Exploring Surrey's Past

The 6 June 2024 sees the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, when British, American and Canadian soldiers landed in Normandy to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation. However, before this happened the battle of the Atlantic had to be won so that supplies and soldiers could be brought from America and Canada; intelligence had to be gathered about the landing zone, while feeding false intelligence to the Germans that the invasion would be near Calais rather than Normandy. Such was the success of this false intelligence that the Germans still believed the Normandy landings were a feint several months after D-Day itself.

Being located in the south Surrey was an important location for the build-up of the invasion force, with Canadians being camped in Witley, Thursley, Haslemere, Horsley, Gomshall and other places in the county. In May 1944 Bernard Law Montgomery, the commander of the land forces addressed the Canadian troops there. Throughout the war the South-Eastern Army Command Headquarters was at Reigate, although the co-ordination of D-Day itself was at Southwick Park near Portsmouth.

For organisational purposes the beaches of Normandy where the British were to land were known as Sword and Gold. Originally the Canadian beach was to be called Jelly, since the British beaches were named after fish, but it was decided to re-name it Juno instead. The American beaches were known as Utah and Omaha.  About 7,000 ships and landing craft took part in the seaborne invasion on D-Day. 195,000 naval personnel and 133,000 troops from the British Commonwealth, the United States, and their allies also took part.

The 1/7th Battalion, Queen’s Royal (West Surrey) Regiment, advancing through the ruins of Demouville, south-east of Caen.
(Surrey History Centre reference QRWS/30/GRIFWD/3c)

It was expected that there would be heavy casualties, but although 4,414 allied troops were killed on D-Day and more than 5,000 wounded, this was fewer than was expected. However, in the weeks that followed a further 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded and although the French welcomed the invasion it is estimated that over 20,000 civilians were killed during the liberation of Normandy.

The exact number of German casualties is not known but it has been estimated that between 4,000 and 9,000 men were killed, wounded or missing on 6 June during the D-Day invasion alone and about 22,000 German soldiers are among the many buried around Normandy. The cemetery at Bayeux contains the graves of 4,258 soldiers of both sides and a further 1,792 are remembered on the memorial. Among those buried in the cemetery are Dorothy Field and Mollie Evershed, who were both members of the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service.

Headstones in Bayeux War Cemetery
(Surrey History Centre reference QRWS/1/7/6)

Dorothy Anyta Field was born on 23 May 1912 and baptised at St Dunstan’s, Cheam on 27 July. She was the daughter of Charles Roland and Ethel Alice Field of Stanley House, Mulgrave Road, Sutton. The family moved to Horley and then Kingswood from where in 1932 Dorothy attended King’s College Hospital and graduated as a nurse on 23 June 1935. In 1944 she was a Sister in the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, but on 7 August the hospital ship Amsterdam she was on hit a mine off Juno Beach and almost split in two. Due to their efforts 75 wounded soldiers were transferred to another ship, but when Dorothy and Mollie went below deck to oversee the evacuation of more wounded the ship sank, and they were drowned along with those that remained below deck. On 29 December 1944 Dorothy and Mollie’s were posthumously commended for their bravery by King George VI.

The wounded evacuated from Normandy arrived back at Southampton, Gosport or Portsmouth, from where they were transported by train to hospital. One of the stations where the trains stopped was Woking, from where the wounded were transported to Botley’s War Hospital, which is now St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey. The hospital was designated a ‘Transit Hospital’, where the wounded would be assessed for the severity of their wounds and then transferred to other hospitals.

An armoured carrier belonging to the Queen’s advances through a cornfield, passing a burning German tank.
(Surrey History Centre reference QRWS/15/4/1)

It was not until 8 June that 1/5th, 1/6th and 1/7th Battalions, Queen’s Royal (West Surrey) Regiment, landed in Normandy, although the War Diary of the 1/5th Battalion, records “slight enemy shell fire was encountered causing no damage, escort laying an effective smoke screen” (Surrey History Centre reference QRWS/9/4/1). The regiment’s 4th Battalion, which had been converted to 127th (Queen’s) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, part of 76 Anti-Aircraft Brigade, was to protect Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches, which was a temporary harbour where troops and equipment could land. This harbour would be used until an operational port could be captured. A second mulberry harbour in the American sector at Saint-Laurent was badly damaged on 19 June by a storm and put out of action.

Part of Mulberry Harbour. Less than a week after the invasion the harbour was operational. Despite being a temporary construction some of the outer walls can still be seen off Arromanches today. (Copyright: © IWM (A24371))

Other battalions of the Queen’s Regiment and those of the East Surreys were fighting in Italy and in the Far East against Japan. On 5 June 1944 Rome was liberated but this event has been overshadowed by the events of D-Day itself. Although the fighting was just as fierce, the veterans of the Italian campaign were cruelly dubbed the ‘D-Day Dodgers’.

After Normandy had been captured, the rest of France had to be liberated, and then the rest of Western Europe, so it would not be until 8 May that Victory in Europe was declared marking the surrender of German forces in Europe. However, peace was not finally restored until 15 August 1945, when the Japanese surrendered officially ending the Second World War.

Street Party Homestead Road, Caterham, 1945. Although rationing would continue into the 1950s, with eggs, sugar and butter being scarce many made a celebration cake out of condensed milk. However the government did make sure there was enough beer in the pubs.
(Surrey History Centre reference PH/29/71)

Further information:

For records of the Surrey regiments held at Surrey History Centre see our comprehensive guide: Summary of the arrangement of the records of the Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment.

The Surrey Infantry Museum’s webpage North West Frontier Buried Battles & Veterans’ Voices has two clips of an interview with Noel Matthews, 1/5^th Battalion, Queen’s.

The John Snagge recording announcing that D-Day has begun, D-Day Broadcasts – History of the BBC.

Imperial War Museum The Story Of D-Day by the People Who Were There.