A Riflemans Prayer
Dear God, my Father, through my son
Hear the prayer of a warrior son.
Give my eyes a vision keen
To see the thing that must be seen.
A steady hand I ask of thee
The feel of wind on land or sea.
Let me not ever careless be
Of life or limb or liberty
For Justice sake a quiet heart
And grace and strength to do my part
To God and Country, Home and Corps
Let me be faithful evermore.
I would like to thank the Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum staff for all their help and support in my research when writing this book, in particular Christine Pullen and Ken Grey. http://www.rgjmuseum.co.uk/
First published in Great Britain in 2014 by
PEN AND SWORD MILITARY
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Copyright Carole McEntee-Taylor, 2014
ISBN 978 1 78383 106 7
eISBN 9781473838505
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Foreword
by
Field Marshal Lord Bramall
KG, GCB, OBE, MC
Having joined the Kings Royal Rifle Corps (60th Rifles) in 1942 and, many years later, being one of the first commanding officers of the Royal Green Jackets - into which my regiment, together with Ted Taylors, The Rifle Brigade, had merged - it is a great pleasure to write a foreword to this account of Teds wartime experiences, particularly the Battle of Calais in 1940. More so since Ted served with me after the war as a member of my staff when I got to know him very well and held him in the highest respect.
This is an account based on Teds diaries and reminiscences which well captures a Riflemans view of this hard-fought battle. The defence of Calais was a stubborn, desperate, and heroic resistance against overwhelming odds which made a great contribution to the successful evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk, and thus to the army that, retrained and re-equipped, I was to join two years later, returning in 1944 over to the Normandy beaches to ultimate victory.
Very few survivors of that battle could be evacuated by sea, and with the weary and wounded taken prisoner, Ted was among those denied the opportunity of taking any further part in the war and who were marched off to five long years of captivity in Poland. An impressive granite memorial now stands near the harbour mouth to commemorate the 200 of Teds comrades in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, The Rifle Brigade and the Queen Victoria Rifles who lost their lives in that battle.
In the words of the Annals of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps , whose Second Battalion fought alongside Teds unit at Calais, To create heroic legends, successful and heroic objectives are necessary, and what better one can there be than to sacrifice oneself so that others can escape.
In February 2007 the Royal Green Jackets found themselves once more at a point in their history where change was required - the formation of The Rifles, a reorganisation which Ted lived long enough to see. Among the rich and unique legacies that this new regiment inherits from the Royal Green Jackets are many of its battle honours, prominent among which is Calais, an inspiration, challenge, and poignant reminder to todays young Riflemen of that distant, yet still echoing battle and a central theme of this absorbing book.
Churchills Speech to Parliament on 4 June 1940
However, the German eruption swept like a sharp scythe around the right and rear of the armies of the north. Eight or nine armoured divisions, each of about four hundred armoured vehicles of different kinds but carefully assorted to be complementary and divisible into small self-contained units, cut off all communications between us and the main French armies.
It severed our own communications for food and ammunition which ran first to Amiens and afterwards to Abbeville, and it shored its way up the coast to Boulogne and Calais, almost to Dunkirk.
Behind this armoured and mechanized onslaught came a number of German divisions in lorries, and behind them again there plodded comparatively slowly the dull brute mass of the ordinary German army and German people, always so ready to be led to the trampling down in other lands of liberties and comforts which they have never known in their own.
I have said this armoured scythe-stroke almost reached Dunkirk - almost but not quite. Boulogne and Calais were the scenes of desperate fighting. The Guards defended Boulogne for a while and were then withdrawn by orders from this country. The Rifle Brigade, the 60th Rifles, and the Queen Victoria's Rifles, with a battalion of British tanks and 1,000 Frenchmen, in all about four thousand strong, defended Calais to the last. The British Brigadier was given an hour to surrender. He spurned the offer and four days of intense street fighting passed before silence reigned over Calais, which marked the end of a memorable resistance. Only thirty unwounded survivors were taken off by the Navy, and we do not know the fate of their comrades. Their sacrifice, however, was not in vain. At least two armoured divisions, which otherwise would have been turned against the British Expeditionary Force, had to be sent to overcome them. They have added another page to the glories of the light divisions, and the time gained enabled the Gravelines water lines to be flooded and to be held by the French troops .
Extract from The Times quoted in Rifle Brigade Chronicle 1940.
A Silence Reigned over Calais
Mr Churchill
Dim was the memory of that ancient pain, But now you have played this most heroic part, We may tell all France with pride that once again England has Calais graven on her heart.
J C Squire
Prologue May 1945
The view from the chin gun turret of the Flying Fortress B17G was impressive for those used to it. For its current passengers however, lying face down on its floor gazing at the view below, it was just something else to add to the wonder of the moment. The two .50-cal guns that normally formed part of its impressive thirteen-gun armoury had been removed to make enough room for two people to lie down in the space normally reserved for one person to sit.
