Chotie Darling

Introducing Eric Postles

The stories of those who survived fighting with 61^st Reconnaissance have brought to life Dick’s wartime experience.

Eric Postles was born on 8^th September 1922 and lived in the village of Burscough in Lancashire.  His parents, Mr and Mrs H. Postles lived at 7 Moss Nook, Burscough bridge, Nr. Ormskirk, Lancashire. His war years began here:

 “When men and women reached 19 years of age they were conscripted and, unless you were in a reserved occupation, you were called up for the forces or munitions work etc.

 

I had a medical for the forces at Wigan and on 15^th January 1942 I, along with Harry Parr* from the village and Dennis Crumbleholme from Ormskirk, reported to the Castle at Carlisle as part of a big intake of men from north-west England for the Reconnaissance Corps, a newly formed corps to provide regiments to recce for Infantry Divisions.  I became 10602580 Trooper J.E.Postles. 

The role of the Reconnaissance Corps was to gather vital tactical information in battle.  Our badge was a spear with flashes of lightning on either side and the words reconnaissance on a scroll beneath.  The Corps lanyards were green and yellow and on top of our sleeves we wore the word 'Reconnaissance' in yellow on a green background, the divisional sign and beneath that a bar of green and yellow.

Similarly our vehicles were recognised by the number '41' on a green and yellow square and the divisional sign on the front and rear.  We wore forage caps, later changed to khaki berets and then black berets when we became part of the Royal Armoured Corps.  We also changed our steel helmets to ones similar to those worn by the airborne troops, which gave more protection. 

Our pay was 1 shilling and 9 pence a day but shortly after joining it rose to 2 shillings and 6d and 6d was paid in towards a gratuity given at demobilisation. 

After an IQ test I was allocated to 61^st Division Recce Regiment.  The Divisional sign was a blue square with inset red diamond.  Harry and Denis went to 59^th Division Recce Regiment in Ireland.

 

My regiment, also in Ireland, was moving to a new location so instead of joining them at the outset we went by train on 18^th January to No 10 I.T.C. (Kings Own Scottish Borderers) to do our basic training at Berwick-on-Tweed.  The camp was on the cliffs next to the sea.  It was bitterly cold and snowed heavily.  There was a lot of visible enemy air activity off the coast although the camp was never attacked."

(Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

*Harry Parr joined the 59 Division Recce regiment.  In July 1943 he “was killed on an exercise in Kent when his heavy armoured car turned over and he was crushed by the gun.”

United Nations Declaration - January 1942

The War in Dorset - January 1942

In Dorset in January 1942 a Wellington bomber, with a Royal Australian Air Force crew, crashed at Fifehead Magdalen near Sturminster Newton and the first American GIs (General  Infantryman) began to arrive in the county at the end of the month - see previous post. (From ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, 2004)

 8^th January 1942 – Mountbatten, head of Combined Operations (based near Poole), approaches 1^st Airborne Division to discuss the feasibility of a paratroop raid on the Würzburg radar apparatus detected near Cap de la Hague. This was to result in the famous Bruneval Raid.

14th January 1942 – Operation Postmaster.

17th/18th January 1942 –  Operation Curlew – an unsuccessful commando reconnaissance raid on St Laurent, France (between Cherbourg and Caen) by the elite ‘V’ Corps School of Raiding from Southern Command. ‘V’ Corps Southern Command included the secret signals and reconnaissance ‘Phantom’ squadron commanded by David Niven and based inland of Poole Harbour (see The Missing Winter).

 

1st Air Landing Reconnaissance:

On 1^st January 1942 Major General F.A.M. Browning, D.S.O., commander of 1^st Airborne Division, inspected the 1^st Air Landing Company, Reconnaissance Corps.  Browning, married to the novelist Daphne du Maurier (Dick’s favourite), was close to both Churchill and Louis Mountbatten and used this influence to ensure his men got what they needed.  

Throughout January their training continued on the Churn Ranges near Didcot and Beacon Hill* Ranges. (* The Beacon Hill near Newbury or the Beacon Hill on Bulford Ranges, Salisbury.?)

(From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, WO166/6955 National Archives at Kew.)

 

Dick joined 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance on 20th April 1942.

 

1st January 1942 – all those at war with Germany adopt the ‘United Nations’ and sign the  United Nations Declaration in agreement with the principles of  the Atlantic Charter.  26 nations signed in January 1942 including the so-called ‘Big Four’ - Britain, America, Soviet Russia and China.

January 1942 – rice and dried fruit rationed.

 

2^nd January 1942 – Japanese capture Manila, capital of the Philippine Islands.  On 9^th January they attack General MacArthur’s US and Philippine forces and advance down the Bataan Peninsula. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

5^th January 1942 – Stalin launches new Russian offensives attempting to advance and encircle German troops on the front line near Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in the north, Moscow in the centre and the armies in Crimea and Kharkov in the south.  By April, Soviet military casualties had risen to over one million, although the suffering of civilians (“crushed between the cruelty of the Germans and that of their own Army and partisans”) was even greater. Stalin ordered the destruction of any building the Germans might use for shelter.  Dreadful conditions in besieged Leningrad led to the death of 620,000 (a quarter of the December 1941 population) from famine, cold and disease. However half a million of the inhabitants escaped by “the Road of Life”, the frozen ice road across Lake Ladoga, before the spring thaw. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

11^th January 1942 – Japanese took Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

 

12^th January 1942 – Japan declares war on the Dutch East Indies.

 

14th January 1942 - At the Arcadia Conference in Washington, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill agree to concentrate the Allied war effort on the European theatre.

President Roosevelt also orders that all ‘aliens’ register with the government. This is the beginning of a plan to move Japanese Americans into internment camps in the belief that they might aid the enemy. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

18th January 1942 – Japanese troops advance into Burma from Thailand.

 

19th January 1942 – Japan occupies British North Borneo. Singapore Island prepares for siege by the Japanese. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

20^th January 1942 - British troops capture Benghazi in Libya.

20^th January 1942 – Germany formally adopts the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Problem' . All Jews in occupied Europe were to be transported to the east. The able bodied were worked until they died, while the remainder were put to death.

See Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January).

 

21st January 1942 - Japan attacks New Guinea.

Rommel launches a counter-offensive against the 8th Army in North Africa and the British retreat to the Gazala line, 60 kilometres west of Tobruk. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

The Luftwaffe begin a series of raids against London and ports in southern England.(From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

25^th January 1942 – Thailand declared war on Britain and the USA.

Having requested re-enforcement for Britain and the US, Australia begins full mobilisation for defence against Japan. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

26^th January 1942 – American forces began arriving in the British Isles, first landing in Ulster. They brought with them a new vocabulary, including the snappier ‘radar’ for 'radio direction finding' and a guidance book to prevent them treading on British toes:

Mindful of the old saying, “It is always impolite to criticize your hosts; it is militarily stupid to criticize your allies”, the US War Office provided every American serviceman heading for Britain with a cultural guide ‘Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain, 1942’.

Explaining about the war-weary British, it said: “Thousands of them have lost their houses, their possessions, their families. Soap, is so scarce that girls working in the factories often cannot get the grease off their hands or out of their hair. And food is more strictly rationed than anything else.”

Also “The British do not know how to make a good cup of coffee. You don’t know how to make a good cup of tea. It’s an even swap.”

To the sometimes jaundiced Tommy the GIs (General Infantry) were still "overpaid, over sexed and over here".

 

29^th January 1942 - German forces recaptured Benghazi in Libya. 

Churchill’s speech to the House “I offer no excuses” ended with:

“I avow my confidence, never stronger than at this moment, that we shall bring this conflict to an end in a manner agreeable to the interests of our country, and in a manner agreeable to the future welfare of the world. I have finished. Let every man act now in accordance with what he thinks is his duty in harmony with his heart and conscience.” From the Churchill Society

 

31^st January 1942 – British and Commonwealth forces complete evacuation Malaya in the face of the Japanese advance but defend Singapore.