CHAPTER TWO
Only a year before the Germans launched their attack on France and the Low Countries, Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Stanier, Bt., MC, the newly appointed commanding officer of 2nd Battalion, Welsh Guards had sat at his desk in Chelsea barracks and had written down the strength of his new command. He had come up with a total roll numbering just three men and that included himself. The new battalion had been formed on 18 May and Lieutenant Colonel Stanier had been recalled from service as second in command of 1st Battalion Welsh Guards then in Gibraltar, with orders to build up the new battalion from scratch. Little did he know that he would have exactly one year to build and train his battalion before leading it into battle at Boulogne in May 1940.
‘The battalion staff came principally from the first battalion in Gibraltar and some from other establishments in England, with a few transferring in from other regiments. One or two squads of recruits soon joined us from the Guards Depot and eventually we had our first battalion parade in mid-June. From then on we were calling up reservists to train them in the ‘new’ weapons – the Bren gun, the 2-inch mortar and the anti-tank rifle. Gradually we built up our strength till we had to move out of Chelsea and went in August to the Tower of London where our numbers had reached close on 400 and we took over public duties there. We were at the Tower when war was declared on 3 September.’ Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Stanier Bt., MC. CO 2 Welsh Guards1
Officers, Warrant Officers and NCOs, 2nd Battalion Welsh Guards on its formation in June 1939. Three in civvies left to right: Captain and Adjutant Robin Rose-Price, Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Stanier Bt., MC, Lieutenant and QM William Bray DCM, MM. Courtesy Sir Beville Stanier Bt.
1st Battalion Welsh Guards officers prior to leaving for duty in Gibraltar, April 1939. Several officers transferred to 2nd Battalion with Lieutenant Colonel Stanier, pictured front row third from left. Courtesy Sir Beville Stanier Bt.
CO’s inspection at Chelsea Barracks, June 1939. Courtesy Sir Beville Stanier Bt.
One of the reserve officers who joined the Battalion at this time was Second Lieutenant Peter Hanbury, a twenty-one year-old Cambridge undergraduate who had been placed in charge of 12 platoon of 4 Company. Hanbury soon found that his company commander was determined to make his raw junior officers take their training seriously.
‘Jack Higgon was my company commander; Cyril Heber-Percy second in command; Dickie Twining and Eddie Beddingfield the other two platoon commanders. Jack was tough. Going to shoot on the miniature range, I said I was not much of a rifle shot. He said I would not go on leave until I was better than 80 out of 100. He said I must learn to take a Bren gun to bits and reassemble it in the dark, therefore my servant was to draw one of the company Bren guns in the evening and I was to practise in my room with a kit bag over my head until I could do this.’ Second Lieutenant Peter Hanbury. OC 12 Platoon, 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.2
Apart from a short spell at Theydon Bois in Essex the battalion mounted King’s Guard and performed other public duties in the capital throughout the autumn and winter of 1939-40. Peter Hanbury was sent to drill his platoon in the moat and his men made the most of his inexperience as a drill instructor, some stopping whilst others marched on or turned on his orders. Just when he felt that his platoon had made a complete fool of him the Adjutant appeared to see how he was getting on and his men drilled perfectly. Hanbury realised for the first time what a superb collection of men his guardsmen were. Much to the chagrin of Lieutenant Colonel Stanier life at the Tower left little time for real infantry training in the field, so he was happy when the battalion was relieved of London duties in April 1940 and ordered to Old Dean Common Camp near Camberley to become part of 20 Guards Brigade commanded by Brigadier Sir Oliver Leese DSO, with 2 Irish Guards and 5 Loyal Regiment.
Second Lieutenant Peter Hanbury. Courtesy Mr Peter Hanbury
2 Battalion Irish Guards had been raised two months after 2 Battalion Welsh Guards on 15 July 1939, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Charles Haydon who had been Military Assistant to Secretary of State for War Leslie Hore-Belisha until the spring of that year. Like the Welsh the Irish had been stationed in London for the autumn and winter of 1939-40 at Wellington Barracks. There they had kicked their heels whilst awaiting the call to action, taught Canadians to mount King’s Guard, marched through London or trained, ‘self consciously in St James’s or Hyde Park’, as Londoners watched on.
A call to reinforce their comrades in 1st Battalion Irish Guards in Norway came in April but was amended two days later. Camberley was substituted for Norway and so on 22 April the Irish Guards moved to the tented camp at Old Dean Common to join 2 Welsh Guards. With little prospect of immediate action Lieutenant Colonel Stanier, aware that nobody had had any leave whatsoever since the outbreak of war, badgered his superiors into approving a week’s leave for all ranks over Whitsuntide. Leave parties were also organised for the Irish Guards and the guardsmen looked forward to spending time with their families. With so far to travel, special leave trains for the Irish were due to leave early on 10 May, the Friday before Whit Monday, with the Welsh due to leave the next day but the Germans had other ideas for the Whitsuntide holidays. On the same day the Irish leave parties got away the German Army began its Blitzkrieg on the western front. With the full extent of the German attack unclear the Welsh leave parties got away on 11 May. No sooner had they gone than Lieutenant Colonel Stanier received a message informing him that the Germans had invaded Holland and the Low Countries and that 2 Welsh Guards were to sail immediately with 2 Irish Guards forming a small force to assist the Dutch in safeguarding their government and stabilising the situation in The Hague. If the Dutch government left The Hague the Guards had orders to return at once.
By the time the War Office telegram arrived cancelling all leave most of the leave parties were well out of reach. Welsh Guardsman Syd Pritchard had just turned twenty and was well on his way to the Land of His Fathers.
King’s Guard duty at Buckingham Palace during wartime – autumn, winter 1939-1940.
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Joseph Haydon (centre) and Secretary of State for War, The Rt. Hon. Leslie Hore-Belisha on their way to a cabinet meeting during the Munich crisis of 1938. Courtesy the Estate of Miss Malise Haydon
Officers of 2nd Battalion Irish Guards. Victoria Barracks, Windsor, September 1939. Courtesy Sir John Leslie
Guardsman Charles Thompson (right). Courtesy Mr Charles Thompson
‘At the beginning of May they’d sent the battalion on leave and it was cancelled. I’d got as far as Cardiff with a friend when I heard. I was in the Aberdare train actually and I had full intentions of going back, honestly I went back onto the London platform and I met some others who said, “they’ve some bloody hope we’re going home.” We hid in the lavatory from Cardiff to Bridgend. My friend went to Swansea to his home, another boy went to the Rhondda and I went to Aberdare! We didn’t have telegrams. When we got back to Old Dean Common it was deserted and we were taken to the guardroom and asked why we hadn’t come back and we said we never had a telegram. Then the boys came back.’ Guardsman Syd Pritchard. 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards. 3
Others were not so lucky.
‘On leaving London for a period of field training I was recalled suddenly from leave to make up a company to rescue the Dutch Royal Family as the Germans had invaded and it was imperative that we brought them out before they were captured.’ Guardsman Charles Thompson. 12 Platoon, 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards. 4
It was clear that it would take time for all the men to get back so a composite force was made up of the first men to return. Four companies of Irish Guards augmented by one company of Welsh Guards under the overall command of Lieutenant Colonel Haydon made up what was known as ‘Harpoon Force’. They landed at the Hook of Holland at dawn on Whit-Monday, 13 May and re-embarked by the skin of their teeth forty-eight hours later having lost all their kit covering the evacuation of the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina and her government amid a panic of fleeing refugees and heavy German bombing. The Irish lost eleven killed. An officer of the destroyer HMS Whitshed later wrote that the Irish Guards contingent
‘…marched down the jetty and on board as if they were parading in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. It was grand to watch them.’
It was the first of three occasions in the space of a month that the Whitshed would sail in the company of the Irish Guards.
Guardsman Doug Davies (right) Caterham Guards Depot 1939. Douglas Morton, on his right, was one of the first Welsh Guardsmen to lose his life. Courtesy Mr Doug Davies
Guardsman Syd Pritchard Courtesy Mr Syd Pritchard
The men of ‘Harpoon Force’ marched back into the camp at Old Dean Common through lines of cheering Welsh Guardsmen like Syd Pritchard and Doug Davies of 3 Company who had not returned from leave in time and were now eager to hear hair-raising stories of their comrades’ first action. With very few casualties some of the Welsh contingent came back enthusing about their experiences. ‘War is better than foxhunting’, remarked one of the Welsh officers to Lieutenant Colonel Stanier. Those who had not made the crossing to the Hook need not have felt left out. Britain’s new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had only been in office for five days and although he was unaware of the finer details of the German advance there was little doubt that the situation of the BEF gave grave cause for concern. With the Germans straddling the Allied lines of communication it was clear that something had to be done to secure the Channel ports of Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne as a means of supplying the BEF and, heaven forbid, getting them out if the worst came to the worst. Churchill still believed that the situation could be stabilised by taking the fight to the Germans and breaking out southward towards the Somme and in the light of information he had to hand there was no reason to doubt that the Allies could not do so. Unfortunately that information was subject to uncertainty, conjecture and out if date intelligence. Nevertheless a breakout to the south would need support and the Channel ports were vital in keeping the supply lines open. Plans to defend the ports began to be made in a fog of rumour and half-truths. The Guards of 20 Brigade were being pencilled in as part of Churchill’s plan. In less than a week those guardsmen who had not made the trip to the Hook of Holland would get their chance in battle and the survivors of that ordeal would have more than enough of their own stories to tell.