5 Education
The main sources for this chapter are the UK war diaries for the 2/5th SF (WO 166/4665, and WO 166/5895); 139 Brigade (WO 166/998, WO 166/999 and WO 166/6604) and 46th Division (WO 166/552 and WO 166/6288). Court Martial records in WO 84 and WO 213 were used to look at discipline. There are personal accounts in Gerald Summers, Lure of the Falcon (1972) and unpublished sources in the Nottinghamshire Archive including the collections of personal memories edited by Wally Binch used in Chapter 3, and an autobiography by Fred Hirst written in 1997. Published sources are relatively limited. David French, Raising Churchill’s Army (2002) pp. 184– 211 covers the Home Forces from 1940–1943. The best and most comprehensive modern study of British training during the war is Timothy Harrison-Place, Military Training in the British Army 1940–1944 (2000), the official history by J. W. Gibb, The Second World War 1939–1945: Training in the Army (1961), is mostly a rather dry record of administrative changes.
Notes
pp. 82-83 Hassell’s gallantry awards from London Gazette, 13 May 1918, p. 5694; further information derived from Ancestry.com.
pp. 84-85 Cresswick’s trail recorded in WO 213/3, Field General Courts Martial (Home only) 4 July – 12 December 1940; information on Creswick’s military record supplied by Mercian Regimental Museum Archive (MRA), based upon Army Book 358 (Book 4), 1932 Regimental Annual, and other records. Alan Orme’s account is in ‘Some Experiences of War’, More Sherwood Forester Memories, p. 22–23, and IWM tape #21600, Reel 5; In contrast to Orme, Reg Markham (IWM tape #13561, Reel 6) thought Creswick did return to the battalion but did not go overseas with it.
p. 85 Brooke’s comments are in his diary entry for 27 July 1940, but there is no reference to an inspection by Brooke on that date in either 139 Bde or 2/5th SF war diaries.
p. 85 WO 373/16/1305, DSO Citation for Chichester-Constable. It was gazetted 22 October 1940, 3rd Supplement to the London Gazette, 34975 of Friday 18th October 1940.
p. 88 Description of the ‘Armadillo’ from Tupling, IWM Tape #16086, Reel 3.
p. 91 Information on 10th Battalion from WO 166/8957, 10th SF WD, entries for 9, 10, 19, 25 September 1940.
pp. 92-93 Young Soldiers Battalion organisation from WO 24/940, War Establishments, 1942. Mardell’s story from IWM Sound Archive, #16400, Frank Mardell interview with Peter Hart, (1995) Reels 1–3.
p. 93 Specific airfields under 139 Brigade were Feltwell, Watton, Swanton Morley, Bodney, East Wretham and Methwold, WO 166/552 46th Divn WD, December 1941.
p.95 WO 166/4665, 2/5th SF WD April and May1941. The entry for Williamson says 262 Squadron but must be an error as that squadron was not formed until September 1942.
p. 96 Major General Charles Edward Hudson had been relieved as Divisional Commander in May 1941 after clashes with his Corps Commander. Major-General Douglas Wimberley took temporary command, but from June to November the Division was commanded by Major-General Miles Dempsey, who later became one of Britain’s most successful generals of the war in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Northwest Europe.
p. 96 Freeman Attwood biography from WO 166/6288, 46th Divn WD, May 1942.
pp. 97-98 Exercise ‘Alert’ details from OW 166/6288 46th Div WD, May 1942.
pp. 98-99 For Battle Schools see Harrison-Place, Military Training in the British Army 1940–1944 (2000), pp 49–57; French, Raising Churchills Army (2000), p. 203–04; and WO 32/10466, Joint Committee on Instruction of Officers and Schools, May 1942
p. 90 Readiness of 46th Division in WO 205/1C, General Sir Bernard Paget, Commander-in-Chief Home Forces: Conferences, ‘Reports on the State of Training of Field Force Formations’, 22 April 1942.
pp. 99-100 Gerald Summers’ story from The Lure of the Falcon (1972), pp. 98–103.
pp.100-102 The description of the live firing incident is a composite account based upon Cooper, in On Active Service, p. 23; IWM Sound Archive #15556, Ernest Walter Shaw interview with Peter Hart (1995), Reel 7; and Orme, ‘Some Experiences of War’ p. 10 (also More Sherwood Forester Memories, p. 24); IWM Sound Archive #16352,Frank Edward Offiler interview with Peter Hart, (1995), Reel 4. The 2/5th SF WD August 1942 reports 3 killed and 2 wounded, but WO 166/6604, 139 Bde WD for the same period, gives four killed and five wounded and gives names, ranks and serial numbers. Personal accounts vary and must be considered inaccurate, apart from Offiler, Cooper say five to seven deaths, Shaw four in total but only two Foresters. The four deaths, but none of the wounded, are recorded in the casualty list 921 in WO 417/49, released on 5 September. The deaths were reported in the Derby Daily Telegraph on Thursday 20 August and Monday 24 August 1942. Barradell and Walker are both buried in Lewes Cemetery, Sussex. Boulton’s grave is in Nottingham Road Cemetery, Derby, and Harris is buried in Nottingham Northern Cemetery. A fifth soldier from the battalion, Private Richard Mitchell, died just four days later in a road accident and is buried in Mansfield Woodhouse Cemetery.
p. 102 Lieutenant Murray’s breakdown from IWM Sound Archive, #19628, Julius Cowen interview with Conrad Wood, (28/08/1999.) Reel 1 and Offiler, IWM Tape, #16352 Reel 4.
p.102 Numbers of men transferred have been calculated from the battalion war diary for 1942. The equivalent information for 1941 is not recorded. Some individuals may have both joined and left the battalion within the year, this is known to be true of some junior officers. A few men that transferred to logistics Corps, such as the Army Catering Corps, stayed attached to the battalion but possibly impacted on its fighting strength. The turnover of personnel and its impact on relations between officers and men was commented upon as a prime cause of low esprit de corps in reports in the War Council, see WO 163/51, ‘Morale Report February-May 1942’ and ‘Report of Morale Committee February to May, 1942’. WO 163/51, Papers and Minutes of the 12th to 19th Meetings of the Army Council held during 1942 (1942); WO 166/6288, 46th Divn WD, February 1942. Fraser, And We Shall Shock Them, p. 105, suggests overall British morale was at its lowest ebb in the summer of 1942.
p.102 For consolidation of ITCs, Gibb, Training in the Army, p. 114.
pp.102-3 Fred Hirst’saccount from A Sherwood Foresters Story of World War II (1997), pp. 8-9.
p. 103 O'Sullivan’s views from IWM Sound Archive, #20789, Patrick O’Sullivan interview with Thomas Tunney (2001), Reels 8–9. The 6th Lincolns were in 138 Brigade and close ties developed between the battalions, several Foresters officers served in the 6th Lincolns.
p. 103 disciplinary issues from TNA WO 086 series, Judge Advocate General's Office: District Courts Martial Registers, and WO 213 series, Judge Advocate General's Office: Field General Courts Martial and Military Courts, Registers; WO 166/6604, 139 Bde WD June, October, and November 1942.
pp. 103-4 The death of Joe King is described by Shaw in IWM Tape #15556, Reels 4, 5, and 8. I have found no record of Joe King’s death in military or civilian records. Frank Offiler says that there was a self-inflicted gunshot wound and an attempted suicide around this time (IWM Tape, #16352 Reel 4); so it may be that King survived.
p. 104 WO 166/999, 139 Bde WD October 1941. The Leicesters had also provided men for agricultural work in 1939, which the Foresters had not done.