Chotie Darling
Dedicated to the memory of my mother
and all those who hold the forever young of war in their hearts.
Part 4 Only the Enemy in Front
Chapter 15 52nd (Lowland) Reconnaissance Regiment
On 7th February 1945 Dick joined the 52nd (Lowland) Reconnaissance Regiment.
Dick’s 1945 diary for February:
7 Wed - Joined lowland.
Comrades from 61st Recce were with him; at least three complete troops of reinforcements. Don Aiken records:
“I had been posted to the 52nd.Reconnaissance Regt. which was the Recce for 52nd. Lowland Scottish Division. We were given the 'MOUNTAIN' shoulder flash to sew on our tunics, along with the St. Andrew's Shield.
They were a Division which had been stationed in Scotland for a long time, training for mountain combat in preparation for a possible invasion of Norway. However their first slice of action came when they left England about 2 months after 'D' Day to capture some islands off the Dutch coast. There probably wasn't a mountain for a hundred miles.”
(Extract republished from 'From the breakout to the Rhine' by kind permission of Don Aiken)
The Scottish lowlanders had trained in mountain warfare ready to fight in Norway. The Divisonal symbol was a shield of St Andrew with the word MOUNTAIN written below.
When the Allies abandoned plans for a Norwegian campaign, the 52nd Division were trained for an airborne role and were to have participated in Market Garden landing at Arnhem while the Recce regiment, which had disembarked in Normandy earlier in September 1944, formed part of the ground troops for ‘Garden’. From 21st September 52nd Recce worked with the 101st US Airborne to hold the narrow corridor from Eindhoven to Nijmegen ('Hell's Highway') and were on ‘The Island’ when 61st Recce arrived there on the 24th of September .
The 52nd Recce then moved to confront the Germans on the Leopold Canal in northern Belgium before rejoining their Division for the assault on the River Schelde with the First Canadian Army. As the Allies gradually advanced in South Beveland and Walcheren to clear the Scheldt estuary and gain free access to the vital port of Antwerp, the Recce Regiment were tasked with cutting the German escape route across North Beveland and Schouwen and spent most of November on North Beveland.
After a short break at Schinnen, north-east of Maastricht, German advances into the Ardennes in December brought 52nd Recce close to the German border at Schinveld, north of Brunnsum and near Geilenkirchen. The Regiment remained here defending the British 2nd Army right flank until 11th January when they moved back close to Maastricht at Valkenburg.
Operation Blackcock, to clear the ‘Roer Triangle’ (between Roermond and Sittard in the Netherlands and Heinsberg in Germany) was a heavy engagement in freezing conditions for the 52nd (Lowland) Division. 52nd Recce advanced through Höngen and then Havert, north-east of Sittard. The Division eventually took the German town of Heinsberg on January 24th. After an uncomfortable time guarding the Wurm river line against counter-attack the regiment moved back to Schinveld on 5th February as the thaw set in.
The Regiment then moved rapidly north to Boxmeer (“a tedious and exhausting journey”) where three complete scout troops (156 officers and men) from 61 Reconnaissance joined the 52nd as re-inforcements. 52nd (Lowland) was now holding the line along the west bank of the Maas at Groeningen, Samboek and Boxmeer.
(From ‘This band of brothers – a history of the Reconnaissance Corps of the British Army’ by Jeremy Taylor, White Swan 1947, ‘Time Spent or The History of the 52nd-Lowland-Divisional Reconnaissance Regiment January 1941-October 1945’ by Trevor D.W.Whitfield, published by Mountain 1946 and ‘Only the Enemy in Front Every other beggar behind…’ The Recce Corps at War 1940-1946’ by Richard Doherty, Tom Donovan Publishing Ltd 1994)
WAR DIARY of 52nd (Lowland) Recce Regt RAC February 1945
– Lt Col J.B.A. Hankey OBE
Date 7th Place SCHINVELD (north of Brunssum in the southernmost part of the Netherlands, near the German border east of Maastricht.) 7364.
Strength - 935 men, 167 tanks/armoured cars/guns Weather – Wet
‘Advance parties left for Boxmeer (south of Nijmegen on the River Maas – about 100 kilometres north of Schinveld) 7640 and Regiment moved night 7/8 to take over from 3rd Division Recce Regiment. 150 other ranks and 6 Officers joined from 61st Recce Regiment as reinforcements as per new organization.’
(From the War Diary of the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment held by the Archive and Reference Library, the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.)
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