Alfred Hunter Ballard DSC & Bar (1896 - 1950)

Born 29 Jul 1896 in Shanghai, China

Ancestors

Husband of Annie Winifred Gladys Davies — married 12 Aug 1920 in All Saints, Finchley Road, London, Middlesex, England

Descendants

Died 9 Sep 1950 at age 54 in 7 Ailsa Road, Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Paul Ballard [send private message]

Biography

Private Alfred Ballard DSC & Bar served in the British Army in World War I
Service started: 20 Sep 1915
Unit(s): F Battalion
Service ended: 31 Mar 1919

Lt Commander Alfred Ballard DSC & Bar served in the Royal Navy in World War II
Service started: 01 Jan 1940
Unit(s): Royal Navy Trawlers
Service ended: 01 Jan 1946

In the First World War Alfred signed up on 20 September 1915 at Lincolns Inn and was posted to the Machine Gun Training Centre at Bisley Camp when called up on 11th August 1916 and finally embarked at Southampton 14th May 1917 for Le Havre as part of F Battalion Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch). He was part of the crew of Flying Fox II, a Mark IV tank, which was involved in the Battle of Cambrai & helped clear the Mesniere canal bridge before the Germans blew the bridge & the tank fell into the canal. The tank commander received the MC & as part of the crew Ballard was Mentioned in Dispatches. He remained in the field until he was wounded on 10th January 1918 when he was transferred home and posted to the Royal Flying Corps to join the Officer's Cadet Wing. He seems not to have stayed with the R.F.C. for long though as he was demobilized as No. 201228 Private in the Tank Corps on 31st March 1919 & received the Victory & British War Medals. Alfred Hunter Ballard completed his training as a Chartered Accountant and on 12 August 1920 married Annie Davies. In 1925 he was made a Freeman of the City of London and in 1933 he gained his Royal Aero Club certificate. He and Annie had three sons but Alfred was not a man who thrived with a quiet home life and a rather staid professional life and he left his wife and young family, obtained a divorce & remarried in 1938.

The on-set of the Second World War gave Alfred an opportunity to return to a life style that had better suited his temperament and in January 1940 he enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve, having lied about his age, as a probationary temporary Lieutenant. Thus Alfred became one of a very small number of people who served in all three branches of the armed forces and in both World Wars. It was not long before he was once again in the thick of things and in September & October 1940 he was mentioned in dispatches for his part onboard HMT Gaul during the actions firstly to land troops in Norway (the Namsos Campaign 19th April 1940), Ballard’s first D-Day landing, & subsequently the withdrawal on the 1st May which is often referred to as the “first Dunkirk of the war” when combined French & British troops were evacuated from Norway. Gaul was eventually sunk in Namsos Fjord. Having recovered from injuries sustained he commanded the anti-submarine trawler HMS Danemen from 25th June 1940 to 8th July 1941. On the 8th & 9th May 1941 whilst undertaking anti-submarine duties for convoy OB-318 about 200 nautical miles south west of Reykjavik he firstly picked up 40 survivors from the Norwegian merchant Eastern Star that was torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat U-94 & subsequently rescued a further 66 survivors of the British merchant Gregalia which had been torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat U-201 east-north-east of Cape Farewell in position 60°24'N, 32°37'W. All survivors were landed in Reykjavik on 12th May. By early April 1942 Ballard had been transferred to HMS Monck, the Combined Training Headquarters, commissioned at Largs, Ayrshire. On 5th May 1942 Alfred was Joint Principal Beach Master for operation Ironclad, the invasion of Madagascar. A measure of the man can be gained from his own account of part of the action "That assault craft behaved like a fractious mule; in the rougher weather it did almost everything except sit up & beg. Twice it bucked me into the sea, and on the second occasion I was hauled out the worse for a couple of cracked ribs sustained by striking against the hull on falling overboard. However, there was neither time nor opportunity to get treatment until two days later, when a naval surgeon applied a strapping". By the 8th November of that year he found himself in the Mediterranean on operation Torch, the allied invasion of North Africa. Ballard was eventually to become acting temporary Lieutenant Commander in charge of a Tank Landing Ship and he was further decorated on 14 Nov 1944 with a DSC for gallantry, skill, determination and devotion to duty during the D-Day landing of Allied Forces on the coast of Normandy and again on 22 Dec 1944 when he received a Bar to his DSC for gallantry, skill, determination and devotion to duty in the assault and capture of the Island of Walcheren whilst in Command of Landing Craft Gun (Large) LCG(L)1.

Alfred was injured on numerous occasions and suffered from exposure and just six years later on 9 September 1950 he died from pulmonary tuberculosis and exposure and injuries received during the 1939-45 war. Two world wars, all three services, non-commissioned & commissioned, MiD & medals in both wars & no less than 5 invasion landings!

Account of Operation Infatuate

The invasion of the Dutch Island of Walcheren, was a major Combined Operation amphibious landing against heavily fortified and entrenched German positions. The island stood at the mouth of the River Scheldt and blocked Allied access to the captured port of Antwerp some 80 kilometres inland. With the Germans holding the channel ports it is impossible to overstate the importance of Antwerp to the Allies in order to secure supply lines to their advancing armies.

The story of this epic action is as follows and given by a Royal Navy landing craft veteran present in the action - The Support Squadron Eastern Flank (SSEF) Force sailed from England on the 27th October 1944 to Ostend. SSEF consisted of 6 LGG(L)s and 2 LCG (M)s, 6 LCFs, 6 LCSs and five rocket craft, a force of 25 craft, there was also a small fleet of other landing craft including LC1s and LCTs would take the commandos, second wave troops and amphibious vehicles, SSEF sailed from Ostend at 3.25am. In the early hours of November 1st 1944 Royal Marine commandos attacked at Westhopple in Holland as part of the Operation Infatuate to secure the Port of Antwerp to supply the Allies, the port was required as so rapidly advanced through Northern France and Belgium that supplying them was a problem. The assault by the SSEF had to be made in broad daylight at 9.15am, the weather was terrible, the planes were grounded that were going to support us. Warspite, Erebus and Roberts with their big guns were firing at the gun emplacements ashore but could not see the results. The spotter plane for them was also grounded owing to the bad weather. The SSEF plan was to split in two equal escort groups, one going south of the gap and one going north. The LCG(L)s were ordered to engage the Westkapette Battery and went in firing. As they passed a certain point some of the German guns opened fire to be joined later by the big guns at the Westkapette main fort. The enemy firing was heavy and very close, big shells being hurtled back in reply to our 4-7 guns. Four LCT(R)S fired their 6” rockets at the beach head in batches. Each craft carried on its deck 1080 6” rockets, four craft like that could and did a lot of damage.

Now it was crisis time in one of the most bitter and gallant battles of the war, as the first landing craft carrying the commandos headed for the gap in the Dyke the enemy batteries put up a devastating hail of fire. The two groups of SSEF craft were ordered closer in to draw away this fire by engaging the enemy guns at point blank range. LCG(M)102 beached down on the south side of the gap and engaged her target pillbox with her 3” guns and was immediately caught in a rain of shells at close range. Soon she had been hit several times and was on fire. Her crew got the fire under control but she was hit again and again, she was broken and burning on the beach. There were no survivors.

In the northern group LCG(L)1 went in with her guns blazing independently and closed to 600 yards in spite of being hit three times by shells. Now she got hit several more times and then came the big one, a shell hit the bridge – there was a tremendous explosion. Our skipper, Lieutenant Ballard RNR, was wounded. The shell took the compass from his hand before it exploded then another shell blasted away the compass pedestal and voicepipe. All the officers were now wounded and the craft came to a stop with two dead and twenty wounded. The survivors were rescued by LCS510. LCG(L)17 tried to take LCG(L)1 in tow, but the stricken craft sank. The skipper of LCG(L)17 Lt. Scammell received wounds coming to the assistance of LCG(L)1 of which he died. Out of the twenty-five craft in the SSEF a total of nine craft was lost and nine others badly damaged. Of the crews, 172 officers and men killed and 200 wounded.

Medal awards were : 1 OBE; 1 DSO; 18 DSC; 4 DSC (BAR); 1 DSC (2nd BAR); 2 CGM; 27 DSM; and many others mentioned in dispatches.

Mention in Dispatches

Temporary Lieutnant Alfred Hunter Ballard, RNR, HMT Gaul.

HMT Gaul was sunk in the Namsen Fjord immediately prior to the evacuation of Namsos on the 2 – 3 May 1940. ^[1]

Mention in Dispatches

Probationary Temporary Lieutnant Alfred Hunter Ballard, RNR,^[2]

DSC

Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry, skill, determination and undaunted devotion to duty during the landing of Allied Forces on the coast of Normandy

Temporary Lieutenant Alfred Hunter Ballard, R.N.R. (Westcliff-on-Sea).^[3]

Second DSC

A Bar to the Distinguished Serice Cross for gallantry, determination and devotion to duty in the assault and capture of the Island of Walcheren

Temporary Lieutenant Alfred Hunter Ballard, D.S.C., R.N.R. (Westcliff)^[4]

Marriage

Date: 12 AUG 1920

Place: All Saints, Finchley Road, London, Middlesex, England^[5]

Divorce

Date: JUL 1937^[6]

Second Marriage

Date: 09 JUL 1938^[7]

Death

Date: 09 SEP 1950

Place: 7 Ailsa Road, Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex, England

Pulmonary Tuberculosis; Exposure & Injuries during 1939-45 War^[8]

Sources

• WikiTree profile Ballard-545 created through the import of FULL.GED on Jul 10, 2011 by Paul Ballard. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Paul and others.

• Source: S132 Title: Three Centuries of Ballards, Isbn: 0 9517656 0 4 Abbreviation: Three Centuries of Ballards Author: Eric H Ballard Publication: RamePen, Torpoint, England, 1992
• Source: S186 Title: The London Gazette Abbreviation: LG
• Source: S23 Title: Ministry of Defence Archives Abbreviation: MOD Records

1. ↑ Source: #S186 Page: Gazette Issue 34967
2. ↑ Source: #S186 Page: Gazette Issue 34953 Note: Eric Ballard (his son) believed this MID was also associated with HMT Gaul and the Namsen Fjord operation but I think that it is too early for that and may be for Operation Dynamo instead. This was the evacuation at Dunkirk between 26th May and 4th June 1940 and the famous exploits of the "little ships".
3. ↑ Source: #S186 Page: Gazette Issue 36794
4. ↑ Source: #S186 Page: Issue 36854
5. ↑ Source: #S132
6. ↑ Source: #S132
7. ↑ Source: #S132
8. ↑ Source: #S132