Fulstow War Memorial.
Arthur West 25 26/05/15 2nd West Yorks (PWO)
George S. Taylor 20 01/07/16 10th Lincs nkg
Tom Wattam 20 19/10/16 2nd Lincs nkg
Albert Sherriff 28 02/12/16 4th DWR
Herbert Harrison 22 24/02/17 5th Lincs (1/5 or 2/5 ?)
Charles H. Kirman 32 23/09/17 7th Lincs
Harold Pennell 19 23/11/17 119th Coy MGC nkg
Herbert E Green 24 25/03/18 16th R B
George Marshall 23 23/09/18 7th Lincs
Charles S Hyde 25 08/11/18 ASC
Viola Wells 23 11/05/43 ATS
Marjorie Sutton 24 11/05/43 ATS
Tom Marshall 22 21/07/44 68th Fld Rgt RA
Claude Marriott 27 21/09/44 GPR
John S. Maddison 22 21/12/45 13th/18th Huss
WORLD WAR ONE.
WEST, ARTHUR
Private 3/8861 2nd Bn West Yorkshire Regiment
DoD 26/05/16 age 25 Torquay cemetery
Presumed wounded during the first half of 1915, repatriated and died of wounds at Torquay.
TAYLOR, GEORGE SUTTON
Private 178 10th Bn Lincolnshire Regt
DoD 01/07/1916 age 20 Thiepval Memorial NKG
Son of Ada Woods (formerly Taylor) of Peartree Lane, and the late Francis Peter Taylor. A Coy, 10th Bn Lincolnshire Regiment (Grimsby Chums). Killed first day of the Battle of the Somme.
10th Bn Lincs, 101st Bde, 34th Div.
WATTAM, TOM
Private 15325, 2nd Bn Lincolnshire Regt,
DoD 19/10/1916 age 20 Thiepval Memorial NKG
Son of Thomas and Eliza Wattam, brother of Charles, George, James and Susan of Pear Tree Lane.
2nd Bn Lincs, 25th Bde, 8th Div.
SHERRIFF, ALBERT S
Private 6804 4th Bn Duke Of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding)
DoD 02/12/16 age 28
Son of Robert and Elizabeth Sherriff.
HARRISON, HERBERT
Private 241684, 5th Bn Lincolnshire Regt,
DoD 24/02/1917 age 22 Etaples Military Cemetary
Son of William and Annie Harrison, brother to Walter, William and Arthur.
5th Bn Lincs,
KIRMAN, CHARLES HENRY
Private 7423, 7th Bn Lincolnshire Regt.
DoD 23/09/1917 age 32 Ste. Catherine British Cemetery, Arras
Husband of D L Kirman, 10 Radnor St, Southsea, Portsmouth.
7th Lincs, 51st Bde, 17th Div.
PENNELL, HAROLD
Private 103257 119th Coy MG Corps
DoD 23/11/1917 Age 19 Cambrai Memorial, Louverval. NKG
Son of William and Mary Pennell, brother of William and Emma, Main Street.
Killed at the Of Cambrai, attack by 40th (Bantam) Division on Bourlon Wood.
40th Div.
GREEN, HERBERT EDWARD
Rifleman S/15683, 16th Bn. Rifle Brigade,
DoD 25/03/1918 age 24 Villers-Faucon Cemetery
Son of James William and Alice Green. Born Kirby on Bain, residence Fulstow.
Enlisted Stratford Essex.
16th Bn Rifle Brigade, 117th Brigade, 39th Division. Division suffered such heavy casualties in the German offensive of March 1918 that it ceased to exist.
16th RB, 117th Bde, 39th Div.
MARSHALL, GEORGE
Private 505 7th Bn Lincolnshire Regt,
DoD 23/09/1918 age 23 Thilloy Road Cemetery, Beaulencourt
Parents George and Lucy Marshall, Tulston, North Thoresby, brother to Charles, Joseph and Susan. Born Fulstow, enlisted Louth, residence North Thoresby.
7th Lincs, 51st Bde, 17th Div.
HYDE, CHARLES SYDNEY
Private DM2/179372 880 MT COY ASC
DoD 08/11/1918 age 25 Skopje British Cemetery
Born Fulstow, son of Charles and Alice Hyde. Probably died in the Spanish influenza pandemic, which was responsible for many deaths of the ASC personnel in the area.
WORLD WAR TWO.
WELLS, VIOLA
Serjeant W/18246 Auxiliary Territorial Service
DoD 11/05/1943 age 23 Great Yarmouth (Caister) Cemetery
SUTTON, MARJORIE
Private W/129269 Auxiliary Territorial Service
DoD 11/05/1943 age24 Great Yarmouth (Caister) Cemetery
MARSHALL, TOM
Gunner 1144437 68th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery
DoD 21/07/1944 age 22 Assisi War Cemetery
MARRIOTT, CLAUDE
Serjeant 2657028 Glider Pilot Regiment, Army Air Corps
DoD 21/09/1944 age 27 Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery
MADDISON, JOHN STANLEY
Trooper 4802281 13th/18th Royal Hussars
DoD 21/12/1945 age 22 Hanover War Cemetery
FULSTOW’S SOLDIERS.
It is hard to believe that this Country fought in two world wars in the space of 31 years, in the first half of the last century. It is also hard to believe that 15 young people of this village left to fight in these wars never to return. The average age of Fulstows soldiers when they fell was 23 years old, with Harold Pennell the youngest at 19 and Charles Kirman the eldest at 32. It is worth thinking on the words of John Maxwell Edmonds when he said:
“When you go home tell them of us, and say,
For their tomorrow, we gave our today.”
THE GREAT WAR
Lord Kitchener, Secretery of War in Herbert Asquith’s Government, was one of the few men to have any vision of what the war would require. He knew that Britain’s small professional army of some 250 000 men was hopelessly inadequate for the test to be faced, and so started the campaign for volunteers made famous by the ‘Your Country Needs You !’ recruiting poster which featured Kitcheners own face. These volunteers were to be formed into what was known as the New Army, by adding service battalions to existing regiments.
It was to this call that most of Fulstow’s future soldiers responded. Some were motivated by a sense of patriotic duty, while others saw it as their chance for an adventure. All were swept along on a tide of National fervour that saw recruiting offices full to overflowing. Most joined the Lincolnshire Regiment, signing on for 3 years or the duration of the war. Many lads joining the New Army battalions commenced their training without weapons or uniforms, as demand totally outstripped supply.
The Lincolnshire Regiment had its Headquarters and Depot in Lincoln. At the declaration of war the Regiment had 5 battalions; 2 regular; the 1st Battalion (at Portsmouth) and the 2nd Battalion (in Bermuda). The 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, also based at Lincoln, was formerly a militia unit, and for much of the war was used as a training and replacement battalion. The 4th and 5th Battalions, based at Lincoln and Grimsby respectively, were Territorial Army formations. Both TA battalions had been on their annual camp at Bridlington at the beginning of August 1914.
During the war a further 13 battalions were raised;
4 more Territorial battalions, numbered 2/4th, 2/5th, 3/4th and 3/5th.
4 Service battalions (part of Kitcheners ‘New Army’) numbered 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th.
2 Reserve battalions,
1 Labour battalion and 1 Garrison battalion.
August 1914 saw the first clashes between the British Army and the Germans. Battles at Mons, Le Cateau, the Aisne and at Ypres, amongst others, set a precedent of what was to come, with 90 000 British casualties, including 50 000 killed or missing in four months of fighting. The armies began digging trenches and the western front formed along a line that, with a few alterations it was to remain on for most of the next four years.
The New Army battalions started arriving in France during 1915, though they played little part in the battles of that year. 1915 saw a dreadful chronology of human waste – battles at Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge, Festubert, Ypres and Loos – with the casualty lists reaching 285 000, of which 92 000 were either killed or missing. The new divisions held parts of the line and continued their training. They quickly became accustomed to army ways and traditions while retaining a raw enthusiasm for their new life.
However, Fulstows first casualty of the Great War was not a wartime volunteer, but a professional soldier. Private 3/8861 Arthur West was a regular, having enlisted in to the West Yorkshire Regiment in Sheffield. He had met and married a South Shields girl, Elizabeth Cassim, probably while stationed at Newcastle. Sent to join the 2nd Battalion, Arthur arrived in France on 19th December 1914, but became a casualty in the heavy fighting of the spring of 1915. Repatriated back to the UK, Arthur West died at Torquay on 26th June 1915.
1916 brought the Battle of the Somme, the New Army’s first big offensive. At 7.30am on 1st July 1916, following a barrage lasting over a week, the British infantry climbed out of their trenches and began their attack on the German lines. The assault was a catastrophe, particularly on its northern sector were no advance was made. The army suffered nearly 58 000 casualties, of which over 19 000 were dead. One of these was Private George Taylor of the 10th Lincolnshire Battalion ‘The Grimsby Chums’, commanded by Lt. Col. E. K. Cordeaux. Though raised in Grimsby, the Chums also contained a contingent made up from Louth Grammar School Old Boys. The second of Fulstows men to die in the Great War was killed in the assault on La Boisselle very close to where the huge Lochnagar mine was detonated. The 10th Lincolnshire tried to advance through a very heavy German barrage, over ground swept by machine guns firing from their flanks, losing over half their men in probably not more than 15 minutes.
The Somme battle raged on till November, finally spluttering out around the Butte de Warlencourt in the mud and snow of the oncoming winter. It had claimed 420 000 British casualties including one other Fulstow soldier, Private Tom Wattam, of the 2nd Lincolnshire killed on 19th October.
October 19th was the day 2nd Lincolnshire arrived back on the Somme battlefield. Mud and water were everywhere and they splashed through to Trones Wood, chilled to the bone by the keen wind of the rapidly approaching winter. At Trones Wood they prepared a meal before pushing on at 4.15pm. During the night they took over a very poor stretch of recently captured trench near Les Boeufs from the 8th Bedfords. They were heavily shelled over the next three days. Their casualties for the period were 1 killed, 17 wounded and 8 missing. It is unclear whether Tom was listed as the dead man or amongst the missing at this stage. Like George Taylor, Tom Wattam came from Pair Tree Lane, and like George Taylor, he has no known grave.
It is difficult with the passing of nearly a century to fully understand the scale of the fighting seen on the Western Front during the Great War. It may give some insight to include the census report made by the traffic control post at Fricourt on the Somme Battlefield. For the 24 hours, 9.15am 21st July – 9.00am 22nd July, as the ANZAC Corps moved up to attack the village of Pozieres, the following was listed as having passed this one control post – 2 423 motor vehicles, 4 000 horse drawn wagons, 5 404 mounted personnel, 1 043 men riding bicycles, and 26 536 infantry. The post reported incomplete returns due to the Germans soaking the road with tear-gas shells, forcing the wearing of goggles for a 6 hour period.
By the end of the Somme Battle the New Army had all but ceased to exist. Kitchener himself had been drowned when the ship he was on was sunk off Orkney, and with the flow of volunteers drying up the Government had finally brought in conscripted military service. The armies faced each other over ‘no mans land’, in places only a few tens of yards wide. The day to day human wastage of the Western Front continued, and on 2nd December 1916 Albert Sherriff was killed while serving in 4th Battalion Duke Of Wellington’s Regiment, holding the line between Foncquevillers and Gommecourt, just to the north of the Somme battlefield.
In February 1917 the Germans withdrew from the Somme line, back a few miles to a new and even stronger position, known to the British as the Hindenburg Line. The same month saw the death of Herbert Harrison, Fulstow’s fifth casualty of the war. A private in the 5th Battalion, Herbert was buried at Etaples, then a huge British base camp and training area. There is very little information available concerning Herbert’s death.
The sixth village man to die was Charles Kirman, executed by firing squad at Arras on 23rd September 1917, following a court martial.
Like Arthur West, Charlie Kirman had been in the pre-war regular army. As such he was amongst the first batch of reservists to be called back to the colours at the beginning of August 1914. Serving with the 1st Lincolnshires Charles Kirman had fought at Mons and through the subsequent retreat. He fought again at La Bassee in mid October by which time over half the battalion were casualties including Kirman, who was shipped back to the UK in November to recover from his wounds. Declared fit after 5 months, Kirman returned to France to the 2nd Lincolnshires. He survived the bloody fiasco known as the Battle of Aubers Ridge in which the division was so badly mauled it was not commited to any further major actions until the Battle of the Somme. Like the 10th Lincolnshire, the 2nd battalion went over the top at 7.30am on July 1st and lost about half their number within a few minutes, including Charles Kirman who was again wounded. He returned, this time to the 7th Lincolnshires, however it would seem that he had taken as much as he could endure. Over the following year he went AWOL on 3 occasions, resulting in a courts martial after his 1st and 3rd periods of absence and his subsequent execution. Charles Kirman became one of the 306 British soldiers shot for cowardice or desertion during the Great War. During World War Two no British soldiers were executed for these offences following a court martial.
Private Harold Pennell became the next of the village men to fall in action. Harry was a machine gunner in 119th Company, Machine Gun Corps, part of the 40th ‘Bantam’ Division. On 23rd November 1917, during the Battle of Cambrai, the Division was tasked with clearing the German positions in Bourlon wood to shore up the British line. It was a very difficult task, with some units having to cross 1000 yards of open ground under enemy fire. Machine gun sections were tasked to advance with the infantry in order to stiffen the defence once the objective was taken. Each gun crew numbered 7 men when at full strength, these men being needed to carry the gun, its tripod mount and its ammunition. Even after the Division had taken the wood they were subjected to concentrated barrages from the German artillery. Casualties were very heavy, and Harold fell that day. He too has no known grave.
At 5.10 am on the morning of 21st March 1918 the sections of the front held by the British Third and Fifth Armies came under one of the most concentrated artillery barrages of the war, coming under the fire of nearly 10 000 guns and mortars. So marked the start of the German 1918 offensive, the Kaiserslacht, Germany’s last great effort to win the war before the arrival of American troops would tip the balance in favour of the Allies. Using troops freed from the eastern front by the collapse of Tsarist Russia, the offensive enjoyed spectacular initial success. The British Army suffered their blackest day since the opening day of the Somme. Some British formations ceased to exist in maelstrom of the battle. One such unit was the 39th Division, which suffered such severe casualties it was totally destroyed. It was while serving with this division that Rifleman Herbert Green, 16th Battalion Rifle Brigade, lost his life on March 25th.
On 5th April, after 16 days of battle main thrust of the offensive ended. The British Army had sustained 178 000 casualties, and a vast bulge had been driven into the line. However, the line was still there, with the Germans worn out still far short of their objectives. The grim determination to resist shown by the British infantrymen and gunners, on occasion cut off from friendly forces, speaks volumes for the men involved. However, if one adds the German casualties for the offensive to those of the Allies it represents a staggering human wastage of 31 000 men per day. The German attacks carried on in different sectors on a reduced scale for a further month, however with a newly unified Allied command system and reinforcements being released from the UK the crisis had passed.
To most people as June passed into July 1918, there appeared to be no end in sight to the war. If Germany was all but worn out, so too was France. The American build up had increased in pace, but still relatively few US troops were combat ready. Also, much of what the US Army needed had to be supplied from British and French stocks. The Americans wore British steel helmets, fired French artillery guns pulled largely by British supplied horses. They flew mainly French aircraft and used British and French tanks. The German army was still dug in on French and Belgian soil, behind some of the most formidable defensive systems of the entire war.
However, on 18th July the Allied armies began a series of offensive operations that would see the German army brought to its knees, the Kaiser abdicate and the High Command sue for peace, resulting in the armistice of 11th November pending peace discussions.
The offensive operations began tentatively. The initial feeling of Allied Generalissimo Ferdinand Foch, and British C in C Western Front, Sir Douglas Haig, that the hour had arrived growing with each new success. The leading role played by the five British Armies in France in the final victory is unmistakable. This is the only time in history when the British Army has taken the main role in a conflict against a continental opponent and won decisively. It is to the shame of subsequent generations that their victory has largely been forgotten.
Many of the actions fought in the last three months of World War One merge into each other, the fighting being continuous. It was only in the post-war period that historians seeking to put some order to the proceedings separated the events and gave names to particular battles. So, it was at the Battle of Epehy, northeast of the old Somme battlefield, that the last Fulstow man to die on the Western Front lost his life. Private George Marshall served in the 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, which on 18th September 1918 was committed to the battle.
The 7th Lincolnshire had sheltered in huts on the Lechelle – Ypres road until 9.30pm on the night of 17th September. They then moved to their assembly positions on the Fins Ridge, occupying old trenches to the southeast of Dessart Wood, the move being completed just after 1.00am on the 18th. The Germans were shelling the British line with gas, and on passing through Fins several casualties were suffered: the enemy also put down a heavy gas bombardment on the assembly positions. At 5.24am the Lincolnshire moved forward to what had been the old British front line north of Genin Well Copse No.1.
Not being part of the initial assault, it was not until 6.29am that 7th Lincolnshire moved off, running into a heavy barrage, through which they were obliged to pass. By this time the Germans had shortened the range of their guns in order to prevent the support troops moving up. The orders for the Lincolnshire, as part of 51st Brigade were to pass through 50th and 52nd Brigades and capture a line of trenches known as Somme Alley and Lancashire Trench to the southern outskirts of Villers-Gislain. As the battalion topped a ridge just south and southwest of Villers-Gislain, the German machine-guns opened up a heavy fire. The Lincolnshire were forced to take shelter behind a long embankment covering the ridge. They were obliged to remain there till 9.00am when the German resistance was broken by the East Yorks. and the 10th Notts. and Derbys. together with the 7th Lincolnshires own D Company, who had worked round to take the enemy in the flank. Some 200 prisoners were taken. The Lincolnshire then resumed their advance, but had to fight their way to their assembly position, which was the railway line north of Gauche Wood.
At 9.15am, the advance from the railway began, meeting with only light resistance in Gauche Wood. About 120 more prisoners were taken including 3 officers, and A and B Companies took up position in the Somme Alley Trench to the end of the wood, with C and D in support. Patrols were sent out into Quentin Redoubt north of Gauche Wood. During the afternoon a German counter-attack was launched against the B and D Company positions, but was repulsed with heavy casualties.
Throughout the 19th September, 7th Lincolnshire consolidated its positions. They were relieved that night by the 10th West Yorkshire. Their casualties during the operation had been heavy; 22 men killed, 240 wounded, 12 missing. George Marshall was wounded and moved to a casualty clearing station where he died on 23rd September.
The last of the Fulstow men to die in the Great War was Charles Hyde, who was serving with 880 Motor Transport Company of the Army Service Corps in what is now Macedonia. Victory had been achieved in the Balkans fighting with the signing of an armistice by Bulgaria on 29th September. However, a killer every bit as deadly as shells and bullets was rampaging through Europe; Spanish Flu. First recorded at San Sebastian, hence the name ‘Spanish Flu’, this virus produced a mortality rate 20 times that of normal influenza. Also unusual in that it struck down more of the fit and healthy from the 20 – 50 year old age group than any other, death often occurring within a few hours of the onset of illness. Charles Hyde died on 8th November 1918, just 3 days before the end of the Great War. Despite mans best efforts to kill his fellow man in 4 years of fighting, the flu virus, with up to 40 million victims, killed more people than had the war its self.
WORLD WAR TWO.
The coming of a second war with Germany and her allies, a mere 21 years after the end of the first, was met largely with grim apprehension rather than the nationalistic euphoria of August 1914. The Forces were mobilised and an expeditionary force left for France, while the country braced itself for the expected air offensive. Then, nearly 9 months of relative normality. This ended in May 1940 as the Germans launched their ‘Blitzkrieg’ on France, the bulk of the British Forces being trapped at Dunkirk and evacuated at the beginning of June.
For three years Britain suffered a virtually continuous chain of setbacks and defeats; France surrendered, an air war was fought over southern Britain, the ‘Blitz’; aerial bombing, fighting broke out in North Africa; swinging to and fro across the desert, a convoy war in the harsh conditions of the Atlantic Ocean upon which Britain’s supplies depended, Germany invaded Russia advancing to the very gates of Moscow, Japan’s entry into the war with the bombing of the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbour, the loss of Malaya and Burma, the fall of Singapore with the surrender of 100 000 British and Commonwealth troops.
Three battles, fought out in remote and previously unheard of locations during mid to late 1942, mark the change in the fortunes of the free world. First, Midway; a tiny atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean around which the Americans destroyed the bulk of Japans aircraft-carrier fleet, a mere 7 months after Pearl Harbor. Second, El Alamein; a tiny desert railway station near the Egypt – Libya border at which the German/Italian Africa Army was first stopped, then pushed back for the final time. Thirdly, Stalingrad; the city on the Volga that saw the blunting of the German advance into Russia and the destruction of the crack Sixth Army.
During this time Lincolnshire was being steadily transformed into a giant airbase, with a seemingly endless number of airfields being constructed as the launch pads for Britain’s strategic bombing campaign against the German heartland. Each night scores of heavy bombers would roar over Fulstow on their way to distant targets in continental Europe. As the war progressed raids of 600-700 aircraft were not uncommon, and occasionally more.
It is an indication of this changing face of war that Fulstows first soldiers to be killed were women, who lost their lives as a result of air action. Viola Wells and Marjorie Sutton, both serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service were killed along with 24 of their comrades when the hotel on North Way, Great Yarmouth, in which they were billeted, received a direct hit during a bombing raid on 11th May 1943. The two girls had joined up on the same day.
The year 1943 brought a string of hard won Allied victories. In September the Allies landed on the Italian mainland in what was seen by some as an attack on “The soft underbelly of Europe”. In fact, Europe’s underbelly proved to be a “Tough old gut”. Italy saw some of the bitterest of fighting in an often-harsh environment. The campaign was to last 20 months, till almost the final surrender of Germany itself, and was to claim the life of Gunner Tom Marshall, 68th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, 10th Indian Division, the third Fulstow soldier to be killed.
May 1944 finally saw the Allies break through the formidable Gustav Line, made famous by the costly battles around the town of Cassino. Pressure on the Anzio beachhead was relieved, and on June 5th the Americans entered Rome. However, German units once again escaped north, conducting a masterly withdrawal to yet another prepared defensive position north of the City of Florence, the Gothic Line. The 10th Indian division was tasked with pursuing the Germans up the Tiber Valley, no easy task as the valley floor is often no more than a mile wide and the countryside very close and steep, covered with vineyards and fruit trees. 68th Field Regiment fired fire support missions and laid smoke for the infantry and armour, and when the C.O. of the 3/5th Mahrattas became a Schu-mine casualty, Major James of 68th Field Regiment briefly took over command of this Battalion. However, the German artillery too was active, and a shell killed Tom, who was attached to a battery HQ as a signaller.
The story of the fighting in Italy is probably best summed up by a few versus of the bitter and satirical song the ‘D-Day Dodgers’, penned by soldiers of the Eighth Army themselves to the tune of Lili Marlene;
We’re the D-Day dodgers out in Italy,
Always on the vino and always on the spree,
The 8th Army scroungers with their tanks,
We live in Rome amongst the yanks,
We are the D-Day Dodgers, in Sunny Italy,
We landed at Salerno, a holiday with pay,
The Jerries brought their band out to cheer us on our way,
They showed us the sites, and made us tea,
We all sang songs, the beer was free,
To welcome D-Day Dodgers, to sunny Italy,
Naples and Cassino, we took them in our stride,
We didn’t go to fight there, we just went for the ride,
Anzio and the Sangro were just names,
We only went to look for dames,
The randy D-Day dodgers, in sunny Italy.
On the way to Florence we had a lovely time,
We ran a bus to Rimini, right through the Gothic line,
Soon to Bologna we will go,
And after that we’ll cross the Po,
We’ll still be the D-Day Dodgers, in sunny Italy,
Look around the hillsides, in the mud and rain,
There lie scattered crosses, some that bear no name,
The lads beneath them slumber on,
Heartbreaks, toils and sorrow are now gone,
They are the D-Day Dodgers, who stayed in Italy.
On June 6th 1944 the Allied armies stormed the fortified coast of Normandy, four years almost to the day since the last soldier had left Dunkirk. For nearly three months the fighting raged as the materiel might of the Allies was matched by the defensive tenacity of the Germans. However, by the middle of August the German Seventh Army had reached breaking point and collapsed, much of it being trapped and destroyed in the Falaise area. The fighting had cost over 209 000 Allied casualties.
On August 25th Paris was liberated, on the 26th the British successfully crossed the Seine at Vernon. Allied armoured units motored east with, in most places little or no resistance. Brussels was liberated on September 3rd, the fifth anniversary of Britain declaring war, with the 11th Armoured Division entering Antwerp the following day. On September 13th advanced elements of the US Army reached the Siegfried Line in Germany.
It was widely believed that the German Army was on the point of collapse. On September 10th a plan was unveiled to capture bridges over the major waterways of Holland by landing 35 000 American, British and Polish airborne soldiers. These forces would create a corridor through which the British 2nd Army could pass, outflanking the Siegfried Line and striking towards the Ruhr. If successful the European war would be over by Christmas. The plan was given the codename Operation Market Garden, ‘Market’ for the airborne element and ‘Garden’ for the operations of 2nd Army.
Fulstow man Claude Marriott, who’s sister Viola Wells had been killed in the 1943 bombing raid, was serving as a serjeant in the Glider Pilot Regiment, attached to the British 1st Airborne Division. As the name suggests it was the job of these men to pilot the gliders which would carry the air landing infantry brigade, the airborne artillery and reconnaissance units, plus the vehicles and heavy equipment used by the parachute battalions. Unlike their American counterparts, British glider pilots were also trained to fight as infantry until such times as they could be evacuated.
At 1.00 pm on Sunday 17th September 1944 British troops began landing on their selected drop zones between six and eight miles west of Arnhem. The battle that followed has been much studied and written about, and still attracts heated discussion. The Germans reacted swiftly and vigorously to the airborne landings. A battle group of roughly 1 800 men, based round the 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment, made it to the northern end of Arnhem bridge where they dug in and held on with a tenacity that has become a legend. The relieving tanks never arrived, and by 5.00am on Thursday 21st this group had all been killed or captured. The remainder of the Division were forced back into the suburb of Oosterbeek, where they too dug in to await the ground forces. The Germans named the area “Die Hexenkessel”; the Witches Cauldron, as the fighting reached ferocious levels, the airborne men battling for their survival. As the British ground forces closed on the southern bank of the Rhine their artillery joined in the battle, bringing down heavy concentrations of fire on targets as close as 150 yards from the paratroops positions at ranges of over 10 miles. On the night of 24th/25th September an attempt by the Devonshire Regiment to cross the Rhine and relieve the airborne was repulsed with heavy casualties. Following this the decision was made to withdraw what remained of 1st Airborne Division. This was successfully achieved, with the last of the 2 400 airborne men to get out reaching the southern bank by 5.50am on the 26th.
In total 1st Airborne Division had suffered 7 200 casualties in the eight days. The Glider Pilot Regiment took 1 262 men into the battle, of whom of which 219 were killed in action. Claude Marriott lost his life in the fighting of 21st September. Only 532 Glider Pilots successfully made the trip back over the Rhine, with the remainder going into captivity.
The last of the Fulstow soldiers to be listed on the memorial is Trooper John Maddison, who’s unit, the 13th/18th Hussars, had landed with the assault waves on the Normandy beaches on June 6th, and had gone on to fight in most of the actions of the northwest European campaign. Their battle honours include Mont Pincon, the Albert Canal, Nijmegen and the Island, the Reichswald and the Rhine Crossing. It is worth quoting the words of Lt. Gen. Brian Horrocks, giving his final address to 8th Armoured Brigade, to whom 13th/18th Hussars were attached and who’s foxes head badge was worn by all troops;
“To all troops who have worn the ‘foxes mask’, your casualties have been high I’m afraid, but the results achieved have been out of all proportion to your losses. You can all of you feel that you have done more than your share to win this war. Through your fine fighting qualities you have made possible many of XXX Corps victories.
Thank you 8th Armoured Brigade”.
John Maddison died in an accident on 21st December 1945 whilst stationed at Hanover.
It is best left to the famous words of Laurence Binyon, upon seeing the lists of casualties being sent back from France;
“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, or the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”
Laurence Binyon, 21st September 1914
LANCASTER CRASH.
On the night of 23rd/24th December 1943 two Lancaster bombers, ED730 and ND327, of 550 squadron took off from RAF Grimsby bound for Berlin. They collided at approximately 12 000 feet over Fulstow. The collision resulted in a massive explosion, destroying both aircraft and killing the 14 crewmembers. The two crews were:
Flt Sgt William R. Cooper age 21 Pilot,
Harrow, Middlesex.
Sgt Alan R. Laurence age 21 Navigator
Hatfield, Herts.
Sgt Gordon W. Claydon age 20 Flt. Engr.
Walgrave, Northants.
Sgt George W. Guest age 20 Bomb Aimer
Stonewall, Manitoba, Canada.
Sgt Robert W. Theobald age 20 W/O
South Norwood, London.
Sgt Joseph A. Jordan age 21 A/Gnr
London, Ontario, Canada.
Sgt Jack Rawson age 31 A/Gnr
Wickersly, Yorkshire
Sgt Hubert F. J. Woods age 21 Pilot
Bedminster, Bristol.
Sgt David G. Davies age 22 Flt. Engr.
Neath, Glamorgan.
Sgt Montague E. Giles age 22 Navigator
Gloucester
Flt Sgt Joseph R. E. Legere age 24 Bomb Aimer
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada
Sgt Leonard F. Wright W/O
Hereford.
Sgt John C. Atherton age 30 A/Gnr
Tenneriffe, Queensland, Australia.
Sgt John McConnell age 19 A/Gnr
Motherwell, Lanarkshire
The two Lancaster bombers were part of a force of 379 aircraft sent to attack Berlin that night. Sixteen failed to return, though German night fighter pilots reported that poor weather conditions over the continent had made interceptions awkward.
They had roared down the runway at RAF Grimsby, which is crossed by the A16 Louth – Grimsby road at Holton Le Clay, the Pilot concentrating on keeping the aircraft steady while the Flight Engineer held the throttles fully open against the stops. The four Rolls Royce Merlin engines, each developing 1 390-horse power, lifting the aircraft off the ground at about 120 knots.
A Lancaster bomber bound for a distant target like Berlin, a return flight of about 7 hours, would normally be carrying 2 154 gallons of fuel, in addition to a mixed bomb load of around 10 000 lbs, making an all up weight of about 30 tons. It is interesting to note that many of the young captains of these aircraft had yet to learn to drive a car. The crew of 7 were all volunteers, with the mix of British and Commonwealth personnel on these aircraft quite typical. Bomber Command crews were probably the most highly trained of all of Britain’s fighting forces.
The heavily laden aircraft normally took around 40 minutes to reach operational altitude of 20 000 feet, conserving fuel for the long trip ahead. RAF reports show the night sky over Lincolnshire on 23rd December to have been clear and starlit. For whatever reason, ED730 and ND 327 suffered a major collision at 12 000 feet over Fulstow. The aircraft blew up in mid-air, with wreckage coming to earth over an area of some 4 square miles, much of it along the canal.
The Police report speaks of a ‘terrific explosion’ at ‘quite a height’ with ‘wreckage scattered over a wide area’. The remains of the crew were taken back to the mortuary at RAF Grimsby on Christmas Eve. The bodies of 9 of the UK nationals were taken to their hometowns for burial, while the 3 Canadians and 1 Australian were buried at Cambridge City Cemetery. The body of Robert Theobald was never recovered.
Though great care was taken in the planning and routing stages to avoid aircraft collisions, it was inevitable that they would occur with the sheer number of aircraft in the sky. December 1943 would seem to have been a bad month, in Lincolnshire’s skies alone; 2 Lancasters collided over Elsham Wold on the 16th and 2 more over Waithe on 17th, in addition to the Fulstow crash.
Bomber Command crews had an operational tour of 30 missions. In 1943, on average out of every 100 men; 55 were killed, 4 injured, 12 parachuted over Europe and became prisoners of war, 2 parachuted and evaded capture returning to the UK, 27 survived the tour.
During World War Two Bomber Command suffered 55 000 dead, plus 20 000 wounded. They dropped 2 700 000 tons of bombs on Germany. German civilian deaths as a result of the RAF’s night area bombing are hard to calculate, but are probably in excess of 300 000.