1st Bn Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders In France

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

  1. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    My father was with 1st Bn QOCH as a regular soldier before the war, and was sent to France as part of the BEF. I have little information about where he went or what he did. Can anyone enlighten me as to any actions etc 1st Bn QOCH may have been involved in. One of the few things I do know is that he came home on the Royal Daffodil - a paddle steamer.
     
  2. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Hello and welcome to the forum.

    Royal Daffodil was an Excursion Ship and evacuated more men from Dunkirk than any other ship. A total of 7,461

    Royal Daffodil was at Southampton on 21st May. On May 23rd She sailed from Dover to Calais. She then shows up in the book I'm checking at 1955 hrs on 2nd June leaving Dunkirk when she is attacked by six aircraft. One bomb hits her and penetrated two decks and holed her beneath the water-line. She returned to Dunkirk Harbour. This appears to be the end of her involvement in Op Dynamo. She did take part in a later Operation called Aerial evacuating personnel from Guernsey but left the Channel Island empty. I have a picture of her if you are interested.

    Table of her efforts:

    Troops Landed:

    28th May at 0001 hrs Dover 842

    29th May at 1800 hrs Margate 1,703

    30th May at 1430 hrs Dover 1,599

    1st June at 0345 hrs Dover 1,817

    2nd June at 0615 hrs Margate 1,500



    Regards
    Andy
     
  3. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    They were in I Corps, 2 Division, 5th Infantry Brigade.

    More to come I'm sure :)

    Regards
    Andy
     
  4. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    Andy

    Thanks -the one thing I do have (from the web) is a picture of the Royal Daffodil! I also have a photo of my father in 1938 as part of the boys (ie under18) football team - he was goalkeeper.
    Stewart
     
  5. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Hi Stewart do you have your fathers Service Records?

    Army Personnel Centre - British Army Website

    I'm in the process of photographing all the units war diaries within I Corps but unfortunately it will be some time before I get copies of your fathers Bn.
     
  6. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior 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
     
  7. Recce_Mitch

    Recce_Mitch Very Senior Member

    Welcome to the forum

    Cheers
    Paul
     
  8. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Hi Stewart,

    Do you know what day he was lifted at Dunkirk?

    If you can get a chance to get to the National Archives, his Battalion's War Diary is listed below.

    Detecting your browser settings
     
  9. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    Hi Andy
    Unfortunately I don't know what date he was lifted. He was very reluctant to talk of any of his wartime experiences.
    What I have pieced together is that he went into France. At one stage his unit formed part of the shrinking perimiter, as day broke one morning they found that the units on either side had been pulled out overnight, and they were surrounded by Germans. My father and a couple of his mates apparently pinched a German truck and made their way to Dunkirk. Most of his friends were either killed or taken prisoner.
    When they arrived at the beach, they were kept active disabling equipment - using bayonets to take the explosives out of grenades!
    He always told me as a child that he never fired his rifle until he reached the beach - somehow I think this was a bit of a story!
    Stewart
     
  10. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    I'm banned from the Internet tonight but I'll see if I can dig some more stuff up for you on his Brigade or Battalion from my books.
     
  11. 51highland

    51highland Very Senior Member

    1st Camerons arrived Cherbourg 24th September 1940 and prepared positions at Aix. When the Germans advanced into Belgium, May 1940, 2nd Division advanced to the River Dyle. During the withdrawal of the BEF to Dunkirk, 1st Camerons fought an effective counter attack action on the River Escaut. On 25th May 1940 the battalion, in a defensive position on the La Bassee canal, held off an attack by about 300 tanks, until ordered to withdraw towards Dunkirk. On 31st May 1940, having withdrawn to Dunkirk, the 1st Camerons embarked on ships. 1st Camerons were by then reduced to a strength of 79 men.
    On returning to England the 1st Camerons were reformed in Yorkshire. They embarked for overseas service again 11th April 1942. Arriving India they spent 2 years training for combined Operations and jungle warfare as well as an internal security role. In March 1944, as the Japanese advanced through Burma and India came under threat, 1st Camerons moved to Assam, to halt the Japs advance at Kohima.
    14th April 1944, by a successful attack on the japs at Zubza, the road was op[ened for the relief of Kohima. In these critical operations 1st Camerons penetrated the Jap lines and captured the Naga Village on "Point 5120", a hill of tactical importance, They then took Aradura spur, a strongpoint of Japanese defences. With Kohima recaptured, 1st Camerons advanced south, attacking Viswema, until by 22nd June 1944, the road from Kohima to Imphal was reopened. The battle for Kohima cost 1st Camerons 283 casualties.
     
  12. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    51 Highland
    Thank you VERY much for this - I had no idea of any detail of what my father had been involved in. I must get hold of some maps and have a look where he was.
    Stewart
     
  13. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Hi Stewart,

    I've just been looking in Hugh Sebag-Montefiore's Dunkirk for mentions of your fathers battalion and he mention a book that he uses as a source that may interest you:

    Historical Records of the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders 1932-1948: Second World War: Volume I. He was shown it by a George Burns from the Cameron's Regimental Association.

    It may be worth trying to contact Mr Burns or obtaining a copy of the book.

    Regards
    Andy
     
  14. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    Andy
    Information coming in thick and fast - thanks very much for your efforts
    Stewart
     
  15. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    As 51st mentions the battalion was at La Bassee. Not far from where the Paradis Massacre took place (Something I'm quite interested in).

    The 1st Bn, QOCH were the left hand Bn within 5 Brigade and 5 Bde was the 2 Divisions left hand Bde which basically means there was no one covering their left flank.

    At first light on the 27th May half a company from the QOCH supported by six French Tanks was ordered to counter-attack against part of the 7th Panzer Division's Schutzen-Regiment 7 which had already crossed the La Bassee Canal on the QOCH's right flank. As Highland correctly says the Counter-Attack was a success and the Germans retreated back across the canal.

    So much to the annoyance of Rommel he later wrote:

    A report came in that a strong force of enemy tanks from La Bassee had attacked the 7th Rifle Regiment's eastern bridgehead and thrown Battalion Cramer back across the canal. The enemy tanks, which included several.... heavies, were now standing on the northern bank, and spraying the southern bank with machine-gun and shell fire. We could hear the enemy fire a few hundred yards away to our right, and there was a grave danger that the enemy tanks would push on to the west along the canal bank, and attack the Battalion Bachmann, which still had no anti-tank weapons, apart from anti-tank rifles, on the northern bank, and also had no depth. If the enemy exploited his chance, he could be at the western point in a few minutes.

    The situation was extremely critical. I drove the sappers on to their utmost speed, and had the pontoons lashed roughly together in order to get at least a few guns and tanks across. With so many sunken barges and other obstacles jammed in the canal, it was impossible for the bridge to take a straight course, and its structure consequently had little strength. As the first Panzer III lumbered across, several pontoons gave noticeably, and it was touch and go whether or not the tank would slither bodily into the canal. While it was crossing, I sent off a Panzer IV 50 yards to the east along a high bank on our side of the canal with orders to open fire immediately on the enemy tanks attacking from La Bassee. The fire of this Panzer IV brought the leading enemy tank to a halt, and the German defences were reinforced by a Panzer III that had made it to the north bank. Thus the French tanks' attack, backed up by the Camerons, was foiled.

    From Rommel Papers reproduced in Dunkirk-Fight To The Last Man.



    It is believed these tanks that crossed the La Bassee Canal attacked the QOCH's positions later that day at Violatines and La Bassee. A Anti-Tank platoon from 5 Bde is reported as stopping around twenty tanks in the attack on the QOCH's positions

    Around 45 minutes after the Panzers started to attack the QOCH's positions 5 Bde's CO Brig Cartlan told the Cameron's CO Lt. Col. Pat Rose-Miller to withdraw his men. Fearing the Battalion was going to be over run Rose-Miller sent a runner with a verbal message. The runner passed the message on to Maj. Maurice Wilson but he sent the runner back seeking written confirmation. Wilson is reported as receiving confirmation from a French unit (Possibly from one of the French Tanks) before the runner returned with written orders. Whether this delay in confirming the orders contributed to the loss of men will probably never be know but most of the Cameron's in the fighting companies defending the line were either killed, wounded or captured. The Battalions losses were so high it is considered to be one of the hardest hit British Battalions that served in France during 1940.

    I've got a good map in one of my books showing the QOCH's positions in the above account. I'll post it later for you given time.

    Cheers
    Andy
     
  16. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    From Dunkirk-Fight To The Last Man
    [​IMG]
     
  17. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    Andy
    Thanks again - an embarrassment of riches!
    I must get the family together and show them what I've got
    Stewart
     
  18. 51highland

    51highland Very Senior Member

    George Burns passed away last year. BTW whats your Fathers name?
     
  19. brickmaker

    brickmaker Senior Member

    My father was 2928665 Drummer (later sergeant) James Charles Bowler (1919 - 1989)
    He went to Queen Victoria School Dunblane, and straight from there into the Camerons.
    Stewart
     
  20. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

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