From Bob Baynes: Richard and Joyce
The Officer. Captain Richard St. John Bartholomew was a fast rising officer in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC). The military knew war would come again with Germany, so Richard was posted to the MoD to develop infantry tactics and future weapons for use against German Armour, a critical job.
The Girl. His secretary, Joyce Peverall came from humble origins in the East End, but had starred in her grammar school where she won a free place. Her secretarial skills were second to none, and she mastered all the top grades with ease. She was attractive without really trying, and as was the case in those days, deferential to her superiors. The long extra hours worked by Richard were always supported by Joyce who could find anything in the labyrinthine archives of MoD. It was in fact down to her efforts that Richard succeeded against the bureaucracy.
The Affair. The close contact and mutual respect between the two was a tinder box of supressed passion waiting to burst into flame. This happened one night at about 10.00pm after they cracked a particularly difficult technical solution for a lightweight anti-tank weapon. Elated, they hugged each other, looked deeply into each other’s eyes and made passionate if rather amateurish love on Richards desk, scattering files everywhere. It was once only, never repeated and never spoken of; after all they came from such different backgrounds, and she knew Richard must marry well to realise his full potential. Three months later she knew for sure she was pregnant, resigned her job pleading illness, and went home to have the baby.
The Boy. Richard Peverall was born in early 1922. His mother, deeply and tragically in love with her former boss closely followed his career as he rose speedily up the ranks, gaining recognition in short overseas campaigns. There was little she didn’t know about the KRRC and Major Richards meteoric career, more in fact than most officers in the Regiment. Her son, known as Dick, inherited many of the talents of his parents, but was trapped by his class and the pittance that his mother managed to scrape together to live. She taught him on long dark nights all about the MoD, Army, the KRRC, and what a superb Regiment it was. When he wasn’t being taught by his mother, he played football, ran for miles and kept himself in superb physical condition. He was army barmy, and directed his skills on what he imagined might be useful on the battlefield. His mother ensured he was totally focussed on the army with stories based on his father’s exploits and achievements.
The Soldier. When he was 17, Joyce died of consumption and Dick with no ties joined the Army, and unsurprisingly ensured that the recruiting Sergeant drafted him into the KRRC as a rifleman. With no hope or expectation of a commission, Dick emulated his father’s ethos, rapidly gaining promotion to the rank of Colour Sergeant and second in command of the prestigious reconnaissance platoon. Shooting was Dicks passion, and he won the army’s annual shooting competition at Bisley three years in a row. Thanks to his mother, his general military knowledge was unusually broad for a ranker. He was aware that a Major General Richard St. John Bartholomew, a renowned soldier from his Regiment commanded the division his battalion was assigned to. The division was sent to France in 1940.
The British Expeditionary Force. The BEF was outnumbered, outclassed, out gunned by the Wehmacht. The retreat to Dunkirk was chaotic with the Luftwaffe wreaking havoc on the blocked roads. Bartholomew’s severely depleted Division had to abandon most of its guns and transport, but was the only British force between the full strength 6th Panzer Division supported by the might of the Luftwaffe, and the survivors waiting for evacuation from Dunkirk.
Cassel. The route back to Dunkirk passed through the town of Poperinghe where there was a bottleneck over the Yser canal. It was here that General Bartholomew’s division would make its final desperate effort to delay the Germans from reaching the beaches. The remains of the reconnaissance platoon, now commanded by Colour Sergeant Peverall, his platoon officer having been killed, was sent to act as a decoy in the nearby town of Cassel protecting the divisions flank. With almost uncanny military acumen, Dick positioned his men where they would be most effective and mutually supporting each other. They covered the exposed flank of his division, with himself as the centre of the forthcoming action. Armed only with their Lee-Enfield rifles, a couple of BREN guns and some anti-armour weapons developed by his general, they waited, a pitiful remnant with an almost impossible task.
The Action. General von Armstedt, commander of the 6th Panzer Division was worried about Cassel on his flank. The British despite their deplorable equipment and lack of artillery and air support, constantly sprang surprises on the master race. Before attempting to force a passage over the Yser canal, he decided to send his most experienced armoured brigade to ensure Cassel was not a threat to his flank. The brigade reached Cassel as night was falling, but its commander knew he couldn’t wait until dawn. He decided to approach the town on a narrow front, tanks leading, just as Colour Sergeant Peverall had anticipated. The anti-armour weapons were skilfully sited around a killing zone which the Germans walked into. The night lit up with burning tanks, and the brigade commander halted the armour and poured infantry forward to root out the anti-tank weapons, just as Peverall thought they would. Peverall’s sharp shooting was impressive; he alone took out more Germans than the rest of the platoon together. German casualties were so high that the brigade commander decided to wait for dawn. 6th Panzer Division which could have punched through to Dunkirk and captured or killed the British and French before the rescue boats of Operation Dynamo had left the British ports, was halted in its tracks. The bloodied German brigade launched the final attack at dawn. Peverall’s platoon defended to the last man; there wasn’t a single survivor. By the time 6th Panzers were on the move, the French and British had put in a hasty defensive ring around Dunkirk which allowed 338,000 allied troops to escape to England.
The Credit. In England, there wasn’t a great feeling of victory at the time, and plaudits were few and far between for the defeated army. However, General Bartholomew got the credit and a promotion from Winston Churchill for delaying the invading Germans so that so many troops were rescued to fight another day.
From Simon: An interesting way of telling a story, in kind of outline form, but very effective for the subject matter. The unemotional starkness of the presentation gives it a kind of authenticity, as though one were reading from a military bulletin or a report. Also, that way of telling it avoids the danger of sentimentality in what is actually rather a poignant narrative. I liked the ambivalence of the ending. The boy fulfilled all the military aspirations that his father could have had for him, and yet the father was completely unaware of his existence. And, as so often happens in wartime, the achievement of the true hero is unacknowledged. Neat.