WW2 casualty Joan Fieldgate - commemorated on Southall County School memorial board, buried in Germany.

In researching the various people mentioned in these pages their personal stories are rarely as expected. One of the names on the Southall County School Memorial board - Joan Fieldgate – posed some problems in tracing what had happened to them. Joan had no CWGC entry as a civilian casualty nor did she appear to have served in the armed forces.

Much of the information I have found in researching cousin Jim's story has been of the 'well, I never knew that!' variety - Joan's story falls into that category. Joan had been just as much the adventurer as any of the other ex-pupils of Southall County School who became casualties of the Second World War - a volunteer for the Children’s Overseas Reception Board. She died in hospital at Ravensburg,Germany on 9^th October 1941, aged 27 years.

'Evacuation Escort Dies In Germany

LONDON, Nov. 2.—AAP.

The death has occurred in Germany of a children's overseas evacuation escort. Miss Joan Fieldgate, who was taken prisoner while returning from Australia. The ship in which she was travelling was torpedoed. She spent many months in an internment camp, where she became ill. She was taken to hospital at Ravensburg. Her (step-) mother, living in Middlesex, said that letters from her daughter revealed that she had suffered hardships after the torpedoing, but was fairly comfortable in Germany. Her daughter mentioned that she had received hundreds of letters from friends made in Adelaide and elsewhere in Australia.'

Joan Louise Fieldgate was born in Gillingham in July 1914, her father worked as an electrician at Chatham Dockyard, mother died shortly after Joan’s brother Ivan’s birth in August 1918.

Their father worked abroad in Hong Kong between 1920 and 1924 leaving Joan in the care of her father’s parents and Ivan with their mother’s family. Father subsequently remarried and the family was reunited back in Gillingham. Several work moves eventually took the family to West Drayton with Joan attending Southall County School from 1926, progressing to a student teacher position at the County School between 1931 and 1932.

In the autumn of 1932 Joan attended the Avery Hill Teacher Training College, Eltham, graduating with a teaching diploma in 1934 and obtaining a post as an art teacher at an elementary school in Hillingdon. At the outbreak of the Second World War Joan volunteered as an escort to take evacuee children for the Children’s Overseas Reception Board from England to Australia. 

Joan was skilled in making clothes and very interested in fashion. On her initial escort voyage in the ‘Nestor’ she enjoyed a long layover visit in Cape Town where she made contacts in local fashion houses with a view to possible future employment.

Having safely delivered their charges in Australia the escorts were due to sail an easterly route to the south of Chile, thence north to cross the Atlantic, However, Joan intended to follow-up her fashion leads in Cape Town and embarked on the ‘Port of Wellington’, a cargo vessel making a westerly voyage. Ten days out the ’Port of Wellington’ was attacked by ’the Pinguin’, a German commerce raider, accompanied by the ‘Storstad’, a tanker accommodating prisoners which received crew and passengers from the ‘Port of Wellington’ including Joan Fieldgate. While on board the ‘Storstad’ Joan contracted tropical dysentery as a result of the poor living conditions.

The ‘Storstad’ returned to Bordeaux from where the prisoners were taken to Southern Germany, reaching Liebenau in mid-March 1941. By September Joan was very ill and was admitted to a hospital at Ravensburg where she died on 9^th October 1941. She was buried in an unmarked grave. A few months later there was an exchange of prisoners and the remainder of Joan’s group returned home.

Liebenau had before the war been been an asylum for Germans adults and children with mental and physical disabilities. In October 1940 Liebenau was designated by Heinrich Himmler as an internment camp for civilian women and children of countries with whom Germany was at war – many of whom were British passport holders. From this point numerous of the asylum inmates were euthanised to make way for internees whom, it was hoped, may have future 'bargaining' potential.

'The Accidental Captives: The Story of Seven Women Alone in Nazi Germany'

by Carolyn Gossage - includes a brief account of the sad demise of 'Julie' – 'a British escort for a group of English refugee children being evacuated to Australia. …..she arrived at Liebenau in April 1941, but was taken ill shortly after her arrival, and was then misdiagnosed. Before the error could be rectified ….her patient's case of dysentery had reached the point of no return and within six months Julie was pronounced dead. News of her death quickly spread through the camp and with it the realisation that Julie was, in fact, a peripheral victim of the war from which the women of Liebenau felt relatively removed and isolated.'

Another book - 'Who Will Take Our Children?: The British Evacuation Program of World War II ' by Carlton Jackson - also includes references to Joan's demise.

Joan Louise Fieldgate is commemorated by an inscription on her mother Louise's gravestone in Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery, Kent, England.

Sincere thanks to Joan's brother Ivan for telling me about his vivacious elder sister.

Centenary of the outbreak of the Great War - A tale of two brothers

John Ives and his elder brother James began the War doing the same job at the same place.

Alfred De Rothschild the owner of Halton Hall, near Wendover, Bucks offered his estate to the War Office for military training. The 21^st Division, one of the components of Lord Kitchener's Third New Army, was concentrated in the vicinity of Tring, Hertfordshire in the autumn of 1914 and occupied Halton Park before the onset of winter drove them into local billets.

The Ives brothers lived in the village of Long Marston about six miles from Halton Park via Wilstone and Aston Clinton.  The construction of huts must have been an attractive employment opportunity for local carpenters and the brothers worked on the project from 1914 onwards - they would earn a bonus of half-a-crown for every hut completed. James and John specialised in cutting match-boarding and held the record for the greatest number of boards sawn in a day. They were apparently among the last remaining carpenters of 2000 men who worked on the construction of Halton Camp, which, by 1916, accommodated nearly 20,000 infantrymen in wooden huts and tents.

 

Subsequently Johnny Ives went across to France to build huts there and James joined the army.

 

Johnny Ives in RFC uniform

John spent three and a half years in France, including 12 months serving in the Royal Flying Corps. There his woodworking skills were employed in repairing and converting a single-seat aeroplane into a twin-seater so that his CO could ‘take a certain duchess for a spin’.

James joined the army in 1916 and in the spring of 1917 was attached from the Hertfordshire Regiment to the 'D' Company 8^th Lincolnshires Regiment. On May 22^nd 1918 ‘tidings’ came from the War Office that Private Ives had been killed on or about 31^st July 1917 in Belgium during the third Battle of Ypres.

A letter from the 'British Red Cross and Order of St John Enquiry Department for Wounded and Missing', dated 21^st February 1918 confirmed that it was likely that Private Jas. Wm. Ives 235254, D Coy. 8^th Lincolns was dead.

‘With reference to your enquiry regarding the above, I write with deepest regret to inform you that we have just received the following sad report from Pte. J H Dunn, 43324, D Coy. 8^th Lincolns, a prisoner of war, who reports as follows:-

‘The last time I saw Pte. Jas. Wm. Ives was early in the morning, say 8 o’clock; he was wounded, tried to get back, but I think, well most sure, he was sniped and killed.’

We fear his conclusion is probably correct as had Pte Ives survived we feel certain that he would have been heard of long before this.

Yours faithfully,

For the Earl of Lucan’.

On 8^th July 1917 8^th Battalion Lincolnshires, a component of the 63^rd Brigade together with 8^th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry; 4^th Battalion Middlesex Regiment; 10^th Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment; 63^rd Machine Gun Regiment and 63^rd Trench Mortar Battery; joined the 37^th Division, part of the Second New Army, to later take their part in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge in the Third Battle of Ypres.

The Third Battle of Ypres was a series of small battles which became synonymous with the slaughter of the Western Front. The intention for the opening stage of the battle was to take objectives in and around the village of Pilckem, a few miles to the north of Ypres. The village was situated near a ridge which gave a commanding view of the British line and so it was important that it was taken both to deny the enemy their excellent vantage point and to give the British an observation point across the German rear, which would give them a significant tactical advantage.

The Allied artillery bombarded the German lines with more than four million shells between July 16^th and the 31^st in preparation for a forthcoming advance. The attack was to begin at dawn on 31^st July. The action commenced at 3.50am in mist and heavy rain and by the end of the day, with most of the objectives having been taken, allied casualties numbered 15,000.

The History of the Lincolnshire Regiment records the following:- 'At 3.50am on 31^st July, the attack began. 'D' Company of the Lincolnshire being detailed to form the defensive flank on the right of the 4^th Middlesex from June and July Farms. The right company of the Middlesex advanced and gained its objective, and, at 4.30am two platoons of the supporting company went through to reconnoitre and clear Bab Farm. It was at this stage that the leading platoon of the 8^th Lincolnshire, then engaged in forming the defensive flank, was drawn into the fighting. Some stiff close-quarter fighting then ensued, and heavy casualties were inflicted on the enemy, but the attackers were hard-pressed. Again and again they tried to send runners back for assistance but they were shot down. Runners sent forward from the reserve company also failed to reach the attackers and the brigade narrative ends the account of the gallant party of Middlesex and Lincolnshire with the words: “This party fought it out where they were until they were all either killed or wounded”.'

Pte Jas Wm Ives, D Coy 8th Lincolnshire

RAF Bomber Command's Dam Busters - 'let all that water loose'

F/O Douglas Hackett DFC RCAF was b/a in F/Lt Warren Roberts' 405 Squadron crew, lost on the 30^th January 1944 Berlin raid. I have been preparing notes for Doug Hackett for some time now, hopefully I'll be posting his page very soon.

In mid-May 1943 P/O D Hackett was with 424 Squadron who were making preparations at RAF Topcliffe in Yorkshire for their imminent detachment to No. 205 Group in the Middle-East. Having been employed on operations against the Ruhr, Hackett and his crew (pilot Sgt Donald F G Parker RCAF) would complete their tour in Tunisia during the bombing campaign against Sicily and Italy.

The Dams raid has been researched to the nth degree, but I am able to add a contemporary view of the legend. Doug wrote a letter home 'to Mother & Dad' in Kingston, Ontario the day after the night of 617 Squadron's 'Operation Chastise' saying:-

'I've just read about the dams that were smashed open last night, that was really quite a good job. One of the fellows put a piece in the 'Line Book' about it. He asks “What's the good of our starting fires in the Ruhr if they go and let all that water loose.”'

'Not a sausage' - WW2 technical term?

The RAF is renowned for spawning a multitude of its own slang sayings.

The phrase 'not a sausage' – meaning -' nothing at all' supposedly derives (or so www.urbandictionary would have us believe) from cockney rhyming slang – 'sausage and mash' : cash. To my mind this doesn't sound quite right. I much prefer the version presented to me by one of my glass clients last week.

Sally's mother was a wartime WAAF whose explanation for the phrase 'not a sausage' stemmed from interpreting a radar screen display. If a contact appeared on her screen it would be a sausage shaped image - no contact – no sausage.

So - 'what can you see?' - 'can't see a sausage sir!'

'D-Day' + 4 - RAF 1679 ADLS Flight - ' the Mail Goes Through'.

From their same starting point at 9 ITW Stratford-on-Avon, Jim Ives and Ian Cunnison, pictured sitting next to each other (extreme right, second from front row), both went on to undertake their pilot training in the Southern States of the USA as members of Arnold Scheme class 42G. They both did their initial pilot training at Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida and their basic at Gunter Field, Montgomery, Alabama, Jim then progressed to twin-engine advanced, Ian Cunnison remained with single-engine aircraft with the possible destination of RAF Fighter Command.

Despite starting from the same point, the ‘jobs’ pilots came to do were surprisingly varied, and, to use modern parlance - ‘random’. The RAF was made up of a myriad of Commands, Units, Squadrons, Special flights etc., etc., Jim went on to become a main force bomber pilot.  After various training postings back in the UK Ian eventually found himself posted, in April 1944, to 1697 ADLS at RAF Hendon whence he operated until 9^th May when the unit moved to RAF Northolt.

1697 Air Despatch Letter Service Flight was established in the run-up to ‘D-Day’ to deliver secret mail and equipment. After the landings their work included flights to the beach-head during the invasion period. 1697 ADLS operated Hurricanes fitted with under-wing storage housings or a detachable nose compartment to accommodate their cargo. The aircraft did not initially have the characteristic black and white ‘invasion’ wing stripes but after a couple of the Hurricanes were reputedly fired on by American fighters the livery was adopted.

One of 1697 Flight's more famous pilots was Squadron Leader James Eric Storrar DFC* AFC who on 10^th June 1944 flew the first Allied aircraft to land in France after ‘D’-Day, carrying classified mail and recording material for war correspondents (apparently Storrar's take-off cry was ‘Fuel and noise - let's go!’ ). Later that day F/Lt Stewart and F/Sgt Cunnison made the third successful trip to the beach-head, landing at advanced landing ground B3 at Sainte Croix-sur-Mer.

On 16^th June 1679 Flight adopted the motto ' the Mail Goes Through'.

F/Sgt Cunnison's association with 1679 Flight ended a month later on 16^th July 1944, possibly as a result of a mishap on 3^rd July when he suffered an engine failure on take-off - the incident apparently deposited his aircraft in the C/O's garden.

After a short period at RAF Doncaster's holding centre Ian Cunnison was moved via

5 Personnel Despatch Centre RAF Blackpool for a Transport Command posting to India, embarking on the troopship 'Otranto' for the four week voyage, disembarking at Bombay on 22^nd September and on to 1944 Base Reception Depot Worli where supplies and personnel were received.

Newly arrived F/Sgt Cunnison's first duty on the sub-continent was a fortnight's course at the School of Jungle Survival at RAF Mahabaleshwar, a former hill station in the Western Ghats, Maharashtra, where the instructors were Kachins – Burmese hill-men who sought to pass on the multifarious aspects of jungle survival, basic local phrases, camouflage, field-craft, use of survival kits, recognition of snakes, spiders, scorpions etc., etc. 'SJSPT M'swar' was followed by a flying refresher course at No3 Refresher Flying Unit - Poona.

Then to 1331CU at Risalpur from the end of October until three days before Christmas 1944 – for conversion to various types – Hurricanes, Spitfire MkVIII, and Dakotas amongst others, in readiness for ferrying duties. From this point however, F/Sgt Cunnison's health took a downward turn and he spent Christmas week in the B M Hospital Delhi but was fit enough to be posted to No 10 Ferry Unit, Nagpur on New Year's Eve. He was again hospitalised locally at Kamptee in early February 1945 and then returned to B M Hospital, Delhi, briefly resuming duty at 10 FU at the end of May before being moved to the Convalescent Depot Chakrath and 59 Staging Post, Nagpur at the end of July where he spent VJ Day - and then on to the Invalids Depot, BRD (Base Reception Depot) Worli on 10^th October 1945.

'The luck of the draw' had dealt Ian Cunnison a hand which he could not have expected, a wartime flying career far removed from that of the stereotypical bomber or fighter pilot.

 

LAC Ian Cunnison at Carlstrom Field

Ian Cunnison stayed on in the RAF after the war but later transferred to the Civil Service with whom he had a distinguished career.

Bomber Command 'D-Day' diversions.

From midnight on 5^th/6^th June a convoy started to make its way towards Boulogne from the English coast. The convoy was covered by aircraft from Bomber Command's 101 Squadron, operating ABC and 100 Group's 214 Squadron was flying a RCM 'Mandrel screen' operation with the intention of confusing the German's coastal radar system

German night-fighters were sent up to intercept the RCM aircraft and heavy artillery along the French coast was alerted to the convoy's presence and they opened fire on it. Searchlights were directed towards the approaching ships and E-Boats were despatched to intercept the convoy which was maintaining course at around 7 knots. Thus the ships of Operation 'Glimmer' progressed towards Boulogne for about three hours under constant scrutiny from a British G-H station.

The conclusion drawn by the G-H Station was that the pilots of RAF Bomber Command's 218 (Gold Coast) Squadron had flown a completely effective simulation of a seaborne convoy. Operation 'Glimmer' had successfully caught the attention of, and confused the German defences into thinking that a component part of the Allied invasion fleet was heading towards Boulogne.

The operation was flown by eight Short Stirling IIIs from 218 Squadron, taking off from RAF Woolfox Lodge just before midnight in two waves of five (t/o 23.39 on) and three (second wave t/o fifty minutes after the first). Aircraft were equipped with G-H and Gee boxes and were fitted with two flare chutes and manned by crews of thirteen, made up of two pilots, three navigators, a wireless operator, flight engineer, two air-gunners, two window-droppers and two replacement window-droppers.

Following practice exercises in the run-up to 'D-Day' the Stirlings were required to fly precise reciprocating 'orbits' along their required track to advance at a rate of 7 knots, dropping bundles of window at carefully timed twelve minute intervals to generate advancing radar 'targets', simulating a flotilla of ships. Navigation and speed were required to be spot-on, as was the timing of window dropping so that German radar plotted regular progress of the windowed blips.

214 Squadron's 'Mandrel' equipped Boeing B17s presented their 'Mandrel screen' over the English channel (off the Hampshire/ Dorset coast) and 101 Squadron were patrolling to the north-west of Dieppe towards Abbeville.

Slightly further to the south-west 617 Squadron were undertaking a similar timed windowing operation 'Taxable', simulating another sizeable convoy heading towards Le Havre. Despite also being very accurately flown, 617's convoy apparently drew little enemy attention.

Another example of RAF Bomber Command's contribution to the 'Second Front'.

Operation 'Glimmer' in more detail at:- http://www.hellzapoppin.demon.co.uk/glimmer.htm

BBMF Lancaster vs RCAF WW2 veteran.

I was extremely privileged to attend a small gathering at the week-end, a series of gatherings really. Many RAF Squadron Associations have disbanded in recent years as the numbers of attendant veterans of the Second World War have declined. 625 Squadron Association held their annual reunion dinner on Saturday evening followed by a memorial service, and a buffet lunch courtesy of 1228 (Louth) Squadron, ATC, the following morning. The upper and lower ages of those gathered around the Kelstern memorial had a range of about eighty years.

Passing traffic generally respected the assembly at the memorial which has been painstakingly restored by dedicated volunteers. Congratulations to 1228 Squadron for their guard of honour and to the priest for his selected reading and prayer which were totally appropriate to the reason for our being there, to the gathering and to the setting – the airfield with its remnants of wartime buildings runways, and peri-tracks with the expanses between having long since reverted to peaceful agriculture.

The minor collective disappointment was that a requested fly-past in honour of those who lost their lives in the war-time service of 625 Squadron - a main force RAF Bomber Command squadron - did not materialise. It was sad that the request had warranted neither an acknowledgement nor a reply. The BBMF Lancaster is, of course, an icon and to get the aircraft in the air involves a great deal of organisation and expense, so it is understandable that a small individual commemoration could not be accommodated this time. However, it was far better to have been honoured by the presence of three distinguished gentlemen who operated Lancasters from RAF Kelstern seventy years ago, than the aeroplane.

I had the pleasure to meet Iain Sutton, the son of Frank Sutton, rear gunner in the 625 Squadron crew of Canadian pilot Reg Price. Reg and Frank's crew had arrived at RAF Kelstern within a day of cousin Jim Ives' own posting there. It was a great honour to enjoy Reg's company and his memories of a busy military and commercial pilot's life, recounted with crystal clarity, modesty and great charm in a calm, no nonsense manner which, I have no doubt, reflected the attributes which carried his crew safely through their tour of operations.

Reg is now 93 years of age, he had flown in from Canada to take in the reunion events before travelling on to show his son, daughter and son-in law other places significant to him and his late wife Elsie whom he had met at a RAF Kelstern station dance within a week of arriving there.

                                                       Reg Price DFC and Iain Sutton

Reg assured Iain and me that he had enjoyed sharing his reminiscences with us (he had, by the way flown the BBMF Lancaster PA474 on a couple of occasions in 1948, evidenced by his log-book entries). It was certainly a very great experience for two middle-aged 'boys' to spend time with Reg, an unsung hero of the RCAF.

Next time you attend a BBMF event – look beyond the aeroplanes for the Air Force veterans, talk to them and thank them – the Lancaster is impressive but is far outshone by the likes of Reg Price DFC!