The Waiting Ends – The 59 (Staffordshire) Division Sail

On 17th June, the long anticipated orders came through for the 59th to proceed to the marshalling areas ahead of embarkation. The advance parties of the Division departed on the same day, with the man body of men moving of on the following day, 18th June, destination Newhaven in East Sussex. The exception to this transit to the Sussex coast was the 2/6th South Staffords who accompanied the divisional transport to Tilbury Docks on the Essex stretch of the Thames.

Further frustration was felt within the Division when poor weather conditions resulted in the troops kicking their heels in the marshalling areas for another full week.

Immediately ahead of embarkation, the morale of the Division was lifted by receipt of the following stirring words in a message from their colonel, Major-General Comings.

Speech delivered to units of 59 (Staffordshire) Division on the eve of departure to the Normandy beaches.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Eventually, the Division sailed on 25th June, meaning that, as mentioned in an earlier post, ‘D-Day’ for my Grandfather and his brothers-in-arms was in fact 26th June 1944.

Such was the compression of the transport timetable as a consequence of the bad conditions that the advance parties, intended to receive the Division in Normandy, only arrived 24 hours ahead of the main body of troops and transport.

On 26th the weather was still poor, but it proved to be an uneventful crossing for my Grandfather who was with ‘A’ Company of the 5th South Staffords. The same cannot be said for his battalion comrades of ‘C’ and ‘D’ companies whose landing craft developed a fault and consequently drifted into a minefield. A helpful destroyer of the Royal Navy came to their aid and gave them safe-passage through a clear channel to the beach.

The 2/6th Battalion transport (including Battalion H.Q.) likewise did not have such an easy time of it as bad weather kept them off the beaches for several days before they were able to land. A rough ordeal for these Midland men with limited experience of the high seas!

Some sources state that the 59th Division landed on the British/Canadian ‘Juno’ beach, however, another detailed account of the South Staffordshire Regiment’s active service* clearly describes a landing on the eastern extreme of the British ‘Gold’ beach with the ‘tiny seaside villages of Arromanches and Tracy-sur-Mer on the right'.

View over 'Gold' Beach (looking East)

10th May 2014

A landing at Arromanches seems most likely, at least for the 5th Battalion and is consistent with my Grandfather’s envelope ‘chronology’ that states Arromanches as the first location after D-Day.

The village of Arramanches (looking West from the headland over 'Gold' Beach)

10th May 2014

Marker on the Arromanches observation platform

The fact that the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches was up and running by 26th June (or at least Mulberry B was, Mulberry A having been badly damaged in a storm on 19th June) would also suggest to me that this would have been the logical landing location for a follow up formation such as the 59th.

Remaining fragments of the Mulberry artificial harbour

10th May 2014

Panorama of the Mulberry artificial harbour from the radar station (now observation platform above Arromanches

(excuse the noise, it was very windy up there!)

An aerial oblique photograph of the Mulberry Harbour off Arromanches. Artificial harbours were constructed along the beach shortly after D-Day so that armoured vehicles and heavy guns could be landed (© IWM (BU 1024))
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205021912

However, again from the ‘Your Men In Battle’ record, reference is made to the fact that as a consequence of minimal opposition by the enemy, water-proofed tanks (presumably DD or Duplex-drive tanks) were able to wait for low tide in order to drive up onto the beach in very shallow water rather than in the anticipated deep water of a high tide. This suggests that some, if not all, of the transport landed directly from boat to beach rather than via the pontoon roadways that connected floating quays with the beach at Arromanches (centre of the photograph above).

Sherman DD (Duplex Drive) amphibious tank with waterproof float screens. When in the water the float screen was raised and the rear propellers came into operation © IWM (MH 3660).
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205124984

DD Sherman tank (with canvas curtain now raised) takes to the water.

Any clarification as to exactly how the Division landed in Normandy would be gratefully received!

As indicated above, in stark contrast to the hellish reception of sand, steel and blood endured by the troops who landed on 6th, all was quiet and the Germans were no longer in evidence. The indicators of war were limited to ‘a broken-backed landing craft’ on the beach and the roar of Allied aircraft overhead.

Inland the situation was very different indeed, a fact well understood by the South Staffords as the Division concentrated in the area between Bayeux and Cruelly. Given the delays, this concentration was achieved very rapidly and by 1st July, the Division was in one place, less elements of the Royal Army Service Corps (R.A.S.C.).

Jim Heath’s Personal Record from 1940 to June 1944

The previous posts have shed some light on the movements of 59 (Staffordshire) Division, 177 Infantry Brigade and 5th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment and the training that they undertook, firstly with the role of home defence and later in preparation for the invasion of Continental Europe that had to happen at some point in the future.

With the exception of the enlistment documents and his transfer to Lichfield I.T.C. at the point of embodiment in January 1940, all of this information has been gleaned from Peter Knight’s ‘The 59th Division Its War Story’. Other records that provide detail from this period are few and far between as there was no requirement for battalions to maintain war diaries until they commenced active service.
So here I will attempt to scrape together what little I have and this comes in the form of the information recorded in his ‘Soldiers  Service and Pay Book’ (Army Book 64), in which much of the day to day, often rather mundane, information was recorded including inoculations received, training completed, leave and uniform size requirements.

The inside page of Army Book 64 records his name, rank and number. There are four entries in his own hand, none dates and for each, the entry for Regiment (if infantry) has been carefully excised from the record with a blade, clearly as a security/intelligence measure in the event of a soldier being taken prisoner.

In the absence of dates, I cannot be sure of what these entries relate to with certainty, but I would assume that his time with the North Staffords, the South Staffords and the Royal Scots Fusiliers is represented. That would account for three of the four entries, one being a mystery since I do not assume that it would relate to his time in an administrator within No.12 Unit Displaced Persons Assembly Centre (D.P.A.C.S.) within the British Army of Liberation (B.L.A.) at the end of the war.

Then follows some basic personal/physical information. Note that again on the stamp, possible information of enemy intelligence value has been obscured.

Page 4 details ‘Particulars of Training’. Under ‘Courses and Schools Specialist Qualifications'. Showing result’. Here is recorded the following:

Courses and Schools Specialist Qualifications. Showing result	Date	Initials of Officer
D.M. Chamber *	Feb 1940	?
2” Mortar Qualified **	11.5.40 to 18.5.40	?
D.M. Test	Feb 1942	?
Asst Armourer’s Course Qualified as Asst Armourer	19.5.43	?

*The use of the gas chamber to test if Service personnel could fit their respirators properly dates back to 1918. Servicemen fitted their respirators, entered the chamber and walked round for 5 minutes in an atmosphere of tear gas. After leaving the chamber, respirators were worn for a few more minutes to allow gas to dissipate from clothing. Special capsules of CAP, an early tear gas, were issued for this training. This routine was augmented in 1935. After going through the procedure to check respirators had been fitted properly, each man briefly re-entered the chamber without protection as a demonstration of the protection afforded by the respirator.

By 1941 all Service personnel went through this respirator test and unprotected exposure every three months. Personnel were also required to experience a nose gas, DM, so that they might be able to recognise the gas and appreciate its delayed action effects.

Personnel were exposed to DM for two minutes: no-one was required to experience DM more than once. These arrangements continued after World War II.

The requirement to experience DM ceased in 1963. CAP, or CN as it was also called, remained in use as a riot control agent until the late 1950s, when it was replaced by CS. By 1964 CS was being used instead of CAP in what became known as the "CS chamber" test. Every member of the Armed Services was required to undergo the test. The test continued through the 1980s, by which time most permanent military stations and training camps had a CS chamber.

**The 2" mortar was for use within infantry platoons. It was a short barreled (21 inch) weapon, effective over a 500 yard range, operated by teams of two (one guiding the direction of fire and one loading the shells. 

British 2" Mortar

Men of the Royal Scots Fusiliers firing a 2-inch mortar, Scotland, 27 August 1942 (© IWM (H 23477))
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205198634

Later in the book under ‘Record of Specialist Employment Whilst Serving’, ‘Mortar Pl. 3”’ is detailed from March 1940. Under ‘Remarks and Initials of Officer’ are what could be initials, but equally could read ‘Fail’. Other employment is barely legible but one entry ‘25t’ could correspond to the responsibility for driving a 2.5 ton lorry. This I know he did as he mentioned this acquired skill frequently as one of his wartime achievements and the fact that it was the Army who taught him to drive.

One page of the ‘Record of Specialist Employment Whilst Serving’ section has been adapted to record periods of leave.

Date	Nature of Grant + Period	Whether Free Warrant Issued	Initials of Officer
18/3/41	28/4.4.41    Priv.	Yes	?
26/6/41	Privilege   26/6 – 2/7/41	Yes	?
7.10.41	Privilege   9 – 15.10.41	No	?
10.3.42	Privilege   12 – 27.5.42	Yes	?
30.9.42	- “ -            1 – 9.10.42	Yes	?
23.11.42	Compassionate 23/11 - 9/12/42	Yes	?
22.2.43	Priv. Leave 27/2/43 – 3/3/43	Yes	?
1.6.43	Priv. Leave 1 – 10.6.43	Yes	?
1 – 9.5/45	Priv. Leave B.L.A.	Yes	?

A couple of things are worthy of note from this record of leave, one relates to one period, shortly after the birth of his daughter Margaret Anne (my mother) where he had one of two brushes with the long arm of the military law. According to the family story, Margaret became ill at the age of about three months during which time he was absent without leave. Time wise this would tally with the period from 9^th to 15^th October 1941, but whether this relates to the ‘No’ recorded under the free warrant issue column I cannot say.

The last period of leave is significant as this week spans the period of formal surrender of the German Armies in Rheims and Berlin. This 8^th May was to become known as V.E Day (Victory in Europe) and on this day Jim Heath was with the family in New Brighton, then a popular British seaside resort on the Wirral peninsula, Merseyside.

Another significant record in the book is the periodic medical classification. Of note here is the reclassification that was documented on 10^th April 1945 from A1 to B6. This was the result of wounds sustained in the Nijmegen area on 7^th April 1945. But that is some way of yet in this narrative.

Date	Category or Grade	Medical Examiner of Recruits, or Other Medical Authority	Initials of Medical Officer
19.3.40	A1		RL
20.7.43	A1	Category Confirmed	JKB
10.4.45	B6	MED. BOARD 8 xxxxxx	?
22.11.45	B6	DEMOBILISATION	RH

In terms of medical classification, from 1939 the letter designated the following service options:

A – Fit for general service at home and abroad,

B – unfit for general service abroad but fit for base or garrison service at home and abroad,

C – fit for home service only,

D – unfit for any form of military service.

In 1940, the classification system used by the British Army was further refined to relate the grade to the ability to perform service relevant activities such as marching, shooting and driving. I have noted in research reference to the classification through B to 5, but not to 6.

Vaccines and inoculations received follows (see above for the scan):

Vaccination

Date Vaccinated	Initials of Medical Officer
13.4.40	RL

Protective Inoculations

Nature of Vaccine, “T.A.B.” Cholera, Plague etc.	Date	Initials of Medical Officer
TAB ½ cc TETTOX 1 cc	3.4.40	RL
TAB 1 cc	13.4.40	RL
TET	May/40	RL
TAB    xxxxxxx	24.3.41	HA
TET	1.10.41	HA
½ cc TAB. 1 cc TET	19/11/42	JKB
½ cc TAB. 1 cc TET	17.12.43	JKB
Typhus (3)	26.1.44	JKB
TAB .25 cc	31.8.44	JKB
Typhus. TAB .25 cc	11.2.45	JKB

T.A.B. = typhoid-paratyphoid A and B vaccine

TETTOX = tetanus toxoid vaccine

Next of Kin Now Living

Nearest degree of relationship	Names	Date	Latest known Address in full
Wife	June Heath	29.1.40	‘Shangrella’ Leylands Road Burgess Hill Sussex ‘Clovelly’ Western Road Burgess Hill Sussex 40 Albermarle Road Cross Heath Newcastle Staffs
Children	James Kitchener Heath Margaret Anne Heath

Next, details of the wardrobe, not very snappy admittedly.... but I would love to have seen him in a pith helmet (described below as a topee)!

And finally,

Soldier’s Name and Description on Attestation

Army Number                                5051929

Surname (in capitals)                       HEATH

Christian Names (in full)                  JAMES KITCHENER

Date of Birth                                   14-9-1914

Place of Birth                                  Parish --------------------

                                                       In or near the town of REDACTED

                                                       In the County of REDACTED

Trade on Enlistment                         Tile maker

Nationality of Father at birth             British

Nationality of Mother at birth            British

Religious Denomination                     Unitarian

Approved Society                             Prudential

Membership No

Enlisted at                                         REDACTED On 6-1-40

For the:-

*Regular Army                  *Supplementary Reserve

*Territorial Army              *Army Reserve Section D

*Strike out those inapplicable

For D of W years with the Colours and ___________ years in the Reserve.

Signature of Soldier ___________________________

Date                                                      29-1-40

(D of W meaning the duration of the war).