William Alfred POWELL: Navy Special Operations [Greece & Malta]

As mentioned elsewhere, my great-aunt has recently passed away, and in her wake a great wealth of old paperwork has surfaced.

These are the details I have so far on her brother, my great-uncle, a man I knew only from occasional meetings during childhood. The garbled version I have second-hand is that either he or he and one of his brothers were in the SBS at some stage, another being in the merchant navy. I inherited a book on Anzio and a manual of seamanship from one of them via my late-grandfather, which would chime with such claims, but I've heard enough tall tales that I shan't be assuming anything until I see the facts in print.

'Party Nan' (see captions to photograph captions) seems oddly distinctive--does it ring a bell with anybody. gmyles, do you know anybody with expertise in the naval arena?

Obviously, applying for his service records is the next step, but I'm already in my 40s and I can't be sure that they'll arrive before I reach my natural lifespan...

Name: William Alfred Powell
Date/Place of Birth: 18 October 1919 / London
Date/Place of Death: 21 December 1999 / Pilgrim Hospital, Fishtoft
Last Address: Pointon, Lincolnshire
Death Registered: Boston, Lincolnshire [On 23 December 1999]

I have two photographs of him in uniform:



Caption: HMS FORT MADDELENA, MALTA 1942 (should read: Fort Madalena).

Bill is second from the left, behind the other two men.

Bill is middle-row left (seated).



Caption: POROS, GREECE 1945 (possibly amended to 1946)
Party Nan Communications, Special Operations.

We also have a copy of this (though it's unclear why) from Naval Intelligence in Piraeus in 1944.



The only other pieces in the envelope we have are two photos of him in civilian dress post-war.

 

England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
Name: William Alfred Powell
Death Age: 80
Birth Date: 18 Oct 1919
Registration Date: Dec 1999
Registration District: Boston
Inferred County: Lincolnshire
Register Number: C19
District and Subdistrict: 6101B
Entry Number: 295

Its a start
TD

 

Almost certain this is a RN Beach Commando Unit. 'Nan' were operating in the Adriatic in 1945.
From: The Royal Naval Commandos

Details of the Author's unit RNBC 'NAN'
The author's unit was formed at HMS Armadillo in February, l943 under the command of Lieutenant Commander MV Redshaw, RNVR. On completion of training the unit proceeded to Foliot (camp at Plymouth, now Marine Commando Barracks) and Achnacarry, the Army Commando Training Centre, before being attached to Force V, with whom the unit sailed for Sicily on 29 June, l943.

After Operation Husky, 'Nan' was stationed at Bougie before returning to Sicily to take part at the crossing from Messina to Reggio. In October, l943 the unit moved to HMS Saunders at Kabret, where it remained until it returned in the cruiser HMS Phoebe to Italy in time for the Anzio Landings, operation Shingle, on 22 January l944, at which 'Nan' company sustained several casualties. After a period in Corsica and Naples, the unit moved to the Adriatic in May, l944, where it saw extensive service in the forward port areas with the 8th Army. 'Nan' unit was disbanded at HMS Dundonald in November l945.

The Principle Beach Masters RNBC 'NAN' were; Act. Commander PWF Stubbs, DSC, RN, April-September l943; Lieutenant J Russell, DSC, RN September l943-February l944; Lieutenant-Commander TJ Turton RNVR May-June l945; Lieutenant A Varley, RNVR June-November l945.

Tim

 

Thank you, gentlemen.

Likely bingo: N1 sub-unit. Last on the list of ratings:



Source: Royal Naval Beach Commando N

 

'Royal Naval Beach Commandos'
Powell AB RN N1

Might be a duplicate list as you have above

TD

Royal Naval Beach Commandos: complements, organisation, reports and policy | The National Archives
History of Naval Beach Control Parties (formerly Royal Naval Beach Commandos) | The National Archives

plus a few others to look through - Search results: beach commando | The National Archives

 

Well done Charley - you beat me. I was reading too much! Did you see:
http://relaysystem.co.uk/Seadevils.pdf

Tim

 

Two comments:

1) Fascinating stuff - far too fascinating for the amount of work I'm supposed to be getting on with.
2) This feels like cheating it's so easy--bags of unit information online!

 

Hi Charley

Poros was used as a temporary jumping off point for Op Manna, the man seaborn assault part of the liberation in Greece, when an immense and potentially catastrophic minefield was found off Greece and the assault was put back 24 hrs to get it swept. The Naval Officer in charge of Poros Bay operated from a HDML.

I have not seen any mention of any Navy Detachment bearing that name operating in Greece. So thanks for this new info.

Why are we fighting our Greek allies? Was the big question amongst all ranks across all three arms of the services.

A lot of reasons why this was being asked stemmed from UK media taking a pro EAM/ELAS stance at the beginning of the insurgency and Labour party MPs believing everything that the media wrote. The media were quite blind to the atrocities and 'ethnic cleansing' going on outside Athens.

Many servicemen were also had communist sympathies which aligned with KKE and EAM ideology. When the British casualties started to mount they weren't so sympathetic.

The Labour Party wouldn't accept the truth of what was really going on until a delegation flew to Greece in January 1945 to see and hear for themselves.

SNO(G) was Rear Admiral Charles Edward Turle. I do not yet know who the Staff Officer Intelligence was.

Hope this helps

Gus

 

I don't think RNBC Nan would have been involved in Operation Manna or Greece as at the time they were working their way north from Ancona up the east coast of Italy. The photo of Poros may be a slight red herring as it could have been taken on their way home at the end of WW2.

Tim

 

Hello CF, hope the couple of bits below add something (small!) for you, given the reams of copy that (I hope) you have since gleaned from t'internet with the assistance of Gus and Tim.

From "Commando Country" by Stuart Allan, published 2007 National Museums Scotland (apologies for my re-sizing skills (lack of!))

A path that I very much think your great uncle will have trod.









And re your Poros photo here's the very monument in more recent times lacking posteriors on Greek key (what else?) railings.

The background has changed somewhat but the monument hasn't.





Good luck with your discovery and searching.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

P.S. A question for Gus and Tim. Chaps, would there not have been a RNC Beach Party amongst the complement for Kythera and Poros in September and October '44? (Maybe)

Hope this is worth a look!



Cheers.

 

Jim, that's great--thank you.

I'm condensing, summarising and sending it all on to my mother and my aunt; they're very impressed with your having found the monument.

 

It seems that there was a group or Beachhead Commando re-enactors at the recent We Have Ways festival.

Whatever your view on re-enactment, I'll say honestly that I learnt some useful facts from this interview:



Photos of their kit here:
The Armourers Bench