ISSUE No. 21 DECEMBER 2001
EDITORIAL
As the year draws to a close I wish all our readers a
happy Christmas and a good New Year. This year has been a particularly good one
for your Association which continues to flourish.
During the year which marked the 50th Anniversary of
the formation of AAFCE a total of 45 Veterans were traced of which 30 were
brought into membership. The total found
to date is well over 150. We still
strive to enrol more GIs and servicemen from our other Allies. Two GIs and one Canadian were invited to join
but have not replied.
The coach trip to
Our Fourth UK Reunion in October was attended by 72 members who had a thoroughly enjoyable week-end. It was pleasing to see so many of our recent signings in attendance.
NEW MEMBERS
Squadron Leader Charles Hobgen,
pictured here with his Assistant Captaine Charles Denamur (FAF) wrote to Johnnie Day after he read his recent
article in Provost Parade. After the war
when Charles returned home from incarceration in Stalag
Luft 3 he stopped flying and transferred to the
Provost Branch. After service at
Flying
Officer J P Wood served as SRO to the Commander from Jan 1955 until June 1957. He retired from the RAF in 1983 and was
appointed General manager of the Dolphin Square Trust
Ltd (a London Housing Association) He then spent 10 years as Secretary for the
British Nutrition Foundation. Mr Wood
takes an active interest in the RAFA at local, area and national level and is
currently a Vice-President. He and his
wife Bridget now live in
obituary
It has just been reported that Dave Adams passed away
about a couple of months ago. Dave who
was a Corporal MT Driver at
LE QUARTIER
CHATEAUX
Those who were selected for service with AAFCE in its
early days will remember Quartier Chateaux in Rue St
Merry where they were accommodated and worked before Camp Guynemer
was opened in 1952 ~ it was then occupied by ALFCE.
In the early 1900s
the Chateaux served as a Cavalry Training School and the photograph here
presented by Colonel Schwartz during our visit there in September, shows the
Chateaux as it was then.
Quartier Chateaux is now
the home of the Gendarmerie School for Criminal Investigation training.
The cinema remains
in use as a briefing/conference room. On completion of their training the
trainees are presented with a medal, shown here, one of which was presented to
the AAFCE Veterans during their visit.
Both the framed photograph and medal are in my custody
and care and will be exhibited at our Annual Reunions.
FOURTH ANNUAL REUNION
On 20 October 72 members gathered at Courtyard
Leamington Spa for a thoroughly enjoyable week-end at our Fourth Annual
Reunion. It was gratifying to see so
many new faces present from the recent additions to our membership.
At a short meeting in the afternoon the Income and
Expenditure Account (circulated in the last Newsletter) was accepted and it was
agreed to defer a call for a further subscription at present in view of the
balance in hand.
It was also agreed
to arrange another coach trip to Fontainebleau next September and to meet again
at the Courtyard on 19 October 2002.
The Raffle realised a staggering £214 for the
Association’s General Fund. Thanks to
all those who donated prizes especially David Crook who made a large Christmas
cake (pictured) beautifully iced with the AAFCE motif in every detail won by
Tony and Jen Almond
After dinner we were entertained as usual by Terry
Bryant and Dave Bennett with their amusing ditties.
It was an auspicious occasion for Hilton and Maureen
Cozens who celebrated their 39th Wedding Anniversary on 20 October. Next year’s reunion should be a real
celebration for them.
A REMARKABLE R.A.F. POLICEMAN
This article written by John Day will be
included in the next issue of Provost Parade and is reproduced here with John’s kind
permission. (All rights reserved)
Flight Sergeant CHARLES DOUGLAS
COLLYER, B.E.M. No M 1473858
"I'm
82, and can still stand on my head."
This is how Charley, as he is known to all, greeted me on September 14th
on the occasion of a re-union held at Fontainebleau, France, of RAF servicemen
who had met him during their service at Camp Guynemer,
the then headquarters of Allied Air Forces, Central Europe. His story is
unique. It could never happen again in any part of the world, to any other
serving member of any force.
He
joined the R.A.F. in 1943
at Croydon, Surrey. Britain was at war, and as soon as he was 18
he and his best mate, Cyril Barton, joined together. They both wanted to be
aircrew but Charley's maths was hopeless. Cyril
became a pilot in Bomber Command and won a posthumous V.C. Charley opted for
the R.A.F. Police. After basic training at Chessington,
he was posted to the Police Training depot at Uxbridge and passed out as a
provost policeman in February 1944.
His
first posting was to No.1 London District based in South Kensington, where he
had his first experiences of a wartime London teeming with servicemen, mainly out
to get drunk as quickly as possible, then have a fight
with someone.
With
D-Day approaching, his second posting was to Newhaven, where he was held in a
pool of policemen from both the Army and the R.A.F. awaiting embarkation for
D-Day. On D-Day plus 10 he embarked for Cherbourg and landed on the beach from
a landing craft full of Americans in full combat gear, wondering what on earth
he was doing there. Two months of directing traffic on the Cotentin Peninsula
and he was posted to Dieppe. An old house in the centre of the town was the
police H.Q. and three months of traffic duty, locking up drunks, and chasing
deserters saw him posted back to an American unit and he entered Paris two days
after its liberation.
This
was a war zone. Germans were still hiding out there, sheltered either by
girlfriends or sympathisers, of which there were
many, or they had simply deserted and were taking their chances of mingling in
with the locals. Based in the Place Vendôme, a now
very prosperous area of Paris, he patrolled with the U.S. military Police.
Their main duties were searching out these Germans and their French
collaborators, but street patrol still took up a lot of their time. He recounts
several incidents, the like of which if you knew him, could only happen to
Charley. Early one morning, at the end of a night shift, he was patrolling the
Champs Elysées. Rounding the Arc de Triomphe in his Jeep he saw a man crouched over the eternal
flame which marks France's unknown soldier. He stopped
and found a G.I. trying to cook his breakfast on it! Calling up a Yank
policeman he had him taken away, and the American invited him to have breakfast
at the U.S. Serviceman's Club. He did, and the waitress
who served them, a French woman working for the U.S. Red Cross, became his wife
two months later. Fast work for those
days!
On
another occasion he and his colleague were approached by a frantic Frenchwoman
indicating that they come into her house. 'Quick, see, quick see' she repeated
over and over. After checking in over the radio they went in. 'Ici, ici' she shouted as she led
them downstairs. She pointed to an old door. Là, là'. It was locked. He knocked - no reply. 'Non, non, she shouted, 'break it'. Charley considered
shooting the lock off, but spying a bit of metal, between them they burst the
door open. It was a room the size of a small bedroom packed from floor to
ceiling with money. English money. Ten shilling notes,
pound notes and the big old white fivers. When it had been loaded and removed
to Police H.Q. it was found to be nearly three million pounds, a vast fortune
in those days. No, it wasn't retirement time for all involved - it was all
counterfeit - part of the German effort to cripple the Bank of England. All the
German informants,
spies and collaborators had been paid in
fake English money, and this was just one of the stores that were found in
various parts of Europe. He told of the abject poverty around him, and also the
lavish riches of the profiteers. The Black Market was just about the only line
of supply - the poor bartered everything, including their bodies, whilst the
rich bought anything they liked. The restaurants and nightclubs functioned as
though there was no war on. He was eventually put in charge of a section
dedicated to tracking down German deserters. He saw the results of murder,
rape, arson and torture. He escorted so many prisoners to the Caserne Mortière in Paris for execution that he lost count. Working
mainly on tip-offs daily house searches netted hundreds of wanted people.
He
was in Paris for three years, 1945, '46, '47 Charley's next posting was to
Marseilles. The R.A.F. Police H.Q. was in the Avenue de Prado and there his
time was spent mainly on a Royal Enfield motorcycle patrolling La Corniche, a winding coastal mountain road stretching as far
as Monte Carlo, hunting out escaped P.o.W's and
smugglers! Germans were still being hidden in houses all over Southern France ~ he sometimes
wondered if any Germans had gone back to Germany!
When
the H.Q. was closed in 1948 he was promoted Flight Sgt. and was posted to Istres i/c the guardroom of 103
staging post under the command of Wing Commander HUNT.
These were station duties which came as a welcome relief. The base was an
airfield and guarding the aircraft was a priority, as was the M.T. Section as
fuel and tyres were like gold dust. His abiding
memory of this period is when a Lancaster crashed on landing. Charley managed
to pull three men clear, but the 2nd pilot died in his arms crying for his wife
Edith.
1950
found him in Fontainebleau at the H.Q. Allied Air Forces Western Union at Quartier Chateau. It was here that 'Mr
Fixit' was born. With his French wife as interpreter they quickly found a flat
in which to live. A colleague asked if he could help find him a flat, and he
did. In no time the word got round that Charley Collyer
could find you a married quarter. There was a fairly large contingent of
British Army troops in Fontainebleau as well as the R.A.F. and they began
approaching him. Then an officer asked for help, preferring an outlying village
rather than the town, and so was born Charley's kingdom. Word spread that a
R.A.F. Sergeant Policeman in Fontainebleau, called Charley, could get you
anything from a house to compassionate leave.
In
1952 when Camp Guynemer was officially opened Charley
was posted there, still as a policeman, but more and more as a welfare officer.
He had his own office, and word eventually reached Field Marshal Montgomery,
Commander-in-Chief of all Allied Forces in Europe. He asked to meet this man and
at the end of their conversation stated the words which made Charley the legend
he became.
"This
man is doing a far more useful job here than he ever could in England. He is to
stay in France as long as he wishes to do so".He
had virtually a free hand. He was the unofficial Billeting and Welfare Officer
and young men went to him with any manner of problem - lovesick, homesick, worried about family - he heard everything. There was a
saying doing the rounds "If you've got a sore throat, don't go to the M.O.,
go and see Charley."
He
did his rounds on his bicycle, a British Rudge, circa 1950, which he still has, and uses every day.
He had a phenomenal memory: (a bit dimmer now), a dozen people could stop him
and tell him their woes or needs and he would deal with each one in order when
he got back to his desk. 'Baptisms to Burials' should have been on his door,
because he even organised those. I don't know how
many children he is Godfather to; it is a lot. His well-deserved British Empire
Medal was awarded to him for 'Services to the Welfare and Administration of
British Forces abroad' in 1956, and was presented to him by Wing Commander
R.G.M. STEVENSON on the parade ground at Camp Guynemer.
Charley
stayed on at Fontainebleau 'til 1967 when the camp was closed. What now?
Here
is where Monty's directive finally paid off. He was posted to the British
Embassy in Paris! Here a post was found for him in Security and he had the
unenviable job of looking after the Duke of Windsor, HRH Princess Claude of
France, her brother the Compte de Paris (Pretender to
the French throne), various Generals, and finally the Queen Mother, to whom he
was presented. (PHOTO)
At
the end of his 29 years service he returned to Fontainebleau in 1972. He had
worked closely with Royal Air Force padres whilst welfare officer,
and religious activities now took up a lot of his time. Co-founder of the
Sunday School at the British church in Fontainebleau with Brigadier John HUNT,
the Everest conqueror, he became superintendent
on the Brigadier's retirement, and looks back on this as one of his most
satisfying achievements.
For
several years he was an accredited guide at the palace of the Emperor Napoleon
and an authority on Empire style furniture. He continued to be invited to
various functions at the British Embassy, and could often be seen in period
costume (PHOTO). One of his favourite tricks was to
emerge from the palace late at night and approach the guards who were unaware
that he was still there, and frighten the life out of them.
For
nearly twenty years we lost sight of him.
We now know that he spent many years in devoted attention to his wife
who suffered from a crippling disease which eventually took her life. However,
as a sprightly octogenarian, he is back. We have had two reunions at Fontainebleau
and he has taken an active part in organising the
French end of things. He is still the same old Charley, wanting to help
someone.
Last
year, aged 81, Charley was walking one afternoon in town. Suddenly in front of him
a woman at a bus stop was attacked by two muggers. Without even thinking he
went to her assistance and managed to apply a headlock on one of them. The secod, who by now had the woman's bag, turned on him and
punched him several times about the head and body. By
now people were arriving. The mugger with the bag ran off, someone called the
police, Charley, blood pouring from him, held on. The police arrived and
literally had to prize him from his arrest. "R.A.F. Police" he
muttered through bruised lips - "I learnt that grip 60 years ago; they
can't get out of it, you know." The two muggers were arrested and
sentenced to 23 months in prison. They were Rumanian refugees. Charley was
given a hero's write-up in the press.
In
his small flat he treasures his momentoes of his life
in the R.A.F. Police. He has only returned to England once in 58 years, and
that was as the representative of Camp Guynemer at
the funeral at R.A.F. Halton of Wing Co. Colin
COOPER., an officer whom Charley had helped at Fontainebleau.
He
is an unassuming man who sincerely believes he was only doing his job and
wonders why anybody would be interested in hearing about him. There are dozens
and dozens of people who have cause to remember you, Charley. If you are one of them, reading this now,
and you would like to send him a card, his address Mr
C. D. COLLYER, B.E.M., 97 Rue St. Merry, Fontainebleau, S.M.33700, France. It would give him
great pleasure and perhaps he would begin to believe that we all owe him a
great deal.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
This
story is available on the Internet ~ www. ........www.readerswrite.co.uk.......click on "War & the forces".....click on
"A Remarkable RAF Policeman.
