CART Auxiliary Unit Research

County Group

Locality

Fordingbridge is a town 6 miles north of Ringwood.

The Fordingbridge Patrol contained men who lived to the north and west of the Avon.

Patrol members

Name	Occupation	Posted from	Until
Sergeant Albert Chafen Broad	Motor haulage contractor	27 May 1940	03 Dec 1944
Private Guy Bradley Bowles	Farmer & Civil Air Guard	27 May 1940	03 Dec 1944
Private William Royce Fry	Head cowman	18 Sep 1940	03 Dec 1944
Private Henry Ernest Harper	Manager Co-op stores grocery dept	27 May 1940	03 Dec 1944
Private Frederick Charles Molloy	Motor driver for Millers	18 Jun 1940	03 Dec 1944
Private Andrew John Rogers	Dairy worker assisting father	27 May 1940	03 Dec 1944
Private Edward Rogers	Garden labourer	14 Oct 1942	07 Jan 1943
Private Samuel Wells	General labourer	27 May 1940	03 Dec 1944
Private Robert Frederick Young	Farm carter	18 Jun 1940	03 Dec 1944

Operational Base (OB)

The location of the Operational Base is thought to have been amongst a series of sandpits to the north of Fryen Court Farm. Although the site was shown to the Rogers family after the war, the OB had collapsed by the 1960s. It has not been possible to locate the remains of the OB on repeated visits. There is some suggestion it may have been blown up by the Army.

Patrol & OB pictures

Albert Chafen Broad Fordingbridge Patrol Coach

One of the Coo-ee Coaches on an outing before the war (Facebook)

The Silent Army was a ficitonal novel written by Margaret Rogers, wife of Andrew Rogers, Fordingbridge Patrol Member

OB Status

Destroyed

Location

Fordingbridge Patrol

Patrol Targets

The Patrol practised breaking into RAF Ibsley airfield, leaving their calling card on the planes to show they could have destroyed them.

It is likely that Breamore House would have been a target. Early in the war it was used as a headquarters by the Home Guard and later by General George Patton of the US Army, though he left once the location had been announced on air by Nazi propagandist Goebbels! No doubt the Germans would have considered it suitable for use an headquarters as well.

Other information

Margaret Rogers, wife of Patrol member Andrew, wrote a fictional book at the age of 90, “The Silent Army”, which featured Auxiliary Units. The story follows a nurse in Southampton after a German invasion, and includes the Patrol blowing up her train in the New Forest. There is a detailed description of their OB, but it isn’t clear if this based on the real Patrol’s OB or is imagined. Margaret died in February 2017.

References

TNA ref WO199/3391

Hancock data held at B.R.A

1939 Register

Personal communications, Alan Rogers and Ann Stevens

The Silent Army, Margaret Rogers

Ted Rogers papers, Parham Airfield Museum

https://www.newforest-life.com/WW2-Breamore-Patton.html

http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/announcements/deaths/deaths/15080200…