4th (Durham) Survey Regiment R.A.

  4th Durham Survey Regiment was a VOLUNTEER force formed as early as January 1937 in Gateshead. It was a part of the TAAF. More than two years before World War II started there were no shortage of young men of some scholastic ability who joined up at the Drill Hall.

  Clarence Evelyn HIRD (1917 - 1977) joined the 4th Durham Survey Regiment in Gateshead as a volunteer in 1937.   The regiment trained locally with the threat of war and were activated on the outbreak of World War Two. Training was completed in various parts of the UK. Some like my uncle Tom DIXON of Coburg Street were selected for officer training. He went to OCTU at Alton Towers before being commissioned and joining a Royal Artillery field battery.

  The regiment was sent off in 1940 via South Africa to Egypt and the Middle East leaving loved ones behind. My mother, Winifred Main of Hawthorn Gardens, joined the WRENS having got engaged shortly before my father left in 1940. She did not see my father till shortly before their wedding in 1943. I, like many 8th Army children was born in December 1944. I was born in Gateshead and lived in Hawthorn Gardens with my grandparents till Dad came home from the war.

The regiment war service is commemorated on the front cover of the programme and it shows that these young men were in the thick of the action throughout World War Two. I have memories of father's stories of action in the field in North Africa (Alamein and Tobruk) , D Day and Operation Market Garden (The bridge too far). They had specialist skills and were often posted in small units to other regiments some even went on to Burma.

  My father went in on D Day at Arromanches at H hour plus an hour and half. He revisited Arromanches in 1975 with a caravan club group. They figured he MUST know his way around because he had been there on D Day! Dad very patiently explained that when you are under enemy fire on an exposed beach all you look for is the next bit of cover. He recognised nothing at Arromanches much to the surprise of his younger audience.

  Some places could be recognised but had been rebuilt after being flattened in serious fighting. He recalled that Tilly sur Seuilles was a key town and changed hands some 23 times between the Germans and the British within a few weeks. We also went with my mother for the 45th Anniversary and retraced some of the Regiment's route. There is a book 'Club Route ' which covers their story from the beaches to the Rhine.