Thomas Edward White

Dunkirk survivor Tom White from Chessington, Surrey, was based in Mersham with the West Surreys, awaiting orders. His memories give an unique insight into how the Battle Patrols were formed and trained and their activities. 
“I had already learned that one didn’t volunteer for anything in the army but I was still keen as mustard to get a shot at the enemy. It was at this time when a notice went up on Battalion orders. It read something like: ‘NCOs who have been Rover Scouts, gamekeepers or poachers, gypsies or even burglars were required for special duties'. It remained up for several days. We were going through this dull period and it was a very peculiar kind of request. I had been a Rover Scout so I put my name down, much to my Sergeant Major’s disgust. He did not want to lose any of his more experienced soldiers but I had now become quite determined. Nothing happened for a couple of weeks and I thought he had put a boot in, but no. A day or two later I was told to report the following morning to board a medical truck heading for Battalion Headquarters, about a mile from Eastwell Park.

A number of us turned up with our kit and unexpired portions of a day’s rations and after a severe castigation from the Sergeant Major for being stupid enough to volunteer for this ‘funny’ duty we were told to report to an officer at the gates of the park. In the event 15 of us were met by an officer who was standing at the main entrance and asked us if we were the chaps he was waiting for: ‘the ones who had answered an advertisement on Battalion orders’. Wide-eyed with wonder we told him we were. His reply was to tell us that he couldn’t explain anything about what was needed until we had all had a private talk. Anyway, there is a marquee over there go to it and make yourselves as comfortable as you can and I will be over myself in a minute or two’. It was all so very casual and our conversation as we walked across was mostly about the difference certain officers made to our lives. This officer had certainly made a first good impression on us all. We decided to do as he said and we lit up and squatted around trying to appear unconcerned. The first thing he said when he arrived and stood looking down and around at us was simply: ‘My name is Peter Fleming. I will get to know yours in good time if you all decide to stay after you have heard what this is all about. First of all, if you decide to stay I cannot guess at what your actual life expectancy will be although I would estimate about 48 hours if the Germans manage to get across the water’.

Some of the others began to shift uncomfortably and look a little apprehensive but it did not worry me. I figured that on the coast as we were and as front line troops we’d probably only have about 15 minutes anyway. He continued: ‘Let us first find out what you can contribute,’ and started to point at individuals. A couple said they had been ordinary Boy Scout, another a gamekeeper’s assistant, one said he had ‘done a bit of poaching’ and we laughed, although we found out later it had been more than a bit. I just said I had been a Rover Scout. Obviously we had all seen action and were Dunkirk survivors. Gradually he began to assemble a dossier about us.

At that time he had been joined by a Sergeant Hathaway. Fleming continued: ‘I have been given the job of forming a unit which will stay behind if the German invade and remain hidden until they have passed. Then we will come up in their rear and do what we can. This is why I say I cannot allow you an awful long time to survive. I have to be truthful. However, I cannot give you any further details until you have each said Yes or No’.

Eight of us said we would be prepared to stay. He addressed the rest by thanking them for coming and that the Sergeant would arrange for them to be returned to Battalion headquarters. Then turning to us after they had departed, he explained that we had been chosen as a possible source of volunteers because he was only allowed to draw troops from a reserve unit. ‘I know you have just come back from Dunkirk and are in reserve at Mersham, where you are supposed to stay for two months. But I need you here, hopefully for much longer’.

We all fervently agreed and must have sounded or looked hungry because he then told us that we could only have a scratch meal as there were no proper facilities to feed us. We made do with a tin of good old corned beef. Later we were taken to two Bell tents, four to each one, to deposit our gear and then be escorted back to the marquee by the Sergeant. Fleming was waiting for us to explain there was no syllabus and we are all on equal terms, which we might find difficult at first but ‘I am Peter and this is Bill,’ turning to the Sergeant, ‘and whatever your Christian names are, so you will be known. What are they’? We told him and, of course, each other, and shook hands all round as we introduced ourselves. Slightly uncomfortable compared with the harsher discipline we had been trained in.

Peter then briefed us a little, at least as far as to say that where we were was where we would stay. We were to get to know every nook and cranny, every blade of grass, every rabbit hole in the whole area...and at night because that is when most of your work will be done’. He then asked if any of us were married and seemed rather shocked when six, out of the eight of us, said we were. I’d been married for two whole weeks by then.

The atmosphere changed a little and we became more brusque. ‘For tonight,’ he said ‘we will do a bit of unarmed combat to loosen you up. You have all had some training I presume’? We all nodded. ‘I will then give you a list of map references and you will leave here about 10pm to find them and once you have reached that objective there will be other references for you to follow. I want you to become absolutely accustomed to map references and compasses, particularly in the dark’. The honeymoon was over, in more ways than one.

We started off in pairs in pouring rain. We found four out of five of the references but on the last one we got lost in some woods. About three in the morning we realised we were completely lost. Eventually, we stumbled across an occupied cottage so we could not enter and made do with a covered area just in front of it and waited a long night for the rain to clear or daylight to come. It took us until eight in the morning to return to our Bell tents after covering some 20 miles across country, embarrassed and feeling like raw recruits. It was an edgy period until Fleming came to find us. Chirpily he said: ‘How did you get on’? We told him we had got lost. So what! He wasn’t surprised but added: ‘by the time you finish with me here you will be able to find your way about with no trouble at all. Otherwise, you will be of no use to me’.

Later we gathered in a group, unwashed, unshaven and worn out to tell us that from this beginning we would be able to discuss our role as a unit: ‘Your job will be to remain underground in the main and learn to kill, silently and effectively. Not only that but also all there is to know about explosives. Your life expectancy is short but I expect you to take any kind of target or high up German with you.’ Fleming continued: ‘I do not believe we will be able to do too much damage at first but we can give our main armies a bit of relief by occupying the enemy’s soldiers in the rear of their forward areas and gaining at least a little time. You will become explosive experts, move freely at night, and invisibly, and be able to kill without compunction or noise. You will be, you eight men, myself and the sergeant here more use than a full battalion, given the right circumstances. I now leave this meeting open or discussion. What do you think we will need for weapons and what shall we concentrate on? In the final analysis you will be normal infantry working by night and perhaps just a little better trained. Any ideas’?

The result of this first real conversation was that we decided the issued Lee-Enfield .303 rifles would not be of any real use for the role we were expected to play as it would be too restrictive in use. Close up work would require some form of hand-held machine gun. Fleming agreed and promised that we would leave our rifles behind at night and that he would try and provide a more suitable weapon. ‘Anything else’? We all felt we were suddenly going to be catapulted into very close proximity to the enemy and almost with one voice suggested a knife. He replied that although that was a reasonable request we would really have to concentrate on killing with our bare hands. He emphasised that he had been through some particular training in this respect and would act as an instructor in the killing techniques necessary but that he would obtain an instructor from another source to assist him and the sergeant in this aspect of our work

As a final remark he told us that he would require us to be at the ready in the evenings and therefore could sleep late in the mornings, as a general rule, at least until mid-day when a meal would be laid on. Parades will follow, plus some exercises in unarmed combat until about 5pm after which we would be free to go out to the local pub or wherever returning about 9:30 in the evening ready to spend the night doing 'our bit'.

The following day he apologised for not having arranged for an instructor as yet but said he had learned enough to take us through the initial stages which he did, and that he had been able to get hold of a recent shipment of Thompson sub-machine guns from the USA which should prove quite useful. He then produced them with their 50-round canisters placed on top of the breech. There was an outcry. We said a magazine like this would not be of much help. We had until then only seen them in the cinema but they looked cumbersome and asked if there as anyway we could make them less bulky and heavy. He said only if we were prepared to reduce the number of rounds from 50 to 20. Having agreed this he then went on to talk about our request for a general knife. It was decided amongst us that a stiletto was ideal compared with, say, the normal Scout sheath knife. On his instructions we then all tried to sketch out our ideas for a suitable killing knife. Licking pencils we scratched our rough drawings onto military exercise books but all seemed to go for roughly the same shape and style. A wooden handled knife with a ten inch blade, sharpened on both sides and coming to a needle point.

He then warned us that we were a guerrilla unit and although stationed only about a mile away from our home units we were to take instructions only from him and not from any other officer or NCO, no matter where they came from nor how much rank they tried to pull. He then pointed out we were in a kind of park. In that part is a gamekeeper’s cottage about two miles away and just a little way from that a mansion house which is closed and out of bounds. But the deer, which must not be harmed, are fair game and can be stalked to prove our prowess in that direction. First of all, he advised us, you must get accustomed to this area as if blindfolded. It was a very strange ‘Boys Own’ situation. For a year or more we had been under the strictest army discipline, now we were, apparently, our own bosses. It took some time to sink in and we were all hesitant about offering suggestions or taking the lead. It took some time for us to realise we were expected to operate totally on our own at the same time as considering ourselves as a team. We all had to think for ourselves it wasn’t until about the third day that full realisation sank in. We were all assembled in the marquee to learn about explosives. We nearly died a death when the sergeant and Fleming started throwing the first Plastic Explosive around in strange grey balls. They pointed out that it was safe but we didn’t believe them at all. It seemed harmless enough and almost edible with its marzipan smell until he said it was useful for putting in any gap or crack, particularly on railway lines. He then placed a time pencil in a part of it on the table in front of us and told us we had five seconds to get out. We ran. Afterwards, familiarity certainly did not breed contempt but we did get used to it and unafraid to use it anywhere or in any circumstances.

Peter Fleming was an exceptional man. He carried out some instruction despite the introduction of the new instructor and continued with the unnamed combat. But at night we had no instructors for our Battle Patrol work and sometimes he would be the enemy and we would have to hunt him down. We also had the adapted tommy guns, knives (at first the ordinary kind that had the famous spike for taking stones out of horses hooves which we would throw in a whirling style just to do any kind of damage) and the undisguised balls of Plastic Explosives with time fuses. In those days there were so many cars left abandoned in strange places, in fields and on the roads, we could experiment with the plastic to our hearts content. Some of them had of course been placed strategically in open spaces to try and obstruct glider landings should they come. But the debris we left behind we considered just as lethal.

After that we really got in our stride. We travelled all over the place infiltrating military targets. There are many examples of our successes. For example, when we came across a Guards Regiment who had been told to expect us but had left their vehicles unattended one night and what was worse, in view of the instructions even civilians were expected to obey, left their distributors in their engines. We had those out right away and left them immobilised at the Guards Depot at Rye. Even General Montgomery who had taken over command of that part of the coast and found out about us expressed his disbelief, which showed itself in other ways later, gave out a challenge to Fleming. He was mortified when pencil bombs we had placed in his headquarters window boxes were exploding in front of him. Peter Fleming had been to see the General for some kind of assistance and had been refused because the general did not like the idea of auxiliary forces and did not think they were or would be of any value. ‘I propose to prove him wrong’, Peter said. ‘We will show the Divisional Commander that you are, so we will carry out a raid on his HQ tonight. Transport will pick you up and carry you and drop you some 25 miles away. You will then make your way to his HQ, infiltrate and leave visible signs of your presence without being caught’. We decided, amongst the eight of us, as we had been left alone to decide on how we would achieve the objective, that we would take thunder flashes and time pencils to set them off. The army had just come out with some new plastic training grenades which were supposed to be innocuous and only make a harmless bang. What we did not know at that time was that the firing mechanism was sparked off with a large ball bearing and in use several soldiers had been killed already by accident and they were later withdrawn from use. Anyway we took some of these, broke up into groups of two and set off in a gusty, heavy rainstorm. Arriving at the grounds of the large country house requisitioned by the Army we used the weather as cover and got into the grounds without being spotted, and studied our targets for some two hours. Moving in swiftly when the opportunity arose we whipped in and planted our flashes and time pencils in some flower pots which had been arranged in the front of the main building, set to go off in half and hour, although some of the others thought it would be funnier if they made theirs 12 hours instead. In this situation we had time to look around and realised some of the men were queuing up in front of a large tent with mess tins and realised it must be a meal time. We had been moving around most of the night and it was breakfast time. I said to my partner that unless we did something we were likely to go hungry for at least another few hours. So we agreed to try and get some in a fit of bravado. We hadn’t been spotted all this time so why not get some good grub out of it. Only one thing bothered us and that was that we had been instructed to wear comforters on our heads so that we would stand out as ‘the enemy’. We decided to chance it and in our soggy woollen hats we must have stood out against the forage caps and steel helmets or nothing at all on the heads of our temporary messmates. As it happened their RSM was supervising breakfast and came straight up to us and asked where we had come from. We told him we were from the Royal Signals attached to the Division for a special scheme that was being mounted. He said he guessed he could allow us to have breakfast in the circumstances and under his watchful eye we ate a hearty meal. But time had passed and it was nearly time for our planted explosives to go off and we had about a quarter of a mile to travel to safety. Peter Fleming had told us, of course, where to reassemble after the intrusion and that transport would be waiting to take us back to our own base.

We had a tremendous time later when Fleming arrived back some hours later and was amused at some of the stories we had to tell although he said it was a great shame we could not personally have seen Montgomery’s face when the explosives did their work whilst he was having a go at Peter for the failure of his men to get through the HQ security system. However, it was one of the things that did start to change the General’s opinion of a unit such as ours. And this was reinforced later when he was taken on a short tour by Field, who took over from Peter Fleming. We had built for us by the Royal Engineers several underground hides one of which was carefully hidden beneath a sheep dip. If you removed a particular nail on the wooden fencing around the dip a bottom part of the dip pivoted to allow entry to a small hollow below. Our observation points were developed from original rabbit warrens so that we had good all-round vision from on top of this particular hill. I was inside with two or three others when the officers came up with the General. While Montgomery was admiring the view Field slipped inside the observation point. His reappearance signalled the end of any opposition the General may have had.

It would be true to say at this point that I had already cut my wife out of my thoughts as far as the future was concerned because I did not believe that in view of what I was doing in Kent and likely to be one of the first recipients of a German invasion that my chances were any better than nil, if not worse. That does not mean to say I felt very brave about it. I was just as scared as anyone else in my unit as we waited for the first sound of the church bells to send us underground immediately as the warning of the Invasion. All this time my wife never knew anything about this part of my life. All she knew was that I was with the West Surreys. We always took our rifles home with us, as did everybody else at that time, although we had to remember to get rid of the other things we normally used, such as round pieces of wood together with copper coins, rolled up newspapers, sharpened bicycle spokes, cheese wire round the waist, or, of course, the Fairbairn knife as our stiletto had come to be known."
 
Apart from the raid on Montgomery’s HQ Tom White recalled the Scout Patrols and the Auxiliary Patrols were often used to attack the Regular British and Commonwealth troops stationed in Kent in order to test their combat and operational readiness. Tom White remembered one raid in particular. It was against what was considered to be the most impregnable of the towns in Kent, Ashford. The army had tried hard to defend it in depth with many kinds of block houses and barbed wire fortifications. Its main defence was in the hands of a Brigade of Canadians supported by the local Home Guard.
 
“We used members of the Queens Regiment ‘B’ Company as our Fifth Column assistance. They moved about during daylight hours as if on leave. It had been decided that the defences had to be tested to the limit and 10 of us were chosen as the task force. We had been given specific targets - The Post Office, Police Station, Fire Station and the Railway Station. Again, we had to wear cap comforters to distinguish us from the ‘enemy’. We went in about 10pm. The officer on this occasion was Field. He was shorter than Peter Fleming and spoke excellent French; which was to come up later. We broke into two groups, the larger under Field. We went for the Fire Station, the others for the Railway Station. They did it the easy way by stopping the Dover Express and rode in on it and dropped off early to head for their objectives. We, two of us, stopped a civilian lorry and convinced the driver we needed his help. It was canvas topped so we could lie in the dips caused by our body weight to hide us as we went into the town, and so avoided the Home Guard units manning the road blocks. We dropped off at a cinema. We sneaked into the Fire Station and listened. Surprised, we could hear them discussing the possibility of the raid and hoping we would not turn up there. Still unseen, we left them some notes we had prepared earlier to prove our presence and moved on to the next port of call, the Police Station. Here, we were subjected to a great deal of disbelief as we suggested we should lock them in their own cells. They pointed out the scheme was nothing to do with them and took an extremely dim view of the whole situation. But we did not dare to actually lock them up as they may have been needed for a real emergency, civilian or military, and so we left more notes after extracting their promise they would take no further part that night. There were 12 of them and they took it badly that two of us could have trapped them so easily. Our third target was the Post Office which had been invested by the Fifth Column who had started several dummy fires. As we neared the place we could hear the sound of scuffles and moved a bit faster to find the rest of our mob, who had also just arrived, were being attacked by the local Home Guard who were using bayonets without the precaution of keeping the sheaths on as previously instructed. We rushed and waded into them. In order to avoid the thrust of a long bladed bayonet coming in his direction my mate reverted to or own basic training and slugged the Home Guard with the butt of his gun. However, we left the fighting to the Queen ‘B’ Company boys and melted into the night. Our job was over. It had been easy, or so we thought. An interesting development was that on the following Saturday we wanted some bits of uniform gear, buttons or something, and went into the Military Outfitters in Ashford. Behind the counter was a youngster of about 17 years with a white turban on his head. It was the chap my friend had hit. Fortunately he did not recognise us, we had been blacked up with burnt cork or candle black, but he had a lot to say about the fracas earlier that week and nothing complimentary. My mate stayed silent but we had a good laugh once we got outside, but also realised how close the young chap had been to actually being killed because of lack of training and experience. By this time the place was like a hornet’s nest with Canadians and Home Guard chasing all over the place and rather difficult to avoid. We had managed to follow a wide ditch festooned with barbed wire but as Field was trying to crawl underneath it he was challenged. He had no option, in the glare of the lights, torches and headlights, but to surrender. So we were all captured, the 10 of us. What a blow to an otherwise successful night manoeuvre.

Nevertheless, we were marched into the Canadian’s Guard Room where a sergeant tried to question us but we remained silent and just stared at him. By this time his men had left him for some reason and we were left alone with him. He concentrated, obviously, on our officer. He was so intent that he did not spot me moving up alongside him, sliding the knife from behind my neck, where I always carried it, placed it alongside his neck and said: 'You’re dead.' And that was that. We were able to walk straight out of the Guard Room without further challenge and continue on our way and return to our own HQ in the park.

This was the only time I can remember us being quoted in official army records. The Corps Commander reporting on the scheme said the irregulars had to be congratulated for getting in and out of Ashford: ‘successfully after causing an enormous amount of damage’. That commendation must still be somewhere in XII Corps Records for September 1941.

Earlier I remarked on Field’s command of the French language. He once asked us about a scheme put forward which would require some activity in that country. He said that something was about to happen and he thought we might drop by parachute behind enemy lines and create havoc behind the scenes about a week before the actual event took place from the sea: ‘What do you think of the idea’? he asked us, adding that it would be ‘jolly good training’. We thought about it but argued that he may have first class French but ours, at best, was only schoolboy stuff and what was more we had not, as yet, received parachute training. In the main, we had no objection and told him with those things in mind we were quite prepared to go. There was one other major factor, however, and that was that we had only had experience and knowledge of the area we were in and would stick out like sore thumbs in an area we knew nothing about. We left it up to him.

To give a kind of summary of those days I feel we did at least add to the testing of the equipment and the endurance of the ordinary soldier’s ability to survive and perhaps, provided the army command with sufficient information for use elsewhere during the war.”