Calais

I am trying to gain a better sense and understanding of my uncle's role at Calais and hope someone on here might be able to help.
Through visits to the NA and having obtained his Army record I have managed to assemble many pieces in the puzzle relating to his service, but have been unable to assemble them in a linear way. His name was Charles Payne and his service number was 6969084.
Just for background he became embodied as a regular with the Tower Hamlets Rifles at the declaration of war and from documentation I've seen seems to have been posted to Market Rasen in Lincolnshire at the beginning of 1940 because from there he was sent on a cookery course to Leicester in February 1940.
According to his army record he was transferred to HQ of the Support Group of the 1st Armoured Division on May 12. I'm interested in knowing where that (short-term) posting would have taken him, but what I'm chiefly trying to understand is what a posting to the HQ of the Support Group would have involved at Calais - ie what role the HQ contingent of the Support Group would have performed and is it likely that my uncle was transferred to them because of his new found cookery skills? Would an officer's mess have been in place amid all that chaos and would he have worked from a fixed base? He was fortunate enough to survive, was captured on May 26 and spent five years in Stalag XXA.
As I say just trying to add some flesh to the bones of his four-day Calais experience..
Thanks in advance
Terry

 

1st Armoured Division went to Cherbourg but HQ 30th Infantry Brigade along with KRRC, Rifle Brigade and Queen Victoria's Rifles went directly to Calais.

He could have been attached to 30th Inf. Bde HQ or was he possibly transferred to one of the Rifle battalions to make up numbers prior to embarkation ? Each battalion had cooks.

Do you know if he completed a POW release questionnaire ? If he did then he'll normally have indicated his unit at the time of capture on it.

 

I think your uncle would have been involved in the rapid dynamic situation related to the withdrawal of the BEF from Dunkirk.

To safeguard Boulogne and Calais and prevent Guderian's tank units from penetrating the Dunkirk evacuation perimeter from the south, on 21 May 1940, WSC sent Brigadier Claude Nicolsons's 30th Infantry Brigade to Calais. His signal to Nicolson at 2100 on 25 May 1940 stressed the seriousness of the survival of the BEF..... Every hour you continue to fight is of the greatest help.... have the greatest admiration for your splendid stand". Overall, conflicting orders were experienced by Nicholson from the time when he landed in Calais.

At the end of the 4 day battle with a surrender when Nichol was captured at 1600 on 26 May, only 60 survived without being captured or wounded, the rest of the defenders of Calais went into the bag.

Airey Neave gave a comprehensive account of the fall of Calais from a personal point of view. He was there and remembered the time well and his capture. Arey Neave's The Flames of Calais is worthwhile reading, there may be other publications, but I am not sure if there is a HMSO publication covering the 1940 defence of Calais

Brigadier Claude Nicholson CB, Commander 30th Brigade | WW2Talk Past debate on the forum

The Order That Made Churchill Feel SICK: Trapped and No Escape A summary of the situation.

 

An online search with: "30th Infantry Brigade" + "calais" site:ww2talk.com found a handful of threads. With: "Tower Hamlets Rifles" + "calais" site:ww2talk.com only one thread, IIRC they were a Rifle brigade formation: "KRRC" + "calais" site:ww2talk.com id'd approx. x40 threads Yes, there, may be duplicates. Many more threads id'd with: "1940" + "calais" site:ww2talk.com

A search with: "1940" + "calais" + "support group" site:ww2talk.com found a few and two mentions of a book on that period: The Fight For The Channel Ports by Michael Glover pub. 2007 though.

 

There is a pretty comprehensive website on 1st Armoured Division's activities in France in May/June 1940 here: 3: 1940 – May

Of the armoured units only 3 Royal Tank Regiment was sent to Calais along with 30th Infantry Brigade which was the Division's infantry component.

As your uncle was captured on 26th May I agree with Rich Payne that he was probably specifically attached to one of the units that was sent to Calais. The main body of the 1st Armoured Division's Support Group ended up fighting south of the Somme and eventually came under the control of 51st Highland Division and was captured when the Highland Division was surrounded around St Valery en Caux on 11/12th June.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies. Just to reiterate, I know from my uncle's Army record and from IRC records that he was captured in Calais but sadly he didn't complete a questionnaire on his return to the UK five years later. I've read around the Calais siege quite a bit, including Airey Neave's excellent account of it, but what I was trying to get to the bottom of was his posting from the Rifles to the headquarters of the support group of 1st Armoured Division just ten days before being shipped out to Calais. I'd kind of assumed that must be related to the cookery course he'd undertaken in the February and that, perhaps, that posting to the HQ might mean he was cooking for Nicholson and his officer team, though as Neave says by the 25th all "cooks and clerks" were having to pick up rifles. I'm including his service in a book I'm attempting to write and so am trying to be as honest as possible though realise I'm seeking certainties in a period of great uncertainty!!

 

Both are long shots, but perhaps worth looking at the War Diaries for 1st Armoured Division Support Group and 30th Infantry Brigade HQ. The former covers May / June and the latter only April (No diary for May survives, unsurprisingly).

WO 167/336 https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C162809

WO166/941 https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C786997

There may just be a passing reference to the arrival or dispersal of cooks to subordinate units, or something in the 30 Brigade papers to indicate that they were below establishment during April. Even without the trade aspect, there may be a line to the effect that x-total men transferred to 30 Bde.

 

Thanks very much Rich. I appreciate you going the extra mile, so to speak. I'm fortunate in that I live reasonably close to the NA so have been able to visit and look up various records including 167/336 though not 166/941. Thanks for the tip on that.
It was in the first set of papers that I discovered my uncle's transfer to the HQ of the Support Group. (Im enclosing them here in case you're remotely interested). I'm slightly confused by the operational transfers outlined in the two documents; the Rifle Brigade, among many, transferred from Support Group HQ and into the 30th Infantry Brigade while other members of the Rifle Brigade (including my uncle) transferred into the Support Group HQ. It's head-spinningly confusing - for me at least!!
As I say, I'm just trying to get a 'best guess' view of why he was transferred to the HQ of the Support Group. My guess is those cookery skills, but hard to be sure. Anyway,s thanks again...