BEF rearguard action at De Moeren/Bulskamp (May 29th till May 31st 1940)

Fascinating stuff, Christian. Most informative. Here are the only relevant pages from the diary of 4th Royal Northumberland Fusiliers who were the Motorcycle Battalion of 50 Div.

 

Champagne and bully beef - great stuff!

 

Hello wobbler
I see that 92th artillery passed the French belgian Frontier near Halluin. I presume bfore 20th May. Do you have this page from the diary, I'm making a study on the BEF in Halluin. Thx.

 

Christian I managed to request these pages from 9 DLI diary .Hope it helps


and these from 6th DLI :-


and 8th DLI




Not my files but former member Verrieres (Jim) had a personal interest as his old friend and neighbour won a DCM on the 27th May (also an MM in Italy later in the war!) with 2nd RNF Details below:-


Kyle

 

I will definitely have that, yes.

I will also see if Ralph Wild has anything about that of interest to you and get back to you.

 

I will probably PM you the diary pages etc as I don’t want to divert from Christian’s original thread, if that is ok?

 

Dear friends,

It has been exactly 83 years ago that the combats around Bulskamp and De Moeren took place. This anniversary inspired me to spend these last days further exploring this battleground. My little stroll around this beautiful landscape also allowed me to gather additional information which I shall share with you after having crosschecked this new data with your inputs.

This afternoon, I visited St. Flora castle. This visit was kindly and exceptionally granted by the proprietors, Mr. Edgard and Nicky Vilyen, who I hereby wish to thank for their hospitality. This visit, as you will see, raised a lot of questions.



It has been assumed that St. Flora was used by the Durham Light Infantry battalions as temporary Command Post. Also, according to Mr. Jerry Murland’s book ‘The Dunkirk Perimeter and Evacuation 1940’, “The château was almost completely destroyed in the battle and was rebuilt post-war.” However, it would now appear that St. Flora was not destroyed at all - it was not even damaged…

I imagine my hosts must have been quite surprised when I asked to visit the cellar that was allegedly used as Regimental Aid Post by Captain Rutherford and Lieutenant Wilkinson (the Medical Officers of 9/ and 8/DLI). The place is rather small (generously estimated, about 15 square meters) and very cramped (I am 1m82 and couldn’t stand upright). Though theoretically possible, it takes quite a lot of imagination to picture the RAP of two battalions operating from in there. Finally, the only access and egress is through a small doorway located in the entrance hall, leading to a narrow stairway. There was also a small outside access hatch (now sealed) that allowed goods to be delivered (dumped) into the cellar. I am aware that the Lord sometimes works in mysterious ways but, unless Father Duggan was able to perform engineering miracles, I don’t see how wounded men on stretchers could ever have been carried in there… Also, an emergency evacuation would have been impossible - if the château had taken a direct hit, this cellar would have become a death trap…

My conclusion (shared by Mr. Vilyen): St. Flora could not have been the château that hosted the Durham battalion’s CP and RAP in May 1940. I therefor surmise that this CP had to be located elsewhere, in another château.. The only possible alternative would be château ‘t Moerland. This castle, where King Albert I’s Military House was billeted in 1917, was effectively destroyed in 1940. It was of more modern design than St. Flora and may have had a large and accessible cellar. However, since nothing remains of the place, the only way to proof this theory would be to find the original construction plans.

As to St. Flora castle, I grow more and more convinced that is was indeed used as a CP. Not by the DLI though, but by LtCol Charles Wood's 92/Field Regiment. St. Flora, the St. Charles windmill OP and the two battery emplacements would then all have been aligned with the Ringsloot canal. Also, in this configuration, the CP would have been at ‘safe’ distance (approximately 400m) from the nearest battery, yet well within reach of field telephone cable lines (IOT ensure co-ordination with the battery commanders)

For now however, this is all merely conjecture.
As always, your comments and inputs are very welcome.
Christian

 

"The DLI HQ is referred to as `The Chateau Moeres` it`s location was described as `not the best` being in direct view of the German advance. CSM Gaul died of wounds when a cow byre being used as a cookhouse next to the Chateau was hit by three shells. The Chateau was also mentioned as the place where the DLI transport was ordered to be destroyed. At this time a composite unit of DLI and Tyneside Scottish (Survivors from Ficheux) had been attached to 151 Brigade together with the 3rd Grenadier Guards and the machine guns of 2 RNF . Perhaps someone with knowledge or documentation on these units can help on the exact location? Anyone asked Drew yet? " ;-(Verrieres)

Kyle

 

Nothing can be found on the 216th Infantry Division. However, the documents of the 56th ID could be interesting:
Here especially the prisoner interrogations of a Lt. Henderson, II./DLI as well as Lt. Prince, IV./DLI (and others).
each 1. page posted here, otherwise:
Russisch-deutsches Projekt zur Digitalisierung deutscher Dokumente in den Archiven der Russischen Föderation | Akte 447. Unterlagen der Ic-Abteilung der 56. Infanteriedivision: Tätigkeitsbericht der Ic-Abteilung während des Westfeldzuges, Gefangenenbefragungen und deren Meldung an das IX. Armeekorps, Material zu Besprechungen beim AOK 18, Gliederungsübersicht u.a.
Page 29 to page 36
If there are problems with the translation - just ask

 

OK. It would be great. Thx.

 

Kyle’s input is strengthening my case for ‘t Moerland (and not St. Flora) having been used as CP for the DLI. The name itself bears a striking resemblance to ‘Chateau des Moeres’. For clarity’s sake I should point out though that ‘t Moerland in fact refers to a domain comprising several farmhouses, stores and stables. The chateau itself, before its destruction, locally referred to as ‘Chateau Normand’ or ‘La Cense’, was the centre of this domain. It was, of course, the tallest construction and would have been very conspicuous – and unfortunately also a perfect target for German artillery...

Also, in the 8/DLI War Diary extracts Kyle sent me earlier, there is a clear reference to “exceptionally heavy shelling on the chateau and the surrounding woods and houses” (entry at 1730 on May 31st, 1940). Somewhat later (entry at 2100), the War Diary describes how the chateau was destroyed: “Shelling intensified. Ammunition truck hit in grounds of the Chateau and set on fire”.

As to its location, having been there recently, I can only concur with the statement “not the best - being in direct view of the German advance”. Indeed, the whole estate can easily been observed from the Houthem church tower where the Germans undoubtedly had a set up a B-Stelle (OP). From there, they could easily distinguish every movement in the vicinity of ‘t Moerland and Houthem bridge.

The website westhoekverbeedt.be provides interesting pictures (cfr. links hereunder). I was somewhat shocked though when first reading some comments linked to these pictures which suggest that the British purposely (!) torched the place before retreating.

‘La Cense’ just before the war, in February 1939 (Commented: “…it was destroyed to provide the English military, who were awaiting a German attack, a free field of fire.”)

‘La Cense’ in ruins (Titled: ‘De Moeren: ‘La Cense’ destroyed by the English’)

 

I don`t have access to the newspaper archive but the index shows this:-

GRETNA SOLDIER KILLED.
Intimation has been received that Private John R. Cartner, Prince Charlie’s Cottage, Gretna, was killed in action at Chateau Moeres on May 31st. He was the only son of Mr and Mrs George Cartner. Almost a year ago he was called up with the Militia.

Published 29 June 1940 Dumfries and Galloway Standard, Dumfries, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. (Typo in paper reads Gartner and Cartmer in the casualty lists )

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2770993/john-richardson-cartner/
PRIVATE
JOHN RICHARDSON CARTNER
Service Number: 3191135
Regiment & Unit/Ship
Durham Light Infantry
8th Bn.
Date of Death
Died 31 May 1940
Age 21 years old
Buried or commemorated at
DUNKIRK MEMORIAL
Column 122.
Additional Info; Son of George Bell Cartner and Ettie Cartner, of Gretna Green, Dumfriesshire.


Kyle


Edit:- Full text from News article and additional info obtained :-
GRETNA SOLDIER KILLED
Intimation has been received that Private John R. Cartner, Prince Charlie’s Cottage, Gretna, was killed in action at Chateau Moeres on May 31st. He was the only son of Mr and Mrs George Cartner. Almost a year ago he was called up with the Militia, and enlisted into the K.O.S.B. From there he was transferred to the Durham Light Infantry (Signal Corps). He was sent to France in January. Private Cartner would have been twenty-two years of age on Saturday last. He was educated at Gretna Public School and Gretna Township School, where he was dux boy in 1933, and at Annan Academy. On leaving school he was for some time
employed by Mr Mison, electrician, Carlisle. From there he went to the Rosebank Cafe, Gretna, and later served for three months behind the counter of Gretna Post Office, where he was working when he was called up. On 28th July, 1939, he was chosen to be among the militiamen inspected by the Duchess of Gloucester near Edinburgh.

 

Wonderful work sir!

I find it interesting though, Christian, that neither Wild nor Austin (Gun Buster) talk about a chateau, not even as a feature of the landscape; they write only of farmhouses and barns.

Wild himself says “The farm which the colonel had selected for the regimental command post was a remarkable place”. All very curious…

I must admit that, in relation to the description of the aviary, I did not know what a “midden” was - I now know it’s an old heap of animal waste or waste material. That probably does not help, but I learned something new .

 

Some details for clarification:

The brunt of the fighting at Bulskamp was borne by IR171 of the 56th ID: when the 208th ID took over the section,
IR171 was so weakened by the previous fighting that it was no longer capable of attacking.

Right neighbour was the 256th ID - and this was also corps border: 56th ID belonged to IX, 256th ID to XXVI Corps.

The 208th ID/XXVI. Corps was afterwards pushed forward and advanced on Dunkirk via Bray-Dunes/Zuydcoote.
The 216th ID was probably - as I would interpret the extremely sparse data - deployed as a trailing mopping-up unit.

The canal crossing would then have been carried out by Pi-Btl 156/56th ID. But it is quite conceivable that the 216th "borrowed" its Pi unit as a reinforcement. (The 208th ID also poached from all artillery units nearby as it advanced towards the coast).

 

The comments on Westhoekverbeeldt are more than a little politically loaded, not least because they refer to the British as "De Engelsen". I could make an educated guess as to where the anonymous writer might be present at the end of August each year....The caption doesn't state that the British burned the building prior to retreating, but rather that it was burned by them in 1939, during the 'Phoney War' as it interfered with firing lines across the border. This is quite clearly nonsense, as the French had positioned the BEF further inland (they didn't want them making a run for the coast at the first sign of trouble). The British were on the "Gort Line" to the east of Lille. If it was indeed burned for the stated reasons prior to 10th May 1940 then it must have been done by the French and it would have provoked a serious diplomatic incident. If it was burned for whatever reason during 1939 (and it could have been accidental) then it's difficult to understand how it could have been chosen for an HQ in May 1940.

There are what look to be projectile impact marks on the front elevation so the structure was clearly not cleared away prior to the engagement. I'd be inclined to suspect that it caught light during the fighting. It's unlikely that there would have been any civilians in attendance, so unless a war diary records setting light prior to withdrawal, we'll probably never know. Buildings and vehicles were not generally burned by the British in those circumstances as it indicated disengagement.

 

I have just sent you the diary pages, plus some pages from both Wild’s and Gun Buster’s books. I hope they help .

 

Attack orders for IX Corps
Russisch-deutsches Projekt zur Digitalisierung deutscher Dokumente in den Archiven der Russischen Föderation | Akte 149. Unterlagen der Ia-Abteilung des Generalkommandos des IX. Armeekorps: Befehle, Weisungen und Meldungen des AOK 18, Notizen zu Telefongesprächen mit dem AOK u.a.
Here: pages 48 - 53
The sometimes extremely stubborn resistance of British infantry (and agile French artillery) apparently caused the 18th Army command some headaches.

The way I read it, the ball was finally passed from the XXVI Corps to the IX Corps after the former got stuck.
In the end, it was only possible to advance to the coast between Zuydcoote and La Panne after the 56th ID had wedged its way through the Veurne area with considerable losses.
The left wing (216.ID, 14.ID) apparently did not make much progress because of the unfavourable terrain:
The 216th ID advanced between Alveringem and Lo-Reninge, but eventually stopped somewhere SW Dünkichen.
The 14th ID operated partly in the section of the X. Corps and then diverted north into the 216th ID's section before halting

After consolidating until 4.6.40, the 208th ID was then subordinated to the IX Corps, marched from the staging area SW Nieuwpoort (Mannekensveere-Zevekote) into the section of the 56th ID and advanced via Bray-Dunes towards Dunkirk.

 

Hallo Martin,

You may have a point. Perhaps I lately focused too much on St. Flora. During the entire 1940-campaign, Germans, French, British and Belgians used this kind of places (i.e. château’s, mansions, and big estates) as military Command Posts. This was not just because of the space and (relative) comfort these locations provided, but also because they were usually connected to the telephone grid (which, at the time, was not common). Also, these domains were often bordered by large open grounds, which were sometimes used by the belligerents as landing grounds for liaison aircraft.

Let’s assume, for argument’s sake, that the 92/FR’s CP was not located at St. Flora and review the clues available to us:

• Both the Regiment’s batteries (365th and 368th) were positioned on both sides of the St. Charles windmill, which was used by both batteries as OP. This is mentioned both in ‘Return via Dunkirk’ as in Ralph Wild’s personal memoirs. I therefor assume this to be fact.
• “The farm which the colonel had selected was a remarkable place.” suggest some special features: “snowy white” and with “an enormous aviary as high as the house itself”. The description further contains a number of interesting details such as: “to the left of the aviary there was a range of well-kept outbuildings which were allocated to the Royal Signals Corps detachment.”, “Opposite the house were a number of barns in which our vehicles were hidden.” and “In front of the house there was a small flower garden and shrubbery, an unusual feature in a working farm, especially in this area.” All this suggest to me a big, relatively wealthy farmhouse with several barns and stables in U-shape
• The most interesting clues though, seem to me “The house had a cellar...” and “The 365 Battery CP was nearby and the guns of one of its troops had actually been mounted in the garden.” But most importantly “The other (north) side of the quadrangle was open.”

So, if we exclude St. Flora (which - by the way - also has an adjacent farmhouse) and taking into account the proximity of the St. Charles windmill next to which 365 Battery was positioned, this leaves us with a limited number of ‘suspects’ left as potential candidates (cfr. sketch hereunder).I shall investigate further on this basis. Site 'C' seems to be the most likely location.



One important remark though: in 1944, the Germans inundated the entire region as part of the defense of the ‘Festung Dünkirchen’. At places, the water rose up to 2 m high: entire farms and cottages disappeared under the water. Subsequently, a lot debris and tree trunks were floating around. Due to the strong currents and hard winds, those debris collided against the structures that were still standing, causing even more damage than the 1940 bombardments had done.

When the water eventually withdrew, many cottages, farms and stables collapsed. As you can image, the overall damage was enormous: some structures had to be rebuilt anew (sometimes with a different lay-out), others disappeared altogether. Finally, in the course of the last eighty years, some new structures were erected that somewhat changed the lay-out of the scenery.

De Moeren: het gemeentehuis stort in tijdens de drooglegging

In short: except for a formidable stroke of luck, I don’t expect to be able to find solid, irrefutable elements as to where the 92/ Field Regiment's CP was actually located. I shall, nonetheless, try my utmost best.

Kind Regards,
Christian

 

Christian, you are doing a fantastic job in what must be very difficult circumstances, especially given the deliberate flooding of 1944, and I will be forever grateful to you for making me aware of the vital importance of this battle and of my grandad’s role in it.

While neither man mentions a chateau in their recollections, last night I did wonder if I had missed something and if both men had, in fact, only ever described the Battery Command Post (BCP) rather than the Regimental one. This morning, therefore, I again went over the relevant chapters of both Gun Buster’s and Ralph Wild’s books to check.

Unfortunately, clearly Wild is describing the Regiment’s HQ (RHQ); as you say, he says precisely that when talking of the farmhouse and aviary. Indeed, Wild worked within the RHQ itself and it clearly took hits as he describes being in the cellar when the “house above us” was shelled.

Austin, in his Chapter XIV, talks of reaching their destination “a large farmhouse, miles from anywhere”, (perhaps, also, he means the RHQ?) and goes on to describe the BCP as being in the cellar of a farm at Moeres.

The only other building he describes in any real detail, apart from the windmill, is the white, red-roofed farmhouse with green shutters that sat 400 yards from St Charles. That, of course, appears to have been destroyed by shellfire.

Perhaps Lt Col. Wood deliberately chose to not place his RHQ in St. Flora precisely because he thought that, to the Germans, it would have been an obvious thing to do and, therefore, more likely to be targeted.

I wonder if any of the original families, or rather their descendants, of course, still live in any of the rebuilt farms…

 

In case you are interested in those who were there, I attach some photos of men of the 92nd, some, most or, perhaps, all of whom, may have fought in the battle. The first two would be pre-war, probably late 1930s, the third photo, from their uniforms, is likely 1942.

My grandfather is standing second from the right in photo 1, and is sitting on the chair directly next to the right-hand gun in the second (in the peaked cap). He stands five from the right in the second row in photo 3 - clearly he didn’t like standing on the other side :