Britain at War 2017-02

FALL OF SINGAPORE 1942: LAST DITCH DEFENCE

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BRITAIN’S BEST SELLING MILITARY HISTORY MONTHLY

'TOMFORCE' EVADER Courage of Lieutenant Mike Ashton MC

OPERATION LEG! SPECIAL DELIVERY FOR BADER'S SPARE LEG

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Grea Spitfire rts' f So 'Victory o r Bank e g at Dog ash Paul N ist War Art

TANKS BY TRAIN: 1916

Getting Britain's Secret Weapon From Factory to Front

MAINTAINING TRADITION

The Royal Navy Snatch British Troops From Cretan Defeat

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FEBRUARY 2017 ISSUE 118 UK £4.60

From the Editor... I

N RECENT editions of Britain at War magazine we looked at the work of war photographers during and after D-Day and the truly remarkable images they left us. Quite apart from their value as historical records, these images were also works of art with their careful framing and composition of the subject matter as well as masterful use of light. This month, we take a look at a different form of wartime art through the work of war artist Paul Nash. The paintings of Paul Nash, which spanned both world wars, could rightly be described as truly visceral in their execution and Nash had most certainly been influenced and deeply affected by the horrors he saw and painted on the Western Front. To most of us, the presentation of photographic images of the two wars are almost exclusively monochrome – giving rise to a sub-conscious feeling that the wars were actually fought in black and white! For that reason, it sometimes comes as a surprise when coloured photographs of the conflicts emerge, either from original colour film or when colour tinted or photoshopped. However, with Nash’s paintings we are suddenly confronted not only with the ghastly landscapes and scenes of the Western Front but the almost surreal range of colours and hues that no 21st century digitally enhanced photograph could ever hope to interpret from photographs. In this magazine, we tell the stories from the First and Second World War and present often dramatic images to accompany them. However, when viewing Nash’s paintings, the old idiom that every picture paints a thousand words is brought sharply into focus. War artists, as much as photographers, leave us their legacy of war’s brutal reality.

Andy Saunders (Editor) EDITORIAL Editor: Andy Saunders Assistant Editor: John Ash Editorial Correspondents: Geoff Simpson, Alex Bowers, 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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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.

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

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FEATURES 22 Operation Leg



In our cover story, our Editor looks at the intricacies involved in delivering a spare prosthetic limb to Battle of Britain hero Douglas Bader, then a POW, and how the RAF tried to take the opportunity to deliver bombs as well as the leg!

31 ‘Great Escape’ Spitfire



Chris Goss brings to Britain at War the unusual and tragic tale of a Norwegian Spitfire pilot linked to the Great Escape revealed via his chance discovery of a photograph of a crashed Spitfire.





48 Tanks by Train

Britain at War regular Rob Langham returns with a study of the difficulties involved in transporting Britain’s terrifying new and secret weapon from the factory and into battle.

62 Merlins, Tea and Bacon!

The story of a country cottage used by RAF and American fighter pilots is recounted by Mark Hiller as he reveals through images and words the tale of those who lived there during the Second World War.

Contents ISSUE 118 FEBRUARY 2017

62 Merlins, Tea and Bacon! 4

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68 A Victory of Sorts



Editor’s Choice

68 A Victory of Sorts



Peter Hart details the first large-scale naval action between the mighty fleets of Britain and Germany and argues that the victory could and should have been greater than had actually been achieved.

80 Maintaining Tradition



Professor of Naval History, Eric Grove, tells of the desperate situation faced by the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet, sustaining near-critical losses as it was tasked with a mercy mission to rescue the gallant defenders of Crete.



34 Road to Disaster

In our Editor’s Choice this month, Steve Snelling details arguably the darkest point of Britain’s war, the crushing loss of Singapore, from the perspective of one British unit desperately trying to defy the odds. What followed was the largest surrender of British troops in history and death knell of an Empire.

REGULARS







98 Reputations: Richard O’Connor

In the first part of a two-part special John Ash assesses the brilliant early career of General Richard O’Connor, a soldier who was possibly the most often to have been Mentioned in Despatches.

A Blenheim of 18 Squadron delivers the crated artificial leg over France on 19 August 1941 for the captive Wg Cdr Douglas Bader during 'Circus 81'. Blenheim R3843, WV-F, was crewed by Sgts Nickleson, Meadows and Pearson with Sgt 'Jack' Pearson throwing out the unusual package near St Omer. All three were killed on operations on 20 September 1941. (ILLUSTRATION BY PIOTR FORKASIEWICZ)

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

32 Fieldpost

Your letters, input and feedback.

46 First World War Diary

Our monthly look at key events of the Great War reaches February 1917. The Ottomans are handed a defeat and America’s involvement in the war seems ever more certain. Meanwhile, the seeds of revolution begin to grow in Russia.

88 Great War Gallantry

Our continuing look at some of the awards posted in the London Gazette arrives at February 1917 and Lord Ashcroft presents his ‘Hero of the Month’.

96 Recon Report

We continue to look at new titles and products, including a new book showcasing the surviving elements of Hitler’s monolithic white elephant –The Atlantic Wall.

108 War Artists

Following on from our news feature, Britain at War regular Phil Jarman details the career and style of Paul Nash and his distinctive and legendary war work.

112 Image of War

COVER STORY

10 News

A striking shot of a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt of ‘Zemke’s Wolfpack’ is the subject of this original colour photograph marking the start of the 75th anniversary year of the arrival of the USAAF in Britain.

114 First World War Object

In one of our more ‘unusual’ objects from the First World War we look at the menu from a celebratory meal hosted at the height of rationing and the U-Boat menace.

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NEWS FEATURE

6 ‘Making a New World’

Sarah Warren MacMillan reports on a major new exhibition of the stunning art and war paintings of Paul Nash, currently showing at Tate Britain. www.britainatwar.com

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NEWS FEATURE |

Paul Nash Exhibition at Tate Britain

ABOVE: We Are Making A New World.

MAKING A NEW WORLD

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One of the war artists who produced some of the most iconic paintings of the First and Second World War was the renowned Paul Nash and now the Tate Britain gallery have staged an exhibition of his work, including many of his world-famous war paintings reports Sarah Warren-MacMillan.

PAUL NASH (1889 - 1946) is one of Britain’s best-known war artists, and this major exhibition, which opened at Tate Britain in October 2016, is an impressive retrospective of Nash’s career, taking us through his different artistic phases, exploring his inspiration drawn from landscape and his connections with modern art and surrealism. Whilst Nash is known primarily as a war artist, there are in fact only 15 paintings from those periods on display here; this is not billed as an exhibition solely concerning his war art; many of his most famous war paintings are here, but visitors may feel short-changed from the £15 entrance fee if they have come only to view his

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iconic images from the two major world conflicts of the 20th century, writes Sarah Warren-MacMillan. (See also our regular feature on war artists this month on pages 108 – 110) This retrospective is thoughtfully curated, and visitors would be missing a trick if they made a direct beeline for his war art alone as progression through the nine rooms show how Nash adopted elements of almost every artistic movement, and how his wartime experiences influenced much of his later work. Biographical details about Nash are sparse throughout, and no mention is made of his younger brother, John - also an official war artist - who often worked alongside him in the studio. Nevertheless, there are frequent extracts from Nash’s letters and

writings, which give us a greater insight into his thoughts and inspirations. The first room of the exhibition concentrates on his early works, largely drawings and watercolours of landscapes. Visitors, however, might pause to study the very first exhibit, The Combat (1910), clearly influenced by William Blake, which Nash later identified as the beginning of a preoccupation with ‘aerial creatures’ that endured throughout his career, and became so evident during the Second World War. It is in Room Two, ‘We are Making a New World’, where we are shaken out of the idyllic, dreamlike world characteristic of Nash’s initial work, and are faced with seven of his most powerful pieces from the First World War,

Paul Nash Exhibition at Tate Britain which prove that - even in the midst of battle - Nash’s feel for the rhythms of landscape were ever-present and when Nash arrived at the Ypres Salient in March 1917 as an officer in the Hampshire Regiment, it was during a relatively quiet period with minimal shelling. He was initially struck by the ability of nature to regenerate the battlefield, as depicted in Spring in the Trenches, Ridge Wood (1917), exhibited here. After breaking a rib falling into a trench, Nash was sent back to England in May 1917; only a week later, his division was all but annihilated in an assault on Hill 60. On display is his homage to his comrades in arms, The Landscape - Hill 60 (1918), a scarred landscape of earth and water ravaged by shell-fire, with dogfighting aeroplanes and explosions in the sky. Nash returned to Belgium as an official war artist at the end of October 1917, complete with batman and chauffeur, but faced an alien environment of craters, shattered trees, and mud in the aftermath of the Battle of Passchendaele - a direct contrast to the one he had left the previous spring. Nash was outraged at this desecration of nature, producing a frenzy of ’50 drawings of muddy places’, as he called them, which he later used as the basis for a series of paintings commissioned by the Ministry of Information and the Canadian War Records Office. On his return to England in December of the same year, he also began to work with a new medium, oils. Of those paintings on display here, the most immediately powerful, and familiar, is the bitter and ironically titled We are Making a New World (1918), with its sun rising through a red mist onto a landscape of shell-holes and blackened tree stumps. Also exhibited is Wounded

| NEWS FEATURE

ABOVE: The Landscape - Hill 60.

Passchendaele (1918), unusual in Nash’s work, as it depicts soldiers at close hand in a gangrenous landscape. However, the room is dominated by a huge canvas, The Menin Road (1918-19), some five and a half square metres in size, again with broken trees and heavy shafts of sunlight, zigzagging trenches, and soldiers dwarfed by the scene of destruction surrounding them. A display cabinet containing letters to his wife from the front gives a deep insight into his mental state: ‘No pen or drawing can convey this country…sunset and sunrise are

blasphemous mockeries to man.’ (13 November 1917), and a wonderful edition of Richard Aldington’s poetry Images of War (1919), with illustrations by Nash. Nash’s art provided a new and startling vision of war. Very few of his war paintings depict dead soldiers or bodies; his outrage at the waste of life was expressed more through a portrayal of the violation of nature, and of the landscape being an innocent victim of the conflict. In the aftermath of war, Nash was diagnosed as suffering from ‘emotional shock’, which is apparent in many of the paintings in Room 

BELOW: Wounded, Passchendaele.

Paul Nash at Tate Britain runs until 5 March 2017. (Our thanks to Tate Britain for the use of images used in this news feature)

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NEWS FEATURE |

Paul Nash Exhibition at Tate Britain

ABOVE: The Messerschmitt in Windsor Great Park; Nash's interpretation and the photographic reality.

Three from the 1920s; echoes of Flanders are evident in their landscapes, with recurring themes of ponds, resembling shell-holes, and the geometric form of seawalls at Dymchurch, redolent of zigzagging trench systems. Throughout the 30s, Nash became a pioneer of modernism in Britain, promoting abstraction and surrealism, and founding the influential art movement Unit One with fellow war artist, Henry Moore, and others; these are covered in the intervening rooms of the exhibition, but is in Room Eight where we are shown how Nash was able to explore his dark fascination for ‘aerial creatures’. World War Two saw Nash depicting war, not from the battlefields, but through the horror of aerial warfare and the Blitz, and in 1940 he was appointed as a salaried war artist by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee (WAAC), and attached to the Royal Air Force and Air Ministry. This allowed him to further explore his captivation by flight. Nash became obsessed by ‘the rose of death’, the name the Spaniards gave to the parachute, stating that ‘When the War came, suddenly the sky was upon us all, like a huge hawk hovering, threatening. Everyone was searching the sky, waiting for some terror to fall.’ (Paul Nash, Aerial Flowers, 1945)

Nash was unpopular with some members of the WAAC because of the modernist nature of his work, and because the RAF wanted him to concentrate on producing portraits of aircrew and pilots. Nash went some way to appeasing them by painting a series of watercolours of crashed German aircraft, set in rural landscapes, such as The Messerschmitt in Windsor Great Park (1940) and Wrecked German Plane in Flames (Death of the Dragon) (1940), exhibited here. These crashed planes appealed to him, because they were out of their natural element, the clouds, and he described how on the ground these fallen giants took on a personified quality as monstrous creatures. With one of Nash’s most famous paintings of the Second World War, Battle of Britain (1941) on loan elsewhere, Tate have chosen instead to display the impressive Battle of Germany (1944), a semi-abstract apocalypse interpretation of aerial bombardment and the overriding feature of this room is undoubtedly his extraordinary creation, Totes Meer (Dead

Sea) (1940-1), an allegorical depiction of tangled wrecks of German aircraft, now considered one of the greatest evocations of the futility of war. The curators have cleverly juxtaposed a series of photographs taken by Nash of wrecked aeroplanes at the Cowley dump, which he used as inspiration for the painting. The dump contained many British planes, but Nash only depicted German aircraft to demonstrate the fate of ‘hundreds and hundreds of flying creatures which invaded these shores’. We are also treated to a fascinating excerpt from the Jill Craigie film, Out of Chaos (1944) which shows Nash sketching aircraft at Cowley, with a useful narrative as to how Nash’s painting was used as propaganda during the conflict. This is a superb retrospective, which as a whole demonstrates that Nash’s war paintings were in fact part of a wider vision of portraying the landscape in new and exciting ways - and that war, along with nature, runs like a thread throughout his career. 

ABOVE: Totes Meer. Nash's painting of the vast dump of wrecked German aircraft at Cowley.

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10/01/2017 10:37

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. The Memorial Pegasus wishes Britain at War readers a Happy New Year 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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12/01/2017 10:11

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

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A.A. Milne’s ‘Practical Pacifist’ Letter in New IWM Exhibition

ABOVE: AA Milne fought in the Battle of the Somme, depicted here in this famous artist’s depiction of the Royal West Kent Regiment holding Trones Wood. The image originally appeared in a magazine entitled “The Great War”, which, perhaps surprisingly, was running throughout the First World War and is perhaps where the alternative term for the conflict entered widespread public use.

ABOVE: Author AA Milne in 1922.

Frederick was killed by a sniper. Then he witnessed an attack in which his battalion lost 60 killed and 100 wounded – heavy losses for a relatively small formation. He later, briefly, served with a secret unit tasked with using media to present the war in a more positive light at home, before leaving the army in 1919 to begin his more famous exploits as author of ‘Winnie the Pooh’. However, Milne’s experiences profoundly changed his attitudes, and he wrote: “It makes me almost physically sick of that nightmare of mental and moral degradation.”

BULLETIN BOARD

A LETTER penned by ‘Winnie the Pooh’ creator A.A. Milne is to go on display for the first time at the Imperial War Museum London, as part of its new ‘People Power: Fighting for Peace’ exhibition. Written in the late 1930s, the letter outlines the author’s struggles with pacifism during the rise of Hitler. Although he remained a pacifist, he considered the threat of Hitler to be so great, that, at nearly 60 years of age, he joined the Home Guard during the Second World War. The letter is part of the IWM’s vast collections from the period, and is interesting in that it reflects the internal conflict of many First World War veterans turned pacifists living in the hopes of ‘never again’ but in the face of a greater enemy. Having volunteered during the Great War, Milne endured a hard conflict. He witnessed his best friend Ernest Pusch being blown up as he settled down to eat, and, a few days later, Ernest’s brother

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VOLUNTEERS WORKING with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) are appealing for information on any servicemen and women who may have been missed from official lists of war dead during the First World War. Terry Denham, the founder of the ‘In From The Cold’ Project, wants anyone who thinks a relative might have been overlooked to get in touch. He said: “It’s always worth checking, because quite often a death occurred because of an illness directly attributable to their service.” For example, a gas casualty may qualify. Under the rules governing ‘qualification’ as a Great War war casualty, victims must have died between August 1914 and August 1921 as a result of their service. 

Nevertheless, he stated: “I believe that war is a lesser evil than Hitlerism, I believe that Hitlerism must be killed before war can be killed” and regarded himself as a practical pacifist, this is in spite of publishing in 1934 his work ‘Peace With Honour’, a denunciation of war in which he said: “I want everybody to think (as I do) that war is poison, and not (as so many think) an over-strong, extremely unpleasant medicine.” IWM London is marking its centenary this year, and as part of this anniversary has announced the staging of the first major national exhibition exploring anti-war movements throughout the 20th century, of which Milne’s letter is included. Other exhibits include items such as Great War artworks ‘Wire’ by Paul Nash

and ‘Paths of Glory’ by C.R.W. Nevinson. The original sketches of the nuclear disarmament symbol made by Gerald Holtom for the first Aldermaston march in 1958 are also included, as is Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps’s controversial photomontage ‘Photo Op’ depicting Tony Blair taking a selfie against the backdrop of an explosion. IWM Curator Matt Brosnan said the exhibition was one the museum had wanted to run for a long time, and that this look on pacifism has received much positive response. He stated: “Right from the museum’s creation in 1917, the place has always been about looking at conflict from different angles and all perspectives.” The exhibition at opens on 23 March 2017, and runs until 28 August 2017.

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A FIRST World War veteran who was injured during the conflict has been commemorated with a CWGC headstone almost a century after he died. Private Richard Edwin Yeo, who joined the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 6th Battalion, in 1915, was critically wounded on the Western Front in 1917 as part of the fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres, populary known as Passchendaele. He would go on to be invalided out of the military six weeks before the end of the war, but died aged just 29 as a result of the wounds he sustained while serving on the Western Front. Andrew Stillman, CWGC’s Operations Manager, said: “The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is now able to recognise Private Yeo as a casualty of war and make sure he is remembered on our Debt of Honour Roll and given a Commission headstone.” 

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

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‘Scoop of the Century’ Correspondent Dies Veteran British War Correspondent, Clare Hollingworth, Has Died Aged 105.

LEICESTER-BORN Hollingworth was responsible for breaking the news of the invasion of Poland, the event which sparked the Second World War and defined her long career. Born on 10 October 1911 her idyllic farmyard upbringing was were overshadowed by the German bombing of Loughborough during the Great War, the aftermath of which she travelled to witness after seeing the aircraft pass over her parent’s farm. While not the first female war correspondent (that honour going to Irish-Canadian Kit Coleman), Clare nonetheless stood out because of her willingness to report from the fronts and her understanding of military strategy. She had a good level of technical and tactical knowledge of the events she was reporting, an interest likely founded in her keenness to accompany her father on the tours of historic battlefields he arranged while she was growing up. In 1939, Hollingworth was a reporter for the Daily Telegraph and on her way to Germany in a borrowed British consulate car. She had been assisting refugees from Sudetenland and other occupied territories, secretly organising British visas for those subject to persecution. After crossing the border she spotted elements of General von Rundstedt’s Army Group South massing armour on the border on 29 August. The stunned consulgeneral did not believe her, but Hollingworth produced some of the items she purchased in Germany. It was Clare who penned the historic Daily Telegraph headline “1,000 tanks massed on Polish frontier”, and she added: “The German military machine is now ready for

instant action” and described how the German battleship Schleswig Holstein had her guns pointed at Gdynia, though she was confident Polish artillery could knock the ship out. In the event, although the Poles held the Wsterplatte, the ship was unscathed, and fired the first shots of World War Two. Three days later, Hollingworth’s reports which announced the invasion, came to fruition. She had been a full-time journalist for just one week. Staying in Katowice, she watched the Panzers roll into Poland but when she ‘phoned the secretary at the British Embassy in Warsaw he told her it could not be true as negotiations between the two countries were still continuing. Hollingworth reflected: “I hung the telephone receiver out of the window… So he could listen to the Germans invading.” Hardy, tough, a pilot and a trained parachutist, Clare Hollingworth frequently worked alone. She reported on British advances in the Western Desert for two years

and was present for Montgomery’s capture of Tripoli in 1943. After this, he had her sent her back to Cairo as he was uncomfortable with the idea that an unarmed woman risk her life on the front. However, Clare attached herself to General Eisenhower’s forces. Her closet brush did not come from German invasion, or along British lines in North Africa, but instead in Palestine in 1946 when she was standing just 300 yards away from the King David Hotel as it was destroyed in an explosion which killed 91. After the war, Hollingworth reported from war-zones in Aden, Sarawak and Algeria, where she fended off terrorist gunmen with her shoe. She also reported from Vietnam, where she predicted ahead of most journalists that the Americans could not win through their heavy, but limited, applications of force. Hollingworth would be proved correct, with successive Presidential administrations reluctant or unable to widen the scope of the ground war to the north of the 17th Parallel,

stalemate and withdrawal were the only possible outcomes. Another iconic moment came in 1963 when Hollingworth discovered the identity of the ‘Third Man’, part of a British spy ring leaking information to the USSR which included Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. She outed Kim Philby, a correspondent for the Observer, when she discovered from her investigations that he boarded a ship from Beirut to Odessa. Originally supressed for fear of libel, it was only when the news eventually broke that the government was forced to admit Philby’s defection. Never fearful, Clare Hollingworth reported on many of the 20th century’s conflicts, and, despite the effects of aging and loss of sight, her bag and passport always lay ready for a short-notice adventure. Hollingworth’s distinguished and lengthy career has resulted in her being known as an illustrious and inspiring individual, especially for today’s female news correspondents who follow in her footsteps. www.britainatwar.com 13

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

Red Baron’s Fuel Tank Identified?

BULLETIN BOARD

AN AIRCRAFT fuel tank, housed in Australia’s National Aviation Museum, Moorabbin Airport, is now suspected to have originated from the aircraft used by flying legend and ace-of-aces, Manfred von Richthofen. Killed over Amiens on 21 April 1918, the Red Baron was credited with 80 victories and is perhaps best-known for leading his squadron, Jasta 11, in distinctive red Fokker Dr.I triplane. Though killed before he could fly it, Richthofen aided in the development of the Fokker D.VIIs biplane, which would help Jasta 11, with 20 aces numbered among its ranks, to claim more victories than any other German squadron. Claimed as downed by Canadian pilot Capt. Arthur Brown, or by ground fire from Australians Sgt. Cedric Popkin or Gunner W.J. Evans (a topic of fierce debate) the Red Baron landed his aircraft near Australian positions before succumbing to a single bullet wound through his chest. Contemporary film shows Australian troops dismantling the aircraft ready for examination.

The Red Baron fuel tank, housed in Australia’s National Aviation Museum.

ABOVE: The remains of Baron von Richthofen’s Fokker triplane at the aerodrome of No. 3 Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps. From L to R: Lt C.W.Gray, Lt F.J.Mart, Lt N.Mulroney, Lt O.G.Witcomb, Lt T.L.Baillieu DFC, Lt R.W.Kirkwood, Lt A.L.D.Taylor (KIA 20 May 1918), Private L.H.Reid, and Lt M.Sheehan.

to have reached Canada and Australia, with the ‘Red Baron’s’ control column held by the Australian War Memorial. Therefore, it is entirely plausible that this fuel tank should turn up in Australia. Commenting on the matter, Nick Fletcher of the Australian War Memorial said: “Australians [were] avid souvenir hunters and they would have stripped any aeroplane very quickly”. As it happens, the item in question has been held by the National Aviation Museum since the 1980s, after it was donated by the family of a deceased relative, suggesting it was originally taken as a souvenir. However, the museum has lost contact with the donors, and therefore cannot confirm this. However, the Chairman of the museum, Ashley Briggs, is convinced of the items authenticity, stating: “Whether it actually is the Red Baron’s or not … [might] never be answered… [But] why would an Australian serviceman go to so much trouble to bring back such a massive

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Parts have since been distributed to museums and collectors, as have many souvenirs – albeit that the provenance of many items has been either questionable or disputed. Parts such as the machine guns and engine have been preserved, both currently held by the Imperial War Museum. Parts are also known

TO CELEBRATE the 75th anniversary of RAF Woodvale, a re-dedication ceremony has been held to recognise the history of the RAF airfield. Completed in December 1941, Woodvale, located near Formby, Merseyside, was originally built as an all-weather, night fighter airfield for the defence of Liverpool during the Second World War and remained open following the war’s conclusion. Although the station did not open until just after the Liverpool Blitz, it provided a place of respite for many squadrons (often Polish) based in southern England, and was valuble to the defence of the city. Station Commander, Wg Cmd David Hooton, said: “Commanding RAF Woodvale on the occasion of its 75th anniversary is an extremely proud moment for me.” 

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ABOVE: A still from film footage showing Australian troops admiring the two machine guns fitted to the Red Baron’s aircraft.

souvenir to this country if it wasn’t significant?” He also claims that the fuel tank has damage consistent to that expected from the Red Baron’s crash records, that it had clearly been cut or hacked from an aircraft and that the rarity of the aircraft and parts from it increase the probability the fuel tank was from his aircraft. The specimen is on display at Moorabbin, at the centre of a new exhibit. Entitled ‘The Museum’s Biggest Mystery, it has become a major talking point for visitors.

A WAR memorial to the service of Black Caribbean and African Commonwealth servicemen during two World Wars is to be erected this year. The Brixton memorial will be unveiled on the 22 June 2017 and will be the first memorial of its kind to honour the vital part played by the many tens of thousands of black servicemen who contributed to British war efforts and fought with British Empire forces across every theatre of conflict. After a long campaign by the Nubian Jak Community Trust, planning permission was granted earlier in 2016 by Lambeth Council. Devon Thomas, of Brixton Neighbourhood Forum, said: “These servicemen and women helped found this community in Brixton and we want to make a direct connection to their histories and the community today.” 

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

Did German Commandos Raid The Isle Of Wight?

ABOVE & BELOW: The RAF Ventnor Chain Home and Chain Home Low radar site, allegedly the scene of an audacious German commando raid LEFT: The original ARP report which gave rise to suggestions of a German commando raid, which led to Adrian Searle's claims in his new book.

A BRITISH author, Adrian Searle, has caused something of a stir in military history circles by claiming that a German commando raid was mounted against the RAF’s Chain Home radar station at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight during the Second World War. According to Searle, the raid has been a national secret for more than seventy years and although he states that the official line in the UK has always been that it never happened, this new work challenges the assertion that no German forces ever set foot on British soil during the Second World War (the Channel Islands excepted) on active military service. In his new book, ‘Churchills Last Wartime Secret’ (Pen & Sword, £19.99), Adrian Searle claims that up to 12 highly-trained commandos were transported in U-Boats from the occupied Channel Islands to steal equipment from the Ventnor CH station and came ashore in rubber dinghies to carry out this audacious operation. Part of the basis for Searle’s claim lies with an unexplained entry in a local ARP diary which records for this date:

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‘Special Report: Police report two dinghies full of Germans in the sea. Seen at 02.18 hours, reported to Police through Navy.’ However, Adrian Searle goes on to reveal that he also uncovered an account from a former German soldier, Dr Dietrich Andernacht, who claimed to have been part

of the secret German operation and despite the lack of any formal German or British record of the operation a local resident, Derek Kent, told how that he was then a teenage ARP Dispatch Rider. He recalled that he had heard about the raid through his ARP colleagues and discussed it, ‘… but then a man

dressed in a suit came down to see us and I was asked to sign the Official Secrets Act.’ Despite the apparent paucity of any material to firmly corroborate the raid story, and the assertion of a former WAAF operative at RAF Ventnor that she ‘…

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would have known about it’ had it happened, Mr Searle said: ‘The Germans had a relatively easy crossing but I think they were shocked to be met by regular British soldiers rather than the Home Guard. It is unclear whether any British soldiers were killed or wounded. The incident was wiped from the war history within hours of it taking place, with witnesses made to sign the Official Secrets Act. It is time for the Government to come clean. The incident should be added to Britain’s wartime story.’ Whilst a total of 17 British forces fatalities were reported throughout the UK on that date, there is no apparent evidence that any of these men were involved in the alleged Ventnor incident. Furthermore, there

ABOVE: RAF Ventnor comes under German attack on 13 August 1940.

are certainly no German fatalities of this raid for whom burials can be traced in the UK. Coincidentally, though, a heavy Luftwaffe raid was mounted on Portsmouth on the night of 15/16 August 1943 when two of the raiding bombers were brought down and on the 16 August a photo-reconnaissance Messerschmitt 109 was shot down at Newchurch on the Isle of Wight, although its mission had been to photograph the aftermath of the Portsmouth raid and has no connection to anything that may or may not have happened at Ventnor. Although the station had been a Chain Home (CH) station in 1940, by July 1942 the site was

modified for Chain Home Extra Low (CHEL) with Type 271 radar and an experimental centimetric radar in place. Thus, it could be argued that the Germans could have had an interest in these developments although there seems to be no evidence that they were even aware of them. Whilst reports about the Ventnor raid are sensational they are by no means unique in terms of stories about ‘raids’ conducted against British targets by German commandos or troops. For instance, when the Battle of Britain was at its height and invasion scares an ever-present reality, rumours abounded of blackened corpses

of German soldiers being washed ashore on British beaches. The story, of course, was that the men had been caught in Britain’s newest and most deadly secret weapon; setting the sea ablaze with floating petroleum. However, there is no truth whatsoever in this fanciful story – although it was a tale that was not without equal during heightened ‘twitchiness’ about a possible German invasion. Similarly, a story about something called the ‘Battle of Graveney Marshes’ when a Junkers 88 crew were said to have ‘…held out for hours’ against British soldiers was proven to be incorrect. Instead, the German airmen had attempted to set fire to their aircraft but a platoon of the London Irish Regiment fired at them to dissuade them from their actions and this had been the basis for the untrue ‘battle’ story. More significantly, though, are stories of other ‘German landings’ to capture secrets from other radar sites. One was at Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk, where a plan is sometimes said to have been thwarted by the Navy and the Germans ‘driven away’. Similarly, a story of ‘men coming ashore in dinghies from U-Boats’ has been a strong rumour insofar as it relates to another RAF CH radar site; namely, at Pevensey in East Sussex. Again, the account tells how the German raiding party came ashore from U-Boats in dinghies but failed in their objective and withdrew after ‘flashing lights’ and ‘gunfire’ at sea. Once again, the story goes that all accounts of the raid were ‘expunged’ from the official record. It is, of course,

a fact that these radar sites were highly secret and the public at large had no idea of their purpose; the possibility that they emitted a ‘death ray’ to disable German aircraft engines being a popular tale at the time. Under cloaks of such mystery and intrigue it might be easy to see why and how otherwise ‘unexplained’ happenings around these mysterious sites could be constructed into something they were not. Either way, it is a fascinating tale and Pen & Sword have a fine track record in publishing serious military history titles whilst Adrian Searle is a noted Isle of Wight historian and published author. Sometimes, of course, truth is stranger than fiction as they say. But with no absolute proof it is likely that the jury will be out on this tale for a while to come yet!

CHURCHILL’S LAST WARTIME SECRET,

by Adrian Searle, is published by Pen & Sword Military at £19.99

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Falkland Islands Agreement Over Argentinian War Graves AT THE end of December, 2016, the Governments of Britain and Argentina signed an agreement negotiated by the International Committee of the Red Cross to carry out exhumation work on 123 unidentified service personnel buried in the Argentinian Military Cemetery at Darwin. The exhumations will be conducted in order to carry out DNA tests and to identify and put names to these unknown soldiers, sailors and airmen. Originally, these servicemen were buried in various locations around the islands but were later moved to this central cemetery site after the war. Whilst every care was taken to identify these men by name it was very difficult

to do so in almost half of the 237 burials. This was because many of the casualties were without dog-tags, or else it was the case that the Argentinian pattern of dog-tag had degraded to the extent that they could not be read. In some cases, personal effects or equipment on the bodies enabled identification but for 123 of the burials no name could be attached to the casualty. Now, work will be carried out between June and August of 2017 to retrieve DNA from the buried casualties and to match samples from relatives of the deceased servicemen who are thought to possibly be buried here. In total, 649 Argentinians died in the 1982 conflict and although 237 lie at

Darwin at least 300 were lost in the General Belgrano sinking, whilst yet others were pilots or aircrew, or other sailors, who went missing at sea. A few others died in Argentina and are buried there, and a very small number of other casualties were returned home. Within reason, therefore, a list of the likely or suspected identities of the un-named burials at Darwin has been drawn up and it is expected that a considerable percentage of these names will be confirmed and the casualty concerned removed from the list of the Argentinian missing. From time to time, the very continued burial of Argentinians on the Falkland Islands has been contentious, not least of all because

after the conflict the British government offered to return the bodies of the dead to Argentina for re-burial but their government refused, stating that the islands were part of Argentina, in any event, and that the soldiers were thus buried in their home soil. To the Argentinians, this has never been ‘…some corner of a foreign field.’ Now, however, it at least seems likely that the families of up to 123 hitherto unidentified and officially ‘missing’ servicemen will be granted the comfort of knowing where their loved-ones lie as a result of this humanitarian agreement which transcends the continuing and sometimes bitter dispute over the island’s sovereignty.

The Argentinian Cemetery at Darwin (TOMÁS TERROBA)

War Poster Sale and Militaria Collecting

PLACES TO VISIT

BRITAIN AT WAR Magazine are pleased to announce that a new regular three-page feature on aspects of collecting militaria will commence in our March issue with a piece looking at memorabilia from the film ‘Battle of Britain’. This memorable film gave rise not only to a growth in interest in the preservation of military aircraft and associated artefacts, but also the collection of material related to the film and its production. Central to the collecting interest in film memorabilia, of course, is the collection of related film posters and these will feature prominently

in the first of our new regular series of articles. The collecting of medals, weapons, uniforms, equipment, documents, books and ephemera will be just some of the subjects covered in a wide range of features written by experts in their respective specialist fields. Posters of another kind, though, will be the feature of an auction to be held at 10am on Wednesday 8 March, 2017, by Special Auction Services of Newbury, Berkshire, which includes the collection of the late David Schwartz, a stock market historian and columnist and a well-known commentator

and analyst in the British financial sector. David collected First World War posters, mostly during the 1980s, in his home town of New York. He was attracted and fascinated by the bold messages, wonderful artwork and often the eye-catching colours of these war posters and how they reflected so poignantly the desperate state of the world in which they were designed, particularly those produced as the United States entered the War in 1917. For further details, go to: http:// www.specialauctionservices. com/index.php

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The Tank Museum Model Expo – Bovington, Dorset. 11 February. The Tank Museum invites exhibitors and traders from across the UK to showcase their stunning models throughout the Museum. Be sure to see the little tanks’ larger historical cousins as well!

Indoor Aerojumble, Newark Air Museum, Newark. 4 March, 9am. Browse the large selection of varying aviation themed goodies and snap up a bargain while walking amongst the aircraft of Newark Air Museum’s Hangar 2

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How First World War Stretcher Bearers Changed Medicine Forever – Royal Marsden Education and Conference Centre, London SW3 6JJ. 6 February. Book now for Dr Emily Mayhew’s exploration of the Great War stretcher bearers who changed modern medicine forever and led to today’s NHS paramedics. Contact: Army & Navy Club – 0207 730 0717.

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Women in Combat Roles – RUSI Building, Whitehall, London. 1 March, 7pm. The Army & Navy Club and the RUSI have partnered for this debate where a panel of experts will discuss the significance and implications of the decision to allow women to serve in combat roles in the British Army. Book your place (£10) by calling 0207 730 0717.

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

Passchendaele Ballot Opens Events to honour the fallen there will form one of the centrepieces of Britain’s Great War centenary commemorations. The first will take place at 8pm on July 30, at the Menin Gate. Here, 54,399 missing soldiers from the battle are listed and it is where the Last Post has been sounded in remembrance of Allied soldiers for 90 years. A ceremony will take place here before a series of live performances, images, and film projections tell the The advance, story of the battle. some four miles at The following day, at Tyne Cot its deepest point, Cemetery where 11,961 are was hard won commemorated or buried and 35,000 and with some are listed as missing, will see a 245,000 casualties further remembrance event. This sustained by British special service of remembrance is and Commonwealth units, the limited to 4,000 people, with priority German Army also bled and lost given to those descended from men some 180,000 men. The battle, involved in the battle. To apply for which began on 31 July 1917 and tickets a ballot must be entered. This ran until November, remains in can be found online at  the eyes of the British public as www.passchendaele100.org . the battle which encapsulates The tickets will be issued in pairs, the horrors and apparent and entries must be completed senselessness of the war. before 24 February 2017. LEFT: Images such as this typify public consciousness of conditions in the First World War. Conditions at Passchendaele, probably more than anywhere else on the Western Front, rapidly became a muddy mess of misery, death and mayhem.

A BALLOT has opened to allocate tickets in order to allow relatives of those who fought and died during the Battle of Passchendaele to attend the highlights of two days of commemorations for the centenary this summer. In an offensive which intended British and Commonwealth forces

to sweep across Flanders and liberate the cities of Bruges and Zeebrugge, thereby alleviating pressures on the Home Front by denying the Germans key U-Boat bases threatening supply lines, the major operation instead bogged down and never achieved anything near the full extent of its objectives.

Dredging Uncovers 500lb Bomb in Portsmouth

PLACES TO VISIT

THE EVACUATION of Gunwharf Quays, the suspension of ferry services and closure of Portsmouth Harbour recently resulted when work on the harbour and its approaches to make way for the arrival of the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers uncovered a German bomb. The discovery is one of a spate of potentially deadly finds and comes after a 1,100lb bomb and a torpedo were found in September. Found in the Wight Link terminal, Old Portsmouth, the harbour and ferry stations in Portsmouth and Gosport were placed behind a 300m cordon. The cordon also necessitated staff at the naval base being evacuated and the Portsmouth Historic

Dockyard, home to HMS Victory, was closed. The suspension of ferry services left 200 temporarily stranded as a ferry was held away. When tides and weather permitted, the bomb was towed to an area east of the Isle of Wight, about 1.5 miles off shore, where a controlled explosion was carried out by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Diving Squadron. Commander Del McKnight, the diving squadron’s chief, described the event as “business as usual”. “We’ve had more callouts to Portsmouth than we would usually see because of the extent of the dredging works being done… we have teams on standby at 10 minutes notice around the UK ready to deal with these things.”

ABOVE: The 500lb device uncovered by works in Portsmouth Harbour.

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Chesterfield Branch A centenary talk on the ‘Battle of Cambrai’ by Niall Cherry will be at Chesterfield Labour Club on 7 February at 19:30. Unity House, Saltergate, Chesterfield S81 0BL. Contact: [email protected] Tel: 0797 4693434.

Cheltenham and Gloucester Branch ‘Munitions Factories in the Great War’ by Nigel Crompton is on 14 February at 19:30. The talk details local factories involved in the war effort and explains the role played by women. Venue: National Star College, Ullenwood, Cheltenham GL53 9QU. Contact: [email protected] Tel: 01242 691422.

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North Staffs & South Cheshire Branch The lowest point for the RFC in WW1, the Battle of Arras in 1917, is the subject of Peter Hart’s talk on 13 February starting at 19:00. Newcastle Methodist Church Hall, Merrial Street, Newcastle under Lyme,ST5 2AD. Contact: [email protected] Tel: 01782 256754.

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Southend-On-Sea Branch Another Great War centenary this year, the Battle of Arras, features in ‘Cheerful Sacrifice’ a talk by Jonathan Nicholls on 20 February at 20:00. Venue: The Royal Naval Association Building, 73 East Street, Southend SS2 6LQ. Contact: [email protected] Tel: 07886 181860.

Available NOW HARRIER SPECIAL! Featuring: UK Harriers - from Land and Sea The Harrier story is one of the most remarkable in post-war British aviation history. Dr Kevin Wright looks back at five decades of development and operation of the UK’s Harriers and Sea Harriers.

Cherry Point ‘Bulldogs’ Tom Kaminski reports on VMA-223, a US Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II squadron that has been on many combat deployments in recent years.

Harrier GR.3s on the Frontline - RAF Germany Cold War Ops Air Chief Marshal (Ret’d) Sir Richard Johns recalls his time as Officer Commanding of 3 (Fighter) Squadron during the Cold War to Doug Gordon.

Return of the 489th Bomb Group The 489th Bomb Group had a short but illustrious career during World War Two. Now, after 70 years, the unit is back with a vengeance and flies B-1B Lancers from Dyess AFB. Scott Dworkin reports.

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OPERATION LEG

Dropping Douglas Bader’s Spare Leg: 1941

Operation When Wing Commander Douglas Bader was downed over France on 9 August 1941 he lost one of his artificial legs as he abandoned his Spitfire and descended by parachute. To aid the welfare of their famous prisoner, the Germans signalled the RAF that an aircraft delivering a spare leg would be granted safe passage. In the event, a spare leg was later dropped during a bombing raid as Andy Saunders explains. 22 www.britainatwar.com

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s a Prisoner of War with artificial legs it must have seemed to the Germans, initially at least, that Douglas Bader was a prisoner who would pose little risk of escape. After all, walking for any distance could be problematic for him. Not only that, but how could he climb fences or walls or scramble through tunnels with tin legs? And if he did get out, then his distinctive stance and gait would

surely give him away. It wasn’t very long, though, before Bader showed his true colours; determination to succeed, come what may. Nevertheless, he would need a pair of fully functioning artificial legs if he was to even be comfortable in a POW camp – let alone try to get away. And the problem with all of this was that during the escape from his Spitfire he had lost one of his artificial legs.

OPERATION LEG

Dropping Douglas Bader’s Spare Leg: 1941 BELOW: The crew of Blenheim R3843, WV – F, of 18 Squadron who dropped Bader’s spare leg by parachute on 19 August 1941. L to R: Sgt J M Nickleson RCAF (pilot), Sgt W Meadows (observer) and Sgt J Pearson (air gunner). All three were lost in this aircraft during an attack on shipping off Zandvoort on 20 September 1941.

BELOW: Wing Commander Douglas Bader. 1910-1982.

on Leg PERMISSION GRANTED TO DROP BY PARACHUTE

Initially taken to the Luftwaffe hospital in St Omer, Bader was both touched and delighted when the Germans eventually found his leg in a farmer’s field near Blaringhem and made basic repairs to the battered prosthetic. Already, though, the Germans had transmitted a signal to the RAF on 13 August advising that Bader was POW, that one of his legs had been lost

and offered safe passage to an aircraft delivering a replacement. In their broadcast from Ushant Wireless Station the German communique stated: “Wing Commander Douglas Bader taken prisoner on 9 August 1941 lost his right leg while baling out. Bader requests that a new leg be sent. German permission granted to drop it by parachute. Communicate day and time of delivery by radio. Delivering aircraft will be granted safe conduct.”  www.britainatwar.com 23

OPERATION LEG

Dropping Douglas Bader’s Spare Leg: 1941

ABOVE: The former Luftwaffe hospital at St Omer from where Bader made his audacious escape on the night of 18/19 August 1941. ABOVE RIGHT: The teleprinter message detailing the wireless transmission which had been picked up announcing Bader’s captivity and requesting that a spare artificial leg be sent. BELOW RIGHT: The typed-up transcript of the wireless message.

It was, perhaps, a surprisingly generous offer on the part of the Germans who went out of their way to find and repair the lost leg as best they could. In his biography ‘Reach For The Sky’, however, Bader was a little more specific in relation to the offer of free passage for a delivering aircraft: “A spare leg could be flown across in a Lysander communications aircraft. Spitfires could escort it part of the way and then Messerschmitts would take over. The Lysander could land at St Omer, hand over the leg and then it could take off again.” In fact, no detailed plan was ever offered by the Germans and, in any event, their offer had been made clear; the leg could be dropped by parachute from an aircraft that would be given safe passage. Whilst the RAF were happy to work out a way to deliver the leg they were unwilling to give the Germans the propaganda ‘scoop’ that would almost certainly arise from an aircraft given ‘safe passage’. Equally, Bader’s suggestion of delivery via Lysander not only has no foundation but, if carried out, would have handed the Germans an even greater propaganda advantage. Another way to deliver the package had to be devised. Meanwhile, and with the repaired leg delivered to Bader in St Omer hospital, any pressing need for a replacement had diminished since the Luftwaffe’s wireless message to the RAF. Indeed, at some time between 13 August and 18 August we know

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that Bader was entertained by Adolf Galland and the fighter pilots of JG26 at Audembert and was walking around on the repaired leg which he described as “rattling, clanking and thumping like a small armoured car.” It wasn’t ideal, but at least it was functional. Not only that, but with both artificial legs, a tempting prospect opened-up for him; escape.

ESCAPE AND CAPTURE

With the Luftwaffe having helpfully provided the means for Bader’s full mobility, it didn’t take long for him to start thinking about getting away but he knew it wouldn’t be long, either, before he was removed from St Omer and taken to Germany. After all, and despite being battered and bruised from exiting his Spitfire, there was little reason to keep him in hospital any longer and already he had been well enough to be entertained by Luftwaffe fighter pilots at their mess. And once transported

to Germany the prospects for escape diminished significantly. Here, in France, he was surrounded by patriotic citizens who were willing to risk all to help Allied airmen and confound their German occupiers. The story of Bader’s escape from the St Omer hospital is, of course, well known - both from the ‘Reach For The Sky’ book and the film of the same name. In a classic ‘Boy’s Own’ adventure-book escape, Bader managed to knot bed-sheets together and lower himself to the ground under cover of darkness on the night of 18 August, having received a message

OPERATION LEG

Dropping Douglas Bader’s Spare Leg: 1941

from one of the French nurses that somebody would be waiting for him outside the hospital gates each night from midnight until 2am. As promised, and once Bader had completed his perilous and difficult descent, the helpful Frenchman was indeed waiting in the dark, his presence given away to the escapee by a glowing cigarette. Spirited away to the home of Monsieur and Madame Hiècque in Quai du HautPont, St Omer, Bader was hidden, fed, watered and generally cared for as preparations to move him down an established underground escape line were put into place. As a priority, Bader needed to be got well clear of the town as the Germans had already gone into a frenzy searching the area for their escaped ‘prize’. Nevertheless, Madame Hiècque was quietly confident that ‘Les Boches’ wouldn’t find him there and Bader bided his time, somewhat anxiously, and awaited developments. As he waited on 19 August he was ushered into the back garden to watch aerial activity overhead as fighters wheeled and turned high in the sky around a few Blenheim bombers. Although he wasn’t to know it, the aircraft overhead at that very moment were on a mission to deliver the new artificial leg to the now escaped Prisoner of War. However, despite Madame Hiècque’s quiet confidence just earlier that day, a furious banging at the front door late in the afternoon heralded the almost inevitable arrival of a party of searching Germans. Ushered into a shed where he was hidden under some straw, it wasn’t long before Bader was discovered. 

ABOVE LEFT: An RAF Intelligence Officer’s handwritten note detailing the messages received and action taken regarding the leg. ABOVE RIGHT: Pilot Officer Chciuk of 308 Sqn, who had been shot down on 24 July 1941, was one of Bader’s room mates in the St Omer hospital and helped translate messages from those helping to effect Bader’s escape. LEFT: Just prior to his escape, Bader was entertained by Major Adolf Galland and the pilots of JG26 at their Audembert base.

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OPERATION LEG

Dropping Douglas Bader’s Spare Leg: 1941

ABOVE: Snapped by Sgt Scotney in another 18 Sqn Blenheim, Bader’s crated leg descends amongst the flak over northern France. (TANGMERE

MILITARY AVIATION MUSEUM)

RIGHT: Sgt J M Nickleson RCAF at the controls of Blenheim R3843 before the ‘Operation Leg’ sortie. BELOW: Blenheim R3843, WV – F, of 18 Squadron was the Blenheim which dropped the package.

The game was up. Now, the hapless escapee was in custody. So, too, were the unfortunate but courageous Hiècques.

CIRCUS 81

With RAF high command having dismissed out of hand taking advantage of the ‘free passage’ offer, but nevertheless anxious to get the spare leg to the famous captive, there was really only one option; it would be delivered with bombs. Continuing with its new and almost non-stop daylight offensive, RAF Fighter Command was committed to its ‘Circus’ operations – large scale sorties where a small number of heavily escorted bombers attacked targets in northern France. The intention was to draw the Luftwaffe into battle and tie up German fighters on the Channel Coast, theoretically preventing their diversion to the Eastern Front. On all

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counts, results were questionable. First, the bombings had little impact on the Germans although often disrupted French lives and sometimes killed civilians, the Germans were unlikely to have denuded their northern flank of fighter cover, anyway, and losses of RAF fighter pilots were colossal and disproportionate to Luftwaffe losses – this, despite the RAF’s overoptimistic claims. Not only that, but the very lifeblood of RAF Fighter Command was draining away through casualties and pilots captured. Many were seasoned veterans of the Battle of Britain, Bader amongst them. Nevertheless, the policy continued unabated and on 19 August the order came from HQ Fighter Command for Circus 81 with instructions issued to 2 Group, Bomber Command. This was to be for six Blenheims to attack the power station at Gosnay, the operation used as the means to deliver the leg.

Appropriately, as it turned out, Close Escort for the raiding force was to be by the Spitfires of Bader’s Tangmere Wing. With detailed plans already laid for the attack, and with Spitfires from the Northolt and Hornchurch Wings providing Target Support and Biggin Hill and Kenley Wings getting the Rear Support position, it only remained to work out the procedure for actually delivering Bader’s leg. Whatever the outcome, it wasn’t going to be delivered under some mutual ‘truce’ agreement as proposed by the Luftwaffe. Clearly, the only way to drop the leg was by parachute. The question was; how, exactly? In the end, a wooden crate was constructed to contain the prosthetic limb, although the actual method of parachuting it down needed to be devised. With no supplydropping procedure then in use by the RAF, and no dedicated operational supply-drop aircraft in service, the only way was for it to be dropped from one of the Blenheims. Again, exactly how

OPERATION LEG

Dropping Douglas Bader’s Spare Leg: 1941

had to be resolved and with no means by which to automatically operate the ‘rip cord’ and open a parachute once the package had been released it was clear that something improvised had to be lashed up. Ultimately, a standard seat-type RAF parachute was strapped to the wooden box, and it was decided that the box with the ‘chute already pre-opened would be manually thrown from one of the Blenheims. That, however, was not quite as simple as it sounds, but the task was nevertheless allocated to 18 Sqn, the squadron committing six Blenheims to Circus 81 and the Gosnay attack. To all intents and purposes, however, Circus 81 had now become ‘Operation Leg’ although was never designated as such.

‘WITH COURAGE AND FAITH’

By the time the bombers had rendezvoused over RAF Manston at 10.30 hrs the weather was not looking at all promising with 10/10 cloud at 8 to 10,000 ft, large masses of cloud up to 20,000 ft plus thunderstorm clouds reported over the target area. It was hardly an encouraging start, but as the bombers were met by their multiple squadrons of escort Spitfires, stepped up in layers, the huge and unwieldy armada set out the short distance across the Channel. Despite the cloud cover, and the seemingly invincible escort force, operations of this nature could still be risky for the bombers as well as the fighters. Only the day before, on Circus 80, Blenheims of 18 Sqn had again been in action, this time over Marquise, where heavy flak hit one of the bombers, killing its air gunner outright and resulting in the damaged Blenheim limping back to crash-land near Rye with the pilot and observer injured.

In the event, however, visibility over the drop area on 19 August was such that the target itself was obscured and the bombs could not be dropped. Because of the danger to civilians, bombs couldn’t be released randomly and had to be brought home. It was a different matter with the ‘special delivery’, though, and at some peril the crew pressed on with their additional task. The squadron motto for 18 Sqn was ‘With Courage and Faith’, and it was with considerable degrees of both that the nominated ‘air dispatcher’, Sgt ‘Jack’ Pearson, performed his unusual task. Meanwhile, the melee of an air battle was developing around the formation as flak burst amongst the bombers and Messerschmitt 109s began to tangle rather indecisively with the Spitfires.

CLAIMS AND VICTORIES

The Tangmere Wing had managed to stay with the bombers all the way to the target, but, unlike other squadrons committed to Circus 81, it suffered no casualties and made no claims over enemy aircraft. The Rear Support wing, though, saw casualties and losses by 452 Sqn as a single Me 109 first tore through their formation, hitting one Spitfire and wounding its pilot, Plt Off N S Willis, with the squadron further attacked as it withdrew, losing two pilots killed; Plt Off W D Eccleton when a wing was shot off his Spitfire over the coast and Sgt R G Gazzard who went down in the Dunkirk area. Meanwhile, 485 Sqn lost Sgt K C M Miller, killed, as Sqn Ldr ‘Paddy’ Finucane and Flt Lt ‘Bluey’ Truscott claimed one destroyed, one damaged and one probable between them. The Polish (Northolt) Wing also got into a tangle with the Me 109s, losing Sgts A Pietrasiak and

E Watolski of 308 Sqn; the former baling out and evading capture and the latter parachuting into the sea to be rescued by ‘friendly’ forces. Meanwhile, Sqn Ldr Skalski of 306 Sqn claimed a Me 109 which pulled across in front of him, although the biggest share of claims that day came from the Hornchurch squadrons with 611 Sqn battling ten Me 109s over Poperinghe and 403 Sqn claiming five destroyed but Plt Off N R D Dick and Plt Off Anthony were shot down with the latter POW. Additionally, 603 Sqn claimed further Me 109s and 609 Sqn damaged two more but lost Plt Off ‘Vicki’ Ortmans (a Belgian) who parachuted into the sea and was rescued by RAF launch. It had been a confused action which also saw one Blenheim hit and damaged and significant over-claiming on both sides with RAF Fighter Command reporting: “During this operation, the leg for Wing Commander Bader became airborne at 10.51hrs and was last seen floating down gracefully SW of St 

ABOVE LEFT: A Luftwaffe officer unfastens the parachute harness from the crate containing Bader’s spare leg. ABOVE RIGHT: Somewhat bemused, Luftwaffe personnel inspect Bader’s replacement leg at Longuenesse airfield near St Omer. (AFTER THE BATTLE)

BELOW: Pilot Officer K H Anthony, RCAF, (right) was shot down and taken POW whilst escorting the Blenheims which dropped Bader’s leg. Anthony initially ended up in Stalag Luft III with Bader after his capture.

www.britainatwar.com 27

OPERATION LEG

Dropping Douglas Bader’s Spare Leg: 1941 RIGHT: Wing Commander Douglas Bader was a constant source of irritation to his German captors after his initial escape and is seen here in confrontation with the Camp Commandant’s staff during his captivity. (BILL HOWARD)

BELOW RIGHT: Air Vice Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory. BOTTOM: Longuenesse airfield, St Omer, with the Messerschmitts of JG26 lined up and ready. The building in the background is where the photograph of the artificial leg was taken and to where Bader was initially brought after his re-capture.

Omer. At 11.00 hrs a message was broadcast to the enemy informing him that the leg had just been dropped by parachute. The message was acknowledged. Preliminary reports indicate seven Me 109s destroyed, three Me 109s probably destroyed and five Me 109s damaged for the loss of two of our pilots. No bombs were dropped during this operation. All bombers returned safely” It had been a costly operation to deliver Bader’s spare leg. In fact, it had resulted in the loss of eight Spitfires with three pilots killed, one wounded, one POW and another missing.

‘OUT THROUGH THE ESCAPE HATCH’

The 18 Sqn crew assigned the task of dropping the replacement leg were Sgt M Nickleson (RCAF), Sgt W Meadows and Sgt J ‘Jack’ Pearson in Blenheim R3843, WV-F. With the leg delivered to their forward operating base at Manston (their home base being Horsham St Faith) the crew had to work out how to get the crate out of the Blenheim. The only option was to simply bundle it, along with its open parachute, out through the escape hatch. With the parachute flapping

28 www.britainatwar.com

wildly in the slipstream, and the unwieldy box difficult to manhandle in the narrow confines of the fuselage, it was no mean feat. On Wednesday, 20 August, the ‘Daily Express’ ran a story on the delivery of the leg, stating that it had been delivered by ‘the fighter boys’ and prompting Jack Pearson to write home to his mother and brothers: “I can’t write about my trips but I can tell you that when Bader’s legs [sic] were dropped they were not dropped by the fighter boys as the Express said but were actually dropped by your own son Jack. Yes, it was me who had to push them out through the escape hatch and what a job it was. I don’t know why they picked Mickie and I for that job, but they did.” After the yellow wooden box drifted down through the flak near Longuenesse airfield it was immediately recovered by the Luftwaffe who posed for the camera with the container and its curious contents and retrieving a letter tucked inside. It read: “To:- Commandant, Luftwaffe, St Omer (Longuenesse) Aerodrome. WING COMMANDER DOUGLAS

BADER DSO DFC Royal Air Force (Prisoner of War) 1) The general broadcast message transmitted by you on 500 Kcs by Station Ushant at 11.35 hrs (GMT) on August 13th 1941 in respect of Wing Commander Bader was received by me. 2) This box contains an artificial leg to replace the right leg this officer lost during his descent by parachute over France on the 9th August 1941. 3) Please accept my thanks, both for your broadcast message and anything you can do to ensure that this new leg is delivered to Wing Commander Bader as soon as possible. August 1941. Air Vice Marshal, Royal Air Force.”* (*Whilst unnamed, the Air Vice Marshal in question was Leigh-Mallory, C-in-C, 11 Group, RAF Fighter Command, the delivery having been sanctioned at the highest level.) Re-captured on the very day of his leg delivery, the disgruntled Bader was nevertheless delighted to be shown the box containing his new leg but was less thrilled to almost immediately be bundled into a truck for a bumpy ride to Brussels and then put on a train for Germany. However, both artificial legs were removed for the journey. 

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‘GREAT ESCAPE’ SPITFIRE

Norwegian Pilot's Fate Uncovered

N

ils Fuglesang was born at Rasvag in Hidra, Norway, on 7 October 1918 and after education in both France and Norway he was working as an apprentice with an Oslo shipping company when the Germans invaded in April 1940. However, he decided to escape in order to fight the Germans and on 12 March 1941 he and eleven others managed to flee and sailed to the Shetland Islands. On arrival in Britain, Nils joined the Norwegian Army Air Service and in May 1941 he left for Canada to train as a pilot. Sgt Fuglesang successfully completed his training at the end of 1941 and returned to Britain to become a fighter pilot, joining 332 (Norwegian) Sqn at RAF Catterick on 9 June 1942. Commanded by Maj Odd Bull, 332 Sqn was formed on 16 January 1942 and was the second operational Norwegian fighter squadron under RAF command. Shortly after Nils’ arrival, 332 Sqn moved to RAF North Weald in Essex where it would remain until April 1944. At 1320 hrs on 20 January 1943, Nils damaged a Focke Wulf Fw 190 some ten miles inland from Cap Gris Nez which would be his only air combat success. Shortly after, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant and awarded the King Haakon

VII Freedom Medal in March 1943. Unfortunately, his flying career would last just under another two months. On the early evening of 2 May 1943, Nils was flying with a number of Spitfires supporting Ramrod 12 and escorting Lockheed Venturas attacking Ijmuiden. The RAF formation was attacked by Fw 190s of Stab, I and II Gruppe/Jagdgeschwader 1. The Germans claimed to have shot down seven Spitfires and two Venturas, but in fact just four Spitfires were lost - two from 331 Sqn and two from 332 Sqn. One of those lost was Spitfire IX, serial BS540 and coded AH-E, which was being flown by Nils Fuglesang. Nils’ Spitfire was badly damaged by one of the Fw 190s, probably that flown by Lt Rüdiger von Kirchmayr of Stab II./ Jagdgeschwader 1 and he was forced to crash-land near Wissenkirke where he was quickly taken prisoner. After interrogation, Nils was shipped to Stalag Luft III at Sagan where he quickly became an active member of the escape committee and was one of the 76 who escaped during The Great Escape of 24-25 March 1944. With four others, they decided to make for Denmark and ultimately Sweden but via Berlin, Hamburg and Flensburg. However, on 26 March 1944, and near

the Danish border, the escapees' luck ran out. A suspicious policeman called for a complete check of all passengers in their particular train carriage and all four were discovered and arrested. Taken initially to Flensburg, they were then handed over to the Gestapo at Kiel and after interrogation they assumed they would be returned to Sagan. What they were unaware of was that the Gestapo had a list of 50 escapers who were to be shot. On 29 March 1944, one of the escapers was driven away in one car with three Gestapo personnel whilst the other three, including Nils, would follow in a second car. Just outside Kiel, the car in which Nils was being carried stopped and the three prisoners told to get out and to stretch their legs in a field alongside the road. On doing so, they must have discovered the body of Sqn Ldr James Catanach DFC (Australian, 455 Sqn, POW 5 Sep 42) who had been shot just beforehand. Immediately afterwards, Nils, Flt Lt Arnold Christensen (New Zealand, 26 Sqn, POW 19 Aug 42) and Lt Halldor Espelid (Norway, 331 Sqn POW 27 Aug 42) were murdered. Their bodies were later cremated at Kiel and then buried at Sagan. After the war, Nils’ cremation urn was returned in honour to his home village. 

BELOW: Spitfire BS540, AH-E, after its crashlanding at Wissenkirke.

‘GREAT ESCAPE’

SPITFIRE When Chris Goss came across a photograph of a shot-down Spitfire his research into its background revealed a direct link to the infamous ‘Great Escape’ and the tragic tale of its Norwegian pilot.

www.britainatwar.com 31

FIELD POST

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

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Did Douglas Bader Fall Victim to High-Speed Stall?

Dear Sir - I read with interest your recent feature on Douglas Bader and the theory of his downing over France in August 1941. I think the case put forward is really a very strong one, and likely the most plausible of all explanations given the facts and information so succinctly advanced in the feature. But there is another credible possibility; that is, that Douglas Bader simply lost control of his Spitfire. And it really isn’t such a silly suggestion. Douglas Bader.

During the 1980s and 90s I was involved in research into high speed stalls in aircraft and looked at the Bader case wondering if this could have been the cause of his demise. It could well have been. In early 1941, Plt Off Peter Brown was attacked in his 41 Sqn Spitfire by Me 109s at 25,000ft over Dover and pulled hard into a climbing turn when he heard a loud bang and a clattering noise along the fuselage, causing the aircraft fall out of control as he temporarily blacked out. Not unreasonably, and when he came-to a few moments later, he thought that he

must have been hit but regained control and flew home. On his Spitfire, no evidence of any hits could be found. Quite simply, he had experienced a high-speed stall although all the initial signs were of catastrophic strikes from German fire. Additionally, the Spitfire test pilot, Alex Henshall, confirmed that the high-speed stall was a frightening experience with the violent change in attitude from climbing at 200mph to a vertical, stalled and spinning position imposing high stress levels on both pilot and Spitfire. The Pilot’s Notes also say of the stall: ‘When a highspeed stall is induced there is a violent shudder and clattering noise throughout the aircraft which tends to flick over laterally and unless the control column is put forward instantly a rapid roll and spin will result.’ In my quest, I was also able to talk to a Wg Cdr Mike Brook, a former Canberra pilot, test pilot and instructor at the Cranfield Institute of Technology. He had also flown Spitfires and carried out a high-speed stall in one which induced a terrifying, noisy and violent reaction which he felt could easily be mistaken for cannon hits or a collision. Interestingly, both he and other Spitfire pilots have confirmed that when strapped into a Spitfire it would be impossible to see if the tail or rear fuselage had gone - although Bader suggests that he could! At best, the pilot can only see the outer part of the tail-planes and the very top of the fin in his mirror. However, in the circumstances Bader describes, he would also have been completely unable to turn around to look, either. Even supposing he could do so, he certainly wouldn’t be able to see the fuselage or tail. Not only that, he probably wouldn’t be able to see anything at all owing to the

violent movement of the aircraft. (Incidentally, the stresses in the aftermath of such a stall could also quite easily cause the aircraft to break up – just as Bader’s Spitfire apparently did.) But there is an additional factor, too. When Bader took off that day he realised that his Air Speed Indicator (ASI) wasn’t working and it was either bad airmanship or boneheaded stupidity, frankly, which led him to press on. In doing so, he was putting his whole formation potentially at risk. Plus, the rules were clear; any pilot whose ASI failed was required to return to base immediately. In pressing on, Bader put everyone at risk. Knowing one’s speed was vital. It was crucial for manoeuvring and, additionally, if he was flying too fast then fuel consumption could rise rapidly – especially for the rear squadrons. So, could his lack of awareness as to speed have played a part in getting into a high-speed stall which he then mistook for critical battle damage prompting him to bale-out? Later, and not wishing to admit he had perhaps been shot down, he constructed the collision story – perhaps all along being unaware that he had merely stalled! Whilst we know the collision story to be incorrect, the high-speed stall theory did sound to me a likely alternative explanation. However, if that was what happened then it still leaves another question unanswered; who or what did the other RAF pilot shoot down when he watched the tail separate from his quarry and then see the pilot struggling to get out? Until I read your feature, I was inclined to go with the stall theory. Now, I can’t be sure. I guess it will just be one of those great unsolved mysteries of the air. Stuart Wilson-Hayes By email: Milton Keynes

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The Royal Navy’s Revenge Dear Sir - I was saddened to read of the plundering of Allied ships sunk during Battles of the Java Sea in early 1942 with such great loss of Allied lives. Mention was made of the loss of the cruiser HMS Exeter and the part played in her eventual loss by the Japanese cruiser Haguro. This Myoko class heavy cruiser of over 13,000 tons carried ten 8 in guns and saw considerable service in the south-west Pacific. In addition to the Java Sea, she saw action in the Coral Sea and Guadalcanal battles and survived the destruction of the Japanese fleet in the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf battles of 1944. But in 1945 the Royal Navy exacted revenge for the loss of Exeter, Encounter and Electra. In May 1945, Naval Intelligence learned that the Haguro was to be used to reinforce the Japanese garrison in the Andaman Islands and Operation Dukedom was set in train to intercept her. Among the ships tasked was the escort carrier HMS Shah which carried the Avengers of 851 Sqn under Lt Cdr M T Fuller and trained in the torpedo bomber reconnaissance (TBR) role. However, at the point of sailing, Shah’s catapult went unserviceable and so on 11 May 851 Sqn had to

rapidly transfer to HMS Emperor although she was not properly equipped to support a TBR unit. Her escorts included battleships, whilst the 26th Destroyer Flotilla also headed to the area. Submarine sightings reported the cruiser with a destroyer sailing in the Malacca Strait whilst on the 14 May an RAF aircraft reported ships heading from the Nicobar Islands. The next morning Emperor launched four Avengers armed with bombs on an armed reconnaissance to intercept these vessels, two of them attacking a Japanese landing ship and a submarine chaser. Sub Lt Burns’ aircraft was hit by flak and ditched in the Andaman Sea. Burns and he and his observer, Sub Lt Robinson, became POWs, but L/A Murley was lost. The other Avenger ran out of fuel and ditched, although the crew were rescued by a Walrus from HMS Hunter.  However, the other aircraft flown by the CO, with Lt Lansdele and CPO Sherlock, pressed on by jettisoning the bomb load to increase endurance. They found the Kurishoyo Maru and her escort, and then two more ships were spotted some 15 miles to the south off Sabang, Sumatra. Circling these new contacts out of gun range he accurately reported the Haguro and Kamikaze. Mike Fuller

recalled: “This was a Haguro seen during an air very big excitement. attack on Rabaul harbour. She was very large (US NAVY) and very black against a very dark monsoon cloud. An enormously impressive sight, just as a warship ought to look, though trying to remain unobtrusively out of sight, hoping not to be noticed.” Sherlock transmitted the electrifying signal that was dropped by Crompton. This was, received by the Fleet at 11.50 am: however, the Fleet Air Arm’s very “One cruiser, one destroyer sighted. first dive bombing attack on a Course 240. Speed 10 knots.” A major enemy vessel in open water, stream of accurate update reports albeit with very disappointing followed for the next hour until results. However, little more could shortage of fuel forced Fuller to have been expected given the withdraw – his last report made circumstances. from directly above the Haguro to More significantly, however, the give the Fleet’s direction finders the accurate location reports were chance of obtaining an accurate picked up by the five ships of the ‘fix’. When they landed back aboard 26th Destroyer Flotilla under Capt Manley Power, and HMS Saumarez, Emperor, Fuller’s Avenger had just Verulam, Venus, Vigilant and Virago ten minutes fuel remaining. that night engaged in a classic  Due to congestion on Emperor’s destroyer action, raking Kamikaze deck only three Avengers – those with gunfire and hitting Haguro of Lt K C Crompton, Sub Lt Eedle, with eight torpedoes. She sank and Sub Lt Rowe-Evans - could shortly after 02.00 taking over 900 be launched for a strike. Two of the crew with her. HMS Exeter, hours after getting airborne they Encounter and Electra had been found the ships and attacked in avenged. the face of fierce anti-aircraft  Tom Spencer, Berkshire. fire. The only success was a very Via Email near miss on Haguro by a bomb

Another Casualty From That ‘Date Of Infamy’ Dear Sir - I refer to your feature ‘Fate Decided Otherwise; Death of an American Volunteer’ Britain at War, December 2016. However, Fg Off Richard Fuller Patterson was not the only American to die flying for Britain on 7 December 1941. On that day, a sudden snow storm swept across the country and in the West Midlands caused five aircraft to crash with the loss of eight aircrew killed and four injured. One of those aircraft was Hurricane IIb, Z5663, on a delivery flight from Gloster’s factory at Brockworth to 48 Maintenance Unit, RAF Hawarden, Chester. At the controls

was First Officer Ernest Edward Gasser, Air Transport Auxiliary, attached to No.2 Ferry Pilots Pool’s sub-pool at Brockworth. Overtaken by the storm, Gasser’s Hurricane flew into a wooded hill in the Wyre Forest at Buttonoak, on the Shropshire side of the River Severn, breaking up amongst the trees and catching fire. Aged 31, Gasser was an American of Swiss descent from Chevy Chase, Maryland. He was a married man who had served for four years in the US Marine Corps during the 1930s before enrolling in the Washington DC Special Police, learning to fly in his spare time.

He gained his Commercial Pilot’s Licence and bought his own aircraft before coming to Britain in 1941, completing his ATA training that August. In 1982 members of The Midland Aircraft Recovery Group found the crash site had been replanted with trees but a solitary yew marked the impact point. Small fragments of wreckage were scattered amongst the heather and bracken, including a data plate from the Rolls Royce Merlin engine. Research of the engine number revealed it had been delivered from Rolls Royce, Glasgow, less than four weeks earlier.

Ernest Gasser was taken for burial at Wribbenhall (All Saints) Churchyard, Worcestershire. The pall bearers were aircrew from Canada and the USA serving in the RAF. Photographs of the funeral appear on the excellent web site:- afleetingpeace.org and in Glyn Warren’s book: The Forgotten Heroes – The Air War Over Worcestershire and the Clee Hills. Gasser was one of 26 American pilots to die on ATA service and another ‘forgotten’ American casualty of 7 December 1941.  Delwyn Griffith, by email, Cheltenham.

www.britainatwar.com 33

ROAD TO DISASTER

Defending Singapore: 1942

OVERLEAF: ‘Tomforce’ evader; Lieutenant Mike Ashton (19202016), seen here in 1939, was the only one of a dozen men to make it safely through Japanese lines.

reat clouds of smoke billowed from a blazing oil depot as the remnants of a dispirited army mingled with bewildered refugees in a trail of misery that stretched for miles across the embattled island of Singapore. Everywhere reeked of defeat and despair, from the flood of Chinese, Indian and Malays fleeing eastwards on foot and aboard a weird collection of trucks, buses, carts and trishaws to the steady stream of Australian troops straggling dejectedly away from an unseen but rapidly advancing enemy. It was hardly encouraging for the hundreds of British soldiers headed in the opposite direction, but no amount of persuasion could stop the flight. Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Knights, whose battalion of the 4th Royal Norfolks was part of a hastily

assembled reserve reassigned to a counter-attack role in a desperate effort to turn the tide, later wrote: “I ordered the men to remain where they were and render assistance to my Battalion but as they maintained that they were acting under the orders of their own commanders my interference was in vain.” One of his company commanders, 23-year-old Captain Tom Eaton, was appalled. “As we passed the Australians,” he recalled years later, “they were calling us ‘damned fools’ to be going up there.” In fact, ‘Up there’ was the high ground around the villages of Bukit Timah and Bukit Panjang which, if held by the Japanese, would give them control over vital food, fuel and ammunition dumps situated close by as well as a chokehold over the island’s reservoirs and a dominant observation post from which to direct artillery fire onto the city.

It was early in the morning of February 11, 1942. In barely a day and night of fighting, the conquerors of mainland Malaya had successfully crossed onto Singapore island, broken through the mainly Australian-held defences and were almost halfway across the island, having turned a withdrawal into a rout. Two Japanese divisions, the 5th and 18th, charged with securing the same ground were now confronted by three infantry battalions, most of whose men were facing their baptism of fire just days after landing in Singapore as a last-gasp reinforcement to an already doomed army. With no time to ‘shake-down’ following an epic three-month journey, most of it spent at sea, the men of the 4th Royal Norfolks, the 5th Sherwood Foresters and the 5th Loyals, re-designated 18th Reconnaissance Corps, were advancing into the unknown. Devoid of artillery 

In a last-gasp attempt to stall the Japanese invasion of Singapore, a hastily assembled force of newly-arrived British troops was pitched into action. Steve Snelling tells a story of desperate defiance and a bloody baptism of fire on the road to inglorious defeat 75 years ago.

34 www.britainatwar.com

ROAD TO DISASTER

Defending Singapore: 1942

www.britainatwar.com 35

ROAD TO DISASTER

Defending Singapore: 1942 RIGHT: Legion of the doomed: men of the 4th Royal Norfolks training to defend Britain from an invasion that never came. Less than two years later, the same unit, part of ‘Tomforce’, was pitched illprepared into a vain struggle to withstand the Japanese invasion of Singapore. MIDDLE: Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Knights (18931971), seen here between the wars. A former Merchant Navy seaman who later became a chief electrical engineer, earned a Military Cross and Military Medal in the First World War, soldiered on in the Territorial Army and commanded the 4th Royal Norfolks during the 1940 invasion scare and in its brief operational service on Singapore. For his leadership during the failed ‘Tomforce’ counter-attack, he later received a Distinguished Service Order, but he earned even greater credit as a senior British officer in jungle prison camps along the ThaiBurma Railway.

RIGHT: Japanese troops advancing beyond Bukit Timah to the fringes of Singapore city in the closing days of the island battle.

“The quayside looked like a vast car park. Hundreds of rich, glossy cars lay… abandoned in haste by fleeing refugees…” Division began arriving in Singapore in late January. One glance at the scene in Keppel Harbour was enough to confirm Brigadier Tom MassyBeresford’s “worst fears”. “The place was already doomed,” he wrote, with warning signs “written loud and clear”. “The quayside looked like a vast car park. Hundreds of rich, glossy cars lay… abandoned in haste by fleeing refugees…“And to put the final seal on the disaster, we were informed support and any idea as to the enemy’s strength or positions, they pressed on, amid bombing and sniping, through patches of scrub, plantation and jungle. According to Tom Eaton, the general tone of the orders were simply to “burn on till you meet the Japs”. Given the scenes all around, their mood was unsurprisingly bleak. “Spirits not too high,” he later noted in his diary, “[men] rather somnolent…” It was a grim augury for what would prove the decisive engagement in the forlorn battle to defend Britain’s muchvaunted bastion in South-East Asia.

‘OPPRESSIVE ATMOSPHERE’

The writing had been on the wall from the moment the main body of the 18th

36 www.britainatwar.com

that on that very morning… the last exhausted survivor of a defeated army had passed over the Causeway, or swum across the channel, and the Causeway itself had been destroyed. We were about to land on a besieged and isolated island…” Originally earmarked for the Middle East, the 18th Division, consisting largely of East Anglian-based Territorial Army units commanded by Major General Merton Beckwith-

ROAD TO DISASTER

Defending Singapore: 1942

Smith, had been reluctantly diverted to Singapore on political rather than military grounds in order to placate Australian critics fearful of a betrayal of Britain’s imperial defence obligations. Despatched too late to change the course of a struggle most senior officers and politicians already considered hopeless, they could do little but delay the inevitable. Reflecting on his division’s wretched fate a few weeks later, Tom Eaton observed: “We landed into a depressing and

oppressive atmosphere - Malaya and Singapore were lost before we arrived. We were not equipped, trained or acclimatised for this sort of fighting. None of us knew the language and few of us could tell the difference between a Jap, Chinese or Malay even at close quarters…” Ordered to the north-eastern corner of the island, where Lieutenant General Arthur Percival considered the attack was most likely to come they busied themselves establishing defences

that were quickly rendered worthless when the Japanese struck on February 8/9 along the western coast. Amid alarming reports of swift Japanese advances and a disintegrating defence it was widely expected that the 18th Division would lead a strong counter-attack. But Percival was hesitant. Fearing more landings on the northern coast, he left most of the division inactive while cobbling together a makeshift infantry brigade, comprising the reserve battalions of the 54th and 55th Brigades and a reconnaissance battalion, to bolster the battered Australians. Dubbed ‘Tomforce’ after its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lionel Thomas, of 9th Northumberland Fusiliers, the stop-gap reinforcement was rushed to the threatened area on February 10. Lieutenant Colonel Knights of the 4th Royal Norfolks was far from happy. “I loathed these hotch-potch, thrown together at the last minute, forces,” he later wrote. “Since the beginning of the war… the units of the Brigade and Division had worked, trained and played together. This Brigade cohesion was necessary in my experience… [and] to split it up in what was obviously to be our first encounter with the enemy was asking a lot of untried troops.” Uncertainty about the terrain, the “enemy situation” and their objective served only to reinforce his misgivings. 

LEFT: Comrades in peace and war: a cartoon portraying the officers of the 4th Royal Norfolks, who had soldiered together for years and many of whom would endure their first and last action on Singapore in 1942.

BELOW: Officers of the 4th Royal Norfolk Regiment at their last Territorial Army summer camp before the Second World War. Most would undergo their baptism of fire on Singapore during the desperate efforts to stem the Japanese advance. Included among them are: Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Knights, seated fifth from left, and Captain Tom Eaton, C Company commander, standing sixth from left in the middle row.

www.britainatwar.com 37

ROAD TO DISASTER

Defending Singapore: 1942 RIGHT: Captain Philip Hall, the 4th Royal Norfolks’ adjutant. He called the enemy situation ‘obscure’ and recalled how the role of ‘Tomforce’ was altered during its advance.

RIGHT: King George VI inspecting the 4th Royal Norfolks during the invasion scare in August 1940. As the threat of a Nazi attack receded, the unit, part of the 18th (East Anglian) Division, trained for mobile warfare in the western desert. Despatched to the Middle East in October 1941, they were diverted mid-voyage to India and then Singapore as last-ditch reinforcements in an already forlorn enterprise.

seemed to be in the nature of an approach march prior to attack.” But they had barely set off when the orders were abruptly changed again: the two battalions were to push forward together, either side of the Bukit Timah road, advancing “by bounds” to secure the high ground north of Bukit Panjang. The hasty nature of the ‘plan’ was evidenced in the fact that there were “no supporting arms” and, according to 18th Division staff officer Captain Tufton Beamish, “no information as to the positions of the troops on their right and left”. More disturbingly, they were still in total ignorance as to the enemy’s strength or location. As they set off, harassed by snipers and mortars, around 0600 on February

11, they were under the impression they would only have to clear up small parties of Japanese who had infiltrated. “The enemy was said to be only about two or three battalions strong,” wrote Captain Norman Thorpe of the Sherwood Foresters, “but had we thought of it, we should have realised the absurdity of it, in view of the fact that the enemy had advanced 7 or 8 miles through thick country on a fifteen mile front.” In fact, as he later discovered, the Japanese, under the hard-driving General Tomoyuki Yamashita, were gambling everything on a bold infantry assault seizing the heights and forcing a capitulation that would make a potentially bloody street battle for Singapore itself unnecessary. By

“The prospect,” wrote Knights, “was not pleasing.”

‘NO SUPPORTING ARMS’

Knights’ mood was not improved by what followed. After a night of air attacks which left the surrounding hills “crackling” with flames and smothered in smoke, events moved fast. Original plans to use ‘Tomforce’ as a reserve were suddenly changed and instructions issued for an immediate advance with the Sherwood Foresters leading and the Norfolks following. To what end was unclear. “The actual enemy situation appeared to be obscure,” noted the Norfolks’ adjutant, Captain Philip Hall, “and the move

RIGHT: King George VI on a tour of the 18th Division coastal defences in the summer of 1940. On the right is former guardsman Major General Merton Beckwith-Smith whose misfortune it was to see his command split up into brigade-size units in a vain attempt to stop the Japanese advance through Malaya and Singapore. He later died in captivity.

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comparison, the British counter-thrust, made by troops utterly unaccustomed to what one of their officers called “the mystery and menace of tropical jungle”, was timid. One of the Norfolks’ subalterns, John Coast, later wrote: “Snipers, we were told, were often hidden in the tops of coconut palms and consequently ripe coconuts nestling at the top of the trees turned into Japanese faces, fronds became legs sticking out, and heaven alone knows how many rounds were pumped into surprised nuts.” The strain on already taut nerves was compounded by terrain that rendered neighbouring platoons invisible. Having been pleasantly surprised to discover that he “did not feel at all nervous”, Tom Eaton, leading ‘C’ Company, was disconcerted to be directed into “very thick woods” after being mistakenly told he was advancing along the wrong line. “As a result,” he later wrote, “I lost 15

ROAD TO DISASTER

Defending Singapore: 1942 LEFT: The men of A Company, 4th Royal Norfolks in Blackburn in July 1941, a few months before being posted overseas. Trained for desert warfare, they were totally unprepared for combat in the tropics. Several would become casualties during the ‘Tomforce’ counter-attack, but more would die in captivity, victims of disease, neglect and starvation.

Platoon and after very hard going arrived on top of a small hill… from a different direction to that intended…” Far worse was to follow.

‘UNMERCIFULLY DIVEBOMBED’

the right.” Casualties, he noted, were “few”, but the men were thoroughly “disorganised” and the NCOs were slow to take control. It was much the same story for the Sherwood Foresters.

After a “most unpleasant ten minutes” being bombed and machine-gunned from the air, Norman Thorpe managed to rally around a dozen men and led them on to a hill near Bukit Timah occupied by more of his unit. They did not stay long. With no sign of the rest of the battalion and enemy activity intensifying, he and another officer decided “we should withdraw to our start point”. An already disjointed plan of attack, showing every sign of being too hurriedly thrown together, was unravelling fast. In the 4th Royal Norfolks’ sector, Colonel Knights narrowly escaped capture when he blundered into a Japanese position. Breaking clear, he ordered what was left of ‘B’ Company to attack. Several parties of the enemy were “successfully dealt with” and a mortar position destroyed, but the renewed advance soon stuttered to a halt. According to Philip Hall, the ground gained “rapidly became untenable” 

LEFT: A pall of smoke hangs over Singapore following a Japanese bombing attack on harbour installations.

BELOW: The resourceful Japanese army raced through mainland Malaya in seven weeks and by the end of January 1942 stood ready to invade Singapore, the muchvaunted bastion of Britain’s South-East Asian empire.

Eaton’s depleted company had barely reached Point 275 when they were “subjected to heavy MG fire from their [open] right flank and unmercifully dive-bombed by enemy aircraft”. ‘A’ and ‘D’ Companies, situated on a hill to the left, were the first to suffer. With no protection from the bombs, the effect was shattering. Looking on, Eaton saw them “suddenly get up and go back”. Influenced by their withdrawal and the bombing, which “was no joke”, he made what he later considered to have been “a mistake”. “Instead of getting the platoons organised and in position on the hill, I brought them back level with ‘A’ and ‘D’ Companies in the low ground on

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ROAD TO DISASTER

Defending Singapore: 1942 RIGHT: Blitzed: firefighters battle a blaze in the aftermath of one of the Japanese air attacks on Singapore.

due to mortars and “enfilade fire from the right flank”. Not long after, orders were received from Colonel Thomas to pull back as far as the island’s racecourse, close to where the attack had begun hours before. The withdrawal proved every bit as difficult as the advance. Some parties were cut off, others went astray in dense undergrowth thick with Japanese hurrying to exploit the confusion. Among those left behind were survivors of No 12 Platoon, ‘B’ Company, 4th Royal Norfolks, led by a gutsy young lieutenant called Mike Ashton whose subsequent escape would prove little short of miraculous.

RIGHT: The destruction of the island’s oil tanks spelled the closing act in the tragedy of Singapore’s failed defence 75 years ago. BELOW LEFT: A modern-day view towards Bukit Timah hill, now topped with radio masts, showing the kind of vegetation that the men of ‘Tomforce’ had to advance through. BELOW RIGHT: The thick vegetation in central Singapore through which the men of ‘Tomforce’ had to fight their way and then retreat.

‘ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE’

Ashton’s advance had started well enough. Moving through a rifle range that had once been a playground for the colony’s Swiss expats, he led his platoon, without interference, as far as a scrubby knoll in what appeared to be an overgrown pineapple plantation.

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While the company commander headed off with another platoon, he pushed on with Company HQ, under Captain Marner Drane, following and No 11 Platoon bringing up the rear. Aware that the pace was slowing, Ashton made his way up to the leading scouts when, in his words, “all Hell broke loose behind us”. “There was shouting and firing,” he recalled. “I wondered what the hell it was all about.” Heading back to the main body, he found them caught in a vortex of fire from hidden enemy positions. “There wasn’t a scrap of cover, no holes or boulders, and a hell of a lot of them had already been killed or wounded.” Creeping away from the ambush, he returned to his own platoon who, by then, were pinned to the ground. “There was no way forward and no way back,” said Ashton. “Any movement drew lethal fire, so we had no choice but to stay where we were.” They laid for the rest of the morning and through a sweltering afternoon during which they continued to take casualties

from machine-guns and mortars. An attempted counter-attack by what was left of the company was beaten back and as the day wore, they became resigned to their fate. “We expected the Japs to come and attack us,” recalled Ashton, “and we were prepared to have a go at them, but they didn’t come.” When darkness fell only Ashton and about a quarter of his 40-strong platoon remained alive, with a few more men from Company HQ, including Captain Drane, who had been wounded, lying further back. After a hurried ‘conflab’ the two officers agreed to make a break for it, with Drane’s party leading the way. “I got ready to move off,” recalled Ashton, “but the other group had hardly gone when there was a lot of noise. There were obviously Japs about and a lot of firing, so I decided we’d stay where we were. As for Drane and his men, they were never seen again.” Unaware that the battalion, together with the rest of Tomforce, had withdrawn during the late afternoon, the dozen or so survivors of 12 Platoon

ROAD TO DISASTER

Defending Singapore: 1942

remained cut-off and oblivious to the mishaps which continued to dog the stalled advance on Bukit Timah through to 12 February. The day began badly.

the other drove straight through the Japanese position before ditching, leaving its crew to straggle back on foot. By late morning it was plain that ‘Tomforce’, unsupported on either flank, was, as Captain Beamish put it, “in a perilous position”. With parts of his force already surrounded, Colonel Thomas took the decision to retreat while there still remained a chance to a new fall-back position along the line of the Adam Road in Singapore’s upmarket outer suburbs. There followed what Tom Eaton of the 4th Royal Norfolks called “a very disorderly withdrawal” in which they got “the hell out of it” with the loss of “a lot of equipment and several lives”.

‘DASH FOR IT’

Concerned that the Japanese were already established behind his new positions, Colonel Knights ordered his Bren gun carriers under Captain Ted Gripper to make a dawn reconnaissance. They confirmed his fears, but only at great cost. Stumbling across a company of Japanese in “wooded country”, Gripper instantly charged. Within minutes his own carrier was ablaze and the corporal in charge of a second carrier had been decapitated. Leaping from his burning vehicle, Gripper was last seen blazing away with his Tommy gun, surrounded by a dozen Japs, as he struggled in vain to fight his way out. The driver of the second carrier managed to turn back, but lost control when his commander’s lifeless body fell across him and he plunged into a watercourse. Of the other two carriers, one was never heard of again and

Ignorant of ‘Tomforce’s’ dispersal, the survivors of Ashton’s ‘lost platoon’ endured another wretched day, marooned behind enemy lines with little water and even less hope to sustain them. With the Japanese having advanced either side of them

and the prospect of relief from a counter-attack looking unlikely, he made up his mind to attempt a breakout that night. Abandoning all kit other than their personal weapons, they moved out, following Ashton’s rough compass bearing. “I had no idea where the Japs were except that they were somewhere behind us,” he said, “and knew we would have to go through them or round them.” Their route took them via a dirty duck pond where they paused long enough to quench their raging thirst before pressing on. They were surrounded by what sounded like Japanese voices calling out to one another in the darkness, but there was no going back. Reaching a stretch of open ground, Ashton set off with his corporal to investigate only to find himself followed by all bar three of his men, one of whom was struggling with wounds to the arm and leg. “We were on the edge of the racecourse,” said Ashton, “and there were cars parked there. I had the idea of getting some water from the radiators. But just as 

TOP LEFT: Where fierce fighting once raged, the Bukit Timah road today. Seventy-five years ago, the men of ‘Tomforce’ advanced either side of what was then a dual carriageway in a forlorn effort to halt the Japanese advance across the island. TOP RIGHT: It was along a path similar to this that Mike Ashton led the remnants of his platoon in a desperate attempt to break through the Japanese lines after the failure of ‘Tomforce’s’ attack. LEFT: Ill-prepared: British subaltern John Coast (19161989) wrote of the ‘mystery and menace’ posed by the tropical jungle. Coast survived the fighting and later wrote a classic memoir of his prison camp experience, Railroad of Death. LEFT: ‘Lost’ platoon: the men of 12 Platoon, B Company, 4th Royal Norfolks. Few survived after being ambushed and cut-off during the advance near Bukit Timah.

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ROAD TO DISASTER

Defending Singapore: 1942 FAR RIGHT: White flag of defeat: British and Japanese troops come face to face as Singapore hovers on the brink of surrender on February 15, 1942. RIGHT: The Military Cross awarded to Mike Ashton for his perilous escape after being surrounded and refusing to admit defeat.

“The corporal caught a few with his Tommy gun and we simply made a dash for it.” BELOW: Japanese troops, supported by light tanks, in Singapore following the defeat of ‘Tomforce’.

I was about to open the bonnet of one of the cars, one of the fellows with me said, ‘There are bloody Japs asleep in the back!’ I thought we’d got to get out of there, but before we knew where we were we were right in the middle of them.” Moments later, a shot in the

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dark signalled the start of a chaotic, running fire-fight. “The corporal caught a few with his Tommy gun and we simply made a dash for it,” recalled Ashton. “It was just a case of if they appeared we shot.” Both men made it out of the Japanese

position, but there was no sign of any more of the party. The next thing they knew they were passing through a rubber plantation. “I went one side of a tree and the corporal went the other and too late I noticed somebody standing by it,” said Ashton. The next moment he was grappling with a knife-wielding Japanese. “Luckily, I had my revolver and that was the end of him,” he said, “but then as I stepped out, shouting for the corporal, I found myself falling down a bank, my steel helmet clattering after me. I could hear my corporal’s Tommy gun belting away above me and a lot of noise. I lay where I was till it quietened down, then got up and walked a few yards only to realise I was in the middle of another Japanese position. There was a lot of transport and the odd tank, but, perhaps because I hadn’t got a steel helmet on, they didn’t realise who I was in the darkness and I just carried on walking.” Leaving the camp, he slipped off the track and “beat it” in the direction of what he imagined was the British lines. He had no idea how far or for how long he walked, but eventually he came to an unguarded barbed wire barrier, which he skirted to find himself in the garden of a house listening to what sounded like English voices. Against all the odds, he had passed unscathed through two enemy camps and the new British front-line to reach the headquarters of the 1st Cambridgeshires, a unit from his own division brought up to support the remnants of ‘Tomforce’. Of the 12 men in his party, he was the only successful evader, though three more later turned up in captivity.

ROAD TO DISASTER

Defending Singapore: 1942 LEFT: March of humiliation: General Percival, far right, leads the British surrender party through the 18th Division positions to the Ford factory at Bukit Timah, not far from the scene of ‘Tomforce’s’ first and last attack, where the final capitulation took place.

‘MORALE CRACKED’

The last serious attempt to turn the tide had proved too little, too late. Against a superior enemy, betterled and better-prepared, the men of ‘Tomforce’ had nevertheless advanced four miles – further than any other British force during the battle – before being forced to pull back. Casualties were heavy. In little more than four days’ fighting leading to the island’s surrender on February 15, the 4th Royal Norfolks alone lost between 200 and 300 killed, wounded and missing. Many more swelled the ranks of men straggling back into Singapore.

Tom Eaton, who was wounded leading a charge in the closing hours of the fighting, noted that by the end “morale, never very high, [had] cracked” leading to men absenting themselves from the frontline. At the time of the capitulation, he estimated the battalion’s strength at 200, a figure which leapt three-fold in captivity. However, for a few hours and against great odds, the men of ‘Tomforce’ had fought harder than most in the face of “considerable opposition”, a fact later recognised by awards of the Distinguished Service Order to Thomas, who had fought his way out

with 60 men to join an ‘official’ escape party out of Singapore, and to Knights, who would go on to become one of the heroes of a brutal incarceration spanning more than three years. Another to be honoured was Mike Ashton. His show of defiance in his first and last action resulted in the announcement – in captivity – of a Military Cross, an unexpected but richly-deserved reward for a feat of courageous determination that stood out as one of the few redeeming features in a defeat which Winston Churchill called “the worst disaster… in British history”. 

BELOW: A Japanese propaganda postcard celebrates the ignominious surrender of Singapore - an event Churchill described as the ‘worst disaster’ in British military history.

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FIRST WORLD WAR DIARY February 1917, British General Frederick Maude continues to progress his campaign against the Ottomans, meeting success. While in the United States, political opinion sways against Imperial Germany as President Wilson learns of the significant contents of a guileful telegram and of the tragic fate of two oceangoing American citizens.

WAR AT SEA:

WESTERN FRONT:

17 February: After conducting harassing raids during a debilitating winter along the Somme, the British attack to the north of the Ancre River. The attack, aimed at Loupart Wood amongst other defensive features, gains ground but is halted by German counter-fire. While 2,700 casualties are sustained, the British set in motion a series of events and retreats facilitating a long-necessary German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. The battle represented considerable change in method, each British platoon now had a Lewis Gun, and made liberal use of rifle grenades. New instructions and formations were also beneficial. Shells with new fuses, specifically designed to cut wire, were successful, while artillery strength increased, offering more effective barrages. Communications improved, and a devolution of authority led to quicker responses. Copies of orders, plans, and methods were sent to the US military as models for their planning.

1 February: Germany assigns a fleet of 105 U-Boats to vast swathes of ocean around the British Isles, the coast of France, and within the Mediterranean. Their orders, in these areas, to sink any ship without warning. 25 February: The Cunard Line liner RMS Laconia is sunk by U-50 7 miles off Fastnet, Ireland. Of more than 300 passengers and crew, 12 die, including Mary and Elizabeth Hoy, a mother and daughter from Chicago. The deaths of two American civilians in an unrestricted U-boat attack, famously reported by Floyd Gibbons, who was also on board, further turns the American people against Germany and in favour of war. 25 February: The Royal Navy intercepts a German destroyer flotilla leaving Zeebrugge, however a second group reaches the English Channel and shells Margate, Broadstairs, Westgate and North Foreland before slipping back to Zeebrugge.

UNITED STATES:

1 February: The US Government terminates diplomatic relations with Germany after President Wilson informs his cabinet of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. Two days later, Ambassador Count Bernstorff, implicit in numerous political and clandestine acts of/attempts of sabotage, is ordered from the country. 25 February: President Wilson is informed of the contents of the Zimmermann telegram, the substance of the infamous communique had been channelled to Wilson through the US Ambassador to the UK, Walter Hines Page. A furious Wilson asks Congress to vote to enact a state of armed neutrality, during his address, a messenger informs the President of the deaths of Mrs and Miss Hoy in the sinking of the Laconia, and instantly requests any and all available means, including arming American merchant ships, be used to protect American shipping and citizens. 28 February: Completely satisfied of the Zimmermann telegram’s authenticity, Wilson authorises the publication of the document in American newspapers, the threat of a possible German-Mexican alliance against the US comes as a shock for the American people.

PARIS:

13 February: French police arrest Margaretha Macleod (neé Zelle) in her hotel room on the Champs Elysées. Better known as Mata Hari, the Dutch-born adventuress, dancer and courtesan accused of spying for Germany had met several German generals and aristocrats, including Crown Prince Wilhelm. She was of interest to French intelligence agency Deuxième Bureau, who wished her to spy for them. They believed the Crown Prince to be of huge importance to Germany’s Army, when in fact his reputation was fabricated to hide his deficiencies as a military man and aristocrat. Nevertheless, Hari convinced German intelligence she would spy for them in return for a meeting with the Crown Prince, but they later ‘revealed’ Hari as a double agent allegedly on account of the poor quality, perhaps trivial, information passed to them, likely as a convincer. Whether of genuine guilt or not, Hari’s likely exaggerated trial was the perfect distraction and publicity magnet in a year of strikes, failed offensives, and mutiny. Documents relating to Hari’s trial are due to be declassified in 2017.

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FEBRUARY 1917 WORLD MAP WESTERN FRONT:

26 February: At a conference in Calais, Haig and Robertson are outraged to learn Prime Minister Lloyd George has predetermined ceding command of the BEF’s operational, supply, and administrative functions to the French, primarily General Nivelle. The proposal for amalgamation was offered because of Haig’s reluctance to extend British lines. However, Lloyd George had overestimated his power, and the British War Cabinet were never willing to lose permanently control of the BEF. Threatened resignations of Haig and Robertson resulted in letters of support from the War Cabinet, seen as a rebuke to the Prime Minister’s actions. The agreed compromise was that control of the BEF would be ceded only while Nivelle’s offensive was active. Nevertheless, both parties were acrimonious toward the other, and the move put back attempts to unify Anglo-French command. In an oversight, the bitter affair left the BEF and Haig in the hands of Nivelle for a temporary, acceptable, period, but neglected to find any route to, if necessary, challenge the actions of the French general - still solely held to task by the French government.

EASTERN FRONT:

3 February: Major operations along the Eastern Front cease for the rest of winter, after Hindenburg and Ludendorff refuse to reinforce a flagging German offensive toward Riga. 26 February: The first major and overt signal of revolution occurs in Petrograd (St Petersburg) as severe shortages in food and fuel during a harsh winter spurs a crowd, hundreds strong, to riot. They chant revolutionary slogans as they march through the capital.

MESOPOTAMIA:

1 February: Having gained over half a mile in bitter fighting, General Maude falls short of seizing the Hai Salient from the Ottomans. However, his Sikh troops suffer heavily, losing a thousand killed and wounded. Two days later, the British take the position and clear the Turkish trenches. 5 February: Turkish troops withdraw to a defensive line between a point near Kut known as the ‘Liquorice Factory’, where the Hai and Tigris rivers meet, and Yusifiya, to the northeast. Within a week, the British hold the ‘Liquorice Factory’ and have pushed Ottoman forces to the banks of the Tigris. 17 February: Now in possession of the right bank of the Tigris from Kut to Yusifiya, General Maude halts his actions to move on the Turkish strongpoint at Sannaiyat, on the left side of the river and the last position blocking British supply ships. Although successful in taking parts of the defences, the British fall back ahead of a large counterattack. 22 February: The majority of Turkish positions at Sannaiyat fall, although 1,330 British soldiers are killed or wounded. A day later, Maude crosses the Tigris at Shumran establishing a strong foothold on the left bank with light casualties. Sannaiyat completely falls that evening.

SWITZERLAND:

13 February: Emperor of Austria-Hungary, Charles I (Karl Franz Joseph), begins secret peace negotiations with France through Neuchâtel, Switzerland. His brother in law, Prince Sixtus, an officer in the Belgian Army, acts as intermediary. The attempt fails, as Germany refused the conditions required by France which included ceding Alsace-Lorraine to Paris. Nevertheless, for his efforts, the beautification of Charles I came in 2004 and his canonisation continues.

MIDDLE EAST:

8 February: After a lengthy campaign, British operations against the Senussi in western Egypt come to an end after a force of 1,200 Senussi, harried by British armoured cars, withdrew to Jaghbub, Italian Libya.

24 February: Kut falls as jubilant British troops chase Ottoman forces back from Sannaiyat. The troops landed at Shumran push on to the barracks at Dahra. With three Royal Navy gunboats in support, the British reach Nahr-al-Kalek two days later, but are unable to outflank and finally defeat the Turks, who retreat to Baghdad.

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TANKS BY TRAIN

Moving Tanks by Rail: 1916 - 1918 BELOW: Mk IV Female tanks, covered and on railcars, with their sponsons pushed inwards.

T

anks and railways go hand-in-hand. From the point when the first tanks were invented at William Foster’s Works in Lincoln in 1915, railways were pretty much the only option for moving anything of such an awkward and bulky size around the country. Not only was there a need to transport them in some form of disguise (even if with just a tarpaulin cover) owing to secrecy, but driving them long distances unnecessarily would

cause wear and tear. This was especially so because these early ground-breaking weapons were prone to mechanical breakdown. The movement of tanks, however, created one significant problem for the designers; although the vehicle had to be large enough to contain the engine with room for the crew, ammunition, weaponry, petrol, oil etc. it had to be suitable to travel across rough ground, but still be able to fit within the loading gauge of Britain’s railway

system in order to move it from factory to front line. Following the invention of the Lincoln No 1 Machine, developed into the ‘Little Willie’ first tank, the rhomboid design of ‘Big Willie’ (also known as ‘Mother’ or ‘His Majesty’s Land Ship Centipede’) later became the design pattern for the British tank throughout the First World War and it was this pattern which became the standard tank which had to be transported. Responsibility for this task fell to

Getting the first tanks from factory to front line was a problem that could only be resolved through the use of the railway system, although, as Rob Langham explains, it was a solution that was not without its own inherent problems.

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TANKS BY TRAIN

Moving Tanks by Rail: 1916 - 1918 the Transportation Branch of the Mechanical Warfare Department, which began life as the Landships Committee eventually becoming the Mechanical Warfare Department (or Mechanical Warfare Supply Department) in October 1916, the organisation not just responsible for the movement of the tanks themselves but also the bulk movement of associated stores and equipment. The width of the tank, however, was a potential problem.

A COLOSSAL TWENTYEIGHT TONS

Whilst the main body of the tank did fit within the loading gauge when on a wagon, the sponsons which contained the armament and projected out from the sides of the Tank did not. Thus, the Mk I Tanks which rumbled across the Somme battlefields for the first time in September 1916 had been designed to get around this issue by having the sponsons unbolted for rail transport and carried on trailers to be put back on again when they reached their

destination. This was far from ideal, because as well as the need for lifting gear and the time taken to remove and then re-attach the sponsons it was often the case that the holes for the bolts didn’t line up and had to be re-drilled. The Mk II Tanks used in 1917 had the same issue, but part of the improvements to the original design, implemented on the massproduced Mk IV Tank, was a method to withdraw the sponsons into the hull for transportation. The ‘Male’ tank, armed with a 6 pounder gun as well 

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TANKS BY TRAIN

Moving Tanks by Rail: 1916 - 1918

ABOVE LEFT: Mk IV tank L51 showing the large fascine above the cab used for the Battle of Cambrai, 1917. BELOW: Two trains, fully loaded with tanks, as part of preparations for the Battle of Cambrai.

as machine guns, had a large sponson on each side which retracted in one piece after the 6 pounder was slid back. The ‘Female’ tank, armed solely with machine guns, had smaller sponsons which folded inward, the split being half-way along the sponson. Pushing the sponson inside on the ‘Males’ was often helped by another tank gently nudging them inward, although this was almost certainly not officially sanctioned procedure! Although the problem of fitting the tanks within the loading gauge was solved, the issue of suitable wagons to move them on remained a headache. A tank could weigh up to a colossal 28 tons when fully loaded, although the ‘Female’ tanks weighed just a little

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bit less. Whilst there were plenty of bogie flat wagons (long vehicles with wheels arranged in two clusters of four wheels on a single bogie, which pivoted allowing the wagon to go around corners) that could carry this weight with at least ten tons to spare, the shape of the tanks was a problem. Designed to go over soft ground and spread their weight whilst on undulating terrain meant that the underside was not completely flat; thus, the total weight of a tank when on the flat surface of a railway wagon was concentrated onto a small area. This small area was, of course, under severe stress and could cause wagons to eventually sag or even to completely break. Fifty 25 ton capacity wagons

were built by the Great Western Railway Company, all of which had arrived in France by June 1917 and were capable of carrying the Mk I and Mk II tanks with their sponsons removed. The lack of sponsons, of course, had brought down the overall weight - although the wagons were no doubt kept in use for the Mk IV Tanks which retained their heavy sponsons for rail travel. A further batch of 26 wagons were also built with screwjacks to support each end during the loading and unloading process.

TANKS FOR THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI

A European type of flat wagon capable of carrying 25 tons was also used for the concentration of tanks for the Battle of Cambrai, despite the weight of the fully-equipped tanks putting them well over capacity. Not only the

TANKS BY TRAIN

Moving Tanks by Rail: 1916 - 1918 LEFT: ‘Egbert’, one of the Mk IV Male Tanks used on fundraising tours of Britain in 1917-18. Although photographed in Britain, the photo shows the sponson pushed in for railway transportation and shows how planks of wood have been used to try to spread the surface of the wagon in contact with the Tank. (NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY MAGAZINE 1918)

additional weight of the tanks, but also the small surface area of concentrated weight, meant that of 43 of these wagons used, 28 of them were writtenoff after becoming badly strained and damaged. Sixty bogie wagons already sent over to the Western Front from Britain were modified to make them more suitable for carrying tanks, this included slightly altering the body as the overhang between the ends of the wagon and the bogies meant they could be damaged during loading and unloading and therefore had wooden struts fitted to support the ends. Of those in use all over France, and of the 60 gathered together for this conversion, 24 were ready to move tanks for the Battle of Cambrai. A specially designed 40-ton capacity wagon was also produced, but not until 1918. Named the ‘RECTANK’ (REC – Railway Executive Committee which

governed most of Britain’s railway network during the war), 200 of these wagons were built. Strengthened in the centre, where the greatest stress would be, they could also be fitted with jacks at each end to support the wagons when tanks drove along them. These were built by various companies, including the North Eastern Railway Company, which built 35 in 1918. In total, just under 400 RECTANK wagons were in use in France by the end of the war. Another type, of which 787 were built and found satisfactory for tank conveyance, were produced by the Leeds Force Company. Understandably, the specially built wagons were shipped out to the Western Front although there were never enough to meet demand and so the other wagons not specifically designed for tank use were retained in service. Ramps for getting tanks on

and off the trains at railheads weren’t always available, and resulted in six four-wheeled ramp wagons being built in France using old railway wagons, their success resulting in 21 more being designed and built to a similar design by Stableford & Co of Coalville, Leicestershire. These ramp wagons were fitted with a removable wheelset (including axlebox and associated metalwork) and hinged buffers. The end was lowered onto the ground and the underneath packed with timbers to take the strain of tanks crawling over it. These were greatly appreciated by the Tank Corps, although loading and unloading by this method took a lot longer as the first tank on board had to travel over the entire train of wagons.

ABOVE: A temporary end-loading platform, with tanks camouflaged to try and avoid detection, ready to be loaded when a train arrives. BELOW LEFT: A factory fresh tank with civilian workers on a railway wagon. BELOW RIGHT: Mk V Tanks under production. (LIBRARY AND

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RUNAWAY TANK TRAIN

The priority for specialised railway wagons to move tanks was, of course, 

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TANKS BY TRAIN

Moving Tanks by Rail: 1916 - 1918

ABOVE: Tank trains en route to Cambrai, the heavy load often required two locomotives per train.

BELOW: Covered tanks, somewhere in France. (LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA)

the Western Front. Thus, Britain’s railway companies who moved tanks from the factories where they were built to Bovington Camp, or to the Channel Ports, continued to make do with what they had available. Movement of tanks on railways, though, could be risky and on one occasion, at Sway in Hampshire, a tank came loose from its chains and pivoted, swinging to the side of the wagon it was travelling on and hitting a train coming in the opposite direction. Another incident saw a runaway tank train hit another train at Bournemouth. As the driving of tanks as a method of transporting them when not in action or training was to be avoided where possible, construction of a

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branch line from the London & South Western Railway’s line at Wool up to the Tank Corps HQ at Bovington Camp was quickly started and used German POWs for labour. The line didn’t open until 1919, however, and so for the remainder of the war the tanks had to drive from Wool station up to the camp. With tanks still being secret, especially the newer types such as the Medium Mark A ‘Whippet’ and the Mk IX Infantry Carrier, local residents were simply advised to shut their curtains and not to look! The sixteenth-century Wool Bridge was damaged on a number of occasions, most seriously when a tank not only crashed into the side parapet but then completely fell off the bridge, ending

up on its side in the river below. However it was done, the movement of tanks was not without difficulty and danger.

A TEMPTING TARGET

Originally, tanks were moved to the Channel ports from the factories and training grounds and loaded onto vessels especially chosen and reserved for tanks, but they had to be taken off the railway wagons and craned aboard, with the reverse happening on arrival in France. This all changed in early 1918 with the commencement of train ferry services from the ‘secret port’ at Richborough, Kent, with the tanks being kept on their wagons and shipped across in situ, then simply

TANKS BY TRAIN

Moving Tanks by Rail: 1916 - 1918

ABOVE: One of the train ferries introduced in 1918 which sailed from the ‘secret’ port of Richborough, near Ramsgate, Kent, with a load of Mk V* tanks being taken to France.

hauled off and onwards to their destination upon arrival. The physical task of getting tanks on and off the train, though, could be dangerous. Ramps and platforms had to be up to the task of supporting the tank’s weight, and accidents could happen, especially at night time. This wasn’t the only risk, and although the Royal Flying Corps was very successful at achieving air superiority over the Western Front it was harder to deter lone German raiders at night and these frequently pestered the British forces, dropping bombs on any targets that presented themselves, especially those where lamps and lanterns were visible. The exhaust pipes of the tanks had a nasty habit of giving off light, too, and frequently glowed red hot. This was not only a risk in potentially setting fire to any stores a little too close to the pipe, but at night time illuminated a tempting target to any marauding enemy aircraft. Numbers of these in close proximity could give away the

location of a railhead, not only risking the tanks but also the trains, stores, and vital unloading facilities. There wasn’t much that could be done about this without changing the design of the tank itself, and so the tank crews, improvising as they had to do many times, improvised by covering the exhaust pipes in mud to mask the glow. Other issues became apparent but were solved as experience of moving tanks increased. For example, when tanks arrived at their railhead destination before an attack they moved forwards in preparation for advancing across no-mans land. The supply tanks, vital the operation of the fighting tanks, tended to be moved later, which not only meant that by the time they arrived at the railhead then the fighting tanks the supply tanks were supposed to be supporting were already well ahead. Not only that, but additional time was taken in preparing the supply tanks. As the sponsons had been withdrawn or removed entirely

for railway transportation, the stores the tanks carried were displaced by the sponson had to be reattached at the railhead. Additionally, as the supply tanks also tended to be older types than those in use in battle, they were at a further disadvantage and likely to be slower. This was eventually taken into consideration and supply tanks loaded earlier for movement towards the front where possible. Documentation and photographs of the movement of the smaller (and at 14 tons, much lighter) Medium Mark A Whippet Tanks is scarce, but one surviving photo shows a wagon with two Whippets on board with the same image showing three of the Renault FT 6½ ton tanks on a single wagon.

LEFT: A preserved example in The Tank Museum, Dorset, of a sponson trailer used to transport the large sponsons of Male and Female Mk I and Mk II tanks which could not be pushed inside the tank for rail transportation and had to be removed.

DAMAGE TO TANKS AND RAILWAY TRACKS

The men crewing the tanks were transported at the same time as their vehicles, but there was often a lack  of accommodation because other www.britainatwar.com 53

TANKS BY TRAIN

Moving Tanks by Rail: 1916 - 1918

ABOVE: Railway yard at Villers-Brettoneau with Mk IV tanks and a damaged Whippet Tank.

(LIBRARY AND

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BELOW: A ramp trailer in use with a Mk V. BELOW RIGHT: Although from the Mk IV on, sponsons could be retracted for transportation, on Male tanks this was a heavy job, the men here aided here by another tank.

men were also carried on these trains. Although the trains travelled slowly owing to a mixture of heavy traffic and the state of the railways as they got closer to the front, cold air rushing past the tanks combined with low temperatures could cause damage, particularly to the fuel and cooling systems for the engine. To try to avoid any damage, men often travelled in the tanks themselves, ready to start the engines when deemed necessary and reducing rest for the men who still had to detrain the tanks and drive them onwards after arriving at their destination. The onward journey to the settingoff point before an attack from the railhead was even more awkward, as

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summed up in a report by 3rd Tank Group, Tank Corps: Everyone agrees that tanks should never, if it can possibly be avoided, make treks by road, unless the reason for same is most exceptional and urgent. It is nearly always possible to find a route round villages when these are met with, and to move by the side of most roads in ordinary country. It is not only that tanks destroy the roads, block the traffic, and wear out their own tracks and rollers by using roads, but tanks also become very unpopular with other arms of the service if they upset and delay the ordinary road traffic. Should an exceptional and urgent case occur where tanks have to move

by a road, the APM (Assistant Provost Marshall) of the area in which the tanks are moving must be asked what arrangements he wishes carried out by the tanks; the APM being told the requirements of the tanks as to times etc. Tanks not only damaged roads, but also railway tracks too. The railheads where tanks were offloaded not only contained standard gauge track but also the more lightly laid narrow gauge tracks of the War Department Light Railway (WDLR) which moved stores from the standard gauge railheads further towards the front. The tanks could cause much annoyance and damage by driving over these rails, buckling

TANKS BY TRAIN

Moving Tanks by Rail: 1916 - 1918 or distorting them and rendering them useless, but it was generally found that if WDLR companies were warned in advance they could temporarily remove rails to clear a path for the tanks as well as help in offloading and repairing any damage done by them. Although the tanks were, of course, far too large for movement by the two-foot narrow gauge railways used on the Western Front, where possible all stores such as 6 pounder ammunition, small arms ammunition (both for the tanks machine guns and pistols used by the crew members) as well as petrol, oil and grease would all be moved forward to supply dumps nearer to the lines by the WDLR system.

FEARED SOCIALIST UPRISING

Although the priority was movement of tanks from factory to the front (or to Bovington) there was some other movement of tanks within Britain. After the British public first saw tanks in photographs, and then at the cinema, they were seen in late 1917 at the Lord Mayor’s Show in London and were understandably hugely popular and a great morale booster. A number of tanks toured the country, giving demonstrations and selling War Bonds (where they were set up as ‘Tank Banks’), with the sheer size of them making their roof suitably convenient platforms for speeches by local dignitaries or military figures - especially local men who had distinguished themselves in action. There were also secret ‘Emergency Schemes’ in place in the event of enemy invasion that allowed for

moving tanks (as well as infantry etc) to coastal locations to combat landing forces. With the end of the war, Britain’s railways also had the unusual task of sending tanks, singly, to various destinations for emplacement as ‘Presentation Tanks’. These were sent to the nearest goods yard or station capable of handling them and then driven the final mile or so to where they would be handed over to the town or city. However, vital parts of the drive gear were disabled at this point by the crew in order to prevent the tank being used against its former owners in the event of a feared socialist uprising following events in Russia. After the First World War the railways continued to be a prime

mover for tanks through the interwar, Second World War and Cold War periods. Even today, movement of tanks by rail is carried out where suitable, although within Britain this appears to be limited to the smaller Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) family of vehicles, such as Scimitar and Sultan, as the larger Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks is out of gauge for Britains’ railways, but not in mainland Europe. Whilst the use of tanks in combat was one thing, the logistical nightmare of moving these heavy, awkwardly sized weapons is one of many fascinating aspects of the introduction of tanks to the battlefield one hundred years ago. 

ABOVE: Mk V tanks being loaded onto a train using an earth platform. BELOW: Railhead damaged by German shellfire. (LIBRARY AND

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MERLINS, TEA AND BACON!

The Story of Fishers Cottage, RAF Westhampnett

ABOVE: The 309th Fighter Squadron’s Captain Winfred ‘Salty’ Chambers outside Fishers Cottage. (COURTESY OF NANCY STRAWN ADAMS, COLOURISED BY DAN JARMAN) BOTTOM LEFT (OPPOSITE PAGE): Some of 602 Squadron’s groundcrew pose in front of Spitfire ‘LO-H’, this being the aircraft flown by Charles Hector MacLean. This photograph was taken in front of Fishers Cottage, the NCO pilots’ quarters located on the airfield’s eastern boundary. (THE 602 (CITY OF GLASGOW) SQUADRON MUSEUM) BOTTOM MIDDLE (OPPOSITE PAGE): The Americans arrive at Westhampnett. Here Lieutenant Samuel Junkin of the 309th Fighter Squadron is pictured reading a paper on the steps of Fishers Cottage prior to the Dieppe Raid. He became the 309th Fighter Squadron’s first combat casualty on that day, receiving cannon shell injuries to his right shoulder. He baled out of his aircraft after having trouble with his cockpit hood and was eventually picked up by an RAF air sea rescue launch. However, prior to being injured he was credited with a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, thereby becoming the first of the USAAF’s Eighth Air Force fighter pilots to make a claim. (COURTESY OF NANCY STRAWN ADAMS)

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MERLINS, TEA AND BACON!

The Story of Fishers Cottage, RAF Westhampnett

a e T , s n i l r e M ! n o c a B and

It is often difficult when visiting former wartime airfields to pick out period buildings or to be able to create a mental image of what they may have been used for. It is only through personal accounts and wartime images that some appreciation of the hustle and bustle of a busy wartime airfield can be gleaned – as Mark Hillier reveals.

M

any buildings found on the various wartime airfields in the UK were constructed to standard Air Ministry patterns and were therefore similar from station to station. At some airfields, local buildings and farms were requisitioned, or even ‘acquisitioned’, to provide essential accommodation for personnel and one such airfield that had virtually no purposebuilt accommodation prior to its military use was the fighter station of RAF Westhampnett in West Sussex, now known as Goodwood Airfield.

RAF Goodwood, or RAF Woodcote as it was described in an account by a member of 610 (County of Chester) Squadron’s groundcrew in 1941, later became known as RAF Westhampnett. The airfield, however, did have a pre-war link with aviation through the 9th Duke of Richmond. Frederick Charles Gordon Lennox, the Duke of Richmond, Lennox, Gordon and Aubigny (1904-1989), had been a keen aviator. He not only designed and flew his own aircraft, but developed his own flying field to the south of Goodwood House which was complete with a thatched hanger to house his aircraft. Along with Edmund Hordern, a former

test pilot, the 9th Duke of Richmond also co-founded Hordern-Richmond Aircraft Ltd in 1937.

‘MAKE-DO-AND-MEND’

The land on which the current Goodwood airfield was constructed was once just a collection of fields belonging to Goodwood Estate and was located to the southwest of the Duke’s own airfield. As the threat of war grew, this area of flat land, ideally suited for flying purposes, was requisitioned by the Air Ministry. The intention at the time had not been to construct a fully operational airfield, but merely an emergency landing ground for the nearby Sector Station of RAF Tangmere. 

BELOW RIGHT: Sergeant Herbert David Denchfield (right) with his best friend Woodrow Raine at the rear of Fishers Cottage. Denchfield joined 610 (County of Chester) Squadron on 7 October 1940, just in time for the end of the Battle of Britain. He was shot down during a Blenheim escort sortie on 2 February 1941, but baled out to become a prisoner of war. (WOODROW RAINE, VIA THE LATE DAVID DENCHFIELD)

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MERLINS, TEA AND BACON!

The Story of Fishers Cottage, RAF Westhampnett

ABOVE LEFT: Taken in June 1940, this is one of the earliest known photographs of RAF personnel at Westhampnett. Known as the Headquarters Flight, these men were posted in from Tangmere to help establish the airfield. The building behind went on to serve as the station armoury and can still be seen by visitors to Goodwood today. (AUTHOR’S

COLLECTION)

ABOVE RIGHT: Sergeant Ray Sherk of 129 Squadron standing outside the sergeants’ accommodation at Fishers Cottage which was located on the airfield’s eastern boundary, close to the current entrance to Goodwood airfield and racetrack off Claypit Lane. (COURTESY OF RAY SHERK)

The first squadron to find a home at Westhampnett, by then a formal satellite of RAF Tangmere, was the Hurricane-equipped 145 Sqn, led by Sqn Ldr John Peel who had taken command only days earlier. The squadron arrived on 23 July 1940 and, at this stage, its personnel had to make do with the collection of farm buildings and tied cottages around the airfield boundary. A case of ‘make do and mend’ as recalled by Aircraftsman Eric Marsden: ‘We found there was no provision for us at all, there were three unfinished Nissen huts and little else and this was about the middle of July 1940. The dining hall was the wagon shed of the farm, rough tables only and that dining room was for everyone pilots and groundcrew alike. There were birds in the rafters and spiders dropping down into the food. What was supposed to be our billets were brick huts with corrugated roofs with windows and doors either end. We painted the windows black for the blackout but there was no power. The concrete floors were set but not yet dry, no bed boards no anything.

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The washing facilities consisted of an existing farm trough in the field with two boards across it and six zinc basins resting on the planks. We were told to get on with it. At that time we had ground sheets or capes, and the chaps put groundsheets down and put their bedding on top. We looked in the hedge and pulled out fence boards and bricks to make makeshift beds.’

THE SOUND OF AIRCRAFT ENGINES

The officers were accommodated in a farmhouse known as Woodcote Farm, whilst the NCO pilots were billeted in the relative luxury of a house known as Fishers Cottage. The cottage still exists, though it is now almost hidden from the roadside and fenced off from the once open airfield. Few know of its existence, or even notice or credit it with any significance in the airfields’ wartime role. Now home to Graham Turner, the Chief Flying Instructor of Goodwood Flying School, Fishers Cottage was indelibly etched in to the memories of many wartime pilots who called it ‘home’. During the war years, however, the cottage was almost a

picture of idyllic English country living. With a part thatched and part clay tiled roof, it occupied a scenic location on the edge of open fields and included a well-manicured garden and vegetable patch. For many, this was home and a respite from operations; a chance to ‘get one’s head down’ before the next long sortie over enemy territory. For some, it became the place where they left their belongings before being lost on operations or becoming a prisoner of war. Its serenity and country idyll, though, was frequently disturbed by the sound of aircraft engines. Imagine waking from a fitful sleep on an uncomfortable wire-framed camp bed, pulling up the thick, hairy service blankets to keep warm whilst condensation ran down the windows and the fire not quite warming the room enough to allow risking stepping out onto the cold floor. With the sun just peeking through the cracks of the curtains, below in the kitchen the ever-diligent orderlies were preparing endless brews as the waft of cooking bacon rose to greet the waking pilots. Meanwhile, the sound of Merlin engines being

MERLINS, TEA AND BACON!

The Story of Fishers Cottage, RAF Westhampnett

warmed by the ground crew reverberated just outside the bedroom windows. This was often the reality for those billeted in Fishers Cottage.

TWO OR MORE OPERATIONS A DAY

For all who lived there through the wartime years, the memories of Fishers Cottage are generally fond ones, particularly for the New Zealanders of 485 Sqn who threw many parties, inviting local ladies back for late night revelry. One of 485 Sqn’s pilots was Fg Off Doug Brown: ‘[Our] officers were accommodated in a two-storied house called Fishers Cottage on the aerodrome perimeter. The mess for meals was a Nissen hut about 100 metres from our accommodation. This was only used for meals as we established a lounge and bar at Fishers Cottage. The Sergeants’ accommodation was in Nissen huts at this time. As with most squadrons we “worked and played hard”. The Mermaid Hotel, about halfway from the aerodrome to Chichester, was well patronised by 485. Arthur King the proprietor was a very generous

host not only to 485 but to all RAF squadrons. The squadron also utilised the services of the King’s Beach Hotel at Pagham. In the main we entertained our “friends” at Fishers Cottage. The squadron was fully involved in flying duties and more often than not pilots were involved in two or more operations a day.’ Many pilots who returned to Westhampnett since those heady days of the 1940s have wanted to re-visit the place where they stayed during the war. One in particular, Warrant Officer David Denchfield, who resided in the cottage during 1941 whilst serving on 610 (County of Chester) Squadron, recalled the following: ‘The aircrew NCOs were in a largish cottage in its own grounds just behind ‘B’ Flight (Fishers Cottage). Billy Raine and myself were in a large downstairs room, later joined by Sam Hamer. A sitting room led off this, as did the stairs to the upstairs rooms used by Hamlyn, Bill Ballard and the other NCO pilots. Two erks [groundcrew] had a small room off ours alongside a kitchen, and they kept the place clean, woke us up for early morning

readiness and generally looked after us with great dedication. There was also a garage. Most mornings I was awakened at about 6am, while it was still pitch black, hearing half awake, the first uncertain coughing of a Merlin followed by the sudden rasping roar as she caught, reducing to a subdued rumble as the erk throttled back to let her warm, and sat waiting for the temperatures to stabilise before starting his checks. This sole engine would be followed by others in quick succession until a steady throb of maybe 12 or 14 Merlins intruded into that delightful hiatus twixt waking and sleeping. Then Taffy would bring the tea, and say ‘Readiness in five minutes’. Then followed five delicious minutes sitting drinking tea exchanging the odd monosyllabic comment with Billy or Sam if they were also on readiness, and then the shocking plunge out into the freezing atmosphere beyond the blankets. A quick wash and shave, dress in the “working blue”; throw on the Irvin leather jacket and then the crunching walk across the iron-hard airfield to ‘B’ dispersal. Then into the harsh glare of the bare electric light 

BELOW: A rare, if poor quality, image of an early Westhampnett-based squadron in action during the Battle of Britain. In this case it is ‘B’ Flight of 145 Squadron taking off to the south-west sometime in early August 1940. (TANGMERE MILITARY AVIATION MUSEUM)

ABOVE LEFT: The 9th Duke of Richmond’s hangar was situated across the road to the north of Woodcote Farm. This was the earliest airfield at Goodwood. Later on, after occupation of the adjacent land by the RAF in 1940, the hangar was used by various members of groundcrew and associated personnel as accommodation. (THE GOODWOOD COLLECTION)

ABOVE MIDDLE: Some of 485 Squadron’s pilots entertaining one evening at Fishers Cottage. Squadron Leader Reginald Grant DFC, DFM can be seen at left rear. (COURTESY OF DOUG BROWN)

ABOVE RIGHT: Three of the 309th Fighter Squadron’s pilots prepare for a night out in the local area – they used to frequent dances in Chichester and Bognor Regis. The jeep is parked outside Fishers Cottage where Lieutenant Harry Strawn was accommodated.

(COURTESY OF NANCY STRAWN ADAMS)

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MERLINS, TEA AND BACON!

The Story of Fishers Cottage, RAF Westhampnett

A Fighter Command Station at War The full story of RAF Westhampnett is told by Mark Hillier in A Fighter Command Station at War: A Photographic Record of RAF Westhampnett from The Battle of Britain to D-Day and Beyond. To receive a 25% discount and free postage (UK only) call Pen & Sword’s mail order line on 01226 734222 and quote FCSW25, or visit us online (and quote the same code) at: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

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ABOVE RIGHT: A recent aerial view of Goodwood airfield, the former RAF Westhampnett. Fishers Cottage can still be seen in the woods along the road in the red circle. (ALISTAIR KAY, VIA GOODWOOD)

RIGHT: Fishers Cottage today.

(AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)

BELOW: Groundcrew of 485 Squadron relax at dispersal in front of one of the squadron’s Mk.Vb Spitfires. The Spitfire in the centre is sitting on a stretch of the perimeter track that still exists today as part of the race track known as Madgwick Corner. (AUTHOR’S

bulbs of the Nissen hut, grunt a sort of “Wot-ho!” to whoever happened to be there, and picking up one’s brolly [parachute] amble across the 200 yards of frosted grass and mud to [Spitfire] DW-P.’ Denchfield only stayed at Fishers Cottage a short while as he was shot down after his first few sorties over France and captured on 5 February 1941. His pal and room-mate, Billy Raine, was shot down and killed on 21 August, 1941.

‘SOMETHING LIKE A HOME’

Subsequently, a young American pilot, Lieutenant Harry Strawn of the 309th Fighter Squadron, was accommodated at Fishers Cottage in August 1942. He noted in his diary that the arrangements were much better than the Nissen huts he had been used to,

COLLECTION)

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although his description of the place as a ‘mansion’ might be considered just a little exaggerated! His diary recorded: ‘The field is very well camouflaged and at first I didn’t see it. It’s a grass field, but very nice indeed. Our quarters are a bit different now, as I’m living in an old mansion. Spike Schofield and I have a room on the second floor. We are not far from the

field now. In fact, I can look out of my window and see my plane from here. It’s a change to be in something like a home even if it’s old. We have a beautiful garden in the back with some flowers.’ By the end of the war, RAF Westhampnett had been extensively developed with the site having encompassed many of the surrounding villages. It had been home to at least forty-six squadrons and sub-units (some of the squadrons being based at the airfield more than once) as well as many thousands of service personnel. Despite all of the changes that RAF Westhampnett (latterly Goodwood Airfield) has seen, Fishers Cottage survives to serve as almost the last tangible reminder of this notable wartime fighter base. 

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A VICTORY OF SORTS

The Battle of Dogger Bank: January 1915

AOF Vi MAIN IMAGE: The stricken SMS Blücher rolls over on to her side. TOP LEFT: Admiral Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty (17 January 1871 – 11 March 1936), of Jutland fame, whilst a Vice Admiral.

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A VICTORY OF SORTS

The Battle of Dogger Bank: January 1915

The first naval engagement of any significance between the German and British fleets took place in January 1915 at Dogger Bank in the North Sea and should have resulted in much greater success for the British than actually achieved as Peter Hart explains. 

ictory F SORTS

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A VICTORY OF SORTS

The Battle of Dogger Bank: January 1915 RIGHT: SMS Blücher pictured prior to the Battle of Dogger Bank. Commissioned on 1 October 1909, she was the last armoured cruiser constructed for the Kaiserliche Marine.

RIGHT: Admiral Franz von Hipper.

BELOW: A painting by William Lionel Wyllie which depicts Royal Navy battlecruisers, light cruisers and destroyers in the pursuit of the German fleet during the Battle of Dogger Bank.

P

opular opinion in Britain had expected the advent of war with Germany to result in a huge naval battle to resolve the command of the seas within a matter of days in August 1914. Yet the Germans declined to sacrifice their navy at the altar of popular British sentiment and instead kept it safely in harbour. German strategy was based firmly on securing an early land victory via a great assault on France. There was no need to risk the fleet, which had a key role to play in defending the open German flanks from the possibility of coastal assault in the Baltic or North Sea. The Commanderin-Chief of the High Seas Fleet, Admiral Friederich von Ingenohl, was ordered not to risk his ships and he duly complied. The Germans believed that the British were still committed to the idea of a close blockade of German ports. The chances of successfully launching submarine and destroyer attacks against the anticipated British blockade in the Heligoland Bight whetted the German appetite. A drip, drip string of losses to torpedoes and mines would soon render the Grand Fleet vulnerable. Even when it became apparent that the Royal Navy was not going to provide an easy target off the coast of Germany, the original tactic of trying to erode the Grand Fleet through mines and torpedoes remained in force. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, however, commanding the Grand Fleet, was well aware of the threat posed by German torpedoes and mines. He resolved to act with

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great caution, taking every effort to avoid being drawn into a submarine ‘trap’ and maintained a distant blockade with the Grand Fleet based at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands to the north. The English Channel would be blocked by a combination of mines, light destroyer forces and a predreadnought squadron. Jellicoe reasoned that this gave the Royal Navy control over the world’s oceans, with only the North Sea ‘contested’ between the British and German fleets.

GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE

For a few months, other than a couple of skirmishes, little of real consequence happened in the naval war until, in November 1914, von Ingenohl summoned up the nerve to begin a series of attacks on the east coast of Britain conducted by the battlecruisers of the 1st Scouting Force, commanded by Admiral Franz von Hipper. These raids were intended to provoke an unconsidered response from the British that might allow the chance of destroying isolated elements of the Grand Fleet, or draw them over newly laid minefields.

Since October, Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty, commanding the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, had been detached to Cromarty and were thus promising candidates for a German ambush. Yet the British did have one huge theoretical advantage in this game of cat and mouse. Unknown to the Germans, copies of their secret naval ciphers had been passed to the

A VICTORY OF SORTS

The Battle of Dogger Bank: January 1915

Admiralty earlier in 1914. A special department known as Room 40 had been set up to decode the German signals augmented by the use of wireless directional stations to locate the German ships’ transmissions. The first German hit-and-run raid on Yarmouth made on 3 November came rather too early for Room 40, but they were ready for the next attempt on 16 December. Early warning of the raid proved more of a hazard than a boon to Jellicoe. The intelligence was imprecise and the Admiralty did not realise that Hipper would be supported by the whole of the High Seas Fleet. They rashly interfered with Jellicoe’s intended dispositions to insist that he deploy just Beatty’s four battlecruisers and the six dreadnoughts of the 2nd Battle Squadron with accompanying light forces. Both sides were attempting to trap the other, but in the event bad

weather and poor visibility meant that the resulting operations were inconclusive – except for the people of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby who found the German battlecruisers’ shells crashing down around them.

PULLING THE LION’S TAIL

The bombardments caused an outcry amongst the general public. The question was simple; with the most powerful and expensive navy in the world, how was it possible for an enemy to bombard their homeland unscathed? To their credit, the Admiralty rode out the storm, recognising the sheer stupidity of trying to guarantee the security of the whole east coast. However, they did move Beatty and the battlecruisers from Cromarty, to a new base a little further south at Rosyth in the Firth of Forth. This would enable them

ABOVE: A contemporary drawing of the final moments of SMS Blücher. Her captain, Alexander Erdmann, survived and was amongst those rescued by the British. He later died of pneumonia while a POW. BELOW: Another of William Lionel Wyllie’s paintings, this image shows HMS Lion, HMS Tiger and HMS Princess Royal during the chase of the German fleet.

to respond more quickly should the alarm be sounded again. For the Germans the raid was a heady mixture of defiant gesture, near disaster and golden opportunity. It boosted morale throughout their fleet and counterbalanced the growing feeling that they were not justifying their place in the overall German war effort. They could not resist trying to pull the lion’s tail again. On 23 January 1915, Ingenohl sent out Hipper’s 1st Scouting Group (Seydlitz, Moltke, Derfflinger and Blücher) accompanied by the four light cruisers of the 2nd Scouting Group and eighteen destroyers. This time, they were to try and entrap any British forces found sweeping through the Dogger Bank area. Room 40 duly warned the Admiralty that the game was afoot; although there could be no precision as to what the Germans intended. Once again, the Admiralty response can be perceived as being optimistic. That afternoon, Beatty sailed accompanied by 1st Battlecruiser Squadron (Lion, Tiger and Princess Royal), the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral Sir Archibald Moore, (New Zealand and Indomitable), and the four light cruisers of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron commanded by Commodore Sir William Goodenough. At 07.00 on 24 January, Beatty was to rendezvous with the Harwich Force commanded by Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt (three light cruisers and thirty-five destroyers) just to the north of Dogger Bank. Distant – and hence irrelevant - support was provided to the north by the seven pre-dreadnoughts of the Third Battle Squadron and the 3rd Cruiser Squadron. The Grand Fleet  www.britainatwar.com 71

A VICTORY OF SORTS

The Battle of Dogger Bank: January 1915

TOP: HMS Lion.

sailed, but could only hope to arrive in the afternoon of 24 January.

ABOVE: HMS Indomitable.

ONE SIGNIFICANT HIT

At 07.20, an exchange of fire between the opposing light scouting forces of the two fleets, alerted Hipper to the likelihood of a British trap and at 07.35, he cautiously set a course towards the south-east and Wilhelmshaven, pending some clarification of what was happening. At 07.50, Beatty sighted the German battlecruisers at a distance of some 35,000 yards and commenced a determined stern chase. Straining

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their engines to the utmost to achieve speeds up to 27 knots, the Lion, Tiger and Princess Royal surged ahead, leaving behind the more venerable New Zealand and Indomitable. Gradually they began to overhaul Hipper, who was hamstrung by the Blucher’s maximum speed of 23 knots. At 08.52 the Lion was able to fire a first ranging shot with her 13.5” guns at a distance of about 20,000 yards. The angle of the British approach meant that their funnel smoke was blown clear, while the German rangefinders were partially blinded by their own smoke. The German

armament of 11” and 12” guns had a shorter range and were only able to return fire at 09.11. Midshipman John Ouvry was on the Tiger and recalled his initial nerves during the opening exchanges of fire. My first sight of German vessels really was smoke on the horizon and then masts. The Captain was in the conning tower and I was outside looking for submarines. We sighted the Germans - they opened fire on us and we on them. The first salvo blew my hat off. Thewn to my relief the Captain sent a messenger to say, “Come inside the conning tower now!” Which I did! As the British battlecruisers came into range, they each initially concentrated their fire on the Blücher, the rear ship of his line. The Blücher was not really a battlecruiser at all, but a strange heavy cruiser hybrid built in the period immediately before the nature of the battlecruiser concept was realised on the launch of the Invincible. There was some confusion in the allotment of the five British battlecruiser against their four opponents. At 09.35 Beatty signalled, “Engage the corresponding ships in the enemy’s line”. He intended the rear two ships were meant to concentrate on the Blücher, while the other three took on their opposing numbers. However, this was not evident and Captain Henry Pelly aboard the Tiger joined the Lion in concentrating on the Seydlitz leading the German line. This left the Moltke untroubled as she joined the Seydlitz in firing at the Lion. It also led to

A VICTORY OF SORTS

The Battle of Dogger Bank: January 1915

gross inaccuracy as the inexperienced gunners on the Tiger confused the shell splashes generated by the fire of the Lion with their own shells - and were thus unaware that they were firing some 2 miles over the Seydlitz. To make matters worse, Derfflinger was also firing at the Lion because the German gunners took a pragmatic view - picking the target they could see best in the smoke – which proved to be the Lion. The Lion did secure one significant hit on her assailants. A 13.5inch shell crashed down on the Seydlitz at about 09.50, tearing through the quarterdeck and partially penetrated the barbette armour of the aft turret. The burst ignited the cordite charges in the working chamber and triggered a flash that spread in an instant into the magazine handling room and up into the turret above. Desperate men, trying to escape the searing flames, futilely opened the door that led to the adjacent turret and thus exported the disaster and condemned their neighbours. Flames roared through the two turrets, killing some 159 men and the outright disaster of a magazine explosion was only avoided by the rapid flooding of the aftermagazine.

fired on ourselves. It meant the Lion was bound to get hit sooner rather than later. I could see the smoke and flame of shells hitting her. From 10.01, a series of shells crashed down on the Lion. Midshipman Philip Vaux had a grandstand view from his position up in the foretop. My job was to spot our fall of shells which was very hard to do owing to their funnel smoke and also the smoke of their gunfire. I could see their shells coming towards us through my glasses and also the splinters after their shells burst which was rather disconcerting. Several times I got soaked with the spray which their shells threw up when falling short and ahead of us. When we were hit the whole ship seemed to stagger and shake itself, quite

a curious sensation. A shell or a splinter struck the topmast about 6 feet above my head. Far below him in the bowels of the ship was Sub Lieutenant Roger Selby at his action station in the Transmitting Station, from which orders and ranges were sent up to the guns. I was down in the bottom of the ship and in the terror of my life. There was a shell room underneath and they used to drop projectiles by mistake occasionally – they weight half a ton – so at once thought it was us hitting a mine or torpedo! Having been hit about five times in 10 seconds and a 15-degree list on, with the water swishing about above – they were only putting a fire out – we all thought we were done for!

TOP LEFT: Admiral Sir  Archibald  Gordon Henry Wilson Moore  KCB CVO (2 February 1862 – 2 April 1934) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Third Sea Lord. ABOVE: SMS Seydlitz.



LEFT: HMS Birmingham.

‘IN THE TERROR OF MY LIFE’

As Ouvry watched from the conning tower of the Tiger he was grateful that the Germans were concentrating their fire on the Lion. For the first part of the action we rather got away with it! We were firing at them without being www.britainatwar.com 73

A VICTORY OF SORTS

The Battle of Dogger Bank: January 1915

FLASH OF THE FOREMOST GUNS

Listing, with damaged port engines the Lion lost speed and began to fall out of the line of battle, with the result the Tiger took over in the vanguard. Midshipman John Ouvry noticed an immediate difference. We had a hit very close to us as a shell burst under the deck of the conning tower on which the captain and ourselves were standing. It shook us very badly and killed some men on the decks below. There was a certain amount of smoke in the conning tower. I think on an occasion like that you’re sort of pulverised; you carry on automatically doing your duty - you’re frightened, but you don’t say. You’re very tense; very tense. You do your job completely and efficiently; at the same time your nerves are all tense. The Captain turned round and said, “Keep steady boys!” Midshipman Henry Blagrove was at his station in a 13.5” turret aboard the Tiger. Their shells were all round us and just ahead the water was stiff with them. A good number burst in the water making an awful din. My turret was missed by inches over and over again. There were 74 www.britainatwar.com

ABOVE RIGHT: A 1915 postcard depicting the battle. Note the sinking SMS Blücher to the right, and the airship above. According to some accounts, when Royal Navy ships moved to rescue survivors a German airship, mistaking Blücher for a British vessel, began bombing, forcing them to withdraw. ABOVE LEFT: A German memorial card marking the loss of Blücher. The number of casualties suffered in her loss varies from account to account, but one source estimates 792 killed, 234 captured and 45 wounded. RIGHT: SMS Stalsund.

large splinters of shell on the roof of my turret and also round the barbette. I was knocked out of my sighting hood three times by wind of projectiles passing close and got quite peevish with it. Spray also worried me a lot – fogged my sights so the trainer couldn’t find the target for a minute or so. The flash of the foremost guns hurt my eyes considerably. I had to duck every now and then when a shell passed over and kept on calling myself a silly ass! At this stage everything was still going relatively well for Beatty. But then came a disastrous series of interlinked errors. At 10.54, believing (erroneously) he had sighted a periscope on the starboard bow of the Lion, he ordered a radical 90-degree turn to port – to avoid the much-feared submarine ambush in accordance with Grand Fleet policy. Minutes later he realised this was too sharp a turn and ordered: “Course north-east’ and added, “Attack the rear of the enemy”. He meant for his faster ships to hunt down Hipper’s fleeing squadron, but the ambiguities inherent in the signals fatally confused his second-in-command, Rear Admiral Sir Archibald Moore in the New Zealand. When he looked to the

north-east all he could see was the struggling Blücher. As a result, all the British battlecruisers abandoned their chase and concentrated on the Blücher accompanied by the light forces. Moore has been much criticised for his lack of initiative, given the fairly obvious battle situation. He failed to follow in the hallowed traditions of the Royal Navy in seeking the utter destruction of the whole of the enemy squadron. Beatty himself was horrified when he realised what was happening. His attempt to mimic Nelson by sending a signal of, “Engage the enemy more closely”, was ironically thwarted as it did not appear in the rather more prosaic contemporary signal book. The alternative was the much less inspiring, “Keep nearer to the enemy” and this was even more confusing as the Blücher was the nearest German ship! By the time Beatty regained control of his ships, the German battlecruisers were long gone.

‘ONE BLAZING INFERNO’ Yeoman of Signals Frederick Ramsay was on the new destroyer Miranda, with the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, Harwich Force as they closed in on the hapless Blücher. The Blücher made her last effort and it was a good one too.

A VICTORY OF SORTS

The Battle of Dogger Bank: January 1915

She dropped it all around us, anywhere but on the lean black zig-zagging death that was waiting the moment to fire a torpedo, and we were actually splashed by the water thrown up by the exploding shells. The ship was hit by some fragments now and then but not a man was hit – wasn’t it great? We got our torpedoes off, one of which got the Blucher, with an awful explosion and she stopped running and firing, and started listing heavily to port Henry Blagrove, aboard the Tiger, was watching as the coup de grace was administered. She was still firing now and then, but was being hit every few seconds and shells were bursting all over her. She fired a torpedo at us missing by a few yards and then we let her have it. It must have been hell for her crew. She was white hot in parts and full of explosions. Her masts went, then her funnels and we hit her with a torpedo, finally putting a salvo of 6” shells into her. The Blucher turned turtle and sank at about 12.10, after being hit by more than seventy heavy shells. Fred Ramsey watched aghast from the bridge of the Miranda. She was leaning well over, funnels gone, masts all askew, the decks a mass of twisted steel and the guns pointing at all

ABOVE: A Willy Stower painting of the Battle of Dogger Bank.

LEFT: Map showing dispositions at the Battle of Dogger Bank.

sorts of different angles, whilst through a huge gash in her starboard bow we could see her inside was one blazing inferno. There were a number of her crew on deck and she gave a lurch further over – the fellows came toppling, tumbling and sliding down her side. It was sickening to watch them falling over, breaking their backs and limbs against the bilge keel and bouncing off into the water. Then she slowly went right over and floated absolutely upside down for a few minutes, with a crowd of half-demented sailor men standing on her bottom.

Now the Blücher sank slowly from under them with no vortex of eddy, just quietly went down, leaving a little wreckage and a mass of yelling Huns struggling for their lives in the icy water. They nearly all had lifebelts on but the bitterly cold sea took its effect on many of them and they gave it up and died.

SCREAMING TO BE RESCUED

The Miranda edged forward in amidst the swarm of desperate men and began to rescue as many as possible by casting ropes and ladders over the side. Fredrick Ramsey  www.britainatwar.com 75

A VICTORY OF SORTS

The Battle of Dogger Bank: January 1915

ABOVE: SMS Blücher pictured underway at speed. One of the problems encountered by the German fleet whilst they attempted to outrun the British warships was their inability to achieve maximum speeds. Throughout the war, the Imperial German Navy suffered from a chronic shortage of high-quality coal. Consequently, its warships′ engines frequently struggled to operate at maximum performance.

RIGHT: A dramatic artist's representation of the Battle of Dogger Bank.

himself ran down to the deck to help. He could see many of the Germans in the water were badly wounded with gashed heads and broken limbs. They swarmed round our sides like flies and it was very difficult getting them in. For every rope over there were about six of them hanging on, screaming to be pulled up. We just hauled and hauled and the weakest dropped off and struggled again, then became numbed and exhausted and slowly drowned right before us. Their lifebuoys keeping them afloat, but the men too weak to hold their heads up. It was a bit touching and even as I struggled, sweated and swore, pulling them up I could not help thinking that the swine would not have done the same for us. Then came an unfortunate intervention as a Zeppelin accompanied by a seaplane appeared to drop several small bombs nearby. Reluctantly, the Miranda began to pull away. We had to go ahead with about two dozen poor devils dragging alongside, the ropes twisted about their hands and gripped in their teeth. Our fellows still struggling to get them up, but it was no good. I had gone back to the bridge and watched the men obey the order to cut the ropes. The look on the dying Germans faces was awful, as they watched their only hope hacked off above their heads. Most of them gave it up and struggled no more. Of the crew of 1,026 men serving aboard the Blücher, some 800 perished in that freezing cold January sea.

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A BRITISH VICTORY OF SORTS Although they had only lost one ship, the fact that they were forced to flee rankled deeply with the Germans. On 2 February, Admiral

von Ingenohl was summarily dismissed and replaced by Admiral Hugo von Pohl as commander of the High Seas Fleet. This did not precipitate any real change in policy with regard to the deployment, or rather non-deployment, of the fleet. Instead, the German Navy turned its attention to an expansion of the submarine campaign. Dogger Bank was a British victory of sorts, but there was also a great deal of disappointment, certainly for young Roger Selby on the Lion We were being towed back rather ignominiously and a bit of a mess all round. We knew the Blücher was sunk and were extremely fed up at only getting her when all their big battlecruisers were about and badly damaged. In fact, we hardly considered it a victory, but on getting into harbour we found ourselves little ‘eros! Everyone cheering us as we came up harbour. So of course since then we’ve been living up to what other people think of it and not our own ideas.

A VICTORY OF SORTS

The Battle of Dogger Bank: January 1915

David Beatty was frankly distraught. The disappointment of that day is more than I can bear to think of, everybody thinks it was a great success, when in reality it was a terrible failure. I had made up my mind that we were going to get four, the lot, and four we ought to have got. Unfortunately, it was also enough of a success to shroud the real cause for concern; that the gunnery standard of the Battlecruiser Force was inadequate. Many crew members were convinced they were raining shells down on their enemies, mistaking the German gun flashes for the detonation of their shells, which were in fact whistling harmlessly well over their intended targets. With the exception of the short-range demolition of the Blücher, the British ships had scored only about seven hits. In response the German 1st Scouting Force had thudded home some twenty-two heavy calibre shells onto the Lion and Tiger. Excuses could be made: their lack of experience under battle conditions, the poor visibility caused by palls of smoke and spray from German shells – but the fact remained that they were poor in the extreme and the German gunners had overcome similar handicaps. Jellicoe was aware of the problem, but it was difficult to secure

increased long-range practice for his battlecruisers in the relatively cramped and narrow confines of the Forth. On their side, the Germans had been alarmed by the near-destruction of the Seydlitz. After a careful investigation, considerable anti-flash precautions were introduced to try and prevent such a flash travelling anywhere between the turret gunhouse, the handling chamber and the magazine. Although by no means perfect, these were considerably in advance of the situation still appertaining aboard the British capital ships. Here there were no safety improvements in working practices. Indeed, in an effort to improve their rate

of fire, the British gunners began to take suicidal short cuts in the magazines and working chambers. The magazine doors were propped open and cordite charge linen bags piled up outside the doors ready go on the hoists up to the turret gunhouses. The British battlecruisers thus carried the seeds of their own destruction deep within them and with dreadful consequences during the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. 

ABOVE: A period postcard depicting a scene of Beatty on the bridge, from the Battle of Dogger Bank.

Thanks to the IWM Documents Department and the copyright holders for the use of the following papers Frederick Ramsay, Roger Selby, Philip Vaux and Henry Blagrove.

LEFT: A photograph taken during the Battle of Dogger Bank showing an unnamed ship with billowing smoke, though it is unclear whether this the vessel’s own guns firing or a direct hit. (ROBERT HUNT LIBRARY/MARY EVANS)

www.britainatwar.com 77

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13/01/2017 09:47

MAINTAINING TRADITION The Royal Navy at Crete

T N I MA 80 www.britawinatwar.com

A R T

MAINTAINING TRADITION

The Royal Navy at Crete

d from the e g r e m e d n a h force retan skies lt C a e e h w t n o m o m r f m -Co s fell As Axis force battered and weary Anglo ve highlights the costly a ro  Aegean Surf, for so long. Professor G the evacuation of Crete. ld in could only ho ement of the Royal Navy lv but vital invo

G N I N I TA

N O I T I D RA L)

J WEA rbour. (VIA a Cretan ha ZG26 over of s 0C 11 chmitt Me E: Messers MAIN IMAG

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MAINTAINING TRADITION The Royal Navy at Crete

ABOVE: The first wave of German paratroopers jump from a Ju 52. (CHRIS GOSS)

MIDDLE: An unusual colour shot of heavy cruiser HMS York, left crippled in Suda Bay after a raid by Italian motorboats in March 1941. On 18 May, German aircraft damaged York beyond repair, and the British disabled her armaments as they ecavuated the island. (CHRIS GOSS)

RIGHT: A German transport plummets, burning, as paratroopers are landed at Suda Bay. The armaments of HMS York, centre of shot, provided a powerful addition to the defence of the bay, until the submarine HMS Rover, moored alongside to provide power, was disabled and towed away. (ALL IMAGES

HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS UNLESS

F

or Britain, the situation looked promising. Although the German airborne invasion of Crete began on 20 May 1941, and was to be supported by German mountain troops and Italian marines, landed by sea, British Signals intelligence and confirmatory reconnaissance had revealed the presence of an invasion fleet of 25 small coasters and sailing caïques each loaded with about a hundred troops, ammunition and artillery. Assailed by an overwhelming British force of three cruisers and four destroyers, the weak Italian escort, a single torpedo boat, Lupo, was driven off and all but three transports were sunk; none got to Crete. However, effective rescue led by Lupo meant as few as 314 Axis personnel were lost, with more than 2,000 Germans plucked from the sea. Unfortunately British Imperial forces ashore were unable to exploit this maritime success and attempted counterattacks on the captured airfield of Maleme. They failed, despite the blunders, heavy losses, and failings of the German parachute landing. With Maleme secure, the Germans were able to fly in reinforcements and the supporting Luftwaffe Fligerkorps VIII and Italian bombers began to score successes against British ships. An early loss was HMS Juno, which sank in 97 seconds with the loss of 116 men. The Axis were still attempting to reinforce by sea and another convoy of

STATED)

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38 vessels was forced to turn back in the face of heavy British opposition. However, Ju 88s and Do 17s forced the British warships to turn back also, and assailed and harried them as they did. Two British cruisers and an Australian cruiser were damaged, the main British battlegroup containing the battleships Warspite and Valiant attempted a rescue but was attacked by Stukas and Me 110 fighter-bombers. Warspite was seriously damaged and the destroyer Greyhound sunk. The survivors retreated under heavy airattack, a storm which could no longer be weathered as the ships ran out of anti-aircraft ammunition. In the withdrawal, the light cruiser Gloucester was sunk with 722 hands lost, followed by the year-old light cruiser Fiji with 241 sailors killed – two more serious losses for the Mediterranean Fleet. Fliegerkorps VIII continued to post successes against the Royal Navy on 23 May, striking at Louis Mountbatten’s destroyer flotilla as it withdrew from a patrol north of Crete. The triumphant ships had sunk two

caïques and used their 4.7in guns in support the counterattack on Maleme. First, HMS Kashmir was sunk by Stukas and then Mountbatten’s HMS Kelly, the Kelly however, shot down three Stukas, and although they’d never know it a fourth crashed on landing due to their fire. Their sister HMS Kipling, despite being targeted by highlevel bombing, picked up 281 survivors, and returned them to the cheers of the fleet in Alexandria. Mountbatten consoled his crew, affected more than most about the loss of their ship, by saying: “we didn’t leave the Kelly, the Kelly left us!”

TO BATTLE

Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, was trapped in a great impasse with London as Prime Minister Churchill and First Sea Lord

MAINTAINING TRADITION

The Royal Navy at Crete

Dudley Pound attempted to dictate the operations of his forces. Cunningham countermanded London’s backseat directions and withdrew the valuable Infantry Landing Ship Glenroy that had been ordered to press on to Crete. He opted, perhaps controversially, to brief London on the mechanics of his maritime strategy. As the C-in-C cogently argued, it was not fear of losses that was making him cautious, rather the need to avoid disproportionate damage for little

advantage; for him, Crete was a battle of attrition which required careful management. He signalled to his ships: ‘The Army is holding its own against constant reinforcement of airborne troops. We must not let them down. At whatever cost to ourselves we must land reinforcements and keep the enemy from using the sea. There are indications that enemy resources are stretched to the limit. We can and must outlast them. Stick it out.’ On 25 May the Mediterranean Fleet’s main battle group, Force ‘A’, sortied from Alexandria. It consisted of the battleships Queen Elizabeth and Barham, the carrier Formidable and eight destroyers. A cruiser and destroyer force was already investigating reports of seaborne landings in northern Crete that proved to be erroneous. Glenroy had to abort a reinforcement mission under heavy air-attack and only the ultra-fast 40-knot minelayer Abdiel was able to bring reinforcements and evacuate wounded. On her mission on the night of 26-27 May her escorting destroyer, HMS Hero, was damaged by a near miss. Formidable had mounted an air strike on the Axis base on the island of Scarpanto, south of Rhodes on the 26th, but the damage inflicted was limited by the small number of British aircraft involved (the carrier had suffered heavy aircraft casualties covering the ‘Tiger’ convoy bringing tanks to Egypt). The capital ships combined with the cruiser group already at sea, but were then attacked by German aircraft from North Africa. Only four Fulmar fighters were available to oppose 20 Stukas, which succeeded in knocking out the carrier. Despite the merits of armoured flight-deck protection, it could not substitute for

too few aircraft and immature fighter control. The escorting Tribal-class destroyer Nubian had her stern blown off in the attack and the two cripples were escorted to Alexandria. On the following day as the rest of Force ‘A’ covered the withdrawal of Abdiel, it was attacked again by Ju 88s and He 111s which hit Barham, she suffered fire damage to an aft 15in turret and serious flooding. The group was ordered back to Alexandria, and Barham had to be sent through the Suez Canal for repairs.

ALL-OUT EFFORT

ABOVE: Town-class cruiser HMS Gloucester turns to evade attack, 22 May. She took at least four hits and three near-misses from 250kg bombs before sinking 85 survived. The captain of Fiji, lost on the same day, stated the sky over Gloucester was 'black with planes.' (VIA PROFESSOR

The situation ashore was becoming desperate. Cunningham reassured Wavell, the theatre commander, and his other service colleagues, the Navy would make an all-out effort to evacuate troops, as it had from Greece. Just before 0830 on the 27th Wavell was forced to correct Churchill’s delusions of further resistance - evacuation was now the only option. The Chiefs of Staff approved Wavell’s plan, with the priority placed on personnel rather than equipment. 

GROVE)

TOP LEFT: Me 110s equipped with long-range fuel tanks during the Cretan campaign. (CHRIS GOSS)

BELOW: Lord Louis Mountbatten's command, K-class destroyer HMS Kelly. (VIA PROFESSOR GROVE)

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MAINTAINING TRADITION The Royal Navy at Crete

Axis command of the air meant British ships could only spend about three hours off Crete, with a four hour approach and similarly long retreat, while under cover of darkness. At 0600 on the 28th, Rear Admiral Rawlings put to sea with Force ‘B’ made up of the cruisers Orion, Ajax and Dido and destroyers Decoy, Jackal, Imperial, Hotspur, Hereward and Kimberley. The intention was to evacuate the 4,000 strong garrison at Haraklion on the northern coast. A force of destroyers commanded by Captain S.H.C. Arliss, consisting of Napier, Nizam, Kandahar and Kelvin left at 0800 for Sphakia on the southwest coast. The destroyers carried additional boats to lift troops. They arrived at 0030 and took off 700 men over the next two-and-a-half hours. Still, 5,000 men were left ashore so the destroyers landed equipment and rations to sustain resistance. Arliss was attacked by Ju 88 bombers on the way to Alexandria but only minor damage was inflicted on the manoeuvrable little ships and the group made Alexandria by 1700 on the 29th. Force ‘B’ was not so lucky, as the Germans were concentrating on the north coast. It was attacked by highlevel bombers, dive bombers and torpedo bombers on the evening of the 28th. The destroyer Imperial was nearmissed and suffered steering damage. River Plate hero HMS Ajax suffered more serious damage and retired to Alexandria. Rawlings arrived off Heraklion at 2330 on the 28th. The troops were taken off from the harbour and ferried to the cruisers. Thanks to the organisational efficiency of the local RN senior officer, Captain M.H.S Macdonald, the operation was most efficiently carried out and all troops evacuated - including the rearguard. The concern, however, was what would happen after dawn. The ships had not been able to leave before 0320 and it was a long way through the Kaso Strait to Alexandria. The cruisers were

ABOVE: HMS Kipling passes jubilant observers at Alexandria with survivors from Kelly and Kashmir. (VIA PROFFESSOR GROVE)

RIGHT: Hurricane W9298, Crete's last Hurricane, in which Sqn Ldr E. Howell downed a Me109 and damaged another. W9298 was evacuated on 19 May, meaning the RAF flew to the limits of their range for much of the battle. (E A HOWELL)

BELOW: Troops being lifted from Suda Bay.

crowded; 1,100 troops were aboard HMS Orion, twice her ship’s company. The destroyers were similarly loaded with 300 soldiers each in addition to a ship’s company of about 150. At 0350 disaster struck, the Imperial’s damaged steering failed completely and, rudder jammed, veered out of control. The men on board were transferred to her sister, Hotspur, which stood by until the transfer was complete. Hotspur then torpedoed and sank the stricken vessel. It was not until 0445 that Hotspur, with 900 men crowded on board, sped eastwards.

BLACK THURSDAY

At considerable risk, Rawlings limited the speed of the

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rest of Force ‘B’ to fifteen knots, allowing Hotspur to rendezvous with the rest of the force in the Kaso Strait at 0600. This was still 300 miles and ten hours from Alexandria. As halflight brightened, Ju 88s and Stukas appeared. At first, the dive bombers released their bombs early, and missed the manoeuvring ships. The German aircraft shuttled back and forth to Scarpanto and at 0625 the destroyer Hereward was hit. The cripple tried to make the Cretan coast but, despite heavy anti-aircraft fire, bombers hit her again, blowing her apart – 76 were killed. Italian torpedo boats, that had recently landed Mussolini’s major land

MAINTAINING TRADITION

The Royal Navy at Crete

contribution to the invasion, rescued a large number of survivors. HMS Decoy had also been nearmissed and Rawlings had to reduce his speed of advance to 25 knots. At 0730 his flag, Orion, was near-missed and damaged and Force ‘B’ reduced speed still further to 21 knots. Rawlings then received the most unwelcome news that because of error in time zones land-based fighter cover from RAF Hurricanes and Fleet Air Arm Fulmars would not be available until 0840. The only additions to the ships’ antiaircraft armaments were the rifles and Brens of the troops on board. Stukas made strafing runs which killed Orion’s commanding officer and wounded Rawlings. Then a bomb hit and ignited Orion’s forward 6in turret. The dedicated AA cruiser Dido also had one of her 5.25in turrets put out of action by bombing. There was then a lull as the Stukas refuelled at Scarpanto, but they were back by 1045 to make their last, and most effective, attack. Eleven aircraft dived in succession on Orion. One

bomb passed through the bridge and exploded on the crowded decks below, 260 were killed and 280 wounded. Fires raged and damage to compasses, steering and engine room telegraphs interfered with navigation. Officer casualties were significant but the gallant cruiser maintained 21 knots. Eventually two Fulmar fighters appeared over Force ‘B’, thanks to the exceptional navigational abilities of the observers in the two-seaters, able to chart amidst the confusion an accurate rendezvous with the ships. The Hurricanes got lost, but by chance intercepted a flight of bombers heading to the ships downed two Ju 88s. Three ineffective level bombing attacks were the last in the deadly plague of aerial aggressors and ended the travails of Force ‘B’. Fuel contamination by sea water slowed Orion further, and her list increased, but she and her battered force finally arrived at Alexandria at 2000. Of the 4,000 troops lifted, 800 had been killed, wounded, or plucked from the sea by the Italians. Despite the devastating attacks on Orion and other

vessels, the Navy knew the day could have been much worse and Rawlings was ‘cheerful but exhausted’ when he met Cunningham. The day, however, still became known as ‘Black Thursday’

ABOVE: A British merchant ship ablaze in Suda Bay, possibly hit in one of two raids on 17 May.

EVACUATIONS CONTINUE

LEFT: Allied losses were 5,479 KIA/ WIA, 12,254 captured - some depicted here. Local civilians also fought, with accounts of paratroopers beaten to death in olive groves and that of an elderly man who killed a stranded paratrooper with his cane. Sadly, reprisals were extremely brutal, one, at Kondomari, was caught on film.

Thousands of troops still remained at Sphakia on the south Cretan coast and Force ‘D’ had sailed on the evening of the 28th with the unenviable task of running the gauntlet and evacuating them. Commanded by Admiral King it was made up of the light cruiser Phoebe, the Australian cruiser Perth (carrying two landing craft), the converted anti-aircraft cruisers Calcutta and Coventry, destroyers Jervis, Janus and Hasty and the Large Infantry Landing Ship (LSI[L]) Glengyle, a valuable asset with her landing craft and capacity for 3,000 soldiers. The losses of the 29th led to the decision not to risk the LSI but it was too late to turn her 

ABOVE: A Cant Z bomber, 506B, downed by a Fulmar of 808 Sqn Fleet Air Arm, flown by Tillard and Somerville. (ROYAL NAVY)

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MAINTAINING TRADITION The Royal Navy at Crete RIGHT: The landing ship HMS Glenroy, her large capacity, and her landing craft meant she would prove a vital asset in the evacuation of Crete. RIGHT: German mountain infantry, or Gebirgsjäger, readying to full gliders and Ju 52s for transit to Crete. Like the paratroopers before them, the mountain troops were light role troops, more mobile than others, and with specialist light equipment.

(NATIONAL MUSUEM OF DENMARK)

BELOW: German paratroopers, or Fallschirmjäger, moments before boarding their aircraft. Losses in these units were heavy, and the Wehrmacht never employed a large scale-drop after Crete. German losses would be around 6,700 men, but importantly 220 aircraft were also lost, many being valuable transports. (CHRIS GOSS)

return to Alexandria, and at reduced speed. HMS Napier and Nizam pressed on alone and were able to use three landing craft King had left behind to evacuate a further 1,510 men. RAF cover was again good, and on the return journey three Ju 88s and an Italian Cant 1007 Alcione tri-motor were shot down. The most serious attack was made by twelve Ju 88s between 0850 and 0915, where both destroyers were near-missed, damage reducing their speed to 23 knots. The ships’ claimed one Ju 88 destroyed and three damaged. Force ‘C’ safely returned to Alexandra without further incident. back and the force arrived off Sphakia that evening. This proved fortunate as her landing craft were vital in ferrying troops to the ships while the AA cruisers stood off providing cover with their 4in guns. Cunningham decided to reinforce King with three more destroyers, HMAS Stuart, HMS Jaguar and HMS Defender. These added to the evacuation force and were potential rescue assets if larger ships were sunk. Perth was near-missed by Ju 88s but her landing craft were undamaged and supplemented Glengyle’s. By 0320 King set sail with 6,000 rescued men aboard his ships. The three extra destroyers joined at about 0650. On this occasion the RAF found the evacuation force promptly, and held back the bulk of the unceasing waves of Stukas, Ju 88s and He 111s. Two of the latter were shot down. Perth was hit and a boiler room disabled but there was nothing like the carnage of ‘Black Thursday’. About 8,000 assorted troops were still at Sphakia. Force ‘C’ of four

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destroyers under Captain Arliss was sent to continue the evacuation before King had returned. It was soon halved in strength as Kandahar suffered mechanical problems and Kelvin was disabled by air attack and forced to

It was estimated that this left 6,500 troops at Sphakia; in fact the number, including stragglers, was closer to 10,000. These included New Zealanders and the C-in-C commanding the evacuation received a personal letter from the Dominion’s Prime Minister requesting he try another attempt to lift the valiant troops, but Cunningham was very conscious of the dangers posed by losses to his other duties, such as supplying Malta. Black Thursday demonstrated to Cunningham that his warships, when full of troops, could not operate at peak fighting efficiency. Nevertheless, he reconciled himself to one more try and chose the Dido-class cruiser Phoebe to lead it with Admiral King flying his flag in her. Cunningham personally went aboard the

MAINTAINING TRADITION

The Royal Navy at Crete

cruiser as she returned with Force ‘D’ to tell her ship’s company they were going straight back into the fire. Of the cruiser’s weary crew, not one man took up the offer to disembark and be left behind. The rest of the force was composed of the minelayer Abdiel and destroyers Kimberley, Hotspur and Jackal.

MAINTAINING TRADITION

Rawlings begin his final attempt at 0600 on 31 May, his force tailored to evacuate 4,000 men, from him, Cunningham now knew at least 9,000 men were at Sphakia, but refused to risk more ships. RAF Hurricanes, with more experience of maritime operations and using auxiliary fuel tanks, provided effective cover and defeated three air attacks. The 4,000 chosen for evacuation were the organised units that had done much of the fighting, but many stragglers were also successful in embarking. Three

battalions of the rearguard were left behind. King finally sailed at 0300 on 1 June on the last attempt to lift troops, however, his force never arrived. Calcutta and Coventry were tasked with supporting King but eighty-five miles off Alexandria were attacked by Ju 88s. Calcutta was hit twice and quickly sank with 107 lost; Coventry picked up 255 survivors and returned to Alexandria. Without support, King could not continue. Covered by Hurricanes and with German attention elsewhere he returned Alexandria unscathed at 1700. As in all evacuations, not all showed great courage or self-control, but there was enough of these qualities in evidence to be a remarkable tribute to the human spirit. Most of those left behind were captured but 700 made their own way to North Africa, almost 200 were taken off by submarine and as many as 500 took refuge in the hills of Crete.

LEFT: A Fulmar I, N1886 'R', of 806 Sqn Fleet Air Arm. Here operating at Heraklion rather than from HMS Formidable. The poor defence of airfields offered by the Army attracted severe criticism on account of clear ULTRA intelligence anticpating the attacks. However, resources were limited, and the coasts had to be protected too. The shock of what was seen, perhaps harshly, as the Army's failings led to foundation of the RAF Regiment, 75 years ago, on 1 February 1942, after Churchill made the RAF responsibile for protecting its own force protection. (D J TRIBE)

BELOW LEFT: Messerchmitt Me110Cs from III-ZG26 escorting a German/ Italian convoy. After the less than successful parachute and glider drops, reinforcements had to arrive by sea. However, the Royal Navy was initially very effective in halting these moves. (VIA J WEAL)

BELOW RIGHT: A stunning photograph of a stick of German bombs exploding close to Allied warships moored in Suda Bay.

Cunningham was criticised for not having tried one more attempt at rescue but the harassed C-in-C could not see his fleet suffer still more serious attrition to Axis air power. British air cover was improving but was still far from reliable. The Mediterranean Fleet was too important to be neutralised saving what were, had all gone according to plan, disorganised remnants whose strategic survival, very bluntly, would hardly have been noticed in operational terms. More serious was the loss of a valuable Royal Marine Commando and a crack Australian battalion, but the evacuation was hinged on human and moral qualities rather than strategic priorities – even more a testament to the efforts of the Royal Navy, and making their final halt more understandable. Over half the defenders of Crete had been successfully evacuated. The price was a Mediterranean Fleet reduced to two battleships and three cruisers, left facing four Italian battleships and eleven cruisers. Cunningham’s margin of superiority disappeared and not even the code breakers at Bletchley Park could help the C-in-C predict whether the Italians would exploit this very favourable situation. Nevertheless in a more basic sense Cunningham had fully succeeded. As Churchill quoted Cunningham as saying at the height of the crisis: “It takes the Navy three years to build a ship, it will take three hundred years to build a new tradition. The evacuation will continue.” The tradition - at great cost - had been maintained. 





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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

February 1917

GREAT WAR GALLANTRY February 1917

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 February 1917. RIGHT: The memorial stone to Lieutenant Humphry Firman VC in the pavement outside South Kensington underground station. It was unveiled on 25 April 2016. (COURTESY

OF TOMMY BROCK)

BELOW: British troops pictured being landed from a river steamer during the operations on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers prior to the events of April 1916. It would appear that the steamer is also carrying two field guns, and that the weapons on board are protected by sandbags and iron sleepers. At least one source states that this is the steamer HMS Julnar.

A

side from Acting Sergeant Thomas Mottershead, whose exploits are explored by Lord Ashcroft in his feature this month, two other men were awarded the VC in February 1917 – Lieutenant-Commander Charles Henry Cowley and Lieutenant Humphry Osbaldeston Brooke Firman. Both men were recognised for their actions in the same incident during the Allied efforts to relieve the besieged garrison at Kut in Mesopotamia. The announcement of their awards in The London Gazette provides the following description, which in turn was based on a report by the General Officer Commanding, Indian Expeditionary Force ‘D’: ‘At 8 p.m. on April 24th, 1916, with a crew from the Royal Navy under Lieutenant Firman, R.N., assisted by LieutenantCommander Cowley, R.N.V.R., the Julnar, carrying 270 tons of supplies,

(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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left Falahiyah in an attempt to reach Kut. Her departure was covered by all artillery and machine gun fire that could be brought to bear, in the hope of distracting the enemy’s attention. She was, however, discovered and shelled on her passage up the river. ‘At 1 a.m. on the 25th General Townshend reported that she had not arrived, and that at midnight a burst of heavy firing had been heard at Magasis, some 8½ miles from Kut by river, which had suddenly ceased. There could be but little doubt that the enterprise had failed, and the next day the Air Service reported the Julnar in the hands of the Turks at Magasis.’ The former river steamer Julnar had been specially fitted with iron plating and sandbag protection at Amara for this mission. Her cabins, saloons and upper-deck stanchions had been removed and her masts cut down. Only volunteers and bachelors were chosen to form the crew: Lieutenant

GREAT WAR GALLANTRY February 1917

GALLANTRY AWARDS GAZETTED IN FEBRUARY 1917 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

3 105 6 227 85 - 11 1,466 1,903

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

Firman in command, LieutenantCommander Cowley of the Lynch Bros. steamer Mejidieh as second-incommand, Sub-Lieutenant W.L. Reed RNR, also of Lynch Bros., as chief engineer, and twelve ratings from the gunboats of the river flotilla. The VC historian and author John Winton, in his book The Victoria Cross at Sea, states that at ‘Magasis, where there was a fort, a sharp righthand bend in the river, steel hawsers stretched across and the Turks waiting in force. Julnar arrived at about midnight and the Turkish guns opened fire at point-blank range. Her bridge was smashed, and Firman was killed with several of his crew. Julnar’s rudder was entangled in the steel hawsers and she ran aground. That was the end. The Turks swarmed on board, capturing the sur­vivors and the supplies for Kut.’ Whilst Firman was dead, Cowley was only slightly wounded when the Turks took him from Julnar. ‘He

was soon separated from the other survivors,’ continued Winton. ‘Later, the Turks said he had been killed while trying to escape. But there seems no doubt that the Turks executed him. Cowley himself had said that the Turks would kill him if they ever caught him. The reason lay in Cowley’s unusual background. He had lived in Mesopotamia for most of his life and the Turks regarded him as an Ottoman subject, and hence a traitor. Knowledge of this made Cowley’s volunteering for Julnar doubly brave. ‘He was born in Baghdad on 21st February 1872, the son of Commander Henry V. Cowley … [He eventually] joined the firm of Lynch Bros., who operated a steamship service up and down the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. By the time war broke out in Mesopotamia he had an unsurpassed knowledge of local conditions on the rivers, fluent Arabic, and many friends amongst the local Arab population. He became, in effect, a first-class river pilot, interpreter and intelligence agent for the British, and so earned the hatred of the Turks. He was promoted to the temporary rank of Lieutenant-Commander RNVR on 2nd August 1915, distinguishing himself in the river flotilla in command of Mejidieh. His body was never recovered but his name, with Firman’s, is on the Basra Memorial. His Victoria Cross was presented to his mother at Basra by Rear-Admiral Wake, Senior Naval Officer Persian Gulf, on 25th August 1917.

‘Firman’s Cross was presented to his father, Mr Humphrey Brooke Firman, by the King at Buckingham Palace on 28th February 1917. In contrast to Cowley, Firman’s background was that of the regular naval officer. He was born on 24th November 1886, at 26 Queensberry Place, Kensington, and joined the Navy as a Cadet on 15th May 1901.’ There were a number of awards to RFC and RNAS aviators announced in The London Gazette during February 1917. Amongst these individuals was Flight Lieutenant Daniel Murray Boyne Galbraith, who received a Bar to the Distinguished Service Cross. 

ABOVE: Flight Lieutenant Daniel Murray Boyne Galbraith. (IWM; Q69657)

TOP LEFT: As well as awards for actions on land, at sea and in the air, February 1917 also included medals for men who fought underground – such as the tunnellers pictured here. One of these individuals was Lt James Goldie McMillan, 1 Tunnelling Company, Royal Canadian Engineers. His award of the MC had been ‘For conspicuous gallantry in assisting and in exploding a large mine against enemy mine galleries. After the explosion he, at great personal risk, dug down into the enemy’s galleries from a point in “No Man’s Land,” thereby capturing and consolidating 700 feet of them and rendering infantry in this sector safe from enemy mines, also capturing valuable mining apparatus and other identifications. During this operation Lt. McMillan was cut off from our lines for twelve hours.’ (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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Flight Lieutenant Daniel Murray Boyne Galbraith.

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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY

February 1917

RUNNING TOTAL OF

GALLANTRY AWARDS AS OF THE END OF FEBRUARY 1917 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 BELOW RIGHT: The award of the DSC to Flight SubLieutenant Robert A. Little RNAS, a compatriot of Flight Lieutenant Stanley J. Goble DSC, was announced in February 1917. Little’s citation states: ‘For conspicuous bravery in successfully attacking and bringing down hostile machines on several occasions. On 11th November, 1916, he attacked and brought down a hostile machine in flames. On 12th December, 1916, he attacked a German machine at a range of 50 yards; this machine was brought down in a nose-dive. On 20th December, 1916, he dived at a hostile machine, and opened fire at 25 yards range; the observer was seen to fall down inside the machine, which went down in a spinning nose-dive. On 1st January, 1917, he attached an enemy scout, which turned over on its back and came down completely out of control.’ (COURTESY

Galbraith was born in Lanark, Ontario, Canada, on 27 April 1895, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Galbraith. He was educated there and at St. Andrew’s College, Toronto. During late 1915, Galbraith, along with a number of friends from his home town, headed to Dayton, Ohio, to set about gaining his private pilot’s licence from the Wright Aviation School which was based there. Later that same month he enlisted as a Probationary Flight Sub-Lieutenant with the Royal Naval Air Service, eventually arriving at the RNAS training establishment at Chingford in December. It was from there that he was posted to No.2 Naval Squadron based at Dunkirk, France. By 28 September 1916, Galbraith

OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL)

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246 4,167 391 10,913 - - 11,130 54 1,424 42,629 70,954

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ABOVE: Wing Commander S.J. Goble and Flight Lieutenant I.E. Mcintyre sitting on the shoulders of well-wishers on the beach at St Kilda after completing the first ever flight round the Australian continent. The flight in a Fairey III seaplane covered 7,186 nautical miles and was accomplished in 20 days of actual flying, an outstanding feat in aviation. (COURTESY OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL)

INSET: A portrait of Air Vice-Marshal S.J. Goble CBE, DSO, DSC, taken in August 1943, serving as the RAAF’s liaison officer in Canada. (COURTESY OF THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL)

had destroyed two enemy aircraft and been awarded both the Distinguished Service Cross and the Croix de Guerre by the French. In October 1916 he transferred to a new squadron, No.8, known as the Naval Eight, which was based at Vert Galand, France. In November, Galbraith scored another three victories. The last of the three victories, during which he was at the controls of Sopwith Pup N5196, occurred on 23 November to the east of Cambrai. The official citation for the Bar to the DSC states the following: ‘He attacked single-handed a formation of six hostile aircraft, no other Allied machines being in the vicinity. One hostile machine was shot down, a second was driven down under control, and the remaining four machines then gave up the fight and landed.’ It also went on to add that ‘in several other combats in the air Flight Lieutenant Galbraith has displayed exceptional gallantry, particularly on 10th and 16th November, 1916, on each of which days he successfully engaged and shot down an enemy machine’. Following these exploits, Galbraith was withdrawn from front line duties for a rest. After a spell as an instructor, he flew anti-submarine patrols from bases in Italy during 1918. After the war, Galbraith was placed on the semi-permanent staff of the fledgling Royal Canadian Air Force as a flying instructor at the School of Special Flying at Camp Borden, Ontario. On the night of 29 March 1921, Galbraith was killed when his car left the road on a sharp bend not far from Camp Borden.

Another aviator listed in February 1917 was Flight Lieutenant Stanley James Goble DSC. Having been unable to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force at the start of the war due to the stringent medical criteria then in force (he later wrote that ‘only applicants of the finest physiques were considered suitable for the first contingent of Australian troops’), but determined to follow his three brothers into active service, he paid his own passage to England and in July 1915 he was accepted as a trainee airman with the rank of temporary Flight Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service. . The citation to his award of the DSO stated: ‘For conspicuous bravery and skill in attacking hostile aircraft on numerous occasions. On 7th November, 1916, he attacked an enemy scout and chased it down to 1,500 feet, when it was seen to land, crash into a fence, and turn over in a field. On 27th November, 1916, he attacked four hostile scouts, one of which he brought down in flames. On 4th December, 1916, on six different occasions during the same flight he attacked and drove off hostile aircraft, which threatened the bombing machines which he was escorting, one of the hostile machines going down completely out of control.’ Having ended the war with a tally of ten victories, Goble returned to Australia and assisted in the formation of the RAAF as an independent branch of the Australian armed forces. He ended his military career with the rank of Air Vice-Marshal. 

1917: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

This 132-page special from the team behind Britain at War magazine, tells the story of the fourth year of the Great War.

A

SPECIAL

Despite victories at the Somme and Verdun, the fourth year of the Great War saw no relaxation of Allied efforts.The war of attrition that had seen the incremental weakening of the German Army, and the German nation, had to be maintained, even accelerated, throughout 1917. Features include: The Zimmermann Telegram

With Germany increasingly being forced onto the defensive, the German Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmermann, advocated a resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare.

The US Enters the War

On 2 April, President Wilson delivered a speech to the joint houses of Congress, in which he stated that the US had some ‘very serious’ decisions to make. These decisions related to the conduct of Imperial Germany, following its announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare

The Third Battle of Ypres

The Germans were demoralised and exhausted after suffering a catastrophic defeat at Messines, and the British artillery continued to hammer at the German positions to the south and east of Ypres.

The Battle of Cambrai

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The Passchendaele offensive had ground on for months with no sign of a breakthrough. Casualties had amounted to around 200,000 men and all that had been gained was a few hundred yards of ground. It was against this background that Colonel J.F.C. Fuller, proposed ‘a tank raid south of Cambrai’.

Rationing Begins

The actions of the German U-boats and the enormous demands the war imposed upon Britain’s merchant fleet, meant that food supplies in the UK came under increasing pressure in 1917.

MORE! AND MUCH

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LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH"

Acting Flight Sergeant Thomas Mottershead VC

Acting Flight Sergeant

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH"

Thomas Mottershead

SACRIFICE

AGGRESSION • BOLDNESS INITIATIVE • LEADERSHIP SKILL • ENDURANCE

The many Victoria Crosses and George Crosses in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum in London are displayed under one of seven different qualities of bravery. Acting Flight Sergeant Thomas Mottershead’s award is part of the collection, and Lord Ashcroft feels that it falls within the category of sacrifice: “In what is apparently the simplest quality of bravery, Sacrifice epitomises selfless responsibility. Noble, strong, dependable, life is offered up to protect, save or comfort others. It is not always lost, but it is always freely given.” BELOW: The crew of a FE2d demonstrate their positions. The pilot is furthest from the camera, his observer in front, in this case showing the use of the rearfiring Lewis gun which required him to stand.

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T

homas Mottershead was born in Widnes, Lancashire, on 17 January 1892. His father, also called Thomas, was a horse-keeper, and his mother was called Lucy (née Hawkins). Thomas Jnr was educated first at Simms Cross Council School in Widnes and, later, at Widnes Technical School where he studied engineering. Both sporty and

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VC, DCM

religious, he was apprenticed after leaving school as a fitter and turner at the Widnes Alkali works. Next, Mottershead became a member of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers and was employed by Cammell Lairds in Birkenhead. He married his childhood sweetheart, Lilian Bree, on 10 February 1914 and the following year the couple had a son, Sydney Thomas. With his additional responsibilities, Mottershead travelled south and took a temporary job as a motor mechanic at a garage in Andover, Hampshire. Along with a friend, he travelled to Portsmouth hoping to get a job in the naval dockyard. However, it was not long before the First World War broke out and Mottershead enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps on 10 August 1914. As an Air Mechanic 2nd class, Mottershead’s first posting was to the Central Flying School, RAF Upavon, Wiltshire, where his wife and son joined him. Mottershead was bright, eager and a quick learner and he achieved the rank of sergeant on 1 April 1916 and,

after training and with his expert technical knowledge, he become an excellent pilot. After a month of duties as a flying instructor, Mottershead was posted to France on 4 July. Two days later, he reported to 25 Squadron at Auchel for operational duties. The squadron, a fighter/reconnaissance unit, was equipped with FE2b and FE2d two-seat “pusher” aircraft in which the propeller faces to the rear. The Battle of the Somme was just a week old and the squadron saw action virtually every day. After being given an experienced observer-gunner and just two local flights to familiarise himself with the terrain, Mottershead was given an operational sortie. From his first mission, he showed great courage, carrying out a low-level bombing attack at 1,000 feet that destroyed a troublesome German antiaircraft battery. On 22 September 1916, Mottershead again showed immense bravery after being detailed to bomb the railway station at Samain. Initially, he dived to 1,500 feet to bomb and destroy an ammunition train, before flying low over another train and raking it with machine-gun fire. However, as he climbed away, his aircraft was attacked from behind by a Fokker Scout. Using all his manoeuvring skills, Mottershead eventually outfought the enemy aircraft and shot it down. For this action, he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal on 14 November 1916. After being promoted to Acting Flight Sergeant, Mottershead was posted to 20 Squadron, another FE unit which was based at Clairmarais. For the next five months, he was on almost continual operational service but he was given two weeks’ leave over Christmas 1916.

LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH" Acting Flight Sergeant Thomas Mottershead VC

VICTORIA CROSS HEROES Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is a businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. His sixth book on gallantry, Victoria Cross Heroes Volume II, was published in November. For more information, please visit: www. victoriacrossheroes2.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

On 7 January 1917, Mottershead was the pilot of one of two FEs that were ordered to carry out a fighter patrol over Ploegsteert Wood, Belgium. When his aircraft was found to be unserviceable, he transferred to a reserve FE2d and soon caught up with his fellow flyers. No sooner had they got to the area above the wood than they were attacked by two Albatros Scouts, one of which was shot down by another crew. However, the second Albatros manoeuvred itself on to the tail of Mottershead’s aircraft and opened fire at point-blank range. Bullets ruptured the petrol tank and the aircraft burst into flames. Mottershead’s observer, Lieutenant W.E. Gower, grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to keep the flames from his pilot but to little avail. Mottershead flew the stricken aircraft over the first line of Allied trenches and made for safe ground to the rear. Rather than make an immediate crash-landing, which would have endangered his observer’s life, Mottershead circled a fairly flat field and headed his FE, by then trailing flames and smoke, into the wind in an attempt at a safer landing. However, as soon as the aircraft hit the ground, the undercarriage collapsed and the nose dug into the mud. Gower was thrown clear, suffering only cuts, bruises and shock, but Mottershead was pinned in his cockpit.

Gower helped soldiers who were quickly on the scene to extricate him from the burning wreckage. Despite dreadful burns to his back, hands and legs, Mottershead remained cheerful as he was taken for emergency medical treatment. For the next five days, surgeons tried to save the pilot’s life but Mottershead died on 12 January 1917, five days short of his 25th birthday. The next day he was buried at Bailleul cemetery. Captain G.J. Mahoney-Jones, the squadron’s temporary commander, wrote to Mottershead’s widow saying “we had laid to rest one of the bravest men who had ever fallen in war”. On 12 February 1917, it was announced that Mottershead had been awarded a posthumous VC, while Gower was awarded the Military Cross for his own bravery. Mottershead’s VC was presented to his widow by King George V at an investiture in London’s Hyde Park on 2 June 1917. He had the distinction of being the only NCO to be awarded the VC for aerial operations during the Great War. Furthermore, the town of Widnes started an appeal fund to provide for his widow and child. Nearly £1,000 – a

small fortune in those days – was raised but, due to an administrative mix-up, the money never reached them. Nearly half a century later, a diligent civil servant discovered the fund in council records and it was used to endow the Mottershead Scholarship at Widnes Technical College. A street in Widnes – Mottershead Road – is also named in his honour. I purchased his medal group privately in 1994 and feel privileged to be the custodian of the VC awarded to this courageous, good-natured Lancashire lad who sacrificed his own life to save a comrade and friend. 

BELOW: No sooner had Mottershead reached his patrol area over Ploegsteert Wood on 7 January 1917, then his aircraft was attacked at an altitude of 9,000 feet by two Albatros D.III fighters of Jasta 8 – aircraft identical to those seen here. Gower immediately opened fire and managed to hit one of the attackers, putting it out of the action. The remaining German aircraft, which, some accounts state, was flown by German Ace Leutnant Walter Göttsch, had more luck – shooting down Mottershead. (US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

TOP LEFT: Mottershead’s VC medal group, was presented to his widow, Lilian, by King George V in a ceremony in Hyde Park, London, on 2 June 1917. (LORD ASHCROFT COLLECTION)

ABOVE: The flying goggles worn by Mottershead during his final mission over the Western Front during the First World War.

(LORD ASHCROFT COLLECTION)

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93

NORMAN CONQUEST 950TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL A

SPECIAL

The Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman Conquest was arguably the most significant event not just in English history, but that of the world. The unified nation that eventually emerged from the Conquest grew in strength and self-belief as it too conquered other territories and peoples, ultimately creating the largest empire ever seen. This 100-page special examines why the Normans invaded in 1066, how they defeated the Saxons at Hastings and then completed their Conquest of the country. This fascinating story is brought to life in a rich assortment of unique illustrations.

FEATURES INCLUDE: The Men from the North

The Viking invasions of Britain and Western Europe.

Swords Around the Throne

The reign of Edward the Confessor and the rival factions for the English throne.

First Blood

The Vikings land in the north of England, only to be crushed by England’s new King Harold at Stamford Bridge.

The Battle of Hastings

William of Normandy arrives near Hastings, Harold

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rushes to meet the invaders. In a prolonged and desperate battle, Harold is killed and the Saxons routed.

Conquest

William stamps out all opposition, wiping out large parts of the rebellious north of England, until the whole country is finally conquered.

PLUS: An examination of the weapons and tactics of the rival armies, careful examination of the

Hastings battlefield, blow-by-blow account of the battle, questioning how much we really know about the events of 950 years ago, and much, much more.

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

Hitler’s Atlantic Wall Yesterday and Today

George Forty, Leo Marriott and Simon Forty Publisher: Casemate UK www.casematepublishers.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-61200-375-7 Hardback: 192 pages RRP: £20.00

B

THE IMPRESSIVE defensive structures built along Hitler’s Atlantic wall to defend against inevitable invasion attempts by the Allies will never cease to amaze those who view them today, over seventy years later. From Norway, down to Southern France, these almost monolithic and quite monstrous constructions have often survived in situ – impervious to destruction in war or through attempts at post-war demolition. In many cases, the structures are in plain view. In other instances, less so. Many others have been put to peacetime use for storage, as war museums, as ‘canvases’ for modern art and graffiti or even as foundation bases for subsequent buildings constructed on top of them. Mostly, though, the casual

viewer will have little idea of the actual intended purpose of these impressive structures or the story behind them; how they were built, when they were built or the units who controlled them etc. Now, in this magnificent book, the secrets of the vast majority of the more major constructions are laid bare. Masters of the continent, the Nazis very soon realised that they needed to protect their gains and once the United States entered the war so the Third Reich redoubled its efforts to build what it considered to be a virtually impregnable fortress ring of concrete and steel. Using forced and slave labour, the chain of defensive positions included huge coastal batteries, cross-Channel gun positions, machine gun nests, gun and searchlight emplacements and command posts with the line of positions being an unbroken one built right the way down to the border with Franco’s Spain. However, as was typical of the Nazi regime, the whole programme was riven with internal bickering, command organisations which failed to properly communicate with each other and crippled by a lack of any strategic planning. To a very large extent, much of the ‘wall’ was something of a white elephant that could only hamper and impede any invasion, and certainly not prevent it. Indeed,

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on 6 June 1944, D-Day, the Allies quickly broke through it – notwithstanding that it took many lives to smash through its initial defensive crust. In most other places, of course, the defences were either impotent or wholly irrelevant to Allied war plans, with many simply by-passed or isolated to be subdued or forced to surrender later-on. The authors of this fine and almost certainly definitive work have combined bespoke aerial photography with period images, maps, diagrams and current illustrations to provide a pictorial analysis of the subject. Around 500 illustrations ensure that the subject is exceptionally well covered and after the opening sections on the construction of the wall, the defensive plan and the different structures that were built, Hitler’s Atlantic Wall Yesterday and Today provides a survey of all of the key locations and what can be seen today. There is also coverage of many of the museums that interpret the wall and preserve its many artefacts. The bulk of the book is divided geographically by country, dealing with France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway.

This nicely produced book is a remarkable record of the Atlantic Wall, the remnants of which survive today as sobering and symbolic reminders of a time, still within living memory, when Europe was under the domination of the Nazi jackboot. The Britain at War team have no hesitation in recommending this book most highly and choosing it as this month’s Book of the Month. REVIEWED BY ANDY SAUNDERS Illustrations  References/Notes Appendices  Index 

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RECONNAISSANCE REPORT |

Britain’s Wartime Evacuees

The People, Places and Stories of the Evacuations Told Through the Accounts of Those Who Were There Gillian Mawson

Publisher: Frontline Books www.frontline-books.com ISBN: 978-1-84832-441-1 Hardback. 224 pages RRP: £19.99 THE EVACUATION of millions of British people immediately before and during the Second World War had enormous consequences across the UK, both for those who had to leave their homes and those who had to take in complete strangers. Throughout the 1930s the threat from aerial bombardment on densely-populated urban areas was considered one of the greatest dangers in any future war. Predictions of mass casualties were confirmed in April 1937 when, during the Spanish Civil War, German bombers raided the town of Guernica, and in a single day 1,654 adults and children were killed and 889 injured. So, when war appeared inevitable in 1939, the carefully devised arrangements to evacuate people, mostly children, from towns and cities thought to be at greatest risk were set in motion. For many of those children, who left behind the smog and slums of London, the chance to live in the countryside away from the night-time terror of the Blitz was the best that could ever have happened to them. But that was not the case for some. Young Liverpudlian Philip Doran’s chore was to buy vegetables from the local farm and take them back to his new home with Mr and Mrs Burgess. In the autumn, the farmer would give Philip some windfall apples to take back with him. On one occasion, the farmer was not around and so Philip returned without any apples. On his way back he met another boy who was eating

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

an apple which he shared with Philip. Mrs Burgess saw Philip throwing away the apple core as he approached the house. When challenged, Philip offered his explanation: ‘Mrs Burgess exploded with rage and started to punch me like a woman possessed; all her pent-up resentment seemed to come out in that moment. She was screaming, “I saw you eating the apples coming up the road, you little liar!” By now blood was streaming from my nose and mouth; I knew I had to get away.’ Even worse treatment was handed out to Terence and Dennis O’Neill, who were beaten most nights by Mr Gough. Their story is a long and harrowing one and made the national newspapers. Amongst the countless beatings the boys suffered was one described by Terence: ‘One evening, about two days before I left, Mr Gough stripped Dennis in the kitchen, took him into the back kitchen, told him to get down on the pig bench, tied a rope across his back and fastened him down with it. Then he started hitting him on the top part of his back with a stick and Dennis cried and shouted.’ Such punishment continued over the next two days, until Terence was beaten to death. Surprisingly, the verdict handed down to Gough was not of murder but manslaughter. Murder was the verdict in the case of another evacuee, six-year-old Patricia Cupit from London, who was living in Wrigglesworth, Norfolk. She was found stabbed to death in a copse. The man found guilty was a Private in the Pioneer Corps, who pleaded insanity and was sent to Broadmoor. Whilst some children had terrible experiences away from home, others had a wonderful time and Gillian Mawson brings those memorable days to life with a wonderful collection of stories, some heart-breaking, some heart-warming – all fascinating.

REVIEWED BY ROBERT MITCHELL. Illustrations  References/Notes Appendices  Index 

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The Trench Cookbook 1917 Publisher: Amberley www.amberley-books.com ISBN: 978-1-4456-5549-9 Hardback: 256 pages RRP: £9.99 FOR THOSE getting over the excesses of the Christmas and New Year celebrations, maybe this title is just the thing? On the other hand, when the reviewer’s copy fell open at the recipe for brawn, detailing the boiling of one bullock head and one set of cow heels, then any likely appeal evaporated more than somewhat! A quick search of the

desserts to treat the virtual palate assaulted by the doubtful delights of brawn didn’t improve things, either, when the pages fell open at the recipe for prune jelly. This aside, however, the book provides a fascinating insight into how the British ‘Tommy’ cooked and ate in the trenches and much of the food looks to be surprisingly appealing, wholesome and appetising. Whether it was in practice is another matter, of course. However, the book provides a real insight into this aspect of trench life and explains ration allocations, trench tea (which tasted of vegetables, apparently) explains why Maconochie was so despised and provides a hundred-and one ways to serve up that great trench staple – bully beef. Details of the minutiae of a soldier’s life during the Great War help us build a picture of the overall dreadful experience of it all, and whilst this book is hardly likely to rival anything from Jamie’s or Nigella’s kitchen there are some surprising details hidden between the covers which give some colour and substance to the black and white images we see of soldiers eating from mess tins. With this book, one can better imagine the fare they might well be consuming. Thoroughly recommended reading for those who want to learn and understand more about trench life.

Battlefield Companion Somme 1916

Commonwealth War Graves Commission Publisher: Osprey www.ospreypublishing.com ISBN: 978-1-4728-2307-6 Softback: 96 pages RRP: £14.99 THE YEAR 2016 saw the centenary of the Battle of the Somme and the publication of an absolute plethora of new titles covering various aspects of the battle. However, if the reviewer was to choose just one book which provided a concise over-view of the battle and a guide to the various sites, cemeteries etc. then this would undoubtedly be it. In a mere 96 pages, this handy little pocket-book takes the reader through the background story of the battle first, before looking at five key areas; exploring the Somme, the North, the Southern Advance, Thiepval Ridge and

Attrition. Spiral bound and with plasticised weatherproof pages, this book is the ideal companion to anyone visiting or exploring the battlefields without being conducted around by a battlefield guide. The maps, explanations and photographs are second to none and in one package the battlefield visitor has all of the essential information to assist with looking around the Somme. Of course, this won’t give the full story of the battle, the tactics, the units involved etc. but it is as good as it gets when it comes to wanting an overview of the region and the things to look out for. Certainly, some of the mapping guides provided through mobile ‘phones via Aps are more than helpful when making such visits, but there is something that is still comforting and reassuring about having a tangible book in ones hands when on battlefield visits and pilgrimages. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Osprey publishing are to be congratulated in providing this truly excellent publication.

Doomed Before The Start

The Allied Intervention in Norway 1940, Vol 1, The Road To Invasion and Early Moves Niall Cherry

Publisher: Helion & Company www.helion.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-909982-18-5 Hardback: 336 pages RRP: £29.95 WITH BOOKS on the early months of 1940 in Europe almost entirely dominated by publications dealing with the desperate fighting in France by the British Expeditionary Force it is refreshing to see a book devoted to a neglected theatre of operations; Norway. This is Volume 1 of Niall Cherry’s two-part work on this important element of the war in Europe during 1940 and looks at the time when another British Expeditionary Force was involved in the fighting in Norway and in trying to counter the

The Britain at War team scout out the latest items of interest German invasion on 9 April. As a military operation, the invasion of Norway saw the very first use of airborne troops and was one of the very few amphibious operations ever conducted by the Germans. The author provides a detailed account of the German invasion and the Allied reaction covering the land, sea and air battles that ensued and includes the sinking of HMS Glowworm and HMS Glorious as well as the operation of Gloster Gladiators from frozen lakes doubling as airfields, the Maurice Force and the sacrifice of Territorial Battalions amongst the many topics covered. Additionally, the book draws on official war diaries and veterans’ accounts and is supported by photographs and maps. As ever, Helion excel in this type of book and are to be commended for publishing such a range of truly superb books, like this one, often providing the detailed inside-story of little known campaigns like that in Norway.

The War In The North Sea

The Royal Navy and the Imperial German Navy 1914 – 1918 Quintin Barry Publisher: Helion and Company www.helion.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-911096-38-2 Harback: 544 pages RRP: £29.95 WHILST THE war in the North Sea during the First World War is principally remembered for Jutland and Dogger Bank, this book reviews the entire course of the war fought in its inhospitable waters from the first tentative contacts between the opposing fleets during the early stages through to an ambitious but aborted mission planned at the end of the war by the German High Seas Fleet and, as an epilogue, its dramatic scuttling in Scapa Flow.

This is certainly an excellent record of the naval war in the North Sea and may yet become recognised as the definitive work on the subject and is a work in which Quintin Barry has challenged perceptions about the outcome of the Battle of Jutland, for example, which is usually seen as a British ‘victory’. It has often been suggested that the High Seas Fleet remained in harbour for the rest of the war, but Barry shows that its commander, Admiral Reinhold Scheer, subsequently launched a number of major sorties. As things happened, it was a series of chances that had determined the outcome of Jutland. Equally, it was chance that repeatedly intervened to prevent any subsequent decisive encounter during those subsequent sorties by the High Seas Fleet. Quintin Barry, throughout the book, takes a critical and forensic look at each engagement and analyses tactics and outcomes and looks at every facet of every such engagement, drawing heavily on the experiences of those who were there as well as the official record and correspondence between senior naval commanders and the politicians of the day. What is clear is that there is much more to the subject matter than just the engagements of the two navies on the high seas, and Quintin Barry skilfully weaves the whole story together in a book which is very readable as well as being a reference work which researchers will doubtless turn to, time and again. What is also interesting to note is that for many years before the outbreak of war it was the expectation of most officers of the Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy that the two fleets would shortly meet in a titanic and decisive fleet action in the North Sea. Whilst that seems a remarkably prescient view of things, taken long before war actually broke out, it is perhaps redolent of attitudes across the Cold War, for example, when there were often times when the ‘opposing’ sides felt conflict to be inevitable at some stage. In the case of the pre-war navies, however, what they had planned and trained for became reality inside not many years – and when the clash came it was both deadly as well as defining in terms of how the continuing war would be fought by both sides. This is certainly a book that will be a valued one on the Britain at War editorial office bookshelf and is one that will be turned to, time and again. Its fact-filled pages, together with maps and charts, will certainly become the most useful of reference sources. It is also a book which the reviewer most highly recommends.

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MARCH 2017 ISSUE

ON SALE FROM 23 FEBRUARY 2017

Decisive Defeat Under the Rising Sun Professor of Naval History, Eric Grove, relates the story of gallantry and bravery aboard both HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse and of Churchill’s reaction to the tragedy of the loss of both ships, outlining the strategic significance of the disaster when these two major warships sailed into mortal peril in a bid to save Britain’s Far East Empire.

Lawrence of Arabia’s Bullet?

Mark Khan examines three case studies related to conflict archaeology projects and examines how the interpretation of ammunition-related finds has been used to piece together the story of what took place where finds were excavated, including a bullet claimed to have been fired by Lawrence of Arabia. The results show the importance of understanding these objects and how mistakes can sometimes be made.

Military Collecting – Battle of Britain Film Memorabilia

In this, the first of our new series on collecting militaria, Peter Arnold looks at collectibles relating to the classic and iconic 1969 feature film ‘Battle of Britain’, ranging from posters to paperwork through to hardware associated with production of the film itself.

REVIEWED BY ANDY SAUNDERS Illustrations  References/Notes Appendices  Index 



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97

REPUTATIONS

GENERAL Sir RICHARD NUGENT O'CONNOR Part I: The British Desert Fox: Palestine Brilliance, Compass Glory

Among many well decorated British Generals stands the highly praised Richard O’Connor, famous for a masterful desert campaign, and quite possibly the soldier most Mentioned in Despatches. In part one of this feature, John Ash outlines the General’s early career and his brilliance in the Western Desert. orn in Srinigar, India, on 21 August 1889, Richard O’Connor was the son of, Maurice O’Connor, a Royal Irish Fusilier Major, and Lilian (née Morris), the daughter of a former governor of India’s central provinces. He began his military career in 1908 at Sandhurst. In October 1909 he joined 2nd Battalion, the Cameronians, and later served as Regimental Signal Officer. His unit was put into the new 7th Infantry Division, a Regular Army formation formed from serving soldiers returning from overseas service. The ‘Immortal Seventh’, which contained no reservists, arrived in Belgium on 6 October 1914, helping to stabilise the front around Ypres. They were involved in most major actions on the Western Front until 1917, including Neuve Chapelle and the Somme. O’Connor held various positions within 7th Division. At the rank of Captain, he commanded 7th Division’s Signal Company, and later

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ABOVE: Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor.

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became 91st Brigade’s new Brigade Major. His efforts earned him the Military Cross in February 1915, and a month later he fought at Arras and Bullecourt. O’Connor was awarded his DSO after being appointed as temporary Lieutenant-Colonel of 2nd Infantry Battalion, HAC, in mid1917. The Division moved to Italy in November 1917, and after the dismissal of Luigi Cadorna, newly appointed Italian Chief of Staff Armando Diaz launched a decisive attack along the River Piave in June 1918, supported by 7th Division. O’Connor seized the island of Grave di Papadpoli in October, and this successful action earned him a Bar to his DSO and the Italian Silver Medal of Honour. In addition to other awards, he was Mentioned in Despatches on nine occasions during the Great War.

INTERWAR STUDIES

Rapid progression followed, and the young Major spent a year at Staff College. It is while at Camberley »

REPUTATIONS GENERAL SIR RICHARD NUGENT O'CONNOR Nickname(s): Dick (Informal) Born: 21 August 1889 Died: 17 June 1981 (aged 91) Allegiance: United Kingdom Service/branch: British Army (1909-1948) Battles/wars: First World War: Battle of the Piave River, Palestine, Second World War: Operation Compass, Operation Epsom, Operation Jupiter, Operation Goodwood, Operation Bluecoat, Operation Market Garden Awards: Knight of the Order of the Thistle, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Distinguished Service Order & Bar, Military Cross, Mentioned in Despatches (13 times), Legion of Honour, Croix de Guerre, Silver Medal of Military Valour.

ABOVE: General O’Connor receives an ovation from locals as he tours a recently captured Derna.

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REPUTATIONS RIGHT: A British machine gunner on Babel-Silseleh Street, in Jerusalem’s Old City, with his Lewis Gun pointed toward the entrance of the Mosque grounds, 22 October 1938.

up after a tour in Ireland, and the Regiment’s CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Ferrers, asked specifically for his old friend. The stint proved worthwhile, forging numerous contacts with officers who rose later to prominence. Two years as a company commander at Sandhurst followed, where he met a Captain Miles Dempsey, and Frederick Browning - then a camp instructor. Both officers would have a valuable role to play in the future. The 1927 and 1928 intakes saw the arrival of Harold Alexander, Oliver Leese, Richard McCreery, Gerald Templer, Gerard Bucknall, Bernard Montgomery and Bernard Paget. Field Marshal Lord Harding later stated his success was down to the lessons and influence of O’Connor and Montgomery. Clearly, the ‘class’ of the interwar period shaped British military history for decades.

(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW RIGHT: O’Connor (left) discusses the assault on Bardia with Archibald Wavell, C-in-C Middle East. O’Connor also met with General Iven Mackay on 24 December to discuss his preparations, and suggested building the attack on 7RTR’s last 23 Matildas. Although concerned with supply shortages, the cold, and enemy strength, Mackay’s brilliant attack demolished the Italians despite not entirely sharing O’Connor’s confidence. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

O’Connor met Lieutenant-Colonel Neame. The Kentish officer and nephew of the Shepherd Neame founder was barely older than O’Connor, but already the youngest member of directing staff, and one of the best. The VC awardee Engineer would win a Gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics and is the only person to hold an Olympic Gold and Victoria Cross. Most of the officers in attendance, including a Major Montgomery, held higher ranks during the war, therefore the course was more an evaluation and dissemination exercise rather than training.

Following Camberley, O’Connor was appointed to 5th Brigade (Experimental Brigade) in January 1921. The formation, which combined elements of infantry, artillery, and tanks, had three main aims. The first, to test and integrate these core elements, the second, to take these developments and impress observers, and the third, to train battalions rotated through the force in the new techniques. Promotion to the Seaforth Highlanders followed, however O’Connor instead opted to return to his original regiment. The Cameronians were in need of a shake

BELOW: General Haining (obscured by soldiers in centre) visits the scene of an attacked locomotive on the Jerusalem to Lydda railway, 20 December 1938. The site, on a bend and between high embankments, was wellchosen, an indicator to the abilities of the opposition. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

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REPUTATIONS LEFT: An Italian Army photograph showing Italian soldiers in position along the River Piave, ahead of the decisive battle in which O’Connor took part.

LIVELY SERVICE

O’Connor attended a course at the new Imperial Defence College in 1935. During one foretelling exercise, he led a ‘Japanese’ force in an invasion of Singapore. Chillingly, he easily took the island, defended by fellow student, then LieutenantColonel Arthur Percival. He was then appointed to the Secunderabad Brigade in Hyderabad, India, but this was changed to the Peshawar Brigade, in the lively North West Frontier. The tenure came with promotion to Colonel and then acting Brigadier. By the summer of 1938 the worsening situation in Palestine necessitated a response, and O’Connor was sent there, commanding 7th Division, very much as a rising star. However, attitudes toward the deteriorating situation in Palestine was of disinterest, and the only briefing he received was from his own sources. Since the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, the tensions between Jews and Arabic peoples caused consistent unrest that rarely occurred on such levels under Ottoman rule. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, naming Palestine as a home for the Jewish faith, drastically changed matters and conflicted with a previous assertion promising Palestine to the Arabs.

REBELLION AND INSURRECTION

Unrest exploded into rioting and resistance against British rule, a situation not helped by numerous changes in statute which made law enforcement tricky. Previous

BOTTOM: One of 76 Rolls Royce armoured cars in British service in the Middle East. Although obsolete, there was little else to replace them. This 1924 Pattern car operating near Bardia has heavily modified with an open turret, a Boys anti-tank rifle and a Bren.

commanders had done what they could but were unable to solve the problems. As Major-General Haining took over in April 1938, the rebellion grew in ferocity. Resistance grew in strength and the British soon lost large swathes of Palestine. Power supply and communications to Jerusalem were often severed and civil unrest escalated to sniping attacks and bombings. Heavy-handed British reprisals such as the destruction of property were common - many detainees died ‘trying to escape’, some hostages taken to ensure safe transit of British forces never returned. But, these were not necessarily acts of policy nor the will of senior commanders, they were increasingly not tolerated and in this war of counterinsurgency, the overall conduct of British troops was more positive. On 17 October, the rebels in Jerusalem felt strong enough to bring the uprising to its climax. Their headquarters was in the Mosque of Omar in Harem esh Sharif and, seemingly untouchable by British troops, proclaimed their control of the Old City. O’Connor arrived on 16 October, and immediately set about learning about a situation, a country, a people, he knew little about embracing the advice of civil authorities. British troops had offered a good defence, but were unable to stem the insurgency, Jaffa and Gaza were effectively rebel towns, roads were being mined and trains derailed. O’Connor planned to retake Jerusalem’s Old City

and reopen transport routes. On 18 October, the newly promoted Major-General was informed he had been appointed Military Governor of Jerusalem, which simplified management of the civil/military situation.

A PERSONAL RECONNAISSANCE

O’Connor’s first move was a masterful operation to retake the Old City and he personally observed the tight web of interconnecting narrow streets »

(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW: Ahead of Op. Compass, the British had a number of older Cruiser tanks, but also the modern Mk III, seen here. Like the Matilda II, the Mk III Cruiser was superior to its opposition at the time. (THE TANK MUSEUM)

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REPUTATIONS

ABOVE: While the perfect imperial policeman and scout, light armour and a machine gun only armament made the Vickers Light Tanks, like these Mk VIBs, or even the up-gunned Mk IVC (with 15mm BESA), illsuited for battle. (THE TANK MUSEUM)

BELOW RIGHT: Mk VI Light Tanks suffered on the softest ground and thirteen 3rd Hussars tanks were lost in ten minutes on the salt pans at Buq Buq after they bogged down and were targeted by Italian guns. However, when employed cleverly, they were useful. Around 110 Mk VIs were available through January, and proved effective in flanking and rear attacks on Italian positions. They also served, less successfully, in Greece and Crete. (THE TANK MUSEUM)

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and alleys, each flanked by buildings and all centred on the Mosque of Omar, which dominated the district. The Old City was ringed by high wall, complete with turrets. Noting the vulnerabilities to his men without adequate cover, O’Connor opted to put troops on the roofs of the sprawling mass of structures, and protected them from the wall or Mosque by occupying the turrets and positioning machine guns in them. Soldiers would then progress at street level, protecting police while they searched people and premises, all covered from the rooftops. The plan met criticism, as it required men at street level where snipers and hidden bombers could wreak havoc. Upwards of 300 casualties were feared, but O’Connor persisted, and the sang froid officer was proven. In

this extensive manoeuvre, no fire was received from or, importantly, poured into, the Mosque, and one casualty was sustained while 19 rebels were killed. The operation and tactics were radical, and provided valuable street fighting experience to an army which had little familiarity with it. The issue of clearing the main roads outside of Jerusalem was also resolved by O’Connor, who applied a method used in the North West Frontier, establishing several outposts along main routes, ordering 24 hour armoured patrols, and making local dignitaries responsible for the safety of the roads in their areas – again controversial. However, the plan was implemented and order swiftly restored along main routes. Railways required a different solution, which, as always, began

with a Richard O’Connor personal reconnaissance. His two day scouting mission pressed on despite encountering a platoon-strength patrol exhausted by rebel actions, and who reported other units had encountered similar resistance. O’Connor himself came under fire as his group progressed and the man next to him was shot dead. After gathering civilians as a protective shield the fire waned, and the patrol found safety under an umbrella of aircraft.

FUTILE CAUSE

His recce made, O’Connor noted it was not possible to establish forts along the tracks, so opted to make use of patrols and made the protection of the routes a tasking for local dignitaries. This worked, temporarily, so O’Connor ordered prominent Arabs ride ahead of the trains. The rebels simply switched to delayed action charges. O’Connor’s response, which put an end to the attacks, was to put an Arab leader in every car of every train. The British spent much of November 1938 retaking areas like Rammallah and Jericho. Morale shattered and facing such an effective military and police response, the rebels gave way and support for what was becoming a futile cause dwindled. In the north of Palestine, a newly appointed MajorGeneral Montgomery was also doing well, in constant contact with his longtime friend, adapting and emanating O’Connor’s methods. With the exception of sporadic attacks the rebellion had been defeated,

REPUTATIONS and O’Connor became a popular figure to both Arab and Jew. Striking was the new weapon for the disaffected, but O’Connor was even able to stop this disruption, ordering participating businesses to close for the same length following a strike as they closed as participants. O’Connor was Mentioned in Despatches for a tenth time for his actions in Palestine.

SIDE-LINED?

When war broke in September 1939, O’Connor, unlike his counterpart Montgomery, was not given divisional command in France. The mission in Palestine was about complete and the campaign wound down with much of the force sent to other theatres. There has been suspicion O’Connor was side-lined, and one event that summer could be pointed to as reason. An operation to root out the last vestiges of the uprising went awry and resulted in unnecessary deaths.

The target village was known for harbouring rebels, and an off-therecord action was launched to clear it. Those suspected or caught harbouring weapons were separated and left in a sun-bathed enclosure. Their watersupply was limited, and troops and the captain in charge complained about the poor treatment offered - they were ignored. The inhumane treatment continued for four days after the search, and five men died of thirst before any intervention was allowed. The fiasco was world news, only topped by the looming war which distracted British politicians. At the later inquiry, the unfortunate Captain was the receiver of much blame. O’Connor, despite knowing nothing of the operation, stormed into the court and put a stop to the hearing by taking responsibility. When the Brigadier overseeing the operation declared O’Connor knew nothing about it, the cool General responded stating that

meant deaths were as much his fault, as they was the Brigadier’s. However, there were strong reasons to keep O’Connor in the desert. One being his popularity and familiarity with the theatre and he proved loyal and fair to troops and population. War had long been due, and the Chamberlain administration had been preparing. Their review of Anglo-Arabian relations decided the continued allegiance of the mideastern states was favourable - even at the expense of minorities. The beginnings of a Jewish-led uprising also needed attention, but O’Connor handled the situation until the threat of war overshadowed all and calmed local tensions.

WAR

ABOVE: O’Connor made good use of the limited numbers of A12 Matilda II tanks at his disposal. Here, a Matilda enters Tobruk on 24 January 1941, proudly displaying a captured Italian flag.

O’Connor moved to Cairo in late 1939 to prepare Egypt for Italian invasion. He used the time well, familiarising himself with the desert, and identifying the importance tanks would have. He worked with the »

ABOVE: Some of the thousands of prisoners captured in the Bardia action. By the time Bardia fell, Mackay’s 16,000 Australians had captured 36,000 Italians and killed or wounded more than 5,000. He lost 130 killed.

BELOW: Vickers Light Tanks, formed a good proportion of tanks available. 200 Vickers Light tanks were available prior to Compass, along with 75 various Cruiser tanks and just 45 Matilda II. (THE TANK MUSEUM)

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REPUTATIONS

ABOVE: Italians surrender as the assault on Bardia progresses. ABOVE RIGHT: An Australian rider stops near Bardia to look at captured Italian tankettes. The first, an L3CC, is armed with a 20mm Solothurn anti-tank rifle, the second, a standard L3/35, has twin 8mm machine guns. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW: British soldiers cross one of the few bridges left intact by the Italians at Derna. (WW2IMAGES)

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excellent Major-General Percy Hobart to study how armour performed in arid conditions – all completed in relative secrecy, to not antagonise the Italians across the border. Hobart commanded the Mobile Force which later became the legendary 7th Armoured Division. His formation achieved what was perhaps an unrivalled standard, globally, let alone within the British Army. Hobart fought to forge a division of such quality, and his creation would be described by O’Connor as ‘the best trained division’ he had ever known. The pair quickly picked up the harsh realities of the Western Desert, which proved difficult to navigate and had an endless corrosive toll on vehicles. Hobart would not remain in theatre for long, but long enough for O’Connor to benefit and transform his force. O’Connor’s re-designated 6th Division visited Palestine briefly

before returning to Egypt on 10 June, two days before Italy entered the war. On the 17th, he was temporarily promoted to Lieutenant-General and as commander, Western Desert Force. His superiors were General Maitland ‘Jumbo’ Wilson, and ultimately Wavell, C-in-C Middle East. This complicated command structure strained under the pressures of war, but held. O’Connor also sought good relations with the RAF and Royal Navy, in particular with Air Commodore Collishaw of 202 Group RAF, the Desert Air Force. Wavell planned to attack Italian Africa alongside French troops and crawl up the Mediterranean, controlling as much of it as early as possible. However, the fall of France meant this ally and her territories were knocked out the war, with many French colonies becoming opposition. Vichy-mandated territories such as

Syria and Lebanon now posed a threat to the British rear rather than a secure buffer. Nevertheless, the offensive took place. The day after Italy declared war, armoured cars of the 11th Hussars breached the border and overran the defenders. News Italy had entered the war reached the British before reaching the Italians, and total surprise was achieved. Fort Capuzzo fell on 14 June, the same day Fort Maddalena also surrendered. On 16 June, in a masterstroke, combined elements of the 7th and 11th Hussars brought their armour to bear on the Italians without loss, surrounding and destroying 40 tanks. Outside of the Italian main positions, the Libyan Frontier was effectively British, and that remained undisputed for around three months despite the costly desert attrition to armoured units and a scarcity of spares. Patrols were reduced to lorried infantry and armoured cars. In the face of a much larger Italian Air Force, 202 Group RAF also had to commit to operations sparingly. O’Connor, as he had in Palestine, toured frontline positions. He used the lengthy journeys to scout ground, and ultimately gauged the quality of those he commanded and instilled confidence. The qualities of his personal reconnaissance came from private reflections on the Great War, but they were risky. He would advance further forward than his own front, and on one occasion his staff car was reported joining a forward patrol from further behind the enemy lines! The visits, and according to one company commander the extra ration of beer which followed, made O’Connor a popular leader. Anticipating Italian invasion,

REPUTATIONS

O’Connor prepared his plans. He opted to allow them to advance and over-extend before slamming their flank with his armour. Sure enough, on 13 September the Italians attacked and the thin defending screen withdrew in the face of the advance. The Italians gained 60 miles, capturing Sidi Barrani but losing several hundred men. The retreating British sustained light losses, 160 casualties. The Italian force played to its strengths and instead of continuing their advance exploited their engineering and administration, building a ring of forts, each occupied by a reinforced brigade with all-arms support. The planned counter was no longer viable, but Wavell, Wilson, and O’Connor were simultaneously developing a solution: Compass, the great ‘five day’ raid - Wavell’s answer, executed by O’Connor.

COMPASS

The disparity between British and Italian forces was huge. At its height, O’Connor’s force contained some 34,000 men, while Marshal Graziani’s 5th and 10th Armies contained 250,000 men and 450 tanks. The realisation was surprise was essential, stressed heavily by Wavell in secret instructions. Wavell’s planned two-pronged pincer was not well received by O’Connor as it relied on wholly mobile units, pressuring already precious resources. The southern elements had too far to move, and would be far from the main battle - impossible to adequately direct. Lastly, air cover could not extend to two operations in separate locations. His proposal was simpler, to breach the Italian line

and move his infantry to the coast, attacking the forts from behind. The armour would engage the western flank, cutting off Italian forces in the south. Wavell commented this unorthodox plan would have been laughed out of Staff College, but backed it, it was the only means to keep surprise, the Italians separated, and British forces together. On 8 December 1940, 30,000 men and 275 tanks smashed through the Italian line at Nibeiwa, near Sidi Barrani, capturing 38,000 Italians (including four generals) in addition to tonnes of equipment and 72 tanks. 7th Armoured’s Matilda tanks, nigh impervious to fire, proved their worth. Brigadier Selby’s force of 1,800 infantry secured the coast road and Maktila while a motorised group kept the Italians to the south, in Sofafis, isolated. Having cleared the Italians from Egypt, O’Connor advanced into Libya, snapping at Graziani’s heels. The new 6th Australian Division captured Bardia and Sollum as the 4th Indian Division was pulled to fight in Sudan. The Australians took another 40,000 prisoners, 500 artillery pieces, 120 tanks and 700 other vehicles. The Western Desert Force, now XIII Corps, renewed the offensive on 9 January 1941. Three weeks later, »

LEFT: O’Connor (left) talks with Wavell (centre) and Major-General Iven Mackay, a capable Australian officer commanding 6th Division, key to victory at Bardia and knighted for his success during Compass. Certainly deserving of his own ‘Reputations’ feature.

BELOW: British or Australian troops run through the war torn streets of Bardia during the capture of the town.

(WW2 IMAGES)

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REPUTATIONS RIGHT: Italian gunners killed by their gun during Operation Compass. Judging by the quantities of spent shells, they resisted furiously. (HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

BELOW: The Libyan Desert is arid and rocky. While tanks could easily traverse this, the damage done to running gear, transmission, and tracks when at speed could as immobilising as soft sand. (THE TANK MUSEUM)

Tobruk fell, capturing another 25,000 Italians and 87 tanks. Derna fell after a stiff fight, then Mechili. There were hiccups in the British battle, but the Italians began a general retreat. An emboldened O’Connor moved a flying column through the desert in a bid to cut them off. On 4 February, the detached force from a reinforced 4th Armoured Brigade, named ‘Combeforce’, after its commander John Combe, reached Beda Fomm after an impressive 30 hour 150 mile dash across unmapped ground - a day before the retreating Italians. Within two days, sandwiched between the screen provided by the 4th and the bulk of XIII Corps advancing from Benghazi, the exhausted Italians surrendered. O’Connor’s five day raid turned into an 800 mile, two month advance. He

BELOW: British troops halt outside Tobruk. Clearly visible, smoke rises from Royal Navy shelling or RAF bombing.

captured more than 130,000 prisoners, seven generals and 15 high ranking offiers, 400 tanks, and 1,300 artillery pieces and had he simply fought his five days and fell back, it still would have been a victory of brilliant proportions. Instead, he pressed on, battling heat, sand, rain and mud, destroying ten divisions for the loss of 500 killed and 1,400 wounded – Italian casualties were almost ten times larger. He dealt with losing a division, the attrition on his armour (and that they struggled to adapt to night operations) and with the sheer number of prisoners (three or four times the size of his largest

force) which put strain on an already meagre supply chain. The General fought some of the best Italy had and prevailed, barely 30,000 Italians escaped encirclement. The Italian Air Force had also been smashed, and the Royal Navy rapidly reopened captured ports. For this great victory, O’Connor was knighted. Although decisive, O’Connor’s victory was not complete. A large Italian force remained in Libya, and XIII Corps, urged by O’Connor, were ready to press the attack. However, upon reaching El Agheila O’Connor was halted, on the orders of Churchill himself.

(HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS)

To read about O’Connor’s subsequent career, please see next month’s issue of Britain at War.

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ART OF WAR

Phil Jarman looks at how the First World War dramatically changed a talented landscape painter and his work.

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ANGER FUELS AN ARTIST’S V I S I O N O F WAR

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estined for a career in the Royal Navy, a young Paul Nash could not have predicted how his life would take a dramatic turn at the outbreak of the First World War. As a teenager, Nash looked set to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps for a life at sea, but not gaining the necessary knowledge and skills to pass the entrance examinations he opted for a career as an artist. For the four years preceding the Great War, Nash nurtured his talent as a painter and artist at the Slade School of Art. Unfortunately,

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From recording the beauty of rural Britain, War Artist Paul Nash went on to reveal the true horrors of the Great War trenches.

Anger Fuels an Artist’s Vision of War

108 www.britainatwar.com

he parted company with fellow students who became some of the most influential artists of the century such as Stanley Spencer, Edward Wadsworth, C.R.W. Nevinson and Ben Nicholson, after only a year. Some aspects of the tasks set by his art tutors at the Slade challenged Nash; he found figurative drawing difficult and elected to pursue his own directions and opted to paint landscapes and sites of historical significance. Rural Buckinghamshire provided his early inspirations, with panoramic views of rolling hills, woodlands, sites of burial mounds and ancient hill forts, with Nash reproducing brooding landscapes as sketches and in watercolour. The outbreak of war in 1914 would change Nash’s career and artistic directions with immediate effect. He reluctantly enlisted into the Artists’ Rifles for home service, which enabled him to continue to work on his creative career. However, after officer training in 1916, Nash embarked for the front as a Second Lieutenant in the Hampshire Regiment and joined the war in the Ypres Salient at St Eloi in February 1917. His duties and tours of the trenches during this fairly quiet time of the conflict provided Nash

with the opportunity to record the scenes of devastation in sketch form, using pen, ink and watercolour. After only four months, Nash was injured falling into a trench and was invalided back to Britain for recovery. Days later, as he convalesced, many of his comrades were killed in the offence on the infamous Hill 60. The news of the massive loss of life and terrible injuries sustained by his and other regiments affected Nash and these emotions fed into his artwork. While on leave, Nash developed his sketches and exhibited some of his work in London where the artwork was noticed by the War Artists Advisory Committee and resulted in the artist returning to the front in an official capacity to record the war as a painter in late 1917. During his initial spell in the trenches, with his romantic and astute observation skills, Nash recorded the hints of colour in the derelict farm buildings, trees and landscapes set against the juxtaposition of the military hardware, explosions, weaponry and uniforms. In his letters home he commented on how the continuity of nature survived amidst the dereliction of trench warfare. In some of his early drawings, Nash

sometimes rendered his work using a bright colourful palette and created contrast with a drab and an earthy darkness of war. Nash’s sketches showed rough, more urgent arrangements of marks, the detail is less defined, organic tangles of barbed wire, branches and stakes connecting the undulating topography of trenches spreading over the battlefield. The underlying anger that enabled Nash to record the field of battle like no other artist had achieved at that time was evident in the scratchy and dense marks of his pen or brush, dashed diagonal strokes could be interpreted as precipitation or the incessant rain of shells overhead. In letters to his wife, Nash referred to the battlefield as ‘one huge grave’, ‘a godless and helpless place’. His images of a fragmented world, where any order or reality is removed, show a personal understanding of the cost and meaninglessness of war and its effect on the landscape and its human inhabitants. During his commission as an official war artist, Nash worked as close to the action as possible, generating numerous drawings daily. He saw at first-hand how the field of battle had changed since his arrival at the front in the 

ABOVE: 'The Menin Road’, one of Paul Nash’s major war works, painted in 1919. LEFT: The final painting taken from the sketch completed in 1918.

OVERLEAF: Paul Nash working in his studio. www.britainatwar.com 109

ART OF WAR

Anger fuels an artist’s vision of war RIGHT: A detail of a watercolour titled, ‘Wire’, showing the tangled crown of thorns and a shattered tree.

BELOW: The striking aerial viewpoint in the painting. ‘Battle of Britain’ created in 1941.

spring. As the final winter of the war set in, months of rain and subsequent flooding meant the mud worsened. Men, machines and mules became immobilised, his visual interpretations showed fully the reality of war. On his return to England, Nash developed his printing techniques and went on to develop his images in oils for the first time, enabling him to consider his brush strokes and opacity of paint that ensured greater depth and subtleties of colour application. The flavour of Nash’s images showed a simplification of shapes, objects and figures. Details within his paintings were stylised and derived, plains of flat colour contrasted with skies that possessed more traditional painterly qualities, acknowledging the artists pre-war landscapes. The narrative within Nash’s paintings was achieved through the power of his compositions, his major work created in 1919, ‘The Menin Road’ was commissioned by the Ministry of Information and was planned to be housed in a Hall of Remembrance. This large format painting had three clear divisions, a foreground cluttered with impenetrable pools of stagnant water, rubble and destroyed trenches, the mid-ground shows shattered trees, furtive troops and a landscape stripped of its origins, and, in the distance, suggestions of a lighter, better place - but totally unreachable by those engaged in battle. After concluding his series of battlefield paintings, Nash returned

110 www.britainatwar.com

to Buckinghamshire in 1920, then following severe depression and illness he moved to Dymchurch in Kent. Inspired again by the familiar British landscape he went on to produce a series of paintings and engravings depicting the lowlands of Romney Marsh and the coast near Rye. In the late 1920’s Nash’s work became more abstract in nature and he adopted some of the principles of the new art movements spreading across Europe, the Modernists and Surrealists. He went on to become one of the founders of the influential Unit

One group, alongside fellow artists, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson. As war loomed again, Nash was appointed as a full-time war artist, attached to the Royal Air Force and Air Ministry, the creation of some of his most memorable pieces of work recorded the fight for survival of Britain during the early stages of the Second World War. A sea of wreckage, depicting downed German raiders from the Battle of Britain, fully encompassed Nash’s leanings towards surrealism and abstraction, ‘Totes Meer’ was regarded as one of the most celebrated paintings from the conflict. In his skyscape, ‘Battle of Britain’ depicting the struggle for aerial supremacy above Southern England in 1940, Nash adopted the techniques developed much earlier in his career. Traditional realistic use of accurate rendering of landscape and clouds, interrupted by vapour trails and the heat of battle, the viewpoint being elevated as if observed from an aircraft flying above the barrage balloons and estuary below and showed great imagination and narrative. Throughout his career, Paul Nash mentored and taught his younger brother John, another serving soldier with the Artists’ Rifles in the trenches, who also went on to be a celebrated landscape painter, engraver, illustrator and also, coincidentally, a War Artist during both World Wars. Paul Nash finally succumbed to long-term health problems and died aged 57 in 1946. 

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www.regaliaspecialist.com A FINE SELECTION OF GERMAN AND ALLIED ITEMS FROM BOTH WORLD WARS – BOTH REPRODUCTION AND ORIGINAL

Sample printed catalogue also available. Send a written request to: The Regalia Specialist, PO Box 103, Newmarket. Suffolk. CB8 8WY

CLOTHING

MARCH 2017

ON SALE: 23rd February • COPY DEADLINE: 2nd February

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IMAGE OF WAR ‘WOLFPACK’ THUNDERBOLT Ready For Action

A P-47D of the 5th Fighter Group’s (Zemke’s ‘Wolfpack’), 63rd Fighter Squadron, sits ready for another mission escorting USAAF bombers deep into enemy territory during 1944. The pilot of 42-28543, ‘Pat’, was Captain Gordon S Stevens of Smithfield, North Carolina, and this photograph was most likely taken at the 63rd FS’s home base of Halesworth, Suffolk. Note: 2017 marks the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the US 8th Air Force in Britain and we will be marking this anniversary in the magazine later this year. (FIGHTING HIGH PUBLICATIONS)

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The First W

rld War in Objects

CELEBRATORY MEAL MENU NO.31

LEFT & ABOVE: The menu produced for the meal enjoyed by the players of the Seaforth Highlanders football team on 14 February 1918 and Private George Bentley, on the right, pictured with his brother Elgy. (BOTH COURTESY

OF MATTHEW BENTLEY VIA EUROPEANA 1914-1918)

DESPITE THE challenges that food shortages, increasing prices and rationing created for the wartime chef, both on the Home Front and overseas, special events frequently provided the ideal opportunity for a celebratory meal – and the menus produced for such occasions often became treasured mementoes. It is, therefore, perhaps unsurprising that the menu seen here, relating to a dinner held at the Spa Hotel in Ripon for the Seaforth Highlanders football team has survived for nearly a century. It was initially kept by one of the players, George Eric Bentley. Born on 2 June 1899 in Bradford, George, more commonly known by his middle name, was the youngest of six children born to Joseph and Sarah Ann. As he grew up, George’s prowess on the football field soon became apparent. Indeed, family legend has it that he was destined for a professional career having been advised to consider signing for Aston Villa. As for so many of his generation, however, war intervened. Strong and athletic, being described as ‘big for his age’, whilst walking down a packed Darley Street in Bradford, George was ‘white-feathered’, despite being only 15. The incident had a profound effect on him, for George ran away and enlisted in the Army. Eventually posted to a battalion of the Black Watch he was sent France where a chance meeting with his brother Elgy revealed the truth and he was returned home. Undeterred, George soon repeated the process, though this time he chose to enlist in the Seaforth Highlanders. Part of the 51st (Highland) Division, his battalion found itself on the Somme. With the winter of 1916 approaching, Haig prepared for his final large-scale attack of the Somme

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offensive (and indeed the whole year) in the middle of October but poor weather led to the attack being delayed until November. The attack was finally delivered on the morning of 13 November with the objective of capturing Beaumont-Hamel and Serre on the heights to the north of the River Ancre. One Highlander subsequently wrote of the attack: ‘The morning was dark and misty. Long before zero hour, the first waves had climbed out of the trenches and lay on the parapet. At 5:45am the signal was given and the artillery opened a fearsome barrage on the German front line and over went the infantry, not dawdling, not even walking but wading knee deep, sometimes waist deep through the sticky mud and water in the shell holes that made up No-Man’s Land.’ Aged 17, Private George Bentley was one of those who went over the top that day. At some point during the fighting, George took shelter in a shell hole with several comrades, including a badly wounded officer. In an effort to get the injured man to the British trenches, George heaved the officer on his back and set off. This was the last thing he remembered of events of that day. Almost immediately after he had left the meagre cover provided by the crater, a shell exploded nearby. The officer took the force full of the blast and was killed. Badly injured, George subsequently came-to in a field hospital, shocked and temporarily deaf. Having slowly recovered, though no longer fit for front line duty, by February 1918 George was garrisoned in Ripon and representing the regiment at football – explaining how the menu seen here, signed by the members of the team on the reverse, came into his possession.

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