WW2 100 – 26 August 1944 – A grave adopted in Normandy: Driver Cyril John Lockyear (1918-44), Royal Engineers, 143 Field Park Squadron

 Continued from 8 August 1944

‘God’s Greatest Gift – Remembrance’: Signaller Ronald Yeats (1916-44)

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/10/www2-75-gods-greatest-gift-remembrance.html

 

Banneville-la-Campagne War Cemetery

Image credit: Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Tackling this WW2 project chronologically has made me aware of some strange coincidences in the stories of these young men from Budleigh Salterton whose lives were so cruelly cut short. There was Signaller Ronald Yeats, for example, who died on 8 August  in Normandy while serving with The Queen’s Royal Regiment (West Surrey). You may have just read his story if you click on the link at the top of this page.

 

By chance he was buried in Banville-la-Campagne war cemetery, pictured above. It’s where you will also find the grave of Major George Tristram Palmer, killed just three weeks earlier while attached to a different regiment, the Highland Light Infantry. George Palmer’s story is here 

 

And now there is 26-year-old Cyril John Lockyear, another victim of the Normandy Campaign, who died three weeks after Ron Yeats. His grave is in a different war cemetery in France. His family home was at 19, Boyne Road, on the south side of Greenway Lane in Budleigh.  And by an even stranger coincidence that house was next door to Ron's family home at 17, Boyne Road.  

 

Parallel to Boyne Road and next to it is Jocelyn Road. Kelly’s Directory of 1939 lists a William John Lockyer, shopkeeper, at 2 Jocelyn Road.  He would have run the shop before Ernest and Ivy Louisa Dolling took it over. It is now a private house.

 

I am guessing that Mr Lockyer, the shopkeeper, could be William John Pomeroy Lockyear, Cyril’s father. His date of death, at the age of 74, is recorded in Budleigh parish records as 8 October 1958.  His wife Eliza R. Lockyear née Dew, died on 31 March 1978, aged 92. Their grave, seen above, is in St Peter’s Burial Ground in Budleigh. Both are recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as Cyril’s parents.

This charming photo of Cyril as a teenager, with other members of his family was kindly sent to me by their friend Martine Josselin.

 

Budleigh Salterton War Memorial at the junction of Coastguard Road and Salting Hill

Cyril was evidently living in Budleigh at the time of the outbreak of war in September 1939.

 

E.J. Witherby’s letter of 2 September 1947, as published in the Exmouth Journal

This was the condition for having his name on the War Memorial as specified by the Honorary Secretary to the War Memorial Fund in a letter dated 2 September 1947, and published in the local newspaper.

His Commonwealth War Graves Commission record lists Cyril as a member of the Royal Engineers, serving in 143^rd Field Park Squadron, with the Service Number  2004851.

He may well have had a technical background. Field Park Squadrons provided the workshop and stores elements for armoured divisions during WW2.

Field Park Companies provided the equivalent service for infantry divisions.

Field Park Squadrons and Field Park Companies were just two in a long list of Royal Engineers units with specialised tasks.

The organisation of material and equipment in wartime must have been an immensely complex process, and it’s not easy to find a neat summary of its operation. But thanks largely to the excellent ww2talk.com website I managed to gather some piecemeal facts, though experts may well challenge how I’ve interpreted them.

The Headquarters staff of a Field Park Squadron consisted of a Major, a Captain and a junior officer such as a Lieutenant. There were also eight NCOs, some of whom were sappers and some drivers, making a total of 33.

The Workshop Troop of 40 men were responsible for repairing or manufacturing items. The personnel were classed as sappers, having a specialist trade, including water and electricity supply.

The Stores Troop of 38 men were responsible for receiving, maintaining and issuing equipment and material. The personnel were generally classed as drivers. Some were drivers of vehicles, and some were machinery operators or driver mechanics.

As for the material, it clearly consisted of everything needed for the range of tasks encountered in wartime, from building bridges to laying and detecting mines.

 

The Royal Engineers Clearing the Mine Fields at the Start of the Battle of El Alamein, 23 October 1942, by Terence Tenison Cuneo (1907–1996) Image credit: Defence Academy of the United Kingdom and www.artuk.org

 

A sapper of No. 1 Dog Platoon, 277th Field Park Company, Royal Engineers, with his dog at Bayeux, 5 July 1944.  Image credit: Sergeant Christie No. 5 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit; Imperial War Museums

Even dogs, it seems!  The animals were used to hunt for mines, especially the all-wooden 'Shoe Mine' which was otherwise undetectable. 

 

Image credit: Imperial War Museums

The Field Park Squadron was also responsible for water supply. Collapsible storage tanks like the ones in the photo were used.

 

 

 

 Image credit: www.juleswings.wordpress.com

None of the above tasks can be seen as a combat role, but evidently there were cases where an individual had a particular influence in a unit, and believed that its training should involve combat preparation. If Cyril was serving in 143^rd Field Park Squadron in 1941 he would have come across the remarkable future Major William John ‘Bill’ Cumper MC, a founding member of the SAS, pictured above.  

Enlisting as a boy soldier in 1924, Cumper had risen up through the ranks to become in 1939 a Lance-Sergeant in No. 1 Field Squadron of the Royal Engineers. He was granted an Emergency Commission as a Lieutenant in May 1941, and posted to 143^rd  Field Park Squadron. There he set about  working his men up to combat efficiency, and by the end of the year was Mentioned in Despatches.

It was on 17 May 1941 that 143^rd Field Park Squadron was chosen to be part of the additional personnel which were sent to North Africa to reinforce the 7^th Armoured Division, in which they served until 31 August 1945.  

 

 

SAS officers at Nahariya, Palestine May 1943. L-r E.L.W. Francis, W. Cumper, P. Gunn, R.V. Lea.  Photo by Paddy Mayne. Image credit: www.juleswings.wordpress.com

A year later, in May 1942, Lieutenant Cumper was recruited to David Stirling’s still fledgling ‘L’ Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade as an explosives specialist, where he quickly established a reputation for eccentricity and was also highly decorated. ‘The best and most ingenious explosives man ‘L’ Detachment had,’ is how Stirling described him. ‘He took on all the explosives training and improved our techniques tremendously.’

 

Not all of Cyril’s time in North Africa was spent on the front line as we can see from these three photos of him in relaxed mode, kindly provided by his family and their friend Martine Josselin. 

As early as the Munich Crisis of 1938, elements of what would become the 7th Armoured Division had arrived in the Middle East to increase British strength in Egypt and form a 'Mobile Force'. From 16 February 1940, this ‘Mobile Force’ became the 7th Armoured Division - to be known famously as the ‘Desert Rats’.

After the Italian declaration of war, the Western Desert Force, under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor, and consisting of the 7th Armoured Division and the 4th Indian Infantry Division was massively outnumbered. However, the Italian Army consisted largely of infantry; its artillery dated back to the First World War, it had no armoured cars and a few anti-tank weapons, which were effective only against light and cruiser tanks. As such, it proved to be no match for the British. The Western Desert Force captured 130,000 Italians as prisoners of war between December 1940 and February 1941 in piecemeal battles.

The Italians had been shown to be so weak that Hitler was forced to send the Afrika Korps, under Erwin Rommel, as reinforcements. In April 1941, the Allied troops in Tobruk were cut off by the Germans and Italians.

On 7 June, the 7th Armoured Division was again prepared for battle as part of Operation Battleaxe, having received new tanks and additional personnel, including the 143^rd Field Park Squadron.

 

‘Breaking through the last of the German minefields at El Alamein: 4^th November 1942’ by Alex Ingram. Image credit: Imperial War Museums Art.IWM ART LD 2976

Further reinforcements to the Division from the Royal Engineers came in the following year when the 143^rd Field Park Squadron was joined by the 4^th and the 21^st Field Squadrons.  By 23 October 1942, Allied forces were sufficiently well supplied to take on and defeat Rommel in the Second Battle of El Alamein.

The 7^th Armoured Division then took part in the advance across Libya and into Tunisia with the 8th Army, culminating in the capture of Tunis under the command of the 1^st  Army. Following the surrender of the German forces in North Africa on 13 May 1943, the Division returned to Libya to join X Corps and prepare for the invasion at Salerno.

The Division, including the 143^rd Field Park Squadron, the 4^th Field Squadron and the 621^st Field Squadron – formerly the 21^st Field Squadron – landed at Salerno on 15 September 1943 under the command of Major General George Erskine and was involved in the capture of Naples between 22 September and 1 October 1943. It was also involved in the Battle of the Volturno Crossing between 12 and 15 October.

In North Africa, apart from mine-laying and detecting equipment, items handled by Cyril and 143^rd Field Park Squadron for the Royal Engineers would have included material such as the firm tracks made up from a combination of wire and hessian to prevent wheeled vehicles from sinking in the sand.

 

 RAF aircrew with one of their Bristol Beaufighters on a PSP airstrip at Biferno, Italy, August 1944. Image credit: Royal Air Force official photographer, Flying Officer J. Trievnor - Photograph C 5894 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums

Similar equipment was used in Italy to create airfields. Marston Mat, more properly called pierced (or perforated) steel planking (PSP), was standardized, perforated steel matting material which had been developed by the United States at the Waterways Experiment Station shortly before WW2, primarily for the rapid construction of temporary runways and landing strips. The nickname came from Marston, North Carolina, adjacent to Camp Mackall airfield where the material was first used.

 

German prepared defensive lines south of Rome, showing the rivers which needed to be crossed. Image credit: Stephen Kirrage/Wikipedia

Above all, in Italy, bridging equipment was needed. As Montgomery explained: ‘We marched and fought 300 miles in 17 days, against an enemy whose use of demolitions caused us bridging problems of the first magnitude. The hairpin bends on the roads were such that any distance measured on the map as, say, 10 miles was 20 miles on the ground.’

German sappers methodically demolished bridges of all kinds as their armies retreated northwards. It was vital for the Allies to maintain stocks of bridge-building materials to deal with obstacles such as Italy’s River Volturno as the enemy was pursued.

 

Infantry with bicycles cross the River Seine across a Folding Boat Equipment Mk III pontoon bridge at Vernon, 27 August 1944.  Image credit: Sergeant Hewitt, No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit. Photograph BU 216 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums

For lightweight use, up to a five-ton load, Folding Boat Equipment (FBE), supported by pontoons or rafts was used.

 

 Royal Engineers construct a Bailey bridge in Italy, September 1943, to replace one blown by the retreating Germans, 26 September 1943. Wood planks are being laid over the stringers to construct the roadbed. Image credit: Captain Knight, No 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit Photograph NA 7082 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums

For moving heavier loads such as tanks, a different kind of bridge was needed. On 4 October 1943, at the River Biferno on the Adriatic coast, Major-General Vyvyan Evelegh received news of a major threat to unsupported Allied infantry from a sudden and unexpected move eastwards by the German 16th Panzer Division. He demanded priority from British Eighth Army, under General Bernard Montgomery, for bridging equipment. As more German armour arrived, the Allied troops across the Biferno were forced onto the defensive. Frantic round the clock efforts by engineers resulted in a heavyweight Bailey bridge being completed, allowing Canadian and British armour across the Biferno.

Needless to say, the handling and transporting of massive amounts of equipment undertaken by men like Cyril around strategic targets in a war zone was not an easy task and required coolness and often courage. 

He was of course one man in a large team. If any official recognition of such achievements was given, it was to the officers rather than the other ranks. In the 144^th Field Park Squadron of the 6^th Armoured Division, for example, Lieutenant Peter Farrer, who commanded its No. 8 Bridging Troop, was recommended for an award of the Military Cross. 

‘He has had to see that the delivery of Bridging Equipment to the leading Squadrons has been carried out without a hitch,’ read his citation. ‘His work here entailed the handling often under fire and usually in very unpleasant circumstances of over 120 lorry loads of Bridging equipment and stores.’

As Field Marshall Alexander wrote in his Memoirs, ‘Whatever the valour of the fighting troops, without the ‘Bailey’ to bridge the rivers and ravines of Italy, the campaign would have been abortive from the outset.’

Cyril and the 7^th Armoured Division left Italy to travel to the United Kingdom on 20 December 1943 to join General Bernard Montgomery’s 21^st Army Group for the invasion of France.

For the Normandy Campaign, the 7^th Armoured Division again included the 143rd Field Park Squadron along with the 4^th and the 621^st Field Squadrons. They were joined by an additional unit of Royal Engineers, the 7^th Bridging Troop.

Parts of the Division landed on D-Day and advanced to within three miles of Bayeux, where No 2 Army Roadhead was established to build up reserves of supplies for XXX Corps, of which the 7^th Armoured Division was part. Tailleville, to the east of Bayeux, was the base for No. 1 Army Roadhead, which served I Corps. No. 2 Army Roadhead formed the nucleus of what became the Rear Maintenance Area (RMA) of the 21st Army Group.

 

Supplies being unloaded from a ship at the Mulberry B artificial harbour in July 1944. Image credit: Sergeant Harrison, No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit. Photograph B 7231 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums

By 26 July, 675,000 personnel, 150,000 vehicles and 690,000 tonnes (680,000 long tons) of stores and 69,000 tonnes (68,000 long tons) of bulk petrol had been landed. Ammunition usage was high, exceeding the daily allocation for the 25-pounder field guns by 8 per cent and for the 5.5-inch medium guns by 24 per cent. Greater priority was given to ammunition shipments, with petrol, oil and lubricant (POL) shipments cut to compensate in view of the short lines of communication.

As in Italy, bridging material proved vital in ensuring river crossings for the Allied forces, many bridges having been demolished by German sappers. The 143^rd Field Park Squadron would have played a vital role in ensuring that enough material was available for constructing replacements.  

 

The inscription reads: ‘June 8-9-1944, Canal de Caen, here was built the first Bailey Pontoon Bridge in France by 17 Fd COY R E 71 263’

This memorial commemorates the building of the first Bailey bridge in France by the 17^th Field Company of the Royal Engineers. Crossing the Canal de Caen, the bridge was 358 ft long, and consisted of a 100 ft landing bay, a 32 ft end floating bay, two 42 ft floating bays and one 110 ft landing bay bridging the 313 ft gap.

 

Engineers lay Sommerfeld track on the sand in 1942. Image credit: Wikipedia

An additional material used in the approach to this Bailey bridge and forming part of the stores in Field Park squadrons and companies at this time was Sommerfeld tracking. Named after a German expatriate engineer, Kurt Joachim Sommerfeld, then living in England, it was a lightweight wire mesh first put into use by the British in 1941, and had already been used in desert conditions like the firm tracks and Marston Mat already mentioned. It consisted of wire netting stiffened laterally by steel rods which gave it load-carrying capacity while staying flexible enough to be rolled up.

On 10 June, the 7^th Armoured Division set out from Bayeux to take part in an attack seeking to exploit a gap in the German defences west of the city of Caen. After two days of fighting in and around the small town of Villers-Bocage from 13-14 June the British force retreated.

 

 

Transport crossing into the Orne bridgehead across 'London Bridge' during Operation 'Goodwood', 18 July 1944. Image credit: Photograph B 7652 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums 

 

Cromwell tanks moving across ‘York’ bridge, a Bailey bridge over the Caen canal and the Orne river, during Operation ‘Goodwood’, 18 July 1944. Image credit: Imperial War Museums,  Photograph B 7656 

 

A Sherman tank crosses ‘Winston Bridge’, a Bailey bridge built over the River Orne for the ‘Goodwood’ offensive, 24 July 1944 Image credit: Imperial War Museums,  Photograph B 7969 

Prime Minister Winston Churchill and General Sir Bernard Montgomery crossing the River Orne over the Winston Bridge, 22 July 1944.© IWM (B 7873

It was one of three armoured divisions that took part in Operation Goodwood from 18 to 20 July. This was a limited attack to the south, from the Orne bridgehead, to capture the rest of Caen and the Bourguébus Ridge beyond.  The operation has been called the largest tank battle that the British Army has ever fought.

 

 Image credit: Wikipedia

The Battle of the Falaise Pocket from 12 to 21 August was the decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy. A pocket was formed around the town of Falaise in which 15 divisions of the German Army were encircled by the Allies.   The battle resulted in the destruction of most of Army Group B west of the Seine, which opened the way to Paris and the Franco-German border for the Allied armies on the Western Front.

 

An advertisement for Armco culverting from a pre-war American publication. The flexible corrugated steel pipe, used for drainage solutions, was first made in the USA

Image credit: www.archive.lib.msu.edu

The war diary for the 143^rd Field Park Squadron at this time is full of references to equipment such as Armco culverting, items relating to Bailey bridges such as timber decking, and the lorries, tip-trucks, TD heavy tractors and armoured bulldozers needed to transport them.  There is mention of road crater filling, welding repairs to vehicles and opening of water points. The overall impression is one of frantic activity to ensure the steady advance of the Allied army intent on pursuing and capturing the enemy.

 

A D7 armoured bulldozer Image credit: Imperial War Museums

 

Image credit: Wikipedia

 

 

 

War diary Image credit: ww2Talk.com

This is how we learn of how Cyril lost his life from a sentence in the war diary for 18 August 1944, drafted by the Commanding Officer of 143^rd Field Park Squadron, Major B.G. Bloomer, later Colonel B.G. Bloomer OBE:  

‘At 18.00hrs a large calibre shell landed in Bridging Troop leaguer with unfortunate results. Three vehicles were knocked out and ten men killed or injured. One of the 10-ton Transporters was put out of action temporarily. This was repaired overnight by LAD. Three loads of timber for decking were delivered to a bridge site in ST. PIERRE. A section of the attached Bailey Platoon was sent forward in place of the Unit Bridge whilst the latter was reorganised.’

 

The former seminary in Bayeux where Cyril was treated for his wounds. It was converted to a military hospital, named after the Free French Commando medical doctor Robert Lion.  Image credit: www.ecole.nav.traditions.free.fr 

In fact Cyril did not die until a week later, on 26 August, having been transported to hospital in Bayeux where efforts to save him proved unsuccessful. 

The Bayeux War Cemetery, the largest WW2 cemetery of Commonwealth soldiers in France, where Cyril is buried.  Photo by Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, July 2008 Image credit: Wikipedia

Of the 'ten men killed or injured' I have made a list of those killed, based on investigation of CWGC records. There may be others. The list of names may be helpful for people undertaking online research into the incident:

Sapper Robert Brooke, 2116594, died 18 August 1944, aged 32.  Banville-la-Campagne War Cemetery. Son of Robert and Lucy Jane Brooke; husband of Annie Brooke, of Edinburgh.

Sapper William Henry Cook, 1905127, died 18 August 1944, aged 26. Banville-la-Campagne War Cemetery.   Husband of Irene Margaret Cook, of Pelsall, Staffordshire.

Driver Laurence Crummay, 2129798, died 18 August 1944, aged 24. Banville-la-Campagne War Cemetery. Son of Andrew and Sarah Crummay, of Hull.   

Sapper Emrys J. Matthews,  14342365, died 19 August 1944. La Delivrande War Cemetery, Douvres.

Corporal Charles Pursglove, 1886429, died 18 August 1944, aged 33. Banville-la-Campagne War Cemetery.

Driver James Taylor, 2129619, died 18 August 1944, aged 36. Banville-la-Campagne War Cemetery. Son of John and Kate Taylor, of Leeds, Yorkshire; husband of Olive Taylor, of Hunslet, Leeds.

The Bayeux War Cemetery contains 4,648 burials, mostly of those who fell during the Invasion of Normandy. Opposite the cemetery stands the Bayeux Memorial which commemorates more than 1,800 casualties of the Commonwealth forces who died in Normandy and have no known grave. In addition to the Commonwealth burials, there are 466 graves of German soldiers.

Cyril's grave in Bayeux War Cemetery Image credit: ww2Talk.com 

It was only by chance that I found these pages of the 143^rd Field Park Squadron’s war diary thanks to correspondence dating back to 2016 on a forum of the ww2Talk.com website. Martine Josselin, who is French and comes from the town of Mégrit in Brittany, happens to be a friend of Cyril’s family. 

Martine has generously taken on the role of guardian of not only Cyril’s grave but that of the neighbouring one, where 22-year-old Royal Australian Air Force pilot Alan William Wilson is buried. And she has devoted a Facebook page to him, which you can read in translation here

The Association Poppies du Commonwealth which Martine joined was set up in 2015 to allow people to adopt the grave of Commonwealth forces soldiers killed in Normandy.  You can read about it  here

 

The next post is for GUNNER HERBERT JAMES SKINNER (1914-44) who died on 31 Aug 1944 in Italy while serving with the 113th Field Regiment, The Royal Artillery. You can read about him at  https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/04/ww2-75-31-august-1944-death-of-black.html

 

 

These ‘orphans’ are listed on Budleigh Salterton War Memorial, but have not been identified. Their first names, date of death and service numbers are not known. They are recorded on the Devon Heritage website as ‘Not yet confirmed’.  

If you know anything which would help to identify them,

please contact Michael Downes on 01395 446407.

 

F.E. Newcombe

F.J. Watts