Happy New Year - A Fairey Battle and a Hurricane at the Reims Champagne Aerodrome

A Fairey Battle and a Hawker Hurricane at Reims Champagne Aerodrome in late 1939.

Royal Artillery Badges 1939/40

Some more of Frank's Royal Artillery badges.  I believe that the material badges were worn on the epulettes of the battledress jacket.

Gracie Fields at a Concert in Reims, November 1939

I found this photograph of Gracie Fileds at a concert in Reims in a book by Charles Gardner published in 1940.  In Frank's letter of 20 November 1939 he says:

"No, we were not present at the all-star concert but some of the chaps heard Gracie Fields on the radio.  Was that the same concert?"

Fairey "Snow" Battle - Winter 1939/40

Atmospheric picture of winter of a Fairey Battle on one of the AASF areodromes in the Reims area of France in 1939/40.

Special Order of the Day - Xmas Day 1939

Happy Christmas! Here is the Special Order of the Day issued on 25 December 1939 to the Regiment with the Christmas message from Lietenant Colonel V R Krohn MC RA, the commanding officer of the 53rd Heavy Anti Aircraft Regiment. It sheds some light on to the make up of the Territorial Regiment.

SPECIAL ORDER OF THE THE DAY

XMAS DAY - 1939

CHRISTMAS 1939, will long be remembered by the members of the 53rd (City of London) Anti-Aircraft Regiment, R.A. as the first they have spent Overseas on Active Service.

To many of you it is probably the first that you have ever spent away from your homes and families, and this may seem to be special hardship.

Your consolation lies in the fact that ours is one of the First Territorial Units to be sent Overseas, and in being thus selected we have been greatly honoured.

We have done, are doing, and shall continue to do our allotted task to the best of our ability. Whether it is being well done or not is for others to say.

For my part I want to take this opportunity to express to you all my very great appreciation of the whole hearted support you have always given to me.

There may be trying times ahead for all of us, but I am completely confident that we shall meet these with the same spirit which has enabled us to surmount the lesser difficulties of the past.

I cannot close this message without expressing to those of you who were Militiamen our special appreciation of the way you have absorbed the spirit of the Regiment. The first time I spoke to you I told you that you were to consider yourselves as full members of the 53rd A.A. Regiment, and not as being apart. That you have taken me at my word is gratifyingly apparent, and we older members of the Regiment are proud to have you with us.

I wish you all, Officers, Warrant Officers, N.C.O.'s and Men a HAPPY CHRISTMAS, and may we all look forward to a speedy return home.

Liet. Colonel R.A.
Commanding
53rd H.A.A. Regt. R.A.

B.E.F.
25/12/39

The King's Message to the Empire (Broadcast Christmas Day, 1939)

This is the message broadcast to the Empire by King George VI on Christmas Day 1939 and makes a fascinating read for us sitting here and looking back 75 years later knowing what happened.  In 1939 the expectation was not that France would fall within 6 weeks and that the BEF would be lucky to get out through Dunkirk.  At Christmas 1939, the pictures and words published about the BEF show that another  attritional trench war was expected and that the Germans would not be strong enough to beat the Allies.  

1939 ends on a positive note; how different it would all be by Christmas 1940.

The festival which we know as Christmas is above all the festival of peace and of the home.  Among all free peoples the love of peace is profound for this alone gives security to the home.

But true peace is in the hearts of men, and it is the tragedy of this time that there are powerful countries whose whole direction and policy are based on aggression and the suppression of all that we hold dear for mankind.

It is this that has stirred our peoples and given them a unity unknown in any previous war.  We feel in our hearts that we are fighting against wickedness, and this conviction will give us strength from day to day to preserve until victory is assured.

At home we are, as it were, taking the strain for what may lie ahead of us, resolved and confident.  We look with pride and thankfulness on the never-failing courage and devotion of the Royal Navy upon which, throughout the last four months, has burst the storm of ruthless and unceasing war.

And when I speak of our Navy today, I mean all the men of our Empire who go down to the sea in ships, the Mercantile Marine, the minesweepers, the trawlers and drifters from the senior officers to the last boywho has joined up.  To every one in this great fleet I send a message of gratitude and greetings, from myself as from all my peoples.

The same message I send to the gallant Air Force which in co-operation with the Navy is our sure shield of defence.  They are daily adding laurels to those that their fathers won.

I would spend a special word of greeting to the armies of the Empire, to those who have come from afar, and in particular to the British Expeditionary Force.

Their task is hard.  They are waiting, and waiting is a trial of nerve and discipline.  But I know that when the moment comes for action they will prove themselves worthy of the highest traditions of their great Service.

And to all who are preparing themselves to serve their country, on sea or land or in the air, I send my greeting at this time.  The men and women of our far flung Empire, working in their several vocations, with the one same purpose, all are members of the great family of nations which is prepared to sacrifice everything that freedom of spirit may be saved to the world.

A new year is at hand.  We cannot tell what it will bring.  If it brings peace, how thankful we shall all be.  If it brings us continued struggle we shall remain undaunted.

In the meantime, I feel that we may all find a message of encouragement in the lines which, in my closing words, I would like to say to you.

"I said to the man who stood in the gate of the year: 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'

"And he replied. 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.  That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way."

May that Almighty hand guide and uphold us all.

The quote at the end is from"The Desert" by Miss M L Haskins.

Christmas Message from Viscount Gort VC, C-in-C BEF

From Viscount Gort, VC, Commander-in-Cheif of the British Field Force

Once more within the memory of many of us a British Expeditionary Force is spending Christmas in France, and once again, under the leadership of a great soldier of France, the Allied Armies stand united to resist aggression.

In the year that lies ahead difficulties and dangers will undoubtedly arise, as they have done in the wars of the past, but they will be surmounted owing, on the one hand, to the close understanding which today exists between the French nation and ourselves and, on the other hand, to the knowledge that your thoughts are with us at all times whether the weather be fair or foul.

In whatever part of the Empire you may dwell,  I extend to you all cordial good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. 

December 23 1939

Daily Life in the RAF at a British Aerodrome on the Western Front

I found these photographs in a copy of the War Illustrated magazine published in January 1940.  They show a rare glimpse of life on the aerodromes occupied by the AASF and defended by the guns of the 157th Battery in the Champagne Region of France.  Although not possible to idnetify the location it may be Auberive or Juvigny.

A Fairey Battle Bomber is parked in the open.  The snow forms a natural camouflage, but the Royal Air Force has also used special camouflage for autumn and for winter when trees are bare.

Close up of the Fairey Battle in its dispersal site on an aerodrome on the Western Front.

After a cup of tea may come an impromptu sing-song such as these men are enjoying.  The word "hot" is painted on the stove as kindly advice to visitors to keep their hands off.

These men in their quarters at a British aerodrome in France are upholding the belief that the English are a nation of tea drinkers.  Besides the boiling kettle the teapot and the tin mugs being always in request, innumerable cups of tea are supplied at the many NAAFI canteens in France.

The tea being welcomed in the photograph above is being carried up from a dug out.

The Ack Acks - A Frivolous Diversity Christmas 1939

Here is the programme for the Battery's Christmas show which was presented by the "kind permission of Major J A Chivers MM RA.  It started at 19.30 hours but unfortunately is undated and not referred to in any of Frank's letters.  One can just imagine the scene as the Ack Acks put on their best variety show "somewhere in |France"!

Best Wishes for Christmas 1939

The BEF received Christmas greetings from the King and Queen, reminiscent of how the Royal Family supported the first BEF in 1914, although there was no gift in 1939.  I don't think that the sending of such cards continued throughout the war.

This is Frank's Royal Artillery cap badge which was in France with him in 1939/40.  It can also be seen on the pictures of Frank in the Picasa web album a year before war broke out.  The wheel on the gun turns smoothly still.