SHORT EARED OWL (ASIO FLAMMEUS)

We usually think of owls as hunters of the night, and this is certainly true of most members of the family. However, there are exceptions and the short-eared owl is one. It prefers to hunt its prey – predominantly voles, but also other small mammals – in daylight.

The plumage of this bird is heavily streaked in pale yellow-brown or buff-white, and may look almost white in some lights. There are distinct black patches around the yellow eyes, giving it rather a fierce expression. The wings are long. As it quarters its hunting territory, the flight is graceful and buoyant, interrupted by short glides and pauses. It is a bird of the upland moors of the north and west, where its nest is a scrape on the ground. However, in winter, it migrates south, and may be seen anywhere in marshy areas, such as on the coasts or low lying wet areas inland (Otmoor, to the east of Oxford is a good place to look for it). Our native birds are sometimes joined by continental owls seeking a milder winter climate.

  Text: George Metcalfe

Photographs: John Sheppard

410 feet high wind turbine of the type proposed for the Helmdon Stuchbury Greatworth scheme

A government planning inspector has been appointed to consider the appeal by Broadview Energy Limited against South Northants Council’s refusal of planning permission for the erection of five 125m (410 feet) high wind turbines between Helmdon and Greatworth and very close to houses at Stuchbury. The inquiry will commence on Tuesday 15^th May at a venue yet to be announced and is expected to last for at least 8 days.

Whilst there is an intervening ridge in the 2000 metres between Sulgrave and the wind farm, the turbines are so high and the relative ground level differences so small that they would appear to completely dominate the horizon above the village when viewed from the north. This impact can be seen in this photo montage prepared from photographs taken from a viewpoint near to the old windmill on the footpath to Culworth.

A representation of how the turbines would appear from the Old Windmill, Sulgrave. "A" marks the top of the already erected meteorological mast and "B" the location of a blimp flown at turbine height.

Similarly, the impact on the eastern half of the village which is the setting for Sulgrave Manor would be as shown on this montage prepared from photos taken on the footpath to Barrow Hill:

A representation of how the turbines would appear from the Barrow Hill foopath. "X" indicates the top of the already erected meteorological mast and "M" the location of Sulgrave Manor.

The proposed location for each of the five turbines is shown on this map:

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced by kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

The inquiry is basically a forum in which South Northants Council will defend its decision to refuse planning permission in the face of Broadview Energy’s contention that there are no valid reasons for such a refusal. Local groups such as the Helmdon, Stuchbury and Greatworth Windfarm Action Group will be allowed to appear, as will affected individuals.

The procedure is similar to a court case, with advocates for each side taking witnesses through their evidence, followed by cross-examination and re-examination, with an Inspector in the place of a judge. At the end of the hearing of evidence, the Inspector will visit all of the sites referred to during the inquiry, in the presence of both sides. He or she will then retire to consider the evidence and conclude whether to allow or dismiss the appeal. This verdict is expected on or about the 13^th July.

The decision will be final and the only recourse of those aggrieved by it would be an appeal to the High Court on a point of law.

It is customary for the venue to be as close as possible to the site of the proposal so that affected parties can conveniently attend. It is important that those who oppose this hugely significant change in the character of the local countryside should attend as frequently as possible but particularly on the opening day. Whilst the Inspector is basically concerned with the collection of factual evidence, the presence of large numbers of concerned local people will not go unnoticed.

Villagers will recall that Sulgrave Parish Council unanimously objected to this proposal – see here for the reasons – and Chairman Graham Roberts appeared at the Council’s Committee Meeting to make the case on behalf of the village.

See here for South Northants Council’s reasons for refusing the application.

The Helmdon Stuchbury and Greatworth Windfarm Action Group campaigned vigorously against this proposal, with the support of the overwhelming majority of the residents of the affected villages. The group is currently in close contact with South Northants Council to determine the best courses of action to ensure that the necessary vital evidence is presented to the Inspector. See here for details on the Group’s website.

BLUE TIT (Parus caeruleus)

The blue tit is one of the best loved of our garden birds. It is also one of the commonest – the RSPB’s annual Garden Birdwatch records its presence in almost 100% of our gardens; the countryside population is estimated at almost 3.5 million pairs. It can easily be distinguished from the other members of the family by its bright blue crown – the great tit and the coal tit, for example, have black crowns. All three, as well as the unrelated long-tailed tit, are regular frequenters of our bird-food stations. The blue tit’s usual preferred food is insects, caterpillars and so on, but during the winter months it relies on seeds and the peanuts and other items which we offer.

In earlier days, when doorstep milk deliveries were much commoner than now, the blue tit quickly learned to pierce or remove the bottle-tops and to drink the cream (the current general preference for semi-skimmed milk doesn’t appear to apply to blue tits!)

Another of this bird’s characteristics which we find appealing is its readiness to make use of nest-boxes. The natural choice would be a hole in a tree or wall but any sort of suitable cavity is used; letter boxes and the glove compartments of cars have been used, for example. On a moss and grass foundation, the nest consists of hair, wool and feathers. The single annual brood may number from about 5 to as many as 14 young. Most of them will not live to adulthood, but that’s nature’s way of maintaining a balanced population.

   Text by George Metcalfe

   Photograph by John Sheppard

After a day of torrential rain, almost thirty carol singers turned out to perform traditional carols in many places around the village, whilst the children knocked on doors to wish residents a happy Christmas and make collections for charity.

The singers stop to perform a carol for the new residents of Dippers Cottage in Little Street.......

....which seems to be much appreciated by the lady of the house......

....and her dog!

Parish Council Chairman and Newsletter Editor are not forgotten

Delicious home made soup, mulled wine and cakes to finish off the evening

Carol Singing 2010

Carol singing 2009

Carol singing 2008

Carol singing 2007

Carol singing 2006

As always in the week before Christmas, a dedicated band of villagers has been preparing and erecting the traditional Christmas decorations in strategic points around the village. See here for the story behind these decorations.

See the next page for more pictures of the work in progress.

Mulled wine and hot mince pies.....

Village Christmas Decorations 2009

Village Christmas Decorations 2008

Village Christmas Decorations 2007

Village Christmas Decorations 2000 – 2006

The idea of a Christingle service came originally from the Moravian Church in 1747 as a symbol of Christ’s light and love. The Children’s Society introduced it to the Church of England in 1968, and it has since become a popular service for all ages. This was the twenty-second service in the Church of St James the Less, Sulgrave. All money collected goes to the good work of the Children’s Society with the least fortunate of today’s young people. See more photographs of the children performing their nativity play and receiving their oranges with lighted candles….

See photographs from past Christingle Services:

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

David says: "Yes, they are bananas!"

In his second newsletter from Sao Paulo, David Kellett reports that he is learning Portuguese and being made to feel at home by the threat of nearby railway construction and visits to a local Pocket Park.

Full newsletter and more photographs on the next page.

Newsletter 2

Greetings from Sao Paulo again.  We’re now eight weeks in, and things are starting to get more organised.  Our furniture and stuff arrived a couple of weeks ago, so we now have more beds than we know what to do with.  Portuguese lessons are progressing, I’m not sure that we are progressing in them, but time will tell I suppose.

Sao Paulo is a city several times the size of London, but its metro system is about the size of Newcastle’s.  They are currently working on a new line which will come down through the area we are living in.  One of the tunnel access points will be just behind our apartment block, not everyone is in favour, as there will inevitably be noise and dust and disruption while the construction is underway. There have been several tenants meetings and feelings are running high.  Sound at all familiar?

Just a few minutes’ walk from the flat is our local park, very similar in concept to the pocket park in Sulgrave, as you can see from the photos below, but the flora is inevitably a bit different, yes they are bananas.  The whole area of Granja Julieta (our neighbourhood) is very green and has quite a bit of wildlife to say we’re in the city.  So far we’ve seen Hummingbirds, Parrots (in the tree’s in our garden) Marmosets, and though I haven’t seen them yet, I’ve certainly heard Howler Monkeys.

The weather is very variable, we’re in the Brazilian version of spring at the moment, one day can be brilliant blue sky and really quite hot in the sun, the next might be grey or raining, it does rain quite often here and when it rains, boy it rains.  We also get some very dramatic thunderstorms, the sort of thing you see in horror movies, huge sheets of lightening at several different points of the sky all at the same time.  It’s never really cold here, at least not by our standards, last Tuesday was grey & overcast, it looked like a typical October day in the UK, but the temperature was around 20 degrees.  I walked up to the local shop in shorts & a T shirt, on the way I met a young woman wearing Jeans, Boots, a parker zipped up to the neck and a woolly hat, it’s all perception I suppose.

Last weekend we went to the beach for a few days, the drive down there is amazing.  Sao Paulo is only 30 miles from the nearest stretch of coastline, but on a plateau high above it.  The coastal strip is only a mile or so wide in places, and then the hills rise up like a green wall; 2000 feet almost straight up covered in thick forest all the way.  There are two roads; Anchietta – the old road, and a modern ‘motorway’.  The old road winds around, weaving its way back and forth across the hillside as it slowly descends through the forest with breath-taking views at every turn.  It’s very busy and quite an intimidating drive, with a cliff on one side and a precipitous drop on the other and enormous trucks (with Brazilian drivers) passing within inches.  The new road takes a more direct route descending at a fairly steep rate through a series of tunnels, the longest is about two and a half miles, then you have a couple of hundred yards in daylight (and the most incredible view, but nowhere to stop to admire it or take photographs), and then you’re back into the next tunnel.  But once you get there it’s worth it, sub-tropical beaches, palm trees, coconut juice fresh from the nut, and of course volleyball!

David

See the next page for a series of autumnal photographs taken in and around the village.

Sunrise

Barrow Hill

Strings of Black Bryony

North from Banbury Lane

Bristly Oxtongue

From Barrow Hill Path

Blenheim Apple and Red Admiral Butterfly

Fields ploughed, rolled and drilled with next year's crop

The beautiful but much reviled Dandelion......

.....and its symmetrical seeds

Crab apples in the fields.....

....and Cox's Orange Pippins in the gardens

Eastwards from Barrow Hill

The Old Farmhouse

Spider's web and dewdrop jewellery

Near Allithorne Wood

Late flowering daisy

South from Barrow Hill footpath

Necking?

Fox Covert

Oak Leaves

Near Weston

Thatched House from Madam's Close

Hogweed

Trees - the Old Farmhouse

Hawthorn Berries - Top o' the Moreton Road

Willows and Fox Covert

Pumpkins for Halloween......

...and more pumpkins

Last garden rose of summer?

Sunset

]]> http://sulgrave.org/2011/11/autumn-in-sulgrave/feed/ 0 http://sulgrave.org/2011/11/don%e2%80%99t-forget-to-buy-your-poppy-at-the-village-shop/ http://sulgrave.org/2011/11/don%e2%80%99t-forget-to-buy-your-poppy-at-the-village-shop/#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 09:27:07 +0000 Colin Wootton http://sulgrave.org/?p=3760

With our service men and women being killed or injured in Afghanistan and Iraq on an almost daily basis the work of the British Legion continues to be crucial to them and their families. Please give as generously as you can when you buy your poppies from the village shop. The annual Remembrance Sunday Service will be held in Sulgrave Church at 6.00 pm on Sunday November 13th. Eighteen young men and women who lost their lives in the two world wars are commemorated on the memorial in the church. Read their stories…..

A.W. Berry, W.E. Carpenter, W. Fenemore, A.W. Franklin, R.C.W. Hadley, F. Jeffs, J.W. Muddiman, L. Shellard, W. Smith, Lilian A.M. Taylor, J.R. Tyrell, F.G. Wade, H.J. Webb, Leslie Whitehead, L. Whitehead, G.E. Whitton, H.L.J. Wootton, H. Wootton.

William Carpenter was the son of Mr W.T. and Mrs M.A. Carpenter of Sulgrave. He was a private in the 7th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. At the age of 19 he was killed on the Western Front in France on 20th March 1918. Having no known grave, his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial in the town of the same name together with almost 36,000 other servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918. Given the date of his death he would almost certainly have died in resisting the last great German offensive in the Spring of 1918.

British troops march into position at Arras

Albert Franklin and Frederick Wade are linked together here because they were both in the 1st Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and died within months of each other in the same theatre of war. Albert Franklin was a Lance Serjeant (contemporary spelling) in that battalion. He died in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) on the 12th November 1915. He was the son of William Henry and Mary Anne Franklin. Frederick Wade was a private in the battalion. He died on the 7th April 1916, also in Mesopotamia.  His age is not given. They were volunteers who joined up before conscription was introduced in January 1916. Were they perhaps friends in the village who decided to “go and do their bit together”? They and 40,500 others with no known graves are commemorated on the Basra Memorial in Iraq. Allied operations in Mesopotamia were against the Turks, staunch fighters and allies of the Germans. It seems likely that Albert Franklin was killed during the allied advance from Basra towards Kut-el-Amara and Frederick Wade during the First Battle of Kut, said to have been the greatest humiliation to have befallen the British Army in its history leading to demands for a parliamentary inquiry into what had gone wrong in Iraq!

British soldiers in Mesopotamia (Iraq)

W Fenemore was a gunner with “B” Battery of the 74th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery. He died on the 26th July 1917 and is buried in Bleuet Farm Cemetery near the village of Elverdinge in Belgium. From the date of his death and the location of the cemetery it seems likely that he was a casualty in the Third Battle of Ypres, otherwise known as Passchendaele. Ground conditions during the whole Ypres-Passchendaele action were atrocious. Continuous shelling destroyed drainage canals in the area, and unseasonable heavy rain turned the whole area into a sea of mud and water-filled shell-craters. The troops walked up to the front over paths made of duckboards laid across the mud, often carrying up to one hundred pounds (45 kg) of equipment. It was possible for them to slip off the path into the craters and drown before they could be rescued. The trees were reduced to blunted trunks, the branches and leaves torn away, and the bodies of men buried after previous actions were often uncovered by the rain or later shelling.

British soldiers struggle through the dreadful ruined landscape at Passchendaele

Robert Hadley was a Royal Navy sick berth attendant on HMS Invincible. He was killed at the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916 at the age of 32. HMS Invincible was the flagship of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron. She was hit in her “Q” turret by a salvo from the German battleship Lutzow which blew the roof of the turret over the side. It was either this shell hit which caused a flash down the magazine or a second shell in the same salvo that penetrated the armour and exploded in the magazine, causing a massive explosion. The ship broke in two and sank with the loss of all but six of her crew of 1,021. Jutland was the last, and largest, of the great battleship battles. Never again did battle fleets meet again in such numbers.  While the Royal Navy suffered more losses, the battle effectively ended any threat from the German High Seas Fleet, which now knew it could not contest control of the North Sea with the Royal Navy.

HMS Invincible

Frank Jeffs was a private in the 5th Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He died on the 26th October 1918 at the age of 22. He was the son of Charles Owen Jeffs and Sarah Elizabeth Jeffs, of Sulgrave. He is buried in Ste Marie Cemetery, Le Havre, France. During the First World War, Le Havre was one of the ports at which the British Expeditionary Force disembarked in August 1914. Except for a short interval during the German advance in 1914 it remained No 1 Base throughout the war and by the end of May 1917, it contained three general and two stationary hospitals, and four convalescent depots. In all 1,689 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War are buried or commemorated in the cemetery. It seems conceivable that Frank Jeffs died of injuries at one of the hospitals in Le Havre. No one knows, but at 22 he was perhaps already a “veteran” in a conflict where boys became men overnight. He may have soldiered on through several years of the war only to die so near to home and a mere 16 days before it all came to an end.

Attending to a wounded soldier of the Great War

J.W.Muddiman was a driver in the Royal Engineers attached to the 10th Divisional Headquarters in Greece where he died at the age of 36 on the 23rd June 1917. He was the husband of Emily Muddiman of Sulgrave. He is buried at Lahana Military Cemetery in Greece, about 56 kilometres north-east of Thessalonika. In October 1915, a combined Franco-British force of some two large brigades was landed at Salonika (today called Thessalonika) at the request of the Greek Prime Minister. These included the 10th (Irish) Division to which Driver Muddiman was attached. The objective was to help the Serbs in their fight against Bulgarian aggression. But the expedition arrived too late, the Serbs having been beaten before they landed. It was decided to keep the force in place for future operations, even against Greek opposition. It is impossible to draw any conclusions as to the fate of J.W.Muddiman in this complex and little known theatre of war but it was said of the Salonika campaign that for every casualty of battle three died of malaria, influenza or other diseases.

The Entente in Macedonia. From left to right: a soldier from Indochina,a Frenchman,a Senegalese,an Englishman,a Russian,an Italian,a Serb,a Greek and an Indian.

Leonard Shellard was a private in the 5th Battalion of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. He died in Belgium on the 14th December 1917 at the age of 21. He was the son of Mrs Sarah Shellard of New Lane, Sulgrave. He has no known grave and is commemorated at the Tyne Cot Memorial. He gained the Military Medal for an act of outstanding bravery which, sadly, is not recorded. The granting of this award is recorded in a Supplement to the London Gazette on 23rd January 1918, as follows:

His Majesty the KING has been graciously
pleased to approve of the award of the Military
Medal for bravery in the Field to the
undermentioned Non-Commissioned Officers
and Men: —

201850 Pte. G. Sheldon, S. Staff. R. (West
Bromwich).
10126 Pte. L. Shellard, O. & B. L.I. (Banbury)
1122 Pte. J. Shelley, Labour Corps (Fenton,
Stoke-on-Trent).
60984 Sjt. R. Shepherd; R.F.A. (Beverley).

As the entry in the London Gazette states, the Military Medal was awarded to Non-Commissioned Officers and Men and, it seems, there was sometimes only one copy of the citation setting out the reasons for the award. It is not known if Leonard Shellard gained the award before his death or if he died in gaining it. Sadly, it seems possible that his relatives in the village might never have known of his bravery. Certainly, there is no mention of his award on the memorial plaque in the church.

Lilian Taylor is commemorated both on the memorial plaque in the church and on a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone in the churchyard, as shown in the picture below.

The War Graves Commission records add that she was the daughter of William and Harriet Taylor, of Sulgrave.

Lilian Taylor before the Great War

Commonwealth War Graves headstone in Sulgrave churchyard in memory of Lilian Taylor

Leslie Whitehead was a private in the 17th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. He died in France on the 1st June 1916 aged 19. He was the son of William and Elizabeth Whitehead, of Sulgrave. The main event on the Western Front in 1916 was the Battle of the Somme which began on July 1st. Leslie Whitehead was killed in this area a month before the battle began and it is not possible to speculate that he died in any particular action. Leslie Whitehead is buried in the Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, in the Pas de Calais, France. Souchez is a village 3.5 kilometres north of Arras on the main road to Bethune. The “Cabaret Rouge” was a house on the main road about 1 kilometre south of the village, at a place called Le Corroy, near the cemetery. On the east side, opposite the cemetery, were dugouts used as battalion headquarters in 1916. The cemetery now contains 7,655 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, more than half of them unidentified.

British soldiers attack on the Somme

Harold Wootton was a private in the 2nd Battalion of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. He died in Flanders (Belgium) on the 21st October 1914 aged 21. He was the eldest son of Joseph Butlin Wootton and Catherine Elizabeth Wootton, of Little Street, Sulgrave. Prior to 1914 he had been a member of the local yeomanry, the forerunners of the territorial army. In the wave of patriotism that followed the outbreak of war with Germany in August of that year these units waived their right to serve only for “homeland defence” and within weeks he found himself with the British Expeditionary Force in France.

Harold Wootton (front right) just before leaving for France in 1914

Harold and the 2nd Ox and Bucks arrived on the Western Front as part of the 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Division– one of the first divisions of the British Expeditionary Force to arrive in France.

Soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force arrive in France in 1914

The Battalion took part in the first British battle of the war, at Mons where the British defeated the German forces that they had encountered on 23rd August. The Battalion subsequently took part in the retreat that began the following day, then halting the German advance at the First Battle of the Marne (5th to 9th September). The 2nd Ox & Bucks later took part in all the subsidiary battles of the First Battle of Ypres (19th October to 22nd November) that saw the heart ripped out of the old regular army, with over 50,000 casualties.

Going up to the front at Ypres

Harold Wootton was killed at the height of this battle, attempting to stem the German advance at the tiny Belgian village of St Julian. This village, today known as St. Juliaan, can be found a little to the north-east of Ypres, on the N313. Here and at nearby Langemarck was where, in the words of  the military historian G.S. Hutchinson, “the tiny army of seven Divisions of 1914 stood it’s ground before the pick of the world’s greatest military force”. It is said that the rate of fire and accuracy from their bolt action rifles convinced the Germans that they were equipped with machine guns. Largely as a result of superior German field artillery at the time, the bodies of Harold and many of his comrades were never identified and his name is commemorated on the famous Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial with 54,000 others with no known graves.

H.L.J. Wootton was a private in the 1st/15th Battalion of the London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles). He died on the Somme Battlefield in France on the 7th October 1916, aged 20. He was the son of Leonard Henry and Rhoda Jane Wootton, of 8, Council Houses, Sulgrave. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, which bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. The Thiepval Memorial is off the main Bapaume to Albert road (D929). Each year a major ceremony is held at there on 1 July. On 1 July 1916, supported by a French attack to the south, thirteen divisions of Commonwealth forces launched an offensive on a line from north of Gommecourt to Maricourt. Despite a preliminary bombardment lasting seven days, the German defences were barely touched and the attack met unexpectedly fierce resistance.

German machine gun troops await a British attack

Losses were catastrophic and with only minimal advances on the southern flank, the initial attack was a failure. In the following weeks, huge resources of manpower and equipment were deployed in an attempt to exploit the modest successes of the first day. However, the German Army resisted tenaciously and repeated attacks and counter attacks meant a major battle for every village, copse and farmhouse gained. At the end of September, Thiepval was finally captured. The village had been an original objective of 1 July. Attacks north and east continued throughout October and into November in increasingly difficult weather conditions. It can be surmised that it was during one of these autumnal attacks that Private H.L.J. Wootton was killed.

British soldiers injured in mustard gas attack

Hector John Webb was a Leading Aircraftman in the Royal Air Force. He is the only serviceman from the Second World War to be mentioned on the Sulgrave memorial. There is no information on any relative in the village in official records. He served in Malaya during the war against Japan. There is no record of his age.  He died on the 29th November 1943 and the manner of his death makes for sober reading. He is commemorated on the Memorial in Kranji War Cemetery, 22 miles north of the city of Singapore. On 8 February 1942, the Japanese crossed the Johore Straits in strength, landing at the mouth of the Kranji River within two miles of the place where the war cemetery now stands. On the evening of 9 February, they launched an attack between the river and the causeway. During the next few days fierce fighting ensued, in many cases hand to hand, until their greatly superior numbers and air strength necessitated a withdrawal. After the fall of the island, the Japanese established a prisoner of war camp at Kranji. It would have been here or in Changi that Hector Webb spent the next twenty-one months as a prisoner of war of the Japanese.

The Kranji Memorial records him as having died at sea: in the Japanese ship  “Suez Maru” and goes on to state that this ship was:

“Sunk by USS Bonefish, off Kangean Islands 6º 22′ South by 116º 35′ East. Japanese Captain Kawano orders the shooting of the prisoners in the water. From 14.15 – 16.30 the Minesweeper W.12 massacres the survivors using machine gun and rifles. No survivors.”

This is the full and appalling story from a contemporary account:

In 1943, the Japanese decided to ship the sick back to Java. A total of 640 men, including a number of Japanese sick patients, were taken on board the 4,645-ton passenger-cargo ship Suez Maru. In two holds, 422 sick British (including 221 RAF servicemen) and 127 sick Dutch prisoners, including up to twenty stretcher cases, were accommodated. The Japanese patients filled the other two holds.
Escorted by a minesweeper W-12, the Suez Maru set sail from Port Amboina but while entering the Java Sea and about 327 kilometers east of Surabaya, Java, Netherlands East Indies, the vessel was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Bonefish commanded by Cdr. Tom Hogan. The ship started to list as water poured into the holds drowning hundreds, many managed to escape the holds and swam away from the sinking ship. The Japanese mine sweeper W-12 picked up the Japanese survivors, leaving between 200 and 250 men in the sea. At 14.50, the minesweeper, W-12, under orders from Captain Kawano, opened fire, using a machine gun and rifles. Rafts and lifeboats were then rammed and sunk by the W-12. The firing did not cease till all the prisoners were killed, the minesweeper then picked up speed and sped off towards Batavia (Jakarta) at 16.30 hours.
Sixty-nine Japanese had died during the attack, 93 Japanese soldiers and 205 Japanese sick patients were rescued by the Japanese. Of the 547 British and Dutch prisoners, there is reported to be one survivor, a British soldier, Kenneth Thomas, who was picked up twenty-four hours later by the Australian minesweeper HMAS Ballarat, this has not been confirmed.

World War II Japanese minesweeper

Full details of the investigation into this atrocity at:
http://www.cofepow.org.uk/pages/ships_suez_maru.htm

Sadly, no records can be found for W. Smith, J.R.Tyrell or G.E.Whitton.

When the names of the seventeen are solemnly read out at the Remembrance Service and the two minutes silence follows, perhaps something of the courage, hardships and final sacrifice of these eighteen young men and women will pass through our minds.

Those unable to attend the service might perhaps give them a thought during the two minutes silence at 11.00 am on November 11^th, wherever they happen to be.

Pumpkins in a range of sizes now available at the Village Shop. See next page for police advice in respect of Halloween and Bonfire Night.

Staying safe on Halloween and Bonfire Night

 With Halloween and Bonfire Night approaching, Northamptonshire Police will be launching an operation to ensure people in the county can enjoy both evenings safely and within the law.

There will be increased patrols in identified ‘hot spot’ areas and officers will be on hand to tackle any issues that arise and offer reassurance.

Be spooky but safe if you’re out ‘trick or treating’

 Don’t knock on doors with a ‘No trick or treat sign’

Children should be accompanied by an adult

Plan your route – only go to places where you know the residents

Keep visible – stay in areas that are well lit and take a torch

Don’t go inside any house

Be careful not to frighten vulnerable people
 

Be a bright spark – remember, remember, on the 5^th November

You must be over 18 to buy fireworks

It is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to possess fireworks in a public place

It is an offence to throw or discharge a firework in a street or public place

If you let off fireworks between 11pm and 7am you will be breaking the law – except on Bonfire Night when this extends to midnight

Don’t forget your pets – keep them safe indoors

Keep in contact and keep informed

 To find out more about what your local Safer Community Teams are up to  visit www.northants.police.uk, call 03000 111 222, or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 anonymously with information about crime. Always dial 999 in an emergency.