At the Grave of Lt. Colonel Montgomery Cuninghame Commanding Officer of 11th Royal Scots Fusiliers (1941-1944)

Lieutenant Colonel A.W. H. J. Montgomery Cuninghame

Manvieu Military Cemetery

September 2019

On a recent return trip to Normandy, we had reason to visit the Manvieu Military Cemetery for here lay the remains of a mate’s Grandfather and we had promised him that we would lay an RBL cross and photograph the headstone for him. With this promise honoured I took off on a customary amble amongst the headstones looking at the distribution of Regimental insignia that distinguish the otherwise uniform Portland stone headstones from each other. Given my Grandfather’s military service I have become rather adept at spotting from some distance those headstones that bear the Staffordshire knot or the somewhat compressed grenade of the Royal Scots Fusiliers (RSF).

Within the confines of the Manvieu Cemetery there are to be found several seems of RSF headstones and this really came as no surprise as the cemetery is located in the village of Cheux which lies approximately five kilometers from Fontenay-le-Pesnil. It was here in the last week of June that the 11th Battalion RSF, as part of the 49th (West Riding) Division (otherwise known as the ‘Polar Bears’, participated in ‘Operation Martlet’ which was intended to capture Rauray and Noyers Bocage to the South East of Caen, thereby protecting the right flank of VIII Corps who were about to launch the better known ‘Operation Epsom’. ‘Marlet’  pitched the Polar Bears against the armour of the Panzer Lehr Division and 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, not to mention the fanaticism of their Panzergrenadiers! The fighting was bitter and was reflected in the casualty tallies on both sides.

The name on one grave jumped out at me, that of Lieutenant Colonel A.W. H. J. Montgomery Cuninghame, Commanding Officer of the 11th Battalion.

The Battalion’s War Diary for July 1944 records the circumstances of his death.

In the first days of July, the Battalion was engaged in regular artillery exchanges with the Germans, so called ‘stonks’ in army parlance. Late on 2nd July orders were received to establish a strong defensive position in the Fontenay area whilst enemy positions continued to be shelled. At 6.30 pm on 3rd July, the Division’s medium artillery registered on enemy occupied targets forward of the ‘C’ Company positions and as such they were to withdraw. However, in the planning, insufficient time had been allowed for digging in at the new position. Without slit trenches for cover, the men were left lying out in the open when the German artillery replied to the British bombardment. Resulting casualties were high in number. At 7.15 pm Lieutenant Colonel A.W. H. J. Montgomery Cuninghame was talking to the Officer in Command of ‘C’ Company when he was hit in the left shoulder and chest by a mortar splinter. The War Diary reported that ‘He died within half an hour at the RAP, apparently not in great pain but unable to breathe. His death came as a great shock to the whole Battalion, whom he had led with such force, determination and lion-hearted in the attack on Fontenay on 25th June, when his conduct was an inspiration to all.

At 3 pm on 4th July ‘Lt. Col Cuninghame was buried at the Calvary’. This was the site of the initial interment of all men of the Battalion who fell in the area of Juvigny and Fontenil-le-Pesnil’. The fallen soldiers were later reburied in the permanent CWGC Cemeteries in the surrounding areas.

'The Calvary'

Fontenay-le-Pesnil

‘Pioneer platoon made a coffin on which were placed his flag, belt and headdress’  (I think that this is transcribed correctly!). ‘As the Battalion was still engaged with the enemy, few were able to attend. Approximately 7 Officers and 40 OR’s of the Battalion attended and six officers attended as bearers’.
In his book ‘An’ It’s Called A Tam O’Shanter’ Fusilier Ken West described the forceful character of Lt. Col Montgomery Cuninghame, otherwise known as ‘Big Monty’.

‘As the name ‘Big Monty’ might imply, Lt.-Col. Montgomery-Cunningham was an awesome figure. Well over six feet tall and built like a giant, he was a forceful and thrusting leader of the Battalion.
He had been in command from the day that the 11th Battalion RSF had been formed in the small county of Rutland back in 1941, and had been the inspiration behind the training of this new unit which was now, three years later, a fighting battalion of the Polar Bear Division.

Of course, some of the methods he had formulated to attain the present discipline and dedication to the job in hand, had not always met with the instant approval of the rank and file.

Tales of Big Monty were being retold to those of us who had recently become members of the battalion as we huddled under any sort of cover from the incessant rain on this Saturday morning, the first day of July.

Back in the British Isles, Big Monty’s constant companions were his huge thumb-stick and his ever faithful dog Bruce. Both had played a part in his disciplinary application.

We heard how the large black dog would lay at the feet of his master as he conducted the daily CO’s orders. Many an unfortunate miscreant vowed that he had been sentenced by the dog and not by the CO, for on some occasions the CO would look at the dog and say “What shall we do with this laddie, eh Bruce?” then depending on how many times the dog wagged his tail, the fusilier would be given one day’s confined to barracks per wag.

Bruce himself was not spared his master’s wrath, for on the occasions when he cocked his leg against a signboard or happened to foul the pathway, he would be wheeled in on CO’s orders and given terms of CB, and would be tethered to the leg of the table in the guardroom for the requisite number of days. Revenge was thereby meted out by sly prods and flicks of the toe-end of an army boot belonging to some fusilier who had at some time patted the Colonel’s dog.

However, since the arrival of the Battalion on the twelfth of June on the invasion beaches, Big Monty had led them with courage and with complete disregard for his own safety. He had died as he set out to visit us at the wood. He was later awarded a posthumous DSO (Distinguished Service Order)’.

Here in the tranquil surroundings of the Manvieu Military Cemetery, the Commanding Offiecer lies flanked by two ordinary Fusiliers as here like in all of the other CWGC sites no consideration is given to rank and position within these extraordinary spaces.

Fallen Soldiers of 11th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers

Manvieu Military Cemetery

September 2019

49th (West Riding) Division Facebook page and web site

Memorial to the men of the 49th (West Riding) Division - The Polar Bears in Doorn near Utrecht. The 49th Recce Regiment entered the town on 7th May 1945.

I would like to draw your attention to two 49th Division related sites maintained by Eelco Warmerdam. Please take a look.

https://www.facebook.com/49thWestRidingInfantryDivision/

https://49thwestriding.weebly.com/

Adrian.

From Roosendaal to Nijmegen November 1944

In contrast to the living conditions experienced by the battalion in Normandy, accommodation in the Lowlands represented a significant upgrade with buildings replacing slit trenches. The men of the 11^th RSF were spoiled for a time in Roosendaal when they were billeted within the houses of grateful Dutch families, in homes that were largely undamaged. Nevertheless, the enduring memory of the Roosendaal area is of an unpleasant place to be in late October/early November, as Colonel Douglas recalled ‘a nasty area because to move you had to stay on top of the dyke , if you got off the dyke you were in flooded fields, if you stayed on top you got shot, if you went down in the fields you got drowned or hit by the shells and mortars. Not very funny’. The Germans may have been in retreat at this point, heading with all speed for their own national border, but the terrain and the appalling weather conditions made for a demoralising and dangerous place to be.

Polar Bears in the vicinity of Roosendaal Station at the point of liberation

30th October 1944

(The Polar Bear insignia can be seen on the rear of the jeep in the foreground).

The fighting continued. German units fought rear-guard actions in the northern suburbs of Roosendaal as the main body of troops were evacuated north of the River Maas. At this time it was the responsibility of the battalion to harry the retreat. On 4th November, the battalion concentrated at Oud Gastel, little over four miles north of Roosendaal and was placed on one hour’s notice to move. That morning the German units were hastened in their retreat by harassing fire from medium machine gun fire and salvos of 4.2 inch mortars. At 1030 hours, the battalion moved off in pursuit with ‘B’ Company advancing on the right and ‘D’ Company on the left. ‘A’ and ‘C’ Companies remained in reserve. Initially, the advance was untroubled, however, in time ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies, now joined by ‘C’ Company contacted the enemy and came under fire.

The ability of the engaged companies to fight was severely hampered by the necessity to restrict all movement to the top of the dykes. Such restrictions ruled out any tactical manoeuvres that may have been to the advantage of the advance. These movement constraints were understood by the enemy, who despite being in retreat, were in well dug in positions. With no tank support possible, the Germans allowed the forward British units to advance close to their positions with the knowledge that such close proximity would prevent the use of artillery. With ‘B’ Company pinned down in open ground and with the light failing prearranged positions were consolidated and here the Companies would stay for the night. The enemy withdrew from their positions overnight. Patrols were able to cover some distance the next morning (5th November) to the extent that a ‘D’ Company patrol contacted the Canadians as they advanced from the north and a patrol of ‘B’ Company reached as far as Dinteloord (approximately 11 miles to the north west of Roosendaal) where they too encountered the Canadians. By mid-morning the battalion received the order to return to their billets in Roosendaal, all except ‘A’ Company who were to hold the position until nightfall before returning to Roosendaal.

In the actions described above a total of 12 German fatalities and 37 prisoners were accounted for, for 4 killed, 19 wounded and 1 missing of the battalion.

The atrocious conditions have been mentioned earlier and one specific mention of the hardship endured by the men on account of the poor weather is recorded in the Summary of Operations:

‘One platoon was immersed to the waist in water for about 5 hours and it reflects on the good training and stamina that only one man had to be evacuated the following day as a result of this long enforced immersion’. 

This paragraph struck a chord with me since one of my Grandfather’s stories told of how he spent a very unpleasant night perched on a seat of bricks, immersed to the waist in water in charge of a yardstick to monitor the rate at which the water was rising. However, when this anecdote was related to William Douglas, he stated that it was his belief that this would have been a memory of the time spent in Haalderen rather than Roosendaal.

The remainder of the month of November was very mobile for the battalion, but the days were spent in rest rather than in battle. Early in the month, the battalion was transferred from Roosendaal, eastwards and at the same time they parted from the 1^st Canadian Army to come under the command of XII Corps of the British Second Army. The battalion concentrated in the town of Soerendonk. Here they engaged in training exercises mixed with entertainment activities until 23rd November when they moved eastwards once more to Blerick on the west bank of the River Maas. From here the intention was to launch an attack on the town of Venlo, approximately one mile away on the other side of the river. Preparations were in hand with recces and patrols carried out in order to establish the nature of the terrain, the strength of the German units to the Brigade front, anything that would confer an advantage upon the attackers. In the event, the responsibility for assaulting Venlo was passed over to 15^th (Scottish) Infantry Division. However, Venlo, with its large airfield which served as a base for Luftwaffe nightfighters, was not finally liberated until 1st March 1945.

The battalion received orders to move to an area to the north of Nijmegen where they were to relieve the men of 231^st Brigade of the 50^th (Northumbrian) Division. Reaching a staging post in the village of Mill (approximately 20 miles distant to the south of Nijmegen) the relief of the 1^st Dorsets of the 231^st Brigade was effected by 1930 hours on the evening of 29th November.

The 11^th Battalion RSF had taken up positions in a notorious area known simply as ‘The Island’, an area of marshy polder that lay between the River Waal to the north of Nijmegen and the Neder Rijn (Lower Rhine) to the south of Arnhem. This tract of land was unpleasant in the extreme by the time the Polar Bears arrived in late November, low lying and flooded. The bodies of British and German fighters remained where they had fallen in the vicious fighting of late September/early October, when the Allies desperately tried to come to the aid of the 1^st British Airborne Division, then confined to the Oosterbeek Perimeter to the western suburbs of Arnhem.

‘The Island’ framed by the Waal and Neder Rijn.

The battalion would be associated with this dreadful place for a period of over five months.

The Nijmegen Bridge viewed in the direction of Arnhem. The area known as 'The Island' can be seen across the River Waal. The church in Lent can be seen in the centre of the photograph.

The area of operation for the 49^th Division was at the eastern end of the Island. The following chapter describes the actions of the 7^th Duke of Wellington’s Regiment and the 11^th Royal Scots Fusiliers to repulse a determined German effort to reach the Nijmegen Bridge once again.

This was not the first time that the village of Haalderen had found itself on the frontline. During the ‘Garden’ operation of ‘Market Garden’ the necessity of holding Nijmegen Bridge and the bridgehead was well understood. The defence of the bridgehead took the fight into the villages of Bemmel, Baal and Haalderen. In late September, the 6^th and 7^th Battalion of the Green Howards (50^th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division) attempted to take Haalderen which was then fiercely defended by the soldiers of the 10^th SS Panzer Division. Consequently, the village was badly damaged as the Germans withdrew in the first week of October.

Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rememberance and All That Jazz in The Lowlands Breda, Holland - 15th May 2015

In what was becoming something of an annual excursion Owen and I had planned another weekend on the continent with both military history and music on the itinerary.

Yet another old punk band was due to play at the ‘Eurorock Festival’ in Neerpelt in Belgium. The timing could not have been better since the ‘Fragmented Military History’ website had progressed considerably such that I had left Normandy and the 59^th (Staffordshire) Division behind and was now immersed in the actions of the Polar Bears in Belgium and Holland.

The town of Breda was to be our base for the next three days from where we would drive in each and every direction in order to visit Turnhout, Wuustwezel, Roosendaal, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Bemmel, Haalderen and Walcheran. A check on the mileometer upon arriving back in London told us that we had clocked up no less than two thousand miles over the three days, mostly in the Netherlands (no mean feat in a country so small!).

Whilst we were planning to see a punk band (Killing Joke, were anyone to be remotely curious) our chosen base was this weekend hosting the annual Breda Jazz Festival. Now I fully appreciate that when it comes to musical taste it is definitely a case of ‘each to their own’. But without a doubt both Owen and I side with Johnny Rotten over Johnny Dankworth! So when a well-meaning waitress in the breakfast room on day two suggested that we were here for the jazz we were a little put out! Casting an eye over the finger poppin’ jazz aficionados of northern Europe that were at that time sharing the restaurant, it was clear to the two of us at least that a wide gulf existed between us and them. Nevertheless in a middle aged punk rock style we corrected her and complimented the chef on the quality of his scrambled eggs. How times have changed!

Caught unawares in a lift finger clicking and ‘extolling the joy of jazz!’

On our first venture out on our first full day of touring was the town of Turnhout. Strangely enough this was not our first visit to this town in the far north of Belgium. Back in April 2011 the two of us in the company of another couple of fans had stayed in Turnhout in order to see The Stranglers play in the town. The band had arranged a five day acoustic tour of Belgium and Holland of which we planned to witness three, Turnhout, Zaandamn and Lessines.

Now Turnhout is a small place, but locating our apartment took over an hour. I am happy to say that the concert was very enjoyable but after the show we headed out of town in the direction of the band’s hotel with a view to grabbing a late beer with them. Within minutes of us setting off, the band’s mini-bus speed past us and the ever truculent bass player took the time to hurl some choice words of abuse at us as they passed (it’s nothing personal, we were on the guest list after all!).

In 2011 I had no idea that this place had any significance to my own family history. All I felt at the time was a sense of frustration as we repeatedly failed to locate our apartment after several traverses of the town. The realisation that my Grandfather was a liberator of the town was a few years off!

Grote Markt in Turnhout on a damp and dreary May afternoon (top)

Grote Markt as seen on a postcard sent by my Grandfather from Turnhout in September 1944 (bottom)

Next up was Wuustwezel, another difficult place name for linguistically challenged Britons such as ourselves. Having said that in the spirit of our forebears who renamed Ypres as Wipers and Foucquevillers as Funkyvillers, Wuustwezel was rechristened to a very anglicised ‘Worst Weasel’…. no offence intended towards our Belgian neighbours, it just made navigation much easier!

Having reached the town as usual we made for the cemetery and here were located the first 11^th R.S.F. graves that I had seen since the Fontenay-le-Pesnel cemetery the previous year.

Nine Polar Bears lie in the churchyard of Wuustwezel

During the fighting to liberate Wuustwezel between 20^th and 23^rd October 1944, 108 British servicemen were killed in action or died of wounds received. Of these men 98 wore the Polar Bear insignia of the 49^th (West Riding) Division.

The fallen are commemorated by a memorial erected to their memory in Liberation Square, Wuustwezel. The monument carries the following inscription that attests to their heroic deeds:

‘In this area, the German counter-attacks of 21^st and 22^nd October 1944 were halted by the 49^th (West Riding) Infantry Division. The people of Wuustwezel express gratitude to their liberators’.

At the unveiling ceremony on 21^st October 1984, the Burgomaster of Wuustwezel, Jos Ansoms said this of the monument and what it represents, ‘It is a sober monument, sober and simple as the lads of whom it reminds us. It is convincing and dignified like the British military that are remembered. Constructed in a “V”, it represents victory but also peace, freedom and friendship’.

The Wuustwezel memorial is now recognised as the principal site of remembrance to the Polar Bears in Belgium. Whilst less imposing than its cousin in Fontenay-le-Pesnel, its understated simplicity makes it every bit as moving. The aforementioned sober simplicity of this construction of brick and stone surmounted with a stylised French limestone sculpture of a Polar Bear contrasts starkly with the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun that also occupies the site, a contribution of the Polar Bear Association in 2009.

Views of the Wuustwezel memorial to The Polar Bears