107 From The Editor, After the Battle, AFTER THE BATTLE
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//-->ISAAC BRIDGE, NORMANDYGERMAN SKAGERRAK BATTERIESBATTLE FOR WETTEREN BRIDGENumber 107079 770306 154073£3.10NUMBER 107Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. RamseyEditor: Karel MargryPublished byBattle of Britain International Ltd.,Church House, Church Street,London E15 3JA, EnglandTelephone: 0181-534 8833Fax: 0181-555 7567E-mail: (afterthebattle@mcmail.com)Web site: (www.afterthebattle.mcmail.com)Printed in Great Britain byTrafford Print Colour Ltd.,Shaw Wood Way, Doncaster DN2 5TB.© Copyright 2000After the Battleis published on the 15thof February, May, August and November.United Kingdom Newsagent Distribution:Lakeside Publishing Services Ltd, Unit 1D,Tideway Industrial Estate, Kirtling Street,London SW8 5BPUnited States Distribution and Subscriptions:RZM Imports, PO Box 995, Southbury, CT, 06488Telephone: 1-203-264-0774Toll Free: 1-800-661-6136Website: (www.rzm.com)Canadian Distribution and Subscriptions:Vanwell Publishing Ltd., PO Box 2131,1 Northrup Crescent,St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 7S2.Telephone: (905) 937 3100 Fax: (905) 937 1760E-mail: (sales@vanwell.com)Australian Subscriptions and Back Issues:Technical Book and Magazine Company, Pty, Ltd.,295 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000.Telephone: 03 9 663 3951 Fax: 03 9 663 2094E-mail: (info@techbooks.com.au)New Zealand Distribution:Dal McGuirk’s “MILITARY ARCHIVE”, P.O. Box 24486,Royal Oak, Auckland 1030 New Zealand.Telephone: 021 627 870 Fax: 9-6252817E-mail: (milrchiv@mist.co.nz)Italian Distribution:Tuttostoria, Casella Postale 395, 1-43100 Parma.Telephone: 0521 292 733, Telex 532274 EDIALB IDutch Language Edition:Quo Vadis, Postbus 3121, 3760 DC Soest.Telephone: 035 6018641The Editor at ATB’s Advanced Command Post in the Netherlands.From the Editor . . .It is now two years since I took overEditorship ofAfter the Battlefrom WinstonRamsey. Nobody will be surprised that I felta bit anxious about taking over the helm, soit was very pleasing to receive so many con-gratulatory letters upon my promotion. Ihope that the past eight issues have reas-sured readers that the magazine does indeedcontinue in the style and format establishedby Winston over the preceding 25 years.From his ‘Grand Finale’ in issue 100, quitea few readers concluded that Winston hadretired altogether, and would no longer beinvolved with the magazine. They will bepleased to learn that in practical termsnothing has changed. We carry on much asbefore, working alongside each other, withWinston keeping a supervisory eye asEditor-in-Chief. There is a practical need forthis construction as well, as I am based inUtrecht in the Netherlands (the ‘AdvancedCommand Post’ as we call it) while Winstonis at the main office in London (‘Main Head-quarters’).CONTENTSFROM THE EDITORA VETERAN REMEMBERSThe Battle of BroekhuizenIT HAPPENED HEREIsaac Bridge, NormandyREADERS’ INVESTIGATIONThe Battle for Wetteren BridgePRESERVATIONThe German Skagerrak Batteries223303452Front cover:A colour party from the Royal BritishLegion leads the parade along Sloane Court, infront of the site where over 70 American Service-men lost their lives on July 3, 1944, for the unveil-ing of a commemorative plaque in Turks Row inOctober 1998 — see page 10. (Brian Humphreys)Centre Pages:Fifty-five years after it fell to Sovietforces, Berlin becomes the German capital again,the Reichstag restored for the new Germanparliament building. (Peter Thompson)Back Cover:No longer forgotten. Little NicholasKotlarewski, grandson of Jim Richmond, besidethe headstone erected on the formerly unmarkedgrave of the first civilians killed in England in theSecond World War — see page 22. (Afterthe Bat-tle)Acknowledgements:The Editor would like to thankHay Reintjes for providing the wartime pictures ofBroekhuizen and for showing him around theBroekhuizen battlefield.Photo Credits:IWM — Imperial War Museum,London. PRO — Public Record Office.The message received by Signalman Harry Kane aboard HMSEclipseon the first dayof the war — September 3, 1939.2Sixty years after war’s beginning, formerevacuee children march to WestminsterAbbey on September 3, 1999.1999 saw the start of a new series of jubileecommemorations, bringing both the 60thanniversary of the outbreak of the SecondWorld War and the 55th anniversary ofmajor battles like D-Day in Normandy,Operation ‘Market Garden’ and the Battleof the Bulge. Compared with the massivecommemorations of 1994-95, those of thisyear appeared in general to be more modestevents which is not surprising when one con-siders that even the youngest of the veteransare now approaching their 80s. It remains tobe seen how the turn of the Millennium willaffect remembrance events in the future.The 60th anniversary of the outbreak ofthe war saw the culmination of efforts byJames Roffey, founder of the EvacueesReunion Association, to spotlight the largelyforgotten three million British children evac-uated from their homes and families awayfrom the danger area in September 1939.The need for such an association aroseduring the celebrations to mark the 50thanniversary of VE-Day in 1995. WhenJames, an evacuee himself, wrote to the gov-ernment to ask whether provision had beenmade in the parade for the inclusion of for-mer evacuees, he received a negativeresponse. Pressing his case, he was finallyallowed 50 places, albeit too late to inviteanyone other than his brother to attend.From that humble beginning, the associa-tion now has members in all parts of GreatBritain, also Australia, Canada, NewZealand, South Africa, the United States andelsewhere. It has helped many people to con-tact their wartime friends and to exchangememories with others who, from personalexperience, have an understanding of thelong-term effects of the evacuation.On Friday, September 3, 1999, hundreds of‘grown up’ children, now in their 60s and 70s,assembled on Horse Guards parade ground,all ticketed and labelled, for a march toWestminster Abbey. Following the service,wreath-laying and a Spitfire flypast, lunchwas served in the Central Hall where therewas an opportunity to meet the Duke andDuchess of Gloucester before a specialadvance showing of the documentaryTheStory of the Evacuation.The contact address for joining the associ-ation is The Evacuees Reunion Association,Suite 1, Goodbodys Business Centre, 17Albert Road, Retford, Notts. DN22 6JD.In connection with the start of the war, wereceived an interesting snippet from JamesKane of Portadown, County Armagh, North-ern Ireland: ‘My grandfather SignalmanHarry Kane, a veteran of the Great War, wasrecalled to the colours in 1939, served in theRoyal Fleet Reserve with the destroyer HMSEclipseand later in the Q Ship HMSCapeHowe.He was lost at sea on June 21, 1940when HMSCape Howewas torpedoed andsunk byU-28.I have a large amount of ser-vice documents and photographs of mygrandfather, the most important of which isan original signal sheet which contains theDeclaration of War message sent to theRoyal Navy on September 3, 1939. As a sig-nalman my grandfather took the actual wardeclaration message for his ship which at thattime was HMSEclipse.He obviously realisedhow important that slip of paper would be inthe future. The message read “Commencehostilities at once against Germany”.’D-Day, and the build up to D-Day, neverfails to produce interesting follow-up stories.Two readers wrote in about the pre-invasioninspection visits by top commanders.Edmund Galvin, a veteran of the US 2ndArmored Division, from Buffalo, New YorkState, corrected us on what we wrote aboutthe visit by Churchill, Eisenhower andBradley to the Tidworth shooting ranges ofMarch 24, 1944 (issue 100):‘The picture on page 29 was taken atTidworth Barracks, which housed the 2ndArmored Division, not the 9th Infantry Divi-sion. The general officer to the right of MrChurchill wearing a combat jacket with the2nd Armored patch is Major GeneralEdward H. Brooks, the divisional comman-der. The upper left-hand picture shows anAmerican officer wearing cavalry breechesand boots, as many did at that time, beingpart of an ex-cavalry division.‘I was with Company B, 41st ArmoredInfantry Regiment of the division — a corpo-ral in a machine-gun squad. I had been withthe outfit since North Africa. We fought onfoot, or dismounted, in Sicily, as our half-tracks stayed behind in North Africa with thedrivers. We did not see our own vehicles ordrivers until we got to Tidworth Barracks inNovember 1943. The division had landed atBristol on our Thanksgiving Day.‘The day of the firing demonstration wewere detailed to set up targets and variousweapons for the visiting VIPs, and police upthe area after they left. We were told to stayin the background while the VIPs were there,but General Brooks led General Eisenhowerover and he thanked us for our work. Istayed in the service until 1967 — retiring asa regimental adjutant of an infantry regiment(mechanised). PS: None of the brass hit thetargets very well.’The US 2nd Armored Division team which assisted at the VIP firing demonstration atTidworth in April 1944. Corporal Edmund Galvin second right in the front row.3Stephen Dent of Bath supplied back-ground details about Montgomery’s visit toSittingbourne in February 1944 which weillustrated inD-Day Then and Now:‘My mother was a schoolgirl in Sitting-bourne during the war. I spotted that thephotographs at the bottom of page 95 wereof Sittingbourne, so when she was down on avisit last week I showed them to her to see ifthere was anything of interest. Her face wassomething of a picture when she said “Yes,that’s our house on the right!” Actually, Ishould think my face was a picture too!‘Anyway, I hardly needed to quiz her, shehad lots to tell me, and could even rememberthe actual events pictured. She hadn’t reallyknown at the time what was going on, andwasn’t really terribly interested being a littlegirl totally bored by the war (though, to hercredit, she understands fully why I find it allso fascinating).‘I may as well recount everything, eventhough much of it is not terribly exciting.First thing is that the sports ground was infact owned by the town’s main employer,Edward Lloyds paper mill, which only lateron became Bowaters, and was in fact in GoreCourt Road. Woodstock Road, my motherreckons, is at the other end of the town. Theroad in the background of the photo isWhitehall Road, and my mother, her mother,father, brother and pet dog lived in the houseon the right-hand edge of the picture, whichwas called Chalfont.‘It was hard to see into the sports groundfrom Whitehall Road, there being a tallwooden slatted fence along the edge. Inorder to see into the ground my mother hadto stand on the front wall of her garden. Sheremembers all the troops, and lots of excite-ment, though she missed the actual reviewbecause she was at school. When she camehome there were just lots and lots of soldiersKen Oultram with the plaque in memory of General Patton unveiled at RuskinsRooms, Knutsford, on VE-Day 1998.milling around. They were there just for thatone afternoon. The thing that made the mostimpression was that there were endless can-vas screens, or maybe tents, for latrines forall the soldiers, and the stench lingered fordays, possibly even weeks, afterwards!’Brian Bolderson of Manchester — mem-ber No. 56 of the Patton AppreciationSociety — informed us that Ruskins Roomsat Knutsford, which ‘Blood and Guts’opened as a social club for Allied militarypersonnel in April 1944 (issue 7), has nowbeen adorned with a plaque commemoratingthat event. The memorial, an initiative ofCheshire historian Ken Oultram (PAS mem-ber No. 24), was unveiled on VE-Day in1998. The building in Drury Lane is todayused as office accommodation.John Huggins of Evesham, Worcester-shire, sent us several pictures he took of thepre-invasion training areas at Slapton Sands(issue 44) and elsewhere in the south-west ofEngland. ‘ReadingAfter the Battlehasinspired me to visit numerous sites and makemy own investigations over the years. It wasnot until I went there on holiday that Irealised how much activity went on thereduring the war and how much evidence of itstill remains. The Breane Down Fort is notparticularly exciting but gives an interestingcomparison to similar defences at, say,Dover. I stumbled across the weapons’ test-ing area near Westward Ho by accident.With it having been kept secret for so long,some of the items to be found may not beable to be identified even now.’The D-Day invasion training area as explored by John Huggins.Left:Anti-tank defences blasted by US assault troops, survivingon the beach near Saunton, north Devon.Right:Dummylanding craft, built by US engineers as training simulators.Bunker at the secret weapons testing area near Westward Ho.4Breane Down Fort, converted to anti-aircraft artillery positions.Our extensive coverage of Steven Spiel-berg’s movieSaving Private Ryan(issue 103)generated a strong complaint from SimonStoddart of Hastings, who wrote: ‘I have beenan avid reader ofAfter the Battlesince thefirst issue 25 years ago and I look forwardeagerly to every new one appearing on theshelf. But what a disappointment issue 103 is.I am completely uninterested in films ofactors pretending to be soldiers. I don’t buyAfter the Battlefor such films and I couldn’tbelieve how much space was dedicated to thisPrivate Ryanfilm — see, I’m so uninterested,I don’t even recall the full title of the film.’Simon’s antipathy to war movies is sogreat, he said, that he had no intention ofgoing to see the film. Although this makes itdifficult to discuss the merits of the movie,we felt an explanation of our coverage was inplace. To quote from Winston’s reply toSimon:‘The lengthy coverage of theRyanfilm isnot really a precedent as we did the same onA Bridge Too Farin issue 17 andMemphisBellein issue 69, judging each on the meritsof the film concerned. Apart from the above,reasons for devoting the space we did werethe following:‘Firstly, it stands as a milestone productionin attempting to recreate the horror and real-ity of D-Day on Omaha, and the views of theveterans that landed there on June 6, 1944,confirm that it does just this.‘Secondly, film censors on both sides of theAtlantic, and throughout Europe, haveaccepted that this film, uniquely, has animportant message for the younger genera-tion who have no knowledge of the sacrificesmade. To this end they exceptionally gave ita lower classification (than would have beenthe case prior to 1980) to enable it to be seenby teenagers.‘Thirdly, since the film was released lastSeptember, readers have been asking for astory on the making of the film, particularlythose in America to whom Omaha is synony-mous with unnecessary slaughter.‘Lastly we felt we must correct manyincorrect accounts that have been appearingabout the genesis of the storyline which isbased on fact. DreamWorks and the screen-writer both deny this, claiming that thedeaths of the Niland brothers had no influ-ence on the film which is patent nonsense aswe explain at the beginning of the article.Therefore at the outset we felt it was ourduty to set this record straight and bring afocus on those families who lost severalbrothers.‘We also chose to link it in with the battleat St Sauveur-le-Vicomte as being very closeto that in the film ‘town’ built at Hatfield.’As if to justify our extensive coverage ofthe movie, the US Department of Defense inAugust 1999 announced that director StevenSpielberg had been awarded the Distin-guished Civilian Public Service Award, thePentagon’s highest civilian award, for themovie which, in the words of the citation,‘sparked national awareness of the WorldWar II generation’s sacrifices’. At thepresentation ceremony at the Pentagon onAugust 11, Defense Secretary WilliamS. Cohen said Spielberg’s ‘masterpiecepoignantly captured the stirring sacrifices ofAmerica’s World War II heroes, and paid liv-ing tribute to their indomitable fightingspirit.’ The movie also prompted veterans toreveal personal war stories, Cohen said: ‘Fordecades, many of the veterans struggled tofind the right words, the right way to sharewith family and friends what they had suf-fered through during that war. Over the pastyear, we have heard so many stories of veter-ans, who after seeing this film, finally ven-tured forth to tell a son, a daughter, or agrandchild of their experience.’In his reply, Spielberg said that of all hisblockbuster films two stand above the rest: ‘Ifeel that as a film-maker, lightning has onlyOfficial praise forSaving Private Ryan.US Secretary of Defense William S.Cohen (left) presents the citation of theMedal for Distinguished Public Service todirector Steven Spielberg (right) duringthe ceremony in the Pentagon on August11, 1999. (US Department of Defense)struck twice in a way that has filled me upwith such pride. One of those times wasSchindler’s List,and the other wasSavingPrivate Ryan.’Despite the movie production team’squest for historical accuracy, ProfessorEmeritus John K. Lattimer of New York, ex-101st Airborne Division, wrote to us to pointout one error:‘As a participant in the Normandy inva-sion, I was startled to see shiny captain’s barson thefrontof Mr Hanks’ helmet in the com-bat scenes. This was astrictly forbiddenpro-cedure in every combat unit I saw, and I sawhundreds. It would have attracted fire to theofficers, and would have provided a “bullseye” for snipers to aim at. Weneverwouldhave done that. Our officers had one verticalstrip of white tape on thebacksof their hel-mets, in the midlines. Sergeants had a trans-verse band of white tape on thebacksoftheir helmets. That way, your own men couldidentify you, but the enemy could not. Per-haps there was an explanation for Mr Hanks,but I have been distressed that no one hasmade an issue of what appeared to me to bea serious blunder. It even discouraged mefrom going to see the movie.’David Hale, our researcher in Washing-ton, drew our attention to a section in JamesStreet’s bookThe Civil War(1953) whichputs a different light on Abraham Lincoln’sfamous ‘Bixby Letter’ used so powerfully intheRyanfilm:‘There came to Lincoln a letter from thegovernor of Massachusetts that WidowBixby of Boston had lost five sons for theUnion. The story is that Lincoln then wrotehis famous letter to the woman andaddressed it simply to “Mrs Bixby, Boston,Mass.” but it was not sent to the lady. It wassent to Adjutant General Schouler of Massa-chusetts. He copied the letter. That’s hisstory. Then Schouler raised some money andon Thanksgiving Day of 1864 he took themoney, some food and the “original Lincolnletter” to Mrs Bixby. Nobody knows whathappened. We don’t even know if Schoulerstuck around while Mrs Bixby read the letter,or if she offered him a cup of coffee or a bot-tle of beer. The original letter was lost. Therewas a widow who apparently didn’t value aletter from the President of the United Statesenough to save it. The Bixby letter that we allhave read is thecopythat Schouler said hemade. OK. The joker is that no Widow Bixbylost five sons for the Union. It is true that thefive Bixby boys went into the Union army.One was killed at Fredericksburg. Anotherwas killed at Petersburg. Another was cap-tured at Gettysburg, was exchanged andwent home. A fourth was taken prisoner andthen re-enlisted as a Confederate. The fifthdeserted from the army and ran away andwent to sea. Be all that as it may, the Bixbyletter is a masterpiece of Lincolniana, one ofthe greatest letters of all time.’Following the success of the movie, Spiel-berg’s production company DreamWorks inDecember 1998 announced their plans for a13-part television series based on the film.The storyline will be taken from StephenAmbrose’s bestsellerBand of Brothers(which, incidentally, proves our point thatthe original plot forSaving Private Ryancame from this book) and will follow a para-troop company (Company E, 506th Para-chute Infantry, 101st Airborne) from enlist-ment in the US right up to the end of the warin Europe. The latest news is that Spielbergand Tom Hanks (who starred as CaptainMiller in the movie) will each direct three ofthe episodes. The series will be shot in theUK, much of it again at Hatfield airfield. Thevillage film set erected there for the moviewas pulled down afterwards, so the produc-ers will now have to build it anew, on a muchbigger scale as it will replicate many of theContinental locations.Our perception of D-Day in Normandy,like that of the entire war, is usually in blackand white. But in a similar way as the colourimages ofSaving Private Ryanpartly replacethe black-and-white images of the 1962movieThe Longest Day,so too there arenow colour images to supplement the well-known B/W footage of the actual invasion, asevidenced byThe War in Colourseriesrecently broadcast in the UK by Carlton TV.D-Day Home Movies,released on video inAugust 1999, includes additional colourfootage shot on and around June 6, 1944, byan anonymous cameraman who sailed toNormandy aboard HMSAristocrat.This wasthe HQ ship of the ‘Mulberry B’ force whichdeparted from the Solent in ConvoyEWC1B, arriving off Gold area at 0870 onthe 7th. The footage shows vehicles embark-ing in Britain, the invasion fleet crossing theChannel, ships bombarding the coast, andBritish troops coming ashore at Port-en-Bessin. According to producer Tony Blakethe original 16mm film was found in two cansamong a large collection offered to him froma home clearance in Kent. Earlier footage bythe same cameraman shows Navy Brigadecamps and HMSRoyal Arthur,Skegness, in1940. (The video is available from ArchiveFilm, 49 Chestfield Road, Whitstable, KentCT5 3LD. Price £15 post free.)5
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