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Combined Operations HQ - Instructional Pamphlets.
Background
On June 4th 1940, while the last of the
British Expeditionary Force was being evacuated from Dunkirk, Churchill sent a
memorandum to his Chief Military Assistant and Staff Officer, General Ismay. He
was Churchill's main communications link with the Chiefs of Staff. The
memorandum warned against the dangers of concentrating too much on the defence
of the United
Kingdom against enemy attack or invasion. "It is of the highest consequence to
keep the largest numbers of German forces all along the coasts of the countries
they have conquered, and we should immediately set to work to organise raiding
forces on these coasts where the populations are friendly." Two days later he
continued on the same theme, "I look to the Chiefs of Staff to propose me
measures for a vigorous, enterprising and ceaseless offensive against the whole
German-occupied coastline."
Major Arthur B Rothwell of The Duke of Wellington's Regiment, was
seconded to the Command's HQ (COHQ) following service in Iceland. With his
military background and writing skills, he was given the task of preparing a number of
Combined Ops pamphlets on a range of diverse subjects in aid of the training effort. This is his story.
Combined Operations HQ
was located at 1a Richmond Terrace, London, not far from Downing Street.
It never received a direct hit during the bombing raids or, later, by the
V1 or V2 rockets. However, one
day, a sneak attack bomber dropped a line of four bombs nearby; one behind
Downing Street, one in front, one in the entrance to Richmond Terrace and
one under my office window. Luckily, I had just left on an errand but, as
a result of the explosion, it took me a long time to get my papers back
together again!
[Photo; HM The King paid a private
visit to COHQ on 29th September 1942 to meet officers. He was received by
Lord Louis Mountbatten. © IWM (A 11967)].
About every 10 days, we
stayed overnight at COHQ as part of a fire watching squad. We would
sleep fully dressed on camp beds in the cellar and would ‘stand to’ when
the air alarm sounded. The leader of my squad was Sir Malcolm Campbell,
the racing motorist. We were on the roof of COHQ the night the first V1s
came over London. Later on, Campbell and I made some trips around various
factories looking for inventions that might be useful for amphibious
operations. He had the authority to buy items of general interest and I
had the authority to buy items useful for the Beach Units. I remember buying
the first ‘walkie talkie’. Although they were bulky and sufficient for one-man
to carry, they were soon to prove their value on the
Normandy beaches.
As the months passed,
there were a number of command and staff changes. Mountbatten went to
South East Asia and was replaced by General Bob Laycock. Laycock led the
commando raid that had tried to kill Rommel (Operation
Flipper). Only he and his Sergeant had returned. Brigadier Robertson, was posted elsewhere and the position of Director of Combined
Operations was taken by Brigadier Bernard Fergusson, who became my
immediate superior. Bernard had been a Chindit in Burma and had led three
columns behind Japanese lines, a story he tells in his book ‘Beyond the
Chindwin’. While in Burma, he kept losing his monocle and had to
arrange for several spares to be dropped with his parachuted supply drops!
After the war, Bernard
became CO of the 1st Battalion Black Watch only to resign
hurriedly when the Umpires on a TEWT - a tactical exercise with troops, found him playing poker with his opposing General. In
1946, he became Inspector General of the Palestine Police but again
resigned after a man died under questioning which led to protests in
the House of Commons. He wrote numerous books including ‘History of the
Black Watch’ and the ‘Watery Maze’, which was a history of Combined
Operations, something he told me was a waste of three years of his
life. Later he became Governor General of New Zealand and then Chairman of
the British Council. Eventually titled Lord Ballantrae, he died in his
Club of a heart attack on 29 November, 1980. Bernard was the only one of
my war time acquaintances with whom I kept in touch. The last letter I
received from him was dated 16 January, 1980.
Combined
Operations Pamphlets
My pamphlet on Beach Organisation had been well received and I was soon getting demands for
many others. My actual contribution differed with each pamphlet. Necessary
information was usually obtained from a number of sources. Having become
familiar with this, I had to decide how to divide it into chapters to make
a rational sequence. Nearly always the text had to be rewritten into short
and easily understood sentences. Also important was my use of the word
‘should’ where the commander had an option and the word ‘will’ where he
had no option. I was never able to determine how many copies I should have
printed of each pamphlet. I usually ordered between 3,000 and 20,000 so
there may still be thousands lying around in some warehouse.
My job of writing and
re-writing pamphlets went on. It might appear boring but this was not the
case. There were always minor problems in the Club, new visitors were
being introduced and commanders of Combined Operations Units coming from
amphibious operations abroad were requested to spend a day with me and
relate their experiences.
A list of Combined
Operations Pamphlets which were published is as follows:
1944
Beach Organisation and
Maintenance
Fire Support
Instructions
Hardening of Commando
Troops for Warfare
Employment of
Amphibians in Combined Operations. [Operation Overlord – Combined Operations
Study – Oct 1944]*
1945
Combined Operations
(General)
Air Aspects of Combined
Operations in The Long Range Assault
SP Artillery in an
Assault
Bombardment Spotting
Instructions
Conduct of the Long
Range Assault in the Far East
Cliff Assaults
Commandos in the Field
Small Scale Amphibious
Raids
Provost in Combined
Operations
Driving Instruction for
Combined Operations
Combined Operations
Staff Notebook
1946
Organisation of the
Ferry Service
Organisation and
Employment of Beach Organisation REME Units
Organisation and
Employment of RASC Units for Beach Maintenance
Employment of Royal
Engineers in an Assault Landing
Intelligence in
Combined Operations
Naval, Army and Air
Force Planning of Combined Operations.* [Introduction to
Combined Operations Planning]*
* [Copies of the marked documents were enclosed with the original memoir, the Naval,
Army and Air Force pamphlets appear to have been single Service editions,
the Introduction to C Ops Planning pamphlet was not listed in the memoir
and the Operation Overlord pamphlet, again not listed, was sent to the
Green Howards Museum.]
Cliff
Assaults.
A couple of the above
pamphlets deserve comment. When attending the Combined Operations
Administrative Course at HMS Dundonald, I had become very friendly with a
Major Harry Faviell. From time to time he would drop into the Club and we
would have a meal or a drink together. Later, he became responsible for the
training of the American Rangers in the cliff assault on the German
Battery [Point du Hoc] in the early hours of D Day and so he
assisted me with the pamphlet named ‘cliff assaults’. On D Day he
accompanied the American Rangers to the top of the cliff and, after they
had captured their target battery, he considered his responsibility
finished. Having emptied the wallets of the adjacent dead German
soldiers, he took the next LCT back to Dover. Next day he changed the
money at the Bank of England and we celebrated the success of the Normandy
landing together. Next day, the Bank of England ceased exchanging
‘liberated’ currencies.
Driving
Instructions for Combined Operations.
The circumstances of
writing the ‘Driving Instructions for Combined Operations’ should also be
of some interest. When one of our senior officers was watching a loading
exercise on the south coast, he noticed that the driving signals
used by the three Services were slightly different. It might not seem to
matter in daytime but it could prove dangerous at night and under fire.
Bernard asked me to call a meeting of the Services to decide upon an
agreed set of signals. The meeting was held at COHQ on 23 August 1944. I
remember the date well because I was called out of the meeting to be told
that my eldest daughter had been born. No problems were encountered in
writing and getting Service approval for the pamphlet. My next job was to
produce a training film illustrating the various agreed driving signals. For this
purpose, I was deposited in an old English Inn on the Norfolk coast,
together with a film unit, one of each of the various landing craft and
ships, including an LST, and a large variety of vehicles. We wrote the
script each evening and shot it next day. Richard Dimbleby read the
commentary and it was completed and distributed in the record time of four
weeks.
Miscellaneous
General Montgomery had denied
the BBC request to be with the follow-up troops in Operation Overlord.
Hugh Vaughan-Thomas, whom I have referred to as Vaughan, had an elder
brother, Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, who had joined the BBC at the beginning
of the war. He was involved in all of their outside broadcasts and
concocted the idea that he would like to cover the Rhine crossing. Wynford
discussed the idea with Vaughan, but the latter could not very well make
the necessary recommendation so got me to push the idea upstairs. This was
successful and the BBC was given permission to make a broadcast of the
crossing, which was duly made by Wynford. I knew Wynford fairly well. He
was the first reporter to take part in a night bombing raid over Berlin
and we all had breakfast together next morning. Anyway, soon after the
authority for the broadcast had been given, the BBC invited Vaughan and I
to come over to their offices, we thought to discuss business. Actually,
they had arranged a cocktail party for us and we spent the next two hours
talking to BBC personalities, who previously had only been names.
Sometime in 1944,
I was told that I had been appointed Secretary of an Inter Service
Committee to decide upon the equipment for the Beach Brigade for the
Normandy Operation. The Committee comprised about a dozen Admirals,
Generals and Air Field Marshals. I do not remember their names. After
three meetings, everything was agreed and the Committee dissolved itself,
leaving me to implement their decisions, with dire threats of punishment
if I failed to get the equipment in time. Most of the basic equipment had
to be provided by the US. I indented for it on Washington through the
Engineering Department of the War Office. Colonel Bruce Lumsden, CCO’s
representative in Washington, soon notified me that the Pentagon had given
it Immediate Top Priority. Apparently, Roosevelt was not going to give
Churchill any excuse to delay Overlord and the equipment arrived in ample
time. Lumsden was a good friend of mine and had excellent connections in
Washington. When visiting us in London, he usually brought me a bottle of
Noilly Prat, which was then no longer available in the UK. His aunt owned
Pimms and, one day, he took me to meet her. I was offered a case of Pimms
a month and I accepted, even though I couldn’t drink that much!
Further Reading
There are around 300 books listed on
our 'Combined Operations Books' page. They, or any
other books you know about, can be purchased on-line from the
Advanced Book Exchange (ABE). Their search banner link, on our 'Books' page, checks the shelves of
thousands of book shops world-wide. Just type in, or copy and paste the
title of your choice, or use the 'keyword' box for book suggestions.
There's no obligation to buy, no registration and no passwords.
The Watery Maze : the story of Combined Operations by Bernard Fergusson. A very good introduction to the
conditions prevailing at the time the Command was set up and through the early years
when in fighting took place between the "new boy on the
block" and the Chiefs of the traditional services. London :
Collins, 1961. 445 p.
Acknowledgements
With the exception of a few minor additions
to the text for the purposes of explanation and clarification, the above
text was written by
Major Arthur B Rothwell TD (1/7th Battalion The Duke of
Wellington’s Regiment) and as transcribed by Scott Flaving in November
2015.
The document had been received from Charles Clauson (Ex Welsh Guards, 1966-1974), from Houston, Texas
in Sep 2015. It had been obtained from the author who resided in the USA at the time of his
death. This web page is an extract from the author's unpublished memoir
entitled "The Second World War, 1939 - 1945, Remembered by a Yorkshire
Territorial. We are indebted to
the Duke of Wellington's Regiment Museum, Halifax who submitted the text
for addition to this website.
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