The War in Dorset - May 1942
On 14th May 1942 a landslip at Cairn’s Folly near Charmouth destroyed the radio station on the clifftop. Two German ‘T’ boats were sunk off the Dorset coast by Royal Navy motor torpedo boats on 19th May and on 23rd May the German flying ace Hauptmann Langur was killed when he crashed into a Shaftesbury hillside in low cloud. The RAF plane attacking him was able to operate through the cloud using the ‘Starlight’ radar system from Sopley near Christchurch.
24th/25th May – following a Pathfinder bombing, which unfortunately killed several people and damaged houses in the Hamworthy area, a bomb fell on the Brownsea decoy site setting off prepared cordite flashes. The Special Fires (code name ‘Star Fish’ - pyrotechnics simulating bursting bombs and burning buildings) were started on the island attracting a 75 minute bombardment from 60 enemy aircraft that would have done terrible damage in Poole, where Chotie lived. Out of 166 tons of bombs used that night, all but 9 tons fell harmlessly on the decoy. Even so 140 people had to be accommodated in the Sandacres Hotel, Sandbanks that night and one bomb hit a military target – the Poole Home Guard company HQ in Lindsay Road, where one Guardsman was killed. (See also December 1942 - the war in Dorset.)
At the end of May 1942 the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Worth Matravers, near Swanage in Dorset, moved inland to Malvern in Worcestershire. The success of the Bruneval Raid had alerted them to the dangers of a coastal raid on their vital and very secret research.
(From ‘The Book of Poole Harbour’ edited by Bernard Dyer and Timothy Darvill and published by The Dovecote press Ltd 2010, ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980 and ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004.)
In May 1942 Lt-General “Boy” Browning, the Commander of 1st Airborne Division, devised an inspirational emblem to represent the airborne forces and introduced the famous ‘red’ beret, which is still used to this day. The badge of the winged horse Pegasus and his rider Bellerophon was taken from Greek myth and designed by Major Edward Seago. It became the divisional shoulder flash of the airborne forces. (See The Pegasus Journal )
1stAir Landing Squadron Officers listed for May 1942:
Major C.J.H. Gough;
Captains: G.C. Roberts, J.P. Royle, C.W. Suter;
Lieutenants: D.Allsop (captain of Freddie Gough’s 1stAirborne Reconnaissance Squadron at Arnhem, awarded the Dutch Bronze Lion), D.M.Freegard (mentioned in despatches
as a Major in 1945), T.J. Firbank, M.W.Grubb, J.A.Hay and G.L.Millar
2ndLieutenants: R.J.Clark, Kindersley, H. Poole and A.J. Waterman.
(See Joining Browning's Boys )
For most of May 1942 1stAir Landing Squadron was still based at Shaw House, near Newbury.
1st May 1942 – City of Bath placed out of bounds for 1st Air Landing Squadron except for duty on special leave. (Why? Was this because of the Baedeker Raids?)
(From The Pegasus Archive, Just Ordinary Men, Operation Market Garden and the War Diary of 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)
Trooper Williams RR
1st Air Landing Sqdn.
Reconnaissance Corps
HOME FORCES
N.B. New Address
NOTHING ELSE!
Friday
Dearest, Darling Chotie,
Many thanks for letter received yesterday. It would appear that it took ages to get here - but the new address, Home Forces, is apparently much quicker. However it did arrive, which is the main thing.
I must begin this letter as usual by an apology for this paper - after all, there's a war on, somewhere, so convention must go by the board.
I hope you're quite well Precious and looking after yourself as you mean a helluva lot to me (slush...!) - but seriously, Darling, takes great care, and dodge the bombs, if any.
I've been to Bulford* all day, firing Anti-Tank Rifles, and managed to get quite brown as there was plenty of wind and sun. The weather here is excellent, and I eat like a horse (or two).
Incidentally, I'm at the place I expected to go to - the one we found on the map, but I'm not of course allowed to write it down in letters - hence the address - Home Forces. I had a letter from home a couple of days ago - things there, being a little brighter than usual. Diller however can give you more dope on this question then I can. It's quite all right for you to tell Diller where I am, so don't be frightened on that score.
I met quite a decent bloke here, who's very much like Douglas (Enid's?). He's a throw out from a Military Academy and joined the 70th Hants** (Brinner's crowd) and transferred here the same time as I did.
I'm afraid there's no news - I am up to my eyes in work and get very little time to call my own. Hope everyone at home is up to par, and hope you will give them all my fondest regards, etc.
This is a glorious county - reveling in old houses particularly Georgian and Elizabethan. I saw plenty of such desirable abodes today as I did nearly a hundred miles in the truck.
Well, I must close here as I'm on night operations in about half an hour and have to get my kit ready.
All my love, Darling
Dicker xxx
P.S.
Home Address
“BROOMLEIGH”
PAGHAM BEACH
BOGNOR
SUSSEX.***
PPS Look after yourself!!!
*Bulford ranges on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
** The 70th Battalion (the 70th was usually the “Young Soldiers” battalion) of the Hampshire Regiment was formed in Southampton in September 1940, but soon moved to Basingstoke. It was disbanded in July 1943. It appears that Dick’s younger brother, Brian or Brinner, had now joined up.
***Dicker’s family had now moved to Pagham in Sussex. Dick’s next of kin (father) is listed as Capt. Dudley Kelner Beresford Williams of St Margarets, Sea Lane, Pagham, Sussex but the family first moved to ‘Broomleigh’.
© Chotie Darling
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