In a World That's Run Amok …

In a world that’s run amok … The story of John Archibald Fearon 1910 - 1987 gymnast & swimmer linguist soldier teacher and head-teacher secretary of the Jersey Animals’ Shelter interpreter and translator writer husband, father and grandfather

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Ernest Alexander (Alec) Fearon

Retreat House 5 Skardon Place North Hill Plymouth Devon PL4 8HA United Kingdom

Printed by Short Run Press Limited 25 Bittern Road Exeter Devon EX2 7LW United Kingdom

Contents Appendix 3: The 25-Pounder Field Gun ...... 87 Appendix 4: Some intelligence summaries ..... 89 Introduction ...... 1 Appendix 5: John’s published articles & stories Early years ...... 7 ...... 95 Oxford University ...... 12 Viewpoint by Ian Gordon: A Square Deal for Work in London ...... 16 Girls? ...... 95 Marriage ...... 17 The cold sea ...... 97 Dunkirk ...... 18 Safety Catch ...... 100 Evacuation from Jersey ...... 26 Light at the end of the tunnel ...... 102 Homeland defence ...... 27 North Africa ...... 28 Admin duties ...... 29 Italy ...... 29 Gunner & intelligence officer ...... 35 Greece ...... 43 Ruby ...... 56 Sonia ...... 60 Peacetime service in the army ...... 68 Back to teaching ...... 72 Return to Athens ...... 75 A working retirement ...... 77 Appendix 1: The Gas Light and Coke Company ...... 81 Appendix 2: A potted history of the 4th Division during World War II ...... 85

Poseidon

Do you remember still, my love, the temple on the hill where once we kissed and laughed and sang of love and joy and hope and no more need to kill? For war was done and fear was gone and blood no longer shed. So gently did you take my hand and lead me through the golden land of peace and sea and sunlit strand to help forget the dead.

But now it's forty years along since we stood there alone when we were young and strong; fat tourists now the temple throng, and we the few who still survive, in a world that's run amok, grow old and weary as we strive to lift the burden from our sons of hate and fear and bombs and guns.

So take my hand again, my love, and if the gods are kind we'll meet once more on the sunlit shore beyond the final door.

Introduction talented all-rounder whose character, gift for languages, and abilities as a gymnast and Sources John’s poem ‘Poseidon’ on the previous page swimmer earned him a scholarship to Oxford Ministry of Defence for John’s service record. was written in 1985, before an operation for University. After graduation, marriage to Ruby, The National Archives to seek out the war cancer that he knew was the beginning of the children and a brief spell of teaching he seemed diaries, intelligence reports and other end. Poseidon is the Greek god of the sea; his set on a career in the gas industry which was documents which offer insights to life in 22nd expanding in London at that time. But World temple at Cape Sounion, about an hour's drive Field Regiment, Royal Artillery and 10th Infantry from Athens, was their favourite place when my War II and five years of service in the army took Brigade, units that were part of the 4th British parents, John and Sonia, were courting. They him elsewhere: to France, Belgium and the Infantry Division and in which he served during met in the summer of 1945 when the Jeep John beach at Dunkirk; to the south coast of England, World War II. was driving nearly knocked over a young woman waiting to oppose an expected invasion; to ‘The Fourth Division’: Hugh Williamson’s book, who stepped carelessly off a pavement in many parts of England and Scotland for training published in 1951 when memories were still and exercises in preparation for the offensive Athens. He was weary after 5 years of war. She fresh, telling the story of the 4th Division from had been swept up in the turmoil of the Russian operations that would begin when the tide of 1939 to 1945. revolution and then found herself living in war had turned; to deadly combat in North Athens under German and then Italian Africa and Italy; and finally to suppress a ‘Ubique’: Arthur Cheetham’s first-hand account of the life of a junior officer in a Royal Artillery occupation. communist revolution in Greece. field regiment during training and then through John’s profound, deeply moving and beautiful The circumstances of war led to his divorce from the North Africa and Italy campaigns. Ruby but also to a chance encounter with a poem encapsulates in a few short, simple lines Gunners at War: Brigadier Shelford Bidwell’s the human meaning of the story on the Greek medical student, Sonia, whom he would tactical study of the Royal Artillery. following pages, where I have tried to illuminate later marry in the Russian Orthodox Church in what he meant. The research into his life story Athens. He and Sonia set up home in Jersey, they ‘Royal Artillery Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations’ by Philip Jobson. has taken me on an interesting journey: through had a son, and John taught at Victoria College for the sources shown in the box at right; into two years before being drawn back to army life. ‘History of the Second World War’ by Basil documents and photographs from the family Fourteen years in the army were spent against Liddell Hart. archive; to my notes of conversations with my the backdrop of the Cold War and its possibility Hugh Sebag-Montefiore’s epic ‘Dunkirk: Fight to of nuclear conflict. He was posted with his family mother, Sonia; and to my half-brother Mike and the Last Man’ half-sister Anne-Marie for their recollections. to the British Army of the Rhine whose task within NATO was to deter a Soviet invasion of The online resources and collective memory of Born in Manchester and named after his Germany. There followed postings around veterans and their families in WW2Talk grandfathers, John Archibald Fearon was England and Scotland and finally to (http://ww2talk.com) brought up and schooled in Jersey from the age Fontainebleau in France where he led the large of seven. He developed into a fine young man: a 1

team of interpreters and translators who the family tree on the next two pages; some and the family again. Mike took me on a tour of enabled the many different nationalities in the background will also be helpful. the psychology laboratories; my abiding Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe memory of the labs was the smell of caged rats When Mike visited John, Sonia and me at (SHAPE) to conduct their business. and mice! Mike went on to become a statistician Craigihall, just north of Edinburgh, in 1958 he and an expert programmer in the computer On return to civilian life he spent the next eight was in the final act of a prolonged fight to be languages used for statistical analysis. He years teaching at Victoria College in Jersey, allowed to resign from the Navy. He had joined worked in this field for national and provincial quickly being promoted to Head of the Junior Dartmouth in 1952 at the age of 16 and become government in Canada, re-married and School. Family matters then took him and Sonia a Supply Officer, but Britain’s abandonment of continues as a freelance statistician to this day. back to Athens where he taught English as a Hungary when it was attacked by Russia in 1956 foreign language while they tried to enjoy the and our subsequent seizure of the Suez Canal Anne-Marie won a scholarship to a boarding Mediterranean way of life; but Greece was angered him so much that he decided to leave school in Carmarthen, which she hated, and suffering under a military dictatorship and there the Navy. In those days that was easier said than then to another near Westerham (Benenden was too much tension in the air, not least the done, and it wasn’t until September 1958 that perhaps) where she was happier and became possibility of war with Turkey, so they came Mike was free to chart his own course. Going to head girl. Another scholarship took her to St home again to Jersey. London, he worked as a clerk and at Smithfield Andrew’s University in 1957, but she dropped Meat Market while studying at night school to out after her second year and went her own way For their final ten years together, he and Sonia qualify for university, then graduated from for a while. She travelled, worked in the Middle enjoyed the pleasures of Jersey life, hosted University College London in 1963 with a degree East as a governess and was in France when family visits and toured the continent with their in psychology. Many years later he said to me of Pasco, John’s fourth grandchild, was born. Once caravan. John ran the Jersey Animal Shelter for his time at university, with great feeling: “It was back home, she lived in Bristol, Cardiff and three years, worked with local companies as an where I belonged”. London. interpreter and translator and later, with the help of a mentor, embarked on freelance In the midst of all that, he found time to marry I became a combat system engineer in the Royal journalism. He died from cancer in 1987 at the Eileen and to have two daughters: Cathy and Navy. Retiring from the service at the end of the age of 76. Jenny. I stayed with them for the night in 1962, Cold War, I freelanced as a computer systems before going to a preliminary selection board for engineer and project manager in the health and John was proud of his children and grand- joining the Navy. A third daughter, Isabel, was defence sectors, started a small company children, and he was happy to see them flourish born in 1964 after Mike and the family had providing internet services, managed a variety and make their mark on the world in different moved to Kingston, Ontario where he was doing of information technology projects in local ways. Their stories are for another time and post-graduate work. By that time, I had become government, became an academic supervising place but, to make it easier to understand who’s an officer cadet and was at sea in the Dartmouth research projects carried out by MSc students who in this story, there are some extracts from Training Squadron. A happy chance took my ship and, most recently, embarked on a project to to Kingston, so I was able to catch up with Mike develop a family archive of which this story will 2

become a part. I married Lynn in 1970 and we discovering new insights has made it a more have three children: Mark, Joanne and James. personal project through which I have gained a better understanding of my own life. This has In the chapters that follow I have focused on the affected the balance of the story, but I make no people most closely involved in my father’s story apology for that. I wish I had learnt more of it at and tried to put their experiences into context. first hand from my father; I dare say most sons When I started writing, my motivation was to say the same when it is too late to do so. capture that history for the younger generations. However, the process of Alec Fearon uncovering half-forgotten memories and 23 November 2019

Anne-Marie, Alec, Kathie and Mike onboard Alec’s boat Centauri in Plymouth Sound during the summer of 2007

John’s children and grand-children, with their partners

Ruby’s side of the family

Sonia’s side of the family

Early years

Ernest Fearon John Archibald Fearon was born in Stretford on 13 November 1910 to Ernest and Ada Fearon (nee Elliott). His sister Winifred Mary (known as Betty) was born six years later. Ernest was the Assistant Superintendent of a gas works in Manchester; his father had trained as a bank clerk, emigrated with his family to Canada and, a few years before Ernest was born, returned to become the town clerk in Cockermouth. Ada had been a Ada Fearon with baby John music teacher before she married; her father was a tailor in Carlisle.

John’s family lived at 7 Lindow Road, Stretford and the 1911 census shows that they had a servant (Lucy May Mifflin, age 24) living with them. Later they moved to 1 Carlton Avenue, off Seymour Grove, Stretford.

In 1917 Ernest took the family to Jersey where he joined the staff of the Jersey Gas Company. John went to school at Victoria College in Jersey from 1920-29 and by the time he left was a School Prefect, Head of the Classical Sixth and a fine young man - witness the headmaster’s testimonial below, written in 1932 when John was applying to become a teacher in England.

A good gymnast and swimmer and a member of the Jersey Island water polo team, in 1928 John set a record for the 100 yards freestyle at the Jersey Swimming Club with a time of 1 minute 4.6 seconds; Johnny Weissmuller’s world record that year was 51 seconds.

Ernest & Ada, John’s parents Rebecca, John’s grandmother John with his grandfather, also John

John with his sister, Betty

John Fearon

1929 Gymnastics winners, Victoria College, Jersey

Jersey Island water polo team, 1931 Back row John Fearon HM de Ste Croix HE Burke Centre row E Cox W Brooks B Baker Front row E Touzel

Oxford University John Fearon A Channel Islands scholarship took John to Exeter College, Oxford. He won a half-blue for swimming and in 1932 achieved a second-class honours degree in French & German with distinction in colloquial French.

I don’t know what the cup was awarded for

12 The Chapel at Exeter College, photographed by John in 1931 and, at right, as it was in 2018

The Hall

Exeter College in 2018

The main entrance, with the Chapel to the right

Inside the Chapel The Hall

John’s degree certificate, a replacement for the original destroyed in the Blitz

Work in London John’s first job after university was teaching French, this at Harbledown School in Canterbury which he joined in January 1933. But after a year – perhaps influenced by his father’s career - he changed direction to join the Gas Light & Coke Company. The company was an important player in the supply of gas to London and the original company from which British Gas is descended (see Appendix 1). Starting as an area representative, by 1937 John was the showroom manager at the Barking branch where he remained until the Second World War disrupted life. In 1938 he obtained an ‘Ordinary Grade Certificate in Gas Supply’ from the Institute of Gas Engineers.

Marriage John met Ruby Burchall in Jersey. She was just 18 years old when they married in June 1935 at St George’s Church, Bickley, Kent. They had two children. John Michael (Mike) was born in March 1936 when they were living at 2a Highclere, Old Hill, Chislehurst. The family moved to Sunnyside, Hastings Road, Bromley and later – perhaps when John became manager of the Gas Light & Coke Company’s showroom in Barking – to Essex, where Anne-Marie was born in September 1938 at Loughton.

The following year, Britain declared war on Germany. Ten days later - in Oxford - John joined the army as a gunner in the Royal Artillery. He was posted to 123rd Officer Cadet Training Unit, commissioned and then - on 4 April 1940 with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant – he left England to join the British Expeditionary Force which had been sent to help defend France.

Ruby and the children were in Jersey when John enlisted: Sea Braes Cottage at Le Hocq, perhaps visiting John’s parents. At the outbreak of war there was a plan to evacuate families and children from urban areas and, as John wanted the family to be well away from the bombing expected in London, they moved to Wales. Mike remembers being in a train and waving goodbye to his father as John stood on the platform in subaltern’s uniform; he thinks this was March 1940 and the family were on night fighters. On one occasion there was a their way to Haverfordwest before John embarked for France. dogfight overhead and Mike could hear cannon They chose Haverfordwest because Ruby’s life-long friend shell casings falling around; he was agog to Audrey Henderson lived there. It was a good choice, receiving watch it from outside and most chagrined just two bombs in the whole war; these were jettisoned when when Ruby ordered them all to get under the bombers bound for Liverpool were trying to get away from stairs instead.

Dunkirk guns (see Appendix 3) organised as three troops. The Allies responded to these attacks by sending John was the Assistant Gun Position Officer in a French force into Holland and advancing other John was closely caught up in the events one of the troops of four guns. His regiment was forces, including the British Expeditionary Force, described in this chapter but, except for a few part of 4th Infantry Division which was itself part eastwards into Belgium. The objective in anecdotes, the detail of his involvement is not of II Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Belgium was to establish a defensive position known. Drawing from the sources listed in the Alan Brooke. In total, the British Expeditionary along the western bank of the River Dyle (Dijle) Introduction, the story therefore focuses on 4th Force comprised ten infantry divisions with at Louvain. The British front line would run for Division, of which John was a part, to help supporting arms - nearly 400,000 men. 22 miles and was to be held by three divisions; understand what was happening to him. five others, including 4th Division, were to be John’s unit was at Croix, a few miles north-east held in reserve behind the front. French forces France had invested heavily in the Maginot Line of Lille and close to the border with Belgium. To would hold the line to the south of the BEF, of defensive fortifications along the border with avoid giving the Germans a pretext to invade, Belgian forces to the north. To allow time for the Germany. It was thought that this would force French and British forces had remained outside infantry to consolidate the line at the River Dyle, any future German aggression north into Belgium. They prepared defensive positions, two French tank divisions were sent forward to Belgium where it could be defeated by the trained and waited for a German attack. This delay the German advance. During the ensuing French Army. Between the end of the Maginot began in the early hours of 10 May with an tank battles with the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions, Line and where the French high command offensive on two fronts. One was an invasion of 105 French tanks were put out of action – a expected to meet the enemy lay the thick forest Holland: the Hague and Rotterdam were quarter of their force. German tank losses were of the Ardennes. Due to the nature of the attacked by German airborne forces at the same even higher but, because they were left holding terrain, French commanders did not believe that time as an attack by armoured forces against the battlefield when the French withdrew the Germans could move in force through the Dutch frontier defences a hundred miles to the behind the Dyle line, they were able to recover Ardennes. Hence the Allied plan was to hold the east. In the resulting confusion the armoured many of their tanks for repair. Maginot Line in moderate force, to leave the forces were able to race through Holland, joining Ardennes only lightly defended and to direct a up with the airborne forces in Rotterdam on 13 Since 4th Division was initially to be in reserve, large, mobile army into Belgium to confront a May. John’s unit waited until 13 May before moving German attack head-on. The British forward to a position near Brussels behind the The second front was in Belgium. This, too, Expeditionary Force was sent to France in defensive line along the River Dyle. Their began with an airborne attack and captured key September 1939 to become part of that army. progress was hindered by throngs of Belgian bridges in Maastricht. German armoured forces civilians who crowded the roads heading for When John arrived in France at the beginning of were thus able to cross the obstacles posed by France in order to escape the battlefield. April 1940, he was posted to 22nd Field the River Meuse and the Albert Canal and sweep Regiment, Royal Artillery and assigned to 32/33 westwards into Belgium. The Germans reached the River Dyle at Louvain Battery. The battery was one of two in the on 14 May. The following day, Holland regiment; it consisted of twelve, 25-pounder surrendered. On 16 May the Germans forced 18

their way through the French sector of the Dyle line, turning the right flank of the BEF. The British front-line divisions therefore withdrew 30 miles, crossing the River Senne at Brussels with the intention of establishing a new line at the River Dendre between Alost and Ninove. 4th Division covered the withdrawal by holding fast on the River Senne and then fighting a rearguard action to the River Dendre. John’s battery supported 12th Infantry Brigade in the holding operation on the Senne and during the subsequent rearguard action.

Meanwhile, Panzer divisions had been moving through the Ardennes Forest - widely assumed to be impenetrable to armoured columns – in order to strike at the weakest point in the French line: this was the hinge between the main mass of the Allied armies in Belgium and the Maginot Line of defences along the Franco-German border further south.

On 13 May, General Guderian’s XIX Panzerkorps crossed the River Meuse at Sedan and entered Meuse, beat off counterattacks, and then they captured Boulogne; on 26 May, Calais. Only French territory. Supported by pioneer assault pushed their armoured spearheads westwards. ten days after the start of the offensive the units and dive-bomber attacks, his three Panzer They relied on their speed of advance and the Panzers had reached the sea, with infantry divisions smashed through weak French disruption of Allied command and divisions coming up behind to protect their line defences in a sector where no attack had been communication systems to prevent the of communication, and the Allied armies had expected. Earlier that day and a short distance concentration and co-ordination necessary for a been cut in half. further north at Dinant, General Rommel’s 7th successful counterattack. Keeping the River Panzer Division also crossed the Meuse. When it was realised that the British Somme on their left as a defensive barrier, the Expeditionary Force was in danger of being During 14 May, the Panzer generals expanded Panzers drove for the Channel ports. On 20 May encircled, it began a fighting retreat to avoid and strengthened their bridgeheads over the they reached the sea near Abbeville; on 25 May being cut off. Instead of holding the line of the 19

River Derdre, they withdrew to positions behind The advance of the Panzer divisions had stopped thrust home repeatedly, the exhausted troops the River Escaut (Scheldt) south-west of some way short of Dunkirk. The Germans might of the division held fast; weapons overheated Oudenaarde. This took them back to within a not have believed that the British could and ammunition ran low, but the enemy did not few miles of where they had started ten days evacuate so many men quickly under heavy get through. As the Germans were forming up previously. Over the next ten days they bombardment; therefore, perhaps they thought for one of their biggest attacks a squadron of continued withdrawing towards Dunkirk, using they had time to re-group and re-fuel in Blenheim bombers dropped their bombs in rivers and canals as defensive positions to cover preparation for a full-scale attack across the exactly the right place: the attackers were their retreat. canal-intensive terrain. scattered and did not come in again; if they had started earlier, they might have got through and 4th Division was part of the rearguard covering Nonetheless, other German forces round the John’s story would have taken a different turn. the retreat. They reached the perimeter of the perimeter were gathering strength and, during British Expeditionary Force’s last position on 29 30 May, began to press hard. Attacks along the Brigadier JLI Hawkesworth, commander of 12th May. It ran from the mouth of the River Yser to beach and at Nieuport were particularly difficult Infantry Brigade alongside whom John’s Nieuport, then turned south-west along the to hold off. German reconnaissance aircraft and regiment had been fighting during the canal to Furnes, and east to Dunkirk, where it an observation balloon in Nieuport directed withdrawal from the River Dyle, sent these returned to the sea. The position was eighteen heavy artillery fire on to the division's guns, messages to 22nd Field Regiment on 31 May. miles wide and at Furnes, its deepest point, was which were still in action. German aircraft were three and a half miles deep. Into this small space overhead most of the day, on their way to bomb Convey to all ranks the heartening effect were crowded all the troops who had not yet ships carrying out the evacuation or on their way on the Infantry of the prompt and been embarked. Clouds of black smoke rolled back. The Germans kept up their pressure all day continuous support given to them by the into the sky from vehicles set on fire by their and, before dawn on 31 May, launched a Regiment in the last few days under drivers or by the German bombs which burst powerful attack along the whole perimeter. trying circumstances. The Div Cmdr has thunderously along the beaches and roads from Their artillery smokescreen, however, was been pleased to award the Commanding time to time. Outside the perimeter, the fields blown into shreds by the high wind and served Officer the D.S.O. were littered with smashed and smoking only to blind their advancing troops. The equipment: lorries drained of oil and left with German medium and heavy guns switched from Bde Comd 12 Inf Bde and all ranks 12 Inf their engines screaming at full throttle; guns smoke shell to high explosive, and wave after Bde ask you to convey to all ranks of your with barrels grotesquely splayed out at the wave of infantry came into the attack. 4th Regt their gratitude for the remarkably muzzle; motorcycles crushed by the tracks of Division’s line was pushed back in places but not prompt and efficient aid which you have Bren carriers. Here and there among the debris broken through. given whenever it has been demanded. lay the dead whom nobody had had time to The manner in which you have served That evening the German infantry came in once bury. After destroying their vehicles, the division your guns throughout intense shelling more in strength, supported by artillery, mortars took over the left flank of the position. has aroused the admiration of all ranks. and machine-guns. Although the attack was 20

Tracing X copied from 22nd Field Regiment’s war diary shows in green the defensive line held by 4th Division, with 3rd Division to their right. Their routes to a reception camp near La Panne beach are shown in red. At dusk on 31 May, the division began to make a stealthy and gradual withdrawal towards the beach. The troops had been on half rations for several days and had had little or no rest since crossing the Lys. The withdrawal was only sketchily planned, but in spite of the exhaustion of the troops it was carried out in good order.

John’s regiment began to withdraw from the perimeter at 21:00. One troop per battery remained in action and carried on artillery fire until 01:30 on 1 June. Other guns were destroyed silently in situ.

The sappers had driven two columns of lorries into the sea at La Panne and on top of them had their way back. Enemy guns were pounding the John told Alec that he escaped in a small boat, built a causeway from which men could embark roads and beaches, and units were scattered so it likely that he was in the melee described into small boats. The boats were to take them among the shell-bursts. As daylight broke, some above. He told Mike that he had to shoot a out to five destroyers waiting about a mile out twenty Messerschmitt fighters raced over the quartermaster sergeant who had got into the to sea. Three squadrons of German bombers put beaches, hammering away with their machine- rum and was spreading panic. in a furious attack on the piers at dusk, and a guns; bullets flicked up clouds of sand and spray medium calibre gun ranged accurately on the among the men waiting on the beaches and in approaches. Consequently, in the four hours the water. A constant irregular crackle of after embarkation began at 21:00, not more musketry followed the wheeling aircraft. The than four hundred men of the division were few boats that were still coming inshore were in taken off the beach. danger of being swamped by the crowds of men By 02:30 the last defenders of the rear-guard who tried to climb aboard. A few strong had withdrawn from their positions and made swimmers swam out to the waiting steamers.

The war artist Charles Ernest Cundall was commissioned soon after the event to illustrate “We tacked ourselves onto the rear of the smallest but it halted at the end of the queue on our right. the drama of the last day of evacuation. On the of the three queues, the head of it was already Enviously we watched as it filled up. left of his painting on the previous page are the standing in water up to the waist. Half an hour 'Not too many on one side or you'll have her over,' sand-dunes covered with groups and long lines passed. Suddenly a small rowing boat appeared. came the cry. of khaki-dressed troops. Small boats loaded with The head of the queue clambered in and were troops move out from shore towards larger rowed away into the blackness. We moved Off went the boat, and again we resumed our vessels. Across the centre, troops queue along a forward, and the water rose to our waists. vigil. Minutes became hours; and hours an eternity. After a long while we were attacked by makeshift jetty towards the waiting ships. In the Our only thoughts now were to get to a boat. a horrible dread that there would not be any left background huge, black smoke clouds from Along the entire queue not a word was spoken. more boats. That we should stand there half the town fill the sky. Aircraft fly amongst The men just stood there silently staring into the submerged in water throughout the night, and explosions from anti-aircraft fire, one plane darkness, praying that a boat would appear and then, after all, have to spend the day on the plummeting towards the right horizon. fearing that it would not. Heads and shoulders beach. A leaden depression seized us, and our only showing above the water. Fixed, Immovable, hearts became as heavy as our water-logged Cundell allowed himself some artistic license as though chained there. It was, in fact, practically bodies. The weariness of the wait was appalling. with the distance to the waiting warships. Hugh impossible to move, even from one foot to Try as we could we found it impossible to keep Williamson tells us that when embarkation another. The dead weight of waterlogged boots our eyes open. Half of us were asleep standing and sodden clothes pinned one down. My began, as darkness began to fall, there were only up. And every one of us kept waking with a start breeches seemed to be ballooned out with water fifteen small boats and the return journey out to out of the sort of coma that descended on us. the destroyers a mile offshore was taking about as heavy as mercury. I was filled with a dread that when the time did come, I should be unable to an hour. During all this time the German shells continued move. Every now and then as we stood there to rain upon the town. Stray hot splinters flew The rest of the division had to walk further along rooted in the sea, a slight swell stirred the surface round our heads, hissing as they fell into the the shore - dodging shell-bursts, bombs and and the water rose to my chest, and up to the water. Still Dunkirk showed its long flaming front machine-gun bullets - to Bray Dunes, where two necks of the shorter men. We thanked heaven the behind us. The red glare in the sky extended over night was calm. Had there been a strong breeze jetties had been built. By 15:00, despite constant us. Along the Mole, a quarter of a mile to our left blowing the swell would have swamped us and, I attack from the air, most of the division had crept the tiny figures of the soldiers being suppose, many of us would have been drowned, evacuated by the ships. Little black figures, been embarked. Major-General Johnson for we were too exhausted to make a struggle silhouetted against red fire.” remained, with officers of his staff and about against a heavy sea. five hundred stragglers and walking wounded. An account of waiting to be evacuated from There were no ships for some time, but at 17:30 We glued our eyes in the direction of whence was the beach by Captain Richard Champion Austin, to come our salvation. Another lifeboat appeared the destroyer HMS Worcester came alongside Royal Artillery. the Mole at Dunkirk. The deck was well below the level of the Mole and enemy aircraft 23

attacked the destroyer while men were going showing the forecastle of a small steamer aboard, but the whole party was embarked. The crowded with troops. To her great relief, Ruby destroyer put to sea and was at once attacked was sure that she found John amongst them. by two or three squadrons of bombers. When he came home on leave afterwards John told her that she was wrong, but Ruby was © IWM (H 1637) amused to tell the story later.

To quote Hugh Williamson: “Battered and listing, some in tow, others only just under control, the ships of the Dunkirk rescue fleet berthed at the first English harbours they could reach. The dead and the wounded were carried down the gangways, and after them stumbled the uninjured - exhausted, filthy and hungry, most of their equipment left behind. This was a strange return for the fighting force which had sailed for France eight months before. The captain manoeuvred with great skill, but many of the exposed men on deck were killed or Trains took the men to various hurriedly wounded. There were three doctors on board, prepared reception camps all over the country, but the deck was so crowded that they had great where the most urgent needs were attended to - difficulty in reaching and treating the wounded; wash and shave, food, and, above all, sleep. there was no room between decks for wounded Within a few days, the scattered survivors of the or anyone else. Even when the destroyer division were on the move again, this time to re- reached Dover at dusk its troubles were not form ... 10th Brigade Headquarters was at over, for it collided with another ship. However, Hymerford House, East Coker, six miles from the damage was slight, both ships reached the Crewkerne towards Yeovil ... Round each brigade quay and the last survivors of 4th Division were headquarters the units of the brigade group - disembarked. including gunners, sappers and medical units - occupied villages and farms. Officers and men Ruby had been very anxious about John’s fate went on arriving from reception camps for John at Haverford West in the autumn after during the evacuation from Dunkirk and several days. Dunkirk. Mike, 4 years old, beside him. scanned every piece of news. One day there was a large picture on the front page of a newspaper

At first there were no vehicles except a few hired The Allied evacuation of France ended on 25 civilian cars and lorries, no weapons, no June with a further 215,000 servicemen and ammunition and no accommodation stores. civilians saved in addition to those rescued from Almost as soon as they had arrived in their new Dunkirk. In total, nearly 600,000 troops were areas, men who had returned from France were repatriated to Britain to fight another day. sent off on forty-eight hours leave. The division - and indeed most of the British Army - was still in a state of disorganization on June the 10th, when Italy declared war on Great Britain.”

Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force across the English Channel from Dunkirk, was hailed in Britain as an extraordinary achievement and the ‘little ships of Dunkirk’ swiftly entered the mythology of wartime deeds. It is less widely known that, after Dunkirk, Britain set about evacuating the rest of its forces in France. This began with Operation Cycle on 10 June, when 11,000 were embarked from the Channel port of Le Havre.

Operation Aerial began on 15 June with the evacuation of Cherbourg and continued for the next ten days, moving southwards down to the Franco-Spanish border. The 52nd Lowland Division were evacuated intact with all their equipment from Cherbourg. So, too, was the 1st Canadian Division who had been landed in Brittany, marched across it, and then ordered to Cherbourg for evacuation. The only major loss during the evacuation from western France was off St Nazaire where the liner Lancastria was bombed and sunk with the death of nearly 3,000 men. 25

Evacuation from Jersey John’ parents Ernest and Ada with his John’s parents, Ernest and Ada, were evacuated sister Betty between them from Jersey after the fall of France in 1940 and returned to Lancashire, becoming the managers of a YMCA Canteen in Green Street, Morecambe. They obtained permits to return to Jersey after the war, but Ernest died in May 1945 before they could do so. After his death, Ada seems to have moved to Gloucestershire: a hand-written address on her application to return to Jersey - c/o Mr Cridlan, Maisemore Park, Maisemore – replaced the crossed-out Morecambe address. Maisemore is the home of the internationally famous Maisemore herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle founded by JJ Cridlan in 1898. Ada might have known Kenneth Cole, whose father was head herdsman from 1919 until 1958. Kenneth helped his father on the farm and wrote the story of this herd; he now runs an international clothing company based in New York. Clarence Road, St Helier and finally to Westway, Secretary to the District Commissioner, on a John’s sister Betty had been working as a Beaumont where Ada saw out her days. two-year contract. secretary with chartered accountants Barton, Betty re-joined Barton, Mayhew & Co as a Once back in Jersey, she became Personal Mayhew & Co and was also evacuated from secretary for a few months and then worked in Secretary to George Troy and when he founded Jersey. She went to Carlisle where she lived at London for a while – in October 1947 the RAF Channel Television in 1959 Betty was the first 191 Scorland Road, Stanwix and worked as a provided references to Ascot Gas Water Heaters employee. Channel Television went on air in shorthand typist with No.14 Maintenance Unit, Ltd, North Circular Road, Neasden. In 1948 Betty 1962 by which time she was Secretary to the Royal Air Force. Ada and Betty returned to was appointed Company Secretary for George Managing Director, Ken Killip. Finally, from 1975 Jersey in the summer of 1945, living initially at Troy & Sons Ltd. Perhaps because of an unhappy until her retirement in 1981 Betty was the Sunny Villa, St Clements Road. Later they moved love affair, she left Jersey eight years later to join Company Secretary for Channel Television. She to Kenhurst in Pontac near Grouville, then to 12 the Tanganyika Civil Service as Personal died in 1995. 26

Homeland defence On 16 July Hitler issued his directive to prepare On 15 September the German Air Force for an invasion of England: Operation Sealion. launched a major attack to destroy the RAF. But Once back in England, 4th Division was reinforced For the invasion to succeed the Germans had to the Germans lost twice as many planes as the (to quote Hugh Williamson again) “in huge gain air superiority by defeating the Royal Air RAF and this signalled the end for Operation numbers, for the division had suffered heavily - Force. The German air offensive began on 12 Sealion: Hitler postponed it indefinitely and particularly the infantry battalions … The division August. At first it concentrated on the radar turned his attention towards the Soviet Union. had lost almost half its fighting troops. stations and airfields of the RAF. Unknown to the In mid-October 4th Division was relieved of its Commanders discussed changes in organization Germans, these tactics soon had the RAF almost operational responsibilities and moved into for which the disastrous campaign had shown on its knees. However, the Germans changed winter quarters. The intention was to give the the need, and summarized the lessons learned in tactics and started bombing London and the division more time for training. Operationally, it France. Vehicles, weapons and new clothes were aircraft factories, thereby allowing the RAF to was in reserve; if the invasion were to come issued, and the division began to look itself regroup. Legend has it that the German decision after all, the division's role would be that of again. Battalions spread out as reinforcements to bomb London was caused by RAF raids on counterattack and artillery support. The winter arrived, and before long some were occupying Berlin, which in turn were caused by a German quarters were chosen for comfort and careful several villages.” bomber crew losing their way and accidentally plans were made for rapid concentration if the releasing their load over London. On 20 June 1940, the Division was assigned to enemy were to land. the defence of the coastal region of Portsmouth, Early in September, reconnaissance of the The following months were filled with exercises, Gosport, Southampton and the Isle of Wight. Channel ports had shown a substantial build-up courses and training of every kind. The division They dug trenches and laid belts of wire, of barges; at Ostend alone 280 had arrived was up to strength in men and was fully armed prepared strong points for all-round defence during the previous week. Substantial numbers and equipped. The period of defensive waiting farther inland, and manned the positions night of motorboats and larger vessels had also was over; the division still had its operational and day. They expected, before long, to be moved down the coast to the same area. duties, but training had become the centre of its fighting a deadly battle in the fields and among Considerable numbers of bombers had just life. the farms and villages of the southern counties. moved to airfields in the Low Countries and dive- bombers appeared to be assembling near the In June 1941 4th Division's new role in the event All three field regiments of the divisional artillery Straits of Dover. The moon and tide favoured a of invasion became the protection of fighter - John’s unit - were re•organized. The regiments landing between the 8th and 10th of September. airfields in Hampshire and, more generally, the had consisted of two batteries, each organized Everything pointed to an invasion. On 7 formation of a counter-attacking force for attack as three troops with four guns per troop. Now, September, therefore, the codeword in any direction. Airfield guards consisting of to improve the speed and flexibility of Cromwell was issued - meaning invasion infantry and guns took up their positions command, the six troops of each regiment were imminent – and Home Forces were brought to a overlooking the airfields and manned divided between three batteries. state of immediate readiness. observation posts day and night. The summer

was hot and life under canvas far from ops' training which was being intensified at unpleasant. Some of the troops helped Inveraray and elsewhere. An Expeditionary neighbouring farmers on the land, while others Force exercise called Dryshod, in which showed a valuable talent for poaching. There embarkation and assault landing were practised was intensive training and exercise followed on land, went on for ten days and covered much exercise, including a mock battle lasting a full of the Western Lowlands of Scotland. week in which many formations took part. Senior staff officers of the division spent several There was a ‘flap’ In October when the division weeks at First Army headquarters in London, was ordered to mobilise for a move overseas – planning an assault landing on the North African to Russia, it was thought - which was now at war coast. First Army did go off to North Africa in with Germany. The mobilisation was cancelled November 1942 but 4th Division was left behind, Drawing by Soren Kierkegaard in November; instead, the division moved to being warned off instead for service overseas as Aldershot and began training for combined part of Force 125. However, in February 1943 it General Rommel, was sent to North Africa. operations. This involved air, land and naval was decided that Force 125 would not be There followed a fluctuating series of battles for forces acting together and saw brigade groups needed after all. So, on 11 March John and his control of Libya and regions of Egypt. These going to Inveraray for training in seaborne 4th Division comrades embarked in troopships at reached a climax at the Second Battle of El landing. Glasgow for passage to Algiers. They were in a Alamein in October 1942 when the British Eighth convoy of twenty-six ships until near the Straits Army, under the command of Lieutenant- A second ‘flap’ was in January 1942 when the of Gibraltar, where nine of them turned into the General Bernard Montgomery, inflicted a division was ordered to prepare for a move to Mediterranean. One of the ships – not carrying decisive defeat on an Italian-German army Northern Ireland; advance parties were sent off, any 4th Division troops - was sunk by air attack including Rommel's Afrika Korps and forced its but combined operations training at Inveraray during the night of 23 March; the others reached remnants to retreat into Tunisia. went on. This move turned out to be a feint to Algiers where the division joined First Army. cover the deployment of US troops to Ulster, With Eighth Army pressing from the east, Operation Torch was mounted as a pincer and the advance parties returned after North Africa plastering Northern Ireland with divisional signs. movement from the west to defeat the Italian- German army in Tunisia. US and British forces Libya was an Italian colony when Italy declared In March 1942 the division moved to Scotland to landed at Casablanca, Oran and Algiers in war in June 1940. Fighting between British join an Expeditionary Force being prepared for a November 1942. They advanced to within 20 forces based in Egypt and the Italian 10th Army sea-borne assault. It was reorganised as a ‘mixed miles of Tunis but were halted and pushed back. in eastern Libya started soon afterwards, division’ consisting of two infantry brigades and With reinforcement from Italy, the Axis forces culminating in February 1941 with the defeat of a brigade of infantry tanks. Infantry and tank were able to achieve a prolonged stalemate the Italians. To prevent a complete Axis defeat, co•operation became a feature of the 'combined during the winter of 1942/43. This seems to the German Afrika Korps, commanded by 28

have led Hitler and Mussolini to believe that Admin duties good effect. The arrival of 28th Infantry Brigade Tunisia could remain an Axis bridgehead in from Gibraltar now made the division up to full North Africa; they continued to reinforce it to After the victory in Tunisia, at the end of June strength as an infantry instead of a mixed match the Allies growing strength, disregarding 1943 John moved with 4th Division to the division, and they began training in combined the fact that the Allies’ growing superiority in neighbourhood of Bougie, on the Algerian coast. operations. naval and air forces would make it increasingly They were to take part in an assault landing on The plans for an assault on Rhodes, which had difficult to withdraw. the south-east coast of Italy near Crotone, into caused the move to Egypt, were abandoned. But what Winston Churchill called “the soft under- In late March 1943, soon after John’s arrival in early in February 1944, the division's future was belly of Europe”. In August, however, they found North Africa, the battle recommenced. 4th at last decided: under cover of a pretended themselves relegated to the role of an Division was fighting as part of First Army against move to Palestine for further training it was to administrative unit, filling the gaps in other strong opposition in mountainous terrain which go to Italy where, since early winter, the Allied divisions and engaged on fatigues and other favoured the defenders. But in mid-May they armies had been halted among the mountains unskilled work. At the time they could not be reached Tunis and the Axis forces surrendered. between Naples and Rome. told the reason why: it was because, as a mixed During those five weeks the division learned division with only two infantry brigades (the more about fighting than in two and a half years third being a brigade of tanks), they would not Italy at home. The cost was heavy, for the division be able to hold a sector in the front line The Allied victory in Tunisia in which John played lost nearly 2,400 men • about one man in seven. satisfactorily. a part resulted in the capture of eight enemy The proportion of senior officers lost was divisions, including most of Rommel’s veterans especially high; of seventeen Lieutenant- Things began to return to normal at the end of and the pick of the Italian army. Had they been Colonels commanding units, six were killed, four the year when 4th Division was ordered to evacuated from Tunisia, these forces could have wounded and one captured. prepare for an assault on Rhodes. provided a strong defence for Italy and the Reinforcements brought the infantry brigades German losses in Tunisia were estimated as fifty Allies’ chance of a successful invasion would up to full strength and 21st Tank Brigade was thousand; the British First and Eighth Armies lost have been slim. As it was, the Allies were deployed to another unit. The division dumped nearly thirty-five thousand men. 4th Division emboldened to invade Italy. Their purposes all its guns, vehicles, accommodation stores and took some 51,000 prisoners while the total were: to open the sea lane through the other heavy equipment and embarked ship at number of Italian and German prisoners taken in Mediterranean to the Suez Canal; to divert Algiers for passage through the Suez Canal to the Tunisia was nearly 200,000; very few enemy German resources from the Russian front; and sandy waste between Suez and the jagged troops had escaped, and vast quantities of to intensify pressure on the Italian government. heights of the Djebel Ataqa. This was an materiel were captured with them. General unhappy moment for the gunners, who were They began by bombing Rome on 16 May, Anderson, in command of First Army, was able parting with the 25-pounders they had kept in landed in Sicily on 10 July and prepared to land to write that: “Dunkirk was amply avenged.” perfect condition for three years and used to on the Italian mainland. In Rome, Italy’s Grand

Council of Fascism met on 24 July and they the heel of Italy. The main landing was at Salerno Under an excellent commander, Field Marshal returned command of the armed forces to the and, because this was what the Germans Albert Kesselring, German forces had set up King of Italy, who arrested Mussolini the next expected, they had concentrated their forces several defensive lines across the narrow Italian day. After complicated and confused here. As a result, the Allies only narrowly peninsula. They were determined to hold the negotiations, an armistice stipulating the avoided being driven back into the sea by the southernmost of these - the Gustav Line which surrender of Italy to the Allies was signed on 3 German counterattack and, rather than racing ran across the Apennine mountain chain - September 1943. towards Rome as hoped, found themselves through the winter of 1943-44. As the Allies caught up in a bitter winter struggle in the inched towards the Gustav Line, they But the Germans anticipated this possibility: mountains against a well-commanded, quick encountered other German defence positions Rommel was recalled from Greece and by the reacting and determined enemy. The anchored on the natural strength of rivers or beginning of September had established eight unexpectedly successful defence induced Hitler mountains, each of which had to be captured divisions inside Italy’s Alpine frontier as a to change his strategy: instead of withdrawing before the advance could continue. The Allies potential support for German forces further German forces from southern Italy to establish a had to smash through these German defences in south. When the armistice was made public, the defensive line along the mountains in the north, set-piece attacks reminiscent of the First World Germans seized control of Italy and disarmed he decided to hold on to as much of Italy as War. Their first attempt to breach the Gustav Italian troops in Italy, France, Yugoslavia, Greece possible and reinforced the Italian mainland Line was by attacking its eastern margins. They and the Aegean. Some of the Italian troops with 16 new divisions. Hitler’s purpose was to successfully crossed the River Sangro, and the based outside Italy opposed the Germans, but prevent the Allies from establishing air bases in coastal town of Ortona was captured by the without any determined support from Allied Italy that could threaten Germany’s southern Canadians after bitter fighting in December forces they had mostly been overwhelmed by cities as well as its primary oil supplies in 1943. But 8th Army's failure to take Orsogna put the end of September. On the island of Romania. an end to the drive up the eastern coast. Cephalonia, the Italian Acqui Division was massacred after resisting German forces (this By contrast, the American commanders were In four great battles from January to May 1944, was the inspiration for Louis de Bernières’ book not convinced of the value of fighting in Italy; the Allies then attempted to punch a hole ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’). On the islands of their agreement to the Italian campaign was through the Gustav Line at Monte Cassino. It Leros and Samos, with British reinforcements, grudging and conditional upon the withdrawal was country that was ideal for defence. The high the resistance lasted until November; and in of forces whenever they were required in North ground either side of the Liri Valley - through Corsica, Italian troops forced German troops to West Europe. In November 1943 seven battle- which passed Route 6, the major road from leave the island. hardened Allied divisions were withdrawn from Naples to Rome - barred the Allies’ advance Italy for service in the forthcoming Normandy northward. The heights were dominated by Allied forces landed in the toe of Italy on 3 landings; a further seven would later be Monastery Hill, as it was known in 1944, on the September 1943 against light opposition, at withdrawn in the summer of 1944 for the Allied south-eastern spur of Monte Cairo. Here stood Salerno on 9 September against heavy landings in southern France. the sixth-century Benedictine Monastery of resistance, and then unopposed at Taranto in 30

Monte Cassino, built as a fortress to guard the which penetrated to its route to Rome and overlooking the junction of final line of defence. This the Liri and Rapido rivers on the plains below. added pressure on the The Rapido (which becomes the Garigliano River forces attacking the further downstream) was as rapid as its name Gustav Line to come to suggests and, although only 30 feet wide, their aid. tended to spill over its banks and flood in the The German defence was winter months. It was a barrier to the Allied carried out by 90th Panzer advance, as was the small town of Cassino that Grenadier Division, which nestled at the foot of Monastery Hill and linked had fought against to the monastery by a narrow road that Montgomery’s Eighth zigzagged up the precipitous slopes. Across the Army in North Africa. It Liri Valley towards the coast the Aurunci was reinforced by the Mountains presented a similar obstacle paratroopers of Major- preventing any easy bypass. Monte Cassino was General Heidrich’s 1st a bottleneck that had to be forced if Rome was Parachute Division, to be reached; it was the linchpin of the German reputedly the best Division defence. in the German Army. The Because a direct frontal assault on the Gustav Allies suffered very heavy Line was unlikely to succeed, the Allies decided casualties against on a two-pronged attack. An attack on the determined opposition in Gustav Line – the First Battle of Cassino from 12 well-prepared defences January to 9 February - was supported by an and fought themselves to amphibious landing behind it, at Anzio, to cut a standstill. Thus, instead German lines of communication. It was hoped of a quick breakthrough that even if the German army was not crushed the battle for Cassino between these two assaults it would have to developed into a long war withdraw to the area of Rome in order to of attrition. The Second reorganise. But the plan did not work out: the Battle of Cassino from 15 amphibious force achieved a bridgehead but to 18 February and the was prevented from breaking out and suffered Third Battle of Cassino heavy casualties fighting off a counterattack from 19 February to 23

March also failed to achieve their objectives and lived an unhealthy, exhausting and deadly life. A massive artillery group was assembled to the bitter fighting was still under way when 4th The division then moved into position for the support the attack. This included John’s plus two Division was sent to Italy in February 1944. Fourth Battle of Cassino. This was to be a other field regiments, two medium regiments carefully coordinated offensive that would make and a medium battery, a battery of heavy anti- John embarked in HMT Ascania on 18 February best use of Allied air power and artillery aircraft guns and two batteries of American and, after an uncomfortable voyage in the teeth resources. Both the US Fifth Army and the British heavy howitzers. The attack began at 23:00 on of a gale, disembarked at Naples on 21 February Eighth Army would combine in a two-fisted 11 May with an artillery barrage along the entire 1944. His role initially was to be part of the punch while VI US Corps at Anzio would break front and an equally savage German response. headquarters team in 22nd Field Regiment out and threaten the German rear. The German The Eighth Army divisions fought their way Regiment with the jobs of ‘Assistant Adjutant’ defensive line was threatened along a 20-mile forward in the mist against stubborn defence. and ‘Intelligence Officer’. Later, from 12 June front. Kesselring was led to believe that a further Tanks and infantry edged their way forward. In 1944 and promoted to the rank of Captain, he amphibious operation was planned, which hard fighting the British XIII Corps ruptured the would become the Intelligence Officer in 10th forced him to hold his reserves back from his Gustav Line. Tank fought tank as Canadian and Infantry Brigade. over-stretched frontline divisions. British armour broke through. 4th Division took over the Garigliano bridgehead With all possible secrecy, Field-Marshal On the coastal front the Americans and French on left-hand side of the front line. From its Alexander began to regroup his armies, shifting fought their way forward. By 13 May they had northern approaches the Monastery could be the full weight of the Eighth to the mouth of the cracked open the German defences on their seen and from the southern approaches the Liri valley while Fifth Army took up its positions front by advancing on and breaking into the Mediterranean was in sight. 22nd Field Regiment along the Garigliano from the Liri to the Hitler Line, the next defensive position across relieved 71st Field Regiment and took over their Mediterranean coast. The main thrust was to be the Aurunci mountains, six miles behind the equipment. The climate was very different from by Eighth Army up the Liri Valley along Route 6 Gustav Line. Here French troops used their that of North Africa. The worst of the winter was with 4th British and 8th Indian Divisions creating ability to fight in the mountains and provided over, but it was still bitterly cold and wet; there a bridgehead for 78th British, 1st Canadian and 5th the key to the breakthrough. was rain in the Garigliano valley, and on the Canadian Armoured Divisions to exploit and heights above it the troops had to put up with In the north Major-General Richard Heidrich’s break through. The Polish Corps would tie down cold winds, snow and ice. paratroopers grimly defended Monte Cassino the defenders of Monte Cassino on the right against attacks by the Polish Corps. Attacking in The division spent eleven days holding the town flank while on the coastal flank Fifth Army and a wide encircling right hook from the north, the of Cassino at the foot of Monte Cassino. On 15 the French Expeditionary Corps would attack Polish troops were initially held and driven back March the town had been smashed into through the mountain passes on the coastal in savage fighting. The Polish divisions attacked mounded heaps of rubble, among which stood range. At Anzio the Americans would break out again on 16 May. It was savage fighting against a tottering walls and archways; under the and cut communications behind the retreating stubborn defence with Heidrich’s paratroopers crumbled ruins were cellars in which soldiers German forces. determined to hold onto ‘their Monte Cassino’. 32

However, holes had been torn in the Gustav Line powerful and resolute enemy and hampered by The German guns were often powerful and in the Liri Valley below and by the US Fifth Army difficult country and appalling weather, the usually accurate; but they were always further towards the coast. On 17 May the Allies in Italy came to a halt soon after 4th comparatively few. A British company or garrison slipped away, and the ruins were Division left the fighting. But in due course Allied battalion never had to face the fire of a hundred abandoned. Cassino had fallen. It was a victory aircraft destroyed the bridges over the River Po or more assorted guns, brought down within clouded by US General Clark’s decision to head and on 2 May 1945 the Germans south of the Po two or three minutes of the enemy's first sight for Rome instead of cutting off the retreating - half a million men - and other enemy forces of the infantry. But the field batteries of 25- German Tenth Army as he had been ordered. remaining in Italy and Austria laid down their pounder gun-howitzers, linked by a complex arms in unconditional surrender. Six days later, system of telephone lines and wireless John and his comrades spent the next six all the remaining German Armies followed suit. frequencies, and working in unison through the months in a long advance across some of the It is estimated that between September 1943 rapid, elaborate drills for the bringing down of most difficult country in Europe for fighting and and April 1945 about 65,000 Allied and perhaps many different kinds of fire - these batteries against a most skilful and stubborn defence. up to 150,000 German soldiers died in Italy. could all turn their guns on any one target within There were many kinds of fighting on the way Overall Allied casualties during the campaign range, and fire within three or four minutes of from the Garigliano River in March to the totalled about 320,000 and the corresponding the target's having been seen. The Germans, as Lamone River at Faenza in November: static German figure was over 330,000. a result, had very little freedom of movement; warfare in the mountains; a great pitched battle and their infantry, mortar and gun positions, in the valley of the Liri; a long approach march, Because John had been an artillery man – a supply units, headquarters and reserve a series of pre-arranged assaults on prepared ‘gunner’ - for most of his wartime service so far, battalions could never be sure that a storm of positions and a pursuit across hilly country; a it is worth repeating Hugh Williamson’s shells would not burst upon them and all round long advance in the hot Italian mid-summer comment that, in November 1944, perhaps the them without more warning than the rush of among the mountains, villages and vineyards of deepest sigh of relief went up from the division’s their approach. The German infantry, forming the Chianti country; hard fighting in rain and artillery regiments. From time to time, most of up for a counter attack, knew that the curtain of mud across the feet of the Apennines near the the division had withdrawn from the battle for a defensive fire would almost certainly shut down Adriatic coast; and harder fighting still in the while. But the gunners had been there all the in front of their advance, that the shells would utterly flat plain - muddy, close and divided by time; they had enjoyed no rest of any length search them out as long as their positions were many rivers - along the road from Rimini to from the first assault on the Trasimene positions known to the defenders, and that the fire of Faenza. until Faenza, a period of more than five months. many guns would pursue them in withdrawal. In that time, the gun batteries had fired an On 26 November 1944, 4th Division withdrew enormous weight of ammunition and had worn The power and flexibility of the division's field from the campaign for rest and recuperation out some of their guns. artillery was due only in part to the quality of the before a planned redeployment to Palestine. 25-pounder and the system of observation posts Weakened by losses and lack of reinforcements, One of the differences between the German and and communications by which the guns were gravely short of ammunition, opposed by a British forces engaged in Italy was in artillery. 33

directed. The chief source of the artillery's high quality was the technical knowledge of all ranks, in gun-pits, command-posts and observation posts, their constant endeavour for the perfect combination of accuracy with speed, and their A 25-pounder in action on the Rapid sector in May 1944 sense of duty to the infantry.

Gunner & intelligence officer Officer training and deduce the bearing and range to any hours there learning how to give the fire control specified target map reference. He progressed orders to engage different types of target. John joined the army on 15 September 1939 as to the preparation of fire plans and line a gunner in the Royal Artillery. On 5 October he Finally, John and his fellow cadets put all this barrages. The latter were designed to support an was posted to 123rd Officer Cadet Training Unit theory into practice during a few days of infantry advance by putting shells along a given for a five-month course to prepare him for exercises when they brought the guns into line, say 100 yards long, which was then lifted becoming an artillery officer. Needless to say, action at different positions in the local (moved) forward a specified distance on a the first month involved a lot of marching and countryside and established the necessary certain bearing at a specified time. The process rifle drill. But he soon moved on to learning telephone line and wireless links at each was repeated for several ‘lifts’, depending on about motor transport: how an internal deployment. how far the attacking infantry wanted to combustion engine works; the daily checks on advance. Each gun required a timed programme Appointment to a field regiment water, oil, fuel, lights, tyres, battery, steering detailing the lines and ranges for the gunlayer and brakes; fault finding; how to carry out an and the number of rounds to be fired on each On 2 March 1940, after marching past the inspection of a vehicle; how to drive a 15 lift. Simple calculations, but the art was to do Colonel on the passing out parade, John was hundredweight truck. them quickly and accurately. given an Emergency Commission in the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and sent to the School of Artillery There was gun drill during which he learnt how Signal communications between a Command at Larkhill for five days training, with live to tow, unlimber and fire a field gun. Gas attacks Post and its guns were also an important part of ammunition, on the observation of fire. Then - were thought to be a serious threat at that time, the course. He spent many hours laying miles of on 4 April 1940 - he left England to join the so he was trained to recognised various types of telephone cable and transmitting messages. He British Expeditionary Force in France. poison gas and taught to apply protective cream learnt how to tune in three different types of to exposed parts of the skin. Some gun drills nd wireless set, to use the correct voice procedure His appointment was to 22 Field Regiment, involved a ‘gas alert’ requiring him to put on his th and to do some basic fault finding. one of the Royal Artillery units in 4 Infantry respirator, gas cape and gloves and practise Division (see the order of battle in Appendix 2). firing the gun thus encumbered. He attended Training on the observation of fire was done The regiment’s role was to support the division’s lectures on gun equipment and maintenance using a model of an undulating landscape which infantry and it was usually affiliated to one of the and did some practical work with a 25-pounder. was made of canvas and suspended a few feet three brigades within the division. He was above the floor. Shell bursts were simulated by equipped with a revolver (serial number T249) The technical aspects of gunnery occupied a lot a cadet crawling around a grid marked on the and a pair of binoculars (serial number 20156) of his time later in the course. He learnt to set floor who used a smoke bottle to blow puffs of and assigned to 32/33 battery as the Assistant up the large ‘artillery board’ that was used in a smoke through the canvas. John spent many Gun Position Officer for a troop of 4 guns. Command Post, to plot the positions of the guns

At that time the regular and Territorial Army strength of the Royal Artillery totalled about 105,000 men. By mid-1943 that number had reached its peak of 700,000 - about 5% of whom were officers - in some 630 regiments, 65 training regiments and six officer cadet training units. That made the Royal Artillery about a quarter of the size of the British Army as a whole and about the same size as the Royal Navy.

The officers in John’s regiment on 9 May 1940 are listed in the war diary extract at right; there were also about 550 other ranks. Their personal weapons were 75 pistols, 113 rifles, 14 light machine guns and 13 anti-tank rifles. It was with these weapons that some fought as infantry in the last few days of the withdrawal to Dunkirk.

At that time, the 18-pounder gun and the 4·5- inch howitzer were in the process of being superseded by a new 25-pounder gun-howitzer (see Appendix 3) but until this was available the resulted in a reorganisation of the Royal Key principles were that: 18-pounder gun carriages were being converted Artillery. The main concepts for the use of • command of artillery was centralised to carry 25-pounder barrels. It’s not clear artillery were: whether the regiment was armed with 18- under the highest commander who pounders and 4·5 howitzers or with converted • cooperation with the supported could exercise effective control without 18/25 pounders. infantry or armour; risk of failure; and • concentration of firepower; • formation commanders should not have Organisation • surprise; to deal with more than one artillery After the First World War there had been a long • economy of firepower; commander. • mobility of firepower - the ability to period of debate within the British Army about This led to two command and control concentrate firepower when and where how it should adapt to a new era of mechanised, relationships: mobile warfare. The build up to the Second it was needed without re-deploying the World War brought this debate to a head and guns. 36

• 'Under Command' whereby control of sergeant and five other ranks making up a gun Because the guns were not normally in line-of- fire was centralised under a senior detachment. sight of their target, the observer served as the artillery commander; and Troop Command Post eyes of the guns by sending target locations and • ‘In Support’ whereby control was Role Rank then corrections to the fall of shot; when in a decentralised to battery or troop level Troop Commander and Captain static position this might be over specially-run whose commanders were authorised to Observer telephone lines but more usually it was by fire in support of any formation within Signaller wireless. The observer would usually order firing Gun Position Officer Lieutenant range. data to the guns of his own troop, though he Assistant GPO Second Lieutenant could also request fire from any other batteries GPO assistant Troop Sergeant Major Warrant Officer Class 3 authorised to him. Each battery command post converted the fire orders into firing data for its Roles of a gun detachment own guns. Number 1 Sergeant in command Number 2 Operates the breech and rams the In the role of Forward Observation Officer the shell troop commander moved with the infantry Number 3 Lays and fires the gun company that his battery was supporting. In Number 4 Loader liaison with the infantry commander and based Number 5 Supplies ammunition on his assessment of the tactical situation, he Number 6 Second in command Prepares ammunition for use ordered fire commands to his troop or battery.

Gun Position Officer 22nd Field Regiment was organised as a The battery commander headquarters and two 12-gun batteries. The John’s battery commander - Major Bartlett - was John’s role was the Assistant Gun Position commander of the regiment, Lieutenant - in the forward area, close by the commander of Officer for a troop of 4 guns. The responsibilities Colonel Young, was based in Regimental HQ the infantry battalion he was supporting. of the Gun Position Officer were to position the with his headquarters team. He selected the gun guns in suitable locations, to orientate them area in consultation with the supported brigade Observation Posts with the required line of fire to the target and to produce the firing data. He would set up his staff and the artillery headquarters. The second- The commander of John’s troop was a Captain director – a simple type of theodolite which in-command, Major Walker, was responsible for whose primary role was to be the observer for incorporated a compass – to align with the Zero operations within the gun area. his troop. With a small party, he could operate Line running from the gun position to the target Each battery was divided into three troops of 4 either as an Observation Post (OP) if the battle area, measure the angle from the Zero Line to guns; and each troop had its own command was static or as a Forward Observation Officer the ‘dial sight’ of each gun and pass the post. The tables below show how a troop’s (FOO) if they were moving with the infantry. reciprocal angle to each gunlayer. This angle was command post was manned and the roles of the 37

set on the gun’s dial sight and the sight laid on the director, thus pointing the gun along the required Zero Line. This setting was recorded by choosing a distant feature of the landscape, now being pointed at by the gun, to be the Gun Aiming Point.

During shooting, all targets were calculated with reference to the Zero Line: for example, on receiving the order “zero two zero” the gunlayer would set 20 degrees on the dial sight; the gun would be swung round by moving the trail (the lower portion of the gun carriage which rests on the ground when it is unlimbered) and then the traverse handwheel until the Aiming Point was central in the dial sight. The gun would thus be laid (pointing) on the ordered line. As the fall of shot was observed, a series of small corrections would be received and applied in the same way.

The range to the target was set on a ‘range cone’ which was mechanically linked to a ‘sight clinometer’ – a more sophisticated type of spirit level. Setting a range offset the bubble in the presented six separate gun positions as which in turn connected to other battery clinometer, which was returned to its central potential targets for counter-battery fire by the Command Posts and regimental HQ. position by operating the gun’s elevating enemy or for air attack. The individual guns All vehicles were sent to the wagon lines some handwheel. Levelling the bubble caused the gun were deployed about 20 - 30 yards apart, hundreds of yards away from the guns and there to elevate to the angle corresponding to the preferably in concealed positions and in a curved were strict track plans as part of the battery’s ordered range. pattern to enable better anti-tank defence, and concealment measures. they were camouflaged. Each Troop Command Deployment Post (TCP) was connected by telephone line to A battery did not deploy onto a new gun position John’s troop of guns normally deployed a few the troop commander (observer), to the other as a whole; the Battery Command Post Officer hundred yards apart from the other troops in troops and to the Battery Command Post (BCP), and Gun Position Officers went ahead to the battery. This meant that a field regiment prepare the new position by laying it out so that 38

they could orientate the guns onto the Zero Line IN 1944 the moment they arrived. From the time the guns left a rendezvous about a mile from the new position, they were expected to be ready to fire within 15 minutes if it was daylight or a bit longer at night. Often the two troops would move separately so that one was always in action.

Camouflage and concealment from ground and air observation were given high priority. A key element of the deployment was to avoid standard regular layouts for batteries, so guns were individually sited according to the cover and scope for concealment offered by the terrain against air and ground observation. Track-plans were also important for concealing a battery and deceiving hostile reconnaissance; all vehicles moving about the position had to follow designated tracks that were concealed from or looked natural to air observation. In case, despite all this, the guns came under fire by enemy artillery, it was usual to prepare an alternative position for each gun, several hundred yards away from the primary postion. section was re-formed. The new organisation Promotion and training for a new role Reorganisation and training brought a field battery's strength up to 198 John was promoted to Lieutenant on 2 After Dunkirk and once the threat of invasion including 10 officers and a larger number of September 1941. had passed, lessons learned during the fighting signallers, plus more vehicles. The regiment in France led to changes in organisation, spent much of the next two years training for In February 1942 he spent two weeks at the equipment and doctrine. In October 1940 John’s and exercising with the new organisation, Central Ordnance Depot near Bramley in regiment was reorganised into three batteries equipment and doctrine. Hampshire to learn about the care and each with two troops of 4 guns and their survey maintenance of ammunition.

January 1943 saw him back at the School of Artillery in Larkhill for a week to learn the duties of the Assistant Adjutant.

Assistant Adjutant

In January 1943 John moved from being the Gun Position Officer for one of the troops and took on the role of Assistant Adjutant in Regiment Headquarters.

The Adjutant was the commanding officer’s staff officer. In action he was responsible, under the supervision of the second-in- command, for the organisation and control of the regimental command post. Other duties included the allocation of the regiment’s guns in response to calls for fire, the preparation of operation and movement orders, compilation of routine ammunition returns, the preparation of routine orders, reports and returns and in crest of a hill into view of an enemy pill box and movements, observation posts, communication the absence of the Intelligence Officer, was killed by machine gun fire. His operator and safety during the exercise. intelligence duties. Signalman Nursey was wounded but later Other of his responsibilities were mundane. For escaped. His driver and DR both escaped example, on 7 February he signed Regimental The Assistant Adjutant was the Adjutant’s unhurt. His body was not recovered until the Order No.18 which said that “One copy only of deputy and relief, with particular responsibility 26th. Major JH Nicolls RA assumed command.” for the detailed administration of Regimental Traffic Accident Reports will be submitted Headquarters. That included maintaining the From the war diary, 18 June 1943: “The pending C.O.’s decision as to whether the case is War Diary: the ‘original’ copy of the War Diary regiment was inspected by H.M. King [His to go forward or not”; and Regimental Order from January to June 1943, held at The National Majesty the King] at Grombalia.” No.19 said “It has been observed that personnel Archives, is in John’s handwriting. are continually posting airgraphs addressed to From the war diary, 2-5 February 1944: “Exercise countries to which there is no service …”. Wedding bells”. This was to prepare for combat From the war diary, 24 April 1943. “CO (Lt Col Regimental Order No.20 on 8 March was a more before embarking for Italy. John signed the JH MacCarthy) went up north to establish an serious matter, reporting the outcome of a Field th Exercise Instruction plus related orders about O.P for 12 Infantry Brigade. He drove over the General Court Martial at which a Gunner 40

Sergeant from another regiment was found guilty of striking his superior officer and of using improper language; the sentences were 44 days and 28 days detention respectively.

Once the regiment was ashore in Italy John signed the ‘Regimental Layout’, a document setting out the position of each troop of guns, the grid bearing of ‘Zero Line’ for the line of fire, and the grid bearings of the firing zone either side of that line. He issued orders for the calibration programme during which the range of each gun was measured at different elevations of fire.

Intelligence Officer

By the time he was sent to Italy with 4th Division in February 1944, John had also taken on the role of Intelligence Officer for 22nd Field Regiment. Then from 12 June 1944 and promoted to the rank of Captain he was the Intelligence Officer in 10th Infantry Brigade. The role involved him in preparing intelligence summaries (see Appendix 4) on a more or less daily basis through the analysis of air photo information, reports by infantry patrols and infantry and gunner observation posts, and information obtained from prisoners of war and deserters.

Some intelligence summaries painted a broad canvas. Others provided detail about enemy and friendly dispositions, movements and intentions within the division’s area of operation. The 41

positions of enemy guns were of special interest as they would be targeted by our own guns; and knowledge about the movement of forces was important in helping the gunners to put down effective fire in support of an advance by own forces or to hit an attacking enemy force.

Battery tasking orders for 25/26 February 1944, signed by John on behalf of the adjutant.

H.F. is harassing fire designed to hamper enemy movement at the front, hinder his conduct of operations and reduce his morale.

D.F. is defensive fire, usually called for by the defending commander.

Greece squadron of the RAF Regiment and a battalion of much more effective than the British at the Greek National Guard. The enemy wore no extracting information about hidden arms or During September 1944, the German army uniform – except when disguising themselves in ELAS fighters – albeit using questionable began withdrawing from Greece to avoid being British battledress or the blue-and-white methods sometimes. John’s role as Intelligence cut off by the Russian army’s advance into the brassard of the Greek National Guard - and could Officer in 10th Infantry Brigade must have Balkans. By November, the only Germans always slip through the lines as civilians. The brought him into frequent contact with them. remaining on Greek territory were isolated battleground was full of Greek civilians; they On arrival, 4th Division's first objective was to garrisons on Crete and a few other Aegean were allowed out of their houses only for two consolidate the position: to defend the airfield islands. The Bulgars had also withdrawn their hours in the day and were always liable to be (a job assigned to 10th Brigade); to secure a army of occupation and the liberation of Greece stopped and searched. ELAS used children to beach-head at the foot of Singros Avenue where was almost complete. Britain sent two brigades smuggle messages and ammunition; an old all the division's supplies and reinforcements into Greece to maintain law and order, to re- woman would sometimes have a couple of Bren- would have to be landed; and to keep open the establish the Greek government in Athens and gun magazines in her shopping-basket, or a girl coast road between the air-field and the main to organise food and supplies for the Greek a grenade or two in her handbag; there might port of Piraeus. people. even be a bomb sharing a pram with a baby; ambulances carried ELAS reinforcements and The next objective was to open the road However, a communist-led grouping of Greek ammunition; and a sniper might fire from between the coast and Athens itself. With resistance fighters (ELAS) chose this time for an behind the long, full skirts of a woman standing gunfire support from warships in Salamis Bay attempt to seize power in Athens. British forces in a doorway. and from 25-pounders of 4th Indian Division were ordered to resist the ELAS attack and, which were on an island in the bay, the division though few and not well positioned tactically, Nor was there a clear separation of friendly attacked from the bridgehead along Singros they were successful in checking the first territory from that held by the enemy: the Avenue. 10th Brigade spread along the coast onslaught. Taking up positions for a siege they British headquarters area was surrounded and road to release 12th and 28th Brigades for the waited for reinforcements. These took the form all lines of communication were under constant attack, which began on 17 December to left and of 4th Division which, hastily redeployed from its threat. The ELAS guerrillas - known as Andartes right of the Avenue. In this fighting from house promised rest and recreation, arrived in Athens - were always able to filter back into any area to house and from street to street, against an during the early part of December 1944. that had been cleared by British troops, so every enemy in civilian clothes, the soldiers had to house and street had to be cleared a second The fighting in Athens was to be an untidy and clear the same neighbourhood repeatedly and time by detachments of the Greek National confusing affair. The division went into action to secure their rear as well as their flanks against Guard. incomplete and inadequately equipped and with counterattack. They met little organized an interesting variety of troops under its The National Guard was a hastily enlisted force: opposition, but every house had to be searched command; these included RAF parachutists, a untrained, undisciplined and short of proper from attic to basement and a single sniper could detachment of the Long-Range Desert Group, a weapons. But they were full of enthusiasm and hold up a section or even a platoon for a while. 43

In this way, they advanced slowly towards Athens, astride Singros Avenue. The British troops were followed by a detachment of the Greek National Guard, which cleared all the houses a second time.

Having handed the coast road over to other units, on 20 December 10th Brigade came up to New Smyrna; they and 12th Brigade were now one on each side of Singros Avenue. Over the next two days, 12th Brigade completed clearing the streets between Singros Avenue and the River Ilissos, 10th Brigade finished clearing the suburbs between the coast and the brewery, and 28th Brigade extended its front half a mile to the left as far as the hill to the south-west of the Acropolis. In all these successful operations the division suffered few losses.

During the night of Christmas Eve, ELAS put in a sudden and violent attack on one of the factories held by the division: small-arms fire tore through the windows on three sides; Sketch map from The Fourth Division dynamiters blew a wide breach in the by Hugh Williamson surrounding wall and later blew in four smaller holes. The few Andartes who scrambled through against the side of a neighbouring house and was captured on the way, but the section the breaches were soon driven out again, but smashed up a room, killing two Greek civilians, suffered no other loss. the fierce attacks went on all through the night. but the section's defence held firm. After an Christmas Day was bitterly cold and small A section of seven men holding an isolated hour and a half, the section’s ammunition began luxuries such as cigarettes were in short supply. cottage were attacked by about thirty Andartes. to run low and the sergeant ordered a sortie. Rations were limited to bully beef, M&V (tins of Crouching behind the front garden wall, the The seven men sallied out, blazing away at meat and veg) and biscuits. Christmas defenders used small-arms and grenades to beat anything that moved, broke through the ELAS celebrations were officially postponed by order off repeated attacks. ELAS placed a pole-charge cordon and re-joined the main body; one soldier Lieutenant-General Scobie; they eventually took 44

place on 3 February and, inevitably, were known a strip of safe ground now joined Athens and on New Year's Eve, the whole of southern as Scobiemas. Piraeus. Athens was clear.

One happy diversion was a party organised for Now that the siege of central Athens had been The role of the British troops in Greece was not about a hundred and fifty children of Faliron. A raised, the next job was to clear the southern only to clear ELAS from the city but also to feed large cafe was requisitioned and soldiers were part of the city and on Boxing Day the division the inhabitants. As each district was cleared, the co-opted as waiters. While parents, noses regrouped for this task. Before dawn on 28 units who occupied it set up distribution centres flattened against the cafe windows, stared December 10th Brigade made a silent attack and issued soup powder and dried beans to the hungrily in, the children sat down to a Christmas eastward from New Smyrna; by evening the people. The distribution centres were opened as feast of M&V followed by tinned peaches and brigade had cleared most of the Drougouti and soon as all violence in the district had come to biscuits. The meal was enormously popular, as Katsipodi districts and held the two low hills that an end and, as a disincentive, they shut down for few of the children had eaten well for many rise among the houses there. ELAS did their best twenty-four hours if trouble boiled up again. months. The party was a happy one also for the to break into these positions, but they were held Athens at this time was a lively place and local troops, most of whom were spending their off through a night of heavy though intermittent commanders often had difficulty finding out second Christmas abroad and some of whom shooting and the following day 10th Brigade whether gunfire was a resumption of fighting by had not spent Christmas at home for several resumed its advance. The brigade finished ELAS or a celebration by Government years. clearing the Drougouti and Katsipodi districts, supporters. then joined up with units who had attacked from The infantry spent Christmas Day searching the The northern part of the city remained to be the left across the front of the brigade. Farther streets, silencing snipers, clearing road blocks cleared. This was achieved through a converging to the left front, other forces were attacking at and confiscating dumps of arms and explosives. attack on three fronts which began on 2 January: the same time, penetrating deeply into the The day was quiet, for ELAS commanders had four days later the whole of Piraeus and of suburbs east of Zappion Gardens. ELAS reckoned on most of the British soldiers being central and southern Athens was occupied by resistance in southern Athens was beginning to drunk on Christmas night and were preparing British forces and the Greek National Guard. The collapse. their forces for an attack. This came at midnight, ELAS forces which had survived the battle were ELAS troops charging in at the division’s On the last day of 1944, 28th Brigade went into streaming out of the northern part of the city, northern positions. They were set back on action on the left of 10th Brigade and struck closely followed by mobile columns of British finding the defenders sober and alert and were eastwards from the neighbourhood of the troops. further dismayed when the divisional artillery Brewery into Gouva and Pankrati. The Greek 10th and 12th Brigades were part of that pursuit. opened fire for the first time; the attacks were Rimini Brigade advanced across the front of the The forces of ELAS, driven out of Athens and driven off after more than an hour's fighting. division from the left as far as Byron; and 10th scattered, seemed likely to try to rally in the hills Two other British units, meanwhile, had been Brigade, advancing in its turn, penetrated first north of Athens and hold a line across the base closing in steadily from each side of 4th Division’s through Imittos and then through Kopanas to of the Lavrion peninsula, from Elefsis on the position and had succeeded in joining up so that reach Byron and join the Greek brigade. By dusk 45

west coast to the Bay of Marathon on the east. But if this was their intention, the British columns were among them before they could carry it out. On 6 January two companies, one from 10th Brigade, reached Elefsis on the shore Sketch map from The Fourth Division by Hugh Williamson twelve miles north-west of Athens. The Rimini Brigade followed up to consolidate in the town and the column pushed inland next day to the mountain hamlet of Oino, twelve miles farther north, and then to the Kani Kaza Pass, two and a half miles beyond, where there was some sharp skirmishing with ELAS. The column entered Thebes, ten miles farther north, on 8 January and was welcomed by cheering townsfolk who surged round the vehicles; an officer who fell into the hands of the crowd was swept away and chaired. Major-General Ward arrived shortly afterwards and nearly suffered the same fate.

10th Brigade took over Thebes on 9 January. There was no open activity by ELAS, but the problem of disposing of displaced persons and suspects was serious enough. The Brigade set up a local Hostage Centre and a Prisoner of War Cage and, as in Athens, went on searching and re-searching the places it had occupied and the Peloponnese and Salonika and to occupy the 4th Division's rapid advance from Athens had countryside all round. Every sweep produced strategically important towns of Greece; ELAS broken so deeply through the ELAS forces that more and more weapons, explosives and forces were scattered and disorganised, considerable bodies of enemy troops, some of prisoners, particularly when Greek troops did retreating as best they could through the them still disciplined and organized, had been the searching while British troops surrounded mountains. The political committee of the out-distanced and were slowly making their way the neighbourhood. communist movement had no choice but to north through the mountains. In these last days The fighting had reached its last stage. British begin negotiations for a truce. of the fighting, troops of the division had some forces were preparing to move into the skirmishing with these forces. 46

The truce was signed In Athens on 11 January: fighting was to stop at midnight three days later; all ELAS troops were to withdraw during the next twelve days from the parts of Greece nearest to Athens and from the islands of the Ionian and the Aegean seas; ELAS were to release all the British and Greek combatants and all the British civilians they had captured; and an equal number of ELAS prisoners would be released in On 12 February, the final exchange. agreement between the When the truce came into effect on 14 January, government and the communist th parties of ELAS troops began to march through movement was signed. 4 the division's lines on their way over the Brallos Division moved north into the pass towards their own zone. Many of them provinces of Phthiotis, Boeotia were well-armed and adequately dressed - a and Northern Attica. Early in large proportion in British battledress - and March they continued whole battalions marched in a disciplined and northwards into Thessaly and soldierly manner. westwards into the Pindus mountains where they took over On 20 January, as ELAS troops sailed away from the dumps of ELAS weapons th Khalkis in caiques, 10 Brigade moved into the surrendered according to the th town while 4 Division Headquarters moved to agreement. It was probably at Thebes. Four days later, John took part in a this time that John took the ‘training exercise without troops’ (TEWT) to photographs on the following prepare for the defence of Khalkis against a pages of St Stephen’s Monastery possible attack by ELAS troops from the nearby and the view from it over the island of Euboia. No such attack materialised, valley. however, and the brigade’s role was confined to patrolling, searching houses, seizing weapons By the end of March, based at th and rounding up the few armed bands still at Volos and Athens, 4 Division large. was in control of eastern Greece. John’s photographs of mountain

climbing might have been taken at this time. of resistance, had wrecked all but six of the eight hundred homes. Many mountain villages had John had fought in his last battle, but there was suffered the same kind of vengeance with still much to be done because civil government houses ruined, crops destroyed and livestock had broken down completely. It fell to the British driven off. Food, clothing and medical supplies forces to settle disputes, organize and supervise were all scarce. The provision of much-needed the distribution of food, control prices, inspect civil relief continued to be an important part of the prisons and hospitals, and attend to the their work for John and his comrades. cleanliness and sanitation of the towns. All over Greece, outside Athens, nobody knew which In the background to this humanitarian work - officials should be in charge of affairs: prefects and not acknowledged publicly until much later and mayors had to be appointed or confirmed in - was the emergence of a communist insurgency office; industries and public services had to be which evolved into a classic civil war that was to started up again; prices had to be fixed and last from 1945 until 1949. This was the first controlled; and food had to be distributed fairly. major confrontation of the Cold War, although Stalin did not provide direct assistance to the The division helped with the relief of the Communist rebels in Greece because he feared mountain villages, which were in a desperate a confrontation with the United States and state. The Red Cross had already begun this Great Britain. work and before long representatives of the Scouts and Guides International Relief Services Hence in March 1945 many British officers and and of the United Nations Relief and other ranks were appointed as Greek National Rehabilitation Association also arrived to help. Army trainers; and in May, British Liaison Officers were appointed to offer internal The Royal Engineers reopened the roads and security advice to the Greek Army. About half of 10th and 12th Brigades began a systematic survey these liaison officers came from the Royal of the villages in their districts. The survey Artillery, so it is possible (though I have no revealed a state of great hardship, especially in evidence for this) that John was one of them. the villages to the west of Lamia. Troops toiled through the snow to the village of Karpenision, During the summer of 1945 John returned to high in the Pindus mountains, thirty-five miles Athens and, as we shall see later in the story, west of Lamia, and found there a desolation met a young Greek woman who would change similar to that after the battle of Cassino. The the course of his life. Germans, carrying out a policy of reprisal for acts

The katholikon (church) of the monastery as it was when John St Stephen’s Monastery near the town of Kalambaka at the north-western photographed it in 1945. edge of the Plain of Thessaly, near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains The monastery was abandoned by the monks in 1961 because of the war damage. A cloister of The katholikon nuns moved in, restored as it is today it and today it is an active nunnery with 28 Orthodox Greek nuns.

This black and white photograph taken by John shows the view from close below the Monastery of St. Stephen in 1945. The town of Kalabaka is on the edge of the plain; the River Pineios and the Pindus Mountains lie beyond. The colour photo to the The red pin on the map marks left, found on a tourist website, shows the same view in 2017. the position of St Stephen’s Monastery.

Mount Olympus This photograph was taken from a photographed by John in 1945 lower position by Alec’s friend Martin Craven in the summer of 1965. It confirms that John’s photograph was of Mount Olympus whose highest peak, Mytikas, shown in these photographs rises to 2,917 metres and is one of the highest in Europe. Altitude sickness is a problem for many climbers of the mountain.

View from summit of Mount Olympus in 1945 John is on the right of this picture

Some time out for the Headquarters team from 10th British Infantry Brigade I believe the number 56 is a unit identification, normally used on vehicles to help the Royal Military Police identify the unit when controlling a convoy John Fearon

Brigadier Jock McKenzie

John Fearon

Brigadier Jock McKenzie, commanding officer 10th Infantry Brigade from 7 March to 31 August 1945

John is third from left below and third from top at right

As their task neared completion, the men of 4th Division began to be dispersed. Over a thousand of the younger soldiers were sent to the Far East to join the war against Japan, while the older men were steadily being sent home for leave or to be demobilized; John was one of these. His turn to go home came on 6 October 1945, when he embarked ship in Piraeus. Three months later he was released from military duty.

Captain JA Fearon, Royal Artillery London, 8 November 1945

Ruby Edith collected Ruby from hospital and looked help (he was the Borough Surveyor) they found after her until she was one year old. a house at Tan Bank in the Prendergast district Ruby Burchall’s family lived at Leigh-on-Sea, a of Haverfordwest. One of the conditions When Ruby was seven years old, her elder district of Southend-on-Sea. Her parents were attached to their house was that the brother, Stanley, went to Australia. He married Vincent and Elma (nee Voules). Vincent worked government could billet lodgers with them; there and died in Sydney on 29 June 1972. for Callender’s Cables in Erith (further up the these included a kindergarten teacher and a Thames) rising from office boy to managing After her mother, Elma, died in about 1926 - travelling salesman. director. Ruby was born in 1917 and she was when Ruby was nine years old – she and her Ruby’s relationship with Audrey was one of four children. three siblings were looked after by Elma’s sister exceptionally close: she used to tell the story of Edith (Edie). They lived in Gillingham with Edie, While pregnant with Ruby, Elma fell down the how, many years later when living in Lymington, who had four children of her own. Many years stairs on a double-decker bus; she was badly she woke from a dream in which Audrey was later, Ruby’s children Mike and Anne-Marie injured and gave birth prematurely. Because calling for her. Without hesitation she packed a knew Edie as ‘Gran’. Elma was not able to care for the baby, her sister bag and took the next train to Northumberland, Vincent later married again, to Mildred, with where Audrey then lived, arriving just after whom he had a son, Adrian. Mildred had Audrey died. previously been married to Richard Goulden, It is hard to imagine how marriages could cope who was an actor, and their daughter Gillian in wartime. Many didn’t, including that of Ruby grew up with Adrian. Ruby and Gillian were good friends.

When John was posted to France in 1940, Ruby took Mike and Anne-Marie to live in Haverfordwest. They chose Haverfordwest to avoid the expected bombing campaign and to be close to Ruby’s friend Audrey Henderson. The family stayed with Audrey and her husband Ray for a Ruby Ruby’s sister Sylvia Elma Burchall few weeks until, with Ray’s 56

and John. Wartime circumstances were certainly one factor. Another was surely Ruby’s age: she Ruby at Tan Bank in 1943 was only 18 when they married; by 1943 she was 26 and would have changed a lot, especially under the pressures of a war. But there was more to it. Ruby got involved in a programme to introduce Allied officers into the community and Mike remembers Free French and Polish officers coming to tea with them at Tan Bank. Some of the officers were based at RAF Talbenny, which became operational as a Coastal Command base in May 1942. Its squadrons were 248 (RAF Beaufighters), 304 (Polish Wellingtons) and 311 (Czech Wellingtons). Their duties included hazardous anti-submarine patrols over the Bay of Biscay and bombing runs against the submarine pens on the French coast. Thus it was that, sometime between June 1942 and May 1943, Ruby met Flight Lieutenant Bohuslav Eichler (service number 82543) of Czech 311 squadron. lieutenant) “Lefty”. Mike remembers being in the backyard one morning when Slava’s 311 squadron had been formed in July 1940. Wellington came over the house very low - so Almost all the aircrew had hair-raising stories of low that they could see him waving from the escaping from Czechoslovakia, joining the cockpit to tell Ruby that he was back from a French and - after the collapse of France - sortie. escaping once again to Britain. The squadron was transferred to Coastal Command in April In May 1943, when Doenitz withdrew the U- 1942, operating from RAF Aldergrove in Ulster boats from the Atlantic, Slava’s squadron moved until moving to Talbenny in June 1942. Bohuslav to RAF Beaulieu and was re-equipped with Slava in the garden became a frequent visitor at Tan Bank, and he Liberators. That was probably when Ruby at Tan Bank and Ruby fell in love. He was known to the moved the family from Tan Bank to 10 Victoria children as “Slava” and (because he was a Place in downtown Haverfordwest (next to the

bridge on the main street) where she was a tell John of this because, at the end of her life, offer - which was perhaps just as well because partner with the Crowleys in the ‘Gay Heart’ she complained that John had cut her marriage the Communists seized power there in 1948. restaurant. From October 1943 there were allotment to the minimum – perhaps after Ruby bought a house in Muswell Hill, 33 American divisions in the area, preparing for D- receiving the ‘Dear John’ letter. Methuen Park, for £3,000 (Anne-Marie’s son Day, and one platoon helped with maintenance John returned from Greece in October 1945 and Pasco, who lives a couple of blocks from there, at the restaurant; after D Day, Ruby could reel was released from active service in January says it would now fetch about £1 million!) To off their names and say when and where they 1946. He and Ruby came to an agreement and help make ends meet the ground floor was let. were killed in France. she filed for divorce in March on grounds of Ruby met Ted Houldsworth at the Red Cross. He Early in 1944 the family moved to Broad Haven adultery by John. The decree absolute was had been urging her to get treatment for some where Ruby started a café, working without granted on 10 September 1946. time before she developed osteomyelitis (an electricity and with only a cold-water supply. In Ruby moved back to London in 1946, taking infection of the bone) in 1950 and was taken to September that year Mike and Anne-Marie were Anne-Marie with her. They lived at 1 Sunnyside hospital. The standard treatment then was sent to boarding school, he to Oswestry and she Road near Muswell Hill. Ruby worked in a café M&B 693, an antibiotic used before penicillin, to Carmarthen. They went home for holidays, by day and as a nursing auxiliary at night, hence and the main risk was amputation. Ruby was Gran (Ruby’s Aunt Edie) going to Broad Haven to only saw Anne-Marie first thing in the mornings. seriously ill and needed about three months to look after them in the summer of 1945 when As Anne-Marie put it, “Gran rescued me from recover in a convalescent home. Her sick pay they were running wild. that” in 1947 but sent her to a convent school in soon ran out and she had no other source of Slava’s squadron stayed at Beaulieu until Teddington which was “awful”. Many of the income, so the second floor of the house was February 1944, when it moved to RAF mostly Irish nuns had lost their sweethearts in also let and the family retreated to rather Predannock for pre-invasion bombing. In the First World War or the troubles in Ireland primitive conditions in the attic. October he was transferred to 142 Squadron, and they were not sympathetic to human frailty. Ted looked after the children during holidays at which had been disbanded in Italy and re- Anne-Marie – then 9 years old – endured being that time and Mike suspects that he used his formed in that month at RAF Gransden Lodge told that her parents would roast in hell because private income to subsidize Ruby’s operation. (near Cambridge) with Mosquitoes as part of the they had divorced. After Ruby’s recovery and return to work, she Pathfinders for No. 8 Group. Slava was killed on During the school holidays, Mike stayed with and Ted married in 1951. They moved several 3 March 1945 - two months before the end of Anne-Marie and Gran in Surbiton. times before settling in Lymington. Ruby died in the war in Europe - when his plane crashed due 2012, some years after Ted. to engine failure on approach to Gransden Around that time, Ruby received a letter from Lodge after a raid on Berlin. Ruby said that she Slava’s family inviting her and the children to was shattered by this and Gran told Mike in come and live with them in Prague. She asked about 1948 that Ruby and Slava had planned to Mike and Anne-Marie what they thought about marry. Mike guessed that Ruby had written to the idea. In the event, they didn’t take up the 58

Ruby and Ted enjoyed Ruby with a messing about in boats. speared fish The family rented a houseboat and dinghy on the River Hamble for a few summers, probably 1952 - 1955

Ruby and Ted

The after-effects of polio prevented Ted Houldsworth from enlisting, so he drove an ambulance in London through the Blitz, doodle-bugs and V2 rockets. When Ruby met him at the Red Cross, he was Chief Transport Officer for the local unit. Ted became a journalist and worked, amongst other newspapers, for the Hornsea Journal and the Hampstead & Highgate Express.

Sonia than Greece, he sent her to a French school. In upheaval. Sonia moved to a Greek school, due course Alexandros received some therefore, so that she could learn Greek in Born on 2 December 1923 in Sevastopol where compensation for what the Russians had addition to her Russian and French. her Greek father Alexandros Andronikos, a expropriated, and he was able to build a house Sonia was 17 when Italy invaded Greece in merchant, had married Natalia Ovcherenko, the big enough for the whole family. Sonia’s October 1940. The Italians were defeated and daughter of a sea captain, Sonia’s family was grandmother, Suzanna, and her two aunts pushed back into Albania, but Greece did not swept up in the turmoil following the Russian remained in the USSR with her grandfather, have the resources to sustain a war and revolution. In 1926 their possessions were Antonios, until he died and then joined the surrendered in April 1941 soon after Germany seized, her father was exiled to Siberia, one family in Athens. The ambition of emigrating to invaded to support its Italian ally. Athens was uncle was put in prison where he died, a second France had to be abandoned, however, occupied by the Germans and life was difficult: uncle joined the Bolsheviks, and a third escaped because Suzanna was too ill for another Sonia could never be sure that her father would to Greece. Because of his age, Sonia’s return home at the end of the day; there was a grandfather was allowed to remain in one room curfew by night; they were always hungry and of their large house, the other rooms being even the occupying forces resorted to shooting allocated to workers of the revolution as domestic cats – including Sonia’s – for food. portrayed in the film Dr Zhivago. A fourth uncle worked in the Greek embassy in Moscow, and he helped Sonia’s mother Natalia financially so that she, Sonia and Sonia’s aunt were able to rent a The family in Athens room in their own house. Natalia told us that she during the 1930’s visited Moscow to plead in person with Stalin and, with support from Uncle George in the Greek embassy, she was eventually allowed to join her husband in Siberia during his third year of exile; Sonia was five years old at the time. The family remained in Siberia for a year until, again with help from Uncle George in the Greek embassy, they were deported to Greece where Uncle Nicholas made them welcome.

On arrival in Athens in 1930, Sonia spoke only Alexandros Russian. Because her father, Alexandros, had Suzanna Sonia Natalia ambitions to start a new life in France rather

Sonia with her parents in the late 1930s. The couple on the right are probably Uncle Nicholas and his wife, with their daughter.

Sonia (on the left of the front rank) on youth in the productive spending of their free parade in Athens with the National Youth time and to cultivate their national values and Organisation (EON in the Greek). This was cooperative spirit! It was disbanded in April probably the National Day parade on 25 1941 after the Germans occupied Greece, when Mar 1941. EON was created by the some of its members joined resistance Metaxas Regime (1936–1941) to help movements.

The German withdrawal from Greece in 1944 Now aged 21 and with Athens liberated, Sonia prompted an attempt by the communist was studying to be a doctor. On 26 August - a young women for a drive to make up for their resistance movements (ELAS) to seize power. As hot, summer’s day - she went with a friend to fright, during which Sonia and her friend told the described in an earlier chapter, John was in 4th the seaside at Faliro; as they stepped carelessly two English officers that if they were really sorry British Infantry Division when it was sent to help off the pavement to go for lemonade and cake for what had happened, they would take them defeat this insurgency. Sonia’s home at No.1 at the Areos Road café there was a screeching of out to dinner; which they did. Thavmantos, Kypseli, Athens was in the brakes and a Jeep narrowly avoided killing them. northern part of the city. Fighting to clear ELAS John spoke little Greek at that time. Leaping out After dinner, Sonia asked John to drop her a little from that area began on 2 January 1945 and of his jeep to see if they were hurt, he tried “do way short of her house because she didn’t want lasted four days; the fighting then moved you speak English” and then “parli Italiano” and him to know where she lived. But he stayed to northwards into Greece. finally success at last: “parlez-vous Francais”. watch her walk home and the next day, after John and his friend insisted on taking the two work, she found him waiting for her. And so,

with emotions intensified by the experiences of Administration (UNRRA) and returned to Greece 10 October 1945 war, began their love affair. in the role of Distribution Officer. Sonia was washing her hair when, without any warning, It was not a straightforward beginning: John was John knocked at her door. a foreigner who would soon be going back to his own country; he was 13 years older than Sonia; UNRRA was created after the tide of war had and he was already married. Nonetheless, after turned, when the Allies began to prepare for the a while Sonia introduced John to her mother, humanitarian crisis that would exist once who was astonished by this Englishman who said fighting had stopped. The United States, Britain, he wanted to marry her daughter. But her father China and the USSR prepared the UNRRA Alexandros - who had been born and brought up agreement and it was signed by 44 countries at in the Crimea and didn’t much like the Greeks - Washington in November 1943. Food formed was delighted that Sonia wasn’t marrying a the bulk of the UNRRA supplies; without it, many Greek and threw a party to celebrate. Greeks would have starved. ‘Professor’ and ‘Mechanic’, Sonia’s father as John returned to England in October 1945 to be John’s role was to supervise the distribution of ‘Musician’. ‘demobbed’. All Sonia’s friends said he wouldn’t supplies in the area of Trikala. Sonia worked with come back, but by December he had joined the him, acting as his interpreter. Often their work John and Sonia planned to honeymoon in Faliro, United Nations Relief & Rehabilitation took them to remote villages high in the the seaside resort where they had first met, but mountains, where the plight of the villagers was roads out of Athens were blocked by crowds especially desperate. Transport on those trips celebrating the Greek King’s return from exile so was provided by donkeys. It must have been an they found a hotel near home instead. Sonia extraordinary experience for them both. draped her new swimsuit over the bedside light to create a more romantic atmosphere, only for John was released from UNRRA in August 1946 it to catch fire in mid-romancing. and the decree absolute for his divorce was granted on 10 September. John’s mother, Ada, sent material from England for a wedding dress. He and Sonia were married on 26 September 1946 in the Holy Church of Aghia Trias – the Russian Orthodox Church in Athens – by the Curate, Nicolas Pekatoros. On the marriage certificate, John’s occupation was given as

John & Sonia are in the front seats of the Jeep 63

The couple set up home in Jersey, sharing a house with John’s mother, Ada, at 12 Clarence Road, St Helier – a short walk from Victoria College where John was teaching. They visited John’s sister Betty, who was working in Paris at that time.

Sonia’s mother Natalia joined them in Jersey for the birth of their son Ernest Alexander (Alec) on 20 July 1947. Needing more space for the larger family, Ada rented Westway at Beaumont; this was a lovely house beside the long expanse of beach at St Aubin’s Bay, which she divided into two apartments with herself upstairs and the others downstairs.

Alec and Sonia in the garden at Westway

In 1950 Sonia’s mother, Natalia, returned home to eat whole; the door-to-door trader selling to Athens from Tidworth while Sonia and Alec blocks of ice from his hand cart; the fear of followed John to Devizes for his next posting. injections needed to treat Alec’s scarlet fever. Not long afterwards Sonia’s father, Alexandros, But a teacher’s pay was meagre; John and Sonia On return, Sonia took up the life of an Army had a heart attack; she rushed back to Athens found it hard to make ends meet and he decided wife. This involved moving home every few with Alec but couldn’t get there before he died. to go back into the army. Sonia, Alec and Natalia years - in Germany, England, Scotland and He was 48 years old. accompanied him to his first posting, in London, finally France - until 1962 when they returned where they lived in a one-room apartment, Sonia stayed in Athens for six months to help to Jersey for John to resume teaching at sharing a bathroom with other families. Natalia recover from the bereavement. Alec’s Victoria College. Conditions improved when John was posted to first memories were from that time: his They moved house three times in Jersey, so Tidworth in the autumn and they moved into the grandmother Natalia peeling a lemon picked Sonia continued as a homemaker; this in- first of their many married quarters. from their tree and covering it with sugar for him 65

between working at De Gruchy’s department store in St Helier where she was the resident Sonia in Jersey with Ada, interpreter, called upon to assist the many Sonia with John in Jersey John’s mother customers visiting from France and elsewhere who didn’t speak English. Later, she became Assistant Matron at the boarding house in Victoria College.

Sonia had a deep capacity for love; the 13-year age difference between her and John lent a great sense of poignancy to their later years together. Though she never recovered her joie de vivre after John’s death in 1987, Sonia kept herself busy with gardening and with a circle of close friends forged through things like surfing at St Ouen’s and playing badminton at Fort Regent.

Her later years were difficult: she had an operation for breast cancer, became increasingly deaf and lost much of her eyesight to macular degeneration. Towards the end, she went to live with Alec and Lynn in Plymouth, sharing their home with Lynn’s mother Claudia until her death on 6 February 2005, aged 81. She will have hoped that, in the words of John’s poem Poseidon they would indeed “meet once more on the sunlit shore beyond the final door”.

Sonia’s parents, Natalia and Alexandros in the late 1940s

Sonia in 2004, age 80

1936, age 12 1942, age 18 1946, age 22

Peacetime service in the army A year later – on 2 Jul 1951 – John was appointed Staff Officer 2 (Education) with HQ 6th Armoured After two years as a schoolmaster in Jersey, on 3 Division. Having been disbanded at the end of January 1949 John joined the Royal Army the war, the division was re-formed in May 1951 Education Corps on a short service commission and assigned to the British Army of the Rhine in with the rank of Captain. His first appointment - Germany. It consisted of 20th Armoured Brigade accompanied by Sonia, Natalia and Alec - was to and 61st Lorried Infantry Brigade. the War Office in London as Staff Officer III with John and the family travelled out to Germany Army Equipment 1. In September of that year he before Christmas with 6th Armoured Division’s qualified as an Interpreter 1st Class in French and deployment to Frankfurt. Before long, however, 2nd Class in German. His army record also shows they were on the move again, this time to that he had a ‘fair’ proficiency in Modern Greek. Hanover on 18 Mar 1952 for an appointment in again: this time to a terraced house in Preston They were not sorry to leave very cramped No.3 Higher Education Centre, British Army of where Tom Finney - one of the great footballers London accommodation behind them when the Rhine. The desolation of post-war Germany of the time - was their neighbour. John’s next appointment - on 31 Oct 1949 as and the tidal flows of displaced persons had Senior Instructor at the Army College South near eased by this time; nonetheless, the occupying Preston was followed by five happy years in Tidworth, in the rank of temporary Major - forces led privileged lives. John was assigned a Scotland, initially to Perth on 1 Sep 1955 where enabled them to a married quarter. large house and there was time for the family to John was Staff Officer 1 Education at HQ enjoy the mountains during winter and the Highland District. At first, they lived in a lovely Sonia’s mother, Natalia, returned home to beaches in summer. house in the village of Abernethy, south of Athens at that point while Sonia and Alec Perth, with great walking in the hills on their accompanied John to his next appointment. This The time in Germany was short, as on 4 Oct 1952 doorstep. After about a year, they moved to a was on 1 Apr 1950 as Staff Officer II (Education) John was appointed Staff Officer 1 Education in newly built married quarter near Scone, a few for the Salisbury Plain District, based at Devizes. the rank of temporary Lieutenant Colonel at HQ minutes’ drive from Perth. Alec went to Soon after this Sonia, too, went back to Athens, North West District, based at Fulwood Barracks Craigclowan School, a little way south of Perth. travelling in haste with Alec because her father, in Preston. He and the family lived in a large Alexandros, had suffered a heart attack. She hotel for a few months before moving to a newly Memories of the war were receding; there was stayed on for six months after his death to help built house which had the disadvantage of being good friendship and an active social life; John her mother and then re-joined John who, by that in the middle of a building site. sailed on the river Tay; John and Sonia took up time, had been given a regular commission with Scottish country dancing; and they began the Rex - a golden retriever - joined the family at this the permanent rank of Major and – on 1 Jun camping holidays that were to continue for time and his habit of escaping to wallow in the 1950 - posted to Com I.U. RAEC Southern many years to come. surrounding mud persuaded them to move Command, based at Devizes. 68

On exercise in the Harz Mountains

visit Anne-Marie who was studying at St Andrews University.

After two enjoyable years in Edinburgh, John reverted to his permanent rank of Major for an appointment as I.O. (Interpreter) at SHAPE – the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. He joined SHAPE on 15 Apr 1960 to begin perhaps the happiest two years of his life with Sonia. With an office in one wing of the splendid chateau at Fontainbleau, John’s role was to lead the large team of interpreters and translators the married quarter in Scone who enabled the many different nationalities in NATO to conduct their business.

He and Sonia lived in a charming villa (Villa Lulu) at Hericy on the banks of the Seine. They were both linguists: John could speak English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Greek to varying degrees of fluency while Sonia could speak English, French, Greek and Russian. They had many friends of many nationalities and a dizzy social life, which they loved. The US Army base had a PX (like a supermarket) where luxuries by the house in Abernethy post-war European standards could be bought at low prices. The Forest of Fontainebleau In January 1958 John was appointed Staff Officer offered good walking for Rex and there were 1 Education at HQ Scottish Command, based in camping holidays to the south of France. Edinburgh Castle. The family moved to a married But all good things must come to an end: on 29 quarter at Craigihall and Alec attended Melville March 1962, aged 51, John retired from the College in Edinburgh. Mike, who was in the Royal army with the honorary rank of Lieutenant- Navy at that time and based on the West coast Colonel and the family returned to Jersey. of Scotland, visited Craigihall. John took Alec to

Back to teaching Their home for the first few years was 8 passports at the hotel by mistake) and had Claremont Avenue, St Brelade. This had the temporarily forgotten the name of the hotel! great benefit of being close to the wide expanse Alec left home in 1964 to join the Navy. of St Ouen’s Bay for surfing and to the secluded pleasures of Beauport for swimming and picnics. In May 1967 John was promoted from the teaching of modern languages to become Head 8 Claremont Avenue, St Brelade of the Junior School at Victoria College. By all accounts, he was well suited to and highly respected in this role.

Pupils at the school were mainly day boys, but there were about 50 boarders who lived at College House. Sonia was persuaded to become their Assistant Matron and, after some early trepidation, enjoyed the responsibility very much.

One of the traditions at that time was for the school to organise a Mediterranean cruise with P&O during the Easter holiday. John and Sonia volunteered to accompany the Victoria College contingent in loco parentis on these cruises for Ada, John’s mother, became ill soon after their three consecutive years from 1967 to 1969. arrival and lived with them for a short while until Ports of call for the SS Nevasa included Venice, her death in 1963. Dubrovnik, Athens, Istanbul, Sicily, Santorini, Before taking up the appointment in John and Alec travelled to Paris to meet Sonia’s Malta, Tangier and Lisbon; and, of course, once Fontainebleau, John had reached an agreement mother, Natalia Andronikou, who was coming the youngsters were safely in their bunks the with Ronnie Postill - Headmaster at Victoria from Athens to live with them in Jersey. On the grown-ups were free to enjoy the busy social life College, Jersey - that a post would be kept open way to the meet her train at the Gare du Nord on offer. for him to teach modern languages. Alec was after a rather good dinner, their taxi was There was an incident which did cause Sonia therefore sent to the College as a boarder for stopped by armed police carrying out a spot some angst, however. Despite repeated two years until, in Apr 1962, he was joined in check. An awkward conversation ensued when warnings, one of the boys kept climbing on the Jersey by John and Sonia. it turned out that they had no ID (having left ship’s rail to lean over the side. To get his full

attention and persuade him to desist, Sonia smacked him on the back of the leg; but she then worried that there might be a come-back from his parents. Sure enough, some days after returning home she received a letter from the Sonia, John, Betty and Natalia boy’s father … thanking her in no uncertain at the reception after Alec’s terms for making sure his son came back safely. marriage to Lynn on 27 June A large box of chocolates reinforced the point. 1970 in Beckenham Alec joined the Royal Navy in Jersey is a lovely island but a small one; John and 1964 and was studying in Sonia made the most of school summer holidays Plymouth for his engineering to expand their horizons. It was Corfu in 1968 degree when he met Lynn, and in 1969 they discovered the pleasures of who had come from London camping in the Alps, returning there for several to learn midwifery. years.

Alec married Lynn Grainger in 1970 and the Jersey contingent of the family went to Beckenham for the wedding. John’s fifth grandchild, Mark, was born in 1971. Kathie and Mike with John at St Ouen’s Bay, during a visit to Jersey while on holiday from Another highlight was a visit by HRH Princess their home in Canada Anne on 22 May 1972 to open a new science block at Victoria College. In July that year, John retired from teaching.

John and Sonia with Mark in the conservatory at 9 Claremont Avenue, St Saviour in 1972

Return to Athens the Ambassador) and to Chang Chieh, a correspondent with the Hsinhua News Agency; The appreciation on the previous page was he and Sonia enjoyed their friendship and written by the headmaster, Martin Davenport. hospitality in return, for example at a reception As he intimates, John, Sonia and her mother on 1 October 1973 to mark the 24th anniversary Natalia returned to Greece in the summer of of the People’s Republic of China. 1972. This was mainly so that Natalia could claim They revisited places from their past: the ownership of an apartment in Athens: Kafkasou mountains which John had climbed in 1945 with 102, Nea Kypsili, Athens 113 63. Some years comrades from 10th Infantry Brigade; the area previously, her family house had been sold for around Trikala where he and Sonia had worked redevelopment as a block of apartments and together distributing much-needed supplies to one of these rightfully belonged to her; she the mountain villages; and the Temple of needed to take possession of it before other Poseidon at Cape Sounion, of course. relatives did so. heavy fighting with Greek forces, occupied the The atmosphere in Athens at that time was not Summer in Athens city centre proved northern part of the island. A well-founded fear comfortable, however. The civil war that John uncomfortably hot, so John, Sonia and Natalia that all-out war was imminent led senior Greek had been involved with in 1945 had been sold the apartment and moved into rented military officers to withdraw support from the followed by decades of political instability accommodation close to the sea at Glyfada, a junta; the resulting general election in leading to a military coup in 1967 when a suburb in the southern part of Athens. John November 1974 saw parliamentary democracy military junta – commonly known as the taught English to staff at the Chinese embassy restored with Constantine Karamanlis as Prime Colonels – seized power. This was a dictatorship (including the First and Second Secretaries to Minister. with its inevitable paranoia; also, those opposing the junta blamed the US for enabling it But the sense of insecurity worried John and to happen and there was violent anti- Sonia and they decided to return to Jersey, Americanism which made it unsafe to be heard though not before enjoying a bit more social life. speaking English. When out and about, For example, in October 1974 they were guests therefore, John and Sonia spoke either Greek or of the Managing Director of Rank Xerox Greece French; never English in public. at a reception in the Glyfada Golf Club to introduce the new Managing Director. For The junta’s collapse in 1974 was triggered by its special occasions, they enjoyed the Astir Palace sponsoring a coup d’état in Cyprus to overthrow Hotel where they had Christmas lunch in 1974; the Cypriot president, Archbishop Makarios. and at an Easter lunch there in 1975, Prime Turkey responded by invading Cyprus and, after

Minister Karamanlis signed the back of their with a packet of cash secreted on her person and John and Sonia had acquired two more grand- menu. her pulse racing, Sonia became a smuggler. After children during their time away. This was a nice anxious flights to London and then Jersey she chance to renew acquaintance with Mark and to A problem about leaving Greece at that time was handed the cash to her bank manager with a get to know Jo and baby Jim. the strict currency control: the amount of capital huge sigh of relief, stayed overnight in secrecy that could be taken out of the country was After recuperating for a few days, John and from her Jersey friends, and then flew back to limited to the equivalent of £300. John and Sonia Sonia set off on the last leg of their journey, Athens looking as innocent as she could manage. could not afford to leave behind the substantial leaving Natalia with Alec and Lynn until the proceeds from the sale of their apartment. So, Soon - and without telling their family back in Jersey house could be made ready. England - John, Sonia and Natalia had packed their car and caravan to capacity and started the long journey home. They probably crossed the Adriatic to Italy; they certainly lingered on the Cote d’Azur and explored interesting parts of France such as Vendome. By June they had reached Weymouth where they parked up in a caravan site before knocking - completely unannounced - on the door of Alec’s and Lynn’s home. ‘Surprise’ didn’t describe it!

Jim with Mark with John Jo with Lynn Sonia Natalia

A working retirement While John was teaching at Victoria College, he and Sonia had moved into a newly-built With Alec’s family at La Pulente, near bungalow within walking distance of school: the southern end of St Ouen’s Bay No.9 Claremont Avenue, St Saviour. Wisely, wanting to keep an escape route ‘just in case’, they rented out the property when leaving for With Jo, Mark and Jim at Athens. This was where they returned in 1975 Gutter Tor on Dartmoor and where they spent John’s final years, enjoying a nice balance of work and leisure.

From 1978 to 1981 John was Secretary of the Jersey Animal Shelter. Failing eyesight caused him to resign that position but, after cataract operations to restore his vision, he took on assignments with local companies as an interpreter and translator. Later and with the help of a mentor he embarked on freelance journalism, enjoying the research it involved and Christmas lunch at 7 Skardon having several articles published in national Place in Plymouth magazines and periodicals.

John and Sonia took full advantage of what Jersey had to offer: surfing at St Ouen’s Bay; relaxing over a picnic lunch in the shade of a tree at Grouville with views to Gorey Castle; lunch at the Hotel l’Horizon overlooking St Brelade’s Bay. They hosted family visits during some lovely hot summers and resumed caravan holidays to the continent in the shoulder season. They visited family in England.

In 1985 John was diagnosed with cancer. Despite Appreciation he accompanied boys on the Nevasa educational cruises. His an operation followed by radiotherapy, he died Lieutenant Colonel J.A Fearon wife, Sonia, also helped to care for the Victorians and became on 13 Feb 1987 at the age of 76. increasingly involved in College life, so that she was JOHN FEARON entered Victoria College in the third term of subsequently appoint assistant matron al College House. The appreciation at right was written by Dixie 1920, where he soon proved to be an outstanding linguist and a highly proficient swimmer. In 1927, he was awarded the Gold In 1972, John and Sonia left college for retirement in Greece. Landick, a long-time friend and colleague, and Medal for French and the King's Gold Medal for Modern However the political climate in Greece was very unstable at published in the Jersey Evening Post. Languages. A Channel Islands Scholarship to Exeter College, that time and, with Aegean situation deteriorating rapidly, the Oxford was awarded to him in 1929, and while at university he Fearons wisely decided to return to Jersey in the summer of gained a Blue for swimming. 1975.

After graduation with a BA in French and German, he went into But total inactive retirement was not possible for someone of industry and, between 1932 and 1934, also taught French, John's intellect and character, and in 1978 he became German and Spanish at Harbledon School, Canterbury. secretary of the Jersey Animals' Shelter only relinquishing that post in 1981 because of failing eyesight. Towards the end of six years of Army and long service as an officer in the Royal Artillery, he was with the UNRRA Mission to Happily, after a successful operation he regained improved Greece at the British HQ in Athens. vision and, active as ever, he now took up freelance journalism, contributing informative articles which were He then decided to return to teach at his old school, Victoria published in several quality national magazines and College, in October of 1946, having added Italian and Modern periodicals. During this period of life, his services as Greek to his command of languages. Not surprisingly, he was a interpreter and translator were also often in demand in the prominent member of the Modern Languages Department and commercial sphere. assisted in many ways at the school in its recovery from the effects of the German Occupation. This contribution was Those who were privileged to have Lt. Col. Fearon as a working particularly valuable in his coaching of the school's swimming colleague had great admiration and respect for his linguistic and water-polo teams, and in his instruction of the College ability and wide experience, but it was as a friend that John, Scout Troop. the man, will be remembered by many. He was kind and generous, and though he could be firm, he was of In 1948, he applied for and obtained a Short Service Regular exceptionally equable temperament and not without a lively Army Commission in the Royal Army Education Corps. This sense of humour. involved further extensive travel, but he was based at the Headquarters of the Allied Forces (Central Europe) at Our sincere sympathy is extended to Sonia, his wife, his son, Fontainebleau. Alec, his sister Betty, and all members of his family.

Lt Col. Fearon then chose early retirement from the army to L.A.L. rejoin the modern languages staff at Victoria College in the spring term of1962. In May 1967, he was appointed head of the Junior School and in addition to his many other duties

Appendices

Appendix 1: The Gas Light and Coke Company Source: Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History [https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Gas_Light_and_Coke_Co]

1807 A committee was set up under J. L. Grant By 1815, 30 miles of gas main had been laid in material, principally used in caulking and rope to promote Frederick Winsor's scheme for gas London, but Winsor had been ousted from the making. lighting in London but met opposition. company. He went to Paris and founded a small 1817 The company decided to process all its Eventually Winsor overcame the obstacles and gas company there. crude tar itself, instead of selling it. Premises Parliament authorised the company. The company moved to Peter Street, or were leased at Poplar and a tar works was 1810: The Gas Light and Coke Company, Horseferry Road, then the site of a market- established at Orchard Place near the junction of commonly known as the Chartered Company, garden, poplars and a tea garden. the River Lea with the Thames. Thomas Dalton was formally established. Winsor received the was appointed Superintendent and, during the The Chartered Gas Light Company's first works Royal Charter from the Prince Regent. This was next ten years, he developed and expanded were in Peter Street, Westminster, and Brick the first major gas undertaking in the world. The Poplar Works and built up and promoted the Lane, St. Luke's. company was to supply gas to the Cities of range of products, which included pitch, refined London and Westminster, the Borough of 1815 Frederick Accum, Chief Chemist of the tar, varnishes, oils, paints and lamp black. Southwark, and the adjacent precincts and Company, had found that useful by-products 1818 The company leased premises at Orchard suburbs. could be derived from the tar; he used closed Street, Poplar to establish a tar works; the Brick stills to produce a distillate substitute for natural By 1812 the finance for the company had been Lane and Westminster works began their own turpentine. It was used as a solvent in paints and raised. The company (also known as the ammonia products works so the company could varnishes, and later for the public lighting of Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company and make the most of coal burning by-products. Waterloo Bridge and neighbouring streets. the London and Westminster Chartered Gas By 1819, nearly 290 miles of pipes had been laid Light and Coke Company or the Chartered Gas 1816 The Chief Engineer, Samuel Clegg, carried in London, supplying 51,000 burners. Co for short) set up offices at 96 Pall Mall; a out some experiments on carbonising crude tar wharf and house were rented at Cannon Row, to make gas but these were abandoned in 1817. By 1820, at least 20 independent provincial Westminster, which became the site of the companies had been established. works. At some point Poplar works was sold as a going 1816 Thomas Dalton, a foreman caulker at the 1813 On December 31, Westminster Bridge was concern to Turner, Shackell and Hopkinson, who Blackwall shipyard of Wells, Wigram and Green, lit by gas; the old oil-lamps were removed from continued to buy crude tar from the company. St. Margaret's parish, and gas lanterns wrote to the company about possible substituted; on Christmas-day, 1814, the applications for tar. As a result, the company 1840 The Poplar premises reverted to the general lighting of London with gas began. employed Dalton as their sales agent for this company; tar distillation may have ceased then, 81

but Turner was still at the works in 1853, making into the works for key operators; this included 1872 Amalgamated with the Western Gas Light "varnish". churches, shops, a post office and a public Co. house. 1841 The Chartered Gas Light and Coke Co had 1873 One of 9 companies supplying gas to the premises at 10 New Bridge St; Horseferry Road, 1870 After the passing of the City Gas Act, the London metropolis. Westminster; Brick Lane, St Luke’s; Curtain Rd, company amalgamated with the City of London c.1876 Amalgamated with the Independent Gas Shoreditch. Gas Light and Coke Co and the Great Central Gas Co and the Imperial Gas Co. Consumers Co. 1862 Continued to operate the 3 gasworks 1876 The company had 10 railway stations in where it had been for many years: 1870 Production started at Beckton. The operation: company then decided to process its tar and • Horseferry Road / Great Peter St, ammonia by-products. Within a few years 1878-1900 Built three locomotives. Westminster; Beckton Products Works was built on a site • Goswell St / Brick Lane; adjacent to the gas works. Another by-product, 1882 One of only 4 companies supplying gas to • Curtain Road coke, was sold to a wide domestic market. The London; served customers north of the River Thames; took over the London Gas Co. but, unlike most of the other gas companies, rapid expansion of the Gas Light and Coke Co led none of these works were served by water or to the need for a large transport fleet. Every type 1889 Men were laid off from Beckton, railway. of transport was used and usually owned by the prompting the founding of the National Union of company. Shipping, barges and railway engines Gasworkers and General Labourers which 1860s There had always been difficulties in were often used for the import and export of subsequently became part of the General, transferring coal into the principal works at coal and by-products at the works. Road Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union Westminster from ships in the Thames. transport ranging from horse drawn carts to (GMB Union). Combined with the increased production of gas, wagons catered for other supplies and the company decided to build a larger and more maintenance needs. The expansion of the company and competition accessible gas-making facility where colliers from electricity in the late 19th century led to could be brought right up to the works at 1871 Amalgamated with the Victoria Docks Gas development of the domestic market. Lady Gallions Reach, Barking, Essex on the north bank Co and the Equitable Gas Light Co. Demonstrators were employed to promote gas of the Thames. Gas would be taken to central 1872 Five men were jailed for twelve months cooking and the Home Service eventually London by a trunk main. following a strike at the Beckton works in developed into a full advisory service on domestic gas use. 1868 Construction began at what would be support of two workers sacked for requesting a called Beckton Gasworks. Beckton was several pay rise. The sentence was subsequently 1899 As a large employer, the company took its miles from the nearest village, East Ham. The reduced to four months. social obligations seriously and provided various company built a small village beside the road pension, sickness and benefit funds. Links were established with the Territorial Army and by the 82

time of the Second Boer War in 1899, company therms, and used 318,380 tons of coal and 1949 The company was so large that after employees were eligible for duty as reservists 2,650,293 gallons of oil. nationalisation of the gas industry in 1949 the and volunteers were given leave of absence. area it covered, which stretched from Pinner in 1926 The new coal handling plant at Beckton North West London to Southend-on-Sea in 1912 A very large self-trimming collier, Fulgens, Gasworks opened by His Majesty the King who Essex, became North Thames Gas, one of the was built by Wood, Skinner and Co for Gas Light was accompanied by the Queen. twelve regional Gas Boards. and Coke Company. 1929 Listed Exhibitor - British Industries Fair. It is identified as the original company from 1922 British Industries Fair Advert as Manufacturers of Pitch, Tar, Tar-Bitumen which British Gas is descended. Manufacturers of: Tar Products; Ammonia Compounds, Creosote, Naphthalene, Salicylic Products; Cyanogen Products. (Stand No. A.23) Acid, Phenol, Cresylic Acid, Naphthas, Xylole, Toluole, Benzole, Pyridine, Anthracene, Prussian 1924 Two of London's gas undertakings, the Gas Blue, Sulphate of Ammonia, Liquid ammonia, Light and Coke Company and the Brentford Gas Green Copperas, spent Oxide. (Stand No. K.108) Co agreed to amalgamate. Subject to parliamentary sanction being secured the 1934 - 1939 John Archibald Fearon was an amalgamation, it is proposed, should become employee of the company, rising from effective on January 1st, 1926. The salesman to become the showroom manager at Item added by amalgamation, it is held, will provide the Gas the Barking branch. the author! Light and Coke Company with fresh territory for 1939 The Gas Light and Coke Co, the Commercial expansion and development, and in the Gas Co, the Wandsworth and District Gas Co, the Brentford Company's area will secure South Suburban Gas Co, and the South economies principally in the matter of transport, Metropolitan Gas Co promoted a Bill in which has always been a source of some Parliament concerning the efficiency of gas difficulty in view of the situation of the appliances to be installed in London. company's works at a considerable distance up the river Thames. The Gas Light and Coke 1947 Listed Exhibitor at British Industries Fair. Company is already the largest supplier of gas in Manufacturers of Benzole, Naphtha, Toluole, the world. Last year it sold over 167 million Xylole, Phenol, Pyridine, Naphthalene, Creosote, therms, to produce which it used 2,055,117 tons Cresylic-Creosote, Road Tars and Compounds, of coal and carburetted 10,689 431 gallons of oil. Tar-Paints, Pitch, Liquid ammonia, Ammonium The Brentford Company, together with the Sulphate, Potassium Ferrocyanide, Spent Oxide, Richmond and the Harrow Companies now Quinoline Methyl-Naphthalenes, Picolines. incorporated in it, sold last year over 27 million (Olympia, Ground Floor, Stand No. A.1256).

Appendix 2: A potted history of the 4th Division during World War II The 4th Division was a pre-war Regular ORDER OF BATTLE IN 1940 ROYAL ENGINEERS Army formation. It served in France 7th Field Company and Belgium as part of II Corps in 1939 DIVISIONAL HEADQUARTERS 225th Field Company and 1940. Its order of battle at that time is 59th Field Company 10TH INFANTRY BRIGADE shown at right. I8th Field Park Company 1st/6th East Surreys) 4th Postal Unit The division was reorganised on a mixed division 2nd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry establishment in June 1942, when the 21st Tank 2nd Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment ROYAL CORPS OF SIGNALS Brigade replaced the 11th Infantry Brigade. 10th Brigade Anti-tank Company ROYAL ARMY SERVICE CORPS It landed in North Africa on 23 March 1943, 11TH INFANTRY BRIGADE Divisional Ammunition Company coming under command of 1st Army. It 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers Divisional Petrol Company transferred to V Corps on 2 April, fighting in the 1st East Surreys Divisional Supply Company battles for Oued Zarga between 7 and 14 April 5th Northamptons th ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS 1943, and the Medjez Plain between 23 and 30 11 Brigade Anti-tank Company 10th Field Ambulance April 1943. On 3 May, it transferred to IX Corps 12TH INFANTRY BRIGADE 11th Field Ambulance for the final offensive, taking part in the battle nd 2 Royal Fusiliers 12th Field Ambulance for Tunis between 5 and 12 May 1943. The 1st South Lancashires 4th Field Hygiene Section division returned to V Corps command on the 6th Black Watch 22nd May 1943. It then moved to Tunisia District TH 12th Brigade Anti-tank Company 4 DIVISIONAL SECTION, INTELLIGENCE CORPS on the 12th June 1943. ROYAL ARTILLERY DIVISIONAL PROVOST COMPANY The division left North Africa for Egypt on the 14th Anti-tank Regiment 16th December 1943 and reverted to a standard 22nd Field Regiment infantry division establishment. 30th Field Regiment (continued on next page) 77th Field Regiment

The division was deployed from Egypt to arrive ORDER OF BATTLE IN ITALY ROYAL ENGINEERS in Italy on 21 February 1944. It took part in the 7th, 59th and 225th Field Companies fourth battle (Operation Diadem) for Cassino DIVISIONAL HEADQ.UARTERS 18th Field Park Company between 11 and 18 May, under the command of 10TH INFANTRY BRJGADE 4TH RECONNAISSANCE REGIMENT XIII Corps, and then fought in the Liri Valley from 2nd Bedfords 18 to 30 May 1944. ND 1st/6th East Surreys 2 ROYAL NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS nd It participated in the battle for the Trasimere 2 Devon & Cornwal Light Infantry ROYAL CORPS OF SIGNALS Line between 20 and 30 June 1944, the advance ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS to Arezzo between 4 and 17 July 1944 and the TH 12 INFANTRY BRIGADE 10th, 12th and 185th Field Ambulances advance to Florence between 17 July and 10 nd 2 Royal Fusiliers 4th Field Hygiene Section August. th 6 Black Watch 43rd Anti-Malaria Control Unit On 11 August 1944, the division transferred to V 1st Royal West Kents ROYAL ARMY SERVICE CORPS Corps and then to I Canadian Corps on 7 TH 28 INFANTRY BRIGADE 21st, 44th and 509th Infantry Brigade Companies September 1944 for the battle of the Rimini Line nd 2 King's (Liverpool) Regiment rd which commenced on 14 September. The battle 473 Divisional Troops Company 2nd Somerset Light Infantry concluded on 21 September and the division 2nd/4th Hampshires ROYAL ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL returned to V Corps on 1 October 1944. ENGINEERS ROYAL ARTILLERY th th th The division left for Greece on 12 October, 10 , 12 and 28 Infantry Brigade Companies 14th Anti-tank Regiment arriving a day later. It remained in Greece until 22nd Field Regiment DIVISIONAL PROVOST COMPANY the end of the war and was disbanded there in 30th Field Regiment 6TH FIELD SECURJTY SECTION March 1947. 77th (Highland) Field Regiment 91st Light Anti-aircraft Regiment

Appendix 3: The 25-Pounder Field Gun

Appendix 4: Some intelligence summaries

Appendix 5: John’s published articles & stories

Sent to The Lady magazine 29 November 1984. become co-educational. Of course, there is a lot Published 27 June 1985 under the pen name Ian to be said in favour of both these changes. The Gordon comprehensives have also swallowed up the hideous ''blackboard jungle" of the secondary Viewpoint by Ian Gordon: modern schools, and co-education is generally A Square Deal for Girls? accepted, at all levels of our educational system, I am a bit worried about my grand-daughter. as being socially beneficial. I must admit, Not, I hasten to add, about her character or however, that shortly after retiring as Head of a behaviour. In these respects she is a paragon of Department at an exclusively male public school, virtue. What I am worried about is her I was somewhat taken aback on learning that education. She is a highly intelligent girl and one of our pupils had been awarded a place at knows her own mind. When the time came for Somerville! And on revisiting Oxford it did seem her to choose the subjects she would offer in '0' a bit odd to find my old College swarming with Levels, she opted for English, Maths, Physics, elegant young ladies and discover that the Chemistry and French. So what is wrong with number of undergraduates at the University had that, you may well ask. Did not the Prime risen from three thousand in my day to twelve Minister herself take a Science Degree at thousand now. Somerville College, Oxford? What better In spite of the similar increase in the number of example to follow? undergraduates at universities throughout the But times have changed, and education has country, it seems that we are still desperately taken on a new look. To a large extent, grammar short of graduates in Science and Technology. In schools have been swallowed up by the new Engineering, for example, we are producing less comprehensives, and single-sex schools have 95

than 20,000 graduates a year. West Germany is enough sample, why more boys than girls should Girls are also discouraged from aiming at a producing over 50,000 and Japan 70,000 have a natural aptitude for science. So the scientific career by social pressures and the answer to our question must lie elsewhere. A prejudices of friends, relatives and society in The obvious conclusion is that we have far too national conference, recently convened by the general. That's why I'm a bit worried about my many undergraduates reading Arts subjects and Equal Opportunities Commission, highlighted granddaughter. far too few reading Science subjects and this problem. It was the first-ever conference on Technology. But you cannot force an girls' education. undergraduate (or a schoolchild) to take up a subject for which he or she has no aptitude. The The Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 had made it brilliant all-rounder, who can be gently nudged illegal for schools to restrict studies of any in any direction, is all too rare. So where is the subject to only one sex. But a survey carried out untapped reservoir of scientific talent? for the Commission had shown that in most schools the Act was being obeyed in the letter It is true that bad teaching or lack of modern but not in the spirit. After all, a class of twenty- equipment might fail to arouse the interest of five, with one girl among twenty-four boys, some pupils who would otherwise have opted would be complying with the law. Of course, few for science subjects. But I very much doubt boys felt much enthusiasm for subjects leading whether such failures are sufficiently common to a career in nursing, cookery, secretarial duties to account for the vast difference between us or haute couture. They felt that the law was and the Germans, who have roughly the same weighted in favour of girls - as indeed it needed population as we have. A much more feasible to be. explanation emerges from the statistics showing the distribution of GCE candidates. In England, The results were predictable. Boys resented girls for example, '0' Level Physics is studied by poaching on their preserves, and many teachers 131,000 boys a year and only 45,000 girls, a ratio sympathised with them. Boys were allowed to of almost 3 to 1. At -~A• Level the disparity is grab front seats in class, girls had to sit at the even greater,42,000 boys and 10,000 girls, a back. Boys got first choice in use of laboratory ratio of more than 4 to 1. So this may be where equipment and computers, and questions were the untapped reservoir of scientific talent really addressed to boys rather than to girls. Not lies. surprisingly, girls soon lost interest in science. In this field, both comprehensive schools and Why then do so few girls actually choose to coeducation place girls at a disadvantage. study science subjects? Psychologists assure us that there is no logical reason, if we take a big

The cold sea with water safety such as the Royal Lifesaving worry. I have not had time to acclimatise to it" By JA Fearon Society, the Amateur Swimming Association, the (Daily Telegraph 7.8.84). Royal National Lifeboat Institution, the Institute Only three days later, in South Wales, tragedy Accepted by Sport & Leisure magazine of Swimming Teachers and Coaches, the Inland was averted by the courage and resourcefulness March 1985 Waterways Board, and, of course, the of a 16-year old girl lifeguard who swam out sponsoring body, the Royal Society for the The drowning season started early this year. A nearly 400 yards to help save six boys floating Prevention of Accidents. somewhat macabre note, you may say, on which out to sea on inflatables. She stayed with them, to start an article about some events taking The reason why the drowning season began so keeping them afloat and calm, while a colleague place during the remarkably beautiful summer early this year was the sudden heatwave at the ferried them one by one to the shore using his we have all enjoyed in 1984. end of April, coinciding with a late Easter - the surf longboard (Daily Telegraph 10.8.84). weekend of the 22nd - and the schools being still Unfortunately, much to the regret of all On the very same day a New Zealand lady on holiday. In fact, everybody was on holiday, concerned the sad fact remains that a thousand swimming teacher failed in her attempt to swim basking in the sunshine. Then tragedy struck. On or so deaths by drowning occur each year in the Irish Sea. After completing more than half of the Merseyside coast two teenage girls Great Britain. And, with the best will in the the 19-mile swim, she gave up after suffering embarked on an airbed, intending no doubt to world, this is not a subject which can be treated from a coughing fit and chest pains (Daily sunbathe in the shallows. The offshore wind as light-heartedly as the antics of certain tennis Telegraph 10.8.84). must have carried them out to sea before they players on the Centre Court at Wimbledon. realised what was happening. And by then it was Still on the same day, a reminder was published With the increasing popularity of a wide variety too late. An airbed is so light that you cannot of one of last year's worst drowning tragedies of sports, such as sailing, surfing, powerboat paddle it with your hands against even a with the announcement in the London Gazette racing, water skiing, canoeing and sailboarding, moderate breeze. And so cold is the sea at that that the Queen's Commendation for Brave the safety problem is likely to increase time of year - less than 10 degrees centigrade - Conduct had been awarded to Police Constable dramatically unless urgent measures are taken that even the strongest swimmer cannot survive Patrick Abram, sole survivor of an incident in to coordinate resources, information, research, in it for long. which four people, including three other police administration and publicity. It was for these officers, were drowned at Blackpool last January Even in August, at the height of this wonderful reasons that the Royal Society for the (Daily Telegraph 10.8.84). Prevention of Accidents convened a National summer season, the lesson had still not been learnt. By this time air temperatures were in the Water Safety Conference in Birmingham early in On 21 August the heat wave reached its peak upper twenties, and the sea temperatures had May this year. with air temperatures of 31 degrees centigrade reached about sixteen degrees centigrade. But, in Anglesey and 31.9 in the Channel Islands. On Those attending the Conference represented on 6 August, a 36-year old Sri Lankan died in an the south coast dozens of windsurfers and local authorities throughout Britain, and a wide attempt to swim the English Channel. Before the people on inflatables were swept out to sea by spectrum of national institutions concerned swim he had said: "The cold sea is my biggest deceptively high winds and had to be rescued by 97

lifeboats and helicopters. On the same day it The lectures and discussions of the Conference seconds, such a massive loss of body heat that was clearly shown that inland waterways could covered the whole range of relevant topics, from the heart stops beating. be just as dangerous as the sea. An elderly man the teaching of water safety to children at school Even in the comparatively temperate waters in was rescued from drowning at Limehouse to the most suitable type of warning notices for and around Britain, the same thing can easily Reach, and swimmers were warned by the danger spots, the coordination of publicity in the happen. The Channel swimmer from Sri Lanka Metropolitan Police to keep out of the Thames, media, and the latest medical research into the who died on 6 August this year did not die from which could be a death-trap. An Inspector of the causes of death in open water. drowning. He was alive when his escort crew River Police stated that, so far this year, 37 It was this latter subject which gave the pulled him from the sea and gave him mouth-to- bodies had been recovered, and a further 38 Conference its greatest impact by radically mouth resuscitation. He was transferred by people had been saved from drowning, in the changing all previous ideas about the cause of helicopter to hospital, where he died after 54-mile stretch of the Thames for which they are death and the means of survival. Recent further attempts to revive him failed. He died of responsible. And during the whole of 1983, 58 research had shown up the error in the hypothermia. In his own words: "The cold sea is bodies had been recovered and 82 lives had commonly held belief that the primary cause of my biggest worry." been saved in that area (Daily Telegraph "drowning" was asphyxiation due to sinking 22.8.84). Similarly, Police Constable Abram was dragged below the surface. That of course might be the from the sea as the sole survivor of' the tragedy And to complete the toll for August, it was only ultimate result, but the primary cause was mentioned above which took place at Blackpool two days later that the bodies of two Belgian hypothermia. in January last year. He owed his life to the holidaymakers were recovered from the Solway The word "hypothermia" is familiar to most of us chance presence of a doctor. The newspaper Firth (Daily Telegraph 24.8.84). in a different context. Every time we have a report concludes with these words: "Although These items were picked at random from news harsh winter we hear reports of elderly people blue with cold, he survived largely because a reports during one month of a very fine summer. living alone who are found to have died of doctor who had studied hypothermia was on the They give some indication of the size and hypothermia because they could not afford scene.” importance of this problem of water safety, not adequate heating in their homes. And that is So one of the main topics of this year's National only around our coastline, but also in our exactly what the word means - "not enough water Safety Conference was how best to numerous lakes and inland waterways. And, as heat'. In the Murmansk convoys of World War reduce the death toll in open water by we have seen, the same problem has been Two the Royal Navy suffered many thousands of combating hypothermia. That meant finding the recurring year after year, with an annual average casualties when their ships were attacked and best means of retaining body heat. The normal of a thousand deaths, and many thousands of men were thrown into the sea. These men did temperature of the human body is about 37 rescues which might otherwise have been fatal not die because nobody had taught them to degrees centigrade. The temperature of open if they had not been saved in time. swim. They died of hypothermia, because the water in and around Britain seldom exceeds 16 Arctic seas are so cold as to cause, within a few degrees centigrade. So some loss of body heat is

inevitable. The aim of recent research had been thus helping each other to retain body heat, if to devise ways of reducing that loss. possible using any floating object for support.

The first step was to find out which parts of the These recommendations are, of course, body lose heat more rapidly than others. These intended for the majority of cases where no proved to be the head, the groin, and the sides really large floating object is available, e.g. a of the chest. The next step was to find out capsized boat which cannot be righted, or a whether clothing was a help or a hindrance. It sailboard with a broken mast. Where such was found that clothing in general helped to objects available, the survivor would obviously retain body heat, but footwear and heavy outer be able to reduce the heat loss still further by clothing (such as an overcoat) should be drawing his whole body out of the water. discarded because of their weight. A third (and The experts believe that these methods afford very important) discovery was that exertion the best chance of survival until help arrives. caused a very rapid increase in the rate of heat Instruction in these new procedures for personal loss. survival provided in schools and the Amateur So much for the theory. The experts had next Swimming is now being swimming clubs with the turned their attention to practical approval of Association and the Royal Life Saving recommendations for survival. First, clothing Society. Let us all hope that it will pay dividends should be retained, except as noted above. in future years in the shape of a massive Second, the head at least must be kept above reduction in the heavy toll of fatal accidents in water level. Therefore a life jacket should be open water. worn whenever there is the slightest possibility of getting into difficulties. Failing this, any floating object can be used for support. Exertion, such as a long swim to shore, should be avoided at all costs. To protect the areas of maximum heat loss, a survivor should adopt the position known as H.E.L.P. (Heat Escape Lessening Posture), with the arms held close to the sides of the chest, and the legs drawn up towards the chin. A group of survivors should adopt the posture known as HUDDLE which, as its name implies, means gathering close together and 99

Safety Catch reached the corner and saw a lighted shop only a few months to live, he could find window not far away. Perhaps they would let something better to do than spend them locked A short story by JA Fearon him sit down for a minute, give him a glass of up in jail. The police sergeant knelt quickly to Published by Tyre Publications, 1985 water, even a cup of tea? The door was open. He examine the body, then a sixth sense made him staggered in, then stopped aghast. It was a Sub- look across to where Peter stood behind the Peter Jones felt stunned. The shock had been so Post-Office cum general store. Behind the grille door, the revolver held steady in both hands. sudden, so totally unexpected. "I can give you six sat an elderly man, shot through the head, with months to live - maybe less", Dr Simpson had He had never killed a man before. This man blood and brains spattering the wall behind him. said. He had tried to break it gently to him, but looked a bit like his father. Middle-aged, ruddy- Peter had asked him to give it him straight. faced, grey eyes calm and steady. "Take it easy, Better to know the worst than keep on son." His own troubles overshadowed by this new wondering if it might be tomorrow. horror, Peter's first reaction was to look for a The sergeant, still kneeling, made no move. If he Pale and shaken, his mind in a turmoil, he phone. Quickly he glanced round. There wasn't had been young, tough, aggressive, it would wandered aimlessly through the dark streets in one in the shop, but a light shone from a half- have been easier. the early December evening. He felt numb, his open door at the back. Living-room? It might be "It won't fire with the safety catch on, you throat was dry, and his brain hardly recognised, there. In two quick strides he was inside. The know," the sergeant spoke the words softly, among the other traffic noises, what sounded phone was on a small table behind the door, the almost conversationally. like a car backfiring in a nearby street. And again, receiver hanging loose. An overturned chair. An a few seconds later. Almost immediately, as he elderly woman sprawled on the floor. A neat Safety catch? For one fatal split-second Peter approached a dark corner, a short burly figure bullet-hole between the eyes. Carpet soaked in glanced down at the gun. The sergeant's tackle hurtled round it, cannoned into him, cursing, blood. By her side, a handgun. By a sort of reflex took him at knee level, and the shot hit the and knocked him flat. As he began slowly to action, he picked it up. Then remembering what ceiling as Peter went over backwards. In no time gather his wits, Peter heard a car door slam, the he'd come for, he moved over to the phone, still at all the manacles were on his wrists. As he got scream of tyres, and the frantic revving of an absent-mindedly holding the gun. He picked up to his feet the forensics arrived, and five minutes engine receding in the distance. the receiver to replace it ready for dialling and later he was being cautioned at the station. On was still holding it when the siren of a police car the way the sergeant had explained the con. Slowly and painfully he got to his feet. The man's sounded outside. head, butting him in the solar plexus, had "I could see you didn't know your way around a knocked the wind out of him. It was a quiet Peter stood as if paralysed. Then the reality of Smith & Wesson, lad. If you'd had the hammer neighbourhood, nobody on foot in this cold his position suddenly dawned on him. The cocked, I'd be a dead man now. That's why I weather, a few cars rushing by, but none of instinct of self-preservation swamped every pulled the gag about the safety catch." them stopped to help him. Holding for support other thought. He had nothing to lose. They'd to the tall warehouse wall on his right, he pin the other two murders on him anyway. With After the caution he still insisted on telling his story exactly as it had happened. After he had 100

signed it, the C.I.D. Inspector came in, read it through, and sighed.

"He's been charged and cautioned?" The constable at the door nodded.

The Inspector looked across at Peter. "Pretty tall story, isn't it? This the best you can do? Could mean life, you know - thirty years." Peter laughed bitterly. "You must be joking. I couldn't face that sort of hell. But I wouldn't have to, see? You read what Doc Simpson told me? Get him on the phone, he'll corroborate it."

"There's a phone in the corner. Help yourself."

Peter moved across and dialled the number. "Hello, Doc? Peter Jones. Could you please corrob…."

"Peter!" The doctor broke in, "I've been trying to get you all afternoon. I've got some very good news for you. There's been a mix-up. Those test samples weren't yours. They belong to another Peter Jones, poor devil. You may live to be a hundred!"

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Light at the end of the tunnel membrane, thus allowing the lens to become Surfing was no problem either though I must By John Fearon fogged. The surgeon simply removed the admit that when the family came to visit and we damaged lens, which was replaced in due course went surfing on a crowded beach, Number 2 Published by Choice magazine by glasses or contact lenses. The operation grandson (aged 7) had to be sent to lead me by January 1986 lasted about 45 minutes and involved a stay in the hand when I got lost on the way back. hospital of only a few days. It was on the return journey from our annual So, if ever you are faced with cataract, I hope this holiday in France when suspicion arose that my It was after the second operation, when I no will reassure you that there is light at the end of eyesight was no longer quite 20/20. longer had normal vision in either eye, that I the tunnel. realised how much I would need to adapt to a My wife and I used to divide the driving into two- hour shifts and the one who was not driving did new style of vision. I had been provided with one the map-reading and gave directions at pair of glasses for distance and another for reading. as a temporary measure until I could crossroads and roundabouts. have bifocals. Tempers became a bit frayed at the end of a long hot day when I could not give directions until we The distance glasses enabled me to see everything with great clarity but could not were almost on top of the signposts! change focus like a normal eye. Also, my sight So, it was at my wife's insistence that I agreed to was restricted to a limited angle above, below consult our optician. He said: "Yes, there is and on both sides. The technical term for this is something there. It may not be cataract, but I "tunnel vision". But the human eye and brain think you should see the specialist." adapt very quickly.

After his examination the specialist said: "You I had assumed that, with the lens removed, I have cataract in both eyes. It is more advanced would be completely blind without glasses. But, in the left, so I'll operate on that first." in fact, there is quite a lot of vision left. though outlines are blurred. This encouraged me to try The confirmation came as a bit of a shock, but my favourite aquatic sports. the specialist's matter-of-fact attitude was the best treatment for shock ever devised. I asked a Swimming was no problem at all. Even on my few more questions. own, I could drive down to the beach, leave my glasses with my outer clothing, swim to my I learned that the lens of the eye was normally heart's content, and find my way back to where protected by an impermeable membrane, and I had left my belongings. that cataract resulted from weakening of this

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