Merville Barracks - Keeping the Memory Alive

Wow. Got an order in work going to a Para captain at 'Merville Barracks' - named after the DDay gun battery where my uncle, private Daniel 'Roddy' Hurley, died (DDay plus 1). The Paras disabled the battery (see my other posts for further details on Roddy & the battle there). 

What a small world. Hope the order gets there ok. Wouldn't like to deal with an angry Para captain. ;)

Below: 3 Para memorial garden at Merville Barracks. 

7th June: RIP Private Daniel 'Roddy' Hurley

Today is the anniversary of the death of my Uncle Roddy - Private Daniel R Hurley, who passed away on the 7th of June, 1944.

We know he made it it to the Battle of Merville Battery which took out German coastal guns to protect the D-Day landings. What we do not know - as yet - is if he died there, the day after the battle perhaps of his wounds cared for by the German doctor who stayed behind to care for the British soldiers (Paras).

Or perhaps he died the day after the battle at an engagement with a German 'Ostruppen' unit. These were soldiers from Turkmenistan in the USSR who volunteered to fight for the Germans.

Hopefully one day we'll know exactly where and how he died...

Please say a prayer for the repose of his soul.

Daniel Roderick Hurley, RIP.

Private DR Hurley Jumped from Dakota Alongside Glen the Para Dog

An Update from Steve Smith whose grandfather fought with my uncle, Daniel "Roddy" Hurley, in 9 Para A Company at D-Day:

I just wanted you to know that Daniel Hurley jumped with Emile Corteil, Glen (para dog) and James Baty.  Emile and Glen were due to jump first but due to the dog being scared James stayed and helped Emile retrieve Glen from under a seat.  Emile jumped after Glen then James was the last to jump from the plane.

Daniel made it to the RV on the drop zone and was collected with a number of others by Brigadier Hill.  The rest I am sure you know.

I also found a letter in the National Archives from a Private Franklin detailing how my grandfather, jumping number 8 from a different Dakota, had jumped after him.  They both met up at the rendezvous on the drop zone but the battalion had already moved off the drop zone.  They made haste and managed to catch up to the battalion before it reached the battery.  Both were present for the assault but sadly that was the last time he was seen by Franklin. 

How fabulous to know that Uncle Roddy jumped with the famous Glen the Para Dog - seen in many wartime pictures - was at the the Battle for Merville Battery (as we long suspected, knowing that he died the day after, 7/6/44).

A big thanks to Steve for all his work and for sharing this!

Private D.R. Hurley Remembered

Private D.R. Hurley

Just the other day I got in touch with an old school friend called Ashley via Facebook and we began reminiscing about the good old days, catching up etc.

It turns out he had gone on to join the Paras and did 119 jumps with them. It was then he spotted a post I'd done on Facebook, on All Souls Day in honour of my uncle who had served and died with the Paras in WW2.

He then told me that he was going to London for the Remembrance Day activities this weekend, and that he would be planting a Cross for my uncle at Westminster Abbey. I hadn't asked him to, it was clearly something he felt he had to do for a fellow Para.

I have to say I was deeply moved. All too often in our daily lives we bump into people who sap our belief in humanity. Then something like this happens and it reminds me that there are good people out there, who do good works because they should be done.

So thanks Ashley! You've done something fantastic for all our extended family, and reminded me that good deeds can have a much greater impact than we may think when we do them.

Atheists murdered 50 Million in USSR

I love history and take a keen interest in politics. Thus I often debate both with my captive audience. By debate I mean rant and wag my finger, and by captive audience I mean family.

Just this week one of my children told me their history teacher made some salient points which had previously escaped my very own lips. He said you can never remove religion (as GK Chesterton said when people stop believing in God they will believe in anything). He told the class that when Stalin tried to do this, he murdered 50 million Christians. Yet despite this the Russians (Ukrainians, Balts etc) clung to their faith).

The teacher said that we often hear about the holocaust, yet this paled in comparison to the huge numbers murdered by Stalin.

I have argued this with atheists on Twitter. They respond that the Soviet Union murdered for politics - conveniently forgetting that the USSR was an officially atheist state, and those murdered or shipped to gulags were Christian.

Imagine an officially Christian state, as a matter of policy, murdered, tortured and imprisoned millions of atheists in just a few decades. The atheists would be screeching it from the rooftops. Hollywood would churn out blockbuster after blockbuster. Richard Dawkins would have written a book on it.

Yet here we had an atheist state murdering Christians and we barely ever hear about it. Why?

And while we're at it, why did we declare war on Germany after they invaded Poland in September 1939, but did not declare war on the USSR after they invaded Poland (and Finland - another British ally). What's more, we went to war in 1939 because Poland was invaded, yet in 1945 with Europe in ruins, Poland was occupied by one of the very powers that had invaded it in 1939!!! As were many other countries!

You couldn't make it up.

But how comforting to know at least one history teacher is telling his class that the atheist USSR murdered circa 50 million Christians. The truth is out there...

Never again?

Barry Train Station and a WW2 Blackout Death

I waffled on yesterday about Barry Island and some of my memories of the place. In doing so I forgot, mea culpa, a major event in my family history. I had intended on mentioning it, but in all the excitement of remembering rides at the fun fair and the freeeeeeezing cold water at Cold Knap pool, I erm... what was I going to say? Well, um, this is embarrassing. Oh yes -- I forgot.

Those 'senior moments' happen more often, their proximity getting closer and closer.

Many moons ago my mum told me of a relative (from her Huzzey side of the family) who died at Barry station, during WW2 at the height of the blackout. I think it was her auntie - but I'll no doubt get the details through very soon.

It's strange really because when we think of WW2 we often think of those men who died on the front line, the brave souls like my own uncle Daniel 'Roddy' Hurley who died the day after D Day with the Paras at or near Merville. Or perhaps we think of those killed in the bombing raids.

A London Transport safety poster

But whoever thinks of those killed in accidents due to the blackout? We take lights for granted of course, whether street lights, car headlights, lights on buildings... and despite what the (media-omnipresent) Prof Brian Cox might tell us, we do need lights at night for safety, especially with cars, trains, motorbikes, buses and much else whizzing around.

I'm sure my relative who died at Barry station (not the only relative to have an accident with a train - I'll try and write something about my paternal grandfather another day) was far from the only victim of a blackout accident.

Who knows... this may be something I return to later.

The Injured at Merville were Under the Care of the German Army

The personal papers of a WW2 Austrian doctor

A great debt of thanks is due to Stephen Smith, who's grandfather was photographed standing next to my uncle in their battalion photograph.

I have been in touch with him and discussed my brief research into my uncle's death, and he came back just the other day with this insight which I quote verbatim:

I was thinking about your question "In what action was Your uncle wounded?".  I think he may have been wounded in an action which took place after the assault on the battery for the following reasons.  If he was wounded at the battery two possibilities come to mind 1- he would have been left in the care of the Germans and later laid to rest by the Germans some where other than Ranville or  2- If you read Fred Glover's story in the appendix of "The Day The Devils Dropped In" all men wounded at the battery during the assault who could not keep up with the march to the battalion's next objective where left either at the battery in the care of a German doctor or they where made comfortable where they fell behind on the roadside and later collected by the Germans.  Either way the burial site for those who died from their wounds received at the battery  would most likely not have been Ranville. As Daniel rests in the Ranville War Cemetery his burial was overseen by allied soldiers which means he was taken to Ranville for burial by the allies.  Those who fell at the battery to my knowledge have no known grave.  Presently I am aware of only one group of casualties who where collected, from a temporary grave near to where they fell, after the breakout from Normandy and later reburied at Ranville. Those men were in Brigadier Hill's group which was bombed by allied planes at about 6am on the 6th of June some where between Gonneville-en-Auge and Varaville.  This group included Emile the A Company dog handler.  Though this is just an idea based on the information I have got from Neil Barber's book.  I hope this is of some help to you.

 

I had completely overlooked the fact that those who died or were seriously injured at the Battery on 6th June were cared for or buried by the Germans. Given that my uncle is buried at Ranville, it seems likely that he was not seriously injured at the Merville Battery.

This does not explain why my nan told my mum that my uncle was injured on the 6th and died of his injuries on the 7th, unless this was misinformation or Chinese whispers... unless of course his injuries weren't deemed serious, but he deteriorated the following day.

Time will tell.

In closing, Stephen's family in Australia suffered badly in the floods we've all been watching on TV. Again to quote him "The place has been devastated, there are over 50 homes and families missing from the local community.  I am extremely lucky that everyone in my family is OK though they will be in camps for the next three weeks or so."

 

I'm sure all our thoughts and prayers are with them and the other victims of the flood who have lost relatives and their homes.

Private D R Hurley on the Para Data Site

Great News.

At last my Uncle Roddy (D R Hurley) is on the Para Data site (click here).

When I first started searching for reference to him on official web sites, his name was virtually non-existent.

I have submitted his photo to the Para Data site and once it is accepted by their moderator I'll let you know via this blog.

btw - here's a great page on the memorial activities at the Merville Battery site. The 'Traditional 9th Battalion Curry' (pictured right) looks like something not to be missed.

I have to wonder, if Private DR Hurley's brothers turned up would there by any curry left???

Hello Smiler! This IS Private Daniel Roderick Hurley

The soldier at mid-right in this photo, with the broadest smile, is indeed Private Daniel Roderick 'Roddy' Hurley, A Company, 9 Para Battalion, 6th Airborne Division who died on the 7th June, 1944.

Please say a prayer for the repose of his soul.

Were D.R. Hurley & T.W. Smith Good Mates in A Company?

9 Para Battalion, A Company.

I have posted this picture before.

Just today the grandson (Stephen Smith) of a member of A Company (Thomas William Smith) got in touch after viewing this blog to say that he thinks my uncle (Daniel Roderick "Roddy" Hurley) is standing next to his grandfather in the above photo, they are in the 2nd row down from the back, 2nd and 3rd from the right respectively.

Here is a close-up of the two men:

 

 

 

T.W. Smith & D.R. Hurley?

I am going to ask family members to confirm that the man in the middle-right of this close-up is indeed my Uncle Roddy, but it sure looks like him.

Here is Uncle Roddy in his individual photo in uniform for you to compare:

It certainly seems that we are finding out more about Private Daniel Roderick Hurley.

Many thanks to Stephen Smith for his help. It's tempting to think that his grandad and my uncle were good friends. They certainly must have known each other!

As a fitting P.S. I'm happy to say that the author Neil Barber is ensuring that the above photo of Uncle Roddy is going to be put on view, with other members of A Company, 9 Para, at the Merville Battery museum in Normandy.

Photo of Private D.R. Hurley, 9 Para Batallion , 6th Airborne Division

This is Private Daniel Roderick Hurley, my uncle, who died in Normandy on the 7th June 1944.

Family members will see the resemblance of his brothers in the 19-year-old's face.

Known as Roddy (his father - my grandfather's - first name was also Daniel) it seems that he died of his wounds on the 7th, so may have been fatally shot or had shrapnel injuries etc. at the assault on the Merville Battery on the 6th, or received his fatal injuries the following day at the village of Hauger where 9 Para was faced with some form of 'Ostruppen' (volunteers from Poland/Russia/Turkmenistan - details unknown at present).

If family members, researchers, veterans etc. want to be sent a high resolution jpeg by email please drop me a line.

A special thanks to Uncle Pat and Aunty Mary (recently decamped to the wilds of Lancashire!) who supplied the hard copy of this photo.

Please say a prayer for the repose of the soul of Roddy Hurley.

A Company, 9 Para Batallion, 6th Airborne Division, 1944

The above picture is of 9 Para's A Company, which we believe is the Company in which Private Daniel Roderick Hurley served and died.

At the front of the picture is Para dog Glenn (see previous post).

If any veterans or family members can identify Private Hurley in the above photo, please do contact me.

Any internet casual visitors, please say a prayer for the repose of his soul.

9 Para's War Dog

I have just been reading about Private Emil Corteil and his dog, Glenn, in a book on the Merville Battery assault by Carl Shilleto.

They were in A Company, which we believe to be the Company my uncle, Private D.R. Hurley, served with.

The following 6 year old news report from the telegraph includes a mention of 9 Para, A Company's famous War Dog:

The members of the airborne forces who died in the initial D-Day landings and are buried in the Ranville cemetery include a dog.

Glen was the only "war dog" with 9 Parachute Battalion, which parachuted into the area around Merville to silence the main German coastal defence battery on the allies' left flank.

Pte Corteil was probably known to my uncle, and they share the same cemetery in Normandy. Corteil's grave (pictured right) is shared by his dog Glenn*, said to be the only example of this, a handler being buried with his dog.

Link:
Daily Telegraph article
Para Dogs
Pte Corteil's Grave Info

*Some reports (like the Telegraph's) give Glen as the name, but most seem to refer to Glenn.

Gamers Re-play Merville Assault

Playing with childrens' toys or trying to re-work historical events?

Well, you'll have your own ideas. The site below has a 'gamers' account of their own version of the assault on Merville.

The actual layout of the gaming table looks very similar to 1944-era recon photos of the battery and gives you an idea of what the attackers of 9 Para were facing, albeit very simplified (minus machine gun nests, mine fields, flooded areas etc.).

Nothing too exciting otherwise, but I suppose anything that keeps the memory of 9 Para at Merville alive can't be all bad.

Link:
Gamer's Merville

A Tale of Two Bunkers

This picture of the Merville Battery site today shows one of the bunkers on site.

This is the site that 9 Para, including Private D.R. Hurley assaulted before dawn on D-Day, whilst other battalions of the 6th Airborne Division took Pegasus Bridge and other targets.

These bunkers were built to be camouflaged from the air.

Indeed on seeing this picture of a bunker at Merville, our youngest immediately said 'it looks like Pembrey Country Park.'

At the Country Park - the site of RAF Pembrey until 1957 and a Royal Ordnance Factory during WW2 and the Korea War - there are many bunkers almost identical in layout to the Merville bunker pictured here.

The Kidwelly History site says of the Royal Ordnance Factory at Pembrey:

It was Britain's largest producer of TNT with 700 tons and produced 1,000 tons of Ammonium Nitrate and 40 tons of Tetryl at it's peak in 1942 and employed 2,000 people.

Therefore it would seem that the bunkers in the country park, such as that pictured here, were used for storing ordnance. It is probably the case that the bunker at Merville above was for the same usage.

One can almost imagine the concrete entrance to the bunkers painted in camouflage paint, draped with camouflage netting and similar to disguise them from the air and reconnaissance efforts by the RAF and the Luftwaffe accordingly.

There is less earth on top of the French bunker, but given the severe aerial bombardment of the Merville Battery, there's little wonder that the actual bunker had less natural coverage.

The picture below shows the Merville Battery with the gun bunkers circled. It shows the extent of Allied bombing on the site which, if nothing else, must have unnerved and demoralised the defenders.

According the official Merville Museum site (see link in right hand panel), the Merville Battery received:

The most intensive bombing (in excess of 1,000 bombs dropped by 109 Lancasters) of the night of 5th/6th June.

Funnily enough, the Welsh bunker pictured above with its occupant, a London-style red double decker bus (I think it's a Routemaster - it certainly looks like one), is said to be haunted and featured on the TV show 'Most Haunted' which focused on Pembrey Woods (see embedded You Tube link below).

As usual the programme is more than a little cheesy and open to all manner of interpretation, but it also gives a good overview and intro to the Country Park and its former occupants and usage. You can see the bunker with the double decker bus in it on part one of the show.



Links:
Merville on French Wikipedia (more info than its English version)
Kidwelly History on RAF Pembrey

Did Allied Leaflets Make Defenders of Hauger Fight on?

In reading up on 9 Para's engagement on the 7th of June at Hauger, against German Army volunteers/conscripts from Soviet Republics, I found the following text which gives an overall assessment of who those people were and why they enrolled in the German Army and thus were in Normandy, 1944, shooting at British paratroopers:

In my opinion there is one reason which explains everything: the general hatred of the Soviet system, a hatred greater than inborn patriotism and loyalty to one's own government. Those who have not seen the limitless degradation of man in what was the Soviet hell cannot understand that a moment may come when a man out of sheer desperation will take up arms against the hateful system even at the side of an enemy. The responsibility for his mutiny falls on the system and not him. Here the notions of loyalty and treason lose their meaning. If, in the eyes of many people, Germans who fought against Hitler were not traitors, why should the Russians who fought against the Soviet system be traitors?

How little public opinion in the West understood the real state of affairs is perhaps best shown by the text of the leaflets, addressed to Soviet soldiers in German uniform, which were dropped by the Allied Air Forces in France in the summer of 1944. These leaflets called for the cessation of fighting and promised as a reward - speedy repatriation of prisoners to the USSR! The effect was of course, such that some of the Eastern troops fought desperately to the last man. Thus, for example, an Armenian battalion perished completely in bitter fighting. Soldiers of the Eastern formations were the unhappiest soldiers of the Second World War. Deprived of their fatherland, scorned by their protectors, regarded generally as traitors, although in their consciences they were not traitors, they fought often for an alien and hateful cause; the only reward which they eventually received for their pains was toil and death, mostly in a foreign land, or "repatriation" to the hell from which they had tried to escape. 

The part I particularly found of interest was that Allied leaflets dropped on Normandy before D-Day, targeting the 'Ostruppen' in these regiments, hugely backfired. In all but promising to repatriate them to the USSR, the Allied forces had ensured that these men (who were known in part for surrendering or running away at engagements with an enemy) would fight to the bitter end.

If Private D. R. Hurley were indeed shot at Hauger, then the leaflet drops by the allies may have helped to create the circumstances. At the very least they may have resulted in the deaths of a few more Paras from his battalion.

Link:

Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII by Lt. Gen Wladyslaw Anders and Antonio Munoz

6th Airborne Division Memorial, Ranville War Cemetary

The memorial to the 6th Airborne Division, of which 9 Para was a part, at the Ranville War Cemetery in Calvados, Normandy, France.

Private Daniel Roderick Hurley's grave is at Ranville:

Private D.R. Hurley was in Dakota KG314

After reading his impressive account of the assault on the Merville Battery, I sent an email to author and researcher Neil Barber, and was more than happy to get this response earlier today:

Many thanks for the message.  I’ve only had time to have a quick look at your site, but it looks very impressive.  I’ll have a longer look when I get the chance.

For the past 18 months I have been trying to form a list of men who served in the 9th Battalion at any time from its inception to disbandment.  This is an ongoing project and will hopefully feed some further analysis of events when I’m happy with the amount of content. 

  I’ve looked at this list and the information I have on your uncle is as follows:

His  Para Course was 79.   Travelled in Dakota KG314, Chalk ?, jumped No 15.  Could have been wounded during the bombing of Brigadier Hill’s group as he was a member of Lt Catlin’s plane, many of which joined this party.  I also have that he died of wounds, but where that come from, I’d have to check.  Being in Catlin’s plane he was almost certainly a member of ‘A’ Company.  If you look at the ‘A’ Company photo, can you see him ?

Operation Tonga - The part of D-Day involving 9 Para

Being on the Merville Battery Museum Committee, obviously I’m involved in the maintenance and improvement of the Battalion’s history there.  I am trying to increase the amount of photos on display (in casemate 2) of the men themselves and so I just wondered if you had a wartime photo of him that could be mounted there.  It would be a marvellous addition.

I have been told that it's possible that Private D.R. Hurley may have been injured on the 6th of June, and died of those injuries on the 7th. This seems to be the understanding of his mother (my nan, Ann Hurley) as recalled by my own mother.

If this is the case, then it's possible that Private Hurley died after the assault at Merville. According to one account of the assault, A Company (which Mr Barber thinks was Private Hurley's company) jointly led the assault.

The main item to be discerned, it seems, is where and when Private Hurley was wounded and/or died, at Merville on the 6th to die the next day, or at Hauger on the 7th. 

Another researcher on the forum 12 O'Clock High, states that Dakota KG314 was part of 512 Squadron. The full list of planes in that squadron is as follows:

A C-47A Dakota involved in a fly-past.

 512 Squadron - Dakota III

KG392 'V'
KG390 'E'
KG422 'B1'
FZ647 'H'
KG322 'C'
KG314 'C1'
KG480 'G'
KG373 'B'
KG486 'A1'
KG407 'D'
KG324 'A'
KG333 'N'
FZ649 'J1'
FZ610 'O'
FZ694 'R'
FZ651 'J'
KG344 'L'
KG348 'K'
FZ658 'M'
FZ696 'Q'
FZ609 'P'
FZ656 'K'
KG368 'Y'
KG323 'U1'
KG418 'T1'
KG371 'X'
KG330 'T'
KG347 'S1'
KG361 'U'
KG379 'W'

As a post script, the list of casualties of the drop and the assault on the Merville Battery, according to Appendix "A", Capture of Coastal Bty Position at 155775 by 9 Para Bn 6 Jun 44, Point 5. Execution:

"Casualties - 1 Officer killed and 4 wounded, 65 ORs killed, wounded and missing.  This does not include severe casualties."

 As stated previously, this left the 9 Para battalion with 80 men at the end of D-Day.

9 Para's Chaplain, Normandy 1944

It seems from the '39-45 Living History Society' that the Chaplain of the 9th Paras, Rev J. Gwinnett, who would have been known to my uncle Private Daniel Roderick Hurley, not only cared for the dead and wounded of the Paras, but also of the German enemy troops.

The site linked to above has some interesting material on 9 Para in Normandy, and the role of Rev. Gwinnett and others.

Ostbattalions 439, 441 & 642 in Normandy, 1944

German Army Turkmen volunteers in Normandy

 According to one website, the German 716th Division had two 'Ost Battalions':


Order of battle (June 1944)
Grenadier-Regiment 726 (Ost-Bataillon 439 assigned as IV. Bataillon)
Grenadier-Regiment 736 (Ost-Bataillon 642 assigned as IV. Bataillon)

Link:
716th Infantry Division

According to another site, the 716th Division had three 'Ost Battalions':

The division consisted of:
• Infantry: two Grenadier Regiments (726. and 736.). They were also assigned three Ost-Battalions, who were poorly armed and trained (439., 441. and 642.).

Link:
716th Infantry Division

Another site - a forum - also cites the 439, 441 and 642 being in Normandy.
This forum also discusses the capabilities, uniforms, armaments of the 'Ostruppen.'

Link:
Ostruppen in Normandy 1944

Unless I can get someone who knows of a German-language source to find out which troops were in Hauger on the 7th of June 1944, it may be through Para veterans or similar I can find out more...