70th Infantry Brigade War Diary August 1940.
70th Brigade War Diary August 1940
1st August 1940
The relief of Macforce was completed.
3rd August 1940
Brigadier Kirkup’s command now included 4”, 4.7” and 6pdr guns and 6” mortars – manned by Royal Artillery gunners.
The weapons being used in the defence of South Devon also included Lewis, Maxim, Hotchkiss and Vickers machine-guns. Transport, arms and equipment began to come through rapidly to meet the Brigade’s requirements.
7th August 1940
Frequent Air Raids were experienced, but little damage was done.
9th August 1940
A Flame Trap device was demonstrated at SLAPTON SANDS. This new weapon had been developed by the Petroleum Warfare Board and they carried out the demonstration.
Not surprisingly, for reasons of high security, no details of the demonstration were given in the War Diary.
(However, I have the advantage of my father having driven the Brigadier to the site of the demonstration, and therefore being able to observe closely what went on during the course of the exercise. He had the initial impression that the Brigadier himself had had something to do with the design of the device. The Brigadier certainly was an Engineer by profession and would have had experience, in the coal industry, of moving volumes of fluid at some pressure, so it is not impossible that he was personally engaged in this work, though no direct evidence has been produced. What may be more likely is that the location for the demonstration may have been selected because, in part, of his professional experience, as well as the vulnerability to invasion of SLAPTON SANDS.
My father described the pumping, under considerable pressure, of some 100,000 gallons of petrol down pipes – fitted with many nozzles - laid at the side of the road. At a signal, the fluid was ignited and the result was an arching sheet of flame from either side of the road – melting the road surface and creating an impenetrable flaming barrier which would have been horribly fatal to any column of vehicles or infantry using the road.)''
After the trial the Flame Trap was installed on the road leading inland from SLAPTON SANDS. For more information on Flame Warfare devices please see the archive of the Defence of Britain Project.
11th August 1940
The General Officer Commanding Southern Command visited TEIGNMOUTH and TORQUAY to see the defences. (It is interesting that over the period from July to September, during which time the Brigade came under Southern Command, the War Diary of Southern Command makes no direct reference to the Brigade at all.)
12th August 1940
Drafts of replacement troops were received – 100 men went to 1st TS with 125 each to 10th and 11th DLI. (Unfortunately the War Diary does not identify the source of these transferees and further work will be needed to try and find the right men for inclusion on the database.)
13th August 1940
Sir Alan Brooke, the Commander in Chief of Home Forces visited the Area and saw EXMOUTH, BUDLEIGH SALTERTON, SIDMOUTH and SEATON.
(The fact of his visit has been verified from his published Diaries, but even that well-known record does not cover the details of his travel to and from the Area. My father was ordered to take the Brigadier’s staff car and collect Sir Alan at the War Office in London. This was only his second visit to the capital, and the first at the wheel of a vehicle. He had no particular problem once he arrived at the War Office, as he was expected, but was a little surprised to find that the car was to be accompanied by six outriders on Norton Motorcycles – a standard British Army model, capable of around 65 mph as a maximum speed.
He reached the first visit location without any particular difficulty and drove Sir Alan, and the Brigadier, around the various locations throughout the day. The visit overall appeared to go well and the time came to return Sir Alan to London.
The car had just reached the first stretch of reasonably straight road when the glass partition separating the driver’s compartment from the rear of the vehicle was suddenly slid back and a voice said….” I don’t know what it’s doing up at your end driver, but there’s ******* grass growing through the floor back here!”
The Humber Snipe was a large saloon with a reasonable top speed and my father therefore put his foot down. As he glanced sideways he saw the Sergeant in charge of the motorcycle outriders struggling to keep up with the car – and failing. Dad gave a vivid description of those motorbikes shaking and rattling as the riders tried manfully to maintain station, and then the picture of them in his rear-view mirror as the powerful car left them behind.)
14th August 1940
The Brigadier visited PAIGNTON to see the Royal Engineers of the 2nd Dock Group.
15th August 1940
The Brigadier paid a visit to TOPSHAM Barracks on an inspection.
19th – 20th August 1940
War Office Exercise “BUSTER” took place, although no units below Brigade level were involved. (It is thought that this Exercise may have been designed to test communications and staff work between the Headquarters of higher formations.)
20th August 1940
Newton Abbot Station was bombed in an Air Raid, resulting in 12 people being killed and 50 injured – all thought to have been civilians. Brigade staff assisted in rescue and recovery work.
23rd August 1940
The Brigadier visited the 10th DLI to see the defences which they had been constructing.
28th August 1940
Orders had just been received that the Brigade had been selected for overseas service – although the destination had not been identified at that early stage.
A letter arrived via Despatch Rider seeking a decision from the Brigadier as to which Battalion from the Brigade should go abroad first as the Advance Party. The Brigadier chose the 10th DLI for this role.
Later in the day the Corps Commander visited the defences for which the Brigade was responsible.
30th August 1940
The 2nd Battalion of the Gloucester Regiment arrived to take over the defences constructed by 10th DLI as the Battalion was being moved to CREDITON prior to their move abroad.
The Annex to the War Diary for August 1940 sets out information as follows:-
News had been received that the following officers were also Prisoners of War:-
1st TS
Maj Wilby,
2/Lt A.R.K. White
2/Lt I.R. Hunter
Captain Dempster
10th DLI
A/Capt C.M. Robinson
11th DLI
Major Gee
2/Lt Prestige
2/Lt Kidd
2/Lt Husband
2/Lt Wood.
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