Hello, Does anyone have a copy of H. D. Chaplin's book on the QORWK 1920 - 1950? If so would anyone be willing to lookup 'D' Coy of the 4th Battalion? I'm particularly interested in May 26 - 27th 1940 when I believe they were in & around Morbecque & Hazebrouck. My grandfather was in 'D' Coy & was captured around this time with a 2nd Lt. M .H. Smith. Lt. Smith i believe died not long after capture. Whenever Lt. Smiths mother used to meet my mum & her sisters after the war she used to give them sweets because their father stayed behind with Lt. Smith when he was wounded. Thanks
The orbats in an appendix list Lt F M H Smith as OC No. 16 platoon, D Coy. Smith had recently won an MC on 21 May at Oudenarde for swimming out to check that barges on the enemy side of the river had been disabled.
Hi Dairyman The part which seems relevant reads as follows; (B Coy 4 RWK were in position SW of Morbecque, and German tanks had entered the village) D Company of the 4th battalion (commanded by Capt Haynes), which had been sent out to relieve Maj Elmslie's Company ( B ), attacked Morbecque and succeeded in capturing the eastern edge of it. Suddenly German infantry appeared from all sides. D Company, surprised and hard-pressed and having lost many men, split up into small parties, which tried to make their way back to the main position. Only Lt Waring and nine men succeeded in getting clear, however, and they swam back across the (Hazebrouck) canal. The remainder, including Capt Haynes and Lt Smith, went into captivity, where the latter died of his wounds. Chris I guess the post above arrived while I was typing!
The war diary is WO 167/762 4 Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment. There's a fair amount of info in there from May including a couple of interesting reports. I've tried three times now to upload some pages but Imageshack isn't working for some reason so I've given up. Drop me a PM if you want a copy of the whole diary. Cheers Andy
Thanks Drew - v.interesting stuff. Thanks for taking the time to upload the document. Looks like my grandad was in the thick of things. Like many others He never talked much about his war experiences.
Hello dairyman (Mike) and Drew5233 (Andy). Lt Michael Francis Hemsley SMITH was my grandmother's brother. Mike - what was your grandfather's name? Like my great grandmother Gwen who gave your mum sweets, we are of course grateful too that he stayed with Michael. Michael did not die from his wounds until 12th July in Lille, where he is buried. We have the MC citation, but I hadn't seen the war diary or Chaplin's book before. Andy - do you either scanned and shareable somewhere, beyond the very helpful and detailed page posted earlier in the thread? Thank you, Alex.
