This section is the place where you will see extracts from, or clickable links to, memoirs, personal recollections,diaries, accounts and photos sent to our Group.
With thanks to Ian Lawford whose father, Bert Lawford and great-uncle Jack Lewis, both worked at Pirelli’s, Eastleigh Works on different elements of the PLUTO pipeline system.
“My father designed certain items for the pipe joints. Jack was a very modest man and taken by surprise when he was told he would be awarded for his service. I don’t think he ever put the initials behind his name or wore it.
He never really enjoyed being singled out as he was among his colleagues and friends. Some had returned from the war with nothing to show for it and he always understood how they must feel. …. his wife Edie was so excited on being told, she wanted to buy a smart outfit thinking they will have to go to Buckingham Palace to see the King.
Sadly, for her, Jack’s medal arrived by first post with a knock on the door!”
Jack Lewis with his BEM and the letter from the King George.
The original can be seen in the PLUTO exhibition room at Shanklin Chine on the Isle of Wight.
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This is just a part of the the Military History story of T74330, Harry James Lawes Warrant Officer 1, of the Royal Army Service Corps who served his country from 1939 to November 1945.
Our thanks go to his son Bill Lawes, who kindly gave us permission to include these notes on our website.
LST-199 and LST-425, which were part of Assault Group J3, originally embarked troops on the 3rd June, over the S1 Hard in Southampton, for the initial “Assault phase” on 6th June.
Both vessels subsequently returned to UK to load troops and equipment for the “build-up” phase.
Harry’s unit, #483 Company, RASC was embarked on LST’s 199 and 425 possibly over the Q2 hard at Stanswood.
These were designated to land on JUNO beach, which they did on 9th June.
The remainder of his Company was transported on “Ocean Angel” which was embarked in River Thames and was formed up into Convoy ETM6.
The Portsmouth Command reports states that between D-Day and 28th June, Q2 hard was used by 8 LST and 122 LCT (transporting 6,407 troops and 2,037 vehicles), so it is entirely likely that Q2 hard was used by Harry Lawes.
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The following section is taken from “Memories of the War years, 1940 – 1946” by Brian Tillman.
We are grateful to Brian for his permission to allow these to used.
“During the summer of 1940, we used to walk down Lepe road, past the various anti-aircraft gun sites, to have picnics on Lepe Beach.
We sat and watched a dog-fight between Spitfires and Messerschmitts over the Solent. On another day, whilst in the garden after the air-raid warning had sounded and before we could get to the air-raid shelter, we heard machine gun fire heading our way. It was a Ju88 being shot at by a Spitfire, both were flying so low, following the Lepe Road, that you could see the pilots and crew. Around this time,there was a placement of barrage balloons at Whitefield Farm and Mopley Lane to cover air raids on Southampton. When night raids started in earnest, they were moved closer to the city”
“In November 1940…..an air-raid warning sounded, this was followed by 13hrs of wave after wave of German aircraft flying up Southampton Water, with searchlights illuminating them and anti-aircraft guns trying to shoot them down on what was to be the heaviest air-raid of the war on Southampton”
“From the latter part of 1943 and into 1944, I used to cycle down to and roam around the farmland at Stone Farm, having made friends with the Uptons a family living at Stone Farm Cottages, who were employed by the farm tenant, George Harris.
I saw a lot of preparations for the D-Day landing. Green Lane being turned into what is now known as the concrete road”
“Early one morning in April1944, I was with two friends… in a field at Stone Farm, when we heard an aircraft heading inland. A few minutes later we heard the sound of aircraft as well as cannon fire coming from the Beaulieu River direction. Looking towards Exbury, we saw a Typhoon shoot down a Ju 188 over Lower Exbury.
Using the smoke from the crash site as a guide, we cut across the Dark Water, then on through the fields and woods of Lepe Farm to the Lower Exbury Road. The Ju 188 had crashed in the field at Beehive Corner. The main fuselage wreckage was in the field and hedge, along with the dead crew members , the two engines had carried on through the hedges and across the road and were laying in the opposite field. Naval personnel from HMS Mastodon moved us on from the crash site…….but as we were walking past the cricket pitch we saw a small light aircraft land in the field opposite Burthays Copse.
We…….found the Auster Army observation plane, parked with its back-up vehicle alongside the Lepe Road taking on fuel.The Auster’s pilot was an army captain who let us share an orange and some chocolate with him, after half an hour or more he had orders to take off.
Because of the wind direction and the size of the field, he had to taxi at high speed down to the far end of the field, slew round and apply full power for take-off. Unfortunately, the Auster stalled when he tried to clear the roadside elm trees and crashed into the field near Burnhays Copse, bursting into flames before some Canadian troops , who were on manoeuvres along the Lepe Road, could pull him out.
It was a very long and sad walk home for three young boys, having witnessed the horrors of two different aspects of the war at first hand.”
“In early June 1944 we were having to walk to Hardley School due to the columns of American troops along with their jeeps, troop transporters and Sherman tanks using the road. We felt that something big was about to happen over the next few days, as the convoy of vehicles and tanks stretched down the concrete road to Stansore Point. On the night of the 5th-6th June we were kept awake by the constant wave after wave of aircraft heading South. My mother said the invasion had started and sure enough, this was confirmed the next day, the 6th June. All through that day, the sky across the Solent was full of squadrons of Thunderbolts, Typhoons and Marauders from airfields on the edges of the New Forest, carrying out sorties over France, returning to base and then going back out again”
A few days after D-Day we went down to Shore Field, which was one of the Stone Farm fields near Stansore Point……
Whilst we were talking to two GIs , who were patrolling the perimeter of the embarkation camp, all hell let loose. The pom-poms on the landing craft, moored off and the anti-aircraft guns at Lepe started firing at a V1 doodelbug, heading in the direction of Brockenhurst.
After this we decided………to have a close-up view of American tracked self-propelled guns, half-tracks and Sherman tanks, that were lined up each side of the road waiting to be loaded on the landing craft.”
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