Category Archives: Second World War

Signalman Arnold Osmond Topliff BEM

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Arnie Topliff was one of only two men to earn a gallantry award in the aftermath of the sinking of the prisoner of war transport SS Lisbon Maru in October 1942. His award of the British Empire Medal was one of 56 to Royal Signals soldiers during the Second World War for acts of gallantry.

Signalman Arnie Topliff BEM

The eldest of two sons and two daughters, he was born in Derby on 9 March 1919. He started school there before the family moved to a small-holding in Quarndon.[1] Arnie was a keen sportsman, representing the village at cricket and football, and a strong swimmer. He was also a chorister in the parish church, St Paul’s. His father had served with the Royal Navy before, during and after the First World War, initially on battleships and later as a submariner[2] and after the war he joined Derby Corporation Electrical Department. When he left school, Arnie Topliff also joined the Derby Corporation, as an electrical cable joiner. It was natural, therefore, that when he enlisted on 6 December 1939 and joined Royal Signals he became a lineman. During his training early in 1940 Arnold Topliff married Nellie Moseley. After his training he was posted to the Far East, to the Hong Kong Signal Company. Continue reading →

Gallantry During The Blitz – Robert Hamilton Tinto G.M.

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This blog post originally appeared in 2016 on my website dealing with Royal Signals honours and awards. With the closure of that site I have updated it and moved it here. The events that it commemorates took place just over 81 years ago.

Signalman Robert Hamilton Tinto G.M.

On the evening of 29 December 1940, a German bombing raid on London caused what became known as the ‘Second Great Fire of London’. Most frequently illustrated by the iconic photograph of St Paul’s Cathedral that came to symbolise London in the blitz, the attack targeted the City of London and the high explosive and incendiary bombs started a firestorm that swept all before it. The area destroyed was more than that devastated by the Great Fire of 1666 and cost the lives of over 160 civilians and 14 firemen.[1]

St Paul’s Cathedral, 30 December 1940

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‘Darkest Hour’, Calais—Capture and Escape

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This article was published originally in 2018 on my website dealing with Royal Signals Honours and Awards; it is reproduced here in anticipation of that website closing.

I suspect many of the readers here will have seen Darkest Hour and Gary Oldman’s superb performance as Churchill. One aspect of the final days of the fighting in France that gets a deserved mention in the film is the ill-fated defence of Calais by Brigadier Claude Nicholson’s 30th Motor Brigade. Ordered to hold out at all cost, the Brigade and French troops in the town fought bravely until, position by position, they were forced to surrender on 26 May 1940. Two German divisions were diverted from their attack on the Dunkirk perimeter.

Headquarters 30th Motor Brigade was split between an Advanced Headquarters in the Citadel in the Old Town and a Rear Headquarters in the docks’ railway station; the latter moved on the afternoon of 26 May to a small fort at the end of the quay. First of the two to fall was Rear Headquarters which was completely surrounded and being slowly reduced by accurate and heavy mortar fire. The Royal Signals element there, led by Lieutenant William Millett of the Brigade Signal Section, and remnants of 1st Battalion, Rifle Brigade and 1st Battalion, Queen Victoria’s Rifles surrendered at about 4.00pm. The Advanced Headquarters, defended by French troops and a small party of Royal Marines, was overrun between 4.30pm and 5.00pm; it was here that Brigadier Nicholson and the Brigade Major, Captain Dennis Talbot were captured.

Daily Record, Friday 31 May 1940

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Major Robert Norman Dodds MBE, MC, DCM, MM

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This blog post originally appeared on my site dealing with Honours and Awards to Royal Signals. It is reposted here in anticipation of that site’s closure.

Second Lieutenant R. N. Dodds MC, DCM, MM, Russia, 1920

One hundred and two years ago, on 22 May 1920 the former Royal Navy hospital ship and troop transport SS Dongola arrived in England carrying some of the last British and French refugees to flee Bolshevik Russia. Amongst the passengers was also the final batch of British prisoners of war, who had been captured a year before during the operations in North Russia. One of their number was Second Lieutenant Robert Dodds MC, DCM, MM of the Royal Engineers Signal Service.

Dodds was commissioned into Royal Signals just prior to the Second World War and was made an MBE for his service in North Africa. I came across him while researching something completely different a few years ago and intrigued by his multiple decorations—he was one of only two men to receive this combination of awards[1]—I saved on my computer the London Gazette that recorded his retirement, meaning to return to it later. It became one of the catalysts that promoted my wider study of Royal Signals gallantry awards.

He is an excellent example of a significant number of decorated soldiers whose gallantry awards are, by necessity, consigned to a brief mention in the Register of Awards. It was an aspiration to record the awards made to those who earned them prior to joining Royal Signals but that has proven to be an impossible task to complete accurately. Nonetheless, the full story of Dodds’ repeated gallantry is worth recounting. Continue reading →

My Family at War – Part 7: Miriam Neill

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2097365 Leading Aircraftwoman Marie Tarrant Neill

Leading Aircraftwoman Miriam Neill

Miriam, as she was known all her life, was the third of the five daughters of my great-grandfather William Neill; she had an older brother who died in infancy whom she never met, and the family later adopted a son.[1] Marie Tarrant Neill was born on 16 August 1910 in the family home at James Street in Lurgan, to which they had recently moved.

The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force was created on 28 June 1939 from the 48 companies of the Auxiliary Territorial Service supporting the Royal Air Force. Conscription of women began in 1941 and Miriam Neill was enrolled into the WAAF that year on 24 July. Having reported for training on 11 September 1941, she completed her basic training and was posted as a tailoress to RAF Box (later renamed RAF Rudloe Manor) in Wiltshire, the site of the Operations Centre of No. 10 Group RAF. She was billeted at Hartham Park, a Georgian manor house just north of Corsham. Continue reading →

The Burma Gallantry Medal

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The Burma Gallantry Medal awarded to Sepoy Nand Singh

The Burma Gallantry Medal, 1939-1945 Star, Burma Star and War Medal 1939-1945 awarded to Sepoy Nand Singh, 1st Battalion, The Burma Regiment. His award was for his gallantry during the attack on Aradura Spur on 29 May 1944 during the Battle of Kohima when he brought into action an abandoned machine gun and held off a heavy enemy counter-attack, during which he was wounded. (Photo © Dix Noonan Webb.)

Following the partition of British Burma from British India in 1937, two new awards were introduced on 10 May 1940 the Order of Burma and the Burma Gallantry Medal.

The Burma Gallantry Medal was to be awarded to Governor’s Commissioned Officers, non-commissioned officers and other ranks of the Burma Army, Burma Frontier Force, Burma Military Police, Burma Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Force and Burma Volunteer Air Force for ‘…an act of conspicuous gallantry’. This remained the case until 1945, when the Royal Warrant was revised to elevate to the award to the status of the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Continue reading →

Gallantry During The Blitz – 29 December 1940

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Seventy-six years ago, on the evening of 29 December 1940, a German bombing raid caused what become known as the ‘Second Great Fire of London’. Taken in the aftermath of this raid, the iconic photograph of St Paul’s Cathedral in the blitz came to symbolise London’s defiance. The attack on 29 December targeted the City of London where the high explosive and incendiary bombs started a firestorm that swept all before it. The area destroyed was more than that devastated by the Great Fire of 1666. It cost the lives of over 160 civilians and 14 firemen.

St Paul's Cathedral, 29 December 1940

St Paul’s Cathedral, 29 December 1940

The attack and the response to it by the emergency services and the people of London is explored in detail by Margaret Gaskin in her excellent book Blitz: The Story of 29th December 1940—a most thorough description of the night’s events told largely through the memories of those who were there.[1] Although Gaskin describes in some detail the bravery of those responding to the fires, she only alludes to the gallantry awards that were made in consequence of those acts. In all, the fierce bombing raid and firestorm of 29 December resulted in 44 gallantry awards—one M.B.E., eight George Medals, 22 British Empire Medals and 13 Commendations for Brave Conduct—more than for any other single event during the blitz.[2] Continue reading →

Remembrance Day 2016

In memory of:

Naval Airman 1st Class Kenneth Admiral Brown, Royal Navy
Died, 22 April 1940

Acting Sub-Lieutenant (Air Branch) Arthur Stephen Griffith, Royal Navy
Killed in action, 18 January 1941

Leading Airman Alfred Samuel Rush, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Sub-Lieutenant (Air Branch) Philip Donald Julian Sparke DSC**, Royal Navy
Killed in action, 11 May 1941

Twice a year I specifically write a story about Remembrance—for Memorial Day here in the United States and for Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. A few days ago, I saw seemingly unconnected lines of research come together that led me to a story of wartime gallantry and sacrifice 75 years ago. I was researching a group of Royal Signals soldiers awarded a King’s Commendation for Brave Conduct when I noticed an award to a Maltese Sapper, who had rescued an airman from the sea. Curious (I grew up in Malta), I searched for his story and, in doing so, identified the man that he rescued, his link with three other airmen who died in 1940 and 1941, and discovered a related painting by the renowned Maltese artist Edwin Galea, the father of one of my childhood friends. The story that pulls together these threads is worth telling on this Remembrance Day.

HMS Illustrious at Malta 1941 by Edwin Galea

HMS Illustrious at Malta 1941 by Edwin Galea

The tiny island of Malta in the central Mediterranean had a strategic importance out of all proportion to its size during the early years of the Second World War. Bombing of the island began immediately after Mussolini’s declaration of war on 10 June 1940 and, besieged by Axis forces in Sicily, the island suffered a gruelling fight for survival that lasted until November 1942. Continue reading →

My Family at War

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My great-grandfather William Neill was the influence behind my exploration of the 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers that led to Blacker’s Boys. Since writing the book I have discovered other relatives who served during the First World War, and some who served during the Boer War and the Second World War. Each has a very different story (those without a link are yet to be written): Continue reading →

Photo Gallery: Iraq – Historical & Religious Sites

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This is part of the the Antoni Paszkiewicz project.

The Lion of Babylon in the ancient city of Babylon, November 1942

The Lion of Babylon in the ancient city of Babylon, November 1942

Notwithstanding the looting that took place following the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the recent destruction of ancient artifacts and religious sites by the grotesque extremists of the so-called Islamic State, Iraq has always been rich in historical antiquities.

Toni collected postcards and took photographs of a number of sites that he visited in November and December 1942. This gallery shows his photographs and more modern images, which show the sites as they are today and provide a short description of them. Continue reading →