Messages posted by: Nick Birkinshaw

Hi Alan

I think I can help with info on Arthur. Whilst researching info on my grandfather Harold Hughes my brother has spoken to many 3 Cdo vets including Dutch Holland who was a close friend of Arthur. I will send a PM with contact details of my brother who will be able to give further details including contact info for Dutch who I know will be delighted to hear from you.

Arthur was in MT section and is in the picture of MT outside the Downlands Hotel in the 3 Cdo gallery. He is in front of Busty Reybold who is the guy on the back row 1st on the far left. I assume this is the chap with his eyes closed but it but could be the cap in front of him, would be great if you could confirm this as Dutch says his eyes are not what they once were!

Arthur was a batman/driver for Q Party (HQ) on d-day and presumably was the driver for Capt Martin who was CO for Q party (I have other names and will dig these out). As a driver he would have known my grandfather well and Busty Reybold so have a look through my thread about Harold for some background info.

I?m on holiday next week and will be updating the photo with some other names including Arthur, Busty Reybold, Burth De-Lige and ?Tank? Thomas.
Hope this helps and I?m really pleased to see a message from a relative of an MT veteran that would have known my grandfather. If there is any other way we can help please do not hesitate to ask.

best wishes

Nick

Hi Pete

thanks for for cropping the pic that looks much better. I will send a copy of the picture of Erics grave to Stanley too. Stanley is going to look into Erics service in more detail so he may have more information for the forum in the future.

Nick

Attached is the photo of 3 Cdo Motor Transport (MT) Section taken in Worthing in 1945. This was kindly given to my brother by Ted ?Dutch? Holland from MT. Dutch noted that Mick Scovell was unusually missing from the photo and also named a few of the guys and I will put a numbered version in the Gallery with these names on. He also gave two more names for MT, these being Hammond and Burt De-Liege.

The following are a few brief notes from conversations with a number of veterans in particular Dutch Holland, Ted Piggott, Bill Brian, John Fearon, John Carney and Scotty to whom I owe great thanks for the following. We will add more as we pull our notes together.

MT was a section not a troop and had a high turnover of men in and out of the section. If you had a specific MT related skill e.g. you were a mechanic or could drive you would likely be moved into MT at some point. Men were often called back/into Troops as required. For example we have found a record of my Grandfather in a vickers crew in 2 Troop with Thomas L. Coleman and Jack Carter (in welbike pic in earlier post with Mick Scovel) as well as in MT, and Scotty recalled being attached to MT for a short period.

MT did not, therefore, operate as a Troop did but individuals were attached to any other Troops or HQ or Officers across the Commando that had specific MT requirements for a particular operation e.g. on D-Day individuals were attached to and landed with different Troops and those that drove heavy vehicles landed later when the beaches were ready to receive them.

Within MT men generally knew best other men with the same role e.g. Bill Brian, Ray Field and Eric Jenkinson were all heavy vehicles and were close friends. Similarly John Fearon, Finch, Longhorn and Harding drove Jeeps and again were close friends. My Grandfather was listed as dispatch rider and was likely to have known well Siggers, Pothast, Prosser, Raybold, Brayne, Davis, and Davies.

More from the veterans to follow as we pull our notes together.

I said i?d post a couple of pics of 5 Troop but I notice that the recent fantastic batch of photos posted by Pete include better versions of the ones I have.

Regards

Nick

Lt. Eric Kiaer KIA 06/06/44

During research on 3Cdo I have received information from Stanley Kiaer, brother of Eric. Stanley has identified Eric in a photo in the gallery that shows Eric sat next to John Pooley. I have cropped this photo to include Peter Young, John Pooley and Eric Kiaer and have attached it to this post. Information in this post has been kindly provided by Stanley Kiaer.

Eric was originally in No 10 Independent Company (IC) before moving to No 2 IC then No 4 IC and 3Cdo.

Eric was a POW in Italy and escaped (with others) walking the length of the Apennines for 3 months before reaching allied lines (this was mentioned in dispatches). There was a joke in 3Cdo that Eric was lazy as this was only a short walk!!

After escape from POW camp Eric was in Holding Commando in Wrexham when he heard about plans for an invasion of Europe at which point he volunteered for this action.

An account of the Action in which Eric was killed can be found on page 311 of March Past by Lord Lovat.

Eric was brother to Leslie (10th Para Battalion 3 Platoon) KIA in Arnhem shortly after Eric?s death. Eric?s Brother in law was Max Harper-Gow.

Thanks again to Stanley Kiaer for this account and please let us know if you have any further information about Eric Kiaer.

Regards

Nick

A quick update ? been distracted by work for a while but have been keeping up research.

Spoke to John Fearon of 3Cdo MT Section who was helpful, he remembers Harold and gave a couple of other names for guys in MT, these are:
Bob Longhorne (Jeeps) ? trained with Ken Prosser at Achnacarry
Charlie Finch (billeted with J. Fearon)
Bill Harding (billeted with J. Fearon)

He also mentioned Jack Carter was made up to Sergeant, and he remembers Austin Byrne driving a jeep up to the Wirral. He also recalled Taffy Hawcut, Kennedy, George Hancock, Tommy Hodgkinson and Jack ?Tank? Thompson.

More info to follow including a photocopy of a photo MT Section from 1945 (once I?ve got my scanner working) and I?ve been given a couple of pictures of 5 Troop which i?ll post too.

Cheers

Nick

Reggie Wills 3Cdo passed away on September 25th 2009. Reggie joined the Commandos from the 13/18 Royal Hussars. He was Lt of the MT section during the Normandy landings and enjoyed a long and successful military career.

A memorial service will be held for Reggie Wills at 2:30pm on Saturday 30 January at the Chapel of Marlborough College, his old school, followed by a reception in the Adderley for those present. Further details can be found at
http://www.marlboroughcollege.org/omc_events_memorial_services.aspx

I have put this post on the forum on behalf of the School and anyone wishing to attend should contact them via the link above.

Many thanks

Nick

Hi Robby

the LCI photo was taken at Warsash near Southampton the day before d-day. I have printed off some large copies that i am sending to a few 3Cdo veterans who said they would try and put some names to faces so fingers crossed.

I am also looking into 6 troop as there was mention in a local history book that my Grandfather was in 6 troop when he died, but i can find no other evidence of this (perhaps he was attached to 6 on d-day??).

I have a low resolution picture of 6 troop on their return from Germany kindly sent to me by Truddie Stables (daughter of Bob Potthast) that has a couple of names on the back written by her dad. Unfortunately you really can't make out any faces on the pic. Her sister Anne was looking into getting a better copy and hopefully she will post this on the forum.

I will let you know if i get any info on 6 Troop but i strongly recommend that you contact Scotty if you haven't already.

This is a bit of a long shot but if you can find out where Fred was billeted in the UK you may be able to contact relatives there - this has helped us very much.

All the best

Nick

Stéphane, thanks for the new photo?s of Harold?s headstone it is much appreciated, I hope to visit Normandy in the new year and will let you know when we are coming over. I am pleased you have your computer working again and have updated the photo in the gallery with the full list of names, thanks again its fantastic to get a full list of names next to faces!

I hope to have some more photo?s soon. We have managed to contact Barry Norton son of the lady Harold was billeted with and he thinks they have a couple of photo?s in the attic and is going to try and dig them out. He was eight at the time and remembers Harold had a sten gun, rifle and pistol along with ammunition and grenades in his wardrobe (!!), he had a motorbike and side car that he drove his officer around in (don?t know who) as well as a small jeep called a champ (could be an Austin champ but I thought they were made after the war??). Also he kept his welbike in the garden shed.

Most houses in the street with a spare room had commandos in and Harold shared with a commando called Jimmy. This is news to me, apparently Jimmy was Canadian but had a Scotts accent ? again I don?t have a clue but if anyone has any ideas please help! Barry thinks there is a photo of Jimmy too.

We have been in touch with Colonel Reynolds and Major Westley who true to commando form have been extremely helpful and informative. As a result we have some more contact names and addresses to follow up so will post if we get anything back.

With regards Bob Cubitt, yes we have spoken to him and he?s a fantastic character and was very very helpful and this is how we managed to find Anne.

I will be putting another colourised picture of Harold in the gallery shortly that my mum had.

More to follow

Cheers

Nick

Hi Anne, the only snippet I know at the moment is that Taffy Hawcutt drove 3 ton trucks in MT but we have lots of ?feeler? out at the moment and will keep an eye out for info on both your dad and Taffy.

Nick

Attached are a couple of 3 Cdo troop lists, one given to me which I understand is from Peter Young?s personal notes and is for MT dated 5 May 1944 and the other which Lists 2 Troop (Heavy Weapons ? Vickers Machine Guns) again May 1944 provided by John Carney (thanks yet again to John!).

The first list should be viewed with an open mind as 5th May was, in Commando terms, a long time before d-day and much could have changed in the meantime e.g. we have spoken to Dutch Holland who was in MT along with Arthur Griffin, neither of whom are on the nominal list. Also I can?t be sure the spellings of names are correct so any correction would be appreciated.

Perhaps view this as a starting point to be amended as appropriate.

All the best

Hi Anne

I got an email from your sister Trudie recently with a couple of pictures - The resolution/quality is not great when you zoom in but one is of 3Cdo 6 troop (with a couple of names on the reverse) which is nice as there don?t seem to be many of those about - the other is from Italy/Sicily (??). I forwarded one to Judi Kemp and she thinks that her dad Mike Scovell is on the back row 4 in (the taller guy) of the Italy pic. I can put these on the forum if you are happy for me to do that?

I shall be putting the MT list you refer to on the forum later today.

As you know I?m researching MT at the moment and have made various enquiries and will let you know if I find out anything specifically about your Dad.

All the best

Nick

Hi

I met with John Carney (2 Troop Sergeant) this weekend who went through the information I have and he has given me a great deal of additional information on 2 Troop and MT section.

Firstly I must publicly say a huge thank you to John and Phyllis for their time and for helping with the information below. Johns stories left me completely stunned.

It looks like Harold was to be posted to 2 Troop as part of a Vickers crew containing him, Jack Carter and T. Coleman. These guys were amongst a number moved to MT as the 2 Troop Vickers crews were already effectively full. In MT Harold was a Despatch Rider (and Jeeps). This all ties in nicely with the only photo we have which has Jack Carter and Mike Scovell (MT Sgt at the time) both on welbikes.

We visited the old 2 Troop/MT HQ at Homefield House (see pic) and the park opposite where they did much of their training (Bob Cubitt has mentioned this to us too) and had a pint in the Ham Hotel (now The Smugglers ? see pic) where they did their drinking (amongst other things!) and where Mike Scovell and Jack Carter were billeted. We also visited Ham Way where Harold was billeted but we don?t know which house it was.

We will be going back to meet John again to look at other sites in Worthing and go to Pulborough where MT apparently had a main depot. I will now be extending my research on MT section further.

John also put the following names to the numbered photo in the gallery from May 1944 ? the numbers correspond to those on the pic (apologies in advance for any spelling mistakes). John said he thought this picture was taken at the Homefield House HQ. Hopefully more names to follow from John.

1. Captain W. Mount
9. Major Troop Commander J. Bartholomew
10. Josh Homes (Pte)
11. Tommy Eeary (L/Cpl)
21. Jock Agnew (Cpl)
22. Conney Vaughen (Pte)
24. Jock Allen (TSM)
25. Bill Wormsley (Pte)
26. Freddie Gamester (Pte)
27. Spotty (Troop mascot)
28. Dickie Dunne
32. Bob Cubitt (Pte)
33. W. Lock (Pte)

Hope this is of interest and as always if anyone has any further info (or corrections!) it would be greatfully recieved.

Cheers

Nick

My brother had the pleasure of meeting Ted Piggott 3 Cdo 2 Troop the other day. Ted recognised my grandfather but didn?t recall many details. However, we now know from this and other info we have been given that Harold was in 2 Troop prior to d-day. I need to get to Kew to try and dig up some more info to try and put some detail to this.

Ted joined the Commando's from the SAS (unusually) so didn?t go through the usual training (!) and amongst other things, was a Jeep driver in 2 Troop MT section. He knew Lt. Scovell very well and was with him when he was promoted to Lt (I think this is mentioned in the war diary). He was offered promotion at the same time but much to his regret turned it down.

Ted also mentioned that the style of commando arm flashes I have of Harold?s were issued on completion of training prior to being given a unit - hence no 3 before Commando. Also that during service he would likely have worn flashes saying ?3 Commando? but that you had to buy the embroidered ones yourself.

I?m trying to get info now on 2 Troop so if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated. I?ll be posting more info as I get it.

All the best

Nick

Just a quick note to say thanks Nic and Pete for the last two posts. Nic is correct it is really difficult trying to pull together crumbs of information and even the smallest clue can give an important lead but it takes an amazing amount of time and much perseverance.

Pete the gallery looks great and as you correctly point out thanks must go to Stephane for the pics he?s uncovered, and I have a bit more info about one of them. On the 3CD 2 Troop May 1944 pic, as Stephane mentioned in a different thread John Carney is underlined in blue (holding a cigarette), Dickie Dunne is the guy two to JC?s right or if you prefer sat on Spotty the dogs left (!) ? I guess that?s two names if you include Spotty trp mascot! Thanks to John Carney for this info.

Cheers

Nick

Hi All

re: my earlier post

Just got through a photo of my grandfather's two friends on motorbikes. The pictures a bit blurred but someone might recognise them. We assume they served with him - anyone any ideas?

Via a CVA forum PM I have been fortunate to contact Judi Kemp daughter of Lt Mike Scovell 3Cdo 2 troop http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoForum/posts/list/986.page

who with her mum has been able to identify the guys on Welbikes in the photo taken by my gf as Lt Mike Scovell (left) and Cpl Jack Carter both 3Cdo 2 troop. We are delighted that Judi has been able to help ID two of my gf's friends and this strongly points to Harold being in 2 troop.

Thanks Judi!!

Nick
p.s. if anyone knows how to update the gallery pic with names please do! (Pete??)