May 262019
 

CART are delighted to announce that we will be attending one of the most prestigious 75th D-Day anniversary events, at Southwick, Hampshire on the 8th & 9th June: https://www.southwickrevival.co.uk/

Southwick House, HQ for the 1944 D-Day preparations, hosted General Eisenhower, Admiral Ramsay and General Montgomery.

The original invasion map is still on the wall…

We will be bringing our Auxiliary Units display and have information at hand. This area was hugely important in the run up to D-Day.

Drop by for a friendly chat and look over our display of Aux Unit artifacts. As Eisenhower said – “OK, let’s Go !”

Jun 132017
 

CART welcomed new researcher for East Hampshire, Jon Radcliffe to the stand at the Southwick Revival event. His local knowledge was invaluable as we spoke to a number of local residents with information about Auxiliary Units sites. Two visitors had played in the Southwick Operational Base as children and were able to describe it in detail, mentioning a previously unknown escape tunnel. Others gave accounts of the patrol members they had remembered from their youth. There was also a location provided for an Operational Base near Clanfield, though this might also relate to the Lovedean Patrol.

We also had some excellent information regarding an Base in Dorset and an oral history account from Sussex previously unknown to us.

Displaying in the middle of Southwick, Coleshill expert Bill Ashby went knocking on doors using the wartime addresses of patrol members and found relatives at one of these. They are looking out some photos of the patrol members for us which we hope to be able to add to the site in due course. We also heard a great deal about the area during wartime, as many of the wooded areas hosted allied troops in the run up to D-Day and remains still exist in a number of these.

Particularly interesting was a series of Tommy gun bullets which had been extracted from a felled tree. Eye witness accounts confirm that Generals Monty and Eisenhower fired Tommy guns at the tree one evening after dinner. Nobody had believed the story at the time, but decades later, the bullets were found in the timber when the tree was being cut up and kept by a local forestry worker. It isn’t often you know who fired a particular bullet, and even less often they are so famous!

It was impressive to see how many people had made the effort to appear in wartime dress, with many impressive wartime hairstyles and at least two vintage prams for young children. Periodically the military vehicles drove through the streets in convoy, past houses with taped windows and bunting.

The Aux Units part of the village’s history came as a surprise to some, with the D-Day map room and HQ being perhaps more famous. We’ve been asked back again next year…

(Report by Dr Will Ward – CART Dorset) Images by the team. 

 

Jun 152016
 

Sydney AdlamWe are sad to report the death of Sydney George Adlam from Havant (West) Patrol in Hampshire.

Sydney was born on 18th Oct. 1923 and died on 27th May 2016.

Sydney was born in Portsmouth to Edmund and Elsie Adlam, the eldest of two sons.

They later moved to Cosham where Sydney attended Portsdown School. After leaving school Sydney was apprenticed as a motor mechanic and it was at this time he was recruited into the Auxiliary Units. After the war he married his first wife Joyce, lived in Southsea and they had a son, Paul.

Sadly Joyce died at an early age and Sydney later remarried to his second wife, Iris and they had a daughter, Alison. They moved to Baffins. Sydney and Iris remained married until Sydney died.

Aux researcher Steve Mason interviewed Sydney on camera in 2013. His report and the video can be seen here.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them.

 

Mar 182015
 

Isle_of_Wight

Today Stephen Lewins has added all the recorded names of members of the Auxiliary Unit on the Isle of Wight. The names have been added to this page for now and will be moved to their own patrol reports when a local researcher is found on the Island.

Their pre invasion role would be observation of the English Channel for German raids and the protection of vital island infrastructure including the allies PLUTO pipe line to France. After the reorganisation the patrols became part of no.14 Area (Hampshire) in Groups 9 & 10.

Can you help with any information?

Please contact us if you can help.

 

Mar 232014
 

John MarchantWe have added some information on the New Forest Scout Section thanks to Dr Will Ward our Dorset CIO.

John Marchant was the commander of the Scout Section for the New Forest in West Hampshire from approximately March 1942 to October 1943.

He had been commissioned at 20 years of age into the Wiltshire Regiment in April 1940 and spent the early part of the war training recruits at the depot in Devizes, Wiltshire. Rather bored, he jumped at the offer from his CO to be posted to alternate duties and found himself at Burley, with a unit of 15 men from the Wiltshire regiment, including a Sergeant and Corporal with the rest as Privates. They weren’t local men, but ordinary soldiers recruited from the depot. This was the New Forest Scout Section.

Read more here

Mar 172013
 

hampshireToday we have added five more Auxiliary Unit Patrols in Hampshire thanks to contributions from Dr Will Ward, CART CIO for Dorset.

All the reports are fairly lean at this stage but we hope that by offering some info, members of the public will help supply further assistance.

They are;

Ringwood A Patrol
Ringwood B Patrol
Ringwood C Patrol
Cadnam Patrol
Fritham Patrol

You can see them all here.

Mar 092013
 

mapToday we have added five new Auxiliary Unit Patrols in Hampshire thanks to contributions from Dr Will Ward, CART CIO for Dorset.

The reports are fairly lean at this stage but we hope that by offering some info, members of the public will help supply further assistance.

They are;

Fordingbridge Patrol
Burley Patrol
Somerley Patrol
Brockenhurst Patrol
Lyndhurst Patrol

You can see them all here. Other reports are due to be published soon.

Sep 082012
 

On Thursday we saw the start of a new series on BBC2 called Wartime Farm.

Steve Mason, our CIO for Hampshire was featured in the show and went to pains to advise the production company on the accurate history of both the Auxiliary Units and SDS.

Sadly, like many TV companies, they got it wrong so we have produced a the correct version below.