Trooper Arthur G White

Arthur ‘Chalky’ White was born on the 16th January 1922.

In January 1939, with several of his friends from his village, he joined the local unit of the Territorial Army at Chelmsford – the 1st/5th Battalion, The Essex Regiment.

On the 24 August 1939 he was called up as a Territorial and posted to the 70th (Young Soldiers) Battalion, The Essex Regiment, as he was only 17 ½ years old. The ‘Boys Battalion’ were used to guard airfields and Ack Ack sites with machine-guns.

In December 1942 he was interviewed by ‘Freddie’ Gough and selected to join his UNIT – the 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron as a Despatch Rider. “I had not applied to join any other unit, but must have been selected for interview by ‘Freddie’ himself. I had not had any formal training as a D/R, but was self-taught on an old M/C at the sites where we were on guard”. On arrival at the Squadron he was assigned to ‘B’ Troop.

In the 1st Airborne Reconnaissance squadron Association Newsletter No 36, November 1992, ‘Chalky’ White wrote the following: “I was also an original ‘B’ Troop member and knew Frank Hynes well. In fact, I had a weekend or two at Frank’s home at Aldershot or Farnborough. A few memories of ‘B’ Troop and ‘Horsey’ Waterman, our Troop Commander, of ‘Jimmy’ James singing “A wandering Vagabond and Ave Maria” outside a pub at No Man’s Land in the New Forest whilst on training.

Also, Horsey making us crawl through the grass at six foot positions in line firing his pistol (live ammo) between us shouting “Get those bloody great arses down”. Also in the New Forest.

At Beacon Hill and Braunton, making us trot backwards uphill to strengthen our ankles on the grass slopes – Dress FSMO.

Of evening training at Bulford.

Playing football 30 mins each way then a run and walk to Netheravon on which one night a friend of mine said “B…..ks” to Horsey’s chant of “Run run kill the Hun!” For some time after that our run and walk was to Tidworth and back because no one would own up to this remark.

Henry Venes who turned us into the soldiers we were.

Of two pals who shared the same room at Bulford, Sgt Cannon and Sgt Holderness having a grudge boxing match in the gym at Carter Barracks

Also of Cpl Bill Isaacs dropping a case of mortar bombs on “Bag Pipes” SSM Mackenzie’s foot whilst loading our ammo to go overseas at Bulford.

Of Saturday morning kit inspection at ‘B’ Troop’s Block at Bulford when an ex peacetime soldier was ordered to empty his kitbag and out came a nest of mice!

Lastly of Harry Woods standing on Salisbury Station and hearing the “Warsaw Concerto” for the first time, copying a few bars on a cigarette packet and playing it the next day at the NAAFI at Bulford.”

In April 1943 he had completed all his flying training and then sailed with the unit to North Africa. When the Squadron left Fleurs for Tunisia the Motor Cyclists (about 40 of them) went to Algiers where they picked up their motor bikes and rode them to the new base at M’Saken.

In August 1943 he broke an ankle whilst carrying out a parachute training course in North Africa and was kept in hospital there until February 1944. He returned to the Squadron, by now based at Ruskington in Lincolnshire, on board the Queen Mary, with other hospital patients. After a refresher course at RAF Ringway, parachute course 110, 3– 14 April 1944, where his instructor noted: “Good performance, cheerful and confident”, he was posted to Headquarters Troop as a unit D/R.

During the frustrating summer of 1944 he carried out daily runs to the 1st Airborne Divisional HQ at Fulbeck Hall.

At some time in the 1990’s ‘Chalky’ White wrote about his experiences at Arnhem.

MY “ADVENTURE” AT ARNHEM

By Trooper AG (Chalky) WHITE.

‘On Saturday 16 September 1944 we packed our M/Cycles onto trailers and the glider-borne party left. The next day, Sunday the 17, we got up as usual and after breakfast made sure we had our gear properly packed. Our kitbags contained mortar [ammo] and a little personal gear. We carried 3 days rations in the pocket of our left trouser leg and in our small backpacks. I had a Sten gun and a Browning pistol with some ammunition. We left Ruskington at about 11 am for the aerodrome and after a short stay there, sitting under the wings of our planes, boarded the Dakota’s which were to take us to Arnhem.

I landed by parachute at ten past two, rescued my motorcycle from a glider and proceeded with Major ‘Freddie’ Gough to the Bridge at Arnhem. Our party comprised 2 jeeps with 6 or 7 other ranks, including ‘Darkie’ Bolton and ‘Jimmy’ Woods and me on my bike. On the way, at the start, local girls came out and gave us drinks, but the enemy opposition got worse the nearer the bridge we got. When we got to the bridge we quickly found a house overlooking the bridge and took up positions. The residents left. We were amongst the first getting to the bridge having been delayed by finding our vehicles and each other. Of course there were lots of men from other units kept arriving and occupying all the other houses by the bridge. There was spasmodic firing all the time varying between heavy and medium – there were never any quiet periods. We slept and ate as best we could. We had, I think, US ‘C’ rations and cooked them over portable metholated [spirit] stoves, we did not wash or shave, just kept our guns clean. Our jeeps were parked at the back of the house so we could not use the machine-guns.

I was sent back to Divisional HQ with a report from Major Gough at 11 am on the Tuesday [Monday] morning and had my last wash and shave until we got back to safety over the river 8 [7] days later. This meant I was probably the last (or at least one of the last) to get away from the bridge. On the way back I had to make a detour via the St Elizabeth’s Hospital and felt my legs getting wet and found the petrol tank on the bike had been hit by a bullet and was leaking. I abandoned the bike which caught fire and I proceeded on foot. A Dutchwoman invited me into her house and gave me a bottle of Pilsner and some fruit. Her husband took me into the back garden and pointed me up a back road so I could get away. Travelling past a few houses I was beckoned into another house and told to keep away from the windows. Looking from the front onto a little square I found it filled with German armoured cars having a brew up. In his front garden there was a big yew hedge well hidden from the square. Shortly afterwards the cars moved off in the direction of the battle at Arnhem and I moved off on foot in the other direction to Div HQ. At one point I was hiding behind a hedge and a German the other side had a pee – on me through the hedge. When I got back to Div HQ I handed in my despatch and proceeded to Recce HQ which was nearby. There I spent a wakeful night, some of the time on guard.

The next morning, after a cup of tea and a bite to eat, I was sent out on a foot patrol under the command of Lt   Wadsworth with ‘Jimmy’ Cooke and ‘Bob Coldicott (all from HQ Troop), and Sgt Ritson (ex D-Tp). As we left we were joined by L/Cpl ‘Jiggy’ Potts, also HQ-Tp. We were sent to the landing zone to assist the landing of the second wave [third wave]. We were heavily machine-gunned by Messerschmidt fighters and ‘Jiggy’ Potts was killed [he was actually badly wounded and died 13 November in the hospital at Apeldoorn].

When we got to the landing zone we were sent to a cottage on the perimeter being held by the Border Regiment. We took over their positions and guns while they had a break and a meal. This lasted from, about mid-day to about 5 pm, when a Border officer told us to report back to Recce HQ which we did by about 6 or 7 pm.

There we were allowed time to have a meal and after were sent out to mount guard at a cross road near HQ and there we stayed until the next morning. ‘C’ Troop had been badly mauled, but ‘A’ and ‘D’ Troop s were about at various positions nearby. By now we had run out of rations and all we had were tea, milk and sugar cubes, which we were given to suck. There did not seem to be any shortage of ammunition and we would creep back to Recce HQ to get more when we needed it.

Mounting guard meant lying in a ditch and shooting at anything ‘out there’ that moved.

Eventually the remnants of HQ Troop, me included, were assigned to ‘Lonsdale’ Force and we stayed together as a group within that force until the night we left Oosterbeek.

On that last night of Monday 25 we were given orders to evacuate the area and just as we were to leave the church to go down to the river I was wounded in the leg and went back to the church. I had been laying in a shell hole when I was hit by a ricochet bullet and shrapnel from a bomb that burst by the crater. The medics dressed the wound and decided, as I had not broken any bones that I was fit enough to go down to the river with the others. Some of the wounded had to be left behind. When we left we followed white tapes placed there by the military police [glider pilots], down to a field by the river. There I met up with Captain Allsop, who was wounded while we were waiting to get across. The wait seemed to go on for ever and in the end with Tom Collier and a few others we decided to swim across. We started, but found our waterlogged jumping jackets made it impossible and we held onto ropes on the side of the ‘boat’ and eventually were pulled on board.

When we got off the boat we were taken to a local school that had been a German barracks and we were given a hot meal and drink and taken to rooms where we could sleep which we did until the next morning. The bedding was warm and dry, but we still only had our wet clothing so we slept in our damp underclothes. During the night the school was machine-gunned by a Messerschmidt. The next morning we had to put our wet clothing back on again and after breakfast I was put on a stretcher on a jeep and taken to Nijmegen. There I met up with the Squadron Seaborne Party and was given clean dry clothing and a toilet kit and I had my first shave since the one I had 7 days earlier at the bridge. I was considered mobile again and was allowed out into the town and then with the remainder of the Squadron flew back to the UK. When we landed there were trucks waiting for us and the 30 [50+] men from the Squadron who got back were loaded into two trucks and driven back to Ruskington, arriving at about 11 pm and so the adventure ended.’

John Fairley's book 'Remember Arnhem' records some of Chalky White's experiences during the battle on 19 September 1944, with the 2nd Battalion isolated at the road bridge and the remnants of the divisional force maintaining a defensive perimeter around Oosterbeek:

"Nevertheless despite the sealing up of the defenders, it still remained possible for an individual to get in and out, as was demonstrated by one of the members of the Reconnaissance Squadron. On that Tuesday evening, Trooper Arthur White, a despatch rider with HQ Troop, was asked to try to take a message through to Frost. This he succeeded in doing, by leaving the Hartenstein and detouring around northern Oosterbeek, before coming down to the Bridge through the northern suburbs of Arnhem itself. It was a courageous and audacious journey, and all the more remarkable for being successful.

Nevertheless, for 'Chalky' White, the delivery of the message to 1st Brigade HQ was only half of the job, for there still remained the return journey to be undertaken, and that was to depend as much upon good luck as on his own courage and skill as a despatch rider. White remained at the Bridge for no longer than was necessary, but it was enough for him to get the impression of what he later described as a 'chaotic' situation, with defenders heavily engaged and several houses burning.

Right at the outset of the return journey, 'Chalky's' mission was almost prematurely ended when he came close to running into a mobile German patrol. There were three of them in a Volkswagen vehicle, with an MG 34 on a front mounting, and he had to take swift evasive action by riding up a narrow alleyway that ran between the adjacent buildings. There he waited briefly until the way was clear, before opening the throttle and heading west.

This time he took the more direct route by Onderlangs and near the road fork, at the junction with Utrechtseweg, he was fired at. Unscathed, he rode on but, shortly afterwards, felt his leg wet, and discovered that the German fire had punctured the petrol tank in two places. The lower part of the bike was covered in petrol and, as he ditched it, the petrol ignited and the whole thing went up in a sheet of flame. Immediately he ran off, making for the shelter of neighbouring gardens and expecting at any moment to be shot down by an unseen German. Nothing happened and so, realising that his move appeared to have gone undetected, he began to make progress cautiously on foot, in the direction of Divisional HQ. It was a journey which, in ordinary circumstances, would have taken not more than twenty minutes. Having to undertake it through back gardens and past German detachments meant that it took a great deal longer. At one stage, he found himself near a garden in which a German tank or SP gun was parked, with the crew, clearly visible, standing around the vehicle. Similar sightings of German groups were made all along the way but, eventually, after a great deal of stealth, he arrived back safely at the Hartenstein and delivered the reply to the original message."

After Arnhem they had a few days to carry out essential debriefing and then were sent on two weeks survivors leave. During the debriefing period each man was asked about nominating various Squadron personnel for bravery awards. After their leave they returned to Ruskington for a few days, then the entire unit moved to Hawton Road Camp, Newark.

At Newark the 80 men left after Arnhem were made up to about 160 and retraining began.

From Newark, the day after ‘VE’ day the Squadron flew in US Curtis Commando aircraft with some of their vehicles to Stavangar in Norway to round up surrendering German troops and stayed there about three months. Each day they would go out on patrol with Norwegian interpreters to the various German bases and bring them back to organised German POW Camps.

One day he and ‘Jimmy’ Cooke were on leave and took their motorcycles for a ride down by the docks. “There we were waved to a stop by a German Naval Officer, who said he wanted to surrender. We accepted this and then he said he wanted to surrender with his crews. It turned out he was a U-boat captain with two crews and there were about 40 men involved. We told the crews to wait while we took the officer to HQ, he rode on the back of ‘Jimmy’s’ bike and I rode behind with my loaded pistol cocked, where we handed him over and some troops were sent out to bring in the rest.”

At the end of the stay in Stavangar they were moved to Oslo where they were used to round up Germans in the more remote parts of the country, because they were so mobile. During this period they also took part in a big parade to welcome back Crown Prince Olaf of Norway.

In September 1945 they returned to the UK by troopship, the Strathdene, and onto Bromham near Devizes where the unit was disbanded. Arthur was posted to the 61st Tank Training unit at Barnard Castle as a D/R in December 1945.

In February 1946 he was posted to Bovington Camp in Dorset as a D/R and stayed there until demobbed 29 May 1946.

After demob he went to work for a haulage contractor as a heavy transport fitter. In 1952 he transferred to Skyways and ATEL. owned by ‘Freddie’ Laker as an Airframe Fitter, firstly at Stansted and then at Southend until he retired.

Arthur ‘Chalky’ White died on the 8th March 2004.

Extract from LAST POST, 1st Airborne Recce Squadron Newsletter, No 61, Autumn 2004.

Chalky’s two main hobbies were [the Recce] Squadron Association of which he was an active member and his garden which he maintained beautifully.

His funeral was attended by over 20 members of his local (South East Essex – Southend) branch of the PRA of which he was an active member. Sid ‘Dabber’ Davis, Jeffery Williams and Pip Tyler attended along with Dick King, Nick Clark and Trevor Poole from LOF/associate members. Unfortunately we could not get the standard down in time for the funeral, but Nick Clark bought his Recce Jeep, complete with Pegasus insignia and parked it outside the Crematorium entrance, where it was admired by not only veterans, but also family and friends.

Arthur has left a widow and one son and family and a lot of grieving comrades.

NOTE: Compiled with information supplied by Arthur ‘Chalky’ White to Bob Hilton in 1996.