Colonel TREVOR with 2nd Rangers D.Day Pointe du Hoc

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 08/11/2010 17:06:22

Hello

Doing some research about commandos involved on D.Day,
I've seen than on this picture enclose about 2nd Rangers on Pointe du Hoc,
we saw a Commando Officer.
Some people told me than this is Colonel TREVOR, British Commando Observer.
So, I would like to know about this, and if someone could have information concerning Colonel TREVOR.

Sincerely

Stéphane

This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 08/11/2010 17:08:44

Stéphane,

There were two Commandos by the name of Trevor - Kenneth R S Trevor & Thomas H Trevor - they were cousins and both of whom achieved the rank of Lt Colonel*.

Both were associated with No1 Cdo.

And both Ken & Tom wore thick moustaches so either could be the wounded moustachioed commando in the photo.

Nick

* Ken Trevor went on to become a Brigadier

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 19/03/2010 00:16:24

Stéphane

Further to my earlier answer, if the commando on the photo was, as you suggest, a Trevor and it was on or around D-Day then it must have been Lt Col T H Trevor as Lt Col K R S Trevor was CO No1 Cdo out in Burma at the time...

Lt Col Tom Trevor = 21.02.1944 ~ 02.08.1944
General Staff Officer, 2nd grade (GSO2), Planning, Military Section, Combined Operations HQ

Nick

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 12/09/2010 12:58:25

Thanks to information received from his godson, I can now positively identify the bandaged commando as Lt Col Thomas H. Trevor.

After the war, Col Trevor became a successful businessman and lived in Albany, London.
Sadly Col Trevor passed on in the summer of 1997.

Nick

This message was edited 8 times. Last update was at 08/11/2010 12:45:13

Nick/ Stephane

Nick, I was interested to read you were in contact with the godson of Lieut. Colonel Trevor OBE. The CVA was contacted some while ago by Thomas Hatfield PhD.,Senior Research Fellow and Director, Military History Institute, University of Texas at Austin who was looking for a high resolution photo of Col. Trevor. At that time we were unable to assist him. He was aware of this particular photo and also of the group photo in our gallery. Here is a little of what he said in his email to the CVA

" I have written a book soon to be published in which Lt. Col. Trevor is mentioned prominently (and quite favorably) for his role in training of American Rangers, whom he accompanied to Pointe du Hoc on D-Day. Commissioned in the Welch Guards, Trevor was then GSO2, Planning, Military Section, COHQ. He had previously commanded 1st Commando and was awarded the OBE for his role in Torch.

I feel it may well now be too late as his deadline has passed however I would be interested to know if his godson has such a high resolution photo a) for our gallery and b) to see if we can pass it on to Thomas Hatfield. If so can you ask his godson to contact me and I will pass on contact emails etc to him for Thomas Hatfield, and also specific instructions in what his publishers were requesting as regards the photo.

Regards

Pete

Nick / Stephanie,

I came across this correspondence quite by chance whilst 'Googling' for a telephone number for a relative!

I am the son of the late Brigadier Kenneth Rowland Swetenham TREVOR CBE DSO who during WW11 was CO of No 1 Commando. His cousin Tom Trevor was known in the family as 'Joe' to differentiate him from his father who was also called 'Thomas'. [I believe that US Rangers records show Tom as 'Travis Trevor'.]

In the Commandos Lt Col Tom Trevor was called 'Senior' because of his rank and tall stature (6 foot 4 inches) and my father Ken Trevor (who was also a big man) was known as 'Junior'. My father who was in Ireland having travelled from West Africa at the beginning of the war received a message from Joe asking him to volunteer for 'special service' and if he managed to get permission he was to go to interview in Scotland.

Ken became a Captain in the Unit which was to be No 1 Commando. It was comprised from two units which had been in the Norway campaign and had been known as 1st Independant company Special Service. The OC was Colonel Wil Glendinning of the Welch Regiment and Joe Trevor was his second in command. My father was put in charge of No 1 Troop.

My father told me (and recorded in his memoirs) that there was some talk of parachute jumping and that the whole unit might become a parachute battalion. The Commandos wanted him because there was a possibility about there being an operation in West Africa or the Azores and they thought his experience with the Royal West African Frontier Force in Nigeria would be helpful.

In 1943 my father and Joe were warned that they were going to the Far East. One or two officers including Joe preferred to stay in Europe and fight the Germans and my father then took over command of No 1 Comando from his cousin Joe and led them at the Kangaw landings in Burma and at Hill 170 where my father recommended Lt Knowland for a posthumous VC. [The full details of this battle from my father's unpublished memoirs are now on the Burma Star website]

Prior to going to Burma a group photograph was taken in Winchester of all officers and men in No 1 Commando and the picture of Joe from this photo was used by 'The Daily Telegraph'/ 'The Times' in his Obituary.

Joe was the British liaison officer with the US Rangers on D-Day. He had trained with the Rangers in Scotland and was an expert at climbing. Joe was wounded in the head at Point du Hoc by a German sniper whilst walking alomg the beach giving encouragement to the US Rangers. To avoid sniper fire he took two short steps and three one long ones but unfortunately it didn't fool them and took a shot in his helmet which gave him a nasty head wound.

My father was on Operation Torch and had under his command three Troops of No 1 Commando and two American Troops of Rangers. My father was the first British Officer ever to have commanded US soldiers in the war and when they landed at Algiers to capture the 8 Gun Battery of De Lazaret on Cap Matifou he ordered his men to wear the 'Green Beret' - the first time it had been worn in Battle. As a result of the involvement with the American trops No 1 Commando adopted the Garand rifle until the end of the war.

The 'Green Beret' was introduced by No 1 Commando. They thought that it was unsuitable for them to wear their own varying headgear. A number of samples were ordered. My father told me that the trial berets made by a firm in Scotland were very odd; one sample for example had a bobble in the middle French style! They wisely decided not to go for this and went for a plain green one which Robert Laycock was delighted with and decided that all Commandos would werar them in futute. Nowadays Special Forces in nearly every country have adopted a 'Green Beret'.

Regards,

Simon

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 20/10/2010 17:50:30

Simon,

Welcome to the CVA and thank you for your interesting post regarding your father and 'Joe'.
Thank you also for clearing up the mystery of why he was called Joe (as you see from a previous post of mine, I'm in contact with a godson of Tom Trevor who told me that he was known to the family as Joe but was unable to tell me why).

A trip around the CVA Gallery will show that although there are a couple of photos of your father the only one we have of 'Joe' is in a group photo of when he was CO of No1 Cdo (with your father, as 2i/c, sat next to him). Are you aware of any other photos of Joe (or indeed your father) that we would be able to display in the Gallery - we of course would be honoured to commemorate the Trevor cousins on the CVA Gallery along with the other Commando Commanding Officers.

incidently, I love the anecdote of Joe taking two short steps then three long ones to avoid snipers - it must have worked to a certain extent as although he took a bullet to the head, he survived to tell the tale...

Regards,

Nick

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 08/11/2010 22:40:22

Further to the previous posts I am now able to confirm that the photo was taken at Colonel Rudder's (CO 2nd Rangers) Command Post, it was mid-morning and, mission accomplished, a break is taken.
Lt Eikner, communications officer, is seen drinking from his canteen (water bottle) and, as previously stated, Lt Col Thomas (Joe) Trevor is seen with a bandage around his head.

They had no idea at the time that the photo was taken that they would have to fight off 5 counter-attacks within the next 24 hours...

Nick

Pete,

Pete wrote:

Nick, I was interested to read you were in contact with the godson of Lieut. Colonel Trevor OBE. The CVA was contacted some while ago by Thomas Hatfield PhD.,Senior Research Fellow and Director, Military History Institute, University of Texas at Austin who was looking for a high resolution photo of Col. Trevor...

I am in receipt (on behalf of the CVA) of an interesting document written by Lt Col Trevor regarding this raid on Pointe Du Hoc by the American Rangers

The document consists of:
a. Combined Operations Pamphlet No24 - written by Lt Col Trevor prior to the raid,

b. 'The Assault on the Pointe du Hoc Batteries' - a report written by Lt Col Trevor post raid

There are a number photocopies of photographs taken after the raid and also a number printed from negatives taken from captured German troops - unfortunately these are about forth generation copies and have not reproduced well [but I will persevere with them]
Alas there are no photos of 'Joe' Trevor and my contact does not know of any...

nick

War Office notification of Lt Col Trevor's wounding

Simon Trevor wrote:

Joe was the British liaison officer with the US Rangers on D-Day. He had trained with the Rangers in Scotland and was an expert at climbing. Joe was wounded in the head at Point du Hoc by a German sniper whilst walking alomg the beach giving encouragement to the US Rangers. To avoid sniper fire he took two short steps and three one long ones but unfortunately it didn't fool them and took a shot in his helmet which gave him a nasty head wound.

Further to Simon's description of how 'Joe' (Tom Trevor) was wounded, here is a quote from an account of the raid

Colonel Rudder was one of the first to make it to the beach. With him was Col. Travis Trevor, a British commando who had assisted in the training of the rangers. He began walking the beach, giving encouragement. Rudder described him as "a great big [six feet four inches], black-haired son of a gun -- one of those staunch Britishers." Lieutenant Vermeer yelled at him, "How in the world can you do that when you are being fired at?"

"I take two short steps and three long ones," Trevor replied, "and they always miss me." Just then a bullet hit him in the helmet and drove him to the ground. He got up and shook his fist at the machine gunner, hollering, "You dirty son of a bitch."

Another account

Lt Col Trevor, British Commando officer who had accompanied the assault, assembled sections of an extension ladder on the beach and got it mounted conveniently for service in moving wounded and getting supplies up the cliff.

Nick

Nick
CVA Forum Administrator

Are you still interested in Colonel Trevor. I lived with the Colonel as did the son of a friend of Col. Trevor - Richard Gaskill. I do have some photos of Joe.

Sadly one night Joe 'ordered' me to throw out in the rubbish two reports he had written. So of course I disobeyed... as the bins were outside & he couldn't see me! I kept them.

One report I still have:
a) 'No. 1 COMMANDO, NORTH AFRICAN CAMPAIGN, 1942-43'

b) The 'better' one with genuine black & white photos glued in, I gave to godson (name withheld...).

Marked 'Top Secret' (I think..?):
'The Assault on the Pointe du Hoc Batteries'

Brian Raffan

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 05/11/2019 00:13:08

Hi Brian,

Thank you so much for getting in touch.

YES, I, on behalf of the Commando Association, am very interested in any photos of 'Joe' Trevor - as you are aware he was very much a recluse in his later days and there are very few photos of him in existence!

I was in touch with his godson [who very kindly sent me a poor photocopy of a draft report entitled, 'Cliff Assaults' - which then became a Combined Operations Booklet - the copy was so poor that I ended up transcribing the whole report. I used an 'old font' and even put in his handwritten notes and amendments. Some of the photos in the report included some from the assault of Point Du Hoc] but he had no photos of Joe.

I have also been in contact with Ken Trevor's sons, Simon and Michael, but, again, no photos of Joe.

The Commando Association would also be very interested in a copy of the North Africa Campaign for the Website if that is possible? I am prepared to retype it if necessary...

Many thanks,

Nick

Hello Brian

Reading this thread ...yes please the Commando Veterans Archive..i.e. this website would love to place any photos of Joe you may have.

It is our mission to take forward the proud history of the commandos and your photos are certainly a part of that.
Best regards

John M

Commando Veterans Archive
Website Creator/Manager

The Moderator,
Attached is a photo of a younger Colonel Trevor as Major Trevor in Hong Kong. Also top left insert is a middle period photo.
Braf...