Chotie Darling

75 years ago - a move to Hull

At the beginning of November 1944 61^st Reconnaissance regiment were taking their first break since 6^th June (‘D’ Day). 

Dick’s ‘B’ squadron were in harbour at Winssen, 15 kilometres north-west of Nijmegan on the River Waal.  Dick had 48 hours leave from 2^nd November and drove a party the 120 miles to Antwerp along “pretty grim roads” in a three tonne truck.  It took about 5 hours but seemed well worth the effort.

          “The shops are fun and already very ‘Xmassy’ – though everything’s too dear for the local population.  Service men with plenty of money are lashing out as usual….Cafés full of cream cakes, ice-cream and the inevitable acorn coffee…I made a complete pig of myself.”  Dick avoided the ENSA shows and went for the cabarets and night-clubs “(full of Yanks, Canucks*, Poles, ATS, Canuck WAAGs, etc.)” including a few Belgian strip-tease acts. (*’Canuck’ was a nickname for Canadians)

          “Prices are murder! But drinks in the Officers’ Hotel are very cheap.”  He seems to have been rather drunk when he wrote to Chotie on 3rd November.

 

Both Dick and Eric Brewer returned to Winssen from Antwerp on 4^th November but two days later Eric was on the ‘the Island’ front-line again at Zetten on O.P. (Outpost? Operational Patrol?).  Dick wrote to Chotie from the comfort of Winssen on Tuesday 7th  and Wednesday 8th – he was enjoying reading George Bernard Shaw, listening to German radio and talking with the local Burgomaster (magistrate).  The Armoured car Officers held a “miserable” dance on the 7^th with Dick running the bar.  The only beer available was “chemical synthetic stuff…you can drink something like 20 pints without mental troubles…The brewers call it ‘hop-less’ – the boys ‘hopeless’.”

Chotie was now based at the 6^th Heavy (Mixed) Anti-Aircraft Practice Camp at Cleve near Bude in Cornwall.  RAF Cleave used some of the very first drones as targets, launched off the cliff using steam catapults. 

Anti-aircraft ATS training at RAF Cleave, Cornwall

It seems Chotie may have been learning how to tackle the V1 or V2 rocket-bombs, which were becoming a nightmare in eastern England.  One ‘buzz-bomb’ had fallen just near Eric Brewer’s house; on 7^th November he wrote home “I received the Gazette and saw where the BB fell. Blimey, it was close to the house.   Lucky it fell when it did – if it had been in the air a fraction of a second longer it would have hit the house.”

On 9^th November 50^th (Northumbrian) Division, with 61^st Recce, joined 2 Canadian Corps.  They had liberated Dieppe, Boulogne, Calais and Ostend and at last succeeded in clearing the Scheldt Estuary of Germans so Antwerp could be used as an Allied port.  (Until 11^th November the front-line had to rely on the ‘Red Ball Express’; a relay of US Army supply trucks from the Normandy beaches.)  Sandy Handley, who had taken a shine to one of the barge girls at Ewijk (the village next to Winssen) was not so pleased when the Canadians “muscled in”.

 

The rest of ‘B’ Squadron moved up to Zetten on 10^th November so Dick was back on the front-line.  He moved into the same house he was in about a month ago (presumably when 61^st Recce were based at Herveld, just south-east of Zetten, from 8^th to 13^th October with the 101st Airborne).  Here he was with a Protestant Minister who spoke six languages - “a man of considerable intellect and general broadness of horizon” - who gave his house as a home for unmarried mothers.   Dick wrote to Chotie again on the 12th “from an armchair in front of a lovely fire…There’s a ton of books in this house – also a Blüthner grand (piano), so I manage to amuse myself during my ‘free’ time.”

Although the men often wrote re-assuring letters to their loved ones at home Eric Brewer (still at Zetten on O.P.) takes it to a new extreme, writing on the same day to say he was visiting ENSA shows and local cinemas and “the lads who are doing the cooking have started to bring our breakfast round to us while in bed.”  On 13^th November the 61^st Reconnaissance war diary records “The water level at Nijmegan bridge has risen greatly in the last few days.  It is believed that the enemy is now in a position to flood ‘the Island’ by blowing the dykes on either the River Waal or the Neder Rijn” (Lower Rhine).  Eric Brewer was on forward O.P. by the river on the 15th “saw two chaps crawling so we changed our position.  Blooming cold tonight.  Plenty of Spandau fire, etc.”

 

‘B’ Squadron was relieved by ‘A’ Squadron the next day and moved back to Winssen.  Dick was busy with personal and vehicular maintenance, including about four hours of washing because “the laundry system here is lousy – there’s no marking ink available and you never get the same stuff back again.”  He wrote to Chotie thanking her for some photos and excusing himself from buying perfume since “all that sort of thing is in Belgium …  there’s the snag of changing guilders into Belgian francs – no mean task as the Field cashier is never seen within 20 miles of the ‘front’ and I’m certainly never 20 miles from it!...

        Thawing out for the first time for days” he enjoyed an evening by the stove with Ronnie Jury, drinking Burgundy and listening to classical music from Munich in Germany. 

 

By the next night all the Regiment were back on ‘the Island’ taking over the sector east of Elst from an entire Brigade (the 151^st).  They had to plan for evacuation in case the Germans breached the dykes – Exercise Noah.  (Anthony Rampling remembers this is just what they did.)  Eric Brewer was near Arnhem again in “about the coldest and wettest position I have ever been in. There is 2ft of water in the slit trenches and we have to stand in it…”  On Sunday 19^th the Regiment was visited by the commander of the Canadian Corps and the temporary commander of 50^th Division, Major General Lynne.  They watched a V2 being launched from just north of Arnhem, behind the German front line.

          The Allies, having crossed the German frontier to the south, now began to mine ‘the Island’.  “Spasmodic shelling and mortaring of the Regiment’s forward positions continued” and Eric Brewer’s position was also subject to machine gun fire.  One of the mine-laying ‘sappers’ dropped a mine and “got his foot blown off.  The shrapnel just missed us.”  By November 20th five of the men in Eric’s troop were also ill.

        That was the day Colonel Brownrigg received the news that 50^th Division was to return to the UK as a training Division and the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment was to be disbanded.  Dick sent Chotie this elegiac letter:

 

Chotie Darling,

                                    Received your letter, and the gloves yesterday, along with some tobacco from home.  So it was really a bumper mail.  Thank you very much for the gloves, Precious, they’re certainly the answer out here.

            It’s now almost five o’clock in the afternoon, raining steadily and quite dark.  As the electricity hasn’t yet been switched on for the evening, I’m writing this by candlelight.  I’ve had a very enjoyable afternoon – I went for a walk!  This may sound a little odd,  but quite genuinely, I haven’t been walking anywhere since I left England.

            I went out about two o’clock in typical November weather – a pale wintry sun, a fair wind, and very muddy underfoot.  I went as far as the nearest dyke, as the lane running on top of it was much drier.

            There’s no grandeur in the countryside in this country, but there’s beauty in the old white-washed farmsteads, lying in the rich meadows alongside the dykes.  Many of these fields were already flooded, and the last autumnal leaves were falling in the water and being banked up against the other side by the wind.  The river, when we got here, was about a hundred yards wide, and now already reaches the dykes on either side – some seven or eight hundred yards apart.  If the dykes should fail in their purpose the whole countryside would be flooded for miles, and presumably everyone would be drowned – but they’re pretty stout banks.

            By half past three, the sun had vanished and there was a gentle rain coming down – so I walked back into the face of it.  Luckily it was a mild, soft rain – which was quite pleasant – as I’d taken the precaution of carrying a rain-coat.  I got back to a warm fire and Spam* & chips for tea so altogether I spent a very happy afternoon.  Needless to say I went alone as neither of my brother subalterns share my aesthetic views….

            To get back to earth, I find myself instructing on the NCO’s Cadre course from Wednesday to Sunday – which also seems pretty odd, when everyone in England takes us to be in the thick of it all the time!

            I suppose you to be back at Bristol now.  Have you found the Christopher Hotel** yet?  Eric and I had many a drink there back in ’41.  It was there that the memorable occasion occurred when I cheerfully ordered two beers, and then, after they had turned up, found we’d only got enough money between us to pay for the one!  I still remember the look on Eric’s face as he watched me drink it….

            How’s Margaret bearing up these days?  You didn’t mention her in your last letter.

            Haven’t heard from Bryn for some time so I’ve no idea what he’s doing – or even where he is.

            Can’t think of anything more for now, Darling, so I’ll close here.

                                                                        Much love, Precious

                                                                                    Your devoted

                                                                                                Dicker.

 

*A canned pre-cooked meat with pork shoulder and ham.

** Mentioned in letter of 1st April 1944.

 © Chotie Darling

Dick had been with 61^st Reconnaissance for a year, his first as an officer; shifting from coastal defence to preparation for ‘D Day’, fighting in Normandy for two months before crossing France to the Battle of Belgium and Operation Market Garden.  He’d now been stuck on the Netherlands front-line for another two months.

On 21^st November Eric Brewer was moving into a burnt house to make it a strong point when he was shelled by the Germans and shrapnel hit his tin hat.  The burnt-out house was “just like a luxury, as bad as it is.  Gerry still active and also plenty of mortars.”  On 22^nd he wrote home that he’d “been told some good news today but I am very sorry I can’t tell you what it is.” Presumably Eric thought he’d be returning to England.  However, that same day Colonel Brownrigg had driven to XXX Corps HQ and, with the Corps Commander Colonel Horrocks, managed to persuade Montgomery to cancel the break-up of 61^st Recce.  Horrocks said that the Regiment “would be worth a brigade to me”.  (The normal strength of a Reconnaissance Regiment was about 40 officers plus less than 750 'other ranks' while a Brigade was three to six times as large).

 

Back on ‘the Island’ shelling continued and enemy activity was detected, including submachine gun fire (from infantry or paratroopers). The regiment could see several V2s being launched every day only 10 miles north of their positions.

          Chotie’s unit had moved right across England to Barrow-on-Humber on the Lincolnshire coast (possibly to the Barrow Haven anti-aircraft battery, designed to protect the port of Hull).  V2 rocket bombs could reach Hull and the 462 Heavy (Mixed) Anti-Aircraft battery of the Royal Artillery was now part of their defence against the buzz-bombs.

 

Dick had said he was teaching a course from Wednesday 22^nd to Sunday 26^th November but on 25th November he was more than 150 miles south-west of Arnhem in the little Belgian town of Izegem, near Courtrai/Kortnjk.  He was “fixing up civvy billets for the Squadron” and was only about 20 miles from Oudenaarde, the town his Troop had liberated where he had made so many friends. 

Back on the Netherlands' front-line 61^st Recce’s Regimental HQ at Elst was heavily shelled on the night of the 28^th and two soldiers were killed.  Eric Brewer was sheltered in the burnt out house until the end of November.  However, the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment was about to leave ‘the Island’ at last. 

75 years ago - beginning the Battle of Normandy

Dick was at a camp in the Aldershot area while half his Regiment, including half his troop, were waiting for D-Day on ships in the Solent.

On Monday 5th June he wrote “We’re still having quite a good time here, all things considered, though there’s very little to do and time is apt to hang rather heavily”.  He was reading books, walking in the woods and taking ‘the boys’ to an open-air swimming pool nearby.  Writing again the next day he was “up to my neck in this wretched audit board at the moment adding up masses and masses of figures” and had to “bust a couple of sergeants…for absence”.  This was how he spent D-Day.

Dick and the rest of his troop, including Anthony Rampling, were due to cross to France on D+3 (ie the 9^th June) but the sea was too rough and they were delayed.  On 10th June Dick wrote to Chotie of drunken parties – he’d been “out every night since D Day”.  The Hollywood star, Gertrude Lawrence, had given “quite a good show” at his camp.

Dick’s next letter is from France.  He and Tony went over on Tuesday 13th June (D+7) - although Churchill had made it across on a day trip the previous day.  Dick was very re-assuring “everything is fine – I’m in the pink and very happy here” although he was desperately tired, not having slept since Sunday.  At some time Dick would have heard that one of his troop on sentry duty in France had shot and killed Corporal Robert Black, confusing the passwords and mistaking Black’s Londonderry accent for German.

Tony and Dick rejoined their troop on 14^th June.  The troop members who went over on D-day had “gained a little battle experience (!) and seen some nasty things”.  They “felt like veterans compared with the new arrivals.” (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished.)

Since D-Day (or D + 1 for Sandy) the skeleton crew of 61^st Recce had been engaged with 50^th Division and 8the Armoured in an attempt to advance between Bayeux and Caen and take the critical town of Villers-Bocage.  Despite some success, in particular taking and holding the high ground of Point 103 (la Belle Épine) near Tilly-sur-Seules, they had been held off by the legendary Panzer Lehr Division, the cream of the German Army in Normandy, and also the fanatical 12^th SS Hitler Jugend nearer to Caen.

The 7^th Armoured Division (Monty’s Desert Rats) had then been tasked with taking Villers-Bocage but were badly beaten by 2^nd Division Panzer and the personal triumphs of the Panzer ace Michael Wittman, who destroyed 25 tanks in one day.

They had also discovered the perils of the bocage countryside – small fields with thick high hedges and narrow lanes, which perfectly camouflaged defenders for an ambush.  “Recce in Normandy meant driving down a road until something fired at you” (from WW2 Talk Forum)

The stench of death was everywhere – dead cattle and horses in the fields, casualties of war or shot by the Germans in retreat, and dead men who couldn’t be retrieved by their comrades.

On 15th June 'B' Squadron were somewhere in the Crauville area (between Tilly-sur-Seules and Caumont-L’Éventé) when the carrier in front of Eric Postles exploded killing four of the troop – two had been called up with Eric at Carlisle.   On the same day Don Aiken was involved in saving the life of his wounded corporal, Sammy Benson, giving covering fire while the heroic Sergeant 'Chalky' Wells went in to bring him to safety.

“We continued to live up to our name of reconnaissance, but every day our patrols found progress harder” (from ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lt-Col P.H.A. Brownrigg D.S.O.).  Eric Brewer was back at Point 103 again from 15^th to 18^th June withstanding ‘Gerry’ counter-attacks.

Dick wrote to Chotie :

Sunday June 18th

Chotie Darling,

                                                Well, Sunday’s come around again, though it makes no difference at all as every day is exactly the same here.  I’ve put the 18^th above but it’s only a guess.

            I hope to be able to write you more fully here, as I expect to have the rest of the morning free, though we never know when we’ll be called.

            Had quite a good night – four or five hours solid sleep – the first since I’ve been here.  It takes time to get acclimatised to sleeping in the midst of the terrific artillery racket that goes on nightly.  As Dostoevsky says ‘Man is a pliable animal – he gets used to anything in time’*. 

            Weather isn’t up to much at the moment – cloudy, though quite warm.

            I manage to get quite a bit of conversation with the local peasantry.  They speak a very pure tongue – slowly and with much careful thought.  The equivalent of the West Country in England.  So far I have had no difficulty in understanding them, or they me.

            My friend Jimmy Waddell is just walking over here.  He’s been out all night and looks a little tired.  Appears he’s been sniped at once or twice but got back OK.  It’s an endless source of amazement to us to see the people going about their lawful business with a total disregard to what’s going on around them.  I even saw an old farmer milking his only cow while a local battle was being waged for his farm!

            My relieving people have just arrived so will continue this later.

 

            Just had a go at an ME 109** with the old Bren.  No luck.  First I’ve seen for days.

            Must close here as I have to move.  Give my best wishes to your people won’t you?  And tell them I’m having the time of my little life.

                        All my love, Chotie Darling

                                                                                    Dicker

 

*From the Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky’s novel ‘The House of the Dead’.

** a Messerschmitt Bf 109, a German fighter plane.

© Chotie Darling

Eric Brewer records that 61^st Recce advanced towards Grainville-sur-Odon on 18^th June but losing an Ark (armoured car?) and a carrier to an 88 gun (an anti-aircraft gun used against ground targets by the Germans) they were forced to withdraw.  Eric Postles remembers 18th June as the day they moved back a few miles and got their first mail since Nightingale Wood – he had a letter from Gladys (the girl he’d met on leave before D-Day, his future wife).

On 19^th June Tilly-sur-Seules at last fell to the 50^th Division, although intense fighting continued in the vicinity.  Eric Brewer lost five comrades on another recce in the Grainville area – one taken prisoner.

On 20^th June Don Aiken found himself in the besieged town of Caen when the driver got lost returning from the beaches with a truckload of ammunition.  Don was riding ‘shotgun’ in the rear of the truck.  Finding their way back to the Regiment the driver was killed when a German fighter plane blew up the truck in front.

Forced to withdraw from Grainville to “a rear position to be reinforced” Eric Brewer at last had a bath in a stream.  Anthony Rampling recalls that conditions in Normandy were so bad that, being on constant alert, they didn’t take their boots off for 40 days and “stunk like foxes”.

Letters home painted a different picture – Dick’s letter of 21st June is about the local people “shy but very friendly – and only too willing to converse with you, especially if you speak any French at all” - and the food; he managed to buy Camembert cheese and cider.  Eric Brewer had “at last found a farm to obtain milk” and chatted to a Frenchman of the “underground movement”.

By 21^st June 61^st Recce’s 50^th Division had suffered 4,000 casualties, the highest of any Division in Normandy.  The Battle for Normandy became something akin to the trench warfare of World War 1, with Recce units going into action alongside the heavy armour, fighting bitterly for every advance and 'digging in'.  Eric Brewer complained that he’d be a gravedigger after the war since it was all he seemed to be doing.  He was stuck at some cross roads near Grainville from 22^nd to 26^th June.  Dick was also back in action.  He sent a Field Service Postcard to Chotie on 23^rd June ( a quick correspondence device where you just entered the address and date and crossed out lines that didn’t apply eg ‘admitted into hospital’, ‘wounded’ or ‘sick’) but managed to write a letter on 24th June.  He was rapidly acquiring the local patois and had been talking to the refugees “scores of families with all their remaining belongings in one wheelbarrow”.

This was also the day the ship Derrycunihy was sunk on the way to landing 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment at ‘Sword’ beach.  180 men died including Dick’s best friend when he was in the 43^rd, the piano player Donald 'Alex' Johnston.

The next day XXX Corps renewed its battle with the Panzer Lehr as a diversionary attack for the launch of Operation Epsom, Monty’s plan to attack west of Caen and then swing round to encircle the city.  Eric Brewer and his comrades were sent out to find the German forward position for assaults by the East Yorks Regiment and, on 26^th June, found the place formerly occupied by a company of the Green Howards – their kit was still there but the 57 men had not been heard of for a week.  Eric Postles records that 10 and 12 Troop lost men that day.  The attack on Grainville-sur-Odon was stalled on 27^th June although the Allies took Rauray, Colleville and Mouen and a bridge over the River Odon.  Grainville was also in their hands the next day and 61^st Recce crossed the River Odon to Mondrainville.  Eric Brewer was relieved at last and went back to base where he found ‘B’ Squadron had lost about a quarter of their men, 25 killed and about 25 injured, since D-Day.

Dick wrote to Chotie on 29th June saying that he was having a quiet time “doing Liaison Officer to a Brigadier – quite cushy in fact”.  He appears to have been in Bayeux for about 9 hours and managed to buy bread rolls with coffee – the first bread he’d tasted since he arrived in France.

After terrible fighting to take Hill 112, the strategic high ground south-west of Caen at Esquay-Notre-Dame, Operation Epsom was closed down on 30^th June.

 

Dick and the history of the war had now collided, with the spotlight on the efforts of 2^nd British Army and 12^th US Army in Normandy.  The beginning of Operation Overlord, D-day and the landings on the beaches have been covered in the previous post.  The attempts by 8^th Armoured Division (with 61^st Recce) and then 7the Armoured to take the D-Day objective of Villers-Bocage had ended in failure before Dick arrived in France.  His men had come up against the legendary Panzer Lehr Division - which was holding the line west of Caen with 12^th SS Division and 2^nd Panzer - and the difficulties of the bocage countryside, which masked defenders, snipers and even tanks.  By the end of the month 2^nd British Army was under attack from seven Panzer Divisions, although Rommel still kept Fifteenth Army in the Pas de Calais in case of Allied invasion further east.

The Allies depended on their huge supplies and reserves, air support (very successful in picking off German tank convoys heading for Normandy) and their effective artillery, including Naval bombardment since much of the fighting was within gunnery distance of the shore.  The brilliant Mulberry Harbours, erected soon after D-Day, had played a key role in landing troops, equipment and ammunition; although they proved vulnerable to the stormy weather later in June.  However, compared with the Germans most of the soldiers lacked experience and Monty relied again and again on his battle-worn troops from North Africa and Sicily, including the 50^th Division. 

The Americans fought bitter battles to take towns such as Carentan (liberated on 12^th June, joining up the ‘Omaha’ and ‘Utah’ bridgeheads), key strategic road junctions or even small villages.  US troops held a line across the Cherbourg Peninsula to Barneville by 18^th June, cutting off 40,000 Germans to the north.  On 27^th June they took their key target, the port of Cherbourg; so damaged that, although it was of some use after 3 weeks, it was not fully functioning until September.

The Canadians having been involved in the disastrous first attacks on Caen (they lost almost 3,000 men in the first six days after D-Day) held their ground against 12^th SS Panzer’s attempts to break through to the sea.

By 30^th June the Allies have landed a total of 630,000 troops but suffered 62,000 dead or wounded.

Germany was also retaliating on home ground: V1 rocket bombs first reached Britain on 13^th June, landing at Swanscombe in Kent and killing six people at Bethnall Green in London.  On 16^th June, Germany’s ‘Day of Vengeance’ 244 V1 bombs landed in England.  A V1 striking the Guards Chapel during the service on 18^th June killed 119 people.

Horror continued in the occupied countries with the Heuaktion in Poland – an order, which authorised the kidnapping of 40,000 children for slave labour in Germany.  The brave Danes were resisted Germany’s imposition of a curfew with a General Strike beginning on 26^th June and the curfew was withdrawn.

In Italy the glory of the US Fifth Army entering Rome on 4^th June was soon upstaged by D-Day but the Allies in Italy pressed steadily northward up the central spine taking Todi, Terni and Orvieto on the 14^th June and Perugia by 20^th June.  To the west the Free French landed on Elba, between Italy and Corsica, on 17^th June and the island was liberated by the 20^th.

Russia had launched offensives against Finland from Leningrad and on the Karelian isthmus earlier in the month, and captured Viipuri/Vyborg, the second largest town in Finland (still part of Russia now).  The Finns eventually succeeded in stopping the Russian advance with the Battle of Tali-Ihantel, begun on the 25^th June.  However, these were deliberate distractions from the huge build-up of Soviet armies along 450 miles the German central front for Operation Bagration, launched on the Anniversary of Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa.  The German 4^th Army was quickly in danger of encirclement and by 30^th June Operation Bagration had caused 200,000 German casualties.

In India the siege of Imphal was at last lifted on 22^nd June and the Japanese were forced to withdraw.  However, Japanese forces were still advancing in China. By 26^th June they were in Hunan (southern China) and had captured the American air-base of Heng-yang.

Japan was under attack from the Allies in the western Pacific with the Battle of Saipan beginning the US Navy’s Marianas Campaign on 15^th June, aimed at liberating the American’s former base at Guam.  On 19^th June the US 5^th Fleet engaged with the Japanese Combined Fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea – ‘the greatest carrier battle in history’ and a decisive victory for the Americans.

With the Allies gaining ground (or sea) on same many fronts it must have been frustrating and fearsome to be inching forward so slowly in the bocage and at such a great cost to friends and comrades.

75 years ago - Chotie joins the ATS

Dick’s regiment in Dover had been joined for Christmas by the Canadian Reconnaissance Regiments and pilots from the Royal Australian Air Force – about fifty in all.  Dick reported to Chotie that he’d had “rather a quiet Christmas” , although he drank “eight pints of beer with Xmas dinner”.  Eric Postles had his Christmas dinner with his troop in a café in Portrush, Northern Ireland

Although 43^rd Recce had resumed Section training after Christmas they were given a half day on 1^st January.  Dick would presumably have been involved in the vehicle maintenance inspection by Lt-Col Crawford, the Commanding Officer, on 2^nd January but got out to the ‘theatre’ with his new friend Alex Johnston (later killed in the sinking of the Derrycunihy with other members of 43^rd Recce soon after D day).  They saw a strip-tease act featuring a 12 foot long python.  Dick, himself an amateur pianist who could play by ear, was most impressed with Alex’s rendering of Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto, the theme tune for the war film ‘Dangerous Moonlight’.

Dick had won a bet on the progress (or lack of) the Allies in Tunisia.  He wrote to Chotie on the evening of Sunday 3rd January wishing her luck with her entry to the forces.

Section training continued – Dick won two cross-country runs (43^rd Recce diary records these as held on 28^th December and 4^th January) and completed a forced route march.

Meanwhile Chotie had joined the Army. She was ‘embodied’ into the Auxiliary Territorial Service at No 1 Training Camp, Northampton on 8^th January.  Her first days there would have involved nit inspections, VD and pregnancy tests, vaccinations and visits to the dentist, as well as assessment for her future role in the army.  On 11th January she filled out a qualification form applying to be an Anti-Aircraft spotter with the Royal Artillery (or second choice an equipment orderly with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps).  Although she was one mark below the minimum in something called SP23 her other scores were good and she was “very keen to be on a gun site” so she was recommended for the Ack-Ack.  (Ack Ack was the name given to the anti-aircraft guns in the same way that the German anti-aircraft defences were called 'flack'.)

Dick wrote to her on the same day:

5731671 Tpr Williams, R.K

Mortar Troop, HQ Sqdn 43^rd Recce regt.

Recce Corps, Home Forces

Monday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            So you’re in the Army at last…._ and from your letter things don’t appear to be too bad.

            I should imagine by now you know all about innoculation….Just ignore it.  Personally we always welcome it as it means 48 hrs in kip – that is TAB* of course, not ATT etc.

            Northampton seems rather a far cry from Dorset, but you may be posted farther South of course.  It’ll be the helluva way to go just for 48 hrs though.

            You say the clobber seems stiff – and soft cloth at that….

            I’ve just done an amazing thing – for me, or rather two amazing things – won two cross-countries inside a week!  Shock nearly killed me.  Had a forced route march today over ploughed fields.  Half the troop fell out.  I made it all right, but it left me with a swine of a headache.  All those who fell out go on a charge automatically. 

Expect you’re bored stiff reading all this tosh!  Specially if the innoc. Got you down.  We are always urged to get about and forget it, but I just give in and relax in bed.

            It’ll be a change to write to you at another address….

            Ramble, ramble….

Pretty chilly here, expect it’s the same with you.  We pinch about ½ ton of coal a week from various sources.

            Haven’t heard from Brinner for ages – and Eric needless to say has always failed to write.  Brinner’s still somewhere in Essex I suppose.

            Did you hear about Monica’s effort?  Baby daughter – 9lb 4oz something.  Helluva weight.  Mother did tell me her name.  I’ve forgotten I’m afraid.

            Re. Xmas present.  Is there anything you want?  Or would you rather I send you the shekels?  Don’t be afraid to let me know will you in your next epistle.

            Met an Eire padre last night.  Ex boxer from Dublin Varsity.  Found quite a lot in common.  Opera, Georgian Houses etc.  Quite a lively argument about the Church.  Had to admit we both had our own points….

            Don’t forget to give me a lucid description of the Sarn’t-Major.  Yes Ma-am….

            Must close here, Darling.

            Hope I get the address right.

                                                                        All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

P.S.  Don’t let ‘em get you down….

* Typhoid inoculation

© Chotie Darling

 

On 12th January Chotie’s enrolment into the ATS was approved and she would have begun basic training with lots of drill, parades and inspections, tests on Army regulations and getting used to the Army life.  I don’t think Chotie would have found it hard to look smart, although forcing her abundant blonde hair up into her cap was always a problem:

“How well I remember Barbara,  – she had the most lovely smile and the most beautiful hair which she had great difficulty in keeping up above collar level as laid down in Kings Regulations!” (Rosemary Cowley/Stewart, pers comm).

 

Chotie in the ATS

On 13th January 1943 the call-up (compulsory military service) in Britain was extended to single women of 19 – Chotie’s age. 

In the Warsaw Ghetto the first armed resistance by Jews to the concentration camp deportations succeeded in securing a temporary halt to the transports.

French resistance to the Germans was growing as the French communists joined with General de Gaulle’s Free French (in opposition to the Allies’ appointment of Vichy France collaborators to lead in North Africa). However, on 30^th January Vichy France established a secret police force modelled on the German Gestapo and called the Milice.

That day, the 10^th Anniversary of the establishment of Nazi Germany, the Allies bombed Berlin by daylight in a propaganda coup and the following night the RAF began to use H2S the first airborne ground scanning radar system (developed by TRE in Dorset and Malvern), greatly improving their accuracy.

A ‘Combined Bombing Offensive had been agreed by the US and Britain when Roosevelt and Churchill met at the Casablanca conference on 14th January, with the Americans attacking the Luftwaffe and aircraft factories by day and the RAF continuing to bomb cities at night.  They also agreed the plan for the invasion of Sicily - Operation Husky – although they were meeting fierce resistance from the Germans in Tunisia.  (Rommel’s forces defeated both French and US forces at the battle of Fäid Pass on 23^rd January.)

The war in North Africa was at least diverting desperately needed support from German units on the Russian front.  The Red Army at last succeeded in breaking through the German encirclement of Leningrad (St Petersburg) and moved in to crush the surrounded Sixth Army at Stalingrad. On 31^st January the German commanders at Stalingrad surrendered.

US and Australian forces finally achieved victory over the Japanese in Papua New Guinea and the Japanese began a planned withdrawal from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

The Allies could now feel that the Japanese were not invincible and, when the news of defeat at Stalingrad leaked out, German citizens began to realise they might not win the war.  The Allies capture of Tripoli, the capital of Libya, on 23^rd January signified the end of the Italian Empire.

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 - 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

 

With or Without

Letter from Chotie written Wednesday 21st March 1945

W/242328 Pte. Williams B.E.,

“B’ Troop. O.F.C. A.T.S.,

462 Hy. (M.) A.A. Bty. R.A.,

Fort Godwin,

Co.  G.P.O. Easington,

Nr. Hull, Yorks

 

Wednesday 21^st Mar 1945

My own Darling,

                                    Many thanks for letter received this morning, my dearest, it was marvellously cheering for me, as I have not got “stuck in” yet, to army life.

            Glad that you are having a pretty easy time and do sincerely hope it remains so.  Peter Evans  sounds pretty smash - good fun, I expect.  Give my regards to him, also to Ronnie when you write.

            I rather envy your horse riding – still I don’t suppose that will last long.

           

My fury rages.  You certainly would get a rolling pin, right now -shaving your ‘tache, indeed.  You had better be quick and grow another.  Of course, I did love you without it before; I might even love you a little without it now – it’s doubtful though.

           

We had a spot of excitement last night, but I was not on duty.  Tonight, I am on, in fact right now, but have managed to scrounge some time to pen this to you.

            Feel a bit washed out (“with eating plums”) but I suppose must ‘bear up’.

           

Yvonne, one of the girls and I went for a lovely walk this afternoon, along the beach.  The sun was shining, so it was really pleasant.  Just before that, we went to an ENSA in the NAAFI.  One woman, “Suzette Tarri*” type, was quite a scream, but everything else was pretty awful.

           

Have to do some work in a minute, my darling, so this, though brief, will have to finish.

            I do love you, with or without, everything. 

                        Take care, & God bless

                                    Your loving wife,

                                                Chotie           xx

 

*British comedienne

© Chotie Darling

 

 

On the night of 22nd March General Patton's 3rd US Army crossed the Rhine in the south at Oppenheim, near Mainz. The next day other elements of 3rd Army cross near Worms above Mannheim.

 

"First break since the 6th June" - Friday 3rd November 1944

WAR DIARY of 61 Recce Regt RAC November 1944

– Lt Col P.H.A. Brownrigg

Date 3^rd – 9th          Place WINSSEN

‘The Regiment still remains at WINSSEN.  It has rained continuously since the beginning of the month so the unit’s first break since the 6^th June comes at a good time.  Despite the weather, many games of football and hockey have been played.

Place ZETTEN

In the Zetten area all is quiet, any aggressive intentions the enemy may have had in that area have apparently gone.’

 

 

Letter written on Friday 3rd November 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

BLA.

Friday Nov 3^rd

Chotie Darling,

                                    Of all places to write you from I find myself in a palatial hotel in Antwerp – where I’m spending my 48 hrs leave.  I arrived here at about 3 pm yesterday having had to drive the party here myself in a three-tonner – no mean task in itself as it took about five hours.

            Couldn’t do much yesterday as, by the time I’d got things teed up it was dark and it’s pretty deadly finding your way about in a strange town in the dark.

            Had a walk round the shops this morning – but didn’t see anything worth buying.  I did eventually buy three little books – on Degas, Rembrandt & da Vinci respectively – very good.  I’ll send them on to you if you’ll keep them for me.

            It’s quite a pleasant town with plenty doing.  It’s now nearly mid-night and I’ve been around this evening – ‘bout a dozen night clubs cabaret shows, etc so you can well imagine I’ve pretty well had it.

            The two other officers I came with are pretty deadly – go for ENSA* Shows, etc so I went for the night-clubs (full of Yanks, Canucks**, Poles, ATS Canuck WAACs etc) and saw a few Belgian strip-tease acts, etc.  Aren’t I awful!

            The prices are murder! but to counteract this, drinks in the Officers’ Hotel I’m staying in are very cheap – five francs for a cognac against 60 outside, etc.

            Why is it, as soon as I get drunk I always feel like packing up and writing to you?  It’s always the same.  Must be some psychological reason for it.

            Must close here, Darling – will write you in the more sober light of tomorrow,

                                                            All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

 

*ENSA stood for the ‘Entertainments National Service Association’, which provided entertainment for the British Forces during World War 2.  It was popularly known as an acronym for ‘Every Night Something Awful’.

**Canadians

 © Chotie Darling

 

Chotie was now based at 6^th Hy (M)A.A. Practice Camp

at Cleve near Bude in Cornwall

RAF Cleave was an experimental and training establishment for anti-aircraft gunners on an exposed clifftop near Bude, near the northernmost point of Cornwall.

Operation Cobra

25^th July 1944 – the US General Omar Bradley launches Operation Cobra to break out from the Cotentin bridgehead. Advancing on a narrow front from Lessay on the east coast towards Avranches, and from west of St. Lô towards Villedieu-les-Poêles and Brécey (by 31^st July they had secured an opening into Brittany and central France).  111 Americans were killed and 490 wounded by the heavy Allied bombardment west of St Lô, which preceded the advance, when the smokeline of the pathfinder bombers drifted back over Allied troops.  Nevertheless VII Corps moved forward to attack the remains of the Panzer Lehr.

In the east 2nd Canadian Corps launched a new attempt on the Bourgébus Ridge. Beaten back by 9th SS Panzer they provided an adequate diversion from the offensive in the west.  The Germans continued to deploy 14 Divisions (including six panzer divisions) against the 14 British/Canadian Divisions around Caen but only 11 seriously weakened divisions faced the 15 American divisions deployed in their advance.  The Americans had also devised a method for cutting through the hedgerows of the bocage with a pair of steel tusks welded onto the front of Sherman tanks - the 'Rhino' (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).

 

 

Parties - Saturday 10th June 1944

Same Address

Saturday

Chotie Darling,

                                    I hardly know what to write about as I’ve had no mail for some time now – which cuts out that particular source of inspiration.

            I’m enclosing my remaining coupons – for what they’re worth.  If you’re pushed to find a use for them you might send Diller some (par Mary, if ever you should write….) and she could forward any surplus to Brinner.

            Weather here hasn’t been up to much for some time now – expect it’s the same with you, which has finally eliminated any further chance of swimming.

            Had a lot of parties lately – out every night since D day, but now, I steadfastly refuse to smoke whilst drinking which enable me to stay perfectly sober however much I take.  I drove the party back last night in a jeep.  I shall never know how I made it as about seven people in the back were trying to push me out.  Damn funny.

            Hope you’re “still” being a good little girl no C.B. and no ‘Roll me over’* episodes.  One of these fine days I’ll meet someone from your Battery and learn the real truth about you.

            The invasion show seems to be going OK though it’s early yet.  Anyhow that’s a subject I’d prefer to leave alone.

            Hope you got that book safely.  I should really have registered it but I hadn’t time.

            We had Gertrude Lawrence* at our camp last week – quite a good show.

            Been playing pontoon all the afternoon – lost steadily, and again early this evening.

            Heard anything of Eve lately?  Let me know any news won’t you?  I shall get about a hundred letters all at once pretty soon, I suppose.

            Must close here for dinner(?)

            All my love, Chotie Darling – hope to see you before very long.

                                                                        Dicker

 

*'Roll me over in the clover' was a very popular saucy song in 1944. 

** Gertrude Lawrence, a famous English musical comedy actress, had recently arrived back in Britain from the US and performed for the troops just before D day. She was also one of the first to entertain the Allied troops in France.

© Chotie Darling

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 )

Writing Letters - Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th January 1943

My Darling Chotie,

                        I’m writing this now as I won’t be able to write for the next week or so owing to a scheme.

                        Hope you have got used to your new life by now.  I expect you’re feeling quite an old soldier after three weeks service.  Seems ages since I heard from you, though I suppose that you’ve discovered that writing letters is just about the last thing you feel like in the services.

                        I’ve just come back from the Hippodrome. Went with this newly acquired friend of mine* – quite an exotic thing there this week – from Cuba.  I suspect it’s more like Whitechapel though we must be rational over these matters.

                        Haven’t had any beer for over a week and feel rather poorly for that reason.

                        Found time to read LAG Strong’s “Dewer Rides”**, WS Maugham’s “The Moon and Sixpence”*** and re-read “The Colonel’s Daughter”****.

                        I shall only send you some shekels if you agree to buy something definite – ie not repeat NOT beer….If it goes on beer you’ll get spanked, so take your choice.

                        I’m dying to see you in uniform… How’s the skirt?

                        I must close here to catch up on my kip so will finish this tomorrow.

 

                        Well, it’s now Sunday, our famous typically English day of mourning.  There’s no church parade for me so I have a little time to relax. We’re on parade this afternoon for loading the vehicles ready for the scheme.

                        Rather chilly this morning – hope it warms up a bit for the next few days.  Don’t mind sleeping under the stars on occasions but not in inches of snow or mud.

                        Had a letter from Monica a couple of days back.  Full of her offspring.  I’m pleased she had a daughter – it was really what she needed, I think.

                        I haven’t got my truck for this stunt so will have to travel in a carrier – lovely and warm and plenty of kip.

                        Well Darling I must close here – as there’s nothing I can tell you in writing.

                        Hope I can see you before very long – seems ages since I last saw you already.

                                                All my love Precious

                                                            Dicker

PS  No news from that Rat DuRose…

*Trooper Don Johnston

**a novel of old Dartmoor featuring Dewer, the evil spirit of the earth.

***the story of an artist in Paris and Tahiti, inspired by the life of Paul Gauguin

****possibly John Strange Winter’s “The Strange Story of My Life (The Colonel’s Daughter)” although there are a number of books with this title.

© Chotie Darling

NB. THIS LETTER WAS FIRST POSTED ON 30TH JANUARY BUT MOVED TO CORRECT DATE 

 

Church Parade was held on Sunday 24^th January and there were preparations for Exercise “Hammer II” which took place in Kent from 25^th to 28^th January 1943 with rain on 25^th, fine on 26^th, mist on 27^th and rain again on 28th. Cold throughout. On 29^th January 43^rd Recce returned to Section Training, with Vehicle Maintenance accompanied by the Commanding Officer’s vehicle inspection on Saturday 30^th. (From the War Diary of the 43^rd
Reconnaissance Regiment held by the Archive and Reference Library, the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.) 

 

26^th January 1943 – Rommel, the German Commander in North Africa, is told he is to be ‘relieved’ by the Italian General Messe. (From Chronology of World War II.)

27^th January 1943 – the US air force made its first raid on Germany hitting Emden and Wilhelmshaven and demonstrating their favoured strategy of precision bombing in daylight. (From WW2-net Timelines and Chronology of World War II.)

28^th January 1943 – all of the German workforce is mobilised for ‘total war’. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

British 8^th Army captures Tripoli, the capital city of Libya.

 

30^th January 1943 – Le Milice, the secret police modelled on the Nazi German Gestapo is formed in France under the command of Joseph Darnand, the Secretary General of Vichy France. (From Chronology of World War II.)

 Daylight bombing of Berlin by the Allies on the 10^th Anniversary of Nazi Germany interrupts Herman Göring’s commemoration speech.

.

 

"Just relax Lulubell" - Sunday 3rd January 1943

Address as usual

Sunday Eve

My Darling

                        Having been on the range all day – and a Sunday at that – I thought I’d better write you to revive my flagging spirits.

            Well, I expect you’re getting just a bit worked up by now – just relax Lulubell…Things won’t be that bad – I hope. Is it the 7^th or 8^th you go?  When mother wrote she said the 8^th.

            I lent my pen to a colleague last night and the clumsy idiot promptly sat on it.  Some mothers have awkward children. Consequently I have to write this with my reserve.

            Hope you’ve got over Xmas by now.  It took me some little time.   

            Have just read a very good book – have meant to read it for some time now, and fate delivered the thing to me when I most needed something to read.  It’s called “The Bridge of San Luis Rey*” by an American Thornton River Wilder.  It’s really rather brilliant.  Published by Penguin.  Have had very little to read lately, having read everything in the Unit Library.

            Saw another Strip Tease last night – some woman called Arimand Banu who does her act with a 12ft python!  Pretty horrible.  Went with a bloke from this Squadron – comes from Soton – and plays the old “Warsaw”** like nobody’s business.  When I asked him his opinion of it he replied in one word – TINSEL!  Very sound bloke.

            I won a five bob bet on the Bizerte – Tunis Show*** which I placed some two months ago – which cheered me up a little – not so much for the cash as for sheer vanity…

            Well, Darling I must wish you all the best of luck on your entry into the Forces. I don’t intend to give you a sermon – I’ll spare you that – but be very careful won’t you?  I know we’re not even engaged but you’re very very dear to me Chotie and I couldn’t bear thinking of anything happening to you.

                        Must close here as I owe letters to Brinner, Diller and Home.

                                                            God bless you Darling

                                                                        Dicker

* A Pulitzer Prize winning novel set in Peru.

** The Warsaw piano concerto written by British composer Richard Addinsell for the film ‘Dangerous Moonlight’.

** refers to recent events in the North Africa campaigns Battle for Tunisia. Tunis and Bizerte are important deepwater ports. 

 © Chotie Darling

 

43^rd Recce had Section Training every day from 4^th to 9^th January 1943. On the 4^th there was also a Regimental Cross Country run (see Dick’s next letter).  The Divisional Commander visited the training on Tuesday 5^th January and from 7^th to 9^th January the Recce participated in the 43^rd Division Exercise “Wyvern II”.  On the 10^th January there was a Regimental Loading Exercise.

 

5th January 1943 - the Japanese begin planned withdrawal from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The successful evacuation had been completed by 9^th February when the US Commander declared the island secure for the Allies and the campaign over. (From WW2-net Timelines and Chronology of World War II.)

Berets - Sunday 13th December 1942

Same Address 

Sunday

My Darling,

                                    Just a few brief lines to let you know that I arrived back safely, though somewhat late.  I managed to miss all connections and didn’t get to bed before one o'clock the forthcoming morning.  I hope you also arrived home safely – though in better time than I did.

            Well, my Dear, how went the nuptials*?  Don’t forget to tell me all about it in your next letter. I trust everything went off all right, and the happy pair duly spliced.

            Great excitement this morning, as we were issued with berets – similar to Canadian Officer balmorals – light khaki.  Really rather good.  The boys took it calmly, though as one wag said bitterly – “all we want now is a skirt…” 

            I’ve been lumberjackin’ all the morning – just to loosen up after my leave.  I certainly needed to.

            I went down to the ‘Hippodrome’ last night, & also the local.  Not very thrilling after being with you for a week.  Got fed up and went to bed before nine.

            No news, so will close here.

            All my love, Darling and thanks for a very happy leave.

                                                                        Dicker

                                                                        xxxx

 

*Chotie’s elder sister Margaret married Ted Lewis on 12^th December 1942.

 
Ted and Margaret Lewis, married on Saturday 12th December at Parkstone Congregational Church, Poole, Dorset.

Chotie was bridesmaid.

Family wedding group outside Chotie's home, the Hollies.  Chotie is next to her sister Margaret, the bride.  Her mother is on the left end of the photo and her father next to her.

 © Chotie Darling

 

 

43^rd Recce took part in another 43^rd Division Skeleton Exercise on 14^th December in Canterbury/Dover and there was a Regimental Skeleton Exercise on the 16^th.  Pilots from the Royal Australian Air Force arrived as guests of the Regiment on 20^th December – see Dick’s letter of 27th. Section Training started on 21^st December and continued on most days for the rest of the month. The “HQ” Squadron Company Route March of 21^st December is mentioned in Dick’s next letter.

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

 

16^th December 1942 – Himmler orders that all gypsies (Roma) are to be sent to concentration camps. The Nazi genocide of the Roma claimed 220,000 to 500,000 lives (possibly more than a million).

Operation Little Saturn, the second Soviet offensive, begins at Stalingrad attacking the weakly held Italian front.  Although the elite Alpini troops stood firm it put an end to the hope of Operation Winter Storm to rescue Germany's Sixth Army, now 'kettled' at Stalingrad. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012) 

 

17^th December 1942 – Britain and the USA vow to avenge Nazi war crimes against the Jewish people.  By the end of 1942 word had leaked out to the Allied Command of German atrocities and close to four million Jews had been killed in the extermination camps.

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.)

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.

 

 

 

French Canadians and French Films - Sunday 30th August 1942

5731671 Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

Preston Barracks, Brighton, Sussex

 

Sunday Morn.

Chotie Darling,

                                                                                                Many thanks for letter of a couple of days ago. There’s no Church Parade this morning, so I have a good chance to catch
up on my mail.

            Feeling pretty low this morning. Went out yesterday evening and met some half-dozen French-Canadians, and I’m wondering now whether it was good luck or misfortune.  They’d only been over here a few months, and spoke no English, but I managed to hold my end up for a couple of hours.  There were two barmaids there, who, knowing they couldn’t speak any English, and thinking I was also French, were saying things …those girls almost made me blush… Unfortunately, when I rolled out of the place, it was pouring with rain, and I had no alternative but to walk, as the last bus had long since gone.  It was about 3 miles, and sobered me up not a little.

            Went to the jolly old Ballet again last week – twice in fact – Allied Ballets, allied to whom I don’t know.  The Prima Ballerina, Mela Carter, was almost as good as Fonteyn, but the rest were indifferent.  Not as good as Anglo-Polish.  Saw “Le Lac des Cygnes” (Swan Lake) and “Les Sylphides” the former Tchaikovsky, the latter, Chopin.  Also saw a Tod Slaughter film – “Murder in the Red Barn” – one of the old dramatics… 

            Was going to see “Joan of Paris”* yesterday, but after one look decided against it, even after your advice on same.  I knew America would ruin Michèle in the same way it ruined Boyer and will probably ruin Babin**.  Shakespeare said, ‘a good wine needs no bush’***, but America would have us believe the contrary.  It’s not necessary to shout the qualities of an actor from the roof-tops, to impress people of his ability.  The best French films were always the most unoffensive and unsung. 

            What about this engagement, Darling?  Kindly express your sentiments
per return…  We’ll have to see what can be done (If anything, can be done).  I suppose it’s about time we did something about it, before tongues start wagging, etc. 

            I was going home this week-end, and rather wish I had now.  But I suppose I
should get my leave soon, hope so anyhow.  Well, I’d better close here, Precious.

            Don’t forget about the jolly old engagement will you.  (I haven’t said anything about it yet …)

                                                                                    Son amoureux mari****

                                                                                                Dicker

PS       Love & kisses xxxx etc

PPS     Ich liebe dich, meine geliebte*****.

 

*A 1942 film about a waitress helping RAF pilots stranded in Paris to escape. It starred the French actress Michèle Morgan.

**Charles Boyer, a famous French actor

***A 15^th century proverb quoted by Rosalind in Shakespeare’s play ‘As You Like It’ – “If it be true that ‘good wine needs no bush’, tis true that a good play needs no epilogue” (Act 5 Scene 4).  Taverns claiming to sell fine liquor bore the sign of an ivy bush above their door.

***** ‘Son amoureux mari’ (French) = 'Your loving husband’

***** ‘Ich liebe dich, meine geliebte’ (German) = ‘I love you, my sweetheart’

© Chotie Darling

30th August 1942 – Germany’s annexation of Luxembourg is resisted with a General Strike. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

31^st August 1942 - Rommel begins his final attempt to break through at El Alamein with an offensive on Alam Halfa ridge (between El Alamein on the Mediterranean Sea and the Quattara Depression to the south). However, the Germans are forced to withdraw back to their start lines. The deciphering of Germany’s secret Enigma code played a critical role in the Allies successful defence – Montgomery was now aware of Rommel’s plans through the Ultra decrypts.  (From WW2-net Timelines and ‘Phantom at War’ by Andy and Sue Parlour.)

The French Traitors - Friday 21st August 1942

19th August 1942 – the Combined Operations raid (see the Missing Winter) on Dieppe in northern France, which ended in disaster. This joint British and Canadian commando raid (originally code-named ‘Rutter’, but now known as ‘Jubilee’), , was intended to practice techniques for an eventual invasion of Northern Europe by the Allies. The coast was heavily defended by German guns and the invasion force lost the element of surprise by encountering an escorted German convoy in the Channel. After less than 6 hours the forces landed on the beaches around Dieppe were forced to withdraw. Of the 5,000 Canadians, 1,000 British, 50 American Rangers and 50 Free French taking part in ‘Operation Jubilee’ more than 1,380 were killed, 1,600 wounded and 2,340 captured. The RAF had given support but lost 107 planes to the German’s 48. One Royal Naval destroyer and 33 landing craft were sunk.

Dieppe convinced the Allied commanders that a successful cross-Channel invasion would need a massive force, which could not be assembled before 1944. The decision not to use airborne troops had also contributed to the raid’s failure. (From Combined Operations WW2 website, WW2-net Timelines  and ‘Phantom at War – the British Army’s Secret Intelligence & Communication Regiment of WW2’ by Andy & Sue Parlour, Cerberus 2003.)

  

21st August 1942 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the USA says that the perpetrators of barbarism in occupied countries ‘that the time will come when they shall have to stand in courts of law in the very countries which they are now oppressing and answer for their acts.'  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

German troops scale Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in the Caucasus, and plant the Reich's flag on the summit but the overstretched forces never reached the valuable Caucasian oilfields.

 

5731671 Tpr Williams R

Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

Preston Barracks, Brighton, Sussex

 

Friday Eve.

Chotie Darling,

                                                            It’s pay-night, as you will see from above, but as it’s raining like hell I thought I’d stay in and write to my Chubby Lulubelle. Good boy, ain’t I?  Sometimes I wonder …

            Well, Precious – many thanks for your last letter and account of your adventures.  I am enclosing the polyfotos in this – have had to break them up I’m afraid, as I haven’t yet procured a large enough envelope.  I will give you the number I like best in PS., as I can’t make up my mind (?) which one I like the most, at the moment – they’re all so good.

            Hope you manage to see Michelle Morgan, she’s really very good in French films – I can’t guarantee American or English directors.  I’ve only seen her once – with Boyer, in French, with French direction of course and I was very struck then.  I believe I told you I saw Vivianne Romance, (almost as good) last week.

            Did you see the appalling list of French people who have been marked as definite traitors?  The list includes Georges Carpentier (France’s greatest boxer), Maurice Chevalier, Sacha Guitry (her greatest playwright), Corinne Luchaire (of “Prison without Bars” fame), Jean Borotra (the tennis star) and last but not least, Danielle Darrieux who needs no introduction.  Horrible isn’t it?

            Sorry you had a row with Horlock – but then you must remember that there are people without souls – who appreciate nothing, and the road of a martyr is by necessity an exacting one.  Persevere Darling … 

            However, I was glad to hear of your “Braemar”** show.  Looking forward to
seeing it soon.  I’ve been around quite a bit since last writing – making the most of it while it lasts.

            Have seen a couple of old flicks – “Suspicion” Cary Grant and Fontaine, and “Here comes Mr Jordan” – Montgomery and Claude Rains.  Not too
bad.  Also saw a play “Bedtime Story” with Mary Maguire – quite good.

            Had a letter from home – Mother says the Odeon at Bognor had a bomb, plumb centre – killed a dozen or so.  Luckily she did the shopping in the morning and the bomb was about 3 in the afternoon.  She’s been asked up to Herne Bay for a wedding – Rita’s (family friend) but sees no chance of going.

            Have you heard of Eric since your last letter?  Maybe he’s moved – but then
I suppose he’d have phoned or something. I really will write him some day, but I’m thinking of his heart when he gets the letter. 

            What did you think of the last raid***?  I saw most of the action in the Channel and was also machine-gunned in the streets – though still alive and kicking.

            Have you thought of a name for my new pipe yet?  He’s getting nicely burnt in, and has acquired a more mature appearance.

            I bought a copy of Darwin’s ‘The Descent of Man’ and have been up to my neck in it for some days.  I always do crosswords in the bus, on my way to “work”.  Quite suburban in fact – though I miss the Homburg and umbrella …

            Well, Darling, I must close here as its getting too dark to write,

                                                                        All my love, you Precious thing,

                                                                                     your adoring Dicker

PS. NUMERUS XXIV

that’s look you (No 24)

* Georges Carpentier - French boxer who was world light-heavyweight champion and a European champion at four weight classes.

Maurice Chevalier - French musical-comedy star

Corinne Luchaire – French film actress and daughter of Jean Luchaire a journalist and politician who supported the Vichy Regime.

Jean Borotra – French champion tennis player in the 20s and 30s.

Danielle Darrieux - French actress and singer, one of France's great movie stars.

** Braemar – a village in Aberdeenshire?

***possibly a reference to action following the Dieppe Raid, which had set sail from ports between Southampton and Newhaven (near Brighton)?

© Chotie Darling

 

 

22^nd August 1942 – Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.

 

23^rd August 1942 – the Battle of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) begins in Russia. One of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare it continued until 2^nd February 1943, claiming nearly 2 million casualties and ending in defeat for the Axis Army.  On 25th August a state of siege was declared in the heavily bombed city. (From WW2-net Timelines and ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012.)

 

25^th August 1942 – beginning of the Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea. This Japanese attack was defeated by largely Australian forces by 7^th September 1942 – the Allies first decisive victory over the Japanese. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

28^th August 1942 – a massive RAF raid on Nuremberg kills 4,000 civilains.  Unlike the Americans the RAF flew at night and Air Chief Marshall 'Bomber Harris' defined their success by the number of urban acres reduced to rubble. (From WW2-net Timelines and ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012.)

28^th August and 9^th September – the Japanese fire bomb the Oregon forests, USA. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

Music, ballet and bathing in Brighton - Tuesday 11th August 1942

Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

Preston Barracks, Brighton, Sussex

 

Tuesday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            Many thanks for letter, with all the news.  I’m trying to write this sitting on the prom (it’s dinner-time), which isn’t the easiest of  jobs. There’s a high wind and marvelous sunshine, ideal sailing weather.

            I managed to get home for Saturday afternoon and Sunday last.  I had a day pass for Sunday but decided to hop-it on Saturday.  Everything appears to be all right in that quarter, though Michael’s a wee bit slimmer.

            I would have had a swim in the Lagoon had I a costume.  There were quite a few swimmin’ there, and I rather wished I could have managed it, but I’ve been in the baths here at dinner time so I’m not entirely ‘swimless’.

            My arm appears to be all right now, though it was pretty bad for over a week.  The trouble is that I’ve had nearly a score of letters to write during the past week.

            I went to the Anglo-polish Ballet twice during their stay here.  Quite good
on the whole.  There is also another company here who style themselves ‘the New Russian Ballet Company’, so I may pop along to see them tonight.  Eileen Joyce* is playing with the Bournemouth Philharmonic (Wessex) here on Sunday, so I won’t miss her!  Though like Brinner I missed Moseivitch** by inches.

            Hope everyone at home is up to scratch, I’m very fit myself (for a change) and enjoying every minute of this course.  I don’t suppose I’ll go back to Dover as I believe they’ve moved. 

            I must close here Darling, to get back on time.

                                                             All my love, Precious

                                                                                    Dicker

P.S.  I should get nine days*** in about five weeks time.  Perhaps a month ---

*Eileen Joyce was a glamorous Australian pianist.

**Benno Moisevitch, a Ukrainian-born pianist, gave hundreds of recitals for servicemen and charities during the war.

***nine days leave

 © Chotie Darling

 

12th August 1942 – Churchill arrived in Moscow for talks with Stalin. They eventually agreed there would be no ‘second front’ across the Channel during 1942, despite Stalin’s urgent demands to deflect German attention from Russia.  (From WW2-net Timelines and  ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012.)

 

13^th August 1942 - Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, the ‘Spartan’ General, took command of the Eighth Army fighting in the desert to defend Cairo and the Suez Canal from the advance of German forces under Rommel.  (See WW2-net Timelines and Wilfred Jarvis Institute for Montgomery's famous 'atmosphere' speech.)

21 years old - Thursday 30th July 1942

Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

Preston Barracks, Brighton, Sussex

 

Thursday

My Own Darling Chotie

                                                                                    Just a few lines, Precious, to thank you, and all your family for a lovely and very welcome present*.   Thank you, Darling, very, very much.

            I would have written before, but I’ve been laid up for some little time with the wretched vaccination.  However, I know you will understand.

            I had a very quiet time on the 28^th.  I thought rather than spend it in the company of strangers, I should prefer to be by myself, so I betook myself to the theatre and saw Jean Forbes-Robertson in the Soviet play “Distant Point” with the London cast, which was really rather good. I managed to sink a couple of pints every interval, so that by the time it finished I was beginning to feel that life was worthwhile again.

            I then hied myself to “the Old Ship”** and finished off the job.  The boys put me to bed when I got in …

            Further to my last letter – I do very well here now, as we are working on theory at a civvy garage every day in Hove, and have our meals in a British Restaurant***. And believe me that’s a cut above the Army.  I’ll send you one or two photographs of the old place. 

                    Well, Darling, I can’t write any more as my arm is giving me hell. 

            Please thank all your family very much.  I now have one exquisite smoke every night before going to bed.  Any tobacco will do in the daytime but I can appreciate a little ‘Sobranie’**** in the ‘cool of the evening’.

            I’ll write again as soon as my arm gets better – in a couple of days I expect.

                                                                                    all my love, Darling

                                                                                                            Dicker

                                                                                                            xxxx

                                                                                                            B.O.L.T.O.P.****(?)

                                                                      That shook you! Rather puerile don’t you think? 

 

* Dick’s 21st birthday was on Tuesday 28^th July 1942.

** an historic hotel on the seafront in Brighton

*** British Restaurants were set up by Local Authorities with loans from the Wartime Meals Division. They were open to all, but mainly served office and industrial workers. A three course meal cost only 9d.

**** an expensive cigarette

***** “Better on Lips than on Paper”

 © Chotie Darling

 

31^st July 1942 – heavy raid by 630 RAF bombers on Düsseldorf, a city in Germany’s Lower Rhineland.

Flat Beer - Sunday 28th and Monday 29th June 1942

1^st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps, Home Forces 

Sunday

My Darling,

                                                                        Thanks for letter with all the news.

             I've started writing this letter without much hope of finishing it this evening. 
However, the fact that I've started it is certainly a move in the right direction.  It is such a devil of a job to find anything to write about in this God-forsaken dump.

            I went out this evening but came back after half an hour or so - there being nothing whatsoever to do.  The Garrison Theatre, although a very good show only has the one programme for the week, and once you've seen it, it's no use going again the same week.  There's a play on next week, - “While Parents Sleep”, which I've seen, - but I shall go again, as of course it will be a different cast, etc.

            I've been sick for the last week with a sore throat which developed into bronchitis or so the M.O. said.  Personally I didn't agree, but also didn't argue as it gave me a cushy time for a few brief days - no P.T. etc, of course.

            I managed to go into the nearest town (?)* on my day off, yesterday.  It boasts some very excellent pubs – the “George” Hotel and the “Bell” being very
famous in Georgian days.  The beer however tasted very flat - perhaps because you were not there with me.

            I had no one to talk to about Herne Bay and the various professions which help to make the social system what it is.  Just imagine what you'll have to put up with when we are married... but perhaps you'll see H.B. for yourself and perhaps I'll have a profession...

            I haven't yet heard from home and am getting a little worried on that score. 
I hope Mother’s all right - but maybe I'll get a letter tomorrow.  There seem to be so many worries that separation brings so cruelly in its wake.

            Does this letter seem very morbid, Darling?  I don't want you to think that
I'm too browned-off**.  After 2 years in this Army I think I can stand anything. 

             I'm going on a three days scheme on Wednesday, so I won't be able to write of course - so don't be over anxious if you don't get a letter for some days.

            It's nearly lights out, Chotie Darling so I'll say Goodnight my Precious, and write some more tomorrow.
 

            Well, Lulu, it's now Monday Lunch-time so I'm writing a bit more. 

            It's terrifically hot today - and we have to wear respirators on Monday morning. 
Was I exhausted!  I'm now trying to get an hour's relaxation before going on Parade this afternoon.

            I may go to the Old Garrison to-night and see this wretched play - that's if I can get out in time. That's one of the troubles here; even if there was anything to go out for, we rarely get out before Seven pm or so - which is rather late.

             Well, Darling, by the time you get this letter, I’ll be on this stunt so I hope to write again next Saturday or perhaps Sunday - and I'll say bye, bye for the present, and remember, Darling, I still love you, very very much.

                                                All my love, Chotie Darling

                                                                                 Dicker

*Amesbury

**Dick must have been disappointed to be transferred out of Air Landing after only a couple of months.  After training in Tunisia from April 1943 1^st Air Landing Squadron went on to be involved in the invasion of Italy near Bari in September and Operation Market Garden in September 1944, when the elite 1st Airborne were sent in to defend "a bridge too far" at Arnhem with disastrous results.  (Dick was to be among the ground forces racing towards Arnhem.)

© Chotie Darling

 

29th June 1942 – 1^st Air Landing Squadron training on Streatley Mortar Range, Berkshire. (From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)

 

30^th June 1942 – as the Germans advance into Egypt the Allies’ Mediterranean Fleet evacuates Alexandria and prepares to demolish the port. The Allied Eighth Army hold the line at EL Alamein, 150 miles west of Cairo. There is fierce fighting along the El Alamein front throughout July. (From WW2-net Timelines)

 

End of June 1942 – Battle of the Atlantic. In the first six months of 1942 the Allies had lost 989 ships, a total tonnage of 3,950,000 tons.  173 ships were sunk in June alone.  The British code breakers at Bletchley Park were still struggling to decipher the Enigma upgrade introduced in February, which they called “Shark” and in March 1942 the Germans had cracked the British Admiralty code Naval Cipher 3,which was not changed until 10^th June 1943.

 

Transfers - Friday 26th June 1942

1^st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps, Home Forces 

Friday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                                    Many thanks for your letter, received a couple of days ago.  I was pleased to read about your meeting Norman - quite the little man now, isn't he? You didn't say what he is doing here, ie. is he on leave, stationed in England or what?  Don't forget to let me know.  After all - I should like to see him again.  Is he very “different”?  It's hard to think of Norman as a hardened boozer - but believe me, Honey, the Services will drive you to “anythink” - in next to no time.

            Well, so much for Norman. For my part at the moment, - I'm on the sick list - sore throat.  I've had it ever since I came back from leave, and it's got worse every day. 
I've now got to the stage when I have to gargle three times per diem*!  However I hope to get rid of it in a few days.

    It's my day off tomorrow, but being sick, of course, I can't get a pass - although of course it won't have been any use to me, as you would have been working Sat morning.  I understand that in future there will be no more of these day passes - though I don't yet know what the new system will be.

    There are transfers right and left at the moment, so I may get mine soon**, which will be a relief to mother, I'm thinking.

    Have you thought of a name for our horseshoe yet?  I'm relying on you, Darling.. Think hard, LuluBelle ...

    I suppose Brinner's home now.  I haven't heard from home since I got back, so I hope everything’s all right.

    I went out last night to the first time in days and saw a very good show at the Garrison Theatre.  I never go out here, as there is nothing to go out for, and it's quite a long way to the theatre.

                                    Well, Darling, I must close here, as there's little news.

     Please write soon, Precious - your letters mean a hell of a lot out here in the wilds.

                         Bye, bye, Darling - and remember I love you very, very much.

                                                        God bless you, Chotie,

                                                                                    Dicker

*per day.

**According to family memories Dick was transferred out of the Airborne because they found ‘sugar in his blood’ but he wasn’t diabetic.  Although temporary hyperglycemia is often benign and asymptomatic the Airborne medical was very rigorous and any possible problems to the eyesight (damage to the retina is one of the possible symptoms) meant you were out.

© Chotie Darling

 

27th June 1942 – 1^st Air Landing Squadron saw the film ‘Next of Kin’ (a WW2 propaganda film used to promote the government message that “Careless talk costs lives”). (From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)

 

27^th June 1942 – PQ-17, an Allied convoy of 40 ships, set sail from Iceland to supply Russia. By 15^th July it had lost 24 ships and a cargo including 210 aircraft, 430 tanks and 3,350 lorries in attacks by the Luftwaffe and U-boats. The Germans lost only 5 planes and no U-boats in the attacks.  (From WW2-net Timelines )

28th June 1942 – in the opening moves of Operation Blau, Germany’s offensive towards Stalingrad, Voronezh (500 km south of Moscow) is attacked but successfully and ferociously defended by the Soviets.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

 

The Intelligence crew - Saturday 12th July

Chotie Darling

Dedicated to the memory of my mother

and all those who hold the forever young of war in their hearts.

Part 1         The Blue Cockade 

 

Chapter 4          Intelligence

Dick was in Intelligence from early July 1941,

probably until 20^th April 1942 when he officially transferred from the 70^th Dorsets to Reconnaissance.

The secrecy surrounding certain Intelligence units

meant that participants often remained officially assigned

to their original regiments.

From July to September 1941

he was Trooper Williams Intelligence Section, HQ Company while he trained at Fort Brockhurst, Gosport, Hampshire.

 

July 1941 – coal also now rationed.  

July 1941 – formation of the British Special Air Service – a small scale fighting force suited to raiding and reconnaissance, intelligence gathering and close quarter combat deep behind enemy lines. They were the first to use the motto “Who Dares Wins” and were parachute trained to reach the enemy by air.  

1st July 1941 – Germany and Italy recognise the Japanese government of China.

3rd July 1941 - Soviet Premier Josef Stalin exhorted the Russian people to defend their soil by adopting a "scorched earth" policy, destroying anything that might be useful to the German advance.

Dick’s ‘Seven Days’ leave

appears to have been taken at the beginning of July,

at about the time he joined the Intelligence section.

The Sandbanks peninsula, Poole, had been a restricted military area since July 1940 but in the summer of 1941 sea bathing was once more permitted for residents of Poole on a small strip of the Sandbanks beach.  This was courtesy of the Russian resistance to Hitler’s forces deterring Germany from any invasion of Britain.  Before the war Chotie’s family had a cherished beach hut at Shore Road, Sandbanks, but all the huts were removed to clear the line of fire against invading forces in 1940.

“Happy days were spent in the summer going to the beach.  We had a hut on the sands at Shore Road, Sandbanks and I cannot remember when I could not swim.  We pumped up car tyres, which were great fun to dive through and play with - these were the days before lilos and plastic beach toys.  In the evening we would collect all the rubbish left by picnickers and have a bonfire.  Salty, sandy and dishevelled, glowing from the day in the sun and weary from all the playing of games and swimming, we were piled into the back of the milk delivery van to wend our way home.”   From ‘Grandma’s Story’ written by Chotie for her grandchildren.

 

 

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

PS.  Je t’aime encore de tout mon coeur.

 

© Chotie Darling

 

12th July 1941 – surrender of Vichy French Syria and the Lebanon to the Allies.

13th July 1941 – Anglo-Soviet Pact. Britain and the USSR pledged to assist one another against Hitler.

Private Williams

Copy of Record

Statement of Service             Army No. 5731671             Richard Kelner WILLIAMS

THE DORSETSHIRE REGIMENT

Order 113/41     70^th Y.S. Bn    Reverts at own request           Rank Pte     7-6-41

 

CERTIFICATE

CERTIFIED that I wish to revert to the rank of Private at my own

request and not in order to escape trial by Court Martial.

 

Gosport.                    RKWilliams Corporal

                              70^th (YS) Bn. The Dorset Regiment

 

                    COUNTERSIGNED

                                        MR.Steel          Lieutenant-Colonel,

Gosport          Comdg. 70^th (YS) Bn. The Dorsetshire Regiment.

 

8^th June 1941 - Allied forces invaded Syria and the Lebanon.

 

 

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

 

Dick was in the Mechanical Transport Section of HQ Company

(still in the 70^th Dorsets) for the rest of June 1941

 

14th June 1941 – America freezes the assets of German, Italy and Axis occupied countries.

18th June 1941 - Turkey signs a 10 year non-aggression pact with Germany. Free French forces occupy Damascus, the capital of Syria.

Raid on Chippenham - 20th November 1940

Chippenham, Wilts

Wednesday

My Darlingest,

                                                Many thanks for the letter which I have just received.  I'm replying instantly as I have one stamp between me and starvation.  I drew 30/- this week, but as I was endeavouring to influence the C.S.M. and as we met Pete, it all went by Saturday evening.  The more I draw the less far it seems to go.

     Well, Honey, you don't mention anything re FWC*.  I see that your letter was written from work.  I hope everything turns out all right, as you certainly deserve it.

     You seem to be having a pretty hot time now.  I wish I could say the same for myself.  Things are very dull here.  On occasion we go out and drown our sorrows but that's all it amounts to.  We very seldom seem to get very merry.

     I hope you won't go and fall for a Guardsman.  They are a trifle smarter than the Dorsets you know.  Have a good time by all means, but don't forget your little Dicker whatever you do, as I'm afraid you're vital to me now.

     Pete and Co are on an NCOs’ Cadre at the moment.  That's a course of sorts.  I did my best and got out of it as I much prefer to go away on a pukka course.  Local courses sound alright but amount to very little.  This particular one is being taken by an old Sergeant, who fondly imagines this is 1914.  He's very smart but lives in the past as so many old soldiers do (Pa for example).

     At any rate nothing can be done, until I get back to duty.  Then the sparks will fly, and I don't mean maybe.

     There's going to be a pretty good change in about a fortnight's time.  Everyone is going to be switched around in platoons and companies.  I'd like a change from ‘K’ as I'm pretty fed up with it.  We've got a new CEO now who is rather a ----.  He stripped a Cpl in ‘D’ for coming in an hour late after he'd been to a dance.  I'm glad I'm not still in ‘D’ as I'd have been finished by now.

    Commissions are still on the horizon, but are approaching gradually. Nil desperandum.

     I'm writing this in an old theatre, in the wings.  We use it for P.T. this weather.

     Went to see ‘ Convoy’ last night as I’d missed it before.  Then we had a raid here.  I should think that half the Jerry Air Force were up.  Plenty of bombs came down, but not too near.

     Well, I must close now and do some work.  The CSMI is on a course, which leaves me in charge of PT for 300 men!

         So long, Honey

                    your devoted

                                        Dicker

P.S. Remember what I said about that Guardsman ....

 

* Chotie’s place of work, which was closing down.

© Chotie Darling, 2010

 

20^th November 1940 – Hungary joins the Tripartite Pact with Germany, Italy and Japan.

22nd November 1940 - Italian 9th Army defeated by Greeks.

23^rd November 1940 – Romania agrees to join the Tripartite Pact with Germany, Italy and Japan.

24^th November 1940 – Slovakia joins the Tripartite Pact with Germany, Italy and Japan.

A show of some sort at Bemerton - 2nd and 3rd September 1940

 

 

“K” Company

6^th Bath Dorsets

Bemerton

Wilts

My darling Cho-cho,

 

                                                I’m writing this at my first opportunity, ie Monday evening, in fulfilment of my promise.I travelled back with one of “G” Coy’s Sergeants, whom I met when boarding the bus.

 

I’ve just had an enormous meal of tea & supper combined.I had two pints of tea and one of soup. I’m not feeling so good now. The trouble was, I remarked a bottle of Worcester sauce on the table and half emptied it into my soup.  It tasted marvellous at the time, but I’m just beginning to feel the effects.

 

            I’ve spent most of today with the C.S.M.I. He’s drawing 8/6 a day as against my 2/- and I’ve been spending half my time teaching him!What an Army!

 

I’ve got to go to a show of some sort at Bemerton at 7pm.I believe it’s one of these horrible affairs for the troops.I’m expected to help maintain order as there are few N.C.O.s in camp tonight.I can already visualise a shrill soprano murdering ‘Down in the Forest’ etc!

 

            I’m afraid I must close rather abruptly for the moment, darling, as there’s a sergeant shaking me up.

 

 

            It’s now about 7 o’clock Tuesday morning. I’ve just had a shave and breakfast and feel considerably better than I did an hour ago.I went to that show last night.Pretty chronic. I walked out after twenty minutes or so.

 

I must close now, darling, as kit inspection comes off in a few minutes

 

                                    all my love

 

                                                    Dicker

 

© Chotie Darling, 2010