Chotie Darling

Happy 100th Birthday Eric Postles

HAPPY

 

BIRTHDAY

 

ERIC

 

100 Today!

 

John Eric Postles joined up in January 1942 becoming Trooper Postles 10602580, one of the legendary '1060 boys', a large intake of men from north-west England for the Reconnaissance Corps.  Reconnaissance meant gathering information, often from behind enemy lines or in battle, and getting it back safely, in person and by radio so it could be used to plan tactics or find a safe way to advance.  The Reconnaissance Corps' official mottos 'From One Learn All' and 'Beaten Paths are Safest' reflected this role, while their unofficial motto 'Only the Enemy in Front (every other beggar behind)' describes where they often found themselves.

Eric Postles' Regiment, the 61st Reconnaissance, was to play a critical role in the Battle for North-West Europe from 'D' Day to February 1945.  By then they were so decimated from their engagements with the enemy that they were disbanded and dispersed to other Regiments.  Eric was in the first wave of those landing in France, endured the bitter campaign to expand the Normandy bridgehead, led Montgomery's Twenty-First Army Group across France and liberated towns and villages across Belgium with fierce fighting as the Germans dug in their defences along the canals.  61st Recce were with the Guards in the forefront of Monty's 'Market Garden' effort to reach the Airlanding at Arnhem across the Lower Rhine in the Netherlands (the famous 'Bridge too Far') and then spent two drear months on the front-line there as water levels rose on their 'Island'.   With the infantry division they were attached to (50th Northumbrian) returning to Britain that December, the Regiment was in process of being broken up at Izegem in Belgium when the Germans launched an unexpected new attack in the Ardennes.   Seizing their discarded vehicles and weapons the 61st went into action alongside the Americans in the 'Battle of the Bulge', obtaining vital information in the freezing conditions of a mountain winter.   With the enemy eventually pushed into Germany, disbandment was resumed and Eric went to join the 49th Reconnaissance Regiment back on the flooded 'Island', patrolling and observing the V2 rockets launched from the northern Netherlands.  Arnhem was at last taken by the Allies in April and Eric was involved in the liberation of Lunteren, Amersfoot and Utrecht before VE Day on 8th May 1945. 

Eric married Gladys, his wartime sweetheart, in 1947 and worked for the War Office, then Her Majesty's Prison Service; receiving the Imperial Service Order on his retirement.  One of the few remaining 61st Reconnaisance Regiment veterans, he lives in the north-west, near enough to enjoy the support and appreciation of the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment Living History Group.

Hearty Congratulations on your 100th Birthday Eric

and many thanks for your wonderful contributions to this blog.

                                                                                                                                                                        Eric with the 61st Reconnaissance Re-enactment Group on 20th August 2022.

75 years ago - Home, Married and at Rest

 

Dick was killed at the end of March 1945, less than 6 weeks before the end of the war in Europe.

He met Chotie for the first time since D Day on 1^st March in Pagham, where he was home on leave with his parents.  Five days later they married under under special license at Chichester registry office.  Their one night of honeymoon was spent at the lovely Spreadeagle Hotel in Midhurst, West Sussex.  On 7^th March they returned to be with family and on the 8^th Dick “Left Bognor for Dover via Victoria” to rejoin the war.

 Mr and Mrs Richard Williams with Dick's parents at Pagham

 

Meanwhile his regiment, now the 52^nd (Lowland) Reconnaissance, had at last crossed the anti-tank ditch at Afferden, defended tenaciously by German paratroopers.  They advanced into Germany, south-west towards Geldern and the Rhine.  On 3^rd March Montgomery’s pincers in the Northern Rhineland (British XXX Corps with Canadian 1^st Army for 'Operation Veritable' and the US 9^th Army for 'Operation Grenade') at last met at Geldern, about 10 miles from the Rhine, east of the Ruhr industrial region.  Dick’s ‘C’ Squadron were nearly at Twisteden, five miles to the north-west.  On 7^th March 52^nd Recce took over from 53^rd Recce to lead the Rhineland advance. 

Further south the US 1^st Army’s 9^th Armored Division dashed forward to secure an intact bridge over the Rhine at Remagen (between Bonn and Koblenz).  They secured a bridgehead across the Rhine and successfully defended the bridge from the relentless German attacks, including the use of V2 missiles.

 

Chotie wrote to Dick from Pagham on 9th March: “It was very wonderful to be with you for even this short while, so it is a glorious thought that we have a life-time to spend.  Don’t feel too blue – I am trying not to.”

 

Dick, having travelled overnight via Calais, had reached Bourg Leopold in Belgium, where he managed to spend a couple of days with his brother Bryn.  He wrote to Chotie on 12th March just before rejoining his regiment – his home leave had perhaps not been idyllic:

“You must find me terribly moody.  I try not to be, but since the beginning of the war I find I’m completely di-orientated at home.”  (My mother said Dick ‘knew’ he was going die and they cried all night on their honeymoon.)

 

Meanwhile on 10^th March Dick’s ‘C’ Squadron had been tasked with reconnaissance of the Rhine west bank along a four to five mile frontage near Menzelen (north-east of Geldern, near Xanten and Wesel).  At Menzelen they met no opposition and took a dozen prisoners.  There was more German resistance at Ginderich (nearer the river to the north) but they were soon backed up by infantry.  Pushing on via Gest (en route towards Wesel) they reached the Rhine at dusk and could observe hundreds of Germans on the opposite bank.  Calling down an artillery bombardment on the German defences, they also captured an enemy patrol sent back across the river to recover equipment.

From 12^th March 52^nd Recce rejoined their Division (52^nd Lowland), although squadrons were detached to work with various Scottish regiments – ‘C’ Squadron were with the Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment).

 

Dick was at Ginderich on 13^th March ‘resting’.

Photo labelled 'Ginderich, March 1945'. Dick is on the right.

 

Chotie wrote to him from her home in Parkstone where she was enjoying being 'Absent without leave' with her best friend, Mary Dakin.  She wrote again later, after a miserable time at the dentist, having broken a tooth on her mother’s home-made toffee.  She was meant to return to her unit now after 14 days leave.

Dick wrote on 14th March from a “cushy billet (no windows but everything else is OK)” where he’d had a party with three other “Bolshie subalterns” and had made a new friend, Peter Evans.  Lieutenant Evans had led ‘C’ Squadron’s ‘almost copybook advance to the River Rhine at Ginderich’ (Trevor Whitfield) and subsequently received the Military Cross for this and his role in clearing the Scheldt Estuary in autumn 1944.  Dick’s old friend from 61^st Recce, Ronnie Jury, was now a Liaison Officer “in some Corps or other.  A pretty steady job but not much excitement.”  After the war he returned to painting and taught at the Slade School of Art.

Don Aiken recalls that the 52^nd Recce were now pulled back about a mile from the river awaiting the Rhine crossing, which was preceded by an intense build-up of men and equipment.  Like Dick, some of the men passed the time in bare-back riding the horses left by the Germans.  One of Don’s troop was killed by a single shot across the river while riding.

 

Chotie wrote on Friday 16th March with some good news – she’d been granted another 7 days leave so would not be punished on her return.  Relatives were still sending money for their wedding presents and Chotie was enjoying taking her sister Margaret’s baby, Roger, out in his pram.  Her younger sister Beryl was also at home – they went to see ‘Kismet’ at the cinema.

On Saturday night Hull, where Chotie’s anti-aircraft battery were stationed, was attacked by a single Heinkel, which killed 13 people and injured 22.  Chotie wrote again on Sunday 18th while packing to return there and sent another letter when she was back at Fort Godwin (on Spurn Point near Easington, east of Hull) after "an eventful journey".  She’d treated herself to lunch at a Spanish restaurant near King’s Cross and missed her train.  Arriving late in Hull a fellow lady in her carriage had invited her to stay so she enjoyed supper, a comfy bed and bacon and eggs for breakfast.  “Everyone” back at the battery was excited about her marriage and she seemed to have told her “tale about a hundred and one times”.

 

On the west bank of the Rhine 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment had been assigned traffic control duties as part of the preparation for ‘Operation Plunder’ (the Rhine crossing), although their ‘A’ Squadron was now with 1^st Commando Brigade – destined to lead the assault across the river. 

Dick was at Kevelaer, back from the line and north of Geldern, in a 300 year old cottage “having evicted the ‘civvies’ ”.  He wrote to Chotie that he’d spent 48 hours painting signs (presumably for traffic control) after a very close shave when a shell killed the bloke next to him.

 

Chotie wrote on Wednesday 21st: “We had a spot of excitement last night” so Hull may have been under attack again.  She was furious Dick had shaved off his moustache.  He’d written “I reckon I look much better without it.  I now look eighteen instead of thirty-five” (he was 23).  Chotie was enjoying walking on the beach in the sun with friends.  On the 23rd she wrote “It is decidedly better up here, now that Spring is here” and was hoping to stay with her ATS friend Nan’s family in Yorkshire.

 

At 6pm on 23^rd March Operation Plunder began with a massive artillery barrage along the Rhine from Nijmegen to the Ruhr – the largest bombardment undertaken by the Royal Artillery during the war.  A huge smokescreen was amassed to assemble supplies near the front and at nightfall the RAF saturated the town of Wesel, on the east bank with high explosive bombs.  52^nd Lowland Division, with their guns trained on the bank near Wesel was “in the front row of the grandstand at one of the most imposing spectacles ever staged".  General Eisenhower watched the operation from within the Division’s beat for a while.

Sandy Handley in Dick’s No 15 troop remembered “we were on the banks of the Rhine opposite the town of Wesel” in a large bulldozed ditch. Their officer told them the artillery barrage was about to start - canon and rockets were fired with a deafening noise – and later came to their car again to tell them this was only the beginning: “he said at 11 o’clock pm ALL THE LOT was going to open up.  At 11 o’clock we found out what he meant!  The noise was terrible; my nerves were getting a bit jaded.  There we were, in front of all these guns, yards from the actual river. 

I suggested to the other chap we go under the Daimler, which we did, scooping ourselves a little dugout.  We thought the deeper we dug the more safe we were…”  They had a complicated code to send back messages but Sandy was so shaken he just relayed the message in phonetic terms: “At times like these certain things didn’t go text book fashion…I had experienced these artillery barrages since we landed but this was the Daddy of them all.”

The first attack towards Rees (north of Wessel), led by 51st Highland Division, was a diversion from the main attack.  1st Commando Brigade with 52nd Recce’s ‘A’ Squadron, quietly crossed the river at 10 pm.  The Recce were in canvas boats with oars – their job was to provide beach control parties for the commandos and keep up communications across the river while the commandos observed radio silence.  By mid-morning the Commandos had secured most of the town – of the 1,600 men with them 11 were killed and 17 missing. 

The 15^th Scottish Division also crossed during the night, north of Wesel while to the south the US 9^th Army had crossed between Wesel and Rheinberg on an 11 mile front.

“In the early hours of the next morning the guns had ceased firing and we could actually hear birds singing.  One of the Officers in charge of our section came over to our Daimler and said “Well done men!” although I didn’t think we’d done anything except cringe under the Daimler… The officer then said at 10 o’clock this morning the Airborne paratroops and gliders will come over and land on the other side of the river near Wesel … precisely at 10 o’clock we heard a roar which grew louder and louder.  Someone said “Here they come”.  They flew low.  It was one of the greatest memorable sights I have ever seen, unforgettable.  First the paratroopers, then the gliders being towed over this great river.” (Sandy Handley)

 At 10 am on 24^th March 'Operation Varsity' began with more than 3,000 planes and gliders dropping over 16,000 men of the British 6^th Airborne and the US 17^th Airborne Division.  Unfortunately they were landing in ‘Flak Alley’ – the main defences for the Ruhr – and took more than 2,000 casualties.  However, by nightfall they’d met up with the ground forces and captured 3,500 German soldiers.  Montgomery’s  bridgehead over the Rhine was established.

Don Aiken, was also on the bank of the Rhine having volunteered to assist the Royal Engineers with communications.  After the air landings they went in under heavy fire to build pontoons across the river for getting ground troops across.  Don was waiting for a runner to come from the next armoured car with the latest message when, poking his head out of the turret in a lull, he found the runner had been killed by a German shell landing close by. 

The bridges were constructed and in a few hours the infantry had crossed followed by tanks.  Soon the pontoon bridge was a two-way highway: “all the paraphernalia of an attacking army was crossing into Germany” and “long lines of German soldiers were being marched out to Prisoner of War camps somewhere in England”.  8,000 Royal Engineers assisted the crossing of the Rhine.

 

The rest of 52^nd Recce, now based in a tented camp in woods near Sonsbeck (between Kevelaer and the Rhine), were given the administrative job of getting the leading battalions and regiments from their concentration area up to the river bank.

Dick wrote on 24th March: “Well my darling, I’m in a smashing billet away from my troop in charge of about 20 miles of road as Traffic Control Officer.  Imagine it, armband and all!  I look quite a dog…I’m with two other subalterns who share my taste in living so we’re really very happy.  I’m afraid it won’t last for long though – it’s much too cushy for that.” 

 

Chotie was on watch between 10 and 3 am that night when she wrote to Dick:

“The news is good again today, darling, - it can’t be long now.  When you come back and when we can be together always, well, won’t it be wonderful?

One day next week, if we get a spot of ‘off duty’, a whole crowd of us are hoping to get cracking on a ‘binge’ - celebrating my third week of being married or something.” 

 

By midnight on 24^th/25^th March 80,000 Allied troops had crossed the Rhine, including Winston Churchill who went over the river in a landing craft near Wesel.  Over the next couple of days there were more Rhine crossings by the Americans to the south and the US 1^st Army broke out of their Remagen bridgehead and marched south to join up with Patton’s 3^rd Army forces.

 

Chotie wrote to Dick again on the 26th, having received a letter from Brinner: “It’s marvellous that you are so near to each other.  I hope you manage to meet.”

“Just think, darling, tomorrow we have been married 3 weeks...  I spend quite a lot of my time just dreaming of things to come.  Have built us a home and furnished it (all in my imagination) most marvellously.  I think I had better see what I can do with a Missen, probably have to.”

 

By 27th March the Rhine bridgehead north of the Ruhr was 35 miles wide and 20 miles deep and 52^nd Recce’s ‘A’ Squadron reverted to regimental command.

52^nd Reconnaissance Regiment “moved over the Rhine under a full moon in the early hours of Good Friday, 30^th March, 1945; crossing on one of the various pontoons and Bailey bridges built in record time by the Royal Engineers.  Mile after mile of vehicles queued for the limited space on the roads, therefore it was mid-afternoon before the regiment was concentrated near the town of Mehr (north-west of Wesel), just a few miles east of the Rhine, ready to take part in what was a rapid advance into Germany” (Carl Shilleto).

 

Dick wrote his last letter to Chotie:  from “a windowless ‘brewed-up’ house with with half a gale blowing but having so much spiritual warmth I’m not unduly cold.  My cushy post has gone with the wind and I’m now back on the job again…Nothing very thrilling to write about – so I’ll close here.

                                                          Your loving husband

                                                                        Dicker.”

 

Photos from the BBC's VE Day 70: A Party to Remember - Honeysuckle Weeks and Laurence Fox read extracts from Chotie and Dick's letters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Mehr ‘C’ Squadron were placed in reserve, earmarked for Prisoner of War duties.  Dick learnt that Bryn’s unit was in the vicinity and set out to visit him in his small Daimler Dingo.  He was taking Bryn back when the car hit a small crater in the road, made by a shell or bomb.  Dick was killed instantly while Bryn escaped with cuts and bruises.

Sandy Handley remembered:

“Sometime in the afternoon Mr Williams’ brother came towards us and introduced himself and said “Mr Williams, your Troop Officer, is dead”.  Naturally we were stunned…

Later we (the No. 15 Troop) attended a small burial ceremony conducted by the 52nd Division Padre for the burial.  I think we all wanted to pass our condolences on to Mr Williams’ brother, who sat in another staff car with his fellow officers…

We would miss Mr Williams.  He had been with us from Normandy June ’44 to March ’45.  From a trooper’s point of view this Officer had looked after his eleven men and never asked us to do or risk anything that he couldn’t do himself.  We liked Mr Williams and we were going to miss his coolness.  He thought his troop were a good team too… 

It seemed ironic that a man could live through the many hazards and horrors of war, from the beaches of Normandy (where the 61st had become the first Reconnaissance Regiment to come ashore) and through the terrible fighting on the Rhine, only to be killed in a traffic accident.  Perhaps most tragic of all though was that the young officer had just returned from some leave and had been married for only three weeks.”

 

Chotie, at Spurn Point in Yorkshire, was “in the large mess hall, full of people.  The Sergeant-Major handed me the telegram to say Dicker had been killed.  The saddest moment of my life.”

 

Lieutenant Richard Kelner Williams is laid to rest in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery south-west of Kleve in Germany.

We will remember them.

The Last Post

 Alex de Groot's memorial photo of Dick's grave.

 

75 years ago - 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment

At the beginning of February 1945 Dick was still at Izegem in Belgium, billeted with the lovely Sintobin-Anne family.  The Regiment he had fought with in France, Belgium and the Netherlands was in process of disbandment after separation from its Division, the 50^th Northumberland (now a training unit back in England) and a brief 'reprieve' to fight the German Ardennes offensive.

    Gradually some of his comrades left on leave or to other units.  Tony Rampling, a gunner in Dick’s No 5 Troop, who had landed in Normandy with him, joined his brother in the 4th Armoured Division (the tanks of the ‘Black Rats’ were famous for their fighting in the Western Desert).  Exceptionally, all Dick’s troop had survived since D Day and the loss of that comradeship forged under fire was a bitter experience.

    In Eric Postles’ 10 troop only six of the eighteen originals who had landed in June 1944 survived to February 1945.  Eric was sent back to 'the Island' to join the 49th Division wearing the white rose of Yorkshire - and him a Lancashire man!

    Dick and the rest of his troop were assigned to the 52^nd Reconnaissance Regiment with five other officers and nearly 150 ‘other ranks’ from 61^st Recce.  The 52^nd ‘Lowland Scottish’ Division ironically wore a mountain symbol and had been trained for mountain combat to invade Norway and then an airborne role in Operation Market Garden.  52^nd Recce arrived separately in France in September 1944 to form part of the ground troops in Market Garden, working with the 101^st Airborne (and 61^st Recce) to defend 'Hell's Highway' and reach ‘the Island’ next to Arnhem.  Re-joining the Division they contributed to the vital work of First Canadian Army clearing the Scheldt Estuary and restoring access to the port of Antwerp.  In December 1944 52^nd Lowland were at Schinveld (close to the German border, north-east of Maastricht) defending the right flank of British 2^nd Army during the Ardennes offensive.   Then in January they advanced into Germany as part of Operation Blackcock to clear the Roer triangle (between the Maas/Meuse and the Roer rivers, south of their confluence at Roermond) and take the German town of Heinsberg, before returning to Schinveld.  On 7^th February they moved north to Boxmeer, near the German border south of Nijmegen, where Montgomery was assembling his forces ready for Operation Veritable.

from 52nd (Lowland) Division's souvenir map of the North-West Europe campaign

 

 

The 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment officially broke up on 5^th February 1945.  Since landing on D day, or soon after, the Regiment had accounted for at least 5,000 of the enemy, taking 4,000 as prisoners.  The Commander of 50^th Division, Major-General Graham, wrote to thank them: “They have been simply magnificient, and although their battle history is not long…it has been glorious… When much that has happened in this war is forgotten, the memory of your deeds will remain.”

 

On 6^th February Dick at last managed to see his brother Bryn at Bourg Leopold/Leopoldsburg in Belgium, while en route to meet his new regiment.  He sent a brief letter to Chotie, trying to arrange leave, and arrived at Boxmeer to join the 52^nd on Wednesday 7^th February.  Operation Veritable began the next morning with “the largest artillery barrage yet laid down in the NW Europe campaign” (Carl Shilleto in ‘The Fighting 52^nd Recce’, Eskdale Publishing 2000). 

                Monty’s plan was for the Canadian 1^st Army, including British XXX Corps, to advance south and east from Nijmegan and Boxmeer to take the Reichswald Forest area between the Meuse/Maas and the Rhine in 3 or 4 days.  Meanwhile in ‘Operation Grenade’ the US 9^th Army was to cross the Roer River and swing north, capturing German forces in a pincer movement with Operation Veritable.  The British and Canadians met firm and bloody resistance from the German Field Parachute Army (the elite Fallschirmjäger), rapidly re-inforced by veteran panzer forces from the Ardennes, while the Americans' Operation Grenade was delayed for two weeks when the Germans released water from the Roer river dams to create an impassable flood.   The city of Kleve/Cleves (east of Nijmegan), reduced to ruins by RAF bombing, was finally captured in Operation Veritable on 12^th February. 

 

Initially 52^nd Reconnaissance Regiment were held at Boxmeer.  Dick was placed in ‘C’ Squadron at Sambeek (immediately south of Boxmeer) and had an “Easy time with vehicles.  Nothing much doing".  Sandy Handley returned from home leave in Dover to join Dick’s new No. 15 Troop and became Dick’s batman (soldier-servant).  He was also a Gunner/Operator in a heavy Daimler armoured car while Don Aiken became a Driver/Operator in a two man light armoured Daimler (the Daimler Scout Car or ‘Dingo’).

    On 13^th and 14^th February the 52^nd Recce area suffered some spasmodic shelling.  Patrols were carried out in assault boats due to the local flooding.  Dick wrote to Chotie on a page of lined paper on Wednesday 14^th February:

‘C’ Squadron.

52^nd (L) Div Recce Regt, BLA.

Wednesday Feb 14^th

Chotie Darling,

                                    Sorry I have to write on this stuff, but it’s all I have at the moment.  I hope to get some more writing-paper tomorrow.  I received two letters from you yesterday, dated the 2^nd and 8^th respectively – both very welcome.  Reference the photos, I think you must be losing your sense of proportion – the moustachio effect, probably being a chiaroscuro* trick, I expect.

            I’ve just rushed out to see a dog-fight that’s going on overhead.  You should bring your gun** out here – there’s plenty to shoot at.  109’s*** have been milling around here all day. 

            This regiment isn’t too bad on the whole – most of the Other Ranks being Scots, but happily most of the officers are English.  I can’t discuss how I happened to come here in writing but will give you the griff on my leave (always provided you can make it yourself.)  The date still stands at March 1^st or a little later.

            I’ve had two letters from the Sintobins since I left.  They’re a wonderful family.  Change pens!  They also sent a tin of marvellous biscuits, a speciality of theirs.  I hope to get another photo of the whole family from them shortly.

            I’ve also got a photo of all the officers of my old crowd which I’ll let you have – but it’s not worth sending from here seeing that I’ll be home in a fortnight or so.

            After some four months trying I managed to contact Bryn on my way to join this regiment.  We managed a night together at an Officers Club.  Very pleasant as you can well imagine.  He’s altered a lot and seems much quieter – though perhaps it was just my idea.

            Well, my darling there’s no news to tell you.  Please write soon to let me know whether you can make it for the 1^st or 2^nd.

                                    Auf wiedersehen, Liebling,

                                                (which means ‘So long, baby’)

                                                            All my love

                                                                        Dicker

*the use of strong light and dark in two-dimensional art to achieve a sense of volume and depth.

**a reference to the anti-aircraft gun Chotie was responsible for siting on targets.

***German fighting aircraft – the Messerschmidt Bf 109.

© Chotie Darling

 

The next day 52^nd (Lowland Reconnaissance Regiment) joined the advance of Operation Veritable, crossing the Meuse/Maas and arriving at Gennep on the 16^th.  Dick’s ‘C’ Squadron moved south towards Afferden but were held up at a road block – a large crater with flooding either side, defended by four machine gun posts.  Sergeant Walter Everson was killed when the Germans opened fire.  ‘C’ Squadron patrolled all night but the enemy withdrew so they moved into Afferden to secure the road running east from the town.  Here the regiment was held up by a flooded anti-tank ditch, a western arm of the Siegfried line (Germany’s famous Westernwall defences), guarded at the east end by a Dutch castle, Kasteel Bleijenbeek.  The Recce were ordered to clear enemy resistance here but astute patrolling revealed the area was heavily populated with German troops and Captain Hathaway of ‘A’ Squadron resisted the order averting heavy losses. Subsequently two Divisional attacks were sent in but failed to cross the ditch or take the Kasteel.

    52^nd Recce, now responsible for Afferden, were stuck here subject to mortars, shells, snipers and counter-attacks until the end of February.  Casualties mounted steadily and communication between the squadrons and frozen, dirt-covered troops sheltering in their fox-holes was often lost.  Amazingly the Padre, Captain Bradley and a Salvation Army truck driver made it to the front-line bringing tea and cigarettes.  Between the dug-outs it was “Crawl or RIP” in the areas constantly under observation.  It must have reminded Dick and his troop of Briquessard but much colder with fog, floods and mud all round instead of dust.

 

On 21^st February skies cleared and the RAF bombed the Kasteel, reducing it to a ruin (in the end it had been manned by just 15 paratroopers).  XXX Corps captured the remains of the city of Goch, east of Afferden and Gennep, the next day.  On 23^rd February the floods along the Roer had receded sufficiently for the US 9^th Army to cross the river and proceed with Operation Grenade.  The Canadian Army began a fresh attack along the Hochwald Forest ridge towards Xanten (Operation Blockbuster).  Operation Veritable had taken two weeks to achieve its initial objectives at a cost of 6,000 casualties.

 

 

Dick, however, was out of the fighting for a while – at last he had home leave.  He arrived at Bourg Leopold on Monday 26^th, spent a couple of days with Bryn and headed for Calais to cross the Channel.  This was his first time back in England since June 1944.  His diary entry for 28^th February simply says “Arrived home on leave.”   Chotie received a telegram from his father “RICHARD AT PAGHAM”.

75 years ago - the end in the Ardennes

Dick spent the New Year in the comparative safety of Honnay, a little village between Beauraing and Wellin, where he was based for 5 days in all. On 1^st January XXX Corps were operating offensively south of the River Lesse and contact was made with enemy posts held by 9^th Panzer Division at Wavreille, Bure and St Hubert (all 61^st Recce patrolling areas) as well as Hargimont and Jemelle, east of Rochefort. 

The huge Luftwaffe attack on Allied airfields in Belgium, Holland and France (Operation Baseplate) resulted in a net loss of German planes, many shot down by their own anti-aircraft batteries due to excessive secrecy surrounding the operation.  The Allies were now assured of air supremacy but the skies in the Ardennes had clouded over again since the 26^th December.

 

In January the weather became the main enemy – temperatures dropped to minus 20 degrees centigrade and there was nearly a metre of snow to contend with, as well as icy roads, hidden mines and booby-traps.  “I was never so cold in my life as in the Ardennes.  If you had to sleep in an armoured car it was like sleeping in a fridge” (Tony Rampling).  One night Dick had found a rough barn for his troop to sleep in.  Tony and another chap were sent to fetch the rum ration – they had one or two spoonfuls each every night – and, after “sipping” it on the way back Tony swore at Dick (the only time he ever challenged an officer) “When are you going to get us out of this **** place?”  Dick didn’t put him on a charge and said very little.

 

On 3^rd January Montgomery launched a major counter-offensive with US 1^st Army attacking from the north and XXX Corps from the west.  6^th Airborne Division moved in first, through Beauraing and Wellin, following the 61^st Recce and Belgian SAS reconnaissance line towards Bure and Wavreille, where they met fierce opposition.

Lieutenants Urban-Smith and Fling led the way to Wavreille with a local Belgian nobleman, overcoming a group of Germans who came up behind them and driving the enemy from the village.  They had to withdraw following fierce counter-attacks but the next day 6^th Airborne re-took the village.  At Bure there was intense fighting over a number of days – 29^th Armoured Brigade with the 5^th Para captured the village, were driven out again and finally held the village on 9^th January in what became one of the toughest battles of the campaign.  Four 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment men were killed on 4^th January.  Sandy Handley wrote: “Sadly we had several casualties in the Ardennes but considering we were front line troops our casualties were light, although one casualty was one too many.”

 

On 5th January the news broke that Montgomery had taken command of the US 1^st and 9^th Armies, split from rest of the American General Bradley’s forces by the German offensive.  The British press inferred that Monty had saved the day in the Ardennes, aggravating a dangerous rift between the Allied Commanders.  This was further inflamed by Monty’s own arrogant behaviour and a fake BBC News broadcast by the Germans implying that the British Field Marshall had saved the US 1^st Army from disaster.  Churchill attempted to mend relations by citing the huge American losses – c. 80,000 men compared with the British 2 to 3,000 -  but political damage was done that diminished Britain’s role in the invasion and occupation of Germany and even affected President Eisenhower’s reaction to the Suez Crisis.

 

“Fighting in the Ardennes reached a degree of savagery unprecedented on the western front” (Beevor).  The German slaughter of American prisoners at Baugnez-Malmédy, and the murder of civilians, led to large numbers of revenge killings, some even condoned by senior officers.  On 7^th January two British armoured cars at Forrières (east of Wavreille) also shot surrendering Germans.

 

Operation Nordwind in the Alsace launched major offensives north of Strasbourg on 5^th January and south, from the Colmar pocket, on 7^th January.  However, on 8^th January the German High Command at last ordered a withdrawal in the Ardennes.  9^th Panzer Division pulled back to a line east of Rochefort and Marche-en-Famenne on the 6^th Airborne front, withdrawing from Jemelle that night.  The sound of bridges being blown could be heard as the Germans retreated from the salient.

 

Dick had found billets for ‘B’ Squadron in a large village and time to write to Chotie on 8th January.  His letter, restricted “about 90%” by self-censorship is full of family news with updates on his injured fellow officers Lt. Geoff Winzer and Major Harding.  Dick was staying with “a charming family who do everything they possibly can to make things as pleasant as they can be, under these circumstances.” Belgian civilians suffered terribly in the Ardennes offensive – about 2,500 were killed (as well as c.500 in Luxembourg) and many who survived the bombing and heavy artillery barrages emerged from cellars and vaults to starvation and disease.  88,000 were made homeless.  Towns and villages were reduced to rubble, food stores had been raided by the Germans, livestock slaughtered and furniture, or anything else that would burn, destroyed by troops of both sides trying to keep warm.

 

On 9^th January Groupont, Forrières, Jemelle, Hargimont and, at last, Bure, were occupied by 6^th Airborne who continued moving towards la Roche-en-Ardennes and Saint Hubert the next day.  61^st Recce were asked to investigate Saint Hubert, although it was in the American sector.  When the carrier of the new troop leader, Lieutenant Spreag, was blown up on a mine he transferred to a horse (first time on horseback) and rode into St Hubert with two Belgian woodsmen to find the Germans had just left.  The Americans were not pleased when the BBC reported British armoured cars were the first to enter Saint Hubert.

 

The Christmas Eve massacre at Bande was discovered by 1^st Canadian Battalion, (working with 6^th Airborne) on 11^th January.  

The same day 61^st Recce patrols contacted US VIII Corps from Patton’s 3^rd Army in the area of St. Hubert.  Lieutenants Spreag and Abercrombie “walked 20 miles through shocking country beset with mines to contact the Airborne Brigadier.  He was so impressed that he at once offered them jobs”.  By the end of the next day they had walked over 50 miles (Colonel Brownrigg). 

“Despite the snow, the cold, the landmines and the roadblocks, as well as German defensive actions the British continued their advance and hampered the withdrawal plans of the German troops trying to escape the pincer movement of the allied armies”(from ‘The British in the battle of the Ardennes’).

On 12^th January British and US 1^st Army forces link up in Roche-en-Ardennes and the next day patrols from 6^th Airborne Division contact the US 3^rd Army’s 87^th Infantry Division at Champlon. 

The Russians had now begun three massive offensives on the eastern front and were striking from Poland towards Berlin.  Germany’s commitment of forces in the Ardennes and Alsace had seriously weakened their defence in the east while the Red Army had deployed 6.7 million men along their front.  They surged forward and on 19^th January troops from the 1^st Ukrainian front captured Krakow in south Poland.  Nearby, on 27^th January, a reconnaissance patrol from the 107^th Rifle Division discovered “the most terrible symbol in modern history” – the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

 

Dick’s diary for 13^th January records “Arrived Sintobins”.  61^st Reconnaissance Regiment had returned to Iseghem, driving along ice-bound roads through Mons and Ath and reaching Kortijk / Courtrai after dark.  Eric Postles’ carrier got stuck in the tram-lines here and had a “close encounter with a tram”.  There were happy re-unions with their hosts from early December but, despite their merited performance in the Ardennes, the Regiment was still due to disband.  Their equipment and vehicles were once more handed in.

Their General sent a message that all those who had fought in the Ardennes could take a few days leave in Brussels.  Some headed straight for the brothels.  Tony Rampling remembers staying in a very lively area but Dick’s diary only records a night out with Ronnie Jury and Johnnie Heitman at "Herboz von Brabant” on Tuesday 16^th.

By 15^th January, having cleared the whole salient up to the River Ourthe in the north-east and the Ourthe Occidentale to the south, XXX Corps returned to Boxtel near Eindhoven to prepare for Operation Veritable, Monty’s crossing of the Rhine into Germany.  The next day the US 1^st Army met up with US 3^rd Army at Houffalize and US 1^st Army reverted to American control under General Bradley.

 

Dick was with the Sintobins for dinner on Friday 19^th January “with Ronnie (Jury), Brian (Coote – the new ‘B’ Squadron Commander) and Ted Oliver”.  He stayed with the Sintobin-Anne family until at least the 27^th January and wrote to Chotie on Monday 22nd January:

61^st Recce Regt RAC

BLA.

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for your last letters – I’m afraid I’ve been rather pushed for time, or I would have replied before.

            Once again I’m with the Sintobins and living in complete luxury, which is quite a welcome break for us.

            You’ll find two photographs* enclosed that they took, just as I was leaving the last time, to slow up von Runstedt a little.  You’ll see a look of calm purposefulness (?) written all over my face ….

            They really are a fine family here – I must certainly make the effort to see them again after the war.  They gave a dinner for us – my Squadron leader Brian Coote** (Sandhurst mate), Ronnie and myself – last night which was a great success.  Madame Sintobin went out to dine with the Colonel*** a few nights ago.  She thought it a terrific honour….

            I had a very unfortunate stroke of luck the day before yesterday.  I had a letter from Bryn telling me he was in a town just seven kilometres from here.  Accordingly I gripped some transport and after several false starts arrived at the town to find he had left that morning.  Deadly, wasn’t it?  He’s now hundreds of miles away, so we’ve had it for some time.  His letter took four days to do four miles.  If only it had arrived in reasonable time I could have met him and brought him in for a meal with my family here.

            Is there anything further concerning your continental tour?  I see they still want them****.  It would certainly be more interesting than being in England but rather a gamble as you might well stay there for years.

            Well, Darling, must close here to write the family.

                                                All my love precious

                                                                        Dicker

P.S. Have just received a lovely little diary from your mother.  Will write her this afternoon. 

*Photographs of Dick and the Sintobin-Anne family in Iseghem

**presumably Major Frank Harding's replacement

***Colonel Philip Brownrigg

****Towards the end of the war service women in the UK were asked to volunteer to relieve men who had been serving abroad for some time.

 © Chotie Darling

This letter was sent to Fort Godwin, c/o Easington near Hull so Chotie had moved station yet again: “We moved to Spurn Point, indescribably stark…”

 

In the Alsace the French First Army attacked to defend Strasbourg on 20^th January and a few days later Hitler’s Operation Nordwind began to peter out as they crushed the German bridgehead around Colmar.  The Battle of Ardennes was now also ended – the US 1^st Army captured what remained of St. Vith on 23^rd January and by 29^th January the front-line in the Ardennes was restored to roughly its position before the German offensive began 6 weeks earlier.

The Battle had involved more than 1 million soldiers including 55,000 British.  The Americans lost almost 90,000 men with over 8,000 killed and 67,000 injured, the rest captured or missing.  British losses were proportionately lower with about 200 killed, 1,000 injured and c. 240 captured or missing although those of 61^st Recce were heavy with 48 killed, 144 wounded and 23 missing or captured.  A report by a military observer on 22^nd January records that 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment “although working in completely unknown country, miles ahead of our main forces, sent back such valuable information of the disposition of enemy troops that our advance went ahead smoothly.”

The Germans lost around 80,000 men in the Ardennes with 15-19,000 killed.  Although German capability in the west was destroyed the western Allies’ invasion of Germany had been significantly delayed.

 

The end of 61^st Reconnaissance regiment had also been delayed but it was now inevitable.  Photographs were taken of the Troops and Officers, there was a stand down parade and a regimental dance.

The officers of 61st Reconnaissance Regiment in January 1945 - Dick is at the end of the back row.

The men of 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment earned one Distinguished Service Order, eleven Military Crosses (including their Belgium Liaison Officer), one Distinguished Conduct Medal, five Military Medals, three Croix de Guerre and three M.B.E.s (Member of the order of the British Empire).  Subsequently, since 2014, all D Day veterans including Tony Rampling, Don Aiken and Eric Postles were awarded the Legion’d’Honneur Chevalier by France.

 

After landing on D Day, or soon after, they had fought for two months in Normandy, led the Allied forces across France and were the first into Belgium.  There they held the line along the Escaut Canal and fought in the Battle of the Albert Canal near Gheel.  In Operation Market garden they were part of the ground forces trying to reach Arnhem.  Their forces were split but many made it to the bank of the Lower Rhine and helped rescue some of the 1^st Airborne.  61^st Recce stayed on the front line here for two months, with the US 101^st Airborne, until the ‘Island’ between the Lower Rhine and the Waal was flooded.  Their Division (the 50^th Northumberland) was sent back to England and the Regiment was in Belgium ready to disband before their ‘reprieve’ for the Battle of the Ardennes....

Sources include ‘Ardennes 1944’ by Anthony Beevor published by Penguin 2015 and ‘German attack in the Ardennes: Operation by 30 Corps’ published on WW2 Talk Forum.

75 years ago - into the Ardennes

Hitler conceived the idea of a surprise attack on the Western Allies through the Ardennes back in September 1944.  The advance through the mountains between Belgium and Luxembourg would reprise the success of the German offensive into France and the Low Countries of 1940.  This time the intention was to swing north to Brussels and the Belgian port of Antwerp, cutting off the British, Canadian and American armies north of the Ardennes.

Preparations continued in total secret through the autumn of 1944.  Troops and tanks assembling in the thickly forested Eiffel region on the German side of the Ardennes managed to avoid detection by air reconnaissance or Allied intelligence.

By December Operation ‘Wacht am Rhein’ (‘Watch on the Rhine’) had Fifth and Sixth Panzer Armies prepared to lead the attack with Seventh Army ready to follow, holding the southern flank, and Fifteenth Army to come in from the north.  The Allies’ front line in the Ardennes was thinly held by the US 1^st Army with two inexperienced infantry divisions (V Corps’ 99^th and the 106^th) to the north and US 3^rd Army divisions to the south (the 4^th and 28^th), damaged and exhausted by the ferocious fighting in the Hürtgen Forest, south-east of Aachen in November.  The Panzer armies were to smash through these lines, heading west to cross the critical barrier of the River Meuse, aided by paratroopers capturing road junctions and commando sabotage operations.

 

 

At the beginning of December Dick had just returned to ‘the Island’ in the Netherlands, after his trip to Izegem.  While in Belgium he’d visited Audenarde / Oudenaarde - “the town I liberated on 6^th September” – and the Gervaert family he’d met there.  He spent a night in Malines where he saw the German flying-bombs for the first time.  On 1st December he wrote to Chotie, who “didn’t think much of the area” near Hull where she was now stationed with her anti-aircraft battery.  Brin, Dick’s brother, had left Belgium for infantry training on the Isle of Man and managed to visit the family home at Pagham in Sussex.

The Germans started to flood ‘the Island’ – Eric Brewer wrote in his diary for 1^st December that the water had risen two foot and many ‘Gerrys’ were trapped.  Operation Noah, the evacuation plan, was put into effect and B Squadron moved back to Mill, south of Nijmegen on 3^rd December.  The Regiment without 50^th Division was now ‘orphaned’ and held bits of the line for the 49^th (with 1^st Canadian Army) and 53^rd (Welsh) Infantry Division of XXX Corps.

Eric Brewer records that they moved to Ell (south-east of Eindhoven) on 5^th December.  Dick wrote to Chotie thrilled to have listened to the whole of Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio’ opera from Germany (presumably on one of the radios ‘liberated’ from Eindhoven during Operation Market Garden), completing the letter after another move to “the inevitable farmhouse”.  He could now describe the rhythm of life on ‘the Island’: “Our usual practice was to do a week or so ‘in the line’ and have a week back at the farm in reserve” where the three ‘B’ Squadron “Armoured Car Officers (Geoff Winzer, Eric ‘Schoolmaster’ Macey and I) used to share a room.”

Eric Brewer’s last diary entry, on 10^th December, records relieving the 53^rd Division on a forward outpost ‘overlooking the Maas’.  Eric Postles writes that they were on a canal near Venlo (on the Dutch/German border east of Eindhoven) and “all through the day and night the Germans fired rifle grenades”.  This may have been where Eric Brewer was injured, with phosphorous burns to his hands and arms.  Although his ambulance crashed with a lorry en route to the hospital he escaped further injury and after a cheerful Christmas in the 105 British General Hospital appears to have made a full recovery, although he never returned to the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment.

 

Soon after this the Regiment was sent to Iseghem / Izegem to disband.  The men “handed in all our fighting vehicles, ammunition and petrol to various dumps.  All wireless sets were removed from their vehicles and the Quartermaster had all stores in a barn for checking” (Colonel Brownrigg).  Although the Regiment still had an H.Q. and cook-house, the men were billeted with the people of the town and at liberty to do what they pleased.  Tony Rampling and his driver stayed in a bakery and met a girl called Georgette: “the first love of my life”.  Eric Postles was with a family of shoemakers, the Deschermakers, and he gave them one of the Phillips radio sets purloined in Holland.  Dick, having arranged the billets, “naturally picked himself a first-class place” with a “very fine collection of records”.  He wrote to Chotie that they were “having a real holiday while we may – and the old beer certainly flows here.”   Chotie also had news – her sister Margaret now had a baby boy, Roger Lewis.

 

The German attack on the Ardennes began at 5.30 am on the 16^th December when 1,900 artillery guns suddenly opened fire.  That first day the Panzer Armies successfully breached the American lines on a 70 mile front.  It was a complete surprise – panic and confusion also arose from the landing of paratroopers behind the lines (although mainly far from their targets due to strong winds and poor visibility) and Skorzeny's commandos speaking American- English, wearing American uniforms and driving captured American vehicles.

On 17^th December Eisenhower sent in the US 82^nd and 101^st Airborne Divisions, who were “recuperating from their extended combat role in the waterlogged foxholes of Holland” (Beevor in ‘Ardennes 1944’), where they’d worked with 61^st Recce.  Planes were grounded by the weather so the Airborne travelled from Reims (north-east France) in open trucks, many without winter clothing. The recuperation of 61^st Reconnaissance continued and Dick was involved in an unfortunate traffic accident in Izegem, knocking a lady off her bike who suffered three broken ribs.

 

 

Battle was raging in the on the Belgian/German border in the Ardennes around the Schnee Eiffel and the town of St Vith.  To the north a German battle group from 6^th Panzer Army rapidly penetrated westward and reached Malmédy.  There, at the Baugnez crossroads SS Panzergrenadiers shot and killed 84 American prisoners.  (A few escaped and, reporting the outrage - the massacre was widely publicised among US troops, leading to the revenge killing of many SS Prisoners of War.)  This spearhead was successfully stalled by US Engineers destroying all the bridges on the route west. Further south the Germans surrounded and recaptured the ancient town of Clervaux.  5^th Panzer Army were advancing towards the critical town of Bastogne although the 28^th Armored Division managed to defend Wiltz (east of Bastogne) until the morning of 20^th December.

 

Montgomery, in charge of 21^st Army Group (1^st Canadian and 2^nd British Armies) at the north end of the western front, sent his staff officers to find out what was going on at US 1^st Army HQ in Spa.  Finding it in disarray he sent Phantom and SAS (Special Air Service) reconnaissance teams to the Ardennes so he would know what was going on.  At 5.30 pm on 19^th December he ordered XXX Corps to secure the Meuse crossings.  11^th Armoured Division’s 29^th Armoured Brigade, waiting for new Comet tanks, was ordered to take back their old Shermans and head south.  “The 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment in Bruges ‘bombed up, tanked up, loaded up and drove into the night’"(Beevor in ‘Ardennes 1944').  They were to work with 29^th Armoured defending the Meuse from Namur to Givet, a front of over 50 kilometres.

According to Sandy Handley it took 61^st Recce 24 Hours to reach Namur – the convoy was forced to stop and start, particularly in Brussels where Tony Rampling remembers “we couldn’t get through for all the girls surrounding us”.

 

On 20^th December Eisenhower officially handed Montgomery command of all Allied forces north of the German advance including the US 1^st and 9^th Armies.  Lt-General Bradley, the American chief of US 12^th Army Group was based south of the Ardennes, in Luxembourg, with poor communication from his forces facing the impact of the German advance in the north.  Monty’s command extended to a line between Givet, on the Meuse, and Prüm in Germany.

By 21^st December Lt-General Brian Horrocks’ XXX Corps had completed their concentration along the line of the River Meuse.  Eisenhower’s aide, Bedell-Smith, was greatly relieved: “We knew Horrocks and knew he had good men.”  Don Aiken was involved in action as soon as they arrived at the Meuse – directed to contact US Engineers blowing the bridge over a small river his armoured car was shot at by a German tank.

The Germans captured St Vith, south of Malmédy, on 21^st December and the 101^st Airborne, having got through to Bastogne, were now surrounded.  Although progress had been slower than planned, and the 6^th Panzer Army spearhead was cut off by US 1^st Army re-taking Stavelot (south-west of Malmédy), elements of 5^th Panzer Army were steadily advancing west, delayed only by traffic jams and lack of fuel.  The Allied air-force was still grounded by poor visibility.  By 22^nd December 2^nd Panzer Division was only 25 kilometres from the Meuse bridge at Dinant.

 

On 23^rd December the skies cleared and the Allies began a co-ordinated campaign of bombing attacks against the German forces.  Supplies were dropped for the besieged defenders of Bastogne.  Air reconnaissance was now possible.  29^th Armoured Brigade had one armoured regiment and a company of infantry at each of the three Meuse bridges (Givet, Dinant and Namur) with a reconnaissance screen of 61st Recce Regiment in between.  A car full of Germans disguised as Americans tried to cross the bridge at Dinant but was blown-up.  Belgian refugees, fleeing westward, were blocked at the bridges so resorted to boats to cross the Meuse.

The heavily forested landscape gave cover to the Germans and made the Recce patrols “pretty nerve-racking…we thought at any moment the enemy would jump out and attack us” (Sandy Handley).  Once Sandy’s armoured car ran out of petrol shortly after attacking some Germans and re-fuelled from the jerry can just in time.

29^th Armoured was also working with the local Belgian resistance led by Baron Jacques de Villefagne, who lived in the château at Sorrinnes, east of Dinant.  Just to the south of Sorinnes lie the village of Foy-Notre-Dame and the small ancient town of Celles.  2^nd Panzer Division reached these on the night of 23^rd / 24^th December and on Christmas Eve made several attempts to penetrate towards the Meuse at Dinant, now less than 10 kilometres away.

 

61^st Recce was along and behind the German front in temperatures well below freezing with deep snow in the forests.  On Christmas Eve while Corporal Roy Howard was near Dinant, so close to the Germans he could hear them singing carols, Corporal Mulcahy (who earned the Military Medal in the Ardennes) went forward 10 miles east of Beauraing (10 km. east of Givet) to reach US Engineers with instructions for them to destroy a bridge and Dick’s troop shot three Germans (one had nearly killed Dick first).

Also on 24^th December the SS murdered 34 civilians in the village of Bande, near March-en-Famenne.  (The massacre was not discovered until 12^th January when troops for the 6^th Airborne Division liberated the village).

 

For Christmas 61^st Recce were issued with bottles of beer, which was frozen solid, and fat pork and potatoes, which they managed to boil over an earth fire doused with petrol (Sandy Handley).  Eric Postles remembers that for the first time they had self-heating cans of chocolate drink and soup.  He also describes how, they “moved forward to support attacks against the German spearhead.  The deep snow made foot patrols difficult and the Germans again fired airburst shells, which looked more sinister against the whiteness of the snow.  American troops were fleeing madly from the German advance and unfortunately early in the action an American lorry, being driven much too fast, hit our squadron leader’s jeep, which was parked off the road on a bend.  Major Harding was badly injured but he survived the war.  Our armoured cars were constantly patrolling between British forces and the US army, who bore the brunt of the action to squeeze the enemy back.”

29^th Armoured, with US VII Corps’ 2^nd Armored Division, successfully attacked the tip of the German salient at Foy-Notre-Dame and Celles on Christmas day.  Realising their offensive had failed von Rundstedt recommended withdrawal to Hitler, who instead insisted on more attacks against Bastogne.  However, General Patton had sent three divisions from his 3^rd US Army to relieve Bastogne from the south and, fighting their way through, they were now very close to the beleaguered town.  By nightfall on 26^th December 4^th Armored Division had broken through the siege and secured a narrow corridor for supplies.

 

29^th Armoured Brigade was ‘mopping up’ around Celles on Boxing Day and Dick’s troop shot another five Germans.  The remnants of 2^nd Panzer Division who escaped concentrated around Rochefort (15 kilometres east of the Meuse), which was held by the Panzer Lehr.

The next day the British 6^th Airborne Division replaced 29^th Armoured Brigade on the Givet-Namur sector.  They were assisted by Belgian paratroopers from the 5^th Special Air Service who now worked closely with 61^st Recce.  “These daredevils had jeeps with a machine gun mounted – not much protection or armour there” (Sandy Handley).

 

The weather had now closed in again so air reconnaissance was impossible but “the Allies needed to know how the Panzer Lehr and 2^nd Panzer were redeploying after their withdrawal from Rochefort.  The British 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment, as well as Belgian and French SAS forces, some 350 strong, was sent into the large area of forest and bog south of Rochefort and Marche-en-Famenne to find out” (Beevor, ‘Ardennes 1944’). “They encountered the enemy on the approach to St Hubert and on the line from Rochefort to Libin" (WW2 Talk Forum).

According to a Belgian SAS Intelligence Report 61^st Recce advanced towards St. Hubert (30 km. west of Bastogne) along a line of small villages: Halma, Chanly, Tellin and Bure.  These were at the southern edge of the 5^th Panzer Army salient, just north of the American lines.  They patrolled behind the German lines to bring back information on the location of enemy forces – Sergeant Hollingsworth (who was also awarded the Military Medal) was at Villers-sur-Lesse, west of Rochefort, on 27^th December and Lieutenant Laing located a German garrison HQ at Val-de-Poix, just west of St Hubert, on 28^th December.

British 6^th Airborne Division, while still defending the Meuse, established a defensive line east of the river.  The ground was too frozen to dig so they used explosives to blast holes – a technique made doubly dangerous by Teller mines the Germans had buried under the snow.  They were also tasked with carrying out offensive actions on a general access from Givet to St Hubert.  61^st Recce was involved in actions at Wavreille, Bure, Han, Mirwaut, Awenne, Champlon and Smuid (all around St Hubert or towards Rochefort).  Sergeant Hollingsworth saved an SAS patrol, tackling a tank and machine gun near Han-sur-Lesse and Dick’s room-mate Eric Macey and Corporal Mulcahy drew fire on their armoured cars to locate the enemy near Tellin.  Also on 29^th December Lt. Urban-Smith and Sergeant Moorehouse crossed the river at Lomme (south-west of St Hubert) on foot and in daylight, moving behind German forward outposts to bring back information on enemy defences. 

On 30th December the planned British attack towards Houffalize was halted by the strong German resistance.  Two men from 61^st Recce were killed in another traffic accident attributed to an American lorry fleeing from the Germans.  The Americans had, however, held firm on the shoulders of the German salient around Elsenborn Ridge to the north and along the River Sauer to the south and the resistance of the troops defending Bastogne is legendary.

 

Dick at last had a free day on the 30^th and wrote to Chotie:

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

 

Writing again the next day he revealed he was in a little village (the photos say Honnay, which is between Beauraing and Wellin), sharing a room in a café with Eric Macey – Geoff Winzer, his other room-mate had been “rather badly wounded” on the 30^th and was now “miles back... in dock for at least six to eight weeks”.  “The people are very good to us here” – after a huge lunch they had photos taken with them in the snow outside, before preparing for their delayed Christmas dinner.

 

 

Lieutenants Eric Macey and Richard Williams of 61st Reconnaissance Regiment in Honnay during the Battle of the Ardennes with girls (left to right) Esther, Lucienne and Victorine. 31st December 1944.

 

Fighting continued not far away – the Germans had launched a heavy but ultimately unsuccessful attack on Bastogne on the 30^th December.  Just before midnight on the 31^st Hitler began another surprise offensive, Operation Nordwind; this time towards Strasbourg and the Alsace-Lorraine against the now over-stretched US 7^th Army, south of the Ardennes....

75 years ago - 'The Island'

October 1944 began with 50^th Division battling German attacks on ‘the Island’ – the front-line between the river Waal (with the critical Nijmegan bridge) and the Lower Rhine either side of Arnhem where the Germans held sway after defeating the British in Operation Market Garden.  Most of 61^st Reconnaissance was still on the right flank of the ‘Garden’ corridor between Uden and Grave, at Mill, where for the first time they could look into Germany.  ‘A’ Squadron and some of ‘B’ Squadron had been split from the rest of the Regiment by attacks on the corridor and were already on ‘the Island’, under command of 69^th Brigade (the Green Howards and the East Yorks) who had received the brunt of the German offensive.  Orders were received on 1^st October for those at Mill to move to Nijmegan and Eric Brewer moved that night.

‘A’ Squadron returned to regimental control on the 2^nd October while the British and Americans (101^st Airborne) went into attack - 50^th Division’s 151^st Brigade (Durham Light Infantry)  around Haalderen and 231^st Brigade (Devons, Hampshires and Dorsets) from Bemmel, both east of Elst.

On Tuesday October 3^rd Eric Brewer (and presumably the rest of ‘B’ Squadron’s Assault Troop) were relieved and Eric was able to have a bath – the first since Bayeux!  The next day the rest of the Regiment crossed the Waal onto ‘the Island’ in Divisional reserve near Elst, although ‘A’ Squadron were given a sector to hold for the 151^st Brigade.  On Friday 6th the Regiment moved back into harbour across the Waal south of Nijmegan to carry out maintenance etc. before returning to ‘the Island’ on the 8th, although Eric Brewer continued fighting with the 101^st US Airborne at Arnhem.  The Assault troop was particularly in demand because vehicle movements were almost impossible off-road on the wet boggy ground while the roads were targeted by German bombs and artillery.  Worst was “crossing the long Nijmegen bridge because of the shelling.  You just put your foot down and got over as quickly as you could” (Eric Postles).                                               

Dick had “spent three days with a very nice family” at Nijmegan- he was harboured in an orchard but offered a room and a bed.  ‘B’ and ‘C’ Squadrons were now in forward positions on ‘the Island’, with HQ base west of Elst at Herveld – Dick sent a Field Service Postcard on the 8^th just to let Chotie know he was well.  However, the next day he found himself working as Liaison Officer with an American Colonel (presumably from 101^st Airborne) and, at last, had time to reply to Chotie. She was bemoaning leaving the comfortable farm near Cheltenham to move back to Bristol with her Ack-Ack unit and considering volunteering for work overseas.  (In September 1944 the British Army Act, which meant women serving abroad had the status of ‘camp followers’, was revoked - women in the ATS were asked to volunteer for service abroad to fill the growing need in western Europe.) Dick advised her not to:  “you’ll probably go to Egypt or somewhere and never get demobbed”.

Holding the line in the Netherlands was dangerous work. ‘C’ Squadron patrols investigating barge movements on the Waal on the 9^th were wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans.  Corporal Roy Whitehouse died that day and Trooper Maurice Raine the next day as a prisoner of war near Amsterdam - 61^st Recce lost many other men that autumn and the 101st  US Airborne had more casualties on ‘the Island’ than in the Market Garden airborne landings. 

‘A’ Squadron relieved ‘C’ at Hien (west of Herveld) on the 11^th, finding and capturing an enemy outpost the next day. Eric Brewer was at Wamel (further west on the Waal) until the 16^th, where he alternated between the Forward Outpost, directing artillery fire on the Germans, and tea at the house of a friendly girl called Annie. 

On 13^th October ‘B’ Squadron were relieved by 52nd Recce and the Regimental HQ crossed the Waal and moved to Appeltern on the Maas river (south of Wamel).  61^st Recce now held the area west of Nijmegen between the Waal and the Maas.  On 16^th ‘B’ Squadron’ position was under attack from a self-propelled gun and approaching enemy, crawling along the road and digging tunnels to avoid detection.  Lieutenant Albert Stone was wounded.

The next day the Regiment moved back onto ‘the Island’ and were based at Driel, south-west of Arnhem on the south bank of the Lower Rhine.  Here they were really under the eyes of the Germans – all movements had to be carried out after dark leaving only skeleton crews in the forward outposts (slit trenches where everyone spent the night) by day while the others sheltered in nearby houses.  Eric Brewer was at last in reserve with the Regimental HQ at Lienden.  Dick also appears to have been there too but in very gloomy mood:

 

Letter written on Wednesday 18th October 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

BLA.

Wednesday October 18^th

Chotie Darling,

                                    Nothing much to write about I’m afraid, but here goes in reply to yours of the 12^th.

            Weather has been very variable of late, but after a bad start this morning things have cleared up no end, and this afternoon it’s sunny – in fact, autumn at its best.

            Was very pleased to read that you were on leave again and that Mary* was home at the same time.  I expect you had plenty to talk about….

            I had some rather bad news yesterday.  My old friend “Chunky**” was killed in the Falaise Gap, some time ago though I’ve only just heard.  It’s very sad for his wife (whom I met once in London) as they’d only been married some 18 months or so, and Chunky of course, has spent all that time in the Army.  They had a baby son David, who was about a year old.  I’m the only one of the trio left, so it’s my turn next.

            Just received a letter from Brinner.  He’s still at Base but it appears he may have to go into the Infantry – which won’t do my nerves any good, as the Officer Casualty rate with them is appalling.

            Reference ‘demobbing’*** I make the 32 group and Brinner the 42 group so we both beat you – Yah!

            Haven’t shot any Germans lately or anything else of interest.  We’ve been working all the time but haven’t had many encounters.

            The NAAFI van**** has just turned up – for the first time since Normandy and even now, they’ve got no tobacco.  Apart from what Brinner can get at his RHU, I get nothing at all.  Makes me mad to think of it, especially when people in England imagine that the fighting soldier gets everything he needs.  We’re always hearing talk of “Officer Shops” but in four months over here I haven’t been able to buy a collar stud even!

            Must close here, Precious to do some work on the car.

                                    All my love, Darling

                                                Dicker.

*Mary DakinMary Dakin, Chotie’s best friend at home.

**Chunky, the 5 ft 2” tall ex chef of the Trocadero in London, shared a room with Dick and Brian ’the Ham’ when they were training to be officers in summer 1943

***Ernest Bevin's plan for demobilisation was published on 22nd September 1944 - release was based on your age and service number.

****Reg Harper describes “the occasional appearance of ‘Towrope’ Joe Meredith with the NAAFI truck …his opening gambit puffing smoke from his pipe – ‘Sorry Corporal, no pipe tobacco.  Stuff it with Woodbines; we have plenty of bootlaces, blanco, brasso, etc!’  So I settled for toothpaste.”  (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 

 

 

 

 Postcard written Wednesday 18th October 1944 from 'the Island'

 

US troops reported that an enemy patrol managed to cross the river on the night of the 19^th October but they were located by ‘A’ squadron and heavily ‘stonked’ by the artillery. 

Dick and ‘B’ squadron continued in reserve so he bombarded Chotie with a daily letter and the slightly cheesy postcards he’d been given.  On the 20th he was installed in “an amazingly clean house...you change from outdoor shoes to slippers every time you go in the house!”  Their fastidiousness seems highly practical - on the 21st he wrote “The ground here is deadly with mud.  I’ve got five pairs of boots out here (a wise precaution - taken in England) and I wear them in rotation.  By the time I’ve got through them all the first pair are dry again…"

Eric Brewer was back on the frontline beside the Rhine from the night of the 20^th “with Gerry throwing grenades over our positions and plenty of Spandau fire”.  On 22^nd a small patrol of about 10 Germans came up behind their outpost: “I shouted ‘Halt. Who goes there?’ when they were 25 yards away and they were 10 yards away when they stopped – I wasn’t half scared” before “our Bren gun and grenades soon got rid of them.”

Eric Postles had a lucky escape when the squadron were at Arnhem; having called down artillery fire on some Germans, who had got through the embankment to their positions, the last shell fired was so close it blew him over and stunned him. “I found a hole in my greatcoat where a piece of shrapnel had passed through.  Luckily it hit the compass in my trouser pocket putting it out of action but leaving me with no more than a few bruises.”

Dick wrote again on the 22nd sounding rather bored after three days of rest with no other officers around, but was busy again from that night when ‘B’ Squadron were sent to the front-line and he went “up to Squadron HQ tonight to take over duties of 2^nd in command”.  Sandy Handley recalls looking out for “any Airborne chaps who’d managed to get away from the Germans.”  100 of the British Airborne who’d evaded capture were rescued near Renkum (6km west of Driel) on the night of 22^nd/23^rd October.

61^st Recce war diary (only October and November 1944 are available) reports a German deserter surrendering to them while Reg Harper recalls one quiet prisoner who turned out to be an American deserter.  Thirty abandoned vehicles were recovered while the Regiment was at Driel, cited in Captain Joe ‘Tow-rope’ Meredith’s MBE and Lt. Laing’s Military Cross.  Front-line positions were mortared, shelled or machine gunned during the day and enemy patrols tried to get past the outposts at night.  By the 25^th there were “plenty of Gerry dead” around Eric Brewer’s outpost.

In another letter on 26th October Dick describes his work as 2^nd in Command as “nothing very thrilling – just a lot of painstaking work.  It falls to my lot to issue all rations, clothing, rum, etc and entertain visiting Colonels…”  His father was trying to sell their “old London town-house”, Clevedon Lodge, (which had been damaged by flying-bombs) for £1,500.  Dick’s brother was “still at the Regimental Holding Unit… whether Brinner will ever fire a shot in anger seems a moot point”.  Although Dick also wrote “people seem to think the war’s all over…the biggest and most bitter battles are yet to come”.  He was still advising Chotie not to volunteer for work abroad. 

On 27th October the Durham Light Infantry attacked the German front-line through the ‘B’ Squadron position and found it very thinly held: “all active patrolling is being carried out by SS troops…47 Fortress Battalion has shown none of the aggressive qualities, which are apparent in the patrols”.  Orders were received for 61st Reconnaissance to be relieved by elements of the 101st US Airborne, although ‘A’ Squadron was to stay on ‘the Island’ at Zetten (west of Elst) - one of the most unpleasant sectors on the 2nd Army front.  (Troopers in Observation Posts sometimes stood in foxholes in two feet of flood water, with constant shelling.)

The next day Dick’s ‘B’ Squadron and the rest of 61^st Recce moved back across the Waal to the Winssen area, west of Nijmegan.  Dick had “flu or something” but “as I was 2^nd in command I couldn’t go sick.”  He was much better on the 30th when he wrote to Chotie from “a lovely old farmhouse” “rambling, thatched and whitewashed”, with a date ‘1660’ in wrought-iron metal figures.  The daughter of the house had got married that morning “so needless to say everything is pandemonium – even worse than the morbid business of getting married in England”.

Eric Brewer had at last been released on leave and arrived in Antwerp on Monday 30^th.  He had a wonderful time staying in a hotel, enjoying “perfect” meals, dance halls and ice cream and marvelling at the ‘legal’ black market with its eye-watering prices.  He wrote in a letter home “the working classes are very badly off…nearly all of them are undernourished and in many cases starving.  You can thank God that we have a government who stops the black market and that stuff is rationed fairly – else these rich people would grab the lot.”  He would soon be returning to face another month on ‘the Island’.

75 years ago - Belgium and Market Garden

At the beginning of September 1944 Dick and his 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment had at last broken out of the Normandy bridgehead and crossed the Seine at Vernon.  Now they were leading the British 2^nd Army across France on the left flank of XXX (30) Corps.  On 1^st September ‘B’ Squadron paused near Amiens on the infamous River Somme (scene of a devastating battle in WW1).  Near here they encountered a Guardsman, dressed as a civilian, who had hidden out in France since 1940 and had “valuable information” so he was rushed to Regimental headquarters.  The many prisoners they were collecting – Eric Brewer mentions more than 200 on 1^st September - were more of a problem.  On 2^nd September Eric Postles’ troop commander, Lieutenant Soul, was badly injured and two of his troop killed when a prisoner ignited anti-tank mines in their carrier.  Lieutenant Laing, a Scotsman, handed over some 40 prisoners to the local French to “hang on to” overnight and, misunderstanding his accent, they unfortunately hung them all!

    Heading into northern France via Cambrai and Arras (between Lille and Amiens) the Recce ran out of large scale maps, which showed the small roads they were travelling on, and the Germans had smashed up the signposts.  Nevertheless, by the night of 2^nd/3^rd September ‘B’ Squadron of 61^st Reconnaissance were the first British troops to cross the frontier into Belgium, “despite continuous enemy resistance”.   Don Aiken recalls mines across the roads, or sods strewn to simulate mines, and a trip wire loaded with a rocket grenade while Anthony Rampling exchanged fire with crack SS snipers.  Eric Brewer’s unit took on a German convoy in flight in Belgium, knocking out six vehicles before they were ordered to move on.  

    ‘A’ Squadron were held up in the village of Houplin near Lille where their action was recognised with a Military Medal for Trooper John Traynor and Sergeant Smeaton’s and Lt Griffiths’ Croix de Guerres.

 

The Guards Armoured Division (including Chotie’s brother-in-law, Ted Lewis) now took over the spearhead, liberating Brussels, the capital of Belgium on 3^rd September.  The port of Antwerp was taken undamaged by the 11^th Armoured Division the next day but was still unusable until November while the Germans held the Scheldt Estuary approaches.

    As the advance slowed to catch up with supplies, 61^st Reconnaissance held the line along 35 miles of the Escaut Canal from Ghent/Gent to Oudenaarde/Audenarde.  Dick wrote to Chotie on 5th September from Oudenaarde:

        “It’s impossible to describe the last 10 days – it’s simply been a case of flowers all the way.

I got the job to guard two bridges in the middle of a large town – and we were the first Allies in the town!  The welcome we had was amazing…we were already covered with flowers; we were soon to be covered with fruit and wine.

            …They’ve been living very badly for four years but they had hidden wine and food for us, as they knew we’d arrive eventually.

            …Had a very happy time ‘on guard’ with scores of civilians around to ask the usual barrage of questions.  My French is improving immensely.”

    Eric Postles had a less pleasant experience while guarding the bridge at Eine, just north of Oudenaarde.  They were on the far side when vehicles approached at dawn and a German officer strode to the centre of the bridge.  Eric’s new troop commander, Sergeant Atkins, took out the front vehicles with and anti-tank gun – when they eventually found the firing mechanism.  They’d removed it to let the village children climb over the gun while celebrating their liberation the previous day!  The battle, involving several hundred German troops, raged for a couple of days before the enemy surrendered.  Sergeant Atkins was awarded the Military Medal.

    Meanwhile on 6^th and 7^th September Eric Brewer had shifted to just outside Brussels and managed to make a couple of visits to the capital where “the civvies” gave them “as much as we wanted of everything”.  Dick wrote to Chotie on the 8th, mainly about the good time he’d had in Oudenaarde and the generosity and friendship of the liberated Belgians.  As the only fluent French speaker among the officers he’d “had the job of entertaining the daughter” at a party in a country house the previous evening.  Fortunately they appreciated the same French literature.

 

Also on 8^th September 61^st Reconnaissance moved with 50^th Division to the Albert Canal near Gheel/Geel.  Their HQ and ‘C’ Squadron were surrounded when supporting the Durham Light Infantry on a bridgehead across the Canal.  The Germans retreated but Eric Brewer writes that they put in 14 counter-attacks that day and the SS captured two carriers and their crews.  C squadron’s Sergeant-Major Page earned his Distinguished Conduct Medal at Geel and Lieutenant Joseph Pilsbury his Military Cross.  On 9^th September Eric Brewer’s ‘B’ Squadron Assault Troop had turned back German reconnaissance patrols and “Gerry mortar and shells” were “still coming over, also a few bombs dropped in the night.  Plenty of refugees coming into our lines from the Gerry side”.  Dick received ‘a little bit of gold’ – the oak leaf from a ‘mention in despatches’ - at about this time for “lying among the German dead to gain information” (Chotie’s Story).

Dick's citation for a 'Mention in Despatches'

    Reuters reported that “some of the most bloody battles of the whole campaign” were being fought along the Albert Canal.  On 11^th September 61^st Recce were still on the canal south of Herenthals (between Geel and Antwerp).  The Durham Light Infantry had reached the centre of Geel with Sherwood Ranger tanks on 10^th September but the Germans counter-attacked and re-possessed the town by the 12^th, when 50^th Division was withdrawn and replaced by the Scottish 15^th Division.  Geel was finally liberated on 13^th September.

 

61^st Reconnaissance “shifted to harbour” near Bourg Leopold/Leopoldsburg, a former Belgian Army training centre.  Here Eric Postles remembers they found a food depot: “At times both the Germans and ourselves were getting food from it.”

    Dick wrote to Chotie on the 12th with no mention of the Albert Canal engagements – instead he’d had it “very cushy for the past few days” staying “in the grounds of a very old and famous château” where he enjoyed dinners with the Baroness and her sister – a Countess who had sheltered British pilots after they’d crashed in France.  He certainly knew what Chotie would want to hear!

    While ‘in harbour’ they managed to get into some towns “instead of the old perpetual fields and orchards”.  He was also very pleased with the cafés, which were like pubs but had barbers inside “so that you can have a pint while waiting your turn”.

    Eric Brewer was back on the front-line again on 15^th September, carrying out reconnaissance across another canal to find the German positions.  Their observations directed an artillery barrage on 17^th September enabling the Royal Engineers to build a bridge across the canal for infantry.  Eric wrote in his diary: “big push coming and going to push on to the Zuider Zee” (a large shallow bay east of Amsterdam).  This was the beginning of Operation Market Garden.

 

On 17^th September 1944, after an intense bombing of German airfields and anti-aircraft defences, Allied airborne divisions began to land in the Netherlands.  The plan was for the Airborne to seize critical bridges on the rivers and canals in the south of the country, enabling the rapid advance of British ground troops on a narrow front to crack open the German line and a route to Berlin north of the well-defended Ruhr industrial area.  The Germans still held the Channel ports or they were, like Antwerp, unusable and the Allies’ supply lines could no longer support the advance on a broad front. 

            ‘Market’ was the code-name for the Airborne landings:  the US 101st Airborne landed near to the Belgium border around Eindhoven, the US 82^nd Airborne near Nijmegen and Grave and the unfortunate British 1^st Airborne Division landed by the Lower Rhine near Arnhem.  Within an hour some 20,000 combat troops and about 500 vehicles had been safely landed, although not all in the correct drop zones.  The Germans managed to destroy the bridge over the Wilhemina canal at Son, north of Eindhoven, and the Arnhem railway bridge.  However, by the end of the day Colonel John Frost's 2nd Parachute Battalion and some of Major Freddie Gough’s 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron (which Dick had joined in spring 1942) held the north end of the Arnhem road bridge.

    ‘Garden’, the ground forces advance, was the task of XXX Corps, spearheaded by the Guards Armoured Division.  43rd Wessex Division was behind the Guards, then 50^th Division, which had spent three days re-organising at Paal, south-west of Burg Leopold.  Breaking through the defences of the Dutch border the three XXX Corps Divisions had all reached Valkenswaard, south of Eindhoven by the evening of the 17^th.  ‘A’ squadron led 61^st Recce’s advance on the left flank of XXX Corps and were involved in finding routes from Valkenswaard for the tanks which, forced along a single narrow road, were vulnerable to attacks exacerbated by traffic jams and supply problems.

    Dick’s letter of letter of 18th and 19th September gives nothing away about his involvement in the advance, with a brief mention of “this latest Airborne effort”.  However, he’s “met a lot of Ted’s crowd” (the Guards) and is “getting eggs & tomatoes (hundreds of them) instead of the endless run of sausage-meat” – the latter a Belgian speciality while tomatoes are typical of the Netherlands market gardening produce.  Eindhoven was liberated on the 18^th September but the Guards had to wait while a Bailey Bridge was constructed at Son.  Making the crossing the next day they linked up with the 82^nd US Airborne at Grave and added their strength to the assaults on the Nijmegen road bridge.  This was at last taken on the evening of the 20^th – the Guards crossed the Waal and halted for the night 8 miles from Arnhem.  61^st Recce’s ‘A’ Squadron and some of ‘B’ Squadron, including Don Aiken, also crossed the Waal on the 20^th.

            A dwindling force of British 1^st Airborne still held the Arnhem road bridge and the commander of 1^st Airborne, Major-General Urquehart, had gathered the remains of the Division at Oosterbeek, west of Arnhem and next to the river.  On the 21^st September the Arnhem bridge was eventually taken by the Germans who streamed across to set up defences blocking the Guards between Arnhem and Nijmegen at Elst.

    German forces were also continually attacking the ‘Garden’ corridor laid down by XXX Corps, succeeding in breaking through on several occasions and splitting 61^st Reconnaissance in two.  Sandy Handley of Dick’s troop wrote “Our part of the convoy was cut off, held up by enemy tanks”.  ‘C’ Squadron stayed with 101^st Airborne and 52^nd Recce (Dick’s future unit) defending the corridor.  Eric Brewer only crossed the border into Holland on 21^st September.  Tony Rampling remembers going up ‘Hell’s Highway’, the nickname given to the corridor “Gerry picked the bridges out to shell so you had to cross very fast”.  They reached the air-landing zones, which were “littered with smashed up gliders, parachutes everywhere”.  Everyone took bits of parachute silk to put round their necks: “wearing this coarse uniform, it was some comfort to have a silk scarf”. 

    Dick wrote to Chotie on the 21^st from “a well-to-do surgeon’s town-house” saying “there’s only 50% officers with us now – which makes life much duller”.  He doesn’t appear to have crossed the bridge at Nijmegen yet.

            Beyond Nijmegen the Polish Parachute Brigade had dropped at Driel, just south of the Rhine opposite Oosterbeek, on 21^st September.  The next day 43^rd Recce linked up with them and 35 Poles managed to cross the river joining Urquehart’s troops.  German attacks on the Oosterbeek bridgehead were thwarted by the guns of XXX Corps with air support from the RAF and 200 more Poles crossed on the 23^rd.

    On the 22^nd September the XXX Corps lifeline had been severed at Uden (south-west of Grave) and on the 23^rd the line was cut at Sint Oedenrode (between Uden and Eindhoven).  Eric Brewer was “firing shells at where Gerry broke through” and on the 24^th he “shifted to the flank – plenty of mortar fire, shelling and spandos” (German machine guns).  Major Alexander, commander of 61^st Recce’s HQ Squadron, was killed near Uden that day.

    Meanwhile most of 50^th Division had crossed Nijmegen bridge and were engaged in the Battle of Elst.  On 23^rd they were tasked with capturing the village of Bemmel, to the east, and had succeeded by the 25^th.  Elst was liberated the same day.

            Eric Postles and Don Aiken were on the south bank of the Rhine, west of Arnhem with 43^rd Recce on the 24^th September.  315 of the 43rd Division’s Dorset infantry (Dick joined up with the Dorsets) crossed the Rhine from here to safeguard the planned evacuation of the remaining 1^st Airborne from Oosterbeek – 200 were captured but they succeeded in delivering the plans for the evacuation to Urquehart.  That night 2,000 men were successfully evacuated including 160 of the Polish paratroopers and 75 of the Dorset infantry.  Eric Postles recalls “When it became clear that the Arnhem Bridge was beyond 30 Corps' reach our squadron was moved to join 43 Division infantry where we protected their right flank as they advanced to the Waal, crossed it and helped the Airborne survivors back from the Osterbeek area.  The crossing place was just downstream from Driel and the attack took place at night using moonlight (searchlights on cloud) and Bofar gun tracer to mark the boundaries.  43 Division crossed the river and surviving Airborne troops were brought back but the cost in lives of the 43 Division infantry was heavy.” 

 

Dick Williams, our protagonist, had links to almost all the key forces in Market Garden, including his former units – 1^st Airlanding Reconnaissance, 43^rd Recce and the Dorsets, his future regiment - 52^nd Recce, the US Airborne, who he was to fight beside in Holland and the Ardennes, and his brother-in-law in the Guards.

On 25^th September the top commanders in Market Garden – Montgomery, Eisenhower and Browning (Chief of the British Airborne) stopped beside Eric Brewer to give out cigarettes, ask about their food and did they have any complaints?  The bold plan for a rapid thrust into Germany from the Netherlands was dead and had cost 15,000 Allied lives.

There is a verse in the poem ‘Destination Berlin’ (written by the commander of 61^st Recce’s ‘B’ Squadron, Major Frank Harding):

“Monty stood up in his car

Having espied from afar

Chutes in trees and gliders wrecked

Arnhem: he gave cigarettes.”

    

    Dick wrote to Chotie on the 25th September finally admitting that “we’ve been on the move all the time with practically no rest and plenty of work to be done.”  Everyone must have been writing letters since he had about a hundred to censure.

 

On 26^th September Eric Brewer was on a hill next to a canal looking into Germany.  He hoped “to be in there soon as the plan to go to the Zuider Zee has changed because the bridges across the Rhine are blown so we are pushing west into Germany.” (Actually, he was to be in the Netherlands for quite a while.)  He’d found some film and borrowed a camera so there are a few photos from around this time:

Eric Brewer is in the centre in the half-track

 

Dick wrote to Chotie again on 27^th September:

61^st Recce Regt RAC, BLA

Wednesday Sept 27^th

Chotie Darling,

                                    I posted a letter to you yesterday, but as I have a free day today I thought I’d start another, anyhow.

            I’m in a farmhouse writing this, a big rambling place with massive oak-beamed rooms – quite pleasant.  There is also the most wonderful baby you ever saw who belongs to the farmer’s wife.  In keeping with the place she’s a massive woman herself, who’s reared hundreds of children – and looks like rearing hundreds more.

            It’s raining steadily at the moment, which makes it a double pleasure to be indoors – as farmyards are always so depressing in rain.

            My friend Winsor* (‘The Duke’) has now returned, after an absence of some six or seven weeks, which makes life so much more bearable.  He started off in true form last night by taking about 2 quid from me at pontoon….

            I’ve been having a look at this demob. racket.  It appears that I don’t come off too badly.  Brinner of course is worse off, as he’s younger and has less service, so he’ll probably end up in Burma after all.  How do you come off?  I suppose I’ll have to marry you in the end, if only to get you out of the army….What a price to pay!

            I’ve written a letter to Madelaine** to thank her for the books and general kindness shown at Oudenaarde.  It was written in French with the aid of a Dictionary (my written French is pretty poor stuff), and I was quite pleased with the result, though I expect it will provoke some laughter in the family.

            Have just received your letter of the 22^nd, which I’m tacking on to this one.  It’s rather a long time in the post these days isn’t it?  Though I suppose it takes longer by having to go to your home address first.

            Very pleased to hear that you saw the Queen and Princess – bet you were thrilled.

            Congratulations on passing the course at all*** – I suppose you’ll be chucking me about when I get home again….

            It’s lovely and bright this morning – really September – though I think the Autumn will be a little tardy this year, in these parts at any rate.  It should be rather beautiful when it does come, as nearly all the roads are lined with trees.

            Mother had a letter from Monica**** recently telling her that her husband has returned to England from France with gastric trouble and ‘shellshock’ (now called ‘mental neurosis’ I believe, which is a kinder name), so I suppose he’s out of it for good.  I’d better write her, I suppose as she sent me a card on my last birthday.  Mother said she was after my address – a bad sign.

            I must close here, Darling as there’s plenty of work to be done, this sunny morn.

                        All my love, Chotie Darling

                                                                                    Dicker

*Geoff Winsor or Winzer or maybe even Windsor!

**Madelaine Gervaert

***Chotie was now a qualified PT Instructor and back at Dean's Farm, Hunt Court, Cheltenham where her Ack-Ack unit was stationed.

****Dick’s ex-girlfriend.

© Chotie Darling

 

50^th Division, with 61^st Reconnaissance, were now tasked with guarding the bridge and bridgehead north of Nijmegen, an area between the Rhine and Waal rivers known as ‘the Island’ – the new front-line.  On 30^th September a German infantry Division and seventy tanks attacked the section held by 69^th Brigade (the East Yorks and the Green Howards). The battle for ‘the Island’ had begun.

 

75 years ago - D Day

This post is in memory of the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment

 and their sacrifice 75 years ago on 6^th June 1944

For nearly a year the Allies had been planning in detail and in secret the invasion of France.  Secrecy was vital to maintain the element of surprise, keeping Hitler’s defences strung along the whole of northern France and the Low Countries.  The Germans knew an invasion was coming from the build-up of radio traffic and ships but poor air reconnaissance meant that the dummy army in Kent and Sussex left them expecting an attack in the Pas de Calais, nearest to Belgium, even when Allied troops and tanks had landed in Normandy.

Eisenhower’s ‘bravest act of the war’ (according to General Miles Dempsey, the Commander of 2^nd British Army) was to send the invasion force across the Channel on the night of 5^th June.  Bad weather made a postponement of the original D-Day from 5^th June inevitable.  On 4^th June the Supreme Allied Commander received a fresh forecast that the weather might ease overnight and decided that Tuesday 6^th June would be D-Day.  The Germans, who had much less accurate meteorological reports, thought landings would be impossible between the 5^th and 7^th June; Rommel, now in charge of ‘The Western Wall’ defences, returned to Germany for his wife’s birthday and the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) even cancelled their shore patrols of the Channel.

Meanwhile in Operation Neptune almost 7,000 ships, led by the minesweepers, had set sail from ports all along the south coast of England, coalescing in a ‘spout’ between the Isle of Wight and Normandy.  From midnight thousands of paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines to seize critical bridges and guard the invaders’ routes inland.  A coded BBC message had alerted the French Resistance.  While the Navy policed the Channel either side of the spout the RAF and US Army Air Force had bombed road and rail infrastructure over much of northern France to interfere with German troop and tank movements and keep them guessing where the landings would occur.  Now, just before dawn, the Naval bombardment of the beach defences began and the Germans on the coast (units of 7^th Army west of the River Orne and 15^th Army to the east) beheld the largest invasion force in military history.

On ‘Utah’ beach, on the east side of the Cherbourg peninsula, the 4^th Infantry Division of US VII Corps landed with far fewer casualties than expected and began to move inland to relieve the paratroopers of the US 82^nd and 101^st Airborne.  To the east the defences around Vierville and St. Laurent somehow escaped the naval and air bombardments and the legendary ‘bloodbath’ of ‘Omaha’ beach began.  The 1^st and 29^th Infantry Divisions of US V Corps lost more than 2,000 and the American Rangers, who were to take the cliffs of Pointe de Hoc were decimated.  Survivors reaching the beach from their landing craft amid heavy fire found their way to the shelter of sandy bluffs or sea walls and eventually moved inland, the Rangers scaling 100 foot cliffs.

North-west of Caen on ‘Sword’, the easternmost of the beaches, the landing of British 3^rd Division was a ‘remarkable success’ but ‘they were slow pushing forward’ and, encountering 21^st Panzer later in the day, they failed to seize Caen.  The city, soon heavily defended, was not to fall to the Allies until several weeks later.

British 6^th Airborne Division had landed on their flank securing the critical connecting bridge over the Orne (now named ‘Pegasus’ in their honour) and blowing bridges on the River Dives to foil German attacks from the east.

The Canadian 3^rd Division, landing on ‘Juno’ beach, faced heavily fortified seaside villages and defences networked by tunnels but their follow-up units were able to move inland quickly through the fierce fighting of the first waves.   41 and 48 Commando, landing at the facing edges of ‘Sword’ and ‘Juno’ succeeded in connecting the beaches despite a determined advance by 21^st Panzer between the bridgeheads.

 

From 60th Anniversary - The D-Day Landings Northern France.

Our friends in 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment were destined to land on ‘Gold’ beach, between the Canadians on ‘Juno’ and the Americans on ‘Omaha’.  Eric Postles, Sandy Handley and Don Aiken boarded Tank Landing Ships (LSTs) with their vehicles at Southampton docks on 1^st June and spent the next three days in the Solent, north of the Isle of Wight.  On Sunday 4^th June they received final briefings on their landing beaches and targets inland and found out their destination was Normandy.  Eric Brewer boarded his ship on the Sunday but, though all were now prepared for action, they were delayed for another day.  The rough weather meant many were seasick and although the food was good all they were given to sleep on was a couple of burial bags as blankets!

To get inshore they had to drive onto flat-bottomed ferry-like landing craft called Rhinos.  Don’s ship lost one of the two Rhinos it was towing somewhere in the Channel.

“The 50^th Division attacking ‘Gold’, the most westerly of the British beaches, ran into their first serious difficulty in front of the fortified German positions at Le Hamel.  The 1^st Hampshires and 1^st Dorsets landed under furious fire from bunkers scarcely scarred by the bombardment and manned by the German 1^st Battalion of 716^th Division.  The British supporting tanks arrived too late to give the infantry immediate support and …very few of the Royal Marine Centaurs arrived at all” (having capsized in their landing craft).  “Three of the five landing craft bringing 47 Commando ashore struck mines…the survivors swam to the beach and regrouped to begin their advance on Port-en-Bessin” (the critical port east of Omaha beach defended by the experienced 316^th Division). “46 men and almost every wireless set had been lost.” (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

61st Recce fared even worse:

"Nearly half the contact patrols with the assaulting infantry were killed or wounded on D-Day, either on the beaches or before reaching them.  Nevertheless, they justified themselves by getting much information back to divisional Headquarters before it arrived by the normal channels and some of the patrols, whose sets had been shot-up, did great work with their weapons.”  (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lt-Col P.H.A.Brownrigg, D.S.O.)

By 9.30am the beach was secured against determined enemy resistance and during the rest of the morning the forces of 50th Division pushed inland four miles towards the town of Creully.  The battle for Le Hamel itself raged on until afternoon. (From 60th Anniversary - The D-Day Landings Northern France.)

Eric Brewer of B Squadron’s Assault Troop landed near Port-en-Bessin at 7.30 am with a bicycle (this soon got a puncture and he threw it away).  Pushing inland they got lost and seem to have ended up far behind enemy lines in the Caumont-l'Éventé area, about 20 miles from the coast, near Briquessard.  A machine gun opened up from behind a hedge, killing their carrier driver.  Eric finally found the rest of his Squadron in France on 8^th June.

Extract from Eric Brewer's diary copyright of Derek Brewer and family

 

By the time Don Aiken’s ship arrived in late morning the 1^st Hampshire’s had cleared the beach near Arromanches.  When his armoured car drove off the remaining Rhino he sank into a bomb hole leaving only the turret exposed but the Humber armoured car kept moving.  All the vehicles had been carefully waterproofed in preparation for an amphibious landing with a compound of grease, lime and asbestos fibres.  Moving to the de-waterproofing area, Don accidentally sent a smoke bomb into one of the nearby German minefields; luckily it didn’t trigger an incident – except with the British officer in charge of the beach! 

The Regiment was meant to reach a wooded hill about 15 miles inland to ‘seize and hold’ with the 8th Armoured Brigade but all the delays meant most didn’t reach it.  Don spent the night standing in pitch blackness next to his vehicle, wondering where the nearest Germans were.

Eric Postles also encountered issues with getting ashore: “The heavy seas caused problems for the ships towing Rhinos and we were late arriving at the beach.  After much effort our Rhino was linked to the ship’s ramp and my carrier was first on the ramp when the Rhino broke away.  We jumped off the vehicle and waited for the reconnection before finally getting onto the Rhino next to a bulldozer which was intended to lead us off.  We got near the water’s edge and the bulldozer which was intended to destroy obstacles drove off but disappeared under the water and we did not see the driver again.  The Rhino moved further along the beach and we all got ashore.  It was late afternoon.

There were beached ships and landing craft everywhere and we were directed to a track which led off the beach and through the sand hills.  There was a lot of enemy shelling activity and our heavy warship and rocket ships were firing over us.  There were groups of prisoners and we passed a line of British dead lying side by side.” 

Eric spent the night at the edge of a cornfield where there were a number of dead Germans.  “It was an uncomfortable night”.  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

By nightfall 50^th Division’s 231st (Dorsets, Devons and Hampshires) and 151st (Durham Light Infantry) Brigades were just two miles short of Bayeux while the 69th (East Yorks & Green Howards) had linked up with the Canadians from Juno beach.

With the roughness of the sea and many Rhinos breaking away from their parent ships only half the 61st Reconnaissance contingent got ashore on D-day.  Sandy Handley’s ship lost a Rhino so not everyone could be taken to the shore.  He was still floating offshore near Arromanches overnight, grateful not to be one of the 50% casualties among the Recce who landed first on D Day.

Major Brownrigg, commander of ‘A’ Squadron, was also not able to land until 7^th June but the Regiment’s Commander Colonel William Mount was ashore and arranged a new rendez-vous well within the bridgehead. He was held up  reaching there by heavy machine gun fire and when Major Brownrigg called on the wireless he was told “Get off the air, I’m shooting Boches.”

All the 61^st Recce invasion squad had landed by the end of 7^th June.  Coming off the Rhino into about 4 feet of water, 50 yards from the beach, was nerve-wracking enough, even without heavy fire.  Engineers were still dealing with the underwater beach obstacles, many with mines attached.  Among the British dead the biggest Union Jack Sandy had ever seen was flying in a gentle breeze.  Later when Sandy saw a dead German by the side of the road he thought “A man the same as me doing what I was told to do.”

Despite the Humber’s engine catching fire as they drove away from the beach Sandy reached the 61^st Recce rendez-vous between Brécy and Rucqueville for the night of 7^th June and heard that 50^th Division had succeeded in taking Bayeux, the first city in France to be liberated after D-day.

 

Sources include ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor (published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012), ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings (Macmillan 2016 edition) and accounts by veterans of the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment.

75 years ago - Commissioned

Chotie was in Whitby in Yorkshire when Dick wrote to her on 9th October to plan his November leave.  On 13th October he filled in a preference form for the Recce Corps and staked a claim to the 61^st Recce (based on family or ‘territory’), possibly because they were by then in his home county of Kent, or maybe because they were not far from his family at Pagham in Sussex

In mid-October he had a “glorious time on exercise in the Cotswolds.  Went to Cheltenham, Gloucester, etc.” – from letter to Chotie back in Easton-on-Gordano on 23rd October.  By 26th October his plans for leave with Chotie were definitely shaping up, mainly based on the Pagham pubs.

On 30th October 1943 Dick received his commission as an officer in the Reconnaissance Corps and was appointed to the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment.  He had already served in the Recce Corps:  from April to July 1942 he was in 1^st Air Landing Reconnaisssance Squadron; then moved to the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment and trained as a Driver/Mechanic before beginning officer training in March 1943

 

We have been following 61^st Recce through the lives of Eric Postles, Eric Brewer and Anthony Rampling, who were now troopers with the Regiment on anti-invasion duties.  Eric Postles writes:

“61 Division was downgraded to home defence and moved to Kent.  The regiment was responsible for patrolling the coast from New Romney to Battle.  Our squadron was stationed in Lympne Castle next to an RAF airfield.  We did day and night mobile patrols into Folkestone and Romney.  On a clear day you could see France from the castle tower and at night flashes from the German guns shelling the Dover area.  One night we watched as a night fighter shot down a German bomber in flames.  Our fighter planes took off and returned from France very low over the castle often returning damaged and sometimes with their rockets hanging down from the wings.  On our patrols we reported to the Coastguards and coastal gun sites.”   (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

By October 1943 the threat of German invasion was low.  The Allies were advancing on east and west fronts.

After the loss of Kursk and Kharkov in July and August Hitler had at last authorised a retreat to the River Dnepr in central Ukraine, defending a line from Smolensk to Kiev and the Black Sea.  Smolensk had been taken by the Soviet Army at the end of September and on 24^th October they broke through the southern end of the line near the Sea of Azov, threatening to isolate the German Army left on the Crimean Peninsula. 

Pressed by the Allies, Franco ordered the Spanish volunteers of the Blue Division, fighting with Germany on the eastern front, to return to Spain.

Meanwhile the Allied forces in Italy broke through the German’s Volturno line of defence at Termoli at the beginning of the month and by the end of October had also broken the Barbara line to the north.  However, these had only been holding positions while the German’s built major defences along their so called ‘Winter line’ across the mountains protecting the route to Rome and to the Adriatic coast at Ortona.

Badoglio’s Italian government declared war on Germany on 13^th October.  Three days later the Nazis began to round up the Jews in Rome – 1,800 were sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and murdered.  Jews had generally been safe in Italy or the Italian-occupied territory until the September Armistice and Italian people under German occupation continued to protect many.  However, almost 10,000 of the 46,000 Italian Jews had been deported by the end of the war.

On 1^st October Germany had also begun to deport Jews from Denmark but thanks to the Danish people and a German diplomat, Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, most were already safe in Sweden – 500 Danish Jews were deported during the Holocaust and 120 of these were killed. 

At a conference of high ranking Reich officials on 6^th October Heinrich Himmler spoke frankly for the first the time of the Nazis aspiration for the ‘Final Solution’,  for the Jewish people to ‘disappear from the earth’ and admitted women and children were being killed as well as the men.  Four days later there was an uprising at Sobibor death camp in eastern Poland - of the 300 prisoners who escaped only 47 survived.  250,000 Jews are believed to have been killed at Sobibor from 1942 to 43.

Another barbarous act of the war was coming to its culmination on the other side of the world – on 17^th October the Bangkok (Thailand) to Rangoon (Burma) railway was completed, built by Asian forced labour and Allied Prisoners of War.  The cruelty of the Japanese and Korean overseers was so horrific that more than 70,000 of the enslaved workers died during the construction.

The United Nations War Crimes Commission, which was to prosecute many of the perpetrators of these atrocities, was established on 20^th October 1943.

Britain continued with the night bombing of German cities – Munich on 2^nd October and Kassel on 22^nd, where more than 10,000 people died in the explosions and fires.  Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris’s determination to destroy German cities was seen by many in Britain as just revenge for the Blitz although others have viewed it as a potential war crime. Harris seemed to believe he could bring the war to an end with bombing, avoiding the need for an Allied invasion of France.  Aerial bombardment by Axis or Allied powers, was never prosecuted as a war crime, apparently because it lay outside the scope of international conventions.

75 years ago - Italy and Pagham

Letter written on Wednesday 1^st and Thursday 2^nd September 1943

Same address

Wednesday (nearly Thursday)

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            It’s a long time since I’ve written to you at this time of night, but I find myself with two others operating a wireless for three days and nights and this being the first I thought it would give me a golden opportunity to send you a young novel – so here goes.

            The remainder of the troop are out on a three days exercise and we are maintaining contact with them the whole time.  The system, as it stands sounds quite fun but unfortunately we are not allowed to sleep as those on the exercise aren’t able to.

            This little discrepancy is, however, compensated by the fact that I get a weekend on Saturday, so things aren’t really too bad.  Diller will be home I believe so she’ll have a glorious chance to moan to her hearts content, an opportunity I know she won’t be slow to seize.

Came back from 48hr scheme yesterday, just about all in.  This wireless* is murder, it’s not only the mental tiredness you get, but also chronic headaches owing to the headphones which have to be worn continually.  I’ll spend the week-end in bed – lonely and cold ….

            We’ve managed to scrounge some cocoa and milk, also a shave, so we have hopes of something hot soon.

            Weather here is typical autumn – lots of mist and rain and last night a beautiful sunset, one of the best I’ve ever seen.  The trees – hundreds of them here are just beginning to turn – though it’s early yet.  It will be lovely by the time I leave – always presuming I don’t leave prematurely …

            We have a pretty sound wireless officer, one of the pleasant slavedriver type who works all hours from morn ’til night and expects the whole troop to do the same…Luckily he likes his pint and consequently we always find ourselves some hundred yards from the Duke of Wellington for lunch and he always stands the troop a pint apiece.  God knows how much it must cost him.

            I was talking to the publican who says that the present Duke (who lives in the neighbouring estate – Stratfield Saye) is quite a pleasant bloke – Captain in the Commandos in Sicily and always goes to the pub when on leave to play darts with the farmers.  Apparently he’s about 30**.

            Did I tell you that Dad went up to Purley*** to see all the relations?  It’s the first time he’s seen his father for about five years!  Awful isn’t it?  Apparently things have changed quite a bit.  Gramp now looks his years – he’s about 78, which he never has done before and has slowed up considerably.  Cyril (Dad’s brother) took him on a trip which included all the most dubious of London’s night clubs.

            They all expect me to go up (after Brian going, of course) but I still prefer to go home, or if possible come down to see you.  (I still owe you about a dozen spankings…****)

            However, he did see them, they were all very pleased, and that’s that – for another five years anyhow.

            Incidentally is there anything I can get you for your Birthday? I haven’t had a chance to get out for ages, and you can’t do anything on schemes.  Let me know – and if there’s no chance of my getting it, I’ll send you some shekels*****.

            The ATS are a better crowd than I thought, despite their being mostly Generals’ daughters.  The one I had (not literally….) yesterday did all the cooking for us – and did it very well – probably because they were scared of letting us do it, as they have to eat it as well.  I managed to get her a room in a farmhouse and she managed to get me half-a-dozen eggs so we had quite a happy time.  She comes from Kent of course – Pett’s Wood – about a mile from Orpington†.  We had several common friends.  I should say friends in common – there’s a subtle difference….

            I still haven’t had an FFI†† – you really must organise another meeting…See what you can do.  I always get atrociously rude this time of night – at the moment I’m thinking awful things.  I couldn’t even tell you… 

            That’s enough of this – I’d better do some wireless for an hour or two.

            Well, I’ve done some morse – over an hour in fact and have just been relieved.  Still feel the same.  Good thing I’m not in the Bristol area.

            Read Deeping’s ‘Two Black Sheep’ on the scheme and also “Fanny by Gaslight” again (Michael Sadleir) which I’ve always thought an awful lot of.  It’s the finest picture of Victorian England of the last ten years and heaven knows there have been enough books on that subject!  I’m sure Fanny would get the same hold on you as she has on me.

            Won ten bob on a little side bet last night.  Bill said it was Tchaikovsky’s ‘Casse Noisette’ and I said it was ‘Eugen Onegin’ and Eugen Onegin it was†††.  Just as easy as that.  Wish money was always so procurable as that 10 bob.

It’s now nearly 2 oclock and we’ve got the water on the boil for some luscious cocoa!  Jeez! 

My two colleagues have just started to take an interest in things – now that there’s a chance of a hot drink!  One is that madman I told you about from Corfe Castle – incidentally his name’s Peter Collins (happy memories?) who still intends to live on Round Island after the war††††.  A genuine hermit’s life with just his wife.  Notice I say just!  This is where I should say “what more could a man want”… (after his pipe of course…Never mind Darling – you come second …)

            The other one’s an Oxford law student, pretty nearly broke.  Tennis champ of north of England.  Quite a good type.

            I’ve just had my COCOA(!) and, it’s good.  I’ve got a lovely warm feeling in my tummy which I definitely didn’t have before.

            Well, Chotie Darling I must close here as I have to go on the set again.  I’ll let you know how things went on the weekend and enumerate some of Diller’s moans.

                                    All my love, precious.

                                                Always thinking of you.

                                                                        Dicker

P.S.  You should read Napoleon’s letters to Marie Louise and Josephine.  They’re good….

*Wireless – “not enough emphasis can be put on the importance of communication in battle situations”…Wireless operators needed high quality training “to pick up weak signals against a background of atmospherics and interference” known as ‘slush’. (From ‘Phantom at War’ by Andy & Sue Parlour, Cerberus 2003)

**The Duke of Wellington’s estate at Stratfield Saye near Basingstoke in Hampshire . The 6^th Duke of Wellington, Captain of No 2 Commando, was killed in action at Salerno on 16^th September 1943 (from Commando Veterans website).

***Purley, near Croydon, South London.

****Possibly referring to Chotie’s involvement with her officer at the Bristol camp earlier that year??

*****slang for cash. Chotie’s 20^th birthday was on 6^th September 1943.

†Dick was born in Orpington in Kent and spent his childhood there.

††the 'Free from Inspection' inspection for venereal disease (presumably being used by Dick as a euphemism here)

†††Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ and not his opera ‘Eugene Onegin’.

††††an island in Poole Harbour.

Peter Collins was the name of one of Chotie’s early admirers:

“Peter Collins, the boss’s son, home from Blundell’s, a posh school in Devon, also took a fancy to me and given the chance, we would canoodle in the store room.  His mother was very kind to me and I was invited to stay at their lovely house in Talbot Woods for a weekend.  Peter had won a scholarship to Blundell’s for his brilliant piano playing and taught me about classical music - a love that has stayed with me all my life.” (From ‘Chotie’s Story’. See also F.W.Collins)

 © Chotie Darling

 

Dick went home to Pagham, Sussex over the weekend of 4th and 5th September and sent Chotie a postcard of Sea Lane, Pagham for her 20^th birthday on the 6^th September. 

His next letter of Tuesday 14th September had news of his brother Brin, now an Officer Pre-Cadet at Wrotham near Sevenoaks, and Dilys, his sister, home from the Pay Corps.  Dick was still worried he wouldn’t get an officer posting to the Recce

“They’re over staffed as it is, which has the annoying habit of making them very difficult to please.  They cheerfully accept about five in every fifty and the unhappy remainder have to go all through an Infantry OCTU, which takes nearly another five months.”  He agreed with Chotie that the news was good (see below) but wrote “We still have the hardest fighting to do”.

Chotie went home on leave again in September to Parkstone, Poole and met up with her best friend Mary Dakin.  Her unit moved from Portishead back to Markham Camp, Easton-in-Gordano, sometime in the month and she had two trips to the dentist in September.

Dick was still on “schemes” – training exercises, which went on for a number of days outdoors but had found time to read, see some films and listen to classical music on the radio (mentioned in his letter to Chotie of 28th September).

His future unit, the 61^st Recce, were involved in a full scale battle ‘scheme’ with Canadian and Polish troops - Exercise Link.

 

On 3rd September the Italian government signed a secret armistice deal with the Allies.  The same day British and Canadian troops of Montgomery’s 8th Army crossed the Messina Straits unopposed, to land in Calabria on the Italian mainland.  This and subsequent amphibious landings by the 1^st British Airborne Division at Taranto and Brindisi, on the south-east ‘heel’ of Italy, were intended to divert the Germans from the main Allied invasion south of Naples but did not succeed. 

The armistice was announced on 8^th September as the Italian Fleet sailed to surrender to the allies in the port of Valetta, Malta.  Italian forces in German-occupied territory became prisoners-of-war and German troops rushed south to take up defensive positions against the Italian invasion.  When the US Fifth Army including the British X Corps arrived at Salerno the Germans were already in place to meet them.  Casualties were terrible as the Allies attempted to break out of the beach-head.

By the 10^th of September the Germans occupied Rome and two days later they rescued Mussolini from his prison in the central Abruzzi Mountains.  At Salerno the Germans launched a counter-offensive on 13^th September, which nearly defeated the Allies but a few days later, with the 8^th Army approaching from the south, the German army began to withdraw to defensive positions north of Naples.

On 23^rd September Mussolini proclaimed the re-establishment of a fascist government in Northern Italy and Hitler now ordered the execution of all Italians carrying arms in Axis-occupied territory.  10,000 were massacred in Greece for resistance (5,000 on the island of Cephalonia on 24^th September).

The Allies' forces from the east and west coast joined up to form a front-line across the country on 25^th September and began to head north.  (This was an arduous campaign against Italy’s geography – a central ridge of high mountains with wide rivers flowing to east and west, providing natural lines of defence – as well as the Germans.)  On 27^th September the people of Naples rose up and drove the remaining Germans out of their city ahead of the Allies' advance.  Marshal Badoglio signed the official armistice with General Eisenhower on 29^th September at Valetta, Malta.

Free French commandos had landed on Italian occupied Corsica on 14^th September to aid resistance fighters in harrying the Germans withdrawing from Sardinia (they'd been duped into arming for an Allied Invasion by Operation Mincemeat) via the formerly French island.  By 21st October the Italian forces were assisting the French.

On 18^th September the British began an attempt to liberate the Greek Aegean islands with a landing on Rhodes but the Italian troops they were looking to for support had already been arrested.

Jews in Athens and Denmark were now facing the threat of deportation as their countries came under German control.  In Denmark, Danish authorities arranged a secret operation to move Jewish citizens into hiding for a safe escape to Sweden while in Athens two-thirds of the Jews escaped with help from the Greek Orthodox church and even the Athenian Chief of Police. The Danish resistance established a shadow administration, ‘the Freedom Council’, on 16^th September.

While Sweden remained neutral, Norway had been occupied by Germany since June 1940 and Hitler’s massive battleship, the Tirpitz, was anchored at Kåfjord on the far north coast.  On 22^nd September a British attack using midget submarines caused enough damage to put her out of action for 6 months.

In eastern Europe the German front-line was now held at the Dnepr river, across central Ukraine, but on 22^nd September Soviet troops began to cross despite suffering heavy losses.  The Allies were now poised to squeeze Hitler’s Europe between eastern and western fronts.

75 years ago - the Allies invade Sicily

Had Dick stayed in the 1st Airborne he could have been invading Sicily in July 1943 in Operation Husky.  He was probably better off at Sandhurst since 1st Airlanding Brigade's casualties in Operation Husky amounted to one third of those taking part, with many drowned when inexperienced pilots released their gliders too far from land to avoid flak.

The Allies’ first front in Europe since Dunkirk, the French surrender in June 1940 and the fall of Crete a year later, started with the surprise landing of forces on the south of the island from the night of 9^th July.  80,000 men were assembled before nightfall on the 10^th.  The British advanced from the south-east corner along the coast taking Syracuse thanks to remnants of 1^st Airlanding who prevented the destruction of the critical Ponte Grande bridge.  Patton’s US 7^th Army landed on the south coast and by 22^nd July had taken the Sicilian capital of Palermo.

Map of Operation Husky from 2015 event

Hitler held an emergency meeting with Mussolini on 19^th July but the Italian dictator lost control of Italy on 25^th July when, backed by the Fascist Grand Council, the King took over power and appointed Marshal Badoglio as head of government.  Mussolini was arrested and Hitler sent German troops to seize key positions in the north of the country.

The bombing of the ancient Ruhr city of Cologne by the RAF at the beginning of the month had produced an explosive firestorm and killed thousands.  At the end of July the RAF attacked the port of Hamburg creating a huge firestorm that, with the devastating bombing, killed 40-50,000.

Germany was also facing the possibility of defeat in Russia.  Operation Citadel, their immense offensive to take back the area around Kursk, started on 5^th July and on 12^th July one of the largest tank battles in history was fought at Prokhorovka, south of Kursk. The invaders made no progress though, overcome by the Soviets’ determined, massive and rapidly prepared defence.  On 22^nd July Hitler even gave permission for the German Army to withdraw from the now vulnerable bulge in the line around Orel, north of Kursk.

Operation Cartwheel continued in the Pacific with fierce fighting on New Georgia as the US Army attempted to take the Japanese base of Munda.

 

The Allies were now on the offensive while Dick led a relatively safe existence back in Blighty. (He did end up lost over a precipice in Snowdonia on a training exercise in North Wales in June ). 

On 13th June he sent Chotie a registered letter as he was preparing for the Wales trip.  His ‘Industry Group and Occupational Classification record’  on 25th June confirms that he was a student before he joined up (he studied French, which was later to prove extremely useful).  Better weather back at Camberly saw him swimming naked in the Sandhurst pool .  After a week’s leave in mid-July he sent Chotie a hand-coloured postcard of Sandhurst and wrote a letter the next day describing a visit to his Italian friend Guido Benetti in Brighton and his time at Pagham. 

Meanwhile Chotie’s anti-aircraft unit left Plymouth and returned to Bristol, this time to the north of the city at Cribbs Causeway.

Dick wrote to her there on 31st July:

Same Address

Saturday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                Sorry, this will have to be in pencil but Chunky has pinched our only table and chair and is very inauspiciously writing to his wife.

                                    Received your two letters, for which many thanks.  I was surprised to see you are once again in the Bristol area.  If you remember, Eric was convalescent at Westbury for some months.  At any rate you’re a little nearer home, which I suppose is something, if not very much.

            As regards next week-end I’m afraid I won’t be able to get down before Saturday Evening, as our leave doesn’t start until the afternoon, and it’s a fair journey.

            I shall have to leave again on Monday afternoon as we change squadrons on that day and I’ll have about six months accumulation of kit to move to the New Buildings, which are some half mile or so.

            Been swimming all the afternoon at the ‘Blue Pool’, the nearest baths (apart from the college baths) and am now beginning to get brown.  I’m already pretty browned off as they’re chucking out Recce cadets right and left as the corps is already too full.  The trouble is that in most cases they’re not even giving infantry commissions!  So I’ll probably be RtU’d* in the near future.

            These things run in cycles – one minute they’re clamouring for officers and the next they’re full up.

            Read Linklater’s short stories entitled “God likes them Plain”, which are very good.  Haven’t had time to read anything else.  Heard from Diller (still browned off) but haven’t heard from Brinner, needless to say.

            Swam in an inter-squadron competition and managed to win my event the net result being we won the whole show easily.  Rather funny really, and that’s the first swimming event I’ve been in.  On the 28^th** too!  Hell of a fluke – the other 3 were U.S.***

            I’ll close here Darling, as I’ve exhausted my mediocre letter-writing talents.

                                                                        All my love, Darling

                                                                        (until Saturday)

                                                                                    Dicker

*RTU – Returned to Unit

**Dick’s 22^nd birthday on 28^th July.

***Slang for useless?

© Chotie Darling

75 years ago - Brighton

On 22^nd July 1942 Dick had been assigned to the No3 Technical Training Group in Brighton, to learn to be a Driver Mechanic for the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment

Although slightly dismissive of his new comrades: “a very rough lot - no signs of mental vigour” he was “very thankful” to be out of the Airborne.  He enjoyed being back in Kent, his childhood county (he’d attended the Simon Langton School in Canterbury) and found “almost everything was going on” – cinema, theatres, etc. in when he arrived in Brighton.  On his 21^st birthday, 28th July he was still suffering from his latest vaccinations (43^rd Recce had received orders to mobilise for overseas) and had a quiet night out by himself in the town centre.  By day he was training at the Dreadnought Garage in Hove and eating in the local 'British Restaurant'.

Postcard sent from Brighton on 4th August 1942.

Dick managed to get home to Pagham on the weekend of 8^th August but was also enjoying the delights of Brighton, going to the Anglo-Polish Ballet twice.  On 16^th August he wrote to Chotie about the films he’d seen in town:

Letter – Sunday 16^th August 1942

5731671 Tpr Williams R

Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

Preston Barracks, Brighton, Sussex

Sunday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                        Many many thanks for polyfotos.  They’re marvellous, Darling.  I showed them to the boys who now regard me in a different light.  I would have sent them back with this letter, but haven’t yet procured a big enough envelope, but I’ll definitely send them in my next.

And also many thanks for a very nice letter.

            Well, Lulu belle there’s no news as usual.

            I went to the ‘Curzon’ yesterday – saw Viviane Romance in “L’Esclave Blanche” (White Slave) a French film.  It was very good but not up to the usual high standard achieved by French Directors. She (Viviane) is very much like Danielle – also has her hair up.

            I’m looking forward to seeing Eileen Joyce tonight – never having seen her before. She’s an Australian and extraordinarily good pianist to hail from there.         

I saw a rather good film a few days ago – “Mien Kampt” (sic)* – showing Adolf’s rise to power since his early days after the last war and the brilliant way he went about it – the way he removed Ernst Roehm, Dollfuss, Schnussnigg (sic) and the rest**.  A lot of it was documentary, ie actual shots, especially of the jolly old Reichstag Fire Trial*** etc, and the flagwrapping parade in the Olympic Stadium***.

            Well, Precious, I must close here as it’s now dinner time, and as I didn’t get up in time for breakfast, I’m not missing it.                            

                                        All my love, Chotie Darling,                                     

                                                        Hope to get leave soon                                                         

                                                                                         Dicker

*Dick meant ‘Mein Kamf’ - German for ‘My Struggle’, the title of the film and Hitler’s autobiography.

**Ernst Röhm – head of the SA (Sturmabteilung), the Nazi brown-shirted stormtroopers. Arrested and executed in the ‘Night of the Long Knives’, 1934.

Engelbert Dollfuss - Chancellor of Austria from 1932 to 1934, who destroyed the Austrian Republic and established an authoritarian regime based on conservative Roman Catholic and Italian Fascist principles. Assassinated by the SS in July 1934.

Kurt von Schuschnigg – succeeded Dollfuss as Chancellor of Austria. Opposed the Anschluss, (annexation of Austria by the Third Reich) and was imprisoned by the Nazis when they invaded Austria.

***The Reichstag Fire Trial in 1933 followed the part destruction by fire of the German ‘parliament’ building soon after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe was charged and executed for having set the fire as part of a Communist plot and the Nazis used the incident to ensure the defeat of the Communists and other leftist parties in the following elections.

****The 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

© Chotie Darling

 

Meanwhile 43^rd Recce in Kent was ready for mobilisation and continuing training.  They may have been destined for the Far East, Africa or even France…

 

Churchill arrived in Cairo on 3^rd August 1942.  The staff changes he made there resulted in Bernard Montgomery (Monty) taking charge of the Eighth Army in Africa.  Rommel’s Afrika Corps again attempted to break through the El Alamein line at the end of August but was forced to withdraw.  Churchill flew on to Moscow for talks with Stalin who reluctantly agreed that there would be no Allied invasion across the Channel in 1942 to take pressure off Russia.  Instead plans went ahead for landings in western North Africa with Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed as Commander-in-Chief for the invasion.

An offensive by besieged Soviet forces in Leningrad prevented the Germans from cutting off their supply line across Lake Ladoga.  Germans in southern Russia scaled Mount Elbrus but their over-stretched forces never reached the rich oilfields of the Caucasus.

On 6^th August 1942 the World Jewish Congress announced that one million Jews had been killed in Nazi occupied Europe.  Roosevelt warned that the perpetrators of barbarism would ultimately have to stand in courts of law and answer for their acts.

On 7^th August the Allies began their first major offensive against the Japanese, landing 19,000 US Marines on Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands (which the Japanese had held since May).  The Japanese responded, landing thousands more troops and Guadalcanal became a bitter campaign of jungle fighting and survival.  In the Battle of Milne Bay on Papua New Guinea the Japanese attacked on 25^th August but the (predominately Australian) Allies had won their first decisive victory against the Japanese by 7^th September.  Japan directly attacked the USA in late August and September, firebombing the west coast forests.

In India the ‘Quit India’ campaign led to the British arresting Gandhi and other Congress leaders.  On 19^th August 1944 the British and Canadian combined operations raid on Dieppe in northern France ended in disaster.

The first all American bombing raid from Britain went ahead in daylight on 17th August, directed against the railway yards in Rouen, France.  The huge RAF night-time raid on Nuremberg on 28^th August killed 4,000 civilians.

 

Dorset, where Dick’s beloved Chotie lived, was still suffering from coastal bombing with 15 people killed in Bridport and Swanage in August. Combined forces practised for the Dieppe Raid off the Dorset Coast and the Small Scale Raiding Force successfully attacked a radar station on the French coast on 14th/15th August. Dorset boats were involved in support of the foiled raid on Dieppe and Portland played an important role in the testing of midget submarines, later used with success against Germany’s greatest battleship, the Tirpitz.  The Royal Australian Air Force arrived in Poole on 31^st August to fly anti-submarine patrols over the western Channel approaches in Sunderland flying-boats, safeguarding the vulnerable but vital supply convoys.

75 years ago - 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment

Operation Blau, the German advance in southern Russia, continued in July 1942 with the capture of Rostov on Don, the gateway to the Caucasus oilfields.  In the Arctic Barents Sea most of the ships in PQ-17, a British supply convoy to the Soviet Union, were sunk by Luftwaffe planes and U-boats (one of the Allies worst Naval disasters of the war).  However, Rommel’s advance in Egypt was held at the El Alamein line and although the Japanese landed in Papua New Guinea on 21^st July they were prevented from reaching the capital at Port Moresby by Australian troops fighting over several months in appalling conditions along the Kokoda Trail.

Behind German lines in Poland the Nazis began systematic gassing of Jews in the death camps at Auschwitz and Treblinka.  In Paris on 16^th July 13,000 Jews, including children, were rounded up and sent to death camps in one of the most heinous acts of collaboration of the war.

At home in Britain sweets, chocolate and biscuits were now rationed. (This must have upset Chotie who had a sweet tooth).  The Dorset coast was under attack with bombing raids on Swanage and West Dorset and German minelaying in the Channel.  On 9^th July German e-boats (Schnellbootes) sank several ships of the convoy WP183 in Lyme Bay. A special defence for Winston Churchill’s personal plane was constructed at RAF Hurn (now Bournemouth Airport).

From 1^st to 3^rd July Dick was taking part in a Brigade exercise with 1^st Air Landing Squadron.  After a free day on the 4^th he was put on 24 hour guard and had to turn out for inspection by Major-General Frederick 'Boy' Browning, the Commander of the British Airborne Division.  He wrote to Chotie that evening, his last letter from the Airborne. He may have taken part in the 1st Air Landing's specialist training (cadres) and demonstrations before briefly meeting up with Chotie on 11^th July and leaving to join the 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment at Dover in Kent on 13^th July.

 

 

 

 

The Wyvern dragon, logo of the 43rd (Wessex) Division

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.

** Military police

© Chotie Darling

75 years ago - Leave at Pagham

At the beginning of June 1942 the German Army advanced on the Crimean Peninsula (in the north of the Black Sea) and battled fiercely to take the well defended port of Sebastapol.  In the Atlantic the Allies were haemorrhaging ships and supplies at the mercy of the U-boat wolf-packs.  British code breakers at Bletchley Park were struggling to decipher the Enigma upgrade, which they called “Shark” and the Germans had cracked the Admiralty code (Naval Cipher 3).  In contrast US code breakers deciphered signals from the Japanese Navy to reveal a huge task force had set sail to attack the Pacific US base on the Midway Islands.  By 7^th June the US Navy had won a decisive victory, critical to the war in the Pacific.

In Africa the Germans were again on the attack.  On 21^st June Rommel’s troops captured the critical Libyan port of Tobruk (which had been gallantly defended by Australian troops under siege for most of the previous year).  The Allies retreated as Axis forces swept into Egypt taking thousands of prisoners at Mersa Matruh.  Churchill, in America for talks with Roosevelt, was devastated by the fall of Tobruk.  However, he obtained an agreement that US troops would be involved in an invasion of French North Africa (Morocco and Algiers) called Operation Gymnast (and later Operation Torch).

 

In Dorset, where Chotie lived (and was again working at Beales department store in Bournemouth) bombing attacks continue.  This time the Royal Navy's explosives factory near Poole was saved by decoys on the heathland at Arne on the night of 3^rd/4^th June, although Poole was hit by a number of incendiaries causing serious fires.  Mr Whittaker, a volunteer firefighter (and the future father-in-law of Chotie’s bother Jack), recalled throwing a number of smaller devices off Poole Quay into the water.  There were other lucky escapes – most of the RAF petrol supplies for Dorset and Hampshire were held in the Hamworthy RAF depot and although they were blown open, the vast million gallon slick didn’t catch fire.  A large bomb hit the Sona, a Naval headquarters ship moored at Poole Quay but didn’t explode until after adjacent buildings were evacuated.  On 6^th June it was Bournemouth’s turn to receive the attentions of the Luftwaffe – almost 500 properties were damaged in an attack on the railway line.

Dorset, with its central Channel position and proximity to Cherbourg, continued playing a critical role in Britain’s war effort, despite the loss of Telecommunications Research Establishment.  RAF Hurn (now Bournemouth Airport) was used as a base to fly SOE (Special Operations executive – spies!) to France, as well as supplies for the French Resistance, while a small aerodrome established north of Sherborne was to become the Fleet Air Arm station at Yeovilton (RN Fleet Air Arm Museum website).

 

In the British Reconnaissance Corps nomenclature changed on 6^th June adopting the cavalry terms of troops, troopers, squadrons and regiments (the army’s reconnaissance role had traditionally been discharged by the light cavalry).  Already in 61^st Recce (the unit Dick fought with for most of the Western Europe campaign), Eric Postles was training in Northern Ireland for the rest of 1942.

 

Dick, still training with the 1^st Air Landing Squadron, was based at Bulford on Salisbury Plain.  He was granted 10 days leave from 10^th June and went home to his family at  Pagham, Sussex.  Ironically, 1^st Air Landing went to train on the Dorset Coast at Kimmeridge while he was away.  Back in Wiltshire Dick was sick with bronchitis.  By now he must also have been diagnosed with temporary hyperglycaemia (“sugar in the blood”) and was awaiting transfer from the Airborne. Although he was not diabetic the risk of possible problems meant he was one of the many weeded out at this early stage of training (otherwise he could have been involved in the brave fiasco of the bridge at Arnhem , which gave eternal fame to the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron.  He wrote again to Chotie on 28^th and 29^th June:

Letter written Sunday 28^th and Monday 29^th 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 among the ground forces racing towards Arnhem.)

© Chotie Darling

75 years ago - Poole saved from bombing with Island decoy

On 23^rd May 1942 the new 'Starlight' radar system was employed successfully by RAF pilot John “Cat’s Eyes” Cunningham to shoot down the German flying ace Hauptmann Langur, whose plane crashed near Shaftesbury in Dorset.  The Telecommunications Research Establishment, however, did not stay in Dorset. In May 1942 it moved inland to the safety of Malvern in Worcestershire – the Small Scale Raiding Force and Bruneval Raids were proving how vulnerable coastal locations were to attack.

Poole was the target for a large bombing raid on the night of 24th May, involving 60 German aircraft.  Luckily one of the initial ‘pathfinder’ bombs fell on Brownsea Island setting off the pyrotechnic displays of the Elstree Studios’ decoy used to simulate burning buildings and successfully diverting the rest of the attack to the Island.  Although several people were killed in Hamworthy by other Pathfinders - and a bomb falling near Chotie’s home in Parkstone killed a Home Guard - the ingenious "Starfish" (from ‘Special Fire’) decoy was a great success, attracting 157 tons of the 166 tons of bombs used in the attack – it may well have saved Chotie’s life.

A Starfish decoy in action

 

On the other side of the world the Japanese now held all of the Phillipines and were advancing into southern China along the Burma Road but in the Battle of the Coral Sea the American Navy prevented their landing at Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea). 

Soviet forces experienced terrible losses to the German Army in the Second Battle of Kharkov (Ukraine) and the Crimea.  Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect of the Jewish Holocaust, was shot by the Czech Resistance and died a few days later.  Germany suffered its first 1,000 bomber raid on the night of 30^th May when the RAF attacked Cologne, devastating the city.  However, Rommel’s offensive in Libya in May 1942 led to his most famous victory in the Battle of the Gazala line.  This also impacted on Dick’s future since the 50^th Division’s Reconnaissance Regiment was wiped out in the Battle to be replaced shortly before D Day by 61^st Recce, the unit Dick and his comrades were to fight in.

Eric Postles was already in the 61^st Reconnaissance regiment, training in Northern Ireland but in May 1942 Dick was with the 1st Airborne  training on the Bulford Ranges near Salisbury and moved there from Shaw House at the end of the month.  On Sunday 3^rd May he had his first flight, in a glider, but seemed unimpressed (possibly slightly airsick?).  He met up with his brother Brin on Saturday 9th May and again the following Saturday.   On Thursday 21^st May he had a rather more illustrious meeting:

 

Saturday 23rd May 1942

5731671 Tpr Williams R

1^st Air Landing Sqdn

 Recce Corps

HOME FORCES

My Darling Chotie,

Hope you will excuse my writing in pencil but expect you are used to it by now...

            Many thanks for letter - as welcome as ever.

            Glad to see you managed to get a swim in - which is more than I've been able to - not that I've got the inclination - seem to have lost all interest in that direction, which is probably a good thing as I always tended to overdo it.  I rather think Brinner has also lost interest.  If ever I get out of this show alive I'm all for a life of ease – swimming’s far too strenuous.

            So Margaret has made it up with Ted to quote your own words.  Well, well...On ne sait jamais*..

            Had quite a thrill on Thursday - when we were inspected by the King & Queen and a score of Generals.  It was a demonstration of Paratroops & Gliders etc.  I hope Johnny knows what he's letting himself in for.  At any rate he'll find out sooner or later.

            Did you hear the “Barber**” this afternoon (Saturday)?  Unfortunately I was working and missed it.  I cursed my ill-luck bitterly.

            Flying all the morning - cold & cloudy.

            Lucky Diller - wish I was going down, or rather we were.

            Books: “Portrait of a Village” Francis Brett Young**, “Blood & Sand” Ibanez - though rather dull gives quite a true appreciation of the life of a Torero.

            Brinner may have moved by now - probably has.  Near Winchester I believe - couldn't be worse than Oakmere Farm - I was horror struck when I saw it last Saturday.

            Raining hard at the moment - very miserable - the weather I mean - I'm reasonably cheerful.

            Well, Precious no news as per usual.  Incidentally will you get in touch with Eric and get him to send me a GROUNDSHEET. MOST IMPORTANT!!! I'm about to be charged 18/- for one! Will you send it, Darling?  (please...) - and I'll give you a big kiss...(Hope that will do the trick).

                        Well, bye, bye for now, Darling.

                                                            All yours,

                                                                        Dicker

PS. I now drive a 15 cwt truck. It was called ‘ Evelyn’ but is now ‘Chotie’ - I painted it in Gothic’s.

                                                                        xxxxxxx

                                                                        all for you!

                                                                                    Darling.

                                                                                    Xxxxx

*French for “You never can tell”.

**Presumably the ‘Barber of Seville’, an Italian comic opera by Rossini.

***A mystery story set in the Black Mountains of Wales.

****A famous tale about bullfighting in Spain.

© Chotie Darling

75 years ago - Joining 1st Air Landing

In April 1942 Malta was awarded the George Cross for "heroism and devotion". America hit back at Japan with the Doolittle raid on Tokyo but the Japanese were close to victory in the Philippines, had landed in Dutch New Guinea (West Papua) and attacked the Royal Navy base at Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).  In Germany the last meeting of the Nazi Reichstag gave Hitler complete power as ‘Supreme Judge of the German People') and on 24^th April the Luftwaffe began the famous Baedeker raids on English historical cities, beginning with Exeter.

In Dorset Weymouth, Hamworthy, Poole and Swanage also suffered bombing attacks in April 1942.  The Telecommunications Research Establishment made an important breakthrough with the beginning of radar ground-mapping (known as "Starlight") that could be used by bombers at night or in cloud and a new master station for the direction of RAF bombers from southern Britain was erected on Bulbarrow Hill near Hilton in central Dorset.

Combined Operations HQ at Anderson Manor, near Poole, was organising commando raids such as the abandoned Myrmidon and Operation JV and planning for the Dieppe offensive.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited the Lulworth ranges to see the new Churchill tanks on 6^th April. On 12^th April Churchill was shown a demonstration of glider and parachute troops by the 1st Airborne Division.  Their commanding officer Major-General Frederick “Boy” Browning was assisted by Brigadier George Frederick Hopkinson, known as “Hoppy”, who had founded the General Headquarters Liaison Regiment. . 

It is tempting to weave a thread of connection between Dick’s intelligence role in Dorset, the development of radar, the secret signals GHL regiment (known as Phantom) and Combined Operations HQ – all based near Poole.  Perhaps some personal encounter had led Dick to volunteer for Air Landing, instead of the parachute troops?

Whatever the course of events on 21st April 1942 Dick was posted to 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance:

Pte 5731671 Williams RK

1st Air Landing Coy

Recce Corps

C/o A.P.O. NOTTINGHAM.

My Darling,

            Arrived here safe and sound on Monday Evening.

            This is one hell of a crowd. Discipline isn't in it. They're trying to break the Guards peace time standard and believe me they're doing it.  Everything has to be blancoed* up to scratch nearly every day.  I shall get little or no time off.

            The only good thing about it is the leave.  Apparently they get Seven Days every nine weeks or so - which is amazing for the Army.  I start on a course on Monday next - it's just like being a rookie all over again.

            The Company here is billeted in a marvelous old house – Elizabethan* - with hundreds of rooms, banqueting halls etc.  Incidentally you must write to the address as shown, and not the one you already know - for security reasons. You might advise Diller or Mother if you write, as I've had to give them the Nottingham address of course.

            For Pete's sake, how long's the war going to last?  I only hope your mother's right, when she says it will be over this year.

            I'm afraid I can't say anything of local interest, etc as these letters are sometimes censored for security reasons.  I miss you already, Darling - how am I going to feel in a month’s time?

            I'm afraid I must close here as I have a hell of a lot to do.  Please write soon my Darling as I feel b----- lonely.

                                                                        all my love Precious,

                                                                                    your adoring

                                                                                                Dicker

*Blanco was a cleaning compound used on the cotton of army uniforms. ‘Bull, Blanco and Brasso’ meant getting uniforms immaculate.

** Shaw House, Newbury, Berkshire - the base for 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron mentioned in their wartime diary in the National Archives, Kew. This grade 1 listed Elizabethan Building is now owned by West Berkshire Council and open to the public.

© Chotie Darling

75 years ago - Japan threatens Australia

In March 1942 the 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron (that Dick was to join in April) was training on Salisbury Plain from their base at Shaw House near Newbury.  Dick was presumably still in Dorset where there was yet more privation on the home front as gas and electricity were rationed.

The county was still receiving occasional air attacks and there was intense activity off the coast to enforce the Royal Navy’s blockade of the Channel, although five German destroyers and a raider slipped through to the Atlantic.  Some of Poole's flying boats were commandeered to relieve the siege of Malta.  The island was critical to the interception of Rommel’s supplies in North Africa but was remorselessly bombed by the Luftwaffe.  In March 1942 all five ships in a convoy were sunk and the troops and civilian population faced starvation (from ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012).

Lord Louis Mountbatten was promoted as Chief of Combined Operations and his commandos carried out a successful raid to destroy the dock at St Nazaire, the only eastern Atlantic dock large enough to accommodate Hitler’s super battleship the Tirpitz.

Japan achieved victory in the Java Sea at the beginning of March and by the end of the month held the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and Rangoon, the capital of Burma.  They bombed Port Moresby, the capital of New Guinea, and Darwin, again.  Faced by the threat of Japanese invasion Australia had begun evacuation of the north in December 1941, just as the first US troops arrived to help defend the country.  However, after March 1942 the direct threat of Japanese invasion diminished. 

75 years ago - Singapore surrenders

There are no letters from Dick to Chotie in February 1942  - he was certainly close enough to meet up with her on the 11^th and 23^rd February when he visited the dentist in Bournemouth.  Dick, who had volunteered to join the paras, may by now have known that he was heading for the new airlanding forces.  Eric Postles, meanwhile, had joined the regiment Dick would fight with in Europe, the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment.

Dorset was a centre for secret operations in February 1942, not only David Niven's 'A' force, located near Poole and the Telecommunications Research Centre in Purbeck.  The Small Scale Raiding Force (No 62 Commando) were active in raids across the Channel and perhaps the most famous small raid, known as Operation Biting (on the German’s secret transmitter at Bruneval near Cherbourg) was  organised from Louis Mountbatten’s Combined Operations HQ at Anderson Manor, inland from Poole.

The code breakers at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, received a bitter blow in February 1942 when Germany changed its settings on their Navy’s Enigma encryption machines.  It took them 10 months to crack the code – during 1942 the Allies lost 3 times more shipping than they had in 1941.   The German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau managed to escape the Allies blockade in Brest, and attacks in the Channel, to reach safe harbour in Germany on the 13^th February.

 On 15^th February the island of Singapore, which Churchill had considered impregnable impregnable, fell to the Japanese.  Japan was very much on the offensive, advancing in Burma and bombing Darwin in Australia. (Australian troops were ordered to return home from Europe to fight the Japanese.)  The Battle of the Java Sea for Indonesia began on 27^th February. 

 

Singapore in February 1942.  The black smoke in the background is from the British Naval base’s oil dump bombed by the Japanese on 6^th February. (Source Australian War Memorial on 'To those who served' website.)

75 years ago – The World at War

All we know of Dick in December 1941 is that he visited the dentist in Bournemouth on Friday 19th.  Perhaps he even spent Christmas at home with Chotie?

In Dorset the early radar mapping discoveries (called ‘Blind Navigation’) were encouraged to enable bombers to find targets in poor weather at night. 

Dick’s future unit, the secret 1^st Air Landing, became established in Shaw House, near Newbury in Berkshire,under the leadership of Major ‘Freddie’ Gough (later of Arnhem fame).

On 2^nd December the new National Service Bill introduces compulsory war service for single women aged between 20 and 30.

 

Hitler’s armies were in striking distance of Moscow at the end of November but a surprise counter-attack by Soviet forces on 5^th December halted their advance. 

In Libya Operation Typhoon successfully led to the withdrawal of Rommel’s troops and the lifting if the siege of Tobruk. 

In Norway Combined Operations’ newly formed commandos successfully destroyed 16,000 tons of German shipping in a raid.

However…..

On 8^th December 1941 (7th December in Hawaiii) Japanese forces successfully sprung a surprise air attack on the American Fleet in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii and the USA and UK declared war on Japan.  On 9^th December China, already at war with Japan, declared war on Germany and Italy and two days later the USA was also at war with Germany and Italy.

World War 2 was now truly global.

Japan also attacked US bases in the Philippines, destroying half the US Far East Airforce, Guam (in the Mariana Islands) and Wake Island (between Hawaii and the Marianas).  In China they moved into Shanghai.

Japanese forces landed in Malaya, launching air raids on Singapore, and sinking the great British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser HMS Repulse, sent to defend the colony.  Their troops landed in Borneo and Burma and on the British held Hong Kong Island.  Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese on 25^th December, Christmas Day.

Churchill was, by then, in America, in urgent conference with the US President and essential ally Franklin D. Roosevelt, relieved that at last the USA was entering the war.

(From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

75 years ago - Invalided out of the Land Army

“I left Beales to become a Land Army girl, age seventeen, after a tiff at home.  A lovely farm at Church Knowle in the Purbecks.  Miss Grace, the farm owner, let me live in her beautiful cottage under Creech, the highest point in the Purbecks.  Walking across fields in early morning, the mist fell in between the hills like small lakes, quite awesome.  Also awesome was my cycle ride from Corfe Castle station to Church Knowle, on a moonlit and part cloudy evening.  How ghostly Corfe Castle looked.

The Land Army was not for me.  After too much rich food I suffered a bilious attack and hours of mangold pulling, milking cows and trekking across fields took its toll.  Dad took great pleasure in saying I had been invalided out of the Land Army much to my annoyance.  Beryl* joined at a later date and made quite a success of it.” (From ‘Chotie’s Story’) 

*Beryl was Mum’s younger sister, ‘a success’ in the Land Army. 

Winnie Lawes and Beryl Chalkley, Chotie's sister, in the Land Army.

 

Reputedly my mother lasted three weeks in the Land Army before she was ‘invalided out’, always a source of much amusement in our family.  Dick’s posting to a location so near to her home may have had some influence on her desire to leave the rural idyll of Purbeck.

 

There are no letters from Dick between 7th October 1941 and 20th April 1942, (the Missing Winter) when records show he was transferred from the Dorsets to 1st Air Landing in the Reconnaissance Corps.   

The British 1st Air Landing Brigade was formed on 10th October 1941.  On 27^th October Lord Louis Mountbatten became Head of Combined Operations and appointed Frederick Browning as commander of the Paratroops and Airborne Troops, which on 31^st October became the first Airborne Division.

On 15th October the Nazis initiated Operation Reinhard, the plan to systematically murder all Jews in land under German control.  In France there were large-scale ‘punishment killings’ of civilians in retaliation for the assassination of German military commanders by the Resistance.

Churchill was still hoping that the USA would enter the war in support of the Allies – on 31^st October an American warship was destroyed by a German U-boat while escorting a British convoy.

75 years ago - The Intelligence crew

By June 1941 the Allies were on the attack again – bombers from Dorset Warmwell aerodrome raided German held Cherbourg in France.  America (still not yet in the war) froze all German, Italian and Japanese assets in the US and evicted all the Axis consulates.  Hitler, however, was looking in another direction. On 22^nd June 1941 he launched Germany’s surprise attack on Russia, Operation Barbarossa.

Meanwhile Dick, now a Private once more, was in the Mechanical Transport Section of HQ Company at Fort Brockhurst, Gosport.  On 19th June he narrowly missed seeing Chotie during a brief visit to Bournemouth and Poole. He was restless and keen to volunteer for a new elite corps - the parachutists (the Special Air Service was founded on 1^st July 1941 and the Parachute Regiment on 1st August 1942).

Dick seems to have been granted his seven days leave at the end of June and, thanks to Operation Barbarossa, which had removed some fear of an imminent German invasion, may have been able to go bathing with Chotie again on the re-opened section of beach at Sandbanks. The West Dorset coast, though, was far from peaceful with air attacks on Chideock and West Bay and, on 9^th July, the Battle of Lyme Bay.  German schnellboots attacked an Allied convoy sinking a tanker, four freighters and an armed trawler that was acting as escort in the Bay.

Dick didn’t join the SAS or the Paras - at least there is not record of this.  By 7^th July he had moved to the Intelligence section:

Saturday 12^th July

FAREHAM SERVICES INSTITUTE

Intelligence Section

HQ Company

70th Dorsets

Gosport

Hants.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                                    Having just been to the flicks and finding myself at the above address, I thought I’d write you to let you know what news there is and that I arrived back safely but very late.  The trains were all over the show at So-ton and I had to go all the way to Romsey, from Totton, and then back on the same train to So-ton.  When I got to Fareham the last bus had just gone, and consequently in the company of several others I had to walk (!) to Brockhurst - about six miles!

            And not one car passed me all the way.

            In the interests of National Economy I am using both sides of this note paper.   

This Intelligence game is proving to be a cinch, ---- all to do and plenty of time to do it in.  It is in fact, just my vocation.

            We've just been to see ‘ Honeymoon for Three’ - quite amusing.  I was going to see ‘Rebecca’ again but it was on in some vague suburb of Pompey*, and consequently I changed my mind.

            I went to the Coliseum again last night.  Annette was there again – strip-tease.  I regret to say I got hopelessly tight afterwards.  There were four of us, and I've no idea how we got back again and believe it or not, I was by far the most sober of us all.  After an hour's steady drinking, it developed into a competition, and we started on Brandy and Chablis.  Gertie (Kirkwood) was crawling about under the table before long, and Welsh, a bloke from Plymouth Grammar, looked decidedly ill. Billy Ede has lived most of his life in France & Germany and is consequently rather hardened. After that we got split up and Bill and I later found the others in Gosport trying to climb a pile of sandbags.  I managed to get to bed, but got up again about midnight and had a cold shower which sobered me up considerably. 

            I'll never forget that night.  We're all on Intelligence.  What a crew. I had the devil of a hangover this morning, but luckily it's Saturday so there's ---- all to do.        

            Well, Darling, there's no news as usual.  I hope you managed to get back all right.        

            I've written with some pens in my time, but I've never seen the likes of this one.  The ---- nib keeps getting crossed.        

                                I must say bye bye now Darling as I have to get a bus back to Brockhurst.                                                                                   

                                                                                    All my love,

                                                                                                Darling,

                                                                                                            Dicker

Je t’aime encore de tout mon coeur**.

*Portsmouth

**French - "I love you always with all of my heart"

© Chotie Darling

 

Operation Varsity

At 10.00 am on 24^th March 1945 airborne troops of the 18^th Airborne Corps – British 6^th Airborne Division and the US 17^th Airborne Division -  began dropping behind the enemy lines, north of Wesel and near Hamminkeln.  More than 3,000 planes and gliders, escorted by a thousand allied fighters, dropped over 16,000 troops in three and a half hours – the largest airborne operation in a single day.

They were landing in part of ‘Flak Alley’ (as the RAF called it) - the Ruhr’s defences and were met by an inferno of German anti-aircraft guns taking advantage of the enforced break in Allied artillery fire.

The two airborne divisions attacking in Operation Varsity received more than 2,000 casualties but captured about 3,500 German soldiers.  They also succeeded in severing communications, capturing vital routes and diverting attention from the forces crossing the Rhine.

By nightfall they had joined up with ground forces that had crossed the Rhine, establishing a firm bridgehead on the east bank.

(See the film Operation Varsity : Airborne Invasion East of the Rhine .)

 

Sandy Handley watched Operation Varsity begin from the banks of the River Rhine:

“In the early hours of the next morning the guns had ceased firing and we could actually hear birds singing.  One of the Officers in charge of our section came over to our Daimler and said “Well done men!” although I didn’t think we’d done anything except cringe under the Daimler.  It was really frightening.  I think this Officer was more pleased to think none of us had gone round the bend with the noise and we were glad we weren’t on the receiving end of the bombardment.  Although grovelling about under the vehicles was bad enough - we looked dirty and disheveled.

The officer then said at 10 o’clock this morning the Airborne paratroops and gliders will come over and land on the other side of the river near Wesel and precisely at 10 o’clock we heard a roar which grew louder and louder.  Someone said “Here they come”.  They flew low.  It was one of the greatest memorable sights I have ever seen, unforgettable.  First the paratroopers, then the gliders being towed over this great river. 

As the planes reached the other side the enemy started to fire their anti-aircraft guns, several of the gliders were caught in the flack.  My mate said “Look, the gliders are on fire. There’s men being burned alive up there.”  It was terrible to watch.

 

A day or two after we left the banks of the Rhine and later crossed the Rhine on pontoon bridges ourselves.  We could see the results of all that bombardment – whoever came out of that alive was lucky.”

 

 

(From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy etc 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

The Rhine crossings

“Operation Plunder was a campaign involving logistics, forces and supplies only slightly less considerable than the Normandy landings.”

The Rhine was the last major natural obstacle to the Allied advances in Germany. Although the American’s had already crossed further south the mountainous country there was be difficult for a fast large scale advance. Montgomery’s 21^st Army Group was heading for the North German Plain.

 

At 6.00 pm on 23^rd March 1945 Operation Plunder, the crossing of the Rhine by Monty’s 21^st Army, went into action with a thunderous artillery barrage along the Rhine from Nijmegen to the Ruhr. This was the largest bombardment undertaken by the Royal Artillery during the war involving more than 4,000 pieces of artillery.

 Preparations for the crossing (over 250,000 tons of supplies were amassed near the front) had been obscured by the largest smoke screen ever laid and German airfields were heavily bombed from 21^st to 24^th March to prevent interference from the Luftwaffe.

 The guns of 52^nd Lowland Division, trained on the bank near Wesel, had a particularly important part to play for VII Corps, clearing the German defences for the main crossing - Operation Torchlight.  They were “in the front row of the grandstand at one of the most imposing spectacles ever staged.”  For a while General Eisenhower himself watched the operation from within the Division’s beat.

 At nightfall the RAF saturated Wesel with 1,000 tons of high explosive.

 

At 8.30 pm Operation Turnscrew commenced. 51^st Highland Division, spearheaded the northern attack across the river near Rees for General Horrocks’ XXX Corps, who held a 12 mile front between Wesel and Rees.  Turnscrew was primarily a diversion for the main attack to the south.  However, the 51^st met with fierce resistance and Rees was not taken until 36 hours after their crossing.

 

At 10.00 pm 1^st Commando Brigade, consisting of 3, 6, 45 and 46 Commando and ‘A’ Squadron of 52^nd Recce, stealthily set off across the 300 yard wide river near Wesel in Operation Widgeon.  They crossed in Buffalos (amphibious LVTs – tracked Landing Vehicles), DUKWs and small assault boats.

‘A’ Squadron’s task was to provide beach control parties for the Commandos, keeping up communications from the right bank with the left during the battle for Wesel.  They also had to paddle back and forth across the Rhine in their canvas assault boats picking up any survivors from boats hit by enemy fire.

The Commandos made their way in single file toward Wesel until they were only one kilometre outside the town.  There they waited as at 10.20 am the RAF again attacked Wesel, lighting the town with flares and following up with bombs.  The Commando sent one message “Noisy blighters aren’t they?  We have taken position so-and-so and have met no trouble” before resuming radio silence.

By late morning on 24^th March the Commandos had secured most of what remained of Wesel. Of the 1,600 men who crossed the Rhine with 1^st Commando Brigade 11 were killed, 17 missing and 68 wounded.

 

At 2.00 am on Saturday 24^th March the 15^th (Scottish) Division landed on the east bank of the Rhine, north of Wesel, commencing Operation Torchlight.  They made good progress and by nightfall had linked up with Airborne forces dropped behind the German lines – the 6^th Airborne.

 

To the south the US 30^th Division (‘Old Hickory’) of Lt-General William Simpson’s 9^th Army, crossed the Rhine between Wesel and Rheinberg.  One hour later, at 3.00 am, the US 79^th Division (‘the Cross of Lorraine’) from 9^th Army set off from south of Rheinberg for the east bank of the river.  These attacks over an 11 mile front south of Wesel (Operation Flashpoint) guarded the right flank of the main Rhine crossings.

(From ‘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; 'Mountain and Flood: the History of the 52nd (Lowland) Division by George Blake; Jackson, Son and Company 1950;  ‘Only the Enemy in Front Every other beggar behind…’ The Recce Corps at War 1940-1946’ by Richard Doherty, Tom Donovan Publishing Ltd 1994 and ‘The Fighting Fifty-Second Recce’ by Carl Shilleto, Eskdale Publishing 2001)

 

Sandy Handley had a ringside seat for the Rhine crossing:

“On the 23^rd March ’45 our Troop Leader informed us that an artillery barrage was about to start.  Guns of the artillery were wheel to wheel, as they said, along the Rhine.  Some figure was given us of 5,000 pieces of artillery, rocket launchers, 25 pounders, 105 mm, the lot.  By now we were on the banks of the Rhine opposite the town of Wesel.  The river at this point was 400 yards across.  An Army bulldozer had scooped out a big ditch for our Daimler so we were well down with our turret just peeping over the Rhine, although through the dense smoke screen we couldn’t see much.  All the time the canon and rockets were being fired - the noise was deafening.

Our Officer came to our car and had to shout above the noise.  He told us this barrage was only the beginning; he said at 11 o’clock pm ALL THE LOT was going to open up.  At 11 o’clock we found out what he meant!  The noise was terrible, my nerves were getting a bit jaded.  There we were, in front of all these guns, yards from the actual river.  I suggested to the other chap we go under the Daimler, which we did, scooping ourselves a little dugout.  We thought the deeper we dug the more safe we were (I felt like a mole).

This barrage had begun at 6pm and went on to the early hours the next day.  Now and again we were required to send back a radio message.  It was supposed to have been in special code.  This code was pretty complicated (to me anyway).  I’d never had to use it at any time since we landed 9 months previously with the 61^st recce in June ’44.  The code arrangement consisted of a card with various words of the message, each with an alternative word.  Well, working that out with all the noise I thought “No way!”.  So I just relayed my message in general phonetic terms.  I didn’t even confirm the message with the Officer and the Officer didn’t bother to confirm with me after.  I couldn’t have been so top priority.  At times like these certain things didn’t go text book fashion.” 

At 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning I dropped off to sleep exhausted.  I had experienced these artillery barrages since we landed but this was the Daddy of them all. “

(From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy etc 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

52nd (Lowland) Reconnaissance

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      52^nd (Lowland) Reconnaissance Regiment

 

On 7^th February 1945 Dick joined the 52^nd (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 52^nd 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 21^st September 52^nd Recce worked with the 101^st US Airborne to hold the narrow corridor from Eindhoven to Nijmegen ('Hell's Highway') and were on ‘The Island’ when 61^st Recce arrived there on the 24th of September .

The 52^nd 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 52^nd Recce close to the German border at Schinveld, north of Brunnsum and near Geilenkirchen.  The Regiment remained here defending the British 2^nd Army right flank until 11^th 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 52^nd (Lowland) Division. 52^nd 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 5^th 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 52^nd as re-inforcements.  52^nd (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 52^nd (Lowland) Recce Regt RAC February 1945

– Lt Col J.B.A. Hankey OBE

Date 7^th  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 61^st 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.)

 

On 7^th February 1945 the Germans blew the floodgates in the Ruhr preventing the imminent advance of the Allies west of Cologne and forcing most of the British Second Army into a ‘holding phase’.  However, Canadian forces advanced from the north and the US Ninth Army from the south to clear the area west of the Rhine.  

'Shocking Country'

On 11^th January La Roche-en-Ardennes south and east of the River Ourthe is captured by XXX Corps’ 51^st Highland Division.  On the other side of the Ourthe US 1^st Army clears the area of enemy.

At Bande (between La Roche-en-Ardennes and Rochefort) 1^st Canadian Battalion, who were working with the 6^th Airborne, discover the bodies of 34 civilians massacred by German troops on Christmas Eve.

 

Colonel Brownrigg continues his account of the deeds of Lieutenant Spreag:

“The next dayLieutenant Spreag, now with Lieutenant Abercrombie, walked 20 miles through shocking country beset with mines to contact the British Divisions to the north.  When they reached the Airborne Brigadier* he was so impressed that he at once offered them jobs.  By the end of their two-day two-man operation they had walked over 50 miles.”

*Possibly Brigadier Edwin Flavell of 6^th Airlanding Brigade or Brigadier James Hill of 3^rd Parachute Brigade or Brigadier Nigel Poett of 5^th Parachute Brigade who were involved in the Battle of Bure (see Senior Officers of 6th Airborne Division with Field Marshal Montgomery .)

 

On 12^th January – British and US forces link up in Roche-en-Ardennes.

The US 1^st Army capture villages a few kilometres north of Houffalize and establish a bridgehead near Malmedy.

‘Despite the snow, the cold, the landmines and the roadblocks, as well as German defensive actions, the British troops continued their advance and hampered the withdrawal plans of the German troops, trying to escape from the pincer movement of the Allied armies.’

(From The British in the Battle of the Ardennes and Brits in the Ardennes.) 

'B' Squadron's Assault Troop

On 23^rd October Eric writes: “Slack went away as he got hurt from last night’s do (see Eric’s diary for 22nd October) but I think he will be OK.” (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 

WAR DIARY of 61 Recce Regt RAC October 1944

– Lt Col P.H.A. Brownrigg

Date 24th     Place DRIEL

‘Last night was again quiet and today nothing was heard until 1345 hrs when two spandaus opened fire from 704747 and 704755.  They were engaged by our Mortars and silenced.

501* RCT (?) on our left sent a patrol across the NEDER RIJN tonight.’

*the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the US 101st Airborne (‘Screaming Eagles’).

 

WAR DIARY of 61 Recce Regt RAC October 1944

– Lt Col P.H.A. Brownrigg

Date 25th     Place DRIEL

‘The enemy’s policy is still to be low during the day and confine his activities to mortaring and shelling only.  Today has been very quiet again though the inevitable movement started at last light. 

At 1935 hrs an enemy patrol worked its way behind our outpost at 707764.  It was then seen and engages by “B” Squadron assault troop with good results, and some hits were scored.  They were driven back over the railway line taking their casualties with them. 

Apart from Small Arms fire on the railway opposite 13 Troop and some good harassing fire on known enemy localities by 124 Forward Regiment the remainder of the night was peaceful.’

The action involving 'B' Squadron's Assault Troop (Eric Brewer's Troop) sounds remarkably like the event described by Eric in his diary for 22nd October. 

Rescuing the British Airborne

Sandy Handley remembers watching for escaped British Airborne:

“Another place in the area our troop had to go to was a small village.  I can’t think of the name, may have been Mary Magdalene.  Our job was to keep a lookout for any of our Airborne chaps who’d managed to get away from the Germans. 

This part of the river was 10 to 15 ft wide.  We had a lookout in the attic of a house which overlooked another building on the other side. We could actually see Germans scuttling about; we had a good target for a grenade or a machine gun but the Officer ordered no firing.  These enemy then disappeared.  I think maybe our Regiment was a bit spread out so maybe we didn’t start anything which we couldn’t follow up. 

The situation seemed to relax a bit and some of the men wandered away from their vehicles.  I sat in my Gunner’s seat on our Humber and started to write to my parents.  Our vehicle was stationary beside a Church with heavy iron railings, all of a sudden we were mortared; the men who had wandered off came running back to the cover of the vehicles.  There was a terrific explosion as one of their mortar bombs came down.  I crouched down.  After a time all went quiet and I peeped over the turret and saw the iron railings were cracked in half and lying on the ground.  I think another couple of inches and our Humber, with me in it, would have gone the same.  I felt too shaky to finish my letter.  After this everyone was ordered to remain with the vehicles.” (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

 

On 22^nd/23^rd October 1944 more than 100 British Airborne troops, who had been hiding in German occupied territory north of the Lower Rhine, were rescued near Renkum, (a village east of Arnhem, c. 6 km from Driel).  This operation involved Canadian engineers and the famous ‘Easy Company’ (2^nd battalion, 506^th Parachute Infantry Regiment, US 101^st Airborne – see 'Band of Brothers' ). The rescued men were flown back to the UK and reunited with their comrades who had escaped in Operation Berlin a month ago.

'C' Squadron Patrol

 

WAR DIARY of 61 Recce Regt RAC October 1944

– Lt Col P.H.A. Brownrigg

Date 9th       Place HERVELD area

‘ “B” & “C” Squadrons positions were reviewed and improved during the day.  “C” Squadron’s outpost on the Island SOUTH of HIEN 5769 reported movement on a number of barges which are moored in the creek SOUTH of DODEWAARD (west of Herveld on the Waal).  Intermittent shelling of the whole area throughout the day increased to heavy concentrations SOUTH of 17 Troop’s positions on the railway at 1800 hours.  This was followed by an attempted penetration of the American Forward Defence Lines further WEST at 1820 hours.  Two SP juns and a few infantry were employed by the enemy, though it is difficult to see just what he hoped to achieve by this abortive mission.  Though some American outposts were withdrawn the whole situation was stabilised by 1900 hours.

15 Troop of “C” Squadron have confirmed the number of barges in the DODEWAARD as being 15.  The night was quiet.’  

 

 WAR DIARY of 61 Recce Regt RAC October 1944

– Lt Col P.H.A. Brownrigg

Date 10th     Place HERVELD area

‘At 900 hrs “C” Squadron sent out a Recce patrol on foot to investigate the barges at 555693.  The patrol – consisting of 2 NCOs – had not returned by 1000 hrs so the to commander – 2/Lt J. ARNOTT – and 1 OR (Other Rank) set off to investigate.  The OP covering them heard the sound of shots and subsequently saw a figure being pulled along the ground by some Germans.  It is feared that all have been made PW (Prisoners of War).  On the rest of the front the day has been generally quiet with a noticeable decrease in enemy shelling.’

 

61^st Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on this day:

          Corporal Roy George Whitehouse (age 23) formerly of the North Staffordshire Regiment who is mentioned on the Groesbeek Memorial (south-east of Nijmegen).

            Trooper John William Gridley (age 20) of Ilford Essex, formerly of the 61^st Training Unit who is laid to rest in the Assisi War Cemetery, south-west of Perugia in Italy.(?) 

who is laid to rest in the Mierlo War Cemetery, east of Eindhoven. (See 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch.) 

We will remember them.

 

 

 

WAR DIARY of 61 Recce Regt RAC October 1944

– Lt Col P.H.A. Brownrigg

Date 11th     Place HERVELD

'Today has been generally quiet with only intermittent shelling of the Forward Defence Lines.  “A” Squadron relieved “C” Squadron  during the day without incident.

Some news of the missing personnel has been received from an American Outpost in the HIEN area (west of Herveld near Dodewaard).  The first patrol was apparently surprise by a party of Germans and taken prisoner.  The second was ambushed and both members wounded.  The Officer was subsequently seen limping away with his captors and 2 SBs (subordinates?) carrying a stretcher.'

 

61^st Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on this day:

          Trooper Maurice Raine (age 19) of West Hartlepool, County Durham    

who is laid to rest in the Utrecht (Soestbergen) General Cemetery (Utrecht is south of Amsterdam). PoW.

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

We will remember them.

The ‘Koynell’ - Monday 9th October 1944

There are a few US 101st Airborne Colonels that Dick could be referring to in this letter (more if the Lieutenant-Colonels are included).  Colonel Gerald J. Higgins was HQ Chief of Staff, Acting Colonel Ewell was commanding Officer of the 501^st Parachute Infantry Regiment from 8^th October, Colonel John Michaelis was CO of the 502^nd PIR, Colonel Robert F. Sink of the 506^th PIR and Colonel Joseph Harper was CO of the 327^th Glider Infantry regiment (from the Paratrooper Research Team.) 

 

61^st Recce Regt RAC, BLA.

Monday Oct 10^th (sic)

Chotie Darling,

                                                Many thanks for letters received this morning dated the 5^th and 3^rd (?).  I sent you a field post card yesterday as I was rather pushed for time and expected to be even more pushed today.  However, thing’s seldom turn out as expected and today I have plenty of time, as I’m working as Liaison Officer with an American Colonel.

            Sorry to hear you just missed meeting your father in Bristol – better luck next time.  Also sorry to hear of your move back to Bristol area, as you had your feet so well under* in the farm!

            Things are just beginning to look Autumnal here though it’s much later in these parts.  A lot of trees have been shot-up of course which is rather misleading.

            I didn’t know Bluain’s husband was an airborne type.  Glad to hear he got out OK – also that Ted is still alive and kicking.

            Colston Hall* is certainly a consolation for returning to Bristol – I haven’t heard a thing for ages.

            I shouldn’t volunteer to go abroad as you’ll probably go to Egypt or somewhere and you’ll never get demobbed.  However it’s up to you, of course.  I believe Diller was toying with the idea.

            Weather has been very pleasant here for the last few days – genuine October weather in fact.  The countryside is deadly flat but quite picturesque owing to such pretty farmhouses and windmills.

            I’m desperately short of tobacco at the moment as my supply from home is still in the post – 9 wks!  Brinner sent me some from Base but he’s not able to get much himself, and I’m smoking quite a bit these days – needless to say.  If you could possibly send me some duty-free it would be very welcome Darling (….) and I’ll send you a cheque as soon as my new cheque-book arrives.

            I must have spoken too soon about the weather as it’s just started to rain.  I’ve now retired into my armoured car where I started this letter.  It’s frightfully cramped for this sort of thing.  Hope it doesn’t last.

            Spent three days with a very nice family in a large town recently.  We were harboured in an orchard and Geoff Winser and myself were offered a room and a bed apiece.  Needless to say we soon had our feet under** and spent a very enjoyable time there.

            Must close here, as I have to meet the ‘Koynell’.                         

                                                All my love,ChotieDarling                                                               

                                                                                    Dicker.

 

In early October Chotie appears to have moved back to the Bristol area

Her address was now:

W/242328 Pte Chalkley B.E. .

“B” Troop

462. “Hy” M. A.A. Bty. R.A.

Woodlands Camp

Almondsbury

Bristol

Almondsbury is north of Bristol and Woodlands appears to be an area west of here, now the junction of the M4 and M5.

* http://www.colstonhall.org/ Bristol’s concert hall.

**short for ‘feet under the table’ meaning comfortable and welcomed in someone else’s home. Dean Farm near Cheltenham had obviously been hospitable to their ATS lodger.

  © Chotie Darling

 

 

The Screaming Eagles

The 101^st Airborne Division, ‘the Screaming Eagles’, is renowned for its role in Operation Overlord, Operation Market garden and the Battle of the Bulge.  It has since paid a prominent role in many military campaigns and is one of the most highly decorated units in the US Army.

 

 

WAR DIARY of 61 Recce Regt RAC October 1944

– Lt Col P.H.A. Brownrigg

Date 8th       Place HERVELD (west of Elst)

‘The Regiment – less “A” Echelon – crossed NIJMEGEN bridge at 1030 hours and came under command of 101 US Airborne Division.  We are based on HERVELD 6369 and RHQ and “A” Squadron are located there.  “B” & “C” Squadrons are forward.  The area lends itself easily to defence and Squadrons are mainly behind the American FDLs (Forward Defense Lines?) with the armoured car and some carrier troops forming mobile outposts looking WEST and NORTH over the NEDER RIJN.  In addition “C” Squadron assault troop and “B” Squadron Anti-tank Battery have formed a block on the railway at 580714.  The area was taken over from 52 Recce Regiment* and the relief completed by 1600 hours.  The remainder of the day was fairly quiet with only intermittent shelling of the FDLs.’

*Dick’s future regiment

 

Dick was now on ‘the Island’ again.

The regiment remained near Herveld until 13^th October 1944.

 

Eric Brewer’s diary for 8^th October records: “two counter attacks also shelling which has increased.” (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

Sandy Handley recalls “After the Arnhem do we was used for line holding, watching long stretches of river or open ground for which our mobility and communications were well suited.  We were sometimes supporting the 101 American Airborne.  Later we had a series of ordinary infantry positions in the lowland between Arnhem and Nijmegen.” (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

 

 

Field Service postcard sent to Chotie by Dick on 8th October 1944.

With the Yank Airborne

WAR DIARY of 61 Recce Regt RAC October 1944

– Lt Col P.H.A. Brownrigg

Date 6th       Place ELST area        NIJMEGEN

'The regiment moved from divisional reserve SOUTH of the River Waal to our old harbour SOUTH of NIJMEGEN.  By 1400 hrs “A” Squadron were the only sub-unit NORTH of the river.  Efforts were made to have “A” relieved, but the relief was not completed until 2200 hrs.  The day has been generally quiet with some slight shelling of NIJMEGEN at last light.'

 

Dick was now south of Nijmegen again,

away from the front line.

 

WAR DIARY of 61 Recce Regt RAC October 1944

– Lt Col P.H.A. Brownrigg

Date 7th       Place NIJMEGEN

'Today has been devoted to bathing, maintenance etc.  We have been warned that we return to the ‘Island’ tomorrow, it is believed to the WESTERN sector.'

 

Reg Harper tells of trying to back to Nijmegen to have a bath where Regional HQ ‘had their feet under the table in civvy billets’ by pretending he needed to take a truck back.  Unfortunately he encountered the legendary ‘Towrope’ Captain Joe Meredith, the Technical Adjutant who had organised the water-proofing of vehicles for D Day and who wasn’t to be fooled. Corporal Harper was sent packing, back north over Nijmegen Bridge to ‘the Island’.  (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 Tony Rampling remembers just how important a bath might seem: 

Washing and Shaving

“Well we obviously didn’t wash very much.  They tried to get us to shave, which we did under pressure.  I actually grew a moustache to make myself look a bit older because I looked quite a boy I think.  By and large we stank so much, that, well you wouldn’t have come near us.”  From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61^st Recce (pers comm).

 

On 6^th October Eric Brewer of 61^st Recce’s ‘B’ Squadron Assault Troop wrote in his diary:  “Moved to Arnhem.  Prisoners are only 15 years old with about 6 weeks’ service in.   Plenty of spando fire.  Our guns have been firing all the time.  We are with the Yank Airborne.”

On 7^th October he was:  “Still at Arnhem, east of it” (and remained there until the 9^th). “Gerry put in 4 counter attacks today, also plenty of shelling.  We are with the Yank airborne – they are a fine lot of chaps.” (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 

Roy Howard explained: ‘Owing to manpower shortages in the British 2^nd Army, US 82^nd and 101^st Airborne Divisions were moved north of the Waal to the ‘Island’ to hold the tip of the salient with 61^st Reconnaissance regiment; and remained there until the end of November.  In this period their losses equalled those taken during the Airborne phase.  They became a much blooded Division’.    

The 101^st Airborne Division spent 72 days in combat in the Netherlands from the start of Market Garden  to late November 1944.  They suffered 1,682 casualties in the defensive fighting on ‘the Island’ alone.

(From “March to Victory: Guide to World War II Battles and Battlefields from London to the Rhine” by John T Bookman and Stephen T Powers, published by Haynes in 1986 and “Race for the Rhine Bridges 1940 1944 1945” by Alexander Mckee, published by Souvenir Press 1971.)

 

Eisenhower, Monty and Browning

“Monty stood up in his car,

Having espied from afar

‘Chutes in trees and gliders wrecked,

Arnhem: he gave cigarettes.”

(From ‘Destination Berlin’ by Major Frank Harding MC, in ‘War echoes over thirty years’ published by Arthur Stockwell, 1970)

 

On 25^th September Eric Brewer recorded “Monty and Eisenhower also Chief of the Airborne ('Boy' Browning) stopped and spoke to us today; asked if we were getting our food OK, also if there were any complaints.  He gave us 2,500 fags between us and also told us we were being transferred from being called the 61^st recce to the 50^th.” (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 

Don Aiken’s account of 61^st Recce and Market Garden mentions a similar incident:

“17th September - Advance on left flank of 30 Corps to Mol and Valkenswald
18th September - Hasselt and Eindhoven (link up with US 101st Airborne)
19th September - Grave (link up with US 82nd Airborne)
20th September - Cross Nijmegen Bridge over the River Waal
22nd September - Elst
24th September - South bank of Rhine (west of Arnhem)
Until 17th October - Continuous patrols on "Island" (between Arnhem and Nijmegen)

September 1944
It had been decided to strike up through Holland on a narrow front in an attempt to seize a corridor which would reach over the Rhine and into Germany; opening up the way to Berlin.
Airborne Troops were dropped on a line up through Holland with the objective of capturing all the bridges on the line of advance.
XXX Corps would quickly create the corridor and take over from the airborne troops. The first line of smaller bridges was to be captured by the US Airborne; and the last one (at Arnhem) was to be taken by the British Airborne Troops.
Initially everything went quite well. The advance progressed rapidly; and it was during this time, whilst we were moving up behind the Guards Armoured Division, and in a period when our advance had been cut off by a German attack, that Monty stopped his staff-car, had a few words with us and handed out some packets of fags.
Very welcome !

In a few days XXX Corps had arrived at Nijmegen and captured the large bridge over the Waal. When we arrived at Nijmegen the battle for Arnhem, a few miles up the road, was taking place. This was doomed to failure, as history knows, and I won't add to it here.
The result was that the whole advance bogged down and, with the approaching winter, conditions would soon be unfit to make a further assault to cross the Rhine. We took up various defensive positions along the perimeter of our territory and a few minor successes were achieved up and down the line but it became obvious that we weren't going anywhere for a while.”

(Extract  republished from 'From the Breakout to the Rhine' by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

Sandy Handley recalled:

“We eventually went over Nijmegen Bridge.  By that time the airborne drop had turned out very badly, so many casualties.”

(From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

 

Casualties

24^th September – Urquhart’s wounded are evacuated under medical truce leaving him with 1,800 troops of the 10,000 that landed.  315 men of the Dorsetshire Regiment (Dick's first regiment ) cross the Lower Rhine and briefly hold part of Westerbowing, near Heveadorp (south-west of Oosterbeek). 200 are captured but two reach Urquehart with the plans for evacuation the following night.

At nightfall on 25th September Urquhart’s men are evacuated crossing the Lower Rhine in little boats under heavy fire (Operation Berlin - Arnhem).  Many of the Airborne who made it to the other side of the river were met by former comrades who had, like Dick, joined 43rd Recce from the Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron.  (From From ‘Operation Market Garden, Netherlands 17th – 25th September 1944’ 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)

Eric Postles records that 61st Recce's 'B' Squadron was supporting the 43rd Division Infantry in this rescue: "When it became clear that the Arnhem Bridge was beyond 30 Corps reach our squadron was moved to join 43 Division infantry where we protected their right flank as they advanced to the Waal, crossed it and helped the Airborne survivors back from the Osterbeek area.  The crossing place was just downstream from Driel and the attack took place at night using moonlight (searchlights on cloud) and Bofar gun tracer to mark the boundaries.  43 Division crossed the river and surviving Airborne troops were brought back but the cost in lives of the 43 Division infantry was heavy.  I remember seeing a field full of parachutes of different colours used to identify the contents of the containers, which had been dropped on the wrong side of the river."  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Of the 10,000 British troops that had landed in Market Garden that ‘bridge too far’ had lost almost 8,000.  Only 2,163 were safely evacuated in Operation Berlin (1,741 from British 1^st Airborne and 422 from the Glider Pilot Regiment) with 160 Polish paratroopers and 75 Dorset infantry men. 240 escaped later with the help of the Dutch resistance.  1,485 were killed in action or died of wounds while 6,525 were captured or missing. Less than 8% of the supplies intended for the British Airborne had reached them.

The American airborne had approximately 3,200 casualties (2,100 for the 101^st and 1,100 for the 82^nd).

Market Garden had involved over 20,000 paratroopers and more than 13,500 glidermen.  862 aircraft crew were lost.

On the ground XXX Corps had taken 1,480 casualties.

 

On 24^th September Roy Howard of ‘A’ Squadron notes that 61^st Recce were on the south bank of the Rhine, west of Arnhem, and kept up continuous patrols on ‘the Island’ until 17^th October. 

Eric Brewer, who had been in the section of 61^st Recce left behind when the Germans intercepted the XXX Corps salient, recorded that 61^st Recce “shifted to the flank, plenty of mortar shelling and spandos.  A few Gerry prisoners taken today. Also woman.”

(From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 

61^st Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on 24^th September 1944:

          Major Stanley George Alexander (age 34) of Tetbury, Gloucestershire     

who is laid to rest in the Mierlo War Cemetery, east of Eindhoven. (See 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch.)

We will remember them.

 

There were other 61^st Recce casualties from Arnhem – Major Rayor lost a leg when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine on ‘the Island’ during the advance towards Arnhem.

Tony Macotta, who had been Colonel Mount’s Adjutant planning for the invasion, took over Major Alexander’s role as commander of 61^st Recce’s HQ Squadron (see Colonel Brownrigg’s obituary for Tony in ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’).

Across the river

 23^rd September – Urquhart’s paratroopers and airlanding men at Oosterbeek are increasingly pressed by the surrounding Germans who are held off by the guns of XXX Corps across the river. Another 200 Polish paratroopers join the beleaguered troops north of the Lower Rhine. (From From ‘Operation Market Garden, Netherlands 17th – 25th September 1944’)

 

50^th (Northumbrian) Division were tasked with capturing Bemmel, a village on the ‘Island’ between the Lower Rhine and the Waal, south-east of Elst, where the Guards were still embattled.  By 25^th September they had achieved this but were kept under heavy artillery fire by the Germans.  (From TT 50th Infantry Division.) 

 

Anthony Rampling remembers watching Germans north of the river:

Attics at Arnhem

“When we got near Arnhem we got up into the attics of houses on the side of the river and took some tiles off the roof and could see the Germans the other side, scuttling around.  We didn’t obviously fire at them because that would have drawn fire back onto us – just observed from the attics.  I always remember in the attics there was tobacco leaves hanging up.”  From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61^st Recce (pers comm).

 

According to Roy Howard the supply line for XXX Corps had again been cut, this time at Sint Oedenrode, south-west of Veghel.  Eric Brewer records: “Shelled to where Gerry broke through but not much doing, plenty of shelling through the night.” (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

Dick’s future regiment, 52^nd (Lowland) Recce, now east of Grave near Oss, were also engaged in heavy fighting to defend the corridor as the Germans pressed in hard from both sides.

Ted's crowd - Thursday 21st September 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

B.L.A.

Thursday Sept 21^st

Chotie Darling,

                                    Just a few lines (as there’s no news*) to let you know I’m OK and still fighting fit(?)

            I hope your course has softened down a bit (as you should be more used to it by now) and that you’re enjoying your first visit to Scotland.  I never managed to get to Edinburgh when I had my course in Scotland, though I managed to get to Glasgow.

            My hand’s still shaking from testing a new armoured car we’ve received.  It’s funny how driving a car fast makes the old hands so wobbly.

            Heard from Diller this morning from home, where she’s on leave – including a footprint (in ink) of Michael*….Heavy nostalgia!

            Very pleasant house I’m in, writing this – a well-to-do surgeon’s town-house, English Georgian style – front-door on the pavement.  Some very good prints of the Flemish masters.  The countryside here is very dull, being quite flat but the small towns and villages we visit from time to time are very interesting. 

        Managed to buy a fountain pen yesterday for 100f. (10/-) – really very cheap.  I’ve saved about £100 since D-day so I must have a fling occasionally.

        My mate Geoff Winzer hasn’t yet caught us up again nor Jimmy Waddell, who’s still in England.  There’s only about 50% officers with us now – which makes life much duller.  To compensate this however, the area we’re now in is much more interesting, more people, shops & BEER!

        Ted’s crowd are the originators of this new push, though I haven’t yet met him.  Is he still in action?

                Must close here, Darling, for tea

                                    Much love

                                                            Dicker

 

*Dick had to censor the letters of his men and so would have censored his own as he wrote them, leaving out anything that would indicate his unit was involved in Market Garden and possibly trying to put any interceptor off the scent.

**The Williams family dog – I think.

 © Chotie Darling

 

On Arnhem bridge, although fighting had continued through the night, the airborne troops were over-run and forced to scatter through Arnhem.  Most were taken prisoner including Freddie Gough (who later escaped in 1945).  German traffic was now able to cross the bridge to engage and halt the advancing Guards of XXX Corps at Elst (between Arnhem and Nijmegen).  The 1^st Polish Parachute Brigade dropped at Driel, on the south bank of the Nederrijn (Lower Rhine), under heavy fire from the Germans.

52^nd Recce, Dick’s future regiment, arrives in Son en Breugel on the Wilheminakanaal and comes under the command of 101^st Airborne Division.  They move up to Grave on the north-west tip of the salient.

 

Eric Brewer of 61st Recce ‘B’ squadron is moving up Hell’s Highway:  “Moved at 4.30 in the morning to Holland.  Went through to Andover (Eindhoven?) to a place called Halover.  Went out on Recce but things quiet, a few vehicles knocked out here.”  (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004).

Onto 'The Island'

By 20th September although Urquhart’s 1^st Airborne Division were holding their defensive position at Oosterbeek, Colonel Frost’s base was being blown apart and he was wounded.  Major Freddie Gough of the Airborne Recce took command, negotiating a truce for the 400 wounded to be taken into German care.

By evening the Nijmegen road bridge on the Waal was at last in Allied hands and the Guards Armoured Division crossed the bridge.   They were only 8 miles from Arnhem but they were on ‘the Island’, low-lying land between the Lower Rhine (Nederrijn) and it’s distributary the River Waal. ‘The fields are too soft for tanks and the roads are on dikes that split the fields which make the tanks very easy targets since there is no room to manoeuvre and they can be spotted from miles.’ (See ‘Operation Market Garden, Netherlands 17th – 25th September 1944’ and  Market Garden 1944-2014.)

Soon to follow them were some of the men of 61st Recce but not all. 

Colonel Brownrigg’s account of 61^st Recce has only a brief reference to Market Garden:

“Next we were involved in the dash towards Arnhem.  ‘A’ Squadron made early acquaintance with the Nijmegen Bridge while the rest of the Regiment was temporarily cut in two when German tanks cut the one road north.” (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

Sandy Handley just says: “Our A Squadron was the first of the 61^st Recce to cross Nijmegen Bridge.  Our part of the convoy was cut off, held up by enemy tanks” (from Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished).

Eric Postles remembered:  "The area was nicknamed 'The Island' because the Rhine forked into the Waal and the Arnhem leg and the Neder Rijn passed through Nijmegen.  The area was within range of the German artillery and they fired a lot of airburst shells, probably because the boggy ground made High Explosive shells less effective.  Airburst shells were particularly nasty as they exploded above you."  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

Hell's Highway

19^th September 1944 –Urquhart’s airborne forces fail to break through to those on the bridge at Arnhem and are forced to withdraw to the HQ at Oosterbeek.  Frost’ s men are under increasing pressure on the north end of the bridge. Low-flying RAF transport planes trying to support the airborne forces receive many casualties.

The Guards Armoured Division leading XXX Corps crosses the Son Bailey bridge and reaches Grave on the Maas River, south-west of Nijmegan, meeting up with 82^nd Airborne and adding their strength to the assaults on Nijmegan road bridge.  As XXX Corps advances the US Airborne Divisions come under General Horrocks'  command.   (See ‘Operation Market Garden, Netherlands 17th – 25th September 1944’.) 

 

61st Recce with the 50^th (Northumbrian) Division were protecting the left flank of the Guards Armoured Division as far as the town of Grave, and were then with the 101^st Airborne. (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 

Eric Postles recorded:

"The next objectives were at Grave, Nijmegen and Arnhem, which involved American and British Airborne Operations.  The operation was codenamed Market Garden.  82 American Airborne Division captured the Nijmegen Bridge and the Guards Armoured Division tanks crossed and helped them to hold it.  The tanks moved on to the Arnhem road towards Elst, trying to get to the Arnhem Bridge where British 1^st Airborne Division and the Poles had dropped to capture it.  Our squadron moved up with the tanks and infantry but progress was slow.  The Germans had reinforced the area, the road was above ground level with ditches and flooded ground on either side and the weather deteriorated preventing us getting air support.  I remember our Divisional heavy machine gunners (the Cheshires) lined up pouring fire from their steaming guns.  We were regularly getting cut off and some troops from the regiment had to help 101 US airborne keep our lines intact by counter attacks."  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Anthony Rampling remembers:

The route up to Arnhem was terrible – the 101^st Airborne called it ‘Hell’s Highway’.

Hell's Highway

“When the paras landed at Arnhem it was soon realised that it was going to be a disaster and we were ordered to get up to Arnhem as soon as possible.

We went along a route from Antwerp to Arnhem, getting over bridges etc, which were being shelled by the Germans and this route is now called ‘Hell’s Highway’ because of the incessant fire from mortars and shells.  As we got to these bridges we had to go across very quickly and they had a break in between because the bridges were being shelled all the time.

As we got to Arnhem we managed to get to the landing zones which were littered with smashed up gliders, parachutes everywhere, on a place called Ginkel Heath (sic*) which was about a 3,000 acre area of shrub and gorseland – ideal landing zone.  Everybody jumped out of their armoured cars, cut bits out of the parachutes to put round their necks.  After having this coarse uniform it was some comfort to have a silk scarf.”   From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61^st Recce (pers comm).

*Tony may be referring to the US Airborne drop zones and not Ginkel Heath, which is north of the Lower Rhine and did not come into Allied hands until much later?  He says:  “I remember British equipment, and a huge expanse of land with broken gliders and parachutes.”

 

The ‘Hell’s Highway’ route was cut by the Germans several times.  The planned route, Highway 69, was two lanes wide, generally raised above the surrounding flat terrain of polder. The ground on either side of the highway was often too soft to support vehicles movement and there were numerous dykes and drainage ditches. Observation was seriously restricted because the dykes tended to be topped by trees or large bushes and roads and paths were lined with trees.  The single road caused enormous logistical difficulties and Allied intelligence was unaware of the crack German troops in the area. (From Market Garden 1944-2014 and Wikipedia)

‘This latest Airborne effort’ - Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th September 1944

On 18^th September XXX Corps continued their advance, liberating Eindhoven, then linking up with the US 101^st Airborne Division and starting work on a Bailey Bridge* over the Son.  They were now 18 hours behind schedule.  (See Market Garden 1944-2014.)

82^nd Airborne had secured all its bridges except the Nijmegen road bridge where the Germans held firm.

Although more British airborne troops landed the Germans held their drop zone on Ginkel Heath (north-west of Arnhem), by the end of the afternoon so they could not be re-supplied.  Those airborne troops already landed were engaged in fierce fighting and gradually being surrounded.  Colonel Frost’s isolated troops on Arnhem bridge successfully stopped German vehicles from crossing.

*the British portable, pre-fabricated truss bridge invented during WW2 and developed in Christchurch, Dorset.

 

61^st Recce’s ‘A’ Squadron were involved in finding routes from Valkenswaard for the tanks and Roy Howard mentions that it was the Household Cavalry that first met up with 101^st Airborne Division at Woensel, between Eindhoven and Son. (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 

 

Letter written on Monday 18^th and Tuesday 19^th September 1944

 61^st Recce Regt RAC

BLA

Monday Sept 18^th

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for your letter received a couple of days ago.  There’s nothing much of any real interest to tell you – no current news, anyhow.

            We’ve been much luckier of late in getting into some towns instead of the old perpetual fields and orchards.  Have spent several days recently in or near a small town (Wimborne* size) and been able to get a harbour and several other necessities.

            There are plenty of pubs here, and although they are still called cafés, they correspond much more to our conception of a pub.  They also have the excellent idea of having the barbers inside the pub itself so that you can have a pint or two whilst waiting your turn.  Altogether a very happy solution to this queueing problem.

            A lot of my troop have bought scent and powder with enticing Paris labels – but personally I’ve avoided buying any as I don’t trust them.  One of my blokes bought three bottles which cost him 1000 f (£5) which is obviously Black Market stuff.  Maybe I’m sceptical – as usual.

            I’ve been trying to read my Mozart, which is pretty heavy going, being in French.  It’s an excellent book, however, so I’m persevering.  I also have a copy of ‘Gentlemen prefer Blondes**’ in French, which is quite amusing but less instructive.

            Have met a lot of Ted’s crowd*** but haven’t yet contacted him.

            Brinner is still at Base as far as I know – he’ll probably still be there when we get the final ‘cease firing’. 

             I imagine Johnny Jones is with this latest Airborne effort.  Did you hear anything of him when you were on leave?  I haven’t heard a thing.

            We now manage to get a better variety of food, than hitherto – eggs & tomatoes**** (hundreds of them) instead of the endless run of sausage-meat.  We also get a few mushrooms from time to time.  Must close here to do some work.

                                    All my love

                                                Darling

                                                            Dicker

Will write some more tonight.

 

Well, Darling, I couldn’t finish this letter last night because we moved during the evening.

I’ve found out where Brinner is but as he’s some 60 miles from me at the moment there seems no chance of contacting him. 

I’m afraid I can’t write any more as I have a full day ahead fitting new wireless sets to my cars.

                All my love Precious

                                                Dicker.

 

*a small town in Dorset.

**the American novel by Anita Loos published in 1925.

***the Guards Armoured Division.

****Uncle Ted told me he once had to hide out in a tomato field behind enemy lines and just lived on tomatoes for a couple of days - he couldn't bear to eat them after that (Chotie’s Daughter).

© Chotie Darling

Market Garden begins

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 13      Market Garden and the Low Countries

 

On 17^th September 1944 50th (Northumbrian) Division watched as one of the largest air armadas of the war passed overhead.  The planes were heading for drop zones behind enemy lines so airborne forces could seize vital targets for Montgomery’s ‘Market Garden’.  This was a plan for the Allies to advance into the Netherlands on a narrow front, avoiding the defences of the Siegfried line by punching their way into Germany from the north-east and making the most of now very-overstretched supplies. 

XXX Corps, including 43^rd (Wessex) Division – Dick’s unit before he was commissioned - and the 50^th Division with 61^st Recce, were to lead the advance on the ground.  (‘Market’ represented the airborne forces and ‘Garden’ the army on the ground.)

To ‘lay a carpet’ for their advance US 101^st Airborne Division, the ‘Screaming Eagles’, were to take the nearest bridges around Eindhoven while the ‘All American’ 82^nd Airborne Division seized the bridges at Nijmegan and the British 1^st Airborne Division captured the furthest bridges at Arnhem.  Receiving his orders from Montgomery, Lieutenant General Frederick Browning (see 1st Airborne) of the 1st Airborne Corps famously remarked that 'we might be going a bridge too far'.

In XXX Corps the Guards Armoured Division (Ted’s unit) led the ground advance and by the end of the day had entered Holland and reached Valkenswaard, south of Eindhoven, having had to fight for every kilometre against re-grouped German forces.  They were already behind schedule.

The airborne troops were to be landed over three days.  That first day they arrived successfully, although the bridge at Son en Breugel was destroyed before the 101^st Airborne could secure it.

British airborne forces met firm resistance on their way to Arnhem and radio failure meant the two commanders, Major-General Urquhart (1st Airborne Division) and Brigadier Lathbury (1^st Parachute Brigade) had to meet in person and Urquhart was cut off from his HQ. 

Lt.-Colonel John Frost’s (see The Bruneval Raid) 2^nd Parachute Battalion found their objective, the Arnhem railway bridge, had been blown but they secured a defensive position at the north end of the road bridge.  This was the destination assigned to another of Dick’s former units, Major Freddie Gough’s Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron, who had bumped into an SS battalion. Nevertheless Gough and some of his men reached the bridge. (See ‘Operation Market Garden, Netherlands 17th – 25th September 1944’.)

 

 

Roy Howard’s book outlines some of the difficulties faced by XXX Corps in their advance (page 83 of ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’, Brewin Books 2004). 

‘A’ Squadron were leading 61^st Recce’s advance on the left flank of XXX Corps and reached Valkenswaard via Mol in Belgium (north-east of Geel). 

 

‘B’ Squadron’s Assault Unit with Eric Brewer headed for the ‘core grouping area waiting for big push’ but remained there until 21^st September, according to his diary.

 

Anthony Rampling recalls:

“In Market Garden we were trying to get up to Arnhem to get the paras out.  We saw the paras dropping – the sky was full of them.  The British dropped too near the Germans who were well fortified.”  From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61^st Recce (pers comm).

 

Sandy Handley remembers the excitement of it all – and the frustration as ‘brewed up’ tanks blocked the single highway impeding progress:

“Later by September we were told that a big air drop was going to take place in Holland.  Our job was to meet up with the airborne troops. 

Off we went up what they called the corridor, so many vehicles going up one main road it seemed.  On a personal note we was really excited about the airborne drop, Market Garden as they named it. We thought not much longer now.  But the stopping and starting for miles, everywhere it was chocker block, all going one way. 

One day we was going fairly steady and another Armoured Recce, caught us up - may have been the Household Cavalry.  As their cars went by I looked over to a Daimler armoured car, and there looking out of the top of the turret was a chap I hadn’t seen since 1940 when he was in the West Kents.  I couldn’t remember his name.  He shouted over to me “What are you doing up here?”  “Same as you mate.”  We grinned and waved.  That was the last time I saw him.”  (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

Operation Dragoon

15^th August 1944 – beginning of Operation Dragoon, the Allied landings in Southern France.  French commandos of the French 1^st Army, forces of the US 7^th Army and the Allied Airborne Taskforce landed between Toulon and Nice on the French Riviera (having set up a successful deception that they were heading for Genoa).  151,000 Allied troops (mainly from the Italian front) landed on the Côte d’Azur.

Pegasus Bridge

A few minutes after midnight on 6^th June 1944 troops from the British 6th Airborne Division successfully capture the bridge over the River Orne at Ranville-Bénouville (now known as Pegasus Bridge in their honour), between Ouistreham on the coast and the city of Caen.  This was essential for the defence of the forces landing on D Day to the west and as a supply route to further airborne landings to the east.

American airborne troops were landed in the Cotentin Peninsula to play a similarly critical role – 101^st Airborne Division in securing the beach exits from Utah beach and 82^nd Airborne Division in capturing the town of Sainte-Mère-Église on the key road route.

That night the 'window' technique developed by the Telecommunications Research Establishment was used to simulate an invasion force heading for the Pas de Calais and the German technology failed to pick up any clear picture of the invasion fleet or the concentration of Allied minesweepers off the Normandy beaches.  The BBC message to the French Resistance had been intercepted but, following repeated false alarms, only the 15th German Army was put on alert.  Even when reports of the paratroop landings began to arrive they were confused by the dropping of thousands of dummies with a few brave SAS (Special Air Service); as well as the paratroopers unintentionally dropped miles away from their drop zones.  The Allies had retained the element of surprise.

A massive naval bombardment opened up just before dawn to take down the Normandy beach defences.

 

 

The Plan for Operation Overlord

15^th May 1944 – Montgomery’s final presentation of the plan for Overlord to Churchill, King George VI and senior officers of the Allied forces. 

The US 12^th Army Group, led by Lieutenant-General Omar Bradley were to take the western (right) flank of the invasion force.  Their US First Army, commanded by Lt-General Cortney Hodges would land on ‘Utah’ beach, near the base of the Cherbourg peninsula, and on ‘Omaha’ beach on the Normandy coast north-west of Bayeux.  Having captured Cherbourg and the peninsula they were to advance to St Lô and then Paris, moving in line with the British.  Lt. General George Patton’s US Third Army was to advance through the First Army Front to clear Brittany and take the south flank of the invasion force as it pivoted towards Germany and the east. 

The D day landing on ‘Utah’ of the US VII Corps was to be led by the 4^th Division while V Corps on ‘Omaha’ would be led by 1^st and 29^th Divisions, with the American Rangers taking Pointe du Hoc.  US 82^nd and 101^st Airborne Divisions were to drop troops overnight before D Day at the base of the Cherbourg Peninsula to secure the beach exits from ‘Utah’ and capture the critical town of Sainte-Mère-Église while the British 6^th Airborne Division seized bridges over the Caen Canal and across the River Orme on the eastern flank of the invasion force.

21^st Army Group, led by General Bernard Montgomery (Monty) fielded part of Lt-General Crerar’s First Canadian Army under Lt-General Miles Dempsey’s Second Army.  They were to protect the eastern flank, advancing south, south-east and across the River Orne and taking Caen.

On D Day British I Corps would be led by the British 3^rd Division on the easternmost ‘Sword’ beach and by 3^rd Canadian Division on ‘Juno’ north-west of Caen.  The gap between ‘Sword’ and ‘Juno’ was to be taken by 41 and 48 Commando, landing at the edges of these beaches, respectively.

On ‘Gold’ beach, between the Canadians on ‘Juno’ and the US on Omaha, British XXX (30) Corps would be led ashore by Dick’s own 50^th Division.

(From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

 

15^th May 1944 – beginning of the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews to forced labour camps and concentration camps, including Auschwitz.  Less than one third of Hungarian Jews survived the Holocaust and more than half a million were murdered or died of maltreatment during the German occupation. (See Hungary after the German occupation.)

Sea Lane, Pagham - Sunday 5th September 1943

Postcard written on Sunday 5th September

W/242328

Pte Chalkley BE

OFC ATS

462 Hy (M) AA RA

Portishead*, Nr Bristol, Glos.

 

Chotie Darling,

            Sorry this will be a little tardy for your Birthday, but anyhow, all the best.  Am now at home and go back tomorrow (Monday). Will write you when I get back.                                             

                                                Love Dicker

* The postcard is addressed to Portishead, near Avonmouth on the coast east of Bristol (and close to Easton-in-Gordano) so Chotie’s unit appears to have moved again.

© Chotie Darling

 

6^th September 1943 – Winston Churchill gave a speech, now famous for the quote “the empires of the future are the empires of the mind”, at Harvard University in America. 

 

8th September 1943 - Italy’s unconditional surrender to the Allies is announced. German reserves are rushed into Italy as the Italian Navy sails to surrender at the Maltese port of Valetta. En route the Luftwaffe sinks the battleship Roma using one of the new radio-controlled Fritz X guided bombs.  All Italian forces within German controlled areas are disarmed without opposition and made prisoners of war. By September 10^th the Germans have occupied Rome – the King and Marshal Badoglio just manage to escape.

On 8^th September moves began to arrange the deportation of Danish Jews. However, the Jews were warned and the Danish authorities undertook a mass operation to move the Jews into hiding or temporary sanctuaries before the order was implemented on 28^th September. (See United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.)

 

9^th September 1943 – Operation Avalanche begins wit h the main Allied invasion force landing at Salerno to the south of Naples, on the Tyrrhenian (western) Italian coast.  Lt.General Mark Clark commanded this US Fifth Army (Patton was withheld from combat duties have slapped a soldier suffering from combat fatigue in Sicily), including the US VI Corps and British X Corps. They were surprised by the strong German defensive presence already there – the German 10^th Army had moved rapidly to secure the hills surrounding the bay in preparation for the Allies now trapped on the beachhead.

 Operation Slapstick also commenced on 9th September with British forces (including Dick’s former unit, now 1st Airlanding Reconnaissance Squadron) landing on the ‘heel’ of Italy to take Taranto.  On 11^th September the British 1^st Airborne Division took the ports of Bari and Brindisi.

9^th September 1943 – in Corsica the resistance rises up against occupation and from 14th September were joined by Free French forces landing on the island at Ajaccio. They harassed and disrupted the German evacuation through Corsica to the Italian mainland from Sardinia (heavily defended when the Germans were duped by Operation Mincemeat) and from 21^st September were joined by Italian forces, formerly in occupation. Liberated on 4^th October 1943, Corsica provided a critical Allied base for Mediterranean operations.

12^th September 1943 – Mussolini is rescued from Gran Sasso in the Abruzzi Mountains of central Italy in an audacious German raid led by Otto Skorzeny.  Taken to Germany he signs an agreement with Hitler annexing the German-speaking areas of northern Italy to Greater Germany. On 23rd September he proclaims his return to power with the re-establishment of a fascist government in northern Italy. All Italians carrying arms in German occupied areas face the death penalty. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, Vladimir Dekanozov, arrived in Stockholm on 12th September 1943 . Although German foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop interprets this as a sign that the Russians may be open to discussing peace with Germany, Hitler refuses to send a German envoy to Sweden.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

13^th September - at Salerno the Germans launched a counter-offensive that almost defeated the Allies’ beachhead but withdrew on 18^th/19^th September after the arrival of the British warships HMS Warspite and Valiant and the US 82^nd Airborne.  Montgomery’s 8^th Army forces from Operation Baytown in the south were also rapidly approaching.  However, on 16^th September - the largest mutiny in British military history took place at Salerno when 191 men refused to follow orders. 

13^th September 1943 – Churchill’s ill-fated attempt to take the Aegean islands began with a landing of the Special Boat Service on Rhodes. However, the Germans arrested all Italian troops on the island before they could consider joining the British. Kos, Samos and Leros were briefly occupied by the British but Kos and Leros were lost in battle in October and the Germans held all the Dodacanese islands by 18^th November. (See The Aegean Campaign.)

 From 13^th to 18^th September 1943 61^st Recce and the rest of the 61^st Infantry Division were involved in Exercise Link with the 1^st Polish Armoured Division and HQ 2 Canadian Corps.  This was a full scale exercise including live firing by the Royal Artillery to test out liaison as well as battle performance. (From ‘No Holding Back’ by Brian A. Reid, Stackpole Books 2009.)

 

Moonlight - Monday 28th? and Tuesday 29th? June

Address as before

Monday

Darling Chotie,

                                                I’m now sitting by my window attired in only a greatcoat writing this by the moonlight, as I’ve had another insomnia attack.

            Many thanks for your letter which I got this morning.  Always cheers me up to hear from you Chotie Dear.  (At present I’m thinking things quite alien to the nature of a future Officer (perhaps!) and Gentleman).  Must be the moon or sumpin’.

            Arrived back from Battle Camp in Snowdonia on Saturday and spent remainder of weekend in bed recuperating!  Did I need some kip!  Santa Maria – I could have slept for a fortnight…

            Apart from one day – which was really wonderful – it rained incessantly the whole time we were there, including the attack on Snowdon’s lofty peak – during the ascent of which you nearly lost your future husband - …  The trouble was I got lost of course and ended up in the helluva mist about to crawl over a 1000ft precipice. Tork about larf …

            (Please excuse paper – must get that in somewhere).

            Get my leave in three weeks’ time – chance of changing it – nil…

            (Chunky’s just asked me “Am I nuts?”  He’s in a sort of stupor which lasts from when he goes to bed ‘til about 10 am the following morning!)

            How’s life with the ATS?  Diller gets posted somewhere soon I suppose.  She’ll probably make Brighton.  She always liked jam on it…

            Read ‘The postman always rings twice’* (James Cain) and a couple of Naomi Jacobs’ amongst other things.  Don’t get much time these days.

            Won 30-/- on way to Wales at pontoon and lost it coming back.  Spent very little there happily.

            Came third in OCTU Sports mile.  Time of 4m 58s.  Not too bad for an old man.

            (The moon is shining through the old oak tree outside our window – looks lovely…  ‘Spect Montgomery or Alexander thought the same thirty years back!).

            My man woke me on Sunday morn. at 10 with steaming hot coffee….what an Army.  After the Dorsets! 

    How’s Eric and Eve – still in their Eden I suppose.  (That’s pretty horrible…) 

    This greatcoat doesn’t provide an awful lot of warmth over my nakedness.  Wish you were here instead of Chunky.  Bet you could find ways and means to warm me up… (Don’t tell me…).

            Spent an hour in the library with the Britannica this evening.  Very enlightening.  They’ve got everything ‘cept Vogue and Harper’s … even got some works on sailing!  No kid…

            Better leave this now as I’m getting a bit chilly and there’s no Chotie….

 

It’s now Tuesday afternoon which is virtually free so I’ll go on again here.

            I’ve been down to the pool for a swim which was excellent as it’s a lovely afternoon.  Unhappily we have to work again this evening which is rather a blow.  On top of this I’m on fire piquet this evening at 10 o’clock which rather ruins any effort to read or write.  Do you remember this time three long years ago?  Seems ages since I joined this man’s army – much too long in fact.**  Hope you never have to do three years …. Darling, I’d even marry you to spare you that….

            Most of us swim in a state of nudity here much to the delight(?) of the Sandhurst ATS.

            I’ll send this wretched epistle to your home address as I suppose you’ll be on leave by now.  Have a good time, Darling, but don’t stay in bed after noon, will you?

            Can’t think of any more to scrawl so will close here,

                                                                        lots of love Precious

                                                                                                Dicker

P.S.  Best wishes to Rosemary.***

P2S. Go easy on Security, Darling.  ‘Bty’ movement, etc. x

 

*’The postman always rings twice’ was James M.Cain’s first novel, published in 1934.  A violent and sensual crime story it was banned in Canada and Boston but inspired a number of films.

Naomi Jacobs was a romantic novelist very popular at the time.  She was a suffragette and her books tackle a number of progressive issues.

**Dick joined up in June 1940 - see Joining Up. 

***Rosemary was Chotie’s cousin who appeared to be staying with her family in Parkstone. 

© Chotie Darling

 

29^th June 1943 – the RAF bombing of Cologne leaves 4,377 dead.

30^th June 1943 – General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area, launches Operation Cartwheel against Rabaul, Japan’s major forward base in the South Pacific. Instead of capturing Rabaul (on the north tip of New Britain, an island in New Guinea’s Bismarck Archipelago) the combined American, Australian and New Zealand forces established a ring of airfields and naval bases around it, initially landing on New Guinea near Lae and the two islands of Kiriwina and Woodlark.  Cut off from supplies and under continual air attack Rabaul is useless by the end of the year. 

On the same day 10,000 US troops were landed on New Georgia in the Solomon Islands, north-west of Guadalcanal. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

July 1943 – meat rationing in Britain was extended to include sausages.

2nd July 1943 – on New Georgia, an island in the centre of the Solomon Islands, fierce fighting begins in the Battle of Munda as the Americans attempt to take the Japanese base and airfield for Operation Cartwheel.

3^rd July 1943 – the RAF carry out another heavy night raid on Cologne killing hundreds of civilians. The June/July bombings of Cologne killed 4,337 people and destroyed much of the ancient city including the famous cathedral. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 
5^th July 1943 – the Germans launch Operation Citadel, a major offensive on a 200 mile front in a pincer movement around the Russian city of Kursk, south of Moscow.  It was an obvious move since the Russian front line now bulged out around the city.  The Soviets secretly prepared a strong defence so the attackers were heavily outnumbered - the Russians assembled nearly 2 million men and the Germans 780,000.   After major losses on both sides (one of the largest tank battles in history was fought at Prokhorovka, south of Kursk) the Russian counter-offensive brought a decisive Soviet victory by the end of July. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

9^th July 1943 – Operation Husky commences with the deployment of airborne troops landing in Sicily as the Allies begin fighting on a surprise second front in Europe.  By nightfall on 10th July 2,600 Allied ships had landed 80,000 men - Montgomery's British 8th Army on the SE corner of the island and Patton's US 7th Army on the south coast near Gela.   Dick’s unit of one year earlier, 1st Airlanding Brigade, were to play a critical role in the assault, spearheading the British forces.  However, strong winds blew many of the aircraft off course and of the 1,730 men who set out, 326 were drowned and total losses in taking Syracuse were 605 - a third of the whole brigade.  They also suffered from the terrible incidents of 'friendly fire' associated with the invasion.  50^th Division, who Dick was to fight with in NW Europe, successfully landed on the South East coast of Italy with the British 8^th Army.  Invasion of the island continued with landings and advances by British, US and Canadian troops.   The British took the town of Syracuse on 12th July and the next day British paratroopers and the Durham Light Infantry secured the critical Primasole Bridge, south of Catania.

 

16^th July 1943 – Roosevelt and Churchill issue a statement calling for Italian surrender and the overthrow of Mussolini.

19th July 1943 – Hitler summons Mussolini to a conference on 19^th July to stiffen his resolve in resisting the Allies but news that the US Airforce had bombed Rome arrives during the meeting.  Hitler begins preparations for the German forces to invade Italy.

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.

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 ).

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