Trying to find out about my late father's wartime service as a Commando

My Father died in 2002.I am his only child. He rarely spoke of his wartime experiences, certainly never to me, only to my mother and he told her very very little. I have very little info but hope someone may be able to help.
He was a German Jew, smuggled out of Germany to live with a Welsh family before outbreak of WW2. All his family perished in the holocaust as far as I have nbeen able to ascertain. My Father was determined to serve and literally walked from Wales to London in gradually disintegrating shoes, where he joined the Scots Guards. He always said my mother and I would never locate his war record because he used a false name to sign up because he was worried his Jewish roots could return to haunt him. I think he may have used the name Branch. His first name given in the UK was Charles, but he may have used Gilbert, his birth name.
I believe he was recruited to the commando unit comprising other expat German nationals. He said that he never carried a gun, and was trained only to use a garrot and knife (even aged 70 he was an expert knife marksman).
As to missions he worked with a small unit of I think 10-12 others from similar backgrounds. One mission he mentioned to my mother was that he was part of a sabotage team sent to Hamburg to blow up the gas works. Something went wrong with the exposives timers, and he survived where others in his team sadly died. He only told my mother because he lost his closest pal that day and continued to wear a ring entrusted to him by his fallen comrade, whose family had also all perished in the holocaust.
He also mentioned being in Bergen, Norway where his team had to prevent the Germans from holding a strategic position at the top of a hill reached by cable car. His commando group cut the cables, and disabled the cable car.
He was also sent on missions behind the lines in Germany; he would never give details, but did tell my mother that he had a narrow escape one time when he was being pursued and swam across the Rhine and somehow escaped capture. His final service ended when he was parachuted into Best (as part of Op Market Garden), near Eindhoven, with instructions to destroy a railway bridge (Batabrug) over the Beatrix Kanal at Best near Son. As he parachuted in, he landed in an airfield (now the Wings of Liberation Museum ) and was shot in the back of his head. He was patched up in Eindhoven. After the war had ended my father continued to serve in the Scots Guards, and was based at Caterham Barracks until the late 50's. One other point, he remained a Private. He was made up to Cpl I think more than once but deliberately got into trouble to be demoted as he didn't want a higher rank. I have no photos of my father in unform from from wartime, but believe photos from the late 50's may enable someone to identify him. If needed, i'll happily upload a couple of photos.
One major difficulty may be that I believe he was the sole survivor of his Commando unit, and he certainly carried the "guilt" of being the sole survivor to his death.
Sincerely I hope someone can help, or at least point me in the right direction to find out more.
Many thanks for reading this lengthy tale.
Anne
PS I think he was aslo in Egypt, and Monte Cassino was mentioned, but I don't know in what context, and as my mother has now also passed away, I am unable to verify anything.

Hi Anne

A very warm welcome to the CVA, although I personally do not have any specific info regarding your father, I can perhaps provide you with some more general advice to help you with your research. For example as a relative you are entitled to apply for a copy of your father's Army service records, quite a few people on this site, including myself, have already done this and received some very useful info in reply. In my case this was in the form of copies of orginal documents, the following link will take you to the section of the forum where the application forms for applying for an ex service persons records can be downloaded.

http://www.veterans-uk.info/recordsmedalsbadges.htm

Do you have of your father's medals, the reason that I ask is because certain medals were awarded for taking part in particular theatres of operations, for example my father was in both N. Africa and Burma, so consequently two of his medals are the Africa Star and the Burma Star. Also certain medals can have the recipients name, rank, Army No and regiment engraved around the edge. Every member of the Army Commandos was a volunteer from a parent regiment, in effect they were on permanent loan from this regiment and if they failed to measure up to the exacting standards of the Commandos they could be Returned To Unit at any time (RTU'd).
Uploading a photo of your father would be a very good idea, you never know his face may be familiar to some one, or indeed may appear in a photo belonging to some one else.

Good luck, Andy

Hello Andy
thank you for taking the time to read my lengthy post and provide suggestions on tracing.
When my parents first married in the 60's, my father did have a couple of photos of himself in (I think) commando uniform with other soldiers. As a small girl, I also recall seeing a couple of medals, but have no idea to where they related. Strange as it seems, my father seems to have had some premonition of his death - he tidied his workshop for the first time in many years; this was his private space, and where his wartime memorabilia was kept. After he died, my mother and I could find no trace whatsoever of his wartime possessions in the workshop nor anywhere else in the house. This is unsurprising - after his lifetime experiences he was not a sentimental man, but preferred to live in the moment and his first priority in life was to his family - my mother and I. He was the consumate "anti-hoarder!"

I reiterate he was always adamant that we'd never trace him as he signed up under another name, so if I was to apply to the Records Department, I can give them no identifying material whatsoever.

However, would there at least be some record/archive, of my father's two missions to Bergen and Hamburg, and indeed Op Market Garden when he was shot down parachuting into Best, NL. He had half the back of his head shot away, and a steel plate inserted to replace missing skull, and I believe this was carried out in a Convent being used as a military hospital in Eindhoven. Would there be any archive accessible to me as his only surviving child, by which he could be identified as having been listed in the Commando units that undertook the aforementioned missions? If so, do you know how or where I could track this information?

Thank you for your input thus far; hope you can help further.
In the meantime I'm trying to find photos of my father to upload from the early 50's which may jog someone's memory.
With Best Wishes
Anne

Hello Anne,

I have taken the liberty of sending your messages to the museum Wings of Liberation with the question if they know anything about the things you mention in your messages that happened during operation Market Garden.
I have visited the museum once and know that it is housed in former storage buildings used by the Dutch Ministry of Defence. I have never heard of the fact that it was an airfield, but that could well be possible This is one of my questions to the museum. An other one is if they know of a Convent in Eindhoven used as a military hospital.
I have asked them to provide me with an other source of information if they are not able to answer my questions.
I will inform you of their answer when they get back to me. Perhaps you have already visited their site. If not, here it is.
http://www.wingsofliberation.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88&Itemid=76&lang=en

Kind regards,

Jack

Hi Anne

I was just going to send you a message stating that although I did not have any further info hopefully some one else would, which has now thankfully proven true, so many thanks to Jack for those very promising leads.
Anne if you do find out any further info via Jack's leads then plese do update this message strand, it is always interesting to see how things develop.

I will keep my fingers crossed, good luck Andy

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 16/07/2010 19:35:18

Hello Anne,

Today I received an answer from the museum Wings of Liberation. They have put my mail through to the man who is in charge of the historic section of the museum and it is sent to the documentation section of the museum as well. I will let you know when they come up with an answer.

Some things were made clear though.
The site were the museum is now was not an airfield at the time of operation Market Garden. It was farmland, i.e. meadows etcetera. The terrain was used as a dropzone for the 101st Airborne Division. It might be possible that your father has mistaken the dropzone for an airfield because of all the flying movements going on there at the time.

During the Fifties storage buildings were built there for the Ministry of Defence. These buildings are now used for the museum.

There is no Beatrix canal in the region. There is the Wilhelmina canal though. Wilhelmina was the Dutch Queen at that time and Beatrix was her first grandchild and now our Queen. The answer from the museum was (at this moment) that they didn't known if the railway bridge you mention was blown or not. We have to wait for their next answer I guess.

I had a look through some books I have about operation Market Garden and more specific about the region of Son and Eindhoven. I haven't found anything about a Convent being used as a military hospital. What I found was that an asylum for turbuculosis (right spelling?) called Zonhove and situated in Son, was used as the divisional hospital as from 17 september 1944.

So some questions are perhaps answered a bit. We have to wait for the full answer from the museum to be sure. In the mean time I will try to get in touch with a man who has written a book about operation Market Garden in that region and ask what he knows. I'll be in touch!

Jack

Dear Jack
Thank you so much for contacting the museum on my behalf. The only reason I found out about the exact location of my father's parachute landing and mission during Market Garden was becaue my husbands job took us to Best in 1998, and we rented a house on the street adjoining the Batabrug! Not the best place to choose to live when you are unaware of the awful memories that it will force your father to endure. My father made all sorts of excuses not to visit during the first year, and eventually the truth came out when my mother booked a flight to come to NL alone. Thus we ascertained a few details of his experience, whereas he'd previously only referred to as being shot down in Holland. Living so close to the Museum, it was my son's favourite place (I highly recommend a visit if you haven't been yet they have a fantastic montage of the fall of Berlin), and we spent many many hours there during our few years in the area. Understandably my father would not set foot in the museum, in spite of his only granson's entreaties.
I'm afraid I never made enquiries of staff whilst we lived there. I knew it was a no go area whilst my father was alive, and after his death in 2002 I couldn't have approached the Museum staff without breaking down. I am an only child, daddy was an orphan, my mother and her parents only children, and now my mother has passed away, I have absolutely no other living relatives other than hubby and son. I therefore feel I must find out about my fathers War Service for the sake of my son, who utterly adored his Grandad.
So, again, thank you.
Anne

Hello
Our posts have crossed. Goodness knows why I named the Kanal the Beatrix - had a brainstorm I think.
Whilst in Best around 1999/2000, the existing old fashioned Batabrug was updated to an ugly modern bridge. Over the course of a weekend heavy equipment literally came in and removed the old bridge in its entirety and replaced it with a concrete monstrosity. Elderly neighbours were upset that a bridge which had stood for so many years had been removed. I gained the impression that the bridge had survived the War, but may be mistaken.
As to the airfield, I thought this was the case because of the planes on display there. I'm can't remember any more whether my father called it an airfield.
I have a friend in Son en Breugel whose family have been farming the same land for 4 generations. I will ask her to enquire of her very aged mother if she recalls Sonhove Asylum what happened to it etc.
Again thank you so much for your efforts; I find it hard to believe that a complete stranger would go to so much effort on my behalf, and that of my son. I am truly in your debt.
Anne

Hello Anne,

It's my pleasure and no problem at all! A few months ago I was able to help a woman in England by sending copies of photos of her granddad who was a Dutch Commando during the war. Her mother, the daugther of the Dutch Commando, had just one photo of her father holding her in his arms when she was just a few months old. She never knew anything about him. Now she does and that made her happy. And me as well!

Latest news: I have sent an email to the author of the book I told about in the earlier posts and explained what is going on. As soon as I have an answer I will be in touch!

Jack

Hi Anne, Jack and Andy.
Could he have been in 3 Troop-Jewish No.10(Inter Allied) Commando. Some were German Jews and advised to join up under an assumed name.
A quote from Ron Goldstein's book No.3 (Jewish) Troop, No.10 Commando-
"One of the best kept secrets of WW2, however, has been the nature of the existence of No. 3 (Miscellaneous or "X" Troop) of the unique No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando/Special Services Brigade. The reason? They were virtually all German speaking Jewish refugees mainly from Germany and Austria (but also some from Czechoslovakia, Hungary and other European countries).
So this might be why Anns father was so secretive about his military past?

Kevin

Some of the names of No10 Commando

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ww2/sugar13.html

Kevin

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 16/07/2010 22:12:27

Hi Kevin,

I have been thinking along the same line. It could well be possible that he was a member of that unit. I am in the possesion of the book "Striking back" by Peter Masters which is about 3 Troop No 10 (IA) Commando and of the book "Commandos in excile" by Nick van der Bijl. In this book there is a list of know details of the members of 3 (Britsh) Troop as it was called (or X troop in the beginning). I will have a search through both books and see what they reveal.

Regards,

Jack

PS: good link you just posted!

I think that the names of individuals were destroyed circa 1946 during the cold war to prevent reprisals?
Kevin

Good Afernoon Jack, Andy and Kevin,
I have a copy of Ron Goldstein's book No.3 (Jewish) Troop, No.10 Commando you mention. I have read it a number of times but have been unable to match anything in there to my limited knolwedge of my father's service. I have also spent hours with a magnifying glass looking at all the pictures of the servicemen, but cannot identify my father. One thing my husband pointed out is that throughout his life, my father hated having his pohto taken, until his late 60's when his only grandson was born; this changed a little. My mother was always convinced that his fear of photos was somehow linked to his "need to remain invisible" in connection with his origin and subsequent war service. I have found one Wedding photo of Daddy taken in 1960, but at the moment cannot get my scanner to work so can't upload. As soon as my husband gets the scanner working then this photo may help.
Does the fact that names may have been obliterated have an impact on the tracing, as he was a serving member of the Scots Guards - I do not know the Regiment but he said his motto was always "fear nothing and fear noone". Is this a Regimental motto?
Furthemore aroung the early 50's my father was regularly on duty outside London landmarks - Buckingham Palace; Changing of the Guard, and wore a busby. He had stories to tell me as a youngster about having to stand stock still whilst on one of these duties no matter what tourists did to try and provoke movement; for example waving ice cream in front of his face etc etc. He was willing to talk a very little about his time in the Scots Guards after the war, and to the end of his life was intensely proud to have served with, in his opinion the best of the best.
Anne

Anne,
You and your Father's story sound eerily familiar with one I've been tracing, with limited success, for 15 years or more. My Father, an American, joined the Canadian Army in 1940 and trained/served as a Commando in early 1941 according to a detailed letter and a few conversations I had with him before he died.

Other than his letter and conversations the only tangible evidence I've gotten over the last 15 years was from a Norwegian resistence member with CDO and SOE background who trained in Scotland at about the same time. CDO records haven't to date revealed him or a good friend he mentions in the text and authorities have suggested perhaps he was seconded to SOE or another group. Frankly, if this man were not my Father I would've stopped looking years ago. The official records leave a lot to be desired.

I've had historians come down on both sides of the issue after reading my Father's letter; "Yes it happened, but you'll likely never prove it (M.R.D. Foot and Gervase Cowell of SOE Historian's office) OR "it is a manufactured story" (several younger UK, US and Canadian Historians).

I will watch this forum with hopes that you have success.

All the Best,

Jeff O'Connell