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Those known to have fought in Battle of Calais during the Second World War 1939-1945. - Cable Robert Charles. L/Cpl. (d.23rd May 1940)
- Haydon Frank William. Rflmn.
- Jay Alec. Rfm.
- Johnson John Hele. Capt. (d.20th May 1940)
- Payne William Harry Edward. Rfmn. (d.25th May 1940)
- Sturgeon William James. Rfmn.
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
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Want to know more about Battle of Calais? There are:8 items tagged Battle of Calais 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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Rfmn. William James Sturgeon 2nd Btn. Rifle Brigade Bill Sturgeon was I believe in the 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade and was taken prisoner of war at the Battle of Calais in 1940. He was held, we think in Poland and came home after the war. We believe he was a boy soldier in the Rifle Brigade before the war and was recalled in 1939.
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Rfmn. William Harry Edward "Midge" Payne 2nd Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps (d.25th May 1940) William Payne was part of the Calais Force sent to defend that town to the end, having been told that no attempts would be made to evacuate them. He was one of the something like 300 who died there and he has no known grave.
My researches indicate that the leading elements of the 10th Panzer Division that took Calais were Panzer Grenadiers armed with flame throwers.
The KRRC were in and around the old Citadel that the Germans totally destroyed.
The fact Midge has no known grave and the use of flamethrowers would seem to be connected.
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L/Cpl. Robert Charles "Nobby" Cable 2nd Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps (d.23rd May 1940) My father, Robert Cable, was at the Battle of Calais in May 1940 with the 2nd Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps. He had been a regular soldier with the 1st Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps from 1931 to 1939 in India and Burma where he had passed exams for Veterinary First Aid and Animal Hygiene.He was on reserve when he met my mother and at the outbreak of war they married in November 1939. My mother, Lucy, was two months pregnant with me when he was reported missing in June 1940 and she didn't find out that he had died until two years later in March 1942.
My mother did not remarry until 1966. I have the last postcard that my father wrote to my mother from Calais on 22nd of May which was full of love for her, "hope to see a second Lucy at Christmas" (me), and telling her not to worry "the devil looks after his own".
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Capt. John Hele Johnson 5th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment (d.20th May 1940) Capt. John Johnson is named on the St Ives War Memorial. I am the Poppy Appeal Organiser for St Ives (Cambs) and have come across the family grave of the Johnson family in Broad Leas Cemetery (St Ives), which gives mention to John H. Johnson. Having researched his history I am aware of his Battalion's fatal last stand at Calais in May 1940 facing the advancing German Army. Without their sacrifice many of the 338,000 that were lifted from the Dunkirk beaches may well have been captured or killed.
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Rflmn. Frank William Haydon Kings Royal Rifle Corps My father, Frank Haydon, was a Rifleman in The King's Royal Rifle Corps and was captured on 27th May 1940 at Calais when it finally fell to the advancing Germans.
He was then taken to Stalag XXB in Poland. He never spoke much about his incarceration. Whilst he occasionally mentioned the odd "humourous incident" he never, ever, went in to detail about the terrible conditions and treatment meted out to prisoners.
I have since learned through various books and publications just how vicious the Battle For Calais was and how harsh the conditions and treatment were for P.O.W's at Stalag XXB. He would have been among the prisoners who were forced to march back in to Germany as the Russians advanced towards Poland - which must have been a harrowing experience given what everyone had to endure.
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Rfm. Alec Jay 9th County of London Battalion Queen Victoria's Rifles My late father, Alec Jay, was a Queen Victoria’s Rifleman, Company C. My father was captured in Calais in May 1940 and spent the following five years in various German POW camps including Lamsdorf (Lambinowice) – Stalag VIIIB/Stalag 344 until May 1945. His prisoner of war number was 15129.
While at Stalag 344, he worked in a series of work camps including - Groschowitz (Groszowice) from July 1940 to October 1940 on building works,
- Gumpertsdorf (Komprachcice) from November 1940 to January 1941 on roadworks,
- Heuerstein, from 25th May 1941 to 3rd June 1941, in a quarry,
- Setzdorf (Vápenná), from 18th August 1941 to 27 February 1944, in another quarry,
- Jagerndorf (Strzelniki), from March 1944 to August 1944, on council work,
- Freudenthal (Bruntál), from August 1944 to September 1944, in a linen factory, and
- Gurschdorf (Skorošice) from September 1944 to March 1945, a quarry that was also a punishment camp
. He was tortured by the Under Officer in charge of his first working party (Groschowitz/ Groszowice) to find out if he was a Jew. That involved being beaten in the face with a rifle butt, an assault that led to the loss of his teeth. I have put the German names in as recorded in his “General questionnaire for British/American ex-prisoners of war” form, which he filled in on his return to the UK in 1945. I have put as many Polish or Czech names that I can identify in brackets. I hope they are correct. At Gurschdorf, my father witnessed a war crime in which a guard called Johann Strauss bayoneted a British merchant mariner called Philo in cold blood because he refused to work. Evidence from my father and from Private Sidney Norman Reed of the 1st Battalion of the Kensington Regiment was sent to the United Nations War Crimes Commission and my father went back to Germany shortly after the war to pick out the accused, then himself a POW, in an identity parade.
I three photos, one is of my father taken in Beltring, where the QVRs were stationed before setting sail, and the other two were taken in Lamsdorf or on a working party. I wonder whether any of the visitors to your website might recognise some of the other people in the photos. I wonder too whether any of your visitors have an interview that my father did for the Sunday Telegraph to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dunkirk.
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