1. Missing in action
In October 1944, Ena Tivey received a telegram saying her husband Daniel was missing in action. Daniel was a solider with the Sherwood Foresters. In that year he had bravely put himself forward to become a glider pilot, flying large troop carrying arcraftHe was selected and began his basic training at Burnaston airfield near Derby, before moving on to heavy glider training at Brize Norton. It was not too long before he was taking to the sky in one the biggest air offensives in the history of warfare. He was a part of Montgomery’s ambitious plan ‘Operation Market Garden’.
2. Operation Market Garden
The plan had the objectives of recapturing a number of strategically important bridges which crossed the Rhône including the now infamous Arnhem Bridge
It would have been an awesome sight as the large Horsa gliders were towed up into the sky by the even larger Stirling bombers. After about 10mins of flying Daniel will have become aware of the scale of the operation as 100s of aircraft came into view having taken off from 22 airfields in England
Daniel’s Glider Pilot Regiment fought shoulder to shoulder with airborne soldiers. Today’s Army Air Corps carries on the traditions of the Regiment, albeit in helicopters, the original Regiment had some of the toughest training of any unit in WW2 it also suffered the highest death rate in training of any unit in WW2 – and since. They were fighting soldiers and also trained aircrew. No one was accepted into the Regiment below the rank of Sgt. They carried out aircrew training, and the majority were young officers and warrant officers. Only the Germans and Americans also used glider troops Neither trained their Glider Pilots to the same high standards. The American pilots landed their gliders and then returned to their own lines, their job complete. The British pilot, when not injured in the landing, picked up his rifle and equipment, put on his red beret, and joined up with the airborne troops he had delivered into battle, and continued the fight as an airborne soldier
Daniel successfully landed his giant Horsa glider carrying 30 troops. Once on the ground at Arnhem he joined the infantry. All airborne forces are limited in the quantity of arms, ammunition, and rations that they can carry into battle. Airborne assaults depend to a large extent on the element of surprise to help them achieve their mission. They are trained to take their objectives quickly, and then handover to ground forces as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, in the case of Arnhem the element of surprise had been lost and hence the resistance in the area had been underestimated, and the troops did not know of two SS Panzer Divisions that were regrouping outside of Arnhem. It is believed that the details of the plan had been given away by a double agent. This proved to be very costly for the allies and out of the 10,000 men involved in the operation there were 8000 casualties, killed and wounded or captured. They had fought for ten days. 2300 men were able to withdraw. Fortunately Daniel had not been one of the 30% of his regiment who had been a killed. In fact he had been injured by my mortar fire and captured by the Germans.
4. Good news
This news got back to his wife Ena via his co-pilot who had made it back to England and contacted her to tell the story up to his capture. A press release article from the Derby Evening Telegraph describes this and is available now online in the British Newspaper Archive.
This was good news but not great news as Ena had no idea of what had happened to him after his capture. In fact he had been taken to the Prisoner of War Camp at Zagan in Poland aka Stalag Luft VlIl-C
5. The long march
Towards the end of the war the advances made by the Russians meant that to maintain their prison operation the Germans had to subject Daniel and the rest of the prisoners to a 400 mile walk west to a West German town called Bad Orb location of Stalag IXB. The freezing temperatures meant that many perished on this 31 day walk.
Daniel and the remaining prisoners were eventually freed by the advancing allies. He returned to England in May 1945. Daniel’s experience is described in the Fig.5 a press article from the Derby Evening Telegraph.
6.Notes from a friend
The Imperial War Museum has a fascinating recording of an interview with a Sergeant John McGough. He recalls being selected to become a glider pilot and starting his training on propeller driven aircraft at Burnaston. He then goes on to talk about his capture and imprisonment in Stalag VIIIC . Finally he describes the long march to Bad Orb. John’s mention of his close friendship with Daniel clearly reflects the many common and shared experiences they had.
Listening to John’s experiece gets you very close to the experience Daniel would have had. Reels 7,8, 9 are probably the most relevant, but its all well worth a listen. Just click on the link below..
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80029643
Part of summary transcript for Reel 8 -Recollections of march to Frankfurt area, Germany, 8/2/1945-10/3/1945: issue of greatcoat; lack of preparations; German civilian refugees; nature of march and overnight stops; friendship with Staff Sergeant Danny Baker; food. Period at Stalag IX B, Bad Orb, 10/3/1945- 2/4/194
Daniel aslso gets a mention in the text of this archive
https://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/john_mcgeough.htm
If you want to go into more detail take a look att these…
https://www.youtube.com/live/KnDxxoezl18?feature=shared
https://armyflying.com/the-collections/online-exhibitions/operation-market garden/
wbrq021. Missing in action
