NEWS & EVENTS LETTER
By Les Dinning
7th Armoured Division (Desert Rats) Thetford Forest Memorial Association
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2005
An association meeting was held in the school room at the Forest Enterprise HQ, Santon Downham, Brandon at 10am on the 1 February. Mr Caeli Leonard who took up the task of treasurer in 2001 resigned due to business pressures. Our grateful thanks go to Caeli for his invaluable support.
The 7th April is the proposed date for the AGM which will be held at 10am in the school room at the Forest Enterprise HQ, Santon Downham, Brandon. All members and those with an interest in the Desert Rats Memorial are welcome to attend.
The open Day at the Memorial will be held on the 12 June. A meeting is to be held at the Memorial at 10am on the 8th March to discuss the format of the Open Day, any interested parties are welcome to attend.
2004
A Remembrance Day service by the Rev. David Handwell, our Honorary Padre, was held at 2pm on the 11 November 2004 at the Memorial. The service was well attended by the public and veterans, and wreaths were laid by the Rt. Hon Gillian Shepherd MP and Mrs. Betty Turney. It was a very moving occasion.
With Christmas rapidly approaching this brings the year to a close, and what a momentous year it has been for our association, the culmination of the Memorial project with the construction of the easy access path, the interpretation boards and the mounting of the additional plaque to the present day Desert Rats who performed so well in the gulf war. My grateful thanks go to all who helped to bring the project to a successful conclusion, and to all those who have made contact with me by letter and email with their kind words, I regard you all as friends indeed. I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
The "Where Are You Now" page has been a revelation, if you go to the page you will see a letter reproduced from Captain Cordy-Simpson of 1 RTR in which he writes to the father of Arthur Davies my tank commander killed in Holland, and that Arthur's sister still has the original letter. A few days ago I was seriously considering erasing the letter as the page is getting rather full, but something stopped me, and lo and behold a few days later I received an email from Janet Webb informing me that Captain Cordy-Simpson was her father who was killed by a sniper a few weeks before the end of the war, just 6 weeks before she was born and although she had never known her father she had a much better understanding of what he went through from the information in the web site. Janet has a number of photographs which I hope to publish on the web site in the new year.
I stepped down as Chairman at our AGM on 10 February, in favour of Mr Rod Scott who I nominated and he was elected. Rod has been with us for a number of years and made a wonderful job of organising the Open Days and I am sure he will make a good Chairman. All the other officers remain in post, and I am sure I have left the Memorial in good hands.
This year is the 60th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy leading to the liberation of Europe, and June has been an extraordinarily busy month for me, it began with an invitation from Lee Agnew, a producer from Three Counties Radio, Milton Keynes, to accompany him and Martin Couts to Normandy on the 4 June and do a live broadcast from Gold Beach and the Bayeux Cemetery on the 5 June which proved to be a great success, and from the feed back, was much enjoyed by the listeners to Three Counties Radio. It was a tight schedule since I was committed to be at the Thetford Forest Memorial on the 6 June, the 60th anniversary of "D" Day, for a service conducted by our Padre, the Rev. David Hanwell.
My wife Frances and I then returned to Normandy on the 9 June with the present day Sharpshooters at the invitation of the Mayor of Villers Bocage for a special service celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of the town by the 4th County of London Yeomanry (The Sharpshooters) on the 13 June 1944 when the CLY were leading the Division in a breakthrough of the German lines. I together with a number of other veterans of that battle were presented with a small commemoration plaque and medal in a very moving ceremony.
This was followed up by our Open Day on the 27 June at which, our present day "Desert Rat" successors, the 4th and 7th Armoured Brigades installed an additional plaque on the Memorial plinth, commemorating the Desert Rats from 1945 to date. The Dedication of the plaque was conducted by David Hanwell in the presence of Brigadier Adrian Bradshaw Commanding 7th Armoured Brigade and other senior officers from both the 4th and 7th Armoured Brigades. In all the Open Day was a great success attended by many public, veterans, veteran vehicles, enactment groups, and not least of all, a Challenger II Tank brought from Tidworth. My grateful thanks go to the Association Committee who all worked extremely hard to make the day the success it was. At the conclusion of the dedication of the plaque, The Thetford Forest Memorial Association, presented me with a life size bronze Jerboa, donated by 4th & 7th Armoured Brigades, mounted on a block of Oak from Thetford Forest donated by Forest Enterprise.
2003
On the Tuesday just prior to the Open Day on the 22 June, I received a telephone call from Major Angus Beaton, speaking from Basra, Iraq, attached to the 7th Armoured Brigade. Apparently, he was acting on instructions from the brigade commander, Brigadier Adrian Bradshaw, to make contact with us and when I told him we were about to hold our third Open Day on the 22 June, Angus told me that the brigade was about to return to their home base in Germany and would be holding a church service on that day, although we tried to arrange a link up with them via the satellite with the help of the television channels the time element was too short and in the event it was agreed our service would take place at 1 pm. British mean time which would coincided with their service to be held at 4 pm. in Iraq. Our service was conducted by the Rev. David Hanwell and was very moving specially since we were aware that the present day Desert Rats were holding their service at the same time. Our grateful thanks go to David Hanwell for arranging the service at such short notice.
The construction of the Easy Access Path through the original camp site, Shakers Wood, was completed in time to be officially opened by the Rt. Hon. Gillian Shephard during the Open Day on the 22 June. The path leads from the Memorial through the forest to the Cookhouse base, past the Accommodation base, up to the NAAFI bases and returns to the Memorial making very pleasant walk through the camp site occupied by the 5 Royal Tank Regiment in 1944. Seven Interpretation (Information) boards mounted on concrete filled sandbag plinths have been constructed as part of the project and placed at positions of interest along the path. All this was done with funding from the Local Heritage Initiative (The County Wide Agency), The Nationwide Building Society NBS Community Awards Scheme, and The Object 2 European Funding Organisation and our very grateful thanks go to these organisations. We are all very excited about the trail as it enhances our project and is a major advantage to wheelchair user's and makes the area much more accessible to everyone. One of the highlights of the day for me was meeting Mrs. Freda Routledge, the sister of Sergeant Arthur Davies MM, my tank commander in "Little Audrey" who was mortally wounded together with Corporal Taffy Glenton, the wireless operator on the 29 September 1944 in a Panzerfaust (Bazooka) attack in the village of Olland, Netherlands during a battle to keep a small section of the road to Arnham open. The meeting came about as a result of this web site when Nicholas Try, a great nephew of Arthur Davies, saw my request for any contact with Arthur's family. A double bonus for me was that Conkey Harland DCM, who took over command of "Little Audrey" after Arthur was also able to attend the Open Day and see the replica of his tank for the very first time since the inauguration of the Memorial.
2002
The highlight of this year was the dedication of the Memorial in a wonderful service conducted by the Rt. Rev. Anthony Footitt, Bishop of Lyn, assisted by the Rev. David Hanwell, at 2pm on the 10 November. Despite heavy rain in the morning, the weather cleared by the afternoon and the service was a great success, with great support from the public, the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, The WW2 Display Team, and the media. Wreaths were laid by the Desert Rats Association and the W.W.II Display Team.
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Our grateful thanks go to The Norfolk and Suffolk Military Vehicle Trust Group for their continuous support throughout the project to construct the Memorial to the Desert Rats which began in 1994. Both Groups have always displayed their wonderfully restored veteran military vehicles at all the events at the Memorial complementing the tank on the Memorial plinth and are always a joy to see. The veteran vehicles owned by members of the MVTG would have long disappeared in the mist of time, but for the dedicated enthusiasm of the owners. Luckily there are well over a hundred branches of the MVTG throughout the UK who's members are just as dedicated as those of our local branchs and through them many hundreds of veteran military vehicles are preserved for prosperity.
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Edward Wilson, who served with the 5th Royal Tank Regiment during WWII is the author of a book on the history of the 5 Royal Tank Regiment. The book titled "Press On Regardless" covers the period 1st September 1939 to 8th May 1945. The book is essentially recollections and histories of former members of the regiment. Unfortunately, Edward has moved on to the "Green Fields Beyond" and our condolences go to his wife Elizabeth and family.
If you would like a copy of Edward's book please contact the Publishers, Messrs. Spellmount, the Old Rectory, Staplehurst, Kent TN12 0AZ. Price £25 plus postage & packing.
A special price of £20 in the UK, £22.50 abroad both prices are inclusive of postage an packing is available to veterans. Telephone: 01580 893730. Email: enquiries@splellmount.com