Westwell Leacon village is 4.5 miles north-east of Ashford.
| Name | Occupation | Posted from | Until |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sergeant George Herbert Mann | Chauffeur |
18 Jan 1942 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Norman James Batt | Farmer |
29 Jun 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Sydney Berry | Kennel huntsman then Publican |
11 Jul 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Raymond Cecil Brown | Gardener |
07 Jun 1942 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Charles Goodchild | Stud groom |
Unknown | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Stanley Nelson Hayward | Farm worker |
29 Jun 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Albert John Lockwood | Gamekeeper |
02 Sep 1940 | 03 Dec 1944 |
| Private Charles Frederick Underwood | Gamekeeper |
02 Mar 1941 | 03 Dec 1944 |
The Patrol’s OB was at Leacon Farm, Westwell Leacon. The farm belonged to Lieutenant Chester-Beatty. Jim Boyd was the tenant farmer but not a member of the Patrol. A Nissen hut structure 15 foot by 7 foot was rolled into an old sand pit and buried. Farmyard rubbish and scrap metal was then spread around to disguise it.
Auxilier Stan Hayward: “A manhole cover with a very heavy tin bath nailed to it was the entrance. This would have been nigh on impossible for an inquisitive German to move. However, it was perfectly counterbalanced and if you knew where to push it would rise up. The escape tunnel led through a barrel covered with netting woven with foliage."
The OB was destroyed by the army at the end of the war and the site where it was has now been filled in, no signs of it are left.
Westwell Leacon Patrol
Auxilier Stan Hayward recalled: “We trained at The Garth and at Coleshill (twice). I remember one chap, not from our Patrol, who got caught up while crawling under barbed wire. He put his hand up and promptly got shot through it. We were using live ammunition. The commander at The Garth was McNicholl from the London Scottish.
There was also a Corporal who got badly injured when a home-made mortar blew up. We put a grenade down a steel tube but it blew up in the tube. The standard unit charge was three sticks of gelignite taped to one stick of PE. We practised on trees using blue fuse, orange fuse and cordite to learn the various timings. The gelignite gave you terrible headaches.
We once held an exercise in Kings Wood where we had to locate another group’s OB [Molash] We used to sticks to detect trip wires. We found the entrance, under a tree stump, after smelling the wood smoke from their stove.
During an invasion we were to wear our uniform in case of capture but we were not to confront the Germans. It was more than likely we would have been killed than captured. If you were wounded you were to be left behind to cause the enemy as much annoyance as possible with grenades or PE. Any reprisals would have hardened our resolve, efficiency, capability and ruthlessness.”
Whilst training in Westwell Stan Haywood and Norman Batt were crawling across a field to place unit charges under a tree stump. Stan commented that they would both be killed if the charges accidently went off whilst they were crawling. Batt said to him "Don’t worry lad it would all be over in a flash!!!"
Whilst at The Garth, Stan remembered McNicholl telling them about an anti personnel device. It involved hanging a sweet jar at head height from a tree and filling it with scrap metal and a unit charge and connecting it to a trip switch. He told them that if it was going to be necessary to go after troops then it would be better to injure three rather than kill one as this would pull more men away from fighting to rescue the injured men.
Stan Hayward recalled: “The Patrol had a selection of .38 Colt revolvers, .32 Smith & Wesson long-barrelled revolvers, .303 Lee Enfield rifles, short-barrelled Colt. 45s, Thompson sub machine guns with all the bits (drum and straight magazines) in a green box and a .22 scoped rifle. My favourite weapon was the cheese wire, although the average Englishman was not conditioned to fight that way."
One day when the men were at the OB Lieutenant Chester-Beatty told them to open one of the boxes given to them by The Garth that had explosives in because he wanted to make sure it wasn’t just full of sand! He was proved wrong.
Chester-Beatty took the men to a local sandpit to practice firing pistols. He gave each man five rounds to shoot a target with. When it came to Stan's go his first shot went straight through the bullseye and the others went everywhere but the target. Chester-Beatty turned to Stan and said "Well Stanley where did all your bullets go?" Batt then replied "Well Sir the other four went straight through the same hole the first made!" Chester-Beatty then said "I wish I could believe that!"
TNA ref WO199/3391 and WO199/3390
Hancock data held at B.R.A
Phil Evans
Adrian Westwood and his interview with Stan Hayward and Roland Batt