My service in Royal Signals, 1939 to 1946.

Discussion in 'Veteran Accounts' started by Nevil, Feb 21, 2011.

  1. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

    Shortly after June 6, I was told by the C.O that I would be taking over the job of MTO (Motor Transport Officer), responsible for controlling between 400 and 600 vehicles, including specialized trailers, along with a substantial vehicle workshop as we would be using British-built vehicles mostly in the US area of operations once we got to France. Their own transportation services would not be able to look after our vehicles because of different parts supply and unfamiliarity with the designs... I must say I welcomed the change with its possibility of much less office-type routine and obviously a very challenging task.

    For some reason I have forgotten, I left shortly after that for a location south of London with a couple of NCOs. A few days later we were returning to billets late one evening It was a moonlit night, the air-raid sirens had sounded, as usual for a bombers' moon, when we heard this unfamiliar 'plane engine. I should explain that people in England during the war, military and civilian, became adept at identifying planes by their engine noise. They would 'cock an ear' and say: "One of ours. No sweat." or perhaps: "That's a Dornier. Hit the deck!"

    Soon, we could see it, coming in low, and cheered when we saw flames coming from the rear end, thinking it had been hit by anti-aircraft fire or a night-fighter. The engine cut-out almost immediately above us and it nose-dived, demolishing an apartment building a half-block away, with a loud explosion. We did not then realize that this is what the buzz bombs were programmed to do: fly low on a set course, for a specific distance, then cut-out and drop. Over the next few weeks, three or four thousand of them landed, all of them aimed at London but some falling short, of which we got our share. Then the government set-up air defence zones, with fighter-planes on the south coast, then anti-aircraft guns, then barrage balloons, to bring down as many as possible before they got to the city. We got even more of them dropping in our area!

    It was still going on when I left for France in late June. From June, until the launch sites in Europe were over-run two or three months later, around 8000 came over, of which 2500 reached London, killing and injuring tens of thousands and seriously damaging thousands of homes.

    It was a difficult period for civilians in London and the south of England targeted by the bombs, much harder on the nerves than the conventional bombing that had carried on so much longer. When you heard the distinctive noise of the engine, you just froze, listening and waiting to see if the motor cut out. If it passed overhead, you breathed a sigh of relief and went about your business. If the engine noise stopped, you hit the ground as fast as possible. I remember a newspaper cartoon of that time. It showed a street scene, with people along both sidewalks, in buses, etc. There was no caption but everyone in the picture had one ear enlarged about ten times. That summed up exactly how one felt!

    Nevil
     
  2. Varasc

    Varasc Senior Member

    Welcome: absolutely fascinating pictures and data! Thank you for sharing with us.
     
  3. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    Over the next few weeks, three or four thousand of them landed, all of them aimed at London but some falling short, of which we got our share. Then the government set-up air defence zones, with fighter-planes on the south coast, then anti-aircraft guns, then barrage balloons, to bring down as many as possible before they got to the city. We got even more of them dropping in our area!


    Fascinating stuff. Some fell short due to mis-information on the impact sites supplied by the double-agents.
     
  4. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Nevil must have been pretty hairy encountering these things for the first time, so close, and wondering exactly what they were.

    BOMB DAMAGE - LONDON - British Pathe
    The Irish Guards History mentions how V1s were seen passing overhead as they were embarking for Normandy on 18th June. Word managed to get to the Battalions before they left, that the Guards Chapel had been destroyed during a service - with nearly 300 casualties, of which over 120 were killed.
    Guards Chapel
     
  5. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    Incidentally, on 18th June, the Home Secretary issued a prohibition of publication of details of V weapon damage "in order to give the enemy no chance to make firing corrections".

    On 24th June, 46 REME personnel were killed by a V weapon at the 6th Guards Tank Bde. Workshop between Lenham and Charring.

    I could not find anything on this in The Times.

    It was thought that the V weapon impact points were centered on Charring Cross, but many fell short by a few miles.

    Some weapons were fitted with RDF devices and luckily (?) one of these fell close to Tower Bridge on 16th June.
     
  6. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

    Fascinating stuff. Some fell short due to mis-information on the impact sites supplied by the double-agents.

    Did not know that Geof. Thanks!

    Nevil.
     
  7. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

     
  8. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    Did not know that Geof. Thanks!
    Nevil.

    There is a lot of detail in Hinsley's British Intelligence In The Second World War, especially volume 5, by Sir Michael Howard. Here is a small sample , a message to the agent Garbo from his controller in Madrid.

    Had the points of impact (of V1 and V2) improved, there would have been many more civilian deaths and destroyed buildings.
     

    Attached Files:

  9. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

    There is a lot of detail in Hinsley's British Intelligence In The Second World War, especially volume 5, by Sir Michael Howard. Here is a small sample , a message to the agent Garbo from his controller in Madrid.

    Had the points of impact (of V1 and V2) improved, there would have been many more civilian deaths and destroyed buildings.

    Thanks for the extra detail and the copy of the message to Garbo. There is not much doubt that if the Germans had had more time to improve the accuracy, the effects on London would have been very severe. It was bad enough as it was, even with by far the greater proportion falling outside the most heavily populated areas. And of course, as I mentioned, the psychological effect was also severe.

    By the way, you folk are so knowledgeable on the fine points of the history of WW2 that I should mention that in compiling my contributions I am relying on my memory of events 65 to 72 years ago....and at age 90 my memory is unfortunately not infallible! Also the fact that I have been living outside the UK since 1957 means I have not been in the loop for related discussions and publications. I don't have the time or the energy to research and correlate my memories with the published history of the times. So I hope you will bear with me if I sometimes get events out of sequence or out of place. But by all means tell me.....I am always interested to know!

    Nevil.
     
  10. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    I have the impression, Nevil, that we'll have to get up pretty early in the morning to catch you out ! :)
     
  11. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

    I have the impression, Nevil, that we'll have to get up pretty early in the morning to catch you out ! :)

    Ha! Ha! Not worried about you catching me out, Rich.......but I might get you pretty confused at times!

    Nevil.
     
  12. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

    In the third or fourth week of June, 1944, we moved back to Portsmouth and loaded onto a "Liberty" ship, a type of freighter, with about 100 British and 200 US Signals, plus stores and vehicles, our intended destination being “Omaha Beach.” One of the US Signals Captains was declared to be in command. The deep holds of this converted freighter had been adapted to accommodate the maximum number of men, as well as stores, with bunk beds up the sides many layers high.

    As we moved out into the English Channel, it was quite rough. With the rolling, and the fetid air in the holds, some became sea-sick...a demoralizing situation for those of us not in the highest series of bunks! After one night of that, I took my kit and blankets on deck and established squatter's rights to a few square feet of it, hoping we would not get any heavy rain.

    Before we embarked at Portsmouth, we had been warned that German E-boats and U-boats were operating in the Channel. It was essential that there be no smoking on deck after dark and that no garbage be thrown overboard as it would leave a floating trail for the attackers to follow. The meals on board were US Army canned rations, better than their British equivalents although cold stew is not my favourite dish, especially on a rolling sea. In spite of the orders to the contrary, we had quite a trail of bobbing empty ration cans, which did not improve my appetite.

    Although normally only a trip of a few hours, we were two nights at sea, waiting for landing approval we were told. We could not just wait off the beach as that would have made us sitting ducks...although it seemed to me that any U-boat captain who could not follow our line of cans was not really trying to win the war. When we did come in towards the beach, the whole area was a scene of intense destruction, with damaged and destroyed landing craft, tanks and other vehicles scattered in the shallows and on the beach.

    Again we were put lower in the landing priority (understandably in the circumstances on land at that time) and travelled up the coast almost up to Utah Beach, more or less just putting in time I suppose. However, when the call finally came, we moved immediately inside the "gooseberry." A "gooseberry" was the code-name of an artificial breakwater formed by running some large ships, loaded with ballast, in towards the beach and then sinking them nose to tail as a breakwater.

    We were expecting that there would be a Mulberry dock on which we would disembark. These were portable docks which had been towed over from England to Omaha and I believe Sword beaches. However, the one at Omaha had been effectively destroyed by the heavy storm that came through the Channel around mid-June and freighters had to unload onto rafts. These consisted of groups of rectangular metal tanks, held together with steel cables, and powered by a single engine at the stern. The surface of the raft was flexible, conforming to the shape of each wave it went through. The water was rough, even inside the gooseberry.

    Vehicles and stores were lifted down by the ship's cranes. As the raft was moving up and down through perhaps five feet or so, some trucks landed very hard. As for the troops, getting off the ship was even worse. A net was hung over the side and one clambered down, about thirty feet, carrying one's kit and rifle. However, the raft would come swinging in on a wave and anyone too low on the net could be crushed between the raft and the ship. Anyone too high had to jump and hope that the raft would be there when they landed. A terrifying experience that was tempered by the thought that nobody was shooting at us as we did it, which was a great improvement over what so many had gone through a few weeks earlier.

    Getting off the beach was also somewhat traumatic. There was just one steep road up and the surface was deep in muddy sand with some broken rocks and such like added to give some traction. The US trucks got up fairly quickly and cleanly; to our mortification our underpowered British ones, equally heavily loaded, just could not make it. The Beachmaster was, understandably, apoplectic at this delay to his offloading schedule and finally called in a half-track to help pull them up. I made a mental note to remove the engine governors at the next opportunity.
     
  13. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    Nevil, do you happen to recall the type of trucks that you had been issued with ?
     
  14. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

    Nevil, do you happen to recall the type of trucks that you had been issued with ?

    Hey Rich! Now you are really testing my dilapidated memory!

    By the time we had our full complement, perhaps six weeks after this, we had a very mixed bag. However, I think the initial ones were Bedfords plus I had a 3/4 ton Ford for my own use. The Ford was great.

    I mentioned "governors" in my piece without an explanation. Earlier in the war, an order had been issued to equip all trucks with governors to control the revs (and hence the acceleration and torque). The idea was to extend the life of the engines but they were a pain in some circumstances.

    Getting off the beach was one and another was driving the Red Ball routes, of which more anon!

    Nevil.
     
  15. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    The 3-ton Bedfords with their 72bhp engines would have been working quite hard in 4wd. The GM 4 cylinder engine was not as powerful as the V-8 Ford. The US GMCs were putting out more than 100 bhp so you were at a disadvantage.
     
  16. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    Nevil, I see from a photo caption that you were with 130 OCTU at Catterick. I thought that you might like to see this bit of correspondence from the MTO of 152 OCTU there (although he refers to being MTO of all the Catterick OCTUs) It looks to be signed by a Captain George Denton-Mayor.

    His view on the quality of DRs is not at all complimentary !

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The Lt Col Bowden referred to left a substantial paper archive and seems to have been responsible for implementing the 'Task' system of vehicle maintenance. He busied himself as well, trying to develop the ideal WD motorcycle.

    He corresponded a lot with Arthur Bourne and Graham Walker as well as the various factories, often on a personal basis. He managed to cadge a set of development 'Teledraulic' forks from Matchless for his personal Ariel Square 4 and then had the nerve to send the bike to Ariels for servicing. They don't seem to have been too pleased.
     
  17. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

    Nevil, I see from a photo caption that you were with 130 OCTU at Catterick. I thought that you might like to see this bit of correspondence from the MTO of 152 OCTU there (although he refers to being MTO of all the Catterick OCTUs) It looks to be signed by a Captain George Denton-Mayor.

    His view on the quality of DRs is not at all complimentary !



    I attended 150 OCTU, Rich.

    I don't know what the worthy captain did as MTO of Signals 152 OCTU. Nobody provided any such instruction for 150 OCTU. His letter is dated about four months before I was posted to 150 OCTU.
    The job sounds a bit like being Admiral of the Canoe Fleet at a Boy Scout Camp.

    Regarding his point about the lowly quality of DRs....”not clever enough to tackle any other job,” I could mention that in September of 1939 I had just completed third year at College of Technology, in Applied Chemistry, at the age of 18; my brother had a responsible job at Lloyds of London; another DR was a District manager in the Post Office; another was part owner of a small engineering company; another was an Asst Sales manager with a multinational company, and so on. We were people who joined as DRs because bikes and M/C sport were our hobbies. Of course the situation of wartime personnel eventually reached the situation where the 'draft' was combing the bottom of the barrel in most trades, and DRs were no exception. However, most men who chose the DR trade did so because they wanted to ride M/Cs in spite of the lousy pay, primitive and unsuitable clothing, and basic ignorance of senior ranks as to what the DRs job actually involved. The job was D2 because the people who rate such things did not know their ears from a hole in the ground.

    He says that “in careful hands the modern OHV single can travel hard and far and reliably.” Well that's true but the point is that active service conditions do not lend themselves to “careful hands.” An OHV needs more maintenance and is harder to maintain when skilled mechanics are rarely available. I think the WD SV was a good choice.

    He mentions that he is not competent to say whether the “DKW type” is sufficiently robust. As you know the DKW (Der Kleine Wunder) is/was a two-stroke design. It was a very good example of that design but as a long time rider of two-stokes I can say that they lack several essential features for army use, in spite of the fact they were used by the Germans......they are too “smooth” for cross-country, rough ground, and are somewhat finicky to keep tuned.

    Of course he was right about the general ignorance of regimental officers and even MTOs about organising maintenance and training on transport generally. That was probably due to the fact that no such training was given in my day in Signals. We did not have one TA officer in 4 Corps Signals who knew anything about bikes for example. As it happened, it did not matter but if DRs were as dimwitted as this geezer thinks, it would have mattered!

    I hope you were not hoping for a one-line comment!

    Nevil.
     
  18. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    I like detailed answers, Nevil. To be honest, those Bowden files are full of such pomposity. I'm trying to find the page where one officer said that he disliked motorcycles as they scare the horses and put the hounds off.

    My knowledge of early DR recruitment has all been based on the coupons and editorial in old copies of the motorcycling press.

    With the need for independent thought and navigation skills, I too would have expected the DR trade rating to be higher but there was clearly a feeling that any BF could do it.

    I hope the document amused you anyway.
     
  19. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

    I like detailed answers, Nevil. To be honest, those Bowden files are full of such pomposity. I'm trying to find the page where one officer said that he disliked motorcycles as they scare the horses and put the hounds off.

    My knowledge of early DR recruitment has all been based on the coupons and editorial in old copies of the motorcycling press.

    With the need for independent thought and navigation skills, I too would have expected the DR trade rating to be higher but there was clearly a feeling that any BF could do it.

    I hope the document amused you anyway.

    Well, I am never too ecstatic at being called a moron, Rich, not even when it is by another hyphenated one! :D

    He mentioned DKW two-strokes. I took part in quite a few cross-country trials and a few hill-climb events pre-war and I never once saw a two-stroke do any good at either. You just had to have that steady "beat" that comes with a single-cylinder four-stoke. The two-stroke is much smoother but that is the last thing you want in such conditions......and those are the extreme conditions you often faced in wartime. For that reason, I never quite understood why the German army used them in some units, although the ones I saw usually had sidecars.

    DKWs were doing quite well in the Manx TT though, when I was still in the UK!

    He also mentioned a preference for a smaller capacity OHV. Apart from what I said about added maintenance I would have to agree that an OHV, but 500 not 250 cc, would be better in some circumstances, convoy duty for instance, and there is no doubt they are a lot nicer to ride. For several months in 1942, before I was transferred to OCTU, I had a 500cc OHC Norton (Model 30??) and it was a beauty. It came as a replacement for a 500 cc SV that was BLR and I promptly claimed it for myself. I had never heard of these being used anywhere in the army so it was a bit of a mystery as to its origin.

    So the guy did make a bit of sense in at least that part of his letter!

    Nevil.
     
  20. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

    One aspect on which everyone commented was the almost complete lack of any activity from the Luftwaffe over the landing areas, a situation that prevailed in large part for the rest of the war. Whatever difficulties were encountered on land, and there were many, there was almost total Allied control of the air. And, recalling 1940, that made one heck of a difference apart from all the others, such as ample and, in most cases, better equipment and training

    Once safely ashore, we moved to a small town near Bayeux and spent several weeks there.
    While we were there, there was almost constant action from Allied bombers and fighters, night and day, attacking the enemy positions to the south of us On one day in July there was especially heavy bombing, continuous waves of bombers for many hours. We heard later that one US bomber group had hit the US 30th Division positions in error, inflicting serious casualties.

    I was mostly employed in setting up a mini workshop, and finding sources for replenishment of supplies. The main task for the rest was setting up a Signals centre for communication back to SHAEF at Portsmouth. However, my party and a portion of the rest were there only a short time as sometime in late July we were on the move again, being held for a few days at Carentan and then following 7 Corps across the Cherbourg (Cotentin) Peninsula to Julloville, a small town south of Granville which was to be the new SHAEF HQ. In fact, it quickly grew in size as more and more arrived from Portsmouth and Bushy Park.

    The important port of Cherbourg had been entered in early July but was so badly damaged that it was not able to receive normal ship traffic for another three weeks or so. However, by early August improved communication between SHAEF in the Cherbourg Peninsula and the UK was established by the “beam wireless” units. These were what were then unique and highly secret mobile transmitters (officially wireless set #10 I think) developed by the British and exclusively under British control at SHAEF and 21st Army Group. These were large trailers with two dish-type antennas on top and containing generators, and signals circuits. They needed line-of-sight locations, which meant locating them on high ground or with an associated broadcast tower. The normal transmission range was about 50 miles but with the tower they could maintain communications from Cherbourg area to England, about 75 miles. The advantage was that, unlike conventional radio or even telephone lines, messages could not be intercepted by the enemy. Also, messages could be put on tape then transmitted at high speed through printers at the receiving end. Of course, this is now commonplace, with commercial communication companies.

    In late Augus or early September, with a busy workshop, vehicle parts store and small office set up in Julloville, and with a small staff under the eyes of a very efficient Sergeant, I went with a Signals group, for reasons I have since forgotten, to a US Army HQ (probably the 12th, I believe), travelling with great difficulty because of the extensive road and bridge damage. Our route took us through Vire into the "Falaise Gap" area. The battle had ended a couple of weeks before, leaving the debris of ten or more German divisions and thousands of their dead. The majority were still there, although prisoners were engaged in the job of, literally, picking up the pieces and burying them. One becomes fairly hardened to death and destruction in wartime but none of us had encountered anything like that before.

    At about that time, while we were still at the Army HQ, we heard that the Free French Division, and the US 4th Division, had entered Paris, which was about 40 miles North-East. When I next called through to Signals at SHAEF for instructions, I was told to stay at 12th Army to complete whatever the task was, then go to Versailles, on the outskirts of Paris, and make contact at Camp de Satory with an advance party from SHAEF that would be moving almost immediately.

    General Eisenhower and immediate staff did actually occupy the premises established at Granville but it was for a few weeks only. The speed of the advance from the Normandy coast had taken everyone by surprise.
     
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