of a ‘bloody summer’ for 2 Group’s Blenheim crews. To Winston Churchill their courage and sacrifice were ‘beyond all praise’. He declared: ‘The charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava is eclipsed in

brightness by these almost daily deeds of fame.’ Edwards, who would shortly become the first airman in the Second World War to complete the ‘full set’ of gallantry awards with a DSO to add to the VC and DFC earned in the space of 19 days, saw it all rather differently. Recalling the risks faced and the losses suffered over Bremen, he insisted it was simply a case of having to ‘plough on and hope for the best’. He added: ‘I always tried to be philosophical about the danger. I knew it was there - it was them or us - and I was determined to do my damnedest to see it would not be us.’ 

MIDDLE LEFT: Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal’s support for Edwards’ VC recommendation. ABOVE: Bombs rain down on the Knapsack power station. LEFT: after a spell as an instructor, Hughie Edwards, left, returned to operations in 1942, flying Mosquitos.

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ART OF PERSUASION The Squander Bug is Born

sinking survivor

persuades the public to save During the 1940s, multi-talented artist and designer Phillip Boydell created a cartoon character that changed attitudes and the public’s spending habits. Phil Jarman looks at how a simple design gained international recognition. MAIN PICTURE: The Squander Bug became the hate target for the consumer on the home front in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and across the United States. RIGHT: Contrasting illustration styles within one poster, the devilish Squander Bug character trying to tempt a worker to waste his salary.

H

AVING SURVIVED the freezing waters off Murmansk during the First World War, Phillip Boydell went on to create one of the most memorable images used widely across advertising campaigns in the 1940s. Born in Lancashire at the end of the Victorian era, Boydell had his studies at the Manchester School of Art interrupted by his enlistment into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1914. On active service at sea throughout the conflict, Boydell was fortunate to live to tell the tale after his ship was sunk off the coast of Russia during the winter months towards the latter stages of the war. Returning to his studies in 1919 at the Royal College of Art in London, and entering the world of academia as a teacher, Boydell moved into the commercial sector as Art Director for Rowntrees during the mid 1920s. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Boydell was employed by the National Savings Committee and gainfully used his skills as an artist and illustrator to create one of the most striking cartoon images of the era. His Squander Bug gained an international reputation, being adapted for similar campaigns in Australia and New Zealand, and even being copied by children’s author Dr Seuss in support of the War Savings campaigns across the United States.

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Starting out as a Money Grub, the forked-tailed creature, adorned with a covering of swastikas, was reproduced in a variety of situations. Many adaptations showed the Squander Bug trying to tempt shoppers and consumers to waste their money on meaningless purchases. A number of different artists incorporated the character into a variety of graphic situations and comic strips, all retaining the qualities of Boydell’s original drawings and illustrations. Due to the flexibility of the design, the Squander Bug was placed in situations that enabled different target markets to be persuaded to consider their spending and saving habits. This was achieved

through effective placement within publications and newspapers, or else through targeted positioning of poster sites for the larger reproductions. The comic style of the design, popularised in the animated films of the time, in American journals and evident in cartoon strips in the British press, had a lasting impact on the Home Front. The National Savings Committee had witnessed large sums of money being paid out for a few goods that were available, instead of wage earners contributing to the war effort by purchasing Savings Certificates. The Squander Bug became the visual enemy to the man and woman in the street and saw a massive increase in the investment of savings rather than frivolous purchasing during the war. Following the end of hostilities, Boydell went on to collaborate with Abram Games and produced the typographic style for the branding of the Festival of Britain in 1951. His innovative display typeface began a trend during the post-war years and was widely used on packaging, advertising, within publications and a variety of publicity material. During a career spanning over four decades, the multi-faceted Boydell also captured his thoughts on his craft in his book ‘The Artist in Advertising’ and later revisiting his original affection for traditional fine art by exhibiting his landscape paintings at several galleries including the Royal Academy.

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SOMME 1916 CENTENARY SPECIAL On its centenary, historians Robin Schäfer and Peter Doyle present a perspective from both British and German points of view surrounding the dramatic events at the Battle of the Somme 100 years ago this month.

- The Background - The Battle - Strategy and Tactics

- Words of The Men Who Fought - The Aftermath and Cost - Maps and Images www.britainatwar.com 63

B A C K G R O U N D T O B AT T L E ▏G E R M O F A N I D E A

THE GERM OF

AN IDEA

Exactly 100 years ago, Britain and her allies were preparing for the momentous events that began to unfold on 1 July 1916. Here, we take a look at the lead-up to the Battle of the Somme.

I

BELOW: German Stormtroopers are brought forward in lorries, 1916.

N 1915, the Allies had flirted with the possibility that other fronts might offer possibilities, but the failure of the Gallipoli landings, and the stalemate in Salonika that followed, suggested otherwise. Though there was a split in the British Cabinet between the ‘Westerners’ committed to France and the ‘Easterners’ seeking salvation elsewhere, there was no doubt in the mind of General Sir Douglas Haig, Commander-

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in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) that the main event was to be fought in France and Belgium against their most determined enemy. In the wake of the Battle of Loos, fought in September 1915 with limited success, General Sir Douglas Haig had replaced Sir John French as Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force. Field Marshal Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, wrote to Haig with his instructions in December 1915.

"The defeat of the enemy by the combined Allied Armies must always be regarded as the primary object for which the British troops were originally sent to France, and to achieve that end the closest co-operation of French and British as a united Army must be the governing policy." Field Marshal Lord Kitchener 28 December 1915.

1 9 1 6 - 2 0 1 6 ▏B AT T L E O F T H E S O M M E LEFT: A British 12-inch Howitzer goes into action on the Somme, 1916.

This memorandum emphasised the plan that had been drawn up at the Second Allied Military Conference held at Chantilly on 6 December; that ‘the Allied armies ought to resume the general offensive on the Franco-British, Italian and Russian fronts as soon as they were in a state to do so’. It was to Flanders – not Artois and Picardy – that Haig originally looked for his offensive. For Haig, the main area for British offensive action was always going to be this flat-lying landscape sandwiched between the Belgian coast and the uplands that would eventually form the Somme battlefield. There were hopes of a breakthrough and the possibility of ‘rolling up the German line’. But, if nothing else, it would enable Haig to safeguard the flanks of the British Expeditionary Force with a chance to remove the threat to Britain of U-boat bases on the Channel Coast. Though initially agreeing to this, the French Commander General Sir Joseph Joffre was more concerned that a Franco– British offensive should be carried out at the point where there would be greatest impact. Joffre agreed that a British offensive could be opened in the summer – so long as there was a joint Franco-British attack astride the River Somme in the Spring – thereby wearing down the German resources and ability to withstand the main summer assault. For the British, the

risk of two offensives was too great. Instead, a single battle was planned for early July. So on 14 February 1916, the two commanders decided the location of the largest Anglo-French offensive yet. It would be fought in the rolling hills of Picardy, astride the River Somme, at the junction between the armies of the two nations. For the British, in 1916 the inadequacies of the 1915 offensives would start to be ironed out. These offensives, fought in French Flanders as part of the French plan of simultaneous

attacks in Artois and the Champagne and intended to stove in the German line which jutted out in a huge arcing salient towards the town of Noyon, were poorly served by war materiel. The British were unable to produce shells in sufficient quantities to serve the guns, and the offensives at Neuve Chappelle (10–13 March), Aubers Ridge and Festubert (May 1915) and Loos (September), all suffered in consequence. Since ammunition supply had been  taken under the control of the

BELOW: A German 77mm field cannon.

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B A C K G R O U N D T O B AT T L E ▏G E R M O F A N I D E A By the autumn of 1915, the first of the Kitchener Divisions were deployed, in Gallipoli, in Egypt and at Loos. Though there were problems, these deployments showed what could be done, and with the great mass of volunteer soldiers becoming available for 1916, the British Commander in Chief General Sir Douglas Haig was confident that sufficient weight could be brought to bear on the German lines to break through.

THE COMING OF VERDUN

ABOVE: An aerial photograph of Guillemont, a village on the Somme, shot on 16 May 1916 as the huge offensive was being planned. BELOW: Men of the East Yorkshire Regiment, the ‘Hull Pals’, march towards their trenches on the Somme in 1916.

Ministry of Munitions, with Lloyd George at its head, there was a newlyfound optimism. The British Press reported the change with some relief. ‘Shells and yet more shells. When Mr Lloyd George magnetised the House of Commons with his amazing statistics of our increased production of munitions a sigh of relief went up from these islands,’ The Dundee Courier reported on 17 May 1915, just days after the failure of Aubers Ridge. It would take some months for this to be fully realised. There was another factor. While the mass of the British armies in 1915 were

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drawn from regular and territorial battalions, men who had volunteered before the war and who, for the regulars at least, had been fully trained, any new offensive could call upon ‘Kitchener’s Army’. Raised in response to Lord Kitchener’s ‘Call to Arms’ in 1914, the intention had been to create a mass army that could compete with the vast numbers of men in the German forces. Kitchener knew the war would be long and hard, and that his new army would be essential. But training and equipping citizens from scratch, to compete with the most advanced army in the world, would be a challenge.

But if the Allies hoped for an action that would wear down their enemies, they had not expected that the German commander, Eric von Falkenhayn, was preparing to do just that at Verdun – a major French fortress town in Lorraine that jutted out belligerently towards the German border. Here, it is argued, the German commander hoped to drain the lifeblood from the French, who could be expected to defend the town with all its resources. In the autumn of 1915 the Germans decided that the deadlock, the static trench warfare of the Western Front, needed to be broken. It was planned that Britain would be weakened and forced into capitulation by unrestricted U-Boat war, while France would be defeated by one swift and hard blow – at Verdun, a garrison town on the Meuse. Verdun was heavily fortified, with a double ring of fortifications set in almost impenetrable hills. The battle was carefully prepared; the Germans moving an enormous amount of men and equipment to the sector. The normal strength of the German 5. Armee, under command of Kronprinz Friedrich of Prussia, was nearly doubled. 

1 9 1 6 - 2 0 1 6 ▏B AT T L E O F T H E S O M M E LEFT: The British battle plan for the Somme on 1 July 1916.

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B A C K G R O U N D T O B AT T L E ▏G E R M O F A N I D E A

ABOVE: A typical German Stormtrooper from the period of the Battle of the Somme.

ABOVE: Troops at ‘White City’. Located near Beaumont Hamel on the Somme it earned its name from the white chalk banks its trenches were cut from. On 1 July 1916 a huge mine packed with 18 tons of explosive was detonated under the German front line on Hawthorn Ridge directly in front of ‘White City’.

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The battle of Verdun was opened by a one-hour artillery barrage on 21 February 1916, followed by the attack of three korps of 5. Armee from the North-East. It took the French by surprise; but even though thousands of guns had been brought to bear, they hardly had any effect on the French defensive positions in the densely forested and undulating terrain. It took the Germans four days to reach Fort Douamont, taken in a coup de main. The battle was fought using modern technology – heavy artillery, gas and aerial attacks – but is known for its ‘man against man’ battle, that raged in underground tunnels and narrow trench systems. Every inch of ground was fought for with grim determination. After the final major German attack on 23 June 1916, the Battle of Verdun slowly came to an end; the French still holding their fortress town. The casualties were huge, the Germans losing 330,000, the French 380,000. Verdun had undoubtedly come as a surprise to the Allies. All plans changed with the German assault at Verdun. Almost as Haig and Joffre had made their decision to attack in early 1916, the Germans launched their offensive. With casualties heavy, and pressure on the line intense, now the main assault would have to be led by

the British, relieving the beleaguered French. Though the German High Command had anticipated an attack by the Allies in northern France to relieve the pressure at Verdun it was not entirely prepared for a major offensive on this particular sector of the front. Compared with the Verdun sectors there were few guns and little ammunition, and Falkenhayn refused to resupply von Below, commander of 2. Armee – a mistake, and even worse, a massive underestimation of the British determination to start an offensive in northern France in Summer 1916. The Battle of Verdun changed forever the dynamics of the Battle of the Somme. Now it would become a predominantly British battle, supported by the French, and fought to relieve pressure on the beleaguered city. As the first historian of Kitchener’s Army, Victor Germains put it in 1930, ‘As the deep-toned baying of the German guns arose around Verdun it was clear to all that the war had reached another great crisis and that the hour of trial for the New Armies was at hand’. From May 1915, the British ‘New Army’ divisions moved into position south of the sector so far held by the British, taking over the line of the French on what was to become known as the Battlefield of the Somme.

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THE SOMME BATTLEFIELD

General Haig was now thrust into the limelight. His objectives for the battle were finalised on 16 June 1916. "The Third and Fourth Armies will undertake offensive operations on the front Maricourt–Gommecourt, in conjunction with the French Sixth Army astride the Somme with the object of relieving the pressure on the French at Verdun and inflicting loss on the enemy." Letter to General Sir H. Rawlinson, commanding Fourth Army. The battle would be attritional – with the hope that a breakthrough was possible. While the Third Army would make a diversionary attack on the German Salient at Gommecourt, it would be Rawlinson’s Fourth Army that would bear the brunt of the battle on its opening day. And a considerable component of this were New Army Divisions – most of them composed of locally-raised ‘Pals’ battalions. The landscape of the Somme is a gently rolling chalk downland. With soft spurs and largely dry valleys – a function of the porous chalk below draining away any standing water – the topography is variable. British war correspondent Philip Gibbs described it on 1 July 1916, the day of the attack. "The country chosen for our main attack to-day stretches from

the Somme for some 20 miles northwards. The French were to operate on our immediate right. It is very different country from Flanders, with its swamps and flats, and from the Loos battlefields, with their dreary plain pimpled by slack-heaps." "It is a sweet and pleasant country, with wooded hills and little valleys along the river-beds of the Ancre and the Somme, and fertile meadow-lands and stretches of woodland, where soldiers and guns may get good cover." Philip Gibbs, 1 July 1916. For the most part, the Germans had occupied a ridge of higher ground that ran from the River Somme in the southeast to the village of Gommecourt in the northwest. Crossing the line was the arrow-straight Roman road that connected Albert – in British hands, to Bapaume, in German hands. Northwest of the road, also crossing the line, was the River Ancre, which was a low channel between the higher ground at Serre and Beaumont Hamel, and south to Thiepval, and beyond to La Boisselle, Ficourt and Mametz. The Germans had skilfully fortified villages in their frontline, and had made the woods that connected them into redoubts.

"The enemy had the lookout posts, with fine views over France, and the sense of domination. Our men were down below with no view of anything but of stronghold after stronghold, just up above, being made stronger daily. And if the enemy had strength of position he also had strength of equipment, of men, of guns, and explosives of all kinds." John Maseield, 1917. 

TOP: British artillery in action. A huge artillery barrage preceded the opening of the battle itself. ABOVE: A camouflaged German gun position on the Somme.

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B A C K G R O U N D T O B AT T L E ▏G E R M O F A N I D E A

ABOVE: A German machine gun team, 1916. MIDDLE: A British soldier peers out over trench parapet watching over his resting comrades.

The Battle of the Somme is perceived by many to have been a single battle, focused more or less on its First Day, and fought primarily by the British against the Germans. These assumptions are mostly false. The battle can be broken down into several phases, fought by many nations. Though the French contribution had been reduced in the light of the attacks at Verdun, it was still significant, fighting south of the Somme valley, and the French achieved some important gains on the first day. In addition to the British regular, Territorial and Kitchener’s Army units that would

RIGHT: French General and Marshal of France, Joseph 'Papa' Joffre, Commander-inChief of French Forces on the Western Front until late 1916.

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fight on the Somme, there would also be Imperial units. Notable were the Newfoundlanders (not then part of Canada) at Beaumont Hamel on the first day, and later, the South Africans at Delville Wood and the Australians in the later stages of the battle at Pozières (and, indeed, at the disastrous diversionary attack at Fromelles on 19–20 July). But this article takes as its focus the British divisions that faced the Germans, with Tommy peering across the parapet at Fritz, and in this issue it would not be possible to do justice to everyone who served on the Somme during those momentous days. After the war, the phases of the ‘battle’ were assigned their own names, so that the Somme could be said to be a series of individual battles until its end. The first day of the Somme, with all its great losses and resonance, was the opening of the Battle of Albert. North of the Somme valley, the front was divided into two sectors by the Albert-Bapaume Road. To the north, was Thiepval, Beaumont Hamel and Serre (with the diversionary attack at Gommecourt to the north), to the south, Fricourt, Contalmaison, Mametz and Montauban. This topography would overshadow the whole battle, with the Albert–Bapaume Road becoming a major focus for Haig in pushing the battle to its conclusion.

For the British, Zero hour would herald not just the first day – but the start of the whole 141 days of the battle. "Zero hour is at 7.30 a.m. All is quiet on the western front, it is now 6.45 am. A pin could be heard to drop. In three-quarters of an hour’s time an inferno will have begun which will never cease until the mud of winter and the shortened days call a halt in Picardy and put a temporary stop to carnage." Brigadier-General Crozier, 36th Division. 1st July 1916.

1 9 1 6 - 2 0 1 6 ▏B AT T L E O F T H E S O M M E PREPARATION AND BOMBARDMENT

Most of these were field guns, however, and the majority of the The Battle of the Somme opened shells were shrapnel – perfect for on 24 June 1916 with a massive anti-personnel work but poor against bombardment, with 1,537 guns firing prepared positions. From a captured an estimated 1.5 million shells at British soldier, Leutnant Schmeel of the German lines and defences. The Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 15 was bombardment was fierce; it was if the aware that a battle was coming. shell shortages of the previous year "24 June – A cheer for the comrades had been wiped away. Preparations at Verdun who only yesterday, for the battle, and the build up of according to the Heeresbericht, troops was intense. took 2,670 prisoners. I am raising The build-up was not just of men, of a glass on their health in the course; but of materiel too, particularly canteen. Suddenly there is an guns, shells and more guns, as described alarm! We march out at 10pm…It by War Correspondent Philip Gibbs. is clear that the enemy is planning "Our power in artillery has grown a major offensive. Our patrols have amazingly since the beginning of the snatched some Englishmen from year. Every month I have seen many their trenches and these prisoners new batteries arrive, with clean harness reported that the enemy is planning and yellow straps, and young gunners to attack after a 4 to 5-day artillery who were quick to get their targets. We barrage on a front 30 miles wide. were strong in ‘heavies’, 12-inches, 9.2’s, These preparations were to end in a 8-inches, 4.2’s, mostly howitzers, with 12-hour trommelfeuer (drum fire) of the long muzzled 60-pounders, terrible high-explosive shells and gas." in their long range and effectiveness." Leutnant Wilhelm Schmeel, ReservePhilip Gibbs, June 1916. Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 15 The information was correct. Philip Gibbs himself observed the terrible bombardment that was directed at the German trenches. "Shells were rushing through the air as though all the trains in the world had leapt their rails and were driving at express speed through endless tunnels…Some of these shells, fired from batteries not far from where I stood, ripped the sky with a high tearing note. Other shells whistled with that strange, gobbling, sibilant cry which makes one’s bowels turn cold. Through the mist and the smoke there came sharp, loud, insistent knocks, as separate batteries fired salvoes, and great clangorous strokes, as of iron doors banged suddenly, and the tattoo of the light field guns

playing the drums of death." Philip Gibbs, June 1916. The Trommelfeuer bombardment of the German lines that opened on 24 June 1916 and that lasted until zero hour on 1 July 1916, increasing in intensity. Under the shells, the German soldiers prayed for it to be over. "28/29 June – The thunder of the guns and the sound of detonating shells is ear-deafening. It is pounding through the night like the surf of a storm-beaten sea. We can only sit and wait. It is hell. Please Lord, let them come! " Leutnant Wilhelm Schmeel, ReserveInfanterie-Regiment Nr. 15. 

ABOVE: A German infantryman, ready for battle and wearing his gas mask. BELOW: Eager recruits for Kitchener's 'New Army', many of whom were lost at the Somme.

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T H E F I R S T P H A S E ▏T H E B ATT L E B E G I N S

1ST JULY 1916

THE FIRST PHASE After a massive artillery bombardment, Britain and her allies launched the Somme offensive early on the morning of 1 July 1916 to begin 141 days of a bloody battle. Here, we look at that battle's first phase. BELOW: German infantry defending a shell crater. RIGHT: A German officer with gas mask on the Somme, 1916.

T

HE FIRST part of the battle, from 1–13 July, has been named the Battle of Albert. This encompasses the first day, and on this day, attacks in the northern sector were illfated. Gains were negligible and casualties high, and General Haig soon abandoned his plans for a broad front and concentrated his attacks south of the Albert–

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Bapaume Road, attacking instead the high ground of the Bazentin Ridge. Upon this ridge were a series of wooded areas, which, like Gommecourt, would become of iconic significance. Mametz Wood, High Wood and Delville Wood were heavily fortified by the Germans, and became tough nuts to crack in the days ahead.

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T The First Day of the Battle of the Somme is perhaps the most discussed of all days of the war. It figures heavily in British accounts, and has become mythologised. To those historians of the conflict the enduring fascination with its grim statistics – of the total casualties in even the first hour – have meant that some have considered that this day exercises a ‘tyrannical hold’ over the description of the British experience of the war. Nevertheless, the first day – and that very first hour – was to have a dramatic effect, pulverising the locally-raised battalions that had taken so long to raise. In this way, the first day can be identified as the most significant ‘punctuation mark’ in the story of Kitchener’s Army – and the British Army as a whole. "How like drill it was the way that those human waves moved forward! But they were not waves for long… with every man simply keeping on toward the goal till he arrived or fell… Would England have wanted the New Army to act otherwise?" Frederick Palmer, 1916 The Battle of the Somme opened on 1 July 1916. At 7.30 am on the morning of the 1 July 1916, confident that their artillery had sufficiently weakened the German dug-outs and machine-gun

positions, British and French infantry units climbed out of their trenches to attack the German lines. "The bombardment was very intense all through the night of June 28 and during the following day. Zero hour was fixed for 7.30 am, July 1. All private correspondence and kit, together with cap badge and numerals were to be left behind. Everyone was fitted out with necessaries for action, such as food, extra ammunition, grenades, etc." Sergeant A.H. Cook, 1st Somerset Light Infantry, 1916 Sergeant Cook was to see the first wave go over. The 1st Somersets formed part of the 4th Division, facing the strong point of Beaumont Hamel, and close to Hawthorn Ridge. "July 1 broke a lovely morning and the birds were singing. Breakfast was at 5.30 am, the men being issued with patent cookers for the occasion. The bombardment was now terrific, the German lines were one cloud of smoke, that it seemed to be impossible for anyone to live in such a hell. It was a wonderful sight. We actually stood on our parapets to get a better view, not a sign of life could we see and still no response from the enemy. We applauded direct hits and rubbed our hands in glee. We were looking forward to 7.30; it looked like a cake-walk."

"At 7.20 am, a huge mine was exploded under Hawthorn Redoubt, just on our right front, it made our trenches rock. Punctually at 7.30, the attack was launched, the 1st Rifle Brigade advanced to our front in perfect skirmishing order, and the same applied to all troops, left and right, as far as the eye could see. Everything was working smoothly, not a shot being fired." "The first line had nearly reached the German front line, when all at once machine-guns opened up with a murderous fire, and we were caught in the open, with no shelter; fire was directed on us from both flanks, men were falling like ninepins, my platoon officer fell, he was wounded and captured." Sergeant A.H. Cook, 1st Somerset Light Infantry, 1916

ABOVE: An advanced British dressing station behind the lines during the Battle of the Somme.

After the pulverising and intense battle, the German troops facing the onslaught were ready. "The evening of 30 June brings no changes and is clouded in smoke, fog and gas. The Englishman continues to target our village and its outskirts. He generously plasters the village with shells mounting delayed fuses and in the dug-out we can feel the tremendous earthquake-like tremors  caused by the detonation of these www.britainatwar.com 75

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ABOVE: A German light machine gun crew.

BELOW: A German Minenwerfer trench mortar is fired.

mole-projectiles. Above us very heavy shells are howling towards the villages in our rear area. At dawn on 1 July, I clamber out of our dug-out to listen to where the enemy fire is concentrated. The hollow between Contalmaison and the Edinger-Dorf position (near Fricourt) is being shelled with gas. There is a smell of bitter almond, possibly they are using cyanide. A sluggish, milky-opaque wall is slowly rolling towards our village." Sergeant Karl Eisler, ReserveFeldartillerie-Regiment 29

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With Zero Hour, and the bombardment reaching its height, Kitchener’s men could do no more than hope that the enemy had been stunned into submission, and were forced to keep their heads down – rather than pouring fire into the oncoming ranks of soldiers. Sadly, that was not always the case. The chalk bedrock had proven perfect for the construction of deep dugouts, and with the Germans creating a defensive line that was meant to hold the allies, it would take more than a simple bombardment by field guns to destroy it. Sergeant Cook of the Somerset Light Infantry was surprised at their elaborate nature. "Our guns had made an unholy mess of the German trenches, but very few dead could be seen, owing to the fact that they were safely stowed away in their dug-outs. Scarcely a square foot of ground had been left undisturbed, everything was churned up, there were huge gaps in the wire entanglements, but the dug-outs were all practically safe. These were a revelation to us, being most elaborately made, and down thirty feet."

Sergeant A.H. Cook, 1st Somerset Light Infantry, 1916 Dugouts could be up to 40 feet deep, there were underground strongholds, concrete machine gun emplacements and many German front line units had the comfort of electric lighting, piped water supplies and air ventilation systems. If this wasn’t enough, the artillery preparation was to destroy the enemy’s wire in a hail of shrapnel bullets. It was a tall order. Stumbling forward over no man’s land, the British soldiers were pushed into a maelstrom of machine gun fire, counter bombardment and the broken landscape of the modern battlefield. Overhead, was the bombardment that was intended to protect the attackers, a moving curtain of shellfire that would attempt to clear the trenches in front of the living wave of men. The Third Army diversionary attack by London and Midland territorials on Gommecourt stalled, the German lines were too strong. Rifleman Horwood, of the Queen’s Westminster Rifles (56th London Division) took part in the attack at Gommecourt.

1 9 1 6 - 2 0 1 6 ▏B AT T L E O F T H E S O M M E "After a really hellish bombardment we got out of our trenches and began to advance under cover of smoke and all the fellows were quite happy and we went forward in extended order carrying bombs with rifles slung, and mostly smoking a last ‘fag’ before business." Rileman Horwood, Queen’s Westminster Riles, 1 July 1916 Crossing into the wood, he passed over the German frontline trenches in order to assault the support lines. "By the time we reached the 4th line we had lost quite 400 of our 600 men and most of our machine guns and bombers were gone. However, we gave the Hun the time of his life

and dug him out with bayonets and bombs, sending all the prisoners back after taking away their arms." "We stuck to the trench for over an hour, but our lack of reinforcements and bombs prevented us from holding on just before 4 o’clock, the only officer left said we must make a dash for our lines, this we did, but lost more of our little crowd as we got caught by machine guns from both sides of us." The attack left the wood in German hands, and the Territorials were back where they started. Rifleman Horwood reflected on the outcome: "Although this attack would appear to be a failure, it was really nothing of the kind, as we attacked to draw the German guns and reinforcements to our front while the big attack at Albert was coming off." Rileman Horwood, Queen’s Westminster Riles, 1 July 1916

On 1st July, south of Gommecourt, Kitchener’s New Army divisions were spread out along the line of assault, and either side of them there were regular or territorials. Between the 31st Division at Serre and the 36th and 32nd at Thiepval there were the regular 4th and 29th Divisions. The regulars of the 8th Division facing Ovilliers separated the 32nd and 34th New Army divisions; and between the 21st and the 18th (Eastern) there was the 7th. The idea was a general advance on a broad front in this early stage of what became the first phase of the Battle of the Somme. The 31st Division faced the fortified village of Serre. The 31st quintessentially a ‘Pals’ Division; and in action on 1st July was the 93rd Brigade, composed of Leeds and Bradford Pals together with the 18th Durhams; and the 94th, made up of Barnsley Pals, Accrington Pals, and the Sheffield City Battalion. The attack of the 31st was 

ABOVE: A panorama of the battlefield from the Ancre Valley towards Martinpuich. LEFT: French Prisoners of War taken on the Somme. BELOW: German observation balloon – its shape gave rise to a rude nickname by German troops!

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ABOVE: British POWs taken by the 124th Infantry Regiment at the Battle of the Somme.

BELOW: A panorama of the battlefield from Martinpuich to the outskirts of Mametz.

to form a defensive flank for the whole operation. The bombardment had done little to subdue the defenders of Serre; as the ‘Pals’ rushed forwards, so the German defenders of the frontline, the barrage now passing them by as it registered the support trenches, increased the intensity of their return fire. They set up machine guns forward of their own line. "Only a few isolated parties of the 31st Division were able to reach the German front trench, where they

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were in the end either killed or taken prisoner. The extended lines started in excellent order, but gradually melted away. The magnificent gallantry, discipline and determination displayed by all ranks of this North Country division were of no avail against the concentrated fire-effect of the enemy’s unshaken infantry and artillery." Brigadier-General James Edmonds The Germans facing them admired their bravery, but were confident they could stop any advance.

"After continuous shelling the English finally launched their big offensive on the morning of 1 July. Their infantry attacked along the whole front. In our section they attacked in 6 or 7 waves. Brave as they were, they did not get far. At the end of the day hundreds of them lay dead in front of our positions. In the following days the English tried again and again but failed to achieve any lasting success. On the first day alone I fired over 380 shots with my rifle! The English, just like us, are very courageous, but this time they are not facing…primitive tribes as they are used to. They will never break us. German discipline and loyalty will always prevail." Gefreiter Otto Kaiser, InfanterieRegiment Nr. 180 Further to the south, the 36th (Ulster) and 32nd divisions faced the formidable fortifications at Thiepval, the plateau standing out ‘like a great buttress’ overlooking the Ancre. Thiepval itself was a village with a ruined church and grand house; these had cellars that had been fortified, and once again the German machine gunners had escaped the attention of the opening bombardment. There were strongpoints built into the line, similar in many respects to the Hohenzollern Redoubt near Loos; to the south and in the frontline was the Leipzig Redoubt, behind it, the Wundtwerk

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or ‘Wonderwork’; to the north, and in the support lines was the Schwaben Redoubt, and there were others, all scientifically sited in order to resist any attempt at an assault. The 32nd stood to take the line between the Leipzig Salient and Thiepval; the 36th to take the northern part of the line between the village of Thiepval and the Ancre itself. The 32nd Division had originally been the home of the three Birmingham City Battalions, serving

with ‘Bristol’s Own’, a battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, in the 95th Brigade; but in December 1915, they had been exchanged for regular battalions. The assault on 1 July involved the Salford Pals and Newcastle Commercials of the 96th Brigade, together with the Lonsdale Pals and City of Glasgow battalions of the 97th. It was indeed the 17th Highland Light Infantry – the 3rd Glasgow Battalion – that proved to be the most effective. The Glasgow

Commercials had crept out into No Man’s Land in advance of Zero Hour. Waiting for the enemy wire to be cut by the bombardment, they only had 30–40 yards to cross – and managed it in a rush, capturing the Germans in their deep dugouts. The Glaswegians nevertheless had to hold on like grim death. The Salford and Newcastle lads were to suffer the fate of so many other of the ‘Pals’ battalions that day. With the Leipzig Redoubt taken by Kitchener’s Army, it was the Ulstermen who faced up to the German frontline in advance of the Schwaben Redoubt. The British Official Historian described their advance. "At 7.30 am buglers in the front trench sounded the ‘advance’, and the assaulting lines rose and moved forward at a steady pace with the precision of a parade movement… The scene with the mist clearing off and the morning sun glistening on the long rows of bayonets was brilliant and striking." Brigadier-General James Edmonds The German wire had been cut effectively by the bombardment; the Ulstermen were upon the defenders before they could mount their machineguns. The former men of the Ulster Volunteer Force got as far as the Schwaben Redoubt, but with the 32nd Division held on their right 

TOP: A German machine-gun platoon of the 125th Infantry Regiment, June 1916.

LEFT: A British soldier rests at Thiepval while his comrades stand watch.

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ABOVE: A situation map of Serre, 1916. BELOW: The grave of an unknown British soldier near Ginchy.

flank, they could move no further. Nevertheless, it was a startling success – though ultimately unsustainable. The 36th Division men would be sealed off from reinforcement by artillery fire and would be attacked in detail. They were forced to withdraw. East of Albert, along the road to Bapaume, the 34th and 21st Divisions faced the villages of La Boisselle and Contalmaison. The 34th was composed predominantly of the Tyneside Scottish and Tyneside Irish brigades, but also featured two Edinburgh battalions – including McCrae’s battalion raised from the athletes of the Heart of Midlothian FC – serving alongside the ‘Grimsby Chums’ (10th Lincolnshire Regiment) and the Cambridge

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Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment (11th Suffolks). The 34th attacked at La Boisselle, the assault marked by the explosion of the huge mine that created the Lochnagar Crater – still a relic of the battle today – and another to the north, known as Y-Sap. The German lines at La Boisselle village – the ‘Glory hole’ – were close to the British front, but either side of it, in the valleys christened ‘Sausage’ and ‘Mash’, no man’s land was at its widest. The Grimsby and Cambridge men got as far as the crater, but no further; many would be trapped there until night fell. The Royal Scots to the south were suffering from intense machine gun fire that caused them some confusion. And then there was the Tyneside

Scottish Brigade, which marched into a maelstrom of fire as it attempted to cross No Mans Land – casualties were exceedingly heavy. "The attack had been pressed on with the most extraordinary heroism, but with out avail. Officers and men had been literally mown down, but in rapidly diminishing numbers they had resolutely pushed on to meet their deaths close to the enemy’s wire. No-Man’s-Land was reported to be heaped with dead." Brigadier-General Trevor Ternan, Tyneside Scottish The Tyneside Irish, attempting to follow them up, were equally decimated. The 34th Division took the heaviest casualties of all that day. To the south of La Boisselle, the 21st Division, the K3 men who had taken such a mauling at Loos, attacked at Mametz and Fricourt. With heavy losses they were able, at least, to put the memories of Loos behind them, capturing the frontline trenches in their sector. Sergeant Karl Eisler was there to see them. "Suddenly the mad enemy artillery fire stops, only the English longrange artillery is still targeting the villages in our rearward areas. The chilling moment both attacker and defender have been waiting for has finally arrived. Near Fricourt the English detonate a mine which blows a company-wide hole into the line held by the 111th regiment. English assault troops immediately exploit the gaps and enter our trenches… Finally, English assault columns, with their distinctive white recognition patches affixed to their backs, appear between the Totenwäldchen and the Ferme

1 9 1 6 - 2 0 1 6 ▏B AT T L E O F T H E S O M M E MIDDLE: A map showing the La Boiselle sector of the front with the Lochnagar mine crater marked. Note also ‘Sausage Valley’. LEFT: A situation map of Thiepval, 1916. BELOW: German field graves, Guillemont 1916.

de Fricourt… Now the other three guns of the battery open up on the English columns. They fire case shot and high-explosives over open sights, directly into the English masses. Every shot hits home and, like mice fleeing from the cat, the English are streaming back towards the Totenwäldchen and Fricourt. The high-explosive shells are causing a terrible blood-bath among the English infantry." Sergeant Karl Eisler, ReserveFeldartillerie-Regiment 29 On the first day of battle, the southern sector, adjacent to the French who were astride the River Somme itself, were the 18th (Eastern) and 30th divisions, facing Montauban. The 18th Division, a K2 Division – formed of men who volunteered for Kitchener’s Army before the birth of the ‘Pals’ concept – achieved almost the greatest success of the day, achieving its objectives to

the left of the village. The 18th was by all accounts a standard Kitchener Army division – though, it had the considerable benefit of being led by Major-General Ivor Maxse. The general had deployed his assaulting troops in No Man’s Land before Zero Hour; this meant that were closer to the enemy, and were able to ‘win the race to the parapet’ and take their objectives. To the south, the 30th Division – comprising the original ‘Pals’ from Liverpool and Manchester, and led by Lord Derby’s brother, F.C. Stanley in the 89th Brigade, and the Manchesters in the 90th – had similar success, capturing the village of Montauban outright – and attacking the works known as the Briqueterie to its right. Once again, the ‘race to the parapet’ had been won. "When the 90th Brigade had taken the village of Montauban, we were then told to go and take the Briqueterie. It

had been pounded with all kinds of guns, and at the right time they lifted and in we went. Everyone who saw it said it was beautifully done." Brigadier-General Stanley, 89th Brigade, 30th Division The result would be described as the bloodiest day in British military history, with total casualties of 57,470 men, 19,240 of which were killed while the amount of ground gained was a modest one mile deep and about six miles wide. Though French attacks south of the river Somme were more successful, managing to push the German lines about 3 miles eastwards, the desired breakthrough had not been achieved. Commencing as a major offensive with a large-scale assault intended to envelope and outflank the German Army, it had now descended into a series of small-scale battles for villages, forests and hills. 

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SECOND AND THIRD PHASE 14TH JULY - 18TH NOVEMBER 1916

After two weeks of vicious fighting a re-think was necessary when progress was not what had been hoped for by the British and the second phase of the Somme commenced. Nonetheless, a further 131 days of battle still lay ahead. BELOW: Horses, on both sides, were killed in their many hundreds on the Somme and elsewhere and greatly added to the stench of decay on the battlefield.

T

HIS SECOND phase of the Battle of the Somme lasted from 14 July to 9 September 1916. The shock of the first day, the inadequacy of the advance in parts of the line, and the continued focus on the Albert-Bapaume Road and the ridge to the south of it, heavily wooded, had had meant a rethink, and efforts were redoubled to try and capture the high ground and to advance beyond Pozieres, sitting astride the road itself. The assault by the South African Brigade at

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Delville Wood and the subsequent attack by the 1st Australian Division at Pozieres have become well known. But there were many other British units in action, all of whom were pushing forward over the Somme plateau, assaulting the heavily fortified villages and woods, all the while hoping that the German line would be stretched taught enough that it would snap, allowing the British through. Lt Arthur H. Lamb, 1 Lancashire Fusiliers (29th Division).

"Since I last wrote you I have come up to the firing line and am now only 3 short miles from the trenches. We are under canvas in a wood in a part of the line where the fighting has been very hot and where so far we have been unable to do much. The bally guns are banging away all the time and the bally Germans shell this place quite often." "The preparations for the offensive are enormous but the job is tremendously difficult and division after division has been cut up in the effort to break down the German defences.

1 9 1 6 - 2 0 1 6 ▏B AT T L E O F T H E S O M M E In their dugouts, the Germans were hoping that their defence would be enough. If they could resist the attack, then maybe they could see an end to the whole war. Life had to go on in the trenches, no matter what. "Thank you for your parcels and your letters, that all arrived quite timely. The Cölnische Zeitung is only a day old. Our hopes have shifted from the 17th to August 1. If they do not manage to force a breakthrough before that the French will surely ask for an armistice. I do not believe in father’s theory that it might last until November. But then you do not have an idea about the ammunition expenditure and the huge losses of the English. It will not last long anymore, that is out of the question. A calm down is already noticeable and the lulls between the fighting get longer. Yesterday and today they have tried their luck at Pozieres and they managed to get into the outskirts. But these are only local operations, a limited final effort. One thing has to be clear though, we have nearly reached the end of the line as well. The reinforcements we are receiving are quite unbelievable." Hanns Schäfer, Reserve-FeldartillerieRegiment 26, 23 July 1916. 

Well, mummy dear, I will say good night and try to sleep, the guns are making such a devil of a row." 2nd Lt Arthur H. Lamb, 1 Lancashire Fusiliers, 20 July 1916. On the other side of the wire, the German defenders were hopeful that the offensive would die down. "By now this damned offensive seems to be slowing down for real. Only now and then there is a brief spell of artillery fire. Putting their tremendous losses and the huge ammunition expenditure into relation the English have gained virtually nothing. At the front there is utter chaos. In some places English corpses are stacked up to 1½ metres high… And all that now lies unburied. The

LEFT: The view inside a typical German trench on the Somme, 1916. BELOW: A British sentry keeps a look-out.

wind blows from the west, which is a blessing from a military point of view, but with it carries a pestilential stench of decay. The severely wounded do not get evacuated. Briefly said it is horrible and too much for the human mind to bear. If one asks how the English could get that far, there is only one answer… Since yesterday it is relatively quiet and I hope it stays that way. I might just make it if it is over on the 17th. If not we could make a boating trip on the Rhine in autumn and drink cold punch, just like we used to do." Hanns Schäfer, ReserveFeldartillerie-Regiment 26, 12 July 1916. www.britainatwar.com 83

T H E F I G H T I N G C O N T I N U E S ▏S E C O N D & T H I R D P H A S E wine, but as long as I am here, I do not give a damn. I do not want to hear of war anymore." Hanns Schäfer, Reserve-FeldartillerieRegiment 26, 24 July 1916. Private Fred Ball of the Liverpool Pals (30th Division) was preparing to assault Trones wood in late July, when the random fortunes of war struck home, dramatically. "Just before we arrived in our jumping-off trench something happened which I can never forget. A young soldier of my own section was struck by a shell fragment square between the eyes. His cries haunt me now. ‘Mother of God! Mother of God! He shrieked time and time again. We left him behind where he lay, whimpering ‘Mother of God! Good God! I’m blind!" Private Fred Ball, King’s Liverpool Regiment (Liverpool Pals), 27 July 1916 ABOVE: A wounded British soldier is helped across a trench, July 1916. RIGHT: An image that vividly illustrates the miserable conditions endured by troops in the trenches on the Somme. BELOW: The Tyneside Irish Regiment advances across open ground at the Battle of the Somme.

For Hanns Schäfer, there was the hope that he would be relieved, to be withdrawn from the hell of the continuous battle in front of him. "Finally what we have wished for with all our heart became true! We have been relieved!! Do you realise what that means? After 30 days of battle it’s back to the limbers! Cutting across country, unshaven, unwashed, with long hair, worn out and with my legs nearly failing me I trudged behind one of the gunners. When we marched into the village we heard the peaceful sound of organ music coming from the church. The contrast was nearly too much for me. We are still within artillery range, but tomorrow we will probably go back further into our resting quarters. I suppose we will be

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deployed further up north where it is more quiet, but at the moment I do not want to think about that. I am just happy that I managed to get out of this mess with by bones intact. It is a miracle that any of us is still alive, but our losses are bad enough as it is. Two officers and NCOs dead and half of the gunners. Enormous for a single battery. Only yesterday I was nearly done for myself, only destiny saved me. I wont even tell you about 1000 other situations where my life was hanging on a thread. Good that I am still alive. After a four week attack the English have finally managed to take Pozieres. Now the pigs sit in our comfortable dugouts, use our gramophone and drink our

1 9 1 6 - 2 0 1 6 ▏B AT T L E O F T H E S O M M E Artillery preparation was one thing, but as with all attacks, there would be the need for the infantry to ‘go over the top.’ Would the artillery have achieved its aim? "Zero was at 7.15 am. In a few minutes we should endure the supreme test. Furtive peeps over the parapet revealed nothing of the enemy trenches, for a mist lay over all. What if our artillery had failed to cut ‘his’ wire? Were his machine gunners waiting to mow us down as we struggled to break a way through his entanglements?’" "Suddenly the noise of the guns eased off. For a second or two there was quiet. Then the fury of our barrage dropped like a wall of roaring sound before us. By some means the signal to advance was given and understood and we found ourselves walking forward into the mist, feeling utterly naked. Who can express the sensations of men brought up in trench warfare suddenly divested of every scrap of shelter?" Private Fred Ball, King’s Liverpool Regiment (Liverpool Pals), 27 July 1916 It wasn’t long before Corporal Howard of the 1/9 King’s Liverpool Regiment, a territorial battalion, would appear in the Somme trenches, waiting for his turn to attack. In support trenches the battalion observed the hard-fought attack on Guillemont on 5 August; and experienced its own action on the 12th. "12 August 1916. Very tired after no sleep for 48 hours. Hard work overnight and heavy shelling. At 7am moved up to line, had a rough passage all day. Got orders at 4pm that we were going over the top at 5.15pm. A Coy men all ready for the job and awaiting order to go. Fierce bombardment commences at 4.30pm one can hardly live under the circumstances. Order to go at 5.15pm boys all over, they are falling on either

side, under terrific machine gun, artillery and sniper fire. Heartbreaking to see the boys going down. Just 20 yards from spot when I got blown up by shell and was buried. Lucky escape got fear of God for a while. Lay until it went dusk then cleared myself and made for shell hole, while crawling along got 2 bullets through my haversack, one right through my iron rations. Saw Morris get hit and went out to dress his wounds under fire, terrible sight he was hit right behind the eyes, both were bulging out. Left him and went for stretcher. On my way back came across B Evans, Eaton and Jackson all wounded. Have not seen Eric Hughes since morning, heard he went over as a batman. Got into trenches at 1.30am much shaken up, the Company had sustained heavy losses. T.Horrocks left out wounded and a lot of the old boys gone. I could

only find a dozen of A Company left." Corporal Albert Howard, 9th King’s Liverpool Regiment, 1916 The end of September saw the start of the third and final phase of the Battle of the Somme, a series of countless minor skirmishes and battles that continued the process of attempting to drive the Germans from their strong points. Notable would be the first use of tanks in battle, but they were too few to be of great value. With the Battle of the Ancre representing the close of the campaign in the Autumn of 1916, there was hope that it could resume in the new season. It was not to be. The casualties had been too high, and the political will to continue had evaporated. 



TOP: A defining moment in warfare was the use of tanks. This was one of only 15 ‘landships’ that made it to enemy lines. The remaining 34 broke down or got stuck. ABOVE: The German ‘Somme Cross’ medal.

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ABOVE: The 8th Battalion, Black Watch, at Bazentin Ridge.

BELOW: The battle rages at Ginchy, July 1916.

Thanks to the exchange of worn out units with fresh ones, by the constant resupply of ammunition and by reinforcing the German Air Service’s reconnaissance and fighter units, the German Army slowly managed to stem the tide of the British thrusts. Hans Schäfer recorded his experience of this stage of the battle, of the unrelenting offensive action. "War has caught up with us again. The English are directing a mad amount of fire into Pozieres which we do not occupy anymore! Currently I have made another step towards becoming a Feldmarschall. I am acting as assistant group adjutant! Colossal developments don’t you think? The

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other gentleman is on leave and my weak shoulders bear an enormous responsibility. The English have advanced scandalously far in the last days. We were allowed to watch the whole battle through our scissor telescopes. First colossal artillery fire followed by wave after wave of English infantry in thick columns. We can even discern individual features. They jumped quite hard when they were hit by our 15cm calibres. Even though they attacked with 22 divisions they did not break through. The corner stone of Thiepval remains unbroken." Hanns Schäfer, Reserve-FeldartillerieRegiment 26, 15 September 1916 15 September saw the first use of

tanks on the battlefield – a spectacular but hardly effective premiere. Lieutenant-Colonel R.G.A Hamilton of the Royal Field Artillery saw the ‘tanks’ first hand. "As it became lighter we could see four of the new monsters on the Ginchy ridge just in front of us. When they advanced we could see them crawling towards the German trenches on the crest. They were rolling and pitching on the rough ground like ships at sea, but kept steadily on at about a mile an hour, till they reached the German parapet, hoisted themselves over and were lost to sight on the other side." Lieutenant-Colonel R.G.A Hamilton, Royal Field Artillery.

1 9 1 6 - 2 0 1 6 ▏B AT T L E O F T H E S O M M E The mechanical monsters created a stir, and were seen to be ‘walking up the main street at Flers’; there were, however, just too few of them to make any real impact. The continued strains of the Battle of the Somme took its toll. Second Liuenenant Arthur Lamb of the 29th Division was feeling the pressure of the continuous action. "This continual offensive is costing us something!! Few people know how much Oh! It is a frightful business and people at home they read about the British troops pushing forward but the realities mother dear, by Gad! Could they but be in the trenches for 10 mins during an ordinary bombardment." Second Lieutenant Arthur H.Lamb, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 22 September 1916 The battleground was taking on the appearance of a charnel house. Leutnant Werner Seebeck, of Infanterie Regiment Nr. 24, described ones spine. Now and then there are screams when comrades are hit, but we must go on. The nightmare continues. Above us the eerily dull and hollow sound of heavy shells." Leutnant Werner Seebeck, InfanterieRegiment Nr. 24. And with the autumnal weather taking its part, the battle was running out of time.

the scene as it presented in front of him on on 8 October 1916. "All the horrors of war seem to have been unleashed here. Thanks to God we arrive at night time, so we can’t see every gruesome detail. Human corpses and torn off limbs, some of them fresh, others many weeks old. Human remains, buried, burrowed up and ploughed under. The pestilential stench of decay, dead horses, broken carts, discarded weapons and equipment. The scorched remains of trees on both sides of the road are our companions. If one starts to think – and one should by all means avoid thinking – what it is like to be wounded out here, to be left alone and without help, it sends shivers down

"It is a pouring wet day and away in the distance our heavy batteries are pounding away at the German lines. Just near here all is quiet. It’s an extraordinary thing to think about that for two long and weary years this same thing has been going on day after day night after night without ceasing, and apparently will go on indefinitely, perhaps for another two years! What fools men are! It is too utterly idiotic to think about! They are making all preparations here for a long winter campaign and as far as the authorities are concerned there is no idea of an end to the war yet. I myself see no chance for many months. The powers that be are so determined on utterly smashing Germany to bits. It is a pity that they don’t have to do the smashing, isn’t it!!!!!" 2nd Lt Arthur H. Lamb, 1st Lancashire Fusiliers, 4 October 1916.

"On November 5th the weather again assumed an aspect of the most unpromising character. ‘Haig’s Weather’ seemed to have set in: days of continuous rain, followed by treacherous intervals of sunshine, which induced the Higher Command to lay their plans…Little hopes were entertained, however, that the weather would hold out sufficiently long to justify the commencement of the struggle." Captain Robert Ross, Gordon Highlanders, 51st Highland Division. The battle came to a halt on 18 November with the taking of the fortified village of Beaumont Hamel by the 51st Highland Division. There was relief that it was over. 

ABOVE: A British ‘Tommy’ pours a drink for a captured German soldier at Carnoy, 1916. LEFT: British troops in their trench at BeaumontHamel.

BELOW: Soldiers of a Scottish regiment relax during a lull in the fighting at Martinpuich with a pet cat.

The autumn rains slowly turned the battleground into a quagmire in which troops, horses and vehicles could only move with difficulty. The soldiers cursed the weather and their luck. www.britainatwar.com 87

A B LO O DY B AT T L E ▏A FT E R M AT H BELOW: Delville Wood, shattered in fierce struggles with South Africans, who heroically resisted fierce German attacks.

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HE BATTLE of the Somme was one of the costliest and bloodiest battles of the First World War; the German Army alone lost nearly 500,000 men killed, wounded, missing and taken prisoner, the Allies some 625,000. By its end, the German lines had been pushed back just over 6 miles, on a length of front at about 22 miles. The men who fought the battle were convinced of its effects. "I am again in the fighting area but owing to our strict precautions as to the movement of troops I cannot disclose my whereabouts. We are now the masters of the Germans, and the Kaiser’s doom is finally sealed. Our new army are doing splendid in the field far beyond our expectations. Their spirit is the same whistling and singing in the face of death. Our artillery are doing great work at present pumping shells into the Germans positions. We are gaining ground steadily and our losses are comparatively small in comparison with the amount of ground gained which means the sacrifice of a few loyal and devoted souls to military duty. I must now conclude but before doing so I hope my letters may be accepted with best wishes to all. I am writing this as shells and bombs are whizzing all around, this causes my letter to be of a scribbling nature. I now conclude as the noise is deafening." Lance Corporal Laurence Dunne, 1st Connaught Rangers, 1916

The German lines held, the bravery of the British not in question, their tactics, more so – at least from the perspective of their enemies. "During the battle of the Somme, the British army and its many newly raised divisions, was not at its best. The training of its infantry was inferior to that of the German infantry, especially so when it came to the movement of large bodies of troops. Single machine-gun crews, patrols, interdicting and hand grenade squads behaved incredibly well. The single, mostly young, strong and well equipped British soldier followed his officer blindly. The officers being honourable, bold and brave men, which set an example to the men, leading them from the front. Due to their superficial training they lacked agility in battle and often failed to act quickly and autonomously. Many times they were unable to adapt to sudden changes in a combat situation. Mass attacks were carried forward in dense and partly disordered rifle chains closely followed by a mass of men in column. It’s because of this the English, though outstandingly brave, suffered immense losses." "In small unit actions the English were adept in the use of terrain, moving forward cautiously and stubbornly in small groups, and sometimes with small hand grenade squads only. In defence the English

were tenacious and more dangerous. The better trained and more agile French soldier was more competent in attack and also knew how to defend. When without leadership the French soldier knew how to act autonomously and to adapt himself to a change of the situation. The French officers had a strong personal influence on the men and were in general more experienced and cannier than the English officers." Oberstleutnant Albrecht von Stotsch, Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 153 Amongst the huge losses, there were some more, personal ones. Receiving an official notification from the military authorities a dreaded by all at home during the war; more often than not it would signify that a loved one had been killed, wounded or taken prisoner. For British families this could be in the form of an official proforma, ‘Army Form B. 104-82’, pre-printed with gaps left for the insertion of the unfortunate soldier’s name. William Healy was to receive the bald statement of his son’s death on the Somme in this manner. "Sir, It is my painful duty to inform you that a report has this day been received from the War Office notifying the death of (No.) 27221 (Rank) Private (Name) James Healy (Regiment) 8th Bn Royal Dublin Fusiliers which occurred while serving with the ‘Expdy Force France’ on the 6th day of September 1916, and I am to express to you the

AFTERMATH

The 141 days of terrible fighting took a tremendous toll on both sides. Here, we look at the cost of battle in terms of men and materiel and its affect on the warring nations.

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1 9 1 6 - 2 0 1 6 ▏B AT T L E O F T H E S O M M E

sympathy and regret of the Army Council at your loss. The cause of death was Killed in Action. If any articles of private property left by the deceased are found, they will be forwarded to this office, but some time will probably elapse before their receipt, and when received they cannot be disposed of until authority is received from the War Office. Application regarding the disposal of any such personal effects, or of any amount that may eventually be found to be due to the late soldier’s estate, should be addressed to ‘The Secretary, War Office, London SW.,’ and marked outside ‘Effects.’" I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant Oicer in Charge of Records The Battle of the Somme was much more than simply an example of attritional warfare. Though the losses to Britain’s inexperienced Kitchener’s Amy and Territorial divisions was staggering, the battle marked the British resolve to fight an all-arms war against the Germans, and would influence subsequent offensives on the Western Front. At the time, the battle was deemed a considerable success, and for many soldiers sitting farther north, in the Ypres Salient, it seemed from the newspapers that things were going well. "I dare say you can see by the papers that we are doing well in the battle of the Somme it will be a good job when it has finished won’t it?" Private Robert W. Price, 10th Welsh Regiment, 1916

The battle had entered the consciousness of the British forever. The ‘good job’ of Private Price has become the controversial battle in which the losses were staggering. Nevertheless, historians now argue that the shock of the Somme was to have a major impact on the way that the British Army fought the rest of the war, and fed into the approach taken in 1918, with new weapons and tactics. The Germans too, also learnt from the Somme; those lessons of attack and defence would stand them in good stead, resisting the combined might of the armies arraigned against them until the final battles of the war. For Haig, freed from the requirement of fighting a battle at the junction of the armies of the two premier Allied nations, the British

Commander-in-Chief was convinced that his main assault should fall in the strategically significant area of Flanders. In 1917, Haig once more turned his attentions to the significant cities of Ypres in Belgium and Arras in northern France. For their part, the Germans had decided to shorten their line and reduce salient created in the aftermath of the Somme offensive. Unternehmen Alberich was a tactical retreat in February 1917 to the heavily fortified Siegfriedstellung – known as the Hindenburg Line to the British – which was a system of defences dug deep into the chalky ground, lined with concrete pillboxes and bunkers. The scene was set for the next major campaign, this time in Flanders, with perhaps even greater consequences. 

Battle of the Somme: The Human Cost Estimated Allied Casualties: Britain

419,654

Canada

24,029

Australia

c.23,000

New Zealand

c.8,500

South Africa

c.3,000

Newfoundland

c.2,000

French

c.204,000

Allied Total

c.625,000 - 684,183

Of which first day

59,470 (including c.2,000 French)

Estimated German Casualties

c.500,000 - 600,000

Of which first day

c.12,000

Estimated Total

c.1,284,183 casualties

ABOVE: A wounded German POW assists a wounded British soldier on the Somme, July 1916.

LEFT: The Balance Sheet. Historians cannot offer or agree on exact figures due to variations in how different armies recorded casualties, the loss and destruction of official records and differing definitions of the term ‘casualty’.

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S O M M E E P I LO G U E ▏N O T I N VA I N BELOW: Men of the Gordon Highlanders on the Somme in 1916.

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HE BATTLE of the Somme is embedded in the public consciousness, a horrific waste of young lives, a needless folly of commanders, the classic story of ‘Lions led by Donkeys’ in the myth perpetuated by the late Alan Clark. However, recent findings from London’s National Army Museum published in June show that understanding of the battle is “cosmetic, confused or non-existent”. Public perception of the battle, which claimed more than a million casualties, epitomise tragic and wasteful attritional warfare. However, according to a report from the NAM, 85% of the public admit to knowing little or nothing of the clash, and 43% of Britons admit to not knowing in which country, year, or even war the battle was waged. Perhaps surprisingly, it is not the youth who know the least, rather the iconic generation of baby-boomers. Let us then take this opportunity to challenge perception. The first day

was indeed a tragic and bloody failure, an event of barbarous slaughter that remains unparalled in British history. However, the wider battle resulted in key successes. After the frozen winter brought an end to the 141-day struggle, German troops fell back to the Hindenburg Line, rather than wage another ferocious battle over the river that spring. The Germans were bled white at the Somme, in combination with the ongoing fight for Verdun. Elsewhere, Romania’s entry to the war on the Allied side, and the volatile situation on the Eastern Front (where Russia had inflicted serious casualties on Austro-Hungarian forces) required yet more German units. The deteriorating strategic situation, which the Somme was partly responsible for, required the inevitable withdrawal to a shorter front. Even now, when thoughts turn to the battle many perceive it as an unmitigated disaster, a solemn tragedy, the pointless sacrifice of inexperienced troops, and an indicator of the incompetence of British

generals. Consider instead the successes generated by the titanic clash of arms and men, even though those victories came at an extremely high price. The losses were hard to bear, arguably unexpected, but sadly a reality of this brutal conflict. Perhaps the largest British force ever assembled, it would sustain the heaviest casualties that nation had ever experienced. All commanders struggled to find an answer to the stalemate of trench warfare, and none had ever led armies as large, over such a vast front, before. The Somme cost the British dear, but they learned to fight a new war - the debutant tank being just one hard-fought development. The battle spared the French, who won at Verdun, and wore down German reserves, forcing a serious reassessment of their strategic situation. The battle was hard, the battle was long, the battle was bloody, but, the battle was vital. To the men of the Somme, your lives were not given in vain. 

NOT IN VAIN With low public awareness of the Somme Offensive, John Ash asks; how should we remember the battle?

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31/05/2016 11:21

SHERWOOD’S ‘BLACK GOLD’ Britain’s Texan Roughnecks: 1943

With oil supply a critical factor for wartime Britain it was imperative that all measures were taken to find and secure every available source. Surprisingly, reserves were found and exploited in Nottinghamshire’s Sherwood Forest as Joshua Levine explains.

T

MAIN IMAGE: A Spitfire is refuelled in 1940 with what was nationally crucial fuel; 100 Octane petrol.

HE IMPORTANCE of oil to Great Britain during the Second World War can hardly be overstated. It sustained the civilian population and enabled the military effort. On the Home Front, it provided heat, light, food, clean water, working hospitals and a basic level of comfort. For the military, it was the source of toluene for explosives, synthetic rubber for tyres, wax for packaging, and of petrol, that magical mainstay of modern warfare.

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In May 1940, the magic was enhanced by the arrival in Britain of an improved form of fuel. Known as ‘100 octane’, it was the result of a process known as catalytic cracking and gave an instant boost to the power rating of Fighter Command’s Spitfires and Hurricanes. British pilots were surprised by increased speeds, enhanced rates of climb and of acceleration. The sudden improvement in performance contributed significantly to their successes during the Battle of Britain. But all of this depended on oil being available in huge quantities - and

the supply could not be taken for granted. It arrived by tanker, but German U-Boats, hunting in packs, threatened to stem the supply. Between September 1939 and February 1941, seventy-nine British or Britishcontrolled tankers were sunk with the loss of over 630,000 tons of oil. Not only were the U-Boats picking off tankers, but the Luftwaffe was destroying hundreds of thousands of barrels in dock areas. In April 1941, for example, stocks were affected during attacks on Avonmouth, Purfleet, Plymouth, Thamesfleet, Thameshaven, Jarrow and Belfast.

SHERWOOD’S ‘BLACK GOLD’ Britain’s Texan Roughnecks: 1943

ROBIN HOOD’S BACKYARD

In the summer of 1942, the Secretary for Petroleum, Geoffrey Lloyd, called an emergency meeting of the Oil Control Board. Discussion focused on an impending crisis – until Philip Southwell, a senior Anglo-Iranian Oil engineer, stood up to speak. His words caused a sensation. The most pressing matter regarding Britain’s oil requirements, he said, was the development of Britain’s own oilfields. His listeners were amazed. What

oilfields? The board members were entirely unaware of an astonishing undertaking in Sherwood Forest. Almost three decades before the discovery of oil in the North Sea, an effort was underway to pump oil from the ground in Robin Hood’s backyard. At no other period would such an ambitious venture have been attempted – but these were radical times. The impetus for Britain’s inshore oil industry had come from Lord Cadman, the government’s petroleum advisor. As far back as 1908, while overseeing

drilling tuition at Birmingham University, Cadman had been convinced that oil would come to dominate world politics. In the build-up to the Second World War, he led a nationwide search for deposits – and when significant oil reserves were discovered near Eakring in Sherwood Forest in June 1939, Cadman pressed home the need to start drilling immediately. D’Arcy Exploration, a subsidiary of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, quickly set to work – and a cadre of specialist drillers was called in. 

ABOVE LEFT: The Texan 'Roughnecks' on one of Sherwood's oil wells. ABOVE RIGHT: This leafy lane belies the fact that this was once the centre of an important oilfield.

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SHERWOOD’S ‘BLACK GOLD’ Britain’s Texan Roughnecks: 1943

ABOVE LEFT: The group of Texans who arrived in wartime Britain to drill for oil. ABOVE RIGHT: The American 'Roughnecks' at work. BELOW: An oil tanker set alight by a U-Boat in the Atlantic illustrates the perilous state of fuel supply to Britain during the Second World War.

One of these men was Sandy Ross, an Anglo-Iranian driller, who was at home on leave from Iran when his telephone rang. Told by an inscrutable voice to report to Newark railway station, he would be working at Eakring for the next five years. Men were needed in large numbers, and many of the first recruits were Nottinghamshire coal-miners deemed unfit for work underground. The Labour Exchange was called upon to provide others, so that unskilled workers found themselves training to become everything from labourers to well pullers to members of the drilling crew. Jack Clarke had been a miner at Ollerton Colliery, before starting work at Eakring. He remembers the small country roads clogged with double decker buses ferrying newlycreated oil workers to and from the

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wells. ‘The lanes were so busy,’ he says, ‘that local people used to avoid travelling along them.’

A HUNDRED NEW WELLS

At first, wells up to 2500 feet were drilled, which were soon producing an average of 700 barrels of oil per day. A national oil industry was built from scratch, an extraordinary undertaking at a time when the country was unsure of its own survival. The oilfield, with its derricks and pumps, seemed unlikely to be targeted by enemy aircraft, hidden away in the heart of England among the oak, birch and hawthorn trees. But any residual risk paled alongside the fact that Eakring crude was of an astonishingly high quality, purer than anything being produced in Europe or the Middle East. This made it ideal for the high octane fuel

required by Spitfires and Hurricanes. By 1942, the nation’s oil supplies had begun to run short. Stocks stood at two million barrels below normal safety reserves just as military requirements were increasing. It was clear that ‘indigenous’ production would have to increase and the Petroleum Department urged a fourfold increase. This was why, in August, Philip Southwell went before an emergency meeting of the Oil Control Board to confess the truth about Britain’s secret industry. The specific problems laid out by Southwell were the lack of skilled labour and difficulties in obtaining materials and equipment. The rigs in use had been designed for deepdrilling operations in Iran, and were not appropriate for the shallower Nottinghamshire reserves. They were also large and complicated to

SHERWOOD’S ‘BLACK GOLD’ Britain’s Texan Roughnecks: 1943

erect and move, resulting in wasted time and effort. Denis Sheffield, working at Eakring in 1941, recalls the struggle: ‘This heavy equipment would be pulled by hand and jacked by a gang onto a lorry,’ he says, ‘and they would literally manhandle it up at the next site.’ Smaller and more mobile American rigs were badly needed. Given the equipment, and the men to operate it, it was hoped that a hundred new wells could become operational within a year.

WOULD-BE HELL RAISERS With this goal in mind, Philip Southwell flew to Washington DC to set out Britain’s material requirements. He wanted to buy the latest rotary drilling rigs, drill pipe, and rotary rock bits – but United States law presented a problem. Drilling equipment could not legally be sold to a foreigner – so a loophole was exploited. The equipment was sold to Lloyd Noble, an American appointed to carry out operations in

the United Kingdom. Noble, founder of the Noble Drilling Corporation, also agreed to recruit drillers and forego any profit from the operation. The result was that forty-two experienced oil workers, mostly from Oklahoma and Texas, were engaged to come to Britain on year-long contracts. They would be billeted together in an Anglican monastery in the Nottinghamshire village of Kelham. But how would the placid monks react to the arrival of drillers plucked from another world? Eugene Rosser, the Noble Drilling Corporation representative who would be looking after the men in England, was keen to reassure the

RIGHT: The impractical Middle Eastern-style rig unsuited to Nottinghamshire. CENTRE: An artist's impression of the wartime oilfields at Eakring. BELOW: The American oil workers meet the monks of Kirkham Hall where they were billeted.

anxious novices. ‘I’m figuring,’ he said, ‘that not many of them is going to feel like a lot of hell-raising and whoring around in their spare time.’ One of the would-be hell-raisers was Lewis Dugger from Louisiana. Interviewed many years later, Dugger was honest about his motivation for accepting the position: at $29 a day, he stood to receive almost twenty times the pay of an army private. ‘I said yes straightaway,’ he says. 

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SHERWOOD’S ‘BLACK GOLD’ Britain’s Texan Roughnecks: 1943

ABOVE AND BELOW: Wartime 'Nodding Donkeys' can still be found in situ at the oilfield location. CENTRE: The plaque displayed at the Duke's Wood site.

CULTURE SHOCKS

The ‘roughnecks’ met up in New York before sailing for Britain. One man was fired – for getting drunk and running wild – before even crossing the Atlantic. And when the group finally disembarked, they spent the day drinking before being taken to a hotel. It didn’t bode well for the monks of Kelham Hall, who were surely in for a surprise. The roughnecks arrived at the monastery on 18 March 1943, carrying banjos as well as bags. The next day, they were taken to Newark where they innocently mistook the ruins of Newark Castle for war damage. In the town, they spoke cheerfully to impressionable locals, bought bicycles, and stood out in the crowd. Their Stetson hats, colourful shirts, and cowboy boots presented an unreal sight against a

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monochrome English backdrop. Small culture shocks were soon felt. One of the oil workers tried to place a telephone call to his family in the small town of Stroud, Oklahoma. After a confused discussion, the operator tried to place the call through to Stroud, Gloucestershire. The roughneck had never heard of that Stroud, the operator had never heard of the other, and a sad little argument ensued. Meanwhile, in The Fox pub, the men, accustomed to Budweiser and Schlitz, were unimpressed by local beer. Once they had drunk the pub’s whisky, they took to adding salt to pints of bitter and mild in a desperate attempt to improve the taste. The roughnecks’ accommodation was in one wing of the monastery, two men to a room. Each roommate worked a different shifts, twelve hours on, twelve hours off, so they barely saw each other. Lewis Dugger’s room was spacious and warmed by a fireplace, and nearby was a recreation room with a snooker table. There were also good washing facilities – unusual for the time but important for men who spent their days in filthy conditions. There were six cooks and stewards (all soldiers recently released from hospital) who prepared and served some very unpopular meals. ‘It was either Brussel sprouts, or mutton, or potatoes fried in mutton grease,’ remembers Dugger.

Once the men were settled, Eugene Rosser set a target: ‘Guys, we want to get after it! We want to drill a hundred wells in a year!’ And the roughnecks were soon showing their worth. After the first twelve hour shift on an existing Anglo-Iranian rig, they reported 1,010 feet. The works manager refused to believe that this was possible. But there was no mistake; the American drillers worked much quicker than their British counterparts. And when the new American rigs began to arrive, their speed increased further. By the beginning of June 1943, they had completed 42 wells, at an average of

SHERWOOD’S ‘BLACK GOLD’ Britain’s Texan Roughnecks: 1943

one a week; the British crews had been taking up to eight weeks to complete a single well. Astounded by this pace, the Anglo-Iranian Company asked Eugene Rosser how it was done. In front of Sir William Fraser, Anglo-Iranian’s chairman, Rosser explained what the English drillers were doing wrong. They were wasting time changing rock bits when the existing bit was still doing a good job. They were waiting too long for cement to set on their wells. And they were drilling with chemically-prepared mud when they could be drilling with water. Above all, though, they were too rigid in their application of the rules and failed to react to circumstances as they arose.

LACK OF FOOD

Though he is critical of much of the Eakring set-up (which, it should be remembered, was entirely new and operating under wartime

up the yard, but he was soon assigned to a drilling crew. The British, according to Mitchell, learned from the Americans, and began to improve. ‘We went the same way eventually,’ he says. In Ivan’s case, it included dressing like them, in their cast-off clothes. Despite their initial rate of progress, and the impression made on the locals, the Americans began to experience problems. Mistakes crept in, levels of drinking increased, and the mood turned darker. The problem, it became clear, was lack of food. The roughnecks were used to a robust diet of red meat, fresh fruit and vegetables. They were not prepared for an English diet, and certainly not a wartime one where many foods were rationed and others unavailable. Working twelve hour days, seven days a week, the men lost weight alarmingly. ‘It was food for an office worker,’ says Dugger. The black market, though, was one way of boosting rations. Talking to

a farmer, Dugger agreed to trade five gallons of petrol for a dozen eggs. At 2016 prices, it works out at £2 per egg. As Dugger pointed out: ‘Money don’t mean nothing when you can’t get stuff.’

INCREASED RATIONS

Food matters finally came to a head when a steward announced that breakfast would consist of warmed up Brussel sprouts from the previous night’s dinner. Fed up and hungry, the roughnecks announced they would work one more full month but if the food had not improved by then, they would return home. Deeply concerned, and aware of the army’s abundant food supply, Eugene Rosser travelled to London to speak to the Petroleum Attaché at the United States Embassy. He was sent first to see Major General John C H Lee, Chief of Supply of Services, who, in turn, wrote to his Chief Quartermaster, Brigadier General Robert Littlejohn, ordering him to 

BELOW: At the oilfield site this statue of an oil worker surmounts a base above a plaque bearing all the names of the Americans involved.

conditions) Lewis Dugger was clearly enthusiastic about the job, saying: ‘I felt I had an obligation, and I wanted to do it to the best of my ability’ adding: ‘The English roughnecks weren’t skilled when they started’ he says ‘but we taught them what to do and they’re quick learners.’ One of those British oil workers who learned quickly was Ivan Mitchell, a local boy recruited through the labour exchange. Attracted by the money – ‘£3 more than I was getting’ – he cycled through the forest to attend an interview at the oilfield. His first job, at the age of seventeen, was tidying www.britainatwar.com 97

SHERWOOD’S ‘BLACK GOLD’ Britain’s Texan Roughnecks: 1943

OUTLAWS AND ROUGHNECKS TOGETHER

meat, sliced pineapple, sliced peaches…’ The mood improved immediately – as did the standard of work.

FELL TO HIS DEATH

TOP LEFT: Kevin Topham of the Duke's Wood Oil Museum shows off graffiti carved into nearby trees by the American oil workers. ABOVE LEFT: A reunion party of the American oil workers during the late 1970s. RIGHT: The grave of Herman Douthit. He is the only American civilian buried in the American Military Cemetery at Madingley.

issue military rations to the oilfield workers. After a few days, however, nothing had happened so Rosser went to Littlejohn’s headquarters where it became clear that the Brigadier General was not prepared to see him. Littlejohn, a plainspeaking man with a huge logistical task on his hands, had no interest in civilian oil workers. Unwilling to return meekly to Kelham Hall, Rosser plucked up the courage to barge into Littlejohn’s office. The astonished quartermaster began shouting – until a remarkably timely telephone call from Major General Lee silenced him. The chief of supply confirmed his order, leaving the seething Littlejohn with little choice but to comply. The roughnecks were soon receiving increased rations – including an extra meal at midnight as the day and night shifts crossed over. ‘We could eat great,’ says Lewis, ‘sugar, pork luncheon

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Even with extra rations, oil drilling was a dangerous business. One man’s arm was broken by a spinning rope, another caught his hand in a motor clutch. And in November, Herman Douthit, a 29-year-old Texan, fell to his death from a platform 55 feet above ground. His boots, it seems, were covered in clay and his gloves were wet. As he climbed down a ladder, he fell, suffering head injuries. An ambulance arrived quickly, but Douthit was pronounced dead on arrival at the American Military Hospital at Sutton-inAshfield. The funeral was held in the small church attached to Kelham Hall. Douthit’s coffin was draped in an American flag which was sent to his widow in Texas, along with the proceeds of a collection taken by locals. Today, Douthit is the only civilian buried in the United States Military Cemetery at Madingley, Cambridge.

By the end of the Americans’ year in Sherwood Forest they had drilled 106 wells, pumping nearly a million barrels of fine crude oil. In the days that followed, the roughnecks were offered the chance to carry on working at Eakring (albeit at a lower wage) but they all chose to return to America. In fact, four men had already gone back: one had been injured, another was homesick, and two had been fired – the first for drunken fighting and the second for helping a local farmer when he was supposed to be sick in bed. When the time came for the rest to leave they went quietly. ‘We disappeared without any fanfare,’ says Dugger. They sailed home on Mauretania, having reached Southwell’s goal of 100 wells, helped ease the national petroleum shortage and passing on knowledge to local men. At its peak, the oilfield employed 1,200 people, and by the end of the war stretched across nine miles of countryside, producing over 300,000 tons of high grade oil, equivalent to two and a quarter million barrels from 170 nodding donkeys. It had become a genuine commercial proposition and a life that extended into the 1960s. A visit to the area reveals that the ‘Roughnecks’ have never quite gone away. Their names are still carved into old beech trees and their image is visible in a bronze statue in Duke’s Wood nature reserve. And perhaps, one day, they will sit beside the Merry Men as figures of Sherwood Forest legend – outlaws and roughnecks together. On a national scale, however, their achievement reflects the ambition of a country reinventing itself. Beliefs and assumptions were changing. Oil was no longer something that simply came from abroad. Just as the people of Britain were making do and mending – so was the island itself. 

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14/06/2016 11:40

THE FINAL ENGAGEMENT Falklands Air War: 1982

ENG I

N THE spring of 1982 Dave Morgan had just started an exchange tour with the Royal Navy flying Sea Harriers at RNAS Yeovilton. His conversion was rudely cut short on 2 April when Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands. He took

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THE FINAL ENGAGEMENT Falklands Air War: 1982

THE FINAL GAGEMENT part in the first raid on Stanley Airfield on 1 May, getting shot through the tail fin, and flew another 54 operational SHAR missions and two Wessex helicopter flights before the end of the conflict on 14 June. He was credited with sinking

one enemy vessel as well as shooting down two helicopters and two A4 Skyhawks. This is the story of the final air engagement of the war. Lt Cdr Morgan was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the conflict. 

During the closing stages of the Falklands conflict David Morgan became the last RAF pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft whilst serving as an ‘exchange’ pilot flying a Sea Harrier with the Fleet Air Arm. Here, he tells the story in his own words.

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THE FINAL ENGAGEMENT Falklands Air War: 1982

The morning of 8 June 1982 started much the same as any other during the conflict. The ritual of a shower, putting on clean underwear and ‘lucky’ flying suit and a good breakfast before checking the briefing room for the day’s commitments as dawn was breaking. It transpired that I was unlikely to be needed before midday, as I was due to carry out the final part of my night qualification that evening. I therefore volunteered to fly in the left hand seat of one of the Wessex helicopters which had been saved after Atlantic Conveyor was hit by an Exocet missile. It had been nearly ten years since I had flown the Wessex full time, but I found it soon came back and I spent a happy couple of hours delivering mail and supplies around the fleet.

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After lunch, I flew a mission patrolling to the north of Falkland Sound. The weather had cleared beautifully by then, with very little cloud and just the odd thunderstorm over the sea. At this stage of the conflict we were normally using the metal landing strip at Port San Carlos to refuel between sorties. Unfortunately, Wg Cdr Peter Squire, the Commanding Officer of No 1(F) squadron, had experienced an engine problem whilst landing there that morning and spread his aircraft all over the strip, coming to rest on top of a slit trench. My sortie was completely uneventful but very soon after we set off back to HMS Hermes, HMS Plymouth was attacked by a formation of Daggers, a frustrating but not unusual occurrence and we were glad to hear that her damage had not been serious.

THE FINAL ENGAGEMENT Falklands Air War: 1982

‘Stand clear of intakes and jet pipes, scramble the alert-five Sea Harriers’ That evening, Dave Smith and I strapped ourselves into our aircraft to come to five-minute alert, with our minds fairly full of the night landing to come. Shortly before we were planned to launch, we were jolted back to reality by the broadcast ‘Stand clear of intakes and jet pipes, scramble the alert-five Sea Harriers’ We had a job to do!

LIKE A TIGHTLY COILED SPRING

We were airborne within three minutes and streaking towards the sun that was now low on the western horizon. For the next quarter of an hour we flew in silence, both wondering what we would find when we got to the islands. Finally, approaching the CAP station, I radioed the pair of Sea Harriers we were relieving to get an update and was told that they were ‘over the action’ to the north of our briefed station. As we got closer, I saw a huge vertical column of oily black smoke rising from a bay to the southwest of Stanley. Overhead, the grim reality unfolded. Two landing craft were at anchor in the bay, wreathed in a nightmare of smoke and explosions. We could only watch with increasing concern and frustration as the living beetles of lifeboats crawled back and forth between ship and shore, with their desperate human cargoes. There was little we could do but search the lengthening shadows

for further attackers, as we ploughed our parallel furrows back and forth, a couple of miles above their heads. To fly lower would have denied us radio contact with our controller in San Carlos and risked spooking the troops on the ground into thinking we were the enemy, returning to cause further chaos. Some five miles to the south of our racetrack in the sky, I noticed a small landing craft, leaving Choiseul Sound and heading up the coast towards us. On checking, this was identified as friendly and became a particular point

to check each time I turned back onto a westerly heading. I felt great empathy with them, as I imagined the crew, cold and tired in their tiny boat and I wondered if they had any idea that we were watching over them. The next 40 minutes crept by as we circled, using the minimum possible amount of fuel, neither of us talking and both of us very much aware of the tragedy being enacted below us. Finally, I made a routine check of the fuel gauges as I rolled into another turn to reverse track, and realised that I now had only four minutes flying before 

ABOVE: A Sea Harrier launches from HMS Hermes carrying 1000lb bombs. OVERLEAF: Morgan with Sea Harrier ZA192 after being hit during the first raid on Stanley airport on 1 May 1982. LEFT: A cockpit view of a Sea Harrier flying at low level.

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THE FINAL ENGAGEMENT Falklands Air War: 1982 BELOW: Sea Harrier launching from HMS Hermes, 1982.

I had to turn east, into the rapidly darkening evening sky for Hermes. I searched the gathering dusk below me for the small landing craft and soon picked it out, butting its way through the South Atlantic towards Port Pleasant, white water breaking over its bows. It was in that instant that I spotted something which triggered the explosive action which lies, like a tightly coiled spring, beneath the outwardly calm carapace of the fighter pilot. My worst fears and fondest dreams had, in a single instant, been realised. A mere mile to the east of the vessel was the camouflaged outline of a Skyhawk fighter, hugging the sea and

As I closed rapidly on his tail, I noticed, in my peripheral vision, a further A4 paralleling his track to my left. I hauled my aircraft to the left and rolled out less than half a mile behind the third fighter, closing like a runaway train. I had both missiles and guns selected and within seconds I heard the growl in my earphones telling me that my missile could see the heat from his engine. My right thumb pressed the lock button on the stick and instantly the small green missile cross in the head-up display transformed itself into a diamond, sitting squarely over the back end of the Skyhawk. At the same time, the growl of the missile became an urgent, high-pitched chirp, telling me that the infrared homing head of the weapon was locked on and ready to fire.

heading directly for the landing craft which had become a very personal part of my existence for the last 40 minutes. This was the very thing we had been anticipating and dreading so much.

LOCKED-ON AND READY TO FIRE

I jammed the throttle fully open, shouted over the radio: ‘A4s attacking the boat, follow me down!’,peeling off into a 60 degree dive towards the attackers. Dave Smith wrenched his Sea Harrier around after me but lost sight of me as we plunged downwards with the airspeed rocketing from the economic 240 knots to over 600 knots as we strained to catch the enemy

I raised the safety catch and mashed the red, recessed firing button with all the strength I could muster. There was a short delay as the missile’s thermal battery ignited and its voltage increased to that required to launch the weapon. In less than half a second, the Sidewinder was transformed from an inert, eleven-foot long tube, into a living, fire breathing monster as it accelerated to nearly three times the speed of sound and streaked towards the nearest enemy aircraft. As it left the rails, the rocket efflux and supersonic shock wave over the left wing rolled my charging Sea Harrier rapidly to the right, throwing me onto my right wing tip at less than 100 ft above the sea. As I rolled erect, the missile started to guide towards the Skyhawk’s jet pipe, leaving a white corkscrew of smoke against the slate-grey sea. Within two seconds, the missile disappeared directly up his

‘Pull up, pull up, you'reCOMPLETELY being fired at!’ OBLITERATED 104 www.britainatwar.com

before he could reach his target. I watched impotently, urging my aircraft onwards and downwards, as the first A4 opened fire with his 20mm cannon, bracketing the tiny matchbox of a craft. My heart soared as his bomb exploded a good 100 feet beyond them but then sank as I realised that a further A4 was running in behind him. The second pilot did not miss and I bore mute and frustrated witness to the violent fire-bright petals of the explosion which obliterated the stern, killing the crew and mortally wounding the landing craft. All consuming anger welled in my throat and I determined, in that instant, that this pilot was going to die!

jet pipe and what had been a living, vibrant, flying machine was completely obliterated in an instant as the missile tore into its vitals and ripped it apart. The pilot had no chance of survival and within a further two seconds the ocean had swallowed all trace him and his aeroplane, as if they had never been. There was no time for elation. As I was righting my machine after the first missile launch, I realised that I was pointing directly at another Argentine aircraft at a range of about one mile; the one I had seen hit the landing craft. I mashed the lock button again, with strength born of righteous anger and my second missile immediately locked onto his jet efflux, as he started a panic break towards me. As I was about to fire, the homing head lost lock and the missile cross wandered drunkenly onto the sea, some 50 feet below him. Cursing, I rejected the false

THE FINAL ENGAGEMENT Falklands Air War: 1982

lock, mashed the lock button again and fired and the thin grey missile flashed back across my nose and impacted his machine directly behind the cockpit. The complete rear half of the airframe simply disintegrated, as if a shotgun had been fired at a plastic model from close range. As the aluminium confetti of destruction fluttered seawards, I watched, fascinated, as the disembodied cockpit yawed rapidly through 90 degrees and splashed violently into the freezing water.

RAG-DOLL FIGURE

I felt a terrific surge of elation at the demise of the second A4 and started to scan ahead, in the murk, for the others. I had just picked out the next one, fleeing west, his belly only feet from the water, when a parachute snapped open right in front of my face. The pilot had somehow managed to eject from the gyrating cockpit in the second before it hit the water. He flashed over my right wing so close that I saw every detail of the rag-doll figure with its arms and legs thrown out in a grotesque star shape by the deceleration of the canopy. My feelings of anger and elation instantly changed to relief, as I realised that a fellow pilot had survived. An instant later, immense anger returned as I started to run down the next victim before he could make good his escape in the gloom. Now that I had launched both missiles, I had only guns with which to

despatch the remaining Skyhawks and as I lifted the safety slide on the trigger, I realised that my head-up display had disappeared and I had no gunsight. This was a well-known ‘glitch’ in the HUD software and could be cured easily by selecting the HUD off and then on again. In the ten seconds it took for the sight to reappear, it was all over. The A4 broke rapidly towards me as I screamed up behind him with a good 150 knots overtake. I pulled his blurred outline to the bottom of the windscreen and opened fire. The roar of the 30mm rounds leaving the guns at the rate of 40 per second filled the

cockpit. I kept my finger on the trigger and walked the rounds through him as best I could. Suddenly, over the radio came an urgent shout from Dave Smith: ‘Pull up, pull up, you’re being fired at!’ All he had seen of the fight up until now, because of the failing light, was two missile launches followed by two explosions. He then saw an aircraft only feet above the water, flying through a hail of explosions and assumed it to be me. By now I had run out of ammunition and at Dave’s cry, pulled up into the vertical, through the setting sun and in a big lazy looping 

ABOVE: Head-UpDisplay film of a practice bomb attack, a gun attack on Skyhawk and the launch of an AIM9L Sidewinder. BELOW: Morgan with the wreck of OC No1(F)'s Harrier GR3 after a landing accident at San Carlos airstrip.

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THE FINAL ENGAGEMENT Falklands Air War: 1982

manoeuvre, rolling out at 12,000 feet. In the vertical climb, I looked back down over Choiseul Sound and saw a white trail appear, accelerating towards the fleeing A4. About halfway to the target, the rocket motor burnt out and for a few maddening seconds, I thought it had been fired out of range and would drop into the water. Dave had not misjudged it though and after some seven seconds of flight, there was a brilliant white flash. The Skyhawk was so low that the flash of the warhead merged with its reflection in the water

of the Sound. A fraction of a second later, the aircraft disappeared in a huge yellow-orange fireball, spreading burning remains over the sand dunes on the north coast of Lafonia.

BANGED THE MACHINE DOWN

Climbing rapidly through 20,000 feet, I realised that we were going to be very tight for gas. Comfortably, we needed 2,000 lbs of fuel for returning to the ship and my gauges were reading less than 1,400 lbs. As I climbed through

25,000 feet between the odd burst of anti-aircraft fire, my low-level fuel lights came on, indicating 1,300 lbs remaining. At 40,000 feet, I called the carrier and told them that I was returning short of fuel and they obliged by heading towards us to close the distance. When I closed the throttle to start a cruise descent from 90 miles out, I was still uncertain that I was going to make it before I took an unwanted bath. At 40,000 feet the sun was still a blaze of orange on the western horizon but as I descended, the light became

‘My world had become an extremely dark and lonely place’

ABOVE: Sea Harriers readied on the deck of HMS Hermes as she heads south in heavy seas.

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THE FINAL ENGAGEMENT Falklands Air War: 1982

a progressively worse. By the time I had descended to 10,000 feet, my world had become an extremely dark and lonely place. The adrenalin levels, which had been recovering to normal during the twenty minutes after the engagement, now started to increase again in anticipation of my first night deck landing. To compound the problem and to give final proof of ‘Sod’s law’, Hermes had managed to find one of the massive thunderstorms and was in heavy rain. I realised I did not have sufficient fuel to carry out

sideways to hover over the centreline of the deck, level with the aft end of the superstructure. I knew that I had very little fuel remaining, so finesse went out of the window as I closed the throttle and banged the machine down on the rain-streaked deck. Once safely taxied forward into the aptly named ‘Graveyard’ and lashed in place, I shut down the engine and heard Dave’s jet landing on behind me. My fuel gauges showed 300 lbs, sufficient for a further two minutes flying!

HIS GUN HAD JAMMED a proper radar approach and asked the controller to just talk me onto the centreline as I adjusted my glide so that I would not have to touch the throttle until the last minute. With three miles to run I was still in thick, turbulent cloud when my fuel warning lights began to flash urgently, telling me that I had 500 lbs of fuel remaining. At two miles, I saw a glimmer of light emerging through the rain and at 800 feet the lights fused into the recognisable outline of the carrier. I slammed the nozzle lever into the hover stop, selected full flap and punched the undercarriage button to lower the wheels. I picked up the mirror sight, which confirmed I was well above the ideal glide path but dropping rapidly towards the invisible sea. With about half a mile to run, I added a handful of power and felt the Pegasus engine’s instant response, stopping my descent at about 300 feet. The wheels locked down as I applied full braking stop to position myself off the port side of the deck and seconds later, I was transitioning

Our debrief took place in the Wardroom bar, which John Locke, the ship’s universally loved and respected Commander, had kept open for us. Here we discovered that a pilot from our sister squadron in Invincible had reported seeing four aircraft destroyed during our engagement. Neither of us could give a satisfactory explanation of the fourth kill but this version was sent back to UK, describing the mission as a night training sortie. This elicited the following amusing response from C in C Fleet: CONGRATULATIONS YOUR EVENING SORTIE. IF THIS IS WHAT YOU DO ON A TRAINING MISSION, I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU ARE OPERATIONAL! I discovered some years later, that the fourth pilot, Hector Sanchez had in fact, escaped after jettisoning his fuel tanks. He made it to the C130 tanker with a teaspoonful of fuel, having received small arms damage to his aircraft. Hector survived the war and

recently retired from the Argentine Air Force. In the summer of 1993 we met in London before Hector and his wife stayed with us in our Somerset cottage. After several pints of scrumpy we discovered what had really happened that evening more than eleven years earlier. To my dismay, I found out that I had ended up in front of Hector and had it not been for the fact that his gun had jammed, he might have been the only Argentine pilot to shoot down a Sea Harrier! 

CENTRE: An Argentinian Skyhawk takes on fuel while flying over the South Atlantic. TOP: David Morgan makes a postconflict visit to the crash site of one of the A-4 Skyhawks he downed. ABOVE: Morgan and family at Buckingham Palace after the award of his DSC.

David Morgan’s book Hostile Skies is published by Orion Books in hardback and paperback. www.britainatwar.com 107

Warfare TT Ages.indd 1

10/06/2016 15:06

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

| RECONNAISSANCE REPORT

Somme:

141 Days, 141 Lives Alexandra Churchill with Andrew Holmes

Publisher: The History Press www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978 0 7509 6532 3 Hardback: 240 pages RRP: £25.00

B

IT IS refreshing to discover something that stands out in a publishing world currently awash with books about the First World War. Alexandra Churchill and Andrew Holmes, however, have achieved just that with this unique book. 1 July 1916 was unquestionably the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army, but far less is known about the personal tragedies of ordinary service personnel who fought during an extended and gruelling offensive, stretching over a period of five months. Whilst the very word ‘Somme’ is itself highly evocative, the great impact of this book is created by the authors’ use of a clever device that traces the fate of individuals; this overrides the enormity of official statistics and goes a long way towards humanising the horror. With an extensive track record in First World War research for both television and books, author Alexandra Churchill’s evident passion for the subject shines

through and is reflected in a meticulous level of detail. Her collaborator, Andrew Holmes, is a researcher and photographer who has been visiting the battlefields of the Great War for over ten years. An introductory scene is set in the opening pages, and what follows is a diarised account of the campaign, represented through the stories of 141 allied personnel who served and died, one for every day of the offensive. This is sobering reading, as it represents the many

thousands who never made it back, and will undoubtedly engage readers who have a fascination with the ‘story behind the story’, as much as those who have a more scholarly interest in the campaigns of the Great War. There are plenty of academic critiques of the Battle of the Somme out there; this is not one of them, and was not written with that purpose. Instead, these are the very personal stories behind the campaign, stretching over the entire 141 days of the battle. This is not to detract from the academic rigour of the authors; I struggle to think of another example in which individual accounts of the combatants have been so thoroughly researched and combined with a careful depiction of the events that led to their deaths, complete with significant details about the conditions they would have endured. Every entry examines how each came to their final resting place, and gives information of where they are either buried or commemorated, with a useful map in the Postscript illustrating the location of the CWGC cemeteries mentioned in the book itself. Encompassing all regions and the efforts of Britain’s various dominions, and balanced evenly between officers and men, its

scope is remarkable. Artillery, Air, Medical, Lines of Communication and even the Navy and Nursing Services receive a nod, giving an extensive representation of all who took part in the battle. Beautifully produced by the History Press, this book is impressive in its presentation and generously filled with photographs contemporary to that era. A wealth of modern CWGC imagery of striking quality - taken by the authors themselves, and shot solely in black and white - heightens the dramatic atmosphere of the book, and add to its relevancy to the centenary. This is a moving and highly accessible commemorative effort. As a representation of the battle through the eyes of the ordinary people who fought it, this is a poignant tribute to all the men who served and demonstrates clearly why the Somme Offensive was such a key event – not just during the First World War, but for British modern history as a whole. 100 years on, challenge yourself to read every entry over the 141-day battle in real time. REVIEWED BY SARAH WARRENMACMILLAN.

Illustrations  References/Notes Appendices  Index 



www.britainatwar.com 109

RECONNAISSANCE REPORT |

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

Fritz and Contact! A Victor Tanker Tommy Captain’s

August 2016 ISSUE

ON SALE FROM 28 july 2016

Across the Barbed Wire Experiences in the Peter Doyle and RAF, Before, During Robin Schäfer and After the Publisher: The History Press Falklands Conflict

THE ROLLS ROYCE ‘KIFARU’

Overshadowed by the war on the Western Front, the East Africa campaign raged from 1914 through to 1918 with the allies in hot pursuit of the German Schutztruppe under Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Often overlooked is the extraordinary tale of the Rolls Royce armoured cars that fought their way through the bush and frightened the enemy African askaris, who referred to them as ‘Kifaru’ or rhinoceros. Kevin Patience tells the story of the twelve cars that came to East Africa and played a notable part in the campaign.

www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-7509-5684-0 Hardback:Grub 288 Street pages Publisher: RRP: £20.00 www.grubstreet.co.uk

Bob Tuxford       

ISBN: 978-1-910690-22-2 Hardback: 206 pages RRP: £20.00

B

PUBLISHERS GRUB Street have very much begun to make a name for themselves with their excellent series of titles that follow and tell the exploits of pilots and aircrews of modern (and now not so modern!) RAF jet aircraft: Lightning Boys, Harrier Boys, Vulcan Boys, Valiant Boys and Tornado Boys to name but few. Although not specifically of the ‘boys’ genre, Grub Street’s latest title is sure to appeal to the many ardent followers of their jet-jockeys series of books and they will surely want this one on their book shelves! It also is a fine supplementary work to Grub Street’s Victor Boys book. The role of the Victor, first as a nuclear-capable bomber and latterly as an air-to-air refuelling tanker, is one that stands out in the annals of the RAF in the Cold War era and author Squadron Leader Robert ‘Bob’ Tuxford’s role as a pilot flying the type spanned from the 1970s through to the Falklands Conflict and beyond – albeit with service ‘interruptions’ to his life with the Victor, first when seconded as a KC-135A pilot to the USAF and later as a Jet Provost RAF instructor. However, it is his Cold War Victor experiences and his notable work in the South Atlantic in 1982 for which this book is the more notable. The book’s title is a nod to the crucial response during airto-air refuelling as the receiving aircraft locked its refuelling probe into the Victor’s trailing basket, held steady for the recipient by men like Bob Tuxford. Perhaps

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not a role that was perceived quite as glamorous as that of the fighter pilot, or even a Vulcan bomber crew perhaps, it was a role that was wholly crucial to fighter and bomber operations and it is for such operations, particularly involving the Vulcan, that Bob made more than a mark for himself as one of the re-fuelling tanker captains who enabled Vulcan crews to make their historic long-range strikes on the Falklands. During these operations he was the last Victor tanker pilot to refuel the Vulcan flown by Martin Withers just before he commenced his fateful night-time bombing run in 1982 and in an operation that was to earn Bob Tuxford a well-deserved AFC. Tuxford tells his engaging story in a pacey and often humorous vein – a style so often typified by RAF aircrew – and frequently in an almost selfdeprecating way. This is a book that can be described as a real page-turner and fills a notable gap in aviation history books. Nicely produced, and with a wealth of black and white and colour images, this is a book that will certainly appeal to those who follow the story of the RAF in its post-war era. Both the author and the publisher are to be congratulated indeed for what is truly an extremely fine piece of work. REVIEWED BY ANDY SAUNDERS

Illustrations  References/Notes Appendices  Index 



OTRANTO BARRAGE RAID

Almost a century ago, a maritime 'David and Goliath' clash between armed trawlers and Austrian battleships resulted in a shower of gallantry awards as well as charges of cowardice. Steve Snelling relates the dramatic story of the raid on the Otranto Barrage and its remarkable repercussions.

BADER’S LAST FIGHT

The legendary RAF fighter pilot, Douglas Bader, was brought down over France on 9 August 1941 in what has since become both a celebrated and controversial episode. To mark the 75th anniversary of the event, and the anniversary of costly RAF Fighter Command sorties over France throughout 1941, Andy Saunders examines the story surrounding Bader being brought Illustrations  References/Notes  down and captured. Appendices



Index



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14/06/2016 14:03

War Memorials Trust

Protecting our war memorials together

There are an estimated 100,000 war memorials in the UK. While many are treasured and looked after up to 10,000 are suffering from ageing, weathering or vandalism. War Memorials Trust is a charity which works to protect and conserve all war memorials in the UK by offering advice and grants for repair and conservation works. By becoming a War Memorials Trust member today at www.warmemorials.org/join for the special introductory rate of £15 you can help us to ensure that those commemorated on our war memorials are not forgotten. Registered Charity Commission Number: 1062255

www.warmemorials.org Fenton, Staffordshire (WM113) © War Memorials Trust, 2011

WAR MEMORIALS TRUST

Walpole St Peter War Memorial



Walpole St Peter WAR MEMORIAL C

ONCLUDING OUR occasional series of war memorial features in conjunction with War Memorials Trust we look at the Norfolk village of Walpole St Peter, close to King’s Lynn, where the village’s sandstone war memorial stands in the churchyard. Like many Norfolk churches, St Peter’s is larger than one might expect for the size of the village. Indeed, it is one of the largest in East Anglia. It was rebuilt after a 14th century flood and the Black Death and, at least in part, the size is a reflection of the wealth of local landowners. Today it is Grade One listed. The memorial has a four-stepped base, with inscriptions in the plinth and two upper steps, topped by a shaft with a pinnacle of a calvary cross within a stone canopy shelter. The inscription features names from both the First and Second World Wars, in addtion to Northern Ireland, the lettering inscribed into the stonework. In 2015 a grant of £1,372 was made through the War Memorials Trust Grant Scheme towards stone cleaning using steam to remove dirt and moss and repointing of joints in lime mortar where needed. Many war memorials have names of doubtful or uncertain origin, and Walpole St Peter is no exception. Who, for instance, was Joseph Thompson, a casualty of the First World War? It seems that it is not known exactly which Joseph Thompson was commemorated. Moving forward to the nineteen seventies, the facts in the case of Private Robert H Mason are sadly well documented. He was a nineteen-year-old Private in the 2nd Bn, Royal Anglian Regiment. On 24 October 1972 he was shot dead by a sniper while on a foot patrol in Naples Street off Grosvenor Road, Belfast.

A reminder of the particular horrors of the First World War comes if one delves into the circumstances of the death of Private John Edward Peters,11th Leicestershire Regiment. He died, aged 29, from broncho-pneumonia, on 5 November 1918 just six days before the official end of the fighting. The son of John and Mary Ann Peters of Walpole St Andrew, his illness had come on as a result of gas poisoning. Pte J E Peters is buried in Etaples Miltary Cemetery, France. Private William King of the Essex Regiment, and formerly of the Norfolk Regiment, set off for Gallipoli but never arrived. He was on board the troopship Royal Edward (formerly SS Cairo) when it was torpedoed by UB-14 in the Aegean on 13 August 1915. The ship sank very quickly with a very heavy loss of life. William King was thirty-three and lived in Terrington Marsh. He is also remembered on the Helles Memorial. The names commemorated on the Walpole St Peter memorial include one man who served on D-Day. Lance Corporal George Reeve served with the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and took part in the airborne operations at the beginning of the Normandy invasion. He was killed on 7 June 1944, aged twenty-nine and is buried in Ranville War Cemetery, Normandy. The address given to the IWGC by his parents was in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Sergeant Geoffrey Bunning had died just over two years earlier. He was a wireless/operator air gunner in a Stirling of 214 Squadron, taking part in the “thousand bomber” attack on Cologne of May 30/31 1942. As with so many of his Bomber Command comrades he is buried in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in a collective grave.

BELOW: The Walpole St Peter War Memorial. BOTTOM: The troopship Royal Edward, sunk in the Aegean in 1915.

Britain at War is collaborating with War Memorials Trust in a series of articles. War Memorials Trust works for the protection and conservation of war memorials in the UK and provides advice and information as well as running grant schemes for the repair and conservation of war memorials. WMT are a registered charity relying entirely on voluntary contributions to undertake our work. www.warmemorials.org Email: [email protected] www.britainatwar.com 113

FROM

MAIN PICTURE: Fledgling Eagles. The first group of American volunteers to be trained at 56 OTU RAF Sutton Bridge photographed as ‘brand new’ RAFVR pilot officers outside the officers' mess in March 1941. The building still survives on what is now an industrial site. Seven out of the sixteen pilots in this photo were killed. Figure in bracket indicates ‘Boat Number’. Front row left to right: Rufus C Ward. (7), J M Hill (8) (k), Collier C Mize (8), Fred R Scudday (8) (k), Loran L Laughlin (8) (k), Oscar H Coen (7), Tom P McGerty (8) (k), Back row left to right: Hillard S Fenlaw (8) (k), Lawson F Reed (8), Wendell Pendleton (8), William L Davis (8) (k), Joe E Durham (8), Virgil W Olson (Sweeny; Sept 1940) (k), William J Hall (7), Tom C Wallace (8), Carroll W McColpin (8), Plt Off Ed Miluck (8) and Sgt Bert Stewart (7) were not present for this photo. (COLLIER MIZE VIA EAGLE SQN ASSOC)

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FLEDGLING

D

URING 1940 and 1941 RAF Sutton Bridge and No.56 Operational Training Unit (56 OTU) played host to budding fighter pilots of virtually every nationality serving with the RAF; the catalogue of nations including citizens of the USA even at such an early stage of the war. The United States officially entered the war in December 1941 but long before US servicemen officially arrived in England, Americans were already serving - and dying – in the RAF. 56 OTU was responsible for training many of these American

volunteers, some of whom went on to become members of the famous Eagle Squadrons of the RAF – 71, 121 & 133 Squadrons. What follows outlines this unusual story and looks in particular at the first group of RAF Sutton Bridge’s fledgling Eagles.

SWEENY CANDIDATES

At the beginning of 1940, with publicity about the air war in Europe gathering momentum within the United States, civilian pilots clamoured to get into action. Helped by such men as the American adventurer Colonel

FROM FLEDGLINGS TO EAGLES American Eagles: 1941

NGS TO EAGLES

Long before the United States had entered the war, American volunteers were clamouring to come to Britain and join the RAF as fighter pilots. Alistair Goodrum charts the history of these early American ‘Eagles’. In a quiet corner of Sutton Bridge village cemetery in South Lincolnshire, among the sixty war graves is a headstone bearing the simple inscription: Pilot Officer W L Davis Pilot Royal Air Force 18th March 1941 Behind this unremarkable epitaph lies a remarkable story of endeavour.

Charles Sweeny some ‘early-birds’ found their way to France, intent on joining that country’s air force. Frustrated by the collapse of France in 1940 before they could see action, the handful that managed to escape to England were welcomed by the depleted RAF and some saw action in the Battle of Britain itself. It was, however, Colonel Sweeny’s nephew, Charles Sweeny Jr, an anglophile businessman resident in England, who introduced and energetically pursued the propaganda-led idea of a single American-manned fighter squadron in the RAF to the Air Ministry and

for which approval was rapidly given. Operating inside the USA, he then recruited and financed American volunteers who, augmented by some of the ‘early birds’, formed the nucleus of 71 (Eagle) Squadron RAF. Having achieved his personal objective, amid considerable self-publicity that was frowned upon in official circles back in Britain, Charles Sweeny pulled away from further direct involvement with Americans in the RAF. However, emerging in parallel with Sweeney’s work was another organisation that would consolidate and then far exceed his pioneering concept.  www.britainatwar.com 115

USA, Knight found fame as an aviation artist and writer, becoming widely respected for distinctive illustrations, such as those he created in ‘Pilot’s Luck’ (1927) and ‘Ace Drummond’, a hugely popular American cartoon series of the 1930s. Later, he also wrote and illustrated such books as ‘The Story Of Flight’ in 1954.

RECRUITMENT BEGINS

ABOVE: Fg Off Eddie Miluck, on the right, with OC 250 Sqn during the North African Desert campaign 1942. (E MILUCK VIA HUMPHREY WYNN)

BELOW: Eagle pilot Fg Off Eddie Miluck of No.250 Squadron climbing into the cockpit of his P-40 Kittyhawk fighterbomber in the North African desert at the time of the El Alamein campaign in 1942. (E MILUCK VIA HUMPHREY WYNN)

CLAYTON KNIGHT COMMITTEE

In violation of the code of neutrality, and under constant scrutiny by the FBI but with the US government contriving to maintain a ‘blind-eye’ attitude, an organization known as the Clayton Knight Committee recruited civilian pilots in the USA for service with both the RCAF and RAF. It should be borne in mind that not all American volunteers reaching the RAF actually passed through the Clayton Knight/Sweeny schemes, and neither did all of them actually serve in the three particular squadrons (71, 121 and 133) and qualify to be called ‘Eagles’. Furthermore, 16 British pilots also served with RAF Eagle Squadrons. So, who was this mysterious Clayton Knight? Born in 1891 in Rochester, NY, he joined the Aviation Section of the US Signal Corps during the First World War and having been sent to England for advanced flying training was, in 1918, a pilot attached to 206 Squadron, RAF, in France. His war

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flying ended abruptly on 5 October 1918 when the DH9 he was flying was shot down behind enemy lines. Severely wounded, Knight managed to crash-land, saving his own life and that of his observer, 2nd Lt Perring. Hospitalised in Belgium, Knight came close to losing a leg but survived both his wounds and captivity. Back in the

When war broke out, Canada put its First World War hero Air Marshal ‘Billy’ Bishop VC in charge of recruitment for the RCAF. Realising that red-blooded Americans might try to enlist as ‘Canadians’ to get into action both with the RCAF and RAF, Bishop actively encouraged this process inside the USA by asking Clayton Knight to set up an organisation to screen ‘volunteers’. Knight was assisted and financed by Homer Smith, a wealthy Canadian, and their main US office was in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Word spread like wildfire among the prolific US civilian pilot fraternity and applications were so numerous that more offices were set up in major cities across America. To be considered, volunteers had to be aged between 20 and 30, have a high-school diploma, good eyesight, a Civil Aeronautics Authority licence and around 200 or more flying hours. Accounts vary on these criteria, but applicants also had to have a medical and take a flying check at a local airport. The standards set were frequently not rigidly adhered to, nor were they as demanding as those required by the United

FROM FLEDGLINGS TO EAGLES American Eagles: 1941

BELOW: Aerial view of RAF Sutton Bridge, home to 56 OTU in 1941. (P H T GREEN COLLECTION)

Empire Air Training schemes gathering momentum across the Commonwealth at this time, for example, had a voracious appetite for instructors. Nowhere more so than in Canada. In the second half of 1940 Clayton Knight contracted three US flying schools to train pilots for the RAF from those applicants. Representing the RAF, Sqn Ldr Randolph Mills DFC was posted to Washington to help establish the schools, their flying programme and to monitor standards. The courses were known in the USA as British Refresher Courses and were located at airports in Dallas, Tulsa, and Glendale, California (called ‘Polaris’). Later, a fourth school was established at Bakersfield, California. States Army Air Corps, whose lengthy, thorough - but slow and over-subscribed - training programme was less attractive than the prospect of adventure in England. There is also anecdotal evidence that some candidates’ claims as to their hours of experience may have been ‘doctored’ - but the need was pressing and the planned flying training courses in the USA would soon sort out those who could not ‘make the grade’. By mid-1940 the Clayton Knight organization had vetted thousands of applicants and Knight returned to Ottawa with an initial list of 300 selected volunteers, most of whom would be destined for RAF fighters. The Committee, later renamed the Canadian Aviation Bureau, continued its work recruiting thousands more aircrew in the USA for service with the RCAF and RAF as single and multi-engine operational and instructional aircrew. The British

FLEDGLINGS

The first American volunteers were called in small batches for basic service flying training with the above schools. If they survived and passed the course, they were usually commissioned as officers in the RAF and on arrival in England, their new uniforms proudly bore RAF pilot wings. The problem of swearing allegiance to the British Crown, and thereby potentially forfeiting the right to US citizenship, was overcome by special wording approved by the British Privy Council and in the USA. Ways were also found to circumvent difficulties associated with the US Draft Board and of entering a war zone. The US government quietly made it known that volunteers would not forfeit US nationality and could elect to transfer to the USAAC if America joined the war. 

ABOVE: The woven shoulder patch designed by Charles Sweeney Jr and worn proudly by the pilots of the RAF Eagle Squadrons.

(EAGLE SQUADRON ASSOC.)

LEFT: Hubert ‘Bert’ Stewart, whose dogged persistence eventually paid off.

(COURTESY OF 4TH FIGHTER GROUP ASSOCIATION)

LEFT: Pictured here with film star Betty Grable during her visit in July 1941, Sqn Ldr Randolph Stuart Mills DFC (left) helped set up RAF training in the USA and was CFI at Polaris Flight Academy when John Richard Cox (right) was a pupil. Cox died when MV Fort Richepanse on which he was sailing to England was sunk in the Atlantic by U-567 on 3 Sept 1941. (MAX

MILLS VIA TONY BROADHURST)

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FROM FLEDGLINGS TO EAGLES American Eagles: 1941

Those early arrivals, through both the Sweeny operation and some ‘independent travellers’ - about nineteen in all - are believed to have been trained on the Hurricane at 5 (later 55) OTU, based at RAF Aston Down and were posted to the first Eagle Squadron, No.71, between October and December 1940. However, most of Clayton Knight’s recruits selected for fighters in 1941 found themselves posted to 56 OTU Sutton Bridge. Here, they too were to learn to fly the Hurricane and soon the North American drawl joined accents from occupied Europe in the pubs and homes of this rural town.

OPERATIONAL TRAINING

Typical among the first Americans to arrive at Sutton Bridge was 25 year-old Plt Off William Lee Davis of St Louis, Missouri. Bill Davis was an aviation enthusiast since childhood and by December 1940 had accumulated

325 private flying hours. After a fourweek training course in Dallas, Texas, designed to take the place of the RAF Service Flying Training School (SFTS) stage and including about 40-50 flying hours, he departed for Canada by train on February 13, 1941. En route, the train made a short stop at St Louis where he had just twenty-five precious minutes to say hello to his parents and girlfriend and do a hurried interview for a newspaper. Once off American soil, Bill was enlisted in Ottawa and is believed to have shipped out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, on MV Georgic, docking in Liverpool on 5 March. Although both Sweeny and Knight had offices in St Louis, Bill’s name does not appear in the Eagle Squadron Association’s ‘Boat Lists’ but it is likely he was a Knight recruit and his omission from Boat No.8 is due to his death during training - a fact probably overlooked during the post-war analysis that produced these documents.

Interviewed by the St Louis PostDispatch as he was about to leave Union Railroad Station for the last time, he said: ‘I consider joining the RAF is a matter of sentiment and heritage as my grandfather was an English Army officer who fought in the Boer War.’ In his only cablegram to the folks back home, Davis told his fiancée, Marian Gall: ‘Everything fine, England very beautiful, love you and miss you. Wish you were here.’ Having soloed in a Hurricane, and already with a minor landing mishap in P5192 on 17 March, Bill was sent off next day for a routine map-reading exercise in P5195. Becoming lost beneath a rainy overcast sky, the flat featureless countryside must have seemed miserable, uninviting and a million miles from home. Almost out of fuel, he landed with undercarriage down in a field at New Leake Fen, near Boston, Lincolnshire where his luck ran out. On soft ground, the wheels dug in as he touched down 

ABOVE: Page from the civilian flying logbook of ‘Eagle’ Forrest J Cox, (Boat No.18) showing his RAF preselection flights and a fortyminute ‘Passed Canada Check’ on 24 March 1941 at Vial Airfield, Los Angeles. (MAX

MILLS VIA TONY BROADHURST)

RIGHT: Fg Off Richard Fuller Patterson, although not featured in this article, was typical of the American Eagles. He served with 121 Squadron and, significantly, was shot down off the Belgian coast and killed in this Spitfire on 7 December 1941 – the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the date America entered the war. It was also a date that would start a process which would see an eventual transfer of the ‘Eagles’ to the USAAF. (1940 MEDIA LTD)

BELOW: Page from Forrest J Cox’s flying log book during his RAF flying training course at Glendale (Polaris) Flight Academy, LA, California prior to sailing for England. (MAX MILLS VIA TONY BROADHURST)

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RIGHT: At 56 OTU fledgling Eagles spent their first few flying hours on dual instruction in the Miles Master I (such as N7547, seen here), before being let loose with a Hurricane. (AUTHOR)

On their way. Nine more fledgling Eagles on board Boat No. 18, crossing the Atlantic in 1941. (KIA = Killed in action; KOAS = Killed on active service). Jack J Lynch. Forrest M Cox. Donald W McLeod. Kenneth L Holder (KIA) Hugh C Brown (KIA) Robert S Sprague (KIA) James G Coxetter (KIA) Lewis Louden (KOAS) James E Peck (KOAS) (MAX MILLS VIA TONY BROADHURST)

Eagle Boat No.7 MV Johan Van Oldenbarnevelt. Depart Canada February 17, 1941. Arrive Clyde February 27, 1941. 61920 R C Ward 61921 W I Hall ABOVE RIGHT: Hurricanes of 55 OTU RAF Usworth, where some American volunteers were also trained. (P H T GREEN COLLECTION)

62244 O H Coen RCAF H L Stewart

and in an instant the Hurricane flipped onto its back. Bill Davis died from a broken neck, the first American fatality at Sutton Bridge and the first St Louis son to be killed in the war. He is buried in Sutton Bridge churchyard as an officer of the RAF, the headstone giving no hint of his nationality.

Eagle Boat No.8 MV Georgic Depart Halifax, Canada February 24, 1941. Arrive Liverpool March 5, 1941. 61923 61924 61925 61926 61927 61928 61929

J E Durham H S Fenlaw L L Laughlin C W McColpin T P McGerty E T Miluck C C Mize

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61930 61931 61932 61933 61934 61459

W Pendleton L F Read F Scudday T M Wallace J M Hill W L Davis

BOAT LISTS

One of Bill’s buddies, Carroll ‘Red’ McColpin, survived the rigours of OTU, RAF, USAAF and USAF service, rising to the rank of Major-General in command of the US Fourth Air Force in post-war years, before retiring in 1968. Of his entry into the RAF, and his time prior to becoming an Eagle Squadron ace, McColpin recalled: ‘We sailed with ten [sic] other Yankees... having been provided with one-way ship tickets to England.’ By careful examination of the ‘Boat Lists’ compiled by the Eagle Squadron Association after the war, it has been possible to untangle some of the web of names and arrivals in England of American volunteers from those US flying training courses. For example, as with Bill Davis, Virgil Olson is not recorded on any of the Boat Lists but he is in the photograph taken at Sutton Bridge of that first American course. Virgil was an early Sweeny candidate who escaped from France in May 1940 but it is not known what happened to him before he turned up at 56 OTU in March 1941.

DESTINATION ENGLAND

Another aspect of this quest for action is illustrated by Sgt Hubert ‘Bert’

Stewart’s story. He travelled to Canada under his own steam to join the RCAF and recalled his own highly dubious onward journey to England in the company of Plt Offs Ward, Coen and Hall, with neither official knowledge, sanction or ticket. At his Canadian training station, Bert constantly pestered his instructors to post him to fighters but was continually told he was likely to go to bombers or become an instructor himself. He would not accept this fate and while travelling between postings, fell in with Oscar Coen and Bill Hall at a railroad station. They explained how it could be done legally, but Bert just decided to tag along with them and bluff his way to England. It worked! Most early American arrivals went to RAF Uxbridge, and it was here that Bert was ‘rumbled’ and detained while the authorities checked him out. Ward, Coen and Hall meantime were posted to RAF Sutton Bridge, leaving Bert to plead his case all over again. So determined was his pleading that the RAF gave in, and on 7 March he too was sent to 56 OTU to become a fighter pilot. Ward, Hall and Coen are also in the first course photo - taken outside the Officers' Mess - but Sgt Bert Stewart is not; which suggests

FROM FLEDGLINGS TO EAGLES American Eagles: 1941

Eagle Squadron Boat List Ships carrying American volunteers to UK during 1940 & 1941. Some crossed the Atlantic in convoy, others sailed independently. Depart Halifax, Canada; Arrive Clyde or Liverpool. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Depart Canada July 30, 1940 August 13, 1940 August 27, 1940 September 6, 1940 September 27, 1940 November 2, 1940 February 17, 1941 February 24, 1941 March 25, 1941 April 20, 1941 April 30, 1941 May23, 1941 June 6, 1941 June 19, 1941 June 27, 1941 July 6, 1941 July 10, 1941 July 22, 1941 August 4, 1941 August 15, 1941 August 25, 1941 August 26, 1941 August 26, 1941 September 27, 1941

Ship Name Duchess of Bedford Duchess of Richmond Not known Erin Duchess of Atholl Duchess of Atholl Johan Van Oldenbarnevelt Georgic Jean Jadot Alaunia / Royal Ulsterman Not known Not known Bayano Not known Olaf Fostenes Not known Mosdale Not known Madura Not known Fort Richepanse Not known Manchester Division Bayano

Airmen on board 3 6 4 5 3 1 4* 13* 11 4 2 10 26 14 8 2 9 9** 6 4 11*** 4 8 19

Notes: 1. * = These two batches made up the first distinct American course at 56 OTU RAF Sutton Bridge. Johan Van Oldenbarnevelt part of

Convoy TC9; Georgic sailed independently Halifax to Liverpool; 2. ** = Forrest M Cox’s group of volunteers; 3. *** = Four airmen from this batch drowned when ship was sunk by U-567 on September 3, 1941; 4. Most of the pilots on Boats 1 to 5 attended 55 OTU RAF Aston Down while those on Boats 6 to 16 and 19 to 24 went to 56 OTU RAF Sutton Bridge; 5. Volunteers on Boat 17 went to 52 OTU, RAF Debden; Boat 18 went to 55 OTU, RAF Usworth; 6. Volunteers on boats subsequent to No.24 were distributed among several OTUs.

that either he had not arrived or, being the only NCO among the Americans, he was left out. Pilot Officers Bill Hall, Rufus Ward and Tom Wallace were at RAF Sutton Bridge for about six weeks and after 35 hours flying Hurricanes they were posted to 71 Squadron on April 19. Bill gained the dubious distinction of being the first Eagle to be shot down and made prisoner of war during a fighter sweep in July 1941, while Rufus survived the war and returned to the USA. Although ‘washed-out’ of a USAAC cadetship (a frequent source of Knight’s recruits), all Eddie Miluck, from Mandana, N. Dakota, ever craved was ‘to fly airplanes, see the world and have adventure.’ For Eddie, the tiny

Clayton-Knight advert he spotted in a Dallas newspaper was a heavensent opportunity. He applied and was accepted. Although on Boat No.8, Miluck missed the photo session because he was in hospital at the time. Eddie went through 56 OTU without mishap and was posted to 121 and 71 Squadrons, volunteered for an overseas posting and completed RAF service flying Curtis P-40 Kittyhawks with 250 Squadron in North Africa. After postings to 121 and 71 Sqns, Fred Scudday also opted for overseas service and found himself in action over Malta but transferred to the USAAF only to die in a flying accident in India in June 1944.

NARROW ESCAPES

After about 40 minutes of dual instruction in a Miles Master before moving onto the Hurricane proved to be quite a handful and several more of that first batch of volunteers had narrow escapes during this vulnerable period. Plt Off ‘Red’ McColpin had a minor mishap in Hurricane L2006 on 2 April when its engine caught fire and he was obliged to force land at Peterspoint, just west of the airfield. He was at 56 OTU for five weeks before being posted to 607 Sqn, later joining 121 Sqn in May 1941 and going on to serve in each of the other two Eagle squadrons, rising to command 133 just before it was absorbed into the USAAC as the 

BELOW: Hurricane L2006 of 56 OTU. Pilot Officer Carroll ‘Red’ McColpin escaped uninjured when he crashlanded this aeroplane at Sutton Bridge airfield on April 2, 1941. (AUTHOR)

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ABOVE: Seventy-five years on and somewhat dilapidated, this is the Officers' Mess building on the former RAF Sutton Bridge aerodrome. It is outside this front door that 56 OTU’s first group of intrepid American Eagle volunteers were photographed in March 1941. (AUTHOR)

336th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group. He is credited with at least twelve victories whilst in the RAF. On his first solo, in Hurricane P1935, Plt Off Oscar Coen escaped unhurt on 14 March when it bounced on landing, dropped hard onto the port wing and caused the undercarriage to collapse - a common mishap among OTU trainees! Posted to 71 Sqn, he was shot down over France on 20 October 1941. Evading capture, he was passed down the Resistance chain, reached Gibraltar and then England on 28 December to later resume operations. He retired from the USAF in 1962. Also on 14 March, Plt Off Virgil Olson ‘bent’ Hurricane N2341 in a landing accident at Sutton Bridge before following Coen into 71 Sqn in April, losing his life on 19 August 1941 while on an escort sortie. This ability of most OTU pupils to have close shaves (e.g. 26 American mishaps at Sutton Bridge during 1941) put Plt Off Hillard S Fenlaw, into

the mishaps listings. Mixing up the undercarriage lever with the flaps, he managed to fold up the undercarriage of Hurricane N8021 while taxying out for take-off on April 4. Posted to 71 Sqn he was killed in action on 7 September 1941, followed by Tom McGerty who died in action with 71 Sqn on 17 September. Loran Laughlin, meanwhile, ‘pranged’ Hurricane N2341 at Sutton Bridge in another 14 March mishap after a heavy landing from which he walked away. His luck eventually ran out, too. Posted first to 607 Sqn, then to 121 Sqn on its formation in May, Loran became 121’s first casualty when he lost his life in a training accident in June 1941. And Sgt Bert Stewart didn’t get off scot-free either, since 56 OTU war diary records his Hurricane, W9114, suffering an undercarriage collapse on 8 May. Bert was posted to 121 Sqn at RAF Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire, that same month and was commissioned.

Of the others in the photo, Lawson Reed and Collier Mize both went to 43 Sqn before postings to 121 in May and both survived the war. Joe Durham left 56 OTU in June to join 121 Squadron at Kirton-in-Lindsey, transferring later to RAF Coastal Command. Wendell Pendleton became an Eagle with 71 Sqn when he left Sutton Bridge but is believed to have transferred to Ferry Command and eventually returned to the USA. Plt Off J M Hill did not become an Eagle but was posted to 111 Sqn, RAF Dyce, where he is believed to have died in an air accident. By the date when the three RAF Eagle Squadrons transferred to USAAF control in September 1942, it is believed 244 Americans had served in them; the Clayton Knight Committee being responsible for recruiting over 90%, while Sweeny and the ‘independent travellers’ accounted for the remainder. The enormous contribution by 56 OTU at RAF Sutton Bridge was to train 144 American volunteers on Hurricanes between March and December 1941, 87 of whom served with an Eagle Squadron. At a time when RAF Fighter Command was recovering from the Battle of Britain and stepping up its cross-channel air campaign, these Yankee volunteers proved themselves able and courageous fighters who provided an invaluable boost to RAF fighter pilot resources. It is a sobering fact too that 63 American Eagles were killed in action; 35 made POW and 42 died in training or other mishaps during World War Two. After the war Clayton Knight returned to his writing and illustrating and in 1946 was created an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his outstanding services to Great Britain in both World Wars. 

BELOW: There were few days at RAF Sutton Bridge when a Hurricane was not damaged in some way. American volunteers contributed 26 training mishaps at 56 OTU during 1941. This is Hurricane R2680, minus its undercarriage, after a ‘prang’ on 20 June. (AUTHOR)

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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

July 1916

GREAT WAR GALLANTRY July 1916

Throughout the First World War, the many announcements of British and Commonwealth gallantry awards appeared in the various issues of The London Gazette. As part of our major monthly series covering the period of the Great War commemorations, we examine some of the actions involved and summarise all of the awards announced in July 1916. BELOW: Two LandesGendarmerie (military police), seen here on the left, stand beside the crumpled remains of Max Immelmann’s Fokker. (COURTESY OF BRETT BUTTERWORTH)

A

MONGST THE names of the men whose actions were acknowledged in the pages of The London Gazette during July 1916 is that of Second Lieutenant Harold Boyd Wanliss. A grazier from East St Kilda in the Australian state of Victoria prior to enlistment, Wanliss embarked on HMAT Demosthenes at Melbourne on 29 October 1915. He was part of a group of reinforcements for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). In March 1916 Wanliss was posted to the 14th Battalion AIF. The Australian Dictionary of Biography states: ‘He was chosen to lead its [the AIF’s] first raid in France against the German trenches in the Bois Grenier sector on the night of 2-3 July.

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Although the raid was personally planned by Brigadier General (Sir) John Monash, it was a disaster. The raiders found the German wire uncut, and were caught by German machine-gun and artillery fire. Almost all the eighty-nine men involved – picked men, “the flower of the A.I.F.” – were hit, and they failed to take a prisoner.’ Wanliss’ actions that day are revealed in his citation in The London Gazette: ‘He forced the wire which was uncut, entered the trench, inflicted heavy loss on the enemy and supervised the withdrawal. While forcing the wire he was wounded in the face, later he was wounded by a bullet in the neck, and finally when withdrawing he was again wounded

and had to be carried in.’ Wanliss had, the citation concluded, ‘set a fine example to all with him’. He received the Distinguished Service Order. Having recovered in England, Wanliss re-joined his battalion on 27 September. ‘He became battalion adjutant in January 1917 and a captain on 6 March,’ continues the Australian Dictionary of Biography, ‘and in these months helped to make an already famous battalion one of the most efficient in the A.I.F. His work was marked by attention to detail and untiring concern for his men, notably during the 1st battle of Bullecourt in April. He began a range of recreational activities for troops out of the line, including a series of lectures and debates on

GREAT WAR GALLANTRY July 1916

at Flers in November, he was then wounded at Bullecourt in March 1917. Appointed to the staff of the 1st Anzac Division, Howell-Price was promoted major on 7 June 1917 and attached to the staff of the 2nd Brigade. That month he was awarded the Military Cross. On hearing that his old battalion was going into action he begged to be sent back to it; on 4 October was killed in an artillery barrage at Broodseinde. His body was never recovered. The war in the air also featured in the awards announced in July 1916. Another of the twenty-nine DSOs listed that month was that of Second Lieutenant George Reynolds McCubbin. McCubbin’s citation states: ‘Seeing one of our machines about to engage two Fokkers he at once entered the fight, and his observer shot down one Fokker, which crashed to the ground. On another occasion when returning from a bombing raid he saw one of our machines being followed by a Fokker. He re-crossed the lines to the attack and his observer shot down the Fokker. Although very badly wounded in the arm he successfully landed his machine well behind our lines.’ What McCubbin’s citation does not reveal is the identity of the German pilot involved in the second combat – Leutnant Max Immelmann, a pioneer in fighter aviation and the first German Ace. At 21.45 hours on the evening of 18 June 1916, Immelmann, at the controls of Fokker E.III serial 246/16, encountered Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2bs of 25 Squadron near Lens. Immediately, he got off a burst which hit Lieutenant J.R.B. Savage, the pilot of FE.2b serial number  post-war Australia and the Empire. In mid-1917 Wanliss requested transfer to a fighting company and was made commanding officer of “A” Company on 13 August. On 26 September he led it into the battle of Polygon Wood. Just as he reached his battalion’s objective a German machine-gunner shot him through the heart, throat and side. He died instantly, and was buried where he fell.’ ‘Many brave men – many good men have I met … but he was the king,’ his colonel wrote of Wanliss. A brother officer thought him ‘the best man and the best soldier and the truest gentleman in our Brigade’, while one of his men called him ‘the finest Officer ever I met’. The Australian official historian Charles Bean reported the opinion of Monash and others that Wanliss was ‘possibly destined, if he lived, to lead Australia’.

Another Australian officer who was decorated with the DSO in July 1916 and who would not survive the war, was Captain Philip Llewellyn HowellPrice. Serving in the 1st Battalion AIF, Howell-Price’s actions near Armentières, France on 27 June 1916, were similar to those of Wanliss, as his citation details: ‘For conspicuous gallantry when leading a party, which he had previously trained, in a successful raid on the enemy trenches. In face of heavy opposition and uncut wire he carried through his attack with great coolness and resource, and saw every officer and man back in our trenches before he returned.’ A Gallipoli veteran, Howell-Price had been Mentioned in Despatches for his actions during the Battle of Lone Pine. Following the trench raid at Armentières, he went on participate in the Battle of the Somme. Fighting

LEFT: A group of four officers of the 14th Battalion AIF. Lieutenant Wanliss DSO is seated on the left. Some of the scarring resulting from his DSO action is evident in this image. (COURTESY OF

THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL; P05859-008)

GALLANTRY AWARDS GAZETTED IN JULY 1916 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

29 41 273 149 1 115 608

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

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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

July 1916

RUNNING TOTAL OF

GALLANTRY AWARDS AS OF THE END OF JULY1916 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 RIGHT: Max Immelmann pictured in 1916. After his death, Immelmann was given a state funeral and buried in his home of Dresden. His body was later exhumed, however, and honorably cremated in the DresdenTolkewitz Crematorium. (COURTESY OF BRETT BUTTERWORTH)

170 2002 304 3912 6566 38 1057 1211 15260

4909, mortally wounding him. This would have been Immelmann’s 17th claim. The second aircraft he then encountered was piloted by Second Lieutenant G.R. McCubbin with Corporal J.H. Waller as gunner/ observer, and was credited by the British with shooting Immelmann down. An account of what followed was issued by the Air Board and subsequently published in The Times on 4 July 1916: ‘On June 18 one of our F.E. aeroplanes whilst patrolling over Annay [which is behind the German lines near Lens] at about 9 p.m. attacked three Fokkers. One immediately retired, whilst the other two turned towards Lens and proceeded to attack another F.E.,

RIGHT: Lieutenant Philip Llewellyn Howell-Price, 1st Battalion AIF, seated in a trench with a Turkish dud shell in May 1915 during the Gallipoli campaign. (COURTESY OF

THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL; C02052)

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which was then approaching from that direction. The first-mentioned F.E. (pilot, Lieutenant McC., observer, Corporal W.) followed and joined in the fray, and diving steeply on one of the attacking Fokkers caused it to plunge perpendicularly to the ground. It was seen to fall to earth by one of our anti-aircraft batteries. A subsequent report, from another machine in the neighbourhood, states that the Fokker went to pieces in the air and both wings broke off.’ Whilst the exact cause of Immelmann’s death remains the subject of debate – some believe it was anti-aircraft fire or faulty interrupter gear on his aircraft and not Waller’s shooting – McCubbin was awarded the DSO, Waller, who was promptly promoted to Sergeant, the Distinguished Service Medal. Of the Royal Navy awards announced in July 1916, some relate to an operation to deal with a blockade runner operating off German East Africa, now Tanzania. On 16 March 1916 the German supply ship Sperrbrecher 15, re-named Marie, successfully evaded the Royal Navy and landed at Sudi Bay. Having reached the East African port, it took ten days to unload the valuable cargo that included four modern 10.5-cm howitzers, a pair of 7.5-cm mountain guns, 2,000 modern rifles, six machine-guns, three million rounds of ammunition and more. On 11 April 1916, the Royal Navy, having heard of Marie’s presence, moved in to deal with the blockade runner, an earlier attempt having failed. Six British warships fired

over 300 shells during a three-hour action. To assist in fire direction two whalers were sent into Sudi Bay. The whalers were commanded by Commander Henry Dalrymple Bridges. His citation for the DSO states that, having proceeded into Sudi Harbour, he ‘remained under fire with his vessels in a very hot corner, spotting the fall of shot from HMS Hyacinth … In order to reach the requisite position the whalers were obliged to run up a narrow harbour, where they were confronted with a heavy fire from 4-in guns at close range.’ Lieutenant Herbert Keer Case commanded one of the whalers. Having ‘handled his vessel under fire in the confined waters of the harbour

with great skill and gallantry’, he was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, as was Boatswain John Park Mortimer, a member of one of the whaler crews. The only Conspicuous Gallantry Medal announced in July 1916 went to Seaman Lawrence J. Walsh: ‘He continued to steer the whaler after being seriously wounded, his leg being badly shattered, until out of range of gun fire, when it was possible to remove the conning tower plates and relieve him.’ Despite the Royal Navy’s barrage, Marie had not been hit, although four crew members had been killed and four others had been wounded. On the night of 23 April the ship slipped out of Sudi Bay, again evading the waiting Allied warships, and making good its escape. 

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LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH"

Captain John Leslie Green VC

Captain

John Leslie LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH"

Green

VC

SACRIFICE

AGGRESSION • BOLDNESS INITIATIVE • LEADERSHIP SKILL • ENDURANCE

The many Victoria Crosses and George Crosses in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum in London are displayed under one of seven different qualities of bravery. Whilst Captain John Leslie Green’s award is not part of the collection, Lord Ashcroft feels that it falls within the category of sacrifice: “In what is apparently the simplest quality of bravery, Sacrifice epitomises selfless responsibility. Noble, strong, dependable, life is offered up to protect, save or comfort others. It is not always lost, but it is always freely given.” ABOVE RIGHT: The devastated Gommecourt Wood, the objective of Captain Green’s brigade on 1 July, pictured later in the war after the Somme Offensive. Gommecourt was eventually taken by the 31st and 46th divisions on the night of 27-28 February 1917, remaining in Allied hands until the Armistice. (COURTESY OF

THE ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND)

RIGHT: A portrait of Captain J.L. Green.

J

OHN LESLIE Green was born in Buckden, Huntingdonshire (the village is now in Cambridgeshire) on 4 December 1888. He was one of three children and his father, also called John, was a landowner and Justice of the Peace. The young Green, who was known as Leslie to distinguish him from his father, was educated at Felsted School in Essex. After leaving school, he studied at Downing College, Cambridge, where he gained an honours degree in natural sciences and was a good sportsman, including being a keen rower. He trained for a career in medicine at St Bartholomew’s, London, and, after qualifying in 1913, became house surgeon at Huntingdon County Hospital. Shortly after the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, Green, then aged twentyfive, was commissioned into the Royal Army Medical Corps and attached as Medical Officer to the Staffordshire Regiment, and, a year later, to

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1/2 North Midlands Field Ambulance before finally transferring to the 1/5th Battalion, the Sherwood Foresters (the Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment). On New

Year’s Day 1916, he married Edith Moss, a fellow doctor. On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, Green was located at Pommier, France, and the task of his division that day was to capture Gommecourt Wood on the northern side of Gommecourt village. Like most attacks on 1 July, things did not go according to plan and there were massive casualties. Just before the battle commenced, the 1/5th Sherwood Foresters left Pommier for Foncquevillers and, at 06.25 hours on 1 July, they moved up to the muddy assembly trenches. An hour later, they moved off in three waves: the advancing troops faced a heavy machine-gun fire from the wood and heavy smoke. Green, who was by now a captain, advanced at the rear of the battalion. On reaching the German wire, he found an officer, Captain Frank Robinson, lying badly wounded and entangled in the wire.

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH" Captain John Leslie Green VC

VICTORIA CROSS HEROES 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. Follow him on Twitter: @LordAshcroft

Despite being under a heavy fire, Green, who already had a wound himself, went forward to reach Robinson. Green dragged the injured officer to a shell-hole where he dressed his wounds, despite coming under further fire from bombs and grenades. Next, Green carried Robinson back to the British positions but, just as he was about to reach safety, Green was shot again and fatally wounded. On 3 July, just two days after the incident, Robinson also died from his wounds. By the time the Sherwood Foresters were relieved at 18.10 hours on 2 July, the battalion had suffered 491 casualties – dead and wounded – out of the 734 men that it had started with. The officer commanding the 139th Brigade wrote a letter of condolence to Green’s widow which stated: ‘Dear Mrs Green, I have seen the letter you wrote to the

officer commanding the 5th Sherwood Foresters, asking for news of your husband. I am deeply grieved to have to tell you that there is no doubt that your husband was killed on 1 July, and that I should like to say how much I feel for you in your sorrow, but at the same time I must express my intense admiration for the manner in which he met his death.’ The Green family had suffered another tragedy the previous year when Green’s brother, Second Lieutenant Alan Green, of the 1/5th Staffordshire Regiment, was killed in action on 2 October 1915 at the Battle of Loos. It meant that by the summer of 1916, Green’s parents, who also had a daughter, had lost both their sons to the war. Leslie Green’s posthumous VC ‘for most conspicuous devotion to duty’ was announced on 5 August 1916. His decoration was presented to his widow, who worked at Nottingham Hospital, by King George V at an investiture in Buckingham Palace on 7 October 1916. Green’s widow later remarried and presented her first husband’s medals to the Royal Army Medical Corps in Aldershot, Hampshire. Today they are on display at the Army Medical Services Museum in Mytchett, Surrey.

In 1920, Green’s father wrote to his local parish council asking for permission to build a small war memorial on land he owned: he wanted it dedicated to those from Buckden who had given their lives during the war. For some inexplicable reason, the offer was rejected but John Green went ahead and erected a memorial stone in 1921 on land he owned next to Coneygarths, the family home. Although it is meant to be in memory of all those from the village who died, only the names of his two sons appeared on the memorial. Over the decades, the memorial fell into a state of disrepair but it was restored before 1 July 1986, the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and of Leslie Green’s death. Leslie Green is also listed on different memorials at St Mary’s Church, Buckden, and at Downing College, Cambridge. There is also a plaque at Felsted School, Essex, that is dedicated to both Green and another former pupil, Lieutenant Walter Hamilton, who was awarded the VC for bravery during the Afghan War of 1879. Incidentally, while I do not, of course, own Green’s medal group, I am the custodian of Hamilton’s medal group having bought it at a Spink auction in London in 1998. 

TOP LEFT: An artist’s depiction of Captain J.L. Green rescuing Captain Frank Robinson on 1 July 1916. (ALL IMAGES HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

BELOW: The Gommecourt battlefield as it appeared in 1918. The sign states, in French and English, the following: ‘Historical landscape of Gommecourt. Reserved by French Government. No work is to be undertaken which might alter the appearance of the locality.’ (COURTESY OF

THE ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND)

No VCs were gazetted in July 1916 so Lord Ashcroft has instead chosen for his monthly write-up one of the recipients whose VC was announced in early August 1916.

www.britainatwar.com 129

The First W

rld War in Objects

WHITE ENSIGN

FLOWN AT THE BATTLE OF

JUTLAND

HANGING IN the chapel at Eton College is a remarkable relic from one of the world’s greatest sea battles – a White Ensign flown by the battleship HMS Iron Duke during the Battle of Jutland. Launched on 12 October 1912, Iron Duke was the lead ship of a class of four battleships. She was named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington – who was known as the ‘Iron Duke’. HMS Iron Duke was the flagship of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, at Jutland. During the battle, the ship fired ninety rounds from her 13.5-inch guns, and fifty rounds from her secondary 6-inch guns. Although some large-calibre German shells fell nearby, Iron Duke suffered no damage or casualties. Indeed, in his post-action report, Iron Duke’s commander, Captain Frederic Charles Dreyer, noted that ‘no strain was thrown on the Ship’s personnel or organization and, consequently, I am not specially mentioning the services of particular Officers and Men. The bearing of all was in every way admirable.’ One of the men on Jellicoe’s staff on Iron Duke at Jutland was Commander William Duncan Phipps. Phipps was presented with the ensign seen here, one of three flown by the battleship in the engagement, following the battle. Petty Officer Telegraphist Arthur John Brister recalled Phipps’ role: ‘From the charthouse, Commander Phipps, the Assistant Fleet Signal Officer, controlled the distribution of all signals by the use of telephone, voice-tube and pneumatic tube, the most used of these being connected to the Upper Compass Platform immediately above, the Cypher Room, War Room and Signal Platform underneath the charthouse. The only piece of furniture in the charthouse apart from the C-in-C’s chart table was a wooden settee in one corner; therefore the Commander and myself had to stand, using the chart table as a desk for writing down signals.’ Busy at their posts, Phipps and Brister had little opportunity to observe the battle. ‘Gunfire was heard in due course, becoming louder,’ Brister continued. ‘Excitement rising within me, I was sorely tempted to peep through the portholes, but I had to keep my head down and concentrate on the important signals buzzing in; however, when handing signals to the Commander I managed a glance. A mile or two ahead,

ABOVE RIGHT: The White Ensign flown by HMS Iron Duke at the Battle of Jutland in the College Chapel at Eton. (COURTESY OF SARAH WARREN-MACMILLAN) RIGHT: The battleship HMS Iron Duke pictured leading the Grand Fleet on the outbreak of the First World War. (NARA)

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NO.24

amidst a cauldron of gunfire, smoke and columns of water, a line of our cruisers were in the thick of it and living dangerously. Just then the Signal Commander gave me the first manœuvring signal, ordering: “At once!” Having transmitted the signal “JJJ” (battle fleet) I was waiting for acknowledgements when the Commander shouted: “Executive now!” An Old Etonian, Phipps offered the ensign to the then Provost of Eton, Montague Rhodes James, on 10 January 1928.

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