An account of Sapper Calverts death by 2nd Lt. Allan Eton Younger, Royal Engineers from the IWM Sound Archives: We were given a sector in the south-east of Arras to defend between two main roads. The ist Battalion, Welsh Guards were in charge of the defence of probably the whole of Arras and certainly of this sector. And they had two posts, one on the main road going due east, and the other on the main road going south-east. I was asked to fill in between these two posts, covering a sector, I suppose, of about a quarter of a mile. There were several roads coming into my sector from the expected direction of attack - south-east - so the first thing I did was to get some anti-tank mines to put in the road; we had no way of stopping a German tank if one had come other than our Boys anti-tank rifle - which we didn't really expect to be able to stop too much. So I went to GHQ, and found out where to draw up mines, and then placed them in these various roads. But there was a disaster on the first night. I'd put double sentries out to make sure that no French vehicles - or British for that matter - went over these mines. Some time in the middle of the night, I was awoken by th emost appalling bang. And it turned out that a huge French civilian lorry had come along the and refused to stop when the first sentry, Sapper Kirkbride, tried to stop him. The second sentry, Sapper Calvert, moved out in front of him to try to get him to stop - but he didn't stop. And he went over one of the mines. Sapper Calvert was standing in front of him and he was killed. Sapper Kirkbride was luckily screened by the vehicle. The vehicle was destroyed, the whole of the front of it was blown up, but the driver, who was very high off the ground, appeared to be alright, and just disappeared. The lorry just stayed there. We couldn't move it, and we had to lay new sentries. And there wasn't much time until we stood to at dawn. And then the days work began, and I went to a garage that I'd spotted , and I requisitioned all the cars that were there. I placed them, blocking the road, behind the anti-tank mines, so that this couldn't happen again. I had some arguments with some of the French car owners, of course, but I felt that this was a necessary action to be taken in order to defend Arras. I gave them some receipts that such-and-such a car is requisitioned by the British Army for the defence of Arras, and left it at that. All the time, refugees were pouring down the roads. I don't think they knew which direction to go in. Some were going north, some south, some east, some west. But I noticed after about the second or third day that the refugees on the main road had stopped. I went to see what had stopped them, and I asked some of them what the matter was. There was a group of oldish men there, and one of them said very excitedly, 'There are some detonators on the road!' That was his word -'detonators'. And he pointed to where he meant. I went up to look at these, and they appeared to be pencils. Ordinary blue, sharpened pencils. I leant down to pick one up, and the man grabbed my wrist, and said, 'No, No No! This is a known trick of the Germans! They're detonators, and they're very dangerous!' So I took another look at them, and they certainly didn't look like detonators to me. They looked like pencils. Eventually, I picked one up, and this little group of Frenchmen all fell back, and I threw it over a wall - and nothing happened. They were pencils. I then picked the rest up, and we all shook hands, and the flow of refugees went on. After that we strengthened our defences. We dug trenches for the sentries, and we got sandbags to put in the windows from which we could shoot at attacking Germans. In the meantime, the Germans were bombing Arras, and we heard horrifying stories from the Welsh Guards on the main roads about how they had been strafed by German fighter-bombers. The thing was, we never saw the RAF or French Air Force. Forgotten Voices of Dunkirk-Joshua Levine. I would assume he was taken PoW first at some point after the incident and possibly died of wounds later although his date of death is some time after the initial event. Buried in Germany and died 9th Aug. 1941. CWGC :: Casualty Details Picture kindly supplied by Tom (Smudger Jnr)
Strange, the memoir states: "Sapper Calvert was standing in front of him and he was killed." (I never heard of a Chemical Warfare branch in those days, was it anti-Gas do you know?)
Something I've often wondered myself Les. I think the role was discussed on here sometime ago but the only thread that springs to mind thats related is this one: http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/1940/24340-58th-chemical-warfare-company-royal-engineers-1940-a.html Not very much listed here either: Royal Engineers Museum and Library - History Section - Unit histories page I seem to get the feeling they were originally armed with mortars and did smoke screen work. It does look as though they were used as combat engineers in 1940 France-blowing bridges and the like.
Andy, I seem to get the feeling they were originally armed with mortars and did smoke screen work. It does look as though they were used as combat engineers in 1940 France-blowing bridges and the like. I think your comment is a very fair assumption based on the posts and information. Regards Tom
Sapper Calvert's death is mentioned and Lt. Younger was OC No.2 Section. See No.3 The Defence of Arras:
I think all three awards listed are for the same RE officer. The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | Search Results=*
