World War Two Military Biography Synopsis of
Major Roy Alexander Farran, DSO, MC two bars, Legion of Merit (USA), Officier de la Légion d’honneur (FR), Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur (FR), Croix de Guerre (FR.), Medaglia di Garibaldi (Italy) etc. etc.
Following his graduation from Sandhurst Roy arrived in Egypt from England in September 1940 as a young Subaltern of 19 years of age. He was posted to the 3rd Hussars Regiment which at that time was part of the last available British Armored Brigade sent to reinforce the 7th Armored Division better known as the famous Desert Rats. The Brigade was sent to Egypt as part of Churchill’s Strategic gamble to defeat the Axis forces in the Western Desert.
Roy’s regiment fought in the first Wavell campaign, which saw the British Forces defeat the Italian Forces commanded by Marshal Graziani. Tens of thousands of Italian prisoners were taken. Libya was invaded, in two months time the Cyrenaica was conquered, and Tobruk captured.
After the heady victorious time of the first Wavell campaign the Africa Korps commanded by General Rommel came to the rescue of their Italian allies and with the support of a very efficient Luftwaffe pushed back the British Forces. Under this pressure the British Army retreated. In the ensuing withdrawal, Roy’s regiment retreated back to Tobruk from which Roy and some members of the regiment were evacuated by sea to Egypt to refit.
After arriving back in Alexandria Roy found out that his Squadron was to depart for the Island of Crete to help bolster the New Zealand forces there, who were preparing for a German invasion. Roy commanded a troop of 3 Vickers light tanks in support of New Zealand infantry during the battle for Galatas. During the battle Roy lost two of his tanks and was hit several times himself when his tank came under fire from a German anti tank gun. At the end of the battle Roy, having been wounded in the thigh, both legs and the right arm, was taken prisoner by the Germans. After diagnosis for gangrenous legs by a German Army Doctor, he was evacuated by plane to a hospital in Athens which was part of prisoner of war camp for commonwealth troops. It took a while for Roy’s wounds to heal and one day in late 1941 after feeling sufficiently mobile again; he escaped by crawling undetected under the barbed wire in broad daylight.
Luck was on his side when he was able to contact a Greek underground faction that helped him and a group of other British soldiers escape from Greece on a fishing boat. The boat got into a storm, was blown off course and ran out of diesel fuel in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. After drifting for nine days, out of water, fuel and food they were picked up by a British destroyer and taken back to Alexandria.
In January of 1942, Roy was appointed to the 7th Armored Division, 8th Army in the Western Desert as an intelligence Officer. In May of the same year the British positions in the Western Desert came under heavy attack by the entire Africa Korps and the British 8th Army was pushed back all the way to El Alamein. At that time Roy had been given command of a composite force of armored cars, some guns and tanks. While in position at El Alamein they were bombed by the Luftwaffe. As a result of the bombing Roy was wounded again in the arm and evacuated first to Cairo and then by end of July 1942 to South Africa. Following convalescence in South Africa he was send home to Britain on a troop ship in December of 1942.
In February of 1943 Roy found himself bound once more for North Africa where he joined the SAS, an elite force founded by David Stirling and specially trained for hit and run and sabotage operations behind enemy lines. Roy was given command of a squadron and participated in the invasion of Sicily. The task assigned to them was the capture of an important lighthouse on Cape Passero south of Syracuse in support of the landings by the 51st. Highland Division, British 8th Army.
Soon after this successful mission Roy was given command of a new SAS squadron equipped with Jeeps mounting twin Vickers machine guns. Their task called for operations in conjunction with the landing of the Airborne Division at Taranto on the mainland of Italy. Italy surrendered before they could land. The early part of the operations took on the form of liberation celebrations with the Italian people welcoming them as liberators from the Fascists. The operations became more dangerous as German resistance increased the further they moved north.
Ordered to Bari and beyond during the 2nd stage of the Jeep operation they worked and fought in cooperation with the Canadian forces who were also pushing north on a parallel track further inland. They advanced as far as Foggia where important airfields were liberated which would bring allied bombers within reach of all of southern Europe.
The next operation saw Roy and his squadron operating in the vanguard of the 78th infantry division whose task it was to join up with British Forces who had landed behind the German line in the port of Termoli. This was accomplished and the subsequent German counterattack on Termoli was repulsed successfully after heavy fighting.
In November of 1943 following the battle of Termoli Roy took a party of SAS by Motor Torpedo Boat behind enemy lines north of Pescara. The job was to feign an allied landing in the area by causing havoc and sabotage. Carried out in atrocious weather conditions their actions included blowing up enemy transports, the main coastal railway, roads and telegraph poles. Judging by the sudden increase of German wireless traffic, intercepted back at 8th Army headquarters, the operation had caused a great deal of panic in the enemy rear. A week later at the end of the operation Roy and his landing party were taken back to the British lines by an MTB from a point 12 miles south of where they had landed.
In March of 1944 Roy and his squadron were send back to Britain in preparation of D-Day. Later in August of 1944, following the liberation of Brittany by the US 3rd Army, Roy landed in Rennes with his squadron of 20 Jeeps to start Operation Wallace. This was probably the most successful Jeep operation of the war and it saw the squadron penetrate German lines near Orleans and pushing all the way to Belfort in the Vosges Mountains some 50 miles from the German border, in enemy held territory. Along the way numerous operations including train derailments, bridge blowing, troop convoy attacks and general hit and run actions were conducted. During this epic run two notable events must be highlighted: The liberation of Chatillion sur Seine and a battle near the town of Grandrupt were the Squadron supported a French Maquis of the Vosges Mountains against a strong German SS enemy force.
Chatillon sur Seine was liberated by Roy’s squadron for a short period at a time when the Allied front was still some 200 Km to the west. A firefight ensued which saw Bill Holland, one of Roy’s men killed. The German toll was much greater with some 300 casualties.
In the Vosges the Maquis of Grandrupt fought heroically and kept the SS troops at bay in their forest hide out. To defeat the Maquis the SS executed French hostages including the local village priest and threatened to burn down the villages in the area, thus forcing their surrender and capture. 110 members of this Maquis died in the German concentration camps of Natzsweiler and Dachau. Roy and his squadron barely escaped from the forest after giving as much support to the Maquisards as they could. During their retreat they still managed to hit the headquarter vehicle of the SS unit and killed most of its staff officers. Following this battle Roy thought it wiser to revert to hit and run operations. In September of 1944 after many successful actions and most of France had by then been liberated by the Allies, the squadron was repatriated to Britain.
The culmination of Roy’s SAS experience took place in March of 1945 with an operation code named Tombola in the Apennine Mountains south of Reggio Emilia. The operation called for an attack on the German headquarters of the Gothic line, located in two Villas near the town of Albinea. This was the last line of German defense in Italy. To accomplish this mission a squadron of SAS were parachuted behind the enemy lines to join an Italian partisan brigade made up of communists, Christian democrats, non-political partisans and white Russians. Roy was ordered to command the operation from the safety of the British headquarters in Livorno (Leghorn). He disobeyed orders by conveniently falling out of the aircraft over the landing zone. Fortunately his parachute opened and once safely on the ground he took command of the brigade.
The brigade advanced from their mountain lair and attacked the German headquarters located in the two Villas, Rossi and Calvi near Albinea and the City of Reggio Emillia after a stealthy 50 km march at night. Shortly before the final jump off, Roy received a radio message from headquarters to cancel the attack. This he could not do because the Partisans were roused and spoiling for a fight. Having come this far they could no longer be turned around. The ensuing firefight was intense, Roy lost three men, and had several wounded. Both Villas were destroyed together with the valuable communications center thus rendering the Gothic line headquarters useless and leaving the German forces without direction. Despite the great success of the operation the British threatened to court marshal Roy for disobeying orders. However as a result of the wiping out of the German headquarters and when the American Forces shortly thereafter attacked this sector of the front they found the going so easy that they rewarded Roy with the Legion of Merit duly signed by President Truman himself. Roy’ decision to attack the German headquarters was thus justified. The recognition he received from the Americans effectively stopped all procedures against him from his own people.
Following operation Tombola Roy returned to Britain in time for VE Day. After cessation of hostilities his squadron was send to Norway to help take 300,000 German occupation troops prisoner of war. Many celebrations ensued.
Roy has revisited the scenes of his actions in France, Italy and Crete numerous times and has at all times been given a hero’s welcome by large numbers of the local populations and veterans of World War Two.
In 1984 Roy was invited to Chatillion sur Seine in France for the 40th Anniversary of the liberation of city. There were ceremonies of commemoration and the inauguration of the Bill Holland memorial one of Roy’s trooper who was killed during the battle at Chatillion on September of 1944. A parade of honour was held through the streets of Chatillion duly attended by a number of French dignitaries and officers including the Préfet de la Seine representing President Mitterand and the Mayor of Chatillion. The population turned out in great numbers to honour Roy and some of the surviving members of his Squadron.
Much the same happened again in 1994 for the 60th Anniversary of the battles that took place in the Vosges Mountains in Eastern France near the town of Grandrupt where Roy was decorated with the Ordre National de Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur by President Mitterand.
In Italy the City of Reggio Emilia and the Commune of Albinea received Roy and his men with due honour in 1985 and again in 1995 to commemorate their 40th and 50th liberation anniversaries respectively. He was decorated with the Medal of the Garibaldi Partisans and the Medaglio d’ Oro of the city of Albinea. During the reception of 1995 the town Square of Albinea was named Piazza del Battaglione Alleato (Allied battalion) in honour of the group of SAS and Italian Partisans that Roy commanded during the attack and subsequent destruction of the German headquarters here in March of 1945.