Joe's Bridge or someone else's

Hi and welcome to the forum
Was your grandfather with 615 or 14 Field Squadron,RE, do you know?

Here is a brief account by a Sapper officer, who normally would have been attached to 2 Armoured IG but wasn't that day.
See the end of the post in this link and the following post for mention if R Hutton who was awarded the MC for his role in dealing with the demolition charges.
William Gordon CANTLAY, 14 Field Squadron, RE, attached GAD

I'm afraid I don't know more about the RE who were there, apart from the fact that Hutton was assisted by 4 Guardsmen of the 3rd Bn during the actual taking of the bridge. I'm sure there were enough charges for the sappers themselves to deal with.

 

He would have been with Ronnie Hutton then who was in charge of their armoured section, in the same role as Cantlay was with 14 Field Squadron.

Would you mind adding your grandfather's account to this thread? I'd love to hear another first hand account, my father having also been there.

Regards,
Diane


BBC People's War links - account by someone who served with 14 field squadron, RE
BBC - WW2 People's War - Memories of World War II (Part 1)
BBC - WW2 People's War - Memories of World War II (Part 2): With the Guards Armoured Division

 

From The Armoured Micks:

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Duncan Lampard

LAMPARD, DUNCAN, MC, 2ARMD, 1sqn

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/36961/supplements/1175/page.pdf


http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oy3K_xc6KLoC&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=Duncan+Lampard+irish+guards&source=bl&ots=6dsQ0GfAIo&sig=4RpQvUS9e5kr9lv_h_yDJfT6KaA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2LbjUvr1PLOp7Ab12IC4Cg&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Duncan Lampard irish guards&f=false

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=panvKweZ2ZAC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=Duncan+Lampard+irish+guards&source=bl&ots=OfVROoz7oJ&sig=iSIMPulq5kQwzaDLE78LUqlXObY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2LbjUvr1PLOp7Ab12IC4Cg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Duncan Lampard irish guards&f=false


Duncan Lampard



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[sharedmedia=gallery:images:17881]
Brig JOE Vandeleur, 1963 at Joe's Bridge

http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/47705-ig-association-trip-belgium-holland-germany-1963/

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The Times 12 Sep 1944

 

The Story of The Guards Armoured Division 1941 - 1945, pages 116 - 118

By seven forty-five the original Household Cavalry patrol had been reached in the factory area just South-East of the bridge; from this vantage-point it could distinctly be seen to be still intact and still strongly defended, though the defenders could be expected to have had most of their attention focussed on the battle still going on with the Grenadiers on the opposite flank. The failing light was all in our favour and Lieutenant-Colonel VANDELEUR ordered No. 1, Major D.A. PEEL's, Squadron to attack and rush it as soon as possible, supported by No. 2, Captain J.A.H. HENDRY's Company. The sapper party to accompany them was of a rather unusual composition, since Captain R. HUTTON, of the 615th Field Squadron, had somehow got separated from his troop and could only muster his driver, his wireless operator and his orderly; none of these had any knowledge of demolition technique and to them were added four guardsmen who were assuredly even less expert but who were unofficially made sappers on the spot. There could be no question of artillery support as the guns were out of range.

Major PEEL decided to send Lieutenant D.A. LAMPARD's troop to patrol slowly forward towards the cross-roads immediately South of the bridge, accompanied by Lieutenant J. STANLEY-CLARKE's platoon. The remaining tanks of the squadron took up positions enabling them to keep up a continuous fire at the bridge and its approaches, in order to discourage the defenders. Gradually the troop edged its way forward, destroying one eighty-eight-millimetre gun on the way, until it was established among the houses at the cross-roads. Lieutenant LAMPARD had been told to make his own plan for the actual assault and he now agreed with Lieutenant STANLEY-CLARKE to cover his platoon up the main road to within a hundred yards of the bridge, when a green Verey light would be fired. This was to be a signal for all guns to fire only on the bridge, and when the infantry were ready for the final assault a red Verey light would be fired as a signal for all fire to cease and the leading tanks to charge. It was eight-thirty when the green Verey light went up, and for two minutes very heavy fire came down on the bridge, after which the red light followed and the tanks charged. One of the troop had jammed its gun shortly before and a second now hit the corner of a house and stuck, so only two tanks actually made the assault, that of Sergeant STEER in the lead and Lieutenant LAMPARD's own. These rushed straight across the bridge and halted in fire positions on the North side, the infantry doubling close behind and lying down around them. Major PEEL at once ordered the rest of the squadron and company across to join them, while Captain HUTTON and his partly immediately set to work to make the bridge safe. Sapper DAVIES, his wireless operator, and two guardsmen cut all wires and fuses on the near side and Sapper SMITH, his orderly, and the other two guardsmen those on the far side, while Captain HUTTON himself found and destroyed the electric circuit. This was quickly done, and as a further squadron-company group came up in support an German stepped up to Lieutenant STANLEY-CLARK and patted him on the back, congratulating him on his boldness with the words: "Well done, Tommy, well done."

The bridge was immediately christened "Joe's Bridge", and nobody is exactly sure as to how this occurred. But by a happy coincidence the name honoured both Lieutenant-Colonel VANDELEUR and Captain HUTTON, whose troop was always called 'Joe's troop'. Anyway, as such it was officially signed the next day and so it appeared in all subsequent operation orders, even up to Army level.

The feat had indeed been a fine one and must have been peculiarly startling and disconcerting to the Germans. The main defence of the bridge had consisted of eighty-eight-millimetre guns brought down on purpose from airfields in Holland and sited in an anti-tank role. They had only arrived the previous day and the troops had been given a tremendous lecture by a senior officer on the vital nature of their task of denying the use of the bridge to ourselves. This was found to have been fully prepared for demolition with charges totalling a weight of two thousand pounds, and with the cross-roads to the South also strongly defended the enemy no doubt considered that everything was well covered. The measure of his surprise and consequent disorganisation was illustrated clearly enough by the fact that the IRISH GUARDS only suffered three casualties, none of them fatal.*


*
KIA
Casualty
Lance Serjeant
DUNN, JOHN
Service Number 2719614
Died 10/09/1944
Aged 23
3rd Bn., Irish Guards
Son of Thomas and Margaret Dunn; husband of Helen Paterson Dunn, of Rankinstone, Ayrshire
INSCRIPTION: IN LOVING MEMORY
Buried at LEOPOLDSBURG WAR CEMETERY
Location: Limburg (Belgium), Belgium
Number of casualties: 783
Cemetery/memorial reference: III. D. 12.

 

FIGHTING ON THE MEUSE-ESCAUT CANAL LINE IN NORTHERN BELGIUM [Allocated Title]
[video in link]

FIGHTING ON THE MEUSE-ESCAUT CANAL LINE IN NORTHERN BELGIUM
Object description: 30th Corps prepares its formations for Operation 'Garden'.

Full description: Gunners belonging to the 55th Field Regiment's 439th Battery RA open fire with their 25-pounder gun during a 'softening-up' bombardment on units of the 1st Parachute Army defending the Meuse-Escaut canal line and territory north of the de Groote Barrier bridgehead.

Sappers repair the worn wooden parquet surface of the German built trestle bridge (Joe's Bridge) over the Meuse-Escaut canal as units from 50th Division's 231st Brigade file into the de Groote Barrier bridgehead; simultaneously units of the Guards Armoured Division march southward out of the salient they had won.

Category: film

Second World War (content)

Creator: Directorate of Public Relations, War Office (Production sponsor)
Army Film and Photographic Unit (Production company)
Ginger (Sergeant) (Production individual)

Production date: 1944-09-15

Footage: 163 ft; Running time: 2 mins

Catalogue number: A70 160-2