Out of the Ruins

The 1950 Ordnance Survey Map of Greenwich Town Centre (Dave Wood)

Regular readers of this blog may remember that back in February of this year, we looked at a fascinating photograph that had been provided by Dave Wood @liverpoolimages of Enderby's Wharf, taken immediately post-war in 1946 and how we were able to compare the photograph with the LCC Bomb Damage Map as well as the same view today.

Dave has now posted another image, this time of an Ordnance Survey Map of Greenwich Town Centre dating from 1950, which regularly features the slightly enigmatic description "ruin" on the map. Given the date of the map, it is apparent that the ruins are in fact, bomb damaged buildings and following on from the Enderby Wharf exercise, it might be interesting to compare Dave's OS Map image with the ARP Incident Log, photos of the bomb damage and how it compares to the Bomb Damage Maps for the area.

Aerial view of Greenwich Town Centre immediately post-war, almost certainly taken from the Town Hall clocktower (Author's collection)

What is just as significant as the ruins marked on the OS Map is perhaps what isn't shown; in 1950 there are large areas of emptiness in what was before the war and what is today a thriving built up area. These empty spaces are bomb sites, of which there were plenty in London in the immediate post-war years, some even surviving into the 1970s and 80s. The LCC Bomb Damage Maps for the area are held at the Greenwich Heritage Centre along with the Civil Defence Incident Logs that this author spent many hours transcribing some years ago. These resources are invaluable in translating the basic information on the Ordance Survey Maps into showing exactly which buildings were damaged and at what level of damage.

Greenwich Town Centre Bomb Map (Author's image from original at Greenwich Heritage Centre)

Luckily, as Greenwich has been well photographed over the years, we are able to compare the maps with photographs taken immediately after the war which graphically show the amount of damage incurred by German bombs during the Blitz of 1940-41 and subsequent V-Weapons Campaigns of 1944-45.

Therefore, if we start just below the centre of the two maps, we can see Nicholas Hawksmoor's St Alfege Church of 1718 clearly marked on the OS Map and at first glance all seems well. Compare this however with the Bomb Damage Map and we see that the church is marked in light red, signifying "Seriously Damaged, Repairable at Cost." An examination of the photograph, in which the roof of the church can be seen (unfortunately the spire is out of shot) towards the top left of the image, shows that the roof of the church is still showing signs of wartime damage, with repairs still at an early stage. The church was damaged on several occasions during the Blitz but the killer blow came on the night of 19 March 1941 when the church was gutted by Incendiary Bombs which lodged in the roof timbers, eventually causing the entire roof to plummet into the church itself where the fire burned out of control for some time. There was also an Oil Bomb reported exploding in the Churchyard on the night of 10/11 May 1941 but this seems to have done little if any damage. Happily, the church was rebuilt under the direction of Sir Albert Richardson and re-consecrated in 1953 and continues today to be an important spiritual centre of the community.

Looking at Dave's OS Map, we can see that directly opposite the church, the only building shown is a bank, in 1946 the Westminster Bank but today a Natwest branch. There is a large fallow area either side of the bank and this can be confirmed by looking at the Bomb Map, which shows many buildings coloured in black, which indicates "Total Destruction." This is interesting, because closer examination of the 1946 photograph shows that the bank building is actually still standing, although there is obvious damage both to it and to pretty much everything else left standing in the surrounding area. The cause of this almost total destruction was caused by a V-2, or as described at the time in the Incident Log, a "Long Range Rocket" which was reported at 16:19 on 24 January 1945, causing four fatal casualties, seventeen serious injuries and another ninety two walking wounded. Thanks to the excellent V2 Rocket website, we know that this missile was lauched some five minutes previously in the Den Haag area of The Netherlands. The V-2 Rockets caused widespread damage, mainly in London but also in liberated cities such as Antwerp and Brussels but which mercifully came too late to alter the outcome of the war, with the final British bound example falling at Orpington, Kent on 27 March 1945, less than six weeks before the final German surrender.

If we look again at the photograph and come slightly nearer to the camera, we can see on this side of the church The Mitre public house, which still stands today on the three-way junction with Roan Street, Straightsmouth and Greenwich High Road. Once again, there are some anomalies between the OS Map, the Bomb Damage Map and the photographic evidence, which shows the pub looking somewhat the worse for wear but probably still open for business, whilst the OS Map shows "ruins" on both sides of it. A closer look at the photograph confirms what looks like a bombed out building next door to the pub in Roan Street (which today seems to form part of the pub itself), whilst the Bomb Damage Map makes no mention of any bomb damage whatsoever at this end of Roan Street.  The only bomb damage recorded in the Incident Log for Straightsmouth is a V-1 Flying Bomb further along the road, which caused severe damage to the railway embankment on 1 July 1944 and caused seven serious casualties but thankfully no fatalities. There are some further buildings marked in purple, meaning "Damaged Beyond Repair" at the junction of Straightsmouth and Roan Street but the cause of this damage is unknown as there is no mention of this in the Incident Log, although there is a corresponding fallow area on the OS Map. Despite all of this visual evidence, the bomb that caused the damage to the pub and which caused the adjacent buildings to be described as ruins, is still something of a mystery as it does not appear to have been accurately recorded. The only possible explanation is blast damage caused either by the V-2 that destroyed the area opposite St Alfege Church, or by the V-1 in Straightsmouth described above, or perhaps a combination of both.

The clearing up operation after the V-1 of 1 July 1944 (Greenwich Heritage Centre)

A further look at the photograph adjacent to the tram nearer to the foreground shows some obvious bomb damage, which on the Bomb Damage Map is indeed marked in purple, as "Damaged Beyond Repair." It is hard to pinpoint exactly when this damage was caused as there were so many incidents recorded but it was probably caused on 18 September 1940 when incendiary bombs fell in the area and were reported as having destroyed number 277 and adjacent buildings on the opposite side of the road (again marked in purple on the Bomb Damage Maps), so it would seem a fair assumption. The photograph bears out the level of damage as there is a fairly large extent of cleared land on the left hand side of the road as we see it in the foreground.

On the right hand side of the photograph, to the rear of Greenwich High Road, there is almost total destruction still evident in 1946. This is almost certainly the legacy of another V-1 Flying Bomb which fell on Burney Street on 27 June 1944, causing many houses to be destroyed as well as causing widespread blast damage to the already battered area. Many of the houses were damaged beyond repair and subsequently demolished. Today, the abrupt ending of the surviving terrace gives away the location. In one of those strange post-war twists of fate, the land was later used as the site of the new Greenwich Police Station, which ironically replaced the original Police Station in Park Row, itself destroyed by a Flying Bomb in July 1944.

Damage to Burney Street after the V-1 incident of 27 June 1944 (Greenwich Heritage Centre)

As a matter of interest, the nearest Air Raid Wardens' Post was 'West 5', located in the Town Hall further along Greenwich High Road, which also housed the Borough Civil Defence Control Room. The new Town Hall, completed in 1939, is an impressive Art Deco structure which with it's tall clock tower (from which the aerial photo was taken) dominates the immediate area. It houses a substantial reinforced basement, which apart from the Wardens' Post and Borough Control Room, was also the location of a large public air raid shelter, capable of housing some seven hundred people. This, together with the other public shelters in the vicinity, would have been in frequent use during most of the incidents mentioned above.

Moving further away from the camera nearer to the Thames and almost entirely out of shot behind the church, is another area shown on the Bomb Damage Map as having incurred severe damage. Unfortunately, this area is just off the top of the page for the OS Map, so we are unable to compare the two maps on this occasion but it does make interesting viewing. This area close to the entrance to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, is shown in a combination of colours, mainly black for "Total Destruction" but with large areas of purple "Damaged Beyond Repair" and crimson "Seriously Damaged - Doubtful if Repairable" showing on the map. There is also a large area shown in green, which indicates a "Clearance Area" which in other words is an area already reduced to rubble and which has already been cleared for redevelopment. The bulk of this devastation was caused by yet another V-1 Flying Bomb that was reported at 06:24 on 3 August 1944 and which killed one person. Had the weapon fallen a few hours later, the casualties would doubtless have been higher as this was a busy area of shops and small businesses, as well as a pedestrian thoroughfare to the Foot Tunnel. Almost the whole block, including the gutted remains of the old 'Ship Hotel', which had already largely been destroyed by a HE Bomb in November 1940, was subsequently cleared to allow the building of the dry dock to house the Cutty Sark in 1954.

As always, the photographs and the two maps make fascinating reading, showing as they do an area that is familiar today to residents and visitors alike, in a completely different light. The documents also show the difficulties that sometimes arise when researching an area's wartime history and the dangers of becoming over reliant on one particular document or source of information. The LCC Bomb Damage Maps are an excellent resource and are invariably correct but one has to remember that these were produced by fallible human beings, often in the heat of the moment. What appeared beyond repair to one local authority building surveyor was sometimes actually very repairable in reality. Likewise, the Civil Defence Incident Logs were written very much in the heat of the moment and therefore sometimes get locations muddled or wrongly named. What always helps are the photographs of any bomb damaged area as these provide incontrovertible visual evidence, even though they do sometimes throw up more questions!

However, the use of all of these sources together will usually allow the determined researcher to get to the bottom of most mysteries as well as providing hours of harmless fun in the process!

As this is likely to be the final blog post for 2016, I'd like to thank everyone for reading and commenting upon the various articles, as well as wishing all of our readers the compliments of the season and also a happy and healthy 2017. We will be back in January with further reports on our wartime history.

Unpublished Sources:

LCC Bomb Damage Maps for Greenwich - held at Greenwich Heritage Centre
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Civil Defence Incident Logs - held at Greenwich Heritage Centre 
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Public Air Raid Shelter locations - held at Greenwich Heritage Centre
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Air Raid Wardens' Post locations - held at Greenwich Heritage Centre

An Ordinary Hero

Ordinary Seaman Jack Dorrington (Dorrington family collection)

On this Remembrance Day, it is fitting to publish the story of one of the many hundreds of thousands of ordinary men and women who served their country during the Second World War. Happily, Jack Dorrington, the subject of this article survived the war to lead a long and happy life in peacetime but we should also remember the many thousands who were not so lucky and who made the ultimate sacrifice. The piece below is the result of the sort of typical family history research that we are able to undertake. If you're interested in learning more about one of your wartime ancestors, please contact me either via the main website or by leaving a comment below.

Jack Dorrington’s story in the Royal Navy is similar to many of those citizen sailors, soldiers and airmen who served in the Second World War. Reginald Jack Dorrington was born in Southwark in 1924 and was a young man who like many others found himself suddenly transplanted from civilian life into something that must have seemed very alien to him – a new life of training, obeying orders and overseas travel into a war zone. What is remarkable about Jack and all of these reluctant warriors is that they so readily adapted and to paraphrase a contemporary saying “kept calm and carried on” with their lives.

His introduction to the Royal Navy would be familiar to any new entry to the Service, then or now, as it began at HMS Raleigh, a Shore Establishment or ‘Stone Frigate’ at Torpoint in Cornwall. This establishment was commissioned in 1940 to provide basic training to new entries into the Navy, a role which continues to this day. Jack was a member of Class 93 from 16 June 1943 and due to the exigencies of wartime, he received a very basic fourteen days training, in which he would have been given aptitude tests, learned drill, weapon training and basic aspects of seamanship as well as something of the structure of the Royal Navy. It is interesting to note that today, in peacetime, the equivalent induction into the Service and basic training takes ten weeks, so Jack and his wartime shipmates had ten weeks’ worth of training crammed into fourteen days!

On arrival at HMS Raleigh, Jack was allocated a Service Number, which like everything in HM Forces, has a meaning and is not just a random collection of letters and numbers. He was given the number JX 566902. The letter ‘J’ signified that he was to be trained as a member of the Seaman & Communication Branch (as opposed to Fleet Air Arm, Stoker, or Cooks & Stewards Branch), meaning that he would be involved either as a Signalman, Radar Operator, Gunner, or any seaman’s duty ‘above decks’ rather than in the Engine Room, for example. The letter ‘X’ signified that he was on the post-1925 basic pay scale, which at that time amounted to the princely sum of 2 Shillings (10 pence) per day for an Ordinary Seaman, rising to 4/3 (about 22 pence) per day for an Able Seaman with six years’ service. Even the number itself told a story; by 1943, the original six-figure sequence of numbers begun in 1925 at 125001 was beginning to run out due to the massive wartime expansion of the service, so from 1 April 1943, a new sequence starting at 500000 was instigated, which instantly told administrators and paymasters that a rating in this sequence of numbers was a ‘Hostilities Only’ engagement, or ‘Hostile Ordinary’ as the regulars nicknamed them. This service number would remain with the serviceman for his entire career and would be used for pay, welfare and disciplinary records. It was probably during his time at Torpoint that Jack acquired a nickname and being a six footer, it was almost inevitable that he would become known as ‘Lofty’ from this point onwards during his Royal Navy service.

Jack (top, second from right) and HMS Raleigh shipmates (Dorrington family collection)

His basic training completed, Ordinary Seaman Dorrington as he was now officially known, was allocated a Port Division, effectively a home barracks, which in his case was Chatham. The letter ‘C’ was therefore added as a prefix to his service number which now read C/JX 566902. Other prefixes regularly in use were ‘D’ for Devonport, ‘P’ for Portsmouth and ’L’ for Lee-on-Solent Fleet Air Arm ratings. Upon arrival at Chatham, Jack was based at HMS Pembroke, the name for the barracks at the Naval Base, where he would doubtless have received further training before being drafted to his first ship, the frigate HMS Lawford, then building at the Boston Navy Yard, USA. It hasn’t been possible to ascertain from his Service Record exactly what Jack’s specialization was but given his service number and looking at the types of vessels he served in, it is highly likely that he was either a Radar or a Sonar (at that time in the RN called ASDIC – an acronym for the fictitious Anti-Submarine Division Indication Committee) Operator, or perhaps a lookout – all extremely responsible positions for a young lad straight out of basic training.

Reaching the USA could be a nightmare journey for many servicemen, often being allocated to a slow and overcrowded troop ship in an equally slow moving convoy through U-Boat infested waters. Jack however, was one of the more fortunate individuals, being transported across the Atlantic in the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary, converted into a troop ship and therefore with fairly basic accommodation but which had the saving grace of being fast – too fast in fact for a submerged U-Boat to touch – so that any discomfort and overcrowding would be short-lived. Jack was on Voyage TA66, which sailed from the Clyde on the evening of 29 September 1943 and arrived at New York City just over five days later, on the morning of 5 October 1943. Upon arrival in New York, a welcome sight would have been that of a US Navy Paymaster on the quayside, whose job was to present ten dollars to each British sailor arriving in the USA. The exchange rate at this time was around four dollars to the pound, so this would have represented a small fortune to the poorly paid British servicemen. The reason for this generous act was that the cost of living in the USA was higher in comparison to the UK, so it was designed to make life easier for the lads when buying drinks and food ashore, which would have been difficult, if not impossible on their low Royal Navy rates of pay.

RMS Queen Mary in her wartime guise as a troopship (IWM)

An overnight train journey from New York to Boston then beckoned for the young sailors. Upon arrival in Boston, the next stop was at Fargo Barracks, where the seamen would be accommodated until such time as their ship was ready for them. Fargo Barracks was a vast complex in the centre of Boston that had begun life as a wool warehouse but which had now been requisitioned by the US Navy as their Induction Centre for the crews destined for the many frigates being built at the nearby Boston Navy Yard at Charlestown. The barracks had a reputation for plentiful supplies of excellent quality food, which was in sharp contrast to the rationing back home in England. Some of the young sailors were able to lodge with local Boston families rather than stay in the huge barracks. Jack was one of those selected to do so and recalled being fussed over by a kindly local family anxious to do their bit for the war effort. The lads also had free access to cinema and theatre tickets, with every effort made to ensure that these youngsters, most of whom were on their first ever overseas trip, felt welcome in their new surroundings far away from home. Of course, the British sailor enjoys his beer and there were plenty of bars for them to sample, although some of these were deemed strictly ‘off limits’ to the British, being considered home territory to US Navy men. Some fierce fights between the sailors of the two allied nations were recorded as a result of unsuspecting (or foolhardy) British tars entering an 'American' bar. One of Jack's tasks at this time was to be part of a squad that collected a member of Lawford's crew that had drunk too much in order to return him to his ship.

Whilst here, the ratings and junior officers would receive further training from US Navy instructors in connection with the layout and equipment of their new ships. This training was of a high standard and during his time in Boston, Jack learned how to drive, although whether this was part of his official training, or something done to relieve the boredom is not clear.

The Ship's Company moved aboard HMS Lawford at the Navy Yard on 30 October 1943 shortly before she was commissioned on 4 November, after which the new frigate would have conducted further trials and training. Some minor defects must have come to light during these trials, as Lawford was back in shipyard hands from 7 to 12 November 1943, with the crew back in shore accommodation.  The men finally moved on board permanently on 13 November and following further trials and a basic working-up exercise, HMS Lawford sailed at 14:30 on 5 December 1943, in company with her sister ship HMS Kingsmill, on passage to Liverpool. The Commanding Officer of the Lawford, Lieutenant Commander Sydney Ayles RNR, was the Senior Officer and therefore had overall responsibility for the two ships.

HMS Lawford at Liverpool in 1944 (IWM)

Both ships were ‘Captain’ Class Frigates, designed primarily for anti-submarine convoy escort work but these two vessels had been earmarked for conversion into Headquarters Ships for the forthcoming Normandy invasion, so their usual anti-submarine training at Bermuda was omitted, which was to have repercussions later on the voyage to the UK. All ships of the class were named after famous Captains and Admirals of the Royal Navy, mostly from the Nelson era and HMS Lawford was no exception, being named after Captain John Lawford, commander of HMS Polyphemus at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.

It is hard to imagine a tougher initiation for the embryonic sailors as that which befell those aboard HMS Lawford, for two days after sailing she ran into a Force Nine gale and by 22:30 on 7th December, she was 'hove to' with the ship’s bows heading into the wind at reduced speed in order for the frigate to ride out the storm without causing serious damage to the ship or endangering it’s safety. The conditions on board at this time do not bear thinking about and many of the men would have been wishing for the warmth and comfort of their Boston lodgings once again!

The ship resumed passage at 08:10 the following morning but there was some further excitement on the 10th December when a radar contact was reported at 20:11 at a range of six and a half nautical miles. Four minutes after initial radar contact, a German U-Boat was then sighted on the surface ahead of the two frigates. The submarine spotted the two ships closing in and dived at 20:22, by which time the range had reduced to around two miles. The Sonar crews were obviously well trained as contact was held despite the poor weather but the depth charge attacks can only be described as shambolic, with the poorly trained novice depth charge supply teams only managing a sporadic supply of depth charges up to the decks. At this point, Ayles the CO of Lawford, decided on a ‘Hedgehog’ attack. The Hedgehog was a forward throwing weapon which fired charges ahead of the ship designed to explode on contact with a submarine’s submerged hull. However, just as Ayles was about to open fire, sister ship HMS Kingsmill crossed the bows of the Lawford, inadvertently placing herself in range of the Hedgehog projectiles, thus forcing the attack to be aborted. By this stage, at 22:41 on the 10th, the weather was closing in again and the decision was taken to abort the attack for fear of the two frigates having to 'heave to' once more and thus leaving them potentially sitting targets for the submarine. The decision to proceed was vindicated because by 00:45 on 11th December, the gale had increased to Force Ten with the ships 'hove to' once again and Ayles was unable to follow orders received from C in C Western Approaches instructing him to return to the search for the submarine. The weather began to moderate by 07:20 on the 12th and following amended orders from Western Approaches Command, the two frigates resumed their passage to England.

The two ships arrived off the Liverpool Bar Light Vessel at 08:00 on 14th December and were alongside at Gladstone Dock a few hours later, from whence they were immediately sent to the Cammell Laird Shipyard in Birkenhead for conversion into their Normandy role. Christmas Leave was given and most of the ship’s companies were paid off to be transferred to other vessels. Jack was one of those selected to remain with the ship, which suggests that he had acquitted himself well in his duties and was someone who would be required in the ship’s new role. This lends further credence to the theory that he was a radar or sonar operator, some of the few people to have come out of the U-Boat debacle with credit. The conversion entailed fitting additional accommodation for the extra staff officers to be carried, an enhanced radar outfit and additional radio communications, with the close-range anti-aircraft armament being considerably strengthened by fitting an extra sixteen 20mm Oerlikon cannons at the expense of one of the three inch guns, which were of limited value in any event.

Whilst undergoing her post-refit trials, two merchant ships collided in the River Mersey during thick fog and caught fire. HMS Lawford approached to give assistance and her motor boat crew did what was described as “magnificent” work in rescuing some of the crews of the two ships, including going right into a patch of burning oil to pick up men from the water. A proper work-up programme then ensued which was completed by the end of May 1944, at which time it would be fair to say that the crew of Lawford were an efficient and fully trained unit. The work-up complete and her ship’s company at the peak of training, HMS Lawford sailed from Portsmouth for the Normandy invasion beaches on 6 June 1944, under the command of Lieutenant Commander MC Morris RN. She was escorting ten former ferries carrying Canadian assault troops for ‘Gold’ Beach.

Her role on D-Day was that of the Command Ship of Captain AF Pugsley RN, initially co-ordinating the landing of the troops on J1 Sector of ‘Gold’ Beach but who was also nominated to be in command of all patrol activity off Normandy following the invasion. All went well at first but on D+2, disaster struck when she was hit by an Hs 293 Glider Bomb dropped by a Ju88 aircraft, which seemed to appear as if from nowhere, thus demonstrating that even with the enhanced radar protection on offer, the fleet was still vulnerable to attack from low flying aircraft penetrating beneath the radar.

Hs293 Glider Bomb (Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin)

The ship broke in two and sank inside ten minutes, with 26 men being killed, who were mainly engine room ratings trapped below when the missile struck. A total of 8 officers (including her CO) and 210 ratings were rescued by two minesweepers and returned to the UK. Royal Navy records rather confusingly refer to these glider bombs as ‘aerial torpedoes’ and the records for HMS Lawford are no exception but the Hs293 was actually a radio controlled ‘ship busting’ bomb – an early form of guided missile with a warhead of over 1,000 kilograms. Not surprisingly, most vessels hit by these weapons were either sunk or damaged so severely as to be beyond repair.

Jack was above decks when the missile struck and was thus able to quickly comply with the ‘Abandon Ship’ order but being a non-swimmer, his troubles were just beginning. Wearing heavy sea boots, greatcoat and steel helmet, he was hardly equipped for buoyancy and soon found himself struggling to remain afloat. Jack recalled trying to grab hold of shipmates, being told to “Let go of me, Lofty” on numerous occasions before eventually being hauled into a small boat, probably from one of the rescuing minesweepers. Jack was unceremoniously dumped into the bottom of the boat and soon found himself underneath a pile of men as fellow survivors were thrown into the boat on top of him. Jack had swallowed a lot of seawater but the weight of the other men on top of him forced him to be sick, thus probably speeding his recovery.

Royal Navy ratings repairing buildings in London damaged by V-1 attacks (IWM)

In common with all shipwrecked Royal Navy personnel, Jack was given seven days survivor’s leave and arrived home in the clothes he was wearing when he jumped into the sea, plus a blanket wrapped around him for good measure. On his return to barracks at HMS Pembroke on 16 June 1944, Jack was promoted to Able Seaman, which is another indication that he had done good work aboard HMS Lawford. He was based at barracks until 4 September 1944 after which time he was allocated as a member of the ‘London War Party’ from 5-13 September. London had been under attack from V-1 Flying Bombs from 13 June until early September 1944 and it had been decided to deploy members of the services, including many of those whose peacetime jobs had been in the building trade, to assist in repairing some of the worst of the bomb damage. It hasn’t been possible to find out exactly what work Jack was doing at this time but the IWM has documented some of the work in a series of photographs which give us a fair idea.

Destroyer Depot Ship HMS Wolfe (IWM)

Following the end of this work, Jack was drafted to HMS Dolphin at Gosport on 16 September 1944. This was another shore establishment and was until 1999 the home of the Royal Navy Submarine Service. Jack’s Service Record shows that he underwent submarine training here, which would have included escape training. The current Submarine Escape Training Tank dates from 1954 but similar training was given in wartime, designed to simulate escaping from a submerged submarine using breathing apparatus and other life-saving equipment. On completion of his submarine training, Jack was drafted on 29 October 1944 to HMS Adamant, the submarine Depot Ship for the 4th Submarine Flotilla, based at Trincomalee, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). So far, it has not been possible to ascertain how Jack reached Trincomalee from the UK, but he would almost certainly have taken passage in a troop ship, or perhaps on board another Royal Navy ship taking up position on that station.

Jack (second from left) and shipmates aboard HMS Wolfe (Dorrington family collection)

Jack was based aboard Adamant only until the end of 1944, being transferred on 1 January 1945 to HMS Wolfe, another submarine Depot Ship, this time for the 2nd Flotilla, also based at Trincomalee. The role of the Depot Ship was basically to provide port, repair and rest facilities for submarines and their crews whilst serving away from normal port facilities – in other words a home away from home. The life on board a Depot Ship would have been quite routine for most of the time, probably not a bad thing considering the fate of Jack’s previous ship but just occasionally there does seem to have been some excitement, as the log of HMS Wolfe records several air raid warnings as well as a loud explosion outside the harbour entrance in January 1945.

On 10 September, with the war against Japan over, Jack was assigned as part of the passage crew of the submarine HMS Torbay which was returning home to the UK to be placed in reserve and eventually scrapped. Torbay was a ‘T’ Class submarine commissioned in January 1941 and had fought a distinguished war, firstly in the Mediterranean, where her CO, Lieutenant Commander Anthony Miers had won the Victoria Cross for his actions in sinking enemy troop transports. Miers was later transferred from Torbay following allegations from fellow officers and crew members that he had ordered them to machine gun enemy survivors in the water. Whilst Miers never attempted to deny the allegations, no further action was ever taken against him.

HMS Torbay (IWM)

Torbay had enjoyed continued success against the Japanese in the Far East and had sunk several transport vessels as well as a patrol boat. The battle weary submarine sailed for the UK on 10 September 1945 via the Suez Canal and arrived at Gosport on 22 October following an uneventful passage. She was later moved to Briton Ferry in South Wales and it appears that Jack formed part of the crew which delivered the submarine to the scrapyard located there on 16 December 1945. He was once again drafted to HMS Pembroke at Chatham from the following day, when he would no doubt have been granted Christmas leave at home for the first time since 1943.

On 14 February 1946, Jack was drafted to HMS Vigilant, a ‘V’ Class Destroyer at that time serving as an Anti-Submarine Warfare training vessel based at Londonderry in Northern Ireland. His service in the Royal Navy was by now drawing to a close and he was only on board Vigilant until 3 April 1946, when he was once again based at Chatham for a few weeks. Jack’s final draft was to HMS Lynx, a shore establishment for Coastal Forces at Dover, where he was based from 25 April to 17 September 1946.

Jack Dorrington was demobbed back to civilian life on 17 September 1946 but old habits formed during his service in the Royal Navy appear to have died hard, as he continued to enjoy a daily tot of rum for the rest of his life. In later years, Jack and his wife Elsie also became regular devotees of cruises aboard liners such as the Canberra and Oriana, so the nautical life must have held a lasting appeal. Jack passed away in 2015 aged 91, one of the many 'ordinary heroes' who helped defeat Hitler as well as Japanese tyranny and to whom we owe so much.

I am indebted to the Dorrington family and especially his grandson and close friend of mine, Sam, for allowing access to Jack’s photographs and for providing many personal anecdotes.


Published Sources:

The Captain Class Frigates in the Second World War - Donald Collingwood, Leo Cooper - 1998


Unpublished Sources:

Dorrington family reminiscences
RMS Queen Mary log extracts - National Archives BT 380/1202
HMS Lawford log extracts December 1943 - National Archives ADM 217/313
HMS Lawford report on sinking 8 June 1944 - National Archives ADM 267/117
HMS Wolfe log extracts January-July 1945 - National Archives ADM 53/122516-122522
HMS Torbay log extracts September-October 1945 - National Archives ADM 173/19946-47

Book Review: Jewish Participation in the Fire Service in the Second World War

With the spectre of anti-Semitism still sadly very much in the news in recent times, Jewish Participation in the Fire Service in the Second World War is a timely reminder of how a large proportion of the Jewish population of this country volunteered to serve as part of the huge civilian 'army' of Civil Defence workers who defended their own neighbourhoods against Hitler's bombs and missiles. In doing so, these men and women often had to overcome prejudice and sometimes downright hostility at home and this important work by Martin Sugarman tells not only of how they overcame this hostility but were also able to make a not inconsiderable contribution towards the Allied victory. In their own way, as Richard Overy states in his introduction to the book, these men and women were also fighting for a more democratic and tolerant Britain.

The story of the Second World War firefighters in the United Kingdom is a fascinating one; in may ways they were neither fish nor fowl, being regarded as neither civilians or members of the armed forces. In 1938, the Auxiliary Fire Service was established as part of the newly formed Civil Defence/Air Raid Precautions network and saw a massive expansion from around 5,000 full time firemen to 225,000 men and women by the time of the Blitz in 1940/41.

The author, ably assisted by Stephanie Maltman, has put together a fascinating 408 page work that tells the story of those Jewish men and women who were often amongst the first to volunteer for service. Obviously, reflecting what we now call the demographics of certain areas, there was a much higher proportion of Jewish recruits in some areas over others. In the Whitechapel and Aldgate areas of London for example, the authors estimate that around 85 percent of the entire Civil Defence network were of the Jewish faith and perhaps as many as a third across the whole of London. The West Hampstead and Golders Green areas of London also had enormouse Jewish populations and the local recruitment figures naturally reflected this. These statistics are the more remarkable because before the outbreak of war, there were hardly any Jews serving in the Fire Service across the country.

Ironically, as this war was being fought against a regime that was anti-Semitic to it's very core, these new recruits had to overcome both what we would now call 'casual' anti-Semitism and well as the more endemic kind apparent within some members of the regular Fire Service. It is a sad fact that that some members of the Fire Service were, or had been members of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists and held views consistent with those of that loathsome organisation. Some of the more 'casual' versions of anti-Semitism encountered by Jews at the time were simply the product of ignorance and poor education - indeed many non-Jewish members of society had simply never met anyone of the Jewish faith and therefore their views were tainted by the various stereotypes peddled throughout history. Sometimes, this 'casual' anti-Semitism bred through ignorance was overcome simply by people getting to know one another and the book tells a nice story of Renee Hurst, a Jewish AFS recruit in London's East End who encountered a fellow recruit named only as 'Winnie', who was openly hostile towards her. The two women ended up having a fight and were both confined to quarters due to their conduct. It was during this time forcibly spent together that the two women got to know each other and eventually became firm friends, remaining in contact after the war, even after Winnie had emigrated to Canada.

The book contains a Roll of Honour which lists all of those Jewish Fire Service personnel who lost their lives either on Active Service or in Action. In their introduction, the authors explain the rationale behind some of their research for this aspect of the book. As explained earlier, firefighters were neither classified as armed forces personnel, nor as civilians, although for the purposes of casualty returns, they are classed as 'Civilian War Dead' by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. This means that some graves of Fire Service casualties have simply disappeared with the passing of time, so it is not always immediately apparent whether a casualty died on Active Service, or sometimes even whether or not they were Jewish, so some assumptions have had to be made by the authors, which we will look at shortly. A sobering statistic is put forward in the introduction to this chapter; of the 327 London firefighters killed in the War, 32 (over 8 per cent) were Jewish, yet of the 8.6 million population of London in 1939, only 150,000 (1.7 per cent) were of the Jewish faith.

Following the Roll of Honour, we move on to the various Testimonies and Short Stories, which for me forms the most fascinating part of the entire book. This is a mixture of personal accounts and life stories of individual members of the Fire Service across the entire country and tells tales of heroism during the Blitz and V-Weapons campaigns as well as many interesting insights into the more routine aspects of Fire Service life. I was already aware of some of these stories, such as that of Harry Errington, the only London firefighter to be awarded the George Cross during the Second World War. I also knew of Abraham Lewis, the subject of one of the many Firemen Remembered plaques across London but the vast majority of the stories of these brave men and women were not and it is a fine achievement by the authors that they have at last been placed in the public domain.

There then follows the Record of Honour and as mentioned earlier when examining the Roll of Honour, the authors explain that they had to make some assumptions whilst researching whether or not a firefighter was from a Jewish background. Much time was spent by them examining Fire Brigade Registration Cards to check on a combination of names, occupations and the areas in which personnel served in order to make an educated guess at an individual's background.

The book closes with a sizeable collection of photographs of those who served, as well as pictures of many artefacts, medals and letters.

This is an excellent, well researched and well written book which brings the story of Britain's Jewish firefighters in the Second World War into sharp focus and honours those men and women who served. It will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of the Second World War Civil Defence Services and the Fire Service in particular, or for anyone interested in British social history and I have no hesitation in recommending it to you.

Jewish Participation in the Fire Service in the Second World War by Martin Sugarman is published by Valentine Mitchell and is listed at £35.00 (although this can be improved upon by shopping around online)

Real to Reel

Choosing one's favourite war movies is by definition, an extremely subjective process. Even deciding what actually constitutes a war film can become a matter of intense debate between friends. For example, should a documentary film be considered a true war movie, or does it have to be a star-studded feature or an epic with a 'cast of thousands' to be so classed?

Recently, I was lucky enough to visit "Real to Reel", an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London that is devoted to the genre and which covers pretty well every aspect that you could imagine, from the very earliest film, The Battle of The Somme, a documentary actually made during the same year of the Allied offensive in 1916, right through to the modern day Kajaki as well as American Sniper both dating from 2014. The exhibition looks at the initial ideas for movies, the 'vision' of a director, the casting, as well as the physical and logistical difficulties in making an historically accurate depiction. Sometimes though, film makers get things horribly wrong; the execrable U-571 dating from 2000, ignored the historical fact that the Royal Navy captured the first Enigma coding machine and actually showed this as an entirely American feat of heroics. The film was debated in Parliament and rightly shunned by British veterans. The film makers were eventually shamed into inserting a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie to explain what really happened but by then the damage had already been done. Another example was Objective Burma! made in 1945 and which featured Errol Flynn leading American paratroopers defeating the Japanese in a conflict which in reality was almost exclusively a British and Commonwealth affair. The outrage caused at the time was widespead and the movie was actually banned in British cinemas shortly after it was released.

As might be expected, the exhibition features many excerpts from classic movies as well as many of the props and models used to ensure that the experience of watching these films remains realistic and authentic to the time. For example, we can see some of the uniforms and costumes worn by David Niven in A Matter of Life and Death, by George C Scott in Patton, and by Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia. Interestingly, whilst O'Toole was a strapping six footer, the real life TE Lawrence was a somewhat smaller 5 feet 5 inches tall, which demonstrates another issue facing film makers, that of casting their movies accurately. Amongst the models on display is one of the B-17 models used in Memphis Belle, the cable car from Where Eagles Dare and the submarine from Das Boot. Perhaps the most famous prop on display is that motorcycle from The Great Escape, a Triumph TT Special 650 disguised to look like a German machine, that Steve McQueen used and on which he performed many of his own stunts, although not the final leaps over the barbed wire, which was actually performed by a stunt double.

My own very enjoyable morning viewing the exhibition sparked off afresh the debate in my mind about the greatest war movies, so in the hope of sparking a whole new debate amongst the readership of this blog, I've decided to list my favourite ten war films, in no special order of merit and for no other reason except that I like them. Some are complete fantasies whilst some are almost documentary accurate. Believe me, I have had to murder some of my darlings in paring this list down to a mere ten but will cheat slightly by adding some 'honourable mentions' at the end. You will almost certainly disagree with some or all of my choices but then you do have the chance to make your own list through the comments page.

At 10, we start with Battle of Britain, a 1969 British film that is an extremely accurate depiction of the events of the summer and autumn of 1940, when the RAF handed the first serious defeat to the German war machine. The film stars Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Robert Shaw, Susannah York and many others portraying a mixture of real people such as Lord Dowding, Sir Keith Park and Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory and thinly disguised fictional characters (for example, the Robert Shaw 'Skipper' character is loosely based on 'Sailor' Malan.) The film is also remarkable for it's flying sequences, being all shot using real aircraft in real time. There was no CGI available in 1969 and the film is all the better for it. The movie's flight consultant was Group Captain Hamish Mahaddie and he managed to gather together what was described at the time as the 35th largest air force in the world. The German aircraft were sourced largely from the Spanish Air Force and were adapted Spanish built CASA 111 bombers (almost identical to the Heinkel He111) and Buchon fighters, a Spanish version of the Bf109. The Spitfires and Hurricanes were mainly later marks that didn't fight in the Battle but which were carefully adapted to increase authenticity. The scenes of the London Blitz were filmed in St Katherine's Dock in London, at that time being redeveloped and with many of the old warehouses being earmarked for demolition in any case, with further filming taking place in Southwark and at the real life Aldwych Tube Station. I first saw this film shortly after release in 1969 with my Dad and some 47 years on, it remains one of my firm favourites.

Number 9 sees another film I first saw as a young lad - this time on tv - and which made a lasting impression upon me. This is The Cruel Sea, a 1953 production from Ealing Studios which itself is an adaptation of Nicholas Monsarrat's classic novel of the same name. Monsarrat himself served in the Royal Navy on North Atlantic, East Coast and Arctic convoy duties, so much of what we see in the film is based on his own experiences. The film stars Jack Hawkins as Commander Ericson of the fictitious corvette HMS Compass Rose and who in my opinion, gives the performance of his career. He is ably supported by Donald Sinden as Lieut. Lockhart (who is almost certainly Monsarrat), Denholm Elliott and Virginia McKenna, as well as a superbly unpleasant performance by Stanley Baker. Perhaps the most famous scene in the book features Ericson having to make an agonising decision when a U-Boat is detected directly beneath a group of survivors in the water. Having decided to attack, the men are blown to pieces in the ensuing depth-charge attack, with Ericson and his crew watching horrified at the sight of what they have done. Haunted by what has happened, Ericson gets himself helplessly drunk when Compass Rose puts into Gibraltar at the end of this voyage. The little corvette has already rescued many survivors of other sunken ships and some of them try to console Ericson by telling him that they owe him their lives and that he should feel no remorse towards the men who died in the water - "The men you had to kill" - as one of them says somewhat undiplomatically. He is joined by Lockhart who has also been drinking and who also tries to console Ericson by taking the blame for identifying the contact as a U-Boat. Ericson tearfully looks at Lockhart and merely replies that "No one murdered those men, it's the war, the whole bloody war."

At 8, we have another movie about the Battle of the Atlantic, albeit a much more recent example and one which looks at things from a German point of view. The 1981 film Das Boot is a superbly claustrophic piece of work from the director Wolfgang Petersen based on a novel by Lothar Gunther Buchheim which tells the story of U-96 through the eyes of a reporter placed on board to make a propaganda piece about the crew and life on board a submarine at war. The all German cast is led by Jurgen Prochnow playing the cynical, veteran commander of the boat (as all submarines are called by their crews), supported by Klaus Wennemann playing the equally veteran Chief Engineer and Herbert Groenemeyer in the role of the journalist, Leutnant Werner. The movie highlights tensions between the newer, Nazi Party supporting members of the crew such as the First Watch Officer and the older, more seasoned veterans. As the submarine moves in to attack a British convoy in filthy weather, their periscope is spotted by a Royal Navy destroyer and the U-Boat (and the audience) endures what must be the most accurate depiction of a depth-charge attack ever put on film. The boat is shaken, lamps and gauge glasses explode and one can almost feel the nerves of the crew being jangled with each explosion but the wily captain eventually manages to extricate the submarine with only light damage. Eventually, the submarine torpedoes a British oil tanker which the crew think has been abandoned. To their horror, when the torpedoes strike, crew members emerge from the stricken ship and dive into the water, which is itself now ablaze from the spilled cargo of the tanker. Under strict orders not to pick up survivors, the submarine backs off, leaving the screaming men to their fate. Further adventures follow and the submarine is ordered to attempt to break into the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar. First though, the submarine makes a clandestine refuelling stop in neutral Vigo, Spain to replenish from an interned German merchant ship located there. The Captain has radioed in advance for the Chief Engineer to be relieved in order that he may return to his family in the bombed city of Hamburg and has also requested that the journalist be allowed home as well but the request is denied and the submarine attempts to enter the Mediterranean. The U-Boat is relentlessly depth charged by the British in another hair raising sequence before finally sinking to the bottom. Makeshift repairs are effected before the submarine limps back to base in La Rochelle with a severely injured crewmember on board. The ending of the movie is both moving and tragic which echoes truthfully the fate of the vast majority of the German U-Boat men. Bravery was not restricted to the Allied side and this film is a fine testament to those intrepid submariners.

A castle known as the Schloss Adler features at number 7 in the 1968 movie Where Eagles Dare, based on the novel by Alistair MacLean and which contains many of the author's trademarks, such as the heroes fighting against seemingly overwhelming odds as well as there being a traitor (or traitors) within the closer circles of the heroes, with the main traitor not being unmasked until almost the end of the film. The action features around the rescue attempt of one General Carnaby, a senior American planner behind the forthcoming Allied invasion of Europe. His aircraft is shot down and Carnaby is taken to the castle, where he is to be interrogated, if necessary by the use of Scopalomene, a 'truth' drug. A crack team of British commandos is assigned to rescue him, led by Richard Burton, as Major Smith and Clint Eastwood, an American Ranger officer seconded to the team. The casting of Eastwood ensured that the film would do well in America and was also a central point of the plot of the movie. The team eventually infiltrate the castle, despite losing two of their number in mysterious circumstances and meet up with two female operatives working under deep cover. Once in the castle, Smith allows himself to be captured and reveals to the others that he is in fact, a double agent and exposes three other members of the team, Thomas, Berkeley and Christiansen, who the Germans are convinced are their men, as being British agents. If you're confused, one only has to look at Eastwood's expression whilst all this is going on, to realise that you're not alone! It turns out that Carnaby isn't Carnaby at all but is merely an American actor, Cartwright Jones, planted to force all of this out into the open - Burton isn't a German spy and the three traitors really are British traitors working for the Germans, now fully exposed. An incredible escape from the castle now takes place, with the four survivors plus Cartwright Jones seemingly accounting for hundreds of German troops as they make for the local Luftwaffe base. Once aboard a plane and heading home, the final traitor unmasking takes place in dramatic circumstances - I won't reveal any more in case you're one of the handful of people who have never seen this often shown movie. An absolute classic!

So far, all of my favourites have taken place in World War Two, not so number 6, which sees us during an earlier conflict, one of Britain's many colonial wars fought throughout her history. This is Zulu, a 1964 re-telling of the events at Rorke's Drift, a missionary station and makeshift Field Hospital in January 1879, in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Isandlwana, a crushing British defeat. The film stars Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Nigel Greene and Michael Caine in his first major starring role. Baker, a proud Welshman, became interested in becoming involved with the film when shown an account of the battle, in which eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the predominently Welsh defenders of Rorke's Drift, written by the historian John Prebble. Prebble later co-wrote the screenplay with Cy Endfield, who also directed the film as well as co-producing it with Baker. The 24th Regiment of Foot (the South Wales Borderers) along with a handful of others at the Field Hospital were around 150 strong but managed to fend off attack after attack from seemingly overwhelming numbers of Zulu warriors. The actions are shown in great detail and the relationships between the various defenders are brought to light, although there are some inaccuracies from real life. For example, we see Private Henry Hook portrayed by James Booth as a malingering, heavy drinking layabout, when in reality Hook was a model soldier and teetotaller. This portrayal of him caused his daughter to walk out of the film's premiere in disgust. Conversely, Corporal Allen (played in the movie by Glyn Edwards of later 'Minder' television fame) is shown as a model soldier, when in reality he had just been demoted to Corporal due to drunkeness. Colour Sergeant Frank Bourne, brilliantly played by Nigel Greene, is shown as a battle hardened veteran soldier, when in fact he was just 24 years of age and was at the time, the youngest Colour Sergeant in the British Army. A curiosity in the film is the appearance of Chief Buthelezi, playing his own uncle King Cetschwayo kaMpande. Despite the inaccuracies described earlier, this is a classic war movie, which survives the test of time and which is still shown frequently.

We move forward to the First World War for our next entry, which is number 5 in my list. Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 epic depicting the life and actions of TE Lawrence, directed by David Lean from an original screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson, based on Lawrence's own autobiographical account of his wartime service, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The movie won seven Academy Awards and stars Peter O'Toole (in his first major role), Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains and Jose Ferrer in a brief but memorable role. The film opens with Lawrence's death in a motorcycle accident and subsequent memorial service and so is almost entirely shot in flashback. The movie depicts Lawrence's actions in the Arabian Peninsular, his emotional struggles with the violence inevitable in war and his divided loyalties between Britain and his new-found friends and comrades from the various Arab tribes. The performance of every actor is remarkable and the production values are truly epic, as is the length of the film at 227 minutes. In cinemas, it was shown in two halves with an intermission and the DVD version of the film is also presented in the same way. The film's musical score by Maurice Jarre is also a classic and the film continues to be screened regularly to this day.

Another movie about the First World War is one that is not seen so frequently but which is still worthy of mention and features at number 4 in my list. Paths of Glory dates from 1957 and tells the story of an impossible attack by French soldiers on a German defensive feature known as 'The Anthill' which is forced upon the reluctant 701st Regiment and it's commander Colonel Dax, played by Kirk Douglas, by the ambitious General Mireau, played by George Macready. The depiction of the attack is brilliantly directed by Stanley Kubrick and shows the full horror of the attack, which begins to run out of steam. Desperate for the attack to succeed, Mireau orders his artillery to fire on his own men to force them forward but the attack fails, as predicted by Colonel Dax. To try and deflect the blame, Mireau selects one hundred men to be court martialled, although he is persuaded by his Commanding General Broulard to reduce this number to three. Dax, a lawyer in civilian life, defends the men at the Court Martial but the outcome is a foregone conclusion and the men are duly executed as an example to the other troops. The morning after the execution, Mireau is informed by Broulard that he is to be investigated for giving the order to fire on his own troops. Broulard then offers Dax Mireau's position, assuming that he is merely another ambitious officer. Dax refuses and when rebuked by Broulard for his misplaced idealism, Dax is disgusted and calls his superior a "degenerate and sadistic old man." The movie was based on the true story of four French soldiers executed in 1915 in similar circumstances and must have struck a raw nerve in France, as the authorities there banned the film's release until 1975.

We return to the Second World War for number 3 in the form of Ice Cold in Alex, which dates from 1958. The 'Ice Cold' in question is a cold beer and the 'Alex' is Alexandria and as this was another film that I originally watched with my Dad, himself a veteran of the North African campaign, it is another movie for which I have great affection. Almost all of the film takes place on a journey across the desert in an ambulance escaping from Tobruk to Alexandria ahead of the German advance. Captain Anson, played by John Mills, is a battle fatigued alcholic, whilst Sergeant Major Tom Pugh, played by Harry Andrews is the archetype of the reliable British NCO. Their passengers are two nursing sisters, Diana Murdoch and Denise Norton played by Sylvia Sims and Diane Clare. Along the way, they pick up a mysterious South African Captain Van der Poel, played by Anthony Quayle. They are twice stopped by elements of the Afrika Korps and when the ambulance is machine gunned in the first attack, Sister Norton is fatally wounded. The suspicions about Van der Poel are heightened when he twice speaks to the Germans privately, who on both occasions allow them to continue with the two nurses, having disguised the fact that Norton is in fact already dead. Anson is convinced that the South African is hiding a radio transmitter in his back pack, and they startle him in the Qattara Depression (an unstable area of quicksands and searing heat) whilst he is using the radio. With the South African trapped in the quicksands, they rescue him without revealing that they have worked out that he is a German spy. Having eventually reached Alexandria and the long awaited ice cold beers, the Military Police, alerted earlier by Anson, enter the bar to arrest Van der Poel, or Hauptmann Otto Luz as he really is. The famous scene in the bar was shot using real beers and for various reasons required fourteen takes, by which time John Mills was almost falling off the bar stool!

At 2, we take a look at the American "Mighty Eighth" Air Force in England during World War Two in the form of Twelve O'Clock High, a 1949 offering from Director Henry King. Starring a young Gregory Peck and ably supported by Dean Jagger, who won an Academy Award for his performance as Lieut Colonel Harvey Stovall. The film begins in post-war London, when the now retired Stovall spies a battered Toby Jug in an antique shop window and recognises it as an old mascot item from their former base at the fictitious RAF Archbury. He decides to revist the now abandoned airfield, which is gradually returning to agricultural use. The film then goes to flashback and we see B-17s returning from a mission in 1942 and concentrates on one bomber in particular. The crew are clearly traumatised from their experiences, the co-pilot vomits and explains that he has had to fight for two hours to regain control from his captain, who has had the back of his head shot off but who was still conscious. The severed arm of another airman is also removed from the aircraft. The following day, twenty eight airmen ask to be excused from their next mission, with the Squadron's Medical Officer privately asking "How much can a man take?" The Squadron Commander Keith Davenport, played by Gary Merrill, is relieved of his duties as he is felt to be getting too close to his men and he is replaced by Brigadier Frank Savage, played by Peck. Most of the film is about Savage's efforts to rebuild morale through various means and how the men under his command, who initially despise him for pushing them so hard, gradually identify with him and what he is trying to achieve. Savage pushes himself as hard as his men and refuses to be taken off active duty. The question asked earlier in the film "How much can a man take?" is apparently answered on the day of the squadron's first daylight raid on Berlin when Savage cracks and cannot physically haul himself into the cockpit of his B-17. The mission is led by another pilot whom Savage had previously 'busted' from Air Exec to an aircraft commander. Whilst the mission is in progress, Savage is in an almost catatonic state and only comes back to life once the squadron returns safely to Archbury. This movie is unusual for its time as it looks closely at the psycholological aspect of servicemen in wartime and deserves it's occasional screenings on television.

My own number 1 is another air related movie and is comes from the classic British period in the 1950s, when the Second World War was still fresh in many people's minds and experiences. The Dam Busters dates from 1955 and tells the story of the bombing of the Ruhr Dams and the development of the so-called Bouncing Bomb by the engineer and inventor Barnes Wallis, played in the film by Michael Redgrave. The bomb has to be delivered at low height by specially adapted Lancaster bombers and so a new unit is formed in RAF Bomber Command. 617 Squadron is commanded by Guy Gibson, who is portrayed in the film by Richard Todd, himself a World War Two airborne veteran and a stalwart of many British war movies of the 50s and early 60s. The film is a fairly faithful re-telling of the story which skilfully interweaves the trials and tribulations of Wallis against bungling bureaucrats in getting the weapon perfected in time and of Gibson in first forming the squadron and then the relentless training, made more difficult through Gibson not being allowed, for security reasons, to reveal the nature of the squadron's target until shortly before the mission. The night of the mission is portrayed fairly accurately, although it does somewhat gloss over the failure to breach the Sorpe Dam and concentrates on the two successful breaches of the Mohne and Eder Dams. The end of the movie is extremely poignant when Wallis learns that eight of the Lancasters have been shot down and tells Gibson that he would never have gone ahead with the idea if he'd known all of those crews were going to be killed. Gibson tries to console him by saying that even if they'd known what was going to happen that they would still have flown but finishes by telling Wallis that he can't go to bed yet as "I have some letters to write first." Richard Todd later said that he found that particular scene and that line quite hard work, as he had had to write real letters to the wives and loved one of those killed in action, so this really was a case of art imitating life.

So there are my ten war films; it has been an extremely difficult task to whittle down my list to a mere ten. It has meant leaving out some of my other favourites and consequently there is no room for The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, San Demetrio: London, A Matter of Life and Death, The Colditz Story, The Way Ahead, The Way to the Stars, The First of The Few, Dunkirk, Bridge on the River Kwai, We Dive at Dawn and Went The Day Well? from the classic British era of war films. Neither is there space for The Longest Day, Patton, Von Ryan's Express, The Great Escape or Tora! Tora! Tora! from the American epics. Coming slightly more up to date, it has meant that Memphis Belle, Saving Private Ryan and A Bridge Too Far all miss out, as does the German made masterpiece, Downfall. It isn't just Second World War films that have been omitted out as I haven't been able to include the Vietnam movies Apocalypse Now or Platoon nor Black Hawk Down from a more recent conflict in Somalia, as well as the Napoleonic War films Waterloo or Master and Commander.  As I have concentrated solely on feature films, there is no place for any of the superb documentaries made about the Second World War, such as The True Glory, Western Approaches or Desert Victory.

These are all fabulous pieces of work and whilst it might seem criminal to leave out at least some of those mentioned, I only allowed myself to choose ten.

As mentioned earlier, I'd really like to hear your choices and your reasons - it may be like me you have a leaning for the classic British movies of the 1940s and 50s, you might be younger and will have chosen some more recent offerings but please let me know your thoughts in the comments section. Leave a name rather than an anonymous selection and please be polite about my choices and those of others. Enjoy your film watching!

"Real to Reel" is on at the Imperial War Museum London until 8 January 2017. Tickets cost £10.00 (free if you're an IWM Member) and can be purchased via the IWM website or on the day at the Museum's Information Desk.


The Blitzwalker Ten
Battle of Britain - 1969, MGM Studios - Director: Guy Hamilton
The Cruel Sea - 1953, Ealing Studios - Director: Charles Frend 
Das Boot - 1981, Bavaria Film - Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Where Eagles Dare - 1968, Warner Bros - Director: Brian G Hutton
Zulu - 1964, Diamond Films - Director: Cy Endfield 
Lawrence of Arabia - 1962, Columbia Pictures - Director: David Lean
Paths of Glory - 1957, United Artists - Director: Stanley Kubrick
Ice Cold in Alex - 1958, Associated British - Director: J Lee Thompson
Twelve O'Clock High - 1949, Twentieth Century Fox - Director: Henry King
The Dam Busters - 1954, Associated British - Director: Michael Anderson