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THE LOWLANDER - RATIONPACKED
160 Plays10 months ago
Andy and Merryn dip into this week's editions of The Lowlander, as men of the 52nd Lowland Division move on into Operation VARSITY... hearing about food on the home front, getting food for thought from the Russian front and beyond. And there's more than one Dennis to be thinking about, too...
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Transcript
52nd Lowlander Division in WWII
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.
Lowlander Newsletter Insights
00:00:41
Speaker
Hello, Andy. Hello, Maren. Hello, hello. Here we are again, armed with our copies of the Lowlander, ready to dig into the snippets and the updates provided to the men of the 52nd Lowland Division this week between the 19th of March and the 25th of March in 1945. Yes, March. Come on, give us a round up of the rest of the world news so we can get going.
00:01:01
Speaker
Okay, so this week in March 1945 all of the remaining U-boats in the Baltic Sea were withdrawn and transferred to the west. France signed an economic pact with Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and this is the week that Hitler approved a formal withdrawal across the Rhine but, and this is according to Wikipedia, by that time all German forces who are going to make it back had already gone.
00:01:26
Speaker
So there you go. The last thing that happened this week was that there was a report from Cairo that archaeologists had located the ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis. So shall we find out where the jocks
Rhine Crossing Preparations
00:01:40
Speaker
are? Tell us what the men of the 52nd Lowland Division are up to and what's going on please.
00:01:45
Speaker
Well, we talked about them last week. They're on the West Bank of the Rhine. They're doing that security job. They're doing lots of work for the build up for the Rhine crossing, which is going to happen this week. And it's very important to remember at the time, and it seems to be lost in the sort of, in over the last sort of 79, 80 years is just how important this was and what a big deal it was. So basically the army is going to cross the Rhine and launch themselves into Germany. And this really is the last big, big operation before
00:02:15
Speaker
Basically, the war is over. Now, there's a build-up. The 52nd Lowland Division aren't going to be in the first wave. The first wave will happen on the 19th of 23rd, into the 24th of March, a bit later on in the week.
Operation Varsity Overview
00:02:28
Speaker
And it's going to be 44th Wessex, 51st Highland, 15th Scottish and 1st Commander Brigade are going to cross the Rhine on
00:02:35
Speaker
and buffaloes, which are landing vehicle tanks, these amphibious things, and assault craft. And they're going to launch themselves onto that east bank of the Rhine. And then on the morning of the 24th, there's going to be something called Operation Varsity, which is 6th Airborne Division and the American 17th Airborne Division are going to land on the high ground on the opposite bank, and they're going to link up. So it's a huge operation. And the 52nd Lowland Division watched this happening, providing the security. And then on the 25th of March, the last day of this week's episode,
00:03:05
Speaker
the troops from 157 and 156 Brigade are going to slowly start to filter across the water in the assault craft and on some of the assault bridging and they're going to be supporting those divisions that have already got across. Interesting note that day as well on the 25th is Prime Minister Winston Churchill passes through the division and it creates lots of a big stir within the division itself, all the war diaries comment on
Significance of Rhine Crossing
00:03:31
Speaker
it.
00:03:31
Speaker
He goes through and he travels through the troops doing his usual thing where he stops and speaks to them and ends up with the Americans who are also crossing the rain on the same day. That's the US named army in the south. OK, so so when we think back to one September last year, September 1944, Operation Market Garden, everybody gets very excited about that. And so, you know, they say they may well do.
00:03:54
Speaker
But by this point, we've moved what, six and a half months further forward. And this is now the allies working at their best, isn't it? Yeah, definitely. I mean, this is a huge operation and sort of people call it a mini D-Day, but there's as many divisions.
00:04:09
Speaker
and the British side. It's got one of the largest airborne operations ever carried out. It really, really is a huge operation. And in fact, psychologically, mentally, this is sometimes bigger than the previous operations. It's certainly something that Churchill bangs on about
00:04:28
Speaker
Monty sends out his briefing for the day and he says, over the rain, let us go now. And they all know that this is it. Once they're over the rain, there's nothing stopping them finishing the Germans off, although we've still got another month and a half of fighting to go, which we'll learn about over the next few weeks. OK, so I reckon we should get going then and find out what the men are reading this week. Ready? Yep, let's quack on, as Monty might have said. Quack on, quack the ping.
00:04:58
Speaker
20th March 1945.
Creative Contest in The Newsletter
00:05:00
Speaker
It might have happened at home. What would it be like in Britain if the Nazis had braved 20 mils of sea in 1940 and brought off a successful invasion?
00:05:11
Speaker
We have heard and seen for ourselves what they did in Holland and Belgium, concentration camps in Gestapo, the shooting of hostages and the round-up of young and old for forced labour in Germany, the churches desecrated and the homes wrecked. The Lowlander offers a prize of ยฃ5 for the best articles describing what your families would be suffering now had the enemy landed in 1940. Entries which should not exceed 600 words must reach the editor by 7th April.
00:05:37
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So so a couple of things. The first thing is five pounds. It's not a small amount of money. Second thing, 600 words. Okay, so the folio, the one page of a paperback book is usually about 300 350 words. So they've got some some real scope here. But what they're talking about is sea lion, isn't it?
00:06:01
Speaker
Yeah, Operation Sea Line, the proposed invasion of England in, I think it's around about September 1940, wasn't it? Yeah, and what they're asking is, could the lads, in their wildest imagination, what it might have been like to have that happen? I wonder where this came from. I've no idea.
00:06:23
Speaker
I tell you where this comes from. This comes from them hanging around on the west bank of the Rhine, waiting for something to happen. Oh, let's do a competition. Because you look at the date, 7th of April, the entries have got to be in. I'm telling you now, and you're going to find out in the next couple of weeks, the division is quite busy around the first week in April.
00:06:43
Speaker
Yeah, writing small articles is not number one in the men's agenda, is it? But, or joking aside, there are some really good alternative histories, aren't there? Well, I mean, I've only read one book, which is Leo McKentry's book on CLM, which is brilliant, but they don't really go into hypotheticals.
00:07:02
Speaker
Well, I was I was thinking less about Operation Sea Lion focused narratives and more things like SSGB by Robert Harris. Yes, that's a brilliant, brilliant book. And then you've got Philip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle. I think that's on Netflix now. And then there's CJ Sansom, Dominion.
00:07:24
Speaker
Joe Walton wrote something called the small change trilogy and I think the farthing volume of that is all about what would have happened if and of course there is my all-time favorite and I like you don't like war films very much but I will make an exception for this one.
00:07:43
Speaker
There's a film called Iron Sky. Have you heard about this? No, no. OK, so it's a it's a film that was directed by Timo Vorinsola, OK, Finnish, and it's a comic science fiction action film. It was made in 2012. And what it does is it tells the story of a group of Nazis who, having been defeated in 1945, they flee to the moon where they build a
00:08:11
Speaker
This isn't a Channel 5 documentary, is it? Say again. This isn't a Channel 5 documentary, is it? No, it's not. They flee to the moon and there they build an entire space fleet and they return to Earth in 2018 and basically conquer the planet. It's one of the most expensive finished films ever made and it is superb. You've got to find it. You're not. Superabazin, it's one of the worst films ever made. No, it's not. It's not. It's absolutely brilliant.
00:08:41
Speaker
I'll pass to your better judgment. Okay. Wednesday the 21st of March 1945.
Honoring Bravery with Victoria Cross
00:08:52
Speaker
The first divisional VC of the war. His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to approve the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to Fusilier Denis Denini of the 4-5 Royal Scots Fusiliers.
00:09:09
Speaker
On the 18th of January 1945, Fusilier Donini was badly wounded in the head at the opening of an attack on a German village. Refusing medical aid, he charged into the village with his platoon, driving out the enemy. Shortly afterwards he rescued a severely wounded comrade and, taking the latter's Bren gun, went into the open, firing as he went.
00:09:36
Speaker
Although hit again, he continued firing until he was killed as the result of a bullet exploding, a grenade he was carrying. Fusilier Denini's home was in County Durham. Well, we've been waiting for this one for a long time, haven't we? We have indeed. Yes, we have. And what we're going to do is today is Monday. Hello, Monday. And we will be releasing a special on Dennis Denini on Wednesday this week, on the 21st of March.
00:10:04
Speaker
Please do give it a listen because there's going to be lots and lots of stories and information about Fusilier Dennis Dineeney and his family and what he actually did on the 18th of January 1945. March 22nd 1945.
Food Shortages and Rationing Challenges
00:10:21
Speaker
Food figures.
00:10:23
Speaker
Far from having 700 million tons of food stocks as reported in some American circles, Mr Churchill yesterday disclosed we have no more than six millions. The figure will drop to four and a half million by the end of June owing to exports to Europe.
00:10:37
Speaker
What we have has been built up by foresight and by self-denial. At present, the ban on sending private parcels of food to liberated countries cannot be lifted. This ruling was given in the Commons by the Minister of Food, who also stated that he was doing his best to avoid a cut in the meat ration.
00:10:54
Speaker
OK, so I'm going to jump in on this with size six and a half boots, because this is one of the best examples of the Lowlander being quite naughty or the editor being quite naughty. The Army Education Corps had a bit of a reputation for political bias, shall we say, didn't always put didn't always put the tick in the blue box. So in terms of labor propaganda, and remember, we've got a coalition government at the moment, but we're about that's all about to change. This is one of the best examples. So in this article,
00:11:22
Speaker
It says, Mr Churchill, yesterday disclosed we've got no more than six million tonnes, all right, far from the seven hundred million tonnes, and it's going to drop to four and a half million owing to exports. What we have has been built up by Foresight and Self Deny. So it's painting quite a gloomy picture, OK, of what has been happening over the last three or four years. But if you turn to Hansard, my favourite Hansard. Here we go again. Yeah, I know. I love Hansard. Hansard's fantastic. I know. We know. I know.
00:11:50
Speaker
In volume 409, which was debated on Wednesday, the 21st of March, 1945, they talk about food stocks. Okay. Food is a big deal at the moment. The Dutch called this the hunger winter. I'm just, I'm just going to read the extract from Hansard. In the earlier years of the war, there was very good reason on security grounds against disclosing our food stock figures. So that makes sense. Okay. Yeah.
00:12:16
Speaker
In view of the present military position, that objection no longer holds, which is enough reason for the editor to start including things like this. In the newspapers, there is an impression in some quarters in the United States in particular that our stocks in Great Britain amount to 700 million tonnes when actually they are now rather less than 6 million tonnes. That far, I'm happy with that.
00:12:41
Speaker
They're in the process of being reduced by aid to the liberated countries to about 4.75 million tonnes by the end of June. That bit's fine. But listen to this.
00:12:53
Speaker
The latter figure is no more than is necessary to maintain a regular flow of distribution under present conditions. And it's worthwhile mentioning these facts about our stocks of food, which have been built up by foresight and self-denial over five years of strict rationing and frequent bombardment. So if you actually look back and get a little bit more context, what you realize is that
00:13:17
Speaker
Although the Lowlander says, oh, it's going to drop to four and a half million zone to exports Europe. That's fine. That's absolutely fine. That's the plan. Yeah, it's not being positioned that way. The way it's being positioned is, oh, you know, government's making bad choices and we've been at war. We're going to suffer with food, etc. Do we do we have a Euro skeptic in the army education? I think we got conservative skeptic is what we got.
00:13:47
Speaker
21st March 1945.
Morale Boosting Concert
00:13:50
Speaker
The Lowlanders present Rhine Rhythm. There was an air of excitement and expectancy at the first performance by the divisional concert party on Monday night, which would not have disgraced the West End Premier. Representatives of the Army and Corps as well as many senior officers of the division were among the audience which packed the Lowlander Theatre. And from the moment the curtain went up, we knew our hopes were not going to be disappointed.
00:14:13
Speaker
There's not a dull moment in the show which runs with great pep and speed for nearly two hours. Music, dancing, humour, rhyme, rhythm has them all. And what was unexpected in an all-male show is it has glamour as well. All our readers will sooner or later have the opportunity of seeing our party. Don't miss it. It's the tops.
00:14:32
Speaker
Well, I don't know as glamour in the 52nd lowland division. What's all that about? It's all I'm detecting a slight hint of sarcasm. But there's no mention of answer, is there?
00:14:48
Speaker
No, there's no mention of anything about this. So I look through the war diaries, the war diaries, the regiment. I see nothing about people being released to go and watch it or be part of it. So it clearly happens. But whether whether the troops that were stagging on on the banks of the Rhine got a chance to go and watch it, I'm not so sure. But yeah, I mean, it sounds great. But but I actually who, what, where, when and why. I have absolutely no idea.
00:15:15
Speaker
I mean, we know we had a Lowlander farm, but we've no idea where this Lowlander theatre was. Well, at this point, the divisional headquarters is around the German town of Ism, which is kind of a few miles back from the Rhine. I'm assuming it's going to be around a bit there. I mean, of course, they say the concert party, they had bands and of course they had the division pipe band. And of course each battalion had their own papers and all that. So they've got that, which you'd expect. But yeah, it'd be interesting to know what the composition of it was and who did what.
00:15:46
Speaker
I think we'll have to do some more digging in the archives. Definitely.
00:15:59
Speaker
Despite formidable concentrations of men and material, the defenders of Gdynia and Danzig have been split in two by the Red Army. Yesterday, Rokossovsky broke through to Zopot and the Baltic coast. Fighting has edged nearer to Heiligenweil, the one sizable town apart from Kรถnigsberg still to be taken in East Prussia. A number of places near Ghatibor have been overrun by Konyev's victorious army in Apasalicia.
00:16:27
Speaker
At both ends of the front, towns in the path of the Red Army have been heavily attacked from the air. Danzig, Moraska, Ostravska and Arapa are mentioned in the Moscow communique. The last lies northwest of Lake Balaton, which suggests the German command may be nearer the mark than usual in reporting a Russian offensive in Hungary.
00:16:47
Speaker
4,000 prisoners were taken on the Eastern Front yesterday, and recently three German troopships struck mines in the Katagat. Two limped into port, badly damaged, the third did not. Okay, where's Heiligenbau, please? Well, it's East Prussia, isn't it?
00:17:03
Speaker
I know, but I'd never heard of it. No, I've never heard of it. I heard of Konigsberg. Yes, obviously. Yeah, we know Konigsberg. But Heiligenbijl, I had to look this up. There was a Heiligenbijl concentration camp near Mamonovo. The Heiligenbijl pocket was part of the eastern front. And there was a huge battle there. The Soviets claimed 93,000 dead and 46 and a half thousand taken during the operation.
00:17:33
Speaker
This was early March 1945 and the German sources claim that many of their troops were successfully evacuated.
00:17:41
Speaker
But I'd never heard of it. No, I'd never heard of it. I'd heard of the Koningsberg and of course there's the famous troop ship which left Koningsberg, which is one of the biggest naval sea disasters ever. Thousands of people were killed and drowned. But I'd never heard of Howling about. But then that's the whole thing about the mason front. There's just thousands and hundreds of thousands of people involved in battles which would dwarf anything in the West. But you never hear about them. I know. What I did find was there was a guy, a researcher, I think this is the mid 80s. What he did was he was
00:18:10
Speaker
running around in that area. And he found a huge pile of filing cabinets and archives, orders and reports, typewritten, handwritten stuff. The paper was all wet, but almost all of it was legible. And what he basically turned up was the entire German archive on site, institute.
00:18:34
Speaker
Archives of the Fourth Army. Yeah, brilliant, brilliant. I think it's now gone into the, oh hang on a second, it's gone into the Kalinan Grad Military University for more research and this was years ago that it was found.
00:18:49
Speaker
Well, I know Kalilngrad, which is the tiny little bit of Russia, which just sits on the Baltic coast with that little land. But yeah, I mean, this is, of course, where we're talking about now is actually Poland. It's now Poland, but at the time it was East Prussia. Yeah, and I was just reading up on it before this. And not only did the Germans try to break out, the German army, but the civilians also tried to break out as well, even though they were forbidden from evacuating and thousands of them were killed by the Red Army who managed to catch them as they were leaving.
00:19:18
Speaker
It's a pretty grim reading. I've corrected myself. They're not stored at Caledonian Grand Military University. They're stored in the Moscow Military Archives in a refrigerator to stop them deteriorating any further. But it's another good reminder, though, that no matter how much we study the Second World War, there's always another battle, another front, another part of it that just begs further investigation, doesn't it? Well, yeah, absolutely. Well, clackity-ping. Clackity-ping.
00:19:51
Speaker
23rd March 1945.
Foster Care Reforms in Shropshire
00:19:55
Speaker
Yesterday in the Commons. A full inquiry is to be held into the way in which the O'Neill children were bordered with the goths and what steps were taken to supervise their welfare. The inquiry will be conducted by an impartial person and will be completely in public. Now I've never heard about this inquiry and I don't know if the jocks would have been up to speed with it either, so go on, what's this all about?
00:20:18
Speaker
Well, it was a big case in the newspaper, so they may well have heard of it. Well, basically, there was foster parents, Reginald and Esther Gough. They fostered three young boys in Shropshire. And these boys were taken into them at foster parenting, looking after.
00:20:35
Speaker
And what happened is one of the boys, Dennis, he was only 12 at the time, he died after having a fit and the ambulance was called and the police got involved and realised that he and his other brother, his two other brothers were severely neglected. They'd been abused.
00:20:50
Speaker
mentally as well. They'd been starved, they'd been beaten and all the rest of it. And this caused young Dennis to have a seizure and he died. And the police were involved and they investigated and they actually tried Reginald and Esther Gough. Reginald was sent to prison for manslaughter and Esther was sent there for basically conspiring and helping them treat them like that. They never really got to the bottom of why they treated those kids like that. They were just Mormons. But of course, this kicked off an investigation into why this was allowed to happen.
00:21:20
Speaker
And it turns out the local authorities or the local services at the time, one of them, one of the ladies was called Erless Edwards. She was a clerk with the Education Committee. She was called into the dock to provide evidence. And she said that really there was no real proper selection process. They were just given to families who said, yeah, we'll take people on.
00:21:42
Speaker
And she was not part of it. She was just a witness to it because she was a clerk within the education committee. And she said even people had visited them and they'd noticed that the boys were withdrawn and there was something wrong, but they never did anything. So what happened once the trial happened and the the ghosts were put in prison, it went up to Parliament and Parliament launched an inquiry. And this inquiry kicked off
00:22:04
Speaker
a load of actions that really we still use nowadays. The first of January 1947, a new Home Office and Ministry of Health Regulations on boarding out of children came in force of a direct result. Really, really. As a direct result of this, each local authority was required to appoint a boarding out committee and at least three of those members had to be women and they had to meet every few months and the committee was responsible for finding suitable homes.
00:22:29
Speaker
An official was requested to visit each foster child within a month of them being placed and thereafter at least once every six weeks and were required to submit a written report into account taking any account of any complaint made by the child. And a doctor was to be appointed to every foster child and it was to examine the child within one month of them being placed at least once a year thereafter.
00:22:51
Speaker
and no child was to be fostered or remain fostered by a person with any criminal conviction because it turns out Mr Gough had criminal convictions for assault and battery and all sorts of stuff. He was an absolute wronging but nobody picked it up.
00:23:06
Speaker
That's really interesting, because it has changed slightly today in that some of the fostering rules mean you can foster if you have got a criminal conviction, but you're not allowed to foster if you're a wronging. Yes, if you are a wronging, you're not. And actually it basically formed what was part of the Children Act in 1948. So it's
00:23:25
Speaker
I mean, I've got a friend who's just gone for a fostering thing and it's the amount of sort of hardos they have to go over in order to foster children. I mean, it's good that they do that. And this all stemmed from the Dennis O'Neill case. Wow. 24th of March 1945. Praise indeed. The following tribute to the division first appeared in the Daily Mail on the 17th of March 1945.
00:23:54
Speaker
The first Scottish troops to drive clean into Germany with the 52nd Scottish. Here is a bitter fighting between Arnhem and Nijmegen.
00:24:02
Speaker
They were also veterans of the bloody Scheldt battle and spearhead of the Great Assault which brought the Canadian and British forces to the Rhine gateways of the Reich. This division was one of the formations responsible for the elimination of the wezel pocket in some of the bitterest fighting since D-Day. When the German commander ordered its cracks troops into a back to the Rhine stand at wezel, the Lowlanders were one of the divisions brought up to smash the fiercest resistance. Since landing on the continent last October, this division has taken more than 13,000 prisoners.
00:24:31
Speaker
at standing, but it doesn't appear. Yeah, I can't find it in the Daily Mail, but that said, I can't always find the Daily Mail in the British newspaper archive either. So the only thing that really stands out to me there, obviously, because
00:24:43
Speaker
who wouldn't praise the 52nd Leland Division for doing what they did, is the use of the term D-Day. So we are how many months on? Eight, nine months on from June 1944, and it has already slipped into common parlance. D-Day, rather than representing D-Day or H-hour, now refers to June 1944.
00:25:06
Speaker
Yeah, and actually it's really it's a daft thing to say as well because actually lots of fighting between day day and then is fierce and bitterest and all the rest of the words you want to use because it's not really a measure of fierce fighting. If you said the Normandy battles which I'll be meaning then yeah you could probably have an argument but no it's great to hear that they've finally broken into the mainstream media. And they're getting recognition at last.
00:25:38
Speaker
Sunday 25th March 1945.
Rhine Crossing Success
00:25:41
Speaker
Over the river, let us go. Monty. This is the British Army's finest hour. With the valiant assistance of the 9th US Army and Canadian troops, the 2nd British Army has, since Friday night, established four firm bridgeheads across the Rhine, between Emmerich and a point south of Vaisal.
00:26:02
Speaker
Thus we have brought to a climax nearly six years of war in which, to use the Prime Minister's words, we have fought for dear life, for king and country and for the freedom of mankind.
00:26:14
Speaker
And as if to mark the occasion, we have been blessed with cloudless skies by night as well as day. The gigantic offensive thundered into action late on Friday afternoon, with our mass artillery whipping up a tornado of fire on the far bank. At 9 p.m., the 51st Highland Division crossed in assault craft and 79th Division buffaloes. They stormed into... At 9 p.m., the 51st Highland Division crossed in assault craft and 79th Division buffaloes.
00:26:43
Speaker
They stormed into Rhys, which fell after hard fighting. The Commandos were next. They embarked at 10pm and gained almost complete surprise at Vaisal, which RAF bombers were speedily reducing to charred rubble and dust. Four hours later came the 15th Scottish Division's landing opposite Zanten, where, after some stiff encounters, they seized the village of Bislich.
00:27:07
Speaker
The final crossing was made by the 9th US Army south of Vaisal at 3am, but the waterborne assault was not the end. While our troops were pouring over the river in every type of craft, including new 80-foot launches manned by the Royal Navy, Dakotas, Liberators and Gliders sailed in yesterday morning to land two airborne divisions, the 6th British and 17th Americans, well behind the front.
00:27:34
Speaker
Fifteen hundred planes and gliders streamed across the sky for over two hours, their fuse the largest glinting in the brilliant sun. Some swooped so low it was easy to read their names. Hot Stuff or Hitler's Ruin painted on the sides. No fighters came up to meet them and with flak comparatively light only very occasionally would a trail of smoke and a gently gliding parachute show where one had crashed.
00:28:03
Speaker
the most disappointed man was the GI whose glider landed accidentally on the wrong side of the Rhine after he'd spent two years training and he took a lot of persuading that jocks were not Jerry's in disguise. I think that's brilliant, absolutely brilliant, but there's so much detail in there, including Zanton. Now this is the Zanton that we drove through wasn't it, not so long ago when we did one of our
00:28:33
Speaker
diverted by the Roman Museum at Zanton. I did remind you they were there to do Second World War, not Roman history. I mean that we were in there recently and it's an amazing site. The thing about the airborne invasion, sort of Operation Varsity as it's known, so Operation Plunder is the crossing of the actual Rhine by boats and what have you.
00:28:52
Speaker
But the airborne operation was called Varsity. Every single member in the division remembered it and they all stood out and watched it as it was going over because it flew over directly over the division and they couldn't believe it. And in fact, one report said it took about an hour from the first plane to the last plane to pass. Incredible, incredible. And they were also a little bit shocked as well because if you remember all the way back in 1944, they were earmarked to go into Arnhem.
00:29:18
Speaker
in gliders and they were a bit shocked at how vulnerable the gliders were when they saw them in real life and there was lots and lots of gliders that went down and they saw them crashing and all sorts of stuff. It was kind of a mixed day, it was amazing but also a lot of them had a little bit of a lump in their throat thinking about what could have happened. So quite the report from Monty there.
00:29:38
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I mean, I was saying we'll probably have to find the original briefing that he she's out to all the troops. It's a kind of over the line and let us go. Kind of Monty sort of typically rosing. He's kind of like the school master telling the boys to go and win at rugby. Why are you reading this? Not me.
00:29:59
Speaker
I don't think I can maintain it for the whole thing. It's a little bit shorter than the account you've just read there, but it's well worth putting. We'll put that up on Twitter, I think, or the socials so you can read it. And finally, we go to this week's Thought for the Day from the 24th of March, 1945. Britain's have ever fought well for their country and for their country's cause is the highest cause of freedom and honor. Robert Bridges.
00:30:28
Speaker
Well, you know who he was, don't you? No, no, no. OK, Robert Bridges, he was a poet laureate. He was a poet laureate from 1913 to 1930. So he had a really good crack at it. And in January 1916, he published an anthology of poetry and prose, which was intended to to encourage and console its readers. And it was called The Spirit of Man.
00:30:52
Speaker
Okay he got a little bit of flack for this because he'd never actually been to war but it was kind of aimed as being a you know there's a lot going on that's pretty bad in the world and this will help. In the introduction he referred to the importance of faith to joy that our country is called of God to stand for the truth of man's hope and basically saying you know Britain was going forward doing the right thing.
00:31:14
Speaker
And he ended the introduction by saying, Britain's have ever fought well for their country and their country's cause is the high cause of freedom and honor. We can therefore be happy in our sorrows, happy even in the death of our beloved who fall in the fight. For they die nobly as heroes and saints die.
00:31:35
Speaker
with hearts and hands unstained by hatred or wrong, which is quite something to say if you've never actually been to the front yourself. There's a modern phrase nowadays where you say read the room. Yeah, exactly. I appreciate that the, you know, I know we focus in on Sigefitsa soon and Wilfred Owen and that sort of lot, and that they have a one sort of view of the First World War, but clearly
00:31:59
Speaker
his view of the First World War is really out of step. It's kind of very pre-1914 Edwardian nonsense, if you ask me. OK, but he does redeem himself. Yes. Yeah. Brace yourself, because you do know him. You know him better for one of the. Yes, you do. One of the other poems in that book. It's a poem called And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time?
00:32:26
Speaker
It was Bridges. That's the song. That's the one. And it was Bridges who suggested to Charles Parry, Sir Charles Hubert Parry, that he set those words to music. And that was to support a Fight for Right campaign meeting in London. Four verses come from a poem by William Blake from a collection of writings that was known as the Pathetic Books. And today, the verse that Bridges contributed
00:32:56
Speaker
into into that anthology is best known as the hymn Jerusalem. Right. With the music written by Parry in 1916 and the orchestration as written by Sir Edward Elgar. Now am I right in thinking that Jerusalem isn't intended to be the rosing aren't we great song that is used for and oh it is in rugby? No it's not.
Conclusion and Farewells
00:33:50
Speaker
And with that, it is definitely time to bring this episode of The Lowlander to a close. Definitely. I'll see you next week. See you. Bye bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Lowlander. The Lowlander was written, produced and presented by Andy Aitchison and Meryn Walters. This was a hellish good production.
00:34:36
Speaker
And now we go to the classified football results for the week commencing the 19th of March 1945 English League Cup North Aston Villa 1 Wolves 2
00:34:49
Speaker
Blackpool 2, Wrexham 0 Bolton 0, Ackrington 0 Bristol 5, West Bromwich Albion 2 Bradford 1, Doncaster 1 Barnley 2, Tor... Barnley 2, Manchester United 3 Bury 3, Stoke 2 Cardiff 1, Lovels 0 Halifax 1, Chesterfield 1 Leicester 2, Darby 1
00:35:20
Speaker
Liverpool 1, Everton 0 Manchester City 5, Crewe 1 Newcastle 2, Darlington 1 Northampton 0, Birmingham 2 Rotherham 2, Barnsley 2 Sheffield United 2, Bradford City 2 English League North Bath 2, Swansea 1 Blackburn 2, Sheffield Wednesday 2
00:35:49
Speaker
Coventry 1, Notts County, Nell Hartley Pool 3, Middlesbrough, Nell Hall 1, Lincoln 4 Leeds 1, Grumsby 1 Portville 3, Walsall 2 Preston North End 3, Chester 2 Southport 2, Oldham 5 Sunderland 2, Gateshead 2 Trammere Nell, Rochdale 1 York 1, Huddersfield, Nell
00:36:20
Speaker
English League South Oldershot 1, Portsmouth 2 Arsenal 1, Crystal Palace 0 Brentford 0, Spurs 2 Brighton 1, Queens Park Rangers 1 Clapton Orient 0, Fulham 0 Luton 2, Charlton 3 Southampton 1, Reading 1 West Ham 3, Millwall 1
00:36:49
Speaker
Scottish Cup South Ergy 1, Queens Park 1 Clyde 6, Partick 1 Folkok 1, Celtic Nil Harts 6, Dunbarton 2 Morten 1, Hamilton Nil Mullowell 4, St. Mirren 1 Rangers 2, Hibbs Nil 3rd Larnock 3, Albion 3
00:37:18
Speaker
Scottish League North East Aberdeen 3 Arts 1 Arbroath Nell Dunfermline 3 Dundee United 1 Ranges 1 East 5-6 Falkirk 2 Wraith Rovers 2 Dundee 1 English Cup West Plymouth 2 Aberamham 1 This concludes the classified Foucault results for the week commencing 19 March 1945
00:37:57
Speaker
went in there and they just saw the bloody Germans off. They were hellish goods.