IP Bob Leece War Diary

Five Days in March, 1945

In-Pensioner Bob Leece 11 October 1925 – 18 May 2021 Five Days in March, 1945 Here is how I came to be in Stalag 11B. I was 19 years old and had been transferred into the Lincolns the previous September, as reinforcement after the division suffered heavy losses in Normandy during the weeks after D-Day. In the early years of the war the Lincolns, as part of the West Riding Infantry Division, had been one of the regiments garrisoned in Iceland. Consequently, on its return to England the divisional insignia was changed from a white rose to a polar bear. On 10 th June, a few days after D-Day, the Division landed on Sword Beach. From there, it fought its way through the Bocage and, in early July, it fought a gruelling three day battle to capture the village of Rauray, which was held by two SS Panzer divisions 1. The German radio called us the "Polar Bear Butchers" and said we would be shot if we were ever captured by the Waffen SS. This threat was broadcast again when German radio became aware that we had arrived in Nijmegen on 1st December. The Lincolns, like other regiments, suffered heavy losses in the battle for France. When I was posted to the Lincolns, early in September 1944 on the Belgian/Dutch frontier, only half of them had served since 1939.

In March 1945 we were not far from Arnhem in the Netherlands. Arnhem was occupied by the Germans and our HQ was at Valburg, about 10 miles away, on land known as "the island", between the rivers Waal and Nederrijn.

Day 1, Sunday 4th March.

At 18:45h I made my way, with around a dozen members of my platoon, to the empty church of Westerhout on the River Waal, about 12 miles west of Arnhem and Nijmegen. We were members of 16 Platoon 1st/4th Batt, Lincolnshire Regt. Our padre was to conduct a short service at 19:00h. During the service we became aware of a signaller, in the ruined belfry, trying to make contact with a sergeant and his recce patrol. I learned later that the patrol had returned safely but it had been unable to reach its objective, a house at Groenewoud, because the route to it was under water. The previous September the RAF had blown up many of the dykes in the region and much of the land was flooded, with roads impassable2.

Day 2, Monday 5th March.

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My Platoon Commander was the 24 year old Lieutenant Kenyon 3. In the late afternoon, I was ordered to attend his “Order Group". The Order Group consisted of Lieut Kenyon, the recently promoted Sergeant Dickinson and ten privates, including me. About half of the Order Group had been with the Lincolns since 1939 and the other half were reinforcements like me. I was from the King's Regiment (Liverpool) and my friend Ted Furness, a Yorkshireman, was from a territorial regiment, the Sherwood Rangers.

Lieut Kenyon explained that the orders were for us to be taken by canvas assault boats across the flooded polder to Groenewoud 4, where we should occupy an empty house. We were to remain there for three days as a recce/standing patrol. The house was on the south bank of the Lower Rhine, behind enemy lines. On the opposite bank was Arnhem. Our objective was to infiltrate into Arnhem and identify the units of the German garrison. On the final day we were to capture a prisoner and take him back with us to Battalion H.Q. at Valburg for interrogation.

Extract from the Battalion War Diary. ...5 March. recce/standing patrol of one officer and 11 other ranks and carrying party of 12 other ranks from D Company set out at 19:00 hours to occupy house at GROENEWOUD for three days.

Day 3, Tuesday 6th March.

Extract from the Battalion War Diary Patrol to GROENEWOUD are in position by 04:00h and are in communication by wireless.

Our journey by boat took several hours so it was in the early hours of the following morning that we arrived at Groenewoud. The house was empty and we stood to, while the carrying party took our equipment into the house. It had two floors above the ground floor. Lieut Kenyon took the first floor and we went up to the second floor. Sgt Dickinson posted a sentry at the window and the rest of us went to sleep. Dawn had broken when I was awakened by a voice whispering in my ear, "Jerry's here!" We could hear the Germans talking and moving about on the ground floor as it became apparent that it was a routine dawn patrol.

We moved into position with our rifles covering the staircase. At the same time the Germans appeared in the ground floor open door, obviously surprised to see us. Before either side could open fire Lieut Kenyon stood outside his door, raised his hands and said “Kamerad”, thus saving our lives and jeopardising his career. He was separated from us and three days went by before we saw him again.

The Germans shouted and gestured that we should come down with our hands in the air. I noticed that they had white piping round their epaulets with the numerals 249, denoting 2

that they were the 249th Infantry Regiment, not the Waffen SS. In view of the broadcast threats against the Polar Bears, this was some small comfort. On reaching the ground floor we were hustled out of the front door onto the lane connecting the house to the main road, which ran along the top of a high embankment on the north side of the lane. The waters of the flooded polder on the opposite side lapped across the lane. We were formed into a single file and marched with our hands in the air to the junction with the main road. I was near the back of our line and I could hear the Germans behind us shouting, "Schneller, schneller!" (faster, faster!). I could also hear a rhythmic knocking. Cliff Woodwood was our last man and one of the Germans was repeatedly hitting his steel helmet with a stick grenade. Next, I saw a British helmet sail over our heads into the floodwaters. Cliff had had enough of this treatment so had dropped his hands and got rid of his helmet. It turned out he was just the first of us to lose one. The vehicles that had brought the Germans from Arnhem were at the junction and we were taken in them to a large house that served as their regimental H.Q. Our interrogation was confined to giving name, rank and number. This was checked against our record of service books (A.B.64.) which were then returned to us. Later on we were given something to eat. In the afternoon we were taken outside and handed over to five soldiers, wearing the black uniform of the SS and armed with Schmeisser sub-machine guns.

They had SD in raised letters on black diamond-shaped insignia above the cuffs on their left sleeves, denoting they were Sicherheitsdienst (Security Duty). One of their many duties was eliminating resistance groups in occupied territories, so we expected to be questioned as to whether our patrol was to link up with resistance groups. We were transported by lorry to a large isolated farmhouse that was used by the Sicherheitsdienst. As we arrived, I noticed an SS soldier pumping up the tyres of a bicycle. This mundane scene soon took a sinister turn when he walked over and looked us up and down. He noticed the polar bear insignia on our sleeves and said, "Ah, der eisbar!" We were led inside and put in the cellar. In the evening we were given food and coffee.

Day 4, Wednesday 7th March.

Extract from the Battalion War Diary. ...7 March. Two snipers are sent out during the afternoon to GROENEWOUD to identify occupants of house. They return with the report that they reached a point 15 yards from the house and saw no movements and had not been able to attract anyone although they had shouted several times.

We spent the next day in the cellar, sitting on the floor. I was sitting alongside Ted Furness.

The cellar door opened and a guard appeared at the top of the stairs and said, “Which of you is Edward Furness?” Ted said, “I am.” I don't know what thoughts and fears were going through Ted's mind but what happened next was so bizarre, he couldn't possibly have expected the conversation that followed. The German walked over and sat between us. He asked Ted where he lived in Bradford and the name of his school. Ted told him and the German said he had also been educated in Bradford. He explained that his father had been a 3

member of the British Army of Occupation from the end of 1918 until 1923 and had married a German girl. The German soldier said he had grown up in England and gone to school in Bradford. His father died in 1937 and the following year he accompanied his mother when she returned to Germany. He attempted to join the German army, but was rejected because of having a British father. He was told that, because he was able to speak perfect English, he might be of interest to the SS, Sicherheitsdienst. He said that part of his SS training envisaged him returning to Bradford, after a German invasion, to arrest prominent people listed in the Black Book 5. If this were true, what a strange twist of fate. Presumably, if his father had lived he would have remained in Yorkshire and been fighting for a different side.

Day 5, Thursday 8th March Extract from Battalion War Diary ...8 March. At 0100 hours a fighting patrol of one officer and 17 other ranks from D Company is sent out to GROENWOUD to destroy enemy in buildings and search for the missing patrol. (Buildings set on fire. No one seen.)

The next day we were called out individually to be questioned. The interrogation room was at the end of a short corridor. When I was called for interrogation Ted Furness was coming out of the room after his questioning. As we passed in the corridor, I could hear Ted singing softly to himself. It was a song that was popular at the time called "You don't have to tell me – I know". Except he wasn't singing it quite properly. He had changed the words to "You don't have to tell them – they know." For a few moments I wondered what Ted meant by his cryptic message, but as soon as the interrogation started it became clear. They knew more about us than we probably did!

The interrogator was an SS officer. He asked for my name, rank and number and checked them against my A.B.64. Then he asked for the name of my regiment and division. I replied that under the Geneva Convention I was only obliged to give my name, rank and number.

He replied, “If you won’t tell me, I’ll tell you!" He pointed to “Lincoln” and the polar bear at the top of my sleeves and said, “You are in the Lincolnshire Regiment and the 49 th Infantry Division. The division came to Nijmegen on 1st December to relieve the 50th Infantry Division.

Two of your brigades occupied the dry land on the north bank of the Waal and were joined by the remaining brigade when the flood waters began to subside. Your Battalion H.Q. is at Valburg and you and your company are at Westerhoet."

He appeared amused that he had shown that he knew as much, possibly more, than I did. I just hoped that our radio intercepts were as efficient. More importantly, he had accepted that we were a recce patrol and were not trying to link up with the resistance. He pressed a bell, the door opened and a guard came in and took me to another room. He said to me, “Gestapo", before knocking on the door.

The Gestapo officer was tall, well-built and wearing a suit. He asked if I voted Conservative or Labour. I said, “Conservative.” He replied, “Then you’re fighting the wrong enemy, your 4

real enemy is communist Russia!” He asked if I would like to join the British Free Corps, I said, “No, that would be treason.” That ended the interrogation.

In the afternoon we were put onto lorries and taken to a transit camp just over the border in Germany6. Later that same day, we were put on a train that took us, and a large number of other British prisoners, to Stalag 11B, at Fallingbostell in Hanover.

It was a freight train and we were loaded into cattle trucks with straw on the floor.Today that train journey of roughly 200 miles would take just a few hours, but for us it took three days. At that stage of the war, the RAF was attacking anything that moved on the German railways, so there were countless hold ups and diversions. To begin with, whenever there was an air raid warning, the train would stop and we would get out and walk up and down the tracks. We welcomed this chance to stretch our legs but the Germans were just as keen for the RAF to see British uniforms around the train. During one of these breaks a British officer7 escaped and from then on we were never allowed out of the trucks.

It was bitterly cold on the train. When we had set off in the assault boats six days earlier, we didn't have our greatcoats and, instead of army boots, we were wearing patrol shoes, which were little better than plimsolls. Our steel helmets were useful though. Confined in the trucks we found that if we removed the webbing, the helmets made good, emergency chamber pots. When necessary, we could empty them out of the side of the moving train.

Unfortunately for us, one person decided to wait until the train stopped before throwing the contents of his makeshift chamber pot over a passing German soldier. After that we all lost our helmets. Eventually, we reached Fallingbostell and Stalag 11B where we remained until the camp was liberated on 16th April 1945.

Postscript Extract from Battalion War Diary 6 June 1945. A court of enquiry was held at Battalion HQ; to discover the circumstances regarding the loss of a patrol under Lieutenant Kenyon during the occupation of the Nijmegan Island.

(There is no further reference to the proceedings or the court’s verdict.)

October 1945.

After Stalag 11B was liberated by British forces on 16 th April 1945, the PoWs were given extended leave. After that, along with many returning prisoners, I was sent to the Great Bower Wood Camp in Buckinghamshire. Two Officers from the Corps of Military Police, Special Branch, visited me and read to me extracts from the Lieutenant’s affidavit to the court. Lieut Kenyon had told the court that his patrol had not gained any useful information.

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They were outnumbered by an enemy battle group of 40 men (Kamphabteilung). They could not receive reinforcements or fight their way back to their own lines. He was not prepared to lose the lives of the men under his command by engaging in an unwinnable battle.

Evidently the court accepted his explanation. I was asked if I agreed with the contents of the affidavit. I said, “Yes” and I was told to sign it.

Footnotes 1

The Division was supported by the 11 th Armoured Division (the Black Bull). Rauray was defended by the 2 nd SS Panzer Division, Das Reich and the 9 th SS Panzer Division, Hoenstaufen.

2

In September 1944, Nijmegen was taken by allied forces in the early stages of Operation Market Garden but, when the Germans held Arnhem and pushed back towards Nijmegen, the RAF bombed the dykes to prevent the Germans crossing the polder and retaking the town.

3

Lieutenant William Kenyon was commissioned on 2 nd November 1940 (Wartime emergency commission) in the 2nd Battalion, The King’s Regiment (Liverpool). The Regiment was part of the Gibraltar Garrison. It moved to Libya in autumn 1943 to train for the invasion of Italy. It landed on the beach at Salerno on 9 th September1943 and Lieutenant Kenyon was severely wounded. He was invalided to the U.K. and, after a long convalescence, he was posted to the 4th Lincolns in January 1945. After the war he received two further promotions.

Promoted Captain 13th November 1945, Temporary Major 13th March 1946. He was demobbed in August 1946. He died in 2001, aged 81.

4

I am puzzled by Groenewoud (Green Wood). There is a district called Groenewoud but it is on the outskirts of Nijmegen, on the southern side of the R Waal, about 14 miles from Arnhem. This cannot have been the location of the house. However there is a place called Groeneweide (Green Meadow) that fits the location exactly. It is on the southern bank of the R Nederrijn just opposite Arnhem. Perhaps there were two areas called Groenewoud or maybe there was confusion between the names Groenewoud and Groeneweide.

5

The Black Book was a secret list of prominent British residents to be arrested. It was created in 1940, by the SS, as part of the preparation for a proposed invasion.

6 Transit camp Dulag 7B at Bocholt, a few miles inside Germany about 35 miles from Arnhem.

7

The officer's first name was Robin. I don't know what happened to him but I doubt he got far in full British uniform inside Germany.

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