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 1/5^th and the 1/6^th, part of the 131^st (Queen’s) Brigade (TA) which had been assigned to the 44^th (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 44^th 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 131^st (Queen’s) Brigade embarked at Southampton for France on 2 April 1940, arriving at Cherbourg the following day.

Map of Dunkirk-Escaut waterway showing Armentières and Bailleul, Saint-Omer, Béthune and La Bassée  

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 51^st (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 1/7^th Queen’s had left the Brigade on 4 May to join the 25^th Infantry Brigade of the 5^th 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 1/7^th 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 25^th Infantry Brigade, which now included the 1/7^th 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 1/7^th, 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 1/7^th 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 1/7^th 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:

 Content description

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’ 1/7^th 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 1/7^th 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, ‘1/7^th 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 131^st 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 131^st 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 1/7^th 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 44^th 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 131^st  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 44^th  and the 8^th 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 44^th 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 1/7^th and 1/6^th 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 44^th 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 44^th 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 1/7^th 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 1/7^th 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 1/7^th 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 1/7^th 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’ 1/7^th Battalion had suffered heavily in their battle against the Italian ‘Folgore’ light infantry and German 22^nd 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 SAPPER ARTHUR STANLEY PENGILLEY (1914-42), who was killed on 6 Nov 1942 while serving with 244 Field Company, the Royal Engineers. You can read about him at 

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/01/ww2-75-6-november-1942-in-loving-memory.html