purple violets and crocuses. The Manor has, however, changed hands. Its current owners know its history and are reminded of its wartime past in gentle ways: digging up mole hills in the kitchen garden, they unearthed spent cartridge cases from Bren, tommy gun and .45 automatics – the kitchen garden had been a shooting range. There have been other reminders, too. One morning their young daughter came down for breakfast and announced ‘that man’ had been in her bedroom again. ‘Man? What man?’ asked her mother with a casualness she did not feel. ‘The man,’ said the little girl, ‘standing in the corner of her room’. He had been there three or four times before. She then described a man dressed in commando clothing. The girl was 3 years old. She had never seen or heard of a commando.
The Small Scale Raiding Force
Appleyard, Geoffrey,
DSO, MC and Bar, MA
Killed
13 July 1943
Dudgeon, Patrick, MC
Executed
3 October 1943
Hayes, Graham, MC
Executed
13 July 1943
Herstell, Ernest
Killed
29 May 1943
Lassen, Anders, VC,
MC and two Bars
Killed
9 April 1945
Lehniger, Leonard
Killed
13 September 1942
March-Phillipps,
Gustavus, DSO, MBE
Killed
13 September 1942
Ogden-Smith, Colin
Killed
29 July 1944
Opoczynski, Abraham
(serving as Adam Orr)
Murdered
12 April 1945
Pinckney, Philip
Executed
7 September 1943
Williams, Alan
Killed
13 September 1942
‘Proper people’, all
Notes
* The same night Major Geoffrey Appleyard disappeared, 2,000 British paratroopers and glider-borne infantry mounted a disastrous airborne operation to seize Primosole Bridge 7 miles south of Catania on the east coast of Sicily. This was approximately 35 miles due south of Appleyard’s intended DZ. Allied shipping opened fire on the British aircraft before they reached the coast and German guns joined in once they made landfall. Out of those 2,000 troops, only 200 were left to assault the bridge. This was seized and held for just twelve hours before they were forced to retreat. The night before, the men of Major General Matthew B. Ridgway’s 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82rd US Airborne, suffered catastrophic ‘friendly fire’ losses, with twenty-three aircraft shot down and at least 410 killed when nervous Allied shipboard gunners opened up on approaching Allied aircraft. Five days later, Ridgway could still only account for 3,900 of his 5,300 paratroopers. ( The Day of Battle , Rick Atkinson, 110)
1 . ‘ If I Must Die … ’, 215.
2 . Malcolm Hayes in letter to the author.
3 . Capt. Michael Gubbins was killed in the Anzio bridgehead on February 6 1944. His body was never found.
4 . Letter from Colin Gubbins loaned to the author by Annabel Grace Hayes, Graham’s niece.
5 . John Appleyard interview with the author.
6 . Ernest Appleyard’s wife Mary – Geoffrey’s mother – died in Paris in October 1947 from early heart disease.
7 . Geoffrey , 191.
8 . Letter in the March-Phillipps papers, 06/103, Documents and Sound Section, Imperial War Museum.
9 . Letter from Philip Ventham to the author.
10 . Letter to the author from his son, Chris Rooney.
Bibliography
Allan, Stuart, Commando Country , Edinburgh: National Museums, Scotland, 2007
Appleyard, J.E.A., Geoffrey: Major John Geoffrey Appleyard ... Being the Story of ‘Apple’ of the Commandos and Special Air Service Regiment , London: Blandford Press, 1946
Asher, Michael, The Regiment: The Real Story of the SAS , London: Viking, 2007
Atkinson, Rick, The Day Of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy , 1943–1944 , Basingstoke: Picador, 2007
Bailey, Roderick, Forgotten Voices of the Secret War: An Inside History of Special Operations in the Second World War , London: Ebury Press, 2008
de la Billière, Sir Peter, Supreme Courage: Heroic Stories from 150 Years of the Victoria Cross , London: Little, Brown, 2004
Churchill, Winston S., The Second World War ,Vol. 2 : Their Finest Hour , London:
The Small Scale Raiding Force
Appleyard, Geoffrey,
DSO, MC and Bar, MA
Killed
13 July 1943
Dudgeon, Patrick, MC
Executed
3 October 1943
Hayes, Graham, MC
Executed
13 July 1943
Herstell, Ernest
Killed
29 May 1943
Lassen, Anders, VC,
MC and two Bars
Killed
9 April 1945
Lehniger, Leonard
Killed
13 September 1942
March-Phillipps,
Gustavus, DSO, MBE
Killed
13 September 1942
Ogden-Smith, Colin
Killed
29 July 1944
Opoczynski, Abraham
(serving as Adam Orr)
Murdered
12 April 1945
Pinckney, Philip
Executed
7 September 1943
Williams, Alan
Killed
13 September 1942
‘Proper people’, all
Notes
* The same night Major Geoffrey Appleyard disappeared, 2,000 British paratroopers and glider-borne infantry mounted a disastrous airborne operation to seize Primosole Bridge 7 miles south of Catania on the east coast of Sicily. This was approximately 35 miles due south of Appleyard’s intended DZ. Allied shipping opened fire on the British aircraft before they reached the coast and German guns joined in once they made landfall. Out of those 2,000 troops, only 200 were left to assault the bridge. This was seized and held for just twelve hours before they were forced to retreat. The night before, the men of Major General Matthew B. Ridgway’s 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82rd US Airborne, suffered catastrophic ‘friendly fire’ losses, with twenty-three aircraft shot down and at least 410 killed when nervous Allied shipboard gunners opened up on approaching Allied aircraft. Five days later, Ridgway could still only account for 3,900 of his 5,300 paratroopers. ( The Day of Battle , Rick Atkinson, 110)
1 . ‘ If I Must Die … ’, 215.
2 . Malcolm Hayes in letter to the author.
3 . Capt. Michael Gubbins was killed in the Anzio bridgehead on February 6 1944. His body was never found.
4 . Letter from Colin Gubbins loaned to the author by Annabel Grace Hayes, Graham’s niece.
5 . John Appleyard interview with the author.
6 . Ernest Appleyard’s wife Mary – Geoffrey’s mother – died in Paris in October 1947 from early heart disease.
7 . Geoffrey , 191.
8 . Letter in the March-Phillipps papers, 06/103, Documents and Sound Section, Imperial War Museum.
9 . Letter from Philip Ventham to the author.
10 . Letter to the author from his son, Chris Rooney.
Bibliography
Allan, Stuart, Commando Country , Edinburgh: National Museums, Scotland, 2007
Appleyard, J.E.A., Geoffrey: Major John Geoffrey Appleyard ... Being the Story of ‘Apple’ of the Commandos and Special Air Service Regiment , London: Blandford Press, 1946
Asher, Michael, The Regiment: The Real Story of the SAS , London: Viking, 2007
Atkinson, Rick, The Day Of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy , 1943–1944 , Basingstoke: Picador, 2007
Bailey, Roderick, Forgotten Voices of the Secret War: An Inside History of Special Operations in the Second World War , London: Ebury Press, 2008
de la Billière, Sir Peter, Supreme Courage: Heroic Stories from 150 Years of the Victoria Cross , London: Little, Brown, 2004
Churchill, Winston S., The Second World War ,Vol. 2 : Their Finest Hour , London:
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