XD Operations Read online
First published in Great Britain in 2004 by
Pen & Sword Military
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Copyright © P.H. Brazier, 2004
9781783034161
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Dedicated to the officers and men of
The Kent Fortress Royal Engineers TA,
who answered the call on 3 September 1939.
‘War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things:
the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic
feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.’
J.S. MILL
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
Chapter One - PRELUDE TO ACTION
Chapter Two - ACTION STATIONS – AMSTERDAM
Chapter Three - ROTTERDAM
Chapter Four - ANTWERP
Chapter Five - THE SEINE
Chapter Six - EVACUATION
Chapter Seven - DUNKIRK, CALAIS AND BOULOGNE
Chapter Eight - CHERBOURG AND ST MALO
Chapter Nine - ROBINSON CRUSOE – BREST
Chapter Ten - IRAQ
Chapter Eleven - MICAWBERS ALL
Chapter Twelve - ULSTER INTERLUDE
Chapter Thirteen - SPITZBERGEN
Chapter Fourteen - GIBRALTAR
Chapter Fifteen - GREECE
Chapter Sixteen - MIDDLE EAST
Chapter Seventeen - AIRBORNE
Chapter Eighteen - UBIQUE
EPILOGUE
Appendix I - ROLL OF HONOUR
Appendix II - HONOURS AND AWARDS
Appendix III - PROPOSALS FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF BULK OIL STORAGE INSTALLATIONS
INDEX
FOREWORD
by Professor Richard Holmes, CBE, TD
I am particularly pleased to have been asked to write the foreword to this book. As a military historian I am delighted to see an almost unknown aspect of the Second World War given the attention it deserves, and as a former Territorial I am proud to acknowledge the remarkable achievements of a Territorial Army unit.
The title ‘Kent Fortress Royal Engineers’ has a wonderfully old-fashioned ring, but in fact the unit bearing it dated only from 1932 when the government decided to make Territorials, rather than regulars, responsible for the defence of Britain’s coasts against enemy attack. Its ranks were filled with volunteers in just forty-eight hours, thanks largely to the efforts of its commanding officer, Clifford Brazier, the author of this book.
In 1940 the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers were tasked, at short notice and in extreme secrecy, with wrecking oil storage facilities in France and the Low Countries. The task demanded the destruction of the large fuel oil stocks along the coastline from Holland to the Bay of Biscay. These would have represented a great prize for the German war machine. Sites which were often close to areas which had to remain undamaged, sometimes with understandable local tension about the demolitions, and often with a high risk of air attack and the close proximity of advancing German troops. It required not only specialist knowledge, but also a high degree of courage and resourcefulness. Officers and NCOs often had to act on their own initiative: the buck stopped with them. Although the demands of national security meant that the unit’s considerable achievement could not be reported at the time, the achievement of the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers was recognized with a list of awards which made it, for the time, the most decorated unit in the British army.
The unit’s contribution to victory did not end there. It was in Kent during the Blitz; sent a detachment on a Commando raid to Spitzbergen; provided the nucleus for a parachute engineer squadron and elements served in the North African desert. However the bulk of the original unit returned to France by way of Normandy to fight through Belgium and Holland and on into Germany. All this would have been a remarkable achievement for regular soldiers, but so many of these men had begun as part-time soldiers, and at the end of the war the survivors returned to the communities they had defended so well. Before the war it had been easy to poke fun at Territorials as ‘Saturday night soldiers,’ but after it Field Marshal Slim aptly affirmed that the Territorial was actually ‘twice a citizen’.
As I write these lines members of the Territorial Army are serving abroad on operations on a scale not seen since the Second World War. Sometimes they are specialists, adding value to Britain’s contribution by making use of their own civilian expertise, and sometimes, by doing purely military tasks, they are taking some of the strain off a busy regular army. This book reminds us that the army has a long history of blending Territorials and regulars in a rich mixture that represents the best of two distinct but complementary military traditions.
INTRODUCTION
In the spring of 1940, the country learnt with relief of the miracle of Dunkirk and the courage of the Royal Navy and flotillas of small ships that plucked our army from the beaches. Churchill and his military advisers knew, however, that there was little to celebrate. In just a few weeks Hitler, with his blitzkrieg, had achieved what the Kaiser had failed to do in four years – he had overrun France and crushed her armed forces and swept ours from mainland Europe. Britain stood alone against the might of Nazi Germany.
General Sir Richard Gale, who commanded 1 Parachute Brigade and later 6th Airborne Division on D Day, was a Colonel on the staff of the Director of Military Operations at the War Office in 1940. In his autobiography Call to Arms he wrote of this dark period:
The withdrawal from France and the evacuation from Dunkirk was no direct concern of ours . . . . The tragedy of these events were for us, however, off-set to some extent by the exploits of a Territorial Army Unit, the Kent Fortress Engineers, with whose work we were intimately concerned. Their exploits are little known, which for reasons of security at the time is not surprising.
These operations were no less than the destruction of all oil installations in the Low Countries and northern France. The task had to be done by small parties of men who remained behind after the army had withdrawn, subsequently making their getaway as best they could. Some we managed to get off by destroyer; others only made their escape weeks later after the Germans were in the whole of northern France.
General Gale continued:
The firing of oil installations is not simple if this is to be done in such a way that the conflagration caused cannot be put down. It take
s time, requires detailed knowledge of the installation, great skill and above all courage. These qualities the officers and men of this unit had in good measure.
Who was this unit and why were they given the largest demolition programme ever undertaken by the Royal Engineers? How did they become the most highly decorated unit (150 all ranks) at that time in the British Army?
In 1932 to save regular manpower in the army, the War Office decided to replace the regular gunner and sapper units manning our coastal defences, with local recruited Territorial units. The War Office approached the Managing Director, A.C. Davis, of the Blue Circle Cement Company to sponsor a company sized Territorial unit for this purpose. At that time the author of this book, my father Clifford Brazier, was manager of their largest cement works in Kent. As he had served as a sapper officer in the First World War and had left the army afterwards as a major, he was asked to raise and command the unit which was named The Kent Fortress Royal Engineers. In the event it was raised to full strength in forty-eight hours; a record which has never been equalled! Initially the unit was almost exclusively drawn from personnel working in the local Blue Circle cement works. They became highly regarded by the military authorities for their efficiency and in 1938 my father was made a brevet lieutenant colonel. He remained in command until handing over on promotion in February 1942. This is simply the story of this TA sapper unit through the first two and a half years of the war.
These operations, code named XD, were highly secret at the time mainly because of their political sensitivity. As a result when my father, just after handing over command, wrote this book based on reports and conversations with his officers and men and his own experiences of the operations, he was not able to mention the names of the players or much of the details of the tasks. Although this book is, in general, much as he wrote it, I have altered it in places for authenticity as far as possible and have been able to put in the correct names where they are known. I have deliberately not removed references to Huns, Jerries and Boche as these were the terms used at that time. The sentiments expressed reflected the prevailing national mood. It is worth remembering that my father’s generation had to take up arms against the Germans twice in their lifetime.
Sadly, few of the people mentioned are still alive, I am however greatly indebted for the help and encouragement given to me in particular by Major Peter Keeble DSO MC TD, who was one of the main players in this saga. At the age of ninety-three his memory of those days is quite remarkable considering it was sixty-three years ago. I am also indebted to Lieutenant Colonel Paul Baker MBE, who was one of the first young officers to join the Kent Fortress unit straight from officer training only days before their first operation. The other person who has been of help is Barry Phillips, until recently the Chairman of the Gravesend Historical Society. He was so impressed by what he learnt of the unit some years ago that as a hobby he researched as much as he could of what was officially code-named XD Operations carried out by the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers. At that time a number of the men who had taken part in the operations were still alive and he was able to interview them.
I would also like to thank the Royal Engineers Library for their loan of the notes by the late Major Bernard Buxton DSO. Alan Wakefield of the Imperial War Museum kindly undertook a search for any possible relevant photographs.
No official photographer accompanied the operations described here for reasons that will become obvious. Lance Corporal Hill, the HQ draughtsman in 1941, took on the role of Official War Artist and produced the drawings in this book from photographs taken by some of the officers and men and descriptions given to him by the participants.
This Territorial Army Unit was very much a family affair. In this relatively small industrial community everyone knew each other well, their backgrounds and families. My father was not only the largest employer locally, but he was Chairman of the local District Council and Chairman of the Bench. Because he had been extended in command of the Kent Fortress Royal Engineers no less than three times by 1939, he was very much a father figure in the hierarchy of the unit. The average age of all ranks was higher in the TA than their regular counterparts; on parade a number of them bore First Word War medals. My father was in his early fifties when these events took place.
In editing this book my task was made much easier by the fact that I knew many of the men in the original unit, some of them extremely well. I was in my early teens at the time and inevitably I was aware of some of the facts after the events had taken place. I joined the Army myself towards the end of the war and served for thirty odd years in the Royal Engineers.
Finally I am greatly indebted to my wife, Helen, who took on the task of correcting and typing this book.
P.H. (Jock) Brazier,
Marnhull, Dorset, October 2003
Chapter One
PRELUDE TO ACTION
The beginning of the story was in those far off days, pre-war, pre-crises in fact, when as a Territorial Fortress Company Royal Engineers, we trained together with the Heavy Coast Defence gunners to resist sea borne attack upon the Thames River and estuary. With its endless docks and many miles of coastline, the numerous industries, together with its vital geographical situation in relation to the capital of the Empire, we certainly gained the impression that our responsibility was not to be taken lightly. Hence it was not considered at all surprising that during the crisis in the autumn of 1938, we were embodied and spread around our war stations in the estuary. This period lasted just a month, then back to factory and workshop again. When, a year later, after progressively menacing moves by Germany, war broke out, not only did mobilization cause little comment amongst the men, but the move to the forts seemed natural and inevitable. The wartime footing of the defences not only meant day and night watch-keeping in order that the searchlights could spring into action at a moments notice, but in addition to all the ordinary humdrum activities of the garrison we were busy modernizing our equipment.
The convoy of buses moved off towards our war stations, all farewells were taken, and the sorrowing families left behind to turn over in their minds what it all meant. How long would it be, when would we return? Off we went, men and baggage lumbering through town and countryside and, as is the custom, singing heartily the songs of the people. It was a queer repertoire, telling of their affection for ‘South of the Border’, and all the oft repeated hit tunes of the dance halls and radio. A raucous mouth organ would lead them in quick succession from tune to tune but every now and again in the cycle, a particularly strident air would stir the tired ones, and bring them back to renewed vocal effort to proclaim in the most dominant manner, ‘GOOD MORNING MR STEVENS AND WINDY NOTCHY KNIGHT’.
Good morning, Mr Stevens and windy Notchy Knight
Hurrah for the CRE.
For we’re working very hard down at Upnor Hard
Hurrah for the CRE.
You make fast, I make fast, make fast the dinghy,
Make fast the dinghy, make fast the dinghy,
You make fast, I make fast, make fast the dinghy,
Make fast the dinghy, pontoon
For we’re marching on to Laffan’s Plain,
To Laffan’s Plain, to Laffan’s Plain,
Yes, we’re marching on to Laffan’s Plain,
Where they don’t know mud from clay.
Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah,
Oshta, oshta, oshta, oshta.
Ikona malee, piccanin skoff,
Maninga sabenza, there’s another off,
Oolum-da cried Matabele,
Oolum-da, away we go.
Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah,
Shuush . . . . . . . . . . . . . Whoow!
On this occasion I pondered over this oft repeated and familiar doggerel, and wondered what either of the worthies quoted did to merit such immortalization. It came back to Chatham from the Boer War. It is sung to the same refrain as ‘We’re marching on to Pretoria’ and the fact remains that wherever sappers are gathered together (and the party isn’
t too dry!) the RE song is bound to break out sooner or later. On company concert programmes it is styled ‘Hurrah for the CRE’! Moreover, I remembered an old gramophone record of it in the Sergeants’ Mess and at dances it was sometimes played as a one-step. At times one would hear less complimentary and quite unprintable variations of the words of which it may be wise to say no more.
As we bumped along towards our destination, which was to mean such a tremendous upheaval in all our lives, I turned the peculiar insistence of these flippant verses over in my mind and was forced to the conclusion that the words did not matter, although the reference to Upnor Hard was apposite enough. What then was it that perpetuated it down the years? The tune might be considered invigorating, but could hardly be credited with much musical merit! By this process of reductio ad absurdum there was only one answer, it was the saga of the sapper, and that is all there is to the matter. Hence it has travelled to the four corners of the earth with the Corps motto, Ubique. I wondered, ‘How far will these lads take this very peculiar song before they return to their homes for good?’
My reverie came to an abrupt end when the convoy pulled up beside the parade ground within the area of the fort, and the keen night air coming in from the sea quickly brought one back to realities. The all important duties of off-loading and distribution of manning details to action stations was the occupation of the moment.
During those early days, through the hard winter of 1939, all were keyed up by the expectation that great things were about to happen, and we should be in the stalls for the performance. Then, doubts crept in. Discussions and speculations in the mess and barracks had in the past centred around the type of attack we might reasonably expect – whether it would be a light raiding force of motor torpedo boats, or large block ships that would sink themselves in the fairway, or some kind of fleet action, with or without an attempt at invasion – but now we began to wonder whether it would come at all!