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Mit fotogalleriFar Thomas Hamilton,born 1919 from Liverpool
GHQ Liaison Regiment (known as Phantom) was a special reconnaissance unit first formed in 1939 during the early stages of World War II. The regiment's headquarters were at The Richmond Hill Hotel in Richmond, Surrey (now in London);[1] its base (including the officers' mess and billet) were at Pembroke Lodge, a Georgian house inRichmond Park, London
Group photograph GHQ Liaison Regiment, June 1944.
(Gudrun Jørgensen,g.Hamilton,død 2009)
Far,mor og Ted Rourke? M3A1 White Scout Car
Far og Ted Rourke
Nær Ludwigslust var far een af de første som så: KZ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smhSd9K6jII
A Squadron GHQ Liaison Regiment (Phantom)
Phantom on D Day. on D-Day, three Patrols (5, 8 & 14) landed
with 3rd BR, 50th Northumbrian and 3rd Canadian Divisions.
Each patrol
consisted of
Jig green: 24603/2920 LST scout car. Jig Sector (Le Hamel/Asnelles)Men of the 6th Green Howards came ashore supported by DD tanks of the 4th/7th Dragoons and the special tanks of the Westminster Dragoons. In this sector the defence was weak and the coastal strong points were easily knocked out before the troops pushed inland to tackle the German artillery batteries. The attack on Le Hamel was slow and British forces took a number of casualties. The intervention of the 147th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, enabled the strong point to be neutralised and the village fell at approximately 1600 hrs. The 69th brigade then continued its southward advance though Creully and Crépon. At 1600 hrs a German counter-attack was launched but failed to break the British lines.
The Diary of Hector Buckland, L/Cp, May-December 1944The ramp was lowered and we walked ashore on dry ground. Our difficulty now was to link up with the advance party who we believed to be ashore. The beach was a seething mass of activity, with hundreds of vehicles coming ashore and making their way slowly inland. The beach was littered with all sorts of equipment and smashed vehicles. We decided to make our way to Jig beach. We were very careful to keep to the tracks, as there were still lots of mines about and R.E.’s were busy exploding them. It was now about eleven o’clock and after walking for about an hour in full kit we decided to have a rest. All our enquiries for 1026 or 6POG were without success and we wondered which way to turn. Away in the distance we could see some large buildings so Sgt. Fitchett volunteered to make his way there if I looked after the kit. He left me at about 12 noon and it was 5pm before he got back, I was getting very anxious about him fearing he had stepped on a mine. Fortunately, he had been successful and had discovered the Company’s location, which was in Meauvaines. We were advised to make our way to Crepon and then make further enquiries there, and at the same time we were warned to watch out for snipers who were very active. During that day the Pioneers had cleared all the dead bodies from the beach, so I was spared that horrible spectacle. We managed to get a lift on a lorry to the village of Crepon, and stopped at an R.E. dump. It was now after 6pm and as we had not eaten all day we decided to make a cup of tea from our 24h. pack. After a brief rest we left our big packs with a unit billeted in the field and set out to try and find Meauvaines. The road we took was littered with parachute equipment, Mae Wests, ground sheets, and all manner of equipment. We had not been walking very long when we came across two wooden crosses on the road side marking the graves of a Sgt. And L/Cpl. of the Green Howards, it made one realise the horror of war, and its utter waste of human life. After walking about 2 miles we got a lift on the back of a water cart and eventually found ourselves in the village of Meauvaines, a pretty little place lying in a hollow. No one seemed to know anything about 1026, and after wandering about the place for a long time we contacted an R.E. major who said he though they were in the vicinity. Just as we left him, who should come out of a doorway but our cook Sgt. Bonetti, I have never been so pleased to see anyone as I was to see him. The Company were juts around the corner and in about five minutes I was shaking hands with some of my pals from the Orderly room, it was a happy moment. We then unloaded our kit, and then trailed back to Crepon for our big packs. Fortunately, we met Bobbie Martin in a lorry and he gave us a lift part of the way, and then brought us back from Crepon village. It was in the latter village that a sniper had been very active, and the steeple of the church was riddled with shell holes, for it was there he was eventually discovered. On arrival back at the camp I found that Bert Sharpe and Arthur were sharing a dugout, but as Arthur was on night duty at Group I was invited to share the dugout. Sleep was impossible for a long time owing to air raids, and I found the ground very hard. Arromanche
On Sword (3 Division) both vehicles landed from LCTs at H+285 minutes.
The Invasion at Gold BeachThe British troops landed at 7:20 on Gold Beach, where their experience was completely different from that of the Americans at Utah and Omaha. Unlike those landed sites, the British had little actual beach to cross. After they surmounted the seawall and an antitank ditch, they were into villages with paved streets. Beyond the villages were mostly large wheat fields. They also faced almost no enemy fire and had an orderly landing that went largely according to plan. A total of 25,000 troops stormed Gold at a cost of 400 casualties. By the end of the day, the British had advanced five miles beyond the coast. Gold Beach timeline07.25 – The 231st and 69th Assault Brigades hit the beach. DD (swimming) tanks and beach clearance groups, delayed by bad weather, are landed directly on to the beach. 07.45 – Troops make slow progress against raking fire, but three beach exits are cleared within the hour. 08.20 – Follow-up battalions and No. 47 Royal Marine Commando land. 09.30 – Les Roquettes is captured. 09.50 – Stiff resistance at Le Hamel. Commandos head for Port-en-Besin to link with American forces. CSM Stan Hollis, 6th Green Howards, performs acts of bravery at Crépon for which he is later awarded the Victoria Cross. 10.50 – Reserve brigades begin to land; seven beach exits have been secured. 13.25: Father landed in LST after H+6 16.00 – Le Hamel is finally captured. 231st Brigade moves on to Arromanches. 69th Brigade encounters resistance in Villers le Sec/Bazenville area. 20.30 – 56th and 151st Brigades reach the outskirts of Bayeux and the Caen-Bayeux road. 21.00 – Arromanches is captured. 23.59 – A large bridgehead has been established, six miles wide and deep, linking up with the Canadians at Juno Beach. 47 Royal Marine Commando are ready to take Port-en-Bessin on the following day. By midnight on June 6, the 50th Division had landed 25,000 men with approximately 400 casualties. They had penetrated 10 km (6 miles) inland and met up with the Canadians coming from Juno Beach at Tierceville. The 56th, 69th and 151st Brigades had dug in on a line between Vaux-sur-Aure and Coulombs. During the evening, patrols of the 2nd Gloucestershires reach the outer suburbs of Bayeux. To the west, Arromanches is reached at 2000 hrs and cleared an hour later. The link-up with the American troops cannot be made. Men of the 47th Royal Marine Commando, after a day-long progression into enemy territory, had dug in on Hill 72 south of the Longues-sur-Mer battery. Their objective, Port-en-Bessin, did not fall until June 8.
During Operation Overlord, in June 1944, many patrols from Phantom came to Normandy on D+1 (7 June 1944). One patrol was assigned to each Divisional HQ of 1 and 30 Corps to land with Main Divisional HQ. Thus on D-Day, three Patrols (5, 8 & 14) landed with 3rd BR, 50th Northumbrian and 3rd Canadian Divisions. Their task was to go around day and night to find all the British, Canadian and American units they could, marking their locations on a map, and passing the information to the main HQ. During Operation Market Garden, in September 1944, a Phantom patrol provided some communication and liaison between forward units and HQ. Two Phantom officers were subsequently awarded the Military Cross for maintaining these important lines of communications during the operation. Phantom vehicles in the field on exercise, mid 1940s
Now It Can Be Told! - Phantom Patrols: G.H.Q. Liaison Regiment
OPERATION MARKET GARDEN
This book describes the role of
GHQ Liaison Regiment, better known as Phantom, during Operation Market
Garden. The information in the book is based on considerable primary
source material from former serving members of GHQ Liaison Regiment. The
unit had patrols with 1 Airborne Corps HQ, Second Army HQ, 43 British
Division, 1 Airborne Division, US 82 Airborne Division, US 101 Airborne
Division and 52 Lowland Division. The Phantom net by 23 September provided
the only Wireless link between 1 Airborne and the Second Army/1 Airborne
Corps.
GHQ Liaison Regiment:
Operation Market Garden (Lulu, July
2010), pp.62 [ISBN: 978-1-4457-4937-2]
"Phantom" The Signals Regiment in Richmond Park
Badge, unit, GHQ Liaison Regiment & 'Phantom' (IWM Ref: INS 5142) Second World War British Army unit badge for GHQ Liaison Regiment (also known as No. 3 Air Mission and, later, as 'Phantom' Regiment), embroidered on felt, H 1.9in x W 1.5in. Unit note: formed in September 1939 as No. 3 Air Mission under command of Wing Commander J M Fairweather, its role was to pass on information about the position of Belgian and British troops in Belgium from Belgian GHQ to HQ Advanced Air Striking Force for the purposes of avoiding friendly fire incidents. Fairweather and an attached Army officer, Lt. Col. G F Hopkinson ('Hoppy'), realised that the resources of the Mission were inadequate and in February 1940 Hopkinson was put in charge of his own Mission which was tasked to work with No. 3 Mission. It seems that the Phantom name dates from this time. The unit's role evolved into the provision to the higher command of immediate intelligence on the current situation and intentions of our own forces. It was dubbed in the immediate post-war popular press as 'the eyes and ears of the Commander in Chief'. An official definition of its function was 'to transmit vital information from the battle front, ignoring the usual channels, to the Commander able to dispose of the vital reserves.' In practice this involved a headquarters dealing with intelligence and signals and a number of squadrons made up of officer patrols. These toured forward areas and attended senior commanders' orders groups and then reported back direct to Phantom HQ which was co-located with the appropriate higher command HQ. As an adjunct to their contact work the unit also monitored our own signals traffic, a task previously undertaken in the Middle East by a separate organization called the 'J' Service. By about 1943 Phantom units included a 'J' signals surveillance capability. By the end of the Second World War there were two full Phantom Regiments, one each in Italy and North West Europe, with a third forming for service in the Far East. IWM Reference: INS 5142
GHQ Liaison
Regiment (Phantom)
Asher Pirt is
researching and writing a definitive history of GHQ Liaison Regiment
during the Second World War. He is extremely keen to hear from former
members of the unit better known by its codename Phantom. He is
constantly on the lookout for private papers, unpublished photographs
and associated material to improve his understanding of the unit.
Asher's History of the unit examines the
background of former members of Phantom, the W/T system and associated
coding and Wireless equipment, the Vehicles used in training and on
operations, Phantom's training for operations, Higher Command thinking
about the unit and finally how Phantom distinguished itself on a variety
of Operations in the Middle East, Central Mediterrean and North West
Europe.
An article by Asher
appeared in the magazine
Medal News
which is a useful introduction to the unit's war service.
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