CART Auxiliary Unit Research

County Group

Locality

The village of Brancaster lies 3 miles east of Burnham Market on the north coast of Norfolk. All the Auxiliers worked at Field House Farm which was managed by Group Commander Lieutenant Gerald Rutherford

Patrol members

Name	Occupation	Posted from	Until
Sergeant Bertie Cecil Griffin	Handyman & land worker	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Sergeant Francis Edward Thornton Robinson	Lorry driver	Unknown	Unknown
Corporal Henry Robert Amies Payne	Tractor driver & farm labourer	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Private William Robert Dix	Labourer	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Private William Palmer	Gamekeeper & vermin killer	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Private John Thomas Payne	General labourer	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Private David Lennie Raven	Kennel boy then tractor driver	Unknown	03 Dec 1944
Private Denis Joscelyne Sparke	Student at Veterinary College	Unknown	03 Dec 1944

Operational Base (OB)

The farmer at Field House Farm informed us that he knows every inch of his land intimately and that he has never come across anything that would indicate an underground bunker or where one might have been in the past.

An aerial photograph taken in 1946 shows that there were no nearby woodlands where an OB could have been hidden.

Considering that all Patrol members worked on the farm, which stands isolated several kilometres to the south of the coastal village of Brancaster, it is plausible to conclude that in all likelihood the Patrol used the farm (or a building on the farm) as their hideout, as has already been documented from Ashill and Kirby Bedon Patrols, where all the Patrol members were also working on the same farm.

Patrol & OB pictures

Brancaster Patrol L-R; Sgt Francis Robinson, Sgt Bertie Griffin, David Raven, Lt G Rutterford, William Palmer and one of the Payne brothers.

OB Status

Location not known

Location

Brancaster Patrol

Patrol Targets

A most likely nearby target would have been Docking Aerodrome.

References

TNA ref WO199/3389

Hancock data held at B.R.A

Evelyn Simak and Adrian Pye

British Resistance Organisation Museum - Parham kindly supplied the photograph;

Mr Thompson, Brancaster;

John Hare, Brancaster