Sgt. Christie No. 5 Army Film and Photo Unit 6th Airborne Division

Discussion in 'Airborne' started by brithm, Jun 25, 2011.

  1. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Theobob, the Wikipedia article on Maynes doesn't look promising. There's no mention of Varsity but it could have been missed as there was quite a convergence of correspondents and photographers on the the Rhine Crossing. It was interesting to learn about the origins of The Maple Leaf Newspaper in the process and you may have better luck than me tracking down the Maynes piece at the Canadian Archives.
     
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  2. Lindsay Aspin

    Lindsay Aspin Senior Member

    Hello Brithm,

    Reference:- I am researching all aspects of the 6th Airborne Division in Normandy including the War photographers and correspondents .....

    I expect you might already know that Ed Murrow (CBS) was on board a RAF 296 Squadron Halifax, piloted by Flt.Lt. M. Jackson, towing a Horsa Glider from B Squadron, 1 Wing Glider Pilot Regiment: both aircraft were second-up in the 1st serial lift that left from Earls Colne Airfield on Operation Varsity 24.03.45.

    BBC Written Archives Centre at Caversham Park, Reading, Berks, RG4.8TZ., hold many written accounts of broadcasts made by War Correspondents: they may be able to help you.

    Unfortunately, due to copyright I cannot give details obtained about Ed Murrow's description on board the Halifax that was taking part in the largest single Airborne Operation in History.

    Good luck with your endeavours.

    Lindsay
     
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  3. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Thought this would be an appropriate place to stick this story by a war correspondent going in by glider on Operation Varsity. If you haven't caught this before I'm sure you will find it of interest.

    Download and zoom in for easier reading ...

    TWI-46-09-13-1.jpg TWI-46-09-13-2.jpg

    Edit: Replaced missing page
     
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  4. Lindsay Aspin

    Lindsay Aspin Senior Member

    Cee

    Thank you for posting the article written by L. Marsland Gander, Daily Telegraph War Correspondent covering Operation Varsity, March 24th, 1945 -the article did indeed make interesting reading. Yet further confirmation that 6 Airlanding Brigade met strong resistance around Kopenhof Farmhouse and Hamminkeln.

    My father piloted Horsa Glider, Chalk No. 153, and was first up in the serial lift that left from Earls Colne Airfield. On board was Brigadier R. Hugh Bellamny, HQ - 6 Airlanding Brigade.

    Thought you might like to see the first page of 6 Airlanding Brigade War Diary showing that Brigadier R. Hugh Bellamy left from Earls Colne and that other 6 Airlanding Brigade serial lifts left from various Airfields which included Shepherds Grove.

    HQ 6 Air Ld.Bde. Serial Lift - Earls Colne.jpg

    My thanks again,
    Lindsay
     
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  5. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Lindsay,

    I'm delighted to hear the article was of interest and thank you for the information on your Father and the war diary detail. According to Marsland he was one of six war correspondents who went in with the 6th Airborne on Operation Varsity. You have to wonder if he volunteered or was given the assignment by his editor. His darkly humorous forebodings on preparations before take off would seem to indicate the latter ... :)
     
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  6. fraserbrown

    fraserbrown Junior Member

    Well,
    I have been doing a fair bit of putting things together myself,due to lack of information (dangerous i know) but..
    My dad jumped with 5 brigade on Varsity,and a long time ago he told me that there was a correspondent who jumped with them,i`ve never been able to track him down.( dad passed in 79,so a bit stumped there)
    Maynes is the real deal,i have googled him and he had got about a bit in WW2,and i have found an intriguing link to an article he wrote for the Maple Leaf, post Varsity about his exploits with 6th Airborne but havent seen the article,my dad was a Canadian serving with 6th Airborne,so it would fit that he jumped with the canucks.
    Its a bit of a stretch i know,but i am still digging around on the interweb trying to find out some more info.
    As ever with this kind of research,i have ended up down some blind alleys
    Hey ho!
    Rob

    This was posted a while ago but,
    seaghan maynes was actually my grandfather
    so if you could share the link to that article it would be much appreciated
     
  7. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Hi Fraser,

    Theobob may still be in the process of moving and settling in?

    I think he meant this reference in Seaghan Maynes Wikipedia entry:

    “Run Up The Flag.” The Maple Leaf. (Canadian Army Newspaper), Saturday, April 28, 1945

    The problem is of course finding that particular edition. The Maple Leaf is still published but the modern archives only go back as far as 2007. As seen here people do collect the war era Maple Leaf.

    WWII Maple Leaf newspapers - Canadiansoldiers.com
     
  8. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

  9. RosyRedd

    RosyRedd Senior Member

  10. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Could this be war correspondent Leonard Mosley?

    Recently while viewing a Pathe video of June 5th D-Day preparations my attention was caught by a figure shown briefly in a pan of paras geared up and ready to go at their transit camp. He doesn't look like a Para and the gear at his feet doesn't look military.

    I'll add a few blow ups. Could the man on the right be Leonard Mosley?

    images.britishpathe-1.jpg images.britishpathe-3.jpg

    See here at the 8:36 mark:

    Landing Craft - Gliders 1944 - Pathe

    Regards ...
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2023
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  11. brithm

    brithm Senior Member

    Cee,

    I think you're right that is Leonard Mosley and it is similar to the only photo of Mosley with Richard Gale in Normandy. I think he was in F/O. Maloney's aircraft of 620 Sqn leaving from Fairford airfield, the rushes show the trucks with chalk numbers of 167 etc same as the corresponding aircraft which are the corresponding numbers that left Fairford airfield.

    The officer with the three pips might be Major Lough of 5th Parachute Brigade H.Q. as Lough mentions Mosley in his report that they were in the same aircraft.

    Great find

    Brithm
     
  12. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    brithm,

    Just great info once again, many thanks. I'm relieved to see it's not another of my unverifiable grand speculations ... :lol:

    We do know from Mosley's reports he was not carrying a weapon and that he dropped into France with his typewriter strapped across his chest. Because of restrictions all he could say was he left from one of the larger airfields in England on the bomber "C" for Charlie. As you indicate the numbers are clearly visible on the trucks and reflect the chalk number of the plane to be boarded.

    images.britishpathe-4.jpg

    HQ 5 Para Bde - 38 Gp - 165-171 - FAIRFORD

    For the sake of interest I'll add one of Mosley's reports that later appeared in a New York newspaper.

    View attachment Brooklyn NY Daily Eagle 1944 .pdf

    Regards ...
     
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  13. brithm

    brithm Senior Member

    Photo of Sergeant. J.P. ‘Jimmy’ Christie from Airborne Assault Museum

    "He originally joined the 21st Independent Parachute Company and did parachute course No 23 at RAF Ringway in 1942. He served with them in North Africa and Italy in 1943. Later he transferred to the Army Film & Photographic Unit (A.F.P.U.) and jumped with the 6th Airborne Division into Normandy. He also took part in ‘Operation Varsity’ with the 6th Airborne Division and then covered the operations which pushed into Germany. He was also sent to Berlin in 1945."

    Also Sgt. Christie came across 'Hitler's toilet key!' “The Russians allowed no one into Berlin until the sacking of the city stopped and order restored amongst their troops. Then a handful of Anglo-US people were allowed in, because of the start of the Potsdam Conference. I arrived at Herford from the U.K. at about the time that agreement on City Sectors was reached. The Directorate of Public Relations was to set up shop in the Am Zoo Hotel and I was sent with a Cine partner straight on for picture purposes in the British Sector, and installed in a hotel on the Kant Strasse.

    The first chance I had I made for the Chancellory (the building in fact housed three Chancelleries, Hitler had one for each of his roles: President/Furher, Reichschancellor and Head of the NSDAP). Entering through the Wilhemstrasse portal one came upon the Court of Honour, but I was attracted by the splendour of a room on the right with its massive stone table and largely undamaged chandeliers. This room’s windows gave onto steps which led down into the garden and to the bunker emergency exit, away to the right. The bomb crater in which Hitler, Eva Braun and Blondi (the Alsation dog), had been dumped was just short of the bunker entrance. I went down the long winding staircase and into the corridor which had been used as a Conference room. To the right were personal rooms and to the left were various service rooms. Just before the steps in front wound up to the right (the bunker here being much deeper than the section underneath the Chancellory building) was a room with a small sofa and a painting on the facing wall.

    The sofa’s covering had been slashed open and the painting damaged. A dressing table and mirror were in the rooms which opened off this one. The door was jammed tight to the left against the wall. There being no Russians about I forced it free and found the key with its ‘Study and Bathroom’ label tag still in place. The key worked the lock quite smoothly. I pocketed it as a souvenir.
    "
     

    Attached Files:

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  14. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    brithm,

    Well done! Finally a decent photo and an interesting story on the elusive Sergeant Christie ... :)
     
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  15. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    War Correspondents - Operation Varsity

    Matt and I were discussing the following photo from the IWM by Bert Hardy and wondered if the fellow sitting with his feet on the fender was a RAF glider pilot. As well we were trying to identify some of the cap badges present. It claims to show Airborne men returning across the Rhine in a captured German Kubelwagen car

    BU2549- Bert Hardy.jpg

    Also available here in high quality, though the picture as pointed out to me by Matt needs to be flipped horizontally for correct viewing.

    One thing led to another and with the added confirmation from Guy Hudson we were able to identify the chap sitting in the front passenger seat with the patch above the right eye as war reporter Stanley Maxted. Maxted had a rough landing in his Hamilcar as can heard in his audio report of the terrifying event. A hot liquid of some kind dripped on his right forehead and he was punched in the back by a jeep that jumped forward.

    This all might be common knowledge, but I have yet to run across an explanation for the photo which appears to show a number of press men. Anyway I think Guy has made a few interesting discoveries and may have identified one or two of the other men, but I'll let him tell that part of the story.

    Regards ...
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2023
  16. Guy Hudson

    Guy Hudson Looker-upper

    Cee,

    The man in glasses at the back left is Major Roy Oliver, press relations officer. There is some information on him on Pegasus archive, including some post Market Garden photographs with Sgt Lewis Afpu and Maxted. His cap badge is Royal Tank Regiment, he had been at Tobruk.

    http://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/roy_oliver.htm


    I believe that the man on the right, obscured by the window frame, may be Leonard Mosley of the Daily Sketch. He has a bandaged head and is wearing the maroon beret with Parachute Regiment badge?

    Regards
    Guy
     

    Attached Files:

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  17. Guy Hudson

    Guy Hudson Looker-upper

    Cee, Brithm
    The photographer in the Pathe footage is Malindine
    Guy
     
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  18. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Guy

    This is all new to me so all I can say is it certainly looks like Major Roy Oliver and his beret badge lends credence to that possibility. Thanks for the wartime photo of Leonard Mosley, one I've looked for high an low before now without success. I'm not familiar with Mosley's movements during this period of the war, but it's an intriguing suggestion.

    Oh gawd Malindine, don't tell me that - ha! I still think it's Mosley. Where was Malindine before take-off by the Paras on D-Day eve? It looks more like Mosley than Malindine to me, but I'll have to do a little more digging ... :)

    Regards ...
     
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  19. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Guy,

    Sorry, I didn't read your response carefully enough and will add a pic to clear up the confusion (all mine).

    images.britishpathe.com.jpg

    A great observation by the way! The man with the camera does look like Captain Malindine from other photos I've seen of him. Of course this adds a new wrinkle as it's well known that Malindine took the famous photo of the Pathfinder Commanders synchronizing their watches before take-off from RAF Harwell. So we will have to establish more fully if Leonard Mosley left from Fairford or Harwell on D-Day.

    Regards ...
     
    Last edited: Aug 2, 2023
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  20. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Here's the beginning of Ted Lough's account of his take-off from RAF Fairford with reporter Leonard Mosley in the same Stirling flown by F/O Maloney of 620 Squadron.

    Ted Lough Take-Off Fairford.jpg

    Perhaps the one showing Ted Lough holding a Pegasus soft toy in a group of Paras was shot by Capt Malindine?

    Ted Lough -  Fairford June 5.jpg

    Later: The film clips showing trucks with numbers corresponding to those carrying the 5th Brigade HQ probably left from their transit camp at Harwell and headed to the Fairfield airfield for take-off.

    Regards ...
     
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