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SAS men from Northern Ireland executed by the Gestapo While the battle for Normandy was underway the 1st and 2nd SAS Regiments were operating behind German lines in France, carrying out acts of sabotage, disrupting communications and transport.

As part of “Operation Gain”, on July 4th a group of 12 men led by Capt Pat Garstin MC left RAF Keevil in Wiltshire aboard a Stirling bomber to fly to France.

The Unit had been divided into two groups with all of the Northern Ireland soldiers being with Captain Garstin and Lance Corporal Vaculik who was Free French.

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William Pearson Young from Randalstown was one of the five men from Northern Ireland executed. They parachuted behind enemy lines after the Normandy invasion

On the previous night of 3rd / 4th July a coded  BBC radio message had been received by the French Resistance Fighters telling them of a parachute drop however on that occasion the flight was cancelled with insufficient time to inform the French.

The following night the Resistance again went to the same location having received another coded message via BBC Radio however on this occasion the first two Frenchmen to arrive were fired on and killed by Germans and all of the others, except one, returned home not knowing that the Germans knew the recognition letter for the drop which was “B for Bertie”

The Drop Zone was in the Fontainebleu area behind enemy lines near La Ferte-Alais to the south of Paris. At 01.53 the S.A.S. parachuted from the aircraft with most landing on the Drop Zone, which was a field of wheat, whilst the final five to jump had landed in a wood. At the edge of the D.Z. was a group of men wearing civilian clothes who greeted Captain Garstin with the words “Vive la France”, immediately after which the soldiers came under fire from automatic weapons.

There was a brief exchange of fire however it soon became obvious that the S.A.S. were surrounded and subsequently Vaculik was captured at 06.00 and Corporal Jones an hour later.

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They soon learned that Captain Garstin, Lieutenant Wiehe, Trooper Thomas James “Tot” Barker (previously of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and from Cookstown) and Lance Corporal Howard Lutton (who had been Army Air Corps and from County Armagh) had also been captured after being wounded.

The nine were taken to Gestapo HQ in Paris. Here Lutton and Weihe were taken to hospital where Lutton died of his wounds. Weihe was operated on for spinal injuries three weeks later. Garstin and Barker had their wounds bandaged.

The other men were initially taken to a converted hotel near Champs de Mars in central Paris and then a Gestapo headquarters where they were kept and interrogated for three days before being returned to the converted hotel. A day or two later Garstin and

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Barker were reunited with the other soldiers however Garstin was very weak.

On August 8th the 7 remaining captives were given civilian clothes and were told they were to be taken to Switzerland the following morning to be exchanged for German prisoners of the British.

At 01.00 the following morning (9th August) they were put on a truck and driven out of Paris, not to the Swiss border but to a wooded area near Beauvais, north of the city.

At Beauvais the prisoners got off the truck and were marched into the forest, where they were lined up. Corporal Vaculik asked if they were to be shot and received a reply to that effect. He was informed that they were to be executed under the Commando Befehl issued by Hitler.

Facing the men were a number of Gestapo. Two Officers who were armed with Sten guns at the ready whilst another read out the Sentence. A Sergeant of the Gestapo who translated and a Gestapo Agent in civilian clothes were also present.

The Sentence was as follows :- “For having wished to work in collaboration with the French Terrorists and thus to endanger the German Army, you are condemned to

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Photographs of Thomas Barker from Cookstown, one of the group executed. He is named on Cookstown War Memorial

From left to right are the headstones of Patrick Garstin, Thomas Barker, Thomas Varey, Joseph Walker and William Young.

the Penalty of Death and will be Shot”

On hearing the word “Shot”, Garstin shouted to everyone to make a dash for it as the Germans opened fire. all of the men tried to escape into the woods.

Corporal Vaculik managed to get away while Corporal Jones tripped and fell. The Gestapo men ran past him thinking he was dead and when he got up again he saw four bodies lying where they had been shot but could not identify them before he tried to escape.

Two men escaped and the remaining five died. A grave had been dug in a wooded area about two miles from where the shooting had taken place and near a large chateau that is approximately one mile to the east of Noailles. They were buried there three days later by the Germans.

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Memorial plaque in Randalstown

A Resistance fighter said that the Germans had a two day curfew in place following the shooting and were searching for the bodies of Jones and Vacluik.

This incident was investigated by Captain Sadler and Major Poat of the S.A.S. who visited Noailles  around 20th September and on speaking with the local Resistance Leader he showed them where he believed the murders had taken place and also where the bodies of the S.A.S. soldiers were buried.

A grave had been dug in a wooded area about two miles from where the shooting had taken place and near a large chateau that is approximately one mile to the east of Noailles.

The Resistance fighter said that the Germans had a two day Curfew in place following the shooting and were searching for the bodies of Soldiers Jones and Vaculik.

The bodies of 5 murdered S.A.S. men lay at the scene for three days before finally being buried by a German Army Unit consisting of one Officer and approximately nine men who had been in the Chateau.

During the Investigation it was necessary to open the grave and on doing so a total of five bodies were found. All of them were dressed in civilian clothing and showed signs of having been handcuffed.

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One of the bodies was identified as that of Captain Garstin.

After the war the bodies were re-interred in Marissel French National Cemetery in Beauvais.The Gestapo had tried to conceal their actions so the Investigation looked into the Germans who had occupied the Chateau who had buried the bodies.

A woman Collaborator, who had worked for the Germans in the Chateau and believed that they had been a Luftwaffe Signal Section,  identified a number of the soldiers including Captain Hans Garling, Officer Hans Zool and Oberfeldwebel Gall.

Of the six the men who died five were Irish

Capt Pat Garstin MC, Royal Ulster Rifles, from Dublin.Thomas Barker, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, CookstownL/Cpl Lutton, Royal Ulster Rifles, Northern Ireland. DOW earlierBilly Young, Royal Ulster Rifles, RandalstownSgt Thomas Varey the sixth man, was from YorkTpr Joe Walker, Royal Ulster Rifles, Moira

On this day - July 6 1915 German success at Vaux Fery (Meuse). The French recapture position on the heights of the Meuse.

1916 The British win ground on the slopes of Thiepval, and two successful raids on the Loos salient.

1944

Four female members of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) were executed at Natzweiler Concentration Camp in

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the Vosges Mountains. Andree Borrel (Codename Denise, Age 24), Vera Leigh (Codename Simone, Age 41), SoniaOlschanezky (Codename Tania, Age 20) and Diane Rowden (Codename Paulette, Age 28) were escorted, one by one, to the camp's crematorium where they were instructed to undress for a "medical examination", injected with phenol to incapacitate them and then placed into an oven. Some witnesses have stated some of the agents were not unconscious when placed in the oven and fought their captors.

Their names appear on the Vera Atkins seat in the Allied Special Forces Memorial Grove at the National Arboretum .This memorial bears the names of female SOEs who were captured in France when working as couriers or

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wireless transmitters and were then brutally murdered in concentration camps.

The Frigate HMS Trollope was torpedoed off France with the loss of 64 sailors. The Trollope was on loan from the US Navy and although she was recovered to HMNB Portsmouth she was a total loss. See Roll of Honour.Two men from Belfast were lost.

Roll of Honour - July 6

Representing their comrades who died on this day

1917

+CARREN, Thomas HenryRoyal Engineers. 36th Signal Company. Sergeant 57806. Died 06/07/1917. Born 12/09/1891 in Liverpool and was baptised on 18/11/1891 at St Saviours, Liverpool. Son of Thomas William Threfall and Annie Machere, nee Smith. Both parents were native of the Isle of Man and in the 1901 census the family were living at 2, Douglas Street in the City of Peel, Isle of Man. By 1911 the complete family had moved to 89 Deramore Avenue, Belfast. His age at this time was given as 19 and he was an apprentice heating engineer. He enlisted at Belfast on the 22nd September 1914 as part of the U.V.F. Force. He was posted as sapper into the Signal Coy, Royal Engineers aged 22. Prior to enlistment he was a Clerk. Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium. St Jude's C of I Church, Belfast WM

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1940

+McVEIGH, Robert Alexander RAFVR. Sergeant. 745470. Died 06/07/1940. Aged 21. 254 Sqdn. Son of Robert and Emily McVeigh, of Belfast. Runnymede Memorial, Panel 17. 502 (Ulster) Squadron WM, St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast

1942

+HANLEY, DanielRN. AB. C/JX 175172. Died 06/07/1942. Age 23. HMS Niger. Had served three years. Married three years. Three month old daughter whom he had not seen. Three brothers serving in RN, RAF and army. Husband of Alice L. Hanley, Druse St., Belfast. (Belfast Weekly Telegraph 07/08/1942). Chatham Naval Memorial.

1943

+BRYSON, Michael

1st Btn. Royal Ulster Rifles. Sergeant, No. 7010791. Died 06/07/ 1943. Born in Londonderry. Brookwood Memorial, panel 14, column 3.

+KILPATRICK, Thomas

Royal Artillery, 7 Coast Regt. Gunner. 7009812. Died 06/07/1943 in a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp in Thailand. Aged 38. He was captured during the Fall of Singapore. At his time of death, Thomas had 20 years’ service. Two of his younger brothers also served in WW2. eldest son of the late James Kilpatrick and Mary Ellen Kilpatrick (née Flynn) of 58 Everton Street, Belfast. Chungkai War Cemetery, Thailand

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1944

+BARKER, Thomas James 1 SAS (D Squadron). Trooper.6986237. Executed in a wood near Beauvais, France 06/07/1944. Prior to enlistment “Tot” worked with Messrs David Anderson & Son Grocers, Cookstown. At the age of 17 he joined the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. A month before his 18th birthday he transferred to the Royal Ulster Rifles. He later became a paratrooper with the 6th Airborne Division and finally joined the Special Air Service. Born 1924. Son of John and Florence Barker, Cookstown. Marissel French National Cemetery, Oise, France. Cookstown WM

+LUTTON, Howard 1 SAS (D Squadron). Lance Corporal .7013186. Died of wounds 06/07/1944. Army Air Corps, formerly Royal Ulster Rifles. Clichy Northern Cemetery, Hauts-de-Seine, France Plot 16 Row 16 Grave 14

+WALKER,Joe Walker 1 SAS (D Squadron). Trooper.7019954. Executed in a wood near Beauvais, France 06/07/1944. Formerly Royal Ulster

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Rifles. He was one of three brothers who joined the armed services. His brother Isaac joined the Irish Guards and was 21 years old when he was killed in action in Tunisia, North Africa on 28/04/1943. Both are named on the war memorial in St John’s C of I Church, Moira. Marissel French National Cemetery, Oise, France

+YOUNG, William Pearson 1 SAS (D Squadron). Trooper. 7018947.Croix de Guerre (posthumous). POW 4.7.1944 - executed in a wood near Beauvais, France 06/07/1944. Age 22 years. A brother was serving in the RAF and five cousins were also serving. His father and four uncles served in WW1. Eldest of five sons of William and Elizabeth Young (both died 1959), Kemmilhill Hill, Randalstown. Marissel French National Cemetery, Oise, France. Plaque, Garden of Remembrance, Randalstown

1944

+BINGHAM, JamesRoyal Artillery. Bombardier.1469227. Died 06/07/1944. Aged 33. 23 Bty., 8 H.A.A. Regt. Son of James and Charlotte Bingham. Rangoon Memorial, Myanmar, Face 2. Regimental WM and RH, St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast

+CLARKE, Alexander

Royal Artillery, 8th (Belfast) HAA Regt. Sergeant. 1459281. Died 06/07/1944. Aged 23. Attended Belfast Royal Academy. He then gained employment on the clerical staff of the Belfast Harbour Board. He had worked there as a member of the General Manager’s personal staff for 6 years leading up to the outbreak of WW2. He joined the Supplementary Reserve and served with the British

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Expeditionary Force in France. After evacuation from Dunkirk, he went on to serve with his regiment in the defence of London and later saw action at the Battle of Arakan, Burma. On 18/07/1944, Belfast Harbour Board recorded their regret at Clarke’s death. The resolution was moved by Sir Ernest Herdman and seconded by Sir Thomas Dixon. They also placed on record their appreciation of Clarke’s gallantry and expressed sympathy to his family. The General Manager Mr. W.J. Watkins referred to Clarke as a “very able official” and commended his patriotic outlook as “proved by his early entry into H.M. Forces”. Only son of Alexander and Margaret Alexandrina Clarke, of 254 Ravenhill Road, Belfast. Alexander Senior was a well-known journalist having spent many years at the Belfast News Letter. He then worked on Hansard as Editor of Debates after the foundation of a Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont, Belfast. Karachi War Cemetery, Pakistan. Regimental WM and RH, St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast

1944 HMS TROLLOPE

The Frigate HMS Trollope was torpedoed off France with the loss of 64 sailors. The Trollope was on loan from the US Navy and although she was recovered to HMNB Portsmouth she was a total loss.

+CREIGHTON, RobertRN. Assistant cook (S). P/MX 575699. Died 06/07/1944. Age 24. HMS Trollope. Brother of Miss M Creighton and grandson of Mrs D Rankin, Lilliput St., Belfast. (Belfast Weekly Telegraph 17/11/1944). Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Panel 87

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+WILLY, Desmond GeraldRN. Yeoman of Signals. P/JX 137702. Died 06/07/1944. Age 27. HMS Trollope. Son of John and Mary Willy, Oakley St., Belfast. Sister resident at Northwick Dr., Belfast. Husband to Mary Margaret Willy, Portchester, Hampshire. Father of two children. (Belfast Weekly Telegraph 08/09/1944). Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Panel 84

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