Chotie Darling

"Mien Kampt" - Sunday 16th August

5731671 Tpr Williams R

Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

Preston Barracks, Brighton, Sussex

 

Sunday

My Darling Chotie,

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

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

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

            I’m looking forward to seeing Eileen Joyce tonight – never having seen her before. She’s an Australian and extraordinarily good pianist to hail from there.I saw a rather good film a few days ago –“Mien Kampt” (sic*– showing Adolf’s rise to power since his early days after thelast war and the brilliant way he went about it – the way he removed Ernst Roehm, Dollfuss, Schnussnigg** (sic) and the rest.  A lot of it was documentary, ie actual shots, especially of the jolly old Reichstag Fire Trial*** etc, and the flagwrapping parade in the Olympic Stadium****. 

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

                        All my love, Chotie Darling,

                                         Hope to get leave soon

                                                                             Dicker

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 © Chotie Darling

 

17^thAugust 1942 – first all-American bombing raid in Europe, directed against the marshalling yards of Rouen in France. The American bombers flew by daylight attempting to ‘precision bomb’ key nodes of the enemy’s industrial fabric.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

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

Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

Preston Barracks, Brighton, Sussex

 

Tuesday

My Darling Chotie,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                             All my love, Precious

                                                                                    Dicker

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

*Eileen Joyce was a glamorous Australian pianist.

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

***nine days leave

 © Chotie Darling

 

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

 

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

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

The War in Dorset - August 1942

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

Dick, meanwhile, was training to be a Driver Mechanic

at the Dreadnought Garage and Motor Engineering Works, Hove.

 

BRIGHTON. PROMENADE GARDENS.

Chotie

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

Love Dicker

© Chotie Darling

 

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

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

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

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

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

21 years old - Thursday 30th July 1942

Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

Preston Barracks, Brighton, Sussex

 

Thursday

My Own Darling Chotie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                                                    all my love, Darling

                                                                                                            Dicker

                                                                                                            xxxx

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

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

 

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

** an historic hotel on the seafront in Brighton

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

**** an expensive cigarette

***** “Better on Lips than on Paper”

 © Chotie Darling

 

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

Brighton - Wednesday 22nd July 1942

On 22nd July 1942 Dick was assigned to

No3. Technical Training Group in Brighton

 
Copy of Record

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

22.7.42.  Cutd(?) to No 3. Tech. Trg. Gp.  Army Rank Trooper  Place  Brighton

 

Letter written Wednesday 22nd July

Tpr Williams R

5731671 Room 28

3^rd Technical Training Group

PRESTON BARRACKS

BRIGHTON

SUSSEX

 

Wednesday

Dearest Darling Chotie,

                                                                        As you will see from above address, I’ve changed location once again, as I’m on a six-week course at Brighton.  Will you please note exact address as above and make no further reference, as to Regt etc.

            I’m afraid I’ve only been toBrighton a couple of times before, and so was able to find much to interest me.  The number of Oriental and Continental cafés and jewel shops is amazing.  The famous Aquarium is, unfortunately, occupied by the Army, but the mosque-like Pavilion is still open.

            The unit I’m now with isn’t too bad on the whole.  A very rough lot – no signs of mental vigour, as the medical journal would say – but I’m very thankful to be out of the Airborne in spite of two good friends I made there.

            I’ve had no reply to my last missive – it will probably catch me up in a few days’ time.

            I was transferred from 'A' Squadron to HQ and a couple of days later I found myself on this course.  It’s a driving course and should be quite easy. 

            I managed to get a couple of hours in Brighton this evening and was amazed to find that almost everything was still going – cinemas, theatres, etc. – although all ARP services, and ATS etc appear to be well under control. 

            I was very glad to see our old County again – the Oast houses and farmsteads looking just as peaceful as before this wretched business – I think it would take more than a war to alter them.

            I wish you could have been with me, Chotie Darling, I miss you terribly.  I only hope the day will soon come when we will be together, and when our only worry will be Junior’s first teeth, or something equally trifling.

                                    Goodnight, my Precious

                                                            Your loving,

                                                                        Dicker

P.S.     Write soon

© Chotie Darling

 

23^rd July 1942 - opening of Treblinka extermination camp in NE Poland. More than 850,000 people were murdered here, the majority Jewish.  Between July 22^nd and September 12^th 1942 approximately 265,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto were deported to Treblinka and c.35,000 were killed inside the ghetto. (From ‘Warsaw’, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website)

In Operation Blau, the German advance in southern Russia, they capture Rostov, a city near the mouth of the River Don on the Sea of Azov and the western gateway to critical Caucasian oilfields.  

 

26th July 1942 –As attacks and counter attacks continue on the El Alamein front the SAS (Special Air Service) destroy 37 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground including critical supply planes.  In July 1942 alone daring raids by the SAS destroyed a total of 86 German aircraft in North Africa. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

Rationing of sweets and chocolate introduced in Britain.  Biscuits were also rationed from August 1942.

Kent - letter posted on Friday 17th July

Chotie Darling

Dedicated to the memory of my mother and all those who hold the forever young of war in their hearts.

Part2        Reconnaissance

 

Chapter 6            43rd Reconnaissance  – the end of the beginning

 Dick joined the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment on 13^th July 1942.

He was initially stationed in Dover, Kent.

On 13^th July 1942 Dick swopped his Airborne Pegasus badge for the Wyvern (a legendary golden dragon) of the 43^rd(Wessex) Division. The army of King Alfred the Great had fought under the banner of the Wyvern against the invading Danes in the 9^th century and the soldiers of the Division were predominately from the area of his ancient kingdom. The Reconnaissance regiment Dick joined was also known as the Glosters having been formed from the 5^th battalion of the old Gloucestershire regiment in 1941.

Design for 43rd Divisions Wyvern badge in the papers for 4rd Recce held by the Tank Museum, Bovington.

Reconnaissance was an elite corps of the British army, taking the place of the Light Cavalry of past eras. Each Regiment took the number of its relevant Division but from June 1942 used the cavalry names of ‘squadrons’ and ‘troops’ instead of usual infantry descriptions.

They evolved into “swift, adaptable, and superlatively mobile fighting units with fast vehicles capable of taking heavy punishment, high concentrated firing-power and a complicated but efficient wireless network designed to convey, under the most trying conditions imaginable, accurate and balanced information to the general’s battle map”.

'Their task was to solve an eternal problem of war, to discover “what is happening on
the other side of the hill” – that is, inside the enemy lines.'

Reconnaissance personnel had to be of a high standard of intelligence for both the deduction and transmission of information and, although their ultimate objective was not
fighting, they needed to be tough and speedy fighters, able to work at the front of the enemy lines and survive to tell their tale.

They had to find out - by stealth, by drawing fire or by fighting – where the enemy was concealed, to explore his strength and movement and to maintain constant touch with him, relaying accurate information back quickly and continuously.  They were specially trained to be constantly on the alert and to use initiative, cunning and any resources available.

 

Only those who came out top in the IQ test were considered for Recce. “Recce men had to be tough with cold scientific brains behind their brawn.”

 

(From “The Reconnaissance Journal”, Memorial Number, Summer 1950 – article by Arthur Bryant; Recce Regt record WO 170/433 5 at the National Archive, Kew;  “Only the Enemy in Front – The Recce Corps at War 1940-1946” by Richard Doherty 1994; “This Band of Brothers” by Jeremy Taylor 1947; and  “Record of a Reconnaissance regiment – History of the 43^rd” by  A. Scott, Cole Packer and J. Groves with Jeremy Taylor 1950  and other 43^rd Recce papers examined courtesy of the Archive & reference Library, the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset. The assistance of members of WW2 Talk Forum with my research is also much appreciated.)

However, after 3 months training, Dick was no longer in the later famous 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron,

featured in the film “A Bridge to Far” for their role in Market Garden (September 1944).

 

16th July 1942 – in Paris 9,000 police under the orders of René Bousquet, the French secretary-general of police, seized 13,000 Jews, including children and sent them to Nazi death camps in the east.  In the course of the war at least 50,000 Parisian Jews were deported and murdered.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012 and ‘Paris’, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.)

 

Letter posted Friday 17^th July 1942

Tpr 5731671 Williams R

“A” Squadron

43^rd Recce Regt, Recce Corps, Home Forces

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                                    As you will see from above address much water has flowed under the old bridge since I last saw you on Saturday.  About half the old squadron were transferred to this regiment which is in the same corps but non-airborne.

            I can’t tell you where I am – but I can tell you I’m in the county of my humble origin*.

            At present I’m feeling very groggy, having just had a couple of inoculations –which always set me back a bit.

            I managed to get back in time on Saturday last.  There was a devil of a crowd at the bus station and at least three fights with Red-caps**, but I managed to get on a bus and arrived back just before midnight.

            Well, Precious I’m afraid I can’t write any more, as I feel like Death warmed-up.

            I think the leave works out all right here, so I shall probably get my next 9 days on time.  I can’t see any chance of getting down before then.

                                                            Goodnight, my Darling

                                                                         God bless you

                                                                                    Dicker

*Dick was born in Orpington in Kent. This letter was from Dover.

** Military police

© Chotie Darling

 

On 20th July 1942 Major A.W.E. Crawford joined 43rd Reconnaissance, taking over command from Lieutenant-Colonel D.Ward on 24th July.  At the beginning of the month 43rd Recce had received orders to mobilise for service overseas, less 1st line Reinforcements, and preparation for this mobilisation (medical inspections, overhaul of documents and receipts of personnel), to be completed by 2nd August, filled much of their time. All squadrons also carried out shooting practice.

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

 

21st July 1942 - 16,000 Japanese landed at Buna on the north cost of Papua New Guinea ready to advance on Port Moresby, the capital, along the mountainous Kokoda Trail.  Courageous Australian defenders, fighting in appalling conditions, stopped them from reaching their destination and in September they withdrew.

The Divisional Commander - Monday 6th July

The War in Dorset - July 1942

On 2^nd July air attacks on coastal defences in West Dorset damaged buildings and electricity supplies.

In Lyme Bay on 9^thJuly German E-boats (called Schnellboots for their speed) attacked Allied Coast Convoy WP183 sinking a tanker, four freighters and an armed escort trawler.

An air attack on Swanage on 13^th July caused injuries and damage to buildings.

From 19^th to 22^nd July German mines were being laid in the Channel off the Dorset coast. The people of Poole adopted a minesweeper on 29^th July, which became HMS Poole. At the time 35 vessels were being financed by warsavings from Dorset.

During July, a VIP air hanger, with specially built blast walls, was constructed at RAF Hurn to house Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s personal plane and other special aircraft.

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

 

July 1942 - 1^stAir Landing Squadron were based at Carter Barracks on the Bulford ranges of Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

From 1st to 3rd July 1942 two 1^st Air Landing Squadron Troops took part in Brigade Exercise, one Troop operating on each side.  They were led by Captains G.L.Falkim and G.C. Roberts, Lieutenants D.M. Freegard and L.A.W. Hayes and 2^nd Lieutenant A.J. Waterman.  The exercises lasted 3 days and on 4^th July 1^st Air Landing Squadron had a Free Day.

On Sunday 5^th July 35 officers and men took part in a Glider Flying day. 3 sorties were made from Netheravon Aerodrome with flights of one hour each and the men practiced deplaning drill on landing.

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

 

1^st July 1942 – As Rommel advances into Egypt British officials in Cairo begin burning official documents (so many that the day was nicknamed ‘Ash Wednesday’) and desertions rose rapidly in the British Army of the Nile. However, Rommel’s attacks on the British positions at El Alemein were unsuccessful; the line held and Rommel was put on the defensive.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

4^th July 1942 – Sevastopol, a strategically important port on the Black Sea and capital of the Crimea, is captured by the Germans after a siege of 250 days.

German aircraft and U-boats attack PQ-17, the largest supply convoy Britain until then to be sent to the Soviet Union.  24 out of the 33 vessels were sunk in the Barents Sea east of Svalbard – one of the greatest Naval disasters of the war.

The German authorities begin systematically gassing Jews at Auschwitz near Krakow in southern Poland.

 

 

1st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps, Home Forces 

Monday Eve.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                        Thanks for letter received a few days ago.  I'm now back from this scheme, and would have written before but have only just come off a 24 hr guard.

            Just as luck would have it, the Divisional Commander* decided to pay us a call this morning so of course the Guard had to turn out for inspection.  Rumour has it that
he was once married to Daphne du M**, but I'm sure I don't know for certain. He’s a Major-General and by repute the best dressed man in the Army.

            I understand from Home that the Bryn is now a Lance–Jack - which makes him my senior, curse him!  He hasn't yet been home on leave - so it's probably all for the best that we took ours when we did.

            I met a very decent chap here - Philip by name, who is the image of Richard Dix.  He happens to be rather well-read so we have much in common... (Conceit of the man!).  He was a Glider Pilot but was thrown out in company with some fifty others and posted here.  Quite a good crowd but very R.A.F.ish.  You know - such nice little boys. 

            I went down as far as the Town where Strongs brew their xxxx*** and went all over the forest on the scheme.  We slept out in the open each night – 3hrs a night.  Pretty rough but quite good fun on the whole. 

            I've just had a letter from Mother - who appears to be much better now, after having had rather a bad time of it. Dad also wrote a few days ago - a sure sign that Mother was not up to par.  (That pun, wasn't intended, Darling!).

            I'm afraid there's no chance of my seeing you Precious, as we're working seven days a week.  If I do ever get a Sunday off though I'll come straight down. 

            I've done a bit more flying - but I'll tell you about it when next we meet.

            Well, Darling, there's nothing new, only that I love you Chotie, Darling and miss you more than ever.  All we seem to be able to look forward to is the time when we’ll never have to worry about the scourge of separation, - or having to be over careful about things...

            Goodnight my Darling,

                                                                        All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

PS       I wish you could see the sun set over the Plain*** tonight.  Turner would have revelled in it.

PPS. Brinner's had a letter from Pete! He's in Leicester.

 

* Frederick Browning, Commander of the 1^st Airborne Division consisting of the 1^st Airlanding Brigade and the British 1^st Parachute Brigade and from July 1942, the 2^nd Parachute Brigade (which brought it up to strength as a division).  He later became Deputy Commander of the 1^st Allied Airborne Division and was knighted in 1946.  He had married the novelist Daphne du Maurier - the author of Dick’s favourite novel 'Rebecca'- in 1932.

** Romsey – so presumably the New Forest in Hampshire.

*** Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

 

 © Chotie Darling

 

On the 6th July 1942 a party from 1^st Air Landing Squadron were fined and then grounded – they appear to have received a visit from Major-General Browning, the Commander of 1^st Airborne (see above).

From 7^th to 15th July 1942 the Squadron held Unit Cadres* – N.C.O., Fieldcraft, Weapon training and M/C (motorcycle) riding - with demonstrations by Paratroops & Air Landing Troops to High Officers and members of the Ministry of Production on 9^th and 10th July. 

*Cadre = A nucleus of trained personnel selected to train others or develop and build an organisation around which a larger organisation can be built and trained eg a cadre of corporals who train recruits. 

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

 

10^th July 1942 – Rommel’s Afrika Corps again attack the El Alamein line but an Australian Division breaks through the Italian formation and captures Rommel’s signals intelligence unit.  Without this and deciphered messages from the American military attaché in Cairo (the Germans had cracked his code in December 1941 but Bonner Fellers returned to the US in July) Rommel could only guess Allied intentions.  Conversely the British were now aware of Rommel’s plans through Ultra, their Enigma decrypts of German messages.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

 

Dick met up with Chotie,

returning late on the night of Saturday 11^th July.

 

Dick’s service record shows he was posted

to the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment on 11^th July 1942

(see "Transfers" - letter of 26th June 1942)

Copy of Record:

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

11.7.42      Posted to 43^rd Recce Regt.   Army Rank Trooper  Place Field

 

Dick left first Air Landing on 11^th July

with “about half the old squadron”.

 

On 17^th July the 1^st Airborne Division was brought up to full divisional strength with the formation of the 2^nd Parachute brigade. Browning was determined that the Airborne would not be sacrificed in "penny packets" and had urged the formation of a third brigade (see Just Ordinary Men ).

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

1^st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps, Home Forces 

Sunday

My Darling,

                                                                        Thanks for letter with all the news.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                All my love, Chotie Darling

                                                                                 Dicker

*Amesbury

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

© Chotie Darling

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Transfers - Friday 26th June 1942

1^st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps, Home Forces 

Friday

My Darling Chotie,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                        God bless you, Chotie,

                                                                                    Dicker

*per day.

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

© Chotie Darling

 

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

 

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

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

 

 

The Lucky Horseshoe - Monday 22nd June 1942

1^st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps

Home Forces

My Darling Chotie,

        Just a few lines to let you know I arrived back safely, though later than I had expected.

        Firstly, I was under the impression I was going by Salisbury whereas of course I came from Andover. This actually made no difference however, as the ticket bloke said “Change at Romsey”, and it had Andover on my ticket. However, I had to wait over an hour at Romsey and the same again at Andover.  But, as I got back in time, I can't grumble.

        I would have written last night but was on guard, of course.  (You always get stuck on guard immediately you return from leave).  Andrew, the bloke like Doug, was also on so we stuck together.

         There's no news of course - never is.

          I got quite a good book.  It's called “Hudson rejoins the Herd” and is by Claude Houghton*.

           I hope you got back all right, Darling, complete with Horseshoe...What shall we call him?  I'll leave it to you, Precious, as you seem to have a flair for naming things.

           Well, there seems nothing else, Darling, except to thank you very much for a lovely time at Pagham and to tell you, I love you very much.

                                                            Bye, bye, my Darling

                                                                                    Dicker

P.S.     Please excuse pencil, Honey but I left my pen at Pagham. 

*Said to have inspired Henry Miller’s ‘Tropic of Capricorn’.

© Chotie Darling

 

On Monday 22nd June 1942 an Airborne Section demonstration was inspected by the Deputy Brigade Commander. 1^st Air Landing Squadron trained on the Bulford Grenade Range on 23^rd June and was given a lecture on Russia on 24^th June.

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

 

23^rd and 24^th June 1942 – the Germans advance into Egypt as the British Eighth Army retreats although more than 6,000 prisoners from the Indian Division were taken by Rommel’s troops at Mersa Matruh on the Egyptian coast.

25th June 1942 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed to command US forces in the European Theatre. (From WW2-net Timelines )

 

25th June 1942 – 1^st Air Landing Squadron tested for night vision and then marched to the compound. D.M.* used. (From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew)

*D.M. probably refers to Distance Measuring - a technique for night navigation.

Pagham - Thursday 11th June 1942

 “St Margarets”

Lea Lane, Pagham, Sussex

Thursday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            Received your letter this morning, and also your telegram of course, which was already here by the time I arrived.

                I'm just penning these few words, to let you know that I'll meet you on Chichester Station on Saturday.  The train should get in somewhere about 7.30 I suppose.  Remember, Chichester - not Bognor.

                                         Bye, bye ‘till Saturday Darling –

                                                                                    love

                                                                                                Dicker

 © Chotie Darling

Chotie and Dick met up at Pagham.

Chotie, Dilys (Dick's sister) and Pa Williams

Brin and Pa Williams

 
Pa Williams, Dilys (Dick's sister) and Chotie

“…and when they moved to Pagham, Sussex, to a pretty chalet-like house, I went to stay with them.

            That house was full of singing and music – so happy. We walked round a lagoon , ending up with a beer in a Selsey pub. I did so like his family. There was no
serious religion, which I was subject to at home. Dicker did not have much time for the church, saying “Why do Bishops live in Palaces?”

 From ‘Chotie’s Story’.

© Chotie Darling

 

While Dick was on leave 1^st Air Landing Squadron were training on the Vickers MMG (Medium Machine Gun) Range on Saturday 13th June 1942 and on beach bomb Ranges for field firing on 14^th June.

They were  moved by rail to Kimmeridge Bay* (Dorset) for field firing training on 15^th June.  On 18th June the squadron marched 25 miles from Kimmeridge Bay Firing Range back towards Bulford. Unit transport picked them up for the last 20 miles on 19^th June.

20^th & 21st June 1942 – 1^st Air Landing Squadron were Tiger Moth flying at Shrewton in Wiltshire.

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

* Kimmeridge is on the south coast of the Isle of Purbeck, ironically close to Chotie’s home town of Poole and near where she was (briefly) stationed in the Land Army at Church Knowle in October 1942. The lovely bay became England’s first voluntary marine nature reserve, managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust, and in later life was one of Chotie’s favourite places to visit.

 

14^th June 1942 – German saboteurs landed on Long Island near Jacksonwille in Florida, USA. They were quickly picked up and executed after trial.

 

19th June 1942 – Churchill and Roosevelt met to plan Allied offensives against the Germans for the rest of 1942.  They agree that American troops will join their Allies to invade French (West) Africa in Operation Gymnast (which became Operation Torch).

 

21st June 1942 – Rommel’s Afrika Corps capture the key port of Tobruk in Libya after a 4 day assault following the Battle of the Gazala line.  (The Australians had defended Tobruk under siege for more than 7 months in 1941). Rommel found more than 4,000 tons of oil had not been destroyed in Tobruk – vital supplies for his planned advance into Egypt.  Churchill, who had ordered that Tobtuk was to be held at all coasts was dismayed and wrote “Defeat is one thing, disgrace is another”.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

20^th & 21st June 1942 – Dick appears to have been granted his 1^st Long Service and Good Conduct (L.S. & G.C. badge - one chevron on lower arm) retrospectively. It was due on 21^st June 1942 and although this date appears on the record of his Service and Casualty Form it follows records from September 1942.

Copy of Record

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

21.6.42  Granted 1^st L.S. & G.C Badge  Army Rank Trooper  Place Home Forces

 

Leave Today - 9th June 1942

The War in Dorset - June 1942

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*ARP = Air Raid Precautions

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

Dental Treatment Card –  5/6/42

 

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

 

 

Telegram - 9th June 1942

CHALKLEY KNITWEAR DEPT BEALES* BOURNEMOUTH =

= = =  LEAVE TODAY 9 DAYS WIRE PAGHAM = RICHARD

++ CT9 QKP  BEALES + PAGHAM +

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

 

 

 

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

Copy of Record

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

10.6.42        Granted 10 days leave       Army Rank Trooper        Place Field

 

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

The King and Queen - Saturday 23rd May 1942

21^st May 1942 – The Airborne Division was visited by their Majesties the King and Queen at Bulford (Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire) followed by demonstrations by various units of the Division.  1^st Air Landing Squadron was inspected and the Commanding Officer presented to the King. 

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

 

22^nd May 1942 – Mexico declared war on Germany, Italy and Japan.

 

5731671 Tpr Williams R

1^st Air Landing Sqdn

 Recce Corps

HOME FORCES

My Darling Chotie,

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

            Many thanks for letter - as welcome as ever.

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

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

            Had quite a thrill on Thursday - when we were inspected by the King & Queen and a score of Generals.  It was a demonstration of Paratroops & Gliders etc.

            I hope Johnny knows what he's letting himself in for.  At any rate he'll find out sooner or later.

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

            Flying all the morning - cold & cloudy.

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

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

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

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

            Well, Precious no news as per usual. 

            Incidentally will you get in touch with Eric and get him to send me a GROUNDSHEET. MOST IMPORTANT!!! I'm about to be charged 18/- for one! Will you send it, Darling?  (please...) - and I'll give you a big kiss...(Hope that will do the trick). 

                        Well, bye, bye for now, Darling.

                                                            All yours,

                                                                        Dicker

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

                                                                xxxxxxx

                                                                        all for you!

                                                                                    Darling.

                                                                                                Xxxxx

 

*French for “You never can tell”.

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

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

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

Ted Lewis

© Chotie Darling

 

23^rd May 1942 – the British Commander-in-Chief of the Home Forces orders an end to ‘blood-lust inculcation’ in battle training.

( From WW2-net Timelines. )

 

26^th May 1942 – Britain and Russia sign a treaty in London pledging to fight Germany until final victory. They also agreed a 20-year alliance. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

The Battle for the Gazala Line in Libya begins with an offensive by the German Afrika Corps towards Tobruk and the line held by the Allies’ Eighth Army while Rommel’s main forces outflanked the line from the south, attacking the forces now cut off at Bir Hakeim where the 1^st Free French Brigade stood firm.   On 31^st May in the ‘Battle of the Cauldron’ the British 150^th Brigade was eventually destroyed.  50^th Recce Regiment, which was also attached to the 50^th Division, was annihilated in the Battles of the Gazala line (leading to Dick’s 61^st Recce taking its place in 1944). It was an Axis victory ending with the withdrawal of the Allies towards Egypt on 14^th June and the fall of Tobruk on 21^st June. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

50 Recce was all but destroyed during the action and its place as the ‘eyes’ of the 50^th (Northumbrian) Division was later taken by 61^st Recce – Dick’s Regiment in North-West Europe. (From ‘The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II’ by Richard Doherty, Osprey Publishing 2007)

27^th May 1942 – 152 Berlin students were shot for displaying anti-Nazi posters.(From WW2-net Timelines.)  

On the same day Reinhard Heydrich, the German SS (Shutzstaffel – Nazi paramilitary and police) General and major architect of the Jewish Holocaust was shot in Prague by two Czech volunteers trained by the British Special Operations Executive. He died of his wounds on 4^th June. Lidice, a Czech village of 2,000 people, was raised to the ground by the Germans in reprisal. All the men over 16 were shot and the women and children sent to concentration camps. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

28^th May 1942 – beginning of Operation ‘Blau’, the German summer offensive in Russia.  Defeat of the Soviets at Kharkov. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

29^th May 1942 – 1^st Air Landing Squadron move from Shaw House, Newbury to take up quarters at Bulford on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

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

I have not been able to identify the soldiers on this photo but they appear to be wearing the 1st Airborne Division's Pegasus badge. If you can help please comment. They were Dick's photos.

 

30th and 31st May 1942 - the Allies’ first 1,000 bomber raid attacked Cologne in Germany, killing 486 civilians and destroying 600 acres of the city.

31^st May 1942 – a Japanese midget submarine entered Sydney Harbour in Australia. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

Eric Postles was now with the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment in Northern Ireland, in 10 Troop 'B Squadron' – he would fight alongside Dick in B Squadron from June 1944 to February 1945.

“After training was completed I was sent on a 6 week course at the Divisional Driver Mechanics School at Cookstown (in the centre of Northern Ireland) where I learnt to mend and maintain vehicles.  On return I joined 10 Troop B Squadron Carriers and Armoured Cars and remained with the troop until the regiment disbanded.  I got an extra 9d a day for passing the course.  Further training included a live firing assault course with Bren guns firing above you as you went along and over obstacles and wire.  The Recreation truck went into Armagh (near the southern border of the Province) at weekends where you could get sweets off ration in the shops.  Fred Neale, one of my pals, was with me in 10 Troop and another pal Jack Reed was in 13 Assault Troop.  Before D-day some of the older soldiers (including Fred) were posted out of the regiment and he went to The Ranges at Warcop…….”

(Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

YMCA - Sunday 17th May 1942

YMCA

WITH HIS MAJESTY’S FORCES

 PLEASE ADDRESS YOUR REPLY TO

 

No. 5731671     Rank Tpr         Name Williams R

Address 1st Air Landing Squadron

            Recce Corps HOME FORCES       Date 17 – 5 - 42

 

My Darling Chotie,

                                        Many thanks for letter - glad to see you're still alive and kicking.

            I went over to Basingstoke yesterday to see Brinner - which took him rather by surprise in the midst of the delicate operation known as shaving. He's very fit and will be moving by the end of next week - he thinks.

            There's no further news from this end.  We're in the midst of specialised training which is pretty stiff and takes most of our spare time as well.

           There's a lot of sport here - I play hockey most of the time!  (Don't tell Diller for heaven's sake..)

           I'm on the MT* again - for the time being anyhow - and drive a 15 cwt** truck.  Not too bad as I manage to get out most of the time and see quite a bit of the local country.  Unfortunately when you're on the MT, you have to do your ordinary training as well! - which is rather a blow.

            I've heard from home that they have settled down once again, which is quite a relief.  Brinner says it's not too bad, but the country is flat and very uninteresting***.  Chichester however is quite near and that is a beautiful town if ever there was one.

            In any case, we shall see for ourselves, soon, I hope. 

            Well, Darling, as I said before, there's no news - is there ever? - and I must conclude here to get back to billets in time.

                                                            Bye, bye my Darling

                                                                        all my love

                                                                                    Dicker

 

P.S.     Please give my best wishes to all and sundry, won't you?

PPS     Still love you, Precious...

                                                xxxx

                                                            xx       

 

*MT = Motorised Transport 

**cwt = hundredweight - 112 pounds in the British Imperial System (or 50.8 kg.)

***Dick's family had moved from Poole to Pagham in East Sussex.

© Chotie Darling

 

20^th May 1942 – British forces retreating from Burma reach the Indian frontier.(See WW2-net Timelines)

Malta receives re-inforcements (spitfires were brought in by the US Navy ship Wasp), deterring  Germany’s planned airborne invasion. 

Poor Margaret - Monday 11th May 1942

5731671 Tpr etc

1st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps

HOME FORCES

 

Monday Evening

My Darling Chotie,

                                             Many thanks for letter received this morning - took away that Monday Morning Feeling like fun. 

            Glad to hear you've had a letter from Eric, and to read same.  Pay no attention to his latest affair - he gets like that periodically.  He'll soon get over it - mark my words.

            Poor Margaret*!  She does seem to strike it unlucky, doesn't she?  I expect you're getting worried - but have no fears, Darling, I won't run away.

            Pleased to see you've really got going with the old First Aid - may be very useful someday.  Cheerful ain't I? - but remember what I said about Eric.

            Brinner came over to see me on Saturday - and we swapped yarns as of yore.  Unhappily, he had to go back before the pubs opened and consequently we parted rather thirstily.  All the same it made quite a break.

            I haven't heard from home since the move, so I'm expecting a welcome letter from that quarter.

            Incidentally, don't worry about my aerial activities - it's really quite safe.

            I'm afraid I don't write very long letters, Darling, firstly I have very little time of my own, and secondly there is so very little to write about anyhow.  I can't give any details of this place, or of our training, which leaves precious little to write home about.

            But, remember I still love you and always will, Precious.

                                                                                    All my love, Chotie,

                                                                                                Dicker

 P.S. Give my kindest regards to all your family and console Margaret for me.

 

*Chotie’s elder sister. (See Tom's Death - August 1940 )

© Chotie Darling

 

12^th May 1942 –six officers and six O.R.s (Ordinary Ranks) of 1^stAir Landing Squadron went gliding.

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

 

12th May 1942 – the second Battle of Kharkov (south of Moscow, in the Ukraine) begins with an offensive by Soviet forces but ends on 28th May with victory for the Germans with over 200,000 Russian soldiers captured, wounded or killed. Nikita Khrushchev was one of the Soviet commanders and his hatred of Stalin is said to date from the dictators  refusal to allow their forces to withdraw.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

13^th May 1942 – Operation Rutter (the original codename for the Allies' disastrous raid on Dieppe), which took place in August 1942, is approved. It was led by Combined Operations. (From WW2-net Timelines)

From the Air - Wednesday 6th May

On Saturday 2^nd May 1942 1^st Air Landing Squadron was training on the Bulford Ranges, Salisbury Plain and on Sunday Dick had his first flight. The squadron diary records ‘Night flying’.

(From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew and ‘Chotie Darling’)

 

3rd May 1942 – the Japanese land on Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.

 

5th May 1942 – the Japanese advance into China along the Burma Road.

The British attack French Vichy Madagascar (the battle continued until November 1942).

(From WW2-net Timelines)

6^th May 1942 – The last of the Allied forces on the Philippines (13,000 troops on the Island of Corregidor) surrender to the Japanese. 

 

Wednesday 6^th May 1942 – the Commanding Officer and four officers of 1^st Air Landing Squadron flew in gliders with 80 O.R.s (Ordinary Ranks) taking particular note of any air sickness.

On the same day Browning met Churchill and requested 96 aircraft to get 1^st Airborne Division battle ready. The RAF agreed to supply 83 Whitleys and 10 Halifax bombers to tow the larger Hamilcar gliders.

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

 

5731671 Tpr Williams RK

1st Air Landing Sqdn

Recce Corps

HOME FORCES.

My Darling Chotie,

                                             Many thanks for letter received to-day (Wednesday).  Your letters always seemed to cheer me up just at the right moment.  I also had a letter from home, so I'm feeling particularly cheerful.

Well, I made my first flight here, on Sunday last in a glider - and go up again tomorrow.

Flying in my humble opinion is much overrated and can't be compared to Sailing. I said my humble opinion... However, I must admit it does make a break in the ordinary routine, but I should not like to be up every day.  The country-side looks marvelous from the air, except where it's spoiled by Army Camps and tracks of vehicles, etc.  Altogether not too bad on the whole.

        I'm glad to hear you've started a little First-Aid.  Should you meet Eric* on this subject, just ignore him, - he knows nothing about it, and may tend to have a harmful influence on your work.  Unfortunately, First Aid Classes always seemed to pay particular attention to fingers, arms etc, and leave the rest of the anatomy - where you are usually seem to get hit - to the care of Mother Nature...However, we mustn't grumble.

Glad to hear you still love me, Darling - keeps my head above the water.

Fancy old Monica** pulling a fast one like that - and after she swore blind I'd be the only father of a child by herself.  Ingratitude ...

        I have to get up at 5 am to-morrow for this flying, curse it, so must close here.

                                                 All my love, Precious

                                                                                                Your adoring

                                                                                                            Dicker

*Eric was a close friend mentioned in Chapters 1 and 2

**Monica, Dick’s former girlfriend, apparently now 'with child’.

© Chotie Darling

 

7^th and 8^th May 1942 – Battle of the Coral Sea (lying between the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and NE Australia) between the Allies and Japan. This was the largest naval battle ever fought off Australia’s shores and the first naval battle fought by aircraft carriers. America lost the carrier Lexington and the Yorktown was also hit; the Japanese carrier Shohu was sunk and the Shokahu disabled.  The Japanese withdrew without landing as planned at Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea).  American Naval codebreakers had deciphered a Japanese signal revealing the destination, enabling their taskforce to intercept the invasion.

8th May 1942 – the German Army began its offensive on the Eastern Crimea; Soviet forces experienced terrible losses. On 10^th May Churchill warned that Britain would use poison gas on Germany if the Germans did so in the Soviet Union. (From WW2-net Timelines)

 

10th May 1942 – opening of the German death camp, Maly Trostenets, near Minsk. Thousands of Jews lost their lives there.

Home Forces - Friday 1st? May 1942

The War in Dorset - May 1942

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

1^stAir Landing Squadron Officers listed for May 1942:

Major C.J.H. Gough;

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

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

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

(See Joining Browning's Boys )

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

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

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

 

Trooper Williams RR

1^st Air Landing Sqdn.

Reconnaissance Corps

HOME FORCES

N.B. New Address

                        NOTHING ELSE!

Friday

Dearest, Darling Chotie,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                            All my love, Darling

                                                                        Dicker xxx

P.S.
Home Address

                        “BROOMLEIGH”

                                    PAGHAM BEACH

                                                BOGNOR

                                                            SUSSEX.***

PPS     Look after yourself!!!

 

*Bulford ranges on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

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

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

© Chotie Darling

Shaw House, Newbury - c. Wednesday 22nd April 1942

Pte 5731671 Williams RK

1st Air Landing Coy

Recce Corps

C/o A.P.O. NOTTINGHAM.

My Darling,

            Arrived here safe and sound on Monday Evening.

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

            The only good thing about it is the leave.  Apparently they get Seven Days every nine weeks or so - which is amazing for the Army.

            I start on a course on Monday next - it's just like being a rookie all over again.

            The Company here is billeted in a marvelous old house – Elizabethan* - with hundreds of rooms, banqueting halls etc.

            Incidentally you must write to the address as shown, and not the one you already know - for security reasons. You might advise Diller or Mother if you write, as I've had to give them the Nottingham address of course.

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

            I'm afraid I can't say anything of local interest, etc as these letters are sometimes censored for security reasons.

            I miss you already, Darling - how am I going to feel in a month’s time?

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

                                                                        all my love Precious,

                                                                                    your adoring

                                                                                                Dicker

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

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

 © Chotie Darling

 

23^rd April 1942 - In a secret session of the House of Commons, Churchill delivered a speech declaring that the liberation of Europe was 'the main war plan' of Britain and the USA. (From WW2-net Timelines. )

 

Friday 24^th April 1942 - 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron changes its designation to 1^st Air Landing Squadron, Recce Corps. On 27^th April its address was changed to 'Home Forces’. The Squadron used the mortar range at Chobham (Surrey?) on Tuesday 28^th and were training with night flying gliders on the 29^th.

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

 

24th April 1942 - The Luftwaffe raids Exeter in the first of Hitler's raids on historical cities in retaliation for the bombing of Lübeck at the end of March. These became known as the 'Baedeker' raids after the famous guidebook series.

The Allies second raid was made against Rostock in Germany and on 25th April the Luftwaffe attacked Bath. The 'Baedeker' raids continued with the bombing of York and Norwich in late April and of Canterbury in May and June, after the Allies’ bombing of Cologne.

 

28th April 1942 – the Nazi Reichstag, Germany’s ‘puppet government’ declares Hitler ‘Supreme Judge of the German People’ and above the reach of the law. This turns out to be its last meeting. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

Air Landing

Chotie Darling

 

Dedicated to the memory of my mother

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

 

Part 2        Reconnaissance      

  

Chapter 5            1^st Air Landing

 

 

On 20^th April 1942 Dick was transferred to

1^st Air Landing of the Reconnaissance Corps

and posted on the 21^st April

 

Copy of Record

Statement of Service             Army No. 5731671             Richard Kelner WILLIAMS 

RECONNAISSANCE CORPS

Order 29/42  

1^st Air Landing        Transferred to Reconnaissance Corps   Army Rank Pte        20-4-42

 

Copy of Record

SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

Posted to 1^st Air Landing Coy w.e.f. 21. 4. 42.

 

1st Air Landing Reconnaissance was part of 1st Airborne Division commanded by Frederick “Boy” Browning with Brigadier George Frederick Hopkinson (known as “Hoppy”) and Lieutenant Colonel Philip “Pip” Hicks. (See 1st Airlanding Brigade.)

Major-General Browning had a DSO (Distinguished Service Order) from his WW1 command in the Grenadier Guards. He was an impeccably dressed, hardworking, disciplinarian. Married to the famous novelist Daphne du Maurier, he went on to play a prominent and controversial role in the British command of Operation Market Garden.

Hopkinson had founded the General Headquarters Liaison Regiment (known as ‘Phantom’ – see The Missing Winter) soon after Dunkirk, leaving in late 1941 to command the glider-borne brigade of 1st Air Division, 1st Airlanding Brigade Group. The actor David Niven, an officer in Phantom, remembered ‘Hoppy’ as “a short square officer with a fertile imagination and a great gift for extracting the maximum loyalty and hard work from all ranks”. As one of the first volunteers for the fledgling airborne forces in Britain he qualified as a parachutist, injuring his back on his first jump and landing in Poole Harbour on his second, still wearing a plaster cast.

When Hopkinson became head of 1st Airborne in 1943, Hicks was promoted to Brigadier and gained his second DSO from his actions in Sicily. Major-General Hopkinson was killed in Italy in September 1943 while Brigadier Hicks survived the war, having been one of the commanders of the British Airborne Division during the Battle of Arnhem.

Officers listed for 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron in April 1942:

Major C.J.H. Gough (see 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance.)

Captains: G.L. Falkim, G.C. Roberts (later ADC to Major-General Urquhart during the Battle of Arnhem), J.P. Royle (a close friend of the actor David Niven, he became a major in the Glider Pilot Regiment commanding “Force John” in Operation Overlord. He was killed at Arnhem on 20th September 1944 – see the Pegasus Archive), C.W. Suter (like ‘Freddie’ Gough a former member of the distinctive 5th (Ski) Battalion of the Scots Guards and a Lieutenant with the London Rifle Brigade in the British Expeditionary Force of 1940); Lieutenants: T.J. Firbank (later awarded the Military Cross and becoming Lieutenant Colonel and commander of the Airborne Forces Depot after the war), M.W. Grubb (captain of ‘A’ Troop with the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance Squadron under ‘Freddie’ Gough at Arnhem) and P.C.K. Somerville.

2nd Lieutenants: R.J. Clark (represented the Reconnaissance Squadron as a captain in the ‘seaborne tail’ at Market Garden), Kindersley (possibly the Hon. Hugh Kindersley who became Brigadier commander of the 6th Air Landing Brigade and was wounded in the battle of Normandy?), H. Poole (a captain at Squadron Headquarters of the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance during Market Garden) and A.J. Waterman (later captained ‘B’ troop of the 1st Air Landing reconnaissance Squadron).

(From  The Pegasus Archive, Paradata, Just Ordinary Men, Operation Market Garden, the War Diary of 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, National Archives, Kew and ‘Phantom at War – the British Army’s Secret Intelligence & Communication Regiment of WW2' by Andy & Sue Parlour 2003)

 

All troops in the 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron were volunteers: ‘Experience from 1941 to 1945 proved that only about one man in three of all volunteers possessed the necessary physique and morale to become and remain a parachute soldier. All airborne forces, though emphatically not “suicide” troops should at all times be prepared to fight under unusual circumstances, to gain a vital objective, for the initial battle was theirs, and theirs alone. They should expect as a matter of course to be surrounded by the enemy, cut off for some time from all except supply by air and to have to defeat a more heavily-armed opponent before being relieved by ground troops. This was as much a matter of morale as skill and training – complete self-confidence in addition to physical fitness, endurance and personal initiative.’

The basic training for an Airlanding soldier enabled them to attain a high standard of fitness - the intention being that they "Would be able to march 60 miles in 72 hours and still be able to fight".

Glider troops were trained beyond the level of the standard British soldier though not to the peak and expense of paratroopers. They were less swift when deployed in an attacking role, but were entirely solid in defence. Glider battalions were approximately 50% larger than parachute battalions, comprising of 16 rifle platoons in 4 companies, as opposed to 9 enlarged platoons in 3 companies. In addition, each of their Support Companies were much larger than that of a conventional infantry battalion, containing double the amount of men and equipment in their Machine Gun, Mortar, and Anti-Tank Platoons. The need for glider-borne troops had been realised with a view to providing parachutists with both support equipment and additional infantry - the purpose of airborne troops was expanding far beyond that of infrequent commando raids.

(From ‘Airborne Forces’ by Lt-Col T.B.H. Otway, D.S.O. London: Imperial War Museum, 1990, The Pegasus Archive and Combined Operations WW2 website. )

Malta's George Cross - April 1942

The War in Dorset - April 1942

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

1st Air Landing Reconnaissance:

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Mahatma Gandhi arrested by the British in India.

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

End of Part 1 The Blue Cockade

 

St Nazaire

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

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

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

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

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

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

Australia under attack - March 1942

The War in Dorset - March 1942

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

1st Air Landing Reconnaissance:

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

 

March 1942 – gas and electricity rationed in Great Britain.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

29th March 1942 - The Australian War Cabinet implements a 'Total Denial' policy in northern Australia should the Japanese invade. This would involve the conduct of a fighting withdrawal, with the evacuation or destruction of anything left behind. A vast migration of sheep and cattle southwards was already underway, with those taking part being nicknamed 'Overlanders'.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

Eric joins 61st Recce

February 1942

Eric Postles continues his account of life in 61st Recce:

“After training those who were allocated to 61^st Division went by train to Loughgal in Northern Ireland via Edingburgh, Glasgow and then from Stanraer by boat to Larne.  The train journey from Larne was interesting as at each station the engine was detached to move goods waggons and we could get off for a leg stretch. 

Our camp was Nissen-hutted in the grounds of an estate.  We were divided in squads for further training including driving instructions on 15cwt trucks, Bren carriers and armoured cars as everyone had to be able to drive.  The regiment was so concerned to have these young boys posted to it that we were given extra food to build us up. We were also dropped off around Lough Neagh and had to find our own way back to camp.  Training ended with an exercise up in the mountains.  We were on open trucks and had to endure snow, rain and cold.”

 (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

"The Divisional sign was a blue square with inset red diamond."

The 61st Division was deployed to Northern Ireland in response to the German threat to invade neutral Ireland - Plan Green - which, although thorough, may have been a deception or feint.

The Bruneval Raid

The Würzburg 

In November 1941 photo-reconnaissance of unusual looking 'cow pens’ near Cap de La Hague revealed movement through the fractional lengthening of a shadow.
Subsequent ‘dicing’ (flying in low and fast to take a closer photo) showed the parabolic disc of a Würzburg – one of Germany’s most closely kept secrets. Air staff had known about the Freya radar apparatus, which was long-range but not very precise, for almost a year and could already deceive it successfully. Until the photo, Würzburgs were a mysterious reference from the Enigma decodings. Located between the Freyas they were short-range and precise, providing a chain of defensive radar around German territories that caused devastating losses to British bombers. The Telecommunications Research Establishment, at Worth Matravers in Dorset, urgently needed to acquire further information about the Würzburg and this one in the photo was conveniently situated on a lonely cliff top. Thus began ‘Operation Biting’, now known as the Bruneval Raid.

Planning the Bruneval Raid

On 8^th January 1942 Acting Admiral Lord Louis  Mountbatten, head of Combined Operations, approached 1^st Airborne Division to discuss the feasibility of a paratroop raid on the Würzburg radar apparatus. He had realised that an airborne assault would have the required surprise and speed, rather than the Poole commandos (see The Small Scale Raiding Force ) who were first considered.

By 21^st January Mountbatten had proposals for the Bruneval raid to submit to the Chiefs of Staff. ‘C’ company of the 2^nd Parachute Battalion, 1^st Airborne Division were to carry out the raid supported by the Navy and the aircrew of No.51 Squadron RAF. They trained on Salisbury Plain, on Loch Fyne near Inverary in Scotland and finally on the Dorset and Hampshire coast. The operation was organised from Combined Operations headquarters at Anderson Manor, near Poole.

 On 24^th January 1942 the French Resistance group, La Confrérie Notre-Dame, led by the famous Rémy, was asked to investigate the defences of the German radar installation near Bruneval at Cap de la Hague (not far from the port of Le Havre).  They supplied vital information for the Bruneval raid and the troops were able to train at Inverary using a model of the installation and buildings produced from the RAF’s Photographic Reconnaissance Unit and French Resistance intelligence.

 

By 22^nd February 1942 Bruneval Raid parachutists, commandos and the Navy were training off the Dorset coast for retrieval from the beach below the German radar station - No 12 Commando were tasked with giving covering fire and hauling the paratroopers and their booty into the boats.

They encountered considerable problems including parachutists getting stuck in a coastal defence minefield!

Practising off Redcliff Point near Weymouth in Dorset, one of the landing craft collecting the raiders became grounded offshore but the raid had to go ahead over the next few days to coincide with an approach on the rising tide under a full moon.

 

The Bruneval Raid

On 27^th February 1942 Allied paratroops landed on the French coast at Bruneval, near Le Havre to capture Würzburg radar equipment. ‘Operation Biting’ had begun.

In the afternoon the naval force under Commander Cook of the Royal Australian Navy, had set off across the Channel. Under a full moon four Whitley bombers dodged heavy anti-aircraft fire to fly the airborne assailants over and they landed on the clifftop in deep snow. Major John Frost, (subsequently famous for his involvement in the Battle of Arnhem during ‘Market Garden’ - filmed in ‘A Bridge Too Far’) and his 120 men met stiff resistance from German troops but managed to capture the precious Würzburg equipment and prisoners including a valuable radar technician. They escaped from the beach into the waiting gunboats and were escorted back across the Channel by four destroyers and a flight of Spitfires on the morning of 28^th February.

The successful raid was a terrific morale booster for the British and provided important information for the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) at Worth Matravers, Dorset. It led to the development of the ‘Window’ bomber defence first deployed in the bombing of Hamburg raid on 24^th July 1943 – strips of metal were dropped from the planes successfully jamming the German radar and cutting Allied air losses over Germany from 6.1% to 1.5%. (The technology was developed by April 1942 but its use was delayed while defence was more important than attack to Britain. The Luftwaffe could easily have copied the technique).

On 18^th March 1942 Lord Louis Mountbatten was raised to Chief of Combined Operations with the acting rank of Vice Admiral (and the honorary ranks of Lieutenant General in the Army and Air Marshal in the RAF).

British airborne forces were expanded with the establishment of the Airborne Forces Depot and Battle School and, in summer 1942, the creation of the Parachute Regiment. The raid also resulted in the relocation inland of Dorset’s Telecommunications Research Establishment, having realised their vulnerability to coastal assault.

The Germans increased their defences around the Würzburg stations, inadvertently making them easier to locate and target from the air during preparations for ‘D’ day and the Allied assault on NW Europe.

(From Combined Operations WW2 website,  WW2-net Timelines, ‘The Bruneval Raid – stealing Hitler’s Radar’ by George Millar - Cassell Military Paperbacks 1974 and ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004.)

Dick was working in Intelligence and probably based near Poole at this time (see The Missing Winter).

Was he involved in the planning of the Bruneval Raid?

His letters and service record reveal he’d joined the 1^st Airborne by April 1942 (see Air Landing)– possibly inspired by the raid?

 

 

Singapore surrenders - February 1942

The War in Dorset - February 1942

Part of Hurn aerodrome was modified to accommodate gliders and tow air-craft for air landings. (From ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004).

See also The Small Scale raiding Force and The Bruneval Raid.

 

February 1942 – The German Navy changes the Enigma settings for its signals leaving the British code-breakers at Bletchley Park  unable to decipher communications.  This had disastrous consequences in 1942 as Admiral Döbitz’s ‘wolf-packs’ of U-boat submarines were able to hunt out Allied shipping in the Atlantic untracked.  It would be 10 months before the code-breakers could break the new settings they nicknamed ‘Shark’.

February 1942 – soap, tinned tomatoes and peas now rationed.

1st February 1942 - Quisling formed a puppet government in Norway (from WW2-net Timelines).

7th February 1942 - Japanese artillery fire on Singapore across the Jahore Strait and 20,000 Japanese troops begin to land on the north-west shore of the island.  The city, and ships full of evacuees, were heavily bombed. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

11th to 13th February 1942 - the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and  the cruiser Prinz Eugen, escorted by destroyers and torpedo boats,  escaped the Allies blockade at Brest and attacks in the Channel to reach safe harbour in Germany.

15th February 1942 – The military commander of Singapore, Lt.General Arthur Percival, surrenders the Island to Japan (and then escapes to Sumatra).  On 17th February the Japanese military police begin rounding up the Chinese community and thousands are executed.  The British and Australians were taken as prisoners of war to work on the notorious Burma railway where many died. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

19^th February 1942 – Japanese aircraft attack the port of Darwin in northern Australia. 

The Japanese Navy wins the Battle of Lumbok Strait and land on Bali.

President Roosevelt  authorises the transfer of Germans, Italians and Japanese-Americans living in coastal Pacific areas to internment camps. Homes and possessions were taken from those interned.

 

22^nd February 1942 – Bruneval Raid parachutists, commandos and the Navy were training off the Dorset coast for retrieval from the beach below the German radar station. They encountered considerable problems including parachutists getting stuck in a coastal defence minefield. Practising off Redcliff Point near Weymouth in Dorset, one of the landing craft collecting the raiders became grounded offshore but the raid had to go ahead over the next few days to coincide with an approach on the rising tide under a full moon. (From ‘The Bruneval Raid – stealing Hitler’s radar’ by George Millar, Cassell 1974 and ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004)

The operation was organised from Combined Operations headquarters at Anderson Manor, near Poole and may have involved Trooper R.K. Williams of Intelligence in some minor role?

 

23rd February 1942 - Air Marshal Arthur (Bomber) Harris was appointed Commander-in-Chief of British Bomber Command.

The Australian Prime Minister Curtin, orders all Australian Divisions to return home to defend Australia (from WW2-net Timelines).

 27^th February 1942 - The Battle of the Java Sea begins between Japan and the Allies.  On 28^th February the Japanese landed on Java.

The Small Scale Raiding Force

Operation Postmaster

Thirty of the Poole Commandos (see April 1941) had set sail for West Africa in their converted Brixham yacht trawler, the Maid Honor, on 9^th August 1941. Led by Majors Gus March-Phillips and Geoffrey Appleyard, they arrived in Freetown on 20^th September and sailed in disguise around the rivers, estuaries and deltas of Vichy-French Equatorial Africa to locate those used as German submarine bases. On 14^th January 1942 they captured an Italian ocean going liner, the Duchessa d’Aorta (converted to a U-boat supply ship), a German tanker and a number of auxiliary ships and vessels.  The success of Postmaster triggered the expansion of the force and re-designation as the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF) or No 62 Commando.

The original ‘Maid Honor Force’ was Station 62 under the Special Operations Executive but as they expanded into the SSRF under the personal command of Louis Mountbatten, head of Combined Operations, they also became known as No 62 Commando.  Early in 1942 their HQ moved from the Antelope pub on Poole Quay to the 17^th century Anderson Manor near Winterborne Kingston in Dorset, becoming a centre for Commando training.

It's possible that Dick, working in Intelligence at the time, was in Combined Operations and stationed here (see The Missing Winter). My mother remembered the Antelope as being very special to their time together during World War 2.

In February 1942 the Small Scale Raiding Force, undertook reconnaissance and minor raids around the Cherbourg Peninsula, Omonville in Brittany and Herm & Jethou in the Channel Islands. Their ‘pinprick’ raids on the coast of Northern France were planned to gather information, take prisoners for interrogation, demoralise German troops and tie up enemy resources that would otherwise be used on other fronts. Success depended on competence in the use of small boats inshore as well as combat and stealth.  They used dories (wooden power boats), canoes known as ‘Cockles’, collapsible craft and the Motor Torpedo Boat they nicknamed the “Little Pisser” for its speed.

The Special Service Unit made frequent raids on the French coast from Poole including the successful capture of German code books and Naval information and destruction of the ‘U’ boat wireless transmitting station at Les Casquets lighthouse in the Channel Islands in September 1942.

Special Operations Executive still shared governance of the SSRF and the Manor was known as their 62 Special Training School. A clash of interests between SOE and SIS (the Secret Intelligence Service) led to the disbandment of the SSRF in April 1943, having soundly demonstrated the benefit of small specialist forces operating at night – Churchill’s ‘butcher and bolt’ approach. Anderson Manor went on to become SOE’s 47 Special Training School for Mines and Booby Traps. 

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

 

 

 

United Nations Declaration - January 1942

The War in Dorset - January 1942

In Dorset in January 1942 a Wellington bomber, with a Royal Australian Air Force crew, crashed at Fifehead Magdalen near Sturminster Newton and the first American GIs (General  Infantryman) began to arrive in the county at the end of the month - see previous post. (From ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, 2004)

 8^th January 1942 – Mountbatten, head of Combined Operations (based near Poole), approaches 1^st Airborne Division to discuss the feasibility of a paratroop raid on the Würzburg radar apparatus detected near Cap de la Hague. This was to result in the famous Bruneval Raid.

14th January 1942 – Operation Postmaster.

17th/18th January 1942 –  Operation Curlew – an unsuccessful commando reconnaissance raid on St Laurent, France (between Cherbourg and Caen) by the elite ‘V’ Corps School of Raiding from Southern Command. ‘V’ Corps Southern Command included the secret signals and reconnaissance ‘Phantom’ squadron commanded by David Niven and based inland of Poole Harbour (see The Missing Winter).

 

1st Air Landing Reconnaissance:

On 1^st January 1942 Major General F.A.M. Browning, D.S.O., commander of 1^st Airborne Division, inspected the 1^st Air Landing Company, Reconnaissance Corps.  Browning, married to the novelist Daphne du Maurier (Dick’s favourite), was close to both Churchill and Louis Mountbatten and used this influence to ensure his men got what they needed.  

Throughout January their training continued on the Churn Ranges near Didcot and Beacon Hill* Ranges. (* The Beacon Hill near Newbury or the Beacon Hill on Bulford Ranges, Salisbury.?)

(From the War Diary of 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, WO166/6955 National Archives at Kew.)

 

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

 

1st January 1942 – all those at war with Germany adopt the ‘United Nations’ and sign the  United Nations Declaration in agreement with the principles of  the Atlantic Charter.  26 nations signed in January 1942 including the so-called ‘Big Four’ - Britain, America, Soviet Russia and China.

January 1942 – rice and dried fruit rationed.

 

2^nd January 1942 – Japanese capture Manila, capital of the Philippine Islands.  On 9^th January they attack General MacArthur’s US and Philippine forces and advance down the Bataan Peninsula. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

5^th January 1942 – Stalin launches new Russian offensives attempting to advance and encircle German troops on the front line near Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in the north, Moscow in the centre and the armies in Crimea and Kharkov in the south.  By April, Soviet military casualties had risen to over one million, although the suffering of civilians (“crushed between the cruelty of the Germans and that of their own Army and partisans”) was even greater. Stalin ordered the destruction of any building the Germans might use for shelter.  Dreadful conditions in besieged Leningrad led to the death of 620,000 (a quarter of the December 1941 population) from famine, cold and disease. However half a million of the inhabitants escaped by “the Road of Life”, the frozen ice road across Lake Ladoga, before the spring thaw. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

11^th January 1942 – Japanese took Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

 

12^th January 1942 – Japan declares war on the Dutch East Indies.

 

14th January 1942 - At the Arcadia Conference in Washington, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill agree to concentrate the Allied war effort on the European theatre.

President Roosevelt also orders that all ‘aliens’ register with the government. This is the beginning of a plan to move Japanese Americans into internment camps in the belief that they might aid the enemy. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

18th January 1942 – Japanese troops advance into Burma from Thailand.

 

19th January 1942 – Japan occupies British North Borneo. Singapore Island prepares for siege by the Japanese. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

20^th January 1942 - British troops capture Benghazi in Libya.

20^th January 1942 – Germany formally adopts the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Problem' . All Jews in occupied Europe were to be transported to the east. The able bodied were worked until they died, while the remainder were put to death.

See Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January).

 

21st January 1942 - Japan attacks New Guinea.

Rommel launches a counter-offensive against the 8th Army in North Africa and the British retreat to the Gazala line, 60 kilometres west of Tobruk. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

The Luftwaffe begin a series of raids against London and ports in southern England.(From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

25^th January 1942 – Thailand declared war on Britain and the USA.

Having requested re-enforcement for Britain and the US, Australia begins full mobilisation for defence against Japan. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

26^th January 1942 – American forces began arriving in the British Isles, first landing in Ulster. They brought with them a new vocabulary, including the snappier ‘radar’ for 'radio direction finding' and a guidance book to prevent them treading on British toes:

Mindful of the old saying, “It is always impolite to criticize your hosts; it is militarily stupid to criticize your allies”, the US War Office provided every American serviceman heading for Britain with a cultural guide ‘Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain, 1942’.

Explaining about the war-weary British, it said: “Thousands of them have lost their houses, their possessions, their families. Soap, is so scarce that girls working in the factories often cannot get the grease off their hands or out of their hair. And food is more strictly rationed than anything else.”

Also “The British do not know how to make a good cup of coffee. You don’t know how to make a good cup of tea. It’s an even swap.”

To the sometimes jaundiced Tommy the GIs (General Infantry) were still "overpaid, over sexed and over here".

 

29^th January 1942 - German forces recaptured Benghazi in Libya. 

Churchill’s speech to the House “I offer no excuses” ended with:

“I avow my confidence, never stronger than at this moment, that we shall bring this conflict to an end in a manner agreeable to the interests of our country, and in a manner agreeable to the future welfare of the world. I have finished. Let every man act now in accordance with what he thinks is his duty in harmony with his heart and conscience.” From the Churchill Society

 

31^st January 1942 – British and Commonwealth forces complete evacuation Malaya in the face of the Japanese advance but defend Singapore.

Pearl Harbour - the world at war, December 1941

The War in Dorset - December 1941

While the Telecommunications Research Establishment continued to develop their ‘Blind Navigation’ two more British planes crashed in Dorset – a Wellington bomber on 16^th December 1941 near Powerstock and a Beaufighter (the long-range heavy fighter modified from the Beaufort bomber) at Pulham on 29^th December. Both crews survived the crashes.

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

During 1941 construction began of the Starfish (from SF for Special fire) Decoy on Brownsea Island that was to play such an important role in the defences of Poole. Elstree Studios' pyrotechnics crew helped to install theatrical explosives and fires to mimic the bombing of Poole and draw the Luftwaffe's attention away from the town.  Designated as PE1, it was operated by the Royal Navy who also maintained decoys to protect the Royal Navy Cordite Factory at Holton Heath– HH1 on Arne and HH2 on Gore Heath.

 (From  ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980 and ‘The Book of Poole Harbour’ edited by Bernard Dyer and Timothy Darvill and published by The Dovecote press Ltd 2010.)

 

1st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron:

In December 1941 the newly formed 1^st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron moved from their secret training location in Wales to Shaw House, an impressive Elizabethan building in Newbury, Berkshire.  There they had lectures and motor cycling, driving and weapons training.

On 26^th December their designation changed to 1^st Air Landing Company, Reconnaissance Corps.  Major C.J.H.Gough (later of Arnhem fame), known as ‘Freddie’, was their commanding officer and the squadron soon acquired the nickname of FGS or ‘Freddie Gough’s Squadron’. He was a stickler for discipline and set exacting standards in search of 'the best of the best' in selection and everyday duties. All Air Landing (gliderborne) troops were volunteers.

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

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

 

At the beginning of December 1941 German heavy artillery were within range of Moscow but the German commanders realised that their exhausted and frozen troops could not take Moscow this winter (frostbite casualties were now exceeding the number of wounded in battle), even as they began a final assault on the city. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012).

 

2nd December 1941 – the new National Service Bill introduces compulsory service for women.

 

 

5^th December 1941 – Soviet forces mount a surprise counter-attack to defend Moscow and the Germans advance is halted.

 

6^th December – Roosevelt approves the commencement of atomic weapons research in the USA.

 

7^th December 1941 – Admiral Yamamoto’s Japanese carrier fleet bomb the US fleet in Pearl Harbour.  The Americans, taken completely by surprise (Japan had not declared war on the US), lost the battleships Oklahoma and Arizona, two destroyers and 188 aircraft. Many other ships and planes were damaged and 2,335 servicemen were killed.  The Japanese lost only 29 aircraft. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

Japanese forces land on Kota Bahru in the far north-east of Malaya and are able to make their first air raid on Singapore the next day.

 

8^th December 1941 – the USA and the UK declare war on Japan.

Japan attacks the US controlled Phillipines bombing the Philippine capital of Manila and American airbases. Half the US Far East Airforce are destroyed.

Japanese forces attack the British territory of Hong Kong and Japanese forces occupy Shanghai in China.

 

Mass killing began at the Chelmno extermination camp near Lodz in Poland. More than 152,000 people were murdered there during the war, mostly in the gas chambers, including Jews and Romanies from Poland, Hungarian Jews, Czechs and Soviet Prisoners of War.

 

9th December 1941 – China declares war on Germany and Italy.

Japanese troops occupy Bangkok, Thailand.

 

10th December 1941 – Allied Forces enter Tobruk in Libya. This was their first major overseas victory.

The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser HMS Repulse, which had been sent to defend Singapore, are sunk by the Japanese.

The Japanese take Guam, an American base in the Mariana islands.

 

11^th December 1941 – Germany and Italy declare war against the USA and the USA declares war against Germany and Italy.

 

14^th December 1941 – Thailand becomes an ally of Japan.

 

15^th December 1941 – Japanese troops enter Burma.  The Battle of Burma begins with a Japanese bombing attack on the capital of Rangoon on 23^rd December.

 

16^th December 1941 – Japanese forces land in Borneo.

 

18^th December 1941 – Japanese troops land on Hong Kong Island.

The British battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and Valiant are sunk by the Italian Navy while in Alexandria harbour, Egypt.

 

19^th December 1941 – Hitler took over complete control of the German armed forces, the Wehrmacht.

 

22nd December 1941 – Roosevelt and Churchill meet at the Arcadia conference in Washington and agree to pool British and US resources and develop strategy to win the war together.

Japanese forces land near Manila in the Philippines. US and Philippine troops with the American Commander-in-Chief General Douglas Macarthur, withdraw to the Bataan peninsula.

 

23rd December 1941 – Japanese forces finally land on and occupy Wake Island an American base in the Pacific between Hawaii and the Mariana Islands (after unsuccessful attacks on 8th and 11th December

 

25th December 1941 – surrender of Hong Kong to the Japanese.

 

 

26^th December 1941 – Winston Churchill addressed the US Congress with his speech “A Long and Hard War” rejoicing that “the United States, united as never before, have drawn the sword for freedom and cast away the scabbard”.

27th December 1941 - A combined services commando raid on German occupied islands off Norway results in 150 Germans killed and 16,000 tons of shipping destroyed as well as defences and infrastructure.

 

During 1941 Allied merchant shipping lost 503 ships, equalling 2,530,011 gross tons. to U-boats world-wide. Only 35 U-boats were sunk (from World War 2 Timelines).

 

Lest we forget - November 1941

The War in Dorset - November 1941

Weymouth was bombed again at the beginning of November 1941. Devastation around the Abbotsbury Road killed three and injured eleven, including the Mayor of Weymouth, the publican of the Adelaide Arms.

On 10th November 1941 Christchurch Aerodrome became a satellite airfield to the now larger RAF Hurn. It’s Special Duty Flight, which had carried out aerial tests for the secret Telecommunications Research Establishment at Worth Matravers in Purbeck since August 1941, was moved to Hurn. Around this time TRE discovered that ground ‘maps’ could be produced using radar.  Varying signals were received from the streets, houses, pines, heath and cliffs of Bournemouth on a plane flight from Christchurch.  This became known as ‘Blind Navigation’ enabling bombers to find targets in poor weather and at night.

Guarding RAF Warmwell, two members of Dick’s Dorsetshire Regiment were killed with a Spitfire pilot when his plane crashed on landing on 11^th November 1941

See also The Würzburg  .

 

13th November 1941 – the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is
torpedoed and sunk. On the same day the US Neutrality Act is repealed to allow
the arming of merchant ships carrying Lend-Lease cargo to Britain.

17^th November 1941 – buses are restricted so none may
leave after 9.30pm due to fuel shortages. Christmas cards, advertising
leaflets, posters and paper handkerchiefs are banned because of paper shortages.

18^th November 1941 – beginning of the Allies ‘Operation Crusader’ to relieve the
siege of Tobruk in Libya, North Africa.

25^th November 1941 – Germany attacked Moscow.

28th November 1941 – Germany’s siege of the critical Mediterranean
seaport at Tobruk, in Libya, was broken by the Allied 8th Army.

30^th November and 8^thDecember 1941 – massacre at Rumbala. 25,000 Jews were murdered in woods near
Riga in Latvia by Nazi paramilitary death squads, the SS Einsatzgruppen.

(From WW2-net Timelines and ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, DorsetPublishing Company 2004.)

 

From ‘Chotie’s Story’

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

Never give in - October 1941

The War in Dorset - October 1941

In October 1941 – filming of ‘The First of the Few’, a film telling the story of the Spitfire aeroplane, began near Christchurch.  It starred Leslie Howard and David Niven, both returned from Hollywood to support the war effort since 1939. Niven rejoined the Army and around this time was working for the General Headquarters Liaison Regiment (known as ‘Phantom’) as Commander of ‘A’ squadron, informing Army HQ on coastal defences and invasion risk, and happened to be stationed near Poole. Leslie Howard may also have been employed by Intelligence – when he was killed in 1943 it appears that the civilian plane he was flying in from Lisbon was targeted by a German bomber, possibly because of his work supporting the Allied cause in Spain and Portugal (although Churchill had been scheduled to fly on the same plane). 

On 11th October 1941 three of the crew of a crashed Wellington bomber were rescued off St Albans Head on the Purbeck Coast, Dorset.  Chotie was still working nearby in the Land Army at Barnston Farm, Church Knowle.

On 21st October 1941 a German plane crashed into the side of Bindon Hill at Lulworth in Purbeck.

George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited Dominion airmen stationed in Bournemouth on 23rd October 1941.

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

 

1st Airborne:

10^th October 1941 – formation of the British 1^st Air Landing Brigade which became part of the 1^st Airborne Division on 31^st October 1941. (See Chapter 5 Air Landing.)

The 31^st Independent Brigade, recently returned from India and mountain-trained, was selected for conversion to an air land role and redesignated the 1st Air Landing Brigade.  It was anticipated that the Brigade would be transported to a war zone either in gliders or in aircraft that would land on an airfield or suitable level strip of land so they were known as “Airlanding” and not “Gliderborne” troops.The initial task of 1 Air Landing Brigade Group was to carry out investigations into the problems of organisation, equipment and training of an air-landing formation.   

On 29^th October 1941 Frederick Browning, a protégé of Louis Mountbatten, was appointed to act as Commander of the Para-Troops and Airborne Troops that became 1^st Airborne Division.  

(From ‘Airborne Forces’ by Lt-Col T.B.H. Otway, D.S.O. London: Imperial War Museum, 1990 and ‘The Pegasus Patrol’  by Jack Turnbull & John Hamblett.)

 

22^nd and 24th October 1941 – the assassination of two German military commanders in Nantes, France, resulted in large scale punishment killings. 

Following the first violent act of the French Resistance in August 1941 French prisoners had been classified as ‘hostages’ to be executed in reprisal for any assassinations of the German military.  When Feldkommandant Karl Hotz, commander of the occupation troops in Loire-inférieure, and the German Military Administration Advisor were killed by the Resistance on 20^th and 21^st October 1941 fifty local prisoners, mainly communists and other political detainees, were shot in retaliation for each assassination. Despite bribes and threats of further atrocities information on the assassins was not forthcoming.

 

On 29^th October 1941 Churchill addressed Harrow School with his famous speech "Never give in".

30^th October 1941 – beginning of the seige of Sebastopol. This port on the Black Sea continued to resist the Germans until June 1942.

31^st October 1941- an American warship, the destroyer Reuben James, was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat submarine while escorting a British convoy. The Americans had not yet entered the war.

The Missing Winter

There are no letters from Dick between 7th October 1941 and 20th April 1942, when records show he was transferred from the Dorsets to 1^st Air Landing in the Reconnaissance Corps. The obvious reason would be that he was stationed near Chotie and seeing her regularly so there was no need to write. He had dental treatment in Bournemouth in December 1941 and twice in February 1942.

Presuming he continued in some part of Intelligence (he refers to a potential transfer in his letter of 7^th October), there are a number of interesting activities in the Poole area where he may have been involved, including the planning of the raid on St Nazaire and the Bruneval raid by Louis Mountbatten’s Combined Operations Command.

Mountbatten became Advisor on Combined Operations on 27th October 1941 .  Churchill summed up his job in one sentence “I want you to turn the south coast of England from a bastion of defence into a springboard of attack”.  His duties included planning commando raids across the English Channel and inventing new technical aids to assist with opposed landing.

 The Bruneval Raid was intimately connected to the secret radar work of the Telecommunications Research Establishment in Dorset and carried out by a company of paratroopers from 1^st Airborne Division who trained with the Royal Navy on the Dorset coast in February 1942.

Poole was also the base of the ‘Maid Honour Force’ of marine commandos, which Combined Operations and Special Operations Executive developed into the 'Small-scale Raiding Force', establishing an HQ at Anderson Manor in the Poole hinterland during this period (see posts for 1st April 1941 and 2nd February 1942).

All of these operations were conducted with the utmost secrecy and may possibly have involved the services of Trooper R.K Williams, Intelligence Section.

In addition, the activities of a squadron of the elite signals and reconnaissance unit known as ‘Phantom’ were centred on the area behind Poole Harbour. Commanded by the actor David Niven, ‘A’ squadron of the General Headquarters Liaison Regiment was attached to General Montgomery’s Fifth Corps and responsible for the rapid relay of information on coastal defences or invasion to Army HQ.  Since Dick later had to learn morse and wireless it seems unlikely that he worked directly for ‘Phantom’ at this time.

However, in joining 1st Air Landing (the glider-borne troops of 1^st Airborne Division), Dick would have come under the command of Brigadier G.F. Hopkinson, the founder of ‘Phantom’.  Dick had his first experience of flying in the 1^st Airborne so, if he did go to France during the ‘Missing Winter’ (as my mother seemed to remember), it was not by plane.

 

(From ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980, ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004,  ‘Phantom at War – the British Army’s Secret Intelligence & Communication Regiment of WW2’ by Andy &Sue Parlour, Cerberus 2003 and Combined Operations.)

 

Chotie at Church Knowle - Wednesday 1st October 1941

 

Intelligence Sec., HQ company, 70th Dorsets

Branksome, Dorset.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                   Many, many thanks for your letter.  I was very pleased you have struck it so lucky at Church Knowle.*  I wish you lots & lots of luck in this new venture (does that sound too staid?), and hope you have a lovely time, as I'm sure you deserve it after all our troubles.

          I'm glad Brinner saw you off as I always think it helps.  He told me you met someone to travel down with, which I hope made the journey a little more pleasant, though as a rule this isn't the case.

          I feel b----y awful at the moment, for no known reason, but I haven't felt too well since we've been at Branksome.  I've got the devil of a boil on my shoulder-blade which Eric has been doctoring for a couple of days, without very much effect.  He lanced it about an hour ago, which has caused my left shoulder to pack up for the duration.  I can't even lift my wretched arm.  However that's enough moaning in one letter.

        This cottage of yours sounds most thrilling.  I must try to get over as soon as possible - and whilst the weather holds.  It's been rather dull here and cloudy all day.         

        I was very miserable until I got your letter, which had its usual cheering effect.

          There's the devil of a lot of duties to do now, including keeping the gardens are up to scratch from 5 o'clock to 5.30!  What a game! - and there's supposed to be a war on somewhere...

          We had some excellent news today however - transfers have started again, and consequently, allowing for the usual lapse of time, (transfers take ages as a rule) I should be out of this punk crowd in a month or two.  All of which has cheered me up considerably.

          Incidentally, we are moving**!  It's more or less settled, (I know that look in Ma’s eyes...) for the beginning of November, - just above a month, and once again it's going to be Herne Bay.  I don't suppose I'll ever get leave up there but still these things must wait until after the war.  We'll make up for every scrap of it then, never fear, Darling.

          I went home yesterday and had a quiet evening in front of the fire, thinking about the move, etc.  The doctor apparently told Pa that he couldn't possibly go on working or he wouldn't hold himself responsible for Pa's welfare, which has prompted the move more than everything.

          Well, Precious I must close here to post this in time.

          Please excuse paper but it's all I can get.

                                                          all my love, Chotie Dear,

                                                                   Dicker

                                                                             Xxxxxxxx 

 

* where Chotie was living in the Land Army to work on a farm in Purbeck, Dorset.  She stayed with Miss Grace of Churchknowle Farm in a little cottage tucked into the hillside at Cocknowle.

** Dick’s family left Poole in late 1941 or early 1942.  Initial plans were for Herne Bay on the north coast of Kent but by the spring of 1942 they were settled at Pagham, near Chichester in Sussex.

 

© Chotie Darling

 

In October 1941 – filming of ‘The First of the Few’, a film telling the story of the Spitfire aeroplane, began near Christchurch on the Dorset/Hampshire border.  It starred Leslie Howard and David Niven, both returned from Hollywood to support the war effort since 1939. Niven rejoined the Army and around this time was working for the General Headquarters Liaison Regiment (known as ‘Phantom’) as Commander of ‘A’ squadron, informing Army HQ on coastal defences and invasion risk, and happened to be stationed near Poole.

 

2^nd October 1941 – Operation Typhoon begins, Hitler’s ultimately unsuccessful attack on Moscow.

To Branksome - Friday 19th September 1941

HQ Company, 70^th Bn Dorsets

Fort Brockhurst, Gosport, Hants.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                                    Many thanks for letter.  I'm replying at my first opportunity, even though I'm afraid it's a little late.

            Well, Sweetheart, there's some news at last.  We're moving to the Branksome Chine* Area.  Now don't get too excited - it won't be for long.  HQ Company is moving but I may not stay in it, in which case I shall go elsewhere.  I should see you in a few days time with luck.

            If you manage to get a farm in Dorset, I should be able to see you fairly often as I may end up somewhere in our fair county.

            It won't be any good to you to go to Pompey as we are moving this weekend, I'm afraid.  Still, I'll be able to come and see you, instead.

            I've been fearfully busy this morning, having hiked 15 miles or so.  (It's now just after Dinner time).  I haven't yet written home, since I've been back!  Terrible isn't it?

            Well, I must close here Precious, hoping to see you very soon.

                                                                                    all my love

                                                                                                Dicker

                                                                                                Xxxxxxxx

* Branksome Chine is on the coast in the suburbs of Poole.

© Chotie Darling

 

Dick was stationed in Branksome, Poole, Dorset from September 1941, possibly until he joined 1^st Air Landing.

Dick and Chotie were presumably able to meet up again easily so there are no letters until Chotie started work in the Land Army.

 

19^th September 1941 – Germany captured Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, then in Russia.

29th and 30th September 1941 – Massacre of Babi Yar. Nazi paramilitary death squads, the SS Einsatzgruppen, murdered 33,771 Jews at in a ravine near Kiev. This is considered the largest single mass killing of the Holocaust. In the following two years more than 100,000 Jews, Gypsies, Ukrainian nationalists and Soviet Prisoners of War were massacred at Babi Yar.

Not much of a birthday - posted Saturday 6th September 1941

61st Reconnaissance Regiment, who Dick was to fight with in NW Europe, were formed in September 1941 under the leadership of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir William Mount, Bt.T.D. (the former Prime Minister David Cameron's grandfather).

1^stSeptember 1941 – Nazis decreed that Jewish people in Germany and occupied countries should wear the yellow star badges introduced in Poland in November 1939.

3^rd September 1941 – the first gassing of prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camp. More than one million people were killed there during the war.

5^th September 1941 – Estonia occupied by the German army.

 

 

Intelligence Section, HQ Company, 70th Dorsets

Fort Brockhurst, Gosport, Hants.

Darling Chotie,

                Just a few lines, Precious, to wish you very many Happy Returns of your Birthday.

                I'm afraid you won't get this missive until after the sixth* as I haven't had one single moment to spare since I've been back.  Also of course it's the hell of a job to get anything posted out here in the wilds.

  

            Anyway, Darling, as you put it once before, “Here's wishing you everything you wish yourself”, which is, I think, easily the best way of expressing myself.

 

            Unfortunately I haven't yet been paid this week, as they wouldn't pay me at Brockhurst, and pay parade was over when I arrived up here.

 

            I had to do a 24 hr Guard at Brockhurst as soon as I was back but I hope to be able to get a bracelet in Gosport or Pompey*** when I can get there.  Brinner’s** still got the residue of my cash, but said he would send it on.

         Poor Chotie ... I'm afraid it won't be much of a birthday for you, but doubtless better times are coming.  Don't forget to tell me all the latest when you write, Honey.  I'm dying to know what’s happened re the Land Army, etc.

 

        If you see Brinner, tell him to let me know all his news, (also to send some cash!)

 

                            Well, Darling I must close here, as I have to see the Intelligence Officer.

                                                                                All my love Darling

                                                                                         ever yours Dicker.

 

PS.Don't worry about anything, Precious, - we'll pull through all right.

 

* Chotie’s 18^th birthday

** Dick’s younger brother Brian

 

*** A name for Portsmouth

 

© Chotie Darling

 

 

8th September – beginning of the German siege of Leningrad (St Petersburg) which was not lifted until 27th January 1944. Some 600,000 people died of starvation and disease in the city during the siege.

On 9^th September 1941 Winston Churchill addressed the House
of Commons ending his speech with the famous lines "We are still masters of our fate. We are still captain of our souls" based on the poem ‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley. (See full speech on Churchill Society website http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/CptsSoul.html.)

Too many Court Martials - Sunday 17th August 1941

Fort Brockhurst, Gosport, Hants.

Sunday.

My Darling,

Many thanks for letter received a few days back. I have passed on “sisterly” love to Eric & JP, who's now back from leave - looking rather worn out. I wonder why?

        Eric is still moaning about his leave - he hasn't had one for nine months! (apart from sick leave, which doesn't count). I'm one of the luckiest, if the truth be known. However, I'm still trying hard for my Seven Days - if anything unexpected happens I'll send a telegram but it's very unlikely.

        Hope your sniffles are better by the time you get this letter.

        What's the weather like at home? It's alternately sunny & rainy here, and has been for some time - rather more like April than August.

        The ‘I’ section has lost a large number of its members. Bill Ede the “brains” of the section, deserted a week or so ago, one is in hospital, and another is in ‘Clink’ (cooler). We've also got two on leave. What a life!

        I had a letter from Marjory* a few days ago. Full of the usual bunkum. However they don't come more than every 6 weeks to two months so there's no need to worry (?) (I bet you're throwing things about already ...) Never mind, Darling, your little Dicker still loves you, more than anything in this wide world. Does that convince you? I hope so, because it's really true sweetheart.

        I'm still doing plenty of German + Spanish, but on your intimation have given up using it in letters! There's no need to worry - it's the same in any language, anyhow.

        I believe we’re moving on the 22nd (Friday), when I should be getting my leave - what a hope! We're coming back here after a month, though, which isn't too bad. At any rate I'm a lot better off than Eric.

        Do you remember that time I went on exeat to Birmingham**? Well, the kid who went with me, Private Currey (he's only about 17), has just got 56 days detention by Field General Court Martial. He started getting tough with the RQMS(WOII)***, yelling “I come from Brum, and it's about time you bloody well knew it!” etc. He‘s now at the Glasshouse at Aldershot. There's been a lot of Court Martials lately. Far too many for one Battalion.

                    Well, Honey, I'd better close here,

                                                            all my love,

                                                                            Dicker

                                                                                    Xxxxxxxxxxx

* Dick’s former girlfriend

** See ‘Bombs in Birmingham’ letter posted 5^th November 2010

*** RQMS (WOII) Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant (Warrant Officer 2)

© Chotie Darling

 

18^th August 1941 – local fire brigades were replaced by a National Fire Service.

 

Possible that Dick got his 7 days leave on 22^nd August as hoped for.

 

25th August 1941 – British and Russian troops invade Iran.

German class - Monday 11th August 1941

Fort Brockhurst, Gosport, Hants

Monday Morning

 

My Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

                                                        All my love, Darling,

                                                                            Your loving,

                                                                                              Dicker

* kinds of hand grenade

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

 

13^th August 1941 – fighter aircraft arrive at R.A.F. Hurn to become the secret Telecommunications Flying Unit. (From ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004).

 

14^th August 1941 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the USA, and Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, a joint statement of their mutual goals for the post-WW2 world.

Ich liebe dich - Tuesday 5th August 1941

 

Fort Brockhurst,

Gosport, Hants.

Chotie Darling,

      

 Many thanks for your letter. It had its usual cheering effect on me - Honey, they never fail. How do you do it?

 

Hope you are still feeling OK and not too browned-off. Eric's presence has cheered me up considerably - but I'm pretty fed up, and Eric coming back from six months rest is also likewise.

 

There are one hell of a lot of mosquitoes here and one of the ------- bit me just under the eye-lid causing the eye to close up completely - and do I look a sight! Darling, you wouldn't like to see me now.

 

Leave, I'm sorry to say is hopeless at the moment, no one seems to be going, and there are three blokes in this room who haven't had a Seven Days for seven months! - which makes my three months look pretty silly. It's a scandal when you come to consider that a soldier is allowed four Seven Days a year and five 48 hrs. What a war!

 

This Intelligence course looks as though it's going on forever. We’re going to have a month under canvas soon - I don't know where - so I suppose all leave will be cancelled then.

 

Eric and I have just had a supper in the NAAFI, so my (our) condition has improved somewhat. I've just been reading “France” the Free-French newspaper in an effort to keep my French more or less fluent. What with German & Spanish it's rather difficult when I don't get any practice. Spanish I find very easy as I like it, but not so German - but then you'd expect swine to have a swinish language.

At the moment (on the course), I do six hours German and three hours Spanish per week ---. I won't be able to speak English soon.

 How's everyone at home? I hope all are well and full of spirits etc. Talking of spirits, Eric and I had our fill last Thursday - we had enough to float a dinghy.

We went out with Pete and J.P. last night. Eric and I got in at about a quarter to eleven, but JP didn't arrive until after midnight, having found a woman from Brum. Pete being on detachment in ‘B’ Company can get it at any time.

 

Well, I must close here, as it's nearly lights out and I have to make my bed up.

 

All my love

all yours

 

Dicker

PS. Ich liebe dich*.

* I love you (German)

© Chotie Darling

 

9^th August 1941 – the Maid Honor crew set sail from Poole for West Africa and Operation Postmaster. They arrived at Freetown , Sierra Leone, on 20^th September 1941.

 

10th August 1941 – end of Double Summer Time to facilitate “early to bed and early to rise”. Replaced by the clocks going forward from Greenwich Meantime just one
hour instead of two.

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

Dicker age 20 - Sunday 27th, Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th July 1941

 

Fort Brockhurst

Gosport

Hants.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                        In reply to yours of the 23^rd inst.*, etc!  Thanks very much for same.  As you probably know, I had a P.O.** from Chris Higginson, - very welcome as I was completely “skint” (broke), it being a Thursday.  However, I've been paid since then, which improved matters somewhat.

 

            So Brinner's not doing anything yet.  I can't say it surprises me.  If only he'd get in the Fleet Air Arm or the Navy or something like that he'd probably be a bit happier - at least he'd have something to moan about.  I think he'd do well in that line - he's the type.

 

            How did Norman appear to be getting on?  He's probably got used to it by now.  It's the devil at first in anything.

 

            Likewise was I amused at your Russian*** descent (?)!  Just wait till I get my next leave - you'll go through the mill then...

 

            I don't know when it will come off but my three months will soon be up.  Leave isn't going too well at the moment, but may recover.

 

            This course looks like going on forever.  I'm expected to lecture about twice a day - to the 2 Lance Corporals and the Sergeant! - and me a mere private.  The worst part of it is the Sub. 2^nd Lieutenant Chase always comes to me when he's going to give a lecture, so he'll have something to talk about!  However, “Truth will out”† as someone once said.

           

This writing paper is rather more like blotting paper. The price of paper is atrocious these days.  Would you write to ‘the Times’ about it, Darling?

           

I thought the “Derrick” episode had finished, but it appears to be flourishing again.  Everyone appears to have lapses except us.  I wonder how we do it. 

 

I love you so much that nothing else matters at all - everything is so insignificant.  I wouldn't care if I was doing detention or “Jankers††” or anything.  I've still got you to think about and dream about.  I'm really the luckiest soldier in the world.  There's only one Chotie and I've got her all to myself (I hope...).

 

There goes ‘Lights Out’ Honey, so I'll write some more tomorrow.

 

 

Monday.

                                    Darling, thank you lots & lots for the present received this morning†††.  It's lovely, and just what I wanted.  Some rat relieved me of my razor on Saturday, so you can imagine just how welcome it was.  All the same I don't think you should do it as you work hard enough as it is, without spending money on me.  That isn't a crack Honey, really, - I'm quite in earnest.

 

Tuesday.

                                    I've had a terrific surprise, Honey.  Someone turned up last night - someone I hadn't seen for ages - Eric!  He limps a bit, but apart from that he's fine.  I've never been so surprised my life.  I never thought he'd be back in the army.  So now we're at it all over again.

 

I've just come in from laying a minefield - we've got to practice this in the Intelligence Section.  Apparently there's a minefield not far from here - and we're expected to go and disconnect the charges ... what a life.

 

Well, Darling, this will have to be all for now, as I have to go to Spanish in a few minutes.

                                                Bye, bye, Darling,

                                                            and thanks once again,

                                                                        All yours

                                                                                    Dicker

 

* Latin abbreviation of ‘instante mense’ = “this month” 

** P.O. = postal order (money)

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

† Shakespeare gives Launcelot these words in ‘Merchant of Venice’ 1596 but they were used in Old English by the monk John Lydgate’s in his 1439  ‘Life of St Alban’.

†† ‘Jankers’ – official military punishment for a minor offence. In World War II usually meant being confined to barracks under a regime of punishment parades, inspection and tasks.

††† 28^th July 1941 was Dick’s 20^th Birthday

 

© Chotie Darling

29^th July 1941 – the Reconnaissance Corps adopt the badge Dick later wore – an upwards-pointing spear flanked by two lightning bolts designed by Trooper George Jones. (From ‘The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II’ by Richard Doherty, Osprey Publishing 2007)

 

31st July 1941 - the Nazis prepare to implement 'The Final Solution’ for the extinction of the Jews in German held territory (the Holocaust) . Over one million Jewish children were killed in the Holocaust with approximately two million Jewish women and three million Jewish men. Yizkor.

1st August 1941 – US stops oil supplies to the Axis powers.

Horse Riding - Sunday 20th July 1941

Intelligence Section, HQ Company, 70th Dorsets

Fort Brockhurst, Hants, Nr Gosport.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                Many thanks for the letter received this morning.  Don't ever stop writing to me, Honey, as your letters mean so much to me.  I also had a letter from home, and some drawing stuff I'd asked them to send.           

           Things here on the intelligence are still very nice.

           We were out on exercise on Tuesday and Wednesday in the country about 20 miles from here.  We slept in the barn of a farm - and what a farm!  It was the home farm of the country estate and a pretty marvellous place believe me.  You'd have loved it I know.  Miles from anywhere, and all the estate thickly wooded.  The House was Gothic style and covered with ivy.  They also had some superb horses …. and thereby hangs a tale. 

            There were four of us - Johnny, Welsh, Sherman and myself.  Welsh & Sherman come from Plymouth and are both rather tough.  We happened along a chestnut mare - a beautiful animal, with a filly by her.  We made friends with this hoss and decided to have a shot at riding her.

             I got a leg up from John and I was no sooner on her, when she started -and when I say she started I don't mean maybe ... she tore round & round that field a couple of times, stopped dead and started bucking as though her life depended on it.

             I hit the ground!  No kidding!  I hit the ground on that part of my anatomy where it hurts most. I had to sleep on my tummy that night....

             However all is well now - my poor bottom having recovered from the shock.

             As I'm writing this, we're all on another exercise, (Defence), inside the Gosport area, and as my duties for the next four hours are to sit in the Intelligence Office and listen for the phone, I have plenty of time to spare - for a change believe me.

            We are on this stunt all the weekend and are all confined to billets.  However, I've been out a few times during last week and as it's raining hard at the moment I'm not worrying. 

            I've recently seen “Mr & Mrs Smith” (very good), “ Honeymoon for three” and “ Spring Meeting”.  All three were pretty good. I definitely advise you to see the first named as it will give you ideas to say the least. 

            Well I must close here as I'm out of paper.

                                                                                    All my love, Sweetheart,

                                                                                                            Your adoring,

                                                                                                                        Dicker

PS.  Du bist meine geliebte!* (German)

* You are my beloved!

 

© Chotie Darling

 

La France publication for 23^rd Juillet, published in England to use in ‘French studies’

 

23rd July 1941 – Japan occupies all of Indochina under agreement with Vichy France.

26^th July 1941 – US and British Commonwealth freeze all Japanese assets and the US suspends relations with Japan.

The Intelligence crew - Saturday 12th July

Chotie Darling

Dedicated to the memory of my mother

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

 

Part 1         The Blue Cockade 

 

Chapter 4          Intelligence

 

Dick was in Intelligence from early July 1941,

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

The secrecy surrounding certain Intelligence units

meant that participants often remained officially assigned

to their original regiments.

From July to September 1941

he was Trooper Williams Intelligence Section, HQ Company, still assigned to Fort Brockhurst, Gosport, Hampshire

while he trained in Winchester (probably at King Alfred College) with the 'Other Ranks' for the Intelligence Corps.

 

July 1941 – coal also now rationed.  

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

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

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

 

Dick’s ‘Seven Days’ leave

appears to have been taken at the beginning of July,

at about the time he joined the Intelligence section.

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

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

 

 

FAREHAM SERVICES INSTITUTE

 

Intelligence Section

HQ Company, 70th Dorsets

Gosport, Hants.

My Darling Chotie,

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

          And not one car passed me all the way.

 

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

 

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

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

          I went to the Coliseum again last night.  Annette was there again – strip-tease.  I regret to say I got hopelessly tight afterwards.  There were four of us, and I've no idea how we got back again and believe it or not, I was by far the most sober of us all. 

           After an hour's steady drinking, it developed into a competition, and we started on Brandy and Chablis.  Gertie (Kirkwood) was crawling about under the table before long, and Welsh, a bloke from Plymouth Grammar, looked decidedly ill. Billy Ede, has lived most of his life in France & Germany and is consequently rather hardened. After that we got split up and Bill and I later found the others in Gosport trying to climb a pile of sandbags.  I managed to get to bed, but got up again about midnight and had a cold shower which sobered me up considerably.         

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

 

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

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

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

                                                                  All my love, Darling,

                                                                                      Dicker

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

 

© Chotie Darling

 

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

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

The Paras - late June 1941

 M.T. Section, HQ Company,

Fort Brockhurst, Gosport, Hants.

My Darling Chotie,

                                    I'm writing once again, as I have a few minutes off duty.

            I am making every effort to get into the Parachutists.  Apparently, there are a few openings in that direction, at any rate for the moment.  It should be a smashing life, if I can get in. 

            We had a marvellous time on Monday at the Sports.  George and I won the Wheelbarrow Race!  We only decided to enter for the fun of it, a few hours before the start.  No one was more surprised than us!  We got a couple of bob each in the form of a voucher in the NAAFI. 

            I managed to get a second in the Quarter Mile, only just losing first place.  I also got four bob for that. 

            There's very little news. The outlying companies are on the move again.  If I get a transfer anywhere, I'll either go to Lee or Hurn*, both better than this as regards getting home.

             I can't see any chance of getting home for some little time - probably not until my Seven Days.  It's rotten luck, but there's nothing I can do about it.  Still, things may turn for the better.  One never knows.

             Isn't the war marvellous?  Fritz will be bottled up in another couple of months**.  I'll be home for Christmas, and it won't be leave!  What a time we'll have then.  All you've got to do is earn enough money to keep both of us.  How does that suit you? 

              At the moment, John is slanging me for joining the Paratroops***.  He's going red in the face, saying I want to commit suicide or some twaddle like that.  We shall see. I'll turn up like the proverbial bad penny, all right after this show.

             Well, Darling, I must write home, as I haven't written for some little time. 

                                                            Bye, Bye, Darling,

                                                            Love you more than ever,

                                                                        All yours

                                                                                    Dicker

*Lee-on-Solent or Hurn, near Bournemouth

**Presumably news of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia, had resulted in this hope.

***The Paratroops:

In the early days of the war every man who applied to undergo parachute training was a volunteer.  “The promise of a touch of glamour and higher pay that the Parachute Regiment provided, ensured that there was never a shortage of men ready to volunteer.”

There was resentment from the rest of the Army regarding those who left for the Airborne Forces - why should good units lose first-class men whom they sorely needed? Lieutenant-General Sir Brian Horrocks (later Dick’s commander in XXX Corps) lamented that it was always the natural leaders who volunteered for these “special cloak and dagger private armies ….In these special formations... each leader represented only himself as they were all of the same type; but in his regiment he was worth almost a whole section, for he was the man the others would follow." However, Brigadier Richard Gale argued that “for peculiarly hazardous operations demanding an exceptionally high physical and moral standard one must rely on the volunteer.”

© Chotie Darling

 

26th June 1941 - Hungary entered the war against Russia with the Axis powers.

 

Copy of Record    SERVICE AND CASUALTY FORM

27/6/41          Granted W.P.P.*

* Weekend Privilege Pass?           

Chotie and Dick met up in late June/early July,

possibly for the weekend of 27^th and 28^th June

and then maybe for Dick’s Seven Days leave.

However, he appears to have joined the Intelligence section

in the week commencing 7^th July 1941 or earlier.

Out to lunch - Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th June 2011

MT Section, HQ Company

Fort Brockhurst, Gosport, Hants

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                        I'm sorry I haven't written before but have been very busy for the last few days, working nights as well. There's so little news to tell you, as usual.          

              It's been very hot today (and yesterday) - scorching in fact.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to sunbathe, the only thing to do in this weather... I always was pretty lazy! Beachcombing in Tahiti is my true métier!  What about it, after I get out...? You'd have to wear a sarong... You won't have much to lose, then...

            Wouldn't it be marvellous, though!  Just think of it - live on bananas & things.  Wear pyjamas and a bandit's hat, roll your own cheroots, and sink a drop of Bourbon or Rye...

           To change this too-good-to-be-true subject - there's going to be a Regimental Sports on Monday, and feeling bold I've entered for the Mile.  I expect to withdraw in about the 2nd lap. However, I'm doing a bit of training so may last to the 3rd. Time will show… There's a Lance Corporal here who comes from the 5^th Battalion where he broke their 100 yds record.  I did a bit of training with him tonight.  He's pretty mustard.

            The Colour Sergeant took my name for the leave roster today, so I shall get another Seven Days in about six weeks or so. Maybe.…  I hope to get home for a weekend soon but things are very difficult at the moment.  This week is out of the question I'm afraid.                                                               

                                                        Bye, bye My Darling,

                                                                                    All yours

                                                                                                Dicker.

PS.      Love you.

Thursday

            As I expected to see you today, I didn't post this letter - and so I'm writing a bit more.

            I had to go to Bournemouth with the Second-in-Command Major Miles.  We went on to Poole and he gave me half an hour or so for dinner, so of course I went home.  Coming through Bournemouth on the way back he went home (he lives at Southbourne) which gave me some ten minutes or so.  I tried to phone you, as you know by now, but unfortunately you were out somewhere.  It was dinnertime...  Just our luck.          

            Still, I'll manage to see you soon - never fear. I shall certainly get my Seven Days on time.  Probably in about six or seven weeks.           

            I did my best mileage to date today – 12.8.  It surprised me what a strain it is - especially when you're not used to it.                

            I must close here as I have no more paper.

                                                           All of my love Chotie Darling,

                                                                                    Dicker

PS.      Love you, Love you, Love you.

© Chotie Darling

 

22nd June 1941 – start of Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s (surprise) invasion of Russia.

Private Williams

Copy of Record

Statement of Service             Army No. 5731671             Richard Kelner WILLIAMS

THE DORSETSHIRE REGIMENT

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

 

CERTIFICATE

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

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

 

Gosport.                    RKWilliams Corporal

                              70^th (YS) Bn. The Dorset Regiment

 

                    COUNTERSIGNED

                                        MR.Steel          Lieutenant-Colonel,

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

 

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

 

 

Letter posted Monday 9th June 1941

 

 ‘D’ Company

Fort Brockhurst, Gosport.

My Darling Chotie,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

                                                                        Bye, bye, Darling

                                                                                    Your own loving hubby,

                                                                                                Dicker.

* M.T. = Mechanical Transport

 

Dick was in the Mechanical Transport Section of HQ Company

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

 

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

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

Fort Brockhurst, Gosport - Friday 6th June 1941

      5731671 Cpl Williams RK.

‘D’ Company, 70^th (YS) Bn Dorsets.

Fort Brockhurst, Gosport, Hants.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                Just a few brief lines to let you know I'm OK, etc, and give you the new address. I’m still on Ord. Sergeant, and consequently don't have one minute to spare all day.  I'm up at 5.30 and generally don't get to bed before eleven.  I’m afraid I can’t write much as I only have a few minutes to spare.

            As you will see from the address we are in an ancient fort*, built I understand in the Napoleonic days.

            Things on the whole ain’t so bad, but discipline is very hot.  There’s a tremendous amount of spit and polish…which isn’t exactly to my liking.

           I haven’t been outside billets for eight days which also hasn’t been much fun. But that’s the army anyway...just think of that chicken farm!

 

            I started to write this letter in ink, but was called away by the CSM. Since then my pen’s disappeared, mysteriously...some -------‘s got it.

           I haven’t had a letter from you (or from home) as I believe some fool of an officer at Southampton is holding them up.  The rat...

           It’s raining like hell at the moment (9 pm).  Before going to bed tonight, I've got to take First Post (9.30) - and also Company Roll call, Last Post (10.0) - which is also a Staff Parade when I have to report the Company present or otherwise to the Orderly Officer, and then see that all lights are out at 10.15.  After this I have to call a roll of all NCOs in the Company at 10.30.  After that I may with luck get straight to bed.  I'm then called by the Guard at 5.30 the next morning...

            I'm afraid I can't write any more, Honey, as I've only got a few minutes before First Post.  I come off the Ord Sgt on Friday so will write you a nice long letter then.

                                                                        Bye, bye, Darling,

                                                                                    Your own loving

                                                                                                Dicker.

PS. Love you lots - more than ever....xxxxxxxxxxx

* Fort Brockhurst was built to protect Portsmouth against French invasion but in the mid-nineteenth century.  It is now open to the public as English Heritage's treasure store for the south of England - see Fort Brockhurst .

© Chotie Darling

Moving to Gosport - Friday 30th May 1941

Southampton 

Friday AM.

My Darling Chotie,

                                                      Is anything wrong?  I haven't heard from you for years!  If you have written, I certainly haven't had it.  I hope there's one on the way, and everything's all right.           

            I'm afraid the main theme of this letter must strike a sad note, as I'm Orderly Sergeant for a week, which means I can't get off at all this week-end.  I was hoping to get home, ---- it...

           All 48 hrs have been cancelled owing to our move, which is to Gosport, or rather in between Gosport & Fareham.  I understand it's 3 miles from anywhere, which doesn't sound cheerful.  However, we must hope for the best.

           This Orderly Sergeant racket isn't so good.  You have to be the first up in the morning, - to get the Coy. up, and you're the last in bed at night.

          I hope this will reach you before Saturday as I don't want you to think I may be coming, all the time, when it's imposs.

           We are moving to Gosport on Tuesday - at least that's the orders so far.  They'll probably be cancelled two or three times before then.  That's the Army, all over.

           How are you, Cho Darling?  It seems such ages since I heard from you - whereas it's only about five days really.

            John's just gone on Seven Days, lucky ------- !  He'll have to come back to Gosport.  I haven't heard anything of Eric.  I expect he's enjoying himself somewhere or other, with Jean.  Another lucky ------ !

             Never mind, Sweetheart, it'll soon be all over bar the shouting.  And then ...

 

            Don't you think it's worthwhile though?  It's certainly something to keep us going.  The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that I'll always like the Army for one thing - it's shown me how much I do miss you, more than I ever dreamed.  I love you such a terrible lot, Darling.  I'm always thinking about you, and hoping & praying that you're safe and well.

             In these horrible days, no one is really safe, what with bombs & land mines & things.  Please, Tootsie, take care of yourself, you're so precious to me. 

             I hope this letter won't make you split your stays with laughing, but I just had to tell you how much you mean to me.

           I'd better close here.

                                   Bye, bye, Precious,

                                                your loving,

                                                            Dicker.

 

Dick was based in Gosport until September 1941 

© Chotie Darling

 

31^st May 1941 - Germany’s Luftwaffe accidentally bombed Dublin (the Republic of Ireland was neutral during World War 2).

Collapse of the pro-Axis revolt in Iraq.

1st June 1941 – rationing began for cloth, clothes, footwear and knitting wool with 66 coupons per person, reduced to 48 in the middle of the war and 36 by 1945. See rationing on the Fashion Era website.

Chotie worked in fashion and would have been quite miserable about these restrictions although she became a very able seamstress, making and updating her own clothes.

 

Eggs also started to be rationed in June 1941 – people were allowed one egg per week but could usually only obtain dried powdered egg. Chotie’s family ran the Creekmoor Dairy in Parkstone and were often able to obtain fresh food from the farms.

Milk was not rationed but could be difficult to come by since many of the pastures for dairy cows were ploughed to grow crops during the war. See Rationing on the Home Sweet Home front website.

Detention guard on Southampton Common - Tuesday 27th May 1941

Southampton

Tuesday 27/May

My Darling Chotie, 

                I'm writing as promised, as soon as I'm on guard, which I missed yesterday.

           I'm now on the detention guard (the one with the barbed-wire round it on the common). There are nine prisoners at the moment, though things are not so bad as I thought they would be as I have a Lance Cpl with me, who does most of the work, leaving me most of the responsibility.  It’s not too bad on the whole.  I shall be quite all right, unless a prisoner escapes, in which case I shall be ruined. But I’ll bayonet the b-----, if I catch him!

           I’ve only just been paid!  They wouldn’t pay me on Sunday, as you know, and on Monday they hadn’t got any!  However, I’ve got it now and that’s all that matters.  The only thing is I’ve borrowed so much now that it scarcely leaves me any left!

           This is neither here nor there.  What I wanted to tell you was that you looked marvellous on Sunday, Darling, and made me love you a hundred times more than I ever thought I could love anyone.

            I miss you so terribly, Darling.  Even when I'm with the boys having a drink, or at the flicks or somewhere, I am always thinking how much better it would be if I could only change them for you.  I have a good time on the whole here with John & Co, but it could never be compared with being with you.  Just to be near you, Tootsie, really means such a lot to me, more than you'll ever know.

           Am I boring you?  I hope not.  You must think I write a lot of drivel - but nothing has ever happened to me like this before.  I'll change the subject before you start throwing things about. 

           It's a funny day to-day here at any rate.  It's real April weather, alternate sun & rain - really marvellous.  The common’ s lovely when the sun's out, as all the trees are wonderfully green.

            I took ‘Rebecca’ back yesterday evening.  The woman who runs the library is very decent and kept insisting that she didn't want any fine but my conscience paid her.  I got Steinbeck's ‘The Grapes of Wrath’.  I read it when first published but it's all I could get and it's worth reading again. 

(smudge)    Mucky puppy!

             There's a lot of rumours around about moving, which will probably be on Thursday, but is not definite.  It will probably be Gosport, which is no good to me.  I'd like to get back to Southbourne again....that seems too good to be true now.  However, we must always hope, as usual. 

            The buglers are practising somewhere outside, and they're raising Cain. They keep playing ‘Cookhouse*’.... blast them! 

            I hope you got back safely and in good time, on Sunday.  I had a lift up Hill Lane, but was soaked all the same.  It rained all yesterday which peeved me not a little as I again got soaked, being too lazy to clean my overcoat buttons...That is the penalty for sheer laziness.

            Have you seen any of the old family?  I suppose they're still alive & kicking, if somewhat feebly.  I had a letter from the mater this morning, also an enclosed from Diller, as mad as ever.

             There's no news as usual, I'm afraid, so I'll close here, and scrounge some tea if possible.

                                                            Bye, bye, Darling.

                                                                        All my love

                                                                                    Dicker 

PS.  Maintenant, Chèrie, je t’aime tout ce qui est possible, avec tout mon âme, et avec toutes mes forces**.

* Buglers memorised their calls through patterned word refrains – mealtimes were announced by the call to “Come to the Cookhouse door, boys, come to the cookhouse door”, which presumably acted on Dick’s saliva glands like Pavlov’s whistle!

** “Darling, I love you as much as possible now, with all my soul and with all my strength.”

© Chotie Darling

 

 
Top photo: Corporal Richard Williams of the Dorset Regiment on guard at home at 'Fairhaven', Orchard Avenue, Parkstone, Poole.

Above: Corporal Richard Williams with his father Dudley Williams in Home Guard uniform and his younger brother Brin, a cadet.

 

 

27th May 1941 - President Roosevelt of the United States declares an unlimited national emergency and asks all Americans to resist Hitlerism.

Germany’s new battleship, the Bismarck, was sunk in the Bay of Biscay, finished off by the torpedoes of the battle-cruiser HMS Dorsetshire.

 

27th – 31st May 1941 – evacuation of defeated Allied troops from Crete.  Poole’s flying-boats assisted with the evacuation. (Extract from ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980)

 

 

Come tomorrow

Telegram on Saturday 24th May 1941 from Southampton

 

BARBARA CHALKLEY 51 COMMERCIAL ROAD PARKSTONE = DORSET

 COME TOMORROW DICKER

Dick and Chotie met up in Southampton

on Sunday 25^th May 1941

 

25th May 1941 – Germany warns US that convoying of British war supplies would be considered an act of war.

Winchester Intelligence course - Wednesday 21st May 1941

Dick was on the 4th Division Intelligence Course

at HQ 4^th Div. in Winchester

from Sunday 18^th May to Saturday 24^th May 1941

20^th May 1942 – Germany invaded Crete.

Winchester

Wednesday Morning

Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

                                                                  Bye bye Darling,

                                                                       Your adoring

                                                                                    Dicker

 

© Chotie Darling

 

Dick had his rank as full Corporal confirmed on 21^st May 1941.

 

Copy of Record

Statement of Service                        Army No. 5731671          Richard Kelner WILLIAMS

THE DORSETSHIRE REGIMENT

Order 100/41          70^th Y.S. Bn                 

Promoted War Substantive          Army Rank Cpl          21-5-41

 

24^th May 1941 – HMS Hood was sunk by the Bismarck with the loss of 1,416 men, out of a crew of 1,419, in the Battle of Denmark Strait. 

24^th May 1941 – Picture Post, the most popular magazine of the time, predicted that Poole (where Chotie lived) with the Isle of Wight and coast by the New Forest would be one of the four main landing areas for German invasion.

"Poole was the first landfall out of Cherbourg. It's gentle shelving beaches were ideal for invasion while, as a landing base, it had 5,000 feet of quays, wharfage facilities and equipment for handling cargoes. It also provided airfield facilities for the BOAC flying boats and had millions of gallons of petrol stored near its quays."

Hitler's plans for invasion in 1940 included the landing of the 6th Army from Cherbourg on the Dorset coast.

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

In a hut on the Common, Southampton - Tuesday 13th May 1941

May 1941 - cheese rationing began in Britain. The Earl of Shaftesbury and Viscount Cranborne were both in the Dorset courts this month, charged with buying black-market butter.

An observation minefield, controlled from Brownsea Island, was laid near the entrance of Poole Harbour to defend it from German E boats. 

1^st May 1941 –Donald Coleman Bailey tested his prefabricated steel bridge across the River Stour at Christchurch.  Bailey was later knighted for his design of the indispensable ‘Bailey Bridge’ and eventually retired to Southbourne, Bournemouth.

4th May 1941 – a German Junkers aircraft crashed on Winfrith Heath, the decoy ‘airfield’ (rigged with flares and moving lights) for Warmwell aerodrome in Dorset.

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

 

 

Dick had seven days leave from 4^th to 11^th May 1941

 

Top photo: Dick and Chotie at 'Fairhaven', Orchard Avenue Parkstone, Poole

Above: Dick, Chotie and Brin, Dick's younger brother.

 

 

6th May 1941 – Axis aircraft begin to land in northern Iraq.

 

8th May 1941 – HMS Bulldog and HMS Aubretia captured a German U-boat with intact secret code books and equipment enabling a breakthrough in deciphering the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park. Picking up coded German radio messages became particularly important for revealing German war plans.

 

9th May 1941– six people killed when a bomb hit their family home in Weymouth, Dorset.

10th May 1941– attack on Christchurch aerodrome.

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

 

10th May 1941 – last raid of the Blitz in London.

 

12th May 1941– sinking of the Maia in Poole Harbour. This famous flying-boat had completed the first British commercial flight across the Atlantic with it’s passenger flying boat the Mercury, before the war.  The attacking Heinkel bomber was brought down by fire from ships in the harbour and anti-aircraft guns.  Railway line north of Bournemouth and Christchurch aerodrome were also attacked in the early hours.

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

 

 

 

CHURCH ARMY CENTRES FOR H.M. FORCES

From Southampton

Date 13/May/41

Supplied gratis to Men of H.M. Forces for personal correspondence only.

 

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            I'm writing as we promised on Tuesday Evening.  I hope you got back all right - it was far too late for little girls to be travelling alone, but I won't argue about that, at any rate not until I see you again.

            I went sick this morning and have got off all duties so far and hope to for the next few days.  I'm also getting treatment twice a day, which can't be grumbled at.  There is, however, no hope of sick leave.

            I'm in the Hut on the Common* at the moment trying to drown my sorrows in tea (without sugar...)  I've also just had a supper so I'm not feeling too bad on the whole.  I slept all day in the Corporals’ Room, and hope to do the same tomorrow.  They're very good at this place (Church Army) - the old boy has just come round with free fags - two for every one in the place.

            There doesn't seem anything for me to write.  I haven't yet got over the shock of having to come back again.  It nearly kills you after seven days of freedom - but as usual I expect to get over it OK. 

            Well, Sweetheart, I'm afraid there's no news of any sort to tell you.  Hope your mangy sniffles are all better.

                                                                        Bye, bye Darling

                                                                                    Your loving

                                                                                                Dicker

* presumably Southampton Common

© Chotie Darling

 

14th May 1941 – the RAF attacked Syria, which was pro-Axis and governed by the Vichy French.

 14th May 1941– bombing of Swanage, Dorset, including Wesley Cottage where John Wesley stayed on a preaching trip.  (From ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004).

The Quartermaster - Thursday 24th and Friday 25th April 1941

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

IMMEDIATE

Southampton

Thursday.

24 APRIL 1941

Darling Tootsie,

                                         Well, Sweetheart to get it over quickly, I can't get my seven days this week at any rate. 

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

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

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

                                                                       Bye bye, Darling

                                                                        Don't lose hope,

                                                                                    Your loving

                                                                                                Dicker

                                                                                               XXXXXX

PS Thanks for letter received this morning.

 

 

“D” COMPANY

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

25 APR 1941

70^th BN. THE DORSET

RKWilliams  Capt.     Commanding D Coy

                        70^th Bn. The Dorsetshire Regt. 

 

                URGENT!

Southampton

        CONFIDENTIAL!                                                          Friday

25 APR 1941

My Darling,

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

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

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

                            Well Darling once again bye bye for the moment.

                                                                       Lots of love

                                                                                     Dicker

 

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

 

© Chotie Darling

 

24th to 30th April 1941 – Allied forces evacuated from Greece and on 27th April Athens was captured by Germany.

 

On 27^th April 1941 Winston Churchill broadcast on the BBC his famous speech ending, in reference to increasing support from America, with the quote from a poem by Arthur Hugh Clough - ‘Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth’ : 

    “For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,

    Seem here, no painful inch to gain,

    Far back, through creeks and inlets making,

    Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

    And not by eastern windows only,

    When daylight comes, comes in the light,

    In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,

    But westward, look, the land is bright."

and said “When we face with a steady eye the difficulties which lie before us, we may derive new confidence from remembering those we have already overcome. Nothing that is happening now is comparable in gravity with the dangers through which we passed last year.” 

 

 

28^th April 1941 – a Fairey Battle, one of the special duty fighter-bombers based at Christchurch aerodrome, crashed into the sea off Hengistbury Head, Bournemouth. The soldier who swam out from the headland to rescue the pilot was later given the George medal for heroism.  

29^th April 1941 – two French pilots escaped in a stolen German aircraft and landed at Christchurch aerodrome. (From ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004 Tel. 01963 32583).

 

 

At the beginning of the war the 50^th (Northumbrian) Division, characterised by its TT insignia to represent the Tyne and Tees rivers, was a motorised Territorial Army Division. Re-organised as infantry it fought with the British Expeditionary Force in France and Belgium.

The 4^th Battalion Royal Northumberland Fusiliers served with 50^th Division as a motor cycle reconnaissance battalion but by 30^th April 1941 they had become 50^th Recce and part of the Reconnaissance Corps.

From November 1941 they served in Cyprus, Palestine, Syria and Egypt before meeting their nemesis in the Battle of the Gazala line, May 1942.

Their role as Recce unit for 50^th Division was later taken on by 61^st Recce – the unit Dick fought with in NW Europe.

(From ‘Only the Enemy in Front Every other beggar behind…’ The Recce Corps at War 1940-1946’ by Richard Doherty, Tom Donovan Publishing Ltd 1994, WW2 Talk Forum and The Garrison.)