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March 2021

Military History Group

U3A Dorking

Newsletter Number 9

Meetings via Zoom during Pandemic

Any contributions to the newsletter are very welcome and should be sent to Robert Bartlett at

938at938@gmail.com

Contents

Barrie Friend U3A MHG Convener 2

Mike Fox U3A National Subject Advisor Military History 2

The Defence of Britain against the German Invasion 1939/41 3

Discovering a World War One Tunnel 12

The British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany 17

Book Review – He Who Dares 26

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From Barrie Friend Dorking U3A MHG convener

Parish Notes

Fellow enthusiasts

Welcome to our April Newsletter

We welcomed another large audience of over fifty for our April talk on The Defence of Britain

against the German Invasion 1940/41 which was followed by a lively discussion. The talk is

available on our YouTube site accessible through Dorking and District u3a website. Look for

the Military History tab and by clicking it you will find not only the April talk but all the

previous ones delivered through lockdown along with back editions of our Newsletter.

Our next talk will be on Tuesday May 4th at 1030 on Zoom. The link is in this Newsletter. It

will be delivered by guest speaker, Mike Fox, U3A Military History Group National Advisor.

I do hope that you will support him well with your attendance.

His topic is The French Army at The Battle of Waterloo, 1915. The story of the actions and

success of the allied army, led by Wellington, may be well known to many of us. Mike will

explain the actions of the French giving rise to Wellington’s comment that the battle was

‘nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.’

We are firming up our plans to meet in Brockham cricket pavilion when safe to do so. George

and Jim will be visiting to ensure that we can place the chairs at safe distances (if required) and

check 4G connectivity should we wish to incorporate Zoom into the early meetings. We hope

that all our Zoom lockdown attendees will join the talks when face to face. Easy free parking,

good, interesting company, coffee and rumours of doughnuts on the first meeting.

Several members have mentioned our making a visit(s) to local sites of military interest when

safe to do so. We’ll take further soundings of the group on this idea.

Topic: MHG Zoom Meeting (Barrie Friend)

Time: May 4, 2021 10:30 AM London

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/91541451006?pwd=U2E2L0pJaGtvSXVxVmM0YjlvWk4rUT09

Meeting ID: 915 4145 1006 Passcode: 762657 Meeting ID: 915 4145 1006

Mike Fox U3A National Subject Advisor Military History

I am indebted to Chris Sayer of Newbury U3A for a number of suggestions as follows – for

your convenience I have added web addresses to his original material. I should note that there

are charges to view some of the talks.

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The Museum of Army Flying (the AAC) at Middle Wallop are still producing lockdown talks

on a range of subjects, the most recent being on the anniversary of the first flight of the Spitfire.

They have an archive which people can delve into to see all the talks that they've held during

the last year. https://www.armyflying.com/

The Tank Museum at Bovington also continues to produce its Tank Chats, well worth it for an

introduction to the background to vehicles, rather than the technical details of the vehicles

themselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo-u51pqlrg

The German Tank Museum has also just restarted an English-language series of a similar nature

which are also well-worth a look at. For those with a more in-depth bent then I'd go for the

Chieftain's Hatch which is far more technical and requires some background knowledge about

the vehicles themselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCJqdZL2b0

For more modern aspects then 'The Operations Room' series of animations on You Tube offers

short but extremely well-done videos, mostly based on WW2 or post-WW2

events. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMSvQfxxrGg

Finally, for those with the stamina then you can't beat a You Tube channel known as 'TIK

Battlestorm'. TIK produces two types of videos. There are his trademark series on major battles

of WW2 that are truly in-depth - I'd recommend those on Operation Crusader, the Courland

battles and his current series on Stalingrad. Each episode on these battles normally last about

40-45 minutes and normally covers just one day or so of the main battle, so for example the

current Stalingrad series is just at the point where the Germans have entered the city itself and

it's probably taken 10 or so hours of videos to get there. However, in addition to these series

TIK also produces shorter 20–40 minute videos on a range of other WW2 subjects, often with

an economic or political slant, that are well worth a look. He is not everybody's cup of tea but

he puts up some interesting arguments that can set your mind thinking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAfo5mse-ag

Now I have a particular interest in naval affairs but haven't found too many channels online

that meet a similar need, the closest is one on You Tube by Drachinfels, so if anyone else can

come up with something interesting I'd be glad to hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jET2M8yP4Jo

Summary of Zoom Talk April 6 Barry Friend

The Defence of Britain against the German Invasion 1939/41

When France fell in May 1940 and Operation Dynamo resulted in 338,000 servicemen

returning to Britain, the fear of a German seaborne invasion preceded by airborne troops in

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capturing our airfields and ports was at a high. The awareness of plans for Operation Sea Lion

July reaffirmed the need for increasing the defence of Britain.

In October 1939, prime Minister Churchill demanded that plans were formulated for the

protection of Britain appointing General Kirke as Commander in Chief Home Forces.

He inherited a situation where since the end of The Great War and the Great Depression our

resources had been very limited for the development of our regular army, materiel and

Territorial Force. Very little was in place for home defence.

Kirke’s Julius Caesar Plan was criticised in May 1940 for its lack of soundness of the defence

of the shores and tardiness of getting the troops to German invasion sites. After seven months

in the role, he retired on 26th May 1940. His replacement, General Sir Edmund ‘Tiny’ Ironside

lasted as C in C Home Forces for an even shorter period - just seven weeks.

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In this period, he formulated a ‘static’ defensive strategy which established a coastal defended

‘crust’ with structures inland to hinder German advance towards ‘GHQ Anti-Tank Line’ inland

from the east coast, skirting the south of London and continuing west to Bristol. ‘Pill box

mania’ followed in which 150,000 workmen and all the construction machinery in the country

were employed in building 20,000 pill boxes along with numerous anti-tank concrete

‘pimples’/dragons’ teeth. Ironside too was criticised for too weak coastal defences which would

allow the Germans to gain a foothold, and the concern that it would take too long for the British

defence forces to reach the advancing German troops.

His successor in June 1940, General Sir Alan Brooke, changed the strategy to one of ‘mobile

offensive’ in which large groups of troops would be stationed in such a way that they could

rapidly be directed to the sites of German landings.

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The GHQ Line would not be used as a primary defence and the Germans should be halted on

the invasion beaches. These were strengthened and supported by the local Home Guard and

regular troops with brigade and divisional troops in close proximity as mobile forces. A million

more troops would also be stationed in the Reigate, Hertfordshire and Cambridge areas to act

as back up mobile forces for the south, south east, London and east coast. The Home Guard

was expected to ‘fight to the last round and the last man’ on the beaches and inland should the

Germans break through.

General Montgomery supported this mobile offensive strategy requesting buses to take his men

to the necessary sites of action, no doubt recalling his time twenty-five years earlier when the

red London buses were employed in Flanders to move troops to the front line.

Between the coast and GHQ Line would be ‘nodal points’ - strongly locally defended anti-tank

‘islands,’ ’fortress’ towns and villages on major roads. Some of these would be on the GHQ

line. Mobile forces would support the local defenders of these areas.

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The numbers of defensive structures in the various areas of southern England are shown in

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the diagram.

Dorking was on the GHQ Line and a nodal point. The River Mole, hills and woods acted as

natural anti-tank barriers and pill boxes and anti-tank gun emplacements complemented these.

For the Germans to advance through the Dorking Gap our local Home Guard, reinforced by

the mobile forces, would man the River Mole pill boxes and those the A25 and on the A24.

Roadblocks on these and other roads supported by anti-tank guns were designed to delay the

tanks as were the tank blocks and traps along the base of the hills leading up to Ranmore. The

anti-tank ditch shown below was not of the style around Dorking where dry ditches were more

common.

With many troops being recruited and trained for front line activities the recruitment of

volunteers to act as a Home Guard was essential. Within a day of Anthony Eden’s radio request

for volunteers a quarter of a million men were signing up at local police stations. The number

eventually reached some 1.7 million. Poorly armed, untrained and without uniforms initially,

the volunteers quickly were turned into a valued fighting force with arms made in Britain and

imported from the USA and Canada. This Home Guard was no ‘Dad’s Army’ as portrayed in

the popular television programme. but turned into a strong fighting force.

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‘Molotov cocktails’ was the preferred anti-tank weapon of the Home Guard. Empty glass

bottles containing petrol and tar and sealed with a cloth wick were simple, quick to manufacture

and

inexpensive. They were not ideal as effective weapons but substituted for the lack of a large

quantity of other anti-tank weapons such as the spigot mortar and Northover Projector capable

of firing phosphorous grenade. The Beaverette armoured car would be no match for the German

tanks but would give a small sense of security to the driver and home guard Bren gunners.

Training was conducted nationally and locally with The War Office Home Guard Training

School at Osterley being replaced by The Training School at Denbies due to the political

leanings of Osterley’s

instructors.

Rigour in training is shown by the agenda of five-day Denbies course:

From 1941 the Home Guard was a key defence asset with primary responsibilities of coastal

defence, defence of nodal points including the fortress towns and anti-tank islands and the

defence of over 900 key installations including power stations, telephone exchanges, railway

stations, and workplaces.

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The level of skills attained by the 1.7 million volunteers meant that newly conscripted

servicemen could be released from responsibility for home defence and posted to areas where

they could fight the armies of our enemies.

The Home Guard was one source of Auxiliaries- a secret force of highly trained assassins and

saboteurs who, if the Germans had successfully invaded, would have literally gone to ground

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behind their lines and with the aim of ‘creating havoc and destruction the enemy’s supplies

and communications’.

Some 4,000 men were carefully recruited, supplied with th e latest individual weapons and

served together in patrols of seven. Their underground operational bases were carefully

disguised and supplied with rations for fourteen days- the expected life expectancy of the

auxilliers.

Would this defence of Britain have succeeded if the Battle of Britain had failed?

Churchill writing in 1949 was upbeat ‘i believed that the enemy would suffer the most terrific

defeat and slaughter’ whilst the architect of teh plan, Get Allan Brooke was less optimistic:

‘… only twenty two divisions of which only half are fit for may form of mobile operation; I

wish I could have six more months to fully train and equip them…’

“ The future hung in the balance”

Maybe we should be grateful that a German invasion did not occur

Discovering First World War Tunnel

BBC Hugh Schofield https://apple.news/AAzAzsPaVSrmftZS3d84EcQ

Not since the 1970s has there been such an important discovery from the Great War in France.

In woods on a ridge not far from the city of Reims, the bodies of more than 270 German soldiers

have lain for more than a century - after they died the most agonising deaths imaginable.

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Forgotten in the confusion of war, their exact location was till now a mystery - one which the

French and German authorities were in no hurry to elucidate. But thanks to the work of a father-

and-son team of local historians, the entrance to the Winterberg tunnel on the Chemin des

Dames battlefront has been found.

The urgent question is what to do next. Should the bodies be brought up quickly and buried in

a German war cemetery? Should there be a full-scale archaeological dig so we can learn more

about the conduct of the war and the lives of the men who fought it?

Should there be a memorial, or a museum?

The two governments are still deliberating, but time presses. Because if the tunnel's location is

in theory still a secret, it is a secret that has been badly kept.

When I visited the spot a few days ago, it was to discover that bounty-hunters had been the

night before. A three-metre, deep hole had been dug near the entrance, and a collection of

wartime artefacts - axes, spades and pit-props as well as unexploded shells - left in a heap. We

also found a human ulna - the fore-arm bone.

The looters had not managed to break into the tunnel - that lies even deeper down - and what

they found are bits and pieces thrown up in the shell explosion that sealed it off. But no-one

doubts they will be back, because whoever gets into the Winterberg tunnel first will find a

treasure trove.

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In the spring of 1917, the French launched a doomed offensive to retake the hills that lie in a

west-east line a few miles to the north of the river Aisne. The Germans had held the crest

along the Chemin des Dames for more than two years, and they had a complex system of

underground defences.

Near the village of Craonne, the Winterberg tunnel ran for 300m from the north side of the

crest - invisible to the French - and came out to supply the first line of German trenches on

the south-facing slope.

On 4 May 1917 the French launched an artillery bombardment targeting the two ends of the

tunnel, sending up an observation balloon to get a sight on the north-facing slope.

For once their accuracy was formidable. A shell fired from a naval gun hit the entrance,

triggering more explosions from ammunition that was stored there and sending a cloud of

acrid fumes into the shaft. Another shell sealed the exit.

Inside, the men from the 10th and 11th companies of the 111th Reserve Regiment were

trapped. Over the next six days, as oxygen ran out, they either suffocated or took their own

lives. Some asked comrades to kill them.

By a fluke of physiology, three men survived long enough to be brought out by rescuers, just

a day before the crest was abandoned to the French. One of them, Karl Fisser, left an account

for the regimental history:

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"Everyone was calling for water, but it was in vain. Death laughed at its harvest and Death

stood guard on the barricade, so nobody could escape. Some raved about rescue, others for

water. One comrade lay on the ground next to me and croaked with a breaking voice for

someone to load his pistol for him."

When the French took the ridge, the scene outside would have been of untold chaos and

destruction. Digging into the tunnel would hardly have been a priority, so they left it. The

Germans retook the Chemin des Dames in a later push, but at that point they had no time

either to search for remains.

By the end of the war no-one could say for sure where the Winterberg tunnel had actually

been. They weren't French bodies inside, so it was decided to let them lie - as countless other

bodies still lie unfound along the Western Front.

The woods grew back and the shell-holes became mere undulations in ground. Today the spot

is popular with dog-walkers.

But a local man called Alain Malinowski could not get the tunnel out of his head. It was out

there somewhere on the ridge.

Working on the Paris metro in the 1990s, he travelled daily to the capital and used his spare

time to visit military archives in the Château de Vincennes. For 15 years he accumulated

descriptions, maps and prisoner interrogations - but to no avail. The landscape had been too

badly disfigured by bombardment to make any meaningful comparison.

But then in 2009 he chanced on a contemporary map showing not just the tunnel but also a

meeting of two paths that had survived till today. With painstaking care, he measured out the

angle and distance and arrived at the spot, now just an anonymous bit of woodland.

"I felt it. I knew I was near. I knew the tunnel was there somewhere beneath my feet," Alain

Malinowski told Le Monde.

For 10 years nothing happened. He told the authorities of his find but they refused to follow it

up, either because they did not believe him or because they had no desire to open up a mass

war-grave.

Into the story stepped his son Pierre Malinowski, at 34 years old a maverick ex-soldier who

once worked for Jean-Marie Le Pen and now runs a foundation in Moscow dedicated to

tracing war-dead from the Napoleonic and other eras.

Angered by official obfuscation, Pierre decided to force the hand of the French and German

governments by opening up the tunnel himself. This was illegal, but he thought it was worth

the punishment.

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One night in January last year he led a team that brought a mechanical digger to the spot his

father had identified. They dug down four metres, and what they found proved they were

indeed at the entrance to the tunnel.

There was the bell that was used to sound the alarm; hundreds of gas-mask canisters; rails for

transporting munitions; two machine-guns; a rifle; bayonets and the remains of two bodies.

"It was like Pompeii. Nothing had moved," said one of the team.

Pierre Malinowski then covered up the hole, leaving the place as anonymous as he had found

it, and he contacted the authorities. Ten months later, again frustrated by the slowness of the

official response, he went public and told the story to Le Monde.

It is fair to say that Pierre Malinowski is not a popular figure in the archaeological and

historical establishments.

They believe he has not only broken the law. Without any authority of his own, and

overriding the argument that the dead are best off resting where they are, he has also twisted

the arm of government, forcing it either to open the tunnel or at least protect it.

And by his example he has encouraged other go-it-alone excavations - most of which will be

conducted for purely mercenary motives.

Official reluctance to proceed with an investigation is clear. Diane Tempel-Barnett,

spokeswoman for the German War Graves Commission (VDK), told German radio "to be

honest we are not very excited about the discovery. In fact, we find it all most unfortunate".

It is hard to imagine the Commonwealth War Graves Commission taking a similar line if the

bodies of 270 UK troops were found. But then World War One is often described in Germany

as its "forgotten war".

In fact, efforts are under way now to track descendants of those who died in the tunnel - and

with some success. The 111th Regiment recruited men in the Baden region of the Swabian

Alps, and nine soldiers have now been identified who died on 4 and 5 May 1917.

"If I can help just one family to trace an ancestor who died in the tunnel, it will have been

worth it," says Mark Beirnaert, a genealogist and Great War researcher.

"What I hope is that the bodies can be brought out and identified by their dog-tags. Then

what would be fitting is that they leave this cold eerie tomb and be buried together as

comrades."

That is what happened to the more than 400 German soldiers who were found in 1973,

having died in a similar tunnel at Mont Cornillet east of Reims.

Pierre Malinowski also wishes that due honours be paid to the men. "These were farmers,

hairdressers, bank-clerks who came willingly to fight this war, and then died in a way that we

cannot begin to comprehend," he says.

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He is scrupulous in his respect for human remains. The bodies he has found have been

returned to the ground, and he will not let them be photographed. But alongside the soldier's

solidarity, there is also the fascination.

"The bodies will be preserved, so they will be like mummies, with skin and hair and

uniforms.

"Remember the tunnel was where these soldiers lived from day to day - so there will be all

their normal possessions. Every soldier will have a story. It will be the biggest ever reserve of

human material from the First World War."

The British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in

Germany (BRIXMIS)

From a Dorking resident who passed the below to me some years ago. I hope he does not mind

me publishing his photos, I am sure he will not, but I have lost touch with him and have no

idea where to find him. I hope he has no objections to me publishing this important story of a

little know intelligence unit that operated throughout East Germany from 1946-1990. Last

month the National Army Museum held a Zoom presentation about the Unit with similar

photographs and going into a great deal of details about their operations.

A recent work that covers the article below

From Wikipedia: BRIXMIS The British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces

in Germany (BRIXMIS)was a military liaison mission which operated behind the Iron

Curtain in East Germany during the Cold War. BRIXMIS existed from 1946 – shortly after the

end of the Second World War – until the eve of the reunification of Germany in 1990. Created

by an agreement to exchange military missions, the stated object of BRIXMIS – and the Soviet

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equivalent in the British Zone, SOXMIS – was "to maintain Liaison between the Staff of the

two Commanders-in-Chief and their Military Governments in the Zones".

This liaison was undertaken by 31 members – 11 officers and no more than 20 others –

appointed to each mission. These liaison staff were issued passes allowing freedom of travel

and circulation, with the exception of certain restricted areas, within each other's zone. Such

"tours", as they became known, were conducted in uniform and in clearly identifiable vehicles.

Nevertheless, although never openly stated, this liaison role also presented an ideal opportunity

for the gathering of military intelligence through reconnaissance and surveillance and the

occasional 'borrowing' of military matériel. This opportunity was fully exploited by both sides.

BRIXMIS was ideally placed to "test the temperature" of Soviet intentions from its privileged

position behind the Iron Curtain. However, and perhaps more importantly, it offered a channel

for communication between West and East via its secondary but significant role of liaison –

the initial reason for its establishment.

The following note is attached to the photos. A fuller history is available on the Internet but the

photographs I believe are unique to the officer involved.

I had been sent to Berlin after analysing some video of Soviet TV Newsreel. At the time I was

also involved in the development of a portable Doppler Radar System. When watching one

particular piece from the Embassy Diplomatic Bag I noticed a glitch in the program, my brain

told me “Tank” as there were a few frames not removed by the editor.

Where I was based, we did not have the facility to analyse video tape frame by frame so I took

the tape down to my Intelligence Corps colleagues in Bulford, Wiltshire. To cut a long story

short I finished up in MI6 HQ in London where they had the latest technology to analyse the

piece. Low and behold there were five frames, an amazing 1/5th of a second of an as yet

unknown in the West, a new type of Soviet Tank.

A few days later my Colonel called me in and basically said, “You found it on the tape, you

can go into the East and confirm its existence.” I was to fly to West Germany where I would

meet the “Team.” We went through the wire as part of the “Balance of Power Act,” this was

the agreement that allowed us to “watch” each other.

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After briefing we picked up our catapults and pockets of small stones; Why? I can hear you

ask. The Soviet are masters of decoy, many of their vehicle parks, armoured vehicle parks etc,

housed rather well-made wooden decoys. One would flick a stone at any vehicle and listen for

the sound at the point of impact, a thud meant wooden mockup, whereas a metallic ring would

indicate the vehicle as real. The catapult and stones were also useful for “peeing” off various

guards etc. Needless to say, I found what I was looking for.

I mentioned 433 areas where supposedly we were not to trespass, these were often fluid,

especially if the Soviet were exercising. Get caught out of the vehicle in one of those and you

would be arrested, interrogated, your uniform and ID card removed from your person and

would be returned to Check Point Alpha at Helmstedt, at the Soviets pleasure, just in your

underpants!

I served from 11 May 1959 to 20 March 1984. I was seriously injured in Germany in early

1970. I fought back to fitness but was seriously injured again with the United Nations Force on

Operations in Cyprus in 1972. So technically I was already disabled when taking the on the

Berlin Task. In 1974 I was “interviewed” for the task that saw me through the last 10 years of

service. This took me on many “adventures” which included as already stated, the development

of Doppler radar and the development of thermal imagery for use on the battle, also the

development of CCTV as a training medium and intelligence gathering instrument. I also

worked along with the Royal Military police using CCTV both as crime deterrent and for

gathering evidence that could be used at Courts Martial. Odd or not so odd, following my career

on various websites, you will only find the words, based at Larkhill, Salisbury 1974 to 1984.

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Headquarters British Military Intelligence and British Intelligence in West Berlin. This was not

far from the Olympia Stadium where Adolph Hitler had attended the 1936 Olympic Games.

This was my home for the days that I was with the British Military Mission in East Germany.

We would go through the frontier at first light and return at last light.

Me leaving Check Point Charlie, (Left of Picture) the crossing point between East and West

Berlin during the Cold War. I had just received a severe “bollocking” from a US Army Major

for causing a potential International Incident. It was my last trip into the East and I had upset

one of the East German Border Guards when waiting to cross back into the West. It had been

a long but warm day whilst through nosing around the East, the border guard had said that it

had been a nice day and I had replied, "Yes and when I get through here for me every day will

be a good day, whereas for you it will still be miserable" He didn't like this and would not “lift”

the barrier.

The US Guards on the West side knew we were waiting to come through and when the lights

on their side did not change, they knew there was trouble brewing. The US commander had

scrambled the duty armoured squadron and I could see the tanks lining up on the other side of

the border. After about 30 minutes of brinkmanship the disgruntled guard decided to let us go.

By this time the SAS corporal in the back of the Range Rover had got the pistol and ammunition

out of the locked steel box in the rear by pretending to look for something to eat.

My Intelligence Corps sergeant by this time was literally wetting himself. My driver was trying

to not laugh out aloud. The Intelligence sergeant, a Russian speaker, that is why he was with

us, thought a little differently accusing me of being @£$$$£ dangerous.

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My driver between a, left the wheeled vehicle, a Russian BRDM and on the right a Russian

main battle tank, a T62. This was replaced by a T72 and was undergoing replacement whilst I

was there.

Another T62 Main battle tank. Russian armour at that time had what was referred to as a 45%

down time, in other words they could only be relied on to work just half the time. Whereas

British armour only had a 7% downtime. Most Main battle tanks at that time were built in the

now Skoda factory in the Czech Republic.

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A BMP. An infantry armoured personnel carrier. Carries 12 fully armed troops in the most

uncomfortable manner possible. There is a lighter 5 wheeled tracked version that the Russian

paratroopers used, this was called a BMD.

Soviet armour on the move. Sorry about the pictures but cameras then in the early 1980's were

not as good as they are today. Also, one had to be discreet when using a camera. This picture

was taken not far from Magdeburg.

More Soviet Armour with my Army Pay Corps corporal, having a close-up snoop around, he

turned out to be from 22 SAS Regiment and not Pay Corps at all.

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This one didn't work either and was towed away. The recovery vehicle is an almost perfect

replica of one used by the US Army.

Another T62 with recovery vehicle nearby

A BRDM. This was a wheeled Armoured personnel carrier and could carry 16 fully armed

Soviet Infantry. It could also repair a punctured tyre whilst on the move!

A Soviet half-track. I forget as to what this one was called. Very noisy when on the move.

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A “rest” period during patrol. One person always remained in the vehicle with his finger near

the panic button. This would send a signal to HQ Berlin warning them we were in trouble.

Rests were always held in amongst civilian vehicles in an occupied car park. We had what was

called 433 areas where we could not stop and could be arrested by the Soviet or the East

German Volks Polizei for being in them.

When being briefed before going through to the East, these 433 areas were always explained

and the briefing officer would say, "This area 433 Number, whatever the number was, we

suspect that such and such is going on there. Remembering that you are not allowed into 433

areas we would very much like to know at to what is going on in there!" In other words you go

and find out and if you get caught you have been warned by us that you should not be there!

The blue car is an East German Trabbant. Fibre glass and held together by a prayer.

An East German barracks. Our interest here was their communications and radars. We should

not have been there hence being on the move.

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An East German army van with a Lada motor car beside it. Only good communist East

Germans were allowed a Lada car. The ordinary East German citizen were only allowed the

awful Trabant, if they were lucky, death trap on wheels, they were ordered many years in

advance.

A Soviet supply articulated army vehicle.

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Russian Command column on the move through an East German town.

A Soviet supply column on the move.

Soviet vehicles guarding a crossing on the River Elbe. It was not far from this bridge that the

US Army and the Soviet Armies met in 1945, Germany surrendered shortly afterwards. Taken

from the Soviet side.

Book Review

He Who Dares

Recollections of Service in the SAS, SBS and MI5

David Sutherland CBE MC and Bar

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November 2020 Pen and Sword

50 black and white illustrations

Paperback

Synopsis

With so few survivors of the Second World War military generation alive today, it is

extremely fortunate that men like David Sutherland recorded their experiences for posterity.

There can be few veterans whose contribution to victory can rival Sutherland’s as readers of

this superb memoir will discover.

Much of the action is set in the Aegean where the author served with the Special Boat

Service, an offshoot of the infant SAS, raiding airfields on the German-held islands. This is

made all the more moving by the author's profound and lasting admiration for the Greek

resistance fighters who risked not just their lives, but those of their families and entire

villages, by giving their support.

David Sutherland's war certainly ranks very high indeed in the thriller ratings. While modest

when describing his own role, he is typically generous in his praise of comrades. Yet he

cannot disguise the fact that he found it all exhilarating - while realizing that ultimately, he

was extremely lucky to come out alive.

Post-war Sutherland served with MI5, and he rounds off his account with a brief description

of his time in the secretive counterintelligence agency.

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He Who Dares is more than a military memoir, it is true adventure story which, over seventy

years on, remains an inspiring and revealing insight in to Second World War special forces

operations.

First published by Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 1998

Review

Colonel D. G. C. Sutherland, CBE, MC and Bar, wartime commander of the Special Boat

Service, was born on October 28, 1920. He died on March 14, 2006, aged 85.

The recently published Pen and Sword, “Special Forces Hero” Anders Lassen VC, MC with

two bars, enters the reader into the world of Boys Own heroes. Where did these brave and

committed men come from and where do they go in peacetime when denied the operational

intensity of war fighting! This raises that age-old yet disconcerting question, “When men have

lived lives like this, what am I doing catching the 8:15 from Woking?" David Sutherland was

one of those young men with several mentions in the Lassen biography. With due modesty,

Sutherland’s book is full of references to the Who’s Who of irregular forces during the Second

World War. Lewes, Keys, Haseldon, Fitzroy Maclean, Stirling and Main, George Jellico and

Bernard Fergusson. There is the SBS, SAS, Commandos, Raiding Forces Middle East, Greek

Sacred Squadron (Heros Lokos), LRDG, Levant Schooner Flotilla, and even more discreet

organisation of the various intelligence services including MI 5, 6, 9 and SOE. They are all

here and parts of their world are opened up for the armchair warrior. These extraordinary and

unique people and organisations influenced this young lieutenant during his development as a

warrior member of special forces. One man, just one amongst many as an example, not well

known but with a fighting background, John Lodwick. Foreign Legion, POW, escapee, SBS

then SOE in France. What would he do on the 0815 from Woking!

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Sutherland like many of these men started in regiments such as the Black Watch after Eton and

Sandhurst, Commandos, SBS and SAS. A common theme is background, who your family

were and who they knew. However, no matter how much nepotism, you still had to prove your

worth in training and operations. After a distinguished and active war, Sutherland remained in

Greece before becoming an instructor at Sandhurst, leaving to join MI5 before returning to the

army to command 21 Squadron SAS and deputy commander SAS Group 1967-1972. He then

re-joined, or continued, his service in MI5 concentrating on counter-sabotage at home and

abroad. This period of his public service in MI5 is not surprisingly, brief and without detail.

This is a reprint of the hardback from 1998. A significant memoir of a young man fighting

mostly with the SBS in the Aegean, the islands of Greece occupied firstly by the Italians and

later Germans. These were not the only settings for Sutherland who saw service in Belgium

and France, Dunkirque, North Africa, Italy and the Balkans. Sutherland went straight from

school to the Army, commissioned from Sandhurst and soon fighting in World War 2.

Much of the action is set in the Aegean where the author serving with the often over-looked

Special Boat Service, working alongside and becoming a part of the infant SAS, raiding

airfields on the Italian then German-held islands. One of the operations is worthy of a book on

its own. Lieutenant David Sutherland and Royal Marine John Duggan were the only two to

return from Operation “Anglo,” a raid on the Italian-occupied island of Rhodes by the Special

Boat Service in September 1942. The SBS team was pursued relentlessly; it had attacked two

airfields and destroyed aircraft positioned to support Rommel’s threatened advance on Cairo

and to bomb supply convoys to beleaguered Malta. Sutherland was awarded the Military Cross

for his leadership and initiative and Marine Duggan the Military Medal. All other members of

the SBS team were taken prisoner. The two Greek guides, who had earlier escaped from Rhodes

and volunteered for the operation, were tried for treason and the older one, aged 24, executed.

The younger man, aged 19, was imprisoned but died soon after the war.

As the war progressed and Sutherland was given more responsibility one of his subordinate

patrol officers was Lassen described in the book, as “an exceptional man driven by patriotism.”

Special Forces soldiers are by their nature unconventional and it was this quality that

characterised Sutherland and his fighting contemporaries. Many were not regular soldiers but

civilians in uniform, often the commander was a temporary and transient soldier. Command of

such men was never easy though they were all very professional they were also confident

individuals who as the months went by, became experienced and knowledgeable about close

quarter fighting and sabotage. It was a dangerous business with many close friends lost to

wounds, death or as prisoners, some subject to the infamous Hitler Commando Order.

(Kommandobefehl) was issued by the high command of the German forces, on 18 October

1942 and stated that all Allied commandos encountered in Europe and Africa should be killed

immediately without trial, even if in proper uniforms or if they attempted to surrender.) The

early SBS role was similar to the SAS, destroy aircraft and ground facilities at aerodromes to

safeguard allied convoys particularly to Malta.

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Military activity in the islands became much more intense following the Italian Armistice and

the collapse of Mussolini and his government in September 1943, British forces from the

Middle East began to occupy the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegian between Turkey and

Greece. Churchills plans to occupy the islands and then move on to the Balkans, shades of the

First World War, were not supported by Eisenhower who believed such operations to be a

sideshow. However, Churchill persisted and much of what followed, particularly around the

battle for Leros, became known as “Churchill’s Folly.” Almost a full Brigade was lost as was

a significant proportion of the Mediterranean Fleet as the Germans fought hard to maintain the

Fascist supremacy over these islands. Sutherland and the SBS specific role were to harass the

Germans in the Aegean, threaten Italy and the Balkans to ensure German forces were re-

deployed from western Europe to ease Overlord landings in Normandy. S Detachment of the

SBS (one of a number) led by Sutherland, before he was 24, alone, undertook between 26

March and 9 June 1944, 25 landings during which 17 targets were attacked. It is all quite

remarkable. And he survived.

If you have any interest in Special Forces, the war in the Aegean or just to marvel at the courage

and adaptability of that rare breed who fought in “non-standard” formations this is a book for

you. Well written, full of detailed stories of action but also the intimate details of a young

officer with all the concerns and complexities of a dangerous job with the added responsibility

for other people lives. For those of us who are armchair warriors, this is essential reading of a

biography from that unique breed of men.