WW2 100 – 29 January 1944 – ‘A very gallant old soldier’: Sergeant Daniel George Dicks (1910-44) Hampshire Regiment 1/4th Battalion

 Continued from 9 January 1944

‘In proud and happy memory of a very greatly loved son’:

SERGEANT ROBERT HUGH DAVIS WATSON (1924-44)  Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 131 Operational Training Unit (OTU) 

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/01/ww2-75-9-january-1944-in-proud-and.html

 

 

Top: East Budleigh village War Memorial, with (bottom) the Memorial panel in the village's All Saints' Church 

Daniel’s name appears not on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial, but on the above two memorials in East Budleigh where he and his family lived for a time before moving to Budleigh Salterton. The Devon Heritage website lists him as born in Taunton, Somerset, in 1910, to parents Daniel and Jane Dicks.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) noted that he was the husband of Lily Kathleen Dicks, of Budleigh Salterton, and indeed his widow’s grave is in St Peter’s Burial Ground, on Moor Lane, in Budleigh.  

 

Photo of Royal Hampshire Regiment cap badge. Image credit: Dormskirk/Wikipedia

A real question for me arose when I came across the account of the episode in the 1944 Italian campaign when Daniel lost his life. Now I have to confess that I am not a military historian, and have not been able to access all the research facilities which would improve these profiles of WW2 war dead. What I read on the official website of the Royal Hampshire Regiment was this:

‘Among the NCOs killed was a very gallant old soldier, Sergeant D. Dicks, who died at the head of his platoon. He had been wounded twice previously, and had escaped from captivity.’ 

‘Wow!’ I thought. ‘What was Daniel’s story? And how could he be described as an ‘old soldier’ at the age of 34?’  

It’s true that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission also notes that he was twice Mentioned in Despatches. And also probably sadly true that most casualties of WW2 were young servicemen in their twenties. I suppose people grew up a bit faster in that awful time.

From the CWGC record we learn that Daniel served in the 1/4^th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment, with Service Number 5668374. It is likely that he would have started his military service in one of a number of Territorial Army (TA) battalions attached to the Regiment.

As the prospect of war grew more likely, on 29 March 1939, Secretary of State for War Leslie Hore-Belisha announced plans to increase the TA from 130,000 to 340,000 men. The Hampshire Regiment’s 4^th Battalion was split into the 1/4^th Battalion and the 2/4^th Battalion, and together with the 5th Battalion were all grouped into the 128^th Infantry Brigade, known as the Hampshire Brigade. Along with the 130^th Infantry Brigade – which included the 7th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment – it was part of the 43^rd (Wessex) Infantry Division.

 

 

Evacuated troops on a destroyer about to berth at Dover, 31 May 1940.  Image credit: Imperial War Museums © IWM H 1637

The 128^th Brigade was mobilised in September 1939, soon after the outbreak of war and was preparing to go overseas to the Franco-Belgian border to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). However, the BEF's retreat and evacuation from Dunkirk during the Battle of France cancelled these plans and the 43^rd (Wessex) Infantry Division instead remained in Kent on the defensive and prepared for a potential German invasion of England.

At the time, the evacuation of the BEF was celebrated by many in Britain as a great achievement. The Dean of St Paul's, Walter Matthews, was the first to call it the ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’, leading people to view it as a wondrous event and indeed ‘a great victory for British arms’ as the future Field Marshal Montgomery recalled in his Memoirs. He knew that the opposite was the case.  

‘I remember the disgust of many like myself when we saw British soldiers walking about in London and elsewhere with a coloured embroidered flash on their sleeve with the title “Dunkirk”,’ wrote Montgomery. ‘They thought they were heroes, and the civilian public thought so too. It was not understood that the British Army had suffered a crushing defeat at Dunkirk and that our island home was now in grave danger.’

In due course, the danger would be recognised, but only after a certain time. Montgomery recalled being posted to the Sussex coast near Brighton, where the plan was to prepare the area for defence against invasion, which was considered imminent.  

‘The protests were tremendous. Mayors, County Councillors, private owners, came to see me and demanded that we should cease our work; I refused, and explained the urgency of the need and that we were preparing to defend the south coast against the Germans.’

 

Eventually, invasion fever showed itself in the thousands of defensive structures which would be thrown up along British coasts. Many are still visible, like this pill box on Budleigh’s Salting Hill.

Concrete road barriers in Cheriton, Kent, 10 July 1940. An East Kent Bus shelter converted into a pillbox can be seen in the background.  Image credit: Imperial War Museums H2185

Kent, where Daniel and the 43^rd (Wessex) Infantry Division were posted, was considered particularly vulnerable and here the defensive work was particularly intense. Local historian Paul Tritton of Kent Archaeology Society has produced a fascinating study which focuses on the efforts made in one Kent town. It’s entitled Could Hitler have captured ‘Tonbridge Fortress’? and you can read it online here 

Montgomery is featured in Paul Tritton’s study because, on 27 April 1941, the future victor of El Alamein was appointed to command the 12^th Corps, an important part of the United Kingdom’s Home Forces. It comprised the 43^rd (Wessex) Infantry Division along with various other divisions and regiments, and for a time Montgomery’s Corps headquarters was in the nearby town of Tunbridge Wells.  

 

The ammunitions entrance to Ouvrage Schoenenbourg along the Maginot Line in Alsace, France. Image credit: John C. Watkins V. Military commanders such as Montgomery scorned the idea of such anti-invasion defences, which proved useless when the Germans invaded through the Low Countries in 1940

Under another commander, the 12^th Corps might have contented itself simply with reinforcing defensive structures where troops might have remained largely inactive while awaiting a German invasion. But Montgomery had definite ideas about what kind of army was needed to defeat the enemy, and how Britain should be defended. 

‘The accepted doctrine was that every inch of the coastline must be defended strongly, the defence being based on concrete pill-boxes and entrenchments on a linear basis all along the coastline,’ he explained in the Memoirs. ‘Inland, “stop lines” were being dug all over England; when I asked what troops were available to man the stop lines I could get no clear answer. There were no troops.’ His approach was different. He planned to pull troops back from the beaches and hold them ready in compact bodies, poised for counter-attack against the invaders.  'My whole soul revolted against allowing troops to get into trenches and become “Maginot minded” and incapable of offensive action.’  

 

Men of the 2/4^th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment scale an obstacle during 'toughening up' training in wintry conditions at Wateringbury in Kent, 20 January 1942  Image credit: Imperial War Museums Photo H16713

But a ‘hard and tough’ training programme was needed to instil a sense of urgency into the troops. ‘Some of the training exercises I organised and staged were harder and tougher than anything previously known in England,’ he claimed.

 Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery, GOC 5th Corps, right, with war correspondents during a large-scale exercise in Southern Command   March 1941. Image credit: Lieutenant Cash, War Office official photographer – Photograph H 8492 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums

In March 1941, as General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 5^th Corps he had conducted a large-scale exercise in Southern Command, based on Salisbury Plain.  Exercise Tiger was even bigger: a combined forces operation involving 100,000 troops which he conducted in May 1942. It was the largest military exercise ever to take place in the United Kingdom, and was particularly gruelling for the infantry involved, who marched over 100 miles during the course of the exercises.

Such was the kind of military training which may explain how Daniel was seen by his fellow-soldiers in the Hampshire regiment: an admired platoon leader twice Mentioned in Despatches who could even be described as ‘a very gallant old soldier’ while still in his thirties. He would surely have been one of Montgomery’s ideal soldiers.

Daniel might even have fought under him in the Eighth Army at El Alamein.  However, on 6 June 1942, the 128^th Brigade was detached from the 43^rd Division and transferred  to the 46^th Infantry Division, where it would remain for the rest of the war. In January 1943, Daniel and the 128^th Infantry Brigade left Britain with the rest of the 46^th Infantry Division, part of what was known as the First Army. The destination was the Maghreb western part of North Africa.

 

Sketch map of Tunisia during the 1942–1943 campaign Image credit: Kirrages/Wikipedia  I have added places mentioned in my text, indicating them with a red star

The mission, codenamed Operation Torch and involving American forces, had as its aim the invasion of North West Africa with a three-pronged attack on Casablanca, Oran and Algiers and then a rapid move on Tunis. The French colonies in the area were dominated by the French, formally aligned with Germany since 1940 but of mixed loyalties.

 

Image credit: Wikipedia

Reports indicated that they might support the Allies. The above photo shows American soldiers landing near Algiers in November 1942. The soldier at the dune line is carrying a flag because it was hoped that the French Army would be less likely to fire on Americans.

 

General view of transports anchored off shore near Algiers in November 1942 during Operation Torch. Two lorries are parked on the beach, whilst two landing craft are beached and several more can be seen between the beach and the large number of supply and troopships stretching across the horizon. Image credit: Lieutenant J.A. Hampton, Royal Navy official photographer

On 6 January 1943, Daniel and the 128^th Brigade departed from Gourock, Scotland, and the 138^th Brigade set out from Liverpool. Previously, on 24 December 1942, 4,000 men of the 139^th Infantry Brigade and supporting forces had departed from Liverpool. Both brigades arrived in Algeria on 17 January. While the 138^th moved across land, the 128^th Brigade re-boarded ships and were transported further down the Algerian coast to Bône. During this move, an Axis air attack resulted in one ship being sunk and the loss of materiel. The 128^th Brigade marched to a new and uncompleted transit camp some five miles east of Bône, where it remained until the end of January.

In the early Spring of 1943, the 128^th Brigade bore the brunt of the German offensive in Northern Tunisia during Operation Ochsenkopf (Ox Head). Also known as the Battle of Sidi Nsir and the Battle of Hunts Gap, this was an Axis offensive operation in Tunisia from 26 February to 4 March. Its aim was to force the Allies to withdraw and delay a further advance from the west, while Rommel prepared the attack of the 1^st Italian Army  from the Mareth Line defences against the Eighth Army to the east.

At the end of January, the 128^th Brigade, with four battalions of the Hampshire Regiment, including the 1/4^th, advanced to occupy the defensive positions in the hills near the town of Béja. The  Kzar Mezouar  area, including points known as Hunt’s Gap and Hunt’s Farm, which Daniel and the 1/4^th Battalion took over, was of special strategic importance, located on a gap in the hills - a natural route for enemy tanks to follow.   

On 26 February, the 5^th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment was the target of a major German attack which aimed to capture Béja.

 

 A Tiger I tank from the 501st Heavy Panzer Battalion, Tunisia, January 1943 Image credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-554-0872-35 / Helmuth Pirath

Veteran Jonathan Wilkinson, a Lance Corporal in the 5^th Battalion, gave a graphic description of the odds which he and his fellow-soldiers of the Hampshire Regiment faced. Their enemy was part of the crack German 2^nd Division of Rommel's Afrika Corps. Experienced paratroopers picked off many of his friends while a long line of Tiger and Panzer tanks advanced towards their positions. Blasted by heavy enemy mortar fire they were also strafed from the air by Messerschmitt fighters.

After a 24-hour battle, which included three German tanks being disabled, the Battalion was reduced to 120 men and forced back. The following day, the Germans attacked towards Hunt's Gap where the reinforced 128^th Brigade was concentrated, including the North Irish Horse Yeomanry Unit’s 27 Churchill tanks which had raced 90 miles to the scene. Fighting raged until 3 March, by which time the Brigade had halted the German effort to capture Béja and destroyed at least 11 tanks. 

Looking back in 2005, as he recalled the events for the BBC People’s War series, Jonathan Wilkinson explained how, after the war, he had learnt that the resistance at Sidi Nsir where all were ordered to hold positions, had helped to delay this crack German Corps for some 48 hours. It gave vital time for extra mining of the road and the reinforcement of Hunt’s Farm. ‘The German attack was successfully repulsed,’ he recalled. ‘I am really proud of my Hampshire mates who “fought like the Tigers on our regimental badge”, and the brave Royal Artillery lads whose guns were knocked out one by one.’ For the rest of March the Brigade was engaged on defensive patrolling while heavy enemy shelling continued. The 1/4th Battalion lost 100 casualties during just four weeks.

 

 

 

A Universal carrier and a Churchill tank of 51^st Royal Tank Regiment during 6^th  Armoured Division's attack on the town of Pichon, 8 April 1943. Image credit: Imperial War Museums

On 2 April, the 128^th Brigade moved 100 miles (160 km) south to assist in an attack towards Pichon, near the holy Muslim city of Kairouan. This was part of a larger effort to intercept Axis forces retreating north, from the south of the country where they were being chased by the Eighth Army.

 

German prisoners and their guards wait in a roadside ditch during 6^th  Armoured Division's attack on the town of Pichon, 8 April 1943.  Image credit: Imperial War Museums

The resulting fighting was a success for the Brigade, who took 150 prisoners, but the overall attack failed to trap Axis forces. They then marched north to rejoin the main body of the 46^th Infantry Division, arriving on 14 April.

 

Vickers machine gun team of 10^th Battalion The Rifle Brigade, training near Bou Arada, 30 April 1943. Image credit: Imperial War Museums

The Division was next tasked with capturing hills northeast of the town of Bou Arada, to open the way for an armoured advance towards Tunis. On 21 April, Axis forces launched a minor spoiling attack that was repelled. Further back and forth fighting continued until 27 April as the Division was called upon to clear additional Axis positions. On 20 May, elements of the 46^th Infantry Division took part on the victory parade in Tunis.

The Hampshire Regiment as a whole had suffered heavy losses during the Tunisia campaign, and the 128^th Infantry Brigade was reconstituted to consist of 2^nd Battalion, 1/4^th Battalion and 5^th Battalion.

 

The Invasion of Italy: Maps  Image credit: Wikipedia

After the North African campaign of WW2 came the invasion of Southern Europe through Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, launched on 9 July 1943. While the US Fifth Army, led by General Mark Clark on the west side of Italy, aimed for Rome, the British Eighth Army advanced northwards on the east side of the country.

Daniel and the Hampshire Regiments of the 128^th Infantry Brigade did not take part in the Sicily Campaign, as the 46^th Infantry Division was kept as a floating reserve.  

The Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Ground Forces Commander, General the Hon Sir Harold Alexander with the Commander of the 5th Army, Lieutenant-General Mark W Clark and the Commander of the British 10^th Corps, Lieutenant-General Sir Richard McCreery during Alexander's flying visit to the Salerno beaches on 15 September 1943  Image credit: Imperial War Museums

But on 9 September 1943, the 128^th  Infantry Brigade was one of three brigades, part of the Fifth Army, which made an assault landing at Salerno in Italy, codenamed Operation Avalanche.

 

Salerno, 9 September 1943 (Operation Avalanche): A landing craft ablaze offshore after receiving a direct hit. In the foreground on the beach are troops and casualties from the boat.  Image credit: Imperial War Museums © IWM NA 6588

The Brigade faced fierce opposition from enemy shore batteries and machine gun fire. In a 2005 BBC recording made for the People’s War series, Private Victor Donald Delves serving with the 2^nd Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment, recalled that it was as if ‘All Hell had been let loose’ as enemy shells rained down on the invading landing craft and Allied ships pounded the shoreline.  

Vivid memories of this time remained with Donald Delves. A few days after the landings, amidst the hell of the bombardment he discovered by chance a very young soldier who had lost his nerve and wounded himself in the foot to escape the conflict.

There would surely have been others. Donald Delves remembered seeing one who had deserted for a short while, a veteran of the North African campaign, who was made to stand on a wooden box. ‘We had to gather round for a few minutes and told that this would happen to us if we deserted. This soldier had all his hair cut off and he was shaking,’ he recalled. ‘We and others who knew him were convinced that this poor chap was what we called “Bomb Happy”. He was suffering from shell shock. He was ill and did not deserve this!’

Other memories included seeing the flames from the hospital ship HMHS Newfoundland, bombed by German aircraft four days after the Salerno landings, and learning later that all the doctors and five nurses on board had perished.   .

In spite of everything, Daniel and the 1/4^th Battalion along with the 2^nd Battalion made steady progress. By 20 September the 128^th  Brigade had succeeded in reaching the hills above Salerno, and the Germans had begun to withdraw northwards, but the cost had been heavy. The 1/4^th  Battalion suffered 159 casualties; the two other battalions had fared even worse, with 304 casualties from the 2^nd Battalion, while the 5^th Battalion lost 29 officers and over 400 other ranks.

 

Taken during the Fifth Army's assault on the River Volturno in Italy on 13 October 1943, this photograph depicts Royal Engineers using a 'shorelanding desk-craft' which they had built specifically for moving reinforcements, carriers, ammunition and food across the river, near Castello Volturno  Image credit: National Army Museum NAM Accession Number NAM. 2002-06-6-19

By 10 October the 128^th Brigade had moved 100 kilometres northwards, and the 1/4^th Battalion succeeded in capturing the town of Castello Volturno, establishing a bridgehead on the north side of the River Volturno. Fierce resistance continued to be encountered as the Germans brought up tanks, but by November the Brigade had reached the River Garigliano.  

 

Crossing of the River Garigliano, Lauro, on 19 January 1944. The photo shows Royal Engineers in assault boats embarking  for the opposite bank of the river at Lauro to repair the last two sections of the pontoon bridge knocked out by enemy fire. The location is clearly different from the point on the river where the 128^th Brigade was attempting to cross. Image credit: Imperial War Museums

The 128^th was selected as the Assault Brigade of the 46^th  Infantry Division, and its three battalions were trained in river crossings in preparation for a night assault across the Garigliano. The plan was for the 1/4^th Battalion to cross on the left, with the 2^nd Battalion on the right, and the 5^th in reserve. A thick mist covered the river, which had turned into a torrent and was deeper than usual because the Germans had released the sluices of the San Giovanni Dam.

The assault began at 8.00 pm on 19 January 1944, but severe problems were encountered from the start. Getting the boats through the minefields down to the river was a hazardous business and in the darkness confusion reigned. Some of the 2^nd Battalion succeeded in reaching the opposite bank, laying a cable to guide the remaining boats but it snapped in the violent torrent and boats were swept away. The 1/4^th  Battalion tried 14 times to get a cable across the river, but without success, even failing to cross when attempting the alternative route. As dawn broke on the morning of 20 January, the attempted crossing was abandoned, and the few men who had succeeded were withdrawn.

Meanwhile, enemy reconnaissance patrols  had spotted the 128^th Brigade’s attempted crossing and artillery fire from higher ground to the north of the Garigliano rained down on the British positions.

Just over a week later, on 29 January, the Brigade were attempting an alternative route northwards where a successful crossing of the Garigliano had been forced. The aim was to capture Monte Damiano, a bare, razor-backed feature which was being used as a vantage point by the enemy. The attack was led boldly by the 1/4^th  Battalion, supported by the 2^nd, and was met by a savage onslaught from German positions. Mortar and machinegun fire resulted in a heavy loss of life. Daniel’s battalion suffered badly, with four officers killed and five wounded, along with 80 casualties among other ranks in the 1/4^th  Battalion.  

Cassino War Cemetery  Image credit: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Such was the carnage that it would be understandable if Daniel’s body was never recovered for burial. As of 2012 there were 4,271 Commonwealth servicemen of the Second World War buried or commemorated at Cassino War Cemetery, and it’s shocking to learn that of the burials, 289 servicemen are unidentified. German resistance to the Allied invading forces as they pushed northwards was particularly intense. In the Battle of Monte Cassino, between 17 January and 18 May, the Allies suffered 55,000 casualties, while German losses were considerably lower at approximately 20,000. 2,000 civilians were also killed.

‘The hardest-fought battle of World War II’ is the sub-title of historian Matthew Parker’s 2004 book Monte Cassino about this bloodiest conflict in the Italian campaign.  

In the absence of any diaries that Daniel might have kept there are only accounts by veterans who might have fought alongside him, and some of the stories shock you in their raw violence. So I found that the BBC recording made in the People’s War series about the experience of Private Albert Leonard Stephens – ‘Bert’ to his pals – was a kind of reassurance that moments of humanity survived even in this dark episode. Or that the age of chivalry – where Daniel is described as ‘gallant’ by his regimental history – was not quite dead.

Told by his son Andy in the year that Monte Cassino was published, the recording describes how, in January 1944, Bert was badly wounded by a grenade thrown by an enemy patrol. Drifting in and out of consciousness, with a leg so badly shattered that it would have to be amputated, he feels himself suddenly pulled out of a ditch by four or five Germans who place him on a groundsheet and carry him down a mountain side. Allied shells explode all around them, but Bert is carried to safety in a cave full of wounded German soldiers, where his wounds are attended to. Later he is evacuated to a hospital and kept as a PoW for eight months before being repatriated to Britain, where he died in 1992 at the age of 72.  

‘My father never forgot the courage of those anonymous German soldiers, probably of the 29th Panzer Grenadiers or the 94th Infantry Division, who risked their own lives for the sake of an unknown enemy soldier,’ said Andy. ‘It's worth noting, that knowing my father as I do, he'd have done the same if the roles were reversed.’

The grave of Lily Kathleen Dicks in St Peter’s Burial Ground, Budleigh Salterton Image credit: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Daniel’s name is recorded on Panel 7 of the Cassino Memorial.  His widow, Lily Kathleen, never remarried. She died on 19 December 1992, aged 78, and lies in St Peter’s Burial Ground on Moor Lane in Budleigh. Whenever I pass the grave I’ll think of her ‘gallant’ soldier husband, but I still can’t think of him as old, dying as he did before his time in that awful war.  

The next post is for... FLIGHT SERGEANT ALLAN EDWARD DEARLOVE DAVEY (1922-44) RAAF, who died on 26 February 1944, while serving with RAF 90 Squadron  

You can read about him at  

 https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/02/ww2-75-26-february-1944-he-died-that.html