84 Field Company Royal Engineers D-Day-3: new film footage

Hi Everybody - New member, first posting .. here goes ~

I have been watching an excellent BBC docudrama called "D-Day: 6.6.44" and was pleased to note a section of original footage filmed 3/6/44 of British troops embarking prior to D-DAy. There is a over laid voice of Colin Wills (BBC) describing the scene in real newsreel style as a port "somewhere in the south of England" (about 47th minute in).

Prominent in this short footage are Beach Party troops with white bands on their helmets on the crowded dock and filing up the gangplank. Also identfiable are Marine Commandos going aboard (including the Padre). This caught my attention as this suggests these troops were bound for Sword and therefore the beach party troops might possibly be the 84 Fd Coy RE. I have a particular interest in this unit as my wife's great uncle was in it on D-Day and lost his life on Sword Beach on 10 Jun 44 (Spr Sidney Thomas Stevens).

On closer examination of he footage one particular soldier on the gang-plank looked very familiar and I believed him to be Sapper Jimmy Leask - more famous in the photograph of the 84 Fd Coy landing on Sword and imortalised in the D-Day tapestry. I took screen shots (as I haven't a clue how to capture video!) and managed to track down Jimmys daughter in Saskatoon Canada. She had never seen these photos before but confirmed that the man was her father.

So ..... there is film footage confirmed to be of the 84 Fd Coy RE embarking for D-Day that to my knowledge has been previously unknown. Sadly I was unable to identify our relative among them but others might be luckier. Isn't it such a shame that most of these guys have gone. If there are any old soldiers of the 84 Fd Coy out there I would be glad to hear from them

 

Good effort and welcome to the forum. Great first post !

This picture you posted is discussed in some depth in After The Battle's D-Day and gives names for quite a few of the men in this picture (I'll dig it out later unless someone beats me to it)



Once again welcome aboard !

Regards
Andy

 

Many attempts have been made over the years to to put names to the individuals depicted, yet it was not until the 50th anniversary was upon us that they were at last correctly identified. David List, our photographic interpretation specialist, always believed that the Battle Jerkins indicated Royal Engineers, and he thought the most likely time the picture had been taken was around 0845 as No.84 Field Company, RE, which wore Beach Group formation signs (Red anchor in a light blue circle) landed in small parties throughout the morning - a total of 160 men coming ashore between 0745 and 0825 hours and another 52 from 1030 to 1230 hours.

Fifty years later Fred Sadler (Walking on the right) contacted the Sunday Mirror. 'My job was to search for land mines. I remember the photographer walking past me on the beach, then turning around and taking a picture. I know I look calm, but I was quaking in my boots.' Fred first saw the picture in the Sunday Dispatch two weeks later, showing in the foreground two of his mates: Cyril Hawkins and Jimmy Leask. David List confirmed from the nominal roll of No.84 Field Company that all three men had come ashore from the same landing craft at 0815 hours, tying in nicely with his earlier research.

It appears Sgt Mapham walked a few hundred yards to the west to take the picture while standing on White Beach looking back towards Red Beach, the heavily laden troops with the rucksacks in the centre being from 8th Field Ambulance, RAMC, attached to the 8th Brigade, who were most probably helping wounded from the wrecked carrier on the right of the 2nd Battalion, The Middlesex Regiment. We may also be seeing men of No.41 (RM) Commando in the background. The casualties of the 2nd Battalion, East Yorks on Red Beach are unknown, but the 1st Battalion of the South Lancs which landed on White Beach sustained 126 casualties during the assault phase of the landing.

Source: ATB's D-Day-Then and Now

 

Fifty years later Fred Sadler (Walking on the right) contacted the Sunday Mirror. 'My job was to search for land mines. I remember the photographer walking past me on the beach, then turning around and taking a picture. I know I look calm, but I was quaking in my boots.' Fred first saw the picture in the Sunday Dispatch two weeks later, showing in the foreground two of his mates: Cyril Hawkins and Jimmy Leask. David List confirmed from the nominal roll of No.84 Field Company that all three men had come ashore from the same landing craft at 0815 hours, tying in nicely with his earlier research.

Source: ATB's D-Day-Then and Now

Drew

This is very interesting stuff ... By any chance is David List here on ww2Talk? Love to contact him re the 84 Fd Coy nominal roll.

I also came across this related article Ledbury Reporter Herefordshire - I will never forget them in reference to a Sapper Bill Pryde.

I will never forget them

From the archive, first published Monday 14th Jun 2004.
BILL Pryde served as a sapper with the 84th Field Company, Royal Engineers and boarded a landing craft at 1am on June 4. But 10 miles from the French coast a signal was received ordering them back.
"When we finally got off the craft it was still in three feet of water, up to our chests. We could not have got any more soaked as there was no shelter on the craft. With the stormy weather it was sheer hell.
"There was more danger of drowning than there was from mines," he recalls. "It was 05.45 on June 6, a time and date I will never forget.
"We were on that beach for six weeks, a sitting target from Ouistreham on our left flank night and day. When the floating Mulberry Harbours arrived, our job was done and we finally moved off the beach. I would not like to go through that again."
When the Hereford Times published a request for veterans to get in touch, Bill responded with his recollections of D-Day. Accompanying his hand-written story was a newspaper cutting of a letter, entirely unrelated to Bill, written to the Daily Mail.
The photograph illustrating the letter, however, was of great interest to him - in it, Bill found himself and several comrades.
A call from the Hereford Times to the Daily Mail led to a syndication agency who happily sent the image from their library believing, as the Hereford Times did, that Bill should have a better copy of the picture.
Unfortunately, what they were able to send wasn't a big improvement on Bill's cutting, so the quest began to track down a clearer image. The trail led, via an internet search, to a book packager in North London, Atlantic Publishing, where Greg Hill also agreed to help and sent a copy of the book, D-Day to Victory, published for Marks & Spencer in 2002, in which the photograph had been used.
Thanks to the marvels of modern technology a larger, crisper copy of the 60-year old image of a momentous moment in Bill's life and in the progress of the Second World War emerged, and the framed picture presented to him.
Bill had long been aware of the photograph, taken, he believes, by a News Chronicle photographer who was on the landing craft.
"We saw the photograph in the paper the next day," he says.
Over the years, Bill has tried to discover what became of his companions on Sword beach that morning - Jimmy Leask, in the foreground, who was from the Shetland Isles, Fred Sadler, seen in profile also in the foreground, from Yorkshire, and Cyril Hawkins.
Bill has rarely spoken of his wartime experiences. "There are probably plenty of people in Hereford (where he has lived for more than 40 years) who don't even know I was in the Army. I never talk about it."
The fear of that morning has stayed with Bill and it's not an experience he would wish on anyone. "I wouldn't let my son go," he says emphatically.

Sadly Bill died in 2006. I'd love to find a survivor of this unit as I suspect that ths may be Bill Sadler embarking but without corroberation ..!.

 

This is very interesting stuff ... By any chance is David List here on ww2Talk? Love to contact him re the 84 Fd Coy nominal roll.


I doubt it...The information I posted was from the book I mentioned in the post.

Have you spoke to Sapper (Brian) about this? He was on Sword beach on D-Day.

 

Thought bits of this newsreel looked familiar: British Pathe - D-Day Exercise. These scenes start at 1:08.

 

Drumaneen

Excellent first posting, as Owen quickly spotted.

Not my war area at all but still of great interest

Regards

Ron

 

Great stuff. The Sappers were first ashore before any other units.
If anyone wants to a have delve into their histories, these are the RE Units on Sword on D day.
246 Field Co RE
17 Field Co RE
253 Field co RE
5 Assault Regiment RE
71 Field Co RE
77 Assault sqdren RE
79 Assault sqdren RE
84 Field Co RE
91 Field Co RE
263 Field Co RE
591 Para sqdren RE
629 Field Sqdrn RE
There are official RE facts from "the way ahead"
sapper

 

Thought bits of this newsreel looked familiar: British Pathe - D-Day Exercise. These scenes start at 1:08.


Well found Andrew-Are you having a British Pathe day?

 

Hi All
I am new to the forum but i have a little news reference the photo's of 84 FD coy RE. I am a serving member of the REME and this friday i have aranged for a visit of some WW2 Vets to my unit and amoungst them is Fred Sadler ex 84 FD Coy RE now 96 yrs of age and still going. Unfortunately fred does have altzeimers but he remember every detail of his time in the Engineers. I will pass on all your best wishes when i meet him.

 

First Jay thank you and all the lads for what you do to be the best at what you do. Appreciated.
What an incredible honour to meet Fred - maybe you should show him some of these pics and record his views.

 

Hi Guys,
My Grandfather Les Dale RE BEM served with 84 Field Coy RE and took part in the D-Day 1944 assault on Sward beach. I have put together a website about my Grandfather and his life: http://www.ardtechnology.com/bem
I also have a copy of the Squadrons war diaries which I'm trying to go through and plot the route from Sward beach through to Uelzen Germany where the company was disbanded in 1945. Over the years quite a few people have contacted me regarding the photographs and Pathe films recognising family. Search Results - British Pathé

D-Day Landings - British Pathé

D-Day Beach Landing (1944) - YouTube

 

Is this him?

The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | Image Details
Reference: WO 373/84/375
Name Dale, Leslie
Rank: Driver
Service No: 1949184
Regiment: Corps of Royal Engineers
Theatre of Combat or Operation: North-West Europe 1944-1945
Award: British Empire Medal
Date of announcement in London Gazette: 21 June 1945

 

Welcome to the forum EagleEyes. That's a wonderful website you put together on your Grandfather Les Dale . Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and wish to pass on my thanks to those who've helped me find out a bit more about 84 Fd Coy RE through the posts on this thread.

Our family is due to visit Normandy in October 2012. As on our previous battlefield trips, we get our two kids, boys aged 12 and 9, to find out about locals from our village in Scotland who fought in the relevant battles.

Through the fantastic help of the CWGC we've discovered that a man from Lochwinnoch, who served in 84 Fd Coy RE was killed on D-Day +4 and is buried in the CWGC cemetery in Hermanville in Normandy. Our plan is that our boys will visit the grave and lay a poppy cross as a mark of appreciation for the good lives and freedoms they enjoy.

If any of you happen to know anything about Sapper Robert Fulton of 84 Fd Coy RE or have any idea of what he and his comrades were doing in the run up to his death, then any additional info would be massively appreciated by our boys.

Many thanks in anticipation.

Yours aye,

Robbie

 

Is this him?

The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | Image Details

Thanks Drew5233,
Yes the BEM citation is for my grandfather 1949184 Driver Leslie Dale BEM RE of the 84 Fd Coy RE, I have been looking for this information for nearly 20 years, now I can a add it to my Grandfathers website. http://www.ardtechnology.com/bem
Cheers
Andy

 

my great grandfather sergeant Arthur Marsh served with 84th Field company RE during the war. I Have seen the group photo before but never the embarkation photos,
His younger brother died when he went down on HMS Hood

 

my father now 89 recognises the famous pic on sword beach and knows all 3 stayed to uelzen -dad regiinald major sparkes is on the uelzen photo

 

Hi Northstars,

I was reading the War Diaries for 84 Fd Coy RE yesterday.

I didn't see a Major Sparkes, but I do have a Spr R.N Sparkes listed on a document from 29th May 1944.

If you have any info I'd certainly be interested, and of course I am happy to share the info I have on 84.

My grandfather was with 84 between 12th June 1944 until the end of the war. Feel free to have a look through the pics in my gallery page.

...and yes, all 3 from the d-day pic are in the coy pic in Uelzen.

Cheers
Marc