Sgt Victor John Cox 12 Commando roll of honour + Operation Checkmate

This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 27/06/2022 21:49:47

I have found information relating to Sgt Victor John Cox being killed both on the CWGC and the Westminster Abbey Commando Roll of Honour lists. In both he is shown as Somerset Light Infantry and No.12 Commando. I have attached his picture here. I know 12 Commando were disbanded and the men posted to other Commando units but I cannot see him on any CVA roll of honour or perhaps I have missed him. His death occurred in 1945. However he is shown as being a POW which leads me to think he may have been executed. Does anyone know anything about this man. If he is not already on the CVA roll of honour perhaps he could be added.

Additionally this information is provided on another site :
Op.Checkmate (Kopervik, Norway)
POW 15.5.1943
shot Sachsenhausen,Germany

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2145692/victor-john-cox/

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 21/03/2009 11:44:22

In addition to the Rolls of Honour previously stated where Victor John Cox , known as Jack , is remembered, he is also mentioned on Page 34 of the Commando Association Commemorative Souvenir Booklet of the 18th September 2005 which Eric Buckmaster has kindly given to me. It refers to a memorial at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp for the men of No.2 who were executed there. I quote " No.12 Commando. Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Germany. On the memorial mentioned under No.2 above, there is also the name of Sgt J. Cox of No.12 Commando, a member of a raiding party on shipping at Haugesund in Norway on 29th April 1943; he was captured and brought to this camp where he was shot. There is no trace of other members of this raiding party."

Hi Pete

I think my great uncle Alfred John Roe served with Victor John Cox and was also at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Germany amongst others.

I have just returned from the National Archive centre with the war records and listed long with my uncle is a Sjt. Cox Victor DOB 18-12-1918 Buckhorn Weston.

They were of 14 Commando on operation Checkmate.

I have attached page one of the document I retrieved from the National Achieves this week, and please feel free to contact me if you need any more information.

Kind Regards
Lawrence Roe

This message was edited 7 times. Last update was at 15/08/2012 19:01:32

Hi Lawrence and thank you for your reply. It is uncanny that on the very day you posted this message I also received an email from a relative of Victor John Cox known as " Jack" . Jack was the great uncle of Angela and she mentions the others in the party who were also executed including Lt. Godwin. Here she mentions a little about her great uncle : " Jack was born in 1919 and grew up in North Cadbury, Somerset. His father Harry, a postman, was seriously wounded in WWI whilst rescuing an officer under heavy fire (for which he was awarded the DSO). Jack and two of his six siblings Owen (my grandfather) and Ken, were members of the Territorial Army and were sent to war the day after its outbreak. Owen and Ken survived the war." And here is an extract from the web about the group and Lt Godwin: " Sub-Lieutenant John Godwin, RNVR (died February 2, 1945) took part in a raid on Axis shipping at Kopervik, Norway . His party managed to sink several ships using limpet mines, but he was eventually captured with the rest of his party, a commando sergeant, two Naval Petty Officers and three seamen. After spending some time in Grini prison camp , they were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration , where contrary to the Geneva Convention they were forced to march thirty miles a day on cobbles testing army boots. On February 2, 1945 they were led to execution. Godwin managed to wrestle the pistol of the firing party commander from his belt and shot him dead before being himself shot. No superior officer witnessed this act so a decoration could not be awarded, however his bravery was mentioned in dispatches." Mayor and Roe were transferred to Belsen Concentration Camp. Mayor was subsequently executed there whilst Roe died of Typhus.

Lawrence I will also private message you regarding this.

Regards

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the additional information.

I am thinking of taking a trip out to Sachsenhausen and Bergen-Belsen where he finally came to rest.

I have pm'ed you regarding the additional information I have and please feel to post it as you see fit.

Kind Regards
Lawrence

Hi Pete

I have just been seen this, it is a memorial for the British troops at sachsenhausen.

Regards
Lawrence

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 16/04/2009 21:06:24

Thank you Lawrence. I was aware of the memorial at the site of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp for the British, Norwegian and Commonwealth Forces but had not seen it. I have placed it in the CVA gallery in the Memorials and Plaques Section.

Regards

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 27/04/2009 11:42:04

Hi Lawrence

I apologise for not having posted your photo you sent me of your great Uncle Alfred John Roe in the CVA gallery. Basically I have been trying to find out a little bit more about the raid and 14 ( Arctic) Commando. I now have a few more pictures of those who took part but am still missing some. Neville Burgess, who in 1942 at 18 was the baby of the crew when training, was a former butcher who had left school at 14 and was from Beverley in Yorkshire. I will post an album in the gallery in due course but at the moment here are a few pictures of the Navy personnel of 14 ( Arctic) Commando who took part with Alfred. Did you know there was a book written about Lt Godwin (who was from Argentina and came to the UK to join the RNVR) and the raid and their capture. I have just received a copy which i found on Amazon - it cost me about £6 incl of postgage. Your great uncle and the others are all mentioned. It is written by Major Kenneth Macksey who was for several years editor of Purnells History of the 1st and 2nd World War. The book is called Godwins Saga. I will let you know when the Album is posted here.

This message was edited 16 times. Last update was at 27/06/2022 21:50:25

Here is another picture of Lt Godwin when captured and still in Haugesund before interrogation. Also another member of 14 Commando, Keith Mayor, a former factory worker from Preston. The pictures are clearer if downloaded.
I have also added some personal information to the picture of Sgt Cox located in the 12 Commando Album of the Gallery provided by Angela Cox. "Jack" was her Great Uncle". The link to the picture is here:

https://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/12/Sgt+Victor+John+Cox+++_+Jack+_+++12+Commando++-+killed+whilst+a+POW.jpg.html

Pete , Lt Godwin and the others are mentioned in Martin Gilbert's book Second World War. He quotes " they cracked jokes with each other,despised their gloomy guards,knew their own side was going to win the war,and did not brood about their fate."What men they were and what brutes the Nazis were

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 27/04/2009 11:30:58

Here's the only picture I can find on a Canadian Veterans website of 27 year old Harold (Shorty) Hiscock from Newfoundland who was a Petty Officer and one of 14 Commando on Operation Checkmate. Sadly I cannot find a picture of Ordinary Seaman Andrew West who also took part. Andrew, a former house decorator, was from Glasgow.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 27/06/2022 21:50:53

I have now placed an album for Operation Checkmate next to that of Operation Frankton in the WW2 Gallery. If anyone finds a photo of Andrew West please let me know and update the album .

https://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/WW2/Operation+Checkmate/

Hello All

If you would like to further this research topic there is a book that deals exclusively with it.

Godwin's Saga A Commando Epic

by Kenneth Macksey

Published Brassey's 1987

Regards

John M

Hello gents,

My name is Nigel Baldwin and Alfred Roe was my maternal Grandfather, I am the son of his youngest daughter Doreen, who unfortunately died at a young age and as a consequence I was raised by Alfreds widow Dorothy ( a great woman, also sadly no longer with us) It wasn't until very recently that I found out about my Grandfather, and his colleagues, brave exploits, as my grandmother was given very sketchy information at the time (in hindsight, for fairly obvious reasons) Most of my information so far has come from the book Godwins Saga, with some additional research carried out by a cousin, who is the son of his other daughter Grace.

I have sent a personal message to try and contact his great nephew Lawrence Roe, but in case he doesn't pick up the message if anyone has direct contact with Lawrence I would be obliged if they could advise him that I am trying to contact him and that he can get in touch with me via this web site.

I can assure you, and he, that my reasons are purely out of an interest in trying to find out a little more about my Grandfather and his life before the services if at all possible.

Many thanks

Nigel

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 09/04/2011 23:45:36

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