Once More Unto the Breach….
The 80th anniversary of D-Day is the perfect time to tell the story of my husband’s grandfather who, 4 years after his evacuation from Dunkirk, found himself on Sword Beach….
James William WOOD (Jim) was born on 20th September 1912 at 16 Cameron Street, New Beckton to Samuel James WOOD and Ann Alice CROW. He was the first child of Samuel, a coal porter, but the third son of Alice, who already had two sons Henry Thomas (age 4) and John Edward (age 1) BONE.
By 1914, the family were living at 26 Kings Road, East Ham and they welcomed their first daughter, Caroline Elizabeth, who was born on 15 April that year. Tragically, following a fall down stairs, Caroline died in July 1915, aged just 15 months from “meningitis due to a fractured skull”; an inquest was held and it recorded accidental death.
Following Caroline’s death, the family moved to 44 Romford Street, Barking, where another daughter Ivy Beatrice was born on 31st May 1916. They moved again not long after that to 15 Bridge Street, Barking and Violet Lily (Vi) was born on 30th December 1918 followed by Frederick Albert (Freddie) on 30th January 1921. Sadly, however, tragedy struck the family once more, when just a few days before Freddie’s birth, Samuel died of Laryngeal and Pulmonary Tuberculosis, at Oldchurch Hospital, Romford on 27th January 1921. This was a nasty condition and was quite likely an occupational hazard of his work as a coal porter.
The 1921 census taken in June 1921 records Alice as a widow living with her young family at Bridge Street, Barking. In those days it was common for widows and widowers to remarry quickly as a necessity to bring up their families, and Alice met George Scudder a short time later. On 28th April 1924, Jim’s youngest sister Joan was born, though interestingly Alice and George did not marry until much later in the spring of 1942.
Jim joined the Royal Regiment of Artillery (Territorial Army) and was posted to the 156th (Barking) AA Battery in Barking on 13th January 1931, aged 18 years and 4 months. His attestation papers show his home address as 15 Bridge Street, his occupation on enlistment was labourer, he was 5ft 9in tall and he weighed 163lb (11st 9lb). It was surprising to see his height recorded as 5ft 9in as he was a tall man in later life, so must have continued to grow in his late teens and early adulthood.
Jim;s Regimental Photo - date unknown
He enjoyed army life and transferred to the regular army on 9th January 1932, signing up for seven years with the 2nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment. His attestation papers for this revealed that he had a fresh complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair. The only distinguishing mark at the time was a scar on his right elbow. His weight on enlisting with the 2nd Middlesex was recorded as 150lb (10st 10lb); meaning that he had lost 13 lbs in the 12 months since he joined the Territorial Army the previous January.
On 26th January 1934, whilst living at Hyderabad Barracks in Colchester, Essex, Jim married Florence May O’SHEA (Flo) at the register office in Colchester. Florence was living at 89 Military Road, Colchester at the time of their marriage and Jim and Flo’s first daughter Jean May Silvia was born in Colchester on 17th May the same year.
On 22nd October 1935, Jim received his first overseas posting; when he was posted to Egypt. This was likely due to the Abyssinian Crisis of 1935 which prompted the dispatch of British forces to Egypt to protect any possible threat against our interests there. Photos we found after he died show that he was at El-Qantara (or Kantra as he wrote on the back of one photo) and Ismailia. Other Machine Gun Battalions were based at Alexandria and Mersa Matruh near the border with Libya, which was part of what was Fascist Italy’s North African empire at the time; so it is possible that he might have spent time there too. Military hardware, armoured vehicles, transport and ammunition were in short supply, and the training regimes reflected this. Emphasis was placed on physical fitness, toughness, and the development of team spirit by playing robust games.
“Photo of our camp when at Kantra (sic) for training near Port Said, Egypt”
Jim spent 4 months in Egypt before returning to England on 23rd Feb 1936, about 8 weeks before the birth of his second daughter Elsie Patricia (Pat).
“R(101) Mooring Mast built for air-ship before it crashed, now a memorial for it people that died in the crash. Ismailia, Egypt”
On 13th September 1937, a third daughter Anne Alice was born. In the summer of 1938, Jim left the army, transferring as was the norm, to the army reserve. His papers show that he had learned to be both a cook and a machine operator and that his conduct was exemplary with the following testimonial on his records:
“A very smart clean, honest, sober, reliable man employed as a cook and given complete satisfaction. Qualified ‘VERY GOOD” at the Army School of Cookery. Has a Second Class certificate of education. A keen footballer”.
He settled back into civilian life with his family in Barking; where they moved to Morley Road. Jim was working as a Press Operator for Briggs Motor Bodies Company when they welcomed their fourth daughter Maureen Ivy Jacqueline, who was born at Upney Hospital on April 18 1939. Briggs manufactured sheet steel, and due to its location next to Ford Motor Company at Dagenham Dock, they manufactured the car bodies for the engines that Ford produced. Unsurprisingly Briggs Motor Bodies Company was incorporated into Ford in the 1950’s.
During the spring of 1939, the deteriorating international situation forced Neville Chamberlain’s Government to begin preparations for a possible war against Nazi Germany and as a member of the reserves, Jim received a letter from the war office on 16 May 1939 advising him that he was being mobilised. His service records show that he rejoined the 2nd Middlesex as a Private on 15th August 1939.
Before the Second World War, the Middlesex Regiment was chosen as one of four other infantry regiments to be converted to a machine gun regiment. Initially, Machine Gun Training Centres were part of the Depots of the Infantry Regiments who formed the Machine Gun Battalions. Upon mobilisation at war time, these Depots were formally changed to Machine Gun Training Centres, ready to produce at least 100 trained men monthly. The Middlesex Regiment Machine Gun Training Centre was formed at the Depot at Mill Hill, London NW7.
Jim was despatched as part of the British Expeditionary Force to France on 29 September 1939 where his battalion provided ‘Corps Troops’ to reinforce hard-pressed units. His service papers show he had 10 days of leave granted in the UK from 28th February to 9th March 1940, before returning to his battalion in France. The battalion was then evacuated from Dunkirk as part of Operation Dynamo on 31st May 1940, however, like many other British troops, after marching across France to get to Dunkirk, Jim and his battalion had to hole up in the countryside outside Bray Dunes and Dunkirk areas whilst awaiting their evacuation.
The war diaries for 2nd Middlesex at that time show them in apparently good spirits, and record how two privates were sent off to source food for the group – expecting them to return with a couple of chickens, they were rather shocked when they returned with a dead cow! They didn’t go hungry.
On his return to England, Jim remained with the 2nd Middlesex, for the next 4 years, as they re-equipped and re-trained, mainly in the London area. Jim’s service records show he was promoted to Lance Corporal during this time.
By Bainbridge (Lt), War Office official photographer - http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//40/media-40613/large.jpg
This photograph H 11868 comes from the collections of the Imperial War Museums., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25314239
Following his short home leave earlier in the year, Jim and Flo welcomed their first son in November 1940 who they named James William, though just like his father he was also known as Jim. The family lived in army quarters throughout Jim’s army career and when their fifth daughter June Alexandra was born in June 1942, they were living in the married quarters at the barracks in Mill Hill.
On 3rd June 1944, Jim left England once again, this time as part of the North West Europe Campaign heading to Normandy for Operation Overlord – otherwise known as D-Day.
Like many thousands of others, he spent the 4th and 5th of June at sea, in very rough and incredibly busy waters, before landing on Sword Beach early on the morning of the 6th of June. The 2nd Middlesex was the divisional Machine Gun Battalion to the 3rd Infantry division and remained with them throughout the campaign.
The landings were achieved with relatively low casualties; 29,000 British troops landed at Sword Beach suffering just 630 casualties. However, the advance from the beach was slowed by traffic congestion and resistance in defended areas behind the beach.
Their progress towards Caen was halted by an armoured counter-attack mounted by the 21st Panzer Division. They didn’t reach Caen, a distance of approx. 10 miles until the 4th of July; shortly after their arrival there they became embroiled in Operation Charnwood on the 8th and 9th of July. The objective of Operation Charnwood was to capture the German-occupied city of Caen, as one of the important goals during the opening stages of the Battle of Normandy. The hope was that the attack would delay the German armoured units moving from this area to the West where the American offensive was and Caen, a vital road and rail junction that the Allies needed to capture to advance south. However, due to its strategic importance, Hitler had ordered that the German troops defend Caen to the very last man, and the British Army had to fight tenaciously to overcome a well-prepared and determined German defence that included fanatical SS soldiers and the ‘Hitler Youth’ Armoured Division that had been redeployed from the Eastern Front.
On 18th July the battalion left Caen moving on towards Bourguébus Ridge, as part of Operation Goodwood. Operation Goodwood was a further part of the larger battle for Caen. It took place between the 18th and 24thof July – the objective being an attack to the south from Orne bridgehead to capture the rest of Caen and to seize the German-held Bourguébus Ridge
From there they proceeded to Mont Pinçon, arriving on 30th July. Leaving Mont Pinçon on 9th August, the 2nd Middlesex began their advance across France towards the river Nederrijn, near Arnhem, in the Netherlands. It was during this advance, on 25th August, that Jim was injured (I believe it was an injury to his ankle) and he subsequently returned to England on 30th August 1944.
At this time the family lived at the married quarters at Queen Mary’s Buildings, Stillington Road, Victoria, London and were still there when their second son Victor John Albert was born in January 1945 – apparently under the kitchen table during an air raid when Flo refused to go to hospital.
Queen Mary’s Building, Stillington Street, Victoria, London SW1
At the end of the war, Jim received the 1939-1943 Star, France & Germany Star, Defence Medal and the 1939-1945 War Medal.
The war had been a tough time for Flo too, being pregnant, bringing up her young family and moving between different married quarters. This was no doubt made much more difficult by the fact that she had been deaf since childhood, and their children would often tell stories of how they would have to grab their Mum and pull her under the table or get her to the shelter when the air raid sirens went off as she obviously couldn’t hear them.
After the war, the family returned to Barking; initially living at 58 Greatfields Road for several years, where they enjoyed the post-war peace and concentrated on bringing up their family, it was also where their sixth and final daughter Susan was born in November 1954. Jim and Flo ran a social club at Beckton for a short period, where the family would socialise.
As a young boy living in Barking, Vic remembers his Mum having some coupons to buy shopping and she bought a pound of bananas; it was Vic’s first ever banana and he ate it on his way to school telling his Mum it tasted like champagne.
The family moved just around the corner to 22 Movers Lane, where they lived for a few years before moving to 130 Maybury Road on the new Thames View Estate, Barking in 1959.
Jim was a hard worker and worked at Fords, Dagenham and later at Barking Power Station. His experiences during the war didn’t put him off Europe as Jim and Flo travelled through France to Belgium with their youngest daughter Susan during the 1960’s.
After he retired, Jim cared for his wife Flo (along with the help of his daughters, Ann, Pat and Susan who all lived close by), as by that time she was in a wheelchair crippled by chronic rheumatoid arthritis.
Jim was a much-loved father and grandfather with a wonderful, and sometimes naughty, sense of humour – he would often make up cheeky little ditties, much to the amusement of his grandchildren. Jim delighted in having over 30 grandchildren, and he was always surrounded by family. He died suddenly in the summer of 1987 whilst at his daughter Anne’s house, just two months before his 75th birthday. He is buried in Rippleside Cemetery, Barking, alongside his beloved Flo, who had died 5 years earlier.
Jim would have been very proud knowing that after his death, two of his grandsons, Pat’s son Andrew and Vic’s son Danny, followed him into the army.
I was fortunate enough to meet Jim and become part of his wonderful family in 1980 when I met my husband Richard, one of his grandsons. Richard was given the middle name James after his Grandad and our eldest son is named after him too.
Thinking of him, especially today, and thank him and all his fellow serviceman for their service. We owe them a debt of gratitude for the freedom we enjoy today.