Bravery until battle became hopeless
One of the Argylls’many heroes in the fighting around St Valery 75 years ago was Lieutenant Robert Powell.
He was awarded the Military Cross while commanding a section of a platoon of carriers (small, armed troop vehicles) but was captured by the Germans and remained a POW for almost five years.
Born in Chester in 1911, Lt Powell graduated from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and moved to Central Scotland to take up a post with Coats-Paton in Alloa, where he became general manager of the textile plant.
In the spring of 1939 he joined 7th Battalion, A&SH, and was with the battalion when they left for France as part of the expeditionary force in early 1940.
His daughter Margaret Rodgers has been trying to piece together the story of his war service and was helped by the A&SH Museum at Stirling Castle.
She learned from curator Rod McKenzie that Lt Powell’s section took up a position at MonsBoubert on June 5, engaging the enemy at 200 yards and inflicting many casualties.
The section then moved to meet a new threat on the right flank and beat off a German attack before they were driven back by anti-tank guns.
They joined the two remaining platoons of C Company in Mons-Boubert. After heavy fighting the Germans broke into the village and C Company was reduced to a small ring of troops defending their headquarters.
Lt Powell was among many Argylls who demonstrated exceptional bravery during the fighting. He received the Military Cross when he went to the aid of a carrier platoon which was being heavily attacked.
The citation reads:“Robert Powell was ordered by his commanding officer to take three carriers to assist. Powell went himself and through his handling of the situation, his power of command and complete disregard for enemy bullets, etc, brought the carriers into action which enabled the front to hold for some time longer.”
However, the enemy prevailed and Lt Powell and what was left of his carrier platoon were among those to lay down their arms. He was captured on June 5, 1940, and was held in prison camps in Germany and Poland before being released on April 29, 1945.
However, his liberation almost did not happen. Just days earlier he was among a group of British POWs attacked by an American fighter aircraft as they were being marched from Camp Oflag VIIb, at Eichstätt in Bavaria. The flyer thought the POWs were enemy troops but his attack killed 14 British officers and wounded a further 46 .
After the war Lt Powell returned to Scotland and married Minette, from Edinburgh, in 1951. They settled in Randolph Terrace, Stirling, and later Bridge of Allan. He continued to work at Coats-Paton and he and his wife had two children: Margaret and Andrew. Lt Powell died in 1969 after suffering a heart attack while skiing in the Cairngorms.
Margaret has travelled to Cambridge and over to Germany to find out more about her father’s wartime exploits.
She said:“Everyone thinks that the British troops all got away at Dunkirk but that was not the case. Seventy-five years ago my dad and many others were still over there and fighting for their lives.
“My dad never really talked about what happened. He hated thin soup and watery gravy and I think that was because of the diet they lived on in the POW camps.“
She added:“There is such a bond between the Argylls and Stirling and so many Argylls were killed at St Valery and thereabouts in the aftermath of Dunkirk. We have got to remember the Argylls and what they did.”
We have got to remember the Argylls and what they did