The Engineer's Tale: The DMWD and HMS Vernon boats at Birnbeck Pier (1941-49)

On 8 May 1953, the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD) held its first reunion dinner at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, London. Among those enjoying a menu of fillet of sole mornay and braised gammon were a number of veterans from the DMWD’s wartime establishment at Weston-super-Mare. Several members of the HMS Birnbeck contingent were local men who had ended the war as bona fide ‘Wheezers and Dodgers’, having played a key role in the testing of special weapons along the North Somerset coast.

This latest post focuses on Dick Crowe, one of the attendees, described by journalist Gerald Pawle in a 1956 Liverpool Echo article as ‘a vigorous, grey-haired man in his fifties’. Crowe was a partner in Crowe and Green, one of Weston-super-Mare’s largest engineering enterprises. He also owned the Royal Pier Hotel which, thanks to its proximity to Birnbeck Pier, provided accommodation for senior personnel involved with the DMWD.

Indeed, Neville Shute, an RNVR Lieutenant and senior ‘Wheezer and Dodger’, wrote part of his novel Secret War while staying at the hotel. Crowe and Green played a vital role in operations on Birnbeck Pier and across the nearby testing sites. It would be a fair guess to say that Dick Crowe first connected with the boffins of the DMWD in the bar of his Royal Pier Hotel!

The Island, Birnbeck - copyright Phil Curme

In addition to fabricating components for weapons testing and constructing platforms and targets, Crowe and Green were responsible for maintaining the mixed fleet of small boats used by the DMWD and HMS Vernon personnel during their trials. Local historian David J. Knock identified eleven craft requisitioned for Admiralty service, while the diary of Crowe and Green engineer John Smith confirms that keeping these boats operational was a major undertaking.

An example of the company’s work can be seen in the photograph above. In 1944, Crowe and Green constructed a slipway leading up to the boathouse on the eastern side of Birnbeck Pier. The project involved reusing rails from the ongoing ‘Baseball’ project (more on this here) and constructing a carriage to transport the boats.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s take a look at three or four of the boats used by the DMWD.

The Princess Ida - copyright Western Daily Press

Amongst the first vessels to be requisitioned was the Princess Ida, one of the ferries operating on the Aust–Beachley route across the Severn Estuary during the 1930s, when there were no bridges spanning the river. The AI-enhanced photograph above comes from a Western Daily Press report covering her inaugural voyage on 31 July 1931. She was rendered redundant in 1935 as bigger and better ferries were introduced.

Named after the wife of ferry entrepreneur Enoch Williams, the Princess Ida was built in Chepstow for the Old Passage Severn Ferry Company Ltd. Constructed of timber, she was 60 feet long, with a beam of approximately 20 feet. Her design was innovative for the period. The Princess Ida could accommodate four large cars and six smaller vehicles, while a turntable arrangement incorporated into her design helped to simplify the loading and unloading of vehicles.

In his diary, a transcript of which is held in the Somerset Heritage Centre, Crowe and Green engineer John Smith recorded that Princess Ida was one of the most troublesome vessel to maintain. One entry in the autumn of 1942 tells of the Princess Ida being stranded at Uphill. The engine had been flooded as the fire pump was not run at night, and as the tide came in she filled with water.

Her versatility made the Princess Ida ideal for use by the DMWD and in May 1943 her naval utility was recognised by the Admiralty in a name change to 'Birnbeck'. Sadly, in 1945, she was decommissioned and ended her days rotting away at Castle Pill in Milford Haven. 

Y-Not - copyright Clevedon Civic Society

The DMWD fleet served a variety of purposes, including the recovery of test ordnance, the laying of marker buoys, the observation of weapons trials, and the transport of personnel and equipment.

One of the less sophisticated vessels requisitioned for Admiralty service was the pleasure boat Y-Not (above). In the early twentieth century, she had been used to take passengers on boat trips around Clevedon Bay, departing from the slipway south of Clevedon Pier. Y-Not was one of three similar vessels, all robustly built of mahogany and designed to last.

According to local historian John Dunford, the trips were operated by Joe Rich, who also ran the Royal Oak public house in Copse Road, Clevedon. As fuel rationing began to bite in 1942, Rich joined the Royal Navy and took his boat with him. Repainted grey and fitted with a winch in the bow, Y-Not was put to work for the Admiralty. Based at Clevedon Pill, she was conveniently located for the weapons testing grounds at Woodspring Bay.

It is not known whether Y-Not returned to her pleasure-cruising duties after the end of the Second World War. However, an article in the Clevedon Mercury dated July 1992 records what may have been her final sighting: at the Prince of Wales Pier, Falmouth, in 1953.

A seemingly identical boat, named Y-Not II, operated pleasure trips from Clevedon's slipway during the 1950s and 1960s. Whether she was one of the original three vessels, a newer vessel or a refurbished version of Y-Not I remains uncertain.

HMS Vernon Cutter - Copyright Jean Sugar

HMS Vernon LCM - Copyright Jean Sugar

The HMS Vernon teams responsible for testing the Squid and Hedgehog anti-submarine weapons (see here for more details) used the sheltered moorings at the mouth of the River Banwell, close to the landward end of St Thomas’s Head. Here, they moored a motor boat and a small landing craft, which were used to recover test ordnance following trials.

Confidential reports held at The National Archives in Kew and declassified in the 1980s provide a vivid description of the challenges faced by the recovery crews:

At the crack of dawn the recovery boats’ crews depart by lorry to St Thomas’s Head, some six miles away from the base (Weston-super-Mare airfield). The narrow made-up road ends at Woodspring Priory, becoming a farm track beyond it, running through several fields, each with a gate to be opened and shut. Passage between the moorings is only possible around High Water, a decided handicap if it comes to blow. The boat crews scramble over the rocks to the foreshore, ferry themselves by skiff in relays to the boats and are soon under way.

On a fine summer’s day to go out in the LCM to Langford Grounds (which, if not dry, are by now no longer covered in water) and look for black cylindrical objects is second only to Make and Mend as a means of earning the Queen’s money, but in Winter there is little to be said for it.

Retrieval at Woodspring Bay - National Archives

The exposed mud and sand are riddled with gullies and crevices, so it is perhaps unsurprising that test ordnance is still occasionally discovered in the area. Indeed, over the past decade, local Coastguard teams have had to call in the bomb disposal squad to investigate reports of 'bombs and torpedoes' discovered by startled members of the public!

Other requisitioned vessels included Flora Glen, a three-ton motor launch that was the first boat to be winched up the rails into the old boat shed mentioned earlier in this post; Persil, a motorboat acquired for miscellaneous naval service in 1942; and Mary, a 160-ton dumb barge requisitioned from Mrs Grace Lambert in November 1940.

Mary was subsequently used during the sea trials of 'Baseball' in July & August 1944 in Woodspring Bay. Baseball was a naval weapon based on the same principles as the RAF's Bouncing Bombs - Highball and Upkeep (more information here).

Fort Ében-Émael and the end of the Phoney War (10 / 11 May, 1940)

In the early hours of 10 May 1940, the end of the Phoney War was heralded by an audacious assault on the Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael. A glider-borne force of just 70 German troops seized Belgium’s most modern frontier fortification and neutralised its garrison of some 800 men.

Of the eleven gliders that took off from Ostheim in Germany, nine landed with pinpoint accuracy on the roof of the heavily fortified complex, widely believed to be impregnable. In a matter of minutes, the attackers had achieved a stunning victory that helped open the way for German forces advancing through Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Through this, and similiar breaches, General Heinz Guderian’s armoured formations would demonstrate to the world the devastating effectiveness of Blitzkrieg.

Skeleton of a DFS 230 German Glider

The German gliders at Eben Emael

The fort bristled with an impressive array of weaponry. Two 120mm guns and sixteen 75mm guns were housed in hardened casemates, designed to cover three bridges along the Belgian border. All three were captured by German glider-borne troops within hours of the assault on the fort. Protecting the main armament, the fort’s roof was studded with anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns and machine guns, each installed in purpose-built emplacements.

Our exploration began at the fort’s entrance, deep beneath the gun emplacements on the western side of the complex. The contrast with the nineteenth-century forts around Liège, which were devastated by massive-calibre German siege guns in 1914, is striking. Among these was the famously named Big Bertha, whose enormous shells helped expose the vulnerability of the older fortifications to modern siege artillery.

The entrance to Fort Eben-Emael

The photograph above shows the entrance to the fort, alongside three of the red-shirted volunteers who do an excellent job of interpreting the site for visitors. Unlike the cramped warren of tunnels found in the Liège forts, Eben-Emael had wide, easily navigable access routes and spacious internal passageways. A long entrance tunnel leads to a series of junctions, with contemporary signs directing visitors to the various casemates above.

Most of the garrison’s accommodation, including the underground hospital, was housed in rooms branching off the main thoroughfare. In contrast to the Liège forts, where men had to cross open ground to reach toilet facilities or obtain clean water, Eben-Emael provided these amenities within the protection of the fort’s hardened structure. The facilities even included hot and cold showers, with the showers reserved for the two officers equipped with regulators to control the water temperature.

The main tunnel - Eben Emael

Destroyed casement

The nine surviving gliders reached their targeted landing points, landing on the roof of the fortress and depositing their assault troops within twenty or thirty metres of their objectives. The German glidermen immediately stormed the gun positions and casemates, using 50-pound hollow charges to destroy the fort’s heavy guns. The photograph above, showing the lower section of one of the casemates, illustrates the destructive power of these weapons. Particularly striking are the buckled steel door and the shrapnel marks along the corridor beyond.

Although the fort’s defences were neutralised in approximately twenty minutes, it was another day and a half before the surrounding area was secured by the German 4th Infantry Division, which had crossed the Belgian border waterways to reach the fort. During this period, Belgian ground forces and artillery made repeated but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to dislodge the German attackers. Eventually, the Belgian commander, Major Jean Jottrand, had no choice but to surrender.

The Belgian defenders suffered sixty men killed and forty wounded. The attacking Fallschirmjäger-Sturmabteilung ‘Koch’, meanwhile, lost seven men killed, with a handful more wounded.

Fellow battlefield walkers at Eben Emael

Museum exhibits in Eben Emael Fort

We spent around two hours exploring the fort, taking in its fascinating collection of artefacts and documents, as well as the film-based experiences and interpretive panels that bring its history to life.

Afterwards, we climbed onto the roof of the fort and joined the dog walkers strolling through what is now a peaceful pastoral landscape. The tranquillity is broken only by the concrete and steel cupolas that lurk among the long grass and surrounding bushes, silent reminders of the fortress’s former purpose.

To the east lies a man-made gorge, created in the 1930s to accommodate the Albert Canal. The fort was constructed to protect this strategically important waterway, and much of the spoil excavated during the canal’s construction was used to build up the hill into which the fortress was incorporated.

A pedestrian suspension bridge crosses the canal, and for just a few euros you can walk a few metres across into the Netherlands, enjoying spectacular views along the way.

Vroenhoven Bridge

A short drive away is Vroenhoven Bridge, which crosses the Albert Canal. On the morning of 10 May 1940, the bridge was captured by glider-borne troops under Hauptmann Walter Koch (who had overall command of the German assault on Eben Emael and the three crossings). It was along this route that German ground forces subsequently advanced to relieve the approximately seventy German glidermen who were keeping the fort’s 800-strong garrison pinned down inside Eben-Emael.

The original bridge has since been replaced by a modern structure which, as the photograph shows, offers a sun terrace for restaurant diners. Within the eastern abutment is a small museum, which incorporates an original pillbox that was attacked during the fighting on 10 May 1940. This bunker can be seen on the left-hand side of the photograph. Sadly, on the occasion of our visit, the museum was closed for a private event.

My photos of Fort Eben Emael and the Liege ring forts can be viewed here.