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Preston John Hurman (26 January 1915 – 12 November 2005) was an Army major during World War II, playing roles in Operation Nicety and the Siege of Tobruk, among other battles during WWII. Later, he was a businessman and estate agent in Woking, Surrey. [1] [2] [3]
Major Preston John Hurman | |
---|---|
Born | Pimlico, London, England | 26 January 1915
Died | 12 November 2005 90) Hindhead, West Surrey, England | (aged
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | British Army |
Rank | Major |
Other work | Estate Agent |
Preston John Hurman was born at 36 Westbourne Street, Pimlico, the third son of William Hurman, Foreman at London Electricity Board, Westminster and Alice Henrietta Purkiss. Alice, the daughter of Preston Henry Purkiss, died of Peritonitis two months later.
Young Preston was sent off in 1917 to Barnado's in Brighton until the age of 11. He rejoined the family home in Wandsworth from 1926. From the age of 14 he began work as a factory worker then delivery driver. At age 17, he left home and rented a flat in Kensington where he worked in sales for McHughes Silk Stocking Company and later as Sales Manager at Banham Security. [4] [5] [6]
At McHughes, Hurman met Prince Emanuel Galitzine, the younger son of Prince Vladimir Galitzine, and by 1934 aged 20 was invited to live with the Galitzine family in Croxted Road. He was treated as an adopted son to Princess Ekaterina Galitzine.[ citation needed ]
He joined the young Galitzines on trips to the South of France, where they stayed with their parents' friend, American-born Betty Buzzard, at Manoir de l'Etang in Mougins. In 1939, as war broke out he rushed back from another trip to Mougins with other friends to join up. [7] [8]
He joined the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC). He was soon selected for a commission and before the Officer training began an unusual opportunity came along, as an inveterate volunteer his old friends, the Galitzines (who knew Mannerheim very well), persuaded him to go to help Finland during The Winter War in her valiant fight against Russia. The volunteer contingent was led by Kermit Roosevelt. Picture Post magazine dated 16th March 1940, pp. 42-43 shows photos and brief write-ups on George Ford, Pat McGee, John Hurman, Kermit Roosevelt, Peter Farragut, Harry Connolly, Peter Broad and Edward Graham (travelling under a pseudonym for prince Emmanuel Galitzine)– but Finland had capitulated before Hurman could be released from the army. [9] [10]
After being commissioned from the ranks in, [11] he was posted to Eaton Hall near Farrigdon, Oxfordshire. Where he soon voluteered for a posting to North Africa with the Eight Army. His unit was 345 Lines osf Communications Company RASC. He had a narrow escape during the retreat from general Rommel's fast advancing forces. He met General Neame, General O'Connor Brigadier Combe and Lieutenant Lord Ranfurly at a Y Junction. They were going to take the mountainous but shorter route bypassing Derna. His heavily loaded vehicles needed to take the longer coastal route. An advancing enemy patrol captured the Generals - the story is recounted in "To War with Whitaker" by Lady Ranfurly. [12]
In 1941, reaching the new front line safely Hurman found himself under siege at Tobruk. Hurman is mentioned three times in the book The Longest Siege by Robert Lyman. He discusses life under siege and the continuous bombing. After six months under siege he was evacuated to Palestine for recuperation, having lost over 2 stone in weight. He soon returned to take part in the Relief of Tobruk operation with the 7th Armoured Division (The Desert Rats). [13] [14]
In 1942, he was posted to The Sudan Defence Force in Wadi Halfa, where he soon volunteered to work with the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and the newly formed Special Air Service (SAS), at Kufra Commanding a company of SDF. During this period He met and worked with David Sterling, Paddy Mayne, Popski, Fitzroy Maclean amongst others. Hurman was Mentioned in Dispatches for his efforts during Operation Nicety the Raid on Jalo. [15] [16]
In 1943, he was posted to 30 Corp's 231 Malta Brigade as the Brigade RASC officer (BRASCO) for their preparations and participation during the Allied Invasion of Sicily known as Operation Husky. He took part in the Amphibious assault landing on Amber beach at Marzamemi and retaking of Sicily during which, he took part in a counterattack against German Assault Engineers on the Regalbuto Ridge. During the early landings near Pizzo in Italy, he had a close escape when a German artillery strike hit an ammunition dump that he was walking towards, the resulting explosion blew him back down the road and caused some mild concussion. The book Malta Strikes back details the hard work carried out by 346 Company RASC commanded by Captain Hurman and congratulates him for his skilful planning, the risks he took to ensure the whole Brigade were always supplied with food and ammunition throughout the Sicilian Campaign. A full and detailed account of 231 Malta Brigade's part in this campaign called "Roys Boys", named after the Brigade Commander Roy Urquart using personal diaries and photographs has recently been published by Christopher Jary and Hurman is mentioned 14 times. [17] [18] [19]
In 1944, Hurman was promoted to major as officer commanding 536 DUKW company RASC. The photograph shows him on a visit to Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, a relation of Ekaterina Galitzine, in May 1944. On the 6th June He landed on the eastern edge of Gold Beach in Normandy on D-Day at 0730 hrs. 536 Company carried out over the beach logistical transhipments. On D+2 he was injured in a mine explosion. [20] He was evacuated to UK, and nine weeks later he returned to re-join his company to take part in crossing the Seine, the advance to Holland with 30 Corps and 1st Canadian Corps taking part in Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Nijmegen salient (see photo of his DUKW's operating), and on Operation Turnscrew within Operation Plunder the Rhine Crossing. He recalled: [21] [22] extra DUKWs and drivers had been brought up for the crossing, so I had two hundred DUKWs and a thousand men under command. All our big guns were firing all around us and, of course, German shells landed in response. It was a noisy night. I did the first crossing; it was painfully slow as you only had four knots in a DUKW and you were a very easy target. Luckily the current wasn’t as fast as the Rhine at Nijmegen - where you had to land further down from where you started and risked getting stuck in the mud if there wasn't a suitable ramp. Here at Till it had been a regular ferry crossing so we were able to go almost straight across. A sniper (who we eventually pinpointed high up in the bucket of a crane) killed the poor chap who followed me. The sniper was shot to bits by a round from a twenty-five-pounder – a brilliant shot. [23]
On cessation of hostilities he was tasked as "Town Major" of Seelze west of Hannover during the recovery and restitution of Germany. He was then posted back to the UK and Demobilised at Stoughton Barracks, Guildford. In 1946, he married Kathleen Macleod (1928–2013). Prince Nicholas Galitzine was his best man. His wedding certificates shows Mrs Elizabeth Buzzard of Cannes as his adopted mother as Princess Ekaterina Galitzine had been killed during a German bombing raid in 1940. [24] [25]
Soon after the war he established Preston & Co Estate Agents in Woking and worked there until retirement in 1980 and sold the business. He was involved with much post war development in the Woking area. [26] [27] [28]
Prior to retirement Hurman had established a strong interest in French 19th-century bronze Animalier sculpture. He was so well known at the London Auction Houses that when Christopher Payne of Sotheby's took over the Bronze department that Hurman and his wife Kate were introduced to him and helped him write a book on the subject called "Animals in Bronze". Payne writes; Very special thanks are due to John Hurman, without whose tuition I would never have mastered the world of Animal Bronzes and whose encouragement, together with his wife Kate, gave me the essential impetus to write this book. The book was published in 1986. He lived his final years in Haslemere, and for his 90th birthday January 2005 his younger son Jim organised a family lunch trip in a WW2 Amphibious DUKW. They were driven to the Wheatsheaf Pub in Grayswood; the event was published in The Haslemere Herald. Hurman died on 12 November 2005 in the Hindhead Nursing Home aged 90. [29] [30] [31]
The town of Haslemere and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south west Surrey, England, around 38 mi (62 km) south west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill, they comprise the civil parish of Haslemere in the Borough of Waverley. The tripoint between the counties of Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex is at the west end of Shottermill.
Operation Sonnenblume was the name given to the dispatch of German and Italian troops to North Africa in February 1941, during the Second World War. The Italian 10th Army had been destroyed by the British, Commonwealth, Empire and Allied Western Desert Force attacks during Operation Compass (9 December 1940 – 9 February 1941). The first units of the new Deutsches Afrikakorps (DAK), commanded by Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel, departed Naples for Africa and arrived on 11 February 1941. On 14 February, advanced units of the 5th Light Afrika Division, Aufklärungsbataillon 3 and Panzerjägerabteilung 39 arrived at the Libyan port of Tripoli and were sent immediately to the front line east of Sirte.
Tobruk or Tobruck is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District and has a population of 120,000.
Operation Crusader was a military operation of the Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War by the British Eighth Army against the Axis forces in North Africa commanded by Generalleutnant (Lieutenant-General) Erwin Rommel. The operation was intended to bypass Axis defences on the Egyptian–Libyan frontier, defeat the Axis armoured forces near Tobruk, raise the Siege of Tobruk and re-occupy Cyrenaica.
The Siege of Tobruk (tuh-bruk) took place between 10 April and 27 November 1941, when elements of the Allied Army were trapped and besieged in the North African port of Tobruk by German and Italian forces. The defenders quickly became known as The Rats of Tobruk.
The Western Desert campaign took place in the deserts of Egypt and Libya and was the main theatre in the North African campaign of the Second World War. Military operations began in June 1940 with the Italian declaration of war and the Italian invasion of Egypt from Libya in September. Operation Compass, a five-day raid by the British in December 1940, was so successful that it led to the destruction of the Italian 10th Army over the following two months. Benito Mussolini sought help from Adolf Hitler, who sent a small German force to Tripoli under Directive 22. The Afrika Korps was formally under Italian command, as Italy was the main Axis power in the Mediterranean and North Africa.
The Battle of Gazala was fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942. Axis troops of the Panzerarmee Afrika consisting of German and Italian units fought the British Eighth Army composed mainly of British Commonwealth, Indian and Free French troops.
The Terrapin was a British-manufactured amphibious transport vehicle of the Second World War. It was first used in 1944 at Antwerp during the Battle of the Scheldt.
The 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division was an infantry division of Britain's Territorial Army (TA). The division was first formed in 1908, as the Wessex Division. During the First World War, it was broken-up and never served as a complete formation. It was reformed in the TA in 1920, and then served in the campaign in North West Europe from June 1944 until May 1945, during the Second World War. The division suffered heavy casualties and gained an excellent reputation. After the Second World War, the division formed part of the postwar TA, and became the 43rd (Wessex) Division/District in 1961. It was finally disbanded in 1967.
The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Army line infantry order of precedence.
The 70th Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army that fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. What would become the 70th Division originated with the 7th Infantry Division, which was formed in 1938 to serve in the British Mandate of Palestine during the Arab Revolt. This division then transferred to Egypt on the outbreak of the Second World War and soon became the 6th Infantry Division, which went on to take part in the Battle of Crete and the Syria–Lebanon Campaign. On 10 October 1941, the 6th Division was re-created as the 70th Infantry Division, in an attempt to deceive Axis intelligence concerning the strength of British forces in the Middle East.
The 33rd Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the British Army that saw active service in the First World War and home service during the Second World War.
The Rats of Tobruk were soldiers of the Australian-led Allied garrison that held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Afrika Corps, during the Siege of Tobruk in World War II. The siege started on 11 April 1941 and was relieved on 10 December. The port continued to be held by the Allies until its surrender on 21 June 1942.
The Eighth Army was a field army of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed as the Western Army on 10 September 1941, in Egypt, before being renamed the Army of the Nile and then the Eighth Army on 26 September. It was created the better to control the growing Allied forces based in Egypt and to direct their efforts to lift the siege of Tobruk via Operation Crusader.
Operation Nicety was an operation in September 1942 during the Second World War by Force Z a battalion of the Sudan Defence Force. It was designed to support the raiding forces taking part in Operation Agreement, Operation Caravan and Operation Bigamy. The objective of the operation was the seizure of the Jalo oasis in the Libyan desert to support the withdrawal of the forces involved in the other operations. The operation was a failure: the Germans had discovered the plans for all four operations on the body of a dead officer taking part in Operation Agreement. Forewarned, the Italian garrison at Jalo had been warned and reinforced which easily repelled the attack on the night 15–16 September.
Major-General Arundell Rea Leakey, was an officer in the British Army. He served in the Royal Tank Regiment in the Second World War, in North Africa, Italy and France. He later served in Korea, in the Arab Legion, and commanded a brigade in the British Army of the Rhine in the 1960s. He served as Director-General of Fighting Vehicles and finally as the commander of British troops in Malta and Libya. He retired in 1966, and became Director of the Wolfson Foundation. An autobiography, Leakey's Luck, was published in 1999.
Malta Command was an independent command of the British Army. It commanded all army units involved in the defence of Malta. Once mobilised the Command deployed its headquarters to underground hardened shelters and its combat units were deployed to fixed points in the Maltese countryside, from where they operated. This mobilised, but largely static, army garrison would be tested by aerial bombardment and naval blockade during the Second World War. Whilst Malta Command was already a functioning command structure before 1939, the Second World War would see the Command operate as a genuine war-fighting headquarters, albeit in a static defensive role.
British logistics played a key role in the success of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France in June 1944. The objective of the campaign was to secure a lodgement on the mainland of Europe for further operations. The Allies had to land sufficient forces to overcome the initial opposition and build them up faster than the Germans could respond. Planning for this operation had begun in 1942. The Anglo-Canadian force, the 21st Army Group, consisted of the British Second Army and Canadian First Army. Between them, they had six armoured divisions, ten infantry divisions, two airborne divisions, nine independent armoured brigades and two commando brigades. Logistical units included six supply unit headquarters, 25 Base Supply Depots (BSDs), 83 Detail Issue Depots (DIDs), 25 field bakeries, 14 field butcheries and 18 port detachments. The army group was supported over the beaches and through the Mulberry artificial port specially constructed for the purpose.
4th Anti-Aircraft Brigade was an air defence formation of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed just before the Battle of France to protect the British Expeditionary Force's bases. After the Dunkirk evacuation it was reformed in Egypt as a mobile formation with the Western Desert Force. It played a distinguished part in the Defence of Tobruk in 1941, but its headquarters was captured in the Fall of Tobruk the following year. It was reconstituted as a training formation in Persia and Iraq Command for the rest of the war.
The Axis capture of Tobruk, also known as the Fall of Tobruk and the Second Battle of Tobruk was part of the Western Desert campaign in Libya during the Second World War. The battle was fought by the Panzerarmee Afrika, a German–Italian military force in north Africa which included the Afrika Korps, against the British Eighth Army which comprised contingents from Britain, India, South Africa and other Allied nations.