1st Bn Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders In France

Discussion in '1940' started by brickmaker, Aug 2, 2010.

  1. richieuk2002

    richieuk2002 Junior Member

    My grandad Private Richard Heighton 2927334 was in the death march he was in Stalag VIIIB, He was in there for 4 years, prior to this he was in Loos prison for interregation and then transferred. He was captured in Wasquehal
    France, only 500 yrds away from being picked up by light aircraft at a market garden, to freedom, this was organised by the french resistance, he was sat in a cafe bar when the SS walked in and captured him. He never forgot the german who pulled the gun on him. Sadly he died of cancer a number of years ago, he was and still is my hero, Grandad was in the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders,1st Battalion A Company.
     
  2. DCILo

    DCILo Junior Member

    Andy

    yes, I do have my father's service records (or my brother does) but they are not very informative. When he came back from France, he was sent to Scotland to train commandos (he was a PT instructor) and later ended up at Imphal (Burma) from where he was invalided home.
    Stewart
    Hi,
    I am new to this site and very grateful to have found it. I am researching my great Uncle Cory. He passed away in 1952 and took most of his story to the grave with him. The information that I started with was very similar to what you posted here. He was in the 1st Cameron Highlanders when the war started. After Dunkirk he became a commando. I know he also went to Burma and he trained special forces. Thanks to the information found here I now know he was in "A" company, and I have read some accounts of what he experienced at the end of May 1940. I have yet to explore the sight further, but I was wondering if you found out more about your father's time as a Commando. Perhaps you could point me in the right direction?

    Thank you!
     
  3. DCILo

    DCILo Junior Member

    Andy

    yes, I do have my father's service records (or my brother does) but they are not very informative. When he came back from France, he was sent to Scotland to train commandos (he was a PT instructor) and later ended up at Imphal (Burma) from where he was invalided home.
    Stewart
    Hi,
    I am new to this site and very grateful to have found it. I am researching my great Uncle Cory. He passed away in 1952 and took most of his story to the grave with him. The information that I started with was very similar to what you posted here. He was in the 1st Cameron Highlanders when the war started. After Dunkirk he became a commando. I know he also went to Burma and he trained special forces. Thanks to the information found here I now know he was in "A" company, and I have read some accounts of what he experienced at the end of May 1940. I have yet to explore the sight further, but I was wondering if you found out more about your father's time as a Commando. Perhaps you could point me in the right direction?

    Thank you!
     
  4. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    DCILo - hi, and welcome to the site - I'm sure you'll be able to glean a lot of useful information from members.
    Unfortunately, even though I have his service records, I still don't know much about his time in the commandos - not even where he was! All I do know is that he was, at some time, in the area around Spean Bridge where the Commando Memorial now stands.
    If I can find out any more, I'll post it on the forum.
    Brickmaker
     
  5. Dirk

    Dirk Member

    Hi all,

    I came across some trenches in Terlanen (Belgium),trenches that date back to May 1940.

    The trenches were dug by the 1st Bn QOCH as I found a brass shoulder title at the border of one of the trenches that reads CAMERONS.

    See photos

    Dirk
     

    Attached Files:

  6. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    Dirk
    Interesting!
    Whilst there is no doubt that the badge is Camerons, I can find no mention in the regimental diary of them being at Terlanen, although it does mention that they set up a defensive line on the Tombeek to Terlaenen Road near Tombeek Bridge - could this be the same place?
     
  7. Dirk

    Dirk Member

    Yes, it is the same place (Terlaenen is the old spelling).

    I also found the following two brass buckles near those trenches, however I can not identify their specific use (see photos attached).

    Could both buckles be kilt related?

    Both have a curbed shape. I can't identify them as being pattern 1937.

    Any ideas?

    Dirk
     

    Attached Files:

  8. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    Dirk

    I have my father's kilt, and neither of these buckles look like the ones look like the ones on the kilt.
    Could they be off equipment - gas mask / ammunition pouches etc ?

    Stewart
     
  9. Dirk

    Dirk Member

    Stewart,

    Thank you very much for comparing the buckles to the ones one your father's kilt!!

    Dirk
     
  10. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    The small one could be a adjustment buckle off 37 pattern webbing for the yoke above the ammunition pouch.
     
  11. Alex Scott

    Alex Scott Junior Member

    I have a pretty comprehensive collection of 37 webbing (been collecting for over thirty years) and they don't look like anything 37 pattern to me...sorry.
     
  12. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    Could it be off a battle blouse - I've just seen one on TV and it looks somewhat similar.
     
  13. cameronlad

    cameronlad Member

    The 1st Cameron's were in Terlanen albeit briefly over some 48 hours or so. A concise account of their stay and activities there are given in the Official QOCH Records, Vol1, pages 130-133.
     
  14. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    That sounds like an interesting book - what is it's full title ??
     
  15. Alex Black

    Alex Black New Member

    Hello
    I have just found this site and am doing some research into my dads time with the Cameron's, I have just read 5 pages of fascinating material.
    I do have a hand written account that my dad did when he was 80! I will publish it along with some photos etc.
    some of his experiences tie in with several accounts already posted, I will add quickly what I know now.
    3055420 William Black joined the 1st Bn QOCH in 1938, he never spoke about it to me and I only read his account after his death of his time in France etc.
    While he was there his younger brother was killed on his 18th birthday aboard HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow.
    During the thick of it I believe he was in C company and was tasked with his section to man one of the anti aircraft/artillery guns,( I assumed that if was against aircraft not tanks!!) on being told to withdraw he returned to their HQ only to find it empty? where they made their way to Dunkirk (bumping into Germans on the way)
    On evacuation from Dunkirk (date and ship unknown) was the first time they had shut their eyes in 3 days.
    He was then based at Witherensea near Scarborough on coastal defence, he was pressed into doing a small arms course at Hythe (junior Sgt).
    He too was up in Scotland being trained by Commandos and training small arms himself, prior to being shipped to India.
    He was fortunate enough to be trained and commissioned into the Kings Own Scottish Borderers before the heavy fighting at Kohima, where, yet again he lost more friends.
    I too was watching the programme "Who do you think you are" about Tom Darling ex QOCH a photograph was shown of the Sgts Mess in 1941(I have the same one on the hall wall)
    My Dad was standing to the left of tom Darling, unfortunately I have not been able to ask him anything about that time.
    As a Captain with the KOSB's in 1946 he was involved in the investigation of war crimes in France, particularly involving the SS.
    He was married in 1947 and joined the Police for a few years before applying to re-join the Army, he was told that he was "to old" for the Infantry and was commissioned into the Royal Pioneer Corps for the next 20 odd years.
    There are names and places in his account that I will add once I go through it again.
    I hope to get a full picture now that I have his service record also.
    Many thanks to everyone for the information.
    He retired from The Army in 1973 and died in hospital in 2002 aged 82
     
    Drew5233 likes this.
  16. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Great first post and welcome to the forum...I'd love to read his account with the QOCH. Please feel free to post it in this section (1940) of the forum and use his name and unit as the title. It makes future searches on Google easier to find it.

    Cheers and welcome again
    Andy
     
  17. Alex Black

    Alex Black New Member

    Hello all<br />This is the incomplete war diary my dad started a few weeks before he went into hospital for an operation, unfortunately he never returned.<br />My younger sister found it and has translated his hand writing, there are, I am sure some place name spelling mistakes and some chronological errors, however this was written retrospectively 60 years after the event.<br /><br />Pte William Black 3055420 joined the 1st Battalion Queens Own Cameron Highlanders in October 1937 aged 18 he had previously been in the 4/5 Royal Scots TA in Edinburgh.<br />In 1939 the Battalion moved to Aldershot, Malplaget Barracks, we were met at Farnborough railway station by the pipe bands of the Gordon Highlanders, Argyle and Royal Scots and marched along Queens avenue into Aldershot.<br />July 1939 won best shot young soldier at Bisley and promoted to L/Cpl.<br />September 1939, war was declared and visited Southampton where HMS Royal Oak was anchored, I missed the ship by an hour. I never saw my younger brother John again as the ship was torpedoed in Scapa Flow a month later.<br />20th September 1939 the Battalion sailed to Cherbourg as part of 2 Division, on board the paddle steamer "Golden Daffodil" once there we entrained for Northern France.<br />We eventually billeted in Orchies, near Lille and were put to digging (1914) trenches and pillboxes.<br />It was here that my CO gave me the news about my brother John.<br />After a long quiet spell including time in the Maginot line, the Germans attacked.<br />Dive bombers appeared everywhere and attacked everything that moved, our Generals decided we should vacate our pre dug defences and move forwards towards the Albert Canal, the Belgians and Dutch collapsed and the Germans got in behind us.<br />I was told to gather some men together and join the ad-hoc force called "Frankforce".<br />We made for Arras where our tanks had been engaging the Germans for some time and the plan was to use us for cover while tank crews could carry out repairs and rest up.<br />We were in a wood with the tanks dispersed around, German dive bombers spotted us, one of my section Abe Marshall ran out of the woods and was killed immediately. we stayed put and eventually the planes left.<br />The tanks moved off and we followed to Arras town.<br />In the distance we could see dog fights over the town, as we got closer a plane engine fell out of the sky narrowly missing us.<br />One of our Officers Major Barber (later Major General)told me to take my men and capture some Germans who were parachuting down, as we approached them I was lucky enough to see some French troops, they seemed to have the same idea and were happy to take the prisoners off us.<br />Everyday was a repetition of the one before, bombing, shelling and machine gunned, we were leaflet bombed and were promised to be well treated, came in handy as toilet paper!<br />I lost all track of time and dates, we hadn't slept for days and death was always around the next corner.<br />we stayed in Estaires for 4 days holding the canal bridge to prevent the Germans from crossing.<br />I had some machine gunners from the 6th TA Argyles and they were very good at picking off German motorcycles.<br />Only one of my original section had survived, Andrew Ross, ten years my senior but would not let me out of his sight, he had absolute faith that we would make it out together.<br />After 3 days in Estairs we came under very heavy shelling by night and dive bombing by day plus more leaflets dropped.<br />On the fourth night we evacuated the village and started the long trek to Dunkirk.<br />I met some of my own battalion who had decided to surrender and they advised me to do the same, I had no intention and we marched on, losing a man here and there.<br />After manning an anti tank gun all night we found at daybreak that our HQ had vanished and left without us, when we came across some Officers we were told "make for Dunkirk"<br />In one village we met some advancing Germans in the main street, I believe they were as surprised as we were and they dived for cover.<br />As fast as I lost men I picked up more, like lost souls.<br />The German planes were dive bombing the columns of troops and civilians even horses and cattle.<br />We came across an airfield at Vitry, it had just been bombed and the RAF crew were destroying their remaining aircraft, this was very demoralising but we were told that the Germans had destroyed the fuel depot and they had no aviation fuel to fly with.<br />Towards the end of May we could see a huge pall of smoke rising from Dunkirk, no vehicles could enter because the roads were now blocked.<br />The Navy was shelling over our heads and keeping the Germans at bay, men lay dead beside their anti aircraft guns, countless men were on the beaches so we opted to go to Bergues, just outside Dunkirk.<br />My faithful fried Andy Ross was still with me plus a few stragglers we had picked up on the way, including a L/Cpl from my own Regiment Willie Bathgate.<br />He told me that most of the Regiment had been killed or captured.<br />It wasn't until we got back that we realised that only 79 souls remained from the whole Battalion.<br />The Germans had stopped, we thought this was because we had flooded the fields around Dunkirk so they had no cover.<br />We were really exhausted by now and could fall asleep standing up.<br />We soon joined a queue in Dunkirk and using a make shift jetty were packed aboard a Destroyer, as we set off for Dover we came under attack from German guns at Depanne, further along the coast we were dive bombed but were lucky with only near misses.<br />We arrived in Dover to a reception of hooters from ships.<br />Once on land we were hustled by train onto Tidworth Barracks and the first real sleep for over 3 weeks.<br />Our first taste of modern warfare from our "teachers" the Germans had left a bitter taste in our mouths.<br />After my leave I moved to Halifax where units were being sorted out and from there to withernsea near hull.<br />I was promoted to Platoon Sgt with a mixed bunch of young lads from the East York's Regt, West York's, Green Howards and Highland Light Infantry .<br />All were Militia men with 6 weeks basic training and we had to sharpen them up to meet the Germans who were thought to be about to invade.<br />We trained, we erected barbed wire and concrete anti tank blocks on the beaches and "stood to" in the evenings and dusk.<br />We also erected beach defences at Scarborough and on the race track at Malton in case of glider attack.<br />Monty visited us and made us move the barbed wire to the edge of the cliffs, on his next visit he made us move it back again?!<br />In September 1940 I went down to Hythe to do a Small Arms Weapon instructor course, at this time the air war was in full swing, it was hard to concentrate with at that going on around you.<br />Towards the end of the month in the early hours, we received the coded message Cromwell, which signified the invasion was imminent.<br />My Platoon of 36 young lads stood to along the beach and cliff top, it was low tide and we were able to see the wreck of the Empress of India, in the darkness the soldiers were nervous. Back at HQ someone had decided to send a chef with a bucket of tea he did not however hear the challenge of who goes there, a shot in his direction went straight through the pale and into the chef, he survived but i'm sure his kindness was never repeated.<br />In 1941 we were relieved with fresh troops and moved to Beverley our men were billeted around the town and fed in the Masonic Hall, My Co was asked to supply a Sgt as Chief Instructor at the Divisional Battle School at the Div- HQ Pocklington, 3 older Sgs were interviewed and each claimed they lacked the qualifications, so it came down to me to become Chief Instructor at the JNCO's Battle school at 21. I held this job until I was recalled to the Battalion in February 1942.<br />I had also been to the Commando training centre at loch Ailort, North of Fort William, where Lord Lovat was Commanding Officer.<br />The Lovat Scouts put us through our paces and we jumped in and out of landing craft in icy cold water, climbed snow covered mountains, chased our own Paras up and down Glens, blew up Danart wire obstacles with Banglore torpedoes etc.<br />There were of course casualties as this was real time training, the benefit for me was because I trained NCO'S from all nine Regiments in the Division I was well known outside my own Regiment and never had any unit rivalry problems.<br />The Regiment moved to Knaresborough and the exercises acme fast and furious, then onto Banbury in Oxfordshire.<br />We had another pep talk from Monty so knew something was afoot, We were fitted out with tropical kit and entrained for Liverpool.<br />We had at least 3 Regiments on the Dutch ship "Hilda Van Marmis" which had escaped from Singapore, we lay for 3 days while the convoy gathered, Liverpool was bombed day and night.<br />Eventually our convoy of 38 ships carried 2 Div, 36 Inf Div,29 Inf Bde and 5 Commando.<br />We set sail our main escort the Ramilies could not keep up with the convoy, we slipped past Dakar at night as the French were none to friendly there, at Sierra Leone we picked up an American escort and made for South Africa.<br />We docked at Capetown the other ships were dispersed to Durban and Port Elizabeth.<br />We moved into Retreat Camp at the foot of Table Mountain, where we had our first route march to recover our shore legs.<br />British families invited us for meals and suddenly everything blacked out, our hosts a London family said "we have been expecting this they must be invading Madagascar" so much for security?! Two days later we sailed towards Madagascar and a Japanese Sub appeared in he middle of the convoy, our destroyers dropped some depth charges and sailed around like sheep dogs but the sub was gone.<br />Madagascar was taken by 5 commando and 29 Inf Bde and we went in the direction of India.<br />Some time in late May we arrived In Bombay, a week passed in Bombay still aboard ship, then we entrained for Poona.<br />We arrived at night in the monsoon season, We marched several miles from the railway station and in the middle of nowhere we saw lights shining.<br />When we got closer we saw they were lamps siting on top of packed tents, after being allocated a tent we had to erect them in the dark in the rain<br />The wet ground rapidly turned into mud and slime.<br />So 5 Inf Bde settled into Pashan Camp.<br />Our diet consisted mainly of vegetable soup, since no one seemed to have planned the arrival of 2 Divisions of British Troops.<br /><br />This is very sadly for me where the story ends, there was two years in India before he was commissioned into the Kings Own Scottish Borders and went to France again.<br />I do have lots of Photos which I plan to add next.<br />Thank you.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
     
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  18. AlanFHarrison

    AlanFHarrison New Member

  19. adamrbolton

    adamrbolton New Member

    Hello all - I have stumbled on this thread whilst researching my grandfather - Robert Bygate. He is second from the right in this photo. I found him on the D-Company embarkation list. From reading the thread it seems as if most of D-Company were killed or captured but my grandfather described himself as being among the last out of Dunkirk - would it have been possible that he was assigned to the platoon that was left in the defence of the town? Any info would be gratefuly received.
     
  20. rickster1964

    rickster1964 Member

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