Chotie Darling

21 years old - Thursday 30th July 1942

Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

Preston Barracks, Brighton, Sussex

 

Thursday

My Own Darling Chotie

                                                                                    Just a few lines, Precious, to thank you, and all your family for a lovely and very welcome present*.   Thank you, Darling, very, very much.

            I would have written before, but I’ve been laid up for some little time with the wretched vaccination.  However, I know you will understand.

            I had a very quiet time on the 28^th.  I thought rather than spend it in the company of strangers, I should prefer to be by myself, so I betook myself to the theatre and saw Jean Forbes-Robertson in the Soviet play “Distant Point” with the London cast, which was really rather good. I managed to sink a couple of pints every interval, so that by the time it finished I was beginning to feel that life was worthwhile again.

            I then hied myself to “the Old Ship”** and finished off the job.  The boys put me to bed when I got in …

            Further to my last letter – I do very well here now, as we are working on theory at a civvy garage every day in Hove, and have our meals in a British Restaurant***. And believe me that’s a cut above the Army.  I’ll send you one or two photographs of the old place. 

                    Well, Darling, I can’t write any more as my arm is giving me hell. 

            Please thank all your family very much.  I now have one exquisite smoke every night before going to bed.  Any tobacco will do in the daytime but I can appreciate a little ‘Sobranie’**** in the ‘cool of the evening’.

            I’ll write again as soon as my arm gets better – in a couple of days I expect.

                                                                                    all my love, Darling

                                                                                                            Dicker

                                                                                                            xxxx

                                                                                                            B.O.L.T.O.P.****(?)

                                                                      That shook you! Rather puerile don’t you think? 

 

* Dick’s 21st birthday was on Tuesday 28^th July 1942.

** an historic hotel on the seafront in Brighton

*** British Restaurants were set up by Local Authorities with loans from the Wartime Meals Division. They were open to all, but mainly served office and industrial workers. A three course meal cost only 9d.

**** an expensive cigarette

***** “Better on Lips than on Paper”

 © Chotie Darling

 

31^st July 1942 – heavy raid by 630 RAF bombers on Düsseldorf, a city in Germany’s Lower Rhineland.

Brighton - Wednesday 22nd July 1942

On 22nd July 1942 Dick was assigned to

No3. Technical Training Group in Brighton

 
Copy of Record

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

22.7.42.  Cutd(?) to No 3. Tech. Trg. Gp.  Army Rank Trooper  Place  Brighton

 

Letter written Wednesday 22nd July

Tpr Williams R

5731671 Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

PRESTON BARRACKS

BRIGHTON

SUSSEX

 

Wednesday

Dearest Darling Chotie,

                                                                        As you will see from above address, I’ve changed location once again, as I’m on a six-week course at Brighton.  Will you please note exact address as above and make no further reference, as to Regt etc.

            I’m afraid I’ve only been toBrighton a couple of times before, and so was able to find much to interest me.  The number of Oriental and Continental cafés and jewel shops is amazing.  The famous Aquarium is, unfortunately, occupied by the Army, but the mosque-like Pavilion is still open.

            The unit I’m now with isn’t too bad on the whole.  A very rough lot – no signs of mental vigour, as the medical journal would say – but I’m very thankful to be out of the Airborne in spite of two good friends I made there.

            I’ve had no reply to my last missive – it will probably catch me up in a few days’ time.

            I was transferred from 'A' Squadron to HQ and a couple of days later I found myself on this course.  It’s a driving course and should be quite easy. 

            I managed to get a couple of hours in Brighton this evening and was amazed to find that almost everything was still going – cinemas, theatres, etc. – although all ARP services, and ATS etc appear to be well under control. 

            I was very glad to see our old County again – the Oast houses and farmsteads looking just as peaceful as before this wretched business – I think it would take more than a war to alter them.

            I wish you could have been with me, Chotie Darling, I miss you terribly.  I only hope the day will soon come when we will be together, and when our only worry will be Junior’s first teeth, or something equally trifling.

                                    Goodnight, my Precious

                                                            Your loving,

                                                                        Dicker

P.S.     Write soon

© Chotie Darling

 

23^rd July 1942 - opening of Treblinka extermination camp in NE Poland. More than 850,000 people were murdered here, the majority Jewish.  Between July 22^nd and September 12^th 1942 approximately 265,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto were deported to Treblinka and c.35,000 were killed inside the ghetto. (From ‘Warsaw’, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website)

In Operation Blau, the German advance in southern Russia, they capture Rostov, a city near the mouth of the River Don on the Sea of Azov and the western gateway to critical Caucasian oilfields.  

 

26th July 1942 –As attacks and counter attacks continue on the El Alamein front the SAS (Special Air Service) destroy 37 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground including critical supply planes.  In July 1942 alone daring raids by the SAS destroyed a total of 86 German aircraft in North Africa. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

Rationing of sweets and chocolate introduced in Britain.  Biscuits were also rationed from August 1942.

Kent - letter posted on Friday 17th July

Chotie Darling

Dedicated to the memory of my mother and all those who hold the forever young of war in their hearts.

Part2        Reconnaissance

 

Chapter 6            43rd Reconnaissance  – the end of the beginning

 Dick joined the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment on 13^th July 1942.

He was initially stationed in Dover, Kent.

On 13^th July 1942 Dick swopped his Airborne Pegasus badge for the Wyvern (a legendary golden dragon) of the 43^rd(Wessex) Division. The army of King Alfred the Great had fought under the banner of the Wyvern against the invading Danes in the 9^th century and the soldiers of the Division were predominately from the area of his ancient kingdom. The Reconnaissance regiment Dick joined was also known as the Glosters having been formed from the 5^th battalion of the old Gloucestershire regiment in 1941.

Design for 43rd Divisions Wyvern badge in the papers for 4rd Recce held by the Tank Museum, Bovington.

Reconnaissance was an elite corps of the British army, taking the place of the Light Cavalry of past eras. Each Regiment took the number of its relevant Division but from June 1942 used the cavalry names of ‘squadrons’ and ‘troops’ instead of usual infantry descriptions.

They evolved into “swift, adaptable, and superlatively mobile fighting units with fast vehicles capable of taking heavy punishment, high concentrated firing-power and a complicated but efficient wireless network designed to convey, under the most trying conditions imaginable, accurate and balanced information to the general’s battle map”.

'Their task was to solve an eternal problem of war, to discover “what is happening on
the other side of the hill” – that is, inside the enemy lines.'

Reconnaissance personnel had to be of a high standard of intelligence for both the deduction and transmission of information and, although their ultimate objective was not
fighting, they needed to be tough and speedy fighters, able to work at the front of the enemy lines and survive to tell their tale.

They had to find out - by stealth, by drawing fire or by fighting – where the enemy was concealed, to explore his strength and movement and to maintain constant touch with him, relaying accurate information back quickly and continuously.  They were specially trained to be constantly on the alert and to use initiative, cunning and any resources available.

 

Only those who came out top in the IQ test were considered for Recce. “Recce men had to be tough with cold scientific brains behind their brawn.”

 

(From “The Reconnaissance Journal”, Memorial Number, Summer 1950 – article by Arthur Bryant; Recce Regt record WO 170/433 5 at the National Archive, Kew;  “Only the Enemy in Front – The Recce Corps at War 1940-1946” by Richard Doherty 1994; “This Band of Brothers” by Jeremy Taylor 1947; and  “Record of a Reconnaissance regiment – History of the 43^rd” by  A. Scott, Cole Packer and J. Groves with Jeremy Taylor 1950  and other 43^rd Recce papers examined courtesy of the Archive & reference Library, the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset. The assistance of members of WW2 Talk Forum with my research is also much appreciated.)

However, after 3 months training, Dick was no longer in the later famous 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron,

featured in the film “A Bridge to Far” for their role in Market Garden (September 1944).

 

16th July 1942 – in Paris 9,000 police under the orders of René Bousquet, the French secretary-general of police, seized 13,000 Jews, including children and sent them to Nazi death camps in the east.  In the course of the war at least 50,000 Parisian Jews were deported and murdered.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012 and ‘Paris’, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.)

 

Letter posted Friday 17^th July 1942

Tpr 5731671 Williams R

“A” Squadron

43^rd Recce Regt, Recce Corps, Home Forces

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                                    As you will see from above address much water has flowed under the old bridge since I last saw you on Saturday.  About half the old squadron were transferred to this regiment which is in the same corps but non-airborne.

            I can’t tell you where I am – but I can tell you I’m in the county of my humble origin*.

            At present I’m feeling very groggy, having just had a couple of inoculations –which always set me back a bit.

            I managed to get back in time on Saturday last.  There was a devil of a crowd at the bus station and at least three fights with Red-caps**, but I managed to get on a bus and arrived back just before midnight.

            Well, Precious I’m afraid I can’t write any more, as I feel like Death warmed-up.

            I think the leave works out all right here, so I shall probably get my next 9 days on time.  I can’t see any chance of getting down before then.

                                                            Goodnight, my Darling

                                                                         God bless you

                                                                                    Dicker

*Dick was born in Orpington in Kent. This letter was from Dover.

** Military police

© Chotie Darling

 

On 20th July 1942 Major A.W.E. Crawford joined 43rd Reconnaissance, taking over command from Lieutenant-Colonel D.Ward on 24th July.  At the beginning of the month 43rd Recce had received orders to mobilise for service overseas, less 1st line Reinforcements, and preparation for this mobilisation (medical inspections, overhaul of documents and receipts of personnel), to be completed by 2nd August, filled much of their time. All squadrons also carried out shooting practice.

(From the War Diary of the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment held by the Archive and Reference Library, the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.)

 

21st July 1942 - 16,000 Japanese landed at Buna on the north cost of Papua New Guinea ready to advance on Port Moresby, the capital, along the mountainous Kokoda Trail.  Courageous Australian defenders, fighting in appalling conditions, stopped them from reaching their destination and in September they withdrew.

The Divisional Commander - Monday 6th July

The War in Dorset - July 1942

On 2^nd July air attacks on coastal defences in West Dorset damaged buildings and electricity supplies.

In Lyme Bay on 9^thJuly German E-boats (called Schnellboots for their speed) attacked Allied Coast Convoy WP183 sinking a tanker, four freighters and an armed escort trawler.

An air attack on Swanage on 13^th July caused injuries and damage to buildings.

From 19^th to 22^nd July German mines were being laid in the Channel off the Dorset coast. The people of Poole adopted a minesweeper on 29^th July, which became HMS Poole. At the time 35 vessels were being financed by warsavings from Dorset.

During July, a VIP air hanger, with specially built blast walls, was constructed at RAF Hurn to house Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s personal plane and other special aircraft.

(From ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004)

 

July 1942 - 1^stAir Landing Squadron were based at Carter Barracks on the Bulford ranges of Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

From 1st to 3rd July 1942 two 1^st Air Landing Squadron Troops took part in Brigade Exercise, one Troop operating on each side.  They were led by Captains G.L.Falkim and G.C. Roberts, Lieutenants D.M. Freegard and L.A.W. Hayes and 2^nd Lieutenant A.J. Waterman.  The exercises lasted 3 days and on 4^th July 1^st Air Landing Squadron had a Free Day.

On Sunday 5^th July 35 officers and men took part in a Glider Flying day. 3 sorties were made from Netheravon Aerodrome with flights of one hour each and the men practiced deplaning drill on landing.

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

 

1^st July 1942 – As Rommel advances into Egypt British officials in Cairo begin burning official documents (so many that the day was nicknamed ‘Ash Wednesday’) and desertions rose rapidly in the British Army of the Nile. However, Rommel’s attacks on the British positions at El Alemein were unsuccessful; the line held and Rommel was put on the defensive.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

4^th July 1942 – Sevastopol, a strategically important port on the Black Sea and capital of the Crimea, is captured by the Germans after a siege of 250 days.

German aircraft and U-boats attack PQ-17, the largest supply convoy Britain until then to be sent to the Soviet Union.  24 out of the 33 vessels were sunk in the Barents Sea east of Svalbard – one of the greatest Naval disasters of the war.

The German authorities begin systematically gassing Jews at Auschwitz near Krakow in southern Poland.

 

 

1st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps, Home Forces 

Monday Eve.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                        Thanks for letter received a few days ago.  I'm now back from this scheme, and would have written before but have only just come off a 24 hr guard.

            Just as luck would have it, the Divisional Commander* decided to pay us a call this morning so of course the Guard had to turn out for inspection.  Rumour has it that
he was once married to Daphne du M**, but I'm sure I don't know for certain. He’s a Major-General and by repute the best dressed man in the Army.

            I understand from Home that the Bryn is now a Lance–Jack - which makes him my senior, curse him!  He hasn't yet been home on leave - so it's probably all for the best that we took ours when we did.

            I met a very decent chap here - Philip by name, who is the image of Richard Dix.  He happens to be rather well-read so we have much in common... (Conceit of the man!).  He was a Glider Pilot but was thrown out in company with some fifty others and posted here.  Quite a good crowd but very R.A.F.ish.  You know - such nice little boys. 

            I went down as far as the Town where Strongs brew their xxxx*** and went all over the forest on the scheme.  We slept out in the open each night – 3hrs a night.  Pretty rough but quite good fun on the whole. 

            I've just had a letter from Mother - who appears to be much better now, after having had rather a bad time of it. Dad also wrote a few days ago - a sure sign that Mother was not up to par.  (That pun, wasn't intended, Darling!).

            I'm afraid there's no chance of my seeing you Precious, as we're working seven days a week.  If I do ever get a Sunday off though I'll come straight down. 

            I've done a bit more flying - but I'll tell you about it when next we meet.

            Well, Darling, there's nothing new, only that I love you Chotie, Darling and miss you more than ever.  All we seem to be able to look forward to is the time when we’ll never have to worry about the scourge of separation, - or having to be over careful about things...

            Goodnight my Darling,

                                                                        All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

PS       I wish you could see the sun set over the Plain*** tonight.  Turner would have revelled in it.

PPS. Brinner's had a letter from Pete! He's in Leicester.

 

* Frederick Browning, Commander of the 1^st Airborne Division consisting of the 1^st Airlanding Brigade and the British 1^st Parachute Brigade and from July 1942, the 2^nd Parachute Brigade (which brought it up to strength as a division).  He later became Deputy Commander of the 1^st Allied Airborne Division and was knighted in 1946.  He had married the novelist Daphne du Maurier - the author of Dick’s favourite novel 'Rebecca'- in 1932.

** Romsey – so presumably the New Forest in Hampshire.

*** Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

 

 © Chotie Darling

 

On the 6th July 1942 a party from 1^st Air Landing Squadron were fined and then grounded – they appear to have received a visit from Major-General Browning, the Commander of 1^st Airborne (see above).

From 7^th to 15th July 1942 the Squadron held Unit Cadres* – N.C.O., Fieldcraft, Weapon training and M/C (motorcycle) riding - with demonstrations by Paratroops & Air Landing Troops to High Officers and members of the Ministry of Production on 9^th and 10th July. 

*Cadre = A nucleus of trained personnel selected to train others or develop and build an organisation around which a larger organisation can be built and trained eg a cadre of corporals who train recruits. 

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

 

10^th July 1942 – Rommel’s Afrika Corps again attack the El Alamein line but an Australian Division breaks through the Italian formation and captures Rommel’s signals intelligence unit.  Without this and deciphered messages from the American military attaché in Cairo (the Germans had cracked his code in December 1941 but Bonner Fellers returned to the US in July) Rommel could only guess Allied intentions.  Conversely the British were now aware of Rommel’s plans through Ultra, their Enigma decrypts of German messages.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

 

Dick met up with Chotie,

returning late on the night of Saturday 11^th July.

 

Dick’s service record shows he was posted

to the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment on 11^th July 1942

(see "Transfers" - letter of 26th June 1942)

Copy of Record:

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

11.7.42      Posted to 43^rd Recce Regt.   Army Rank Trooper  Place Field

 

Dick left first Air Landing on 11^th July

with “about half the old squadron”.

 

On 17^th July the 1^st Airborne Division was brought up to full divisional strength with the formation of the 2^nd Parachute brigade. Browning was determined that the Airborne would not be sacrificed in "penny packets" and had urged the formation of a third brigade (see Just Ordinary Men ).