D-Day History Walk

D-DAY 1944

Marking the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings

INTRODUCTION This is the first of what we hope will be a series of local history guides exploring the history of Milton and Eastney. The area has a rich history dating from the 12th Century. This guide focuses on the impact that the Second World War and D-Day had on the area.

On the 6th of June 1944, the D-Day landings took place in Normandy, France. D-Day was the start of Allied operations which would ultimately liberate Western Europe, defeat Nazi Germany and end the Second World War. Although Germany never invaded Britain, British towns, cities and communities like Milton and Eastney, were heavily affected by the war and made huge contributions to the war effort particularly in support of the D-Day landings To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings local residents researched and developed this guided walk.

The aim of the walk and this booklet is to highlight the impact the Second World War and D-Day had on the communities of Milton and Eastney. We hope it will create a sense of what it was like to live in the area at this time and reveal the hidden or forgotten stories.

CREDITS This booklet was researched by Paul Docking and Martin Silman.

Additional research and support was from project co-ordinator Emma Burman at The D-Day Story (www.theddaystory.com).

Booklet and Wayfinder design by Nigel Kellaway.

Funded and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and The D-Day Story, Portsmouth.

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CONTENTS Milton MarkeT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Dunbar Road. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 White & Newton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 MULBERRY / LANGSTONE HARBOUR. . . . . . . . . . 8 House Boats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Milton Cemetery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 St Mary’s Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

FOR MORE INFORMATION If you would like more information about anything referred to in this guide, please visit our website www.miltonportsmouth.info If you have any memories of the area or any stories handed down by family members we would be very pleased to hear them to help build a rich picture of the area’s history.

We are also organising guided walks around the area for small groups. Please contact us or for further information.

Please email info@miltonportsmouth.info

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Milton Market

Food and clothing ration books supplied during the war. (Image: The D-Day Story - 2012/360)

Before the Second World War Milton was a quiet suburban area between Portsmouth and the farmland leading to the sea. Things changed when the war started.

Food rationing began in January 1940 when bacon, butter and sugar were rationed. By 1942 many foods, including milk, cheese, eggs and cooking fat were also ‘on ration’.

A typical weekly food ration for a single adult would be 4oz of bacon or ham, possibly 2 chops subject to availability, 2oz of butter, 4

2oz of cheese, 4oz of margarine and of cooking fat, 3 pints of milk, 8oz of sugar and just 1 fresh egg plus some dried egg. (2oz is just 50g, that is less than the weight of an average sized egg).

In 1941, Milton Market comprised: 3 Butchers 2 Grocers 2 Wool shops 2 Fried Fish Shops (Chippies) 2 Greengrocers 2 Provisions Merchants Plus a Baker, Hairdresser, Surgical Bootmaker,

Wireless Dealer, Café, Tobacconist, Stationer, Fruiterer, Chemist, Confectioner (Gilberts), Corn Merchant, Ironmonger and a Draper.

There was also a Cinema, Police Station, Bank and Co-op.

In 2019 there are four shops that are unchanged: Gilberts, Co-op, a Chemist and Deep Blue Fish & Chips.

DUNBAR ROAD

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Aftermath of a bombing in Dunbar Road. (Image: Portsmouth History Centre)

Portsmouth experienced over 1,500 air raids in four years from 1940, that is more than one a day. The city was heavily bombed – more than 2,500 bombs exploded wreaking widespread harm and destruction across the city.

When the air raid sirens sounded people had to move into public shelters or little ‘Anderson shelters’ in their gardens or cupboards under their stairs.

The raids were usually at night, as there was less chance of being shot down

in the dark – so many people chose to walk to Portsdown Hill each night and sleep in the open there, rather than risk the bombs in the city.

The residents of Milton had been quite lucky compared to those they knew elsewhere in the city. That is until early morning 14th June, 1942.

At 4.35am a bomb hit Dunbar Road. It completely destroyed six houses and badly damaged many more. Two bodies were found behind number 18 Dunbar Road and one more

elsewhere, with 20 people who were trapped and had to be freed. Eventually, six people were taken by ambulance to the Royal Portsmouth Hospital in Commercial Road.

One of the first on the scene was a local policeman from the police station in Eastney Road (opposite the school) and he worked with the Air Raid Warden and others to organise the various emergency services.

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White & Newton

White & Newton began making contemporary furniture in 1924 and grew the business to employ over 400 staff at its peak.

Their staple furniture was ‘limed oak’ wardrobes, bedroom sets, and the like and they were a very forward thinking company – for example, they had a 50:50 profit share whereby half of any profits went to the shareholders and the other half was shared between the workers.

During the war, like many other factories that had skills and machinery working with wood, White and Newton became a subcontractor to Airspeed and operated under their direction, producing parts for Horsa 6

gliders and Oxford Trainers (a twin engine monoplane aircraft which saw widespread use during the war training Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombing and gunnery roles).

Over 3,600 Horsa gliders were built from 1941 onward, each able to carry 30 seated fully equipped troops or a jeep or an anti-tank gun and they were used in many different theatres of war including the unsuccessful attack on the German Heavy Water Plant at Rjukan in Norway and also, during the invasion of Sicily.

The Horsa was deployed in large numbers during the D-Day landings.

The first unit to land in France during

Airspeed Horsa glider about to land during a training flight. (Image: The D-Day Story 1994/52/6)

the Battle of Normandy was a coupde-main force, carried by six Horsas, that captured Pegasus Bridge in Operation Deadstick over the Caen canal and a further bridge over the River Orne.

During the opening phase of the operation, 320 Horsas were used to perform the first lift, while a further 296 Horsas participated in the second lift. Large numbers of both American and British forces were deployed using the Horsas during the opening phase of the battle.

American ‘Waco’ which could only carry 13 troops.

After the war, White & Newton returned to furniture manufacture and did very well throughout the 50s when the need to refurbish and rebuild was so high – but as ‘flat pack’ started to arrive and cheap labour in Asia made UK manufacture less and less competitive, White & Newton started to suffer, eventually closing its doors for the final time in 1982/83.

The Horsa was so successful, the Americans actually bought 400 of them for their own air force, as they were much more effective than the 7

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MULBERRY / LANGSTONE HARBOUR

Phoenix caissons, part of the Mulberry Harbours afloat. (Image: US Navy photo 1997/178)

Langstone Harbour was used for a variety of purposes in wartime, and was closely connected to D-Day. Fort Cumberland was the base for the Inter Services Training and Development Centre. This was set up in 1938 to look at amphibious landing operation capability, and remained here until the middle of 1940.

One of their achievements in this time, was to define and prototype the range of shipping that would be available on D-Day to take the allies to Normandy. A range of 8

Landing Craft, particularly the Landing Craft Assault [LC(A)], Landing Craft Mechanised [LC(M)] and Landing Craft Tank [LC(T)] began development here, and prototypes were constructed in the Solent area. Also larger ships, such as the Landing Ship (Infantry) [LS(I)], and Landing Ship Tank [LS(T)] began to be developed. In time, and with some trial and error, these Landing Craft and Landing Ships became the backbone of the amphibious Operation Neptune, the seaborne invasion of France.

You will see in the harbour

a large piece of concrete.

This is a Phoenix B Cassion, constructed here as part of the Mulberry Harbour which provided vital supplies to the bridgehead in Normandy. This particular example, out of the four built here, cracked while it was being built and was towed to its current location and left.

Some 500 workers were billeted at St Mary’s hospital to construct them The cassion was designed to be sunk off the Normandy coast to act as a breakwater, and would supplement the ships

The Mulberry harbour off Arromanches in August 1944. (Image: The D-Day Story 2003/1760)

that were scuttled while the harbours were being constructed. The Mulberry B harbour (later called Port Winston) would deliver 2,500,000 men, 500,000 vehicles and 4,000,000 tons of supplies to the Allies over its life.

In May 1944, you may have seen lots of shipping off Hayling Island from here.

This was Exercise Fabius II, a rehearsal for the D-Day Landings. The Hampshire Regiment were part of the troops being exercised here.

Langstone Harbour would have been quite full of moored Landing Craft and

associated small craft in the days leading up to D-Day. Langstone Harbour also featured a “Starfish” site.

These were sites that mimicked the effects of bombing on towns, and were designed to confuse enemy bombers at night.

This decoy (also known as a Q site) is known to have attracted a large majority of bombs away from Portsmouth during a heavy air raid on the night of the 17-18th April 1941.

Mrs Freda Turner, who worked at the Airspeed works at Farlington, recalls: “We heard, and I suppose it

was true, that Civil Defence authorities used to then light fires on the mainland, out in the country, and I think this must have happened because quite often we used to go walking around Clanfield and Butser and Hambledon during the war, you would see bomb craters in fields, so it must have been fairly effective.

They must have been used all over the country at that stage because my sister was living in Luton and they had quite different ones, they had little individual - like stoves - which were permanently strung around the pavements”.

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House boats

House boat, a converted landing craft moored in Milton. (Image: Portsmouth History Centre DG/75A/T2)

Milton Common, once formerly a tidal inlet known as Milton Lake (and even earlier, “Felder Lake” from which the current Velder Avenue’s name is derived).

It is reclaimed land, formed by landfill tipping in the 1950s through to 1970. The perimeter of the former Milton Lake can still be traced on a modern map, as the A2030 Eastern Road borders it to the north and Moorings Way road to the south.

Moorings Way was so called because of the large 10

number of houseboats that were moored alongside the edge of the Lake.

People displaced by wartime bombing found refuge along the north shore of Eastney Lake and round into Milton Lake.

Some lived in makeshift houseboats, based on Landing Craft sold off after the war as surplus to requirements, many of which would have gone to Normandy as part of D-Day and subsequent operations. Others used converted railway carriages and fisherman huts. Many of these homes lacked

the basic amenities of electricity and mains water supplies. They survived into the 1960s until they were cleared.

The painter Edward King is connected to Portsmouth through his time as a patient at St James Hospital in Milton and is notable for painting local scenes. Including scenes of houseboats or the hospital farm. After the Portsmouth Blitz, Denis Daley, Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, commissioned Edward King to paint the bomb damage to the city.

Milton Cemetery

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Recommendations for the military medal for Lance Corporal Leslie James Webb. (Image: The National Archives)

Milton cemetery opened in 1911 and holds First and Second World War graves.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cross of Sacrifice is on the northern side of the Grade II listed chapel, near the grade II listed gate piers and gates.

There are 431 Commonwealth war graves here, 232 from the Second World War. Not all are marked with a CWGC headstone.

Here we commemorate Lance Corporal Leslie James Webb, Military Medal (MM), D Company,

1st Battalion Hampshire Regiment [First Hampshires] First Hampshires landed on D-Day on Gold beach (Jig Green sector) on 6 June 1944 at 0725. They had been embarked, via Southampton, since 2nd June, waiting for the order to go. Their objective was the village of Le Hamel, which opened up the approach to Arromanches, the site of Mulberry Harbour B (later known as Port Winston).

First Hampshires took 182 casualties on that day, including the Commanding

Officer and Battalion Second in Command.

L Cpl Webb died on 14 June 1944, aged 27, of his wounds sustained on D-Day when D Company forced their way inland to attack the gun position at Cabane. His Military Medal citation, below, shows that he “repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire in order to move his men forward.” “…his courage and inspiration were such an inspiration to all that the Pl [Platoon] went forward again and seized its objective.’

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ST. Mary’s Hospital

Patient with nursing staff at Queen Alexandra hospital. (Image: The D-Day Story 1990/36/29)

Both St James’ and St Mary’s Hospital treated casualties from D-Day. Casualties were brought back to Portsmouth, Gosport, Southampton (and Portland) in ships and landing craft that had delivered troops to the beaches, as well as specially equipped Hospital Ships.

Hospital records from St Mary’s Hospital show that there were five admissions on D-Day itself and 20 on the day after. The D-Day casualties were from the RNVR and a number of Canadian regiments; the 12

day after from the RNR, Norwegian Navy, Royal Navy, Royal Warwickshire Regiment and the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment of Canada.

This places the Canadian casualties from Juno Beach, while the RN casualty was from HMS Swift supporting actions on Sword Beach St James’ Hospital was designated a “Port Hospital” meaning that it was primarily for casualties that who were too badly wounded to be moved to hospitals further inland.

The wounded were landed at South Parade Pier or

the Dockyard and were driven to the hospitals in ambulances.

The nursing staff at the hospitals were supplemented by civilian Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) and the Red Cross. During the Portsmouth Blitz, these were supplemented by Rover Scouts who acted as stretcher bearers for air raid casualties.

“We were walking down Fratton Road when to our astonishment we saw what appeared to be a line of military vehicles across Fratton bridge.

They were bumper to bumper all along the road... then went into the railway sidings where there stood hospital trains.

Someone said these are all the wounded coming back from D-Day. This would have been the day after at about ten in the evening. People were going over and giving them cigarettes.�

Roger Bryant - aged 10 at the time.

Over the month following D-Day, 126 trains left Portsmouth carrying 26,243 allied casualties to other hospitals and 851 Prisoners of War. 13

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MILTON & EASTNEY MAP

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Milton Cemetery

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Milton Park

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Mary Rose Academy Milton Park Primary School

WHITE & NEWTON 3

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In late May 2019, Wayfinder Markers were placed on lampposts around Milton to serve as a visual indicator of local D-Day activity.

MOORINGS WAY

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Mooring Way Infant School Milton Common Milton Lake

University of Portsmouth Langstone Campus

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Locke Lake

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Milton and Eastney History Walks

You can find out more information by visiting our website: www.miltonportsmouth.info

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