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

Super Kyle ! Thank you both !
Wartime pictures would of course be best, but I am not picky

KR,
Christian

 

I thought you might

He sent them over last night so here you are :- Brigadier J.A. Churchill presenting an Efficiency medal to soldiers of the 6th Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry, Regimental Sergeant-Major Davison, left, and Major J.S. Percy, second left, taken at Shildon, 9 July 1939


Photograph of the polo team of the 2nd Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry, with the Connell Cup, taken in India, 1924 Left Lieutenant-Colonel J.W. Jeffreys, left of him , Captain J.E.S. Percy .



Kyle

 

From companions of the DSO








Kyle

 

Cheers Kyle - thank you very much !

As to Lt-Col PERCY, this new input does not really explain why he fell in disgrace with Monty. If anything, this document proves he was an outstanding officer. Anyway, since this is out-of-topic in this thread, I think I'd better let the matter rest. This is clearly a case that is (deliberately?) kept under wraps. Perhaps, in this particular instance, it is better to let the past remain the past.

One other thing: I seem to have ben proceeding on the mistaken impression that, in Bulskamp and De Moeren, 6/DLI had been commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Harry MILLER. Unless I am again mistaken, it would now appear that it was in fact Lieutenant-Colonel Peter John JEFFREYS that was the 6/DLI's CO at the time. I must admit I am somewhat confused ; could you confirm this?

KR,
Christian

 

Jeffreys bio added to above post

Kyle

 

Found this on the Durham County Council site, although it doesn’t really add anything to Kyle’s post above. He passed away on 3 April, 2003.

https://www.durham.gov.uk/media/949...phy/pdf/ASadSight_PeterJeffreys_Biography.pdf

I also found this rather grainy photo of Peter Jeffreys on Ancestry:

 

Hi Martin,

Thank you very much ! As far as I could make out from the documents provided by Kyle, it would seem to me that Lt-Col JEFFREYS was attached to Brigadier Churchill's staff (151st Bde HQ). He previously (in 1938) had served in the 6/DLI as Adjt - hence my initial confusion. So, it was thus indeed Lt-Col MILLER that was in command of 6/DLI at Bulskamp.

Would you or Kyle, by any chance, know if Peter JEFFREYS had written memoires or published any accounts of his wartime experiences?

KR,
Christian

 

Hello Christian,

Peter John Jeffreys consented to an IWM interview ? You can listen here:-

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80011680


Kyle

 

Sorry, no, but I see Kyle has come up trumps!

 

Meanwhile, I have been doing a bit of homework too.

Here's evidence as to Lt.Col JEFFREYS involvement and presence at Bulskamp/De Moeren (source: 6/DLI war diary, May 31st 1940):
"1530 hrs Colonel Jeffreys went round all positions and informed Coys that a withdrawal would probably take place during that night. It was also learned that 30,000 Marines had landed at DUNKIRK and taken up positions round the town to cover embarkation of BEF."

It struck me because of the rumour that was being spread around at the time - anything to boost morale I suppose.

 

Dear all,

As I said, I have been doing some homework.

While preparing my presentation, gathering all the information I collected over these past years, I began to realise I had been focusing too much on the Bulskamp-Ringsloot area, effectively omitting the remainder of the frontline… After rereading all the posts in this thread, I understood that my attention had been drawn to that particular area after reading ‘Return via Dunkirk’. The book, excellent a reference as it may be, had essentially blinded me to what had happened on the rest of the 151st Brigade’s stretch… i.e. Zwaantje and Houthem. I should thank the German war diaries for reminding me that their most successful assault had taken place there.

‘Return via Dunkirk’ evidently highlights the actions of the 92nd Field Regiment, RA. In late May 1940, however, there was a second RA-unit attached to the 50th Division / 151st Bde: the 91st Field Regiment, RA. Their actions covered the area between the Bergenvaart-canal, between the hamlet of Zwaantje, the village of Houthem, and the Ringsloot. According to their war diary, the 91st Field Regiment, RA was entrenched somewhere ‘south of Adinkerke’. Unfortunately, no further details are provided except that the positions they occupied “were undoubtably the best we had during the course of operations.” The war diary also mentions that the communications with their OP were conducted by wireless (until the Germans began jamming them).

Though I have no clues as yet to establish where the unit was entrenched, I can nonetheless make an educated guess as to the OP mentioned in the war diary. Since the canal-line up to Bulskamp needed to be observed, there is just one logical option: St-Gustaaf.



Akin to St. Charles, the 92nd FR’s OP, St. Gustaaf is also located along the Ringsloot canal. And just like St. Charles, it was also build around 1850 to keep De Moeren polder wetlands dry and cultivable. In 1940, it would have offered a perfect perspective on the whole area between the Bergenvaart and the Ringsloot. In fact, form an observers’ point of view, the VLOS from St. Charles is blocked by the woodland around château St. Flora. The same goes for St. Gustaaf. However, put together, both OP’s visually cover the entire countryside – nothing can go undetected.

From a tactical perspective this area is where the distance between the Bergenvaart and the Ringsloot is shortest, making the area extremely vulnerable to German assault. Fortunately, unlike Bulskamp, this zone was not allocated to the 56.Infanterie-Division, but to the 216. And since this other German division had to cover more ground to arrive on the Bergenvaart, the British there were granted some respite.

I also discovered that the Ringsloot around St. Gustaaf was protected by two MG-Coys belonging to the 2/RNF, whereas the perimeter itself was defended by 6/DLI, 8/DLI and elements of 4/RNF.

As always, I would very much welcome any insights. I would especially want to learn more about the whereabouts of the 91st FR in order to establish their exact position.

KR,
Christian

 

You may perhaps enjoy a couple of snapshots of the scenery, taken last week during a walk in the countryside with my wife.



▲ First, St. Gustaaf. Please note there were no trees present back in 1940 (31UDS7334554018).



▲ View towards the Bergenvaart from the Ringsloot-canal. As you can see, the Ringsloot at this location (bottom) is not very wide and is currently, due to the draught, not much more that a ditch. This is the perspective the 2/NRF machine-gunners would have had. For the Germans, there would have been no cover whatsoever. Consequently, they only reached the Ringsloot after the British had vacated the line on the night of June 1st 1940.

 

▲ St. Gustaaf (centre) as seen from the Ringsloot (at 31UDS7307053248). On the left, the path bordering the Ringsloot. Except for the poles and the trees, this is how the location would have looked like in May 1940. On the left, the château St. Flora-domain, surrounded by woodland. St. Charles is situated behind this tree line. Consequently, this stretch is not within St. Charles' line of sight.

Please feel free to send me a PM if you would like a photo taken from a specific location.

 

91FR was the sister regiment to 92, but the 5th Division history does not state specifically that the 91st was officially attached to 50th Division, which it does for 92, but then I’ve never seen 91FR’s war diary.

I can’t recall if you have the 5th Division history yourself, but if not, here are the relevant pages for the actions in late May. Page 45 is the one you want, but there is not an awful lot of detail around this battle, unfortunately, just a brief mention of 91FR now fighting again alongside 92.

Aris, the author, was, of course, an officer in 92FR and I always feel, perhaps wrongly, that had the 92nd still been with 5th Division at that time, he may have described this action in more detail, but may have left it out as not being pertinent to that Division’s history. Who knows…

Thank heavens for Gun Buster!

Now, Aris did also write a brief history of 92FR at war, called “The Ninety-Second”, a copy of which is generally very hard to obtain. However, the National Archives have a copy and I am intending to visit their Brighton archive at some point soon to have a look at it, so maybe Aris covers this action in more detail in that book. That said, the book is only about 120 pages, so I may be rather too optimistic about this! It may well not give me much more info than the DRAMA report does..

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/85a6747b-1d6c-4e1b-ad74-69d017f0ebfe



This photograph shows officers of 91FR at Christmas 1939:



This next photo shows 2nd Lts J. B. Bassett and D. H. Mays-Smith, not dated, near Bondues. I don’t know of which regiment they were members, but I included this as I didn’t know whether the Bassett in this photo is the same Captain Bassett who is also mentioned on page 45.

Possibly not, given that this would have been a leap of rank from 2nd Lieutenant to Captain in such a short time - if you have 91FR’s diary, possibly you can see on the roll of officers whether there were two Bassetts, or if J. B. Bassett did indeed progress to Captain with the BEF? Is Mays-Smith on the roll for 91FR?

I do know that no such names are on the roll of officers with 92FR. However, 5th Division also had 9FR with it, thus the officers in this photo could have been with that regiment, of course:



The following is an extract from the BBC’s People’s War collection, an account by Kenneth Dampier of 91FR. Again, no great detail, but thought you may like to see it:

BBC - WW2 People's War - My Dunkirk Evacuation Experiences: 91st Field Regt R.A.

If you can’t access the link, it being the BBC, here is the relevant section:

 

Fascinating ! Thank a lot Martin !

I must say I am very impressed with all the material you come up with !

The war diary, date May 29th does confirm that the 91FR was indeed transferred to the 50th (Northumbrian) Division.


It would seem that there have been some frictions as to this transfer though, as the following extract, date May 30th, suggests:


By the way, who was the CRA 50 Div.?

KR,
Christian

 

https://www.booknovahq.com/product/the-91st-field-regiment-royal-artillery-signed246518/

The booklet ‘The Battle of Flanders’ mentioned there can be found on archive.org.
However, it is a general treatise:
https://dn760100.eu.archive.org/0/items/battleflanders/BattleFlanders.pdf

 

A couple of weeks ago, I contacted The Story ((the new home of Durham County Record Office) who, in response to my enquiries regarding the DLI-battalions, kindly provided me with a hand-list summarising the published sources they hold in their library (organised by battalion).

Since this list represents a very useful resource for researchers, I subsequently requested permission to share it with the rest of the forum.
Yesterday, I received an email for The Story, allowing me to go ahead. Please find the list in attachment of this post (.pdf).

I would hereby want to express my gratitude both to Mrs. Susan Shanks (Senior Collections Officer - Archives) and Mr. Nick Parkes (Collections Support Officer) for their kind assistance.

KR,
Christian

 

There was a reference to Houthem on a thread relating to 5th Green Howards of 150 Brigade.

Captain W.G. Dumville M.C. 5th Battalion Green Howards

I have the diary for 4th Battalion and they seem to have been at Westmoerhoek (part of Houthem ? )There is little detail unfortunately, but it may be a missing part of the jigsaw.

 

Christian,

I have copied your Post 417 to two other threads which appear to a "good home" for such reference material. Thanks.

 

Thank you Rich !

The 'Westmoerhoek' you refer to is indeed part of Houthem. This was not even a hamlet, but rather a location that was situated smack on the border. You can't even find the name on present-day Google Maps ! The place is quite easy to find though, as postwar a 244 m high HF-communication mast has been erected there, which makes it an ideal visual reference point while hiking or bicycling in the region. In this pancake of a land, you just can't miss it.



This sector was defended by the neighbouring 150th Brigade and therefor somewhat out-of-topic as regard to Bulskamp and De Moeren. I thought for a while of creating a specific thread on the subject, but eventually didn't go ahead for this is 'Indian-territory' (i.e. France). Be aware that the French are rather 'protective' of 'their' history (and 'their' vision of it), so they would surely not welcome a Belgian researcher meddling on 'their' turf...

The problem hereby is that this part of the Dunkirk Defence Perimeter, between the border and Bergues was shared between British and French units. Co-ordination between both was not especially optimal - to say the least. Also, to top it all off, the entire sector had been flooded by the French (who apparently failed to notify the British during the Cassel Conference...). Anyway, as you may imagine, a very chaotic situation incurred.
Quite frankly, I'm not very keen on opening this Pandora's box...

KR,
Christian