Territorial officer who commanded his battalion with great skill in North Africa and Italy and was awarded the MC and DSO
Leonard Bell — to use his given name — was mobilised with 6th Battalion The Lincolnshire Regiment, in which he served throughout the war from subaltern to CO, winning the MC and DSO and being three times mentioned in dispatches.
The 6th Lincolns embarked for France in April 1940 with him in charge of the battalion transport. The German offensive through Belgium and northern France caused them to be ordered to Dunkirk. Having sent the majority of his comrades in the available transport, Bell marched to the beaches with the 80 men remaining, getting them safely home in a requisitioned gun-boat, to be mentioned in dispatches for the first time.
After serving at home during the 1940-42 invasion scare, the 6th Lincolns joined the 1st Army in French North Africa in January 1943. As a company commander, Bell distinguished himself in the fighting at Sedjenane in northern Tunisia in March 1943. There he was faced with the delicate task of withdrawing the battalion’s rearguard company while still in close contact with the enemy.
Despite intense fire and a flanking movement by a more combat experienced enemy, he withdrew his company coolly and deliberately, eventually breaking contact and suffering very few casualties. He went to the aid of a brother officer lying wounded in the open, only to find that he had died of his injuries. Recommended for the immediate award of the DSO for his bravery and operational skill, he received the MC. When the Lincolns’ CO was killed in action, Bell was appointed to temporary command of the battalion, saw it safely through the confused last days to the capture of Tunis and was again mentioned in dispatches.
After the Axis surrender in North Africa in May 1943, his battalion took part in the Anglo-American assault landings at Salerno in September. The 6th Lincolns were involved in the fighting once a breakout from the beachhead had been achieved, with Bell commanding his company, until the battalion was withdrawn to rest and retrain in February 1944.
He was in command of the battalion on its return to Italy in July 1944, when it faced intensive operations, including the breakthrough of the Gothic line. The 6th Lincolns led 138 Infantry Brigade’s advance during the attack on Monte Gridolfo and he personally rallied two companies which had suffered heavy casualties. His initiative drove a gap through the enemy defence line for exploitation by the other two battalions of the brigade.
Bell continued in command through the early winter of 1944-45. The full weight of a formal counterattack by the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division, supported by tanks, fell on their forward positions on December 9, 1944. The Lincolns fought what the citation for Bell’s DSO — awarded a year later in December 1945 — described as a “magnificent defensive action”.
The battalion was moved to Greece for the late winter and early spring of 1945 with the British force sent to suppress the civil war in Athens between Greek government supporters and communist partisans. This was an unpleasant but ultimately successful ordeal although the war continued in the mountains and Greek border lands for a further three years. Bell brought the 6th Lincolns back to Italy for the 8th Army’s final campaign through the valley of the Po in April. He was mentioned in dispatches for a third time.
Francis Cecil Leonard Bell (known from 1942 as “Bill” ) had qualified as a solicitor in 1936. He worked in the legal department of the Board of Trade before the war, returning there in 1946. In 1953 he was appointed assistant Legal Adviser to Lloyds Bank, becoming Chief Legal Advisor some years later, involved in the negotiations to acquire the National Bank of New Zealand and what became Lloyds Bank of California.
He maintained close touch with his regiment, which had attained the title of Royal Lincolnshire in 1946, and its successor the 2nd Royal Anglian Regiment, receiving the Territorial Decoration and being appointed Honorary Colonel of the Royal Lincolnshire TA battalion in 1967.
On retirement from Lloyds Bank in 1977 he was appointed a director of the British Bankers Association and was chairman of its European legal committee. He enjoyed fishing and game shooting, and was a devoted guardian of the ancient woodland behind his home in Chiddingfold, Surrey.
His first wife, Mary Wynne Jacob, died in 1996. He married Priscilla Muir in 1999. He is survived by her, a son and daughter of his first marriage and a stepson of his second.
Colonel “Bill” Bell, DSO, MC, TD, soldier and solicitor, was born on September 9, 1912. He died on December 20, 2012, aged 100
Lieutenant-Commander Bill Wood
Морской артиллерист, участник последнего сражения надводных кораблей Королевского Флота в ВМВ (бой в Малаккском проливе)
Gunnery officer who served in the Battle of the Malacca Strait in 1945
As the gunnery control officer of the destroyer Verulam, Sub-Lieutenant “Bill” Wood participated in the Royal Navy’s last surface action of the Second World War, known as the Battle of the Malacca Strait. Warned by Ultra intelligence, Captain (afterwards Admiral Sir Manley) Power manoeuvred his destroyer flotilla of five ships so as to intercept in the early hours of May 16, 1945, the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro and the destroyer Kamikaze as they steamed towards the Japanese evacuation of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands.
The Venus was the first to detect the Haguro on radar at long range. The subsequent attack was initially organised to surround the target in the “star” pattern beloved of the tactical handbooks. A noisy and confusing battle soon followed wherein the handbook was superseded by courage and quick reactions. Haguro’s eight-inch guns inflicted damage on Power’s ship, Saumarez, but multiple torpedo hits and an hour’s gunfire from all five destroyers eventually sank her with the loss of over 900 lives. Kamikaze escaped to recover some survivors the next day.
“Haguro’s gunnery, however, wasn’t all that good,” Wood told a Times correspondent. “Our ships came at her from different directions. She seemed to be taken by surprise and we scored several hits.”
Wood completed his naval service in 1958 as a lieutenant-commander in the New Zealand cruiser Black Prince. He did not use his rank in civilian life and always preferred to be known as Bill.
Educated at Huddersfield Grammar School, Albert Edward Wood left to be a cadet in the training ship Worcester. After his naval service he worked for 25 years as a representative of Yorkshire Imperial Metals.
His wife, Joan, survives him with their son and two daughters.
Lieutenant-Commander Bill Wood, naval veteran, was born on March, 12, 1924. He died on 13 January, 2013 aged 88
Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Emerson
Воевал в Индии против японцев и участвовал в оккупации Японии
Soldier and expert on Indian Army matters whose career took him to Japan and Korea
Although a man with an amusingly irreverent approach to persons in authority, Patrick Emerson was for many years the honorary secretary of the Indian Army Association and gave tireless service to those inquiring into matters of Indian history, customs or regimental detail.
While he would never let slip an opportunity to prick the pomposity of anyone in danger of taking himself too seriously, when head of the Commonwealth Military Police in Tokyo shortly after the Japanese surrender, he took a particular delight in appearing on the pavement opposite the traffic policeman, who immediately stopped all traffic to allow him to cross the road at his own pace and in safety — a privilege he knew would never be granted him anywhere else in the world.
John Patrick Halifax Sloan Emerson was born in 1918. He passed out in the top bunch at the RMC Sandhurst order of merit, a prerequisite for a commission in the (British) Indian Army, in 1938 and joined the 1/4th Bombay Grenadiers in India. Service on the North-West Frontier followed, and during the Second World War his regiment became motorised infantry supporting Indian armoured brigades.
Towards the end of hostilities against the Japanese, he was seconded to the Indian Military Police in India, hunting deserters and agents of unrest, and later with the Commonwealth army of occupation in Japan.
After the Partition of India and loss of his Indian commission, he transferred to the Australian Army as an instructor and volunteered to serve in Korea on the outbreak of war there. Falling ill in Pusan, he was evacuated to Japan to where he found himself increasingly drawn but recovered in time join the staff of the Commonwealth Division before the armistice of 1953.
On return to England and civilian life, he began work as a probation officer and became involved in reconciliation between the Commonwealth Armies and the Japanese. In May 2004 he took part in a wreath-laying ceremony in memory of the soldiers of both sides at Sandhurst. The Japanese ambassador was present, with the chairman of the Japanese Burma Campaign Society and more than 100 British veterans. Advising British and Indian veterans enduring hardship due to their service became his prime consideration, and he was appointed OBE for this work in 1996.
As a regular visitor to the National Army Museum in Chelsea, he researched tirelessly to provide material required by authors and journalists. This included information from the early days of British involvement in India, his experiences in Kashmir during the massive shifts of population at the time of Partition and, later, of the Korean War.
He consequently became an authority on India and its soldiers to which many organisations and publications — including this newspaper — turned when in search of authentic detail In 1957 he married Chiyo Kawazaki, who survives him. There were no children.
Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Emerson, OBE, soldier and historian, was born on August 28, 1918. He died on January 23, 2013, aged 94
'Бій відлунав. Жовто-сині знамена затріпотіли на станції знов'
