Hugh Maines & Ted Jones MM RWF - First Ever Raid - Op Collar

Just for interest:

Whilst looking into the service of Ted Jones MM, I stumbled across the Commando Forum and one member…Andy Maines. It turns out his late father Hugh Maines from 9RWF served alongside Ted Jones MM in the first ever "Commando Style" raid on the 24/25 June 1940 undertaken by 11 Ind Company codenamed: Operation Collar. The war diary leading up to the raid is produced below. They had about 10 days to prepare. We think that Ted and Hugh may have been in the same boat, a group of four borrowed RAF S+R Boats that raided the French Coast that night. Ted recounts a firefight on his objective, as does the late Hugh. Out of the four locations, only one group opened fire. Another group killed two sentries, but used bayonets!!!

Attachment 3461


When Forum member Drew, kindly produced the nominal role, Hughes name was directly under Teds…What a coincidence.

Attachment 3460

Anyway, Andy has a picture of his Dad, during another later raid by No1 Commando in 1941 on the French Coast codenamed Op Deepcut. Hugh is the bareheaded young man midway along the boat looking up. Some of the other guys pictured are also RWF. The man named O'Shea, is possibly 70 AT Regiment RWF from Holywell.

Attachment 3463



After OP Collar, Ted moved to the 2nd Battalion and took part in the invasion of Madagascar in 1942, he then spent a further two years fighting the Japs in Burma.

Meanwhile Hugh stayed within the commando fraternity. However at the end of the war he returned to the RWF. On the RWF Forum we have a living link with Hugh…Brian Donovan(Jungle1810). Hugh and Brian served together in Malaya with the 2nd Bn. Hugh was firstly CSM Support Company, later moving to do the same job with B Coy. Meanwhile Don was a Platoon Sgt with D Company. Hugh eventually left the army in 1963, so i'm sure a few others, who were children in the bn may remember him. Hopefully Andy is going to provide us with some of his Dad's RWF pictures.

I'm meeting Ted next Saturday and will ensure he gets sight of the nominal roll and the above picture


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Hello Al,
I remember C S M Haines. Our paths could well have crossed in the 1954 Sgt's mess ball in the Chinese school. During our time in Malaya the companies were split up on different locations. it is nice to see former members of the 2nd on the forum. During my time in Malaya my subaltern was shot (not fatally) and the battalion were short of junior ranking officers. After doing a follow up looking for the C T 's who shot my subaltern I was asked to take command of platoon for admin and jungle patrols. I believe 3 other Sgt's filled the same role in other companies.This was a most interesting time as well as being a learning curve. Thanks for the touch of Deja Vu Al.
regards as ever R B D

Hi Everyone
Really great to be posting a message on this forum regarding my father Hugh Maines, I have been a member of the Commando Veterans Association (CVA) for approx 7 years and wish that I had found this site earlier!
Thanks to the previous message posted by RBD (and Al) who remembered my father, sadly he died back in 1978 at the age of 56 I was only 17 at the time. I have got quite a few photos of my father's time with the RWF, so when I scan and upload them on to this site you may be able to put some names to faces, you may even be in one of them!
As previously stated my father Hugh initially joined the RWF in Dec 1939, and like so many young men at the time lied about his age stating that he was born in 1916 when his actual DOB was 1922. He then volunteered for 9 independent company, 11 Ind Cmp, No1 Special Service Battalion. The Special Service Battalions were quickly found to be too large and unwieldy and were reformed in to the Army Commandos, my father with many other men from the RWF were posted to No1 Commando. In fact due to the large Welsh presence No1 was often unofficially referred to as the Welsh Commando, each Commando volunteer was actually on long term loan from their parent regiments. Apart from raiding the French coast No1 Commando were, along with No6, seconded to the American Army to take part in Operation Torch (The USA's invasion of N.Africa). When they returned to England at the end of this tour there were approx. 95 men left from an original contingent of nearly 600. After being brought back up to strength they were posted to Burma for the remainder of the war.
My father reenlisted with RWF after the war when the Army Commandos were disbanded and stayed with them until he retired in 1963. My brother was born in Malaya in 1956 and I came along in 1960 during my father's last posting which was Singapore, I have got quite a few photos of my father's time with the RWF and would love to post them on this site if any would like to see them. I have also got a detailed list of requirements that my father put together for the children's 1962 Christmas party that he had to organise.
I would be very grateful if any one could advise me on the max file size of the photos so that I can scan them at the correct resolution to enable me to upload them on to the site.

Cheers Andy

Welcome to the Forum, Andy!

If you scan your photos to a max size of 1500x2100 pixels you can't go far wrong.

John

Not wishing to keep you all waiting...I copied the Op Collar file for you all this w/end. I'll post it up in the next day or so for you.

Cheers
Andy

WO 106/1740 Operation Collar

WO 106/1740 Operation Collar
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Brilliant. Many Thanks Drew.

Very interesting to see this story unfold here on the Royal Welch forum, great stuff and thanks to all involved.