Every Man May Reach a Star

The final part of the secretary for War's speech, predicting a conflict of 3 years and seemingly one similar to the First World War.  Although victory is predicted at the end of the speech the route to that victory was not the one foreseen in 1939.

The look-out for talent is continuous, and all commanding officers are instructed to search for it.  In this Army the star is within every private soldier's reach.  No one, however humble or exalted his birth, need be afraid that his military virtues will remain unrecognised.

More important, no one who wishes to serve in the Army need consider his status minimized by starting at the bottom of the ladder.  From the ranks we shall mainly derive our junior officers.

For officers in the middle piece and for specialists we have our sources open to us.  We have the Regular Army Reserve.  We have the Territorial Reserve of Officers, and we also have the Army Officers' Emergency Reserve...

It will be unnecessary  to remind the House that it is of the essence of reserves that they re not all used up at once and upon the assumption that this will be a three years' war, many of those with suitable qualifications will in due course have their opportunity.

The splendid women of the ATS, already 20,000 strong, are about to extend their service in replacement of their brothers in arms.

Further openings for the older men will be given in two new directions .... Home Defence Battalions ... and an Auxiliary Pioneer Corps which will take over military pioneer work, both overseas and here.

Pari passu with this pressure upon us to take men in the Army is a pressure in the reverse direction.  We have tried to deal liberally with industry, whose needs we fully recognise just as industry will recognise that an army is a skilled profession and must also, for the safety of the country, have men of specialised knowledge.

Soldiers Back to Industry

We have temporarily released about 10,000 Regular Reservists, and will have shortly in addition have released 12,000 Territorials either temporarily or permanently.  In so far as these releases are helping to accelerate and enlarge the output of our war industries, the loss will have been repaid to us.

Any words of mine that can stimulate and electrify these industies of this country which ar engaged on the output of munitions to out their last ounce into the task of meeting the needs of those in the field and of hastening the day when others can join them will, I am sure, be endorsed by the Minister of Supply.  It is the output of factories making equipment and munitions for the field which will be the ultimate measure of our effort.

It will tell the House what is being done by and for the Army to train as many men as possible o become technicians, and thereby to spare industry the ful drain which would otherwise be made upon it.  The Army is training such men itself.  The Minister of Labour has plans in mind for enabling some of his training establishments to assist in the provision of Army requirements of skilled tradesmen.  With the help of the Minister of Education we hope to use polytechnics, technical schools, and Universities for the same purpose.

Industry will doubtless in its own way be making provision to augment its resources of skilled personnel.  We can look with confidence to these developments.

In 1914 appeals were made for recruits who had neither clothing, nor equipment, nor instructions, nor accommodation, and men were taken regardless of their civilian occupations.  The feat of the first months of the last war we had already achieved in the months of peace preceding this war, and experience had taught us to avoid many of the errors of the last occasion.

Thus at the beginning of September we had in being an Army which was daily acquiring new strength, better cohesion, and greater efficiency.

It has been a privilege to speak of it today and to reveal that while the world was reading of the German advances into Poland British soldiers, resolved to rectify this wrong, were passing silently and in unceasing sequence across the Channel to France.  There we may think of them in positions along a countryside whose towns, whose villages, and whose rivers are familiar to them by memory or by tradition as their own.

How strange it is that twice in a generation men should take this journey and that sons should be treading again upon soil made sacred by their fathers.

They are grumbling about the same things, mispronouncing the same names, making similar jokes and singing songs which seem an echo over the intervening years.  And we may rest assured that they will acquit themselves with the same tenacity, courage and endurance.  However long the struggle and however great the ordeal, they will, as our soldiers did before, take our arms and our cause of freedom to victory.

Problems of 1914 and 1939 Compared

In this section of hi speech Hore-Belisha makes an interesting comparison between the preparedness of the Army in 1914 and the Army in 1939.  He also mentions the Territorial Army of which Frank's Battery was a part.

None of problems existed, excepts in embryo, in 1914.  It was a light army that travelled then.  Nearly 60% of the fighting troops in 1914 were infanrtymen, relying on their rifles and bayonets and two machine guns per battalion.  Now only 20% of the fighting troops are infantrymen, with 50 Bren guns, 22 anti-tank rifles, and other weapons as well, with each battalion.

It will be seen by this one example how much more effectively armed with fire power is the present Expeditionary Force.

There is however, one respect in which our Army has not altered; its relations with our Allies, who have welcomed the men so generously, are as good humoured.  The catchwords of the soldiers are as amusing......

To all those who have co-operated in this military movement, to the various Government departments both in this country and in France, the gratitude of this nation is due.  Especially, however, should the achievement be recorded as evidence that the maritime might of Britain is unimpaired.  The Navy has not lost its secret, and the Air Force had held its protecting wings over another element of danger.

It is not only to France that British soldiers have been transported.  The Middle East has been strongly reinforced, and also our garrisons elsewhere, both in material and in men.

One part of our Army, however, remains stationary in this country, waiting and watching in little groups.  In isolated stations the Anti-Aircraft Units have been on guard since before this war begun, and that their vigilance is not forgotten, under-estimated or unrecognised by this country and by this House must be their great encouragement.

We have a numerous Army.  In that respect we are at the outset of hostilities better situated than we were in 1914.

We had in peacetime taken a precaution, for which we must now be thankful, of instituting a system of universal military training, and thus the even flow of recruits became as well assured to us as to the Continental countries.  We had the foundation on which, after the declaration of war, we could build an even more comprehensive system and we passed the National Service Act, placing under an obligation to serve all male British citizens resident in Great Britain between the ages of 18 and 41.

In peacetime also we had doubled the Territorial Field Army in this country alone, including the Reservists and the Militia, the best part of 1,000,000 men on whom we could call at the outbreak of war.

Never had the total of our armed forces in the United Kingdom approached anywhere near such a total in the time of peace.

When I first introduced Army Estimates to the House in March 1938 we were preparing out of our strategic reserve five divisions - none of them upon a Continental scale.

Subsequently the European tension increased, and in April the plan for 19 divisions became one of 32.  This will not be the limit of our effort.

It is plain that great calls will be made upon our man-power.  How do we intend to proceed?

In the first place we have the method of calling up classes.  His Majesty has already proclaimed the classes between 20 and 22.

Those within the classes proclaimed are being called up in batches, and with each batch we are taking an additional quota of volunteers.  Any man desirious of being a volunteer in the Army, and being above the age of the class called up, may register his name at either a recruiting station or a Ministry of Labour office and he will be treated in exactly the same way as the classes proclaimed....

There is even greater inducement now than in previous wars to join the Army in the way described.  Apart from specialist appointments, virtually all commissions will be given from the ranks.  It must be remembered that the nation is in arms and there is no dearth of ability in the ranks.  On of the best men who has reached the top for the leader's course on the way to a commission is a labourer's son.

"The Brains Behind the Move"

Hore-Belisha's speech continued to describe theorganisation required to transport the BEF to France with some interesting comparisons with 1914.

It was a small body of specially selected officers in the War Office who, with seven confidential clerks and typists, secretly worked out every detail of the plan for moving the Army and the Royal Air Force to France. They foresaw and provided for every need: the selection of ports and docks, of roads and railways, of accommodation of all types, of rest camps and depots, of hospitals and repair shops, at every stage on both sides of the Channel. Their ingenuity, their precision and their patience would have baffled Bradshaw....

The Expeditionary Force has been transported to France intact without a casualty to any of its personnel.

May I describe to the House some aspects in which the task on this occasion has differed from that of 1914, although , as one watches the process, continuing with the smoothness of a machine, one finds it hard to believe that there has been a break of 25 years in the passage of these two armies?

Then the men marched on to the ships, the horses were led, and a light derrick could lift what the soldier could not carry. In those days there were only 800 mechanised vehicles in all, and it was a rare load that exceeded two tons.

We have already on this occasion transported to France more than 25,000 vehicles including tanks, some of them of enormous dimensions and weighing 15 tons apiece or more.

Normal shore cranes could not raise them, special ships were required to carry them and highly trained stevedores to manipulate them. Consequently, as contrasted with 1914, where ordinary vessels took men and their material together from the usual ports, in this case the men travelled separately and the heavier mechanisms had to be transported from more distant ports, where special facilities were available. The arrangements for the reunion of the troops with their material om the other side made an additional complication.

Similarly, and for other reasons also, more remote landing places had to be selcted in France, thus making the voyages much longer.

Again internally, and as a precaution against air attack, more devious internal routes were taken than in 1914. Vehicles and men were dispersed in small groups, halted in concealed areas by day and moved onwards by night.

As with transport, so with maintenance, the problem has become greater than it was a generation ago.

Every horse eats the same food and can continue, like man, to move though hungry. Vehicles come to a standstill when their tanks are empty. There re in France 50 types of vehicle, and most of them require a different grade of fuel and lubricant. Great reserves have had to be conveyed and stored...

How the New BEF Went to France - The War Illustrated 4 November 1939

This is an extract taken from a speech given by Mr Leslie Hore-Belisha, Secretary for War, in the House of Commons on 11 October 1939 and describes how the BEF was transported to France in September and October 1939.  The optimism of the speech makes it clear that the defeat of Frnace in June 1940 was not even considered a possibility.  This is a fascinating read 25 years on from the despatch of the first BEF in 1914.

I will publish further extracts from this speech over the next week.

Within six weeks of the outbreak of war in 1914 we had transported to France 148,000 men. Within 5 weeks of the outbreak of this war we had transported to France 158,000 men.

During this period we have also created our base and lines of communication organisation, so as to assure the regular flow of supplies ans munitions of every kind and to receive further contingents as and when we may decide to send them. The major operation is thus over, and it is possible to speak to the House with frankness. I wish it had been prudent to do so previously.

Night by night at the War Office we have waited for tidings of the arrival of the convoys. These have averaged three every night. It would have been encouraging to have shared at every stage the news as we received it with the nation so uncertain of what was transpiring and so naturally eager for reports about its Army.

The Press, like Parliament, willingly observed a reticence which in itself was a safeguard for out contingents. There is no need for further silence, and a body of war correspondents has just arrived in France with the object of keeping us all informed of day to day impressions and happenings.

24 November 1939 - Letter to Frank's sister Edie

Click on the link below to see Frank's letter written on this day in 1939, 75 years ago today.

http://deardad-lettershome.blogspot.co.uk/2009_11_01_archive.html

Survey of the Siegried Line

The Battery diary records the following:

22 to 27 November 1939 - Consolidation of positions - All guns ready for action.

The War Illustrated continued to give an upbeat assessment of the actions of the British Foces in France, cluding the RAF, which belies what was to happen in May 1940.  It says:

"A complete photographic map of the Siegried Line has been made.  Many photographs taken from only a few hundred feet above the Line, go to the composition this map.  A few days ago our aircraft, taking off from an aerodrome in France, covered the whole length of Germany from the Saar to the North Sea, flew on to Heligoland, all without serious interruptions, and then made safe landings home in England.  All accounts speak highly of the navigating skill of the pilots and crews as of their determinatioon."

The airfields defended by the 157th HAA Battery were behind the Siegfried Line and so it can be concluded that these palnes would have taken off from the airfields in the Reims / Epernay region.

Fairey Battles on an AASF Airfield on the Western Front - Autumn 1939

I found these photographs of Fairey Battles dispersed on an airfield on the Western Front in autumn 1939 in The War Illustrated, 4 November 1939.  Although the airfield is not identified, the pictures will have been taken on one of the AASF airfields that the 53rd HAA Regiment were tasked with defending.  Perhaps it is an airfield that the 157th HAA Battery was defending and although I will never know, there is a good chance, as the Battles were based at the airfields where their guns were dug in.

"Brushwood is extensively used for camouflage purposes at the aerodrome on the Western Front. Above can be seen the way in which a screen is built up in front of the machine when it has finished its day's work."

"The round photograph gives a close-up view of the zigzag steel network which is laid on the runways of an aerodrome.  its purposes is to prevent the wheels sinking into the mud when the machine is taking off.  Grass is allowed to grow over it so that it cannot be detected from the air. The main picture shows an example of complete camouflage. An aeroplane has its tail in a copse, and brushwood has been placed in front of it."

Letter Home - 20 November 1939

Click on the link to see Frank's letter from 75 years ago today:

http://deardad-lettershome.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2010-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=34

8 November 1939

Click on the link below to see Frank's letter from 8 November 1939

3 - 10 November 1939

The entry for the 157th HAA Battery Diary is the same between 3 and 10 November 1939.  It records the following:

3-10/11/1939

0800 Consolidation of positions - All guns ready for action.

Life in Villers-Marmery at the Battery HQ - 2 November 1939

Click on the link below to see Frank's letter of 2 November 1939.


The Battery Diary for 2 November 1939 said the following:

2/11/1939
0800 JUVINGY 3 guns ready for action.  Ammunition on site 400 rounds HE, 50 shrapnel.

AUBERIVE 4 guns ready for action.  Ammunition on site 400 rounds HE, 50 shrapnel.

1800 JUVIGNY - 4 guns ready for action.
AUBERIVE - 4 guns ready for action.
Digging in and preparations of positions continues.

1 November 1939 - Postal Orderly Appointed

The Battery Diary records the following for 1 November 1939:

Villers-Marmery

1/11/1939 0800 JUVIGNY 3 guns ready for action.  Ammunition on site 400 rounds HE, 50 shrapnel.

AUBERIVE 4 guns ready for action.  Ammunition on site 400 rounds HE, 50 shrapnel.

Straw shelters being erected as temporary shelters for the manning section pending completion of dug outs etc.

Also on this day frank was issued with a formal authority to act as Postal Orderly for the 157th HAA Battery.  The document, signed by the Commanding Officer of the Battery, Major Jim Chivers RA said:

To whom it may concern. The bearer of this authority No. 881937 Gunner Faulkner F. A. is authoried to collect mail and generally to fulfill the duties of Postal Orderly for this Battery.