Signaller Paul Didsbury - maybe not as accomplised as the rest but a good lad

RIP mate

Johnny Wiseman

Another Old Soldier Slips away, George Rice 108, died on saturday leaving only 7 survivors of 5.4 million britons whom served during the greatwar.
I'm sure they won't mind him being late on parade.
RIP George

Simon Wiesenthal: "The Conscience of the Holocaust, Dies in Vienna" at 96

Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi Hunter has died in Vienna at the age of 96, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today (September 20th).

"Simon Wiesenthal was the conscience of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the International Human Rights NGO named in Mr. Wiesenthal’s honor, adding, "When the Holocaust ended in 1945 and the whole world went home to forget, he alone remained behind to remember. He did not forget. He became the permanent representative of the victims, determined to bring the perpetrators of the history’s greatest crime to justice. There was no press conference and no president or Prime Minister or world leader announced his appointment. He just took the job. It was a job no one else wanted.

The task was overwhelming. The cause had few friends. The Allies were already focused on the Cold War, the survivors were rebuilding their shattered lives and Simon Wiesenthal was all alone, combining the role of both prosecutor and detective at the same time."

Overcoming the world’s indifference and apathy, Simon Wiesenthal helped bring over 1,100 Nazi War Criminals before the Bar of Justice.


(c) www.wiesenthal.com

www.telegraph.co.uk/ne...db2203.xml

Roger Freeman
(Filed: 22/10/2005)


This really saddens me. Roger was a fantastic and knowledgable individual. He will be very missed.

In Memory of…

Sgt Andrew Wallace & Specialist Michael Wendling

Killed in Action Basrah Southern Iraq 26th September 2005.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died in Shaibah, Iraq, on Sept. 26, when an improvised explosive device detonated near their HMMWV during convoy operations. They were also attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire. Both soldiers were assigned to the Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Brigade, Fond du Lac, Wis.
Killed were:
Sgt. Andrew P. Wallace, 25, of Oshkosh, Wis.
Spc. Michael J. Wendling, 20, of Mayville, Wis.
394-06-936 Spec Roskpopf shrapnel right thigh
388-94-4124 Spec Wendling severe head injury d.o.w
391-72-2706 Stoleman battle shock
478-98-0408 Sgt Wallace multiple shrapel wounds k.i.a


Sgt. Andrew Wallace


An Oshkosh soldier killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom is being remembered for his love of family and country and for his dedication as a teacher and wrestling coach.

Sgt. Andrew Wallace, 25, was killed by a roadside bomb, while he helped escort a convoy of supply trucks in Iraq, his father, Pete Wallace, said Tuesday.

Wallace said his son joined the Army National Guard in part to help pay for college costs, but he also had a deep and lasting patriotism for his country.

“He was proud to serve his country and he knew the risks that came with it,” said Wallace, who lives in the Dodge County community of Fox Lake. “Everything he did, he did with enthusiasm. He enjoyed sports with enthusiasm and he loved his country with enthusiasm.”

He said his son was in good spirits when he last talked to him via cell phone about a week ago.

“He called me at work,” Wallace said. “He preferred being out on the missions instead of being back in the base.”

Wallace served with the Wisconsin Army National Guard 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment based in Appleton.


Also killed by the roadside bomb in Shaibah, Iraq, was Spc. Michael Wendling, 20, of Mayville, who was driving the Humvee that he, Wallace and another soldier were riding in near Basra at the time of the explosion, Wendling’s father, Randy Wendling, said Tuesday. Wallace was the team leader who normally sits in the front passenger seat. The third soldier, who was injured, served as a gunner.

Major Gen. Albert H. Wilkening of the Wisconsin National Guard said he has ordered flags of all Wisconsin National Guard armouries, air bases and other facilities lowered to half-staff in memory of Wallace and Wendling.

Wallace, a physical education teacher since 2003 who taught at Oshkosh North High School and Emmeline Cook Elementary School, was deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in June. His father said Wallace was a member of the National Guard for about six years.

Pete Wallace recalled the last time he saw his son, which was June 9 for a sendoff at Volk Field at Camp Douglas in western Wisconsin. He said family members gave him hugs, plenty of love and told him to stay safe before he departed.

“He wanted to come home as a veteran,” Wallace said.

Wallace’s father said funeral arrangements are pending.

Overall, 46 Wisconsin military members have died during the war in Iraq and so have more than 1,900 U.S. troops nationwide. Local soldiers who died include Pfc. Brent Vroman of Omro, who was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and Army Reserve Capt. Benjamin Jansky of Oshkosh.

Wallace’s death was a shock to those who knew him, including wrestlers at North, where he was an assistant wrestling coach.

“He was there for us all of the time and whenever we had a problem we could go to him. He was easy going and fun to be around,” said senior Nick Wolff, a member of the North wrestling team. “He taught us to respect everybody no matter what happened to us.”

Wallace was a 1998 graduate of Ripon High School where he played football, baseball and wrestled. His father said Wallace also was a WIAA football official and had been an avid fan of the Green Bay Packers.

Lucas Seelow, a senior at North and a member of the wrestling team, said Wallace put a smile on the faces of wrestlers.

“He liked the sport and enjoyed being out there with us,” Seelow said. “He was at school at 6:30 each morning to help anyone who wanted to lift weights and to give his support.”

Gary Westerman, former head wrestling coach at North, said Wallace’s enthusiasm was contagious.

“Andrew was the ultimate kid at heart. He was never in a bad mood and always smiling and had positive things to say,” said Westerman, who is a physical education teacher at a Kimberly Middle School. “He was an all-around great guy and a great friend.”

Westerman said Wallace was proud to be in the military and often talked about it. He said Wallace and his wife had just purchased a house in Oshkosh.

“He was real excited about that,” Westerman said. “He couldn’t wait to have me over.”

Phil Marshall, principal at Emmeline Cook, said Wallace kept in contact with school staff via a Web site.

“He would take pictures of all the missions he was on and would post them on the Web site so we could get a look at what was going on,” Marshall said. “He sent e-mails to staff updating what was happening in Iraq. It was really a comfort to us to have contact with him on a regular basis.”

Marshall said Wallace was an extraordinary person.

“He made an impact on everyone in school from students to staff and parents,” Marshall said. “He always had a smile on his face and a positive attitude. The lack of that energy has left a big hole here.”



Michael Wendling



The news passed through the stands Monday evening at the Mayville High School JV football game - Michael Wendling, who played on the football, basketball and golf teams and joined the military while still a student, had been killed in Iraq.
Among the words murmured by stunned people as the football game unfolded before them: explosion, Iraq, Humvee, Mayville.
"In typical small-town fashion, it had drifted through the town," said Mayville High School Principal Lee Zarnott. "Unfortunately, bad news travels fast."
Wendling, 20, a specialist, was killed Monday with Sgt. Andrew P. Wallace, 25, of Oshkosh when a roadside bomb exploded as they drove past it in Iraq. They were members of Fond du Lac-based Charlie Company of the Wisconsin National Guard 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment. Their deaths bring to 47 the number of Wisconsin service members killed in Iraq since March 2003.
A high school friend of Wendling's, Spc. Jeremy Roskopf of Brownsville, suffered shrapnel wounds to his legs.

Roskopf and Wendling signed up for the National Guard together while they were in high school. They played on the Mayville golf team, which won the conference championship their senior year.
Wendling, who was on the dean's list at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee when his unit was activated, frequently kept in touch with his family via e-mail and talked about what it was like to drive the large, heavy Humvees in Kuwait and Iraq, said his father, Randy Wendling.
"He said they don't go very fast, but he seemed pretty excited about what he was doing," Randy Wendling said in a phone interview Tuesday.
The Appleton-based 2nd Battalion, 127th Infantry Regiment was activated in June and trained at Camp Shelby, Miss. The unit moved to Kuwait in mid-August and has been based in northern Kuwait, providing security to convoys travelling from Kuwait into Iraq, said Wisconsin National Guard Lt. Col. Tim Donovan.
Wendling's father said the roadside bomb hit his son's Humvee near Basra, in southern Iraq. Wendling was the driver, Roskopf was the gunner who stands in the middle of the vehicle and Wallace was the team leader, who normally sits in the front passenger seat.
Randy Wendling said he saw his son shortly before the unit deployed overseas last month. He spent his home leave going to Brewers games, visiting with family and friends and golfing.

His son was upbeat in his e-mails and enjoyed serving in the Wisconsin National Guard, the elder Wendling said.
"He talked about where they were based and what it was like, what they were going to be doing, how hot it was there," said Randy Wendling.
In his last e-mail, received a couple of days before he died, Wendling asked about a care package his family sent him that included bed sheets and beef jerky and told his folks that his company was very busy.
Stu Strook coached Wendling in junior varsity football and golf and remembered a guy who wasn't the most talented athlete but someone who worked hard to improve himself. It was common to see Wendling hitting buckets of golf balls, even after matches, until dark.
"I would call him a grinder. He worked hard. He had a good heart," said Strook.
Wendling also liked to eat. He wasn't fat, so sometimes his team mates wondered where he put all the food. Strook recalled returning from a golf match one day when the team stopped at Burger King. Wendling ordered a Whopper Value Meal with fries and a drink. Nothing unusual about that, except that Wendling went back for four more Whoppers - quarter-pound burgers - and ate them all, to the astonishment of everyone watching him, Strook said.
"Mike was a personality, I guess you would say. He had a great sense of humor. He was a kid who liked to have fun, and kids liked to be around Mike because he was so much fun," said Strook.
Wendling had not declared a major at UWM, but his father said he was leaning toward getting a degree in the sciences. His high school marketing teacher, Rod McSorley, said he thought Wendling would have become an engineer.
A couple of dozen marketing students from Mayville organized a trip to New York their senior year. The group took in the sights, visited Madison Square Garden and saw "The Lion King" on Broadway. A photo of the group taken on the Staten Island Ferry is pinned to a bulletin board in McSorley's office. McSorley said he was looking at the picture of Wendling and his classmates mugging for the camera as he talked to a reporter Tuesday about his former student.
"When we visited New York, we visited ground zero, and that was important to him. He was close enough to 9-11 to embrace its importance," said McSorley. "He had very good family values. That wouldn't surprise me (that) he had the feeling of giving back."

---

---

---

www.telegraph.co.uk/ne...db1901.xml

Major George Drew
(Filed: 19/11/2005)

Serial escaper whose expertise as a distiller and forger stood him in good stead in Colditz.


Major George Drew, who has died aged 87, helped his fellow prisoners to cope with the boredom and deprivations of Colditz Castle during the Second World War by producing potent home-made alcohol.



He and his friend Pat Fergusson first tried to brew from the sugar and raisins in Red Cross parcels but failed. Then they realised that there was sufficient sugar for fermentation in the turnip jam supplied by the Germans. Mixing the jam with yeast and water, they used a piece of purloined drainpipe and a large tin, sealed with plaster of paris from the sick-bay, to produce "hooch" for such events as St Valentine's and St Patrick's Days.

However, the effects of the more than 100 per cent proof alcohol could be severe, even leading to temporary blindness. Dental fillings would fall out. If a man was having obvious difficulty walking and talking in the castle yard it was said that he was "jam happy".

When Drew and Fergusson took part in the Channel 4 television series Escape from Colditz in 2000, they made their potion for the first time since 1945. Taking the first glass before the camera, Drew said "Dear God," remarked that the smell was not quite as bad as it used to be, then drank again. "Oh Christ," he gasped.

He found a less lethal diversion in carving some 40 statues of nude women, though he admitted that there was one trouble: "The memory was lacking."

The son of a moderator of the Congregationalist Church, George Shepherd Drew was born on March 5 1918 and educated at Wellingborough College and Sandhurst before being commissioned into the Northamptonshire Regiment. Young George became a platoon commander with the 2nd battalion at Ballykinler in Northern Ireland, where his untrained bulldog puppies did not win him universal popularity in the mess. On the outbreak of war in 1939, the Northamptons formed part of the expeditionary force sent to France.

Drew remembered wondering dreamily in the relaxed atmosphere of the "phoney war" whether to win the VC "straight away and get the others later on in the week, or whether to work up to it slowly". They were stationed at the Belgian border, opposite Menin, and moved to near Arras to prevent Rommel driving towards Calais.

After a skirmish in which several men were lost, Drew led a convoy over a canal in Belgium, where they found none of the defensive shelter they had been promised, and were quickly overrun. They were being marched off into captivity when the artillery barrage they had expected finally arrived.

He was taken first by train to a camp at Laufen, in Bavaria, where a dead donkey helped to make up for the lack of Red Cross food parcels. It was while sitting on the ground in the sun that he picked up a small branch and started to whittle away with a knife; to his astonishment, he found that a tiny, misshapen little man emerged from his efforts.

On being moved to Biberach, where he was inducted into the escaping community by being asked to produce a German bayonet scabbard, Drew was transferred to Warburg. He and his friend Fergusson built a tunnel, through which they duly escaped across the battlefield, on which the Marquess of Granby lost his wig in a charge in 1760, and reached a railway line.

After walking several miles, they turned into a wood, and flopped down to hear footsteps. Drew felt something pulling his trouser leg and, turning over to surrender, found that it was a fox. The pair jumped on several trains, which took them to a nearby mashalling yard, and walked along a deserted autobahn before turning into a field and falling into the hands of a German patrol.

Drew used his solitary confinement in a French camp at Soest to read through Hugo's Italian in Nine Days, an Italian dictionary and Pinnochio in the original, then was transferred to Eichstatt, where he worked on a highly professional tunnel escape by 65 prisoners.

He and Fergusson reached the Danube, where they found a punt without a paddle and drifted across to the other side. On landing they were challenged and ran into the arms of a policeman. Such inveterate escapers were now deemed suitable for Colditz, where he looked back with a professional eye on the Eichstatt break-out:

Worthy men! and none were pupils, men prepared to die or do

Men in fact just lacking scruples - men like Fergusson and Drew.

On arrival at the castle, Drew quickly became conscious that there was a hierarchy, and that he represented "a very amateurish lower class tunneller", compared with "a professional upper class escaper going through the main gate at will".

He used his skill to carve not only nudes - "I had not mastered how to show drapery" - but fantasy figures for a chess set. The black pieces included Merlin as the king, Hecate as the queen and members of the distilling team as the different pawns; while, among the white, the walrus and the carpenter were the bishops and the gryphon and mock turtle the rooks.

He made fake German belt buckles, and forged an eagle stamp on to a shoe heel, spending months cutting away with a razor blade before it was inked with an indelible pencil and spit to reproduce the right shade of purple ink for stamping on German official documents. But when Hitler ordered 50 men to be shot after the mass break-out from Stalag Luft III, London forbade any more escapes.

Following liberation Drew rejoined his battalion at Brunswick, and, in October 1945, married Mavis Gibson, with whom he had a daughter. He was next posted to Vienna and then Trieste, where he guarded the C-in-C, General Sir John Harding.

After attending the staff college at Camberley in 1950 he became deputy assistant adjutant general at the War Office, then was posted to the 26th King's African Rifles, operating against Mau Mau in Kenya. He went on to Aden and finally Malaya before retiring from the Army in 1973.

Drew then became an inspector for the Ministry of Defence and devoted himself to his smallholding in Somerset, which he described as paradise. Even when blind he enjoyed driving his Quad bike around his fields, accompanied by two lurchers.

George Drew, who died on October 20, did not believe in an afterlife; but he said that if there was one, he and Fergusson would talk for eternity and try to come home: "On past form we will not quite make it."

www.telegraph.co.uk/ne...db1803.xml

Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Morgan
(Filed: 18/11/2005)

Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Morgan, who has died aged 84, was awarded an MC at the Battle of Cloppenburg, south-west of Bremen, in 1945.



Morgan, then a major, was attached to the 7th Battalion the Hampshire Regiment. He was in command of the leading company and was ordered to secure a bridgehead across a stream which ran through the centre of the town.

On the outskirts of Cloppenburg, Morgan's company quickly overcame an enemy post covering the main road and pushed on to the stream. There the leading platoon was held up by machine-gun, bazooka and small arms fire from German positions on the far bank.

It was essential to clear the houses covering the main crossing-point without delay so that the sappers could throw a Bailey bridge over the stream and the advance could continue. Morgan carried out a quick reconnaissance under shell fire and made a new plan.

The Germans were so close that he was unable to call down mortar or artillery fire, but he launched one of his platoons across the stream under cover of smoke and supported their attack with every company weapon that he could bring to bear. This stratagem worked well.

The enemy troops near the crossing were forced to pull back and a third platoon was ordered to clear the houses on the opposite bank and along the main axis of advance. Morgan was awarded an immediate MC. The citation stated that his determination to reach his company's objective, his coolness in action and complete disregard of enemy fire were an inspiration to all.

Francis de Riemer Morgan, the son of Major-General Harold Morgan, DSO, was born in Oxford on March 30 1921 and educated at Harrow before going to Sandhurst and attending the shortened wartime course. He was commissioned into the Buffs, his father's regiment, and spent the first phase of the war with anti-aircraft batteries on the Kent coast.

Morgan landed in Normandy with the 7th Hampshires on D-Day+6 and took part in the bitter fighting around Caen before the breakout and the hard slog across north-west Europe. After the end of the war, he served on the Gold Coast with the Royal West Africa Frontier Force before rejoining the 1st Battalion the Buffs in Hong Kong and subsequently Khartoum.

After returning to England, Morgan went to the signals wing at the School of Infantry as an instructor. He attended Staff College and was then one of a dozen officers sent to help establish an Indian Staff College in the former Wellington Barracks in the Nilgiri Hills.

Morgan was posted as GSO2 to HQ Malaya Command in 1954 during the latter part of the Emergency. On coming back to England in 1957, he commanded the regimental depot at Canterbury before serving as second-in-command of the 1st Battalion the Buffs in Aden and BAOR.

A spell at the MoD was followed by promotion to lieutenant-colonel in 1962 and a posting to Gibraltar in command of a battalion of the Middlesex Regiment.

One Sunday, shortly before church parade, a driver arrived at Morgan's house to collect him and an admiral in the Indian Navy who was staying there.

On opening the door, he was astonished to find the two senior officers upside down in full dress with medals dangling. They were having a competition to see who could stand on his head the longest.

After a staff appointment at the MoD, Morgan was delighted to move to the QMG HQ Wales, at Brecon, the town he had chosen for his later years. He retired from the Army in 1971, but stayed on in the Military Secretary's department for the next 14 years as a Retired Officer.

Morgan finally retired in 1986. He hunted for some years, tended his kitchen garden and was a useful shot on his day. He was a churchwarden for many years and was a familiar figure at point-to-points, local shows and helping with events at the pony club.

Francis Morgan died on October 30. He married, in 1951, Elined Raikes, the daughter of Major-General Sir Geoffrey Raikes; she survives him with two daughters.

A son predeceased him.

Telegraph Obituary

Brigadier Gordon Viner
(Filed: 06/12/2005)

Brigadier Gordon Viner, who has died aged 87, was awarded an MC in France in 1944 and a Bar in Germany the following year.

The 7th Battalion, the Hampshire Regiment was one of the first British units to enter Germany, and early in 1945 took a leading part in the fighting to eliminate the enemy salient west of the river Roer.

On January 22 Viner, then a major, was in command of "A" Company during an attack on the villages of Putt and Waldenrath, north of Aachen.

After the capture of Putt, the company was the first to cross 600 yards of the snow-covered open ground to Waldenrath. Mines delayed the start by 45 minutes, with the result that the artillery smoke programme had finished by the time the attack got under way. Both flanks of the advance were exposed and came under heavy mortar, artillery and small arms fire.

Faced with this stiff resistance, Viner led his men across the open stretch with great dash and no regard for his own safety. His company dealt with enemy concealed in haystacks between the two villages and operating from strong points in trenches.

The Germans were relying on their enfilade fire to break up the attack, but they were caught out by the speed with which Viner's company overran the north of Waldenrath and they became disorganised. Two other companies came up in support, and the village was rapidly cleared. A large number of prisoners was taken, many of whom had to be routed out of cellars.

Viner was awarded a Bar to the MC he had received the previous year.

Charles Gordon Talbot Viner, the son of an officer in the South Lancashire Regiment, was born in Liverpool on May 6 1918 and educated at Brighton College and Allhallows School, Devon. In 1938 he enlisted in the 5/7th Battalion, the Hampshire Regiment and was commissioned the following year.

Viner commanded a rifle company of 7th Hampshires in north-west Europe from August 1944 to the end of the campaign. On August 2 1944, during an attack on Point 321, a dominating feature near Jurques, south-west of Caen, his company was held up twice by enemy machine-gun fire; but he led it to success at the third attempt.

Early in October an observation post came under intense shell and mortar fire. It was vital to the defence because it covered the crossing place used by the Germans to reinforce their bridgehead on the south bank of the Neder Rijn.

Viner manned the post himself and directed mortar and machine-gun fire on the enemy as they tried to cross the river. On the next two days, while under heavy fire, he led his company in a number of counter-attacks on the bridgehead. The citation for his first MC declared that the Germans had defended fanatically and that he had set a very fine example to his men.

After the end of the war Viner had several staff appointments before attending Staff College. In 1951 he commanded a company of 1st Battalion, the Royal Hampshire Regiment in BAOR and then moved to the School of Artillery as an infantry instructor. He instructed at the Staff College, Camberley, and the Canadian Army Staff College before taking command of the 1st Battalion, Aden Protectorate Levies, in 1960.

After a spell at the War Office as assistant adjutant-general, he returned to Aden in 1964 as Commander Federal Regular Army and was appointed CBE at the end of his tour.

Viner served at HQ Southern Command for a year, then retired from the Army in 1968. He became a dealer in fine art in Bond Street, specialising in portrait miniatures, and was an active member of the Bond Street Association.

A convert to Roman Catholicism during the Second World War, he did much work for the local community and the Church. In 1975 he became the first chairman of the Residents' Association of Mayfair, and endeavoured to improve the standards of the poorest accommodation in the area.

He also ran a vigorous campaign to restrict temporary office permissions and the proliferation of gaming club licences. In an effort to ensure that these issues received the attention they deserved, Viner and a fellow member of RAM stood for election to the Westminster City Council and were both elected as independent councillors.

In addition he served as chairman of Farm Street's church council, was a Knight of St Gregory and secretary of the Association of Papal Knights in Britain.

Gordon Viner died on October 14. He married, in 1942, Bette Fellows. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their two sons.

www.telegraph.co.uk/ne...db0501.xml


Squadron Leader Ray Hanna
(Filed: 05/12/2005)


A very great loss indeed to the Warbird community.

www.telegraph.co.uk/ne...db3002.xml

Squadron Leader Ron Noble
(Filed: 30/11/2005)

LTG William P. Yarborough US Army.

He forged the links between the US Special Forces and the SAS.

www.blackfive.net/main...enera.html

For those who don't know who he is, he's the guy that designed and (held) the patent for the jump wings every paratrooper wears. He also designed the first "jump boots". He also is directly responsible for gaining Presidential approval for the Green Beret of the Special Forces. And none of those are even his important accomplishments.
Here's his bio, which is a history lesson on Special Forces and the Airborne:

William Pelham Yarborough

William P. Yarborough was born on May 12, 1912 in Washington. A 1936 graduate of West Point with a BS in Engineering, Yarborough was first assigned to the 57th Infantry Regiment in the Philippines. Upon his return to the United States in 1940 he was assigned to the 29th Infantry battalion at Fort Benning, GA. He was then assigned as a company commander with the 501st Parachute Infantry at Fort Benning, and worked on the early development of airborne operational doctrine. While at Fort Benning, he designed the U.S. Parachutist Badge (for which he received a patent), the jump boot and the parachutist uniform.

His service in World War II started with his service on the staff of GEN Mark Clark as Clark's primary advisor on airborne operations. He was instrumental in the planning for Operation TORCH, America's first airborne combat operation into North Africa. He served as the executive officer for the Airborne Task Force prior to taking command of the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion. As a member of the 509th, he was part of Operation TORCH. He detailed the story in his book Bail Out Over North Africa. He subsequently commanded parachute battalions that jumped in Sicily and Southern France.

A veteran of nine campaigns in World War II, General Yarborough's last command was with the 505th Regimental Combat Team. Along with the famous 442nd Infantry Division, they liberated Genoa, Italy. After the German surrender, Yarborough remained in Europe as Provost Marshal of the US Forces in Vienna, Austria where he was responsible for organizing the International Patrol, which consisted of British, French, Soviet and American members and was dramatized in the film "The Third Man." During this time, Yarborough met the ailing Russian ballet star Vaslav Nijinsky and his wife Romola, and aided in smuggling the couple through the Russian sector to freedom in England.

Following assignments at the Armed Forces Information School in Pennsylvania and the British College in England, Yarborough attended and later taught at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, PA. From 1956 to 1957, he was assigned as Deputy Commander of the US Military Assistance Command - Cambodia. He traveled throughout Southeast Asia during this time, his fluency in French serving him well in working with the Cambodian higher political and military echelons. He then went to be the Commanding Officer for the 1st Battle Group, 7th Infantry where he moved the entire unit from Fort Benning, GA to Germany. He later commanded the US Army 66th Counterintelligence Corps Group in Germany, serving as a liaison between the Allied counterespionage, intelligence and police agencies.

In January 1961, he was appointed commander/commandant of the US Army Special Warfare Center/School for Special Warfare at Fort Bragg, NC. Remaining until 1965, he was instrumental in the build-up of Special Forces, overseeing the activation of four new Groups. He also worked diligently to increase the professional and academic standard of the JFK School, bringing in national figures in anthropology, history, science, and inviting leading political figures to speak. He initiated an exhaustive review of training programs and doctrine, and wrote numerous monographs on subjects pertaining to Special Operations, which are still relevant today. It was also under his management that foreign students were fully integrated into training and language instruction was expanded. He established five new courses including the Military Assistance Training Advisor School, the Unconventional Warfare course and the Counter-Terrorism course. He also initiated a staff study that later resulted in the movement of the US Army Civil Affairs School from Fort Gordon, GA to Fort Bragg.

It was during his tenure as Commander of the Special Warfare Center that in 1961, he arranged for President Kennedy to visit Fort Bragg, resulting in the authorization of the Green Beret for wear as the official headgear of Special Forces.

After his tenure at the Special Warfare School, he served as Senior Member, UN Command Military Armistice Commission, Panmunjom, Korea where he was the chief spokesman and negotiator for the UN Command in talks with the North Koreans and Chinese. He then was assigned as Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Special Operations in the Pentagon with the responsibility of all Special Forces, PSYOP and Civil Affairs units and activities. In this position, he completed exhaustive studies on the state of insurgencies in Thailand and Latin America. A year later, he became the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence on the Army General Staff where he monitored the Army's intelligence training programs, provided finished intelligence materials to the Army General Staff and directed the Army's personnel security program. He also directed the programs in which foreign military attaches assigned to Washington were involved and was responsible for their accreditation by DA.

During the final years of his career, Yarborough was the Army's top intelligence officer at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. He assumed the command of I Corps in Korea in 1968, a position he held for a year. I Corps consisted of both conventional and nuclear weapons, two American divisions and three Korean Divisions, and a Korean Marine Corps Brigade, numbering approximately 100,000 men. In 1969, he was assigned as the Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander in Chief, US Army Pacific, responsible for directing a wide variety of Army activities in the Pacific Rim, including planning joint training exercises, response to natural disasters and monitoring intelligence operations. He retired from the Army in 1971.

In 1971, the Army tasked him to prepare a classified Asian study on the state of the Asian continent after the Vietnam Conflict. He also was a guest speaker for the National Strategy Information Center where he gave talks such as the Changing Balance of Military Power or the history of Special Forces to various groups around the country. He also was asked to visit various countries such as Rhodesia and Mozambique for the State Department. From his visits, he wrote various talking papers still in use today.

Lieutenant General Yarborough was a member of the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs. He is also an honorary member of the British SAS Regiment and a member of the St. John's Lodge 260, F&AM. He wrote two books: Bail Out Over North Africa and So You Want A Volunteer Army. General Yarborough was married to his wife Norma for over 60 years. They had three children: 2 girls and one boy. Mrs. Yarborough passed away in 1999. He was honored in the fall of 2005 with the donation of a bust in his honor at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, NC.

One for the Andrew, from The Telegraph

Yet one more Old Warrior
Telegraph Friday 231205
Lt-Col Denny Bult-Francis
(Filed: 23/12/2005)

Lieutenant-Colonel Denny Bult-Francis, who has died aged 95, was severely wounded on the ill-fated Dieppe Raid, and two years later commanded the Canadian squadron which took the town back from the Germans.

Bult-Francis was one of Major-General "Ham" Roberts's liaison officers on the beach as the Germans poured fire down on the invaders who made their "day trip" on August 19 1942.

Among the tasks allotted to him by intelligence officers was to bring back from Dieppe a bag of nails, bicycle tyres and lingerie; but he found himself sheltering against a wall, and the two middle fingers of his left hand were shot off as it collapsed on him. A bullet passed through his chest.

The daughter of a local café owner then pulled the bricks off him, so that he could be taken down to the shore and put on a small boat, which was then sunk. He was finally taken on a ship to England. When his wife Dorothy, who was a Red Cross nurse, found him in hospital she was told she could not enter his room because the patient was dying.

Bult-Francis returned to Canada, where he agreed to take a drop in rank to captain to rejoin the 8th Reconnaissance Regiment. Although not scheduled to be in the first wave of the landings, he was at West India Dock, in east London, the evening before D-Day when he saw a Canadian troopship alongside an American troopship.

On deck the soldiers of both nations at first exchanged pleasantries. But relations started to curdle as the Americans assured the Canadians that the outcome was certain now they had entered the war; the Canadians asked why they had taken two years to join in, and then why they had taken three years to join the First World War.

Bult-Francis arrived just as some of the Canadians had climbed down the side of their ship and were scaling ropes on the Americans' vessel to make their point more forcibly.

After joining the fighting at Caen, he gained the nickname "Calvados" when his unit liberated a barrel of the apple brandy which was so large that a truck was needed to transport it; as well as replenishing his spirits, this became a useful currency with other units, one bottle buying one chicken.

As Canadian 2nd Division headed for Dieppe, Bult-Francis was given command of the column to relieve the town in "Operation Francis". His Dingo scout cars and Humber reconnaissance vehicles had a scrap with a German flak battery at Totes, and then bumped into a few more enemy at Longueville before arriving on the outskirts of Dieppe at nightfall.

The following morning, on September 1, Bult-Francis sent in a junior officer, who met with none of the expected opposition. There was no shelling, no machine-gun fire; only a few mines going off. The Germans had fled, and 8th Recce was greeted with flowers, brandy and kisses from cheering girls. A pre-arranged signal was sent back to headquarters: "Francis is alive and well and will expect his friends for dinner."

Down near the esplanade, he found the café owner's daughter, who recognised him by his wounds. Bult-Francis's wife was not entirely pleased when her first news of him was a picture in the Daily Mail of him talking to his new friend.

Dennis Scott Fead Bult-Francis was born at Highgate on August 28 1910, the descendant of an officer of the 1st Foot Guards who had lost part of his nose at Waterloo; his father was an adventurer whose varied career included soldiering, serving as a King's Messenger and being sought by the Texas Rangers.

Young Denny was raised at Marlow by his grandparents along with Irina Radetzky, a White Russian. She and her mother had been brought out of Russia by his father when he was attached to the French General Staff in 1919.

His father and Irina's mother then went off together, leaving the girl at Marlow; in later life Denny recalled getting drunk for the first time when Irina married the sculptor Henry Moore.

He began working in London, where he joined the Honourable Artillery Company, and then signed on with the Palestine Police for three years. In addition to the routine mounted patrols and occasional feasting with Bedouin off sheep's eyes, he once pursued a murderer on to a bus, but lost him after banging his head on the ceiling and knocking his cap over his eyes as they got off.

Bult-Francis was in North America when war broke out, and immediately joined up with the Black Watch in Montreal, where he married Dorothy Fox, with whom he was to have two daughters and a son.

The regiment surveyed Botwood Bay for a new airport on Newfoundland, then came to Britain. After being commissioned he transferred to the newly formed 8th Reconnaissance Regiment and then to Roberts's planning staff for the Dieppe Raid.

Bult-Francis ended the war in Germany, where he served with the army of occupation before doing the staff course at Kingston, Ontario.

Transferring to the Canadian Dragoon Guards, he was posted to Ottawa, spent six months on active service in Korea and joined the staff of Prince Bernhard in the Netherlands. He went to Winnipeg, and served in Germany again before leaving the Army in 1961.

Deciding that his Canadian pension would go further in England, he became director of the Hertfordshire Red Cross and then United Kingdom director of Unicef for 15 years, increasing donations 73-fold.

He vigorously defended the motives for the Dieppe Raid in The Daily Telegraph, saying that he had spent almost a year in hospital afterwards with 11 Canadian officers as well as the British VC Pat Porteous; they knew that things had gone wrong, but never once suggested that any sinister blame should be attached to the British.

Denny Bult-Francis, who died on November 29, was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Gilt Star in 1945 and appointed OBE in 1969. A tall, jolly man with an explosive temperament, he dismissed Henry Moore's sculptures as "ugly" and never forgot his duty an officer. After going into a retirement home, he escaped twice."

Rest in Peace Old Soldier.
john

In memory of
Leading Naval Nurse Stephanie ‘Steph’ Abell.
Royal Centre for Defence Medicine.

Tragically taken from us on the 14th December 2005 aged 24 years.


Rest In Peace

The Telegraph.

Col Derek Brown
(Filed: 27/12/2005)

Colonel Derek Brown, who has died aged 79, was awarded an MC in 1949 in operations against the Communists in Malaya.

In 1949 the 1st Battalion the Seaforth Highlanders was ordered to move to an area of North Johore, Malaya, to clear it of Communist terrorists. The commander of B Company took a small reconnaissance party including three platoon commanders, of which Brown, then a lieutenant, was one, to search for a suitable base from which to operate.

After about two hours, the leading men in the group saw a man in a blue shirt bending over a tree in an area cleared of undergrowth. They thought that he was a rubber tapper and shouted to him to come over to them. He responded with a burst of automatic fire.

The recce party returned fire and advanced towards some lean-to, tin-roofed bashas (shelters) which turned out to be the edge of a temporary camp for some 150 terrorists. Two of the platoon commanders and a lance-corporal were killed within minutes.

The company commander sent a runner to bring up reinforcements and gave the order to pull back. He was then severely wounded, but when Brown and a comrade emerged from cover and tried to drag him to safety, he ordered them to leave him. He was hit by automatic fire and killed.

Brown rallied the survivors in their new position and, although reinforcements gradually arrived, his party was still greatly outnumbered. They fought off a series of fierce counter-attacks and inflicted heavy casualties on the terrorists. He was awarded an immediate MC.

Derek Hunter Wilson Brown, the son of Brigadier General Percy Brown, was born on November 2 1926 in Edinburgh and educated at Eton.

Having joined the Army in 1944, he was commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders and posted to the 2nd Battalion in Libya. In 1947 the 2nd Battalion was amalgamated with the 1st and Brown was posted on attachment to the 1st Battalion the Seaforth Highlanders in Malaya.

The following year, Brown was badly wounded in an ambush and had not yet recovered from his wound at the time of the action in which he won his award. In 1951 he returned to Edinburgh with 1 Seaforth.

After three years at the depot in Aberdeen, Brown joined 1 Gordons and, in 1955, served on the Queen's Guard at Balmoral. Later that year he flew to Cyprus with the battalion as second-in-command of Support Company. It was a period of considerable tension and he was shot and wounded in the leg while dispersing rioters at Morphu.

In 1956 Brown, then adjutant, was sharing an office with the District Commissioner. A parcel arrived for the DC, but since he was on leave Brown placed it in the safe and gave it to him on his return several weeks later. The parcel contained a book which exploded when it was opened. The blast killed the DC and blew Brown through a wooden wall.

Brown returned to the depot before taking up a staff appointment at HQ 3 Division. He was that unusual combination, a first-class operational soldier and an excellent staff officer. His colleagues admired his ability to get out of the office, visit units and solve their problems.

Brown subsequently held senior staff appointments in Liverpool, York, Perth and Edinburgh and had a spell in Rome as defence attaché. He was adjutant of the 4th/7th and 3rd Gordons TA from 1959 to 1962 and then commanded a company of 1st Gordons in Kenya and Swaziland. He took command of 1st Gordons in 1968 in BAOR.

Brown returned to HQ Scotland before retiring from the Army in 1981. In retirement he lived in Aberdeenshire and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the county. He was an excellent shot and a fine fisherman.

Derek Brown died on November 14. He married, in 1967, Sue Batchelor, who survives him with their son and daughter.


© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005

(c) The Times


Brigadier C. G. T. Viner

May 6, 1918 - October 14, 2005
Gallantry and leadership during action in France and the Netherlands

GORDON VINER commanded A Company 7th Battalion The Hampshire Regiment from Normandy to the end of the war in Europe. He was twice awarded the Military Cross for gallantry and outstanding leadership in actions that might have cost him his life at any moment. He convened his Territorial Army commission to a regular one after the war, and forged a successful and varied career as a professional soldier.

Like many Territorials mobilised just before the outbreak of war, he spent four years in England, preparing to repel the expected German invasion, then training to invade France. He saw plenty of action once there. His first MC came after the 7th Hampshires’ stiff battles in France and the Netherlands with Brigadier Basil Coad’s 130 Infantry Brigade in 1944. The breakout west of Caen began on July 28 with 43 (Wessex) Division in the centre of the 30 Corps thrust towards Falaise. Ordered to take a high point southwest of Jurques, Viner’s company was twice repulsed by machinegun fire but he lead it successfully to the objective on the third attempt. A few days later, his company captured the village of St Denis de Mère thanks to his tactical skill and leadership. In early October, the battle having by then reached the Neder Rijn (Lower Rhine) in the Netherlands, he again led his company with great skill and resource against the fiercely defended enemy bridgehead on the south bank of the river.

He was awarded an immediate bar to his MC for an action, still in command of A Company 7th Hampshires, at Waldenrath during the clearing of the Roermond triangle towards the end of January 1945. Mines delayed his company on the start line until after the smoke put down by the covering artillery had blown away, but Viner led his men with great dash across 600 yards of open ground. The speed of his advance and seizure of one end of the village took the enemy by surprise and he found himself with an unexpected number of prisoners. His bold move got the operation off to a decisive start and the village was quickly taken. Having been accepted for a regular commission, he attended the Staff College, Camberley, in 1948 and settled down to what was initially a conventional career for the faster-track officer. He was on the directing staff at Camberley in 1957 before going to the Canadian Staff College as an instructor for two years. Prospects for a battalion command were not promising: the Royal Hampshire Regiment, as it had become in 1946, had many talented officers and some had to seek opportunities elsewhere.

In 1962 he was appointed to command a battalion of the locally recruited Aden Protectorate Levies. Raised by the RAF as a ground force complement to the tactic of selectively bombing the villages of rebellious tribesmen in the East and West Protectorates, the Levies were neither well equipped nor motivated. Viner set about changing this, helped because his battalion was stationed at Mukeiras on a 3,000ft escarpment close to the illdefined frontier with Yemen. The days were hot, nights cool and there was always the threat of a frontier skirmish to keep everyone on their toes.

Viner took to the life, learnt to speak Arabic and did all he could to improve his soldiers’ lot and efficiency. (Installation of flush lavatories in the camp led to difficulty, however. The men dropped large pebbles they used instead of paper into the system, blocking it. He explained the European method only to encounter more trouble as the pebbles were meticulously wrapped in lavatory paper.)

Viner returned to Aden two years later as the brigadier in command of the entire Adeni force, which had by then become the Federal Regular Army comprising the APL battalions and the largely tribal National Guard. He faced a testing time. The insurrection in the port of Aden was about to erupt and a rebellion of the Radfan tribes upcountry was in full swing. He was sent in haste to replace another officer, a man of great distinction, who had declined to accept the FRA command unless resources were provided for him to equip and train the units to a standard equal to their operational commitments. A team of MoD experts was examining the demands and, after a pause, the key recommendations were accepted and Viner told to implement them.

In a worsening political and security situation in Aden and the Western Protectorate in particular, Viner struggled to improve the fighting effectiveness of the FRA faster than the National Liberation Front and the Front for the Liberation of South Yemen could penetrate his units with dissidents and disaffection. The man chosen by Viner to be the first FRA student at the Staff College, Camberley, was later discovered to be a member of the NLF.

Viner narrowly escaped death when terrorists threw a grenade into a room where he and two of his Arab officers were dining. The force was still largely cohesive when he gave up command in 1966, but began to succumb to local allegiances shortly afterwards. He was appointed CBE for his service with the FRA and, after two years at Eastern Command in England, retired in 1968.

Charles Gordon Talbot Viner was born in Liverpool, the elder son of Captain J.B. Viner, late The South Lancashire Regiment. He was educated at Brighton College, before enlisting in the TA in 1938.

During his military service he had made a collection of portrait miniatures and flintlock pistols. On return to civilian life, he disposed of some of the items at the Chelsea Antiques Market and, amazed by the interest in them, subsequently spent much of his time dealing in both. He served as an Independent member of Westminster City Council, 1978-82, and was chairman of the Farm Street Church Council, 1972-97. He was appointed a Papal Knight of St Gregory in 1980 and advanced to Knight Commander in 1987.

He married in 1942 Bette Fellows, who died in 1993. He is survived by their two sons.

Brigadier C. G. T. Viner, CBE, MC and Bar, TD, was born on May 6, 1918. He died on October 14, aged 87.

(c) The Times


Captain George Baldwin

January 17, 1921 - November 11, 2005

Pilot who shot down a Vichy French fighter in Africa and later commanded the Navy's first jet squadron
GEORGE BALDWIN’s long and distinguished career in the very front line of naval aviation both in peace and war is a testament not only to his flying skill in an occupation that took many lives but also to his natural leadership style, which was described by contemporaries as one of infectious enthusiasm, very much a man whom people wanted to follow and who was liked and admired.

George Clifton Baldwin was born in 1921 and educated at Sleaford Grammar School, Lincolnshire, and Hitchin Grammar School, Hertfordshire. He joined the Royal Navy in March 1939 as a short-service midshipman and started flying Tiger Moths in June, graduating thereafter to advanced flying training at Netheravon. Awarded his wings in January 1940 and having learnt how to land on the deck of a carrier, Baldwin, still aged only 19, was posted to the frontline 801 Squadron, equipped with Skuas and Rocs.

Obsolete before birth, these aircraft were expressive of a certain poverty of design in Fleet Air Arm aircraft, falling well below contemporary American and Japanese performance standards. This was a clear consequence of what was known as the dual control system whereby responsibility for the allocation of Britain’s very finite aeronautical resources was uneasily shared between the Admiralty and the Air Ministry, to the Navy’s disadvantage until full control over its own aviation was restored in 1937, too late to affect the order of battle at the outbreak of war. Providing fighter cover for land forces from the carrier Ark Royal during the melancholy Norwegian campaign of 1940, Baldwin, flying a Roc, reported that it was too slow to catch even German bombers, let alone fighters.

Nevertheless, based either in Ark Royal and Furious or ashore at Hatston in the Orkney Islands, where officers of the rank of lieutenant or below were subjected to the miserable living conditions in the infamous Hut 9, Baldwin flew numerous successful sorties, including sinking a large merchant ship by dive-bombing. While in Furious he was awarded the DSC for outstanding zeal, patience, cheerfulness and devotion to duty.

In April 1941 he was appointed to the Fleet Fighter Development Unit at RAF Duxford, testing both new types of naval fighter and, for comparison, captured enemy aircraft. In July 1942 he joined, as senior pilot, 807 Squadron, the first to be equipped with the carrier-born version of the Spitfire, the Seafire 1B. While operating from Furious in support of the Allied landings at Oran in North Africa, Baldwin scored the first confirmed victory to a pilot flying this type of aircraft, shooting down a Vichy French Dewoitine Dw520. His aircraft was damaged by another, but the squadron shot down two others and destroyed 20 aircraft on the ground.

Promoted to lieutenant, Baldwin remained with 807 Squadron, serving in the carrier Indomitable as part of the celebrated Force H. Indomitable provided air cover for Operation Husky, the landings in Sicily, until damaged by a torpedo dropped by a Junkers 88 bomber. The squadron transferred to the escort carrier Battler and covered the landings on the Italian mainland at Salerno.

Promoted to acting lieutenant-commander and appointed CO of 807 Squadron in October 1943, Baldwin soon afterwards relinquished squadron command on becoming wing leader of No. 4 Naval Fighter Wing comprising three Seafire squadrons. Flying from four different escort carriers, the wing took part in the invasion of southern France and operations in the Aegean and around the Dodecanese. At one point, considering many of his pilots to lack experience, Baldwin surreptitiously arranged for 28 aircraft to join the RAF in land-based dive-bombing and fighter sweeps against the retreating German Army in Italy.

The wing embarked for Ceylon in the early part of 1945 in the escort carriers Hunter and Stalker, both carriers being present at the Japanese surrender in Singapore.

In August Baldwin was awarded a bar to his DSC for distinguished service, efficiency and zeal while serving in HMS Attacker in the clearance of the Aegean Sea and the relief of Greece.

After the war, Baldwin was accepted for a full commission in the Navy, reverting to the rank of acting lieutenant and gaining general service credentials by obtaining a bridge watchkeeping ticket in the Hunt class destroyer Bicester. Thereafter he returned to flying duties, taking the empire test pilot’s course at RAF Cranfield in 1946 and serving in the carrier trials unit.

After passing the RN staff course he was appointed to 787 Squadron for trials with the Supermarine Attacker F1, the stubby, subsonic jet fighter, seen in a starring role in David Lean’s cult film The Sound Barrier. He was subsequently the CO of 800 Squadron equipped with Attackers, thereby becoming the CO of the Royal Navy’s first operational jet fighter squadron.

During a tour in the large carrier Eagle, he took part in Exercise Mainbrace, then the largest Nato exercise attempted. He subsequently assisted Captain Denis Cambell, the inventor of the angled flight deck that so revolutionised naval aviation in the fast jet age, with flying trials aboard the modified US carrier Antietam, the Americans being the first to seize the opportunities afforded by this British invention.

Baldwin was promoted commander in December 1952 and captain in 1958. Among his increasingly senior appointments were staff officer (air) on the British staff in Washington, enabling flights in many new USN fighters; command of the naval air stations at Lossiemouth and Yeovilton; attendance at the Imperial Defence College and in the Admiralty as the director of the Naval Air Division during the bitter and finally unsuccessful struggle to preserve naval fixed-wing aviation and the large carrier.

He kicked against the pricks of this decision and was a strong supporter of the Invincible class “through-deck cruisers”, calling them “carriers” against all the tenets of ministry politics of the day. In 1977, although not invited and long retired, he drove with his wife up to Barrow-in-Furness to witness the launch of the Invincible.

He maintained his flying categorisation to the end of his career, flying the Sea Vixen night fighter from Yeovilton on the day before his retirement, his logbook recording flights in more than 37 types of British and American naval aircraft. He was appointed CBE for his valuable service in June 1968.

He became a member of the Press Council in 1973, subsequently joining the Press Appointments Commission. He was an effective chairman of the Fleet Air Arm Officers’ Association. As a second full-time career, he and his wife Hazel, whom he married in 1947, owned and ran an extraordinarily successful toy shop for 16 years in North Street, Chichester, often described by customers as “by far the best toy shop in the South of England”.

He is survived by Hazel and their three sons.

Captain George Baldwin, CBE, DSC and Bar, naval aviator, was born on January 17, 1921. He died on November 11, 2005, aged 84.

One fewer on the Tommy roll, from The Telegraph

From the Telegraph. Some man, some life!

Lt Cdr Victor Clark
--------------------

Lt-Cdr Victor Clark
(Filed: 13/01/2006)

Lieutenant-Commander Victor Clark, who has died aged 97, played a dashing role in the defence of Singapore as the Japanese closed in on the British garrison in 1941.

After surviving the sinking of the battlecruiser Repulse on December 10, Clark became naval air liaison officer at the combined headquarters in Singapore. Gloomily studying maps showing the enemy's advance, he and Major Angus Rose of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders proposed commando raids behind enemy lines.

Within a week, Clark was commanding the Straits Steamship Company's Kudat as well as a flotilla of gunboats, with 40 Royal Marines and 50 Australian volunteers. In their joint Boxing Day raid at Temerloh, on the west coast, Rose ambushed and destroyed a Japanese column, including a staff car containing a general.

Six days later Kudat was sunk, and with his remaining motor launches under mortar fire, Clark moved south to Batu Pahat.

There he volunteered to take the river gunboats Dragonfly and Scorpion to rescue 2,000 Australian, British and Indian troops who were cut off at a swampy inlet overlooked by the encircling Japanese.

For four nights Clark swam and waded to lead his men in hauling native craft through the mud to bring the exhausted soldiers out to waiting ships.

Lt-Gen Arthur Percival, GOC Singapore, described Clark's feat as "a most difficult operation reflecting the greatest credit on the Royal Navy", but one of Dragonfly's seamen was overheard to say, "Too bloody brave for my liking!"

Two days before the surrender of Singapore, Clark was sent to Java in a motor launch with 60 troops to continue guerrilla operations; but at daylight on February 15 he found the Durian Strait, off Sumatra, guarded by a large Japanese destroyer.

Closing the range to 400 yards, he aimed his four-pounder gun and every rifle and Lewis gun at the enemy's bridge, hoping to kill the captain. But several accurate rounds from the ship soon reduced his launch to a shambles, with fires in the fo'c'sle and engine room.

The gun was knocked off its mounting, and the rudder jammed hard astarboard; the scuppers ran with blood, and she finally sank.

Despite a broken wrist, Clark lashed other survivors to planks, and told those who had not been wounded to swim towards the mangrove. Soon he was alone and, taking an empty ammunition box as support for his useless arm, he started to swim towards a distant lighthouse.

After spending a night in a fishing hut, he went ashore at Sumatra some 36 hours later. He then stole a canoe to go upriver with a small party of other escapees who had rallied to him.

After six weeks in the deep jungle they were betrayed by natives to the Japanese for 40 silver guilders each. By Clark's own account this did not make "a very heroic story, but I did at least make as big a nuisance of myself as I could for the next three and a half years!"

Clark was awarded a Bar to his earlier DSC, though he found out only when a rare Red Cross parcel arrived from his mother, with his latest decoration underlined on the address label.

Victor Cecil Froggatt Clark was born at Dover on May 24 1908, the son of the vicar of Bromley-by-Bow. He was educated at Haileybury and crewed in Lowestoft fishing smacks without engines during the holidays.

During the 1930s he served in the battleships Valiant and Warspite and the destroyer Anthony in the Mediterranean fleet. Despite being a self-proclaimed mechanical dunce, he owned a succession of motorbikes, including a Norton on which he explored the Holy Land.

In 1938 Clark stood by the Tribal-class destroyer Punjabi, building at Greenock, and was her first lieutenant during the Second Battle of Narvik on April 13 1940, when Warspite and her consorts destroyed eight German warships and a U-boat: Punjabi suffered more casualties than any other British ship, but was repaired in time for the evacuation of troops from St Nazaire. Clark was awarded his first DSC.

A brief period of command of his previous ship, Anthony, ended when she was damaged in rough weather, and Clark was sent to Repulse, which was sunk with the battleship Prince of Wales when they were sent to deter Japanese aggression at Singapore.

Clark's action station on Repulse was "A" turret, whose 15-in guns were not used. He found himself sucked down from the bridge into the froth several times before managing to swim to a raft, where he helped Repulse's captain, William Tennant, haul others from the water.

The end to Clark's prison term was signalled in January 1945 when his camp was overflown during an attack on the oil depots at Palembang: Clark was cheered to see an aircraft with "Royal Navy" emblazoned on its underside. A few weeks later he was transferred to Changi prison, at which he said the food and conditions were luxurious compared to Palembang.

Clark's postwar command of the frigate Loch Tralaig ended when he ran her aground off the Isle of Arran. Passed over for promotion to commander, he spent five years as chief training officer to the Sea Cadets, all the while reading and planning a circumnavigation, then bought the nine-ton ketch Solace through Captain OM Watts's chandlery in Albemarle Street.

His 48,000-mile voyage between 1953 and 1959, with his West Indian crewman Stanley Mathurin, included nine months shipwrecked on the coral atoll of Palmerston in the Cook Islands in the empty Pacific.

Undaunted, and with the help of the descendants of William Marsters, a cooper who had colonised the atoll with his three Polynesian wives in the 19th century, Clark rebuilt his boat well enough to continue sailing her for the next 20 years. In return for the islanders' help he taught navigation, reading and Sunday School.

In 1962 Clark took command of the 160-ton Outward Bound schooner Prince Louis. With Kurt Hahn, five years later he enlisted Prince Philip's aid in finding sponsorship for a new youth-training ship, the 380-ton topgallant schooner Captain Scott, and then skippered her until 1974. He finished his long sailing career by teaching a new generation of sailors at the Emsworth Sailing School.

Clark wrote two books: an account of his voyage, On the Wings of a Dream (1960); and an outline of his life story, Triumph and Disaster (1994).

He underwent a religious experience while reading Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress in 1941, and was sustained by Christian's quotation from Isaiah: "When thou passest through the Waters I will be with thee; and through the Rivers, they shall not overflow thee."

Victor Clark, who died on December 14, married Danae Stileman when he was 67 and she 34: she survives him with their two daughters.