A Time of Tyrants

by Trevor Royle

  What was surprising was the public reaction. There was a good deal of public anger about Italy entering the war as it smacked of opportunism in the wake of the British defeats in France and Norway, but politics also coloured the response. During the 1930s a Fascist Club had been established in Picardy Place in Edinburgh, and although it was mainly a social club and focal point for the city’s Italian community, locals remembered that on occasions such as Armistice Day its 188 registered male members would parade in a uniform of black shirts, black fezzes and white gloves. In fact most of the internees had no allegiance to fascist Italy or to Mussolini, and were second-generation immigrants who had lived in Scotland since the main immigrations of 1913 and 1920. However that was no protection against the mob.34 Edinburgh was the scene of the worst violence: a crowd of around 1,000 congregated in Leith and Stockbridge to attack Italian businesses, mainly cafés, while similar attacks were launched in Govan and Maryhill in Glasgow. The Clyde coast saw similar incidents, with reports of anti-Italian violence in Port Glasgow, Greenock and Gourock.35 One family in Raeburn Place in Edinburgh had their shop spared because one of their sons was a well-known follower of Hibs, and ‘he used to call the Hearts supporters names’.36

  In the aftermath, the government passed the Aliens (Protected Areas) (No. 5) Order, 1940 which prohibited designated enemy aliens from living within twenty miles of the coast on Scotland’s east coast. Italian women were also prevented from travelling unaccompanied within a five-mile radius of their homes and, as happened to two women caught travelling from Dumfries before Christmas 1943, they could be fined £2 or imprisoned for fifteen days.37

  The incidents involving the Athenia, City of Benares, Lancastria and Arandora Star were disastrous for the Allied cause in those early months, but there was one signal success which raised morale and gave a huge boost to the Royal Navy. During the campaign to sink the Graf Spee the German pocket battleship had been supported by the long-range tanker Altmark which had also been used to accommodate prisoners of war. When the loss of the Graf Spee left Altmark without a role, its skipper Captain Heinrich Dau attempted to get back to German waters by sailing north and skirting the Norwegian coastline. On 15 February 1940 he was sighted by three Hudsons of 224 Squadron from RAF Leuchars which alerted naval headquarters at Rosyth. Fortunately the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla was at sea, and one of its ships, HMS Cossack, a modern Tribal class destroyer under the command of Captain Philip Vian, was able to make contact with the Altmark. Although the German ship attempted to take refuge in Norwegian waters, Vian signalled the Admiralty and was promptly given permission to violate Norwegian neutrality. As a result on 16 February Altmark was boarded in Jossing Fjord, and 299 prisoners were liberated. Cossack arrived back in Leith the following day, and the incident received a huge amount of publicity, not least the stirring words used by the boarding party when they found the captured men on board. ‘Any Englishmen here? Well the Navy’s here! Come up out of it!’38

  3 Defeat, Retreat and Making Do

  War came to the BEF with a vengeance on 10 May 1940 when the Germans subjected France to the frightening tactics of blitzkrieg, using armour and air power to back a rapid ground assault into Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The surprise was total, and the resistance was negligible. Early in the morning German airborne units of Army Group B began landing in the Netherlands to capture the capital The Hague and the vital crossings of the Meuse. Two days later all Dutch resistance was at an end as the country capitulated. In Belgium the fortress of Eben Emael was soon in German hands, even though it was thought to be impregnable. And as the Dutch forces fell back towards Rotterdam and Amsterdam, they left the Belgian left flank unprotected. At the same time seven German Panzer divisions of German Army Group A pushed through the Ardennes and began an unexpected move north towards the Channel ports.

  While this was happening the BEF began its prearranged move into Belgium towards a defensive position known as the Dyle Line, passing such well-known battlefields of earlier wars as Waterloo, Ypres and Mons. Even at that stage the BEF’s commander-in-chief, Field Marshal Lord Gort, was sure that the Germans could be held, issuing an order of the day on 13 May telling his troops that ‘the struggle will be hard and long, but we can be confident of final victory’. One of the first Scottish battalions to go into action was 6th Gordons which came under machine-gun fire from enemy aircraft on 14 May. Two days later it had its first experience of artillery bombardment during which one officer and two soldiers were killed and five others were wounded. This was followed by a defensive action north of Brussels, but when the Gordons passed through the Belgian capital they were astonished to see signs of normality, with tramcars running and people going about their business as if there were no war. However, this unreal period was also remembered for the huge numbers of refugees on the roads. As the Gordons’ War Diary recorded, ‘There seemed to be little attempt at traffic control and the frequent jams and delays tried the tempers of everyone.’1 By then Gort had decided to withdraw in stages to the River Escaut.

  Taken aback by the ferocity and speed of the German advance into Belgium, the BEF began its long retreat back to the Channel ports, and the eventual evacuation from the beaches at Dunkirk. For 1st Camerons, fighting in 2nd Infantry Division, this meant engaging the enemy along the River Escaut where the BEF hoped to check the German advance by denying them crossing points. It was all too little and too late, and one incident recorded in the diary of Lieutenant-Colonel G. P. Miller, the commanding officer of 2nd Cameronians, gives a good idea of the confusion which surrounded this phase of the operation.

  During the day [18 May at Lessines], while we were preparing the bridge and crossings for demolition, refugees were pouring through us. The Belgian mayor came to me and stated that there were about two hundred wounded men in a convent, with only one girl to look after them. Could I supply transport to evacuate these wounded? My reply was that I was afraid I had not sufficient transport, but I would try to make them comfortable. During this conversation a man arrived at my headquarters informing me that there were some nuns amongst the refugees, who would be only willing to nurse the wounded. Later that night, when we withdrew, we were fired upon from the windows of the convent.2

  By then Miller’s battalion, the old Scottish Rifles, had endured its first experience of battle when it was attacked by German aircraft near Lemberg, and claimed its first kill when D Company shot down one of the enemy raiders. This was followed by orders to begin withdrawing again as the British and their French allies proved unable to halt the rapid tide of German military aggression. Lens was reached on 21 May and it soon became clear that the British position was becoming untenable. Hopes were pinned on a counter-offensive, as had happened in September 1914 at Mons, but the available forces were depleted in strength – 2nd Cameronians was reduced to a headquarter company and two rifle companies – and information was scant. On 28 May the battalion received orders to withdraw from Wytschaete, and to make its way with the rump of the BEF to the Channel coast. During the final embarkation 2nd Cameronians contrived to keep its heavy weapons, and returned almost intact to England. During the operations the battalion lost 360 casualties killed and wounded.

  For another Scottish infantry battalion, 1st Royal Scots, first contact with the enemy was made on the River Dyle. In the face of a heavy German attack the battalion was forced to withdraw towards a new position near Calonne, and then further back towards Lys, scene of some of the fiercest fighting in 1918. Although the battalion was in continuous contact with the enemy it was also involved in a desperate rearguard action which quickly degenerated into a full-scale retreat. As their historian described the situation, ‘to look back on these days and nights afterwards was to enter a nightmare world.’3

  As the straggling remnants of the British Army fought their way back towards the Channel coast on 27 May, the Royals made their last stand at a position called Le Paradis, close to La Bassée Canal. In the company of elements of the 2nd Royal Norfolk
Regiment, the Royals faced an overwhelming assault by superior German forces including armoured units, and within three days the battalion had fought itself to a standstill. Although some survivors managed to make their escape back to Britain, the 1st Battalion had ceased to exist as a coherent fighting unit. Amongst those who managed to escape was the commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel H. D. K. Money, who said later that ‘the Battalion did all that was asked of it; and the behaviour of all ranks was in the spirit of the highest traditions of the Regiment. Never once did the men fail to respond to their orders; never once did the Battalion give up a position until ordered to do so; and never did the men fail to respond to the old cry, “Come on, The Royals!” ’4

  Unfortunately it was not the end of the story. During the final attack on the Royals’ position at Le Paradis, SS soldiers threw hand grenades into a regimental aid post, killing some of the wounded, and only the intervention of a German regular soldier prevented the rest being gunned down by machine-gun fire. Others were not so lucky: a party of over a hundred Norfolks was massacred after running out of ammunition and surrendering to the 14th Company of the SS Totenkopf Division, under the command of Hauptsturmführer Fritz Knöchleinin. But the Scots had the last word. One of their sergeants survived the incident, and later gave evidence when the SS murderers were brought to justice after the war. During the fighting in Belgium 1st Royal Scots lost 141 dead and around 350 wounded, while 292 of their number went into German captivity.

  Surrender was also the fate of 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers, which retreated from its positions on the Charleroi Canal back towards the old First World War battleground of Vimy Ridge and then back towards Arras. The battalion counter-attacked on 22 May along the River Scarpe, and came under sustained aerial bombardment which caused the first substantial casualties. Three days later the battalion was positioned to the south-west of Ypres between Hollebeke and Zillebeke where it came under renewed German attack. The fusiliers’ last stand was made on 28 May at a defensive position on the east bank of the Ypres-Comines Canal which they had been ordered to defend until they were relieved. However the expected counter-attack failed to materialise, and with ammunition running out and casualties mounting the commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Willie Tod had no alternative but to order his men to surrender. Most of the survivors, including Tod, went into captivity but around 250 managed to break out and make their way to the coast and safety before reassembling at Blackdown near Aldershot. Before being taken to a prisoner-of-war camp Tod was ordered to appear before General (later Field Marshal) Walther von Reichenau, who told him: ‘I wish to congratulate you. I am told your troops fought magnificently. I hope you will have lunch with me . . . I promise you that you will be home with your family by Christmas.’5 Later still, Tod became the senior British officer at Colditz Castle, the secure prisoner-of-war camp for what the regimental war history called ‘unregenerate and incurable escapers among the Allied prisoners-of-war’.6

  By then the Germans had swept aside the French Ninth Army and were heading rapidly towards the Somme. Faced by the possibility of encirclement, and knowing that his lines of communication to the Channel were no longer secure, Gort prepared plans to pull the BEF back towards the port of Dunkirk. As the month drew to a close, 6th Gordons had reached Poperinghe where the men were ordered to dump all unnecessary equipment, and to disable their lorries and carriers before heading for the Dunkirk perimeter. Under cover of dark the battalion reached the beaches on 1 June to begin the evacuation back to England. The last unit to leave was the anti-tank company commanded by Major L. G. Murray. Also fighting its way back to the coast was 4th Gordons, which took part in a spirited defensive action along the canal between Comines and Ypres. Under fierce German aerial bombardment the battalion reached the Dunkirk beaches on the morning of 1 June when it received orders to make a last stand. That dire command turned out not to be necessary, and the battalion was evacuated the following day.

  For another Scottish battalion on the beaches at Dunkirk, 1st Highland Light Infantry (HLI), the war had begun in Elgin where it had first mustered on its foundation in 1778 as the 71st Highlanders. Mobilisation and re-equipping took a fortnight to complete, and it was not until 21 September 1939 that the battalion entrained for Aldershot where it was informed that it would be a pioneer battalion in II Corps as part of BEF in France. (1st HLI was one of two home service battalions which had not been brigaded prior to the outbreak of war.) Although this was taken as something of an insult – pioneers were the work horses of any large formation, and were liable to be broken up into smaller units – the battalion, under Lieutenant-Colonel J. D. Russell, buckled down to the task in hand. Once in France, though, the battalion joined 127 Infantry Brigade as part of 42nd (East Lancashire) Division where it came under the command of Brigadier Sir John Smyth. A winner of the Victoria Cross in the previous conflict, Smyth had a high opinion of the HLI – the 2nd Battalion was present at the action in which he won his medal at Ferm du Bois in 1915 – and, as he revealed in his autobiography, he asked specially for the regiment to come under his command in 1940, noting that they produced the kind of soldiers he admired: ‘The battalion set just the example for which I had hoped and were at all times co-operative, efficient and as tough as could be. They had a wonderful tradition, a very fine crowd of young officers, and the men, though they groused vociferously, as is the custom of the British soldier, got better as things got worse.’7

  In the brigade were two Territorial battalions – 4th East Lancashire and 5th Manchester – and despite the differences in their backgrounds they quickly formed a close relationship with their regular counterparts from Scotland. During the advance into Belgium following the German assault on 10 May, 127 Brigade held the sector between Tournai and Pecq where they set about constructing defensive positions. A week later, the collapse of the French Army and the German invasion of Holland obliged the BEF to withdraw towards the Escaut Line. During the operation 1st HLI formed part of ‘Macforce’, a rearguard formed by 12 Brigade and two regiments of artillery to protect the exposed right flank. (The force was named after its commander, Major-General Noel Mason-McFarland, the BEF’s Director of Military Intelligence.) For 1st HLI this resulted in a deployment along the River Scarpe where the battalion came under prolonged attack from the air. On one day alone the brigade managed to shoot down eleven German aircraft by small-arms fire, a remarkable achievement.

  On 21 May the brigade rejoined 42nd Division, which was based at Lille, covering the rear of the BEF’s retreat towards the Channel coast. In one action near Rexpoede the battalion lost twenty-five casualties killed or wounded, while others fell into enemy hands; for one officer, Major H. A. Adams it was a repeat of his experiences in 1917 when he was taken prisoner by the Germans. For a time it seemed that the battalion might be surrounded but the intelligence officer Lieutenant Philip Kindersley succeeded in getting through to divisional headquarters, and then returned with the order to retire to the coast. Just as the 71st Highlanders had done at Corunna in the Peninsula War, their descendants in 1st HLI fought their way to the beaches at Dunkirk where the men embarked the destroyer HMS Fidget and landed at Ramsgate on 31 May.

  All told, 338,226 soldiers made good their escape from the Dunkirk beaches, thanks mainly to solid discipline (the retreat never became a rout), the gallant defensive battle fought by French forces at Lille and indecision on the part of the German high command. Amongst the others which escaped was 1st King’s Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) which had crossed over to France under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel E. E. Broadway, and joined the British forces in positions near Lille on the border with Belgium. It found itself in good company: the divisional commander Major-General Bernard Law Montgomery (later Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein) referred to the formation as the ‘International Brigade’, as 9 Brigade was composed of English, Irish and Scottish battalions – 2nd Lincolnshire Regiment, 2nd Royal Ulster Rifles and 1st KOSB. When the German attack began in May the divisi
on moved immediately into Belgium to take up positions along the River Dyle to the east of Brussels but, as recorded, this was only a prelude to a steady withdrawal as the BEF fell back under the weight of the German assault. On the third day 1st KOSB was deployed on the River Escaut close to the old battlefield at Oudenarde, and with each passing day the British formations found themselves on the back foot as they started pulling back towards the Channel ports. Once at Dunkirk the only alternative to a last stand was evacuation, and as resistance would have resulted in the destruction of the British Army, the BEF was able to pull out using an incredible mixture of naval craft, merchant vessels and civilian pleasure boats. A Borderer, Henry Bridges, captured the mood in his poem ‘Dunkirk’ which paid tribute to the armada of little ships taking part in the operation.

  The sands were black with soldiers, and the skies were black with planes,

  But the Monarchs and the Skylarks and the little Saucy Janes

  Undaunted by their danger set their course through the attack