Fred Simpson was a farm worker and was recruited with two other men from his Home Guard unit, joining up with men from other Home Guard units to form the Patrol. He was initially a Corporal before being promoted to Sergeant.
| Unit or location | Role | Posted from | until |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creech Patrol | Patrol Leader | 15 Jun 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| D Day Dorset Guard Duties | Patrol Leader | 05 Jun 1944 | 13 Jun 1944 |
Farm worker
Promoted to Corporal 19 Jul 1941 Battalion Headquarters, Wareham Home Guard (At one stage Auxiliary Units were all posted to the local Home Guard headquarters to mask their absence from local platoons).
Fred was one of those chosen to guard vital locations from D Day. He recalled that they were ordered to meet at Wareham. The men were then taken in trucks to Knitson farm. They moved to the hilltop where they set up tents and camouflage nets were put over everything.
They set up tripwires and booby traps during the day, leaving all the pins in. They removed at 11pm when they took over from the RAF Regiment. They lay still on the cold ground watching for any possible saboteurs. Every hour they crawled clockwise around the perimeter to the next position. They had orders to shoot to kill anyone seen crawling towards the site. From their high vantage point they could see flares and hear gunfire across the Channel. Two hospital ships illuminated and showing their large Red Cross marking sailed into Poole harbour, giving an indication of likely casualties. His 3 hour duty finished at 2am when other Auxiliers relieved him.
Promoted to Corporal 19 Jul 1941 Battalion Headquarters, Wareham Home Guard (At one stage Auxiliary Units were all posted to the local Home Guard headquarters to mask their absence from local platoons).
Pete Norton knew Fred well when he was the policeman at Studland and Fred farmed on Rempstone Heath. He told us the following story.
"At some point in the 1980's or early 90's he asked me to call on him to discuss something that was causing him some concern. He took me into one of his sheds and uncovered an old ammunition box which still contained many of the items he'd been issued with during the war, including explosives.
He would only tell me enough to satisfy me as to how he came to be in possession of it all as he felt that he was still subject to the Official Secrets Act and, at that time, nobody knew about these units. Even then he would only give me a very vague idea of where his bunker was located but admitted to using some of the detonators to frighten the deer which plagued his farm!
As you may know, Studland was used as a live firing area during rehearsals for D Day and the heath was still littered with un-exploded munitions. The Polish clearance units used to visit periodically and they happened to be in the area at the time so I contacted them and they took Fred's box away.
All this was done without putting pen to paper, for which Fred was very grateful!"
WO199/3390
Dorset Home Guard Records
1939 Register
Hancock data held at B.R.A