Chotie Darling

Operation Neptune

5^th June 1944 – Operation Neptune, the largest ever seaborne invasion is underway.

Map from Captain S.W Roskill's The War at Sea

 

The Allied Naval Expeditionary Force under Admiral Ramsey consists of a Western Task Force (the Americans heading for ‘Utah’ and ‘Omaha’ beaches with their respective naval bombardment groups) and an Eastern Task Force (‘21 Army Group’, made up of the 2^nd British Army and the 1^st Canadian Army).

‘Utah’ beach was at the western end of the task force, on the south-west coast of the Cherbourg Peninsula, so troops embarked at Plymouth and smaller ports in south Devon. ‘Omaha’ troops left from the Dorset ports of Weymouth, Portland and Poole for the French coast north-west of Bayeux.

Dick’s 50^th (Northumbrian) Division were to represent XXX (30) Corps on ‘Gold’ beach, in the centre of the invasion front, north-east of Bayeux.  They sailed from Southampton.

The 1^st Canadian Army boarded ships in Southampton and Portsmouth, which assembled near the Isle of Wight before heading for ‘Juno’ beach on the coast north of Caen. British I Corps, represented by 3rd Division, departed from Portsmouth, Newhaven and Shoreham bound for ‘Sword’, the easternmost beach, near Ouistreham.

 

Don Aiken’s ship had a mishap crossing the Channel:

 “We threaded our way past the Needles rocks, which skirt the western side of the Isle of Wight and headed out into the English Channel.

The LST which we had been assigned had, we were told, been on several previous landings at various stages of its history; and as a consequence the bottom of the ship was deemed to be too thin to attempt another crash landing. The plan was to drop anchor about half a mile from the shore and then transfer the vehicles onto flat decked ferry type rafts, called Rhinos, which would deliver us into the shallow waters.

Two of these Rhinos were being taken over with us, one being towed astern and the other being lashed alongside. The one being towed was manned by two Army Engineers. The one alongside seemed to be intent on crashing its way through the side of the ship as we rolled about in the choppy seas.

Halfway across the channel we were astonished to see the towed Rhino suddenly become untowed! The line with which it had been attached had somehow parted, and away it went. Our ship never slackened its pace and we watched as the Rhino disappeared into the distance. I don't know what its fate was - or whether its crew were pleased or sorry.”

(Republished from the BBC People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

Sandy Handley was at last fast asleep:

“After the 2^nd day on the LST, which was the 4^th June, we were told that there was a 24 hour delay - D Day was now postponed (the weather I think) from the 5^th June to the 6^th.  However, the evening of the 5^th we moved out of the Solent past the Needles* off the Isle of Wight and I wondered if I would ever see them again! 

We had been on the LST since midnight 1^st/2^nd June and it was now evening of the 5^th.  I for one hadn’t slept any length of time - as I said, just our two burial blankets laid out on the steel deck, with all our equipment on; boots, helmet and all.  I looked out to sea and either side, port and starboard, ships and more ships in front of us, and at the stern of us more ships - a sight never to be forgotten (by me anyway).  Of course, all the time wondering what it’s going to be like when we get there! 

I found a little space under a companion way (stairs) and laid out my burial blankets, laid my head in my helmet and dropped off to sleep exhausted.  This was the fifth night on board, most of us were too worried to sleep."

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

 

Eric Brewer finally set sail:

5^th June 1944:    Still in Southampton docks on board ship. Left port 6.40 for France.  (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Eric Postles watched the Airborne invasion:

5 June 1944:   "Once in the Channel the sea was rather rough and progress seemed slow.  We got limited sleep but I was not seasick.  During the night we could see the planes carrying the Airborne Troops who were the first to land."  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

The weather forecast

Eric Postles remembers 4^th June 1944:

“We were given our final briefing and told our destination was Normandy and that we would be landing about 4 hours after H hour (the time of the invasion).  Our beach code name for 50 Division was Gold and we would land between Le Hamel and La Rivière in JIG* sector following 69 and 151 Brigade**.  Later we would be part of a 7^th Armoured Division and 50 Div push with Villers Bocage as our objective.  We were given maps of the area which showed the German defences, pill-boxes, mined areas and barbed wire.  Everyone was issued with French francs, which were charged to our account.  They proved useful for the card schoolers. 

We cleaned our weapons, read old Readers Digests and slept.  We carried no identity papers.  We moved out of the Solent with ships of various kinds all around us, most of which had a barrage balloon to protect from air attack.  However we were told not to proceed as the weather was deteriorating but next day it was decided that the invasion was on.”  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

*Gold Beach was the landing area between Port-en-Bessin to the west and La Rivière in the east, divided into sectors ‘How’, ‘Item’, ‘Jig’ and ‘King’.  High well defended cliffs at the western end restricted most of the landing to the flat beach between Le Hamel (next to ‘Jig’) and La Rivière (nearest to ‘King’). 

The plan was for the initial assault on ‘Jig’ to be led by 231 Brigade (the 1st Hampshires on the right and the 1st Dorsets on the left - the Dorsets were Dick’s original regiment - followed by the 2^nd Devons).  On ‘King’ the first wave were 69^th Brigade with the East Yorkshires on the left and Green Howards on the right with 151 Brigade (Durham Light Infantry) following up as the second wave.  47 Commando was to land on ‘Item’ and capture Port-en-Bessin, to the west of Gold beach.

"The time is at hand to strike − to break the Western Wall and into the Continent of Europe. To you, officers and men of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, has been given the great honour of being in the vanguard of this mighty blow for freedom" — Maj-Gen Douglas Graham, Commander of 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division

 

With the weather rapidly deteriorating the Allies could not proceed with the planned invasion of France on June 5^th.  However, an improvement in the weather was forecast for 6^th June and Eisenhower took the decision that this would be D-Day.  The Allies had impeded German weather forecasting by seizing their stations in the north Atlantic and the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) concluded from their meteorological reports that there was no question of an invasion between 5th and 7th June because of bad weather.  They even cancelled their patrols in the Channel on the night of 5th June!  (See 'The Weather on D-Day' from ‘Air: The Restless Shaper of the World’ by William Bryant Logan, W. W. Norton & Company.)

On the night of 4^th June the RAF carried out heavy raids against German coastal batteries and fortifications in Normandy. They were also bombing a wide range of other targets, to maintain the deception of a potential landing at Calais and cut communication routes to Normandy. Fighter planes swept the skies to prevent the Luftwaffe from flying over the invasion force. (Only two German planes got through, flying over the invasion beaches on D-Day). (See Operation Overlord.) 

French towns were also deliberately bombed to block transport junctions, preventing the movement of German forces towards the Allies’ bridgehead.  Some 15,00 French civilians were killed and 19,000 others seriously injured in the lead-up to D-Day. 

Although Rommel's Army Group B, defending 'the Western Wall' of the Channel Coast, were expecting an invasion they did not know where or when so their forces were dispersed.  Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt was Commander-in-Chief in western Europe with 41 Divisions in northern France: the Seventh Army guarding Brittany and Normandy and 15^th Army in the east (the Pas de Calais) with Panzer Group west.  Unknown to the Allies 21^st Panzer, south of Caen, was within reach of the Normandy beaches. 

On 5^th June most of 7^th Army’s Senior Officers went to Rennes for a war games exercise and Rommel, having received the weather forecast, had gone to Germany to celebrate his wife’s birthday.

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

Rome

4^th June 1944 – the US Fifth Army enter Rome following withdrawal from the city by German forces. In August 1943 the Italians had declared Rome as an ‘open city’ to protect its historic heritage. This meant that to avoid further bombardment and attack they would not defend it. The Vatican facilitated negotiations, persuading the occupying Germans, facing probable defeat here, to leave the capital without a fight. They were successfully able to withdraw their troops, the Allies having missed the opportunity to encircle and trap the retreating German forces in favour of taking Rome.

Ici Londres!

1^st June 1944 – hundreds of ‘personal messages’, conveying coded instructions, are sent by Radio Londres, the BBC radio broadcast from London to Nazi occupied France.  These transmissions, operated by the Free French Forces always began with “Ici Londres! Les Français parlent aux Français.*” This time Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony was also played, the first four notes corresponding to dot-dot-dot-dash – a morse ‘V’ for Victory.  The French Resistance now knew the invasion would be very soon. On 5^th June a recitation from the first verse of  Verlaine’s poem ‘Chanson d’Automne’ let them know it would be in the next 48 hours:  “Les sanglots longs des violons de l’automne blessent mon coeur d’une langeur monotone****” was the call to action. (See Ici Londres.)

*"Here's London! The French speaking to the French."

**’The long sobs of Autumn’s violins wound my heart with a monotonous languour'

 

1st June 1944 - Japanese forces in China begin their advance south from Wuchang in Hupeh to Changsa in Hunan, to attack the US air bases at Kweilin.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

White Bread and Burial Blankets

Neither Dick nor half his troop (including Bren gunner Tony Rampling) were to go over with the first wave on ‘D Day’.

As Don Aiken explains :

“The assault units of the invasion Army were in fact only at half their normal strength - the troops that were to land on 'D' Day were now being loaded, and the 'build-up' of the remainder would take place as soon as possible after the invasion. It was anticipated to be completed about 6 days afterwards. - In fact it took about 16 days because of the inclement weather that followed 'D' Day.” 

“Eventually we arrived in Southampton and I was surprised to see how many of the local people seemed to realise that this was for real, evidenced by the unusually warm waves we were given. The embarkation organisation was wonderfully efficient, and it didn't take very long for us to be installed on a U.S.A. Landing Ship Tank (LST).”

“The entire docking facility as far as the eye could see was jam-packed with shipping of all shapes and sizes, and as most of them sported their own anti-aircraft barrage balloon. I foolishly felt a kind of festive air about it all.”  (Extract  republished from the BBC People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

Operation Neptune was underway.

"Over the last few days of May and the first of June, vast columns of men and vehicles began to stream south into the assembly areas - the 'sausages', as they were known, because of their shapes on the map - where the invaders were briefed and equipped before being loaded onto the fleet."  (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

 

Sandy Handley takes up the story of 61^st Recce’s role in ‘the longest day’:

 “Now it was 1^st June 1944 and we were all detailed to get on our Armoured cars, Bren Gun Carriers, etc. We were on our way to Southampton, about five miles away but so slowly, so many Army vehicles edging down to the docks. Military police (red caps) were waving us on -I thought ‘Better you than me mate’. 

After a long while we arrived at the landing craft (LST*) a ship with an American crew and were loaded in a position with other vehicles. I made my way on deck to view the scene in the dock area.  We were issued with Mae West** life jackets - just in case I thought!!  We were told ‘put em on and keep em on’.  These life jackets were a simple affair, a tube more or less, which in case of emergency we had to blow up (that’s if you were still capable of blowing it up). 

After loading we moved slowly out to the Solent - what a sight! We saw so many ships (ships to the left of them, ships to the right of them); I’ve never seen so many.  One thing I thought - we weren’t the only boat doing the invasion. 

Sometime later, a chap came round and we were issued with two blankets to sit on or lay on. Of course there were no bunks - may have been for the officers but not for us.  These blankets were in fact burial bags.  ‘That’s a good start we haven’t got there yet.’ 

While we were finding our way around the LST craft we were handed a foolscap size notice to all troops from General Montgomery*** it read ‘You are about to liberate the Continent of Europe’ etc. and at the end it said ‘Good Hunting’ or something like that! 

We found where the lavatories were or heads as they were called by the matlows (sailors).  I made my way down to the loos and was advised by a Yankee sailor who said ‘You must use the portside heads, it’s only crew use the starboard side heads’.  I thought at the time ‘Who cares?  Port or starboard!’  However, as I’d spent three years with Trinity House pilot cutters before the war I knew my port from my starboard. 

The amazing thing on that LST was how they served up our meals - we just filed past the galley and held our mess tins out. We certainly didn’t go without food anyway, and a big surprise White Bread!  Something we hadn’t seen since 1939.” (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’)

* LST = Landing Ship, Tank

**Mae West was an American actress known for her bawdy double entendres and her curvaceous figure. ‘Mae West’ was rhyming slang for breasts and the inflatable life vests that resembled them. 

***See Montgomery's message to the troops. Eisenhower also sent a message:

 

Eric Postles remembers:

“We drove to Southampton Docks with security guards at various points along the route.  We embarked on an American crewed tank landing ship (LST). My carrier would be the first vehicle off at the disembarkation so it was the last to go on the ship. 

We moved into the Solent towing a Rhino (a self-propelled flat girder structure) used for taking vehicles ship to shore.  An LST is very basic and because of its flat bottom had an uncomfortable motion when moving. 

We slept where we could and I chose to be on deck in blankets that made sleeping bags and used a blow up lifebelt for a pillow.  The food was good (including white bread – which was a war-time luxury) for those who felt like eating but many were seasick.  We found the ship’s emergency ration stock and although some of it was not to our taste we took it to supplement our rations.  For the next two days we stayed in the Solent.”  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Eric Brewer had already experienced the luxury of white bread.  His Assault troop also seems to have been spared two of the nights aboard ship since he did not board until the 4^th of June:

2^nd June 1944: If people only knew the date of the 2^nd front

3^rd June 1944:  Had briefing and have been told all about Second front

4^th June 1944:  Boarded ship at Southampton still in dock. Had final briefing today.

(From Eric Brewer’s diary, courtesy of Derek Brewer and family)

 

 

This is it!

Eric Postles on 31^st May 1944:

“We were told we would be embarking next day and for the first time we had steak for the night meal.  That night my gunner, despite our dissuasion and the American Guards with orders to shoot anyone leaving camp, left us in the hope of reaching his home in Slough and hiding for the rest of the war.  We never heard from him again.  By then it was too late to replace him so my carrier went with 3 men.”  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

*The armoured cars were meant to have four, not three men for Operation Overlord

 

Don Aiken remembers:

31^st May 1944 – After a few weeks of the total monotony of being incarcerated in the frugal surroundings of a tented camp, which had only briefly been relieved by separate 'pep-talk' visits by the King and Field Marshal Montgomery*, and by the occasional false alarm; it was good news to be told that "This is it!" (Republished from the BBC People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 *Monty devoted himself to visiting the troops would take part in the invasion and had a positive effect on morale (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

 

Every British serviceman involved in the invasion was given a pamphlet called “Soldiers’ Guide to France” with useful information and guidance on behaviour: “Remember that continental France has been directly occupied.  In consequence it has been stripped of everything by the Germans.... In the first months you will almost certainly find in France such shortage that it will be up to you not to try to buy anything, much less scrounge.”  (From ‘Instructions for British Servicemen in France 1944’ reproduced for the original by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford 2005.)

 

Eric Brewer, also of 'B' Squadron, wrote in his diary on 1st June 1944: “Gerry would like to know what we know”.  (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Ron Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

Romantic Meeting

On Friday 19^th May Dick and Chotie met again.

Chotie was A.W.O.L.* for the first time. 

They stayed for one night in the Haunch of Venison**, Salisbury, Wiltshire. They would not meet again until 1945.

“Come D day, the invasion to France was about to take place.  He phoned me to break Camp and meet him in Salisbury.  We stayed in an inn – separate rooms but he wanted us to be together before he went to France.  It was very romantic, our young hearts breaking.” From ‘Chotie’s Story’ (unpublished autobiography).

*Absent without Leave

**Curiously the ‘Horsebox’ bar of the Haunch of Venison was reputedly used by Churchill and Eisenhower when they were planning D Day.  On 20th May Churchill was with Montgomery inspecting the Portsmouth marshalling yards and supply areas for D Day.  He stayed for dinner at Monty's HQ - Broomfield House between Southwick and Purbrook. 

Waterproofing and Wild Driving

Eric Brewer on the left with Corporal Polwin (photo and diary entries courtesy of Derek Brewer and family who have copyright).

17^th May 1944 – the diary of Eric Brewer, of ‘B’ Squadron’s Assault Troop begins with the entry:

“Water proofing armoured car.”

This crucial activity, preparing the vehicle for landing on the Normandy beaches, continued for a few days according to the diary. 

 

Sandy Handley gives a little more information:

“Soon the vehicles were to be waterproofed. A Dunlop compound* was pressed into the joints of the engine and an extension fixed on the exhaust for the sea water landing.  The vehicles were chocked up and wheels off for this water proofing.

I asked Don Polden, the corporal of our car (which hadn’t been waterproofed yet) if I could have a go at the driving a little.  I got in the driver’s seat quite low down and was peering through the visor (slit).  I started the engine into gear, pressed the accelerator and drove around like a madman.  The ground was quite uneven and my vehicle clouted one of the cars being waterproofed, one that was chocked up and no wheels. My vehicle knocked it off the jacks – was my face red!  I thought I’m in for a right telling off, but all I got was the troop officer, Lt R K Williams, telling me not to worry about that.  I was relieved but still anxious about my driving** – I was hopeless.”  (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’)

*the British devised vehicle waterproofing compound was made from grease, lime and asbestos fibres (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

**all the crew in an armoured car were meant to be able to cover each other's roles in case someone was injured or lost.

Lt. Joseph Meredith's MBE was partially earned by his role as Technical Adjutant for HQ Squadron, preparing the vehicles for D Day.

 

17th May - Merrill's Marauders in northern Burma capture Myitkina airfield and are joined by Chinese forces but the Japanese ward off attacks against the town and strategically important river port until 3rd August.

18^th May 1944 – the success of the Admiralty Islands campaign (Operation Brewer), north east of New Guinea, completes the isolation of the strategic Japanese base at Rabaul - as planned in Operation Cartwheel, a major Allied offensive in the South West Pacific Area.

The Plan for Operation Overlord

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Chotie defends Bristol again

On14^th May 1944 Bristol suffered its last bombing raid of the war.  91 bombers attacked the harbour and airfields, using a 20 mile wide lane of Düppel (aluminium strips) between Portland and Bristol and a radar jamming system known as 'Kettenhund' (Watchdog).  They dropped more than 163 tonnes of high explosive in the target area but only five bombs fell within the city boundary and fifteen Luftwaffe planes were lost. 

Plans to launch V2 rocket bombs at Bristol from the Cherbourg peninsula were overturned by the landings and advance of the Allies in France.

(See The Baby Blitz, Bombing in the Bristol area and Bristol during World War 2.)

 

 

Catching fish - Tuesday 9th or Wednesday 10th May 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO

England

Wednesday 9^th (sic) May

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for your letter, which I didn’t receive until yesterday as the mail is pretty slow getting here.  It did get here however, and that’s the main thing.

            The Adjutant kindly condescended to give me the afternoon and evening off on Sunday last so I rushed out of camp helter-skelter and promptly hitch-hiked home.  It was a lovely day – very cold in the morning but coming out beautifully sunny later in the day.  On the whole I was very lucky and managed to make it in a few hours.  They were very surprised to see me, likewise Michael, who, naughty dog, had eaten a rabbit and a starling that morning!  I regret to say I slept most of the time there.

            How nice for Eric & Eve to have a baby son!  I feel almost envious – almost …. I must write him now, and tell him I think he’s awfully clever.

            As regards leave.  We all hope to get a day pass sometime during the next week, so just as soon as I know definitely when it will be, I’ll send a wire and just see if we can manage to meet at the ‘Haunch’* station.

            I’d forgotten all about ‘Love went a–Riding’** though I remember it well eno’ now.  I know I enjoyed it for its disparity from the common run of novels.

            Hope you came out of your inspection all right.  Sounded awful.

            I’ve managed to get rid of this Squadron Leader racket which I’ve had now for some ten days or so.

            Once again I find myself duty officer, which accounts for this letter, having been rushing about madly all day for the C.O.***  He’s quite cheerful tonight as he caught a fish in the local river, having been vainly trying for the past three weeks.  He bore it proudly into the mess at dinner as much as to say to all and sundry: “Look what a clever C.O. you’ve got!”  That stroke of luck should save us all from his usual bleak look for the next 48 hours.

            You seem to be doing nothing but dance these days.  What a life!  Hope you’re being a good little girl.

            Glad to hear you got the cheque OK, but you don’t mention your ability to cash it.  Is it all right?  Barclay’s are the best people.

            Must close here, Darling, to turn out the b_____ guard.

                                                            Love & kisses, precious

                                                                                    Dicker 

 

*The Haunch of Venison in Salisbury.  Co-incidentally the small bar there is said to have been used by Churchill and Eisenhower during the planning of the D-Day landings.

**A novel by Richard S. Blaker (the title is from a poem by Mary E. Coleridge).

***Lt-Col Sir William Mount Bart, TD (the former Prime Minister's maternal grandfather).  The local river was probably the Test, an important salmon river.

© Chotie Darling

 

11^th May 1944 – the Allies again attack the Gustav line in Italy in an attempt to capture Monte Cassino.  Finally, on 18^th May, after ferocious fighting, the Germans retreat from the stronghold and a troop of Polish cavalry erect the Polish flag on the summit. The Battle of Monte Cassino had lasted for four months and left 74,000 casualties. (See Monte Cassino Society.)

Chinese Nationalist forces cross the Salween River into Burma but are badly compromised by Japanese decoding of their communications.

 

12th May 1944 – the US Army Air Force begins attacking German synthetic oil plants (petrol, oil and lubricants produced from coal by IG Farben IG Farben) successfully halving oil production by the end of June 1944 (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).

 

13th May – the Japanese U-gō campaign front retreats from Kohima in India.

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

Sorry no ink!

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO

England

Dearest Chotie,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                Wish you were here with me ….

                                                    Goodnight Chotie Dear

                                                                                    Dicker

 

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

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

 © Chotie Darling

  Chotie's 'little circle':

 

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

D Day deceptions

6th May 1944 – the British Fleet resume air attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz as part of Operation Fortitude North, a D Day deception to suggest the Allies were going to land in Norway. Meanwhile Operation Fortitude South pretended that there was a large American force (the fictional 1^st US Army Group known as FUSAG) in South East England ready to land at the Pas de Calais – this was the fictional 1^st US Army Group led by General Patton.  Even when the Allies had landed in Normandy the Germans still expected an attack further east.

Fortitude was part of the D Day deception strategy known as Operation Bodyguard:  “In wartime truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies” (Churchill).

The Balkans and Southern France were also suggested as Allied objectives and intelligence ruses indicated that the invasion of NW Europe would take place later than actually planned or simultaneously on a number of fronts.

Apparently British counter-intelligence operations operations had also ensured that "every Abwehr agent in Britain was in the hands of M15" (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).

*German military intelligence

Eisenhower visits 61st Recce

General Eisenhower visited 61^st Recce at the beginning of May 1944.

“Beginning of May, General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander, came round to visit us.  He came quite close to me and I thought for a moment, he was going to see if the bow on my beret was tied properly.  What General Eisenhower didn’t say to me was "You know what to do when you get over there Sandy!  Give ‘em hell”.  I was shaking in my boots at the thought of what was to come.  The majority of us hadn’t seen any action at all so far."  (From Ex Trooper Sandy Handley's ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’)

 

Eric Postles remembers:

“An American Ranger Battalion* shared the camp area with us while we waited for the invasion.  Regular briefings in a marquee took place about the D-day landing sites showing RAF air reconnaissance films.  On our beach they recorded a fisherman’s horse and cart going down our beach exit track, which showed it was not mined.  They also indicated a white house which was our main landmark by the beach. 

We had our last exercise in the New Forest near Bournemouth.  The regiment’s role was revealed.  A and B squadron would provide the assault element with RHQ support.  Each troop would consist of 3 carriers with 4 crew, instead of the normal 3, and one light and one heavy armoured car and the assault troop (about 30 men) on bicycles (which were later replaces by their normal half-track vehicles).  C Squadron would provide signal links and support to 47 Royal Marine Commandos for the attack on Arromanches*. 

We waterproofed our vehicles with canvas and Bostic and fixed metal plates to increase the height of the carriers for when they were going through water.  We also lined the floor of the carrier with sandbags in an attempt to reduce the effects of land mines etc but as later showed this did not offer a great deal of protection.”  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

*the American Rangers https://www.historyonthenet.com/rangers-d-day (History on the Net website) were an elite commando unit destined to play a critical role on Omaha beach and taking the landmark promontory of Pointe du Hoc.

*47 Marine Commando landed near Asnelles-sur-mer at 09.50 on D Day “the worst time possible for mines, sea conditions and congestion in the water and on the beach” (from 47 Marine Commando Association website).  Five of their landing craft were sunk and the beach was a shambles but they moved quickly off and looped round inland behind Arromanches to attack Port-en-Bessin (north of Bayeux between Omaha and Gold beach) on 7^th June.  “Nearly half the contact patrols with the assaulting infantry were killed or wounded on D-Day, either on the beaches or before reaching them.” (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lt-Col P.H.A. Brownrigg D.S.O.)

A Bren gun on a bicycle

Preparing for D day

61^st Reconnaissance were to play a critical role on D Day and preparations would have begun while they were in Nightingale Wood.  As the Commander of ‘A’ Squadron, Major Philip Brownrigg (later Lt.Col. Brownrigg) describes:

“Our task for the invasion was twofold: first, to provide contact patrols with the assaulting battalions, working back to a control set at divisional Headquarters; and second, to land a skeleton reconnaissance regiment.  This meant reorganising the Regiment.  ‘C’ Squadron found the contact patrols and some carriers with their crews to act as ammunition ferries for 47 Marine commandos at Port-en-Bessin.  The assault reconnaissance regiment consisted of ‘A’ and ‘B’ Squadrons and Regimental Headquarters, all at about 40% of their full strength.  The remainder of the Regiment was scheduled to land within the first month.  For our special task we were allowed to choose much of our equipment, and so acquired a great number of half tracks, which were useful throughout the campaign, and lots of bicycles…”       (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lt-Col P.H.A. Brownrigg D.S.O.)

 

Anthony Rampling was a Bren gunner in the assault troop of ‘B’ Squadron – a Bren was a light machine-gun. One in twenty gunners were Bren gunners like Anthony, others had rifles or Sten guns (submachine guns) while the officers carried pistols.

 “The standard reconnaissance unit carried twice as much firepower as its infantry counterpart.” (‘Only the Enemy in Front , Every other beggar behind… - The Recce Corps at War 1940-1946’ by Richard Doherty, Tom Donovan Publishing Ltd 1994)

Bren Gun on a Bicycle

“First of all I was in the Assault Troop and just prior to the Normandy landings they were talking about issuing us with bicycles and being a Bren gunner I didn’t fancy this very much. A Bren gun weighed about 24lbs and it was a bit awkward to carry and I thought it would be a disaster on a bicycle.  I asked for a transfer into the armoured car troop, which I got fairly immediately and my officer in charge was Lieutenant Richard Williams.”  (From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61^st Recce, pers. comm.)

So Tony joined Dick’s troop. Tony’s transfer could have saved his life – assault troopers had to walk up to the hedgerows in Normandy to flush the Germans out and many were killed.

 

Squadron Leader - 27th April 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO

England

 

Thursday

Chotie Darling,

                                                Just a few brief lines to let you know I can’t make Sunday.  It’s the devil, but there’s just nothing I can do about it.

            At the moment I’m Squadron Leader, which is no picnic as I haven’t had enough experience of the admin. side to make things easy.

            If by any chance I can make it I’ll send a wire.

            I’m just about up to my neck in work at the moment and will remain that way for some time yet.  The unfortunate part of this job is that I have to censor some fifty to sixty letters every night which takes a surprisingly long time.  Normal letters wouldn’t take long, but these people write an astounding amount of pure drivel, especially the married ones.

            The fox cub* has just been bathed – he’s almost nude now as his baby fluff is coming off and giving place to real fox hair.  He’s still very babyish and finds the greatest difficulty in walking a straight course.

            There’s another subaltern censoring letters on this rickety table and every time he sticks the letter down he rocks the whole auction.

            No news from this end, nothing I can tell you anyhow.

            Brinner’s lost his leave I think, which means he will have to join his unit straight away** – very unpleasant.

            The CO’s just arrived looking a bit bleak***.  I’m trying to look as though I’m censoring mail just to impress him.

            Must close here.

                                                All my love Darling

                                                            Dicker

RKWilliams

 

*see Foxcub letter of 13^th April 1944 (insert as link)

**presumably this is the leave Brinner was due at the end of OCTU before joining his new troop as an officer.

***Lieutenant Colonel Sir William Mount, Bart, TD (grandfather of the former Prime Minister, David Cameron).

© Chotie Darling

 

The Regiment had four squadrons – ‘A’,’B’ and ‘C’ were the fighting squadrons and then there was the HQ squadron for back up, including a mortar section and the anti-tank section.

Each fighting squadron had two troops of armoured cars, two troops in carriers and an assault troop. 

The Armoured Car Troops had twelve men each – an officer (Lieutenant or Captain), a sergeant, a Corporal and Lance Corporal and eight troopers.  The sergeant for Dick Williams’ troop (No 5 Troop, ‘B’ Squadron according to Sandy Handley) was Wheeler and the Corporal was also a Williams.

They travelled in two heavy cars (one carrying the officer) and two light armoured cars (also known as Light Recce Cars or LRCs), which went in front.  Each car had a driver, a commander and a gunner. Sandy Handley was a Bren gunner in one of the light cars.

From Anthony Rampling's account of 61^st Recce (pers comm).

 

Sandy Handley described training in the camp:

“Mainly the next month April to May was spent on reconnaissance routine, vehicle spacing and radio work.  All our four vehicles were netted up by radio to other vehicles of the Squadron, which in turn linked up to our Squadron HQ.  As well as the radio operations we had a machine gun (Bren) and smoke dischargers to know about.  The two heavy Humbers also carried a 37mm cannon.  All three men in each car had to know one another’s tasks, so if any of us came a cropper in action, we would know what to do.  If, say, the driver got knocked out, one or the other would have to take over the driving job.  Heaven forbid it (and I am glad to say it didn’t) ever happened. I hoped not – mainly because I was hopeless at driving, especially in an armoured car with just a small slit visor to look through.”

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

(See photos of heavy and light armoured cars 61st Reconnaissance Regiment and The British Reconnaissance Regiment.)

Ghost Stories - Friday 21st April 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO.

England.

Friday 21^st April

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for a very welcome letter, and programmes enclosed.

            I’ve already broken the sad news about that wretched photograph*, and I’m enclosing it with this if only to get rid of it.

            You seem to be seeing quite a number of concerts – just one of those things which completely pass me by here.  Glad to see it was the old L.P.O.** who gave them.  They’re exceptionally good and very courageous as they’ve been fighting financial troubles ever since I’ve first heard of them.  There’s a very interesting book been written of their story – I believe by one of the ‘cellists, though the author and title eludes me for the moment. 

            I expect Benno*** was in good form – he’s playing better than ever these days.  I personally would place him among the first five pianists in the world, today.  He plays Rachmaninoff to perfection – certainly better than Sergei**** himself.  The last time I heard any of the Leonard overtures was in Folkestone some four or five months ago – in fact apart from leaves, I’ve heard very little music at all since.

            As regards leave, I expect I could get next Sunday (30^th?) off, when I could perhaps meet you in the neighbourhood of the ‘Haunch of Venison’*****.

            Isn’t there any chance of your getting your full leave?  That of course would be the ideal thing as I could meet you practically every evening.  We must try next weekend however, if nothing better offers.

            Having quite a peaceful time here, though I’m working pretty long hours.  The main advantage nowadays is that it’s not so cold when you get up in the morning. 

            Haven’t read much lately – only James’ ‘Ghost Stories of an Antiquary’† which I’ve read in bed in the middle of a wood – quite the right atmosphere.  Also Graham Greene’s ‘Brighton Rock’ and ‘Ministry of Fear’.  I think the opening chapters of his ‘England made me’ are some of the best stuff I’ve read in years.  I think in fact the only thing to beat them, is Gabriel Chevalier’s ‘Clochermerle’.  But as usual, I digress.

            They’ve got some beer in the bar now (mess) so life is all rosy once again.

            Have you heard from Eve yet?  Let me know all news of the dear little thing, won’t you?

            There was a film show in camp last night – Jane Eyre††, but as I wasn’t in the mood (I should say the Brontë  mood).  I went for a long walk among the hills and found some pukka Queen Anne Cottages, which more than made up for it.

                                                All my love Chotie

                                                                                    Dicker

RKWilliams

 

*see photograph on banner above. 

**The London Philharmonic Orchestra gave concerts all over the country during World War 2, depleted by the call-up and using instruments donated by the public following the destruction of its base (the Queen’s Hall) during the London Blitz in 1941.

***Benjamin Britten?? – the composer, conductor and pianist had returned to Britain as a conscientious objector in 1943.

****Sergei Rachmaninoff – Russian composer, pianist and conductor who lived in the US and Europe from 1918.

*****The Haunch of Venison at 1 Minster Street, Salisbury is an ancient inn dating from the 14^th Century.

†M.R.James’ first collection of ghost stories.

††The 1943 film of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece, ‘Jane Eyre’, starred Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine.

© Chotie Darling

 

22^nd April 1944 – the Allies’ Western New Guinea campaign begins with amphibious landings on the northern coast of Japanese held New Guinea.  Although these were successful, fighting continued in Western New Guinea until the end of the war in the Pacific.

 

23^rd April 1944 – the harbour installations at Bristol (where Chotie was stationed) were again  targeted by the Luftwaffe as part of Operation Steinbock.  117 planes were sent but they missed their target - no bombs fell on the city, instead being scattered over Wessex; presumably with the Düppel anti-radar foil used to confuse the Allied radar defences.  (See The Baby Blitz, Bombing in the Bristol Area and Last venture over Bristol.)

 

25^th April 1944 – Luftwaffe commences a series of night attacks on Allied shipping concentrated at Portsmouth and Plymouth. (From Chronology of World War II.)

 

27^th April 1944 – Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for the D Day landings using the west coast of Devon near Slapton Ley, resulted in tragedy when German E-boats attacked.  The operation was also marred by casualties from ‘friendly fire’. In all 946 were killed - mainly American Army troops preparing for the Normandy landings on Utah beach. (See Exercise Tiger.)

Cycling home - Monday 16th April 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

AP.O.

England

 

Monday

Chotie Darling,

                                    I’m afraid I haven’t written you for some time, due to divers reasons – partly due to pressure of work and partly due to the fact that I took the opportunity of having a day off yesterday to go home for the day.

            To say I had the day off is a slight exaggeration as I was working up till midday – and not trusting to buses & trains, owing to the state that these things are in, I decided to cycle*.  When I was half way home it started to rain and I rode the remainder in a torrential downpour.  However it cleared during the brief time I was at home and I cycled back in comparative peace.  It took me four hours each way, so I only had some three hours at home.

            I’ve given my greatcoat to Brinner as I won’t need it any more – coupled with some pretty sound advice on how to ‘go on’ when commissioned.  He’ll gladly accept the coat – though not the advice, I fancy.

            No more news from this end – things are going as per routine.

            I managed to buy a pair of fleece-lined boots – knee-high black ones.  Cost me a fortune but they’re the only thing.  I don’t fancy lacing up army boots and anklets on a cold morning, a thing that has always offended my sense of having things cushy.

            Have just heard Schubert’s 8^th (unfinished), the best thing that has happened to me for weeks.

            At long last they’ve got some beer in the mess (?) so tonight I intend to imbibe a little.  I shall have to break myself in gently as I haven’t even smelled the stuff for over a week.

            Went to the flicks with Geoff** last Sat.  We both thought that ‘The Lodger’ was on and went gaily in, to find that it was on next week.  What we saw in actual fact was ‘Bees in Paradise’….***  Geoff said it was the best leg-show he’s seen in years, but apart from that, it stank.  I bitterly endorsed his words.

            Are you reading Captain Foulenough’s résumé of his life story in ‘Beach-Comber’s Column in the Express?****  I never miss it.  I’m trying to get a grip on two films at the moment ‘Heart of a Nation’ and ‘Le Jour se lève’, (Gabin)*****.  Both seem out of the question, though I could have seen the former at the ‘Academy’ when I stopped in Town on returning from Scotland.

            Well, Darling, how are you these days?  Cheering up with the Spring I expect.  As I am.  The countryside around here is beginning to look lovely now, though it’s still a little early.  There is also an abundance of thatched cottages in this area.  I’d just love to get to work on one or two of them, as the whole place is almost completely unspoiled.

            It’s really a very pleasant spot, and I’ve always gone for primroses….

            Must close here to relieve the Adjutant ‘cos he wants his dindin – the rat.

                                                All my love

                                                            Chotie

                                                                                    Dicker

P.S. No signs of leave?

P.P.S.  The photo I had taken is absolutely shocking.  I’m sending it on…

RKWilliams

 

*Some 40 miles between Nightingale Wood and Pagham!

**Presumably Geoff Winzer.

***’The Lodger’ is a 1944 horror film about Jack the Ripper while ’Bees in Paradise’ is a musical comedy with ‘scantily clad warrior women’.

****Captain Foulenough was a character in the entertaining ‘Beachcomber’ column. (See Beachcomber.)

*****’The Heart of a Nation’ is a French drama film made in France in 1940, which escaped the Nazis be released as a dubbed version in 1943 in New York.  ‘Le Jour se lève’ (Daybreak) is a French poetic realism film made in 1939 and starring Jean Gabin.

© Chotie Darling

 

17th April 1944 – the British Royal Navy and Bomber Command begin intensive mining of the approaches to the English Channel to protect the D-Day invasion fleet. (From Chronology of World War II .)

18^th April 1944 – in Exercise Smash), practice for the landings on D Day, is the largest live ammunition exercise of the war.   Staged at Studland in Dorset (not far from Chotie’s home in Poole) Eisenhower, Churchill and Montgomery watched from Fort Henry.  The exercise showed the vulnerability of the floating Duplex Drive Valentine tanks – some are still wrecks in the bay.

19th April 1944 – Ichi-Gō offensive by Japanese aiming to eliminate the airfields used by the US Army’s Fourteenth Air Force.  Advancing in north-east China they reached Honan province where the local peasants, starved and looted by their own troops, turned on the fleeing Nationalist Army. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

The Allied Fleet begins their attacks on Japanese bases on Sumatra in Operation Cockpit.

 

 

Army Post Office

Address card inserted with 13th April 1944 letter envelope.

 

 

16^th April 1944 – the Russians capture Yalta, a coastal city on the Black Sea in Crimea. (From WW2-net Timelines .)

 

The Foxcub - Thursday 13th April 1944

2/Lt RK Williams

            61^st Recce Regt

NB!                             A.P.O.

            England

 

Thursday 13^th April

Chotie Darling,

                                    Just the few odd lines to let you know I’m still alive at any rate.  Having quite a good time here, despite poor living accommodation and even worse food.  Weather is excellent, pukka spring – including cuckoos, damn them.

            As regards leave of any sort, I’m afraid it’s out of the question – however I will try to get down to your place sometime during your leave, and you should be able to get here, somehow.  I’m afraid I can’t give you anything more definite as, for all I know, I may easily be out on a scheme throughout your leave.

            I’m very tied up here as regards communications – no telephones or telegrams.  Luckily I’m able to censor my own letters, but unfortunately have to censor some forty or fifty letters every evening, which takes time.

            We’ll manage to meet somehow, never fear.

            My neighbouring subaltern came across a fox cub the other day and we’ve kept it ever since.*  We procured a very wee kitten from the Quartermaster (they always have hundreds of kittens) and they live together very happy.

He, (the foxcub) is very small and covered in light down, with a very funny little face.  He keeps on going “TWEEK!, TWEEK!”.  ‘Formidable!’, as the French say. 

“That’s all for now, Kiddies – The Zoo man will be back again, etc, etc”….

Have managed to do a little sun-bathing so far, but not eno’ to worry about.

            I’ve just managed to get rid of a Sergeantt from my troop, who’s been giving me a headache for months – a very poor type.

            Must close here for dinner (?).  (So called)

                                                            All my love, Chotie

                                                                        Dicker

RKWilliams

*The fox became the Regiment’s mascot accompanying them as far as the Ardennes.  Trooper Ernie Brobbin of ‘A’ squadron gives an account of finding the foxcub in ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’  by Ron Howard (Brewin Books 2004):

          “One particular morning as dawn was breaking, another chap and I were on motor transport guard when we heard a ‘baby’ crying and went to investigate.  The ‘baby’ turned out to be an abandoned fox cub.  The poor thing was crying after it had been left on its own.

            Neither of us had come across a fox before, as we came from mining areas.  We picked it up, took it back to camp, fed it on milk, and then made it a cage from saplings.

            The cub prospered and eventually we decided to take it with us as a troop mascot.”

The cub was adopted by Lt. Compton Bishop who kept it in his armoured car and took it to France.  (See painting by Sandy Handley of the fox on a lead with 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment. The original painting is held by the Tank Museum at Bovington, Dorset.)

© Chotie Darling

 

A letter from Trooper Eric Brewer from about this time is stamped no 14529: Lt. Dick Williams’ censor number but the stamp is overwritten ‘Truman’ (possibly Lieutenant Philip Benson Truman who earned the Military Cross at Amay-sur-Seulles later that summer). 

 

Address same as usual

Sunday eight o’clock

Dear Mum Dad and all ….

“Have been doing training and expect to be doing it all next week; plenty to do and little time to do it”….

“Had some white bread for tea today; first piece for three years and isn’t there a difference between it and the present day bread… Also are receiving pears and peaches so the war must be as good as won”…

Eric Brewer went home on leave to Grays, Essex in April, returning just before 25^th April 1944.

 

14^th April 1944 – the SS Fort Stikine, a freighter loaded with mixed cargo including 1,400 tons of explosive, catches fire and explodes in Bombay (now Mumbai) docks.  She takes with her 13 other ships. Approximately 750 people are killed, many more wounded and extensive further damage sustained to cargo and shipping. (See Bombay Explosion.)

 

Primroses - Saturday 8th April 1944

 

2/Lt Richard Williams

NB.  ->               61^st Recce Regt

Home Forces

 

Saturday 7^th (sic)

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for letter.

            I must begin this with an apology for having omitted to congratulate you on your successful action*.  In actual fact I had already guessed that it was your crowd who did it, as heard about it even before I got your letter.

            Ref. leave.  At the moment all leave is cancelled and I don’t entertain much hope of getting away.  However you could meet me in Soton, at any rate, for a few evenings.  Failing this I could come over to P’stone I expect.  At the moment I don’t know how things stand.  We’ll simply have to wait and see.

            We’re under canvas at the moment – I have a tent of my own, luckily, as I preferred to erect my own bivouacs rather than sleep four or five in one.  The liability side shows shocking food, etc, but there are some lovely clusters of primroses in the woods to help the assets.

            Having quite a good time here though there’s no beer for miles round.  Must close here as there’s no more note paper – Junior’s pinched the last.

                                                            All my love

                                                                        Dicker

    RKWilliams 

 

*Presumably the defence of Bristol against the 'Baby Blitz' raid of 27^th March 1944. 

**Southampton, a major port on the south coast.

***Parkstone, Poole – where Chotie’s family lived.

****Ronnie Jury

© Chotie Darling

Spring woodland flowers (primroses in centre surrounded by dog violets, wood anemones in background). Copyright Martin Warren.

Eric Postles’ troop (10 Troop, B Squadron) had managed to secure leave:

“We moved by rail to Romsey, then into tented camps at Nightingale Woods on the Romsey-Southampton road.  Special permission was given for our troop to go on leave before the area was sealed at midnight.  While on leave I first met Gladys Dandy, my future wife, who was the guest solo singer at Burscough Methodist Chapel on 10 April 1944.” (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

Eric remembers his troop was the last to go on leave – the special permission had been obtained by Colonel Mount - and he arrived home unexpectedly.  Once back in Nightingale Wood there were a couple of exercises in preparation for D Day, one of them finishing up on Bournemouth beach*.  (Eric Postles pers.comm.)

*the other was possibly Exercise Fabius II, the rehearsal for Assault Force "G" (elements of the British 50 Infantry Division and attached units, which were to assault Gold Beach).  This took place between 23rd April and 7th May.  The force marshalled in areas C and B, embarked from Southampton and Lymington, and landed on Hayling Island between Chichester and Portsmouth.

Eric Postles wearing Reconnaissance badge

 

10^th April 1944 – Soviet forces capture Odessa, an important Ukrainian city and port on the Black Sea.  The Germans escaped by sea.

Nightingale Wood

Chapter 10          D Day and preparations

 

‘The ever-shifting sea, now soon to bear

Armada on the ebb of Hitler’s tide.

Then are the hosts in canvas camp confined,

Some in a wood called Nightingale: but where

No bird sings to the restless men at night,

Who fancy seeing ravens in the sky.’

 

(From ‘On the Eve’ by Major Frank Harding MC,

in ‘War echoes over thirty years’ published by Arthur Stockwell, 1970)

 

In early April 1944 the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment

 moved to a camp in Nightingale Wood, near Romsey, Hampshire

 

Don Aiken, of 11 Troop B Squadron, takes up the story :

“Finally we moved to a tented camp, in ‘Nightingale Wood’, close to a small village named Romsey, about 10 miles from Southampton.
It soon became obvious that everything was being assembled and prepared for the invasion of Europe; the long awaited Second Front.   All around us were similar camps containing troops of all persuasions. British, American, Canadian and smaller units of many other nations were all crowded into encampments that seemed to be everywhere in the fields and woods around the borders of the New Forest.
A news blackout was enforced on everyone and all leave was stopped.All mail was strictly censored.
I had received news from my brother Arthur that he had been stationed just on the outskirts of Southampton - his section of the Corps of Signals was engaged in running telephone lines between all the multitude of units which were moving in. We both managed to get a few hours of compassionate leave, and we met in Southampton one afternoon. He took me back up to his section quarters where we had a cup of tea and a chat before we bade each other farewell.”

 

Nightingale Wood lies at the edge of Southampton, just beyond the M27 and is partially occupied by Romsey Golf Club.  In spring 1944 this was D-Day Marshalling Area Camp C16 and C17 (camp capacity 3,250 personnel and 465 vehicles).  (See Airfield Information Exchange and The D-Day Sausage Camps.)

“By the spring of 1944, all of southern England and much of the rest of of the country had become a vast military encampment……In the assembly areas great tented encampments were created equipped with water points, field bakeries, bath facilities, post offices, each one camouflaged with the intent of making it indistinguishable from 10,000 feet.” (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

 

It was no picnic as Anthony Rampling remembers:  

Nightingale Wood    

“We were in Nightingale Woods, under canvas – it wasn’t very nice at all, what with the rain etc and some of the conditions were quite bad with mud, and cos the rations weren’t very good either so nothing was nice about it.”

There was an infantry regiment alongside us in Nightingale Wood and their job was making crosses to take over to Normandy ready for the people that got killed.”

 

Anthony Rampling and 61st Recce were in Nightingale Wood for two months 'waiting to go’.  Anthony’s friend Sandy Handley joined 61^st Recce soon after they had arrived at Nightingale Wood.

“On April 2^nd 1944 I had my marching orders to report to the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment (50^th Division).  The flash on our sleeves was (TT) which was Tyne Tees, quite a few men from the Newcastle area.  There I was again on a train, this time to Romsey, Hants.  You can imagine…

When I first joined up (17^th July 1940) I was 20 years old in the Royal West Kents, men mainly all from Kent.  I had got to know most of our company – some from Dover (Sandy’s home town).  Now here I was alone, I didn’t know a soul.

On arrival at the camp between Romsey and Southampton all were under canvas below the trees of a wood (Nightingale Wood) quite near the famous Florence Nightingale home, although I never saw it.  Also near to Romsey was Broadlands, the home estate of Lord Louis Mountbatten.  I didn’t see that either, just the trees.

I reported to the C.O. Colonel Mount who asked me if I could shoot straight.  I said ‘yes’, but afterwards I thought it would have been better if I had said ‘no’!  The Colonel said “You have come to the right place!”  I made myself known to my new friends in my troop.  I was now a gunner/operator in a Humber Armoured Car Mark 3.  I soon got to know the twelve men in the four armoured cars in No 5 troop B squadron 61^st Recce Regiment.”

(From Ex Trooper S Handley’s “61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945”)

 

Dick was the officer for No 5 Troop 'B' Squadron,

61st Reconnaissance Regiment.

Mixed Batteries - Saturday 1st April 1944

2/Lt Williams RK

61^st Recce Regt

RAC

Home Forces

 

Saturday 1^st April

Chotie Darling,

                                    Just received your letters and enclosed, for which very many thanks, Darling.

            Arrived back safely from Scotland on Wednesday last and have been up to my eyes in work ever since.  Things are pretty hectic at the moment.

            You’re quite right about the sopranos – I’m quite enamoured with several – Maria Cancellia, Rosa Poncelle* etc, though unfortunately they’re still in Italy I believe.

            I shall be able to see you on your leave – at least I hope so.  Prepare for an FFI – you naughty girl.

            I had to go to Leicester yesterday to take some vehicles there and managed to see Diller for some few minutes.  Unhappily it took me nearly an hour to find her, and I was pretty pushed for time.  However, I chased around on a motor bike and eventually found her.  Brinner spent last weekend there on a 48 from OCTU and had quite a good time I believe.

            I’ve just had a break for lunch.  I had a pretty cushy time in Scotland.  There was a singular lack of any show of organisation with the result that they didn’t really know we were there for three days or so.  I had one day in Glasgow on the weekend.  No much of a town – yet the Scots refer to it as the ‘Second City of the Empire’.

            There was every amenity to be found locally – skating, swimming, golf etc, so I didn’t need to travel abroad.  The only snag with the whole place was that all the pubs shut at 8.30 in the evening and very few opened at all on Sundays.  We could drink in the mess until 11.30 though, so things were not too bad.

            (I’m just going to fight for the coffee – Got it…)

            The Lieutenant I went to Glasgow with was once in a mixed AA Battery** – gave me all the dope.  He said he had to chuck it as every time he choked off*** some poor girl she burst into tears, which used to shake him.  He was a bit crazy anyhow.

            Geoff Winzer’s sorting out kit and holding a young auction sale this afternoon so I’m going round to buy it all up (perhaps..)

            You evaded my reference to baritones – I think you’ve got a couple teed up somewhere in Bath.

            Incidentally Eric and I always used to drink at the ‘Christopher’ which is just opposite the Abbey.  It used to be quite a place.  That was where, on one memorable occassion I called for two pints and we found we had only got sevenpence between us.  Happy days ….

            And please, Chotie, no more presents.  You really can’t do it.

                                                All my love, Darling

                                                            Dicker

 

*Probably Rosa Ponselle, an American soprano

**The mixed (male and female) anti-aircraft batteries had a quite scandalous reputation in some quarters. The women serving alongside men had much more freedom to socialise with the opposite sex than other military units for women.  (See also The History of the ATS.)

***’choke off’ - bring the relationship to an end

 

****The Christopher's Inn is now a backpackers’ hostel.

 

 © Chotie Darling

Were these the women who defended Bristol?

 

 

1^st April 1944 – Salween offensive by China attacking the Japanese army in Yunnan Province which lies on the NE border of Burma (Myanmar).  They eventually reached Burma on 22^nd January 1945. (From World War II database.) 

The US Air Force accidentally bomb Schaffhausen in northernmost Switzerland and offer $1million in reparations. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

3rd April 1944 – Germany’s huge battleship, the Tirpitz, is attacked and damaged in Operation Tungsten, a bombing raid by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm in Alten Fjord in Norway. (From Chronology of World War II http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/apr44/f03apr44.htm.)

With Hungary now occupied by the German army the US Army Air Force and the RAF bomb the capital Budapest.

 

4th April 1944 – De Gaulle becomes head of the Free French forces in place of Giraud (from Chronology of World War II). 

The US Army Air Force bombs Bucharest, the capital of Romania (from WW2-net Timelines).

 

5^th April 1944 – Siegfried Lederer, a Jewish inmate of the concentration camp and killing centre at Auschwitz-Birkenau escapes to Czechoslovakia.  Two days later Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzel also escape successfully.  They write a report, providing some of the first reliable eyewitness accounts of the camp, which is published worldwide from Switzerland in June 1944. (See United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.)

Britain closes the telephone service to Ireland (a neutral country in World War 2) and stops newspaper distribution to there and Gibraltar.  (From Chronology of World War II.)

 

6^th April 1944 – the Japanese lay siege to Kohima, about 60 miles north of Imphal, a supply depot at the summit of a pass offering the Japanese their best route from Burma into India. The hill-station was bravely defended by a small force of Indian and British troops.  Although the siege was relieved by 15^th April, fierce fighting at Kohima continued until the end of May when the starving Japanese withdrew. The 2^nd Division Memorial at Kohima bears the famous epitaph

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, 
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today".

 

Army List April 1944

Extract from the Army List for April 1944 - Dick is mentioned in middle row, 6th from top (from WW2 Talk -  see Recce Mitch’s post of 7^th June 2013.) as a War Substantive 2nd Lieutenant.

The British Army List is a list (or more accurately seven series of lists) of serving regular, militia or territorial British Army officers, kept in one form or another, since 1702.

Ayr - Friday 24th March 1944

Ayrshire

Scotland

Friday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Have just received your letter of the 19^th inst. which has been forwarded up from the unit.

            I was very pleased to see that Eric had replied to your letter and that I now have Eric’s address once again.  No excuse now, eh?

            Having a very pleasant time here doing absolutely nothing, as there seems no organisation of any sort here, and nobody worries about you.

            I’m in a very cushy mess of practically every Regiment in the Army, though I’ve only met one bloke I knew before.

            I took the afternoon off and walked to Irvine* some three miles along golden sands** in glorious sunshine.  (I omitted to say that I had some three hours sleep in the afternoon on the beach.)  I then had a beer or two in Irvine and bussed back.

            Went skating on Tuesday and a dance in Ayr last night so I thought I’d have things a little quieter this evening, as I spent this morning up to my neck in the sea.***

            I’ll enclose some coupons in this letter.  If I remember that is.  What are they worth to you?

            All the pubs up here close at 8.30 pm except one in Ayr.  Unfortunately the barmaid there became much too friendly for my liking so I stay clear now.  She was a very charming little thing but obviously didn’t know her own mind.  So now I have to drink in the mess – very unsatisfactory. 

            How are you behaving these days?  Being a good girl I hope.  Write and tell me all about him won’t you?  If he’s under forty I’ll be jealous, and if he’s over forty I’ll spank you.

            Must close here, Baby

                                                            All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

 

*Irvine is a town in North Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland. A couple of Combined Operations WW2 camps were situated to the south of Irvine – HMS Dundonald trained all three services in signalling procedures to and from landing craft and the use of navigational aids to assist small landing craft find their way to designated landing places on hostile beaches.  HMS Dinosaur focused on tank landing craft training. (From Combined Operations WW2 website .)

**Barassie beach

© Copyright Ian Mockford.

*** “For the landings to be successful and for breakout from the bridgehead on the French coast to be achieved the men of all three services not only had to be equipped they also had to be trained.  It was to be training like no other, rigorous, realistic and relentless and much of it took place in Scotland.”  (From The Scots at War Trust.) 

© Chotie Darling

 

26th March 1944 – 10,000 German troops and French militia attack the 465 Maquisards gathered on the Plateau des Glières  in Haute Savoie. The Maquis retreat and disperse although one third, unable to escape, are killed.

 

The 'Baby Blitz' on Bristol.

On the night of 27^th March 1944 139 Luftwaffe planes flew to attack the harbour installations and fighter airfields at Bristol with high explosive bombs and phosphorous oil incendiaries. Chotie’s heavy artillery anti-aircraft battery was part of the port’s ground defences. 

This was the first bombing raid on the city since 1942 and the Luftwaffe had not been able to carry out daytime photographic reconnaissance over the city since then. Poor target marking by the Germans as well as the defences of Bristol (fighter aircraft, ground defences and the successful deployment of decoy areas) contributed to the failure of the raid, despite the dropping of Düppel anti-radar foil to confuse the ATS radar operators. (This 'chaff' of small strips of aluminium foil was similar to the 'Window' technique developed by the Telecommunications Radar Establishment in Dorset.  Both techniques were not used for about a year after their invention because they would be too easy for the enemy to copy.)  

No bombs fell on Bristol and 13 German planes were lost – the Luftwaffe only had 287 bombers available for operations over Britain at the time.  The attack was part of Operation Steinbock, bombing English cities in retaliation for the increasing number of Allied raids on German towns.  (From Bristol during World War 2 and Bombing in the Bristol Area. See also Freedom from Attack.)

 

28^th March 1944 – Russian troops advancing in the Ukraine enter Romanian territory near Nikolayev (Russian) / Mykolayiv (Ukrainian) on the Black Sea.

 

29^th March 1944 – the advancing Japanese in India cut the Imphal-Kohima supply road and lay siege to Imphal, the state capital of Manipur, near the centre of India’s border with Burma.  The siege continues until 22^nd June - the Japanese withdrew from India in early July 1944.  The Battles of Imphal and Kohima were the turning points of the Burma Campaign.

 

30th March 1944 – a RAF raid on Nuremberg with 795 bombers loses 96 aircraft, the highest loss in one night throughout the war.

Forgiveness - Saturday 18th March 1944

2/Lt RK Williams

61^st Recce Regt RAC

Whittlesford

Cambs

 

Saturday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for your very prompt letter, which I received just before I left home.  By the time you get this letter I hope to be in Scotland (where I hope to meet Lady Macbeth…).  As I’ll only be there for a week I’ve put my usual address.

            Never having been there before I expect to have quite a good time.  At any rate it will be a change from this wretched place, where just about everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

            I read your letter in bed on Friday morning.  It was very welcome, Darling.

            I can’t pretend I wasn’t hurt by your actions – although I did try to make light of it.  As far as I’m concerned, everything you do should be of your own free choice.  I make no attempt whatsoever to exercise any ‘hold’ over you*.

            I think I know, as well as most, the state you can get into, in the services.  It is in this state, of being so completely fed-up that you don’t give a damn what happens, that these things happen.  God knows, I’m no moralist, but I do possess some slight knowledge of physiology, and because of this I urge you at least be careful.

            You don’t need to ask me to forgive you, Chotie.  I shall always be prepared to forgive you anything – except leaving me entirely.

            I wasn’t worried about your actions in themselves – I just thought you must have had enough of me.

                                                All my love, Darling

                                                                        Dicker

P.S.     Got that baritone** teed-up yet….?

 

*Oh dear – this sounds like Chotie has strayed again.  Was it the handsome officer in the Bristol photographs or someone else?  George Bainbridge perhaps?  And who’s the baritone**?

© Chotie Darling

 

19^th March 1944 – Hungary is occupied by the German Army following the arrest in Germany of the Hungarian Regent, Miklos Horthy, who had been secretly negotiating with the British and US.  The SS begin rounding up Hungarian Jews and sending them to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.

 

24th March 1944 – ‘the Great Escape’ of 76 Allied airmen from Stalag Luft III near Sagan in SE Germany (now Żagań in Poland). 73 are later recaptured and 50 executed.  Stalag Luft III was also the location of the ‘wooden horse’ escape of three airmen on 29^th October 1943.

Orde Wingate, the Commander of the Chindits, when his plane crashes in the jungle.

In the Ardeatine Caves, near Rome, Germany executes 336 Italians in reprisal for partisan killing of 35 German soldiers the previous day.

Bomber Command carries out a thousand plane raid against Berlin, the heaviest raid of the war and the end of the Battle of Berlin.  RAF and USAAF bombers were now to be diverted to supporting Operation Overlord despite the reluctance of their commanders who were at last beginning to see success with the Pointblank Strategy.  By the end of March the Luftwaffe were losing over 2,000 planes per month to their fighters.  The loss of experienced pilots also lowered the air threat to the Allies’ invasion of Normandy.  (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

End of significant Japanese resistance on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.  (From Chronology of World War II and WW2-net Timelines.)

Bawdsey Manor - Sunday 5th March 1944

61^st Recce Regt

RAC

Whittlesford

Cambs.

 

Sunday

Chotie Darling,

                                    I’ve got this evening free, so I thought I’d drop you another line or two.  My leave at the moment, still holds good, so if you’ll let me know finally that yours is OK and what time you expect to arrive home in your next letter I’ll get things teed up this end.

            I’ve been very busy lately, spending most of the time away from the camp, which has both its advantages and disadvantages.  It provides a change of scenery which is always welcome, especially when it’s sunny, tho’ on the other hand you never get a chance to get organised.

            You’re a very naughty girl for not having written to me for such a long time.  However, I expect you’re pretty busy yourself, or you would have written.

            There’s no news to tell you.  I get so little time off that I don’t get a chance to do much .

            Incidentally, you’d better send your next letter to Pagham as I’ll be home on Wednesday mid-day.  I expect this will cross with one from you anyhow.

            I spent three very happy days on a stud farm in Cambridgeshire*.  It was the home of Sir Cuthbert Quilter who is President of the Suffolk Horse Breeding Society.  Ten years ago he farmed 22,000 acres but he’s practically penniless now I believe.

            I met a bloke, a civilian of fifty or thereabouts, who used to live in Herne Bay and knows most of the people we knew there.  He actually lived in the same house.  The next time I see him I’ll get things teed up and get my feet right under the table.

            Must close here for dinner.

            Don’t forget to write to Pagham to let me know all the dope.

                                                                        love

                                                                                    Dicker

*probably Bawdsey Manor, where Sir Cuthbert Quilter had bred Suffolk Punch horses but which was acquired by the Government in 1936.  It became the top-secret research establishment where Robert Watson-Watt (who had set up the first radar research station at nearby Orford Ness in 1935), and then A.P. Rowe, developed Britain’s radar defences. The outbreak of war and proximity to Germany moved them first to Dundee and then, on 5^th May 1940, to Worth Matravers in Dorset as the Telecommunications Research Establishment.  See ‘The Missing Winter’.  (From ‘The Bruneval Raid – stealing Hitler’s radar’ by George Millar, Cassell 1974)

© Chotie Darling

 

5^th March 1944 – Operation Thursday was part of the 2^nd Chindit Expedition involving flying in 9,000 men (with mules, equipment and supplies) to northern Burma, near Indaw, and landing them behind the Japanese enemy lines.

 

6^th March 1944 - The RAF’s Bomber Command begins a large-scale offensive over Northern France in preparation for D Day and the USA Air Force again attacks Berlin. (From WW2-net Timelines)

 

7^th March 1944 – Japan advances to India with nearly 100,000 men in Operation U-Go until stopped by the Allies at Kohima and Imphal in the mountainous borderlands of North-eastern India. (See Defence of Imphal and Kohima.)

 

On 7^th March Chotie’s Service & Casualty form records that she ‘Acted Voluntary Blood Donor’.

 

Dick was on leave in Pagham from 8th March and seems to have met up with Chotie.

 

10th March 1944 – Merrill’s Marauders attack Myitkina on the Ayeyarwady River in north Burma (now Myanmar), a critical point on the planned supply route to China known as the Ledo Road.  However, the city was not finally captured from the Japanese until 3^rd August 1944 and most supplies continued to be flown over the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains (known as ‘The Hump’).

 

13th March 1944 – British Forces in the Arakan, Burma (Myanmar) take Razabil, a critical position between the Maya mountains and the sea, known as the ‘Golden Fortress’. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

15th March 1944 – heaviest raid of the war on Stuttgart with 863 RAF bombers dropping 3,000 tons.  Stuttgart had significant industrial infrastructure (Daimler and Porsche factories).

Soviet forces advancing from the Ukraine reach the Bug River, a tributary of the River Vistula that formed the division between German and Russian forces following the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the traditional division between Catholic and Orthodox Polish Christians.  (From WW2-net Timelines.) 

New Zealand and Indian Divisions with the US Fifth Army in Italy are engaged in the unsuccessful third attack on Monte Cassino and withdrawn after 23^rd March.

In France the Conseil National de la Resistance publishes its programme  for the future of France after the war as a social democracy with a planned economy.

Pouishnoff and Leicester - Wednesday 23rd February 1944

61^st Recce Regt

Whittlesford

Cambs.

Wednesday 23^rd

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for your two letters which I’ve just picked up on rejoining the unit, which is still here at Whittlesford.

            My leave is still OK for March 8^th so don’t forget to get things teed-up, will you?

            Had a very nice time at Brum doing practically nothing ‘cept eat & sleep.

            Went over to Leicester on Sat & again on Sun. last and met Diller & Mary.  Had quite a good time despite all Leicester’s efforts to stop us – cinemas closed, nowhere to eat, etc.

            It was a particularly good concert I went to on Friday night last.  Leff Pouishnoff was in brilliant form – playing and conducting Tchaikovsky’s No 1 Concerto in devastating fashion.  He’s very theatrical, of course, quite unlike Schnabel, for instance.  I get so few chances to see these boys, nowadays, that perhaps tend to eulogise rather than criticize.  However, it’s not such a bad fault.

            I’m afraid I can’t write much as it is the usual practice for adjutants to put people coming back from courses straight on to Duty Officer and my adj. cannot see his way clear to make any alteration in this unwritten law.

            Must close here, Darling to see the boys’ meals.

            All my love, Darling,

                                    Dicker

Will try to write you again tomorrow.

© Chotie Darling

 

24th February 1944 – General Frank Merrill and 2,750 volunteers from the US Army (known as Merrill’s Marauders) begin their mission of long range jungle warfare with the Japanese, penetrating deep into enemy territory in northern Burma (Myanmar).

 

26th February 1944 – last of three ‘Great Raids’ by the Soviet Air Force bombing Helsinki, the capital of Finland.  Finland had resisted Soviet occupation in the Winter War of 1939/40. Hostilities resumed in June 1941 and Finland turned to Germany for defence against the Soviet Union, although it retained its state of an independent democracy.  British and Commonwealth Allied forces declared war on Finland in December 1941 (but not the US).

 

29^th February 1944 – US forces under General MacArthur attack the Admiralty Islands, north of Papua New Guinea.  After a month of fighting the Japanese abandon their base to the south at Madong on the New Guinea coast.

Germany launches another major attack at Anzio but the tide is turning at the beach-head because of the Allies ‘inexhaustible’ supplies of artillery and ammunition.

The Russian General Vatutin, commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, is ambushed by Ukrainian nationalists and left mortally wounded. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

Eric Postles remembers March 1944:

"We moved to Whittlesford and were allowed to use the American entertainment facilities at Duxford airfield where we saw James Cagney and other stars.  The regiment was re-equipped with new vehicles and weapons.  We took the old vehicles to Feltham Ordnance Depot in London.  We collected the new vehicles from Castle Donnington grounds and ran them in via Gloucester area (a number of the squadron lived locally). 

When in Cambridge I was put on a charge by the Military Police for allegedly having my hand in my greatcoat pocket.  When I was brought before our Commanding officer, Colonel Sir William Mount, a military policeman said the Provost Martial had ordered a tightening of discipline in the Division.  The CO said “It does not apply to my regiment” and dismissed the case." (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Sir William had more important things to worry about.  Training was now "the full Monty treatment" as his regiment began to prepare for Overlord.  Montgomery had “carefully meshed experienced veterans from the Eighth Army with the keen, green formations that had been training and languishing for so long in England”. 

50^th Northumbrian Division had been brought home from the Mediterranean with 7^th Armoured and 51^st Highland Divisions and there were already rumours among the 50^th that “they would be used on the battlefield for tasks in which the rate of attrition would be high.  Curiously enough this did not seem greatly to dismay them.”  However, training with British 7th Armoured Division on the flatlands of East Anglia may not have been the best preparation for Normandy’s bocage - the heavy hedgerows and rolling small fields which were to provide deadly cover for German defence and ambush.” (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition) 

 

2^nd March 1944 – Bombing raids begin on targets in Yugoslavia from the Foggia airfields near Ortona in Italy.  The Allies were now supporting Tito’s communist resistance forces, flying in supplies from Bari in southern Italy.

4th March 1944 – the US Air Force’s first attack on Berlin with 730 bombers and 644 fighter aircraft flying by night.

Birmingham Officers Club - Thursday 17th February 1944

Birmingham

Thursday

Chotie Darling

                                    As you will see from above I’m in Brum at the moment on a week’s course on Armoured Cars - very cushy, there being no exam at the end, and the hours are only from nine to four thirty.

            I have some unpleasant news as regards leave.  The whole Squadron has had leave postphoned one week which makes mine up to the 8^th March instead of the 1^st.  Can you change yours?  Let me know won’t you.

            I hope to go to Leicester this weekend to see Diller as our leaves won’t now coincide.

            I’m staying at ‘The Georgian House’ which is an Officers Club – very comfortable indeed, and right in the centre of things.

            This letter is rather sketchy as I’m writing it during a lecture on the Lubrication System.

            I’ve just been out to get a Theatre Ticket for tomorrow night – London Symphony Orchestra in a programme which includes my favourite overture – Tchaikovsky’s Fantasie ‘Romeo & Juliet’.  Pouishnoff is the soloist and conductor.

            Must close here as the lecturer is beginning to get a grip.

            Don’t forget to write!

Address now

            61^st Recce Regt RAC

                        Whittlesford

                                    Cambridgeshire

                                                                                    love

                                                                                    Dicker

*Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Overture-Fantasy 'Romeo and Juliet' is an orchestral work based on Shakespeare’s play.

© Chotie Darling

 

17th February 1944 – surrounded German troops on the Dnepr river had attempted to break out in the Battle of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket but 20,000 were ruthlessly killed by the Red Army, even when trying to surrender. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

The US Navy attack the Japanese Naval and air base at Truk in the Pacific Caroline Islands (west of the Marshall Islands), making it nearly useless for the rest of the war.

18th February 1944 - Operation Jericho, a precision bombing raid on Amiens prison by the RAF’s 2^nd Tactical Air Force, frees 258 prisoners including many belonging to the French resistance. However, more than 100 prisoners were killed by the bombing and two-thirds of the escapees were re-captured. (See BBC WW2 Timeline.)

19th February 1944 – Operation Argument (better known as ‘Big Week’) begins with an RAF bombing raid on Leipzig.  The Operation, designed to lure the Luftwaffe into a decisive battle, launched a series of attacks on the German aircraft industry, led by the USA Air Force, who could now defend their long-range bombers with Mustang fighter planes. Until 26^th February they bombed the factories and air fields relentlessly by day and the RAF followed up, bombing the cities by night. (See BBC Big Week Fact File.)

20^th February 1944 – a Norwegian Resistance commando, Knut Haukelid, succeeds in sinking the SF Hydro ferry carrying heavy water from the Telemark production plant.  This might have been used by Germany to develope nuclear bombs. Following Operation Gunnerside and subsequent heavy bombing by the US Air Force, the plant was being closed down and remaining stocks moved to Germany.

 

22^nd February 1944 – US Air Force planes controversially bomb Nijmegen in Holland. (See WW2 Talk Forum.)

Hitler leaves his headquarters at the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, which is now within range of the Soviet Air Force and moves to the Berghof, his Alpine retreat in Bavaria.

Oranges - Thursday 10th February 1944

2/Lt RKWilliams

Royal Armd. Corps

Brandon

Suffolk

Chotie Darling,

                                    Sorry I haven’t written before this, but haven’t really had time.

            I was inoculated yesterday morning and owing to a severe shortage of officers in the Squadron I’ve had to remain on duty all the time.  I was out on the range yesterday and got pretty cold, as a consequence of which I went to bed feeling a little pallid.  On crawling out of bed this morning I found I couldn’t stand, so I promptly crawled back again.  However, I got up for lunch and am feeling a lot better now, though I still ache all over.

            Hope you managed to stay in bed after your jab, nothing's more miserable than having to stay on duty.

            I’m going on a week’s course at Birmingham on the 15^th, luckily it won’t affect my leave.  It’s a very cushy course as students (?) stay at the Officers Club and all the instructors are civilians.  Pity Eric doesn’t still live there.  I received three oranges today – there’s an issue of three per officer in the mess.  However, like the good little boy I am, I’m sending them home to mother.

            I had a day in Cambridge last week – a lovely town.  Unfortunately it’s full of Yanks and there’s a beer shortage.  Notwithstanding these two major calamities I managed to have quite a good time.

            Apart from this one excursion I haven’t been out at all.  Unless you get at least 24 hrs off it’s not worth going anywhere.  Cambridge is the only place worth going to and that’s some forty miles or so.

            Just had a letter from Brinner.  He’s now started on Machine Gun (Vickers) which is the last phase of his training.  I also wrote to Diller to get her to change her leave, so that we’ll be home together.

            Would you let me know what time you’ll be arriving home so that I can make arrangements from this end.  (That is of course if you can get 72 hrs).

            Must close here, Darling as my arm’s giving me merry Hell.

                                                All my love

                                                            Dicker

 © Chotie Darling

This letter was written to Private B. E. Chalkley in ‘A’ Troop O.F.C. ATS, 462 Hy(M) Bty RA, Markham Camp, Easton-in-Gordano, Bristol so Chotie seems to have moved from ‘B’ Troop but in the same battery.

On 10^th February she had another visit to the dentist in Bristol.

 

Dick's unit moved to Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire some time before 17th February...

 

15^th February 1944 – Allies bomb the famous monastery of Monte Cassino and begin their second major assault to capture the defensive stronghold. The rubble actually gave the Germans better cover then the building would have.  Although the fighting was brutal the attacks failed and were broken off on 18^th February.

Heavy bombing raid by the RAF on Berlin involving 891 aircraft. (From Wikipedia.)

16th February 1944 - fighting continues with increased ferocity at Anzio - Allied casualties are high but the Germans lost over 5,000 men. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

Brandon Park - Sunday 30th January 1944

61^ST RECONNAISSANCE REGIMENT

Brandon

Suffolk

Sunday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Have just read orders and find that the security ban as regards this address has now been lifted, so I can now tell you where I am and what the place is like.

            We’re in a Nissen hut camp built on an estate, around a vast Georgian House, formerly the property of Dorothy Paget*, the racehorse owner.

            The officers are billeted in the house which is very comfortable.  We use the large square library as an ante-room.  The only snag is that the mess is on the Regimental level which means that the Colonel*, etc are all here.  Not so good.

            Brandon is quite a picturesque little place, standing on the Little Ouse, but hopelessly dead as regards entertainment of any sort.  There’s only one reasonable pub.

            I went into Ely yesterday afternoon, and went over the Cathedral.  This was quite interesting but the town itself is very drab – almost as dirty as Dover or Poole.  The nearest towns of any size are Cambridge and Norwich both of which are some considerable distance from here.  I get a day off on Wednesday however, so I may manage to get there then.  I should find plenty to interest me as I’ve haven’t yet been to either.                      

            I see now that my leave falls due on March 1st so if you could get a couple of days at home, I could come down to Parkstone.  Let me know, won’t you.

            I believe Brinner is on leave at the moment, though I’m not sure. 

I don’t know whether you’re still at home or not so I’ll send this to your army address.  Must close here for lunch.  Don’t forget the leave question.

                                    All my love, Darling

                                                                        Dicker

P.S.  I regret to say that I won’t be able to visit Eric now but could meet him in Town, sometime.

           

*Dorothy Paget was a famous and eccentric racehorse owner, daughter of the 1^st Baron Queenborough who lived at Brandon Park. The house is now a care home, surrounded by a country park.

**Colonel Sir William Mount, David Cameron’s grandfather.

© Chotie Darling

 

31st January 1944 – Haute Savoie in the French Alps is placed under siege as Maquisards of the French resistance gather on the Plateau des Glières to collect supplies parachuted in by the Allies. Anyone carrying arms or assisting the Maquis can be summarily executed.

 

Eric Postles writes under February 1944:

“The regiment left 61 Division to become the Recce Regiment for 50^th Northumbrian Division which had returned from action in Africa and Sicily to take part in the invasion of Europe.  The divisional sign was 2 red Ts on a black background.  We joined them at Brandon on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.  We were inspected along with 151 The Durham Light Infantry Brigade by the Divisional Commander General Graham and by General Montgomery.  We were also inspected by King George VI, and then by General Eisenhower wearing an immaculate midnight blue uniform.”  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

3^rd February 1944 – America completes invasion of the Marshall Islands.  This group of atolls in the North Pacific Ocean, between New Guinea and Hawaii, had been held by Japan since the end of WW1 when it was ceded by Germany. In the Battle of Kwajalein Atoll the US Navy, learning from the carnage in the Gilbert Islands, destroyed Japanese aircraft and airstrips before landing the invasive force in heavily armoured Amtracs on 31st January. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

4th February 1944 – German forces advance on the british sector of the Anzio beach-head, driving a huge flock of sheep in front of them through the minefields.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

5^th February 1944 – Operation Ha-Go, a Japanese counter-attack on the Allies advancing in the Arakan in Burma (Myanmar) results in the 'Battle of the Admin Box'.  Casualties were heavy but the Allies eventually held their position and the Japanese had to withdraw.

50th (Northumbrian) Division - Wednesday 26th January 1944

On 24^th January 1944 the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment

joined the 50th (Northumberland) Division,

part of XXX (30) Corps.

The Regiment moved to East Anglia to join their new unit.

 

Don Aiken recalls:

“They (the 61^st Recce) had been doing duty in Northern Ireland for the previous part of the war, but had now been split from their Division (the 61st. Infantry Div.) to become the Reconnaissance Regiment for the 50th Infantry Division.

The 50th (Northumberland) Division was recently returned from North Africa and were renowned as 'The Desert Rats'. The sign (or flash) which was worn on the side of the shoulder was TT, which represented Tyne and Tees.”

(Republished from the People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

“The 50^th (Northumbrian) Division was back in England for the Normandy invasion, and had no reconnaissance regiment.  After the Commanding Officer (Lt.Colonel Sir William Mount) had made a number of swift trips to London we found ourselves chosen to fill the vacancy.  So in January 1944, we motored from our coast-guarding duties in Kent to join our new division in Norfolk.

            Only those who have experienced it can know the inferiority an unblooded regiment feels when surrounded by battle-scarred heroes.  But the 50^th Division made us so welcome, and refrained so carefully from flinging their blood and sand into our eyes, that we soon felt at home in what must have been the happiest of divisions in spite of all its casualties.”

(From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

 

 

50th (Northumbrian) Division, having served in the British Expeditionary Force in 1940,  first fought in the Desert War at Gazala where the 50^th Recce unit was lost to Rommel’s attack.  The Division was part of Montgomery’s Operation Supercharge at El Alamein and fought in Tunisia, on the Mareth Line and Sicily, landing on the south east coast with Operation Husky.  In September 1943 some men from 50^th Division, separated from their units, took part in the Salerno Mutiny. 

At the Washington Trident Conference in May 1943 the Americans had insisted that seven divisions should be withdrawn from Italy by the end of November to take part in the invasion of Normandy.  The 50th was one of the Divisions chosen by Montgomery for this task and were rested and re-grouped in Sicily before returning to England in October 1943. On 19^th January 1944 they were given a new Commander, Major-General D.A.H. Graham.  It seems 61^st Recce joined them soon after this.

 

 

Dick’s TT shoulder flashes – the Tyne Tees insignia of the 50^th (Northumbrian) Division.

 

25th January  1944 - Himmler addresses German Generals and Admirals at Posen in Poland, sharing with them information on the 'race struggle' to eliminate the Jews carried out by his SS troops.

 

61st Recce Regt, RAC

Home Forces

Wednesday

Chotie Darling,

                                                            Received your letter today for which many thanks.  ‘Fraid I can’t write much as I’m rather pushed for time at the moment.

            Nothing much to write about as I haven’t been out for weeks, except once, when I bought a new hat*.  Cost a devil of a lot.  Prices seem to be rocketing upwards.

            Hope you’re enjoying yourself on leave.  I’m afraid I won’t be able to get down to see you.  Next time perhaps.  I should get leave on approx March 5th so you may be able to get a few days then.

            Have met Brian Cooke** again – the mad Irish man I was at OCTU with.

            Still haven’t had any pay – I suppose now it will be Feb the 1st, in which case I’ll get three months pay some £40 or so.  Unhappily I owe about £20 of this.

            Must close here, Darling, will write again as soon as I get time.

                                                                        All my love

                                                                                                Dicker

*This seems to be a code Chotie and Dicker used to indicate that Dick’s unit had moved. 

**Brian Cooke, the Irish pianist and ‘ham’ (actor)

© Chotie Darling

 

27th January 1944 – lifting of the siege of Leningrad (St Petersburg) after 28 months and the deaths of more than 600,000 citizens from cold, starvation, disease and shelling by the German forces.

 

29th January 1944 – first of a series of heavy bombing raids on Frankfurt am Main by the RAF and US Air Force, up to 22^nd March.  The bombing of Frankfurt during World War 2 destroyed the largest Medieval city centre in Germany and killed 5,500 residents.

Lt. Col. Sir William Mount. (Bart) T.D. - Thursday 20th January 1944

Address as before

 Thursday

 Chotie Darling,

                                    Just a few more lines about nothing at all.

                                    They have a film show here every week – an army unit brings round the projector, etc and the show is held in a hall in the Castle.  I managed to sit through the first hour or so but couldn’t stick it any longer than that.  So accordingly I repaired to the pub and had the place to myself entirely, luckily.

            The place is usually cram full with RAF personnel and a contingent from the local Waaffery.  They’re an awful crowd.  Drunk most of the time and very childish.

            Can’t remember the film – I only saw about half of it.

            Just finished Graham Greene’s ‘England made me’ – very good.  Had a long letter from Monica this morning – full of woe as usual, complaining bitterly that I never answer her letters or something like that.  I only wrote a month ago – at Xmas.  In any case I gather that her husband’s the most jealous brute who resents her receiving any letters.  He’s the sort who write every day – poor fellow.

            I still haven’t had any pay but have borrowed 20 quid from the Squadron Leader to pay clothing and mess bills, etc.  He’s an extraordinary sort of man – a young Captain*, Oxford and peacetime Sandhurst – very clever.  An Historian, I believe.  The only one with any real aesthetic appreciation among the whole bunch.

            I never seem to get to bed these days – it’s past midnight now.  That’s the advantage of a small mess – you can monopolise the radio and fire after about eleven or so.  I usually stay down ‘till the early hours as I don’t get up until nearly eight in the morning, and I’m better off with less sleep, these days at any rate.

            More Beethoven – unusual at this time of night – or morning.  From Calais 2 which is very powerful here.

            I’ve had a REME** Lieutenant sleeping with me – (not literally) for the past few days.  He left this morning.  Only spoke about three words to me the whole time.  A Scotsman.  Now I have my room to myself again which means I spread my kit over the whole place.  Awful shambles.  I must need a wife, I’m thinking.

            Well, Darling I must get off to bed.  It’s 1-30 and the fire’s nearly out and the Beethoven’s finished.

            There’s going to be a terrific party on Sunday.  The Colonel’s inviting all the officers in the Regt.  I’m told that when Lt. Col. Sir William Mount. (Bart) T.D.*** throws a party – it’s some party.

            Must close here, Darling,

                                    all my love

                                                Dicker

 

*Captain Frank Harding of ‘B’ Squadron?  He published “War Echoes over Thirty Years” in 1970 including a number of poems about 61^st Recce.  (See ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Ron Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

**REME = Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers

*** Territorial Decoration – for long service in the Territorial Army.

© Chotie Darling

 

21^st January 1944 – resumption of German air raids on London in the ‘Little Blitz’. Operation Steinbock, launched in retaliation for the Allied raids on German cities and for propaganda purposes targeted South-East England, particularly London as well as ports including Bristol (where Chotie was stationed), Cardiff and Hull.  The ‘Little Blitz’ continued until May and killed over 1,500 people.

22nd January 1944 – the Allies’ US Fifth Army land 36,000 men on the Tyrrhenian coast between Rome and Monte Cassino in Operation Shingle.  Initially successful, Anzio became one of the bloodiest WW2 battles in Western Europe.  The Germans counter-attacked and the Allies were then pinned down on the beachhead, under fire from German artillery, until the Gustav line was broken in May.  By then almost 10,000 men, Germans and Allies, had been killed.   (See Anzio landings.)

 

Preparing for the Worst - 18th January 1944

2/Lieut RKWilliams

61^st Recce Regt

Royal Armd. Corps*

Home Forces

PS  New form of address

Tuesday Eve.

Chotie Darling,

                                    I just had to write you this evening – if only to preserve my sanity.

            Spent the whole evening at the local with Jeff and two of his WAAFS, though I’ve only succeeded in getting morbid – not even slightly happy.  On the surface both of them appear quite normal, even respectable – at least so I had previously thought, but tonight settled things for them most definitely.  Talk about a couple of bitches.  Both appear to sleep with anyone on sight provided they get a free evening.  Even I was pretty disgusted, so I came back to write you and hear a little Beethoven.

            Well, I still haven’t had any pay.  At the moment there’s a chaotic service between the Orderly Room and the Regiment Paymaster.  Having filled in a fresh Joining Certificate I found out yesterday that although the Orderly Room sent it off by express post the Regiment Paymaster hasn’t had it.

            A certain Colonel phoned yesterday long distance and wanted to know what had happened to it.  One of these fine days they’ll sort things out.  Mother sent me a cheque a few days ago, and once more I’m bust.

            How are things with you?  Haven’t heard from you for ages.  Expect this will cross with one from you.  Write and tell me how things are going on. 

            And don’t forget Eric’s address! Or even Eve’s… I think it’s 3, St John’s Hill, but I don’t really remember.  I’d like nothing better than the four of us to get together in some pub, preferably Queen Anne, just to annoy Eric…

            Well, I hope you’re being a good girl….or at least as good as you usually are.  You’ll get merry Hell from me if you aren’t….looking back into the murky past we are pretty bad aren’t we?  Or don’t you think so?

            Everyone here’s got a terrific shake on owing to an impending inspection by the Colonel*.  People having children all round.  Not literally…  All except yours truly, who doesn’t give a damn one way or another.

            Well, Darling, this is a pretty meagre letter.  I’ll try to do better in a couple of days’ time.

            It’s absolute hell doing the same old routine grind and never seeing you.  Let’s hope we can meet again soon – then prepare for the worst**.

                                                Goodnight, Chotie

                                                                        Darling

                                                                                                Dicker

 

*See Royal Armoured Corps 1^st January 1944 on Chotie Darling website.

**Colonel Sir William Mount

***presumably a reference to the imminent Allied invasion of Western Europe - perhaps Dick already knew his regiment would see action?

© Chotie Darling

 

20^th January 1944 – 729 RAF aircraft again target Berlin on 20th, continuing the intensive Battle of Berlin Air Campaign.  On 27^th January 530 aircraft were deployed, on 28^th 677 aircraft and on the 30^th 534 aircraft (from Wikipedia).

The Russians re-capture the ancient city of Novgorod between Moscow and Leningrad (St Petersburg). Novgorod is now a World Heritage Site despite extensive damage during the war.

 

 

The Castle - Monday 10th January 1944

 2/Lt Williams RK

61^st Recce Regt

Home Forces

 

Monday Eve

Chotie Darling,

                                    Have a few hours to myself , so here goes.

                                    After my having been commissioned for some nine weeks, the adjutant has suddenly discovered that the Joining Certificate (which is the authority for issue of pay) was never sent off by the Orderly Room!  However, I have duly completed another which has now been sent off, and I can optimistically hope to see some solid cash within the next week or so.  I am now obliged to remain in the mess where I can get my beer on tick, but have to smoke cigarettes as they don’t stock tobacco.

            I don’t believe I’ve told you about the billets (?) we live in here.  All other ranks live in a castle, which overlooks some 20-30 miles of low-lying country*.  The Officers mess is a country house some 600 yds from the castle.  It’s quite large – some 6 or 7 bedrooms, and reasonably comfortable.  At the moment I have a room to myself owing to the temporary absence of my artist companion on a course.

            I came across a Chianti bottle on a scheme and this now takes pride of place on my table.  It’s green glass and holds a horse-chestnut twig which I trust will flower (?) in the spring.

            Have you found time to read that Claude Houghton yet?  Let me know what you think of it – if you think it’s lousy, say so…

            My drinking companion is on leave at the moment.  His name is Winzer and is known affectionately (?) as the ‘Duke’ by his troop.  His WAAF** (from the local waffery) consequently becomes ‘The Duchess’, or sometimes Mrs Simpson***, when the wags are feeling a little bitter.

            He’s quite a sound bloke on the whole but tends to drink himself to death – his gin bill over the Xmas week amounting to £15.  At least he’s not so completely dead as the remainder here.  They all try to give the impression that they’re God Almighty as regards music and the arts.  However, when ‘Junior’ (the artist) and I turned up we managed to shake them considerably.  They appear to be jumped-up bank clerks, etc. just spreading their wings a little.

            (I have to pause here for a wretched mess meeting – the mess is bankrupt at the moment.)

            Well we soon wound up the mess meeting.  The net result was that messing has been increased by 6d per member and a monthly mess subscription of one day’s pay has to be paid.  This will involve an extra 25 shillings per month as far as I’m concerned.

            I had a stroke of luck an hour or so ago.  Going through some old papers I came across a Post Office book with a quid balance so I repaired to the pub immediately after dinner, for a beer or four.

            Met the Duchess there, with a couple of Dutch Officers who it appears are both Barons.  Trust her to get a grip as soon as Jeff’s away.

            Don’t forget to give me all the dope on Eric’s present position, will you?  If I can get his next leave taped, I’ll make the effort to go up and see him - & Eve…When’s the baby expected, or has it come already?

            As for leave, as far as I’m concerned, I can’t get away for another eight weeks at least.  Perhaps only seven – though I could get a 48 any time now.  The only snag with this is that it’s such a devil of a way to travel.  However, we might well manage something in the next month or so – I could certainly do with a little relaxation – if you know what I mean.

            There’s going to be a colossal inspection by the Colonel on January 22^nd and everyone’s getting keyed up with plenty of gimping and you know what.

            I’m out patrolling at 3 o’clock tomorrow morning for a couple of hours.  Luckily there’s a full moon which makes things very much easier.  It’s a pity you’re not here – I could take you round….

            Well, Darling there doesn’t appear to be any news to tell you.  I had a ten-page epistle from Chunky but haven’t found time to reply yet.  Here’s hoping.  I should like to spend a day with him in town, but you never seem to get round to these things.

            I have to sleep in the castle tonight in an oak-beamed room with stone floor & walls.  Very romantic but bloody cold.  Why aren’t you here?  I reckon we could keep warm, at least….

            Must close here ‘Chotie’ to get some sleep in before this wretched patrol.

                                    All my love, Darling

                                                            be Good….

                                                                        Dicker

 

*Lympne Castle, overlooking Romney Marsh in SE Kent.

**WAAF = Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

***King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 to marry Mrs Simpson, a divorcee.  They became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

© Chotie Darling 

The troops in the Castle were living a rather different life. 

Anthony Rampling remembers being served burnt rice pudding:

‘Everybody got up leaving leaving their rice pudding…the duty Officer caught me leaving mine and put me on a charge - a 252.   Later I was marched into the Officer in Command room (Major Johnson) – halt, salute.  “Why didn’t you eat your rice pudding?” “It was burnt Sir, everybody left it.” “Case dismissed.” Like a scene from Dads’ Army.’

 

10th January 1944 - Fascist Ministers responsible for Mussolini’s downfall are sentenced to death by firing squad by the Axis powers in northern Italy.  They include Mussolini’s son-in-law, the diarist Count Ciano.(See WW2-net Timelines.) 

Russia proposes moving the Polish border west to the 'Curzon line' proposed after World War 1. The Allies eventually agreed to this at the Yalta conference. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

14^th January 1944 – Soviet ‘Shock Troops’, secretly brought in to the Soviet bridgehead at Leningrad, attack the German encirclement to break the city’s siege. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

15^th January 1944 – the Australian Army takes Sio on the north coast of New Guinea’s Huon Peninsula, marking the culmination of the Huon Peninsula campaign. Since the landings at Lae in September 1943 the Allies had advanced north fighting the Japanese for possession of the coast guarding the straits that connect the Bismarck and Solomon Seas, between New Guinea and New Britain.

16th January 1944 – Dwight D Eisenhower of the US, having led Operation Torch and the Allied invasion of Italy, becomes Commander–in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Britain in preparation for Operation Overlord.

17^th January 1944 – Beginning of the Battle of Monte Cassino, one of the most important battles of World War 2 and probably the largest land battle in Europe. The mountains of Monte Cassino defended the Allies only remaining route to Rome and were a linchpin in the German’s Winter Line.  The Allies took four months and four major assaults to capture the high ground of Monte Cassino and a quarter of a million soldiers were left dead or wounded.  Initial failed attempts to cross the Garilgliano and Rapido rivers on 19^th January resulted in 2,000 casualties but succeeded in diverting German attention from the Anzio landings.

 

 

The Legend of the Devil's Dyke

Postcard – The Legend of the DEVIL’S DYKE* written Thursday 6^th January 1944

 W/252328

Pte Chalkley BE

‘b’ Troop ATS OFC

462 Hy (M) Bty AA RA

Markham Camp

Easton-in-Gordano

Bristol

GLOS.

 

PS. Address from memory!

 

Chotie,

Spending four days here on exercise – weather fine and some glorious views despite the wintry sun.  Am writing this in a pub of all places…  Still waiting to get some pay, wh         ll send you some shekels.  Go on a three days French course tomorrow (Friday) in an hotel we stayed at in peace time.  Will write you in next few days

                                                                                                        love

                                                                                                        Dicker

*The Devil's Dyke is a beauty spot in the South Downs, near Brighton, now owned by the National Trust.

 

6th January 1944 – the Russian Army advances into Poland, crossing the border west of Kiev.  In Ukraine two German Corps still held the line of the Dnepr to the south and German and Romanian troops held the Crimea. Germany held all of the Baltic Coast to besieged Leningrad and much of Belorussia (although communist partisans were active behind the German lines).

 

9^th January 1944 – Allied troops in the Arakan capture the port of Maungdaw on the west coast of Burma (Myanmar). (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

Improvisation - Sunday 2nd January 1944

Chotie Darling,

                                    At long last, I find myself with a little spare time, so will write you to let you know that I am still alive, after all. 

            First, Darling, I must thank you for sending the Sobranie at Xmas, which you shouldn’t have done, as you can’t really afford to do these things on private’s pay.  I certainly enjoyed it though.  It always smokes better coming from you….

            I’m also enclosing the book* I said I’d send which I hope you’ll find time to read and which I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

            It’s the first book I’ve read which bears out a theory I’ve entertained for some years, viz. that however long you live you will always come to regard your childhood as your happiest years.  This also served to show my lack of erudition in matters literary as the author quotes from three or four others who bear out this idea.  There will always be extenuating circumstances, however, which will give rise to cases contrary to the general rule – Dickens’ is an example – but these cases are isolated I’m sure.

            You probably think this is all rot…. – though personally I know I’m right.

            I’ve got all my camp kit now and am just starting to get organised.  We’ve got some furniture on loan in the mess and I managed to scrounge an old oak circular table for my own personal use.  Improvisation is the key note in this army , so I pinched two old bricks from the 16^th century cottage to use as book rests.  The mixture of matured oak and red brick gives my room a touch of the Tudor… Absolute rot…

            I share a room with a new arrival – a bloke I was at OCTU with.  He’s a portrait painter – knows everyone from Titian to Augustus John.  He’s now assault troop commander**…

            I still haven’t received notification that I’ve been credited with pay for November or December and, unless I win at pontoon tonight, I’ll never meet my mess-bill, severely swollen by the untimely advent of Xmas.

            Happily I’ve still a few quid in war savings, etc.  I keep fighting off ruin – even giving my batman my last five bob on Xmas Day.  I hope to become, comparatively, fabulously rich in the next few days, however, with two months’ pay, about £30-£35. 

        The major we had has now left us – left the army in fact and the Senior Subaltern is acting Squadron Leader – a very happy state of affairs.

            I haven’t had time to write either Diller or Brinner yet – expect they’ve written me off by now.

            Must close here, Darling, for dinner

                                                            All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

 

*by Claude Houghton

**Ronnie Jury (later Dick’s closest friend in the 61^st Recce.)

© Chotie Darling

 

3rd January 1944 - General Bernard Montgomery (‘Monty’ of El Alamein and the British Eighth Army) had left Italy at the end of December and now took command of the 21^st Army Group – British Second Army and First Canadian Army - to prepare for Operation Overlord, the D Day landings.  He immediately decided a wider assault front was needed and two more beaches were added to the west (Omaha and Utah, near the base of the Cherbourg Peninsula).

4th January 1944 – the US Army Air Force begin to re-supply resistance groups in France, Italy and the Low Countries in Operation Carpetbagger. (From Chronology of World War II.)

5th January 1944 – end of the Battle of Changde (in SE China’s Hunan province) with the Chinese repelling the Japanese invasion of the city, begun in November 1943.

Reconnaissance, Royal Armoured Corps

1^st January 1944 - the Reconnaissance Corps was absorbed into the Royal Armoured Corps. The RAC was formed in 1939 from former cavalry units, the Royal Tank Regiment and the Territorial Army’s Yeomanry.  Although the Recce were very different from normal RAC units, being organised for 'dismounted' action, they used light armoured cars and other vehicles for close reconnaisance. They retained their identity as a Corps within the RAC, including their badges, shoulder titles and arm-of-service strips but gradually changed to the RAC black beret. Dick’s former regiment, the 43^rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance, did not change to the black beret until 4^th April 1945.  

 

Dick's Reconnaissance shoulder strips

 

The British Army List for January 1944 (corrected to 26^th December 1943) - the  list of serving regular, militia or territorial British Army officers, kept since 1702 and published quarterly during WW2. This page has RK Williams first entry as an Officer (2nd Lieutenant). 

(From Recce Mitch's post of 7th June 2013 – see the last thumbnail of Army list for January 1944.)

A new Troop - Sunday 26th December 1943

2/Lt Williams RK

‘B’Sqn. 61^st Recce

Regt

Home Forces

 

Sunday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                I’m terribly sorry I was unable to write you for Xmas.  Actually it was extremely annoying to say the least.  I got back from leave at about midnight and was out commanding a new troop by dawn the following morning.  We were out until Xmas Eve.  It got to such a state that we didn’t expect to get back for Xmas even.

            I managed to get a postcard off to mother and, apart from the letter card I sent you, that was the only correspondence I could manage.

            Needless to say I’ve no pay yet – and don’t look like getting any until December 30^th.  I’ve cashed everything on sight including National Savings Certificates on which I’ve managed to keep going – if half-heartedly.

            Spent the whole of the Xmas hols. trying to get dry, warm & clean again after the scheme.

            At the moment I’m up to my eyes in work, having just taken over a new troop, and have been working all hours, even over Xmas.

            If I can find some brown paper I’ll send this book along with this.  I think you’ll like it.

            Will write you again in a few days and send some shekels

                                                                                                            love

                                                                                                                        Dicker

© Chotie Darling

 

26th December 1943 – the battle cruiser Scharnhorst is sunk, with almost 2,000 German sailors, during a fierce battle off the North Cape of Norway in the Arctic Barents Sea.  

 

28^th December 1943 – victory of the Allied 8^th Army at Ortona, on the Italian Adriatic coast, after fierce street fighting. The Canadian Army played a critical role.  

 

30th December 1943 – beginning of the second Battle of Arakan as the Allies start an advance towards the East Coast of Burma (Myanmar).  (See Second Battle of Arakan and Withdrawal from Maungdaw.)

 

During 1943 Allied merchant shipping lost 588 ships, equalling 3,042,371 gross tons (less than half the losses of 1942) to U-boats world-wide. 242 U-boats were sunk in 1943 (compared to only 35 in 1941 and 87 in 1942).  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

“By the end of December 1943 the ‘Battle of the Atlantic’ was virtually won and the seas were clear enough for supplies to move freely across the Atlantic.”  (Extract from  ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980. See also German 'U' boats withdrawn.) 

In the Field - Friday 17th December 1943

Letter written on Friday 17th December 1943

In the field

Friday

Chotie Darling,

                                    I got back from leave last night to find I was on a long scheme at 5 o’clock this morning.  I’m endeavoring to write this during a lull in the battle (?).

I’m very much afraid that I won’t be able to send you anything in time for Xmas.

I’ve just met Chunky (we’re both on the same side!) and he doesn’t get back until Xmas Eve.  I’ve no idea how long we’ll last but don’t suppose we’ll get back much before then. 

Went up to Purley on leave and stayed with Gramp for a couple of days.  Everyone’s got brand new babies – awful!  I’m beginning to think I’ll have one soon…

My God, it's COLD!  My fingers are just about freezing not to mention my poor bottom. 

I’ll try to write you again in the next few days.  Let me know if Eric’s home, won’t you?

                                                All my love, precious

                                                            Dicker

P.S.  Did you get 7 days or 14?

*In December 1943 61^st Division (reinforced, for the exercise by the 31^st Tank Brigade) played the defending force in Exercise Vulcan; a four-day training exercise aimed at improving the attacking process of the 43^rd Wessex Infantry Division (Dick’s former Recce unit).

© Chotie Darling

Eric Postles remembers December 1943 with 61^st Recce:

“We had a 3 day exercise with 59 Division just before Christmas that was notable for incessant rain.  Once I had a 48 hour pass to Ashford staying in the Salvation Army hostel.  Lympne Castle was cold and we slept on the floor which was not a very good way of spending Christmas day.”   (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

 

19th December 1943 - evacuation of Tyneham Valley in Purbeck to extend Lulworth’s tank gunnery range in practice for Operation Overlord.  The beautiful Dorset village is still occupied by the army.

20^th December 1943 – Allied air attacks begin on the V1 flying bomb ramps in France – the V1 was not used against Britain until June 1944.

In Front of the Fire - Friday 10th December 1943

“St Margarets”

Pagham

Friday

Chotie Darling,

                                                I’m sitting in front of the fire at home, writing this on nine days leave!  I’d just come back from a five days exercise, when I was told I’d been given a new troop (I only had the previous troop as a temporary measure) and that they were all going on leave the following morning so I’d better go with them.

            I spent the first day in London and I’m going up again for a few days tomorrow – so that I can get this business of ‘seeing the relatives’ over for once and all.

            Had quite a good time on the exercise, as I was not actively engaged – only umpiring, and on a motor bike,which gave me plenty of scope in getting about.  Had half an hour or so in Herne bay and saw Monica and baby.  She’s been under the doctor for treatment of some sort as she’s getting so fat.  The baby looks all right to me, but then I’m no judge of that sort of thing.  Her elder brother has just got married in Scotland so the whole family’s married now.  Didn’t see anyone else I knew as I had so little time there, though most of them are away anyhow.

            Spent one evening in Canterbury and had a little crawl by myself visiting the ‘Falstaff’, ‘Fleur-de-lis’ ‘Country’, ‘Shakespeare’ and ‘Three Carpenters’ , the five best known there.

            Spent one night on a AA Site and slept on a sofa in the Recreation Hut.  I don’t know whether it was mixed or not – if it was I was taking the helluva chance….these A/A women**….

            Hope to see a couple of lunch-time concerts at the National Gallery – only missed one this week by a few minutes.  Have heard a couple of Beethoven Symphonies this week which isn’t too bad.

            It must seem ages since I wrote you last.  Unfortunately I went on exercise with only about an hour’s notice which wasn’t even time to get a motorcycle or riding kit.  I borrowed breeches for this show and wore them the whole five days.  Either they were cut for a very thin bloke or they’d shrunk or something but they cut my legs to ribbons. Murder!

            How are you these days? – cold I expect…If it were not for the fact that I’m sitting in front of a fire I should probably have written half a page – or less.

            (Interlude for hot chocolate and cake….)

 

                ↑                     

            Space to denote passage of time.

Do you remember the Green Child’s  head on the mantelpiece – the one Diller got in Belgium?  Dad’s latest trick is to put a cigarette in its mouth.  Looks horrible!

            Incidentally I’ll send you some shekels for Xmas – it’s no use me trying to get anything – so that you can do some shopping or a show or something in Bristol.  I’ve had to give up coupons for the other ranks’ kit I’ve kept – 18 for 2 pairs of boots! etc so at the moment I don’t know how much I’m worth.  I will send some eventually. 

            I’m enclosing a book which I’ve been trying to get for the past year or more.  Tell me what you think of it.

                                    I’d better close here.

                                                All my love, Darling

                                                                        Dicker

 

* 'The Falstaff' and 'The Shakespeare' are still open, ‘the Country’ was probably 'The County Hotel' and is now the Abode Hotel , the ‘Three Carpenters was probably the 'Three Compasses' and is now the the Lady Luck and and the 'Fleur de Lis' is closed.

** Chotie was an AA (Anti-Aircraft) woman in the ATS - they were also known as Ack-Ack Girls.) The situation of the Ack-Ack Girls, often posted alongside men in mixed batteries, and some initial disciplinary issues, led to a loose reputation that may have been ill-founded (although some male officers might have taken advantage of their command).  American troops stationed in the UK referred to them as Co-ed Gun Girls.

© Chotie Darling

 

15th December 1943 – the first war crimes trial against Nazi defendants took place in Kharkov (Kharkiv) in the Ukraine. 15,000 bodies had been found in the nearby ravine of Drobytsky Yar following a massacre of Kharkov’s Jewish population two years earlier. The Soviet military tribunal found the three Germans and one Soviet collaborator guilty and they were quickly executed.

The Allies finally recognise Tito’s Communist Popular Liberation Committee, which had led resistance to the Nazis in Yugoslavia since 1942, as the future Yugoslavian government.  

The Battle of Arewe begins the Allies Campaign on New Britain, an island to the north-east of New Guinea.  This diverted Japanese troops from a major Allied landing on the SW tip of the island on 26^th December.  Rabaul, at the eastern tip of the New Britain, was Japan’s main military and naval base in the South Pacific and MacArthur’s campaign aimed to surround and disable the Japanese forces there. 

Chocolate Biscuits - Sunday 28th November

2/Lt R K Williams

‘B’ Sqdn. 61^st Recce Regt

Recce Corps, Home Forces

 

Sunday 28^th

Chotie Darling,

                                                I’m now back again and settled down after the scheme, which lasted for its original duration much to everyone’s disgust.

            On the whole I had quite a happy time, as I either stayed at, or passed through, several old haunts well known to the family in the old Morris Cowley* days, and coupled with the opportunity so often missed of worming my way into a vast number of period farmhouses and the like.

            The weather was excellent, cold but dry and as we stayed in one little village for three days without doing anything of military importance, we managed to get sufficiently well organised to hold ABCA** periods and run a football tournament.  I evaded these two popular pastimes however, and mooched about a local farm until the daughter of the house asked me in for coffee and CHOCOLATE Biscuits!  Her undoubted charms left me cold, but I took a lively interest in the biscuits.  Lovely old house, with a massive oak beam over the fireplace marked 1600.

    The major*** came back yesterday.  He appeared quite a good type – reads Balzac, so I’m well in.

    Nothing much happens here.  I’ve just finished a 48 hr spell of Duty Officer, rather a cushy appointment.

    I get another 24 hr next Wednesday so I may go up to ……….. (word inked out).  There’s nothing to do here, or locally, but the snag is the fare.  It will be the second day I’ve had off in three weeks, which isn’t so good, to my way of thinking.

    Many thanks for your letter, Darling, most welcome at the conclusion of an exercise.  Glad to hear you’ve got, or rather you’re getting, a rise****.  I bet you’re getting more than me after all.  After I’ve paid income tax, messing***** etc, I get the equivalent of Lance Corporal’s pay….

            Must close here for dinner.

                                    All my love precious

                                                                    Dicker.                     

*presumably the family car from his childhood at Orpington in Kent.

**Army Bureau of Current Affairs – an organisation set up to educate and raise morale among British servicemen in World War 2 (see Wikipedia).

***possibly the Regimental second-in-command, who was a Major, or maybe the Major commanding ‘B’ Squadron. (See Reconnaissance Organisation December 1943 and Reconnaissance.)  Dick was one of 23 to 30 subalterns in the Regiment – commissioned officers below the rank of captain, generally comprising first and second (junior) lieutenants. Dick, as a newly commissioned officer, was a second lieutenant.

****due to her new qualification as Operator Fire Control?

*****Commissioned Officers were required to eat in the Officers’ Mess and pay a subscription fee for supplies and upkeep. They would also be expected to wear formal attire for evenings in the mess.

© Chotie Darling

 

 

2^nd December 1943 – A German Air raid on the Adriatic port of Bari, near the southernmost tip of Italy, hits a US ship secretly carrying mustard gas. Many civilians are poisoned by the gas and over a thousand Allied servicemen perished.  Fires from oil pipleines and ammunition explosions put the port out of action until February.  The Allies try to keep the ship’s cargo secret, since it might provoke the use of chemical weapons in the war. The incident was only fully exposed in 1967.

The Allied 5^th Army in Italy again attacks at Monte Camino and manages to take the peaks of La Difensa and Camino.  After heavy fighting the Germans pull back from the Bernhardt line to the Gustav line and Monte Cassino, protecting the main route to Rome.  On the Adriatic side of Italy the the Canadian 1^st Division lead the Allied 8^th Army across the River Moro and towards Ortona, suffering terrible losses from the German defenses.

In Britain a shortage of coalminers leads to the Ministry of Labour and National Service, led by Ernest Bevin, taking one in 10 conscripts to work in the mines. The ‘Bevin Boys’ service to the war effort was not fully recognised until1995.

 

4^th December 1943 – Leipzig, a city in eastern Germany, is bombed by the RAF causing an intense firestorm.  More than 1,800 people are killed.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

At the second Cairo conference Churchill and Roosevelt discuss Turkey’s neutrality with President İnönü.  However, Turkey did not join the war, on the side of the Allies, until February 1945. Exhausted after the conference Churchill collapsed from pneumonia on a visit to Eisenhower in Tunis and came close to death.

 

On 8th December 1943 Tommy Flower’s ‘Colossus’, the world’s first programmable electronic computer, was unveiled at the General Post Office Engineering Department (later BT) at Dollis Hill.  It was installed at Bletchley Park codebreaking centre in January 1944 and provided unprecedented detail on German defences, crucial for the planning of the D Day landings.

 

Dicks's Registration and Discharge Card on 9th December 1943

 

 

Copy of Record -  Registration and Discharge Card

 

0.Registration Number                                     S/O Strength on Transfer

  26282522.                                               a7B Jou-1. Part.1. dated 3.4.43         

1.Surname        WILLIAMS           3. Army Number             5   731   671

2. Christian Names    Richard Kelner          

 100 (Sandhurst) OCTU RAC. 903   

4. Regiment or Corps          DORSET R.136

                                     PRE.OCTU.9005.

5. Nature of Engagement      TA(W)

6. Date of Joining (Army Class) or Date of Enlistment (Others)    21-6-40

7. Date of Birth            28-7-21

8.Nationality or Dual Nationality              E

9.Religion                      CE.

10.Industry Group        O                    

11.Occupational Classification  900 

12.Cause of becoming Non-effective    Discharged under para. 390 (xbii) K.R. 1940 having been Appointed to a commission.                                                12.(a)Date    30/10/43                                                    

13.Single or Married                 S                                              

14.Home Town and County (U.K.) or  Country (abroad)

Weymouth, Dorset   

Orpington. Kent.   

19.Location        H                                  X Date Rejoined from Reserve

Wt. 10832/164            2,000,000  5/41          M.&H., LTD.             T.51_229         43Regt A.F.  8.  102

 

A.Rank                  Pre  B.Service Trade     (M) 2.9.42  Trade tested 2 9/40.qual  Div Mach GpD ClII                             Physical Training Inst. Spec Qual (SG2        Div. Mech. GpD. Cl.II C. Medical Category           A1

                

Part II Order        133/42        124/42

 

Part II Order	Postings	Offr’s Inits
79/12/42	Posted 1st Air Landing Coy. (Recce Corps) 21.4.42	WR
52/42  1st.A.L 43 Recce 78/42	Posted to 43rd Recce Regt Wef. 13.7.42.
43rd Recce 38/43	Home Details 13 2/43
43rd Recce 47/43	P.att. No 1 Pre-OCTU. RAC wef.
	4.3.42. Authority:- WOhr. 43/Trng/3250
	(AGIE) df-23.10.42 & WOUM BM ZP/9304/
41/43	AGIE df-23.2.43 Posted 162 OCTU. 15/5/43

Entry Date  0 OCT 1941   

29 APR 1942

Dates on which Amendment Slips were sent to Central Card Index

             4/K 267 84)                   K96200  10)  (12) N.12691

             22/5/43                        30.8.43. 11)     9.Dec.43

                       

Operator Fire Control

 

On 10^th November 1943 Chotie had passed

an OFC (Operator Fire Control) Trade Test at Bristol.

On 26^th November 1943 she was mustered as OFC Group D Class II.

 

Copy of Record – Chotie’s Service & Casualty form

250/7            17.11.43        462/133

Passed Trade Test at Bristol on 10/11/43 and qual. For appt. as O.F.C. Gp. D Class II in accordance with ATS Trade Tests. 1942. Authy IFC 46 Bde

 

260/4            29.11.43        462/133

Mustered as O.F.C Group D. Class II wcf 10.Nov. 43. Authy ATS Records MRA/M dated 26/11/43

 

Copy of Record - Choties’ Registration form

1. Rank    Pte
2. Service Trade and Classification  SBO (M)

O.F.C.

Tti. O.F.C Gp D Class II 10/11/43             250/43

Mustered OFC Gp D Cl II 10/11/43           260/43

 

27^th November 1943 – the New Zealand 2^nd Division fighting with Montgomery’s 8^th Army on the Adriatic side of Italy succeed in crossing the River Sangro.  Canadians then lead the Allies advance towards the strong defences of the German’s Winter line at Ortona.  Germany’s main defensive position in southern Italy, defended the routes to Rome and the north. The Gustav line ran from Ortona, on the coast, along the north bank of the Moro River through the Apennine mountains and Monte Cassino to Formia on the Tyrrhenian coast. The Bernhardt and Hitler lines east and west of Cassino provided extra defences.  Although the Gustav line had been penetrated by the end of November the Allies took over five months from November 1943 to May 1944 to overcome the winter line and continue their advance in Italy.

28th November 1943 – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet at the Tehran Conference in Iran (occupied by Soviet and British troops to secure the oilfields and supply the supply route to the Caucasus). They agree on a cross-channel invasion of France in May 1944 and discuss other political issues, some contributing to the post-war establishment of Soviet dominated governments in Eastern Europe.  Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan once Germany was defeated and tentative steps were made towards the establishment of the United Nations organisation. According to Beevor in ‘The Second World War’ (published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012) this was the conference 'when Stalin, supported by Roosevelt, had defined Allied strategy in the west' and 'Europe was bound to be divided in Stalin's favour.'

The Lost Wallet - Thursday 18th November 1943

2/Lt Williams RK

‘B’ Squadron 61^st Recce Regt

Recce Corps

Home Forces

 

Thursday

Chotie Darling

                                    Many thanks for letter.  I would have replied before this, but managed to get a 24 hour from midday yesterday to noon today.  Both Diller and Brinner were home so we had quite a reunion at the ‘Beach’.

            Unhappily going back I had the most horrible experience – the worst experience that any man can have.  I lost my wallet!

            Not only did it have £6 in it but also my ticket.  I was stranded on Brighton Station with some 5 shillings in all!  There was no Railway  Transport Officer there so I went in desperation to the YMCA* where the manageress lent me a quid.  Awfully good of her, as I had no security to offer her.  However, I managed to get back OK, if late.

            I’ve just written to Bognor & Brighton Stations but don’t expect to hear anything.  Don’t say anything about it or mother will go frantic.

            On top of this I’m going on a scheme for a week and am afraid I won’t get a chance to write you.

            I’m well settled down now and am quite enjoying myself, though I shall be glad when I get this next week over.

            How are things with you?  Glad to hear you arrived back without trouble, and hope you got the groundsheet O.K.

            Met that old friend of mine from the 43^rd, Don Johnston** (the one who would repeatedly play the ‘Warsaw’).  Hadn’t seen him for ages.

            Have you heard of Eric lately?  You might ask Eve to prod him a little about writing me.  That is if you still correspond.

            There’s a Lieutenant here, a burly West Country farmer, who buys anything on sight.  Last week he bought a grand piano and a herd of Friesian cows!  Quite a lad.

            I’ve bought a new hat, though I didn’t pay much for it!  Twenty shillings is about my mark….

            No real news to tell you.  Things here are very cushy until a scheme comes along – then everyone starts flapping.

            I’m thinking about starting to buy some period furniture as you’ll never get any after this show.  Period stuff is still reasonable, anyhow.

            Must close here – write you next week.                                         

                                                All my love, Darling

                                                                                Dicker

P.S.  Don’t bother to write for the next few days as I won’t get it for a week.

 

*Young Men’s Christian Association

**See Chapter 7 43rd Reconnaissance - the beginning of the end.

 

© Chotie Darling

 

18th November 1943 - beginning of the RAF’s bombing campaign 'the Battle of Berlin' (not to be confused with the Soviet battle of Berlin in April and May 1945). In 16 raids thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands made homeless. By the last raid, at the end of March 1944, more than 500 RAF planes had been lost. (From WW2-net Timelines and Wikipedia.)

 

20th November 1943 – beginning of Operation Galvanic, the US bid to capture the Gilbert and Marshall Islands from the Japanese. These strategically important islands lie to the west of central Pacific, between Hawaii and the Solomon Islands.  The successful but brutal 3 day Battle of Tarawa Atoll reulted in nearly 5,000 Japanese and Korean dead and more than 1,000 Americans, with 3,000 US casualties.  Tarawa land area is approximately 12 square miles.

 

22^nd November 1943 – opening of the Cairo summit between Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek of the republic of China to plan for post-war Asia.  The Soviet Union was not at war with Japan and did not attend.  Roosevelt took an anti-Imperialist stance and agreed with Chiang Kai-Shek that Indochina would not be returned to France.

 

25th November 1943 – US air forces based in China bomb the Japanese island of Formosa, now known as Taiwan. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

26th November 1943 – sinking of HMT (His Majesty’s Troop Ship) Rohna, off the Algerian coast, by a radio-controlled glide bomb from a German Heinkel plane. The Rohna was carrying more than 2,000 troops, mainly American. 1,138 men were lost – the largest loss of US troops at sea in a single incident and kept secret until 1967. (See Rohna Memories.)

The Security Angel - Thursday 11th November 1943

PS       Sorry its pencil but I left my only good pen at home.

2/Lt Williams RK

61^st Recce Regt

Recce Corps

Home Forces

Thursday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Well I’ve arrived here and am just beginning to settle down, though rushed off my feet at the moment.  I hope you also arrived back safely and without incurring 7 days CB*.

            Things are, as far as I can see, pretty cushy at the moment owing to the fact that most Senior officers are away, on courses, etc.

            Did you leave your groundsheet at Pagham?  We looked everywhere but couldn’t find it.  Let me know if you did and I’ll write them to send it on to you.

            Weather couldn’t be better here – plenty of sun and wind.

            I’m umpiring a stunt for three days soon on a motorcycle which should prove interesting, if the weather holds.  It’s a lot easier than being involved in the wretched thing yourself.

            ‘Fraid this letter’s rather sketchy but the security angel cuts out everything worth writing – almost….

            I didn’t thank you Chotie for a very happy leave – I hate to think of what it would have been like just by myself.  Brinner, unfortunately couldn’t get his leave with me.  He goes home next weekend I believe so he’ll see Diller anyhow.

            Must close here as I’m a bit pushed.

                                                            All my love Chotie

                                                                Dicker

*CB – Military abbreviation for ‘confined to barracks’ also known as ‘jankers’ (slang). It involved being put on a charge and subjected to a variety of punishments for a minor disciplinary offence.

© Chotie Darling

 

Dick had joined the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment

as a 2nd Lieutenant in ‘B’ Squadron.

In 1943 61^st Division in Kent had been relegated to coast guarding duties for the Home Forces* and he was stationed at Lympne Castle, near Folkestone.  The 13^th century castle is set high on a hill overlooking the Romney Marshes. 

East of Lympne lay ‘Hellfire Corner’ – the area around Dover in reach of the German cross-channel guns from Calais and Boulogne, which had been firing on the port since August 1940.

 

17th November 1943 – Oswald Mosley, founder of the far right British Union of Fascists, is released from prison on health grounds to considerable protest.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

61st Reconnaissance

 

Chotie Darling

 Dedicated to the memory of my mother

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

 

 Part 3        Lieutenant Williams   

 

Chapter 9            61st Reconnaissance

 

From 30th October 1943 and for the rest of his war Dick was back in the Reconnaissance Corps. He’d served as a Trooper in 43rd Recce from July 1942 to March 1943 and before that was briefly in the legendary 1^st Airlanding Reconnaissance.

The Recce Corps had two official mottos “From One Learn All” (Ab Uno Disce Omnes) and “Beaten Paths are Safest” (Via Trita, Via Tuta).  Their unofficial motto “Only the Enemy in Front…..Every Other Beggar Behind” was going to prove only too true for the 61^st Recce in NW Europe (see ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books, 2004). 

 The Recce Corps' role was “that of the cat’s whiskers – armoured, mechanised transmitting whiskers. Those who served had to be intelligent, enterprising, brave, enduring and highly skilled” (Arthur Bryant on the 1940 Bartholomew Committee: PRO WO106/1741).  It also helped if they were slightly short – like the riflemen of old (‘A Dorset Rifleman’ edited by Eileen Hathaway) they were less conspicuous and could also fit into their rather small vehicles (Anthony Rampling pers comm.).  Dick was only 5ft 6½ inches when he joined up at the age of 18 in June 1940.

Unfortunately almost all the official war records for the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment have been lost so we have to rely on personnel accounts and diaries, such as this blog, to tell their story.  See also ‘Memories of the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment’ assembled in ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books, 2004.

 

 Anthony Rampling was already in 61^st Reconnaissance when Dick joined the Regiment - and has kindly agreed to help me tell their story.

 

 

Joining Up & 61st   

 Coming from a little village called Tendring, not far from Colchester in Essex, Anthony had never even travelled as far as London before he joined the Army.  He was sent to Norwich – quite a big adventure! – but that autumn Norwich Barracks were like a prison. “You had to take paper and string with you to post your belongings home”. So began 6 weeks of square bashing and inoculations.  “Everything had to be so neat.”

 Posted to Barnard Castle in the north of England (County Durham) Tony learned to use a Bren machine gun with the Royal Armoured Corps and passed out after 6 weeks at the beginning of 1943.  He was sent to the Royal West Kent holding regiment but soon joined the 61st Recce.

 

61st Reconnaissance Regiment was camping in a field between Chalfont St Giles and Chalfont St Peter in the Buckinghamshire Chilterns, not far from Tring.  Anthony was placed in the Assault Troup of ‘B’ Squadron – Dick’s squadron to be. 

 He remembers the Regimental commander, Lt-Colonel Sir William Mount (grandfather to the former Prime Minister David Cameron), sent them off on a 100 mile route march, sleeping out and living rough. Many men ‘cracked out’ with blisters, etc.  Tony finished the march but collapsed when they got back to Chalfont St Giles. They were at Chalfont St Giles for some time - there was a dance there with about two girls and hundreds of troops - then they moved around, settling eventually at the Medieval Lympne Castle in Kent for coastal defence duties. Tony remembers  “It was very eerie on guard there at night."  (Lympne Castle is said to be haunted.)

 

Dick hadn’t arrived at the Castle yet

 - after receiving his commission he had 9 days leave

and met up with Chotie at Pagham.

 

1^st November 1943 – US Marines begin Operation Cherry Blossom to regain Bougainville from the Japanese, who occupied the island since April 1942.  Bougainville lies between the Solomons and Rabaul, the critical Japanese base on Papua New Guinea’s New Britain island. Bougainville was defended by 40,000 Japanese troops and supported four airfields. By the end of March 1944 the Japanese had retreated to the remoter parts of the island but, although US forces handed over to the Australian Army at the end of 1944, combat operations on Bougainville only ceased with the Japanese surrender in August 1945. By then thousands of Japanese had been killed or died of disease or malnutrition.
 

3^rd November 1943 – in Operation 'Harvest Festival' the Germans kill 42,000 Jews working in forced labour camps in the Lublin area of Poland.  The plan to murder all the Jews in Poland had begun in autumn 1941 and was codenamed ‘Operation Reinhard’ after the Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich.  It was now approaching its culmination.  Over 3 million Polish Jews lost their lives during the Holocaust - 90% of the Jewish population.

 

5th November 1943 – British X Corps, fighting with the US 5^th Army in Italy, attempt to seize Monte Camino, the mountain ridges guarding the route to Rome.  After several days of German mortar fire they fell back from what they now dubbed ‘Murder Mountain’.

6th November 1943 – the Russian Army recapture Kiev, the largest city in the Ukraine. Soviet forces had advanced at night, bursting out of two bridgeheads on 3^rd November to encircle the capital. 

Soon after the liberation of Kiev the ravine burial site of Babi Yar was discovered, 4 miles from the centre of Kiev.  Here more than 30,000 Jews had been shot by the Nazis in three days at the end of September 1941.  The site continued to be used by the Germans to murder and bury Jews and other persecuted groups until by August 1943 there were about 100,000 bodies in the gravesite, probably 90,000 of them Jewish.  With the Red Army approaching hundreds of prisoners were put to work digging up and burning the bodies to hide evidence of the massacres, before being killed themselves –see 28th September 1943.

 

Band and Banners - Tuesday 26th October 1943

 

Tuesday

Chotie Darling,

                                                Just received your letter and am replying instanta.  Very pleased to hear you can manage some leave, if only three days.

            I suggest you come down to Pagham – I’ll pay your fare, and we can renew our former brief acquaintenship (sic) with the ‘Lamb', ‘Bear’* & ‘Beach’.

            Things are so quiet for Mother & Dad that I think I should stay home as I don’t know how long my leave will be.  The point is that I may be posted and recalled from leave after a week or so at home.

            If I can float a loan from someone I’ll enclose some shekels in this letter.

            Glad to hear you had a happy time in Whitby**, you certainly get about a bit.  My only travel consists of going out on schemes etc, when you’re usually wet, cold and generally miserable and certainly not in the mood to appreciate the beauty of the west country.

            However, I have seen enough to convince me that the people who say ‘See England first’ do know what they’re talking about.

            Can you let me know probable time of arrival at Pagham? – and I’ll get the band and banners out.

            Will close here, Darling for dinner – it’s a Band night.

                                                                        All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

*Pubs in Pagham.

** See Chotie in Yorkshire.

© Chotie Darling

 

30th October 1943 – the United States 5th Army breaks through the Barbara line, Germany’s defensive position across Italy, at Mondragone on the Tyrrhenian Coast. The British 8^th Army attacked across the Trignov River near the Adriatic Coast on 2^nd November 1943.  (From Chronology of World War II and WW2-net Timelines.)

Mucking about now - Saturday 23rd October

As before

Saturday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for letter.  I didn’t get it until yesterday as we were out on exercise for a week.

            Firstly, as regards leave I definitely get it on the 30^th inst. Though I don’t know, as yet, for how long.  It’s almost sure to be 9 days but you know the army.

            I’ve received my final reports and have only a week of mucking about now.   I’ve also got my clothing coupons…I bet that made you wince!.  Thousands of ‘em. 

            Anyhow let me know whether you can manage anything as regards leave won’t you?  Brinner may be home on the 5^th before he goes to OCTU but nothing definite as yet.

            Had glorious time on exercise in the Cotswolds.  Went to Cheltenham and Gloucester, etc.

            Can’t write anymore now as dinner’s up

                                                                                                Love

                                                                                                            Dicker

P.T.O.

Do your damdest to get leave, Chotie.   

© Chotie Darling

 

24^th October 1943 – The Soviet Army takes Melitopol, near the Sea of Azov in the Ukraine, breaking the Wotan line (part of the Germans’ hastily constructed defensive position from Smolensk along the Dnepr River to the Black Sea).  By 1^st December the entire line had been broken and the German 17^th Army were isolated on the Crimean Peninsula. Only the German’s Panther line in the north between Lake Peipus (now between Estonia and Russia) and the Baltic Sea along the Narva River remained intact.

Putting in for Recce

                     On 13^th October 1943 Dick signed a preference form

 for the Recce Corps

with a ‘family or territorial claim’ for the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment, then stationed in Kent.

Copy of Record       Preference form

 5731671                        AGE     22 years  3 months                                                 299440

(M.S. Form E.C.1)                                                                                   ARMY FORM E.562

OFFICER CADET TRAINING UNIT            1A

            77 TROOP        FIRST APPOINTMENTS EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS              B

FORM to be filled up by successful Candidates for appointments to Emergency Commissions in the Army

Name in full       WILLIAMS, RICHARD KELNER      

1.Regiment or Corps of the British or Indian Army for which I desire to express a preference. Officers wishing for Scottish, Irish, or Welsh Regiments should state their connection, if any, with the country in question. (Not more than three Regiments or Corps should be specified. Family or Territorial claims should be fully stated.)	(1)   RECCE CORPS	Family or Territorial Claims (if any), to be fully stated
		61
	(2)
	(3)
2. (For applicants for Household Cavalry and Foot Guards only) Have you been accepted by the Colonel of the Regiment for which you have applied above? (NOTE. No commissions in Regiments of Household Cavalry or Foot Guards will be granted unless applicants have previously been accepted by the Colonels of the Regiments concerned.)

 Signature          RK Williams

Address to which notification of appointment should be sent.  Any change should be at once notified to the War Office

“St Margarets” Sea Lane    PAGHAM  SUSSEX.     (To be written in BLOCK LETTERS)

Date                 13.10.’43

NOTE.-  This Form must be filled and forwarded to “THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE,  THE WAR OFFICE (M.S. 2.), WHITEHALL, LONDON, S.W.1,” through the Officer Commanding, Officer Cadet Training Unit.

(2331) Wt.29614/1238.  20,000.  9/39.  W.R.M.  Gp.69s

 

 

13th October 2013 – the official Italian Government declares war on Germany.

14th October 1943 – half of the prisoners in Sobibor, 300 men and women, escape in an uprising (although only 47 survived the war). Sobibor, in eastern Poland was constructed in spring 1942 and by the time of the uprising at least 167,000 people, mainly Jewish, had been murdered there. Although the killing centre was dismantled shortly after the uprising and kept secret by the Nazis, it has been estimated that over 250,000 people died there.  (From WW2-net Timelines and  and The United States Holocaust Museum.) 

14^th October 1943 – after suffering heavy losses over Germany the US Air Force calls off long-range unescorted daylight raids. (From Chronology of World War II.  See 'precision bombing in daylight.)

 

16th October 1943 – beginning of the Roman ‘Razzia’ or round-up of the Jews in Rome.  Although in September 1943 the Germans had levied a ransom in gold for the safety of the Roman Jews, which had been paid, the SS still proceeded to seize the Jews in Rome and deport them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. 1,800 were sent to the death camp and all were killed. However, for every Roman Jew deported 10 escaped, with the Italian people helping them to hide.

In 1933 there were about 50,000 Jews living in Italy. Anti-Jewish discrimination laws were introduced in 1938 but the Italian military authorities refused to participate in the mass murder of the Jews and Jews were generally safe from deportation in Italy or Italian-occupied territory until the Italian Armistice. More than 40,000 Jews survived the Holocaust in Italy.  (See United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for Rome and Italy.)

17th October 1943 – completion of the Thailand to Burma railway, between Bangkok in Thailand and Rangoon (now Yangon) in Burma (Myanmar). Built by the forced labour of 180,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 Allied Prisoners of War (half of them British) for the Japanese military. Conditions and treatment were so horrific that half of the Asians and over 12,000 of the Allied PoWs died or were killed – the railway construction is viewed as a war crime. ( See the Second World War Experience Centre and Far East Prisoners of War.)

 

19th October 1943 – the Treblinka death camp in eastern Poland, is closed and steps taken to completely dismantle it, returning the site to farmland to hide the atrocities.  Between July 1942 and August 1943 25 German SS men assisted by 100 Ukrainian auxiliaries murdered around 800,000 Jews and Roma at Treblinka.

20th October 1943 – creation of the United Nations War Crimes Commission  by a meeting of Government representatives of seventeen of the Allied Nations, including all of the major powers except the USSR at the Foreign Office in London.

 

 

22nd October 1943 – more than 10,000 people die in the explosions and fires caused by a bombing attack on the city of Kassel, in central Germany. 

This was also the beginning of Operation Corona – the RAF used native German speakers to impersonate and broadcast as German Air Defence Officers. When the Germans switched to using women controllers in November so did the RAF.

Chotie in Yorkshire - Saturday 9th October 1943

 Same Address

Saturday

Chotie,

                        Many thanks for letter – expect by now you’re in Yorks* enjoying yourself as usual …  I’m sending this to your original address and hope it will be forwarded.  Never having been (or ever wanted to go) to Yorkshire I can’t offer any comment but it will make a change at any rate.

            Glad to hear your cold is better – you’d better get those woollies on.

            Aren’t you getting highbrow?  Chopin and Greig!  Unhappily I don’t get any time to hear these delightful people – or even read about them, & I presume even less time after I’m commissioned.  For Chopin you couldn’t do better than Leff Pouishnoff – who plays “Frick’s” stuff better than he ever played it himself and considerably better than Soloman or Cortot**!

            Talking about weddings I have to attend one on Nov 1^st at Pagham.  It's Tony Smith’s of Church Farm which I expect you remember well.  I’ve managed to avoid all previous weddings like the plague but this one’s definitely got me.  We pass out on the same day – he’s a cadet here.  Any suggestion for a wedding present?  Awful isn’t it.  And poor pal entangled …Ces pauvres jeunes gens***….

            Last I heard of Diller she was going on a wireless course to the Isle of Man!  and six months at that.  Also thinks she’ll lose her leave but welcomes any change.

            Mary I believe is applying for transfer to Bournemouth.  Incidentally I get my leave on the 30^th inst, but have this wedding to go to on the 1^st Nov.  Can you manage anything?  Let me know won’t you?

            Must close here for lunch – will write again on the weekend,

                                                                                                                        love

                                                                                                                        Dicker

 

*Chotie seems to be in Yorkshire now (she was staying in Whitby), perhaps on training.  There was a Ack-Ack gun site at Whitby on Saltwick Bay - the ATS had to climb the famous 199 steps in full battledress to get to the East Cliff from their lodgings in town. (From Jane Ritchie and Elizabeth Trattles stories in 'Girls in Khaki' by Barbara Green, The History Press 2012 and Joyce Stott's account on the People's War website).  Nan, Chotie's best friend in the ATS, came from Yorkshire so it's also possible she was on holiday with her. (See also Chotie goes to Bristol.)

Nan from Yorkshire

**See previous letter for Leff Pouishnoff. Solomon Cutner was a British pianist known professionally as ‘Solomon’. Alfred Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist renowned for his interpretations of Chopin and Schumann. Cortot supported the German occupation in France.

***French for “These poor young people”.

 © Chotie Darling

 

10^th October 1943 – Franco, the Spanish dictator orders the Blue Division to return home. These were some 18,000 Spanish volunteers fighting with Germany against communism on the eastern front. Most returned but about 3,000 stayed to fight with Germany as the Blue Legion.  (From WW2-net Timelines and Wikipedia.)