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THE LOWLANDER - DEAR SIR...
231 Plays1 year ago
Prepare yourselves for the mailbag! And are you ready for the 52nd (Lowland) Division test? Andy and Merryn (mostly Andy) do a break down of the line-up as Operation BLACKCOCK looms onto the horizon. There's Russian progress. Burmese advance. A Victoria Cross - more Russians - and a rhetorical battle with Churchill. (Spoiler: Churchill wins.)
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Transcript
Introduction to the 52nd Lowlander Division
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.
The Lowlander Newsletter: A Historical Glance
00:00:42
Speaker
Hello, Andy. Hello, Maren. Hello, hello. And once more under the breach, as this week we are going to look at editions of The Lowlander that were sent out between the 15th and 21st of January in 1945.
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, and we're just over a third of the way through now. So if you've been with us from the start, well done. If you've just joined us, catch up. We're looking at what men of the 52nd Loan Division would have been reading and we're digging into the articles that catch your eye. So we'll put bits and pieces of today's article, as all of our articles, up on Twitter so that our one listener out there and what listener land can have a little look to. But before we go on, maybe you should tell us what's happening this week, Maren.
World War II Updates: Hungary and Roosevelt
00:01:21
Speaker
Okay, so Hungary declares war on Germany, which feels a bit like an afterthought. Franklin D Roosevelt gets inaugurated. And then in Germany, Martin Borman and Eva Braun arrive at the Schirrebunker. And Hitler starts sacking everybody. He's lost the plot by now. He's just ordered that every commanding officer from division level upwards is supposed to notify him about what they're doing about all planned movements so that he can override them if he sees fit. He's just lost it. Yeah, did he ever have the plot? Not in the slightest.
00:01:52
Speaker
But shall we find out where the jocks are, please, and what they're up to, where they're going, and basically what's going on with the 52nd Loan Division?
Operation Black Cock Overview
00:01:59
Speaker
OK, this is a big week, Maren. So for you and our one listener out there, make yourself comfortable. Make yourself a cup of tea. What we're actually going to do is we're going to talk about what they're going to get up to this week, which is something called Operation Black Cock. Now, I've mentioned this in passing over the last couple of weeks.
00:02:15
Speaker
But I thought it was really a good opportunity to just explain some of the order of battle or the orbit of the 52nd before we go any further, because I'm going to be using numbers of regiments in this house, et cetera, and it could be quite hard to follow up if you're not really aware of who they are. Is there going to be a test? There will be a test. Yes, of course, there's always a test. But more importantly, talking about putting stuff up on Twitter, we'll put the org chat up on Twitter so people can follow it. Ooh, I like it.
00:02:44
Speaker
What I won't do is I won't break down the entire division into its component parts as much as I'd like to do that. But we'll just give a little bit of an overview of what it looks like. What we're going to focus on is the teeth arms. So the people that are actually doing the fighting in the division.
Structure of the 52nd Lowlander Division
00:02:59
Speaker
So no offence to the 35th mobile laundry and bath unit. You're a very important part of the division, but we're not going to be covering you today.
00:03:06
Speaker
What I'm going to focus on is the three fighting brigades. So by 1944, 1945, the British infantry division more or less always had three infantry brigades and those brigades, each of those brigades had three infantry battalions. Now battalions are the kind of the base unit for all the division and the number of men in there are normally between about 600 and 800 men depending on where it is and how late it is in the war but
00:03:35
Speaker
But the brigades themselves, the three brigades in the 52nd Lowland Division, there's 155 Brigade, 156 Brigade and 157 Brigade. Are you with me so far, Mary? I'm with you so far. I've got questions already, but keep going.
00:03:51
Speaker
The confusing thing is, in the end of February, March 1945, the component parts of those brigades change, but we're not going to do that yet. We're going to focus on what they are in the second, third week in January. So I'll very quickly run through it. And some of these battalions you'll have heard me mention already. So in 155 Brigade, that's the senior infantry brigade of the division. We have the 79th Battalion Royal Scots, 4th Battalion, the King's Own Scottish Borders, and the 5th Battalion, the King's Own Scottish Borders. Got it.
00:04:20
Speaker
156 Brigade is 4th, 5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers. And we're going to talk more about them in a minute. 6 Cameroonians and 7 Cameroonians. And then in the last or the final Infantry Brigade, 157 Infantry Brigade, we have 5th Battalion HLI, 6 Battalion HLI and our old friends, 1st Battalion Glasgow Highlanders, who are also technically part of the HLI. HLI is Highland Light Infantry, isn't it?
00:04:47
Speaker
That's correct, yeah. So, incidentally, 157 Brigade is a Glasgow brigade. All those battalions are from the city of Glasgow. And the other two, 155 and 156, are they regional as well to some extent? Yeah, definitely. So, 155 is Lowland and Borders Brigade. So, they all come from basically Edinburgh and then all the border regions. So, 4th Battalion, KOSB.
00:05:09
Speaker
is from the east of the borders, or the east side of the borders, and 5KOSB is the west side of the border, so Dumfries and Galloway, and 79th row of Scots, the senior infantry battalion in the division, and in fact the row of Scots were the senior infantry battalion of the British army, they are almost exclusively from Edinburgh.
00:05:30
Speaker
156 Brigade, 45th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers, they're from Ayrshire or around the Ayrshire area and the Cameroonians are a Lanarkshire Battalion although they do recruit from other parts of Scotland as well and as I mentioned 157 is HLI
00:05:44
Speaker
Now I won't go into all the units in the division but there's one a couple of little anomalies or there's one major anomaly. Like most infantry divisions at this stage they have three field regiments of artillery so that's 25 pounder artillery guns, an anti-tank regiment so an anti-tank battalion basically but also crucially at this point in the war they have an extra infantry artillery regiment which is the first mountain regiment and this is unique to the 52nd lowland division in northwest Europe
00:06:13
Speaker
because that is a mountain transportable artillery regiment. So they have smaller guns, they have 3.7 inch mountain howitzers which can be broken down into the component parks and actually carried by the men themselves or mules or whatever vehicles and they were still being used in northwest Europe all the way up until March. That's just one anomaly with the 52nd low division compared to other infantry divisions in northwest Europe.
00:06:39
Speaker
And it has your usual components of Royal Engineers, Remie, field ambulances and the various other different units. Reconnaissance. Yeah, we've got a 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment and they're a major part, although they're kind of, I mean, maybe we could do a bit more in the Reconnaissance Regiment one day. Yes, we could. They're actually out there on their own doing their own thing most of the time in their vehicles. And in fact, they came over before the rest of the division and they actually fought during Market Garden as part of 30 Corps.
00:07:08
Speaker
Indeed. Now, quick question, quick question. Take a breath. So my only question is this. We've spoken about the Manchester's several times. Do they, in your mind's eye, sit under the heading of in that sort of top echelon of each brigade, or do they sit in the periphery? So they have a regiment or a battalion within the division, seven Manchester's. And what they do is each of their companies within that machine gun regiment
00:07:37
Speaker
the Manchester's will directly support one of the infantry brigades. So you will have a machine gun detachment from that regiment in your brigade for whatever attacks you have. Sometimes they pull it and they have the whole regiment together for a particular operation, sometimes they're broken down a little bit smaller, but generally speaking you'll have a part of the 7th Manchester's directly supporting one of the brigades, same as the engineers and same as the artillery.
00:08:02
Speaker
they will directly support a brigade pretty much for the duration of the war unless it's a special task okay okay everybody take a sip of water stretch your legs the 79th Armoured Division looks easy compared to this lot yeah oh god that's another thing i tell you what we'll do um if we've got time let's talk a little bit about Operation Black Cock
00:08:36
Speaker
OK, Operation Blackcock. So Operation Blackcock is the operation for 12 Corps, which is the corps that the 52nd is fighting under, along with the 7th Armoured Division and the 44th West 6th Division with the 8th Armoured Brigade supporting. Now, their task is to clear something called the Roar Triangle. Now, we talked about that a few weeks ago, but just to remind you, it's a triangle of German territory that juts into the Allied line. Roarmond is the top of the triangle. Sitard is the bottom left of the triangle.
00:09:03
Speaker
and the city of Gallincorken is the bottom right of that triangle. So the operation Blackhawk, the job of that over the next two weeks is to clear that triangle. What we're going to do is we're not going to go into the full detail now, but as we go through the next couple of weeks, we'll report on it and it'll make more sense. But essentially the operation starts on 16th of January, so this week, with the 7th Armoured Division and then on the 18th of January, then the 52nd Lowland Division gets involved.
00:09:32
Speaker
and then the 43rd Wessex and really it's effectively over by the 25th of January after the capture of Heinsberg but there's a little bit of clearing up to do for the few days afterwards. So it's quite intense. I think the crucial thing to remember at this stage is this is the first big conventional combined arms assault that the 52nd loan is being involved in because if you remember
00:09:57
Speaker
back to Walcorn where we've mentioned it, that was a slightly different, slightly unique amphibious operation, no heavy armour against a slightly different type of German defence. This is conventional combined arms operations in North-West Europe and crucially, it's in the depths of winter and some of the temperatures over the next week or so are going to get down to nearly minus 10, not including Windchill. Alright, well I'm with you so far, Simkins, let's crack on. I think we probably should now, don't we? I think we should.
00:10:30
Speaker
15th January 1945. Splendid Russian Progress. In the third day of their great new offensive, Russian troops have continued to pour through the gap torn in the German defences. Their salient has been deepened on an average by 10 to 12 miles and over 200 places have been added to it. This latest advance has carried Konev's men across the main railway from Kilech to Krakow and to the western bank of the Nida, 40 miles south and southwest of Kielce.
00:10:59
Speaker
Far to the south, the original arm of what is now a gigantic pincer movement, although one admittedly divided by the Slovak mountains, has had an important success in capturing Luchenic, the Czech-Slovak frontier town.
00:11:12
Speaker
Further south, still two railway stations, 200 blocks of buildings and two and a half thousand prisoners fell yesterday to the Russians in Budapest. And for the second day, there is no mention of the German tank columns which were to have relieved the garrison by the 3rd of January, or in accordance with a later amendment, the 10th of January. Once again, I am completely inept and have probably pronounced all of those town names wrong. And this is why every week I'm going to pick something from the Eastern Front.
00:11:44
Speaker
names of towns aside, a little crack of, I think most people recognise, the numbers in there are staggering and the amount of miles and locations and just the sheer volume of stuff that the Russians are going, it's sort of, just it gives you an idea of just the scale, which is, I mean, you think of the scale of the 21st Army Group, which is the British, it's huge, but this just absolutely dwarfs it. Hold that thought mirroring, because later on in this episode, we're going to break some of that down into a little bit of detail in another article.
00:12:05
Speaker
I mean.
00:12:19
Speaker
Fifteenth of January, 1945, nearing Mandalay. The first stage of our reoccupation of Burma appears to be approaching its climax, as our troops close in on Mandalay. Two columns are hastening the Jap withdrawal. The more easterly has advanced from Shwebo to within 30 miles of Mandalay. The other, after a 15-mile thrust down the Chinwin, is only 45 miles from its confluence with the Erawaddy south of the capital.
00:12:43
Speaker
Mandalay endured its heaviest raid yet on Saturday afternoon when Liberators dropped 400 tons in 10 minutes.
Reoccupation Efforts in Burma
00:12:51
Speaker
Gosh. So just to bring it up to speed, after the major attritional battles at Impal in Kahima, Slim or Field Marshal Slim in charge of the 14th Army basically turns his army and starts heading into Burma. And they don't stop really all the way through until they get to Rangoon later on in 1945.
00:13:12
Speaker
And one of the major targets was Mandalay, which is a major sort of provincial town. And they don't capture that to the 30th of March, but already at this stage, the British Army and the Indian Army crucially are advancing. And in fact, on the 14th of January, the first elements of the 19th Indian Division slip across the Arawadi, so they're already nearing it. It doesn't mention it in the reports, the reports on the 15th of January. And really, it's only a matter of time before that city is taken.
00:13:41
Speaker
marvellous. Now I know very little about the Far East as you well know but I do know that on the next page 60th of January 1945 we've got a roundup of the rest of the world. So shall we go through that step by step? Yeah why not? Okay. Number one. Some German prisoners badly wounded left Liverpool yesterday on the Arundel Castle on their way home via Lisbon where another exchange of wounded prisoners is to take place.
00:14:11
Speaker
I'm assuming they didn't float the actual Arendelle Castle? No, it's a ship. It's a ship. Number two, Norwegian paratroops from England have severed the only railway running north from Trondheim by blowing a large bridge.
00:14:30
Speaker
Number three, the snow last week in Britain was the heaviest since the winter of 1940, which is actually quite ironic, bearing in mind that our mountain division is now in Western Europe. Number four, the first Paris boat train since 1940 left London yesterday. It carried about 100 people, mostly with business with the French government. And five, 21 members of a club in Leicester had a row with the Brewers two years ago and decided to make their own beer.
00:14:57
Speaker
last year's profit was ยฃ51,000. Okay well you know we're gonna have to now Google what ยฃ51,000 was. Sounds like a lot of money. Very early doors in the low end we talked about a loan for ยฃ7,000. A lot of bloody money. The one that jumps out is the Norwegian paratroopers. I know you mentioned something about it in the intro for last week's episode, episode 9.
00:15:22
Speaker
It says England now, I wonder. We've got two options here because the Norwegian commanders, Para's special forces were trained in Scotland but we may need to do a bit of digging to find out where they flew from because I live a couple of miles from RAF Timpsford which where a lot of these sort of guys flew from on their little missions so I think we might have to do some digging. Indeed.
00:15:52
Speaker
Clearly, we'd both lost the plot here. Not only did we mention this last week, but what with Operation Blackcock on our minds, we should definitely have remembered this was Operation Woodlark, an operation carried out by members of the Norwegian Independent Company No.1. Also known as the Jรถstldeva Bridge Sabotage, their mission was to blow up a railway bridge at Snesa. Sadly, six hours after the bridge was destroyed, a military troop train was due along the same piece of track.
00:16:18
Speaker
it derailed, crashed into the river below and killed around 80 people. On a very marginally lighter note, this small footnote does remind us the very first independent company going out to Norway in May 1940 as part of the BEF and comprising 21 officers and 268 other ranks as part of Scissor's Force was indeed put together with men of the 52nd Lowland Division.
00:16:59
Speaker
19th of January, 1945.
Challenges of Winter Warfare: Operation Black Cock
00:17:02
Speaker
Second Army attack, progress in spite of weather. It would be hard to imagine worse weather than that in which our troops are fighting north of Sittard. All day yesterday, a biting wind swept across the barren snow-covered fields, and yet all day an infantry plodded methodically forward along tracks torn with deep ruts and in places practically impassable to tanks. As they went, they were cheered by the sight of German villages ahead, blazing under fire of artillery.
00:17:28
Speaker
official reports say the assault, which followed on the previous day's capture of Echt and Sรผsterin, is developing well, if slowly. Now, have you got any idea what we're talking about, Mary? Oh yes, I have a huge idea about what we're talking about because I've walked across that field.
00:17:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think we both have a few times, haven't we? I should say, so this is reporting on the attack from the 18th of January. Obviously, the report is from the 19th of January. And this is the opening moves of the 52nd Lowland Division as part of Operation Blackcock. And actually, specifically, what they're talking about in that sense is the assault on the villages of Lind and Stein, which are just north of Sitard.
00:18:08
Speaker
And that's where the lead battalion of the lead brigade of the 52nd started the battle. And that was the 4th, 5th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers. It's also, there's a little map on this page we should explain. We're looking at the front page of, with the front side of the Lowlander for this day. And the top right hand side there is a very small ink map which shows the river mass, top to bottom, obviously.
00:18:33
Speaker
and the villages and towns of Ruhrmond, Echt, Sรผsterin, Havart, Hongen, Tรถden, Sittard, Geilenkirchen and Heinsberg. And the indicative arrow points exactly, precisely, with or without coordinates on Lind and Stein.
00:18:49
Speaker
It's funny that, isn't it? It's almost like we're going alone or we're just a mile or two away from where that was happening. That's really quite scary because if suddenly what you're being handed in the trench is something that's trying to report, well, not in the trench, but you know what I mean? But it's reporting on what's going on around you. That really does sort of pull things together. Yeah, but it's a great little map. And of course, we're going to talk about this guy later on in the year, but right at the tip of that arrow was where the first and only
00:19:18
Speaker
a ward of the Victoria Cross to a member of the 52nd in the Second World War happened. Well, I'm of course talking about Fusilio Denistini, but we'll talk about that another time. We're waiting for the Prime Minister's plane to arrive and he's coming towards us now, yes? Yes, the plane's coming.
00:19:41
Speaker
and the crowd is cheering, it has to off as the Prime Minister prepares to extend the gangplank from the flying machine, which is a brothem here today from Germany. This morning I met with the other leaders at the meeting, where we agreed on the proposals put forward by all the parties, and in my hand I have a piece of paper, which they have all signed.
00:20:10
Speaker
there will be a battlefield tour to Germany and the Netherlands in October 2024. The tour will follow in the footsteps of the 52nd Lureland Division and Peter White's jocks through Germany and the Netherlands. In this piece of paper we have agreed that other details can be found at walkingwiththejocks.q.uk
00:20:41
Speaker
We shall rejoice in this agreement. God save the king.
00:20:56
Speaker
19th January 1945.
Churchill's War Address to the Commons
00:20:59
Speaker
The Premier surveys the war. A crowded House of Commons yesterday heard Mr Churchill open the two days debate on the war situation. Although suffering from a cold, the Prime Minister spoke for two hours and lacked nothing of his old fire and resolution.
00:21:16
Speaker
In his defence of the government's Greek policy and his denunciation of its critics, he was a great parliamentarian at his parliamentary best. Here are some of the things he said.
00:21:27
Speaker
I'm not going to read all of these out, OK, because we've actually got a whole bunch. There's a lot of them, but I'm going to read a couple and I'm going to go go into Hansard for a second. All right. Well, it's interesting you mentioned Greece before you go on. There's actually lots and lots of stuff in the London about Greece, but it's one of those things that if you start to run with the Greece topic, you have to keep going for it. And it's very complicated. Oh, my goodness me. Yes, it's worth the Royal Scotsman, the Royal Scots. Right.
00:21:52
Speaker
Our war effort. We have now raised the equivalent of 100 divisions, of which 67 are in contact with the enemy in Europe or the Far East. Our losses in France balance those of the USA. In Burma, the 14th Army is reaping its reward, which is even greater than expected.
00:22:10
Speaker
unconditional surrender. If Germany and Japan surrender now, they will suffer nothing compared with what they will suffer if they wait until 1945. Interestingly 1945 versus 1944. And then he says, finally, let us be of good cheer for victory may be distant, but it is certain.
00:22:31
Speaker
If you go into Hansard to look at this, it is absolutely, if you are a Churchillian of any kind, it is absolutely wonderful. It is him at his peak. Before we go on, for the one lesson out there, and certainly not me because I know what you're talking about, just explain what Hansard is. Hansard is the documentary record of everything that's spoken in parliament, pretty much more or less verbatim.
00:22:56
Speaker
Great. OK, right. So Hansard records everything, and there are just reams and reams and reams of this stuff. I'll give you an example. This is extemporous. This is him on the hoof. He says, I turn from the pink and ochre panorama of Athens and the Piraeus, scintillating with delicious life and plumed by the classic glories and endless miseries and triumphs of its history. I mean, it's like it's.
00:23:22
Speaker
It's like a caricature of Churchill. It is absolutely wonderful. But the point that I was going to make was he spends quite a bit of time during that speech talking about the way that US troops are perceived against British troops. He says
00:23:40
Speaker
However, the United States troops have done almost all the fighting and have suffered almost all the losses. They have suffered losses almost equal to those on both sides in the Battle of Gettysburg. Only one British Army Corps has been engaged in this action. I mean he's talking about, I think he's talking about the Ardennes. Yeah.
00:23:59
Speaker
The Americans have engaged 30 or 40 men for every one we have engaged, and they have lost 60 to 80 men for every one of ours, and this is a point I wish to make. Care must be taken in telling our proud tale not to claim for the British Army an undue share of what is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.
00:24:27
Speaker
Well, you've got to keep the people that are supplying you with food, ammunition, weapons, ships, tanks, on-site, haven't you? Very definitely. But actually, I think, you know, he's obviously, he obviously is, he's long sort of been a sort of supporter and a fan of America, friends with Roosevelt and all the rest of it. And it's quite right that he recognises the American struggle in the Ardennes. Welcome, gets a mention as well. They don't mention this in the Low, yeah, they don't mention this in the Lowlander. A chap called Redvers Prior, he was a naval man.
00:24:57
Speaker
he took in the Dieppe road as a beach master on one of the landing beaches in 1942. So he goes on to interject at one point and he says, the RAF breached the dikes causing the whole centre of the island to be flooded. A small narrow perimeter was left along which these formidable defences were sighted. Our army said redwoods prior.
00:25:18
Speaker
Our army in their assault had to attack along this very narrow front against these terrible defences. Within a week all the resistance in the island had ceased and amazing feet of arms. The army had achieved the impossible. I think that was good. It's quite unlikely the Lowlander not to pick up on any mention of anything. I think we should mention of course in the pantheon of terrible
00:25:40
Speaker
Caricature sketches of people yeah we're gonna add Winston Churchill because they've done another one whoever the artist was that did Stalin Lloyd George and Monty we're now adding Winston Churchill to that we'll post that on Twitter as the awful picture but also really accurate.
00:26:00
Speaker
He's barely recognised by this church. He looks like some wax bust, well melted. He's got jowls, a bald head and a cigar and that's pretty much all you need. 20th January 1945, Black Friday for the Bosch.
00:26:20
Speaker
From the Baltic to the foothills of the Carpathians, 400 miles of the Eastern Front are now aflame. Both sides agree on the extreme fury of the battle. Led by the largest tank ever, the Stalin, Soviet armour is racing across the Great Plain that is Poland. Far to the rear Soviet infantry is mopping up isolated German pockets and overhead Soviet Stornovics.
00:26:41
Speaker
and bomber swoop. Now this article goes on and thankfully they've given us five big bullet points about what's actually happening in this massive offensive by the Soviet Union. Better than that there's a map. Yes there's a map and and we'll put definitely put this up on Twitter because they've actually numbered each part of the map where the bullet point corresponds which is very helpful and it actually makes a lot of sense. Well with that in mind and bearing in mind my terrible pronunciation should we give it a go one each?
00:27:14
Speaker
Number one. In five days, 600 towns and villages have fallen to General Chernyukovsky's great new assault on East Prussia. He has driven a wedge 40 miles wide and 20 deep in this historic German citadel, doubling the area he held previously. He's carried his attack to within five miles of Tilsit and 15 of Insterberg and obviously intends to take the former from the west where it lacks protection of the River Niemen. Number two.
00:27:34
Speaker
Yeah. Okay.
00:27:44
Speaker
from southwest East Prussia is now seriously menaced by Rokozovski's lunge along the Warsaw Danzig railway. The marshal, by his latest advance, holds 80 miles of the railway. It is only a mile or two from East Prussian frontier and 100 miles from Danzig.
00:28:00
Speaker
Number three. In the center, Zhukov has surged on another 30 miles in an unprecedented advance to capture three large towns, each of which stands 80 miles from Warsaw where his offensive opened. Lodz, the second city of Poland, Kudno and Wojciech, fell to his first white Russian army group in the course of yesterday's fighting.
00:28:24
Speaker
I only know the name of Voj because Portilla did his real journey through there and he did a whole five minutes. Number four. Krakow, which housed a quarter of a million inhabitants before the war and was once the capital of Poland, was Konyev's chief prize of the day. The Germans who had striven to retain it
00:28:48
Speaker
as a pivot for their army's withdrawal, were completely outwitted and overwhelmed by a combined outflanking and frontal attack. And finally, five. The second new offensive aimed along the mountain fringe at the extreme south of Poland. No, that doesn't make sense. The second new offensive aimed along the mountain fringe at the extre-, yeah, it's worded really weirdly, isn't it?
00:29:11
Speaker
Number five, the second new offensive is aimed along the mountain fringe at the extreme south of Poland. Commanded by General Petrov, it's driven forward 50 miles on a comparatively narrow front in four days and taken 400 places. The German excuse for failure in the last war was a stab in the back at home. Though excusing their present failure in Poland by a stab in the back by other European nations, we would respectfully amend that to a kick in the pan.
00:29:43
Speaker
Well, that's quite a lot going on, isn't it? It is quite a lot. I mean, I don't know too much about the Soviet Union's war. I'm in an old Stalingrad, Leningrad, yadda yadda, but this stuff is just relentless. I mean, it really is. The Soviet army and their military terms, and obviously there's some questions about them and their behaviour, is just unbelievable. The ranking up over the years into this kind of huge force which cannot operate like this is astonishing.
00:30:13
Speaker
50th January 1945, our mailbag.
00:30:17
Speaker
Screen goers lament. Sir, while I appreciate there may be insurmountable difficulties, but we are a mountain division, might I respectfully suggest that we are getting rather bored with the heavenly body always in our hearts, following the boys higher and higher on the way ahead. Could not these heirlooms, or at least those still in the coffers of the mob cinema, be exchanged with some that are probably having the same effect on the personnel of a neighboring division,
00:30:47
Speaker
yours respectfully, R-C-H. Second letter. More about those Christmas cards. Sir. Reference letter signed some of us. We find ourselves in complete agreement on every point which your correspondent raises. We have witnessed for ourselves the efforts of other divisions, which, we assume, are in a similar position to us and are fighting just as hard.
00:31:12
Speaker
In comparison, ours resembles a memoriam card, less the garnished border. We consider our division as good as any and better than most. So why cannot our Christmas cards be likewise? More of us. Now this is in reference to last week.
00:31:29
Speaker
when we when we crawled into any complaints and we spoke about so we read out the the article about the differences between Scotland and England and there was quite a theme going on but the the letter that we didn't read out last week okay is all about the divisional Christmas card and it said we were stunned at the stone cold St Andrews cost stare at us rudely on the outside cover it's plain and simple we thought we thought
00:31:57
Speaker
Perhaps inside the imagination has taken flight, but now best wishes in a cold bare space, only different from other years by Christmas 1944. Surely we could have sent a better, brighter and more optimistic card to those on the other side. I think it's really sad that somewhere along the lines they've all received a really crap Christmas card.
00:32:21
Speaker
Well, I mean, my takeaway from this is, even though you're on the eve of Operation Black Hawk, some people have too much time on their hands. I mean, this is parochial local newspapers out there worst, isn't it?
00:32:35
Speaker
I mean, I have to say, well, we've you've seen it as well. I've got the Christmas card from the winter of 1945 and it's exceptional. In fact, it's probably the kind of proto big, big map of the 52nd, which came with the book Mountain Flood, the history. Yeah, it's wonderful. It's the same sort of thing. It shows the route across Europe. It's fantastic. So I think clearly by 1945, the word got around that. Yeah, last year's wasn't good enough.
00:33:01
Speaker
I mean, to be fair, though, over the Christmas period, the division is settled. It is holding the line, but actually the headquarters and all the rest of it, they're not moving anywhere. So maybe the complaints are justified. I'm not so sure. I think so. I think so. We'll have to try and track down the Christmas garden. Yeah, I think that's a little mission for us, isn't it? And finally, we go to this week's thought for the day from the 17th of January, 1945.
00:33:31
Speaker
In a fair cause, and for the country's safety, To run upon the cannon's mouth undaunted, To obey their leaders and shun their mutinies, To bear with patience the winter's cold, And summer scorching heat, Are the essential parts that make up a soldier. Philip Messinger. What's it going on about, Marin?
00:33:50
Speaker
So we're going on about Philip Massinger, who was, he wasn't really a contemporary of Shakespeare. He sort of followed on afterwards. And in fact, TS Eliot wrote an essay about him and he said, immature poets imitate mature poets steal. He was quite a fan. Poet playwright, he wasn't bad. If you think, if you think of Shakespeare as, I don't know, let me think, Michael McIntyre, erudite but fast, then Massinger would be Jimmy Carr. Bit coarse, bit clever.
00:34:19
Speaker
and you sort of take your chances with him. Okay, okay. The poem though, it's missing the best bit that makes sense of it. Okay. So I'll read it. It goes, if ere my son follow the war, tell him it is a school where all the principles tending to honour are taught, if truly followed, to dare boldly in a fair cause and for the country's safety,
00:34:44
Speaker
to run upon the cannon's mouth undaunted to obey their leaders and shun mutinies to bear with patience the winter's cold and summer's scorching heat are the essential parts make up a soldier well thank you for that and really it's just another week where i have absolutely no idea what's happening one day one day i'm going to rerun these out and i'm going to get it straight away
00:35:11
Speaker
You're lucky you didn't get Demosthenes this week. I could have given you that one. I can't even see it. On that note, shall we call it a day for this week at least? I think we should do. Yeah, it was a bumper-packed edition and I think we probably all need a rest. Indeed. Alright, I'll see you next time. Yeah, bye-bye. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Lowlander.
00:35:37
Speaker
The Lowlander was written, produced and presented by Andy Aitchison and Mirren Walters. This was a, hellish good, production.
00:36:04
Speaker
And now we go to the classified football results for the week commencing the 15th of January 1945. Lee Cup North. Atkinson-Nill, Barnley 4. Aston Villa 3, Birmingham 1. Blackburn 7, Blackpool 4. Bradford City-Nill, Barnsley 1. Bristol City 10, Aberamham-Nill
00:36:33
Speaker
Cardiff 4, Bath 2 Chesterfield 1, Leicester 0 Darlington 3, Harkiepool 2 Derby 7, Notts County 0 Groomsby 1, Doncaster 2 Huddersfield 2, Burry 1 Lincoln 0, Sheffield United 0 Newcastle 2, Gateshead 4
00:37:03
Speaker
Rochdale 1. Preston North End 1. Sheffield Wednesday 1. Lotherham 4. Stockport Mill. Everton 3. Sunderland 4. Middlesbrough 3. Swansea 4. Lovells 1. Walsall 6. Coventry 5. Wolverhampton Wanderers 6. Chester 1. Wrexham 5. Portvail Mill
00:37:33
Speaker
York City nil, Leeds 5 English league, South Brentford 3, Charlton 1 Brighton 3, Arsenal 0 Chelsea 1, Portsmouth 1 Millwall 3, Queens Park Rangers 3 Reading 0, Lytton 3 Southampton 3, Fulham 0
00:38:03
Speaker
Tottenham Hotspur 3, Crystal Palace 1 Walford 0, Clapton Orient 3 West Ham United 8, Aldershot 1 Scottish League South Clyde 2, Albion 3 Hebs 2, Celtic 4 Queen's Park 2, Moreton 1 Rangers 2, Hampton Academicals 0
00:38:32
Speaker
fixture played at Coventry, FA11, 4, RAF, 6. All of the matches other than those mentioned have been postponed due to inclement weather.
00:39:11
Speaker
They went in there and they just saw the bloody Germans off. They were really good.