Chotie Darling

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 - Preparing for Operation Overlord

On 1st May 1944 Dick became a full Lieutenant.  He was still in Nightingale Wood and acting Squadron Leader – possibly while senior officers attended Exercise Thunderclap, Montgomery’s preparation sessions for D Day with ground force officers who would be involved in the assault.  By now Dick would have known he wasn’t going ashore with 61st Recce on D Day but would follow to France with the majority of the Regiment in later in June.  He wrote to Chotie describing the joys of the countryside and listening to classical music on the radio.

61^st Reconnaissance Regiment was inspected by General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, at the beginning of May and also received a visit from King George VI.  On 6th May Dick was Orderly Officer, checking on the guards at night, and still running the Squadron.  Chotie had been home, to Parkstone in Poole, where her sister Margaret was expecting her first child (Roger).  Dick’s old friend Eric Kessler now had a baby son and Dick was “almost envious”. 

By 10th May he’d “managed to get rid of this Squadron Leader racket”.  On 14th May Bristol, where Chotie was stationed in an Ack-Ack unit, was again attacked by the Luftwaffe.  The Easton-in-Gordano anti-aircraft camps defending the harbour would have played an important role successfully defeating the impact of the attack.  Having at last secured 24 hours leave Dick wrote to Chotie urging her to join him in “the Haunch town” – their favourite pub was the Haunch of Venison in Salisbury (co-incidentally where Eisenhower and Churchill are said to have met when planning D Day).  She went AWOL and they stayed overnight together in Salisbury on Friday 19th May; their last meeting before February 1945.

 

Letter written on Saturday 20th May 1944

Usual address

Saturday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Just a few lines to thank you for a very happy, though all too brief, 24 hrs.

            I managed to get back with ten minutes to spare and just made the afternoon parade.  I hope you managed to get back without too much trouble – I hate the thought of you scrubbing floors all night*.  What you would do for me, Darling, is a constant source of amazement to me.

            I’ve just finished censoring the mail – a man size job tonight as unfortunately no one else bothered to do yesterday’s for me, with the result that I’ve had two days to do at once.

            I regret to say that the 24hr passes have stopped but there may be a chance of some leave a bit later on – three or four days, I imagine.

            I went to the naffy** and imbibed a little beer earlier this evening with the result that I keep running outside.  Sorry….

            All the other officers (both of them) went to the cinema tonight to see “Bombers Moon” – some punk Yank film, but I just couldn’t have stood it so I stayed here, in my little tent and wrote you, my Darling, which seems infinitely preferable.

            After this show, Chotie, I reckon we’ll take a few months off – sheer rest – and forget all about the wretched life we now lead.  Walking in Provence or somewhere like that.  We could find a little hotel every night … and when we’re married things will be different….

            I intend to come out of this business, darling, if only to take the chance of making you very happy, which is what you deserve.

            I must close here, Precious as I have to write a few lines to mother – not having written for some time.

            Goodnight, my Darling – I love you very, very much.

                                                                        Dicker

RKWilliams

 

*Presumably an ATS punishment for going AWOL (Absent Without Leave)

**Slang for the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute’s canteen and recreation building.  Officers weren’t meant to frequent the NAAFI as this was an intrusion on the private lives of the Other Ranks.  The Commissioned Officers had their own ‘mess’, sometimes separated into Junior and Senior, and the senior NCOs had theirs, known as the Sergeants Mess. 

Eric Brewer’s diary reveals he was working in the Sergeants Mess (“not a bad job”) from 22^nd to 30^th May (from Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family).

© Chotie Darling

 

Soon after this Dick moved to Aldershot with the rest of the Regiment not involved in D Day (including Tony Rampling).  He wrote to Chotie with “No news from this end, of course.  The old security racket again.”

 

Eric Postles, Sandy Handley, Eric Brewer and Don Aiken were all to be part of the first assault.  They had been involved in the practice exercises, seen detailed reconnaissance films of their destination (without any names) and waterproofed their vehicles for an amphibious landing.  Eric Brewer went AWOL overnight on 6^th May and was fined three day’s pay, possibly by Dick (RW)

(Eric Brewer's Service Record - copyright Derek Brewer and family)

 

The camp was shared with American Rangers, an elite unit who were to spearhead attacks from Omaha beach.  Sandy was “shaking in my boots at the thought of what was to come.  The majority of us hadn’t seen any action at all so far.” 

Towards the end of the month the camp was sealed off – no-one was allowed out or in.  Personal items had to be sent home and the cars loaded with ammunition and supplies to get through the first 24 hours.  Some of the troops copied the Americans example and shaved their heads in case of lice.  On 31st May they were told they would be embarking the next day and were served steak – an unimaginable luxury in those wartime days. The gunner in Eric Postles car ‘did a runner’, trying to get home to Slough, and was never seen again so Eric went to war with a crew of three, instead of the four he should have had.

 

On 8^th May Eisenhower had decided that D Day would be on the 5^th of June and a week later Montgomery gave a masterly presentation of the final plans for Overlord to the King, Churchill and the Senior Officers of the Allied Armies. 

Map of the Overlord Plan from Olive-Drab website

150,000 troops were to land on the five Normandy beaches: United States 12th Army Group, commanded by Lt-General Omar Bradley, in the west on ‘Utah’ and ‘Omaha’ and the 21st Army Group of British and Canadians in the east on ‘Gold’, ‘Juno’ and ‘Sword’.  XXX (30) Corps would be led ashore on ‘Gold’ beach by Dick’s own 50^th Division.  8,000 British and 16,000 American Airborne troops were to seize crucial inland points ahead of the landings.

It was vital to keep the Germans guessing where and when the invasion would take place.  The deceptions of Operation Fortitude North continued with another attack on the giant battleship Tirpitz (feigning preparations for a Norway landing from Scotland) and Operation Fortitude South built up General Patton’s fake US First Army Group in SE England, threatening the Pas de Calais.  Air attacks on key military and infrastructure targets all over northern France continued with a 5,000 bomber raid on 20^th May.

Berlin suffered a 1,500 bomber raid on 7^th May by the United States Army Air Force but the Allied air forces were now turned towards tactical support for the invasion and the USAAF began strategic bombing of Germany’s synthetic oil manufacture, succeeding in halving production by the end of June.

In Italy the Allies at last broke the Gustav (winter) line, which had stalled them for so long, taking the stronghold of Monte Cassino on 18^th May.  They also broke out of the Anzio beach-head to the north, linking up with the US 10^th Army by the Tyrrhenian Coast on 25^th May.

In Eastern Europe the Red Army’s advance in the Crimea continued with the capture of the Black Sea port Sevastapol on 9^th May.  Hungary was now occupied by German forces – mass deportation of Hungarian Jews began on 15^th May (less than one third were to survive the Holocaust).

The U-gō invasion of India by Japan retreated from Kohima on 13^th May. 

Chinese forces crossed the border to attack the Japanese in Burma on 11^th May and joined with Merrill’s Marauders who had captured the Myitkina airfields.  However, the town and river port of Myitkina remained in Japanese hands until August.

On 18^th May the success of Operation Cartwheel was demonstrated when the US Navy’s Admiralty Island campaign at last isolated the Japanese base of Rabaul, making it useless.

For the British the attention of the world was soon to focus much closer to home.

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 - Re-union in Poole

Dick and Chotie met again for the first time since December at the Hollies, Chotie’s home in Poole for the weekend of 7th to 9th August.  There are some very happy family photos of this brief time together. 

Chotie's father William Chalkley is on the left, Chotie and Dick on the right and her brother Jack in front.

 

Dick wrote to Chotie at Henbury, Bristol, on his return to Sandhurst :

“I’m beginning to feel that I’ll be damn glad when this show’s over.  How about you?  Then maybe we can get down to things as they should be got down to.” 

On 12^th August he moved to HAC Squadron , the OCTU for Reconnaissance Officers, requiring considerable proficiency in wireless and morse but at least things were ”on a sane basis once again” with good prospects for his career as an officer.  Later in the month he wrote again

5731671 OTC Williams RK

77 Tp HAC Sqdn, 100 (Sandhurst) OCTU          

RHC RMC, Camberley,  Surrey

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                                    I’m very sorry I haven’t been able to write before but have only just got back from a wireless scheme and am also squadron Leader into the bargain.

            You always seem to be on the move*, which is a good thing as you see a little more of the country than I did for the first year or so.

            Just had a letter from Brinner – passed his WOSB easily – the same one that I went on at Betchworth Surrey.  He’ll probably go the (sic) Wrotham pre-OCTU, where Johnny went.

            I get a long(?) week-end in a fortnight’s time which is when Diller gets her leave so I may manage to see her then.

            Had a good time on the scheme although we worked until eleven every night.  Our particular group consisted of four cadets, 2 cars and 2 ATS.  They were very good, doing nearly all the cooking and egg-scrounging from the farms.  We slept in the hay-loft of a barn and they slept in the farmhouse itself.  Quite fun.

We do nothing but wireless schemes all the next fortnight which are pretty cushy physically but pretty bloody mentally.

            I’m trying to write this on my knee – murder, isn’t it?

            I can still see my old tree from our new room.  It’s just beginning to turn brown… As one of our Canucks** said “I guess that means the fall”…

            Haven’t read anything for ages – or seen a flick for that matter.  ‘Spect you still manage to find time for a little quiet reading.  Wish I could.

            No news of any kind – nothing seems to happen these days, except in Berlin.

            Will close here as there’s simply nothing to write about.

                                                            All my love, precious

                                                                                    Dicker

 

*Chotie’s unit moved to Portishead, on the coast west of Bristol, in late August/early September. 

**Canuck – slang for Canadian.

© Chotie Darling

 

Dick’s future Regiment, the 61st Reconnaissance, were still training in the Chilterns. 

 

While Britain was bombing the hell out of Germany with Air Marshal Harris’s ‘blanket bombing’ strategy the Luftwaffe continued to attack our ports, including Portsmouth, where Dick had been stationed from June to September 1941.

The RAF had bombed the devastated city of Cologne again on 2^nd August and on 23^rd August 717 bombers began a series of raids on the German capital, Berlin.  From 17^th August the V2 rocket development site at Peenemunde  on the Baltic Coast was also a target.  Production of this deadly weapon continued inland dependant on forced labour from the camp at Nordhausen.  Another German radio controlled and rocket propelled missile, the Henschel Hs293, was first used against Allied ships in August 1943.

Meanwhile Britain, the United States and Canada were secretly agreeing to share atomic energy research under the Quebec Agreement.  This led to the production and use of the first atomic bombs against Japan in 1945.

The USAAF (United States of America Air Force) was suffering heavy losses from its daylight bombing campaigns focused on military and infrastructure targets.  In August these included attacks on the Ploesti oilfields of Rumania and the Schweinfurt and Regensburg aircraft factories in central and southern Germany.

By August 17^th the western Allies were in occupation of Sicily and Patton entered the port of Messina with the US 7^th Army.  However, beginning on 11^th August the Germans had organised a very effective withdrawal conveying 110,000 troops across the Straits of Messina to the Italian mainland.  As German leaders met with the new Italian government in Venice, German troops were also pouring into Italy from the north.  Hitler suspected that without Mussolini the Italians would quickly surrender to the Allies.

In Eastern Europe one of the most significant concentration camp revolts took place at Treblinka in Poland on 2nd August.  Jewish inmates staged an uprising enabling more than 300 prisoners to escape (although only 100 survived the subsequent Nazi manhunt).

In Bulgaria King Boris III died suddenly on 28^th August  in mysterious circumstances having resisted Hitler’s demands for Bulgarian Jews to be sent to the concentration camps (although Jews were deported from the Bulgarian occupied territories in Macedonia, Thrace and Serbia).  On the same day the Danish government resigned rather than hand over resistance saboteurs to the German authorities.  Denmark became ruled by Germany who imposed martial law but thousands of Jews managed to escape to Sweden thanks to the help of Danish sympathisers.

To the east Russia was commencing a huge offensive to regain its occupied territory.  North of Kursk, Orel was taken following the German retreat and then Briansk while to the south Belgorad and then the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov were liberated.

Churchill and Roosevelt met with the Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King at the Quebec conference on 17^th August (Stalin had also been invited).   They agreed the plan to invade France from Britain (later called Operation Overlord) and established a South-East Asia Command to be led by Vice-Admiral Louis Mountbatten.  The ‘independent’ Burmese government, established by Japan on 1^st August, had declared war on Britain and Burma was a critical supply route for south China.

On 5^th August US troops finally took Munda airfield on New Georgia in the Solomon Islands where the US Navy was also fiercely engaged with the Japanese trying to land re-enforcements.  A US destroyer captain, John F Kennedy, became marooned on an island with the crew he’d helped to survive from his stricken ship but was rescued 6 days later.  He later became the 35^th President of the United States.

75 years ago - Beginnings of an Officer

While Chotie was still training for Ack-Ack in Oswestry Dick had a major career change.  On 4th March he left 43^rd Reconnaissance to begin training as an officer.  Before Sandhurst and the Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) he was a pre-cadet at Alma Barracks, Blackdown, near Aldershot in Hampshire for several weeks, missing out on Exercise Spartan, the first full-scale training exercise for invasion.  (His old unit, 43^rd Recce, were on the Allied side while his future unit, 61^st Recce, including our friend Eric Postles, played Germans in occupation.)

 

The Army had now decided to recruit officers on merit instead of (as well as?) class but there was still huge emphasis on appearance – Dick wrote to Chotie on 8th March:

 “The old spit & polish here is murder, have to change to best Battle Dress for every meal”…. “We’re on parade from 6 am to 7.30 pm. Murder” 

Pre-OCTU would last as long as it took to prepare a pre-cadet for Sandhurst. 

 

On Sunday 14th March Dick found time to write Chotie a long letter:

5731671 P/CDT Williams RK

30.0 Tp ‘A’ Sqdn.

No1. Pre-OCTU R.A.C.

Alma Barracks, Blackdown, Hants

Sunday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            As Sunday has again occurred I find I have a few minutes, to write to you.  It seems ages since I heard from you – but I expect you’re in the same position as I am – one of a temporary scarcity of spare time.

            I’ve managed to settle down here, as much as is possible anyhow, but find myself pretty rushed off my feet and expect to be the same for the rest of my stay here.

            The compensations, such as they are, consist of such luxuries as hot water, showers, marvelous food, and plenty of clothing exchanges.

            There’s a whole harem of ATS here – they do all the admin. Duties, office work, driving, etc.  They never seem to do any parades, apart from one Church Parade per month.  Pretty cushy.

            (I must make an apology here for using this paper, but I’m fed up with using poky little writing-pads.)  I rather fancy that this letter will read like a young novel. However, I resume.

            The instructors here are all Guards N.C.Os.  Coldstream, Grens*, Irish, Welsh etc and aren’t too bad on the whole.  We get a helluva lot of square-bashing, much too much for me, anyhow, as I reckon I’ve had enough after nearly three years in this racket.

            I expect you’re getting interested in the leave problem – and what a problem!  I only wish I could get mine, but I’m afraid I’ve missed it and certainly won’t get any until after this nine weeks.

            The real job starts at Sandhurst, but there you get a batman and are allowed a collar and tie(!) even though still a cadet – but that’s a long time yet.

            I can get week-end passes from here – provided I’m not on duty, but it’s a lousy journey and the fare would be well over a quid.  On top of this there’s the fact that you need every available moment to blanco** and keep your notes up to date.  What a tale of woe! – anyway that’s about enough of my troubles.

            I suppose you’re quite the old soldier by now.  You won’t, however, be able to give me any old buck as I know the ropes.  You should get a better time when you get on a site somewhere – the initial training is always the stiffest, and the most boring.

            Needless to say, I don’t get any time to read here, and I gather it’s the same with you.

            Happily, I’m with quite a bright crowd – an actor (ham), medical student, couple of school-marms, buyer from Lewis’ Leicester, art student and several other buckshees.

            I met LISBY here; do you know him?  Rather fat, blond, used to work at Bank in Broadstone and ARP at Municipal Buildings.  Went to Poole Grammar.  He’s a pre-cadet for the Tank Corps. (I seem to be rambling on, all to no purpose).

            Heard Ruth Naylor*** (waltz-song from Bohème) on Naafi Radio this morning.  Pretty wonderful.

            I miss my friend Alex**** from the 43^rd.  Like Eric we had much in common, particularly opera.  I promised to write, but then no one ever does.

            The ham here knows lots of people we knew on the London stage, and every night-club in Mayfair.  He knows enough about such people as Daphne du Maurier, Michael Redgrave, Noel Coward, etc to blackmail them a hundred times*****. Comes out with some rather indelicate tales after lights-out.  (I’m thinking about taking this letter up with a publisher).

            Had letters from home yesterday – no news.  Brinner’s on a course somewhere.  Diller is still expecting to do something.  Expecting is as far as it will get.

            How’s everyone at Parkstone?  Give them all my best wishes when you write won’t you?

            Well, Darling, I must close here as its nearly lights-out and they’re pretty mustard on that sort of thing.

            Hope I can see you before very long.  I can’t tell you how much I miss you, Chotie, that would be quite impossible, but I do think about you and love you very, very, much.  Perhaps, this wretched show will end sooner than either of us imagine and we can be together again.  I’m much more interested in that than any b----- commission.

                                                God bless you, Chotie

                                                            always yours

                                                                        Dicker

*Grenadier Guards

**Blanco was a cleaning compound used on the cotton of army uniforms.

***Ruth Naylor was an Australian soprano, famous for her appearance in Puccini’s opera La Bohème.

****Alex Johnston – see letters for January and February 1943.

*****Practising male homosexuality was illegal in Britain at this time. Daphne du Maurier’s bisexuality has not been confirmed. She was Dick’s favourite writer and married to his former Commanding Officer in the Air Landing, Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning.

© Chotie Darling

 

“This wretched show”:

On 1^st March 1943 American Jews held a mass rally in New York to pressure their government to do more to help Jews in Europe.  Heinrich Himmler visited the concentration camp at Treblinka in eastern Poland and gave orders for the mass murders there to be covered up. 

On 13^th and 14^th March 1943 the Nazis ‘liquidated’ the remaining Jews they had forced into the Krakow Ghetto in southern Poland, shooting 2,000 in the street and deporting 3,000 others to nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Newly built gas chambers were put into operation at Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp where one million people were murdered during the German occupation.

In the same month German Army officers from the Russian front made two failed attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The Soviet Army and Air Force were now better equipped than the Axis powers on the eastern front and far outnumbered them.  However, the Germans were still successful in re-taking the old Ukrainian capital city of Kharkov on 14^th March. 

Allied bombers focused their first attacks of the Battle of the Ruhr, beginning in March, on German armaments production in Essen.

In Tunisia Rommel failed in an attack from the Mareth line and left Africa on 9^th March.  Montgomery’s British Eighth Army followed up with a successful attack on the line, winning the battle by 26^th March. 

The largest convoy battle of the war began on 16^th March in the Atlantic with three wolf-packs of U-boats converging on 100 Allied ships and succeeding in sinking 22 with the loss of only one U-boat.  On the other side of the world Australian and American planes achieved a landmark victory against the Japanese fleet in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea but Britain’s guerrilla force in Burma (the Chindits) was forced to withdraw to India with the loss of one third of their men.

In London there was tragedy on the underground at Bethnal Green on 3^rd March when 173 people were killed in the crush when panic set in.

The “wretched show” continued for another two years….

75 years ago - Chotie trains for Ack-Ack

On 3rd February 1943 Chotie began training to be a ‘spotter’ on the Anti-Aircraft gun sites at Park Hall Camp, Oswestry in Shropshire.  Before her posting she had 48 hours leave and was able to see her family in Poole.

Dick was stuck in Dover, which was still suffering air raids as the anti-aircraft guns attacked planes coming in over the Channel.  He now sported his Good Conduct tape for “two years undetected crime”.  He wrote to Chotie again on 24th January : “I suppose you’ve discovered that writing letters is just about the last thing you feel like in the services”. 

(I’m glad he did write letters – this blog wouldn’t exist without them!)

before taking part in the Kent Exercise Hammer II, returning on the 29th.  At the beginning he’d filled out a Recommendation form for Candidates for officer Training Units and this was endorsed by Lieutenant Colonel Crawford on 30th January.  By then Dick was taking this seriously with evening classes in French and German and participation in the Post-War Reconstruction Committee.

At the beginning of February 43^rd Recce was Section Training with a cross-country run and a day on ‘Battle procedure – Withdrawal’.  Writing on 4th February Dick knew Chotie might be training on the artillery sites in North Wales, where his family originally came from.

Chotie did not warm to Park Hall Camp where “life was grim”.  “We did full military training with a Sergeant major on the parade ground.  God, it was just like prison – food so awful and the tea implanted with bromide to stop us getting passionate.”

Dick’s letter of 7th February had been ‘opened by an examiner', maybe at Dover because of Dick’s officer prospects or perhaps at Oswestry to check the correspondence of new recruits.  I doubt there was anything that would get either of them into trouble (Dick was attending evening classes, reading French, listening to classical music and trying to play the Warsaw concerto – although he did refer to ‘spit and polish’ as “Heluva waste of time altogether”

43^rd Recce commenced Troop or Squadron training on 8^th February.  From 10^th to 14^th February Dick was undergoing officer section tests with the War Office Selection Board at Brockham Park in Betchworth, Surrey and on 14^th February his recommendation was approved.  Not knowing this there is no mention of the Board in his letter of 16th February - just family gossip and more about his friend Alex Johnston (who was to be one of 214 men killed when the ship transporting 43^rd Recce to Normandy hit a mine off Sword beach in June 1944).  However, when Dick wrote again on 25^th February he did have news:

As usual

Thursday

My Darling,

                        Many thanks for your letter received yesterday.  Glad to hear you’re still alive & kicking, even though rather over-worked….

Well, Precious, I have got an item of news this time, as, since last writing to you, I’ve been on and passed a War Office Selection Board for Commission.  It will mean a long and arduous task ahead but with proverbial luck and good management I see no reason why I shouldn’t be successful in this respect.

            I am now waiting to go on a pre-OCTU course, which may last any time before eventually getting to an OCTU.  After that it’s about six months of merry hell before getting the old commiss!

What a game it is,,,I had three marvellous days on the Board, as all the time you’re there you’re treated as an Officer – even waited on at table by ATS….

            Marvellous old Georgian House and Estate* has been loaned to the W.O. for this purpose and the owner had the decency to leave all his furniture there.  The pictures alone were insured for £120,000!

            You spend three & ½ days there doing just about anything the human body can do – and more, - intelligence tests, exams, interviews with Brigadiers, Colonels and psychiatrists etc.

            First question the last mentioned asked me, was “How many women have you slept with?”….

            Shook me – rotten.

Most of the paintings I knew – several of Manet, Monet, Cézanne etc. so I had an interesting chat with the Brigadier and visiting woman M.P.  Apparently the owner used to buy still life & his wife, the nudes.  Some of the nudes shook us …..All excused like strip-tease, under “ART”.

            I’ll let you know any further developments should they arise.

I wrote to and had a long reply from Benetti** the fellow at Hove.  Sent me a letter full of arias, and invitations to stay with him.  The bloke’s a genius on arias.  Hope to look him up on my next leave, which brings me to a sore point. 

I’ve had the wretched thing cancelled indefinitely!  Heaven knows when I’ll get it.  However one can’t talk of commissions and leave in the same breath I suppose.

Saw ‘In which we serve’*** this week.  Wasn’t very impressed I’m afraid, though Captain’s wife’s speech was rather brilliant.

            Must close here Darling

                                                            All my love

                                                                        Dicker

*Brockham Park, Betchworth, Surrey.

**See letter of 3rd September 1942

***Patriotic British war film – ‘the story of a ship’ – directed by Nöel Coward and David Lean and starring Nöel Coward. Celia Johnson played the Captain’s wife.

© Chotie Darling

 

The major event of February 1943 was the end of the battle of Stalingrad on 2^nd February.  By 13^th February the Germans’ withdrawal extended to Kharkov, the former capital of the Ukraine far to the east (which had been taken by Operation Barbarossa in October 1941).  Rostov-on-Don, the ‘Gateway to the Caucasus’ near the Sea of Azov, was re-captured by the Russians on 14^th February.

As news of the defeats in Russia leaked out Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister attempted to rouse the morale of the German people with calls for ‘Total War – Short War’ but during his speech he mentioned the eradication of the Jews.  By the end of the month the German wives of Jewish men had begun to gather in Berlin to protest against the deportation of their husbands to concentration camps.

In France the introduction of the ‘Service du Travail Obligatoire’, forcing French men to labour in Germany, was bolstering recruitment to the resistance forces.

Rommel inflicted heavy losses on the Allies in Tunisia during the Battle of the Kasserine Pass, the first major clash between German and American forces.

By the end of February the US was in control of the Pacific Solomon Islands having taken the central Russell Islands.  British Special Forces in Burma, the Chindits, were now fighting behind enemy lines but the Australian commandos who had continued resistance to the Japanese were finally forced to withdraw on 10^th February.

Meanwhile Eric Postles and the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment were back in England to take part in Exercise Spartan.

   

75 years ago - A Very Happy Leave

On 2^nd December 1942 a team of scientists working on the Manhattan Engineering District Project achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

Atrocities against Jews continued in countries under German occupation.  By the end of December 1942 approximately four million Jews had been killed, as well as 40,000 Roma (on 16^th December 1942 Himmler had ordered that all Roma or gypsies were to be sent to the concentration camps).  News of the death camps had begun to reach the Allies command and on 17th December Britain and the US vowed to avenge Nazi war crimes against the Jewish people.

Fighting continued in terrible conditions on the Russian front.  On 12^th December the German’s Operation Winter Storm attempted to reach and re-inforce their starving Sixth Army at Stalingrad but the Soviets attacked in Operation Little Saturn, forcing withdrawal with the loss of 10% of the Luftwaffe’s transport planes.

In Africa Rommel (unlike the obedient Paulus, commander of the Sixth Army) had defied Hitler’s orders to ‘stand to the last’ and was withdrawing his remaining forces west.  Montgomery’s Eighth Army attacked on 11^th December, in the Battle of El Agheila, but failed to stop the Panzerarmee Africa’s retreat towards Tripoli.  Although Operation Torch in West North Africa was diverting much needed men and supplies from the Axis in Russia, it was not going to plan.  The Germans rapid occupation of Tunisia included the critical north coast port of Bizerte.  However, US planes were now able to attack Italy from airfields in Algeria and Naples was heavily bombed on 4th December killing 900 people.

In the Far East Australian forces at last took the Gona bridgehead from the Japanese on Papua New Guinea and on 21^st December Britain launched a doomed offensive to recapture the Mayu Peninsula in Burma’s Arakan (they were forced to retreat to India after three months and 3,000 casualties).

Nearer to home the new navigational radar system, known as Oboe (and developed by the Telecommunications Research Establishment in Dorset and Malvern) began to be used on 21^st December, greatly increasing the accuracy of RAF bombing.  Six ships were destroyed in Bordeaux Harbour on 11^th/12^th December – not by bombs but with limpet mines attached by Royal Marine commandos who paddled up the Gironde in ‘cockleshell’ collapsible canoes in the heroic Operation Frankton.

Despite the cold-blooded murders under Hitler’s Commando Order the role of commandos was developing. In the Bournemouth area the newly the 3rd Special Services Brigade (which was to see service in Burma) trained under the eye of the novelist Evelyn Waugh, a Staff Officer in Dorset’s Combined Operations command based at Anderson Manor.  Dorset was also hosting the first tests for Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bombs on the Fleet Lagoon.  The county continued to suffer from German bombers, with civilians killed in Poole and Bridport in December 1942 and an attack on the Armoured Fighting Vehicle School at Lulworth Camp.  However, church bells were heard for the first Christmas since the beginning of the war - they had been silenced for use only to warn of invasion but once again rang out in celebration.

 

In late November the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment was subject to inspections by General Sir Bernard Paget, the Commander in Chief of Home Forces and Lt-General Stopford, the XII Corps Commander. The Corps, then based in Kent, included Major General Ivor Thomas’s 43rd (Wessex) Division). Dick wrote to Chotie on 26th November 26^th November only of his forthcoming leave and being ‘wet through’ all day.  Individual training continued in December although Dick had a ‘very happy’ week on leave with Chotie from 2^nd December. Chotie returned to Dorset for her sister Margaret’s wedding to a guardsman, Ted Lewis.

Chotie as bridesmaid at Ted and Margaret's wedding

On 13th December 43^rd Recce were issued with light khaki berets, to replace their ‘field caps’.  There were Divisional and Regimental Skeleton exercises before Section Training started on 21^st December when Dick’s HQ Squadron Company went on a route march:

 

Letter Tuesday 22nd December 1942 

PPS.  Good book “Tambour Terrace” Eleanor Dunbar Hall

As before

Tuesday

My Darling,

Sorry I haven’t been able to reply to your last before now, but I’ve been away on a scheme for the last few days.  This culminated in a route march which finished me off – I was wearing new boots, so today finds me on the sick list.  There’s a run on this afternoon and being excused running for five days I’m able to write to my Chotie.

Thanks for the letter and cake.  You must thank Margaret for me – when next you see her.

I had a letter or rather a note from our mutual friend Lightfoot*, last week.  Apparently he’s in Colchester (Essex).

Brinner has also moved to Essex – rather in the wilds, I gather.  I’ve despatched a letter to Diller – shake her I expect – as I’m not sending any cards.

Let me know as soon as you see anything in the cheese-dish line – I hardly remember what they look like.

            Hope your medical** went off all right.  Let me have the dope as soon as possible.  Also the Dance.

Went to a whist drive last week.  No luck of course.  I should have been well in, but went down 12-1 which finished everything.  Really stupid girl for a partner…Ginger.

                        Look like the Fighting French in our berets.  Remember that photo you had of cadets?

                        No news of course.  Devilish dull here – though we don’t get much time anyhow.

                        (With Doug’s letter came a Pkstone Cong***. Magazine.  Know who sent it?  Sure I don’t)

                        Roll on Christmas … (Incidentally which Christmas is the war going to end by now?)

                        Must close here.

All my love Darling

                                                                        Dicker

1. Will send you something if I should ever see anything.

*Doug Lightfoot

**On 17th December 1942 Chotie was enrolled into the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) at Southampton.

*** Parkstone Congregational Church (now Parkstone United Reformed Church), opposite Chotie’s home on the corner of Chapel Road and Commercial Road, Parkstone, Poole Dorset.  Chotie met Dick at the church Youth Club when she was fourteen.  Her family left the house in the 1960s and it was knocked down and replaced with a tyre shop.

© Chotie Darling

 

Chotie was about to start a very different life in the ATS so posts particularly concerning Dorset end here.

75 years ago - Before the Tide Turns

From 17^th to 25^th September 1942 Dick had nine days Privilege Leave and spent some of this with Chotie.  He returned to Dover via Hastings and sent her a postcard from there. 

Hastings postcard

Writing to her again on 28th September he apologised for being “rather vacant”:

“I find it very difficult to act normally when home on leave, as I suppose all the time I realise that I have to come back to this existence.” 

Perhaps inspired by his Mechanics course he’d applied for a transfer to the Engineers. It also seems that Chotie was planning a “change of employment” – possibly thinking of joining up?  (She joined the ATS in January 1943).

A few days later he wrote again, teasing Chotie about becoming an old maid, so the engagement does not appear to have taken.  He was enjoying the glories of autumn, vividly described in his next letter after a “four day scheme” or exercise.  He’d also met a “very decent subaltern”, Ronnie Jury, who was to become a great friend.

This letter was sent on a Sunday in October 1942, probably the 25^th:                 

Sunday

My darling Chotie,

Please excuse my writing in pencil but I came in a hurry and forgot my pen.  I’m writing this in a Methodist Church Army Show, a hellish place to find oneself on a Sunday evening…However in a hour or so the Ritz will be open…

            I’ve been on the range all yesterday and today – marking in the butts (too technical for you?) means you signal the shots from the target end.  Very boring.  We manage to alleviate part of the boredom by betting on our own target.  After two days I’m where I started !  Not over profitable.  I’m on again Monday and Tuesday.

            Met a farmer on Friday.  Charming.  Quite the style with orange waistcoat etc, and a moustache like Marshall Budenny*.  Very interesting.  We talked for over two hours, mostly on farming topics.  Needless to say he was born and bred here, (man and boy for nigh on forty year etc…).  Altogether a very nice bloke, by which I mean he stood me a couple of pints…

Needless to say I haven’t yet heard from that rat du Rose.  If you see him, tell him from me, he’s a SNAKE!

            Fancy you liking Maggie Mitchell’s tale of ‘Ye Olde South South’***!   Very surprising.  It’s on here.  Queues about a mile long for each performance.  There’s certainly a sucker born every minute…

            I went into a Church Army place this afternoon and found to my horror that they were issuing free teas.  Now when you get your tea gratis they expect you to stay to a temperance service afterwards.  There was a crowd of effeminate-looking service men seated round a table with various civilian was-led-in-the-blood-of-the-Lambers****, so I beat a hasty Dunkirk out of the place…                

Well, my Precious – will close here and see if I can’t find a drop of something warm somewhere.

                                                                                    All my love,

                                                                                                Dicker

P.S. Will write again tomorrow or Tuesday.

*Marshall Budenny – a Soviet military commander with a moustache wider than his face.

**du Rose – one of Dick’s close companions in the Dorset Regiment. See http://www.chotiedarling.co.uk/my-blog/2010/09/enter-du-rose.html .

*** ‘Gone with the Wind’, from the book by Margaret Mitchell giving an idyllic portrayal of the USA’s deep South during the Civil War era, despite the reliance on slavery. It went on general release in 1941 and has been hailed as one of the greatest American films of all time.

****Possibly a mischievous reference to the Salvation Army. 

  © Chotie Darling

 

43^rd Reconnaissance had continued training from their base in Dover with lectures and a major emphasis on firing skills (rifle and Bren guns).

 

Back in Dorset HMS Turtle, which was to become the Royal Marines base in Poole, was opened on 7^th October 1942.  On 12^th October Churchill specifically praised the exploits of the commandos in his speech "Keep right on to the end of the road".

However, on 4^th October a breach of wartime convention – killing a German soldier with his hands tied i.e. a prisoner – by the Small Scale Raiding Force led to Hitler’s Commando Order on 18^th October – that all Allied commandos taken prisoner were to be killed (a flagrant breach of the 1929 Geneva Convention).

 

In October 1942 Roosevelt announced the establishment of a United Nations commission to investigate war crimes.

Bitter fighting continued in the Solomon Islands and on the Russian front, as the Germans continued their attempts to take Stalingrad and the Caucasus.  Allied raids on Italian cities intensified in 1942 and on 28^th October the RAF bombed Genoa and Turin.

In Africa Montgomery launched an attack on the German and Italian line at El Alamein – although Rommel lost half his panzer tanks the line held.  The Americans were holding secret talks with Vichy France leaders in Algiers, hoping to prevent opposition to their imminent landings in North Africa.  (General de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French, was not told about this invasion until it was taking place on 8^th November).

As the tide of the war was about to turn a British Navy’s raid on a sinking U-boat submarine seized an Enigma machine and code-books crucial to Bletchley Park’s deciphering of German Naval messages.

75 years ago - Driver Mechanic, Mortar Troop

On 21st August 1942 Dick (a Francophile and fluent French speaker) wrote to Chotie horrified at the list of French celebrities published as traitors for collaboration with the Germans.  Some of the boats from the disastrous raid on Dieppe had left from the Sussex coast and the county had received attention from the Luftwaffe – Dick’s mother was shopping in Bognor Regis shortly before the Odeon was bombed and Dick, who “saw most of the action in the Channel” was “machine-gunned in the streets”.  On 29th August he got very drunk with some French-Canadians, who may have been involved in the commando raid, carried out by mainly Canadian forces.  He was still enjoying other delights of Brighton with frequent visits to the cinema, as well as the ballet.  He seems very keen to become engaged to Chotie in his letter of 30^th August, but as far as I know there was no engagement.

‘Polyfoto’ of Chotie just before her nineteenth birthday.

On 2nd September Dick passed his trade test as a Driver Mechanic with good results. He wrote to Chotie the next day to let her know he would soon be back in Dover and wish her a very happy nineteenth birthday. He’d also visited the opera and made a new friend, the Italian Benetti.

On Tuesday 8^th September, back with 43^rd Recce he wrote again:

5731671 Tpr Williams R

A/TK Troop, HQ Squadron

43rd Recce Regt,  Recce Corps,

Armed Forces

Tuesday

My Darling Chotie,

I'm in a lecture at the moment, so I'm writing this in my notebook under pretext of taking some notes…  I got your letter this morning - for which many thanks.   Hope you can read this scrawl but I never could write on my knee.  Glad to hear you celebrated your birthday in style - wish I could have been with you.

            (The bloke here is a yawning on about internal combustion engines - very dull after six weeks of it.)

By the way - in your last letter but one, you told me about your ‘change of employment ', but it was, if you remember, in the form of a postscript, which I missed of course, at the first reading.  When reading it again at a later date (a very sound habit of mine), I came across it, and needless to say, would have congratulated you in my last epistle.  Anyhow - nice work.

            (I very much doubt whether you can make head or tail of this scrawl.  I've got a job to understand it myself - but persevere, Darling.) 

I have to keep answering questions all the time to this wretched man - a Sergeant from the Ordnance Corps.  Up to now, I've managed to keep just one jump ahead of him.  He's not really very bright - typical of the R.A.O.C.*, but writing a letter as well has its snags.

I've been enquiring about my leave, and may get it on the 16th i.e. next Wednesday (a week today), but it seems rather doubtful.  What can you manage if I do?  I'm afraid I can't say definitely, because the Squadron Office don't know themselves.

I've been put on fire guard for a week (!) which means I work evenings as well.  I haven't been out since I've been here.  Not that there's anything of interest.  I went out on an exercise yesterday morning, and passed through some marvellous villages, would have delighted Frances B. Young**.

Glad to hear you met Jones.  Where is he stationed these days, or didn't he tell you?  Did I tell you that Brinner was on a course in North Devon?   

Are the old Dorsets*** still with you?  It would mean that they've been there a year now.

I've got a cross country to run this evening after tea, a Devil, isn't it, seeing that I haven't done PT of any sort for seven or eight weeks.

My two Scotch friends have gone on leave to bra’ wee Ayr, and left me disconsolate, although they are both in ‘A’ Squadron, and I don't see much of them.  (The lecture has at last ended, 1½ hrs, so I'll finish this tonight - maybe...)

Well, Lulu, after the lecture I heard I'd been transferred from the Anti Tank Troop to the Mortar Troop****, and having seen the Troop Commander about my leave, feel more confident about the 16th - but remember it’s still not definite.

This mortar job appears cushy - driving - but not quite so cushy in action.

Well, Darling, I must close here with all my love,

                always yours, Precious

                                your loving

                                            Dicker

P.S.  I mentioned our “engagement” to the old folks at home in my last letter.  I haven't yet had a reply ... keep your chin up, Lulubelle..

*Royal Army Ordnance Corps – responsible for supplying weapons, ammunition and equipment to the Army.

**A Frances B. Young wrote a biography of Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke (an Elizabethan writer) but the origins of this reference are obscure.

***Dick’s original regiment (see Chotie Darling Part 1 ‘The Blue Cockade’) last heard of at Branksome in Poole.

****A Reconnaissance Regiment consisted of one HQ Squadron and three Reconnaissance Squadrons. Mortar Troop was one of the four Troops in HQ Squadron (with Signals, Armoured Tank and Admin) and used 6 x 3” mortars. Mortars are portable. Fixed to the ground they are used to fire small bombs in a slow high arc into the enemy at close range.

 

In September 43^rd Recce received orders to mobilise complete with re-inforcements, which presumably would include Dick. There were Brigade exercises ‘Break in’, which Dick may have been involved in and ‘Break out’, which he would have missed while on leave.

Later in September the Sunday Pictorial (now the Sunday Mirror) published an article on the Recce entitled “The First Thrilling Story of Britain’s ‘Reccies’ – our Secret Army is Ready”:

“The men of the Reconnaissance Corps have taken on one of the toughest jobs in the war – the spearhead of our attack on Germany. They are as elusive as guerrillas, fast as scouts, tough as commandos…..every one picked for brain as well as brawn…everything is improvised, time reducing, hazardous…an army which will roam behind enemy lines…their job, to spy on the enemy a close quarters…every scrap of information they get will be fought for” etc.

(From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’  by Roy Howard, courtesy of the Sunday Pictorial, now the Sunday Mirror.)

 

Back in Dorset Chotie had “a change in employment” – since she was in Beales’ knitwear department in June 1942 perhaps this was when she went to Plummers, the employment she recalled after the Land Army episode? Certainly her last civilian job before January 1943 was as a window dresser at Plummers (Chotie called herself a “Display Artist”).

Luftwaffe attacks continued with 5 people killed by a bomb not far from Chotie’s home in Parkstone on 11^th September.  In the Channel planes from Warmwell sank two armed trawlers on 9^th September and 21 people died when a famous Poole flying-boat, the Clare, caught fire over the English Channel the 14^th. A new aerodrome that was to play a critical role on D Day and in Operation Market Garden was now under construction at Tarrant Rushton.

Poole’s Small Scale Raiding Force successfully obtained captured German wireless operators and Naval codebooks from les Casquets lighthouse in the Channel islands on 2^nd/3^rd March but their founder and leader, Major Gus March-Phillips was killed in another raid on 12^th/13^th September on a beach at St Honorine in Normandy, later better known as ‘Omaha’ (from the D Day landings).

 

On 3^rd September 1942 a National day of Prayer was held in Britain for the third Anniversary of the Declaration of War.

Germany began a major offensive in Stalingrad on 13^th September with orders from Hitler that the entire male population of the city should be eliminated. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)   Fierce Russian resistance and cunning was eventually to save the city but Stalingrad became a legend for the huge numbers killed on each side – possibly 750,000 troops and approximately 40,000 civilians.

On the other side of the world thousands of Japanese soldiers and US Marines were killed on one day, 12^th September, in the ‘Battle of Bloody Ridge’ over the airfield on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

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 - 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 - Unity and Genocide

The 'Declaration by United Nations', a plan for a new world organisation (which led to the UN Charter) was signed by 26 governments including the US, UK, China and the Soviet Union at the beginning of January 1942.

Later that month, on 20^th January, Germany formally adopted a policy to exterminate all Jews codenamed 'the Final Solution'. This horrendous genocide is remembered every year on Holocaust Memorial Day, the 27^th January. 

In Russia there were new Soviet offensives in the bitter winter along the eastern front, leading to massive casualties and huge civilian suffering.

On 21^st January Rommel’s German forces in North Africa pushed the British back to the Gazala line, west of Tobruk in Libya.

Japanese forces advanced in the Philippines, Malaysia and North Borneo, entered Burma and attacked New Guinea.  Australia mobilised for defence and American troops began to arrive in Britain.

In Dorset, Combined Operations HQ was masterminding the Bruneval Raid and the Small Scale Raiding Force was established following the success of Operation Postmaster.

Dick was working in Intelligence, presumably in Dorset because there are no letters from him to Chotie in January 1942.  However, a new companion is about to join us....

75 years ago - Chotie's 'second best'

“After my fiasco with the Land Army I went to work at Plummers, Boscombe, where I learnt a lot about displaying fashions.  Then, as it was quite a way from home, I transferred to Plummers, Bournemouth and did a spell in the Knitwear Department.  I got friendly with a Jewish girl and was spending the weekend at her home in Mudeford when I met George.  He was sitting in the back of a car smoking a Petersham pipe, just like Dicker did.  That was the attraction.  He was motorcycle officer at Blandford Camp, very posh - in fact an old Etonian, which I found out much later on.  He used to say he was second best, as he knew that Dicker was first.  George never gave me a clue as to his swanky background and he came to our humble abode for Sunday lunch and thoroughly enjoyed my Mum’s apple pie.” (From ‘Chotie’s Story’) 

After the war Mum was with George Bainbridge for seven years (she lived on his boat off Poole Quay in the summer) but he married someone else and went to live on the Isle of Wight.

Where Dick was in November 1941 is uncertain since there are no letters to my mother during this time.

Dorset’s Telecommunications Research Establishment were just beginning to produce radar ‘maps’ using their ‘Special Duty Flights’ from Christchurch Aerodrome and RAF Hurn (guarded by Dick’s Dorset Regiment).

In November 1941 a critical reconnaissance photo was taken revealing to TRE the presence of a Würzburg transmitter (Germany’s secret radar) near Cherbourg.  This became the subject of the successful Bruneval Raid in February 1942, organised from Mountbatten’s Combined Operations HQ near Poole.

Dorset was still subject to bombing raids with three people killed in Weymouth on 2^nd November.  On 11th November a British fighter plane crash landed at RAF Warmwell hitting the station’s ammunition dump and killing two of the Dorset Regiment troops on guard there.

Paper was in short supply so Christmas cards were banned and buses were stopped from 9.30pm because of the fuel shortage.

In Poland work began on the Nazis first extermination camp at Belżec.  Stalin celebrated the Anniversary of the Revolution in Moscow, although the city was in a state of siege and, as hard frosts firmed the sodden ground, German troops were advancing on the capital.

In China the Japanese had achieved a devastating victory over the Chinese Nationalists in southern Shensai and on 14^th November the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal sank following a German U-boat attack.

However, the Allies had cracked Italian naval codes and, on 9^th November, succeeded in destroying a huge convoy carrying vital supplied for Axis forces in Tripoli. On 18^th November Allied forces advanced into Libya, ending Rommel’s 241 day siege of the key supply port at Tobruk on 27^th November.

On 26^th November Japanese aircraft carriers in the north Pacific had set sail from the Kurile Islands heading for Hawaii and the American Naval base at Pearl Harbour.

75 years ago – Somewhere in England

The siege of Leningrad, which was to last until January 1944 began on 8^th September 1941.  The Germans also captured Kiev in Russia on 19^th September, carrying out the notorious massacre of Babi Yar there.  More than 33,000 Jews were killed – the largest single mass killing of the Holocaust.  At the beginning of October Hitler began his attack on Moscow.

Meanwhile Dorset and the Hampshire border were used for the filming of 'The First of the Few', the story of the Spitfire, starring Leslie Howard and David Niven and featuring pilots from RAF Command.  Niven had left Hollywood to rejoin the  Army at the start of the war and, although he did some work for the Army Film Unit, he also commanded ‘A’ Squadron of the secret GHQ Liaison known as ’Phantom’, which specialised in front-line communications.  ‘A’ Squadron were based on the south coast behind Poole Harbour in Dorset working with ‘V’ Corps (part of Southern Command) for the defence of Hampshire and Dorset. 

Also in September Dick’s unit, the 70th Battalion of the Dorset Regiment moved to Bournemouth while its companies guarded RAF Ibsley (the main location for the film above), RAF Hurn, RAF Warmwell and the cliffs at Canford (where Chotie was later to live). 

 

Chotie, now aged eighteen, had joined the Women's Land Army.  Dick, who’s enjoying the Autumn countryside in Hampshire, writes to congratulate her but then, in his next letter, reveals that his HQ Company is moving to the Branksome Chine area in Poole on the weekend of 20^th/21^st September.  Although this must have been frustrating, with Chotie now moving out from Poole to a farm somewhere in Dorset, Dick also seems intent to “go elsewhere”.  He writes to Chotie at Church Knowle (where she’s working on the farm near Corfe Castle in Purbeck and living in Miss Grace’s little cottage at Cocknowle) saying he “should be out off this punk crowd in a month or two”.  His family also has plans to move from Poole back to Herne Bay in Kent, where they lived when Dick was a child.

On 7^th October Dick had a medical, prior to his transfer, passed in A1 condition and wrote Chotie his last letter for some time:

Intelligence Section

HQ Company

70th Dorsets

Branksome

Hants.

Tuesday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            Just a few lines to let you know that all is well, and that I still love you, EVERYTHING.

            I'm now feeling much better and though still on the sick list, hope to be OK again in a few days time.

            I had a letter from Brinner (NO not Monica*, Darling...) who appears to be enjoying himself.

            I do little or nothing all day with Eric, which gets pretty boring after a while.  He had a parcel today and is, consequently, feeling quite cheerful, and sends his love (brotherly).

            I was medically examined this morning re transferring, and was categorised A1. - not that it makes any difference.  I'm afraid there's no news, of course, as nothing seems to happen.

            Marjory, as I hear from Diller, who still corresponds, has now found her true love (etc), and may now cease to cause me sleepless nights.  It's about time she had a change of front and policy.  That's the only snag of going back to Herne Bay**.  But at any rate we hope she's married by then and in safe hands.

            This pen’s horrible to write with.  Needless to say, it’s Eric's!  He has everything on the thin side.

            I've managed to find Cocknowle on a large-scale map - so I now know whereabouts it lies.

            As regards next Sunday, I'll borrow a bike from Somewhere in England and be around sometime about 3 pm to 5-30.  At any rate, I'll write again before then.

            Well, Darling I must close here as it's time for tea, and I must rush to post this.

            I managed to get a Dorset Brooch, which will do, I hope, until I get into a Genuine Regiment when I'll send you another.

                                                                        Bye, bye Darling

                                                                                    All my love

                                                                                                Dicker

                                                                                                Xxxxxxxx

 

* Dick’s former girlfriend – see letters of 12^th November 1940 and 31^st March 1941

** Dick’s family were planning to move back to Herne Bay from Poole

 

© Chotie Darling

75 years ago - German class

On 13^th July 1941 Britain and the USSR pledged to assist one another against Hitler.

In Dorset a new Aerodrome was completed at Hurn (now Bournemouth Airport) and the Small Scale Raiding Force set forth from Poole on a mission to West Africa – Operation Postmaster.

Dick was still at Fort Brockhurst in Gosport, training for Intelligence work. Diversions included the cinema, heavy drinking with his pals in Pompey (Portsmouth) and a painful attempt at horse-riding.  He was giving lectures, practising the laying and disconnection of minefields and studying Spanish, German and French (Dick was fluent in French and found Spanish easy but thought German ‘a swinish language’).

The 11^th August 1941 found him writing to Chotie during a German class  :

Monday 11^th August 1941

Fort Brockhurst

Gosport

Hants

Monday Morning

My Darling,

                                                                                    It's not often that I begin an epistle to you at this hour in the morning - it's now only 8.30 - but as I have some time to spare, I thought I'd start anyway.

            It's been raining hard since réveillé and looks like going on all day.  I suppose it will stop by about eleven or so.  I'm meant to demonstrate sniping to the Company Commanders at nine o'clock but with this rain I suppose it will be postponed - at any rate I hope so.

            Thanks for your last letter.  I've passed on best wishes to Eric (I'm too jealous to give him your love...) who returns same.  I haven't seen Pete lately and JP is on leave.

            Incidentally my leave is down for the 22^nd of this month but we have been warned that all leave will probably be a month late, so it's not a bit of good to back on it.  It would be marvellous if I could get it, as it's only about ten days time.

            Eric and I went to the flicks yesterday and saw ‘Typhoon’ (Lamour & Preston).  It's a bit ancient but very good.  I don't know whether you saw it or not.  Don't miss it if you get the chance.  Eric & I also joined the Gosport Library - which is an excellent one in every way.

 

            We have just started a German class, but I hope to carry on with my letter.  The Education Sergeant is very ancient and could easily overlook this writing.  At the moment he’s chalking up lines and lines of German on the blackboard - I've no idea what - I never do.

 

Well, I just had a break for lunch so am once again at it.

            Hell!  I wish I could get my Seven Days... and don't you start talking about going Russian either*, or I'll start…

            We are now having a lecture on mopping-up paratroops - a lot of bloody rubbish…  They are under the impression that a section (one Lance Corporal & nine men) could easily finish off 18 paratroops, which is ridiculous as a British Army section has only one Bren Gun, possibly a Tommy gun and seven or eight rifles, whereas paratroops have each a light machine-gun, and bristle with Mills bombs**, grenades etc.  That's the Army all over - mass slaughter.

            I'm just going to dinner, so I'll probably feel better after that.

 

Well, Darling I've had dinner and do feel considerably better for it.  Excuse the ink (unusual for me) but as there appears to be a pen here I thought I may as well use it, perhaps it helps to make my writing legible.

            It has cleared up and the sun is shining once again - think of the time when it will always be shining, Sweetheart, when there shall be ‘no wars nor rumours of wars***’ ...  That little cottage with the thatched roof and glorious roses...And a Queen Anne bed... (?)

            This nightmare of separation will soon be over Darling, and then we'll start to live again.  That's if you'll still love me then.  All I ever do is hope & pray that you will. Please tell me you will, Darling, and I'll get some sleep at night...

            Well, Precious I must close here as I have to go on parade at 2 o'clock.

                                                            All my love, Darling,

                                                                        Your loving,

                                                                                    Dicker.

* Dick and Chotie appear to have used ‘Russian’ as a euphemism for intimate matters.

** kinds of hand grenade

*** Mark Chapter 13 Verse 7 “And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet…” from Authorized King James version of the Holy Bible (Matthew Chapter 24 Verse 7 is very similar).

© Chotie Darling

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

 

75 years ago – Reverting to Private

On 24^th May the popular Picture Post magazine predicted that Poole, where Chotie lived, would be one of the main landing areas for the still anticipated German invasion. Dick sent a telegram to Chotie on 24^th May and they managed to meet up in Southampton the next day. 

On Tuesday 27^th May Dick wrote to Chotie while guarding prisoners on Southampton Common.  Rumours that he’d heard about moving proved true and, as Allied troops were evacuated from Crete (following the German paratrooper  invasion), Dick was preparing for a move to Fort Brockhurst at Gosport near Portsmouth.

In June rationing was extended to clothes – Chotie found this increasingly miserable.  She was an avid fashion fan and trained as a window dresser at the Beales fashion store in Bournemouth (later bombed).

The move to Gosport on 3^rd June found a very disgruntled Dick comparing the place to a chicken coop and fed up with his duties as a Corporal.  On 7^th June he reverted to Private at his own request:

Letter posted Monday 9th June 1941

 ‘D’ Company

Fort Brockhurst

Gosport.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                        Thanks a million for the letter.  I've only just got it as I suppose it was held up at Soton.

Well, Honey, I've got some news this week!  I'm now a private again.

            I got so utterly fed up with this Battalion, that I sent in an application to the Old Man to revert to the ranks.  He refused, saying he considered me better as an NCO, than as a private.  He then asked me why I wished to revert, so I let him have it!

I told him I'd sooner serve as a Mess Orderly in a fighting unit than a Sergeant-Major in this. That shook ‘ee!

            He asked me whether I'd like to go on MT*, driving, probably on a motor-bike, should there be a vacancy.  I told him I would, so may start there soon.  At any rate I'll get a transfer.

I told the Old Man that all the NCOs did here was to wet-nurse a lot of kids who should be in the Boy Scouts.

            So here I am.  Being a Private will give me a wonderful chance to swot up, which I intend to do.  Besides, driving is more fun than fooling about in barracks, etc.  I shall probably break my neck, but that's how it goes.

            (Don't forget to address all correspondence to Private name & number)

Will you still love me as a private, Darling?  That's all I'm worried about.

            George was going to chuck his in, but he's got some sick leave, so I don't know much about it.

            I went to the Coliseum at Portsmouth, yesterday, and saw a Strip-Tease Act.  The compere said “The more you applaud, the more she takes off.”! Did the boys give her a hand!  I went with John and Ted Rendall, - we nearly killed ourselves laughing.

Later   The only good thing at this place is the showers.  They're hot almost always.  I've just had one, after dinner, and do I feel ‘in the pink’!  I could kill an ox.

            Well, Darling I must close here, with all my love.  Please write and tell me you still think of me now & then.

                                                                        Bye, bye, Darling

                                                                                    Your own loving hubby,

                                                                                                Dicker.

*M.T. = Mechanical Transport

© Chotie Darling

75 years ago - the Intelligence Course

In May 1941 rationing was beginning to bite in Dorset as both Viscount Cranborne (the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset) and the Earl of Shaftesbury (Member of Parliament for South Dorset) were taken to court for buying black market butter.  Chotie’s family were relatively comfortable since they ran the Creekmoor Farm Dairy in Parkstone.

Creekmoor Farm Dairy, on the corner of Chapel Road and Commercial Road, Parkstone c.1932. The children are Chotie's younger sister and brother, Beryl and Jack.

 

The first ‘Bailey Bridge’, later to play an invaluable role in the Normandy landings and liberation of North-West Europe, was tested on the River Stour in Christchurch.  Bombing went on in Dorset with significant attacks in Weymouth and the loss of the famous Maia flying-boat in Poole Harbour. 

A number of Poole men lost their lives when the battlecruiser HMS Hood was sunk in the Battle of the Denmark Strait on 24^th May.  Revenge was swift with the county’s cruiser, HMS Dorsetshire, finally sinking Hitler’s prize battleship the Bismark and ending the battle on 27^th May.

Southampton’s Blitz produced its last casualties at Hedge End in the air-raid of May 1941. 

Dick was able to take his seven days leave at the beginning of May so was home in Poole for a while with his family and Chotie.

Corporal Richard Williams of the Dorsetshire Regiment with his father, Dudley Williams, in home guard uniform and his younger brother Brin, a cadet.

On 13^th May Dick was back in Southampton on sick leave, writing to Chotie from a hut on Southampton Common on Church Army paper.  The week’s Intelligence course he’d heard about on 25th April was in Winchester (where Ordinary Ranks were recruited for the Corps) from 18^th to 24^th May.  Dick was confirmed as a full Corporal while he was on the course.

 

Wednesday 21^st May 1941  

Winchester

Wednesday Morning

Darling,

                                                                        Sorry I haven't been able to write before. I've been on the course for 2 days now and so far haven't had a spare moment.

            I don't mind that so much, but unfortunately I won't be able to receive any mail whilst I'm here. This means I won't hear from you until Saturday night at the earliest.  Rather a blow, but these things can't be helped.

            The course is very interesting to a bloke who knows sweet ---- all about Intelligence.  I don’t suppose I’ll know much more about it when I’ve finished but still....

            Incidentally, I get back on Saturday night, which means the CSM will try to jump on me for guard on Sunday.  If, however, I can evade this, I’ll send a telegram on Saturday night to let you know whether I can get the day off.  I’ll probably have to go on Church but still, we get back about 11.30. I believe.

            I’m afraid I can’t write any more, Darling as it’s now nearly 0900 hrs.  We have to be in the Lecture Room by 0930 and it’s a fair way to walk.  (I’ve just had a marvellous breakfast!)                   

                                            Bye bye Darling,

                                                                Your adoring

                                                                                    Dicker

© Chotie Darling

75 years ago - the Quartermaster

The worst bombing in Poole was on 27^th March 1941 when two bombs blew up the stores and canteen at Branksome Gas Works.  34 were killed and another 23 injured.  A few days earlier a bomb hitting the railway embankment blew out all the windows on the Poole 'Glamour Puffer' transporting women working in the Royal Navy Cordite factory at Holton Heath.  Poole had a special role to play in combined operations – in April the secret Small Scale Raiding Force, a forerunner of the Royal Marine Commandos, began life with a HQ set up in the Antelope, Poole. 

Fighting continued in the skies above Dorset with further attacks on the Spitfire fighters at Warmwell who intercepted bombers heading for the northern cities.  Southampton, where Dick was stationed, was also receiving considerable attention from the Luftwaffe. On 21^st March he wrote of his frustration at all the hours spent in shelters as the bombs rained down every night. Returning from home on 23^rd March he got lost at the docks. After three days instructing on the rifle range he was complaining of losing his student skills and on 31st March of his ghastly THB inoculation, which put him under the weather for a week or so.  He was cheered by the chance of a commission, although it meant delaying his seven days leave, but was unsuccessful because his time in PT meant he didn’t have enough military knowledge.  On 24^th April we find him unhappily covering the Quartermaster’s duties for a week:

Thursday 24^th and Friday 25^th April 1941

IMMEDIATE

Southampton

Thursday.

24 APRIL 1941

Darling Tootsie,

                                                                                    Well, Sweetheart to get it over quickly, I can't get my seven days this week at any rate.  Lieutenant Thomas, the Company Commander, came to me this morning and casually said, “Oh, Corporal Williams, do you think you could take over the Quartermaster’s job for a week?  I literally shuddered (!), and said “not b----y likely!” but unfortunately he wouldn't take no for an answer, and consequently here I am for 9 days altogether.

            I've been at it all day and have just finished.  It's now after eleven!  What a game!  As far as I can see I shall be at it every night like this.  The C.Q.M.S.* never finished before eight or nine, and I know nothing about the job.  However, it may be the chance of a lifetime.  We shall see.

            I seem to be getting all the rotten luck lately - but if you still love me a little I don't give a damn. That's all I care about anyway.  I can't write any more darling as I'm nearly asleep.

            Bye bye, Darling

                                                                        Don't lose hope,

                                                                                    Your loving

                                                                                                Dicker

                                                                                                XXX

                                                                                                XXX

PS Thanks for letter received this morning.

 

“D” COMPANY

No....................

25 APR 1941

70^th BN. THE DORSET

 

                            RKWilliams   Capt.    Commanding D Coy

                             70^th Bn. The Dorsetshire Regt. 

 

 

                   URGENT!

Southampton

          CONFIDENTIAL!                                                         

Friday

25 APR 1941

My Darling,

                                                                        I wasn't able to post your letter yesterday, so I'm writing a few more wads whilst I've got a chance.

            I've just seen some good news in Battalion Part II Orders.  I've been selected to attend the 4th Division Intelligence Course at HQ 4^th Div. wherever that may be.  There are two of us going – 2^nd Lieutenant Wallers (that hot bloke who we saw going into the flicks at Soton).

            It's a marvellous chance.  It's only a week's course, but should be very good.  It's on the 18th of May, and lasts until the 24th.  The only thing is, I don't know where it is. However, I shall be able to get my Seven Days before going.

                        Well Darling once again bye bye for the moment.

                                        Lots of love

 

                                                    Dicker

 

* C.Q.M.S – Company Quartermaster Sergeant, the non commissioned officer in charge of supplies for a company. (Hence the stamps on the letter….)

© Chotie Darling

 

75 years ago - bombing raids in Southampton

In March Dick moved back to south Hampshire from Southbourne and was stationed in Southampton. The city was subject to regular air-raids, the Luftwaffe having resumed their bombing campaign (which had been hampered by the winter weather following the terrible attacks of November and December).

Poole, where Chotie lived, suffered 88 air raid alerts in March and April as incendiaries, high explosive bombs and UXBs were dropped on the area (from  ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillierand published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980.)

 

Dick wrote this letter while on guard in Southampton:

‘D’ Company

70th Dorsets

Southampton

Hants.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                        As I’m on guard once again I thought I’d write as I have a few moments all to myself!

        I have to go on guard every three days or so – far too often - a 24 hrs guard, mounting at 6 pm and dismounting at 6 pm the next day. 

        It’s a regimental guard over the main entrance to the Battalion Headquarters.  Needless to say everything is just so-so or the RSM* wants to know why.  However, there’s a stove in the guardroom which helps matters not a little.  There’s also an orderly attached to the guard who gets the meals and anything from the NAAFI.

        The guard consists of one Corporal and three men, each man doing two hrs on duty and then four hrs in the guardroom.  The main snag is that we have to wear full equipment and are not allowed to take it off during the 24 hrs, except for reasons too obvious to mention!

        That’s enough of guards – they’re pretty depressing things anyway. To turn to a more cheerful subject, I hope to get home next weekend for a few hours – either on Saturday or Sunday.  It all depends on when I have to go on guard again.  If it falls on Saturday evening it ruins me, as there wouldn’t be time to get home and I would be on guard all the Sunday.  I believe, however, that I go on again on Friday, which means I come off Saturday night and could get home on the Sunday.  We must trust to luck as usual.  I think I can make it all right.

        I’ve been to the flicks twice lately – saw ‘The Great Dictator’ and ‘Black Fury’ (Paul Muni).  How anyone could see anything in the ‘Great Dictator’ I don’t know.  I thought it was chronic.  ‘Black Fury’ was quite good but nothing up to the usual Muni standard.  The place we go to (the only place we are allowed without a pass) is Shirley.  I’ve no idea where it lies on the map but it’s inland from Southampton.  It’s a pretty dull place; reminds me of the East End on Sunday – all 50 shilling tailors and patent leather.

        There’s nothing to go out for anyway, as we have a first rate NAAFI and a good Corporals’ Room.  The boys say there are plenty of women here but I haven’t seen any – except a couple of old bags, doubtless engaged in plying the oldest of professions. I’m afraid that’s rather crude. Almost Russian**…

        Incidentally, I don’t know whether I told you I had an interview with the ‘Old Man’ and he’s recommended me.  It will mean some months, as I have to wait for the recommendation to go through to the interview board.  They’re the b----rs to get past and even if I get past them (which I very much doubt) I’d still have to wait to get posted to an O.C.T.U.***  Still it’s a start, I suppose.

        I’ve just paused to make out the Guard reports – a wretched job as everything has to be reported – even the minutest detail.

 

            Later

                                    Well, Precious, it’s now just after midnight and still the sirens haven’t gone.  It’s really rather odd as we seem lost without them here.  I expect Jerry’s stocktaking this evening…  the raids lately have been almost continuous and pretty vicious. About six houses in a row, 200 yards from here came down on Saturday night.

        When there’s a night raid on the shrapnel comes down like rain, from the Anti-Aircraft Barrage.  There’s not a house in the whole place that hasn’t got some windows out or half the roof gone.  It’s certainly more interesting from that point of view, as there’s seldom a dull moment at night.  It makes the guards a lot more fun when you can hear the shrapnel on the roof.

        I’ve done very little reading lately as I don’t get very much time.  I read, or rather re-read, Hitchins’ ‘The Garden of Allah’, and quite an interesting little book called ‘I’ll tell you Everything’, written by Priestley in collaboration with some one else****, which, although very light & sometimes puerile, was really rather good.

(Every now and then I light my pipe and march up and down outside in an effort to keep awake.  The stove in here makes me wish for my dear little bed…).

        There’s a piano here in the Assembly Hall, on which I manage to amuse myself occasionally if no one else.  If I can find a piano anywhere where I can play without fear of being interrupted I’m really happy for hours – which only goes to prove what a simple minded soul I must be.

Well, my precious baby, I must close here as I don’t want to put an undue strain on your eyes (?) reading all this rubbish, so I will say ‘Good Morning’, Darling,

                                                            Your ever loving,

                                                                                    Dicker

P.S.  Please look after yourself, Darling, as you mean just everything now.

 

* RSM – Regimental Sergeant Major

** ‘Russian’ was a romantic code between Dick and Chotie.

“Dicker and I, so young, played wonderful games. We pretended to be ‘Russian’ and he taught me to love the ballet as he did.  Having always wanted to be a dancer we pretended I was.  I wore my long blonde hair in the style of a ballerina. He was a brilliant pianist and played Chopin by ear. He had a very good physique having exercised with weights and things – very muscular.  How I adored him.  Our lovemaking was very pure by today’s standards.  Just to kiss and hold each other close was very thrilling.”  From ‘Chotie’s Story’.

*** O.C.T.U. – Officer Cadet Training Unit

****Robert Smythe Hichens’ ‘The Garden of Allah’, a tale of adventure in the Sahara Desert written in 1904, was made famous by the Marlene Dietrich film of 1936.  ‘I’ll Tell You Everything’ written by J.B.Priestley in collaboration with Gerald Bullett is a light-hearted crime thriller.

© Chotie Darling

75 years ago - Changes

January 1941 brought changes for Dick. On 1^st January he was demoted to Lance Corporal for “not having control over the men”. He was also transferred to ‘C’ company at Battalion Headquarters in Corsham, 10 miles from the aerodrome.

Soon after this the 70^th Dorsets were moved to Lee-on-Solent on the Hampshire Coast, presumably as part of Lieutenant-General Montgomery’s V Corps in Southern Command. Monty was responsible for the defence of Hampshire and Dorset from July 1940 to April 1941.

And then Dick ran into a lorry:

January 1941

“Rye Cottage”

Marine Parade West

Lee-on-Solent.

Hants.

My Darling,

            Just a few lines to let you know how I'm getting on and to give you the new address. Did you get my P.S.?

            I wrote about a week ago, telling you of my demotion etc - I also wrote home but they don't appear to have got it. I don't know whether you did.

            I'm afraid I've been laid up for some time as I had a bit of an accident and nearly managed to lose my left eye. I was blind in it for three days - but the MO says it's OK now – I only hope he's right. I was running pretty fast (Olympic Games Standard!) in the Black-Out early one morning, when I collided with a lorry. I thought I was tough, but I rather think the lorry had it all the way. I got a slight concussion and a deep cut under my eye - but it's all right now.

            In case you didn't get my last letter, I'm now a L/Cpl having been busted by the Colonel (bless him). Pete is now a full Corporal in ‘D’ Coy my original Company. Eric has also been made up again. The fortunes of war....

            However who cares? I've still got my Tootsie (I hope..) and that's all I have to worry about.

            Well Darling I'm afraid I'll have to close here as this wretched NAAFI is closing.

                            Still loving you every bit Cho Dear,

                                                                        your devoted

                                                                                    Dicker

 

© Chotie Darling, 2010

*The Blackout ensured that there were no outdoor lights, or lights that could be seen from outside. This was to prevent enemy aircraft from identifying targets at night.

There were still plenty of air attacks on the south coast – Poole suffered from incendiary bombs on 6 of the first 12 days in January 1941 with c.250 houses damaged on 9^th January and two men killed by high explosive bombs.

Portsmouth, near Lee-on-Solent, sustained an enormous Blitz on 10^th January 1941.

At Lee-on-Solent the Royal Naval Air Station Dick may have been guarding (HMS Daedalus of the Fleet Air Arm) was packed with underground pipe bombs to make the site unusable in the case of enemy invasion. Rediscovered in 2006 this led to probably the largest peace time evacuation in Britain while they were removed.

 

75 years ago – Christmas Deserters from Corsham

Air warfare continued over southern England and in Dorset German planes and spitfires came down on land and at sea. By December the Warmwell Dorset airbase had lost 26 pilots.  On 13^th December Poole’s heathlands were set ablaze by incendiary bombs on Hamworthy but when Montgomery came to view ‘Project Fougasse’ on 20^th December, 'Operation Sea Flame' was less successful at setting the sea alight at Studland.

Fights among the Young Soldiers in Wiltshire also continued, although discipline was apparently tightened up.  Dick, continuing to ‘try for a Commission’, was the youngest Corporal in the battalion. He was badly lovesick but there was to be no leave to see Chotie in December. The company (he was now in 'A' company of the 70^th Dorsets) left Chippenham to guard Corsham aerodrome – a miserable place. While changing the guard,after a raid on the aerodrome, Dick walked into a spitfire in the pitch black but at least he wasn’t shot by one of the guards – a recent "morbid" accident! By Christmas many of the Young Soldiers had made a bid for freedom:

 

Wednesday 25^th December 1940

Corsham, Wilts

Christmas Day

My Precious Darling,

            I had to write straightaway, to try to thank you for the lovely lighter you sent for the 25th. Darling, it lights! Nothing can stop it lighting - not even a young hurricane. I've used it on guard - and believe me the wind howls round here - and it lights first time every go!

            Darling, it's just what I've wanted for years. You know how many matches I use! Thank you ever so much Cho, Dear. Remind me to give you a big kiss when I get home. When.………..But I'm still hoping.

            I thought about you all over Christmas Darling. It made me so mad to think that I couldn't send you anything, not even a Christmas card. Poor Eric's in the same boat and Pete. We haven't seen a shop of any sort for nearly three weeks. I've been to Bath twice since we've been here but each time the only thing open were the pubs.

            The latest is that all passes to Bath have been stopped as the Chief-of-Police has banned us from the town! The same applied to Chippenham. The Boys beat up every town we get near!

            I've been on guard all day (Christmas) and come off tomorrow morning. It's now about 9.30 pm., and as usual I'm writing this by the lamp in the Guard Hut. I managed to wangle Eric on this guard so I've had his company all day, which is a relief. We had quite a good dinner, which included Beer & Cigarettes.

            Pete has been in bed for 2 days with a so-called gastric stomach! He's really no more ill than I am, but you know what he is! Needless to say however, he made a rapid recovery on Christmas Eve.

            Owing to present conditions I can't say just what's going to happen to me. Let me explain. Out of the whole battalion (A,B,C,D & E Companies.) which is approx 850 men, there have been over 250 deserters in the last fortnight! Which only goes to show what the conditions are like!

            Now, everyone over 20 can get a transfer to another Regiment - and believe me, there are plenty over 20 who have put their age down to 18.

            Lieutenant White our Officer in Charge is being replaced as from tonight by a Captain. This means I have to start all over again as regards a commission! What a life!

            The Orderly Officer has just come up with Beer & fags (!) so I have altered my opinion of the Army since writing the last sentence.

                        Well, my precious, I must close soon as the Ord has to be accompanied around.

                                                            Darling, I must see you soon as I love you so madly that I just can't go on without you.

                                                                            Goodnight, Cho Darling

                                                                                Your adoring

                                                                                                Dicker

© Chotie Darling, 2010

75 years ago - Choosing Friends

At the beginning of October Dick had his 7 days leave at home in Parkstone (Poole, Dorset) and met up with Chotie.  On the 3^rd October he’d been appointed a Full Corporal and he was already angling for a commission.

Parkstone was seeing plenty of action - enemy planes would have been frequent by day and by night, heading inland over the Dorset coast or occasionally bombing Dorset ports and towns. The Battle of Britain was also frequently fought in Dorset skies and many German and British planes crashed into Dorset’s land and sea in autumn 1940. (See David R. Privett’s account of a wartime childhood in Poole on the BBC People's War website .)

 

Back in Bemerton Dick was still with his Dorset friends, Eric Kessler and Pete (despite rumours of a move to Basingstoke and even joining up with the Hampshire Regiment!) but since they were privates and Dick was an NCO (non-commissioned officer) this friendship was not encouraged:

 

Tuesday 22nd October 1940

Bemerton

Tuesday evening

My Darling Cho,

                                                            Thanks for the letter which I got this morning.

            Well Darling to get down to business, I find that with reasonable luck I’ll be able to get home on Sunday.  The point is Honey, that if I can get a pass all day in Salisbury I may just as well come home, and it will save you a look of trouble & expense.  Also I don’t like the idea of your travelling back all that way in the dark.

            There is some truth in what Mummy warns you about, even if you don’t believe it… Mind you, I’m not saying you can’ take care of yourself, but after all you’re only a lickle baby although you’re the most adorable chubby baby that ever lived.  I tremble to think what could happen to you, Sweetheart, and I hate taking those kind of risks.

            I was doing Battalion Orderly Sergeant all day last Sunday which is some job, & I don’t mean maybe.  It means being on all day from réveillé until about 11pm, with one worry after another – but for all that, it’s good experience.

            Incidentally, I was choked off the other day, pretty severely.  I bet you wouldn’t guess what for? (No, Precious, it wasn’t women!)  It was for associating with private soldiers vis. Eric & Pete.  I’m no longer able to go out with them, and should I meet them in the N.A.A.F.I. or anywhere, they have to address me as Corporal and not the now familiar ‘Dicker’. What a life!

            The latest news as regards moving is back to Dinton which suits me admirably – that is, it’s b…..y awful but much preferable to Basingstoke.

            We had a dance here last Monday.  I’d had nine pints at the Conservative Club before I got there, so had a pretty good time on the whole.  The women were a little better than usual but have no fears, Darling, as there isn’t a woman living who could take me away from you, (and that includes Bergman*…)

            Well, Chubby, I must close now, loving you more than ever.

                                     Je suis à toi pour la Vie,**

                                                                Your adoring,

                                                                                Dicker

P.S. I terrible sorry about you’re cold. It’s just like me to forget all about it until the end.  I hope you’ll forgive me Darling and get better soon.

            all yours

                    Dicker

                    xxxxxxxxxxx

                    xxxxxxxxxxx

                    xxxxxxxxxx

                    xxxxxxxxxx

                    All for you! (when I come home)

 

* Ingrid Bergman, the Swedish film star.

** “I am yours for life.”

© Chotie Darling, 2010

75 year ago – Sleepy Sunday at Tidworth

Dick spent most of August 1940 on a PT Instructor course at Tidworth on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.  The course was reputedly three weeks of living Hell.  Although he managed to get home for a couple of weekends, by 24^th August he was ready for a day of rest....

 

Saturday 24th August 1940

Tidworth

Saturday evening

My darling,

 

            Thanks for the letter. I got it on Friday, and also one from home at the same time.

            I’m writing this in bed, which is rather a job, but nevertheless a labour of love as usual.  I was on duty today scrubbing out the gym etc, but will have a glorious day of rest tomorrow I hope.  What everyone does on Sundays here is sleep.  Blessed Sleep.

            Apparently they get up for breakfast, go back to bed - get up for dinner – go back to bed, get up for tea (that’s if they’re feeling energetic) and then thankfully off to sleep – having had a tiring day.  That’s my idea of the perfect life.  Life as it really should be lived.

             What about going back to nature after this show?  Living in a cave or tree-tops or quelque chose comme ça?  Just lead me to it, baby.  Incidentally, should you be thinking that I’m tight, I assure you that I haven’t so much as smelt beer all day.  It must be the soothing effect of bed, I suppose.

                I wish I could have got away this weekend, but it was quite impossible.  I may get a pass next Sat with reasonable luck.  I certainly won’t waste any time in getting home.

                I was very surprised to hear about the bombing at Poole*.  I knew nothing about it but it just goes to prove that anything may happen- and at any time.  Please look after yourself Cho.  It may seem trivial to you, but it means everything to me, (and I’m not tight…).

I must close now darling as it will soon be lights-out.                                                                                  

                                                                            All my love

                                                                                         Your adoring

                                                                                                        Dicker

P.S. Ayez soin et soyez bonne**

 

* Chotie talked about the horror of watching Poole being bombed from Pamphill, Wimborne where she was visiting her friend, Mary Dakin, the daughter of the gamekeeper.

Her terrified mother refused to go to the shelter when the air raid warnings sounded, instead sheltering with her family under the heavy wooden table in the kitchen. Mrs Chalkley also refused to wear her gas mask but kept vinegar and cotton wool always to hand (why, I don’t know).  Chotie’s father was a ‘Special Constable’ or volunteer policeman during the war

** “Take care and be good”

© Chotie Darling, 2010

 

Returning to Hull

On the night of 17^th/18^th March 1945 the city of Hull was under attack for the first time since 1943. A lone Heinkel dropped fragmentation grenades (with inbuilt fuses, detonating on impact with the ground) and opened up with machine guns killing 13 people and injuring 22. (See BBC News for 17th March .)  

Chotie, however, was still in Parkstone….

Letter written Sunday18^th March 1945

Sunday March 18^th 45

My darling husband,

                                                This is going to be short, because I feel pretty ‘B…..’ as I am going back to camp tomorrow.  Have to start at 8 o’clock in the morning – unearthly hour.

         

While cleaning out, this last week I found this tie, which I have enclosed.  Is it light enough?  If it is not wearable send it back and I will dye it or something.

           

Don, Ted’s brother, has been down and we went to Church* this morning. Everyone was congratulating him thinking he was my husband.  Poor Don.

            Margaret, Beryl & Don & I went down to 'The Sloop' last evening.  Poor Marg had to have shandy because of feeding Roger.  None of the ‘old crowd’ were there, except the ‘man from Kent.’

            Don & I sneaked down after Church, this morning, for a quick one.

           

We have had another present, darling.  Three pre-war tea-cloths (what you wipe up with) from Mrs Johnson.  Jolly useful.

            I phoned up Ethel & Cyril, my cousins, today.  They wished us all the best and are going to dish out something when we get our home – when?  They both wished you all the luck in what you are doing out there.

           

I must finish now, my dearest and get on with my packing.

            Will write when I reach camp.

            Take care, darling – God bless,

            All my love & kisses,

                        Chotie.

XX

 

*Parkstone Congregational Church opposite the Hollies in Commercial Road – now Parkstone United Reformed Church.  Dick and Chotie met at the Congregational Church Youth Club. The Hollies, including the dairy, was knocked down in the 1960s and replaced with a tyre shop.

 

 

Enclosed with this letter was a small notice from a newspaper:

A ‘Special Licence’ enabled couples to get married without waiting the usual three week period for ‘calling the banns’ – giving notice of the proposed marriage for three successive Sundays in church.

Chotie and Dick had evidently decided to get married while he was on leave and could not have done so in the time without special licence.

 © Chotie Darling

 

 

WAR DIARY of 52^nd (Lowland) Recce Regt RAC March 1945

– Lt Col J.B.A. Hankey OBE

Date 18^th Place MENZELEN:            2 casualties                          Weather – Fine

Strength - 905 men, 188 tanks/armoured cars/guns             

‘Regiment less ‘A’ Sqaudron ordered to do Traffic Control for Operation PLUNDER. Two casualties in ‘C’ Squadron from shelling.’

‘A’ Squadrons detached.

(From the War Diary of the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment held by the Archive and Reference Library, the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.)

 

52^nd Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on 18^th March 1945:

Trooper Jack Weston (age 22) of ‘C’ Squadron

who is laid to rest in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, south-west of Kleve in Germany.         

(From  ‘The Fighting Fifty-Second Recce’ by Carl Shilleto, Eskdale Publishing 2001.  See photo.)

We will remember them.

Safe and Sound and Soon

Letter from Chotie written Friday 16^th March 1945

Friday 16^th March 45.

My darling,

                                    Must thank you so much for your letter*, which was really quite quick coming.  I did not expect to hear from you for quite a while.           

Thank Goodness! Bryn approved - I do hope he writes to me.  It is a shame he got posted  just when you could be with him.  I was pleased that your trip over was not too deadly and I do hope, precious, that you continue to get good food.  That’s an important thing.

            Actually darling I think it is you, making the sacrifice so nobly, and if you come back safe and sound and soon I will be the happiest girl in the world.

 

We have had some more money, darling.  2 guineas from Auntie Nellie & Alice & £1 from Auntie Ethel – Mummy’s sister.  We also had lots of promises.  I hope you have managed to write to some of those people, darling, if not send the letters etc. to me & I’ll write them.

           

Well, I have been very fortunate about leave.  I phoned the unit up and spoke to Mrs Wilkie, luckily.  She told me to await instructions.  Yesterday, I received a wire granting me 7 days, so I’ll have to go back next Monday.  No C.B.** or anything – thank goodness!

           

Have just received a letter from your Mum with some photos enclosed – also some negatives.  The photos of me are ‘chronic’ – you don’t look too bad, one is quite good.  Beryl is getting some negatives developed so I’ll send you some on as soon as possible.

           

I have been taking the baby out quite a bit.  In Poole yesterday I bumped into Sas & Johnny; they thought it was “very quick work”, until I explained, of course.  They walked back through the park*** with me, getting quite 'paternal'.  Sas had schemes of weaning him on beer.

            This afternoon Margaret & I walked nearly to Sandbanks with him.  She was in the best of spirits as she had just had a letter from Ted and he should be home April 6^th, 7^th or 8^th – isn’t it thrilling?

            Roger is a bit fretful – we think some teeth are coming, or something.  Ted’s brother Don is coming tomorrow, I have not seen him for ages.  He will be the first of the ‘Lewises’ to nurse Roger.

          

I have opened a banking account at the National Provincial – so that’s all settled.  I think you have to enquire about my allowance, or something.****

 

Later

Beryl came rushing in from work and wanting me to go to the flicks.  We went to the ‘Grand’ to see Ronald Colman & Marlene Dietrich in 'Kismet'.  All Baghdad and thieves and things.  Not bad.  We had to walk home, so I’m pretty well on my knees.

            Must close now and go to bed,

            Take care, my precious,

                        All my love,

                                    Chotie. XXX

 

*Dick’s letter of Monday 12^th March 1954 –  'A Noble Sacrifice'. 

**’Confined to Barracks’?

***Poole Park – not far from Chotie’s home.

****A married man in the services could get a ‘Married Women’s Allowance’ for his wife.

 © Chotie Darling

 

WAR DIARY of 52^nd (Lowland) Recce Regt RAC March 1945

– Lt Col J.B.A. Hankey OBE

Date 16^th Place MENZELEN:                                                Weather – Rain

Strength - 907 men, 188 tanks/armoured cars/guns              

‘No change in situation except that ‘A’ Squadron less Assault Troop ordered to go to VENRAIJ to come under command of Commando Brigade.  ‘B’ Squadron also to supply 9 19 sets to report to HQ, 15(S) Division in area HASSELT.  Regiment also warned that elements may be taken for Traffic Control.  Slight shelling in area.’

 ‘A’ & ‘C’ Squadrons were still detached. ‘B’ Squadron were at Helenhof 1225.

(From the War Diary of the 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment held by the Archive and Reference Library, the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.)

 

Dick’s 1945 diary for March:

16th Fri – Supper with Peter Evans. Wrote Poll.

17th Fri – Wrote Averil.

Ginderich, Germany

Dick’s 1945 diary for March:

13th Tues – Gilderich (Ginderich) resting.  Letter from Ronnie.

Photo labelled Ginderich March 1945

(See The Daimler Fighting Vehicles Project for more information on the car).

 

Second Letter written Tuesday 13^th March 1945

Tuesday 13^th Mar.

My precious,

                                    I do hope you find the enclosed alright.  Margaret sent the Ovaltine tablets*, for you, with lots of love.  That T.C.P.** is awfully good for cuts or spots and anything – I always use it.

Just now, I feel pretty wretched – specially as it’s our Wedding Anniversary.  This afternoon I had a tooth out - it took two dentists about half an hour to do it.  Mr Harris & Mr Dunman – I think you know them.  You see, last night I had some of Mummy’s home-made toffee, unfortunately, and it removed half this wretched tooth & its stopping, so I had to have the rest extracted.  Cost me 6 shillings too!

            When I returned from the dentist, there was a letter from my unit.  My leave is granted providing I can send a certificate of confirmation from your Officer in Command that you will be in England for 14 days and I can be with you.  So I’ve had that.

            What I intend doing now is to make out I received the letter tomorrow afternoon and ring them up, just to see how things are.  Probably get charged or something in any case.  They have enclosed a terrific sheet of ration coupons - I think I’ll use them.

          

Ted’s brother is coming down for the week-end.  He has been moved to a factory near Southampton so it’s quite handy for here.  I was hoping to see him, maybe I will - -

            Poor old Mary & Dil, going back tomorrow.  I should by rights too.

           

I do hope, my darling, you are quite well.  Have a good time with Bryn, if possible.  Take care of yourself, & eat up all these pills & things – then I’ll send you some more.  I could not get any glucose, but those halibut things are pretty smash!

            All my love, precious, for ever & ever,

                                                Your loving wife,

                                                            Chotie

P.S.     I was going to enclose this with the parcel I hope you will soon receive, but Margaret says you must not put letters in with parcels.  She should know!

 

*made from milk, malted barley and wheat flour

**an antiseptic

***probably halibut liver oil, a fish oil product taken for vitamins A and D.

 © Chotie Darling

A.W.L. in Parkstone

Letter written Tuesday 13^th March 1945 and embossed ‘THE HOLLIES, COMMERCIAL ROAD, PARKSTONE.’

13^th March 45

My darling husband,

                                                I have been hanging on before writing you in case I heard from my unit - but I haven’t so really I am A.W.L.*  What an awful wife you have?

           

Received a letter from your mother yesterday with £1 enclosed from Hilda**.  Apparently her husband decided that £2 was not enough for us – don’t forget to thank them, darling.  I am enclosing with this  a letter and cheque from Rita, some more to add to our little store.  Would you endorse it?

            I have managed to get you some stuff to take, darling, so tonight I will pack it all up & send it.  Hope you get it alright.

           

Yesterday afternoon, Mary  & I were doing some shopping in Poole and who should we bump into but SAS & Johnny Jones.  They had just crawled out of 'the Antelope', pretty well gone, and were going to the flicks to sleep it off.

            Johnny’s moustache just covered his face – awful.  SOS looked pretty smashed up, poor chap, but quite cheery.  They thought our marriage was a terrific cause for celebration.

            Right now, Mary & I are supposed to be in 'the Sloop' – boozing with them.  But really they are shocking types and Mary can’t stick Johnny Jones – never could.  We are dreading that they might barge in here or something.  God only knows what Mum would say.

            Anyway, they both heartily wished us every happiness.

           

Daddy took Beryl****, Mary & I to the Palace Court, last night.  We saw Terence de Marney*** in “The Crime of Margaret Foley” – Quite thrilling, & very well acted.

INK SMUDGE

(The dog has been walking over this.)

           

Have just washed my hair, so Mary & I are sitting in the garden – it’s quite warm and sunny.

            Mummy is shouting about dinner being ready, so I must close.

                                    All my love, darling,

                                                            Chotie xx

 

*Absent Without Leave.

** This letter came from Aunt Hilda of ‘Cairo Cottage’ 14 Broad Oak End, Bramfield Road, Hertford.

***The British actor, theatre director and writer – he was the author, as well as the star, of ‘The Crime of Margaret Foley’.

****Chotie's younger sister

 

© Chotie Darling

Big Battles to Come - Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th August 1944

28^th August 1944 – the ports of Toulon and Marseilles in the south of France are liberated by French forces who take more than 50,000 German prisoners after heavy fighting.  US 3^rd Army enters Épernay, the capital of champagne country, east of Paris and south of Reims.

 

On 28^th August Eric Brewer recorded that they “Moved to near Seine* getting ready for a push toward the Belgium border.  Think we shall move tomorrow.  Went down village along the Seine.  Got asked into a house by a man and his wife; had champagne cognac, and also a few eggs from her.  She told us to come and see her again - hope to go tomorrow.  Came across big German military barracks”.

*Regimental HQ was based at Bonnières-sur-Seine, a small industrial town upstream from Vernon, before 61st Recce crossed the river (Regimental HQ location list on re-union dinner menu 1946).  

The next day he: "Went to see the people near the Seine again; we had some champagne. They have a business in Paris. Told us to come and spend our leave there if we get any; also we could spend a holiday there after the war.  She gave me her address and wanted us to stay the night but could not as we are moving tonight across the Seine."

In his letter home on 28th August Eric wrote: "Today I have been in a French woman’s house and she woke her husband up to come and have something to drink with us.  We had a couple of nips of Cognac and a glass of cider, also she gave us an egg each and a souvenir which I am sending on.  The pattern is supposed to be the Eiffel Tower.  She was a very nice woman to speak to: she even wanted us to stay to dinner but we had to refuse as the French people don’t even get enough for themselves let alone anyone else.  She did not like the idea until we told her the reason, then she tried to tell us that she ha sufficient for all of us, but anyway we left and she asked us to return and see her which we hope to do tomorrow."  Writing again two days later he continued:  "The other day I went and saw that lady who gave me the souvenir.  She told me that her business was in Paris - they were in the clothes trade - and she told me we could come and see her whenever we want to.  As she could speak English we had a good talk with her.  Before we left her house she gave us a few eggs and while there we had two bottles of champagne between four of us.  We have been invited to come and stay for a while whenever we have the time off; she said that if it was not while the war was on she would like to see us after." (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

 

61^st Recce RAC,  BLA

Monday Aug. 28^th

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for your letter dated the 23^rd which I’ve just this moment received. 

            Glad to hear you’re home at last if only for six days, and the prospect of a month’s course is quite a pleasant one to look forward to.  Don’t do anything too strenuous will you?  The first course I had was a P.T one and they gave me a bending all right….

            I’ll send this to your home address and they can forward it as soon as they hear from you in Scotland.

            I imagine it’s pretty crowded at Parkstone at the moment now that the coastal ban has been lifted – mother says it’s pretty bad in Bognor.

            Sorry to hear about the pubs* – especially the Sloop.  It’s Dad’s pet grouse, of course, at present, though you’d better be in training for Scotland.

            Very sorry to hear about Adrian – I didn’t realise he was over here.

            I may have a chance to contact Ted in the next few weeks though it’s very difficult.  I spent over two hours trying to find Brinner today but without success.  Apparently he’s still at Base, Somewhere.  At any rate it’s safer there.

            I’ve had a fairly quiet time lately but can’t guarantee it will last.

            I’ve been in many villages first hand and have had a great welcome from the people.  We’re lucky this way of course – it’s one of the few compensations of being in front all the time.

            I’m very fit and still very happy here – I suppose the ability to chat with the people wherever you go helps a lot.

            I wish I could see you again, Darling, but I’d sooner get this business over, than go on leave and have to come back again.

            I think we’ve got the worst of it over but I can’t pretend there aren’t big battles to come.  We’ve beaten a complete army now, but we’ve had precious little time to rest on our laurels.  They still have armies left, but I think we can beat them also.

            I’ve just heard the good news of a day’s rest tomorrow so I’ll write some more then.

            Goodnight, my Darling.

 

Well, Precious, Tuesday has arrived after a wretched night.  I’ve never experienced such a storm as we had last night – simply torrents of rain with added accompaniment of thunder and lightning.  I got soaked through and haven’t yet dried out.

            It’s rather a pity as we’re in very fine country, as I heard it aptly expressed – country that was never meant to hear more than the song of the birds or the pop of a Champagne cork….

            Aren’t the radio programmes wretched?  We have a radio on all day (in harbour) and the stuff they pound out is chronic.  I get heartily sick of the whole thing.

            I’m writing this in a barn full of new-mown hay, very pleasant indeed.  The rain outside is pretty steady and doesn’t look like stopping today at any rate.

            I don’t suppose I can write another letter to reach you before the 6^th, so here’s wishing you all the very best for your 21^st.  As soon as you can give me the address of an account you can use I send on a cheque – ‘fraid it’s all I can do out here.

            Must close here but will try to write you again tomorrow

                                   All my love, Darling

                                                Dicker

           

P.T.O

P.S.  Found the enclosed mags. in Villers Bocage some long time ago.  The magazines were quite indifferent so I just cut out the best.  The rest of the stuff were third-rate patterns.  I thought the kiddies stuff the best.  Am I giving you ideas?                     

                                  R.

*Not sure what was happening to the pubs around this time but alcohol was at it’s scarcest in Christmas 1994/45 on the home front (see Christmas under Fire).

This letter was forwarded to:

W/242328, Pte Chalkley B.E.

Primary Course, No 2 T.J. Wing

New Battle Abbey, Dalkeith, Mid Lothian, Scotland.

 © Chotie Darling

Chotie attended a P.T. course at Newbattle Abbey from 30^th August 1944.

 

 

29^th August 1944 – Slovak resistance forces began an armed insurrection against the collaborationist government.  Initially successful the German counter-offensive in late September and October eliminated the rebel gains and perpetrated many atrocities.

 

Chotie's 'little circle' - Saturday 6th May 1944

Sorry no ink!

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO

England

Dearest Chotie,

                                                Well I’m Orderly* Officer again, Darling so here goes.

            Received your letter this morning – and very welcome it was.  Seems ages since I’d heard from you.

            Was glad to hear you’d managed to get home – if only for a short while, and that your little circle are OK.  I bet you’re excited about your sister Margaret** – ‘fraid I haven’t any reciprocating news re Diller, and as far as I know Brinner isn’t likely to do anything in this particular line.  Though you never know with Brinner.  You’ll notice I’m keeping quiet about myself….

            There’s simply no news from this end at all.  The chances of getting a pass all very thin – too thin to entertain – at present anyhow.

            At the moment I’m engaged in the worst part of this Orderly Officer racket – viz. sitting in the Orderly Room (Tent) all the evening and sleeping there at night – during which time I have to pay the Guard a visit – usually at about three in the morning.  A particularly thankless job.

            I’ve been reading ‘The Bridge of San Luis Rey’ for the umpteenth time.  If you haven’t read it yet, I’ll send it on in my next.

            It’s been very hot here lately though we’ve had a few showers today which have freshened things all round.  I managed to take a party to the local baths (indoor) yesterday and had quite a good swim myself.

            I’ve got a little pub teed up here.  It’s about three to four miles away cross-country – there’s no other way of getting to it, and I try to get out there whenever I get time off.  It’s a very pleasant evening walk and the quality justifies the effort.  I’m still running the Squadron though I’ve got a grip on things now and manage to de-centralise most of the work in true Army fashion.

            There seems no chance of your leave starting again?  I haven’t heard a thing.  I’ve no desire to see ours start again as it only means postponing the attainment of our ultimate goal.

            I hope you’re still being a good girl, Darling.  I’m being very good myself as there exists no opportunity of being anything else….

            I think I’d better go to bed now, Darling as I have to be up with the proverbial lark. 

                                Wish you were here with me ….

                                                    Goodnight Chotie Dear

                                                                                    Dicker

 

*Orderly as a military term means a soldier assigned to attend and perform various tasks for a superior officer.

**Chotie’s elder sister Margaret was expecting her first child.

 © Chotie Darling

  Chotie's 'little circle':

 

 

That night Eric Brewer went absent without leave from midnight to 7.00am.  His service record shows he was caught out and fined three days’ pay, possibly by Dick (RW).

(Eric Brewer's Service Record, copyright of Derek Brewer and family)

 

7^th May 1944 – US Air Force launches a 1,500 bomber raid against Berlin. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

On 8^th May Eisenhower made the decision that D Day would be on 5^th June 1944.  The original target date in May had been shifted because of the need to provide sufficient landing craft.

9^th May 1944 –With the surrender of the remaining 25,000 German and Rumanian troops the Russians capture the Crimean city of Sevastopol, a major port on the Black Sea. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

Together in Parkstone

Top: Beryl and Jack Chalkley, Margaret Lewis (Chotie's brother and sisters)

Middle: Beryl, Chotie's father, Margaret and ? with cats and dog at the Hollies

Bottom: Chotie's father, ?, ?, Chotie and Dick with Jack in foreground in 1943.

 

 

Dick and Chotie met up for the first time since December

on 7^th to 9^th August 1943

at Chotie’s home, the Hollies in Parkstone, Poole.

Left: Margaret Lewis and dog, at the Hollies in Parkstone in 1943

Right: Mr William Chalkley and Mrs Elizabeth Chalkley, Chotie's parents

 

11th August 1943 – the Germans organise an effective retreat from Sicily across the Messina Straits, eventually evacuating 110,000 troops. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012

Guido Benetti - Tuesday 20th July 1943

Dick at Pagham?

 

Same Address

Tuesday 20^th July

My Darling Chotie,

                                                I’ve got the afternoon off so here goes.

            Had quite a pleasant leave though very quiet.

            Went over to see Guido at Brighton on Wednesday last, on spec. as he wasn’t expecting me.  He’s got a lovely flat on the front at Hove, beautifully furnished – the dining room in old English oak, nearly black*, and the drawing room in Japanese stuff, similar to Dr Barker’s place at Parkstone.  He’s got about a thousand records of opera of all types.  We played one after the other for about seven hours altogether.

            His niece was there – about seventeen – wearing mauve and old lace, and looking for all the world like Lucrezia Borgia**.  She’s at an art school in Brighton – does dress-designing or something.  She’s been staying with Eva Turner** for the past year and now lives with Guido.

            Had lunch and tea with them and some pukka Italian Vermouth which I hadn’t seen for years.

            I had intended staying the night in Brighton but thought that anything after Guido’s place would savour too much of the anti-climax so caught the next train home.

            Brinner turned up without notice on Saturday afternoon, and stayed for 36 hrs.  He’s at present waiting for OCTU Board.

            Had a letter from Diller with yours.  Fed up as usual as I expect you’ve heard from Mary****.  She’s trying to get a transfer somewhere else I believe.  What a hope!

            Had a swim in the Lagoon***** on Saturday.  Not too bad at all – quite warm.

            How do you like the old homestead!  Sort of Georgian-Renaissance – pseudo-Greek style!  I bought half a doz. photos of the place but unhappily had to get them “artistically – hand-coloured”!

            How’s life in Devon?  Hope the weather improves – it’s hell in the west otherwise.

            When are you coming further East?  I’m on long weekend Friday Eve to Monday night on the weekend of the 7^th August.  If you can manage anything, I could get to Poole OK.

            Let me know, any how,

                        All my love,

                                    Dicker

 

*oak wood goes dark brown and then black with age.

**an infamous beauty (described as having heavy blonde hair which fell past her knees, a beautiful complexion, hazel eyes which changed colour, a full, high bosom, and a natural grace which made her appear to "walk on air"). Her father, Rodrigo, became Pope Alexander VI in 1492 and the notorious family were suspected of many crimes including simony, incest and murder.

***Eva Turner was a famous English soprano of the inter-war years.

****Chotie’s best friend Mary Dakin was also a close friend of Diller, Dick’s sister.

*****Pagham lagoon.

See letters of 3rd September and 25th February for Guido Benetti.

© Chotie Darling

 

22nd July 1942 – the US 7th Army takes Palermo, capital of Sicily while British forces are ‘bogged down’ around Mount Etna.

 

24th July 1943 – the RAF bomb Hamburg in Operation Gomorrah, the beginning of the Battle of Hamburg. More than 700 planes are deployed and this is the first use of the “window” tactic developed following the Bruneval Raid (releasing strips of metal foil to confuse the German radar), reducing Allied plane losses that night to 12.  Raids continued for a week and by 3rd August the intense heavy bombing, and the firestorm of 27^th July (when the heat from the fires generated its own wind, blasting flames through the city), had killed 40-50,000 people.

24th July 1943 – a US air crew crash lands in neutral Sweden and is granted refuge. This precedent is extended to nearly 1,000 Allied air crew during the rest of the war. (From WW2-net Timelines.) 

25th July 1943 – Following a vote by the Italian Fascist Grand Council for the King of Italy, Vittorio Emmanuele III, to take over command of all Italian forces from Mussolini, ‘Il Duce’ is arrested and the fascist regime in Italy ended. Marshal Badoglio is appointed head of Italy.  Although Badoglio promised that the Italians would continue the war German troops seize the Brenner Pass and key installations in northern Italy as a precaution.

 

Eric Postles of 61st Recce remembers July 1943:

“On 28^th July, Harry Parr, who was in 59 Division Recce regiment, was killed on an exercise in Kent when his heavy armoured car turned over and he was crushed by the gun.  I was given leave to attend his funeral in Burscough and a number of members of 59 Recce also attended.  It was one of the biggest attended funerals that I have ever been to – very sad.”   (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

29^th July 1943 – in Britain Bevin announces that women up to age 50 must register at the Labour Exchange for war work. In 1943 almost 90% of single women and 80% of married women were employed in essential work for the war effort but were paid significantly less than men. (From BBC Women at War and Wikipedia.)

Naked - Sunday 18th April 1943

Same address 

Sunday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                Many thanks for your letter received a couple of days ago.

            Glad to hear you’re stationed in a fairly decent area* at least better than this horrible place – nothing but military for miles, and you know what they can do when they feel like it.

            I’ve had to spend this weekend here again owing to Church Parade (UB**) and as there’s no travel next week (Easter) I’ll not be able to get home for some time.  I’ve so much work to do, I couldn’t really have spared the time anyhow.  I’ve been writing up notes for hours and hours this week-end – having had no time to get a beer even.  Horrible….

            Sorry to have missed your relatives in such a sorry way, but I see you didn’t lose anything.  Trust you….where your tummy’s concerned anyhow.

            I haven’t read anything or seen any flicks for weeks – my pipe’s my only solace in these hard times.

            I’ve been thinking of going to see the family at Purley – I shall probably go when I’m at Sandhurst.  The happy advantage is that it doesn’t take long to get there and what’s more important, doesn’t cost much.

            I didn’t tell you that I shaved my tache*** off, did I?  It’s been growing again for the last fortnight or so.  This means that I couldn’t see you in my present naked state, anyhow.  Only hope it grows before our next encounter.  I don’t know how it happened
– I just sort of dashed it off.  Shook me, pretty badly.  However I rallied and started again.  It’s coming along very nicely, thank you.

            The blokes here have started tumbling in the barrack room on a couple of mattresses – helluva racket.  Needless to say, I started it.  Initially, I had control over it but now it’s run amok and no-one can do anything about it.  ‘Chunky’ 5ft2 ex chef of the ‘Trocadero’, is pretty good.  ‘Enoch’ is U.S.****

            Well, Darling, I must close here.

                        Hope to see you soon.

                                                            All my love

                                                                        Dicker

PS  Have you heard from Eve lately?  I’d like to know how that rat’s getting on ….

 

*“Our camp at Pill was close to Avonmouth, nearer the sea” (from ‘Chotie’s Story’.) Chotie, brought up not far from the beautiful beaches and Harbour in Poole, hated being away from the sea.

ATS paddling - one of Chotie's photos (1943 or later?)

**UB – utter bore?

***moustache

****U.S. – British slang for useless.

© Chotie Darling 

 

18^th April 1943 – having intercepted Japanese secret communication codes, US fighter planes successfully shoot down the plane carrying Admiral Yamamoto, Commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet.  (From Chronology of World War II.)

Allied fighter planes from North Africa shoot down 74 Luftwaffe planes in what became known among US troops as the “Palm Sunday turkey shoot”.

 

19^th April 1943 – Waffen SS German troops attempt to storm the Warsaw Ghetto. Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto, with some support from Polish resistance groups, fought against transportation by the Nazis to Treblinka extermination camp. They had been told they were to be resettled in the east and thought they might go to forced labour camps but by 1943 news of the death camps had leaked out. Almost 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto had already been murdered at Treblinka in 1942.  The defenders were initially successful but despite bitter resistance were defeated by 16th May - the SS set fire to the buildings and flooded the sewers where they were hiding. By June the Ghetto had been destroyed and most of the c.70,000 Ghetto residents were killed there or at Treblinka. 

19th April 1943 - Montgomery’s 8th Army attacks the Axis defences near Enfidaville, south of Tunis but suffers heavy losses.  Operation Vulcan with the Allies First Army followed on 22nd April and was able to slowly advance west of Tunis and Bizerte.

Rather indelicate tales - Sunday 14th March 1943

5731671 P/CDT Williams RK

30.0 Tp ‘A’ Sqdn.

No1. Pre-OCTU R.A.C.

Alma Barracks, Blackdown, Hants

 

Sunday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            As Sunday has again occurred I find I have a few minutes, to write to you.

            It seems ages since I heard from you – but I expect you’re in the same position as I am – one of a temporary scarcity of spare time.

            I’ve managed to settle down here, as much as is possible anyhow, but find myself pretty rushed off my feet and expect to be the same for the rest of my stay here.

            The compensations, such as they are, consist of such luxuries as hot water, showers, marvellous food, and plenty of clothing exchanges.

            There’s a whole harem of ATS here – they do all the admin. Duties, office work, driving, etc.  They never seem to do any parades, apart from one Church Parade per month.  Pretty cushy.

            (I must make an apology here for using this paper, but I’m fed up with using poky little writing-pads.)

            I rather fancy that this letter will read like a young novel. However, I resume.

            The instructors here are all Guards N.C.Os.  Coldstream, Grens*, Irish, Welsh
etc and aren’t too bad on the whole. We get a helluva lot of square-bashing, much too much for me, anyhow, as I reckon I’ve had enough after nearly three years in this racket.

            I expect you’re getting interested in the leave problem – and what a problem!  I only wish I could get mine, but I’m afraid I’ve missed it and certainly won’t get any until after this nine weeks.

            The real job starts at Sandhurst, but there you get a batman and are allowed a collar and tie(!) even though still a cadet – but that’s a long time yet.

            I can get week-end passes from here – provided I’m not on duty, but it’s a lousy journey and the fare would be well over a quid.  On top of this there’s the fact that you need every available moment to blanco** and keep your notes up to date.  What a tale of woe! – anyway that’s about enough of my troubles.

            I suppose you’re quite the old soldier by now.  You won’t, however, be able to give me any old buck as I know the ropes.

            You should get a better time when you get on a site somewhere – the initial training is always the stiffest, and the most boring.

            Needless to say, I don’t get any time to read here, and I gather it’s the same with you.

            Happily, I’m with quite a bright crowd – an actor (ham), medical student, couple of school-marms, buyer from Lewis’ Leicester, art student and several other buckshees.

            I met LISBY here; do you know him?  Rather fat, blond, used to work at Bank in Broadstone and ARP at Municipal Buildings.  Went to Poole Grammar.  He’s a pre cadet for the Tank Corps. (I seem to be rambling on, all to no purpose).

            Heard Ruth Naylor*** (waltz-song from Bohème) on Naafi Radio this morning.  Pretty wonderful.

            I miss my friend Alex**** from the 43^rd.  Like Eric we had much in common, particularly opera.  I promised to write, but then no one ever does.

            The ham here knows lots of people we knew on the London stage, and every night-club in Mayfair.  He knows enough about such people as Daphne du Maurier, Michael Redgrave, Noel Coward, etc to blackmail them a hundred times*****. Comes out with some rather indelicate tales after lights-out.  (I’m thinking about taking this letter up with a publisher).

            Had letters from home yesterday – no news.  Brinner’s on a course somewhere.  Diller is still expecting to do something.  Expecting is as far as it will get.

            How’s everyone at Parkstone?  Give them all my best wishes when you write
won’t you?

            Well, Darling, I must close here as its nearly lights-out and they’re pretty mustard on that sort of thing.

            Hope I can see you before very long.  I can’t tell you how much I miss you, Chotie, that would be quite impossible, but I do think about you and love you very, very, much.

            Perhaps, this wretched show will end sooner than either of us imagine and we can be together again.  I’m much more interested in that than any b----- commission.

                                                God bless you, Chotie

                                                            always yours

                                                                        Dicker

*Grenadier Guards

**Blanco was a cleaning compound used on the cotton of army uniforms.

***Ruth Naylor was an Australian soprano, famous for her appearance in Puccini’s opera La Bohème.

****Alex Johnston

****Practising male homosexuality was illegal in Britain at this time. Daphne du Maurier’s bisexuality has not been confirmed. She was Dick’s favourite writer and married to his former Commanding Officer in the Air Landing, Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning.

© Chotie Darling 

 

16th March 1943 – the largest convoy battle of the war begins in the Atlantic when three wolfpacks of 38 submarines attack a convoy of c.100 Allied merchant ships (Convoys HX229 and SC122).  22 merchant ships and one U-boat were sunk.  More than 300 seamen lost their lives.

19^th March 1943 – Montgomery's British 8^th Army attacks the Mareth line, held by German and Italian defenders in southern Tunisia, winning the battle by 26^th March.  The initial attack by the 50th Northumbrian Division (later to be attached to 61st Recce) was a disaster but by 26th March the Germans were forced to withdraw.

 

22nd March 1943 – the newly built gas chamber IV is opened at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland, followed by the opening of a gas chamber in Auschwitz II-Birkenau on 31st March and gas chamber V on the 4th April. Approximately one million people were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp - mainly Jews (approximately 90%) but also more than 70,000 Poles and about 20,000 Gypsies. (See Auschwitz-Birkenau and WW2-net Timelines.)

The Free French air fighter squadron, later known as the Normandie-Nieman group, go into action on the Eastern front in support of the Red Army.

 

24th March 1943 – the Chindits are ordered to return to India having lost about one third of the original force in Burma. (See Operation Longcloth.)

Post-War Reconstruction Committee - Saturday 30th January 1943

5731671 Tpr Williams R

Mortar Troop

HQ Sqn 43^rd Recce

Recce Corps

Home Forces

 

Saturday

My Darling Chotie,

 

                                    Received your letter when on a scheme which brightened me up considerably. Had a pretty wicked time – really cold at night and raining all the first 48 hrs. However, am now back and getting something to eat once again. I’m addressing this missive to your Army address, as I don’t know when you’ll be home.

            I had a wire from Brinner saying he was on embarkation leave and asking whether I could get a compassionate leave. If you remember, however, I tried this dodge once before, but on compassionate leave they check-up now so have written back to find out whether its genuine.  If it is, I’ll try to get a 48 hr compassionate early next week.

            There’s nothing much to write about.  Life’s rather dull here, always nothing doing. Hope you’re a bit better off at Northants.  I go to Evening Classes two of three nights a week to relieve the monotony. Take French and German and am also a member of a Post-War Reconstruction Committee! Quite entertaining. Unhappily I missed it tonight as the whole billet had to lay out kits again owing to a bad show this morning.

            The boys chip me about your efforts saying you’ll probably contribute more to the War Effort on a Gunsite than I ever will…. Still, I bear up, in the true du Rose fashion (incidentally I haven’t heard from that Rat yet).

            When will you get your first leave (7 days) If you let me know I may be able to hold mine on for a few weeks. I can’t guarantee anything but will do my best. Don’t forget.

            I don’t relish leave without seeing you. We could probably spend half at Poole and half at home.

            Saw a good show at the Hippodrome. Did I mention it in my last? Believe I did.

            Sample of jokes there:-

                                    Two old women in a pub.

            “Are you going to have another one?”

            “No Dear – it’s just the way I’ve got this coat done up”….

            Pretty horrible.

            I’d better close here owing to lack of material.

            Still love you Darling, - hope to see you soon

                                                                love & kisses

                                                                             Dicker

                                                                                                xxxxxx

 © Chotie Darling

This letter was addressed to:

                                242328

Private Chalkley B.E.

No 3Coy* Hut E1

No1 A.T.S. TC

Talavera Camp

Northampton

*Company

 NB. THIS LETTER WAS FIRST POSTED ON 23rd JANUARY BUT MOVED TO CORRECT DATE

 

43^rd Recce had Church Parade on Sunday 31^st January. On 1^st February there was a cross country run and Section Training continued from the 1^st to the 7^th.

 

31st January 1943 – surrender of the Germans at Stalingrad, Russia with the capture of Generalfeldmarschell Paulus and Generalleutnant Arthur Schmidt, who was by then in charge. 

Bomber command makes first operational use of H2S radar, the first airborne ground scanning radar system. (From WW2-net.)

 

Chotie managed to have 48 hours leave at home after her three weeks of Basic Training.

ATS recruits were only allowed 48 hours leave in their first three months.

 

2^nd February 1943 – The remnants of the German Sixth Army in Stalingrad surrender.  One of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare it had started on 23rd August 1942 and claimed nearly 2 million casualties.  The Red Army took about 90,000 prisoners at Stalingrad.  Nearly half had died by the spring from wounds or starvation and only 5,000 of the Germans taken prisoner survived to return to Germany after the war; the last arriving in 1955.  The defeat was covered up in Germany but soon leaked out delivering a bitter blow to morale. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012 )

Leave next Wednesday - Thursday 26th November 1942

Same Address

Thursday

My Darling,

                                    Just a few lines to let you know that my leave definitely comes off on the second inst. ie next Wednesday.  This is of course subject to cancellation for a hundred and one reasons, but if all goes well, as I expect it will, I can’t see why it should not come off.

            Will you write as soon as you can fix up anything definite – I’m supposing, as usual, that you are able to… 

            I’m very busy at the moment, or would write more.  In any case there’s no real news – nothing at all with which to pad this missive.

            I got really wet through this morning – still am in fact (it’s now dinner-time) so will have to find something to change into.

            Sorry this is so short Darling, but I thought I’d write as soon as my name appeared on detail for leave.

                                                            all my love precious,

                                                                                    Dicker

P.S.  Write as soon as possible…

 © Chotie Darling

 

27^th November 1942 – German troops occupy the French Naval base of Toulon. The Vichy Admiral de Laborde (who had refused to deliver the French Fleet into Allied hands) gave orders to scuttle the French fleet and they succeeded in destroying 77 warships, preventing them from falling into German or Italian hands. Four submarines managed to escape. (See Operation Lila.)

 

29th November 1942 – Churchill warns Italy that the bombing of Italian cities will continue until Italy abandons the war, encouraging them to revolt against Mussolini. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

By the end of November the Japanese on Papua New Guinea, without reinforcements or supplies, had given up trying to take Port Moresby and retreated to their bridgeheads at Buna and Gona where desperate fighting with Australian and American forces continued.

 

43^rd Recce’s List of Officers for 30^th November 1942 includes the following for Regimental Headquarters:

Commanding Officer – Lt.Col.A.W.E.Crawford

Second-in-Command – Major H.G.Mason*

Adjutant – Capt.J.Day

Technical Officer - Capt.G.D.A.Hunter

I.O. (presumably Intelligence Officer) – Lieut.C.E.J.Leaphard**

 

Dick’s Headquarters Squadron included the following:

Squadron Commander – Major A.O.Swayne

Second-in-Comd. – Capt.C.G.Nuttall

O.C.A.Tk.Tp (Officer in Command of the Anti-tank Troop) – Capt.F.R.Henn

O.C. Mortar Troop (Dick’s Troop) – Lieut.S.J.Moreland

Signal Officer – Lieut.W.H.Moreland

Asst. Mortar Tp.Comd – Lieut.D.E.R.Scarr***

Adm.Officer – Lieut.T.A.Parry

2 i/c A.Tk.Tp – Lieut.D.Rigby

M.T.O. – Lieut.W.R.Falconer

Quartermaster – Major B.V.J.Vigrass

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

*Major Herbert George Mason had served with the Glosters since 1927. In 1943 he was posted to the Allied Military Government in Italy and rejoined the Glosters T.A. in 1947.

**Lieut.C.E.J.Leaphard – transferred to and saw action with No 6 Commando (see Small Scale Raiding Force).

***Liet.D.E.R.Scarr – the National Army Museum hold an account of his service with the Recce from 1941-46 (inventory number 10561).

(From WW2 Unit Histories and National Army Museum.)

 

Dick was in the Mortar Troop under Lieutenants S.J.Moreland and D.E.R. Scarr with probably about 44 NCOs and other troopers.  Mortar Troop initially served a pair of 3 inch mortars, carried by 15cwt trucks but by the end of 1942 their strength was increased to six 3 inch weapons, now each transported by an adapted Universal carrier with 15cwt trucks carrying extra ammunition. (See WW2 Battalion Organisation.)

In December 1942 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment were still in Dover. Individual training took place on most days up to and including the 19^th December.  The Regiment took part in the 43^rd’s Divisional Skeleton Exercise Wyvern on 4^th, 5^th and 6^th December.

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

 

 The War in Dorset - December 1942

In December 1942 the 3^rd Special Services Brigade was formed from No 5 Commando and Royal Marines.  Billeted in Bournemouth, with an HQ at the Broughty Ferry Hotel in Boscombe, they practiced night landing exercises at Shell Bay and Brownsea Island and shooting on the Canford Heath ranges. The novelist Evelyn Waugh was then Staff Officer for Combined Operations and often monitored their exercises.

On 4^th December Barnes Neville Wallis unsuccessfully tested two spherical bombs, flown in from RAF Warmwell, on the Fleet lagoon. They failed to bounce and exploded on impact. He was again unsuccessful on 15^th December. By the seventh attempt in early January his team had achieved a skim across the water and on 24^th January the bomb bounced 13 times and jumped over a barn intended to simulate the wall of a dam. Trials in Dorset, codenamed ‘Upkeep’, continued into March and then moved to choppier waters in Kent. The bouncing bombs were used in May 1943 to destroy dams in the Ruhr area of Germany releasing industrial water supplies but drowning 1,294 people including several hundred Russian prisoners of war.

On 13^th December over 100 houses at Chiswell, Portland were flooded by a natural incursion of the sea breaching the Chesil beach.  Gas, road and rail links were put out of action.

The Armoured Fighting Vehicle School at Lulworth Camp came under air attack on 14^th December.

A single Dornier bomber dropped 5 bombs near Poole Quay on 16^th December. Two people were killed, twenty-six injured and several buildings destroyed as well as a Naval Patrol vessel.  Another bomber in Bridport killed 3 people and hit a bank leaving £1,000 in bank notes spread over the street.

On 21^st December the Free French navy gunboat Chasseur capsized and sank off Durlston Head near Swanage.

Church bells rang for Christmas for the first time since the beginning of the war, following the El Alamein celebration in November.

On 31^st December 1942 another Dornier raider attacked Poole Quay (destroying Bradford’s Store, which had just been repaired following the earlier bomb damage) but crashed into the Harbour while taking evasive action from Lewis gun fire.

(From  ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980  and Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004)

 

In December 1942 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment were still in Dover. Individual training took place on most days up to and including the 19^th December.  The Regiment took part in the 43^rd’s Divisional Skeleton Exercise Wyvern on 4^th, 5^th and 6^th December. (From the War Diary of the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment held by the Archive and Reference Library, the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.)

2^nd December 1942 – the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is achieved by a team of scientists in America working under the name of “Manhattan Engineering District”. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

Dick was on leave from Wednesday 2^nd to c.9^th December 1942.

Chotie and Dicker were together for a week during Dicker’s leave

 

3rd December 1942 - the British First Army's advance on Tunis from Algeria is pushed back by German Panzer forces (from ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012).

4^th December 1942 – the first US Air Force raid on Naples, flying from North Africa, kills nearly one thousand people.  Naples was the most bombed Italian city of the war. 

 

7th December 1942 – ten Royal Marines set off in canoes from a submarine near the east Coast of France for Operation Frankton. Paddling 70 miles up the River Gironde they successfully laid charges to destroy enemy shipping in Bordeaux Harbour.  Two men survived, two were presumed drowned and six were captured and executed under Hitler’s Commando Order.  They became known as the ‘Cockleshell Heroes’ after their canoes codenamed cockles. (See Combined Operations WW2 website and update on Wikipedia.)

8th December 1942 – German troops occupy the Vichy French port of Bizerte in Tunisia, capturing French destroyers and submarines. (From WW2-net Timelines.) 

9th December 1942 - Australian troops take the Japanese bridgehead at Gona in Papua New Guinea.

 

11th December 1942 - Montgomery's Eighth Army attacks Rommel's forces at the Battle of El Agheila in Libya.  The German Panzerarmee Africa resume their withdrawal west towards Tunisia.

12th December 1942 – Germany counter attacks with Operation Winter Storm at Stalingrad, as their Army Group Don attempts to rescue the besieged and starving 6th Army. This had been defeated by the Soviets by 23rd December. (See The Battle for Stalingrad website.)

 

Missing Someone - Thursday 6th November 1942

The War in Dorset - November 1942

A flight from RAF Hurn on 3^rd November took General Dwight D. Eisenhower and top-ranking American officers to Gibraltar for the commencement of Operation Torch. The pilot was Major Paul Tibbets, who later flew the plane (Enola Gay) that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945.  RAF Hurn (now Bournemouth Airport) was a main base for the movement of troops to the Western Desert via Gibraltar for the Allied Landings of Operation Torch.

On 25^th November a Lancaster bomber crashed at Sturminster Newton, North Dorse, killing the crew of seven.

North Poole suffered incessant machine gun noise in November 1942 while the munitions factory at Creekmoor tested its guns.

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

 

On 1^st November 43^rd Recce commenced a period of intense individual training scheduled to continue until 15^th December.  Officers were set examinations every Wednesday. During the month the regiment received armoured cars and 6pr Anti-Tank Guns.

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

 

5^th November 1942

Thursday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                                                Many thanks for letter.  I expect you’ve given me up by now, for not having written before, but as usual I didn’t receive your letter until I got back from another scheme.

            I was very sorry to hear about Reinelt, as I’d always looked on him as being my oldest friend in Poole – for our friendship seemed to prosper despite various differences of opinion in diverse subjects.  I need scarce say that had it not been for him I should never have met you.  As you say, we can only hope that he is safe – somewhere.

            Eric (White), I know, will be shaken by the loss of Boody – a rather remarkable fellow. He was hit by Bill’s death, so this comes as a double loss.  I can’t say I really knew either.  I’m afraid we will all miss someone before this wretched show is over.  War has always been an ugly business, with none of the glamour it is customary to connect with it.

            However, it is of no avail to become morbid.

            The weather here has been really wretched – nothing but rain, and if I don’t get pneumonia it won’t be for want of trying.

            I met that subaltern again last week who introduced me to ‘Lolita’ a strip-tease artist who was appearing at the ‘Hip’* last week.  We had supper at the Café Royal which has left me broke all the week.  She was French, and not Spanish, as billed.

            Have you heard anymore re joining the colours?  I expect to hear any minute that you’re in the Wrens or ATS or something.  Nous allons voi**, we shall see, as the French have it.

            I’ve just had a letter from home – also one from Brinner – he’ll strain himself soon if he’s not careful.

            I’ve seen quite a few well-known personages lately – tell you about them when I get on leave.

                        Must close now

                                             All my love Precious

                                                                        Dicker

P.S.     Excuse pencil – run out of ink.

 

*The Hippodrome theatre, Dover – bombed in September 1944

** French – “We shall see”.

© Chotie Darling

 

5th November 1942 – Madagascar, which threatened Allied convoy routes off south-east Africa, is captured from Vichy France by British marines (who’d landed in May) and handed to General de Gaulle for the Free French to govern. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

8th November 1942 - Operation Torch begins with the landing of Eisenhower’s Allied troops in Morocco and Algeria.  A Western Task Force led by Major General George S. Patton met Vichy French resistance at Casablanca.  Two other task forces landed at Oran and Algiers, the latter including 56^th Recce ‘Chavasse’s Light Horse’ – the first Recce Regiment to see action in a true reconnaissance role. They were also responsible for the survival of No 6 Commando (the SSRF) in February 1943.  46^th, 1^st, 4^th and 44^th Recce also saw action in the Western Desert.

(From WW2-net Timelines and ‘The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II’ by Richard Doherty, Osprey Publishing 2007.)

 

 

9^th November – as the Vichy French fight US troops at Oran in Algeria and in Morocco, Eisenhower’s deputy, General Mark Clarke tries to negotiate a ceasefire with Admiral Darlan and General Giraud in Algiers.  German troops begin landing in Vichy French Tunisia and by 25th November had deployed 25,000 men.

Hitler establishes Erik Scavenius as Prime Minister of Denmark following King Christian X’s refusal of anti-Jewish legislation in Denmark.

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

 

10^th November – British recapture Sidi Barrani in Egypt.

 

Churchill’s speech at the Mansion House in London celebrated the “glorious and decisive victory” at El Alamein:

“Now this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.”

(From The Churchill Society.)

The Winter Routine - Friday 2nd October 1942

On 4^th October 1942 Operation Basalt, a commando raid by the Small Scale Raiding Force on Sark in the Channel Islands captured One German soldier. Unfortunately others were killed with their hands tied – a breach of wartime convention that led to Hitler’s ‘Commando order’ for the killing of all Allied commandos taken prisoner. (See Combined Operations WW2 website.) 

HMS Turtle was established in Hamworthy on 7^th October 1942 as a naval shore base (now A Royal Marine base).

Churchill’s speech in Edinburgh on 12^th October 1942 ‘Keep right on to the end of the road’ made direct reference to the exploits of the commandos:

“The British Commando raids at different points along the enormous coast, although so far only the forerunner of what is to come, inspire the author of so many crimes and miseries with a lively anxiety.  There comes out of the sea from time to time a hand of steel which plucks the German sentries from their posts with growing efficiency.”

(From ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980 and Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg,  Dorset Publishing Company.)

 

In October 1942 43^rdReconnaissance Regiment were still in Dover. Visitors included Lieutenant Colonels Luce - Adviser to the Recce Corps, Pavey – Officer in Charge of Reconnaissance Corps Records and Whitbread - Officer in Charge of the R.T.C. (Regimental Training Corps?).

The major training during the month consisted of firing.  All available personnel received musketry training in the Rifle and Bren Gun and a modified range course was set up.

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

As previous,

Friday 2^nd

My Darling Chotie,

                                                     Many thanks for very instructive
letter received today.  Glad to hear news of Eric – he appears to have struck it lucky – I said appears; though I expect he has something to moan about, as usual.  I definitely will write him when I get time.  I never seem to have a moment to spare these days.

            From after the 5^th inst. however, we should start the Winter Routine which means no work before breakfast and none after tea. There is also a later réveillé, which is a relief after the old 6am stunt.

            Well, Darling, I hope you are very fit and enjoying the glory of autumn (or Gluric as old McLuckie used to say). Though it’s hardly autumn yet – not here at any rate.

            I’ve just been talking to the padre – rather shocked him I think.  (I’m writing this in the Quiet Room which is also used by the Padre as a library. Some library…)

            I haven’t been out since last week-end, so I’ve nothing to write about.

            I wrote to Diller* last night, though not in time to reach her for her birthday (the 1^st) as I’d been out on a scheme.  She’ll soon be an Old Maid at this rate…23 I believe. However, who am I to criticize?  

            Weather’s been lovely today – plenty of sun and wind, and the old brown leaves tumbling down…

            Wish I was still in civvies.  Still, as you so aptly observe in your letter, it will soon be over.  About five years I reckon…You’ll be an old maid then! 

            I’ve just managed to get an ounce of baccy, first for several days, which cheered me up not a little. 

            Glad to hear Margaret*’s now sailing before the wind again.  Give her my best wishes, won’t you.  And all the family of course.

            I haven’t heard anything of Brinner*** lately, but no news is good news as the old saw has it.  I suppose he’ll be on leave soon, though it can’t be much fun for him, by himself, especially if there’s still no radio.

            Well, Lulu, I must close here for want of material.

            Be good, and look after yourself, won’t you. You’re very, very precious to me, you know.

                                                All my love,

                                                            Chotie Darling

                                                                                    Dicker

                                                                                    Xxxxxx

*Dick’s sister

**Chotie's second eldest sister - she had three sisters and one brother.

***Dick’s brother

 © Chotie Darling

 

On 5^th and 6^th October 1942 Humber Motors’ representatives visited 43^rd Recce and lectures were given to all Driver Mechanics (this would have included Dick) and Drivers I.C. Lieutenant Colonel Merriman also gave a lecture on ‘The Use of Anti-Tank and Anti-Personnel Mines by enemy ground defences’ on 6^th October.

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

 

6^th October 1942 – Roosevelt announces establishment of a United Nations commission to investigate war crimes.

 

Although German attacks on Stalingrad were renewed in October the Soviet front reported on the 8th that ‘the defeatist mood is almost eliminated' - a total of 3,000 Soviet soldiers were executed for cowardice and desertion during the Battle for Stalingrad.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

11th October 1942 – The Battle of Cape Esperance continues the war in the Solomon Islands between supply ships for Guadalcanal.  The Japanese suffered heavy losses but succeeded in bombing the airfield, destroying half the US planes on the Island. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

Return to Dover - Thursday 3rd September 1942

The War in Dorset - September 1942

The Small Scale Raiding Force was involved in raids on Les Casquets lighthouse in the Channel Islands and St. Honorine near Bayeux, Normandy.  In Operation Dryad on 2nd/3rd Septembera the successful raid on Les Casquets lighthouse destroyed the ‘U’ boat wireless transmitting station, capturing seven German soldiers, as well as vital code books and Naval information.

Tarrant Rushton airfield was constructed between Blandford and Wimborne, near Badbury Rings in Dorset. The aircraft was to field the first arrivals on French soil on D Day and 1st British Airborne set off for 'the Bridge Too Far' that was Arnhem from here.
 

Whirlwind aircraft from Warmwell in Dorset sank two armed trawlers in the Channel on 9th September.

On 11^thSeptember five people were killed by a single German bomb dropped on the Bournemouth Road in Parkstone, Poole; near where Chotie and her family lived.

A Poole flying-boat, the Clare, came down in the Channel after a fire, killing six crew and thirteen passengers on 14^th September.

(From 'Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004 and ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980)

 

During September 1942 43^rdReconnaissance Regiment was still based in Dover, although that month they received orders to mobilise, complete with first line reinforcements. All reinforcements, including Dick, arrived during the month.

Inter-Squadron Exercises were held at the beginning of the month “bringing out many useful lessons in Section and Troop tactics and instituting considerable enthusiasm.”

Intensive First Aid training commenced early in the month, designed to train all ranks during the winter.

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

 

 

On 2^ndSeptember 1942 Dick passed his Trade Test as a Driver Mechanic

 

Copy of Record

TRADE TRAINING REPORT FORM

REPORT ON STUDENT          c) End of course

TRAINING ESTABLISHMENT  ADDRESS:    

THE DREADNOUGHT GARAGE AND MOTOR ENGINEERING WORKS (HOVE) LTD

STUDENT’S REGTL.  No 5731671     RANK Trooper          NAME  Williams R.K.

ORIGINAL UNIT        43^rd Recce. Regt.                COURSE (Trade)  D.M.

Duration of course    From 23^rd July 1942           To 2^nd September 1942.

SUITABILITY FOR TRADE - Very suitable                       

CONDUCT AND INTEREST - Good

PRACTICAl ABILITY -  Very Good

THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE - Good                                                                    

SUMMARY      Passed Complete Class 2 Test in Army Trade of DM*

REMARKS:

Will make an excellent D.M. Requires plenty of work.

Date   2/9/42                              S.F.Webb. Lieut O.M.E.

*DM = Driver Mechanic. Reconnaissance called for many more drivers and mechanics than standard infantry to successfully reconnoiter the battlefield. (From ‘The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II’ by Richard Doherty, Osprey Publishing 2007.)

Copy of Record:

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

Passed trade test and qualified for appointment as Drv. Mech. Tp. ‘D’ Cl.II                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3^rd September 1942 – a National Day of Prayer was held for the third Anniversary of the Declaration of War.

 

 

Letter - Thursday 3rd September 1942

5731671 Tpr Williams 

HQ Squadron, 43rd Recce Regt. Recce Corps

Home Forces 

Thursday

 

My Darlingest,

                                                                                    By the time you get this letter, I shall be back at Dover, but remember not to mention please or put anything but the address above.

            I hope this will reach you before the 6^th* – and so will wish you a very happy Birthday, and only wish I could be with you.  I have sent something – or rather it’s being sent – nothing much I’m afraid, but I wish you every happiness, with it.

            I went to the opera three times during the last week, the only nights I could get off and saw ‘Bohème’, ‘Trovatore’ &  ‘the Barber’**.  It was the Carl Rosa of course with Joan Hammond and Parry Jones.  Very good.  I met an Italian there (naturalised) and spent a very enjoyable night.

            Well, Darling, I’ll write again when I get to the other end, so all the very best, Precious

                                                                        Your loving

                                                                                    Dicker

                                                                                    Xxxx

PS. Have just started to run for the train…

 

*Chotie’s 19^th Birthday on 6^th September 1942.

**All famous Italian operas - Giacomo Puccini’s 'La Bohème’, Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘Il Trovatore’ (The Troubadour) and Gioachino Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’. The Carl Rosa were a touring opera company.  Parry Jones was a Welsh tenor. Joan Hammond,
an Australian soprano, became internationally famous after the war.

***Benetti – mentioned again in letter sent in February 1943.

© Chotie Darling

 

On 7^th September 43^rd Recce had a demonstration of the Army Cadet sign system for all wireless operators, Dvr Ops (driver operators?) and officers.  (From the War Diary of the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment held by the Archive and Reference Library, the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.)  Dick mentions being on exercise on the 7^th in his next letter.

 

 

7th September 1942 - Rommel withdraws from his attack on the El Alamein line at Alam Halfa Ridge in Egypt.

 

 

 

A good time in Brighton - postcard posted Tuesday 4th August 1942

The War in Dorset - August 1942

During August the propaganda film ‘Victory’ was shot on the Dorsetshire heaths using old First World War tanks rescued by Rudyard Kipling for the Armoured Fighting School at Bovington Camp. Many had been turned into scrap in June 1940 but some remained as stationary pillboxes and were used in the film.

Bridport was attacked by air on Sunday 2^nd August and two people were killed.

No 4 Commando trained for the raid on Dieppe with landings on the South Dorset coast from 5^th August. They successfully took a battery during the raid but had to withdraw (see the raid on Dieppe on 19^th August). Boats from Poole and Weymouth operated as support vessels for the raid.

On 14^th/15^th August the Small Scale Raiding Force (also known as No 62 Commando), based in Poole, staged a small successful raid on an anti-aircraft gun and radar station at Pointe de Saire, near Barfleur in France.

Luftwaffe bombers killed 13 people and injured 48 in attacks on Swanage on Monday 17th and Sunday 23^rd August.

On 31^st August the Royal Australian Air Force arrived at R.A.F. Hamworthy to fly anti-submarine patrols over the South Western Approaches and the Bay of Biscay in Sunderland flying-boats. Initially they suffered heavy losses because the Allied Navy signal code that operated their patrols had been deciphered by German Naval Intelligence. but their success improved when a new wavelength radar was introduced, which the German Navy failed to pick up.

By the end of August 1942 the X-3 midget submarine had completed testing at Portland and later caused extensive damage to the Tirpitz, Germany’s mega-battleship, when she was moved along the Norwegian coast.

(From ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, 2004 and ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980.)

 

3rd August 1942 – Churchill arrives in Cairo and makes staff changes which result in General Bernard Montgomery taking command of the 8th Army.

 

The 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment was still based in Dover during August 1943, although mobilisation had been completed.

Training was resumed with Squadron Exercises involving 2-3 nights out of barracks testing ‘vehicle cooking’ as well as Section and Troop operations. Some Field Firing exercises were carried out on the range at Sandwich. On 6^th and 7^th August ‘C’ Squadron participated in ‘Black Bull’, a Brigade Exercise on the South Downs.

Major A.W.E. Crawford, now a Lieutenant-Colonel, took full command of the Regiment on 9^th August, with Major H.G. Mason as second in command. On 12^th August the senior officers were involved in “Reorganise”, a simulation or ‘cloth model’ tactical exercise without troops and the new Lieutenant-Colonel attended a General Headquarters’ Battle School Course at the School of Infantry from 13^th-20^th August. 21 officers went to Worthing on 19^th August for a demonstration of tanks working with infantry in battle drill. 

43^rd Recce Regiment lost the Inter Regimental Athletics Meeting on Saturday 22^nd August to 1/8^th Middlesex, the Division’s Machine Gun battalion. On 26^th August the Recce took part in Exercise “Beaver”, a 43^rd (Wessex) Division training exercise.

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

 

Dick, meanwhile, was training to be a Driver Mechanic

at the Dreadnought Garage and Motor Engineering Works, Hove.

 

BRIGHTON. PROMENADE GARDENS.

Chotie

      Just a few lines to let you know I’m still alive & kicking. My arm’s all right now so I’ll write again tomorrow. Having a good time here – change from Bulford! I shall probably go back to Dover when I finish this course. I had a week there before coming here.

Love Dicker

© Chotie Darling

 

6th August 1942 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces preparing to invade North Africa. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

The World Jewish Congress British section announces that one million Jews have been killed in Nazi occupied Europe. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

7^th August 1942 – 19,000 US Marines are landed on the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the southern Solomon Islands, held by the Japanese since May.  Despite heavy losses, American and Australian ships continued to bring in troops and supplies.  Fierce fighting was focused around the Guadalcanal aerodrome begun by the Japanese but 'Henderson's Field' was held by the Allies.  The Guadalcanal Campaign was the first major offensive by Allied forces against Japan.  Land, sea and air battles continued around the islands until the Japanese finally withdrew on 7th February 1943, having reached the high-water mark of their conquests in the Pacific.  (From WW2-net Timelines and ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012 .)

8th August 1942 – Gandhi and other leaders in the Congress Party issue a call for the British to ‘Quit India’, leading to their arrest.  India finally achieved independence from the British five years later on 15^th August 1947.

9^th August 1942 – Leningrad (now, again, St. Petersburg) in northern Russia, which had now been virtually under siege since September 1941, broadcasts Shostakovich’s 7th (Leningrad) Symphony to the world on radio – a great boost to Russian morale.  On 19th August this was followed by the Sinyavino counter-offensive, which wrecked German plans to strangle Leningrad’s only supply route across Lake Ladoga.

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 ).

Leave Today - 9th June 1942

The War in Dorset - June 1942

On the night of 3rd/4th June 1942 decoy fires and explosions on the Purbeck heathland (see HH1 and HH2) saved the Royal Navy cordite factory at Holton Heath, near Poole, from 112 high explosive bombs and 5,000 incendiaries.  No bombs hit the cordite factory and there were no casualties on the decoys.

Poole also suffered a heavy bombing attack on the 4th of June. Early incendiaries started fires on the heathland west of the town, diverting many of the 50 Luftwaffe bombers. However, they also caused numerous fires in the town and several buildings were hit by bombs. Dedicated effort by the fire and civil defence forces (presumably including Chotie’s father, an ARP* warden) meant that only three people were killed.

An underground petrol tank at the Hamworthy RAF depot was blown open and a huge slick of petrol covered the adjacent land and harbour.  Fortunately these highly inflammable lakes didn’t catch fire and the petrol gradually evaporated (the explosion would have destroyed all the RAF petrol supplies for Dorset and West Hampshire).

One of the 139 tons of bombs released over the town hit the Sona, a Naval Headquarters ship moored at Poole Quay. It went through the ship and lodged unexploded in the mud below until 7th June when it destroyed the Sona and several evacuated buildings on the Quay.

On 6^th June bombing aimed at the railway track in Bournemouth damaged 454 properties although only one bomb hit the track.

Whitley planes arrived at RAF Hurn (now Bournemouth airport) in June 1942 to fly Special Operations Executive agents and supplies for Resistance groups across the Channel. They also supported Airborne training on Salisbury Plain.  A satellite aerodrome for the Fleet Air Arm station at Yeovilton was established at Sigwell’s Farm, north of Sherborne.

(From ‘The Book of Poole Harbour’ edited by Bernard Dyer and Timothy Darvill and published by The Dovecote press Ltd 2010,  ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980 and ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company.)

*ARP = Air Raid Precautions

 

 

June 1942 - 1^st Air Landing Squadron were based on the Bulford ranges of Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

1^st Air Landing Squadron Officers listed for June 1942:  Major C.J.H. Gough;

Captains: A.S.Baker, G.L. Falkim, G.C. Roberts, J.P. Royle, C.W. Suter;

Lieutenants: D.Allsop, R.W.Clough, D.M.Freegard, T.J. Firbank, M.W. Grubb, J.A.Hay, L.A.W.Hayes, F.D.E.Imes (Quartermaster), R.W.Jahren, G.L.Millar and F.D.Slater;

2^nd Lieutenants:  R.J.Clark, Kindersley, H. Poole, and A.J. Waterman

 

On Monday 1^st June the Squadron had lectures and training at Bulford and on 3^rd June they were on night operations – a compass march.

On Sunday 7th June 1942 1^st Air Landing Squadron were training on Ogbourne St George Mortar Range, Wiltshire and on 8^th June were flying in Tiger Moth (biplanes).

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

 

2nd June – The German Army 11th Army advances in the Crimea and attacks the port and fortress of Sebastapol.  The fierce battle ends with German victory on 9th July.

 

4th-7th June 1942 – the battle over Midway Atoll, the US base in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii, was won by the US Navy. This crucial battle turned the tide and the Allies took over the offensive from the Japanese in the Pacific.  Again US codebreakers had intercepted signals revealing that Japanese invasion fleets were heading for the Midway Islands , enabling timely launching of US Naval task forces from Hawaii to defend the base. Four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk and 250 Japanese planes destroyed with the loss of only one US aircraft carrier, the Yorktown.

 

 

Dick visited the dentist again on Friday 5th June 1942, attending Dental Centre 363.

Dental Treatment Card –  5/6/42

 

5^th June 1942 – an SS (Shutzstaffel – Nazi paramilitary and police) report states that 97,000 persons have been “processed” ie killed, in mobile gas vans. (From  WW2-net Timelines)

 

 

Telegram - 9th June 1942

CHALKLEY KNITWEAR DEPT BEALES* BOURNEMOUTH =

= = =  LEAVE TODAY 9 DAYS WIRE PAGHAM = RICHARD

++ CT9 QKP  BEALES + PAGHAM +

*By this time Chotie had transferred from Plummer’s Knitwear Department back to Beales.

 

 

 

On 10^th June 1942 Dick was granted 10 days leave.

Copy of Record

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

10.6.42        Granted 10 days leave       Army Rank Trooper        Place Field

 

10th June 1942 – After the gallant defence of Bir Hakeim in the Battle of the Gazala line , most of the Free French escape to the British lines.  General de Gaulle hails Bir Hakeim as the start of the resurrection of France.

Home Forces - Friday 1st? May 1942

The War in Dorset - May 1942

On 14^th May 1942 a landslip at Cairn’s Folly near Charmouth destroyed the radio station on the clifftop. Two German ‘T’ boats were sunk off the Dorset coast by Royal Navy motor torpedo boats on 19^th May and on 23^rd May the German flying ace Hauptmann Langur was killed when he crashed into a Shaftesbury hillside in low cloud.  The RAF plane attacking him was able to operate through the cloud using the ‘Starlight’ radar system from Sopley near Christchurch.  

24^th/25^th May – following a Pathfinder bombing, which unfortunately killed several people and damaged houses in the Hamworthy area, a bomb fell on the Brownsea decoy site setting off prepared cordite flashes.  The Special Fires (code name ‘Star Fish’ - pyrotechnics simulating bursting bombs and burning buildings) were started on the island attracting a 75 minute bombardment from 60 enemy aircraft that would have done terrible damage in Poole, where Chotie lived.  Out of 166 tons of bombs used that night, all but 9 tons fell harmlessly on the decoy.  Even so 140 people had to be accommodated in the Sandacres Hotel, Sandbanks that night and one bomb hit a military target – the Poole Home Guard company HQ in Lindsay Road, where one Guardsman was killed.  (See also December 1942 - the war in Dorset.)

At the end of May 1942 the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Worth Matravers, near Swanage in Dorset, moved inland to Malvern in Worcestershire.  The success of the Bruneval Raid had alerted them to the dangers of a coastal raid on their vital and very secret research.

(From ‘The Book of Poole Harbour’ edited by Bernard Dyer and Timothy Darvill and published by The Dovecote press Ltd 2010, ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980 and  ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004.)

 

 

In May 1942 Lt-General “Boy” Browning, the Commander of 1^st Airborne Division, devised an inspirational emblem to represent the airborne forces and introduced the famous ‘red’ beret, which is still used to this day. The badge of the winged horse Pegasus and his rider Bellerophon was taken from Greek myth and designed by Major Edward Seago. It became the divisional shoulder flash of the airborne forces.  (See The Pegasus Journal )

1^stAir Landing Squadron Officers listed for May 1942:

Major C.J.H. Gough;

Captains: G.C. Roberts, J.P. Royle, C.W. Suter;

Lieutenants: D.Allsop (captain of Freddie Gough’s 1^stAirborne Reconnaissance Squadron at Arnhem, awarded the Dutch Bronze Lion), D.M.Freegard (mentioned in despatches
as a Major in 1945), T.J. Firbank, M.W.Grubb, J.A.Hay and G.L.Millar

2^ndLieutenants:  R.J.Clark, Kindersley, H. Poole and A.J. Waterman.

(See Joining Browning's Boys )

For most of May 1942 1^stAir Landing Squadron was still based at Shaw House, near Newbury.

1^st May 1942 – City of Bath placed out of bounds for 1^st Air Landing Squadron except for duty on special leave. (Why? Was this because of the Baedeker Raids?)

(From The Pegasus Archive, Just Ordinary Men, Operation Market Garden and the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)

 

Trooper Williams RR

1^st Air Landing Sqdn.

Reconnaissance Corps

HOME FORCES

N.B. New Address

                        NOTHING ELSE!

Friday

Dearest, Darling Chotie,

                                                     Many thanks for letter received yesterday.  It would appear that it took ages to get here - but the new address, Home Forces, is apparently much quicker.  However it did arrive, which is the main thing.

I must begin this letter as usual by an apology for this paper - after all, there's a war on, somewhere, so convention must go by the board.

I hope you're quite well Precious and looking after yourself as you mean a helluva lot to me (slush...!) - but seriously, Darling, takes great care, and dodge the bombs, if any.

I've been to Bulford* all day, firing Anti-Tank Rifles, and managed to get quite brown as there was plenty of wind and sun.  The weather here is excellent, and I eat like a horse (or two).

Incidentally, I'm at the place I expected to go to - the one we found on the map, but I'm not of course allowed to write it down in letters - hence the address - Home Forces.  I had a letter from home a couple of days ago - things there, being a little brighter than usual.  Diller however can give you more dope on this question then I can.  It's quite all  right for you to tell Diller where I am, so don't be frightened on that score.

I met quite a decent bloke here, who's very much like Douglas (Enid's?).  He's a throw out from a Military Academy and joined the 70th Hants** (Brinner's crowd) and transferred here the same time as I did.

I'm afraid there's no news - I am up to my eyes in work and get very little time to call my own.  Hope everyone at home is up to par, and hope you will give them all my fondest regards, etc.

This is a glorious county - reveling in old houses particularly Georgian and Elizabethan.  I saw plenty of such desirable abodes today as I did nearly a hundred miles in the truck.

Well, I must close here as I'm on night operations in about half an hour and have to get my kit ready.

                                                            All my love, Darling

                                                                        Dicker xxx

P.S.
Home Address

                        “BROOMLEIGH”

                                    PAGHAM BEACH

                                                BOGNOR

                                                            SUSSEX.***

PPS     Look after yourself!!!

 

*Bulford ranges on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

** The 70th Battalion (the 70th was usually the “Young Soldiers” battalion) of the Hampshire Regiment was formed in Southampton in September 1940, but soon moved to Basingstoke. It was disbanded in July 1943. It appears that Dick’s younger brother, Brian or Brinner, had now joined up.

***Dicker’s family had now moved to Pagham in Sussex. Dick’s next of kin (father) is listed as Capt. Dudley Kelner Beresford Williams of St Margarets, Sea Lane, Pagham, Sussex but the family first moved to ‘Broomleigh’.

© Chotie Darling

Malta's George Cross - April 1942

The War in Dorset - April 1942

Work commenced on building a Landing Craft base for the Commandos at Ham Common, Poole (officially commissioned as HMS Turtle in October 1942).

On 2^nd April an American B-17 Flying Fortress bomber made an emergency landing next to the Baker’s Arms pub at Lytchett Matravers. That night, bombing in Weymouth killed 20 and injured 56 people.

Winston Churchill visited the Lulworth Ranges on 6^th April to inspect the new ‘Churchill’ tanks and on 9th April a new master station for the radio direction of RAF bombers from Southern Britain was erected on Bulbarrow Hill, in central Dorset.  On 17^th April a flight over Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch managed to use the new ground-mapping radar (developed by the Purbeck-based Telecommunications Research establishment) to distinguish the towns without vision. This enabled bombing though clouds or at night.

20th April brought bomb attacks in Hamworthy, Poole and in Swanage, where there was considerable damage.

In April 1942 Mountbatten’s Combined Operations began to plan for an Allied landing at Dieppe (see August 1942). A scheme for the landing of 12 divisions around Le Havre had been put forward in late 1941. The scheme was to be tested in Operation Rutter, a division sized raid on a German held port on the French Channel to be held for at least two tides while effecting the greatest amount of destruction of enemy facilities and defences before withdrawing. It was hoped this would divert troops from the beleaguered Russian front and was supported by the Americans eager for an offensive in the West and under pressure to concentrate their efforts in the Pacific against the Japanese. The scheme became the disastrous Operation Jubilee - 4,384 of the 6,000 Allied troops that landed were killed, wounded or missing, the Royal Navy lost 550 men and 34 ships and the RAF lost 106 planes in their largest single-day air battle of the war.

Combined Operations were also engaged in Operation Myrmidon in April 1942. This commando led raid on the Ardour Estuary in southern France planned to land 3,000 troops to disrupt road and rail transport between Spain and France.  However, the vanguard encountered a sandbar barrier and the raid was called off on the 5^th April after a month sailing off the coast of France disguised as Spanish merchant ships.

(From ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004, ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980,  The History Learning Site and Wikipedia.)

 

1st Air Landing Reconnaissance:

In April the 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron was still based at Shaw House, Newbury, Berkshire. Their war diary mentions a platoon demonstration inspected by the Corps Commander on 1^st April but not the critical visit to 1 Airborne Division on 12^th April 1942 by Winston Churchill. He was shown a demonstration of gliders and parachute troops dropping, including 12 Whitbys and 9 Hectors, each towing a Hotspur Glider. Following this demonstration Churchill increased the number of discarded bombers to be placed at the disposal of the Airborne Corps.

Meanwhile the squadron continued their training - at  Shrewton Aerodrome on 6^th April, at Abingdon aerodrome on the 10^th and on the Imber Ranges of Salisbury Plain on the 13^th.  The right wing historian, Sir Charles Petrie, was called in to give them a lecture, ‘Why we are at war’, on the 9^th April.  

(From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, WO166/6955 National Archives at Kew, ‘Airborne Forces’ by Lt-Col T.B.H. Otway, D.S.O. London: Imperial War Museum, 1990 and Paradata  – the living history of The Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces.)

See the next Chapter of Chotie Darling, Air Landing, for further information from the war diary for April.

Dick joined 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance on 20th April 1942.

 

1^st April 1942 - Japanese begin landing in Dutch (West) New Guinea. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

5th April 1942 – Japanese attack on the Royal Navy's base at Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Although the bulk of the fleet escaped the heavy cruisers HMS Dorsetshire and Cornwall, the armed merchant cruiser Hector and the destroyer Tenedos were sunk. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

9^th April 1942 – the 76,000 American and Filipino forces on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines finally surrender to the Japanese (only the fortress island of Corregidor was still held by the Allies).  More than 7,000 of the prisoners die on a forced march (‘the Bataan Death March’) while hundreds of Filipino officers are massacred. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

Mahatma Gandhi arrested by the British in India.

 

11^th April 1942 – in the smallest Commando raid of the war, Operation JV, two men paddled a canoe into Boulogne Harbour to stick a limpet mine on a German tanker and withdraw unseen. (From Wikipedia)

 

15th April 1942 - Malta was awarded the George Cross for "heroism and devotion" by King George VI for its key role in attacking the German supply line to Libya, despite a constant siege. The Maltese people stood up to more than 2,000 bombing raids and constant shortages for over twelve months and did not surrender. (From WW2-net Timelines)

 

18^th April 1942 – first Allied air raid on Japan by 16 US bombers from the aircraft carrier Hornet. The success of the ‘Doolittle raid’ (named after its leader, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle) raid on Tokyo, was an important boost to American morale.

The US eastern coast was ordered to black-out its light at night to reduce the success of U-boats attacking convoys at night. (From WW2-net Timelines)

The Allied Headquarters of the Southwest Pacific theatre were established in Melbourne (and moved to Brisbane on 20^th July 1942). (From WW2-net Timelines)

 

End of Part 1 The Blue Cockade

 

St Nazaire

 27^th and 28^th March 1942 – HMS Campbeltown and amphibious commandos transported by the Navy successfully destroyed the heavily defended dry dock at St. Nazaire.

The ship, disguised as a German destroyer and filled with explosives, was sailed six miles up the Loire estuary to ram the docks, lodging in the lock gates.  She exploded several hours later, putting St Nazaire docks out of action for the rest of the war and killing senior German officers who had come on board to inspect the ship.

The dock was the only one on the eastern Atlantic seaboard large enough to accommodate Germany’s new battleship the Tirpitz - according to Churchill “the most important naval vessel in the situation today”. Without this facility for repairs, Germany’s largest ships could not attack the Allies vital lifeline from America. The Tirpitz never entered the Atlantic, instead staying safely east of the Channel until she was bombed and capsized by the RAF in a Norwegain fjord in November 1944. 

The raid on St Nazaire, codenamed Operation Chariot, was carried out under the command of Mountbatten’s Combined Operations Headquarters located at Anderson Manor, near Poole (possibly where Dick was working - see The Missing Winter and The Small Scale Raiding Force). The raid was first proposed by Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division in late 1941 and included diversionary bombing by the RAF.  Although there were heavy losses among the 622 servicemen who took part, it established Churchill’s support for the ‘butcher and bolt’ tactics of the commandos.

Two of the launches attending the Campbeltown were from the Poole boatyards that supplied numerous craft for the war effort.

(From Combined Operations WW2 website and  ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980.)

Australia under attack - March 1942

The War in Dorset - March 1942

Early in March a German reprisal raid for RAF bombing in Paris hit….Delcombe Bottom near Milton Abbas and Smacam Down near Cerne Abbas, both in very rural parts of Dorset.

On 8^th March Messerchmitts machine-gunned the quay at Christchurch.

There was intense activity by the Royal Navy off Dorset in March to enforce the naval blockade of the Channel but the German raider Michel and 5 destroyers escaped through to the Atlantic.

Some of Poole’s flying-boats were commandeered  to relieve the siege of Malta, flying a shuttle service from Gibraltar.

Commandos of the Special Service Unit return to Poole after Operation Postmaster, the successful undercover mission in their converted Brixham trawler ‘the Maid Honor’ (see The Small Scale Raiding Force).

A Halifax bomber, specially adapted to trial the first ground mapping using radar, arrived at Hurn aerodrome.

In March 1942 Major David Niven, the actor and film star, was working with ‘V’ Corps on the South coast behind Poole Harbour in Dorset as commander of ‘A’ company in the General Headquarters Liaison Regiment, code-named PHANTOM.   David Niven recalled:

“’A’ was my pride and joy.  My second-in-command was a sardonic Irish newspaper man and the patrol officers included a Cameron Highlander, a Frenchman, a Lancastrian, a weight lifter, the assistant Bursar at Eton College, an amateur steeplechase jockey and an interior decorator who frequently called me ‘dear’ instead of ‘sir’.  The squadron Sergeant-Major was a Scots guard and the seventy other ranks were made up of bank clerks, burglars, shop assistants, milkmen, garage mechanics, school masters, painters, bookmakers, stockbrokers and labourers.”  (See The Missing Winter.)

(From  ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980, ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing company 2004; ‘Phantom at War’ by Andy and Sue Parlour, published by Cerberus in 2003 and ‘The Moon’s a Balloon’, autobiography of David Niven, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1972.)

 

1st Air Landing Reconnaissance:

In March 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance trained on the Bulford Ranges, Salisbury Plain and worked to develop their craft with the Vickers Aircraft Factory at Weybridge. Glider flying training was based at Netheravon. Parachute PT commenced on 30^th March. (From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, WO166/6955 National Archives at Kew.)

 

March 1942 – gas and electricity rationed in Great Britain.

 

1st March 1942 – the Japanese achieve victory at sea in the battle of the Java Sea and by 9^th March 1942 Java and the rest of the Dutch East Indies had surrendered to the Japanese.  In revenge for the destruction of the precious oil installations prior to the invasion, the Japanese killed almost all the white males and forced the women and girls into brothels.

8th March 1942 – the Japanese capture Rangoon, Burma.

12^th March 1942 – General MacArthur, Commander of the US Army Forces in the Far East, is forced to leaves the Philippines.  American and Philipino forces continue to defend the Bataan Peninsula on the northern island of Luzon.

14^th March 1942 – US troops arrive in Australia.

22^nd and 23^rd March 1942 – Japanese aircraft again attack Darwin in Australia and Port Moresby in New Guinea (now the capital of Papua New Guinea).

28th March 1942 - Under the new tactical doctrine of area saturation bombing, introduced by Air Vice Marshal Harris, the RAF launches a heavy incendiary attack (234 bombers) against Lübeck on the Baltic that devastates 265 acres of the old city. The RAF lost 13 aircraft and from one of these the Germans were able to obtain their first specimen of the secret GEE radar equipment. In retaliation for the raid on Lübeck, Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to bomb historic British towns and cities.  (From WW2-net Timelines. )

29th March 1942 - The Australian War Cabinet implements a 'Total Denial' policy in northern Australia should the Japanese invade. This would involve the conduct of a fighting withdrawal, with the evacuation or destruction of anything left behind. A vast migration of sheep and cattle southwards was already underway, with those taking part being nicknamed 'Overlanders'.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)