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THE LOWLANDER - JORROCKS DOESN'T LIE
164 Plays9 months ago
It's the big push to capture the centre of Bremen ... there are some reflections on a Fusilier ... a few words from a Prime Minister - and Jorrocks makes an appearance. Andy and Merryn dig into the issues of The Lowlander, this week in 1945.
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Transcript
Introduction to The Lowlander Newsletter
00:00:05
Speaker
From 1944 to 1945, the 52nd Lowlander Division is fighting its way across Northwest Europe. The writing is on the wall, but it's also on the page. The Army Education Branch sends a newsletter out to thousands of men, all pulling together, pushing the enemy back. This newsletter is called The Lowlander.
War Updates and Newsletter Highlights
00:00:41
Speaker
Hello, Andy. Hello, Maren. Hello, hello. Back again with the Lowlander, picking out our favourite articles and news updates from the regular newsletter that was sent out to the men of the 52nd Lowlander Division, this time between the 23rd and 29th of April 1945. Yeah, but first, I think you need to tell us what's going on in the rest of the war because it's starting to get very busy.
00:01:04
Speaker
It is a bit, isn't it? OK, a couple of other things happening this week. One of the rare actions of the Pacific War to involve a German submarine, U-183, it was sunk off the southern coast of Borneo by the American submarine, Bezugo. The British 14th Army captured Tanggu and Oktwin, Burma, and the Soviet forces liberated the 3,000 remaining inmates of Saxonhausen concentration camp.
00:01:30
Speaker
So that's what's going on elsewhere. Shall we find out what the jocks are up to please? Tell us where the men of the 52nd Lowland Division are and what's going on this week.
Preparations for Bremen Assault
00:01:40
Speaker
Well it's a bit of a bittersweet update this week because we're now about to enter the last ever full large-scale operation that the 52nd Lowland Division in their history had ever done because after this there are some smaller operations
00:01:57
Speaker
leading up to the end of the war and they obviously form part of British Army of the Rhine after the war in Europe is over. But really the assault on Bremen is the last bit. So we find them moving westwards. So I'll just describe the ground and we'll put some maps up on the soldiers. We've been going east forever.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, well, we're going west. Now, just last week it already started. So the division is now joined together because you remember for most of April they were separated 155 degrees out and all the rest of it. It's 30 core and of course 30 core is commanded by none other.
00:02:33
Speaker
than General Brian Horrocks of Arnhem Fane, of Cleve Kim etc etc etc. So they're part of 30 Corps, that's with the 3rd Infantry Division, 43rd Wessex Division and still the 4th Armoured Brigade.
The Assault on Bremen
00:02:49
Speaker
So what they're now going to be doing is going directly west from the German town of Verdun. Now, they've already moved a little bit beyond Verdun, to be fair. So on the 23rd, this is really the big push on Bremen and it's a very narrow front. So the front, the width of the attack is only about four miles. This is typical Horrocks, isn't it?
00:03:09
Speaker
Well, isn't it, isn't this actual part of the battle was given over to Hakewell Smith to plan himself? And I think it's his most competent battle in terms of the plan. So Horrocks has pretty much left that to him to decide. So on the left flank is the river Vaser, which is a massive river, a huge river, which flows through Bremen out to Bremenhaven and into the North Sea. Got it. From where they are at the minute, Bremen is about 20 miles. So the center of Bremen is about 20 miles away. OK.
00:03:39
Speaker
There are two features running parallel into the town leading west, and that's a main road, runs from Verdun through loads of little villages and towns, which we'll mention in a minute, into the centre of Bremen, and there's a railway track as well. Really effectively north of the railway track, the only 52nd units that are really doing anything up there are the 52nd and Wreckay, and their job is just to secure this flank. So really the division can actually move forward without really worrying about its right and left flank, which is quite unusual.
00:04:09
Speaker
And what they're going to do is they're going to do a sequential leapfrogging battle, relying on tempo. So there we go. There's lots of little buzzwords there from your army, British army, doctrinal manual.
00:04:21
Speaker
So what they're going to do is one brigade will move forward and they will capture their features and they'll do that within their battalions and units. And then once they have secured, the next brigade will pass through them and so on and so forth and so on and so forth. And this ad actually started a day or two before the 23rd of April. And I'll just run quickly down just to give you an idea of what that looks like. So on the 23rd, five HLI and seven Cameroonians of 157 Brigade, they captured the German town of Bassen.
00:04:51
Speaker
and passing through them is 5KOSB and they capture a German village called Embersen and then it's handed over to 155 Brigade and 4KOSB they capture Uppusen now if you want to know what that is like then if you read the chapter in
00:05:07
Speaker
Peter White's with the jocks about the flamethrower attack on up, and he'll describe that. Basically, those villages are on the outskirts of Bremen. And then passing through them on the same day, the twenty-first to capture the village of Mandorf is the 7th, 9th Battalion, Royal Scots. Then on the 24th, passing through them is now 157 Brigade, and they pass for them and they capture 5HLI, capture Oyston. Passing through them is 6HLI, and they capture Abbergergen 25th,
00:05:35
Speaker
is really now getting into the town proper. So, Jeremy, Bremen's a fairly large town, so it's a city, I suppose. The big news this day is one Glasgow highlanders capture the Fockeville factory, which is really one of the big, big industrial parts of Bremen.
00:05:50
Speaker
So Bremen is famous because it's a port town, it's got docks, it's got shipyards, it's got the submarine works, but it also was the home of the Fockeville factory. For those of you who have just watched Masters of Air on Apple's TV, I think it was finished just a few weeks ago, you'll notice in one of the first episodes, they talk about hitting the Fockeville factory in Bremen. Well, this is it.
00:06:12
Speaker
So it's captured by the Glasgow Highlanders. And then the six Cameroonians pass through them, along with the 4th, 5th Pataon of Royal Scots Fusiliers, and they capture Heminglingen. Now, that is them in the town proper, in the eastern outskirts of the town. The 26th, and there's lots of information here, but it's just to give you an idea of what's actually happening. And this is what I mean by a tempo battle. They're not letting the Germans rest at all. The minute
00:06:37
Speaker
one bit is finished, the next bit starts almost immediately. So on the 26th, this is the big push to capture the centre of Bremen. 5 KOSB are in the southern part of the town and they capture the docks and we'll talk more about that a little bit later because it's quite funny what they capture there. 6 Cameroonians also secure another part of the docks and on the night of the 25th into the morning of the 26th, 4th Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borders, they actually pass through
00:07:04
Speaker
into the centre of town where there is the large open square and the Hauptbahnhof, so the main train station, and there's a couple of big government buildings like the Post Office and there's a large natural history museum. Again if you want to find out about that you can read With the Jocks with Peter Wright and he describes it brilliantly.
00:07:22
Speaker
And then just on the same day, just north of that, the 7 and 8th Royal Scots, they captured just north of the railway. Now, effectively, the 26th is the day that actually really all resistance stops in Bremen. But the battle isn't officially announced as over until the 28th, a couple of days later. And effectively on that day, the town is secured, the city is secured, and it's a huge, huge operation. We should mention that the 43rd Wessex are operating to the north of them at this time, also part of 30 Corps.
00:07:52
Speaker
and the third infantry division is on the south bank of the Vaser and they've completely cleared that at the same time so concurrent activity. Wow that's a lot going on. It's one of my favorite battles because it's one of those ones where the minute they've got to the objective the next one passes through and the next one passes through and they just do not let the Germans. Now we should mention that the Germans themselves
00:08:15
Speaker
There's all sorts of people here. There's lots and lots of marine infantry, lots and lots of flak, Luftwaffe flak operators who operate the anti-aircraft guns. There's loads of police. There's even firemen that have been given weapons to fight. There's loads of Hitler Youth. There's loads of Volkssturm. But the most amazing thing about Bremen is it's absolutely full of civilians.
00:08:38
Speaker
and displaced persons and they they all hide and are staying in these huge huge massive underground bunkers and air raid shelters that keep up to a thousand to three thousand people and the city hasn't been evacuated that's the important thing.
00:08:54
Speaker
So it's a really complicated battle. It's amazing how more civilians didn't die, although obviously many of them did. And really, once they capture the town, it switches immediately into the how the hell do we look after
Cultural and Fictional Narratives
00:09:06
Speaker
these people? How do we sort them out? How do we make sure that people are fed and that the displaced persons don't rampage through the town, et cetera.
00:09:14
Speaker
And for anybody who's now feeling slightly overwhelmed by all this detail, do not fear because next year, the second part of Walking with the Jocks, you two can come with us to explore Bremen for yourselves. Oh, that was broke the way you did that. Well done. Right. In the meantime, shall we have a look at this week's issues of the Lowlander? Bearing in mind, of course, with all this going on, nobody can have much time to read anything. But we do have pretty much day to day issues of the Lowlander for the men to have a look at, don't we?
00:09:47
Speaker
24th of April 1945. What do you think of the Germans? Today we publish as a supplement to the Lowlander, the winning entry in the competition Britain under the Nazis. The ยฃ5 prize is being sent to the author BSM BIDO 54 anti-tank regiment Royal Artillery. It has not been easy to select the best entry from the many received. All agree that the humanities practiced by the Germans on the occupied countries would have been equalled and exceeded in Britain had we been defeated.
00:10:17
Speaker
Excerpts from the entries will be published at intervals under Thought for the Day. In contrast, we also include a tribute to the division's first Victoria Cross fusilier Danini Royal Scots Fusiliers, written by three of his fellow soldiers in the battalion. Wow. Yeah. Well, do you remember way back at the start of April, they announced this competition. We were like, yeah, that's not going to happen because it's busy. It did. It certainly did.
00:10:43
Speaker
Well, now, do you know the interesting? Well, I think it's interesting. So the writer of this, the author of the main story, which we're going to go on to read in a second, he is in 54 anti-tank regiment royal artillery. And we talked about him about three weeks ago because it's 54th anti-tank regiment that shoot up Peter White's farm, which kills eight of his men. They drive. Now, obviously,
00:11:07
Speaker
being a battery sergeant major, he was not part of their particular unit. But the three archers, the 17 pounder SP guns are from that regiment. And they are the ones that killed Peter's men. So we're kicking off with a really light note. But it's quite interesting, isn't it? I mean, I think it would be worth if we just we start and we read out what he was saying, because it's a really interesting look at what he thinks it would have been like. OK, let's have a look at what he said then.
00:11:34
Speaker
written under the Nazis by BSM Biddo, R-A. He lay back in the cheap armchair common to all American rooming houses and snorted. His face set hard as he held the newspaper cutting before his eyes and he read the report. He was typical of the many young men who'd found sanctuary in the States since those tragic days of 1940, embittered, frustrated and with premature gray hairs showing at his temples. A merchant seaman, once proud of the marine tradition of his great British home,
00:12:04
Speaker
He could still take a ship to almost any port in the world, except his home port, the Port of London, for nearly five years now applying trade in the German struggle for world domination. But he wasn't out of touch with home. His sister wrote carefully phrased letters, which told of everything but the true story of life in the Greater London Borough that was his home. Today, she had sent him one of the German inspired books. He was about to hurl the offending volume to a corner,
00:12:34
Speaker
when the cutting fell out. And as he picked it up and sat down to read it, the hardening of his face reflected the picture that was called to his mind of the life in Chappletown, his town in 1945. The bitterness of years welled over him as he read, Chappletown, town council, more labour for Germany demanded, members protest of no avail.
00:12:59
Speaker
The minutes, he read, of the committees of Chapel Town Council indicate some stormy sessions and considerable debate is expected when they come up for approval at Tuesday's meeting of the Council. Points from the minutes include the following.
00:13:14
Speaker
Finance. The Chairman reported that an additional two penny rate will have to be levied to cover the fine imposed by the Reich Superintendent for the disturbances at the site of the former Cenotaph on 11 November. The fine for the disturbances on Empire Day has now been cleared.
00:13:34
Speaker
health. A report from the medical officer that the health of the borough was at a low state due to an absence of cereals was considered being stated that the health of the children in particular was affected. A letter was read from the Reich superintendent stating that no allocation of cereals to the borough could be made but an allotment would be made when the Reich embraced Canada, our former main supplier. Education
00:14:03
Speaker
No answer had been received from the German administration in reply to the committee's protests against the flogging by German police of 23 children accused of inspiring the formation of anti-German gangs. The council had not been allowed to hold a public funeral for the four children who died from the flogging. Labour
00:14:26
Speaker
The council had been ordered to produce 250 engineering trade workers for employment in Germany. Only five applications had been received. The Reich superintendent had intimated that six members of the council would be sent on roadwork to Holland unless they could produce the other 245 and the committee's protest met with a reiteration of the demand and they put themselves in the hands of the whole council.
00:14:52
Speaker
Watch! The Reichsminister for Great Britain had intimated that all inspectorships in the police would now be filled by Germans. The two police constables who had beaten up four German soldiers, the soldiers that assaulted two English girls, had, it was reported, died of heart failure in the prison hospital.
00:15:14
Speaker
passenger transport. It was reported that the free travel ordered for all German soldiery and civil administration personnel was costing the undertaking ยฃ800 a year, not including the damage caused by such passengers after evening celebrations.
00:15:30
Speaker
And finally, general purposes, the registrar had reported that there were 65 births in the council welfare home during the month, 37 of which were illegitimate as a result of unwilling intimacy with German troops. There had been 133 deaths in the prison hospital, 74 certified by the German medical staffers from heart failure,
00:15:55
Speaker
And here, the cutting slipped from his fingers to the floor. He stared, unseeing, at the garish wallpaper of the room. If only I had seen this coming, he was thinking. And though he did not know it, there were 46 million people in Great Britain who were thinking the same thing. I'm a bit worried for BSM Beadow.
00:16:20
Speaker
Yes, so am I. He's really into it, isn't he? He got really into that. Well, I mean, I love the fact that there's still the small-minded petty town council, which seems to be, no, not unaffected by it. I think that was probably about right, to be honest. It was definitely a winning entry. Shall we have a look at the poem that was sent in as well? Yes. Now, this came from, this has been put together by three of Dennis Denini's
00:16:48
Speaker
Muckers, really, hasn't he? Yeah, and I, God, I'd love to know who they were. It's one of the frustrating things is we don't know, currently, we don't know much about the platoon he was in and anybody, you know, obviously, survival-wise, highly unlikely anybody's life today, but even just family members that were in the same platoon, we love to catch up on them. But it's a lovely little test of it, so shall I attempt to read it? Go on, then.
00:17:19
Speaker
Do it justice. No pressure. In memory of our hero, a tribute to the late Fusilier Danini, VC, Royal Scots Fusiliers. Oh, listen to my story, just lend me your ear, while I tell you of the deeds of a brave Fusilier.
00:17:37
Speaker
He was only a lad, yet had a man's heart, as he stood in the slit trench awaiting the start. Of the sitar offensive, the morning was fine, when the unit drew near to the village of Stein. The armour drove forward, a massive support, for the infantry chose to tackle this fort, on the capture of which the whole battle depended. Oh, many lads fell before it was ended.
00:18:02
Speaker
The spandas were legion, the ground just too muddy, for the tanks which bogged down, oh the battle was bloody. Then up rose our hero, Denini by name, and attacking the Hun won his way to great fame.
00:18:16
Speaker
moving forward to assume that he fell to the ground with the wind in his head from a sniper's first round. Under terror he stood upright and running again, reached a building, gained cover and through in great pain, found an entrance and throwing his shrapnel grenade killed the sniper thus leaving no debt to be paid.
00:18:38
Speaker
On the road lay his comrade, To his murderous fire, But Denini ran out, his consuming desire, To rescue his friend from the fate clearly seen, As he gambled his life, a joker a bean. One comrade thus rescued, some others as well, All their lives to his bravery, nothing could squell. To a flank behind rubble, an obstinate hun, Was discovered and killed by a gallant's brain-gun,
00:19:05
Speaker
Now running to cover, the full price was paid, and for those who were present, no detail will fade. For, though wounded again, he continued hip-firing, advancing continually, obviously tiring. His fire was effective. He died at his post. Let us think of his valour and give him a toast. For engraved in our memories, always we see. These his actions superb have won the VC.
00:19:33
Speaker
This award, well deserved, will treasure for years to as a charge on the roar of the Scots Fusiliers.
00:19:40
Speaker
Oh, I'm in paces. I know. Well, considering, well, I mean, you'll remember, I think about a month ago, we did the Danini VC special and it's it meets the story you were talking about, actually, in the special. You even said that the reports actually corroborate what the citation said. And these are three guys clearly, you know, in his platoon who saw it and absolutely sort of matches what what we think happened.
00:20:07
Speaker
Yeah there's no doubt about it. As you were reading it out I was just just thinking yep yep that detail and that detail. I think we should probably move on don't you? I do indeed.
00:20:22
Speaker
25th April 1945, financial outlook unchanged. Yesterday was Budget Day. For over an hour and a quarter, the Commons heard Sir John Anderson present the nation's balance sheet for the past year. For the first time, we have spent over ยฃ6,000 million, but more than half our expenditure has been met from revenue, a record for wartime.
Financial and Strategic Shifts in War
00:20:46
Speaker
Since September 1939 we have contributed the astonishing figure of 42% of our national income towards the war effort. For the coming year there is to be no increase in taxation nor will there be any reduction yet. The Chancellor hinted that an interim budget once the European war has ended and our reconstruction needs can be assessed and assured the House that taxation cannot and must not be maintained at its present high level without relaxation.
00:21:14
Speaker
Now, I've got a few things to say, but I suggest that we actually print this off and send it somewhere because that is that is a heck of an approach to the defence budget, isn't it? Well, I mean.
00:21:26
Speaker
42% of our national income, that's a huge amount obviously. Of course, what they don't realise is that Labour are going to get in imminently and things will change. Britain was broke at the end of the war, wasn't it? It didn't really recover until the 50s, did it?
00:21:45
Speaker
No, no, I mean, up to date, it spent just under ยฃ27 billion. And we talked that we hear today about, you know, projects, infrastructure projects, six billion for this and 10 billion for that. But at the time, if you factor that up, I mean, ยฃ27 billion, it's just a huge number, huge number.
00:22:07
Speaker
27th April 1945. The terror ends. When the Prime Minister was asking the Commons yesterday if he could make a statement about the enemy terror weapon, V2, he answered, yes sir, they have ceased, and sat down amidst cheers. Cheering also drowned out his subsequent remark that it was in the main due to the British Army that the V2 had stopped.
00:22:30
Speaker
In these barbarous attacks, launched without discrimination against civilians and women and children, 1,050 rockets fell in the southern England, the majority in the London area. The climax was reached in February when 71 landed in one week. But as early as last November, 167 people were killed by one which demolished Woolworth's store at New Cross. Total casualties were 2,754 killed and 6,523 injured. Wow.
00:22:59
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't realise so many people had been killed by the V weapons. Yeah. It must have been terrifying. I mean, the difference between the V1 is that you could hear the V1 coming, which gave you a few seconds to think about if you can get some shelter. But the V2s, you know, they're the first intercontinental type things that can go up into the high atmosphere and fall back down without any notification whatsoever.
00:23:24
Speaker
I think I've got a link to an interactive map showing where all the V1s and V2s landed and if I can find it I'll put it up into the socials. But what I was going to say was very similitude and serendipity. Have you read Robert Harris's book V2? No I haven't. I haven't because they called it fiction. If he'd called it fact I would have read it.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah, but it does position the V2 program, what he does is he events two people, Dr. Rudy Graf, who is a fictional longtime collaborator with Wernher von Braun, the real life head of the Nazi Rocket Program, and what's her name? Kaye Catton Walsh of the Williams Auxiliary Air Force. And he looks at the V2 program through these two fictional characters in an imagined reality. So we've got, you know,
00:24:15
Speaker
Imagine reality here and imagine reality here. I just thought that was neat anyway. Yeah, of course, Verne von Braun, who, for the purposes of the US space programme, was not a Nazi, even though he was a Nazi. Moving on. Yeah, moving on, moving on. Saturday 28th of April 1945, an historic meeting.
00:24:41
Speaker
Near Torgau on the Elbe at 4.40pm on Wednesday 25th April 1945, a little group of eight men, four American, four Russian, made history. Lieutenant William Robinson and three GIs from the 69th US Infantry Division out on a recce patrol had met a Red Army Major and three Guardsmen from the 173rd Regiment
00:25:04
Speaker
58th Russian Guards Division. Other link-ups followed swiftly, and by 4pm on Thursday, divisional commanders from the two Allied armies were conferring with great cordiality in Torgau.
00:25:16
Speaker
while their troops mingled in the picturesque medieval streets in the gayest fraternisation. Messages from President Truman, Marshal Stalin and Mr Churchill last night announced this historic meeting and congratulated the victorious Allied forces which had fought to make it possible. This is what our own Prime Minister said. After long journeys, tolls and victories across the lands and oceans and across so many deadly battle
00:25:44
Speaker
After long journeys, toils and victories across the lands and oceans and across so many deadly battlefields, the armies of the great allies have traversed Germany and have joined hands together. Now their task will be the destruction of all remnants of German military resistance, the rooting out of the Nazis and the subjugation of Hitler's Reich.
00:26:05
Speaker
For these purposes, ample forces are available. We meet in victorious and true comradeship and in the inflexible resolve to fulfil our purpose and duty. The awkward truth is it wasn't the first time they'd met.
00:26:23
Speaker
Well, actually, first contact between American Soviet patrols occurred near Strela, 1st of 10, Albert Kotzebue. He's got an odd name. An American soldier, he crossed the elbow in a boat with a couple of men and they actually met some Soviet soldiers, the first Ukrainian front.
00:26:39
Speaker
But really, the next day, the official patrol was sent under Second Lieutenant William Robinson. And that's where they met the Russians. And they had their meeting. But then they were reconvened the day later to do the official handshake photograph, which all the relevant parties were present at. And they all had a great time. In fact, this video of them all on the lash basically was once they met at the Elbe. And the actual meeting itself was called it's called Elbe Day.
00:27:06
Speaker
And even for the Cold War, it was one of the few things that the Americans and the Soviets got together about and sort of used it as a sort of a beacon for peace, et cetera, et cetera, to say that, you know, we came together on the Alba, which really was, I think a lot of people don't realize how big that was nowadays. They don't realize that the Russians and the Americans or the allies finally meeting up in person was a huge deal.
00:27:31
Speaker
I'll tell you something else that's noteworthy about this, and that's the wording that Churchill is still using, because of course this is all being picked up, this is all eavesdrop being passed back, that rooting out in the subjugation, ample forces are available, then we meet in Victor, etc, etc. He's really hammering it home, it's like, yep, we're there, we're together, and we've still got more in the barrel, if need to be. Yeah, absolutely.
00:28:01
Speaker
28th April 1945 20th Century Pagans A building on the road to Bremen was recently discovered by a recce party. It was small, fairly new and almost undamaged. Inside it was not unlike a Scottish Kirk, but there were unwelcome additions savouring strongly of idolatry. Over the preacher's head a large green and gold German eagle spread its wings, nesting its feet on the swastika.
00:28:28
Speaker
With his right hand, the preacher might have patted the head of the large, bronze coloured bust of Hitler. Well, with his left hand, he could point to a well-made oak replica of the Iron Cross in a Nazi style. I'm just going to read the next section.
00:28:47
Speaker
away in a corner were some poles, presumably for carrying Nazi banners and for draping them on either side of the preacher. What was this place? Had it been used for some brand of serious Hitler worship, or was it merely the place of a party meetings, a slightly less serious brand of the same thing? Anyhow, British troops took a dim view of it.
00:29:06
Speaker
Fruing the worst, some gunners attacked the decorations in true biblical style with axes and hammers. Later in the day, when it had been decided to put the building into better use, it was thoroughly purged. Hitler's bust had already been scattered far and wide. The other ornaments were disrespectively thrown out of the window and probably used for firewood, and the whole place cleaned and set in order for the morrow, when it was dedicated or rededicated to a Christian use by a general service and a celebration of holy communion.
00:29:36
Speaker
Wow. Yeah.
Symbolic Acts and War Conclusions
00:29:40
Speaker
Right. This is on the road to Bremen, isn't it? Yeah. Okay. So there was an occasion when I popped over there and you weren't with me actually. And not far from Bremen. So if you go from Retum, which is where there was a massacre, the 53rd Welsh Retum, a couple of weeks ago in April.
00:30:03
Speaker
if you go from there up to Verdun and then across to Bremen you end up with this triangle and what actually happened was I stopped for lunch at a McDonald's and I decided that I would take my burger to what looked like a little park.
00:30:21
Speaker
this very quiet and tranquil park and I started looking at all these stones and realised that I was actually sitting in the middle of Saxonhain, which is a site commemorating the murder of Saxon pagans by the Christian King Charlemagne. This is quite a strange area of Germany. So I don't think this is definitely not the same thing, but it is worth touching on Saxonhain because they kind of correlate. So Saxonhain was constructed in 1934 and the instigation of the
00:30:51
Speaker
Well, the Nazi ideology. Alfred Rosenberg as a memorial to the massacre of Verdun, which took place during the Saxon Wars when the Frankish King Charlemagne ordered the death of four and a half thousand Saxons. And that was in October 782. And basically what you've got at Saxon Hayne, about 500 years from Macdonald, is four and a half thousand large stones commemorating Germanic pagans that resisted Christianity.
00:31:20
Speaker
And the whole place is often criticized because there were some members of the Nazi Party who were actually celebrating the nation's pagan history. And they tried to make it a place of pilgrimage. There are all sorts of rumours about what happened there, but this is clearly an area where things occurred that one could come across on the route to victory.
00:31:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's lots of this going on during the Nazi regime, probably before the Nazi regime. All links with this sort of late 19th century rediscovering of, you know, old pagan rituals and idea of Vikings were and, you know, vaginas, you know, Valkyrie, all that sort of stuff is coming into play. And of course, the Nazis co-op that and turn it into, well, irony is for a
00:32:10
Speaker
for an organisation that was non-religious, they bring lots and lots and lots of this weird sort of worship of these kind of old rituals, especially in the likes of the Teutobergavald, where Varus' legions were defeated by Arminius, the Germanic tribe leader, all that sort of stuff that's going on, and the Nazis just co-opted it. So there's lots of these places around, but it's just interesting, they find one, as we're going through.
00:32:36
Speaker
And of course, do what most Scottish do is if they're bored, they just start trashing the place, which is probably the best thing. In true biblical style with actors and hammers. 28th of April, 1945. Bremen clear. The battle for Bremen is over. It ended yesterday afternoon when men of the KOSB marched out from the dock area. All that survived the city's garrison
00:33:04
Speaker
Their commander, the uncompromising General Becker, had been caught in his hideout in the park. The great docks of Bremen are almost empty of shipping, although eight half-finished U-boats and a two and a half thousand ton destroyer have been discovered. But as one correspondent has said, everything's ready to get cracking. Should it be necessary to use support? Now, this is the Hanseatic town of Bremen. So trade is, everything focuses on trade in and out of the town.
00:33:35
Speaker
I'm finding it quite a struggle to imagine that a destroyer is discovered. Well, they're actually referring to the Europa Works, which is the huge shipbuilding works. And it basically runs all the length of Bremen in the town of Bremen, or city of Bremen, all the way out various different stages to Bremenhaven, which is, I think, another twenty-odd miles down the Vaser in the history.
00:33:59
Speaker
There's actually a fifth battalion of KOSB who were tasked with clearing that, along with six Cameroonians. In fact, there is some film footage of them mooching around looking at submarines as well. They are actually the Cameroonians, but there are photographs, and we'll post this up there, of five KOSB capturing these submarines and various other stuff.
00:34:19
Speaker
And in fact, we'll go to the war diary of the fifth battalion because it's actually quite interesting. And we should say that the fifth battalion themselves are out of the chaos. We are notorious for not writing a lot on the war diary. I mean, literally, yeah, you'll have you'll have one sentence for an entire operation. However, clearly, they got excited. So they entered the actual entered the Europa Works in the early hours of the twenty six.
00:34:45
Speaker
And basically by 1445, phase two of it has actually been secured and they've completely captured all their objectives. And it's worth noting, so at 1445, the war diary writes, final objects is consolidated. Sea company and battalion HQ move into the area just north of the main railway station. During these phases, the battalion captured the following, three officers and 212 other ranks, military, a full colonel in command of North Bremen, 130 Nazi fire guards,
00:35:14
Speaker
Innumerable policemen, one submarine, one deserted Japanese embassy and the Atlas shipbuilding works. No casualties except for two very slight encourage during the whole day. You can see photographs of all these people. I mean the whole of Bremen is just everybody's just turned out and surrendered and
00:35:36
Speaker
I would love to know more details about the deserted Japanese embassy. And I think if we if we next go up to the KOSB Museum up in Berwick, we'll have a mooch around the 5th Battalion's records to see what they've written about that. Sounds like a plan. And finally, we go to this week's thought for the day from the 29th of April, 1945. They never sought the Lord in vain, who sought the Lord all right, Burns.
00:36:07
Speaker
Rabi Burns.
Cultural Reflections and Commendations
00:36:08
Speaker
I went full Arran High School Rabi Burns night poetry competition which they had run in every single school in Scotland. Did they? Well competition but you'd have to, it was a constant thing at school, you'd have to do Burns. Do you know what culture is? No you tell me, I've got an idea but you tell me.
00:36:31
Speaker
So a cotter in Burns's time was a peasant, a poor peasant by definition, who was given the use of a cot or a cottage by the property owner in exchange for labor as opposed to paying rent. That makes sense. Yeah. This is a line from the Cotter's Saturday night. Do not panic. I'm not about to do a Robbie Burns accent. But there's a good reason why I won't do a Robbie Burns accent. I can substantiate the choice here. I can tell you that. Hang on.
00:36:58
Speaker
The Goddess Saturday Night. It was first published in 1786 and it's a poem that explains how the cotter and his family take time to relax on a Saturday evening after they, you know, had a hard week at work, knowing that Sunday's a day of rest and the eldest daughter, Jenny, who's by now left home,
00:37:14
Speaker
Calls with her new boyfriend and their family and everyone sits down to eat a peasant meal a little bit of potage Round the fire side to hear their father read from the Bible. It was incredibly popular among Victorian readers, but not just because of the morality and the whole sort of focus on religion But also because it what Burns had done is he'd started picking up the styles of other writers Okay, and the weird thing is that this this this poem is like
00:37:43
Speaker
1920 stands as long and each stands are at least eight or ten lines. And three of four of them, most of them, are written in broad Scots. Three of the four of them have absolutely no trace of Scots in their diction whatsoever. Really quite peculiar. It's a good one though.
00:38:01
Speaker
Well, I mean, Burns is a big... I'm from Ayrshire. Burns is a big thing. I played a school rugby match just down the road from his cottage. Everybody got very excited. I'm going to say everybody. The teacher's got very excited. He's a big thing in Scotland. Before we finish, I just thought I'd like to read one thing out if that's possible. This is a little bit of a radical departure from the normal loner. It's actually a letter written
00:38:26
Speaker
by Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks, who was command of 30 Corps, and he sent it to Major General Hakewell Smith, who of course is the Divisional Commander of 52nd, at the end of Bremen being captured. Would you mind awfully if I read it out? Not at all. I'm writing to congratulate you on the very fine performance put up by the 52nd Law and Division during the recent fighting. The Division came under my command just after it had reached Verdun on the 19th of April.
00:38:55
Speaker
Since then it has been continuously in action. By day and by night it has been hammering the German defences and thanks to its relentless pressure it was able to penetrate the Bremen Divencies two days ago. In 48 hours it worked through and reduced one of the largest towns in Germany. At times the right flank of the division was completely open yet nothing daunted the 52nd. It pushed on until finally the city north of the river Vaser is completely in your hands. This is a great achievement.
00:39:23
Speaker
I have watched the progress of the division with great admiration, and I'm certain that there is no finer fighting division in the British Army today than the 52nd Lowland Division. I should like to congratulate all ranks on writing another glorious page in Scottish history. Well done, the 52nd Lowland Division. Don't take my word for it, people. Take the word of Brian Horrocks. One can feel the end is in sight, cod one.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah. Shall we finish on that note, on that bombshell? I think it's a very good place to finish. All right. Well, the end is in sight and I shall see you next week. Yeah. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Lowlander. The Lowlander was written, produced and presented by Andy Anderson and Meryn Walters. This was a hellish good production.
00:40:37
Speaker
And now we go to the classified football results for the week commencing the 23rd of April 1945. English League North Aston Villa 2, Stoke City, nil Baff City 5, Aberamham, 1 Blackpool 1, Preston North End, nil Blackpool 4, Manchester City, nil Bradford 5, Sheffield Wednesday 3, Burry 2, Accrington 2, Jester 2, Wrexham 1
00:41:07
Speaker
Coventry 2, Birmingham 2. Crew 6, Stockport Mill. Darlington 2, York 2. Derby 5, Northampton Mill. Everton 1, Southport 1. Halifax 2, Bradford City 2. Ah, bla bla bla. Halifax 2, Bradford City, Mill. Hartleypool, Mill, Sunderland 2. Huddersfield 2, Middlesbrough, Mill.
00:41:36
Speaker
Leeds 1. Barnsley 3. Leicester 3. West Bromwich Albion 0. Nottingham Forest 2. Knotts County 5. Odom 2. Rochdale 0. Portvale 0. Tramier Rovers 1. Rotherham 1. Hull City 2. Sheffield United 1. Barnley 1. Swansea 2. Bristol 2.
00:42:02
Speaker
Scottish League South Dumbarton Nell Hamilton 2 Partik Thistle 5 Hibernian 1 Scottish League Cup English League Cup North Cardiff 2 Walsall 1 Chesterfield 1 Liverpool Nell Manion 83 Doncaster 1 Newcastle 4 Bolton 2 English League South
00:42:32
Speaker
Holdershot 3 Southampton 5 Arsenal 3 Chelsea 0 Brentford 7 Reading 2 Brighton 8 Portsmouth 0 Charlton 2 Watford 3 Fulham 2 Spurs 4 Luton 2 Queens Park Rangers 1 Millwall 4 Clapton Orient 1 West Ham 5 Crystal Palace 0 Scottish Cup Semi Final
00:43:01
Speaker
Motherwell 1, Falkirk Nell Scottish League North East Arbrove 2, Dundee 1 Dundee 91, Hearts Nell Dunfermline 1, Rangers 1 East 5-1, Aberdeen Nell Wraith Rovers 5, Falkirk 1 Point of order here, English League North Cup. What's Cardiff doing in the English League?
00:43:28
Speaker
I can't work this out yet. We need to unpick that, I'm not sure. That's not the most shocking thing on the page though, is it? No, it's not. The most shocking thing on the page is a reference to the rugby union services international played at Richmond, the British Empire 27, France 6. I don't want to be on the side of the fridge, but I think that is slightly unfair. A country that's been occupied for five years, where most of its men have been sent to Germany in slave labour against the entire British Empire.
00:43:59
Speaker
moving on they went in there and they just saw the pretty germans off they were hellish good