CART Auxiliary Unit Research

County Group

Locality

Came Down lies just south of Dorchester. The A35 by-pass was not present during WW2.

The membership of the Came Down Patrol appears to be quite complex, despite the opportunity to question surviving Patrol member Maurice Brake about this, prior to his death in 2012. He did not remember Charles George Brake, even though he appears in the nominal roll, with a Dorchester address, nor Douglas Henry Farmer. Both appear on the May 1943 nominal roll. He did recall the Baker brothers, who lived at Bradford Peverell, and his younger brother Cyril who appears to have served unofficially, as his name does not appear on the surviving personnel lists. He did not remember Roderick Braybrooke who was mentioned in a local newspaper article but is also missing from the nominal roll. Some of this may be because Maurice Brake did not join the unit until August 1943, shortly after the Baker brothers, but this would suggest that Farmer and Carnell had by then moved to another Patrol, as they are not recorded as having left Auxiliary Units. Where there were several Patrols close together, sometimes they did swap personnel around.

Patrol members

Name	Occupation	Posted from	Until
Sergeant William George Christopher	Butchers employee	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Sergeant Angus George Herridge	Building contractor joiner	27 Jun 1940	31 May 1943
Corporal Alfred Charles Treavis	Gas company accountant	19 Jun 1942	03 Dec 1944
Private Frederick Albert William Baker	Dairy farmer	06 Aug 1942	03 Dec 1944
Private Kenneth George Baker	Dairy farmer	25 Jan 1943	03 Dec 1944
Private Arthur Edwin Bellinger	Butcher	27 Jun 1940	03 Dec 1944
Private Charles George Brake	Gardener	15 Oct 1942	03 Dec 1944
Private Maurice Herbert Brake		20 Aug 1943	05 Aug 1944
Private Cyril William Walter George Brake	Store & shop duties	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Private Roderick George Braybrooke		Unknown	Unknown
Private Eric William Carnell	Agricultural smith	31 May 1940	03 Dec 1944
Private Douglas Henry Farmer		Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Private Douglas Leonard Keegan	Southern Railway worker	01 Aug 1943	03 Dec 1944
Private Ernest Charles Webber	Farm carter	23 Jan 1943	03 Dec 1944

Operational Base (OB)

The OB has largely collapsed with short sections of the Elephant Shelter remaining extant. Two sections remain in line suggesting that it was a larger structure divided with concrete block cross walls. A long shallow ditch may indicate the presence of a collapsed escape tunnel that ran to the edge of the copse opening into a large ditch. No evidence of the shafts was found when visited. The site has now changed ownership and is fenced off as Private Land and can no longer be visited.

A Fordington lad visited the OB in the 1950s and recalled a trap with a shaft down. Inside there were the remains of iron beds that had been pulled off the walls, with metal springs. He noted that there were no mattresses, but a lot of women's underwear!

There was an ammunition store in Culliford Clump, hidden within the centre of an ancient bowl barrow (which had a hollow in the middle of the mound). The OB was apparently built by soldiers of the Dorsetshire Regiment stationed in the town, which was the home of the Regimental Depot. This was most unusual but the men were apparently extremely secretive about what they had done, despite the interest of their colleagues. Despite this the construction of the ammunition store was apparently spotted by Bert Jewell, who was working for the Rural District Council and wrote to the War Office to ask for rent! They were apparently rather more concerned about how he knew what was happening.

In 1970, the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments noted the presence of a trench atop the barrow assuming it dated from the 1858 excavation of the site, though it may have been rather more recent! The location is quite visible from the modern Dorchester bypass but is overgrown with dense bramble and no remains are visible.

Patrol & OB pictures