I write a short essay about Reginal Oswald Powell. It’s a demonstration of what can be pieced together about a man who took part in the Second World War (1939-1945), by way largely of archives and papers. The men of that generation didn’t talk much to their children about what they did, but I take the view that this is for two reasons: the children weren’t interested, and men were afraid of bringing up information about the past, either from their own recollection, or by learning what others had or hadn’t done. This man died a few months before I was born, and I was left his military pocket watch by his wife, as an inheritance. That’s more or less everything I knew about him.
He was professional Royal Marine who joined in 1936, and so got involved in defending his country by accident. He had signed up to be a soldier on the British Empire’s ships. The war was waged by the British against Germany, a growing empire, and the conflict between those two empires dominates my account of his life. But it is also that of an individual who was part of one of the war’s new ‘commando’ units. That is, my essay might have some interest because Powell’s commando units fought in campaigns alongside Paddy Maine, and in those types of adventure which always inspire a bit of admiration, and have been celebrated in recent TV dramas. Powell also happens to be my paternal grandfather, which is why I have a personal interest in him.
My aim is to be brief, and to present all the information pertaining directly to him which I have to hand; respecting the larger events he was part of, I intend to write down only the most obvious things about those events. One could get involved in a description of the war itself, but that would be beyond the scope of this little essay.
Reginald Oswald Powell was born on the 18th July, 1916, in South Wales. He died 27th March, 1975, aged fifty-eight, in Wrexham. His place of birth was 60 Pretoria Road Tonyrefail, Llantrisant, which was then in the county of Glamorganshire. The terraced house is still there, and I took the opportunity of having a look when I was last in South Wales. The town of Tonyrefail is built on natural hills; coal mining and the workers of the mines, was the reason they were built.
Powell’s father had been born in Yeovil, Somerset, in 1863; and his paternal line is recorded back to the late 1700s, where the Powells were in Bristol. But the name indicates that they were originally Welsh, and I think crossing the border for work was common. John Powell, born 1795, married Jane Hosier in 1820, in Bristol. One of their sons, Joseph Powell, born in Bristol in 1826, was the father of Alfred Powell, (b. 1863 – 1918), my great grandfather, and father of Reginald Owald Powell. Alfred Powell must have moved to Glamorgan for work at the coal mine at Tonyrefail, which employed 1,800 people at its height.
Alfred Powell and Priscilla Griffiths (b. March 1882 – January 1956) were married in late 1914. Priscilla was then 34 years of age, and Alfred Powell was 51. It was the second marriage for both of them. Priscilla was Reginald Powell’s mother.
Priscilla’s first husband, married in 1902, was a William Stanley Weale, who had died in a coal mining accident in 1912, leaving three children. Priscilla’s father, William Griffiths (January 1851 – 1887), had also died in a coal mining accident, when she was just five years old, November 1887, at the Harris Navigation Colliery, Treharris.
So, the marriage of my paternal greatgrandparents took place in 1914, and Reginald Oswald Powell, my grandfather, was born two years later, in summer 1916. Priscilla’s marriage lasted only four years, since Alfred, who was himself a coal miner, died in October 1918, aged 55, of natural causes. His widow continued to live at 60 Pretoria Road, Tonyrefail, with her two sons, and three children from a previous marriage.
Reginald Powell’s seventeen year old step-brother was working as a coal hewer at Welsh Navigation Steam Coal Company Ltd, Coedely, which in 1913 employed 1003 people. The pit was located roughly a mile from the centre of the village.
When Powell applied to join the Navy, or the Royal Marines, in 1936, his mother was still living on Pretoria Road. He had started working at the colliery, most likely as a hewer, like his older brother. His Attestation record says that he was accepted into the Royal Marines on the 10th September 1935 at Bristol, Number PLYX1332. He was nineteen years and one month old, and his trade or calling was ‘Collier’. He signed the Oath, and was attested to by a magistrate.
He was five foot eight and a half inches, had brown hair, a fresh complexion, grey eyes, and a thirty seven inch chest. He had two identification scars, on his shoulder and his foot. The naval documentation is quite thorough and helps to work out what happened to him over the next ten years.
His form R23 is a one page summary of his career. He entered the Navy on 10th September 1936, and was discharged 17th May 1946, with the explanation that he was ‘physically unfit for Royal Marine service’ by that time. During his service, he had been made Acting Corporal three times, but the formal paperwork for substantive rank had never been filled in, so he was busted down to Marine three times, when his acting rank was no longer required. I have noticed that he is only given the rank when he was about to deploy overseas, and it is withdrawn when he comes home or is injured.
His pay record shows he was entitled to a War Gratuity of £46 16s for 78 months war work. And a Post War Credit of £39 19 s for 1548 days.
His paperwork also shows that he had the following medals issued:
1939-45 medal
Italy medal
France and Germany medal (which could mean service in Belgium, and Netherland
Defence medal
War medal
Service for 1939-45 star (Italy)
Regarding ranks, and substantive rank, Julian Thompson has told the story of Lieutenant Colonel Moulton, who commanded 48 Commando, Royal Marines. Moulton remembered that in 1945, while they were in norther Europe, his RSM was actually only a substantive corporal, and one of his troop sergeant majors, McGowan, a substantive Marine. He wrote to Division in Plymouth asking if the one could be made substantive sergeant and the other corporal substantive. But this was refused due to a training requirement. So, while Powell remained substantively a Marine, he might have been doing the job of any rank, up to troop sergeant major, even while holding the substantive rank of marine.
Powell’s main record of service informs us that he began life in the Marines in 1935 at Deal, then at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and his first ship was HMS Royal Oak, which he served on from October 1936 to January 1937. Then from January 1937 to August 1939, when war broke out, he was on the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, which was sailing around the Indian Ocean at the time.
Before their wartime restructuring, the Royal Marines were expected to supply men for the ship’s guns, they were expected to enforce discipline on the ship, and to make raiding parties either onto shore, or on to other hostile ships. The rules which bound what they could and could not do, had been shaped over nearly three hundred years of successful Royal Naval operations. And this is why, when war broke out, there was significant resistance to working with the Army, or adapting to the new circumstances, in which they were required to attack a formidable and technically advanced enemy.
In August 1939, Powell returned to Plymouth, where the Marines formed two brigades, 101 and 102 Force. The two of them together were known as the Royal Marines Division. He was part of the Home Base Ledger MNBDO, 3rd Battalion Royal Marines. At that time, there were roughly 4,500 marines spread across various ships which operated around the globe, in six battalions.
The traditional idea of using the Marines in war was, that they would make temporary raids on inland ports, on behalf of the Navy. For the first three years of the war, there was hardly any use for this kind of activity, and the Admiralty stubbornly withheld them from use.
Powell’s record shows that he was attached to 21st Anti-Aircraft Battery, and designated for homeland defence. He was also with 22nd Training Battalion in the first year of the war. His gunner record training sheet shows that he was trained to use the 4 inch gun on HMS Eagle, in the role of ammunition supply. But it seems clear that he was employed in homeland defence at any of the main Naval ports, and the Marines were also being trained to deploy to the south coast to fight off any German invasion of England.
He joined the newly formed RM Brigade at Bisley in April 1940, as part of the 3rd Battalion; he was promoted to acting corporal in June. He carried out anti-aircraft training at RAF Manobier throughout June, and was then sent to Pembroke, the standby base for defence against invasion of England. In July 1940 he was at Saltash.
His first significant battle, and the only significant event of the first three years of the war, as far as the Marines are concerned, now took place. He took part in Operation Menace, which was the attemped capture of the port of Dakar, Senegal. The two Marine brigades 101, and 102, were sent to the coast of Senegal, along with a large naval force, and with Free French soldiers led by General De Gaulle, intending to capture Dakar from the Vichy French, who had chosen to ally themselves with Germany. The British idea was, that under pressure in assault and capture, the French military holding Dakar would capitulate and join the British and Free French without a fight.
Powell was one of the marines who sailed to Dakar, and joined battle there from the 23rd to the 25th of September 1940. The marines were transported in cramped circumstances on ‘Mechanical Transport’ ships. His battalion was on board the transport ship MS Sobieski.
The attack did not go to plan, and there was significant resistance by both the French airforce and navy. The shore guns were very active and there was an effective aerial defence. Powell went ashore in Freetown, Siera Leone. But the marines were not deployed in a direct attack on Dakar; they would have to have done so by means of the landing craft which they brought with them, which were in insufficient numbers for the division. Operational command, seeing that air and sea pressure would not be enough, and that a beach assault would be necessary, judged that it would not be proper to see the British soldiers fighting French soldiers. In addition, there was thick fog during the three days of the attack, and resistance against the Marines would be stiff.
At some point during the operation, Powell fell ill, or was injured. Injury is most likely, but sickness is not impossible. Evelyn Waugh wrote his comic novel ‘Men at Arms’ about Operation Menace; Waugh served as a Marine officer and was at Freetown. He records that one of his friends fell ill and died during the operation, from a sickness, rather than any injury.
It looks as if the entire division was sent to Senegal, 4,500 men, and that they were to be used ground assault troops. 102 Brigade, with which Powell served on that operation, only returned to Scotland in February 1941, remaining in Freetown from September to February 1941.
His Casualty and Service form (B103) says that he left England in late August 1940, and returned on 22 February 1941, which exactly mirrors the official account of the battle. On his return, he was in hospital in Glasgow, and discharged from hospital three days later on the 25th February. It might be possible that he was injured while away, and had been in the care of medics; or that he had fallen ill of the sicknesses which often afflict armies. For a reason unknown, Powell was readmitted to hospital March 1941, in Scotland.
This failure to launch an amphibious assault into enemy territory was the second such failure, the other being the Norway invasion of 1940. After Dakar, the Prime Minister began to take an interest in commando units, and raiding parties, which he wanted to see used inside enemy territory. The term ‘commando’ was a Boer word, and the British had learned it when they noticed the effective irregular method of fighting which the Boers carried out against them in South Africa.
Churchill liked the idea of making raids on German territory, even while a larger force was not available, or while one was being put together. In 1942, he was still asking after the progress of his ‘commando’ units.
We can see why Powell effectively did little between April 1941, and July 1943. Over nearly eighteen months, the only significant record of activity is, that he was busted to Marine in August 1942, and then promoted back to acting corporal in November of the same year. In the meantime, the Royal Marines had not made serious efforts to deploy as commando units, as the Prime Minister had ordered.
Churchill wrote to General Ismay, for COS Committee, 3rd June 1942 “I have heard nothing of the Royal Marine Division since the RM brigades (sic) went with the Dakar expedition. What are the plans for its employment? Is it to be used in 'Sledgehammer' or 'Roundup' [plans for the invasion of North-West Europe]?
“If not might we not offer it to General Wavell? There should be good opportunities for well trained, lightly equipped amphibious troops in his area in the near future.”
I am now quoting loosely from Julian Thompson’s book: But another year from mid-1942 was to pass before the RM Division was settled, and it had suffered years of frustration already. Huge numbers of men and officers were tied up in the two MNBDOs, or Mobile Base Defence Organisations, which were still being used for the defence of ports around the world, in North Africa and Asia, and at home. They were carrying out no offensive action against the enemy.
In early 1943 Mountbatten told the Marines that the Royal Marine Division must convert its battalions to the Commando role or face total oblivion. The decision was made to break the division into Commandos and landing craft operators, which would be required for the infal invasion of Europe.
The Royal Marines Division was disbanded July 1943, and each of its six battalions were converted into Royal Marine commando units. The Army at first dismissed these new units as useless; they were merely 5000 men who had no commando or close quarter fighting experience, it was said by Brigadier Lord Lovat. The plan was to use these new Commando units as shock troops, and yet they had no battle experience.
Powell’s 3rd battalion was converted into No. 44 Commando in July 1943. But the process of transition meant, that the final Commando units were composed of volunteers, for a cuple of reasons. Firstly, any member had to pass a rigorous selection training course; and second, because the commando units were typically half the size of a standard battalion, men were also offered the choice of going elsewhere. All RM Commandos underwent the course at the Commando Basic Training Centre at Achnacarry, where it was usual for a third of the volunteers for the course to fail. A battalion of 500 had to whittled down to 250 men, to form a Commando.
The Navy had insisted that it provide six of these small and elite battalions, and the Army had committed to provide a similar number; the plan was to use them interchangeably. The Commandos of the combined Navy and Army were at first led by a Royal Marine officer, Major General Sturges.
So, Powell joined 44 Commando on 1st August, 1943, and stayed there until 9th March 1944, according to his R23 form. Between those months, he was with 41 Commando in the south of Italy at Salerno, in the wake of Operation Baytown and Operation Avalanche, which took place in September 1943; and unusually, he was also with 40 Commando around Termoli, involved in Operation Devon, on the east coast of Italy. He was part of both of these significant operations, which are considered Royal Marine battle honours. But, strictly speaking, I think that he arrived just after each of them had been at their most intense. It is also apparent that he was injured twice during this period in Italy. And that when he went back to the UK, he did so with his Commando, on the dates on which the whole unit moved.
He left the UK as a corporal of 41 Commando on the 16th August, 1943. He arrived and disembarked at Algeria on the 25th of that month; probably some training took place; a month later on the 20th of September he was moved by rail from Algeria, and arrived in Sicily on the 8th October. As far as 41 Commando was concerned, he had missed the battle around Salerno, which had been the invasion of the mainland Italy. It had taken place 3rd to 9th September, and so he was a replacement for battlefield casualties.
I quote loosely from Thompson: For the invasion of Italy, 2nd Special Service Brigade was split. No. 3 Commando supplied by the Army, and 40 Royal Marine Commando, and Major 'Paddy' Mayne's 1st Special Service Raiding Squadron (SRS), were allocated to operation Baytown, the crossing of the Strait of Messina to the toe of Italy by Lt Col General Dempsey's British XIII Corps. Meanwhile, No. 2 Army and 41 Royal Marine Commando were to operate under the command of British X Corps, which formed part of the US Fifth Army under Lt Gen Mark Clark, for Operation Avalanche, the assault on Salerno.” (Thompson, 307)
Powell arrived Sicily 8 October. By that time, both Commandos (40 and 41) had been sent back to Sicily, on the 18th September, after nine days of almost continuous fighting. Both were reduced to about half strength. Each commando was around 300 men when at full strength. They had held their beachheads, and attained their objectives on time. 41 Commando’s losses at Salerno were around 50%. 49 dead, 150 wounded. Out of 27 officers, 21 were dead or wounded, nearly 80%. Powell arrived 8th October, and joined 41 Cdo.
Salerno, in September 1943, was a particularly fierce engagement; 41 RM Commando landed at Salerno and faced intense German resistance, suffering heavy losses, including their Second-in-Command and most Troop Commanders.
Afterward, 41 Commando advanced into Italy. After Salerno, they continued fighting up the Italian peninsula, experiencing house-to-house combat in towns like Campobasso and Ortona. Powell was injured in October as part of 41. He was in 66 General Hospital on October 24th 1943, and was discharged back to his unit on the 2nd November. He had been in the field for three weeks before his hospitalisation. When 41 sailed back to the UK, Powell was transferred to 40, on 13th November, and continued in theatre with that unit.
40 Commando had landed 120 miles further up the coast of Italy, in order to carry out a Commando raid, and to make way for the Eight Army. They made a beach landing at Termoli, code name Operation Devon. It was an amphibious assault, intending the quick capture of the town. They held the perimeter of the town for five days, against German armour, panzergrenadiers, and parachute soldiers.
While serving with 40, he was sent to 70 General Hospital on 20-Nov-43; 70 General Hospital was in Italy after Sept 1943. He was Transferred to 83 General Hospital from 70 Gen. Hosp. on 21-Nov-43. In November 1943, 83 General Hospital was in Caserta, southern mainland Italy. He returned to 40 from hospital on 12-Dec-43. Probably serving in 40 Commando at this this time, across the Garigliano, raids, etc. Work behind the lines.
However, Powell had once again missed the engagement at the height of its intensity. Early hours of October 3, 1943, 40 Commando was involved in the capture of the strategically important port of Termoli, north of the Biferno River, to unhinge German defences. No. 3 Army Commando, No. 40 Royal Marines (RM) Commando, and elements of the Special Raiding Squadron (SRS). Commandos landed behind enemy lines, and achieved complete surprise (capturing German officers in their pyjamas). They fought intense close-quarters battles against German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger). The commandos held the town against strong German counter-attacks from the 16th Panzer Division until reinforcing British Eighth Army troops arrived on October 6th, forcing a German retreat. It was a significant tactical victory, demonstrating Commando capabilities and establishing a vital foothold on the Adriatic coast.
By November, the Commando was operating in Italy, having moved to Molfetta via Manfredonia from Termoli in October 1943. In the subsequent months, they were engaged in ferocious fighting in the area of the River Garigliano and Monte Ornito. In December 1943, 40 Commando was trucked across the Apennines to Castlellammare on the Western side of Italy. It was then put under an army command. I think Powell was with 40 Commando from 12 Dec 1943 to 23 January 1944. The unit crossed the river Garigliano in assault boats at 2030 on 17th January 1944. Prior to that, and after, they engaged in typical tasks:
“The Commando tasks were to exploit beyond the objectives of the leading infantry battalions, penetrate the German positions, attack communications, and cause as much mayhem as possible. The country was broken with hills, mountains, ravines, gulleys, and fast-flowing rivers swollen with winter rain. Extensive German demolition work had destroyed, or mined, roads, railways, tunnels, and bridges." (Thompson 317)
On 23rd January, 1944, 40 Commando was withdrawn into Corps reserve, and had a chance to rest, and a chance to enjoy a hot meal and a wash. The end of their Fighting Patrol period behind enemy lines ended 23rd January, when Powell left the unit to embark Italy for the UK. He left the unit on the 23rd, and set sail on the 26th January.
40 Commando shipped back home on the 26 January, and he went with them. He was busted back to Marine rank on that day, and they embarked from the allied port of Taranto on SS Ramkin. And SS ship was a cargo steamship. He disembarked from the UK on the 10th of February, 1944.
I happen to know, that he must have got to know my Nain at this time, because although the two of them were not married, they had a child together in October of 1944. And this means, that February 1944 was a significant time for them both. While my father was born twelve years later, their first son must have been conceived on Powell’s return from Italy. The Marines training centre, or Holding Operations Commando, was Hermitage Camp, in Wrexham. And I must conclude that my grandparents met each other before or after his time in Italy, at Wrexham, where the marines were trained, and were held while awaiting deployment. The two were only married in July 1946. I hesitate to say, that they may have met each other and conceived their first child, almost immediately.
Back in England, Powell’s R23 says he was assigned to Plymouth Division from 10th March 1944 until the 17th July 1944. That is, the period in the lead up to D Day, and the months after it, Powell seems to have been at Wrexham. It may be the case that he was involved in the D Day landings, but I do not have any evidence, except that he was made temporary lance corporal on the 14th of June 1944, and promotion usually means he is needed in some capacity. He is usually demoted again when not on some kind of active service.
Thompson says, that with all the casualties and the major effort of that operation, there were approximately 25,000 marines involved in the operation. So, it is hard to believe he was not in France at the time. The only excuse could be, that he was training the recruits for France, and was needed in that capacity. Five troops of 36 men were being produced from Wrexham every month at the time, and training staff would be needed. His ‘F and C’ medal does not prove he was at the D Day landings, because that medal also applies to other parts of Western Europe, such as Holland, where he was in 1945. And there is no specific D Day medal. So I have no proof of where he was. To give some perspective on how badly both trained marines were needed, and how the situation was ‘all hands on deck’, I note that on the single day of 6 June 1944, 41 RM Commando lost 123 dead, wounded or missing out of a strength of 450.
From 18th August 1944, he was under the command of Plymouth Division, as a marine. He was promoted to lance corporal again on 22nd September, and attended the Royal Marine Small Arms School, No.23 snipers course at Browndown. He was promoted to acting corporal again in mid-October, and then sent to the Holding Operations Commando Disposal training centre at Wrexham on October 16th, 1944.
On 4th January 1945 he was taken off the reserves list and assigned to 48 Commando. He was to stay in 48 Commando until June 22nd 1945. On that date, he seems to have sustained a very bad injury, which I suspect, and half-know from hearsay of a relative, was due to a motor accident while in Europe. He was immediately withdrawn from service, and sent to 25 and then 77 general hospitals in Europe, and evacuated by air on the 13th July. He was sent to Whiston County Hospital in Merseyside at first, then to Porth District Hospital on 3rd August; Whitchurch Hospital on the 15th September, and then discharged to the Holding Op. Commando in Wrexham on the same day. He remained on the injured list for 48 Commando until 13th March 1946, when he was discharged from service as permanently unfit for the Royal Marines service. The precise way in which he was so badly injured is not clear, because the part of the casualty form which describes it, at some length, has been blacked out or redacted for some reason.
Throughout his time in the forces, his annual reports had always recorded the assessment of ‘Very Good’ for his conduct, and ‘satisfactory’ for his efficiency.
I have missed out what was going on in 48 Commando when he arrived in January 1945.
He joined 48 Commando in January 1945. To give some background, we should note that in November 1944, 48 commando and 41 commando had made an amphibious landing at Westkappelle, Holland. It was an invasion of Europe on the beaches, as at D-Day, involving fighting in the sand, well-built anti-ship defences, and close quarter fighting with determined German regular and elite formations. The Marines had been given the objective of capturing the guns aimed at the Royal Navy.
48 Commando were part of 4th Commando Brigade. Thompson comments on the aftermath of the Westkappelle battle: “The Brigade was to spend the remainder of the war in Holland, first in the area of the eastern Scheldt, and then on the River Maas. They were not idle, being involved in many brushes with the enemy on raids, patrols, and minor actions. But it seems a waste of such well-trained, battle-experienced troops to use them in this way, rather than in operations to cross the Rhine and advance in the Baltic.”
Powell would probably have been expected to continue to serve in the Royal Marines after 1946, but he had suffered what I know to have been a severe head injury in Holland, which rendered him unfit for any further use in the Marines. He was married in July 1946. He and his wife, my Nain, are recorded as living on Henry Street in Mountain Ash, in the Rhondda Cynon Taff area, in 1949. I imagine that Powell took his wife and son back to his home town, and found employment in the coal industry. But they moved back to north Wales, where Nain’s family were living, in later years. That is where my father was brought up, and where he met my mother. Powell died of a cerebral haemorrhage three months after the couple were married, and six months before my birth.
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