My introduction

[read46]

What a fantastic website, so informative, interesting and friendly.
I taught in England for many many years and took early retirement in 2003 and am now living and working in western China.
I am originally from the north east of England and my childhood memories in the late 40's early 50's are filled with tales of both wars in general but WW2 in particular.
During family get togethers parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties would talk about their experiences and I would listen.
One name kept cropping up, not a relation but the son of a neighbour.
He had died during the war.
With time on my hands here and little else to do than spend a lot of my time on the internet I decided to find out more about the 'son' of our neighbour.
He is remembered on a local war memorial as simply E. Y. Adamson

My search on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website shows

Pte Edward Young Adamson.

Service Number 4399392

Special Air Service Regiment (AAC) B Sqd 1st

Date of Death 7/7/1944

Buried at Rom Communal Cemetary,

I have found short references to Operation Bulbasket (the internet is my only source of reference) to the incident which occured at this time where a number (30) of his colleagues and an American Airman were involved.

The result is that they are buried alongside him at Rom all with the same date of death.

The village of Rom is in the Department of Deux-Sevres and is approximately 44 kilometres east of Niort and 5 kilometres west of the town of Couhe-Verac, which is in the neighbouring Department of Vienne

Can anyone enlighten me further.
Here in China I don't have access to books.
Many many thanks.

[Slipdigit]

Howdy Read, glad you joined.

Being a Septic, I won't be able to help you much with your search, but there are some bright members here who can.

[von Poop]

Welcome aboard Read,
Bulbasket sounds like an interesting bit of SAS activity in the Normandy assault, I saw a memorial to the phantom teams only recently.
Good luck with your hunt.

Cheers,
Adam.

[spidge]

http://www.specialforcesroh.com/browse.php?mode=search

Operation Bulbasket, which was launched on June 6, 1944. the objectives of the operation were for the 56 men of b sqd. 1st sas to slow down German reinforcements to Normandy, assist the French resistance (maquis), and provide intelligence for bombing runs. They were tragically betrayed by a german agent and surrounded by 500 Germans of an SS battalion. something like 34 members of b sqd., were captured and later executed by the SS. They were shot with sten guns to make their deaths look like a friendly-fire incident or worse. The officer responsible would later be sentenced to death for this crime during the Nuremberg trials.

[read46]

Thanks very much for the welcome, I appreciate the warmness in your replies.

[read46]

Originally Posted by spidge

http://www.specialforcesroh.com/browse.php?mode=search

Thanks for this, I really appreciate your guidance. Lets hope I can do some kind of searching on the great cyber information network.

[Owen]

Sorry I'm a bit late saying "Hello."
But...Hello & Welcome to the site.

[read46]

Again, thanks everyone.
After reading so many interesting contributions throughout the website I feel a little insignificant in my request.

[Bodston]

Hello read and welcome.. Op Bulbasket was a nasty business. From 'The IWM book of War Behind Enemy Lines' by Julian Thompson

The final SAS party to drop on the eve of D-Day, was to set up Operation Bulbasket near Poitiers. Their task: to disrupt the railway lines Limoges-Vierzon-Poitiers-Tours, which German formations stationed in southern France would use to reach the Normandy battlefront. Before the main body arrived, thanks to the Resistance they located their first target, consisting of eleven trains of petrol wagons in a siding at Châtellerault. The radio message from the Bulbasket team resulted in the total destruction of all eleven trains of this vital commoditity by twenty-four Mosquitoes of the RAF, RNZAF and RAAF. The loss of this fuel was to impose serious delays on the move north of 2nd SS Panzer Div (Das Reich). For the next three weeks the Bulbasket team cut the railway line in twelve places. They carried the demolition teams to widely dispersed points on the rail system, in jeeps dropped to them. At the end of these three weeks, most of the Bulbasket team were at their base in the Forêt de Verriers when they were attacked by a large force of Germans. The SAS, armed only with .45 pistols and a few Vickers K guns on their jeeps, were no match for mortars and dozens of machine-guns which blasted and raked their camp. Only eight SAS men survived by escaping in the confusion, including Captain Tonkin, the commander of the team. Thirty-one including four wounded, were taken prisoner by the Germans, One of the wounded, Lieutenant Stephens, was tied to a tree in Verriers, and after the villagers had been paraded past, the Germans beat him to death with their rifle butts. All the others were shot.

[Peter Clare]

Welcome to the forum Read hope you enjoy it here.