PHANTOM
They were wonderful days which I would not have
missed for anything.
DAVID NIVEN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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.
* * *
By the same author: |
Alamein | The Great British Soldier |
Army Life in the 1890s | Growing Up in the First World War |
Auchinleck: The Lonely Soldier | A Guide to the Castles in the British Isles |
Battle of France | The History of the Harlequins |
Battle of Loos | Horrocks: The General Who Led |
Best of British Pluck | from the Front |
Best of Chums | Invasion Road |
British Battlefields 1: The North | The Japanese Army of World War II |
British Battlefields 2: The South | Kitchener: The Man Behind the Legend |
British Battlefields 3: The Midlands | Making Model Forts & Castles |
British Battlefields 4: Scotland | The Medieval Castle in Peace & War |
Daily Telegraph Book of British | Panzer |
Battlefields | Passchendaele |
British Cavalry | Political Parties |
Castles in Britain (illustrated edition) | Roman Roads |
Civil Service | Secret Forces of World War 2 |
Crimean War | (republished by Pen & Sword, 2004) |
D-Day Landings | Sieges of the Middle Ages |
(republished by Pen & Sword, 2004) | (republished by Pen & Sword, 2004) |
Dervish | Soldier: His Life in Peace and War |
Disputed Territories | Special Air Service (Official History) |
Distant Battle | Special Boat Service |
Famous Scottish Battles | Stories of Famous Regiments |
Famous Welsh Battles | Vital Link: Official History of the Royal |
Field Marshal Earl Haig | Corps of Signals |
Fields of War: Letters Home | World War I: A Narrative |
from the Crimea | World War II: The Untold Story |
Firepower | Zeebrugge Raid |
PHANTOM
PHILIP WARNER
![Picture 1](/uploads/posts/book/424221/images/pub.jpg)
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
Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of
Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military,
Wharncliffe Local History, Pen & Sword Select,
Pen & Sword Military Classics and Leo Cooper.
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact:
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Contents
List of Maps
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.
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