Delighted to publish this contribution written by friend of the Blog and the Podcast Charlie Roberts.
First of all I will give a brief introduction of myself. My name is Charlie Roberts, I am a 21 year old seasonal worker for the Guernsey museum service as a visitor attendant and tour guide. I’ve been with Guernsey museums for over 2.5 years now. I am also a full time student with the open university, studying for my history and politics degree. I have been reading and researching about the occupation since I was just a child and am currently undertaking a personal research project titled ‘Islanders in Exile’, I will speak more about this project and its goals near the end. The research in this following article is a part of this project.
In the early months of the Second World War, while there was still relative peace in the Channel Islands, thousands of young men and women of the islands took up the call to arms and joined Britain’s armed forces. By December 1939 already 2,000 volunteers from Guernsey had enlisted. With the mass evacuation in the week leading up to occupation many more young people flocked to England wishing to serve in this war which had now taken their homeland. And throughout the war, of a pre-war population of 93,700, more than 10,000 Channel Islanders would serve in the British Armed Forces, an estimated 870 of whom dying in service, and many more would serve the war effort on the home front.
Many of these volunteers, especially but not limited to former members of the Royal Guernsey and Royal Jersey Militias, flocked to the Hampshire Regiment. In February 1940 when the Guernsey Militia was stood down more than a company are estimated to have joined the regiment.
Included in the regiments volunteers are three such Guernseymen whom I will discuss in this article and their brave exploits at the battle of Tebourba in the Tunisian campaign, which led to prestigious decorations and helped avenge the loss of their homeland.
Two years after its remarkably well ordered evacuation from Dunkirk, after which it received a personal congratulations by Anthony Eden, then Secretary of State for war, for retaining 98% of its equipment, the second battalion of the Hampshire Regiment were reassigned from their home defence duties and set out for the new battlefront in north west Africa, after the launch of operation Torch in November 1942. There had been a number of Channel Islanders with the battalion since the early days in France, it was noted they were key to liaising with the French population and securing billets in 1939/40. This was still true in 1942, and some of these men held positions as ranking officers, including all three examples spoken about today.
They were company commanders Major Herbert Wallace Le Patourel, Victoria Cross (VC) and Captain John Wilfred Brehaut, Military Cross (MC), and battalion Quartermaster Lieutenant Cyril Albert Northmore, Member of the British Empire (MBE). Now this last name is what particularly caught my attention when I first read the detailed account of this battle almost two years ago, the reason being that Cyril Northmore is the brother of my great grandmother Violet Northmore. It came as quite a surprise to read his name in the roll of honour of the Regimental history book, and even more surprising to learn he won an MBE. In this account of the battle I will speak of the action that won all three these high accolades.
The Battalion set out from Liverpool to Algiers on November 11th, arriving a few days later. They became part of 78th division, part of the British first army. Major Le Patourel was commanding Z company, while captain Brehaut was commanding Y company, with Lieutenant Northmore in charge of the battalions supply and logistics, his exact location is difficult to find but he was likely with HQ company. With the defection to the allied powers of the French colonies of Algeria and Morocco, in north west Africa only Tunisia remained under Axis control.
The 78th division began advancing from November 24th onwards, capturing Medjez-el-Bab and Tebourba itself, pushing onwards towards Tunis, however they were shortly halted by fierce enemy counter offensives. On the evening of 29th December the battalion was issued orders to relieve a battalion of the Northamptonshire regiment outside of Tebourba, and so the stage was set for the fierce action about to ensue. The battalion was outnumbered by the opposing German forces at a rate of about four to one.
The battalion settled as best they could into the previously occupied defensive positions and sat tight. The battle raged for four days, with the second Hampshires throwing back attack after attack from the German force with Armour support, counter attacking on several occasions. One counter attack was launched by Major Le Patourel’s own company against an enemy held farm on the evening of December 1st, with success. Captain Brehaut‘s company, likewise, were involved in constant combat and were getting to dire straits by the second day, with Brehaut sending a message indicating that his company was effectively cut off from the rest of the battalion, were taking heavy casualties and were virtually out of supply and ammunition. But in spite of this, captain Brehaut and his men stood firm and held their positions until relieved. For this leadership under horrific circumstances, Captain Brehaut won his Military Cross.
On the 3rd of December, the fourth day, the battalion was worn down and the battle reached its severest fighting. Early on December 3rd the Germans launched an attack against the section of the frontline held by Major Le Patourel’s Z Company. The Germans had managed to dislodge another unit from a section of high ground overlooking Z company’s positions. This was a dire situation and needed to be rectified immediately. Luckily for Z company Major Le Patourel was a very brave man and quickly formulated a daring plan to break the enemies’ hold over the high ground. He called for volunteers and with a team of four men launched an attack against the high ground positions. I will now quote from the Citation of this action:
‘On the afternoon of 3rd December, 1942, the enemy had occupied an important high feature on the left of the company commanded by Major Le Patourel. … This officer then personally led four volunteers under very heavy fire to the top in a last attempt to dislodge several enemy machine guns.
The party was heavily engaged by the machine gun fire and Major Le Patourel rallied his men several times and engaged the enemy, silencing several machine gun posts. Finally, when the remainder of his party were killed or wounded, he went forward alone with a pistol and some grenades to attack the enemy machine guns at close quarters, and from this action he did not return. … Major Le Patourel’s most gallant conduct and self sacrifice, his brilliant leadership and tenacious devotion to duty in the face of a determined enemy were beyond praise.’
And so, Major Le Patourel won his posthumous VC, the only VC won by a Guernseyman in the Second World War.
Sadly so far I haven’t been able to track the exact actions of uncle Cyril in this battle, but given that he was awarded such a gallant honour as an MBE he must’ve played some critical part in keeping the flow of supply and ammunition open to the frontline companies. After December 3rd the battle wound up, and so continued the campaign in Tunisia. The second battalion entered the battle with 689 men of all ranks. After these four days of heavy fighting they were reduced to just 194 alive and uninjured. Losses were heavy, but it was a victory nonetheless.
Three brave officers of Guernsey, fighting on in exile, won such high accolades for themselves and their island all of the same battalion and in the same battle, which is what personally draws me to this action as so fascinating. So what of these three men afterwards? Well within a few months it was made known that Major Le Patourels posthumous VC wasn’t quite so posthumous after all, as it was found he had survived his injuries and was in an Italian hospital. He was repatriated and given a proper VC ceremony in Cairo, before being sent to serve as a brigadier on the western front in 1944. He returned to guernsey briefly in 1945 at liberation, and was given his proper welcome home a few years after. Captain Brehaut continued on with the second battalion, taking part in the landings in Italy. He rose to the rank of Major and added a bar to his Military Cross, sadly however he was killed in action in Italy on 14th September 1944, aged just 24, never seeing his homeland again. Uncle Cyril likewise continued on with the second battalion, serving in Italy. He rose to the rank of Quartermaster Captain and was mentioned in despatches for his good work in the savage campaigns moving north. From what I’m told he wasn’t entirely impressed by Naples when they passed through, commenting something along the lines of ‘everyone talks about how beautiful Naples is. Well when I was there it stank.’ He returned to Guernsey post war and passed away in 1987, aged 80.
The research here has been done as part of the early stage of my personal ‘Islanders in Exile’ project, an attempt to comprehensively document the contributions made by Channel Islanders to the allied war effort in exile during the Second World War. This project includes both those on the frontlines and on the home front. I feel it’s important to remember the comparatively huge numbers of islanders who fought, worked and sadly perished in service, in hopes of one day bringing liberation to their homeland. A subject which I feel tends to get somewhat overlooked in occupation research.
To quote Hazel Knowles Smith, ‘… it is worth noting that many of these people – although in uniform – may be said to have lived and died offering voluntary and very effective resistance to the enemy, no less than the much celebrated ‘Maquis Army’ in the rest of Europe. Neither does it follow that because their field of battle was not upon their native soil, that they were not part of the total occupation experience, since their fate lay very close to the hearts of their many thousands of relatives and friends left imprisoned in the islands. Unlike those servicemen with homes on the mainland, there would be no home leave for these men and women, and the only means of contact was through the occasional Red Cross message.’
Finally I’d like to thank Nick Le Huray for inviting me to write a piece for this blog, of which I’m a huge fan, and I hope you as readers have enjoyed hearing of this very different aspect of Guernseys war.
Sources:
Most of the information talked about here comes directly from the book ‘The Royal Hampshire Regiment 1918-1954’ by David Scott Daniel.
Some facts, quotes and figures come from ‘The changing face of the Channel Islands occupation’ by Hazel R Knowles Smith.
A few facts come from ‘Guernsey, occupied but never conquered’ by William Bell.
A few references were made to ‘The Royal Guernsey Militia, a short history and list of officers’ by Major Edwin Park.
