The French SAS in Tunisia January 1943

Just a few minutes ago my new book arrived Paddy Mayne by Hamish Ross. There are photos of men from No11 Scottish Commando wearing black (b&w photos) hackles on a bonnet the same as the Scot in the photos above, only the hackle seems to have been trimmed down.

 

I had a thought that the man with the bonnet may be Johnny Cooper, possibly. He was painfully thin then at the best of times.

Taking of photo and his walk time may not correspond though.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

It could be same chap with eye patch seen in background of NA683.



Regards ...

 

Some further information for the good folks who have contributed here already.

Mars & Minerva, March 1986.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

Agreed Cee, wholeheartedly.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

The French 'helper' has responded to the photos shown here as follows:

A number of points which lead me to question the accuracy of what is being presented- particularly under the title « Gabes-Tozeur »

I feel the photos have been taken in different locations , at different dates, but certainly not all between 16th January to 6th February 1943

Several are said to have been taken in Tozeur: the only SAS Group to pass through Tozeur in this period were Lt Bernard Harent’s men , portrayed in NA 674.

They had been given instructions to stay in reserve , and make the long round trip via southern Tunisia , then reach Stirling’s designated RV location of Djebel Bou Hamli, north-west of Gafsa.

That particular photo shot (NA 674) was taken near Algiers by a Press Photographer- their group was the subject of a newspaper article -"Les Echos D’Alger » (will be posted soon)

The newspaper published a second article about the main group of SAS « survivors » who had reached US lines at Gafsa , featuring Mike Sadler , Cooper & Sgt Taxis., who had made it to Tozeur.

Certain photos referring to the 6th Armoured Division plus the Derbyshire Yeomanry would mean they were taken in Northern Tunisia -NA 684 & or Tunis -NA687. I checked that the latter unit arrived in Northern Tunisia in Nov 1942, serving as the Reconnaissance unit for the 6th Armoured Division. This is a long way from Tozeur…..

I wonder who was Sgt Currie ? Update: answered in Post 28 below.

I attach a colored map below showing the itineraries taken by the various SAS groups into Tunisia , from 15th January to 30th January 1943, including Stirling’s route.

Tozeur , lying some distance South-west of Gafsa , was well back , out of range of the major military operations , but it did possess a French military outpost.

 

Those routes are not as imagined. I too was confused by the IWM photo dates and locations. Wonder who these seven guys are?



Regards ...

 

An update on Post 26 from the French 'helper':

Ref the photos, I réalise I was initially evaluating them under a mistaken conception :
I thought the author, Sgt Currey , was a member of the SAS… but no , he worked for No 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit, which makes more sense!

I now understand that these photos were his compilation, (some taken by him - NA 676,) which were all recorded under the same caption “ Gabes - Tozeur”, for filing purposes, around the SAS thread .

It’s a pity that no dates are given for each photo- as the US “Life” photographers recorded with their shots.

End January / Feb 1943 , there were a number of US War correspondents & Photographers based near the US military quarters in GAFSA - they accompanied the operation to retake Sened Station from the Germans & Italians .

This was exactly the same dates the SAS “survivors “ chose to trek across the hills, towards Gafsa, or Tozeur, like Sadler & Cooper.

 

Operation Torch was apparently well covered by American film makers including Zanuck and Ford (See my posts on the Torch thread and others for coloured film clips) I'm surprised that they didn't film them.
That would have been one hell of a spoiler (part of SAS selection, now dropped I believe)
"Ok you guys just go back out behind that Wadi and do it again and try to look REALLY tired !"

Might be worth someone searching their archives if they are accessible.
It might also be the reason they avoided going there, being a "secret" organisation.
Does anyone know how the Bosche found out about Stirling's trip,
or was it just a result of aggressive patrolling that led to his ambush.

I will try to continue reading Paddy Mayne and look for clues. I'm rather busy this weekend and to be frank the intro and justification for its conception drags on a bit. The font is a bit small for me (size 10 or less) but I need to understand what makes the book so different from the rest.
I have to get to page 22 (Part II, 11 Scottish Commando) before we get to the potentially interesting bits.
So far no scent of anything remotely militarily interesting.

 

I thought Currey might have been there at the beginning of the Tunisian episode to catch them as they were about to set out and later at the end to photograph the ones that made it through. But now I'm not so sure. For example when was this photo of Major Stirling taken. He was also photographed by Keating on January 18th. Still don't have a handle on all that went on ?



Regards ...

 

This is a veritable spider's web of connections, names (Currey or Curry? - further on that to follow!), links, and oft more questions than answers, and with "going off thread" in mind I will only tentatively qualify in saying hopefully all, most definitely some, is related to The French SAS contingent in Tunisia in January 1943.

So, for Cee, davidbfpo, Uncle Target, and all other good folk who happen along here, Photo NA 682 and it's possibilities (and apologies in advance for further muddying of waters). And of course, all credit for this image to !WM Collections.





Hmmmm. Possibilities.

Extract (my underlining, bold and italics) from "The Long Range Desert Group in the Mediterranean" by R L Kay - an online section can be viewed here;

Reconnaissance in Tunisia | NZETC

“Crossing the frontier on 12 January, T1 patrol, under Captain Wilder, were the first troops of Eighth Army to enter Tunisia. About thirty miles to the south-west of Foum Tatahouine, they found the pass through the hills that became known to Eighth Army as Wilder’s Gap; this was on the route followed by the New Zealand Corps two months later. Other patrols explored the country farther to the west, T2 in the area to the south of Djebel Tebaga, between Matmata and Chott Djerid, a huge salt marsh, and G2 in the area between the Chott and the Grand Erg Oriental, an impassable sand sea extending into southern Algeria.

T2 patrol, under Lieutenant Tinker, and accompanied by a party of ‘Popski’s Private Army’ (Peniakoff’s Demolition Squadron), established a base camp in a wadi about twenty miles to the south of Ksar Rhilane. Tinker and Peniakoff, each with two jeeps, then went north towards Djebel Tebaga, through country that was found to be suitable for the passage of a force of all arms.


A natural corridor extended between Djebel Tebaga and the Matmata Hills towards the coast at Gabes; this was the Tebaga Gap through which the outflanking of the Mareth Line was to be accomplished. After avoiding German troops preparing defences near Matmata, Tinker and Peniakoff parted to continue with their separate tasks, Peniakoff to carry out demolitions in the Matmata area and Tinker to examine the country in the direction of Chott Djerid. On the way back to the base camp, Tinker rejoined Peniakoff at Ksar Rhilane and learned that the camp had been shot up by enemy aircraft. All the vehicles had been destroyed and two New Zealanders (Lance-Corporals R. A. Ramsay38 and R. C. Davies39) had been wounded.

Everybody except Sergeant Garven, a French officer and two Arabs of the PPA, who remained to keep a rendezvous with S2 patrol, had moved from the base camp to Ksar Rhilane, where there was a mixed gathering of thirty-seven men: sixteen of the LRDG, thirteen of the PPA, six French parachutists, and two SAS parachutists. The French had been following the route taken by Stirling’s SAS troops when one of their jeeps had broken down, and Stirling had left the other two men because of vehicle trouble. Not long afterwards Stirling and his party were captured near Gabes.

The LRDG had two jeeps, the PPA two, and the French one, but there was not sufficient petrol to take all five a hundred miles. With three jeeps, the wounded men, and petrol for 150 miles, Tinker set out for Sabria, an oasis near Chott Djerid, while the remainder of the men followed on foot, with their supplies in the other two jeeps. Tinker was to send back relief for the walkers, but if Sabria was not held by the Fighting French, he would have to go to Tozeur.

Sabria was in the hands of the Germans. An Arab guided Tinker’s party, without being detected, past the oasis to Sidi Mazouq, where the natives cared for them. At this stage they had travelled sixty miles and were still over a hundred from Tozeur. As there was not sufficient petrol to complete the journey around the shore of Chott Djerid, Tinker decided to cross the salt marshes by a camel track to Nefta, a village about sixteen miles from Tozeur. Where the surface was firm it was possible to drive at top speed, but where water seepage formed a quagmire the jeeps lurched through muddy pools on to hard lumps of coagulated salt and sand. They were the first vehicles ever to cross the Chott.

At Nefta, Tinker arranged by telephone for the French to supply petrol from Tozeur. He refuelled two of his jeeps and sent them back to meet the walking party—they did not attempt to recross the Chott—while he went to Gafsa, about sixty miles to the north-east of Tozeur, to obtain transport from the United States Army and to report by wireless to Eighth Army. The Americans at Gafsa, unable to help, told him to go to Tebessa, a hundred miles to the north-west, in Algeria. Although not wholly convinced by Tinker’s story, the Americans at Tebessa lent him two jeeps and allowed him to report to Eighth Army.

Tinker then went back to meet the walking party, whom he found near Sidi Mazouq and took to Tozeur. The two jeeps sent from Nefta had missed the walkers, but they arrived at Tozeur a day later, accompanied by an officer from S2 patrol. The Rhodesians had kept the rendezvous with Garven’s party. Tinker returned the borrowed jeeps to the Americans, who had a message from Eighth Army requesting his return by air. Leaving his patrol and attached troops in the hands of the British First Army, the United States 2nd Corps, and the Fighting French, he flew from Tebessa to Algiers, and from there to Tripoli, where he reported at Eighth Army to assist in the preparations for the ‘left hook’ around Mareth. Tinker’s courageous leadership won him the MC.”

So, maybe NA 682 was taken by Sgt Curry/Currey at Ksar Rhilane rendevous as the chaps who had been beaten up at the wadi camp 20 miles south west of the Ksar Rhilane rendevous walked in?

Possibilities, possibilities. More to follow.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

On Sgt Curry (Currey?)

From "The Cine Technician" of July August 1943. Sgt H Curry, stills photographer, A.F. and P.U. Unit 1 (Middle East), listed on Page 94 (second image below).

N.b. Also listed as "No. 1 Section, Middle East" on Page 96 of "The History of the British Army Film & Photogrphic Unit in the Second World War" by Dr Fred McGlade, published by Helion & Company 2010.

He is mentioned 3 times within, on pages 59, 96, and 111, as well as being listed in the index (I'll put the scans up from the book tonight as I have an appointment at 09:00 now).

Kind regards, always, Jim.

 

The photo below could indicate that Currey/Curry passed through Tozeur. Did he ride with the Harent patrol or was he involved in the LRDG manoeuvrings that Jim relates that could add a few new wrinkles to an already confusing mix?



Interesting also in the translation of the Press clipping of the 7 men in the one group who walked cross country to reach Gafsa, two were British:

"The Heroic Trek of seven Soldiers of the 8th Army through Rommel's Lines
One Officer, a Sergeant & three French Soldiers, with one Officer & one British Soldier, carry out a destructive Raid over 4000 km."

Probably Legrand's patrol.

Regards ...

 

Sergeant H Currey entries in "The History of the British Army Film & Photogrphic Unit in the Second World War" by Dr Fred McGlade, published by Helion & Company 2010, plus in last image reference to war diaries of Sgt. Currey's unit that cover the appropriate time period. there just might be some information in there regarding his assignments/movements.

In closing, another Cambrai Day is done; "FEAR NAUGHT"dear folks, "FEAR NAUGHT".

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

An update on several recent from the French 'helper':

I’d like to clarify the press cutting of 4 Feb 1943 ,which refers to 7 Men , of which 2 were British.

Not all the SAS « survivors » from the Tunisian raid were being interviewed for this article in Algiers.

Three (3) separate SAS groups had avoided capture on this raid:
- Lt Martin with 4 French SAS , total 5, arrived in GAFSA, via ZANNOUCHE on 30th January 1943
- 2nd Lt Legrand with 6 French SAS , total 7, arrived in GAFSA , via SENED STATION , on 30th January 1943.
-Lt Sadler , Cooper & the French SAS Sgt Taxis, arrived in GAFSA , via TOZEUR approx 29th January 1943.

The personnel being interviewed for the article were Lt Martin’s group of 5 , plus the one British Officer, Sadler , & Cooper.

Now back to moi. This means the photo in Post 31 does show Willis Michael Sadler, ex-LRDG navigator and then SAS. This would indicate the photo is posed after arrival in Gafsa. Now which one is Sadler? I'd suggest it is the man at the back smiling broadly.

 

As for the men seen walking in NA682 I'll go along with Jim's research that they belonged to the LRDG mixed contingent. They are the only ones that had their vehicles strafed which didn't make sense to me at first until Jim came along with his story. The introduction of another set of players complicates the story further ...

Regards ...

 

Some more connected information here, from Mars & Minerva 1985, by way of others who were involved on this fateful operation.





Forgive the error on the part of the writer on the second image in scribing "23rd June, 1943." Without doubt he meant 23rd January, 1943 as he'd previously stated on the first side of his letter.

Please also see here for some revealing thoughts and conversation.

Brian Edeveain Dillon MBE: The Royal Norfolk Regiment; SAS; SOE.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

In connection with post #37 above, and not too far off thread I hope.

A glimpse of Wilfred Thesiger within this superb piece of film.

THE GREEK SACRED COMPANY [Allocated Title]

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

For me, after my above meanderings, back to the dear French chaps.

From the 2001 updated edition of "BORN OF THE DESERT", extracts from David List's excellent additional notes.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

Jim,
I was reading this chapter earlier last night and intended to research Bourneville Clay (first paragraph above). Do you know more about him?
Still trying to get it into my head which side some of these were on.
I ploughed on to the next chapter intending to return but as you have been there already I am questioning my motives.
Went to bed at 0130 as normal as my ageing dog had gone to sleep.
Bookmarked at Chapter 7 for tonight.
If this messes up your thread, drop me a PM always happy to correspond with members.