大象传媒

Memories of 105574 Major R F 鈥楬enry鈥� Hall MC, The Dorset Regiment,
on His and Her Majesty鈥檚 Service
Part 1

I was accepted by The Artists鈥� Rifles in February 1934. You had to be proposed by two existing members and vetted by the Commanding Officer. I was put in the Vickers Machine Gun Company. The Artists鈥� Rifles was a Territorial Battalion in London and was part of the Officer Producing Group (OGPU), along with such other TA regiments as the Inns of Court and The Honourable Artillery Company.
The idea of the Officer Producing Group was to produce canon fodder Officers in the event of the outbreak of war. We were given orders at Munich time for action on mobilisation. We were to assemble underneath the arches at Canon Street Station.
So on 3rd September 1939 that is what we did. We were put on a train and taken down to Hythe, then transferred on to the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway. We were taken then, with our arms and legs and rifles and things sticking out of the windows, to the Daily Sketch children鈥檚鈥� holiday camp at St Mary鈥檚 Bay. During our service in the Artists鈥� we were continually assessed as potential Officers and at St Mary鈥檚 Bay the unsuitable ones were sent to infantry regiments. The remainder of us were sent to Shorncliffe barracks and we became Number 163 OCTU Artists鈥� Rifles.
From there we were commissioned off and as my two best friends and I had been in the Machine Gun Company, we asked to go to the 8th Middlesex or any other Machine Gun Battalion. But naturally the War Office being what it is, we were all sent to different infantry regiments. I was sent to Weymouth to join the 4th Battalion, The Dorset Regiment. This was a Territorial Battalion, real sons of the soil, I could hardly understand what half of them said but they were an excellent crowd and it was a very good regiment indeed with a wonderful regimental spirit.
We were part of 43rd Wessex Division. The whole division was both very poorly trained and very poorly equipped but we played at soldiering, trying to find out what it was all about down in Dorset.
On 8th September 1940 the codeword 鈥淐romwell鈥� was broadcast which meant 鈥� invasion imminent. Church bells fell silent, not to be rung again until the invasion actually happened and the whole of 43rd Division moved by road with a police escort to Hatfield forest, north of London. It was a wonderful experience, travelling as fast as we could through deserted streets, particularly through London, rushing up to a position where we had the task of GHQ Reserve, which meant that had the Germans landed in Kent, which was defended by XII Corps, we would counter attack London if they had got as far as that.
In the Hatfield forest area we received a little more equipment but our state of training was pitifully low. We remained there until 22nd September when stand down was announced. We then moved from that area down to Kent and came under the command of XII Corps.
We were first stationed in the Dover area and my Company defended the beach at St Margaret鈥檚 Bay. It was there that I suffered my first casualties through the shells from the cross channel guns falling short. I had two dead and one wounded which shook me up a bit, never having seen dead bodies before, particularly bodies for which I was responsible.
After that we moved to various places in Kent and at the end of 1940 we were stationed in the Cavalry barracks at Canterbury. XII Corps was commanded by General Andrew 鈥楤ulgy鈥� Thorne. General Thorne had been Military Attach茅 in Berlin in the early thirties and had met the Principal of the Charlottenburg High School (the German equivalent of Sandhurst) who showed Thorne around his estates in East Prussia.
Whilst there he noticed men digging holes in the ground and filling them with supplies. On enquiry he was told that they were bound to be attacked from the East and could not defend themselves. So, after the enemy had passed over, these men would be able to pop up and play hell with their supplies.
Thorne used this tactic in XII Corps. He asked for an Officer to start one of these units and he was sent Peter Fleming from the Scots Guards. Along with Mike Calvert they started to form the first of the British Resistance Organisation Units. This was called the XII Corps Observation Unit and it was formed on the 27th June1940 and later spread, under Colin Gubbins, to cover the whole of the UK.
General Thorne also formed Battle Patrols in each Battalion with the same job as the Resistance Organisation, which was to stay behind after the enemy had invaded and then pop up and cause havoc amongst the enemy once they had landed. Exactly the same job the SAS had in the Cold War.
One day I was ordered to go and see our Commanding Officer and when I arrived in his office I found a Sergeant, John Davidson, there as well, whom I had never seen before. We were told that he had selected us to go on an 鈥楢dvanced Assault Course鈥� in Scotland and that we were to pass it with distinction for the Honour of the Regiment.
In early 1941 we went to Inverailort in the Western Highlands of Scotland. We went up there by train from Canterbury all the way to Fort William and then we got on the little puffer train that used to go from Fort William to Mallaig, now called 鈥楾he Jacobite.鈥�
We were sitting there comfortably in the train when all of a sudden the train came to an abrupt halt. We were all thrown forwards, our kitbags came off the luggage racks and the place was a shambles. Then we realised the train was under fire and that explosions were going off all around us. Then instructors leapt out of holes in the ground and shouted, 鈥淕et out of the train! Get out of the train! Grab your kit and follow us!鈥�
So of course we all scrambled out, grabbing everything we had and we were doubled, ran all the way to the Big House clutching our belongings. We were shot at all the way as we were running the mile and half to the Big House and when we arrived there we were shown some Nissen huts on the lawn and told, 鈥淔ind yourselves a bed, that鈥檚 where you鈥檙e going to live.鈥�
The ablutions were outside, also on the lawn, just a plain wooden bench with taps, cold water only and when we were lucky enough to sleep in the Nissen huts we had to clean, wash and shave ourselves in the morning with cold water whether it was raining or not. When we did feed, we fed in the Big House.
The Big House is unique in irregular warfare. Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender, a great irregular, used the house when he first landed on the mainland and he stayed in the house before he was picked up again to go back to France. One of the Cameron-Head ancestors, who lived in the Big House, formed The Rifle Brigade which was the first irregular force in the British Army, featured in the series on television called Sharpe.
All modern close quarter and guerrilla methods and tactics stem from the teaching given at the Big House. It was formed into the Irregular Warfare Training Centre on 2nd June 1940 in order to train guerrilla leaders.
On 27th June 1940 Colin Gubbins used the house to start the formation of the British Resistance Organisation. The Independent Companies were formed there and SOE started its life there on 19th June 1940, also under Colin Gubbins, before it changed its Headquarters to Arisaig House. The Commandos started life there before they were transferred to the Training School at Achnacarry under Charles Vaughan.
Independent Companies were formed by Lord Lovat for raiding purposes and, when he decided to mass produce them, they were called Commandos, in honour of his grandfather who commanded The Lovat Scouts who had fought so successfully in the Boer War against the Boer Kommandos.
The SAS originated there and even the CIA. That came about on 6th September 1941 when a place called 鈥楥amp X鈥� was formed in Canada. The two chaps concerned, 鈥楤ig鈥� Bill Donovan, a rich American Industrialist who had formed an organisation called the OSS (the Office of Strategic Studies) to see what America could do in secret warfare, and another fellow, 鈥楲ittle鈥� Bill Stephenson who was a rich Canadian businessman, formed 鈥楥amp X.鈥� Fairbairn went there from the Big House to teach them dirty tricks. Sykes stayed behind to help SOE. He was the man who trained the Czechs who assassinated Reinhard Heydrich and he also assisted in the training of the Norwegian team which destroyed the heavy water plant in Norway.
Personally I think it is a national disgrace that the house has been left to rot and also a great pity that Mrs Cameron-Head did not record her memoirs. I tried to persuade her to and so did many others, because she was a mother and friend to all of us who attended the place, the staff and the students. She was the last of the Cameron line which is why the estate was sold and the house retained but sorely neglected.
The origins of the Big House go back to before the War. In 1939 Carton de Wiart VC, 鈥楾he Old Flamer,鈥� Colin Gubbins and Peter Wilkinson went on a military mission to Poland. They narrowly escaped and came back to the UK. Their main contribution was to bring back the basis of the Enigma machine. The Norwegian campaign in 1940 was commanded by General Paget and General Carton de Wiart, Colin Gubbins was with them. He was the leader of several secret organisations. He signed his orders 鈥楳鈥� 鈥� he could not use 鈥楥鈥� as this had been taken by the leader of the SIS and G was in common use by the Army. Gubbins was a Scot from the Western Isles and an Officer in the Royal Artillery and his middle name was Mcveigh so he used 鈥楳鈥� which was copied by Ian Fleming (Peter鈥檚 brother) for the head man in the James Bond books.
Both armies withdrew from Norway and so did the BEF at Dunkirk. It was realised then that special troops were needed and so Gubbins ordered that a special battalion to be formed called the 5th Battalion, Scots Guards. In March and April 1940 they went to Chamonix to learn ski training prior to going back to Norway.
Then came 鈥極peration Knife鈥� on 23rd April 1940. The party consisted of Bill Stirling, Bryan Mayfield and Jim Gavin. They went in a submarine called HMS Truant to attack communications in Norway. Unfortunately they hit a magnetic mine on the way there and had to limp back to Rosyth. The three of them went back to Keir, the Stirling home, to recover.
It was Bill Stirling鈥檚 idea to start the Irregular Warfare Training Centre to train guerrilla leaders. Lord Lovat requisitioned the whole area from Fort William to Mallaig. Gubbins got on to General Ironside, the GOC in C Home Forces and the formation of the Irregular Warfare Training Centre was authorised on 2nd June 1940.
The first courses were about 30 strong of Officers and Sergeants. They lasted three weeks and anybody who didn鈥檛 come up to scratch was returned to unit immediately. David Stirling, who eventually formed the SAS and Fitzroy MacLean, who joined David in the SAS and then went to Yugoslavia to help Tito settle the Balkan problem, both attended the first course. Fitzroy attended it in plain clothes (because he was not yet in the Army, he was still in the Foreign Office).
What were the courses like? First of all the staff, the instructors. The Commanding Officer was Bryan Mayfield of the Scots Guards, the Chief Instructor was Bill Stirling of the Scots Guards, the Assistant Chief Instructor was Freddie Spencer Chapman of the Seaforths, a Polar Explorer who eventually spent two years alone in Malaya helping the Chinese to fight the Japanese.
Fieldcraft was taught by 鈥楽himi鈥� Lovat of the Scots Guards and Lovat Scouts. He ended up commanding the Commando Brigade. The Assistant Fieldcraft instructor was Peter Kemp and later David Stirling of the Scots Guards. Bill and David were cousins of 鈥楽himi鈥� Lovat.
Demolitions were carried out by the famous Mike Calvert, Royal Engineers, who started off (again under Gubbins) the British Resistance Organisation and made a real name for himself in the Chindit campaign. Jim Gavin assisted him, he was an Everest climber.
There was a Royal Naval contingent at the Big House under Commander Geoffrey Congreve DSO. His part of it was called HMS Lochailort.
There is an organisation called MI(R) 鈥� Military Intelligence (Research). Even now they are thinking of ideas to deal with contingency plans, looking for people with special skills and abilities and devising various instruments for surveillance, demolition and everything else you can think of. The two key figures at Inverailort were 鈥楧an鈥� Fairbairn and 鈥楤ill鈥� Sykes. MI(R) discovered them in the Shanghai Police 鈥� they were both ex Superintendents.
Their speciality was close quarter combat, silent killing and dirty tricks. 鈥楧an鈥� Fairbairn was the first European to be awarded a Black Belt. The RSM was John Royle who had served with the Highland Light Infantry with David Niven before the War in India and misbehaved a bit, I鈥檓 afraid. He eventually joined up as a Private in the Scots Guards and was killed as a Glider Pilot at Arnhem. David Niven attended a course 鈥� he says in his book 鈥楾he Moon鈥檚 a Balloon鈥� on page 220, 鈥淭hey taught us dozens of different ways of killing people without making a noise.鈥� He did the course before joining the 鈥楶hantoms.鈥� The Lovat Scouts were very prominent. They carried out demonstrations, gave instruction and generally supervised. There were drivers, cooks and other people to help run the place.
Later on others joined as instructors 鈥� Martin Lindsay from the Gordons who was a Polar Explorer. Peter Fleming, Ian鈥檚 brother, who with Mike Calvert, helped to form the British Resistance Organisation, Gavin Maxwell and Captain Scott, a Polar explorer and descendant of the famous Captain Scott. Norman Field took over from Peter Fleming and Mike Calvert who both moved on to higher jobs.

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