Freds photo's put into one album

One for you Don.

Me and the Aussie Dame (Jenny) looking for some guy named Russell lol !!

New Zealand

Any news of our ex-comrades in NZ. Hope they are all well.

 

Regards.  Doug.

HALEY SKYDIVING

HALEY THE HELP FOR HEROES GIRL Skydiving at LAKE WANAKA NEW ZEALAND
She is the MAD ONE of the family

I'm back

Just been released from Hospital  2 major OPs only just survived them ,just edited my email a/c& I'm knackered,off in a few days to Lippeland and rehab then back for a 3rd OP not so major this time I'll get back when I' ve had rest . Frank

Sergeant Patrick Hanlon

August 28, 1965 Based at Celle, near Hambury, Germany, Sergeant Patrick Hanlon of The Princess of Wales''s Royal Regiment was refereeing an impromptu football match when the top floor of a nearby biscuit factory suddenly caved in.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358850/Hero-soldier-Sergeant-Patrick-Hanlon-saved-10-German-workers-daring-rescue--daughter-selling-memorabilia.html#ixzz1EYC1G9G6

NMA service

I have been informed that the Royal Horse Guards will be holding a service at the NMA on the same day in June for their 350th, there will be around twenty five attending including two trumpeters, I do not see that there will be any problem with it.

John Atkins

Some Photo's from Helene Meikle

Some of the band members by kind permission of Helene.

BIRTHDAY GREETINGS

Many happy returns of the day to Denis Sowerby on 19th, have a good one and don't go giving Sid any of your chocolates as you know they are not good for him, but thinking of it they are no good to you either so keep them for me when I see you, hope you enjoy your meal.

 John Atkins

Museum @ Hartlepool

Had a great afternoon yesterday. Visited the Heughbattery Museum at The Headland, Hartlepool.  Well worth a visit if/when in the area. Has a long history, going back to the 1800s.

Visit/review the website.   www.heughbattery.com 

Majority of exhibits are cannon and artillery weapons, but some really interesting items.

They recently took delivery of a Chieftan Tank, Saracen APC and Ferret Scout Car.Sadly, no Saladin.

The previous owner had to remove them off his site, so he donated them to the Battery.

The armour have no insignia. I!m hoping to get printed "Eagle" transfers to attach to the turrets.

Regards  Doug.

For your amusement

Was driving to work this morning when I saw an RAC van parked up. The

driver was sobbing uncontrollably and looked very miserable. I thought to

myself 'that guy's heading for a breakdown'

Brigadier Heathcoat-Amory

Brigadier Heathcoat-Amory

Brigadier Roderick Heathcoat-Amory, who died on 27th July 1998, aged 91 was awarded an immediate MC at El Alamein in 1942. He was originally recommended for an immediate DS0 with endorsements by his Brigade Commander and the Commander-in-Chief, Middle East Land Forces, General Alexander. But the award was downgraded to an MC by General Montgomery, commanding the 8th Army. On the night of November 1 1942, Heathcoat-Amory was in command of a squadron of the Royal Dragoons, who broke through the enemy minefields at Alamein. It took until daylight before they were clear of the minefields, but Heathcoat-Amory pushed on to his objective through enemy positions, regardless of the opposition. Under his direction, the squadron was subsequently responsible for the destruction of more than 100 enemy transport vehicles, a tank and several guns; and they also captured of a very large number of prisoners. The citation for his MC commended Heathcoat-Amory's conspicuous ability and devotion to duty throughout this hazardous operation covering four days behind the enemy lines".

Roderick Heathcoat-Amory was born on January 30 1907, the fourth son of Sir Ian Murray Heathcoat-Amory, Ind Bt. The second son, Derick would become Chancellor of the Exchequer under Harold Macmillan, in 1958, and the first (and last) Viscount Amory in 1960. Roderick’s great- great grandfather John Heathcoat, who in 1808 had invented the bobbin net machine, a revolutionary mechanism for making silk and cotton nets, had started the family firm of Heathcoat and Co. In 1816, the Luddites, fearing the machinery would put men out of work, destroyed 55 machines at Heathcoat's plant at Loughborough. As a result, he moved to the more peaceful area of Devon, taking his workforce with him. A man of vision and a model employer, he built up a prosperous business near Tiverton. Young Roderick began his education at Ludgrove preparatory school. His parents visited him just once during his five years there, but that was unexceptional in those days. At Eton he paid insufficient attention to his studies, and failed to get up to Christ Church, Oxford.

Having heard good reports of New Zealand, Heathcoat-Amory decided to go there to make his fortune. Discouraged by his failure to do so in a short time, he came home and joined the Army, obtaining a commission via the Supplementary Reserve. After passing the necessary examination, he was granted a regular commission in the Royal Dragoons. He went out to join the regiment in India, at Secunderabad, where he enjoyed polo, pig-sticking and shooting although, as he would firmly point out, military training began at 6.30am and continued until lunchtime: One incident from his time in India always stuck in his mind. He recalled how during a military review at Delhi, the Viceroy's wife, Lady Willingdon, sent for the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Phillip Chetwode, and said she thought there should be more entertainment. Might it be possible, Lady Willingdon wondered, for a wild animal fight to be arranged? “Certainly your Excellency”, replied Chetwode. “Shall I apply to the Bishop of Lahore for some Christians to throw to them!” This, Heathcoat-Amory recalled, did little to improve an already frosty relationship.

In 1935, as Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia threatened a wider war, the regiment left India for Egypt. But in the event the situation quietened down, and in 1936 Heathcoat-Amory returned to England, making the most of the chance to hunt with the Warwickshire and to hone his skill as a pilot. In 1938, the regiment was sent to Palestine to deal with the Arab rebellion, but by the time war broke out the next year Heathcoat-Amory was back in England, halfway through the Long Equestrian Course at Weedon. After an unsuccessful attempt to transfer to the RAF (for which he was already too old), he was posted back to Palestine where the regiment was then being mechanised. In May 1941, equipped with armoured cars, the Royals were sent to the Western Desert, to carry out reconnaissance duties and to harass the Germans. Soon afterwards they were posted to Syria to take preventive action against the Vichy, pro-German government of that country During a patrol in Syria, Heathcoat-Amory's armoured car overturned on a sand dune, landing on top of him and breaking all his ribs on one side and three on the other. While convalescing, he had a part-time job as Liaison Officer with the Polish Brigade, after which he returned to the regiment in February 1942.

In June and July 1941, the Royals were engaged in the Gazala battles, where the 8th Army was out-fought by the superior guns and tanks of the Germans, and retreated to the El Alamein position. Here Heathcoat-Amory was given command of ‘C’ Squadron, took part in the victory at Alam Halfa at the end of August, and on November 1 was given the task of leading the way through the German minefields at Alamein. After Alamein, the Royals were in the van of the Army's drive to Tunisia, but here Heathcoat-Amory went down with nephritis, and was evacuated to hospital in Alexandria. He recovered in time to land at Taranto, Italy, in September 1943, but as the front there was static, the Royals were posted back to England to be re-equipped and trained for the North West Europe campaign. At the end of July 1944, they landed in Normandy and became the Advanced Guard of l2 Corp, then of 30 Corp, and were involved in the battle to reach Arnhem. The regiment saw some tough fighting in Holland, crossed the Rhine, fought its way up to Bremen, and at the end of the war had the task of disarming the 120, 000 German troops in Denmark. At the end of the North West Europe campaign, Heathcoat-Amory was mentioned in despatches. Heathcoat-Amory's next appointment was to command and then disband the North Irish Horse, followed by a similar assignment with 15th Scottish Reconnaissance Regiment. This melancholy task over, he was sent to the Staff College, Camberley. In January 1949, he was given command of his regiment. Heathcoat-Amory's final appointment was the command of 11th Armoured Brigade, TA, in Yorkshire. He retired in 1958 and settled in Yorkshire, where he was Joint Master of the Sinnington Hounds for 12 years, helped with the point-to-point races and the Pony Club, and also served on the rural District Council. In 1971, he was High Sheriff. A lover of all outdoor sports .Heathcoat-Amory caught his first salmon at the age of 90. He had a deep love of nature and after the war made many trips to Africa to see the wildlife. He enjoyed life to the full and took great pleasure in helping others to do the same.

Roderick Heathcoat-Amory married, in 1947, Sonia (nee Denison), the widow of his cousin Gerald Heathcoat-Amory, who had been killed in Normandy In 1939 They had a son, the MP David Heathcoat-Amory, and a daughter.

" good old Royals

Name them

Colonel Hans Von Luck

Colonel Hans Von Luck

Colonel Hans von Luck, wartime Panzer leader, died in Hamburg on August 1 1997 aged 86. He was born at Flensburg on July 15, 1911.

In his memoir, Panzer Commander, published in America in 1989, Hans von Luck recalls the astonishment he felt when, in the 1960s, he was invited to the Staff College at Camberley to lecture to young British officers on the German experience of the Normandy battle of 1944. The consciousness of having been the servant of an evil regime, doubly drummed into him through five years as a prisoner of the Russians between 1945 and 1950, made him reticent about talking of his war. But when he stood up to address his first Staff College audience, it was to hear himself described by Camberley's CO as "a fair and courageous opponent". The awkwardness passed, and he was regularly invited back.
Staff College audiences were particularly interested to hear what a German had to say about the controversial Operation Goodwood, the British 2nd Army's apparent attempt to break out of its bridgehead at Caen in July 1944. As commanding officer 125 Panzergrenadier Regiment, von Luck had played an important part in repelling the most massive Allied tank attack of the entire Normandy campaign. On one occasion he even ordered the commander of a flak battery at gunpoint not to train his 88mm guns skywards looking for aircraft, but to use them against the advancing British tanks. "Either you're a dead man or you can earn yourself a medal," von Luck told the reluctant flak commander, levelling his Luger pistol at him. Faced with this steely determination, the young officer complied, and the anti-aircraft guns became anti-tank guns, with devastating effect on the British armour.
The repulse of Goodwood brought acute disappointment verging on outrage to the Chiefs of Staff, the press and the British public, and its effects reverberate among military commentators to this day. That three complete armoured divisions - whose way forward had supposedly been eased by an immense carpet of bombs dropped by 2,000 aircraft - should have been stopped in their tracks by vastly inferior German forces, was considered a disgrace. Tedder, Eisenhower's deputy for the NW Europe campaign, furious at the squandering of such massive air power for such limited objectives, called for Montgomery's head. Montgomery, in a perhaps retrospective adjustment of his aims, said that no breakout had been planned; Goodwood had been a "battle of position" intended to draw German forces into a war of attrition and allow the Americans to break out on the western flank of the bridgehead - which indeed they later did.
On the German side, von Luck's initiatives - besides the flak battery, he had rounded up much other artillery and got it pointing in the right direction - earned him the praise of the corps commander. He was used to such notice. From early on in his career he had been a protege of Rommel, who in 1942 had had him brought from the Russian front to North Africa to command his "pet" unit, the 3rd Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion. Poland, 1939; France 1940; Russia 1941-42; North Africa 1942-43; NW Europe 1944; and finally the Eastern front again just before the final collapse in 1945, von Luck had been in the thick of just about every campaign of the war.
Hans von Luck was born into the Old Prussian officer class. An ancestor had fought against the Tartars in the 13th century; another had served Frederick the Great in the Seven Years War. Remarkably, given such a military background, his father was a naval officer, which accounts for von Luck's birth at Flensburg. But the father's career was an aberration. Hans von Luck went to army cadet school, from where he was posted to a cavalry regiment. But from this he was uprooted and sent to one of the first motorised battalions in the Reichswehr. At first he was disappointed not to be a cavalryman, but the move ensured that he was in at the birth of Germany's formidable panzer forces. In Saxony in 1932 he met Erwin Rommel who trained him in infantry tactics.
In August 1939 von Luck's armoured reconnaissance regiment was on manoeuvres on the Polish frontier when it had its blank cartridges exchanged for live ammunition. At 0450 hours on September 1, it rolled over the Polish frontier to begin what would, for von Luck, be more than five-and-a-half years of almost continual fighting. By the middle of September, with the Polish armies routed, von Luck's unit was in Warsaw.
For the invasion of France and the Low Countries in the following spring, he found himself in a panzer division commanded by Rommel. The young company commander had already made an impression on the famous general, and when, on May 28, 1940, the commander of 37 Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion was killed in northern France, Rommel appointed him, over the heads of many more senior officers, to lead the unit. In the aftermath of Dunkirk, von Luck's battalion continued the pursuit of the French Army southwards, encompassing the surrender of Fecamp without having to bombard the picturesque resort.
Von Luck's third campaign began at 4am on June 22, 1941, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. His panzer division was part of the Northern Army Group aiming for Minsk as a prelude to assaulting Moscow itself. Von Luck actually managed to insert a patrol into the suburbs of the Russian capital before counterattacks and the onset of winter flung the Germans back. By that time he knew that Rommel, in North Africa, was asking for him and, though his divisional general would not at first release him, by the spring of 1942 he was reporting to his old boss in his desert HQ.
For von Luck the fight against the British in the desert was always to be the most "sporting" contest of the war. The deep bitterness of the French campaign and the dehumanizing ethos of the Russian front, were absent. The to-and-fro nature of the struggle meant that both sides got to know each others units - sometimes each others personalities - quite intimately. A captured German medical officer might be "swapped" for a supply of synthetic quinine of which the British were in short supply. Towards the end of the campaign, in a Tunisian desert bivouac, a bedouin suddenly came to von Luck's tent and presented him with a letter. It was from the CO The Royal Dragoons and read:
Dear Major von Luck, We have had other tasks and so were unable to keep in touch with you. The war in Africa has been decided, I'm glad to say not in your favour. I should like, therefore, to thank you and all your people, in the name of my officers and men, for the fair play with which we have fought against each other on both sides. I and my battalion hope that all of you will come out of the war safe...
After the close of the Tunisian campaign von Luck spent some time in Berlin before going to Normandy where, on D-Day, he was commanding a tank regiment of 21 Panzer Division near Caen. When he saw the massed parachutists and gliders of 6 Airborne Division descending on Normandy early on June 6, 1944, he longed to counter-attack at once. But his formation was forbidden to move without a direct order from Hitler, who slept in until noon. Later, after the repulse of Goodwood, he fought his way back to the Germany's Rhine frontier and was involved in some tough fighting against the Americans in the Vosges Mountains.
Had he finished his war there, his future might have been different. But in February 1945 his panzergrenadiers were switched to the eastern front, where he was taken prisoner by the Russians in the desperate fighting on the Oder around the fortress of Kustrin in April. He then faced almost five years' grim labour in the Soviet Union, first as a coal miner, then as a building worker in the Caucasus.
He was released in the winter of 1949-50, but found his hometown in ruins. His private life was in ruins, too. He had formed an attachment during the war to a girl he was not then allowed to marry, because she had a Jewish great-grandparent. By the time he returned from imprisonment her circumstances had changed. They remained friends but he found a new life as a coffee merchant, spending some time in Angola. He married and fathered three sons.
His British Staff College visits brought him into touch with Major John Howard, whom, had his unit been allowed to move forward, he might well have driven off Pegasus Bridge in the small hours of D-Day. Through Howard he met the American historian and presidential biographer Stephen Ambrose who wrote a foreword to Panzer Commander.
Von Luck also advised the Ministry of Defence on its 1979 instruction film Goodwood. He was even asked to lecture on the topic to the Swedish Military College; this small neutral state regarded his July 1944 counter-attack as a classic of its kind, with a lesson for any country that might find itself subject to amphibious invasion. Howard and von Luck were often to be seen together, both at D-Day reunions, which initially he had been reticent about attending, and at seminars arranged by Ambrose when he was a professor at New Orleans.
His wife Regina and sons survive him.

C/O Sir Desmond Fitzpatrick

I'm sure many of you will remember Sir Desmond Fitzpatrick who was our C/O. I came across this obituary in the Daily Telegraph recently and thought you might like to know. It was dated 18 Oct 2002.

General Sir Desmond Fitzpatrick, who has died aged 89, was that rare combination, an outstanding front-line commander and a highly successful staff officer; after winning an MC in Palestine in 1939 and a DSO in Germany during the Second World War he became C-in-C, BAOR, and Commander, Northern Army Group, in 1968. In April 1945, the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, equipped with Grant tanks and scout cars, were ordered to capture Tostedt and advance north to cut the Hamburg-Bremen autobahn. The town was defended by infantry armed with bazookas, anti-tank and self-propelled guns, and there was at least one Tiger tank in the area. The obvious approaches to the town were blocked by demolitions, and alternative routes were extremely difficult for the tanks. Fitzpatrick, the commanding officer, made several reconnaissance missions, in person, under heavy fire, and by the time the daylight failed the 8th Hussars had driven back the enemy and captured the town. With the assistance of an infantry battalion, Fitzpatrick mopped up the remaining resistance during the night and consolidated his position. The next morning, on arrival at the autobahn near Hollenstedt, the regiment came under fire from 88 mm guns and took a number of casualties. By skilful manoeuvring, Fitzpatrick by-passed the opposition at Hollenstedt and pushed down the autobahn towards Hamburg, destroying eight 88s on the way. Halting only for nightfall, Fitzpatrick drove relentlessly on towards the river Elbe. After a stiff action in which many infantry positions and anti-tank guns were overrun and 200 of the enemy taken prisoner or killed, he finally reached the river. The 8th Hussars subsequently captured the concentration camps at Belsen and Fallingbostel, and liberated thousands of Allied prisoners of war and internees. Fitzpatrick's leadership was recognised by an immediate DSO.

Geoffrey Richard Desmond Fitzpatrick was born at Ashvale, Aldershot, on December 14 1912, the son of Brigadier-General Sir Richard Fitzpatrick, DSO. He was educated at Eton and RMC Sandhurst before being commissioned into the Royal Dragoons (1st Dragoons) in 1932. The regiment was ordered to Palestine in 1938, and Fitzpatrick won his MC in operations against Arab terrorists. In 1940, the regiment was mechanised and Fitzpatrick, then adjutant, moved with his unit to Syria in 1941 to take part in operations against the Vichy French. Fitzpatrick saw action in the Western Desert, where the Royals were equipped with armoured cars and deployed as a reconnaissance regiment. He attended Staff College at Haifa, and in June 1942 was appointed brigade major of 2nd Armoured Brigade, playing a key role in the planning for the battle of Alamein. It was entirely due to his work over many weeks that the brigade's move forward to the assembly area, and subsequently to battle, on the nights of October 23 and November 1, went without a hitch. During the battle, Fitzpatrick was constantly at Tactical HQ and often under heavy fire. As a result of his efforts much valuable information was passed back which enabled divisional, corps and army commanders to make plans that led to the Germans' defeat. He was appointed MBE. After a spell as GSO1 at 1st US Corps and a period at the War Office, Fitzpatrick re-joined the Royals at Hilvarenbeek in Holland in October 1944 to take command of A Squadron. The town was the centre of a salient into the enemy positions, and its tall church tower was a valuable observation point. The verger was resigned to most of the problems associated with the church's position on the front line, but he called on Fitzpatrick to remonstrate about the gunners attached to the squadron, who were doing their ranging during his choir practice. The Germans regretted the capture of the church tower and attacked A Squadron's positions every night. Fitzpatrick decided that the only way to keep them quiet was to be aggressive throughout the day. In one of several successful sorties, he dismounted part of his squadron and led his men in an infantry attack. Early in 1945, Fitzpatrick was posted to command the 8th Hussars, joining the unit in Holland and finishing the war at Hamburg. After a number of staff appointments, he went to Camberley as an instructor, before taking command of the Royals in the Canal Zone in 1951. Six years later, he was appointed Chief of Staff 1st (British) Corps in BAOR and, in 1959, he was selected by Lord Mountbatten to become Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff at the Ministry of Defence, during the formation of the unified MoD and the Defence Staff. An appointment as Director of Military Operations at the War Office followed in 1962.

Fitzpatrick's colleagues at the time credit him with the possession of a photographic memory; however complex his brief, once assimilated, he could recall it at will. In successive years, from 1964, he was made Chief of Staff BAOR, GOC-in-Chief Northern Ireland and Vice Chief of the General Staff. On his promotion to general in 1968, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief BAOR and Commander Northern Army Group. In 1970, his final Army appointment was Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe. After retiring from the Army in 1973, Fitzpatrick was appointed Lieutenant-Governor and commander-in-chief of Jersey where he made many friends during his five-year tour of duty and became a highly proficient sailor. Retiring to Suffolk, Fitzpatrick devoted many hours to regimental work, but found time to enjoy fishing and shooting. A perfectionist in everything he did, his somewhat formidable presence was lightened by a sardonic sense of humour. In 1969, when the Royal Horse Guards and the Royal Dragoons were amalgamated to form the Blues and Royals, Fitzpatrick, as Colonel of the Royal Dragoons, handled the many problems involved. He was appointed ADC to the Queen in 1959. He was Colonel of The Royal Dragoons (1964-69), ADC General to the Queen (1970-73), Colonel Commandant, RAC (1971-74), Colonel of the Blues and Royals and Gold Stick in Waiting to the Queen (1979-98). He was appointed KCB in 1965, GCB in 1971 and GCVO in 1997.

Desmond Fitzpatrick died on October 12. Mary Sara Campbell whom he married in 1944, died in 1996. He married secondly, in 1998, Lettice Errington (nee Stafford-King-Harman), the widow of Major George Errington. She survives him together with a son and a daughter of his first marriage.

re: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1410496/General-Sir-Desmond-Fitzpatrick.html

Ian Kempster

Hi Gents 

I have just found this note from Margaret  on face book, is there any one out there that can help her with her request.

Margaret Kempster My husband, Ian Kempster, enlisted in Feb 1971 and was discharged in Aug 83, he served 3 tours in N Ireland, 3 tours in Cyprus, and 4 tours in Baor, he recently died and I am looking for anyone who might have known him and had a photograph of him hidden away somewhere. I Hope you can help me.

Regards George Mcginlay

MARK GANGE

Welcome to the ROYALS BB Mark hope you enjoy looking around and that you find a few old Pals.

Mark was in the Regt 1961-1969 then was a BLUE/ROYAL till 1971

he was in the Officers Mess for a time and then in the REGT POLICE with Jock Sweeney and Paddy McCormack

regards Derek Leese