CHAPTER SIX
As dawn approached on 23 May the guardsmen of 20 Brigade, who had spent a nervous and uncomfortable night in their trenches posted in open country, could at least give thanks that they had not come under direct attack during the hours of darkness. A little after 1.30 am Brigadier Fox-Pitt had been visited at Brigade HQ by Major General H C Lloyd from Rear GHQ who reassured him once again that a battalion of tanks and 1st Battalion Queen Victoria’s Rifles would soon be on their way to reinforce the Boulogne garrison. Fox-Pitt was to be disappointed on that score.
3 Royal Tank Regiment and 1 QVR had indeed landed at Calais but they would soon have more than enough to keep them occupied in defending that port let alone another. Lloyd’s assurance was to prove to be a chimera. A few hours later Fox-Pitt had learned that Major General Lloyd had taken ship to England along with General Brownrigg which meant that he was now in undisputed command of operations in Boulogne. This had enabled him to use Colonel Deane’s AMPC, which had already been withdrawn from its posts around Rear GHQ in Wimereux amid reports of German units in the area. Some of Deane’s men were strung out in posts along the northern suburbs of Boulogne from the left flank of the Welsh line at St. Martin to the coast near the Casino on la Digue Ste. Beuve with the help of remnants of 5 Buffs and the Royal West Kent Regiment, in preparation for a German attack at dawn. The Germans did not attack en masse at dawn, however. The German motorcycle infantrymen under Oberleutnant Durkes slept on after a hard night’s fighting but there were those in the ranks of the Welsh Guards less than two kilometres away to the south-east, who were desperately trying to keep their eyes open.
The Casino from the cliffs above the Boulevard Ste. Beuve. Nausicaa, the French National Centre for the Sea, now stands on this site.
Guardsman Charles Thompson was already well into his second stint of sentry duty when the first streaks of daylight began to bleach the sky on the morning of 23 May. Within a few metres of his trench was a tall hedge but through gaps in the bushes he could just see into the field beyond and across the valley towards where he thought the Germans lay. Tired as he was, Thompson kept reminding himself that his comrades behind him were relying on him at such a crucial time and would depend on him to rouse them in an emergency. The problem was that a thick mist hugged the ground to his front and he knew it would be impossible to see any movement. In the stillness of the hour before dawn the slightest noise was accentuated and suddenly Thompson felt sure he could hear the sound of men dragging themselves through the damp grass on the other side of the hedge.
A make-shift bipod for the M34 Spandau machine-gun.
‘Try as I may I could not see any movement and I was loathe to open fire until there was a target, on the other hand the resting men had to be warned if the Germans were creeping up on us. Whilst I can say I was not frightened most certainly the hair stood up on the back of my neck, I was very tense and made sure there was a bullet in my rifle breech and my bayonet was fixed. The movement in the field was very slow which perplexed me and I stood a while not understanding the movement when suddenly it dawned on me, being a country man and having a good knowledge of animals, that it was a cow grazing. It was totally unexpected in view of what was happening but the relief was tremendous. On being relieved it was not a matter of having breakfast as ‘stand to’ was called; the dawn was really breaking.’ Guardsman Charles Thompson.12 Platoon, 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.1
Brigadier Fox-Pitt had in fact ordered the battalions to ‘stand-to’ from 3.30 am until 4.30 am. On 4 Company front of the Welsh line Second Lieutenant Hanbury set some of his men to work digging again just before dawn and sent others away to organise a brew of tea. Syd Pritchard in 11 Platoon was also out looking for breakfast.
‘I took a tin of Machonachie from my greatcoat pocket, which was under a hedge, and I asked a French lady would she warm it up for me. She slammed the door in my face. A good start! I stripped off and went down to wash and clean my teeth down at the pump and whilst I was there I remember a spotter plane came over. I noticed this fellow and he sort of drew a circle above us and no sooner afterwards “here it comes”. They must have already marked us out using this fellow in the spotter plane. Well then “Jerry” started. He decided to let us have it.‘ Guardsman Syd Pritchard. 11 Platoon, 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.2
The time was 7.30 am and the German assault fell simultaneously on both the Welsh and Irish sectors. On the Welsh front Major Windsor Lewis’s over extended platoons of 3 Company were the first to suffer. Lieutenant Ralph Pilcher’s 8 Platoon in particular, with its nose poking out towards Mont Lambert at the apex of the Welsh line, was the first to feel the force of the German blow, which started with a fusillade of machine gun fire.
‘Sergeant Roberts called out, “any volunteers to go for breakfast?” Jack leapt out of his one man dug-out, Alf and I began to climb out of ours when a German machine-gun opened fire. Alf and I slid back into the hole and Jack dropped flat just behind. Alf and I returned fire in the direction of the machine-gunner who could be seen behind a hedge. When the firing abated Jack called out; “Sarge I’ve been hit.”. Alf and I reached over and unceremoniously dragged him into our trench. The anti-tank rifle had been silenced, and then the Bren was only firing single rounds. Thinking they were short of ‘ammo’ I shouted across to Sergeant Tom Pennington, “we’ve got some spare mags Sarge… if you want them." “It’s alright ‘Bos’ the gun’s knackered”, responded the Sergeant. I then turned to Jack’s wounded arm, and being unable to stand up and offer a tempting target…I sliced open Jack’s battle dress sleeve, pullover and shirt with my army knife. The wound was through the fleshy part of the forearm and did not appear to have struck the bone. I applied my field dressing to staunch the blood flow and replaced his sleeves.’ Guardsman Arthur Boswell. 8 Platoon, 3 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.3
3 Company, 2nd Battalion, Welsh Guards positions at the crossroads, Mont Lambert, 7.30 am 23rd May 1940
Boswell then poked his head up above his parapet to have a quick look around only to be reprimanded by the sonorous and lilting Welsh tones of Guardsman Reece carrying over from another trench, ‘Hey Boss-well, keep your flippin’ head down boyo, or you’ll get the flippin’ thing blown off for you.’
Lieutenant Colonel Stanier, out on yet another tour of his positions, had stopped at 3 Company HQ in a farm just west of the Mont Lambert crossroads and was telling Sergeant Williams his driver that the almost endless stream of refugees should be made to stop at the road blocks, when German tanks suddenly advanced from the direction of the village of Mont Lambert.
‘As I was there I saw the German tanks come bursting out of the village and start firing at the little anti-tank guns which were just in the hollow below me. They put one or two rather close to the farm where I was. I was peering over the wall. They fired at the men holding the crossroads at Mont Lambert. They burst out of the village one behind the other and spread out. They were in three’s; one would be in front and the other two would be looking out either side to protect it. They moved quite fast… they were light tanks.’ >Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Stanier Bt., MC. CO 2 Welsh Guards.4
One of the tanks roared towards the crossroads and poured a hail of machine-gun fire into the abandoned cars, furniture and assorted bric-a-brac which passed for one of the roadblocks, setting it alight. The tank stopped so close to Second Lieutenant Neil Perrins commanding 9 Platoon in reserve near Company HQ, who was out on patrol at the time, that he was able to stand next to it undetected! Even so his patrol suffered casualties as a result of machine-gun fire.
The anti-tank guns manned by Sergeant Green and Corporal Joseph Bryan sited around 3 Company HQ made a spirited response to the tank threat.
‘Sergeant Green alerted us all to a tank that was coming down the same track as the other one, but it came a little closer to us. This was stopped – fired on by all three guns and it was stuck there. You could see using the telescopic sights of these old guns – you could see very clearly that one of the occupants had got out and was on the opposite side of the tank crawling on his hands and knees to keep out of the fire. I could hear the PSM instructing people to fire. There was a spotter plane overhead and the amount of fire that went up there – tracers – boy! We loaded it with shots and the plane came down and there was a big cheer. That gave me an indication as to where the rest of the battalion were.’ Corporal Joseph Bryan. 2 Welsh Guards attached 20 Guards Brigade Anti-Tank Company.5
The fight for the Mont Lambert crossroads. Men of 8 Platoon, 3 Company, 2 Welsh Guards take on the panzers. On the right Captain Hamil Carter is depicted firing his revolver. Courtesy RHQ Welsh Guards
After about three quarters of an hour the rest of the German tanks, to those observers on 3 Company front at least, appeared to withdraw. What seemed like a withdrawal from one position however, looked like an outflanking manoeuvre from another. Lieutenant Colonel Stanier saw the tanks ‘swerve away to the right as if they were going towards Calais’, and then take cover behind hedges only to reappear further down the left flank to threaten first 4 and then 1 Company positions. During a momentary lull in the fighting Stanier left Major Windsor-Lewis and motored to St. Martin to see Captain Cyril Heber-Percy.
‘I went with the company commander down a little passageway; Brigadier Fox-Pitt was there as well, and we looked out and saw some tanks. We thought they were British tanks! We couldn’t believe that the Germans had been so quick. They’d come round from Number 3 Company and were already down as fast as me motoring down the road. They were belting out as fast as they could and it was all smooth fields. There was nothing to stop them…They were very bold. They were fairly charging about.’ Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Stanier Bt., MC. CO 2 Welsh Guards.6
As the morning wore on the Germans by-passed Pilcher’s platoon and began to threaten 3 Company HQ and 9 platoon posts, under Second Lieutenant Perrins, around the farmhouse. Casualties began to mount as the battle grew in ferocity all around. Shelling began in earnest at around 9.00 am, again registering on the light railway running just behind the Welsh line. A house near the Mont Lambert crossroads was blasted by shellfire and reduced to a heap of rubble, igniting a dump of ammunition stored nearby and producing a lethal firework display. The Germans then switched the point of attack to focus on 2 Company and Second Lieutenant Hesketh (Hexie) Hughes’s 7 platoon on the extreme right of 3 Company near a café at a road junction in the hamlet of la Madeleine. Whilst German artillery and mortar fire made the Welsh keep their heads down, tanks and mechanised infantry came over the ridge. At around 10.30 am four tanks came over the ridge and headed straight for Second Lieutenant Hexie Hughes’s exposed position. In 1940 la Madeleine consisted of little more than four small houses, two cottages and an estaminet clustered around a road junction. Unlike most of the other anti-tank guns on the Welsh front Hughes had managed to dig one in to cover the junction with some success. He had another a little way behind. As Hughes watched, one tank advanced towards the junction and began to move behind the estaminet.
Another knocked out his second anti-tank gun and soon he noticed two more working their way around him. He reasoned that he would soon be surrounded so he decided to withdraw his platoon back to the other side of the road to secure a better fire position – with fatal results.
‘Directly he got up and ran back to take up his position behind he got half his platoon back and half got shot up including him. He was killed. That was moving your position under fire.’ Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Stanier Bt., MC. CO 2 Welsh Guards.7
The incident proved beyond doubt that the German tanks worked in concert, one or more forcing the Welsh to break cover only to be picked off by another. Stanier later conceded that the German troops were ‘very, very well trained.’ Those of 7 platoon who had escaped fell back towards Headquarters Company positions in Ostrohove.
By 11.00 am the Welsh on 2 and 3 Companies’ front had been in action for some three and a half hours but, with further German attacks falling on Lieutenant R C Sharples’s platoon of Headquarters Company, Lieutenant Colonel Stanier decided a readjustment was necessary. One platoon of 2 Company and Company HQ were withdrawn to the left and rear about 300 metres to the line of the light railway. As the remnants of Hexie Hughes’s platoon had already retired a message was hurriedly dispatched to 3 Company HQ and remarkably it got through.
‘The shelling and firing from the tanks on our front was growing in its intensity. Word reached me by messenger that my right flank was exposed as No. 2 Coy had been forced to withdraw and with my own right forward platoon also compelled to withdraw I decided to retire with what was left of the Coy.’ >Major JC Windsor-Lewis OC 3 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.8
Captured Guardsmen of 3 Company are put to work digging temporary graves near la Madeleine shortly after the battle near Mont Lambert. Courtesy Herr Franz Steiner
Windsor-Lewis retired from his HQ and fell back down the road through St. Martin and then downhill towards the town itself. He finally arrived at the Citadel in the Haute Ville defended by the French garrison under General Lanquetot and sent a message to Brigade HQ telling them where he was.
The withdrawal of 3 Company HQ meant that Second Lieutenant Pilcher’s 8 Platoon was albeit surrounded, the Germans having moved around and behind it to follow up Windsor-Lewis’s withdrawal and threaten 4 Company’s positions in and around St. Martin itself. 8 Platoon was in grave danger of being cut off and, to make matters worse, Guardsman Arthur Boswell could see at least one German tank looking down on them menacingly some 200 metres away on the slopes of Mont Lambert. Orders from Second Lieutenant Pilcher for the men to extricate themselves, one dug-out at a time, were passed along the line.
Arthur Boswell. Taken whilst on the run in Marseilles. Courtesy Mr Arthur Boswell
‘Two got through, under the line of tracer bullets, unscathed, but Sergeant Sankey was blasted by a shell which took him – and a barbed wire fence – into the next field. He is believed to have survived albeit minus an arm. Corporal “Wimpey” Williams sprang out of the same dug-out as the Sergeant and dashed through the gap in the fence and dropped alongside the wounded Sergeant to help him… Lieutnant Pilcher then ordered the rest to “stay put”. Later the Lieutnant came back and gave the order for the rest of the platoon to come out, “in their own time”. I said, “I’ll go first then Jack and Alf can follow." I climbed out slowly and after glancing at the menacing tank to see if there was any movement, crawled very slowly towards the comparative safety of the nearby wood. I have never been so scared as I was then- I could feel the hair on the back of my neck curling! Further into the wood I joined Lieutnant Pilcher, Sergeant Pennington, Corporal Webb and others; about twelve in total.* Guardsman Arthur Boswell. 8 Platoon, 3 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.9
* During the next few days, Boswell and his small band led by Lieutenant Pilcher, cut off from their battalion and now behind German lines, decided to make a break towards Wimille and the coast following the ‘deeply embedded tracks created by the panzer tanks’, in the hope of getting across the Channel. After many amazing adventures and hair raising encounters with German patrols during which, one by one, Lieutenant Pilcher and nine more men were captured, Arthur Boswell and Alf Logan, his one remaining companion, decided to head for Spain and thence Gibralatar. The thought of such a journey was almost laughable but they set out and, as they did so, Arthur Boswell offered up a silent prayer of thanksgiving for sparing him in the recent fighting and for guidance through what lay ahead: ‘if He be for us…then who can stand against us?’ Boswell’s prayers were eventually answered. After an incredible journey the duo reached Britain towards the end of 1941 almost eighteen months after the Boulogne fighting.
‘We hadn’t a dog’s chance. Just the tanks came on with a few infantry behind. They didn’t have hordes of people. They didn’t need them. When they got to us in Boulogne we were near enough surrounded we could see the tanks on the hills and the infantry sitting around. I remember I was in a slit trench there by myself. A little dog got on my back and they shot that off in no uncertain terms. It was all right for me but they shot the poor little dog off. I just dropped in there and kept my head down until I heard the tanks roll past and then I was up and away. They had tracer bullets and they seemed to come so slowly and then zip past we were fortunate to be able to dive under them. They had everything. We had .303 ammunition, fifty rounds! This friend of mine Doug Morton was killed. He just got shot. You got the feeling that it had to happen to him. He went to Holland and when he came back I went to talk to him and he must have been frightened out of his life. When I heard he’d been killed in Boulogne I wasn’t surprised. I don’t know why. I was not sure whether Captain Carter was killed, but from then on they came at us. Some silly bugger said we pushed them back – we didn’t! Give credit where it’s due, the officers and NCO’s didn’t know what to do. They hadn’t a clue. Poor old Major Lewis. After they shot us up, we’d split up completely and then we took a position, two of us, with a Boys antitank rifle, on a corner. There were the two of us, a young officer and two other guardsmen and a big lorry. They said “move that lorry across the road”. I said “I can’t drive that” so they said “oh well you take this Boys anti-tank rifle and get in that slit trench – five rounds only,” and they moved the big lorry. What’s a lorry? A German officer or whatever he was laughed his head off when we fired at his tank and it bounced off! We’d been told that this Boys anti-tank rifle with .5 bullets was invincible and they weren’t. After we’d fired this anti-tank gun and this “Jerry” officer started shooting at us from the tank, I ran that fast I went past the flipping bullets because you could see the tracers! And yet it’s strange; in that situation you weren’t frightened. From then on we just kept dodging and dodging and diving into shell holes or whatever. The Germans came down and away we went again – only singly. We dribbled our way back. I eventually found my way back dodging the Germans to the fish market.’ Guardsman Doug Davies. 8 Platoon, 3 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.10
Captain Hamil Carter, Second in Command of 3 Company, had been seriously wounded in the arm on the road to St. Martin but would survive.
After successfully destroying one tank earlier, Sergeant Green’s antitank guns had by now been marked as targets as the Germans rolled forward.
‘We never heard anything from the battalion. There was no communication whatever between the battalion and us. We were a Sergeant, two Corporals and eight guardsmen. Sergeant Green said “Bryan they are assembling a gun by the side of a haystack.” With his field glasses he could see them assembling the field gun there. The problem I have with this, is the fact that I believe that was the time to go and leave our guns there to be blown up without our people, but Sergeant Green didn’t say anything about that, he just stayed there doing his job. About two hours after he told me they were assembling a gun there was a “boom, boom, boom, boom, boom” and I looked over – we were about twenty yards away from his guns – and the Sergeant and the crews were all in pieces. What bothers me when I think about it is, the battalion was going to withdraw that day, so why weren’t we told about the possible withdrawal so that we could have got out of there. There was a Corporal Fowler, he was not in the front line with us but he was stationed in a concrete pill-box type of thing. I assumed he was the contact man either for incoming or outgoing messages but we never received any message. After this explosion, the two guardsmen on my gun ran down the lane and there was all kinds of heavy German MG fire and I thought, well I’ll go to where this Corporal. Fowler had been stationed. I ran to his place and I saw that he had left and I could tell which way he’d gone because he’d ran into a meadow and left quite a trail in the meadow so I thought, “that’s the way for me.” However, after about twenty yards into the meadow there was a different kind of gunfire – more like a .303 being fired – and it was hitting a wall and chipping concrete off. I thought it was just random MG fire so I moved further ahead, still trying to follow the Corporal’s track and I lifted my head up to try and get a better idea of where he went and again there was a .303 firing. I decided it was too dangerous to try and go further and I returned to the little blockhouse where Fowler had been. When I got there I did feel a little pain in my leg and I thought I’d been shot but it was a shard of concrete that had been removed from the wall and had gone through my left trouser leg and punctured my calf. I thought I’d better stay away from that area for a while so I wrapped my leg with a field bandage we carried with us and it seemed to heal pretty quickly. I thought I’d try later on to go down the lane where my two guardsmen had gone, however I sat there for about two hours and I must have dozed off and it wasn’t until the next morning – a beautiful Spring day – that I got down into the town. I didn’t know where I was supposed to walk to.’ Corporal Joseph Bryan. 2 Welsh Guards attached 20 Guards Brigade Anti-Tank Company.11
2 Panzer Division on the move.
Although 2 and 3 Companies had borne the brunt of the morning’s attacks, 1 and 4 Companies on the left flank did not get off lightly either. Heavy fire from all types of weapon was directed on units of 4 Company.
‘Slowly 12 Platoon and 4 Company were pushed back into the outskirts of the town, establishing from time to time points of resistance and getting some cover in or behind houses and other buildings which resulted in the Germans bringing heavier weapons and tank guns to bear on us, inevitably forcing us back again. We were suffering casualties and it was at one of these resistance points when I was firing at a sniper who was hiding behind the parapet on the top of a church tower…when I was blown from behind my protective pillar, one of several holding up the roof of a lean to building occupied by some of my platoon. I was struck by shrapnel on the right side of my face which took off part of my ear lobe before penetrating my head behind the upper cheek bone. Picking myself up I saw that most of the lean-to was a heap of rubble with no sign of my comrades except Guardsman Nichols – a reservist called back to the Colours – who had been hit in the hand. The enemy shells were still landing around us as I returned to what was left of the pillar to concentrate my fire on the sniper with the intention of silencing him. I never knew if I got him or not. My head was bleeding profusely and I was forced to seek help and have a field dressing applied by another Guardsman.’ Guardsman Charles Thompson. 12 Platoon, 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.12
Second Lieutenant Peter Hanbury
Second Lieutenant Peter Hanbury had moved from his original position and set up his HQ in a house opposite the church in St. Martin on the ‘…crossroads where the road from St. Omer to Boulogne crossed the road from Calais in the north.’ Like Thompson, Hanbury thought that a sniper, a Fifth Columnist perhaps, was ensconced in the tower of St. Martin church. Rumours and stories of the German Fifth Column were rife amongst the ranks of the Guards. There were stories of German motorcyclists being hidden in the backs of innocent looking furniture vans which drew up to roadblocks only for the back door to open and the motorcycle to roar off, its rider having had a good look at the British position. There were other stories of men dressed as priests carrying questionable documents and mysterious long, glass pipettes. All of these stories, due to the isolation of posts and the proximity of endless streams of refugees, not surprisingly, fuelled Allied fears that the Germans or German sympathisers, were atop every church tower and behind every window frame. Many of the fears were probably unfounded but there is no doubt that rough justice was meted out to some civilians suspected of assisting the Germans. It would appear, however, that there was some substance to Peter Hanbury’s fears regarding the ’sniper in the tower’ of the church in St. Martin.
‘Parachutist/fifth-columnist? in church started sniping at us and put one through my trouser leg. I went up to the church to see if anyone was up the tower. I did not wish to upset the priest, so took off my tin hat, which he thought strange, so I put it back on again and started climbing the stairs. He dragged me down. I then understood there was s a fifth columnist or a parachutist up there. It seemed very unwise to go up a circular staircase as he only had to lob a grenade down…to deal with me. I returned to my platoon and ordered Bartlett and another guardsman to neutralise his fire with two Bren guns. They slowly shot the top off the tower, and said a rifle had been dropped from the tower. Whether they had killed the opposition or wounded him I do not know but he stopped firing. It now appeared obvious that No. 3 company were not in possession of their position. Jim Windsor-Lewis told me this company was wiped out. Eddie’s road block was on fire, and it looked as though the tanks were rolling up the company from left to right. Message came from Jim that I was to retreat at once.’ Second Lieutenant Peter Hanbury. OC 12 Platoon, 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.13
Hanbury went to tell Captain Heber-Percy that he was leaving 1 Company’s flank unprotected but was told to ignore the message from 3 Company and ’stay put’. Captain Henry Coombe-Tennant then appeared and told Hanbury to move his platoon back into its old positions near the light railway to prevent the Germans getting behind them. On reaching the open they came under heavy fire: thirty rounds hitting the ground around them in quick succession blowing Hanbury up into the air, across the road and pitching him into an open sewer. At any second Hanbury could have been blown to pieces, but in an extraordinary twist of the psyche that perhaps only war can induce, the only thing which sprang to mind as he crouched in the sewer amid the inferno, was whether he could catch VD from the effluent!
After moving forward a little more Hanbury found five men of 3 Company under Corporal White retreating. Hanbury rallied them and pressed on towards the railway but met his CO, Captain Jack Higgon, coming the other way with four wounded men being carried on doors each held by four guardsmen. The whole party, twenty-seven men in all, then retired towards the junction near the church and expected heavy fire when they reached the open where Hanbury had been blown into the sewer. The Germans never fired a shot. On reaching the comparative safety of the junction Hanbury ordered his platoon to retire with him. As they made their way back towards town Hanbury talked to a seriously wounded sergeant from Ralph Pilcher’s platoon who was also walking back with, ‘…one arm off and a bloody tourniquet round it.’
‘He said this was a change from public duties in London. I was sitting beside him during an air-raid when he died. First time I had heard the rattle in someone’s throat as they died.’ Second Lieutenant Peter Hanbury. OC 12 Platoon, 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.14
Prior to Jack Higgon returning with the wounded men 11 Platoon had been in their original positions but the German attack was escalating and with the lack of communication and direct orders some of the men were becoming anxious.
‘We were on our own, squatting near this house wondering what to do and shells coming over. Mid-morning it got so “hot” Sergeant Hendry sent a young guardsman to Captain Higgon and asked him what were we to do and his instructions were “last man, last round” That’s what we were told to do. Sergeant Hendry said “bugger it we’ll hang on a bit and make dash for it.” So he sent the other two or three off and said “you go, Pritchard and me will follow you.” So we were the last two to leave the back of this house and we made directly over the fields to Boulogne. I remember distinctly running over bare fields when we came down from St. Martin’s and coming to the top of the town before you come down the big hill. We were under a privet hedge and it started to bloody rain. Oh hell! As boys playing at “Cowboys and Indians” well, you’d go home wouldn’t you?! I was stuck under this ruddy hedge and I was watching “Jerry” cooking up his dinner in the field opposite. It was about mid-day and he was frying up with his tanks. They were cooking away; just lolling around. They were having the time of their lives, cooking away and walking about within eye distance. You could distinguish them quite easily. Later we picked up a Sergeant Sankey who was lying under a hedge with his arm broken. We helped him up and handed him over to somebody who took him back. We finished up on a hill at the top of Boulogne in a mansion just above the citadel on the left. We held that for a while and thought we’d get back to town. Guardsman Syd Pritchard. 11 Platoon, 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.15
‘Inevitably we had to retreat again as casualties mounted, the Germans now had the advantage of being above us and were pushing us hard. A mixed number from my company, probably some from others, gathered near an old fortress type of building near what I believe was close to the town centre and it was then that I realised I was wounded in the chest, shrapnel having entered through my small pack. Meeting up with my platoon Lieutenant again [Second Lieutenant Peter Hanbury] having lost him in the fighting, he saw that my wounds were serious and ordered me to hand over my rifle and ammunition before making my way to the coast to receive attention. I was very reluctant to do so having been trained that the rifle was my best friend and must be looked after and never parted with. With regret I left my Lieutenant and others behind to resist as best they could and headed for the coast and harbour by now not very far away, where I found a medical aid post and received fresh bandages and a cup of tea. With many others I waited to find transport to England.’ Guardsman Charles Thompson. 12 Platoon, 4 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.16
The Germans were indeed above the Welsh and pushing hard. Early that morning they had captured Fort de la Creche and had reached the coast. Oberleutnant Durkes had woken up that morning and found himself staring up at the monumental la Colonne Napoléon, topped by the verdigris figure of the French Emperor himself. Durkes had climbed the 265 steps with Oberst von Vaerst for a commanding view of the whole of Boulogne and his objective that morning, Fort de la Creche. On the stroke of ten, German time, the German artillery had opened fire on the fort and the dismounted motorcyclists had ridden hell for leather down the 1000 metre slope to the railway on the back of the bucking panzers. In fifteen minutes Durkes had got as far as the fort and was cutting away the protective wire. Minutes later the Germans had forced their way inside and were taking the French gunners prisoner as they came up out of their bunkers. The rest of the fort was then ‘combed out’ and the position consolidated. A troop of 2 Anti-Aircraft Regiment on the landward slopes behind the fort also had its guns knocked out after they had engaged two of the German tanks.
German and French graves on Mont Lambert after the battle. Courtesy Mairie de St Martin Boulogne
The fall of Fort de la Creche. German motorcycle troops had left their machines to ride on the back of the panzers in an all out dash on the French position. Their boldness paid off. Here French prisoners are photographed with their German captors outside one of the recently captured bunkers.
Generaloberst Heinz Guderian congratulates the men who took Fort de la Creche. Courtesy Herr Franz Steinzer
A little less than two kilometres away down the hill into Boulogne Colonel Deane’s AMPC had been in position on the left of the Welsh since the early hours. On the extreme left flank, in advance of the Casino, the remnants of 5 Buffs commanded by Major Penlington supported by fifty AMPC personnel had been waiting astride the coast road. This mixed force had erected road-blocks using abandoned lorries and cars and the furniture from bombed out houses. The Germans had probed their positions shortly after they had got into position but had withdrawn only to return shortly afterwards with light tanks. With only rifle fire to defend themselves, the mixed force had watched the leading tank approach and climb the first barricade. As soon as the tank’s nose had risen to an angle at which it could not fire its guns on the defenders the road block had been drenched with petrol and set alight, at which point the tank had reversed out of trouble. Under cover of the pall of smoke the Buffs and the AMPC had hurriedly constructed a new barricade but the attack had not been pressed. That said, the presence of German armour so close to the northern limits of the town and within striking distance of the port at that early hour was proof positive that the iron ring was closing around Boulgne. The final nail in the coffin was the capture of Fort de la Creche which dominated the northern land routes into the town and cut it off from the north. For the Welsh Guards once the fighting had started in earnest at 7.30 am there had been nowhere else to go except in the direction of the docks.
As Oberleutnant Durkes had savoured his moment of victory and the various edible ‘luxuries’ which his men had unearthed in the French bunkers after the battle for Fort de la Creche, he had looked down from his lofty perch and had seen two British destroyers enter the harbour and put to sea again after an hour. Durkes reflected that they had probably, ‘evacuated the Tommies’. He had been wrong. All morning three British destroyers had stood off Boulogne repeatedly ignoring signals from Brigade HQ until around 11.00 am when one of them had nosed into the harbour and embarked a naval demolition party and a covering force of Royal Marines. It had sailed again shortly afterwards taking with it a situation report from Brigadier Fox-Pitt. The Welsh Guards were being hit hard and some of the more advanced companies of the Irish Guards on the other side of the Liane were also taking a beating as a result of heavy and persistent German attacks. With Boulogne effectively surrounded by a much stronger and better equipped foe it was not unreasonable to assume, as indeed had Oberleutnant Durkes, that the War Office would sanction the immediate evacuation of the entire Allied garrison given that the docks were still in Allied hands. A little later Fox-Pitt had received his instructions. All personnel of ‘no military value’ were indeed to be evacuated. The remainder of the force were to ’stand fast’ and ‘fight it out.’ By around 11.30 am the Welsh had held the Germans off for some four hours but in spite of poor communications it was becoming clear to Lieutenant Colonel Stanier that the pressure was beginning to tell. Captain Hodgkinson of HQ Company arrived at Battalion HQ to inform him that his position in front of Ostrohove was in danger of being enveloped and in view of the continued attacks on 2 and 3 Companies he decided to shorten his line. First, all HQ personnel and some sixty men of Colonel Deane’s AMPC were pushed out as a screen facing northeast to defend battalion HQ. Stanier’s plans involved 2 Company withdrawing to hold the houses facing south-east along the line of the light railway between the little halt in Ostrohove and Brequerecque. HQ and 3 Company would continue the line and link up with 4 and 1 Companies on the left at St. Martin. Before Stanier could send out messengers to his company commanders, however, he received orders from Brigadier Fox-Pitt to withdraw into Boulogne itself and block all approaches to the harbour from the AMPC blocks near the Casino along the banks of the River Liane as far as the main railway bridge. In the Haute Ville Major Windsor-Lewis received a message from Brigade to the effect that ‘…all Coys were withdrawing and to conform to this withdrawal to the quay.’ Major Windsor-Lewis moved further downhill towards the Ville Bass and opted to defend a large, white building at the junction of the Rue du Mont St. Adrien and the present day Rue des Victoires. He told two sections to barricade the doors and windows while another section held a road block down the Rue Thiers to their right.
‘In the afternoon I was ordered to establish road blocks in the town. Boulogne was to be held. I had few men left by this time, but with three sections forward covering road blocks and Coy. HQ down the street about 300 yds in rear, I took up position.’ Major J C Windsor-Lewis. OC 3 Company, 2 Welsh Guards.17
As it got under way the withdrawal was beset with difficulties. Effective communications were virtually impossible given the distances involved and the fact that most of the signalling equipment had been left on the quay after landing and had never found its way to the battalion. Every man Stanier had sent down to the quay to retrieve it had been hustled on board a waiting ship by over zealous embarkation officers. Stanier had used dispatch riders on commandeered French machines to ferry his messages around but it was a dangerous business given the sniping and shelling. By the end of the day the only man left able to ride a motorcycle would be Guardsman Potter. Only one line had been laid on the whole battalion front early that morning and that had been to Hexie Hughes’s position, a position which no longer existed. This lack of communication was already leading to some men, like those in Syd Pritchard’s section, being ordered to retire by their section commanders and it was to have further disastrous consequences for the men with Major Windsor-Lewis and men like Pritchard and Doug Davies now making their way back from the most advanced posts of the Welsh line without firm orders.
The port in flames. Photograph taken 24 May 1940, from the top of the Rue de Calais. Courtesy Mairie de St Martin Boulogne
Position of No.3 Company 23 May, 1800 hrs. Based on an original sketch made by Major Windsor-Lewis
The Pont Marguet Bridge. Lieutenant Colonel Stanier set up his HQ in one of the hotels on the opposite side after the withdrawal from positions on the outer perimter.
By about 2.00 pm the Battalion, with 4 Company acting as rearguard, had withdrawn under great difficulty to a line of posts running roughly north-south 500 metres from the quays, with their backs to the River Liane and facing east. Here they joined French troops and, as the remnants of 3 Company had already done, blocked the main roads leading to the harbour in order to delay the German advance by pushing them into narrow alleys and side streets. Lieutenant Colonel Stanier chose, as his battalion HQ, a hotel down by the quay, near to the Pont Marguet bridge.
‘It was called Hotel de la Paix. Wasn’t much “de la Paix” about it…there I was overrun by Colonels and people saying “What am I to do? I’ve got a battalion can I help you?” Of course they were the most awful nuisance poor things, and I was terribly sorry for them. There were some very gallant old soldiers there and they were put in the bag, spent the war in prison. Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alexander Stanier Bt., MC. CO 2 Welsh Guards.18
The Welsh were now being fired on from houses on both banks of the Liane as the Germans took advantage of the pronounced eastward kink in the river’s course and pushed onto the neck of land on the opposite bank in rear of 2 Company. To add to the Guards’ problems, shots were coming from the direction of Brigade HQ which had been set up near the Gare Maritime, as AMPC personnel and inexperienced, leaderless troops still armed with rifles, shot at anything that moved – friend or foe – on the opposite bank. Fire was also being directed on Colonel Deane’s AMPC posts at the road blocks near the Casino so he drove across the Pont Marguet to enlist Brigadier Fox-Pitt’s support in putting a stop to the indiscriminate firing. As Deane crossed the bridge the engine of his car was riddled by machine-gun fire but he made it across. The Brigadier promised to do all he could but was unsure whether the few guardsmen at Brigade HQ could successfully bring such a large body of obviously nervous men under control. Deane re-crossed the bridge on foot and returned to his command. A little later Billy Fox-Pitt went to see Alexander Stanier at the Hotel de la Paix just as Stanier was returning from personally redistributing the Battalion in company areas. It was the first time Fox-Pitt had seen his old 1st Battalion comrade since their meeting at St. Martin earlier that morning and the first opportunity he had had to pass on his orders from the War Office. In spite of the German pressure from all sides he informed Stanier that the Guards would still have to ‘fight it out’. Boulogne was to be held.
A self-propelled heavy infantry gun, 15cm, mounted on a 1 Ausf B tank chassis, on the approaches to Boulogne during the fighting.