Recollections of the Liberation of Turnhout (Part 2) August 2016

In my correspondence with Jacques Boone, he suggested that I make contact with his friend John Peters of Sint Niklaas (a town approximately 66 kilometers to the south west of Turnhout.

John was a teenager of fifteen at the time of the liberation. Since his father, Hendrik Peters, was the manager of the power plant that served Turnhout and several other local settlements, it is fair to say that the Peters family held some standing within the town.

The power plant was located on the Koningin Elisabethlei part of which also served as the family home. The Koningin Elisabethlei, heading across the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal in the direction of Breda, is one of two routes by which to leave the town. The other route out of town is via Steenweg op Oosthoven in the direction of Tilburg. The Peters family were on the front line in late September 1944.

Map of central Turnhout showing the key locations in John's account of the town's liberation

(many thanks to John Peters!)

It was on 19^th September that the Germans ordered the civilian population to evacuate their homes and to seek alternative accommodation. The street in which the Peters family lived fell within this area and so they moved in with family to Oude Vaartstraat some 250 meters from home. Since the plant provided both electricity and gas, commodities vital to the capacity for the Germans to maintain control over the town, it was considered to be essential that the plant manager to located at the plant. For this region, the Ortskommandant (the appointed administrator of the town) ordered Hendrik to return home to ensure the continuation of supply. For a time John, along with his mother, father and sister lived in the cellar of the house, from where John recalls hearing the steel-shod boots of German patrols regularly passing overhead.

On the eve of the liberation (23^rd September), Hendrik Peters was summoned to the Kasteel, a grand moated building in which the Kommandatur of the town had taken up. Whilst there the Ortskommandant was called into the Kommandatur’s office to take a telephone call. The conversation that followed was at volume and the door to the office was left ajar, such that Hendrik was able to deduce the flow of conversation with ease. The capability of the German forces in the town to put up a serious defence was the topic.

German troops in Grote Markt in the centre of town (St Peters Church is visible on the right). This picture was taken on the eve of liberation (23rd September 1944) when the Germans elected to leave the town for positions to the north over the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal.

At the conclusion of the call the Kommandatur informed Hendrik Peters that as the town could not be effectively defended the decision had been taken that all German forces were to withdraw to a position behind the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal in the area of Koningin Elisabethlei. No. 1 Bridge was to be accessible until 21.00 hours to allow the withdrawal. At 21.00 hours sharp, the bridge would be blown.

The Kommandatur added that since the townspeople of Turnhout had caused the occupiers little trouble over the years, the withdrawal would be effected ‘without firing a single shot.

Shortly after 20.30 hours, Hendrik, accompanied by John stepped out into the deserted street in time to see the Ortskommandant and his deputy pass by on bikes heading towards the bridge some 400 metres distant. As they rode past both men raised an arm in salutation and called ‘Guten Abend Herr Peters!’

The street returned to silence. Turnhout was free from soldiers for now and the Polar Bears were on their way.

Early on the morning of 24^th, Hendrik Peters set to work to ensure that the low voltage aerial network was intact and undamaged by the blast from the destruction of the bridge. He and two volunteers inspected the integrity of the network pole by pole. When working up the ladder the workmen were in full view of the Germans positioned over the Canal, but no shots were fired. On approaching the Canal, it was observed that the door to a stone/brick built substation located just on the north bank of the Canal had been blown open when the bridge was destroyed. This presented a great danger to any unsuspecting person were they to venture inside. Hendrik Peters therefore negotiated with a German officer who was overseeing the preparation of the new German defensive positions  to get the door closed. The substation key was secured to a rock which was thrown over the Canal (presumably taking sufficient care that it did not hit the officer!). The officer duly shut and locked the door and threw the key back over the water. Both men exchanged a ‘Guten Tag’ and continued with their own tasks, Mr Peters and his volunteers returned to the Company office.

The electricity substation viewed from the north bank of the Canal with the rebuilt Bridge No. 1 on the right.

Elements of the 49^th Division Recce Regiment entered the town shortly after lunchtime. Initially two armoured vehicles parked up close to the St Theobaldus Chapel at the junction of Koningin Elisabethlei and Steenweg op Oosthoven. Not much further happened until about 15.30 hours when a vehicle moved up Koningin Elisabethlei stopping very close to the Peters house and the power plant. Four soldiers emerged from their Bren gun carrier, one of whom enquired where the lavatory was (how very British one could say!). Shortly after incoming gunfire from over the canal prompted the Fusiliers to order the gathered, curious civilians back into their homes for their own safety.

With the liberators deep inside the town and the Germans over the Canal, armed civilians bearing the armband of the Belgian Resistance on Elisabethlei, but on turning the gentle curve in the road, they found themselves in the line of fire from the other side of the Canal and so were forced to divert down Beirenmolenstraat.

As evening fell, the weather turned for the worse and a heavy rain fell. At 7.30 two soldiers knocked on the door of the Peters household looking for information and places for the men of ‘C’ Company 11^th R.S.F. to bed down. Six to eight men with their officer, Lieutenant Robert Galloway entered the property. The men took advantage of the stove and sought to dry their sodden battledress.

The stove was a central feature of most households and in Belgium (as no doubt almost everywhere else in Europe) wartime fuel shortages were a driving force for innovation. This was the case in the Peters house where a tank had been welded around the stove pipe that enabled the heat produced by the stove to utilised in the most efficient way possible, from heating food through to plate warming. On the night of 24^th September, several Fusilers used this heated metal surface for the purpose of drying out many soaked French bank notes! After the war and on a return to Turnhout, LT Galloway spilled the beans. Fighting in the Le Havre area has seen the destruction of a bank to the extent that the safe was blown. Legitimately, these spoils (an estimated 4.5 million French Francs) had been distributed amongst the troops who captured the town. Eventually, the soldiers were able to send the money back to the UK where these sums of French Francs were exchanged for sterling. One dried, troops and banknotes alike, the soldiers left the kitchen of Hendrik Peters to bivouac with their fellows.

On Monday 25^th September, with the town free of Germans, the townspeople of Turnhout returned from further afield and started the process of getting things back to a normal pre-war state. Ever keen to assist their liberators, the workshops within the confines of the power plant in which they were billeted, were put to good use and the Fusiliers and plant engineers worked together to repair damaged radio antennae

As a teenager with an interest in the equipment and trappings of a modern army befriended one Frederick Gilby of ‘C’ Company who took it upon himself to assist the student John in his English language tuition, starting with ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’! Frederick was perhaps more useful to young John when he dragged him under safe cover when a German fired grenade narrowly missed the workshop that they were in.

In the week commencing 24^th September rumours of a German counter attack caused some panic within the town. John’s family home on Koningin Elisabethlei was once again potentially on the front line and the house was became a key defensive position for the 11^th R.S.F.

John recalls one character of the Company who went by the name of ‘Rusty Knob’, a small chap, an experienced soldier, and maybe by virtue of his colouring one of the original Scotsmen of the Battalion. He was positioned in an upstairs room of the house next to John’s parent’s bedroom awaiting the anticipated German counterattack. This soldier clearly made an impression upon John Peters, firstly he recalls that Rusty kissed the last round that he placed in the magazine of his Lee Enfield promising it for the first German to appear within his range. Secondly, he recalls the same soldier stating that he had swum over the Canal on a patrol, armed with a knife, in pursuit of ‘a couple of Germans who had disturbed him’. The outcome of this particular patrol is not recorded. However, on the basis of John’s account, far from being the ‘Nijmegen Home Guard’, an opinion held by some of the Division’s role in Holland, Rusty’s actions and attitude were indicative of a body of men that were tried, tested and proven in battle.

The anticipated counter attack failed to materialise and calm descended once again on the town. The tension in the town subsided and some of the men of the battalion could spend some off-duty hours in the company of the people of the town, the young ladies in particular!

Word reached the town that the Polish Armoured Division had successfully crossed the Canal at Rijkevorsal and the German forces had fled for fear of being surrounded. On Sunday 1^st October the men of the 11^th R.S.F. packed up and cautious approached the Canal. Once across they fanned out into the fields and disappeared from view heading in the direction of the Dutch border. Behind then they left a grateful town and many memories that remain vivid in the minds of the inhabitants even after the passage of more than seventy years.

With John Peters in Turnhout

24^th September 2016

Recollections of the Liberation of Turnhout (Part 1) June 2016

Following on from my earlier correspondence with Francis, I contacted the local museum in Turnhout to enquire about the availability of an article entitled ‘In het spoor van de IJsberen’ (‘Tracing the Polar Bears’) that was published in the local annual journal Taxandria in 2008. An archivist from the museum duly responded and confirmed my suspicions that the article, whilst available, is in Dutch (a language over which I have no command whatsoever).

However, the helpful archivist also provided me with another contact within the town, a gentleman by the name of Jacques Boone. I subsequently emailed Jacques with my now well-rehearsed potted history of my Grandfather’s service, the website and book plans and within a couple of hours I received the following reply:

Dear Mr Andrews,

Many thanks for your interesting mail.  Every information  about the  11th Btn, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, does interest me very much, indeed. On 24th September 1944,  as a 17 years old boy, I was living in Turnhout and attended the liberation of the town,( I kept it vivid  in my memory, almost as if it happened yesterday) by the 49th Reconnaissance Rgt of the 49th Polar Bear Division,  followed immediately by the 11 Btn, the R.S.F. and the 7th Btn, the Duke of Wellington’s Rgt.

My text  on the liberation of Turnhout  was published by “Forces War Records”in their Magazine , issue 10, Special Edition , ‘Your Stories’, December 2015. Some photographs of me were  shot on 24th September 1944 by a late cousin of mine, on the Turnhout Market square , while I was fraternizing with  the Recces.

A friend of mine, Ken West, was a  member of the 11th RSF. Hereby some correspondence. I read his book “An’ it’s called a Tam- o’- Shanter”, Ken’s war memoires.   I opened my contact to him with  my letter of 1st October 2007, I asked him if he knew the 11th RSF man whose  photograph I had taken in Normandy in 2007.  Ken did not;  he actually  did not “liberate” Turnhout,  on 24th September 1994 he was in an hospital in England, in treatment for severe burn wounds he  had gotten in action on the Normandy front.

I am convinced that my friend John Peters (address provided)  knows  English very well  and I am almost certain  he could give  you some interesting data . Tell him I gave you his address.

With kind regards,

Jacques Boone

Member of the 49^th (WR) Infantry Division Association.

Belgian teenagers and British tank crew on a Humber Mk IV (Jacques Boone is standing third on the left, in a long raincoat)

Turnhout 24^th September 1944.

(photograph taken by François Boone and reproduced with the kind permission of his widow Jacqueline Boone)

I replied, thanking Jacques for the link to his article and the additional contact. I explained that Ken West was indeed a mutual acquaintance and sent on a photograph of Ken and I in Leicester in 2015. In addition, 

Jacques bounced back with another prompt email:

Dear Adrian,

Thank you for the nice photograph of you with Ken.  The last time of our meeting was in 2014, in Normandy, in front of the Polar Bear monument at Fontenay-le-Pesnel. He was leading an important group of Normandy Veteran Association members. What a pity this association has been dissolved. We met several times in October at a memorial ceremony  at Wuustwezel in Belgium  next the PBA monument  and also one time at Merksplas, at the monument of Cpl John HARPER, VC.

My motto is: Remember ! Often, I attend ceremonies , last week to remember crashes  of 3 RAF bomber command bombers, for a Manchester, a Halifax and a Stirling at the village of Kasterlee.  I had again the pleasure of meeting there British and Canadian acquaintances to members of the crews. I had to make a speech in English at the Manchester monument.

Kind regards,

Jacques

With Jacques Boone.

Turnhout 24th September 2016.

The 11th R.S.F. move up to the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal 21st to 24th September 1944.

Lietenant Thomas Salmon of the 49^th Recce Regiment surrounded by the grateful townsfolk of Turnhout. This photograph was taken shortly prior to his fateful journey up to the Canal.

(photograph taken by François Boone and reproduced with the kind permission of his widow Jacqueline Boone)

After three days in the Dieppe area, the Battalion started the move north early on the 21st September and crossed the border into Belgium at about 1600 hours. By 1800 they had reached the outskirts of the town of Tournai where they spent the night. The movement into Belgium continued the following day via Brussels, through Malle and onto Turnhout on the Antwerp – Turnhout Canal. 

The progression of the Battalion was unglamorous even by Army standards. Colonel William Douglas described the move in the following terms:

‘I think it was about 10th September we moved into Belgium and it was a comic old move because we’d had to lend all our transport to other divisions in the Corps when we swung left to Le Harve because they were heading on as fast as they could towards Brussels and Antwerp and swinging right, keeping on the flank of the American advance and all our transport went on and we were either marching or travelling in the most awful collection of German junk, French civilian junk, these trucks that had gas tanks on the back, they worked on some kind of gas, frightful things, you were all rather embarrassed to be in these things. Anyway, there wasn’t a great deal of fighting going on so it didn’t greatly mater’.

At the time of this movement into Belgium, the men of the Battalion were cheered at the spectacle of hundreds of aircraft, many towing Horsa gliders, passing overhead as they flew north bound for Arnhem. This was of course the Market Garden armada and such was the scale of the operation, that soldiers reported that the skies above were full of aircraft for a full ten minutes or more.

146 and 147 Brigades of the 49th Division crossed the Albert Canal on the 22nd and 23rd September and the 11th R.S.F. moved up with the right hand column of the Divisional advance. The Battalion moved up towards Turnhout at approximately 1100 hours on the morning of the 24th, advancing from Herentals to Turnhout. 

Based upon information contained in 147 Infantry Brigade Operational Instruction No. 19, issued at 0200 hours on the morning of the 24th, the Brigade were to anticipate resistance from the enemy in the environs of Turnhout. The following instruction was issued ‘147 Infantry Brigade will advance on 24th September with the object of capturing or investing the town of Turnhout’. In this endeavour, the Fusiliers were to take the lead. The task was to be achieved by the infantry with support from 756 Fd Coy R.E., a battery of 143 Fd Regt R.A., 160 Fd Amb (Casualty Clearing Post) and a Detachment of Provost (a Military Police unit assigned the responsibility of bringing order to the chaos of moving large volumes of men and armour). The 7th Duke of Wellington Regiment (DWR) of the 147th Brigade were ‘to be called forward when required’. The task of the 49th Division was stated in the following terms ’49 Div is to establish a bridgehead across the canal 24 Sep with 147 Bde RIGHT and 146 Bde LEFT’.

The first elements of the 49th Recce Division entered the centre of Turnhout on the afternoon 24th September with ‘A’ and ‘D’ Companies of the 11th R.S.F. passing into the town in the late afternoon. Lietenant Thomas Salmon was the first liberator of Turnhout to fall. His sacrifice is commemorated close to the spot where he was fatally wounded on the immediate approach to the canal on the northern side of the town.

View of Antwerp-Turnhout Canal at Bridge No. 1close to the memorial to Lieutenant Thomas Salmon of 49th Division Reconnaissance Corps, R.A.C (September 2016).

August 2016.

Memorial to Lieutenant Thomas Salmon, 49th Division Reconnaissance Corps, R.A.C. (August 2016).

The memorial reads:

‘IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF LIEUTENANT THOMAS WILLIAM SALMON

49TH DIVISION RECONNAISSANCE CORPS, R.A.C.

AND OF ALL OF OTHER “POLAR BEARS” OF THE 49TH (W.R.) INFANTRY DIVISION

DURING THE LIBERATION OF TURNHOUT.

HE WAS MORTALLY WOUNDED NEAR THIS SPOT

24TH SEPTEMBER 1944’

By 1845 hours, both companies were positioned on the southern bank of the canal, but no suitable crossing points were found, all bridges having been destroyed. Troop movements brought down accurate fire from the German defenders of the opposite bank. One 19 year old Fusilier,a Robert Marshall Pratt,  was mortally wounded by mortar fire in these exchanges on 24th September. Fusilier Pratt lies in Geel Cemetery. Two further Fusiliers were also injured at this time.

One of the original wartime documents that I have in my possession is a postcard, written by my Grandfather to his wife, June, in the week of the fighting over the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal.

The photograph features a photograph of the Grote Markt in which St. Peter’s Church is visible. A visit to the same location in May 2015 showed the Square to be little changed, although the building on the left, which then served as the Town Hall is long gone.

On the reverse of the postcard, my Grandfather describes how his unit passed through the town on Sunday morning [24th September], however, as already described this is an inaccuracy since ‘D’ Company did not arrive in the centre of Turnhout until the afternoon of the 24th. He goes on to briefly describe the reception that the Fusiliers received from the newly liberated townsfolk, and more tellingly of the perils of coming under shell-fire having secreted gifts of tomatoes and cigars inside one’s battledress!

‘We came through here on a Sunday morning, all the people turned out to greet us, giving us cigars tomatoes, which I stuffed in my Tunic Blouse, which I regretted later. The Germans holding the other side of the river held us up we had to dive for cover. I had a Blouse full of Tomatoes & Cigars you can imagine what a mess that made. Later met a woman from Manchester who married a Belgian.’

JIM XXX

In his account, Colonel Douglas describes how ‘D’ Company, having crossed the Canal came under fire from powerful 20 mm ack-ack guns.

‘24th September we hit the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal, a pretty hefty canal , about I suppose 50 yards wide with quite high, steep concrete banks. Our Battalions job was to do a diversionary attack so that the main attack could go in further down towards the sea. We attacked in the dark and got over at first light, knocked out the, erm, lock-keepers house where the Germans were and moved forward to the line of the road which I suppose was a couple of 100 yards in from the canal and there we waited because we’d been told that the Germans use this road, particularly for their transport, to communicate with one side of the low line and the other. And there we waited to get a suitable ambush. And unfortunately, the first thing that came along was one of, or a group of these 20mm ack-ack trucks which were very nasty weapons. They had four or six barrels on the open back of a truck and they fired very nasty 20mm shells which I suppose were about 10 inches long and a couple of inches across and they were exploding shells for firing at aircraft and if fired at human beings they didn’t do an awful lot of good. You know it took great chunks out of you and we unfortunately took this thing on, knocked a few of them off the  back of the trucks with our first volley , but they were brave guys and they swung these things round and began to wreck the top of this bank that we were on. Several chaps got great pieces shot out of them and it didn’t do them any good at all. We then realised that the way to do it was to throw hand grenades at them and we started throwing mills grenades over, which they didn’t like a bit. So they gave us one last volley and set off, and hared down the road again. We hung on to this position then, waiting for the main attack to go in further down the canal, until by mid afternoon we were told we could pull back over the canal. The attack had gone through and our diversion had done what it was supposed to do. We had of course by this time dug quite a good position in the middle of a field with the correct spacings and with some roofs on it, an excellent position which we would have held very nicely. We got back over the canal onto the far bank when an enormous bombardment came down on the position that we had just vacated and the entire field disappeared in clouds of dust and flames and a great German attack came in supported by tanks on fresh air, we were awfully chuffed, we thought that was very funny and we pulled back then to a safe distance and let them have it’.

At midnight on the 24th the Hallams launched a diversionary attack from Beerse, which attracted much German fire. In this action, their ‘beachmaster’, Captain Douglas Bell, was killed and under such fire the Hallams were unable to launch any boats. The assault was halted. Later in the day, on 25th September,  the 4th Lincolnshire Regiment were able to establish a small bridgehead, two kilometres further to the east, at Sluice 1 at the Sint Jozef-Rijkevorsal  section of the canal. This action also resulted in the Lincolns taking ninety German prisoners. 

Despite determined counterattacks over the following three days, it was the Rijkevorsal bridgehead that became the main crossing of the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal.

The main attack referred to in Colonel Douglas’s account was carried out by the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division who attempted a crossing further along the Canal in the area of Sint-Job-in-‘t-Goor. On 24th September Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal and The South Saskatchewan Regiment were to cross on the right and on the left respectively on the sector facing the village of Lochtenberg. Having established a bridgehead, the plan was, once over the Canal, to push on in a north westerly direction towards Camp de Brasschaet.

The assault commenced at 0700 hours and the Fusiliers managed to cross over the canal and make it to the cross-roads in Lochtenberg village before German machine gun fire halted the advance. To their left the South Saskatchewan fared less well as their attempts at a crossing were thwarted by effective sniper and machine gun fire, Later the plan was modified such that they tried a crossing further to the east in closer proximity to the Fusiliers. This second attempt commenced at 1300 hours and within an hour the crossing had been achieved. In the meantime however, the Fusiliers positions had been infiltrated by the Germans and at 1700 hours their positions were overrun and a heavy toll in terms of casualties was paid by the attackers. The bridgehead was too small to defend effectively and the Fusiliers were driven back over the canal and subsequently the South Saskatchewans withdrew to the south bank. The attempted crossing had resulted in a high casualty tally, especially amongst the ranks of the Fusiliers Mont-Royal.

Further Canadian efforts to effect a crossing also failed, despite air and artillery support. Subsequently the decision was taken to push the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division across the bridgehead established by the 49th Division at Rijkevorsal from 28th September. In doing so they also extended the extent of the bridgehead in a westerly direction.

The success of the crossings forced by the Polar Bear Regiments in comparison with the failure of the attempts made by the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division was, in the opinion of Francis Huijbrechts, Chairman of the Hoogstraten Heritage Association, was due to the more thorough reconnaissance carried out by the Polar Bears across the stretch of the canal from Sint-Lenaarts and the areas north east and east of Turnhout from which the latter and also the area in front of Rijkevorsal were considered to be the most favourable for a successful crossing.

The task of the first crossing of the canal in the area of Turnhout was given to the 7th DWR. They were to attempt the crossing just to the east of Blown Bridge No. 2 to the north west of the town. Planned to take place a 7.30 am on the 25th it was first postponed and then cancelled. The 26th September saw the 7th DWR transferred to the area of the Rijkevorsal bridgehead.

Later in the day on 25th, at 1500 hours, a daylight crossing was achieved by the 11th R.S.F. on the stretch of the canal to the north east of Turnhout in the area of Meirgoorhoeve a short distance from the town.

The line of advance, once over the canal, for the 11th R.S.F. was westward to the road and railway that ran northwards to Baarle- Nassau inside Holland. In the advance towards Baarle-Nassau, it was hoped that the 11th could roll-up the German defences to the north of Turnhout. However, the German opposition was effective and the Battalion was ordered to withdraw on the afternoon of the 26th September. In the advance at least seven Fusiliers were killed in action or subsequently died of their wounds. The men lie in the communal cemetery in Kwakkelstraat.

On the same day as the withdrawal Eykynforce was established. This was a short-lived, composite formation comprising the 11th Battalion R.S.F along with anti-tank units, Royal Engineers, machine gun and heavy mortar sections, as well a Carrier Platoon of the 7th DWR and ad-hoc units of the Belgian White Brigade (elements of the Belgian resistance). Such composite formations were formed out of necessity. Since the breakout from Normandy, the war on the ground had become highly mobile, meaning that units were required to defend and patrol very large areas. In the case of the Polar Bears, by 27th September, eight out of a possible nine Infantry Battalions of the 49th Division were active in the area surrounding the Rijkevorsel bridgehead, an area estimated to be around four to five kilometres in both width and depth. Further to the west, the 11th R.S.F. as part of Eykynforce held the sector on the canal to the north of Beerse all the way across to Arendonk.

In the weeks that followed, other composite formations were brought into existence such as Bobforce and Clarkeforce (which again included my Grandfather) when were allotted specific tasks for the brief period of their existence.

The Summary of Operations of the 11th Battalion describes that function of Eykynforce in terms of holding ‘the thin red line’ of this broad sector, meaning operating as a thinly spread military formation holding the line in the face of a determined opposition (the term ‘thin red line’ has its origins in just such a situation the the British Army found themselves in at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War).

On 2nd October the 11th R.S.F. were to be relieved by 146 Brigade. In the event, two Battalions arrived for the relief. After some degree of confusion, the Hallams completed the relief, the 11th Battalion returned to command under 147 Brigade and Eykynforce was disbanded.

The men of 146 Brigade were engaged elsewhere along the Divisional front. The 1/4th KOYLI attacked the village of Rijkevosel on the 24th September with the aim to widen the bridgehead.`A highly notable Polar Bear action in this period was the capture of the Depot de Mendicité. This was a formidable complex that was located between Rijkevosel and Merxplas. In peacetime, Depot de Mendicité functioned as a prison, workhouse and asylum. For his part in the action, Corporal John Harper was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. His remains lie in the Leopoldsburg cemetery and a memorial to his feat can be located in the area of the Depot de Mendicité where he fell.

Colonel Douglas on the Antwerp-Turnhout Position on 24th September 1944

Churchill tanks crossing a Bailey bridge over the Antwerp-Turnhout canal at Rijckevorsel during the attack north of Antwerp, 22 October 1944 © IWM (B 11112)

(Note the Polar Bear insignia on the sign at the bridge exit).
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205202583

In his account, Colonel Douglas describes how ‘D’ Company, having crossed the Canal came under fire from powerful 20 mm ack-ack guns.

‘24th September we hit the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal, a pretty hefty canal , about I suppose 50 yards wide with quite high, steep concrete banks. Our Battalions job was to do a diversionary attack so that the main attack could go in further down towards the sea. We attacked in the dark and got over at first light, knocked out the, erm, lock-keepers house where the Germans were and moved forward to the line of the road which I suppose was a couple of 100 yards in from the canal and there we waited because we’d been told that the Germans use this road, particularly for their transport, to communicate with one side of the low line and the other. And there we waited to get a suitable ambush. And unfortunately, the first thing that came along was one of, or a group of these 20mm ack-ack trucks which were very nasty weapons. They had four or six barrels on the open back of a truck and they fired very nasty 20mm shells which I suppose were about 10 inches long and a couple of inches across and they were exploding shells for firing at aircraft and if fired at human beings they didn’t do an awful lot of good. You know it took great chunks out of you and we unfortunately took this thing on, knocked a few of them off the  back of the trucks with our first volley , but they were brave guys and they swung these things round and began to wreck the top of this bank that we were on. Several chaps got great pieces shot out of them and it didn’t do them any good at all. We then realised that the way to do it was to throw hand grenades at them and we started throwing mills grenades over, which they didn’t like a bit. So they gave us one last volley and set off, and hared down the road again. We hung on to this position then, waiting for the main attack to go in further down the canal, until by mid afternoon we were told we could pull back over the canal. The attack had gone through and our diversion had done what it was supposed to do. We had of course by this time dug quite a good position in the middle of a field with the correct spacings and with some roofs on it, an excellent position which we would have held very nicely. We got back over the canal onto the far bank when an enormous bombardment came down on the position tyhat we had just vacated and the entire field disappeared in clouds of dust and flames and a great German attack came in supported by tanks on fresh air, we were awfully chuffed, we thought that was very funny and we pulled back then to a safe distance and let them have it’.

At midnight on the 24^th the Hallams launched a diversionary attack from Beerse, which attracted much German fire. In this action, their ‘beachmaster’, Captain Douglas Bell, was killed and under such fire the Hallams were unable to launch any boats. The assault was halted. Later in the day, on 25^th September,  the 4^th Lincolnshire Regiment were able to establish a small bridgehead, two kilometres further to the east, at Sluice 1 at the Sint Jozef-Rijkevorsal  section of the canal. This action also resulted in the Lincolns taking ninety German prisoners.

Despite determined counterattacks over the following three days, it was the Rijkevorsal bridgehead that became the main crossing of the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal.

The 11th R.S.F. move up to the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal 21st to 24th September 1944

After three days in the Dieppe area, the Battalion started the move north early on the 21^st September and crossed the border into Belgium at about 1600 hours. By 1800 they had reached the outskirts of the town of Tournai where they spent the night. The movement into Belgium continued the following day via Brussels, through Malle and onto Turnhout on the Antwerp – Turnhout Canal.

The progression of the Battalion was unglamorous even by Army standards. Colonel William Douglas described the move in the following terms:

‘I think it was about 10th September we moved into Belgium and it was a comic old move because we’d had to lend all our transport to other divisions in the Corps when we swung left to Le Havre because they were heading on as fast as they could towards Brussels and Antwerp and swinging right, keeping on the flank of the American advance and all our transport went on and we were either marching or travelling in the most awful collection of German junk, French civilian junk, these trucks that had gas tanks on the back, they worked on some kind of gas, frightful things, you were all rather embarrassed to be in these things. Anyway, there wasn’t a great deal of fighting going on so it didn’t greatly mater’.

At the time of this movement into Belgium, the men of the Battalion were cheered at the spectacle of hundreds of aircraft, many towing Horsa gliders, passing overhead as they flew north bound for Arnhem. This was of course the Market Garden armada and such was the scale of the operation, that soldiers reported that the skies above were full of aircraft for a full ten minutes or more.

146 and 147 Brigades of the 49^th Division crossed the Albert Canal on the 22^nd and 23^rd September and the 11^th R.S.F. moved up with the right hand column of the Divisional advance. The Battalion moved up towards Turnhout at approximately 1100 hours on the morning of the 24^th, advancing from Herentals to Turnhout.

Based upon information contained in 147 Infantry Brigade Operational Instruction No. 19, issued at 0200 hours on the morning of the 24^th, the Brigade were to anticipate resistance from the enemy in the environs of Turnhout. The following instruction was issued ‘147 Infantry Brigade will advance on 24^th September with the object of capturing or investing the town of Turnhout’. In this endeavour, the Fusiliers were to take the lead. The task was to be achieved by the infantry with support from 756 Fd Coy R.E., a battery of 143 Fd Regt R.A., 160 Fd Amb (Casualty Clearing Post) and a Detachment of Provost (a Military Police unit assigned the responsibility of bringing order to the chaos of moving large volumes of men and armour). The 7^th Duke of Wellington Regiment (DWR) of the 147^th Brigade were ‘to be called forward when required’. The task of the 49^th Division was stated in the following terms ’49 Div is to establish a bridgehead across the canal 24 Sep with 147 Bde RIGHT and 146 Bde LEFT’.

The first elements of the 49^th Recce Division entered the centre of Turnhout on the afternoon 24^th September with ‘A’ and ‘D’ Companies of the 11^th R.S.F. passing into the town in the late afternoon. By 1845 hours, both companies were positioned on the southern bank of the canal, but no suitable crossing points were found, all bridges having been destroyed. Troop movements brought down accurate fire from the German defenders of the opposite bank. One 19 year old Fusilier,a Robert Marshall Pratt,  was mortally wounded by mortar fire in these exchanges on 24^th September. Fusilier Pratt lies in Geel Cemetery. Two further Fusiliers were also injured at this time.

One of the original wartime documents that I have in my possession is a postcard, written by my Grandfather to his wife, June, in the week of the fighting over the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal.

The photograph features a photograph of the Grote Markt in which St. Peter’s Church is visible. A visit to the same location in May 2015 showed the Square to be little changed, although the building on the left, which then served as the Town Hall is long gone.

On the reverse of the postcard, my Grandfather describes how his unit passed through the town on Sunday morning [24^th September], however, as already described this is an inaccuracy since ‘D’ Company did not arrive in the centre of Turnhout until the afternoon of the 24^th. He goes on to briefly describe the reception that the Fusiliers received from the newly liberated townsfolk, and more tellingly of the perils of coming under shell-fire having secreted gifts of tomatoes and cigars inside one’s battledress!

‘We came through here on a Sunday morning, all the people turned out to greet us, giving us cigars tomatoes, which I stuffed in my Tunic Blouse, which I regretted later. The Germans holding the other side of the river held us up we had to dive for cover. I had a Blouse full of Tomatoes & Cigars you can imagine what a mess that made. Later met a woman from Manchester who married a Belgian.

JIM XXX

Interview with Bruce Reynolds - Talk Radio Europe (Spain) 28th April 2016

I had an email yesterday from Bruce Reynolds, who I had recently been in contact with in connection with my search for information concerning the September '44 fighting over the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal. Without wishing to give too much away, Bruce has written a very personal book about his experiences in the area in which his Father's mate served.

Tonight an interview with Bruce that was conducted for The Book Show on the Spanish radio station Talk Radio Europe was broadcast. A link to the edited broadcast can be found here.

The book can be purchased here:

http://www.amazon.com/Gift-story-friendship-heroism-rock-ebook/dp/B01AOI4H0G/ref=la_B01APELNF6_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453028788&sr=1-1