Last Days In Belgium October 1944

At the beginning of October, the 11^th R.S.F. were to be found in the area of Zondereigen, a few hundred meters south of the Dutch border. Here they spent five days in a defensive position that provided protection to the left flank of the Polish Armoured Division as it pushed north into Holland.

The Battalion was very mobile in the first weeks of the month as they criss-crossed the Divisional front. A new defensive position was taken up on 11^th October at Maerle for a further week. 

On 19^th October the Battalions moved westwards to Oostmalle from where on the following day they crossed the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal in their initial advance into Holland. As part of 1^st Corps the 49^th Division were positioned in the centre of the line of advance with the Polish Armoured Division on their right and the 4^th Canadian Division on their left. The Polar Bears were directed towards Roosendaal, whilst the Poles and Canadians aimed for the towns of Breda and Bergen Op Zoom respectively.

49^th Division were to advance along a line of axis that ran from Oostmalle and passed through Brecht, Wuustwezel, Nieuwmoer, Essche and Roosendaal, a distance of approximately twenty miles. The advance was to be lead by 56 Brigade and 147 Brigade, with 146 Brigade concentrated in Oostmalle.

The Polar Bears were opposed across their front by 245 Division a fighting unit of 88^th Corps of the German 15^th Army.

The lines of advance into Holland.

On the morning of 20^th October ‘Operation Rebound’ was launched which was intended by the combined efforts of the Canadian 4^th Armoured Division and the 49^th Division to secure the Belgian-Dutch border area and in doing so facilitate the liberation of the Scheldt Estuary. With the estuary under Allied control the key port of Antwerp could be utilised.

It was the task of the 49^th Division to advance towards Loenhout from the area of Brecht. Having secured Loenhout, the plan was for another composite taskforce named ‘Clarkeforce’ (under the command of Brigadier W.S. Clarke of 34^th Tank Brigade) to punch their way through into Holland.

21^st October saw the 11^th R.S.F. located in and around Wuustwezel which was captured with relative ease. However, on 21^st and 22^nd 245 and 346 Infantry Divisions launched savage counter attacks with heavy tank and SP supporting fire. These attacks came in from the Wernhout area just over the Dutch border. These counter attacks were halted in a series of fierce engagements in the hamlets of Braken, Kruisweg and in the area of Stone Bridge (the only crossing of the Weerijs that could bear the weight of heavy armour).

In his 1990 Imperial War Museum interview Colonel William Douglas recalled some of the fighting in Kruisweg, not to mention his brush with death.

‘October 23^rd, we’d ended up in a place called Kruisweg, Kruisweg Ridge. I’d been out on another night patrol, a recce to find the enemy, we’d found them and reported back and I went back to my platoon headquarters just as first light was coming up. And, the sergeant had been in charge all night obviously, and when I got to the position he had the entire platoon in a beautiful Dutch barn, a big fire going. All the chaps were drying their socks and having breakfast.

 ‘What the Devil do you think you are doing?’

‘Where are the sentries?’

Why haven’t you got anybody out?’

 ‘Oh, it was a dark night Sir and I thought the lads needed a bit of a cheering up.’

‘They’ll need cheering up in a minute, the Germans are only half a mile away!’

So I chased some sentries out, scattered them out and got them all into positions and we set the headquarters in a cellar in the village and I’d just taken my socks off and thought I’ll get some breakfast now when the sentry came running in saying ‘Come quick, come quick! There’s a haystack coming down the village street!’.

‘Now you’ve been drinking the rum laddie!’.

Anyway, he was dead right, there was a haystack coming slowly down the village street, about I suppose three quarters of a mile away. I got my field glasses and had a look. It was a German Panther and he’d put loads of hay on top by the turret, I suppose for camouflage. He wasn’t too sure what we had in the village and he was coming along pretty carefully, you know, having a good look and swinging his turret from side to side. I thought ‘My God, if he gets in here, it’s curtains for us. So I grabbed the PIAT anti-tank projectile and a couple of bombs and headed down to the front garden.... here’s Douglas’s chance for the VC or something!

I got down behind a low wall, I suppose about two feet high. Now the trouble with the PIAT was that it was most effective when it hit its target, but its range was about 100 yards, so you had to wait and wait and wait and this chap came on 400 yards, 300 yards, 200 yards, waiting, waiting, waiting and this great big gun came round and he tried to lower it like that, but of course you can only lower a tank gun so far and then you hit the hull where the driver is and he couldn’t get it any lower. Stupid me, I should have realised that the tank commander is eight feet up and I’m two feet behind a wall and he could see me and he knew what I’d got, so he let fly with his great 88mm round. Well he couldn’t hit me because he couldn’t get the gun barrel down, but it thundered into the wall of the old rickety farmhouse behind me and the whole thing came down on top of me. In fact it saved my life. He then apparently came down the village , put a round into the cellar, killing most of the HQ chaps, caused absolute pandemonium in the platoon, they all got down in their trenches, my sergeant, that I’d just given a rocket to, got a military medal out of it I heard later. He dashed down to the crossroads and got an anti-tank gun, which a detachment of anti-tank gunners had there and he swung this gun round and fired at this thing and knocked it out and the infantry who were coming with the tank got a bit dispirited at this and they put a rather poor attack in on our position and were driven off. I by this time had been dragged from under this farmhouse and carted off on a stretcher and woke up in an ambulance on the way to the Canadian Hospital in Antwerp. I only heard what the sergeant had done weeks later when I got back to the Battalion’.

The Sergeant that Douglas refers to was Sergeant William Little of No 16 Platoon of ‘D’ Company. As such he was my Grandfather’s Platoon Sergeant and he will feature again in this narrative.

As stated Sergeant Little was awarded the Military Medal for his actions in Kruisweg. The citation which recommended the award reads as follows:

On 23^rd October 1944, L/Sjt Little was platoon Serjeant of a platoon detached under the command of Carrier platoon to hold a defensive position at KRUISWEG – 1:25,000 Sheet 24 NW 814160.

Following a very heavy and accurate concentration of mortar fire the enemy attacked with infantry, a tank and two SP guns, and L/Sjt Little’s platoon commander [William Douglas] was seen made a casualty leaving him to command the platoon.

The tank and an SP gun penetrated the positions and the infantry gradually approached within short range.

The action lasted about two hours before the arrival of another Coy and a sqn of tanks dispersed the enemy forces.

Throughout this timethe majority of L/Sjt Little’s platoon were on the enemy side of the buildings and they were in the nerve-racking position of being faced by enemy infantry and having an enemy tank and SP gun in their rear.

The citation document bears the signature of one B.L. Montgomery – Field Marshal Commander-in-Chief 21 Army Group.

The 11^th R.S.F. Summary of Operations adds a little more detail to the action recording that ‘A force composed of the Carrier Platoon, one platoon from D Coy and two A/tnk guns that RA were holding one sector which was counter attacked by SP guns and infantry. One SP gun actually got behind our lines and Sgt Little, Platoon Sgt, D Coy was magnificent in control of the men. The two A/tnk guns RA had been put out of action, one by a direct hit and the other because it was in a burning house. Showing admirable courage and coolness, Sgt Little got his gun out and with the help of others of his platoon dragged it back to a position from which it could be fired at this troublesome SP gun and knocked it out’.

Last Days In Belgium - October 1944

At the beginning of October, the 11^th R.S.F. were to be found in the area of Zondereigen, a few hundred meters south of the Dutch border. Here they spent five days in a defensive position that provided protection to the left flank of the Polish Armoured Division as it pushed north into Holland.

The Battalion was very mobile in the first weeks of the month as they criss-crossed the Divisional front. A new defensive position was taken up on 11^th October at Maerle for a further week. 

On 19^th October the Battalions moved westwards to Oostmalle from where on the following day they crossed the Antwerp-Turnhout Canal in their initial advance into Holland. As part of 1^st Corps the 49^th Division were positioned in the centre of the line of advance with the Polish Armoured Division on their right and the 4^th Canadian Division on their left. The Polar Bears were directed towards Roosendaal, whilst the Poles and Canadians aimed for the towns of Breda and Bergen Op Zoom respectively.

49^th Division were to advance along a line of axis that ran from Oostmalle and passed through Brecht, Wuustwezel, Nieuwmoer, Essche and Roosendaal, a distance of approximately twenty miles. The advance was to be lead by 56 Brigade and 147 Brigade, with 146 Brigade concentrated in Oostmalle.

The Polar Bears were opposed across their front by 245 Division a fighting unit of 88^th Corps of the German 15^th Army.

The lines of advance into Holland

On the morning of 20^th October ‘Operation Rebound’ was launched which was intended by the combined efforts of the Canadian 4^th Armoured Division and the 49^th Division to secure the Belgian-Dutch border area and in doing so facilitate the liberation of the Scheldt Estuary. With the estuary under Allied control the key port of Antwerp could be utilised.

It was the task of the 49^th Division to advance towards Loenhout from the area of Brecht. Having secured Loenhout, the plan was for another composite taskforce named ‘Clarkeforce’ (under the command of Brigadier W.S. Clarke of 34^th Tank Brigade) to punch their way through into Holland.

21^st October saw the 11^th R.S.F. located in and around Wuustwezel which was captured with relative ease. However, on 21^st and 22^nd 245 and 346 Infantry Divisions launched savage counter attacks with heavy tank and SP supporting fire. These attacks came in from the Wernhout area just over the Dutch border. These counter attacks were halted in a series of fierce engagements in the hamlets of Braken, Kruisweg and in the area of Stone Bridge (the only crossing of the Weerijs that could bear the weight of heavy armour).

In his 1990 Imperial War Museum interview Colonel William Douglas recalled some of the fighting in Kruisweg, not to mention his brush with death.

‘October 23^rd, we’d ended up in a place called Kruisweg, Kruisweg Ridge. I’d been out on another night patrol, a recce to find the enemy, we’d found them and reported back and I went back to my platoon headquarters just as first light was coming up. And, the sergeant had been in charge all night obviously, and when I got to the position he had the entire platoon in a beautiful Dutch barn, a big fire going. All the chaps were drying their socks and having breakfast.

 ‘What the Devil do you think you are doing?’

‘Where are the sentries?’

Why haven’t you got anybody out?’

 ‘Oh, it was a dark night Sir and I thought the lads needed a bit of a cheering up.’

‘They’ll need cheering up in a minute, the Germans are only half a mile away!’

So I chased some sentries out, scattered them out and got them all into positions and we set the headquarters in a cellar in the village and I’d just taken my socks off and thought I’ll get some breakfast now when the sentry came running in saying ‘Come quick, come quick! There’s a haystack coming down the village street!’.

‘Now you’ve been drinking the rum laddie!’.

Anyway, he was dead right, there was a haystack coming slowly down the village street, about I suppose three quarters of a mile away. I got my field glasses and had a look. It was a German Panther and he’d put loads of hay on top by the turret, I suppose for camouflage. He wasn’t too sure what we had in the village and he was coming along pretty carefully, you know, having a good look and swinging his turret from side to side. I thought ‘My God, if he gets in here, it’s curtains for us. So I grabbed the PIAT anti-tank projectile and a couple of bombs and headed down to the front garden.... here’s Douglas’s chance for the VC or something!

I got down behind a low wall, I suppose about two feet high. Now the trouble with the PIAT was that it was most effective when it hit its target, but its range was about 100 yards, so you had to wait and wait and wait and this chap came on 400 yards, 300 yards, 200 yards, waiting, waiting, waiting and this great big gun came round and he tried to lower it like that, but of course you can only lower a tank gun so far and then you hit the hull where the driver is and he couldn’t get it any lower. Stupid me, I should have realised that the tank commander is eight feet up and I’m two feet behind a wall and he could see me and he knew what I’d got, so he let fly with his great 88mm round. Well he couldn’t hit me because he couldn’t get the gun barrel down, but it thundered into the wall of the old rickety farmhouse behind me and the whole thing came down on top of me. In fact it saved my life. He then apparently came down the village , put a round into the cellar, killing most of the HQ chaps, caused absolute pandemonium in the platoon, they all got down in their trenches, my sergeant, that I’d just given a rocket to, got a military medal out of it I heard later. He dashed down to the crossroads and got an anti-tank gun, which a detachment of anti-tank gunners had there and he swung this gun round and fired at this thing and knocked it out and the infantry who were coming with the tank got a bit dispirited at this and they put a rather poor attack in on our position and were driven off. I by this time had been dragged from under this farmhouse and carted off on a stretcher and woke up in an ambulance on the way to the Canadian Hospital in Antwerp. I only heard what the sergeant had done weeks later when I got back to the Battalion’.

The Sergeant that Douglas refers to was Sergeant William Little of No 16 Platoon of ‘D’ Company. As such he was my Grandfather’s Platoon Sergeant and he will feature again in this narrative.

As stated Sergeant Little was awarded the Military Medal for his actions in Kruisweg. The citation which recommended the award reads as follows:

On 23^rd October 1944, L/Sjt Little was platoon Serjeant of a platoon detached under the command of Carrier platoon to hold a defensive position at KRUISWEG – 1:25,000 Sheet 24 NW 814160.

Following a very heavy and accurate concentration of mortar fire the enemy attacked with infantry, a tank and two SP guns, and L/Sjt Little’s platoon commander [William Douglas] was seen made a casualty leaving him to command the platoon.

The tank and an SP gun penetrated the positions and the infantry gradually approached within short range.

The action lasted about two hours before the arrival of another Coy and a sqn of tanks dispersed the enemy forces.

Throughout this timethe majority of L/Sjt Little’s platoon were on the enemy side of the buildings and they were in the nerve-racking position of being faced by enemy infantry and having an enemy tank and SP gun in their rear.

The citation document bears the signature of one B.L. Montgomery – Field Marshal Commander-in-Chief 21 Army Group.

The 11^th R.S.F. Summary of Operations adds a little more detail to the action recording that ‘A force composed of the Carrier Platoon, one platoon from D Coy and two A/tnk guns that RA were holding one sector which was counter attacked by SP guns and infantry. One SP gun actually got behind our lines and Sgt Little, Platoon Sgt, D Coy was magnificent in control of the men. The two A/tnk guns RA had been put out of action, one by a direct hit and the other because it was in a burning house. Showing admirable courage and coolness, Sgt Little got his gun out and with the help of others of his platoon dragged it back to a position from which it could be fired at this troublesome SP gun and knocked it out’.

And then..... September 2015

Hi Adrian,

I was out to dinner with Col. Douglas last week and I took the opportunity to raise with him the question regarding whether or not your grandfather was in 16 Platoon, D Company. I also showed him extracts from your blog regarding your grandfather and the photographs on there of your grandfather.

Unfortunately, whilst he said the name rings a bell, he said he couldn't really remember. He said it was easy to remember those who were "very good" or those who were "very bad", but difficult to remember the bulk of the men who just went about their business quietly and efficiently, as they should.

He did say that if Sergeant Little MM was your grandfather's sergeant then in all likelihood he was in 16 Platoon. Whether he was on the Haalderen raid would be more difficult to say. The likelihood is that he would be there if he was in 16 Platoon but inevitably there might be one or two men left behind for all sorts of reasons.

He said the only way you might be able to find out more would be to track down Corporal/Sergeant Mellor DCM (who took over as Platoon Sergeant from Sergeant Little) or a member of his family if he is no longer alive. He may have kept in touch with people post war. As Col. Douglas went to Africa with KAR after the war and then joined the regular army a couple of years later he rather lost touch with many of his men, and in those days it wasn't so easy to track people down.

He did comment on some parts of the blog. He's pretty certain that measuring the depth of the water would have been on The Island, near Nijmegen, after the Germans had breached the flood defences and there were spring floods. He says it would be unlikely to be Rosendaal as there was no water of significance, or at least which was a problem there.

He also thinks that the wounding on 7th April 1945 may not have been in Nijmegen itself but nearby, on The Island, whilst clearing it prior to the liberation of Arnhem. Your grandfather may have been taken to Nijmegen for treatment. Nijmegen at that time was pretty safe, he recalls, and the clearing of The Island started on around 2nd April 1945 and there were pockets of localised fighting for a few days thereafter as they push up across The Island.

Col. Douglas says that Sergeant Little was his third Sergeant of the North West Europe campaign, Sergeant Mellor the fourth. The first lost his life in the fighting around Fontenay/Rauray, the second to the East of Caen (whilst Col. Douglas was at an 'O' Group meeting and he was waiting outside, a stray mortar shell came literally out of nowhere on a quiet day and it was a direct hit, leaving in Col. Douglas's words, pretty much just his boots and his weapon). Sergeant Little, as you know, was killed immediately on landing behind the enemy lines at Haalderen. Apparently he shouldn't have actually been the first man off the boat, he should have been the last man off, to make sure that everyone else got off, but he was very eager.

I'm sorry I can't have been of more assistance.

Best wishes,
Charlie


It’s a wonderful thing this military research, frustrating and confusing at times, but thoroughly absorbing and on occasions such as tonight highly satisfying!

A Veteran Responds - August 2015

Upon returning from a family holiday in August, I was thrilled to find a hand addressed letter bearing a Midland postmark.

Ken had replied with a very informative and encouraging letter:

24 Aug 2015

Dear Adrian,

Thank you for your most welcome letter regarding your Grandfather Jim Heath. Unfortunately I didn’t know him but I can answer a lot of your queries. 

Interesting that he joined the N. Staffs, my brother Ernest was a “Belisha Boy” of the January 1940 intake and was posted to Litchfield with the N. Staffs, after a spell in hospital he transferred to the Royal Sigs (DR).

Jim, with the “Pit Head Div” (59 Div) certainly took a battering around Caen, we had two lads come to the Signals Ptn and men from the rifle Coys were absorbed. Joining us on Aug 26 he would have been in the area of Ponte de la Rogue on the Seine, before the detour south of Rouen at Elbouf, before taking position at Montevilliers for the attack on Le Harve (12 Sept). After 5 days rest at Luneray nr Dieppe, they went, unopposed to Turnhout-Antwerp Canal (Sept 25).

If he was with Sgt Little, he would have been in 16 Ptn”D” Coy. Little, along with Sgt Louis Hill 17 Ptn were awarded the MM in Normandy. Therefore he would have been on the “Commando Raid” in March (11th) which took place to our front at Haalderen. The raid started at 6 am and the order to withdraw at 8 am. In that 2 hours they secured prisoners & killed quite a number. Derek Potter (to whom my book was dedicated) as bren gunner and his 2 I/C & Sgt Little were the 3 killed. 7 wounded. The information gathered from this exercise was of great importance for the action of clearing the Island, so Jim would have been wounded during this operation . There was an article in PBN about 12-18 months ago by Maj Leslie Rowell I/C “D” Coy. Leslie was from Bristol – his daughter lives just outside Leicester & I met him a couple of times although he didn’t take over “D” Coy until Turnhout. We had 2 great afternoons talking of old friends. I asked him what his instructions were for the raid and he said Col Eyrkyn had told him to land, create mayhem & bring back prisoners! It must have been the most decorated action of the European Campaign, 1 DSO, 1 DSM, 2 MC, 3 MM (one of the MCs was Lt Douglas, the Colonel you referred to).

I notice on the photo Jim is wearing the insignia of 30 Corps. General Brian Horrocks (A Bridge Too Far) and TV documentaries, was the G.O.C. in which we’d all served in Normandy (pleased to see that Jim got a “back room” job after hospital!!)

I’m sorry that you didn’t include your phone number in the letter, it was so full of interesting queries and I would be pleased to help you in your research.

I was talking to Dennis about Stan Davies life story and he said that it was a great pity that so few veterans recorded their stories. Which set me thinking. After our visit to Holland in May, my son Steve, told friends, every time I go with my Dad with the Polar Bears I find out more about him. I know I wrote “Tam-O-Shanter” but I’m now writing my memoirs from Sept 1939 to my demob in June 1947. 1939-call-up- 1 yr training for D Day, RSF, Army of Occupation 2 yrs Germany, Italy and Austria.

Must stop now to catch the post – could write all night! Please ring!

Yours sincerely

14638023 West K.J. Fus (R’td)

In the wake of this letter were a series of phone calls in which we agreed to meet after Ken's next trip to Holland in September. A date was agreed for 18th October.

Making Contact With A Veteran - July 2015

Having established that Ken West was still very much with us and still very engaged with the activities of the Polar Bear Association I asked for contact details and the Association Secretary passed Mr West's address on to me.

I wrote to him on the off-chance that he and my Grandfather were acquainted when serving with 'D' Company of the Regiment.

Concerning L/Cpl James (Jim) Kitchener Heath 11th R.S.F. No. 5051929

Dear Mr. West,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Adrian Andrews and I am writing to you in connection with some family research that I have been conducting over the past two years into the wartime experiences of my late Grandfather. 

My Grandfather’s name was James Kitchener Heath, better known to his friends and colleagues as Jim and to close family simply as Kitch. My interest  in piecing together his war story stems from the time of his funeral sadly when, whilst trying to pen some words about this defining period of his life for the presiding cleric to read out, it became clear that the understanding within the family of what he did back then was at best confused and at worst wholly inaccurate! After the funeral I obtained his MOD records but other family issues meant that further exploration was shelved for a number of years.

In short, his military history ran parallel to that of the R.S.F. Enlisting in Brighton in January 1940, he joined the North Staffordshire Regiment as a territorial before embodiment into the regular Army. Born in Stoke-On-Trent, a Staffordshire regiment was his natural choice.

Shortly thereafter he was transferred to the South Staffordshire Regiment with which he completed his training before being posted overseas. On 25th June he landed with the Battalion in Normandy as part of the 59th (Staffordshire) Division as a follow up formation.

After the brutal engagements in the areas of Caen, Fontenay-le-Pesnil and Noyers Bocage
The 59th were disbanded in order to reinforce other hard pressed established regiments. Thus it was that my Grandfather was transferred across to the 11th R.S.F. on 26th August 1944. In his IWM audio archive interview Colonel William Douglas describes the transfer in terms of receiving many men from the Staffords having incomprehensible accents but extraordinary digging skills on account of their long mining heritage.

I have a great account of his time in Normandy from contemporary sources detailing the actions of the 59th and specifically the 5th South Staffords. Likewise, I have the accounts included in the 11th R.S.F. Summary of Operations from June 1944 to May 1945, the aforementioned audio interview with Colonel Douglas as well as a rather good book by one Fusilier K.J. West!

Two years ago I spent some days touring Normandy when I took in Galamanche/St. Contest and the cemeteries of Cambes-en-Plaine and Fontenay-le-Pesnil  (of course, taking in at the same time the Polar Bear memorial on the main road).

Following on from my trail across Normandy, I was in Belgium (Turnhout) and Holland in May (a mere two weeks after your visit) to visit Wuustwezel, Roosendaal and Haalderen.

It is worth noting here that first hand accounts of his active service were limited. I was fascinated with the war at the age of 7 or 8 at which time he related sanitised accounts of his experiences (dead cows and mosquitoes in Normandy, standing sentry, waste deep in water with a yardstick measuring rising floodwater (Roosendaal or Haalderen?)).

As I became more seriously interested in my early twenties about the details of those events of ‘44/’45 he was very much more emotional and less able to articulate details. He died in February 1995 at the age of 80.

Another location that I visited earlier in the year when in Holland was the military cemetery in Jonkerbos, Nijmegen and it is in this regard that I have a number of questions that you may or may not be in a position to shed some light upon.

The information that I have is rather circumstantial at present, but I hope that it may ultimately lead me to a better understanding of with which unit he served whilst with the 11th R.S.F.

In 1973 my family travelled to Holland in the company of my Grandfather. During this family holiday we took a detour to Nijmegen and specifically to Jonkerbos cemetery. The reason for this visit, as later recounted by my parents (as whilst present I was only four at the time) was so that he could locate the last resting place of the man he described as ‘my sergeant’ whose death he had witnessed. My research has shown that the only Fusilier of the 11th R.S.F. holding the rank of sergeant was William Little MM. 

The only other circumstantial evidence that I have that it was indeed Sgt. Little’s headstone that he was seeking is a photograph taken at the time by my Grandmother that shows my Grandfather in discussion with my Father close to the plot of Sgt. Little.

My Grandfather and Father in conversation close to the plot of Sergeant Willian Little MM

Jonkerbos Cemetery, Nijmegen 1973

Whilst I know my Grandfather’s Company in the 5th South Staffordshire Regiment, I cannot as yet confirm the Company in which he served when with the 11th R.S.F. With something of a leap of faith, based on the ‘evidence’ explained above, I would suggest that he was in 16 Platoon of ‘D’ Company with Sgt. Little.

Having spent time in ‘D’ Company 17 Platoon are you able to confirm this (or suggest a possible means of establishing this fact)?

The death of William Little is well recorded since he was recipient of the Military Medal. I understand that he was killed in a very notable and daring waterbourne raid over the Rhine that was widely reported in ‘Current Reports From Overseas’ as an exemplary assault. I would love to be able to place him at the Company level and even better at Platoon level if possible.

My Grandfather did not make it into Germany as a combatant with the Regiment. He was evacuated with wounds on the 7th April 1944 (in the final clearance of the Island or after). He returned to the Battalion as part of D.P.A.C.S. of the British Army of Liberation and worked in  administrative role role at Bergen-Belsen camp until he was demobbed in March 1946.

Ken, I have no idea of how much you can remember of people with which you served after the passage of 71 years but I have enclosed a scanned photograph of my Grandfather. I understand that it was taken in an office within Belsen camp in July 1945. 

I appreciate that my positioning of my Grandfather within the R.S.F. is based upon circumstantial information and you may not have known him from Adam. Nevertheless, even if you have no recollection of him, I have to say that your book brought me far closer to him that any of the official records. It was, as you described in your preface, an account of an ordinary soldier of the European campaign, the human story of a civilian army.

I look forward to hearing from you.

With kind regards,

Adrian (Andrews)
Grandson of Fusilier Jim Heath 11th R.S.F.