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7th Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers
The 7th Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was a machine gun battalion serving with Northumbrian Area, Northern Command, when war broke out in September 1939. They proceeded to France in October 1939 to join the BEF and was assigned to III Corps, attached to the 51st (Highland) Division. The Division was stationed at the Maginot Line and escaped being encircled with the rest of the BEF at Dunkirk. They were pulled back to the west of Northern France and were attached to the French 10th Army, holding a line four times longer than that which would normally be expected of a division. They were were trapped at Saint-Valery-en-Caux, and surrendered on the 12th of June 1940 with many spending the rest of the conflict as prisoners of war
The 7th Battalion was reconstituted in Britain. On the 12th of October 1940 they were assigned to 206th Independent Infantry Brigade. On the 18th of November 1941, they transferred to 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division and were engaged in training and preparing for D-Day. They landed with the division in Normandy on the 27th of June 1944, and were in action at Caen and Mont Pinçon. Due to a manpower shortage, the division was disbanded on the 19th of October 1944 and the battalion was placed in suspended animation, with the personnel transferring to other units.
19th Apr 1940 On the Move
1st May 1940 Reliefs
15th May 1940 Orders
20th May 1940 Withdrawal
22nd May 1940 Threat
23rd May 1940 In Reserve
24th May 1940 Orders
25th May 1940 On the Move
26th May 1940 Moves
27th May 1940 On the Move
28th May 1940 On the Move
9th Jun 1940 In Defence
10th Jun 1940 On the March
11th Jun 1940 Surrounded
11th Jun 1940 Orders
12th Jun 1940 Situation Hopeless
If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.
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Want to know more about 7th Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers? There are:1340 items tagged 7th Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Pte. Ernest James Rutter 7th Btn. Royal Northumberland Fusiliers My dad, Ernie Rutter, was a machine gunner's mate in WW2. He joined up at 19 years old in 1939. He always said he knew war was coming, so he chose where he went before he was called up and told where to go! He'd been a coal miner since he was 14 and he said he wasn't going to spend the war stuck down a mine (Bevin Boy). He trained at Aldershot and Catterick before he was posted abroad later that year.
His battalion was attached to a Highland Division (Seaforth?) on the Maginot line, but he said he only fought for a short while before being pulled back to St. Valery in Northern France because of the German advancement. Unfortunately, that didn't last very long either, and in May/June? 1940 they surrendered and began a long journey to Poland. My dad never really said that much about that journey - they partly walked and were partly locked in railway animal trucks. He did say it was the survival of the fittest and if you got the chance, for example, to "acquire" a better pair of boots than yours then you took them!
He finally arrived at Camp XXA (66) near a place called Torun after what must have been a horrific journey and that was his home for the next 5 years. He used to make light of it, saying that at least he wasn't behind bars as he worked on a farm, although he did say he roasted in the summer and froze in the winter. But he did at least learn how to plough a field and milk cows!
He said the guards didn’t really bother them as long as they did their job, and there wasn't really much point in escaping as they hadn't a clue where they were other than somewhere in the middle of Poland. He said they occasionally used to wander off for a day or two just to cause a bit of havoc and would end up being locked up for a day or so, but that was about it.
He was in Poland till the end of the war in 1945 when, I seem to recall him saying, he somehow ended up in Luneburg on his travel home where he was put onto a very uncomfortable plane and flown to England!
Just to end on a lighter note, my dad told the story of his actual arrival home. He got the very early milk train from Newcastle to a tiny station a couple of miles from where he lived and managed to get a lift on a coal wagon the rest of the way. So it was about 5.30 in the morning when he knocked on his door (after over 5 years away). His mother (my grandma) opened the door in her dressing-gown and said "Whey wor, Ernie, what time’s this to come knockin’ on the door?" Fabulous!!
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L/Cpl. William Mackay 7th Btn. Royal Northumberland Fusiliers William Mackay (my grandfather) served in the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers from 1940 to 1945.
He survived the war, returning home to Broomhill in Northumberland in 1945. Before the war he was a footballer and played for a number of football teams including the 1934 Irish Cup Winning team of 1934, Linfield.
He never talked of the war, even with my mother or her sister at any time.
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Tom Alfred Curtis 7th Battalion Royal Northumberland Fusiliers Uncle Tom Curtis was in the 7th Battalion Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. At the outbreak of the war, the 7th Battalion was organized as a machine gun battalion and joined the British Expeditionary force in France in October 1939. The battalion escaped being encircled with the rest of the BEF during the Battle of Dunkirk. The battalion was then pulled back to the west of Northern France, where it was attached to the French Tenth Army. However, they were trapped at Saint-Valery-en-Caux and after some fierce fighting, they surrendered on 12th of June 1940.
Unfortunately, record keeping back in the 40s was not great and sometimes Uncle Tom was TA Curtis and sometimes AT Curtis. The good thing is that in all the information his army number was always 6914314. What is clear now is that Uncle Tom did not die in the battle before his battalion surrendered, nor was he missing in action. In fact, like all the other prisoners, he was marched hundreds of miles into Germany and detained in Stalag XX-B. The location of the camp is in Malbork, Poland. Uncle Tom's POW number was 17882. Sadly, there is no record of Uncle Tom in any war grave register and this includes the cemetery situated next to where he was imprisoned. I can only assume that if he managed to survive his time up to the last few months of the war, he probably got caught up what I found out last.
In January 1945 the Red Army was closing in, and the Germans decided to evacuate all but the sick, the English doctors, padres and nursing orderlies. More than 8,000 men were assembled, and the huge column marched off westwards. Some who could not keep up were shot, some died of hypothermia, some of starvation, some of dysentery.
A very very sad ending for Uncle Tom and another reason why we can never forget the sacrifices made by all.
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Fus. Joseph English 7th Battalion Royal Northumberland Fusiliers  My Dad, Joseph English, went to France with the BEF in April 1940 aged 26.
He was in the 7th Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers in the machine gunners assigned to the 51st Highland Division and was one of the men left behind to fight with the French to try and hold back the Geemans after the Dunkirk rescue.
He was captured at St Valery-en-Caux and marched to a POW camp Stalag IXC in Bad Sulza.
He was then sent to a work camp where, because he had been a miner back in Ashington before the war, he was sent to a salt mine every day.
Because of the poor food and conditions he had endured he eventually became very unwell with a perforated ulcer and other ailments and was sent to the camp hospital.
He was one of the soldiers to be repatriated in October 1943 by the Red Cross via Sweden on one of the hospital ships back to Leith in Scotland and then back by train to his home town of Ashington.
He was the first POW to return to Ashington and had a heroe's welcome much to his disdain and had a visit from the local councillor and attended afternoon tea in his honour at the town hall.
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Lt. Alexander MacKay 7th Btn. Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (d.15th August 1944) Alexander MacKay served with the 7th Royal Northumberland Fusiliers during WW2. Alex was killed in action on the Tuesday 15th August 1944 his date of birth was the 15th August 1923. He was the only son of my Great Aunt Ester and her husband Alexander.
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Fus. Thomas Miller wilson 7th Btn. Royal Northumberland Fusiliers Thomas Wilson fought with the 51st Division based at St Marguerite on the Maigot Line. They retreated to St Valery en Caux where they were taken Prisoners of War. Taken to Stalag XXA in Torum, Northern Poland. They marched most of the way there. He was freed in 1945.
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Thomas Wylie Johnston 7th Btn. Royal Northumberland Fusiliers My grandfather Thomas ohnston was taken prisoner on his 35th birthday on 12th June 1940 at St Valery en Caux. He was marched across France and Belgium and initially sent to PoW Camp XX-B in Marienburg, Poland where he worked on neighbouring farms. He remained a prisoner for 5 years in various camps including Stalag XX-A Thorn, Poland and Stalag VIII-B Lamsdorf. In February 1945 he was sent by train from Lamsdorff to Augsburg then Menningen in the west where he was liberated by the Americans. All of this is recorded in his war diary which I still have. He returned to Ashington and his mining background later working as a caretaker in Ashington drill hall. He died in 1969.
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George Jackson 7th Btn. Northumberland Fusiliers My grandfather, George Jackson, appears on a photo with about ten other POWs that was posted home to my gran in March 1942 from Stammlager IX-C before he was transferred to Stalag 383. I also have a photo of my grandad and his brother Ralph taken at the annual camp in 1954 with about 30 other officers and sergeants.
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William Alfred Pike 7th Btn Royal Northumberland Fusiliers Fusilier William Alfred Pike was taken prisoner at St Valery in June 1940
and was part of the 51st Highland Division. He was a prisoner in Stalag 8b/E344 and also E344/E3 Blechammer.
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Fus. John Naisbitt 7th Btn Royal Northumberland Fusiliers My father Jackie Nasibitt was taken prisoner at Rouen, France on 09/06/1940 and was taken to Stalag 21b on 04/07/1940 where he was held until 11/01/1941 and then transferred to Stalag 24c where he spent the rest of the war. I believe they were liberated by the Russians in January 1945 and returned home where he served for a time in the Royal Enginneers clearing mines from the beaches in the south of England. He never spoke much about the war. I know he had a very difficult time as when he came home both of his parents were dead and he came to live in Newcastle where he married my mother. I have a photo of 8 POWs taken at Stalag 4c with 7 other soldiers. Any information about any of these camps would be appreciated.
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