Chotie Darling

'A Very Charming Spot' - Friday 28th July 1944

28^th July 1944 – in Operation Cobra the US 1^st Army capture Coutances, near the coast west of St. Lô. US XIX Corps, who had joined the advance left of VII Corps encounter fierce resistance from 2nd and 116 Panzer, sent to re-inforce the German line.  The sector south of St. Lô becomes 'stuck' compared with the rapid advance to the west.

Soviet troops take Brest-Litovsk, a historic city east of Warsaw (now in Belarus, next to the border with Poland).  Germany begins evacuation of major towns in the east, including Lublin, in the face of the Soviet advance.  The Russians are now just 25 miles from Warsaw.

 

61^st Recce Regt RAC

B.L.A.

Friday July 28th

Chotie Darling,

                                    Received your last batch of letters in very good time.  So here goes in reply. 

            Glad to hear you got the card OK – they’re the only sort we’re allowed to send, needless to say, and as you remark it was gay if nothing else.

            Hope to get a few days rest shortly when I’ll be able to write you more fully than at the moment.  Actually there’s practically nothing to write about, owing to the security restrictions.  I can’t tell you where I am or even what we’re doing.  You’ll just have to wait until we can get together again, preferably around a thick fireplace, sometime in the autumn, after a tea of hot buttered muffins…..

            What absolute rot that bloke does talk!

            There’s a slight pause at the moment for tea, which my troop Sergeant is endeavouring to brew whilst keeping himself and the smoke under cover…. The word ‘brew’ has become very popular in Army Slang.  A knocked out tank is referred to as ‘brewed-up’ etc, etc.  Also of course the old saw – “When in doubt, “brew-up” ….”

            Well, my Precious, I’ve just had some tea – bread + processed cheese and a bar of choc, and biscuits, so I’ll be alright until the morning.

            Just had three letters (from home & Diller).  Bryn had a good time on leave apparently.  Diller said he went to work on the new barmaid at the ‘Beach’.  She caught him in the act of giving her some coupons!  That sounds pretty ghastly to me, though you know how irreproachably innocent Brinner is….

            About half an hour ago I put my hand in my battle dress pocket straight on top of a razor blade which removed approx. ¼" off one of my fingers.  As if my hands weren’t cut about enough already. 

            In a very charming spot at the moment – must come here after the war*.  I’d love to come back here if only to be able to walk about as I pleased without having to duck all the time!

            It’s difficult to judge this countryside owing to the devastation but I know of many more beautiful spots in England.  There is however a certain charm, perhaps due to the fact that things are ‘different’ in some small way, from England.  They have no timbered buildings, of course, everything being built of grey stone, very much akin to the Cotswold style.  There seems to be no deviation from this general custom.

            Wish I could have heard the last concert you saw – the old 5^th** wants a lot of beating.  Last time I heard it was in Folkestone just before Xmas.

            I fancy I’d better close here as things are warming up.

                                                                                                Dicker.

 

*Sandy Handley and Anthony Rampling did just that, visiting with other veterans in 2004. 

Anthony Rampling is on the left and Sandy Handley on the right above and below.

**Presumably Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony – Beethoven’s symphonies are mentioned in letter December 10^th 1943 and Beethoven in January 1944 letters.  The opening notes were used as code to announce the D Day landings to the French resistance on BBC radio.

 

Dick’s Commanding Officer in ‘B’ Squadron, Major Frank Harding, did not seem to have such a favourable view of their surrounds:

‘Baneful Briquessard

Dank and drear

Even at

This July year

 

Patrols prowling

Cross and Cross

Lightning bursts

Catch listening posts….’

 

(From ‘Briquessard Wood - July’ by Major Frank Harding MC, in ‘War echoes over thirty years’ published by Arthur Stockwell, 1970)

 

‘B’ Squadron trooper Anthony Rampling only saw Major Harding once during the war.  This was at Briquessard: "He looked scared stiff."

 

Colonel Brownrigg tried to take a more optimistic view in retrospect:

‘Although we didn’t appreciate it at the time, our fortnight on the line at Briquessard was first-class training.  But I think that if we had been there much longer our scout troops* might have lost some of their dash, which they were to need again shortly.’ (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

 *Dick’s troop was a Scout or Recce troop

A Close Shave

Sandy Handley continues his account of army life in the trenches of Briquessard Wood:

“There was no question of shaving, although some tried a little cold water shave in the mess tins, which didn’t taste very nice after. 

Each evening late a cauldron of tea was brought around by the troopers from the field kitchen behind the woods.  It wasn’t bad, lukewarm but better than nothing.  We kept busy opening tins of corned beef and tins of rice pudding (not heated of course) and biscuits; we never starved.

It was always better when morning came. We were equipped with a small Boyscout’s burner which was fuelled with a tablet.  I’d got a cold mug of tea so I lit this small stove and placed my cold tea on it.  This was a precarious job, however. I must have got a bit impatient and blew the flames up but I blew too strong and I got the flame in my face, burning and singeing my week old beard.  Our Officer* came along and detailed me to walk back up the wood to our squadron medical post and get some attention. Typical of me and tired with no sleep, I forgot my Army drill and instead of going along the line of the bushes and trees, which would have given me some cover, I clambered up the bank, which exposed me to any sniper.  I wasn’t thinking until all of a sudden I heard the whine of a bullet then another.  I soon went back to the line of trees and bushes edging this wood.  Of all the shells, bullets and mortar bombs which had passed, that one small bullet from a German sniper might have put me out of the war.

By the time I got to the medical aid post one of the orderlies dabbed some ointment on my face and said “We will be moving out soon so go back to your lines and don’t worry about shaving for the time being.”  (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

*Lt. Dick Williams

 

Eric Brewer wrote home on 27th July that "At the present moment we are on field rations and it's a vast difference from those 14 day pack rations...it seemed strange to see some potatoes on a plate for once and cooked meat and peas instead of tinned stuff.  We are also receiving bread each day, the pre-war stuff and real tea instead of comp tea (which is the tea, milk and sugar combined - more like dishwater than the usual tea but we even got used to that in the past 8 weeks)."  His diary for 27^th July reports that “Still same place. Gerry shot one our chaps through the hand.”  (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

Wilf Dawson of ‘A’ Squadron, who became the pillar of 61^st Recce’s Old Comrades Association, was also severely wounded at Briquessard, ending his active service with the regiment (from ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 

 

27^th July 1944 – the Allies first jet engine, the Gloster Meteor, goes into operation. The RAF and US Air Force jointly announced the development of jet aircraft in January 1944, based on the discoveries of Englishman Frank Whittle in the 1920s. Germany independently invented and developed jet aircraft and the Messerschmidt Me 262 also became operational in the middle of 1944.

The German front line in the Cotentin begins to retreat faced with the rapid advance of Operation Cobra, now including VIII Corps on the right flank heading for Coutances.

Listening

In 61st Reconnaissance, on the edge of Briquessard Wood, Sandy Handley tells of his time in the listening post:

      “Whilst we were at that place me and my friend had to have twenty four hours duty in the listening post, which was twenty yards away to our front - just a crudely scraped out trench, just room enough for five of us (four troopers and one corporal).  We had a field telephone, not a radio, to link us up with the men at the back.  We couldn’t do nothing, just lounge and listen (!) for any movement in the front.  We had to be like that for twenty four hours. In the night it was endless. In the day it wasn’t too bad as we could see the surrounding trees. Quite a few times we were mortared and of course this hastily dug trench wasn’t deep enough for protection.  I heard a mortar shell coming down and I really thought it was going to land on top of us five frightened men, but it landed with a terrific thud (it didn’t explode).  Was we relieved. 

      Of course now and again one man would leave the confines of this trench for the call of nature.  You couldn’t stand up, especially in the day time , because you would be spotted by a sniper, so there was all sorts of antics - undoing your braces and so on, balancing on your elbow in a crouched position and doing the best you could, perhaps doing your business laying down etc.  I don’t remember army training telling you had to go about that problem.  One had to be quite a contortionist to perform this exercise.  Forget about the rules of hygiene in this situation, days went by when we couldn’t wash our hands let alone anything else!!  But I was surprised how fit we were.  Our Officer* told us a little dirt won’t hurt if you swallow some."

*Lieutenant Dick Williams

 

Anthony Rampling described how even in the main trenches you could hear the Germans at night moving vehicles and equipment. "It was very nervewracking." In front of the wood there were small fields (dense ‘bocage’) with thick hedgerows where the Germans could hide. The wood was coppiced (regularly cut over to provide small timber) so didn’t provide very good cover.

He also spent time lying flat in an outpost:

Listening

          “We had to do 24 hour stints on an outpost, which was out on a hedgerow ahead of the trenches and, during that time, we hadn’t had any food and we had a phone so we rang and said we hadn’t had any food and Lieutenant Williams, our troop officer, crawled out with some food and to get the food out to us it was tied up in string and he carried it in his mouth to crawl out to this outpost.

          I think he was very brave to do this because he could have been sniped by the Germans at any time.”

Eric Brewer was "At harbour going out to STAND to position" on 25th July and the next day "Still at harbour, moved off in afternoon to the old position" so presumably the outpost again.  He'd written home that "we are not really needed out here as they don't want you for Recce...Gerry is so close to the front line you cannot get any nearer him". Gerry certainly was at Briquessard! 

Like Dick he'd obtained some supplies from the NAAFI van "we have also been issued with ... a bottle of beer, chocolate, spearmint, razor blades, envelopes and writing paper for 50 Franks or 5 shillings...the fags are 4 pennies for 10." Also "We are having some fine weather here, except for a couple of short showers its been perfect...At the present moment the sun is out and I have made my bed down in a slit trench."  The censor for Eric's letters was A.R.Stone who later received the Military Cross for action at the bridge over the Escaut Canal in Belgium on 4th September 1944. (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

26^th July 1944- After five months fighting the Battle of Narva (now the third largest city in Estonia, right next to the Russian border) Soviet forces finally capture the city from the German occupants.

 

Operation Cobra

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

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

 

 

The SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment

Roy Howard of 61st Recce's 'A' Squadron, went out on a ‘foot’ patrol (they crawled out on their stomachs) twice to find out which units they faced at Briquessard.  Having returned with a uniform jacket of the SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment* the three of them were sent out again another night to the German lines, to confirm the identification. Not knowing they were there, the British heavy machine guns opened up and they were caught in the cross-fire.  The Germans sent up very lights revealing their position and one of the trio, Lance Corporal Hampton, was critically wounded (although he later became Mayor of Evesham).  Roy got out with a perforated ear-drum.  (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

*SS Panzer Grenadiers were an elite unit in the Waffen SS (the combat branch of the Nazi party).

Major Brownrigg wrote that at Briquessard "We were amused to find that some of our prisoners were converted German reconnaissance troops and (like the 61st) were very disgruntled at doing infantry work."  (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

Eric Brewer wrote in his dairy for 24th July: “On outpost again – Gerry shot Grumlish."  However, his letter home that day is wrote his typically re-assuring, if somewhat misleading: "Our job is more like spectators watching a battle...so far we have not so much fighting, apart from the first two days..they put us back here in a kind of reserve so you have practically nothing to worry about...I believe all we are doing is staying in this bridgehead 'til they get the new suits over, then they will let us finish the march to Berlin...in about one or two months time we shall be in Berlin, or Germany at the least."  (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Back in Britain casualties from the VI attacks have now reached about 30,000 with around 4,000 killed.

Operation Cobra, the American plan to advance on a narrow front towards Avranches, at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula, is delayed by bad weather.  Some planes could not be recalled and their bombing of the St. Lô / Periers area not only gave the Germans warning of the attack but also killed and wounded men in the US 30th Division.

 

Liberation of Majdanek Concentration Camp

23rd July 1944 – Majdanek death camp, near Lublin in south-east Poland, becomes the first major concentration camp to be liberated by the Allies when the Soviet Red Army arrives.  It was also a vast forced labour camp and thousands of inmates, mainly Prisoners of War, were found there.  It is not known how many inmates were murdered at Majdanek but estimates vary between 50,000 and 400,000 Jews, as well as PoWs and other nationals.  On November 3^rd 1943 18,000 Jews were killed at Majdanek in a single day as part of Operation Harvest Festival.  Majdanek is the best preserved camp of the holocaust since the Germans evacuated hastily before the rapid Soviet advance and half the crematoria were found intact.

At Treblinka, the killing centre in eastern Poland, the last survivors are being killed to remove all evidence of the camp as Soviet troops move into the area. An estimated 925,000 Jews were murdered at Treblinka, as well as an unknown number of Poles, Roma and Soviet PoWs.  All traces of the camp are removed and the site sown with lupins and disguised as a farm.  A Polish carpenter, Max Levit, survives among the bodies of those shot. 

Pisa and Pskov

23^rd July 1944 – the Russians take Pskov, near the Estonian border – one of the oldest cities in Russia and the last major town of the prewar USSR to be held by German forces.  The 1st Ukrainian Front also take Lwów (now Lviv) in western Ukraine with 3,000 men from the Polish Home Army whose officers are then arrested and the men forced to join the communist 1st Polish Army.

On the same day US forces seize Pisa by the coast, west of Florence.

In Normandy the Canadian First Army, led by Lt-General Crerar, establishes their HQ and now operates directly under Montgomery in France.

Hitler, now paranoid about the role of Wehrmacht army officers in the assassination attempt on 20th July, insists they adopt the Hitler salute, 'the German greeting', dropping their traditional military salute.  The Gestapo arrested more than 5,000 suspected opponents of the regime and their relatives and Hitler blames failure in the east and Normandy on sabotage by senior army officers.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012.)

 

Eric Brewer is back at Briquessard with the rest of 61st Reconnaissance Regiment - his diary entry for July reads "Returned to Position – Gerry still active." (included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Livorno and Latvia

19^th July 1944 – in Italy the US 5th Army capture Livorno, a city on the coast east of Florence. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

Soviet forces enter Latvia, east of Dvinsk (now Daugavpils) in the south-east of the country. 

Operation Goodwood

18^th July 1944 – Operation Goodwood commences; the final attack on Caen. 2,600 RAF and American bombers strike the German held half of the city and the area to the south-west. Three Armoured Divisions advance south along the Allies’ narrow bridgehead east of the Orne (captured on D Day), led by the 11^th Armoured in what became known as ‘the death ride of the armoured divisions’. Meeting heavy German counter-attacks, by the end of the day they have only reached the foothills of the Bourguébus Ridge.  On the 19^th July the British slowly progress, with heavy tank losses, south-east of the city while the Canadians have crossed the River Orne and attack from the west.  By the end of 20^th July Caen was under the control of the Allies but although the British captured several villages south-east of Caen, hampered by heavy rain they could not break out of the bridgehead and 4,837 men had been killed, wounded or captured. Caen was in ruins. 

Montgomery had branded Operation Goodwood as 'the road to Falaise' but his reputation with senior staff never recovered (see BBC History website).  The Operation did, however, succeed in maintaining German attention on the British and Canadian front, facilitating an American offensive in the west: Operation Cobra.

18^th July 1944 – US 1^st Army succeeds in capturing most of St. Lô, south of Carentan.  As a strategic crossroads, the city was almost totally destroyed during the Battle of Normandy earning it the title of "The Capital of Ruins” from Samuel Beckett. (From Wikipedia.)

18^th July 1944 – on the Adriatic Coast of Italy the Battle of Ancona ends as Polish forces serving with the British 8^th Army capture the city.

In Japan Hidekai Tojo, the Prime Minister and Chief of Staff, resigns following the fall of Saipan.

 

50th (Northumberland) Division finally take Hottot-les-Bagues.

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

          Trooper John Tootell (age 22) of Chorley, Lancashire

He is commemorated in Bayeux War Cemetery.

(From the 61st Recce Roll of Honour on WW2 Talk website, courtesy of Recce Mitch.)

"One black spot was when we heard that Trooper J Tootell, who was in our squad for initial training but went to C Squadron, was accidentally shot and killed.  He is buried in Bayeux Cemetery."  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)  Like Eric, Trooper Tootell was a '1060 boy' from the North West (a big intake of men from north-west England for the Reconnaissance Corps in January 1942).

We will remember them.

 

Hottot-les-Bagues

On the Western Front elements of British 2nd Army advance toward Hottot-les-Bagues and Evrecy.

On 15th July XXX Corps is involved in Operation Greenline and on 16th July the follow-up, Operation Pomegranate holding operations in the Second Battle of the Odon to disrupt German re-organisation and distract from Operation Goodwood.

61^st Recce appears to have a role in the attacks.  On 15th July Eric Brewer wrote "Moving to a position about 1 mile away, going to do patrols." and on the 16th: "In observation post - 6 Gerrys gave themselves up this morning."  (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

Don Aiken recounted:

“The forward movement of the invading troops all along the front gradually ground to a halt as German resistance increased and the planned occupation of Caen was thwarted again and again. The front line became almost static as both sides dug in to take up defensive positions.

16th July - Hottot les Bagues and Evrecy.” (Extract  republished from Establishing a Foothold in Normandy’ by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

Hottot-les-Bagues is a village to the south-west of Tilly-sur- Seules.  The war cemetery there has more than 1,300 graves.

‘Another push to take Hottot-les-Bagues was launched on 9 July, but was pushed back by the Germans. Another attack was arranged by 11 July to be carried out by the 231 Brigade supported by the Sherwood Rangers. It was supported by a massive rolling barrage. Progress was made, but the village was not taken. It wasn’t until 19 July, after the Germans had withdrawn across the whole division front, that the village was finally securely in British hands.’ (From 50th Tyne and Tees Division.) 

 

16^th July 1944 – In Italy the 8^th Army capture Arezzo, south-east of Florence.

The Humber MKIII

On 12^th July Eric Brewer had "moved to a new position near 'Udler Bocad' (sic) Gerry mortaring, snipers active - Lt Peters just missed bullet." He was there for two days.  On 13th July two tanks were knocked out and another overturned with two crew killed and on the 14th "mortaring and snipers" were "still a nuisance".  On returning to base for a rest he wrote to his parents telling them he was "in Div 50th reserve and as usual doing nothing except sleep".  Also (on the 15th) that they had "just got our first bottle of beer from the NAFI and also white bread for one meal every two days, which works out at about two slices every two days." (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Sandy Handley returned to Bayeux sometime in mid-July:

“At the end of July we had to play an infantry role (see Briquessard) - by this time we had had our trusty Humber MK111 back in our troop. 

      We had had to go back to Bayeux to R.E.M.E. workshops again and were surprised when the officer at the workshops said “You’re lucky”. Although he’d said previously they wouldn’t have any spares for our Humber MKIII they had found a drop arm off an old ambulance and repaired our car (a transplant so to speak).  I found out from our driver a drop arm was a part connected to the steering mechanism.  

      So we waved cheerio to the boys at the R.E.M.E. and Bayeux. I wished I’d got a specialist trade like the R.E.M.E. but their job wasn’t always safe at base; their job became pretty hazardous sometimes, towing knocked out tanks out from the front under fire.  

      Now we’d got our Humber back we felt a bit more settled - Dan, our Corporal, surveying the scenery as we went along, and the driver (I can’t remember his name, may have been Bill or Bob), and me sitting on the gunner’s swivel seat with the Bren gun on the mounting, which was attached to the small turret.  No press buttons or levers here.  Whatever way I wanted to point the Bren, I shuffled my legs and hobnailed boots to move the top of the turret around.  

      The large Humbers had a 37mm and 1 & 2 machine gun and were swivelled around by a handle.  I’d had training on these in England, both for gunnery and radio procedure. Everything was noisy: the engine was at the rear and the loud mush from the radio jangled my nerves a bit.  I can’t remember having earplugs issued; the noise was nerve racking.  The light Humber was much quieter.” (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

Russians capture Vilna

13^th July 1944 – Russian forces capture Vilna (now Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania).

In Britain a Junkers 88 German fighter plane lands by mistake at Woodbridge RAF airfield in Suffolk.  It is equipped with the latest SN-2 radar and radar interception devices enabling the British to quickly devise countermeasures.  (See Lichtenstein radar.)

John Wayne

10^th July 1944 - British 8th Corps (part of 2nd Army) began new attacks toward Evrecy - a village south-west of Caen, across the River Orne from Grainville.  This was to pave the way for Operation Goodwood"a plan to employ massed armour in break through the German defences constructed on the Orne bridgehead" (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition, and Chronology of World War II.)

 

Dick's former unit, the 43rd (Wessex) Division, suffers 2,000 casualties in Operation Jupiter, trying to rest Hill 112 (see First In, Last Out) back from the Germans.  The Division also his included his first regiment, The Dorsets (see 43rd (Wessex) Division Memorial). The battle was of "shattering intensity, even by the standards of Normandy" (Hastings).

61st Recce's 50th Division was involved in fierce fighting around Éterville and Maltot south-west of Caen.  Eric Brewer was still at Grainville-sur-Odon, only a few kilometres north-west of Hill 112.  His diary records “have taken up a position in front of slit* trenches” (from Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family).

* 'slit trenches' - a very shallow excavation allowing one man to lie horizontally while shielding his body from nearby shell bursts and small arms fire.

 

Sometime in July, when Sandy Handley was still in a Bren carrier, he was involved in an assault action that may have been this one:

                                                               “I remember one little action we took part in with 4 Bren carriers.  We had to charge across to the corner of a field. I was flat on my stomach firing away, no question of taking aim.  With the motion over the bumpy field, the bullets went everywhere but the corner of this field. 

We got closer and saw a white surrender flag come up.  One German Officer and six troopers were made prisoner, fortunately for them no one killed.  Our officer* was pleased.  The Officer, Captain Truman**, got an M.C. (Militiary Cross) for a similar action.  Our officer questioned the captured German Officer*** and asked if he had any more troops in the wood.  He replied indicating he wasn’t obliged to tell us. 

However, Captain Truman ordered all the Bren Gunners and the N.C.O.s to get off our vehicles with tommy guns, to spread out and walk through the wood and keep firing. This meant walking through this wood Bren guns and tommy guns all firing, the bullets bouncing off the tree branches - pretty frightening.  I had used the Bren gun quite a lot from our armoured car since we landed but now from a Bren Carrier (which I had never had training for) and walking through a wood firing from the hip, like John Wayne, was something new. Any minute we expected a burst coming at us. 

When we were well in the wood another dirty white rag went up - six more frightened Germans, hands up.  Let’s face it, I was frightened too and I’m sure the other lads were as well. 

We now had 13 more prisoners who seemed glad it was all over for them anyway.  I hoped I wouldn’t have to go through that again but that was only July ’44.  We had a long way to go, how long no one knew."

*Presumably Lt. Dick Williams, Sandy's troop commander.

**In his account of 61^st Recce, Colonel Brownrigg describes Lieutenant Truman carrying out impressive reconnaissance manoeuvres with his troop later in the Normandy campaign at  Amayé-sur-Seulles (for which he received the MC).

*** Dick had learnt to speak German while training for Intelligence work in 1941.  He also spoke fluent French.

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

 

Caen

9th July 1944 – In Caen the Germans withdrew from the north of the city overnight to a very defensible front line on the south side of the River Orne, including the high ground of the Bourg.  The Allies advance through the rubble of the city to the Orne and now hold most of the city. (From 'The Drive on Caen, Northern France 7^th June -9^th July 1944’, a 60^th Anniversary booklet.) 

 

50th Division are involved in another failed attack to take Hottot-les-Bagues, south-west of Tilly-sur-Seules. 

Eric Brewer's diary for 9th July records that he: "Moved to Grainville.  Infantry took it and we have a forward position."  He had also written home again that he was "Still at base taking it easy...I see that you have sent me on some more cigarettes...if you send me anymore I will have to send them back home as I have more than I can smoke now; I bought 400 before I came to France and also have about one hundred besides...but the writing paper and envelopes are always welcomed, also the toothpaste". (Diary and letter extracts included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Russian advance in the East

8^th July 1944 – on the Russian front the German 12^th Corps surrenders with 57,000 men.  The Germans have now lost 300,000 men in three weeks. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

Operation Charnwood continues with American bombing and resumption of the ground attack from the north.  The British 3rd Division capture Saint-Contest to the north-west of the city and the Canadians, encountering fierce resistance further west took nearby Authie and then Cussy.  (From 'The Drive on Caen, Northern France 7^th June -9^th July 1944’, a 60^th Anniversary booklet.)

The Americans at last seize La Haye-du-Puits, on the western side of the western side of the Cherbourg Peninsula, level with Carentan (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).

 

For once Eric Brewer was away from the fighting: "Went to Bayeux for baths.  Had look round."  He wrote again to his parents "I looked round for something to send you but can't see anything worth getting, only a lot of junk."  He never let his family know quite how near to the action he got "I don't think they needed a Recce out here as the nearest we have been to the front line is approximately 5 miles so as for you saying look after yourself I am safer than the rock of Gibraltar".  Back home at Grays in Essex they were also facing danger from the V1 rockets "I hope the rocket bombs are not worrying you too much...keep looking out of the window and one of these times you will see me coming up the road and this time there will be no more khaki for me...I can't see how it can last to Christmas with the Russians pushing on as they are and the amount of stuff we and the Yanks must have coming into France...things will happen very soon, same as they did in North Africa, but our advance should be twice as fast so roll on, shall we say October eh?" (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and  letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

 

 

Operation Charnwood

7^th July 1944 – Operation Charnwood.  450 British heavy bombers drop 2,276 tons of munitions on Caen inflicting heavy losses on French civilians and only modest damage on the enemy while trying to avoid the Allies’ front line.  This was followed by an artillery bombardment which continued until the British ground attack went forward in the early hours of 8^th July capturing Lebisey on the north edge of Caen. (From 'The Drive on Caen, Northern France 7^th June -9^th July 1944’, a 60^th Anniversary booklet.)

 

The US Army Airforce attacks Leipzig (in East Germany) again with more than 1,000 planes. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

Surviving Japanese forces on the Marianas Island of Saipan launch the largest banzai attack of the war - a suicidal mass charge of 3,000 men resulting in a two day battle.  30,000 Japanese soldiers died on Saipan as well as about 7,000 Japanese civilians who committed suicide rather than be captured.  The Americans suffered 14,000 killed or wounded but were now in possession of the last line of defences for the Japanese homeland.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

 

Swapping Wheels

On 6^th July Eric Brewer of ‘B’ Squadron’s Assault Troop in 61^st Recc, was thrilled to be handing in his bicycle in return for a half-track (possibly the US M3 half-track/, which was supplied to 1^st Recce in Italy at around the same time?).  The next day he wrote “Blimey! More like a holiday in a half track.  No sweating on bikes.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Meanwhile Sandy Handley, a Bren Gunner in Dick’s troop, was lamenting the loss of his wheels:

“One day in July our troop was out on a patrol, our light Humber* leading as normal. We were with the infantry, out on the flank and off the road going over bumpy ground; our vehicle hit a mound and the driver soon found he couldn’t steer properly.  We stopped in the middle of all our advancing infantry, our Corporal advised the troop officer** and after a discussion the officer said ‘You’ll have to stay where you are and I’ll get R.E.M.E. to come out for you’. 

The Officer and the two other Humbers returned to base and we were literally stuck in the middle of nowhere.  It got dark - being three of us the Corporal said that one person must stay awake.  The Infantry had gone forward out of sight.  We felt quite alone, not a pleasant situation, although we knew the Infantry were up front.  In the pitch black I imagined any movement or noise could have been a German creeping about. 

Morning came and we waited and the sun came out, which cheered us up and at last we could see the surrounding area.  We looked back up the slope half a  mile away and our Infantry was coming out of the trees.  The enemy must have spotted them and soon over came the mortar bombs.  We saw one land in a flash just as a section of our Infantry was coming out of the trees.  The Corporal said ‘some gone for a burton*** there I bet’.  Soon our Artillery, 25 pounders, opened up. What a racket they made too, made me nervous. 

Later in the morning the R.E.M.E (Breakdown Department) came out. What a relief - we had been isolated for 24 hours.  The R.E.M.E. had also picked up a German armoured car (panzer wagon).  As I remember Dan, our Corporal, sat in the driver’s seat and the whole panzer wagon toppled over but Dan wasn’t hurt, in fact it was comical in a way. 

Eventually we were towed back to Bayeux to the 50^th Division workshops.  ‘We haven’t any spares for these old things.  You shouldn’t have had to land with these’.  However, we had a little stroll around Bayaux and looked at the Cathedral and mingled with the Yanks, Canadians, Polish soldiers and other nationalities, while we waited for a truck from our 61^st Recce to take us back to the Regiment.

When we did get back I was assigned to a Bren Carrier, which I’d never had any training for.  I found it pretty hairy with no cover like my turret on the armoured cars.” 

* Mark III Humber Armoured Car

**Lieutenant Dick Williams

***a cheerfully euphemistic slang phrase widely used in World War 2 to mean someone had crashed (eg RAF fighter crews), was missing or dead.

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

The Universal (‘Bren gun’) carrier had been employed by Recce units at regimental and squadron HQ as well as in the reconnaissance squadron since 1941 and remained a stalwart of the Corps throughout the war.  Each regiment’s recce squadrons had a carrier in Squadron HQ and another in each of the recce troops HQs and both carrier sections had three vehicles each. (From ‘The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II’ by Richard Doherty, Osprey Publishing 2007)

Recce Corps vehicles all carried the identity serial '41' (see photo on blog banner).

Messerschmitts and Paris hats - Tuesday 4th July 1944

 

July 4^th (?)

61^st Recce Regt RAC

BW87

Chotie Darling,

                                    All my mail has finally turned up, so yesterday I had twelve letters dating from 30^th May.  Many thanks, Darling for all your letters and wishes on my behalf.  They do make one realise that we are fighting for a cause, and not throwing lives away needlessly. 

            Things are going very well here, especially well for me as I have a day’s rest in a fairly ‘safe area’, and hope to get organised again after a rather sticky time.  Not having a batman here I have to do all my own washing, etc, which is really rather funny – if you can appreciate the humour of it.

            I’m in an orchard (I usually am) at the back of a Chateau – a beautiful place surrounded by a moat, and apart from the occasional hedge-hopping ME109 or the odd mortar bomb we’re having things cushy.  It’s very fine today after weeks of almost continuous rain and everyone’s in the best of spirits.

            I spent some nine hours at the nearest large town** a few days ago and browsed round the shops.  Cafés have strictly limited hours to Allied forces and have little to offer.  I managed, however, to get some coffee and two rolls & butter, which is the first bread I’ve tasted since I’ve been here.  If bread were the staff of life*** (as it’s supposed to be) I’d have been dead a fortnight ago. 

            I saw a shop full of the latest Paris hats – fabulous prices (some were 1,650 francs ie £8).  Wonderful looking things.  Nothing else worth a damn.  The book shops are pretty thinly lined – and rather obscure authors at that.

            Must close here, Darling to get some work done.  Even a day’s rest means plenty of work to a poor subaltern….

                                                            All my love        

                                                                                Dicker

*The Messerschmitt Bf 109, interchangeably called the ME 109 was a German fighter plane.  More ME 109s were produced than any other fighter aircraft in history.

**Presumably Bayeux.

*** “Here is bread, which strengthens man's heart, and therefore is called the staff of Life” Matthew Henry, 17^th/18^th century Welsh Presbyterian Minister.

© Chotie Darling

 

Eric Postles also visited Bayeux in July 1944: “One day we went back to Bayeux for a bath and change of underwear at the RAOC mobile bath unit.  There were a number of showers heads in the tent.  The water came on then went off while you soaped yourself and then came back on to swill off the soap.  You had to be quick or you missed out.  Our clothes were liberally dusted in DDT which after the war was banned as dangerous to use. 

We bought Camembert cheese in the town, which made our biscuits more acceptable.  It was also encouraging to see soldiers with formation signs we had not seen before who were arriving from England.  We also heard that 43 Division Recce Regiment had lost a squadron when their ship hit a mine off the beaches. 

I was going deaf and had to go to RHQ where the sergeant medic syringed my ears and I had no problems after that.  It was the only time in my 5 years’ service that I had to report sick, which was quite remarkable considering the conditions we lived under and the low standard of hygiene.  It was not unusual for all of us to wash in the same water.”  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Eric Brewer was also recounts a struggle with his washing in his letter of 5^th July (censored by J. Petts):

"Dear Mum Dad and all

I have to keep stopping to see if my washing is going okay which so far it is.  The first day I tried it I put shirts, socks, handkerchiefs and underwear all in together and the socks came out shrunk….. and the rest came out brown but have overcome the difficulty now and everything is proceeding as planned, I hope.  

The lads have just come in with some La Burr …(in English butter).  Also about a gallon of milk -  that is about all these French seem to have plenty of.

The… French are funny people - we were at a certain place and a big battle was going on… loads of tanks and infantry and the artillery was having a smack at targets. I looked down the road and there was a Frenchman with his donkey and cart cutting a path through the corn and carrying on just as though nobody was about and there was no war on…they seem to have seen so many battles that they don’t care a damn what happens as long no one interferes with them. If they do they start to speak it’s as though they were on piece rate but some of them are okay and give you nearly anything…."  (Extract from letter included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

The Advance of the Allies

3^rd July 1944 – Soviet forces capture Minsk (now the capital city of Belarus), trapping the German 4th Army between the city and Berezina.

Japan finally calls off the Imphal offensive in India.  Matagachi's 15th Army has lost 55,000 men (half due to starvation or disease).  Allied casualties from the battles of Imphal and Kohima amount to 17,587 killed or wounded. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

In Italy French troops with the US 5^th Army take the city of Siena and forces of the British 8^th Army capture Cortona, both in Tuscany south of Florence.

In Normandy ‘The Battle of the Hedgerows’ begins as the US Army edge south through Normandy’s dense bocage country towards the strategic crossroads at St-Lô, losing many men.  After heavy fighting 82nd Airborne take the hill of Monte Castre near Haye-du-Puits.

 

Not only hedges blocked the Allies' progress. Anthony Rampling of Dick’s No 5 troop, ‘B’ Squadron, remembers:

“As we approached a cross road before Caen the whole road was blocked with dead horses in their carts.  The Germans did this to make it difficult to get past.

One horse with a broken leg, still alive, was standing among the debris.  I tried to shoot this with my Sten gun, fired several times but didn’t kill it.  This upset me – still does.” (From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61^st Recce - pers comm.)

 

Eric Brewer got back to base on 4^th July and wrote home that he was “sending on these two French notes which were issued to us on Invasion day.  We are getting issued with different ones now so perhaps you would like these two for souvenirs...”.  (Extract from letter included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

Bread and Death

“By the last days of June the Battle for Normandy had taken on the character that it was to retain for the two months that followed: a struggle involving more than 1,000,000 men pitted against each other on a front of scarcely 100 miles.”  (Max Hastings in ‘Overlord’, Macmillan 2016 edition.)

30^th June 1944 - Since D-Day, the Allies have landed 630,000 troops, 600,000 tons of supplies and 177,000 vehicles in the Normandy beachhead. They have suffered 62,000 dead and wounded.

The remaining 6,000 Germans in the Cherbourg peninsula surrender. (From Chronology of World War II and WW2-net Timelines.) 

The German II-SS Armoured Corps, now assembled around Villers-Bocage, continue to receive the attentions of Bomber Command. Low intensity fighting persists south-west of Caen for the next nine days. (From 'The Drive on Caen, Northern France 7^th June -9^th July 1944’, a 60^th Anniversary booklet.)

 

Eric Brewer was still back at base and had just got paid: “Went to local farms and obtained 1lb butter and about 1 gallon of milk. Had a couple of chickens from bombed house - not so bad. Gun fire tonight is heavy. Weather not too bad. Bags of aircraft flying about place called Therobrot.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

The extra food would have subsidised the ‘Compo’ pack rations “lightweight wooden crates, each containing rations for six men for a three day period.  The contents varied little, but the favourites contained bully beef or Spam, rather than the alternatives of stew or oxtail or haricot.  All packs contained greengage jam, cheese, greasy bacon, powdered milk, powdered egg, salt, sugar, hard tack biscuits, boiled sweets, cigarettes, matches and three pieces of very rough toilet paper per man.” (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004.)

 

Eric Postles remembered: “We were issued with 14 man compo packs consisting of tinned food and hard tack biscuits.  The latter often contained messages from the girls who packed them.

The compo packs were labelled A to G on the end of the box so you knew the contents.  The best held steak and kidney pudding, the worst ‘harricotted’ oxtail which seemed to have more bones than meat.

We used our stoves and Benghasis, cut-down non-returnable petrol cans filled with sand soaked in petrol for heating the food cans, washing ourselves and washing clothes.  For a bath you put one leg in the water at a time.  When the petrol sand went out you refilled it but if the sand was hot you would be surrounded by a cloud of white vapour.  We heard of people being badly burned if it ignited.  It never happened to anyone in our troop.”   (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

According to Anthony Rampling cooking was done in a biscuit tin with a hole in the side. They filled it with earth, “poured petrol on it, set fire to it and cooked on the top.” (PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!)

“Trying to exist was hard. Up front you couldn’t cook anything. We were given biscuits and chocolate you couldn’t bite – solid like rock.  We had tins of meat but no vegetables. We lived on tea - made in a bucket with Ideal milk and sugar all mixed in.  The biggest thing we missed was bread":

The stench of death

“Going on to food- one food we missed very much was bread.  There were no bakehouses going and I think it was three weeks before we got any bread at all and then not very much.  And going back about Normandy, with all the cattle and the dead and the bodies the stench from the beaches to Caen, the stench of death was horrific and it took a long while for it to leave you, really.”

 

Eric Brewer seems to have written two letters home that day (the cinema show may have been a re-assuring fiction?):

Friday 30^th (written on NAAFI letterform)

"Dear Mum Dad and all

Well here I am still at base taking it easy and hope you and all are keeping fine. What do you think of the Yanks taking Cherbourg? We should soon have the supplies pouring in now then the war will soon be over I hope. They say that there is a cinema show for us tomorrow, which I hope to go and see if lucky…

Got paid this morning the first time for four weeks but have no need to draw it over here, as there is not much to spend it on….

Your loving son

Eric XXXX

PS Are these stamps any good to you as I don’t need them out here and you do know that you do not have to put stamps on my letter just (ON ACTIVE SERVICE)"

 

30^th  (written on NAAFI notepaper in a NAAFI envelope marked on active service, postmarked 3^rd July 1944)

“Dear Mum Dad and all

Just received your letter glad to hear you are alright but wish you would not send me any cigarettes as I have more than I will ever smoke and if I want any they only cost 4p for 10 so it’s a waste of time you sending them to me so please don’t send anymore…..

I just stopped writing to go and see what the roar was and blimey there was so many planes going over that you can have no idea of the amount. They were as far as the eye could see going over for about 20 minutes; must have been about 400 – 500 planes. Makes you thankful that you are British, poor old Gerry, and now the artillery have started opening up on Gerry’s position….

Your loving son

Eric XXXX”

 

Cherbourg captured by Allies

27^th June 1944 – the US VII Corps  (part of US 1^st Army) complete the capture of Cherbourg although the port had suffered considerable destruction and will not be useable for three weeks.  It was only fully operational in late September.

In Operation Epsom a German counter-attack is repulsed by the 43rd (Wessex) Division, who begin to relieve 15^th (Scottish) Division as the front line in the Odon Valley. The attack on Grainville-sur-Odon is stalled but Rauray is liberated by units of XXX Corps. The allies took the Tourmaville Bridge across the Odon river and ferocious battle begins for Hill 112, overlooking the bridgehead. (From 'The Drive on Caen, Northern France 7^th June -9^th July 1944’, a 60^th Anniversary booklet and Hill 112 Memorial Foundation.)

Eric Brewer: “Found out today that the Green Howards position which we found yesterday are missing somewhere.   A Company of 57 men altogether have not been heard of for over a week they think Gerry surrounded them and took them prisoners. Went out on patrol to find out how effective our mortar firing was but unable to get close enough to find out because of M.G.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

The missing Green Howards

26^th June 1944 – a General Strike begins in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, in resistance to the occupying Germans imposition of a curfew.  On 4^th July the curfew is withdrawn to avoid further popular uprisings in Denmark. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

The Japanese, advancing south in China, take the US air base at Heng-Yang in Hunan.

 

26^th June 1944 – British Second Army in Normandy begins Operation Epsom, a major offensive in the Odon Valley, south-west of Caen.  The plan was to attack west of Caen and swing round to encircle the city. (From The Caen Offensive  and 'The Drive on Caen'.)

The whole of British VIII Corps attack led by the 15^th Scottish Division and the 43^rd Wessex Division, with the 11^th Armoured following behind.  (43^rd Recce, Dick’s former unit, had lost many men in the sinking of the Derrycunihy two days earlier).

Eric Brewer of ‘B’ Squadron was again on reconnaissance:

“Once again we had to patrol no mans land to find position of Enemies O.P. and forward MG. Post advance about 2 mile came in contact with Late Green Howards position and found their kit intact which looked as though they had to get out in a hurry, while near Gerrys forward O.P. must have seen us because a couple of Mortars landed about 20 – 30 yds away so we went back.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

The company of Green Howards (part of 50^th Division) had been missing for over a week and were thought to have been taken prisoner. (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004.)

Eric Postles recalls another tragedy that day:

“Corporal Ashton and his crew of 10 Troop armoured car were killed.  They had landed with us on D-Day.  Corporal Ashton had been an entertainer in clubs before the war and used to play the piano for sing-songs in the NAAFI in England.  They are buried in Tilly Cemetery.  During this time 12 Troop Carrier crews ran into an ambush with some killed and wounded including 1060s.  The dead are buried in Bayeux Cemetery.” (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

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

          Corporal Squire Ashton (age 31) of Kettering, Northamptonshire

          Trooper Arnold Wade (age 32) of Cleckheaton, Yorkshire

          Trooper Gwilyam Williams (age 25) of Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire

All are laid to rest in the Tilly-sur-Seules War Cemetery.  (See 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch.)

We will remember them.

The Sinking of the Derrycunihy

Early in the morning of June 24^th 1944 a cargo ship fitted for war, the Derrycunihy (sometimes referred to as the Derry Cunihy), was carrying 600 men of the 43^rd Reconnaissance Regiment (HQ, A and C Squadrons) and heading in to land at Sword Beach.  The ship’s movement triggered an acoustic mine, splitting it in two, and an ammunition truck on board also exploded igniting the spilled oil on the water.  More than 180 men died, including Alex Johnston, Dick’s best friend from his time in 43^rd Recce. Another 150 were injured.

The 43^rd Recce were held at Pouligny (between Arromanches and Bayeux) to reform and re-equip during July. According to Roy Howard “the 61^st took their place until they could be made back up to strength” (‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004) although Doherty only mentions the 161^st (Green Howards) Regiment as the replacement for 43^rd Recce’s ‘A’ Squadron from the end of July (‘Only the Enemy in Front Every other beggar behind…’ The Recce Corps at War 1940-1946’ and ‘The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II’ by Richard Doherty). Eric Postles remembers that in mid-July “We were joined in 30 Corps by 43 Division and remained with them until Holland.”

(See also Major Desmond Scarr’s story Disaster at Sea.)‘

 

On shore, in Normandy, Eric Brewer of 61st Recce seems to have made an important find on patrol:

June 24^th - “What an army! You don’t know whether you are coming or going. They decided that we should stay here, so we went on General Patrol, found this position and the artillery put up a barrage, followed by mortars. Then the Air Force strafed it with rockets and bombs. Later heard that there were about 500 Gerrys killed in the woods where the barrage was the heaviest: that is according to the news…” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

In the East

22^nd June 2014 – Operation Bagration, the Soviet summer Offensive, begins with assaults on a 450 mile front from Pskov in north Russia (near the current Estonian border) to Lwow/Lviv in western Ukraine.  It is three years to the day since the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s invasion of Russia.  Stalin has secretly assembled 15 armies along the front, with the main concentration against Army Group Centre in Byelorussia (Belarus).  As the Soviets advance, assisted behind the lines by Belorussian partisans, Orsha and Mogilev fall in three days and Vitebsk on the 26th. By the end of June the Red Army is beginning to encircle Minsk (now the capital of Belarus). 

Raising of the siege of Imphal in Manipur, India. By 3^rd July Japanese troops were forced to withdraw from the invasion of India.  This was the largest defeat to that date in Japanese history, with 55,000 casualties including 13,500 dead.

 

Eric Brewer writes:

"We have taken some prisoners today and are know in position near main x roads near Grainville.  We located an Enemy patrol but were turned back.

What a day, nothing to do except watch after this morning but have killed a couple of Gerry chickens which tasted okay.  We hope to be going back tomorrow..."

(From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

Casualty Figures

Estimated casualties to British Forces on D Day were at least 2,500 to 3,000.  In the first 24 hours D Day losses of those from 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment who had landed were at more than 50%.

By 21^st June 1944, 50^th Division (the Division to which 61^st Recce belonged) had suffered nearly 4,000 casualties, the highest of any Division in Normandy. Half of the troops were wounded (66% of the officers) and about 9% killed (over 16% of the officers). They were on the front-line east of Tilly-sur-Seules (having liberated the ruined town on the 19th) and were still here, facing the Panzer Lehr, on 30th June (from Frontline map in Library of Congress). 

(Figures published by Roy Howard in ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ from ‘The Sharp End of War’ by John Ellis and ‘Decision in Normandy’ by Carle D’Este.)

 

Eric Brewer’s diary reads:

June 21^st: “Things still Quiet and wish they stayed like it. Our only casualty has been Docady* who was killed by a sneak raider machine gunning his lorry.

Have been talking to a Frenchman of the underground movement he showed us the 'Croix De Guerre', which he won in the last war. Most of these people round here are very quiet.” (Included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

*Matthew Docherty was killed on 20th June 1944.

He also wrote home on the same day with these re-assuring but possibly duplicitous words:

“Have had it easy so far since I have been over here.

We are just about to get relieved by another squadron and hope to get a bath this afternoon in B? …. in answer to your questions if I needed anything, well, I could do with some toothpaste and I have everything else I need…..”

PS Don’t worry about me as I am not in the front line but a kind of a reserve squadron.

PSS I’m still trying to catch on this language but should know French by the time I get home so cheerio and look after yourself.” 

 (Extract from Eric Brewer’s letters copyright of Derek Brewer and reproduced here by kind permission of Derek and his family.)

 

21^st July 1944 – US VII Corps reach the port of Cherbourg but it took a further eight days of fighting before the town fell, and by that time the Germans had destroyed most of the vital port facilities.

"Up and Ready"

20^th June 1944 – the naval Battle of Saipan, in the west Pacific, ends with a decisive victory for the US fleet.  Although the Americans lost about 100 planes the Japanese lost 400 planes and three aircraft carriers. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

The 8^th Army take Perugia in the centre of Italy as the Allies advance north continues. (From WW2-net Timelines.) 

Russian Army attacks on the Leningrad and Karelian Front (Finland) divert attention from the huge build-up of forces for Operation Bagration.

 

Eric Brewer’s diary for 20^th June reads:

“Leaving Granville* as Div 7 attack is going in. Went back to rear position to be reinforced, also some Gerry plane knocked down. Have at last found a farm to obtain milk. Things seem to be quiet - only thing we have to worry about is Enemy infiltrating through our front line but everything has been quiet...had a bath in the stream a change to get this dirt off of us.” (Included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

*Grainville-sur-Odon

 

Anthony Rampling wasn’t so lucky.  He remembers moving nearly every day in Normandy, on constant alert, living in conditions that were "almost as bad as the war".  They went 40 days without taking their boots off!  Even so they were encouraged to shave as they were meant to look ‘up and ready’ for the Germans.  The Sergeant –Major ruled the roost and would bellow “Get a shave boy!”.

Stunk like foxes

“We didn’t even take our boots off, or clothes off, didn’t wash, and we stunk like foxes.”  (Anthony Rampling’s WW2 account, personal comm.)

 

Eric Postles writes for 20 June 1944:

“We were still patrolling in the Tilly area but the tactics changed by providing a tank or self-propelled gun to trundle along behind us adding to our fire-power.  We had to admire the Military Police controlling junctions often under enemy shelling.  A number were killed particularly at the busy Jerusalem crossroads where they lie in a small cemetery made and cared for by locals. 

We did long stops for infantry attacks.  It was sad to see the wounded coming back in jeep ambulances.  On advance patrols we sometimes came across snipers from the infantry operating on their own in no-man’s land. German snipers were a menace and got short shrift when caught*.”  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

*”Snipers were detested and feared as much for the strain they caused to men’s routine movements in forward areas as for the casualties they inflicted… Both sides habitually shot snipers who were taken prisoner.”  (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

 

On 20^th June Don Aiken had run into trouble near Caen:

 “As my armoured car now had no commander, I was sent back to Squadron H.Q. and given the job of 'shotgun' on the 3 ton truck which was used to bring ammunition from the dump near the invasion beach.

On 20th June we set off on our first journey. The truck was driven by a Trooper Docherty and the passenger seat was occupied by a Corporal.
I was sat in the back of the soft-topped lorry; armed with a rifle. Now that the weather had improved to become quite hot and dry there were signs nailed to posts along the road-side saying DUST MEANS DEATH; indicating that rapid movement by vehicles along the roads would create swirls of dust which would immediately attract the enemy guns and mortars.

We picked up our full load of ammunition without problem, the other members of the crew being obviously used to the procedure, and we set off to return to our H.Q. Now I was sat on 3 tons of ammunition.  It wasn't long however before I realised that our Corporal had lost his way, as we did a couple of reverses in cul de sacs etc.. Then the surroundings began to change from rural roads to rubbled streets, and we did the sharpest reverse of all when we found ourselves in the middle of a street fighting scene, which was no place for a lorry-load of ammo. We had arrived in the besieged town of Caen - a long way off our course.

Eventually we recovered our direction and as we bowled along through a little village I suddenly heard a loud bang and our truck came to a sudden halt. A detachment of infantry was positioned in the village, and there were loud shouts and frantic gesticulations in my direction. I hesitated, not knowing what could be wrong. I didn't hesitate for a second longer however when my Corporal appeared, running rapidly past me and wildly waving for me to follow.
After we had sorted ourselves out, and the Corporal had told me what he knew, we went back to our truck to arrange the next move.

What had happened was this: A lone German fighter plane had spotted us making our way down the road, had turned round facing towards us and fired off a single cannon or rocket. This had hit the truck immediately in front of the driver and had blown a hole in his middle, killing him instantly. The ammunition, with me atop, had been separated from the driver by a thin wooden partition.

I was then returned to my Squadron, as a new Corporal had been found to command my armoured car. He was a Welshman named Evans, a reticent type, who never became very friendly or communicative.

The next few days continued to be quite eventful, although I have forgotten most of the detail and the sequential order of events. Some of the village names still spring to mind; although they lack any substance. - Tilly, Hottot, Caumont, Grainville.”

(Extract  republished from 'establishing a foothold in Normandy' by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

61^st Recce Roll of Honour for 20^th June includes three of those mentioned as lost by Eric Brewer on 19^th June and Don Aiken’s truck driver:

          Trooper Arthur Cole (age 29) of Peckham, London

          Trooper Matthew Docherty (age 31) - he was in Eric Brewer's B Squadron Assault Troop

          Sergeant Kenneth Ekins (age 20) of Grimsby, Lincolnshire

          Trooper Frank Kershaw (age 21) of Ashton-under-Lyme, Lancashire

All are laid to rest in the Bayeux War Cemetery except Trooper Docherty who lies in Ellon churchyard, between Bayeux and Tilly-sur-Seules.  Eric Brewer mentions his death in his entry of 21^st June.  

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

We will remember them.

Tilly-sur-Seules

19^th June 1944 – the Battle of the Philippine Sea begins in the western Pacific between the Mariana and the Philippine Islands.  An aircraft carrier battle, it was nicknamed the ‘Great Marianas Turkey Shoot’ due to the disproportionate losses of Japanese aircraft.

19^th June  1944 - The US 1st Army capture the town of Montebourg, near to Valognes, and start attacking towards the critical strategic port of Cherbourg, at the north end of the Cotentin Peninsula.

On the Normandy coast a great storm rages until 22^nd June wrecking the Mulberry Harbour constructed at St Laurent (Omaha Beach), damaging the harbour at Arromanches and costing the armies 140,000 tons of scheduled stores and ammunition.

Intense fighting continues in the vicinity of Tilly-sur-Seules.  By evening the 50^th (Northumbrian) Division have finally succeeded in taking the town, which has changed hands 23 times during the ‘Battle for Tilly-sur-Seules’ (8^th to 19^th June 1944).  76 civilians, one tenth of the local population, have been killed during the fighting.

"Tilly with its main road junctions finally fell to our division on 18th July.  It was bitterly fought over for a month and after changing hands over 20 times was left a heap of rubble.  The civilian occupants suffered high casualties.  A familiar sight in the area were the dead German tanks knocked out by night-time PIAT patrols with our red TT Division sign painted on them by the infantry units that knocked them out."  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

*Projector, Infantry, Anti-tank = and anti-tank weapon used by infantry at 100 yards or less range.

 

Anthony Rampling visited Tilly after the war:

Tilly-sur-Seulles

"Tilly-sur-Seulles was taken and re-taken by us and the Germans I think about twenty times and it finished up just brick rubble but after visiting it, after the war, it's a lovely little town - really recovered and there's a graveyard there with several of the Recces, which I visited and the museum."

 

Eric Brewer wrote home re-assuring his parents on 19^th June

19th Sunday (sic – no month on letter but content fits June) 8 o’clock

“Dear Mum Dad and all

Well here I am back at base….back of the front line … where you rest for a while and do nothing except sleep and please yourself what you do with the rest of the time. We have just finished our tea and the lads are getting into bed or writing. We have just been issued with cigarettes a gift from ‘Monty’ for the lads who were on D Day and by the daily ration and free NAFI issue we are all smoking ourselves to death so don’t even think of sending me any cigarettes will you…..

…There is no need to put any stamps on my letter just write (ON ACTIVE SERVICE).”

However, he lost five comrades on 19th June:

"Went out on another Recce to find force in the Granville area. We were advancing after finding out Gerry's forward O.P. (Operational Position?), also machine gun site, when we were opened upon by Mortar and Spando while we were taking up defensive position. It was decided to try and pin point the Gun - on trying to we lost 5 men Sgt EKINS, KERSHAW, COLES, GRESTY, GARDENER (found out on July 7^th that Gresty was wounded and taken prisoner). We were again forced to withdraw."  (From Eric Brewer’s Diary and letters by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

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

          Corporal Harry Cooper (age 23) of Ambergate, Derbyshire

          Corporal Eric Humphries (age 21) of Salford, Lancashire

          Sergeant Cecil Wallace (age 30) of Horton Heath, Hampshire

All are laid to rest in the Bayeux War Cemetery.  (See 61st Recce Roll of Honour courtesy of Recce Mitch.)

We will remember them.

Cutting off the Cotentin

17^th June 1944 – Free French forces, supported by the British and Americans, land on Elba, an Italian island off the coast of Tuscany.  After fierce fighting the Germans evacuate their troops on 19^th/20^th June.

17^th/18^th June 1944 – the US 1^st Army (V Corps with 82nd Airborne) reaches the coast north and south of Barneville cutting off the Cotentin peninsula and all supply routes to the 40,000 German troops defending the Cherbourg area.  Barneville is liberated on 18th June.  The Germans abandon Valognes to focus on the defence of Cherbourg.  V Corps enter the ruined city on 20th June.

 

Eric Brewer was still at Point 103:

June 17^th : "Still in same position. Gerry put in tank attack on our S.D. knocking them out like flies - saw 2 of our tanks get knocked out. Stayed in position all night; only small arms fire and a few mortars but not too bad." (From Eric Brewer’s diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and family.)

 

After St Paul-du-Vernay 61st Reconnaissance Regiment HQ moved to a 'House with 4 Girls' and then near to the Jerusalem crossroads (Regimental HQ location list on re-union dinner menu 1946). 61st Recce were pulled back to rest on 18th June - possibly this movement to 'Recce Jerusalem'.

 

Rejoining the troop

14^th June 1944 - General de Gaulle lands on Juno Beach and is acclaimed in Bayeux by an immense crowd singing the Marseilleise.  The new government of the French Republic is installed in Bayeux.

US VII Corps begin to advance north to take the critical port of Cherbourg.

British 8^th Army capture Orvieto, Terni and Todi in central Italy, north of Rome.

American B-29 Superfortress bombers raid Yawata in Japan, flying from China.

 

XXX Corps launched a new series of attacks by 50^th Division, supported by fighter-bombers planes, against the Panzergrenadiers in Tilly-sur-Seule.  The Germans held their ground and 7^th Armoured Division’s position to the west of Villers-Bocage was threatened by encirclement – they withdrew overnight to the Caumont-L’Éventé area.

“The debacle at Villers-Bocage marked, for the British, the end of the scramble for ground that had continued since D-Day.  The Germans had plugged the last vital hole in their line.  Henceforth, for almost all the men who fought in Normandy, the principal memory would be of hard, painful fighting over narrow strips of wood and meadow; of weeks on end when they contested the same battered grid squares, the same ruined villages; of a battle of attrition which was at last to break down Rommel’s divisions, but which seemed at the time to be causing equal loss and grief to the men of Dempsey’s and Bradley’s armies*.”

“The close country overwhelmingly favoured defence.”  (Extracts from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

*Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Dempsey was General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Second Army (British and Canadian) and Lieutenant-General Omar Bradley was Commanding General of the United States Twelfth Army.

 

Finding the Regiment

“In the morning at dawn we went back to the beach, found the regimental signs and made our way to a wood outside Bayeux where the squadron was, having their breakfast.

After breakfast we all moved up to the front line and that’s where we pretty well stayed until we got through Caen.”  (From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61st Recce - pers comm.)

 

Sandy Handley explains:

“In the initial part of the landing we were only half up to strength, that is only 2 armoured cars instead of 4 in a full troop, so for the first couple of weeks we couldn’t play a major role of reconnaissance work.  However, we’d gained a little battle experience and seen some nasty things.

At last our reinforcements came and we met. By that time we had been landed for three weeks (?) or so and felt quite like veterans compared with the new arrivals.”  (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

 

Eric Brewer’s diary for 14^th June reads: “Still some (same?) place. Carrin caught it.  Done recce on enemy held positions.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

He wrote to his family on 14th June:

 

TPT Brewer 14631319

13 Troop B Squadron

61^st Recce RAC c/o APO England

14^th June 1944 11 o’clock

Dear Mum Dad and all

“.......Remember when you used to read in the papers how Gerry was treating the French and you used to say it must be exaggerated? Well the things I have seen and heard they have done to the French make you think they underestimated his treatment. They go barmy out here for a packet of army biscuits and you know what they are like…. We were near a village yesterday and saw combs which cost 60 Franks, which is 6 shillings…Outside one of the shops was painted in French with tar “la boch” which means she is a Bosh traitor, with a picture of Hitler looking towards the shop. “

“We shifted from one place yesterday and went through a large town about as big as Chelmsford… there were flags out and the occupants were moving back into their houses and … filling our water bottles up with cider; that is about the only thing they have plenty of.  Cigarettes were rationed to three a day for those who worked. Gerry also made the civvies dig slit trenches etc for 3 days a week and if they refused they were sent to prison........”

 (Extract copyright of Derek Brewer and reproduced here by kind permission of Derek and his family.)

 

After Bayeux 61st Reconnaissance Regiment HQ appears to have moved south to St Paul du Vernay (Regimental HQ location list on re-union dinner menu 1946).

Normandy

Chotie Darling

Dedicated to the memory of my mother

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

 

Part 4        Only the Enemy in Front   

 

Chapter 11          Normandy

 

 

Dick landed in France on 13^th June 1944 (D+7)

 Dick, Anthony Rampling and the remainder of 61^st Recce still in England were supposed to head for France on D3 but the sea was very rough and so they went on D7 (June 13^th).

 

Anthony Rampling tells his story of arriving in France:

"As we prepared to embark they were taking the wounded off the boat on stretchers. The only comfort you got going over was lying on body bags.

    We landed on Gold Beach towards late afternoon. There was a hurry to get off the beach.  We missed one of the signs to find our regiment and carried on into the countryside."  Tony remembers saying to the Corporal: “If we go much further we’ll be at the front line.”

Tony arrives on D Day plus 7

“On D Day part of the regiment went and I went on D7 – originally I should have gone on D3 but in fact of the troop of only four armoured cars two went on D day, two went on D7, which I always thought was a bit weird, splitting a troop of four cars up. 

    So we met up with them.

    We came off the boat on the beaches of Gold Beach and as we came off the boat we should have followed the regimental signs, which we missed, turning left instead of right, going into the country.

    By this time the evening was drawing on; it was getting dusk and we parked up cos we were scared of getting too near the front line.  There were several Durham Light Infantry chaps milling around us and they gave us a mug of tea each and we sat all night peering out of the armoured car in case any Germans came.”

German reprisals

13^th June 1944 – the first German V1 Flying Bomb (ballistic missiles, named for vergeltungswaffen – German for reprisal) lands in England, at Swanscombe, Kent. Another, landing in London, kills six people at Bethnal Green.  Over 8,000 V1 bombs, which became known as the buzz bomb or doodlebug, were launched against England in 1944 with more than 50% reaching their target.  Operation Crossbow, the campaign against the V1 assault was now a top priority for the Allies.  (See 'The V1 Bomb'.) 

“By 13^th June the British attack on Caen from the north-east had petered out” (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).  Still following Monty's plan 7^th Armoured Division advance to Villers-Bocage but one German tiger tank, commanded by Obsturmfuhrer (Captain) Michael Wittman of the newly arrived 2^nd Panzer Division, destroys 25 tanks and other vehicles.  With further attacks by 2^nd Panzer and the Panzer Lehr the British withdraw west to Tracey-Bocage.  7^th Armoured had lost a total of 28 tanks and 28 other armoured vehicles and Villers-Bocage was not liberated until 4^th August – by then the town was in ruins.

American forces complete the liberation of Carentan and Caumont-L’Éventé and capture Pont l'Abbe, south-west of Sainte-Mère-Eglise.

 

After St Leger the 61st Recce HQ moved to near Bayeux (Regimental HQ location list on re-union dinner menu 1946) where they stayed for the arrival of the rest of the Regiment.

Eric Brewer of 61st Recce was about 12 miles to the south-west.  On June 13^th he wrote: “Now on G.P.* near Granville*. Gerry’s 500yds away, not much activity.”  (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

*Gun position? General patrol?

**Grainville-sur-Odon, between Villers-Bocage and Caen.

 

Carentan and Caumont

12^th June 1944 – US 101^st Airborne at last take Carentan at the base of the Cherbourg peninsula and the US bridgeheads from Omaha and Utah join up.  The Allies in Normandy now have a united 50 mile front-line, penetrating 5 to 20 miles inland from the beaches.  They have landed 326,000 men and 54,000 vehicles (from OnWar website).

Churchill visited Normandy  for the day, coming over from Portsmouth and meeting Montgomery on ‘Gold’ beach.

The US 1^st Division liberate Caumont-L’Éventé (the area Eric Brewer reached on D-day).  The village of Livry, to the north-east, is taken and cleared by the British 7^th Armoured Division but they are unable to capture Tilly-sur-Seules. 

8th Armoured Brigade launch attacks between Tessel and Bretteville from St Pierre but suffer heavy casualties.  50^th Division are ordered to hold the line from Point 103 – La Belle Épine and 8^th Armoured withdraw from St. Pierre. (From ‘The 8^th Armoured Brigade Break-Out from the Normandy Bridgehead June 7^th – 12^th 1944’ by Brigadier HJB Cracroft , Commander.)

Eric Brewer’s diary entry for 12th June reads: “Shifted to Tilly and opened up on by Spandau Squadron still active.”  He also managed to find the time to write to his family:

Tpr Brewer 14631319

B Squadron 13 Troop, 61^st Recce RAC, APO England

12^th June 1944 

Dear Mum Dad and all …

“we have not been able to write letters until today as they could not make arrangements until it was possible to get the postal side of things organised and they seem to be okay now”…

“Well I have not much news but as you can guess I am in France and keeping okay and everything is going okay. There is plenty to do and by the look of things the war can’t last much longer; don’t think no longer than Christmas at the most so cross your fingers and keep that kettle on.”

(From Eric Brewer’s diary and letters by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

 

12^th June 1944 - Alfred Rosenberg, Head of the Reich Ministry for occupied Eastern Territories orders the kidnapping of 40,000 Polish children aged 10 to 14 for slave labour in Germany under the Heuaktion.  (From World War 2 Net.)

An Unpleasant Sunday

51st Highland and 7th Armoured Divisions are sent in to attack around Caen, from the north-east and south-west respectively. 12^th Battalion Parachute Regiment finally take the village of Bréville, near Pegasus Bridge, at huge cost.  7^th Armoured attempt to secure Tilly-sur-Seules without success.   

50^th Division’s 69^th Brigade (the Green Howards) seize Ducy-Sainte-Marguerite, a village west of Loucelles, but their attack towards the village of Cristot (north-west of Tilly and St Pierre) is delayed after the 47^th Dragoon Guards reconnaissance reports little resistance.  Panzer Lehr hold the villages of Chouain, Audrieu and Brouay and 12^th SS Panzer move in to the apparent gap. The Green Howards are forced to withdraw with 250 casualties.  “By nightfall the Germans were counter-attacking towards the British start line on Hill 103” (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).

Brigadier Cracroft’s account of the events of 11^th June ends: “Altogether an eventful and unpleasant Sunday” (from ‘The 8^th Armoured Brigade Break-Out from the Normandy Bridgehead June 7^th – 12^th 1944’ by Brigadier HJB Cracroft , Commander.)

See Map of the front line 11th June 1944.

Eric Brewer’s diary records “Left 103, made patrols in village. Came across machine gun post and wiped it out, then found dead Gerrys - one had a good ring on him so Lacy went and took it off and was immediately opened up on by snipers but luckily he was missed.” (Extract included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

Around this time Don Aiken recalls a less serious event:

“One event still comes back to me. We were ‘harbouring’ in a large field which belonged to a typical large chateau. Our armoured cars had occupied dug-out emplacements which had previously been occupied by German tanks. Most of the cattle in the pasture had been killed and the accustomed stench of dead animals pervaded the air. Adjoining the field was a large wooded area in which was positioned a heavy artillery battery which had been engaged in shelling enemy positions for a considerable time.

Suddenly I heard the rumbling drone of a German heavy bomber which was seeking out the artillery position and immediately dropped a bomb very close to our vicinity. Taking cover, along with my companion, I dived under the armoured car and waited there until the bomber had dropped all its bombs and the sound of its engine died away in the distance.
As we crawled out from under our cover I felt a trickle running down my knee. Clutching at my ominously sticky pants I said to the other Trooper; “I think I’ve been hit!”. We both closely investigated the area of the ‘wound’ until - the smell hit us — I had dived into a cow-pat.”     (Republished from the BBC People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

Massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane

10^th June 1944 – In response to the D Day landings the Maquis had risen against the garrison of Tulle, south of Limoges in the Massif Central. Apparently in reprisal troops of the 2^nd SS Panzer Division kill 642 civilians in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane, north-east of Limoges in central France. The men are shot and women and children are locked in a church which the soldiers set on fire.

 Montgomery meets the US Commanding General, Omar Bradley, at Port-en-Bessin and agrees a plan to encircle the Caen and the Panzer Lehr Division via Caumont and Villers-Bocage with the 7th Armoured Division.  However, this turns out to be “little more than a reconnaissance in force.” (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

7th Armoured advanced through the 50th Division’s forward position.  The 50th held Bayeux and had established an additional base nearby to the north-west, between the city and Gold Beach (from Frontline map in Library of Congress).

 

On 10^th June the 8^th Armoured Brigade’s position was strongly counter-attacked by the Germans.  These attacks were successfully repulsed and Point 103 and St. Pierre were held but the Brigade were unable to progress towards their next objective, the Tessel-Bretteville feature (Tessel Wood?*).  Supplies were brought in by a defended column from St Leger via the Audrieu area.  The lorries took back the wounded to the bridgehead.  The column also brought liaison officers from the American 155 unit and 50^th Division, offering artillery support. (From ‘The 8^th Armoured Brigade Break-Out from the Normandy Bridgehead June 7^th – 12^th 1944’ by Brigadier HJB Cracroft , Commander.)    *Tessel and Bretteville are villages south of St.Pierre

One of the wounded was Lieutenant Gordon Rainey:

“I went forward with a reconnaissance unit to try and take up a position on the flank of a strong armoured division reported to be moving up from the south.  We soon found the Germans were already established in positions on the flank. I was in a Bren gun carrier behind an armoured car, which was suddenly knocked out by an anti-tank gun.   The crew of the car were blown out of the vehicle but we were not seriously wounded.  We directed fire on to what we took to be the anti-tank guns position.
Then I crawled forward with a few other men to reconnoitre around the still blazing armoured car.  The Germans must have been watching us all the time from some other position, for suddenly there was another burst of machine-gun firing and we were all hit.  My wound was in my leg.  I crawled about 200 yards, and afraid that other members of the unit might think I was a Jerry in the long grass, waved to them.  They waved back, and although the enemy were still firing two of them crawled towards me.  Other members of the unit provided covering fire while they brought me in."

They crept forward to him under heavy machine gun fire, and his driver, Lance Corporal Hampton, and Trooper Smith dressed his wound. The little party started crawling away on their hands and knees through the long grass back to our line.

"We could only make slow progress" said Lt. Rainey, "and my driver got fed up and he got me on his back, jumped up and ran for it. It was a very fine show. They got me to a casualty clearing station and after two hours wait on the beach I was transferred to a hospital ship."  (Extract from Yorkshire Post Friday 16^th June and Daily Mail (Hull) via WW2 Talk Forum.)

Eric Brewer of 61^st Recce recorded for June 10th:  “Still at 103. Snipers still active 2 bullets strayed(?) by Smith. Also we were forced to move back to new position and take up that position.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

 

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

          Sergeant Leslie Eric Carpenter (age 22) of Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire

           Sergeant Thomas Ruane (age 25)

who are laid to rest in the Bayeux War Cemetery,

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

We will remember them.

French soil

9^th June 1944 – the Russian Army launches an offensive against the Finnish forces north of Leningrad and by 20^th June has smashed their defences and captured Viipuri (now Vyborg) near the Gulf of Finland. Viipuri was the second largest town in Finland but was ceded to the Soviet Union as part of Finland’s war reparations.

 

In Normandy the RAF fly from French airfields for the first time since 1940 and two Mulberry harbours have been constructed at Arromanches and Omaha beaches (the harbour at Omaha is wrecked by a storm on 19^th June but ‘Port Winston’ at Arromanches is in use for eight months).  Dick Williams and Tony Rampling were meant to follow the rest of the 61^st Recce Regiment to France on D-Day+3 but the sea was too rough to cross. They eventually arrived on D-Day +7.

US V Corps capture Trévières, west of Bayeux.

“The British 50^th Division with the 8^th Armoured Brigade had advanced south from Bayeux, but they had come up against violent counter-attacks from the Panzer Lehr Division round Tilly-sur-seulles and Lingevres (west of Tilly).” (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

The elite 130th Panzer Lehr Division, having driven from Chartres, move into position west of 12^th SS Panzer.  The formidable Panzer Lehr “fought superbly to hold the ruins of Tilly, the little town in a valley south-east of Caen, which was to be the scene of some of the most bitter fighting of the campaign…The infantry were deployed in ditches and ruined houses alongside tanks employed as mobile strongpoints, meticulously camouflaged.”

“For the British 50^th Division the lyrical name of Tilly-sur-Seules became a synonym for fear and endless death.” (Extracts from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

 

On 9^th June 8^th Armoured Brigade (including 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment) succeeded in taking their objective, Point 103 - La Belle Épine.  This was a hill that “dominated the surrounding country to the East and South and overlooked Juvigny and Tilly sur Seules, which was the hub of the German opposition: Pt 103 was thus an extremely important feature.”.  They also attacked the village of St Pierre as well as columns of Germans moving north of Tilly sur Seulles towards Bayeux and east along the Juvigny-Fontenay road towards Caen. “We had a heavy day of fighting and had succeeded in stopping all further enemy movement Northwards and Eastwards.”.”  (From ‘The 8^th Armoured Brigade Break-Out from the Normandy Bridgehead June 7^th – 12^th 1944’ by Brigadier HJB Cracroft , Commander.)

Trooper Eric Brewer, of 61^st Recce's ‘B’ Squadron, recorded in his diary that “Gerry had put in a counter attack on hill 103 so we returned back. Large tank battle between us, must be about 1,000 tanks (found out later that it was 1,500 tanks, British, in this battle), lots of snipers active, bullets going everywhere and SSM*.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

*surface to surface missile?

 

Eric Postles account of 8^th to 14^th June includes: 

“The tanks entered Villers but a German counter attack by the Panzer Lehr Division drove them out and heavy fighting ensued at point 103. 

Our three carrier crews were holding position where two tracks crossed near a farmhouse and having exchanged fire across a field with German troops we had to retreat under fire to a ditch where the Sherwood Ranger tanks were.  There were tanks exploding and on fire before a heavy barrage from our guns, and a sweep through by the Durhams restored things and we regained our position and retrieved our carriers, which luckily were undamaged.  There were a number of dead Panzer Grenadiers in the area. 

We decided that tracer bullets gave our positions away and removed them form the Bren Gun magazines, relying on the incendiary bullets for markers.  Because of jamming, the Bren magazines had to have a reduced number of rounds in them.

We moved back to the Tilly-sur-Seulles area and Villers Bocage was not taken again until 5^th August.  The Bocage country consisted of small fields, thick high hedges surrounding them and sunken tracks to pass along.  It was ideal defensive country and resulted in many British casualties.”  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Don’s account of this time also describes fighting in the Bocage:

“The following days were almost as chaotic as we tried to tie everything up together. We seemed to be tearing around the countryside without much particular purpose; although I suppose it all had some plan behind it. We were making forward patrols along country roads which were lined with trees, hedges, ditches, or raised banks; all of which were ideal cover for the enemy guns. Every now and again we would make some contact with the enemy and a skirmish would ensue. Then there would be a push forward, with our troops moving through the cornfields amongst which I remember the sight of dozens of our Self-propelled 25 pounder guns blazing away to soften up an unseen enemy.

7th June - Break out to Tessel Bretville.
9th June - Recce Jerusalem
10th June — Tilly-sur-Seulles
13th June - Villers Bocage"    (Republished from the BBC People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

Don mentions that on 9^th June 1944 61^st Reconnaissance were at ‘Recce Jerusalem’ (near Chouain). In his book Roy Howard explains where this is:

‘South of Bayeux in Normandy lies a very small village by the name of Jerusalem, and at a farm just outside the village there lie a number of men killed in a battle for a German strong point.

          After the war, the War graves Commission went to the location to remove the bodies for reburial in an official cemetery.

The farmer who owned the land refused to permit it saying -

“These men fought for my land, died on my land, and they shall continue to lie in my land.”

61st Recce breakout from the Normandy bridgehead

8^th June 1944 - with the landing of a second wave of troops on the Normandy beaches the troops break out from the bridgehead.  The US V Corps, heading west from Omaha beach, reach Isigny (east of Carentan at the SE corner of the Cotentin Peninsula) but are still separated from the forces landed at Utah beach.  Some of the forces from Utah are heading for Cherbourg and begin to attack Montebourg, east of Valognes.  47 Commando finally take control of Port-en-Bassin and link up with the US 1^st Infantry from Omaha beach. 

50th (Northumbrian) Division are now based in and holding Bayeux (from Frontline map in Library of Congress). 

 

East of the River Orne the Battle of Bréville begins. (By 13^th June the Allies have managed to secure this critical village, just beyond the Orne bridge, but are not able to take the invasion further along the coast, across the River Dives until 17^th August.)

Montgomery wrote to the war office “I have ordered Second Army to keep up good pressure and to make its main effort towards Villers-Bocage and Évrecy and thence south-east towards Falaise.” (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

*south-west of Caen

 

61^st Reconnaissance Regiment were some of the first to break out of the ‘Gold’ beach bridgehead heading south from the Brécy/Ruqueville area (east of Bayeux) via Coulombs to Loucelles.  They appear to have been based at Saint-Gabriel-Brécy on the night of 7th/8th June and afterwards at Saint-Léger on the main route between Bayeux and Caen (Regimental HQ location list on re-union dinner menu 1946).

 

Brigadier Bernard Cracroft, commander of the 8^th Armoured Brigade continues his account of the assault on Villers-Bocage:

"The advance started at midday on the 8^th of June. On the right axis 61^st Recce Regt supported by 4/7th Dragoon Guards.  On left axis 24^th Lancers. 

On the right we soon ran into opposition in Loucelles but after some fighting captured the village but were held up just south of it.  There was strong 88mm opposition in the area where the road crossed the railway.

On the left 24 Lancers ran into very strong opposition in the area Putot en Bessin.  The country here was very thick and the enemy appeared to have a number of anti tank guns.  We lost tanks and in spite of every effort to outflank the village it became apparent that further advance without infantry support would not be possible.  Unfortunately I had no infantry for this task and accordingly I decided to abandon the attempt to break out on this axis and to concentrate all my efforts on the axis Loucelles – Pt. 103, and ordered 24 Lancers to switch their attack to Loucelles.  The country on this line was very thick and very built-up, and it was apparent that we should need considerable infantry support to get the tanks through it.

          As my Motor Battalion…, 1 Dorsets*, allotted to me … and quite magnificiently did they carry it out, although they had never worked with armour before and the nearest they came to a Motor Battalion in the matter of equipment was to have one company equipped with cycles.  …the Battalion moved into the assembly area at Rucqueville, where they came under my command.

          I thought at this time that there was probably only a thin crust of German defence and that if I could break through there would be no further organised resistance.

At about 1600 hrs I therefore moved 1 Dorsets into Loucelles to replace 61 Recce Regt who were unsuitable for the dismounted fighting which was now necessary.”  (From ‘The 8^th Armoured Brigade Break-Out from the Normandy Bridgehead June 7^th – 12^th 1944’ by Brigadier HJB Cracroft , Commander.)

*Point 103 at les Hauts Vents between Audrieu and Tilly-sur-Seules is also known as La Belle Épine.

**The Dorsets were Dick’s first regiment when he joined up in June 1940.

 

Major Brownrigg, tells the story of 61^st Recce on that day (from ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.'):

            “After an uneasy night in a regimental harbour, the next morning, D plus 2, we began a much less ambitious form of the original Villers Bocage stakes*.  ‘A’ Squadron and a squadron of tanks were ordered to capture a piece of high ground about two miles outside the bridgehead perimeter.  One imagined the enemy tightly penning in the bulge, so that any move forward of the F.D.L’s** would draw a rain of fire.  In fact the move out was completely peaceful but after about half a mile ‘A’ Squadron was held up by isolated parties of the enemy and lots of snipers.  We were being pressed by Brigade to get on; “Use your big friends and push on” kept coming over the air to me in the rear link.  So the Commanding Officer went forward in his carrier to promote progress.  This he was doing when the ominous words came over the air from his operator: “My Sunray has been hit.”***  He had been standing up his full six feet plus in his carrier giving orders to the tanks, when he was shot at very short range through the thigh.  This was a tremendous loss to the Regiment.

            Meanwhile the rest of the Armoured Brigade had had no more luck on a parallel road.  The Brigadier therefore decided to concentrate on our route, and to relieve us with an armoured regiment.  There was one awful moment; two sections of carriers had been sent to clear the village ahead from the rear.  This meant a wide detour, but we got through on the air to recall them.  To our horror we found that the message had reached only one section.  As the armoured regiment entered the village shooting all their weapons right, left and centre, the other section of carriers motored straight through the fire, from the reverse direction, with the officer standing up in the leading carrier and looking distinctly surprised.  No one was hurt.”

*Villers Bocage was originally meant to be taken on D Day.

** ‘forward defended localities’

***’Sunray’ was code for the commanding officer of any unit so this was Colonel Sir William Mount.  See Roy Howard’s account of the shooting of Sir William Mount in his book ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’, Brewin Books 2004.

 

Eric Postles continues his account of 61^st Recce ‘B’ squadron:

 “During the night there was some German Air activity which was met by heavy Ak-ak (Anti-Aircraft) fire from ships and shore guns.  Early in the morning one of the Assault Troop corporals when out on patrol was the first casualty when a bullet took off the heel of his boot.  The only other enemy airstrike was when two fighters streaked very low over us and they were met by a hail of Bren gun bullets.  German spotter planes kept their distance and some were shot down.”  

50 Division entered Bayeux which the Germans evacuated leaving it undamaged and pushed forward to the Tilly-sur-Seulles area where they encountered fierce resistance from the elite German Panzer Lehr Division.  We carried out patrols and supporting infantry attacks against increasingly strong German opposition.  We passed through Bayeux early in the morning of 8 June and joined up with tanks and infantry with the aim of pushing on and capturing Villers-Bocage. 

Near Bucéels*, while trying to get the tanks to move quicker, our Commanding officer, Lt Col Sir William Mount was badly wounded by a sniper and the Second in Command, Major Philip Brownrigg, took over from him.”  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

*North-west of Tilly-sur-Seulles

 

Don Aiken also includes the incident in his narrative: “We got news that our Colonel, a typical Cavalry Officer, had been riding in a Bren-carrier (a small tracked vehicle with no turret). He had been standing up, in a 'tally-ho!' type of manner, when a German sniper, who was concealed in the ditch alongside the road, shot him up the bum. We never saw or heard of him again.”  (Republished from 'My Bit in WW2' by kind permission of Don Aiken.)

 

According to Anthony Rampling, Colonel Mount was ‘a bit blood and guts’ and might have got them into a lot more trouble, while Colonel Brownrigg was a steady nice chap – although Tony says he never set eyes on him during the war!  After the war they met up at 61^st Recce reunions.

 

Eric Brewer had at last rejoined the squadron:

June 8^th: “Moved off at 4 o clock to find squadron, made contact with them near 103, took up positions and came across little activity.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

 

Sandy Handley continues his story of those early days in Normandy:

“We hadn’t had the chance to do any reconnaissance work, so as I recall we got attached to a tank brigade and helped out with our machine guns.  We were given a target and ordered to keep firing. 

After all the machine gunning, we had to move into a village which was a bit eerie; strewn across the road were 10 dead Germans and it was difficult for the driver not to go over them.  Some of our troops who had landed earlier (Royal Marine Commandos) obviously hadn’t stopped for anything, such was the urgency to get on. 

My Corporal ordered me to shoot at a Church Tower, he said there might be snipers up there.  I fired my Bren, but I didn’t seem to do any damage to the tower of this church - loosened a few bricks maybe and disturbed some pigeons. 

(I can’t remember the name of this village but in 1989 I went back with our Normandy Veterans Group, Folkestone Branch and during out tour visiting the Landing Beaches I’m sure we went into this same village - it was the same one with the church tower and in my mind I was thinking of those dead German soldiers laying across the road 45 years previous.  Human life is so precious.  What was also terrible was the cattle, sheep and horses which had been blown up or shot.) 

Soon the enemy were surrendering and on our way forward we picked up a prisoner or two.  As we had no spare room on our cars we had to pass them back - at least their war was over.”

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

 

 

 

D Day

“I have also to announce to the House that during the night and the early hours of this morning the first of the series of landings in force upon the European Continent has taken place.”        (From Winston Churchill’s speech 'The invasion of France'.)

 

6^th June 1944 – D-day. 150,000 troops land on the beaches of Normandy in the Allies’ invasion of France, Operation Overlord.  21^st Army Group are under the command of General Montgomery with the US 1^st Army led by General Bradley and the British and Canadian 2^nd Army led by General Dempsey.  The German defenders, taken by surprise, are gradually overwhelmed although heavy casualties are sustained, particularly by the Americans on Omaha – the US V (5^th) Corps is held up less than one mile from the shore (the naval bombardment and US bombers failed to destroy the strong beach defences) . US VII Corps, spearheaded by the US 4^th Division, is able to advance inland from Utah beach while the Canadians’ 3^rd Infantry Division and British commandos rapidly push inland from Juno beach. British I Corps on Sword beach also secure most of their targets including the vital bridges over the River Orne, taken by the airborne.  21^st Panzer head for Caen and the gap between Juno and Sword, engaging with British 3^rd Division and stalling their planned progress to Caen but failing to break up the bridgehead.  Hitler kept close control of the reserve Panzer Divisions himself and fails to authorise their movement to Normandy until late in the day while Rommel arrives back from Germany to direct defences at close to midnight.

 

On Gold Beach the British 50th Division, including elements of 61^st Recce, lead XXX (30) Corps ashore. 61st Reconnaissance was the first Regiment in the Reconnaissance Corps to land in France.

The 1^st Hampshires and 1^st Dorsets (Dick had joined up with the Dorsets) of 231 Brigade led the assault at le Hamel, where artillery had escaped the bombardment. It was fiercely defended by the German 716^th Division and did not fall to the Hampshires until late afternoon.  The 6^th Green Howards (69th Brigade) landed at La Rivière, where Sergeant Stan Hollis performed the first of the feats that would win him the Victoria Cross.

"On the right the 231st Brigade was to push westwards in the coastal area, taking Arromanches (the destination of the artificial Mulberry harbour, built in segments in Britain and slowly towed across the Channel  from the afternoon of 6^th June) and the battery at Longues, while the 47th (Royal Marine) Commando went ahead to capture Port en Bessin and join up with Americans from Omaha. On the left, the 69th Brigade was to strike southwards and crossing the Seulles in the St. Gabriel-Creully area to secure the Bayeux-Caen road near Ste. Croix Grand Tonne. The reserve brigades were to advance between these two—the 56th on the right to Bayeux and beyond it to the river Drome; the 151st on the left to seize the Caen road and railway between Bayeux and the Seulles." (50th Division history)

 

Map courtesy of Eric Postles from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO

‘Gold’ was 9 miles wide with a 5 mile landing zone at the eastern end.  According to Anthony Rampling, the men of 61^st Recce were aiming for the section codenamed ‘King’ (nearest to the Canadians on Juno) but Eric Postles writes that the plan was for his unit to land at ‘Jig’ section. Since 61^st Reconnaissance were acting in support of all of 50^th Division (and 47 Commando) it’s probable that elements landed at both (See D-Day landings booklet and Campaign Summaries of World War 2 - Normandy landings.)

 

“First vehicles ashore on D-Day were the light Recce cars of Major Cave (‘C’ Squadron) and his crew and that of Corporal Howard* and his crew (‘A’ Squadron).  Due to embarkation problems in the UK and the vagaries of war, they arrived on different landing craft and at opposite ends of the landing beach, but managed to rendezvous safely in the area inland beyond the dunes, and were able to radio beach information and R.V. positions to the C.O. and remainder of the landing force still aboard their landing craft." (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lt-Col P.H.A.Brownrigg, D.S.O.)

*Roy Howard’s vehicle had failed to start on loading and crossed the Channel in an LCT carrying tanks fitted with flails to beat the beach surface and detonate mines:

“We were the first off our Landing Craft and silent prayers were uttered that our engine would not let us down again as we slid into some five feet of water and ploughed our way slowly towards the distant beach.  After what seemed to be a very long time we reached dry sand and drove under small arms fire towards the sand hills, where we were directed to head along the beach for a considerable distance until we arrived at a point where white tapes had been laid to mark an exit clear of mines.  This led us on to a small track behind the dunes and we followed this track for about half a mile when we spotted another Recce car behind a hedge in a small field.  It proved to be that of Major John cave of C Squadron and we joined him with some relief.”  (From Roy Howard’s ‘Beaten Paths are Safest – Memories of the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment’, Brewin Books 2004)

 

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

 

Eric Brewer, was part of the ‘B’ Squadron assault unit:

“Landed in France at 7.30 at the right of “Port Embasie”* the beach is filled with stuff and plenty of dead lying about. Gerry gun positions have been well blasted, all the crews were killed from concussion, the shell craters are as big as houses and they are everywhere.

We pushed on to the Caumont** Area and got lost from the rest, Spando opened up from the hedge about 2-ft away and killed carrier driver.”  

Eric said he had a bicycle when he landed but it had punctured tyres and he threw it away (pers.comm.).

 (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

*Port-en-Bessin

*Possibly Caumont-l'Éventé, south of Bayeux and about 20 miles from the coast?

 

Lt.Ron Griffiths of 61st Recce landed with the 231 Brigade at 7.35 am and, having lost his jeep, swum to the shore, beginning his war in Normandy with only the kit he was wearing - see 'My D Day story' and his picture with medals in his local paper.

 

‘By 10.30am the British Second Army had landed 15 infantry battalions, seven commandos, seven tank regiments, two engineer assault regiments, nine field artillery regiments and detachments of scores of supporting units.’ 

'50th Division, moving inland from Gold beach, fought a succession of hard battles against elements of the 352nd Division.  By evening troops of the 151st Brigade had reached the Bayeux-Caen road and tanks of the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards were reporting little in front of them.  Though the 50th was short of most of its D-Day objectives, it was solidly established in Norman hedges and fields, with only limited German forces on its front.'  (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

 

Don Aiken also recalled his D-Day on the BBC History People's War website:

“We arrived off the shore of Normandy in the late morning. 'Gold' Beach near the village of Arromanches, which was our first destination, had already been captured by the assault troops of the Hampshire Regiment, and it was now possible for vehicles to be disembarked on to the beach and directed to designated areas for the purpose of de-waterproofing the vehicles and preparing to advance into the bridgehead.

The LST dropped anchor and the remaining Rhino was untied from the side of the ship and made its way round the bows, ready to be attached to the gangway which projected forwards when the bow doors opened.  It was then discovered that the coupling gear had been smashed and this sparked off a frenzied burst of activity to try to tie the units together with ropes. However, ropes are flexible by necessity, and the choppy seas made it almost impossible to hold both units in line; but with the aid of a couple of small motor-boats, pushing away like tug boats, they became near enough to go for it and our Troop made the transfer across. Soon we were running in to the beach and the Rhino bottomed out. The light armoured car (Recce Car) in which I was a crew member was the first to drive off, and in my elevated position in the turret I felt like a submarine commander, especially when we suddenly dropped into a bomb hole which was concealed beneath the water and only the turret was left exposed.

The Beach Party had been well trained for this situation and had the de-waterproofing area completely organised and running smoothly. Although I almost threw a spanner in the works !  My armoured car had been fitted with a device, which I had contrived, to allow me to operate the smoke canister gun without having to lean outside the turret. Basically, it was a bike brake mechanism which was attached at one end to the gun and, at the other end, the brake grip was attached to my seat support.  Whilst the driver was removing the waterproofing from the engine, the Officer went to a quick 'O' Group (Officers briefing) and the radio-operators tuned in their radio transmitters to the H.Q. transmitter . This was quite a delicate operation and it was at it's finest point when my elbow touched against the trigger . Bang! went the smoke discharger - and as I quickly bobbed my head out I could see the smoke bomb heading straight into the middle of a wired off field, with dozens of painted notices showing the sign of a skull and cross-bones and the words "Achtung Minen". Which didn't take a genius to recognize that my bomb was landing in a German mine-field, and the mines were too close for comfort.

I ducked down inside my turret and held my breath........
Nothing - oh good! Then Bang! Bang! Bang! ..... I realised it was someone banging on the turret. When I popped my head back out I was confronted with the angry face of the Beach Officer - a Major - whose features reminded me strongly of the Medical Officer with whom I had been acquainted in Scarborough; complete with black curly moustache, but perhaps even stronger on the language!

Soon the various sections of our Regiment were ready to move off to try to reach their pre-arranged target locations. Ours was a wooded hill about 15 miles inland, and our role was to 'seize and hold' it, until the main body of troops could relieve us. It was soon quite obvious that, because of our delayed landing, there was no possibility of us reaching our target that day. As we drove off the beach, through a pathway made through the minefield and on to a narrow road which ran in a southerly direction, a huge anti-aircraft barrage opened up from the multitude of ships which lay offshore. As the barrage drew nearer I spotted a German plane flying very fast and very low as it fled southwards directly over our heads. I quickly joined the fading barrage and emptied my Bren gun magazine in the direction of the speeding ‘hornet’ as it disappeared out of sight. Despite my effort being in vain I felt great satisfaction in at last being able to throw things back at the Germans.
I remember nothing about our advance during the remainder of the day, only that we eventually had to give way to the coming of the night.

My only memories of that first night were that we had to remain standing in the pitch blackness, not daring to make a sound as we had no idea of how close we were to the Germans. We were fortified by a tiny drop of rum, which barely covered the bottom of our tin mugs, and a 'keep awake pill'. Nothing happened all night but we were all relieved when dawn broke and we were able to start off again."

Eric Postles wrote his account in a book ‘My War Years’:

“At dawn we could see the French coast being bombed by Allied planes and later nearby warships and rocket ships shelling the coast.  The heavy seas caused problems for the ships towing Rhinos and we were late arriving at the beach.  After much effort our Rhino was linked to the ship’s ramp and my carrier was first on the ramp when the Rhino broke away.  We jumped off the vehicle and waited for the reconnection before finally getting onto the Rhino next to a bulldozer which was intended to lead us off.  We got near the water’s edge and the bulldozer which was intended to destroy obstacles drove off but disappeared under the water and we did not see the driver again.  The Rhino moved further along the beach and we all got ashore.  It was late afternoon.

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

I never saw the beach again until I went to Normandy for the 40^th Anniversary of D-Day.

Away from the beach we removed our waterproofing plates and spent the night at the edge of a cornfield in which there were a number of dead Germans.  It was an uncomfortable night because of the enemy activity and we got little if any sleep.”

 

Neither Sandy Handley or Major Brownrigg were to land on the Normandy beaches on D day:

“Owing to the roughness of the sea several of the Rhino ferries broke away from their parent LSTs.  Only half the regiment got ashore on D-Day, the rest of us remained in our LSTs about 300 yards from the shore.” (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lt-Col P.H.A. Brownrigg D.S.O.)

 

“We arrived off the French coast as it was getting light.  The American gun crews of the Horlican were popping away (rapid firing). I don’t know what they were aiming at, there was so much smoke being laid by destroyers.  I didn’t think the sea was rough. 

I looked over the side and saw quite a large craft completely capsized and partly submerged.  Most likely it had hit a mine (what a sight to greet us - made me think).

We were supposed to land at Gold Beach H 7.25 (07.25) that morning of the 6^th June.  Some of our Reconnaissance boys had got ashore in the other LST allotted to 61^st Recce.  But the captain of our LST held back as he was afraid there wasn’t enough draught (depth) to unload us, then get away from the shore quick.  There were other problems too: we had towed two large rafts or rhinos from Southampton to facilitate the landing of our vehicles.  The plan was to manoeuvre the large Rhino, thus enabling the armoured cars to go in at a low depth of sea.  But unfortunately one Rhino broke away.  This meant the remaining Rhino had to do the whole job.  We laid off Arromanches till the next day (D + 1). 

In the meantime we had a grandstand view of the beaches where we should have landed.  All the time the mighty roar of the guns from the British Navy, the shells going over our head like an express train.  What a sight!

Of course for us this would be a sixth night on the steel decks but we appreciated that most likely we were better off on our LST that the 61^st Recce lads who had to land first on 6^th June with 50% casualties.”

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

 

By the end of D Day 50th Division had lost 700 men.

 

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

        Sergeant William Richard Moss (age 24) of Witney Oxfordshire

        Trooper Arthur Harry Newell (age 31) of Brockley, London

        Trooper Richard Henry Rainford (age 19) of Leeds, Yorkshire

All are laid to rest in the Bayeux War Cemetery (from 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch).

Many more lost their lives but their bodies were never found and identified.  

We will remember them.

 

‘What hollow, false relief

To hug French shore:

And seek out mates – some lost

For evermore!’ 

(From ‘Seize and Hold, Invasion – 6^th June 1944’ by Major Frank Harding MC, in ‘War echoes over thirty years’ published by Arthur Stockwell, 1970)

Pegasus Bridge

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

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

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

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

 

 

Rome

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

White Bread and Burial Blankets

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

As Don Aiken explains :

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

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

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

 

Operation Neptune was underway.

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* LST = Landing Ship, Tank

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

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

 

Eric Postles remembers:

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

Waterproofing and Wild Driving

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

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

“Water proofing armoured car.”

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

 

Sandy Handley gives a little more information:

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

The Haunch town - Monday 15th May 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO

England

 

Monday 15^th May

Chotie Darling,

                                    Just a few lines to tee up the leave question.  I can get next Friday off from 2 o’clock in the afternoon until the same time Saturday afternoon ie. 24 hrs.  If this is any good to you will you write back at your earliest?  I imagine we could fix up somewhere to stay in the Haunch town*.  If something unexpected should turn up and cancel my pass I’ll write you at the earliest possible time.

            I’m just about up to my eyes in it at the moment, working from ‘first light’ until it’s dark – and writing this by candlelight in my tent.

            No news to tell you of course.  I was going to send you a copy of “San Luis Rey”, but I’ll keep it now and bring it along on Friday.

            Haven’t heard from Brinner yet – though it’s almost certain he’s at a depot somewhere.

            Must close here as I’m falling asleep.

                                                                                    All my love

                                                                                                            Dicker

PS Write instanta!

 

*Salisbury (The Haunch of Venison) 

© Chotie Darling

The Plan for Operation Overlord

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Chotie defends Bristol again

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

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

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

 

 

The Foxcub - Thursday 13th April 1944

2/Lt RK Williams

            61^st Recce Regt

NB!                             A.P.O.

            England

 

Thursday 13^th April

Chotie Darling,

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

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

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

            We’ll manage to meet somehow, never fear.

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                            All my love, Chotie

                                                                        Dicker

RKWilliams

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

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

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

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

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

© Chotie Darling

 

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

 

Address same as usual

Sunday eight o’clock

Dear Mum Dad and all ….

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

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

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

 

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

 

Primroses - Saturday 8th April 1944

 

2/Lt Richard Williams

NB.  ->               61^st Recce Regt

Home Forces

 

Saturday 7^th (sic)

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for letter.

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

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

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

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

                                                            All my love

                                                                        Dicker

    RKWilliams 

 

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

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

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

****Ronnie Jury

© Chotie Darling

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

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

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

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

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

Eric Postles wearing Reconnaissance badge

 

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

Nightingale Wood

Chapter 10          D Day and preparations

 

‘The ever-shifting sea, now soon to bear

Armada on the ebb of Hitler’s tide.

Then are the hosts in canvas camp confined,

Some in a wood called Nightingale: but where

No bird sings to the restless men at night,

Who fancy seeing ravens in the sky.’

 

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

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

 

In early April 1944 the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

It was no picnic as Anthony Rampling remembers:  

Nightingale Wood    

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

61st Reconnaissance Regiment.

Mixed Batteries - Saturday 1st April 1944

2/Lt Williams RK

61^st Recce Regt

RAC

Home Forces

 

Saturday 1^st April

Chotie Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                All my love, Darling

                                                            Dicker

 

*Probably Rosa Ponselle, an American soprano

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

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

 

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

 

 © Chotie Darling

Were these the women who defended Bristol?

 

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

Ayr - Friday 24th March 1944

Ayrshire

Scotland

Friday

Chotie Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            Must close here, Baby

                                                            All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

 

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

**Barassie beach

© Copyright Ian Mockford.

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

© Chotie Darling

 

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

 

The 'Baby Blitz' on Bristol.

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Forgiveness - Saturday 18th March 1944

2/Lt RK Williams

61^st Recce Regt RAC

Whittlesford

Cambs

 

Saturday

Chotie Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                All my love, Darling

                                                                        Dicker

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

 

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

© Chotie Darling

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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