S/Sgt Albert Allen

9 Jul 1914 – ?

No. 7522555 Staff-Sergeant Albert Edward Allen, Royal Army Medical Corps, 16 Parachute Field Ambulance.

About: A staff sergeant of 16 Parachute Field Ambulance who escaped from the Apeldoorn barracks with Lipmann Kessel, Cedric Longland and Peter Allenby in October 1944 and came with them to De Ruif at Garderen, the house Murphy and Walsh left because it was getting too full (◐ by Walsh's account as Noordman prints it, and Airborne Magazine; below). ◐ Kessel's "Staff", very probably Allen, was in the Pegasus II group in November and was recaptured.

Unit or role: Staff Sergeant, 7522555, Royal Army Medical Corps, 16 Para Fd Amb; senior section NCO and the unit's intelligence NCO, by his recommendation (WO 373/144/180, p. 2).

Where: Oosterbeek; the Willem III barracks at Apeldoorn; De Ruif at Garderen; Kootwijkerbroek; Pegasus II; Stalag XIIA, Limburg (WO 416/4/429); in July 1945 the Van Nispens had his address as Heston, Middlesex (their form, p. 3).

Evidence: ✓ his recommendation for a Dutch award, 1945 (WO 373/144/180); ✓ the London Gazette, 20 March 1947, p. 1315 (the notice); ✓ his own lines in the De Ruif guestbook; ✓ the helpers' forms of the Van Nispens, their son, Jeane van Galen, Joop Piller, Gerrit van den Brand and Karel Niermans; ✓ Kew's catalogue entries for his German prisoner-of-war card (WO 416/4/429) and for Kessel's and Warrack's escape reports, which name him (WO 208/5419/25; WO 208/5433/23); ◐ "Staff" in Kessel's Surgeon at Arms (the text); Noordman's Schuilplaats de Veluwe (the book); ◐ his Dutch award card.

✓ Kew's catalogue of his German prisoner-of-war card (catalogue text, card unseen) gives his birth as 9 July 1914, place of birth "United Kingdom" (WO 416/4/429). The card is his: its "Albert [E] Allen", Royal Army Medical Corps, service number 7522555, are the name, corps and number of his recommendation and his Gazette notice (WO 373/144/180; the Gazette). The date is read from the catalogue entry alone. No source found gives his life before the war.

In Kessel's book "Staff" had been with the unit "in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy" (Kessel, Surgeon at Arms, p. 68; below, under Apeldoorn), and Kessel calls him "a regular N.C.O." (p. 117); ◐ "Staff" is very probably Allen (see below), but the book never names him.

Oosterbeek, 18 and 19 September 1944. On 18 September at Oosterbeek he was left in command of a half section of 16 Parachute Field Ambulance, attached to 1st Parachute Battalion, with no medical officer: the battalion's had been captured and his section officer was cut off. He organised bearer parties to collect casualties "from the neighbouring woods, gardens, houses and streets of the suburbs", and "worked incessantly throughout that day and the ensuing night" (WO 373/144/180, p. 1). The next day:

By the morning of the 19th September, the casualties numbered about thirty, and no evacuation having been possible S sjt ALLEN took over a nearby house and organised it as a CCP, himself supervising the removal of the wounded to it, although under intermittent fire. Throughout the day, despite two direct hits from mortar bombs on the house, resulting in wounds to some of the already wounded as well as RAMC Orderlies, S sjt ALLEN continued to control the work of collection and care of casualties, remaining cool, calm and decisive, and directing most ably the prosecution of the work. A third mortar bomb now partially destroyed the CCP killing and wounding many of the occupants including three RAMC Orderlies killed.

— Lt Col E. Townsend, late OC 16 Parachute Field Ambulance · recommendation for the Dutch Bronze Cross, 1945 · The National Archives, Kew, WO 373/144/180, p. 2 · the transcription

He then ordered the survivors evacuated and found 181 Field Ambulance's dressing station, where they were taken; there he "assisted in the organisation of a minor surgical theatre, staffed it with his own section and himself worked as Operating Room Assistant"; the recommendation adds that he was senior section NCO, often spent hours "preparing sand tables of a high standard of accuracy, and acted in fact as Unit Intelligence NCO" (p. 2). No source found says how he came to be a prisoner at Apeldoorn.

Four men of 16 Parachute Field Ambulance walked out of the Willem III barracks at Apeldoorn at an evening church service: Major Cedric Longland, Capt. Lipmann Kessel, Lt Peter Allenby and Allen.

• ✓ Kew's catalogue entry for Kessel's escape report has him escaping from the "Queen Wilhelmina Kazerne III at Apeldoorn, 15 October 1944", with "Major C J Longland; Lieutenant P S Allenby; Staff Sergeant A Allen" among the other names mentioned (WO 208/5419/25); the entry for Warrack's report names "Staff Sergeant Allen" with Longland, Kessel and Allenby (WO 208/5433/23). Neither report is online; nothing is read from the reports themselves.
• The account Noordman prints under Kessel's name: "Op 16 oktober ontsnapte ik met drie anderen, namelijk majoor Longland, luitenant Allenby en sergeant Allen, tijdens een kerkdienst" (on 16 October I escaped with three others, namely Major Longland, Lieutenant Allenby and Sergeant Allen, during a church service) (Noordman, p. 309).
• Warrack, who commanded the hospital, wrote that "Shorty, Lippy, and one of their staff sergeants, also Peter Griffin, John Taylor and several other ranks opted for Sunday" (Longland and Kessel; he does not name the sergeant) (Warrack, Travel by Dark, p. 80; page image).
• ✓ Warrack's diary, ◐ near-contemporary (no source says it was written the same day), has a church parade at 17.45 on Sunday 15 October and at 11.00 on Monday the 16th a "Counting parade, as some citizens appear to have gone absent" (Warrack's diary, p. 46; typed transcript of about 1982, Wellcome Collection RAMC/1584); ◐ that fits the Sunday, but it names no one.
  • Its staff counts at 20.00 are 142 on 14 October, 141 on the 15th and 137 on the 16th (pp. 46–47), and at 17.30 on the 16th "Another check and they find three missing. How very odd!" (p. 47). ◐ With the Monday 11.00 parade held "as some citizens appear to have gone absent", the fall between the Sunday and Monday counts fits a departure on the Sunday night; a count does not say who left or when.
  • Its roll of the medical staff at Apeldoorn has "7522555 S/Sgt ALLEN A", the number on his German card, with no note against him (the roll, p. 51).
• ✓ Lt-Col Martin Herford, Warrack's second in command, wrote in his report of 1944 under 15 October: "Three M.Os. and 2 Orderlies escaped intending to join a party of Airborne men known to be in a particular locality" (Herford's report, Journal of the RAMC, vol. 98 (1952), p. 300, read on the page image).
  • ◐ It names no one; the three doctors fit Kessel, Longland and Allenby, and Allen one of the two orderlies.
  • ◐ Herford and Hall (p. 186) count five who went, three MOs and two orderlies, one more than Kessel's party of four (Kessel, Longland, Allenby and Allen); Warrack's staff counts at 20.00 fall by four between the 15th and the 16th (141 to 137, diary pp. 46–47), which fits four. ⚠︎ Not settled.

In Kessel's book. Surgeon at Arms (1958, as "Daniel Paul") calls each man by a first name or nickname only: Kessel is "Dan", Longland "Shorty", Allenby "Peter", and the fourth man "Staff". ◐ "Staff" is Allen: he is the staff sergeant of the party of four whose other three are Longland, Allenby and Kessel, and Kessel's own account in Noordman names Allen as the fourth man, and both report entries list a Staff Sergeant Allen among the names mentioned (above); the book never gives his name. In the book, the staff sergeant in charge of the cook-house had their smocks and food ready in a room off the dining-hall:

"What's the extra one for?" Shorty asked.

Staff smirked uncomfortably. "I was thinking, sir, I might have a bash myself. . . . I mean, d'you mind if I come along with you?"

I knew Shorty felt that perhaps three was already one too many. … And yet Staff—we always called him that—had helped us a lot and was one of the unit's most familiar characters and had been with us in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy.

— Lipmann Kessel · Surgeon at Arms (1959 edition), p. 68 · the text

Allenby said "Let's risk it!", and Longland agreed to pairs, "Dan and me, Peter and Staff" (p. 68). The book's account of the next days, with Staff in it (pages from the 1959 edition):

• They went over the plan "until Staff could repeat it" (p. 69). Allenby and Staff, crossing the wired stream behind Longland and Kessel, "met a much nastier patch" and took "at least ten minutes" to get clear (p. 72).
• With two compasses lost or broken in the rain, they were left with Allenby's and "a pair of special escape compass-buttons sewn on to Staff's trousers. He yanked the buttons off and passed them to Shorty" (p. 74).
• At first light, in a wood behind a farm, "Staff agreed to take the first spell as sentry" (p. 76); he sided with Allenby for asking at the farm, "I'm all for trying for a bit of feet under the table" (p. 77), and made porridge and cocoa on chemical fuel tablets (p. 78).
• At a log hunting-lodge near Elspeet he took the door off its hinges for a fire (pp. 80–81); when three villagers came by, "Ask him for some grub," Staff added (p. 83), and one of them came back with bread, which he handed to Staff (p. 86).
• "Karl", ◐ Dr Johannes Kruimel (the "dokter Joop", an orthopaedic specialist from Utrecht, of the account Noordman prints, p. 309), led them that night to a house, Staff and Allenby walking at the rear behind a second guide (pp. 89–90).

Nelly Eskes, quoted by Noordman, says she met "vier hogere officieren" (four senior officers) in the woods at Uddel, and that her husband Dirk Eskes and Joop Kruimel fetched them to De Ruif "die avond nog" (that same evening); the account printed under Kessel's name has them stop two farmhands on the morning of 17 October and be brought to "een huis met de naam 'De Ruif' in Garderen" that evening (Noordman, p. 309). In the book the four met the burgomaster and his wife, the two agents "Ham" and "Bacon", and "Tex", and slept in an underground shelter, reached by a shaft beside a small barn, with Tex and his radio, where "Staff remarked that it was just as well they were not keen to take unnecessary risks" (Kessel, pp. 91–96; Tex Banwell). They left after two days, by Kessel's account (Noordman, p. 311).

Murphy and Walsh moved out for them. Walsh's report of March 1945: "About 21 Oct it was arranged that we should move in order to make room for a party of six R.A.M.C. officers who were expected, so MURPHY and I were moved to a house in ELSPEET" (Walsh). Noordman names the four who came: "Peter Allenby, arts, en Allen, een verpleger, beiden van de 16e Fieldambulance, en de chirurgen Longland en Lipmann-Kessel" (Peter Allenby, doctor, and Allen, an orderly, both of 16 Field Ambulance, and the surgeons Longland and Lipmann-Kessel) (Noordman, p. 300). ◐ That the four were the reason they left rests on Noordman's printing of Walsh, where the house "te vol dreigde te raken" (was in danger of getting too full) because of "vier medici" (four medical men) (Noordman, p. 300), and on Airborne Magazine's "Walsh en Murphy vertrekken op een gegeven moment omdat het te vol wordt" (Walsh and Murphy leave at some point because it gets too full) (the article, p. 22). ⚠︎ Walsh's own report has six officers expected, not four men, and "about 21 Oct", which does not fit the arrival on 17 October and the two days' stay in the other accounts; whether Allen and Murphy were in the house together is not settled (Garderen).

The house's lists. Both the Van Nispens, the evacuated burgomaster's family living at De Ruif, and Jeane van Galen of De Ruif put Allen and Murphy on the same list of Allied men helped there, with no dates:

• The Van Nispens' form of 26 July 1945: "A.E. Allen | R.A.M.C. | " ", with Longland, Allenby, Kessel, Banwell, Walsh and "Th. Murphy". In the "Ontvangen van" column, which on this form holds each man's home address, his is "70 Summerhouse Ave. Heston Middlesex" (their file, p. 3, checked on the image); their son's form has "A.E. Allen, 7522555" (his file, p. 3).
• Jeane van Galen's form of 31 May 1946: "A.E.Allen 7522555", between Longland and Allenby, and further down "T.Murphy 2756457" (her file, p. 3).

He signed the De Ruif guestbook on the page facing the thanks of Allenby, Kessel and Longland, which follow two Halifax airmen dated 12 October 1944. ◐ The top line is cut off in the copy; "of mine can hope to" is read from the tops of the letters:

I am afraid no words of mine can hope to express my gratitude to Joe and all his friends. I must try to do so in a more positive form when I return

— A. E. Allen, S/Sgt, 16 Parachute Fld. Amb., Oct. 44 · the De Ruif guestbook, as printed in Airborne Magazine nr.27 · the page

"Joe" is Dr Kruimel, "Uncle Joop" (Johannes Kruimel): Airborne Magazine calls the book "het gastenboek van Joe Smith" (the guestbook of Joe Smith), the name Kruimel gave the airmen (p. 22). Noordman's caption has the four write their thanks "voordat zij vanuit Garderen naar Kootwijkerbroek vertrokken" (before they left Garderen for Kootwijkerbroek) (Noordman, p. 310).

In the Van Eysinga papers. Noordman's list of the Willem III escapers named in the papers of the Van Eysinga family at Elspeet ends "Lipmann-Kessel, Cerediq Longland, Allenby en Allan" (Noordman, foreword, p. 8; Omroep Gelderland); ◐ "Allan" is Allen, in the company he kept, though nothing in the list says so.

From De Ruif the four were taken by night to the house of "Joop" and his wife "Lise" near Kootwijkerbroek, where they met "Dick" (◐ very probably Dick Kragt, our reading: the account Noordman prints puts them at the headquarters of "Frans Hals", whom Noordman names as Dick Kragt, p. 311), and then lay in a hide-out nearby (Kessel, pp. 104–111); the account Noordman prints has three weeks in a hide under a sheepfold by the house where Frans Hals (Dick Kragt) had his headquarters, cared for by Joop Piller and his wife Lies (Noordman, p. 311). In the book:

• One evening at Joop and Lise's, Kessel overheard "Staff explain how in the army they sometimes had to start frying eggs at four in the morning to get them all done in time for a whole battalion's breakfast" (p. 108).
• "I'm just about chokker," Staff exploded on their fourth day in the hide-out. "… I'm all for having a bash at it on our own!" (p. 111).

◐ Kessel's own view of him, in the book (p. 117, checked on the page image):

Both Peter and Staff were very insular and tended to distrust people merely because they were, after all, foreigners. … As the days went by, Staff in particular appeared to grow increasingly morose and ill at ease; not, as you might perhaps think, because he was a regular N.C.O. in the company of three officers—he was never obsequious—but as a result of his fundamental distrust of Joop's and Dick's abilities.

— Lipmann Kessel · Surgeon at Arms (1959 edition), p. 117 · the text

That is Kessel's judgement, in a book written for publication in 1958; Allen's own words that survive are his thanks in the guestbook (above).

Who hid him. Gerrit van den Brand of Wesselscheweg 78, Kootwijkerbroek, "Provided food, shelter and clothing for allied personnel", among them "Lt. Peter Allenby, RAMC, 14 days" and "S/Sgt Allen, RAMC, 14 days" (van den Brand's file, p. 2). The form does not say when. Piller's list of the men he helped has "Sgt. A.E. ALLEN 7522555 [?]", "dropped Arnhem", after Longland and Allenby (Piller's file, p. 14; a faint carbon, the number marked uncertain in the transcription), and Karel Niermans, who by his form worked in the Frans Hals organisation and moved men by bike, lists "S/sgt. A.E.Allen - paratrooper" among the men "Known to capt. D Kay and capt. J. Piller" (his form, p. 5).

◐ For Pegasus II, Kessel's book has Warrack's group made up of "the four doctors, Staff, and two other R.A.M.C. personnel, some Dutch civilians who were very much wanted by the Germans" and others; Staff and Kessel "wandered back into the barn" after Warrack had told them the plan (Kessel, pp. 124–125). The book does not mention him on the march. Back in hiding afterwards, Kessel heard from "Dick" (◐ very probably Dick Kragt, our reading, as above) that "When Shorty was shot in the thigh, Peter had apparently insisted on staying with him and others who were wounded; Staff, too, had been recaptured" (p. 153). How the night of the crossing went is told in Operation Pegasus II.

A prisoner-of-war card. Kew's catalogue has a German card for "Albert [E] Allen", born 9 July 1914, Sergeant, Royal Army Medical Corps, service number 7522555, camp "Stalag XIIA Limburg", PoW number 80245, two cards; date and theatre of capture "[unspecified]" (WO 416/4/429; catalogue text only, the card is not online). ◐ It most likely records him after his recapture, since Kessel's "recaptured" puts him back in German hands after Pegasus II; but the card is undated, and he had been a prisoner at Apeldoorn before he escaped, so ⚠︎ which capture it records is not settled. It has him a Sergeant where his recommendation and the Gazette have Staff Sergeant. Nothing found says where or when he was freed.

Lt Col Townsend (◐ very probably Lt-Col Eric Townsend, RAMC, 107206, born 17 November 1907, MC in the Middle East in 1942 and later held at Oflag XII B, Hadamar, by the Kew catalogue: WO 373/21/93; WO 416/365/203) recommended him for the Dutch Bronze Cross, passed from division on 24 July 1945 over the divisional commander's signature (WO 373/144/180, p. 1). He was gazetted on 20 March 1947 under "Bronze Lion": "No. 7522555 Staff-Sergeant Albert Edward ALLEN, Royal Army Medical Corps", in the same list as Lionel Bryson (the Gazette has "Leonard Henry") (London Gazette, p. 1315). Honour to the Airborne, the roll of the Airborne Forces' awards, lists "7522555 S/S[g]t. Albert Edward Allen" (the snippet's text reads "S/Set.") directly after Bryson, in the run of entries that ends where its "Bronze Cross" list begins, and indexes him at p. 110 (the search snippets; the book is lending-only, the page not seen).

The Dutch Chancery of Orders has two cards for an "Allen A.E.", neither with a first name (the two cards, Nationaal Archief 2.02.32):

• ◐ The Bronze Cross, register number 1441, by royal decree of 9 February 1946, no. 1, to a "Staff-Sergeant v.h. Britsche Leger", marked "(Oorl. en Buitenl. Z.)", ◐ War and Foreign Affairs, the ministries concerned. It is the same decree that gave Cedric Longland his Bronze Cross, no. 1437, so by rank, initials and decree this is very likely him.
• ⚠︎ A second Bronze Cross, register number 1516, by royal decree of 24 April 1946, no. 29, to an A.E. Allen, "Warrant Officer I" of the British Army. Whether it is another man or a second entry for him is not known.

⚠︎ Kew holds a closed service record, WO 423/392538, for an "A E Allen", service number 22982883, born 9 July 1914: the initials and birth date of his prisoner-of-war card, under another number (the catalogue entry). Kew's series text has the records of non-commissioned officers and other ranks, "primarily" of infantry regiments, discharged before the end of 1963 (it adds some Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and nurses; an RAMC man is not named); this one opens on 1 January 2030. Nothing in the entry ties it to him beyond the initials and the date of birth.

• His award. Recommended for the "Dutch Bronze Cross" (WO 373/144/180); gazetted under "Bronze Lion" (London Gazette, p. 1315); ◐ the Dutch card for a staff sergeant A.E. Allen has the Bronze Cross (the cards), which agrees with the recommendation.
• The night of the escape. Sunday 15 October 1944 in Kew's entry for Kessel's report (WO 208/5419/25) and in Warrack's book, which has Allenby break out "on the Sunday night" (p. 143); 16 October in the account Noordman prints (p. 309). Argued on Lipmann Kessel's page.
• His rank and job. Staff sergeant in most records (✓); other ranks and jobs elsewhere:
  • Staff sergeant: his recommendation, his guestbook signature, the Gazette, the Kew entries, the elder Van Nispen's second form ("S/Sgt A.Allen 7522555", p. 5), and the forms of Van den Brand and Niermans. The Van Nispens' son's two forms give the name and number with no rank.
  • Sergeant: "Sgt." on Piller's list, his prisoner-of-war card (WO 416/4/429) and "sergeant Allen" in the account Noordman prints; "een verpleger" (an orderly) in Noordman's own text (pp. 309, 300).
  • His recommendation makes him senior section NCO and intelligence NCO; ◐ in Kessel's book "Staff" is the staff sergeant in charge of the cook-house at Apeldoorn, who talks of frying a battalion's breakfast eggs (pp. 68, 108).
• His name. Allan in Noordman's list from the Van Eysinga papers (Noordman, foreword, p. 8); "Staff" throughout Kessel's book.

Everyone, A to Z