Cpl. Harrison Oughton "Harry" Jones 1st Btn. Durham Light Infantry
Harry started off # 4451283 in Aisne Squad D Coy machine gun Coy after his eighteenth birthday (just under 8 stone in weight). He learned how to drive Bren Gun Carriers,
and was the number1 shot out of 1000 hand picked troops at an Army competition at Bisley Ranges which gained him a pay
increase and a Medal awarded. Hand picked and sent to Chatham Naval Base (School of Military Engineering) Harry was
taught the trade of Plumbing. He was transferred to A Coy as Battalion Plumber and given badge of two crossed axes then
transferred to HQ for trip to China in 1937. They stopped in at India to take on more DLI troops, water and fresh fruit,
and finally rrived in China at Shanghai to see the place on fire after the recent Japanese bombing.
The men transferred to the docks in small boats with main troop ship at anchor in middle of river. They were initally based
in a school on Nankin Road in Shanghai then moved north to Peking / Tientsin to “nice barracks”.
Harry Taught ice skating to Officers on frozen over Tennis Courts with fellow solider Frank Chapman.
Next they were sent to Hong Kong, then to Egypt and landed at Port Said, where they were rushed to Mersa Matruh and
should have been awarded Military Medal for acts of courage during an enemy bombing raid on a rail head but the reporting
Indian Officer confused the surnames of Jones and Owens and Private Owens was awarded the Medal in error. They advanced to
Fort Cappuzo where after brutal battle, Harry requested permission to return and pick up his truck that had the front end
blown off from a shell, or mortar round. The Officer agreed and one truck was made from two blown up trucks.
Harry was then transferred to B Coy and made a fitter for the rest of the Battalion trucks.
He was promoted and transferred to 10th RTR (Royal Tank Regiment) “Ghost Battalion” and advanced to unchartered desert
to set up dummy tanks to confuse the enemy. He moved to Tobruk then to to Syria and fought Vichy French and pushed them
through Palastine to the Turkish border, until the surrender at Aleppo.
The battalion was sent back to Egypt to camps in Port Said, then on to Alexandria, from where they sailed on Friday 13th to Malta onboard the Brackenshire captained by
Colin Hutchinson who recommended extra pay and recognition for Harry and other DLI men for relieving the ships crew on
the machine guns during air raids. This request declined as this action was just expected of a soldier in the D.L.I.!
The ship behind Brackenshire was bombed and sank in about 4 minutes. The next raid brought a stick of bombs which exploded
a hole in the side of the Brackenshire, the order to abandon ship was given. A destroyer pulled alongside to save the crew
but it hit a mine and sank. Ocean going tugs rescued the survivors and took them into Valetta Harbour, eventually the Brackenshire was run aground to save the
cargo.
Harry Was on guard duty in Rabbat the story goes that he shot the seat pole out of a bike riden by Major Croxwright who was
returning from a night on the town and had refused to stop after the first checkpoint. The Major commended Harry for his
action and advised he wouldn’t have to go on guard duty again. The Major also advised he wouldn’t go out drinking again!
Harry relieved a Bren Gun position on a hillside above the camp where he shot down an enemy bomber and was promoted to
Corporal in the field for this action. On another occasion he shot down an enemy craft after going on an
unauthorised test flight after assisting in the repair of an aircraft. Before leaving Malta Captain May requested Harry to
be promoted and join the paratroopers. This offer was declined.
Harry was sent from Malta to Egypt, then from Egypt to Kos where he was in charge of a platoon looking after an
air strip near the Coast. He was wounded in the leg and reported to a Medical Station, where he was advised by the medical
orderly to prepare for surrender.Harry advised him that he would never surrender and asked the medical orderly to give him
some rations to make good his escape. Harry met up with an 18 year old RAF private named Jack Harrison and tried to get
the Coast, but they were captured, interrogated and marched off to German HQ by two Italian guards.
Harry was able to escape with Jack Harrison after an English Beaufighter strafed the Italian guards. They were given a boat
by a Greek fisherman on the proviso that they took his wife and two kids to Turkey, which he agreed to do.
Once the boat was uncovered eight fully armed and kitted out South African Air Force personnel
(including a Sergeant and a Colonel) jumped from the bush and commandeered the boat but didn’t know how to sail it.
Harry said he would sail it as long as Jack and the Greek family were allowed on. This was agreed.
Once at sea, the boat was strafed by a Messerschmidt, who came back for another pass but another Beaufighter came to the rescue and engaged.
They arrived in Turkey and were escorted by a Turkish soldier to a village in the Mountains, after a nights rest and
a good feed walked through the mountains for approximately ninety miles. At one part the journey went though a gap in the
mountain approx 50 – 60 yards across which the Turkish guide said was caused by an earthquake many years earlier.
They finally arrived at a seaport called Boderum. The South Africans were led in one direction whilst Jack and Harry were
put on a small craft with several SAS commandoes returning from a mission and sent to Cyprus. The Turkish soldier made Harry
sign a form which was sent to Constantinople requesting reimbursement for the journey.
Harry sailed by boat to Syria and arrived in a Harbour and was then sent to hospital for two weeks to treat his infected
leg wound. When he was released from hospital Harry was arrested as he had no identification, but this was soon resolved.
Eventually Harry was made a Police Corporal on the main gate of the military base but he wanted to get back to England,
so he got a job as a cook for an Indian Officer who was escorting prisoners to Palastine by boat.
On arrival Harry was sent to barracks in Hifa, and was put in charge of a group of soldiers guarding the gate to the base.
He managed to get a ride, as an assistant driver of a truck carrying two Royal Artillery personnel, to El-ta-hag near Port Said.
The journey took Harry through the Sinai Desert. On arrival he was greeted by a Major Nickelson Who had been Harry’s Sergeant in B Coy in China.
His nickname I believe was “Hands” or "Feet" due to his extraordinarily sized hands or feet. Harry got a new Pay Book & AB64 from the Sergeant Major
looking after the records of the 1st DLI in Cairo.
Harry Left Port Said on an unknown boat bound for Liverpool with an escort of 3 to 5 naval craft, a German submarine attacked
just outside Liverpool. The Navy depth charged the sub and about 2 miles from Harry’s boat it rose up to almost halfway out
of the water then sank. Back in England Harry was sent by train to Brancepeth Castle where he trained a squad of recruits
preparing for D-Day.
Harry told the Officer in charge of Northern Command the banns for his marriage had come back and as he would be on leave he wouldn’t
be attending the D-Day landings. After his honeymoon Harry crossed the Channel in a boat with about 150 – 200 other soldiers
and arrived in France. After drying out on the beach Major Croxwright recognised Harry and seconded him into a nearby
bombed out house which was Montgmery’s temporary HQ. Harry moved to the Officers Mess and moved to Caen & Falaise and on through many places
(I have yet to decipher the diaries, photos and post cards) but one place named was Stag Diesl in Belgium and later Borg Leopold where Harry
was in charge of driving a Canadian photograher to record the horror of Belsen. Harry was in charge of a truck to load up
survivors and transport them to Luneburg Hospital and was on guard and observed when Montgomery accepted the surrender of
the Germans.
While based at Luneburg Barracks he was in charge of four German prisoners cleaning out the sheds. One morning there were
five prisoners and heated debate broke out. The extra prisoner was complaining about a fellow German prisoner
making the younger one do all the work and they suspected him to be Heinrich Himmler. Harry with an officer and
another rank confronted the man on the second floor of block #2. He was standing between the fourth bed along the
right hand side wall wearing a German Sergeant uniform with a patch over one eye. He was accused of being Himmler and
ordered to confirm or deny the accusation. He told them he wouldn’t say anything to a lowly ranking officer and requested
to be taken to their highest ranking officer. Harry motioned toward him to escort him away but before he came close
he popped a pill into his mouth and dropped to the ground and began shaking. They thought he was acting but after
a minute or two he was pronounced dead. Harry was ordered to stand guard overnight whilst the Officers decided what to do.
The next day he was part of the burial party. A small hole had already been dug and a short time later a truck arrived
with an Officer driving and 4 officers in the back with an unmarked coffin. They lowered the coffin into the hole, covered
it over and drove the truck over it several times to “disappear” the grave site. Harry was forced to sign secrecy documents
regarding this affair and other details.
Harry resumed his duty transported inmates away from the Belsen Camps. Later he travelled around Germany, Belgium, Holland,
Paris, over the Haartz mountains to the Swiss border with an Officer picking up watches, perfume, chess sets, etc.
to put into the Luneburg gift house for troops to buy and send home. Harry stayed in Germany until 1946 when he was demobilised
He was discharged from the Army in 1952
His friend and fellow D.L.I. soldier Frank Chapman # 4451284 eventually married Harry’s sister.
Harry’s father, Thomas Edward Jones, born in 1889, was a Sergeant Drum Major in the 16th (2nd Reserve) Battalion Durham Light Infantry in World War One. He served for 1 year 11 months before medical discharge. -
