Britain at War 2016-08

CHILCOT REPORT KEY POINTS

GAS! R

BRITAIN’S BEST SELLING MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

BADER BALE-OUT Hero’s Demise Over France

, WW1 S MOST

INFAMOUS

WEAPON

BRIGHTON PAVILION’S INDIANS Wounded Empire Soldiers

ARCTIC CONVOY FIGHTERS Battling Above The Barents

THE GATES OF TOBRUK Epic North African Struggle - 1941

PLUS:

The Otranto Affair Churchill’s Falklands Fear Baden-Powell Poster RAF Bentley Priory News

THE ROLLSROYCE ‘KIFARU’ Armoured Cars Go to War 1915-1917

AUGUST 2016 ISSUE 112 UK £4.60

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From the Editor... F

OR THE next few years, up to 2018, we will see a series of centenary commemorations of famous battles and events of the First World War. Running parallel to those commemorations, and beyond 2018, we will also be seeing 75th and 80th anniversaries of significant battles and campaigns of the Second World War as the calendar inexorably moves ever forward and takes us, eventually, out of living memory of those events. Indeed, only in this issue we see the obituary of another of ‘the Few’ as that gallant band gets ever fewer. For the large part, events from both wars that are now commemorated are ‘iconic’ and militarily significant. For instance, and as recently marked in this magazine, the Somme, Jutland, The Blitz and loss of HMS Hood. But there are other anniversaries which get passed-by in the clamour of bigger and arguably more significant events, including RAF Fighter Command’s offensive over Northern Europe which launched in 1941 with its costly ‘Circus’ and ‘Rhubarb’ operations and which we mark this month in our cover story. Militarily questionable in value, these operations saw huge RAF losses for little success. Amongst the casualties, including the killed, wounded and POW, was the cream of RAF Fighter Command; valued fighter-leaders and seasoned pilots who had survived the Battle of Britain. The life-blood of Fighter Command was wastefully drained away across that year – a year which also saw the loss of Wing Commander Douglas Bader, brought down over France and taken POW in what has since become a somewhat controversial episode. The men lost in 1941 were not lauded as were ‘the Few’ – but their sacrifice deserves equal recognition.

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 EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES Britain at War Magazine, PO Box 380, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 9JA Tel: +44 (0)1424 752648 or email: [email protected].

Assistant Editor John Ash

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All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part and in any form whatsoever, is strictly prohibited without the prior, written permission of the Editor. Whilst every care is taken with the material submitted to ‘Britain at War’ Magazine, no responsibility can be accepted for loss or damage. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or Key Publishing Ltd. Whilst every effort had been made to contact all copyright holders, the sources of some pictures that may be used are varied and, in many cases, obscure. The publishers will be glad to make good in future editions any error or omissions brought to their attention. The publication of any quotes or illustrations on which clearance has not been given is unintentional. We are unable to guarantee the bonafides of any of our advertisers. Readers are strongly recommended to take their own precautions before parting with any information or item of value, including, but not limited to, money, manuscripts, photographs or personal information in response to any advertisements within this publication. The average sale for the period Jan-Dec 2015 was 10,843, print and digital copies monthly.

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FEATURES

18 'Reach for the Sky' - Myth and Reality

Seventy-five years ago Wing Commander Douglas Bader abandoned his stricken Spitfire over occupied France - an episode made famous in the book ‘Reach For The Sky’ and through the film of the same name. But what really happened on 9 August 1941? Andy Saunders investigates.

44 At the Gates of Tobruk

In the first of a three-part epic, Imperial War Museum historian Peter Hart takes up the story of the South Notts Hussars, Royal Artillery, as they lend their mighty guns to the defence of Tobruk.

60 The Otranto Straits Affair

Steve Snelling plots the course of a forgotten Great War ‘David verses Goliath’ naval battle in the Adriatic Sea which gave rise to courage and, allegedly, cowardice.

72 The Rolls Royce ‘Kifaru’

Kevin Patience explores the remarkable story of a fleet of Rolls Royce armoured cars seeing constant action in the percieved backwater theatre which was Great War East Africa.

80 Brighton Pavilion’s Indians

As the wounded from the largest part of the British Empire flooded into Southern England, Alexandra Churchill tells the story of the palace converted to care for these injured troops and the townsfolk who generously welcomed them.

88 A Cold War - Churchill’s Falklands Fear Steve Taylor examines the counter to two planned invasions of the Falkland Islands in the Second World War which had some striking parallels to the real invasion four decades later.

FREE BOOK!

Claim your FREE Shot Down in Flames book when you subscribe to Britain at War. See pages 102 and 103 for more details.

Contents ISSUE 112 AUGUST 2016

60 The Otranto Straits Affair 4

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80 Brighton Pavilion’s Indians

94 Battles Over the Barents

Editor’s Choice

The early Arctic convoys battled the elements as much as the enemy and Andrew Thomas explains the difference that limited air cover available to these vital ships could sometimes have.

NEWS FEATURE

6 Chilcot Report: Analysis

John Ash presents the key points from the long-awaited Chilcot Report into British involvement in the Second Gulf War in Iraq.

32 Gas! A Deadly Weapon?

John Ash analyses the origins, usage and effectiveness of arguably one of the most defining weapons of the First World War – Poison Gas.

REGULARS 11 News

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

30 War Posters

Phil Jarman analyses another iconic wartime poster, this time a Great War recruitment poster designed by Boer War Hero and founder of the Boy Scouts movement, Robert Baden-Powell.

42 Fieldpost

Your letters, input, and feedback.

52 First World War Diary

Our monthly look at the Great War’s key events reaches August. The Battles of the Somme and Verdun continue to rage, a new ally enters the war and a large Ottoman force is defeated near the Suez Canal.

104 Recon Report

Our team continues to scout out the latest historical titles, including our ‘Book of the Month’, a seminal work on the conflict archaeology surrounding the Battle of Jutland.

108 Great War Gallantry

Our monthly look at gallantry awards as announced in The London Gazette continues, with another ‘Hero of the Month’ selected by Lord Ashcroft.

114 The First World War in Objects

A shell fragment, known to have claimed a life, is this month’s object from the Great War.

COVER STORY

On 9 August 1941 the legendary fighter-leader Wing Commander Douglas Bader was downed over France and taken POW as the tail of his Spitfire became severed during an air battle. The circumstances have since been surrounded by an element of mystery and intrigue and these are investigated in our lead feature this month.

94 Battles over the Barents

❅

(ILLUSTRATION BY PIOTR FORKASIEWICZ – [email protected])

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NEWS FEATURE |

Chilcot Report: From Suez to Basra

CHILCOT REPORT:

ANALYSIS From Suez to Basra

The recent release of the long-awaited Chilcot Report sought to answer the many questions surrounding the controversy of the Iraq War. However, as the historical and commemorative aspects of this generation-defining conflict are forged, writes John Ash, what did the report say, and what historical parallels and conclusions can be drawn from Iraq? (ALL IMAGES MOD CROWN COPYRIGHT)

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Chilcot Report: From Suez to Basra

| NEWS FEATURE

KEY POINTS • The case for war was deficient and “not a last resort”. • Quality of intelligence material dubious and not challenged. • The legal basis for war not satisfactory. • The ability to influence US decisions was over estimated. • Preparation and planning “wholly inadequate”. • Military action did not achieve goals and heavily distracted from Afghanistan, affecting success there.

ON 5 November 1956, Anglo-French forces invaded Egypt, landing troops along the Suez Canal. They joined Israeli forces, which had begun their action on 29 October. Officially, British troops were sent to Suez to separate Israeli and Egyptian forces in order to protect the recently nationalised Suez Canal, however the deception was quickly realised. The British and French were unwilling to allow the canal to cease to be a link between them and their overseas holdings, and a conduit of oil and other trade. A reluctant Israel, averse to being seen as the scapegoat, sought to defeat an Egyptian military which had recently been the beneficiary of a number of modern Soviet arms and hoped to reopen the Straits of Tiran. Anthony Eden was caught between a rock and a hard place. Forced by the French to accept Israeli involvement (thereby risking good Anglo-Arab relations throughout the region), and facing the threat of a revolt from his own backbenchers (as the crisis was long running, and military action had been pressed for much sooner), he committed British forces to what

would be a fantastically successful military mission. Wrapped up in under two weeks, the precision and effectiveness of the Anglo-FrenchIsraeli operation showcasing a modern approach to warfare. However, the political fallout would be devastating. The Suez Crisis would be a large factor in Eden’s resignation; the British economy would be threatened, the Commonwealth refused to be dragged into a conflict it saw as unnecessary, and the poor timing of the project would, on the face of it, bring the USA and USSR together in lambasting the mission despite an emerging crisis in Hungary. The war infuriated the international community, achieved relatively little, and, despite an expert display of British military might in times of severe austerity, it nevertheless weakened the country’s position and began a retreat from the world. Suez was in no doubt a serious affair, mishandled, and with far-reaching consequences. History has taught us what went wrong, and why, and until 2003 Suez was the most controversial British conflict in living memory. Now, after seven years and £10 million, perhaps there finally exists a base for historians to begin their analysis of the effects

of the Second Gulf War on Britain and on Iraq. Despite differences, the parallels between Iraq and Suez, Port Said and Basra, are noticeable. A posse of powerful nations band together to defy the international community - going to war at the wrong time and without a real plan. While Chilcot fell short of apportioning blame, and did not conclude on the question of the Iraq War’s legality, it commented that the decisions made were ‘far from satisfactory’ in terms of the establishment of any legal basis. However, the spotlight does naturally fall on former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who, according to the report, failed in his efforts to meet coalition objectives in Iraq and had overestimated his influence in the special relationship with the US. This is despite a military campaign, which although a textbook showcase of British military capability in the modern world, led to rapid destabilisation and power vacuums in Iraq. The report praised British military personnel, civilians, and Iraqis working for the British, who showed great courage at considerable risk and are deserving of gratitude and respect. The infamous ‘with you whatever’ memo is sure to be at the heart of a lasting and growing legacy centred on the war.  www.britainatwar.com

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NEWS FEATURE |

Chilcot Report: From Suez to Basra

OPERATION TELIC STATISTICS 19 March 2003 – 22 May 2011 (Bulk of combat missions ended in April 2009)

46,000 troops deployed for invasion (inc. 9,500 reservists). Total cost (as at 2010):

£9.24bn

179 British Armed Forces personnel killed, 136 3,598

in hostile conditions.

estimated total wounded, 315 wounded in action.

2,100 soldiers had returned with some form of mental illness by March 2007. However, Chilcot has been clear in stating that although military action against Iraq may have eventually become justifiable, at that time invasion was not a last resort. He suggests that, in the unanimous view of his committee: “the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted”. Adding that whether it was right or wrong to remove Saddam Hussein, the post-war planning was wholly inadequate. The consequences of invasion were woefully underestimated, the authority of the UN Security Council undermined and there was no flexible, realistic, and fully resourced UK military and civilian plan for the country during a war where British efforts were never able to match the requirement. The Iraq War also distracted from the Afghanistan conflict, and not only was there insufficient capability in protected troop movement (MRAPs), helicopters, and ISTAR (Information, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance), but intelligence was also overstretched between the two conflicts. The Ministry of Defence was slow to fill these capability gaps, though it did so eventually.

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�RAQ WAR GALLANTRY Victoria Cross - 1 George Cross - 2 KCB - 2 CB - 1 DSO - 18 CGC - 15 RRC - 3 ARRC - 6 DSC - 1

MC - 84

(75 Army, 8 Royal Navy/ Marines, 1 RAF Regt.)

Bar to DFC - 2 DFC - 16 AFC - 2 GM - 5 Bar to QGM - 2 QGM - 21

Another damning conclusion of Chilcot’s report considered the claims of the capability of the Iraqi military’s weapons of mass destruction. These are said to have been presented with false certainty, and despite historical violations by the Saddam regime in regard to such weapons, no reports from weapons inspectors showed any kind of major breach of the conditions imposed on the country or any indication Iraqi authorities failed to cooperate. This casus belli, then, has been shown to be based on flawed intelligence and unclear assessment and went almost entirely unchallenged. This war, in which it is now claimed the UK’s role in southern Iraq ended very short of success, caused lasting harm to a region and a people. The scar it has left on the British people and on the UK’s political landscape can still be seen today. As with Suez 50 years prior, it damaged vital relationships with Britain’s friends and allies made all the more unfortunate by realisation that there was

no real threat to Britain. The disgust in the international community, and the shockwave which rippled the region has caused widespread instability and disruption and the after effects of the conflict have been linked to many of the troubles which embroil the region today. Consequences range from matters as trivial as the UK’s infamous Eurovision ‘nul points’ score in 2003, sometimes seen as a protest against the country’s involvement in Iraq, to the lasting effect on the UK-US relationship, which initially grew in grew in strength although subsequent fallout from this bloody conflict has caused subsequent administrations to distance themselves from their forebears and, to an extent, from the other partner nation. Parallels with past conflicts will continue to be made but hopefully the conclusions drawn from analysis and comparison will go a long way to preventing such a conflict breaking out again. It is important to remember the mistakes and not to forget to recognise the gallantry and hardship of UK service personnel and civilians as well as those of our allies and the Iraqi people.

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

Large New ‘Writers in War’ Exhibition

THE HISTORIAL de la Grande Guerre - Museum of the Great War - located in Péronne, in the Somme region of Northern France, has launched a new exhibition ‘Ecrivains En Guerre 14-18’ – ‘Writers in War 14-18.’ Running until 16 November this year, the exhibition puts together a literary and poetic trail in English, French, and German to highlight the experiences of writers and poets, including men such as J.R.R. Tolkien and Siegfried Sassoon, caught up in the wider struggle for Europe in the Great War. The writers shared an experience and sometimes fate with their peers alongside them and the millions of men stood with or against them in opposing trenches. However, the toll and effect of the Great War on the writers has survived through their works. The free ‘Writers in War’ exhibition covers all aspects of

the war, from the front lines to the rear, from the eve of the conflict to its aftermath, and has assembled 140 documents, including diaries, manuscripts, books, photographs, sketches and drawings, and more, to show this unique and powerful expression of bloody conflict. Many of these items have never before been made public, and are supported by rare personal effects of some of the men or of some of the men they knew, such as the works of artists who knew the war authors. One hundred and forty documents, a large number of which are displayed for the first time, include diaries, manuscripts, personal effects, illustrated books, literature, photographs, graphic art and drawings by the writers themselves or by artists whom they knew. For more information, please see: www.historial.org ; email : [email protected] or call : +33 (0) 3 22 83 14 18.

| BRIEFING ROOM

Amy Johnson Statue for Kent Town

ICONIC RECORD-SETTING British ‘aviatrix’ Amy Johnson is to be remembered with a new statue in the Kentish seaside town of Herne Bay and Canterbury City Council are currently processing the relevant permissions. The £30,000 statue, made from bronze, is to be sited along the town’s seafront, between the pier and central bandstand, and this busy and lively location will maximise the impact of the statue during the day, as Amy fits in with the crowds, and by night will make for a poignant scene as Amy is silhouetted against the evening sky. A smaller sum is still required for an information panel to accompany the statue. Amy Johnson was the first female pilot to fly solo from Britain to Australia, departing in her second hand DH.60 Gipsy Moth from Croydon on 5 May 1930 and arriving at Darwin on 24 May. She, joined by co-pilot Jack Humphreys, was the first to fly between London and Moscow in one day, and also set the record for the fastest flight between Britain and Japan. In July 1932, she broke the record for the fastest flight from London to

Cape Town, previously held by her husband, Jim Mollison. Together, the pair later broke the speed record for a flight between Britain and India. In 1940, Johnson joined the Air Transport Auxiliary, however on 5 January 1941, on a routine flight between Blackpool to Oxford, she went off course in appalling weather conditions and, out of fuel, crashed her Airspeed Oxford into the Thames Estuary, 11 miles off the Kent coast. She was spotted by HMS Haslemere but in very poor sea conditions and falling snow the warship accidently run over Johnson in the rescue attempt, who was sucked into the propeller. Her body was never found. However, in recent years, it has been suggested that Johnson’s aircraft was mistakenly shot down by antiaircraft gunners. It is hoped the statue, the result of seven years of work by Jane Priston, will be completed by the 75th anniversary of Johnson’s death. One of the best known pilots in history, the organisers wish for the statue to inspire local visitors to perhaps follow in Johnson’s footsteps.

UXB Found Under School

ABOVE LEFT: Kentish-born decorated soldier, poet and writer Siegfried Sassoon in May 1915, aged 29

BULLETIN BOARD

ABOVE RIGHT: Bloemfontein-born classic high-fantasy author, poet, and university professor, J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916, aged 24.

*

A MEMORIAL wall dedicated to the 1916 Easter Rising has been unveiled in Glasnevin, Ireland. The wall includes 488 names of those killed in the uprising, and in addition to civilians and Irish Republicans also includes 119 British soldiers killed during the uprising. Controversy has arisen from the inclusion of the names of the British soldiers on the memorial, but the Glasnevin Trust continues to insist that the memorial is an attempt to present historical fact, without judgement. Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny laid a wreath at the unveiling and a minute silence was observed before the last post was sounded and the Irish Tricolour was raised from half to full mast. 

MORE THAN 1,100 homes were evacuated and three schools closed in Bath after a 500lb bomb was found under a disused playground at the Royal High School Bath, on the city's Lansdown Road. Contractors unearthed the device under the playground which was used as recently as two years ago. The bomb was likely dropped during the Bath Blitz of 25-27 April 1942, part of the Baedeker raids, which targetted places of cultural or historical importance. Some 80 bombers took part in the raid

which killed 400 and injured more than 1,000. Some 20,000 buildings, 218 of significant historic interest, were damaged or destroyed including the famous Royal Crescent, Queen Square, and the Francis Hotel which had an 80ft hole blasted into its front. Police set up a 300m cordon and told residents to evacuate, stating the bomb had become unstable. Avon and Somerset’s EOD team, with the Army, made the device safe, surrounding it with 250 tonnes of sand and moving it to a quarry for a controlled explosion.

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A BRITISH soldier who served in the First World War has been cleared of ‘desertion’ after the efforts of his great-niece. Private John Gravenor’s body was never recovered after fierce fighting in Salonika, Greece, where rumours quickly spread of his desertion whilst wading through a river ahead of his unit. In the 1920s, the British Army actually accepted Private Gravnor had not turned back and had in fact continued crossing the river until being killed. Unfortunately, John’s exoneration remained buried until great-niece Nikki Medlicott embarked on a seven year battle to clear his name. After agreement with the Commonwealth War Grave Commission, Private Gravenor’s name is now to be included on the Dorian memorial in Greece.

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BRIEFING ROOM |

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

Rear-Admiral John Hervey

REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN Hervey was born on 14 May 1928. He first went to sea in 1946, commanding a minelayer, but later specialised in submarines. He also commanded the destroyers HMS Cavalier and HMS Kent. In a lasting legacy, Hervey revived the Friends of the RN Submarine Museum and made the case for preserving HMS Cavalier in 1998. The vintage destroyer still rests at Chatham’s Historic Dockyard. However, earlier in his distinguished career, John Hervey was involved in a potentially catastrophic incident. In the early hours of an October morning in 1968, Hervey commanded the submarine HMS Warspite, engaged in a high-risk undersea chase as she stalked a Soviet Echo II-class submarine as they stealthily reconnoitred the Barents Sea, knowing they’d be forgotten if anything went awry. Struggling to track the almostsilent sub, the ‘Echo’ shut down a

propeller, making it even quieter. The boats soon collided, with Warspite rolling onto her starboard side, passing under the Soviet vessel, and clashing with her again. Following an emergency ascent, Warspite restored her systems and slipped away. Upon analysis, Hervey discovered his boat’s conning tower was severely damaged by the Soviet boat, which also surfaced. A Soviet source later confirmed a large hole had been made in their sub’s outer skin. After the collision, officially with an iceberg, Warspite was escorted covertly into repair. In 1970, Hervey was awarded an OBE for bringing his boat home on two valuable intelligence patrols. At the start of the 1982 Falklands War, Hervey was Chief of the British Naval Staff in Washington and his character, charm, and charisma was valuable in his successes dealing with the Pentagon and the US Navy. The

support, equipment, and supplies Hervey was able to negotiate for the British and their forces in the South Atlantic would prove vital in their efforts to retake the islands. A previous posting at the MOD would see him work toward the deployment of Sea Harriers on the Navy’s new carriers.

One of the last men to benefit from the training given by warhardened veterans, Hervey’s book, ‘Submarines’, published in 1984, is often seen as a ‘bible’ for those in ‘The Trade’. A distinguished submarine officer, modest, and generous, Rear-Admiral John Hervey has died aged 88.

Thousandth Employer Signs Covenant

PLACES TO VISIT

THE MINISTRY of Defence have announced the 1000th company to have signed the Armed Forces Covenant. Compass Group UK & Ireland, catering and support services company, became the landmark signatory during a special ceremony which took place this July on the decks of HMS Belfast. The Armed Forces Covenant

aims to ensure that service and ex-service personnel, reservists, and their families, have the same fairness and opportunity enjoyed by those outside the military. Some of the Covenant’s achievements include protecting the no claims bonuses of service persons who had to cancel their car insurance when posted overseas, improving

access to banking services when posted overseas, and offering a wide range of discounts on thousands of products and services. In just three years a wide and varying range of support across multiple industries is now available. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon stated at the signing: “Companies such as Compass Group UK &

,

North Staffordshire & South Cheshire Branch The bombing of Burton-upon-Trent on 31 January 1916 is the backdrop to Mark Rowe’s talk ‘A Zeppelin Raid on a Midlands Town’ on 8 August at 19:00. Venue: Newcastle Methodist Church, Merrial Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme, ST5 2AD. Contact: [email protected] Tel: 01782 256754. Open to all.

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,

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Milton Keynes Branch Paul Cobb examines the disastrous events of ‘The Attack at Fromelles’ in July 1916 in his talk on 19 August starting at 19:30. Venue: The City Discovery Centre, Bradwell Abbey, H3 Monks Way, Milton Keynes. MK13 9AP. Contact: [email protected] Tel: 01908 377451. All welcome.

Ireland are helping to ensure those who serve or have served our country, get the treatment and recognition they deserve. Their support is hugely valued. In turn, these companies benefit from the skills, experience, professionalism and dedication that that these men and women bring to their organisation.”

Yorkshire Branch The myth and reality of the ‘British Cavalry on the Western Front’ will be discussed in Graham Winton’s talk on 13 August at 14:30. Venue: Manor School, Millfield Lane, Nether Poppleton, York YO26 6PA. Contact: [email protected] Tel: 07840 934881. Open to all.

Kent (North-West) Branch Leading ANZAC military historian Christopher Pugsley, discusses ‘The Australians at Poziéres (August 1916)’ in his talk on 25 August starting at 19:30. Venue: Royal British Legion, Queensway, Petts Wood, Orpington, Kent BR5 1DH. Contact: Tel: 020 8402 6587 [email protected] All welcome.

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/

12 www.britainatwar.com

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BRIEFING ROOM |

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

Keith Lawrence DFC – Battle Of Britain Pilot on to 5 FTS, Sealand on 28 May. When his training was completed, Lawrence went to 234 Squadron, equipped with Blenheims, although Spitfires began to arrive in the spring of 1940. On 8 July that year Lawrence shared in the destruction of a Junkers 88, recorded as the first victory for the squadron since it had been re-formed. From then on Pilot Officer (Flying Officer 6 November) Lawrence was in frequent action.

RIGHT AND ABOVE: Keith Lawrence the fighter pilot, 1940, and Battle of Britain veteran, 2015.

BULLETIN BOARD

THE DEATH has occurred of Flight Lieutenant Keith Ashley Lawrence, DFC at the age of 96, writes Geoff Simpson. He was a veteran of both the Battle of Britain and the siege of Malta. Keith Lawrence was born in Waitara in the North Island of New Zealand on 25 November 1919. However, he attended Southland Boys’ High School in the South Island, from where he would remember another future Battle of Britain pilot, Bobby Yule.

*

Lawrence became a bank clerk in Invercargill and joined the Civil Reserve of Pilots in February 1938 and that summer was accepted for a short service commission in the RAF. He sailed for England in the RMS Tainui on 1 February 1939. On 16 March he began his ab initio course at Yatesbury, Wiltshire. He moved

SEVEN UNKNOWN Great War British Soldiers have been reburied with full military honours at Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Belgium. Three of the seven were discovered in a field at Wijtshate while the other four were uncovered during an archaeological dig nearby. Two ceremonies took place near Ypres, attended by UK, Belgian and CWGC representatives. The ranks and dates of death for the soldiers has unfortunately not been established although three of the men's units have been identified as the King's Own Scottish Borderers, the Rifle Brigade and the Royal West Kent Regiment.

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According to Men of the Battle of Britain by Kenneth G Wynn: ‘On July 12 he damaged a Ju 88, on August 24 he damaged a Bf 110 and on September 7 he claimed a Bf 109 destroyed and damaged a Do 17. Two days later Lawrence was posted to 603 Squadron at Hornchurch and on the 15th, his first sortie with 603, he claimed a Bf 109 destroyed and two others damaged. On October 8 1940 Lawrence was posted to 421 Flight, then forming at Hawkinge. On November 23 he damaged a Bf 110 and on a weather reconnaissance over Ramsgate on the 26th he was shot down by Bf 109s. The Spitfire disintegrated and Lawrence found himself falling. He got his parachute open, went into the sea and burst open a dye sachet, colouring the water. He was picked up by a minesweeper and taken to Ramsgate, where he was admitted to hospital, with his right arm dislocated and his right leg broken.’ After recovery and convalescence, in late 1941 Flight Lieutenant Lawrence returned to 91 Squadron, as 421 Flight had become. He quickly went to Malta and joined 185 Squadron at Hal Far in February 1942. He claimed a number of further successes, before taking command of the squadron on 28 May 1942, as an acting Squadron Leader. He returned to the UK later in the year. His DFC was gazetted that September. After a period as an instructor Lawrence flew with 124 Squadron in 1945. He transferred to the RNZAF in July 1945, returned to his native country in May 1946 and shortly afterwards went on the reserve. He later settled in Britain and ran a successful dry cleaning business.

*

A RE-DEDICATION service has been held in honour of a Second World War Flight Sergeant who lost his life during the conflict, but was never included on his local war memorial. Flight Sergeant Ronald Lewis was killed in the early months of the war but for unknown reasons was never included on the memorial at Senghenydd, Caerphilly. With the support of Caerphilly County council, Ronald's name has now been placed on the memorial. The re-dedication service saw floral tributes laid on behalf of the local community by the local heritage society, the community council and representatives from the RAF.

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Cash Boost for Bentley Priory Museum

VISTORS TO the historic headquarters of RAF Fighter Command are set to benefit from a £1million education centre which tells the story of the Battle of Britain, writes Melody Foreman. The cash to develop the learning programme at Bentley Priory Museum was awarded by the government out of money clawed back in LIBOR bank fines. The Museum, housed in a Grade II listed building in Stanmore, London, has already attracted a large number of visitors who discover the contribution and importance of ‘The One’ - Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, ‘The Few’ - aircrew who fought in the skies over Britain and ‘The Many’ for their heroic work on the ground during wartime. The Museum was opened in 2013 by the Patron of Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust HRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall after eight years of fundraising and project management. It had been supported by many of ‘The Few’ including the late Wing Commander Bob Foster DFC, AE and Flight Lieutenant William Walker AE.

Following the recent cash award a new learning programme will provide essential easy-to-access information to schoolchildren and students and young visitors to Bentley Priory can already experience bespoke sessions to help with history classes and Key Stages 2 and 3 projects. There is also a second schools and sixth form colleges programme on offer inviting young people to learn about leadership, bravery, technology and object handling. Opportunities to ‘plot the Battle of Britain’ and use a replica Filter Room map will enable students to understand the important role of WAAF plotters at Bentley Priory in 1940. The importance of propaganda during the war years can also be studied. Director of Bentley Priory Museum, Eleanor Pulfer-Sharman told Britain at War Magazine that 1,000 schoolchildren had already visited the site and that feedback had been extremely positive. She said: ‘The grant from the government will enable us to increase our educational facilities and continue to grow our numbers of young visitors. The funding boost will allow for an inclusive, diverse and bespoke range of

events like a ‘day at pilot school’ and ‘how to be a WAAF plotter’ to be offered to visitors. All learning experiences including the impact of the Blitz on London will be against the backdrop of historic Bentley Priory from where the Battle of Britain was won. It is always important to highlight how, right from the outset of the project, the veterans were adamant the Museum should ensure those who took part in the Battle of Britain and the rest of the war should never be forgotten.’ Chairman of the Trust and former RAF Nimrod pilot Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge KCB, CBE, ADC, FCMI, FRAeS, said: ‘The Trust is very grateful to have been allocated such a significant grant for our Museum from the LIBOR fund. Given that Bentley Priory is the place from where the Battle of Britain was won, we are now ready to embark on an exciting project to bring the inspirational stories of the time to the widest possible audience and thus ensure that future generations are aware of its significance in the Nation’s history.’ As a charity, the Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust has already worked with the London borough of Harrow and the Heritage Lottery Fund to deliver the initial museum project. The RAF first arrived at Bentley Priory in July 1936 when Fighter Command was created with its first Commander-in-Chief, Sir Hugh Dowding. Sir Hugh was a decorated pilot of the First World War and during the Battle of Britain in 1940 worked closely LEFT: Battle of Britain veterans Flt Lt William Walker (L) and Wg Cdr Bob Foster (R) were both enthusiastic supporters of the Bentley Priory project.

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with Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park, the commander of 11 Fighter Group. The RAF moved out of the historic Bentley Priory in 2008, the administration offices re-located to RAF Northolt. Today the Museum with its Spitfire and Hurricane gate guardians, provides spectacular and engaging displays about the vital role played by the men and women of Fighter Command at a time when the enemy Luftwaffe darkened the skies of Britain. There are also cases of medals on show, paintings, artefacts and a re-creation of a Filter Room which explores the technology utilised during the Battle of Britain. The importance of the ‘Dowding System’ is explained, revealing how the world’s first large-scale centralised air defence command and control system was devised and put into effective operation. Harrow East MP, Bob Blackman said the £1million cash injection was a major step forward in a campaign to preserve our nation’s heritage: ‘This landmark museum is a vital means of ensuring the next generation is able to understand the sacrifices made during the war and funding will allow the museum to grow into an all-encompassing educational environment.’ *Bentley Priory Museum is open on Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays and Saturdays and available for pre-booked group and school visits on Tuesdays and Thursday. Contact – 020 8950 5526 for details or email: enquiries@ bentleypriorymuseum.org.uk

Memorial du souv F_P.indd 1

01/04/2016 16:37

‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941

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Circus 68

‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941

9 AUGUST 1941

O

N 9 August 1941 the leader of the Tangmere Wing, Wing Commander Douglas Bader, was famously brought down over France and captured. His conquest over adversity after losing his legs in a pre-war flying accident, his part in the Battle of Britain, being taken POW with subsequent escape attempts, and then incarceration in the infamous Colditz Castle are all legendary. All of these adventures are well known, but in the following feature we examine the facts surrounding how he was brought down. First, as introduction to our cover story feature, we take a look at the background to events on the operation that fateful day: This ‘Circus’ operation was to the refinery at Gosnay, four miles to

the west of Béthune, with weather predicted at 8/10ths Cumulus cloud at 6-7,000 ft on the way in and 10/10ths over the target. The cloud was expected to be in layers, with breaks at higher levels. Five Blenheims of 226 Sqn were the raiding force and the bombers were escorted and covered by the Fighter Wings from RAF North Weald (71, 222 and 111 Sqns), RAF Hornchurch (403, 603 and 611 Sqns), RAF Kenley (452, 485 and 602 Sqns) and RAF Tangmere (41, 610 and 616 Sqns) with RAF Northolt providing a Support Wing (306, 308 and 315 Sqns). Some fifteen Messerschmitt 109s were claimed as destroyed on Circus 68, and six probably destroyed. In fact, the Luftwaffe only lost one Me 109.

The RAF lost a total of six Spitfires with three pilots POW, two killed and one safe in the UK. The Luftwaffe claimed to have shot down seven Spitfires during Circus 68. Cloud cover over the intended target prevented any chance of bombing, and a secondary target presented the same problems but bombs were nevertheless dropped in the vicinity of Fort Phillipe at Gravelines. It is not thought that any bombs actually struck the target, although several were seen to fall in the sea. Overall, the operation can only be viewed as a failure – and a failure which lost RAF Fighter Command one of its brightest stars, the posterboy Douglas Bader, and presented the Germans with a propaganda coup through his capture. 

LEFT: Wing Commader Douglas Bader DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, photographed after being captured in August 1941. Bader retired from the RAF on 21 July 1946, was made a CBE in 1956 and was knighted in 1976. He died on 5 September 1982.

CIRCUS OPERATIONS Conceived in late 1940 and early 1941 to take offensive operations to the enemy in northern Europe, the purpose of Circus missions was later stated as: ‘Fighter escorted daylight bombing attacks against short range targets with the aim of bringing the German Air Force to battle and preventing its withdrawal to the Eastern Front.’ Whilst the intention of forcing the Luftwaffe to hold a fighter force on the Western Front was understandable it was certainly a fact, anyway, that the Germans would not have left that front exposed and unprotected by a fighter force. In the event, a relatively limited fighter force was retained there (principally JG2 and JG26) and the Circus operations throughout 1941 were costly in terms of losses, ineffective in terms of the targets bombed and highly doubtful in terms of the over-optimistic level of claims against the Luftwaffe fighter arm which were made by RAF Fighter Command.

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‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941

'Reach for MYTH AND REALITY

Seventy-five years ago this month the legendary RAF fighter pilot, Douglas Bader, was brought down over France and taken POW whilst leading the Tangmere Wing. Andy Saunders examines the circumstances surrounding this episode – an incident where facts do not necessarily fit the oft-accepted version of the story. RIGHT: Douglas Bader, CO of 242 Squadron, 1940.

P

AUL BRICKHILL’S ‘Reach For The Sky’ became a classic of its genre and arguably the best known account of an RAF Second World War fighter pilot’s experience. It was, though, typical of its time. Written in a somewhat gung-ho style, the book reflects a brash propaganda ethos of wartime writing, and contemporary books like Larry Forrester’s biography of Bob Stanford-Tuck, ‘Fly For Your Life’, echoed the same style. The titles of these two books alone are redolent of ‘Boy’s Own’ style action and of ripping yarns.

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In the case of Bader’s book it wasn’t long before the film industry saw potential for this epic tale of an ‘againstthe-odds’ story of heroic struggle. In his book, Brickhill gives a version of events when Douglas Bader was downed over France on 9 

‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941

r the Sky'

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‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941

ABOVE: Bader surrounded by his pilots during September 1940. RIGHT: The Messerschmitt 109 F aircraft of JG26 lined up under the trees at St Omer, 1941.

August 1941, putting the stamp of approval on how Bader wished the world to view the episode. Brickhill, himself a former RAF Spitfire pilot and an ex-POW had empathy with his subject and was able to couple this to journalistic flair and ability to tell a good tale. That said, there were fractious moments between Brickhill and Bader, with Brickhill perceiving his reputation to be based on attention to minute detail and Bader not taking kindly to persistent questioning. This, to the extent that publication of the book was only saved by intervention of the publisher, Ian Collins, a golfing partner of Bader’s. In the end, the book saw light of day but with Bader resentful that Brickhill did very well out of the book and film rights while he only received a one-off £10,000 payment.

CASCADE OF DEBRIS

There is little in Brickhill’s book that adds much to our knowledge of the events for the Tangmere Wing from take-off to target area that day which cannot otherwise be gained from various eye witness accounts or official records. It does, however, tell of Bader’s diving attack on the Messerschmitts, overshooting the first 22 www.britainatwar.com

ones in his headlong pursuit and then pulling up to 24,000 ft, finding himself alone, and then spotting and attacking more Messerschmitts - one of which he claimed to have set well ablaze. He then claimed to have damaged another with a three second burst, causing a gushing volume of white smoke and cascade of debris. Two fighters, though, were now turning to attack him from the left as Bader broke right. As he did so, it happened: ‘Something hit him. He felt the impact but the mind was curiously

numb and could not assess it. No noise but something was holding his aeroplane by the tail, pulling it out of his hands and slewing it round. It lurched suddenly and then was pointing straight down, the cockpit floating with dust that had come up from the bottom. He pulled back on the stick but it fell inertly into his stomach like a broken neck. The aeroplane was diving in a steep spiral and confusedly he looked behind to see if anything were following.

‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941

First he was surprised, and then terrifyingly shocked, to see that the whole of the Spitfire behind the cockpit was missing: fuselage, tail, fin - all gone. Sheared off, he thought vaguely. The second 109 must have run into him and sliced it off with his propeller. He knew it had happened but hoped desperately and foolishly that he was wrong. Only the little radio mast stuck up behind his head. A corner of his brain saw that the altimeter was unwinding fast from 24,000 ft. Thoughts crowded in. How stupid to be nice and warm in the cockpit and have to start getting out. The floundering mind sought a grip and sharply a gush of panic spurted. “Christ! Get out!” “Wait! No oxygen up here!” Get out! Get out!

Won’t be able to soon! Must be doing over 400 already. He tore off his helmet and mask and yanked the little rubber ball over his head - the hood ripped away and screaming noise battered at him. Out came the harness pin and he gripped the cockpit rim to lever himself up, wondering if he could get out without thrust from the helpless legs. He struggled madly to get his head above the windscreen and suddenly felt he was being sucked out as the tearing wind caught him. Top half out. He was out! No, something had him by the leg holding him. (The rigid foot of the right leg hooked fast in some vice in the cockpit.) Then the nightmare took his exposed body and beat him and screamed and roared in his ears as the broken fighter, dragging him 

ABOVE: Bader, the archetypal fighter pilot; sports car, Labrador dog, pipe and spotted silk scarf. LEFT: Gerhard Schoepfel (in light jacket, left) discusses tactics with his pilots at St Omer, 1941.

BELOW: A Spitfire is caught by the camera gun of Gerhard Schoepfel, one of the Luftwaffe’s successful fighter pilots on 9 August 1941.

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‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941

Floating upwards? He thought it is so quiet I must have a rest. I would like to go to sleep. In a flash the brain cleared and he knew and pulled the D-ring, hearing a crack as the parachute opened. Then he was actually floating. High above the sky was still blue, and right at his feet lay a veil of cloud. He sank into it. That was the cloud at 4,000 ft. Cutting it fine! In seconds he dropped easily under it and saw the earth, green and dappled, where the sun struck through. Something flapped in his face and he saw that it was his right trouser leg, split along the seam. High in the split gleamed indecently the white skin of his stump. The right leg had gone. How lucky, he thought, to lose one’s legs and have detachable ones. Otherwise he would have died a few seconds ago. He looked, but saw no burning wreck below - probably not enough left to burn.’ ABOVE: After capture, Bader was entertained by the pilots of JG26 at their HQ in a farmhouse at La Colombier, Audembert. Johannes Schmid, who was introduced as Bader’s victor, is fourth from left (in light jacket) just over Adolf Galland’s right shoulder.

by the leg, plunged down and spun and battered him and the wind clawed at his flesh and the cringing sightless eyeballs. It went on and on into confusion, on and on, timeless, witless and helpless, with a little core of thought deep under the blind head fighting for life in the wilderness. It said he had a hand gripping the D-ring of his parachute and mustn’t take it off, must grip it because the wind wouldn’t let him get it back again, and he mustn’t pull it or the wind would split his parachute because they must be doing 500 miles an hour. On and on… till steel and leather snapped. He was floating, in peace. The noise and buffeting had stopped.

ABOVE RIGHT: It was across this countryside near Blaringhem, France, that the wreckage of Bader’s Spitfire Va fell in pieces on 9 August 1941 – the wings in fields to the north of the N43 road, along with Bader’s artificial leg, and other wreckage behind the farm to the right at Mont Dupil.

ABOVE: A damaged Me 109 F is wheeled away for repairs. Although only one was shot down on 9 August 1941, others are thought to have been damaged in the battle.

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COLLISION WITH GERMAN FIGHTER

The story of Bader’s bale-out over France in ‘Reach For The Sky’ is reflected faithfully in the film of the same name. Generally, it was well received when it premiered on 5 July 1956 in the presence of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. Bader stayed away, but was reportedly pleased with how the film turned out. Its frequent repeats on UK television means it has probably crept into British consciousness and there cannot be many who have not seen it at least once. All will surely remember, if asked, the cause of Douglas Bader’s demise over France; a collision with a German fighter. Adolf Galland, who commanded Jagdgeschwader 26 when Bader was brought down, had also written an account of his experiences as one of Germany’s most famous fighter aces. ‘The First and The Last’, published in 1953, a year ahead of Brickhill’s book,

‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941

LEFT: This grainy wartime photograph shows the room from which Bader lowered his knotted sheets. (The window on the far left was later turned into a fire escape)

detailed the engagement but gave a different version to Bader: ‘One of the most successful and famous fighter pilots of the RAF, Wing Commander Douglas Bader, was shot down in a dogfight over the Pas de Calais. It was never confirmed who actually shot him down, but when Bader was captured he particularly wanted to know who it was, and if possible meet his master in the air. He said that for him it was an intolerable idea that possibly he had been shot down by a German NCO. It was not an NCO, but probably one of our able young officers, amongst whom there

were some outstanding pilots. I had shot down that day two Spitfires out of Bader’s formation. In order not to offend him, we chose from amongst the successful pilots who had taken part in this flight a fair haired, good-looking flying officer, and introduced him to Bader as his victorious opponent. Bader was pleasantly surprised, shaking his hand warmly. He described his crash like this: ‘I saw pieces flying off my crate. The nose dipped, and when I looked round the tail unit had practically gone… Nothing else to do but to get out as quickly as possible.’

It is an account at odds with Bader’s - but Galland was emphatic in his book and later when interviewed by the author in 1977. Another who was convinced that Bader had been shot down was ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, flying with 616 Sqn in the Tangmere Wing that day. Interviewed in 1989 he said: ‘Douglas was shot down for sure. Trouble was, he hated the idea that anyone shot him down. Absolutely bloody hated it.’

‘STAY WITH ME!’

That day had seen Galland’s JG 26 ordered into the air shortly after 11.00 when the first reports of Circus 68 forming up over England were received. The pilot to whom Galland referred was said to have been Oblt Wolfgang Kosse of 5/JG 26 - although if we take at face value German reports of his victory then it rules him out as the pilot who downed Bader. The official list of Luftwaffe shoot-downs states that Kosse’s was timed at 11.40. If accurate, and it probably is, then it is a little later than the time we know Bader to have been lost at around 11.20 when he called ‘Stay with me!’ as he went into action. Indeed, the actual II/JG 26 victory list times it at 11.45 but, more importantly, the claim can be ruled out on another factor as it was recorded as having taken place at 3,000m (9,842 ft), considerably 

ABOVE: Injured in the baleout, Bader was taken to this hospital in St Omer which had been taken over as a medical centre by the Luftwaffe. ABOVE RIGHT: Famously, Bader escaped from his hospital room by knotting together sheets and shinning down the makeshift ‘rope’ before making good his getaway. His room was the second window along from the fire escape.

LEFT: The Operations Room at RAF Tangmere from where an anxious team plotted and monitored Circus 68.

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‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941

BELOW: The burnt-out wreck of Flt Lt ‘Buck’ Casson’s Spitfire, 9 August 1941.

RIGHT: On 13 August 1941 came the first indication that Bader was POW in a transmission from German sources which also requested delivery of a spare artificial leg and offered safe passage for the delivering aircraft.

lower than the 24,000ft at which Bader said he was attacked. All evidence therefore points to the fact that he was neither the man who shot down Bader, nor the pilot who played ‘victor’ for the benefit of the captured RAF Wing Leader. Also flying with Galland was Oblt Johannes Schmid, he too claiming a Spitfire. Flying a Messerschmitt 109 F-4, he was with his CO when Galland shot at another Spitfire. As he pulled away he saw a Spitfire flying alone which he attacked twice

Later in the war, Bader required another spare leg and this was delivered via the International Red Cross. It is seen here being dispatched from London.

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at 2,500m (8,200ft) from behind, opening fire between 80 - 50m, shooting the aircraft down 10km from St Omer. He watched as flames and smoke came from the aircraft and the pilot baled-out at 11.25. Uffz Richter witnessed the pilot’s parachute opening and the Spitfire going down on the edge of a forest, and we can identify the British pilot who fell to Schmid’s hail of cannon and machine gun fire, although there are grounds for believing that it was Schmid who was the pilot introduced to Bader as his victor. On 21 August 1941 Schmid was awarded the Ritterkreuz after 25 aerial victories, and on 24 August an account stated: ‘….a few days before, Schmid had forced an opponent to bale-out after trying to attack one of his comrades. The meeting of these two men, the German and the Wing Commander, in the HQ of the Geschwader was an exceptional experience. The Englishman went to his victor, laid

a hand on his shoulder and said with clear respect in his voice ‘I have mastered the art of flying in my career and I can fly! But you can do it better!’ It seems, therefore, that Galland’s arbitrary nomination of a victor was Schmid - at least so far as the German propaganda machine was concerned and the identification of a ‘Wing Commander’ further strengthening a link to Bader. Unfortunately, no evidence backs him up as victor. Instead, Schmid had shot down an Australian, Sgt G B Haydon.

DISAPPEARED FROM HIS VIEW

Haydon was flying Spitfire IIA P8361 (a presentation aeroplane named ‘Krakatoa’) with 452 Squadron (Kenley Wing) when he was lost on Circus 68 as the report of his CO stated: ‘Whilst operating with Circus 68 over France on 9/8/41 at about 11.20 hrs Sgt Haydon was Green 2. Green

‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941

1 was P/O Truscott who reports that during an engagement with a number of Me 109s at 10,000ft he suddenly missed Sgt Haydon who had disappeared from his view.’ Clearly, the details match Schmid’s report and we can also place the crash location on the ground. Postwar, the RAF’s Missing Research & Enquiry Unit searched for RAF casualties and in the case of Sgt Haydon the scene of a crash at Forêt de Tournehem was investigated where it was found that he had baled-out too low, dying from injuries after landing in a tree. Carved onto the tree by French woodcutters, and still visible to investigators in 1947, was the wording: ‘Il mort pour la France 1941’. Gerald Haydon lies buried in the cemetery at Longuenesse, St Omer, and there is no doubting that Schmid was responsible for downing him and not Bader, given the match of detail. In short, and without further outlining each claim by JG26, it is impossible to conclusively link any of them to the demise of Bader.

HIT BY CANNON SHELLS

There is no doubting that the blow which disabled Bader’s aeroplane was sudden, catastrophic and utterly overwhelming to the senses of the pilot. If it was the case that Bader’s tail and rear fuselage were hit by cannon shells, then the effects might have well appeared the result of a collision. And if hit by cannon shells then Bader could be excused for genuinely believing that something behind had collided with him, because the blowing away of the tail unit could well be a consequence of such hits. But if we cannot find a German victor then surely we must accept the collision version of events? Hptm Gerhard Schoepfel, Commander of III Gruppe JG 26, though, was one pilot able to give an accurate and verifiable account of his

claim over a Spitfire that day, and it is a claim we can very definitely attribute to a particular pilot; Flt Lt Lionel Harwood ‘Buck’ Casson, ‘B’ Flight Commander, 616 Squadron. Casson, like Bader, was now POW but on his release from Colditz Castle on 14 April 1945 one of the first things Bader did was write to Casson who replied on 28 May 1945: ‘Now for the day we disgraced the Tangmere Wing and you say you want the whole story - phew. When we dived to attack those Me 109s that were climbing up in formation I was to starboard and behind you with three other aircraft of ‘B’ Flight. My No 2 was a Rhodesian sergeant who’s name I have forgotten and Roy Marples was on my right with his No 2. I watched you attack with ‘A’ Flight and break to port as I was coming in. I was well throttled back in the dive as the other three started to fall behind and I wished to keep the flight together. I attacked from the rear and, after having a squirt at two 109s flying together, I left them for a single one flying inland alone. I finished nearly all my cannon up on this boy who finally baled-out at about 6,000ft having lost most of his tail unit. The other three ‘B’ Flight machines were somewhere in my rear and probably one of the lads saw this.’ But what of the Me 109 Casson claimed that day, and which Me 109 might have collided with Bader? The first difficulty might be identifying likely collision contenders given that so many Me 109s were claimed as being blasted out of the sky during Circus 68 – some fifteen in total, begging the question; how can we know which Messerschmitt it was? And yet, when looking at the Luftwaffe losses for the day, the task becomes easy. There exists

only one contender for any collision; Uffz Albert Schlager of 3/JG 26. His crash was near Aire-sur-la-Lys, in the right place and at exactly the right time, and although II/JG 26 lost another Me 109 that day its un-named pilot baled-out over Merville some 20 km east of the combat zone, the Luftwaffe reporting it as a ‘crash’ unrelated to combat. So, if Schlager is our collision victim then how can we exclude other Me 109s shot down that day given that no other Luftwaffe fighter units were engaged? Quite simply, there were no other Luftwaffe fighter losses – the RAF having over-claimed an astonishing thirteen victories! And, conversely of course, if Schlager is our collision candidate, then who did Casson shoot down? 

ABOVE: Flt Lt ‘Buck’ Casson (left) and Fg Off Hugh Dundas, 616 Squadron, 1941. BELOW: Bader (centre) with pilots of his Tangmere Wing, July 1941.

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‘REACH FOR THE SKY’ - MYTH AND REALITY Douglas Bader’s Capture – August 1941 RIGHT: After capture, and whilst being entertained by JG26, he was allowed to sit in the cockpit of a Messerschmitt 109. Here, at Duxford in 1969, Bader gets up close and personal with another ‘Messerscmitt 109’ during the making of the film ‘Battle of Britain’, on which he acted as technical adviser. Doubtless, he is regaling this group of schoolboys with tales of derring-do! FAR RIGHT: In September 1945 Bader led a Battle of Britain flypast over London. Here, he climbs into his Spitfire (marked with his initials, DB) at RAF North Weald preparatory to making that flight.

BELOW: A Spitfire of 616 Squadron, Tangmere Wing, after a landing mishap at RAF Friston in early 1941.

FRIENDLY FIRE?

Setting aside all RAF Fighter Command claims on Circus 68 for the moment, and looking only at Casson’s combat, we need to take at face value his account; ie using up all his cannon ammunition, shooting the tail off a ‘Messerschmitt 109’ and watching its pilot finally bale-out at 6,000ft. But was Uffz Schlager Casson’s victim? The answer is provided, at least in part, by a Combat Report filed by another 616 Sqn pilot, Plt Off ‘Nip’ Heppell, who stated that he fired at a Me 109 on the top of a stall-turn, with Heppell noting a large ‘6’ behind the cross on the fuselage and he closed to almost point-blank range and gave a long burst. The Messerschmitt immediately went into a very slow gliding turn to the left as Heppell saw the hood fly off and the pilot jump out. With a morbid fascination, he watched as the pilot tumbled over and dropped into cloud, his parachute still not open. Accurately, Heppell judged that the German airman must certainly have been killed. The timing and location of this claim can further be linked to Schlager by Plt Off ‘Johnnie’ Johnson who saw wreckage burning on the ground ‘in a field close to a canal’. Indeed, he had almost certainly seen the burning aftermath of Heppel’s claim because

28 www.britainatwar.com

we now know that Schalger’s Me 109 had crashed into a field at Aire-surla-Lys, and it was close to a canal. Schlager himself had baled-out, but his parachute failed to open. The crash site was established in 2004 when it was located and excavated, the wreckage positively identified as Schlager’s aircraft with the tail section found to have been firmly attached on impact, ruling it out as Casson’s claim and raising the spectre of ‘friendly fire’. Uncannily, the description of Casson’s claim over an ‘Me 109’ is more than remarkably similar to the downing of Bader; the loss of the tail and the pilot finally getting out at 6,000ft. Another pilot in the squadron, Sgt Jeff West, also saw what he believed to be an enemy aircraft ‘performing strange manoevres and adopting remarkable attitudes prior to breaking into pieces’. Since Schlager’s Messerschmitt did not crash under such circumstances, and Bader’s Spitfire fell in pieces, he can only have witnessed the demise of his Wing Leader’s fighter. In the heat of aerial battle, incidents of ‘friendly fire’ were surprisingly high. Indeed, we also know that at least one other instance of ‘friendly fire’ occurred during Circus 68

when 452 Squadron were attacked by Spitfires, this being a fact recorded in the combat report of Sgt Makin of that squadron, who, describing the battle, went on to say: ‘….we were then attacked by six aircraft out of the sun which were later identified as Spitfires.’ Here, then, is a contemporaneous record of an instance of Spitfires attacking Spitfires, and during the very same operation. Pilots were under extreme physical and mental stress and with only splitseconds to decide. Quite simply, it was a case of kill or be killed, and against a bright sky the rear-view of a Me 109 F is remarkably similar to that of a Spitfire. Under the circumstances, too, of such hectic and stressful combat no blame could ever be attached to ‘Buck’ Casson if, indeed, he had made such an unfortunate mistake. He was a valiant, well respected, well decorated, muchliked, successful and skilful fighter pilot. Whatever the facts, we can be certain of one thing. To a man, all of those involved that day were surely brave and courageous fliers; ordinary young men asked to perform extraordinary deeds. Heroes if one likes, but all of them fallible. 

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ART OF PERSUASION Sir Robert Baden-Powell

are you in this? asks boer war hero Senior army officer and founder of the Scout movement, Sir Robert Baden-Powell, comes under the focus of Phil Jarman in this edition’s Art of Persuasion. MAIN PICTURE: Baden-Powell's iconic poster. TOP RIGHT: LieutenantGeneral Sir Robert BadenPowell in his Scout uniform, adhorned with medal ribbons and badges.

G

AINING ACCOLADES and military honours for his part in the siege of Mafeking during the second Boer War in 1899, and the inception of the Boy Scout movement was the widely known public persona of LieutenantGeneral Sir Robert Baden-Powell. Few people apart from his close friends and colleagues were aware of the sensitive and artistic side to this war hero’s personality. An accomplished artist and illustrator, Baden-Powell developed his creative skills from his education at Charterhouse, and throughout his 34-year military career, which began in 1876. He saw service in both India and Africa before leaving the army to launch the Scout Movement in 1910. Making visual records through painting and drawing, Baden-Powell created images that were humorous and informative, many illustrations were used to explain military skills, field craft and techniques to serving soldiers. Informing through drawings and diagrams was extremely effective and overcame literacy issues within the ranks. Baden-Powell’s public school education and military career nurtured his acknowledgement of manliness, athleticism and power through the might of the British Army and services, all attributes of an empire builder. Some aspects of this philosophy fed into the handbook, Scouting for Boys, that became the basis of the scout movement.

30 www.britainatwar.com

Throughout the First World War, many iconic and powerful posters were created in support of the recruitment campaign, intended to encourage volunteers and the public to support the war effort in a variety of ways; nursing, munitions work and agriculture as well joining the British Army and Royal Navy. Using his accomplished creative skills, Baden-Powell captured the mood of belonging and highlighting the war effort in the striking poster – ‘Are YOU in this?’ – a direct appeal to the public to contribute to ultimate victory. Published in 1915 by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, Baden-Powell’s illustration depicts male and female munitions workers, a nurse, a boy scout, a soldier and sailor under the fluttering banner of the Union Flag. The addition of a civilian, looking furtive, hands in pockets and schematically not belonging, fully supports the simple copy line. The intention of the poster was to shame the lack of commitment of the lone civilian and highlight how the nation must pull together through the composition of the key elements of the image, which is a visually strong example of effective graphic communication. Considering how we are now conversant with the subtleties of the advertising industry, the early part of the twentieth century was a distance from the consumer society that promoted publicity and branding as a craft during the 1950s onwards. Following the launch of the scouts,

Baden-Powell continued to contribute and guide the movement until 1937. A number of examples of his accomplished artwork being used in manuals, handbooks and a range of printed material. A less well-known fact about the former British war hero was his admiration of the fascist leaders, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. BadenPowell commented that Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, included good ideas on organisation, education, health and propaganda, but he also recognised that the Nazi leader omitted to practice his own ideals. One aspect of the Boy Scouts acknowledgement of achievement, the famous sew-on badges, was ultimately affected by the rise of the Nazi party. Some early badges from the pre-First World War era contained the swastika, a recognised symbol of good fortune or luck, originally from India. These designs were changed as the Nazi party went on to use the swastika as a graphic symbol promoting fascism in the 1930s. Because of his high regard by the British public, and his contributions to youth organisations, Baden-Powell was included on the ‘hit list’ contained within the Black Book, a Nazi record listing the names of potential detainees following the planned invasion and conquest of Britain in 1940. Baden-Powell, however, did not live to see the demise of the Axis forces at the end of the Second World War, having died in his adopted home of Nyeri, Kenya, in 1941.

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GAS! A DEADLY WEAPON? The Chemists’ War RIGHT: British troops blinded by tear gas wait outside an Advanced Dressing Station, near Béthune. Each man has his hand on the shoulder of the man in front of him. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

I

N THE poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, composed by soldier Wilfred Owen (published posthumously in 1920), the effects of chlorine gas are described. The famous line “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning” is scarily accurate; Yet, 93% of gassed British soldiers returned to duty. The Great War was waged on a scale never before seen. Some 6,000,000 British men were mobilised with some 11.5%, around 700,000, never returning home - the largest loss to conflict Britain has endured in raw numbers, but proportionally, a British soldier was more likely to die in the Crimean War. The war was not without its barbarisms, gas

being one weapon where the brutal personal effects cannot be ignored. The effects of gas as a weapon were, of course, dreadful. Putting things into perspective, though, its use accounted for only around 1% of nearly three quarters of a million casualties on the British side. On the other hand, the devastation reaped by artillery is unparalleled, the heavy guns responsible for some 60% of casualties. British records suggest shelling accounts for 59% of all combat deaths, while French and German files show that 76% and 85% (respectively) of wounds can be attributed to shelling. Historian John Terraine stated “artillery was the battle-winner, artillery was what caused the greatest loss of life, the most dreadful wounds, and the deepest fear”. A battle-winner

it was, in a way tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and gas, were not.

TRENCH WARFARE

The question is then, if so dreadful, how did the use of gas fail to have the same bloody effect as other arms? Naturally, the other arms were deployed on a larger scale, but no power was miserly in using gas either, even though it breached the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare. Trench warfare was not new, having been practiced for centuries. The use of trenches increased massively prior to the First World War, as it became the common means to protect soldiers from increasingly effective firearms and direct-fire artillery. Digging in

! GAS A DEADL !

Notorious, hated, and controversial, gas was one of the defining weapons of the Great War. At least, that is the

32 www.britainatwar.com

per

GAS! A DEADLY WEAPON?

The Chemists’ War

saved lives, even in the Great War, where losses were much higher in the mobile phases of 1914 and 1918. In the first months of the conflict, once the war of manoeuvre ended and the deadlock which necessitated trenches created, artillery could not operate in a direct-fire role. It was vulnerable to modern firepower, and could not effectively target entrenched troops. Increasing numbers of heavy guns and howitzers, firing indirectly, were utilised to break the stalemate – initially by attempting to soften defences, and later, more successfully (especially when coordinated with pre-registration and observation) to fire ahead of advancing troops to cover them, or to target enemy artillery and rear areas, where the bulk of casualties were inflicted. 

DLY WEAPON? the

perception. John Ash asks: how effective was Gas?



BELOW: The iconic depiction of gas warfare, ‘Gassed’, by American painter John Singer Sargent. The painting, finished in March 1919, depicts a line of blinded soldiers moving to an aid station after a mustard gas attack, assisted by orderlies. The 91in x 241in painting was commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee to help document the war. Sargent visited the Western Front in July 1918 with the Guards Division, and then American Expeditionary Forces. It was voted picture of the year by the Royal Academy of Arts in 1919 and is now held by the Imperial War Museum.

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GAS! A DEADLY WEAPON? The Chemists’ War

had enveloped. Many soldiers fled, others succumbed to the chemical, which reacted with water inside the body and produced a burning acidic compound. A British soldier, Anthony Hossack, remembered: “Plainly something terrible was happening. What was it? Officers, and Staff officers too, stood gazing at the scene, awestruck and dumbfounded; for in the northerly breeze there came a pungent nauseating smell that tickled the throat and made our eyes smart… I saw, while over the fields streamed mobs of infantry, the dusky warriors of French Africa; away went their rifles, equipment, even their tunics that they might run the faster. One

ABOVE: French Algerian troops ready to march to defend the city of Rheims, 28 October 1914. RIGHT: British horses and soldiers, September 1917. The horse gas mask consisted of a hood to cover the nostrils and mouth, connected to a filter. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW: Soldiers from New Zealand don gas masks during training designed to help units’ cope with gas attacks. Taken by Henry Sanders, 25 August 1917.

A shell still had to hit a trench directly to be truly effective – a small target. If battles, such as the Somme, which employed heavy persistent bombardment showed anything, it was that this strategy offered little advantage, caused few casualties and warned the enemy of impending attack. Gas - which clung to the ground and occupied the lowest space was seen as a solution.

SECOND YPRES

Gas was first deployed long before the Somme, with the French allegedly using ethyl bromoacetate and later the more readily-available chloroacetone (tear gases) in August 1914. Later that year, the Germans filled shells with similar compounds and bombarded British positions. In both examples the gas was ineffective. The first large scale use of gas came in the last days of January 1915, where Russian positions were shelled with 18,000 rounds containing the tear gas xylyl bromide at the Battle of Bolimów, this too failed, the compound causing more

(NATIONAL

LIBRARY NZ)

34 www.britainatwar.com

problems for German troops, often freezing, and failing to disperse into an effective aerosol. The first use of the lethal chlorine gas (bertholite) is readily accepted as taking place on the afternoon of 22 April 1915. It was developed by firms within chemical conglomerate IG Farben, which worked with Fritz Haber, who, ironically, later won the Nobel Peace Prize. Haber and the German military argued the use of gas deployed from cylinders was legal, as the Hague Conventions only banned gas shells. He was present on 22 April, near Ypres, when 168 tonnes of bertholite was deployed. Released over a four mile front the gas quickly engulfed colonial French troops holding the line. It lingered in trenches and craters and taken completely by surprise the French were soon in panic. Flemish civilians reported some after-effects, and horses would refuse to enter areas the cloud

GAS! A DEADLY WEAPON?

The Chemists’ War

“A man doesn’t live on what passes through the filter, he merely exists. He gets the mentality of a wide-awake vegetable.” THE BRITISH RESPONSE

man came stumbling through our lines. An officer of ours held him up with levelled revolver, “What’s the matter, you bloody lot of cowards?” says he. The Zouave was frothing at the mouth, his eyes started from their sockets, and he fell writhing at the officer’s feet.” Elsewhere, gassed, blinded, and panicked, soldiers ran into enemy fire. Some German operators were caught by their own cloud. Remarkably, just enough men held until French and Canadian reinforcements arrived. The Germans, who did not expect such results, failed to exploit the opening, though they successfully gained ground across the battle area as a whole.

The gas attacks during the Second Battle of Ypres caused some 7,000 casualties. These were mostly French, but the British defending Hill 60 recorded 148 deaths. As horrific as the descriptions of the attack are, the battle claimed some 87,000 Allied total casualties, only 8% due to gas. Among the first ‘casualties’ of bertholite, was Clara Immerwahr, Haber’s wife. On 2 May 1915, she fatally shot herself, allegedly in disgust of her husband’s involvement in overseeing the deployment of gas at Ypres. The use of chlorine gas at Ypres was not responsible for deaths of masses, but proved that against an unprepared foe it could incapacitate entire sections of front. Counters were rapidly devised, as the Canadians, in particular a chemist-turnedmedical-officer, Captain Scrimger, quickly identified the gas during the attack and knew a urine-soaked cloth held over the face could defeat the poison. This was no practical means of protection, but the birth of a countermeasure nonetheless. The commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Sir John French, likely summed up the thoughts of many after Ypres, stating gas was “a cynical and barbarous disregard of the well-known usages of civilised war”. Yet, he argued the British were now forced employ it. Keen to retaliate, they formed Special Companies within the Royal Engineers. Such was the stigma regarding the weapon, that to refer to it as ‘gas’ when serving in these units was reprimandable.

The BEF would first use gas at the Battle of Loos on 25 September 1915, where they released 140 tons of chlorine. Their attack failed, the wind was not favourable and the gas blew back into British trenches. Several unused canisters were ruptured by shellfire. The early flannel masks worn served their purpose for a while, but the wearer quickly overheated. With poor visibility, hot, and with little choice but to remove the masks, many inhaled the vile chemical. There were more British gas casualties that day than German.

ABOVE: New Zealand soldiers observe the operation of a gas cylinder as part of their training to cope with gas attacks, also taken on 25 August 1917 by Henry Sanders. BELOW: C-in-C BEF, Sir John French in 1915.

A NEW WEAPON

As the effects of gas diminished, a German commission was tasked with improving the lethality of the weapon. They selected phosgene, previously developed by the French. Colourless and with a more natural odour, it 

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GAS! A DEADLY WEAPON? The Chemists’ War

to sustain heavy casualties to gas that day was 49th Division. They were in the reserve lines and the warning did not reach them in time. When the division was sleeping, a bombardment of German gas shells hit their positions. Most men woke, but some did not. Of 1,069 gas casualties, including 120 dead, 75% were from the 49th Division.

MUSTARD GAS

The most infamous of weaponised gasses is sulfur mustard, a vesicant odourless chemical agent more widely known as ‘hun stuff’, or ‘mustard gas’. It caused severe burns and blistering both when inhaled and on contact with skin. Mustard gas was particularly potent as it did not need to be inhaled and small exposure was enough to cause blistering. Larger concentrations could burn skin to the bone. The chemical was most effective against the eyes, nose, armpits and groin, but these were rarely uncovered in a prepared unit. Mild exposure typically resulted ABOVE: Gas Alarm: British soldiers put on gas masks. and stand to. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW: German troops occupy an Allied trench after launching the first poison gas attack of the First World War, April 1915.

(WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF BRETT BUTTERWORTH)

was deadlier and responsible for at least 85% of all lives claimed by gas during the war. Phosgene symptoms often took time to develop however, so seemingly fit victims could still fight on during the attack, succumbing hours later. Denser than chlorine, phosgene was harder to deploy, and existing countermeasures were partially effective against it. Therefore, it was often mixed with chlorine to overcome these constraints. The first German use of phosgene took place on 19 December 1915, near Wieltje, Belgium, but it was not successful. The British were aware of the plans, and their precautions minimised casualties. The release of the gas cloud was accompanied by trench raiders, but the British repelled them. There was no panic or breach of the

36 www.britainatwar.com

line. They had developed a system where in conditions which favoured gas attacks, the men were put on alert. Gas alarms and protective equipment were tested every 12 hours and each soldier had his mask and greatcoat to hand. Special lubricants, designed to allow weapons such as Lewis Guns to function in clouds, were distributed – vital when in places No Man’s Land was barely 20 yards across. According to British official histories, after this failed engagement, the Germans realised gas on its own could not break the deadlock. The only British unit

ABOVE: A British-made gas rattle, produced by M Bros, used to warn troops of a gas attack, giving them time to quickly put on any protective clothing. (WELLCOME IMAGES)

GAS! A DEADLY WEAPON?

The Chemists’ War

CIVILIANS The release of gas was not only a threat to soldiers. Nearby towns were often at risk, as the wind could carry gas clouds for miles. Few towns had a warning or alert system, and civilians did not have the same access to protective equipment. Estimates vary, but between 100,000 and 260,000 civilian gas casualties were sustained throughout the war, with some subject to the same lasting after-effects which afflicted the most unfortunate soldiers. Commanding officers on both sides knew of the risk, in many cases with little concern, or perhaps a lack of understanding of their weapon. It is often cited that Field Marshal Haig wrote: “My officers and I were aware that such weapon would cause harm to women and children living in nearby towns… However, because the weapon was to be directed against the enemy, none of us were overly concerned at all.”

must be agonising because usually the other cases do not complain even with the worst wounds but gas cases are invariably beyond endurance and they cannot help crying out.” However, even this awful weapon could not replicate the results generated at Second Ypres. The gas even hindered offensives, as it clung

to the ground, settling into a liquid. This remained at the bottom of trenches and craters for days, even months, and could easily be churned into a gas again by a shell hit or by soldiers diving for cover. This made it unsuitable for most offensive actions, although during the Battle of St. Quentin on 21-23 March 1918, mustard gas was used as part of the German’s five hour 3,500,000 shell bombardment, the largest of the war, but primarily against targets which needed to be incapacitated, not immediately captured. The proportion of sulfur mustard fatalities to total casualties was, as with all other compounds of the period, low. Of all mustard gas casualties, in the British Army as few as 2% died, most to secondary infections. However, being the hardest gas to counter, and considering its ever increasing use, the ‘hun stuff’ would produce nine tenths of British gas casualties from the time of its introduction in 1917. 

LEFT: A depiction of a gas attack on Canadian troops in Flanders, 24 April 1915, by Loius Raemaekers. (WELLCOME IMAGES)

BELOW: Men of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders pictured in a trench during May 1915, wearing early issue pad respirators and goggles. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

in swelling, temporarily blindness and blistering. Fever and pneumonia were common after exposure. There was little countermeasure developed to prevent skin injuries other than to cover up. ‘Bath trucks’ were used to allow soldiers to be quickly decontaminated, oils were used to treat the burns. This particularly nasty chemical was not usually ‘lethal’ in the sense of killing outright, but the wounds it could cause were nothing but hellish. In extreme pain, a soldier burnt by mustard gas could lie in hospital, blind, covered in yellow blisters, for over a month while he slowly choked. One British nurse reported: “They cannot be bandaged or touched. We cover them with a tent of propped-up sheets. Gas burns www.britainatwar.com 37

GAS! A DEADLY WEAPON? The Chemists’ War BELOW: A British cartoon by Louis Raemaekers depicts a sleeping French soldier under attack by a striking snake, symbolic of a gas attack on the unprepared. (WELLCOME IMAGES)

BOTTOM: 46th Division attacking the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 13 October 1915, as part of the Battle of Loos. Note the gas and smoke clouds in the centre.

DEFEATING GAS

Protections against gas developed rapidly, and were effective. Improvised respirators were rushed to the front after the Second Ypres – the first examples, made from cotton pads, sodium hyposulphite, sodium bicarbonate and glycerine, arriving within two days. These were less than effective, but useful. Simple flannel masks followed, and then by December 1915 the P helmet, a cloth hood effective against chlorine when soaked in sodium phenate. Soon after came the PH helmet, effective against deadlier phosgene gas, which throughout 1916 had resulted in a marked increase in casualties. Some 23 million of these two masks were produced. These were also soon replaced by the highly effective Small Box Respirator in early 1916. Able to protect the wearer for up to five hours, nearly 30 million were produced. To defeat these counters, the Germans in particular utilised gases which penetrated protective equipment and caused nausea. The aim was to force the wearer to remove his mask, and follow the attack with lethal chemicals.

38 www.britainatwar.com

Additionally, it quickly became clear those who fled were more likely to be affected, as they moved with the cloud. Those on the ground or taking cover at the bottoms of trenches suffered more than those at higher elevations. Even at Ypres, many French were spared by an order to ‘stand-to’, mounting the firing steps in the belief the advancing cloud hid advancing infantry, and those remaining at their stations tended to survive. Discipline and training, holding the line, was key in defeating gas and measures quickly developed. The psychological impact of weaponised gas (especially mustard) was truly terrifying, far in excess of

the weapon's actual effectiveness even against an unprepared formation. The added stress of the constant threat of gas often led to cases of ‘gas shock’. One soldier remembered: “With men trained to believe a light sniff of gas might mean death, and with nerves highly strung… it is no wonder that the gas alarm went beyond all bounds… For miles around, scared soldiers woke up in the midst of frightful pandemonium and put on their masks, only to hear a few minutes later the cry of “All safe.”… Two or three alarms a night were common. Gas shock was as frequent as shellshock.” Professor Edgar Jones of King’s

GAS! A DEADLY WEAPON?

The Chemists’ War

were eating when another yelled “GAS!” There was no attack, but the men rushed to the aid station, stooping and vomiting. They were calmed and returned to the trenches.

PRACTICALITIES

Strategically, gas rarely offered an advantage. Unpredictable, it frequently blew back and entered friendly trenches. When attacking a salient, the cloud could pass the defenders and inadvertently gas friendly troops on the other side. During a major gas attack at Hulluch, on 27 April 1916, German troops released a potent mixture of chlorine and phosgene. Visibility was reduced to three yards, the smell was noticeable 15 miles away. The wearing of masks was necessary nearly four miles to the rear, a number of early masks were faulty, and elements of the Black Watch Regiment had been ordered to remove their masks as their commander erroneously believed them to be single use. Two days later,

College London highlighted several examples of the disease-like spread of fear, among them the situation confronted by Lieutenant G Grant, a medical officer of the London Scottish. In September 1915, Grant was faced by vast numbers of officers and men who were convinced they had been gassed. Yet, none showed symptoms, and each returned to trenches after being treated with a placebo. On another occasion, in February 1918, a soldier of the 1/22nd London Regiment developed a sore throat. Within hours, he, and two thirds of his unit, had been evacuated as gas casualties – there were zero reports of an attack taking place. An American report noted how a group of soldiers

a second cloud was released, but the wind reversed and German troops were caught unawares. Despite all this blunder, gas casualties were as few as 1,600 British, and 1,500 German. Unless fired from shells, gas was rarely a weapon of surprise. Leaky gas cylinders drove rats from the trenches, as observed by the British at Hulluch. Shelling could detonate a prepared cylinder, and reconnaissance frequently picked up early preparations. Ten days of warning was received prior to the gas attacks on British troops at Wulverghem, Belgium, on 30 April 1916 and the warnings were confirmed when shelling detonated cylinders. A second attack took place on 17 June.

Across both releases, 14,000 British soldiers donned masks. Fewer than 200 died, despite that the trenches were often yards apart, offering mere seconds to react, and despite that the cloud was potent for miles behind the lines, killing animals and vegetation. The use of gas could give away the location and timing of a planned attack, and both at Wulverghem and Hulluch, the German raids which followed were repelled (though raiders did reach British lines at Hulluch). It was not uncommon for attacking units to forgo gas to help maintain surprise. The best strategic asset the use of gas offered was the huge impact on morale and that it tied up aid stations. On average, gassed men were removed from duty for six weeks, typically, the average time spent recuperating in American units was 60 days for chlorine, 48 for mustard, and 45 for phosgene.

LEFT: The grizzly aftermath of a phosgene gas attack in a British trench at Fromelles, 19 July 1916. BELOW: Indian troops stood to, prepared for a gas attack in trenches near Fauquissart in France, 9 August 1915. (THE BRITISH LIBRARY)

ON CASUALTIES

The contribution of gas in relation to total casualty figures was relatively minor. The British maintained accurate accounts from 1916 onward, and recorded that as few as 3% of gas casualties were fatal and 2% permanently invalided. Yet, 70% were fit for duty again within six weeks. Eventually, according to medical historian Leo Van Bergen, 93% of gassed British soldiers returned to service. The Imperial War Museum asserts that of the 600,000 war disability pensions being paid in 1929, only 1% were to gas casualties. Other armies produced similar figures, including Germany. The nation with the highest gas casualties being Russia, where countermeasures were not as widely distributed. 

DEHUMANISATION OF WAR Imperial War Museum historian Ian Kikuchi has suggested that gas, as a vapour, brought to the minds of the victims thoughts of ghostly apparitions, phantoms, and other such morbid supernatural phenomena. He also suggests that protective equipment, unfamiliar in shape and dehumanising (especially when combined with the steel helmet) caused a soldier lose his identity - he looked and sounded like nothing but a squealing ‘man-pig’. These are unusual arguments, but considering superstition was rife amongst soldiers, and among the typical images of the First World War is the masked and helmeted ‘faceless’ British soldier, the psychology of gas and the dehumanisation of warfare was a real concern and instead of embracing masks, soldiers felt emasculated and claustrophobic while using them. One British officer recalled: “We gazed at one another like goggle-eyed, imbecile frogs. The mask makes you feel only half a man. The air you breathe has been filtered of all save a few chemical substances. A man doesn’t live on what passes through the filter, he merely exists. He gets the mentality of a wide-awake vegetable.”

www.britainatwar.com 39

GAS! A DEADLY WEAPON? The Chemists’ War

ESTIMATED GAS CASUALTIES: Nation

Gas Fatalities Total Gas Casualties

Total Military Total Military Dead Wounded

British Empire and Dominions

8,109

188,706

949,454

2,101,077

German Empire

9,000

200,000

2,037,000

4,215,662

France

8,000

190,000

1,357,000

4,266,000

Russia

56,000

419,340

1,700,000

3,749,000

Italy

4,627

60,000

460,000

947,000

Austro-Hungarian 3,000 Empire

100,000

1,200,000

3,620,000

United States

72,807

116,708

204,002

BELOW: A British soldier wearing a PH Helmet stands ready to ring the bell in use as a gas alarm. (HISTORIC

MILITARY PRESS)

1,462

The German case is particularly interesting, as toward the end of the conflict, British, French, and Americans deployed more gas. The reasons for heavier use is threefold. First the Allies were generally on the offensive, secondly, the production of gas was expensive and Germany’s supply was dwindling, and lastly, the prevailing wind in Western Europe typically blows toward the east, meaning the Allies had more favourable conditions. Despite this, German gas casualties remained similarly low.

However, these figures cannot show how many died post-war due to gasrelated injuries. Many gassed soldiers had scarring on the lung, which could develop into cancer or tuberculosis (cases spiked during the early 1940s) or left the victim vulnerable to Spanish Flu. Respiratory disease and failing eyesight were common afflictions. The difference in soldiers using countermeasures compared to those without is remarkable, approximately 60% of Canadian gas casualties at Second Ypres were still unfit by the

“For miles around, scared soldiers woke up in the midst of frightful pandemonium and put on their masks, only to hear a few minutes later the cry of “All safe.” 40 www.britainatwar.com

Armistice, three years later. The figures also cannot show how many men were initially incapacitated by gas, and killed by other means. Such a figure could potentially be quite high, but still a low overall - considering how few soldiers became gas casualties once proper protections were in place. The effects of gas on the unprotected individual were undeniably hideous. However, gas, strategically, was rarely effective despite the development of tactics, the British in particular firing smoke with gas shells to better mask an attack. A weapon of diminishing returns, the attacks at Second Ypres were never replicated during the conflict. Once effective protections were introduced, thankfully, gas casualties generally remained low, with hundreds of thousands spared a unique and cruel agony. Gas was unquestionably a horrific weapon. The physical and psychological effects were ghastly in the extreme, and in some cases fatal, but it cannot be seen as either a truly effective or a decisive weapon. Neither did its use have anything like the effect upon the conduct of the war that popular belief might often suggest. 

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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 75th Anniversary of the

Royal Observer Corps

Dear Sir - A colleague in the Royal Observer Corps Association told me of the articles about the ROC contained in the April and May editions of Britain at War and I obtained copies of the magazine from the publishers. My interest stems mainly from the time I had the privilege of serving the Corps as Commandant between 1984 – 86; coincidentally, I had the honour of hosting the Corps Air Commodore in Chief, HM the Queen, and the

Duke of Edinburgh at a ROC Diamond Jubilee Garden Party held at RAF Bentley Priory in 1985. I found the articles about the ROC a thoughtful historical record and the piece about the Corps’ involvement with countering the V1 was particularly noteworthy. The articles will be useful to future scholars who wish to get a flavour of the roles the ROC played in the Second World War and the Cold War. However, I believe the article didn’t fully portray to the reader

the essential nature of the Corps and the depth, soul, spirit and dedication of its cadre of volunteer observers that was the very nature of the service which, together with its social activity and RAF uniforms, was the hallmark of the Corps. In my time with the ROC towards the end of the Cold War, 10,000 volunteers made up the Corps together with a small band of dedicated permanent staff. The Corps was active throughout the British Isles including the Scottish Islands and in Northern Ireland during the troubles. It would be hard to find a more enthusiastic band of brothers and sisters who remained devoted to defence of the Realm until the day they were stood down in 1991. I was Commandant when, with its future in jeopardy, the senior volunteers formed the ROC Association to ensure that

the comradeship which had been the cornerstone of the ROC for so long was perpetuated. It is a manifestation of the spirit of the ROC that former Observers and their guests gathered at the RAF Church of St Clement Danes in October last year, 25 years after being stood down, to lay up the ROC Banner. The enthusiasm of the Observers has been evident through the years since the Corps founded in 1925 and has been enduring. It was still most evident at the lunch held to celebrate the laying up of the ROC Banner when 350 of them greeted each other with infectious delight. Thank you for highlighting the unstinting work of the Royal Observer Corps in the defence of the Realm. Air Commodore Jack Broughton (former ROC Commandant) By email

MAIN PICTURE: An iconic image of a volunteer observer looking over London.

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 42 www.britainatwar.com

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THE GATES OF TOBRUK

Battle in the North African Desert BELOW: A formation of A12 Infantry Tank Mark II, known simply as the Matilda II (or just Matilda after 1940) operate in the vicinity of Tobruk. (WW2 IMAGES)

I

N DECEMBER 1940, General Archibald Wavell launched Operation Compass to push the Italians out of Egypt, across Libyan Cyrenaica, the campaign culminating in the Battle of Beda Fomm on 6-7 February 1941, completing the destruction of the Italian Tenth Army. The Germans could not allow their Italian allies to collapse in North Africa and so deployed the Afrika Corps (the German 5th Light Division and 15th Panzer Division) under the command of Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel who arrived at Tripoli on 12 February 1941. The gradual arrival of these reinforcements unfortunately coincided with a leaching of strength from Wavell’s Middle East Command, caused by the decision to give priority to the proposed campaign in Greece and

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a log jam of further operational commitments in Eritrea and Italian East Africa. This dissipation of the limited British resources meant that the forces remaining in Libya were given a purely defensive role with the priority on maintaining the integrity of fighting units, rather than the pointless exercise of defending miles of empty desert. At the end of March, Rommel cautiously began to move forward and the British – as planned - fell back avoiding contact. However, as the Afrika Korps accelerated the pace of their advance, Wavell realized that, unless something was done quickly, then Rommel might not wait courteously at the borders of Egypt, as the diffident Italians had done, but would probably burst through to the Nile Delta and Suez Canal - the strategic jugular of the British Empire. It was decided to hold the crucial

port of Tobruk with the intention of diverting Rommel from an attack on Egypt and give time for British reinforcements to arrive.

A FEARFUL AMOUNT OF CHAOS

The only troops available to defend Tobruk were the 9th Australian Division, the newly re-formed 3rd Armoured Brigade and four regiments of artillery. (1st, 3rd and 104th Royal Horse Artillery and 51st Field Regt, Royal Artillery) The positions they were to occupy were a double ring of concrete posts and dugouts on a perimeter frontage of some 30-miles, which surrounded Tobruk in a half circle about nine miles from the harbour. The core strength of these defences lay in a series of minefields. The final addition to the deployments was a further regiment of 25 pounders, sent post-haste from Egypt. 

THE GATES OF TOBRUK

Battle in the North African Desert

THE GATES OF

TOBRUK In the first of a three-part feature, Imperial War Museum historian Peter Hart takes a look at the dramatic Siege of Tobruk in April 1941 through the eyes of the men of the South Notts Hussars.

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THE GATES OF TOBRUK

Battle in the North African Desert

ABOVE: Rommel stands alongside Italian officers outside Tobruk, September 1941. (WW2 IMAGES)

BELOW: British soldiers stand near their bunker, Tobruk. (LOC)

So it was that the 107th Regiment, (South Notts Hussars), Royal Horse Artillery, who had only recently been equipped with 25-pounders, were whistled up from training exercises at Kabrit in the Suez Canal Sector. They were destined to join the defenders of Tobruk. The unexpected orders triggered a fearful amount of chaos before the SNH managed to set off on their 700-mile road convoy journey to Tobruk at 07.30 on 5 April. Once they

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had passed Mersa Matruh, Bombardier Ray Ellis (425 Bty) became aware that all was not well: There were signs of panic: troops coming back at great speed; more and more troops; everything was going east; then we passed rear aerodromes of the RAF where we could see crates being set on fire which we knew contained aircraft engines; then we met convoys of ambulances coming back. It all grew a bit sombre. This trickle developed

into a mass exodus of troops - it seemed that everyone in the Army of the Nile was doing their level best to put the greatest distance they could between themselves and the enemy - everyone was rushing headlong back into Egypt. The only troops moving west were the South Notts Hussars! They just kept going, changing drivers without stopping the lorries, while petrol cans were just thrown into the back of the trucks as they passed the refuelling station at Fort Capuzzo. It soon became apparent that it would be touch and go whether the SNH would get into Tobruk before the rampaging Germans swirled round the perimeter to slam shut the ‘gate’. Sergeant George Pearson (425 Bty) found himself allotted a terrifying task: My gun tower was ‘tail end Charlie’ of the regiment and my battery commander, Peter Birkin, who stuttered a little, came up to me and said, “N-n-n-now, w-w-when we get on the top, if we get ata-ta-tacked by tanks, your truck, ammunition trailer and gun tower will go on and you will hold them off as long as you can!” So we went on to the top of the escarpment - I praying that there would be no German tanks anywhere! By the middle of the afternoon a few tanks appeared on the escarpment side. I was watching them, they were

THE GATES OF TOBRUK

Battle in the North African Desert German tanks, and they kept pace with us, following along and I was shaking in my shoes thinking, “Oh my God, please, please, don’t make me have to drop off!” Luckily they didn’t attack but I had a distinct looseness of the bowels when I thought of what might have happened.

‘WHO’S ROMMEL, AND WHAT’S A PANZER?’

The SNH entered Tobruk at midnight on 9 April and as the last trucks entered the defence perimeter the Royal Engineers laid the final rows of mines and pulled the barbed wire across the road. To Ray Ellis the situation looked grim: The siege of Tobruk had begun - and it began in almost total chaos. We got to a junction in the road in the dark, Eagle crossroads. There three artillery regiments got mixed up in the dark, there was confusion everywhere, there were guns that were not ours, there were cap badges that were not ours everyone was milling about. Had the Luftwaffe come and dropped a few flares they could have wiped out the whole of the artillery power which was to defeat them in a few days’ time. Driver Bill Hutton (425 Bty) was soon disabused of the common perception that the desert was just miles and miles of soft shifting sands: They said, ‘Dig in!’ Well I got out and got a pick and a shovel and it was just like rock. I hit the ground and sparks flew up from the pick. I thought, ‘To hell with it!’ and I made my bed and went to bed. I woke up next morning and some cocky chap came along and said: ‘We’re the last in, Rommel’s out there with his Panzers!’ I said, 

ABOVE: Commonwealth troops, from 2/3 Light AA Reg (Aus), 4th AA Brig, or 106th (Lancashire Hussars) RHA, crew a captured Italian Breda Model 35 20mm cannon, which was effective against light armour and aircraft. (LOC) LEFT: Australian infantry advance with bayonets fixed.



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THE GATES OF TOBRUK

Battle in the North African Desert

ABOVE: A map of the defensive perimetre at Tobruk. RIGHT: A caricature of Major Birkin, 425 Battery, SNH. BELOW: Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, with Sdkfz 222 armoured cars, advance toward Tobruk.

‘Who’s Rommel and what’s a Panzer?’ On the 10 April, the SNH moved a couple of miles south into gun positions along the top of the second escarpment about 5, 000 yards from the wire. The 425 Bty was just south of Palestrimo covering the 2/17th Australian Battalion; while the 426 Bty were in the angle of the fork formed where the main road from Tobruk bears left and a track leads straight on for the El Adem airfield. They were covering the 2/13th Australian Battalion. The Australians were holding the outer perimeter defences thoughtfully provided by the former Italian garrison of Tobruk. While the gun pits were carved out of the ground, Observation Posts (OP) were established near the front line. Captain Bob Hingston, (commanding D Troop, 426 Bty) picked a promising spot, just to the west of the El Adem track as it

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passed out through the perimeter: Everybody was a bit tense. I was sleeping just by the telephone on the surface and I told the sentries: ‘Wake me up if anything happens’. There was no hesitation. During the day whoever it was on sentry go said: ‘Captain Hingston, Sir, there’s something there, I don’t see what it is!’ He drew my attention, quite correctly in the way he’d been trained, to this lump, a very small lump, right out in the desert. I got my glasses on it and I said: ‘No, I don’t think it’s anything to worry about!’ Then suddenly it put its head up - it was a camel!

THE THICK OF THE ACTION

They did not have long undisturbed for on Good Friday, 11 April, the German tanks marked the Easter

festivities by launching a full-scale attack on Tobruk. The 426 Bty D Troop Gun Position Officer was Lieutenant Ivor Birkin accompanied by his assistant, Lance Sergeant Harold Harper: There was an escarpment and these tanks came over the ridge. We were firing at between 5 and 6,000 yards. They didn’t attack in great strength, probably about fourteen tanks altogether. I was relaying the instructions to the guns, shouting out all the different angles using the megaphone. The firing was almost incessant. It was rather like going to a cup tie - when you knocked a tank out everybody cheered. I think we managed to knock out three or four tanks before they retired. In places the situation was far more serious and in all some fifty German tanks were believed to be involved.

THE GATES OF TOBRUK

Battle in the North African Desert

With the help of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment the first German assault was parried and the situation seemed to calm down. During this lull Ray Ellis was sent up as a relief OP assistant to Captain Charlie Bennett at the 425 Bty OP. They were installed in the front line trenches alongside the Australian troops. At around 02.00 on Easter Monday, 14 April, a strong German attack was launched - and Ray Ellis found himself right in the thick of the action: First there was a lot of shell fire landing upon us. Then looking through the binoculars I could see these men creeping towards us, running from cover to cover, diving into holes in the ground as they approached. I realized I was watching German troops advancing. It was quite a sensation - a game I had played as a boy - it was actually happening!

The OP team had to direct their troop or battery fire onto targets that were invisible from the gun positions. The infantry attack was repelled by a combination of artillery fire and the vigorous small arms fire of the Australians. Then a more dangerous combined tanks and infantry attacking force began to rumble across No Man’s Land straight towards Ellis in his OP: There was mortar fire, shell fire and machine-gun fire. You had to stick your head over and look over to observe and it wasn’t a very pleasant sensation. Bennett gave the orders; I was just helping him really. We were two men together in a very tight situation: ‘Have you seen this? There’s one over there!’ As the tanks advanced so we were reducing the range of the guns, so that our own shells were beginning to fall nearer and nearer!

Bennett with considerable courage continued to direct fire on to the German tanks even as they passed over their trench. Gunner David Tickle was back at the 425 Bty gun positions: Captain Bennett was at the OP and he’d been over-run. The call came down the telephone line: ‘Target me!’ We thought: ‘Crikey what’s happening?’ He kept shouting, ‘Target me!’ Then it dawned on us.

HORROR AND ADMIRATION

ABOVE: Men of the South Notts Hussars rest by their lorries. BELOW: The lorries and gun tractors of the South Notts Hussars sit idle as the men gather for a briefing.

The whole essence of British gunnery tactics was to separate the German infantry from their tanks. Together they were a potent force, but once separated they would be vulnerable. At Regimental Headquarters the second in command, Major Robert Daniell, was a regular officer with considerable experience: 

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THE GATES OF TOBRUK

Battle in the North African Desert RIGHT: Watching for the enemy: An observer searches the desert from his tower. CENTRE: Dug in with rifles, bayonets, and a Boys anti-tank rifle, men of the 9th Australian Infantry Division await the coming tank storm.

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My role was to try and concentrate the fire of all the guns I possibly could on the gap in the wire that the Germans had cut and through which their tanks were coming. The effect of that was that when they tried to bring their infantry through they were wiped out. The lorries were blown up and set on fire. At all costs we were to keep out every single infantryman we could. In the front line it was the task of the infantry to deal with their German counterparts who had escaped the artillery fire. Ray Ellis watched with a mixture of horror and admiration:

was only like a bullet it fired but it had got a lot of velocity, it’s supposed to penetrate tanks. He left me a tin of bully beef, packet of biscuits and a bottle of water. I was in this here hole for about twelve hours. His instructions were: ‘If you see any tanks not flying a blue pennant on the aerial, mow them down!’ They may have still posed a threat, but unsupported by infantry there was little that the German tanks could achieve. Engaged directly by the guns of the SNH and 1st RHA, the panzers were also harassed by British tanks firing from hull-down positions.

Then the Australian infantry went into action against them - bayonet fighting in fact. Men paired off and fought individual battles. I was absolutely petrified - I hadn’t even got a bayonet and if I had it wouldn’t have done the slightest bit of good to me because I wasn’t trained and to take on a German infantryman would have been suicide. All I could do was pray! No German came towards me and fortunately the Australians overcame the German infantry who started to retire and took cover in the anti-tank ditch. We switched our fire to the ditch and we did great carnage there. The German tanks that had broken through were left unsupported by infantry, but they still posed a considerable threat to the SNH position. Amongst the precautions taken were some which were less than effective. Gunner Ted Holmes was mortified when he received his orders: Sergeant Major Hardy says: ‘There’s some tanks broke through, they’re wandering round anywhere’. He took me out somewhere into the desert in this truck. I’d got a Boyes rifle, it

The German could manoeuvre in the dead ground behind the OPs, but they could not ‘hold’ captured ground. Eventually, the tanks were forced to turn tail and retreat back across No Man’s Land. They would never penetrate so far again.

GRIM AFTERMATH OF BATTLE

Throughout the whole of the Easter period the SNH guns had roared out in response to the fire orders of their forward OPs. But the Nottingham gunners found the demand for near continuous fire on constantly changing targets to be physically gruelling. At the culmination of the German attacks the pace became frenetic - it was exhausting - yet it was also exhilarating. This was what they had trained for, this was what men like Sergeant Ian Sinclair (425 Bty) had waited for: We had to keep ramming them up the spout on the line we were on without any movement, told to keep on firing. One of the troop guns seized up because it got so

THE GATES OF TOBRUK

Battle in the North African Desert hot. Eventually we stopped firing in turn to let the guns cool down. I reckon that my gun alone fired something like 1,200 rounds. We loved it, that’s why we’d come, that’s what we had hoped to do from when we were called up in 1939. Everybody was exhilarated. There was the elation of the moment, but the aftermath of battle was grim. Major Robert Daniell took forward the Padre, Captain H. A. Perry, the Doctor, Captain J. Finnegan and a couple of gunners to carry water forward to the wounded Germans left between the lines where their infantry attack had broken down: We found that the anti-tank ditch, which was about 9-feet deep, was absolutely crammed with German wounded who had crawled in there from the vehicles that our shells had set on fire. We started giving them water but, while the Doctor was attending one of the soldiers who was badly wounded, I saw a German rise up on his feet and have a shot at him with a revolver. I shouted to the Doctor and the Reverend Parry to withdraw. I left the water with the wounded and said - a lot could speak English - to them: ‘If you shoot at my efforts to alleviate your wounded then you can fend for yourselves!’

IN A SHEET OF FLAME

Once the Germans had given up, most of the SNH gunners were swamped by fatigue. By this time Ray Ellis had

returned from detachment to the OP to his gun team: Between Friday and Monday, we never slept at all, never closed our eyes. We were sitting on the gun and everyone’s face was one mass of sand. The sand adhered to the sweat on the face. The eyes were little red slits, everyone looked grotesque. The guns had been so hot that all the yellow paint had gone. They were bringing round bully sandwiches and handing them to us as we went on firing. Then it got to the point where at the end of that battle I remember whisky bottles being passed and we were drinking it from the bottle, gulping and passing it on. Things gradually quietened down and it was obvious that the battle was over. We were absolutely exhausted. Everyone fell on the desert where they were, anywhere, rolled themselves in their blankets and just went into a dead sleep.

Yet one question had been answered. Often, men could not help wondering how they would perform in battle. Now the SNH knew: indeed, an incident diligently recorded in the SNH regimental history summed up their new found status. Two German staff cars were spotted by Captain Colin Barber from his OP, he opened fire and shells pursued the cars down the road before they were hit and exploded in a sheet of flame. All this was watched by the Australians who were delighted to the extent that one hefty ‘Digger’ ran up to Captain Hingston, smote him heartily on the back and exclaimed: ‘You’re the best b------- battery in the British Army!’ One hesitates to imagine what foulness the dashes conceal from our delicate sensibilities. Men were different in those days. The SNH had certainly proved themselves in the opening battle for Tobruk - but the siege of Tobruk had only just begun. It would be a long hard battle. 

ABOVE: Exhausted after the struggle, a tired gunner rests. BELOW: A gun crew furiously man their 25Pdr gun, helping to keep Rommel at bay. (WW2 IMAGES)

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FIRST WORLD WAR DIARY As the raging battles of the Somme and Verdun continue to wreak thunderous havoc along the Western Front, a new country joins the Allies and further success is had in Africa, although Jan Smuts' elusive foe remains undefeated.

HOME FRONT

3 August: Despite appeals, pleas for clemency, and a request from the government of the United States, Roger Casement is hanged in London’s Pentonville prison after his conviction for treason for his part in the Easter Rising.

WESTERN FRONT

2 August: Australian troops continue to push near Pozières, gaining ground to the north of the village. 5 August: French troops recapture Thiaumont as part of the ongoing battle of Verdun. Three days later, German forces again control the village, the sixteenth time the village has changed hands. 10 August: King George V starts his tour of the Western Front. 24 August: As part of the ongoing Somme offensive, French troops capture Maurepas and the British advance at Thiepval and Delville Wood. 29 August: Field Marshal and future inter-war President of Germany, Paul von Hindenburg succeeds General Erich von Falkenhayn as the Chief of the General Staff of the German Field Armies after confidence is lost in Falkenhayn following the lack of progress at Verdun. General Erich Ludendorff becomes Chief QuartermasterGeneral. Both men’s power grows as the Kaiser becomes a figurehead, and Germany slips into a period of unofficial military dictatorship known as the ‘Silent Dictatorship’.

ITALY

6 August: The Sixth Battle of the Isonzo begins. The most successful Italian offensive along the Isonzo River so far sees Gorizia fall within 3 days, but by the battles conclusion on the 17th the Italians sustain some 51,000 casualties, with 21,000 dead. In contrast, Austro-Hungarian forces suffer 41,000 casualties, of which 8,000 dead. Although a dramatic morale boosting victory for the Italians, historians have since questioned the value of Gorizia as an objective in relation to the heavy cost. 28 August: Italy officially declares war on Germany.

WAR AT SEA

2 August: The Italian Contre di Cavour-class battleship Leonardo da Vinci capsizes in Taranto harbour after she is ripped open by an explosion, while loading ammunition. Austro-Hungarian agents have been blamed for the sinking, though faulty munitions have also been held responsible.

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BALKANS

18 August: Bulgarian troops capture the Macedonian town of Florina from Serbian troops. Elsewhere, the French sustain heavy casualties. Two days later, the Bulgarians are halted by the British at the Struma River and a Serbian counterattack meets with some success.

AUGUST 1916 WORLD MAP WAR AT SEA

19 August: HM Ships Falmouth and Nottingham are sunk during the Action of 19 August 1916. Falmouth is struck twice by torpedoes from U-63 and later sunk en-route to the Humber by two more torpedoes from U-66. HMS Nottingham is also sunk by a submarine, U-52, which in the early morning conditions was misidentified as a fishing boat. She is hit three times with torpedoes. The German battleship SMS Westfalen is damaged by the submarine HMS E23 during the action.

ROMANIA

27 August: Romania mobilises its troops and declares war on AustriaHungary. The following day, Romanian troops invade Transylvania, which causes alarm within the Central Powers. Germany declares war on Romania that same day, and together with Bulgaria and Austrian troops defeat the invader in spite of Romania’s initial success.

MESOPOTAMIA

28 August: General Sir Stanley Maude replaces Lieutenant-General Sir Percy Lake as C-in-C, Mesopotamia. His priority, while reinforcing, is to raise morale and improve medical facilities.

MIDDLE EAST

3 August: The three day Battle of Romani is fought 23 miles to the east of the Suez Canal. The combined forces of Germany, AustriaHungary, and the Ottoman Empire, some 16,000 strong, are stopped by the Anzac Mounted Division and the 52nd (Lowland) Division of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, around 14,000 men. In a series of clashes, the last Central Powers move to strike the Suez Canal is defeated and a flanking move near Mount Royston is stopped by New Zealand troops. British and ANZAC casualties were 1,202, with 222 killed, while Central Powers casualties number at least 9,000, with 1,250 dead and 4,000 prisoners. 9 August: ANZAC troops are handed a defeat by the Turks at the Battle of Bir el Abd. Pursued by 5th Mounted Brigade, ANZAC Division, Ottoman forces retreated from Romani and spent each night resting in previously prepared defensive positions. An attempt to breach this line met stiff resistance and the Allies broke off the attack. Of 322 ANZAC casualties, 73 die and 6 were listed as missing. Three days later the Turks retreat to their starting position at El Arish. Turkish casualties for this engagement are unknown, but as many as 10,000 of their entire force became casualties in the Suez raid as a whole.

EAST AFRICA

2 August: Belgian troops take Ujiji, on the banks of Lake Tanganyika. 5 August: The British, under Jan Smuts, resume the advance of the main body through the Nguru Hills, toward Morogoro. A week later, they control Mpwapwa. 22 August: Kilosa falls to British troops led by Louis van Deventer, he had moved down the tracks of the Central Railway from Kondoa Irangi. Four days later, Morogoro is taken by Smuts’ men. The Germans under Lettow-Vorbeck evaded battle and disappeared to the south, but Smuts now controls the length of the Central Railway, linking Dar es Salaam to Kigoma.

www.britainatwar.com 53

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THE OTRANTO STRAITS AFFAIR Unequal Encounter in The Adriatic: 1917 BELOW: The light cruiser SMS Saida was the first into action during the pre-dawn attack on the Otranto barrage. Her victims were the drifters of C Division. Her only other success was the sinking of the Young Linnet (T5) from the scattered T Division.

T

HE FIRST sign of trouble came before dawn. Skipper George McKay was roused from his sleep and went on deck to be greeted by the grumble of gunfire to the east. It was around 0330 on 15 May 1917, and the calm waters of the Adriatic were shrouded in hazy mist. Visibility was difficult, but a minute or two later McKay spotted flashes of fire through the murk. Not long after, still uncertain as to who was shooting at who, he saw what he took to be one or two vessels erupt into flames. He was in a quandary. His command, the

armed drifter Helenora, was one of 45 requisitioned fishing boats operating a net barrage across the strategically-important Otranto Straits separating the Adriatic from the Mediterranean. Something was clearly happening close to the Albanian coast. But what? With no word from his senior officer, he decided to stick to his original orders. For an hour or so he stood fast until he ‘heard and saw the report and flashing of guns’ off to the west. The sky was lightening and almost immediately he sighted a vessel

‘steaming right along the drifter line’. She was steering roughly East North East and firing as she came on. No longer in any doubt about the identity of the mysterious ships, McKay ordered his nets slipped and started steaming full tilt for the shelter of Fano island with a scatter of drifters doing likewise. The chase that followed signalled the beginning of a harrowing ordeal in the midst of a naval encounter of David and Goliath proportions that would leave tales of great courage and accusations of cowardice trailing in its contentious wake. 

THE OTRANTO

STRAITS AFFAIR In a David and Goliath naval encounter British drifters fought Austrian cruisers in a forlorn and all but forgotten action nearly a century ago. Steve Snelling charts the story of a First World War sea fight that inspired acts of great courage and left accusations of cowardice trailing in its wake.

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THE OTRANTO STRAITS AFFAIR Unequal Encounter in The Adriatic: 1917

ABOVE: Men of the barrage: skippers of the Fraserburgh contingent of drifters, known as the ‘Blue Funnel’ fleet, serving as part of the Allies’ Adriatic blockade. Joe Watt VC is seated first left.

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THE OTRANTO STRAITS AFFAIR Unequal Encounter in The Adriatic: 1917

ABOVE: Some of the Gowanlea’s crew pose for the camera after the drifter’s miraculous survival during the Austrian onslaught.

‘A CLEAN SWEEP’

The attack which triggered the largest surface clash in the Adriatic and Mediterranean during the First World War had a clear purpose even if the rationale behind it was decidedly unclear. According to Linienschiffkapitan Nikolaus (Miklos) Horthy, who was the driving force behind the Austro-Hungarian Navy’s bold foray, the unequivocal aim was ‘to

make a clean sweep’ of the barrage. But why it was considered necessary, or even worthwhile, to risk three modern light cruisers to do so is less certain. Since its inception during the winter of 1915-16, the blockade established by the British, French and Italian navies in an effort to check the flow of Austrian and German U-boats into the Mediterranean had proved largely ineffective. An allied force

which, by early 1917, had grown to include 120 armed net drifters, operating in rotation, supported by 30 motor launches and an assortment of destroyers and larger vessels, had managed to account for just two submarines in more than a year of mostly monotonous patrolling. During that time, U-boats had succeeded in making hundreds of passages to enjoy rich pickings amid the shipping lanes of the Mediterranean, prompting one historian to liken the so-called ‘barrage’ to ‘a large-scale sieve’. As far as the allies were concerned, the blockade spanning the Adriatic from the heel of Italy to the coast of Albania represented the weakest link in a fragile chain of defences. By April 1917, Commodore Algernon Heneage, newly-appointed as officer in operational control of the barrage, was able to assemble 70 net drifters on a daily basis across a 45-mile stretch of water. But with each boat able to cover just half a mile of ocean there were inevitably sizeable gaps through which submarines could pass with relative impunity. Given all of that, the Austrian navy’s subsequent actions are nothing if not puzzling. Details about the genesis of the raid are sparse, leading one distinguished historian to speculate that it may have owed more to Horthy’s nature than any genuine military

ABOVE: Fishing boats turned men o’ war: British net drifters for the Otranto barrage tied up in their home port of Brindisi. The boat in the foreground, HMD Serene (S5), was among 14 drifters lost during the Austrian raid on May 14-15, 1917. S Division suffered the heaviest losses of all the groups maintaining the blockade.

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THE OTRANTO STRAITS AFFAIR Unequal Encounter in The Adriatic: 1917

necessity. Skilful and daring, Horthy was a man imbued with the offensive spirit who, in the words of a fellow officer, ‘always wanted to be at the enemy’s throat’. Later, Horthy would seek to justify his actions by claiming that Allied efforts to strengthen the barrage were a serious threat to the submarine campaign in the Mediterranean. He maintained U-boat commanders were ‘all agreed; it was becoming more and more difficult, if not impossible, to break through this blockade.’ Though there is no evidence to support such dire claims, and much to suggest the contrary, the die was cast. Horthy had made up his mind that ‘it was time to make a clearance’.

‘NO PROTECTION’

The men who made up the drifter barrage were mostly fishermen from the east coast ports of Scotland and England who had volunteered for war service in the early months of the conflict. In the estimation of Lieutenant Commander Charles Turle, who led one of the first armadas of drifters out to the Adriatic, they were ‘a magnificent lot’, though few

possessed the vaguest notion of naval ettiquette.‘The discipline was truly of a sort different from that in a battleship,’ he wrote, ‘but there existed a loyalty to their senior officers and a readiness for hard work which made me appreciate their values.’ The Scottish contingent, in particular, struck many as an unusually serious and dour group. Though taciturn by nature, they were not afraid to speak their minds and possessed a roughhewn independence and a blind reliance on example. Many of the men who swapped the ports of Lowestoft, Buckie and Macduff for Brindisi had a few months earlier been fishing in the same boats that they now took to war. Formed into divisions, and rotated between Brindisi and the ‘net’ line, with occasional spells in Taranto for boat overhauls, theirs was a largely repetitive routine that appeared to fit with their dogged and stoical temperaments. The boats themselves were, typically, around 88 feet long, with a beam of about 19 feet and of 30-odd tons in weight. Powered by triple-expansion steam-engines, they chugged along at a steady rate of eight or nine knots - provided the machinery

was all functioning well. Barring the addition of antiquated Italian 57mm and 47mm guns, in addition to a few British 3-pounders, they were, in fact, little altered from the fishing role they were designed for. As such, their vulnerability to enemy attack was all too obvious. Shortly after taking over as Britain’s senior naval officer in the Adriatic, Rear-Admiral Mark Kerr admitted: ‘They have practically no protection and if they do get a few submarines I expect they will be raided and unless protected they can be wiped out any day or night.’ For all his misgivings, little changed. Kerr maintained that their immunity from attack depended wholly on the barrage’s failure to hamper U-boat operations. In September 1916, he reiterated his concerns over the lack of protection ‘from sea or sky’, but once again nothing was done. 

TOP LEFT: Deckhand Fred Lamb (18781928), seen here in a portrait photograph taken before the war, was recommended for the Victoria Cross for his courage in trying to work his gun despite being seriously wounded. He was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal. TOP RIGHT: Skipper George McKay, left, was one of 72 drifter men taken prisoner by the Austrian raiders after his boat, HMD Helenora (S4) was sunk. He is pictured here, with shipmate William Watt, holding a ‘Jolly roger’ pennant presented by the Italian navy. LEFT: Linienschiffkapitan Nikolaus (Miklos) Horthy (1868-1957), instigator and leader of the Austrian raid on the Otranto barrage.

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THE OTRANTO STRAITS AFFAIR Unequal Encounter in The Adriatic: 1917 RIGHT: Having broken off their assault on the barrage, the hunters became the hunted as British cruisers tried to cut off the Austrian raiders’ retreat back to base. This contemporary artist’s impression shows SMS Novara in the foreground steaming through plumes of shell splashes. BELOW: The crew of the Gowanlea are pictured around the drifter’s 57mm gun. Deckhand Fred Lamb, one of the two-man gun crew, is seated left in the white jersey. The pet dog being held on the right was the only fatality of the action.

There had already been warnings. Twice in the space of six weeks, the drifter line was raided. More through luck than judgment only three boats were lost. The chance intervention of French destroyers thwarted a subsequent raid in December. But whether the barrage’s good fortune would last remained a moot point. As for the fishermen turned men o’ war, they appeared to know as little about the flawed strategy that had placed them in harm’s way as they did about the impending danger. Armed with guns which, in the words of Skipper McKay of the Helenora, ‘ought to have been on the scrap heap 20 years’ earlier, they were led

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to believe their boats were ‘armed and ready… to tackle anything that was above and under the sea’. McKay felt they were being taken for ‘fools’ and, as such were ‘severely kept from knowing anything but forming fours or doubling when an officer in the Base thought fit to give the order’.

‘SIGNALS OF DISTRESS’

The drifter men were no fools, but they were taken completely by surprise by the blow that struck them on the morning of 15 May 1917. The first indication any of them had that something out of the ordinary was happening was heavy firing that Skipper McKay had heard

coming from the eastern side of the straits. Temporary Lieutenant Robert Baunton, senior officer on the drifter line, heard it too, but, mistaking it for a submarine encounter, headed off in the direction of the noise. As he pushed on a large flare lit the eastern sky. It was followed by ‘a new outburst of fire’ and ‘signals of distress’ coming from the south-west. Only then did he realise that he had been duped and that, behind him, his drifters were under attack. Part of a carefully co-ordinated move designed to confuse the Allied forces, the action off the Albanian coast had served its purpose. In the space of five minutes, two Austrian destroyers had wrought havoc among an Italian convoy, sinking a destroyer, a munitions ship and damaging two

THE OTRANTO STRAITS AFFAIR Unequal Encounter in The Adriatic: 1917

BELOW: SMS Helgoland undergoing trials in May 1917 shortly before the attack on the Otranto barrage. Capable of 27 knots, she had a crew of 350 and was armed with nine 10cm/50 Skoda guns and six 45cm torpedo tubes.

more vessels. More importantly, they helped ensure the main raiding force, led by Horthy in the Novara, with the light cruisers Saida and Helgoland for company, had an unhindered run to their objective: the 45 drifters formed into seven groups that were spread across the straits. Some of the crews manning the barrage had actually seen the ships pass by them on a southward course between 0230 and 0245 but had taken them for friendly vessels. The first they knew of their mistake was when the cruisers, operating separately, began what was intended to be the systematic annihilation of the drifter line at around 0315. The first blow fell in the centre where Saida set about the four drifters making up ‘C’ Division. The cruiser made short work of the Quarry Knowe but met unexpected resistance from the crew of the Garrigill, one of only six drifters on the line equipped with a wireless.

Commanded by Chief Skipper Harold Goldspink, already the holder of a DSC for sinking a submarine the previous year, Garrigill immediately replied with his single gun. With shells bursting all around, one deckhand bravely stuck to his gun while Acting Second Hand John Turner risked what seemed like certain death to go aloft and ‘strike the topmast’ in a valiant attempt to save the boat’s aerial from destruction. Goldspink’s defiance was matched on the westernmost part of the line where a single drifter from ‘N’ Division under a redoubtable Scot was engaged in a similarly one-sided fight that was destined to be remembered as one of the most gallant naval actions of the First World War.

‘THREE CHEERS’

Skipper Joe Watt, a 29-year-old fisherman from the Moray Firth, had slipped his nets and pointed the Gowanlea in the direction of Cape Santa Maria di Leucha on the Italian side of the straits at the first sound of gunfire. But, together with the drifters Admirable, Caledonia, Jean, Selby and Transit, she had only been steaming for a quarter of an hour when she ran into the 3,500-ton Helgoland travelling in the opposite direction. In a chivalrous acknowledgment of the Austrian cruiser’s overwhelming superiority, her captain, Erich Heyssler, gave a blast on the ship’s siren and dipped her ensign to give the drifter men a chance to abandon ship before opening fire. Some, understandably, chose to do so, escaping in their small boat while the gunners aboard Helgoland reduced one after another of the drifters to burning

wrecks from ranges as close as 200 metres. But not everyone was willing to give up without a struggle. The crew of Selby held on until the last moment before abandoning as their ship sank beneath them. Those aboard the Admirable did likewise, only leaving under orders from Skipper William Farquhar after the boat’s boiler had exploded and the wheelhouse was shot away. Even then, not all were prepared to accept defeat. As Farquhar’s gallant company headed away, Second Hand Adam Gordon scrambled back on board the burning drifter and ran back towards the Admirable’s gun only to be cut down and killed before he could reach it. 

LEFT: A contemporary artist’s impression of SMS Novara, one of the Otranto raiders, going to the rescue of an Austrian destroyer during an earlier fight in the Adriatic. The 1915 exploit added to Nikolaus Horthy’s renown. BELOW LEFT: Able Seaman Douglas Harris (18981917) was telegraphist on the Floandi which suffered appalling damage during the raid. Killed while continuing to record messages, he was subsequently awarded a posthumous mention in despatches. This watercolour portrait by George Phoenix was exhibited at Wolverhampton Art Gallery 10 years after the action.

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THE OTRANTO STRAITS AFFAIR Unequal Encounter in The Adriatic: 1917 BELOW LEFT: The shellspattered Gowanlea in Taranto where she underwent repairs after the raid. BELOW RIGHT: A shell tore open the Floandi’s engine-room. With his comrade dead beside him, Engineman Charles Mobbs, who was wounded, stuck to his post. His courage was recognised with a CGM.

The bravest resistance of all, however, was displayed by Joe Watt and the crew of the little Gowanlea. Scorning Heyssler’s offer to save himself and his men, Watt called on his fellow Scots to give ‘three cheers for a fight to the finish’ and ordered full speed ahead straight for the cruiser barely 100 yards away. Almost at the same moment, Deckhands Fred Lamb and Edward Godbold opened fire with their 57mm gun, prompting a ferocious response from Helgoland. The Gowanlea almost disappeared beneath a cascade of shell spouts. How she wasn’t sunk was a mystery. One shell ricocheted off her top rail without exploding, while two more tore away the port railings and smashed the bulwarks. Most damaging of all the hits was one that ripped through the fore deck,

ABOVE: The battered Floandi (O1) in Taranto after the action with shellholes puncturing her starboard hull and funnel. Incredibly, she survived 12 direct hits.

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disabling the gun, detonating a box of ammunition and severely wounding Lamb in the right leg and foot. A man of Herculean strength renowned as a champion barrel-maker back home in Fraserburgh, the 38-year-old gunner refused to give in. With his face peppered with shell splinters, he dragged himself back in an attempt to get the damaged gun into action again. As he struggled in vain, exposed to enemy fire, yet more shells struck the Gowanlea, one missing the boat’s skipper by a hair’s breadth as it ripped through the wheelhouse, tearing a hole in his cap before passing out the other side without exploding. With that, Joe Watt’s unequal battle was over. Impossible though it seemed, the 87-foot trawler had survived its pointblank range scrap with a 3,500-ton cruiser, albeit she now resembled

a pepper pot with her cabin and decks riddled by shell fragments. The wider struggle, however, was far from finished. As the Gowanlea limped away, the Helgoland, no doubt imagining its diminutive adversary wrecked beyond repair, headed eastwards to join the Saida in its attack on the neighbouring drifter division while, further to the east, Horthy added to the destruction.

‘RATS IN A TRAP’

Guided by gun flashes and flames from a myriad of burning ships, Horthy began his attack on a dozen or so drifters at the easternmost end of the barrage shortly before 0400. The boats in the firing line were those belonging to ‘O’ and ‘S’ Divisions. Among the latter was George McKay’s Helenora. ‘Immediately’ he wrote, ‘the cruiser opened fire on the ‘O’ group, sinking the two leading drifters almost at once.’ Altering course westwards, McKay ordered his gun crew to open fire from a range of no more than 200 yards. His action drew a smart response. Shell splashes erupted ‘all around’ and as he ploughed on he suddenly spotted another cruiser blocking his path. ‘I saw now that it was impossible to save

THE OTRANTO STRAITS AFFAIR Unequal Encounter in The Adriatic: 1917

ABOVE & RIGHT: Hero of the Garrigill: Second Hand John Turner, from Martham in Norfolk, pictured here after the war, was ‘a gentle giant’ of a man who earned a Conspicuous Gallantry Medal for going aloft to save his drifter’s wireless aerial ‘regardless of the shells passing between the mast and the funnel’.

my ship’ he wrote, ‘so I gave orders to make ready the small boat and launch her. At the same time I stopped… got hold of all my confidential books and papers and threw them overboard.’ They had scarcely pulled 10 yards clear of the Helenora when the Novara pumped three shells into her. In a matter of minutes, the Avondale, Craignoon and Serene were similarly disposed of, leaving all four crews to be taken prisoner with the exception of Serene’s second mate. Refusing to follow his crewmates into captivity, Joseph Hendry remained on board till his boat sank beneath him and then jumped overboard to be picked up hours later by one of only two ‘S’ Division drifters to survive the onslaught. All told, seven boats from the two groups were sunk, but the heaviest loss of life was suffered by one of the survivors. The wireless-equipped Floandi suffered the most fearful battering with at least 12 direct hits reducing her to a barely floating wreck. Despite appalling damage, her three-times wounded skipper, Dennis Nichols, fought on in a boat filled with dead and injured. Of the 13 drifter

men killed during the raid, six died aboard the Floandi with another three wounded out of a crew of 10. Among the dead was 19-year-old wireless operator Able Seaman Douglas Harris whose body was found slumped over the logbook in which he had continued to record messages as his boat was being torn apart by shells. By 0537 when Novara turned away and made off for the raiders’ planned rendezvous 14 drifters had been destroyed and four damaged, three of them severely, with 72 of the men manning the barrage taken POW. For them, a disastrous encounter was made all the more trying by the subsequent pursuit by allied forces which included the light cruisers HMS Bristol and Dartmouth. McKay was one of those who felt like ‘rats in a trap’ incarcerated below deck on the Novara, ‘every minute expecting a shell to come through on us’. Ultimately, the running battle proved inconclusive. Though Horthy was wounded and his ship so badly hit as to necessitate a tow back to base, the intervention of more

Austrian warships was sufficient to deter the chasing cruisers just when it appeared the Novara was doomed. Insult was then added to injury when the Dartmouth was torpedoed and seriously damaged by a U-boat while returning to Brindisi.

‘EXCEPTIONAL GALLANTRY’

In spite of the grievous blow struck to the barrage, Rear-Admiral Kerr was buoyed by the performance of his men in a lop-sided fight he had long feared. Writing to the Admiralty on May 21, he insisted that ‘most of 

TOP RIGHT: Barrage bravery: Scottish Engineer William Noble (1883-1977) of the Gowanlea was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for ‘continuing at his post and working the engines under heavy fire, thereby saving the ship’.

LEFT: Mark of honour: the inscribed gold watch presented to Joe Watt back home in Fraserburgh.

(COURTESY SPINK OF LONDON)

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THE OTRANTO STRAITS AFFAIR Unequal Encounter in The Adriatic: 1917

BELOW: The headstone marking Joe Watt’s grave in Kirktown Cemetery, Fraserburgh. BELOW RIGHT: Joe Watt VC in later years with his wife, Jessie, who he married shortly before sailing for the Adriatic in 1915.

the Drifters behaved with exceptional gallantry’. He followed up with a list of recommendations for bravery awards that ran to 119 names and was headed by Joe Watt and Fred Lamb of the Gowanlea, who were both cited for Victoria Crosses. Also included were 45 men deemed by Kerr to be worthy of the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal just nine fewer than the total awarded in the entire war to that date. The Sea Lords were not impressed. Rear-Admiral Allan Everett, Naval Secretary, urged the list be cut by at least two-thirds and considered even 40 awards ‘liberal for a rout’. He added:

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‘No doubt certain Drifters fought to the best of their ability and with pathetic ability against overwhelming odds, whilst others apparently made no fight.’ Another senior officer went further, suggesting a letter be sent to the Adriatic Squadron ‘expressing their Lordships’ regret at the action of some of the drifters in so readily abandoning their vessels and surrendering… instead of upholding the traditions of the Navy by holding out and fighting to the last, irrespective of the odds’. In the end, Everett’s compromise was accepted. Those honoured included the fearless Joe Watt who justly received a VC for his courageous inspiration, Fred Lamb, John Turner and Joseph Hendry, who received three of the four CGMs awarded for the action

and Dennis Nichols who recovered from his injuries to be presented with a richly-deserved Distinguished Service Cross. Forever lauded as the hero of Otranto, Watt displayed the same indifference to fame as he had the Austrian cruiser he so gallantly confronted. Embarrassed by what he called the exaggerations that had been printed, he refused ever to discuss the action. As for George McKay, he was wont to recall the reaction of one of his Austrian captors aboard the Novara. ‘He was laughing all the time’ he wrote, ‘as were the rest of the crew, at the absurdity of drifters firing pop guns at an armour-plated first class cruiser.’ 

THE OTRANTO STRAITS AFFAIR Unequal Encounter in The Adriatic: 1917 FAR LEFT: Richly merited: Joe Watt’s medal group, comprising his Victoria Cross for Otranto, the King George VI Coronation Medal, the Serbian Gold Medal, the Italian Silver Medal and French Croix de Guerre, fetched £170,000 when they were sold by Spink in 2012. They now form part of the Lord Ashcroft Collection at the Imperial War Museum. (COURTESY SPINK OF

LONDON)

BELOW: Proud salute: the memorial to Able Seaman Douglas Harris, one of the most celebrated heroes of the Otranto barrage raid, in St Peter’s Gardens, Wolverhampton. It was created by Robert Jackson Emerson in 1919 in honour of the young telegraphist of the Floandi. The shrapnel-torn log book he was compiling when he was killed now forms part of the Imperial War Museum Collection.

LEFT: Official criticism: Naval Secretary RearAdmiral Allan Everett condemned the ‘lavish’ list of recommendations to honour the drifter men for what he called ‘a rout’.

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WARTIME

The Memorial

Pegasus museum

is dedicated to the men of 6th British Airborne Division. The 1st liberators to arrive in Normandy on June 6th 1944. Archive films, a guided visit and many interesting and authentic objects enable the visitors to relive this momentous time. The original Pegasus Bridge is on display in the park of the museum along with a full size copy of a wartime Horsa glider. Open everyday from February to Mid-December Only five minutes drive from the Brittany Ferries Terminal at Caen/Ouistreham

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

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EVENTS

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THE ROLLS ROYCE ‘KIFARU’

Silver Ghost Armoured Cars in East Africa RIGHT: The crew of a car and its two motorbike outriders pose at Mbuyuni before departing for Moshi in German East Africa. A piece of railway sleeper forms a gunshield in front of the Vickers machine gun.

FAR RIGHT: Off loading a Ghost from the second batch on to the jetty at Mombasa in March 1916.

T

HE FIRST World War campaign in the colonies of British and German East Africa, now Kenya and Tanzania, was considered to be a backwater action compared to the Western Front, Gallipoli or Mesopotamia. But the casualty figures show this to be otherwise. The East African campaign dragged on from 1914 through to the Armistice, with Allied troops covering thousands of miles chasing the enemy in the waterless tropical bush while suffering from the effects of disease, malnutrition, wild animals and monsoon rains. The founding of the two colonies dated back to the 1880s, with Germany and Great Britain key players in the region's politics. Each was determined to take the upper hand in an area ruled by the Sultan of Zanzibar, the political wranglings eventually settled with the

Treaty of Berlin signed between the two powers in July 1890 and the two colonies sharing a common border running from Lake Victoria around the base of Mount Kilimanjaro and on to the Indian Ocean.

GUERRILLA ATTACKS

The outbreak of war saw many British settler farmers ride into Nairobi anxious to take on the 'Hun' next door, but a lack of military control forced many to form their own bands of mounted troops with names such as 'Bowkers Horse' and 'Wessels Scouts', and patrol the Mombasa - Nairobi railway. The metre gauge line, completed in 1901, was the lifeline of the country and the Germans quickly realised that destroying it would cripple the colony. The Germans meanwhile under Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck had established a fighting force of Africans led by a

few European officers and N.C.O.s, known as the 'Schutztruppe' and on 14 August captured the border town of Taveta, near Mount Kilimanjaro. The railway was less than sixty miles away, and guerrilla attacks by mounted patrols soon damaged the line. Despite counter patrols and armoured trains the enemy attacked the railway at least fifty times. To deal with this dangerous situation, large numbers of Allied and Indian troops were brought in to secure the line with many based at Voi, a township one hundred miles inland from Mombasa. After the disastrous seaborne invasion of the German colony at Tanga in November 1914, it was decided a land invasion would be a better option and Lord Kitchener approved construction of a railway from Voi towards Taveta in February 1915 to link up with the German line since both gauges were identical. 

The ROLLS RO BOTTOM: An early view of all four cars at Maktau complete with headlights which were later removed as there was no night driving.

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THE ROLLS ROYCE ‘KIFARU’

Silver Ghost Armoured Cars in East Africa

ROYCE ‘Kifaru’ A little-known feature of the conflict in East Africa during the First World War was the involvement of Rolls-Royce Armoured Cars. Kevin Patience shines a spotlight on their remarkable story.

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THE ROLLS ROYCE ‘KIFARU’

Silver Ghost Armoured Cars in East Africa

BULLET-SPITTING RHINOCEROS

ABOVE: One of the first Ghost armoured cars off loaded at Voi is readied for the drive to Maktau. RIGHT: Two African Askaris examine the rear end of an armoured car. A canvas tarpaulin has been draped over the turret to keep the heat out in the midday sun. BELOW: Early in 1917 the four cars numbered 51 - 54 arrived in Dar es Salaam where they were loaded on to a pontoon prior to being shipped to Egypt.

To help with patrolling the new line, a detachment of four Royal Naval Air Service Rolls Royce Silver Ghost armoured cars arrived at Mombasa from South Africa on 15 August 1915. These four cars had been part of the twelve car R.N. Armoured Car Division sent to German South West Africa in March 1915 commanded by Lt. Cmdr. Whittall. The cars had seen service under General Botha in the capture of the German colony and were later overhauled in Capetown. After their success they were accepted by the military in East Africa, and four shipped to Mombasa with Lt. Nalder in command while the remainder returned to England. These cars were standard Silver Ghost chassis fitted with a steel body made from Beardmore armour plate with stronger springs and Rudge Whitworth wire wheels armed with a water cooled Vickers .303 machine gun, with back up trucks carrying ammunition, food and water.

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The early cars were not fitted with starter motors and batteries were removed at night to be charged. When starting, drivers would prime the engine with the starting handle, flick the advance and retard lever on the steering column and hopefully the engine would fire. One of the few cars to survive the rigours of the bush apart from the Rolls was the Model T Ford of which four accompanied the armoured cars together with three trucks carrying the ammunition. The transverse front suspension of the Ford made driving over rough country much easier than the longitudinal springing of the Ghost. Driving a Ghost across a dried up river bed was hazardous, the secret being to drive flat out in first gear with enough momentum to carry it across and up the other side. However, too big a ‘bump’ at the bottom resulted in the turret coming loose.

The four cars commanded by Lt. Nalder became known as 10 (R.N.) Armoured Motor Battery, two of which had been named Ark Royal and Anne Gallant. According to one report the tyres of the cars were filled with a self-sealing compound (Rubberine) which made them less susceptible to deflating from punctures or bullet strikes. On arrival the cars were railed to Voi and patrolled the new line. The railway was ideal when it was found that the dry bushland rapidly became a muddy morass during the monsoon rains. Construction commenced in February 1915 using Indian labour with all water railed in from wells. Despite stringent precautions, casualties from water and food poisoning were high. It was said that for every man who died in action at least three died of disease. Food was a major problem during the campaign; canned stew and biscuits

THE ROLLS ROYCE ‘KIFARU’

Silver Ghost Armoured Cars in East Africa

in echelon. However the cars could take to the bush and make their way around obstacles. One particular attempt to attack a car ended with the German Askaris being forced to surrender. When placed in the back as POWs they thoroughly enjoyed the ride, having never been in a vehicle before. A ride on a steel rhinoceros was going to be a great talking point!

A DISORGANISED RETREAT

were interspersed with corned beef and game meat, shot in some cases by Vickers machine gun. Meanwhile, the Germans advanced further and established a second outpost at Mbuyuni, 20 miles from Taveta and now less than a day's ride from Maktau, the main British camp. Not long after the arrival of the cars, the Germans ran into a Ghost and were driven off with losses. A report by Nalder mentions how the German African Askaris began to fear the cars, calling them Kifaru ya risasi (rhinoceros that spits bullets) and called them Pepo (evil spirits). Determined to counter them, the enemy laid mines and dug pits covered with branches in the hope they would fall in, and on the dirt road to Taveta trenches were dug

By 23 June, when the railway reached Maktau, attacks had eased and the cars were employed scouting in front of the railhead towards Mbuyuni. Patrols continued using Triumph motor cycles to scout ahead of the cars, and Nalder's report for January 1916 shows the cars had seen considerable action. Occasional accidents did little to affect their overall performance and they played an important part in overrunning German trenches at Mbuyuni. Nalder went on to receive a commendation from General Malleson for leadership in this action. In February the Allies prepared for a frontal attack on Salaita Hill, a German observation post near Taveta. Lettow-Vorbeck had cleverly built a dummy trench around the middle of the hill, the remains of which can be seen today. This fooled the Allied commanders into thinking the Germans were on the hill itself. When the attack began after a heavy bombardment of the slopes on 12 February 1916, it was discovered

the enemy were dug in with Maxim machine guns around the base. Two cars had been deployed near the German trenches at the base of the hill and while manoeuvring became aware of a disorganised retreat by the South African troops through the bush. Taking the initiative, the cars drove forward and succeeded in getting behind the trenches inflicting heavy casualties. Suddenly, one gun jammed as its water jacket had been holed and the other car was low on ammunition. It was sheer luck that while backtracking they were seen by two motor cyclist scouts who guided them to safety. When stationary, the cars machine gun fire was accurate and devastating but the Loyal North Lancs Regiment 

ABOVE: Swollen rivers called for additional help from dozens of native porters to drag the vehicles across.

BELOW: Returning from patrol ahead of the railway, two cars approach the gateway to Maktau camp with Mount Kilimanjaro in the distance.

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THE ROLLS ROYCE ‘KIFARU’

Silver Ghost Armoured Cars in East Africa

THE ROLLS ROYCE ARMOURED CAR

The Rolls Royce armoured car design came about after successful trials with a Ghost in August 1914 by Commander Samson at Dunkirk. Such was their reliability that all Ghost chassis were requisitioned from Rolls Royce to become ambulances, armoured cars or staff cars and in October 1914 a small committee fabricated a plywood mock up. By December, three cars were ready having been fitted with heavier springs and rear axles with double wheels to cope with the weight of 4.2 tons. There had been a compromise between weight, overall speed and thickness of armour plate which was ⅜ inch and considered satisfactory for small arms fire at five hundred yards. The secret behind the Ghost's reliability was its rugged steel chassis, 7.4 litre, 6-cylinder side valve engine developing 60 hp and four-speed gear box. The cylinders were in two blocks of three with a 4 ½ inch bore and 4 ¾ inch stroke with a compression ratio of 3.2 - 1. The engine had tremendous torque due in part to a well-balanced carburettor enabling the car to accelerate from 3 to 60 mph in top gear. Petrol was fed from a 22- gallon tank, pressurised by gearbox driven air pump. Two steel shutters closing to a 'V' protected the radiator, the engine covered by hinged side and top plates. Attached to the interior engine bulkhead was the steering wheel and a speedometer. The driver sat on a leather cushion with a supporting back strap. Visibility was restricted to a small slit for driving forward and another on the side for battle formation. The body sides were curved to match the turret. To reduce weight, the rear of the car was made of wood with boxes over the rear wheels containing spare parts and tools. Access to the interior was via two doors in the rear, split horizontally like stable doors closing to a 'V'. The two gunners stood to operate a Vickers gun in the rotating turret, heat from the engine and tropics making it necessary to run with the turret hatch open for much of the time. Around 130 Silver Ghost chassis were modified to become armoured cars and military transport. At the end of the First World War many were returned to civilian use while post-war models of the 1920s ordered by the War Office were modified and saw service in the inter-war period in India, Iraq and Ireland. A number also saw service during the Second World War. A fitting tribute to a car designed in 1905 and still running nearly forty years later.

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THE ROLLS ROYCE ‘KIFARU’

Silver Ghost Armoured Cars in East Africa noted that the accuracy vanished when fired on the move over rough ground. The vehicles were best used in conjunction with the mounted infantry providing mobile firepower while the M.I. provided local security in the surrounding bush. When the ground allowed tactical deployment, the armoured cars were potent weapons and useful for casualty evacuation. The shambles at Salaita Hill was later summed up by General Smuts who had taken over command of the East African forces in February: 'The South African infantry had learned some valuable lessons in bush fighting, and had opportunities to estimate the fighting qualities of their enemy'. Following the Salaita battle, Lettow-Vorbeck began a rear guard action retreating across the border with Allied troops under the South African General Van Deventer in hot pursuit. From the reports it appears Nalder's four cars remained at Maktau until May when in dire need of an overhaul they were sent to Nairobi workshops. By August two were serviceable and were railed to Korogwe near Tanga in German East Africa to support General Hoskins advance. In the meantime, eight more Ghost armoured cars, Nos. 4 and 5 Light Armoured Batteries arrived at Mombasa from England in March under the command of Major Whittall who had resigned his naval commission and transferred as the cars were now under Army control. Apart from eight cars there were Napier trucks, Model T Fords and Douglas motor bikes. All were railed to Voi, where it was discovered the armoured car engines had seized on the voyage from England. A ramp was built and

oxen used to tow the vehicles to the ramp where they were bump-started and driven to Mbuyuni. On arrival Whittall was tasked with chasing up spare parts and after a fruitless trip to Nairobi, knowing that Nalder could ill afford any spares from his own stock, stripped four cars to provide spares for the others. One of the items missing on the cars since the hand over from the Navy was the metal shield for the Vickers gun. Steel railway sleepers were therefore cut to size with a gun port and they were ready to go.

A NERVE-WRACKING HORROR

On 7 April the four Ghosts now numbered 51, 52, 53 and 54 with an ammunition lorry and motor bikes departed from Mbuyuni for Moshi in German East Africa arriving

the following day. On the 9th they headed for Arusha but a deep river crossing was to take much longer than anticipated. The cars were driven across with tarpaulins in front of the radiators and cloth around the carburettors and magnetos to keep the water out. Two succeeded, leaving the other two to be manhandled across. The struggle continued as the four cars and lorry made their way through the bush and flooded rivers towards Arusha. The steep slopes and lack of power forced Whittall to abandon the truck which was incapable of keeping up with the cars. During this period, monsoon rains fell and the four cars were bogged down, experiencing difficulty in covering the 60 miles from Moshi to Arusha. Even the twin wheels of the Ghosts did not save them and they 

ABOVE: Car no 53 and a Triumph bike looking worse for wear at Kondoa Irangi. BELOW: A pair of cars stop for a break in the dry bush accompanied by an out rider on a Triumph motor bike. BELOW LEFT: An oval silver gilt metal R.N.A.S. cap badge depicting a Rolls Royce armoured car.

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THE ROLLS ROYCE ‘KIFARU’

Silver Ghost Armoured Cars in East Africa

SALVAGED AND DRAGGED INLAND

ABOVE: The ubiquitous Ford Model T's, which supported the armoured cars, on the road to Moshi. RIGHT: A Leyland truck is halted by the 'grid-iron' ditches dug by the Germans in the dusty tracks.

BELOW: Maktau Camp, 1915.

quickly settled up to their axles. Teams of oxen were brought in to drag each vehicle out of the clinging mire. The diary of one of the Ghost drivers, Miles Thomas, (later Chairman of BOAC) recalled the trials and tribulations of going to war in the bush: `Day and night the rain teemed down. Our bell tents were awash. We stood, sat and lay wet through. Our mosquito nets sagged with the water and the high pitched buzz of the female mossies became a nerve wracking horror that meant further trouble. After a week with no hot food, little sleep and our bodies completely water logged, dysentery and malaria set in. Men who could hardly crawl because of the pain stumbled out half naked into the mud to relieve themselves. All of us had malaria, but large doses of quinine and laudanum helped ease the debilitating experience'. Petrol was all important and it was estimated that the cars would consume a

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gallon every three miles. Conservatively, two miles. However, once the rains set in the average appeared to be one gallon a mile and at one point there was no fuel at all. It was only the intervention of a senior Allied commander that secured fourteen gallons sufficient to see all four cars into Arusha by the 7 May. But it had taken nearly a week to travel the last mile when one car slid slowly off the track during a downpour, requiring two teams of oxen and crews labouring through the night and sliding logs under the chassis to prevent the car overturning. It had taken five weeks to cover a distance that would normally have taken two days on a hard surface. A week later they were back on the road pushing their way through the bush towards Kondoa Irangi. Both the Ghosts and motor cycles had been stripped down to save weight, the latter reduced to an engine, two wheels, saddle and handle bars.

They made good progress despite rarely getting into top gear spending most of the campaign in second or third and arrived at Kondoa Irangi on the 23rd where they were surprised by some heavy shelling from a long range 4 inch gun, a legacy of the cruiser SMS Königsberg, that had been salvaged and dragged inland. Two months later, advancing troops reached Dodoma on the Central Line from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma, where they rested before heading south to the Ruaha River in pursuit of Lettow-Vorbeck, who was now heading for Portuguese East Africa. A change in plan led to the four Ghosts returning to Dodoma, eventually being railed to Dar es Salaam in September 1916. Early in the New Year the four original Ghosts were

shipped to Egypt, handed over to the Army, and, for the first time, able to use top gear on a long run. The latter four RR cars were shipped out in March 1917 to Alexandria and on to Cairo for overhaul, thus closing the part the armoured car played in the East African campaign. Both 4 and 5 Batteries disbanded in mid-1917 with Nalder and Whittall returning to England. Theirs had been an epic and yet underplayed and little known element of the fighting during the First World War. 

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BRIGHTON PAVILION’S INDIANS Sussex Takes Indian Troops To Its Heart

BRIGHTON PAVILION’S

INDIANS ABOVE: Convalescent Indians in the grounds of the Pavilion. RIGHT: Wounded Indian soldiers Bal and Pim in the grounds of the Royal Pavilion.

The need to tend to hundreds of wounded troops from Britain’s Empire, and particularly from the Indian sub-continent, was addressed by the townsfolk of Brighton during the First World War as they welcomed what were then an exotic group of individuals with open arms and warm generosity. Alexandra Churchill tells the story.

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URING THE First World War ‘India’ had a much broader meaning than today. The term was used to include men from a whole host of nations on a modern map, including Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan. The idea of bringing Indian troops to fight in Europe in 1914 was almost immediate. His Highness the Agha Khan, who was not alone in his sentiments among his peers, summed up what he believed was

his country’s position at a meeting of the Indian Volunteers’ Committee at the Polytechnic on Regent Street on 2 October 1914. He said that he had always thought that Germany was India’s enemy, although she had been posing for some years to serve her own ends as the protector of Islam. ‘Heaven forbid that they should have such a protector.’ He urged his people to take arms against her. ‘Britain’s need was India’s opportunity to spend her last drop of blood in defence of the Empire.’ 

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BRIGHTON PAVILION’S INDIANS Sussex Takes Indian Troops To Its Heart

effect on all-round morale. ‘It has been frequently pointed out of late that it would be highly desirable if opportunities were afforded the British public of showing in practical form its appreciation of the loyalty of the native troops… very few of the Indian contingent have seen the capital of the mighty Empire for which they are fighting.’ Perhaps there would even be a royal visit too, it was suggested, for these volunteers from far-flung shores and to whom the King had been always but a symbolic and far-off entity.

RIGHT: Pavilion ward the banqueting room. BELOW: Indian troops at rest on the Western Front.

‘ALL MINARETS AND CUPOLAS…’

LOYALTY OF THE NATIVE TROOPS

Indians were the first Imperial troops to arrive on the Western Front, and by the beginning of October, Lord Roberts, closely affiliated with the Indian Army, had appealed for donations for the Indian Soldiers’ Fund. Suggested gifts included general things such as socks, gloves, mittens, blankets, mufflers, waterproof capes and ground sheets, slippers, soap and tobacco. Food items included tins of milk, sugar, tea and exotic items such as curry powder, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and areca nut. Cash was the primary aim, though. By 19 November, five days after Lord

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Roberts died on a visit to Indian troops on the Western Front, his fund was already approaching £90,000 in donations. The money was initially being raised to help care for wounded or sick Indians in a warm climate: Alexandria or Marseilles, but soon after Roberts’ original appeal was made, the press reported that the military authorities were preparing for the accommodation of injured Indian troops in Britain. This would be more compatible with existing arrangements for evacuation, and, more importantly, quicker for wounded men in want of hospital care. As an aside, there would be the

In October and November 1914, the first Indian patients arrived on British shores. Hotels such as the Mont Dore in Bournemouth held hundreds of men. A large establishment was soon thriving at Brockenhurst in the New Forest. Lady Hardinge was operating an Indian hospital centred on Church Hill, in the main constructed largely of temporary buildings and nicknamed ‘Tin-Town’. But accommodation had to be sought at extremely short notice, and much more was needed. A little fishing village, transformed into a health resort in the middle of the 18th Century, Brighton was about to offer an impressive solution. On hearing that a location was needed to treat Indian soldiers being evacuated to Britain, the town offered the use of a workhouse, a school and the Corn

Exchange, but the Mayor and the Corporation would go one better. They caught the world’s attention when they put the Royal Pavilion at the disposal of hospital authorities. A seaside palace, the Pavilion sat by the busy waterfront like a miniature Taj Mahal. No longer a royal residence, it had already been at the disposal of the municipality of Brighton for some years. ‘All minarets and cupolas, with pillars and ornaments,’ it was hoped that it would appeal to the imaginations of Indian troops whilst exposing them to the healthy sea air. While the King issued a telegram thanking the town for both its public spirit and good will, men began to clear out the Pavilion immediately. A collection of Indian Medical Service officers from the retired list volunteered to run the hospital. Joining them were a number of young Indian doctors who were already studying in Britain when the war began and who took temporary commissions. Laying out the hospital was a challenge. Rooms with good light were needed for operating theatres, whilst pristine white beds

were set up throughout and provided stark contrast to the luxurious decor. Much work had to be done on ventilation, which in places such as the dome was terrible. All the while, necessary structural amendments risked damaging a unique building if not done carefully. The grounds, usually open to the public, were to be closed. Every precaution was taken to preserve the privacy of these ‘exotic’ patients from inquisitive locals.

A MATTER OF CASTE

More critical than anything to operations at the Pavilion, though, would be the observance of the complicated caste system. Even those with a wealth of Indian experience had rarely come across so many different castes in one place and had to consider many technicalities to maintain the social and religious status quo. To begin with, there were separate taps for drinking water at different ends of the wards. Food was complicated. Some castes were vegetarian, and there could be no beef or bacon for other men. Mutton was generally the safe bet. Meat

also needed to be killed by the right man in an appropriate way for each caste at designated slaughterhouses. The Royal Pavilion needed nine kitchens to comply with different practices. ‘Hindu or Mussulman, Sikh or Gurkha’; each soldier was served by his own caste, and crockery and cutlery were also washed in separate sculleries. Even in death, caste would have to be observed. To ensure men were buried or cremated in the correct fashion, an IMS officer in France, who had previously overseen such arrangements on Indian Hospital Ships, was summoned home. With so many subsequent restrictions as to who performed duties, recruiting staff for the Pavilion was no easy business. The authorities were creative, raiding colleges for students and ships for Indian sailors. Word was even sent to Madras to appeal for workers to fill the last vacancies. Preparation efforts were not restricted to Brighton. Burnley sent a large number of men south who had years of experience with the St. John’s Ambulance Association and had volunteered for hospital service. 

TOP LEFT: The western entrance of the Pavilion during its spell as an Indian hospital. TOP RIGHT: The Sikh Kitchen at the the Royal Pavilion. ABOVE: Panorama of the dome.

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BRIGHTON PAVILION’S INDIANS Sussex Takes Indian Troops To Its Heart

ABOVE: Patients at the converted workhouse go for a walk with locals. BELOW RIGHT: Entrance to Lady Hardinge’s ‘Tin-Town’.

Witnessing war’s horrors at home, they were lauded by the Brighton & Hove Society, who highlighted their cut in pay in comparison to their normal occupations. When asked about the unsavoury nature of some of their work, one simply answered: ‘What used to be our hobby at home, is our work here, and whatever the jobs are we have to do, they get done.’

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SILENT AND DIGNIFIED

The Pavilion was ready to begin accepting patients in December 1914. It was boasted that their fleet of motor ambulances could get a stretcher case from the railway station to his bed in under an hour. On Monday 14th, two Red Cross trains carrying wounded Indians arrived from Southampton. The first pulled in at 2pm and almost

all of the passengers required a stretcher. The few local spectators who could get on the platform craned their necks to see. The stoicism of the patients struck the journalists present, who noted that they were silent and dignified. More than 200 men ‘mostly able to ‘shift for themselves’ arrived secondly. As their train glided into the station they crowded at the windows of the compartments. Determined to carry their own belongings if they could, they were excited to meet Anglo-Indians who were able to begin conversing with them in their own language. One local policeman had spent several years in the east, and wounded men crowded around him, excitedly chattering about their experiences. One particular Gurkha proudly showed everyone how the Germans had blown off his thumb. The wounded soon settled down to life among the Pavilion’s chandeliers, ‘with their modelled palm leaves and delicately tinted lotus lilies, the myriad glittering scales of the domed room, the blazonry of carved pillars, cornice and pagoda.’ There were comedic teething problems, such as patients blowing out flames instead of switching gas appliances off. The men were besotted

by electrical therapy. ‘Especially after having seen results amongst their comrades, the patients regarded it as ‘jadu’ or magic, and begged for it whether their cases required it or not.’ But this did not mean that the orderlies and staff looked down their noses at their charges. Lord Crewe listed the camaraderie between the British orderlies and their Indian patients as the highlight of his visit to the Pavilion: ‘The patients were not stupid and, as a rule, were charming, courteous, and responded to whomsoever they met with the most candid friendliness. Nor were they treated as anything less than equals. On the whole they were greatly

interested in the progress of the war. Those who could not read English papers for themselves would sit crossed legged whilst someone retold their contents and the crowd would jeer, exclaim, cheer or boo the latest war news as if at a pantomime.’ To keep the men occupied in their free time, there was an open door policy for Indian Officers and retired Anglo-Indians, many of whom resided at Brighton and Hove, and the soldiers greatly enjoyed a chat in their native tongue. In peacetime, the space under the dome was used for concerts and public receptions and was thus equipped with an organ. There were regular recitals and a visiting cinema also put on shows for the residents. In the New Year some patients were fit enough to attend 

ABOVE: King & Queen Visit the Royal Pavilion in 1915. LEFT: The full diversity of “India” on show at the Pavilion. BELOW: Indian soldiers on the march on the Western Front.

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BRIGHTON PAVILION’S INDIANS Sussex Takes Indian Troops To Its Heart

ABOVE: A new Indian arrival to Britain is stretchered off to hospital. BELOW: Wounded men in the grounds of the Pavilion.

the football ‘in their white turbans and light blue clothes, giving the crowd a picturesque touch at Brighton & Hove Albion. For those almost well again, there was even some boasting in letters home that they had ‘done’ the sights of London. Britain’s preoccupation with the welfare of her Indian soldiers was far reaching. The patients were well provided for, but the donation of shillings so that they might have the freedom to buy razors and notepaper was encouraged. Nonetheless, boxes arrived and the gift house at the Pavilion evenly distributed them. Schoolchildren in Ballymena were thanked by the Matron for a box of chocolates that they had subscribed to, and she promised to send them some photos of her patients if she got the time. ‘If they ever see a camera they love to be in front of it, and nothing pleases them better than to see their photos in a paper.’

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The novelty of both the building and the patients ensured that any Indian exhibitionists were never in want of attention. Within two days of the first arrivals the Mayor of Hastings had stopped by. Princess Beatrice, who had lost her son just a few weeks previously at Ypres, was the first Royal visitor shortly afterwards and it was reported: ‘She spoke to many of the Indians who were much impressed on hearing she was the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria.’

STOOD PROUDLY TO ATTENTION

In January 1915, rainclouds that had dogged Brighton over Christmas parted just long enough to accommodate a visit from the King and Queen. With sunlight pouring through open doors and windows, their Majesties passed through the dome, where concentric circles of beds fanned out and divided into caste sections, ‘lit

up in the richest hues by the golden colouring of the Saracenic pillars and arches, the panelled mosaics of roof and walls.’ Other wards opened out onto comfortable verandahs, or large balconies on the upper floors. Some of the dark-skinned patients were propped up by pillows. Others, more severely injured, had to lie helpless as the King passed among them. ‘Bandaged limbs spoke eloquently of the ravages of the battlefield.’ Throughout the Pavilion, though, those who could stood proudly to attention, either in khaki or light blue suits beneath their pristine white turbans. The excitement at seeing the King and Queen in person was evident. Some of the men had spent hours grooming themselves for this honour, and to this end, the attention the King paid individual patients was warm and sympathetic. He talked with as many individuals as possible about where they were from, what had happened to them, who their officers were. He moved through the Pavilion with an interpreter, but the Indian patients were thrilled to discover that he at least knew enough Hindi to exchange pleasantries with them. One man, wounded in the hand, had enlisted a friend to spend hours on grooming his beard and hair with him for when he met the King. He was proudly wearing a miniature of Kitchener that George V reached out and admired. Another patient described having been blinded in both eyes by shrapnel. Perhaps most of all, the King and the Queen, who had to turn away with a tear in her eye, were moved by the case of two Gurkha brothers who were just 16 and 18 years

the war, considering that the reaction of India had been something quite special. ‘Far from the supposed home of sedition attempting to throw off the British yoke… from being content simply to look on at ‘the war of the mighty Sahibs,’ the people of India are pouring out their wealth and their blood for the King Emperor… Worldwide in its dimensions, the war will be worldwide in its political consequences.’ For the people of Brighton, though, there had been no political motivation when the town had specifically offered to care for men who found themselves a world away from their homes. When Kitchener made his visit to the town in 1915, he had gathered in the Pavilion grounds all of the Indian officers in Brighton who were able to travel. ‘I should like to know if there is anything I can do for you… now is the time to tell me,’ he had told them. Not a single request was made. The people of Brighton were gratified. ‘There is ample evidence,’ it was recorded, ‘to show that the Indians greatly appreciate the care and hospitality which they have received… The Mayor and the citizens of Brighton, who have given up so much for the sake of India, have earned so well the gratitude of her people that Brighton will now be a sacred name in India for many generations.’ 

old respectively. Wounded by the same shell the elder, Bal, had lost a leg and his sibling, Pim, his left arm.

FIVE TRAINLOADS OF WOUNDED

Throughout its tenure as a centre for treating Indian wounded, Brighton continued to attract high profile visitors. Kitchener was there in July 1915 for a thorough inspection. The patients referred to him as Jung-i-lat Sahib, or War Lord. That month Queen Alexandra visited the Pavilion too. She chatted with those who could speak English, but those unable to do so were not necessarily dissuaded. She asked Bal and Pim, who were still in residence, if they could talk to her and they were crushed that they couldn’t, but quickly piped up that they could sing instead before belting out Tipperary for the Dowager Empress. Brighton’s enthusiasm for their adopted soldiers never waned during their occupation in the town. Over 1,000 wounded arrived in March 1915 in line with India’s participation in the offensive at Neuve Chapelle. Five trainloads of wounded arrived in a 24 hour period. It took until the early hours of the third morning to clear them from the railway station. Seeing many more severe cases than they were used to, crowds of locals gathered doggedly throughout the night to meet the trains and cheered the men as they disembarked. With the relocation of most Indian troops further east at the end of 1915, there was no longer a need for large establishments devoted to their wounded in Britain. On 15th February 1916 the last patients departed the Pavilion for good, still capturing the town’s imagination. More than 10,000 people donated £330 to the Mayor’s war fund for the chance to look around the Royal Pavilion before it

TOP LEFT: The Pavilion's operating theatre. MIDDLE LEFT: Unveiling of the Chattri Memorial at Patcham in 1921. BELOW: Brighton's Royal Pavilion

was reformatted to care for British war amputees instead.

A SACRED NAME IN INDIA

In 1921 the Pavilion was finally reopened to the public, having been entirely redecorated in keeping with the original design. That year, the Prince of Wales arrived in Brighton to unveil a memorial to Indian soldiers who fell in the war. Thousands lined the streets in beautiful weather to watch a procession of seventeen motorcars wind their way out of Brighton. By November 1915, just twelve patients had died at the Royal Pavilion; a mortality rate of just 0.6%. Hindus who died were cremated by a member of their own caste on a specially prepared site on the Downs at Patcham, and later in 1921, the Chattri Memorial was constructed on the cremation site. A contemporary newspaper had recorded in 1915 that there would be a price for Britain to pay at the end of www.britainatwar.com 87

A COLD WAR…

Churchill’s Falklands War Fear

A COLD WAR…

In 1942 the Japanese laid ambitious but largely unknown plans to take the Falkland Islands. here, Steve Taylor makes a fascnating examination of what the empire of the rising sun planned as its next conquest over the british empire and find resonating echoes that chime surprisingly with events which took place there some forty years later. BELOW: The cruiser HMS Exeter which, heavily damaged in her battle with the Graf Spee, was repaired in the Falklands, proving the strategic relevance of the islands long after steam turbines made their use as a coaling station obselete.

T

HE JAPANESE ships steamed through the rough waters of the South Atlantic in late April 1942. The amphibious assault ship Shinshu Maru, carrying a battalion of elite Marines, escorted by the destroyers Arashi and Natsugumo had just rounded Cape Horn and were surging at a brisk sixteen knots towards the Falklands Islands, now less than three hundred miles away. As dawn broke two days later, right on schedule the destroyers sailed into Berkeley Sound and shelled Port Stanley with their 5-inch guns. The islanders were taken completely by surprise and casualties were heavy, many of the little town’s wooden buildings being reduced to matchsticks by the Japanese guns, including

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Government House, official residence of the islands’ Governor Sir Allan Cardinall. Minutes later the Shinshu Maru sailed up Stanley Harbour and disembarked the Marines, who charged into the town. The mostly middle-aged members of the Falkland Islands Defence Force, the islands’ equivalent of the Home Guard, did their best. Armed only with shotguns and a few ancient rifles, however, the outcome was a foregone conclusion and after a swift, sharp assault the Marines’ commanding officer tore down the Union Jack hanging limply from the flagpole in the grounds of Government House and raised in its place Japan’s Rising Sun flag, to enthusiastic cheers from his men. Scattered around the smouldering ruins of Port Stanley

lay the bodies of over a hundred FIDF members and islanders. The Japanese had lost just nine men, with a dozen more wounded.

A NIGHTMARE SCENARIO

With the fall of the Falklands on 28 April 1942 the Empire of Japan now stretched from the frontier of India into the very heart of the South Atlantic. Of course, the Japanese never did invade the Falklands. But, as fanciful as it may sound today, that was the nightmare scenario that haunted Winston Churchill in the spring of 1942, and which would eventually lead the Prime Minister to authorise one of the most secret missions of the Second World War, to secure Britain’s South Atlantic and Antarctic empire.

A COLD WAR…

Churchill’s Falklands War Fear Churchill’s connection to the Falklands dates back to 1914 when, as First Lord of the Admiralty, he despatched a battle fleet under Vice Admiral Doveton Sturdee to the South Atlantic to deal with the German battlecruisers Gniesnau and Scharnhorst, which were sunk off the Falklands on 8 December. A quarter of a century later he again occupied the post of First Lord, and again the Falkland Islands played a pivotal role in the Royal Navy’s first great victory of the war, providing an essential resupply base for the cruisers HMS Exeter and Cumberland during their successful efforts to box in Hitler’s mighty pocket battleship Graf Spee in Montevideo harbour, forcing her captain to scuttle the ship. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War the Admiralty also feared the Germans might try to establish refuelling bases for their U-boats and surface raiders in the Antarctic, after a Nazi expedition under the noted polar explorer Alfred Ritscher visited the Continent in 1938 and laid claim to a portion of Antarctica for the Fatherland, christening it New Swabia. No secret Nazi Antarctic bases were ever discovered by the Royal Navy, but by 1942 a new potential threat to Britain’s colonial holdings in the South Atlantic and Antarctica had emerged.

NO APRIL FOOL

Following its lightning victories over Britain and the US in late 1941 and early 1942, capturing most of Britain’s Imperial possessions in the Far East, including Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and most of Burma, Churchill feared Japan’s next move would be to seize the Falklands. “It would be a

very serious thing to lose the Falkland Islands to the Japanese,” he wrote on 1 April 1942 to General ‘Pug’ Ismay, his Chief of Staff. But this was no April Fool’s joke; Churchill was in deadly earnest. “The Falkland Islands are very well known, and their loss would be a shock to the whole Empire,” he continued. “They would certainly have to be retaken.” Churchill’s fears were shared by many of his senior commanders. If the Falklands fell to the Japanese, their navy would gain control of the South Atlantic, completing

their domination of the entire Pacific Ocean and cutting off the important shipping route around Cape Horn. The threat to the islands posed by the Japanese had first been raised seven months earlier (before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor) by the British military attaché in Buenos Aires, Colonel Russell. “The reaction in Argentina to a successful Japanese raid on the Falkland Islands would be entirely unfavourable to us,” Russell cabled London in September 1941. “Almost the only success of [enemy] propaganda in this country has been the stirring up of the old controversy over the ownership of the Falkland Islands.” 

ABOVE: Winston Churchill prepares to broadcast to the nation. The legendary wartime leader feared the loss of the Falkland Islands.

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A COLD WAR…

Churchill’s Falklands War Fear

“The object of the reinforcement would be to make it necessary for the Japanese to extend their attacking force to a tangible size. This might well act as a deterrent.”

ABOVE & BELOW: The Japenese destroyers Natsugumo ('Summer Cloud', above) and Arashi ('Storm'). Arashi was sunk during the Battle of the Vella Gulf, August 1943, but famously was part of the convoy where the lead ship rammed PT-109, commanded by John F. Kennedy. The Natsugumo was sunk by US aircraft in October 1942. In this scenario, they bombard the Falklands.

Alarmed, the War Cabinet demanded that the Falklands’ defences, which at the time amounted only to around 300 poorly-armed local volunteers of the Falkland Islands Defence Force, be strengthened. But in the spring of 1942 British forces were seriously overstretched. Where would the reinforcements come from? General Ismay’s initial thought was to approach the United States. But this didn’t find favour with the Colonial Office, a senior official writing to the General: “We feel that suggestions for garrisoning a British colony with US troops may raise important and possibly embarrassing political issues which ought to be considered before the American government is approached.” The Chiefs of Staff then briefly considered despatching South African

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or Indian troops to the islands, before abandoning the idea on the grounds that soldiers from these warmer climes would be ill-suited to the chilly Falklands. Next, the Canadian government was approached, but Prime Minister MacKenzie King pointed out that his country’s forces were already fully committed elsewhere.

A BRITISH TASKING

Ending any further argument over the matter, Churchill stepped in and insisted the Falklands be defended by British troops, even if this meant drawing off a unit from one of the fighting fronts. “The islands are a British possession and responsibility,” he wrote to General Ismay. “A British battalion should certainly be found. “The object of the reinforcement would be to make it necessary for the

A COLD WAR…

Churchill’s Falklands War Fear

Japanese to extend their attacking force to a tangible size. This might well act as a deterrent.” And so 11th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, who at the time were sailing for India, were diverted to the South Atlantic, docking in the Falklands in June, where they immediately set about strengthening the islands’ paltry defences, moving two 6-inch naval guns dismounted from the cruiser HMS Lancaster in 1916 to Sapper Hill, in order to cover the approaches to Stanley harbour. But no sooner had the men of the West Yorks disembarked than the balance of naval power in the Pacific shifted dramatically in the Allies’ favour, when the Japanese Navy suffered its crushing defeat at the hands of American airpower at the Battle of Midway on 4 June, losing

four aircraft carriers and halting their relentless advance across the Pacific. By January 1943 the Chiefs of Staff felt confident enough to report to Churchill that there was now “no likelihood of a Japanese attack on the islands,” although a reduced garrison would be maintained there until the end of the war. In the absence of a Japanese invasion, as the months passed boredom became the greatest enemy for the soldiers of the West Yorkshire Regiment. There were even several reported cases of attempted suicide, the Regiment’s medical officer recording that “the remote situation of the Falkland Islands, combined with constant high winds and general bleakness and monotony, induces a depressed mental outlook.” 

ABOVE: Two images of Operation Tabarin operatives, posing for a shot, and later surveying, the Britishcontrolled island of South Georgia. CENTRE: Spotter aircraft, like HMS Exeter's Walrus', would have been vital in any attempt to track Japanese movement had they attacked the Falkland Islands.

BELOW: The Shinshū Maru in 1938. The pioneering Japanese Army assault ship was the first purpose built type in that role. She carried 54 landing craft, four gunboats and 12 aircraft (though they could not return to the ship). She was torpedoed by USS Aspro on 3 January 1945, after barely surviving air attack.

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A COLD WAR…

Churchill’s Falklands War Fear

ABOVE: James Marr on South Georgia. The LieutenantCommander led the secret mission to monitor and defeat Argentine challenges of UK soverignty. TOP RIGHT: The Argentine dreadnaught ARA Rivadavia. Although aging, her dozen 12in guns would have made her a fearsome asset if turned against the defences of the Falkland Islands. BELOW: The Fitzroy, which carried the Tabarin expedition.

THE HIDDEN ENEMY

But plans were being prepared for an invasion of the Falklands in 1942 - not in Berlin or Tokyo, but in Buenos Aires. In September 1941, with Britain occupied fighting Nazi Germany and Italy, the Argentine government saw an opportunity to finally recover ‘Las Malvinas’, ordering naval officer Captain Ernesto Villanueva to draw up plans for an invasion, which were unearthed in 2013 in the archives of the Argentine Navy. Despite the lack of defences on the islands, Villanueva’s detailed 34-page plan called for an impressive invasion force comprising “a battalion of Marines distributed in two battleships, two heavy cruisers, a light cruiser, twelve torpedo boats, a tanker and mine-laying vessels.” The flagship of the task force would be the 30,000ton, Great War-era battleship ARA Rivadavia, the pride of the Argentine fleet. The plan was to sail the ships into Berkeley Sound, just north of Port Stanley, and land the assault force at Cow Bay. The Argentine Marines, suggested Villanueva, would then “take control of Puerto Argentino [the Argentine name for Port Stanley] in a surprise action.” But Villanueva’s

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plan encountered opposition from the army, Colonel Benjamin Rattenbach pointing out that while seizing the Falklands would pose few problems, defending the islands in the event of a British counter-invasion would prove far more difficult, if not impossible. (Ironically, forty years later, at the age of 85 Rattenbach would be brought out of retirement to chair an inquiry into the failures of the Argentine military during the 1982 Falklands War). Frustrated in its ambitions to take the Falklands by the army’s opposition, the Argentine Navy instead embarked on a campaign to assert its sovereignty over disputed British territories in the Antarctic, sending the polar exploration vessel Primero de Mayo to Britain’s most remote colonies in February 1942 and laying claim to the land. Churchill responded by authorising Operation Tabarin, a secret expedition of scientists and Royal Navy reservists, under the command of Scots polar explorer and Royal Navy officer Lieutenant-Commander

James Marr, a veteran of four previous Antarctic expeditions, whose job was to visit each territory in turn and remove any illegal Argentine presence. The team set sail from Avonmouth in December 1943 aboard the troopship Highland Monarch and, after transferring to the elderly vessels Fitzroy and William Scoresby in Port Stanley, spent the next two years travelling between Britain’s various Antarctic outposts around the Graham Land peninsula, planting Union flags on each as a symbol of British sovereignty. Only on one occasion did the British team come face to face with the Argentines - a group of meteorologists in early 1945 - but the confrontation passed off peacefully. In March 1946 the Operation Tabarin team quietly returned to the UK, having achieved their objective of reasserting Britain’s sovereignty over her dependencies in the South Atlantic and Antarctic, and deterring any further Argentine aggression in the region. Until 1982, at any rate. 

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BATTLES OVER THE BARENTS Heroism Above The Arctic Convoys

BATTLES OVER THE

BARENTS The early Arctic convoys sailed with limited ship borne fighter cover which fought with brave determination, battle both the enemy and the atrocious conditions as Andrew Thomas explains.

MAIN PICTURE: Sea Hurricane Ia V6756/NJ-L has just been loaded onto the CAM ship Empire Tide in August 1941. The ship was a survivor of the PQ 17 convoy disaster. (ADMIRALTY)

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ARELY TWO months after German Panzers had spearheaded the assault on the Soviet Union, the first convoy carrying war materiel sailed to the ports of Archangel and Murmansk in the high Arctic. This accorded with the unambiguous directive from Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the political imperative to support the Soviet Union in any way possible. Earlier the Royal Navy had

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quickly focused toward the Arctic as a means of showing direct support to the Russians, by conducting a direct attack on the ports of Kirkenes and Petsamo on the Barents Sea that were believed to be vital links in supporting the German assault on Murmansk. In the event, the air attacks launched from the aircraft carriers HMS Furious and HMS Victorious on 30 July suffered heavy losses for no significant result. ‘Operation EF’ had been a costly failure.

BATTLES OVER THE BARENTS Heroism Above The Arctic Convoys

Within weeks of the ill-fated Kirkenes operation the first convoy to Russia assembled and Operation Dervish sailed on 21 August. Concurrent with it was Operation Strength to take 48 Hurricanes for the Red Air Force, half of which were partially dismantled aboard the old carrier HMS Argus. These were later assembled and flown off by RAF pilots of 81 and 134 Sqns about 100 miles north of the Russian coast to the airfield at Vaenga near Murmansk. They would initially be used by the RAF’s 151 Wing that was

to fight alongside the Russians and their story will be described in next month’s issue of Britain at War. The elderly carrier also had two Martlets of 802 Sqn embarked for her own protection. Force M that comprised HMS Victorious with a cruiser and destroyer escort provided escort cover for both Operations and in contrast to later convoys there was no enemy interference. Once the ships were judged safe Force M was ordered to conduct against enemy shipping off northern Norway. 

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BATTLES OVER THE BARENTS Heroism Above The Arctic Convoys

"I spotted another Heinkel and proceeded to engage it, with some limited success as I saw the starboard engine burst into flames."

ABOVE: Martlet III, AM963 ‘Q’ of 802 Sqn was detached aboard Victorious and shot down an He 111 off Norway on September 13. (J W SLEIGH) RIGHT: The first success for an MSFU Hurricane was claimed by Fg Off John Kendal who tragically was mortally injured when baling out after the combat. (H R ALLEN) BELOW: A Sea Hurricane is perched on its catapult on the bows of a CAM ship in a moderate sea.

(M D LYNE VIA P H T GREEN)

LULL BEFORE THE STORM After their earlier mauling, Victorious’ Albacore units had been replaced but the planned attack to the Tromsø area was abandoned due to the lack of cloud cover. However, the Luftwafe located the Force and despite the best efforts of 809 Sqn’s Fulmars most evaded interception until a Do 18 was claimed shot down on 3

September. The next day the Force rendezvoused with Argus that then transferred the Martlets to Victorious before heading for Iceland while Force M set course for the Lofoten Islands. Early on the 12th Victorious launched a dozen Albacores against shipping in Vestfjord sinking several small ships and damaging shore installations in Bodø.

The following morning, 13 September, a Heinkel He 111 located the Force and commenced to shadow. That afternoon the two Martlets flown by Sub Lts Jimmy Sleigh and Bertie Williams were launched to intercept some further Heinkels that had been reported. Sleigh who recalled the subsequent events: “Bertie Williams and I were lent to the Victorious as 802 ‘B’ Flight as the Victorious’ own Fulmars were too slow to catch the Heinkels. At about 2 pm on September 13th one 96 www.britainatwar.com

BATTLES OVER THE BARENTS Heroism Above The Arctic Convoys

RIGHT: Sub Lt Jimmy Sleigh of 802 Sqn shot down an He 111 and damaged another when flying from Victorious. (J W SLEIGH)

of the escort ships signalled that they had spotted a Heinkel approaching. We were steaming in moderate seas with broken cloud cover, and Bertie Williams and I were ordered to take off in our Martlets and intercept. This we did and spotted the Heinkel 111 at about 2000 ft on the bearing provided by the escort. I engaged successfully at close range with the Heinkel returning fire. As I passed over the Heinkel I felt a jolt and saw the enemy aircraft plunge into the sea. On my way back to the ship, I spotted another Heinkel and proceeded to engage it, with some limited success as I saw the starboard engine burst into flames. On my return to the ship to refuel, I noticed that the underside of the Wildcat had a gouge down the underside of the fuselage - I must have been very close to the first Heinkel, and very lucky to escape.” Sleigh was credited with one Heinkel destroyed and another damaged. Two Blohm and Voss Bv 138 flying boats then appeared and continued to shadow, although they defied the best efforts of the intercepting Fulmars to bring them down. Force M therefore returned to Scapa Flow, bringing to an end the first Arctic convoy operation.

VULNERABLE TO AIR ATTACK

‘Dervish’ was the first of 78 convoys that would sail to the Soviet Arctic ports during the War. They would gain an evil reputation for hardship, fortitude and sacrifice from the crews involved, brought about as much by the atrocious weather as by enemy action. A couple of weeks after Victorious had returned on 29 September the first numbered convoy PQ 1 sailed from Hvalfjörður in Iceland and transited past the barren basaltic Jan Mayen island and north of Bear Island before heading into the White Sea. During winter the ice pack meant a more southerly track was taken but even the most favourable route meant the ships were vulnerable to air attack for about 1,400 miles, well within range of Luftwafe bombers based in northern Norway. The first convoys were largely unmolested by the enemy, though PQ 8 that sailed on 8 January 1942 saw the Commodore’s ship the SS Harmatris (Capt Robert Brundle) hit and severely damaged on the 16th by torpedoes fired by U–454. The submarine also sank the destroyer HMS Matabele the next day leaving just two survivors from her crew.  www.britainatwar.com 97

BATTLES OVER THE BARENTS Heroism Above The Arctic Convoys

Then on the 18th low flying Heinkels attacked twice and although no further damage resulted, it was an ominous portent of things to come. By the spring of 1942 it was evident that some form of air cover to the Russia bound convoys was urgently needed as for 1,400 of the 2,000mile passage to Murmansk and Archangel they would be within range of Norway-based Luftwafe bombers. Thus with the paucity of escort carriers CAM ships (Catapult Armed Merchantman) manned by the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit (MSFU) were allocated. The MSFU had been formed at Speke ‘to provide merchant shipborne fighter aircraft for the protection of shipping against air attack’. Eventually, some 35 merchant ships were fitted with catapults to carry a Hurricane fighter that with an RAF pilot and groundcrew and an RN fighter direction officer (FDO) formed the ‘sea crew’. The first Arctic convoy to sail with a CAM ship

was PQ 15 on which the MV Empire Morn (under Capt W L Cruickshank) carried two aircraft, one crated as replacement aircraft at Keg Ostrov airfield at Archangel. The senior pilot was 21 year old Fg Off John Kendal, with Plt Off Deryk Faulks as the other pilot and Sub Lt Peter Mallet as FDO. PQ 15 passed relatively uneventfully and eventually set sail to return as QP 12 and it came under surveillance as it passed the northbound convoy PQ 16. Eventually, on the morning of 25 May 1942, John Kendal was launched from Empire Morn in the Barents Sea against a shadower. At 0850 he was vectored onto a Ju 88 onto which he rapidly closed and attacked from about 200 yards. His fire caused black smoke to pour from the Junkers that gradually lost height and speed and crashed about eight miles ahead of the convoy. Tragically, Kendal, having just claimed the MSFU’s first victim, baled-out too low and died soon after being picked up; he was buried at sea.

BELOW: An MSFU Sea Hurricane sits aboard the CAM ship Empire Lawrence. She was part of the escort to Russia bound convoy PQ 16. On May 25 1942 its aircraft broke up an attack but the ship succumbed to attack later in the voyage. (P H LISTEMANN)

ABOVE: With Sea Hurricanes stowed on the camouflaged deck, the escort carrier HMS Avenger steams into an angry sea. (R S G MACKAY)

"The pilots showed extreme zeal, courage and skill. Great credit is due to both Squadron Commanders."

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BATTLES OVER THE BARENTS Heroism Above The Arctic Convoys

BELOW: The pilots and ratings of 802 Sqn in mid 1942 most of which sailed with Avenger on PQ 18 .(J W SLEIGH)

THE NOTORIOUS PQ17

As the convoys passed each other, a full scale attack, initially by Ju 88 divebombers, began to develop against the Russia bound PQ 16 in which was the CAM ship MV Empire Lawrence (Capt H S Darkins). In the early evening as a further attack developed Plt Off Al Hay was shot off the bow of Empire Lawrence and he quickly closed on the inbound ‘V’ formation of Heinkel torpedo carriers. Firing on the last aircraft on the starboard side with a couple of three-second bursts from 200 yards, Hay saw strikes on the engine and pieces fly off before switching to another aircraft where he saw his fire hitting near the cockpit. He was then hit by return fire. Streaming glycol, wounded and half blinded he nonetheless managed to shoot the rest of his ammunition on a crossing Ju 88. Hay baled out and was picked up after six minutes in the freezing water to learn that his first victim was confirmed destroyed. He was credited with another as damaged. Although several ships were sunk, the attack had been severely disrupted by his intervention and never recovered its essential symmetry. Empire Lawrence, however, was sunk during subsequent attacks on the 27th when east of Bear Island. CAM ships continued sailing with Russian convoys and after the successful passage of PQ 16, the next convoy was the notorious PQ 17. Having been ordered to scatter in the mistaken belief that the battleship Tirpitz was about to attack, the convoy

was almost destroyed, losing 24 of its 35 ships to submarine and air attack. One of the surviving vessels was the CAM Ship MV Empire Tide under Capt F W Harvey with its pilot Flt Lt Dickie Turley-George who to the intense frustration of him and the FDO, Sub Lt Johnny Macdonald was never given the order to launch. The next convoy, PQ 18 comprised 40 ships and was heavily escorted, that included the escort carrier HMS Avenger. She carried a dozen Sea Hurricanes of 802 and 883 Sqns, commanded respectively by Lts Edward W Taylour and Patrick W V Massey. The CAM ship MV Empire Morn was also once again accompanying an Arctic convoy.

The fighters would be needed as at its bases in north Norway, Luftlotte 5 fielded over 150 bombers to stop the convoy. These included He 111 torpedo bombers of KG 26, Ju 88 dive bombers of KG 30 as well as further Ju 88s from 1 (F)/122 and 1 (F)/124 for reconnaissance. The main shadowing task fell to the Bv 138s and He 115s of 1/KuFlGr 406 and 1/KuFlGr 906 that as well as tracking the ships also homed in U-boats. To keep these at bay three Swordfish and five 

BELOW: Lt Ted Taylour was a seven victory ace who was in command of 802 Sqn but was shot down and killed when defending convoy PQ 18. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)

ABOVE: The Arctic Star was announced in December 2012 for award to all personnel who sailed on the Arctic convoys. (MOD)

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BATTLES OVER THE BARENTS Heroism Above The Arctic Convoys RIGHT: The DSC and medals of Lt Ted Taylour, CO 802 Sqn.

(VIA G R

PITCHFORK)

BELOW: A Swordfish of 825 Sqn approaches the heaving deck.

(F N MACTAVISH)

crews from 825 Sqn that were also embarked in Avenger. Their presence forced many submarines to dive before they could reach an attacking position.

CLOUD OF PHANTOM LOCUSTS

At lunchtime on 12 September Avenger launched four Sea Hurricanes against a Bv 138 flying boat that was shadowing the convoy and managed to drive it off damaged. However, the following day when 150 miles north west of Bear Island on an almost windless day in clearing weather, others arrived and kept the ships under surveillance, flying into clouds whenever threatened. In mid afternoon, the first attack developed which was driven off. It had been a feint as a huge formation of Ju 88 and He 111 torpedo bombers then swept towards the convoy that the Commodore described as ‘like a cloud of phantom locusts’. The attack was perfectly timed as the fighters were still on deck being refuelled from their

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earlier sorties. Thus the only defence were the ships’ guns and eight vessels were sunk, including the ammunition ship Empire Stevenson (Capt A C Radley) that blew up with great loss of life. Later, at 16:45 four fighters led by Lt Taylour were launched after a Bv 138. Perhaps frustrated by the earlier lack of success the seven-victory ace closed the range but the flying boat’s turret mounted cannon outranged the

fighter’s machine guns and the return fire hit Ted Taylour’s Sea Hurricane, sending it down in flames. The air attacks resumed on the 14th with Avenger being specifically targeted, but her fighters beat off the attacks, taking a steady toll. Sub Lt Ian Garrow of 883 shot down a Ju 88 before being hit by the convoy’s barrage and forced to bale out, though he was quickly picked up. 883’s Petty Officer Cliff Rendle shot down a Heinkel another of which was hit and probably destroyed by Pat Massy and his section. No 802 avenged Taylour’s loss when Sub Lt Philip Williams brought down a Ju 88 whilst Sub Lt Tony Lawrie shot down a He 111 and shared another with his section. Two other Hurricanes were shot down by friendly fire, however. Most importantly the co-ordination of the attack was broken up and so it became far less effective. The fighters were credited with bringing down five enemy bombers, though the claims by ships’ gunners for over 30 shot down was somewhat overstated! It is known that eight He 111s of I/KG 26 were lost as was Ju 88A-4 w/nr 1456/4D+GS of 3/KG 30 flown by Ofw Paul Füllborn and crew.

BATTLES OVER THE BARENTS Heroism Above The Arctic Convoys

Thereafter, the convoy was subjected to only sporadic attacks. In various launches the next day Avenger’s Sea Hurricanes damaged two more He 111s and a Ju 88. Avenger’s captain Cdr Anthony Colthurst said afterwards: ‘Nos 802 and 883 Fighter Squadrons distinguished themselves particularly in all the work they were called upon to perform. The pilots showed extreme zeal, courage and skill. Great credit is due to both Squadron Commanders. The former was unhappily shot down in flames. The name of the latter will be included in my recommendations for honours and awards.” He was true to his word as Massey subsequently received the DSO whilst Garrow, Williams and Laurie were decorated with the DSC. Tragically, all bar one of the pilots of 802 and 883 Sqns were lost off North Africa when Avenger was torpedoed and sunk by the U-155 on 15 November with the loss of all but twelve of the crew.

SHOTS STRIKING THE ENGINE

Attacks on PQ 18 resumed during the late morning of 18 September and eventually shortly before noon Fg Off A H Burr in his Hurricane was catapulted off Empire Morn against a formation of 15 torpedo carrying Heinkels. Having been warned of approaching enemy aircraft he climbed into the Hurricane and prepared to launch as he later described: “I had to swerve violently to avoid balloon cables of other ships, I also had to take avoiding action from Bofors and Oerlikon fire from one or two of the ships who opened up on me. I was in immediate communication with my FDO and climbed to about 700 feet and went round the port quarter of the convoy where I could see the 15 He 111 coming in line abreast. They were

about 3 miles from the stern of the convoy about 50 feet. I dived on them and carried out a head on and port beam attack on a He 111, opening fire at 300 yards and closing to 150 yards. I noticed my shots striking the engine and nose of the Heinkel and as I turned above and behind to the left I noticed white smoke coming from his starboard engine. I closed again to 250 yards and gave him the rest of my ammunition in a quarter attack carried out from both his engines, but as I was interfering with the flack (sic) from the ships I broke right and went round the stern to the starboard side of the convoy. From there I observed that no ships had been hit by the torpedoes. On going round to the front of the convoy I saw the wreckage of a Heinkel 111 in the water between the two columns on the port side.”

FIVE GALLONS OF FUEL LEFT

Critically, Jackie Burr had broken up the formation during its co-ordinated

attack run. Finding that he still had about 70 gallons of fuel left he decided to attempt to reach land to thus save a valuable aircraft: “I ran into a fog bank about 40 miles wide but managed to make landfall and pinpoint my position. I flew at heights between 200’ and 2000’ and arriving at Archangel I fired the recognition signal and found Keg Ostrov aerodrome where I landed at 14:15 hours with 5 gallons in my reserve tank left.” When PQ 18 arrived at Archangel just ten of its 41 merchantmen and no escorts had been sunk - fewer losses than any previous of the other Russian convoy. The lessons were clear and with winter approaching the Admiralty decided that escort carriers would cover future Arctic convoys and the CAM ships were therefore withdrawn from the route. There would be much more heavy fighting on dreaded ‘Russia run’ but never again would they lack for adequate air cover. The crisis had passed. 

ABOVE: A Sea Hurricane sits on the rocket powered trolley on the catapult of a CAM ship. (J D OUGHTON)

BELOW: The MV Empire Stevenson, which was carrying ammunition, explodes. (F N MACTAVISH)

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SHOT DOWN IN FLAMES

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

JUTLAND 1916

The Archaeology of a Naval Battlefield

By Dr Innes McCartney Publisher: Conway www.bloomsbury.com ISBN: 978-1-84486-416-4 Hardback: 272 pages RRP: £30.00

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AROUND MIDNIGHT on the night of 31 May/1 June 1916 the 13,500 ton armoured cruiser HMS Black Prince came upon a line of battleships in the darkness. Her approach was picked up by lookouts on the battle line and one account of the ensuing action suggests that the ship was challenged with a secret recognition signal. If so she was unable to reply and put her helm over hard to starboard, as the German battleship Thüringen opened fire at a range of 1100 meters. Within minutes the battleships Nassau, Ostfriesland and Friedrich der Grosse joined in raking the retreating cruiser from stem to stern. Less than a minute after Friedrich der Grosse opened fire Black Prince exploded along her entire length of 480 ft and sank. That much about the fate of the cruiser is known from the logs, after action reports and memoirs of participants from the German High Seas Fleet taking part in the confused night actions of what the Germans called the Battle of Skagerrak . From the British side of what became the Battle of Jutland there was nothing to tell of the end of Black Prince, because there were no survivors from the ships company of 857 officers and men.

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Dr Innes McCartney’s new book fills in this historical blank, and, one hundred years on from the largest long range gunnery duel between fleets of capital ships, it speaks for the men whose lives were ended in moments by the supersonic shock wave from the explosion of the ship’s 9.2 inch ammunition magazines. The discipline of forensic battlefield archaeology has been established on land since the work of Doug Scott at the site of the Battle of the Little Big Horn in the 1980’s. However, it has not previously been applied to big gun fleet action at sea. Indeed, there are only really three battles it could be applied to; the 1905 destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet at Tsu Shima, the action in Surigao Strait in 1944, and Jutland. In studying Jutland, McCartney is able to bring the well-established literary sources and accounts of the battle into dialogue with fifteen years of forensic evidence, provided initially by hours of cold diving in the North Sea and by Remotely Operated Vehicles [ROV’s], and latterly by new high definition multibeam sonar, which has enabled McCartney to identify 22 Jutland wrecks. The resulting study is a synthesis which probably provides the most accurate picture of which ships did what and where during the battle. Most poignantly it also illuminates the effect of human agency on thousands of tons of steel and high explosive. On the wreck of Black Prince McCartney notes a watertight door which had been closed with only two of its clips, echoing a warning from Captain R. N. Lawson of HMS Chester that such a partially secured door would be blown off and turned into a lethal projectile in any explosion. He also adds to the evidence that the reason behind Admiral Beatty’s blackly comic comment that “There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today”, uttered as the battlecruiser Queen Mary

exploded, was the mismanagement of ammunition prompted by captains and gunnery officers who prized fast shooting above safety. Most important, however, is the impact the mapping of Jutland wrecks has had on understanding the unfolding action across the seascape of battle. For example, the discovery of the wreck of HMS Nestor, sunk in an attack which won her CO, Commander Edward Bingham, the Victoria Cross, suggests she was probably engaging Hipper’s First Scouting Group and not vanguard of the High Seas Fleet as some had thought. The location of the vessels scuttled by the Germans also sets down incontrovertible markers as to the location of key actions. Indeed, it is worth noting that the smallest error in position between the most accurate previous assessment, that of Captain John Harper’s 1919 charts of the battle, and the modern GPS location of the wrecks recorded by McCartney, is three quarters of a nautical mile and the largest eight nautical miles. However, McCartney and his colleagues who undertook the Jutland surveys, described in this crisply written and lavishly illustrated book, have not just aided future historians of the battle. They have enabled the current centenary commemorations to take place in the context of an archaeologically recorded, three dimensional, battlefield space. They have also enabled the relatives and descendants of the Jutland crews to revisit the places where their ancestors served, fought and in the case of 8,648 British and German seafarers, died, which are as well defined as any Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery on land. For example, those who remember the crew of Black Prince’s sister armoured cruiser from the 1st Cruiser Squadron, HMS Defence, which McCartney first located in 2001, now know that at 18:19 on 31 May the ship was subjected to

a catastrophic magazine explosion which propagated through the entire ship, blowing off her bow and stern and sending her and her entire complement to the seabed in around twelve seconds. It is as graphic an image of the nature of 20th century industrialised naval warfare as you can find, and finally balances the equally graphic images battlefield archaeology has provided of the conditions faced by soldiers engaged in the Battle of the Somme which began just a month after Jutland. However, there is a dark, but necessary, post script to Innes McCartney’s story of Jutland which he is only able to tell because of his archaeological approach. Returning to the fate of Black Prince and her crew, McCartney notes both her manganese bronze propellers appear to be missing, strongly suggesting she has been subjected to commercial salvage. This is the great scandal that these detailed, three dimensional, archaeological surveys have uncovered. In spite of vessels being protected by Sovereign Immunity, the UK Protection of Military Remains Act and soon the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, many of the wrecks have been ripped apart by commercial salvors using explosives and grabs to recover valuable non-ferrous metals, particularly boiler tubes, condensers and propellers. These seabed graves and memorials to the sailors of Jutland, British and German, have become scrap metal mines and McCartney notes that there seems to be no political desire to do anything concrete about it. This is an exceptional book and I have no hesitation in recommending it as Book of The Month. REVIEWED BY ANDY BROCKMAN.

Illustrations  References/Notes Appendices  Index 



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

Too Important for the Generals Losing and Winning the First World War Allan Mallinson

ALLAN MALLINSON is no stranger to writing history, with his rather excellent ‘The Making of the British Army’ becoming a modern classic of sorts in the field of popular military history and, therefore, a tough act to follow. However, Mallinson has done it. This revisionist piece of history may not convince all, but the engaging writing and excellent presentation of argument makes this title a sound read even if your conclusions differ. ‘War is too important to be left to the generals’, said Georges Clemenceau upon hearing of another failed and costly offensive, and it on this statement that Mallinson hinges his argument. The suggestion is that, in line with the current historical view, the efforts of British generals during the Great War, considering the sheer size of the task involved, were as good as can be. This is not to say that there were not disasters, but simply that in this war the number of officers in all belligerent nations with a true grasp and sense of understanding of the magnitude of this bloody war and the high number of men involved was very, very, small. Therefore, the challenges posed by the war troubled all commanders and even notable generals such as Douglas Haig, the centre of decades of hot debate, conducted themselves at least somewhat appropriately and such extreme criticism of them is perhaps unwarranted. Serious and repetitive failings in British command stand out as exceptions, rather than the norm, and the meddling of politicians, he argues, was generally not as disastrous as perhaps perceived. Instead, in his attempt to answer why the war lasted for as long as it did, and cost the lives it did, the author attributes an assertion that French doctrine was a critical factor - although their challenges

were vastly different. Ultimately, final victory, he argues, was only assured after the Spring Offensive, where the British, French, and the ever-increasing strength of the United States, forced a major German attack through their strategic actions and the impact they, such as the Royal Navy’s blockade, had on them. The desperate attempt to maintain some form of cohesion and initiative before overwhelming numbers of Americans deployed in strength in reality ceded victory to the Allies. This victory was not gifted to them, but it required a change in conditions, and the status quo ran only as long as Germany could tolerate it. A tricky yet well-crafted analysis, which adds to the revisionist school of thought with some edgy arguments, this latest title is sure to get you thinking. REVIEWED BY JOHN ASH

Publisher: Bantam Press: Penguin www.penguin.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-593-05818-3 RRP: £25.00

| RECONNAISSANCE REPORT

high as 90% killed and wounded and the average life expectancy for a tank troop officer was as little as two weeks. Yet, Render led his Sherman tanks as part of the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry (which received more battle honours than any other unit in the conflict) and brushed with fate all though the Bocage, toward Arnhem, across the Rhine and in his last battles of the war and emerged unscathed, although losing friends along the way. Action-packed, detailed, yet modest and unpretentious, this enthralling new account of one man, among the many thousands who served in 21st Army Group during the last year of the war, is one to remember. With every chapter a gem, we like this book, and it comes highly recommended. REVIEWED BY JOHN ASH

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson: Orion www.orionbooks.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-474-60326-3 318 Pages RRP: £20.00

British & German Battlecruisers Their Development and Operations Michele Cosentino & Ruggero Stanglini

Tank Action

An Armoured Troop Commander’s War 1944-45 David Render, with Stuart Tootal

BOTH HISTORIANS and casual readers alike interested in British armour in the campaign in North West Europe have been blessed by the large number of memoirs, accounts, and studies of the period. The genre is certainly busy and contains a number of classic titles, such as the excellent academic study by John Buckley and amazing memoirs by veterans such as Ken Tout. One of the latest books to join them is the humble story of David Render, who has worked with 3 PARA commander and Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Stuart Tootal to put together his remarkable and gripping tale of heroism. Deployed to Normandy as a troop commander aged just 19, arriving at Gold Beach five days after the invasion, Render had entered a war where the casualty rates amongst tank and troop commanders was as

A STUNNING title packed full of fantastic images and line drawings, this book details the development and use of battlecruisers within the Royal and Imperial German navies in fascinating detail and sets them within the wider history of the period, such as naval policy, the naval arms race, and of course, the Battle of Jutland and the Great War at sea. Each and every class and individual battlecruiser is included in this thorough analysis, including the mighty Hood, and the title considers the strategic, economic, and technical challenges behind these powerful warships. In addition, the authors have included a small summary on the battlecruisers of other navies in this well researched book. Publisher Seaforth Publishing www.seaforthpublishing.com 276 Pages ISBN: 978-1-84832-184-7 RRP: £40.00

Ghost Patrol

A History of the Long Range Desert Group 1940-1945 John Sadler

THIS ACCOUNT of the dangerous and exhausting work carried out by perhaps the father of all modern Special Forces groups includes unpublished material and makes strong use of first-hand accounts to offers a new history of the Long Range Desert Group. The title covers the organisation’s legendary and daring operations completed by the special force in the Western Desert Campaign as well as evaluating the group’s involvement in Europe, right up until their disbandment in 1945. A fine analysis on the impact the small, undaunted, force and their unorthodox tactics found their place in a conventional conflict which dwarfed them in scale. Publisher: Casemate UK ISBN: 978-1-61200-336-8 232 Pages RRP: £19.99

24 Hrs at the Somme 1 July 1916 Robert Kershaw

THIS UNIQUE book takes the first day of the Somme and takes the reader through the day hour by hour, supporting both narrative and analysis with gripping eyewitness accounts from more than 25 sources, ranging from the men on the front lines up to the Generals, such as Maxse, HunterWeston, and Haig. The result is that the carnage and brutality of the notorious first day of this infamous battle is vividly and harrowingly recounted through the words of soldiers from both sides, creating a powerful account of this devastating day in history. Publisher: WH Allen ISBN: 978-0-75355-547-7 Hardback: 418 pages RRP: £20 www.britainatwar.com 105

RECONNAISSANCE REPORT |

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

Fritz and Panzer The German TommyTanks

SEPTEMBER 2016 ISSUE ON SALE FROM 25 AUGUST 2016

Encyclopedia Across the Barbed Wire (No.1: WW2 Arsenal Peter Doyle and Series)Schäfer Robin

UNDERCOVER HERO OF THE DESERT

Laurent Tirone       

Publisher: The History Press Publisher: Caraktère www.thehistorypress.co.uk Presse & Editions ISBN: 978-0-7509-5684-0 ISBN: 9 982916 403076 Hardback: 288 pages Softback: 192 pages RRP: £20.00 RRP: £34.90

B

HERE IS a book which does exactly what it says on the cover – provides an encyclopaedic coverage of all German Second World War tanks in one nice little volume. Although perhaps somewhat expensive at £34.90, it is nevertheless an invaluable handy guide and a comprehensive reference to every single tank used by the German forces between 1939 and 1945 in a series of ‘folios’ within the book, each one dealing with an individual tank type. Designed as a complete overview of all German tanks, this is the first volume in the ‘World War 2 Arsenal’ series by Caraktère and combines historical descriptions and accurate technical details highlighting the key features and changes introduced by German engineers according to the battlefield experience.

To the reviewer, who is not necessarily always 100% au fait with every German tank type, this will undoubtedly be an often reached-for volume on the book shelf as an immediate ready guide when it comes to identifying or captioning images, or else in finding leading particulars or specifications relating to different types. Not only that, but an impressive collection of what the publisher describes as ‘more than 200 rare and unpublished

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photographs from private collections’, makes this a most useful photo reference work, too. Undoubtedly, it will appeal widely to the general enthusiast of tracked armoured vehicles as well as to researchers, historians, model makers and artists. Included, too, are superb three or four-view coloured representations of the various tanks covered which not only provide excellent impressions of the vehicles themselves but also gives useful representations of the variety of colour schemes, markings and camouflage patterns applied to these tanks. Additionally, tables of leading particulars include weights, armour, armament, automotive power and even gradients etc. that the specific tank could cope with. This is no academic or in-depth work, but it hits exactly the right tone in presenting a simple and accessible guide to the complete range of tanks used by the Third Reich’s armies. It is also a nicely printed and produced book, on quality paper, and with superb images and illustrations. The reviewer has no hesitation in recommending this as an excellent one-stop-shop guide. Of its genre, one couldn’t expect to find anything better. REVIEWED BY ANDY SAUNDERS.

Illustrations  References/Notes Appendices  Index 



Dubbed ‘the second Lawrence of Arabia’, John Haselden was one of the most unconventional heroes of the Second World War in the Western Desert. Steve Snelling chronicles the extraordinary story of the man who played a prominent role in the daring attempt to kill Rommel 75 years ago and was killed leading a disastrous raid on Tobruk.

THE WASBIES OF BURMA

The story of the Women’s Auxiliary Service of Burma (The ‘Wasbies’) is one of the untold and fascinating stories of the Second World War and in the first of an occasional series of features looking at women at war, Anne Cuthbertson tells their remarkable and unusual tale.

THE CUFFLEY ZEPPELIN

To mark the centenary of one of the most remarkable events of the Zeppelin war against Britain, Ian Castle looks at the downing of the airship SL11, with the loss of Hptm Wilhelm Schramm and his crew, by Lt William Leefe-Robinson who was Victoria Cross awarded the References/Notes Illustrations   for his epic deed. Index Appendices





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15/07/2016 11:12

GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

August 1916

GREAT WAR GALLANTRY August 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 August 1916. BELOW: A bomb explodes and severely wounds Lieutenant A.H. Batten-Pooll at the moment of entry into the enemy’s lines during the trench raid on 25 June 1916.

D

ANIEL DESMOND Sheehan was an Irish nationalist who served as the Member of Parliament for Mid-Cork from 1901 to 1918. Regarding service to be both in the interest of the Allied aims of a Europe free from oppression as well as in the interest of an All-Ireland Home Rule settlement, Sheehan enlisted in the British Army during the First World War, reaching the rank of Captain in July 1915.

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With his battalion, the 9th (Service) Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers, on the Western Front for much of 1915 and 1916, Sheehan contributed a series of articles to various newspapers. One of these, submitted to the Daily Express, detailed the actions for which Lieutenant Arthur Hugh Batten-Pooll, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Munster Fusiliers, was awarded the Victoria Cross – this being one of the nine announced in August 1916.

The raid described took place near Colonne on 25 June 1916. ‘We were up somewhere in the north of France,’ wrote Sheehan, ‘preparing those series of preliminary bombardments which paved the way for the grand offensive later, and which I imagine worried the life and soul out of the German Headquarters Staff … ‘The story of that raid will yet constitute one of the romances of the war – how carefully it had to

GREAT WAR GALLANTRY August 1916 BELOW: Captain Daniel Desmond Sheehan, who wrote the account of BattenPooll’s VC action. Batten-Pooll was invested by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 4 November 1916. His medal group, which includes a Military Cross (25 February 1917), is on display in the National Army Museum, London.

be prepared, how thoroughly every detail had to be thought out, how well practiced the men had to become in the duties assigned to them, and how perfectly the co-operation of artillery and infantry had to be arranged. It is of the more human side of the story, however, that I would write. Though it was towards the end of June the rain was continuous, and I have seldom seen the trenches in a worse condition of slush and mud. The men cracked jokes at one another as they endeavoured to negotiate some particularly deep pool, and, as is their way, treated the worst side of life in the most good humoured manner … ‘Eight officers were to go out on the raid – this will give some idea of the magnitude and importance – and Lieutenant Batten-Pooll himself being a most modest and unassuming young fellow – a most kind and admirable gentleman, though I say it as one who had but a very brief acquaintance with him. There is not one of his comrades who will not rejoice at the signal

honour that has come his way … ‘While our men were out in No Man’s Land at the point of assembly, our artillery, at a given moment, belched forth such a fury of shot and shell as I have never seen before. I have seen worse since, but this was the beginning of those great demonstrations of our artillery superiority which will finally, more than anything else, determine the issue in this war … ‘Our men got into the enemy’s trenches with irresistible dash. They met with a stout resistance. There was no stopping or stemming the dash of the men of Munster. They rushed the Germans off their feet. They bombed and they bludgeoned them. Indeed, the most deadly instrument of destruction in this encounter was the short, heavy bludgeon in the shape of a shillelagh … Half an hour in their trenches and all was over. Dug-outs and all were done for. Of the eight officers, four were casualties, two, unhappily, killed, and two severely wounded, of whom one was Lieutenant Batten-Pooll.’

The injuries that 24-year-old BattenPooll sustained were not insignificant, as The London Gazette records: ‘At the moment of entry into the enemy’s lines he was severely wounded by a bomb, which broke and mutilated all the fingers of his right hand. In spite of this he continued to direct operations with unflinching courage, his voice being clearly heard cheering on and directing his men. He was urged, but refused, to retire.’ There was more to come: ‘During the withdrawal, whilst personally assisting in the rescue of other wounded men, he received two further wounds. Still refusing assistance, he walked unaided to within 100 yards of our lines when he fainted, and was carried in by the covering party.’ Another of the VCs announced in August 1916 was that of Lieutenant Richard Basil Brandram Jones, albeit in his case posthumously. Aged just 19, Jones was serving in the 8th Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire 

ABOVE: An artist’s depiction of Lieutenant Richard Basil Brandram Jones during his VC action on 21 May 1916. His body was never recovered and is therefore one of the 35,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen  commemorated on the Arras Memorial. (ALL IMAGES HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

GALLANTRY AWARDS GAZETTED IN AUGUST 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

9 69 511 141 1864 2594

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

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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

August 1916

RUNNING TOTAL OF

GALLANTRY AWARDS AS OF THE END OF AUGUST 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 RIGHT: Sapper William Hackett of Mexborough, Notts. Hackett's letters home were written by friend, Sapper J.R. Evans. To him fell the task of telling Alice Hackett of the circumstances of her husband's death: ‘I can tell you that he died a hero’s death as brave as any man who died in this war... [His] death is sadly felt as he was respected by all the officers and men of the 254 Company and as for myself I miss him so much...’

179 2071 304 4423 6707 38 1057 3075 17854

Regiment, which was in the line at the area of the Broadmarsh Crater on Vimy Ridge, France. Indeed, his platoon was holding a crater recently captured from the enemy. What happened next on 21 May 1916 is best described in the words of the citation published in The London Gazette: ‘About 7.30 p.m. the enemy exploded a mine forty yards to his right, and at the same time put a heavy barrage of fire on our trenches, thus isolating the platoon. They then attacked in overwhelming numbers. Lt. Jones kept his men together, steadying them by his fine example, and shot no less than fifteen of the enemy as they advanced, counting them aloud as he did so to cheer his men. ‘When his ammunition was expended he took a bomb, but was shot through the head while getting up to throw it. His splendid courage

had so encouraged his men that when they had no more ammunition or bombs they threw stones and ammunition boxes at the enemy till only nine of the platoon were left. Finally they were compelled to retire.’ The list of VCs announced in August 1916 is unusual in that it includes the only one to be awarded for actions undertaken underground. William Hackett was already 43 and had worked as a miner in the Nottingham and Yorkshire coalfields for twentythree years when, in October 1915, he enlisted with 254 Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers. He had been rejected three times by the York and Lancaster Regiment for being too old, but the war underground meant there was a need for skilled miners. On the night of 23-24 June 1916, William Hackett and four other men were forty feet below ground near Givenchy in Northern France, digging towards the enemy’s frontline. As Hackett’s party sweated and toiled, German tunnellers detonated their own mine underneath a battalion of Welsh Fusiliers. The explosion devastated a section of the British front-line, creating a massive crater and burying for all time fortyfive British soldiers. At the time, Sapper Hackett and the others in his team were in a tunnel system known as the Shaftsbury Shaft, part of a system that stretched about two thirds of the way out under No Man’s Land. The crater left by the German mine became known as Red Dragon Crater. The German explosion set off a roof fall in Hackett’s tunnel, cutting off the line of retreat of those working at the tunnel face. One of the five who were stranded was 22-year-old Private Thomas Collins. Collins, of the 14th Battalion Welsh Regiment on attachment to 254 Tunnelling

BELOW: The Canadian National Vimy Memorial and the surrounding battle-scarred memorial park, including the area of the Broadmarsh Crater where Lieutenant Richard Jones undertook the actions which led to the posthumous award of the VC. Born in Honor Oak, Lewisham, London, on 30 April 1897, Jones was educated at Dulwich College, and it there his VC is held. Jones was one of seven old boys of Dulwich College to receive the Victoria Cross. (WILLEQUET MANUEL; SHUTTERSTOCK)

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Company RE and also a miner in civilian life, had been badly injured. The men remained entombed for hours while rescuers dug furiously. At last an escape hole was completed and three of the men clambered through. But Collins was too badly injured to move. Rather than leave his colleague, Hackett declared: ‘I am a tunneller. I must look after the others.’ For four days their comrades worked tirelessly to open up a space large enough to get them out. Many times they were forced to withdraw as shelling above ground caused further roof falls. On the fourth day the tunnel finally caved in and both men were buried alive. They remain buried, together, at the same spot to this day. Hackett’s selfless bravery and devotion to his colleagues would not pass unrecognised. Indeed, another VC holder, Field-Marshall Sir Evelyn Wood VC, wrote that Hackett had made ‘the most divinelike act of self-sacrifice’. 

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15/07/2016 11:55

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH"

Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees VC, OBE, MC, AFC

Group Captain

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH"

Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees VC, OBE, MC, AFC

BOLDNESS

AGGRESSION • INITIATIVE LEADERSHIP • SACRIFICE SKILL • ENDURANCE The many Victoria Crosses and George Crosses in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum in London are displayed under one of seven different qualities of bravery. Group Captain Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees’ award is part of the collection and Lord Ashcroft feels that it falls within the category of boldness: “At certain times people take a calculated risk. With audacity, dash and daring, much can be achieved. In simple terms, who dares wins. Boldness combines force with creative thinking. It is impetuous and often completed before anyone knows what is going on.” RIGHT: Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees pictured wearing his Victoria Cross ribbon. (ALL IMAGES HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE)

RIGHT: An artist’s stylised depiction of Rees’ VC action on 1 July 1916.

L

IONEL WILMOT Brabazon Rees was born in Carnarvon, Wales, on 31 July 1884. He was the son of Colonel Charles Rees, a solicitor, and his wife, Leonora, and was educated at Elms Preparatory School in Colwall, Worcestershire, and Eastbourne College, Sussex. After leaving school, he decided to pursue a military career and attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a Gentleman Cadet. On 23 December 1903 and aged nineteen, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Royal Garrison Artillery and quickly established himself as a superb shot. Rees, who was promoted to Lieutenant in 1906, spent some six years in West Africa from 1908 until the outbreak of the Great War, during which time he showed a great interest in and aptitude for the new ‘sport’ of flying. He received his pilot’s certificate in January 1913 after undertaking private lessons. Shortly after the war began, he voluntarily transferred to the recently-formed Royal Flying Corps on 10 August 1914.

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After further training and being promoted to Captain, he was transferred to command a flight of 7 Squadron. In January 1915, he survived a crash landing in his twoseater Vickers aircraft. The following month, he was given command of a flight of 11 Squadron. By July of that year, the squadron was in France, stationed at Vert Galant, near Amiens, with eight aircraft, a figure later increased to eleven. During one early mission, Rees became involved in a dogfight with an enemy Fokker machine. Both pilots displayed immense skill and Rees’ Vickers was hit and badly damaged, before he got in a burst of fire that sent the monoplane crashing to the ground behind enemy lines. However, the Fokker aircraft soon began to gain ascendancy in the skies leading

to what was known as the ‘Fokker scourge’. During the summer of 1915, Rees and his gunner, Flight Sergeant Hargreaves, repeatedly showed great courage in various encounters with enemy aircraft. This led to the award of a Military Cross for Rees and a Distinguished Conduct Medal for his gunner. After a short stint at the end of 1915 as the commander of the Central Flying School in Upavon, Wiltshire, which saw Rees promoted to Major, he was soon back on operational duty. On 12 January 1916, Rees took command of the newly-formed 32 Squadron. With the Fokker still ruling the skies, the new squadron was equipped with the nimble, single-seater Airco DH.2 biplane. By 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 32 Squadron was based at Treizennes, near Airesur-la-Lys, France.

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH" Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees VC, OBE, MC, AFC At around 16:15 hours, after acting as an escort for a bombing mission, Rees was in the air when he sighted a formation which be believed to be British bombers returning from a sortie. He made towards them to offer protection on their home journey, only to discover that he was approaching around ten two-seater enemy bombers. By the time he had realised his error, Rees courageously opted to turn defence into attack and fired on the first aircraft to come into range, hitting it so that it spiralled away out of control. After turning and approaching the enemy again, he hit another German

aircraft before coming under attack from up to five opposing aircraft, whose fire all missed the intended target. In continued fighting, Rees hit and damaged a third enemy aircraft before giving chase to yet two more.

However, one of the enemy aircraft closed in on Rees’ machine with its gunner firing all the time, and the British pilot felt a sudden pain shoot through his thigh, meaning he was unable to use the rudder bar. By now, Rees had used all his ammunition and so he drew his revolver and fired that at an enemy aircraft before turning for home. Rees made a successful landing before sitting on the grass and telling the ground crew that he needed to be taken to hospital. An enemy bullet had narrowly missed a vital artery yet Rees was still annoyed that he had not been able to cause more damage to the enemy, telling medics he ‘would have brought them all down, one after another if I could have used my leg!’ Rees spent some six months in hospital but, despite walking with a slight limp for the rest of his life, he soon resumed his military service. His Victoria Cross was announced on 5 August 1916 and on 15 December 1916 Rees received his decoration from King George V during an investiture at Buckingham Palace. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 1 May 1917, shortly after heading to America to act as an aviation adviser to the US Army. On 7 March 1918, Rees was appointed to the command of No.1 School of Aerial Fighting in Turnberry, Ayrshire. As the war drew to a close, he was, on 2 November 1918, awarded the Air Force Cross for services as a flying instructor, as well as an OBE. The Great War formally ended nine days later but Rees was determined to pursue a career in the recently-formed RAF. This meant

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

he relinquished his Army rank and became a Wing Commander. One of his early post-war appointments was as Assistant Commandant of RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire. For thirteen years from 1918, Rees took up a number of senior positions both at home and abroad before retiring in 1931 with the rank of Group Captain. Between 1941-2, Rees was briefly recalled for military service during the Second World War. He married Sylvia Williams in the Bahamas in August 1947 and the couple went on to have two sons and a daughter. Rees died in Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau, Bahamas, on 28 September 1955, aged seventyone. His devotion to aviation was recognised many years later when someone who could not be kept away from his aircraft engine became known affectionately as a ‘Rees’. I purchased Rees’ medal group privately in 2013 and am hugely proud to be the custodian of this heroic airman’s gallantry and service medals. 

BELOW LEFT: The memorial plaque to Group Captain Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees which can be seen on the wall of the building in which he was born in Castle Street, Caernarfon, Gwynedd. BOTTOM An example of an Airco DH.2. Designed by Geoffrey de Havilland, the DH.2 was the first effectively armed British single-seat fighter; 14 Aces scored five or more aerial victories using the type. The DH.2 had sensitive controls and at a time when service training for pilots in the RFC was very poor it initially had a high accident rate, gaining the nickname ‘The Spinning Incinerator’.

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The First W

rld War in Objects

FATAL SHELL FRAGMENT NO.25

FOR THOSE serving in the trenches of the Western Front, death was never far away – despite the fact that the major offensives were the exception rather than the rule. Most British divisions would spend more of their time in routine line-holding than having to go ‘over the top’. This fact, however, was no guarantor of survival. The day-to-day dangers of life at the front resulted in a steady trickle of death which the authorities euphemistically termed as ‘trench wastage’. One historian at the Canadian War Museum has stated that in the average Commonwealth infantry battalion, ‘the “wastage” rates were as high as ten per cent per month, or 80 soldiers killed or incapacitated’. One of the countless victims of ‘trench wastage’ was Private 12779 William Dick. He was serving with the 1st Battalion Scots Guards in trenches near Ypres when he was wounded in the leg by an enemy shell during the evening of 16 June 1916. Dick was evacuated from the line, eventually reaching the 10th Casualty Clearing Station (CCS), at Remy Sidings to the west of Ypres near Poperinghe, the following morning. One of the staff at the CCS was Corporal R. Stark RAMC. Later on the 17th Corporal Stark wrote to Private Dick’s wife to inform her that he was ‘suffering from shell wounds of right elbow, head, and legs, which he received last night … The elbow is nothing, the head is a scratch, but what gives him most pain is the left leg where a fracture has been caused below the knee.’ RIGHT: The shell fragment that may well have cost Private 12779 William Dick his life and which was sent, with other personal possessions, to his wife.

ABOVE: W illiam Dic k’s perso have con nal ditty tained m bag, whic any of his fragmen h may w personal t – when ell items – an they wer IMAGES CO d the shel e returned URTESY O l to his wid F THE DIC ow. (ALL K FAMILY VIA EUROPEAN A 1914-1 918)

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RIGHT: Private Dick’s original wooden grave marker in what is now Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. During the war the area was referred to as Remy Sidings, and, being out of the extreme range of most German field artillery, it was a natural place to establish a number of Casualty Clearing Stations.

The following day, Stark penned another. In this he stated: ‘I saw him dressed tonight by Lieut. Crawford at 9pm. The right leg below the knee (just at the calf is looking all right, altho it is a bad enough wound). The left leg below the knee where the fracture occurred was very bad, so that last night it was thought advisable to amputate slightly below the knee … He has the knee joint; that means he can in due time obtain, say, a cork leg & with the knee joint good, be able to walk as well as ever. He says he would like to write to you tonight, but I fancy after his dressing he will fall fast asleep.’ Initially the prognosis was reasonable. But then, late on the 20th, Stark noted that ‘during this forenoon William turned very bad. The shock of having his leg amputated was very severe and then gangrene had got hold of the right leg badly.’ That night, Private Dick passed away. He had, wrote Chaplain Frank French, ‘for some days in hospital received all the sacraments and was well prepared and resigned to die’. William was buried by Chaplain French on the afternoon of 21 June 1916. Whilst William Dick never returned home to Haddington in East Lothian, the shell fragment that led to his death did, a stark reminder of the human cost of ‘trench wastage’.

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