Chotie Darling

61st Recce in Northern Ireland

Between June 1942 and January 1943 Eric Postles was training with 61^st Recce in Northern Ireland:

“The regiment moved to Cromore Camp, on the north coast by Portstewart Station and further training continued including carrier driving on the sand dunes.  During an exercise in the Sperrins we got a carrier stuck in a peat bog and by next day it had sunk leaving only an oily black stain on the surface.  We did shooting practice at Limavady Ranges.  It was strange because you could see the lights shining on the other side of the water in neutral Southern Ireland, on the other side of Lough Foyle.  Later in the year US troops began to arrive and, on an exercise with them, one of our Troop armoured cars overturned on a bank and caught fire but we got the crew out.  It burned like a blow torch." 

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

Eric Postles in Recce beret (introduced in December 1942)

Flat Beer - Sunday 28th and Monday 29th June 1942

1^st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps, Home Forces 

Sunday

My Darling,

                                                                        Thanks for letter with all the news.

             I've started writing this letter without much hope of finishing it this evening. 
However, the fact that I've started it is certainly a move in the right direction.  It is such a devil of a job to find anything to write about in this God-forsaken dump.

            I went out this evening but came back after half an hour or so - there being nothing whatsoever to do.  The Garrison Theatre, although a very good show only has the one programme for the week, and once you've seen it, it's no use going again the same week.  There's a play on next week, - “While Parents Sleep”, which I've seen, - but I shall go again, as of course it will be a different cast, etc.

            I've been sick for the last week with a sore throat which developed into bronchitis or so the M.O. said.  Personally I didn't agree, but also didn't argue as it gave me a cushy time for a few brief days - no P.T. etc, of course.

            I managed to go into the nearest town (?)* on my day off, yesterday.  It boasts some very excellent pubs – the “George” Hotel and the “Bell” being very
famous in Georgian days.  The beer however tasted very flat - perhaps because you were not there with me.

            I had no one to talk to about Herne Bay and the various professions which help to make the social system what it is.  Just imagine what you'll have to put up with when we are married... but perhaps you'll see H.B. for yourself and perhaps I'll have a profession...

            I haven't yet heard from home and am getting a little worried on that score. 
I hope Mother’s all right - but maybe I'll get a letter tomorrow.  There seem to be so many worries that separation brings so cruelly in its wake.

            Does this letter seem very morbid, Darling?  I don't want you to think that
I'm too browned-off**.  After 2 years in this Army I think I can stand anything. 

             I'm going on a three days scheme on Wednesday, so I won't be able to write of course - so don't be over anxious if you don't get a letter for some days.

            It's nearly lights out, Chotie Darling so I'll say Goodnight my Precious, and write some more tomorrow.
 

            Well, Lulu, it's now Monday Lunch-time so I'm writing a bit more. 

            It's terrifically hot today - and we have to wear respirators on Monday morning. 
Was I exhausted!  I'm now trying to get an hour's relaxation before going on Parade this afternoon.

            I may go to the Old Garrison to-night and see this wretched play - that's if I can get out in time. That's one of the troubles here; even if there was anything to go out for, we rarely get out before Seven pm or so - which is rather late.

             Well, Darling, by the time you get this letter, I’ll be on this stunt so I hope to write again next Saturday or perhaps Sunday - and I'll say bye, bye for the present, and remember, Darling, I still love you, very very much.

                                                All my love, Chotie Darling

                                                                                 Dicker

*Amesbury

**Dick must have been disappointed to be transferred out of Air Landing after only a couple of months.  After training in Tunisia from April 1943 1^st Air Landing Squadron went on to be involved in the invasion of Italy near Bari in September and Operation Market Garden in September 1944, when the elite 1st Airborne were sent in to defend "a bridge too far" at Arnhem with disastrous results.  (Dick was to be among the ground forces racing towards Arnhem.)

© Chotie Darling

 

29th June 1942 – 1^st Air Landing Squadron training on Streatley Mortar Range, Berkshire. (From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)

 

30^th June 1942 – as the Germans advance into Egypt the Allies’ Mediterranean Fleet evacuates Alexandria and prepares to demolish the port. The Allied Eighth Army hold the line at EL Alamein, 150 miles west of Cairo. There is fierce fighting along the El Alamein front throughout July. (From WW2-net Timelines)

 

End of June 1942 – Battle of the Atlantic. In the first six months of 1942 the Allies had lost 989 ships, a total tonnage of 3,950,000 tons.  173 ships were sunk in June alone.  The British code breakers at Bletchley Park were still struggling to decipher the Enigma upgrade introduced in February, which they called “Shark” and in March 1942 the Germans had cracked the British Admiralty code Naval Cipher 3,which was not changed until 10^th June 1943.

 

Transfers - Friday 26th June 1942

1^st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps, Home Forces 

Friday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                                    Many thanks for your letter, received a couple of days ago.  I was pleased to read about your meeting Norman - quite the little man now, isn't he? You didn't say what he is doing here, ie. is he on leave, stationed in England or what?  Don't forget to let me know.  After all - I should like to see him again.  Is he very “different”?  It's hard to think of Norman as a hardened boozer - but believe me, Honey, the Services will drive you to “anythink” - in next to no time.

            Well, so much for Norman. For my part at the moment, - I'm on the sick list - sore throat.  I've had it ever since I came back from leave, and it's got worse every day. 
I've now got to the stage when I have to gargle three times per diem*!  However I hope to get rid of it in a few days.

    It's my day off tomorrow, but being sick, of course, I can't get a pass - although of course it won't have been any use to me, as you would have been working Sat morning.  I understand that in future there will be no more of these day passes - though I don't yet know what the new system will be.

    There are transfers right and left at the moment, so I may get mine soon**, which will be a relief to mother, I'm thinking.

    Have you thought of a name for our horseshoe yet?  I'm relying on you, Darling.. Think hard, LuluBelle ...

    I suppose Brinner's home now.  I haven't heard from home since I got back, so I hope everything’s all right.

    I went out last night to the first time in days and saw a very good show at the Garrison Theatre.  I never go out here, as there is nothing to go out for, and it's quite a long way to the theatre.

                                    Well, Darling, I must close here, as there's little news.

     Please write soon, Precious - your letters mean a hell of a lot out here in the wilds.

                         Bye, bye, Darling - and remember I love you very, very much.

                                                        God bless you, Chotie,

                                                                                    Dicker

*per day.

**According to family memories Dick was transferred out of the Airborne because they found ‘sugar in his blood’ but he wasn’t diabetic.  Although temporary hyperglycemia is often benign and asymptomatic the Airborne medical was very rigorous and any possible problems to the eyesight (damage to the retina is one of the possible symptoms) meant you were out.

© Chotie Darling

 

27th June 1942 – 1^st Air Landing Squadron saw the film ‘Next of Kin’ (a WW2 propaganda film used to promote the government message that “Careless talk costs lives”). (From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)

 

27^th June 1942 – PQ-17, an Allied convoy of 40 ships, set sail from Iceland to supply Russia. By 15^th July it had lost 24 ships and a cargo including 210 aircraft, 430 tanks and 3,350 lorries in attacks by the Luftwaffe and U-boats. The Germans lost only 5 planes and no U-boats in the attacks.  (From WW2-net Timelines )

28th June 1942 – in the opening moves of Operation Blau, Germany’s offensive towards Stalingrad, Voronezh (500 km south of Moscow) is attacked but successfully and ferociously defended by the Soviets.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

 

The Lucky Horseshoe - Monday 22nd June 1942

1^st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps

Home Forces

My Darling Chotie,

        Just a few lines to let you know I arrived back safely, though later than I had expected.

        Firstly, I was under the impression I was going by Salisbury whereas of course I came from Andover. This actually made no difference however, as the ticket bloke said “Change at Romsey”, and it had Andover on my ticket. However, I had to wait over an hour at Romsey and the same again at Andover.  But, as I got back in time, I can't grumble.

        I would have written last night but was on guard, of course.  (You always get stuck on guard immediately you return from leave).  Andrew, the bloke like Doug, was also on so we stuck together.

         There's no news of course - never is.

          I got quite a good book.  It's called “Hudson rejoins the Herd” and is by Claude Houghton*.

           I hope you got back all right, Darling, complete with Horseshoe...What shall we call him?  I'll leave it to you, Precious, as you seem to have a flair for naming things.

           Well, there seems nothing else, Darling, except to thank you very much for a lovely time at Pagham and to tell you, I love you very much.

                                                            Bye, bye, my Darling

                                                                                    Dicker

P.S.     Please excuse pencil, Honey but I left my pen at Pagham. 

*Said to have inspired Henry Miller’s ‘Tropic of Capricorn’.

© Chotie Darling

 

On Monday 22nd June 1942 an Airborne Section demonstration was inspected by the Deputy Brigade Commander. 1^st Air Landing Squadron trained on the Bulford Grenade Range on 23^rd June and was given a lecture on Russia on 24^th June.

(From the WarDiary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)

 

23^rd and 24^th June 1942 – the Germans advance into Egypt as the British Eighth Army retreats although more than 6,000 prisoners from the Indian Division were taken by Rommel’s troops at Mersa Matruh on the Egyptian coast.

25th June 1942 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed to command US forces in the European Theatre. (From WW2-net Timelines )

 

25th June 1942 – 1^st Air Landing Squadron tested for night vision and then marched to the compound. D.M.* used. (From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)

*D.M. probably refers to Distance Measuring - a technique for night navigation.

Pagham - Thursday 11th June 1942

 “St Margarets”

Lea Lane, Pagham, Sussex

Thursday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            Received your letter this morning, and also your telegram of course, which was already here by the time I arrived.

                I'm just penning these few words, to let you know that I'll meet you on Chichester Station on Saturday.  The train should get in somewhere about 7.30 I suppose.  Remember, Chichester - not Bognor.

                                         Bye, bye ‘till Saturday Darling –

                                                                                    love

                                                                                                Dicker

 © Chotie Darling

Chotie and Dick met up at Pagham.

Chotie, Dilys (Dick's sister) and Pa Williams

Brin and Pa Williams

 
Pa Williams, Dilys (Dick's sister) and Chotie

“…and when they moved to Pagham, Sussex, to a pretty chalet-like house, I went to stay with them.

            That house was full of singing and music – so happy. We walked round a lagoon , ending up with a beer in a Selsey pub. I did so like his family. There was no
serious religion, which I was subject to at home. Dicker did not have much time for the church, saying “Why do Bishops live in Palaces?”

 From ‘Chotie’s Story’.

© Chotie Darling

 

While Dick was on leave 1^st Air Landing Squadron were training on the Vickers MMG (Medium Machine Gun) Range on Saturday 13th June 1942 and on beach bomb Ranges for field firing on 14^th June.

They were  moved by rail to Kimmeridge Bay* (Dorset) for field firing training on 15^th June.  On 18th June the squadron marched 25 miles from Kimmeridge Bay Firing Range back towards Bulford. Unit transport picked them up for the last 20 miles on 19^th June.

20^th & 21st June 1942 – 1^st Air Landing Squadron were Tiger Moth flying at Shrewton in Wiltshire.

(From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)

* Kimmeridge is on the south coast of the Isle of Purbeck, ironically close to Chotie’s home town of Poole and near where she was (briefly) stationed in the Land Army at Church Knowle in October 1942. The lovely bay became England’s first voluntary marine nature reserve, managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust, and in later life was one of Chotie’s favourite places to visit.

 

14^th June 1942 – German saboteurs landed on Long Island near Jacksonwille in Florida, USA. They were quickly picked up and executed after trial.

 

19th June 1942 – Churchill and Roosevelt met to plan Allied offensives against the Germans for the rest of 1942.  They agree that American troops will join their Allies to invade French (West) Africa in Operation Gymnast (which became Operation Torch).

 

21st June 1942 – Rommel’s Afrika Corps capture the key port of Tobruk in Libya after a 4 day assault following the Battle of the Gazala line.  (The Australians had defended Tobruk under siege for more than 7 months in 1941). Rommel found more than 4,000 tons of oil had not been destroyed in Tobruk – vital supplies for his planned advance into Egypt.  Churchill, who had ordered that Tobtuk was to be held at all coasts was dismayed and wrote “Defeat is one thing, disgrace is another”.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

20^th & 21st June 1942 – Dick appears to have been granted his 1^st Long Service and Good Conduct (L.S. & G.C. badge - one chevron on lower arm) retrospectively. It was due on 21^st June 1942 and although this date appears on the record of his Service and Casualty Form it follows records from September 1942.

Copy of Record

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

21.6.42  Granted 1^st L.S. & G.C Badge  Army Rank Trooper  Place Home Forces

 

Leave Today - 9th June 1942

The War in Dorset - June 1942

On the night of 3rd/4th June 1942 decoy fires and explosions on the Purbeck heathland (see HH1 and HH2) saved the Royal Navy cordite factory at Holton Heath, near Poole, from 112 high explosive bombs and 5,000 incendiaries.  No bombs hit the cordite factory and there were no casualties on the decoys.

Poole also suffered a heavy bombing attack on the 4th of June. Early incendiaries started fires on the heathland west of the town, diverting many of the 50 Luftwaffe bombers. However, they also caused numerous fires in the town and several buildings were hit by bombs. Dedicated effort by the fire and civil defence forces (presumably including Chotie’s father, an ARP* warden) meant that only three people were killed.

An underground petrol tank at the Hamworthy RAF depot was blown open and a huge slick of petrol covered the adjacent land and harbour.  Fortunately these highly inflammable lakes didn’t catch fire and the petrol gradually evaporated (the explosion would have destroyed all the RAF petrol supplies for Dorset and West Hampshire).

One of the 139 tons of bombs released over the town hit the Sona, a Naval Headquarters ship moored at Poole Quay. It went through the ship and lodged unexploded in the mud below until 7th June when it destroyed the Sona and several evacuated buildings on the Quay.

On 6^th June bombing aimed at the railway track in Bournemouth damaged 454 properties although only one bomb hit the track.

Whitley planes arrived at RAF Hurn (now Bournemouth airport) in June 1942 to fly Special Operations Executive agents and supplies for Resistance groups across the Channel. They also supported Airborne training on Salisbury Plain.  A satellite aerodrome for the Fleet Air Arm station at Yeovilton was established at Sigwell’s Farm, north of Sherborne.

(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.)

*ARP = Air Raid Precautions

 

 

June 1942 - 1^st Air Landing Squadron were based on the Bulford ranges of Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

1^st Air Landing Squadron Officers listed for June 1942:  Major C.J.H. Gough;

Captains: A.S.Baker, G.L. Falkim, G.C. Roberts, J.P. Royle, C.W. Suter;

Lieutenants: D.Allsop, R.W.Clough, D.M.Freegard, T.J. Firbank, M.W. Grubb, J.A.Hay, L.A.W.Hayes, F.D.E.Imes (Quartermaster), R.W.Jahren, G.L.Millar and F.D.Slater;

2^nd Lieutenants:  R.J.Clark, Kindersley, H. Poole, and A.J. Waterman

 

On Monday 1^st June the Squadron had lectures and training at Bulford and on 3^rd June they were on night operations – a compass march.

On Sunday 7th June 1942 1^st Air Landing Squadron were training on Ogbourne St George Mortar Range, Wiltshire and on 8^th June were flying in Tiger Moth (biplanes).

(From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)

 

2nd June – The German Army 11th Army advances in the Crimea and attacks the port and fortress of Sebastapol.  The fierce battle ends with German victory on 9th July.

 

4th-7th June 1942 – the battle over Midway Atoll, the US base in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii, was won by the US Navy. This crucial battle turned the tide and the Allies took over the offensive from the Japanese in the Pacific.  Again US codebreakers had intercepted signals revealing that Japanese invasion fleets were heading for the Midway Islands , enabling timely launching of US Naval task forces from Hawaii to defend the base. Four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk and 250 Japanese planes destroyed with the loss of only one US aircraft carrier, the Yorktown.

 

 

Dick visited the dentist again on Friday 5th June 1942, attending Dental Centre 363.

Dental Treatment Card –  5/6/42

 

5^th June 1942 – an SS (Shutzstaffel – Nazi paramilitary and police) report states that 97,000 persons have been “processed” ie killed, in mobile gas vans. (From  WW2-net Timelines)

 

 

Telegram - 9th June 1942

CHALKLEY KNITWEAR DEPT BEALES* BOURNEMOUTH =

= = =  LEAVE TODAY 9 DAYS WIRE PAGHAM = RICHARD

++ CT9 QKP  BEALES + PAGHAM +

*By this time Chotie had transferred from Plummer’s Knitwear Department back to Beales.

 

 

 

On 10^th June 1942 Dick was granted 10 days leave.

Copy of Record

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

10.6.42        Granted 10 days leave       Army Rank Trooper        Place Field

 

10th June 1942 – After the gallant defence of Bir Hakeim in the Battle of the Gazala line , most of the Free French escape to the British lines.  General de Gaulle hails Bir Hakeim as the start of the resurrection of France.