大象传媒

The Canadians Arrive.
Canada declared war on 10th September 1939, and the first 鈥榝light鈥� of Canadian troops for Britain sailed in a convoy from Halifax, Nova Scotia to arrive safely in the Clyde on 17th December of that year. The 7,400 servicemen on board included men from Infantry regiments, the Army Service Corps and the 鈥楳ounties鈥�. The latter formed the No. 1 Provost Company, some of whom were to serve, like Jim Richards, in Headley as 鈥榩rovos鈥�, supervising the Canadian military detention centre. Many further 鈥榝lights鈥� followed over the next 4 to 5 years, bringing a large variety of Canadian regiments to these shores. During the whole of this time only one ship carrying Canadian troops was torpedoed.
It seems that no Canadian troops were stationed in Headley itself until 1941, but several of their service units were located in Bordon from the early days of the war and, since Headley was regarded as a good place in which to 鈥榞et away鈥�, Canadian soldiers soon became a familiar sight in the village. Not all of the resulting encounters were as cordial as might be hoped. Tom Grisdale, who ran a poultry farm in Liphook Road at the time, recalls: 鈥淥ne night I looked out of the window and saw a light down the field. I took my gun and a torch, and found two French Canadians who鈥檇 just hunted this sack full of chickens. Fortunately they hadn鈥檛 killed them, so I rammed the gun in their backs and they dropped the sack and put their hands up. They said if I let them go they wouldn鈥檛 come again, so I did 鈥� otherwise I thought I鈥檇 probably have the whole regiment.鈥�
John Ellis (who later was to transport American armour to Utah Beach in LCTs) also remembers the Canadians鈥� partiality for supplementing their rations with local fresh meat. He says: 鈥淏efore 1943, we had a pig farm adjoining the stores and buildings at Headley Mill, including a breeding section. One night, someone got into the pigsties and took a whole litter of suckling pigs. In the morning, the sow was standing there alone, and we found a full bottle of beer, which had been used to stun the pigs, and a forage cap complete with the badge of the Canadian Provost Corps!鈥� On another occasion, one moonlit night near Christmas time, his sister saw some Canadian soldiers strip off and plunge into the ice cold water of the mill pond to try and catch the geese there 鈥� but this time they failed.
The Canadians also had their own reservations about some of our British ways. One ex-soldier recalled that British instructors tried to teach him, unsuccessfully, how to bowl a grenade. Another remembers the very elderly Brigadier who, 鈥渁t the completion of our training at a battle school in Wales explained the purpose of the final exercise: 鈥榊ou Canadian chaps will be the Swazi tribesmen in the hills and we British will dislodge you.鈥� Churchill was saying Nazis while the Brigadier was saying Swazis, and Lord it was a confusing war for us at the muddy boots level.鈥�
A detachment of 6th Field Company Royal Canadian Engineers 3rd Division arrived in Headley on 16th July 1941, with instructions to build a military prison camp. Tom Grisdale recalls that it was built using timber brought all the way over from Canada. It was to be on 鈥渨hat seemed to be a piece of wasteland鈥�, according to Fergus Steele, who helped construct it. They lived in tents nearby and 鈥渃ompleted the job about the middle of October.鈥� This 鈥渨asteland鈥� was part of the Land of Nod, owned by Major Whitaker, and some villagers still remember it as being 鈥渢he prettiest spot in Headley 鈥� wonderful view from there 鈥� pure unspoilt common land, heath, pines and heather.鈥� It became Erie Camp, now Heatherlands Estate.
Whether by coincidence or design, the new Headley Down automatic telephone exchange opened at about the same time as Erie Camp was completed. It stood halfway down Glayshers Hill, just across the road from the camp, in a building dated 1939. We have records showing that the phone number given to the 鈥楥anadian Detention Barracks鈥� was Headley Down 2174.
During September 1941, while the Detention Barracks were still being built, the Calgary Regiment moved into Headley having lived under canvas on Salisbury Plain for a couple of months since arriving in the country. It was one of three regiments in the 1st Canadian Army Tank Brigade, which was now being concentrated 鈥渋n the Farnham area鈥� to perform training 鈥渙n the moors鈥� with the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.
The Calgarys arrived with old 鈥榃altzing Matilda鈥� tanks, but these were soon replaced by new Churchills. Jim Clark remembers watching them waterproofing the Churchills on Openfields 鈥� 鈥減utting black bituminous stuff, round the doors on the side鈥�, and Arthur Dean, whose sister married Jim Hanczin of the Calgarys, recalls: 鈥渨e used to go up to Rogers Field, by the Holly Bush, and see them putting waterproofing all round the turrets 鈥� they put thick tape over the joints and anything that opened or moved 鈥� then they got the exhausts right up in the air, so they could go through the water.鈥� 鈥淲e knew something was on鈥�, Jim Clark said 鈥� and suddenly they all left and never came back.
[He links this in his mind with the raid on Dieppe in which the Calgary Regiment was involved, but regimental records show that they left Headley in December 1941 to take up a role guarding the South Coast of England eight months before the Dieppe operation occurred. The mystery appears to have been solved by Steve Dyson who, in his book Tank Twins, tells us that the 107 Regt (King鈥檚 Own) R.A.C. was stationed with Churchill tanks in Headley from early April 1944 until they left for Normandy on 23rd June. It would appear to have been the Churchills of this British regiment which Jim Clark and others saw being waterproofed in Headley, not those of the Calgary regiment after all, and Jim now agrees that this may well be so.]
The largest body of troops to sail from Canada during the war embarked at Halifax in November 1941, and included the 5th Canadian Armoured Division. The convoy of 12 liners arrived on this side of the Atlantic on 22nd/23rd November. On landing in Britain, the regiments were first sent by rail to Aldershot, and Pete Friesen of the Fort Garry Horse remembers marching from Aldershot station through the town at midnight to full musical accompaniment from their trumpeters, of whom he was one, and being booed by the residents for waking them.
They stayed there in old, cold barracks which were not at all popular. As Pat Lewis of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers, who came along the same route a year later, said: 鈥淣obody liked Aldershot 鈥� you got one bucket of coke and a few bits of wood and you had a grate, and that鈥檚 all you had to heat a massive room 鈥� and there were 15 people in that room. As soon as you had a penny in your pocket you ran out of there as fast as you could go 鈥� sometimes you didn鈥檛 know where you were going to 鈥� you just got on a bus and went somewhere, anywhere.鈥� Pete Friesen added that the piles of coke in Aldershot barracks used to be sprayed white so that the authorities could see if anyone had been stealing it overnight.
A Popular Station
After a few weeks, the regiments were moved to other locations more suitable for tank training. One of these was Headley, and the official history of the Lord Strathcona鈥檚 Horse recollects that 鈥渢he march from Aldershot to Headley was one of the most pleasant ever made, through small lanes.鈥� It includes a photograph taken of the men marching along what could be Bacon Lane, although the location is untitled, and continues: 鈥淥n arrival, the troops were delighted to find that the new billets were requisitioned civilian houses which, although not mansions, were vastly more pleasant than the damp, dark barracks of Aldershot.鈥� They were also to live in Squadron groups (of about 80 to 90 men) for the first time. 鈥淭he final item which filled our cup to overflowing was the fact that a short 15 minute walk in any of three directions brought us to one of 3 delightful country pubs. One of these, The Wheatsheaf, was perhaps a little too handy, as the members of 鈥楢鈥� Squadron will remember.鈥�
This was April 1942, a time of many Canadian arrivals in the area. Men from other armoured regiments also marched or drove along the lanes from Aldershot during the month, including the Fort Garry Horse, who were to become the best known regiment in the village, as they and their mascot 鈥榃hitey鈥� were stationed here not once, but twice during the run up to D-Day. Their official record states that Headley 鈥減roved to be one of our most popular stations; we soon got to know the natives, who we found very agreeable 鈥� it was really our first meet up with the English folk.鈥� Each regiment had a compliment of 660 鈥榓ll ranks鈥�, and at least two regiments at a time were stationed here, so accommodation for more than 1,300 men must have been required in and around the village.
There were normally three regiments attached to an armoured Division or Brigade, and these tended to move station together. In the case of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division, two regiments (Fort Garry Horse and Lord Strathcona鈥檚 Horse) were placed in the Headley area, while the third (1st Hussars) was placed in the Elstead area. This continued to be the pattern for future postings here.
The 5th Division, which at this time included the British Columbia Dragoons who are also reported to have come here, stayed for about 4 months, until the beginning of August 1942, then left for Hove. Shortly afterwards, three regiments of the 4th Division arrived in the area: the Elgin Regiment, the South Alberta Regiment, and the British Columbia Regiment, who also stayed with us for about 4 months.
The first two of these were replaced in January 1943 by other regiments of the 4th Division, at a time when the Canadian Armoured Divisions were being re-organised. The Governor General鈥檚 Foot Guards and the Canadian Grenadier Guards stayed for about a month before they moved on. Marcel Fortier of the Foot Guards notes: 鈥淭he citizens received us with customary English reserve, but this atmosphere soon gave way to one of warm hospitality. Headley became one of the homes that was eventually left with deep regret.鈥�
Almost immediately, in February 1943, the newly formed 3rd Canadian Army Tank Brigade arrived, but consisting largely of familiar faces: the Fort Garrys were back in Headley, and the 1st Hussars were back in Elstead; only the Sherbrooke Fusiliers were new, and Pat Lewis found: 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 accepted by the others. They wanted the pubs and the girls and they鈥檇 already made the contacts, so we had to go elsewhere for our entertainment.鈥� They stayed for 3 months until the end of May 1943 but, with all the 鈥榮chemes鈥� that were going on at the time, they were probably living in the area for only half that period.
The 3rd Brigade left Headley at about the time the last armoured regiments were coming over from Canada. Two of these were stationed here: Al Trotter of the 16/22 Saskatchewan Horse recalls: 鈥淲e arrived in Headley late one summer evening in 鈥�43, and were billeted in Nissen huts near an Anglican Church very close to the village鈥� 鈥� presumably these were the ones in Rectory Field; and William Curtis of the Essex Regiment remembers: 鈥淲e were stationed in and around Headley in the fall of 1943 until the spring of 1944.鈥� Both these regiments, and the others which came over with them, were disbanded, and their men sent to augment existing regiments.
But earlier, when the 5th Division had arrived here in the spring of 1942, where was the armour? The Straths had only a 鈥渇ew old Lees and a couple of Rams which had just arrived in the third week of March鈥�, and the Garrys had 鈥渧ery few tanks鈥� then, according to Harvey Williamson. The full complement for a regiment at the time was supposed to be in the region of 50-60 tanks, and these were eventually delivered in batches over the next few years as the regiments moved around Britain from location to location. In April 1942, however, the tank regiments had arrived, but effectively they had no tanks.

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