Defending the Heart - a visit to RAF Uxbridge

Gate Guardian at RAF Uxbridge is this replica Hurricane in 303 Polish Squadron colours (author's photo)

Early in November, I was lucky enough to pay a visit to the RAF 11 Group Ops Room, more popularly known as the Battle of Britain Bunker at RAF Uxbridge in Middlesex, which was responsible for the air defence of London and the Southeast of England and as such carried the motto 'Tutela Cordis' which translates to 'Defence of the Heart.'

No. 11 Group was part of RAF Fighter Command and was an integral part of what became known as the 'Dowding System', named after Fighter Command's first Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief and the man who, with a committee led by Henry Tizard, developed what was the first interlocking command, control and communication network. This comprised of a system of Fighter Groups, Squadrons and Sector Stations, linked to the radar, observer posts, anti-aircraft guns, balloon control all controlled from Fighter Command HQ at Bentley Priory, near Stanmore in Middlesex.

It was a work of genius, which was a cornerstone of British victory during the Battle of Britain and of which the Luftwaffe were never fully aware and who never understood its significance.

The Memorial at RAF Uxbridge (author's photo)

The Groups were the second link in the communication chain and filtered down all of the information received through to the individual sector stations within their respective groups, whilst passing the information up to Command HQ at Stanmore. Today, the 11 Group Ops Room is open to the public, currently by appointment only and has been recreated to appear exactly as it did during the Battle of Britain, more specifically for around 11:30 on Sunday 15 September 1940, the day we now commemorate as Battle of Britain Day.

Appointments are necessary because the nature of the bunker makes space restricted and therefore limits the size of the groups that can be accommodated. My appointment made, I arrived a little before 14:00 having made the short walk from Uxbridge Underground Station through the former RAF Station, much of which is currently being developed into a new housing estate. On formation in 1936, the 11 Group Ops Room was located within Hillingdon House but this was a temporary measure as it was realised from the outset that any such nerve centre would need to remain impervious to enemy air attack.

The bunker was constructed by the well known construction company Sir Robert McAlpine under conditions of strict secrecy between February and August 1939 and was thus available in the nick of time for war. The bunker is sixty feet beneath the ground and was designed to be immune to the heaviest bombs of the period. It was also designed with attack by poison gas in mind and contains a gas filtration system (which is still functioning to this day) which ensures that breathable air is available at all times to those working within the complex.

On the afternoon of my visit, we had a small group of three people booked, one of whom was a 'no show' and thus, our small party of two, led by Bob, our enthusiastic and knowlegeable guide, began the descent of the first flight of 87 steps down to the Ops Room.

The first of 87 steps down - and back up! (author's photo)

As we were a small group on the day, Bob was first able to show us the gas filtration room, which after 78 years still functions perfectly well. Our next port of call was the checkpoint, which today is recreated by an RAF Regiment Guard in mannequin form, together with a rack of 0.303 rifles and a secure grill to prevent unauthorised entry. Understandably, given the secret nature of this site in 1940, entry was strictly governed by pass only. Bob explained that it was here that the Ops Room suffered its only fatal casualty of the Second World War when a WRAF was killed by a rifle which fired as it was being cleaned by one of the duty guards, killing her instantly.

The Check Point entrance to the Ops Room (author's photo)

With this sobering thought in mind, we descended further down two more flights of stairs until at last, we reached the bottom level. Bob explained that the bunker has always had a problem with flooding, although during the years that it was operational, the space was manned around the clock and could be adequately controlled. This is not always the case today and Bob showed us the mark left by a summer thunderstorm in July 2015 which left the complex shoulder deep in water.

Bob shows us the 2015 flood level marked on the door frame (author's photo)

Having reached the Ops Room proper, although I had never visited before, it was a strangely familiar sight. This was because I had seen it (so I thought) in many films, perhaps most notably in the 1969 classic Battle of Britain and I asked Bob about this filming. It transpired that the film hadn't been shot in the Bunker, because at this time RAF Uxbridge was still an operational station and in any case, the Ops Room in its 1940 form was non-existent at that time. A team from the production company visited, took meticulous measurements and aided by photographs of the complex taken during the war, faithfully recreated the complex at Pinewood Studios - and so myths are demolished!

The 'Tote Board' and Plot Table (author's photo)

The Gallery - VIPs were accomodated on the far left (author's photo)

The main Ops Room is dominated on one side by the vast 'Tote Board' which fills one wall and by the elevated desks and the curved glass of the gallery on the other. The desks were occupied by the 'Tellers' who were in constant contact with the Sector Stations, Radar Stations etc. and the Gallery was home to the Duty Controller and the AOC, who during the Battle of Britain was Air Vice Marshal Keith Park. The glass protection was a must, as the main Ops Room, with it's legion of Tellers, WRAF 'croupiers' on the Plot and the constant ringing of telephones, was a noisy place and the Controllers up above needed a modicum of quiet in order to take the momentous decisions needed to control the battle.

Bob immediately set about explaining the Tote Board and its complexities. It was designed to display all of the relevant information at a glance. The place names displayed prominently across the top and bottom of the board - TANGMERE, NORTH WEALD, HORNCHURCH, KENLEY, BIGGIN HILL, DEBDEN and NORTHOLT - are the Sector Stations for 11 Group. The numbers displayed beneath each Sector Station are the squadrons assigned to each sector, for example for Northolt we see 1 (Canadian), 303 (Polish), 229, 504 and 264 B Flight, which was a night-fighter squadron at this period of the Battle and is thus shown as 'Released' on the Tote Board, as it is set for 11:30 on 15 September 1940. The descriptions beneath each squadron, such as 'Available in 30 minutes' etc., show the readiness state of each of those squadrons. The meaning of the coloured lights relates to the colours shown on the clock face, so for example with the clock at 11:30, the minute hand has just passed the 'blue' section on the clock face, so if the light is illuminated in blue, the controllers know at a glance that this is up to date information, if in yellow then ten minute old information, red fifteen minutes and so on, with the lights being lit in sequence. At the bottom of the status list, we then see the words 'State of Squadrons' - this is simple with 'P' equating to pilots and 'A' for aircraft, so again we can see at a glance that 1 (Canadian) Squadron at this precise point had 23 pilots but only 13 aircraft, 303 (Polish) 21 pilots and 17 aircraft and so on across the squadrons.

Weather and Balloon Status was also shown (author's photo)

Nothing was left to chance and the lower part of the Tote Board displayed the weather and visibility across all Fighter Command airfields and so apart from the Sector Stations, we now saw other familiar names from the Battle of Britain such as Hendon, Croydon and Martlesham Heath on display. For example, the cloud status was 8/10 cloud cover at 18,000 feet above Biggin Hill and visibility of three miles. The green disks told at a glance that the airfield was open - a red would indicated a temporary closure and a red/green would indicate usable with care. The status of the balloon barrage was shown, with the heights of the barrages at Dover, Gravesend, Tilbury and London all shown.

The Plot Table set for 11:30 on Sunday 15 September 1940 (author's photo)

Moving to the Plot Table, the same principal of showing at a glance the age and therefore the validity of the information to hand applied. Looking at the photograph immediately above, three raids can be seen heading across the Channel; these are marked 'H' for Hostile and the number '04' for example, signifies that it is the fourth hostile raid detected so far that day. The figure in red below indicates the number of aircraft in the raid, either based on the radar operator's judgement, or as observed by a member of the Royal Observer Corps. The arrows behind the raids are coloured according to the clock face, so in this instance a blue arrow represents the most up-to-date and therefore accurate information available and by looking at the progression of arrows, it is possible to plot the course of the raids as they head towards the English coast. The RAF fighter squadrons being deployed in response to the raid are shown in similar fashion, with the squadron numbers displayed on yellow flags atop the  wooden blocks, so we see that the first squadrons likely to intercept are 92 and 72 Squadrons, which comprise of twenty aircraft and which are patrolling at a height of 25,000 feet, in other words, with the advantage of height. Other squadrons are shown at various points, either patrolling over airfields, or ready to intercept before the raiders reached London. In the distance, just over the demarcation line between 11 and 12 Groups is a formation marked 'W' which shows fifty five aircraft patrolling at 20,000 feet. This is the Duxford Wing, or the "Big Wing" of 12 Group, which although it had let down Park in 11 Group earlier in the battle by appearing too late to be effective, on this day it was to have a devastating psychological effect on the Luftwaffe by appearing in large numbers, just at a time when the German pilots had been led to believe that the RAF was on its last legs.

From the Plot Room, we moved upstairs to the gallery area behind the curved glass. Part of this is still laid out with the desk for the Duty Controller, which during the Battle of Britain was Air Commodore Baron Willoughby de Broke, who during the Battle of Britain always ensured that he was available and never missed a single day's action. An interesting fact relayed by Bob our guide, was that contrary to popular belief, no RAF personnel slept in the bunker at any point during the war, the only person being allowed to do so was the duty GPO telephone engineer, so vital was it to maintain communications with the outside world and the 11 Group airfields in particular. Another interesting point of interest is that the map on display is the original dating from 1940, which when the Ops Room was restored to it's original Battle of Britain configuration in the mid-1980s, was found rolled up in a storeroom, gathering dust!

The view down from the Gallery (author's photo)

The remainder of the Gallery, along with many of the adjoining former offices, has been converted into a most attractive and interesting museum, housing models, uniforms, medals and memorabilia from the RAF's Second World War history and beyond. This was largely the work of Warrant Officer 'Chris' Wren MBE, who whilst stationed at RAF Uxbridge for the final nine years of his RAF career, took it upon himself to restore the Ops Room to it's former glory and made it a personal mission to achieve this end. Chris is now retired from the RAF and from overseeing the Ops Room but he can be extremely proud of the end result.

During the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill was a frequent visitor and would sit in the VIP area of the Gallery watching the day's events unfold and indeed, it was following a visit on 16 August 1940 that he was so moved by what he seen, that he began to pen the speech that would include the now immortal phrase "Never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed, by so many to so few."
Churchill was again present on 15 September 1940, the day we see frozen in time at the Ops Room today but the Bunker was visited by many other VIPs during the war, including Field Marshal Montgomery and General Dwight D Eisenhower.

Air Raid Siren formerly mounted on the roof of Hillingdon House (author's photo)

Babys' Gas Mask (author's photo)

Other parts of the Museum are dedicated to the Royal Observer Corps, Bomber Command and to RAF Uxbridge. A slick looking new Visitor Centre is currently under construction outside in the grounds which is due to open in February 2018 and it is to be hoped that this new facility doesn't detract from the charm of the current arrangements too much. There is also a Lecture Theatre, and whilst we were undertaking our visit, watched a fascinating film made especially for the RAF in 1990 which highlighted the work of 11 Group. Bob mentioned that for school groups, who are also catered for here, he frequently shows the classic documentary "London Can Take It!" which dates from 1940.

Of course, the 11 Group Ops Room was at the centre of events other than the Battle of Britain, although this was undoubtedly it's 'Finest Hour' to coin a phrase. The subsequent fighter sweeps, known as 'Rhubarbs', a costly strategy envisioned by Keith Park's successor Trafford Leigh-Mallory, who had intrigued for the 11 Group AOC's post, were all controlled from here, as were the air operations for another ill-advised mission, the Dieppe Raid in 1942. The culminating moment came in 1944, when the air operations for Operation Overlord, the D-Day Landings were all controlled from the 11 Group Bunker and today a replica Spitfire Mk IX in "Invasion Stripes" acts as the joint gate guardian with the Hurricane to represent the two pinnacles in the Ops Room's history.

Replica Spitfire Mk IX gate guardian (author's photo)

The Battle of Britain Bunker in it's present format is open by appointment only until Friday 22 December 2017, after which point it will close until the new Visitor Centre opens in February next year. I highly recommend paying a visit and details as to how to book can be made by checking out the Museum Website as per this link. If you can, visit before the closure so that you can see the current arrangements before it is too late!

Captain Evans, Monty and the Flying Fortress - Part Two

Richard Evans (left) and some of his crew with Monty (Bobbie Kinnear)

Having duly met King George VI and having found him to be, as Monty had predicted "A very nice chap", the time soon came for Captain Evans and his crew to start the work for which they had been selected.

This was on a flight from Tripoli to Cairo and as well as Montgomery, the B-17 carried a full party of VIPs, amongst them General Henry Maitland Wilson, known as ‘Jumbo’ due to his large size as well as the ever present ‘Freddie’ de Guingand. The atmosphere was relaxed as the crew of the bomber gave their British guests an impromptu tour of the aircraft, even allowing the British Generals the opportunity to squeeze into some of the gun positions. Whilst all this was going on, Monty was settled into his small office area that had been set up in the converted bomb bay and carried on with his paperwork. Monty seemed – and was – an austere type but ‘Freddie’ had earlier spoken to Captain Evans and reassured him that Monty’s “disinclination to smile” as he put it, was nothing to worry about and that Monty could be “a most pleasant fellow” in the right circumstances.

Gen. Sir Henry 'Jumbo' Wilson (IWM)

During the course of the flight, Evans noticed that the oil pressure indicator on the B-17’s number 3 engine was showing a very slight drop in pressure. There was nothing particularly untoward in this; the desert environment was extremely tough on aircraft engines with sand constantly being ingested into the cylinders and gradually wearing the pistons, thus allowing oil to leak slowly into the space and escape into the airstream. Although this was a slow process at first, for an older aircraft like Theresa Leta unless the engines were replaced at regular intervals, these leaks would steadily get worse.

Even so, it was nothing to worry about, the B-17 could quite easily fly on three engines if required and as a precaution Evans decided to shut down or ‘feather’ no. 3 engine to save wear and tear and then re-start it on approach to Cairo so as to have full power available for landing. Whilst this was a slightly unusual procedure, for an experienced pilot like Richard Evans it was not an issue to cause concern. Even so, when Lieut. Johnson, the co-pilot enquired whether he should inform the passengers of the developments, Evans wisely decided against it, so as not to cause them undue alarm. Despite the wisdom of this decision, it was one which was to have repercussions for Evans – and for Monty. Leaving Theresa Leta on autopilot, Evans decided to go back and speak to his passengers and passing Monty in his office, he casually invited him up to the flight deck, having completely forgotten that his bomber was flying on three engines!

Lieut. Johnson was despatched to stretch his legs and to free up the co-pilot’s seat for Monty, who settled in gingerly. Evans felt that he was making real progress with his British master, who for the first time began to relax and speak with some freedom. It was clear that he was enjoying the flight as he spoke to Evans about his time in the British Army and his exploits against Rommel.

During this conversation, the British General suddenly noticed something and rasped in a very un-Monty like voice “It’s stopped, it’s stopped! The engine’s stopped – it’s not running!” Evans had been so engrossed in his conversation with Monty that he had completely forgotten that he had feathered the engine and now Monty had embarrassed himself in front of an American officer. Captain Evans tried his hardest to reassure Monty that there was no cause for alarm and even tried a little humour in telling the great man that Boeing had deliberately given the B-17 an excess of power just so that one engine could be switched off so as to rest it!

It was all to no avail and Monty stormed from the flight deck, clearly upset and embarrassed that his legendary calm demeanour should have cracked in front of an American officer and a fairly junior one at that. Evans cursed his forgetfulness and vowed never to let this happen again.

General George S Patton Jnr (US Army)

As well as incurring Monty’s displeasure, Evans also managed to upset the volatile American General George S Patton. This incident came when he was flying Monty and a B-17 full of distinguished British VIPs to Palermo for a conference with Patton regarding the ongoing campaign in Sicily. Apart from Montgomery himself, the passengers once again included ‘Freddie’ de Guingand and General ‘Jumbo’ Wilson, Eisenhower’s Deputy Commander.

Prior to the flight, General Patton had advised Monty that the airfield at Palermo “was satisfactory for all types of aircraft”, information that had been passed on to Evans. However, upon arrival over the airfield, it quickly became clear that Patton's aviation knowledge did not match his expertise in tank warfare. The runway looked alarmingly short for a large aircraft such as the B-17 and Evans growing apprehension could not have been helped by his then witnessing a C-47 transport aircraft, better known to the British as a Dakota and a much smaller aircraft than the B-17, run the full length of the runway before crashing in flames into the trees at one end of the airfield.

Perhaps fortunately for his passengers, they remained blissfully ignorant of affairs on the ground whilst Evans circled the field trying to assess the situation. The only positive that could be drawn was that the smoke billowing from the crashed C-47 provided an excellent indication of the wind speed and direction!

The question now for Evans was whether to attempt a landing and risk quite possible disaster, or to incur the possible displeasure of Montgomery and the certain wrath of Patton by aborting the whole operation as unsafe and returning to Gela. To add to the pressure on Captain Evans, he could already see General Patton on the ground, his polished steel helmet glistening in the Sicilian sunlight, impatiently awaiting the arrival of his British counterpart, for whom he was already developing an implacable loathing, something that would grow into an obsession by the time of the Normandy campaign a year or so later.

Against his better judgement, Evans decided to attempt a landing, confident in his own ability as a pilot to pull off a diagonal landing across the field, thus maximising the available limited space. Touching down into the brisk headwind all seemed well at first but an initial touch of the brakes revealed that the brakes on Theresa Leta had failed and that an already perilous landing on a short field was now being turned into something altogether more hazardous.

Thinking quickly, Evans decided to try to ‘ground loop’ the big bomber in an attempt to avoid meeting the same fate as the C-47 that he had seen crash earlier and indeed to avoid ploughing into it’s wreckage. This was achieved by using the engine throttles on the port wing of the aircraft to make a fast, powered turn to effectively reverse course on the ground.

Through superb skill and a little luck, Evans managed to turn a potential disaster into a very rough landing, almost a controlled crash and taxied the B-17 up to about fifty feet from where General Patton was waiting to greet his British guests. No sound could be heard from the on-board VIPs and certainly no sound was coming from General Montgomery’s makeshift office created in the bomb bay of the B-17. Outside the bomber, it quickly became clear from General Patton’s expression that he was not impressed!

Patton in fact, had a face like thunder. Notwithstanding his intense dislike of Monty and all things British, even he considered that it was bad form for an American officer and a mere Captain at that, to go endangering the life of a British general!

Patton’s ‘greeting’ to Captain Evans was brief, to the point and typical of the man – “What kind of a landing do you call that?” he asked. Evans managed to stay surprisingly calm and replied that he had executed a deliberate ground loop to avoid crashing into the burning C-47. He also added that on reflection, he should not have attempted a landing and should have returned to Gela. Captain Evans repeated his apology directly to Monty but it was quickly apparent from the British General’s expression that he too was not best pleased with his American pilot. As for Patton, his face was now crimson and for a brief moment, Captain Evans felt that the apoplectic General might actually physically strike him.

However, without any further words spoken, both of the senior officers along with their entourages piled quickly into their transport and headed for their conferences. On their next meeting, after the conference, Monty gave Evans a “slight smile” as he probably realised that the American had in fact, saved his life.

Some books, notably ‘Patton, A Genius for War’ state that the B-17 was destroyed in this incident. This was not true and after some repairs, the bomber was quickly made airworthy once more.

Despite these early setbacks in their relationship, Monty soon became genuinely attached to ‘his’ crew, holding a sincere concern for their well being and mentioned this in a letter written later that summer, which was transcribed in full in Part One of this article, the original of which is now a proud possession of Richard Evans’ daughter, Bobbie Kinnear.   

"The crew of my Fortress are a fine body of officers and men and their comfort and well being is one of my first considerations. It is a very great honour for a British general to be flown about by an American crew in an American aircraft and I am very conscious of this fact."

The relationship between Monty and Evan’s and his crew quickly became one of mutual respect and friendship and another proud possession of Bobbie Kinnear today is a photograph that Richard Evans subtitled ‘Friends at last’ which shows a smiling Monty along with Captain Evans standing in front of the Theresa Leta.

Friends at Last - Monty & Captain Evans (Bobbie Kinnear)

Richard Evans continued to fly on combat missions out of Sicily, whilst still being on call to Montgomery and actually flew Monty back to the UK for the British General to begin work on planning the invasion of Europe.It was at this time that Monty requested that Evans should stay on as his personal pilot for the Normandy campaign and beyond. Evans declined as he wished to return to full time combat duties and although Monty was disappointed, he greatly respected this decision and wrote Captain Evans a generous and sincere letter of thanks, which must surely have been a useful item to have had in one’s Army Air Force Curriculum Vitae!

The letter is reproduced below and is written in the typical no nonsense style beloved of Monty but is obviously sincere as well as being to the point:

"On the occasion of the departure of you and your crew I would like to thank you all, each one of you, for the good work you have done whilst with me.

It has been a great pleasure to have had you serving with me, and with the Eighth Army.

Good-bye and the best of luck to you all, always."

Evans and his crew may have departed but true to his word, General Eisenhower provided Montgomery with an aircraft and crew right through to the end of the war in Europe, although given the way Monty later strained their relationship, there must have been times when Ike was sorely tempted to abandon the arrangement and make his British subordinate walk!

Monty's 'thank you' letter to Richard Evans and his crew (Bobbie Kinnear)

Richard Evans and his crew returned to combat duties, flying out of Italy on raids to Venice, Rome, Pisa, Austria and targets in Southern Germany before completing fifty missions in 1944 and returning home to the USA. He then trained to fly the B-29 Superfortress for combat missions in the Pacific and actually flew three raids on Japan out of Tinian before being ordered to return to the USA in order to bring another wing of B-29s out to Tinian. The war ended before he could achieve this and instead he was ordered to fly a B-29 to Delhi and then return to Okinawa.

Evans left the USAAF in 1946 to become a financial planner in Pasadena, although he continued as a reservist. In 1952, he re-entered the Air Force as a Colonel and was made head of operations for the development of the new B-47 bomber at MacDill AFB, Florida. He did all of the flying scenes in the movie ‘Strategic Air Command’, starring James Stewart (himself an Air Corps veteran) and flew B-47s out of Thule, Greenland and bases in England.

Evans left the Air Force in 1959 and became a consultant for Northrop Grumman in the B-1 Bomber competition as well as working as a consultant for Douglas on the C-5A transport aircraft.

Richard Evans died on June 13th 2006 and was buried with full military honours having loyally served his country and the Allied cause as well as achieving much for Anglo-American relations in the process.

I am indebted to Bobbie Kinnear for making her late father’s papers and unpublished memoirs available to me. It is to be hoped that these can be published in the future as the exploits of the unsung heroes of World War Two such as Richard E Evans and his crew deserve to be read by a wider audience.

The Crew of the Theresa Leta:

Captain Richard E Evans
Lieutenant Fred I Johnson (Co-Pilot)
2nd Lieutenant Albert L Beringsmith (Bombardier)
2nd Lieutenant Thomas Carver (Navigator)
Tech. Sergeant Dale Owens (Flight Engineer)
Staff Sergeant Francis (Frank) R Morris (Radio Operator)
Staff Sergeant Victor Kennedy (Waist Gunner)
Tech. Sergeant Lewis (Top Turret)
Staff Sergeant Austin (Ball Turret)
Staff Sergeant Charles (Chuck) W Ward (Tail Gunner)

Published Sources:

The Memoirs of Field Marshal The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein - Collins 1958

Unpublished Sources:

Unpublished Memoirs of Colonel Richard E Evans, USAF

Captain Evans, Monty and the Flying Fortress - Part One

Bernard Law Montgomery (IWM)

In early November 2013, I had the pleasure of guiding Bobbie and John Kinnear from Santa Barbara, USA on a private walk around Westminster’s wartime past. One of the pleasures of guiding is that one often meets the most interesting people and it was clear during our conversations both via email in planning the tour and whilst actually walking the ground that my clients not only knew their subject but also had a fascinating family connection with one of the major figures of World War Two, Bernard Law Montgomery.

Bobbie’s late father, Richard E Evans, was born in 1919 and after graduating from the University of Tennessee in 1939, won a local contest sponsored by the Tennessee Air National Guard for free pilot training. Later that year, he joined the Army Air Corps and trained on the Boeing Stearman biplane, before commencing his training on the then new B-17, a large four engine bomber, designed to deliver a large bomb load over long ranges, whilst at the same time being able to defend itself as part of a larger formation. In 1941, Evans became an instructor on the B-17 and following the USA’s entering of the war at the end of 1941, he attempted to get himself posted to England as part of the fledgling Eighth Air Force but was turned down owing to his experience as an instructor. In January 1943 however, he was able to convince Colonel Fay Upthegrove, who was taking the 99th Bombardment Group to North Africa, into taking Evans along as one of his senior pilots and on the 20th of that month, the group flew to North Africa.

Colonel Fay Upthegrove (www.99bombgroup.org)

Captain Evans was part of 346th Bomb Squadron, 99th Bombardment Group, which formed part of the 12th Air Force in the North African Theatre of Operations, based in Algeria. At this time, 12th Air Force was operating in support of Allied land forces who were striving to eject Axis forces from North Africa. The Supreme Allied Commander was the then relatively little known Lieut-General Dwight D Eisenhower and one of his subordinate Army Commanders was the victor of El Alamein, Bernard Law Montgomery, or ‘Monty’ as he was universally known to the British, serviceman and civilian alike. Monty had given Britain her first major land victory over the Wehrmacht and had achieved this unaided, with British and Empire manpower alone.

This was an important victory, not only from a strategic point of view but also politically. The British effort in the war was now to be steadily overshadowed by the increasingly massive effort from the USA, both in manpower and industrial might, so it was vital to show our American allies that the British Army could beat the German war machine and that the British would not be ‘fighting to the last drop of American blood’ as some cynics on both sides of the Atlantic would believe. Monty, supremely confident in his own ability to the point of conceit, was just the man to provide this victory, although he was to prove almost as difficult a subordinate to Ike as he was an enemy to Rommel.

So, when Captain Evans was summoned to Colonel Upthegrove’s office, he could have had no idea that his life as an American officer was to become intertwined, for the next few months at least, with Britain’s great hero. Captain Evans had flown 27 missions out of a possible full combat tour of 50 or even 60 missions, so a return home was hardly on the agenda. Neither was a promotion to Major, so Evans must have been wondering what he had done to warrant this summons to his senior officer. The prospect of meeting his C.O. held few worries for Evans, for he knew that he had done nothing wrong and that Colonel Upthegrove, or ‘Uppie’ as he was informally known behind his back, was a decent and fair man, who would not be summoning him for petty or trivial reasons.

On arriving at his C.O.’s tent that passed as an office, Evans was soon put out of his misery and must have been astounded when he read his orders:

 “…by order of General Eisenhower’s Supreme Allied Headquarters, Algiers, through General Doolittle’s Twelfth Air Force Headquarters, Constantine, Algeria.”

“Captain Richard E Evans, AO-397378, 99th Bombardment Group, 12th Air Force, North Africa, ETO, is hereby relieved of his current duty assignment, is transferred to British 8th Army, and is directed to report without delay to The Army Commander, General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery.”

“A combat ready B-17 with full ammo and combat aircrew will be assigned to Captain Evans for the period of this duty.”

The All American - another B17E from 99th Bomb Group

Evans was astonished by these orders and this astonishment was transparent enough to assure Uppie that he had not been pulling a ‘fast one’ behind the Colonel’s back in order to escape further combat operations. Upthegrove had initially wondered whether Evans had family connections with Doolittle, Eisenhower, or even Monty, so he was as confused as Evans as to how and why his name had been pulled from the hat.

Evans next task was to select a crew. This was a simple task as he instinctively chose the men with whom he had been flying since bringing his B-17 across from the States; these were men that he trusted with his life and it would have been unthinkable for him to have chosen any other crew. Evans impressed upon his crew the nature of their assignment and also informed them what Uppie had told them – not to allow any harm to come to their illustrious passenger, otherwise none of them, Evans, his crew or Upthegrove, would ever hear the last of it!

Evans was mystified as to why Montgomery, a British General, should require the services of a B-17, an American aircraft, complete with crew and although the great man himself was to explain the reason personally to Evans in due course, perhaps now is a good time to put the record straight.

Eighth Army had captured Sfax on 10th April and at a previous meeting with Ike’s Chief of Staff, General Walter Bedell Smith, Monty had undertaken to capture this city no later than 15th April. Smith had told Monty that if this could be achieved, then General Eisenhower would give Monty anything he asked for. Monty, taking Smith to his word said that he would like the services of a B-17 aircraft, complete with crew for his personal use. Smith agreed, thinking that this was a semi-jocular remark by Monty. The British General however, was not well known for his sense of humour and was deadly serious; he realised that flying in a combat zone was a hazardous occupation and had hitherto been using a twin engine DC3 aircraft. Reliable enough, but unarmed and vulnerable to attack; a B-17 with four engines would give him greater comfort and reliability and would also be able to defend itself against any Germans who had gotten wind of Monty’s travel arrangements.

So, when Sfax was duly taken ahead of schedule, Monty insisted that the bet, however light heartedly it had been taken by Smith, be ‘paid up.’ Eisenhower, being the great and honourable man that he was, realised that Monty was being serious and supplied the aircraft on 16th April, which is where Captain Evans and his crew came in!

Monty inspects 'his' crew - Richard E Evans on left (Bobbie Kinnear)

It is possible that the seeds of Monty’s unpopularity in some American quarters were sewn with this incident. Eisenhower was beginning to recognise that in Monty he had a great General but another ‘Prima Donna’ to rank alongside Patton to cope with. Monty’s ‘bet’ also got him into hot water with his British superior officer; General Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, who reminded Monty that as far as Ike was concerned, the whole thing was a joke that had gotten out of hand. Brooke also pointed out that the RAF could have supplied Monty with a modern four engine aircraft, such as a Lancaster or a Halifax, to which Monty replied that indeed the RAF could have – but hadn’t, despite his repeated requests!

Monty’s own theory on the matter was that Bedell Smith had omitted to mention to Ike his initial promise of an aircraft to Monty and that when the British General had approached Eisenhower demanding ‘his’ aircraft, this was actually the first that he had heard of the proposal. This explanation is plausible and to someone like Monty, who had little in the way of social or diplomatic skills, it was all something quite simple – a bet had been made and it was time to pay up!

All this was unknown to Captain Evans and his crew as they flew into Tripoli in the ‘new’ B-17 that had been selected for this strange assignment. The bomber was not actually new at all but rather an elderly (by B-17 standards) machine named Theresa Leta. Evans never did find out exactly after whom the bomber had been named but it seemed bad luck to change it, especially when he discovered that this was the very bomber that General James Doolittle had flown down from the UK to North Africa during the Allied invasion of that continent. Theresa Leta was a B-17E; not the latest model but still a fine aircraft for a General Officer to have as his personal transport.

Later, Monty would write Evans a personal explanation of the reasons behind his getting hold of a B-17 which read as follows:

"The Fortress aircraft was given to me by General Eisenhower in April 1943, after I had captured SFAX. He came to visit me at my Army HQ shortly after the Battle of MARETH; it was the 2nd April and I was busy preparing to attack the AKARIT position and then to burst through the GABES Gap and out into the plain of central Tunisia.

Part of Monty's explanatory letter to Evans (Bobbie Kinnear)

I told General Eisenhower that when I had captured SFAX there would be need for considerable co-ordination between the action of the Allied Armies in Tunisia and this might mean a good deal of travelling about for me. I asked him if he would give me a Fortress (B17); the splendid armament of these aircraft makes an escort quite unnecessary and I would be able to travel at will and to deal easily with any enemy opposition. I said I would make him a present of SFAX by the middle of April and if he would then give me a Fortress it would be magnificent. I captured SFAX on 10th April and the Fortress was sent to me a few days later.

I have travelled many miles in it and it has saved me much fatigue. I have no hesitation in saying that having my own Fortress aircraft, so that I can travel about at will, has definitely contributed to the successful operations of the Eighth Army. I cannot express adequately my gratitude to General Eisenhower for giving it to me; he is a splendid man to serve under and it is a pleasure to be under his command.

The crew of my Fortress are a fine body of officers and men and their comfort and well-being is one of my first considerations.

It is a very great honour for a British general to be flown about by an American crew in an American aircraft and I am very conscious of this fact.

BL Montgomery

General

Eighth Army" 

Upon landing at Tripoli, Theresa Leta was met by a British lorry, the driver of which gestured to Evans to follow him, and guided by their British Allies, the B-17 lurched across the steel planking to it’s designated parking place, where Captain Evans and his crew were met by a moustachioed, very senior looking British General, who turned out to be the irrepressible General Francis De Guingand, known to all and sundry as “Freddie”, the immensely popular (and very able) Chief of Staff to General Montgomery himself. This was quite a welcome but the friendly British officer soon put Evans at ease and promptly invited the Captain and his crew to the following day’s victory celebrations which were to be attended by no less a dignitary than King George VI himself! 

General Francis 'Freddie' De Guingand (IWM)

 

After explaining the whereabouts of the crew’s accommodation and the arrangements for parking the B-17, Evans was whisked off to visit the great man himself outside his headquarters tent. Up until now, Evans had hardly had time to be nervous but his disposition could hardly have been improved when upon being introduced to his new pilot, Monty stared hard and uncomprehending at the Captain, before turning on his heels and walking straight into his tent without uttering a single word to the now bewildered American officer! 

With great presence of mind, Captain Evans decided to follow Monty into his tent to make certain he had taken on board his arrival and upon entering the tent, Evans found the Eighth Army Commander sitting at his desk, seemingly immersed in paperwork. Monty did not look up but gestured to Evans to sit down and upon his doing so, greeted him with a warm smile and stated how pleased he was to meet him! The ice was broken and Montgomery repeated the invite given earlier by De Guingand to attend the victory celebrations on the next day and to meet the King, before mentioning Evans’ first official mission, which would be to fly Monty to Cairo in a couple of days time. 

Monty was not an easy man to know or to work for and Evans would incur the great man’s displeasure quite early in their association, in fact on Monty’s first flight in the Theresa Leta.

In the next edition of this blog, we shall see how Captain Evans managed to unnerve the usually unflappable British General, as well as upsetting Monty's great rival, General George S Patton, during his tour as Monty's pilot.

Published Sources:

The Memoirs of Field Marshal The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein - Collins 1958

Unpublished Sources:

Unpublished Memoirs of the late Colonel Richard E Evans, USAF

Plaques for the memory

The First Bomb on the City of London (author's photo)

For almost 150 years, famous people and the locations of great events in history have been recorded by the now familiar circular blue plaques. At first these plaques were neither circular nor blue but gradually evolved into the shape that we are now accustomed to. These plaques were originally unique to London and were produced and funded by the Royal Society of Arts, then taken on by the London County Council and following the local government reorganisation of 1965, the Greater London Council. Following the demise of this latter organisation in 1986, the scheme has been administered by English Heritage and under their stewardship has been rolled out across the country. Apart from the English Heritage plaques, many people and events have been commemorated in a similar fashion by local authorities and other organisations across the country.

Recently, the English Heritage Blue Plaque scheme has been in the news for the sad reason that all new installations are to be suspended for at least the next two years due to cuts in government funding. Whilst it is to be hoped that an alternative method can be found to enable this decision to be reversed, perhaps now is a good time to examine some of the people and events of the Second World War that are commemorated by blue and other plaques across the capital.

There are too many wartime related plaques to mention them all in one article but instead we will try and mention as many as possible of the more notable people and events commemorated.

Leonard Rosoman's haunting image (author's photo)

We start not with a plaque in the conventional sense rather than a stone but seeing as how it marks the beginning of what was to escalate into the London Blitz, it is not possible to ignore it. Prior to the night of 24th/25th August 1940, London had not suffered from any serious bombing; indeed the capital had been placed 'off limits' by Adolf Hitler, perhaps in the hope of still being able to bring the British to the negotiating table rather than by forcing an invasion. Everything was to change on this night however, when a flight of German bombers, aiming for the Thameshaven oil refineries at the mouth of the Thames, instead found themselves hopelessly lost and instead of ditching their bombs over open countryside as their commander had thought, actually dropped them over the northern part of the City of London, at Fore Street, Moorgate. This theory of this first raid being a mistaken one is open to debate, for as well as the first bomb mentioned above, bombs also fell on East and West Ham, Stepney, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Leyton, Edmonton, Walthamstow, Bloomsbury and Islington - surely too large an area for an 'accidental' attack by a handful of bombers. Whatever the reason, it is generally agreed through subsequent corroboration of local authority incident logs that the first bomb fell on the City of London at Fore Street at 00:15 on 25th August 1940 and this landmark incident is recorded today with a commemorative stone on the replacement building erected on the spot. A landmark incident because it can be argued with some justification that the course of the war changed decisively in favour of the Allies from this moment. The switch to night bombing of London took the pressure away from RAF Fighter Command, who were able to regroup and consolidate the air superiority over the United Kingdom that they had never looked like losing during the Battle of Britain. They were able to inflict on Nazi Germany their first decisive defeat of the war and one from which they would never subsequently be able to recover.

Sydney Alfred Holder (author's photo)

The Blitz of course, was to create many heroes, myths and legends. A group of heroes to come out of this turbulent period in London's history, were the men and women of the London Fire Brigade and Auxiliary Fire Service, the 'heroes with grimy faces' as they were dubbed by Winston Churchill. Formed in 1938 as a result of the rapid expansion of the Civil Defence services following the Munich Crisis, the AFS volunteers were originally held in low esteem by the British public. One of the most common insults hurled their way was to be called '£3 a week Army dodgers' as a swipe at their being exempt from the call-up to the fighting services. Although trained by regular firefighters, on the outbreak of war in 1939, most of these auxiliary firefighters had never even tackled a 'normal' fire, let alone the maelstrom that they would face during the Blitz and never has the phrase 'baptism of fire' held more truth. Today the charity Firemen Remembered commemorates the numerous acts of self sacrifice and heroism displayed by the Fire Services in London by placing their distinctive white plaques at the scenes where fire fighters made the ultimate sacrifice. Theirs is an ongoing work and new plaques sponsored by this charity continue to be erected. The author has been lucky enough to be invited to several unveilings, the most recent of which saw a plaque unveiled to the memory of Auxiliary Fireman Sydney Alfred Holder, who died on the night of 29th/30th December 1940 - the Second Great Fire of London - in a scene immortalised by the War Artist Leonard Rosoman, himself an AFS firefighter who was present at the same incident and who narrowly avoided death under the collapsing wall that he subsequently painted. The plaque pictured is located at the scene of the incident in Shoe Lane, EC4.

Sir Winston Churchill (author's photo)

Winston Churchill, who gave the Fire Services their epithet as mentioned above, is commemorated with at least seven plaques across London, the one pictured being at what proved to be his last home in the capital at 28 Hyde Park Gate. Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940 in the aftermath of the Norwegian fiasco, a campaign for which his predecessor Neville Chamberlain was to take the blame but which ironically had seen Churchill as one of it's architects. Despite this, Churchill was to galvanise the country into a new atmosphere of defiance and belief in the final victory over Nazism. Part of this new atmosphere was to see new blood at the head of the armed services and after not a little exasperation on his part, the installation of military leaders who were accustomed to winning battles.

Bernard Law Montgomery (author's photo)

One of this new order of military leaders was Bernard Law Montgomery. The son of a clergyman, Montgomery was born in Kennington, southeast London in 1887. A career soldier, he had served in the Great War and had been shot through a lung and severely wounded in 1914 whilst serving in Belgium. Following a lengthy recuparation, he was to return to the Western Front in 1916 and saw further action at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 before finishing the war as GSO1 with the 47th (1/2nd London) Division as a temporary lieutenant colonel. Peacetime service followed with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and marriage to Betty Carver came in 1927. These years were undoubtedly the happiest of his life; his wife Betty smoothed the many rough edges of his character and brought him a family. Tragedy was to follow in 1937 when his wife died suddenly following the onset of septicaemia caused by an insect bite. Devastated by his loss, Montgomery characteristically threw himself into his work, to the exclusion of all else and became the arch-professional of the British Army, expecting and demanding the same levels from all who served under him. Those who failed to meet his exacting standards were dealt with ruthlessly and dismissed in his own phraseology as being 'quite useless' and as such quite often damned from any further advancement in the Army.  This sort of attiude was to bring Montgomery many enemies in the peacetime Army but in wartime, especially under the new regime of Churchill and his new Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Alan Brooke, who had advanced and protected Montgomery in peacetime, it was only a matter of time before the spiky little general was to come into his own. He had distinguished himself during the withdrawal of the BEF from France in May 1940 and following a spell in Southern Command in the UK during the invasion scare of 1940, he was sent out to North Africa in the summer of 1942 to take command of the British Eighth Army from General Auchinleck following the latter's withdrawal to a defensive line at a railway halt called called El Alamein. The subsequent victory at El Alamein in November 1942, was the first time that the British Army had beaten the German Wehrmacht before the arrival of American troops into the European theatre and marked the beginning of the end of the German presence in North Africa. Today, a blue plaque marks Montgomery's birthplace at Oval House, 52-54 Kennington Oval.

Dwight D Eisenhower (author's photo)

During Montgomery's time in North Africa and subsequently in Sicily, he was to encounter a then relatively unknown general of the United States Army, Dwight D Eisenhower, who was to exercise overall command during this latter campaign. He was to find Montgomery a difficult man to command but like the superb diplomat and commander he was, recognised Monty's qualities as a 'winner' and allowed him a certain amount of latitude. The two men were to be reunited during the Normandy Campaign when Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Allied Commander with Montgomery as his overall Land Force Commander for the invasion and the immediate aftermath before Eisenhower was to take over the overall land command, much to Monty's annoyance. It was during this campaign that Eisenhower's friendship with Montgomery finally faltered; the lack of tact and respect shown by his subordinate was too much for him to take and the relationship between the two men was never the same again. Eisenhower was well liked within the UK and whatever shortcomings he had as a field commander, he was widely respected for his diplomacy and for his refusal to allow nationalistic concerns interfere with the overall Allied cause. The plaque shown is outside Eisenhower's former headquarters in Grosvenor Square.

The First Buzz Bomb - Grove Road, E3 (author's photo)

During the Normandy campaign the people of London, who perhaps might have felt that they had seen the last of bombing to their city, were to get a rude awakening in the early hours of 13th June 1944 when the railway bridge at Grove Road, Bow was struck by what was at first thought to be a crashed aircraft. This theory was soon dispelled when more and more of these weapons began to fall on the capital as well as in Kent, Surrey and Sussex. These first crude cruise missiles were being launched mainly from sites in the Pas de Calais and although countermeasures were soon put in place, such as moving the anti-aircraft guns and balloons to form a coastal defence line, behind which the RAF could operate to shoot down those bombs which still got through, some 2,515 of these 'buzz bombs' as they were quickly christened by the war weary Londoners, managed to evade all of the defences and caused further havoc where they fell. The worst of the V-1 attacks had passed by late August 1944, when the last of the launching sites were overrun by the liberating Allied forces.

The First V-2, Staveley Road Chiswick (author's photo)

At least these weapons could be defended against; much worse was soon to follow. At 6.34 pm on the 8th September 1944, there was a huge explosion in Staveley Road, Chiswick and a massive crater appeared in the roadway opposite number five. All along this hitherto quiet suburban road, houses were destroyed and those which did not collapse were seriously damaged. Perhaps surprisingly, the death toll was light, with only three people being killed and a further ten suffering serious injury. Unfortunately, this pattern of light casualties was not to last. Although the authorities suspected what was the real cause of the explosion, the authorities initially stated that the explosion was caused by an exploding gas main. Perhaps this was to avoid any panic but seeing as Londoners had not significantly panicked during the preceeding four years of bombings, this logic is hard to understand. These frightening weapons, which were launched from mobile sites mainly in the vicinity of Den Haag (The Hague) in the Netherlands, could not be defended against. The only way to stop them was to force the launching sites out of range of the UK, or to bomb the production sites but seeing as the main factory for the production of these weapons was an underground facility (where they were produced using slave labour in horrific conditions) this latter option was not viable. There were several high-casualty incidents on London - the worst being the Woolworths store in New Cross, which was struck on Saturday 25th November 1944, when 160 people - mainly Christmas shoppers - were killed, with a further 77 serious injuries and scores more walking wounded. These weapons were also fired on Maastricht, Brussels and Antwerp amongst other placess and it was at the latter location that the worst V-2 incident of the whole war occurred, when on 16th December 1944 the Rex Cinema received a direct hit. It was crowded with both locals as well as Allied soldiers enjoying some hard earned leave and the final death toll of 567 surpassed even the worst attack on London. Some 1,600 V-2s were lauched on Belgium, compared with the 1,400 aimed at the UK but fortunately, terrible as these weapons were, they came too late to affect the outcome of the war, although the last one was not to fall on London until March 27th 1945 and on Antwerp the following day. 

There are many more plaques in London commemorating people and events from the Second World War and below is a non-exhaustive list of those which this author is aware of. The knowledge of any others would be gratefully received!

Auxiliary Firemen Stanley Harold Randolph and Harry Richard Skinner - Tavistock Square WC1

Auxiliary Firemen Albert Edward Arber - Athelstane Grove E3

Balham Underground Station - 14th October 1940

Beckenham Auxiliary Firemen - Beckenham Fire Station

Bernard Law Montgomery - Oval House, Kennington Oval SE11

Blackfriars Station Entrance V-2 - Blackfriars Road SE1

Captain Ralph Douglas Binney - Birchin Lane EC3

Druid Street Arch Bombing 25th October 1940 - Druid Street SE1

Dwight D Eisenhower - Grosvenor Square W1

Earl Mountbatten of Burma - Wilton Crescent SW1
Edward R Murrow - Hallam Street W1
The First Flying Bomb - Grove Road Railway Bridge E3
Sir Frederick Handley Page - Grosvenor Square W1
West Ham Auxiliary Fire Service - Gainsborough Road School E15
Charles De Gaulle and Free French Forces - Carlton Gardens SW1
Guy Gibson VC - Aberdeen Place NW8
RAF Aircrew - Lord's Cricket Ground Pavilion NW8
Joan Bartlett and Violet Pengelly, AFS Firewomen - Old Millwall Fire Station, West Ferry Road E14
Nortraship, Norwegian Shipping & Trade Mission, Leadenhall Street EC3
Oranjehaven - Hyde Park Place W2
Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands in Exile - 77 Chester Square SW1
The Queens Hall - Langham Place W1
Auxiliary Fireman Sidney Alfred Holder - Shoe Lane EC2
Sir Archibald McIndoe, Reconstructive Surgeon - Draycott Avenue SW3
Sir Barnes Wallis - New Cross Road SE14
Sir Douglas Bader - Petersham Mews SW7
Sir Winston Churchill - Hyde Park Gate SW7
Old Palace School, St Leonard's Street E3
Stainer Street Arch Bombing 17th February 1941 - Stainer Street SE1
Station 39 London Auxiliary Ambulance Service - Weymouth Mews W1
Surrey Docks Fire September 7th 1940, Surrey Quays Road  SE16 
Old Surrey Theatre, St Georges Circus SE1
Field Marshal Viscount Gort, Belgrave Square SW1
Woolworths V-2 Attack 25th November 1944, New Cross Road SE14
Dr Hannah Billig, Cable Street E1
Alan Turing, Warrington Crescent W9
First V-2 Attack 8th September 1944, Staveley Road W4
Chelsea Fire Station, Kings Road SW3
Norwegian Government in Exile 1940-45, Princes Gate SW7
Poplar Fire Station, East India Dock Road E14
Turk's Row V-1 Incident, Turk's Row SW3
Auxiliary Firewoman Yvonne Green, Chelsea Old Church, Old Church Street SW3  


Published Sources:

Hitler's Rockets - Norman Longmate, Frontline Books 2009
The Lonely Leader: Monty 1944-45 - Alistair Horne, Pan Books 1995
Monty - Nigel Hamilton, Hodder & Stoughton 1994
The Narrow Margin - Derek Wood with Derek Dempster, Tri-Service Press 1995