大象传媒

鈥淲heezers and Dodgers鈥� on D-Day

My father was killed when HMS Barham was torpedoed in the Mediterranean and sank after a cataclysmic explosion in November 1941. Four years later, my mother married another naval officer, Commander J.S.Dove, RN, OBE who became a wonderful stepfather to my sister and me. He was reluctant to talk much about the war, but he volunteered some of his memories which I have since backed up with research. His story is unusual and interesting in many ways. Unusual in that as a naval officer he was on the beach at the evacuation of Dunkirk and he landed on the shore in France on the morning of the D-Day invasion.

Having been awarded a Military OBE when a mere 26 years old for design work he had done on naval gunnery in the years after Jutland, John Dove left the Navy in the early 1930鈥檚 and took up flying. He was back in the Navy two months before the outbreak of WW2 for 14 days training in the Operations Division of the Admiralty. He had been 鈥渋nformed of liability to recall in time of war or emergency and that he should not participate in any defence activities which would render him unavailable for service if required.鈥� His service record then states 鈥淩eporting qualifications in regard to flying and the aircraft industry. Informed noted, but no opportunity of using his considerable experience can be foreseen at present鈥�. From August 1939 on, he was at the Miscellaneous Weapons and Development Department of the Admiralty 鈥� the 鈥淲heezers and Dodgers鈥�, working on kites and 鈥渕agic鈥� balloons, radar, fast aerial mines, bombs to blow holes in the Atlantic Wall, radio-controlled boats and other exotic inventions.

After Dunkirk, my stepfather continued at the 鈥淲heezers and Dodgers鈥� and, as the war progressed, the Department began working on deception plans for the invasion of Europe, means of breaching the Atlantic Wall and the re-supply of men and materiel. A bomb was designed to run up the Normandy beach and blow a hole in the Atlantic Wall. It was mounted between two steel wheels rather like a garden hose holder and driven by small rockets. A prototype was tested in front of a number of senior soldiers, sailors and airmen on a beach in Devonshire with almost disastrous results. It started in a straight line running up the beach but one wheel got stuck in soft sand. It then veered towards the dignitaries who scattered in panic. It was not the most successful of demonstrations.

The deception plans included kites and 鈥渕agic Balloons鈥� to be flown off minesweepers during the D-Day invasion to draw the fire of the German shore battery from the Allied warships bombarding the enemy鈥檚 defensive positions. John Dove devised the radio-controlled craft that were used to confuse the Germans as to where the invasion was to take place. I remember him telling me that he took a radio-controlled craft up the Thames for a demonstration . I believe Winston Churchill was present when something went wrong with the control system with the result that it charged the wall by Westminster Bridge.

By D-Day, the radio-controlled craft were ready to cross the Channel well to the East of the Normandy landing spots. His fleet of twelve minesweepers were in place to draw fire away from the bombarding vessels. Seeing that he had been involved in designing the rocket launched grapnel hooks which the US Rangers used in scaling the bluffs West of Omaha beach, once again John Dove got himself over to France. He would have been fifty-two years old at the time. He rarely talked about himself, being the most modest of men. More's the pity.

John Dove met a number of interesting people during his years with the 鈥淲heezers and Dodgers鈥�. He knew Barnes Wallis, the scientist who designed the "bouncing bomb" which was used in the raid on the German dams, and was a close friend of Commander Norway, (pen name Nevil Shute) who worked alongside him at the Department. He told me of the occasion when he met the Royal Marine "Blondie" Hasler. Over a drink at his Club, Hasler let slip that he would be away for a bit and could well be captured by the Germans. He bet my stepfather a bottle of scotch that if he was, he would escape within 30 days. He led the Commando raid in which six two men kayaks from a submarine surfaced close to Bordeaux, paddled into the harbour and attached limpet mines to ships at anchor. They succeeded in their mission, although most of the commandos were killed in the attempt. Hasler was captured, escaped and came back to claim his bottle of scotch. The raid was immortalized in the film "Cockleshell Heroes".

During the years after the war, Ex-Servicemen would be encouraged to wear their uniforms and medals at Remembrance Day Services. John would wear his Commander, RN uniform but not his medals. One day my mother found them in the wastepaper basket. When asked why, he said he did not believe in medals as for every medal awarded there were many people who went unrecognized, both military and civilian. They were retrieved and I now have them, along with my father's, encased and framed.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.