July 2017

HALE BRANCH ROYAL BRITISH LEGION NEWSLETTER – Issue 17

Welcome to the March edition in which we report on recent events and provide notice of a variety of events coming up during the year.

OBITUARY watch the lines of inmates of the workhouse (later to become Smithdown Road/Sefton General Hospital and now Ron Rowson 13.12.1917-24.04.2017 Asda) shuffling around the courtyard, which was almost By Bill Sergeant directly opposite the junior school which he attended.

In 1939, recognising the likelihood of war breaking out, Ron and a pal decided to volunteer for the forces, rather than wait to be conscripted, on the basis that if conscripted they could be posted to any of the services rather than the Scottish, in which Ron’s friend’s father had served in WW1. At the time, Ron was courting his future wife, Marie, who lived in Vale Road, Woolton, and they were married in late 1939 – Ron wearing the uniform of the Liverpool Scottish. They were parted shortly afterwards, when Ron was posted to the South of England. After leaving school, Ron had served his time as a plumber and it was not very long afterwards that the Army decided that he would be more use as a plumber and transferred him to the Royal Engineers. Although not unhappy about this, Ron confided to me that he “never saw a tap during the whole of his service”!

Ron survived the war and told me that he had taken part in Ron sadly passed away on 24th April this year, just 8 several Commando raids on the Channel Islands to destroy months before his 100th birthday. He was the oldest communication and other systems to prevent their use after member of the Hale Branch and widely admired and the German occupation. Although he didn’t mention it to respected, not just because of his age or his past military me, I have since learned that he was one of those evacuated service, but mainly because he was such a nice man. He from Dunkirk in May 1940 (Operation Dynamo). Just recently was born and raised in Liverpool, living in Wavertree, he told me how he had done several operations with the Anfield and Speke before, following the death of his wife, Commandos, including Canadians, and his job was to set he moved into Speke Care Home in Eastern Avenue, where explosive charges. One of these raids took place in late his wife had been a resident before him. I met Ron through March 1942, known as Operation Chariot and widely Jim Ross with whom Ron had made several trips back to considered to be “the greatest raid of all”. St Nazaire was a the Normandy beaches. Over time I think I got to know port on the River Loire which had a large dry dock and in Ron quite well and although he was naturally reluctant to 1942 was in Nazi-occupied France. The British High dwell too much on his WW2 experiences, he did tell me Command decided that they needed to put the dry dock out quite a lot about his past. I was enthralled when he told of action as this would mean that the large German me that as a young boy he had lived above a shop in battleships, especially the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst would be Smithdown Road, close to Woodcroft Road, and on denied the dock facility and would need to run the gauntlet occasions from the attic room he and his sister would of British ships to return to Germany for repairs or refuelling.

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An obsolete British , HMS Campbeltown, was loaded with explosives and rammed into the St Nazaire dock gate, where it exploded later that day. Meanwhile a force of British Commandos attacked installations on the dockside, destroying communication and other facilities. This method of attack was chosen in preference to bombing from the air as this would have meant putting the lives of many French civilians in danger. Instead it was the The South Liverpool Breakfast Club is for all Armed forces Commandos who were endangered. Heavy German personnel and Veterans of all the 3 services. We meet every artillery fire destroyed the small boats which the Saturday morning at 10am have our breakfast and put the Commandos had used and of the 611 who took part only world to rights as only veterans can. We share stories of our 228 escaped; 169 men were killed and another 215 taken time in the forces and we can try to help anyone who is in prisoner. Ron Rowson was amongst those who escaped. need by either pointing them in the right direction or just Although there was great loss of life, the operation listening to any problems they may have. achieved its objective as the “Tirpitz” was shortly afterwards sunk without having sunk a single British ship. The venue is the Toby Carvery Ron wasn’t finished yet! In June 1944 he landed in Aigburth Rd Normandy a few days after D-Day and survived again! In Liverpool L19 9DN fact Ron said his only real injury came just a couple of years formerly the Kingsman pub. ago when he was on his way back to the Normandy beaches with fellow veterans. Because of their age, it was We have our own Facebook group with almost 200 members decided that the group would break its journey with an but we have in the region of 10-20 attending breakfast each overnight stay in Portsmouth. Unfortunately Ron had a fall week. Search ‘South Liverpool Breakfast Club’ to find us. in Portsmouth and dislocated his shoulder and returned to Liverpool. Yet the following day he attended in St John’s Our own Ron Rowson used to love getting picked up to Gardens, with his shoulder strapped up and in a attend when he was well enough and is missed by all wheelchair, to take part in a remembrance service! He was members. made of good stuff!

Although I made a start on writing down Ron’s experiences, we never got beyond the first few years of his life. My most vivid recent memory of Ron was when a group of us attended Speke Care Home to see him be presented with the French Legion of Honour by the Lord Mayor. My hope was that Ron would still be around for his 100th Birthday, to receive a card from the Queen to go with the one he and Marie received on their 60th wedding anniversary, and just as importantly to allow us to share his birthday with him. Sadly this was not to be but we gave him a great send-off at his funeral on 7th May 2017. I for We had another WW2 veteran Edward Forsyth from one will never forget Ron Rowson. Mossley Hill but he has now moved to a retirement home in Northwich (where I still visit him occasionally). We visit a local nursing home in Halewood where there are a few ******************* veterans living there but cannot attend the club so we go to them all. he Hale RBL Branch now has a website and its address is :- http://branches.britishlegion.org.uk/branches/hale - do If you know any veterans of any age please let them know take a look for up to date information on fundraising about us and get them to home along. events and trips. New faces are always welcome.

By Steve Hall 2 Summary of Recent Events This crater has over the years filled with water and is now preserved as the “Pool of Peace”. Belgium & France, April 2017

On our way to Mouscron, Belgium this year we called in at Langemark German cemetery, one of only 4 in Flanders. It Nine Elms British Cemetery - was used by 3rd Australian and is quite stark compared to British cemeteries with dark 44nd Casualty Clearing Stations when they moved from granite stones, many of which are laid flat. The cemetery Brandhoek in September 1917, so most of the dead are has 45,000 burials and it is visited mainly by the British. named. Amongst them were: Private Adam McCARTHY, 10th Battalion, Manchester Regiment. Adam died of wounds Amongst many of the sites and cemeteries visited this time on 11th October 1917 aged 30 years. The daughter of Marie round were:- Fisher, is to marry one of Adam’s descendants next year and Sanctuary Wood which housed a museum and very well laid a wreath; Sapper Timothy KELLY, 171st Tunnelling preserved trenches; Company, Royal Engineers, died on 23rd March 1918 during Spanbroekmolen and the “Pool of Peace” - “Moelen” is the German offensive, aged 31 years. Timothy was the Flemish for “mill” and at the end of the First Battle of Ypres grandfather of Peter Kelly, another of our party who also laid in November 1914 the German front line was established a wreath; st here on the high ground of Messines Ridge. On 1 January 1916, 171st Tunnelling Company began digging beneath the German positions to lay a mine and by 1st July 1916 they had completed their task and laid a mine charged with 90,000 lbs of ammonal! During February and March 1917, German tunnellers succeeded in damaging the tunnels and a gallery dug by the British who had to dig new access tunnels to the mine which was to be detonated as part of a salvo of 19 mines on Messines Ridge on 7th June 1917. They cut it fine – they finished their task on 6th June! Major Hudspeth, CO of 171st Tunnelling Company, was able to tell the 36th Ulster Division, who were to attack when the mine exploded, that the mine was ready. At 0310hrs on 7th June, the mines were blown, destroying German positions. The Spanbroekmolen mine actually went off 15 seconds late by which time the Ulstermen were out of their trenches, having been ordered to advance at 0310hrs whether or not the mine had been detonated, and many of them were killed by the explosion. This mine was the largest of the 19 mines and left a crater 250’ in diameter and 40’ deep.

3 Our trips to Belgium always involve a visit to the Menin On our last day a friend of Bill’s, David Moore took us on a Gate, Ypres for the Last Post Association Act of very detailed guided tour around the Somme battlefields, Remembrance Ceremony and this year was no exception. and singling out one visit was that to the Glory Hole. It is an Wreaths were laid by members of our party. Also this year area at La Boiselle which was the scene of intensive the Clan Wallace Pipe Band from Liverpool, who lead our underground mining warfare from 1914 to 1916. We were Remembrance Parade in Hale every year, played at the able to view a very small part of the extensive tunnels mined Gate; out of the solid chalk. Fifteen Ravine Cemetery - situated on what would have been the British second line trench in 1917 and is so called If you are interested in joining us on one of our trips to because of a shallow “ravine” behind the cemetery which Belgium and France do let us know. was at one time surrounded by 15 trees; Crevecoeur - The village church in Crevecoeur witnessed Future Events 2017 some terrible scenes in August 1914. Immediately Our annual trip to Pickering’s 1940s war time weekend will following the German invasion through Belgium, Belgian take place on Saturday 14th October. The coach will leave refugees and French soldiers were fleeing south pursued the Childe of Hale public house around 8.00am approx., and by the German army. On 26th August 1914 the Germans will be confirmed nearer the date. Cost £10. If you would attacked Crevecoeur and quickly overwhelmed the few like to join us please let Bill Sergeant know as soon as French cavalrymen who tried to defend the village and possible. This is a very popular trip and quickly gets booked then set about the locals. On 28th August the Germans up. alleged that a shot had been fired at them by a local and rejected the plea that none of the locals had weapons. The Sunday 3rd September Seafarer’s Day UK. Fly the red ensign Germans reacted by throwing grenades into a number of to mark and remember the long connection between Britain houses close to the church, burned down at least 40 and the Sea. The red ensign will be flown that day at the houses, and arrested villagers, several of whom were shot Hale War Memorial. dead. The German Uhlan cavalry, who claimed that it was one of their men who had been fired on, rounded up some Saturday 28th October – Poppy Appeal Launch evening event villagers in a small street off the village’s main square (Rue on a Halloween theme at The Wellington public house, Hale du Pont de Papier) and killed at least 13 of them using their Village at 7.30pm. Fancy dress is optional. Buffet, raffle and sabres, including an 86 year old and a 9 year old girl, whose entertainment. Tickets cost £10. names are on a memorial near the church. The German troops then rounded up the rest of the inhabitants and Commemorative Paving Slabs lined them up against the wall of the convent (next to the church) and were about to execute them when they were On 7th June the unveiling and dedication of a memorial stone stopped by one of their officers. They then left the village took place in honour of the centenary of the award of the with bodies and wounded strewing the streets. In 1916 the to Capt. Ronald Neil Stuart VC, DSO, RD, RNR Germans evacuated the village and incorporated it as part (HMS Pargust on 7th June 1917). The Lord Mayor of of the Hindenburg Line. The village was liberated by the Liverpool, Councillor Malcolm Kennedy; Professor Elizabeth New Zealanders in 1918 and was awarded the Croix de Stuart, Granddaughter of Ronald Stuart, Commander Steven Guerre; Hoyle, ; Jim Ryan, the County Chairman Cambrai Memorial to the Missing, Louverval - of the Royal British Legion Merseyside/West Lancashire Commemorates more than 7000 servicemen of the UK and County attended as did Commander Bernard Thompson, the South Africa who died in the Battle of Cambrai in Naval Regional Command Northern England. November and December 1917 whose graves are not known. There are also 124 burials from WW1. On the memorial are the names of two men whose relatives asked that we place a cross as near as possible to their names: Private John Thomas ALLERSTON, Grenadier Guards, killed on 1st December 1917 aged 20 – the great uncle of the late Don Allerston who organised these trips for a number of years and Private Thomas Vincent ROSS, Loyal North Lancashire Regt, killed on 30th November 1917, the great uncle of Jimmy Ross who like Don came with us on so many of these trips in the past.

4 Anniversaries July 1917 After the successful attack on Messines Ridge using nineteen May 1917 mines as the prelude to the assault, General Haig wanted to British merchant shipping losses crossing the Atlantic due continue with the momentum of attacking the German army to German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare British in the Ypres Salient. However, Prime Minister Lloyd George and allied ships total lost amounted to 373 sunk ships total objected believing that the war could be won in Italy or the of 374,000 tones. Such losses could not be sustained as Middle East. The unrestricted U boat war against allied Britain was reduced to having only 7 weeks supply of food merchant shipping was starting to have a create food stocks. So after three years of unregulated sailing by shortages in Britain leading to the introduction of rationing merchant shipping, the Admiralty finally had to resort to a so Haig devised a plan to attack north westwards out of the form of defence last used during the Napoleonic wars of Ypres salient with a view to capturing Bruges, although the early nineteenth century, that of convoys. Merchant inland city, but also a large base for U boats. The ships sailing together under the protection of government eventually approved the plan. warship escorts together with protection from aircraft and airships. Losses finally began to reduce with result that Britain was not starved into submission and eventually hundreds of thousands of American troops were able to be transported to the western front safely with very few losses.

The Third Battle of Ypres was carefully planned with a preliminary major artillery bombardment in conjunction Britain had already been subjected to aerial attack by with the use of tanks and aircraft. The initial phase of the hydrogen filled airships, the Zeppelins. They had proved to attack on 31st July achieved the objectives set out. However, be not an efficient way of bombing due the sheer size and two factors then came into play to slow down the assault, susceptibility, initially to the weather and then to home the weather, it started to rain and resulted in one of the based defences, anti-aircraft guns and fighter planes, wettest summers for many years in Flanders, and a massive leading to not inconsiderable losses of airships together series of concrete “pill boxes” constructed around the area with their crews. However, another form of attack was of the proposed attack utilising Belgium slave labour. As a developed, the Gotha twin engine biplane bomber. An consequence of the artillery barrage, the drainage systems England Squadron was created to bring destruction and of the area were destroyed leading to the area turning into a terror, primarily to London, being within range of German massive quagmire. The attack continued but at a very slow airfields in occupied Belgium. Raids during daylight were pace, tanks became irretrievably bogged down in the mud conducted from great heights, and were initially successful while soldiers struggled to walk through it to their but as squadrons of RFC and RNAS fighters plane were objectives. The attack slowly ground on until November brought back to defend British airspace, the raids became when the village of Passchendaele, which gave its name to nocturnal creating problems for both attackers and the battle, was captured. The hoped for elimination of the U defenders. A further enormous type of plane, the Gigant, a Boat refuge of Bruges would have to wait for another year. four engine bi-plane was introduced, however during the However, it might be said that the battle diverted the twelve month campaign of bombing of London, moral was attention of the German army away from the mutiny not broken and the city not destroyed. A total of 836 amongst some the French forces further south so that the people were killed with 1,965 injured, a foretaste of what Western Front was held. was to come some 23 years later.

5 May 1942 Commonwealth forces back east during which the armoured Since Czechoslovakia had been overrun by Nazi forces, the divisions lost hundreds of tanks. This led to the fall of Czech government in exile in London had managed to Tobruk, due to the lack of maintenance of the defences, the create a sizeable number of soldiers and airmen who had capture of Mersa Matruh and the retreat to the El Alamain escaped through Poland and the Middle East and come to line. Here the British army stood, creating a defensive line Britain, many landing at the Pier Head in Liverpool before between the Mediterranean Sea and the Qattara being sent to Cholmondeley Park. Many servicemen Depression. Axis forces, although short on supplies, subsequently went on to serve valiantly with the RAF and launched attacks against Commonwealth forces but the line the British army. The Czech prime minister in exile Eduardo held and the Allies counter attacked in an effort to drive Benes, wanted to strike back at the Nazi oppressors in his German and Italian forces back, both sides however meeting homeland. The Nazis had appointed a new Reichsprotektor with little success. While the battle resulted in effectively a of Bohemia-Moravia, Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard stale mate, Axis forces were prevented from breaking Heydrich. Heydrich rapidly gained an appalling reputation, through to Alexandria which was only sixty miles away. The being party to the Final Solution, the elimination of Jews in two sides then set about resupplying and waiting for the Europe, and was given the title of the Butcher of Prague by next move. With the appointment of General Montgomery the allies. as commander of the Eighth Army, the next attack would be by British forces at the second battle of El Alamain. Benes conceived a plan to assassinate Heydrich, under the code word of Operation Anthropoid. Over the course of a July 1967 number of months, Czech army agents were parachuted by the RAF into Czechoslovakia with varying degrees of success but eventually they all made their way to Prague. Two NCOs, Sergeants Josef Gabcik and Jan Kubis were finally chosen to carry out the assassination attempt while Heydrich was being driven from his country residence to Prague Castle, the centre of the Nazi administration. The day arrived however, the attack went wrong, the STEN gun to be used in the attempt jammed and the subsequent bomb thrown by Kubis into the car did not kill Heydrich immediately. Due to a lack of medical care, Heydrich subsequently died a number of days later from blood poisoning from horse hair blasted into his spleen from the As the British Empire was gradually dismantled, the Aden damaged car upholstery. Protectorate remained at the mouth of the Red Sea used as a base for Royal Navy ships on anti-pirate patrol in the From then on the Nazis started a massive campaign of Indian Ocean. Arab nationalists had been agitating for terror to try and capture the assassins alive. An initial independence from the British Crown since 1963 but in 1967 reprisal was the destruction of three villages including matters escalated leading to the Aden Emergency. Riots Lidice the occupants being either murdered or sent to started on the streets but were controlled but then guerrilla concentration camps. Due to the betrayal of the agents fighters launched attacks on British military personnel and and horrific brutality, their hiding place in the crypt of an their families. After the Arab Israeli Six Day War, Arab Orthodox church in the centre of Prague was discovered. leaders accused Britain of siding with Israel during the war The agents refused to surrender and in the ensuing gun with the result that the Aden Armed Police and South battle with hundreds of SS troops they all died, the last two Arabian Federation Army mutinied, killing British troops and when the Prague fire brigade flooded the crypt in which shooting down an RAF helicopter. In doing so they occupied they were sheltering. Tragically the assassination cost the the Crater, the Arab quarter of Aden. The Royal Marines lives of about 10,000 Czech citizens. Such an operation was responded by sealing off the entrances to the Crater and never mounted again. sniping at belligerents inside. Ultimately the Crater District was reoccupied by the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland June 1942 Highlanders under the command of Lt. Colonel ‘Mad Mitch’ The war in North Africa had gone quite well late in 1941 for Mitchell with no casualties. The conflict made the Britain and her allies, the besieged town of Tobruk was government of Harold Wilson reconsider Aden and within a relieved and the Axis forces driven further west. However, matter of months the colony was left to its own devices the Africa Korps commander General Rommel was not leading to the National Liberation Front seizing power and beaten yet. In a daring counterattack, the Axis forces creating the state of Yemen. regrouped and struck back at the battle of Gazala, driving By Ben Jackson 6

Noel Chavasse Centenary Events 2017 A Pot of Tea By Robert Service, 1916 4th August – 100th anniversary of the death of Noel Chavasse VC & Bar MC – a service by the Liverpool You make it in your mess-tin by the brazier's rosy gleam; Scottish Association and 208 Field Hospital RAMC will You watch it cloud, then settle amber clear; take place at 1.00pm (the time that Chavasse died) at the You lift it with your bay'nit, and you sniff the fragrant “Chavasse” memorial in Abercromby Square. The steam; Liverpool Scottish Pipes and Drums will be in attendance. The very breath of it is ripe with cheer. This service will last about 45 minutes. You're awful cold and dirty, and a-cursin' of your lot; You scoff the blushin' 'alf of it, so rich and rippin' 'ot; 29th August – Laying of centenary VC commemorative It bucks you up like anythink, just seems to touch the spot: stone for Chavasse will be unveiled in Abercromby God bless the man that first discovered Tea! Square Garden at 11.00am, conducted by the Bishop of Liverpool and in the presence of the Lord Mayor and Since I came out to fight in France, which ain't the other many of Chavasse’s family. day, I think I've drunk enough to float a barge; 29th August – 2.00pm at St. Nicholas’s Church. A All kinds of fancy foreign dope, from caffy and doo lay, centenary commemoration service for Chavasse and To rum they serves you out before a charge. conducted by the Bishop of Liverpool. Seats can be In back rooms of estaminays I've gurgled pints of cham; reserved for this. Please speak to Bill Sergeant if you I've swilled down mugs of cider till I've felt a bloomin' dam; wish to attend. But 'struth! they all ain't in it with the vintage of Assam: God bless the man that first invented Tea! 29th August – 7.30pm (to be confirmed) vigil in Abercromby Square Garden by 208 Field Hospital. I think them lazy lumps o' gods wot kips on asphodel Swigs nectar that's a flavour of Oolong; I only wish them sons o' guns a-grillin' down in 'ell Could 'ave their daily ration of Suchong. Hurrah! I'm off to battle, which is 'ell and 'eaven too; And if I don't give some poor bloke a sexton's job to do, To-night, by Fritz's campfire, won't I 'ave a gorgeous brew (For fightin' mustn't interfere with Tea). To-night we'll all be tellin' of the Boches that we slew, As we drink the giddy victory in Tea.

Supplied by Joe McGorry

Welfare

We pass on our best wishes for good health to Ron Crawford, Pat Dunn, Joe McGorry and David Hudson plus

all our members who are ill or not feeling too good at the moment.

If anyone would like to write a short report, book review or promote an event or activity for inclusion in future Newsletters, please contact Lesley, details below.

The RBL Hale Branch meet on the first Wednesday of every month at 8.00pm at The Childe of Hale public house. Please do come along.

You don’t have to be a member to join us on our organised trips and if you would like to join us please contact:- Lesley Jackson on 486 1860 or email [email protected]; Marie Fisher [email protected] or tel 07958 399252; Steve Hall [email protected] or tel: 07807 736666; Bill Sergeant [email protected] or telephone 0151 724 3171

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