A very able Commander - Saturday 30th December 1944

As Usual

Sat 30 Dec

Chotie Darling,

                                    I’m very sorry, Precious, for not having written you before, but it just hasn’t been possible.  I’ve now got the first free day for nearly a fortnight, so everything depends on today.  The mail has been very poor lately – I received your letter and calendar, for which many thanks, Darling.

            I’ve been at it for a fortnight, as I say, so Xmas was just another day.  I had an indifferent breakfast and a worse meal about 10 pm when I got back from patrol.

            Weather here has been quite good – very cold but plenty of sun.  The countryside here is really lovely quite like North Wales, and a wonderful change after the Nijmegen Bridgehead! (I had nine weeks there!)

            I hope you are keeping fit, Darling and warm!  It’s bitterly cold in armoured cars as the engine is in the rear and you get no protection from the wind.

            We shot another three Boche on Xmas Eve (one nearly shot me first) and another five on Boxing Day, which puts my troop in the lead again.  What a gruesome business!

            Hope Margaret is progressing well – I shouldn’t wonder the baby was late this weather!

            On Xmas Day the Squadron Leader* had a terrific crash in his jeep whilst out visiting the various troops.  They carted him off with severe concussion and he’s expected to be in hospital for at least a month.  So much the worse as he’s a very able Commander.

            Diller has been home on leave I believe, but I’ve heard no news of Brinner lately.  He’s supposed to be getting some leave I believe.

            I’ll enclose this letter** with the three little books*** I bought in Malines – if you would just keep them safe, Darling.  As I say it’s not much good sending them home as mother’s sure to throw them away in the Spring.

            I must close here, Chotie Darling –

                                                All my love Precious          

                                                            Dicker.

 

*Major Frank Harding had been the B Squadron leader from 12^th June 1944. He received the Military Cross for B Squadron’s role in the operation at Amayé-sur-Seulles and Condé-sur-Noreau in Normandy, the advance across France into Belgium and the holding of 15 miles of the Belgian Escaut Canal including Oudenaarde from the 4th  to 7th September.

‘He never spared himself and his cheerfulness in any difficulty or danger has been a great inspiration to his Squadron’ (from his Military Cross citation).

 

**Perhaps because it was enclosed with the books, this letter seems somewhat freer with military information than Dick’s usual correspondence.

***my mother kept these three little leather bound books Dick bought (in Antwerp) but they eventually fell apart from love and use. One contained four Shakespeare tragedies (Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet) and the others were philosophical essays I think.

© Chotie Darling

 

 

On 30^th December the Germans launched a heavy but unsuccessful attack on the corridor connecting Bastogne to American forces south of the German salient.  The US Army began a major counter-offensive from the south on the same day and the British attacked Houffalize, north of Bastogne in the centre of the German bridgehead, meeting fierce resistance.

 

Dick may have been out of the fighting that day but Don Aiken had records including 61^st Recce at Houffalize on 30^th December.  The Regiment certainly experienced tragedies that day....

 

61^st Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on 30th December 1944:

          Trooper Dennis Robert Carter (age 20)

          Trooper Richard Charles Collingwood (age 27) of East Molesey, Surrey, killed in action as part of the Anti-Tank troop.        

who are laid to rest in the Hotton War cemetery, south of Liège, Belgium.

 

Mark Howard recounts how his father Roy Howard (of ‘A’ Squadron) remembered the awful accident that killed both men.  Their armoured car was forced off the road by an American lorry in full flight from the advancing Germans and, rolling down a bank, burst into flames.  Roy administered morphine to one of the men as he lay dying trapped inside. (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 

61^st Recce Roll of Honour includes another comrade who died on 30th December 1944:

            Trooper Thomas Webb (age 19) of Bispham, Blackpool, Lancashire

who is laid to rest in Adegem Canadian War Cemetery, between Bruges and Gent, north-west of Brussels.  A number of isolated graves from various communal cemeteries and churchyards in Belgium have been brought into this cemetery since the end of the war

(See 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch.) 

We will remember them.