On 1st January 1944 the Reconnaissance Corps became part of the Royal Armoured Corps - although they were organised for ‘dismounted’ action their use of armoured cars presumably grouped them with the Tank regiments, who they could scout for at close quarters with the enemy.
At the beginning of the year Dick was a fresh Lieutenant in 61st Reconniassance Regiment, stationed at Lympne Castle, near Folkestone in Kent (61st Division were on coastal defence duties). Due to an administrative mix-up he hadn’t received any pay since October and was heavily in debt, having given his last five bob to his batman at Christmas. On 2nd January he wrote to his sweetheart Chotie, an Anti-Aircraft ‘Gunner Girl’ stationed near Bristol. The letter refers to his new Squadron Leader, probably Captain Frank Harding, who was to be commander of B Squadron for this critical year. Also a new room mate, a portrait painter (Ronnie Jury) who now led B Squadron’s Assault troop (including Anthony Rampling and Eric Brewer) and became Dick’s best friend in the Army.
Dick sent Chotie a postcard from the Devil’s-Dyke beauty spot while on a training exercise in Sussex and wrote again on 10th January:
2/Lt Williams RK
61st Recce Regt, Home Forces
Monday Eve
Chotie Darling,
Have a few hours to myself , so here goes.
After my having been commissioned for some nine weeks, the adjutant has suddenly discovered that the Joining Certificate (which is the authority for issue of pay) was never sent off by the Orderly Room! However, I have duly completed another which has now been sent off, and I can optimistically hope to see some solid cash within the next week or so. I am now obliged to remain in the mess where I can get my beer on tick, but have to smoke cigarettes as they don’t stock tobacco.
I don’t believe I’ve told you about the billets (?) we live in here. All other ranks live in a castle, which overlooks some 20-30 miles of low-lying country*. The Officers mess is a country house some 600 yds from the castle. It’s quite large – some 6 or 7 bedrooms, and reasonably comfortable. At the moment I have a room to myself owing to the temporary absence of my artist companion on a course.
I came across a Chianti bottle on a scheme and this now takes pride of place on my table. It’s green glass and holds a horse-chestnut twig which I trust will flower (?) in the spring.
Have you found time to read that Claude Houghton yet? Let me know what you think of it – if you think it’s lousy, say so…
My drinking companion is on leave at the moment. His name is Winzer and is known affectionately (?) as the ‘Duke’ by his troop. His WAAF** (from the local waffery) consequently becomes ‘The Duchess’, or sometimes Mrs Simpson***, when the wags are feeling a little bitter.
He’s quite a sound bloke on the whole but tends to drink himself to death – his gin bill over the Xmas week amounting to £15. At least he’s not so completely dead as the remainder here. They all try to give the impression that they’re God Almighty as regards music and the arts. However, when ‘Junior’ (the artist) and I turned up we managed to shake them considerably. They appear to be jumped-up bank clerks, etc. just spreading their wings a little.
(I have to pause here for a wretched mess meeting – the mess is bankrupt at the moment.)
Well we soon wound up the mess meeting. The net result was that messing has been increased by 6d per member and a monthly mess subscription of one day’s pay has to be paid. This will involve an extra 25 shillings per month as far as I’m concerned.
I had a stroke of luck an hour or so ago. Going through some old papers I came across a Post Office book with a quid balance so I repaired to the pub immediately after dinner, for a beer or four.
Met the Duchess there, with a couple of Dutch Officers who it appears are both Barons. Trust her to get a grip as soon as Jeff’s away.
Don’t forget to give me all the dope on Eric’s present position, will you? If I can get his next leave taped, I’ll make the effort to go up and see him - & Eve…When’s the baby expected, or has it come already?
As for leave, as far as I’m concerned, I can’t get away for another eight weeks at least. Perhaps only seven – though I could get a 48 any time now. The only snag with this is that it’s such a devil of a way to travel. However, we might well manage something in the next month or so – I could certainly do with a little relaxation – if you know what I mean.
There’s going to be a colossal inspection by the Colonel on January 22nd and everyone’s getting keyed up with plenty of gimping and you know what.
I’m out patrolling at 3 o’clock tomorrow morning for a couple of hours. Luckily there’s a full moon which makes things very much easier. It’s a pity you’re not here – I could take you round….
Well, Darling there doesn’t appear to be any news to tell you. I had a ten-page epistle from Chunky but haven’t found time to reply yet. Here’s hoping. I should like to spend a day with him in town, but you never seem to get round to these things.
I have to sleep in the castle tonight in an oak-beamed room with stone floor & walls. Very romantic but bloody cold. Why aren’t you here? I reckon we could keep warm, at least….
Must close here ‘Chotie’ to get some sleep in before this wretched patrol.
All my love, Darling
be Good….
Dicker
*Lympne Castle, overlooking Romney Marsh in SE Kent http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=14755.0
**WAAF = Womens’ Auxiliary Air Force. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6649932.shtml
***King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 to marry Mrs Simpson, a divorcee. They became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
© Chotie Darling
On 18th January the Recce Corps were still trying to sort Dick’s pay. 61st Recce had “a terrific shake on” owing to the “colossal inspection by the Colonel” due on 22nd January. In his next letter on Thursday 20th January Dick wrote that this was to be followed by a “terrific party on Sunday…I’m told that when Lt. Col. Sir William Mount (Bart) T.D. throws a party it’s some party.”
All this activity heralded the Colonel’s success in attaching 61st Reconnaissance Regiment to the 50th Northumbrian Division – honoured with the famous Desert Rats (7th Armoured) for their role in the North African Campaign.
“The sign (or flash) which was worn on the side of the shoulder was TT, which represented Tyne and Tees” (new 61st Recce recruit Don Aiken on the BBC People's War website).
Dick's TT shoulder flashes
“Only those who have experienced it can know the inferiority an unblooded regiment feels when surrounded by battle-scarred heroes. But the 50th Division made us so welcome, and refrained so carefully from flinging their blood and sand into our eyes, that we soon felt at home in what must have been the happiest of divisions in spite of all its casualties.” (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)
Dick was now linked to a front-line Division, which was heading for war as part of the Montgomery’s 21st Army Group (1st Canadian Army and 2nd British Army). Dwight D Eisenhower took up his post as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Britain on 16th January 1944.
A brief letter on 26th January mentions that Dick has “bought a new hat” – Dick and Chotie’s code for a change of location. By the following Sunday he could reveal he was camped on the Brandon Park Estate in Suffolk and although he enjoyed the grand Georgian House, the lack of a Junior Mess meant eating and socialising with the Colonel and Senior Officers. Perhaps not such a bad idea since they would soon be going into battle together?
Chotie was also to see action as Hitler’s ‘Little Blitz’ started on 21st January with more attacks on London and the ports of Hull, Cardiff and Bristol – Chotie’s battery defended not only Bristol but also the Severn Estuary, the Luftwaffe’s approach to the Welsh capital.
The Little Blitz was retaliation for the RAF’s bombing of German cities, which continued with heavy raids on Berlin and Frankfurt-am-Main towards the end of January. Operation Carpetbagger commenced on 4th January with the RAF now supplying resistance groups in France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. In France Maquisard resistance fighters gathered in the Alpine mountains of Haute Savoie and the region was placed under emergency measures (anyone helping the resistance could be shot) on 31st January. In Italy the Allies advance appeared stalled on the German’s ‘Winter Line’ at Monte Cassino but the bloody fighting here distracted from the Allies landing 36,000 men behind the line at Anzio, 50 kilometres south of Rome, on 22nd January.
On the eastern Front the Red Army crossed the Polish border from the Ukraine, heading south to cut off the German forces Hitler had not allowed to withdraw from the Dnepr river and the Crimea. In the north troops, guns and tanks secretly assembled across the ice at Leningrad staged a surprise counter-attack ending the ‘900 day’ siege of the city on 27th January.
The Allies were also advancing in South-east Asia – on 5th January Chinese nationalists won the battle of Changde, Indian and British troops took Maungdaw on the Burmese (Myanmar) coast on the 9th and Australians held Sio and New Guinea’s Huon Peninsula by the 15th. In the Pacific the US Navy began its attack on the Japanese held Marshall Islands on 31st January.
Most might have hoped the war would be over before the year was out but for many the worst was yet to come.
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