Meetings are held on the Second Wednesday of each monthat 7.30 pm in the Function Room at the

Conservative Club, Fairfield Road, Market Harborough.The Committee meets in the same room on the

Thursday preceding the Branch Meeting at 7.00 pm.

The Social & Fund-Raising Team Reports

Market Harborough Branch

TheRoyal

BritishLegion

In TouchIssue 127 April 2009

In Touchwww.in-touch.ukvet.net

THE MONTHLY

BRANCH OF THE

Founded 1996Editor:

George Seward01858 433873

18 Charles Street,Mkt. Harborough, LE16 9ABg.seward@uwclub.net

No part of In Touch may bereproduced without the

permission of the Committee

The date of the next Branch meeting isMay 13

13/14 Jun Gt Central Railway even, Quorn (see page 2)20 Jun RNA Wine & Cheese Party12 July Poppy Walk, London 8 Aug Newmarket Race Day17 Oct Coffee Morning Harborough Theatre

The Royal British LegionMarket Harborough Branch

Reg. Charity 219279

Hon. Secretary:Sara Whitley-Kinzett 01858 434476

Welfare:Vida Edwards 0116 279 3729Betty Ramsay 01858 434923Poppy Appeal Organiser:Dave Pryor 01858 545612

Standard BearerGeorge Fleming 01858 462711Social & Fund Raising Team:

Glenys Hocking-Davies 01858 467835Wendy Osborne 01858 467636

Les Moore 01858 463112Freda Carnell 077 422 987 68We meet in the bar at Noon

TuesdayMay 5

M E N U

Only £7Join us and enjoy good food in good company.

Reserve your place now with Wendy Osborne on01858 467636

SUPPORT YOUR BRANCH - GET INVOLVED

Grilled White FishSat on crushed new potatoes with

a white wine and dill sauce

Strips of Chickenheld in a mushroom, red wine and tarragon sauce

and served on a nest of mashed potatoes

Roast Lambwith rosemary gravy and roasted potatoes

All served with a medley of vegetables--------

Strawberry and Champagne Roulade

Fresh Fruit Salad with a mini jug of cream

Apple Crumble with creamy custard

The grave of 15-year old V J Strudwick inthe Tynecot Cemetery near Ypres.

(See pages 8 and 9.)

Ypres RBL Mark Hudsonreported on a visit to Ypres byfour Members to facilitate themutual interest between usand the Ypres RBL Branch.Mark had proposed to themthat their Members be madeHonorary Members of our

Branch and that they reciprocate. This proposal to bepresented to both Branches for agreement; therewere no objections registered from the floor.We gain most members A trophy awarded tothe Branch gaining the highest number of new Mem-bers in the County had been wrongly presented to aClub. The wrong has been put right and the trophyis now in our possession.Large Minutes Sara, the Secretary, will providelarge print copies of minutes and agenda if required.St John Investiture Brian Marshall, as CountyYouth Officer, and other Branch officers attended theinvestiture of fourteen new St John AmbulanceCadets. The opportunity was taken to present theRBL Affiliation pennant to their Standard Bearer.Branch Treasurer A volunteer for this post is stillbeing sought.Hospital Portico A letter from English Heritageconfirms that the Cottage Hospital Portico hadreceived a listing at Grade II from the Secretary ofState. Mark Hudson congratulated the Secretary onher intervention with English Heritage on this matter.Poppy Race Day Les Moore is arranging coachtransport and requests names of Members wishing totravel. It was agreed that the trip be extended toinclude the RNA and RAFA.Poppy Appeal Dave Pryor stated that the totalstood at £25,495 and he hoped to have added to thisby the end of the Poppy Appeal year in May.

Page 1 Page 8 Page 9

Some of the images captured byMark Hudson on the trip to the Ypres area

mentioned in Branch News on page 1.• Of the 35,000 names inscribed on the wall of theTynecot Cemetery (right), only 3100 of those killedin action are identified.• The trenches (below) are preserved as a memorialby the farmer who owns the land (the corrugatediron is to preserve the structure).• The standard bearers are among the regular visitorsto the Menin Gate - including our ATC Squadron.• Dave and brother Graham Pryor try the local brew.

When I was asked what I thought ofvoluntary work I said "I wouldn't do itif you paid me."

Page 6 Page 7 Page 2

The second part of the article in the series writtenexclusively for In Touch.

The Pencil Like ThrustBy

Lt Col Mike Morgan

It was actually an American ranger unit which foundthe three Kangaroos. The Americans were amazed

to find a little ‘Brit’ unit so far forward. They reportedback to battalion who reported to brigade etc. Wordsoon got back to Monty that a British unit had actuallyled the breakthrough. A unit of the 4th Shropshire’sby all account.

The Shropshire’s C.O was questioned – and wascompletely at a loss as to why three of his Kangaroos,under command of a 2nd Lieutenant that he had neverheard of were so far forward. Monty knew Britishpluck when he saw it, and immediately put the Battal-ion Commander up for promotion to brigadier. Histo-ry was then rewritten to ensure that the facts could notin any way undermine Monty’s place in history.

The official history of 11 Armoured Division readsas follows:

‘On the night of the 27th July 1944, thedivision was still recuperating following Oper-ation Goodwood. The 4th battalion the KingsShropshire Light Infantry detected signs of ene-my withdrawal in front of their positions. Hav-ing no armour available the Battalioncommander ordered an investigation by a troopof Kangaroos. This troop managed to penetratethrough the enemy lines and found little or noresistance. This pencil like thrust was ruthless-ly exploited by the battalion commander anddivisional staff. Reinforcements were quicklyordered forward from the remainder of thedivision. The Germans attempted to stem thisbreakthrough by pouring reinforcements in

from other sectors. By sending reinforcementsto the British sector the German forces weregreatly weakened in front of the American sec-tor, and American units managed to achieve asignificant break out’.

Monty, of course, claimed that this had been hisplan all along. To achieve a penetration, force theGermans to react and allow the American’s to breakout.

The CO of the 4th Shropshire’s found out later thatthe ‘pencil like thrust’ was some young idiot lost in thedark. Nobody bothered to ask why any sane CO wouldsend three kangaroos to ‘do a recce’, with no soldierson board into enemy territory at night.

However, regimental pride was at stake, so natural-ly Tim was congratulated on his ‘daring exploitation’,his, ‘seizing of the moment’, and his, ‘lack of regardfor his personal safety’, all phrases which found theirway into his citation for his Military Cross.

2nd Lt Tim De Marchebanke, MC, was killed aweek later. He was run over by a Kangaroo whilstasleep – although he had been warned many times tobe careful where he bivied down. War does indeedtend to weed out the weak in a very Darwinian fashion.

His mother, informed that he had been killed inaction, was of course, so proud that young Timmy hadfinally come good. His MC would stay in the familyfor generations. To think, her young Timmy hadactually created the ‘pencil like thrust’, which led tothe breakout in the west and the eventual defeat ofGermany. How sad she thought, that if only he hadlived who knows what he may have achieved with hislife.

The rest of humanity should only be grateful that LtTim De Marchebanke, MC, never had the chance tobreed. And, finally, it was, of course, just a dreadful coinci-dence that the driver of the Kangaroo which had acci-dentally ploughed Lt Tim De Marchebanke MC, into aNormandy field, one very dark night just a week later,was actually one of the very drivers who had taken partin ‘The Pencil Like Thrust’

BRANCH MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORYIt is with much regret that we record the passing ofRon Palmer, 6 Marlborough Way, Mkt Harborough

We welcome these new members:Johan Terlouw, Zwijndrecht. The Netherlands

Dennis Davison, 51 Cromwell Crescent, MarketHarborough LE16 9JN. 01858 446516John Black, 7 Gardiner Street, Market

Harborough LE16 9QN 01858 462116John Sayle, 34 Gaulby  Road, Billesdon,

Leicester LE7 9AF 0116 259 6723

Please note the following amendment:Keith Ryan has moved from Wilmscote to

1 Aldridge Close, Birchmoor, Tamworth B78 1AXPeter Chappells has moved from Dingley to

420 Cog Lane, Burnley BB11 5HT

I answered a knock at the door tobe confronted by a well-dressedyoung man carrying a vacuumcleaner."Good Morning" said the young

man, "If I could just take a couple of minutes of yourtime, I would like to demonstrate the very latest inhigh powered vacuum cleaners"."No thanks" I said. "I haven't got any money, I'mbroke." and proceeded to close the door.Quick as a flash, the young man wedged his foot inthe door and pushed it wide open."Don't be too hasty !" he said, "Not at least until youhave seen my demonstration."And with that he emptied a bucket of horse manureon to my hallway carpet."If this vacuum cleaner does not remove all traces ofthis horse manure from your carpet, I will personallyeat the remainder".I stepped back and said, "Well I hope you have a goodappetite, because they cut off my electricity thismorning".

Page 3 Page 4 Page 5

In July 2004 a meeting took place at The Royal BritishLegion Village to discuss the possibility of an ex-

services motorcycle club becoming an official branchof the RBL to promote its good causes within themotorcycle fraternity. Circumstances took over andthis idea was discarded but not forgotten. In lateAugust, Paul Pollard and Graham Barber decided toresurrect the idea and approached some of those whowere at the first meeting to forward the idea.

The Legion was contacted again with a clear wayahead and an informal meeting was set up in Novem-ber at RBL Cheltenham where the 14 original mem-bers met to discuss how to proceed and to form acommittee, 12 volunteered for the first Riders Com-mittee. It was at this meeting that we formally decidedon our name and an adapted set of Branch Byelaws.At the end of this informal meeting, the official inaugu-ral meeting took place and “The Riders” were officiallyformed.

2005 saw our first official events – an invite to rideinto the annual conference at Torquay and be intro-duced to all the delegates and of course our annualPoppy Run, where eleven Riders travelled to Germanyvisiting Paderborn, Sennelager, Herford and Celle onthe fund raising campaign raising £2150 for the PoppyAppeal. November 2005 saw our first AGM at RBLCheltenham with the Branch having grown to 160Riders.

In 2006 we were out and about again with moreevents, more rallies, whilst the Poppy Run took 23Riders to France and Belgium visiting CommonwealthGrave sites and laying a wreath at the poignant MeninGate ceremony in Ypres, raising £6000.

The 2006 AGM was held at the world renownedACE Café in London with the Riders joining in theirservice of Remembrance on the Sunday with ourbrand new standard on display for the first time andhaving recruited a further 204 members.

2007 was an amazing recruiting year with 421 newmembers to November, with more events, moreshows and participation in Legion in the Community,

In the March issue, Poppy Appeal Organiser DavePryor mentioned the RBL Riders Branch.

For those who were intrigued by this reference,here is the story of a unique - and very

successful - aspect of the Legion network.For further details and photographs, Members

are directed to the Riders web site :www . rb l r . c o . uk / con ten t

where we show our support to local Legion Branchesby turning up en-masse to help support their efforts.This year’s Poppy Run run saw some twenty Riderstravelling around the UK, along the west coast andreturning south via the east cost and visiting EdinburghCastle for a wreath laying ceremony, ending in classicstyle at the ACE Café. The AGM at Greenford RBLwas a great success with the evening festivities and aService of Remembrance once again being held at theACE Café.

2008 kicked off with a phenomenal interest in thebranch and in May, our 1000th member joined, aserving British Soldier. Our Poppy Appeal cheque of£10,000 was received by Hayley Westenra, on behalfof the RBL at Pall Mall in April and the branch carriedout its Annual Memorial Run in May to The NationalArboretum. 20 bikes and a trike escorted Hayley tothe Brits Classical Awards at The Royal Albert Hall toshow our appreciation whilst the 2nd National Rallyat Ratcliffe College was a great success at the begin-ning of June. Members in Weston-Super-Mare starteda weekly bike night on the seafront, which despite theweather raised over £6000 introducing the legion toa whole new generation of members. Our Poppy Runthis year took in the Seven Legion Care Homes acrossthe country bringing some light entertainment to theirresidents. The AGM took place at Oldbury RBL withus parading alongside their members on the Sundayfollowed very quickly by our attendance at the NECMotorcycle Show, which was a resounding success.

The Riders Branch is open to anyone who has aninterest in motorcycles and we welcome all newmembers who wish to support the Legion's work inour way. The Branch membership now stands at over1600 and is growing all the time.

Our aims are the same today as they were then,“to raise awareness of the RBL and how it can helpthose serving/ex-serving who are in need of help, toraise money for the Poppy Appeal and to have fun,”and as we have since discovered these last two idealsare mutually compatible.Motorcyclist Mecca, the Ace Cafe in west London.

We are brought together by ourenthusiasm for motorcycling, and

our willingness to support theaims and charitable efforts of

The Royal British Legion.“ “