12th Battalion Devonshire Regiment

Zimmerframe,

A very moving tribute, thank you for sharing.

Regards ...

 

These are copies of my uncles service record. The photo was him aged 21. Probably taken around the time he joined up.

The information I have been given by Cee is intriguing. If he had the nickname "Nick" then that brings closure to my research in that I know the circumstances around his death.

If anyone can help further, I would b very grateful

 

Hi,

All I can say at this point is the "Nick" suggestion is intriguing, but needs to be backed up with real evidence and could be a false lead. Here's the story by Edward Horrell or Howell (?) on the Pegasus archive for anyone wishing to dig further.

http://www.pegasusarchive.org/varsity/edward_horrell.htm

Regards ...

 

Hi Zimmerframe,
Loved looking through your Uncle's service records. So much can be found out from one line. My own research into my Uncle's service in the Devon's sent me in every direction but what a fascinating time I have had in my research. The biggest pleasure for me was the amount of people who are willing to help you. An enormous amount of information was exposed thanks to these people and I would suggest you use every thread open to you as you have no idea what's behind the next door.
Good luck in your research.

 

Hi Zimmerframe, thanks for posting your uncles service records. In your earlier post you mention that he was almost certainly in A company while in Edward Horrells account he was in D Company but for some reason ( and i must have found it somewhere else ) i have him down as being in C Company, i will have to do a bit more digging in my books. could i copy you uncles service records please so i can add them to my collection? good luck with your research.

 

Thanks reddevon for the PM,

I undertook broad and narrow searches for Hillier on the CWGC and the only one who turns up KIA 24/3/45 is Owen Arthur Hillier. I also ran down every name that Horrell mentions in his account and they are all 12 Devon men and died on the dates and periods he says they did.

Edward Horrell writes, "I was flying with D. Company with one (member) of my platoon, Nick Hillier". I'm not sure how to interpret that - was he actually a member of D Coy or not ? After Hillier is shot and killed he states, "He was another of our original crowd, and we had been together since 1940; it was like losing a brother."

Later Horrell searches for his own platoon and learns of their disastrous landing. His platoon officer, Babe Cox, killed after being struck by a glider, was Lt. Hubert Charles Cox, a Canloan Officer. Still that leaves us with the question of determining for certain the Company these men belonged to and the use of the name "Nick" which doesn't accord with Owen A. Hillier's actual name.

Regards ...

Later ... I noticed for D-Day he embarked on June 3rd for NWE and disembarked on June 7th which doesn't bode well for him being with A Coy who flew in by glider on Operation Mallard, June 6th.

 

Again, good information. I only assumed "A" Coy after reading the entry in the war diary for 21st August the day he got shot and injured: I cant seem to cut and paste from the info I have but the mention in the diary at 1209 is of one casualty A Coy in close fighting. That would have been Owen who received gunshot wounds and was returned to England for a month to recuperate.

I cant see on his service record, ( posted above) which actual company he was assigned to.

he did join up in 1940 so would have been "an original" I'm guessing. If it wasn't for the name "Nick" I would be 100% certain that Nick and Owen where one and the same person mentioned.

 

Hubert Charles Cox

I'm assuming that Babe Cox was his platoon officer, but my interpretation could be wrong? There's some general info on Hubert Charles Cox on ParaData and the Canadian Virtual War Memorial:

http://www.paradata.org.uk/people/hubert-c-cox
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remem...emorial/detail/2227091#inline_content_modal_1

Hidden away in the page source I found the following:

"Charles Cox was born on September 15, 1919, son of Mr. And Mrs Harold C. Cox of 1291 York Street, and husband of Gladys Cox, Stratford. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Infantry Corps in London on September 9, 1939 and trained as a paratroop officer. In the United Kingdom, he was loaned to the Britsh Army and was attached to the Devonshire Regiment, which formed part of the 6th British Airborne Regiment. In the early hours of March 24, 1945, he was wounded while a passenger in an assault glider and was crushed in a glider crash."

Charles Cox was from London, Ontario and his wife Galdys was from nearby Stratford. I'll attach the accompanying photo. Curiously there's an officer seated front row in a November 1944 group photo of 12 Devon Officers with wings on the left tunic breast. If Cox was trained as a Para Officer he would have been entitled to wear the Canadian wing insignia. I can't see much of a likeness between the two men unless he later put on a little weight. The man from the group shot does, however, from appearance suit the nickname "Babe" better.



Regards ...

Note: David Woods in a future post suggest the wings are most likely those of the Glider Pilot Regiment and the Officer could very well be Major G.E. Palmer.

 

I think there was another Can Loan Officer with the 12th but not 100% sure

 

reddevon,

Interesting find! Some info on Lt. Clarence Heald from the same site:

http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2227353



Regards ...

 

Just realized Lt. Heald was attached to the 2nd Battalion. There's a list of Canloan Officers with the Devonshire Regiment down on this page:

http://www.war-experience.org/canloan/regiments.htm

According to that the following three were with the 12th Battalion, The Devonshire Regiment:

ROH-204 Lieutenant Hubert C. Cox K/A 24-3-45
207 Lieutenant Harry H. D. Barons [1st posting of two]
372 Lieutenant Harold G. Gibson

Regards ...

 

Lt C. Heald joined the battalion on the 30th November 1944 as a Platoon Commander when the battalion was at Nijmegen. The same day they found out 50 Div was being disbanded as a fighting division and being sent back to the UK. The battalion was going to 131 Lorried Infantry Brigade, 7 Armoured Div.

 

All three men listed above joined the 12th Battalion as Platoon Commanders on 12th May 1944.

 

Thanks Andy,

For some reason none of them show up on the Normandy nominal roll. At some point Lt. Harry Barons moved onto the 1st Parachute Battalion.

1st Battalion-1st Airborne Division
207 Lieutenant Harry H. D. Barons [2nd posting of 2]

I don't see him on the Canloan Officers list for Arnhem so it must have been afterwards.

Regards ...

 

Hello,

I asked Guy Hudson if he could discover anything more on Edward Horrell or any of his surviving family members. He was able to find his son, John Horrell, and we put Zimmerframe and John in touch with each other. John was able to confirm from his Father's notes that indeed Nick and Owen Hillier were the same person. He also mentioned a photo in a War Illustrated edition that his 97 year old Mother had kept all these years that was taken by official photographer Jim Christie not long after emerging from the the crashed glider. Guy searched for and found the relevant TWI page. It shows Owen Hillier looking back while both he and Edward Horrell lay on the ground amidst the crash debris.



Brithm in another thread linked to an interview featuring AFPU cameraman Harry Oakes on the IWM. It turns out that both Jimmy Christie (stills) and Harry Oakes (cine) were a team and went in on the same glider as Horrell and Hillier. Harry Oakes was also a witness to Owen Hillier's death. You can find the relevant passage near the end of the third reel and at the beginning of the fourth.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004272

Many thanks to Guy Hudson and brithm for bringing to light more details in the Owen Hillier story and for allowing Zimmerframe to understand more fully the circumstances of his uncle's death.

Regards ...

 

Well done Cee. Zimmerframe must be a very happy bunny...

 

I am indeed indebted to Chuck and Edward Horell's son John and all the others too for all the help and assistance that they have given me recently. I just find the photo showing my uncle Owen truly amazing and saddening too. The look on my uncles face is one of steely determination. After 4 years of fighting, still wanting to get the job done. Sadly, moments after this photo was taken he was killed. I shall treasure the photo and will keep it with the other information and personal things of my uncle.

I noticed that he is holding his rifle in his left had. it may be coincidence, by both myself and my two sons are left handed too.

Thank you all.

 

Two years ago I posted a bout my late father who I lost when I was only 9 and have been trying to find out more about. I have had limited success apart from seeing him in a group photograph of 'E' company, about which I have learned nothing since despite speaking to lots of people (Only A to D Coy's seem to exist in official documents).

I have learned that he apparently landed on LZ-W on the night of D Day around 21:00hrs, and from photos I found it is apparent that he went to Honfleur after D Day and there the trail ends.

I am therefore taking the liberty in re-posting my original request for information, in case any new members can help.

Thanking you in anticipation, desperation requires me to give this one last chance!


I lost my Father in a car accident when I was a child and have spent the last few years trying to find out about his military service. It is not helped by the fact that there are no family members left who were around at that time.

My Father was William (Bill) John BROWN, He was called up on 1st July 1940 to the 50th Battalion of The Devonshire Regiment at Newton Abbott, his Army number was 5628379. He left the army on 30th August 1946 after being in Palestine (Possibly attached to the Kings Own Hussars) and at demob was a Sgt (AU/SGT & PA/SGT what ever that is) in the Catering Corps (Not sure how that happened?).

I also found a document saying he did an Army Catering Corps course at Topsham in 1942. Did the Devons have ACC attached to them ?

He was however in the 12th Bat Devons and I still have his Pegasus and 'DEVON' flashes. As I child I remember my mother telling me that he spent most of the War in the UK and on the Isle of Wight doing some sort of protection duties and then was eventually deployed at D Day. The family said that he went into Normandy by Glider on the night of D Day (A Coy???) but I have no other information about that, whether he did or did not, or what he did from then until being posted to Palestine.

I also had an Uncle - Cyril (known as Cliff) Richards who he met in the Devons (Cliff was a local from Dawlish) - Cliff eventually married my Mothers sister so 'joined the family'. He apparently went into Normandy by boat (Not sure how that happens to an Airborne soldier?)

If anyone has any information about what my Father (or Uncle) did in the war and especially in Normandy and thereafter I would be eternally grateful

 

Hi Bill,

Have you applied for his service records? If not they should at least tell you dates for the regiments he was with and when he went overseas. Your Father doesn't turn up on the nominal roll for Normandy which I wouldn't take too seriously as it may not be complete. Your photos from Honfleur would indicate he was there.

There is one Richards listed as "Pte Richards E., 5628548" for Normandy. Except for A Coy the 12th Devons travelled to Normandy by sea due to a lack of gliders to take the entire Airlanding Brigade.

I'm not too familiar with the ACC, but notice there's web site with some general info on their formation, etc. I had no luck tracking down the abbreviations: AU/SGT & PA/SGT.

http://accassociation.org/

Not much help there, sorry.

Regards

 

here is a rather poor photo of 5617547 Pte.C.Richards. Dur to lack of the Airborne strip and the fact he is wearing collar and tie i would date the pic early to mid 1945



the 12th went from place to place in the South West and then to Isle of White doing coastal defense duties, recalled to north Cornwall at the begining of 1943 then posted to Bullford Barracks to join the 6th Airborne Div