Philip Warner - Phantom

PHANTOM

They were wonderful days which I would not have
missed for anything.

DAVID NIVEN

Philip Warner (19142000) enlisted in the Royal Corps of Signals after graduating from St Catharines, Cambridge in 1939. He fought in Malaya and spent 1,100 days as a guest of the Emperor in Changi, on the Railway of Death and in the mines of Japan, an experience he never discussed. A legendary figure to generations of cadets during his thirty years as a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, he will also be long remembered for his contribution of more than 2,000 obituaries of prominent army figures to The Daily Telegraph.

In addition he wrote fifty-four books on all aspects of military history, ranging from castles and battlefields in Britain, to biographies of prominent military figures (such as Kitchener: The Man Behind The Legend, Field Marshal Earl Haig, Horrocks: The General Who Led From The Front and Auchinleck: The Lonely Soldier) to major histories of the SAS, the Special Boat Services and the Royal Corps of Signals.

The D-Day Landings was republished by Pen & Sword Books to mark the 60th Anniversary of this historic event and was adopted by The Daily Telegraph as its official commemorative book.

* * *

PHANTOM

PHILIP WARNER

Pen & Sword
MILITARY

First published in 1982 by William Kimber & Co Ltd
and reprinted in this format in 2005 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Limited
47 Church Street
Barnsley
S. Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Philip Warner, 1982
Copyright Philip Warner Estate, 2005

ISBN 1 84415 218 9

The right of Philip Warner to be
identified as Author of this Work has been
asserted by him in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI UK

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Contents

This account of Phantom is in two parts. The first part is a narrative of events as they occurred, in chronological sequence whenever possible. This part enables the reader to appreciate the detail given in the second part which consists entirely of personal experiences and recollections.

It will be obvious that I have had magnificently generous help from many people to enable me to write this book. I interviewed as many people as I could, and all were unreservedly helpful. I have no doubts that those members of the regiment whom I did not manage to see would have been just as cooperative.

My thanks are especially due to Lady Wallinger who kindly lent me photographs and gave me permission to quote from the late Christopher Cadogans diary and to the librarians of the Staff College, Camberley and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. As always, the staff at the Public Record Office at Kew were extremely helpful.

In thanking the following members of the regiment I am well aware that I may have omitted some names which should be on it. To them I offer my apologies for any unintended discourtesy. There are many other names which I would have liked to have been able to put on it but it seemed to me that fifty would give an adequate sample of views and experiences. In the event I wished I had had time to make it a hundred as I found almost everyone I interviewed recommended someone else.

W. Adam, Esq.; Dr J. P. Astbury, Major the Hon Sir John Astor, MBE, DL; I. Balfour-Paul, Esq., MC; G. F. K. Bell, Esq.; G. Brain, Esq., T.D.; Lord Bridge of Harwich, P.C., D. Brook-Hart, Esq., MC; Major A. Crawley-Boevey, MBE; Lord Cullen of Ashbourne, MBE; F. M. Cumberledge, Esq.; F. A. de Marwicz, Esq.; Colonel J. P. Fane, MC; Colonel B. Franks, MC; M. Felgate-Catt, Esq.; J. B. L. Fitzwilliam, Esq.; The Right Hon Sir Hugh Fraser, PC, MBE, MP; Colonel J. D. Hignett; P. Hincks, Esq.; B. E. Hutton-Williams, Esq. MBE; H. L. Light, Esq.; The Right Hon Maurice Macmillan, PC, MP; Lord Mayhew, PC; A. A. Maclaren, Esq.; John Morgan, Esq.; C. R. Moore, Esq. MC; David Niven, Esq.; P. S. Newall, Esq.; Professor M. J. Oakeshott, FBA; E. F. Oliver, Esq.; P. D. Pattrick, Esq. MBE; G. H. Pinckney, Esq.; R. J. H. Pogucki, Esq.; G. OB. Power, Esq.; N. Radcliffe, Esq.; J. H. Randall, Esq.; G. F. N. Reddaway, Esq., CBE; Major Miles Reid; K. V. Rose, Esq.; D. L. Russell, Esq.; Milton Schulman, Esq.; A. R. M. Sedgwick, Esq.; Professor B. Simon; P. L. Stileman, Esq.; V. A. Stump, Esq.; Major J. A. Warre, MC; J. B. Watney, Esq.; L. Whistler, Esq.; Colonel B. R. Wood, MBE, TD; W. H. Woodward, Esq.; P. G. Worsthorne, Esq.; Sir John Wrightson, Bt, TD, DL.

Phantom was an unorthodox, secret, highly successful regiment which was created in 1939 and ceased to exist in 1945. Its official title was GHQ Liaison Regiment, but official titles of secret regiments do not give much away to the curious and it would not have been an easy task to discover exactly what Phantom was up to unless, of course, you were entitled to know. Phantom, as we see later, was originally a code-name but soon became adopted as an appropriate designation for this regiment which would suddenly manifest itself and then disappear as mysteriously as it had come. Although Phantom was active in many different theatres its existence was not widely known, and it is not surprising that since 1945 it seems to have almost disappeared from memory. But the survivors of Phantom, an enthusiastic but inevitably dwindling band, hold annual reunions, and an even more enduring tribute to the regiment is the fact that many lessons derived from its wartime experiences have proved, and still prove, of great value to the British Army.