D-Day – Cambridge Military History

HMT Cambridgeshire (FY-142), an Armed Trawler during the Second World War

While several Royal Navy vessels throughout history have been named after the City of Cambridge and people from the area, there has only been one ship named after the entire county: His Majesties Trawler Cambridgeshire, a submarine chaser from the Second World War. Laid down as a 442-ton fishing vessel and launched in 1935, she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy in August 1939. Her conversion into a warship occurred in the desperate months of rapid military expansion before the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. She was converted by the Royal Navy into an anti-submarine role by removing her fishing gear and converting her storage holds into crew berthing and a magazine, adding a 4-inch deck gun forward, and installing depth charge racks to drop explosives off the stern of the ship. She was armed with a navy crew. By the end of the war, over 200 armed trawlers like HMT Cambridgeshire would be hunting submarines, laying and sweeping mines, and patrolling the approaches to the United Kingdom and the waters around Europe. A dangerous but important role was played by these small vessels: the Royal Navy lost 72 Armed Trawlers during the war and hundreds of sailors were lost.

HMT Cambridgeshire would likely be remembered only as one of the many capable but largely forgotten small combatants from the Second World War except for her experience on 17 June 1940, when she rescued over 800 civilians and soldiers from the RMS Lancastria, sunk by the German Luftwaffe during the desperation evacuation of France.

The RMS Lancastria, a passenger liner which had been converted into a troop ship, loaded several thousand fleeing civilians and soldiers in her hold, throughout her interior, and along her weather decks as part of Operation AERIAL – the evacuation of remaining Allied military personnel from Western France. The panic in St. Nazaire, France, as the Nazis rapidly approached and the French Government was capitulating led to a frenzied loading of all available ships for evacuation to England. RMS Lancastria, designed to hold 2,180 passengers and 330 crew was part of this evacuation. Her Captain felt the ship could hold up to 3,000, but in the desperation to load and depart St. Nazaire an estimated 5,500 and 7,200 people were brought onboard – no ships manifest was recorded, time was too short. The RMS Lancastria set sail and was almost immediately under attack by German Ju 88 bombers. She was hit by several bombs and sunk within 20 minutes. It is still unknown, but somewhere between 4,000-7,000 refugees, military personnel, and crew may have died in the sinking. The overloading of the ship ensured people could not escape. There were not enough lifeboats, there were far too few life preservers. The loss of the RMS Lancastria is the worst maritime catastrophe in the history of the United Kingdom.

Thankfully, 2,477 men, women, and children were rescued by local ships coming to the rescue, with HMT Cambridgeshire saving more than any other. She brought between 800 to 900 survivors out of the cold waters and choking fuel, bringing them onboard over several hours under fire. Captain W. G. Euston, the Cambridgeshire’s Commanding Officer, maneuvered the ship while under machine gun fire from strafing German aircraft. He later recommended many of his sailors for decorations, specifically Stanley Kingett, who kept maneuvering the ship’s launch away from enemy planes to save hundreds of lives, and William Perrin who maintained machine gun fire on low-flying German planes, buying time for the Cambridgeshire’s rescue efforts. In fact, the ship’s machine gunners later claimed to have shot down one German aircraft during the rescue. Later that evening, still covered in discarded clothing, bunker fuel, and the discarded items of the hundreds she had rescued, HMT Cambridgeshire returned to St. Nazaire to take the Commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Lieutenant General Alan Brooke, and his staff from France.

HMT Cambridgeshire would later participate in Operation NEPTUNE, the naval portion of the D-Day landings in June 1944. She hunted for submarines as the British, Canadian, American, and Free French forces landed across Normandy, assisting in the return of British forces to France whom she had helped evacuate just four years earlier.

After Victory in Europe Day, the Royal Navy sold HMT Cambridgeshire at the end of 1945, and she converted back to a humble fishing ship. The proud warship’s name was changed to the Kingston Sapphire. She fished the North Sea and Atlantic until she was finally scrapped in Brugges, Belgium in 1954.

The Special Relationship: the U.S. Armed Forces in England

One of the interesting things about living in Cambridgeshire is seeing the uniforms of U.S. servicemen and women stationed here in England. Many of these men and women serve in the U.S. Air Force, on Royal Air Force Bases, across East Anglia and the East of England. However, it wasn’t too many decades past when U.S. Army and Navy personnel were commonly seen in England as well, especially during the Second World War. Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States entering the war in December 1941, there were high-level contacts at the General Staff level between the United States and United Kingdom. In fact, as early as March 1941, the United States, United Kingdom and Canada had agreed on: “The early defeat of Germany as the predominant member of the Axis with the principal military effort of the United States being exerted in the Atlantic and European area; and a strategic defensive in the Far East.” – this was the Europe First policy which was the basis of the Allied war effort throughout the Second World War. So when the attack on Pearl Harbor came and the United States found itself at war with the Axis Powers: Germany, Japan, and Italy, it was only a short amount of time before U.S. Army and U.S. Army Air Corps (the forerunner of the U.S. Air Force) personnel began arriving in droves across England.

It was on January 26, 1942 that the first U.S. combat troops arrived in England. As U.S. forces arrived in England, they were handed a publication titled: “Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain”. Along with all sorts of useful advice to help with the large influx of Americans, servicemen were told never to insult the monarchy, and that “the British don’t know how to make a good cup of coffee, but you don’t know how to make a good cup of tea. It’s an even swap.” It is important to note that individual Americans were serving with UK and Canadian units across England in units like the Eagle Squadrons, but the organized landing of forces of the U.S. Army did not occur until January 1942.

As the staging of forces continued from January thousands of men and equipment were staged across the United Kingdom. These forces launched the first allied amphibious operation from England, the invasion of North Africa, named Operation Torch. 18,500 U.S. Army combat troops were transported from their staging bases in the United Kingdom to Oran, North Africa. These men were part of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One), the 1st Armored Division (Old Ironsides), and the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Fighting would rage across North Africa, and many of these men would find themselves fighting from Sicily to the Italian mainland until the end of the War.

Americans in Landing Craft Operation Torch — *U.S. Troops embarked in a landing craft for Operation Torch. This artistic work was created by the Government of the United Kingdom before 1957 and is in the public domain.*

Operation Torch Map — Map from “Operation Torch” by S. W. Roskill, from “The War at Sea 1939-1945”, Chapter XII. In the public domain.

The close proximity of Cambridgeshire and East Anglia to the industrial heart of Germany led to the development of numerous air fields for medium and heavy bombers, as well as fighter, cargo, and airborne support aircraft, arriving from the United States to work with RAF Bomber Command in the strategic bombing campaign against the Axis Powers.

In June 1944, the long-awaited invasion of France was launched from staging points across England, with U.S., British, Commonwealth, and Allied troops storming the beaches of Normandy in Operation Overlord. These forces would drive on to liberate France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, and invade Germany, meeting the Soviet Allies on the Elbe. Amazingly, onboard over 1,200 aircraft and 5,000 ships, 160,000 allied troops were landed in France on June 6, 1944. By the end of August, 3 million allied troops were transported from England to France, a staggering feat of human achievement.

NormandySupply_edit — *Mid-June 1944, a view of the immense logistical operation on Omaha Beach, Normandy France. The photo is the property of the U.S. Coast Guard and is in the public domain*.

By the end of the war, 1.5 million U.S. servicemen and women had been stationed in England, or passed through to combat operations in Europe.

The military cooperation and deep relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States, which continues to this day, remained at the end of the Second World War. NATO was formed in response to new threats from the Soviet Union and its Allies, and the United Kingdom remained critical to Allied efforts through the Cold War. Today, almost two decades after the end of the Second World War, the presence of U.S. servicemen and women across Cambridgeshire is a point of pride for those of us who live here, reminded of our shared military history.

For more information on the U.S. military in England during the Second World War, visit the National Archives website: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/second-world-war/

Lt. Colonel Leon Vance and the Cambridge American Cemetery

A few days ago I had the privilege to walk the hallowed grounds of the Cambridge American Cemetery with an expert on the history of the U.S. Armed Forces’ staging, presence, and forward operations from Cambridgeshire and southeast England. This gentleman works for the American Battle Monuments Commission, an agency of the U.S. Government that maintains and preserves the 25 overseas cemeteries from the Philippines to Tunisia, from Omaha Beach to the Meuse-Argonne. One cannot visit an overseas U.S. Memorial or Cemetery and not be touched by the stories and sacrifice of these men and women. Although some stories are heroic and some more simple, all were serving their country in a desperate time and found themselves far from their home and their family, and never returned. The historian I was walking with told me the heroic story of Lt. Colonel Vance.

Francis Scott Bradford designed the glorious mosaic that covers the ceiling of the Cambridge American Cemetery Chapel. Ghostly aircraft and mournful angels cover the ceiling in his moving tribute to the 3,811 buried and 5,126 missing who are memorialized at the Cemetery.

His story needs to be told. It is the story of an American airman, a 27-year-old Lieutenant Colonel, who had rapidly risen through the ranks in a way that can only happen during a desperate war. Colonel Leon Robert “Bob” Vance, had arrived at West Point in 1935 and graduated in 1939, becoming a young lieutenant as America warily watched the Second World War beginning in Europe. Marrying Georgette Brown the day after his graduation, Bob and Georgette had a daughter in 1942, Sharon, whom he would name his B-24 Liberator after: The Sharon D.

After several years as a flight instructor, he was transferred to England. Lt. Colonel Vance was assigned to the 8th Air Force, 95th Combat Bombardment Wing, 2nd Bomb Division at RAF Helesworth in Suffolk. On 5 June 1944, the day before the allied landings in Normandy, Lt. Colonel Vance led the 489th Bomb Group on a diversionary bombing mission to the Pas-de-Calais to target German coastal defenses as part of the Atlantic Wall. Lt Colonel Vance was in the lead plane as on observer on the flight deck, flying in a pathfinder to ensure the bombs of all the following aircraft hit their target.

After the short flight to France, the Liberators were over their target when the lead aircraft’s bombs failed to release. Instead of ordering the bombers to drop their ordnance into the Channel, Lt. Colonel Vance ordered all the aircraft to circle and re-approach the target.

A photo of LTC Bob Vance, courtesy of the US Army. The photo is in the public domain.

On the second approach to the target, the bombers came under intense anti-aircraft fire. Vance’s lead bomber was severely damaged by flak: four crewmen were wounded, three engines disabled, fuel lines ruptured within the aircraft. Despite the damage, the B-24 continued and dropped its bombs over the target although one did not release. Immediately after the bombs were dropped, a flak burst in front of the aircraft that killed the pilot and almost severed Bob’s right foot, trapping him within the bent metal of the mangled cockpit. With only one engine still functioning and severe damage to the airframe, the co-pilot began to dive the aircraft to maintain airspeed, and Vance, losing blood and suffering from shock, worked the engineering of the aircraft to feather the engines and save the aircraft as one of the crew applied a tourniquet to his foot.

Amazingly, the aircraft returned to the English coast and Vance took the controls, ordering the men to bail out. Knowing it was impossible to land the aircraft, he aimed to get the crew safely away. As the crew departed, he discovered that not only was he trapped, but in the confusion thought that one of the crewmembers was also trapped and unable to bail out. He decided the only option was to ditch the B-24 in the Channel — the B-24 was a notoriously difficult aircraft to safely ditch in water.

Stuck in a prone position between the pilot and co-pilots’ seats, trapped in the mangled cockpit and losing blood, Lt. Colonel Vance could only see out the side window of the cockpit and could only access some of the plane’s controls. Remarkably, he landed the aircraft safely in the water, believing that the other crewmember would have a fighting chance to live. As the water flooded into the cockpit — Vance was still trapped — he had a slim hope that air-sea rescue might reach the aircraft before it sank. However, the one bomb that had failed to release but was still armed detonated at this moment, blowing the B-24 to pieces and amazingly sending Vance flying through the air, now dislodged from the metal. He hit the water and was just able to inflate his life vest, clinging to consciousness and life.

In a moment of self-sacrifice that is difficult to believe, Vance then spent the next 50 minutes searching for his last crewmember in the sinking debris of the B-24 before he was rescued by the RAF.

Colonel Vance had survived the ordeal, but tragically was lost at sea two months later as the C-54 Skymaster carrying him on a medical evacuation flight back to the United States disappeared between Iceland and Newfoundland.

On 4 January 1945 it was announced that Lieutenant Colonel Vance would receive the Medal of Honor posthumously, but the presentation was delayed until 11 October 1946, so that his daughter Sharon — whom he had named his B-24 after — could be awarded her father’s medal.

5-year-old Sharon Vance is presented with her father's Medal of Honor in 1946. US Army Photograph. — 5-year-old Sharon Vance is presented with her father’s Medal of Honor in 1946. US Army Photograph.

For some more information on the Cambridge American Cemetery see this publication: http://www.abmc.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Cambridge_Booklet.pdf

The citation for Lt. Colonel Vance’s Medal of Honor reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty on 5 June 1944, when he led a Heavy Bombardment Group, in an attack against defended enemy coastal positions in the vicinity of Wimereaux, France. Approaching the target, his aircraft was hit repeatedly by antiaircraft fire which seriously crippled the ship, killed the pilot, and wounded several members of the crew, including Lt. Col. Vance, whose right foot was practically severed. In spite of his injury, and with 3 engines lost to the flak, he led his formation over the target, bombing it successfully. After applying a tourniquet to his leg with the aid of the radar operator, Lt. Col. Vance, realizing that the ship was approaching a stall altitude with the 1 remaining engine failing, struggled to a semi-upright position beside the copilot and took over control of the ship. Cutting the power and feathering the last engine he put the aircraft in glide sufficiently steep to maintain his airspeed. Gradually losing altitude, he at last reached the English coast, whereupon he ordered all members of the crew to bail out as he knew they would all safely make land. But he received a message over the interphone system which led him to believe 1 of the crewmembers was unable to jump due to injuries; so he made the decision to ditch the ship in the channel, thereby giving this man a chance for life. To add further to the danger of ditching the ship in his crippled condition, there was a 500-pound bomb hung up in the bomb bay. Unable to climb into the seat vacated by the copilot, since his foot, hanging on to his leg by a few tendons, had become lodged behind the copilot’s seat, he nevertheless made a successful ditching while lying on the floor using only aileron and elevators for control and the side window of the cockpit for visual reference. On coming to rest in the water the aircraft commenced to sink rapidly with Lt. Col. Vance pinned in the cockpit by the upper turret which had crashed in during the landing. As it was settling beneath the waves an explosion occurred which threw Lt. Col. Vance clear of the wreckage. After clinging to a piece of floating wreckage until he could muster enough strength to inflate his life vest he began searching for the crewmember whom he believed to be aboard. Failing to find anyone he began swimming and was found approximately 50 minutes later by an Air-Sea Rescue craft. By his extraordinary flying skill and gallant leadership, despite his grave injury, Lt. Col. Vance led his formation to a successful bombing of the assigned target and returned the crew to a point where they could bail out with safety. His gallant and valorous decision to ditch the aircraft in order to give the crewmember he believed to be aboard a chance for life exemplifies the highest traditions of the U.S. Armed Forces.