Chotie Darling

Flowers all the way - Tuesday 5th September 1944

Sept 5^th 1944

Chotie Darling,

                                    Must apologise for the long gap in my correspondence but it’s been virtually impossible to write as we’ve been moving too fast for the outgoing mail to be collected.

            It’s impossible to describe the last 10 days – it’s simply been a case of flowers all the way.

            I got the job to guard two bridges in the middle of a large town* – and we were the first Allies in the town!  The welcome we had was amazing – and quite impossible to relate in writing.  We were already covered in flowers – we were soon to be covered with fruit and wine.

            The girls here (and there are many) are all very smart, despite the fact that a pair of women’s brogues (they call them “Swing”) cost upwards of £10 (2000 francs).  They’ve been living very badly for four years, but they had hidden wine and food for us, as they knew we’d arrive eventually.  I’ve got hundreds of addresses to visit after the war – quite hopeless to accept them all.

            I’m afraid this is the only ‘writing’ paper** I have as I lost all my other stuff in a bit of a scramble we had some time ago, and I haven’t been able to replenish them yet.

            All the ‘best’ people here speak French so I’m still OK on that score, though I’ll be scuppered soon, I imagine.

            There are some very charming girls here – one of whom presented me with the complete works of Balzac***, after I’d expressed my admiration for him.

 

Well, Darling it’s now evening and getting too dark to write.

            Had a very happy time ‘on guard’ with scores of civilians around to ask the usual barrage of questions.  My French is improving immensely and I hope to achieve fluency before the war is finally ended.

Must close here Darling – my only wish is that you were here with me.  I should get less conversation from the local girls though…..

 

                                                            Goodnight, my Darling

                                                                        Dicker

 

*Oudenaarde/ Audenarde on the Scheldt / Escaut Canal south of Ghent, liberated on 5^th September.  Dick received many visiting cards from here including those left in his diary: Monsieur & Madame Louis van Eycken of 10, Jules Lacroixstraat; Gaston Gevaert of 6 Meerschpoort, Bevere; Walter van Lantschoot-Colpaert of 45 Baarstraat and Monsieur André Torrelle of 98 Rue de Tournai.

**the letter is written on German Army accounting paper.

***a French novelist and playwright of the nineteenth century.

© Chotie Darling

 

Sandy Handley remembers Oudenaarde:

“The stretch of 35 miles where we held the line of the Escaut Canal, from Ghent to a bridge south of Oudenaarde, was bridges all along.  I remember our car was on one of these bridges in Oudenaarde and some of the residents here had got into a collaborator’s house and proceeded to smash up all the furniture.  As the enemy had almost left the town people went after the collaborators and smashed everything.  Earlier on we had seen some girls, who had been friendly with the Germans, having all their hair cut off. 

In some of the towns and villages the civilian population came out to cheer us on, they seemed really pleased to see us.  Several times a toddler was held up for us to kiss, it was quite moving some times.  It had to be seen to know what you felt like.  To see all those people clapping and cheering, I will always remember this.” (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

 

Eric Brewer witnessed worse scenes:  "Still at Berchem. Saw the free Belgium people set a collaborator's house on fire, also cut their hair and took them away.  We took some SS back to RHQ and the villagers caught some more but before we knew it they had strung them up...Had tea in one of the local houses.  Also taken to dance by the people at night."

He wrote home: "I don’t think I shall Learn any more French or even see any more French people for a while as we have become all Belgian fans.  I don’t expect I shall have to tell you where I am but the buzz bombs are a decent way from us, I don’t mean in front but behind…

We have had a lot of offers to tea, dinner and supper or been asked to come in and have a drink. If we accepted a quarter of the offers I would always be drunk so what we generally do is say that 'we are full up or had plenty already' but sometimes they won't take that for an answer and we finish up being pulled in for a drink…

Your loving son

Eric XXXX"

(Extract from Eric Brewer’s letter and diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

50th Division was now centred on Brussels, while the Guards Armoured Division took a brief rest after their high speed advance to the city.

 

5^th September 1944: in France Lille, Poitiers and Saint Étienne are liberated.  Le Havre is heavily bombed by the Allies.

 Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments in exile sign the London Customs Convention, the foundation of the Benelux economic union.

 Russia declares war on Bulgaria and Soviet forces enter the country.

Belgium

4^th September – Finland and the Soviet Union agree to a ceasefire.

In the Battle of the Mons Pocket US First Army trap and take prisoner more than 25,000 retreating Germans near the French border in Belgium, south of Brussels.

In the Netherlands the Germans declare a ‘state of emergency’ with the disruption of retreating German soldiers and the dangers of a Dutch uprising.

British 11^th Armoured Division, at the head of the XXX Corps advance, takes Antwerp and thanks to the Belgium Resistance the docks are undamaged.  However, the German 15^th Army took up positions along the Scheldt Estuary limiting use of the port.  The advance of XXX Corps in Belgium halted due to a shortage of fuel. 

50th Division's 231st Brigade (Dorsets, Devons and Hampshires) entered Brussels behind the Guards and took part in the ceremonial liberation parades on 4th September.

 

Anthony Rampling was with ‘B’ Squadron as they advanced into Belgium

Flowers and retreating Jerries

“As we went through villages people were stopping us, covering the vehicles with flowers, giving us bread, wine.  As soon as we could we had to ditch the flowers.

            I remember getting up into a church steeple and you could see the Jerries running and the vehicles retreating into the distance.  This was a very pleasing sight.”

But not all of the Germans were running:

Belgium SS snipers

“We were travelling along a typical Belgium Road, lined with poplar trees and banksides, with cuttings in the banks for entrances to the fields.  At this time I was in the leading armoured car, gunner in a turret, when two Germans ran across the road some way ahead.  These were crack SS soldiers left behind as snipers, intent on delaying us.  They ran into a cutting to a field and when we got there the armoured car backed into the cutting so I was ready to fire at them.

            I thought they would hold up their hands and surrender but they started to fire at the turret, which had an opening for my machine gun, so I had to fire at them.  Whether they were wounded or killed I shall never know as our ground troops took over and we carried on.”  From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61^st Recce (pers comm).

 

“The next day the rest of the Regiment, less ‘A’ Squadron, caught them up (B Squadron) as their anti-tank guns were knocking out soft vehicles at long range on their left flank, and a carrier troop was beating-up an enemy party that had come to blow a bridge on our route.

            By now it was plain that there were a great number of enemy on our left flank, and as we were making for Alost at top speed, Corps Headquarters began to feel alarm that the Germans might try to cut across the Corps route behind the tanks.  We were therefore ordered to stop our advance, and hold the line of the Escaut Canal from Ghent to a bridge south of Oudenarde, a stretch of thirty-five miles with more bridges than we had troops.  In fact, until we were relieved to the south we were covering fifty miles with two squadrons." (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

61st Recce watched the line along the Scheldt/ Escaut Canal from Avelgem to beyound Audenarde / Oudenaarde (Lt-Col Brownrigg's DSO citation).  In 2 or 3 days over 2,000 prisoners were taken and heavy casualties inflicted on the enemy as they tried to break out across the waterway.

61^st Recce’s B Squadron covered more than 15 miles of the Canal including five bridges (Major Harding’s MC citation). C Squadron, at the north end of the stretch, had more freedom to patrol occasionally crossing the canal and entering the outskirts of Ghent.  Although the town was not fully liberated until 8^th September the squadron took out German outposts and liberate local villages including Bottelare.

 

Eric Postles of B Squadron recalled: "30 Corps headquarters was anxious to protect the left flank from attacks by enemy troops trying to get away from the Channel coast and ordered the regiment to seize and hold the bridges on the River Escaut Canal instead of pushing further north into Belgium.  We covered 35 miles of the canal, which was about as wide as the Manchester Ship Canal, from Ghent in the north to south of Oudenarde." (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Lieutenant Albert R.V. Stone of ‘B’ Squadron received the Military Cross for his part in the capture of an important bridge over the Escaut Canal and destruction of the enemy who were trying to prevent the squadron’s advance. (See Lieutenant Stone’s citation in 61st Battle Honours.)

Eric Brewer wrote: "Pushed on again to Berchem (Kluisbergen, on the Scheldt/Escaut Canal). Came across Gerry convoy in flight. Knocked out 6 but was ordered to leave the rest and push on. We went about 2 mile outside Berchem and came to bridge that Gerry was trying to blow up so we had to guard it.   The people are very nice here. Have had tea and other food in houses." (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Across the Frontier

61^st Recce earned their Commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Philip H. K. Brownrigg, the Distinguished Service Order for their role in the advance of XXX Corps through Belgium (which led to the capture of Brussels and Antwerp). The citation also refers to the 'conspicuous and very gallant part' played by the Regiment watching the line of the Douai to Lille Canal in the Wavrin and Haubourdin area (south-west of Lille).

 “There followed some easy liberation with flags and kisses, and only an occasional stray enemy.  Then a convoy drive to about twenty miles short of Lille; from there we were sent off again on our own route, which was so difficult that it might have been chosen for a map-reading exercise.  The advance had outrun the supply of maps from England, and all we had were a few half-inch maps, which scarcely marked the side roads we were supposed to use.  However, we managed to borrow a German map, with which we guided ourselves to Houplin, a village short of Lille.  Here, with his mind possibly more on map reading than on the enemy, the leading troop commander advanced confidently on the bridge.  When he was about a hundred yards from it an anti-tank shell broke off his aerial.  The one map showed the vestige of a bridge on the right; the leading troop, made at once for this, found it passable, and were over it and infiltrating into the village in a matter of minutes.  But the opposition was stronger and more determined than we had thought.  ‘A’ Squadron were occupied here for three days, and eventually a battalion and some tanks were needed to clear the village."(From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

 

On the night of 3^rd/4^th September at Houplin half of Lieutenant Griffiths' ‘A’ Squadron troop were killed or wounded when attacked during the night.  He and the remainder of his troop held their position and in the morning drove the enemy off the bridge. Trooper John Traynor received the Military Medal for his role in ‘A’ Squadron’s capture of Houplin on 4^th September. John (Jack) Jordison, travelling in Cpl. Billingham's carrier with Trooper W. Phillips, received a serious head injury and was returned to England and medically discharged in October. Sgt. Alex Young (later killed) was also wounded and recovered in England. 

 Acting Sergeant Robert Smeaton was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Bronze Star for “great and continuous devotion to duty” both in Normandy and on the advance through France when he volunteered to rescue wounded from his troop under fire, successfully recovering two and the body of a third.  (See Croix de Guerre citations for Lt C.R. Griffiths, Trooper J. Traynor and  Corporal, Acting Sergeant R. Smeaton in 61st Recce battle honours.)

 

Colonel Brownrigg continues:

"Meanwhile, ‘B’ Squadron bypassed this trouble, ran into some more and did great execution, and then went off the air. That night a faint but cheerful voice came up on the radio to say that they had crossed into Belgium.  Only later did they reveal the details of their reception.”  (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

‘B’ Squadron had crossed the frontier some 30 miles ahead of the rest of the Regiment and the Division despite constant enemy resistance. (From Major Frank Harding’s Military Cross citation - see 61st Recce battle honours.)

Eric Postles remembers this and some unwanted action in Lille:  "Our ‘B’ Squadron’s armoured cars were moving fast and reported that they had crossed into Belgium being one of the first units to get so far.  A degree of black humour occurred when we came to Lille.  We had to by-pass the town and the carrier troops achieved this.  However, the huge crowds lining the roads wanted the town liberated and directed our B echelon (cooks etc) vehicles, which were some way behind us, to the town centre where they met up with German troops and the Sergeant Major had to organise a hasty retreat, much to our amusement.  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

Eric Brewer wrote in his diary for 3rd September:  "Passed through Lille. Gerry in some parts of it but not to much trouble. Got plenty of food and drink off the French. Left Lille and every one all the way to Belgium are giving us stuff. Went across the border into Belgium, pushed on 10 miles and harboured the night in a field." (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

Don Aiken recalled: "We were the first troops to cross the border into Belgium and at that point we were relieved by the Guards Armoured Division who passed through us and took up the spear-head.
We were then used to protect the Northern flank of the narrow corridor which was being made through Belgium, and to prevent the escape of the remnants of the 9th German Army which had been cut off between the corridor and the Northern coast.”  (Extract  republished from 'From the Breakout to the Rhine'by kind permission of Don Aiken)

On 3^rd September 1944 the Guards Armoured Division, having liberated Arras, pushed forward covering 70 miles through enemy-occupied territory and liberated Brussels, the capital of Belgium.  US First Army liberates Tournai, a Belgium town near the border of France (Sergeant 'Posh' Price of HQ Squadron's mortar troop recalled being the first Englishman in Tournai and Don Aiken was also there that day.)

Montgomery and his Lt-General, Miles Dempsey, head of British 2^nd Army meet Bradley, the commander of chief of US 12^th Army Group (the US 1^st and 3^rd Armies, now no longer under Montgomery’s control) and Lt-General Hodges, commander of US 1^st Army, to discuss future operations towards the Ruhr.  Bradley and Monty both favoured fast narrow-front advances over Eisenhower’s agreed broad-front strategy.  They would be competing for supplies, which were still being transported by Normandy by road (most of the rail infrastructure had been destroyed and air supply was very limited) but Monty was relying on the Canadians to free-up closer Channel ports.  Critically, the Supreme Commander Eisenhower was unable to make the meeting, having injured his leg and Lt-General Crerar, who led the Canadian First Army in Monty’s 21^st Army Group was at a memorial service for the raid on Dieppe.  (From ‘Arnhem – the Battle for the Bridges 1944’ by Antony Beevor, published by Penguin 2019)

 

French and US forces liberate Lyon, the second largest city in France.

Unfortunate Incidents

2^nd September 1944 – Canadian troops cross the border into Belgium and Canadians fighting with the British 8^th Army in Italy break through the Gothic line by the coast east of San Marino.

The Germans, already moving north out of mainland Greece (to avoid being cut off by the Russian advance in the Balkans) begin to evacuate the Aegean Islands.

Soviet forces secure Bucharest, the capital of Romania, and the vital Ploesti oilfields.

The Germans cease launching V1 'buzz-bombs' from France.

Many prisoners were being taken as 61st Recce pushed forward across France, advancing from Amiens to Arras.

Eric Brewer wrote on 2^nd September: “Pushed on again to a place called Farrius (Arras?).  Got moved and every one in village came to see us; they sang ‘Marseillaise’ and were very pleased. Captured a good few Gerrys round here: one a Sergeant-Major and he cried his eyes out.  Saw them in a corn field - a burst off the Bren soon brought them out.  Passed by Pollen(?) bridge - saw all the graves of English and Canadians." (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Colonel Brownrigg recorded:

“There was a pause on the Somme, then ‘C’ Squadron went over a small bridge, and continued to work their way forward on the left flank against fairly stiff opposition.

Here Lieutenant Laing’s troop of armoured cars was caught on a long, open road by a Panther, which put a round through the mudguard of his second car.  They threw out their protective smoke and fired off all their weapons, none of which could damage the Panther except with a very lucky hit.  This persuaded the Panther to withdraw, though it had them at its mercy; and Lieutenant Laing drove on to the village and captured forty prisoners.  It was then evening, and as he had to get back to his squadron harbour he handed the prisoners over to the local French.  ‘Hang on to them for me’, he said in a firm Scots accent.  I’ll collect them in the morning.’  When he went for them the next day he found that the French had hanged them.  ‘That’s what you told us, wasn’t it?’ they said.”

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

 

Eric Postles remembers another unfortunate incident:

“On the late afternoon of 2nd September we pulled into a field to refuel etc.  The troop had been picking up prisoners and all but my lead carrier had them on board.

 Lieutenant Soul’s carrier suddenly blew up in a mushroom cloud and flames.  We got out of the carrier but were shocked to find Lieutenant Soul badly wounded, together with the gunner (from Yorkshire).  Worse still Jock Buchan, our wireless operator, and Digger Day, who transferred from the Gloucester Regiment when the regiment was formed in Ireland, were dead.  All the prisoners were killed or injured by the explosion. 

We never heard the outcome for Lt Soul or the gunner.  We deduced that the explosion was caused by a prisoner putting too much pressure on a pannier of primed anti-tank mines causing them and petrol etc to ignite.  We wrapped Jock and Digger in blankets and buried them at the end of the field beneath some trees beside a stream, marking the graves with the traditional method of a stick with their helmets on top. 

As our officer would normally write to the next of kin, the Troop Sergeant asked me to do so, as I had been with them since D-day.  I wrote to Jock’s mum and dad near Peterhead and Digger’s girlfriend near Cirencester.  I exchanged several letters with her, in which she asked for more details and I was able to send her the photograph from Ailly which Digger was on.  Unfortunately I couldn’t do the same for Jock’s family as he, like me, was not on it.  Their final resting place is at the London Cemetery and Extension at Longueval, a WW1 cemetery in the Somme.”  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Sandy Handley seems to have recalled the same incident:

“One day on this long journey (swan) up to Belgium, the Regiment suffered a very bad accident on the way.  The Regiment were collecting prisoners – we couldn’t accommodate any as there was no space on our Humber.  Mainly the Bren Carriers were able to carry 4 or 5 prisoners. 

The accident occurred when we turned off the road through a gap in a hedge to harbour for a while.  We parked under a tree, the Bren Carriers and Humbers continuing to come through this gap in the hedge.  The prisoners were being searched for any arms and placed in a semblance of order, several of the lads were detailed to keep an eye on them, although some of the prisoners looked too tired to run away or try anything stupid.  All of a sudden we heard a loud explosion and a series of smaller bangs.  We immediately dived for cover in a ditch, we thought we were being mortared and attacked.  We soon found out the cause of the racket as the vehicles were still coming through this gap.  A Bren Gun Carrier had blown up, this had been caused by a mine.  Sadly we witnessed four of the crew of this Bren Carrier along with four of the German prisoners, they had literally been blown yards away.

This was about 50 yards from our Humber now under the trees.  Some of our lads had tried to drag the injured away from the exploding small arms but I don’t think any of the four crew of the Carrier survived, or the unfortunate German prisoners who were riding on it.  I think of the casualties – one was a young lad who had, a few months before in April of that year (’44) walked down from the camp near Romsey with me to Southampton, that being his last walk out in England as later on the camp was sealed.  As you can think this tragic accident left us all very sad and stirred up – some things one can never forget – it could have been any of us coming through that gap, which we had done just minutes before.”  (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)

 

61^st Reconnaissance Regiment took about 4,000 prisoners in their advance into Belgium. Their handling was a constant problem.

 

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

          Trooper John Hendry ‘Jock’ Buchan (age 20) from Inverallochy, Aberdeenshire

          Trooper John ‘Digger’ Day (age 31) from Cirencester, Gloucestershire

who are laid to rest in the the London cemetery and extension, Longueval north-west of Amiens. 

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

We will remember them.

Anthony Rampling and Sandy Handley at John Buchan's grave.

Remnants of the British Expeditionary Force

1^st September 1944 – Eisenhower takes command of all Allied troops in North-West Europe while Montgomery reverts to command of 21^st Army Group (the British and Canadians), instead of all land forces, but is promoted to Field Marshal in recognition of his achievements in Operation Overlord and the Battle for Normandy.  Montgomery’s tactical headquarters and caravan were in the park of the Château de Dangu, east of Gisors (halfway between Vernon and Beauvais).

The Canadian 2^nd Division liberate Dieppe two years after their failed invasion attempt here and Patton’s US Third Army take Verdun, near the north-west border of France and scene of the famous WW1 battle and memorials.

British forces cross the River Somme in France.

 

50th Division were still centred south-west of Beauvais on 1st September but 61st Reconnaissance appears to have advanced to Amiens and beyond with the Guards.  The Regimental HQ was established west of Amiens.

Don Aiken continues his account of 61^st Recce’s ‘B’ Squadron:

“Now the advance was in full flow. Our Regiment was put in as the spear-head of the advance which we did at rate of 60 miles in one day, and passing through towns whose names had been made familiar to me from stories of the First World War, which took place here thirty years earlier. Amiens, the Somme, Cambrai (south-east of Arras), Arras, Lille and Armentières (on the Belgium border north-west of Lille). Places which had been fought over for months, even years. We passed them by in a few days.
Often the advance was slowed by the enthusiasm of the local populace of the small towns and villages as we passed through. They were overjoyed to see Allied troops after years of oppression. Sometimes we were temporarily halted by the French Resistance who had cornered German troops in woods etc., and were asking our assistance. We had to refer them to our follow-up troops as speed of advance was paramount.
The Germans tried to slow down our progress in any number of ways, such as mines across the roads, or even sods strewn on the roads to simulate mines.
On one occasion when my Armoured Car was leading the advance along a narrow road lined with trees, I suddenly noticed a thin wire which had been tied across the road at head height between two trees. We managed to stop in time to investigate it and found that one end was fastened to the trigger of a Panzerfaust aimed at the centre of the wire and loaded with a rocket grenade." (Extract  republished from 'From the Breakout to the Rhine'by kind permission of Don Aiken)

Eric Brewer’s diary for 1^st September reads: “Pushed on to near Amiens. Went out on Recce, came across a camp with chaps captured in 1940 - they had been their Guards prisoners - and also a few more Gerry, must be about 200. Funny chaps as they salute us and stand to attention. Also bags of Gerry kit here and lorries.  Also officer quarters - they had left plenty of kit.”

Eric Postles writes: "1 September 1944:  We passed around Arras” (between Amiens and Lille) “and Amiens, although the crowd did their best to get us to go into the town centres.  Many of the locals took photographs of us.  The only one I had was some of the troop when we liberated Ailly” (5km north-west of Amiens on the Somme).  “A young girl named Joselyn who we met there posted it to me later.  We came across a crashed RAF bomber, which was reasonably intact, in a wood but there was no sign of the crew. 

Near Amiens a most interesting event occurred when a civilian came down the road and threw a smart salute to Lieutenant Soul” (Eric’s Troop Commander) “and said he had been hiding in France since 1940 when he was serving in the Guards with the BEF*.  He said he had valuable information and was rushed on the back of our despatch rider’s bike to RHQ.  There was a great feeling of euphoria during these days as we crossed Northern France and the feeling grew that the war would soon be over.”           *the British Expeditionary Force were the British Army in Western Europe from September 1939 to the French surrender and their evacuation in June 1940.

61st Recce's 'B' Squadron 10 Troop at Ailly-sur-Somme - Eric is missing from this photo.  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

It wasn't all plain sailing however: on 1^st September 1944, near Conty, south-west of Amiens Lieutenant Christian Ronald Griffiths of 61^st Recce was sent to an isolated patch to guard the left flank of the advance to Amiens.  He held his position “and inflicted casualties on the considerable enemy force”.  (From the Croix de Guerre Silver Star citation for Lt. Griffiths in 61st Recce battle honours.)

61^st Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on 1^st September 1944:

         Corporal Arthur Richard Barnett (age 26) of Moston, Manchester

who is laid to rest in the London cemetery and extension, Longueval north-west of Amiens.

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

We will remember them.

A Bomb less for England

On the night of 29th August 61st Recce crossed the Seine at Vernon using the pontoon bridge built by the engineers.  Once across the Seine the Allied armies moved rapidly across France in what became known as the ‘great swan’. (From ‘The British Reconnaissance Corps in World War II’ by Richard Doherty, Osprey Publishing 2007)

Eric Brewer wrote in his diary for 30^th August : “Crossed the Seine last night and now about 20 miles inland. Plenty of prisoners coming in: about 100 taken today.  Pushing on to Elbeuf *.  We got to about 3 mile from there, harbouring the night. Had a whiskey...also rum.  Moving tomorrow at 4.30.  Monty said in a message to us to make every kilometre a bomb less for England.”

*Elbeuf is downstream along the Seine near Rouen. The town, on the other side of the river, had been liberated on 25th August by a mixed force of Americans (heading north-east along the south bank of the Seine, across XXX Corps' projected sector), Canadians and British and the Canadians had crossed the Seine near here on 26th and 27th August.

Eric's letter home that day included: "The Yanks seem to be doing very well at the moment, especially Patton’s men. I dare say the next I hear of him he will be in Germany or even Berlin. I am just beginning to catch on to this French language and hope to know enough to get me around by about two months' time, anyway I hope so. I don’t think I will have to ask you about the BB in a short while as the Yanks will soon be cutting that part of France off.  Then you will have no need to worry about them: that is how things seem to be or, or who knows the British might even make a dash forward."  *Buzz Bombs  (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

On 30^th and 31^st August 50^th Division were based east of Vernon. 61^st Recce HQ was also east of Vernon, following the Seine crossing, then moved to ‘St Denis’ – possibly St Denis-le-Ferment near Gisors – and then to ‘Tilloy’ – possibly Beauvais-Tillé just north of Beauvais? (From Library of Congress frontline maps and 61st Recce regimental dinner menu.)  

Eric Postles continues: "Once over the river opposition was patchy and we moved very quickly ahead of the Division accompanied by French Resistance fighters who tagged onto us.  I remember us passing through a big forest and prisoners giving themselves up from out of the trees.  We carried as many as we could but they became such a problem that we handed them to the French who took them out into the woods and shot them. 

We shot up a German horse drawn artillery party, which was trying to cross the line of advance. 

We were overwhelmed when we passed through villages and towns by the welcome from huge crowds who lined the roads.  They were kissing us, throwing flowers and we were given so many bottles of wine that the carrier bottom was lined with them."   (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Colonel Brownrigg's account of 61^st Recce records:

“So to the Seine and over, and the most exhilarating days of the campaign.  Our task was to protect the left flank of XXX Corps in their armoured dash to the Somme and beyond.  We were on our own on a virgin route, anything up to seventy miles ahead of Divisional Headquarters.  One beautiful morning we drove forty miles before breakfast.  There were several engagements, some of them quite sharp, and we collected an enormous number of prisoners.”  (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

From the Seine to the Somme 61st Recce were covering the left flank of XXX Corps on a virgin route. B Squadron led the regiment for the greater part of the way in the advance from the Seine to Belgium (Major Harding's MC citation) and Don Aiken of B Squadron was in Beauvais (between Vernon and Amiens) on 30^th August, the day it was liberated by XXX Corps’ 8^th Armoured Division.

This was the beginning of the British ‘Race for Amiens’.  On the morning of 30^th August General Horrocks’ XXX Corps were 20 miles beyond the River Seine with 50 miles to go to Amiens on the next big river – the Somme.  2^nd Army needed to cross the Somme before the Germans could muster their defences along this natural barrier to the Allies’ advance.

11^th Armoured Division, now attached to XXX Corps, raced on to Amiens overnight, taking the town and its bridges at dawn.  Their prisoners included General Heinrich Eberbach, the commander of the beleaguered German Seventh Army.  At the same time the Guards Armoured Division crossed the Somme further south and succeeded in holding the bridgehead.  The German Army charged with holding the Somme was forced to withdraw.

 

The US 3^rd Army liberates Reims, east of Paris.  Rouen, the historic capital of Normandy east of Le Havre on the River Seine, is liberated by the 1^st Canadian Army now advancing along the north coast of France.

 

Eisenhower now set 21^st Army Group four main objectives – to cross the Somme, to occupy the Pas de Calais, to capture Belgian airfields for use by Allied forces and to take Antwerp.  Canadian First Army was tasked with taking the Channel ports while Second British Army, led by XXX Corps (including 50^th Division and the 61^st Recce) was to advance inland on the axis Amiens-Arras, able to cut off any German forces opposing the Canadians.  The right (southern) flank of the British was in turn protected by the 1^st US Army.    (From ‘The Advance from the Seine to Antwerp’.)

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

 

61^st Recce RAC,  BLA

Monday Aug. 28^th

Chotie Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            Goodnight, my Darling.

 

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

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

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

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

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

            Must close here but will try to write you again tomorrow

                                   All my love, Darling

                                                Dicker

           

P.T.O

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

                                  R.

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

This letter was forwarded to:

W/242328, Pte Chalkley B.E.

Primary Course, No 2 T.J. Wing

New Battle Abbey, Dalkeith, Mid Lothian, Scotland.

 © Chotie Darling

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

 

 

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

 

Dumbarton Oaks

21^st August 1944 – representatives of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States meet at Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown, Washington for the ‘Washington Conversations on International Peace and Security Organization’, which result in proposals for the United Nations Charter.

 

The Falaise Gap is closed when the Canadians link with the Poles at Coudehard, east of Trun, and secure St. Lambert and the northern passage to Chambois (61st Reconnaissance Regiment were in action just east of here).

 

On August 21^st Eric Brewer wrote in his diary:  "Pushed on again today, plenty of prisoners. We have passed through the town of Ruco les* (sic). First English they have seen - got mobbed and could not move for about 10 minutes. Came across blown up bridge - had to send R.E.** to lay down bridge. Waited until it was done then moved on again advanced 30 miles today in harbour near large village."  Amazingly he wrote home on the same day that he was "getting quite used to lying in bed in the morning.  All the chaps do now in the day time is play cards, write or rest.  Some of the boys are getting tired of doing nothing and it would not surprise me if they began knitting comforts for fighting lads or even start their own garden near the half-tracks as the position we are in is as good as static." (From Eric Brewer’s Diary and letters by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

* Rugles, north-east of l'Aigle, 40 miles east of Argentan and 61^st Recce’s Regimental HQ (Regimental HQ location list on re-union dinner menu 1946).  Rugles was officially liberated by the Royal Dragoon Guards on 23rd August 1944.

**Royal Engineers

 

The Battle for Normandy had cost the German Army a total of 1,500 tanks, 3,500 guns and 20,000 vehicles.  They had lost 450,000 men, 240,000 of these killed or wounded.  The Allies had achieved this with 209,672 casualties, 39,976 of these killed.  British and Canadian losses amounted to two-thirds of those suffered by the Americans.  Some 28,000 Allied aircrew were also lost over Normandy or during the preparatory bombing and the Point Blank programme (designed to pave the way for Overlord). Liddell Hart, in a 'History of the Second World War' described Normandy as "an Operation that eventually went according to plan but not according to timetable." (See ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition.)

 

Turf kicking

14^th August 1944 – Operation Tractable begins to close the pincers around the German 7^th Army, Fifth Panzer Army and Panzer Group Eberbach.  The 1^st Canadian Army, hampered by 'friendly fire' bombing and the Germans' possession of their plans for the advance, moves forward east of the Caen to Falaise Road (avoiding the strongly held German position at Quesnay, on the road north of Falaise).  The US 3^rd Army swings north from Le Mans and Alençon to Argentan, where it is held awaiting the closure of the 'short hook' by the Canadians.  XXX Corps (including 50^th Northumbrian Division and 61^st Recce) with Second British Army advance towards Condé-sur-Noreau, north of Flers, pushing at the base of the ‘Falaise pocket’.  By 15^th August the ‘pocket’ was well formed although German forces could still escape through a 10 mile ‘neck’ around Trun.

(See 'Progress of the Front' for the Allies’ front line in Normandy and ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition.)

 

Having been 'Still at base in reserve' on the 13th August Eric Brewer “Moved to forward position on encirclement” on the 14th (from Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family).

 

After the account of Le Plessis-Grimault Colonel Brownrigg continues:

“Just further on Lieutenant Williams (later killed) overtook some armoured cars of a rival regiment halted short of some suspicious-looking grass turves in the middle of the road.  ‘We can’t get on,’ they said, ‘Mines.’  Without a word Williams threw the turves in the ditch and drove on.” (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.).

Turf Kicking

“We were moving along this country road and we stopped because there were some quite large turves in the road and people suspected they were covering up mines and Lieutenant Williams got out of his armoured car and kicked the turves away and we carried on.”  From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61^st Recce (pers comm).

Mont Pinçon and Le Plessis-Grimault

Colonel Brownrigg continues the story of 61^st Recce:

“Lieutenant Truman carried out another classic patrol, watched by the General from the top of Mount Pinçon , and some of our infantry behind a hedge nearby.   Truman and the Infantry Commanding Officer had discussed who should clear up the spot of trouble ahead, and Truman had said, ‘Leave it to me’.  The watching infantry were so impressed by his carrier left-flanking support by Besa* fire from the armoured cars that they clapped him as he came back to report.

Soon afterwards, (at Lénault) near Le Plessis-Grimault, Lieutenant Flint won his M.C. (Military Cross) in a brilliant patrol with his gunner, chasing down Boches in and out of houses.

It was here that the Second-in-Command*, having arrived at the allotted area for Regimental Headquarters and brewed himself some tea, put his cup down to remark, ‘This place stinks.’  At that moment a fragment of shell smashed his cup, but didn’t touch him.  Le Plessis must have been one of the most evil-smelling places in the Bocage, apart from Falaise.”  (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

*The Besa was a British machine gun.

**Major Stewart Johnson

 

Don Aiken explains why the area may have stunk: (NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH)

“We advanced from there to Mt. Pinçon - not a mountain, but a high rising area of land with a spot height of 365 (metres). Here I remember seeing a Military Policeman stood on a road junction steadfastly directing the advancing convoys of Army vehicles, enveloped in clouds of red dust, and under constant bombardment from enemy shells.

            It was here too that we were paused for a few hours, and on investigating the familiar smell of death nearby, we found a German soldier lying in a covered slit trench. His face was a huge ball of maggots. We managed to get hold of some chloride of lime and scattered this all over him. I still remember the disgusting sight of the maggots flowing from his face like a living stream.”

(Extract  republished from 'From the Breakout to the Rhine' by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

61^st Recce Roll of Honour for 12th August 1944:

          Sergeant James John Rickwood (age 34) of Eastcote, Middlesex

who is laid to rest in the St. Manvieu War Cemetery, near Cheux, west of Caen. (See 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch.)

We will remember them.

The 1060 Boys

5^th August 1944 – US 3^rd Army liberates Vannes on the south coast of Brittany.

 

On 5^th August Eric Brewer’s diary reads: "Back in reserve. Done Recce left of Villers Bocage." (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

61^st Recce Roll of Honour (see 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch) includes the following who died on 5^th August 1944:

          Sergeant Joseph Albert Dunnington (age 29) of Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, who is laid to rest in the Hottot-les-Bagues War Cemetery, near Tilly-sur-Seules.         

          Trooper William Joseph Stevenson (age 22) of Salford, Lancashire, who is laid to rest in the St Charles de Percy War Cemetery, near le Bény-Bocage , south-west  of Villers Bocage.  Trooper Stevenson was a friend of Ernie Brobbin, who found the foxcub* and “one of the many 1060 boys who lost their lives at such an early age” (Newsletter Old Comrades Association).  *The fox was still living in the armoured car of ‘A’ Squadron’s Captain Compton Bishop.  “In Normandy he would take it for walks at night on a lead!”

The '1060 boys' were a big intake of men from north-west England for the Reconnaissance Corps in January 1942, including Eric Postles, who's service number was 10602580.

Major Frank Harding, Commander of ‘B’ Squadron wrote a poem in memory of 61^st Recce’s 1060 intake of young men ‘born about nineteen twenty-four’ who were killed.  The poem ends:

          “Their comrades, thus steeled by their death, became

                   The sterner men: those who now live believe

                             No generation better proved its worth.”

(From ‘On the Eve’ by Major Frank Harding MC, in ‘War echoes over thirty years’ published by Arthur Stockwell, 1970)

We will remember them.

 

Amayé-sur-Seulles

On 2^nd August Eric Brewer says in his diary “Yanks made attack with infantry – bags of prisoners”. Eric's letter home of 3rd August is more elucidating:

"We saw about 120 prisoners coming in, giving themselves up yesterday;  one of our troops of 15 men and an officer brought in 11 of them.  One of the chaps could speak English and he said “I have been walking for five years but never thought that I would get a ride when I was taken prisoner” - he was speaking about the transport which was taking him back to the POW camp.  Most of these prisoners were smiling because they had been taken prisoner.  The third lot that came in had about five officers with them; they were walking at the back and one of the officers had about five medals and was of very high rank.  He'd come from the Russian front (one of the medals was the Russian front medal).  They were nearly all out of the Africa Corps and had seen service in Africa judging by the medals on them.

One chap here had rag round his foot in place of socks.  They looked like they had consumption, thin and dirty...it made you think how ever they managed to live under such conditions... anyway, they were as pleased as a man who had won a fortune (but instead of money it's being a prisoner to a German soldier)...  Most of these chaps are about 16-22 but some of them I bet my last penny weren’t 14...

Practically all the chaps have German revolvers as souvenirs even some of the cooks...

I suppose you have heard on the wireless about the advances our troops are making...we were doing a Recce yesterday, about 2-3 miles in front of our front line, when we were about 200 yards from a village (I can't tell you the name but I bet you have heard it on the wireless); well all of a sudden we came up against some stiff opposition and were held up for about 1 hour.  Our CO came down and told us to stay in position as the tanks and infantry were going to come up... about ½ an hour later all you could see were tanks and infantry...loads of them... We let them take over and went back about 400 yds to make our dinner but not before we had taken the prisoners back on the half track….."  (Extracts from Eric Brewer’s diary and letters included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

The report recommending Major Frank Harding, CO of ‘B’ Squadron, for the Military Cross details Dick’s squadron’s involvement at Amayé-sur-Seulles:

    On 2^nd August ‘B’ squadron were ordered to recce forward into Amayé-sur-Seulles.  When the leading troop were held up two miles short of the town the CO, Major Frank Harding , left them to contain the enemy and manoeuvred the rest of the squadron round the left flank, and “so pressed forward that the leading troops engaged enemy in the middle of the town, despite the enemy’s superiority in numbers.”

Lieutenant Philip Benson Truman appears to have been involved in the same action to liberate Amayé-sur-Seulles (although his citation for the Military Cross is dated 3^rd August - see 61st Recce battle honours) with his troop taking out an enemy observation post and containing the enemy until the town was taken later in the day by 50th Division's 69th Infantry Brigade.

Colonel Brownrigg gives this account:

“From Briquessard, ‘B’ Squadron, led by Lieutenant Truman’s carrier troop, carried out a textbook reconnaissance into Amay-sur-Seulles, by-passing strong opposition about a mile this side, and then moving in from a flank to take a number of Boches very much by surprise.  This was followed by a series of reconnaissance actions, usually on a troop scale, as the area of operations was still restricted." (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

 

However, despite the efforts of 61^st Recce Operation Bluecoat was not successful in breaking out of the Normandy bridgehead.  As British forces approached Vire on 2^nd August there was some confusion and the German Army was were able to re-inforce the town and close the gap between their 7^th Army and Panzergrüppe West.  11th Armoured Division approached the town on 2nd August when it was virtually undefended but were ordered to turn south-east.  By the time the US XIX Corps moved against it the Germans had rushed in to plug the gap and Vire was not liberated until 8th August.

The Commander of British Second Army, Lt-General Miles Dempsey, later told 61^st Recce* that they’d been 3 days ahead of the 7^th Armoured Division in Operation Bluecoat and had to wait for them outside Vire - 7^th Armoured Division was meant to be in reserve behind 50^th (Northumbrian) Division on the eastern flank of the XXX Corps attack.  Monty had ordered Dempsey to 'throw all caution to the winds and step on the gas for Vire' but XXX Corps and 7^th Armoured Division 'performed feebly' (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).

The XXX Corps Commander Lt-General Gerard Bucknall was dismissed and replaced by General Brian Horrocks - ‘a man who really led, a general who talked to everyone, down to the simplest private soldier’ and Eisenhower called him ‘the outstanding British general under Montgomery’. 

Operation Bluecoat

30^th July 1944 – Operation Bluecoat begins.  This offensive was conceived at short notice when it was realised that only a single German infantry division defended the sector of the front near Caumont (61^st Recce were in this area at Briquessard).  The 50^th (Northumbrian) Division, with 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment, were part of this attack but were held up at Amayé-sur-Seulles (south-east of Briquessard).  However, by 31^st July the advance of British VIII and XXX Corps had secured a vital crossing over the River Soulevre about 10 miles south of Caumont, near Le Bény-Bocage and 11^th Armoured Division were advancing towards Vire, 15 miles south of Caumont.  61st Reconnaissance Regiment protected the left (eastern) flank of XXX Corps during the advance.

On 30^th July Eric Brewer’s diary says: “Sniper and rifle fire followed by mortar, but got – lucky.” In the margin Eric wrote “HARDING” (the Commander of 61^st Recce’s B Squadron) and also “INFANTRY ATTACK” – presumably a reference to Operation Bluecoat. (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Colonel Brownrigg’s account of 61st Recce welcomes a return to reconnaissance after the trenches of Briquessard:

          “Soon after (Briquessard) we were back to reconnaissance again, as the great surge forward began.  We went through Briquessard, and were glad to see that there were quite a number of fairly ‘high’ German corpses about, which we attributed to our mortars, and the quick £300 ‘stonks’ the Essex Yeomanry used to put on for us at night.  Their Liaison Officer at our Regimental Headquarters regularly worked out for us the cash value of their bombardments." (From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

*World War II British slang for a massed artillery bombardment on an enemy position.

 

Eric Postles remembers resuming patrols: “The desertions from the German Army started.  First of all came East Europeans who had been willing to fight for it and then German soldiers. We often got useful information from them about their positions by giving them food, as they were always hungry. 

We were now involved in constant patrolling and once, when we were checking on a farm area in a valley, we ran into heavy fire from a German position and the first couple of our men were wounded.  We were penned in by buildings and walls.  We could not recover our men and only got out by jumping through a hole in the wall accompanied by German bullets.  One of our infantry units captured the German position later in the day and rescued our two injured lads who had been taken prisoner.  One of them, Corporal Davey, had a broken leg and both were no doubt happy that it ended as it did. 

One of the most stressful jobs was checking road surfaces where we suspected mines had been laid.  The headphones of the mine detectors cut outside sounds.  Nobody volunteered for this task. 

We passed through a heavily damaged Briquessard, deserted apart from a number of dead Germans.”   (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

 

Don Aiken also has a tale to tell from around this time:

          “We were then used on small Reconnaissance foot patrols; and during one of these night patrols we were sent to try to make contact with the Germans who were thought to have infiltrated into the grounds of the nearby churchyard. The night turned out to be extremely misty and crawling through the gravestones was, in itself, a creepy business. The thought that, at any moment, a German machine gun could rattle away into your face was even more disturbing. However, we completed our search of the area without contacting any Germans, although we found a dugout which they had recently vacated. You could always tell where Germans had been by the smell; it wasn't a repulsive smell, just strongly different - probably due to the food that they ate; German sausage perhaps.
          Then we pulled back to take up defensive positions. Along with another young Trooper, I was positioned in an old German slit-trench in a hedgerow alongside a path, armed with a Bren machine-gun. We alternately manned the gun and rested.
          During my rest period I was suddenly 'brought up sharp' by a burst of fire from my companion's gun. When I asked him what was wrong, he said that he had seen something move across the path. I looked for a long time (trying to suppress my fear) and then realised that the 'something' was a twig on the hedge, a few inches away, which had been disturbed by a sudden breeze in this otherwise still, dark and misty night.

30th July — Caumont.”  (Republished from the BBC People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)

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.

 

Briquessard begins

From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O. (commanding officer of 61st Reconnaissance Regiment):

“The first time we held a proper infantry battalion position was when we took over from an American outfit at Briquessard, near Caumont*.

          For the rest of the campaign we used to judge all ‘black spots’ by reference to Briquessard.  Anything described as ‘worse than Briquessard’ stank.  It wasn’t that our casualties were heavy there – they were comparatively light seeing that it was an obvious position on a forward slope and had at least its fair share of missiles.  The trouble was that for the first time we had to abandon every appearance of reconnaissance.  We parked our vehicles about two miles back, re-formed our squadrons of seven troops into companies of three platoons, and occupied an almost continuous trench system, with some very large gaps in which concertina wire had to do the job of men.”

* Briquessard lies east of the Normandy town Caumont-l'Eventé.  From Briquessard cross-roads a ridge runs towards the north, “an area which was ‘bocage’ at its worst.”  (From ‘A Short History of the 7th Armoured Division June 1943 – July 1945’ .)

 

Don Aiken’s account reveals the date of their arrival:  “17th July – Livry (Briquessard)

Our Regiment was detailed to defend a very long, narrow wood, named Le Bois de Briquessard. We took over at night-time from an American Regiment and took up positions in fox-holes and ditches on the leading edge of the wood, facing across a field to a hedgerow which was occupied by the enemy. Our Assault Troop sent out foot patrols at night, but there were very few incidents arising from them.”  (Extract  republished from ‘Establishing a Foothold in Normandy’ by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

Eric Brewer, a ‘B’ Squadron Assault trooper, appears to have been involved in one of the incidents on 17^th/18^th July:

“Saw Tiger (tank). Done Recce patrol to find enemy positions.  Gerry fired at me and others (50yds in front) and mortared us but luckily there was a pond.  Wet but worth it.”  On 19th July he wrote:  “Garmont Area (sic - presumably meaning ‘Caumont’).  Relieved Yanks, me and Gil set up an out post here today.”  (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Roy Howard of 'A' Squadron also mentions their arrival:

"The position consisted of a series of trenches, reminiscent of World War 1, dug into the forward slope of a wooded hill, facing across open country to the enemy position.  The changeover took place during the night in order not to alert the enemy that the Yanks had been replaced." (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

 

Eric Postles writes:  "We had the ability to perform a number of roles and we had our first experience of an infantry role when we took over from an American Unit for about two weeks.  They were holding a line at the bottom of a hill a couple of fields west of Briquessard.  We went on foot for about a mile in the dark as the positions could not be approached in daylight.  The Americans could not get out quickly enough and left behind some weapons, ammunition, rations and, best of all for most of our lads, cigarettes.  Dug outs and slit trenches were along a hedgerow and at night we took hourly turns behind a couple of sandbags about 20 yards down a hedge in front of the main positions.  It was pretty scary out there alone."  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Anthony Rampling's map of the Briquessard position:

Tony remembers:

Briquessard begins

          “We had to go to a little hamlet called Briquessard and we parked our vehicles a mile or two behind the lines and filed up to this wood at Briquessard and it was a forward sloping wood, with trenches at the bottom of the wood.

          We took over Briquessard from the American 101 – they were called 'the Screaming Eagles**' – and in the trenches they left cigarettes and even weapons.  If we’d have left a weapon behind we’d have been on a court martial.”  From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61^st Recce (pers comm). 

 **61st Recce was to work with the 101st Airborne Division in the Netherlands following Market Garden and in the Ardennes' famous 'Battle of the Bulge'.

 

Sandy Handley, recalls that night vividly in his story:

          “Another infantry role we had was at Briquessard, at the edge of a wood.  We had to leave our vehicles about half a mile from the front line and relieve some Americans from 101 air division.  They were all dug in on the edge of this wood, a series of foxholes as we called them, each enough to accommodate two men.  We relieved these paratroops as it was getting dusk.  I remember as we filed along the footpath someone trod on a dry twig with a cracking sound, a voice from the darkness of the slit trench said “steady fellas. They’re (Gerry) just a 100 yards away.”  

      As they got out of their respective foxholes, we got in – as I say two men in each trench.  These trenches were five feet deep, mounded round with sand bags.  We placed our Bren guns to the front on top of these sand bags.  Soon it was pitch black. Our Officer, Lt. Williams, came along, to see if we were settled.  I felt uncomfortable.  Sitting in an armoured car behind our guns was what we were trained for but here we were now all in trenches reminiscent of the 14-18 war.  Our officer told us quietly: “The enemy is not so far away, maybe 100 yards or more, so be as quiet as possible.  Remember, he’s doing the same as you - listening.”

 

Some from 61^st Recce did not survive to tell the tale...

61^st Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on 17^th July 1944:     

          Trooper Charles Turner (age 27) of Norton Canes, Cannock, Staffordshire

He is laid to rest in the Cemetery at Tilly-sue-Seulles. (See 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch.)

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)

Steak

11th July 1944 - On the American front in Normandy V Corps' experienced 9th Division and XIX Corps' 30th Division withstood a fierce counter-attack by the Panzer Lehr near St Jean-de-Daye (south of Isigny and west of Bayeux).

 

Eric Postles of 61st Recce's B Squadron was involved in action south of Bayeux: “Hottot, a few miles down the road to Villers Bocage, was captured by 1 Hampshires on 11 July.  We were holding their right flank on higher ground and had a panoramic view of the action as it flowed to and fro.  We were joined in 30 Corps by 43 Division and remained with them until Holland.”   Hottot-les-Bagues was finally liberated by 50th Division on 19th July.

On 11^th July 1944 Eric Brewer wrote in his diary “Mortared = cow killed and hope to have steak for tea, everyone okay except two injured.” On the same day in a letter to his parents he said he was"still at base, taking it easy.  At the present moment I have nothing much to do except write and sleep".  He did add "Every minute of the day all you can hear is the artillery putting up a barrage and the Air Force going over." (Extract from Eric Brewer’s letter and diary included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

 

Eric Postles reminisced about his troop's attempts to get fresh meat: "Once when we were told we would be in harbour for a couple of days Corporal Newsome who was a butcher in civvy street and I caught, killed and dressed a sheep.  We had just finished when we were ordered to move taking the carcass with us suspended above the carrier.  We cooked it later in empty ammunition boxes made into an oven."  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

Freshly killed cow or sheep would have been a lot more appetising than most of the meat around. Anthony Rampling explains why he became a vegetarian:

Eating meat

“In Normandy the Germans, as they retreated, shot all the cattle, horses and dairy cows.  They were laying in the fields, blown up, covered in maggots with chickens picking the maggots off.  It was very unappetising to eat your meals, and what with that, and the Falaise Gap, it rather put me off meat for the rest of my life, although I had to eat it in the war because there was nothing else to eat.”   From Anthony Rampling’s account of 61^st Recce (pers comm).

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.)

 

Involved in the Action

1^st July 1944 – the Bretton Woods conference begins in New Hampshire, USA, involving delegates from 44 Allied countries in discussions to ensure post-war economic prosperity and economic co-operation.  By 22^nd July the conference had resulted in agreements establishing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).

In Italy the Allies break through the Albert/Trasimene line, the German’s next line of defence north of Rome, advancing up the western edge of Italy towards Pisa and Florence.

In Normandy the Americans secure Cap de la Hague, near Cherbourg.

Near Caen, German 1^st SS Panzer Corps launch attacks around Grainville but are held off by British 2^nd Army. 

As usual 61^st Recce appear to be involved in the action.  Eric Brewer recorded in his diary:

"July 1^st - moved to South of Grainville to forward O.P. to direct mortar fire.  Gerry about 500 yards in front.  Code/signs for mortars light or heavy shelling light or heavy also strength or movement if any.  Only one mortar and two shellings all day rather quiet.  Stayed there all night. Rather quiet - only a few buckshee mortars coming over.

July 2^nd - still same place doing same job. Had a few enemy mortars come over but don’t think he will trouble us any more by the weight of the barrage  laid down. Located enemy vehicles moving - soon had artillery firing at it.

July 3rd - position inspected by General and found to be possible for Gerry to come through valley.

July 4th - Gerry mortared to left of us but was unlucky in finding us." (Included by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

Eric Postles, also in 'B' Squadron, recalled that in July 1944: “We continued patrolling activity always having to be cautious beyond the start line of friendly aircraft attention even though we had red and yellow fluorescent panels on display to identify us*.  We had also to be cautious on returning back through the infantry positions.  We saw little of A and C Squadrons as we operated independently and our troop often worked alone.” (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

*The front-line displayed panels on the top of their vehicles to try to avoid bombing by Allied planes.

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”

 

Three-quarters remain

29^th June 1944 – 43^rd (Wessex) Division defend the east side of the Operation Epsom Corridor while the 15^th Scottish Division defend the western side assisted by a Royal Navy bombardment from offshore.  

The Allies advance is then withdrawn on intelligence that the German II SS Armoured Corps is about to launch a major counter-attack and the Allies pull back from Hill 112.  Operation Epsom is closed down.  VIII Corps has lost 4,020 men and Caen remains in enemy hands.

Allied aircraft cause considerable destruction to the II SS Armoured Corps tanks and vehicles assembled around Noyers-Bocage (south-west of Grainville-sur-Odon) so they only succeed in securing a forward position between Rauray and Grainville-sur-Odon. (From  ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012; ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition and 'The Drive on Caen, Northern France 7^th June -9^th July 1944’, a 60^th Anniversary booklet.)

Eric Brewer, now back at base, learns that according to the Officer in Charge 25 of their men have been killed and 12 injured. He writes that, since they landed in France, about one eighth of 61^st Recce’s ‘B’ Squadron have now been killed and another eighth injured.  They have lost Sergeants Wallace (died 19^th June) and Whitehouse (died 10^th October 1944), seven corporals and the rest troopers. (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family and 61st Reconnaissance Roll of Honour.)

First in, Last out

28^th June 1944 – Grainville-sur-Odon was at last in British hands and, briefly, Hill 112, strategically important high ground south of the Odon.   Here, 11th Armoured Division was attacked by 1st SS Panzer Division, 21st Panzer and SS Panzer das Reich.  The British Second Army was now under attack by seven panzer divisions including four elite SS panzer divisions (SS Panzer divisions were substantially larger and better equipped than their Wehrmacht counterparts).  Hitler was determined that their front line would not progress south or east, threatening Paris or cutting off the German 7the Army.  The Allies badly needed the flat ground south of Caen for airfields but Monty was now focused on Caen and claimed this drew in the the panzer divisions so the Americans could make progress to the west.  (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition and 'The Drive on Caen, Northern France 7^th June -9^th July 1944’, a 60^th Anniversary booklet.)

Roy Howard reports that 61^st Recce crossed the River Odon to Mondrainville. (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004).  Eric Brewer “went out to hold forward position, mainly a forward O.P.  in case Gerrys put in an attack while the *59^th are retiring, but was only in danger of our own chaps shooting on us as they did not know there was anyone in front of them. These tin hats want some telling from a distance if they are Gerrys or us, but I got relieved at last.   I don’t know first in last out as usual.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

*Possibly the 59^th (Staffordshire) Division, the last British Division to arrive in Normandy?

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.)

Operation Epsom

25^th June 1944 – the largest battle ever fought in the history of the Nordic countries, the Battle of Tali-Ihantual (part of the Finnish-Soviet Continuation War), begins in the Karelian Isthmus between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. By 9^th July the Finns had achieved ‘a defensive victory’ stopping the  Russians’ advance.

 

On 25th June XXX Corps renewed its battle with Panzer Lehr as a diversionary attack for Operation Epsom.  The 49^th Division (known as the Polar Bears) manages to force the enemy back to Tessel and Rauray where the fighting was particularly savage.  There are reports that an order was given for ‘NPT’ – no prisoners to be taken below the rank of major. The Panzer Lehr reported heavy losses but XXX Corps were unable to take the high ground of the Rauray spur, north of Grainville-sur-Odon. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012 and 'The Drive on Caen'.)

Eric Brewer and his 61^st Recce comrades were involved in the Operation:

“We made a patrol into no man’s land to find enemy and forward positions so that the East Yorks could put in attack came in contact with Gerry Forward O.P. also kit seems as though they must have seen us and pulled out fast East Yorks put in an attack and everything seems to be going well took main x roads.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family)

The Regimental Headquarters were still west of Tilly-sur-Seulles.  After Jerusalem they moved near to the Bernières crossroads, between Tilly and St Paul du Vernay (Regimental HQ location list on re-union dinner menu 1946).

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)

Camembert, Cider and Boiled Sweets - Wednesday 21st June 1944

As usual

21.6.44.

Chotie Darling,

                                    Received your letter of the 8^th or was it 9^th a couple of days ago.

            I’m still having quite a happy time here, as we’ve been pulled out for a day’s rest I’m taking the opportunity to write you a few lines.

            Actually there’s so little to write about – I can’t tell you where I am, and I haven’t seen enough of the countryside to write graphic descriptions of it.

            I went the rounds of the local cottages this morning and procured some Camembert cheese and a litre of cider (about 2½ pints).  Cost me five francs (sixpence) which wasn’t bad going.  Apart from that I haven’t had the chance of getting anything else, and that represents the only purchase I’ve made for over ten days.

            The people are shy but very friendly – and only too willing to converse with you especially if you speak any French at all.

            Most of the fields of corn and oats, and the many orchards are untouched but the villages have suffered terribly.

            As I write this there’s a little boy staring at me intently with one finger in his mouth.  He’s wearing the traditional black Smock – gathered at the waist I believe you’d say – with ridiculously large wooden clogs on his feet.

            Says his name’s Raymonde – I’ve given him one of my boiled sweets – and now he’s very pleased.

            His sister has just turned up.  I seem to have started something.  She’s Denise.  If any more come along I’m packing up.

            I must close here as I have to get a grip on my troop.

            All my love Chotie Darling.

                                                                        Dicker

PS.      Send my best wishes to all your family won’t you?

© Chotie Darling

"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.

Always in Front

Eric Brewer’s diary records:

18^th June: “Shifted on to Granville*. Met stiff enemy opposition. Arks** and Carriers went in to try to find all positions but 88*** opened up and we lost heavy Ark, also a couple of Carriers - total loss in men is 12. We were forced to withdraw as the 88 could pick us off like coconuts but later on tanks went in followed by artillery and mortar fire which knocked out 88; also killed approximately 200 Gerrys.” (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.)

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

** Arks = Armoured cars

*** The Flak 88 was the legendary German very high velocity anti-aircraft gun that could also be used successfully against tanks and infantry.  “The unforgettable lightning crack of an 88 mm remained implanted in the memory of every survivor of the campaign.” (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

 

“Recce in Normandy meant driving down a road until something fired at you.” (From Recce Armoured Assets.)

 

Sandy Handley's armoured car was always at the front - he wasn't very happy about this:

“The one thing what I was upset about was for that first three weeks (?) our car, the Light Humber, would always lead the Heavy Humber if on recce patrol. When the other half of our troop arrived and it came to a recce patrol our car was always leading, then the 2 Heavy cars, then another light car at the rear.  Our job as recce was to patrol to a point - and a lot of times in front of our Infantry - until we reached a certain location or unfortunately got fired upon by the Germans, in which case we reversed out the way quickly. Sadly our Regiment had its share of casualties.

It wasn’t always recce text book fashion.  Before a recce patrol operation, officers of the troops would attend an O Group, that is a plan of battle.  No 10 troop - that would be four cars and sometime four Bren carriers would go up one road.  No 5* (that was my troop) would go up another road, four cars and Bren carriers behind.  On some of the narrow roads if anything nasty cropped up it was difficult for the cars to turn about; better for the Bren carriers, they could turn on their own axis.  Our job wasn’t to start a battle, we went to get the low down where the enemy was.”

*Dick’s troop.

 

Sandy in front

“In my troop we had two light Humber armoured cars and two heavy Daimler armoured cars.  I was in a light Humber car and my friend Sandy Handley was in a light Humber but he usually led the troop. He complained to Lieutenant Williams “Why do you always send me in front?”  Lt. Williams said “Do as you’re told Handley.”

"I think I looked very young and Sandy was 5 years older than me.  I think that was the reason he was in front.”  (Anthony Rampling’s WW2 account, personal comm.)

 

Eric Postles recalls 18th June 1944:

“We moved back a few miles and were joined by the remainder of the regiment from England alongside a heavy gun battery which was regularly firing at the enemy.  By now we were so tired that the noise from the guns did not disturb our sleep.  We got our first mail since Nightingale Wood and among the letters was one from Gladys which I replied to the same day….”  

There were regular parcels from home containing among other things cake, which we shared out.  Dad also sent the Ormskirk Advertiser every week.  The first mail we had sent had been field postcards dated 8 June on which you crossed out the appropriate parts to say whether you were safe and uninjured.  Later our letters had to be unsealed for censoring until we got green envelopes which could be sealed and not necessarily censored. 

The days were long and tiring.  Stand to was about 4am and stand down at 10pm.  In addition we took turns of night guards.  Dawn and dusk were the times of expected German attacks and most mornings we would be shelled or mortared.  Apart from a couple of thunderstorms the weather was hot and traffic caused white dust everywhere when disturbed.  The Germans would then shell the area and notices told you “Dust means death”. 

Apart from in Bayeux civilians were rarely seen.  The farmers had abandoned their farms turning cattle out into the field where many were killed and lay smelly and bloated with their feet in the air.  Those alive were in pain from not being milked.  Apples on the trees were red and looked delicious but on tasting were bitter and were only used to make cider.  Most farms had cider vats and prized finds were small barrels of Calvados (apple brandy), which proved an effective remedy for sleeping off “Bomb happiness*”.  We never had anyone sent back with it.

Storms at sea broke up the artificial harbour at Arromanches on 19^th June and artillery shells were in short supply.  During German attacks the Navy was called upon to break them up, the shells going over us created a noise like an express train.”

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

*the soldiers’ nickname for shell-shock.

 

18^th June 1944 – a V1 bomb striking the Guards Chapel, near Buckingham Palace in London, during a service kills 119 people.

Chalky, Sammy and the Carrier Crew

By the 15th June 50th Division had moved south of Bayeux and was centred on two bases; one near Ellon and the other nearer the River Aure (from Frontline map in Library of Congress).  For the 61^st Recce things could seem pretty disorganised in those first weeks in Normandy:

 

Sergeant Chalky Wells

Anthony Rampling:

“I always remember a particularly outspoken Sergeant - Sergeant Wells.  He stood up in his armoured car one day and he said this in front of officers and everybody:

          “Never in the field of human conflict have so many been f…ed around by so few in such a short time.”  (Paraphrases Churchill’s famous speech ‘The Few’ praising the fighter pilots of the Battle of Britain.)

 

‘Chalky’ (Charlie) Wells was the particularly outspoken Sergeant who Tony remembers. Roy Howard’s book (Beaten Paths are Safest) has an account from the Newsletter of the Old Comrades Association of how, on 15^th June, ‘Chalky’ and Trooper Sam Benson of ‘B’ Squadron were on forward Recce, crawling through grass on their stomachs, when they came face to face with two Germans doing the same. Hurrying back to warn the advancing infantry of the German presence Sam was shot.  Charlie carried him to safety and they met up again at a reunion dinner 26 years later. (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

Sgt Wells was awarded the Croix de Guerre Bronze Star (given for mention in despatches at regiment or brigade level) for his “conspicuous” defence of the vital high ground of Point 103 during the period 9^th to 12^th June, his rescue of a wounded comrade on 15^th June and his troop command in August 1944 after his Lieutenant was wounded.  (See 61st Recce battle honours.) 

Don Aiken was involved in the incident:
    “We continued to probe along the byways making contact with the enemy and reporting to base. On the morning of 15th June, when my car had been leading the patrol along a particularly nasty stretch of road for a long stretch of time, it was decided to pass the job over to a Bren-Carrier Troop. We pulled in to the side of the road to let them pass through us. The leading Carrier had gone less than a hundred yards when, as I understood at the time, it blew up on a land-mine.

Now, 60 years after the event, I am informed by our Troop Sergeant Charlie Wells (see above) that in fact the explosion was due to a string of our own mines, being carried in the Carrier, exploding accidentally when a German prisoner lost his balance and fell onto them. All the crew and the prisoner were killed.

We then diverted onto another road which led up to a cross roads near Lingevres*, where there had been a tank battle during the previous day. As we moved cautiously along this narrow country road, sensing danger, we came across a knocked out tank which was blocking our path. Charlie Wells decided to scout on foot along the ditch, with the commander of my car Corporal Sam Benson. They had crept along for a hundred yards or so when they ran into a machine-gun ambush hidden behind the hedgerow. After a short exchange of fire Sam Benson was badly wounded, his stomach having been ripped open by a stream of machine gun bullets. We decided to pull back out of the situation, and I gave covering fire from my Bren gun while Sam was brought out and carried back to safety on the front of a Bren carrier."    * a village just west of Tilly-sur-Seulles

(Extract  republished See Don Aiken’s account of Corporal Black’s death from the BBC People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

Eric Postles recalls the same incidents, attributing the carrier explosion to road mines:

“10 Troop were told to recce a village (since identified as Crauville*) in the Tilly area and in the morning we moved through the infantry positions.  My carrier was in the lead and we went some distance before being fired on and were then told to turn off into the village but otherwise it was silent and deserted. 

We returned to the carriers and after removing the road obstacles proceeded to drive through the village.  Sgt Griffiths’ carrier reached the first building where there was debris on the road when there was a huge explosion and the carrier was blown several feet into the air and crashed down.  Burning and exploding ammunition and fuel made it impossible to get near to it.  We found one body, Trooper Webb, who was very badly injured.  We gave him morphine but he died.  Sgt Griffiths, Joe Collier and Jack McHugh all died.  The latter two were called up with me at Carlisle.  They are buried at Hottot Cemetery. Joe Collier was on Bolton Wanderers books and goalkeeper for the regiment’s football team.  It taught us a bitter lesson about mined roads and to take care if there was foliage or unusual debris on the road.  Another lesson we learned was to recognise by the smell whether Germans had occupied a building and to then be aware of booby traps.”

17^th June (sic): “We had to recce the same area with 12 Troop armoured cars but this time met up with the enemy.  Corporal Benson (12 Troop) was hit by a maching gun bullet and badly wounded in his stomach while on foot recce with Sargeant Charlie Wells. We recovered him and took him back to the Queens Brigade medics.  It was a “Blighty” wound (one which needed treating in England) but thankfully he recovered and later returned to the Regiment. 

The village proved costly to the Regiment as a heavy and light armoured car of A Squadron were also destroyed with loss of life.  Later we heard that the village was heavily mined and booby trapped.  We entered some of the buildings on our foot patrols so we had perhaps been fortunate not to sustain more casualties.”  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

*Crauville lies between Hottot-les-Bagues and Caumont-l'Éventé.

Two of the three carrier crews in Eric's troop had now been lost.

 

Eric Brewer's diary for 15^th June reads:

 “Moved to 103. Came across Gerry Bikes abandoned (with) everything on them. Found 1 mortar.”

 

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

          Trooper Joseph Collier (age 22) of Bolton, Lancashire

          Trooper William Griffiths (age 26) of Londonderry

          Trooper Ronald McHugh (age 26) of Shaw, Lancashire

          Trooper John Webb (age 25) of Handsworth, Birmingham

All are laid to rest in the Hottot-les-Bagues War Cemetery, south of Tilly-sur-Seulles

(See 61st Roll of Honour courtesy of Recce Mitch. Their gravestones are shown in Roy Howard’s book.)

We will remember them.

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.

 

 

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.)

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

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO

England

Wednesday 9^th (sic) May

Chotie Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                            Love & kisses, precious

                                                                                    Dicker 

 

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

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

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

© Chotie Darling

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

Cycling home - Monday 16th April 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

AP.O.

England

 

Monday

Chotie Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                All my love

                                                            Chotie

                                                                                    Dicker

P.S. No signs of leave?

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

RKWilliams

 

*Some 40 miles between Nightingale Wood and Pagham!

**Presumably Geoff Winzer.

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

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

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

© Chotie Darling

 

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

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

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

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

 

 

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.

Pouishnoff and Leicester - Wednesday 23rd February 1944

61^st Recce Regt

Whittlesford

Cambs.

Wednesday 23^rd

Chotie Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            All my love, Darling,

                                    Dicker

Will try to write you again tomorrow.

© Chotie Darling

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

Eric Postles remembers March 1944:

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

Brandon Park - Sunday 30th January 1944

61^ST RECONNAISSANCE REGIMENT

Brandon

Suffolk

Sunday

Chotie Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                    All my love, Darling

                                                                        Dicker

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

           

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

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

© Chotie Darling

 

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

 

Eric Postles writes under February 1944:

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

joined the 50th (Northumberland) Division,

part of XXX (30) Corps.

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

 

Don Aiken recalls:

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

61st Recce Regt, RAC

Home Forces

Wednesday

Chotie Darling,

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                                        All my love

                                                                                                Dicker

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

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

© Chotie Darling

 

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

 

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

61st Reconnaissance

 

Chotie Darling

 Dedicated to the memory of my mother

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

 

 Part 3        Lieutenant Williams   

 

Chapter 9            61st Reconnaissance

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

 

Joining Up & 61st   

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

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

 

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

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

 

Dick hadn’t arrived at the Castle yet

 - after receiving his commission he had 9 days leave

and met up with Chotie at Pagham.

 

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

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

 

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

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

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

 

Sea Lane, Pagham - Sunday 5th September 1943

Postcard written on Sunday 5th September

W/242328

Pte Chalkley BE

OFC ATS

462 Hy (M) AA RA

Portishead*, Nr Bristol, Glos.

 

Chotie Darling,

            Sorry this will be a little tardy for your Birthday, but anyhow, all the best.  Am now at home and go back tomorrow (Monday). Will write you when I get back.                                             

                                                Love Dicker

* The postcard is addressed to Portishead, near Avonmouth on the coast east of Bristol (and close to Easton-in-Gordano) so Chotie’s unit appears to have moved again.

© Chotie Darling

 

6^th September 1943 – Winston Churchill gave a speech, now famous for the quote “the empires of the future are the empires of the mind”, at Harvard University in America. 

 

8th September 1943 - Italy’s unconditional surrender to the Allies is announced. German reserves are rushed into Italy as the Italian Navy sails to surrender at the Maltese port of Valetta. En route the Luftwaffe sinks the battleship Roma using one of the new radio-controlled Fritz X guided bombs.  All Italian forces within German controlled areas are disarmed without opposition and made prisoners of war. By September 10^th the Germans have occupied Rome – the King and Marshal Badoglio just manage to escape.

On 8^th September moves began to arrange the deportation of Danish Jews. However, the Jews were warned and the Danish authorities undertook a mass operation to move the Jews into hiding or temporary sanctuaries before the order was implemented on 28^th September. (See United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.)

 

9^th September 1943 – Operation Avalanche begins wit h the main Allied invasion force landing at Salerno to the south of Naples, on the Tyrrhenian (western) Italian coast.  Lt.General Mark Clark commanded this US Fifth Army (Patton was withheld from combat duties have slapped a soldier suffering from combat fatigue in Sicily), including the US VI Corps and British X Corps. They were surprised by the strong German defensive presence already there – the German 10^th Army had moved rapidly to secure the hills surrounding the bay in preparation for the Allies now trapped on the beachhead.

 Operation Slapstick also commenced on 9th September with British forces (including Dick’s former unit, now 1st Airlanding Reconnaissance Squadron) landing on the ‘heel’ of Italy to take Taranto.  On 11^th September the British 1^st Airborne Division took the ports of Bari and Brindisi.

9^th September 1943 – in Corsica the resistance rises up against occupation and from 14th September were joined by Free French forces landing on the island at Ajaccio. They harassed and disrupted the German evacuation through Corsica to the Italian mainland from Sardinia (heavily defended when the Germans were duped by Operation Mincemeat) and from 21^st September were joined by Italian forces, formerly in occupation. Liberated on 4^th October 1943, Corsica provided a critical Allied base for Mediterranean operations.

12^th September 1943 – Mussolini is rescued from Gran Sasso in the Abruzzi Mountains of central Italy in an audacious German raid led by Otto Skorzeny.  Taken to Germany he signs an agreement with Hitler annexing the German-speaking areas of northern Italy to Greater Germany. On 23rd September he proclaims his return to power with the re-establishment of a fascist government in northern Italy. All Italians carrying arms in German occupied areas face the death penalty. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, Vladimir Dekanozov, arrived in Stockholm on 12th September 1943 . Although German foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop interprets this as a sign that the Russians may be open to discussing peace with Germany, Hitler refuses to send a German envoy to Sweden.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

13^th September - at Salerno the Germans launched a counter-offensive that almost defeated the Allies’ beachhead but withdrew on 18^th/19^th September after the arrival of the British warships HMS Warspite and Valiant and the US 82^nd Airborne.  Montgomery’s 8^th Army forces from Operation Baytown in the south were also rapidly approaching.  However, on 16^th September - the largest mutiny in British military history took place at Salerno when 191 men refused to follow orders. 

13^th September 1943 – Churchill’s ill-fated attempt to take the Aegean islands began with a landing of the Special Boat Service on Rhodes. However, the Germans arrested all Italian troops on the island before they could consider joining the British. Kos, Samos and Leros were briefly occupied by the British but Kos and Leros were lost in battle in October and the Germans held all the Dodacanese islands by 18^th November. (See The Aegean Campaign.)

 From 13^th to 18^th September 1943 61^st Recce and the rest of the 61^st Infantry Division were involved in Exercise Link with the 1^st Polish Armoured Division and HQ 2 Canadian Corps.  This was a full scale exercise including live firing by the Royal Artillery to test out liaison as well as battle performance. (From ‘No Holding Back’ by Brian A. Reid, Stackpole Books 2009.)