I would like to ask our Airborne experts where were the Bruneval raiders based and trained prior to the operation. Someones father's records show Harpendon - can anyone add meat to the bare bones?
According to A Drop Too Many by Major General John Frost (Chapter 3), training was at Tilshead on Salisbury Plain. Mark
Steven, You may like to see this link. John’s recollection of the Bruneval raid is recorded below: “We were told that the company had been given the chance to go on a raid. Johnny Frost was adjutant at the time and he took over C Company. Something was on, but I don’t think even Frost was aware of the details initially. We began intensive training down at Tilshead, night after night, and we did one practice jump with 51 Squadron, who were flying Whitley bombers. We trained quite hard. Then it came to the time when we got the impression we were about to go on the actual raid rather than just doing a dry run. We were sent up to Scotland, to the Combined Operations base at Inverary for more training, and exercises involving landing craft. Lord Mountbatten came up and blew the gaff, as it were, although we still did not know exactly where we were heading or what we would be doing. There were medics and all kinds of people there for the planning. It turned out to be the Bruneval Raid. We went back to Tilshead and prepared to wait. John Timothy's recollection of the Bruneval Raid | ParaData Regards Tom
The men of C Company trained in at least three locations....Scotland, Salisbury Plain and the Solent.....you can find more details in the book Striking Back together with several photos of the men of C Company taken at these locations during training in Jan and Feb 1942......
In reply to the question in post 1.....I cannot recall any training being done in the Harpenden area.....
Steven, I ran a search through a digital version of Ken Ford's book, the Bruneval Raid (Osprey) using "Harpendon" and there were no hits. There is a chapter devoted to the planning and training aspect of the raid so it might need a closer look. Regards ...
Steve, SOE London was used to contact agents in the area to do a reconnaissance of the site. Also Rothamsted Manor in Harpenden was used to capture signals between Luftwaffe ground stations which were then sent to Bletchely for decoding, although there is no mention of such intelligence received by the Bruneval planners in Ford's slim book. Cloak and Dagger at Rothamsted Manor Added: That's not quite correct as intelligence was used to discover the radar system at Bruneval. It was a combination of aerial photos, the sight of a new parabolic antennae in Germany and transmissions detected by the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) at Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk that help discover the Würzburg system installed at Bruneval Stay tuned for the next edit ...
hello further to previous answers Harpenden,Hertfordshire is mentioned in the link below 12 Commando - Bruneval
In case you missed it here's a better link to a wider range of wartime events in Harpendon and area. Harpendon - Second World War Interesting forum thread CL1. Note the mention of RUR under Soldiers' Billets link.
See also 'The Bruneval Raid - Stealing Hitler's Radar' by George Millar (very detailed on the background and preparation). I can't recall a Harpenden link. Training also took place off the Dorset coast - see recognisable photos of coast near Weymouth in "Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004". Various sources used for account in my historical blog The Bruneval Raid - Chotie Darling. Chotie's Daughter
