WW2 100 – 24 October 1942 – ‘Sadly missed by his sorrowing wife’: Private Charles William Holmes (1910-42), The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey), 1/7th Battalion
Continued from 25 Sept 1942 - A tragic accident at Dalditch Camp: LIEUTENANT JAMES AYERS BAYLEY (1918-42)
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/10/ww2-75-tragic-accident-at-dalditch-camp.html
El Alamein War Cemetery. Image credit: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Charles’
name does not appear on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial, but the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission records tell
us that he was the husband of ‘G. E. Holmes, of Budleigh Salterton’ and that he is commemorated in
the El Alamein War Cemetery.
Image credit: www.warmemorialsonline.org
He is also listed on Otterton's War Memorial.
By chance I found online the rather impressive Mitchell family tree at www.devon-mitchells.co.uk which told me that ‘G.E. Holmes’ had been born Gladys Ellen Mitchell on 15 May 1912, in Colaton Raleigh. She was one of 14 children of Henry George Mitchell and Budleigh-born Lucy Annette Mitchell, née Pearcey. Gladys Ellen had married Charles in 1934.
The family tree has been put together over 30 years by Ian Mitchell, who has collected Mitchell and Michell data from all over the south-west of England. If you have not found the Mitchell you want on his site, do contact him. If your Mitchell came from Devon or Cornwall, he can almost certainly help you.
Kentisbeare: a village scene from the past, from a postcard
But back to our main subject, Gladys’ husband. Ian’s website has now been updated with Charles
Holmes’ details. He was born at Kentisbeare, near Cullompton, on 31 January 1910, the son of George Henry and Emma Maud
Holmes née Broom. I have not found details of George Henry Holmes, but Charles' mother Emma Maud had strong roots in Kentisbeare. She was the eighth of the ten children of Edmund Broom, who was born in the village in 1856 and died at Tiverton in 1928.
Kentisbeare War Memorial
Image credit: www.devonheritage.org
Although Charles was born in Kentisbeare, his name does not
appear on the War Memorial in the village’s St Mary’s Church.
Image credit:
www.eastdevongolfclub.co.uk
In the 1939 census he is listed as a golf club groundsman. Could he have been
working at East Devon Golf Club here in Budleigh? I see from the website that
the Club has a Heritage section where you can listen to recordings of caddies’ memories
going back to the 1920s. The above photo is captioned ‘Caddies
and Players outside the clubhouse - circa 1920-30’
Cap badge of the Queen’s Royal Regiment, showing the Paschal Lamb, said to be the oldest of all
regimental badges Image credit: www.wikiwand.com
Like many other people in the years prior to WW2 Charles was attracted
to the idea of joining the Territorial Army (TA). The 1/7th Battalion of The
Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) in which he enrolled was, along with the 1/5th and the 1/6th, part
of the 131st (Queen’s)
Brigade (TA) which had been assigned to the 44th (Home
Counties) Division in December 1936.
Following the
declaration of war in September 1939, combat training in Dorset began the
following month for the whole of the 44th Division, continuing
throughout the winter.
Troops from the first contingent of the BEF embarking for France at Southampton, England, September 1939. This is photograph H 27 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums
As part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the 131st (Queen’s) Brigade embarked at Southampton for France on 2 April 1940, arriving at Cherbourg the following day.
Image credit: Jean-Jacques Brioist
They eventually took over on 5 May a
sector between Armentières and Bailleul facing the Belgian frontier,
from units of the 51st (Highland) Division. The Germans launched their invasion of Holland and Belgium five days
later on 10 May, attacking British positions on the Escaut River. After two
days of fighting, the Queen’s battalions were withdrawn to defensive positions
between Saint-Omer and La Bassée.
In accordance with the
policy of intermingling regular and territorial units, the 1/7th Queen’s
had left the Brigade on 4 May to join the 25th Infantry Brigade
of the 5th Division. Charles then found himself with his
battalion holding part of the line of the River Dendre, covering the withdrawal
of the main body of the British Army. The 1/7th was then ordered to
fall back to the Bassée Canal, where Charles and his battalion were part of the
Allied force which played a key part in delaying the German advance on Dunkirk.
The mission of the 25th Infantry Brigade, which now included the 1/7th Queen’s, was to line the Béthune-La Bassée canal along the north bank and face the heavy fighting to the south. The canal was an obstacle to any German advance, and its bridges had been prepared for demolition. However, there were barges moored so densely on certain stretches that they offered German infantry a 'footbridge' where they could leap from one to another and cross the canal. The 23 May was spent setting fire to and destroying the barges.
The mission in the face of the enemy’s advance was not without danger. Lieutenant Colonel Ninian Hawken, as a young Second Lieutenant in the 1/7th, was one of those awarded the Military Cross in 1940 for his part in directing, under fire, the destruction of the barges.
The Evacuation from Dunkirk Image credit: Imperial War Museums
Following the success of the mission, Charles and the 1/7th withdrew to Dunkirk. About 150 men from the Battalion were evacuated on 30 May at about 9 am, and the rest followed in small parties during the next few days. Two years later a senior naval officer, Admiral Sir George H. D’Oyly Lyon, was to write ‘The bearing, good order and discipline of the Queen’s Royal Regiment on its return from Dunkirk was an example and inspiration to us in the Royal Navy.’
In the absence of any access to a wartime diary that Charles might have kept, or to stories of WW2 that he may have told his family, it is worth considering how he and his fellows may have accomplished that withdrawal. Was it as straightforward as the so-called ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’ would suggest?
Googling 1/7th and Dunkirk, I was excited to find that the Imperial War Museums had recorded the recollections of Henry Palmer, a British NCO who served with Charles and the 1/7th Battalion at this time and was evacuated from Dunkirk on 2 June. It’s been so useful, and fascinating, to listen to these IWM recordings in the comfort of home. But on this occasion, what a disappointment! There is apparently ‘no media available’. Why not, I wonder? ‘Lack of funding’ perhaps. At least the IWM have published a summary of the recording, reproduced here:
REEL 1 Family background. Service with 1/7th Bn,
Queen's Royal Surrey Regt in London and Somerset, 1937-1940: inadequacy of
2-inch mortars and anti-tank guns; reaction to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; mobilisation;
comradeship and discipline within Territorial Army; attitudes to 'ranker'
officers; training; discomforts; impatience with inactivity; under estimation
of Germans; lack of information about move to France. Recollections of operations
in France and Belgium, 4/1940-5/1940: billeting in barns. REEL 2 Continues:
change in attitudes of French civilians to BEF; equipment of BEF; sleeping in
open; actions against Germans; impressions of German tanks and military
qualities; British morale; congestion on roads; civilian casualties; admiration
for Belgian soldiers; defence of La Bassee Canal. REEL 3 Continues: prevention
of civilians crossing bridge; inadequate demolition of bridge; organisation for
picking up wounded; retreat to Dunkirk. Evacuation from Dunkirk, 2/6/1940:
scene on beaches and amusing incidents; embarkation; German failure to respect
Red Cross; embarkation on HMS Malcolm; heroes' reception in GB; praiseworthy
behaviour of officers; differences between territorials and regulars. REEL 4
Continues: BEF counter-attack near Ninove; dangers of sheltering in woods.
So, back to Google. And this time, to my real excitement, the transcript of an interview made on 19 February 2004 with Queen’s Regiment veteran Tommy Windle. Entitled ‘Retreat from the La Basse Canal to Dunkirk’, the account is evidently by a member of Charles’ 1/7th Battalion because Tommy Windle describes blowing up the barges in the canal before getting the order to withdraw. It’s a recording made by the BBC in the excellent WW2peopleswar series, and is full of picturesque detail – some of which is unexpected.
Tommy’s account is a vivid illustration of the chaotic aspects of the British retreat: ‘loads of material which could have come in useful’ being abandoned, the surliness of French people whom he encountered – notably the farmers who stood around with shotguns, protecting their food.
And no wonder: Tommy and his mates are reduced to eating raw sugarbeet from the fields. Where is Dunkirk, they ask themselves as they wander like lost sheep along the French and Belgian borders and between Allied and German lines. Luckily they manage to commandeer a truck on the way. But where are the officers to lead Tommy and his platoon, I wondered. More than 60 years after the event, Tommy remembered the advice he received when he politely asks a group of officers for the way to Dunkirk – a Brigadier, a Lieutenant Colonel and a Captain, poring over a map on the bonnet of their Army truck: ‘F*** off, and find your own way!!!’
They finally reach their goal on foot, having been told to abandon their own commandeered truck by an unhelpful British military policeman.
The Little Ships at Dunkirk by artist Norman Wilkinson (1878-1971) © IWM Art.IWM ART LD 6007
‘It was chaos at Dunkirk’, Tommy tells us. And terrifying. The sky is black with Stukkas, dive-bombing the Allied troops. ‘I was so frightened that,when one particularly intense attack finished, I climbed out of a foxhole that I had dug with my bare hands, without knowing it!’
Safely on board ship, as they think, the vessel receives a direct hit about a mile out of Dunkirk. Luckily they are rescued by another ship, but Tommy faces a new challenge.
‘I climbed up the scramble nets onto the ship. This was really difficult. It took ages. I was tired, my mouth was full of fuel oil and climbing scrambling nets is an acquired art. I was dragged over the railings to be confronted with a chaotic sight. We were told to make our way across the deck, but the only way to get to where they wanted us, was to pick our way through a sea of injured people lying on the deck. We kept stumbling and treading on really badly hurt comrades - it was terrible. There was so much moaning and screaming around me - I'll never forget it.’
So, that, for at least one member of the 1/7th Queen’s Battalion, was ‘the Miracle of Dunkirk’. You can read the full story at https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/12/a2316412.shtml
Perhaps Tommy was
unlucky, and Charles’ experience of the Dunkirk evacuation was not as
traumatic. But it does seem that his
Battalion drew the short straw in terms of being among the last to leave France
while protecting the main body of Allied forces. As the official regimental history
puts it, ‘1/7th Queen’s
casualties were surprisingly light, numbering two officers and 91 men killed,
wounded or missing’.
Following his return to England, Charles, like Tommy, re-joined the Queen’s Regiment for training in the Yeovil and Sherborne area. The 1/7th Battalion, which had left the 131st Infantry Brigade on 4 May 1940 rejoined on 2 July 1941 and the Brigade was used for general guard duties, including the defence of Manston airfield in Kent. The airfield was used as a forward base by many squadrons during WW2, owing to its location close to the front line. It had been frequently attacked and heavily bombed during the Battle of Britain.
Western Heights from Dover Castle: Drop Redoubt
in the foreground, Citadel in the background
Image credit: Nilfanion/Wikipedia
In October, the 131st Brigade moved into winter quarters at Dover’s Western Heights fortress as part of the town’s garrison. With the threat of imminent invasion removed, the atmosphere was almost that of peace-time soldiering, apart from intermittent bombing and shelling, which caused few casualties despite the Dover area’s nickname of ‘Hell Fire Corner’. One inconvenient event occurred when a large bomb was dropped between the Officers’ and the Sergeants’ Messes, rendering both uninhabitable.
Inside the Grand Shaft at Dover’s
Western Heights Fortress Image credit: Doverpast/Wikipedia
The barracks became mere holding accommodation for
troops, and it seems that the rigid social hierarchy of the Victorian Army came
to the fore. The
1/7th Queen’s were stationed in the Grand Shaft, the most famous
of the three spiral staircases at the Citadel in the Western Heights fortress. Legend has it that the three staircases
became segregated – one for ‘Officers and their ladies’, one for ‘Sergeants and
their wives’, and the third for ‘Soldiers and their women’.
In March 1942, the 44th Division received a warning order that it was to be mobilised for overseas service by the 15 May. HM The King visited the Division on the 14 May and on the 24 May, the 131st Brigade embarked at Gourock in the Clyde Estuary near Glasgow.
This overseas service would be very different from the dismal experience that the Brigade had endured in 1940 with the British Expeditionary Force. After three years of war against the Axis dictatorships the mission would culminate in the final Battle of El Alamein, a landmark in the Western Desert campaign. It would be a welcome turning-point in the war, of which Churchill would later write that before it, the Allies never had a victory, and after it, they never had a defeat.
For Gladys, Charles’ wife, the mission would bring sorrow and one
can only hope that she was consoled by the thought that her husband had lost
his life in a victory with such a famous name.
Erwin Rommel with his officers in North Africa, June 1942 Image credit: Bundesarchiv Bild
Military operations in the Western Desert campaign had begun in June 1940 with the Italian declaration of war and the Italian invasion of Egypt from Libya in September. Operation Compass, a British five-day raid in December 1940, had led to the destruction of the Italian 10th Army, and Benito Mussolini had sought help from Adolf Hitler, who sent a small German force to Tripoli.
In the spring of 1941, Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Corps in Operation Sonnenblume forced the Allies into a retreat to the Egyptian border. The port of Tobruk, held by Allied forces, was under siege from April for much of 1941, but in November/December of that year, the Axis forces were defeated and Tobruk was relieved with the success of Operation Crusader. Early 1942 saw the Allies driven back by Rommel and defeated in the Battle of Gazala, which took place in May/June 1942.
The road from Bardia to
Tobruk on 21 June 1942 with British prisoners of war on the left, sunken ships
in the harbour and smoke over the port
Image credit: Bundesarchiv Bild
Axis troops captured Tobruk on 21 June in what was the second largest capitulation of British Army forces in the war after the fall of Singapore. But Axis supply lines were over-stretched and Rommel failed to press home his advantage. The First Battle of El Alamein would end in stalemate on 27 July.
The SS Strathallan, converted as a troopship in drab wartime grey Image credit: www.pandosnco.co.uk
Charles was one of the thousands of men in two Divisions, the 44th and the 8th Armoured Division, who had disembarked at Port Suez a week earlier, on 21 July. The two-month voyage had been a major operation involving a convoy of many ships; the 44th Division alone had needed eight vessels, accompanied by 15 other ships not including an armed escort consisting of the battleship HMS Nelson, an aircraft carrier and a number of destroyers. The 1/7th and 1/6th Queen’s Battalions travelled on the P.&O. liner Strathallan, which held about 5,000 troops.
After
14 days at sea the convoy sailed into Freetown, Sierra Leone, where it stayed
for several days. No one was allowed to land, but at Cape Town the Strathallan
put in for three days and everyone was allowed ashore. Aden was reached on 16
July, before the final stop at Port Suez. The
next destination was Khatatba Camp, some 60 miles east of Cairo and the following
weeks were spent in training for desert warfare. On 14 August, the order
came for the 44th Division to join the Eighth Army immediately.
Montgomery in a Grant tank
in North Africa, November 1942 Image credit: Wikipedia
Two days earlier, Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery had arrived from London to take command of the Eighth Army. His plan was to turn the ridge of Alam Halfa, south of El Alamein, into a fortress against Rommel. But that required additional infantry, which was provided by the 44th Division. Its experience of desert warfare was minimal, but it had been under Montgomery’s command defending the south coast of England, and the Alam Halfa plan was based on a purely defensive strategy. With other Queen’s battalions, Charles and the men of the 1/7th would play an important part in creating the fortress. The battalions set to work and dug in, which was time consuming in the rocky ground. They were encouraged by a visit from Churchill on 20 August.
Hut 6, Bletchley Park, in 2004. Hut 6 was the
wartime section of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at
Bletchley which was tasked with the solution of German Army and Air Force
Enigma machine cyphers, providing the high-level Ultra Intelligence material
which helped the Allies in the Western Desert campaign. Image credit: Wikipedia
The German advance came on 31 August, but an Ultra Intelligence intercept had been received via Bletchley Park indicating an imminent enemy attack. Axis attacks on the ridge failed. Short on supplies, Rommel ordered a withdrawal. Montgomery chose not to exploit his defensive victory, preferring to continue the methodical build up of strength for his autumn offensive, the Second Battle of El Alamein. By 5 September, with their failure at Alam Halfa, the Axis forces in Africa lost the initiative and Axis strategic aims on the continent were no longer possible.
The 131st Brigade was also one of the units involved in Operation Braganza, which was launched on the night of 29 September with the aim of capturing an area of ground near Deir el Munassib in Egypt, to be used for extra artillery deployment. But the 1/7th Battalion, presumably still including Charles, played a defensive role in the operation, and had little difficulty in occupying their positions, only encountering spasmodic shelling. British casualties were heavier in other positions, where Italian paratroopers put up strong resistance, and Operation Braganza was counted as a defeat for the Allies.
The
deployment of forces on the eve of battle at El Alamein Image credit: Noclador
Rommel knew that the Allied forces would soon be strong enough to attack, and continued to request equipment, supplies and fuel. But the priority of the German war effort was the Eastern Front and very limited supplies reached North Africa. With the two sides facing each other, south of the railway halt at El Alamein, Rommel relied on the use of extensive minefields as a defence against the Eighth Army; it is estimated that 500,000 were laid.
Montgomery expected a 12-day battle in three stages. Preparations on the Allied side in the months leading up to the battle included deceptions to confuse the Axis commanders such as the construction of dummy ammunition dumps and a dummy pipeline.
A 25-pounder gun firing during the British
night artillery barrage which opened Second Battle of El Alamein, on 23 October
1942. Image credit: No 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Photograph E 18469
from the collections of the Imperial War Museums
At 9.40 pm on 23 October, a 1,000-gun barrage shattered the evening calm of the desert landscape with a bombardment that would last for five and a half hours. Operation Lightfoot had begun.
El Alamein 1942: British infantry advances through the dust and smoke of the battle. The photo was taken on 24 October, the day that Charles Holmes was killed.
Image credit: Sgt Chetwyn, No 1 Army Film &
Photographic Unit. This is photograph E 18474 from the collections of the
Imperial War Museums (collection no. 4700-32)
Twenty minutes later the signal was given for four infantry divisions to advance, and Charles in the 1/7th Queen’s Battalion would have been among them. But even at this early stage in the battle he may well have been among the many casualties. Even as the 1/7th Battalion waited for the signal to advance, enemy mortar fire in response to the Allied bombardment had killed and wounded a considerable number of men.
Italian prisoners of war captured in the El
Alamein area entering the ‘cage’ preceded by their guard. Image credit: Wikipedia
The planned advance through the minefields took place, many of the enemy surrendered, and after twelve days, on 4 November 1942, the anticipated victory was achieved and the name of El Alamein was remembered with pride. But for those involved, the bloody chaos of war must have stifled any sense of elation. The official history of the Queen’s tells us that Charles’ 1/7th Battalion had suffered heavily in their battle against the Italian ‘Folgore’ light infantry and German 22nd Parachute Brigade units manning this part of the line. A dozen or so officers had been killed or wounded, and 179 other ranks killed, wounded or missing.
In total, losses were heavy on both sides: one estimate gives 59,000 killed, wounded, captured, and missing for the Germans and Italians, and for the Allies, 13,560.
But the turning-point in the war had been reached. ‘Now this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end,’ said Churchill of El Alamein. ‘But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.’
Ian Mitchell
in his Devon Mitchells website notes that Charles’ widow Gladys remarried. She died on 11 Jun 1975, aged
63, her surname having become Jeff, and her address being recorded as 36 Blenheim
Road, Worcester, Worcestershire. Ian and I would be pleased to hear from
members of the family who may like to provide further information, and certainly
a photo of Gladys and Charles.
The next post is for
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/01/ww2-75-6-november-1942-in-loving-memory.html
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