Captain Nick Hallett
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Captain Nick Hallett 2nd Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment
Captain Hallett was another officer who was involved in the defence of Le Paradis. Here we look at the pivotal part he played in the action and beyond:
10th May 1940: Invasion
On 5th May, 1940, Nick Hallett was listed as follows in Captain Charles Long’s ‘Register of Officers’
HQ Coy (Headquarters Company)
A/Captain Hallett MTO (Motor Transport Officer)
When the enemy crossed the border on 10th May, 1940, so ending the ‘Phoney War’, Captain Nick Hallett, the Motor Transport Officer, was with the Battalion at Orchies which soon found itself under attack from the Luftwaffe Bombers.
Hallett remarked that it was his ‘first experience of this sort of thing, and decidedly unpleasant as about 200 yards is much too close for comfort’. Just after midnight as the Battalion marched to Valenciennes before journeying to the Dyle, Captain Hallett wrote that he ‘felt excited as this was what we had been waiting for since the beginning of the war. Action was imminent’.
Captain Nick Hallett proved to be more than a capable officer and when on 24th May, 1940, Major Ryder, the Commanding Officer was ordered by Brigade to organise a reconnaissance of the La Bassée Canal, Major Ryder had no hesitation in leaving Nick Hallett temporarily in charge of the Battalion.
On 26th May, 1940, Capt. Charles Long’s War Diaries recorded a ‘Redistribution of Officers’ in which Captain Hallett was moved from Motor Transport Officer to command the remnants of ‘B’ Company.
This move further demonstrated the quality of officer, not only serving in 2nd Battalion the Royal Norfolks, but also in the British Army.
The Defence of Le Cornet Malo
At Le Cornet Malo, Captain Hallett immediately took the fight to the enemy by leading a patrol from his fragmented ‘B’ Company to the southern part of the village. With rifle and Bren gun they prevented the enemy advance from the canal with effective firepower even though, as Hallett recalled, ‘It was a pity we had no mortars or we could have bombed them beautifully.’
As they moved forward, a few surviving Germans gave themselves up. On questioning one of the wounded German prisoners, Hallett was told ‘there was about a Division against us across the canal, as I had expected, instead of the odd hundred or so I’d been told’ * (*Editor Note – in the British Army a Division could contain between 8.000 to 25,000 soldiers depending on the composition of Brigades forming it).
As the fighting wore on along the front there became a shortage of spares and ammunition.
On 27th May, 1940, around 0500 hrs tanks appeared in the ‘B’ Company’s area around Le Cornet Malo. ‘Huge fellows’ wrote Hallett, ‘and about a dozen. I phoned Battalion HQ. Then they cut the line. That was the last message I got to the Battalion’.
Signaller Bob Brown was on the switchboard at Battalion HQ and confirmed ‘B’ Company were the first to go out of communication. Only moments before, there had been a poignant exchange of words between Bob Brown and his friend Alf Blake the ‘B’ Company signalman. ‘I’m afraid we are in for it’ Blake told him. ‘Don’t forget me. We have had some good times together. I don’t know whether I will ever see you again.’ That was the last Bob Brown heard of his friend.
Despite Captain Hallett’s forward section falling back and leaving guns and anti-tank rifles behind, the remnants of ‘B’ Company defiantly faced the Panzers.
With sudden inspiration, Hallett recalled ‘Eventually we had a brainwave, and ran out below the tanks’ angle of fire, and put Mills grenades in the tracks. This did not do the tanks much harm, but frightened the drivers, and they ditched them. We got four that way. Then gradually some form of order was restored.'
This action allowed Hallett time to get a LMG (light machine gun) back in position and the A/T (anti- tank) rifles mounted.
The Totenkopf infantry had now caught up with the Panzers advancing shoulder to shoulder and suffered at the hands of Hallett’s Bren guns and riflemen. ‘B’ company, however, suffered heavily and Hallett was finally left in a barn with only a rifleman who, when killed, left Hallett on his own and wounded. In trying to escape, Captain Hallett was taken prisoner.
Bethune Civil Hospital
When Pooley and O’Callaghan were handed over to the Wehrmacht without risk to themselves or to the Creton family who had looked after them, they were taken to Bethune Civil Hospital. Here, by clever work of ‘admissions’, their entry into the hospital was dated 27th May, 1940 – thereby eliminating them from being at the scene of the massacre.
In all there were about ten Royal Norfolks in the hospital including CSM Cockaday (click on link) and one of the officers. O’Callaghan said it was the Transport Officer which implied Captain Nick Hallett, who had been in charge of transport until 26th May when he was placed, by Major Ryder, in charge of the remnants of ‘B’ Company defending Le Cornet Malo.
Captain Hallett’s presence in the hospital gave O’Callaghan the opportunity to report the atrocity at Le Paradis and he decided to do so. This meeting is now described by author Cyril Jolly:
"The officer made no bones of his belief and told O’Callaghan there and then that he did not believe that the Germans would do such a thing. O’Callaghan was naturally pretty sore at this open disbelief and told the officer that he could please himself whether he believed it or not, but that he did not make such things up and there would be no point in doing so. The officer went down soon after to see Pooley. His arm was in a sling. He sat down on Pooley’s bed and demanded, ‘What’s this cock and bull story O’Callaghan has been telling us about the Germans shooting ninety of our men?’
Pooley was not in a fit state for much interrogation, but he answered ‘It’s not a cock and bull story. It’s the truth. All the survivors of the battalion were taken out of Headquarters and machine-gunned.’
‘What happened to the Commanding Officer?’
‘He got it as well’ replied the wounded man.
But the officer, unconvinced, said, ‘The Germans would not do such a thing’ and unwilling to worry Pooley further, turned away.
It was a stroke of luck that Captain Hallett did not believe the story or progress with an investigation via, for example, the Red Cross, as the lives of the two witnesses to the massacre, O’Callaghan and Pooley would have been in jeopardy.
A slightly different view of what went on with Pooley and O'Callaghan comes from Hallett's own diaries which have been donated to the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum and cover the period from May 1940 going forward. This is what Hallett wrote with regard to his meeting with Pooley in Bethune Hospital:
"There were about a hundred British in the hospital of which about 12 came from the battalion. RSM Cockaday was there with a wounded leg and improved quickly.
"When we had been there about 10 days, Pooley came in with a very unpleasant story.
"He said that when Battalion HQ had surrendered they were disarmed and later marched into a courtyard and machine gunned. He said they saw the CO (Ryder) lying dead and that Long and Woodwark were there.
"He said he and O'Callaghan were the only survivors. This story must be checked as soon as possible.
"I questioned him a lot but could not shake him at all."
The 1970 Pilgrimage to Le Paradis
In May 1970 a Pilgrimage to Le Paradis was undertaken by members of the Norfolk and Norwich Branch of the Dunkirk Veterans Association led by their President, Major General Wade, where a memorial plaque on the barn wall where the massacre occurred, was unveiled by Bill O’Callaghan and Madam Creton.
During an ITV interview, reporter John Swinfield introduced the now Colonel Nick Hallett as ‘the first officer O’Callaghan spoke to about the incident’. Colonel Nick Hallett’s response was as follows; -
“After this event took place I was in fact in hospital at Bethune where I was taken after I was wounded…and one of the people who escaped the massacre came into the hospital and actually reported to me what had happened. This I found, at that stage, totally incredible. I, and others like me, had been captured by units of the same formation but not, indeed, by the people who carried out this massacre, and our treatment had been extremely good.
"The fact of a massacre of this sort was something totally foreign to our experience and not a thing we had expected from the German Army of those days. Of course, a further aspect of it was that, if this story was true, the knowledge of it was a very dangerous thing. There was nothing that we in hospital in an occupied country could do about it and if the Germans had known that somebody had escaped that massacre the future for him might have been very grim.
"I eventually was moved to a prison camp in Germany and it wasn’t until after the war when the whole story was published and Pooley and O’Callaghan were completely vindicated in the accuracy of their story when one realised what in fact had actually happened."
The 1978 unveiling of the Dunkirk Veterans Memoria at Le Paradis
In 1978 when the Dunkirk Veterans' Memorial in the centre of Le Paradis was commissioned there was an emotional encounter when Dennis O’Callaghan, the son of Bill O’Callaghan one of the two survivors of the atrocity, was introduced by Stan Priest, a member of the Dunkirk Veterans Association, to Colonel Nick Hallett, at the barn where the massacre took place. Here Colonel Hallett apologised to Dennis for not believing his father when they met at Bethune Civil Hospital. Dennis duly thanked him but there was a recognition of the circumstances which Colonel Hallett was under at that time and he was certainly not the only person to disbelieve the story.
After being repatriated in 1943, Bert Pooley reported the incident to the authorities whilst at Richmond Convalescent Camp. Soon after, he was interrogated by two officers whose unbelieving attitude to his story was deeply upsetting to Pooley. He would not disclose Bill O’Callaghan’s name as he had little faith in their security. Even when Bill O’Callaghan was released in 1945 and reported the atrocity – nothing more was heard as his affidavit disappeared into the system. It was only when the Americans and Lt. Col. A. P. Scotland of the London Cage (Kensington Interrogation Centre) became involved did the truth of the story unravel.
Captain Nick Hallett’s vital role
Notwithstanding his doubts over the massacre story which can be easily explained, Captain Nick Hallett’s incredible bravery implementing the final order of ‘last man last round’ and by leading by example at Le Cornet Malo demonstrated the vital role he too played in delaying the enemy advance to ensure the corridors to Dunkirk remained open for a successful evacuation.
Below we are beginning to transcribe Hallett's original war diaries. This is an extensive job and we are greatly indebted to the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum and their curator Kate Thaxton for allowing us unlimited access to the diaries which they now own and permission to reproduce them. We start with a few sample pages which illustrate Hallett's handwriting and attention to detail.
Captain Hallett was another officer who was involved in the defence of Le Paradis. Here we look at the pivotal part he played in the action and beyond:
10th May 1940: Invasion
On 5th May, 1940, Nick Hallett was listed as follows in Captain Charles Long’s ‘Register of Officers’
HQ Coy (Headquarters Company)
A/Captain Hallett MTO (Motor Transport Officer)
When the enemy crossed the border on 10th May, 1940, so ending the ‘Phoney War’, Captain Nick Hallett, the Motor Transport Officer, was with the Battalion at Orchies which soon found itself under attack from the Luftwaffe Bombers.
Hallett remarked that it was his ‘first experience of this sort of thing, and decidedly unpleasant as about 200 yards is much too close for comfort’. Just after midnight as the Battalion marched to Valenciennes before journeying to the Dyle, Captain Hallett wrote that he ‘felt excited as this was what we had been waiting for since the beginning of the war. Action was imminent’.
Captain Nick Hallett proved to be more than a capable officer and when on 24th May, 1940, Major Ryder, the Commanding Officer was ordered by Brigade to organise a reconnaissance of the La Bassée Canal, Major Ryder had no hesitation in leaving Nick Hallett temporarily in charge of the Battalion.
On 26th May, 1940, Capt. Charles Long’s War Diaries recorded a ‘Redistribution of Officers’ in which Captain Hallett was moved from Motor Transport Officer to command the remnants of ‘B’ Company.
This move further demonstrated the quality of officer, not only serving in 2nd Battalion the Royal Norfolks, but also in the British Army.
The Defence of Le Cornet Malo
At Le Cornet Malo, Captain Hallett immediately took the fight to the enemy by leading a patrol from his fragmented ‘B’ Company to the southern part of the village. With rifle and Bren gun they prevented the enemy advance from the canal with effective firepower even though, as Hallett recalled, ‘It was a pity we had no mortars or we could have bombed them beautifully.’
As they moved forward, a few surviving Germans gave themselves up. On questioning one of the wounded German prisoners, Hallett was told ‘there was about a Division against us across the canal, as I had expected, instead of the odd hundred or so I’d been told’ * (*Editor Note – in the British Army a Division could contain between 8.000 to 25,000 soldiers depending on the composition of Brigades forming it).
As the fighting wore on along the front there became a shortage of spares and ammunition.
On 27th May, 1940, around 0500 hrs tanks appeared in the ‘B’ Company’s area around Le Cornet Malo. ‘Huge fellows’ wrote Hallett, ‘and about a dozen. I phoned Battalion HQ. Then they cut the line. That was the last message I got to the Battalion’.
Signaller Bob Brown was on the switchboard at Battalion HQ and confirmed ‘B’ Company were the first to go out of communication. Only moments before, there had been a poignant exchange of words between Bob Brown and his friend Alf Blake the ‘B’ Company signalman. ‘I’m afraid we are in for it’ Blake told him. ‘Don’t forget me. We have had some good times together. I don’t know whether I will ever see you again.’ That was the last Bob Brown heard of his friend.
Despite Captain Hallett’s forward section falling back and leaving guns and anti-tank rifles behind, the remnants of ‘B’ Company defiantly faced the Panzers.
With sudden inspiration, Hallett recalled ‘Eventually we had a brainwave, and ran out below the tanks’ angle of fire, and put Mills grenades in the tracks. This did not do the tanks much harm, but frightened the drivers, and they ditched them. We got four that way. Then gradually some form of order was restored.'
This action allowed Hallett time to get a LMG (light machine gun) back in position and the A/T (anti- tank) rifles mounted.
The Totenkopf infantry had now caught up with the Panzers advancing shoulder to shoulder and suffered at the hands of Hallett’s Bren guns and riflemen. ‘B’ company, however, suffered heavily and Hallett was finally left in a barn with only a rifleman who, when killed, left Hallett on his own and wounded. In trying to escape, Captain Hallett was taken prisoner.
Bethune Civil Hospital
When Pooley and O’Callaghan were handed over to the Wehrmacht without risk to themselves or to the Creton family who had looked after them, they were taken to Bethune Civil Hospital. Here, by clever work of ‘admissions’, their entry into the hospital was dated 27th May, 1940 – thereby eliminating them from being at the scene of the massacre.
In all there were about ten Royal Norfolks in the hospital including CSM Cockaday (click on link) and one of the officers. O’Callaghan said it was the Transport Officer which implied Captain Nick Hallett, who had been in charge of transport until 26th May when he was placed, by Major Ryder, in charge of the remnants of ‘B’ Company defending Le Cornet Malo.
Captain Hallett’s presence in the hospital gave O’Callaghan the opportunity to report the atrocity at Le Paradis and he decided to do so. This meeting is now described by author Cyril Jolly:
"The officer made no bones of his belief and told O’Callaghan there and then that he did not believe that the Germans would do such a thing. O’Callaghan was naturally pretty sore at this open disbelief and told the officer that he could please himself whether he believed it or not, but that he did not make such things up and there would be no point in doing so. The officer went down soon after to see Pooley. His arm was in a sling. He sat down on Pooley’s bed and demanded, ‘What’s this cock and bull story O’Callaghan has been telling us about the Germans shooting ninety of our men?’
Pooley was not in a fit state for much interrogation, but he answered ‘It’s not a cock and bull story. It’s the truth. All the survivors of the battalion were taken out of Headquarters and machine-gunned.’
‘What happened to the Commanding Officer?’
‘He got it as well’ replied the wounded man.
But the officer, unconvinced, said, ‘The Germans would not do such a thing’ and unwilling to worry Pooley further, turned away.
It was a stroke of luck that Captain Hallett did not believe the story or progress with an investigation via, for example, the Red Cross, as the lives of the two witnesses to the massacre, O’Callaghan and Pooley would have been in jeopardy.
A slightly different view of what went on with Pooley and O'Callaghan comes from Hallett's own diaries which have been donated to the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum and cover the period from May 1940 going forward. This is what Hallett wrote with regard to his meeting with Pooley in Bethune Hospital:
"There were about a hundred British in the hospital of which about 12 came from the battalion. RSM Cockaday was there with a wounded leg and improved quickly.
"When we had been there about 10 days, Pooley came in with a very unpleasant story.
"He said that when Battalion HQ had surrendered they were disarmed and later marched into a courtyard and machine gunned. He said they saw the CO (Ryder) lying dead and that Long and Woodwark were there.
"He said he and O'Callaghan were the only survivors. This story must be checked as soon as possible.
"I questioned him a lot but could not shake him at all."
The 1970 Pilgrimage to Le Paradis
In May 1970 a Pilgrimage to Le Paradis was undertaken by members of the Norfolk and Norwich Branch of the Dunkirk Veterans Association led by their President, Major General Wade, where a memorial plaque on the barn wall where the massacre occurred, was unveiled by Bill O’Callaghan and Madam Creton.
During an ITV interview, reporter John Swinfield introduced the now Colonel Nick Hallett as ‘the first officer O’Callaghan spoke to about the incident’. Colonel Nick Hallett’s response was as follows; -
“After this event took place I was in fact in hospital at Bethune where I was taken after I was wounded…and one of the people who escaped the massacre came into the hospital and actually reported to me what had happened. This I found, at that stage, totally incredible. I, and others like me, had been captured by units of the same formation but not, indeed, by the people who carried out this massacre, and our treatment had been extremely good.
"The fact of a massacre of this sort was something totally foreign to our experience and not a thing we had expected from the German Army of those days. Of course, a further aspect of it was that, if this story was true, the knowledge of it was a very dangerous thing. There was nothing that we in hospital in an occupied country could do about it and if the Germans had known that somebody had escaped that massacre the future for him might have been very grim.
"I eventually was moved to a prison camp in Germany and it wasn’t until after the war when the whole story was published and Pooley and O’Callaghan were completely vindicated in the accuracy of their story when one realised what in fact had actually happened."
The 1978 unveiling of the Dunkirk Veterans Memoria at Le Paradis
In 1978 when the Dunkirk Veterans' Memorial in the centre of Le Paradis was commissioned there was an emotional encounter when Dennis O’Callaghan, the son of Bill O’Callaghan one of the two survivors of the atrocity, was introduced by Stan Priest, a member of the Dunkirk Veterans Association, to Colonel Nick Hallett, at the barn where the massacre took place. Here Colonel Hallett apologised to Dennis for not believing his father when they met at Bethune Civil Hospital. Dennis duly thanked him but there was a recognition of the circumstances which Colonel Hallett was under at that time and he was certainly not the only person to disbelieve the story.
After being repatriated in 1943, Bert Pooley reported the incident to the authorities whilst at Richmond Convalescent Camp. Soon after, he was interrogated by two officers whose unbelieving attitude to his story was deeply upsetting to Pooley. He would not disclose Bill O’Callaghan’s name as he had little faith in their security. Even when Bill O’Callaghan was released in 1945 and reported the atrocity – nothing more was heard as his affidavit disappeared into the system. It was only when the Americans and Lt. Col. A. P. Scotland of the London Cage (Kensington Interrogation Centre) became involved did the truth of the story unravel.
Captain Nick Hallett’s vital role
Notwithstanding his doubts over the massacre story which can be easily explained, Captain Nick Hallett’s incredible bravery implementing the final order of ‘last man last round’ and by leading by example at Le Cornet Malo demonstrated the vital role he too played in delaying the enemy advance to ensure the corridors to Dunkirk remained open for a successful evacuation.
Below we are beginning to transcribe Hallett's original war diaries. This is an extensive job and we are greatly indebted to the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum and their curator Kate Thaxton for allowing us unlimited access to the diaries which they now own and permission to reproduce them. We start with a few sample pages which illustrate Hallett's handwriting and attention to detail.
THE TRANSCRIPT
Capt. Nick Hallett: Motor Transport Officer War Diary
Tilloy May 10th
The day started unusually. There was a lot of aerial activity with flights of German bombers going over, starting from about 4.00 am. A lovely morning when I got up and watched them going over, there did not seem to be much resistance.
Slaughter called me as usual and I got up to find my landlady Mlle Bentot very excited. Before I went down to the office, Sgt Firmin arrived with a message that all transport was to report to the battalion at Orchies as soon as possible.
This meant something, as even during the previous flap about 10 days before, we’d not actually moved from Tilloy. I sent straight down to the office and we got all the Coys (Companies) off within an hour, and HQ about half an hour. Slaughter cooked my breakfast as usual while Sgt Wiltshire got the Tiffies (Editor's note - suggest this was a mechanical maintenance and repair) lorry and started packing up. I went round all the billets seeing that everything had been left clean and tidy. Said a very sad goodbye to the Dubois family, also Mme Beaucamp and Anna. I handed over the keys of my billet also the office to Suzanne. Everything was finished and MT (Motor Transport) HQ left about 11.30. I was last off in the P.U. (Pick Up) with Duffin about noon. I stopped in Marchiennes to hand over the billeting certificates and buy some shaving soap etc. from Raymond’s. This was lucky as it was the last time I was to see an occupied shop for some time. Reported to Bn HQ in Orchies & found the whole town in a wild state of activity. I found that the advance into Belgium was on for that night and that the Bn (battalion) was moving to a Rv ( Rendezvous) in Marchiennes forest as soon as possible, to leave the town clean in case it was bombed. All Coys moved down to the Croix au Pils and HQ Coy to Sars-et-Rosières. I was in A Coy office when the expected bombers arrived. They hit the station but did very little damage. My first experience of this sort of thing and decidedly unpleasant as about 200 yards is much too close for comfort.
I returned to a café by the NAAFI with a huge roll of maps to sort out and route cards for every driver. Yallop went out in my PU and left me stranded so I had to hitch-hike down to Bn HQ where I met him later. We had supper produced by the mess in a farm and in the middle some more bombers arrived. Of course, I went out to watch and saw a beautiful flame come down over Mouchin way. Just previously I’d been down to Brillon to see John Cave-Brown also he’d got all my money. I paid Tobin my mess bill and had about 200 francs left. We got orders to be formed upon the main St Amand Road ready to leave by 0120 the next day.
We started about dusk and got everything sorted out & the troop carriers in their proper places by midnight. The only absentee was Eames with the office. A little investigation produced him asleep in the straw at Bn HQ. After much bad language it was all sorted out and I reported to Col. DeWilton at the head of the column.
May 11 Sars-et-Rosières
The column moved off at 0120, but as it was something like 4 miles long , I was later. We went via Rosult, to Rumegies by the Lecelles Road, and crossed the Belgium frontier at Pont Caillou which was the Bge (Brigade) starting point. It was fairly dark but the underneath light made convoy driving fairly easy. We crossed the frontier at about 2 am and from then on the road lights made the road easy. I felt very excited as this is what we had been waiting for since the beginning of the war. We knew the Germans had entered Belgium and that action was imminent.
Also, we expected to be bombed on the way. About 10 miles after we entered the country there was a long halt as there must have been a jam up front. I sent Sgt Firmin up on his bike to report all well but I got no information. We moved on again at about 8 a.m. and the light was now good. Actually, we saw no enemy aircraft all day and only a few Lysanders and Hurricanes of our own. We went through Hall (Halle) and Ath to Enghien. The roads we (sic were) nearly all concrete and the going excellent. As usual the tail of the column was moving fast and once I was travelling at 55 mph. for about 10 miles. We had very little trouble and a petrol stoppage held up the Tiffies for about 10 minutes.
At a short stop in Espinette a woman came up and said “Welcome to Belgium” She was English married to a Belgian, it was a very nice gesture. We moved on through the Forest of Soignes to La Hulpe. Just over the railway which ran through a deep cutting, I halted with ‘B’ Ech (Echelon) until the transport lines had been decided on. I had some lunch of bully and hard-boiled eggs and bread and butter. We borrowed some hot water by a nearby house and made tea. We were all very hungry and it was excellent. Then Johnny Gibbins, the B.T.O (Brigade Transport Officer) (1 Borders) came along and we went off to recce the wagon lines. They were in a big estate called La Roncière, which was a big park with two lovely chateaux. The gardens were at their best and there were some white peacocks on the lawn which made it look a bit unreal.
We settled our area up near the keepers’ cottages with plenty of rides (?) for the vehicles. I took ‘B’ Ech back and parked them, leaving the cooks lorries up by the Bridge preparing a meal for the Bn which they took up later in the evening, led by the QM (Quartermaster). It was arranged that all vehicles not wanted should be returned to the Bridge and these collected by the DR (Dispatch Rider). This worked well enough. In the afternoon I went off on a motor bike to look for Bn HQ. I covered about 25 miles, but never found them. Finally at 7.00 pm I went up with the QM and the cooks. After one false step we found them, and I stopped for supper at the HQ mess and I left promising to bring up petrol that evening. It was dark when I started and I entirely failed to find them. So the QM took it up the next morning. When I got back, Duffin & Slaughter had put up the P.U. top as a tent and made a very comfortable place of it. I turned in thankfully and slept like a log.
May 12 La Hulpe
I was awakened at daylight by a big air battle but was much too comfortable to get up. Finally, I got up and had an excellent breakfast provided by the Mess. During the day the Bn moved to the hills above Wavre & I visited Bn HQ at the White Farm with HQ trspt (transport) in the woods below the farm. They had to leave there as a battery of 60 pounders moved in and spoilt the place. In the evening, I took up petrol and water and went round all Coys. We had to drive across country to B Coy and through Wavre to C & D. I found D Coy in a lovely Chateau behind a wood but never got to C at all. Got back after a long night drive and slept well.
May 13
Another comfortable morning and after a look round the lines I took a m/c (motor cycle) and went up to Bn HQ in the morning and on to C Coy. There was much excitement over some parachutists. We searched some woods and fired a lot but never caught anyone. That afternoon I visited all Coys with petrol and water and picked up a lot of refugees on the way back. They were very grateful & presented me with a bottle of wine. Major Charlton came down to the transport lines, where we ran quite a good mess. The QM lorry was with us and looked after us well.
That afternoon the LAD (Light Aid Detachment) moved also to us and I ran in (sic into) C Coy cooks with a broken rear spring. They made a very good job with a block of wood. Had tea with Marcel Rangey 6th Fd Coy (6th Forward Company) in Malaise
May 14
A lazy day but quite amusing. In the morning Keeler brought in a dog, a very nice spaniel bitch which I called Reine. That afternoon Sgt Miller and I went off to La Hulpe to collect an oxyacetylene welding set that the LAD promised us. On the way I shot a pheasant with a rifle range 100 ft. It was a very lucky shot. This time we left water and petrol at White Farm for the Coys to collect whilst I went on to Bn HQ. That night we moved back to Forest of Soignes
Then on a separate page : Met Armitage, Tobin and Baddyl who directed me to Bde. Last time I saw ‘6’ forward Coy complete. Bde HQ was in Overieche.
May 15
After a very muddled night drive, we parked in the wrong place at dawn. Soon we moved off to the proper place and prepared to move that night. Early that morning the Bn had moved back to a position just forward of Malaise, I went up to find Bn & Bde. I found that Bde HQ in the village behind Malaise and then on to Bn, almost on the corner. They wanted some SAA (Small Arms Ammunition) taken to B Coy so as I could not find Picken I drove the truck myself. After some trouble I found them & took PSM (Platoon Sergeant Major) Smalls back for the ammunition. Whilst I was there, there was a fight between a Messerschmitt and a Lysander. Unfortunately, the Lysander was shot down in our lines & we picked them up. After this I went back to the Forest and finished the preparations.
May 16
We moved off in the early morning via Petite Espinette. After one wrong shot we went back and at dawn, got awfully jammed with troops on a hill. It was eventually sorted out and we crossed the canal at Loth. Here the transport and the troops met and we stopped from 8 am till noon. Had an excellent breakfast and prepared to move on. There were troop carriers and after a frightful muddle we moved off. It was my third day without sleep and I was very tired. After a bit we halted in a jam & got badly bombed. I was very lucky for, having stood behind a tree for a bit, I joined Elson and two carrier drivers in a semi dry pond. As the last one landed in the green slime, a bomb burst just where I was standing a few seconds before. It did not last long and we moved off in fairly good order. Before leaving Loth, the Tiffies lorry with all the sergeants had failed to turn up & I was afraid they had been caught the wrong side of the canal, before the bridge was blown. Soon after the column moved on. I must have fallen asleep as the next thing that I remember is being woken up and asked if I knew our position. Of course, I didn’t but started to find out. The maps which had been hopelessly inaccurate for the first part of the journey were improving. I collected a column of about 150 vehicles & went to a town I could see. It proved to be Enghien & was half ruined & was being bombed. I decided to find a route across country but as this was impossible, we went back through Enghien. I used the carriers as traffic cops & they did excellent work bobbing back into their machines every time a bomb fell. After this things went better, the roads were good and clear & we only went about 15 mph. I rolled into Grammont with about 150 vehicles. Most of our own and more than half the Royal Scots and Lancashire Fusiliers.
In the town we split & I found our billeting even without much difficulty. It was a village called ______ (left blank). All the HQ vehicles were parked round a field & in an orchard. They had forgotten to fix a billet for me so I went & got my own. Quite a comfortable room in a café. I went back to the mess for supper, which was, as usual, very welcome. We had to be very quiet as the Col was not well. Actually, the next morning he was shipped off to the A.D.S (Advanced Dressing Station) with a bad nervous breakdown & Charlton took command. I was very cheered, as the tiffies had reached our area about six hours before us. It was my first night in a bed for some days and I slept very soundly.
May 17
Got up late and went to the mess for breakfast. This was real luxury. That morning there was a move to a new transport line a few miles away. I went off on a Norton & after one bad shot, chose two orchards which answered well, though we rather worried a woman by chopping down her fence to get in. A serious shortage of petrol had developed as the petrol point could not be found. I did a large mileage on a motor bike with Chapman following in a truck but eventually the petrol lorry arrived and relieved the situation a bit. Apart from this I spent most of the day going backwards and forwards to the Bn. We got our orders to move that evening & were formed up about midnight. During the day I visited A Coy in their position and also C Coy for whom we commandeered a very nice Ford V8 which was lucky as it very shortly replaced their P.U. which was burnt out. The Ford which was absolutely new had been left by the owners in the garage at their house which later became Coy HQ.
Later that evening we got final orders for the move and a meeting place for the bases.
May 18
Having formed up just outside the wagon lines we started for the Bn Rv (Battalion Rendezvous) which was to be at Z. The whole road was crowded with traffic and we had jams at X and Y. I stood at Y for a long time talking to the BM (Brigade Major) Grant–Peterkin. At one moment a single gun and its tractor arrived & I went over to talk to the Gunner Captain with it. I leant against the gun and found it was nearly red hot. I asked why, & he said he’d been blowing up a bridge that the charges had failed to demolish. He’d got 35 direct hits at 85 yards. It must have been a fine job. I went down the jam from Y to Z several times on a bike & found an overturned ambulance was causing most of the trouble. Eventually we got on to the R.V. at about first light and, of course, the troop carriers failed to appear. At last we loaded all the troops we could onto trucks and pushed off. All went well for about 5 miles till we reached the outskirts of _____ (word missing) where we jammed for about an hour and a half. During this time the refugees began to pile up which did not make things any easier and also some enemy aircraft appeared. There was a wounded man in the back of A Coy P.U. who we got under cover but nothing happened. Eventually the jam was slowly cleared at A where our column split and I was diverted from Ryder’s part and went off down the Oudenarde road. Mercifully the maps were now good and we made very good time down the Oudenarde Road and through to Renaix. Here we diverted on to 2 Div route to Tournai. After about 15 miles we joined the QM’s party and nearly all the other trucks and got them organised into some kind of order. When passing a crossroads down here I saw a familiar figure and passed William Shuttleworth who I had not seen since Aldershot some months before. About a couple of miles from Tournai we all halted again and this time the bombers came good and proper. First of all they machine gunned the road (at) what time the troops took to the woods and ditches. I got up behind a big hen house when I was joined by Charles Long who’d taken over spare driver for Howling (Editor's note - could this have been George Howlett who was batman to Captain Charles Long or is it a different person?).
Two men went into the hen house, the first one made it alright but the second was met by a perfect thunder cloud of white hens which bucked him off his feet. It was one of the funniest things I had seen for ages. Then the bombs started arriving with a most unpleasant whistling shriek. Mercifully they missed our column but set alight four 3 tonners of SAA just in front. When I got back to the road we had some trouble getting the drivers back but eventually we were ready to start. Suddenly a truck shot past with Shuttleworth standing in the back. I drove the P.U. myself & Duffin arrived just as we started. I was very angry, but learnt that Simmonds never turned up at all. The SAA was now blazing nicely and I passed those lorries doing about 55 mph. I slowed down before entering Tournai to let the column catch up. When we entered the town it appeared that all the traffic police had gone to earth and there were no guides of any sort. As the bombs were still falling, we could not stop so I made a guess at the route & struck lucky.
To Be Continued:
Capt. Nick Hallett: Motor Transport Officer War Diary
Tilloy May 10th
The day started unusually. There was a lot of aerial activity with flights of German bombers going over, starting from about 4.00 am. A lovely morning when I got up and watched them going over, there did not seem to be much resistance.
Slaughter called me as usual and I got up to find my landlady Mlle Bentot very excited. Before I went down to the office, Sgt Firmin arrived with a message that all transport was to report to the battalion at Orchies as soon as possible.
This meant something, as even during the previous flap about 10 days before, we’d not actually moved from Tilloy. I sent straight down to the office and we got all the Coys (Companies) off within an hour, and HQ about half an hour. Slaughter cooked my breakfast as usual while Sgt Wiltshire got the Tiffies (Editor's note - suggest this was a mechanical maintenance and repair) lorry and started packing up. I went round all the billets seeing that everything had been left clean and tidy. Said a very sad goodbye to the Dubois family, also Mme Beaucamp and Anna. I handed over the keys of my billet also the office to Suzanne. Everything was finished and MT (Motor Transport) HQ left about 11.30. I was last off in the P.U. (Pick Up) with Duffin about noon. I stopped in Marchiennes to hand over the billeting certificates and buy some shaving soap etc. from Raymond’s. This was lucky as it was the last time I was to see an occupied shop for some time. Reported to Bn HQ in Orchies & found the whole town in a wild state of activity. I found that the advance into Belgium was on for that night and that the Bn (battalion) was moving to a Rv ( Rendezvous) in Marchiennes forest as soon as possible, to leave the town clean in case it was bombed. All Coys moved down to the Croix au Pils and HQ Coy to Sars-et-Rosières. I was in A Coy office when the expected bombers arrived. They hit the station but did very little damage. My first experience of this sort of thing and decidedly unpleasant as about 200 yards is much too close for comfort.
I returned to a café by the NAAFI with a huge roll of maps to sort out and route cards for every driver. Yallop went out in my PU and left me stranded so I had to hitch-hike down to Bn HQ where I met him later. We had supper produced by the mess in a farm and in the middle some more bombers arrived. Of course, I went out to watch and saw a beautiful flame come down over Mouchin way. Just previously I’d been down to Brillon to see John Cave-Brown also he’d got all my money. I paid Tobin my mess bill and had about 200 francs left. We got orders to be formed upon the main St Amand Road ready to leave by 0120 the next day.
We started about dusk and got everything sorted out & the troop carriers in their proper places by midnight. The only absentee was Eames with the office. A little investigation produced him asleep in the straw at Bn HQ. After much bad language it was all sorted out and I reported to Col. DeWilton at the head of the column.
May 11 Sars-et-Rosières
The column moved off at 0120, but as it was something like 4 miles long , I was later. We went via Rosult, to Rumegies by the Lecelles Road, and crossed the Belgium frontier at Pont Caillou which was the Bge (Brigade) starting point. It was fairly dark but the underneath light made convoy driving fairly easy. We crossed the frontier at about 2 am and from then on the road lights made the road easy. I felt very excited as this is what we had been waiting for since the beginning of the war. We knew the Germans had entered Belgium and that action was imminent.
Also, we expected to be bombed on the way. About 10 miles after we entered the country there was a long halt as there must have been a jam up front. I sent Sgt Firmin up on his bike to report all well but I got no information. We moved on again at about 8 a.m. and the light was now good. Actually, we saw no enemy aircraft all day and only a few Lysanders and Hurricanes of our own. We went through Hall (Halle) and Ath to Enghien. The roads we (sic were) nearly all concrete and the going excellent. As usual the tail of the column was moving fast and once I was travelling at 55 mph. for about 10 miles. We had very little trouble and a petrol stoppage held up the Tiffies for about 10 minutes.
At a short stop in Espinette a woman came up and said “Welcome to Belgium” She was English married to a Belgian, it was a very nice gesture. We moved on through the Forest of Soignes to La Hulpe. Just over the railway which ran through a deep cutting, I halted with ‘B’ Ech (Echelon) until the transport lines had been decided on. I had some lunch of bully and hard-boiled eggs and bread and butter. We borrowed some hot water by a nearby house and made tea. We were all very hungry and it was excellent. Then Johnny Gibbins, the B.T.O (Brigade Transport Officer) (1 Borders) came along and we went off to recce the wagon lines. They were in a big estate called La Roncière, which was a big park with two lovely chateaux. The gardens were at their best and there were some white peacocks on the lawn which made it look a bit unreal.
We settled our area up near the keepers’ cottages with plenty of rides (?) for the vehicles. I took ‘B’ Ech back and parked them, leaving the cooks lorries up by the Bridge preparing a meal for the Bn which they took up later in the evening, led by the QM (Quartermaster). It was arranged that all vehicles not wanted should be returned to the Bridge and these collected by the DR (Dispatch Rider). This worked well enough. In the afternoon I went off on a motor bike to look for Bn HQ. I covered about 25 miles, but never found them. Finally at 7.00 pm I went up with the QM and the cooks. After one false step we found them, and I stopped for supper at the HQ mess and I left promising to bring up petrol that evening. It was dark when I started and I entirely failed to find them. So the QM took it up the next morning. When I got back, Duffin & Slaughter had put up the P.U. top as a tent and made a very comfortable place of it. I turned in thankfully and slept like a log.
May 12 La Hulpe
I was awakened at daylight by a big air battle but was much too comfortable to get up. Finally, I got up and had an excellent breakfast provided by the Mess. During the day the Bn moved to the hills above Wavre & I visited Bn HQ at the White Farm with HQ trspt (transport) in the woods below the farm. They had to leave there as a battery of 60 pounders moved in and spoilt the place. In the evening, I took up petrol and water and went round all Coys. We had to drive across country to B Coy and through Wavre to C & D. I found D Coy in a lovely Chateau behind a wood but never got to C at all. Got back after a long night drive and slept well.
May 13
Another comfortable morning and after a look round the lines I took a m/c (motor cycle) and went up to Bn HQ in the morning and on to C Coy. There was much excitement over some parachutists. We searched some woods and fired a lot but never caught anyone. That afternoon I visited all Coys with petrol and water and picked up a lot of refugees on the way back. They were very grateful & presented me with a bottle of wine. Major Charlton came down to the transport lines, where we ran quite a good mess. The QM lorry was with us and looked after us well.
That afternoon the LAD (Light Aid Detachment) moved also to us and I ran in (sic into) C Coy cooks with a broken rear spring. They made a very good job with a block of wood. Had tea with Marcel Rangey 6th Fd Coy (6th Forward Company) in Malaise
May 14
A lazy day but quite amusing. In the morning Keeler brought in a dog, a very nice spaniel bitch which I called Reine. That afternoon Sgt Miller and I went off to La Hulpe to collect an oxyacetylene welding set that the LAD promised us. On the way I shot a pheasant with a rifle range 100 ft. It was a very lucky shot. This time we left water and petrol at White Farm for the Coys to collect whilst I went on to Bn HQ. That night we moved back to Forest of Soignes
Then on a separate page : Met Armitage, Tobin and Baddyl who directed me to Bde. Last time I saw ‘6’ forward Coy complete. Bde HQ was in Overieche.
May 15
After a very muddled night drive, we parked in the wrong place at dawn. Soon we moved off to the proper place and prepared to move that night. Early that morning the Bn had moved back to a position just forward of Malaise, I went up to find Bn & Bde. I found that Bde HQ in the village behind Malaise and then on to Bn, almost on the corner. They wanted some SAA (Small Arms Ammunition) taken to B Coy so as I could not find Picken I drove the truck myself. After some trouble I found them & took PSM (Platoon Sergeant Major) Smalls back for the ammunition. Whilst I was there, there was a fight between a Messerschmitt and a Lysander. Unfortunately, the Lysander was shot down in our lines & we picked them up. After this I went back to the Forest and finished the preparations.
May 16
We moved off in the early morning via Petite Espinette. After one wrong shot we went back and at dawn, got awfully jammed with troops on a hill. It was eventually sorted out and we crossed the canal at Loth. Here the transport and the troops met and we stopped from 8 am till noon. Had an excellent breakfast and prepared to move on. There were troop carriers and after a frightful muddle we moved off. It was my third day without sleep and I was very tired. After a bit we halted in a jam & got badly bombed. I was very lucky for, having stood behind a tree for a bit, I joined Elson and two carrier drivers in a semi dry pond. As the last one landed in the green slime, a bomb burst just where I was standing a few seconds before. It did not last long and we moved off in fairly good order. Before leaving Loth, the Tiffies lorry with all the sergeants had failed to turn up & I was afraid they had been caught the wrong side of the canal, before the bridge was blown. Soon after the column moved on. I must have fallen asleep as the next thing that I remember is being woken up and asked if I knew our position. Of course, I didn’t but started to find out. The maps which had been hopelessly inaccurate for the first part of the journey were improving. I collected a column of about 150 vehicles & went to a town I could see. It proved to be Enghien & was half ruined & was being bombed. I decided to find a route across country but as this was impossible, we went back through Enghien. I used the carriers as traffic cops & they did excellent work bobbing back into their machines every time a bomb fell. After this things went better, the roads were good and clear & we only went about 15 mph. I rolled into Grammont with about 150 vehicles. Most of our own and more than half the Royal Scots and Lancashire Fusiliers.
In the town we split & I found our billeting even without much difficulty. It was a village called ______ (left blank). All the HQ vehicles were parked round a field & in an orchard. They had forgotten to fix a billet for me so I went & got my own. Quite a comfortable room in a café. I went back to the mess for supper, which was, as usual, very welcome. We had to be very quiet as the Col was not well. Actually, the next morning he was shipped off to the A.D.S (Advanced Dressing Station) with a bad nervous breakdown & Charlton took command. I was very cheered, as the tiffies had reached our area about six hours before us. It was my first night in a bed for some days and I slept very soundly.
May 17
Got up late and went to the mess for breakfast. This was real luxury. That morning there was a move to a new transport line a few miles away. I went off on a Norton & after one bad shot, chose two orchards which answered well, though we rather worried a woman by chopping down her fence to get in. A serious shortage of petrol had developed as the petrol point could not be found. I did a large mileage on a motor bike with Chapman following in a truck but eventually the petrol lorry arrived and relieved the situation a bit. Apart from this I spent most of the day going backwards and forwards to the Bn. We got our orders to move that evening & were formed up about midnight. During the day I visited A Coy in their position and also C Coy for whom we commandeered a very nice Ford V8 which was lucky as it very shortly replaced their P.U. which was burnt out. The Ford which was absolutely new had been left by the owners in the garage at their house which later became Coy HQ.
Later that evening we got final orders for the move and a meeting place for the bases.
May 18
Having formed up just outside the wagon lines we started for the Bn Rv (Battalion Rendezvous) which was to be at Z. The whole road was crowded with traffic and we had jams at X and Y. I stood at Y for a long time talking to the BM (Brigade Major) Grant–Peterkin. At one moment a single gun and its tractor arrived & I went over to talk to the Gunner Captain with it. I leant against the gun and found it was nearly red hot. I asked why, & he said he’d been blowing up a bridge that the charges had failed to demolish. He’d got 35 direct hits at 85 yards. It must have been a fine job. I went down the jam from Y to Z several times on a bike & found an overturned ambulance was causing most of the trouble. Eventually we got on to the R.V. at about first light and, of course, the troop carriers failed to appear. At last we loaded all the troops we could onto trucks and pushed off. All went well for about 5 miles till we reached the outskirts of _____ (word missing) where we jammed for about an hour and a half. During this time the refugees began to pile up which did not make things any easier and also some enemy aircraft appeared. There was a wounded man in the back of A Coy P.U. who we got under cover but nothing happened. Eventually the jam was slowly cleared at A where our column split and I was diverted from Ryder’s part and went off down the Oudenarde road. Mercifully the maps were now good and we made very good time down the Oudenarde Road and through to Renaix. Here we diverted on to 2 Div route to Tournai. After about 15 miles we joined the QM’s party and nearly all the other trucks and got them organised into some kind of order. When passing a crossroads down here I saw a familiar figure and passed William Shuttleworth who I had not seen since Aldershot some months before. About a couple of miles from Tournai we all halted again and this time the bombers came good and proper. First of all they machine gunned the road (at) what time the troops took to the woods and ditches. I got up behind a big hen house when I was joined by Charles Long who’d taken over spare driver for Howling (Editor's note - could this have been George Howlett who was batman to Captain Charles Long or is it a different person?).
Two men went into the hen house, the first one made it alright but the second was met by a perfect thunder cloud of white hens which bucked him off his feet. It was one of the funniest things I had seen for ages. Then the bombs started arriving with a most unpleasant whistling shriek. Mercifully they missed our column but set alight four 3 tonners of SAA just in front. When I got back to the road we had some trouble getting the drivers back but eventually we were ready to start. Suddenly a truck shot past with Shuttleworth standing in the back. I drove the P.U. myself & Duffin arrived just as we started. I was very angry, but learnt that Simmonds never turned up at all. The SAA was now blazing nicely and I passed those lorries doing about 55 mph. I slowed down before entering Tournai to let the column catch up. When we entered the town it appeared that all the traffic police had gone to earth and there were no guides of any sort. As the bombs were still falling, we could not stop so I made a guess at the route & struck lucky.
To Be Continued:
Biography
Nick Hallett was born on 9th June, 1917, in Weybourne, North Norfolk. He was the son of Captain and Mrs G. Hallett.
He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt and trained at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. In 1937 he was commissioned in the Royal Norfolk Regiment. Before the war he served in Gibraltar for three years.
After the war he undertook regimental duties in Germany and was adjutant to the company commander and second in command of the First Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment.
After a period at the Army staff college in Camberley he was stationed at the War Office in London in the Directorate of Military Operations.
From 1951 to 1958 he was stationed with the allied forces in Oslo and then saw further service in Hong Kong and the UK. A number of other high ranking posts followed. It was during this time that Hallett was made an MBE.
After leaving the army he became what was commonly known as a television watchdog, being ITV's regional officer in East Anglia and stationed in Norwich.
Nick Hallett was a linguist speaking French, German, Finnish and Norwegien. He married Patricia Mary Clogstoun at the Holy Trinity Church in Brompton. They had a son Anthony and a daughter Nicolette. Major Hallett was a former chairman of Lyng Parish Council and a member of Mitford and Launditch Urban District Council. He died at the age of 82 in 1999.
Below are a number of press cuttings and other information relevant to Nick Hallett.
Nick Hallett was born on 9th June, 1917, in Weybourne, North Norfolk. He was the son of Captain and Mrs G. Hallett.
He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt and trained at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. In 1937 he was commissioned in the Royal Norfolk Regiment. Before the war he served in Gibraltar for three years.
After the war he undertook regimental duties in Germany and was adjutant to the company commander and second in command of the First Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment.
After a period at the Army staff college in Camberley he was stationed at the War Office in London in the Directorate of Military Operations.
From 1951 to 1958 he was stationed with the allied forces in Oslo and then saw further service in Hong Kong and the UK. A number of other high ranking posts followed. It was during this time that Hallett was made an MBE.
After leaving the army he became what was commonly known as a television watchdog, being ITV's regional officer in East Anglia and stationed in Norwich.
Nick Hallett was a linguist speaking French, German, Finnish and Norwegien. He married Patricia Mary Clogstoun at the Holy Trinity Church in Brompton. They had a son Anthony and a daughter Nicolette. Major Hallett was a former chairman of Lyng Parish Council and a member of Mitford and Launditch Urban District Council. He died at the age of 82 in 1999.
Below are a number of press cuttings and other information relevant to Nick Hallett.
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NOTES AND THANKS
Our gratitude for this article is extended to:
Our gratitude for this article is extended to:
- Mrs Debbi Lane, widow of the author Richard Lane, who has kindly allowed us to use the research information contained in his book ‘Last Stand at Le Paradis’ in memory of him.
- The family of Cyril Jolly author of ‘The Vengeance of Private Pooley’ who have allowed us to use material from his book in memory of him.
- The Long family for the use of Capt. Charles Long’s War Diary.
- Journalist Steve Snelling for supplying the photograph.
- East Anglian Film Archives.
- The Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum at Norwich Castle and their curator Kate Thaxton for allowing us access to Captain Hallett's diaries.