March 2018

HALE BRANCH

ROYAL BRITISH LEGION

NEWSLETTER Issue 19

Welcome to the March edition in which we report on recent events and provide notice of some

proposed events and trips during this coming year.

Summary of Recent Events

Our Annual General Meeting was held on 1st November 2017 whereupon the following Committee Members were confirmed as:-

Major (Retd) Eric Goldrein, Honorary President

Bill Sergeant, Chairman

Marie Fisher, Secretary

Paul Bostock, Treasurer

Lesley Jackson, Membership Secretary

Joe McGorry, Vice-Chairman, Welfare Officer & Standard Bearer

Committee members are:-Keith Banks, Sheila Deakin, Steve Hall (also Poppy Appeal Organiser), David Hudson, Evelyn Hudson, Terry Melia, Tommy Savage and Alan Sergeant.

The Chairman extends his gratitude to David Hudson and Sheila Deakin for their sterling work and support to him and the Branch over the years. Plus special thanks to Joyce Hughes, one of the longest serving committee members and almost as good a recruiting officer as Lord Kitchener!

New Years Honours Bill Sergeant MBE

"This award was totally unexpected. I have never considered that what I do deserves any other reward than my own satisfaction at having done it! Now I'm over the shock I feel honoured and grateful that others have considered my efforts to be worthy of recognition. However anything I

have achieved has been with the help of many others especially members of this branch. If I could share my award with you I would willingly do so but inany case I want to say a big thank you to you all".

Congratulations Bill

On Friday 19th January branch members enjoyed a very pleasant evening sharing a superb meal at the Childe of Hale. The evenings entertainment was provided by Neildsy singing along to his guitar.

At the County Conference held at RBL Netherley on Saturday 20th January, Hale received the award of The Chairmans Cup for Poppy Appeal 2016/2017. We now have a certificate and cup to display.

Poppy Appeal 2017/2018

Hale

The Hale Branch poppy appeal had a great 2 weeks on the New Mersey Retail Park. This year we had fairly decent weather, mainly dry but cold, unlike the previous year when the wind and rain forced us off for about 3 days.

Overall with lots of help from friends and the security staff helping set up the gazebo in the morning, we took over 10,000 in the two weeks.

Putting that with the tins that were put out around the village and Hale Bank, the total stands at 12,866 and with wreath money still to come in and various collections throughout the coming year. I am confident that for the 3rd year running we will beat the previous years total.

Thank you to all who have helped and donated, and here is to another great year for the Poppy Appeal!

Steve Hall, PAO

Woolton & Halewood

To date, I am delighted to say, we are on target to pass our 2016 total! During November 2017 we collected just over 42,000 and small donations are still coming in. As the Poppy Appeal now continues until October this year, we are likely to surpass the 43,000 we raised last year. This is a fantastic achievement which is the result of the admirable efforts of members of the Branch who volunteered to help at our five supermarkets and whose only reward to date has been a thank you from me at our recent evening meal. Believe me, your help was invaluable and much appreciated not only by me but also by Alison Mowlem our area fundraising officer. I would particularly like to thank my brother, Alan, who distributed and collected the boxes, driving many miles in the process, and then spent two weeks manning one or other of the stores before finally helping count the proceeds. Marie, Pam Langley, Ben, Mike Parker, Tim, Sheila, Keith and Anna Banks, Joe, Ernie Dunbavin and Lesley all gave up days on end to help with collecting and counting and I want to let you know that you were magnificent!

Anna is not a member of the Branch and this brings me to one or two others whom I would especially like to thank. Many of you know Richie Hull from our trips. I have known Richie for at least 55 years as we served together in Liverpool City Police, but over the years we lost touch.

However some 10 years ago Richie came along Church Street where we were selling poppies, stopped to talk and

finished up manning our stall! He has done this every year since and for the past four years, with Dave and Evelyn Hudson and Ted Smith he has turned up each year at Costco to man our poppy table. Over those 4 years, they have collected at least 20,000 at Costco! Last year Richie actually collapsed in Costco he is now 86 years old and fortunately I was there at the time and able to look after him. He insisted that he was well enough to help again in November 2017 but I dont think he expected to find himself almost alone in Costco! Dave and Evelyn were unavailable because of Daves health problems and then Ted Smith had to cry off as well.

This left Richie, supported by Alan and myself whenever we could, to do the Costco collection virtually single-handedly! He raised more than 5500! Busy as he was, he still managed to find time to pose for this photograph!

Many, many thanks Richie!

Another non-member who helps us every year is Janet Wilson another regular supporter who attends our trips to Pickering and the Arboretum. For many years before I took over as PAO for Woolton and Halewood, Janet had taken responsibility for selling poppies out in the open air outside Hunts Cross shops. Since I took over, she has branched out and takes poppies and collecting boxes not only to many of the shops in Hunts Cross but as far afield as Garston, Everton and has even been known to take them with her when she has travelled even further afield. Rumour has it that her fellow supporters of Portsmouth FC have found Janets collecting box offered to them! Each year, Janet raises in excess of 1000 which comes to Woolton and Halewood!

A couple of others deserve a mention Mike Brown met some of us collecting in Tesco, Woolton and then volunteered to help for several days this year in Sainsburys.

He enjoyed the experience and has offered to help again next year. Finally I would like to say a big thank you to Rose Forsyth. Before Woolton Branch virtually ceased to exist, Rose was the PAO for their area. Because of lack of support from her own Branch and also because of her husband Tonys ill health, Rose had to stand down as their PAO which is where we stepped in. Since then, she and Tony, who sadly passed away in 2017, had looked after Sainsburys, Woolton. This year, despite her loss, Rose turned out to support us for two weeks, on most days

travelling by bus backwards and forwards from her home in Hunts Cross. This year Sainsburys increased their collection by almost 1000 thanks to Rose, Ben, Mike, Tim and others who helped out there.

So, well done to all of you and anybody else who helped but I have not mentioned. Without you we would be lost, so please make sure you are available this year! Well as we do, I know that there are other opportunities within our area which we dont have enough volunteers to help with so anybody else who would like to help will be most welcome!

Bill Sergeant

As Bill says, If you would like to volunteer at this years Poppy Appeal in October/November and help our current jolly band of volunteers, please contact him. You will be made most welcome and you do not have to be a member of the RBL to volunteer for this tremendously worthwhile cause.

Many thanks to ARMADILLO Self Storage!

This year, as last year, we are indebted to Dawn and the staff of Armadillo Self Storage (the big yellow building on Speke Hall Road!) for their kindness in allowing us to store our Poppy Appeal paraphernalia free of charge. Without their help we would be struggling its amazing how much we have to store in the lead-up to the annual Poppy Appeal and even after the initial two busy weeks we still have boxes of poppies, cartons of collecting boxes, dozens of wreaths and so on to be stored for the following year. Not many of us have the space to do this so in stepped Armadillo! In addition to storage, Dawn also displays our poppies with a collecting box for her customers!

Many thanks, Dawn and colleagues, for your invaluable help and support! We know where we will be coming if we ever need storage ourselves!

Bill Sergeant and the members of Hale Royal British Legion.

Book Review

All Quiet on the Western Front

By Erich Maria Remarque

I first read this book some 62 years ago while doing my bit for Queen and Country. In some now forgotten spot in Central Iraq, I enjoyed it then, but reading it a second time around had far more of an impact. No doubt due to an interest in the Great War quietly ingrained in me, during my visits to Flanders. One looks at the war memorials, large and small: the regulation headstones and reflects on the massive loss of life, friend and foe alike, but it is to me the lie of the land that more than anything gives one a mental description of the hopelessness of it all and in many ways that is the essence of the book. Its German title Im Westen nichts Neuesliterally translates as nothing new on the western front, so very true.

The story, 1914: a group of idealistic German schoolboys (students) encouraged and geed up by their schoolmaster to do their patriotic bit sign up for the glorious war. Thinking of it, are they any different from our own Pals? The hero Paul Bumer could simply be Tommy Smith or Pierre Blanc. Their war was essentially the same, not heroism but more about terror, waiting for the inevitable death, doing ones best to avoid it, even if it means killing a complete stranger to do so, losing ones comrades and wondering why it wasnt you. Maybe next time?

The word enemy is rare, the opposition rarely seen, is referred to as the others or those over there, the real enemy is death in its many forms. All soldiers, Paul, Tommy or Pierre simply want a good meal, a kip and an even chance to stay alive.

As war progresses and the hardness of it drives home, the loss of dignity and human values, saving oneself under shellfire, loss of limbs, blindness and the horrors of hospital visits in which the young men are only too aware that no part of the body is safe in warfare. Like all soldiers they discuss the war but there are never any real answers. They are far too young. Their background and upbringing could never prepare them or give any sense of comprehension of the horrors of war. Their very naiveness is a factor in their inability to articulate an answer to why? One only has to look at Tyne Cot or Langemark to echo that. I say read this book, it is always worth seeing another persons point of view as it is always so different from your own.

Briefly on the author: born in Osnabrck 22nd June 1898, called up for military service 26th November 1916. Sent to a position behind the Arras front on 12th June 1917, he was wounded during the Flanders offensive 31st July 1917

known as Passchendaele, by British shell splinters and hospitalised in Duisburg, he saw the war out in Caprini Barracks, Osnabrck.

By Joe McGorry

Future Events 2018

On Saturday 21st April at 7.30pm we will be holding a St. Georges Day Social Evening at The Wellington. There will be entertainment, a raffle and hot pot supper. Optional fancy dress on an English theme or Kings and Queens, as it will the Queens birthday! Tickets are 10 and available from Marie Fisher, Bill Sergeant and Lesley Jackson.

Friday 27th April to Tuesday 1st May 2018 trip to Normandy. The coach is almost full but if anybody else wishes to go along please contact Bill Sergeant as a matter of urgency.

Coming up in 2018

There will be a further trip to the Arboretum date to be confirmed plus plans for a possible trip to Eden Camp, Modern History Theme Museum in Yorkshire.

Also in the Autumn another trip to the Llangollen Railway to see the progress on the specially commissioned steam railway engine The Unknown Warrior with a meal on the way home, what more could one want?

Further details will follow in the June newsletter.

Reflections of Edward Heyes (1922-2016)

Below follows extracts penned by Edward Heyes prior to his death in 2016 which formed part of his eulogy circulated at his funeral.

Reflections Part 1

Edward, who lived at 21 Pepper Street, Hale married Freda in 1948.

In January 1937 I started work at Webbs Nursery Market Gardeners with a pay packet each week at the princely sum of ten shillings. Work on Sunday and receive an extra five shillings. As with all the village lads, our spare time was taken up with the Boy Scouts troop and Church meetings leading up to boys and girls being confirmed.

Our Sunday school teacher was a Mr. Jim Parkes who must have found out that I was interested in going to sea. He

spoke to a friend of his by the name of Mr. Tinkler who was a director of the Moss Hutchison Line. I was sent to Mr. Frank Whelan, the Catering Superintendent at Huskisson Dock. Everything must have happened very quickly.

I joined the SS Kavak on 5th June 1937, aged fourteen years and eight months, having obtained my seamans discharge book, number R163394 and was signed on as a cabin boy with the rate of pay being two pounds ten shillings per month working seven days per week. Overtime payment was unheard of in those days. Fortunately, a national pay rise was given to the Merchant Navy in 1938 by which time I had been promoted to an Assistant Stewards at seven pounds two shillings and six pence per month still without overtime payment. It was about this time that I decided that I would be better suited with galley work and transferred to the SS Kantara as an assistant cook for a short voyage before joining the SS Etrib and later the SS Hatasu as Assistant Cook.

SS Kantara

By this time I had served for eighteen months and sailed seven voyages, five of which were to the Mediterranean, one each to the Black Sea, France and Portugal. Cargoes from the United Kingdom were always general exports with homeward cargoes of oranges and grapefruit from Palestine. Cotton from Egypt, currants and sultanas from Greece, carob beans and grapefruit from Cyprus, wine from Portugal and Brandy from France.

The crews came from Merseyside and were generally a close-knit bunch. They worked hard and played at every opportunity. In those days a ships crew signed on articles for two years or first return to the United Kingdom. The routine was to sign on ships articles at which time each rating was given a mattress.

This was literally a sack filled with straw; an advance note for an advance from their wages exchanged for about three quarters of the face value of the note; an allotment note for the wife. Collection day was known as white stocking day. Catering department crews had an allocated berth in a cabin with a flock mattress. All crew excepting catering, worked four hours on duty with eight hours off, in watches through the voyage but could and would be called out for additional duties as required. Unfortunately, it was Company policy that when a vessel was in port overnight the ships dynamo would be switched off and lighting was by an oil lamp fitted to the bulkhead in each cabin that had no air conditioning which made life just a little difficult.

MV Kheti

The ships articles are an agreement between the Master and each member of the crew. It was not uncommon for crew members to stay on the same ship for years. It was under such conditions that I joined the MV Kheti on 15th February 1939 when on my third trip to the Med that we found ourselves off the port of Silifka in southern Turkey on 3rd September 1939, a day that comedians jokes often began by saying the day war broke out!

We were loading carobs destined for Cadburys chocolate factory. I often wondered afterwards just how the Chief Officer produced sufficient grey paint top paint the whole of the ship a warship grey in a day.

Our voyage continued but completely blacked out when sailing at night, the next port was Famagusta in Cyprus to complete the loading before sailing on to Gibraltar where wartime convoys were being assembled.

Our speed was a maximum eleven knots, so this restricted us to a slow convoy which took 37 days to assemble some twenty ships. We sailed off into the Straits of Gibraltar and straight out towards the Atlantic before turning north on course for Britain. After about three days sailing and in a position south west of Portugal, the convoy was attacked. The first ship to be torpedoed was the Bibby Line MV Yorkshire which was in a position immediately abreast of the MV Kheti.

Convoy drill was that survivors would be picked up by a ship which was always part of the convoys escort; hence all other ships would sail on to re-join the convoy when it reassembled.

Sometimes after an attack it may not have been possible to reassemble the ships; each Ships Master would then make his own course and trust that the submarines were looking for us elsewhere. Such was the case following the sinking of the MV Yorkshire. There were other ships from the convoy that were not so lucky and were caught by the submarines and sunk. We eventually arrived in Liverpool and our cargo of carob beans were safely delivered to Cadburys.

(To be continued in the next edition of the Newsletter, July 2018.)

Welfare

A special mention goes out to Dave Hudson and Terry Melia, both now on the road to recovery.

Good wishes are conveyed to Ernie Dunbavin for his forthcoming operation and hoping that you will be back on your feet before too long.

As several of our older members find it too difficult to attend branch meetings and find themselves somewhat cut off from the outside world, it would be nice if other members could call in on them from time to time just for a chat and to see if RBL can help them in any way. If you know of someone that would appreciate this, then please contact Bill, Joe or Lesley who can provide further details.

If you know of any ex-service personnel that would like to come along to our meetings again, please do let one of us know.

Anniversaries

January 1918 John McRae

The author of the poem, In Flanders Fields Where Poppies Grow Captain John McRae a doctor with the Canadian Expeditionary Force died of pneumonia. The death was only one amongst hundreds of thousands in the Great War, but his poem may be regarded as the inspiration for the emblem of the British Legion, as it was then named, the red poppy.

March 1918 Kaiserschlacht

After the Bolshevik government of the new Soviet Russia made peace with the Germans and Austro-Hungarian governments, this released hundreds of thousands of troops for action elsewhere. Attention then naturally turned to the Western Front which had not moved decisively for the preceding three and half years. The Kaiser and his staff drew up a plan to deliver what was hoped to be a knockout blow firstly to British and then French forces. The aim was to drive a corridor to the Channel ports between the two countries armies which it was hoped would force the Allies to sue for peace. German high command realised that American forces were finally poised in huge numbers on the other side of the Atlantic awaiting transport to Europe. Once they arrived, the conflict would be very different.

British High Command realised the danger of what was

about to befall them, but were not aware of where or when the blow would strike. Starved of reinforcements by the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, General Haig could but draw up contingency plans and wait.

In great secrecy, the Germans moved troops and artillery to the Western Front resulting in the British army being outnumbered by 3 to1 in. Operation Michael commenced on 21.3.1918 on a foggy morning along a fifty mile front from Cambrai to the old Somme battlefield with a massive artillery attack during which some 3.2 million shells were fired, a lethal combination of high explosive and shrapnel together with a cocktail of chlorine, phosgene, mustard and tear gas shells.

New tactics were used where specially trained storm troopers would lead the attacks and keep moving forward, by-passing pockets of resistance for them to be eliminated by follow up troops. British defences were virtually destroyed so the front lined was pushed rapidly back. The initial attacks were very successful, the British front line being driven back over battlefields where ground had been won at great cost in previous years. Overall control of the Western Front was placed under the command of Field Marshall Foch. The attack started to falter when the front line troops outran their supplies partly due to having to cross battlefields devastated in previous battles while the German troops discovered British supply dumps, including foods and stores they had not seen many months due to the blockade of Germany by the Royal Navy.

Thanks to the resilience of British and Commonwealth troops and the assistance of the French army, the initial attack petered out, the German army temporarily exhausted. Further attacks followed against British and French fronts but were not as successful. The line held albeit much further back towards the Channel ports. In the meantime, American troops started to arrive.

April 1918 RAF

The air arms of the two services, the Army and the Royal Navy, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, had been created prior to the start of the Great War and had grown substantially during the conflict. Following a report by General Jan Smuts, the decision was taken to combine the two services to allow for greater efficiencies so that aerial warfare would be under one command. So on 1st April 1918, the first independent air force in the world was created, the Royal Air Force. Upon its creation, it became the largest such force with an approximate strength of 300,000 personnel and 20,000 aircraft.

April 1918 Zeebrugge

The battle known as Passchendaele had sadly failed to achieve one of its main objectives that of driving the front toward the Belgium coast to cut off the German U-Boat base at the inland city of Bruges. Allied shipping losses had mounted considerably since unrestricted U-Boat warfare had started and Britain was close to starvation. The eventual introduction of the convoy system had helped to alleviate the problem but the submarine bases in Belgium were still a threat to merchant shipping.

An assault was devised on the night of 23rd March to try and

seal off the canal leading from Zeebrugge to Bruges to prevent German submarines from being based so close to the Channel. The aim of the attack was to scuttle a number of redundant cruisers in the entrance to the canal to seal it off. The main assault ship was to be HMS Vindictive, together with a large number of motor launches while the block ships were to be HMS Iphigenia, Intrepid and Thetis.

Zeebrugge was protected from the sea by a long mole or harbour wall while the whole port was very heavily defended. A landing assault was planned to try and divert attention from the block ships and to subdue German defences. The Royal Marine Light Infantry were to lead the attack with Royal Navy personnel. To cut the mole off from

the mainland, a redundant submarine laden with explosives was scuttled under a connecting viaduct and detonated to destroy it. To protect the attack Wing Commander Brock, of the firework company, devised smoke floats to hide the assault craft from enemy view. As well as the Vindictive, two Wallasey ferries were used to land Royal Marines, the Iris II and the Daffodil, later to be granted the Royal prefix by the King in honour of their part in the attack. Their manoeuvrability was to prove vital in the attack

The assault was largely successful in blocking the canal preventing its use for a number of weeks but the block ships were soon raised and the canal reopened. However, the Marine assault while doing what it was intended resulted in heavy casualties from the ferocious German defence. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded consequent to the attack.

November 1943 North Africa

Shortly after the Axis forces were driven back from the El Alamein line, Operation Torch was launched, the seaborne invasion of French colony of Algeria by British and US forces, the first major battle to which American troops were committed in the west after their entry into the war. There was initial resistance by Vichy French troops but they soon surrendered. The Afrika Corps then transferred forces from east to west and resistance stiffened. The Germans mounted a counter attack at the Kasserine Pass giving untried American troops their first major reverse. The British 1st Army however held and progressively the Afrika Korps was drive back into Tunisia while the 8th Army advanced westwards from Libya. Trapped between two fronts, the German and Italian armies surrendered in May 1943 yielding 275,000 prisoners

1968

A year notable for being unremarkable. The only year in the twentieth century when British Army did not suffer a single casualty in action.

By Ben Jackson

The Hale RBL Branch has a website and its address is:-

http://branches.britishlegion.org.uk/branches/hale

If anyone would like to write a short report, an article about any ex-servicemen/women, book review or promote an event or activity for inclusion in a future Newsletters, please contact Lesley. Contact details below.

The RBL Hale Branch meet on the first Wednesday of every month at 8.00pm at The Childe of Hale public house. Please do come along.

You dont have to be a member to join us on our organised trips and if you would like to join us please contact:-

Lesley Jackson on 486 1860 or email jackson@huntscross.plus.com; Marie Fisher marie.fisher@ymail.com or tel 07958 399252; Steve Hall steffhall61@hotmail.com or tel: 07807 736666;

Bill Sergeant billtanat8@hotmail.co.uk or telephone 0151 724 3171.

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