CHAPTER THREE
At around 11.00 am on 21 May 1940 a despatch rider drove up to 2 Irish Guards battalion HQ at Old Dean Common Camp near Camberley with an urgent message for Lieutenant Colonel Haydon. It was the order to move on active service. Colonel Haydon’s men had only recently returned from an energetic night exercise with 2 Welsh Guards. They had arrived back at camp tired, dirty and ravenous and after wolfing their breakfasts they had scattered to their tents to sleep. For their CO the order to move ‘could not have arrived at a more inconvenient or tiresome moment,’ but he was a professional soldier and tiresome or not he determined to get his battalion packed up and ready to move by ‘zero’ hour at 3.30 pm. Efforts by the brigade staff to postpone the time of departure until 6.00 pm were brushed aside. The War Office were unaware that the men of 20 Brigade had had no sleep, all it knew was that the German Army was moving quickly through France and that the Channel ports were vulnerable. A Territorial battalion of Queen Victoria’s Rifles supported by 3 Royal Tank Regiment would sail for Calais the next day followed by 1 Rifle Brigade and 2 King’s Royal Rifle Corps on 23 May. Exhausted or not, dirty or not, 20 Guards Brigade were going to Boulogne. Immediately the slumbering peace of the camp was torn asunder by shouts of ‘pack up’ and ‘prepare to move’ and the sleepy Irishmen roused themselves, grumbled and got on with their jobs.
Elements of a German reconnaissance unit moving at speed through the French countryside. Their breathtaking advance had sent the Allies reeling back towards the Channel ports.
Sergeant Arthur Evans Courtesy Mr Arthur Evans
Sergeant Arthur Evans and the rest of 2 Irish Guards anti-tank platoon were not with them. The anti-tank platoon, commanded by Lieutenant Anthony Eardley-Wilmot, had spent a pleasant week billeted at St. Mary’s Bay holiday camp whilst they had test-fired their four new Peugeot 37 mm anti-tank guns on the ranges at Lydd in Kent. Their week over, on May 21 they packed up and started out on the journey to rejoin the battalion.
‘Somewhere between Tenterden and Goudhurst the convoy was halted by a despatch rider who handed an envelope to our platoon commander, Lieutenant A R Eardley-Wilmot. The message instructed us to retrace our steps and proceed to Dover for embarkation to France as part of the 20 Guards Brigade…Having familiarised ourselves with our new weapons on the Lydd ranges we rolled along the A259 – four 15cwt trucks each towing a gun and carrying its crew and two, 2-ton trucks with our kit and other supplies. I was driving the leading truck with the Lieutenant beside me. Just outside Folkstone we called in at a roadside café to replenish ourselves. I did not know it then but that was the last good meal I would eat for several years.’ Sergeant Arthur Evans, 2 i/c Anti-Tank Platoon, 2 Irish Guards.1
The anti-tank platoon had driven all day in perfect weather, cheered on their way by civilians who had lined the roads ‘in this quintessential corner of England.’ They reached Dover in the late afternoon and joined other lines of transport heading for the docks. Sergeant Evans handed a letter to a little girl called Sheila and asked her to post it for him. She did and it was the last his parents heard of him for many months. The rest of 2 Irish Guards at the head of the brigade column caught up with the anti-tank platoon on the quayside at Dover at around 9.30 pm. It was almost midnight when 2 Welsh Guards, following on, arrived. They had been delayed due to an air raid warning in Folkestone during which civilians had abandoned their cars and blocked the roads. It turned out to be a false alarm; the target of the Luftwaffe being the docks at Calais. Lieutenant Colonel Stanier had a complete battalion travelling in requisitioned buses apart from his own anti-tank platoon, which had been training at Hythe. The President of the Officers’ Mess Committee was away buying stores from Fortnum and Mason in London, delicacies shortly to be abandoned in Boulogne to the delight of the German soldiery.
On reaching Dover the air-raid warning was still in force and Lieutenant Colonel Stanier along with his Adjutant Captain Robin Rose-Price, made their way to the Lord Warden Hotel with great difficulty. There he was told for the first time what his battalion’s task would be. Brigadier Oliver Leese had been called to Lord Gort’s HQ with the BEF in France some two days before and Lieutenant Colonel Stanier’s new Brigadier was William ‘Billy’ Fox-Pitt, an old comrade from 1 Welsh Guards who had been one of the first officers appointed to the regiment on its creation in 1915. They had served together during the latter stages of the First World War when Stanier had been a young subaltern and Fox-Pitt a captain. Fox-Pitt had gone on to command the 1st Battalion from late 1934 to early in 1938. From what he was told Lieutenant Colonel Stanier understood that the brigade were being despatched to Boulogne,
‘…to protect a base. But there was no idea that the Germans were anywhere near and that we would be a reserve for the big counter-attack that we expected to go from Arras or wherever it was going to be.’ Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Stanier Bt., MC. CO 2 Welsh Guards.2
Brigadier Fox-Pitt told Stanier that he was to get his battalion on board a cross-Channel ferry, the SS Biarritz, which was due to sail at two o’clock on the morning of 22 May. Stanier and Rose-Price were faced with the Herculean task of organising the loading of all their men and equipment in less than two hours. The ensuing chaos at the Dover quayside set the tone for all further embarkations of British units crossing the Straits of Dover to defend the Channel ports during the following few days.
Boarding the Biarritz, Stanier was amazed by the absence of any member of the crew although troops of the Royal Engineers and dock workers were in abundance.
‘We found there was no crew on board because of the [air-raid] alert – they had all gone to their shelters. We could see a raid in progress on Calais. The battalion were sent for and ordered to drive up to the quay-side, but the Irish Guards were in front and there was a terrific traffic jam. We had to get the goods unloaded from the transport and have it man-handled to the ship, as we couldn’t shift the transport, and we couldn’t blame the Irish Guards who were in front, for blocking by their transport. Then the ‘all clear’ went. The Captain of the ship said we had too many men and too much stuff on board and that we should have to shift some of each. He already had his holds full of equipment that had been taken over once and brought back again. It was thus decided to take off Number 1 Company [Captain Heber- Percy], and some stores. The signal equipment, which was in panniers, was taken off, as it was easy to move. Another ship was chartered to take this company and other troops across, but it had no steam up. Major Vigor was left to follow with this load.’ Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Stanier Bt. MC. OC 2 Welsh Guards.3
Officers of 2 Welsh Guards prior to embarkation for Boulogne. Courtesy Sir Beville Stanier Bt
Several men recalled seeing the holds of the Biarritz full of rolls of barbed wire and screw pickets which the French stevedores had refused to unload on the ship’s last run to Boulogne early the previous morning. With sixty tons of equipment already aboard it was little wonder that the Biarritz was packed solid. Number 1 Company began to unload their equipment to await the arrival of the other ship, the SS Mona’s Star.
As the men boarded the ship Guardsman Arthur Boswell of 8 Platoon, 3 Company, recalled that every man was handed a tin of ‘Machonachie’s’ stew, a sausage roll and a bar of chocolate. He remembered the incident well as they turned out to be the last army rations he would receive.
Eventually the battalion, less all stores and transport, was ready to embark. The battalion only had essential weapons, ammunition and digging tools with them at the expense of all else. Stanier was told that another ship would follow on and bring the rest of the equipment but not the transport. There would be plenty of transport available in Boulogne he was assured. Shorn of most of his stores, Lieutenant Colonel Stanier’s command was now split between two ships, one of which would sail four hours later than the other. It was not an enviable way for any CO to lead his men into their first major battle.
Guardsman Arthur Boswell (left) with his friend Guardsman Frank Jones. Courtesy Mr Arthur Boswell
A short distance up the quay Lieutenant Colonel Haydon of 2 Irish Guards found himself in much the same position as Stanier. After a quick meal of stew, bread and tea his men had begun to load their equipment onto the SS Queen of the Channel only to find the same cramped conditions. It soon became apparent that it would not accommodate all the men and their equipment and although it was obvious to all on the quayside it took another hour and a half to convince the War Office that another ship was a necessity. As the Welsh Guards had done, the men of Number 1 Company Irish Guards under Captain C R McCausland humped their kit back onto the quay to await the SS Mona’s Star. McCausland’s company would later arrive in position on the outskirts of Boulogne at almost the same moment as the Germans launched their first attack on the front held by the Irish.
Czech built Pz Kpfw 38(t)s, belonging to 7 Panzer Division, drive towards the Somme River with infantry in support.
French civilians flee before the onslaught.
Evidence of Stuka bomb damage as a German mobile unit avoids the debris.
Eventually the main body of the force was ready to sail with the breaking dawn on 22 May. The destroyer HMS Whitshed led the way followed by the Queen of the Channel and then the Biarritz with the destroyer HMS Vimiera abeam as an additional escort. Before they had set sail the Dover port authorities had received a signal from a trawler lying off Boulogne to the effect that German tanks had been reported two miles south of the town although in reality 2 Panzer Division was not ordered forward from the Abbeville area by Guderian until noon that same day. For some of the men on board, however, the task of loading had revealed how painfully lacking they were in the most basic weapons of modern warfare. They had no wire, no anti-tank mines, no grenades and no 3-inch mortars. The signalling kit had been removed from the ships as it had been easy to carry. Although Lieutenant Colonel Haydon was of the opinion that a battalion without its own transport lost about fifty per cent of its fighting efficiency. Neither the Irish nor the Welsh had any apart from a few motorcycles and carriers now parked on the upper decks of the Queen of the Channel. Small arms ammunition and picks and shovels would not hold German tanks for long. The great hope was that both battalions could pick up some of these essential supplies on the dockside at Boulogne. One ray of hope was that the brigade anti-tank platoon of four Peugeot 37mm antitank guns, under Lieutenant Eardley-Wilmot and Sergeant Arthur Evans, was safely on board the destroyer Whitshed along with Brigadier Fox-Pitt and brigade HQ. It was true that the brigade had no wire, mines or mortars and had not been allowed to load its own transport, but one item of ‘essential’ equipment to counter the panzer threat now nestling in the hold of the Whitshed would doubtless have chilled the heart of any German soldier had he known of its presence on board. It was a box of white military umpires’ arm-bands!
Brigadier William Fox-Pitt
For the second time in a little over a week Guardsman Charles Thompson was sailing out of Dover,
‘…a port that I had left a short time ago for Holland. I was nineteen years old and so much had happened in the past year, here I was on another adventure which was to prove more than I appreciated at the time even though I had the experience of Holland behind me, of having been dive-bombed by a screaming German plane with machine-guns blazing before dropping its bombs and also other actions to be expected in war. I watched the white cliffs fade into the distance, wondering once more if I would see them again.’ Guardsman Charles Thompson. 12 platoon, 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.4
As 20 Brigade sails for France the German armour continues its westward drive. Here French colonial troops are caught on camera surrendering to elements of a German panzer division.